HURRICANE KATRINA

I saw the photos and news footage today of the destruction from Hurricane Katrina. So many people dead, and so many, many more still awaiting rescue... and many either missing or cannot be heard from now. Lots of relatives have no way of knowing if family members are still alive or not. It is just unbelievable - that much damage and loss of life, from a hurricane. I'll be praying that everyone still awaiting rescue, gets rescued soon.

I finished a larger piece of mail art late last night, and sent it off today. And I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it to upload here. I have 3 more pieces-in-progress tonight, and may try to get them finished before bedtime. Two of them, anyway. The other is not as far along.

Okay, here are the two that are nearly finished.

ART MAIL FROM NATALIE

This came today from Natalie in NC. Thanks Natalie! It's beautiful! I had lunch today with Lydia and Annie. Afterwards, I went back to the church with them and did some work - hot glued wooden crosses to the top of the stations of the cross plaques, moved tables, watered the flower pots, planters and flower beds. I got really hot and was absolutely dripping with sweat. Yuck! The temperature was 100*F, with a heat index of 106. Looking at the forecast, it will be hotter than that the rest of the week - around 102 and 103! No wonder I was melting.
Tonight I'll be going to Barbara's for her weekly rosary. I hope to do something artsy when I get home...

CLASSES STARTED TODAY

This is a photo of me under my 'shoe tree' a couple of months ago. I didn't get any photos taken today, so I decided to use this one taken in mid-June. I need to get on the ball and paint and add more shoes.

I went to bed last night feeling sick in my stomach, woke up in the middle of the night with a headache, then this morning, I felt a little better, but still not right. When I went to church early to get the room organized for children's religious education registration (otherwise known as 'C.C.D.', even though that isn't the correct term any more), it had been transformed to how it will be during the Fall Fiesta next week. So I had to move tables and chairs back in, etc. It worked out fine, though. I got everything done, then went in to Mass, where DH and Zach were already there, waiting for me. We always go separately, since I have to be there early and then Zach and I stay for classes, and I have to stay a while after they are over. So after Mass, we were really packed with people registering their kids...quite a few new ones too. So we got breakfast served to the kids, and got everyone registered. While classes were going on, I took care of paperwork and Sylvia and Annie came in to talk, too. After classes, Annie stayed, and I helped her move all the tables and chairs back to how they had been. My stomach started feeling bad again, and by the time I got home, about 3-4 hours after I left, I had my headache back too. So I laid back in my recliner, and ate breakfast - DH had bought tacos - and watched Sponge Bob with Zachary. Then he and DH left to go to the cabin and then go to the next town for horse feed. After that, I went to bed, and slept until 7pm. I did feel better when I got up though. And DH had cooked a good dinner - grilled steaks, spinach, asparagus and potatoes. He took Zach home after dinner. That's about it for my day...

ART, NAPOLEAN DYNOMITE, PURSES

These are some quick little sketches I did yesterday, and a sheep postcard for a sheep mail call from someone in France. AND that ATC on the left is one my friend, Sanna, made for me. It's a Zetti-like rendition of my oldest granddaughter. She does beautiful work, but one particular thing I really admire about her skill is the way she does skin tones. If you could see this little ATC in real life, you would see a gorgeous blend of colors - brown, yellow, green, red - that make up the face. It is just amazing. When I try to do that, it turns out either splotchy or muddy. But, I'll keep trying...
Chuck got home this afternoon. And Zachary is spending the night. I bought a DVD of Napolean Dynomite earlier today. I really like it - hilarious!
There was a discussion today about purses and what we keep in them. I thought about 'unpacking' mine and uploading a photo of the contents...but it seemed like too much work. Maybe in a day or two. Hey, pequeno tigre! Are you reading this? There's a still life idea for you. ;) Not very aesthetically appealing though...

FAIRLY PRODUCTIVE DAY

Here is the artwork that came in today's mail - Postcards! Thanks, Joanne and Kristin! Today has been a pretty good day. Nothing earth-shattering, but a lot of little aggravating jobs over and done with. :) I hate making phone calls, so I tend to put them off. Fr. Peter and I had been playing phone tag for about two weeks. Today we finally connected, so I got the question of the diocese supplying the books I wanted, answered. The answer is 'No' - LOL. So I went into our parish office to see about ordering them, but Annie wasn't there and Lydia said she she threw out a lot of catalogs yesterday. I asked her if I had a positive or negative amount in my account, and she said it was positive at the moment. I was surprised! *******************************************Anyway, I told Lydia that we probably wouldn't have money in the account for long - So... I came back home, found the books on the internet, and called to order them. They should be here by Wednesday. :) I'm still not finding anything new and economical for the Pre-K, K and 1st graders. But even though I would really like to get new ones, the ones from last year will do fine.
So then I drove into town, did some banking and went to the supermarket. And as luck would have it, I ran into the couple who wants to rent that highway property belonging to my sisters and I, so got a few things moving on that again, that I had let slide.
Home again, a grandparent called me about the mailings I had sent out to all the religious education families yesterday (or was it the day before?) ... anyway she is sending 3 of her grandchildren to classes this year, and asked for a reduction in rates. I gladly gave it to her. While the money is definately needed to help defray costs, we take children free, if need be.
I picked up Zachary for Mass this evening and we went. Got home, fed the cats, dogs and rabbit, cooked myself a frozen dinner and now am looking forward to the internet and some artwork before bed. :)

DOGS, T-SHIRT RANT, ETC.

Not much went on today. Reagan came over last night, aired up the tire on my van and took it over to my cousin's to fix it. But the only time I used the van today was to go to the post office.

Andrew called and said he was coming down to change the oil on Samantha's car, here. So I asked him to bring a pizza and I'd reimburse him. He and Sam both came, and brought his puppy, 'Buddha', whose name he is thinking about changing to 'Mad Mardigan' (from the old movie, 'Willow'). I love dogs and especially puppies. He is so cute. Of course, Carl and Laverne didn't want anything to do with him. After he had been there for about an hour, though, Laverne finally came around and played with him. I wish I would have taken a picture, but didn't think of it at the time. The photo above is of Carl and Laverne, who hate to have their picture taken and always get bashful and 'droop' when the camera points to them. Silly non-photogenic dogs.

Andrew also said Stewart told him he could take all the DVDs he wanted from the lockers he sent back here from Kuwait, as he was leaving for Baghdad. He only took one huge garbage bag full of DVDs though, since that was enough for quite a while.

I did get all the mailings colated, signed, addressed and mailed to the religious ed. parents. I even decorated the envelopes a little, with rubberstamps...just a simple background and then a Bible verse. I mailed a postcard to Angela Genusa for her bird art call...and then was taken by surprise to see one documented on her blog, that was the same concept as mine.

T-shirts - have you noticed how so many t-shirts have such negative, mean-spirited, bad attitude sayings on them? I'm talking about back to school clothes for children and teens. Watching TV tonight, I saw one that said 'Buy Me Something'. Not bad at all, compaired to many, but still...greed, comsumerism, materialism. I've seen some that are really disgusting and discouraging - at Walmart in the kids and teens dept. of all places. They should market t-shirts that say, 'Pray For Me'. Now that would be beneficial. Or 'Think positive!', 'Integrity', or 'Be kind' - LOL! Not real snappy, but going in the right direction, anyway. ;)

CASUALTIES - 4 CARS AND CENTRAL A/C!

How many cars can break down in one day? To start things off this morning, I woke up and the central air system was frozen up. So I turned the thing off, opened the door and metal covering up, and turned on the central fan to thaw it out. Amy (daughter in law) and I were supposed to go into the city to get some things done. She doesn't drive in that kind of traffic, and my van is a little less that trustworthy at the moment, so I don't take it that far away from home. So we took her new car. We got about 10 miles from home, and it started overheating. So we immediately turned around and went back to her house. The car totally quit on us in the road, just inside the property line on our acreage. Okay. So we get Mathieu's carseat out, walk to her house, and put the carseat into her other car. All ready to go again. Then I turned the key and...nothing. Dead battery, apparently. By then, we've given up. We were again moving the car seat, this time into Stewart's car, which he left there when he went to Kuwait, so she could give me a ride home. Only I noticed it had a flat tire. Sooo, she called Vickie (my cousin's wife) who lives a little way down the street, to come take me home.
Then later on, I went to the office (in my van) to get some stuff done, went to the post office (no 'good' mail today), took Lydia (parish secretary) out to lunch, and then went to the next town to take care of some business. Since Amy was without any of their 3 cars, I had to pick Zachary up from school. I joked with him that I was almost afraid to use my van today. So I took him home, and came home myself. I was supposed to pick up Zach, Amy and Mat for Mass, but when I went out to my van, and pulled out of the driveway, it seemed 'funny', so I stopped and got out and IT had a completely flat tire. Expensive NEW tires that Stewart had bought me. I'm afraid to think what else is going to happen! So I called them, to tell them everything was off for tonight, and by that time Reagan (our son) was home and he had charged the battery in the 'dead battery' car, and Amy had gone to get groceries. He said his pick-up had developed an air-conditioner problem today too, but he had gotten it fixed already. He said he'd come do something with my tire when Amy got home. Hopefully tomorrow is his day off, so he can do something about all the cars/tires, etc. Chuck (husband) won't be home until late Saturday, and then has to leave again early Monday morning. Everything will be closed as far as getting anything fixed then. Sheesh! I have a parish council meeting tonight too, but won't be going. Luckily, I am within walking distance of the post office. ;)
I worked on a couple of postcards today and recycled an envelope. I hope to get a few more mail art things done tonight.

MAIL IN...

I got mail today! Besides the beee-utiful ATC from my friend Sanna, I got one of Robot's Kool-Aide postcards, and a RECYCLED (How cool is THAT?!) envelope full of fluxus bucks and other intriguing pieces of paper from Dr. Fluxbuxenstein herself - Ex Posto Facto. I'm inspired! I've already cut myself a (very simple!) stencil, and plan to make mail art this evening - postcards, collages, drawings, decorate any recyclable envelopes I can find, and add to fluxus bucks.
That's it for now. I'll probably edit this and write more tonight.

MORE POSTCARDS

Here are two more postcards I finished today. The one on the right went to Jacqui and Beau at Burning Man.

Last night was a major insomnia night....because I had major caffeine all evening. It was around 4am when I must have finally fallen asleep. Then I was up around 8, thanks to Laverne and Carl whining at my bedroom door.

I had to go to town and take care of more of Stewart's banking, get groceries, stop in Goodwill and the newspaper office. It was 99 degrees today.

Amy invited me over for dinner tonight - crockpot chicken, rice and veggies. It was really good. I brought potato rolls, real butter and then bananas for the monkeys...er, I mean BOYS. Reagan got there after we had already eaten, since he had to stop and get antibiotics for the goats. He had to rush since he has a fire dept. meeting tonight too.

Zach will be getting a recorder and related paraphenelia this year since he is in 5th grade. I almost added one for me, to his order form, since it sounded like fun. But then I decided that I really didn't need one...There are 2 or 3 flutes around here if I could find them and they aren't broken. Anyway, reality set in and I realized that I wouldn't really want to take the time to learn and practice. I used to be able to play Amazing Grace on the kids' tinwhistle when they were little. The idea of playing those lilting Irish folk tunes - Make Us True Servants, and Lord of All Hopefullness - really appeals to me. Plus the recorder comes in a choice of something like 10 different colors and 15 different strap colors. That alone is appealing. LOL!

Nothing on tv tonight except History Detectives on PBS at 9pm, if I can stay awake that long.

FLUXUS BUCK & POSTCARDS IN PROGRESS

I added my hand carved Martha stamp to the Fluxus Buck that BuZ sent me.

MAIL ART, MORE WEIRD DREAMS

High Noon - This is what I received from BuZ Blurr when I sent him a postcard (shown in this blog, earlier this month) as he requested in his blog. Isn't all this really great?!

5:00pm - Just woke up from a nap and another weird dream. Space age hospital medicine, diagnosis/examination (even of those not there for medical treatment) without even seeing the doctors or the impliments used, surprise diagnosis of fatal illness for relative-in-law, leaving the hospital by a huge ramp from far up, down to the street below. Gee, it sounds like an alien abduction dream! LOL! Folks, I'm not on anything stronger than Diet Coke, I swear! I had a couple of other miscellaneous weird dreams too, but I can't remember them now.

Chuck got home at 3pm. He's over at the cabin now. Reagan and Zach were supposed to be expanding the goat pens today. I guess he's overseeing that. It's smothered pork chops for dinner. Zachary will be spending the night like he does every Saturday.

MAIL ART vs. WORK...(and Fluxus Bucks questions)

Okay, this is the last family picture for awhile. It's Jan, Andrew (youngest son) and his girlfriend, Samantha, when I took them out to breakfast yesterday. Tomorrow, I'll probably be putting up an art photo again, since I am working on mail art postcards tonight.Speaking of which, if any mail artists are reading this and want to trade art, leave your address and I'll send you one.
One good thing about having two much older sisters, it was like having three mothers, growing up. Jan thinks I am absolutely wonderful - brilliant, delightful and talented. LOL! Jan looked at every single one of my art postcards and ATCs. Not the originals, because I trade those away, but I make a copy of each of my works, and keep them in folders and notebooks. She looked through everything several different times and absolutely raved over them. Then when Don came to pick her up, she made him look through them too. Gee, I have to force my kids to occassionally look at my latest works...which they suffer through. Anyway, it is a huge boost to have someone just love all my work. ;) ...Darn, I forgot to show her my art journals!
Lydia had been calling wanting me to come into the parish office this week. Today I finally went, but she had apparently left early. There is so much paperwork being added to what I have to do...more and more all the time. I've got lots of mail there to pick up too. But most of it is probably duplicates of what I have been getting at my home address. I have most things of importance come here too. I have to get things all organized and together for a meeting this weekend. I called the chancery and left a message for Fr. Peter about the diocese furnishing the books I want for this year. ;) We'll see. He called back, but that was while I was at the office, so we missed each other all the way around.
I didn't do a lot today....fed the animals, watered the plants, went to Mass. Still tired from Jan's visit. And still got up too early, but I did take an hour's nap. I had a weird dream of trying to turn a car around in a very small area of road, and it not steering properly, and people walking in the road all around, in danger of me running over them with the car. If that wasn't obviously about all the work and stress over my job, I don't know what is! LOL!
Okay, back to art - I have become interested in mail art again, and have been reading everything I can, on the internet, about several aspects of it. Can someone tell me what the difference is between Fluxus Bucks and fantasy money? Can anyone just print Fluxus Bucks however they want? Is there any criteria to be followed?
I got 1 Fluxus Buck from BuZ Blurr yesterday, along with a whole envelope of extremely wonderful art, and I am wondering.... I guess I add to the Fluxus Buck... There are only a few numbers and random letters - very pale - and a date stamp showing right now. The back is blank. So another question - are the backs to be arted up too? If I figure this out, and get something done to it, it will be moving along in the mail too.

MY BIRTHDAY

I really enjoyed Jan's visit. We talked ourselves hoarse, and stayed up until 4am last night/this morning. -Then had to get up early to meet Andrew (youngest son) and Samantha for breakfast. Drew wanted to be sure to see Jan and so I told them I'd take everyone out for breakfast. I look like a zombie - huge dark bags under my eyes and deathly palor on the rest of my face. Gee, I've aged overnight.
Jan got me a neat hot pink and bright yellow storage container with sparkley glitter all over. LOL! Chuck called this morning to wish me a happy birthday, too. No one else knew it was my birthday. Well, except some of my yahoo, delphi, and other internet group friends who are so thoughtful and fun. ;) (Edit: I got a card from Ashley the next day.)
We went out to the cemetery again, so Jan could take some photos of old family tombstones for genealogical documentation. Carl went with us and enjoyed running around out there.
There is more I could write, but I am so sleep deprived that I can't think straight. Good night, everyone.

JAN'S HERE! :)

I am too tired to write much of anything coherent tonight. It's 3:30 am, and I am just getting to it. But I'll reset the time on this entry to show 11:59, so it'll be the right day....well, it won't be, really, I guess, but to me it is still the 17th, since I haven't gone to bed yet.

Jan and her DH got here around 5pm today. We talked for a little while, then left to go get Zach and go to Mass. After that we took Zach home and stayed for dinner. Then we left to go to the cemetery because I needed to check on my hitchhiker hostel (a letterboxing thing), and when there, talked about how our parents would feel about having two letterboxes so near...okay, ON...their graves. She thinks Mother would think it was funny, and Daddy wouldn't like it. I tend to think neither would be too happy about it.

So Jan asked where I was going to be buried. I said that there is room in the family plot, here, so it's first come first serve, and I didn't think she or Glenda would want to be buried in our hometown. She said she is going to be cremated and 'not take up space'. I said, "well, it's cheaper", so maybe I would too - and then have my ashes buried here. Or that I would just wait and let the kids have the fun of choosing. She said, "Don't do that, you'll end up in a garbage bag somewhere." LOL!

After we came back to the house, she looked over some local newspapers, my artwork binders, and we talked and talked. We talked so much this evening that we are both hoarse. I did email Glenda about the people wanting to rent our property on the highway. Jan said she called Glenda about it after I told her a few days ago, and she seemed receptive to the idea. So now she has the contact information, and she and Audie can take care of the negotiation and decision.

I also called Andrew (youngest son) and made plans for him and Samantha to meet us for breakfast in the morning. And while we're in town, I can withdraw more of Stewart's (oldest son) money and get another big payment for Jan, to get farther along in buying out her third of this house. Not much farther to go, I don't think. Then he can continue to buy out my two thirds and it'll be his.

Got to get to bed!

JAILBREAK! ;)

This is a photo of one of the blooms on the Mexican Bird of Paradise bush near the museum. Wowmom twirled into town and busted the tour bus passengers out of the calaboose... and encountered some weird giant bugs in the process. We met up briefly at D.Q. She is a delightful woman, so bright and cheerful, with a friendly twinkle in her eye. Hopefully she'll be able to come to the Letterbox Gathering in the spring.

For all my decluttering buddies - I'm still not ready for that before and after photo of my dining table. It keeps attracting clutter faster than I am getting it off.
But I did manage to
1.wash, dry, fold and put up 2 loads of laundry today.
2.wash a mountain of dishes
3.water the plants outside
4.feed dogs, cats, and rabbit
...none of which is actually decluttering. *hanging head in shame*

POSITIVE TURNS ALL THE WAY AROUND, TODAY!

This is a photo of two pages in my letterboxing log book. I would have liked to have shown the page with the Texas Tour Bus and passengers, but since that includes other people's stamps, and it's supposed to be a surprise for the finders, I just posted a record of some of the stamps I've carved. Notice I did manage to get my Stanley Marsh 3 in there anyway. ;)
The Texas Tour Bus is impounded at the old calaboose beside the Historical Museum at the moment. I guess the passengers - and quite a varied bunch they are! - got locked up. Maybe someone will come break them out soon.
In other letterboxing clues news, I typed up the clues to 'Caballo's' Veterans' Memorial microbox tonight. Now I just need to post them on the website for him.
And I sent the Happy Birthday postal letterbox on it's way to Dewberry today. It was an amazing 'birthday party in a box'! And the logbook and calendar book were so creative and original! Shout out to Ruby Tuesday and the rest of the Celtic Lions! THANKS! :)
More good news - my sister, Jan, called today, and she is going to come spend the night Wednesday. Her husband has a quick business trip south of here, so he's going to drop her off with me, and then pick her up on the way back through, the next day. We're going to have dinner with Reagan, Amy and boys. She has never seen Mathieu. Andrew is going to come down, too, and see her.
Speaking of Andrew and Reagan... Reagan called Andrew to ask him if he wanted the puppy. I hope he takes it, but I don't know how it turned out. He has wanted a dog for ages, and now that he just got out of an apartment and into a house, he already got a puppy, himself. A little half pit bull, half lab, that he named Buddha. So I kind of doubt if he'll want two puppies. But I hope so. (Edit: Reagan gave the puppy to a good friend.)
I went to Mass tonight at the mission. Beautiful music - all in Spanish. Mr. Casarez is such a good guitarist and singer. Afterwards, I got Fr. Sebastian to approve the curriculum that I want to use, this year, for Rel. Ed. It wasn't on the official diocesan approved list, but Fr. Peter (diocesan head of rel. ed.) said it would be no problem, if the parish administrator approves it. So now, I hope to get the diocese to provide it for our students, so we don't have to pay for all the books. But if they don't, these are much lower cost than the other ones.
So only good things happened today, and lots of them. I really needed a day like today. :)

LAZY SUNDAY

I just went to D.Q. and got a banana cream pie blizzard for me, and a chocolate cream pie blizzard for Chuck. He's already in bed, but he'll be up later and he can have it then. Not much going on today... I made pre-cooked microwave pesto chicken breasts, green beans and Kraft pasta salad for dinner. I took a 3 hr. nap this afternoon! Sheesh! This morning after Mass when Fr. Sebastian asked if anyone was celebrating a birthday this week, I was the only one. He gave me a rather long blessing and then liberal amounts of praise afterwards. It was very nice of him, but kind of embarrassing too. Then Chuck and I were the only ones with an anniversary this week, too. It's our 35th. I was 17 when we got married. After Mass, we got taquitos for breakfast. That is about it for my day.
The image above is one of my blind contour artist trading cards. For a blind contour, you look at an object - in this case a large tombstone statue in an old cemetery - and draw it without ever looking down at your paper or your hand. Fun! Try it. :)

NOT A FUN GRANDMA...

I have a headache - a bad one. I didn't get enough sleep last night, then had to get up and get 'presentable' for a morning D.R.E. meeting in the next town. The meeting went well. I always enjoy them, - and enjoyed seeing Fr. Peter, and my fellow D.R.E.s from the northern part of the diocese - but I've turned into such a 'hermit' that I just dread having to go anywhere - ESPECIALLY in the morning. I'm NOT a morning person.
Then I was supposed to babysit Mathieu and Zachary today while Reagan and Amy went somewhere to see about show goats and take care of other livestock related tasks. Zach, of course, went with Chuck (DH) everywhere today, to the next town to take care of banking, to haul garbage, and then to go riding. He got to take Ruff and ride him in the front pasture where Chuck cut all those trail patterns, and they did a few things differently too, to make it more fun.
Mathieu stayed with me, of course, being so young. But ohmygosh, I feel like I have been talked to death. My ears actually hurt toward the end of the day! He didn't do so well on the potty training either. LOL! He is absolutely precious, and I love him totally, but I am not the fun grandma that I was a few years ago. I just get so worn out, so easily with little ones. Quite a change from when I used to have projects lined up at a moment's notice, and games and new, fun activities just waiting for grandchildren of all ages to come over. :/
It was late when Reagan and Amy got back, and they had bought two new show goats and they were given a puppy. I love dogs, but I was so unhappy that they took a puppy, when that jackass down the road from their house (and our cabin) is shooting dogs. *****************
Anyway, Zach is spending the night here, as he does every Saturday night. It got so late, that he is in bed now. We didn't get to play cards or a board game or anything like that.
The photo is of Reagan, Mathieu and Zachary when we were all looking at the goats and the puppy after they got back here.

A PICTURE OF OUR CABIN

A lady came to the house today asking if that was our property by the highway. She and her husband want to rent it and put a coffee shop there. I really liked her, and love the idea of a coffee shop there, but I just don't think it will work out. I told her that property is owned jointly by my 2 sisters and I and it just isn't really worth it to us to do anything with it. We'e had so many offers before, but the selling price or rental price, divided up three ways is just - nothing. So... But she left her husband's card, and I will pass the info to Glenda and Jan. It really would be nice if it worked out.

Chuck came home early today. The normal time for him to get here on Fridays is around 8pm. But he shut it all down early, and got here around 3. He took the dogs (Carl and Laverne) and went over to the cabin to to check things out with the illegal alien situation. That's a photo of our tiny little cabin, above. It's taken from the high point along the tree line, behind which, it has a slope that is completely hidden by lots of tree cover. That's where the illegal aliens stop. My grandson and I went up there today, and looked down on A LOT of empty water bottles, and other bottles, empty sacks, etc. I had told Reagan to pick them all up, so we could tell by any more being there, if and when there were more 'passages' and the size, number and frequency of groups going through. But I guess I'll try to get it picked up on Sunday. Tomorrow I probably won't be able to, since I have other things going all day. My friend, Barbara, had been complaining of her dog throwing a terrible fit some nights, staring out into the woods behind her house. She has woods right up to her back yard, and lives only a very few miles from our cabin, as the crow flies, so this has probably become a major route again.

Zach and I went to Mass this evening, not too long after I took that photo. He and Eddie served and did well. They are improving all the time.

HELP! FEEDBACK...

It occured to me that I may have messed up in how I posted the pictures. Can people see them all or not? There should be one in my profile, and one on every entry, except this one...Two on last night's entry. Please let me know!!!

STILL OBSESSING

about the illegal aliens... and have sort of flip-flopped. You can't really tell if the illegals passing through are poor people wanting jobs or if they are MS-13s. So, I'll still leave the water, but if I actually see any, unless it obviously looks like a family group (women and children), I will call the sheriff's dept.
Chuck called today and said down where he is working, nearer to the border, several MS-13s came across the other day, killed their coyote and got away. So they are in the country. I wish our borders were totally secure.
Above is an art postcard I made today. I love reading blogs, and found a really interesting one. To gauge the readership of his blog, a man offered documentation of his rail car chalk drawings on a recent trip. I have always found those so fascinating! Anyway, I just had to drop him a postcard, so I made an artsy one.

BOXES TO BAGHDAD AND PACKETS ELSEWHERE

This is "It's All in Your Attitude", one of my favorite artist trading cards. I painted it in June.
Today was an uneventful day. The last box of the stuff Stewart (oldest son) had ordered had come in, so I opened them up, and combined it all into one box, and got it mailed off to him in Baghdad - computer parts and software. I also got some art mailed off to three people. It felt good to have that much taken care of. ***Never end a sentence with a preposition.*** And it helped allieviate at least part of the cluttered stacks on the table.
About the illegal aliens from yesterday - we have decided to start keeping jugs of water in the shade under the trees that seem to be along that route. Hopefully, this will keep anyone from dying or getting really sick, and keep them from needing to come closer to the house and cabin.
At 5:30, I went over to pick Zach up and we went to Mass, and afterwards to D.Q. so he could get a sundae. He and Eddie served at Mass and did really well for being so new at it. This was their first time without an adult right with them overseeing everything.

ILLEGAL ALIENS

Zach saw a man out by the fence, past our cabin this afternoon. He told Amy, who looked out and saw him crossing the road. So she got Reagan, who went over and it turned out to be 4 illegal aliens passing through. He told them to get off, and then went inside to call the sheriff's department. When the border patrol and police got there, the illegals had gone further and gotten into an oak mot, but could still be seen. There were about 15 of them alltogether. They scattered and outran the 2 border patrol agents though, and got away. But the agents and the minutemen will probably be waiting for them on the other side. They told Reagan that there had been a 'bail-out' near here earlier in the day, and they had caught about half of them. This is apparently the other half trying to make it on foot.
Reagan said he had noticed a path on the other side of the pond a while back, but thought it was either animals or just poor groundcover due to the trees. And he has seen a couple of beer bottles, last month, but thought it was some teenage trespassers that he had ran off recently, or someone using the nearby road. Apparently there was more to it.
We've never called the border patrol on illegals in the past, but there is a lot of gang and drug involvement now, so the atmosphere has definately changed. You just can't be sure of their motives. But Reagan told the cops they'd hear from him again, if he found any minutemen around the place too. We don't want them either. Zach and Mat will just have to stay nearer to their yard and the close pen, rather than be over at our cabin or ride too far in the pasture unless we are at the cabin or someone is with them. I guess we should make the cabin look more occupied too.
A few nights ago, the boys were in bed, but Zach came running into the kitchen and told Amy that there was an outline of a person at his window. His curtain was closed, but lit by the light pole across the driveway, a person might make a silhouette through the thin fabric. At the time, Amy looked out but didnt see anyone, and thought it was probably the boy from across the pasture who is visiting his grandparents for the summer. He had been at the door just an hour before asking if Zach could play. Of course, he couldn't since he was already in bed, and it was late. But now Amy is wondering if it was another illegal out there.

LETTERBOXING IN THE HEAT

Today was a pretty good day. Not nearly as dark as things looked to me yesterday. I didn't get to sleep last night? until 4a.m. DH was still feeling bad, but nothing like he was last night. He left at 5am for work and called me later around 10 when he got there.
I got up at 9 because Laverne was whining at the bedroom door. So I plodded to the front door and let her and Carl outside for their morning security check of the perimeters. As soon as I got dressed, got my usual double cup of decaf and sat down at the computer, our granddaughter's mother was at the door to pick her up. So I woke her up, got her in the shower and she left again. :( I sent some school supplies and several pairs of new pants along with her. But D. said that I could come pick her up any weekend I wanted, so I did feel better overall about part of the situation. Of course it is a 4 hour? drive, one way, to get her, so I don't know how often I can manage it...especially since my car is not doing that great. Of course, if DH is home on the weekends, like his schedule is currently, I can use his, and it will be no problem.

Then I had promised Zach, our oldest grandson, that we would go letterboxing today. So at 1pm in the extreme heat -(Yep, that's how I do things.) - we started on our trek. As soon as we got into the town, I went by the newspaper office to get my newest ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) copied. I keep a copy of each one so that I always have a record of my work. Right away, Zach saw a small bat on the walkway, against the edge of the building. He wanted to bring him home, but I wouldn't let him. I don't know what the bat was doing there. Hopefully he was able to fly away at nightfall. A bat colony lives in the grape arbor on the court house lawn, which is just across the street, kitty-cornered from where he was...

Then we stopped to have lunch at our usual place. Then, out to the woodsy park that for some strange reason, is really difficult to find a spot to hide a letterbox in,... and we drove and hiked and looked until I felt like I was totally dehydrated. We did find a place to hide the microbox he made, but still my special, odd sized one came back home with me. I had bought some spray glue to enable me to cover the plastic boxes with leaves, little sticks, dirt etc. to provide effective camoflage. It didn't work all that well - on the boxes anyway. It worked great on my hands.

On the way back home we made a pass through the cemetery so I could check out that HUGE tree in front as a possible perfect place for my ....Adam and Eve?, Garden of Eden?, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Temptation? letterbox. Perfect location, but no place to hide it where it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. BUT... maybe I could 'offset' it. Have the clues start from the massive tree and lead by compass reading and paces to... a bush? somewhere.... I may try again tomorrow.

So, back home, we stop at Dairy Queen only to find out that their ice cream machine is broken! Zach got a previously frozen treat and I decided to just come home to a big glass of ice water. We had planned to take off to a town in the opposite direction, but I was just worn out. Since he had gotten into a movie, he didnt mind putting off the second half of our trip until in the morning. After the movie, I took him home, came back and collapsed.

Monday evenings Barbara always has the Rosary at her house, but I had called and cancelled earlier. At first I thought we wouldn't be back from our second trip, but then I was just still too hot and tired.

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

I've been thinking about doing this for a long time. The things holding me back were whether I would enjoy it, the question of if I had time to do it, and the worry about privacy. I tend to whine and complain, rant and rave a lot in writing. But with this on the web, I worried about people I know - or who know me - reading it. I live in a very small town. But hopefully that won't happen since I didn't use my real full name anywhere or my email address.... I don't think. (Edit: Well, it didn't work. I inadvertently left two things that showed up in someone's search engine. But - oh, well. I have now deleted most of the whining and griping - or at least the names involved.) As it turns out, as soon as I decided to actually do this, all heck broke loose.
1. A twisted, heartless 'neighbor' in the neighborhood where our cabin is, and were our son and his family live, decided to kill all dogs (except his own) who come in his yard or in the street anywhere near his house....actually, I guess anywhere in gun range. This guy *********** is weird, strange and unreasonable. Despite everyway we tried to alieviate the problem, and get along with the jerk, one of our dogs disappeared and the other one, members of our family including kids! happened on the scene, driving down the street, right after he shot another one of our dogs. He has no feeling at all about killing someone's pets. Or about the kids and families hurt when he does this. Well, this was several days ago...painful subject...no real solution and I don't want to talk about it.
2. My husband comes home from working out of town and I have to try to defuse him before he kills above mentioned psycho. DH has serious health problems, and tonight he suddenly took a bad, scarey turn, although he is somewhat better at the moment.... I don't know if he will try to go to work in the morning or not. He probably will, but ...
3. Our granddaughter who lives with us much of the time, has been (far) away for the past few weeks visiting relatives on the other side. It turns out her mother is taking her and moving there, now. I found out today, when she passed back through our town and dropped her off for an overnight stay. This move really makes me sad.
4. A close friend has received some bad news from her doctor two days ago. She is very upset and I am extremely worried - not only for the medical part of it, but because of her and her husband's state of mind.
5. One of our sons is in Baghdad and although he should be 'safe', it is still extremely worrisome.
6. Lots of tasks and responsibilities and plain old hard work come to the forefront...and threaten to choke me... this time of year.
7. Several negative associates who I have to deal with... always complaining (HA! - What am I doing now?!), looking on the gloomy side, never a positive word to say... and another one who needs constant ego stroking, ********** I am just so tired of being smothered by them. But I have lessened the contact with them.
8. Add to that, a house so cluttered that it is closing in on me, and several other problems...

Well, I guess that is it. It certainly is enough. To balance this out I will close with some positive things from the past few days...
1. Went hiking on a new trail with grandsons and daughter-in-law. Of course I have to say I tripped (soooo clumsy!) and rolled down a hill. Oooof! But I didnt get hurt except for a few scrapes and bruises, and I know the image of a fat lady rolling about two and a half revolutions downward on a hill was probably pretty funny. ;)
2. Mass today...and 3 other times this past week...always great! Yes, we are Catholic.
3. Confession today. What can I say? I am in great need of all the grace I can get.
4. Talked and laughed with my sister for about an hour on the phone. I sure wish we lived close.
5. Youngest grandchild due to be baptised this month.
6. The altar servers group is coming along and is very promising.
7. Had lunch out with some friends...and they didn't try to add anything to my workload. ;)
8. Lost 4 pounds over the past couple of weeks.

.... there's more, but I HAVE to get to bed now.

I promise this MAJOR whining is not going to set the tone for all of my future entries.