kuyman’s Neighborhood

actually i began yeserday.  in the rain no less, but it was still a good day.  we meandered to charleston, then on to savannah with a stop at the walmart, of course to get a card for my camera.  i couldn't be smart enought to get the card when i got the camera, could i?  the rain continued in fits and spurts until we got to tybee island.  we were just in time for the pirate parade and to have a cannon shot across our bow.  but after lunch in the park we made it to the light house and i got my picture, with blue sky in the background.  the only blue sky we had all day.  then on to valdosta to spend the night.  of course i was up too early this am, but i felt rested.  the drive was pretty lesiurely and

the traffic wasn't too heavy at all till we started getting closer to the casino zone.  we got off the interstate in gulfport and went and drove along the coast,  you can still see the destruction from hurricane katrina.  concrete pads where houses once stood.  piers dismembered and standing in pieces, and live oaks lifting their branches as if in supplication, waiting for life to return fully.  in some places life goes on as if it were never disrupted and only a few blocks back there is little evidence to suggest the massive destruction......and there is rebuilding and rebirth taking place. jim said it was depressing..............i think it's miles of sadness, but not depressing because you see the survivorship of the people.  on to slidell and another trip to walmart. more adventures tomorrow!

this is the birthday cake some people thought was totally appropriate.............not 1/2 way to dead people!

for some bizarre reason, everybody thinks that turning 50 is a bad thing...........i on the other hand find it to be extremely liberating!  i am quite happy to be 50, and i earned every line and wrinkle, and the strength that comes with each of them, thank you very much.  kuyler, tell jan jan that the 50 presents for 50 years was just totally cool and i had great fun opening each treasure (altho being my weird self, i would have stretched it over several days).

 

but on to the thing that prompted me to actually think about writing here again........i've thought about it before, but it has been a long long year plus and i think that i am on some serious overload, so i am screaming to go on a vacation (if you know me, my idea of a vacation is tell everybody you're gone and go to the back yard - in summer at least) so for my october birthday vacation pilgrimage, my husband has decided to indulge my strange desire to return to Boothville, LA.  so why do i want to go back there......that is the big question.  i didn't leave anything there, didn't lose anything there.  no friends left there.  so what is it that pulls me back.  i think i need to see the place thru adult eyes for one thing. and because the majority of the memories are mine.  i know the ex was there somewhere, but he's not part of the memories.  he was no where around either of the jobs i worked and driving 75 miles one way to go to work is a pretty solitary adventure.  i need to see the place after the hurricane.  and somewhere i refound my faith there, or returned to it or however one wants to phrase that.  i never lost my faith, but the people i met taught me about putting it to work..................and somewhere in my mind, its a stress free zone.............too far away from new orleans to be people polluted, no hustle and bustle of the big city, people living at a slower pace..............one of my favorite memories is when kev came and we had the pool to ourselves after hours, and kev stomping the crab that broke his fishing line.  just uncomplicated, no big responsibilities.  and that is the thing that is stressing me out..............i am tired of all the responsibilites and want to run away.....at least temporarily.  it wouldn't be so bad if all the responsibilites were actually mine, but since i have this overdeveloped sense of responsibility and have been responsible for so long.........I NEED A BREAK! 

 well tax season is almost over and it has been almost a year since i've had time to even think about blogging, journalling isn't much better, but i will post this, and hopefully this spring and summer will allow me a little time to at least think about blogging, and who knows, maybe i will find time to do an occasion post..........so for now......i'll be marching for babies.............

tax season is over, hurray, hurray! so now its time to unbury the house from all its accumulated dirt and mess over the past three months.  you start with good intentions, but they only last until you get worn out and overwhelmed.  and being overwhelmed is easier for some of us than others.  so now i have too much to do and can't figure out where to start, so some days i do nothing.  but i've made good progress on the pool and even managed to spend a few hours cleaning and basking in the sunshine last week.  looks like this week might be a no-go with cooler temps, but we shall see.  got a little extra sun welking last week, altho the shell supply was a little scarce.  either our timing was bad or they just weren't there, but it was a nice visit with karen.  and of course while i'm playing catch-up at home, i've also been playing catch-up at sports.  don't know that that's ever going to happen either, but what the heck.  sports will be closing thursday and stay closed for two weeks for the spring harley rally, and i'll have most of those days to catchup at home till the 22, when jim has his surgery.......so it looks like i'll actually get about 2 1/2 weeks off......maybe i'll actually catch up my email reading (maybe pigs will fly).............kuylers last blog was titled "why blog".  why not.  i don't know why i thought i'd do this this morning.  nothing of particular interest to say, but it is kind of neat to know that you are putting thoughts (such as they are today) out into the world where someone might actually (even if accidentially) read them. and every now and then i do think of something profound to say.  so with practice and a little more time on my hands, i might even post something of profound significance!  especially if i decide to actually watch the news again on a regular basis, i'm sure that will provide me with plenty of fuel for an expanded rant of the horrendous state of the government..............who by the way are so wrapped up and concerned with the things that have a 1 in a million chance of happening while violating peoples human rights and evoking national security as a form of coverup secrecy that they don't have a clue what's happening in their own back yard...............like gas going to $3 plus, tainted pet food leading to tainted people food and environmental rape in the name of profit and progress.  sounds like a bunch of self involved children have been left in charge and the house is burning down around them!  the phrase "nero fiddled while rome burned" comes to mind.........and i love the story about walter reed.  excuse me, but i've been there and 20 years ago it was a decrepted place, out dated and less than pristine and should have been gutted if not completely torn down and rebuilt, so that should come as no shock to anyone, and if they said it did, they lied!  and bamc was just as bad, but they did build a new hospital at ft sam.  but at bamc, the piping and conduit was all exposed, and you had to go down this tunnel (not really, just a low ceilinged hall, but creepy) to get to the pharmacy and it was a scary place to go alone.  i always thought it would be a perfect place for somebody to grab you and drag you off and avoided it when ever possible.  see doesn't take much to get me wound up............now to go get my day in order and head for the habitat dedication!

and so is the yellow pollen.  The weather is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.................and the pollen is miserable, miserable, miserable.  My poor white truck is wearing a seasonable coat of yellow dust, and it really doesn't matter what color your vehicle is, right now its yellow!  and the porch floor, and even inside the screen porch, so everywhere you are there's pollen for you nose and eyes.  i feel like i'm ready to go to sleep about 1/2 the time, not because i'm tired, but because my eyes are gummed up! Lets keep the antihistamine and decongestant makers in business!  But the pollen pollution won't last forever (no it won't blow out, blowing in worst of all) and with the coming of the pollen you know that spring is really bout most here (unlike that  Punxsutawney Phil , who needs a good talking to if he cant be more reliable).  so with spring in the offing and beautiful beautiful days, i hear the ocean and the pool and the yard calling my name.  i'm ready to play in the dirt and to get in the pool and yesterday when susan and i had lunch, we were looking out over the ocean and it was so gorgeous, and as we came out and the wind was blowing thru my hair, the sun shining down and the smells of the ocean and the freshness of spring, i really didn't want to find my way back to work.  but i did, luckily there's just a little over three weeks left.  and i'm ready for tax season to be over so that i can play a little, but not like in previous years where i just wanted it to be over so i can get out of the office, because one day past april 15 and i will lose my mind and my temper.  i'm having a good year and enjoying what i do for the first time in a long time. i'm glad i hung in there, and if you'd told me in december that i'd be enjoying myself this much, i would have told you you were having some kind of a fantasy, but i really am enjoying myself.  i think its the first time i've been able to enjoy and to be myself and not have to listen to people moaning about how miserable they are as i watch them work 18 hour days in a race to make all the money they can, and at the expense of other people.  at any rate, its good.  no negative energy!  and i seem to be the sponge for that or something.  at any rate it certainly affects how i feel and is more wearing than really hard physical labor!  tra ra ra ree , spring is about to be!

but i got 75 degrees, bright blue skies, sunshine, fried chicken and a day off, all on the same day.  weather aside, the day off was nice.  i'm getting paranoid about asking the "do you want to contribute to the presidential election campaign fund" question.  somebody is going to come across that desk and swat me.  i get a variety of reactions, from outright hoots to viscious NO's, but the final answer is almost always the same.  NO!  and its really funny, because we're talking a mix of dems and reps, who over the years have expressed a variety of opinions, and sometimes i had to bite my tongue, since i'm not in an appropriate place for political discussions, but this year almost no one wants to donate to that cause and everybody wants to head off on a rant.......George W(onderful) has become George W(acko), or George W(oebegotten), or George W(hy)..........ah as the worm turns! And the news junkie is getting her news from "reliable" sources this time of year.  in other words it's mostly word of mouth and all colored by peoples perspectives.  Oh right, that's just like tv news, just without the mute switch!  and for some reason, i am swamped.  i spent more time taking in returns yesterday than getting them out...........i took in 6 and completed 4, and part of the 4 were previous days work.  and when i got into the office yesterday, my desk looked like it had barfed paper!  but the weirdest client for yesterday, was the one with the giagantic return with umpty dozen forms to be done (she'd done part of them, but that didn't do a thing for me.........i can't exactly peice meal a return) and she didn't want to leave the paperwork so i could do the return.  excuse me, but this is not a return to be done while you sit at my desk, it requires concentration and probably a little research and certainly not somebody sitting over my shoulder thinking they know how to do it better than i do, so exactly how is it she expects me to get the return done.  its not as if i don't have 15 other peoples paper work, neatly in individual folders.......thats kind of like expecting the mechanic to work on your car with out the car!  obviously i got up too early this morning, since i even had time for this brief rant, but it will save poor jims ears!

63 degrees, a day off in sight and a good pizza for dinner..........

busy, busy, busy...........so this may be the best birthday kristopher ever had.  he hates that his birthday comes during tax season, and i can't say that i blame him. if i'd been doing taxes when he was born, he might have had to have waited until after april to arrive, or at least another week, because his birthday is right in the middle of peak.  he and his roommates were planning on having a party last night and going to an open mike night and a barbeque, so i guess he had some real celebrating lined up.  around here it was work, work oh and more work.  i took the birthday money to the bank instead of sending a check and called to say happy birthday while i was depositing, but the time difference meant that i left a message.  i finally caught up with the birthday boy about the time i headed home from work. so happy birthday kristopher, hope it was a good party and a great birthday!

the six day work week has begun, and i'm tired already.  should normally be 4 full days, and two half days but this week i've got 4 more than full, 1 full, and 1 slightly over half and i'm beginning to drag!  no complaining, its my choice, but i'm still tired.  fortunately its only for three weeks, and then the craziness will stop and it will just be working, but i've been doing between 9-12 returns, plus the ones i work on and can't finish for what ever reason, that are filling up my hold box.  but our office is a nicer place to work this year, and if i spend a lot of time thinking about it i get really annoyed, because i think that i have been being taken advantage of and used and kind of shafted for the last few years and was too stupid to know it and that really makes me angry at myself more so than at the people who did it, but this is a new day, with a sun beam lighting the top of the tree here and more kristopher pictures to look at and maybe a few minutes to kick back and rest later this afternoon....................