Spring has sprung

Some rain has taken to falling in drips and drabbles some days and torrential down pours on others.  Nothing like last year so naturally the word 'drought' is being liberally spattered across the airwaves. 

Easter Sunday was gorgeous and there was a nice breeze so I didn't over cook for a change.  Sat by the pool and had a good time chatting and swimming when the mood struck me.  Of course I did the cooking bit.  Brown Sugar Ham, scalloped potatoes, bean casserole, creamed corn and a tossed salad.  Deviled eggs for nosh and choice of cupcakes or Peach Betty with whipped cream for dessert.  Chardonnay for beverage along with liberal doses of water.  I picked up Pat, the 87 year old I mentioned earlier, from Century Village (yes the joke is you need to be about a century old to live there).  She's having trouble sleeping since her mugging and one of my other friends took her home.  She had a great time telling tales about her days in World War II.  She and I discussed death - since her son-in-law just passed and she recalled how angry she was when her husband died.  She worries about how her daughter is holding up since John died and her daughter is coming in tomorrow so she'll get to see.  They are supposed to scatter his ashes somewhere down here and have a bit of time to talk. 

I didn't do half as much writing as I wanted (nothing unusual on holiday weekends) but I liked what I did get down.  Not too much more.  I drive by Trump Tower in Boca at least three or four times a week (one of the routes with less traffic) and when I get caught by THAT bridge I snap a pic of the fountain, palm trees and pink building. 

Good Friday and Earth Day

I watched the sunset as I drove into work and didn't get ambushed by the drawbridge troll.  I did run into one of the trains because I stopped off at my PO Box and collected stamps and mail.  Yes, I am one of those sorts who still writes real letters AND has a PO Box.  None of the pesky mail at the curb nonsense.  Too many folks are hurting for money and unfortunately a mailbox is a delightful sorce of free information for those of a less than honest nature. I never am awake enough to snap those shots.  I'll have to work on it.

The three nasties from yesterday were it.  Woohoo!  I am still very sore and have a huge bruise on my left upper thigh but if that's the worse of what happened yesterday I am fine.  It is supposed to be lovely weather all weekend and I am baking a ham, scalloped potatoes, bean casserole and corn to feed the Lost Boys.  I know of at least four that are planning on just happening by on Sunday.  I am trying to see if I can tempt any of the girls to come over and play so I am not hiding inside.  I want to head to the beach at least one morning and look for shells.  I need to find out the tides.

Not too much else in brain right now.  Coffee hasn't kicked in.  Happy Easter for all those celebrating.

New Pirates Movie!

Okay, have to say "Wow".  See if it works for you.  I got the download from Disney and was totally ready to go see the movie.  Need to wait a month before it opens. 

http://disney.go.com/pirates/#/characters/jack-sparrow/

How much more needs be said?  Jack Sparrow!

Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed

At 1:30 am when everything went dead still I should have known it was the start of a challenging day.  The power kicked back on eventually but not before it grew stale and dead in the house. I've been getting up to mid 70's weather so the a/c running all night is not a luxury but pretty much necessity since it's still in high 80's at 9 pm.  I knew that all the clocks were wrong but I rarely use them other than passing glances.  Not needed to set an alarm I didn't get up and reconfigure the clock but eventually fell back to a fitful sleep.

Living on a barrier island has it's down sides.  One is that in order to get there you need to cross one of the three drawbridges or swim in from the Atlantic Ocean or the Intracoastal waterways (both of which have sharks and stupid boat folks).  The main drawbridge is a block from my place and is supposed to go up on the half hour and hour...ONLY.  This morning's brain trust in charge of the bridge hits the lights just as I am ready to go across so I stopped steaming at 6:51 am....and there I was stuck for five more minutes while the rich dude with the too tall boat puttered through.  Naturally I snapped picture of the clock on my dash and the bridge up (to be posted later) just cause I was fuming.  See that sets my time back and makes me ripe to get caught by not one but two trains. 

I show up to work.  Clock in and then walk down the stairs to get ice for my breakfast diet dr. pepper (not coffee too warm).  Then wanting to dodge the talkative security guard in the lobby I go the the staircase near the cafeteria.  I badge in the door and am halfway up one flight when I see the door didn't close all the way.  Sighing I tromp back down and pull door shut.  There's still an alarm blaring.  I quicken my pace and prompty trip UP the stairs (takes a certain grace and lack of talent).  My left thigh meets one concrete step and left shin another while I figure I am about to take out my face so I lunge a bit off center and twist my left shoulder and wrist.

Grace and elegance all before 8:15 am.  Can't wait for the rest of this day.  Sigh.

20% chance of being wrong?

So I want to be a weather forecaster.  Anyone who's read more than a bit of my writing knows I tend to find a paragraph or three to mock newscasters and at times weather forecasters.  What other job could you have where you are wrong 80% of the time and you still get paid? 

It was supposed to be hot all weekend.  They got that right.  With possibly a 20% chance of scattered showers.  Well that 20% poured enough rain into the pool that I didn't have to add water (like an inch!).  It rained a good two or three hours without stop.  Scattered showers later in evening.  That was Saturday.  Sunday was summer hot and humid (August type weather) with rolling thunderclouds and booms and some rain (not as steady).  Don't get me wrong we really need rain here but I like it to rain at night and during work week when I am not outside (silly me).

I got some writing done but ended up with backyard full of the Lost Boys again.  Most of them don't have girlfriends and tell tall tales while trying to one-up each other.  Wealth of writing material free of charge.  And since they don't get online I don't have to worry about them reading about themselves in my tales *wicked grin* 

One of the guys who comes up for the weekend to give his girlfriend and her mother some time together got two back to back slam texts yesterday afternoon.  First, "Why don't you stay up there overnight?" Okay, not so bad cause she had her girlfriends in town and was having fun.  Second was the killer, "I need my space."  Given he lives with her that sort of screwed his mind up.  I let him crash on the couch and hope he doesn't get the next predictable messages, "It's not you - it's me" followed by "Your crap is on the curb".  He was devastated as they've been together for five years.  He lost his job five months ago and since then his world has been ever narrowing and crashing.  It's a tough economy.  It's tougher once you clear 50 and are looking for a job. 

Sand, didn't get the flickr updated but "Good Morning" is shaping into a fun bit of well fun.

My neighbor is probably in Key West now enjoying a drink with an umbrella in it and admiring the view.  I am getting tons of writing in the past few days.  I am not quite sure if "Good Morning" is going to come in under 10K words or not.  What can I say the picture inspired me.  I took off from where I'd left my as-of-yet-unnamed-character a few weeks later still in hot water.  My 'women-in-distress' stories aren't quite run of the mill I don't think.  This one has some interesting characteristics.

I hope to finish up "Good Morning" by Saturday night so I can get back to "The Building".  It's funny how stories take over my brain.  I write something a month or so before they end up in Piker Press and at times it's odd how life echoes some of my story lines.  I've put earthquakes into tales before they hit.  Must be something in the air.  I think of all the movies that get pulled prior to release due to content that imitates life far too accurately. 

Also hoping to finally get some things loaded into Flickr.  I have access to neighbor's computer while she is on the cruise and I am going to see how good her graphics programs are.  I am spoiled by what Nathan loaded onto mine.  If so, Sand, you should be getting tons to pull. 

Whelp...time to work...again. 

Good news.  Pat's out of the hospital and spitting mad.  The jerk who hurt her was arrested and is already out on bond.  I so am not happy with the situation but glad that she's okay.

I am such a wuss at times.  My neighbor, Jackie, is at loose ends and gets cruise ship updates sent to her inbox constantly.  She found this sweet deal yesterday morning and text me while I was at work (naturally phone's off so I didn't get it til lunch) and left a voice mail that I needed to take Thursday, Friday and Monday off because she found a cruise and she'd pay.  I didn't reply til noon and she already talked another friend into going.  I don't think I still would have gone had she waited til I was home.  I save my vacation days for most of the year just how I am wired and with brother-in-law having been so sick I still don't know if I am going to end up taking a trip to New Hampshire.

That said, Jackie is leaving me in charge of her kitty and making sure her mail gets to the countertop.  I dyed her hair last night at 7pm because she was freaking that she wouldn't look perfect without root work.  On the plus side too is I got some great writing in on my Good Morning tale.