Busy, busy, busy

My Mama always said I didn't know how to sit still and I surely don't. I have to be doing something all the time and most times I'm doing way too much.

My Mama used to say a lot of things and sometimes I would actually listen. I have never changed my ways when it comes to staying busy.

I have read your last few entries into our journal with interest. I was at a luncheon earlier this week and the topic of the Honor Flight came up. It seems that many groups in Fayette County are banding together to help get our World War II veterans to Washington. I am so proud of all the good hearted people working to do this.

If I remember correctly it will cost about $400 per person to send them. The VFW is donating $2100 an the Women's Republican group is also donating some money. I hope everyone reading our journal (and many others) will get in touch with the fine people and help. I have heard it is a very touching trip. I won't go into it more because anyone who'd like to know more about it can read Military Matters in Fayette or visit the Fayette Front Page or the VFW site.

I am having a lot of fun reading all the different blogs by our fellow writers at the Fayette Front Page! It seems that every day there is a new column. Some of them are simply informative like Health: Hearsay & Headlines or Banker's Corner, and others are rather fun, like ours.

I need to spend less time reading all those blogs and columns and more time writing! I can hear you nodding your head Miss Etta!

Did your Mama ever tell you that when you pouted she could walk to New York on your bottom lip? I was wondering if that was a commom mamaism.

Miss Faye

Follow the Leader Game on the Wild Side

Miss Faye,

Do you remember playing "follow the leader" when you were younger?

It was always fun to watch the older, more experienced kids lead the younger ones on adventures. One time, the older kids took me to a creek. I had to overcome my fear that day. The only acceptable way over the creek was to grab a small rope which was placed on a small limb. After much discussion and most likely a few tears on my part, I grabbed the rope. The older kids pushed me. And there I was, sailing over the creek. It was a rite of passage, I guess, to show I wasn't a baby anymore. Ah, we were so innocent.

The animals at the San Francisco Zoo appear to be trying the same sort of game lately. Of course, the tiger that climbed out of its enclosed area and the end results were horrific. I so feel for those poor families.

On the heels of that daring escape, it has been reported that more animals want to leave. Sort of a "follow the leader" sort of game. Now I don't know if it happened this week or in the last month, but I will tell you what I heard.

First the polar bear tried to climb out of its enclosure. Next, the snow leopard chewed through the mesh in its enclosure. Hmmm.. The zoo officials say the animals are denying they were trying to escape. Sure thing. Let's see. A wild animal leaves the compound and doesn't come back. Hmmmmm.

Follow the leader? Or the call of the wild?

Honor Our WWII Veterans!

Miss Faye,

I so enjoyed seeing the new column named "Military Matters in Fayette" this morning on the Fayette Front Page. I happen to know Mrs. Sparrow and her passion about the Honor Flight ranks right up there with mine for Mint Juleps. She's been working hard on this project and I can't wait to see a great article about it on the FFP.

Anyway, in reading the article, it reminds me of my papa, may he sleep sweetly. He was my gentle giant, a career Army man, and my hero. Even though he has been in eternal sleep for many a year now, I still recall his voice, his laughter, his smile, and his unyielding support of his country.

Just last year, I found the World War II Registry of Remembrance at the website for the World War II Memorial. Did you know you can submit the names of your own personal World War II veterans to it? It was an easy process as I recall. I was happy to list my precious papa's name, as well as that of his younger brother. These men fought for our country and I want everyone to know I'm proud of them.

Did you hear it's going to rain again tonight? Why, that is certainly a prayer being answered.

Talk to you later. Right now, I feel a strong urge to go look at a picture of my papa in uniform and send a prayer thanking God for my papa and his devotion to Him and to our country.

Miss Etta

Tickled green

You really tickled my funny bone thinking about painting a room bruise green. Although it is funny, I would encourage you to choose another color.

I am so, so sorry I have neglected our communications in the Journal. I have been away having fun and am now so tired I'm not even sure if I should be writing.

Your fascination with bruises had my mind traveling again. Have you ever thought about how many different greens there are in the world? I have a lot of indoor plants surrounding my computer. There are ferns, and spider plants, and cacti and plants with names I have long forgotten. All green and no two alike. The depth of colors is amazing.

I enjoy painting although I don't begin to think I could ever make a living from my art. However, it does leave me with an appreciation of the variety of colors in the world.

I can get lost inside some paintings, especially those by our Impressionist masters. If you ever look closely at a painting by Monet, Manet or any of the other similar artists you will be amazed at the combination of colors they use to create an image. Vincent Van Gogh is one of my absolute favorite artists.

There's a new gallery in Tyrone over behind the Legacy Theater. They have some wonderful art for sale and on display. I talked with the new owners for a while --- they are very nice and knowledgeable. I think it's worth a little trip over there to see some of the paintings.

Ah well, my clock is not ticking correctly yet. My eyes are trying to close and it is only 9 p.m., long before my normal bedtime.

I will try to write again in the morning Miss Etta. I look forward to finding out what you've been doing these past few days.

Miss Faye

Sorry I haven't been around to chat, but I was out enjoying the
beautiful weather in our neighborhood. Since the weather warmed up,
I ran out of the house so I could feel the warmth of the sun beating
down on my frozen body. I also had the opportunity to watch some of
our local youth compete head to head in some league tennis matches.
It really amazes me to see the commitment and how well they play.
There was even an extra added feature this weekend. One of players
also got hurt.

Is this funny? No. It's not. The player did the warmup stretches
as dictated by the coach. During the match, this young player
reached down, grabbed the ankle and started limping. A medical time
out was called using the USTA guidelines. Ice was applied. The
player, while in obvious pain, elected to finish the match. By the
time the match had ended, we spectators had two observations.

One is the way the player was smacking those tennis balls. Guess the
player decided not to move, therefore, put the pain of the foot into
each shot. I'm not sure if the space shuttles had more power at
their disposal than those particular tennis shots had. Of course,
the player did succumb to the pain and lost the match. These things
happen.

The second more interesting observation was the array of colors that
formed on the player's ankle right after the match. It started as a
small red spot, only to go into a large red spot, followed by
darkening of the skin. The player was quickly checked out and given
the unofficial diagnosis of "ankle sprain." The player is using the
RICE technique, which is rest, ice, compression and elevation above
the heart. I'm told the swelling started soon after they got off the
court.

Bruises are interesting in the colors they provide. Yes, it is
bleeding into the tissues, hence a wakeup call that something is
wrong. I remember getting bruises off and on. They always are
entertaining to watch as they go through their cycles of color.
First, it's red, thus signaling an inflammatory type reaction is
going. Then, they can turn purple. As they get better, they can
turn a nice yellow-green, then brown, then return to a normal color.

Today, as I reflect on the young player's injury, I have two
thoughts. Buy the parents a hammer so the player always elects to
use those power shots. The second is to watch the bruises so I can
pick out just the right paint color for the room I need to paint.
After all, those colors are provided by nature. Does that mean those
colors qualify as "green"? Something else for me to ponder, Miss Faye.

Teeth chattering cold and fireplaces

This cold, cold weather just makes me want to snuggle in front of a roaring fire with a good book.

Miss Etta, have you ever chopped wood for a fire? There is an art to chopping wood. There is a finer art to keeping your toes attached to your legs when chopping wood. Somehow, while I never mastered the art of chopping wood like a pro, I did manage to keep all my toes and fingers.

I was a very hesitant wood chopper, although I finally did get the hang of it. The idea of that big old heavy axe swinging full circle into one of my body parts kept me from doing the smooth, heavy swing that I see so many others use.

I'm sure my attempts would have made a very funny video for one of those shows on TV where people do silly things. My way of splitting a piece of wood generally involved somehow getting the axe embedded into the wood and then picking up the axe with attached wood and banging until it split.

I have to admit I wasn't choosy enough when it came to which wood I tossed into the fireplace some days. When you're shivering wood is wood. If it burned it was going into the fire.

If you've ever put wet wood into your fire you'll never forget the sounds and smells. Then there are woods that burn so fast you stay warm just tossing it into the fireplace. Then there are some that never seem to catch, they just sit there like a piece of iron.

And oh, it's not just wet wood that can smell. Woooeee, some woods can have you sitting on the front porch wrapped in blankets with the house windows open.

I did so love having a fire burning during those cold winter days though. We don't have too many really cold days down here in our home of choice thank goodness.

These days most fireplaces have gas logs in them or they are just for decoration. We have a huge fireplace with gas logs in our home. I know I shouldn't tell on myself, but I have no idea how to turn those things on and I think I might freeze before I figured it out.

One time during the coldest of winter our electricity went out and I decided to give it a look. Teeth chattering, hands shaking, I opened the bottom and started peering at the instructions. After a few minutes of trying to decipher the words, I went and got a flashlight. It didn't help. Thank goodness the electricity came back on before I had to go looking for matches.

We have a total electric house so there is a separate tank that is hooked up to the fireplace. It has been sitting out there for so long that I would certainly imagine that whatever is in there has either evaporated or separated into water and goo.

But it is such a beautiful fireplace. And I never have to clean out the ashes or worry about the sparks burning little places in the carpet.

The Race Is On

Miss Faye,

I know you had to watch the Iowa vote last night. I was interested in this race and I'm not really into politics. I guess it's the fact that for the first time, I believe there are viable candidates who could bring a change of face to the White House. When I say a change of face, I don't mean they will change the party politics. I watched the results on the Fayette Front Page last night. It was much easier to do that than sit in front of the TV watching, yet another Bowl game.

I find it interesting that Obama beat Clinton. I wonder if it was because Obama is really so much better looking than Clinton? It will be interesting to see what happens on both sides of the aisle in New Hampshire. Of course, I won't make up my mind until they all come to Georgia. What is made up in my mind is the party I typically support. Born and bred, you might say.

Speaking of Bowl games, I'm done. Just give me the one who determines who the final champion will be and I'm happy. I know what you'll say. The games are important to all the schools who get to participate in their "big show." I did feel sorry for Hawaii, though. They just didn't seem ready to play with the big dogs- either that, or their nerves couldn't settle down for the large crowd.

I guess if I'm going to think about more bowls, I should just close my trap and go make something to put into one. Ahh, the Fayette Chili Bowl?

Crazy weather

Now I don't give much credence to the global warming thing. I've been around long enough to yawn when another chicken-little starts yelling about the sky falling, the ice age coming, DDT, and all that mess.

And just in case some yahoo out there wants to start yelling at me about global warming or taking care of our world, I consider myself a good steward of the environment.

The drought is troubling. Water is going to be a huge concern for many years to come, not just here but all across the world. There are just so many people and we keep building and building. We know we don't have enough water in an area to support a ton of people but we build anyway. Somehow we always seem to muddle through these things, though. Better minds than mine are puzzling over how to deal with the water situation. I'll just keeping doing my tiny part to try and help.

The weather is crazy right now. Not enough rain, then just enough to keep us from breaking that old 1950's record. And this cold snap. Short-lived from what I read, then we're back to spring-like weather again.

This isn't that abnormal though. I can remember years with record-breaking freezes right on the heels of shorts wearing sunshine. I remember Christmas days where we hadn't broken out our jackets yet. It just seemed abnormal to get a Christmas card depicting a sleigh ride through snow-laden forests while sitting in the sunshine on our front porch.

One of the things I really dearly love about living in Georgia is the ever-changing weather. It gets warm enough in the summer to appreciate the swimming pool and cold enough most years to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa in front of the fire. I wouldn't want to live somewhere that I had to shovel out the driveway to get to work and I wouldn't want to live in an area where I could hit the beach 365 days a year.

I love our crazy weather.

Miss Faye

SNOW in GA?

Now don't that just beat all? Last week, we were running around in our short shirt sleeves. Today, we're shivering. And I mean, really shivering. It's so cold this morning that I feel like I need to go into hibernation. Good thing I packed on a few extra pounds over the holidays!

To top it off, it snowed in North GA last night. Looks like the extreme northern counties all have a little snow on the ground. If you watch the radar real close from the last few hours, it looks like we should have had a few flurries ourselves. The air was too dry so it couldn't hit the ground, though.

Is this an omen for 2008? With 2007 officially clocking in as the 2nd worse rain year since 1954 in the Atlanta area, I can only hope this snow issue will continue.

The drought brings up an interesting thought that's been running around in my head. Back in the mid 50s when the last really big drought happened, what was the effect? There certainly weren't so many millions of people in the area depending on Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona. I rather doubt Florida was taking the water for their endangered mussels at that time. So, can you tell me? What were the effects on the locals in the area back then? Couldn't have been much as no one ever talks about it, and metro Atlanta still grows every year. Guess I'll ponder on this for some time.

Guess I'll keep looking out the window today in hopes some precipitation will decide to head our way. A better idea would be for me to crawl back under the warm blankets and read peacefully.

Miss Etta

Almost took a day off!

Miss Etta, I almost decided not to write today. Well, it wasn't that I decided NOT to write, I just kept putting it off and putting it off because I couldn't think of a thing to write about.

I think staying up to watch the new year come in last night through my internal clock off kilter.

As you can see, I couldn't finish the day without writing something, even if it is nothing.

Did you see on the Fayette Front Page where they have officially had the first case of influenza? It was in DeKalb County, which is not too far from here.

I suppose that most people don't go to the doctor when they have the flu so it's difficult for the officials to really know when the flu came to Georgia.

I know I will just suffer through most illnesses rather than traipse into the doctor's waiting room for an few hours of waiting. Usually by the time I realize I would have been better off going to the doctor I'm on the mend.

I didn't get my flu shot. I know I probably should have, but I go back and forth. One year I had the shot. I got the flu. The next I didn't get the shot. I got the flu. Every year I manage to come down with the flu no matter how many vegetables, how many vitamins and how many preventative herbs and over-the-counter remedies I try.

Well, I have talked a lot about something. It is now no longer January 1st. I have piddled around with my writing until I am now 5 minutes into January 2nd. I think I might count this as writing both days just in case I wake up in the same kind of mood later today.

I am going to get some sleep. I expect the second day of the year to be a busy one.

Miss Faye