Catching Up & an Independent HodgePodge

Yes - this was me!  But then I turned right around and am stressed because there's so much I want to do and need to get done and there's just not enough October! 

We took the grandkids to this event downtown called "Nightmare on Auburn Rd" (terrifying sounding, isn't it?) The road was closed and there were vendors with tents in the middle of the road, and a bounce house and a DJ, then live music.  It was pretty fun.  Trick or Treating was over at 4pm and you could tell that it was slowly turning into an adult thing, which was fine - the kids were ready to go home. 

Last weekend we went to a local-ish (about 45 minutes away) MetroPark to do their "Great Skeleton Scavenger Hunt".  Saturday was a beautiful day, so it was perfect to be out walking the trails.  

I made a full post over on my other blog but basically, we had to find 10 skeletons and write down what they were doing.  Then when we turned in our form, we got a little prize.  

This one has a camera around its neck and a "nature photography for dummies" book. 

And of course I took Chuck!

The prettiest skies are always seen from a parking lot! 

I'm behind the ball on getting my Halloween display set up.  I did get some more lights out there last night.  I was excited to find out Harbor Freight carries 2-foot extension cords, sometimes you just need a little bit more cord! - and some nice lightweight 10' ones, too.  However, I learned that at least the 10' ones glow in the black light.  

Looks like I need some more black spray paint, because that just isn't going to cut it! 

I have a half day of work tomorrow and the plan is to get the critter skeletons out.  They're currently staged on the patio table. 

So that's about all that's going on around here.  This Sunday is the granddaughter's 5th birthday.  I'm sure we'll do something fun for that.   

Moving on to this week's HodgePodge - I've been slacking muchly in this department. 

Linking up as usual with Joyce over at From This Side of The Pond.

1. Do you think you're driven more by curiosity or comfort? Explain. 

I'm thinking 50/50.  Sometimes it's just comforting to stay in the ol' rut and coast along, but then other times it's neat and interesting to try something new. 

2. What non-food item is in your refrigerator or freezer? 

Without looking, I can't think of anything unusual - other than ice packs for lunchboxes.  That's probably the one place in my house that has normal things!

3. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence/be silent? 

While I'm awake - I'm ok with silence. I have tinnitus (thank you, US Navy ships!) so I'm never in complete silence. I'm currently at work and we have a window open and there's a truck (I work for a trucking company) sitting out there running and it doesn't bother me in the slightest.  But at bedtime, we usually have a noise maker on.  The Spouse likes to find "night noises" on YouTube so we go to sleep hearing frogs and crickets.  But I found I need a steady sound - one night he put one on that had a bullfrog in it, too and I got fixated on trying to figure out a pattern of the bullfrog's croaking.  So, I had him change it. 

I've mentioned this before - I love to explore cemeteries, so I enjoy the silence there. 

4. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

Carpentry with a little electrical.  I took woodshop in high school, and I enjoyed building stuff then.  And I've changed the socket in a lamp before, which I was super proud of, but that's about all I've done. 

I'm afraid I would build more stuff for my Halloween display!  I do have a full-sized coffin that I built back in 2009.  During October it's in the yard, and the rest of the year it's used for storage, so I guess I did an OK job on it! 

5. Do you lean more towards being too needy or too independent? Which do you find harder to deal with in others? 

For some reason I have a hard time being needy.  I feel like I HAVE to be independent.  I'm a big, tall-ish large person so it almost seems like people expect me to be able to do things.  While the Spawn, for example, is currently 23 weeks pregnant and I'd be surprised if she's hit 100 lbs yet.  She's a tiny thing and people don't expect her to move boxes or anything remotely strenuous.  

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

The squirrels around my house are getting bold!  I was in the backyard, using a jigsaw to cut out a couple new headstones for Halloween and 2 squirrels raced down the tree, chasing each other and they ran between my feet - while the saw was on!  I felt a tail swish around my ankle!  And the Spawn was sitting on a cushion in the front yard one day and a squirrel sneaked over and stole some fries from a McDonalds bag that was within her reach!  

I'm back!

There's no particular reason as to why I haven't been on the ol' blog - just the usual stress of the homefront and now a whole new episode at work.  Oh yay!  

I have any annual cardiologist appt tomorrow and just know he's going to say "reduce stress" and he won't say it but it will be in my chart..."lose weight".  I've been having episodes of Afib lately even tho I've been taking my meds regularly.   

The grandkids started school on August 31.  Here they are at "Meet the Teacher" night.  

I went along with them, since sometimes I have to pick them up from school and it would be nice to know where their classrooms are.

Kindergarten & First grade!

The weekend before - August 29 was mine & Sis1's birthdays.  It happened to be the same weekend as the Spouse had BikeMS in Frankenmuth.  He's volunteered for these MS events longer than I've known him.  This was the first time I went along with him!  They basically patrol the route that the bike riders go to make sure nobody needs help getting to a rest area or back to the start/finish line.  I didn't ride with him, I rode along with a couple ladies and we had a good time! 

Even Chuck the skeleton made some new friends - Cookie the Goat and Stormy the Bear.

Then after a while, Sis1 met us at the start/finish line and I got in with her and we did some shopping in Frankenmuth.  We went on a horse & carriage ride and then on a riverboat cruise!  She's the one I share a birthday with.

We had a lot of fun.

Speaking of rain, we (like a lot of people) had some storms the week before Labor Day and the restaurant Mom wanted to take me to for my birthday dinner had no power!  So we went to a fancier steakhouse and OMG - prime rib. 

On the plus side, the Spouse has been taking meds for his diabetes (that most people take for weight loss) and it's been cutting his appetite - he's lost 20 or so pounds so far!  An I think it's affecting me subconsciously and I haven't been eating as much lately either.  Normally I would have polished off that hunk o meat AND the potato, but I didn't even touch the potato this time.  My Weight Watcher workshop has been closed the last 2 weeks and I worked late the week before that so I haven't been on a scale in over 3 weeks.  I'll see if I can make it for the entire workshop tomorrow or if I just run in to get on the scale.  I sort of don't want to waste a non-rainy day when it's H'ween set up time!

So the plan is to start putting the Halloween cemetery up this week.  However our lawn guy ghosted us and it hasn't been mowed in over 3 weeks - and we had some nice rains recently so it looks like a jungle!  I normally cut the front yard real short before setting up and letting it grow all October.  It's been raining most of yesterday and today so hopefully it'll dry out sometime this week and I can go mow it myself.  

Last Sunday, we were out in the yard and the grandson noticed this huge green caterpillar with spikey orange stalks all along its back.  I looked it up and it was cecropia moth caterpillar (thankfully harmless) and we let it go about it's business.  

Monday, I sort of wondered where it had gone to, and I started moving my headstones so I could clean the dirt & spiderwebs off of them and I found it!

On one of my headstones, of course.  And I looked it up again and read that they overwintered in the cocoon!  That's not going to work in my world.  I contacted the local nature center and they said I could slide an index card under it and move it to a woody debris area, which we happened to have in our yard, too!  But before I could get from from work Tuesday, something had eaten it.  I was so sad!  Probably those darn groundhogs in my shed.  This bugger would have been a moth as large as an adult's hand!  

The sisters and I went to have breakfast last weekend and went to a craft fair type place and one of the vendors told us about the pumpkins her husband just harvested.  So we went there and these were the prettiest pumpkins I've seen!  I bought 2 even tho I'm sure the squirrels will get hold of them before we could even dream of carving them. 

I had jury duty last week - I thankfully wasn't chosen but what I did see was entertaining.   Guy was being charged with 1 count DUI causing loss of life and 3 counts DUI causing serious injury - and he was pleading not guilty!!  I would have liked to hear the argument for that.   And even better - as soon as my group walked into the courtroom for the jury selection process, the prosecutor and the guy being charged freaked out and they and the other lawyers ran up to talk to the judge - the guy's MOM was in the jury pool!!  Needless to say, she was dismissed very quickly.  Can you imagine???

Speaking of last weekend - the Spawn had sort of a little gender reveal gathering for us and her best friend.  She ordered a pair of baseballs in the appropriate color and tossed them to the grandson (one was for backup).  I made a video so the sound was hilarious but here are some stills...

It's a boy!

Grandson was celebrating and rolling around in the blue powder.

The granddaughter however - I heard her excitedly say "it's a boy!"

and then she apparently realized what she said.

I stopped recording when she got up and came at me crying.

She went to both me & the Spouse and we reassured her that she was always going to be our special little princess.  Poor little middle child to be!

The Spawn claims she applied for assistance from the state but I don't think she really did. I don't know what she plans to do with her life. 

Send prayers and good thoughts!  Just typing those sentences made my stomach hurt - which has been a common thing with me lately.

Today's HodgePodge

I'm a day late this week, but that's just the way the ball bounces sometimes!  

Lots of Love and Hugs to the HodgePodge Queen, Miss Joyce from From This Side of the Pond who sadly lost her Mom this week.  May she be remembered with love & kindness & grace and the family be granted with peace & comfort. 

The same goes for the losses in the entertainment industry recently!  Mainly Dolly & Tim Curry.  Some people just seem timeless, like they'll always be around.  They've both made such a big impact on so many people, in so many ways.  In that respect, their memories will live on for many years.

You can't ask for more than that. 

1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?

I'm looking forward to it.  I'm a weenie when it comes to heat so I'll be enjoying the cooler days.  This chubby girl don't like to sweat!  My birthday is Saturday.  When I was a kid, that always meant summer was over & back to school, blah blah blah.  Now, since I'm all about Halloween - it's means time to start thinking seriously about getting my cemetery yard display out & getting it cleaned up & any repairs made.  A lot of stores already have had H'ween stuff out for a while, so I've of course already added to my anatomically incorrect critter skeleton collection.  It's an addiction!  And I'm glad I have a large front yard!

Fun fact - I share a birthday with my oldest sister (aka Sis1), she's 13 years older than me!

2. Your favorite cookie?  

Oh man.  I don't have any one "favorite" - I'm pretty broad in my cookie tastes.  (peanut butter with the Hershey's Kiss, if I HAVE to choose one).

Speaking of cookies, someone at my VFW meeting last night had a package of - get this - Chicken & Waffles Oreos!  Of course, I had to try one or two.  Definitely a lot of waffle flavor but no chicken.  I was kind of disappointed!  I was hoping for weirdness. 

3. What's something you've learned from a culture different than your own?

To go along with my Halloween jam, I also love to explore cemeteries.  One day I came across an Islamic cemetery and walked around thru it.  I wrote a post about it on my H'ween blog.  It was a very interesting place. 

4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic...which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.

Hmm.  Maybe art critic?  I like to see other people's interpretation of what they see or imagine.  Especially photography.  

5. What's a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?

The bathing suits I had when I was probably 5/6/7?  Both were 2 pieces.  One was red, white & blue with a ruffled bandeau top & ruffle-butt bottom and not your typical bathing suit material.  It was courser.  (also late 70s so yeah) and the other matched one that Sis1 had.  It was bright yellow and had a white plastic ring holding the top together in the front and one on each side of the bottoms.  I was sad when one of the rings broke. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of Sis1 - I was coming home from her house after search & rescue training last week and had to stop and get a picture of these sunflowers.  

They almost feel judge-y! 

I had to stop - FOR DEER IN THE CROSSWALK - on my way in to work one day.  

The doe and one fawn had already crossed. 

Good for Mama teaching them where to cross!

I've also seen geese cross here, too.  There's a pond over to the right and an apple tree on the left, a bit behind me here.  They were all being safe. 

Unlike the turkeys I had to wait for one time (same road but about a mile ahead) - the males just stood in the middle of each lane while all the females crossed between them.  They were just missing their reflective road guard vests! 

Ya know - I was just thinking about how Sis1 had to feel growing up with a built-in tagalong. 

I always hear stories about the day I was born - Mom woke her up the day of her big sleepover 13th birthday party to tell her she was going to the hospital.  NOOOOOOOOOO! was her reaction!  I remember seeing a picture of our cake for her Sweet 16 / my 3rd birthdays.  Mom made one cake and divided it in half.  Flowers, etc and clowns.  Can you imagine??  I don't remember her ever being hostile to me, tho.  

Thankfully, we're good friends now.  In fact, we're getting together Saturday, going shopping and buying each other lunch!