Norma celebrated her 85th birthday on May 20

I wanted to put that information in the title because 85 years is a 'biggie' of a birthday! Norma is my mother-in-law.

Also of note, it was predicted that 'the rapture' and the end of the world was going to come about on May 21st of 2011. Not much change here at the old homestead. I guess Mike and I and Mike2 were not taken up into heaven because we three are still here.

Gary, who works here sometimes as a handiman was here, too. He came on Friday to finish some cement work on the step from the garage into the house. Before the work, the step was high and narrow and very difficult for Mike to master on his crutches. Gary widened it out, doubling the width of it and he made it taller putting a layer of ceramic tile atop so that it looks now like a tiny little patio. Mike had gotten a rubber mat to lay down on the floor of the garage, too, to make it less likely to be slippery (which it was when he would park the car inside the garage during the winter and the snow would melt and drip onto the garage floor.) The mat fits just right from the garage door up to the new doorstep. We'd planned to roll the mat out onto the upper deck to shade the lower deck below and make it more weather proof (and maybe catch the snow so that we would not need to sweep the balcony off after a storm) but we didn't do that. I'm not sure if we are planning to make a change later when Mike is better able to walk without crutches or if we'll leave the mat on the garage floor. It looks so nice out there now that I look out and think about doing some spring cleaning so we can enjoy the garage more. Mike2 and I have not played darts out there even once this year and already it is half way over. I have neglected my rocking chair out there!

I talked to my 11 year old granddaughter on the phone today. She told me that Pops is going to come down and get her as soon as school gets out so she and her sister can come visit us--she says for the whole summer. I think right now she is anxious to get out of her house and kick back without her two baby brothers to take care of or hide from. I also think she does not realize just how much she is going to miss them or how much they will grow and change while she is gone.

If my two granddaughters stay for the whole summer that's all right with me. If they only stay for a few weeks, that's okay, too. I know it's hard not to miss home even when you are having fun. We usually put up the swimming pool on the cement under the car port and go swimming most days. We usually go out in the evening and catch fireflies, put them in a jar so the girls can see them blink in their bedroom when the lights are out, then let them go the next morning then go out and catch them again the next night. We try to do some traveling and sight seeing. The girls love to go eat at the Chinese buffet. We have gone to play miniature golf and we have gone digging rocks and we have visited the local resale shops. One girl loves to sit and watch tv in her pajamas all day long and the other girl loves to stay outside as much as she can digging in the sand or exploring or playing with the dogs. We have netflix and Wii and plenty of movies. And this year I have new rubber boots and a new wagon.

I hope we find the time to drive further up into the mountains and visit some new scenery this summer. Arkansas and the Ozarks are a really beautiful part of the country and there is much to see. There is a theme park and a water park... Magic Mountain and Crystal Falls only about 30 miles from here. It is always hard to say what we will decide we can do and our budget is slim as usual, but no matter, we always have fun. Grandkids are so different than kids or step kids, though. Who'd have thought it would be so. I guess I forgot to remember that my grand kids see me as grandma and their parents saw me as mom.

Now I have great grandkids! My oldest granddaughter is already 23 and has a little girl who has celebrated her 3rd birthday. My oldest grandson is 21, not married, but he and his significant other have a little boy one year old already learning everything and thinking he can do anything. I hope I am able to see more of them this year. Last year I only saw them each once. My daughter (their mother) is having marital problems, and it looks as though she may get a divorce. I used to have it all figured out--when you see your daughter, you get to see your grandchildren, too. Years later I thought when you see your daughter, she takes you to visit her kids and you get to see your great grandkids too. Now I am not sure how it is. The situation does make me feel more sympathy for my own mother. I am her daughter who, married with a daughter, divorced and remarried and brought home a new husband with kids of his own, stepchildren as well as a son with a father different than the father of my daughter. My mother never complained or seemed to give me any unwanted advice. Me, now, I am old and seem to regularly say the wrong thing or see things from the wrong perspective or remember things incorrectly. Complain? You betcha! Give unwanted advice? Very very likely!

Portal 2: End Credits Song 'Want You Gone' by Jonathan Coulton [1080p HD]

This is the song 'Want You Gone' that plays all the way through during the Portal 2 credits at the end of the game! I heard the song before the game was over, but since I already had heard some of the computer voice songs of Jonathan Coulton in the original Portal game, I already knew, play the game right...and escape. The dots between playing and escaping are the hard part. This song will be running through my mind for a long time into the future...new music to adorn my sad little life.

Busyness

The story of Osama Bin Ladin's death has taken over all the news channels. It is a week later and still it is hard not to hear about the man, his family, the compound where he was living, the Navy Seals who killed him and the ones who buried his body at sea. There is a lot of controversy as well, most of it aimed at President Obama. I did listen to the speech the President gave on May 1st and it didn't seem like there was anything bad about it. He seemed to give credit to the Armed forces and all its branches that have worked so hard to help the Arabic people in Afghanistan and Iraq take control of their own countries while still fighting in the war against terrorists since 9/11/2001. But as time goes by I hear more and more that the man should have said more or that he should have said less or that he forgot to give credit to someone or he gave himself too much credit. The whole thing is depressing me. It feels like there is something wrong with having taken out a major terrorist. Or was he? And did he have a long form birth certificate to prove that he was born where and when he says he was?

Sonny hurt his ankle what seems like ages ago, stayed off it for awhile until it didn't hurt to use it...and then he hurt it again and had to start staying off his ankle until it didn't hurt. This past week he has really been staying off it because it has been swelling. He has kept it wrapped and has put ice on it and kept it elevated. And me, now I have two people who need me to carry things to them and fill their drinking glasses. I'm the only one left to feed the dogs and fill the cat's dishes. It has kept me pretty busy when so many new things have been added to my usual dishwashing, laundry, bill paying chores. I'll be glad when either one or both of the Mikes is able to lend a bigger hand.

Lately we have had a man here, Gary, who has been working in the yard. The tornado weather blew lots of leaves and branches and trash up into the corners of the yard. Mike2 and I did some raking and Mike2 and Mike did some mowing, but now that our yard can be measured in acres instead of feet, it is too much. Gary trimmed everything. He cut the branches on the tree that fell so that it is no longer laid out across the yard. He raked the front yard and cleared out along the sidewalk and raked tons of leaves from under the hedges and the trees that line the front of the house. He used a weed eater around the bottom of the fence both inside and out and he trimmed around the rose bushes and the mailbox and the carport. Now the yard is beautiful.

And today, I got a check from the County Judge's office to pay me for having served my Jury Duty in January. That'll pay for what it cost us to have the yard work done. And I got a good laugh when I heard Gary's wife tell him about the money he earned doing our yard work "That'll pay our electricity bill!"

On Friday (yesterday) Mike and I went to Little Rock for his 3rd followup visit after his surgery. He drove. He had his crutches in the back seat, and he had to travel around the hospital in a wheel chair to get his xrays taken and to go see his surgeon, but he is very much better. Even the doctor said so! He does not have to wear his leg brace and he can start bending his leg when he feels like it and he can put weight on it. He still has to be careful not to re-injure himself and he needs to continue going slowly doing only as much as he can without hurting himself. His xray showed, though, that his bones are healing nicely and there was no sign of any re-growth of his Large Cell Tumor. We will go back there in July for more xrays, but all the news was good news. And today Mike was able to go outside and use the tractor while Gary used the rakes and shovels and the weed eater.

And me, I am several paragraphs past admitting to the depressing things in my life and am thinking that I should go out and light the pile of deadwood and leaves that Gary cleaned off the yard and make a bonfire!

Listening to the news

I am waiting for the President to come on television to speak about the news announcement made earlier that Osama Bin Ladin has been killed.