*** Well I swanny!! ***

Here it is Sunday already, an' I've still got my lil' project sitting out in the studio, being very patient and quiet...sometimes I'm glad that the little fairies who live out there don't suddenly pop up an' slap me upside my head. And yes, sometimes I really do believe there are little fairies out there...pieces of paper...bottles of paint have this Thang about moving from where I'd set them down on the table...an' not be there the next time I've needed to use them. An' I know for certain it's not The Dog -- she moves so much at the speed of a snore that I'd be suprised if she jumped up for something other than biting her fleas.

So -- at long last, it seems that early in the week, I'm finally going to break down an' buy a NEW CAMERA!!! -- my middle one is quite good with cameras, an' since he's the one who has taken most of the pictures of my work, naturally I've asked him to go with me to the area computer/electronic stores, an' tell me what certain cameras have as far as qualities for getting good clear pictures. I'm not into all the great-glam-gettin'-action photos type cameras...I'm more interested in getting something that's pretty basic...can get the detail of my collages photographed well, an' also get an "Action Photo" of The Dog or The Husband while their at their best...each on their respective couch, snoring so the curtains are moving in the breeze from each of them.... WELL ~~ anyway..you get the idea. Something not too outrageously priced...not something that has 1,203.496 extra goodies included...I'd be 85 by the time I'd learn all the extra thangs on some of the cameras we've looked at. But, I'm pretty excited by the whole thing..an' it should be -- in theory -- by midweek that I'll have the lil' goodie in my hot little paw.

The Husband, yaahhhwwwwhhooooo is finally going in and seeing a Dr. about his uneven blood-pressure. The original Dr. that he saw a few weeks ago, finally called him an' said that a group of Dr's have looked over his chart (s) an' The Husband will be seeing one of them tomorrow afternoon. It sounds weird, but hopefully they'll take his pressure after he's been drivin' all day, so they'll have a chance to see what a full day of truckin' does to/for him. The Husband tho, is NOT lookin' forward to the part that he knows is coming along with the visit...the part where the Dr. will tell him -- "Loose Weight!!" -- The Husband has been absolutely in DENIAL of this for wayyy too long, an' now it's lurking right in front of him. Fortunately, a friend of our middle son, has a book that her father used to get back to the ideal weight for his body type -- he lost over 90 (!!!) pounds, so I'm absolutely going to get a copy of the book for The Husband to not only read, but put into WORK -- I can shout, yell, scream, beat the wall about how over weight The Husband is...but it literally goes in one ear an' out th other to him...he is going to HAVE TO loose the weight or the truck driving may go away...an' that's NOT a good thing. It'll all work out for the good, so it's gonna be worth whatever the cost for the visit is gonna come to.

Bought some paks of beads the other day.. an' also got some storage baskets to put all my goodies in that were sitting in ugly cardboard boxes...the paper in the cardboard has a tendancy to do weird things to certain kinds of art paper...something about the treatment of wood fiber that makes the cardboard has sometimes discolored paper I've stored in it...can't tell if it's the art paper, or the cardboard...but either way it wasn't makin' me too thrilled. Now I've got papers stored in plastic bags, most labeled, an' then stacked in the baskets. The storage bags make it so much easier for me to immediately see what's in each bag, an' then I can thumb thru the stack, see which one I want, an' go from there. An' the storage bags are so cheap at the grocery store...sometimes on sale for less than $1.00 -- Not to be passed up at that price!! And I've also got some new larger storage boxes..clear plastic that allow me to see what's in each box...so I can pop one open, grab whatever I need out of it, close it back up, an' know that dirt an' DOG HAIR won't get on the papers, fabric, or whatever is stored in the box. I don' know who designed those plastic storage boxes, but I hope they got a good retirement outta designing them....an' have a good time in Florida or wherever they are!!

Mus' go now -- I've got the Seldom Scene on the Bluegrass Channel (cable) an' feel pretty good...may even break down an' do a lil' dance on my way out to the Studio...but will have to be careful NOT to trip over The Dog....sheesh...

Lady of The Tulips -- who has tulips in the flower beds, that have not shown their lil' faces yet this winter...but the daffodils are ready to pop open, an' the camelia is in bloom..all pink an' frilly flowers tumbing their nose at the cold temps...

"Dolphin Dance" -- Copyright 2006
Spring Bay Studio




This is one of the pieces I worked on last fall -- I'd been wanting to get over to the oceanfront, but there were a gazillion things that kept me from driving over there. Then, one afternoon The Husband mentioned on the phone that he'd seen some dolphins playing in the water near one ot the terminals, and had to call an' tell me --

~~ Meanwhile ~~ the youngest is now out of work -- he's not really mad, jus' aggrivated that the job didn't last longer than he was told it would -- he's with one of those temp. agencies, and he's been pretty lucky with getting work. But the supervisor at the distribution center had led him to beieve that the job he had for the past few weeks would last till sometime in March. So one can imagine the happy-happy joy-joy he felt on Thursday when we got home, and the temp office had left a message tellin' him he wasn't needed any more. Urrrgghhhh....an' this after the car decided it wanted to get stuck in neutral an' wouldn't go into ANY gear while we were in a driveway trying to get back onto the main blvd....weeeeeee....So -- now he's back to waitin' for the next call an' see what it's gonna be like. Fortunately he's a very easy goin' person, and the change of jobs isn't nerve racking for him. He'd been with a couple of day-job temp offices, but that was really a difficult thing to do. I had to take him to all of the different job sites, an' most days that meant getting to the office by no later than 5:30 a.m. an' then waiting for up to an hour and a half for the office to get him a place to work. Drove over 100 miles a day with that deal.

Got some more work done on the current collage I've been messin' with -- Finally broke down an' got some more beads at the art/craft store. I've suddenly become enamoured with beads...'specially blue an' shades of blue -- tones that convey the ocean and all the fun lil' critters swimmin' about. Trick is to not go OVER the edge with bags an' bags of the beads...it get's so easy to jus' grab "a couple" bags of beads while they're on sale, an' the next thing ya know, there's $25.00 shot. Lot's of fun to explain to The Husband..."WELLLL...hunny, it was jus' that they were on SALE!! See?? SALE!! That makes it Better!!" --- he rarely goes for this explaination...bum...

The studio is callin' for me -- had too much runnin' around yesterday to get anything done AT ALL -- An' besides, it's sunny an' warm in there right now, so I'll take advantage of the warmth before the cold wind starts blowin' thru the cracks in the walls...I won't get started on the construction of that room --- glad it wasn't my money...

Lady of The Tulips -- who's considering travelin' to some WARM place, but only has $120 in the checking account towards any thing...blast...

*** Since the weather is going thru some sorta WEIRDNESS phase...I've been working out in the garden beds getting ready for the rest of what's SUPPOSED to be winter -- weeding some of those nahhsty lil' buggers that have popped up in these rediculous warm days. The tomato bed has the worst lil' things -- somewhere I read that a group of what I feel are WEEDS, happen to be some type of edible plant (s) -- I, howEVAH, will not take the chance and pop any of them in my mouth whilst outside in the dirt -- there are some thangs I SHALL NOT DO -- eating WEEDS is one of those thangs...

The Husband is STILL waiting for some word from our family Dr. -- Actually, since the office is part of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, we have to usually wait for a group of Dr' s to come up with some sort of answer to any dilemna (sp) we're goin' thru. The Husband did say, that the Dr. he saw, had his complete file with him -- Even got to see a letter he'd been waiting for from another truck company, telling them that he was eligible for a driving position...it just never got sent -- helpful when one is waiting for a JOB!! -- Anyway ~~ the group of Dr.'s are to let him know if he's diabetic or not...or it may just be high blood pressure, not associated with diabetes..but until these guys come along and SAY SOMETHING -- The Husband has to wait -- wait -- wait -- and in the meantime hope that the next time he goes into the clinic where he gets his D.O.T. physical, that it will come back good...Makes my last good nerve jus' twinge --

Anyway -- had a chance the other day to have a short chat with one of my elderly neighbors -- this woman is an absolute joy to be around...you never know what she's gonna say from one minute to the next. She's had a rough 2 - o - 3 years..first she had to have some heart work done. Has a pump of some sort regulating her heart function. Then very unexpectedly her husband passed away almost a year ago -- he'd been diagnosed with cancer not 5 months before he passed away, but the disease had nothing to do with his passing. She has muddled along in the months since all of these things have happened, and stopped by one saturday while I was cleaning out the front flower beds and replanting some flower bulbs.

We were commenting on strange weird things that can happen to a house..like little things that jus' happen to haul off and BRAKE -- about the same time our kitchen drain decided to stop - up and be ugly, she had the exact same thing happen in her house...where I payed $79 to have a pair of plumbers come and clean out the drain line, she payed over $140 to have the exact same thing done, but with another company...Then, she said ~~ she tried to get her front door locked one evening, just before going to bed. Tried to get the door to lock, but the stuiped thing jus' would not shut...kept hitting the little door jamb piece, and would not do anything else. Now, for an elderly woman, not being able to lock the front door isn't jus' a little annoyance...it's darn right scary.

So ~~ she locked the door with the other slide-lock she has, and went about the rest of the evening. She called a locksmith early the next morning, and within maybe 2 hours, here this fella shows up -- has this little black bag, not unlike the old Dr. bags from WAY back in the day -- an' in her words..."Ya know what? If that s.o.b. was at this job for more than 5 minutes, it'd be something...but that guy didn't work more than that -- an' ya know what he did?? Got out this little file...yeah!! ...a FILE ... an' sorta scraped along the side of some lil' S_ _ _ _ piece on the door..filed it away, shut the door, locked the s.o.b. an' said, There ya go, ma'am! -- I didn' know what to do!! So, I asked him, "Ya mean that's all your gonna do?? " -- he sez, "yeah!" -- So, I ask him, Well, jus' what the Hell is the deal here? All ya do is file this thing an that's all there is?? What's the problem with the door, anyway? --- An' he sez, I kid you not, "Well, ma'am, the house has to settle a little in order to get the door to shut an' lock right sometimes..." -- I about knocked the guy in the mouth!! I said to him, Well, I've lived in this house nearly 51 years, you'd think the son of a B _ _ _ _ _ woulda settled by now, wouldn't ya??!! "

I laughed so hard...'cause I had the same company come an' try to unlock out back door 'bout this time last year...the first guy tried to open 3 (!!!) of our doors, an' couldn't do a thing...finally after 5 hours (yesss) another guy shows up, takes 'bout 5 minutes, unlockes the back door, an' tells me it's $70 dollars...Then, the neighbor sez a couple other things have broken in her house...all little things, but after all of them right in a row, she's about to scream an' run away to some foreign country -- cept she can't, 'cause her Dr. said she can't leave till he runs some more tests on her heart this winter. !!! Can't win for loosin' it seems like --

Well -- The Husband has come back home w/the youngest, an' it's quiet out in the front room...that's not a good sign. Means 2 people are up to somethin', and it's usually never good when that happens...


Lady of The Tulips -- who has another leaky faucet in her bathroom, an' is not ready to dish out another $70 to have it fixed...even tho the plumber is quite the cutie!!! OH! shame on ME!!

~~ With some matte medium, fabric scraps, and a sheet or two of collage paper, I'm finally getting a new piece underway. The last collage I worked on was jus' before the holidays, and it didn't quite cut it for me. It'd been "finished" probably a year ago, and it felt completed at that time...but I recently brought it out of it's little storage box, looked it over, and decided it needed some extra zing...Maybe because it's the New Year...making old things better, getting all that weight off (ok, ok, maybe not ALL that weight off...ahem..) but it jus' feels better to be getting Cleaned Up this year. Hopefully the change in projects will be worth the time and energy.

>>> The Husband recently had his required Department of Transportation physical taken care of...but it didn't quite turn out the way he would have liked. High Blood Pressure was the culprit, so now he has to take some time off and make the harrowing trip over the river and thru the woods to the Dr. office. The office is in a complex with one of the larger Medical Universities in the region, so finding a parking place is always a thrill. Plus, the City has decided not to overlook the chance to add insult to injury, and now has a pay/parking fee station at the exit of the parking lot. It isn't enuf that a Dr. charges an arm and a leg for an appointment, and add to it the fee for parking. Once in a blue moon the appointment may go quickly: Get Seen...Pay the Office Visit...Go Out The Door, and be on your way....an' pay .50 Cents for parking an hour. HOWEVAH...how often is it that a Dr. visit takes only ONE HOUR?? We've had to sit for 2 hours most days, and by the time the sticking, jabbing, snuffling and what-all-else is done by the Dr., it's been 4 hours. Most times, once I've dragged myself out of the office, I've contemplated having a glass of Gin...OH, Don't Get Ruffled...I haven't had Gin in over 30 years...but sitting in the Dr. office has sometimes made me REALLY consider a good stiff drink...

So -- this should be interesting to see what all will be done to The Husband. He hasn't gone to the Dr. for at least 2 years, and I'm fearing that the office will commence all types of tests, experiments or who knows what all on the Little Fluff...He's not too thrilled, but this is something he absolutely HAS to take care of. The Dr. who he had to see for his required physical, was not too happy with him, and would only give him the Endorsement for his CDL for only 3 months. That way...He Sez, The Husband will have had time to get his medication (s) for the blood pressure..get that back within the required guidelines, and then he can get his CDL Endorsement for 2 years as is required by Law...The clinic that the truck company uses is pretty good about telling Drivers what they have to do for their job..but it just irritates an' rubs the wrong way when it's an ugly Something that's prohibiting a complete Endorsement...sheesh...

And with the Sun shining into the studio, it looks like it's time to Get To It -- finish some fabric cutting, find a good piece of Blue-Green-Turquiose (blah..spelled that one really bad...) paper, and be having fun. One thing that really, an' I mean REALLY gets me ruffled all to pieces, is when I've got some painting done, an' the paper is jus' THIS close to being dry..an' lookin' it over, I jus' happen to glance over the sheet...AND FIND DOG HAIR ON IT!!! AHHHH!!! I'll turn my chair around Really Fast, glare at the Dog, an' get ready to give her The What For...an see that she's not only sound asleep on Her Couch...but she's snoring as well...Oh For The Love Of.....

Lady of The Tulips ~~ who was told by her youngest that she too, was snoring the other morning...but Lady of The Tulips thinks this was jus' his way to wake her up an' get her down the street in The Very Fine Automobile to the thrift store...

A quiet and joyful new year has decended upon us ~~ nothing has happened that would knock anybody's socks off, so that seems like a good sign for the rest of the year. I mean, nothing has occured that would scare us or make us go screaming out of the house, into the front yard and start tearing our clothes to pieces.

That being said, I just heard a siren go off on some kind of emergency vehicle, over on the larger highway near our subdivision. Fortunately the siren and vehicle are not on their way to our home, so that is definetly a good thing.

I've never made any New Year's Resolutions, and it seems that most people I know have theirs forgotten by time June rolls around. I think one year our oldest made some kind of resolution, but it escapes me what in the world it was. Neither the middle one or our youngest has said any thing toward a resolution...I think they both have too many things going on.

Which brings me to something that did happen to me & the youngest earlier in the week. He's signed up for classes at the local community college, and went about applying for financial aide. The office took most of his information, he filed a FAFSA for whatever Federal Monies there are lurking out there. Then, he decided to try and get a small loan to use as a way to get the classes he needs, without having to wait on any grants or larger loans he may receive. He went back into the financial aide off. to see what they would say, and they told us to wait in a room just across the hall. A nice woman said she'd call his name when they came to his file, and then there would be a discussion on what he could do -- maybe even take a deferment just so the classes wouldn't get filled before any funds come in.

Fine ..... So...we wait....we wait some more...an' jus' a little bit mmmmooooorrrreeeee......
4 & 1/2 hours later, my son finally got a chance to see one of the financial aide people...just for them to tell him that they don't have a deferment program, and for him to get the classes he needs, he'd have to pay cash for them...somewhere along the lines of $600. To say we were somewhat suprised is putting it mildly. But -- the good thing is -- that since my son has this knack of being resourceful, he came back home, got online, rearranged the class schedule he'd set up, and is now able to take one of the classes online, and will only have to pay for that one. The other classes will be available in summer, so his thinking is to take them then, which should be when his financial aide will be available. I was so worn out from sitting and sitting and SITTING in that room, I couldn't see straight, let alone try and come with another schedule for college classes...sheesh..

So -- things are looking up for him..and he has another temp job for at least this week..and the middle one got some work last week, and should get paid for all of that sometime early next week. He'd been cleaning an elderly couple's home, and was expecting to have 1 more day there, but the husband became ill, went into the hosp., and won't be able to get back to his house for at least the next few days. But -- my son isn't too worried about the pay, but he is concerned for the health of the gentlemen who's house he cleaned.

The Husband has been driving and driving and DRIVING here there and everywhere it seems...a few trips out of state, a couple to D.C., and lots of loads being taken from one Port to another aroundHampton Roads. He's rather the happy guy because his wonderful middle son got him a BIG ol' bag of clothes for him to wear. Lots of pants from thrift stores, some other from friends, and still others from other people the middle one knows. But, I think the most wonderful present The Husband is Thrilled with, is a new coffee maker our oldest got us for Christmas...there isn't a coffee pot to go with it...there's a little lever that you push with a cup, and the coffee comes out of a little container inside the coffee maker. Something like the drink dispensers at fast food restraunts...push the little bar and the soft drink comes out of a container behind the clever signs saying what kind of soft drink it is. Clever. Clever. Clever. I'd seen a commercial on tv sometime last fall for the new coffee maker, and just about jumped off the couch and yelled "HOLY MACKEREL!!" -- said some other words too, but won't print them here...les' just say I was mightly impressed with the lil' goodie. An' then, the oldest hauls off an' gets us one...Man - O - Man! >> As you can see, it doesn't take a lot to make us happy...

So ~~ on goes the New Year ~~ and now it's time to go and make some more collages..I think there will be another one posted here in the not too distant future...am now getting ready to get some picture wire set on one piece, and do some painting for another collage -- Dont want to sit and waste time!!

Lady of The Tulips -- who had to let The Dog out so she could romp in the back yard..the weather is quite warm, which is sorta freakin' me out...but if it makes The Dog happy, who's gonna stop HER from playin' -- After all, she's off the COUCH!!