Fun Monday - the View from Here

Pamela at The Dust Will Wait is hosting this week's Fun Monday! Rather than dusting, she wants us to look outside - through our front door! She writes:

The very first Fun Monday granted us all a view from every front porch. It was winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Not everyone has a front porch. Therefore, the rules will be more flexible for this photograph. (Of course Swampwitch has long ago tied them in pretzel knots with her interpretations.)

Here they are:I want to see what you see on any given morning this week; from somewhere very near where you live. Front porch, back porch, down the street, around the corner. Just makes sure it's your neighborhood. Post a photo that will send me to the travel agent to book a weekend at your local Bed & Breakfast.Post your October View on Monday, October 8 .Write a little or write a lot.

I wasn't doing Fun Monday last October when everyone else peeked out their front doors to see what they could see. So I'm going to do what everyone else did last year. Rather than find somewhere close to home, I stayed close - to my front door.

My front door - from the inside.

Then, when I step out, and look to my right, I see my front porch. The wreath came out of my trunk when I cleaned out my car. One of these days it will actually make it inside my house. The little plant on the table is a gourd that my son is growing.

Turning in a circle from right to left, there's the plant the former owner planted for us - and it's still alive! I'm not sure exactly what it is - the flowers look a little like impatients/vinca but the foilage is all wrong. Next is the bed with the pepper plant in it. My son made the stepping stone a couple of years ago. It's beautiful... Like all the acorns? When they fall on the neighbor's roof, they sound like a giant cracking his knuckles over there.



If you look straight out, you can see our front yard (which slopes down towards the house) with it's green green grass. This is the first house I've owned where the grass actually grows! Directly across the street are neighbors we've never met. I know someone lives there because there are lights on at night and the cars disappear during the day, but you never actually see the people. To the left of them is John and Gen. Gen is John's mother. John is in his mid-fifties. He works as a handy man and is in the garage all day. He smokes and drinks and I have a feeling Mom said you can't do either in the house, so he practically lives in the garage. He's friendly and waves but we don't talk much. Sometimes he'll come knock on the door to talk to my husband but that's about it.

This little corner of the front bed is very special... The little pot with the daisy in it in front - the daisy is from my grandmother. She gave it to me as a housewarming present when Darling Man and I moved into our first home after we were married (1995). It lived on our front deck, but at the end of the summer, it looked like it had died. It was tossed into the woods, along with every other failed front yard planting. One day, Darling Man and ZBoy were traipsing around out there when they discovered this daisy - still alive! They put it in a pot and it came back to live on the front deck again. It died back every year, but came back in the spring. Grandma died a few years ago, but her daisy still lives and moves with us. I am always thrilled to see it come back. The little bear statue is a birthday present from Darling Man back when I thought I could grow roses. Turns out I can't . And the long, rectangular rock? A souvenier from our honeymoon in North Carolina.

And what is a post about hearth and home without one of my cats putting in an appearance? This one is Yoda. He's all grown up now! The next photo is of my failed attempt to put a little color near the front door. Last week these were all beautiful yellow, red, and purple mums. Until one day it rained like hell, and the end of the porch roof is right in the middle of the bed. It was like running a pressure washer into the flowers. Mud splattered up and all over them. I tried rinsing them off, but every day it's the same thing. 4pm and the heavens open up. I will have to think of a solution to this... And finally, my mother-in-law's pothos plant. It's grown quite a bit since it moved in. She put the little cardinal in there. I was going to pull it out, but I've grown to like it, so it stayed. And next to it? Those would be Darling Man's wet shoes.


That's the view from my front door!

Guess I'd better start paying attention...

Okay, color me surprised. I always thought I was a Hillary Clinton person. Apparently not. In fact, for me she was about halfway down the list. John Edwards was my close second. And I don't like the guy. It must be personal, because we seem to agree on a lot of things. And I am ashamed to admit this, but having been a news ostritch lately, I have no idea who this Bill Richardson person is! If I agree with him so much, I'd better start paying attention to the political stuff soon.

	Bill Richardson Score: 49	Agree Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Iraq Energy
-- Take the Quiz! --

Who's YOUR candidate?

Is it over?

Zboy came home today with NO Ns!!!! Hurray!!! Hurray!!! He also brought home test papers with 100% all over them. Wow. Has he finally decided that it really is worth it to make an effort?

Before I knew this though, I'd already planned to take him to see the Transformers movie after school. It's at the dollar movie house (which is actually $1.25 now, but will forever be known as the Dollar Movie). I left work early, went and bought the tickets, then waited in line for ZBoy to emerge from the school. When we left, we went in the opposite direction from the usual - which made him sit up and notice. He then tried to guess where we were going. It wasn't until we'd parked the car and I handed him his ticket that he got it.

Oh, the excitement! Oh, the joy!

"I've been wanting to see this, Mom! I thought I'd have to wait for the DVD. I can't believe you're taking me! Wow!"

We went in and chose seats in the very back row. There was a baby crying and being held by a man in a wheelchair, who looked around helplessly begging us to be understanding... Thankfully, Mama and her milk supply arrived with snacks and baby was silent the rest of the time.

Of course, maybe he was just drowned out. Transformers is one loud movie. ZBoy is pretty sensitive - always has been. He's got extremely accute hearing and spent the whole movie with his fingers in his ears. Must remember to bring earplugs next time. He's also easily overwhelmed by large action. He kept getting up and walking around behind the divider so that he couldn't see the screen. A couple of times he actually walked out of the theater. First he was scared.. Then he started seeing similarities between what was on the screen and his brother's video game. And he got into it. Then he abruptly got up and STALKED out of the movie. I followed him, asking if he was scared or if it was too loud. He turned around, grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the lobby and told me to sit down... he had something to say.

Now what? I wondered...

You see, there are the good guys - Autobots, bad guys - Decepticons, and then there were these little robots that seemed really mean. They were working with the Decepticons.

I am not very familiar with Transformers other than knowing that they exist, that little boys love them and that they turn into robots from various other things. That is pretty much the extent of my knowledge. Up until today, I had no idea about Decepticons, Autobots, Optimus Prime or Megatron. Or Minicons. Minicons are apparently small, good-guy robots. Which don't appear in this movie, incidently.

In fact, the only reason I know that Minicons exist is because ZBoy was very concerned that the Minicons were betraying the Autobots and working for the Decepticons. In fact, it made him so angry that they would do that, that he wasn't sure he wanted to see the rest of the movie.

He sets a great store by loyalty, apparently.

I convinced him to go back in, and once he realized that the little ones weren't actually Minicons, he was finally enthusiastic about watching the movie. When it was over, he happily bounced along beside me as we left the theater saying what a great movie that was.

Kids...

Better (from Because I'm Fat)

I was a total bum today. I thought about working from home, but decided that no, I was just going to lay out. And I did. I folded a little laundry, but that was the extent of my productivity.

I watched the end of "Frida" and "Wedding Crashers" and my last "Sell This House" episode. I didn't eat much - a bagel, a couple of ices, a cup of coffee. I thought about taking a nap, but decided against it. I had to go get ZBoy from school about an hour from that thought and I knew if I laid down, I would not be there in time.

I needed that day. Already I feel happier and more energized and ready to walk and lift weights tomorrow, get to work and accomplish things tomorrow, spend happy time with my son tomorrow. It's Friday!

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. It's hard to have a day like these last few when you've been charging full steam ahead for a while. I forget how to slow down until my body makes me.

I'm ready to live my life again now.

Knackered

This blog and blog-visiting has become such a habit, that it's hard to imagine missing more than a day of either one. And yet, the last post I wrote, I actually wrote on Sunday. You're probably wondering what cliff I've fallen over.

No cliffs.

Just tired.

I'm not sure why. PMS? Maybe. Low pressure sitting on top of us? Possibly. Or it could be that I just ran out of steam.

I've gone to bed early and slept late the last two days and it's a struggle to get out of bed. Once I'm up, I try to get things done before I inevitably feel the pull of gravity on my eyelids again.

Today I made a quiche for work and rode my bike while it was in the oven. I went to work and did what must be done, but found my lids drifting down while I worked.

I hope this passes soon.

I was driving to work today, thinking "I'm just knackered." I've heard that word and used that word all my life thinking that it just meant exhausted or really, really tired. But today, I made the connection. Not long ago, I read a book that mentioned the Knacker Man who drove the Knacker Truck.

Anybody got a guess as to what the Knacker Man did?

Anyone?

Anyone?

The Knacker Man was the guy in the village that drove around picking up dead bodies from the streets. This can refer to either people or animals.

So when you say you are "knackered", you are talking about so tired, you're nearly dead. Dead tired. Knackered.

That's me.