Is it Fate, or a Bad Dream?

Well it must have been fate because there's a smile back in my heart. As of 06/20/2009, this little guy that I have name J.J. is in my life for the rest of his life. He walked up to my house as a stray and with patience and kindness he is living with us. The first time I saw him I couldn't believe my eye's. My first thought was of Jabber. He looks so much like Jabber I thought it was him. But in my heart I know it's not Jabber. He might look like jabber, but he act's a little different. With all my heart, I thank the "Kitty GOD's". Look at my new baby....

Starting the new year out.....like this?

I was hoping 2009 was going to be a better year for me. Don't get me wrong, this year did just start, but by all means this is no way to start it.


If you know anything about me you know I love my car. There are two ways I describe how this car feels to me, and this is one. Do you know the add on TV about the CTS Cadillac, where the woman looks you in the face and says "when you turn your car on, does it return the favor", well this car does. Or I'll say "driving this car is the same feeling a women gets when she puts on a real, full link, fur coat". For me it's the same feeling. This car makes me feel like "somebody". A feeling you don't get very often unless your full of yourself. Sorry about that.


Yesterday, 01/23/09 I went back to the doctor because I have pneumonia. (I'm getting better.) I am the first car in the parking lot. Usually I park far away from other cars and I thought about it but with not feeling good, and no one in the lot I thought OK, I'll park up front, I won't be here long, besides no one is here yet.


Soon a family of a women, a man in a wheelchair, and a small child come in and the couple are going to have blood test. I try not to judge people, or stereotype them but the couple looked like throw backs from the 60's. Which wouldn't be so bad but these people didn't look clean.


There are certain rules of etiquette that people usually follow. Examples are, you go to the doctor, your clean and you put on better clothes. You go to church, you do the same. Go to your hair dresser, the same. You travel, same thing. This was the way I was brought up. I know times have changed and people are more lax, but there are some things that should never change, like being clean. We've all heard, "if you go out, make sure you have on clean underwear". Have I made my point?


I'm still waiting to see the doctor while these people are called back for their test. As these people are departing, the doctor steps out into the waiting room and motions for me to follow him back to a exam room.


When I'm ready to leave, I stop by the front desk and thank the ladies and say bye. They all know me and know my car.


When I have thing in my hands or arms when approaching my car I never open the drivers side and throw thing into the passenger seat. I always open the passenger door and put whatever I have in the passenger seat then shut the door. OK, so I walk up to my car to do this and stop with a look of horror on my speechless, mouth dropping face. Tear's flood my eyes, and sobs are caught in my throat. I turn and go back into the doctor's office and open the receptionist door. The ladies all look and rust over to me. With shout's of "what's wrong, are you alright, what happened" arm's are circling me and guiding me to a chair. Tissue is put in my hands. I choke on the words that come out of my mouth, someone has hit my car. Their mouth's drop open and they rush from me and run from me to my car to have a look. It wasn't funny at the time but, looking back the ladies looked like a swarm of bee's first hovering over me, then in a group swarm out to the car, then back to me again. One of the ladies say "I know who did it", and tells me she saw it happen. The police are called and so on, and so on, everything is taken care of.


After going through many different emotion's with this situation I can look back and think part's of if are funny and after all it is just a car and can be fixed. I'm thankful that if she did have to be in an accident, I wasn't in her, and I am OK. So she was dented badly, she wasn't destroyed. She can be restored to be beautiful again as Officer Wilson did tell me. He was very nice!


So as I write this the day after my mishap, I'm feeling a little better, the weasing in my chest is starting to lesson and my car, well she will be fixed. Monday she goes back to the dealership for repairs. She will be beautiful again that is for sure, and once again I'll be able to say, yes...yes she does!


Take a look see....

Guess who's comming to dinner.......

You all remember Ruby the stray cat, well he is still around. In fact, when Ruby comes in the evening for his dinner, it's been so cold outside I pick Ruby up and bring him into the house. I put him on the back porch where he has food, water, cream, a couch covered with nice fluffy pillows fit for a queen or should I say king.

Out at the front door I put this tent with a bed in it and I put a towel around the out side to help protect it from wind and cold. Well, Ruby hated it and refused to go into it. But just look and see

what is inside. Funny....I've always been told

possum's sleep in tree's, well not this one anyway. I hope he sticks around so I can get more pictures of him. Maybe he'll move the family in. :)

Why Save General Motors?

First of all I'll tell you "I'm" a product of "General Motors". When I was born my parent's were both employed by the auto maker. My father working at "Buick" and my mother was working for "AC Spark Plugs". My mother soon quiting to start her own business. If not for working at "GM" there would have been NO monies for a business!

So my father worked for the great auto maker and when I grew up I wanted to work for them too. Where else could I go to work and be taken care of for the rest of my life. "GM" took care of my family for life. I did go to work for them and that is where I met my husband. He happened to be my boss. Sorry, no details.

That is my history with "General Motors". I have always felt very loyal to them, they still pay all of our bills. Driving a foreign car is out of the question for as long as I live. So I guess I have to tell you that it hurts me when I hear this great company is in trouble, and asking the government for help, just to get the door slammed in their faces.

I know I can only speak for myself, but these people in congress and everyone else that has an opinion, do they know what will happen if this great company goes down? It will not only unemployed hundreds of thousands employed at their plants, but you will see a domino effect shutting many, many companies down that supply "GM" with everything they use to make automobiles and trucks. It is enough to shut this whole country down.

I have heard people that "Think" they know something about this subject but have no idea what the hell they are talking about. The money the company wants is not for paying bonuses of the cooperate people, it's not for paying retirees benefits. My husband was salary and he is losing his health benefits. These monies are for keeping this great company afloat. They are not asking for a freebie, the company will pay back this money. Didn't the government help out the airline industry, yes they did.

I know this is the governments way of trying to break up the unions. They think "GM" pay their employee's to much money. Why is this any business of the government? You might say it's there business if "GM"is asking for money, I think not because "GM" like I said, has said they will pay this money back. The government should have no say about wages in any business. All though they keep raising their own pay, that will never stop.

Fun with Diane Stewart

My sister-n-law is visiting from Las Vegas and we went to Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach today. We had a great time picking up shells, feeling the wind in our faces, and the quite was overwhelming. Tourist have vacated for the most part and beaches are clear. Just a few scragglier's running here, walking there.

We bent over and found some nice shells. I love to see shells with the outside gone, exposing the insides. The intricate insides of the shells. There must have been a storm, I'm guessing last night or so, there were so many broken sand dollars on shore.

There was also a nice size crab, light in color running like the wind sideways. He seemed to be more scared of us than the birds. The crab finally found cover in some grass, hay or could have been seaweed and sand. He seemed to feel safe there. I couldn't resist taking his picture. Can you see him, he's in at the top of the picture in the middle. I also took some pictures of the beach and ocean that I thought I'd throw in.

It's been a long time since I've been to the beach, to long. I use to go and just sit and look out at the ocean and feel the breeze. It was a great place to think things through, or just clear my head. For whatever reason you use to go the the beach, use it. We, along the coast seem to waste this luxury that has been afforded us.

I also took her to "La Belle Amie" vineyard. We had a great time there too.

For the Love of Our stray Ruby.....................

This is Ruby, a stray cat that has been coming to our house for that last 13 years. Every night, rain or shine, snow (did I say snow) even when we have hurricanes, Ruby is there. At one time Ruby thought he might move into our garage and that was fine with us, but Ruby was moved out of the garage by Henry. Ruby didn't seem to mind, just as long as he was fed every evening.

Another stray came along and this one we named Mambo. Now Mambo's story is unbelievable. Mambo starting eating at our front door just like Ruby and they became friends. Ruby is a male and Mambo is female. We happened to see Mambo (whom we hadn't named yet) had a collar with a tag. We called the number on the tag and found the owners. They were in our area visiting their parents and Grandma didn't like Mambo. So she opened the door and kicked her out. Our neighborhood is about half a mile down the road, Mambo came here. Her people came, picked her up and took her back to Grandma's house. She went back and forth, between the two neighborhood's for some time. Came time for her people to go back to D.C. and they couldn't find her. Which I thought was a poor excuse, she always came to our neighbor hood, right to our house to eat with Ruby. We said fine, guess they really don't want her, we'll take care of her best we can.

The way Mambo got her name is, her people were diplomats in Africa, and they brought Mambo back to the state's with them when they came home. To do this when entering this country an animal has to be quarantined for a curtain amount of time, and it's a long period. Something along the lines of 3-6 month's. That would explain why she hated animal carriers and I didn't blame her. Being couped up that long and the flight to the state's itself would have been enough to traumatize anyone. You would think with everything these people put this animal through they would have wanted to keep her, they probably had allot of money invested. But no, they let her go. Knowing her story I named her Mambo. So they left her behind and she moved into our garage with Ruby.

Where ever Mambo went, Ruby followed her like a love sick little puppy. At night in the garage they would curl up together and sleep. It did a heart good to see the love these two had for each other. It went on like this for some time until another stray came along, and we called this one Henry. Henry was the meanest looking cat I have ever seen. He came to love us and we cared for him but that's another story.

Mambo took up residence at a house kitty corner from us. A man and his wife took her in, but they let her out to roam. As much as these people hated it, Mambo still came to our house to eat with Ruby. They were still love birds! These people decided to move and they left Mambo behind. THEY LEFT HER BEHIND! Can you believe it? I grew an instant dislike to these people.

Mambo and Ruby still hung together, seemed like 24/7. Maybe Ruby took Mambo home with him. I know your going to say, home, what home, strays don't have homes. Well I think Ruby has a home. He comes to our house sometimes with his coat so shiny and clean, smelt good. And I know he's not doing it himself. Also once he disappeared for around 3 week's and it drove us nuts. We drove around, showing his picture to all in and surrounding our neighborhood. We cried our heart's out. Mambo still came to eat. All of a sudden Ruby showed up and was a little thinner. So I'm thinking maybe he had a virus and his people took care of him. He was back and we drew a sigh of relief.

Life for the two lovers was good. Always playing, running, eating, sleeping together, whether napping in the garage or out under the shrub's, sometimes out in plain sight sunbathing giving each other a bath.

Through out our neighborhood there is a mile of drain pipes that the cats roam through. A wicked storm happened one day. This storm lasted all day and through the night. That evening when Ruby came to eat Mambo wasn't with him. In the morning the sun came up and everyone was out in their yards cleaning up leaves and twig's from trees and bushes the storm had tore up from it's furry. Neighbors from the end of the street came by and ask if I'd seen the black and white cat that hangs around with the gray cat because there was a black and white one down by their house that was dead. I grabbed a towel and ran down the street to their house and there she was, Mambo. I fell to my knees, picked her up in my arm, held her tight to my chest and cried. She was dead. I walked home with her still holding her tight. I walked up the driveway and my husband was waiting for me, he knew it was Mambo. He opened his arms and held both of us. Mambo must have been caught in the drain pipes during the storm. With all that she had been through, Mambo really didn't deserve this kind of end. I thought it very unfair.

Mambo is buried in my flower beds on the side of my house. She has a marker that I painted, it tells her story, I laid it over her. She is surrounded by azalea bushes, a humming bird feeder, and assorted flowers, and all the shade a cat could want. I take Ruby over there every once in a while to see her, just to tell her we still love her.

You ask me where's Ruby? Well Ruby still comes over in the evening's. He eats, sits and takes a bath, then lays down, takes a little nap. I go out side about four different time a night to see him and love him. He skirts my leg's, he buts my head to love me back. I pick him upside down and he stretches for the ground as I slowly lower him to it. He loves me and I love him. It will break my heart when he stops coming.

Ruby is getting old, I can feel his back bone. I don't know if he will make it through this winter. Monday past I put a elastic collar around his neck with a note attached. I thought for sure his people would call me, but no one has. Thursday Ruby came to eat and he had the band around his waist so I know he probably had it caught on something and it ended up around him. I took it off and said to hell with it. I will not put him in harms way.

When Ruby dies I hope it's at my house, so I can buried him with Mambo. I think they would like to be together again, at least that's what I think.

A Sleeper For Andrew's First Birthday

This is a knitted jumper I just finished for Andrew's first birthday. He was born in January so thankfully it won't be to hot to wear. This was so easy to knit, I just knitted both sides at once on the same needle. We'll see if I can get a picture of him in it.

Spring time

It's spring time in South Carolina and I never can get use to it. I guess it's the Northern in me. Up North you actually have 4 seasons, but here on the coast you have 2 month of mild Winter. That is if your from the North, the Southerns think they will freeze to death. Winter is followed by 2 days of Spring then walla, right into Summer. Then another, well lets make it 2 weeks of Fall. But all kidding aside, South Carolina is a beautiful place to be. It does let me have some beautiful plants out side. In my blog I mention my favorite flower is a bougainvillea, well I'll show you what the plant looks like. Picture this, seeing this plant covering a wall of a house or a fence, much like Ivy will. Well in Hawaii it grows like that. The most breath taking thing I've ever seen. When it gets cooler I put my outside plants in the bathroom, in the garden tub. My husband doesn't much care for it. But it's good to see the tub in use.

Next we just planted a Magnolia tree in the front yard. I figure when I'm about 110 it'll be a nice size by then, being it's a slow growing tree. I think the tree will make it, not me. I just notice a bloom (only 1) so I took a picture of it. I can't wait for it to open, I'll take more picture's of it then.













Now I know this sounds silly, but not to me. When we moved to South Carolina I wanted to take a little of home with me, home being Michigan. In Michigan we have Lilacs bushes, hedges or trees, depending on how you let it grow. I, and I'm very proud of this have babied this bush for probably 13 years now. This is not the way this bush grows in Michigan. The Lilac is a fast growing bush. You can cut a small branch about a foot long and stick it in the ground and have a 6ft bushy bush in a year. I, for lack of better words, will call this a bunch of twigs, I'm sorry to say. But I love it anyway. Oh, and it smells so good!

Here's a native plant to the South, it's called a Century Plant. Some 30 years ago my husband was on vacation in Myrtle Beach and took a small century plant back to Michigan. Every year before winter I had to drag this plant into the house because a Michigan winter is known to kill any and everything. Now if you know anything about this plant you know that if you brush up against it, it doesn't act like any other plant. It doesn't give away with it's branches and let you pass. This devil plant will take whatever piece of skin that comes into contact with it and rip it right off you. I kid you not fore I have had this happen to me many times. I hated that plant in Michigan, but down in the South where they grow outside I've come to have a great respect for it. (It still wants to kill me) Word has it, it only blooms once every 100 years, so I'm sorry to say I won't be around for the show this plant puts on. I've heard a stalk grows from the middle and about 15 to 20 feet high, with a beautiful flower at the end of it. There is only one draw back to this, after it blooms the entire plant dies. This huge plant dies. It turns black and withers away, it's really quite sad and ugly. One of my neighbor's told me someone was walking by and said they thought it was going to bloom this year. I hope their wrong, because excuse me but I'm not THAT old!

Now I know these next 2 pictures aren't anything special, but they are pretty and I thought I'd take a couple of shots of them. The name escapes me right now but just look at them, nice.
Well, I guess that's about it for right now.

I've just learn the hummingbirds are back in town so I have to get the feeders ready. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to catch one with my camera.

A Secret Love!

There is another love I have, and is kept in my heart. Now there are many loves you can have. You can have love for your spouse, your children, parents, animals, you can even love inanimate objects. This secret love I talk about is like no other love I have ever had. I will say, this love is not shared back, and at first that hurt and I couldn't understand it. Much like the word no. The word no is foreign to me. But over time I have learned to except what life has dealt me. That by all means does not mean I can't still love this secret love. I don't think you have a say in matters of the heart. You either have these feeling or you don't. Just because someone or thing doesn't love you, it doesn't mean you can turn or shut off your feelings of love. Believe me I have tried, but to no avail. I'm afraid this love will be with me until I die. It will always live, like I said in my heart. It will always be in my memories, as long as they last. I feel very fortunate to have felt this love, I don't know if everyone gets to feel it in their life time. I am very lucky, and thankful I have.

Love,

Cindy

For Amari with love....

Here's something I've been working on and just finished. It's for my best friends grand baby for when he turns 1 year old. Turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself! I can't wait to see him in this.