Battening down the hatches for Hurricane Irene

Still no damn D batteries anywhere.  When am I going to learn to stock this stuff up before an emergency???

The guy in the condo beside us has come for the weekend.  I think he’s from Maryland or somewhere further north.  I don’t know too much about him but we’re all friendly.  He acts like it’s not going to be a big deal but he’s tying down his picnic table and throwing sandbags in front of the condo where it always floods during a storm whether it’s a small one or a large one.  He rents out his condo over the summers to tourists but this was his weekend there.  Some weekend.  There’s two other families who live in these condos, the rest are for tourists.  The one older guy on one side might be still in the hospital but his girlfriend is there at the house.  I see her every now and then, don’t know whether she’s weathering out the storm or not.  Then there’s this real cool guy on the other side.  He is 82 and more fit than I am believe that or not.  I love him to death.  I don’t know whether he’s going to weather it out or not but my hunch is that he is knowing him.  The tourists are still here in a few condos and my hunch on that is that they paid over a thousand bucks to rent these things, they’re staying.  Now this is of course if we don’t have a mandatory evacuation.

If we do, we really have no plan.  Get off the island with as much personal possessions as we can.  They’ll close the causeway at some point.  They have the local police call everyone listed in their directory in case of an emergency and I must call them to put my cell number on that list.

The daughter went out and bought more supplies – she found D batteries!  We’re good there and she bought another flashlight which now we’ve got 3.  Four if I can find the other one.  Candles.  I have a few, but the daughter is allergic to scented candles so we’ll just have to make do with what we have.  I have tea lights if worse gets to worse.

Food.  Well I feel I need more.  I have a few canned products, water, drinks but if electricity goes out, we’re screwed because there’s a lot of food in the refrigerator and freezer.  We’re busy cleaning out the bottom room that acts like a storage room outside and we grabbed a couple of coolers in case we have to stock up on ice.

Dogs.  Problem problem.  Cassie is dying.  She has cancer and we were going to put her down but the daughter said no, let’s do it after the storm that she couldn’t take on anymore stress.  I sent BF out to get some more pain pills for her and explained to the vet that we were going to put her down this week but it’s going to have to be next week.  I just wanted some pills to keep her in not so much pain.  We only got 1/2 bottle this time.

As of right now, it’s noon on Thursday and a little blustery at this point.  There’s supposed to be a cold front that may push Irene further west but we don’t know it’s going to do that.  It’s always windy here so I can’t really tell if this is normal, from the cold front, or from Irene.
Am I scared?  Yes.

Hurricane Irene on its way?

I’m sorry I haven’t updated lately, been so bogged down with work, but I want to let everyone know what’s going on with Hurricane Irene as far as Chincoteague Island is concerned.  Well, I’m now worried.  My daughter has been telling me it’s coming, be prepared and I didn’t want to think about it.  Talk about depressing.  Well now it’s to the point where I’m a little worried.  No, make that a lot worried.

It hasn’t hit the Outer Banks yet, but that’s supposed to be Friday or Saturday morning, or at least that’s when the worse will happen.  We’re not really that far from the Outer Banks – about 3 or 4 hours.  What has happened in the past is that it hits North Carolina and that usually slows the thing down so that we don’t get hurricane force winds.  We don’t know at this point whether it’s going to hit the Outer Banks square on or it’s going to brush it, but it doesn’t matter – the thing is so big, it’s going to do damage.

We slipped out to Walmart earlier to get some water, etc.  No D batteries so I’ll try to hit Family Dollar tomorrow to see if they have any left.  The flashlights work at this point but I don’t know how much life they have in them and better to be safe than sorry.  We bought 2 jugs of drinking water and a big pack of smaller bottles and hope that’s going to do it.
The way this thing is looking – it’s not good.  It’s mean and wide.  And frankly I’m scared.
We have dogs.  If we have a mandatory evacuation, what are we going to do with them?  I don’t know what we’re going to do.

Beachin’ it at Nags Head, North Carolina

We are back.  Actually we’ve been back a couple of weeks now and I’m just now posting the pictures, bad me!  I might have do a part 2 as there are so many pictures but Nags Head was beautiful.  This was before the big heat wave thank goodness, but we did have a blast.  It was the perfect vacation.

So here’s a picture of Cody aka Cooter and I standing on the beautiful shoreline.  I look hunched over for some odd reason.  Must be the heavy dog.   This was taken in the afternoon but the mornings were the best.  Cooter and I would throw on our bathing suits – well he refused to wear his – run out front for him to do his morning thing, run back in the lobby to grab a cup of coffee, then head out to the beach before everyone else got up.

And this is the reason why.  Absolutely beautiful.  Cooter and I walked the beach some and came upon a family playing on the shore line.  The dad was sitting down in the water and the mom was taking a picture and when they weren’t looking, I snapped one myself!  It was just a Normal Rockwell experience if I’ve ever seen one.

And here below is back in the room.  Cooter was thirsty!

LOL, you can’t even see it, but he’s drinking out of a cup.  The hotel was Comfort Inn South Oceanfront.  The staff was super friendly (even gave Cooter a bone at check in!) and I couldn’t have stayed at a better hotel.  The downside was the fact that the rooms were a little small but everything else made up for it.  Super view.  The ocean was right off your balcony.

More pictures later but I’ll end this with a riddle.  What do you get when you take one chicken ****  smart *** dog and make him go swimming?

You get a dog who sticks his tongue out at you!
Until next time,

Beachin’ it at Nags Head, North Carolina

We are back.  Actually we’ve been back a couple of weeks now and I’m just now posting the pictures, bad me!  I might have do a part 2 as there are so many pictures but Nags Head was beautiful.  This was before the big heat wave thank goodness, but we did have a blast.  It was the perfect vacation.

So here’s a picture of Cody aka Cooter and I standing on the beautiful shoreline.  I look hunched over for some odd reason.  Must be the heavy dog.   This was taken in the afternoon but the mornings were the best.  Cooter and I would throw on our bathing suits – well he refused to wear his – run out front for him to do his morning thing, run back in the lobby to grab a cup of coffee, then head out to the beach before everyone else got up.

And this is the reason why.  Absolutely beautiful.  Cooter and I walked the beach some and came upon a family playing on the shore line.  The dad was sitting down in the water and the mom was taking a picture and when they weren’t looking, I snapped one myself!  It was just a Normal Rockwell experience if I’ve ever seen one.

And here below is back in the room.  Cooter was thirsty!

LOL, you can’t even see it, but he’s drinking out of a cup.  The hotel was Comfort Inn South Oceanfront.  The staff was super friendly (even gave Cooter a bone at check in!) and I couldn’t have stayed at a better hotel.  The downside was the fact that the rooms were a little small but everything else made up for it.  Super view.  The ocean was right off your balcony.

More pictures later but I’ll end this with a riddle.  What do you get when you take one chicken ****  smart *** dog and make him go swimming?

You get a dog who sticks his tongue out at you!
Until next time,

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

My mother was a traveler.  In fact, it was she who put the traveling gene in me.  I was seven years old, just celebrated my birthday a few months before, when she, my step-father, sister and aunt, packed up our battered up car and headed for California.  I can’t imagine what my grandmother was going through.  Not only were we all leaving her nest, but halfway across the world, too.

I don’t even remember the day I met my step-father but he was a mean man.  He started off okay, wanted my sister and I to call him daddy, the whole nine yards, but boy was he mean.  He’d take a belt to your bare butt in a heartbeat.  I really don’t think I was that bad of a kid, but I do remember over time, my butt must have toughened up as they didn’t hurt as much as the first few go arounds.
I digress because I wanted you to get a little background of this Beverly Hills family (minus the riches) straight out of the back woods and heading for tinsel town and beyond.  My mother always wanted to be a movie star.  She was a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe (someday I’ll have to scan a picture to show you).  The same sultry looks, the hair, the whole nine yards.  Betty Crocker and Leave it to Beaver’s mom she wasn’t, but I loved her love for travel and excitement.

She hated the Eastern Shore so when she fell in love with a young man from Rhode Island who had joined the Army and got orders to Fort Ord, California, she jumped on it.  How long did it take her to throw her kids and belongings in the car?  Wasn’t long.

The trip to California was long but the memories even as a seven-year-old will remain with me forever.  I’ve often thought about going back to Cali.  Visit the old homestead (house is gone but street is still there), walk the path I walked going back and forth to school each day, visit the library (Buena Vista Library) which used to be the old school (Abraham Lincoln Elementary) (picture below).



But when I think of Cali, I think of my mother and how she had these dreams.  My dreams are happening now, but she was always looking, searching and I really don’t think ever finding.  She wanted to be a movie star as I mentioned earlier and when that didn’t happen, she tried it with me.  I grew up with Shirley Temple curls but no dimples.  Cute as a button but no inclination to memorize words and be in front of an audience.  She was the star, I was the wardrobe person.

When my aunt decided Cali life wasn’t for children, she decided to slip out in the middle of the night and board my sister and I on a train and head back to Virginia leaving my mother behind.  I didn’t find out until about 30 years later exactly what happened but it was something she had to do for us, so she told me.

I missed my mother terribly.  I waited and waited for my precious mother to come get me.  But she never came.  Like I said, she hated the Eastern Shore.

I remember sitting on my grandmother’s front stoop as they called it back then (basically meant a bunch of cinder blocks piled on top of each other to create a landing).  I would stare off into into the quiet street out front, hoping one day she’d be pulling into the driveway.  I felt very alone back then even though I had my sister and my grandmother just loved us to pieces and was so happy we were back.

Eventually my mother did return.  Alone.  No husband anymore, just the clothes on her back and what little else she had were stuffed in an overnight bag.  But she was back.  I never knew the circumstances. I never knew why she let my aunt take us so far away from her.  I never knew why she didn’t come back to get us.  Until thirty years later when my aunt revealed to me our family’s secret.  My step-father got angry and called social services and they were coming for us in the morning.
But today isn’t about me.  It’s about my two beautiful grown kids who see a mother who has found her dreams.  Finding your dreams does not mean riches.  Finding your dreams does not mean it’s the end to finding happiness.  Finding happiness is found within and it is through me my children find strength to beat whatever trials come their way.

To you, Mother, for helping me find my path in a weird kinda way.

Girlfriends Gone Wild: Amish Country Bound!

My first trip of the year!  A couple of girlfriends and I are going back to the Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this Wednesday!  We’ll be staying for 3 nights for some good old fashioned bonding, fun and mingling with the natives.  Last year almost to the day we paid our first visit and loved it.  So we’re going back.

Only this time it’s going to be a little different.  There’s a kid.  And a sister. Seems our girlfriend weekend is going to turn into a family affair.  I’m not so sure I’m too keen on it but I’m going to make the best of it.  Really, it’ll probably be fun.

Last time I blogged about going to Lancaster, I left out lots of neat pictures, so I’m going to include a couple now:


There’s a story behind this picture.  One of the girls, Barbara, is terrified of heights.  This bed and breakfast was sitting waaaaaaaaaay on top of this huge hill with a very steep incline.  Kim, who was driving, and I decided we wanted to see it and poor old Barbara, I know she must have peed her pants.  I didn’t know she  could turn so many colors of white.  But…once we got up there, this is what we saw:



Beautiful farmland.  We decided to ride around a bit and you would see the Amish out in their gardens or whatever.  What an experience.

So this time we’re going to change up on a few things.  We’ll be staying in the same place as it was clean and smelled good (you just never know), but instead of taking the guided tour we took last time, we’re going to take another guided tour but this one involves visiting a working homestead.  And I’d love a buggie ride at some point.

We shall see.  I’ll be blogging all about it when I get back. ;o)

Cassie: My Little Christmas Miracle Dog

I have fantastic news.  The holidays and tours got the best of me and I couldn’t get over here to give you an update, bad me!  Cassie is great.  In fact, when the anesthesia wore off, she was better than great.  Her face completely changed back to a fun-loving dog – it was a Christmas miracle.
I’ve got a couple of pictures I’d like to show you.  This is the before picture with the tumor on her belly:

 

Cassie night before surgery

I wasn’t so sure how she was going to do that next day so I took plenty of pictures and video.  And here’s what she looked like Christmas morning, almost 2 weeks after surgery:

 

Cassie Christmas Morning

 

Cassie (r) & Max (l) opening Christmas presents

So the doctor tells me he’s not sure if he got all the cancer out.  I guess that’s hard to know.  But I do know this much, my Cassie is alive and well at the moment and you can’t put a price tag on that.  I can’t imagine what parents of children who are terminally ill go through and it breaks my heart to know there are a lot of them out there.

Cassie is doing great.  She’s quicker and it’s like years were taken off.  She’s 13 and I know not everything lives forever, but if I have any power at all inside me, I will do whatever it takes to keep my babies alive unless they are suffering.  Then, it’s a whole ‘nuther ballgame I don’t even want to be at.

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas – tomorrow is my update with pictures on one of the most beautifully decorated houses on Chincoteague Island.  Can you guess whose it was?  LOL, no, not mine, but you’ll find out tomorrow.

Hang in there, Cassie Girl, and come back home

Have you ever gone through life wondering if the decisions you are making at the time are the right ones?  Have you ever loved something or someone so bad and made a decision health-wise on their behalf knowing it could go either way and if the odds aren’t in your favor, you had to live with that decision the rest of your life whether it haunted you or not? My Cassie  Girl has cancer and it’s malignant. Cassie is my 13-year-old Cocker Spaniel.  After years and years and years and years, I decided to get another dog.  She was a stray and just so happened to be a cocker spaniel, my favorite breed of dog.  Of course, I’d never had one before so I had no idea the health issues cockers have (just spent over $4000 to have my male Cocker’s eardrums removed because of a nasty ear infection if that gives you any idea).

I named my new dog Chelsea.  Chelsea stuck around with us for about a year before she died in my daughter’s arms from unknown causes.  I cried for days.  My boyfriend surprised me later with a new puppy.  She was beautiful, so sweet, adorable, sore from being picked up all the time adorable, and I named her Cassie. Cassie was the sweetest dog I ever had.  She never bit anyone, except one time she nipped at the neighbor’s pants legs for coming too close, but talk about loving.  The most loving dog you’d ever seen. Cassie never really had many health problems as she grew up over the years.  Not like Max who decided to take a swim in the channel and came back with a nasty ear infection that only got worse over time until we had to get his eardrums removed.  But you know, that dog can still hear.  Just dumbfounds you.  Not real good, but he can hear. Casse and Max were supposed to be lovers until we found out Max had no idea which end was up so Cassie remained puppyless.  We had bought Max to mate with Cassie but it wasn’t in the cards and frankly I’m glad.  We’re not a puppy mill and never had any plans to become one.

While Max grew up to be the cantankerous one, Cassie was content to sleep in the floor beside you.   Such a sweet sweet dog. As Cassie got older, she started showing signs of old age, like incontinence and limping (figuring that was arthritis), but overall the dog was in exceptional health despite her age. A few months ago, she developed a lump under her mammary glands.  A few days later, the lump bled but we managed to get it under control and she seemed fine.  About a month or so after that, she developed another one but this one didn’t bleed nor go away like the last one.  It just kept getting bigger and bigger and developed what looked to me like several lumps in one. My original decision was to let her go.  Let her live her life as happily as we could make it.  But then, something struck home.  If I didn’t at least save her, she was going to die and I was going to have that on my conscious and I knew I couldn’t live with it. So I called the vet, made the appointment and the diagnosis was he wanted to remove the lump; however, it was the holidays (Thanksgiving) and he was going to be out of town.  So we set up the appointment for today, about two weeks later. The wait was long and horrendous.  I kept telling Cassie to hold in there, that I was getting her help soon.  I didn’t want it to erupt like the last one…just a few more days, I’d tell her. I was lying in the floor wrapping presents last night and I took a few pictures of her.  Just in case.  And video.  Just in case. Just in case.  Didn’t the doctor reassure me she had over 50% chance surviving this?

I wake at 5 am and she’s lying on the bed beside me. I reach over and rub her golden head.  She looks like she’s smiling. I get up and take a shower to make that 7 a.m. appointment.  She’s waiting for me downstairs so I put her collar on and let her go pee before we make our journey.  Afterwards, we battle the wind and I put her on the passenger side.  There’s a little bit of snow out my back door and I wondered if it had snowed last night. As we’re traveling to the doctor, I realize it did snow.  In fact, there was a police leading a convoy (us) down the highway so we don’t get in an accident.  I reach over and pet Cassie’s head and she kisses my hand. We finally arrive and she’s really excited to be there.  I’m figuring she smelled other dogs in the grass or she was just glad as heck to be out of the car. The doctor is waiting for us behind the counter.  It’s a little after 7.  He’s not smiling.  He walks around and feels Cassie’s lump.  “It’s grown,” I tell him. He’s not the same as last time I saw him when he made me feel it was just a matter of taking out the lump and it was all over. “You know it’s cancer, right.  And you know it’s malignant.” I don’t even remember responding to tell you the truth.  By this time, I’m starting to cry.  I’m fighting it, but not winning.  I knew it was cancer, but why wasn’t he just taking her back there and doing what I’m paying him to do and being positive about this??? “I know you can’t guarantee anything,” I tell him, “but what are the odds?” He said he didn’t know.  He knew the damn odds last time I was there, why was this time different??? “You know you have the choice to just take her back home and let her live out her life,” he says. I freaking didn’t know I had a choice in the matter!  Take her back home?   Why freaking why?  I want her to be saved, not go home and let her die!!!! So I’m standing there with a choice.  I can take her home, let her live her life as peacefully as possible until this thing explodes all over the place or I can let him try to save her knowing full well I probably just ended her life right then and there. That’s the way he made me feel. “Take her.” It came out.  I don’t know who was talking but that’s the decision. He took my number and said they’ll call. I get in the truck and bawl my head off.  If that was the last time I will see my Cassie Girl, I’ll have to live with it the rest of my life.  And I never got to say good-bye. But you know, there’s a force out there.  And I prayed to it over and over with tears streaming down my face so hard I couldn’t even see out of the windshield, but if there’s any hope at all, any way my Cassie Girl can come back home to me today, then I’ll know that it wasn’t her time and that I made the right decision.

Ocean City Sunfest 2010

It’s now the end of November, one week before Thanksgiving, and I’m about to talk to you about the SunFest celebration held in Ocean City, Maryland, in September.  It’s not until now that I got a break from tours (actually our real break comes the second half of December when we take off for two weeks…woohoo!) and I really didn’t want you to miss these beautiful pictures.  So while we’re approaching winter and all the celebrations that go with it (freezing rain, snow, slush, sleet), let’s take a little sun break…
Every year in September, Ocean City holds a huge festival they call SunFest.  This was my very first time going because I usually had to work at my weekend offline job, but I asked off specifically to see what all the hubbub was all about.
Before I go on, I want to mention that if you’re planning a trip there next year, make sure you understand THERE IS NO PARKING.  Serious.  None whatsoever.  So if you don’t have a hotel room on the beach or pretty well near it, you’re pretty well up the creek without a paddle because you’re walking it.
So we had to park at a convenience store on 26th street I believe which meant we had to walk 26 blocks before we hit the craft fair part which was what was taking up the main parking lot.
Was it worth it?
Thank God, it was a beautiful day.  Despite being windy which comes with it being on the water and all, it was still warm and actually hot in parts (could be the 2 mile hike there and back but I digress…).
So I’d like you to see what we found once we got there.  A parade of kites and not just any ol’ kite but super duper monster kites which I would love to take home, hang them from the roof of my condo, and watch  the tourists stare and point.
So here we go…

And after 26 blocks of blood sweat and tears, we finally made it…

Paula Deen LIVE in concert at Delaware State Fair

Check this out…as of right this very moment, it’s 96 degrees in Chincoteague, Virginia, and God knows what the heat index is, but it has to be pretty well up there.  Yesterday, my friend, it wasn’t much cooler either and just as you would know it, my daughter and I had plans.

Big plans.
Big super duper plans.
Big super super duper duper plans.


That night, we were to go see Paula Deen LIVE in concert at the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, Delaware.

YES!!!  I KNOW!  Isn’t that just the coolest thing????

Well…

It. Was. Hot.

But let me tell you something we didn’t know and I’m not sure how many of the rest of the them didn’t know it, but it was OUTSIDE.  No tent.  Blaring sun.  Sweat forming pools around the ankles hot.  Would we have still gone?  Probably the fools that we were, but the concert was FABULOUS.

Paula Deen was FABULOUS.  There’s her husband all the way to the left and her married son, Jaime (not sure if that’s spelled right) and her grandson, Jack.

Let me tell you, what you see is what you get – Paula Deen is no different live than she is on TV, except with this show, she was more people oriented.  In other words, she was more into getting to know her fans by talking to them from the stage.  She was wonderful!

Here she is (above) talking to us.

Here she is above with her son and grandson.  He was a pistol, I’m telling you.

And you know, as hot as it was, she kept on going..if she was sweating, you’d never know it.  Not a bit of wind and the sun was blaring right on us – I know it was almost 100 degrees out there.  I could have used that cool Michael fan, I’ll tell you that!

Here she is above with Michael and former  Miss Virginia Hannah (funny no mention of her last name in the brochure that was handed out but Hannah it was).  The guy to the far left was a chef and darn if I can remember his name but he was cool.  Paula made him take off his jacket calling it “inhumane,” lol.
And here’s my favorite picture of all…

LOL, okay what’s she doing?  She was talking about going down the slide at the Harrington Fair.  Sounds like even Paula likes to get down and dirty at fairs!
It was a fantastic concert, despite the fact we had no idea it was going to be outside during a heat wave.  When it ended, there were mobs and mobs of people exiting this one exit, so we took another route – down the racetrack and guess whose  limo passed us?  Yep…beautiful white stretch limo and inside was Paula Deen, our cook show hero and all around great person with the best sense of humor you’ve ever seen.
Great show…if you’d like to watch part of it, here you go!

Amish Country – Lancaster Pennsylvania – Part 2

The first full day in Lancaster was spent checking out the shops.  My whole reason I came was to find some covered bridges.  You gotta admit – you would, too, right?  What is it about covered bridges that is so romantic?  Especially the red ones – gotta have pictures of red covered bridges or my life is not complete.

While the gang was preparing to visit Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market, The Kitchen Kettle and other hot spots along the “strip,” I had it in the back of my mind I was not leaving until I found a covered bridge.  Barbara, one of my friends who went with us, told me we’d find one later when the rest of the gang went to the mud hop, or whatever it was called where people love to take their expensive trucks and run them through the mud.  Meanwhile, I had to make the best of it by being dragged through farmer’s markets and shops and being forced to buy jars of homemade preserved vegetables and other Amish goodies.  Anything you could can, the Amish canned it.  Might I say I had a great time.

Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market

Well here we are at Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market.  Actually this is the sign for it and looking across the street.  Here’s a picture of the building itself:

Bird in Hand Farmer’s Market

Not overly impressive on the outside but good lordy you ought to see what’s inside.  A good word of advice when you see all those yummy things on the shelves…if it says pickled, it’s going to be SOUR.  I bought pickled asparagas.  I thought how neat – I love asparagas.  Well this was a little too tangy, but the pickled beets were out of this world.  I bought my daughter some hot pickled mushrooms thinking she would love that, but she said they weren’t that great, but don’t let me discourage you…there is something to suit everyone and lots of it.  I wanted to take pictures inside but there were too many Amish people (who I might say were the friendliest and most courteous people I’ve ever met) working in there and I didn’t want to offend them by having their picture taken.

I did buy this little lighted street lamp thingee for my deck.  Ain’t it cute?

Across the street, and all along the street in fact, were these quaint shops.  Here’s a picture of one of them.

Bird in Hand shop

After that, we headed off to Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse.  Kitchen Kettle reminded me a little bit of Colonial Williamsburg in a weird little way.  We even got some entertainment:

And there were, of course, buggy rides….

And more of Kitchen Kettle Village…

We had a great time.  And like everything, all fun comes to the end as we make our way back to our room before we take to the road again to find my covered bridge!

Until next time,