Out of Commission

I've been not working up to speed for a quite a few months now. The almost constant migraine headaches really put a crimp in my style. But I'm trying a new med now which seems to be working a lowering the number and severity of them. Now I have a whole backlog of things that weren't getting done. So I have a lot of catching up to do.

The weather here has been crazy but what's new? Seems like the whole US is having issues. Here it was very hot for folks who don't have air conditioning (meaning me!)  And then yesterday I had multiple errands to run while there were flash floods all around.

And I'm still enjoying writing for the newspaper. It's really fun to start a new career and to have to learn so much so quickly. 

But in spite of the hot weather, it's still beautiful and green here. Summers are my favorite time of year in Pennsylvania.

And the Rocket's Red Glare

A very fuzzy photo of my grandgirls having fun at Knoebels on their recent visit. I wanted to convey excitement because that's what the Fourth is like around here. Last night there were three major fireworks shows going on. It was fantastic, noisy and somewhat sobering. It must have sounded like that to folks who lived near Gettysburg during the battle.

One set of fireworks is visible from our front lawn. So we put on some bug spray, set up our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show in the comfort of our own yard. The guy who does the fireworks is called Pizza Paul and he runs a local---can you guess?---pizza restaurant. But he lives for fireworks. He does these on Back Mountain and then he does the big fireworks for the city of Wilkes-Barre.

No worries about burn bans here although the fireworks can get rained out. And the weather yesterday was perfect. A little hot for the locals perhaps (high 80s) but the temperatures soon dropped. And by the time we went to Sonic for dinner last night with the top down on Michael's convertible, it was in the 70s again.

I have an assignment on Monday night to cover the festivities in Pringle, the smallest incorporated city or town in Pennsylvania according to my buddy, Tom Mooney, who knows these things. It's one half square mile with a whopping 991 residents. And they too put on their own fireworks show with the city of Wilkes-Barre's fireworks visible in the distance.

There will be eleven, count them, eleven different fireworks displays in this little valley over the next three days. And this in a metropolitan area smaller than my hometown of Shreveport.

What can I say? These folks love to party and they do it with a bang!

Whirlwind Tour

That's what a two-week visit from the grandkids feels like--a whirlwind tour in a rock band. And I'm the rock star. I've never felt so in demand. Lots of cooking, book reading and even roller coaster riding made for a very busy two weeks. We had a great time and the kids were very sweet. MF and NL were considerate guests and very cooperative ones.

Grammie had to pitch in and ride one day a lot at a county fair since the kids' dad was riding the big rides. I got to ride an elephant ride, a circus train ride and also got to squeeze myself into the kiddie trapeze ride so that the baby could ride too. I also went down a giant slide with the baby.  Michael was at work that day so it was Grammie to the rescue as MF is expecting and couldn't do any rides. Knoebels is an awesome amusement park, but I got really excited by the sleazy sights and sounds of an old-time carnival. Took me right back to my youth. I was a bit disturbed though when the carnie told me that I had broken his merry-go-round since it was my horse that didn't want to work.

We found out at that fair that the girls aren't afraid of any animals at all no matter how big and were willing to offer their little hands out full of feed to an amazing variety of nibblers.

Since I don't post pix of the little ones, my photos are rather limited. We did go to Steamtown in Scranton so there's a photo of something we saw there. Michael and MF's oldest took the shop tour. We also went to a cute county fair, the library several times, the most amazing library book sale ever, and parks. The visitors also went to see Cars II and the Crayola Factory without moi so that I could do a little writing and catching up.I really liked the day when MF and I took the kiddos to the downtown book sale, spent oodles of time in the downtown children's library and then went to the farmer's market where we bought lunch and lots of good vegetables and fruits for supper. The kids snarfed up amazing things including beet greens and Swiss chard.


Michael did not get to take off as many days as planned because of a huge project at work that had to be done. But he got to go to Knoebel's with us and he spent a lot of time with the kids. He enjoyed playing with the oldest in a game of pitch and catch. He and Vivi enjoyed joke books and he and the baby read books. Little E had everyone read books to her. MF's middle child was my constant companion in the kitchen and even in the garden where she learned to weed and deadhead flowers. She made rhubarb pudding, cupcakes, Jello-O, salad, you name it. She's amazingly enthusiastic about helping. The little one just did her charming thing and drank gallons and gallons of milk. For folks who buy a two quarts of milk to last a week, we had some adjustments to make there.

We got another unexpected play day because MF and company had a flight canceled.

Today I had a huge editing job to do and no Internet. My cable modem had died. Luckily, the tech came in the early afternoon and she was extremely helpful, even making sure that our digital picture frame was working properly with the new modem. The kids really enjoyed the frame and were excited to see themselves appear on the frame on the same day we did an activity. They also liked seeing pictures of their cousins in Utah whom they haven't seen for a long time.

We had a great time. And we'll see them again soon as we are headed to Texas and Louisiana soon to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday.