Frogs' Legs Aren't Funny

The download of my daily (almost) thoughts and ruminations.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Sunshine On My Shoulders


Today is a natural high,

and this would be the reason why...


Instead of everything is better with Blue Bonnet on it, today everything is fine with divine sunshine!

We're heading to the park with the little ones who love it so much; in search of play structures with lots of parts to touch. It's up the ladder and down the slide countless times and this is the end because I'm fresh out of rhymes.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday Night

This is the one night of the week I refuse to bring work home therefore I look forward to it more than any other. It's freeing to sit on the couch watching a British movie like "Goodnight, Mr. Tom" (I highly recommend it), running to the store, catching up on Facebook and posting a stress-relieving blog. I know this sounds like what normal people do any time they aren't working, well my life hasn't been normal lately and I don't know when it will be again so there you are.


Both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett have been dead for a full year. That doesn't seem possible. Although as we were talking about it tonight I pointed out that they have never really stopped talking about Michael and airing specials about him, his music, the controversy surrounding him. I didn't realize until today they still haven't finished the trial of his doctor. How do these things get dragged out so long?


I also heard today there is the distinct possibility of a tropical storm (as in a hurricane) coming into the Gulf. I can't imagine what that's going to do to all that oil. I just keep waiting for some miracle to clean this mess up. The coast of Louisiana is truly turning into a perpetual disaster area. Oh what havoc man hath wrought...


Someone I knew from work was killed in a motorcycle accident on Wednesday night on his way home. He took the freeway exit but missed the turn, hit the guardrail and that was it. One day he was there and the next day he literally was not. It hit everyone who knew him pretty hard mainly because it reinforced how precious and tenouous our thread of life is. He had a wife who was on a business trip, a 20 year old son, he had work assignments, projects and staff, he was an integral part of a team...and now he's not.


My favorite sister of my dad's died this week, years of emphysema caused by even more years of smoking. Aunt Ruth had a great sense of humor and was simply fun to be around. I'm very happy I made the point of seeing her multiple times over the last few years. I'll miss her.


My stepdaughter's mother-in-law is back in the hospital still fighting for her life. She thought she came down with an infection a couple of months ago, she was having trouble sleeping, but come to find out it was her heart that was defective and was pumping blood into her lungs. I won't go into anymore details but she is down to 88 pounds now so I'm sure everyday is a struggle for her. She has lost her ability to swallow so has been fed through a tube since then and has come down with at least two more lung infections from that. They've done two surgeries in the last 24 hours just to clear out the last massive infection.


Not an uplifting blog, I know, but I think I just needed to write it all down, let it out. This is the main reason I do this, to let go, so I need to be okay with it. Everything about life isn't fun.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Spreading the Stealth

I wonder if anyone has calculated how long it is going to take this fiasco oil spill to contaminate the entire world. All it will take is for the continually pumping oil to get through the Panama Canal and it will begin to creep up and down the Pacific Coast and to travel across the ocean. There is nothing but a few small land masses to prevent it from heading out to sea in the Atlantic, not to mention up that coast as it goes. And to project on that image, what happens to human life and to animal life if all the salt water becomes contaminated, killing all the sea life?

I'm quite certain I'm not the only human being who has had these thoughts and is taking the time to extrapolate out the impact of this colossal disaster should the sludge continue to spread.


It's not just seafood that will be adversely impacted, let's think about all that this touches...

  • sea birds
  • saltwater animals and mammals
  • oceanfront residential properties
  • tourism impacting beach visits, including beachfront hotels, spas and restaurants
  • ocean-based careers like fishermen
  • boating (including personal watercraft like Skidoo's)
  • recreational salt-water fishing
  • coastal waterparks like Sea World
  • cruises
  • camping on the coast
  • bicycling on the coast
  • snorkeling
  • deep sea diving
  • photography
  • surfing
  • parasailing
  • windsurfing

Bulleted ListOh, and then there is the question of whether the oil film on the ocean will prevent or at least impact evaporation which would inevitably cause climate change although again, no one knows exactly how.


So, are you freaking out yet? I'm also wondering if the rest of the oil rigs have been shut down and if not, why the hell not? If we can't prevent and/or fix the disasters once they've started, we have no business putting ourselves in the position to keep creating them.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Look Outside!

The first truly beautiful, warm weekend of the year...so why am I sitting in here? I'm not :)

Friday, June 11, 2010

No Replacement

There was an old standard b&w movie on recently called, "The Gunfighter". It starred one of the all-time greats, Gregory Peck. In my opinion, these classic actors just haven't been and can't be replaced by any of the newer talent we have had to choose from since.

I don't know exactly when the term gentleman slipped away from the Hollywood scene but there was a definite transition, possibly in the 60's. At whatever point the most distinguished actors left the picture, literally, the view changed.

Here are some prime examples of what I mean.

Debonair and downright Classy



None of them were brash, attention-seekers.

They kept their private lives as private as they could, they weren't constantly splashed across the media.

If they were, indeed, involved in unsavory affairs or addictive habits, it was kept out of the spotlight. You honestly believed they were simply decent people.

They didn't need any special effects or computer graphics to make their performances and movies special.

I'm just thankful I lived through the time when their type of talent was truly celebrated. I miss them one and all.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Found It!

We not only found summer, we found it to the tune of 113 degrees! It was a record for Las Vegas and a record for us. But you know what, when you are as damp and moldy as we are at this point, it felt good to dry out.

It was a great long weekend watching our very amazing nephew graduate with high honors as the first student ever from his high school to be appointed to the Naval Academy. You know when they mentioned it along with the Ivy League and Pac 10 schools other students were attending they were impressed too. He had men in fancy (lots of colorful bars) Navy uniforms there afterwards to congratulate him and have their photos taken with him. I was and am so proud of him. Hopefully as he progresses in his Naval career, I'll learn what all those bars mean. I told him I'll be in Annapolis in four years to celebrate his next graduation too. He will make a handsome and very worthy officer in our military forces.

I just have my fingers crossed that he never sees action even though I know he is hoping for the opposite. I'm hopeful he'll go into some kind of computer technology role since that's his area of interest, like the CIA or something. The fact of the matter is, once he leaves to go back at the end of this month I'll probably see very little of him for the rest of his life. The evolution of life. It's time for him to become his own man. Aunt Deedee is sad but oh so proud.