Snap Back to Reality

My extra few days off literally flew by, tomorrow is back to work. I took several exploratory trips including Richmond and today Cuckoo down Rt33 past Louisa.

I'm not sure what I expected Cuckoo to be like; perhaps a quint little town with shops or something unique that represented the unique town name. But there weren't any quint shops. Beautiful countryside with nice little houses, farms and several churches, I suspect a very nice place to live.

This was on the outskirts of Cuckoo, I really like the look of the red detail with the white.

In other news; bathroom #2 is about to painted in "Tundra" and I discovered Smirnoff Twisted in Rasberrry is Yummo!

This was a nice ending to wrap up my weekend and start my work week with

Back in the BlueBird action

You may or may not know about our BlueBird Babies; well two days after I got to see the babies and shared the news Steve told me they were gone. I was just a little disappointed. I so wanted to see them come out of the box. But for several days we had watched as father bluebird tried to coax them out of the box; apparently his coaxing finally worked.

So for weeks now our yard has been without the bluebirds except for the occasional hanging out waiting for our worms. Well this morning it looks like they may be back. The pair has been in and out of the box and hanging out in the yard all day.

I really do hope they are back and ready for another broad; they really are quite beautiful & entertaining to watch.




And my little rabbit friend joined me again this morning. I actually caught myself checking out the rabbit food at the store today...gawd critter watching is an addicting sickness!


This afternoon I decided to up the dosage of cayenne pepper in the birdseed mix since we seem to have the most obese squirrels on the block...a birdfeeder that's a good foot higher than me + a good downward breeze = a healthy dose of cayenne in critter watchers eyes with a mad dash to the nearest sink with water...No fun at all...Critter watchers out there be forewarned and use EXTREME caution when dispensing the cayenne...


I hope everyone out there is with their family and loved ones today. Thank you to those that have sacrificed, served and will serve our country.

Peter Cottontail...

This morning sipping my Latte


Isn't that tail just the cutest



I'm begginning to see rabbits in the yard regularly...I'm enjoying it...

Twilight Zone or Not far from Home

Yesterday I got brave and ventured to Shortpump & Richmond scouting for fabric stores. A very successful trip and a beautiful day. On my way home I decided to go back Rt 250 since I had never been past Zion Crossroads down 250.

I began to see signs for Manakin & Goochland passing beautiful houses and scenery. Then I saw a sign that made me do a double take and have a twighlight zone moment and for two seconds I thought"Uh? Where the hell am I?"

I had to turn around and go back just to make sure I read it correctly...

I just thought this was so cool and bizzare at the same time... A Firehouse in Goochland but called the Centerville Firehouse...

What do you think Dad? Did you think you'd see another Centreville besides "our Centreville", Virginia?

My Other Babies B-day

Because of issues with blogger, dial up and time constraints I didn't get this out in time...So a Belated Birthday greeting goes out to my other sweet daughter.

Hi Sweetie, Happy Birthday!

Love you kiddo!

Sorry about the pic kiddo; it was either this or the fishface camera pic I'm saving for a rainy day! :)


And p.s. She's now legal now too, so all you NVA'ns look out! :)

Rusty Things part 4 ~ Poles

I can't remember the last time I actually saw poles like this...

Gordonsville Emporium

I thought I had seen all there was to Gordonsville; but a turn down a side street proved me wrong. I see several trips in the future to fully explore the rest of Gordonsville...

Rusty Things part 3 ~ Rusty Fuel

These just wouldn't be the same without the spray painted "Gas" & "Diesel" on them....

Extreme V

Practically getting ready to do the splits...

Filtered

Sunsets & Horses

This is who I hung out with last night...we had a wonderful evening together...the first pretty sunset in I caught in weeks....

Yes, a wonderful evening...

Rusty Things part 2 ~ Orange Truck

Now something totally different since you're probably groaning at the gazillion sky photo's I can't seem to avoid sharing....

I love this truck as much as the Blue truck.


The Orange stuggling not to be overtakend by the rust....the missing door...the weeds struggling to overcome the truck...the hood still propped open...yep I love it...

Perfectly Meshed

One of the things I really miss from living on Pantops in Cville was the incredible sunsets and valley view I got to see everyday.

It's harder now to catch a really nice sunset being sunk into a valley but occasionally the sky, sun and clouds mesh so perfectly it's hard to miss or ignore...



Krista, thank you for the encouragement :)

Still Beautiful even on a Cloudy Day

Faded but Still Persistently Smiling

Chiquita Baby

If you haven't shopped for Bannana's in while maybe you should check them out...




Sabrina, I immediately thought of you and your forehead...

Huh?

I'm sorry but this has me scratching my head and wondering what the heck they're thinking...

Should Inmates Pay to stay in Jail?


Inmates aren't rolling the dough.

The ones that do work in "paying institution jobs" makes next to nothing.
The ones that try to make and sell craft items to the public still make next to nothing
The ones that don't work either "earn/barter" from other inmates
The ones that don't work, that don't "barter", Beg money from Relatives
The weak are abused by the stronger inmates for everything they have, literally
And then there are the ones that literally have nothing that hasn't been Institution issued to them


Prisons aren't supposed to make money off of their inmates, they don't need to "recoup" money; they spend as little as possible on their inmates...

In the end they would only hurt the inmates more and drain more money from the inmates families...

If they really want to generate more money why not create more shops the inmates can work out of that would actually Generate decent money.

Or just increase/create taxes to the citizens it would wind up coming from anyway and be done with trying to be creative with your funding...

For anyone thinking I'm nuts; My thoughts are seeded in an intimate knowledge of penal institutions...*edited no I've never been incarcerated :)

Reelin in the Years

Wonderful Jan of Cascade Exposures tagged me. If you've never seen her photojournal, I suggest paying her a visit very soon; I am in total awe of her ability to take everyday normal things and make them so Beautiful!

Sorry I took so long Jan;I wasn't avoiding you, just the thought of trying to recall these years makes me a lil quesy :)


20 years ago I…

Living in West Virginia

Was 18 years old and already an established mom of 2 babies and possibly already expecting #3

Was trying to figure how to be a mom without screwing them up

Was trying to figure out the difference between normal and f---ed up

10 years ago I…

I was buying my very first car

Was buying my first car from the man who was going to ask me out on my first official date

Was working my first job waiting tables in a crappy sports bar and scared to death

5 years ago I…

Deep ino a relationship with my car salesman

Totally unprepared for the teen years of my kids that were about to hit me like a freight train

3 years ago I…

Still with that car saleman

Getting educated on how to really talk and listen to my kids

Got an education in drugs and alcohol

1 year ago I…

Was officially in Love with Harley's, called a Biker Babe and loving it

Preparing to move away from my family for the first time

Struggling to find a job in a strange town that didn't have the words "cashier" or "sales associate" in the job description...

Yesterday I…

Spent a wonderful day with my wonderful now "young adult" children and my Super Cool Dad

Realized I haven't screwed up my kids depsite my best efforts


Today I…

Spent a lovely day at work starring at eye glazing spreadsheets and databases

Had wonderful email correspondance from my car salesman proving he's still mine

Avoided cooking at all, yeah! Oh the joys of sliced bread

In the next year I will…

Take my very first Hot Air Balloon ride and find out if I can conquer my height phobia, thanks Dad :)

Train to become a Project Controller at work

Miss dearly having a Harley to ride on a great Summer Sunday's and being called a Biker Babe

Hopefully learn more about photography

And as Jan said... Grow

Thank you Jan :)

And I'm not tagging anyone since I'm not brave enough to tag the only 4 people I know outside of my family to read my blog! Grab the tag if you want :)

Stretchin Out

Just stretchin out while I eat...Happy Monday Everyone!

Babies

We have babies; BlueBird Babies... We are so excited about this. From everything everyone has told us it's rare to get a pair of Bluebirds the first year you put up a BlueBird Box, but to then get babies too...Oh Yeah, we're very excited...

So this morning I went out when it was feeding time...These aren't very good photos but it's been cloudy all day and apparently if you open the box, they suddenly freeze up, duck down there heads and don't make any noise at all... making them look like a ball of feathers.


It's pretty impressive how attentive daddy bluebird is too, we've watched him grab up 4 worms at a time to take to the babies...

We can't wait to see how everything goes when it's time to learn to fly...

Beyond Distraught

A Very Serious Camera Malfunction; may not be repairable....I'm beyond being distraught...

C

Or S depending on your point of view

Critters in the Night

I tell ya, everyday is like Christmas around here; I never know I'll find when I wake up and it's almost always sure to be entertaining...

A certain someone thought he would be clever by stashing an extra baggy of birdseed in a feeder waiting to be hung sitting on the porch...

A critter found it last night, had his way with it and didn't leave much for the birds...

Yesterday this was sitting on the OPPOSITE side of the porch against the house...




Makes me ponder who's more clever; critter or man...

Open Pastures

The sudden rain we've had over the last few weeks has caused an explosion of everything green.

It also meant the horses got to visit the other side of the pasture yesterday where I'm sure they throughly enjoyed the extra room away from all of the annoying people like me :)

Daytime Moon

We had a very nice moon starting to appear yesterday; just wish I had't fallen asleep before I could really enjoy it...

F

Whadda ya think?

Oh To Be Carefree

Part of my walking routine is to loop at the end of the horse field were the horses hang out in the evening; tonight they saw me coming and broke into a trot towards me, then realizing I didn't have any treats stopped and enjoyed each others company instead of mine...

Rusty Things

Intertwined

They stood intertwined nuzzling each others necks for about 5 minutes; I don't think I've ever seen such affection in horses before

Sun & Clouds

The Sun andClouds this evening were perfect...

A Light in the Shadows

Peeking Thru

Pantops, Charlottesville

Gordonsville

Despite the clouds the Sun was trying it's best to peek thru and add a little glimmer to the end of the day...

Reflecting

I love how the Sun has been reflecting off of the lake the last few days....Lake Issac, Gordonsville, VA