Everyone is excited about "Decoration Day!!" There will be flowers to put on graves and huge "cook-outs" tomorrow!!

I already know that we will be having the standard fare of hotdogs and hamburgers!! That should be pretty good! The sister-in-laws will come over for the "feast" and are always welcome!!

Let's see.

Tomorrow's menu:

Hotdogs on buns

Hamburgers on buns

Relish plate:

dill pickles, sliced

vadalia onions

sliced beefsteak tomatoes

baked beans

macaroni salad

Now if that is not enough to fill up this crew,...I don't know what is!!!

The three kitties are having the left-overs!! I'll bet we will have the fattest cats in town!!

On a happy note,..Rissa is graduating second in a class of six hundred from a local high school. Rissa is Clarie's daughter. Clarie is my "good bud," who married the man from Ghana!!

Heh! Rissa is my African princess!! Her dad actually is a member of one of the Royal families from Ghana!! I am VERY proud to be her Auntie!! The SKY is the limit as far as her future goes and I am proud to say that this young lady did it on her own!! :D

I can give pictures to my friends,..so I have been told as long as I don't sell the pictures or the folk I give the pictures to..don't.."give cause for misrepresentation or distortion of the image of a salable entity!" HOT DAMN! Who'd want to buy a pic of me?

(Enjoys a long hard belly laugh!!)

Would anyone...in their right mind...think that a woman, who has just shaved her head,..is trying to make herself..beautiful?.

GEEEEEE!! You don't suppose that I am trying to make myself..LESS SEllable,..do you????????

..I suppose that I had better get busy and try to be a little more cooperative. I have a lot to do that I promised that I would do..which I have not even started. What must be done,..must be done.

There is a manuscript that must be worked on and finished before August,..I promised to do it. I thought that I had help,..but she backed out,..so I guess that I have to get my motor going and write about things that I would rather forget about.
I think that I am just being a bit moody with the holiday and all.

Ha! Bill is following my example and taking a stand!! My husband is not a happy camper!

Bill wants to buy a computer. My husband says that such things are "unnecessary!" Bill is going back to college in September..(finally!!) and for him such a machine WILL BE necessary for his school work!!

Rather than fuss and feud with his dad,..Bill picked up the telephone and rang up the barber..in front of his father!! My husband was surprised as Bill had just had his hair trimmed.

"Why are you making an appoinment at the barber shop?" my husband asks our son.

"Well!" says Bill, "If I can't get a computer to use for school work and stuff,..I'm going to shave my head..just like mom, and all the neighbors can see you have a second "baldie" in the house!!"

Bill is getting his computer!!

I finally get to dig my way through one hundred and fifty years or more of accumulated junk and the whole world looks a little brighter!! The tiger maple wood kitchen sink is going to the local museum.....lead pipes and all!!

That thing is so old that even my mother-in-law wanted to get rid of it when she married my father-in-law and that was over seventy years ago!! My mother-in-law considered herself lucky to have talked my father-in-law into carrying it to a basement corner and there it has sat to this day!!

Ten years ago,..about five years short of 100 years old,..my father-in-law passed away. He was still angery over having to put that "sink,"..pump and all, in the basement and put in those "durn" pipes..in the kitchen!! The old man..was also angry at my husband for...PUTTING IN A TELEPHONE!!

THIS ROBUST OLD FELLOW WAS THE RIPE OLD AGE OF SEVENTY EIGHT..WHEN I MARRIED HIS BACHELOR SON!! That "baby" son was just celebrating his forty fifth birthday...when I married him!!

These stories are going into the manuscript for my next book,..I think!! I have a lot of "remembering" that I must do!!

I have no trouble writing about others,..but my own life story....I have to forcefully squeeze from my brain!!

ODE TO MARY SUE!

(Words and rhymes stolen in true Mary Sue fashion from other poems and songs!!)

"Mary Sue! I love you!

No one else can mangle words like you!

Oh Mary!

Oh Mary Sue!

Well,..I love you,..girl,..I love you, Mary Sue!!

Mary Sue!

What can't you do?

You're more beautiful than anyone and perfect too!

Oh! Mary! Oh Mary Sue!

Oooooooo! Oooooo!

I would love you more, but I can't love you as much as you do,..oh Mary Sue!!

Oh Mary Sue..and all your crew!

No one else is QUITE like you!!

Oh Mary! Oh Mary Sue!

Mary Sue,. I will be true!

I saw your "Whipple website!"

And I know that it was you!!

Oh Mary!

Ooooooooh Mary Sue!

I know you NOW and can appreciate the damage..that you can do,..Missy Sue!!"

(to be cont'!)

There have been two payoffs since I got my one eight of an inch "crewcut!!" The first payoff was that the book tour was postponed for two months. Rosezelle won't even see me as she did not care for the longer "crewcut" that I got in February and she wants me to grow back my hair as quickly as possible!

Hmmmmmn! How does one grow one's hair back on demand!!????

The second payoff is that my husband hates my hair this way. In fact, he hates having me next to bald so much that he has finally agreed to let me clear out some of the "family junk" that has been building up in the house that we lived in,....if I promise to let my hair grow out and never go "bald" again!!

(The house, that he grew up in and used to belong to his mother,..is now our house!! Just a few months ago,..I was lucky to have gotten rid of some of the stuff that they had parked in the old barn and the old sheds!!)

Have you,..oh gentle reader,..ever seen one hundred and fifty years of history piled up in one three story house?? Have you ever lived with one hundred fifty years of family history, tripped over one hundred fifty years of family history,..had to dust off one hundred fifty years of family history,..family history..on a daily basis?

I have been zipping around the internet today in search of Mary Sue Fanfiction!! You know,..the fics,..based on favorite fantasies,..which are written by "perfect beautiful heroines" about their favorite genre and go on and on about how beautiful and well loved and perfect the fanfiction author...in the shape of the main charactor,..who is having the perfect love/hate/sex affair with the ULTIMATE HERO of their favorite fanfic and thy all lived happily ever after type stories. I found out more than I ever wanted to know about "Mary Sue" fan fiction today!! I even visited "Mary Sue Whipple's Website!!"

I looked in on the "StarBucket" science fiction website and could not make heads nor tales (bad pun) tails of it!! I find myself actually missing the "godawful" message board which used to lambast "Mary Sue fan fiction" on the internet and roast the poor teeny-boppers over on the www.fanfiction.net website!!

After a careful afternoon of reading "Mary Sue's" and "Mary Sue" critiques and psychological studies,..I have decided to go back to my "all time favorite message board" and finish my one intentional "Mary Sue Fan Fic!" That one was one I really enjoyed writing!!

My unintentional"Mary Sue" fics over at the scifi Lexx Bboard,..I will leave forever unfinished unless "Annie's Boy" asks me to go back and finish what his mom and I started almost two years ago. With my luck,..the By will ask me to finish that danged HartKai fic and I will be forced,.."honor-bound" to go back and finish the dang story off!

I couldn't really do my "best" writing anywhere near any of the boards that I usually show up on. Heh! The reader on both would not even believe that type of writing..could come out of "lil old me!"
Or..would they?

Again today, I met "Nathan" on the playground of the elementary school yard near the library where I go to use the computer..during the day. Nathan, who has spina bifida and hydrocephaly, is five years old and perkily shouts, "Hi!" to any and all people,..coming within the "Hi!" range of his wheelchair!!

I was introduced to Nathan last week when one of his fellow "kindergarden kids" came over and pulled on my shirt as I waited for my son in the school parking lot.

"Lady!" said Nathan's emissary, "Nathan just said "Hi!" to you!! You are supposed to come over and say "Hi" back to him and let him tell you about his key collection! Miss "Dickens,"..our teacher,..said so!!"

"Oh!" I said, "I couldn't hear Nathan's voice!! I don't hear that well! You mean Miss "Dickens," your teacher, said that I should come over and talk to Nathan or that just you other kids should talk to Nathan or that anyone that Nathan says "Hi!" to should talk to Nathan?"

The child stamped her foot and let me know in no uncertain terms that I was breaking with her classes social etiquette in dealing with Nathan,.."TEACHER SAYS THAT EVERYONE IS SUPPOSED TO TALK TO NATHAN WHEN HE TALKS TO THEM 'CAUSE HE JUST STARTED TALKING AND SHE DOES NOT WANT HIM TO STOP!!"

Of course after paying the required attention to Nathan and his keys,..I spoke to his teacher. The little boy has just started to speak to the class and his teacher at the school and she is trying to encourage him to continue speaking at school.

Of course, now everytime I see Nathan and his key collection in the school yard,..I stop and speak to him. I,..along with his teacher,..want this five year old kindergarden kid to keep on speaking!!

I want Nathan to keep on speaking to other people as he goes on his "mainstreamed way" through public school through his first eight grades and throughout high school. I want Nathan to keep on speaking out to others and never stop speaking out.

The "Nathans" of today,..a few years back,..wouldn't even have had the right to attend public school and have teachers, who were concerned enough to encourage the rest of the class to pay attention to them. On the basis of their disabilities, spina bifida and hydrocephaly,..combined in one small bod,..the "Nathans' of yesterday would have been confined to "special schools" or mental institutions, warehoused as unwanted, and no one would have cared how intelligent they were or what they might have had to say!

I made a point of speaking to Nathan this morning and asking about his key collection and I will do so every morning till school is out for this year. I shall also make sure that his classroom has a copy of our company's book about the disabled dog,...!

There are NO children,..."who should have never been born!!"

I am going to shave my head probably tomorrow. Don't ask why!! I like the "air-conditioned look!" Maybe, I'll get the "classic" chrome dome wax job that my husband used to get for his "fancy" car!! I don't know!!

No,..really. I have had some disagreements with some folks that I have dealings with and to make sure that I don't have to do something,..I gotten the green light to go ahead and "significantly alter my appearance!!"

Some students from the local elementary school have been doing searches on google and dogpile about WALKING FREE! Does this actually mean that kids are writing "book reports" about Miss Nellie Belle's adventures?

Yeah! I guess so!!

I had one little girl, probably about ten years old, walk up to me the other day while I was pecking away at the computer in her school library,..which is across the street from my house in my neighborhood, and just stand and stare at me. Then, she walked to the side of me and looked at what I was looking up on the computer.

The child pulled up a chair and sat down beside me and watched me type out my "comments" to a scifi B Bored that I frequent whenever I get the chance. I waited for her to speak, but she sat in silence just looking at me for a good five or six minutes. Wheeew! I couldn't take it anymore so I turned to her and said, "Hi! Can I help you with something?"

The little girl drew her brows together and said to me, "I am looking at you to see what makes you famous!!"


This gave me a jolt. I said to her, "Oh dear! I am not famous! I think that you have me mistaken for someone else!"

The little girl replies, "No! I think that you are the lady, who knows the sign language and I think that you worked with that deaf blind lady named Nellie. We had to do a book report on that WALKING FREE book and our teacher pointed you out the last time you were in the library when our class had its' "library hour!!" You are the same you that you were then and you are right now!"

I felt like saying, "Say what???"

Instead, I said,.."Perhaps you have me mistaken for my twin sister!!"

The girl stood firm, "No! I'm sure that you are that same "you" that our teacher pointed out to my class!"

"Well," I said,..(I could be firm too!!),.."I'm not even close to being famous so I am quite sure that you have mistaken me for someone else, who lives in Canton, Ohio!!"

The little girl furrowed her brow again. She had to puzzle something out. Then she smiled at me and said, "I get it!! You are not famous!! You are right!! You are notorius!!"

Kids! You gota love 'um!!

I don't really believe in physical violence. It revolts me.

I went to a Quaker college when I was younger and picked up the notion that many things could be solved by peaceful protest in SMALL ways. I also learned there from some very intelligent people that sometimes it is NOT by direct physical action by ones self,.but by indirect action in postive ways that certain changes can be brought about.

Life also seem to have certain simple rules:

1. The way that we live has a "ripple" effect.

2. Everyone ultimately gets what they give.

3. There are millions of other folks in this world and one's life is but one of the ripples riding the wave of those ripples,.which have gone before us on the vast sea of eternity!! :D

Life is good.

I am very curious as to why nothing has been done with the win of the "Gold" award as far as publicity goes. There could be a lot of book sales in this...if it is approached honestly and the right way.

I gave in and got the "Z-pac" antibiotic. That is a pretty strong antibiotic and while it provides relief from my lung problems and REALLY opens up my ears..(something to do with lessening a chronic middle ear infection,..I am guessing)...,..if I use that stuff too much,..it could really destroy my liver!!

Urrrrgh!

On the bright side,..I stood next to a picture window, yesterday,..and for a minute I thought that we had been invaded by giant ants!! I could almost "feel" the patter of thousands of little feet,..radiating off the glass!!

When I told my son to come over to the window and "feel" it too,..he stood very still for a moment by me, gave me a strange look,..and as he usually does when I make an observation of something..that I feel is unique and he finds the true cause of it is common place, began to laugh.

"Mom!" says Mr. Smarty Pants,.."You are HEARING the sound of the rain drops on the glass window panes!!"

I told you that "Z-pac"...was a powerful antibiotic!! The effects,..however,..will fade as I stop taking it as the infection in my right ear,..which as been there so long that I can't really remember it not being there,..spreads again into my left ear and places me back in my universe of what "sounds"..normal to me!!

Yesterday,..I felt meaner than a suitcase full of snakes!! I coughed up so much phlegm..that my cats were "hackin hairballs" in sympathy with me.

All my son could say when he would just get close enough to pass me another box of Kleenix was,.."Eeeeeeeeew,..mom! When Shawn comes over today,.I'm gonna entertain him on the back steps!!"

Have I gotten across the idea that I must be having another bout of something that is affecting my lungs again?

Can I describe what it's like to sit and cough your guts up or the feeling of blowing out gobs of phlegm so big that one feels like one is vomiting through one's nose? I'll spare my reader the delights of such descriptions.

Then,..THAT niece came over the other day to visit. My son let her in.

When I heard the cats start to scream, and THAT had to be a really loud noise for me to hear it,..I came a'runnin'! The niece had a cat's tail under either foot!!

What the HELL is a matter with that girl??? Hurting innocent creatures like that??? Her mother assured me she was getting the girl.."help!"

I was in such a bad mood that I wondered if the "help" that the girl needed was a good "bop in the nose!!!"

My son escourted his cousin back out the door. Thank goodness,..that the two baby nieces are beyond the reach of such meaness! I have no intention of ever letting her know that they exist!!

Today,..I will try waddling out my back door and over to the school library again. I have to force myself to go that far.

Then,..I'll go up and do my little "bit" to make "Ro" comfortable. I am not totally ineffectual..as yet!!

I would really like to know what Rosezelle and Daryl think that they are doing about the publicity campaign over our "Gold " win? The longer that they wait,..the more momentum that the story loses!! I will have to talk to Rosezelle about it this morning!!

How do I sum up yesterday?

HOLLISCHE!

Just HOLLISCHE!

AND I DON'T KNOW IF I EVEN SPELLED THE WORD..CORRECTLY!! Normally,..I would avoid using the "brogue" in public or around the educated. Right now,..I am beyond such "finesse!"