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19604. Ulgine Barrows - 6/12/2006 6:37:45 AM

oh, what a death to see, larky. A hummingbird.

My cat bit off the head of a bunny in front of me the other day and an eyeball popped out, round and perfect like a little marble, blue and black .

19605. Ulgine Barrows - 6/12/2006 6:38:54 AM

It was disgusting, and I was riveted to the spot.

19606. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 7:00:33 AM

You'd have a blast out here. I think the worst was a fawn's face in the yard. Not its head, just its face.

19607. Ulgine Barrows - 6/12/2006 7:41:00 AM

nature in all its cruel beauty
yeah
some plants wilt
not me

19608. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 8:11:05 AM

Just a rural residence with two big dogs who haul their ill-gotten gains into the yard and leave what's left when they're through playing/eating. Parts is parts, as the old commercial used to say.

19609. Ulgine Barrows - 6/12/2006 8:27:39 AM

we've got 2 cats
they're good hunters


heh, ill-gotten gains
I wouldn't put it that way

19610. Magoseph - 6/12/2006 12:47:11 PM

My sister-in-law is in “Anesthesiology and Reanimation” in Lyon since last Tuesday. She was in a car accident 11 years ago and had health troubles since that time, but no one could do much for her until a well-known surgeon told her differently. Anyway, it came to the fact that her organs—liver, gold bladder, stomach— were in free-fall, liver damaging lung, stomach up-side down, esophagus and diaphragm damaged, etc.

The operation was successful and she’s very slowly getting better. She will stay at the hospital, three or four more weeks, maybe more. We always have been very close, closer actually, than we’re to our own sisters, so I have talked to her kids, mine, cousins, everybody this week—my brother for hours everyday until we knew if she was going to survive the shock of such an extensive operation. Now, her body must get used to her organs being in the right places and Jeanine being fragile, it will be touch and go for a while.

AND Flexi fell on his left wrist Friday, trying to cut a branch—luckily not the right, fortunately. Once we determined that his carotid didn’t provoke the fall and that the x-ray didn’t show anything because the wrist was too swollen—we came home and I haven’t stopped to giggle each time I have to sac-gel his left wrist or when I talk on the phone. Did he really think that he could resume his previous activities? It’ll take another year to drive a car, for goodness’ sakes!

19611. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 2:38:38 PM

My lands, Mags, why so long a recovery? Is he having physical therapy? He may have to make some permanent adjustments. My MIL has one hand and she drives better than I do.

I hope your SIL does well after her surgery, and maybe will feel better than she has since the accident.

19612. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 2:41:58 PM

Ulgine, my assessment of the difference between dogs and cats: cats play with their prey before they kill it, and dogs play with it after--weeks after, if you let them.

My parents went out on their driveway one day to find that all that was left of one of their cat's bird victims was a pair of wings lying on the concrete.

19613. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 2:42:50 PM

Where are you Jex? I was looking forward to hearing a little early morning zydeco!

19614. Magoseph - 6/12/2006 4:36:47 PM

Arky,he had a badly broken right wrist and still is not allowed to exert it too much. Besides, I bet he's much older than your MIL.

We are now waiting for the doctor's office to call us for an x-ray on his left wrist.

19615. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 7:05:12 PM

She's 75.

Good luck with the x-ray.

19616. jexster - 6/12/2006 7:08:18 PM



Why Arky's a Daughter of the Confederacy

I am a Daughter of the Confederacy because I was born a Daughter of the Confederacy. A part of my heritage was that I came into this world with the blood of a soldier in my veins...a soldier who may have had nothing more to leave behind to me and to those who come after me except in heritage...a heritage so rich in honor and glory that it far surpasses any material wealth that could be mine. But it is mine, to cherish, to nurture and to make grace, and to pass along to those yet to come. I am, therefore, a Daughter of the Confederacy because it is my birthright.
I am a Daughter of the Confederacy because I have an obligation to perform. Like the man in the Bible, I was given a talent and it is my duty to do something about it. That is why I've joined a group of ladies whose birthright is the same as mine...an organization which has for its purpose the continuance and furtherance of the true history of the South and the ideals of southern womanhood as embodied in its Constitution.

I am a member of The United Daughters of the Confederacy because I feel it would greatly please my ancestor to know that I am a member. It would please him to know that I appreciate what he did and delight his soldier love to know that I do not consider the cause which he held so dear to be lost or forgotten. Rather, I am extremely proud of the fact that he was a part of it and was numbered among some of the greatest and bravest men which any such cause ever produced.

I am a Daughter of the Confederacy because I can no more help being a Daughter of the Confederacy than I can help being an American, and I feel that I was greatly favored by inheriting a birthright for both.

Written by Mary Nowlin Moon (Mrs. John)
A member of Kirkwood Otey Chapter 10, Lynchburg, Virginia
First read at a Chapter meeting on June 2, 1915


19617. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 7:09:59 PM

That's nice, but let's hear some Jolie Blonde!

19618. PelleNilsson - 6/12/2006 7:59:18 PM

Another year for Flexy to be able to drive a car? Frankly speaking I think that is ridiculous. I wouldn't have said so if we were speaking about a big car with manual gear and without power steering but that's not the case, is it?

19619. arkymalarky - 6/12/2006 8:21:45 PM

Dadgum. I went to Yahoo and had to get up to do something, went back in five minutes later, literally, to find The New Yahoo. Not sure how I like it, but it was weird to catch it right when it changed.

19620. arkymalarky - 6/13/2006 1:01:42 AM

BTW, Judith, how is your leg? I thought about you and Keoni today when Bob left to get golfcart batteries. We haven't been on the trail in the golfcart since last year.

19621. arkymalarky - 6/13/2006 1:36:11 AM

Maybe I should post this in The Good Life, but I'll go ahead here. When I first started posting in the Fray I had more free time than I'd had since college. In the past three or four years, from the point when I left to spend a stressful year where Bob works and then came back, it was not long after that I got hugely busy on rural education and at the same time my job became much harder because we had to cut back so much and we've all been way overloaded (it's the same all over the state in all but rich schools, and administrators and teachers in poor districts are leaving in droves).

Last spring after the hysterectomy I didn't do much--I used it as an excuse to get a good long break--and this year I started graduate school, even though I'm still way involved in rural ed issues and my schedule was the worst it's been in 20 years. This isn't optional for me. I have to do this now so I can begin making retirement plans if they close rural schools. I don't want to work in a larger district.

I have a week--this week--and then I start a two-week seminar, we're going on vacation for 2-3 weeks after that, and then having our July gathering when we get back. I'm very excited about all of it except the seminar, and I would be looking forward to it, except it's 12 straight 11-hour days.

So I need help: In all this time I've been so busy that my house and plants have gotten way out of control. I cringe still to say that Keoni can attest to that, since he did such a noble job vacuuming! That will be taken care of by the time he arrives this year. ;-) I'm very much in the mood to work on my house this week and I've been trying to figure out where and how to start, but I don't seem to have places for anything anymore.

If I start and don't finish, it's not a big deal since I'll be better off with anything I do, and everything's functional for vacation, work, and the July gathering. I'd just like to do it for myself, especially since I will be as busy--busier, actually--this year and next summer. Also, I redid my classroom this year for the first time since I came back, and I'd like to have the house where I want it too. I also need pointers on how to maintain it even though I'm so busy. After next summer things will suddenly be very different and it won't be an issue. Mose will be married, I will be done with graduate school, and rural education issues will be resolved one way or another. It probably will not be in our favor, but at least I will be in a position to retire, do something else, or work on rural ed full time.

I think need a system for getting things back in control and keeping them there, and I've tried making a daily list, but if anyone has pointers from experience or just common sense advice I'm all ears--or a website. I bought a book, but it's just a conglomeration of tips. I saw a great article on cleaning while waiting in some waiting room a few years ago, and I must confess I actually considered swiping it--the only time I've ever even considered such a thing in a waiting room. I should have, because I never found it anywhere and don't remember the magazine, year, or anything. It was EXCELLENT, though, covering everything from the cookstove to the toilet in record time--real cleaning too, not just a lick and a spit.

I also intend to paint some, but I think I can do that part without too much advice. I'm only changing a couple of room colors, though. After ten years I still love the colors in most of the rooms and will simply touch up or paint a new coat where it's needed.

19622. arkymalarky - 6/13/2006 2:58:27 AM

This one's pretty good. I had no idea there was a channel for this stuff. I'd been googling a while before I posted, and googled a while more, and didn't find much until I said "room-to-room."

My main dilemma is storage of stuff I use regularly. I don't have enough bookshelves, cd/dvd/vhs shelves, etc., and I don't have much room for them where I need them most.

19623. arkymalarky - 6/13/2006 3:32:48 AM

I think I hit the jackpot with that site. It's got everything I was looking for, if anyone else is looking for that sort of thing. I know Judith has lots of great advice, I remember from her posts in Salon and here.

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