One soul; stolen

He hates when I take his picture; he always said it steals his soul. What the hell would I do with his soul?

There wasn't a recent photo of my beloved so, with camera on the table I tilted it up a bit and snapped this without his knowing.

This pretty much sums up his existence. He's wearing a t-shirt and a baseball cap. The t-shirt is more than likely car related and the cap was probably given to him. It's summer so he's wearing shorts and tennis shoes; no socks. His arms are scared from hard work as is his back but you rarely hear him complain.

I've gotten to know his moods, both high and low, and love him in spite of the low ones. He takes very good care of me and I think I've been good for him. If I'm cranky, he knows what to say; if he is I know to leave him alone. Though the road to this place has not been easy; both of us can be stubborn beyond belief-we are good for each other.

This is the man I've known and loved for 40 years. The father of our one and only daughter and all around good guy and he'll never know I took this photo. He doesn't bother with the 'net and maybe that is a good thing.

Time seems to fly faster than a Saturn-five rocket

A few years ago I had this post, Moon dust gets in your eyes. We are now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Moon Walk as well as 4o years with my darling companion. Forty years ago Apollo 11 on a Saturn V rocket headed toward an eventual landing on the moon and I've been in love ever since.

Since my sister and her beloved also had their first date then as well, I'm wishing them a happy 40th year, too.

We'll be watching and waiting

It has been a year since my beloved had a cancer removed from his bladder and four periodic test for the recurrence of that cancer. Now, instead of every three months he will go every four months for a test. Doesn't sound all that much better but it is because it a step closer to going every five months for a year, then twice a year, and finally yearly. You see, his type of cancer is what the Dr called an annoyance like some skin cancers. You just have to keep watching to make sure they don't come back.

So when you find yourself at your happiest you also get bad news. Why? Who the hell knows, it's just how the universe works. I'm thrilled and a good friend is sitting in the hospital with her husband and her news isn't so good. He has Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer. I've read it responds well to chemo and I do hope this is the case with him. They are a darling couple and I think of her by his side and how lucky he is to have her. I also think of her pain and wish there would be something I could do or say to help. But there is no magic cure, just waiting.

Is it over; yet?

When you get a string of bad luck how do you know when it's over? Last week my darling companion was tripping over his string. First, his truck started backfiring and running real bad. Hmmm, no time right now, so he pulls out the '65 Mustang. Then, the Mustang has a problem. Isolating the problem, he finds a bad alternator. Fixes that. Next day, fixes truck. All cars; now running.

That evening we decide to go out to dinner. "Hey, I'm tired why don't you drive," he says. While driving to the restaurant, no more than two miles, all four of us in the car felt something "pop". I pulled to the curb, all got out for the inspection. Hmmm, no flat, on to dinner. When we got to our stop we noticed I'd run over a huge bolt and it was now firmly stuck in my rear tire. Next day off to Costco; two new tires.

Sunday evening, as I was cleaning up after a quite successful reception at our house, I flipped on the garbage disposal. Grind, grind, grind, nothing; smoke. Next day trip to Sears; new unit.

Monday my beloved had his second three month checkup for bladder cancer. With his current string of bad luck I was more nervous than normal. String broken; no cancer.

What's dat clinkin' noise?

As mentioned in a previous post, my beloved is in a fence building frenzy. So, along with the neighbors in back of us, he is plotting a new fence. We really need a new one there, as well.

The previous seven neighbors were all too cheap to go together for the building cost so Dan just put up wood attached to an existing chain link fence. Not the best solution but it did last quite a long time. Through the years and a variety of owners, with children, the chain link has started to lean. The neighbors to the rear are at the top of our more than 45 degree slope.

Because he had already rented a dumpster to dispose of the first old fence Dan, at the same time, tore down the rear fence as well. Funny thing, now we can see our neighbors since neither they or us have any bushes between and this did cause another problem. They have pets. The dog, though a large bulky Chow,it only stare menacingly at Buddy our little terrier. They've yet to exchange any "words. Oh, Buddy does pee in his general direction but we've not had any breakthrough moments with the dogs.

Now the tortoise, plural, on the other hand have been the most problem. They have two desert tortoise and these odd little creatures somewhere have gotten the idea our slope is nirvana and try to escape as often as they can. One would think it would be easy to keep something so slow moving corralled. Think again. In the six days we've had the fence down Mr and Mrs Houdini been down here four times.

Yesterday, when I went in the back yard, I heard this odd clicking noise accompanied with some strange groan. Desert tortoises are hard to find but when I zeroed in on the noise there they were, on my slope, making baby tortoises; or trying their darnedest. I scurried around the block to fetch the owner and when we got back they seemed quite done. I think he was smoking a cigarette but could be wrong. Honest, they move much quicker than I'd ever imagined.

So the owner, disgusted with their, yet again another, escape. Swooped them up and headed for the car. This in its self is driving our dog Buddy absolutely nuts. I'm sure he can't figure out why people come and are taking all our tortoises from the back yard. So far, they've taken four and never brought any back. Poor Buddy, I believe he things we are growing them because he keeps nosing around in the bushes for more.

A new defence

This is our old decrepit wood fence. How old? I'm guessing near twenty years but I'm so bad remembering this stuff. I do remember the guys that were renting the house next door said they'd do the work if we bought the wood. We thought this a good idea and it did last quite a few years and these two guys worked in construction and were in pretty good shape. Why do I remember these two? I had a teen aged daughter at the time and well, let's just say all the kids in the neighborhood called one of them, Bob, the Babe.

This fence has withstood many a windstorm and a number of children, neighbors not mine, until this year when our current neighbor could stand this no more and took some vacation, asked my beloved to go in half, and build a new fence. So after pricing a few options off they went to Lowes for cedar but came back with plastic.

Plastic. I had to think about this one for a moment but after some deliberation and explanation from the fence builders, I did accept the idea. I really had no say so in this as I was not lifting a finger to help build it though I did feed them a couple of times. The bright white, I'll have to get used to it or maybe soften it's effect with some plantings nearby.

The other neighbors? You don't even want to know what's going on there because once my beloved gets going, stand back. The neighbors in the back are willing for a change, too. I see more white in my future.