A POTPOURRI OF DABBLING

Excitement wafts through the house like a happy, pink cloud now that we've decided to go to Pensacola, Florida about the middle of March.  We're free agents (politically correct way for saying unemployed), so if the weather is going to be bad for a week, we can just wait until the next.  We're going to take a left over the Mississippi at Memphis (a day for ribs for lunch, I'm sure), and trot over to Tupelo, Mississippi to see the birthplace of the King.  We've seen Graceland, but truthfully, I wouldn't mind going through it again.  After Tupelo we head south to Pensacola, which is described as having beautiful, sugar-white beaches.  I'm ready!  Today the high there will be 74.  Last night I bought a set of goggles and a snorkel on eBay.  I hope it'll be warm enough to use them.  I had to promise Van I wouldn't go out in the Gulf more than three feet deep.  The larger the body of water, the more terrified he is.  It'll be wonderful to meet a fellow Gatherer for the first time - CC Miranda, our resident artist, lives right there in Pensacola.  I'm hoping she'll come out to the campground and help us boil a big pot of crabs and shrimp!

My sister started a new chemotherapy session in Kansas City today.  She's has a brain tumor for five years now.   After two regular surgeries and a gamma-knife surgery, the tumor was much smaller and had stopped growing.  A few months ago it began growing again and it's now a bit bigger than when originally found.  The oncologist said that there is a rather high risk of brain hemmorrhage with the procedure, but she said she wants to fight and he told her he wanted the chance to fight with her.  We're all remembering to say a prayer before we sleep, hoping for a small miracle.

Friday I go to the U of Missouri for an emptying study.  I'll eat radioactive food and then be filmed while the food moves through my stomach and intestines.  I'm hoping they don't follow it the entire way, if you understand what I mean.

This is the first year we've watched American Idol.  I admit, the big screen TV has lots to do with it.  The sound system makes the contestants sound like they're standing just on the other side of the coffee table, singing their hearts out for us.  I voted for the first time last night.  Who did you like?  The guy Danny with glasses blew us away.  I called in a vote for him.  We think Tatiana will go forward, too, but the third?  We have no idea.

We made a library raid yesterday.  Using the library instead of buying all my books is one of my budget trimming efforts.  As you can see, we read a gamut of subjects.  I'd not read Gulliver's Travels since sixth grade, and it just appealed to me.  Right now I'm reading The Ha-Ha by Dave King, another recommendation by Kris Sunflowercat.

After doing a bit of geocaching last fall, we are excited to get back into it.  We also decided we'd like to use the GPS system we have as a road guide on trips.  I ordered a DVD this morning that will upload all the U.S. road maps into the Garmin, with special features like points of interests and little known cool places.  It's a little too cold for me right now to go geocaching, but it won't be long, and we're fortunate that we have a lake about 20 miles west of us that is just loaded with hidden treasure.

Buffy, the cat we inherited from my Mom.  She still sits in front of the door to the room that was Mom's.  Overall, she is a pretty contented pussycat.

Grief for my Mom sometimes sneaks up on me unexpectedly, but it's starting to get a bit easier.  I have to go through her thousands of photo slides soon, and I want to have her VHS tapes converted to disc, and I'm sure that'll stir up lots of feelings.  One thing that I'm grateful about is that when I think of Mom now, I usually think of her as she was 10 or 15 years ago when she was still full of piss and vinegar rather than her last couple of years.  She was still full of it, but her health was becoming quite a challenge.

This is a long Dabble.  Sometimes I just like to write about what's going on in my life even though it's not controversial or a story that goes anywhere.

Viva Pensacola in March!