Dancing With THe Stars Needs This Kid!

A couple of different friends had this on their Facebook page, and I must say, it is priceless!  

 
With a cute 2-year-old dancing and Elvis Presley singing "Jailhouse Rock"... how could you got go wrong?

This kid gets my vote for the Mirror Ball Trophy even if he's not on the show!

Children's Christmas Programs

I'm a little puzzled.

I just discovered that two churches I know of don't have kids Christmas programs anymore. And that astounds me.

More to the point, I just don't get it. As in, I don't get WHY a church would no longer have a Christmas program for kids to participate in.

When I was a kid, we loved being in the Christmas program.

When my boys were little, it was fun to see them take part in a Christmas program. It's so cute to see little kids acting out the Christmas story. Yeah, they goof now and then, but that's part of what makes it fun and doesn't detract from the story.

So. What's the deal? Can someone please explain to me the rationale of no longer having a Christmas program at church that kids take part in?

I mean, it seems to me it's bad enough that more and more schools won't allow it, but church?

What am I missing? There must be a reason that I'm not seeing, cause I sure don't understand it.

Seems kind of sad to me.

I'm living in a country song...

You've heard that joke, "What do you get when you play a country song backwards?"

You get your dog back.  You get your truck back.  You get your wife back....

I wish I could play the country song backwards that I've been living in the last few weeks.  Only mine would look more like this...

You get your dog back.  You get your train trip back.  You get your health back. . .

First the dog.  We knew this was going to happen, and I guess it's amazing it didn't happen sooner, but our beloved LGD (livestock guardian dog) died Wednesday.  We got her as a little pup, and she's been on the job here for over 12 years.

She was bonded entirely to her livestock - definitely not a pet.  She only tolerated one person to handle her, and that was me.  But we understood one another, and it tore a large hole in my heart to lose her.

Then there was the train trip.  We were supposed to have left Friday the 26th of October to travel to West Virginia.  We were meeting up with Maria, Scott & Dad, and going to visit Heritage Farm on Saturday.  Then Sunday, Dad, Jess & I were going on the New River Train.

Well, that didn't happen.

Thursday night everything went haywire.  I felt a thump in my chest, and started having chills and nausea, and didn't sleep the entire night.  So instead of being on the road to West Virginia Friday, we were sitting in the waiting room at an Urgent Care facility.  I wanted to be sure of two things before we traveled:

1. I wasn't contagious.
2. It wasn't any kind of heart problem.

I've got to say, the "urgent" part of their name is a massive joke.  They had 3 people working: receptionist, nurse and doctor.  We were there about 3 hours before I had an exam, chest x-ray, flu test, bloodwork, EKG, and urinalysis done. 

I asked the doctor if I was contagious, and told the doctor I was supposed to be on the way to West Virginia.  He informed me that "YES, you are contagious, and you are too sick to go anywhere."

Great.  No trip to West Virginia and no train trip, and the money spent on those tickets, "Pouf!" They don't give refunds.

Now to expand on the health part... over the last week, I've had 3 different doctors give me six different diagnoses:

• Bronchitis
• Sinusitis
• Costal Chondritis
• Urinary Tract Infection
• Gastritis
• Possible Hiatal Hernia.

On the bright side, the doc in the box found no pneumonia, flu or heart problems.  He told me about the first 3 diagnosis, and gave me an antibiotic, steroid, and also prescriptions for a flu med and cough syrup.  The latter two made no sense as I did NOT have the flu, and I was NOT coughing.

At the pharmacy they said that flu med was no longer available and that they had called the doctor to get a different prescription.  I told them to forget it, because I didn't need it.

But then Sunday, a different doctor called from Urgent Care, asking me why I wanted the flu med when I didn't have the flu.  I told him I didn't want it and that I wasn't the one who prescribed it for someone who did NOT have the flu. 

Then I asked him if he had my chart in front of him, and could he tell me what all that bloodwork was they did on Friday.

He never did get specific, but just said it was negative, that the only positive labwork was the urinalysis showing I had a urinary tract infection.  Really?  The first doctor never mentioned THAT!  However, the antibiotic I was on should take care of it....

Four diagnoses down.  But though the meds did help the pain in the chest wall, the pain under my sternum was still there, along with the nausea.

So yesterday I went to see my usual doctor.  Good news is bronchitis is gone.  Bad news is the pain in my gut is gastritis.  And the "thump" I felt in my chest is likely to be a hiatal hernia, and what I felt was when part of my stomach slid through the diaphragm and up into my chest.  To get a definitive diagnosis on that would take an endoscopy, and we both agreed to skip that at present.

In the meantime, there's another medicine prescribed, and a "wait and see" on if it helps.

 

The last half of October has been a total washout for getting any work done, both online and on the house.  I'm hoping I feel well enough next week to at least get back online and start rebuilding my business.

I'm really tired of living in a country song. 

Evaluate Your Life Day

Today is "Evaluate Your Life Day."

Of course, it's also,

• National Seafood Bisque Day 
• National Seafood Month (October) 
• National Sarcastic Month (October)

I got an email from Richard after he read that with what I consider a brilliant one-liner ....

 

Well clearly I need to spend more of my life eating seafood.

That one made me laugh.  He very succinctly managed to roll all those holidays into one sentence.  Awesome!

 

But back to evaluating your life day.  Or in this case, I'm evaluating MY life.  The days of which seem to be whizzing by at an alarming rate at this point.  As Jean-Luc Picard said in the Star Trek movie, "Generations"...

 

I've become aware that there are fewer days ahead than there are behind.

Time, time, I'm running out of time!!!  There are so many things I would have liked to have done, and not likely to have time to do them all now. 

So it's TIME to pick and choose.  Some of the choices are made for me, as time flows by and things change.  For instance, if I EVALUATE my business, it's in need of a major overhaul.  This year has been a disaster business-wise.

Some of that is my own fault, for making what turned out to be the wrong decision.  I went into business with someone, and that business sucked up just about all my time the first half of the year, and it turned out to be a bad move.  That business is now defunct, and the time spent on it a waste.

Well, maybe not entirely a waste.  I have learned I'm better off working on my own, no matter how much the gurus may tout the wonders of partnerships and mastermind groups.

I have also learned I'm better off trusting my own instincts than listening to most of the stuff those very same gurus spout. 

Further, I have learned that most of what they teach is how to make a quick buck, but not necessarily how to build a long-term business.

So in my evaluating the business part of my life, I have decided I would rather build for the long-term.  I'm in the process of changing my priorities and what I work on.  Briefly, that means I'm paring down the number of websites I have so I can focus on certain subjects.  I am moving more into Kindle books.  I'm adding Squidoo and Pinterest to the mix, and looking for ways to get traffic without relying on Google, the killer of small business sites.

As for the rest of my life, I'm evaluating it too, but I don't want a novella here.  Let's just say of all the things I've done, I'm not sure how many were really worthwhile.  But at least I have two good sons on the credit leger:

 And one really cute granddaughter:

 

Now I've got some other really awesome grandchildren, but I can't take any credit for them!  Ellie is the only one with any of my genes (poor girl!).

But enough of this somewhat public evaulation.... I'm off to do some more evaluating of my life and what to do now on my own! 

Time to see if I can take some of these lemons and make lemonade!

 

 

 

Solitary Misfit

I love my family.  Both sides of my family.  But I don't really fit into the family anywhere.  I'm a solitary misfit.

There are a lot of reasons for that.  Some from outside influences, some from my own personal preferences.

I've been a bit of a loner all my life.  When I was a kid, I was happiest out roaming over our farm, doing things like playing in the creek, riding horses, hunting for fossils, writing poetry or reading a book.  All solitary activities.

We didn't have any really close neighbors where I was constantly playing with other kids, and so for example, never got into playing a neighborhood game of ball.  Not once.  Maybe that's one of the reasons I never got interested in sports, which is another one of the reasons I'm a total misfit in my family.

As I got older I did more in school, at church, and at work, so was fairly active outside the home for some time.  But in the last few years Regional Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia put a stop to a lot of that.  And not entirely for physical reasons.  It just got so it wasn't worth the emotional/mental stress of dealing with people who don't understand living with an invisible, long-term illness.

And one thing I have learned, if you aren't active, it doesn't matter how much you did before, you're soon forgotten.

So I just got tired and withdrew from the fray.  Socializing is too difficult.  Communication too one-sided.  Why, for instance, write on this blog when no one reads it?  So for a long time I didn't bother.  Why I am doing so now, I'm not sure, except that it's 2:30am and I can't sleep, and maybe it's good therapy.

Why send cards, letters, or emails to people who aren't really interested?  A waste of my time and theirs.  No need to make people feel obligated to send back a little thank you or whatever so they do 'the right thing.'

And what to write or talk about anyway?  Nope, I don't fit in there either.  Not conversant in sports speak.  Not fond of talking politics, because really people, it usually just causes hard feelings, and no one is going to convince someone on the other side of the fence to change their mind anyway.  Same thing with religion. 

I used to think my x-mother-in-law was a little extreme because she outlawed talk of religion and politics at family gatherings, but more and more I see the merit of her position.

So who in my close or extended family would be interested in talking about being an online entrepreneur, and understand what I was talking about if I discussed SEO, Google algorithms, and the latest Panda or Penguin update?  Or backlinking, the best traffic sources, how to find good outsourcers, optimizing Wordpress, tweaking php files, long tail keywords, the best affiliate programs, webinars, cloaked links, page rank, security plugins, or any of a hundred other things I deal with on a regular basis?

No one, that's who.  It's just not something anyone else cares about or understands.

Well then, how about if we talked about science?  Maybe how SPECT imaging is moving forward the science of explaining how even small damage to your brain can change your behavior, and ways people like Dr. Daniel Amen are finding that will help repair the damage.  Or how a SPECT image relates to the field of neurotheology, and understanding the relationship between spirituality and the brain?

No? Maybe the science behind energy healing?  Or how about the role of supplements in healing/wellness or the latest research on health foods and organic foods?

Something totally different then... Farming? Raising peafowl, turkeys? Caring for a parrot? 

Okay, how about the merits of Kindle publishing vs. Create Space vs PubIt!?  How about the KDP program? 

I could go on and on, but the point should be plain by now.  The stuff I find interesting just isn't the same stuff the rest of my family finds interesting.  Our interests don't mesh, so  I don't fit in.  Not in the slightest.

Solitary.  Misfit.   That's me.

Down on the Farm

It's been a few months since I put anything on here, and no way I can catch up on all that's beeen going on, so I'll just jump in and talk about today!

It's a bit chillier today, and seems more like a fall day.  I guess since it's October, that's to be expected.  But I'm sure we'll have some nice warm days yet.

Earlier in the week a dead tree fell over in the back yard.  I heard a loud thump and at first wondered what it was.  Earthquake? Gunshot? Explosion?  But when I looked out the dining room window, it was immediately obvious what had happened!

It's been dead for some time, and in fact, Jess previously cut part of the top down that looked in danger of falling off.

Today he cut it in big sections.

He picked up some of the smaller pieces, but the big sections are still too big to be moved far.  AT some point he'll have to cut it into smaller ones before he can hope to get it moved out of the yard.

However, that didn't stop him from burning what he *is* able to move.

But then, he always has been a bit of a firebug.

In the meantime, I'm working inside.  About to finish up a bucket of apples I've been slowly getting peeled, cut-up and frozen.

During the week, we all stay busy with other work.  Jess has been swamped with people wanting him to do estimating for them, and I have plenty to do, and even Jonathan is working a lot of hours.

One thing we never have to worry about is time to get bored.

The Boggs have had Better Days!

Yesterday wasn't one of the better days for the Boggs boys and mom.

It started out with an early morning phone call from the guy working on my laptop.  Who assured me earlier that many times on other computers he had gotten rid of the same trojan/virus that slipped past my anti-virus defenses and did wacky, not-so-wonderful things to my computer. 

First it popped up a screen from a so-called trail version of program that fixed computer hard drives.  Saying it had scanned mine and found 7 critical or dangerous problems, and my computer was unstable. Asked me to send $85 to get the full version of the program to get it fixed.  Fortunately, I was a little leery since I did NOT remember having such a program on my computer, and they did NOT get my credit card information.

Then my computer became possessed and had voices muttering sporadically behind the blue screen of death. 

But no worries, says the computer doc, he's been fixing a lot of computers with this problem.  Yeah, well that was before he started actually working on MY laptop.

Now he's not so sanguine about it.  Says it's the nastiest variant of this problem he's ever seen.  My computer has the dubious distinction of being the 'fastest & worstest infected' he's seen with this.  Tells me it's burrowed into the worst place possible, the master boot record.  He keeps trying to fix it, and it keeps throwing up blue screens of death.  But he'll keep trying!

Then Jonathan needed to go have his brakes checked.  Been a little squeaky, soft, whatever.  On the way to the shop, he had a flat tire.  He put on the spare and drove on.  Once he got there, and the guys got to working on the car, they told him they hated to be bearers of bad news, but his spare tire was now flat too.

Oh, and by the way, you need to replace everything to do with brakes, and we want a huge hunk of money to do it.  Then after that, you can go somewhere else and get your tire repaired.

By the time the brakes were done, and the tire repaired, he got home in enough time to take a shower and get ready for an evening shift at work.

In the meantime, I saw on Facebook where Richard and Chrystie came home to a partially flooded basement.  No, that is definitely NOT a good thing either.  Having dealt with that more times than I care to remember, it is not fun at all.

And the day wasn't done with Jonathan either.  When he got home from work and walked in the basement door, there was a baby snake hissing at him.  Creepy!  (Time for new weather stripping to seal the door from air, snakes & spiders!)

As for my sick laptop, I got another phone call this morning.  It seems like my laptop is going to have to be reborn.  Wiped clean.  Start over.  Rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.  Why?  Because he can't get rid of all the little bits and pieces of virus hiding there, so he's got to put the master boot record back to factory newness... and no programs left behind.

Makes me want to cry when I think how much work it's going to be to get all my business documents and programs back on there.

The ironic thing about all this is that last week I was looking at external disk drives thinking to get one to use for a backup of all the stuff on my laptop, since it's my work computer.  But we're going to be gone, and I decided I'd do it when we got back from the beach so it wouldn't be delivered while we are gone.

Gotta love that irony stuff.

Okay, better days are coming.  Visiting the Canadian Clan.  Sand castles on the beach!  Good food!  Good times!

Ah, next week... life's a real beach.