I Can't Help Myself

I can't help myself today. I have to complain. I know that is something folks don't expect from me but it has been one of those days and it isn't even three o'clock. I decided yesterday that Justin and I needed to trim the hedges that were overgrown at his house on the corner of Cemetery and Oak Street.  Sounds simple, correct. No so much. First, I had to locate the hedge trimmers.  Justin said Rob had them at our house.  Rob said Justin had them.  I looked in our garage, Dad's garage, Justin's garage, no hedge trimmers.  I called Rob he said maybe that they were in our garage by side the refrigerator. I took Justin with me to look.  We looked and looked. In the process I decided to throw away Rob's bucket collection.  The collection that he keeps for all the work projects that he is always going to do.  "Going to do" would be the key words. You know "I might need that to put dirt in, or mix cement, mix paint, haul rock, sit on, clean out the pellet stove or haul something in it."  Guess what Rob?  You were at the beach all last summer, at the beach this summer and as far as I know you are still in your major recovery that started in August so the 999 buckets went out to the trash. Oh, it was only 996, because Justin took 3 for all the work he doesn't do. Justin finally found the hedge trimmers under a tarp on top of the snow blower in the back of the garage about 3 miles from the refrigerator.  Justin and I headed back up Oak Street to his house and started the trimming job.  Which went rather well UNTIL, Dad said to haul a rotten log planter off from the front yard, if there was room in the truck. What ensued next had all the makings for a nuclear war. It seems that the rotten planter log was a gift to Mom from guess who?  You guessed it, the Golden Child, David.  So, Mom and Dad got into it over the rotten log. I think Mom forgot that she tried to pay someone $30.00 last week to cut and dig out Dad's favorite fern in the front yard. I was hot, hungry and sweating from the hedge trimming and hadn't had breakfast and it was only noon. I just wanted to go to Cool Springs and get something to eat with Justin. Next big mistake was I asked Mom to go. She won't ride in the car with Dad. So off Justin, Dad and I went to Cool Springs.  I had a foot long hot dog with chili, onions, mustard and ketchup and cheese cubes.  Justin and I decided that Cool Springs is a lot like Cheers but without the beer, you know where everyone knows your name. Today it would have been nice to have had three or maybe even four shots of Jack Daniels but I had to settle for chocolate milk. We finished our lunches.  Justin headed to Bell Hill to check out the road.  Dad and I headed to town to get the mail. I put on my body armor  and entered the house.  Mom said that Rick had called from Italy and said to tell everyone hello. Dad informed me that my phone was making a noise. It was Rob he remembered where the hedge trimmers were in the garage. There is a reason people drink.

Grab a Hand and Hang On

OK, so I admit that some people think Chris and I are negative in our blogs sometimes. Chris's Mom, Mary, thinks he should blog about positive things like fall leaves.  I think Chris and I are cut from the same cloth as scary as that my be. We write about life and how we feel about it and how life can get very messing and crazy at a moment's notice. Last night, while watching "Grey's Anatomy", I knew what I would blog about today and that would be the general theme of last night's show. The theme played out as a sink hole opened up in the street, caused by a main water line leak, and sucked people down from a perfectly normal day into pure hell. Only on TV, not really. I, very early in my young adult life, awoke from a fairly typical college life to a brother knocking at my door one morning with the diagnoses of cancer, a few years later a devastating flood raged through my hometown, and the list goes on. Life is not always predictable and sometimes it is positively wonderful. Many times I am in awe of everything including fall leaves but sometimes life sucks and that is the nicest way I can think of to say it. I've never been one to walk around sugar coating life. I pretty much say what I think. I think for years TV tried to portray perfect families, in perfect homes, in perfect neighborhoods. I also think there are people on social networks, like face book, that try to do the same thing. Everyone gets that perfect Christmas card every year from the perfect family. That is not me.  I know life can be harsh. I saw it on the faces of students in my classrooms for 30 years and they had done nothing to deserve it. I like people to know my life is not perfect because let's face it, we all know life is not perfect and why make people feel bad or unfortunate by sugar coating something that isn't. I do try to find humor in it all and with the help of others stay relatively positive. I always root for the underdog and I love people who overcome insurmountable odds. Life is very good at times as we all know but no one is immune to being sucked into a sink hole in a moments notice. So Chris and I will probably at sometime write about the wonders of fall  and things that we really like but also plan on reading our thoughts on all sides of this thing called life. As Meredith Grey said last night "Sometimes the best you can hope for is for someone to love and them to love you, and grab their hand and hang on for the ride." I for one, have had a pretty bumpy ride the last year and so hasn't Chris.

I Hate Cell Phones

The last two days have been more than trying. Everyone knows I hate cell phones. I hate people being able to have constant communication contact with me. I generally only like talking to people if I have something to say. I don't really care what other people have to say or think, especially David and Chris. I am well known for having a cell phone but turning it off and also never listening to my messages. I feel that if something is really important it will be on face book. I also misplace my phone quite frequently as I did two days ago which ended up in a Felton/Morell family melt down. I left my phone at my Mom and Dad's house. They found my phone and tried to call me.  That didn't work but they kept trying and wondered why I didn't answer.  Dad finally convinced Mom to call my house phone. Rob and I haven't had a land phone for months so that didn't work either. Mom got frantic and called Cassie.  Cassie came over and convinced Mom that I couldn't answer my phone because they had my phone.  Cassie delivered my phone to me.  I didn't even know it was missing.  Mom now reminds me to take my phone with me. Now at this point you would think all is well.  It isn't!  Yesterday, I made sure I had my phone and I brought it in the house with me. Why, I have no idea but I felt compelled to put up the orange pumpkin Halloween lights for fall. So I headed outside with the tangle of lights, Buster on his lead, and guess what no phone!!!!  Well, Rob was at the Bikini Shoppe in Ormond.  He said he was looking at the clearance rack for me.  Like, I believe that.  Anyway, I didn't answer so he called Mom and Dad's house. They said I went home with my phone.  So, I guess they tried to call me. Guess, what folks?  I'm outside putting up lights. Then Rob called again, still no Debra.  Then Mom and Dad called again, still no answer. Them Mom and Dad called Justin in Morgantown. I guess at this point I must have been finished hanging the orange pumpkin light mess, which I have decided I will never do again. Hanging those lights kind of felt like having a root canal without my famous Dr. McHot. OK, back to the cell phone thing. As I walked in the house Justin called and wanted to know where I was and what I was doing. At this point I was so tempted but anyway I said I was home. "Why aren't you answering your phone, everyone is looking for you." I tried to explain I was hanging up the traditional orange lights and watching his dog. "Well, Dad is trying to call you!" Like, that has never happened before. Justin continues to give me the run down of the previous 955 phone calls I have missed and thousands of messages I've never listened to or responded to. OK, OK, I'll call everyone. First, I could Mom and Dad. Dad had already forgotten I was missing. Then I called Rob, who was still at the Bikini Shoppe.  I asked him what was so important. I could sense the desperation in his voice to come up with something. Here it is or so he says. He found a cute pink strapless sundress he thought I just couldn't live without.  REALLY ROB. It is rainy, cold, and it is probably going to snow here next week but if it will make you feel better buy the sun dress and get out of the bikini shoppe because I know what the girls in the bikini shoppe are wearing, and stop calling Mom and Dad when I'm missing. I want to be missing.  I HATE CELL PHONES!

Front Porches On Oak Street

I love front porches, especially front porches that people actually sit on. Oak Street in Rowlesburg has always been a front porch kind of street. Most of the homes were built in the early 1900's on Oak Street so front porches were a very useful extension to the home especially in the summer before AC.  In fact our house nor my parents still have central AC. There are early black and white photos of David and I fenced in on the front porch playing when we still wore diapers. As we grew, the mothers on the street would sit on their porches in the evening, visit back and forth, and watch us kids play. I've been sitting on Mom and Dad's front porch with them almost every day and have discovered again how much I like porches. Oak Street has a variety of front porches. Flicky's house has a big wrap around porch that we actually sat on it this past weekend and took a break from our chores. We indulged in a drink or two while chatting, laughing and appreciating the view of Cheat River and the hillside. Mom and Dad have a small front porch that is close the sidewalk and makes it perfect to visit with the neighbors and people walking by. Chris has been rebuilding his and Paula's front porch this summer and I try to stop by everyday and give him advice or a little supervision on his project. Joann has a beautiful front porch. Justin has a swing and a dining table for late evening meals on his and Cassie's porch. Cassie has added outdoor candles which is a nice romantic touch. Gwendolyn has a nice porch and her brother can be seen many days enjoying it when I walk up the street to Mom and Dad's house. Bob and Bonnie have a nice windowed in front porch with screens that they enjoy. We all enjoy decorating our porches on Oak Street with flowers and seasonal decorations. Gary and Anna have beautiful flowers and wind socks on their porch. Anna told me that they got the beautiful wind socks at the beach. I'm not sure if other streets and places enjoy their porches as much as we do on Oak Street. As a kid and now as an adult, I love the house on the corner of Oak Street where Miss B. Francis lived.  It has a wrap a round porch and a double upper/lower back porch. She always kept her porches nice and had a beautiful wisteria that grew on the front porch. Virginia's porch is pretty with its wicker furniture and flowers. Soon fall will be here, then winter and porch season will be gone. I will miss it.

Update on My Life

I know everyone who reads my blog is interested in every morsel of my life so I will catch everyone up today. Rob left for Florida with Midnight. He learned his lesson and medicated and put Midnight in his carrier before loading the car. I got out of bed to see him off and thought about going back to bed but was prevented from doing so by an endless series of phone calls and requests. Spent a couple of evenings having a night cap or two with Flicky on her front porch. Buster injured his foot and Justin's back is out or so he thinks. So those two have limped around all weekend. Chris threatened to come up but never showed. I've started putting together Mom and Dad's winter wardrobes because as Dad said, "I don't want David doing it!" David actually got "best dressed male" in our high school class. Honestly, I don't see how. Anyway, I like things to match and coordinate.  I'm still working on cleaning out Mom and Dad's basement because once I was almost finished my stupid brother Rickey started bringing things out of the attic and putting them in the basement.  The only good thing to come out of that was finding my Brownie Scout Sit- Upon. Justin did make Buster a cast for his foot, which I'm looking at right now because he is laying beside me. Justin wouldn't answer his phone until noon today so I left a message on his phone that I had fallen in Mom and Dad's basement and was bleeding to death. He obviously didn't care because he never came or called.  David called and said he was going golfing after school.  Now that is a big news flash to anyone who knows David. I washed clothes for Mom and Dad today, got the mail, cleaned up the kitchen, called in prescriptions, took them a snack, helped Dad adjust his new Berkinstocks, put Mom's hearing aids in, made out their grocery list, made them dinner, gave Dad his meds, talked to my brothers and tried to locate Flicky's bras which are very large and should be easy to find. Rob just called from South Carolina and said he had to go to the bathroom.  Some days seem to go on endlessly.

Finally, It All Makes Sense

For years I couldn't figure something out and today I finally did. It has to do with my brothers. I never seemed to be anything like my brothers. One, they are idiots and I'm not. Two, they have no sense of style and well everyone knows the Queen. Three, they have dumb hobbies like golf, bird watching and hunting. My hobbies are cultured and intellectual. Four, they can't cook or clean. Five, they don't appreciate fine art and fashion like me. Five, they don't like to read and they called me a "bookworm" when I was a little kid. As an adult, I have questioned whether they can even read. I love to read. Six, they have no sense of humor and I find myself very humorous. Seven, they have no idea how to decorate for the holidays and I am an expert at that also.  Eight, they have no common sense.  Nine, they never liked Barbies or dolls and I love both. Ten, they are annoying while I am more than delightful. So I got up the nerve to finally ask Dad the big question.  ARE MY THREE BROTHERS ADOPTED?  "YES,"  DAD REPLIED  "I THOUGHT YOU KNEW'  Finally, it all makes sense.