I Love New York Travel

Doesn’t that look like a photo from the 70s? The exposure has an old time feel to it. I didn’t do it on purpose. My DSLR camera did it. You know, I’ve had that thing for months now, and I STILL haven’t had time to read the manual and watch the instruction video?? :-p I am terrible with manuals, I admit it. I wish I had the patience to read them! But I’m a little like my dad– I like to jump into things like motor home repairs and just figure things out. But the camera exposure I cannot figure out. Yet. I have to read the manual. Mmhm.

Anyway. Back to the mugo. It’s cute. It’s my only one in the yard. Years ago, I had purchased two mugos (mugoes?) from an online nursery. I planted them near a young maple tree, expecting them to grow to be only about 2-3 feet high. Um, these suckers aren’t mugos! The nursery gave me Scotch pines!!! These babies are (so far) 12 feet tall! I didn’t realize they were full-grow trees until a few years ago, much too late for me to contact the nursery and too late for me to transplant them. ugh. So they sit in the beds, still, squishing the other plants nearby. lol.

Fall is almost over. The days have been very nice, but I expect the temperatures will be dropping soon. We still don’t have our heaters installed downstairs yet!! :-O

*SIGH*

Another season nears its end. The whole year was an awesome blur. So much happened this year, that is it stunning when I ponder it. My dad died this year. So did my dog. We finally got our new kitchen, our dream of the past 13 years finally coming to fruition. I got a job with a writing company, which has enabled my income to rise (yay!). My daughter got her two precious puppies (Yorkies) this year. And school for the kids has been intense, with lots of homework and activity.

So I missed spring, summer, and autumn this year. POOF! All gone. So fast. No more.

You’d think that missing a few seasons wouldn’t be such a big deal. I mean, we get them every year! But I did miss them. I missed weeding my vegetable garden. I missed pruning and caressing my perennials. I missed raking the leaves and smelling that exhilarating crispy leaf smell. I was too busy in the basement and in the attic… making the home livable again. And warm for the first time in 155 years. Oh, make that the ONLY time. Insulation is a beautiful thing, I tell you. Installing it is a PAIN– it’s very abrasive and we nearly needed acne scar cream, it was so intense. But it’s DONE and it’s WARM in here.

I wonder how winter will be for me. Things surely will slow down SOMETIME. Won’t they?

Over the summer, while we renovated the kitchen and relocated into the garage, we allowed Livvy (my cat) into the previously verboten garage to be with us. Since the only thing separating us from the wild outdoors was a rickety old overhead garage door, we had lots of bugs join us in the cramped reverie. Fun. Earwigs, flies, bees, spiders, and the occasional cricket would squeeze between the door’s gaps and skitter under our feet.

Livvy took great interest in the crickets. I like crickets, and don’t mind them too much (they don’t sting). Livvy would go bananas when she heard the chirping of the cricket in some dark inaccessible corner of the garage. She would hunt for the critter between the storage boxes of books and Forex trading software, drive the poor creature out of his hiding place, and gently bat him so as to make him hop. She was fascinated with the critters.

Well, crickets are no more. Not the bug kind, anyway. Our renovation is (for the most part) over, we are back in the house, and the bugs are kicking the buckets as Jack Frost is on the way. However, we did get a Yorkie pup. His name is, oddly enough, Cricket. We sometimes call him Cricket Bug.

Livvy has this “thing” with crickets.

If only they didn’t bark! I think she would tolerate them better. LOL.

All my kids are just amazing. Really. They are witty, intelligent, fun, friendly. Look at how cute that kid is. When other kids are “dissing” their parents or fretting about mild acne, this guy is having a blast with his “shades” and new bass guitar.

We watched an old bass guitar instructional video by Billy Sheehan. It was made sometime in the late 80s. It is hilarious! Not just the BIG HAIR hairstyles, but because Sheehan is so entertaining. He’s bright and very witty, as well as very good on the bass. I had no idea who Sheehan was before watching the video (after being informed by my musical hubs), but as he talked on the video and made goofy jokes and remarks, I thought, “Boy, this guy seems like he is from Upstate NY.” I asked my Hubs where Sheehan was from.

“Guess,” he said.

He can’t be from New York, I thought. Low-ball your guess, just in case. “Um… Connecticut New Jersey?” I timidly guessed.

“No.” he said. “He’s from New York! Buffalo!”

“I knew it!!” I said.

The Hubs just looked at me with a Suuuuure-You-Did look, and laughed.

I DID know it. I just didn’t say it.

Anyway. I love my kids. They are in their teens and I can’t understand what all the societal hooplah is about teenagers?! Mine are TOTALLY amazing! I now wish that I had had more children so as to enjoy more of this!

Vegetables WERE supposed to grow in here this year. :-p So much for my healthier eating and natural best weight loss supplements. The weeds swallowed up everything. I can’t believe how pervasive weeds are! They grow even though you beat them back! Whereas vegetables and flowers are wimpy and require coddling! Thanks a lot, Adam! Grrr.

I think we got out here twice to weed this past summer. The crops were pretty bad. LOL Gotta laugh. Just too busy to do anything in the gardens this year. We’ll see if next year I can redeem the time. But WOW that garden looks pretty bad, huh? LOL