Tuesday, December 9, 2008

I'm Back

Well friends, sorry I've been away so long. I've been focusing my concentration on my sweet friend Michelle. She faced the devil and he backed off! 
Having survived a horrendous surgery, Michelle is home and recovering well.  She still has a hard row to hoe. Michelle is going to have to endure radiation AND chemo-therapy. Those are the big obvious things. There are niggling everyday things involved with the recovery from cancer that the rest of us barely consider. Michelle lost her nose; the surgery required to save her life, removed the middle of her face! Think about that!!!
It is so difficult for me to write about it. Imagine how difficult it is to have it happening to you.
To be continued...

Friday, November 21, 2008

Sweet Michelle vs Evil Cancer

Well folks, the second surgery went well and they are confidant that they got all of the cancer out. So this is GOOD NEWS. Michelle is finally out from under the knife and that f------ disease has been cut out. She phoned me this evening from the ICU and it was an unmitigated joy to hear her voice, I must say. (To borrow from Ed Grimley). Her spirits are just what you would imagine. She is quite the trooper. (I want her on my side forever.)
Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts and...well...vibes.
Now comes the follow up..she should be home in 5 days. She finally gets to be back in her own bed with her little doggie Kukla for company. Then comes six weeks of healing before the radiation begins.
I will pass along your greetings.



Saturday, November 15, 2008

Evil Cancer

My excellent friend Michelle was diagnosed with cancer last month. She was told that she had 6 months to live or submit to a possibly radical facial surgery. Being the courageous trooper that she is, she of course opted for the surgery. "I want to BE here!" she said to me.
Yesterday our Mizshely underwent a horrendous surgery that removed her nose, her maxillary and ethmoid sinuses, part of her upper lip and a minute part of her hard palate. Unbelievably awful. While they were operating they discovered more cancer just at the edge of her skull, behind her eyebrows.
Now there is more to come as they will have to also take skin and blood vessels from another part of her body to aid in reconstruction of this brow area. The reconstuction of the entire middle of her face is a whole other ball game.
If there is actually anyone out there in cyberspace who reads my blog, PLEASE think of Michelle now and then and send her all your best thoughts. I believe that energy sent en masse actually can affect outcomes. If you call it prayer, then pray just once today for all you're worth, for my Michelle. She has spent her lifetime doing for others. Now it's our turn to do for her. Peace and Thank You a thousand times.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Not All About Me

Something else rotten happened last month but I didn't want to lump it into my little diatribe of what really amounts to just an unusual concentration of life's little foibles.
My good friend Michelle was diagnosed with cancer and is having to face the consequences of that. Sometimes, life just sucks.

Bad Luck

Never believed in bad luck per se...still don't really but what would you call it if...
All in the space of a month, though not in this particular order, my blood pressure monitor broke, my microwave oven went kaput, my dial up modem went belly up and my car radiator had to be replaced. The car I had to borrow while mine was in the shop also had a radiator leak causing me to have to add coolant every morning and several times a day while running errands. Oh by the way, the borrowed car is a freakin' 1992 Chevy Suburban with oh...I'm guessing about 15 miles to the gallon. Meanwhile, six months of dental work and $5000 (already paid!) was supposed to culminate in a shining new mouth of teeth, caps, crowns and implants and for the first time ever in a long history of dental experience, the lab screwed up and the crowns for my new implant were made wrong making me have to wait another three weeks!! More...I work as a housekeeper. During the past three days, TWO vacuum cleaners went on the fritz. One actually had it's motor blow up and the other one is screwed up although I believe it's repairable. Today, the very day my employer is coming home after being gone for a month, the toilet in one of her bathrooms sprung a water leak and completely soaked the carpet outside the bathroom. I think there was something else also, but it escapes me at the moment.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Abortion

The absolutely heinous ritual of aborting helpless little barely formed human beings could be largely eliminated by raising the consciousness of the right wing religious nut jobs who refuse to acknowledge the reality of sexual desire. In other words, when young humans feel that sexual urge, they are going to respond to it. Period.
When your daughters begin menstruation, start them on the pill. Period. Don't babble your religious babble, just PREVENT PREGNANCY. 
How horrid that you would rather take the chance of someone killing a teeny little being rather than accept the undeniable sexual aspect of the human animal. That is untenable to me. I'm sick to death of hearing about "The Abortion Issue". You all accept a pill to give men a freakin' erection..at the same time denying your daughters a pill to prevent murder!!!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Protection

When you wear really stupid hats, you also have to wear a hockey mask to protect your goofy face from the things people are certain to throw at you. I wish I had that mask today!!!

Whatever happened to...

...Eddy Washington. He worked for Hal Kant for awhile in Reno. I visited him there in 1991 on my way to Montana. I think he was working on becoming a lawyer. He was living in my home town, Edmonton, Alberta when I was there in 1989 taking care of my very ill parents and was a good friend and huge support at the time. Can't find him on Google...anyone know where he might be?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Procrastination

I'm supposed to be writing. I mean, I imagined myself writing a book. What arrogance. Now I'm realizing that if I could produce even one coherent sentence a day I'd be thrilled. I get online and just tool around the internet wasting time. Now I'm here blogging for gosh sakes.  I guess I actually have produced 7 coherent sentences. Wow what a writer! Oh my there's 9!!!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The World's Ugliest Candle

I own it! And I have another just like it!!!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Quote of the Day

"Be careful of your tongue; it's kept in a wet place and could easily slip."
-Unknown-

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Quote of the Day

"I signed up with a temp agency and much to my dismay they actually found me a job. It had been a couple of years since I'd worked in an office, so I thought I should prepare for it. I went to the YMCA with a friend and had him tie me up in a burlap sack and sink me to the bottom of the pool. Just as I was about to suffocate, he yanked me up and gave me a lunch break."
Martha Kelly

Friday, July 25, 2008

Past Flash

Thought I'd get the jump on Mizshely before she posts this. I lost a lot of memorabilia from "Ramrod". I have a few photos and I just found this old thing. Bay Area Legend indeed!!! Firstly the song is titled "Hello Mary Lou", secondly, if my memory serves me, we did not perform that song...anyway I guess those details are really not important in the light of time. Ah memories!
You know what to do if you want to read the article, just click on the thing.

Friday, July 4, 2008

My Peonies













My giant exquisite perfumed Peonies!!
Takes four years after transplanting peonies for them to bloom again. This year I finally have my beauties back!!!
Happy Fourth everyone!!!

Do Anything Just Do Something!

This is a great way to do something for someone else and yourself at the same time. Check out this website:


http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Friday, June 27, 2008

Life in Eden

This evening, for the first time in my life, I deliberately killed a living creature. It was laying there bold as life in the middle of my neighbor's driveway. The only weapon I had, and a handy one it was indeed, was my car. I had to drive over it 10 times before I was finally satisfied that it was dead. I felt GREAT satisfaction. That is one MF rattlesnake that will not crawl into my yard this summer!!!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Connections

Re-connected with an old friend this week. I just LOVE when that happens. It makes you re-examine yourself. Her name is Sandy and she lives in a wonderful little town in Oregon...she's got the mountains AND the ocean. While trying to tell her in less than an hour why I came to Montana, I got bogged down in the details of HOW I came to be here. I neglected to mention the most important reason. I was born a country girl in Alberta. Of course I was drawn to the city. Couldn't wait to leave the damn prairies. Youth always requires what it doesn't have. I spent 35 years in urbania, living an exciting life meeting incredible people, traveling to exotic places, making music with some of the best, but there was always that pull back to the country. I'm really Ferdinand in the flowers. THAT's really why I'm here. I am intensely delighted when that doe in the pasture behind my house finally lets me get a glimpse of her new fawn. The lilacs around my house perfume the evenings and when they're gone, I wait impatiently for my peonies to bloom. They're opening as we speak! The mountain snows melting have turned the normal lazy turns of the Bitterroot River into a rushing swishing singing torrent. That's what excites me now.

"Love to throw yourself on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love."
Feodor Dostoyevsky

I wish I could learn to love myself the way I love the earth that spawned me.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Comfort Zones

So...Catherine tells me I should move out of my comfort zone. Makes me think of just what a comfort zone is. Must be a comfortable place eh?...and so it is. So, why, after I have developed such a peaceful place, should I leave it?
Think I'll stay here.
Quote for the day:
"To be enlightened is to lighten up."
Mike Meyers

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Quote for the Day2

"Be careful what you dream
 Soon your dreams will be dreamin' you"

Willie Nelson

Quote for the Day

"Reality is for people who can't face drugs."

Laurence J. Peter- author of the Peter Principle which is, for those few who don't know,

"In A Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to the Level of His Incompetence."

(Thanks to Bob. W. for the reminder.)

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Quote for the Day2

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."

Albert Einstein

Quote for the Day

"The thing that astonished him was that cats should have two holes cut in their coat exactly at the place where their eyes are."

G.C. Lichtenberg

Saturday, June 7, 2008

A good day...

Up at S's this morning to take care of the pets, Dylan's Jack of Hearts on the radio. Crossing the ditch bank I notice a dead rattler in the water. Good place for a rattler. Maybe drowned in the recent high water. Behind the barn I saw my second Western Tanager of the season. Some years ya don't see any and then wow! Up at the house there was an eagle riding the thermals over the meadow with a flock of cowbirds twittering away nervously in the bushes below. Must have nests there. Back in the car, Jack of Hearts just winding down...all in all a good start to my Saturday.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Singing

Seems that these days, I only sing enough of a song to remember how it goes, refresh the chords in my memory and to prove to myself that I could sing it if I wanted to. Then I lose interest. May be 'cause when there ain't ears to hear, the tree falling in the forest may just as well be silent.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Mizshelly

Good thoughts to my good friend Michelle who became gravely ill last week. I shall leave it up to her to divulge the details in her own blog as she does that so well. Suffice it to say that she is home from the hospital and I await further word.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Memorial Day 2008

I would like to take this opportunity to remember in no particular order, family, friends and special people who touched my life and passed on.
My mother, Marie Schommer (nee Lange), my father, Joseph Schommer, my sister Gwen, my Aunt Hilda, my sister-in-law Louise Schommer (nee Goudie) Dan McInerney, Jerry Garcia, Bill Graham, John Lennon & George Harrison, my wonderful dog, Buddy, David Torbert, Frankie Weir, Ramrod and his wife Frances, John Hagen, Sandy Barton, Don Pearson, Spencer Dryden,
Chester & Connie Holmquist, Keith Godchaux, Ron (Pigpen) McKernan, John Cippolina, Janis Joplin & Waylon Jennings.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Greeting

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. (You know who you are.)

Bill Graham

Just read Bill Graham's book,  "My Life In Rock and Out". It is a must read. What a saga!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Thought for the Day

Doing the right thing is not always the right thing to do.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Eight Belles

What an awful thing happened to the filly Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby.
If anything positive can be said about the incident it is that millions witnessed it and maybe people will begin to question the criminal carelessness practiced by these people who make big money, using these animals to death. Horses give whatever is asked by us. Every time I watch a high stakes horse race I am on the edge of my seat, not that my favorite wins or loses, but rather, praying that each of those magnificent horses gets to return to it's stable safe and sound. Sound is a key word as you will read at the following site..

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Quote

"Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves."
Italian Proverb

Saturday, April 5, 2008

a bushel of Peach

In the interests of putting it on the record that I think cats are...well...just the cats meouw, may I introduce you to Peaches.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Short

"Never raise your hand to your children...it leaves your midsection unprotected."
Robert Orben

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Short

"People say you have to travel to see the world. Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all that you can handle."

Paul Auster

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Baggage

All these years of dragging around the suitcase of "someday"...I finally realize that someday is here and I can set down the baggage and travel light. There is disappointment in the missed goals and lost chances yet, je ne regret rien. Boy have I had a ride!!! Write about it? Okay...I'll try.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Misconceptions

Apparently there is an insidious email going around regarding Canada's role in the Iraq conflict. Canadians do not have the great urge to brag or beat their chests the way Americans do.
Please click on this link to clarify a few things.


Canada in Iraq

Responsibility re Pets


Here are Peaches and Huckleberry...contented, cared for, spoiled beyond reason..lucky campers. But there are so many others. Please read on:


Last Friday evening, a sweet little orange 9-10 week old kitten showed up at my kitchen window. He was so friendly and didn't seem to be in too much physical distress so I didn't feed him hoping he was just visiting and would return to his home if I didn't respond. He was back again on Saturday evening with a little long haired black female, emaciated and terribly dull-eyed, obviously in bad shape. I couldn't help it...I put out some kibble for them which of course they gobbled up in minutes! Sunday I fed and watered them again planning to take them to the shelter after work on Monday...which I did. I had no sooner arrived back home when I heard a series of plaintive mews and here comes another out from under my barn. I snatched her up and raced back to the shelter before it closed. The next morning a neighbor who knows I have two cats of my own, phoned to ask about them as she had found a little orange kitten, dead, hit by a car, in the ditch between our houses.
So...apparently someone dumped four kittens. In our sparsley populated neighborhood, these people could be pretty sure of doing their dirty deed without being observed.
This is not a new story, just another awful example of how badly people disrespect the little animals who expect care and consideration from us.
To those people, I wish to say this. Obviously you had some issues with yourselves as animal caretakers or else you would have stepped up to the plate and taken responsibility for the litter of kittens you did not want. Please, people, don't treat our amazing little animal friends like garbage. Whatever the reason is that you ended up with four little critturs that you didn't want or couldn't afford...whatever the reason, all you had to do was take them to the shelter. That's what it's there for. That's what they do. Although they certainly see first hand the inhumanity to animals they do not judge.The people at the Humane Association shelters are kindly caring people. They would have just taken these little guys off your hands and tended to their needs.
A message to every other animal lover in the county, drop off a five dollar bill now and then or a sack of kitty kibble or dog chow at your local animal shelter. Truly a good deed.
Every time you pet your kitty or hug your dog, remember that there are little critturs out there abandoned and in need.

Misconceptions

There is a nasty email going around concerning Canada's role in the Iraq conflict. Being a Canadian I find it personally disturbing. Please check out the following link....thank you. Please cut and paste. Thank you.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8110

Friday, February 15, 2008

Fame

Quote:
"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."
Erma Bombeck 1927-1966

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Short

If George W can do it...
How hard can it be?

Kinky Freedman

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Highly recommended

There is an excellent magazine that I believe every thinking/feeling person should be aware of. Check out their website. They also offer a great opportunity to submit your own writing. Check it out.

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/