It's like opening the front door again and again.

It's so funny to me that I feel possessive of Pensacola Beach when I don't even like going to the beach that much.  It's sticky, sandy (and when that sand gets in places it shouldn't be it'll make you swear off going to the beach for the rest of your life), and it's typically HOT out there.  I don't like hot.  So I don't really "do" the beach.  But by golly they have messed up MY beach and I don't like it. 

Massive amounts of crude oil washed up on Pensacola Beach today.  We've had tar balls for I think a couple of weeks now... honestly, time is all running together with this disaster.  At least when we had Hurricane Ivan there were specific stages.  There was the storm itself, which I survived with the aid of pharmaceuticals.  This lasted the course of one night.  Really more like an evening and a night because I started getting jumpy when the breeze picked up.  Then we had the morning after the storm.  I remember opening the front door of my parents' house and taking my first look outside... I remember the shock.  The realization that a tornado had gone through the front yard only feet away from where my entire family slept in the living room and master bedroom.  (Okay, so I would later learn that those of us with pharmaceutical aid had slept - the others notsomuch.)  But I remember that intense shock of opening that door and seeing the trees in our yard.  And later walking around the back yard... the neighborhood... the city... being met with more shock, though none of it as intense as that very first look.  Then there was the clean up stage where it seemed like the neighbors we had never met before all came together to clear the streets and the yards.  And after that was the waiting-for-the-electricity-to-come-back-on stage.   That was the longest.  I think we went 14 days without power.  But somehow, believe it or not, that wasn't the worst part of the whole ordeal.  It was miserable and hot and humid and eventually moldy in certain parts of the house.  But it didn't even touch the way I felt when we opened that front door for the first time.

And now...  I feel like someone keeps opening the front door on the oil spill.  Each new wave of tar balls, tar mats, media frenzy, clean up frenzy...  each time it happens the front door opens again and I'm slapped in the face.  That beach that I took for granted all these years is suddenly MY front yard.  The crude oil covering the beautiful white sand and soiling the emerald green waters is the equivalent of the pecan tree I loved as a child being ripped up by its roots and flung aside.  Discarded as though it had no value on this Earth. 

The biggest difference is that with Ivan we knew the end was in sight.  We survived the storm.  We had a house to live in.  We knew Gulf Power wanted to get back to charging us for electricity and they'd have the power restored as soon as they could.  We also knew what to expect because we had  been through it before.  But this is different.  The storm is still happening.  Instead of lasting the span of a single night it is still happening right NOW.  They still don't have a cap on the spill.  We don't know when it will end.  Simply put, this is the longest storm our Gulf of Mexico has ever experienced. 

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I love strawberries.

Strawberries are the most amazing fruit.  Well, okay, strawberries and watermelon actually tie for first place in my book, but strawberries are much more accessible and they're easier to fit in the refrigerator.  But seriously... what is better than a sweet, juicy strawberry?  The only thing I can think of is lots of sweet, juicy strawberries cut up on top of vanilla ice cream.  It's so good that you have to lick the bowl when you're done.  If you don't, you're not a true Dewberry.

When I was growing up, my Mamaw and Papaw always had a garden.  I really wish I had pictures of their gardens.  I remember them so fondly.  At first Papaw planted corn because they wanted to grow corn.  When he saw how much Kelly and I enjoyed running through the rows of corn (and as we grew older and bigger) he started planting them just a little further apart so it would be easier for us to get through.  And eventually I think he ended up only planting a few rows JUST for us.  Because he knew we liked it.  There were always green tomatoes sitting in the kitchen windowsill waiting to get ripe.  And oh, the tangerine tree!  We'd have to climb on the roof of the garage every year to get to them but they were so worth it.  The tangerine tree was an event in and of itself.

While they never grew strawberries (that I remember), we would go to strawberry patches in Alabama and pick our own every couple of years.  It was hot and it was a lot of bending and hard work, but it was so worth it.  We would fill boxes - and eat a few along the way!  We would stop at the scales and see how much we had picked and pay for them.  And when we got home we'd eat strawberries and vanilla ice cream until we made ourselves sick.  Whenever I think of Papaw the first thing that comes to mind is sitting on the back screened porch around that funny old table they used to have (I think it was from the 60's) and him with a bowl to his lips, getting those last few drops.  I don't know if he licked the bowl to put on a show for us or if he licked it all the time.  But it brings a grin to my lips just thinking about it.  I hate that my nephews (and my own kids if I ever have them) will never get to meet their Papaw.  But I think I need to get them some strawberries and vanilla ice cream this summer.  Because they've got Dewberry blood in 'em and they need to experience the strawberries.  And maybe next year they'll be old enough to take to a strawberry patch!

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We spend a lot of time at the vet.

How thick is YOUR chart at the vet's office?

This Saturday we had to take Russ and Bailey to the vet.  Sometimes I feel like we spend half our weekends there and it's a running joke that we own some of the bricks in their new building.  I know my way around the entire building, including the back rooms, the kennel out back, and the old building that is now used for surgeries and hospitalizations!  They don't ask my name when we walk in the door and I don't have to spell my last name every time I call anymore.  The techs know Bailey by sight and most of them like her and are excited to see her when we visit.  They have seen her tricks and she usually behaves well for her tests and such (as long as the treat bag is in the picture).

And it's partially because of all of this that I was devastated when I found out that our primary vet is moving.  And not just across town or to the next city over...  she's moving to Texas.  That's very, very far away and it makes me sad.  She was with us through most of Chase's illness and even mailed us a trinket box after he died with a beautiful letter.  And she has been with us through Bailey's mystery illnesses and Monkey's daily vomiting before he was diagnosed (when I was ready to give up and drop him off at the animal shelter) and when Isabelle had to have surgery for her mystery lump.  She has been there for all of it over the last few years, and there has been plenty.

Anyhow.  Russ was ill a few weeks ago with vomiting and bloody diarrhea.  He was a sick guy and ended up spending the night at the clinic.  Since his white blood cells were low and he had never been tested, Dr D decided to test him for feline leukemia.  At this point I trust her judgment and basically approve any test she wants to run.  She knows our financial limitations and she has never pushed us to do anything outrageously expensive.  So if she thinks this is a test that needs to be run, we'll run it.  And it came back "faintly positive."  When she told me my stomach dropped and I felt ill.  None of our cats have ever been vaccinated because they have always been inside only.  There hasn't been a need for it.  But it appeared as though somehow someone had introduced this horrid virus into our home.  I'll go ahead and skip to the good part...  Russ tested feline leukemia negative this time.  We redid the in-house test, which Dr D says has the highest sensitivity.  It was negative.  I was still prepared to send the blood sample off to the lab for confirmation but she said she didn't think we needed to.  I finally allowed myself to believe the good news and I was SO relieved. This means we don't have to test and vaccinate all of the cats right now.  However...  I had him vaccinated.  And as each of the cats come due for their shots in the coming year I will have each of them tested and vaccinated.  For my own peace of mind.

So then it was Bailey's turn!  Quite frankly I had made up a reason for her to go in and see Dr D and play dead one last time because I knew that Dr D wanted to see her and say goodbye.  So I made an appointment to have her anal glands expressed.  (Turned out she really needed this done anyway, so...  good thing.)  But in the last week she has started limping!  I kept assuring her that she just needed to hang in there for the week and Dr D would make her all better.

(At one point Dr D left us in the room while she went to check on something and I pulled out my iPhone and started snapping pictures of the xrays.  Of course!)

So Dr D was impressed that I could tell her exactly where the problem was and what it felt like.  Even though I didn't know the name of the ailment (and can't remember it now), she said most people can't describe that particular issue to her.  (Or maybe most patients' parents...  I don't think ANY of her patients actually talk to her.)  But an xray showed she has arthritis and a "bone spur" that we're not really sure about.  She's going to consult with one of the other doctors about the xrays this week (he was on vacation last week) and they're going to give me a call.  In the mean time, we've effectively adjusted Bailey's estimated age from three years old to five years old because she has arthritis.  And she's on pain meds to help with the pain and we're supposed to attempt to keep her relatively calm.  HA!  Any of you who have met Bailey know that's not an easy feat.

So this means that Bailey will not be starting any sort of agility training.  We had hoped to get her involved in something now that her respiratory issues appear to be resolved.  (And as an added bonus to the elbow xrays we also got to check out her lungs and heart - and they're clear!)  She really needs some sort of stimulus.  She has taken to herding my shoes when I leave them out.  She moves them to her favorite spot on the landing.  She's also very rigid with her schedule and she's always working us - guarding us.  It means she's often not as cuddly as I'd like.  I just feel really bad that she's such a smart dog who would really enjoy a better job than what we're giving her at the moment but she'll never really be able to fully live up to her potential because of physical constraints. It makes me sad for her.  And I'm going to have to come up with a new game besides herding mommy's shoes...  at least she only chews on the strappy ones - anything other than sandals and flip flops are safe from destruction.

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I had a busy day!

This is going to have to be a quick post because it's almost 11pm and I had intended to be in bed by 10.  I figure since my doctor has me on meds and stuff to try and sort my body out I should do everything I can to help it be balanced - and that includes going to bed at a decent time even on the weekends and (this is the hard part) getting up at a normal time on the weekends.  So here's a quick summary of my day because I'd like to share it!


I started out the day going to the Preparedness Expo put on by SAFER Santa Rosa.  I'm on the Marketing and Public Relations committee now and they asked me to take pictures.  There weren't too many people there so I made a quick circuit of the exhibits and called it a success.  I'm still relatively new to SAFER and don't really know anyone yet.  I chatted with a few vendors and they were really nice.


After that I headed to the Milton Gardens on the PJC Milton campus.  I'd heard about it but never been to actually check it out for myself.  Honestly, I was sort of disappointed.  I've been to a couple of botanical gardens in Birmingham, so I guess I had pretty high expectations.  This garden didn't seem all that organized or kept.  I suppose it's probably a work in progress.  I'll check it out again next year to see what they've done with it.


After that I make a quick stop at home to grab some lunch and some client items I needed to deliver.  I rehydrated (it's HOT out there already!) and headed to the Demonstration Garden maintained by the University of Florida in Escambia County.  WOW!  It was so much better.



There were nicely maintained pathways as well as lush grass and even a swing in one corner.  I actually sat on the swing and just enjoyed some quiet time looking at the flowers and playing with my camera.  I will definitely be going back to check it out for more flowers soon.


My favorite part was probably "Whimsical Lane."  There were some creative decorations, most using glass bottles.


Then I stopped by Kelly's to visit for a little while.  :)  Tyler was sleeping so I had some quality time with Kelly and Landon (who probably should have been sleeping).  He ended up playing games on Kelly's iPhone.  I was impressed with the learning games they had on there and the fact that he can identify letters now!  Last time I tried doing his flash cards with him he either didn't know them or was pretending he didn't.

It started POURING while I was there, but I had told a client I would deliver the custom items they had ordered...  to Navarre.  I wanted to go out and see the beach and take some pictures anyway, so driving down there wasn't a big deal.  However, things didn't really work out like I had hoped.  I made it to my client's house and dropped off their stuff, but when I left it was once again POURING.  So instead of turning to go to the beach I turned to go home.

Don't worry, I can pretty much take a picture with my iPhone blindfolded and/or in my sleep...  there was no danger in my taking this picture, and I didn't send it anywhere until I was at a complete stop.  Which came sooner than I'd planned, actually.  As I was driving on 87 North toward Milton I hit a major "puddle" and hydroplaned so badly that my shoulders hurt from the tension and holding the wheel straight.  So I pulled over.  I actually ended up in a church parking lot and the church was called Harbor at Holley.  I thought that fitting since I was seeking shelter from the weather.

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People can be so rude.

I wonder if that old saying "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" applies to blogs?  Because right now I'd really like to go off on a tirade about the rudeness I encountered at work today.  Not your typical upset defendant or anything like that, but a person who works here in the courthouse.  And not the person who has a history of being rude with me, either.  No, those things I have come to expect.  But this one took me totally by surprise. 

It seems like a blog would be a perfectly natural place to go and vent about things like that.  But I read Dooce.  I know the dangers of blogging about your work place if you intend to remain employed.  And I also don't want people to think of me as being negative and whining about things.  I'll reserve that special privilege for my husband, mom, and closest friends who will love me anyway.  ;) 

So... coming to the realization that I can't whine and complain about things on my blog...  this might be a very boring blog!  Heh.  Sorry about that if that does turn out to be the case.  But I guess it just means I need to take more notice of the POSITIVE interactions I have in my life.  I love making sure people know when I appreciate their efforts.  When we bought our refrigerator and dishwasher back during the Energy Star rebate program, I wrote a letter to Lowe's to tell them how excellent our sales person was.  And when my dentist took the time to find a different type of floss for me and give me samples (because desipte having four regular teeth and eight wisdom teeth removed my head is still overcrowded...) I told her how much I appreciated her actually trying to find the right fit for me.  Most people are content to make a slight effort at something and then go on about their business, comforting themselves with the thought, "oh, well, I tried."  But that often isn't sufficient.  So make a point of thanking people when they go out of their way for you.  Make a point of writing letters when you receive excellent customer service.  Because I can guarantee you the managers hear plenty about the bad and not enough about the good!

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