Observations

[Diane Amberg]

My internal clock broke in 2004. Prior to that I would sleep exactly 8 hours if not using the clock, and pop awake. No matter when I awoke I had to get up ,could never fall back asleep for several hours. But when I was so terribly sick with pneumonia in Jan.2004 it broke. Now I can fall asleep any time, any place and fall back to sleep no matter how long I've been sleeping. I can sleep for 10 or more hours straight with no problem .I hate it!

[Wilma]

I, too, enjoy an early hour before the rest of the world wakes up.  Actually, when the old bladder gets me up early in the morning, there isn't any use trying to go back to sleep.  Once awake, the aches and pains set in and going back to bed isn't comfortable enough to sleep.  The recliner, however, is an exellent place to sleep.  The coffeepot comes on at 4:00 so there is hot coffee and I have a choice of watching "Lucy" for a couple of hours or of just being quiet in the dark.  Sooner or later, I tune in the news and catch up with what the world is doing and my day begins. 

Long ago, while I was still working, I found that a half hour of silence in the morning before waking my husband, got me off to a good start.  There wasn't any rushing around trying to get out the door in time to get to work on time.  I was usually early to work and since we couldn't start anything like work until starting time, I would have maybe 15 minutes to read the paper, have some coffee or visit with co-workers.  A nice start to a work day.

[larryJ]

I mentioned on the thread "what are you doing for excitement" yesterday about going down to the beach to watch GD #3.  When my son and DIL left, she cried for about 20 minutes (this is normal) and then fell asleep in my arms.  Prior to my arrival it appears the little tyke had misplaced the remote control for the TV.  The house has been searched (I heard), but no remote.  All was not lost, tho, as they subscribe to Netflix and I was able to watch some Jeff Dunham skits. 

Then the baby woke and I fixed our dinner.  After another round of Jeff, for some reason, Netflix quit.  So now we couldn't watch TV.  We had been playing with a toy piano and a stack toy and reading a book..............well, looking at a book because I was trying to read it and she kept turning the pages before I was done. 

When the TV is not actually showing a show, it goes into a slide-show of their family pictures............thousands of them.  She and I watched as the pictures went by and she was really paying attention. 

Observation:  This kid is mommy's girl.  She would sit and watch the pictures and whenever a picture of mommy went by........

SHE WOULD CRY!..........until the next picture...............and these were going by at about 5 seconds each.  Another picture of mommy, another brief crying session.  This went on for about thirty minutes.  When mommy and daddy came home, I thought she might be dozing in my arms (I couldn't really see if her eyes were closed), but she saw movement out on the dark sidewalk in front of the house and sat straight up and was holding out her hands.  Mommy picked her up and everything was good.  My son is a good father and the baby loves him, but last night was all mommy.  After briefly holding her, mommy handed her off to daddy and went to change her clothes.  The kid cried the whole time mommy was out of the room.  Mommy came back and everything was good.

Gonna have to work on this one.  Can't have her getting upset every time mommy leaves the room.  Wait!  That's not my job. That's their job.  I'm just the grandpa aka baby sitter.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Welcome to separation anxiety.

[Ms Bear]

Children can be fickle, yesterday it was momma, tomorrow or next week it will be daddy, one week it might be you.  The good thing is this phase does not last long, once you accept it she will be in another phase for you to figure out.  Kids are good at being a step ahead of us.

[larryJ]

Yesterday upon returning home from picking up GD#1 from school, I noticed something sitting on top of the telephone pole in my next door neighbor's yard.  I couldn't quite see what it was (no glasses) so I got my binoculars and checked it out.  It was a huge black bird, maybe three times the size of a crow.  I'm thinking hawk, but wrong shape head, or eagle, but not big enough and wrong color, a mutated crow.............

I looked on the Internet for black birds in SoCal.  It was a raven, a really big raven.  I have never seen one of those around here before.  When I was a kid in New Mexico, my oldest brother had found a raven with a broken wing and kept it in one of the trees with a chain on its foot.  He kept it until he could see that it was ready to fly and then let it go.

I blame all these unusual sightings on my wife's cousin.  Since she has been living here, all kinds of animals not normally seen have been observed.  A squirrel, not rare, but we never had one in our trees.  Cats that are not known to belong to anyone have been coming around.  Mice, haven't had one of those in years.  And now, a raven.  I going to start calling her Dr. Doolittle.

Larryj

[larryJ]

There are many young children in this neighborhood and for some reason they tend to congregate in my front yard.  This is not a problem.  They are well-behaved kids and on the days when my granddaughters are here, they have a wonderful time. 

In our front yard, there is a big Liquid Amber tree with the leaves just now turning brown and gold and sometimes purple.  For some reason, and not from any suggestions from me, these kids try to rake all the leaves up in a pile to play in.  Of course, they don't clean the leaves up very good, but that's okay because the gardener will do it. 

Observation:  Yesterday, my two oldest granddaughters were outside waiting for Nana to take them to the library and I was sitting on the swing watching them...............raking up leaves.  The weather forecast had said that we would have strong winds during the night....a Santana wind with gusts up to 60 miles per hour.  While watching the girls, I was tempted to get out my leaf blower and wow them with it's ability to clean up leaves, but I thought that would be cruel and not worth the effort. 

During the night, approximately 3 AM, the winds came.  I was not aware of the winds until R.A.M.B.O. started barking.  I got up to see what his problem was and determined that he was hearing sounds he was not used to and was barking at them.  Sir Charles just laid there and looked at him with an expression of "should I be barking, too?" on his face. 

So I have been awake since then, the winds have stopped, the dogs are securely snuggled at my feet..............sleeping........jerks.  At first light, I brought in my paper and noticed that all the leaves are now someone else's problem.  The yard is clean except for along the fence where there are piles of leaves.  All my next door neighbor's Christmas decorations will have to be redone.....glad I haven't put mine up, yet. 

It's going to be a long day.  Maybe I will take two naps instead of my usual one. 

Larryj

[Ms Bear]

I was wondering how you were doing with the wind.  Glad to hear they have stopped, seems like I remember it blowing for days at a time.  Glad you didn't lose power where you are.

[larryJ]

Venturing out into the yard, I found:  One of the chimes from the wind chime laying in the grass, the cover barely hanging on the BBQ, the swing was still upright, but a plastic chair was turned over, and now for the back.  We have.............had a 6 foot oval shaped table with a glass top.  In the center was an umbrella anchored by an umbrella base under the table.  When I first looked at it, if appeared as if the umbrella had blown over...........and pulled the table with it..............and all the glass was laying on the patio in itsy bitsy pieces.  The umbrella pole was totally wrecked.  Looking across the yard where he have............had a metal rod arch over a gate covered by a beautiful Wisteria, was laying on the ground, bent in several places.

So, we have spent the last six hours cleaning up.  All the glass swept up and the umbrella disassembled and the table frame dismantled and everything headed for the trash.  I took apart the arch, at least what I could, but it, too, was bent totally out of shape.  I had hoped to save the Wisteria, but when I took a closer look, it was cracked and couldn't be helped.  My neighbor found his spark arrestor from his chimney and at last glance, had a roof man looking at his roof, of which some of the flashing was in my yard.  They say we will have winds again tonight.  I finally ran out of steam and  had to quit.  The gardeners will come tomorrow morning and clean up the rest.

Joy.   

Larryj

[Ms Bear]

I hope tonight's won't be as bad as they were last night.  It's been over 40 years since I lived with the Santa Ana winds but still remember them.

I wish I could give you some of my wisteria, it has taken over some trees and the blackberry patch, and the runners are coming up about 10 feet from the plant.  If they ever lift the burn ban here I will do some major trimming on it.  Have three large piles to burn now and will add to them while they are burning when I can.