Backpacks & Birthdays

Only 9 days left in the school year! I packed up the kids backpacks this morning with lunch money, snack and the usual things and was thinking about all the kids that died in the earthquake. Just heartbreaking. Now there is a huge lake forming where the river was due to landslides creating barriers to the water flow. China is evacuating thousands of people in advance of the high probability of flooding. AP, Reuters and the news bunnies have the lake rising at 3 feet a day. 3 feet a day! Forget about walking- run. Get out now! I wonder where do you go and just how do you get there with so much devastation. The humanity of human beings must shine now with so much aid coming in and still more needed.


In comparison to much of the world, my little universe is just dandy. Of course, it is going to rain again and the temps are only in the 60's. The official thermometer at the U.S. National Climate Data Center show a slight global cooling trend over the last seven years, from 1998 to 2005. " ... current warming started 50 years before cars and industries began spewing consequential amounts of CO2. Then the planet cooled for 35 years just after the CO2 levels really began to surge. In fact, says Carter, there doesn’t seem to be much correlation between temperatures and man-made CO2."http://acuf.org/issues/issue62/060624cul.asp I know statistics can be manipulated all sorts of ways but I wonder where all the Al Gore commentaries have been since this has come into the news?

The fence around the pool is completed except for me putting the Flood Brand water sealant on it. It will turn a mellow brown color. So my pool is open and the water is perfect, sans being warm. I refuse to turn the heat on with the nights still getting so cold. We have a frost warning for tonight! May 27 and frost! By the looks of my garden I might see a tomato sometime in September, if at all. Honestly, I think by the time we are done trying to be farmers in raising our own things that it is just cheaper to buy our veggies and chicken from a farmers market or the grocer- even with outrageous food costs.

Best news of the week is that tomorrow is my birthday! 44 years young. So cliche- but where did the time go? I am psyched to have lived this long and sure hope to see many more years. I think about all the things I survived from in 43 - make that 44, years. As a kid from riding a bike without a helmet to riding in cars without car seats to becoming an adult and making it thru college, I seem to have weathered okay with only a few bumps and bruises along the way. I've had gallbladder surgery, kidney stones, broken toes, a broken nose, a miscarriage and emergency c-sections to name a few incidents. I am amazed that the body recuperates and has some sort of mechanism that forgets pain.

Whatever the future holds I am pleased with the way things have turned out so far. I look forward to watching my kids grow, the last of hubby's hair falling out and my own hair turning grey. It is already about 25% grey so it shouldn't take long! So here's to 44 and the future. Now if I can just pass the eye test for my driver's license renewal today, I will feel young.