Vacation

Just spent the last five days at my Moms.   It's nice when you can sit on the porch and look out see something like this picture.   This picture actually wasn't taken from my Mom's porch, but three different times I saw two deer hop across her front yard.  Looking out her kitchen window to her back yard I was able to observe the ground hog family that lives back there.  And from her back yard all you see is trees and hills, no house or person in sight.  Very relaxing.

And just what I've been needing.

Mom Has Company

My Mom mentioned that she had seen an animal in her back yard about a week before I went up there. She wasn't sure what it was. Well when I was up there she called to me while she was in the kitchen. Looking out the kitchen window was this fellow up above. These pictures are right in her back yard, next to my Dad's shop. The first time I tried to take a picture I opened the back door and he ran back under my Dad's shop. I went around the front and came in from the side and managed to get this picture of him a few minutes later.

I say groundhog, but I'm not an expert on such things. Anyone out there can second my guess or have another idea what this guy is. Evidently he has a home under my Dad's shop.

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Back From The Missing

I'm back. If anyone is still out there reading after my disappearance of the last two weeks. After getting out of the hospital I ended up going up to visit my Mom in Tennessee. I was scheduled to go this week anyway, but wasn't sure if I would be able to after my hospital stay. But after a few days sitting home I figured I would give it a try. The drive wasn't bad and once I got up there I pretty much took it easy. We went a few places, but took it easy each day, I was still tired and not up to full speed. In fact I still feel not quite up to full speed. Since getting back I've been taking it easy. I haven't had the energy to get on here and post. But tomorrow I go back to work, so I figure I better get moving on things. Hopefully next time I head up that way we can get together Vinnie, but this time I don't think I was up to much.

Still I've been gone and have a bunch of posts I need to make in the next few days. And a lot of blogs to visit.

Happy Mother's Day

I realize I talk a lot more about my Dad on here than my Mom. That's more due to circumstances than anything else. Since today is Mother's Day I wanted to talk about my Mom.

My Mom was born 74 years ago in a small town outside Memphis Tennessee. It's actually the same small town she lives in today. Inbetween she moved to Memphis, met my Dad and got married and than moved around the country as the wife of a Navy Sailor.

My Mom was born into poverty. Her Dad was a farmer. She had two brother and two sisters, she was the middle child. The girls had one room, the boys another. They didn't have an indoor bathroom until she was in high school. I remember the outhouse when we used to visit when I was a kid.

During high school my Mom played basketball. From what I gather she was pretty good. Back than there wasn't much for a woman basketball player to do, so after school she got a job in a bank in downtown Memphis. Going into the city today is an experience, she gives a history lesson of what the city was like back when she was an emerging adult. What store was at that corner, where she used to live down that street, what it was like taking the bus from her apartment she shared with five other girls to work and back.

When my Dad came to Memphis he was in the Navy. They got married and he didn't reup. He tried driving a city bus for awhile. He tried a few other things. He decided to re enlist in the Navy. Actually I found out years later, after he died, when my Mom pointed out this older man at his wake. It was an old friend of his from the Navy, she said. He had ran into my parents when they were at the zoo with me and he had convinced my Dad to go back in. Shortly afterwards they were transfered to New Jersey, where my Dad was from. It was always they...when you're in the military it's not my Dad that was transfered, it's the both of them. My Dad might have been the one in uniform, but when your spouse is in the military it's both of you in there.

Growing up both my parents instilled a deep appreciation of learning in me and my brother. They wanted my brother and me to go farther than they did. My Mom isn't much of a reader, she never has been, but she never let that stop her from making sure that I read and read as much and as well as possible. I've joked that I've been in some sort of book club since I was like five.

My Mom has a strong sense of right and wrong. She's never taken to lying and cheating. And she made sure we knew that in the strongest sense of the word.

My Mom worked just like my Dad. All my life I remember my Mom working. But she still made sure she had time for us.

It's easy to take for granted those that are always around us and care for us. We just assume that's the way it is and will always be. Well, it's not always true. Sooner or later it changes. We need to make sure we appreciate these people while they're here. Make sure you call you Mom today and wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

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Mom's Here

My Mom just drove down from Tennessee today. She'll spend a few days at my place and than head over the lake to my brothers and we'll do Christmas there. My niece and nephew will be down the day after Christmas so it'll be nice, to have everyone together.

Early Thanksgiving

Tonight after work I'll be heading up to Tennessee to visit my Mom. Since I work in retail there is no way I can get off for Thanksgiving week, so we plan to have an early Turkey Day this week. I know this week I've been absent a lot, but I've been busy at work, but for the next week I will be gone since my Mom doesn't have internet connection. Everyone have a good week and when I get back I'll visit everyone again.

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The Ducks at the Peabody

The Peabody Hotel and the ducks.

Beale Street

Beale Street was a lot of fun, I wished we had more time to look around, but the rain chases us away. The first two pictures, after the Beale Street road sign, are not actually on Beale Street, but close by. The Rock n Soul Museum was pretty interesting. I have only one question: Beale Street is closed to traffic (except for traffic crossing over it) but no one walked in the street, everyone walked on the sidewalks. In New Orleans French Quarter where the streets are closed everyone walks on the street. (And in some parts of the city where the streets are closed some people still walk on the street.) Why doesn't anyone walk in the street?

Bambi

Driving through Shiloh Park look we what we saw. I was able to stop and roll down my window and take a picture before the deer decided that it had seen enough of us and bounded away. It was a magical day.

Shiloh Military Park

More than 3,500 Americans died on these grounds. There were so many that many of the soldiers were buried without identifying them. Many of the graves have only a number to identify them. As we drove through Park Bruce Springsteen came on my Ipod playing through the car stero singing "My Beautiful Reward." It was a moment I'm not likely to forget soon.

Pickwick State Park and Dam

This was a beautiful area, right off the Tennessee River.

Can't Forget The Dogs

Sadie and of course Buffy.

Wild Animals at the Zoo

My Mom (Ignoring me as usual)
My Aunt and Mom
My Sister and Mom
My Aunt, Mom and Uncle

My Sister and Aunt

At the Zoo