It's that time for a new beginning!

They say it's a hoax...but every year, I balance a raw egg on my mantle. They say it can be done any day of the year...well, not at my house. :O) It only happens on the first day of Spring! AND I do it without any tricks...no cracks, no salt...just balanced.

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/62/equinox.html

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/errata/a/equinox_eggs.htm

What does STOP mean to you?

For years I teased the kids as I drove “Mom’s Taxi” and we approached stop signs, spelling out loud “S- T- O- P –then shout GO!” as if that is what stop meant.
Just a funny thing I did which in a way allowed them to learn that we sometimes see what we want to see or we hear what we want to hear.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for the past seven month and it’s down right predictable; when one approaches a stop sign with intent to turn right, it magically becomes a yield sign. The driver approaches the stop sign and usually keeps looking to their left as they turn right at the STOP sign. And some will say, “Well, nothing was coming” And I say, “How do you know a pedestrian was not approaching the crosswalk from the right…or a child on a bike from the right…or someone’s lost pet running into the intersection from the right…What if someone as crossing the street from your right just above the intersection away from the crosswalk…You didn’t even stop to look.”
That’s the whole reason there is a STOP sign because it’s an intersection and you never know “from which way what cometh.”
Kentucky law states, “Except when directed to proceed by a police officer, every operator of a vehicle approaching a stop sign shall STOP at a clearly marked STOP line, but if none, before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or, if none, then at the point nearest the intersecting roadway where the operator has view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway before entering it. AFTER having stopped the operator shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another roadway so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time when such operator is moving across or within the intersection in junction of roadways.”
So…without starting a STOP in Lexington campaign let’s try to remember: STOP means STOP and Yield means Yield and the meaning does not change when turning right.


AND finally a joke for those drivers who say…”Well, I slowed down…”

A car slows down at a stop sign and keeps driving. A cop sees him and pulls him over. The cop asks, "Why didn't you stop?"The man says, "I slowed down." The cop pulls out his nightstick and starts beating him. "Now," the cop says, "do you want me to stop or slow down?"

Loitering in Winter

Donna's View 2009

I was thinking recently about things I have done/not done/wished I had done differently in the past. That stuff can get you down. I came upon a little narrative at the bottom of my calendar with a quote from Henry D. Thoreau.

"We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities…we loiter in winter when it is already spring."

I won't add anything to that.

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/christn/cheshdtaf.html Thoreau's Spring

Donna's View 2009

Now here's a thought..."When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say,"Jesus, could you get that for me?"

...That's Bologna...

Last week I came in from the hospital and I was passed the point of hungry. Ever been so hungry you didn’t have the sense to eat? Well, Papa fixed me a sandwich with a V-8 and some Ruffles. It wasn’t just any ole sandwich. It was a poor man’s gourmet sandwich. It was picture worthy…just didn’t have the camera sitting close by or I would have snapped it. I think it could have been sold in a restaurant.
Wheat bread toasted mayo, salt and pepper, pepper jack cheese, baby spinach and fried bologna.
It was tasty, tasty, tasty. I raved about it and gave Papa kudos for the creation…and he said, “Well, appetite is the best sauce.”
And tonight I was reminded of that tonight…it was 6 o’clock and I had gotten Aunt Juanita home and settled in, the 35 days worth of accumulated belongings put away…went to the store / pharmacy…came back and fixed her a peanut butter and mayo sandwich… not typical hospital food you know…and chatted with her as she went through a huge pile of mail…forgetting to eat something myself for lunch. If you had witnessed her coming into the house and moving about, going through this and that you would have never guessed she was just dismissed from the hospital. At 2:45 I got her settled into her “sleeping chair” for a nap…Papa stopped by with a thermos of coffee and left for his appointment. And then it hit again…Granny was at the back door; she came stumbling in and looked all worried. “Donna Lynn” she said, “Will you run me down to the Urgent Treatment Center? My veins don’t look right. I was sitting in McDonalds and looked down at my arm and my veins are really big.”
Now, for a bit of history... Granny watched Aunt Juanita’s cat while she has been in the hospital. Sometime after two weeks of Aunt Juanita being gone the cat, “Skippy” got out and didn’t come back. On March 1st, she came back home, Granny was there…and as Granny fed her, Skippy bit her! Bit the heck out of her hand! And for 10 days I have worried about that hand, she comes and asks me to take her to the doctor…and I wasn’t passing it up. The doctor agreed it looked angry and said to have her back in two days. If the infected hand did not show improvement, she would have to be hospitalized and given antibiotics intravenously. Then it was off to the pharmacy…and to cut it short…I was HUNGRY!
When I got back Aunt Juanita fixed the tomato soup and I fixed the grilled cheeses. Campbell's tomato soup has never tasted so good...And I was reminded again…Appetite can be the bestest sauce.

Be Still My Beating Heart...

I can’t sleep…I have sooooo much on my mind…

On February 4, 2009 @ approximately 1800 hrs, I received a call from my mother. She advised my Aunt had fallen in her home, that Granny could not get her up, and EC was on it’s way. I arrived and met the ambulance workers as they were taking my Aunt out of the house on the gurney. (Geez, I haven’t blogged in so long I’ve forgotten how to write normally…that all sortta has a report flow to it.)
Since then, for the past 34 days, I have been “hospitalized” and tomorrow I’ll be “dismissed” with my Aunt only to be a house guest in her home until my friend Connie arrives on Friday from Missouri to live with her.
I exercised for about 45 minutes tonight to relieve some stress. Probably would have worked if I hadn’t waited to do such right before going to bed. Just in case you don’t know it…exercising energizes you. It’s one o’clock and I’m wide eyed with a mind so busy, I’m confusing myself with my thoughts.
My mother fell on the 11th of February, Rosie’s birthday =) and was in the hospital for almost a week. She was on one side of the floor, Aunt Juanita on the other. Me? I was all over the place, bouncing from room to room. I always took the stairs…
When Aunt Juanita was stable and progressing in her recovery she was moved from ICU to the fifth floor. Again, I always took the stairs. I was so very thankful the day I moved her from Central Baptist to Cardinal Hill. The fifth floor sometimes three times a day was just about to suck the life out of my young at heart knees.
I wanted to share the stairs with you…at least the art that is up. I past the pieces so many days and still would see something new each time I climbed up or ascended down. The really nice thing about it all was the fact that with each passing I was reminded of different people in my life, which encouraged me in my plight of the nursing assistant. I won't post every photo nor mention everyone here that I was reminded of...Just enough to give a good idea of how the "Art for the Heart" made the journey a bit more tolerable by keeping my mind off of my racing heart.

Aunt Juanita says this one looks like he just belched. =)

This is me when I'm fussing at William

This one reminded me of Rosie

This one reminded me of Alice, Connie's sister in Puerto Rico

The eye with the clouds...Ariel

The apple with the table...Megan

This one reminds me of heart surgery

This one of Courtney, my mentor

This one of my sister, Scarlet

Both of these combined reminded me of Dad and Mom