The one that got away!

Look what I missed....a Great Horned Owl! A quick run to the strip pits resulted in us spotting a the owl first thing....but the minute I got out of the Rav to take a photo, it took flight.

Big thunderheads rolled in this evening and we ran out there...by the time we got out there it was so dark it felt like almost night. After we drove through the strip pits, the sun was back and it felt like we were waking from a dream.
**************************
Talking about waking, does anyone realize just how good it is to be able to go to bed in your own bed every night....and to go to sleep? I tell you it will be a while before I forget to feel thankful each night I can go to bed and go to sleep....

There are just so many things we all take for granted. With all the heat, I am so thankful to have AC....thinking how awful it would be without it. And knowing that a lot of older people would really have trouble breathing without it. I think about this several times a day now.

It also brings to mind that not all that many years ago, air conditioning was not the norm. When we were kids, we generally slept with the doors open and windows open....I remember laying my pillow in the window sill and sleeping with my head in the window when I was young.

And the year and a half that Roger and I lived in Tennessee, we opened the back door, and had the window open in our bedroom and our little house cooled out just fine. I don't even know if we used a fan.

We never had AC regular till after we had children. And I think our oldest daughter was at least in elementary school before we had a car with air conditioning. Now, I can't stand to drive down the highway with the windows open....

I would miss the air conditioning now, but what I really miss is being able to leave doors open. Locking doors is relatively new to me...I guess I was not living in the real world. But all the years my kids were growing up and in college, the doors were never locked unless we went totally away for over night. Most of the kids that came here knew they were never locked...some of them knew where I kept a few dollars...in case it was needed for paper boy, etc.

I really miss those days...

Another for Barn Charm!

First, let me get the preliminaries over with. This is my entry for Tricia's Barn Charm Meme...click if you want to join or just see the rest of the barns that are entered.

This barn comes from Tennessee....again. But it also has a little story attached. Everyone that knows me, knows how much I love Tennessee and consider it home. Even if I don't go down for years and years it is still home....and I still like the soft southern drawl of the people. I still think they are some of the finest people to be found. I guess everyone thinks that of their hometown or home state.

Imagine my surprise when we stopped for me to take photos of this...I got yelled at for taking pictures! Actually, I didn't know what they said....I was standing in the road on down from a house, and Roger was just pulled over to the side but still in the road. So I walk back to see what the lady said...and it was one lady telling me that another lady said I did not have permission to take photos of the barn!

The other lady came out then, an elderly lady I should add, and asked me why I was taking pictures...I just told her I take pictures of barns where ever I go...and walked away. I was so upset I did not want to talk to her....if I had at that time I would probably have told her if she didn't want pictures of it taken, then she needed to build a privacy fence. I just walked away....I could not believe someone down there would say anything about a picture being taken.

I had to tell this little story.....I have taken a gazillion pictures and some of them right in peoples faces almost and no one has ever gotten upset. It just goes to show there has to be an old grouch wherever you go.

Vanishing act

In case you have wondered I have not vanished from the face of the earth...but might as well have for all that I have done.

I have had some kind of cold/flu thing...and have hardly been on the computer. I haven't left the house in 8 days except to go to the doctor yesterday....I had to get better before I could stand to go down there. No Joke! I had been having a scratchy throat off and on for 3 or 4 weeks, then last Wednesday evening it hit, and did not leave. I cannot sleep for coughing...even the cough syrup with codeine in it did not do the trick last night. I would be so sleepy I could hardly hold my eyes open, but the minute I tried to lay down and sleep, I would start coughing.

I did get a couple naps in last night, but woke each time coughing so hard I could not catch my breath. Hopefully tonight will be better.
**************************************
Added to that, one of my kitties got sick and has passed on...this is by no means the whole story but I don't feel like telling it all. It was Cougar, my own little boy....so Roger and I both hurt over that. At least he was well loved while he lived. Just so many little things we will miss about him.
**************
I have not been visiting any blogs...I may start trying to go through a few...I know i have been missing some good pictures from several of you...so going to take me a while to catch up. We had went to Sarah and Jeremy's the weekend before this started for me, so missed some blogging then I think.