Monday, August 30, 2010

StormCarib.com

Ahoy!  No writing here from me today, been working as a volunteer, coordinating info about Hurricane Earl and the British Virgin Islands.


See
http://stormcarib.com/reports/current/bvi.shtml



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Sunday, August 29, 2010

No Limits

Feeling down?  This might cheer you up!

Two Quotes from Nick Vujicic:  (pronounced Voo-cheech)

"I was 8 years old when these suicidal thoughts began to materialize. I was feeling like I had become a burden to my parents and I had so many questions about what my future would look like that I couldn’t resolve. I wondered what would become of me when my parents could no longer take care of me. I questioned whether I would ever marry or have children of my own? I was deeply discouraged about what kind of future I could really expect to have?"

"I enjoy golfing, fishing, swimming and listening to music of all varieties. Most importantly, I love spending personal time with life-long friends and family in Australia and the U.S. whenever I have the opportunity."




From No Limbs, To No Limits
Life Without Limbs

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Hurricane Earl or Himmacane Earl

Ahoy!  I've been  busy watching Hurricane Earl head to my former stomping ground, the Virgin Islands.




11pm 08 29 2010


Hurricane Earl 8pm Sunday 08 29 10
Click to enlarge




Hurricane Earl 5pm 08 29 2010
Click to enlarge




Hurricane Earl 5pm 08 29 2010
Click Images to Enlarge




Hurricane Earl 2pm 08 29 10

For about 12 years, I wrote weather reports and island tales on a blog set up at StormCarib.Com.  I still supply information for the blog, though others in the islands contribute local conditions. 

I am so homesick, I miss the islands and the beauty, but I sure don't miss the hurricanes. 

The future Fiona hurricane is in the making in the middle of the Atlantic. 

Pray for the sailors, pray for the islanders, pray for the fools like me. 

Here is a favorite picture from May 2007:







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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Dolly Parton's Motor Coach

Two videos of Dolly Parton's Motor Coach










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Laundry and Puppy Mess

Different RV Parks and Campgrounds have different rules. It can be mind boggling and funny at times. 


Many, but not all, will not allow one to hang out laundry or utilize a clothes line.  Some have washers and dryers on site, which is quite a convenience for those like me, who live fulltime in a motorhome.  Some dryers are priced with so many minutes per quarter (US 25 cent piece.)  Others have a predetermined time and price, such as 30 minutes for 75 cents. This can be maddening when your load takes 40 minutes to dry. I guess someone else gets the free 20 minute use of the dryer, or maybe it has a timer, to click off the time so nobody gets it. 


I use a lightweight collapsible hamper to accumulate my dirty laundry in, then haul it to the camp's laundry room. It is made to collapse and fold up flat for storage, but since I always have dirty laundry, mine hides in the corner of the bedroom, accumulating the next load. 

I also have several small  mesh wash bags, that I often use to put my unmentionables inside of, while washing.  I try to be super careful that I am nearby to empty out the washer or dryer as soon as my laundry is finished, so no one has to wait on me, or even worse, feel obligated to dump my stuff out, so they can use the machine. But should someone dump my stuff out, at least my undies are corralled in a mesh bag.

One day a bunch of my undies were zipped up in a laundry bag, then tossed in with the rest of the clothes to wash and dry. When the dryer was done, I tossed the bag of undies  back into my laundry basket, then folded up the rest of the stuff, laying it neatly on top.

While putting my things away, I came to the underwear bag and horrors upon horrors, everything was dry but them. I had to leave in a hurry, to go take care of business elsewhere, so I draped them over the window  valance, then departed. I should have draped them neater, but they dried anyhow.  The sight struck me as funny, so here it is:
Notice I pulled the shades, to hide the fact I was hanging my undies in the window!


I've now become organized better about this laundry business. I keep a special change purse where I save all my quarters for the laundry room. I can toss this change purse on top of the hamper full of clothes,  when I am ready to hike to the laundry room. Next,  I have a small plastic bottle, actually an old plastic spice jar I washed out, that holds about a load of liquid washing soap.  My laundry soap is kept in an outside locker by the front door. I can pop open the door, transfer the soap from the large bottle to the small bottle, then add that to the laundry hamper. My dryer softener sheets, those things that keep your socks from sticking to your clothes, are inside a Ziploc bag and since they are lightweight, live in the bottom of the laundry hamper all the time.

Finally I am organized, arriving at the laundry center, with clothes, money, soap and softener. This saves me lots of walking back and forth to get the various things I typically forget. My last home had a washer but no dryer, so I didn't have to remember to load up all the necessities to run do a load of laundry. I always feel better, when I am better organized. A feat that is sometimes hard for me!

Just take a look at this mess! Click the picture to enlarge, if you dare.
I heard a loud crash outside. 

When I went to investigate, puppy dog had somehow managed to tangle up with the folding table.  I swear the legs were locked in place, but somehow he collapsed it while on his lengthy tether. All the carefully organized rubble landed on the patio rug. 

In case you are wondering what all that stuff is:
Leash with Carabiner
Flashlight on a  keychain
Doggy poop bags and carrier
My Straw hat
Wok (on sale) in shopping bag
Pad of paper and two pens
Small ashtray can with red lid
Covered garbage can (aka coffee can)
2 screw-in stakes in a big clear baggy
Black leash that somebody chewed through (I wonder who?)
Dog Clicker for training
Parrot Table Cloth over a card table

Under the table is his portable dog house. So far he only uses it for dining and refuses to play or sleep in it. Notice how he neatly left the dust pan upright, but his tether is tied around the red chair (his doing, not mine).

When I took a picture of this puppy-made  mess, he ran and hid under the motorhome.  Gee, I wonder why. 

I put him inside, while I cleaned up the patio. 



"OK, if I can't play outside, then I'll go inside and DRIVE this beast."

Now I am beginning to see where my day goes, between housekeeping, writing, cleaning up after puppy, feeding puppy, walking puppy, playing with puppy, training puppy, scolding puppy, loving puppy, brushing puppy, it's a dadgum miracle I get anything accomplished. 

I have to finish this now, puppy sees his canine buddies are going for a walk and wants to run play with them. If I don't take him, then I have to listen to his pitiful, poor-little-me whines. He can sound soooooo pathetic. Who is training who here? 

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Lost and Found (or Not)

Ooops, almost skipped a day writing and posting. I did do some writing, just didn't get it posted here yet, as I was doing some research for three different articles. 


My camping neighbor needed to drive 30 miles to the nearest town, to shop for a funeral dress (she's not dead, her friend is) so she invited me to go along. 


I told her it was all her fault that my housekeeping had fallen by the wayside, because usually I have to keep everything organized and put away, so I can drive my motorhome to go shopping for food and puppy toys. Since I've been in this campground, she has invited me to go shopping with her once every week, so my motorhome is looking very lived in these days. 
My current campground at Carthage Gap in Coolville, Ohio.
You can click the picture to enlarge. The tiny X marks the tree where I am hiding. The two lakes are part of the camp, and actually below the campground, we are on a ridge above it. The section to the right is the new area for big rigs.  It's nicknamed the desert, because the trees are so tiny, you can't even see them in this satellite image. 


Thanks to her, I've explored many shops. Today we went to a mall, but about 40% of the mall had empty store spaces. Kind of sad. The main anchor store, was having a big sale, with many clothing and shoe items marked as much as 85% off. 


I couldn't find any sale clothes I liked  at all, but I lucked out with a really nice pair of good comfy sandals, made for serious walking. Since puppy keeps me walking, and I don't do the lace up athletic type shoes, these were perfect and after the sales price and discounts, I ended up with $50 shoes for $7.  These are the type that have the molded cork with thick rubber soles. Since I plan to head for warmer weather, they should come in handy.

We stopped a few other places and I picked up some groceries plus a long handled scrubber for my back when showering. I finally found a knife sharpener.  I've lost mine. I took it inside my friend's house to use, about six states and 8 weeks back, and well I may have just left it there. 


I seem to be leaving a trail of stuff behind. I was at another friend's place and took a bunch of homemade food in my favorite containers to their house to share, and well guess what. They've inherited my containers. Ditto for my nice lawn chaise chair, that was quickly put in their shed, during the rain one day.


At a campground, puppy's squeaky barbell  that he loved, was accidentally left behind because the rains started pouring, while I was coiling up his tether and simultaneously trying to keep him from running off. I had previously picked up all his other toys, and just left him with one to play with. He had a huge area to run and play while on a long tether, and he was enjoying his last bit of freedom before we hit the road. We got in the motorhome, and I forgot to go back out for the squeaky toy. 


At another friend's house, I somehow left a carpet runner behind, but they met up with me at a campground nearby and delivered it back to me. I was using it as an outdoor carpet, to clean shoe soles as so many were coming and going during the floor tiling project. When it rained, someone tossed it in the garage.  


I never thought I was such a scatterbrain about possessions. At least I keep remembering the puppy!  When I came home, he was super excited to see me arrive.  I dumped my shopping on the patio while he wiggled like a palm frond in a hurricane, attempting to plant 50 kisses on me at once. Gosh, it's fun to be worshiped so enthusiastically!


He looks at the sacks of groceries, and thinks I am a fantastic hunter, able in a few hours to hunt, kill, clean and bag up enough to last us for a week or more.   I pulled out a tasty treat for him, which he gratefully gobbled down.  Finally I got the refrigerated stuff put away, while he excitedly raced around the motorhome begging for an outing.  I put on the new walking sandals, bagged up some garbage and we went for a  long walk after dropping off the trash.

Since it's Friday afternoon, many of the weekend warriors have shown up to utilize their travel trailers, fifth wheels and a few odd motor coaches parked here for the summer season. Quite a few fire pits were already blazing.

Life is good and it's rather cool here tonight.




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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bear Bathing or Bare Bullsh*t

All pictures can be enlarged, throughout this blog, by simply clicking on them. I've been writing this blog for over a year and just realized this feature. I guess I am slow to learn newfangled technology. Also, my links aren't always showing up as underlined, I need help with CSS programming to enable this. Please email me (Author AT DearMissMermaid.Com) if you can help or post a comment below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An email arrived today with these pictures below and a note:


People living in Colorado Springs wondered why their water barrel was almost empty every day.  They set up a camera and caught a bear bathing.


Well, he's back.  


Big Al came for his weekly bath again this week. He really looks like he enjoys the experience. He needs a bigger tub, will think about that for next year.


I ran around the internet trying to verify this, and couldn't make any conclusions, one way or the other. What I did discern is this:

All the pictures are not from the same angle, hence setting up a camera to catch these automatically may not be true at all.

Apparently, according to an article by Linda Navarro entittled "Did You Ever Wonder:" in the Colorado Springs Gazette, catching rainwater is not legal;

Excerpt:
The water falling onto your property will eventually get into streams and creeks and is already owned by senior water right holders downstream. It has been that way since the mid-1800s and you would be stealing from the rightful owner.


Having read that, I can understand why the owner of the photos doesn't want to be identified. Looking again, at the photos, there doesn't seem to be a downspout feeding the barrel.

Given that another site, claims Colorado Springs only gets an  annual average precipitation of 17.4 inches, filling up that rain barrel without it being attached to a specific downspout, could take some time.

Did that rain barrel have help from a garden hose?  In one picture, you can clearly see a reflection of the sky, not somebody's roof gutter.

Is the bear being fed and visits this spot regularly?  Is this spot in a bear refuge or rescue?  The bear does look well fed, whatever the circumstances.

In other words, I have no idea if the caption included in the email is true or not. But the pictures are certainly super cute.



























This article written in loving memory of Lost Lil Bear, my beloved black cat of 9 years, who vanished through misadventure, near Blacksburg, South Carolina, during my travel from the Caribbean to the USA. I may never know his fate, but I miss him with all my heart, everyday. 


Just posting his picture here, has brought tears to my eyes. I pray that angels will reunite us one day soon. 





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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

August Dog Days

According to some legends, we are just past the official "Dog Days of Summer" - the hottest, most sultry days of the season.

Too hot for dogs. Days that are stagnant or marked by a lack of progress.
Harley says it's never too hot for napping. 


This August has 5 Sundays,5 Mondays & 5 Tuesdays,all in 1 month.
The next time we get five Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays in August will be August 2021.

And, it also had a Friday the 13th.

August is the eighth month, renamed by the Romans from Sextilis',  to honor their emperor, Augustus.

The biggest holiday this month is Left Hander's Day.  Right handed people operate in the left side of the brain. Left handed people use the right side.

Therefore, only left handed people are in their right mind.

Shop for nifty left handed items here.

International Left Hander's Day was first celebrated on August 13, 1976. It was started by Lefthander's International.

Everyone is a Left Hander in Left Hand, West Virginia.

Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness or things on the left side.  I guess we have a word for everything these days.

As for Dear Miss Mermaid, I'm in another world with horrific head pain. It's so bad, my head has fallen on the floor, into the sink and on the grass. I just keep picking it back up then putting it back on. 


I noticed at some point, my dress was on backwards. How can that be?  So next time my head fell off, I put it on backwards too. Now I look fine, but I feel strange. 


He hasn't officially popped the question, so maybe I won't get married after all. Well, dress shopping sure was fun anyhow!


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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earth's Biggest Selection!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, August 23, 2010

Yippee! I'm Getting Married!

Shopping for a wedding gown...  It's got to be the most exciting time in a woman's life!

He hasn't officially asked and I haven't officially said yes, but we're both kicking around the idea.

Where to start?

Yep, I'm seriously  thinking about getting married. If I'm lucky enough, I could be my betroth's fourth or fifth bride.

Well, what the heck, at his age, I expect  my intended to have some old baggage (or some old bag!)

So, I am looking around and getting ideas for my Wedding Gown.

Obviously, I want something that doesn't even compare with the other three brides in his sordid past life, so I am checking out the truly unique gowns.

Before the wedding, he has to sign a pre-nup, stating he will never ever mention his past bags, um, wives,  in my presence.  Never.

Hey, why dig up the past?  I'll be number ONE now, so who cares?  Out with the old, in with the new!  Something borrowed, something blue!

As I find the Wedding Gowns that interest me, I am keeping this notebook below with pictures and comments. I figure I can hire my own designer, and they can combine the best of each into my finished Wedding Gown.

Feel free to comment and vote for the best dress!

Your opinion counts. (NOT!)

Ooops!  Do I sound like bridezilla already?

Excuse me.

I play nice, now.












I've heard it's best if you are quite modest, to keep your husband interested and excited.  This might can work...

 
A stylish Wedding Gown, in a generous Plus Size. (That should tactfully hide any weight I've gained since my teen years!)

Here's a great "go green" recycled wedding gown;  Dad's shirt and Mom's apron, with a bedsheet for a train, plus Grandma's orthopedic shoes. The bride is positively thrilled to be wearing this sensational dress. Lucky girl!

A very practical wedding gown; made entirely from condoms!
Dress designed by the bride's mother (who clearly doesn't want grandchildren anytime soon, in her future!)
Can you imagine the groom carrying her/me over the threshold?  
POP!  BANG!  BOOM!  Talk about an explosive wedding night!

Now here's a modest Wedding Gown, it's nicely tailored for the big bosom gal who wants to minimize her girls. 

Now, there's a thought, having the wedding cake designed to look nothing like the bride. (I must call the bakery right away and ask about this!)

A Simple train on a Wedding Gown adds flair. (And those bridesmaids' outfits are positively stunning!)

Now this is a clever Wedding Gown, designed to cover up those hideous cellulite problems. 


Having a bad hair day? This Wedding Hat with veil could be just the ticket (and  saves on having to hire a hair stylist for the event.) Pairing it with this gorgeous Night Gown, means you can wear it to bed on your wedding night too. Very clever. 

A budget minded Wedding Gown.
 The guests can eat it at the reception!

Now here's an idea.  This wedding gown was tastefully modified to completely hide the fact, that the bride is expecting.  Well done!

I found this lovely Wedding Dress modeled on an auction website, I must hurry and place my bid! (Say, did I read he won that in the divorce?)

Something borrowed, something blue...  
Those flowers are stunning with the dress, wonder where they grew those?

I just LOVE that makeup job. 
I must positively track down that makeup artist and have her do mine too, for the big day!

Wedding Shoes, I must not forget the ever important shoes for my special day. These are just divine. 

Now here's a chic dress for a modern woman like me. 

Oh I must must find out who did her hair and get that stylist to do mine too. I hope we can look as great as this couple on their wedding day!

Of course, my little pooch needs to be dressed up for the big day.  Here's a snazzy outift, in my wedding colors of black, white and pink!

Now this is an option too, for my canine kid, he could double as the ring bearer. (Though he would never sit still long enough for that fur-cut!)


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Dear Miss Mermaid
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