Bug's Eye View: June 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

2012 Project 365 – Week Twenty-Six

I can’t believe that it’s almost July. Just a few more days & my youngest nephew heads off to Army boot camp in Oklahoma. Yikes!

Saturday, June 23^rd

Why yes, he does have the good Kung Fu.

I really wish grackles had a pretty name to match their pretty selves.

The moon!

Sunday, June 24^th

Mrs. Cardinal sporting her spiky ‘do.

No mission is impossible for this squirrel!

Monday, June 25^th

Wild flowers…

Not so wild flowers at a friend’s house.

The moon!

Tuesday, June 26^th

We just about hit for the cycle with our lilies this week.

Love the farming landscape up here.

Wednesday, June 27^th

More wildflowers.

More not so wild flowers in Dr. M’s school colors.

Thursday, June 28^th

Pinky, our pet geranium.

It was just a little bit hot here yesterday. Which is why it was extra fun for our air conditioner to go out.

Friday, June 29^th

I had to laugh today. I was looking for one of my Leslie Sansone walking DVDs when I came across this little stack. I wonder just what kind of workout the Bodysnatchers is?

After the maintenance guy came by & rigged the air conditioner so that it will work over the weekend (he has to get a part & come back), we had a storm & the temp dropped thirty degrees.

This is an “Oops I haven’t taken a State of the Bug picture yet” State of the Bug picture. I don’t know why I made that face.

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710. The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hotness

I'm jumping on the bandwagon & sharing our hotness. As a lovely added twist, the fan on our central air unit stopped working today. Fortunately, Dr. M has rigged a system of fans that is keeping that house at a cool 84 degrees.

Which is good, because my doctor recently confirmed what I have suspected for about a year - I'm fully in menopause now. And while I haven't had the hot flashes I remember from my mother, my cooling system is about as effective as a broken air conditioner!

So I'm just gonna chill & ignore the dirty dishes & hope our landlord calls us back tomorrow!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The Sky is Full of Women

The sky is full of women.

They whisper in my dreams,

cooking pancakes,

laughing at someone

just out of view.

The sky is full of women.

Motherless, I catch

the scent of honeysuckle

and cabbage.

The sky is full of women,

and you are weeping

as the one you love

joins the ancient chorus.

The sky is full of women,

but I am earthbound,

holding your hand,

watching for angels in the clouds.

June is a hard month in the Bug household. Last week was my mom's birthday, and this past weekend marked the one year anniversary of the loss of Dr. M's mom. As I considered my feelings on the subject, I remembered the message my cousin Kim the Hospice Chaplain gave us at my grandmother's funeral some years ago: She has joined a great cloud of witnesses.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sundays in Zambia - Visit from Home

This post originally appeared in December 2009.

I think I mentioned before that I would probably skip around some with these posts. I always think of my mother a LOT at Christmas, so I decided to skip to the visit that she & Mamaw (my dad's mother) made to Zambia while I was there. Most of the text of this post was written for the photo album - I'm just cutting & pasting. Although I'm going to add a couple of bits that I left out the first go round.

Mom and Mamaw came to visit for two weeks in January 1988. We had a wonderful time—even though finding food for them to eat was a challenge (well, it was a challenge when the missionaries didn’t feed us). I took them to Kitwe to meet a missionary couple from NC. I also took them to Victoria Falls. We had great adventures on that trip:

Let’s see, first on the way there I had to give a soldier from one of the checkpoints a lift…I sang the national anthem while I was driving: “Stand & sing of Zambia, proud & free.” I think he thought I was a little strange.
Hoof and Mouth disease was prevalent in the country at that time, so along the way we had to stop to place our naked feet into a tub of grimy looking water that supposedly had disinfectant in it. Eww!
Then when we were almost there I started feeling really sleepy. This made me want to drive very fast (reportedly 170 kpm, but that can’t be right!) to get there quicker. I thought Mom & Mamaw exercised great restraint when all they did was ask if I wanted to stop & rest awhile. Oh yes, I wanted to stop on a deserted road in Africa when night was approaching… Note: Mom wrote this on a postcard to Daddy: Can't believe it, not one fuss - even about her driving. I close my eyes a lot...
Then we went through a little drive-through game park where there were reportedly lions lurking. We didn’t see any--& it was a good thing since we got stuck in the mud. We had to get out & put rocks under the tires to make the Kombi budge…
Then when I took them to the market in Victoria Falls Mom pulled out U.S. $ & the little ladies there went crazy—“Come here amai—I have some beautiful goods here!” I told Mom that it was illegal to spend American money here & the ladies just laughed and laughed. They enjoyed seeing me scold my mother.
We stayed in a nice cottage while we were at Vic Falls. Mom & I sat on the porch and talked late into the night. The next morning I counted 30 mosquito bites on one leg! I stopped counting at that point.

The infamous "mosquito porch"

The top of the smoke that thunders - with the ever present rainbow...

Mom & Mamaw climbing to the platform on the Lookout Tree - you could see the falls from there

Pretty impressive!

Me!

Back in Lusaka, we went to a local zoo (a very sad speciman of a zoo) and I took a couple of pictures.

Mom at the zoo

Mamaw watching one of the missionary kids pet a deer.

One of the missionaries took us all to a local church & then on a tour of the city. She found a place where Mom could (illegally - cameras were NOT allowed downtown!) take a picture of the skyline.

After church - Mamaw, my housemate & me to the right of the picture

I loved having them there--& not just because they cleaned the oven & refrigerator while they visited. I was glad to have someone back home who had seen and would understand…

Mom writing postcards with my housemate's cat Mpingo.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

2012 Project 365 – Week Twenty-Five

Hot, sultry, sluggish… just a few adjectives to describe our week…

Saturday, June 16^th

My lunch – veggie burger & cantaloupe. Sadly, the tomato was store bought.

Dr. M drove back from Kentucky tonight – and drove by my sheep farm.

Sunday, June 17^th

Look who came back for a visit!

No, the bunny isn’t incarcerated – just in the neighbor’s yard.

The altar flowers from church – in honor of my mother’s birthday (& Dr. M’s mom, since there were two bunches). The container that they’re in (from Tiffany – la de da) was my five year gift from work. When I chose it I thought it was a pencil holder. Ha!

Monday, June 18^th

My friend Joanne & I decided to get takeout & eat at her house. We watched the Reds game for a while. Rascal watched me eat. GORGEOUS cat! I couldn’t ever get all of him in the frame – maybe next week.