Our life seems to be “organized bedlam” these days.

OK, blogger friends, I know what you are thinking…Where is Dementia Donna and why is she now blogging only sporadically, with blogs that are waaaay toooo loooong?…(and pretty lame blogs to boot! ) MacGyver and I are feeling very much like we have been put in an old fashion washing machine on the spin cycle and then run through the ringer and hung out to dry…   Not to mention that it has been like a sauna the last few days here..In this heat, if I get my shorts in a knot..I can’t get it out!  Last Thursday was the hottest day of a very hot week…Having no A/C is usually no issue here for us..we “Cave people” have learned how to cope with this after 38 years..Ya gotta shed the animal skin clothing, take the bone out of your hair and just ride your custom log vehicle around in the backyard….

 

This would have been a family portrait many moons ago…The years have passed and MacGyver and I are in the Cave alone now…and actually brave enough to run 6 ceiling fans, two box fans, and 2 old oscillating fans at the same time!!! HEY, WHATEVER IT TAKES!

 

 

Also, last Thursday was the hottest day of the year so far…MacGyver jumped hopped climbed on the trusty John Deere to mow grass before noon (key word here is “trusty”.)  After mowing the front yard, and the immediate back yard, he headed out to the BACK BACK BACK yard.  I need to say here that the lot our home sits on is 59’ wide and 500’ deep..and the house sits on the first 100’…So, Dennis gets all the way to the end of our lot on his UNtrusty John Deere, and the mower quits.  Thank GOD he decided not to try to push it back up to our garage to work on it…NO, NOT IN THIS HEAT!  So…he came back up to the house, got the tow strap out, put it on the old blue truckster, told me to climb in the front seat …we were going for a ride.

No, not a leisurely spin around the block..  we were heading the truck through the looong back yard to pull the mower back.  This involved MOI climbing up onto the mower, standing with my LEFT foot on the running board of the mower and putting my RIGHT foot on the thingy under the seat that lets the wheels turn with the motor off.  Oh, yeah… and steering with my left hand while balancing with my right.…If only there were pictures of this,  but I couldn’t coerce the squirrels into using my phone camera !…

Above is the only picture I took of Dennis working on the John Deere, trying to get the mower deck off and find the problem.  After 44 years, I have learned when it is OK to take pictures and when it is best to  “step AWAY from the camera”…You should take notice that the air surrounding the mower is just a little blue??????  As it turns out, a belt came off…and my hero, MacGyver, managed to get it back on.  Hey, I DID help him pull the mower deck out and push it back..I’m not helpless!

There were some pretty interesting storm clouds brewing in the heat last week…and it looks like some stormy weather ahead for the Cave Dwellers as we try to gently coax our elders toward a safer place in an assisted living facility..  Suffice to say that Den and I ARE trying to understand the reluctance of leaving a home you have lived in for over 50 years.  We get that.  Now all we have to do is convince them that it is time to move on to an environment that is soooo much less dangerous for them both…and a place where they will be well taken care of.  As you can see, life has gotten a tad hectic!.. Hey, if the elders don’t want to go, maybe Dennis and I will!!  JUST KIDDING!….But we have taken the tour with our aunt and uncle, and have had a meal there …This place is really nice and they even have their own chef.   You order off a menu for every meal, and you can have a glass of wine or beer with dinner!..WHERE DO WE SIGN UP???!!…

Above picture was taken on the lower level of the rehab place Uncle Jr. is now at.  They have an ice cream parlor, a couple rec rooms, a popcorn machine and a beauty/barber shop…We took our aunt and uncle to listen to the Senior Singers in one of the rec rooms…They were very good and we enjoyed their old nostalgic songs…He is doing very well in rehab, and shortly  Uncle Jr. will be discharged…we HOPE to some assisted living.

Our lives are pretty full right now, but I am still keeping watch on the Wrens.  I finally have a family nesting in one of our Wren Houses..after 5 years of putting the “For Rent” sign out.  I have always favored the lovely song of the male Wren..and then I began doing a little research online about them…”Male House Wrens start building several nests at once in hopes of persuading a female to mate with him. Pairs typically break up by the end of each nesting season and choose new partners the next year. House Wrens are aggressive. Single males sometimes compete for females even after a pair has begun nesting. In about half of these contests the outsider succeeds in displacing his rival, at which point he usually discards any existing eggs or nestlings and begins a new family with the female. Although they use only one nest cavity at a time, they vigorously defend all cavities in their territory. As part of this defense, House Wrens often pierce and destroy the eggs of other cavity-nesting species such as Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows that attempt to nest within their territory.”. 

SAY WHAAAAAAT????? NO, NO, TELL ME IT AIN’T SO!!

This little female peeks out and even steps out of her “house” every so often.  The 3 photos at the bottom show her walking around the bottom of the house…Notice the middle picture, she is peeking around from the backside..then continues around and goes back inside…I’m not sure what the reason was.  Maybe to check to see if her mate was REALLY out getting groceries, or up to something more sinister..

Since the weather has cooled off this past few days, MacGyver decided it was time to prepare the famous Cave chicken on the grill…

                            Before                                                                     Ready to carve

For those who give a rat’s arse, I will give you the family’s secret recipes …You “home gamers” can give it a try…

Before I close this very long, tedious blog, I would like to acknowledge the new and brave people who are now waiting, albeit impatiently, in the GMC.  A shout out to Dell, who has been married 64 years, has 7 kids and 12 grands…makes me tired just to type that.  Also a welcome goes out to Heidi and Dan.  These two are retired and getting ready to go “full time”.  They have 4 kids and 9 grands..Seems like Cave Dwellers have acquired some very prolific couples here lately!   I know you are ALL waiting for us to get back on the road, and believe me, we would love nothing better!..and we are trying to keep focused on that light at the end of the tunnel!…To quote the words of one of my favorite old rockers, Mick Jaggar…”Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind”.

“Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again -
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way
And our way
is on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again”

                                                                                                                                 ~Willie Nelson