Category: Milestones

Ah yes, Sunday was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the leaves were turning bright colors, the air was pleasantly warm and Greta became a “woman”!

I feel sort of silly being so pleased that my dog finally acted the part and let her boyfriend of a few months have his way with her. However, I am tickled pink, and smiling like some totally insane woman.

Last night I was convinced that Greta was the last of a small sect of “Doggie Nuns”. That I would go to my grave never knowing the joys of breeding a beautiful litter of perfect little wire-haired dachshunds. When I took her to bed last night I lay down beside her and told her all about the joys of sex and being a mother. I begged, I pleaded and then as I listened to her soft and steady breaths, I prayed.

When Bernie arrived on Sunday morning I figured that they would do the “dance of love” for a while before getting down to business. That just didn’t happen. Bernie came in to the house, did a quick Tango with Greta and Wham, Bam, Thank-Ya Ma’am! And it was done.

I have to admit that I cried. It’s the romantic in me, you see, I simply couldn’t help it. My baby girl became a woman.

I think we all can tell you where we were, and what we were doing on that fateful day, five years ago.

September 11, 2001

It was a beautiful day here in New Hampshire. Sunny, bright, clear with blue skies. I was taking a shower getting ready for a dental appointment, while Hubby was working on shingling the house. It was a day like any other here.
Hubby had the TV in our bedroom pointed out the window so he could listen to the morning news.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my arm and Hubby told me I had to get out of the shower now, something was happening. I was a little dazed and confused. I shut the water in the shower off and grabbed my towel.

Hubby and I sat in our family room watching Fox News, ABC, and CNN. A plane had hit one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in downtown New York City.

While we watched, suddenly another plane came in and hit the other Tower!
We were both in shock. We listened to reports. No one was saying terrorism, not at first. But both Hubby and I knew.

We watched the Tower’s come down one and then the other. We knew people had died. We just didn’t know how many.

At 12:30 I drove to my dental appointment. There was not another car on the road. Not one. I got to my dental appointment and found that I was the only patient that hadn’t cancelled that day.
When I got home we watched the TV all day. I called my family and my close friends. Just to hear their voices.

It doesn’t matter your political affiliations, or how you feel about the war.
What matters is on September 11, 2001 innocent people died in New York City, In Washington, DC and in Shanksville, PA.

People like you and like me. Just because they were Americans.
That was the day I learned that we are no longer safe here at home.

I also learned that when our country is attacked in such a manner, we pull together and unify.

God Bless all who lost their lives that day, and all who serve this country each and every day to protect and defend us.

Continue reading “That Fateful Day”

I watched The US Open Tennis Tournament from New York today. It was nice to see that somewhere the weather was good, as we have had rain all day.

I’ve always enjoyed watching tennis, especially men’s tennis. There is something about watching these men serve a ball at mind boggling speeds, and then equally amazing to see the ball returned.

But today was a sad day for me too. It was the day that Andre Agassi played his last professional game, and his last game at the US Open.

For 21 years I have watched Andre play this game. When he started out he was a cocky young man with long hair, a scruffy two day growth of beard and usually some long dangly earring whipping around his face.

But there was that grin, and his ability to make shots and get shots that intrigued me. If he was playing, I was watching.

Back then Pete Sampras was playing as well. He had a serve that few could ever hope to return. Pete and Andre seemed to always meet somewhere along the way during the different tournaments. And if one didn’t win the other did.

But where Pete was always Pete, Andre went through many changes over the years. You could see his game grow and change as you watched the man, himself growing and changing.

Andre searched for happiness, failed the first time he thought he’d found it, and then low and behold he got together with tennis champ, Steffi Graf, whom he married and has had two beautiful children with.

But time and age are an athletes worst enemy, and so it was with Andre. We watched his body giving out over the last year, at the same time we found ourselves feeling so proud of this once cocky boy, turn into a wonderful, caring man.

I watched his match today. His last match. I could feel the pain wash over me when I saw him flinch with a back spasm. He did not stop playing. He gave it his all. The crowd cheered and tears were shed.

When the game was done, his opponent was crying too. Andre had showed us all what a real champion looked like, and how a real champion retired, with such grace.

So, thank you Andre, for 21 wonderful years.

Lisa was my 16,000th read! Thanks Lisa! It’s another big milestone for Dackel Princess!

Scavenger Saturday

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Signs


This is the sign atop Mount Washington.


My daughter and Hubby’s daughter at the Glienicke Brücke, in Berlin, Germany before The Wall came down. This bridge was featured in the movie, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold“.

I’ve always been one of those “cold” people. By this I mean that as long as I can recall, I have had cold hands, cold feet and even in the dog days of summer, I have needed knee socks, long jeans and a sweat shirt to keep my temperature up to the normal 98.6. In fact my normal temperature has always been 97.6, an entire degree colder than most. This also makes me wonder, if I was ever to die prematurely, would the local Crime Scene Investigators ever get my time of death correct?
But I digress.
I have spent my life fighting to stay warm, which is why this summer I find something very odd happening to me. I am HOT all the time.
I wake up hot, I go to sleep hot, I’m hot when I take a cold shower, or when I sit outside in a breeze. I can’t seem to cool down. I find myself sitting naked in front of my air conditioner.
Hubby, who has previously been the hot one in our family, and would force me to wear flannel pajamas in July due to the temperature he kept our bedroom, is now walking around the house in sweats all the time. Yesterday I caught him in a long sleeve sweatshirt, huddled under a blanket! Teeth chattering.
“I think it must be menopause” he offered, carefully today.
“WHAT!” I screeched. “I am far too young for that!”
“It’s just a thought.”
Menopause? No certainly at my age, (young and perky), it’s not menopause! Maybe it’s actually “Global Warming”!
Or maybe all I need is a new thermostat, you know, like an old car?
Shoot. Maybe it is menopause.

She has been my cousin and my friend all of my life. We have been through thick and thin, trial and error, but one thing always has been there between us. That is the love and knowledge that we will go through this life with the other by our side.
So Happy Birthday, Janet!!!
Go on over and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Yesterday I was driven to Boston by my daughter Amanda. I had an appointment with the leading doctor in corneal surgery in the region. This appointment was my last hope that something could be done to restore the vision in my left eye to normal.
Since having “simple cataract surgery” 5 years ago I have been searching for answers to this problem. The day after that surgery, when they removed the surgical dressings I began having terrible glare and prisming in that eye. I complained, I begged for help and basically over the last 5 years I have been made to feel like I was some sort of nut job. That was, until yesterday.
I met with this wonderful lady doctor, Dr. W. at Tuft’s New England Eye Center. She is young (my age! LOL), confident, friendly, and knew immediately what was wrong with my eye. We spoke of the pro’s and the con’s of the surgery, then she presented what she would like to do. This was no simple thing. She will replace the lens, but if this problem happens the she will do this to fix it, or this or this. She presented about 5 different options explaining each step as she went. At the end I had no questions at all.
My surgery is scheduled for August 22nd. I feel so good and so confident that this surgery will finally give me back my vision and my life.
I was so happy my daughter was driving and that she was with me. She is an excellent driver and is just great in rush hour traffic. There I was having heart failure and she was cool as a cucumber. She asked me if her driving was bothering me. Nope, it was everyone else’s!
She has a convertible and we put the top down and that was so nice. To feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my skin, helped to relax me.
Thanks again, Mandy!
Yippee!! Life is good!

It’s Motor Cycle Week here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Woo-hoo!

Bike Week 2006

I don’t mean to sound unappreciative of all that this momentous week brings to our area. Our motels, restaurants and area merchants all benefit from the tourists that come during that week. Especially our local Tattoo Parlor. Why after last year they made enough money to buy new curtains for their shop.
As one can expect, traffic can be a problem. A few years ago, Hubby and I climbed up on his 1981 BMW R-65 bike and decided to cruise on down to “The Weirs”. This is the heart of Bike Week action and a mere 4 miles away from our home.
We got about a mile down the road and stopped. The bike traffic was so thick and so backed up, that after 20 minutes of not moving one bit, we turned around and headed in the opposite direction, where we found a nice restaurant and had a nice lunch, far from the maddening crowd!
Aside from the Weirs there are many places to ride your bike while visiting the area. The Kancamagus Scenic Byway is just beautiful and perfect for a day trip. There is also the Mount Washington Toll Road which is bike friendly on Thursdays.
Most bikers enjoy camping at the local camping areas, which are all booked a year to two years in advance. When we built our house we lived in our camper and the only week we had to find other accommodations was Bike Week!
I can say that for the most part it’s a fun time around here.
Now if I could just get
Harley Davidson to make a bike with a quieter muffler…

It’s totally by chance that my cousin Janet was my 10,000 read! I checked my stats and there it was! So to all who helped build my numbers up, Thank-You! And to my cousin who turned me onto Blogging and now has put me over the 10,000 mark, a Big Thank-You and Hug!!!