Sunday this 'n' that

Well, today is Mother's Day and, for my mom at least, it is a tough one. This past Thursday, she had to make the very difficult decision to put her beloved 15 year old dog, Brandi, to sleep. Her vet told her that with all the medical issues which Brandi had to deal with, she lived longer than most dogs with heart problems because of how well my parents took care of her all these many years. What makes it even harder is the fact that this dog was a major connection to my dad whom we lost only a few years ago.

Picture taken on Christmas Day - 2020.

I was not able to get a day off from my 'lovely job' (insert smirk here) in order to take her and the dog so that she would not be alone and not have to drive herself home in a not-so-good mental state of mind - at her age especially. So, my husband stepped up and took a PTO/vacation day and spent the day with her - talk about a horrid day ...

Anyhow, I picked her up at her house that night on my way home from work at 10;:30PM, and I had her spend the night at my house because I did not want her to be alone and then I took her back home again on my way to work the  next day (Friday).

Speaking of critters, the same night my mom slept over at my house, I heard loud GUT-WRENCHING screams in the middle of the night. There was a very nasty cat fight right outside in our front yard! It was pitch dark and I could not see anything so I got up, ran into the kitchen, and opened up the garage door, (which makes a bit of noise), in order to scare the cats so that they would STOP before I found either a badly injured or perhaps even dead cat in our driveway! The next day, my husband told me that, Chester (the stray cat we have been trying to get inside the house so that we can get him to our vet to get checked out, was definitely in the thick of it and the poor baby got the brunt of it as it would appear. He has a patch of fur missing/pulled out from his back side. I took these pics yesterday morning while he was hanging out in the garage (BTW, you can kind of see his Igloo he sleeps/lays in placed outside the garage door on the right-hand side) ...

My husband also informed me that the poor fella has worms too so we are going to do our best to get him to the vet, but it is difficult because he is only now beginning to trust us "somewhat" and is far too scittish to just capture in a Have A Heart trap and get him into a holding cage we have set up in our basement downstairs until we can get him a vet appointment AND even then we can not even pick him up so ... you get my drift. We will have to try and figure something out.

On the lighter side of this post, I took my mom to The Mint Leaf yesterday afternoon. She had never been there before and they have a lot of wonderful health and beauty products for skin. ALL handmade soaps, shampoos & conditioners, shower gels, hand & body lotions, an awesome array of soap bars to choose from, to name a few items.

They also have dozens of local venders who offer their products there - clothing, jewelry, furniture, wall decorations, specialized stone coasters with a lovely charm, vintage decor, decorative cakes, cookies, and other goodies.

My set of stone Black Cat Coasters with silver cat charm.

More Whipped Soap (This stuff is FANTASTIC!) and a bar of Wild Flowers scented soap made with various oils and minerals as are the whipped soaps and shaving creams.

I also found a cool Kelly Green-colored sweater.

Afterwards, I treated my mom to lunch at Flanagan's Pub. She loves their delicious grilled chicken sandwiches ...

Posing with a long-time patron and friend of many years - Mike (aka "Magoo").

In other news, our favorite gal and Flanagan's Pub bartender, Meg, sharing her latest post regarding "Go Gray in May" ...

Have a blessed Sunday, friends!!

Fun Friday!

Friday at least and it was a fairly busy week at that. Tuesday was Halloween with J.J., Wednesday I had to pick up my mom and help her take her dog to the vet then drop by my sister Aurora Skye's house on the way home, and last night I had gotten a call from my friend Deb asking me if I would have dinner with her at P.J.'s where she treated me to my favorite meal. 

Just when I thought I was finished crocheting scarfs, Deb asked me if I would be willing to make a pink one for a woman she works with who has breast cancer. She and her co-workers are putting together a gift bag for her. So after I got home from dinner last night, I made these items for her to donate ...

A pink scarf and a little matching bag to go with it. The bag has a Breast Cancer Awareness pin on it ...

In other news, my husband finally completed his first of five courses at RACC (Reading Area Community College) last week. He received his certificate in the mail just yesterday ...

As for today, I am planning on staying home and doing some house cleaning. Tomorrow night is the Reading Witches & Pagan's Masquerade Ball. Looking forward to it!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Fun Friday!!

Yes indeed, it's Friday folks and it has been yet another busy week here. I ended the week meeting my sister and twin soul, Rhiannon for lunch yesterday while I was out and about dropping off my resumes at a couple of local businesses ...

We are both so busy these days that it has been far too long since the last time we took some time to catch up on things. Anyway. I am forced to stay home today and wait for a phone call from the 'U.C. police' (as I commonly refer to them) aka the PA State Government Unemployment Compensation Dept. On top of auditing you every week, they "check up" on you after 30 days via the phone and then they bug you, I mean call you, again in another 90 days. Better be an obedient, good little tax payer (and yes, even though I am currently unemployed, I still pay taxes through BOTH my U.C. benefit payments which were technically taxed the first time around when I worked and they took it out of my pay for others to use and they are also taking their cut of whatever severance pay I receive from my last job). I must have my mandatory job search log at hand for when they ask (or should I say interrogate) me over the phone. Okay, I am done venting, thanks for listening. I feel better now! LOL!!

Moving on, I wanted to share this little bit on a charity called:
Spirit of Children that I heard about when I shopped at the local Spirit Halloween store the other day. I included a link to the site in case anyone is interested in reading more about it. I donated when I checked out and when you give up to a certain amount, they give you these nice little rubber wrist bands to wear in support.

And, of course I just had to grab these two really cute little tee shirts while I was there ...

>^^<       >^^<      >^^<      >^^<      >^^<      >^^<

In other "mews", Merlin is growing like a weed. He and Leo simply adore one another and are constantly playing ...

... and snoozing together. They are quite the buds! Oh yes, and I bought Leo a new high velocity fan at Lowe's Hardware store for his catio since his old one finally called it quits.

And so now I will leave you all with good wishes from my sister Rhiannon for a wonderful weekend! Brightest Blessings, friends!

Fun Friday!

(This gif just says it all, dunnit it? ha ha ha)

Thank you! 

The following is a clip from the 1983 ARMS Concert in New York. One of a series of live charity benefit shows put together by British bassist Ronnie Lane for Action into Research for Multiple  Sclerosis...

"Stairway to Heaven" (instrumental with Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, & Jeff Beck all from the original "Yardbirds".

https://youtu.be/1B_c6FtLVRg

Jimmy Page with a fan outside of his home.

)o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(

Here's wishing everyone a ROCKIN' WEEKEND and Brightest Blessings!!! 

Giving Back

Every year at work, the Travelers employees set up a Christmas Angel Tree. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a tree with red (child) and green (seniors) Salvation Army cards hung on it. Written on these cards are gift wishes from a child or senior citizen in need. I usually pick the seniors cards because: (A) everyone seems to always take the child cards, and (B) the seniors really do not ask for much other than what they actually need. 

This year; however, I picked two cards ~ a senior man and a senior woman. My cat Kiki played the role of Santa's Little Helper when it came to wrapping the presents ...

  For "William," a set of various brand new pots and pans ...

 and for "Sherry," a fresh new set of bath towels ~ two large, two small, two hand towels, and four wash rags ...

In addition to the Angel Tree, I also like to give bags of toys, stuffed animals, etc., to "Toys For Tots" every year. These are all items which were requested and I am more than happy to help. I may not be rich, but I do what I can.

Friends with Benefits ...

The other day, my long-time, dearest friend Judy-B contacted me on Facebook about a good friend of ours named Laurie whom we have both known for many years now. She told me about an up-coming benefit that one our friends, Jerry, will be having for Laurie. Laurie was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Since her insurance does not cover all of her medical expenses, Jerry decided to host a "Poker Run & Benefit Party" next Saturday for her.

Count us in!!! My mother battled breast cancer a few years back and, fortunately, her doctor caught it early enough that she only lost a portion of her breast and gained (thank the Devine Goddess) many more years of her life so far.

One of my favorite pics of Judy-B, my sister and twin soul Judy (Rhiannon), and me circa 2002 

It's been quite a few years since Judy-B and I have seen Laurie and I am only too happy to be able to be there for her in one way or another. We are currently trying to round up all of our friends and family to join us as well.

Special Olympics, Extraordinary People

I remember a few years ago, my friends and I used to hang out at this local pub called "Alley-Oops." There was a young man named Chad who used to come around, with his family, to sing karaoke. He happened to be the son of Stock Car Driver and former NASCAR racer Kenny Brightbill. He was always very bright and full of good spirit. He also had Down Syndrome.

It always amazed me how, every Friday night, he would get so excited to have the chance to get up in front of everyone and sing his favorite Hootie and the Blowfish tunes as we all cheered him on! I remembered thinking about how genuinely happy and full of life this young teenager was. While my friends and I spent our time complaining about "how hard our work week was" over a couple of drinks, Chad was perfectly happy with the simplest of things in his life.

Chad having some fun with the crowd!

This reminds me of how I had always wanted to work with children who were "handicapable" and those with mental and physical disabilites. But, for some reason, I never pursued that goal. Perhaps it was because of my lack of confidence in myself as I was never exactly a "book-smart" student in school by any definition of the word.

Even though I am not actually qualified enough to be able to work with such inspiring individuals, I can still help them in my own special little way. Therefore, I have chosen to support our local Special Olympics located in Norristown, PA. As I read through their website, I realized just how important this organization really is. Special Olympics is a life-changing opportunity for those who have not had the same advantages in life as some of us. They provide year-round sports training for both children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Not only do they provide continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, but they help to give these very extraordinary individuals the chance to built and demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in sharing gifts, skills, and friendship with their families and fellow athletes, and the community. But most importantly, it allows them to develop confidence in themselves. And let's face it, that is something we can all use a little of!