City of Hope Rose and Japanese Gardens

I took the following photos at City of Hope in their Rose Garden and Japanese Garden. This kept my mind busy as Mike was having his surgery.

The Japanese Garden:

The Rose Garden:

The OC vs CC

Orange County vs Coffee County... just how different are they?

So I'm in the hot tub today... my one vice at the apartment complex we're living in... it has totally convinced me that we WILL be getting a hot tub once we move back home to the CC (Coffee County). So there I am, soaking in the sun, the hot water, and the cool breeze blowing in off the ocean 9 miles away, relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet.

And then SHE arrived.

I don't know her, haven't seen her before in my life (that I'm aware of), but she must be a resident of the apartment complex as she had a key to get into the hot tub/spa area. She had on her two piece (yeah, right, 1 and a half piece) bathing suit. Everything falling out of what little she had on, talking on her cell phone. In the 20 minutes we shared the same spa area, I learned so much more about someone than I really want to know in 20 minutes! Do the initials T.M.I. mean anything to you???

Seriously! I would have a hard time discussing 1/2 of her conversation topics with my best friend of 46 years, but yet she didn't hesitate to discuss them in front of me and two other people that were sunning themselves nearby... one of them a guy!

So the conversation topics included, but were NOT limited to: her gay brother who just found the love of his life, but he has herpes; the infection she got from her breast implants (that one was pretty gross!); her daughter who is 16 is pregnant and is torn between which THREE boyfriends may be the daddy; how she reported her Jeep stolen from a bar she was at two months ago when it was parked on the other side of the parking lot and that subsequently got her a DUI or public intoxication. She's been riding her bike to work the past few months since they impounded her Jeep and she can't afford to bail it out. After a bit, I kinda looked around a bit to see if I could see any hidden cameras that would tip me off to this being an episode of the Jerry Springer show. Nope, no hidden cameras.

I mean, who the heck would sit out in public and discuss these things on a cell phone in front of complete strangers?!

When the timer on the hot tub expired and the jets cut off, I couldn't get out of the hot tub quick enough! I thought about leaving before the time was up, but it was sort of like watching a soap opera... you just had to catch that last tidbit before the commercial break! Hopefully, I won't be subjected to a part two to this episode!

The OC vs CC

Orange County vs Coffee County... just how different are they?

So I'm in the hot tub today... my one vice at the apartment complex we're living in... it has totally convinced me that we WILL be getting a hot tub once we move back home to the CC (Coffee County). So there I am, soaking in the sun, the hot water, and the cool breeze blowing in off the ocean 9 miles away.

And then SHE arrived. I don't know her, haven't seen her before in my life (that I'm aware of), but she must be a resident of the apartment complex as she had a key to get into the hot tub/spa area. She had on her two piece (yeah, right, 1 and a half piece) bathing suit. Everything falling out of what little she had on, talking on her cell phone. In the 20 minutes we shared the same spa area, I learned so much more about someone than I really want to know in 20 minutes!

Seriously! I don't think I would have discussed 1/2 of her conversation topics with my best friend of 46 years, but yet she didn't hesitate to discuss them in front of me and two other people that were sunning themselves nearby... one of them a guy! So the conversation topics included, but were NOT limited to: her gay brother who just found the love of his life, but he has AIDS; the infection she got from her breast implants (that one was pretty gross!); her daughter who is 16 is pregnant and is torn between which THREE boyfriends may be the daddy; how she reported her Jeep stolen from a bar she was at two months ago when it was parked on the other side of the parking lot and that subsequently got her a DUI or public intoxication. She's been riding her bike to work the past few months since they impounded her Jeep and she can't afford to bail it out.

Revisiting my Roots

I've started back into the genealogy research again after several months of not doing a lot with it. I've started with my great grandfather's sister's family, Margaret Kelly Quinlisk. Seems like she would have been a very interesting woman to have known. From what I've found so far, she was a widow early in life after having 10 children, including two sets of twins! A few of them dying very young, one in his early 20's and from what I've seen, taking in several cousins, neices and/or nephews throughout the years into her home.

I find it also interesting that I've always considered Gardner (MA) to be the home of my mother's family, when in fact, her father only settled there after marrying her mother. True, the Rice's have been in Worcester County for centuries, but only in Gardner after 1930 or thereabout. In truth, my father's Kelly family had been in Gardner for decades longer than the Rice family.

John Burke Kelly was settled and had a growing business in Gardner by the turn of the century and had brought over most of his family from Ireland by that time as well. So in researching the Kelly family, I am revising my thinking on who has the deeper roots in Gardner! Even my mother's grandfather, who immigrated from England in 1887, did so after the Kelly family was already established in Gardner. Sometimes the greatest surprises come from having to re-evaluate your own thinking!

I asked my Dad about the Quinlisk family and he only vaguely remembers them. Apparently, other than furnishing jobs for the family, John B. Kelly didn't have a lot of social interaction with his siblings or their families from what I understand from Dad. I've heard from a couple of Quinlisk researchers, so I'm hoping at some point I'll be able to find some real live cousins in this line.

And so the family saga continues...

The Past Whispers

by Nancy Brister

On some misty morning, when the earth is hushed and still,

When the fog obscures the treetops and hides both lake and rill,

Go reverently and quietly, and listen for the sounds;

You'll see the past, and hear it, when the ghosts go on their rounds.

Ghosts don't come in sunlight, they don't come in blinding storm;

They gather in the silver light, when mist brings in the morn.

They move cautiously and slowly, to make the moment last,

Entertaining all who listen with whispers of the past.

They talk of things that used to be, as they move along their way,

And, all too soon, they disappear, as mist turns into day.

You can watch in silent wonder, as their lines begin to form;

You can hear them - if you listen - on some shrouded misty morn.

Home, but not home anymore...

I'm back in California. Hard to believe it will be two weeks tomorrow since I arrived! So much has gone on. After arriving, we immediately starting packing and starting looking for a new place to live. The rental house we're in was foreclosed on and sold at auction on January 26th. Great. We supposedly signed a new lease with the landlady. We paid rent; she didn't pay mortgage.

So off we went to look for a new home. Apartment? Town house? Another single family residence? Who knew? We sure didn't! We looked at everything we could find on the internet, Craig's List (bunch of non-existant homes there!), and the newspaper. So what did we find? Zip, zero, nada, nothing! Everything we found on the internet had been rented weeks ago. So then we started looking at apartments. Coming from a house to an apartment is really hard. But even harder when you've been married for 32 years and you're a pack rat! Although most of our belongings have been taken to our house in Tennessee, we still have a LOT of stuff here!

So we did what we didn't want to do. We called a realtor that a guy Mike works with had used and was really happy with. She took us out on Tuesday and the last place we looked at was the winner! It's a stand-alone townhouse (no common walls) to any other town homes. It's a two story, two bedroom, two bath, two car garage. OK, the two car garage was the selling point for Mike. The small courtyard was the selling point for me. I have a place to go outside without having to leave home!

So this is it... our new HOME SWEET HOME. Last move until we go back to Tennessee....

Or until this one goes to foreclosure...

Owl

Coming back from Normandy today, I spotted an owl sitting in a tree along side the road. I slammed on the brakes, turned around, when back down the road and grabbed my camera. This is a Barred Owl. From what I read when I looked it up to ID it, it says that they are the most active owl during the day. Cool!