Hi everybody, I am sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I have been pretty busy with all my irons in the fire at once. I have 108 days left before retirement! That's something to look forward to for sure.

We are still doing some packing at our house since we still haven't gotten any information from insurance about when they are going to start working on our home to make the repairs. That is getting very frustrating. My housekeeper said she feels like Cinderella vacuuming and mopping concrete floors! LOL

In other areas of my life, my daughter and I had to ask my son to vacate the trailer he was leasing/purchasing from her. He had gotten behind on the payments and was not interested in catching up, so we had to evict him. That was very emotional for me, because on the one hand, I wanted to help him, but on the other hand, I had to back her up or pay the rent myself. I can't do the latter for sure, so he had to go.

On the upside, Heather has already had a good offer for the purchase of the trailer from the park owner so it is sold as of yesterday. We have about 10 days to get everything out of it and clean it up a little. The park owner will do all the repairs that need to be done, so Heather has to do very little. That was such a relief to her and to me. I was worried about the costs involved because I knew I would have to help her because I had promised to back her up when my son moved in there. But, God worked it all out and WOW he did an awesome job too!

That's all I have for now; I'll write more later if I have time.

First of all, I want to thank Daisy for helping me with my new look on my blog. She has done a great job and I really appreciate the time she spent. She is a super lady and a great blog friend.

These are large leaf feeding caterpillars with numerous spines over the body. Those spines are vicious! If you happen to brush up against them or step on one, you usually have a serious reaction to the poison those spines inject into you. My poor dogs cry with their little paws when they step on them in the yard. It is very painful to be stung by one of the creatures.......And what are their purpose? Who knows? But what they turn into is almost as terrifying to me....it is a huge moth and here is it's picture.
They just give me the heeby-geebies when I see them. They are supposed to be a silk moth. Does that mean they make silk? I thought worms did that. Hmmmmm........thinking.....

Anyway, these caterpillars that sting the crap out of you, come twice a year. Once in the spring and again in the fall. They tend to be in the oak trees in clusters. The sometimes fall out of the trees and land on you, or brush you as they fall, and of course, you get stung. I think it is totally unintentional on their part, but damn, it hurts. Tom and I go around our trees and knock them down and kill as many of them as we can. I just heard the other day that Dawn dishwashing liquid and water mixed together will kill them if you can reach them to spray them.

The other critter we have a lot of trouble with is what we call the love bug. We call them that, because they swarm twice a year while mating and are attached to each other as in this picture making 'love'. There are so many of them, that they end up covering the front end of your vehicle and windshield. Apparently, they are very acidic because if the dead ones are left on your car too long, they will actually eat the paint off. And they turn to sometime similar to concrete....you can't get them off your car without a LOT of work. Birds don't eat them, nothing eats them. They are just too bitter. I haven't tried them or anything, I just figured that is why nothing will use them for nourishment. They are just a pain in the butt.

They don't hurt you or bite you or anything like that, but they coat everything. And they have a special like for white things...White cars, white houses, white shirts, white cups. Anything white attracts them. When you drive down the roads, it sounds like rain hitting the windshield and pretty soon you can't see out the window to drive.

Well, I am ready for tomorrow afternoon to get here, because then that will mean I don't have to work for 3 days. Yahooooo. And as of tomorrow, I only have 3 months and 29 days left before I retire.....Yahooooo again!

I would think that people that work at IRS are just like any other people in the world and could show some common courtesy to those that call in for information. Well that's what I get for THINKING!

I just learned this morning, that those of us who live in the parishes(counties) hit by Hurricane Katrina, can have an automatic extension of filing deadline and automatic extension without penalty of monies owed to IRS, both until August 28, 2006. (Of course, they wait until the last minute to TELL people this) The document I was reading, stated that we have to call an 800 number to identify ourselves as living in those parishes affected and then write HURRICANE KATRINA in red at the top of our returns when they are finally filed.

I just spent approximately 30 minutes sitting on hold waiting for 'the next available representative'. She finally came on the line and was laughing like she had just told herself a joke she had never heard before. I laughed and said "now, you are having entirely too much fun this morning". I was trying to be jovial and pleasant to her. She apologized and I told her it was no problem. I was glad she was enjoying her job.

Then we go into the reason for my call. Now I have always heard that IRS people talk in circles and never give you a straight answer and now I believe it. I could have gotten more information from a trained monkey! After talking with this person for 10 minutes and going back and forth with what I had read and what she wanted me to say to her, I got so confused and frustrated, I told her to just FORGET IT!!!!!!!! And she pleasantly said, Ok, thank you for calling the I..........I hung up before she finished.

ARGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This is one of those times that if I could have reached through the phone, I would have shaken her till her head flopped.

Why can't life just be easy? Why can't we just go along in life and not have to fight these incessant battles? I get tired of the 'fighting life syndrome'. I have to fight with the power company because they make my power blink every day and I have to reset everything everyday when I get home. I have to fight with the Waste Management people that FORGET to pick up our garbage about half the time. We PAY for this 'service'! I find a product I like and use it for years, then the maker discontinues it. WHY WHY WHY WHY?????????? What is up with this world? Is everybody out to piss everybody else off? WTF????

Well, I am sitting here in my sister's kitchen, in Loxley, Alabama, blogging. I have eaten like a pig this weekend. She feeds me well when I am here.

My grandmother seems to be doing well, but she sleeps a lot. That's ok, I guess. If I was 91 years old, I would want to sleep all the time too. Of course, I want to sleep all the time NOW and I am nowhere near 91 yet.

Susan and I have had a nice visit and my niece, Misty is here right now. I will have to go take a picture of them before I go and tomorrow I will post their picture here.

Just wanted to touch base. Heather and I will be leaving in just a few minutes to head back to Louisiana. It will take us about 3 hours to get home if we only make one stop and there are no traffic problems. I have to remember to fill up my tank before I get on the road.

See you all tomorrow.