On Top of Everything Else

With only a few more days til our Cappy comes home, things seem to be quickly piling up; my to do (to finish) list has been extending itself exponentially. Yesterday a couple of Mr. Dale Ruelet's workers (Mr. Chris and his son, Mr. Clint) came by and installed a couple of lights, finished up the ceiling tilework, etc. and hooked up the new HD television in the bedroom. That helped a lot. I still(!!!)have painting left to do in there, Mr. Tim, the "floor dude", as Cappy calls him, needs to be called so he can lay tile in there, then, that room should, pretty much, be finished. Ahhhhhh. (Pictures will follow.)
Before all that, as I said, I'm going to be busy trying to 'tie up' a lot of loose ends. Cappy, just now on the phone, said he can already hear, in my voice, a lot of tension. (I'm also losing sleep worrying about my daughter, Sookie, who has lost so much sleep that I'm very concerned about her health.) All that being said, to let you know, posting will be somewhat sparse in the coming days. Cappy said to let Ya'll know we are going to be putting a 'do not disturb' sign on da door, and that blogging will still be limited, due to our rushing off to Houston next weekend to visit family and attend the Renaissance Festival.
Some of the other things we'd love to do on Cappy's time off from work, is to finally meet Trishy and Doug, who recently, temporarily moved to New Orleans, because of Doug's job. Cappy talked with them last night, and they were whooping it up in The French Quarter. Crime Shmime...ya just can't keep a good "ol' " gal like Trishy down; from talking with her online and over the phone, we know she is one fun, fiesty lady, and we can hardly contain ourselves with anticipation of meeting the both of them.
Well,... as my Mom used to say, "Here I sit, in silent bliss"....(you don't wanna know the rest of that one), instead of rushing around, I'm sitting here. Oh alright, alright, I just heard it ringing again...it's my 'to do' list calling. And Raleigh, you aint helpin'.

So I Put Raleigh in Charge of Watchin' Da Jeep.

Wellllll, in one scant week, Cappy will finally be home. I should put the word 'finally' in neon. That will make ten, count 'em 10 whole weeks he's been out on that boat. I guess I've mentioned that way too many times, eh? Here in our little town, we are his fambly, doing our best to keep the homefires burning. Just the dawgs and me. Together, I guess, the dogs and I make a pretty good team. We each have our jobs. If you read one of the recent blogs about our little trip to LaPlace, you know what a spectacular job SparkyBear did of protecting me. I'm still in shock, but proud of him and have been pampering him much, since.
They keep me company, and escort me; for a ride, to the post office, to the grocery store, to the refrigerator, to the bathroom, in the shower with me, if I don't stop them, or to the curb in the dark,when I take out the garbage. At night I feel as though I am tightly tucked into the blankets, as each one, on either side, lies next to me, full length, with one ear up, listening. Or snoring. These dogs snore, yeah.
Raleigh's job is sentry duty and he takes it very seriously. He constantly prowls his 'kingdom', watching for invaders. He 'attends to' anyone driving into the driveway and out again. Our son, Dan, says Raleigh reminds him of those guys at the airport who 'direct' the planes in and out on the tarmack. He said all Raleigh needs is a couple of those long orange flashlights. Dan said poor Raleigh seems almost compulsive about it, and he might be right about that. I think it stems from this dog's idea of showing his loyalty, gratitude and respect to us'ns. It is heartwarming tho, to have someone welcome me home, especially to a dark house. He bows down, and and if he's trying to make his 'curtsy' extra special, he crosses one of his front feet over the top of the other, 'hugs' my leg and escorts me to the door. I don't know why, but the neighbors directly in back, just installed a security light, three feet from our property, which illuminates our back yard (and not so much theirs). I don't know what happened to cause them to do it, but I'm actually glad. Our yard dog, of late has been having bouts of 'freaking out' (it's late as I'm writing), barking, and practically screaming toward that direction, but because of the electric fence, he can't actually go behind the trees to put his teeth onto anyone, who might be lurking there. Lord help them if they wander into his territory, tho. Now he has one more item to watch over, 'mark' and protect; that being the Jeep, along with the camper, the SUV and the boat. I have to say, tho, he's doing a pretty good job. If he'd ever agree to go for a ride, I'd gladly take him, but I just know it's never gonna happen. Too bad, when he does go for a ride, it's going to be to the vet, as before, and that only reinforced his dread of getting into any vehicle. Even tho he doesn't go for rides, he counts the vehicles and everything in the yard as being his anyhow, except his new dog house. Go figure.

The Daze of Our Lives

Right now I've got so much going on, I'm not sure I know 'witch' end is up. Cappy left me in charge of the contractors, and they were supposed to try to get here last week, but now are solidly planning on sometime in the ethereal future. Cappy wanted it all to be finished by the time he got home, on the 4th, but that is looking rather fuzzy right now. I'm not much better, myself, as I don't stick to my own schedules. I was supposed to have the painting finished quite awhile ago, not to mention other sundry projects, as well.

One thing I've pretty much got set in concrete tho, is that I'm planning on going to pick up Cappy's Jeep in a couple hours from now. His sister, Maria, is going to help me get it here. What a coincidence; they had been talking about getting their son, Ren, a Jeep, and the one I found is only a few blocks from where they live. Now they are on the hunt online for one.

I know this quick, but I'm off and running. I hope your day is going well; I know we all live in a rushed world, but try to snatch some crazy fun along the way; it makes the ride so much more tolerable. (But I know you already knew dat.)

Headed Thisaway Again

First of all, I guess I should apologize for that last blog post. An angry Pegody aint a purdy thing to behold. I guess the Katrina hurricane stirred up a lot of anger and resentment down here, and even my beautiful friends in the Gospel group are convinced that the white people in the government deliberately flooded New Orleans and caused such devastation, which is still spreading, day after day. Personally, I think it was part of that mind-think that also spawned the "Jena 6" incident. A lot of anger bubbling below the surface 'roun' here.

Now would you believe what appears to be a minor tropical depression, which may be headed in our direction has folks, not only in the city of New Orleans terrified, but right now, there appear to be plans being made to evacuate people who are living in the lower regions along the coast, primarily those living in Fema trailors. People who live in those Fema trailors are made of stronger stuff than I. For those of you living up north, you may not have seen Fema trailor "parks", where they are sitting side by side by side by side, ad infinitum, with very little space between them, and this is where they have lived for the last two years! And will continue to do so, until 'whose nose' when. Living in them is (supposed to be)temporary and continuously tenuous, at best. When they evacuate, they are not allowed to take them with them, but only their personal belongings. I just don't know how they do it, and, Lord help me, I never want to know.

One thing I suspect, tho, to help a lot of people cope, are medications. They are being doled out everywhere down here. It's been reported that depression is at an all-time high (?) in this area, so it makes sense to me. I think I've finally got the problem licked, but migosh, I've talked with several friends who have been prescribed these things and now, don't have the luxury of taking time off from work to go through the terrible withdrawls...and I do mean Terrible.

Wellll...it aint all bad news around Cappy and Pegody's world.

I just learned that Dan and his family are planning on flying down to spend Thanksgiving with us!! Yay!!!! Cappy is already excitedly refining his menu plans, while out there on the boat.

Dan and Jen are in the midst of buying their first house, and it sounds wonderful. It has six bedrooms and an 'in-law' apartment! He told us before he even started looking for one, that, that was one of the main things he was looking for. Awww, how nice was that. It's even got a 'see-ment pond'. (swimming pool) For those of you, like me, who watch the British comedy, "Keeping Up Appearances", I'd like to add that Dan and Jen's new place will even have "room for a pony".

More good news: the carpenters are headed back any day now to finish up the details. I just can hardly wait!

And Cappy, himself, will be headed home, L/W, on October 4th. It has been a very long hitch. As for me being 'da man' of da house...I'm draggin'. I ruined his surprise Christmas present...dang! I have been looking for this particular gift online, for months and months now. I finally found it, but thought I needed to take out a small loan to get it. Well, anyway, what with all the paper mumbo-jumbo, and the fact that he said go ahead and take it out of one of our other accounts....he found out. I was going to hide it, covered, either with family, or perhaps friends', but now that he knows, he's all excited and can't wait to get home and use it. He's also been growing his white Santa Claus beard again. Can't you just see Santa riding around in this??

I go bring 'er home Monday. I hope he likey.

I Am So Psst (and you Know I don't talk like that)

I know Cappy and I have told people that we don't preach or get on a soapbox here, but if I don't vent someplace, I'll just implode, I think.
So, that being said, heavily dragging out a soapbox, banging it on the floor, hard, a couple of times, not bothering to dust it off,I just climb on top, and test the microphone. "Testy...Testy...one, two, three....grrrrr...maybe I should continue my count all the way to ten, and just leave ya'll alone." (and yes, I meant 'testy' and not 'testing'. Alrighty then:

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON WITH PEOPLE THESE DAYS???!!! Anyone? anyone?
It wasn't bad enough that a couple of weeks ago, these two tall, dark and 'handsome' teenagers deliberately pretended they were going to crash into me with their car while I was walking through a parking lot; last week I was accosted by another tall, dark and handsome woman, as per my blog yesterday. Both left me shaken. Just now I went to get a few groceries at "Da Pig" (Piggly Wiggly), was moving my cart to put the groceries in, a few feet from these two women, who were just coming into the store. I was watching what I was doing, and being careful, but the one nearest me made a big production of stopping and gave me a look, which I read as, "Oh ah know you aint gone bump inta me wid dat cart...". I wanted her to know I try to be sensitive to other people's feelings, so I said to her and the other woman who was with her counting out her food stamps, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you". She just looked down her nose, curled her lip and gave me another look, which read, "Oh, you...you aint nothin' ", then to emphasize her point, she gave me the 'finger', kept it in place, as she turned and lifted it even higher in the air as she waved it, and slowly waddled away, with what appeared to be two overly-inflated beach balls taking turns rolling up and down in the pants she had stretched over them. (Well, admittedly, I've got a big butt, too, so I don't have an whole lot of room to ridicule on that level, but right about then I was so angry I felt like crying.) When they had taken about ten steps down the aisle, they turned, laughing and looked back at me, still standing there shocked, which made them laugh all the harder and nudge each other saying something witty, I'm sure.
The nerve to treat anyone like that! I mean, where are people these days getting the nerve to act like that? I don't care what her attitude was; I am somebody, too, somebody whose husband has been out on a tugboat for ten weeks paying at least $2,000. in taxes for the food stamps she was about to use to reload her 'beach balls',... and that's the gratitude.
And...that's all I'd better say for now, lest I get myself into any more trouble. I do have to live around here. (Lemme put my soapbox away now.)
Note to self: Add another name to List of Characters in last week's blog post. "LaTanque Somebody or Other"

The Attack of the Fluffy Puffy Pegody Protectors

You've probably seen so many pictures of these boys that you're probably sick of seein' them by now. MarkyBear in the front is my sweet little "muush". He's sweet til somebody he doesn't trust comes along, then he shows his snappy side. I'm not even sure he wouldn't bite the "Oops Guy", if given a chance. Now, SparkyBear in the back there, Cappy calls "our little ambassador". He loves everybody. Cappy thinks he'd merrily go home with anybody. Strangers only need fear his unceasing tongue. I'd like to find a sign that warns, "Dog can't hold his licker". He'd never bite anybody.
Well, with Cappy being gone on the boat for weeks and sometimes months at a time, we get kinda bored around here, especially on Sundays for some reason, so I take the 'boys' in the SUV and just go. I saw an ad for a Farmers' Market along the River Road, so I asked these two if they wanted to go for a ride to get some ice cream and fries. Whoever said dogs can't understand our language was RONG-guh. The second I asked, they were dancing around, 'high -fiving' each other, 'laughing' and nudging the back of my leg toward the door.
I decided to drive to LaPlace, on the way and stop at Wendy's, a supposedly safe place for celiacs to be able to eat, without accidentally getting any wheat or gluten. Oh, and I have to mention this: As you know, I've been working on the house. I got a sheet thin of masonite board, 4'x8', and had been carrying it around in the back of the SUV til I needed it, figuring that was as good a temporary place to store it as any. It laid flat, for the most part, filled up the whole back area, and curved itself up in the front toward the front seat, looking much like those skateboard ramp thingys. When the dogs got in the front seat with me to go, I forgot all about my 'building supply' in the back.
We got going down the road, and Mark decided to crawl in the back for a better view out all the windows, as he is often wont to do. We were in a 65 mph zone when I heard scraffing and sliding around back there. I passed a couple of slow-pokes and out of the corner of my eye saw AND heard Mark, toe-nails clawing across the shiny fiberboard, from one side of the SUV, to the other. It reminded me of the beginning scene from the movie, "Dumb and Dumber". I didn't want to pull to the shoulder in that high traffic area, so kept going, and talking soothingly to him as we went. He tried running up the slope, but just about the time he thought he'd made it, he'd slide back down toward the rear window. He never made a sound the whole time. The only thing I heard from back there was him sliding and rolling around, like a watermelon. I figured the ice cream would win me back into his good graces, once we got there.
We picked up most of our order at the Wendy's drive-thru, drove across the plaza to a shady spot near a bank drive-thru, then I got out,went back and maneuvered the ol' COWboy MarkyBear to the front seat with his 'brother'. As I was divving up our spoils, I noticed that Raleigh's, our "Katrina Hurricane Rescue Dog"...his large french fries was missing. (Raleigh always stays home, he does NOT want to ever go for a ride...ever.)I checked the receipt...yep, we paid for them alright. Somehow they hadn't included them. Dang. Just as I was starting to put things back in the bags to drive back over for them, this tall woman who was walking by, walked up to the SUV, on the passenger side, waving at the dogs. SparkyBear leaped into the back inviting her on in and licking the window. Mark, in the front seat, spat all over the window in an angry froth, warning her not to even try it. I put the window nearest SparkyBear down a couple of inches, to hear what she was trying to say to me. I thought she was going to say how nice the dogs looked, because it happens a lot. She said, "You 'spose you cud hep me wid a liddle money so's I cud get muh-self sumpin' teat cuz ah been walkin' two days now wid nuttin' to eat". Here we sat with a sumptuous spread of salad, hamburger with no bun, french fries and ice cream; and what if she was telling the truth? And it was Sunday. Being a good Samaritan I gave her $5. I remember thinking, as I watched her walk away, in my rear-view mirror, I hope she at least got her fries included with her order. Meanwhile the dogs were complaining and whining that they wanted their food NOW. "Oh alright", I said, and gave them back their burgers, etc.
As I ate my salad, I remembered our friend, Pam, recently mentioning to me that LaPlace had gotten "terrible" since Katrina, and especially lately. Yeah, that was terrible, them forgetting Raleigh's french fries like that...BANG!!!...What the heck was that??! The sound was something loud hitting the window on my side of the SUV. There stood 'Laquineesha' back again, asking for more money. "Ah couldn't git me what ah needed, so ah wuz wonderin' if you had any more money, so's ah could git me sumpin'...jes fi'e dollars more...jes fi'e, das all". I kinda pursed my lips, so she said, "foe...jes foe, if you ken...foe, please...an ah'd like to git me sunthin' fo tomorrow, too, if you could." Mark was in the back by now tearing at the window behind my drivers' seat, barking at her at the top of his lungs, but not able to make it to the front seat again, what with his 'skate board ramp' back there. SparkyBear was in the front seat over there, panting adoringly at her and 'smiling'. I sighed and started looking in my purse for some change, then she spotted the water bottles, and asked if she could please have one of them. I was dumb-founded about the whole situation, and stupid me said, "Oh sure", because it was hot outside. As I reached over to the other side to get one, she lunged in through the window to get at the money. It all happened so fast...I had leaned over away from her, she dove her upper body in, in front of me, SparkyBear leapt at her face, barking furiously and earnestly tried to bite her. (Uh...SPARKYbear???) She shrieked and pulled herself back out in one swift move. You hear stories, and I didn't know if she had a gun, so as I rolled up the window, I handed her a couple of quarters and sat there shaking and watched her slowly walk away. Well now what...report her? I should have, I guess. I watched to see where she was going this time. I didn't want her sneaking back up on me again. I saw her meander down toward one of the stores along the plaza, where she met up with a couple of people, acting as though she knew them, and got into the car with them. As they slowly drove away, passing us, she and the other people all gaped over at us. I just made sure they drove out of the plaza...I watched. The dogs were back to their meal...the well-deserved dessert portion, and didn't notice. I hurridly got the 'junk' stowed away, got Mark back into the front seat and 'got the heck outa Dodge', thinking "hang the french fries, I'll have to make it up to Raleigh some-other- how", and vowing not to venture to LaPlace again for awhile, least not without Cappy...and for sure without the Killer Kurlie Bichon Tag Team brothers who were spoiling for a "smack-down" that pretty Sunday afternoon, as we sat under the shade of a live oak tree.

The Finishing Touches with 19 Days to Go.

My motto: Small steps for big feats...or big fetes. Little by little, paint stroke by paint stroke, nail by nail, the gingerbread house might be finished before Cappy gets off the boat. I still need to get the contractor to call me back so's we can get some lights fixtures installed and the new 37" HD tv hung on the wall. If...a big IF, I can get the inside finished (for this phase anyhow...the next step will be a huge shed/art studio at the end of the driveway...THEN the kitchen redo.) then I can then turn my attention to the yard, which has taken a severe turn for the worse over the Summer, due to my neglect. As it is, Cappy keeps reminding me that I need to get the garden planted if we are going to have any okra and yellow crooked neck squashes coming along. A lot of people have already had okra going, from early in the Summer, but we waited til now, but it's still a good time for crops to grow. One of the things that thrill me about this part of the country is that, instead of one growing season, there are several. I'm still at opposite ends of the planting season; when the other gardeners are putting their flower beds TO bed for the so-called Winter down here, I'm planting my petunias and 'shee-shee froo froo' flowers, which stay up and party while the rest of the neighborhood's iris' and geraniums, etc. are sound asleep. The neighbors' gardens are GLORIOUS in the Spring and Summer, while I hide out in the house, trying to stay out of the heat. And that's how I accomplish a ratty looking Summer yard and re-establish my reputation as a danged Yankee.

Something Different

Here in Cappy and Pegody's World,as in your part of the universe, we all have to deal with people, and more than likely, don't know all their names. We feel they should have names, and so, gave them some. It saves time relating the story, and all without the pressure of having to ask the individual who they are, and then having the stress of trying to remember their names. For our own mischevious pleasure we do this, knowing we may be teetering on the brink of political incorrectness, by "labeling" or "stereo-typing". Well, you know what? We are so tired of groups of people having chips on their touchy little shoulders, that right now, we just don't care and will proceed blithely on down Cappy and Pegody Blvd. until we get pulled over by someone in a PC police car with lights flashing and sirens screaming.

Uncharacteristic of us? I guess so, but we don't intend to intentially hurt anyone's feelings, apologize in advance if we do, but most of all...oh, and I want you to know, if we know your name, we won't paste one of these 'label names' on you, at your expense. We are doing this for fun, and eventually, we hope, you'll get the 'hang' of our game.

Let me give you an example:

While reading the short story, fill in the blank yourself, with a name from the list above.

Last year I took the truck to the repair shop, and tried explaining what was wrong, but Mr._________ kept joking around, not taking me seriously and seemed rather clumsy for a mechanic. His older fellow mechanic,_________, who reeked of oil and gas, stayed hunched over an engine, mumbling and complaining; griping the whole time I was there. Yeah, somebody we want to do business with on a regular basis. (answer: Abbott Costello and Archie Fume)

Well, you get the picture. Mostly, we'll just write along and put the names in ourselves. For instance:

Yesterday when I walked into church, Persus Sneeeer looked down her nose and coldly said, "Hello, PE-ggy". Brrrr, don't even bother saying anything, if you feel that way about me.

I vaguely know her first name, but not her last, so to me, she is Persus Sneeeer. I'm not sure how many e's in her name she may have reserved for Cappy; maybe more, maybe less. We'll have to wait on that one for awhile.

Now, just tell me you don't know this Persus Sneeeer or her relative. These people, they're everywhere, they're EV'rywhere.

911

I've been sent a couple emails to pass on with a suggestion that tomorrow, Sept. 11, we all keep our vehicle headlights on during the day, as a way for us to remember and honor those who were killed, injured or affected in any way, (and weren't we all) during the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Texans

Well, now I'm getting excited! Cappy left around the first of August to go back out on the boat and won't be home til the beginning of October. That part of it sure 'aint not' exciting, but out there on the boat, he's made definite plans for us to go to Houston to be with his family for 2007's Texas Renaissance Festival. Yee-Haw!! I've been wanting to go for years, but we haven't been able to, for one reason or another. I've never been to a "Ren-Fes", but have seen pictures of them. If I look past Cousin Larry's photos of wimmens, whose busts appear to be trying to to burst outa their chain-mail garb, in the background I see regular-looking folks, children included, meandering around having a wonderful time. (We all tease Cousin Larry; he's a sweet-natured teddybear, whose camera seems to have an eye for the ladies.)

I've never been to Houston, but what both Cappy and I are looking forward to the most about going, is seeing family and friends who live there. We have a lot of family over there. And Friends! That's why I,personally, am so excited. I just love them all dearly and can't wait to (as Cappy puts it) "hug their necks". Just caint hardly wait. It'll be fun, relaxing and enjoying the company of some of the most intelligent people we know; for instance, Cousin Mark, a Continental airline pilot, we considered worthy enough to name our bayou bichon after. All kidding aside, (although it is true), Cousin Mark is the sharpest, most well-informed guy we know. Our Texans all seem to be a brainy bunch. We have school teachers, artists,engineers, administrators...who knows what all. One thing I do know is that we'll come back with lots of pictures and plenty of stories for Ya'll.
Sighhhh, only 26 more days to go...to go...to go.

New Orleans Ladies, They Sashay By...They Sashay By

Katrina Katrina Katrina...it's all we've heard about in the news lately, that being the 2nd anniversary of the destructive hurricane. Actually, here in South Louisiana, it's on the local news every single day. I heard on national media, that the country is just tired of hearing about it. We hear and read about it on a daily basis, several times a day. Eventually, we hope, the politicians and whomever, get their act together, so that the area can finally, truly recover. And that's all I'm going to say about it.
I have faith in the GOOD people of Louisiana, who have always been an inventive and resourceful lot. Cappy's cousin, Meli, sent along this picture as evidence. Oh, there might be other hurricanes that come along, but, in preparing for them, along with the usual things stashed in their emergency supply boxes, I see the ladies will be packing practical shoes like these and still manage to be "stylin' ".
(wink wink)