Friday, August 27, 2010

Haiku My Heart: Wooden Wisdom


Engraved on a plank

Underfoot, now in my heart

To share with others




for more friday haikus, visit  Rebecca

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Always...Sometimes...Never

I always...
~love mexican food
~enjoy road trips
~see the good in people
~miss those I love who are not within a 30 mile radius of me
~have powdered sugar on my french toast
~burn my candles
~remember the names of the dogs in my neighborhood


I sometimes...
~remember the names of the people in my neighborhood
~go to a movie by myself
~imagine that I sound like Grace Slick when I sing

~rinse my hair in the rain because my mom always said "it's good for your hair"
~indulge in a meal from a hot dog cart on the side of the road

~pay a toll for the person behind me
~wear vanilla perfume


I never...
~eat squid
~run just for the fun of it
~have ridden on a Harley (yet)

~go out in the ocean beyond where I can touch
~know how to apply make-up properly
~rearrange furniture
~enjoy the game Monopoly

 (but love that it provokes memories of Atlantic City)

Monday, August 16, 2010

O "Happy" Days!

Some of you know about Happy
He is a Lab/Pit mix who showed up at the Interlachen house
three months before I moved away.

He was emaciated.
He was scared.
He was extremely skittish.
He looked at you with eyes that said "Help".

Hope and Michelle were staying at the house at the time.
And he took an instant liking to Hope.

We fed him from afar,
as he wouldn't come within 100' of the house,
and I tried to find his owner
to no avail.

After days he started to come closer
and then allowed Hope into his scared world.
And then the rest of us.

Hope called him Happy.
I asked her why?
She said, "That's how he makes me feel"

And he stole our hearts.
We all fell in love with him...
the whole family.

He started to flourish,
became less skittish, especially around us ladies.
And he did make us happy!
He was special boy!


But the house was selling...I was going to a condo
with a 14 lb. weight limit on pets :(
I seriously reconsidered the condo option
because of him,
but other reasons kept me on that path.

So I worked with a rescue group
and my local vet,
and they made room for Happy
at a no-kill shelter
the weekend that I moved.

The day I brought him there
I had to carry him from
the barn area to my driveway
(all 79 lbs. of him I later found out from the vet)
because he wouldn't follow me down.
He was smart.
He knew something was up.
And he was very scared,
but not one iota of aggression
did he show even in this scared state.

I cried bringing him there,
and I cried on my way home.
And I've cried over him since.

And I wondered many, many times about him.
I couldn't help it.  A picture of him and me together
is right smack dab in the middle of my refrigerator,
just at my eye level.

(Thanks, Peter!)

That is, I wondered until tonight.

I went on craigslist,
where I went to see about a puppy that
Christa wants to buy.
(sidenote:  she did buy it... little Lexi!)
And there I saw an ad for a "lab/pit" mix with a picture attached.
And I'm a sucker for clicking 
on pet ads with pictues.
I like to look!

I sat there and stared at Happy looking back at me
 with these words of the ad...
Great large breed dog rescued through the humane society. house broken and gets along with cats and other dogs as well as kids of any age. great protector of the yard, barks and lets you know when someone is around. he is about 90 lbs but not agressive. already micro-chipped and has shots, neutered, but kinda skiddish, but he will open up to you. needs fenced in yard though. very playful with a laser pointer light. I have paperwork from the humane society. I got laid off and lost my house and I would hate to return him to the humane society where they will put him back in a cage with barking dogs all around and he will go back into his shell. 

I called immediately
and compared notes with the placer of the ad.
It was Happy a/k/a Jagger (as in Mick).
This man's sister worked at the shelter and told
him about this dog that needed help.
So he took him in
and fell in love with him.
As did the rest of his family.
When his parents found out that he couldn't keep
Happy Jagger,
they told him they wanted him.

So it was an easy transition this time for the boy.
To a home close by with people he already knew
and was comfortable with. 
I'm told he has a large fenced in back yard
where the mom leaves the sliding glass door
cracked open so he can go in and out at will.
and
I hear he's a very "happy" camper!
And this definately make me happy!!!

(Jagger - pic from the ad - all 90 lbs. of him now)





Friday, August 13, 2010

A Pictorial Story of Ryan's Adventure on the High Seas




(Preface:  You may need to change zoom level to see
the small dots in the distance)


Postscript:

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

(1) Short Road Trip, (2) Favorite Activities, (3) of my Favorite People

While Charlie, Michelle and Hope were here
we set off to Blue Springs in hopes of
seeing a manatee,
which we didn't

Nevertheless,
it was a wonderful day
Happy Face

We kayaked the backwaters of the St. John's River
Notice that I'm staying in the middle of the river
If there is a gator sunning,
I want to admire it from a distance
and not up close and personal


I switched kayaks with Charlie
as he wanted to explore
the small tributaries
and we wanted to stay in the middle
(we found a small sandy beach for the switch :)



the water went from tannic acid brown
to crystal clear blue-green
This is where manatees gather in the winter months.



Beautiful!
And with the waters being so clear
I didn't mind the narrow passageway!



Little Miss Adventurer, Hope


After the kayaking,
it was snorkling time...
My underwater happy face

I've forgotten how much
I LOVE snorkling
I was in the midst of a school of
Florida Gar well over 3' in length
(about 3 dozen gar are captured in this frame)

and for a few moments in time I was having
an eye to eye encounter with one
He was accessing me
as much as I was accessing him :)
As I reached out to touch him,
the split second before I would have made contact,
he gave a swish of his tail and gone


Another near touch scene

Then we had a swim upstream
where Charlie and Hope
are on the verge of the mouth
of the spring...

So, as I said,
no manatees,
but a ton of fun!
I plan on going back in the winter
when the manatees will be there!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Debbie/Donna Day

The Reales are down from Jersey...
YAY!!! 
  And Donna and I took a quick time away to grab a lunch together
 and take a scenic ride down A1A back to the rest of the fam. 
In deciding where to have lunch, we picked Old City Subs. 
 Since our mom LOVED their French Dip,
and we wanted to have one in her honor
 In fact,
I attribute that sub to helping my mom get her appetite back when she first arrived in Florida. 

Business card board...
Where in the World is Jessica DellaVecchia...

The crew posing for a pic
even while still working (taking a phone order)...
They were so sweet in their condolences when hearing about my mom!

We made a quick stop in Barnes & Noble
where I couldn't resist a shot of this T-shirt...

...and then meandered down A1A
and stopped at Marineland beach

to take in the ocean
so green and clear this day...
...note the top left of the pic,
the ocean is there!

We ended our day with a bike ride over to
European Village
where I can still get Donna to do silly things
since I'm the older sister (hee-hee)...

And she took a less silly pose of me
since I AM the older sister
and she knows better :)