Please Mac, Please!

My beloved iMac is at the Apple store.
I hated him when Lee brought him home. I was a PC girl. The Mac was NOT user friendly at first because he spoke a foreign language. Over time, I came to appreciate his language much the way women swoon over men speaking Italian or French or Spanish. We made beautiful pictures together, calendars, newsletters, and along the way I began to blog. On his 26 inch screen we watched YouTube, home movies, television shows, and movie trailers. His sleek design and clean lines took up far less room than my old PC. He was ssooooo much cooler than my PC--literally. No heat coming out of the big box that houses all computer knowledge.

My Mac and I became very close, but as often happens, he stepped out on me. Well really, he went out on me. He and I would be deep in conversation with a website and he'd just stop paying attention to me. He'd turn himself off and refuse to be turned back on. He no longer wanted to go the places I wanted to go. Sometimes he'd just freeze up and ignore all my pleadings with the 'escape' key and the 'ctrl/alt/delete' combination. He was constantly unavailable to me.

Lee decided that he is tired of fixing the problems that Mac and I continue to have. He took him in to the Apple store. Of course, once there, Mac performed perfectly. He was lovely in conversation with all the people that spoke to him and all the places they wanted to see. It wasn't until Lee grilled him over and over on a certain subject that he gave up and shut down on the Apple people.

Mac is sneaky though. He kept all his negative feelings to himself. Any diagnosics they tried to get him to reveal his true feelings, fell flat. They said they would have to keep him as an in-patient to get to the bottom of why he's shutting me out.

Lee is ready to give up on Mac. Lee doesn't love Mac like I do. In fact, Lee hates Mac because of the troubles he's caused. Lee would just rather I take back up with a PC and forget Mac ever came into our lives.

Please Mac, let them help you! Let them fix you. I miss you so much. All my memories are with you. All my photos. All the lightening fast access to the places we love to visit so much. My office is so empty without you. My heart is so full of things I want to share with my blog and I can't do it without you. You missed Pearl's birthday!! She loves you too! I'm begging you to reveal what they can do to help you open up again.

All my love,
CeeCee

PS...Did I say I missed you??

The Dance Begins

Both Tom and James would probably roll their eyes at that title, but I must say that soccer is as beautiful to me as a dance.  They do amazing things, contort their bodies in impossible ways, all while keeping their eye on each other and the ball.  They make split second decisions that make or break that 'dance'.  

I so enjoy watching the boys play.  This is James' first year in a Select league.  Tom played it for years.  It's a different game than recreational soccer for sure.  James got a goal in his first match.  He was disappointed that they lost, but I was just so proud of all the boys on his team for all their teamwork and not giving up.  They played hard, all the way to the end.  

Saturdays and some Sundays will be spent watching soccer until November.  I'm looking forward to it.

Ask and It Shall Be Given

We are almost 34 inches behind in rain for the last 22 month period.  We're getting pretty desperate.  Pearl took things into her own hands on September 5th.  She figured the sky or God or whoever is in charge of rain might need a reminder.  

Today it rained real rain.  Not just the 20 second downburst we have gotten once or twice this summer.  It rained, gently, for most of the day.  There are snails all over my pool deck.  My chickens can't work fast enough digging up the bugs that are nearer the surface.  There is standing water.  The ground is still wet, 4 hours after the last raindrop fell.  It was amazing.  It was glorious.

It was good.

Amen.

The Dating Game

"Bachelor #1:, If you found a nice patch of grass, would you share?" 

"No."

"Bachelor #2, If there were multiple piles of corn dropped on the ground, would you eat one and let me eat one?"

"No."

"Bachelor #3, If a human lady was breaking all the rules and tossing grapes to the herd, would you let me have a few, or lower  your antlers and push me away?"

"I'd have to lower my antlers and push you away.  More for me that way."

"Bachelor #4, If there were two buckets of water for the herd would you make me wait until you've had your fill, even though there's a bucket you aren't using nearby?"

"Yes."

"Bachelor #5, Does it bother you that your actions might keep me from getting strong and healthy enough to carry a fawn this winter?"

"Not in the least."  "Survival of the fittest."  "Haven't you heard of Darwin, girl?"

"Bachelor #6, Once the rut begins, would you chase me into to traffic, despite the fact that we both might be killed?"

"What's traffic?"  

"Last question for all of you.  Once the rut begins, will you love me madly and follow me around like a fawn, forget to eat, forget to drink, and make a general nuisance of yourself?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes."

"Okay, I choose the biggest, fastest, best fighter as my date because he has the nicest antlers and will lose his mind long enough for me to get something to eat and drink."  

Birthday Boy

Saturday was James' 11th birthday.  So why are there two pictures and two different desserts?

Friday, we had the best buddies over for a sleepover and swimming.  Nathan, Ty and Jackson all came prepared to 'sleep out' on the trampoline.  

I was excited that they might actually get to do it, as I spent half my summers sleeping in the backyard at my house or my friend's houses. Of course, sleeping was often optional in favor of running loose in the neighborhood until midnight.  Fruit trees would be raided, trees would be TP'd, and doorbells would be rung.  If there would have been cell phones, we'd probably have made crank calls.  Then again it's not so fun with caller ID. 

The trampoline was the perfect set up for the boys.  No tent stakes needed to be driven into rock hard soil, no heat seeking snakes could invade, and fire ants would probably stay on the ground.  Mosquitos and cicadas were about all that would bother them.  Oh, and the occasional serenade from the local coyote pack.  There was even a full moon.

Perfect!

Except for the lightning bolts, thunder and rain!  We haven't had measurable rain since---I don't even remember and choose not to think about it.  On Saturday, a bit of humidity from Hurricane Jimena in the Pacific, mixed with our extreme heat and prompted a late day storm.  It lasted all of 8 seconds, but continued to threatened to blow up again as they often do.  The boys would have to sleep indoors.

Instead of roaming the neighborhood, they played hide-and-seek indoors, ate cookie cake, opened presents and swam in the pool between raindrops.  The rain cooled the air and the pool water, so they would spend time in the steam shower once out of the pool to "warm up".  Then back in the pool.  I think at some point, there was some Silly String involved.

For breakfast Lee and I made them bacon and pancakes.  They were soon back to their pool/steam shower routine and then their parents came.

Earlier in the week, he and Grandma made the traditional German Chocolate cake for his birthday.  She then froze the cakes until Saturday, when she frosted them.  

James' special guests for his "real birthday" were Grandma and Grandpa, and Lee's buddy from Dallas, Dave.  We had James' favorite pizza from Home Slice, cake and ice cream.  

He got more Lego kits (you can never, ever have too many!), a soccer jersey from his new favorite team (the French national team), too much money from Grandpa and Grandma, and a Wii soccer game.  Thank you, everyone!  A special thank you to Grandma, for keeping the German Chocolate cake tradition alive and letting James help.

I Know Him!

I came home from James' soccer practice last night and Lee said, "You just missed it, Frank Hutchinson was on TV."   Frank owns a local golf club and I figured that's what it was about.  Turns out Frank climbed Mt. Everest in May.  Big whoop, though, right?  People do it every day.

It wasn't that Frank climbed Mt. Everest that got him on the news, it was WHY he climbed Mt. Everest.  He and a friend, climbed Mt. Everest with two books.  Each book contained the names of soldiers that have died in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Nearly 5,000 by the time they started their ascent in March.  Frank wanted to be to the top by Memorial Day.  He figured the top of that mountain was about as close to God as a person could get.  

You know, the climb is just like something Frank would do.  We know him because he was Tom's club soccer coach for 2 years.  His kids were both into sports and they were grown and off to college.  I think he was having a little empty nest syndrome, and so came out to coach Tom's team.  He did it as a volunteer too.  He turned down the paycheck they offered him. He was the best coach Tom ever had.  He had the right amount of "Dad" mixed in with the part of him that was "Coach".  He wanted to win, but not at the expense of the boy's spirits.  

In getting to know him a little better, we discovered that he was involved with the golf course/housing development that was planned for the land behind us.  It was something our neighborhood was opposed to for several reasons.  By the time we met Frank, he was trying to get out of his portion of the development (designing the course).  It seems the developer (Mr. Rattlesnake), who also developed our neighborhood had gone behind Frank's back and changed the design of the course----mainly how it was to be watered.  Franks design was for treated gray water to keep the greens alive.  He knew that it would take nearly a million gallons of water a day to make that happen.  Mr. Rattlesnake dug 6 wells behind Frank's back.  Frank wanted out. He knew it would drain all our wells dry. 

I'm sure Frank's not perfect. None of us are.  What I do know about him, though, is that he's a stand up guy.  I know that he remembers Tom's name when he sees us, even though it was several years ago that he coached.  

You can read more about Frank's journey and the troubles he faced up the mountain and back down again, if you like. There is also a 2 part interview with him on video.

Congratulations Frank!  In your own words, "Well done, well done."