Uh Oh

Now really.   Are there any diehard Smurf haters in J-land?  Being little and blue is not easy.  But I do believe that the Dutch have gone too far.

Blowing up Smurfdom to kingdom come is NOT a good thing.  Mushroom houses on fire, little smurfs lying dead, or running for their lives on fire?  Baby smurf..bawling it's eyes out for it's dead Momma.

Lord what were they thinking? I hope their kids don't see this on their TV's..I know a couple of adults this would traumatize.

My hubby has a "secret" collection of these little blue friends...from when he was much, much younger.  I haven't had the heart to show him this ad ...don't want him to lose the Smurf's as a "happy" place!

On a serious note, our State once again has to be on the outlook for this darn Hurricane. They came on a little while ago and announced that it had in just a few hours increased it's winds to 150 MPH.  Whew...so once it clears Cuba...it looks like anywhere from Tampa on down is a target.

They say the arrival would be sometime Saturday evening.  My problem is that I'm supposed to be doing a show with my sister during the day to help her sell her corsages and my "pet" rocks.  If it heads this way I can't see us doing the show...people would be evacuating.

Joe & I would have to leave our house, cause we are in a very low area.  We are lucky that my Mom & Dad's house is in an area that never gets evacuated..it's one of the highest spots in St. Petersburg.  So off to Mom & Dad's we would go...that's if Joe will leave the house, last time he wouldn't. Men can be soooo stubborn.

Anyway we shall see what happens....

 

 

Ye Gads Another One

Well, it seems Florida is on another "hit" list..when will this end?  They are running out of names...pretty soon it will be Alpha/Beta etc.  We still have about one month left to the hurricane season, so who knows what's to come.

I'm still having fun with gifs...love my monkies. I tell you for the computer challenged when you finally learn to do it the correct way...it's like a freaking lightbulb went off...Now I have to remember how do I get the picture inside of the text?....It never ends.

 

Halloween Story

  There is a house, in a certain place, that still scares me to this day. Bear with me and I'll tell you why.  From a child's point of view, the house was huge, with great stone pillars that upheld a second level porch. There were a row of dark blackened windows that faced the road. No one could see in and no one appeared to look out of them ever. 

 The whole place was set quite a way back from the road, lined with gnarled stunted ugly trees. These trees almost formed a dense wood leading up to the front of the house. Yet, the house itself appeared huge, almost overbearing in size.

 Just walking by it, especially late at night, your steps became quicker.   The house itself was a eerie dark gray, with varying shades of lighter gray where the sunlight had bleached it. It was a foreboding house so of course the neighborhood kids had a lot of fun with it.  Especially at Halloween, they would pick some new kid and dare them to run down that dark tree lined path, up those rickety steps and use the door knocker.

All the while yelling at the top of your voice "Trick or Treat".   My family had just moved into a house on this block, so of course, I was the "new" kid.  Now, prior to Halloween, I had found occasion to walk past this old house...actually I kind of ran by..quickly. 

 It just gave off such a ghastly feeling to it, as if it could come alive and suck me into it's double front doors.   You never saw anyone come in or out of the house during the day. Yet, exactly at sundown every day without fail..you would see soft candlelight shinning through some of the darkly covered windows.

We all wanted to know "who" lived in that house.   Well, on Halloween I was given my chance. Lucky me. The "guys" thought the "new kid" should be the one to be brave enough to dare to climb those steps and use that door knocker.

   Gee, I wanted to be part of the "group" so bad. My fear of the house was so very palpable I almost couldn't breath. I was dressed, appropriately enough, as a ghost. My mother had sacrificed an old white sheet so that I could use it to complete my outfit, I thought I looked pretty cool.

  After meeting the group, hearing the Casper the Friendly ghost jokes, it was time for me to take on the "house". The guys had given me some stick pins to put into the doorbell as a prank which of course would be the trick.  

I started down that darkened path, filled with moving shadows that seemed to be reaching for me. With heavy heart I turned to see the group waving me onward...telling me just go. 

My legs were getting heavier with each step, as I neared the steps of the house I felt an evil presence.  I saw a quick movement by one of the downstairs windows, just a brief movement of the curtain.   Oh, God...I'm climbing the stairs, I'm almost to the door..the wooden porch is creaking under my weight making sure I did not approach silently. 

 I reach to ring the doorbell and as I do the door flies open!  A aged hand grabs my arm and yanks me into INTO the house! All I hear is a crackle of laughter telling me "aha..caught you now!" 

 I think I must of passed out from fright.   I came too and found myself tied to a chair set right by an upstairs window. 

 I could see outside, I saw my friends and then Oh, my God I saw myself..in my costume, running back to my friends...no, no, it's not me...I'm here. I'm here...That was over twenty years ago and I am still here....

Playing with Pictures

Have I mentioned that I hate spiders? Creepy crawling critters, make me jump all atweeter.  But I thought this one was cool the way it moves....Lahoma you created a monster....just in time for Halloween!

I have tried for over one year to make my addled brain understand the ins and outs of making pictures actually move in my journal. 

I have a young niece who zaps around on the computer like a pro...wonder how the grandbabies will be on their computers as they have been playing on one forever.

My Mom won't touch a computer, my Dad kinda looks interested but is going to follow Mom's lead and feign disinterest. 

 Even though I come to this point in my life late...I am so glad that I learned to do this. I think journaling is one of the finer things in life. And I have met such interesting people out there in Jland...wonderful, humorous, delightful people who have enriched my life by letting me peek into their life a little.

testing

  Hey it works......

Earthquake

This past week has been filled with one sad moment after another.  There was one reporter who was standing by a collapsed school talking about the 150 little ones buried beneath the walls now...as he was giving his report, another person was handing down one backpack after another from the collapsed building. I sat in disbelief looking at lost hopes & dreams in colorful packs that had somehow survived and their owners had not.

I do think the whole world is going mad.  We have raging fires in California, killer hurricanes in the Gulf, Flooding in South America with torrential rain, floods in the eastern part of the States, early blizzards out West, not to forget that awful Tsunami...now this terrible earthquake.

What frightens me also is the fact everytime there is a major earthquake on the other side of the planet...within months we have one on this side...I guess kind of a pressure valve going off.

I've paid attention to quakes ever since I lived through some rough earthquakes in Japan - I mean I literally got tossed out of bed onto my butt...that's how strong the shake was.  It cracked our home's foundation (it was repaired) things fell down inside the house. Living through it can put the fear of God into you rather quickly. I can't imagine the fear that these people have after this quake, and then all the after shocks.

I know help will come to them, I know life will go on...it always does.  Just the pain of the injured, the haunted faces of those grieving for their dead...the small children with the large vacant eyes - it is almost too much to bear.  I pray that it settles down in that area for a while...let them heal. 

Oprah

  I had time today to watch the  Oprah Winfrey Show.  She is taking on the scum of the earth...child molesters.  From what I've seen of her these last few years she is a lady that puts her money where her mouth is.

    I cheered her when she started her Angel Network, mostly for the relief in the awful war torn area's of Africa, helping the most helpless - the children.  

 Then I saw her reaction to the terrible devastation left by Katrina in her wake.  Oprah put her whole network to work to try to help the survivors of the disaster. I admired her tenacity. 

   But what she is doing now is beyond anything I have ever seen a TV host do.  She is working with the FBI and posting the ten most wanted child molesters each week on her show.  It has only been a few days and they have captured two TWO of these monsters already with a third being in the process of.

  I live in a state that these perverts evidently like...Florida.  The case of the little girl in Sarasota rang too close to home for my liking.  Carlie Brucia was an 11 year little girl who should never have come to the end the way she did, I cried many a tear over her.

  She was abducted only 3 blocks from where my little niece lives, she's nine.  She loves to ride her bike, she likes the freedom to run to a friend's house to play....what should her parents do?  Keep her in the house, stop her from playing? Take her childhood away in fear of her being targeted by a pervert?

  I am in complete agreement with Oprah....the scum need to be run down to earth not our kids.  She is giving an award of $100,000.00 to anyone who can help the police/FBI capture these fugitive men.  Today, two women shared in the reward for one of the captured child molesters. 

 But the biggest joy was the fact that the victims parents were present to thank them for giving them the relief of knowing that their tormentor was once again in police custody.  Imagine someone doing this to your family and they are still out there...I cannot imagine.  

  Today, Oprah said she, herself, had come full circle. She was molested as a child, it affected her life to a great extent...she has overcome a lot in her life to be where she is now.  This is something that is close to her heart and I do believe that this may give us a leg up on trying to stop the madness of child molestation..  

 You know, quite frankly, I don't want to hear..."Oh, they have a sickness, they are ill...you know it's mental state, their Mother's/Father's mistreated them".....guess what?  I don't care, to me - it's an excuse that holds no water. To me, if you have an over powering need to hurt a child...go die somewhere...that's how I feel.  It may not be politically correct, but it would damn sure be expedient!

  We need to have a master computer for all these sicko's so that they cannot easily jump from state to state as they have in the past.  I hope that some sort of legislation can be done in this regard...I think that would also stop the arrogance that these men have been showing for years.

  So shout it out sister....NO MORE!!