Say a little prayer

I don't know how I ever found this blog, but I did, and I've been following it for quite some time. I'm warning you, if you're going to read it, get out a box of tissues, and dedicate some time to really reading it. I don't know that I could ever have the strength to do what this family has done, or go through what they've gone through, and I have a feeling it's only just beginning for them now. I don't have any children, so I don't know what it would be like to lose one, and I pray to God that I don't ever have to know what that's like, but my heart just aches for them. ACHES. Like I said, I don't know them, just stumbled upon their blog somehow, and will say a little prayer for them - for Conner Reed Jones and his parents, Brad and Sarah. And I hope you will, too.

Rubber ducky, you're the one!

Sing it with me... you know you want to! :)

OK, so now that I have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day, I thought I'd share these pictures. We had no idea that this duck (we call her "Beeper" because she makes a beeping noise) was sitting on a nest of eggs somewhere close by. And then last Saturday she showed up in our yard with 17 babies! They are absolutely, positively, adorable! (I probably won't be saying that when I end up with adult ducks that won't leave my yard...)

She's down to 15 (one yellow one that we have nicknamed Sunshine), and we're not sure if the other 2 were eaten by something or just died, but she's had 15 for about a week now. They visit us every day, several times a day. They've gotten pretty used to me and Jay. They used to get spooked when we walked by, but they don't any more. Of course, Jay feeds them and has set out three tubs of water for them. He even went out and bought a special dish with a low rim so they could get in it. But, as we quickly found out, they're pretty smart and found a way in to the big tubs without much of a problem.

UPDATE as of 10 p.m.

Not 10 minutes after I clicked "publish post" on this post, Jay came in and told me that Sunshine fell down the drain across the street. So, we spent the next 30 minutes coaxing him / her out of the drain. The neighbors all came out to watch, and we were able to net him / her and get him / her back to mama. And, mama and babies have not left our driveway (where I reunited them) since. Jay says that she knows it's a safe spot and she'll stay for awhile now. The things we do for little baby duckies...

My new ride

So, I did it. I bought a new vehicle, finally! I've been talking about it for how long now? (Don't answer that.)


Jay and I made the trek (and yes, I do mean trek) up to Joe Myers Ford on Saturday. It's a little over an hour and a half ride from our house. I know what you're thinking... there's not a Ford dealer between your house and Joe Myers Ford? Well, there is. Several, actually. And I've been to a couple of them looking at vehicles (read: I've done my research).

We ended up at Joe Myers because of our insurance company. Joe Myers (man I'm giving them a lot of publicity! Their marketing folks should pay me!) is a preferred dealer of our insurance company... one of three in our area... and the only one to respond to our inquiry. So we had a little backing by going to them. And when I say trek, it was a trek.


After almost three (yes, I said three, as in 3) hours of negotiating, we all settled on a price that we could live with (me more than them, I'm sure... although they claim to have lost money on the sale... I'm not an idiot... no you didn't... I did my research). And then after about another hour up in finance an another 20 minutes waiting while they cleaned the car (why they couldn't get it cleaned in the hour we were up in finance, I have no idea), I rolled out of the lot in a 2010 Ford Escape. I love it!

Tis the season!

No, not the season to be jolly (like the song says), but the season to keep one eye on the Atlantic. Yep, it's the start of the 2010 hurricane season. Yippee! (NOT!!!) It's the reality I live in, and I happily accept that for getting to live where I live.

Forecasters say that this year is trending to be an active year in the Atlantic, calling for 14 to 23 named storms (mind you, there are only 21 storm names because not all letters of the alphabet are used.. I'd rather not run out of letters again this year), with three to seven being major storms. They say this season could possibly ranking among the top-10 most active. Grrrreeeeaaat. Not that it means any of them are going to make it in to the Gulf of Mexico, but still... grrrreeeeaaat.

So why do they think it's going to be an active season? For exactly the opposite reasons that 2009 was so quiet.

• El Nino is supposed to change to La Nina, which apparently ramps up the hurricane activity.
• The waters off the coast of Africa (where a majority of the storms form) is already really warm. Not a good sign.
• The sea level pressure is apparently favorable to storms.

I'm not freaking out (yet). That does me no good at this point in time. But I will tell you that I will always have one eye on NOAA and The Weather Channel, and I will say a prayer every night that Jim Cantore is not in my neighborhood again. Yes, I said again because he was here for Ike, and you know that if he is in your town during a major weather event, you're basically screwed.

In case you're wondering, here are the names for this year's Atlantic hurricanes:
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

So, welcome to the 2010 hurricane season. Here's to an uneventful one.