Good morning...

I went out last night, didn't see anybody much out. Not too surprising on a Wednesday. But I went to the nearby coffee shop on the way home and got a Chai with skim milk and Splenda instead of sugar. It tasted so much like sugar that I wondered if it was really Splenda. mmmmm.

Today, I go to visit my father's grave. Afterward I'm going to go to Oak Mtn. state park and visit the animals in the Demonstration Farm. They have goats, burros, sheep, horses, cows, chickens, geese, pigs, and peacocks. Most of the animals there have interesting stories behind their finding homes at Oak Mtn. farm. There is a huge huge hog there that originally was a 'pet' piglet in an apt. in Hoover. He's not a Vietnamese Potbelly Pig - he is a white Meat Hog. I have no idea why the people who had him thought this was a good idea. He was donated to the Farm, and one of the keepers there was able to carry him to his pen. Now he weighs @600 lbs.
There is also a cow there that is about 15 years old. She wanders around with a bell on her neck and is very tame.
As you can see, I love the Oak Mtn. farm. A haven of misfit animals, it makes me happy to go there. Today I could use some happy.

evening.

I'm kind of depressed. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father's death in 1999. It's made new years eve something I'm not fond of anymore. This year I'm going to kayak the Cartecay in Georgia on New Years Day, at an event called the ChiliRun. A bunch of my friends and I have rented two cabins in the Georgia mountains. I just had to get out of town. And in the woods is best.
Right now I'm listening to XMRadio online, channel 4 which is the 40's channel. Which of course reminds me of my dad.

"The music starts
but we were still dancing.
Which goes to show
that music has charms.
The lights were low
So we kept on dancing.
I felt the glow
of you in my arms...

The band had left the stand
and we were in heaven...
Dancing on a cloud
way off in the blue...
The music stopped
and people were glancing
but we went on dancing...
For we didn't know
Because the lights were low
And we were in love."

Anyway, I talked to my mom today on the phone, and I didn't bring it up. The sad thing is, I can't seem to remember if it's the 29th or the 30th. And it's on the 30th - I asked my sister Kat. I will forget it again, I know. The exact date. It seems like a blur.
I remember waking up to my phone ringing, Kat telling me my dad was in the hospital again. It had happened quite a bit lately so I wasn't upset. I got ready and drove to the hospital. I went in; asked at the info desk for my dad. The lady told me to go into a room. I remember opening the door and my family was crammed in there, in this tiny room, crying. And through a haze I understood what had happened and I was shocked dumb. And we went and looked at him and then the rest was just dealing with details like buying clothes for the funeral and wake and being polite and calm. But it's the kind of calm that happens in the eye of a storm.

I think I'll go out tonight. This staying home alone does not appear to be smart.

Pictures from Cave Trip Monday , plus random thoughts

Pictures are here: http://dangerjudy.smugmug.com/gallery/334487
We ended up looking for historical signatures rather than surveying. We went to three caves on the same property: Horse, Adcock, and Blowing Saltpeter Caves. This was a saltpeter mining site during the Civil War.

My friend Denise Bishop broke her leg falling down some icy stairs on Christmas Eve. She was at a cabin in NC with her family. Her grandson got to have a white Christmas, but a hurt granny.
She broke her kneecap in two and damaged the top of her femur (where the knee fits). She's getting surgery tomorrow (Thursday) with the same surgeon who did my shoulder (Dr. Atkison at St. Vincent's). He told her that two hours after surgery she would be walking with a leg brace!!!

good morning

I'm getting ready to head out to a cave survey. The main body of this survey was finished two years ago and the map creator is going back to mop up a few loose ends and leads. The cave, Blowing Saltpeter Cave, is a maze of dry and wet passage with a few nice domes.
What a luxury to spend the morning sipping coffee and surfing the web before heading out to go underground.

Start of Blog

Here's something new for me. I'm starting a Blog. When I typed in the title 'Start of Blog' I first typed 'Atari' instead of 'Start'. Is this an omen?