Of being "kidnapped", update, meteor showers, and a first kiss~~~~

Hellooooooo Darklings,

I know, I know, it seems like I disappeared off the face of the earth, and in a way I did but it was both from exhaustion, getting things done on the house, and I was sort of “kidnapped”.

O.K. let me explain the “kidnapped” part, my dear brother and sister-in-law and my oldest nephew and my niece Coralline said I had to get out of the house, the leg in the cast was keeping me house bound, so with Betty house sitting during the day and Doyle house sitting at night, I was whisked away to some desert place, don’t ask me the name I don’t remember and for three night’s straight we stayed up late and watched the Meteor shower called the Pelidies  or something like that.

Drinking coffee or hot chocolate because it does get chilly, there were astronomers there one or two professional and a few amateurs and a few meteor shower watchers.   It was an Amazing sight, at one point there were so many they were like fireflies and a few big ones which made folks go “Aaaaaaa”.

And something else as well, Coralline met a very nice young man, name is William, loves the stars and plans to make some aspect of astronomy his vocation, he’s 15, well I saw him kiss her on her cheek and she kissed him on his cheek the last night of Meteor watching, he and his folks were leaving early in the morning going back to Idaho.   And he walked her back to my brother’s RV, they were all shy and such.   I did hear her say she prefers to writing letters as oppose to e-mails so they exchanged mailing addresses.

I’m presuming it will last a few months and then taper off.   But I do have to admit it was very romantic under the stars.

The twins stayed with their other uncle my sister in law’s brother as they and their cousins had soccer matches the same weekend.   Well to each their own.

But I was also very busy getting the final work done on the house, the stain glass windows were re-leaded, and protective windows put over them to prevent lead rot.  All the wood rotted banisters have been replaced with exact duplicates (minus the rot) steps replaced, painted and now dry. 

And the exhaustion, well trying to move around even with a so called “walking cast” is not easy for someone my age, I was tiring quickly, and trying to shower with a plastic bag over the cast well the gymnastics one has to do.    So by the time I think of writing on my blog, I’m taking a nap with the dynamic duo, the twins of terror, the guardians of the gates of hell, Belladonna and Wiener Dog!!!

Brian and Doyle have been making sure they get their walks, but from the way things are going, I am not going to be able to do my Fall Wine trip like I had planned.  Pooh!!    

But I have had friends and relatives come and visit, always making sure it’s a good time to drop over to visit,  Betty has been my Charon and unless they do the proper observations she will not allow them to set foot into the house----that being about calling first to see if I can have visitors.

I can’t cook, so between Betty and my sister and my sister-in-law they have been making sure I am fed, but I so want to go to the gym, and exercise a little, so it’s been mostly from the waist up, but I need to do it from the waist down, and there are not many exercises I can do with my leg in a cast.

But my Doctor is going to see about doing a new lighter cast for me.   Soon I hope, I want this thing, this parasite off of me before Thanksgiving or before Christmas at least.

But all is not lost,  I have my latest Vogue and Instyle magazine and I am going to have the fun of perusing them for ideas, already the stores are out with their Halloween decorations, Granden Road has sent me their latest catalog, Spirit has wonderful things available, Atomx has more image projections out, to help make things as a real haunted house and I’m hunting for bargains on Candy.

And Betty was able to find a Nail Salon that can do a pedicure working around the cast, so I’ve been getting my Mani-Pedi’s.  

My brother and sister in law have been doing a long, long trip, going to Utah  and visiting several of their national parks, stopping off at Crater Lake, they were at Lake Berryessa but had to bail out quickly because of the wild fire, and instead went to Crescent City and stayed in an RV Park on or near the beach up there.   Both my brother and sister in law took 2 months off for this vacation.

Both Christopher and Coralline hated the idea of going back to school they felt they learned more seeing the sights,  but well they had to, Coralline has started her first year in High School and Chris his 2^nd year, the twins are now in the 7^th or is it 8^th grade and they love soccer.   I’m planning to take Coralline and Chris to see the Ballet most likely Cinderella, I think the presentation of Frankenstein might be too dark for them, well maybe for Coralline. 

Sis has been busy as well with her clients, her house is almost done, just a room or two to finish,  and it seems that Brian is a permanent, paying house guest at her home, which I think is fine for her.

Doyle is thinking of lessening his work load, only handling just a few cases at a time.   He wants to visit his family more often now, especially since his grandchildren are at the “I know that’s grandpa” stage.   And I don’t blame him, family is so important.

And I am blessed to have a wonderful family.  Included the two 4-legged ones that are now napping next to me as I write.

Well Sis says dinner is ready, there is really nothing on Television tonight, I didn’t even bother to watch the Olympics, but I can hardly wait for the new Fall season of T.V. shows, I’m afraid “Sleepy Hallow” is gone, but there are some new ones that have my interest, and Lucifer is coming back and a new show “The Exorcist” Doyle asked me if there is the possibility of a “cross-over” story line.   I laughed at that remark.    

And maybe next year I can do my Fall Wine trip.

Must go or dinner will get cold.

Later Darklings.

Of a Super Bowl free Sunday and Film Noir~~~~

I am sorry my Darklings, but Moi will Not be watching the Super Bowl.  Why?  Well it’s not that “Big” on my “To Do” list.

As a matter of fact both my sister in law and my niece along with Sis, we will be relaxing having a girl’s day in.  Yes we will be pampering our feet, doing our nails, facials, massage all of that fun stuff, I managed to find a ‘serenity type spa’ where we can relax and feel good about ourselves,  Saturday we will all have our hair done (well for me it will be a dye and trim and scalp conditioning) and then Sunday to the Spa.

All the men folk will be congregating in the Man Cave at my brother’s house, my brother, Doyle, the twins, Christopher, and a few friends to watch the game. 

We ladies will in turn have a nice early dinner out after all that pampering and later dessert at my home and watch a few favorite Noir Films such as “Laura” and “D.O.A.” and “The Lineup”. My sister in law remarked the other day how Coralline has a bit of a resemblance to Gene Tierney, and even I can see it, in a way I’m glad she inherited the best features of both her Mother and her father, and in a way looks a bit like my Great-Aunt, yes she is beginning to become quite a beauty.  

I’m afraid Darklings that I have not posted for a while and the reason is I have once again been on a Film Noir “kick” yes, I attended Noir City the San Francisco Noir Film Festival, and besides old favorites like “Rear Window” and “The Two Mrs. Carrolls”, a more recent addition “Public Eye” and one that shows off that Lucille Ball was more than a comedienne in a dramatic turn in “The Dark Corner”,  that is why I “disappeared” for so long,  Sis was with me while Betty helped out by House sitting and watching the Dynamic Duo during the day and Doyle did duty at night.

Sis and I decided to stay in the City, shopping, relaxing, dressing in our vintage finery while attending the showings.   In a way it was a wonderful vacation with the exception of all the insanity of this Super Bowl stuff,  we did miss the fireworks that signaled the re-lighting of the Bay Bridge and the opening of Super Bowl City, but not by much. 

And yes I did take good care of myself and not have a relapse, no colds, no sniffles, no coughs or sore throats.   But I have to say seeing those old wonderful films revitalized me.   

But now we are home again, and once again my Doyle made arrangements to have his friend bring the vintage Rolls Limo (1930’s) to pick us up at the Hotel, both he and his friend dressed in vintage style chauffeur uniforms,  and Sis and I “dressed to the nines” in our vintage Day wear as we left the hotel, I’m sure some folks thought we were eccentric or weird, but really if you can’t have fun what can you do.

Although for a Monday getting through San Francisco was slower than usual I couldn’t help but notice that even the most anxious drivers gave the vintage Rolls a clear berth, no one wanted to scratch it’s paint or dent it’s chrome.   And the smiles on people’s faces especially as Sis and I waved as if we were royalty.    Such fun!!

And when we got home today Doyle surprise me with an early Valentine’s gift, the complete set of all 14 of the Chester Morris Boston Blackie films.  Where he got them I haven’t a clue, but I love him for it.

And now it’s back into the mundaneness of bills (which I will tackle tomorrow) and other things,  my handyman and I need to go around the house to see what needs to be done when things dry out,  there has been a bit of wood rot here and there, easy to take care of and the house will need to be seriously painted, which means scaffolding which means getting estimates, thank goodness the house trust is designed for such things.

And my Gardener has been removing those plants that did not survive the extreme cold or over-abundance of water, and trimming the trees and bushes when it’s not raining.  And he managed to squeeze in mowing the lawn during the storm breaks.  We’ll have to talk about what we want to do with the bare spots.

Belladonna and Weiner Dog were very happy to see their “Mommy” again and Betty has dinner crock pot ready all we have to do is serve ourselves.   But she told me even though it was daylight during the days it rained the house was “spooky” to her, she didn’t want to go into the Library where sits my Cabinet of Curiosities.  Too much for her, she’d check from the door how the cleaning ladies were doing but she just would not go in.   Well it isn’t for everyone.

But now with our plans in the works for our personal Super Bowl weekend, we have something lovely to look forward to. 

I’ve also been looking around for fun things that we Goth/Noir ladies can enjoy,  and I think I’ve found a few things but that will be for another time.

In the meantime, it's dinner and later we're are going to watch a new show "Lucifer"  Doyle recorded the first episode for me along with X-Files, Blacklist and a few other fun things, Doyle says I'm going to LOVE the vintage Corvette that Lucifer drives.  Well a Vintage Corvette, hmmmm he can't be all bad, can he?

Later Darklings 

Of Doyle is Home and Horror Camping~~~~

Good News My Darklings,

Doyle is home!!!  Hooray!! Hooray!!!

He's not completely well, but his temperature is normal, Vitals are normal except for the slightly elevated white cell count, the swelling has gone down tremendously, but he still has some pain.

They are continuing to have him take his antibiotics orally for the next 6 weeks!!!   And he has pain meds to take as needed.

Because its so much antibiotics he is also required to take probiotics to keep the healthy bacteria in his digestive system.  And the Doctor also recommended Turmeric in capsules that I can get at the health food store.  For inflammation.  She saw nothing wrong with it and it does seem to have some healthful uses. 

So he's home to continue treatment, but because its so painful to go up and down stairs he's sleeping in the old "maid's" room since it has its own shower and is near the kitchen, on the main floor so he can move around if he gets bored sleeping and still be a part of what's going on.

He's on medical leave for 3 weeks, then he'll be on part time until he gets completely well, he can do a lot of his work at home and just e-mail it in and telephone conference.  It works.

I asked him if he wanted me to sleep with him down stairs but he said no for me to be comfortable as well.  And it seems that Weiner Dog has taken up to guarding him, but just having him home is comforting.

And we have more follow up appointments and lab tests.  Well that's all do-able.

And life is getting back to what passes for normal around here, thanks to the Kitchen sink clogging up.  For the life of me I can't understand why, I make sure no grease or anything goes down the drain, but this is the first time this has happened since I took up residence here. 

So to do the mundane thing----call the plumber, but he's out of town for today, well I can deal with it, removed the standing water.  Some trees way to the back are discovering grey water watering.  And I can use dish pans for now.   I wasn't brought up an old-fashion Gothic Girl for nothing!

Sis went to the Horror Camp out---and they do have two levels, the scardy-cat level where ghost stories are told and you watch a horror film, and the more intense level where you are on a bloody treasure hunt, Sis found it fascinating from a psychological view point, testing people's nerves and such but there were some who couldn't take it and said "I want my Mommy" which is the "out" word.  She managed to get a few names of participants to get their opinions and feelings about this at a later time, of course she also has our friends as well, but all in all, she enjoyed it.

It was hokey in parts and a little intense in others but really good silly fun.   She said it was not like when we were camping with our parents and the coyotes---now that was the real deal.  But the unexpected was enough to give people some serious scares.  She said she could understand why a person has to be at least 18 years old, it would be too intense for anyone younger and of course liability as well.

But really for the younger crowd, she told me "As far as I'm concerned at our age if we go camping it's going to be Glamping or at least in an RV, better yet a 5 star hotel with a spa!"   All I could do was laugh at some of the things that happened.  Silly, hokey and generally fun.

And now I hear Doyle moaning, time for his pain pill.

Later Darklings

Of it's hot again~~~~~~

Dear Darklings,

It's hot again, it's only 87 right now, but the inland area I know is cooking hot.

Sis went to see a friend and just got back, Doyle was cleaning some things out of his work area in the garage, I was pruning the dead blossoms off of the roses, the dogs didn't know whether to come out or go in and decided to rest on the back porch.

I put the dead cuttings into our green bin as Doyle came sweating out of the garage declaring that we're going to need to order a dumpster, Questions marks went up over my head as I asked him why,
and he showed me.

At least my vintage car was far over and away from the pile of debris that he had and I did have to agree it was not going to fit in even 3 garbage cans.  So since our standard pick up is on a Friday, we'll have a weekend to put everything in.

I looked it over an it was yucky, nothing usable , just wood end cuttings and loose non-copper wire, broken glass, odd pieces of metal. But Doyle was sweating, so was I so we retreated to the back porch drank ice water wiped ourselves down with wet face cloths, and just crashed into the summer recliners, to tired and hot to move.

Doyle said that the upstairs bedrooms would be very warm to sleep, since we don't have air conditioning in the house and we'd have to rely on fans, which at this very moment are running to move the warm air.

He then got up and looked at the porch, remarking that the bottom have of the porch railing was not open but solid and I said yes, the open upper half had remnants of old fine mesh wiring, that I had removed, prior to painting. 

He then dashed into the house, or at least moved as fast as the heat would permit him, after a few minutes came out with the old album that showed the house over the years, we looked again at those few pictures that showed the back porch, and I saw that the porch had a wooden screen door, looking more closely I realized that the entire porch was screened in.

It explained why it was so wide as well, I thought at first for entertaining but no, it had been a sleeping porch for hot weather. Doyle said to me, "why don't we have it completely screened in again, it would still keep the bugs out, we could dine out here in the evening without the bug problem and even sleep out here"   I thought about the screen door situation but Doyle said that we could have the screen door designed to be latched open but use the magic mesh during the day so the dogs and anyone in the house can go in and out, and then latch the screen door at night.

Then he said that on very hot nights like tonight's was going to be we could sleep out here on camp cots with the screen door latched from the inside.  I did remind him about our security system, but he said that the one for the porch can be turned off to include the kitchen and "maid's room" while the rest of the house remain alarmed. That is how its set up. 

Sleeping outside, on the porch overlooking the garden on a hot summer's night----it appealed to me so we'll look into it further, but we have other things to take care of first, like what's for dinner, but Doyle solved that by picking up the phone and ordering from our favorite Chinese take out.

And I think if the bug situation isn't too bad we may just sit outside and relax and have lemonade.

Doyle has just left to pick up the dinner and Sis and I will relax on the porch.

Later Darklings

Of being exhausted, and Muni no-strike but it was a "sick-out" and other things~~~~

Oh Darklings,

I am soooooo exhausted, in many way's I am so glad I have a maid service to come in to "fluff, dust and vacuum" it really helps and they also tackle the bath rooms, but there are some chores that have to be done by yours truly-----cleaning the refrigerator is one of them, and that also means moving it away from the wall and back again.  (Doyle handled that part)

We are pretty good about using our left-overs into salads and sandwiches for lunch, but once in a while if it's not properly cleaned out you can find a "science experiment" trying to take over the world.   And then weeding out old bills and statements, unless they are important to showing the purchase price of large ticket items or medical expenses or even travel expenses if it's related to work.

It's a good thing I have a heavy duty shredder. 

And then going through book shelves, if it was a one time read and not going to read it again, into a shopping bag to be donated, did that but only after Doyle and Sis have done their tiny "tic" marks, and I do mean tiny. If one or both are missing I move it to another shelf.  Lift, lift, lift, lift---tote that barge, lift that bail,   Does house work count as exercise???

And it seems one of my neighbors is having a party with loud music, well it still is daytime, but come 11 p.m. if it's not toned down, I'll call 5-0. 

This week started off with a bit of insanity---it seems that the Muni Drivers decided to call a "sick-out", technically speaking they cannot strike, but they can call in sick, but come day two Muni said they better have Doctor's slips or no pay, but they still pulled it on Wednesday and Thursday although it did seem to improve, but waiting and waiting to catch Muni transport only to pass you by because the buses were full, packed like sardines.

Well the public wasn't happy, I certainly wasn't, and the public let the Muni Drivers know it via their Union reps. but the Union said they didn't call it.  BART did come to the fore to let people who used the muni passes ride for free.  Of course it was over money, and if they got the raise they'd be the 2nd highest transportation staff in the nation but they do not want to contribute to their pension fund.  (As I roll my eye balls) 

Well the public is not pleased, and I feel from what rumblings I heard the public is beyond pissed.  And I don't blame them, I certainly wasn't please either.

Of course it made my commute difficult, I could get into the City via BART, Bus or Ferry but it was making the connection that would drop me off at my work that was impossible.

 The first day I took a chance and I recommend that you do NOT do this but I was desperate, I thumbed a ride, stuck my thumb out and yelled "I need a ride!!!"   Definitely NOT lady-like, but I was picked up  by a limo!!!

The driver asked me my destination and I told him and it was right on his way, so I rode in style to work, he got out opened the door for me and helped me out of the limo like I was a celebrity.  I offered to pay him but he said it was fine.   I smiled and waived to him as my Knight in the black Limousine drove off and my co-workers looked out the window mouths agape.

It's moments like that that can make the City so wonderful. 

But for the remainder of the week Doyle drove me in and picked me up, he had to drive in any way so why not.

Of the man Chamberlain that the FBI had a nation wide alert out, well he not only had explosives in his apartment but he was also trying to buy on the black market, toxic poisonous agents like ricin.  There is another "black market" that popped up after "Silk Road" was closed and the FBI managed to track the man down through his purchases through that web site even though it's claimed that such purchases using "bit-coin" is impossible to trace---Well Darklings  I guess not.

And California Chrome lost his chance to become the next triple crown winner, I did not watch the race, I had a feeling that the Belmont was not his field, but he did win the first two so can you imagine the stud fees???

And now for something completely different----Darklings if Doyle ever asks me to marry him, or if he just wants to give me a promise ring I have found something wonderfully Goth---

 

This is a 14 k Red gold with Black Diamonds wedding ring, yes the Diamonds are real, so is the gold, it is 14k white gold with a red Rhodium overlay, I've also seen one in a different style with a black rhodium overlay on the white gold.  Is that the most dramatic, Gothic looking ring you've ever seen?? and the price is only a measly $2,500.  And that was knocked down.

 

Here it is with the Black rhodium overlay, just a mere bobble to have on one's finger, but so dramatic in its own way, of course not to everyone's taste but I just had to show you My Darklings.   Forget chocolate Diamonds on Rose gold, black is the way to go.

 

Later Darklings