Gonna' leave town later this morning; heading for Cherokee, North Carolina. You can click on any number of links within this one and read plenty about the Cherokee tribe of indians if you are interested.

I don't have the luxury of a laptop computer, and there will not be a computer in the river hotel where we will reside for our extended weekend, so, I will be unable to post or correspond until I arrive home again late Monday night.

Keep us in your thoughts as we travel down the road to visit the Cherokee village. I will indeed take the best pictures I can get to share on flickr when I return. Hope you all have a lovely weekend doing whatever it is you and yours plan to do. Hugs-a-million...Trace

Things did not get much better until a few minutes ago when I closed and locked the door on the world outside our little home. The dogs went out to pee for the last time today, and all but flipping on the dishwasher and tidying up a few things at my desk, this day is done. Whew. Thanks be to God and all the angels among us!

Remember, my little tidbit on prayer? I am doing some praying now; contemplatively praying that I can feel peace and sleep well tonight. I have a lot of problems with sleep from time to time, and sleep deprivation to a body and mind does not make life good  for anyone who suffers with such an awful thing.

In the meantime I will sing.

*Back is still killing me. (see river pebble entry)

*Didn't get to sleep after work last night 'til 4:00 this morning.

*Friend phoned at 10:00am. Friend enjoys talking a lot by phone regardless...I know, I know--it's all about boundaries. It's just that I never seem to find enough time to talk with her at length, and I do love her.

* I have a ton of stuff to do today before we go outta' town on Friday.

*I want to communicate with someone whom I care very deeply for, and don't know how.

*Somebody please tell me the day will get better!

*Think I'm gonna' find a yoga class somewhere...

I didn't tell ya' about the stupid thing I did on Friday. Suffice to say, my lower back which is prone to problems with bulging discs, has been in pretty rough shape since Friday night.

Remember when I told ya' 'bout the shrubs I planted a couple Fridays ago?

This past Friday, I stopped by our neighborhood Lowe's Home Improvement Store after my hair endured a really bad coloring job created by my little hairdresser. Needless to say, I was in rare form; enraged, if you will. So, I got outta' my blazer, walked over to the lawn and gardening section of things, and proceeded without thought, to lift 40lb. bags of lovely river pebbles onto the crate thingy sitting there available for my convenience.

I dropped the 10th bag onto the damned crate thingy, before I finally came to my senses and asked the tall lanky dude standing nearby, and who works for Lowes mind you, to please help me with the last 4 bags of gravel. I honest to god believe it took something out of this man to assist me. Perhaps he can apply for early retirement or something; I say early retirement since the guy only appeared to be reaching for 30 years of age. Anyways, he helped me get the crate moving and then let me go with it to the checkout, which is situated near the parking lot for the purchase of all the springtime lawn and garden goodies. I was most certainly the bigger fool here for allowing this guy the freedom to not do his f %*%*%* job! At checkout of course, I asked for help to load the bags into the back of my blazer. Sam would be home to unload them.

A conversation between me and Sam when I arrived home:

Me:  Hon, I decided to purchase something more natural looking than the white marble gravel, so I bought these lovely river pebbles.

Sam: I'll get them otta' the car in just a bit.

I proceeded to go on with the rant about my hair; speaking of which, I went straight back to my hairdresser yesterday morning for the fix. Much better...

Where was I? Oh yes:

Sam proceeded to the car to unload the 14 bags of gravel.

Me: Aren't they nice honey? They look much more natural than the other. I really love them.

Sam: (with a shit-eating grin on his face) They're fine honey, but they're just damned ole' creek rocks.

Me: They are not creek rocks!! They are river pebbles!!

Sam really takes his chances quite a bit. He doesn't have a scratch on him though...

This morning he came into the house all huffing and puffing to tell me a great surprise. He had laid the plastic and the river pebbles in my beds where I planted my lovely new green shrubs. He also proclaimed, "ya' need more bags of gravel. Didn't get enough."

I rushed out to see the result. I am so grateful for this much to be done already. Sam is not lazy; he works 12 hours a day in a blooming hot plastics factory as a set-up technician. He is just damned tired after 28 years there. However, tired though he may be, he will go with me to purchase the extra bags of beautiful river pebbles. Indeed he will.

I read the following this morning,

"More is wrought through prayer than the things a soul can dream of."  (Anonymous)

I really believe this. This does not make me fanatical! I do not believe in religious or any other type of fanaticism.

I do believe in something, or someone, much greater than myself. I believe because throughout my lifetime, many of my own desperate prayers have been answered when things would turn out exactly as needed.

Karma? Entropy? Whatever way you choose to think of it, something can definitely happen; something beyond our wishes for things to be so. I choose to believe this something is more than wishing. It just makes sense to me.

I totally believe in the evolutionary process of natural selection; however, I believe this process takes place in combination with a genius of the universes, if you will. Yes, everything is set into motion, and the natural ebb and flow of life is present, but, I believe these can be interrupted by a force greater than the processes themselves.

A force originating from and related to various theories of  Common descent? Hmmm, I don't know...but, I don't believe so.

Well, that's my take on it. I'm gonna' go on with the day now. Have a good one y'all.

Bought a couple new clothing items for my little trip to Cherokee, NC. this coming weekend.

Since Victoria left last September, angry, and in her 22 year old "I know it all" fashion, I have gained weight. Sigh.

I enjoy food. I love recipes. I love to cook. My relatives enjoy coming to our home for visits because they know I will have great things to prepare in the kitchen. They say they come to see me of course. Love you guys. Smile.

I'm not really bragging here; well, maybe I am, but the truth is the truth. I'm a good cook and it is probably due to the fact that I love to eat good food. Also, I have put in many years watching and learning from some of the best cooks I have known. The hard part for me in all this, is often I enjoy food emotionally. I am a user; an addict, if you will. Food has become my drug of choice through the years. Sigh, sigh, sigh. Sam eats when he is hungry. His body is in perfect condition in that his weight is exactly what it is supposed to be for his build, height, etc. He has his own bad habits though, just not with food. And yes, we both have enabled one another. Confession; is it good for the soul? I don't know.

Gonna' get this straightened out because though I wouldn't mind at all dying quickly of a heart attack, or in my sleep, so as not to lay and suffer in some hospital bed for a lengthy amount of time with some awful thing plaguing my body, causing anyone who loves me to suffer as well, I am not ready to go yet.

I don't mean to be a bummer here. It's just that being to big for my britches is an issue with me at present. We have a brand spanking new wellness center in town. It will be the best investment I ever make when I go there and hand over the check for a year's membership. Yep, gonna get this straightened out. God help me.

I just came in from walking my dogs down by our little apple orchard where my swing is hung on a stand built by my beloved, and sitting between two of the trees in the middle of the 6 trees we have in all.

If I could, instead of going off to work for my usual 3-11pm. shift at the hotel, I would sit in that swing soaking up the pleasant breezes we have here, until the rains come. The sky is overcast; my kinda' day! The breezes are just comfortable enough for a soul to rest on that there swing of mine.

If I only could...

Ah yes; as you can read for yourself in the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 'tis so very true, indeed.

I cancelled the reservations for our stay in lovely Savannah, Georgia, as quickly as I made them. I am not certain you would really be interested in knowing about the devil in the details of this one. However, all is not lost.

We will be venturing to Cherokee, North Carolina for 3 days, and staying here. Be sure to click on the amenities link within my link to the hotel, to see the "back porch" kind of views of the river from the hotel. I have stayed in this place before, and it is wonderfully quaint and relaxing. We have a room with a private porch overlooking the Oconaluftee river, where we can watch true indians net fish in the water. We can fish with our poles as well, if we like. Sam will like. Yay. I have been wanting to show Sam around Cherokee because I know he will love it there. It is a really cool and laid back town. Harrah's Casino is the only ritzy uptown (for lack of a better term) recreation spot within the Cherokee village. I really love the village, and the drive from Gatlinburg, Tennessee across the Great Smokey Mountains, is breathtaking.

My maternal great grandmother Sally Mae, was of Cherokee decent. She was absolutely gorgeous. Perhaps I can have an old photo put on a CD to show you a picture of her someday. My mother looks just like her though. I'm sure there are a few photos of my mom over in flickr. Love the high cheek bones of those gals! My dear Sam is of Cherokee decent as well.

The Cherokee Indians are very welcoming. They offer themselves for ceremonial dances right on the main street that runs through the center of town. They enjoy talking with visitors as much as entertaining, I think. I love to be near these people, so full of history with so many stories to tell.

There are also lots of stores for shopping in the village. So many cool things to see and buy. Hopefully we will be able to make this trip work, without any daggers being thrown into the plan. Lovely and historic Savannah will have to be graced with my presence another time. Sigh.

It was a rough weekend for reasons I won't go into at this point in time. I had some other articles running through my mind to publish, but us folks (grammer, I know--shut up) here in southwest Virginia have had some technical difficulties with our DSL connections to the internet, as offered by Embarq.

When I phoned Embarq to question what the problems were, I heard a recorded message telling me "southwest Virgina customers are experiencing technical difficulties with DSL connections to the internet (hmmm) and, we (Embarq) are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible". So glad they enlightened me. pfft!

Things seem to be straightened out enough for me to use my PC, as of this hour. I realized I had forgotten to mutter for about a month. So, My mutterings are all up to date now from the last 5 weeks. I really enjoy free word association. Maybe you would like to mutter as well. If so, enjoy...

I love St. Patrick's Day; mostly because my absolute favorite color in the world is green. I know this is a shallow main reason for loving St. Patrick's Day. Some of my descendants are also from Ireland. I suppose that should be my # 1 reason for loving St. Patrick's Day, but it isn't. I would enjoy some green beer at the pub tonight if I were not so tired from planting green things yesterday. Perhaps a glass of wine this evening will do for honoring this four leaf clover kind of day. Try some of those recipes within the link! Enjoy.