We may not be getting any much needed rain but at least the dragons are prancing about the sky. Big puffy clouds are one of my favorite things about late August through early October where I live. I am from North Carolina (east coast southern state in the U.S.) and ended up in my home town as an adult. I live in the piedmont which is in the middle of the state with the closest mountains a few hours west of me and the closest beach a few hours east of me. We get big puffy clouds, on occasion, throughout the year but this is the time they are most likely to have a brilliant blue back drop. As a child riding home from the beach in late August we would make up stories around the clouds. Funny how two people can see such different things in the same clouds. I see a dragon roaring above but he decided not to spit fire because a messenger let him know about the fire warnings due to dry conditions.
Soon fall colors will set the trees ablaze and hopefully it will be a wet winter. I realize I need to be careful what I wish for. We occasionally get substantial snow but rarely is that an issue where I live. The problem is we do get pretty bad ice storms sometimes and we aren't well equipped for that. Also, I am aware that while I obsess about the lack of rain we are moving into hurricane season and although our coast is usually the most vulnerable, we did have Hurricane Fran come ripping inland with its full wallop some years ago. I totally lucked out since my oak trees were amongst the few mature oaks in my neighborhood that Fran didn't rip up by the roots. I guess I better be a little circumspect with my rain dance this time of year. I feel so bad for the people dealing with Hurricane Felix.
Sabine at Days of My Life in Gozo has kindly passed on to me the Reflective Blogger Award. This is my first blogger award and I am flattered. Sabine is one of the photohunters whose site I have enjoyed not only on the day of the photohunt but also throughout the week. She lives in Gozo and one of the fun things to me about blogs is finding out about places I've never been to. She has a beautiful blog filled with interesting posts and photographs. The photohunters in general have opened up this whole new avenue of ways to learn about different parts of the world because the participants are from all over.
The way it works when you receive the Reflective Blogger Award is that you are supposed to pass it on to five individuals who have been an encouragement, a source of love or impacted your life in some way. Certainly no one is a greater source of love or has impacted my life more than my daughter and she recently started a vegetarian food blog but I thought I would name people who I didn't know until I started participating in the blogging and online community. In terms of a collective group, the community of people who are affected by melanoma and who post on the MPIP are the reason that I started using the internet for purposes beyond, work, research and communicating with family via email. I discovered this wonderful group of caring supportive people on the MPIP (MRF operated site). They all deserve a big thank you from me. Some of the MPIP participants have blogs which is how I got into blogging in the first place.
I compiled a partial list of people with melanoma who blog although sadly many on this list are no longer with us. However, it's not only those with blogs who have become my blogging buddies. If you go to the blogs of people who are dealing with a melanoma diagnosis, there are often other melanoma warriors who don't have blogs themselves but are cheering on those who do in the comment section. I have always been shy about mentioning names of people I want to thank on my blog because I'm afraid I'll leave off the very person I meant to mention first. I tend to do my thank you notes in emails and cards but if I haven't said thank you lately, thank you to my dear friends. About now I can hear someone in the back of the room saying, wrap it up why don't you, and let us know what you are leading up to already.
I have decided on the five bloggers that I want to pass on the Reflective Blogger Award to. Sadly none of these bloggers are with us anymore. Their lives were claimed by melanoma but their wisdom, struggle, and thoughtful blogs remain for anyone who wants to visit. The version of their names I give is what they used when posting on the MPIP.
Shannon (Butterflymom) whose words live on at Melanoma, Life, and Other Crazy Stuff
SarahT whose words live on at Que Sarah, Sarah
Heather whose words live on at Living with Melanoma
RandyE whose words live on at Randy's Blog
Kim from Iowa whose words live on at Kim's Update Page
Note - There were many others I started to include but decided to stick to the five who had open blogs which don't require sign in information to look at them. BarbaraGA is one of the first people I got to know through the MPIP who didn't make it, but I'm not sure if you can see her story without signing in. There are some beautiful blogs and memorial pages which loved ones keep. Melasuckanoma is a place where you can see pictures of many melanoma warriors who participate on the MPIP and sadly many who are no longer with us. I hope this post isn't too sad because what I'm trying to say is that something the internet can do is bring people together who can support each other at the hardest times they face and in many cases laugh and crack each other up. Even now when I visit some of the bloggers who are no longer with us, I can remember shared jokes and that's the note I want to end this post on.
I've been tagged again. This time by Judith who has a Vegetarian Food Blog. Judith also happens to be my daughter. Players of this tag must list one fact, word or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their first or middle name. Anyone who wants to play can consider themselves tagged by me but I'm too old and slow to try to catch people so when I get tagged, I play but I don't follow the part of the rules that say you have to tag others.
C - Cole Porter tunes are what I sang to my daughter for lullabies when she was a baby.
A - August is my least favorite month as an adult (too hot) but my most favorite as a child because that was the month my family went on vacations.
R - Rectory is the name of the house the Rector of Episcopal churches live in and I grew up in a Rectory because my dad was the rector of a church. We lived there so long the church let my parents buy the rectory so it wasn't the rectory after my Dad retired but when I was growing up it was. When I was a child, it bothered me than my family home was called the Rectory.
V- Vexatious is what I think of tasks requiring patience because I've always had very little patience. However, I am finding that dealing with some lingering issues following a lymph node dissection for melanoma has helped me develop a lot more patience than I've ever had. I guess you could say that being a patient has helped me with patience.
E - Energy is something I used to have a lot of but that's increasingly a distant memory.
R - Roses grow in my garden although I'm fearful the extended drought is taking its toll on my roses. Note - the photograph of my roses above was taken in May before the heat and drought mucked things up.
I have been Tagged by Trinity. This internet tag game is 8 questions you shouldn't ask or say to me. Trinity and I have some similarities as far as this tag goes.
1. I didn't know you were expecting another child. When are you due?
A girl I went to elementary school with organized a get together of the girls in our small Episcopal elementary school class. The get together was at her country club for lunch. This was 1994 (26 years after we completed our elementary school years). I was in the process of getting a divorce and not only was I not pregnant but I had a radical hysterectomy when my daughter was 3 because I had such severe endometriosis. My answer to the question was, I'm not expecting another child unless it's an immaculate conception because I'm in the process of a divorce, I'm not dating anyone, not to mention the fact that I don't have a uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries anymore. Pardon my irreverent reply, no disrespect to Mary intended.
2. What is your due date? (13 years after the first time I was asked that question)
I was flattered the last time I was asked that question because it meant someone thought I was young enough to have a baby. It was fairly recently and I was on a walk and an elderly man who lives around the corner from me asked the question. He's not a neighbor I've ever met so I was kind when I answered.
3. Doorbell rings, hello, I'm cleaning some of your neighbor's gutters and noticed your gutters are full. You will start to damage your house soon. Would you like to set up a time for me to clean your gutters? Me, I already have a gutter cleaner, thanks for reminding me to call him. I don't like to be made to feel as shabby as I am for being so slack about my home maintenance. For the record, I did get my gutters cleaned.
4. Would you like me to replace your siding while I'm in your neighborhood? I probably should do that and since most of my house is brick it's only a couple of places that need replacing. Even so, I'm sick of having people ring my doorbell to ask if I want that done.
5. Would you like me to trim your bushes? 6. Would you like me to resurface your driveway? 7. Would you like me to paint your door? Note- I painted my front door myself and it's obvious. 8. Would you like to hire me for home repairs?
Notice a theme starting to evolve. Don't try to fix my house or offer to drive me to the maternity ward. If anyone wants to play, consider yourself tagged. It's too hard for me to chase down anyone else and tag them since I'm so close to giving birth (NOT).
It was cooler this morning and Bill and I went for a pleasant walk around Shelley Lake. Odd how mixed I feel looking at the brilliant blue sky. I love blue skies when we are getting adequate rain in between the so called pretty days. These days, a pretty day for me means steady rain because we have had so little of it. I am glad that I was able to go on a nice walk because the heat has interfered with every fresh start I've made this summer towards getting back into a regular walking exercise routine. However, at this point getting adequate rain matters more to me than anything. This afternoon, I looked out at the skyline from my back garden and was dismayed by how thirsty the trees looked. Our periodic short showers have helped plants with shallow roots but the extended drought has started to get to the trees. 
The top photograph which I took this afternoon, reminded me of the second one which I took in the fall of 2006 where the leaves looked like red stars. The only difference is this time of year it's green and it's not supposed to have that dry look which adds to the starry shapes. It's supposed to have that dry curled up look when the leaves are close to falling but it's not supposed to have that look when they are green and haven't even changed colors. I fear all the leaves are going to die and drop off before they get a chance to give us their showy, colorful look. I have a young maple that has already changed colors. That's close to two months ahead of time where I live. I have a few small trees that may not make it. It's funny but I seriously get thirsty when I see how parched everything looks.
Sometimes I feel like a caricature of an old codger complaining about the weather or my aches and pains. As far as the weather goes, I don't even care as much for myself as I do for the plants and wildlife. I also care about people without the comforts I have. Everyone doesn't live and work in an air conditioned building like I do and for them the summer has been truly brutal here. For myself, the severe drought and hot summer has been mostly a nuisance. As far as my aches and pains go, I also have a lot of advantages. I gripe about the zillion specialists I see especially this time of year as I move into a doctor's appointment a week since the routine follow-up cycle concentrates at 3 and 6 month intervals. But I know I'm lucky to have adequate health insurance and manageable co-pays. Even so, I feel like a bit of a codger. I guess I'm a lucky codger and for the record, I'm not that old. There are people decades older than me that I don't think are old.
We may not be getting any much needed rain but at least the dragons are prancing about the sky. Big puffy clouds are one of my favorite things about late August through early October where I live. I am from North Carolina (east coast southern state in the U.S.) and ended up in my home town as an adult. I live in the piedmont which is in the middle of the state with the closest mountains a few hours west of me and the closest beach a few hours east of me. We get big puffy clouds, on occasion, throughout the year but this is the time they are most likely to have a brilliant blue back drop. As a child riding home from the beach in late August we would make up stories around the clouds. Funny how two people can see such different things in the same clouds. I see a dragon roaring above but he decided not to spit fire because a messenger let him know about the fire warnings due to dry conditions.
Soon fall colors will set the trees ablaze and hopefully it will be a wet winter. I realize I need to be careful what I wish for. We occasionally get substantial snow but rarely is that an issue where I live. The problem is we do get pretty bad ice storms sometimes and we aren't well equipped for that. Also, I am aware that while I obsess about the lack of rain we are moving into hurricane season and although our coast is usually the most vulnerable, we did have Hurricane Fran come ripping inland with its full wallop some years ago. I totally lucked out since my oak trees were amongst the few mature oaks in my neighborhood that Fran didn't rip up by the roots. I guess I better be a little circumspect with my rain dance this time of year. I feel so bad for the people dealing with Hurricane Felix.
