Monthly Archives: July 2020

Why I Will Never Be a Wildlife Photographer and Other Things

Before I get into my story, I have to add something to my last blog I forgot to tell.  You know, the wedding blog.  Well, we got married in July and that September I went back to college. I was taking a finance course and we had a paper to hand in. The next day the professor got up in front of the class and said, ” I have a paper from a Kate Pentecost, but I have no student by that name.”  He looked around the room. I looked at the boy next to me and said in a whisper, “That’s me, but I got married.”  My face was bright red, I’m sure. I slowly raised my hand and said, “That’s me. I got married this Summer and my name was changed.”   The whole class laughed and the professor handed me my paper, which had my pre- married name on it and it had a good grade on it, by the way. I never forgot again.

If we are living in crazy times, I haven’t had much time to notice.  I can’t believe how fast the time is passing and how much we have done this Summer.

We’ve had kids swimming in our pool.

Had seven boys one day.  They had a ball.

David took a week off for our anniversary and we did things close to home.

We took a drive one day.

Just have to say I love Indiana in the Summer.  I sometimes wonder why we ever want to go someplace else when it’s so wonderful here.

Southern Indiana is full of vistas like this.  Lazy rivers and woods.  Once you get away from the cities and towns, most of Indiana is like this.

Cornfields growing high. They did get knee-high by the 4th of July this year.  We’ve been blessed with plenty of rain.

Wildflowers growing beside the roads.

Old church yards with graves behind them.  Whoever cares for this graveyard has a talent.

Someone carved a chair from a tree stump.  It even has a footrest.

There are a lot of old, abandoned houses spotting the landscape all over Indiana. People just up and leave and the houses go back into the earth.

We ate out about every day, but I have to say something about all this cleaning for the Corona Virus.  In one restaurant, my arms stuck to the table and David said it’s the cleaning supplies they are using.  After eating there, I got sick to my stomach.

We went to another restaurant later in the week and the disinfectant smell was so strong, I once again got sick to my stomach and could not eat.  So now I’m wondering if the cleaning for the Corona Virus is worst than the virus.  It can’t be healthy eating and smelling all the disinfectant and now I’m wondering how much of the disinfectants are getting into the food.  I think I’d rather take my chances with the virus.

So on to my photography. I have taken so many pictures the past few weeks.   One day I sat out on my shop porch swing and tried to get some pictures of the birds eating at our feeders.  This is why I will never be a wildlife photographer.  Let me entertain you with my wonderful pictures.

This guy was wondering what in the heck I was doing.

 

He/she kept looking at me suspiciously.

Molly was curious about what I was trying to do.

Finally I got a bird shot.

And another.

Then papa cardinal arrived with one of his babies.

You can see the topknot on this baby bird.

This is what a baby cardinal should look like, but…….

We have a visitor to our birdfeeders that we have named Frankenbird.  Poor thing, I don’t know whether it’s just a young Cardinal or an anomaly, but he comes regularly and doesn’t seem to be afraid of us.

No topknot and very few feathers.  Almost the size of an adult Cardinal.

We will watch him and see if he transforms into a beautiful Cardinal.

You know how life has its ups and downs and you never know when either will come?  I had some really deep downs this Summer when I lost our dog, Belle.  I have to spell her name in front of Molly because when she hears Belle’s name, she starts looking for her. How do you explain to a dog that her friend has died?   I keep telling Molly we are looking for a new friend for her and we have been.  We’ve lost the chance on two litters of Labradors the past couple of weeks.  We didn’t get in soon enough in being a pick which is your number that you get to pick a puppy from the litter because we didn’t know about it.  We tried getting a Silver Lab, but they were all sold before we even got our name in. The second litter was sold quickly also, so when David found a breeder in northern Indiana he got our name in right away and guess what?  We have first pick of the puppies!   They aren’t even born yet. That is how popular Labrador Retrievers are right now.  They will be born next week and six weeks later we can go see them.  I’m sooooo excited.  They will be either black or brown. I don’t care, we have had both and they were great dogs.  I also have someone who will care for our dogs if anything ever happens to David and me.  I hope I have dogs until the day I die, but I want to know they will be cared for.

I’ve outlived too many dogs. This is Belle’s pawprint. It still makes me sad to see it.

And this is the Rainbow Bridge poem that I still cannot read because I know it will make me cry.

But joy comes in the morning and I know getting a new puppy will bring joy to our house so I’m looking forward to it.

I’m watching America’s Got Talent right now. They are having to watch the acts on video which makes it very interesting. One woman sang opera while sitting on her horse in Oregon.   If nothing else, this virus has made people very inventive.

This weekend we will celebrate our oldest grandson’s graduation from high school. We don’t get to go to the graduation which I think stinks, but we will see him at his party.  We are so proud of him.

Here’s to joy in the morning. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifty-two Years and Counting

Today David and I will celebrate our 52nd wedding anniversary. Doesn’t seem possible that that many years have passed since we tied the knot.  I was just a young girl when I first met David and his brother at a basketball game where they threw paper Coke cups at his cousin and me during the game.  She and I hid in the restroom and every time we’d open the door, they would chuck a bunch of Coke cups at us. Sometime during the evening his cousin has told me I said, “I’m going to marry that boy.”  Now I don’t know which boy I was talking about at the time, but I ended up with David.

Fast forward a few years and I’m a junior in high school and David has moved in with his cousin’s family because his parents got jobs in the Virgin Islands and were moving there. David did not want to go.  The first time I saw him was when some of my girlfriends and I walked to the Dairy Queen during lunch and there was David, sitting all alone in his leather jacket, smoking a cigarette. Let’s just say my heart went BOOM.

At one of the first football games I saw him again. Now I don’t like football at all and only went to the games to be with my friends and flirt with the boys so I really wanted to flirt with David, but he spent most of the game talking to one of my friends, so I thought he wasn’t interested. But, the next Sunday his cousin called me and wanted to know if I wanted to go to a movie with her and David. SURE.  It was a setup, no two ways about it. It was a date, but not a date and yet, it ended so wonderfully. We saw the movie, Joy in the Morning, staring Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux. It was a love story and a wonderful movie. If you get the chance to see it, do.  Anyway, before I knew it, David was holding my hand.  Did I say he was a fast worker?   I was all tingly inside.  Then we drove around after the movie, went to the drive-in restaurant and drove around some more and David and I kissed. And kissed. And Kissed. I had always loved kissing, but David was the best kisser, ever. When his cousin dropped me off at home, my mother said, and I quote, “you look like you are in love.”  How did she know? Was it because she dated her high school  sweetheart, my daddy, and married him one day?  Yes, I was in love. That is how fast it happened. People say that’s impossible, but I’m here to tell you when you see the one you want, you just know.

So we dated the rest of the way through high school, David’s military training, my college year(My mother said I had to go to college at least one year before I could get married.)  I had the ring, just not the date. So I dutifully went to college which I really enjoyed, but I wanted to be married more.  So July 7th, 1968 David and I tied the knot.

My daddy said he could never give his girls away, so my big brother, Jack, got the honors.  I loved my big brother, He has since passed on to Heaven where I look forward to seeing him again.

David hid our car at the Stucky Pecan shop where I worked, thinking it would be left alone, but my friends at Stucky’s decorated the car and put bottle caps in the hubcaps which were really noisy when we drove away.

We were married by two pastors.  Reverend Stockinger, on the right had known me for years and had taught me and I became a Christian while he was pastor.  Reverend Taylor on the left, was our new pastor and I didn’t know him very well which is why I wanted Reverend Stockinger there also. It all worked out very well and we are double married and that’s been good all these years.

Did I say David was a good kisser!   Yes, he is.  This is when he still had brown hair and I was still skinny.

My daddy and mother, my sister all in pink because that was my color. I still love pink.  David’s brother, Bill, was his best man. He and his girlfriend got married a year later and just celebrated their 51st anniversary.  David’s mother flew up from the Virgin Islands.  It’s hard to believe our parents are all gone since this day just seems like yesterday.

I look like an angel in this picture, but I’m no angel!

I have always hated seeing brides stuff cake all over their groom’s face and vice versa. You can see I very carefully put a small piece of cake in David’s mouth. No squashing it for me.

It was a wonderful wedding and wonderful day, even when David’s brother, who was use to driving on the left side of the road(which is how they drive in the Virgin Islands) and took off out of town on the left side of the road until we yelled to get over.  We could have been a statistic instead of newlyweds. that day.

We honeymooned in Traverse City Michigan where David’s other grandparents lived and a lot of his relatives, too and I got to know them all and love them and we spent several Summers with them after our children were born.   We’d love to go back to Traverse City again, but not this year.  There is even a road named Craig road there because that’s all who lived on that road for years.  David’s grandparents had bought a farm on the peninsula many years before Traverse City became a tourist mecca.  I just read an article about the peninsula and the light house on the end of it. Been there, seen that. Many times.  Most of David’s relatives have moved or passed away and the ones who are left probably wouldn’t know us.

So on our honeymoon I felt free as a bird. No more curfews.  I was a grownup now. Little did I know that I would wish to be a young girl again with no worries in the years ahead.  But it’s been a wonderful 52 years for the most part. We’ve survived the downs and celebrated the ups and will continue to do so until death do us part which is several years away, I hope.

Happy Anniversary to us!  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Fourth of July

The fourth of July is going to be a big Phsttttttt this year.  No fireworks displays. No congregating with like minded people to watch explosions go off in the air. No hearing the national anthem, which, by the way, is the only national anthem of our country.   David is working so I will be home alone. I wonder if I could be like Kevin in the movie. Eat ice cream in bed, watch old movies, and plan a way to stop the bad guys from getting in the house. That last part I really hope never happens.  But you can bet I will be busy doing something or just laying out by the pool, whichever suits me.

We have had several people swimming in our pool. Our daughter brings her friend, her kids and her friend’s kids and sometimes friends of the friends.  I say the pool is there and it needs to be used, so they have been using it often. I’ve been in the pool once this Summer. The water has to be like bath water for me to get in it.  I like sitting out and watching the kids have fun.  One day they swam for six hours. They all are as brown as nuts.  I tell them that and they laugh because they’ve never heard that before.

I still miss Belle.  Molly still looks for her. I feel sad when I see her bowl I never have to fill and her bed in my shop where she will never lay again. The vet sent us a sympathy card and it made me cry.   She was such a good dog.  But I am looking for a Lab puppy.  The only way to fill the empty space is to fill it with a puppy.  Belle can never be replaced, but a puppy will help heal the sadness. I found a breeder who has three day old Labs and I’ve given him our phone number in hopes he will get in touch with us. I told him we were seriously looking for another Lab.   I sometimes think I am a glutton for punishment by taking on the care and training of yet another puppy. Molly tried our souls. She really did, but she has turned into the sweetest, most loving dog, but she still will chew anything left out in the yard. Our daughter called and said she left her Boes  music box outside by the pool. I immediately felt my stomach drop wondering if Molly had already discovered it and done her work, but fortunately for our daughter, it was still in one piece.  Once the man who mowed our lawn left headphones out in the yard and Molly made mincemeat of them.  So this is what I want to take on once again with a new puppy.

So much has gone on this Summer and so much will be going on so I’m thinking this will be the fastest Summer to pass in decades. We all will certainly remember this Summer, if not this year as the time of the Virus when we were held hostage by a bug that they know very little about and have no cure for and yet we have to work around it somehow and make our country work.  My grandsons will have to wear masks all day at school this Fall.  I feel for them. I’ve worn a mask two times and both times were at the doctors’ offices where they handed me a mask to wear. I really feel claustrophobic with a mask on so I go nowhere where I have to wear one.  I need to get my hair cut, but they require their patrons to wear masks so my hair will be very long before I make an appointment.  I’m getting use to having long hair although it is a pain to take care of and keep the tangles out.

I hope you all are having a good Summer.  It’s a wonderful time to read a book, lay in the sun and just enjoy the lazy days.   I’ve been reading some really good books on my Kindle.  On one blog she has people send in the names of books they recommend. So many books. So little time.

I also have been having fun with my new pastime, painting by numbers. These are not like the old paint by numbers we use to paint. These are very intricate paintings where you really have to pay attention to detail.  I finished one of a flower in a vase and now I’m working on one of all colors of roses. David ordered some frames for them.  It’s very calming to sit and paint.  I think about the masters like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso and even Norman Rockwell who painted pictures for the front of magazines.  Now they didn’t need numbers and they really had to pay attention to detail, but I bet they got the same relaxing feelings I get when I paint.  I feel at one with them.   I can even order Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh to paint if I so wish. If you are interested, just check out paint by numbers and you will find several companies that produce them. Just know, at this time they are being overwhelmed with orders because of the virus and it takes a month or more to get your set, but if you are patient, it will come in time. My first ones took three months to get here and I have another picture I ordered over a month ago. But they are worth it.

So Happy 4th of July. God bless our country and protect it from those who would destroy it.  May we continue to live in peace.  Bye.