I Stand Corrected

Alert - for anyone (besides me) who cares:

1)  My one comment yesterday was not in fact from One Who Should Know (his father) but rather One Who Thought They Knew (my mother).  So apologies to the One Who Should Know - you were not the first in what I hope will be a long line of interactive readers to my blog.  That title goes to my mother.

2)  Joyce is BACK!  Okay, she never really left, although her "follow this blog" icon did.  But only for a day.  Her icon has now found its way back home and she is once again following this blog.

3)  The never ending snow storm continues to kick the shit out of PEI.  Sorry for the language Mom, but for crying out loud, it's April 13th already and it's been snowing none-stop all day.

4)  Contrary to what one would believe, Walmart does not put their excess Easter chocolate on sale the day after Easter.  No, they strip the 6 aisles of Easter candy down to the bare racks and fill them with seasonal summer products (like that's appropriate when there's 4 inches of snow on the ground and more coming down).   So no, my dear hubby, there will be no super sale on chocolate bunnies for you this year.  

Blah-blah-blogging

Imagine my surprise this morning when I signed on to my blog to discover that I had a comment!   Which by using my vast skills of deduction must, therefore, mean  I have readers.  Imagine - READERS.  Readers aside from my mother who is obligated by the very fact that she's my mother to read my musings, meanderings, ramblings and vents.

Imagine my further surprise that said comment was about the content I had posted yesterday - a sweet story about a little boy and the Easter Bunny.  Apparently, I might have named the wrong little boy.  My apologies - I would have sworn on my dog's life it was the boy profiled...but according to One Who Should Know (his father) it wasn't this little boy at all, but his younger brother Danny.  Apologies to Danny for misplacing credit to his older brother.  I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened to Danny, but I wanted to make it right if I got it wrong.  We're awaiting Rosie's verdict on this by the way - which kid was heartbroken by the Easter Bunny?

Now, on the subject of blogging - by virtue of the fact that I had a comment, and therefore a reader, it begs the question:  how to get more comments?  One could easily make the assumption that more comments might equal more readers.  So the REAL question today is how to increase the readership of this blog?  Anyone?  Anyone?  

I don't have a large following, but along with my pleasant surprise today of having a comment I also noticed that sadly, I had lost a reader.  I know some people read my blog the old fashioned way - by logging on to kimberlycameron.blogspot.com.  And I thank you for that!  But, my meager Facebook following has shrunk from 8 to 7 readers.  I assumed it was the nice man from Kentucky who for some reason is following my blog (how did he find it??).  But NO, it was my Aunt Joyce.  Joyce has dropped me!  And I thought FOR SURE she was a fan of my blog.  Why, oh why would Joyce drop me?   

I can only assume Joyce didn't find the content meaningful and if that's the case I'm sorry.  But, I'm still figuring out this whole blog thing and what to write about and what to keep to myself.  I'm striving to write everyday, although on days when those college kids suck the very life out of me, I have been known to miss a day or two.  I'm trying to include interesting stories about life here on this quirky little island as well as anecdotes from my travels.  I also like to include small stories about the amazing man I married, because frankly when you wait until you're more than half way through your lifespan to get married for the first and only time, it must be to someone FREAKING FANTASTIC.  

So that's my intent.   I hope the rest of you readers like it.  If you don't, well, you can always exercise the same option Joyce did and hit the "drop her blog now" button.  But I hope you don't.  I hope you keep reading.  I promise this will get better - or maybe it won't.  But you won't know unless you sign on daily!  

Oh and by the way, I'm sure Joyce dropped me TOTALLY by accident.  Right?

How to Annoy Me

Stand at the kitchen door asking to go out, then doing NOTHING.  Over and over again.  I'm wise to your game buddy.

What do you mean there's no Tooth Fairy?

Where oh where does the Easter tradition of hiding eggs and giving chocolate rabbits come from?  Who knows...not even the gurus at Yahoo.com, who are attributing the centuries old custom to some spring celebration invoking the goddess of the dawn, "Eoster," who did something or other with rabbits and eggs - both a sign of fertility.

All I know is that this morning, as I quietly sipped tea and read Facebook, all the while Dwayne was making the BEST BREAKFAST EVER, the Easter Bunny was busy laying eggs and abandoning chocolate replicas of himself made of fine European Chocolate.  Who needs the Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause when you've got fine European Chocolate, compliments of the Easter Bunny?

Many years ago, when my friend Brad was just a little boy, someone told him that there was no such thing as the Tooth Fairy.  Upon consultation with his mother, who confirmed this to be true, Brad looked up at his mom, and said with a quiver in his voice "Oh no, does that mean there's no Easter Bunny either?".  It was enough to make you cry. 

Come Saturday Morning

I love a quiet Saturday morning (or Sunday morning for that matter).  With one dog piked out on the floor at my feet and the other snugged in hard on the couch beside me, the only sound is the morning birds as they flit and fly about our property looking for breakfast.   We have lots of birds today - makes me wonder if our little piece of PEI is the avian equivalent of a Tim Horton's - a busy place to grab a "to go" worm or a cool, refreshing grub or two.

I woke up to an amazing sunrise this morning.   I even woke my slumbering hubby to witness the dawn of the day.  I'm not sure he appreciated being woken up out of a dead sleep to look at the morning sky, but that's one of the hazards of sleeping beside me.  I cannot stay asleep one minute beyond the crack of dawn.  

Today's sky was scarlet red, tinged with hints of purple and blue as the sun slowly crawled its way over the eastern horizon...slowly...slowly.   Too bad I didn't take my camera upstairs with me, because it was picture perfect.  It reminded me of the sunrises on Maui where, on mornings when the fields were burned, the sky was filled with the acrid smell of burnt sugar cane.  The great plumes of smoke created by the burnings  would act as nature's crayola box, colouring the rising sun  shades of red, orange, purple.  

Today's sunrise was no crayola box, however.  It was just plain red, red, red.  My first thought:  red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning.  I wonder what the day will hold today?

   

Down and Out

You could say we were down and out.  We were each recovering from a Spring cold.  We both had had a long week.  I'm not sure what excuse the dogs had because frankly, they spend EVERY day this way.  But today, my super-cool husband and I spent the day couch surfing.

Couch surfing consists of getting up, making breakfast and then immediately retiring to the sofa for a full day marathon of Top Chef on Food TV Canada.  Snicks & The Gidge took up residence in their respective spots - he in his bed, she on our chaise lounge (as if we moved it to the living room for her sake!).  Dwayne took up his post at one end of the couch and I reclined on the other.   Occasional trips to the kitchen or bathroom broke up the day.

The great thing about spending Good Friday this way is, I realized ONCE AGAIN, that I have married the perfect-for-me kind of guy.  Someone who will lose an entire day to a Top Chef marathon and not complain about it.  A guy who will nuke a hotdog for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking.  A guy who, despite being crippled with joint problems today drove to the video store so we can continue our couch surfing tonight with a DVD marathon.

Yup - he's the perfect-for-me man.  And I'm the luckiest person EVER.

Secrets from the Front

 I was hell bent that I wasn't going to catch this latest epidemic circulating the island.  But it's hard to fight off the warrior germs when your husband brings an entire army of them home with him.   Battle plans were made:  no physical contact (hugs excluded), medications were dispensed, chicken soup was consumed.  But perhaps the most strategic defense was the decision to avoid breathing the contaminated air - so no sleeping in the same bed until he was feeling better.

I thought all was good.  After 4 days he seemed to have conquered the invaders.  We had the "all clear."  I could return to my own bed.  And so I did on Sunday night.  It was then that the ultimate sneak attack occurred.

Those germs may be small, but they are mighty little warriors.  No sooner had we thought we had won the war, it became obvious that we really had only taken one small battle and that a much bigger fight would continue to rage on in the battleground that is my sinus, nasal & throat passages.

I fought on valiantly.  I took sinus medicine, lobbing drying agents at those little germ warriors.  I drank gallons of tea.  I ate toast with butter & honey, commonly known to cure whatever ails me.  I slept, but not really for longer than 15 minutes at a time.  I whined and complained.  I sneezed and coughed and wiped my eyes that were, incidentally, in a race with my nose to see which could run off my face first.  All to little avail.  

After 3 days, I was done.  I had to do it.  I had to call in the back-up brigade.  There was simply no choice.  I reached into the far recesses of my medicine chest for the  mother of all germ warfare weapons:  VICKS VAPO RUB.  

When you're in hand to hand combat against such a powerful enemy as The Common Cold, there is nothing more effective then the soothing scent of eucalyptus to clear your sinuses.   A soothing massage of VVR and the warmth penetrates your chest and immediately relieving your lungs from their prisoner of war status.  Oh sure, the smell of Vick's is enough to repel anyone that comes within a 5-ft radius of you, but I'm okay with that - I don't really like people in my personal space (husband excluded).

After 24 hours, with the use of my secret weapon, it appears I have gained a toe-hold on the enemy.  I have fought back and those nasty little germs are retreating.   Next time I won't wait 3 days to bring out the weapon of mass destruction - I'll will bathe in the stuff at the first sign of a cold.   Lesson learned.