he did what...?

i have a question of addiction...how does someone who has over indulged in alcohol- and i mean hard-fucking-core imbibing - for over 50 years just...stop?

it's a question that i've been asking myself for a few days now after i found out that someone close to me, who, as much as i am loathe and ashamed to admit,  i personally had accepted would be found dead in a gutter somewhere pretty much any day now, stopped drinking 5 months ago.  just made a decision that he wasn't going to drink anymore and put it the fuck DOWN. no rehab, no weaning, no sponsorship, no 12 step program, nothing. just stopped drinking.  and if that wasn't a big enough chunk to gnaw off, he stopped smoking as well.  cigarettes, not weed...he's not completely crazy.

i know people who have quit smoking and i know people who have quit drinking.  among them are those who just stopped one day, as well as those who struggled and backslid for YEARS before they were successful.  i know people who are sure they will die if they even attempt to quit smoking. i know people that would rather die than quit drinking. i have been exposed to addiction my entire life.  i live in fear of it's grip, not over me as much as over my children.  i firmly believe that the weakness for alcoholism, most likely to addiction in general, is a genetic predisposition. it is too prevalent in my family tree for me to ignore.

so...the question remains - how is it possible?  could he have not been addicted at all...?  over the years, alcohol has cost him jobs, relationships, homes, and other things - all just too numerous to count...is it possible that he just forrest gumped?  did he simply decide one day - after 50 years, 2 months, 14 days and 16 hours - that he was just "pretty tired"?

someday, i will ask him...for now i am still processing.  and happy for him.  really really happy for him.

your thursday morning breakdown

1. look at the expression on the (assumingly male) kid peeking over shoulders in the back row. i believe the word he is looking for is "ouch".

2. nice pair of bronzed paperweights. and that's as far as i'm going with those.

3.guess which one is saying: "hmmm......i'm pretty sure i know this penis, the name is on the tip of my tongue"

4. and lisa's question (since it is thanks to her i'm looking at penis' at 5am): "OMG, Is that thing REAL?"

more pics

uhm...possibly slightly inebriated.  don't really remember.

only the world's sweetest baby...lennie oden o'reilly.

news at 11: amazon woman chokes ass-dog at redding's sundial bridge.

i need a little pick me up.

whew. much better.

as you were.

pics from the coast...

here we go again...

i was asked by ms b and her dad about the possibility of adopting another pup and the one sentence i did utter was: "maybe i'll think consider it, if it was house-trained and if it was a girl pup." the one thing i didn't say was: "no."

after a lucy-mourning period of approximately 4 days, d-dad and the girl brought home winston. sigh. winston is a male dog, approximately one year old and very much NOT house-broken.

so goes the story of my life. now i realize he isn't the most handsome boy - he has a serious underbite, he has a really meaty butt and a slightly little head (i'm thinking weiner/terrier/chihuahua mix maybe)...but he's quiet and very eager to please and seems pretty smart. he also just happens to be a remarkable camper...the shot would have been a good one if i'd cut off the camp-coffee after say, 7 cups. heh heh heh.

pictures!

been dorkin on my computer - GASP! so unlike me...


anyway downloaded a few pics, thought i'd share...YAY! this is homer hawk hanging out off d's deck in isabella. not a great shot cause i'm a klutz and tripped over something (my own damn foot maybe?) and skeered him off. whatever homes.





here is one of the gorgeous foxes eating some nasty meat. their coats are incredibly beautiful - what you can't see is bozzie and mama growling at him all badass from the otherside of the door. yea so tough.





one of coyotes we saw out playing one morning in isabella...there were 4 of them and they were a hoot to watch - chasing each other around just like puppies - all rolling around and tripping each other up, hunkering down behind sage only to jump out when another stumbled by. this one came down the path right off d's deck. he watched us for a bit and then trotted up the hill to meet the others as they went off on a walk.

baby finches - day 15

just got back from the long weekend and two are already gone...sniff...they didn't even say goodbye. they were used to me and would react when i chirped at them, but today they just got all scrunchy and flat when i let them know i was there.

von boyage (ala brader) my little babies..auntie shawna will miss you and your little andy rooney eyebrows.

baby finches - day 10

poor things are so cramped in there, LOL - mama hasn't fit for a few days now, she just hangs out in the tree...

baby finches - day 8

ok, it's officially been 1 week - i can't believe how much they have grown...this one you keep seeing (i'm assuming it's the same one, they don't seem to be incredibly mobile) seems to be a greedy little bastard...he has, however, assumed his "very serious" face for this particular picture. notice how their wings have really sprouted in two days...

baby finches - day 6

AHAHAHAAAA - nice 'do, dude! their little eyes are fully opened and they still aren't too discriminating about who gives them food...

baby finches - day 4

eeeek! how cute are these little things? lovin' the tufts on their heads and damn - 4 days old and the little bastards are already yellin at their mum...!

they were cracking me up because they would hear my shutter and perk all up, then stop, then do it again...and lookit that scrawny lil neck, LOL! if you look closely i think you can see one of his teeeny wings...

i'll post more pics on sunday.

baby finches - day 3

(photo taken 05/17/2007)
omg - lookit how big they got in two days, notice how much they've filled up the nest!

baby finches - (appx) day 1

these were taken tuesday (05/15/2007) morning - they are pretty dang new, LOL! bizarre looking little creatures - sorry it's blurry, i was stressin' mama out and trying to hurry...these are a little finch type bird, not sure what kind, look at the green blob in the second picture...what the heck is that, a little gizzard?

wanda, the tail-less wonder

ok...one more post today cause i have these pics of this really cute fox.

she is tail-less, not sure why, and she appears to be lactating (well, either that or she's just naturally busty). she comes up onto the deck in isabella routinely every night about the same time for scraps. D usually gives her meat scraps, but get this - she LOVES flour tortillas...WTH? tell ya one thing...girl can pack it away!

ain't she a beaut? (they say things like that in isabella)

happy trails with mouths full of grit

took the kids out riding two weekends ago...we ate a lot of dust, got to pee behind bushes, dined on salami, cheese and crackers and explored the beauty of the desert (not necessarily in that order), goooood times.

brader (in pic #1) spent a lot of the time puttering around our day camp, he's pretty cautious, but i'd rather that than the opposite...eek!

dale (pic #2) showing off his mad power-slide skillz. (heh heh heh, he knows what the next pic in this succession would have shown, but i'm not telling...)

the tall kid, the girl and their ma (pic #3), damn boy kept trying to run us off the road - he wouldn't let me pass him and i do believe he would have just plowed into me had i gone for it, he was determined to keep me eating his dust...never did catch the little brat.

the girl and her ma (pic #4), rest assured her mouth was more than likely moving at the time of this shot...

newborn pictures...

ahhh...my first IRIS is finally here! i feel like a brand new mama - she's so beautiful. i check these plants every day for buds - i've been so anxious to see them...yes, i know DUH-HORK, but i got the tubers from the Man last fall and haven't seen them bloom yet - these are our babies people!

packin' hairy legs...

not really - i shaved the night before, LOL! haven't posted any pics in a few weeks. dale and i morphed into scooter-trash this last sunday. it was a beautiful day for motorcycle riding so we hopped astride the marauder and headed towards the mountains for a few hours...my canon digi was just too bulky to take along, so i chose to take along the smaller olympus and it did pretty well, it was a really hazy day and i caught a few sun flares, but i like how most of them turned out.

one thing about d is that he will, at any moment in time - regardless of where we are, pull over for a photo op. if i happen to see something on the fly, he will turn around to get me back to that perfect shot with nary a bitch. yes, he is that awesome. here are a couple of shots from up near millerton lake...absolutely gorgeous flowers in bloom everywhere. unbeknownst to him, he gave me his best marlboro man pose too - bonus.

is she really her mother's dot...?

oh yea, that's my girl -could you not just eat up all the goober-lisciousness?

...i didn't get these loaded in chronological order (as hard as i tried), but if you look through them you can see that we started out as lovely as all get-out...but true to her nature, she soon tired of the snapping of pictures. good Lord, what a ham-burger...

she was headed to the father/daughter dance at school friday night. in spite of her mother, she really gets into it - we're talkin' a really big deal here, she and i go about a week ahead of time to pick out a beautiful new dress with all the trimmings (really - could we have found a bigger bow?)(and yes, it is painfully clear that i am completely bow-retarded), we take the dress next door for a coordinating custom-made "For My Girl" hair bow, we do whatever it is we can do with that hair and then her dad picks her up (speechless as always at her luminous beauty) and takes her to a "fancy" dinner. they head out to the dance and it's out on the floor to bust some serious dance moves...we got a little Chicken Dance, some Hokey-Pokey and the ever-popular La Macarena goin on - oh yea, nothing like some kick-ass tunes to get down wit yo bad self...

ah, my baby...what a true beauty you are.