Spam a Lot

Blogger intercepts spammy comments before they get published. But they hang onto them for the blog author to check and see if they are really spam.

Sometimes they make me laugh.

I got this comment:

Thank you for this thoughtful topic. It is a topic I have given a lot of pondering and your insight is very helpful. (And then there's a link to an Asian Girls Escort Service.)

On THIS post. Which just cracks me up, because the entire text of the post is:

Where are my boobs

and

what are they doing there????

hug your hounds

But then I got this comment on my National post:

Man proposes but God disposes.

It was an anonymous comment, so I didn't know if it was spam or not, or if it had some little spyware pixel attached. I deleted it. I figured if Blogger thought it was spam, they were probably right.

I spent a long time yesterday writing a long post explaining how I had been in a horrible bad mood for days. And poor Bill. And why I thought I had been in such a horrible bad mood for days.

While I was writing it I felt like it was spam. Brain regurgitation spam. It was helpful to me to write it all down and think it through. But it was basically brain barf. Still, I was tempted to publish my pundit puke. I wanted you dear readers to say, "Ah yes. I understand." And "Oh, Patience. How brave and noble you are to endure what you do and only ever get in a bad mood once in a while."

But, shoot, even when I read it, I was all, "Geez. Get a grip." Midway through I wrote, "Of course the bottom line is that I am angry at myself." And that is the crux of the matter.

I did hurt my back on Saturday, from being stupid. I undid three weeks of miracles by Emily the Magical and three weeks of hard work exercises by me. I was so very angry at myself for that. But I did the exercises that I could, and I saw her again today, and I feel much, much better. So I'm not so angry at myself for that now. Plus I realize I was scared. It really hurt and I had felt a big POP. Now I don't have to be scared, either.

I spent a lot of time making ads for Swede William, Lindy, and Jabberdude. I am not a graphic designer, so of course the ads look amateurish. I was mad at myself about that. Well. Duh. Am I mad that I didn't go to Graphic Designer school? That was stupid, too. I do like the way Jabber's ad turned out, because it is just Laurie from Minnesoooooota's beautiful photo with some text overlay. Here it is in all its glory:

One of the other many, many things I am mad at myself about is I had a couple of ideas for good blog posts. Only I didn't make time to write and now of course they are dust in the wind. Arrrgh. When will I learn to make time to write? Instead you get this drivel.

Speaking of time: I had better now type up the Kennel Club minutes, the Paducah Main Street minutes, and the Paducah Renaissance Alliance minutes.

Yup. I have good reason to be angry at myself!!! I am a fool.

hug your hounds who don't care how foolish we are, thank goodness!

We Got A Little Rain

In Fact, between April 22nd and May 2nd we got 17.05 inches of rain.

I took this photo of our (and I say that so very fondly: "our") Flood Wall while I walked the dogs yesterday. Note the glorious blue sky. We had forgotten what that was. Blue sky.

Thanks to photos that journalist Eddie Grant took and put on Facebook, I can show you what is on the other side of the flood wall. I think it was taken almost at the very same time, because I think I saw him flying around in the sky (that same blue sky) while we were walking.

See the small dark roof in front of the red X? That is the red building in front of the car in the top photo. That red X is where the dogs were tied back on March 28 in the photo below. And I thought the river was high then!

Here's another red X where they were standing when I took the above photo in March:

We didn't walk in the River Park:

Have I mentioned how grateful I am to the folks in 1947 who built our flood wall? The arrow points to our home, in another aerial shot by Eddie Grant.

It is so strange. Neighbors just 4 miles away have lost their businesses. Folks who live along little creeks are completely under water. Our local NPR station, the marvelous WKMS, posted a Community Relief Fund where we could send donations.

My sweet friend Heather, (Emmett's mom, and Baby Ben who is NOT a baby anymore, but a fine young man's mom), is an avid and accomplished sailor. She has a new boat in her driveway. She said if the flood wall broke, she would sail down and get us all. That was a comfort.

Really, we are in the safest place, as long as the flood wall holds. I think today is the crest. The Army Corps of Engineers blew up a levee on the Mississippi River, flooding130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri, to save some of the towns above it. It did relieve our river some.

But oh, those poor farmers. I can't even imagine. The photos are devastating. And people comment on them on Facebook. "That was my grandfather's house." "There's our family farm. It's been in our family for generations." Being human is all about being resilient.

The dogs can't seem to soak up enough sunshine. The puppy is so very very glad to be able to pee and poop without being rained on.

I don't think I'll ever live this close to big water again. It is an awesome, uncontrollable, powerful beast.

I love the gentle mountains, off in the distance. I like my horizons lumpy.

Which says a lot about me!

hug your hounds