Once upon a time a long, long time ago…cont’d again

     Mavelle walked to the small window and tried to see in but the glass was thick and opaque.  The strange little window was in a low wall that swerved away from her at an angle and ended under a wide expanse of mangled stone flooring.

     “Not above, behind and not in front.  That makes no sense.”  Mavelle traced the edges of the walls all of them angled away in strange directions.  She picked up a thick branch and began to dig in the soil in front of the window, only to hit solid bedrock.

     McDougal began to growl a deep rumble in the body savage growl.  She stopped what she was doing and listened.  She heard voices and footsteps approaching from the far side of the ruins.  With a hand signal to McDougal for silence, she grabbed his collar, led him to a sheltered spot, and they hid.

     She heard her sister Sarah’s voice and almost broke cover.  That is until she heard what her sister had to say.  “No, you will kill her as I said.  My father will be heartbroken but will still give me the kingdom.  We will have riches and power.”

     Mavelle couldn’t hear the soldier’s reply but didn’t care.  She couldn’t allow her sister’s death.  She had to act fast.  If only I’d brought my bow, she thought.  She backed away from the ruins staying under cover and keeping an eye on where her older sister and the soldiers were.

Once upon a time a long, long time ago…cont’d

     Now the middle princess, Mavelle had a habit of walking through the woods at all hours of the night and she came upon the bloodied, weak, and wailing Crone.

     “Mother, who did this to you?  Let me help you.”  The princess gently aided the Crone to her hut.  She washed and doctored the Crone’s wounds and patiently waited for the old woman to stop sobbing and tell her the story of her cruel treatment.

     When at last she could speak, the Crone told the young princess a tale that she found horrifying.  “Little one, it was your sister.  So cruelly did she treat me that I refused to answer her questions.  For your kindness, I will reward you.

     “Mother, I need no reward, for what I did, anyone would do for one who suffers.”

     “Anyone other than your sister, it seems.  Now listen carefully.  You must travel to the center of the deep forest.  There you will find a cave of stone.  Inside is a dagger of dark crystal, this is the only thing that can kill a stone ogre.  It can pierce his stone heart.

     The princess traveled to the forest accompanied only by her deerhound, Mcdougal.  There she trod softly on bare feet following the deer trails to the center.  It took some time to find the cave and when she did, she easily prized the dark crystal knife from its lair.

     Holding a kerchief of her sister’s in front of her deerhound’s face, she begged her companion to seek her sister.  Fleet of foot, the hound raced ahead of her for many miles only slowing to see if she still followed.

     Finally, the hound halted, he dropped to the ground and whined.  She could no more move him than a mountain.  She sat next to him, pillowed her head on his back, and napped.  As she slept, she dreamed. 

     Her sister, Lovena, beckoned to her and said, “Look below and not above, behind and not in front.  Beware the heart of ice and listen only to one who is true.  Hurry sister.”

     She woke with a start.  “McDougal, we need to hurry.  Find her!”

     Her deerhound sat in place and whined.  He held up one paw and then the other.

     “Here?  She’s here?  But where?”  Mavelle looked around her.  They were in the courtyard of a long abandoned summer home.  Most of the home was in ruins but to her right and below ground level, she saw a small window.  She would’ve missed the window had her sister’s words not echoed in her mind. 

     “How do I get in there?”….More tomorrow.

Once upon a time a long, long time ago…

     Once upon a time a long, long time ago there lived a widowed king, he had three daughters.  The eldest had raven hair, milk white skin, and was beautiful as one could be on the outside.  Inside, her heart was as cold as ice and hard as iron.  She thought the world owed her and expected to collect any day.  They called her Sarah for the princess she was. 

     The middle daughter had wild red tresses, sunburned skin, and freckles.  She was not fair of face but her heart was as warm as the sun, as soft as goose down, and as strong as it should be.  She enjoyed being close to nature and held all life precious.  They named her Mavelle, their little songbird. 

     The youngest daughter had beautiful blonde hair, the most gorgeous brown eyes you ever saw, and no face was fairer in all the land.  Her heart was kind and as delicate as porcelain.  She loved everyone she ever met.  Her name came easy, Lovena, the joy of all who met her.

     One night a stone ogre stole the youngest princess from her bed.  The king’s knights searched far and wide but couldn’t find a trace of her.

     There came a day where the king offered his kingdom as reward for finding his beloved youngest daughter.  The eldest daughter, not out of kindness but out of a greedy quest for acclaim and the throne, asked her father if she could try to search for her missing sister.  Her father begged her not to go saying he couldn’t bear to lose another daughter.  She laughed at him and said, “Father, I am smarter than your all knights and I will bring her back.  When I do, everyone will bow down to me and call me Queen.”

     She took two knights who were under her sway with her and off she went.  First, she went to the old crone who lived in the woods.  She had her men drag the woman out of her hut and hold a sword to her throat.  “Tell me how to find my sister and defeat the ogre so I can be queen.”

     The Crone held up her hands and besought the cruel girl to let her go that she knew not how to find the sister or how to defeat the ogre. 

     “Cut her.  Make her bleed and cry so that she tells me.”  The cruel princess told her men.

     “I know not.  I cannot tell you what I know not.  Perhaps the wizard of the swamp can tell you.”

     They left the Crone bleeding and sobbing... to be continued

I’m in for a long night.

     It took forever for Gavin to finally go into a restful sleep and that only lasted for two hours.  He had a rough day at the Vet’s.  He had an allergic reaction to the first medication they used and had to have more meds to make the hives go away.

     He had a tooth extracted, his teeth cleaned, a mani-pedi, a deep ear cleaning, wart and skin tags removed, meds, anesthesia, and various other fees all totaling a massive $670.00.    OUCH!

     He’s had to pee almost every hour on the hour and whines to let me know.  Must be all those IV fluids.  He’s getting fussy again but he’s doing fine.

     You all have a good one.

Snow…okay…but sleet and ice?

    I can tolerate snow as long as it doesn’t get into ‘feet of’ depths… Or would that be heights?   Snow is navigable.  Ice, however, is not.  We have ice.  Lots and lots of it.  My car is coated with it.

     I am supposed to take Gavin to the vet’s early this morning.  I may call them and ask to postpone it.  I really don’t want to drive on icy roads in my new car.  Heck, the way it looks at the moment, I’ll be lucky to make it out of the driveway.

     Keep your fingers crossed that the roads improve by 8 a.m.

     You all have a good one!

Christmas eve snow…Gone by mid morning

 

I hate winter

     It’s getting more and more difficult to handle the months of November and December.  I’d rather sit on a fire ant hill than leave the house for the two months.  I only go out to get groceries and then try to get enough to last until February.

     People are more rude than ever before.  It is depressing as hell to have to deal with them.  At least I manage to deal with them on my own terms.

     Watching the Curmudgeon’s health fail and not having any family close by is miserable.  The only sister I have left and I are estranged because of her nasty attitude.  All of my cousins have their own families.

     The holidays were all about family at one time, but when your closest family members treat you like dirt, it sort puts a damper on them.  My dear, sweet cousins try hard and I appreciate them, but the season is still very painful.  

     To be honest, I have no idea why I worked so hard to survive when I had the heart attack.  What the heck did I do it for, is the question that often runs through my head.

Isn’t Spring yet?

     The cold has come upon us with a vengeance.   We’ve dropped into the negative degrees over the weekend.  We are not pleased say the dogs.  I agree.

     Funny, as much as the pups hate the cold, they hate sweaters, jackets, or anything else we might put on them to keep them warm.  My two dogs aren’t the brightest bulbs on the chandelier.

     I am already looking forward to spring.  Flowers blooming, warm gentle breezes, naps in my hammock.

     You all have a good one!

Diet sabotage…

     My friend G brought over a container of Christmas cookies the other day.   I have managed to pick out all my favorites and am trying to convince The Curmudgeon to please eat all the rest  so they no longer tempt me.

     Thank goodness she knows what ones I like the best and kept them to a minimum.  At least she warned me that she was bringing some cookies.  She gets that I am trying hard to lose weight.

     The Curmudgeon never warns me, he always manages to sabotage my diet by bringing home irresistible chocolate candies.  I don’t think he gets it.

     My will power is almost non-existent since I quit smoking over a year ago.  Sweet things especially are  impossible for me to resist.  That’s why I don’t buy any when I go grocery shopping.

     I keep hoping I’ll find my self-control again.  Have you seen it?

     You all have a good one.

Yikes!

     The Curmudgeon woke me in a bit of a panic.  “There’s a suitcase on the front porch, did you order one?”

     Dazed and startled from a sound sleep all I could do was mumble, “Huh?”

     “There’s a large briefcase, roll on, carry-on type piece of luggage on the front porch.  Did you order one?”

     My caffeine deprived brain tried to sort through what he said.  “Are there mailing labels on it?  It’s not in a box?”

     “No.”

     “Then it didn’t come by mail.” 

     “Get up.  I need you to look at it before I call the police.”

     “Police?”  My foggy brain was not catching on well.  I got dressed, grumbling all the time.  I went downstairs, stepped out the front door.  “Yes, that’s a briefcase alright.  Can’t say I have any idea where it came from.” 

     “I’m calling the police about a suspicious package.  Better to be safe…”

     I trudged to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.  Once I had one in hand, I sat down in front of my computer, pulled up my FB page, and saw I had a message there from an old friend.  I read it and began to laugh. 

     “Call the police back, I know where it came from.”

     Right about then I see a fire department vehicle pull in front of the house.  I went outside and told them we’d just called to cancel, we found out where it came from.  I also invited them in to see why they were called.

     Both firemen said they would’ve called it in too.  They had a good laugh over it.

     I messaged my friend and told her.  We both got a good laugh.  The briefcase was one she’d told me about a while back.  I’d forgotten.  Yes, my short term memory sucks.

     The lesson here my friends is, don’t depend on messages or texting to get an important message through.  Use a phone and speak to the person, there’s less confusion that way.

I’ve heard The Curmudgeon imitating Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the dead terrorist all day.  One more I keel you and I will keel him.

     You all have a good one!

 

Will 2013 mean better TV shows?

     I quit watching the TV program Fringe when it went past the world of weird science and wandered into just plain weird.

     I stopped watching Castle when I could say far too many lines before the actors on the new shows, not the reruns.  Yes, it got that predictable.

     I quit watching Burn Notice when they went into full-out violence and lost the clever factor.

     I quickly stopped watching Person of Interest because it was far from interesting.

     In NCIS LA I like Hetty (Linda Hunt) who has a very small part on the show.  I don’t like the lack of heart but plenty of gun play the show doesn’t come close in the story factor that NCIS has.  I never have warmed up to the rest of the cast.  Therefore, I don’t watch it.

     I refuse to watch reality shows.

     Do you think that 2013 might just bring us real entertainment and not more dumbass reality shows?  Oh, please, please, please!

     You all have a good one!

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You all have a good one.