i get itchy just thinking about it

ok, we bought our house in November. A nice, cool November at that, and the view from our back deck was pretty nice. We live on the top of a ridge, and when the foliage is dormant, we can see all the little city lights glistening through the tree trunks that criss cross our backyard. Well, since Alabama weather has once again decided to skip a season (more on global warming later) the view we once enjoyed is now blocked by all the leaves, brush, and VINES. It seems our winter home purchase left us with a backyard completely and utterly consumed in poison ivy. Not just a little here or there, but EVERYWHERE. I mean, it is eating the trees, the ground, and at this point it wouldn't surprise me if it could float, and tomorrow i'll wake up to find a vine maze hovering on my deck.


Everything you see in these photos is the IVY! Now, I have been very lucky, and thus far in my life, I have never had a reaction to the stuff. Once in California, I came home with some Sumac as a souvenir, but the ivy hasn't ever really affected me. Unfortunately, my fiance is not so lucky. Apparently, James is one of the lucky people who not only covers over with blisters and rashes when he touches poison ivy, but also is someone who would go into anaphylactic shock and may even die from touching it. This has not made me a happy camper. And our beloved dog, Juicy, has decided that the most comfortable place in the entire fenced area of our yard in which to wallow is a small patch that is padded in POISON IVY. He loves the stuff, apparently. SO, now every time we pat the puppy's head, or scratch his ears, or scrub him down, we are playing roulette. yea! I spent most of the morning pulling up the vines, spraying it down with Ortho's poison ivy killer, and then re-spraying it with "pet away" spray, which makes Juicy think he is in trouble, because the only other time we sprayed it was when he continued to try to eat our deck, our bench and any wooden parts of our house. (we have since calmed him with large branches he eats for snacks as part of his high-fiber diet.) Well, this summer should be fun.

sleep to dream

So, last night I had a dream in which I was looking through items on a shelf that I had placed there IN OTHER DREAMS. How strange when something is familiar only in your dreams. Like a common location where you've had many dreams that occurred there, or people who you can't quite place anywhere but in your dreams, but if you think about it, you've dreamt of them for YEARS upon years... just seems interesting to me.. I have always had extremely vivid dreams, and I almost always remember them when I wake. I've never been one for much dream interpretation. I don't think if you dream you are a school bus driver (night before last) that it is related to the "road of your life" as a recent coworker suggested. I think I had watched school bus racing on some "extreme tv" show a couple days ago. Voila. Other things that I do think have deep meaning are very easy for me to understand. These things tend to make sense TO ME, not necessarily someone else to interpret. For example, I used to dream about a friend from highschool, and whenI would get near her, a scorpion would be clasped to my forearm. Now, I severed this friendship because this girl was sucking the life out of me. So, it makes sense. But I also have these reoccuring dreams where it's the end of the world, or civilization is undergoing a massive overhaul, people running, screaming, killing themselves, fighting each other, hording canned goods, etc. , and I really try not to read too much into it. I mean, we've all watched movies like Armeggedon and Mad Max, and we all lived throught the "Y2K" disaster, so I figure these dreams are just a culmination of what every culture has: a fear of death, a fear of nothingness, a fear that we are just a speck and no matter what we do, we cannot leave a lasting impression. Pretty big stuff when you are sleeping. But I don't find that these dreams have some big meaning. They are only dreams: my brain's way of sorting out life.