Monday, April 12

Good Morning, friends and relatives, near and far, and just down the road,

I'M HOME! I'M HOME! I'M HOME! And I can go out and play and run all over my yard and chase leaves, and dig in my driveway and I don't have to wear a leash! Have I told you how much I hate to wear a leash? Dogs need their freedom! So....I am VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY
happy to be home and without leash!

We had a long, but unadventurous drive yesterday. It's not as fully into spring here, but it's still very pretty and Daddy's nose is already clearing up from all that silly pollen they have south of here, so it's all good. I ran all over the yard when I first got out of the truck, and then all over the house when I first came in, and everything seems to be right where I left it.

Mommy picked some daffodils to put inside, and Daddy built a fire in the stove....it was a little chilly in the house since the furnace had been turned off. Seems like one of Mommy's big plants was a little turned off by the furnace being turned off......it went belly-up, so to speak. Oh well, she can get a new one later on.

We're all going up to see Gramma Peck later this morning....kinda have to wait for the rest of the world to wake up. Mommy didn't go swimming this morning like she said she would.....couldn't find her music thing....good excuse. Tomorrow is another day.......so that's when I'll be back.

Hope this finds you well and happy. Love to all,
Juni

Saturday, March 10

Good evening, friends and relatives, near and far,

I'm sorry I couldn't write in my blog last night, but we somewhere in Tennessee where there was no internet, no TV, no nothing except DUCKS! And there were all kinds of ducks all over the place!! But do you think anyone would let me go out and play with them? Oh, no, Juni the killer dog had to stay inside and watch them from the door. Or....do you think I could go swimming in either of the two ponds that were there? Oh, no, trout were being raised in those ponds and I couldn't disturb them!! I wasn't going to disturb them! I was going to catch them!! So, after one night of a tornado....did I tell you about the tornado? Oh no.....I just sent a couple of pictures early in the evening. The REAL fun hadn't started yet! Mommy and Daddy and I had gone to bed when the rain started......and I do mean rain....sheets and sheets of it with some pretty high winds. And then? Lightning......BANG.....thunder.....and that ol' camper was just a rockin' and a rollin' and I decided my best bet was to just leap into bed with the 'rents. Which I did! Right on Mommy's head! She wasn't pleased, but she was a good sport.....right up until I decided I was even more frightened and crawled under the blankets. Then she got up and layed on the couch. That was OK....gave Daddy and me more room. But, after awhile, I missed her so I got up and went to lay down next to her.....and she went back into her own bed. OK.....I got up on the couch and spent the rest of the night there. The biggest part of the storm was over by then and we hadn't blown away, so it turned out all right.

So, then we started out the next day and just got going when we ran into an accident. Some man had flipped his truck over, so they had to close down two lanes of traffic to clean up the mess and that took over an hour to get past. From there, we hit two areas of construction.....slowing us down again and we didn't get very far that day. But we found this really great campground with DUCKS.....and now you know how awful that experience was.

Today was better, no accidents or construction....but Daddy is sick....cold/allergies....Mommy tried to show you with a picture of the pollen on the hoods of cars...but none came out good. All the dark cars have yellow hoods from the pollen. It makes Daddy sneeze and snort and blow and his nose is all red and he doesn't feel very good. He won't let Mommy drive the big camper even though she is sure she could......

And the purple stuff? Red something.....Auntie Em told Mommy what that was. She forgot. Red Bud? All over the place......and wisteria and daffodils and white flowering trees and it really is pretty in Virginia and W. Va and Tennessee.....but I'll be glad to get home where I can run and play and not have to be on a leash! And if ducks come, I'll chase them. And if trout swim by, I'll catch one! You just wait!

I'll be back. Hope this finds you all well and happy.

Love to all,

Juni

Last pictures......

Aunt Margie and Uncle Cliff took Mommy and Daddy to see the manatees near a power plant where they winter because of the warmer water. There was also a small ray....pretty.

Cactus at Aunt Lena's....the first one was an April Fool's joke....egg carton blossoms on the first, but real ones on the second.,.....haven't opened yet, though.

Here's Aunt Lee and Daddy, then with Mommy.

Storm clouds....at the campground....getting darker now......

And good night......

April 8....on the road again.....

Good Evening, friends and relatives, far and near and just down the road,

After a couple of really nice days in Englewood with Cousin Lena May, we're on our way back north. Gramma Peck has taken a turn for the worse, and Mommy and Daddy think we need to go back home to find out exactly what is going on. We left early this morning, and got slowed down a little by an accident, but we're in Tifton, Ga right now, enjoying the wind and the rain and hoping we don't get to see the tornado they say we're going to have somewhere around here!! Mommy and Daddy keep making lists about all the things they don't like about Georgia and Florida.....and all the things they do, too. Wanna hear some??? OK....here goes.

These are the things they don't miss about Georgia:
bumper to bumper traffic
general congestion and noise
bugs that eat your house
kudzu
cookie-cutter houses
red dust on the furniture
fast growing developments in agricultural land
humidity
late rising sun
concrete, concrete, and more concrete
carpenter bees
fire ants
slow moving store clerks
no see ums

Things that they do miss about Georgia:

Peter and Jodi and Katie and Matthew and Alisa
good neighbors, Lee and Paul, Helen and Ralph
friends....Ruthy and Diane and others
early spring
long growing season
late setting sun
82 degrees on April 2
low taxes
respectful yes'mam, no'mam
courteous drivers...for the most part
waffle fries....Chick Fila

Things they don't miss about Florida:

humidity
discourteous drivers
traffic
slow moving clerks
continuous road construction
fire ants
sand sand sand
black dust on furniture....from exhaust.....

Things they do miss about Florida:

warmth
fresh fruit
huge avacados
beach/ocean
flowers/bushes/cactus
palms

And that's all they came up with so far. I just don't like the heat or the fire ants. They bite!! I don't think I'd like to live down here much.....and I'm trying to persuade Mommy and Daddy to stay in Vermont and after Mommy got bitten in two spots on her foot by those ants? I think she's on my side. Nasty critters.......

So. What can I tell you. Uncle Monroe is in an assisted living apartment now. It's very nice and I think he will be happy there. He has to have his blood tested for sugar levels four times a day, and that means sticking a pin in his fingers. I know that hurts, but he's a brave man. Once in awhile he has to have an insulin shot, but Mommy says that doesn't hurt.

I was such a good girl at Aunt Lee's house. She and I and Mommy went for a long walk the first night we were there, and I saw two squirrels and a little bunny rabbit! I almost dragged Mommy across the lawn to play with that bunny, but she was too strong for me. Oh welll........

So....that's the news from me. Hope you are all happy and well....and I'll probably wait until we get home to finish the trip blog. Sometimes they don't have internet in the campgrounds in the south, if you can believe that. Daddy says they're a little slow down here and that's why they lost the war......I don't have an opinion on that......

I'll be back,
Juni

April 4, Happy Easter Day!!

Happy Easter, Friends and Relatives, far and near, and just down the road,

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We arrived in Sun City Saturday afternoon, found a really nice campground not too far from Aunt Margie and Uncle Cliff's house, and went exploring. As you can see by the first picture, it was an uneventful, if not downright boring drive through this part of Florida.....flat flat flat....concrete concrete tree concrete. I napped.

Mommy and Daddy looked at a house that they really liked here in the same development that Aunt M and Uncle C are in....we'll call them AMUC from now on so I don't have to write that all out. I think I may be getting a touch of paw-pul tunnel, so I'm trying to cut down... plus they don't have internet at the campground we're in, so I have to do my blog at AMCU's house. I think I may be digressing.....

Anyhow, the house we looked at is perfect....for Auntie Em, but Mommy and Daddy aren't ready for this kind of retirement living....yet.....no place for a garden, can't leave your pickup in the driveway...has to be in the garage so you don't look like the Clampets....can't put a fence around the yard for your dog....that'd be me....have to be on a leash no thank you very much....and like that. So.....not for us yet.

But we had a wonderful day with AMUC and their son Scott and his wife Laurie, and their daughter Becky and her husband Frank. Mommy hasn't seen Becky since the 80's....long time ago. So that was a lot of fun for her. Mommy said the Easter dinner was excellent... not that I'd have first hand knowledge of that since they wouldn't let me taste anything. I did manage to snarf a jelly bean when no one was looking...well, actually, Becky saw me do it but she was a good sport and didn't tell anyone. She has a dog, too, so she knows what we're all about.

Don't know what tomorrow will bring, but hope you are all well, and I'll be back (like Arnold, remember),
Juni

Scott and Becky
Laurie and Scott

The whold fam damily....ooopppsssss.....turetts, sorry......

Frank in green, Cliff at the end, Margie at the other end, the rest of them inbetween. I'm in the front hall in a breeze.

Friday, April 2

Good Evening friends and relatives, near and far,

We're at the Eagles' Roost campground just north of the Florida border. We didn't get a very early start this morning, and we made a couple of stops along the way and took our time so we didn't get much more than four hundred miles in. But, it was enough and we had a good time and that's all that counts.

So....Mommy and Daddy and I went over to see Auntie Lee and Uncle Paul last night. They were the across the street neighbors when Mommy and Daddy lived here seven years ago. They don't look or act any different than they did then......that's what Mommy said. I met them for the second time and I like them a lot...they have a great backyard where I could go and chase squirrels. Couldn't catch the little buggers, but I did my best.

The next two pictures are of me and Lilly playing. She's such a little girl and I had to be very gentle with her, which I was, and we had a wonderful time.

The next picture is of Uncle Peter and his family.....Katie was just about to leave for Florida with one of her school friends.

Then you can see Aunt Ruthy.....she's so pretty and she LOVED me! But...what's not to love?

Then there's a really good picture of Katie, and one of Mommy and Uncle Peter. He's cute.

Then there's a sailboat....Daddy told Mommy it must be hers.....it was at a rest stop....can you read the name on it? Daddy's mean.

The next three are at the campground. It's too near the interstate and it's noisy but Mommy says she's so tired she won't hear a thing. Daddy and I went for a long walk after supper while Mommy did the dishes, so I'm a little tired, too. But we had a nice day, and it's 85 degrees and I'm hot........

Stay well....I'll be back..Juni

Thursday, March something..nope....April 1.....

Good afternoon, friends and relatives, relatives and friends, near and far, far and near, and any strangers who are coming along with me, too. I never met a stranger I didn't like.....oh, except maybe that one man who had a funny smell and I did want to bite him....badly.....oh, no, sorry, that was Daddy.......sometimes he does have this bad bad bad bad smell....but I digress....


So, here we are on Thursday, but I have no idea what the date is. Oh....wait....I can go back on the blog to find out.....wait.....geesh....I've really lost it. It isn't March at all anymore, is it? That's why Daddy congratulated Mommy this morning, telling her it was her Special Day!! That was mean!!

So I have to go back a bit. OK, now I see where we were. Aunt Jodi spent all of Tuesday cooking for the sedar that night. We went over to Aunt Aimee's.....that's Aunt Jodi's sister....and had dinner with eleven other people. Well, technically, I didn't because I had to stay in the truck, but everyone else did. Mommy said it was a very interesting experience, and really good food, so even if the experience hadn't been so good, it would have been worth the time. But, it was so it was and that's all about that.

Wednesday, Mommy and Uncle Peter went to the store and got all the stuff they needed for tie dying and then they dyed and tied and dyed. And.....ta da......the four shirts they did turned out to be really nice!! Now Mommy's all into it and wants to set up her own operation when we get back home. It's not as easy as it looks, it's messy, and it takes a lot of time. So, if any of you get colorful Christmas or birthday presents next year, be grateful.

Mommy and Daddy met Aunt Ruthy for dinner last night. She had never met me and she thought I was beautiful. I hear that a lot, you know. Anyhow, Aunt Ruthy used to teach with Mommy when they lived down here. She still teaches, but not Mommy. She got tired of all the little rug rats....ooopppssss, I digress again.......

Today Daddy and Uncle Peter are out doing something for one of Uncle Peter's rental homes. He has a lot of those...that's their business....rental homes. Mommy made a graduation card for Alisa that she has to send today, and Aunt Jodi is doing stuff to get Katie ready to go to Florida with a friend over Spring Break.

We'll take off tomorrow for Florida so I'll be back. And I'll have some pictures for you then. Right now the camera is lost.....and Mommy won't go look for it, sooooo, that's how that goes.

Be well.
Juni