Deep In The Forrest

A Gazillion people are buzzing about this Swine Flu thing... I hate thinking about stuff like that. I hate "Pandemics" and disaster talks. I thought this video from "CNN" was pretty good info though, so if you are obsessing over it all, have a look. I plan on being back later with other things to gab on over, but I don't know if I will. I still promise I will be around to everyone asap though... don't give up on me!! Busy week. Until then, everyone cover your face when you sneeze or cough, if you're sick for GOD'S SAKE PLEASE STAY HOME!!! Just be smart about this stuff. Wash your hands and keep them out of your nose and mouth, and just try to keep from spreading germs around when possible... Just use your common sense, that's all. It's something we should do every damn day anyway, not just when we are in the wake of some pandemic. Embedded video from CNN Video

I am shamefully making a back-up post. I've had a swamped week for sure! Sorry. I know I haven't been 'round to everyone but I promise I am making my way that way asap! Lazy, Rushed, and Simplified this week, I am "Red" with embarrassment and heated with "Anger" that I haven't done a better job. Here is only one photo that encompasses both words, "Red" and "Anger" (WWC is brought to us by the ever-lovely, never angry and not-red Tink of Pickled Beef!) Pictured above, the sign outside of "Tater Reds" voodoo shop on Beale Street in Memphis, TN. Reds in the name, red glowing eyes and looking quite angry! Later Taters... AJ

Bikers get a bad rap... Most of them are quite nice, gentle and comical people. Motorcycles, Music, Mayhem and Mosquitoes. Does that sound like a dream? Well of course it wasn't, I wouldn't waste a dream on that. The on again off again Helena bike fest came true at last, but only a part of it was a nightmare. We should've left Friday night, but I honestly don't even want to go into Friday. I'm hoping to block that day out entirely, but so far it hasn't worked. Still, I refuse to justify it with any further discussion. So let's begin our tale on Saturday. As of that morning, our plans still did not include the bikefest. It kind of came together at the last minute, and we grabbed our sleeping bags and bare essentials, and headed down the 61 highway on a quest for southern thunder majesty and rockin righteous tunes. Once again, as we sailed down the highway, I saw more 'Bob Ross Paintings' surround me, I could have taken my choice, just reached out and...

Had an interesting weekend... I started the post to detail about our overnight trip to Helena for the bikefest, which was finally on again. We spent Saturday night by the Levee, saw a great Kiss tribute band, and had a terrible night's sleep. I wanted to give details in a way that would kind of bring you there to experience the story alongside of me, so if anyone is out there listening, and can bear to wait until I have time to finish my literary genius, then I promise to finish it up tomorrow. For now, I must fall victim to further sleep and prepare to battle yet another monstrous Monday. Hope yours was a happy one!!! Come back tomorrow and read all about it. G'night! -AJ

The rumors are absolutely true, I have given up the battle and joined up with the Twitter community. I have added the Twitter Widget to the lower left on my Blog Sidebar, so scroll down and have a look. I have put a little bit of a personal touch to the design of it. I don't know how this is going to work out, like we really have time for any more of these social networking gadgets, but I finally broke down and decided to give it a try. I linked up my blog between all these SNG, maybe I'll get more readership, and as a result maybe (just maybe in my wildest dreams), more comments. That's something I have never been able to manage to build up here, and have always selfishly wanted them. I am admittedly a comment-beggar. So I figured, why not... Anyways, I don't know how many of the people who visit Deep In The Forrest actually Twat "Tweet", but if you do, why not Follow Me ? Come on guys, you know you want to know what I am doing every second of the day (no...

Today Is Earth Day!!! For as long as I remember, my Mother has been very "in tune" to the ways of the Native Americans. She displays so many traits of theirs, follows many of their beliefs and superstitions and really loves their philosophies and way of life. In short, the Native Americans have always been spiritually ascended, thankful and respectful to Mother Earth and its resources. They also have much to say in the ways of medicine and healing... This is where I believe my Mother gets her medicinal qualities, and I believe she has passed her medicine down to me. I give thanks to Mom and this magical universe for that. So, I am a healer, listener, a bit of a medium and divine nurturer. Those are my medicines. Take a quiet moment today to think on the following... Elder's Meditation of the Day April 22: "Each creature has a medicine, so there are many medicines. Because they are so close to the Creator, they are to communicate that medicine. Then they bring hel...

In the words of the great Yoda , "Busy I have BEEN!" Honestly, I thought about skipping out on the Weekly Words Challenge, but this weeks words were hosted by one of my favorite people in blogland, Cynical (Jay) Sexy Bastard , so I could not, would not skip out on the likes of him in all his perverse Viking glory... Not you Jay, No way!!! His words for this week he ingeniously set to "Door" and "Home". I tried to work on this through the week, but unfortunately didn't collect very many to enter. So I might have pulled one or two out of my archived collection. The important thing is I'm here. Yeah! So let's get the party started! Door and Home... Door To A Tomb At Elmwood Door To A Different Creature's Home Door To A Strange Storage Shed The Entry Card To My Office The Key To Door At Home These Beautiful Flowers, Just Outside My Office, Remind Me Of Home My Beautiful Mom, Opening The Door At Home Don't forget that you can always check ou...

April 20 is the 110th day of the year (111th in leap years ) in the Gregorian calendar . There are 255 days remaining until the end of the year. Geez... can you believe it?? Notes from the week leading up to 4/20/09 (or general disturbances and rants of mine). There is a baby bird that has been incessantly chirping out my bedroom window at all hours of the night, which only accompanies my husband's snoring. It's a wonder I get any sleep at all. In a rush last week, I ran by Backyard Burger for lunch. I was listening to the almost creepy "Auto" greetings of the Stepford workers... Every time the door opened, one of them would ring out, "Welcome to Backyard!" and as people left, they would chime out, "Have a great day, it's been my pleasure!"... It's really surreal though, it's like they've been programmed... one girl in particular who kept checking on me a little too much to see "if everything was ok", had a bit of a glaz...

N o worries here gentlemen, Aunt Jackie (a.k.a. "AJ", a.k.a. Jaxxx a.k.a. just "Jackie") is a straight girl (so far) with of course skeletons in her closet, none of which, however, are homosexual. She has all manner of friends, though, just for the record, quite a few of them have had other sexual orientations, and that's fine. Nobody messes with my friends, no matter what race, creed, culture, or orientation they might be. This post, oddly enough, is not about sexual orientation, though, but more about music that might be considered "gay" in a totally different way (no matter what your orientation). It's about sappy love songs (one in particular) that I might have fallen victim to, and admittedly have enjoyed on different occasions for various reasons. As I consider myself an avid and eclectic lover of many types of music, but Punk, Rock and Metal above all others, so you can see why I am timidly approaching mentioning the following. Guess I bett...

Oh my god I can't believe I haven't even had time to stop and post the rest of the ideas in my head. I'm constantly blogging in my head and then if I am unable to jot these things down, I lose so much great material. Well, just poking my head in to say that I have not been able to look up. Now I have the taste of butterscotch in my mouth (even though I haven't had butterscotch in a long time, but now I sure do want some!). I will prevail, and will be here later today if not interrupted, for some well deserved ramblings!

Today's Tuesday so you know what that means. Yes, it's the WWC, Weekly Words Challenge. This week, however, Tink is out of town, so she has left Jayman in charge! So does this mean trouble?? Ahh we shall see. At any rate, Tink's words for this week were "P" and "Movie" (or things that remind you of your favorite movies). To check out everyone else who is participating, I have a banner on the sidebar you can click, or I'll make it easy, Master Participant List . Alright now, here goes. Let me start with "P" : Pepsi!!! My own version of The Pietà Piggy Passing by the Pyramid (that's 2 Ps lol) Now for my "Movie" selections: Nightmare on Elm Street (remember Freddie driving the bus?) Stand By Me (for obvious reasons) The Mexican (just becuz) Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" muuhahahaha!!! Evil birdy. Our WWC-Master, Jay, has set next week's words for "Door" and "Home" (or things that remind...

So the weekend was o.k., and of course not long enough. Friday night, we had birthday stuff to do, met up with my drummer, his birthday was April 9th, and then a friend of Richie's had a birthday coming up (today actually), so we made an appearance at their birthday celebrations as well. I weathered the crowd well enough, even though I don't usually like crowds with many people that I don't know, it makes me uncomfortable, but I was o.k. Speaking of birthdays, I was just peeking at the April 13 date on Wikipedia , just out of curiosity and saw these notable April 13th Birthdays: Peabo Bryson, Rick Schroeder, and Al Green Peabo , of course everyone should know, if not for romantic nights spent with his albums, then quite a number of songs from the Disney classics such as "Beauty and The Beast", and "Whole New World" from Aladdin. He's done duets with the likes of Roberta Flack, and others. Rick Schroder , who hasn't sang anything that I know of bu...

Ahhh, there you are. Fancy meeting you here... As if you are reading this now, it must officially be "Easter Sunday". The best and most deserving of us, it seems, have risen once again! I honestly hadn't planned on blogging until late on sunday, but thanks to late night boredom and the magical wonders of technology and the Blackberry, nothing can stop me. I'm lying here in the floor watching a movie like a 15 year old as I always have. Its funny how I tend to turn into a teenager the moment I roll into the driveway... Home... Home... Home (I keep thinking if I say that over and over it will work like red ruby slippers and wisk me away to there). It feels so strange, even stranger just looking at Dad's chair, seeing anyone in it but him, just isn't right... Even when it's me. He was there for so long, so many "MASH" and "Gunsmoke" and moments spent in Mayberry there, the residual will play on forever. More and more death, disease, diasa...

This will probably be it for the Easter posting until later tomorrow. So until then, everyone have a safe, happy and colorful Easter weekend. Here are a couple Easter funnies to amuse you. This one is a classic I just can't let go of... roflmao!!

I am in the midst of changing the look of this blog, it is completely drab and I am determined to give it an overhaul. It may take a few days to get through this transformation but I want it to be much different than any of the changes I have put in before. This will not be "yet another" new header design with a switch in background color, but a complete overhaul. I must admit I have been leery of going with such a big change, but it's time. Maybe if I start with a blog make-over, then it could possibly be a lead in to helping me get started doing all the other things I've been putting off. Who knows, it is a start anyways. Therefore, bare with me while I begin this magic face lift. Change is coming!

These prompts come from something called The Simple Woman’s Daybook that I first saw over on Janet ’s blog. I didn't study up on it too hard, or research what it was all about admittedly, but I just thought I'd put it up and share it for fun... No tags, just thoughts. It's Good Friday so I hope yours is good. :) 1. Outside my window… I see an empty street and impending rain. 2. I am thinking… I wish I could be more motivated and accomplished. I'm bored right now. 3. I am thankful for… My family, and all times when things end up ok after I worried I wouldn't get through them. 4. From the kitchen… I run screaming from the cluttered table and dirty dishes! 5. I am wearing… 2 day worn work pants and a slouchy t-shirt, what a bum. :( 6. I am creating… even more negativity if I don't change my thought patterns right now! 7. I am going… to a birthday dinner tonight and then Mom's house tomorrow evening... I'm going to start accomplishing more ...

Fueled At The Filling Station... The most annoying thing ever happened this morning as I was getting mandatory fuel at the pump. There I stand, barely, and still trying to wake, still having to drag myself around by the ear as this has been such a long, stretched out week. I love all motorcycles, and this one was no exception. It was sleek, black and shiny. The machine was adorned with 'all the fixins'. There was just one problem (well, technically two). First off was the driver himself, this loud, obnoxious guy who wanted to make CERTAIN he was seen and heard. I don't know how many of them there were, maybe 2 or 3 riding together. One was a girl on a sports bike, his was a cruiser. He had his radio blaring some horrible rap song, and I mean blaring. They pulled into the gas station for some unknown reason, I don't even know why, because they didn't appear to do anything productive at all, they just turned in, blared their horrible music and made a slow annoying cir...

Oooh I'm battling it this week, bouts of sadness and really really missing my Dad. (It's my blog and I'll cry if I want to). Going home is so hard these days, but I am still struggling and trying to get down when I can, and trying to balance that (caretaking of mom) with trying to maintain a non-insanity-increasing life. Notice I didn't say 'non-insanity causing', there's no denying the certain amount of damage that's already been done in my life thus far. As usual, various moods bring certain songs into my mind, and today, this one is it... Bet you know it, like it and probably just haven't heard it in a while. Here, give it a listen! The Vogues - Five O'Clock World For those who enjoy a more country sound, check out This Version by Hal Ketchum . Reminds me of Daddy, and that's why I like it I guess. At any rate, I'm barely waking up in the morning, dragging myself out of bed and trying to have some resemblance of a life, but it's so...

A quick note about the Poker Run that Mr. J and I rode or motorcycles in on Sunday... I forgot to mention that the guys we were riding with are part of a riders club specifically for biking members of the same exact Union (Teamsters Local 667), which my Father was a part of all of his professional truck driving life. That's right, the guys are Truck Drivers, and so the ones of them who ride bikes (mostly Harley's), formed a rider's club called the "Teamsters Horsemen". Great bunch of guys, and we really enjoyed riding with them. Daddy would be proud. :) One police officer rode with our group though (who was a part of the "Wild Pigs" riders group-I know, cool name, right?), but I think he knew these guys and just wanted to ride with us. Anyways, o.k. on to Today's WWC ( Weekly Words Challenge by the ever-wonderful Tink!) The words for this week are "Spring" and "Opening" as you probably guessed... Enough of an opening to this pos...

I realize I totally slacked off posting over the weekend. I didn't really intend to do so, but we just got so busy I never had a chance to sit down and do any writing. Not that it is a bad thing, just means I was out enjoying a bit of life, and the weather held out for it, so I rode, and rode. Friday I got my share of riding in, although nothing notable, just my own personal relaxation. Caught up to my man later in the afternoon when he was having a couple of after-work brews with his co-workers. That was just about it on Friday. Saturday, we slept in a little, then I took off solo on the bike again, rode down to my Mom's, gave her a birthday card and some little prezzies. Had a nice visit, and then got the call from Richie that everyone was headed out to have some supper, and I wanted to join, so I prepared to head back to the house, when all of a sudden, my battery was kaput. I don't know if it was of any fault of my own, as I SWEAR I didn't leave anything on, and had...

You gotta love the effort on the part of the "spammers" these days. Google (gmail), is quite good about catching (most) spam. Occasionally I will still click into the spam folder out of curiosity and see what goodies I find. Most of the time it is mediocre junk advertising for larger penises, or satisfying your woman... but I took a look at it, and IT TURNED OUT TO BE A REAL LINK!!! The text read as follows, and believe me I was really shocked, and I must say honored!!! Hi, Barack Obama (Washington, DC) has confirmed you as his fourth cousin once removed on We're Related . Follow this link to see how you are related: http://apps.facebook.com/we_r_ related/?page=profile&fid= 0U812&ref=fl.30 We're Related Team Then I clicked "Learn More", and found out that it was a great April Fools joke by Facebook... And I consider myself a sharp cookie! Can you believe I actually thought enough for a second to look?? Bear in mind that I was not able to ex...

April Fools!!! I am quitting the blog, leaving my husband and moving away to Zimbabwe to marry into their royal family. Oops, Darn!! I always screw that part up, guess I blew the April Fool's Joke!! ;) This morning I was rushing around like mad, trying to get going. I thought to myself briefly how it felt like this entire week so far had been dragging as slow as it could get (not that I want to rush things, I wish we would all adhere to 'time is an illusion'). So though I was running late, I still had to stop for fuel, which is a huge hassle too. (Photo at left of AJ as a teenager--yes she is a girl, nevermind that hideous haircut-- riding the Honda MB5 through the yard, back in th' day!) Right around the corner from my house is my little ol' "stand by" gas station. It's called "Sack-n-Save", although I'm not quite sure what you are saving by going there since every item is an arm and a leg. Growing up, we affectionately named this place...