Deep In The Forrest

We talk about our Moms a lot here on the blogs, but that's because to Chelly and to me, our Mothers were such role models and strong, hard to forget women, just like we aspire to be. Now, to know me as an adult, you would never even imagine me outdoors doing anything remotely close to building a fire, setting up tents or learning to cook in the ground or over a flame. Stepping on a snake, or lying awake all night under the stars while getting eaten alive by Mississippi's state bird (Mosquito) are things that I avoid with every ounce of my soul.  I mean,  my gosh . Girl Scouts are always doing things like cleaning up trash on the highways and getting stung by bees, singing "Kumbaya", hiking in the swelter, mucking around outside in the stinky, muddy, sweaty outdoors.  However, there was a time that I, Auntie Jax braved the elements and did my time learning survival skills, earning patches and of course, selling those famous cookies we all know and love. Things have...

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...

W eekend has been buzzing by, there were things I had planned on doing that I didn't get to take care of such as picking up some things from my Sister's house (sorry Vick! If you are inclined to give me another chance then perhaps this Friday or Saturday? Don't look at me like that, I'll make good I swear!) With the time change, and the days being shorter, I think this last week has really thrown me for a loop... Not to mention the low-energy bit. But I am feeling a bit more perky today. Perhaps it is because I did a good deed. I went to church with my Mother and performed a song for her, basically I wanted to give her a lift because she's seemed so down the last few days. She won't admit it, but I could hear it in her voice. So since she'd been begging me to come play piano and do a special song for so long, I thought it might lift her spirits. It seemed to help. Most everyone realizes that I am not a fan of organized religions, or the way things seem to go...

This is a very strange planet, and awfully odd universe we have created for ourselves, am I right? But we may as well appreciate all of the crazy things that make it home while we're here... That includes, for me, never growing up (as I've mentioned before). I told you that this past Friday , Mr. J and I took our tent down to Mom-n-Dad's house to "test" it out. This means fixing up a test campground, which we ended up making right behind the house, not far from the extension cord, and not too far from civilization. We're silly, pansy idiots, I know. But even so, we still had fun, sweated to death and I made it through the whole night without even one mosquito bite. That in itself is a miracle! I thought I would entertain you with one of my infamous captioned slide shows. These are a few shots I captured on the way. To start, I really overdid it with the sunsets, but I just couldn't keep my eyes off the gorgeous sky. Hope you get a kick out of them. No matt...