July @ MindSay 
4th
July 12th,1963 was a cold day I was told...
I was born about 11:00 am, somewhere around there. I tend to forget that..I need to look it up in my baby book again..
But today is very humid and hot...typical July weather!
There are a lot of us July babies out there!
Love to hear from you all!
What day in July?
53 °F (1963) in WS NC
Crossing the line between June and July, fireworks start to pop more frequently at night. M-80's and other large report incindiaries are being set off in the neighborhood. What was once quiet up to the 3rd, at least, now becomes a nightly quest to shatter the silence until the 4th.
July: Named for Julius Caesar, converted into a month after a suggestion from Mark Antony. Originally pronounced like 'Julie'.
For most of the month, the Western Astrological sign of Cancer the Crab rules until July 23rd. Can't think of a worse sign to be born under. With others, you can at least say "I'm a Pisces" or "I'm a Taurus", which nowadays might get you the response of, "You're a car??", but to say that "I'm a Cancer"...
Yeah, I know you can say "I'm a Cancerian", which is better, but not many people have heard of the word 'Cancerian'. Makes you sound like 'Libertarian'. Where Cancerians make up for it, however, is that the symbol for Cancer looks like '69' turned on its side. Score.
July's birthstone is the ruby.
Cancer is a water sign.
Just like the ebb and flow of the Moon that rules Cancer, life ebbs and flows. The pull of others can shift one off balance, or align them just right, or pull them into someone else's life. Even if the source can't be seen, its effects are still felt.
Attraction and repulsion are words that scientists and engineers use to describe unseen forces at work in the magnetic, gravitational, electrical, and atomic fields of study. The same words are used in relationships, with much the same meanings, although the outcomes are less well defined and predicted.
Just like as the Moon swings around to the other side of the Earth, or it takes up a place in Earth's shadow so we can't see it, its presence is still felt by the tides, animals, and the bubble of Earth's magnetic field. Just like people who have come into our lives, and are no longer there, still have an impact to this day because the memories of them persist like so much unseen gravitational pull. Their actions affect how we act, and react. Their inspiration, or cataclysmically painful connection gives us a new path to walk down, either towards a positive source, or running away from it, screaming.
There's nothing we can do. We're programmed to react, and to learn from the outside world.
To adapt.
To survive.
In 9 days, new programming will take effect.
Tides will shift - subtly for most, if not all.
A Cancer will be removed, but there will be no fireworks to celebrate.
I still don't believe it. I hope heaven is amazing, and that your smile is warming hearts up there until we all meet up again.
Going to listen to some Kenny and some Anna Molly and maybe look at some pictures. It hurts, though.
*If I had known that the last time I saw you would be the last time I'd see you...
I would have told you so much*
Vacation was ok. Went to a resort in West Virginia, just myself and Husband. For our anniversary mostly.Anniversary number 27! We stopped at Antique malls and shops along the way. Had fun doing that. It was cooler up in the mountains of West Virginia. One night we caught the full moon and went to a pond to lay back and watch it rise and light the sky up, and see a million stars shining brightly. It was a bit chilly that night. But it was awesome.We stayed at this resort for 4 days and 3 nights free of charge if we took their little tour. It was worth it to stay free!The place was nice, but I wouldn't want to live there! With gas prices this year, we couldn't afford to do much of anything. We used 1 tank there and 1/2 tank back. At filling my van up for $85 dollars a pop, that was expensive enough! We bought some antiques, but not a lot. We both were out of work for the whole week in July, and we traveled all over western North Carolina to some Antique malls we had been wanting to go to.
This a picture of the sun setting from our room at the resort through the woods.Nice.
Here's some of the full moon pictures. My camera didn't quite capture the best of
it!
I guess you need a faster lens to capture the fullness and brightness of it.My camera made it look tiny, and it was so huge!
Here's one of the moon in the sky and its reflection on the pond surface. It's pretty cool. Looks like two moons!
The other one is a close up I tried to do.
One morning in late July we got up on a Saturday morning and spied a deer in the back yard. Not unusual as we live in woods and woods surround us, and we live near the Yadkin River.Here's a couple pictures of it:
It wasn't afraid of our dog, and the dog was just sitting and watching it!
One Sunday in early August we went to Cracker Barrel to eat after church, and this strange car was in the parking lot! It had a license tag, so it was driven there! Check it out:
Pretty Cool hUH? People were in the parking lot and taking pictures of it left and right! So low to the ground! Low Rider!
Below here is a picture I took today, August 27th, on Lasater Rd, in Clemmons NC at the water wheel. The wheel wasn't turning because of the huge volume of water, it was awesome! The lake was overflowing the dam and the little bridge I was standing on was shaking as the water roared under it! I took a video too. Hope to get it posted soon! We about drowned today! Some areas got 12 plus inches of rain. We have about 7" in our rain gauge! Areas are under flood warnings and watches. We had tornadoes in the area also. My radio at work kept going off with the warnings and such this morning. It was raining very hard.
It's taking forever for the video to upload. I will post it tomorrow! For now I need to sign off! Will catch up some more tomorrow!
I now have photographic evidence to prove I am loved. Check out the following (click to see images full size)...
I can never seem to take a photo of my nephew Nick without him making a funny face or moving. He's so full of beans! And look at that tough guy smirk!
The nephews and I went for a more "retro" look with this photo. We should be cartoons.
I love the way Josh looks. He hovers over me like a bad angel.
Now for something a lil' different. The boys and I took time out to chill out at Bukolt Park. Josh was also taking pictures and video. We got a bit dramatic. Here's Josh with a very interesting tree. I like how his young hands look against the rough texture of the tree bark. I might use this image for a future painting. When I told Josh that, he got really excited!
Who doesn't want to be a model for a fantasy painting or drawing?
Here I am against the same tree. The wind did a lovely trick with my long hair that day. My hair is like a sheet of gossamer. Neat, eh?
This is the tree trunk we posed with. Doesn't it have a creepy yet beautiful shape? It's like you could stick a hand in there and pull out an elf!
An even better picture of me with my bejewelled ringed hand over the tree trunk and hair blown to the side.
Nick tumbling (but not quite) into the Wisconsin River! He's not really falling in, but the angel I took this photo at makes it seem that way.
Looking out into the river... There's nothing better to do on a beautiful, sunny, breezy July Sunday afternoon!
Nick was feeling a bit moody when I took this photo, but he soon cooled off once he dipped his feet in the river.
My brother hates it when I take photos of him, so I have to steal his image every now and then. I especially like this one. The wind is in his face, he's got his eyes closed, he's tired, but there's something about the way his face is juxaposed with the background. Mark's nose and those stone arches remind me of his personality -- very pragmatic yet also very emotional. Mark is full of contradictions. Guess what astrological sign he is. Go on. *waits* Okay. Yeah, he's a Pisces.
This is where the river touches the land...
And where my family stands.
More photographic evidence I'm loved by my nephews! This was an accidental photo, one taken while Josh and I were checking our cameras and then, click! Too cute. We had to save that one. We're not on the ground either, we're just tilted back.
I told Nick to give me his best hero face. He did a fabulous job.
When I asked Josh to do a hero pose, this was the result, but Nick interupts the scene to prove that there's room for more than one "hero" in the family!
Of course Josh was also going to sabotage Nick's hero stance! Yes, this is my influence on them. I ask them to pose as superheroes for me for comic art purposes. Do you know how hard it is to get children to pose? Almost impossible, so you gotta catch them being themselves!
Here's a series of our shadows over the water. It's the three of us: Josh, Nick, and I, against the world.
By mid month, my brother and I saved a snapping turtle from a slow death. It was caught near the train bridge by the paper mill. We don't know how many days this little guy suffered, but we made sure to take out the fishing lure that was stuck in its beak. Here is the turtle resting in a bucket waiting for the wildlife rescue folks to come pick him up.
The last time I had take out, I ended up getting some tempera chicken in the shape of a heart! I love it when I notice my food is "talking" to me... it's like the cook left me a secret message. Like someone (or two) is out there letting me know, "Yo, Val, you are loved!" So, yeah, can't beat that.
Next time it would be great to get an Elvis or Virgin Mary in my meatloaf or something!
And I can't end this without showing off my cat, Mr. Snuggles, again! Just before my camera ran out of battery power, I took these two fuzzy photos of the kitty beast.
Snuggles has the biggest eyes...
And I just know he's going to throw a tantrum when I get back home. He hates the days when I leave him all alone. I think I better get him a kitten someday...
It's a rainbow over downtown Stevens Point! Say what you will about summer thunderstorms, I like what comes after a good one -- when the sun shoots out from the big clouds and the blue sky is fractured by rays of color.
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