{"id":281,"date":"2008-06-13T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-13T16:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/?p=281"},"modified":"2008-06-13T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-13T16:54:00","slug":"haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Posted pictures -->Minor curve balls&nbsp;seem to be&nbsp;flying at me&nbsp;this week. My car is in the shop until Monday, so my feet will have to carry me anywhere I want to go. Asha will be stuck with me in the &#8220;hood&#8221; and there will be no wild, off-leash romps for us this weekend.&nbsp;The car&nbsp;has refused to start three times this week and I have burdened one of my friends to come and jump start it each time. Plus, it is chugging when it does run and the engine&nbsp;warning light has been on for a week or two. The shop guy says I need a new battery plus something called an &#8220;intake boot.&#8221; It needs the regular tune up, oil change sort of work too. On Monday I will be around $450 poorer. It didn&#8217;t help that I had to be at the hospital today for an MRI of my noggin. Luckily, I live only a few blocks from the hospital so my feet did their job and brought me home afterwards. I&#8217;ve been having some odd ball symptoms lately, so my doctor suggested a series of tests. It is probably nothing; but, to deflect my tendency to start contemplating the negative possibilities, I decided to take a moment and appreciate some of the good things going on around me.<\/p>\n<p>One of the good&nbsp;things is that I have a nice little haven, which although it seems to be a mecca for ants and is way too full of &#8220;stuff,&#8221; is pretty comfortable. It is my refuge and the place where I putter and &#8220;art&#8221; and nest with my furry&nbsp;companion <a href=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/gallery\/00001yx9\">Asha Zoe<\/a>. I am very glad that no tornados&nbsp;blew it away this week, as we&#8217;ve been having plenty of storms here recently and others towns nearby have been hit. Knock on wood.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wwtcc\/g176\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"242\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wwtcc\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>I always enjoy Spring&nbsp;because that is when I buy herbs and flowers and fill the planters on my porch. I keep dog brushes sitting there so that when Asha and I return from our walks, she can sit and watch the world go by and I can give her a good brushing. It is a pleasant place to hang out with the Zoe girl.<br \/><!-- End of Posted pictures --><\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" width=\"200\" summary=\"\" border=\"1\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wxb3w\/g176\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"333\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wxb3w\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>This year, instead of planting decorative sweet potato vines in my tiered beds in front of the porch, I experimented and sent off for some of those roll out flower carpets from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wdrake.com\/walterdrake\/Shopping\/ProductDetail.aspx?CID=Outdoor,+Pets+%26+Auto&amp;SCID=Lawn+%26+Garden&amp;ProductID=306420\">Walter Drake<\/a>. I did not know if they would actually grow but low and behold I have flowers!&nbsp; It seems to be mostly one kind of flower, but they do look nice I think.<\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" width=\"200\" summary=\"\" border=\"1\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wy0dp\/g176\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"333\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/couchart\/pic\/002wy0dp\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;So, there are many things to be cheerful about and I am bound and determined not to be deflated by the minor frustrations that sometimes occur.&nbsp; I hope my online friends are all well and safe in their respective bergs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>EDIT: Yay, my noggin is okay&#8230;well&#8230;*smirk*&#8230;as okay as it is going to get anyway.&nbsp; The MRI&nbsp;technician said to expect results next week but that if something was amiss, I would hear right away. Needless to say, when my caller ID showed the clinic number I thought &#8220;oh crap!&#8221;&nbsp; Luckily, it turned out to be&nbsp;my *great* primary care physician who just wanted to give me the good news right away so I did not fret over the weekend.&nbsp; I really like him.&nbsp;He has always been really good to me, showing concern and going the extra mile to let me know that he is there, willing to help. I haven&#8217;t met many doctors who are willing to take the time and make the effort that he does. Another good thing to appreciate and I do.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minor curve balls&nbsp;seem to be&nbsp;flying at me&nbsp;this week. My car is in the shop until Monday, so my feet will &hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/haven\/\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashazart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}