Lost and Found

YAY!!! ...or... as i typed the other day without realizing my fingers were on the wrong keys: TAT!!! (get it? the letter T is right next to the Y on the keyboard, and i was looking out the window as i tried typing YAY. when i looked back at the screen and saw TAT it made me laugh; so that's my new yippee word!) but that's not my subject; my subject today is JOY, JOY, JOY!

i found my JOY today. it was good 'n' lost yesterday, but i found it today. several reasons; one of course is that those creative writers of yore, with all their descriptions of spotty rain, scattered rain, intermittent showers, isolated t-storms, etc, etc, etc, FINALLY show me ONLY a SUN icon! TAT for THAT!!!!!!

plus the fact, that as i raced a storm last evening, trying to finish the mowing before yet another cloudburst (and of course lost to the rain again), but i kept an eye on the sky (and later shot a gazillion photos of its tumultuous beautiful mix of blacks, greys, lemons, roses and apricots). then i looked up and saw a very colorful and BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW!

well, all righty, GOD! I SURELY THANK YOU FOR THAT! AND FOR THE PROMISE THAT IT BRINGS! and YES, i'm SHOUTING CAPITAL LETTERS AT YOU cause i am THAT excited over rainbows--especially those which follow over a month of rain! JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING, the Bible tells me.

SURE ENOUGH, it DID!

Tech Tags: Lost+and+Found Joy Sunshine Stormy+Rainbows

Searching and Searching

Have you ever lost something--something that was very valuable to you--and couldn't find it no matter how hard you looked, and no matter how many places you looked? i personally think that is one of life's most frustrating experiences. i absolutely HATE it when i can't find something, and really NEED to find it!

And this morning, that is what i am experiencing. i have looked everywhere and have only one last place to look, in HOPES of it being there. (in fact, there's a saying that, Why is it that the thing you are looking for, is always in the LAST place you look?! of course, given any thought, that saying makes no sense because once you find it, you obviously stop looking---thereby making that the last place that you look!)

things seem to be going completely haywire for a few very special loved ones and i feel helpless in correcting their situations. serious big time stuff, that they are facing--granted, while not life-threatening, still serious in the daily face-off with life's happenings. and serious enough that as my concerns FOR them mount, i have lost my JOY today.

JOY is that "thing" that, yes!--it IS very valuable to me. but i can't find it anywhere this morning and that is very frustrating. there are situations and issues that i am rather helpless in remedying no matter how MUCH i want to just FIX everything for those i love and care about! i know right well that i am not alone in these feelings, and you may, if not now, then previously or yet in the future, also experience this loss of JOY over hurting for others.

the last place i'll look--which by now i SHOULD have learned to look there FIRST!!!--is my Bible.

okay, WOW....perhaps i HAVE looked there before when my JOY was "MIA," cause i just turned to the bookshelf behind me, picked up my little Bible, opened it up to find where it says: "the JOY of the Lord is my strength"--and believe it or not, IT OPENED TO THE EXACT PAGE IN NEHEMIAH (chapter 8, verse 10)!!! i kid you NOT! i repeat: WOW!!!!

beginning in verse 9 thru 12, Living Bible translation, "All the people began sobbing when they heard the commands of the law. Then Ezra the priest, and I as governor, and the Levites who were assisting me, said to them, 'Don't cry on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God--it is a time to celebrate with a hearty meal, and to send presents to those in need, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. You must not be dejected and sad! And the Levites, too, quieted the people, telling them, 'That's right! Don't weep! For this is a day of holy joy, not of sadness.' So the people went away to eat a festive meal and to send presents; it was a time of great and joyful celebration because they could hear and understand God's words."

i KNEW i should've looked there first! Sometimes the only present i can offer is prayer for those who are hurting or facing challenges, decisions and huge hurdles.

Lost+Items Searching Life+Challenges Bible Joy Prayer

New Exercise Program

I just KNEW i shouldn't have done it! i KNEW when i DID it, it was asking for trouble...and sure enough! i no sooner opened all the windows and BAM! it's now raining again and i had to run around, and up and down, and RE-close them...AGAIN! that has been our exercise program for the past four weeks! go up the stairs and open all the windows. come down, sit for a minute, then JUMP up and RUN up the stairs and CLOSE them all again! we are now entering our FIFTH straight week of on again, off again rain, rain, rain, interspersed with clouds and dark skies, and yep: more rain.

i will hand it to the weather predictors however; they have become extremely creative in coming up with lots of terms lately: showers, downpours, thunderstorms, intermittent rain, occasional showers, isolated storms, spotty storms, etc, etc.....all equal to the same thing: RAIN, RAIN AND MORE RAIN! they do get an A+ for creative writing skills though.

seattle, on the other hand, which is where we FEEL like we live lately, has had record DRY weather! go figger! i tweeted this morning that perhaps our globe has had a "slip 'n' fall!" it's crazy, i tell you!

we got our hopes up this morning when this blinding--really, i kid you not; it hurt my eyes--brighter than bright light rolled into the living room as i drew open the blinds! i shielded my eyes from this strange and foreign sight and instinctively (almost) quickly closed the blinds again before it damaged my eyesight! ohhhh, but then i remembered: that bright light is called the sun! now i get it. oh, but wait! NO! i DON'T get it...it's gone again. well, at least it's only grey again. open the windows and let some air in. oh, WAIT! no, quick, RUN! SHUT THE WINDOWS! IT'S RAINING OUT!

between drops i put on my boots and run out to check my swamp...i mean, my vegetable garden. i used to joke a couple weeks ago that the puddles in my garden were larger than my zucchini leaves. but, seriously, i realize now, after all this time, and all this mud, and all these puddles, there is no WAY i will gather a great harvest! and THAT makes me sad.

if i project my little 128 square feet of soggy plants sitting in mud puddles, i can only IMAGINE what a REAL farmer is feeling, in the way of sadness right now. at least monetarily, my sadness won't bring me tremendous loss. for those who depend on farming as a living, they must be feeling something well beyond sadness about now...in this neck o' the woods anyway. so my heart goes out to them. and of course, one of the by-products too: mosquitos galore! i waded into the back yard a little while ago and was immediately attacked and came in with bites, whereas normally (i vaguely recall what normal is anyway), we never have a mosquito problem.

i'm convinced too, that the weather people are beginning to fear for their life. i notice now that they put up icons of the sun instead of "telling it like it REALLY is!" or, perhaps they are not trying to deceive us; they are just letting us know what that yellow ball in the sky looks like, in days of yore. to keep them honest tho, they splash maybe 3 strokes of rain across the yellow ball icon, and a cute little grey cloud blocking a corner of that thing called sun. but, HEY! FORECASTERS! LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW; it's RAINING!!!!!

if i search for any JOY in all this soggy-bottom mess, it is that my water bill will be far less than the typical summer water bill, since i have only watered my garden ONCE....WAY BACK when i first planted it about 6 weeks ago. on the other hand, the upstairs window is leaking, so what i save on water i may have to pay for in repair. o where o where is my JOY, glub, glub, blub, blu, bl.....

Exercise Rain Garden Weather Farming

By the Dawn's Early Light

The moral of the story, bottom-line, is: 4:30 beats 7:30 ANY day! now i don't usually begin with the bottom line, but upside-down is pretty much how my monday started today, so it does seem appropriate.

hubby's work hours were changed---that's just part of the incredible "power" bosses of the world actually have over our own little world. the change took a while to get used to, and quite possibly i only got used to it because it occurred, not in the middle of a cold, dark winter, when it's next to impossible to pull that quilt or comforter away from your face and take your feet from their warm cozy place and introduce them to the cold reality of morning. but the change occurred when the early morning is truly the best part of the day. not only is the sun not even up yet, it certainly is not at all hot, humid and sticky yet. the late spring and summer demonstrate (for the mere taking) their very best they have to offer, in the very early hours of the day. and so! we used to believe that the 4's on our clocks only pertained to the p.m. indicator, when it turns out they also have an a.m. appearance.

even tho hubby feels badly and doesn't like that his hours are affecting my hours, i personally have always felt that if a hubby gets up to leave for work, while the wifey stays inside the door to wave to him, it is the LEAST she can do, to show her appreciation, is to BE there to wave. (what's right for you is fine, but this is my blog and that's how i feel about it.) {:D

last week this time, i was already finished the week's laundry, and weekly grocery shopping. today i went back to sleep and admittedly was NOT at the door to wave hubby off! and it's thrown off my whole day's plans. i got out of bed at 7:44 and have been playing catch-up ever since! what an ungodly hour! i know; i'm being facetious, but any time that i do not get up before dawn, i am all the more convinced that i've started off on the wrong foot.

plus, the early to bed, early to rise, has an aside bonus! it makes me feel like a kid again. wait--WHAT?! what does THAT have to do with anything? well, when i was a kid, i remember being sent to bed while it was still daylight--in some cases, while the sun was not yet set. and, that's what we do now. if the alarm is set for 4, we are climbing "the golden staircase" by about 8:30. (granted, the cat and the birds haven't caught on to the whole idea yet, when we cover the bird cages and announce to the cat: bedtime for bozos. but they have always been good about not complaining.) so, when i climb into bed before sunset, invariably in my mind's eye, i'm 10 years old again and am climbing up the ladder into my upper bunk as i hear the city noises out my window. so it's never a bad thing when you do something and it makes you feel like a ten year old once again. there is great JOY in that feeling! (if you want, i'll give you a wake-up call tomorrow at about 4:30 a.m.)

Textures

I wonder how many people are "in love" with the zoom feature of their camera? i KNOW i'm not the only one! but i sure give mine a workout. i'm fascinated with textures and closeups. my previous blog attests to that, with the raindrops on petals....but it goes much further than that. in fact, i'm beginning to think that my eyeballs have a zoom lens, as a "built-in feature." for instance, yesterday i took a package of meat from the freezer to defrost for dinner and i was utterly and completely fascinated by the frost design on the plastic wrap. so yes! out came the camera and a few zoom shots later, i have a terrific couple of photos! No, no, no; that is not what this photo shows. that was just a teaser and i'll share that photo with you later. (which is a creative way of saying that i forget how to download just 1 or 2 photos.)

the photo i include above is one i took recently when i started to cook dinner one evening. i put water on to boil and added a little olive oil and immediately was struck with the beauty of lighting and bubble formations. i keep my camera always handy and hovered over my stove to get a few shots. typically when a woman says she slaves over a hot stove, it is not with a camera; but, then again, i've never really been a typical woman.

in fact, yesterday i tweeted about my ATYPICAL behavior, in that i spent all day shopping and didn't like that idea at all. it gave me pause to wonder if a handful of alpha male genes somehow got tossed into my mix! but then my son actually hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that the only time i really like shopping is when i (a) find exactly what i went for; and (b) find it on sale. that pretty much sums it up. otherwise, it is a feeling of: "git-in-n-git out."

i never could understand when i'd hear women say that they love shopping, or love to shop til they drop. in fact, years ago i met a woman who suggested we go shopping together. well, it was the first and last time i ever agreed to such a torturous pastime. what the heck was i thinking?! to me, it is pretty much a waste of time, money and gas. i go when i need to go and get what i need to get and then i need to get home. and WHAT that has to do with zoom lens and textures, i have NO IDEA, but i threw it in any way! bottom line: i can hardly wait to share with you my photo of the frost! i wonder what (photos) tonight's dinner will bring? could this be what they call creative cooking?

Focus

There are some things you--rather, I---just can't get enough of! some of the things i just never seem to get enough of, in no particular order are: hugs, smiles from grandkids, hearing I love you, taking photos of dewdrops and raindrops, seeing rainbows, singing praise choruses, watching my garden grow, looking for the first hatchlings of tiny baby praying mantis from their egg case....and, well, i could go on and on.

this particular morning, and several other early mornings this week, seeing as how we've had pretty much a full week of rain, i can be spotted out in my front or back yard, hovering closely over my plants and flowers, camera in hand. there is just SOMETHING about seeing little drops on leaves and petals, reflecting the world back to me in microscopic proportions! perhaps that's it!

i never gave this a thought until just typing that sentence! just perhaps it is because it makes the world and its problems seem so tiny---in the larger scheme of things. we are so much bigger than our problems. and i can either focus on the problem, or i can focus on the expected outcome. i can focus on the raindrop in other words, or the leaf or petal, or the rose that it precariously rests on, and the beauty of the various highlights and its perfect roundness---the BIG picture, or i can choose to look for the tiny things (in life: the disruptions, the problems, the disturbances, the JOY interrupters, in other words).

i choose what to focus my camera on. i also need to choose what i focus my mind on. my JOY is full when i focus on the right things.... which reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses, Philippians 4:8. the Living Bible translation says it this way: "Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about."

Tech Tags: Focus Raindrop Photography Thinking

Garden Sprouts & Sun

garden time. beans seeds are sprouting. flowers on peppers and tomatoes. even the onions and potatoes are growing. while i'm anxious to see how well our garden grows this year, since we added for the first time, our very own home-grown-compost, IF it DOES produce abundantly, we will have enough food to feed an army. i don't preserve or can...or i should say, i never have canned. i have a friend who cans enough of her home-grown "garden pix" (as my grandson used to call them) to last them all winter. at this point, i'm not sure i am that into it, to learn it all and buy all the equipment. at this point, that just sounds like too much work. but! i sure do love seeing it all grow. and i sure do look forward to going out and picking my lunch.

this time of year, i spend less time in front of the computer (gee, could you tell, since i haven't blogged in so long?), and more time outdoors. but, speaking of outdoors, i took myself to the beach yesterday. the first trip down this year. because of my stupidity, it might be the last.

i am real, real good about telling others to put on suntan lotion. but since i was in a hurry to go yesterday, and had already wasted way too much time trying to find the lotion i just bought last season, i did without. my crazy skin type is such that i almost never burn; and if i do, it quickly just turns brown and no big deal. plus, it was actually cold on the beach when i arrived, so i didn't even take off my cover-ups until i had been there over an hour. when i did, i had goose-bumps, the air was that cool. but then, the last 2 hours i did lie on my towel, in the afternoon sun, bathing suit on, but no lotion.

by the time i got back home i was aware that the burn was beginning to show, and while i knew it was stupid of me NOT to lotion-up, i figured, o well, no big deal. welllllll, it was a big deal, because as the evening wore on i began to feel worse, and by late evening i hurt each time i moved and could not stop shivering. it even upset my stomach a bit. i felt really stupid for doing such a dumb-dumb-DUMB thing! then, just for good measure, on top of my stupidity, add in a huge dose of guilt. why? because---and YOU decide what is wrong with this picture:
hubby works long and hard all day; wifey lays on beach. hubby comes home from work and offers to take wifey out to eat. wifey, having gotten too much sun, apologetically declines (cause she could hardly move, let alone put clothes on her stupid burnt body). hubby lovingly offers to cook. wifey thanks him, while covering with 2 afghans to stop cold shivers. hubby makes nice meal. wifey can't even think about eating anything cause now her stomach's a bit upset from stupid sunburn hurting so much. hubby sends wifey to bed and even cleaned up all the dishes. wifey takes ibuprofen to help diminish pain and tho she's never heard of taking it for sunburn, is marvelously relieved that it DID help take away the pain. so wifey sleeps away the night and is (as always) very thankful to hubby for his kindness, generosity, understanding and helpfulness. hubby never even said, what the heck were you thinking, lying in the hot sun with no protection?! hubby is unbelievable. wifey is red and wears a mask of guilt and stupidity! never again, she says, having just returned from pharmacy with lots of suntan lotion and aloe gel to help cool her stupid red face and body!

many, many years ago, my mom always told me: you always learn the hard way! all these years later, turns out mom was right.....again!

JOY returneth and runneth over

Double JOY today! After three long, long hours of back breaking work, i finally have the veggie garden planted! when i sat down to rest my weary bones, it was at that EXACT moment i should've sat, because as i glanced at one of the beautiful new birdbaths hubby got me for mother's day (amongst a lot of other gifts as well), there at that precise moment was the Baltimore Oriole who has excited us the past several days, taking an enjoyable bath--splashing vigorously! we never have had this bird in our yard before, and as a matter of fact, i think i've only ever seen this species a couple rare times EVER! but never, ever in our backyard, so we are so thrilled for their visits!!!!

so, now i am amazed that i have 15 different plants in the garden. i hope they all take and produce for us. this time last year, after a much warmer spring, i already had things in for a month. but we have had a very cold and wet spring this year. so, as late as i'm planting, i DO hope i have a harvest before winter frost sets in!!

we also delayed planting this year because we were waiting for the results to be mailed back to us after we mailed a bag o'dirt (aka: fancy name would be soil sample, but bag o'dirt'll do). that took over 3 weeks for them to get back to us. we wondered if the results would've been: don't even THINK about planting veggies in THIS soil!!! but fortunately it wasn't all as bad as we expected. so with some remedies, everything is now planted and now the fretting begins over the weather. i don't know how serious farmers survive being at the mercy of the weather. in near drought situations you can always run up the water bill by hosing it, but in the rainy wet weather, you just have to watch as veggies turn soggy as they float to the surface. (well, okay, i exaggerate, but you get my point.)

i had little to no harvest last year and yet, completely defying that logic, we DOUBLED the size of the garden this year. i just cross my fingers when i do the math and hope that i don't get, let's see: two times nothing equals double nothing.

on the other hand, if the boost in the soil works, with double the size and twice as many varieties, i'm liable to have to build a corner stand and start my own veggie market. time will tell. i put in grape tomatoes, beefsteak and roma tomatoes, green bell peppers, yummy orange peppers (seriously, that's the name on their tag), banana peppers, eggplant (which hubby is hoping doesn't grow), cucumbers, watermelon, zucchini, green beans (2 rows of seeds sown), 3 kinds of onions, redskin potatoes, curly parsley and fern dill. what the heck am i gonna do with all that food?! what was i thinking!!

i have to say that it gave me a real warm-fuzzy feeling, especially being raised on a little dead-end street in the corner of a big city, to have "built" my own compost pile over the past 12 months. it makes me feel so productive to have that huge pile tilled into our otherwise insufficient soil. and to think of all that "mess" saved from going to the landfill. it's funny the little things that excite a person. especially when it's basically garbage i'm talking about.

but these are the things that brought me great JOY today. and when it comes on the very heels of a marvelous Mother's Day, it is even tallied as quadruple JOY, JOY, JOY, JOY! o happy day!

Joy Robbers

I don't blame the animal. i blame the owners. we have a neighbor with a dog, who, if not pure bred, certainly looks a lot like a pit bull. i will never understand WHY, people with kids own a pit bull! i used to work with 2 women who thought it was cute the way their grand-BABY played with their pit bull dogs! i also used to work with a beautiful young woman who's very own pet chow ripped into her thigh and face, scarring her for life. (it had actually unprovokingly attacked her 4 year old nephew and she was trying to get the child away from the dog--her "pet!" when it turned on her.)

the dog across the street from us is fenced up 99% of the time, thank God. but it barks....and barks...and barks, non-stop, incessantly, continuously (and all the other alike-adverbs you can fill in here)! we try to be patient. we try to be tolerant. we try to leave our front door open to get the lush spring breeze, but the peace is completely challenged by this dog.

if i live to be a hundred--which i definitely plan on doing---i will never understand why some people are so out of tune with what might be objectionable to those who live near them. the on-going barking simply just robs my JOY. the owners' ignorance certainly robs my JOY as well. there are a lot of things in this life we apparently just need to put up with, but it just seems so unfair. when my children were young i used to respond to that by saying that, "Not all things in life are going to be fair." i guess, just as i expected them to just "deal with" the world's unfairness, i have no alternative either.

but it's soooooooooo hard. (now for something i almost NEVER say, let alone yell)... SHUT UP!!!

National Day of Prayer

Recently i began to receive (almost) daily emails from womanlinks (let's see if i can do this right:) http://bit.ly/ka4qb and i enjoy its brevity and significance very much. today i had the opportunity to vote on "how important is prayer in your life?" NOT amazingly, the vote results posted 100% for "extremely important."

today as you know is on the calendar as National Day of Prayer. for as much difficulty as our country and others are in presently, my concern and suggestion is that one day is not nearly enough. i propose that every day at noon, even if it is just a simple, "God bless America and those who hate us," prayer. it is something we can all do no matter where we are, who we're with or what we're doing. the clock stikes noon, and prayers are raised. it sure can't hurt and it just may help.

one hundred years ago, in los angeles, california, there was a great Pentacostal revival on Azusa street. With all the hate and hurting going on today, all over the world, it is my thought that we could well do with another revival! God is so patient with us, but i picture Him just kinda shaking His head these days, not believing just how bad some people can get. the beginning of the third chapter of second timothy, in the New Testament, sounds like the front page of "anytown, usa" newspaper. may God have mercy on us!

Money well-spent

Three years ago, while visiting the west coast, we spent some fun time at the San Francisco zoo. while strolling through their gift shop, on a whim, i spent $5 for a small and cute little finger puppet. it is a little mouse. the thing that made this a stupid purchase was because i was buying it with the intent to bring home for my cat. i guess in retrospect, it would've been even crazier to bring her a tee shirt that said, "my owner went to san francisco zoo and all i got was this t-shirt!" nevertheless, it is pretty insane to bring home a memento of a trip to your....CAT!

well, i'll tell you what. that was the best $5 i have ever spent! dusty LOVES, loves, loves that mouse, and three years later, it is still about the only toy she ever plays with on a daily basis. her only other favorite (out of a whole box assortment) is the rumpled up balls of no-win-lottery tickets that she chases around and actually retrieves them for us to "flick" across the room again. (funny, cause i've never been successful in teaching any of my dogs to retrieve/fetch, but this cat as well as our previous cat never were taught, and yet, they fetch and retrieve until you're really sick of playing it over and over.)

last night, about 5 minutes after i crawled in bed, i heard the cat's proud (and loud) announcement, "icaughtsomethingforyou; icaughtsomethingforyou. wait'll y'see this!" kind of a meow-cry! with that, she RAN upstairs, RAN through the hall, RAN into my bedroom, RAN up onto my bed..yowling the whole time...and proudly dropped her mouse in front of me. this morning i came out of the shower and there sitting waiting for me was "mouse." on mornings that i decide to sleep in, always waiting at the bedroom door for me when i wake, is "mouse" and proud miss dusty right nearby.

it's not the plushness or size that makes this toy so special for her cause i've since bought other little miscellaneous and similar toys, none of which she looks at after a few fetches. she just struts away in a typical cat-like, "fer-gedd-a-boud-it." do you think she really knows that this one is a mouse?? never having seen a mouse (thank God!), does she really think this is a real mouse?? who told her that cats like mice, anyway? where did this "imprint" come from? and why does she appear to enjoy so much the fact that i tell her over and over and over and over what a good girl she is for bringing me the same old "dead mouse" day after day?

i don't get it. but i AM glad that this well-spent five bucks, spent so many years ago, seems to have bought so much JOY for a furry little devotee.

Tech Tags: Cat+and+Mouse Pet+Toys Fetch

Little of this, little of that

i know i probably should be ashamed of myself, but, er, well, i was just trying to do a good thing....namely, finish up a lot of little leftovers and dribs and drabs of this 'n' that. if my kids or grandkids ever ate the way i sometimes eat, i'd have a ka-niption. so don't tell them!

there was a smidgeon of leftover chicken curry from chinese-take-out, but i was still hungry. ok then, i found a small amount of pomegranate swirl frozen yogurt which was begging to be finished. but then there was that little bit of, seriously, nothing-but-crumbs really, in the bottom of the bag of 2 week old potato chips. but even tho i was then full, i was thirsty (and chilly on this crazy cool wet rainy day) so i just topped it all off with some sugar-free hot cocoa! aw, c'mon; i had it with OUT the coolwhip! and i'm feeling fine, really.

i must've ate crazy as a kid too cause my mother always told me when i was growing up that i had a stomach of iron. well, she also always told me (just cause i'd always have my feet propped up higher than my head when i lay on the couch) that my kids would all be born standing on their head; but that was not true. mom--she was quite the joker. she had a lot of lines--some of which i find myself using from time to time and have to look around real quick to see, "Who said that?!"

so, the good news is that a lot of the little leftovers and bags are now out of the fridge and cupboard and the trash needs emptying now. and i'm full. and i'm feeling fine. no big deal, really. so, no. i'm not ashamed. everyone eats crazy combination meals like that, right? be honest. even my good lunches are a little on the crazy side--my favorite being frozen peas and pina colada-yogurt. so no. i would not feed my kids and grandkids like i eat. but they'll never know if you don't squeal on me.

Tech Tags: Meals Combos

Aftermath

Referencing my previous post, the "culprit" waited until dark of night; and so continues to be an unknown. but at least they DID step up to the... well, plate,...and um, cans, jars, bottles, etc, etc.--and picked up their mess of wrongly-contained-recyclables that caused such a mess in the neighborhood all day Friday. i strongly suspect that the visit from the police, who as i admitted, i wanted to call but didn't, may have had much to do with the after-dark clean-up.

if this had been an isolated case it would've been less disturbing, but the township has regulations of how and when to put refuse/recyclables curbside for collection and these same unknown neighbors never comply. bags, cans and spilled messes often sit out for days and weeks. animals tear them open and wind blows their messes on others' property for them to handle and discard (properly).

what happened to the days when neighbors took great pride in their neighborhood? remember the good old fashioned corn-straw brooms with sturdy wooden handle? (they're quite costly nowaday, but work so much better than the flimsy little plastic excuses-of-a-broom now sold.) it was never unusual to see neighbors out sweeping their sidewalk or driveway, or city pavement. i have even been known to sweep the street in front of my house on many occasions. why? because (a) it needs it, and (b) it shows concern for others and expresses my care of where i live. it is not a pleasant task to be outdoors picking up cigarette butts that careless people (and i know who you are!) throw down haphazardly. and don't get me started on how gross it is when people let their dogs leave a huge pile of you-know-what in my grass! where is common courtesy that these folk just don't care? what, if anything, are they thinking, as they stand holding a dog leash in their hand, staring intently and purposely in the opposite direction as if they have no clue why their dog has paused and squatted? (and then just walk away and leave its donation!) there is an animal litter law but it's one of those things that i imagine if we each had a nickel for every time it is enforced, we'd have...well, a nickel.

we as a people have become very lax and lazy in putting trash in its place. it used to bother me when i'd walk at lunch time over in the big city and see an adult come out of a store, unwrap something and just toss the wrapper on the sidewalk. and have you ever noticed those countless ugly dark circles on the sidewalk where ignorant people have discarded chewing gum and it has been stepped on? have you ever had the disgusting job of cleaning off your shoe, after having stepped in someone else's gum...or worse, the dog pile?

perhaps in the larger scheme of things, and all the major problems our world is faced with, the proper discarding of trash, gum, animal waste and recycles is but a blip on the radar screen. but i think that it is a sad comment on us as human beings that some have lost the feeling of pride and respect of property...theirs' and others'. i say, we all get out our broom and start sweeping! let's raise a little dust! imagine the JOY of a clean neighborhood!

Trash Recycle Sweep Clean+Neighborhood

i started to blog about this earlier today but erased it all. i thought i would give "them" a chance to perhaps get home from work, see the damage and step up to the plate and do the right thing. and to be fair, perhaps they are not home from work yet...perhaps.

someone...and that's one of the problems, i don't know who, or i would be knocking on their door to have a chat.

they put all their plastic, glass and metal recycle items into the huge lidded-container that is meant for paper and cardboard only. obviously the paper truck could not take it. and obviously...if you could see the mess that is in our street...the metal-glass-plastic truck couldn't take it either because it is a lidded-container and they had no way of seeing that the grown, irresponsible adult to whom it belongs, loaded it with the wrong items. the wind blew over the container and all day long, the spilled contents of glass jars, plastic cans and metal has strewn all over the street, causing cars to have to circle around it.

ok...more later...the police just pulled up...and it wasn't even me who called them...even tho i wanted to!

It's not easy being green

"How do I [waste] thee, let me count the ways..."
i am typically a very "green" person. no, NOT green with envy. green in the newer sense of the word that we're all so conscious of these days: energy efficient and not wasteful. well, i DO hope the "green gods" are not horribly angry with me today cause i really flubbed up and the day is only half over. i have already wasted several things and i'm not filled with JOY about any of that.

i decided on the extra 40 winks this morning and slept a couple hours longer than i should have (and have been paying the price ever since)! after showering i knew i had to dash out of the house to make it in time to get my haircut. so my first waste was of time. after the hair was cut she asked if i wanted "a little mousse," (which i never get, but) caught off guard i said yes. well when i paid for the haircut, surprise! that little less-than-golf-ball-size dab of mousse cost an extra DOLLAR! so, added to my waste of time was now wasted money.

i left there and stopped in the fancy grocery store right next door and felt good that i was saving gas by not driving to a different store for the bananas i wanted...but, oh MAN! following that thought i completely canceled out that savings because it was then that i recalled there were two other errands in that area i had planned on, but both needed paper work (which of course in my earlier haste i forgot, and now had to waste gas in going back home for them and start out on the same exact route)! by now my wastes have summed up to time, money, gas and more time.

i also hadn't eaten or had coffee yet but in the interest of not wasting more time and money i didn't want to stop for anything; so home i go. gather up all the paperwork for my next trek out, and yet i really need to eat and put on coffee. but, now my meals are out of synch: it is completely beyond breakfast and a while before lunch so i come up with the brilliant idea of making waffles. perfect!

i opened up a box of something i hadn't tried before and mixed up some multi-grain with flax seed pancake waffle mix. i put on a pot of coffee while i waited for the waffle iron to heat up, but when i got ready to add the batter to the waffle iron it had hardened to near-rock consistency. i mixed in more water, poured it in and wasted more time while i waited to eat the meal i would now consider as blunch. standing waiting for my waffle, i casually brushed my hand through my moussed hair and found it to be spiked and stiff as a board! what was i thinking when i said yes to mousse? never again! i could've gotten the same results by smoothing in some of this multi-flax-mess!

waffle iron indicated my blunch is ready. OK! now i'll be able to get back on track. but wait...what's this? i can't get the stupid lid open! o GREAT! i took the plug out and yanked the thing open and found half my waffle (good and) stuck to the top, and the other half good 'n' stuck to the bottom, with a gooey, mousse-like-flax-y mixture-mess steaming wet in the middle!

so now the sum of my wastefulness also includes waffle mix, oil, water, electricity, (and if i had followed directions, an egg). i hate wasting things, but look at all i've stacked up so far and it wasn't quite noon! i feel guilty, i feel wasteful, and i feel hungry! so much for my "green-ness." today i feel more like a mean, green, waste-machine. i can't write any more right now. i need to go and find food---and my JOY!

Looking and Hoping

I'm not sure if it is more a sign of the tech-times we are in or the poor economy we're even "more in," but the classified want-ads in this morning's newspaper were barely ONE column! are there really that few jobs that need filling, or are the websites overflowing with all the available jobs?

i can remember in year's past when i was looking for work, i felt as though i would barely make it through the day just waiting and waiting for the (then) afternoon delivery of the daily paper. i'd turn immediately to the entire section, page after page after page, of want-ads. then as i got closer and closer to the "W"-warehouse section, i knew it would be another long, long 24 hours to wait for the next day's paper in hopes of spending another hour pouring over the pages to find that "perfect job."

it HAS to be incredibly difficult for folks who are now looking for work when the ads are so few. then too, i remember hearing of a statistic a while back that said most positions are filled by word of mouth and not by the printed ad at all. i'm not sure i believe that, although for the "higher-ups" who have a huge network of business contacts perhaps it is true. but the "regular" hard working, dedicated folks who are looking, looking, looking, it has to be difficult to maintain that hope and trust.

i recently read a quote who's author was not identified : "Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible." i think what they were trying to say was a re-do of what God already said in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1: "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."

i remember even as a young teen having the distinct feeling that i definitely didn't know HOW people made it through life without trusting in God. i wonder at that still; life is just too hard without Him. my every-day prayers are with any one who is presently looking for work. keep looking and keep hoping and keep trusting.

Tech Tags: Classified Want+Ads Hope Trust

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Un-welcome guests!

I have blogged enough about birds that it is rather obvious that i really love 'em. but! more often than not, come this time of year, i'm not so crazy about their persistence in wanting to build a nest and raise their families in the outdoor vent from my dryer! they have been known to stuff (and i mean STUFF) it full with all kinds of paraphenalia...which is not so cute when you consider the possible fire hazard that this causes.

so we get very creative this time of year to try to come up with new and innovative ideas to spook 'em so they don't take up residence where they are not welcome. so far, everything we have tried works only for a short while until the little bird-brains catch on that it's no big deal and they become even more creative and work around our methods of determent.

we have planted lots of trees and eventually they do get the idea. last year, in the one tree alone, we discovered about 5 different nests! now THAT's what i'm talkin' 'bout! but they still insist on checking out the "property" without a For Rent sign (namely the vent)!

well, since they are still fluttering about the dryer vent so far this year, i have to admit i'm getting a little weary of every few minutes pounding on the window, then darting out the front door, waving arms, clapping hands, and yelling and stamping my foot. the neighbors i'm sure have determined that i've finally (completely) flipped out this time....for certain! so now, my latest ingenious idea is to hang a set of wind chimes. i even was thrilled to find a real pretty one with a shiny hummingbird on it, and it was on SALE half-price, which made me even happier!

we shall see how successful this will be. i have a feeling (and hope they prove me wrong) that they will swoop in, then HALT....whoa....what th'?...HEY! who put that thing there? as they rest momentarily in the arborvitae and size up the hangy-thing near where they wanted to build. then: oooh, what a loverly little tinkling-sound it makes; that should do well as a lullaby for my li'l babes. this really IS the perfect spot for our new nest! i love it! not only will we live here this year, i'm definitely coming back next year too, and i'm going to let all my feathered friends know about this location, location, location.

HEY! GET OUTTA HERE! G'WON, GIT! (clap, clap, stomp, stomp, stomp!) SHOO!

Pets

I was in the pet store yesterday to load up on food for the keets and canary. (i almost bought a 40 pound bag of cat litter too, but struggled to put it back and decided to wait for it to go on sale, since we have enough to last.) it's easy to spend a LOT of money in a pet store nowaday!

rudy, our singing-canary (who in the 8 years we've cared for him has blessed us only ONCE with the beautiful trill and warble they're known for!) is named after rudy valee, an old time famous singer who is probably an unknown to anyone younger than 60. our rudy confuses us because he is suddenly, over the past couple months, eating like a horse! in all his previous years he ate "like a bird," which was hardly-at-all! now, he sometimes even perches on his food cup as if he's guarding it with his little yellow life for fear those neighboring keets might escape and steal it from him. i'm not sure why, after all these years, he suddenly discovered he has an appetite.

and the keets, well...i'm just hoping that miss cloudy doesn't plan on laying any eggs! mr whitey has been "taking liberty" lately and i hate to break it to them, but i'm not about to be purchasing that huge, heavy wooden nesting box they would require if they happen to become in the family-way. it weighed a ton and wouldn't even fit inside the cage. so i may have to look into a teensy-tiny-keet-size chastity belt.

mr rudy used to have a mate named ruby, who had quite a fun personality, if you can believe that of little birds! she did lay some eggs, but they were not fertilized. (i guess singing is not the only thing that rudy doesn't do.) but providing a nest for ruby was a lot easier than providing a wooden box for cloudy. a tiny little wicker nest just attached inside her cage and she filled it with little bits of string. the keets however do not sit in a nest and they'd much prefer eating string than sitting on it. so it remains a mystery what may or may not happen next.

all of the above however, was not what i intended to post! (sometimes i get side-tracked. tee hee) while in the pet store i always wander back to where they have a few windows where you can see the cats who are up for adoption. typically and surprisingly, they are young cats, not kittens; and usually there will be 1 or 2 older cats. what amazed me yesterday was the PRICE to adopt one of their older cats! $90!!!!!! i squinted. was i reading it wrong? no WAY!

when my kids were young we got most of our pets from the animal welfare shelter and they were free, though the shelter hoped you'd at least give a donation if you could afford it. then when we adopted our present cat (then an 8 week old kitten) from the shelter just 5 years ago, there was a charge of $28. but, come on...$90, for an older cat? are you kidding me?! no special breed, just a nice old black cat, fully grown. it somehow doesn't seem right. i'd rather see someone go to the animal shelter and pay, rather than give a store that much money. plus, most people, i would think, would prefer a kitten to a grown cat anyway. so, why 90 bucks? i don't get it.

Tech Tags: animal+adoption birds cats pets

Good Friday, and THEN...

i'm actually glad it has been grey most of today. in fact, i kinda wish we had gotten the heavy rains that were predicted. Good Friday has always been a rather dismal and emotional day for me, so i really prefer that the weather match my mood. i get choked up when i think of the suffering, the terrible suffering, the dreadful, awful suffering that Jesus endured so that i wouldn't have to. the crucifixion seems even more real to me this year, since i went to the Easter production that was so professionally enacted by volunteers of my church. check out the incredible photos of past productions at their website here.

it is one thing to read about the crucifixion and resurrection in my Bible, and another, to see a film about it. but when i saw it presented LIVE, it took on even MORE meaning. incredible meaning! and some of the scenes have stayed with me so that when i close my eyes, i can visualize what i saw on the stage.

it is such a shame that stores have changed (most) holidays into nothing but SALE days. Easter is NOT about buy-one-get-one-half-off. look beyond good friday to the marvel of EASTER! it is the miracle of a resurrected, living Saviour! have a blessed resurrection day! JESUS IS ALIVE! JOY, JOY, JOY!

Tech Tags: religion good+friday

Coffee Please

I know i could've had tea, but this morning i really wanted my caramel swirl coffee. but our ol' coffee pot called it quits. it's been a good one for i-dont-know-how-many-years, so i wasn't too, too upset (except that i was up early and really wanted my coffee).

when i saw the high prices of the new ones, it became obvious that we must've had this one longer than i thought! and depending on the brand name, they went anywhere from $25 up to $200. wait, WHAT? they all squirt hot water over coffee grounds and produce brown, flavored water, so why the drastic-difference in price? beats me. but i thought it best to get the same exact brand that just died since it served us well and i could still use the permanent "gold" filter and 100 paper filters that of course i just had restocked.

packaging nowaday is another whole topic! by the time i got the new coffee maker out of the box, took it out of the plastic bag, got a cardboard cut trying to peel all those inner cardboard inserts off, unwrapped the tape holding together various other parts, and a few other procedures, not dissimilar from outpatient surgery, i set it up and poured the plain water in to clean it (before seeing if i could salvage my caramel swirl coffee grounds from 6:30 this morning, since the water hadn't touched them).

new pot now on and ready to produce hot water, i proceeded to break apart the box and other cardboard for recycling while miss dusty (cat) had great tent-fun in the box. okay. all the trash and recycling taken care of...now, dump the hot water and it is now, finally time for some real coffee.

WHAT TH'???!!! wait a minute here! NOTHING! NO water dripped through. well, THAT's just GREAT! that gives me NO JOY! go get all the cardboard, reassemble the cat's tent, put the whole stupid thing back together again, back in the bag, back in the car, back to the store. customer service wasn't too crowded.

the customer service woman was from the Caribbean, the woman in line behind me was from India, and then the Caucasion with the defective re-packaged coffee pot. WELL! we had the nicest conversation amongst the three of us! it was as if we had just poured a defective cup o'coffee and sat down for a nice chat; who liked coffee, who liked tea, where they grew up, the best place to buy a coffee maker, which brand to stay away from (namely, the one i was returning...and the woman from India had already returned one just like it), which brand was best and where to get it. honestly, i felt bad breaking up the coffee-clatch, but another woman joined us then and not only did she seem perturbed by our chatting at the cust-service desk, but by adding another Caucasion, she threw the balance off. so off i go, disappointed only that now by going to the recommended store to look for the recommended brand, i would lose my senior citizen discount.

BUT! fear not! the recom-store had the recom-brand...AND IT WAS ON SALE! so i got a better coffee maker for $8 LESS than my sr-citiz-disc had me spending! and, yes, i'm just finished my first cup of caramel swirl and it's everything i had hoped it to be ten hours ago. funny how things work out, isn't it? what nice ladies i met today! now THAT is JOY!

Dusty

Ode to The Duster

you yourself climbed into my bed
and on the pillow laid your furry head
slept all day quietly, no sound
while i searched for you all around.
this was fine, but then last night
as you curled up by my knee
WAIT! that sound, what could it be?
sounds like a...wait, what IS that!
that SNORING sound is from my CAT!
why am I awake while YOU soundly snore?
wake up, Dusty...there's the door!

Rainbow

Last evening the sky became very ominous. the storm blew in, the clouds churned, the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and the raindrops started pelting down! BUT! the JOY of it all: way off in the distance, across all the backyards, the horizon lit up with a VERY BRILLIANT RAINBOW! it was different than any other rainbow i'd ever seen! SO brilliant and such a small, but wide, wide portion. no arch, just a spectrum-spotlight! i always get SO excited when i see a rainbow (of any size) and have been known in the past to actually knock on neighbor's doors to get them to come out and witness it as well. in years gone by, God made a huge promise along with His rainbow. every time i see one, i always think He is making another promise...usually one that is only known between Him and me. thank you, God!

Violets

I used to be known as having a "brown thumb"--y'know, like the opposite of a "green thumb." i killed my houseplants. ALWAYS. no exception. it wasn't until all these years later that i realized that i actually DO have a green thumb; i just had lousy lighting. whichever windows had the decent lighting to encourage growth, they also had a radiator in front of them. naturally, the heat from the radiator, no matter how often i'd water the plants, dried them out and in some cases cooked them brittle.

knowing that any house plant i bought was doomed to certain demise, i used to go the rack, "Reduced for Quick Sale" and buy any little pathetic and puny plant that begged me for a home. i delighted in caring for those poor green-orphans. if any of them responded with a new green shoot, i'd jump for JOY. on the other hand, if they brittled-up and browned, i'd console myself with the remembrance that they were practically dead when i bought them and i just prolonged their life with a little love first.

but, as i look now, i am SO thrilled to see my African Violets in full bloom! but, truly it is a bittersweet love. while i'm thrilled at their brilliance of deep purple, with that teensy little dab of sunshine-yellow in the middle----hmmm, i wonder if God planned them that way because purple and yellow are complementary colors on the color wheel?? anyway, whenever i see beautiful blooming African Violets i cannot help thinking of my mother-in-law, who is presently with our Lord. talk about a sweet, dear lady; mommom was all that and a whole lot more.

she knew i loved violets and she also knew that i had a hard time keeping plants alive. one year, which i will never forget, she gave one of the most loving, generous Christmas gifts i could've EVER hoped to receive! her African Violets. all of them! i even went and got one of those grow-lights with the special ultra-violet lights perfect for the violets and set aside a special place for them on my server shelf in the dining room. no radiators. no cooking of these plants. i was gonna do it right because i knew what a sacrifice it was for her to give up these "babies."

they did real well and blessed me with lots of flowers, and were remaining in good health. then, well, then....and oh! it pains me to remember. (excuse me while i get a kleenex....sniff. ok, just joshing; it was too long ago to cause that. but at the TIME....)

one day as i was doing a good thorough cleaning (it was back in the day when spring and fall housecleaning were in style. ever since women started working outside the home, instead of seasonally, they spent every weekend cleaning thoroughly! i remember once, a "thousand years ago" my mom asked me if i'd finished my fall housecleaning. i told her that my schedule was off and that i did in fact, finish. but i wasn't certain if i had finished my fall housecleaning early, or was it my spring housecleaning late? that's when i decided to do away with those old fashioned terms and just do the best i could with what time i could invest.)

ANY way! it was a beautiful sunny day, so while i worked on cleaning the dining room that day, i thought i'd place all my plants out on the front step for a dose of fresh air and sunshine before bringing them back inside under the "fake" light. (about now....if you know anything about African Violets, you might be going for that kleenex!) violets do NOT like hot sun! well, WHO KNEW??!!! (obviously not me!) when i went out later to bring them all in, the hot sun had literally burnt all the leaves brown, and crumbled and scorched the plants so terribly that they all (ALL!!!) very soon afterward, met their demise.....and left me, somehow, having to explain the situation to mommom. i'm not sure which one of us was more upset and sad.

obviously she forgave me and still loved me...she just never trusted her violets to me after that! she DID let me look at her's when they were in bloom. "just look, don't touch." it did nothing at the time to put to rest my brown-thumb reputation.

Labor Pains

I remember a long, long time ago, after birthing my first-born, my mother told me that she, without knowing that i was in labor, at that same time, she also experienced "sympathy pains," as she called it. i have since discovered that it is SO true that no matter how young or old our children are, their pain becomes our pain; rather--their pain becomes my pain. however, the other side of that coin is that their JOY becomes my JOY!

today, eleven short years ago, i paced the floor continuously while my own daughter was in labor with my first grandson. WHAT A WONDER AND JOY he is; HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY "supershot75"!!!!! what incredible JOY you have brought to SO MANY! (excuse me for shouting, with all those capital letters and exclamations, but yes; i am THAT excited!!!)

i have two photographs framed on my mantel. one is a very young me, holding my daughter, just home from the hospital. the other is of a sorta-kinda-young me holding my brand new grandson. Amazingly, these two photos are virtually identical, in position of baby and me, and in both, a glow on my face that can only be explained as pure JOY!

a couple months before my mother went to her heavenly home, i remember during a visit, counting up for her remembrance, all the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for whom she was the matriarch. the numbers respectively were 4, 7 and 4. and it was THEN, that the shock hit me: i had just one less grandchild that my elderly momma had! i was only ONE behind her.....but, yet--WAIT! WHAT? i am not (ewww! yick!) elderly!!! how in the WORLD? WHAT th'!

then i remembered! it has always been, and remains, MY plan, to live til i'm 103, and then if i still like it, i'll stick around a little longer. so, in THAT case, i am just about middle age! SO, at that rate, i may have to add a third photograph to the mantel some day. when my now-11 year old grandson someday in the far future places his little one in my arms, someone had better be on assignment to have the camera ready.

Good Sport / Bad Timing

always at this time of year, i can't help thinking of a man i worked for over 40 years ago. i gave him SUCH a hard time on april fool's day, and he took it all quite in stride--when he could've very easily gotten angry. i tantalized him with tricks all morning long. mostly simple things, but the worst of which was when i told him there was an assignment in the lobby for a portrait to be taken. (he was the company photographer.) after this good soul rounded up all his photography equipment....this was LONG before the age of digitals!!!...and headed downstairs, with cameras swinging from his shoulder, back-screens in tow, lights on tripods and extra film plates under his arms and balanced precariously in both hands...i called the receptionist and asked to speak with him. "April Fool." he had every right to fire me on the spot!

but instead, dear man that he was, with a mission only to get even, he told me he was going to the sandwich shop to bring lunch back to the office and did i want something too? as we later sat across from each other eating our yummy sandwiches, he asked how mine tasted. oh, it's delicious, i said. he asked me the same question in a few different ways, and each time i assured him how much i was really enjoying it and how that place makes such great sandwiches. is it HOT? he finally asked, a tad impatient. no, not at all. he then admitted that he was trying to get even with me and had the deli load up my sandwich with lots of hot peppers. OH, i said; i LOVE hot peppers! no wonder this tastes sooooooo good. thank you!

in keeping with my typical m.o. of bad-timing, i had also chosen that same day (not at all thinking of it being april 1 when i wrote it)... gave him at the close of the work day, my letter of resignation, with two-week notice. we had bought a little house in another state and would be moving soon. NATURALLeeee, he thought my letter was all part of my day's worth of tricks and he didn't believe me. he was such a good man to have put up with my trickery, and if it helps make amends at all, i think of dwayne and his lovely wife and 3 children, this time every year since. we lost track several years later, but i'm not sure i've ever met such a good sport.

Happy April Fool's day, dwayne, wherever you are!

JOY

lest i forget the name of my blog.... a true and simple JOY in my life has always been, most definitely is still---and likely always will be---seeing a bird take a bath! such EXUBERANCE! such JOY! such SPLASHING! such JOY! such DUNKING! such JOY! such FLUTTERING! such JOY!

whitey, the new parakeet (last november) just now discovered he can climb into his water dish to take a bath! i think he is copying rudy (our 8 year old canary) who much prefers bathing in his water than drinking it! cloudy (5 yr old keet)...well, cloudy, she marches to a different drum. she just likes to lap up the little splash-droplets that land on the cage bars.

the other day while driving, i saw 2 robins splashing away in their "makeshift tub" (dirty rain puddle in the street). but they had an absolute ball! they didn't want to get out, and when they did, they were so heavily weighted with water on their feathers, i thought for sure i heard them go: WHHOOOA!! as they swooped low, then flapped harder to gain altitude, dripping as they flew off.

i remember when my little kid-lets loved their baths and playing in the tub; never wanting to get out. "your little fingers look like RAISINS!" i'd tell them. "they're all wrinkled from so much water." in my mind, it was a MOM who changed the design of the old fashioned bath tubs. they used to be rounded and not much more than a few inches. definitely uncomfortable to sit on for any period of time as you tended your toddler playing in the bath water. soon the design changed to a much wider, and flat surface. ok! now, that's MUCH better!

and, in ALL of life, there is little to compare to that smell, and that feel of wrapping in a towel your little toddler, fresh from the tub, wet hair and dripping little limbs, puffy little bumm...as you cuddle and warm them with a hug that stays with you all your years, no matter how old those toddlers get.

maybe that's partly why i just LOVE to see birds take a bath. such a happy and JOY-ful sight! it is impossible not to smile as i watch and enJOY it so very much. a little water, a little bird, a LOT of JOY!

The Masters

the most difficult thing (I THINK!) about doing a painting, is deciding WHAT to paint! i was wonderfully treated yesterday to the exhibit at the art museum called "Cezanne and Beyond." (the beyond was that 18 additional painters were also part of mr paul's exhibit...several of whom i'd heard of and the others, not). it is always a thrill for me to go to art museums...in any city, really. there's something about looking at the works of the masters that stirs me up. it kinda nudges and gently wakens the creative part of my brain. then i get home and just, just, YES! i wanna PAINT! where's my canvas? where's my paints? where are my brushes?

we enjoyed the exhibit very much...altho the yukky part is putting on those same earphones that someone else just took off....eeeewww, gross! but i tried not to think about someone else's ear-germies because i really appreciate the audio tours. i learn so much. it was incredibly crowded, and like we commented: who knew so many people (of all ages) were that interested in cezanne?! it's neat that they are, tho. but it made it tricky to weave in and out of the crowds to get a full view of the paintings. sometimes i like to view them from the other side of the room, and other times i like to get "up close and personal" to see the brush strokes, the blendings of colors, the density of the paint on the canvas. i get a lot from both the close up inspection as well as the distant viewing.

just to gaze upon a master's work, does something to me! i've usually read about most of the artists before i go to see their works, so it takes me back in time when i look at the real life thing, and not just a print in an oversized art book. one thing is clear to me, at least in my humble opinion: the masters never had the problem each day of, hmmm...what shall i paint today? they just set out, or looked out, or went out...with their "bud" usually, and painted whatever. cezanne, for instance, painted many, many, many of the mountain that was in his view right out his window. sometimes the paintings looked alike and other times he took a different approach and it was a fresh view.

i have to admit tho, i have no mountain view out my window, as did cezanne; nor do i have the extravagant gardens that monet had, nor the available models that renoir had...so it's a little trickier to find subject matter. as i turn now and look out my nook window, okay, no. all i see is the neighbor's empty trash can blowing down the street! that's too warhol-ish! it's also been a thousand years since i've done any plein aire painting. but i'm definitely being nudged. i can feel it. i'll let you know what i come up with. it'll likely be a still life. i've done the last couple in pastel, but i think i'll try one in acrylic for a change. plus, i know a couple other special people who might just get stirred up, and if I paint, maybe they will also paint. i know one who does really, really great watercolors, and another who did a beautiful triptych of a tree. (is triptych the word i want? close; i'm not sure.) nevertheless. sometimes creativity needs a little stirring. are you feeling it?

Burnt Toast

it's truly amazing how much one can accomplish before seven-thirty a.m.! bless his heart, my dear hubby had the alarm set for 3 a.m., drank his coffee, packed his lunch, and was out the door for work before 4 a.m.! and...he is NOT a milkman! 3 and 4 should only be observed on one's clock in the P.M., NOT the a.m.!!! he's likely looking at a 14-hour day and i feel really badly for him. if only his company could get more organized. they had no work for him last thurs or friday, now all of a sudden they want him to do 2 days work in one. just doesn't seem right. with so many people out of work, we're very grateful he has work, but it sure would be nice if they could just even it out a tad for him.

i have the laundry finished and am still trying to get the wretched smell of burnt toast out of the house! i put a slice of bread in the toaster about, i don't know, 4:30, or so?? when it popped up it wasn't as dark as i like it, so i pressed the toaster down for another go-around. BUT! then i proceeded to move a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, which is only 8 ft away from the toaster, but glanced over and saw smoke pouring out the top of the toaster! o for pete's sake! NOW look what you've gone and done! i thought for sure the smoke alarm was going to sound, but i threw open several windows and turned on the ceiling fan. it stayed a bit hazy for a while, and now, 3 hours later, it still stinks! guess next time i'll stand right there and watch the durn thing!

on a brighter note, the sun is now up and tho quite windy, it looks to be a decent day. the forsythia is blooming, the birds are nesting, the farmers' fields have been plowed; daffodils and hyacinths are blooming and all is well. i believe i'll try finishing my book today. we started to track the books we've read. hubby has already completed 7 since january, and if i complete this one i'm working on before tomorrow, it will also be my 7th. also, in between the seven i've read, i'm also reading through the Bible again. i started in january and so far have read through 18 out of 66 books. i'm going through both the Old and New Testaments, so i'm now up to II Samuel in the Old, and Ephesians in the New. this will be my second time through the Amplified translation, which is my favorite. i forget what all the others were that i've read through: Living Bible, Revised Version, New King James, and a few others. the Amplified tho, remains my favorite. it is so clear and easier to understand.

well, guess i'll try my hand at another piece of toast. i promise to be more careful this time!

Scheduled Outage

well, thanks to blogger for warning us that there will be a scheduled outage at 4 pm PDT today. as i look over at the windowsill in the nook, my little kitty-cat has already begun her scheduled outage--she's sleeping soundly, curled up in her little kitty-bed. the sun typically shines in on her in this spot, and she's patiently waiting. i don't have the heart to tell her that it's to be grey and rainy all day today.

so, i've decided to adopt that terminology: scheduled outage. if i want to take time out and read my latest book, i can just schedule an outage. or if i feel an increase in yawnings, i can schedule an outage and take a short nap. if i feel the need for fresh air, i can schedule an outage and sit in my swing in the backyard. if i really need a lift, or just want to express my JOY, i can schedule an outage and spend an hour or so, playing my new autoharp and singing old hymns, and yes! even Christmas carols! it matters not in the least, that this is March, going on April. the carols are just as enjoyable. sometimes i sing them on a hot summer day and it cools me off.

now, granted, since i am almost 15 months into my "new" retirement, EVERY DAY is a scheduled outage! but, hey; humor me. i have "to-do" lists most days, too, y'know. and it is always fun to transform a to-do list to a tah-dah list. but still...sometimes we all need a JOY refresher.

blogger states that it is for maintenance.... well, yes, i'll go along with that. my JOY benefits from periodic maintenance as well. good old fashioned singing, praying, reading my Bible, resting, laughing, chatting with kids 'n' kidlets, walking, hugging, crosswording, chrocheting; they are each forms of maintenance. so, join blogger and me in adding a scheduled outage to your to-do list today.

Musical Spring

a few unrelated items, otherwise, not a whole lot new going on these days. we are coming up on my favorite month, which will arrive this time next week. the thing that i love about the month of april is that it gets more and more beautiful with each passing day! i always thought that if i were to stand perfectly still on any given day, i would be able to actually SEE things growing! right now, as the tiny leaf-buds are casting a lime haze, interspersed with a reddish haze, it's as if an air hose flung out of God's hands and sporadically sprayed a very light mist of color on the bare branched trees. try it--go ahead, i'll wait here for you; go look to the horizon at the bare trees. see it? see the lime and raspberry mist dusting the landscape? it's the promise of growth and color to burst forth! every day in april, it will become more pink, more green, more yellow, more white, more purple, more, more, more...and MORE! my advice for everyone is to stop! stop (at least) once a day, just to see how everything looks brighter and prettier than it did the day before. that's your homework assignment for april.

now then, i am amusing myself in new ways since the arrival of my new "toy!" well, it is far from a toy really! but anything that i buy that i don't consider a necessity, i refer to as a toy. but this is a genuine musical instrument; one that has several names actually. the older name is zither; it is also sometimes called a chromaharp (which is actually the brand name). and i call it an autoharp. i first played one "a thousand years ago" in elementary school. then back in the early 80's i strummed a bit, and now just really had the hankerin' to get one.

it was a bit of a nightmare and took 6 long weeks, but i picked it up this week and have been THOROUGHLY en-JOY-ing the sounds ever since. i surprised myself by actually being a little better at playing it than i recall doing in the 80's. the sound is so, so lovely. it is soothing and soft on the ears and melodic and beautiful. and one of the nice things is that it is not bothersome to anyone because it is not particularly a loud instrument. if i use the picks, the sound is much louder. but if i strum with my finger it is a quiet, un-obtrusive, personal kind of music. i was upstairs the other day, playing and strummin' away, singing to me and my cat! next thing i knew, two hours had passed! o my! two wonderful, fun, worshipful hours. music is SUCH A JOY! it lightens any load.

Beautiful Little Chapel

I thought it would be easier if i wrote out what i wanted to say, rather than depend on remembering it all on the spot. i sent a copy to my brother for his input before i "go public." it only takes a couple minutes for me to read it.

y'see, next tuesday afternoon, which i'm hoping to be more of a life celebration, rather than an afternoon of tears, the nursing home where my dear mother spent the last 8 years of her life, debilitated with alzheimer's, is having a service of remembrance...remembering those who passed away during the last 6 months of '08.

the strange thing is that FIFTY YEARS ago (OMG-osh!) my brother and i used to go with our youth group to hold services in this same chapel. then later, our mom also went regularly and she led services there. eventually we found ourselves, with mom in her wheelchair, going to services, again in that same chapel, but now led by others. and to bring it full cycle, i'll go next week to this same beautiful little chapel, to attend a service.... with mom looking down...not from the balcony, but Heaven itself.

a little hard to grasp....that simple paragraph encircles a half century. also hard to grasp...mom left us 5 months ago, but because of that heinous disease, she actually left us 12 years ago. our comfort is that mom is once again filled with JOY unspeakable for all eternity!

Research

So...how in the world does one research old stuff? i mean, like, really, really, REALLY old stuff! the book i am reading, which i just got the other day and i'm half finished--yes! it is THAT interesting! but the chapter-parts are separated (and named) according to chronological years--are you ready?--beginning with A.D. 100! i KNOW!! we're talking one thousand-nine hundred-nine years ago! i mean, WHERE exactly is that section in my local library?

from there it goes to A.D. 100-325. another jump to A.D. 325 to 600. part 4 (the part i'm up to now) goes from A.D. 600 to 1517. ooooh, big jump, there! y'know what is shocking? some of the problems these dear people were going through literally a thousand years ago were precisely the same as some of the problems our world is presently facing! isn't that incredible?

i know. a thousand years is usually my cliche for something i did a long, long time ago, but this non-fiction book is really telling of things a thousand years ago. i'm so fascinated by how the author had even begun to think about gathering his research for writing this book. it's not like you can call a white-haired relative, Umm, uncle eddie, uh, do you or aunt mabel remember that situation that ummm..." nor is it a "man on the street" interview you could ever conduct. wow! i mean, just how far back does "wiki" go, anyway?

i am impressed, really. not only with the vast amount of interesting information in this book, but also, as i mentioned, that there truly IS nothing new under the sun.

Surprise Visits = JOY

Two very nice surprise visits today: middle daughter (who has birthday tomorrow!), accompanied by "little sock feet" in the morning, and a lengthy, chatty visit with the world's best brother this afternoon. Two very nice ways to break up a cloudy grey laundry day! plus, i even managed to get in some grocery shopping...and, yes, finished the laundry too. what a woman!

my brother who lives 3,000 miles from me called just as i entered the grocery store so i told him i didn't need too much and would whip through and call him back in an hour. man, i FLEW thru those aisles! (am i the only one who wonders what people think when they see someone rushing, almost to the extent of running?) but i was home and cold-stuff in fridge and freezer and was on the sofa, kitty in lap, and my brother and i "visited" for about an hour via the "miracle" of cellular.

i JUST got added to my hubby's phone plan so we share minutes now. uh-oh! first day on family share plan and i spoke for an hour! i sure hope hubby's boss will understand when he has to turn off his phone and not take any more calls til april. oooops, sorry, boss! wifey used all our minutes for the month; ok if i catch ya next month? boss? BOSS??! HEY! just joshin'!

mixing fun visits with a productive day in the background equals a VERY fine day! hope your monday was filled with JOY as well.

Just Buddies

They could've been huck finn and tom sawyer. the sight of the two caught my eye as i pulled into my driveway yesterday. "buds" just hangin' together, talkin' and yukkin' it up, on a sunny kinda-sorta-warm afternoon. they sat on the ledge that overlooked the tiny stream that runs between the back of our homes, that i "affectionately" refer to as the ditch. but there they were, feet dangling over the edge, legs swinging back and forth. passing the time, idling the day, shooting the breeze...both wearing an identical baseball cap, both in baggy white t-shirts and jeans.

so why did i have the urgency to call the police?

well, perhaps, just may-beeee, because these buddies were not so cute; they were old enough to drive and they were smoking what i hoped were cigarettes, and washing down their tobacco with a quart bottle each had of malt liquor! drinking in public. brazenly. broad daylight. just a tiny touch of guilt in the one, cause (as i watched from the upstairs window) he kept looking around, checking constantly over his shoulder, wondering if that lady who just pulled into her driveway and spotted us is gonna call the cops on us. the other one i knew as a neighbor a couple houses away, and he had been the terror of the neighborhood since he was old enough to walk out his front door; i doubted he would know guilt if it walked up and slapped him in the face.

it has, for years, struck me as ironic that the same people who think they are old enough to drink, are obviously not old enough to know that you don't litter other people's lawns with all your empties! devil-may-care-attitudes; just see how far you can throw it across the street. oh! missed! o well, the shattering of glass in the street made a neat sound. here, let's throw this one and see if we can hit that tree. ah, what the h---!

well, i had a wonderful time with grandchild #4 (aka little-sock-feet) today. and at 3 1/2 he was just as fascinated by the live webcams as his nana! I'll attach the link here but i'm new at "attaching" so i can't promise where it might take you. little-sock-feet sat curled lovingly in my lap for a while checking out the penguins and otters and aquarium swimmers, of which the sharks and stingrays were his favorite. then we switched over to the African bush live web cam and sure enough, it was on a family of huge rhinoceros! his little eyes lit up, and mine did as well-- as they do EVERY time i look at the precious faces of any of my little kidlets.

after enjoying that together, we went outside to play for quite a while in what little snow was still left in a pile from the snowplow earlier this week. as i stood by enjoying his activity of kicking the snow, climbing the "mountain," and then stomping in the little puddles, it just warmed my heart watching this little one, thinking back to when my own were that size. ............sigh.....wasn't that just "yesterday?"

misspelliings

well now! my third ever "by-line" appeared in today's newspaper! my letter to the editor was printed! isn't it funny how our own name is so well known to us, yet when you see it in print, it's as though you're meeting your self for the very first time; i wonder why it is so exciting? (or, quite possibly it isn't, unless you are an aspiring writer.) the editorial page gave me a big long headline too: "Special obligations may be what got us into this mess in the first place." then you get to the end of my letter, and there's my by-line, but what i didn't even notice, and my hubby pointed out to me: my name is misspelled. o well; i know who i am.

a thousand years ago i wrote to Parents magazine and they published whatever it was that i wrote--too long ago for me to remember what it was. (c'mon, give me a break; you don't remember things from a thousand years ago either.) and then--o MY, waaaay back in the 80's, i wrote a real genuine article and it sold to a magazine. they actually sent me a check and i was so thrilled! but then i waited and waited (and waited some more) to see it printed...but never did. as it happened, we were having dinner much later with friends and the editor of the magazine that purchased my article was also eating with us, so i mentioned that they still hadn't printed my article and he promised to check on it when he returned to the "left coast." he checked on it all right, but instead of having them print it, they returned it to me! well, phooey; THAT'S not what i wanted! but then the thought occurred to me that if it was good enough to be purchased once, perhaps it was good enough to be grabbed up by another magazine. so i sent it out again and it was bought and paid for a second time! and not only printed, but illustrated as well. how cool was THAT!

BTW, i was Soooooo tempted to purposely missspelll misspellings in my title. (tee hee)

Aqaurium Visit

i "traveled" 3,000 miles a short time ago, and stopped in to the Monteray Bay Aquarium to check on the feeding of the penguins and the Outer Bay Exhibit feeding. i'm telling you! the world of webcams are truly, truly a JOY in our modern age! the neat thing about this one is that a couple years ago i DID actually visit this aquarium with my west coast family. so when i open up their various live webcams (they have a half dozen of them to view), it all looked so familiar, and just as i remembered it. the coolest ever!

their outer bay cam actually plays marvelous, relaxing music as you watch the plethora of sea life swimming by--truly a blood pressure-lowering experience. they narrated the different feedings also, so it was a learning experience. for instance, when they feed the sting rays, the rays come right to the surface (of the million gallon aquarium) and roll over on their backs. the workers actually place the food right on the rays' belly! and if you've ever seen the underside of the rays, with their little mouth and eyes, they really have a cute little face.

they also mentioned that the blue fin tunas (theirs are about 500 pounds, but they can get to three times that size out in the ocean), are the ones used for sushi. they said that a mere 400 pounder was recently caught and sold to the fish markets in Japan for (don't quote me, but i'm pretty sure they said) $1,500!!!! [i hate it when i want to--but can't--recall every little detail!!]

so, while this wasn't on my list of things to do today, i did enjoy my strolls through the aquarium and visited not only the outer bay tank, but listened in on and saw the otters being fed and also the penquins' feeding. a miracle of the same world-wide-web that ate up too much of my time yesterday, but gave me about a half hour of enjoyment and education today. check it out! you'll find yourself back home in no time and you can even keep their music on in the background while you get right back to the daily chores that ARE on the to-do list, guilt-free!