Senegals, Symbolism & Moot Points

Sunny, my Senegal parrot, was wanting out of his cage the other day & even tricked me into thinking his foot was stuck in his toy. It was all a clever act to get me to hurry over. Senegal's are very smart and playful and also moody. After love biting on my ear a tad firmly and kissing my lip he moved about on my arm and shoulders. I guided him away from the keyboard since he's decided it is more fun to pull the keys out than to just sit or hop about on it. Being back on my shoulder he then pooped all over me and flew off. Normally he does me the courtesy of reversing that process, but no, not this time.

Sadly, I came to the accurate realization, at least from my point of view, that what just happened was just like my teen-agers' behavior lately 'give me sh*t then take off'. At least I'm able to laugh about it. Sadly, a small parrot is easier to capture and cage than a Wiley teenage boy or girl. So be it.

After my physical therapy appointment Monday, my first for bursitis in my hip, I decided to treat myself (and others at home) with Thai food for lunch. After all, the restaurant is nearby and it was past lunch time. I placed a to-go order and went a couple doors down to a Christian book and gift store. I picked up a few more quaint inspirationals to sprinkle across my kitchen table, had a lovely conversation with the lady at the counter, picked up my lunch order and came home to my family. There were inspirations about being kind, love thy enemy and forgiveness etc. at the store. It spoke to me about going ahead and being kind and forgiving to my teenage son who had wronged me. I will stick firm to the consequences I've put in place for his actions but I will not be vindictive. I also made another attempt to reach out to my teen daughter. Why doesn't God send teenage how-to manuals floating down from Heaven for us parents? I guess it wouldn't be as fun of a show for Him if He did. I keep expecting to see "eternally fresh" popcorn and a lifetime's channel movie ticket stub fall accidentally from the sky.

If I have to ask for an apology it obviously isn't going to be a genuine one, so it's a moot point. "Moot-point" my mind wanders to single pronged antlers on an elk, suddenly sprouting into a full rack. Yes, life is full of moot-points, I guess i need to take better care to recognize them. I wonder what a photograph would look like of an elk sporting "moot-points-antlers" if we could visibly see all the things past in our life that we made a big issue of which in reality were trivial minutia? It would be quite an eye-opener. Now, if we use that eye-opening vision to look forward, now there's the trick of it all.

Be Blessed Dear Readers, be wide-eyed with a spotter's guide and binoculars, watch out for teenage chaos, moot points and elk themselves. Remember focus forward only occasionally glancing back. Be well.

Shark Bites

Well, the other night my husband prepared shark. This was a 7 foot blue shark they accidentally caught while salmon fishing. My 2nd cousin (AKA: "niece") got a recipe from her dad and it was fabulous!! Cooked in a bit of lime juice with ginger and garlic among other things, it was grilled to perfection. We also had a bit of french bread with it and I don't even remember what all else.

I was surprised by the shark's tenderness. Then floods of memories came back to me. A Hell's Angel loaning me enough money to cover what I was short on a cafe tab while on a high school band trip. All tattooed and admittedly slightly scary looking, he was kind and had a gentle heart. The other Hell's Angel who my cousin "accidentally dated" thinking he was a door to door vacuum salesman until she discovered he had a murder wrap. I scared him off from her doorstep and may have put the fear of God into him if it weren't for the fact that several years later he committed an armed robbery resulting in another murder, but I had scared him. At the time I was maybe all of one hundred pounds and 5 foot 4. He even called me "ma mm" "Yes, ma mm, I don't want no trouble ma mm, I'm sorry ma mm." The tough looking biker, whose name I forget, that you had to get past to get in the back door of a sleazy bar that had a great band playing (I was underage at the time). He looked scary but was cool and friendly. My friend in community college who looked like a member of ZZ Top & wore leathers all the time. He was rebuilding his motorcycle in his upstairs dorm room with the hopes of riding out the front door the last day of school - he missed the dead line. He ended up cutting his hair and being recruited to work for NASA! Nature is like that, when we have a weakness or a perceived one, we try harder to mask it with a fierce persona or exterior. Fish which have markings to look like they are bigger and tougher than they really are. Leading us back to our shark. A fierce water creature, yet, so tender and moist when we are the ones biting it and not the other way around.

I've just been interrupted by my 7 yr old holding a Pringles can asking if they can bring their pets in. "Pets?" I quandaried. I was told they had captured ants. I thanked him thoroughly for asking first and explained that ants need much more than a Pringles can to survive and maybe someday we could get an ant farm but not right now. I'm just thankful he asked.

I can't help but wonder further about shark bites. They unintentionally bite the wrong things foraging for food sometimes. What or who have I unintentionally bitten while foraging for God only knows what. Sometimes we all go into protection mode, the good old fight or flight response. I have fibromyalgia along with a laundry list of other ailments. I'm told that fibro sufferers have their fight or flight response permanently turned on, depleting levels of serotonin (yea I have a medical reason for my dark chocolate cravings! YES! SCORE!) blah, blah, blah. Anyway, besides the physical problems this produces, it makes me forgetful (see previous post regarding cantaloupe gut brains) I wonder if it causes me to behave differently in my interactions with others. To anyone I've accidentally "bitten" my apologies. Having recently been bitten myself, I found it to be divine intervention that I was lead to the Christian book and gift store and found little verses on forgiveness and kindness everywhere I turned. I've forgiven without being asked in the verbal sense and I feel all the better for it.

Dear Readers my wishes for you today are: be blessed by whomever or whatever your higher power be. Enjoy delicious bites of whatever suits your appetite, be careful not to bite others and forgiving when they inadvertently bite you.

Shark

My husband recently went on a fishing trip with his brothers and father. They were fortunate enough to catch their limit of salmon each day. Oddly enough they also hooked not 1 but 2 blue sharks. They caught and reeled in one of them, over 7 feet long! So far we've had one delicious meal of salmon accompanied by my father-in-law's home grown vegetables-squash and a little salad I made of his cucumbers, onion, tomatoes in rice-wine-vinegar. Mm yummy!

Instead of eating shark steak as of yet, I recently have been made to feel tied to a stake & fed to the sharks! By one of my own children none the less. Teen age years are such an exciting time of transformation. Sometimes however, those transformations come with difficulty. It can be an awkward time, wanting to be an adult, feeling fully capable of being one, yet being given chores and having to live within other's guidelines. I can understand and appreciate that. I can also understand and appreciate that God has a heck of a sense of humor. I don't have to look at a sloth or a duck-billed platypus to be reminded of this, I just picture him laughing as we parents suffer through the trials and tribulations that come with parenting or attempting to parent a teenager!

So while my teenager mourned not receiving the shark's head to "mount on the wall" or even his teeth, I mourn some teen rebellion I've had the "pleasure" of suffering through. A recipe for Shark-how about a definition of Shark? I think you see my point, hopefully. I'll attempt to sew up my wounds from the bite and swim forward, upstream and all. Why? Because, what other choice do I have? If I suffer the sharks, I may get to see other, less violent days filled with friendlier people. Wish me luck & a good tour guide.

Be blessed Dear Readers, suffer the sharks knowing their days are numbered, try to appreciate the beauty within, lying beyond their teeth, as I will.

Curtains, Blinds and Cantalope Guts for Brains

We've been remodeling for about 5 years now if you count the house we were in before this one. I have learned a lot but continue to marvel at all it teaches me of philosophy.

There is a terrible glare on the television from the wonderful natural light coming in from our beautiful new windows. We need to finish making the wall (drywall, texture and paint) before we can put up curtains or blinds. First things first, priorities and all that whatnot. A dearly beloved friend in Michigan refers to her brains as lace curtains at times, needing shaken to get the cobwebs out. It paints a much prettier picture than my view of my brains as cantaloupe guts. Lace curtains filter just enough that you can still see in or out and still have a tad bit of privacy too. I like that about lace curtains. Blinds can be made to do the same thing with a twist of a wand style handle, however, they seem more obtrusive to me than lace curtains. Blinds provide more of a presence-of a here I am & I can give you an all or nothing view type attitude about them.

In life, sometimes we see things through blinds, or lace curtains and sometimes we see them head on in the blinding light or overwhelming darkness. Which am I? My cantaloupe-guts-brain can't figure out which is best though I lean toward the lace curtains. Just a bit of security but not enough to stand in your way. Which are you? Which will you choose? Is it better to be a filter of things in your mind set and how you choose to perceive things or better to be cement-for-brains? I can be a bit of both, I'm mostly a "shades of gray" person, not a black and white person, however there are some issues in which that attribute of mine vacillates.

And in the background I hear the Gund singing bear, chanting the "Don't worry be happy" song. Maybe the parrot will learn it too. It now keeps repeating in the back of my head too. It reminds me of when my now 17 yr old son was a toddler. The babysitter was a wonderful woman and had an exceptionally cute little girl. She would sing, "Don't worry, be happy, toys are in the toy box" over and over and play ring around the rosies to the tune. Her mom asked her if she knew who I was, she said, "Zacky's mom, Mrs. Holy Cow!" I said, "Good grief" and "Holy Cow" apparently more than I realized at the time. This darling little girl back then made me wish, if only life were as simple as having no worries because there were toys in the toy box. Now, roughly 16 years later, I'm reminded of that philosophy again. This time through a plush, singing bear. I'm glad I don't have curtains or blinds to filter anything out right now. I like the view, even when there is a glare and reflection or two. Sometimes, that can be the best part.

Be blessed Dear Readers!

Stop Random Randomness-Or Not. Join The Cause Now!

There is a new war for me to wage, it is the war of randomness! We must all do our part to stop randomness now! We should be pensive and thoughtful of every step we take on this dear planet and the repercussions of those steps, and of not taking those steps as well! If we live our lives with introspection and forethought rather than retrospection and hindsight, are we not going to create a more obvious path which actually leads somewhere? I'm talkin' "here's the sidewalk, here's the garden not to be stepped in" type stuff. Rather than wandering aimlessly. If we wander aimlessly we are likely not to get anywhere. I believe it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote of "the path less traveled" there is a cross-roads and a decision to be made, often more than once in one's life, as to where to go, what to do. The problem is that everyone now seems to be operating with all terrain vehicles or SUV's & no GPS systems at all.

Then the flip side of the coin: what might we miss if we only read the road map? If I turn left at exit #5 then turn onto the overpass and hook a right where the heck am I? Am I at a diner where I can feast & feel replenished and satisfied and go merrily back on my way, get back on the super-highway? Or am I at a dinky, dingy, self-serve gas station which is closed, out of windshield wiper fluid, unable to scrape the incidentals of my journey off my windshield?

There is a lot of fun and surprisingly reflective scenery to be found by merely wandering through life. I believe it is about the journey and not the destination. However, that being said, I still don't want to end up stuck in traffic with all the other schmucks like me who failed to plan ahead- staring at a "road closed for repair" sign "please take the appropriate detour" and not have enough "gas money" or "fuel" to get there. There - where? I have no clue. How's that for randomness? I suppose "there" can be where your soul is meant to be, it can be where your heart truly lies. Some people get there quicker than others. I'd like to think I've caught glimpses of it here and there, maybe picked a roadside flower to treasure in a scrapbook later down the line.

But I suppose now, I'm noticing the gas gauge, I'm noticing the eternal clock's ticking, I'm noticing that I'm closer to the down-side of the gauge than the fully loaded and charged side. Somebody get the jumper cables quick because I'm not ready to be done. I mean, it isn't like I'm dying, other than in the sense that we all are at some point, but I'm just aware of the gauges now which I overlooked before.

I suppose if we stopped randomness, this work of words would not exist, maybe I'm promoting my own demise? Hm. The flip side of the coin, there are always two sides to each story. I mean, after all, I'm sure somebody obviously found some sort of charming or endearing quality in Charles Manson too, but..... Do you see where I'm going with this? If not, wipe off your windshield, fuel up, I've got a road tour to take you on. If you do understand, then we are both on the same journey and traveling either steadily or precariously, yet traveling forward all the same. I'll meet you at the next rest-stop. Mind the detour signs!

Be well Dear Readers and be blessed!

A Stone Butterfly

As I lay in bed at 4:30AM wide awake pondering whatever my mind wandered about to, I began to realize even more strongly than before, I need to do more to nurture my soul. I think the same may be able to be said about all of us. This is so utterly important and vital to all of us for the sake of our own health and as a way to reflect and leave an impact on our environment. So, be it learning to sew, going skydiving (this time not tandem, all by myself) or taking a pottery class or whatever, it needs to be done. The mind has the power to heal our body and so much of its true potential is yet unrealized, I say, "tap into it a bit!"

I have recently had these characters in mind for a children's story and they are mostly bugs or small amphibians or animals or plants. One of the characters is a butterfly. I was thinking of how maybe creating these characters out of clay or such might help inspire me when I get a writing block. Then suddenly the thought of a "stone butterfly" hit home and hard. I'm still not sure why or what it all means, maybe you, Dear Readers can help me figure it out? It seemed to speak to me about metamorphosis and about being trapped - cocoon wise or due to being made of clay. Of being to heavy to fly, due to one's own burdens perhaps, or fear incapacitating the ability to take that all important first leap. Feeling light and lilting on the inside yet trudging about in real life. Of being a caterpillar, desperately wanting to metamorphosis into something more spectacular.

Maybe there is something spectacular in just being a caterpillar though. Maybe being somewhat rooted in "stone" gives us a bit of that necessary grounding we all need. The ant (closest to the ground of all) with "high hopes" comes to mind.

Although it was pain that awakened me, it is beauty and potential and all these various perspectives which kept me awake, and thankful. Thankful for creativity, for beautiful surroundings, for nurturing, for children to hopefully pass some of these idealism's on to, thankful for too much to mention. Ultimately thankful for the pain awakening me in the first place. If I was not some what trapped in a body of stone, perhaps I wouldn't take the time to ponder stone butterflies, or anything else.

Be well Dear Readers, be grounded yet soar on your wings of creativity, be blessed in all things and thank you for reading. I'd love to hear any of your feedback too!

I Know I'm Going To Be Hated And It Isn't Even 10AM

So, in yesterday's post I blamed the bird for the beeping fridge. During the night, when the bird is sleeping, more beeping, this morning, more beeping! So I watched each-hard to see a bird's lips move! Then I moved closer to the fridge, I rechecked everything, the noise is definitely coming from the fridge. Everything is shut, nothing is flashing, but the dang beeping. I turned off all the alarms but I know this is a band aid solution, I need to call the repair man.

The poor repair department must hate to answer the phone and think we are all psychotic and do nothing but break warrantied appliances for someone to visit with. It isn't true I swear, but.. a lot of stuff has been breaking lately! Our dishwasher hates us. It either takes vacations, leaves us completely to be reincarnated with a newly ordered part or leaks or all of the above. Now, the new fridge. Did I mention the old freezer is kaput too? I hate to have to remind them once again of the rebate I was to receive of ($200-$300) and never got. Bless their hearts anyways. Heck, bless mine while we're at it!

Then the poor little boys of mine, they've been lectured since yesterday and more sternly this morning - pre-discovery, about closing the doors of the fridge all the way, etc. Ugh. I have a lot to atone for it sounds like. "Sounds" being the operative word of choice!

I'd have a second cup of coffee to relax to before making the dreaded call to the service department but I would need to make a new pot and who knows what kind of stuff could go wrong with that process given the current realm of things in the "possessed kitchen". Did you know my phone will not work in the kitchen? Odd / related / is there a haunting of an over worked repair man there or what???? Oh, and yes, you caught me, again. I am so neurotic about recycling and not wasting stuff that I even will often drink a cup of left-over, day-old coffee. Then the creamer lid gets tossed and the creamer bottle recycled when that's gone. At least I'm not to the point of my ex-grand-mother-in-law, she re-used paper napkins until each square was dirtied, then it could be tossed. You'd think I lived through the depression with her huh? If I get that bad, somebody hunt me down and shoot me OK? No offence to the dearly departed ex-Grams.

I will attempt to be optimistic, make coffee without fear, call regarding my kitchen appliances from a safe distance from my kitchen and then, who knows what the day will hold after 10AM? Oh my gosh, it is now 10:04AM - save me and wish me luck!!!! If you don't hear from me for a while, the appliances won, sadly. The good news is the repairman is very kind and no "plumber butt-itis" is suffered through by anyone. Praise God for that! Bye Dear Readers, Be Well, Be Blessed, Be Liked, Be appliance-problem-free. By the way, I'm now promoting earplugs if anyone else has a parrot and a "robot" fridge gone crazy!

Alarming Alerts Without My Energy Pack!

When I picked out stainless steel appliances to complete the look of our newly remodeled kitchen, there was some thing which I did not realize and therefor lacked my consideration. The thing is that my 7 year old son quickly dubbed our fridge the "robot" fridge. I did not realize the darn thing actually has a door alarm which will beep periodically if a door is ajar or left completely open too long for grazing! This seemed a handy novelty given that our 3 year old needs to seek out-patient rehab for cheese-addiction and frequents the fridge at all times day and night. I say "seemed" - past tense, because today, a new problem presented itself. Today, I had yet another horrific headache and noise was especially grating on my nerves. I also had horrible back pain and laid propped at a specific angle on the couch with more pillows than Martha Stewart could fluff in a life time! Today, Loka, the African Gray, also discovered how to imitate the fridge alarm! I made approximately 5 trips to the fridge, re-closing all 3 doors repeatedly. Then suddenly, as though needing to sport my sunglasses, it dawned on me, at 7pm! It wasn't the fridge, it was our "charming" feathered family member, making me attend to beeping things in vain, things that were not beeping at all. Gr. At least I know the robot isn't being overly talkative.

That leads me to another of today's events-my 7 year old son was verbally arguing with a talking toy. I have a childhood Christmas memory of being excited about a "Betsy-wetsy" doll, then there was the "Krissy" doll that grew a ponytail when we pushed a button on her back. Now there are remotes for robotic dinosaurs, talking, walking, growling toys, light up toys and video games that would make the inventors of PacMan fall faint. My 3 year old knows how to replace batteries in game controllers and other toys and how to put them into the battery charger!!! Can't I be fitted with a battery pack? Then there is me, the one who couldn't tell the difference between the fridge and the bird!

If dirty kids leave a dirt ring in the bathtub, why can't bubble-bath doused kids return the tub to a clean state? Just curious. Curious and lazy, you caught me, I can't lie.

Well Dear Readers, I wish you an un-alarming evening and a well-energized day. Be Blessed!

Things Aging & Remodeling Are Teaching Me

First off I will give you a bit of background info. I have a laundry list of ailments but one of the main whoppers is worry / anxiety about at an obsessive-compulsive level, despite medication, prayer, etc. I could go into background history to reveal why I have some of these charming little quirks but I'll save you the sob story for now. Last night my body could "feel" rain coming on. I went outside & did my best to cover building supplies with tarps as needed...
#1. it is not nearly as enjoyable to awaken to a summer rain storm when one has several bags of un-mixed cement / bags of powdered money sitting in one's front yard. It is also not enjoyable readily identifying with cement thickening and hardening be the way one's own body feels.
#2. It is very difficult to get sick furry babies to go outside in the rain to puke / poop especially when one is lacking gutters being reinstalled & the roof angle is not helpful near one's front door. This task involves lots of coercing and foot power.
#3. It is a sad day when foo-foo coffee does not seem to melt the hardening cement within one's own body.
#4. The good news is rain is a great way to pressure wash dead midge carcasses off of one's abode & porch!
#5. Growing older is making the parrots' 6:00AM ritual of gabbing, whooping & hollering less & less appreciated. I've got to give them props for their entertaining mix ups in phrases though. Examples are "Gra'ma-hot" "Mom (in whiny teenage boy voice) followed by whistling for a dog. "Knocking noises followed by -come-in!" trust me, this list could go on forever.
#6. Being 41 years old & having those motorized scooters, life-alert necklaces, chair-lifts, bathtub handles & other such silver-haired products look good enough to pay thorough attention to.
For now I'll stop before I end up in a deep depression & try to enjoy the sound of the raindrops & ignore my aches & pains from the barometric pressure changes and hope that the coffee & medicine eventually melt away the annoyances described above.

Dear Readers, Be Blessed, be cement-free & find a way to enjoy summer rainstorms like we all did in our youth running through them spinning with our heads up & mouths open catching a drink here & there.

Life May Be Trying To Tell Me Something

Our furry babies have been sick & often the aftermath is left to be dealt with in the house. To put it bluntly, life has been a bit crappy lately. Hm, I better try to atone for whatever the heck I did, it's been puppy-pukey too.

I have a photo of my 6 yr old son with about 1/3 of his foot in his mouth!!! He sucks on his toes from time to time, which I find very odd, however, his sister did it also as a child. I guess sticking our foot in our mouth runs in the family. I am apparently doing it more often than not lately even when usually completely unaware of the fact. Good thing I'm double jointed everywhere huh? Getting that foot back out can be treacherous work! Hoof in mouth disease? hm, more to ponder & worry about.

My husband is spending approximately $400.00 on a salmon fishing trip he goes on annually with his father & brothers. I guess that frozen fish filet's just don't cut it for his appetite. Just joking, honestly I'm so glad he has a father & brothers to do this sort of male-bonding stuff with. Plus it clears the air here at home of a little over-abundance of testosterone at least for a few days. Ah, breathe deep & enjoy the lack of machismo! ha ha. Although I did utter just yesterday to my niece & her fiance, "What estrogen-caked-crap are you watching on TV anyway? My God!" I'm not exactly a "chick-flick" type of gal. My idea of a chick flick is a good action movie with some hunky lead guy actors! The niece & her fiance ended up retreating to their room with hard rock n roll blasting, guess I managed to get the foot up in the mouth again huh? Whoops, my bad.

I now have a beautiful front porch & steps thanks to the hard work of my husband & my son helping cement in some support posts. We live near a very large lake in an area of the Pacific North West which has been noted for nesting bald eagles and many varieties of water fowl and migratory birds as well. This is due to the lake having algae. The food chain also, therefore consists of bugs! There is a specific bug in our area called a "midge" which is like a gnat sort of. A teeny-tiny green thing attracted to light that only lives about 24 hours then dies. This brings me back to the front porch. My light-free porch (porch lights not yet installed) now is a burial ground for midge-carcases! They cake the walls & windows of the house as well. It must be because we painted in a light color of yellow with white trim. I'm getting set to repaint the house black just because of the stinkin' bugs! Gr. I guess if I'm going to enjoy the birds & a doe in my back yard I must be willing to sweep away dead bug bodies off my front steps. Darn it anyway.

I had to answer the bird the other day. She (the African Gray) kept ringing like a phone. I finally said, "Hello Loka, no body's home!" She also kept calling my 7 yr old son's name repeatedly & I had to tell her to leave him alone. It is pretty funny when she gets going which entices the Senegal to start whistling & singing as well. My tiny little Senegal, Sunny puffs himself up & tries to look big 'n' bad if anyone but me gets near him. He yelled at my husband for leaning too close to me on the couch the other night too, that was pretty funny. Our 2nd tiniest pet (fish take first place) kind of rules the roost. I recently discovered he enjoys eating rice as well as all the fruit & nuts & seeds he gets. He flew toward my niece the other day when we were working on a jigsaw puzzle together & landed on her. I had to "save her from possible unwanted nipple piercing" & put him away. Plus, he wasn't very helpful in putting the puzzle together, dismantling a corner of it. My niece now threatens to take him to Kentucky Fried Chicken. A good friend & cook in another country was giving me a recipe for "plov" and mistakenly typed a "p" instead of "c" for "carrot" & I about flipped out. He had to reassure me there was no parrot in the recipe and apologized for giving me a heart attack! I emailed him back a couple days later that I had successfully made "parrot-free plov" & that everyone enjoyed it!

I will leave you today wishing you, Dear Readers, foot-free mouths, happy hearts & non-bird-pierced-nipples. Be well & be blessed. Thank you for reading.

Back In The Day

When I was young, in the town where I grew up, as I walked down the street holding my father's hand, he and passers-by would greet each other by name. Each knew where the other lived and usually what type of dog they had on their front porch, or if there was an ailing family member to ask about. I was known as "Hank's grand-daughter" or "Dean's girl" and so on. When we would go to the local coffee shop there were coffee mugs hanging on the wall behind the counter with the locals' names on them. If one hadn't been used for a bit, people wondered if the person was alright and had anyone heard. I know it sounds like I'm talking about "Laura Ingles" days or before electricity or something but I am not. It wasn't that horribly long ago. The man that ran and owned the coffee shop usually kept 1 hand is his apron. He usually had candy in the pocket as well, which he'd ask parents' permission to give to us youngsters. He kept the one hand hidden because he helped out with the local fireworks' display each year, which our home town was famous for, and one year something went wrong and he lost his fingers. He didn't want to scare or startle anyone. As I grew up in this smaller than small town I longed for anonymity, a way to escape and assume whatever identity I wanted, or just to escape period. I always said it was a wonderful place for older people and for small children but not for teens or young adults.

I am no longer a "young adult" and as in most cases in our lives, I now further appreciate what I no longer have. That sense of community, of looking out for each other. Back in the day, people would help without overstepping lines in the sand. Maybe there should have been lines crossed when there were not, but all in all, people looked out for one another while still respecting each other. If something came across wrong, feelings may have been hurt but it was generally understood that there were good intentions behind it. Sure there were town gossips and such but like I say, "in general...."

As technology and industry has changed, our culture has become much more transitory than stationary. Families are scattered all over the place. Elders are left to fend for themselves or be in a "home" which usually is not that of a relative, but a facility of sorts. Children can get into all sorts of mischief without onlookers knowing who their parents are, let alone having enough gumption to call the parent and let them know. While "back in the day" that would have been expected and appreciated, now it is considered meddling. Keeping a watchful eye out for people on your street can now be considered being a nosey, gossipy person, instead of somebody who cares.

Back in the day if someone was employed to do a job they were expected to do that job, no excuses. Now it is lucky to receive poor quality service rather than none at all-especially by so called "federal / government employees". By the way if you write me a letter and I don't get it or do not respond, this is your hint as to why. I'm told "it's a hard job..." etc. Well then find somebody willing to do it!!!! Oh, and stop raising the postal rates while you are at it! After my most recent encounter with trying to receive better service and let the lacking quality be known I am now in the mindset that I hope in the future the postal system is something we no longer need at all. A dinosaur that will become extinct, as it wallows in it's tar pits of bureaucracy! It sounds like sacrilege I know, I am someone who treasures the written word, and yet, this is what it has come to. But, as usual, I'm straying from my point on a tangent. Forgive me please?

I saw a doctor the other day, as sick as this sounds (whoops un-intended pun again, haha) hoping he would find something wrong. Why? Because I want something wrong with me that can be fixable. Sadly, my ailments are not fixable, only able to minimize pain. I was told to avoid stairs. I live in a two story home, there are stairs to the landing then more stairs to go down to the lower level or up to the main level where the kitchen is. The laundry is on the first floor by the way. I guess I need to buy a puffy skirt and an umbrella and learn to fly like Mary-flippin'-Poppins because otherwise I'm trapped. Back in the day....what would they have done? Shot me like a horse to put me out of my misery? Not a bad idea, I'm sure the post office would be thrilled along with a few others. Or would I get some much needed help from people who care and understand. Help that is given without being asked, without stinging one's pride, Help that is given out of love, not so one can gossip about how pitiful or lacking one is or their family is. Yeah, back in the day.....

Random Ramblings & Whatnot

So, driving over the mountain pass to the neighboring town (1 1/2 hrs away in good weather) I finally decided to voice some of my observations to y'all. We passed a beautifully flowing, blue stream called "Dry Creek" ( no it isn't!) . Why is there a golf course called "Stone Ridge" on a flat plain with no rocks in sight? Why is there a diamond shaped road sign saying "Elk"? I expect to see older gentlemen in hats holding a meeting there but there is no lodge, nor are there any of the said majestic animals loitering about. What exactly is a "Safety Corridor next 17 miles" ? The road looks the same marking wise, I think it is just to get to the point of the matter, which is stated on another sign, "fines double". Hooray, a new way to get more money out of our pockets, come up with some bizarre road sign & double fines in that area. grrr. "Lake Stream" is it a lake or a stream ? I'm confused. As my husband pointed out "Lost Lake" which also exists more centrally in our lovely state, should have been called "Found Lake" that would make more sense wouldn't it? Just throwing out some logic here.Oh and let's not forget "Salt Creek" which I am betting doesn't have a drop of salt in it at all.

Speaking of logic or lack there of, our road department annually complains "oh there isn't enough money in the budget for this or that" Well, just a thought mind you, but if they were to repair things correctly the first time rather than have to re-fix them every year, maybe the money would go farther. They just made a lot of cement islands with various turn lanes cutting through them on a busy thoroughfare. Did they forget about snow removal in winter? Are they now going to hand shovel these areas out rather than snow plow? Or did they just plain forget to think ahead a few months about the weather here?!!!

If one is Christian and thinks of the part of the bible where God created the heavens and the Earth and on the 7th day he rested (Sunday right? ) why do calendars and kindergarten songs show and teach the days of the week as starting with Sunday and ending with Saturday? I don't wish to start any religious debates and yes i know all about separation of church from state, don't even get me started on that, I'm just saying....it's all a bit contradictory.

Well for now Dear Readers I will leave you to muddle over my quandaries while I go on to attempt to fit more square pegs in round holes in this thing called "Life". Be Blessed & mind-muck-free. Thank you for reading.