This and That



The Endeavor  inner room with thousands of signatures from visitors of all over the world.    They have sense been destroyed  as part of the Endeavor is heading towards the Smithsonian.    Sad the names had to go.   It would have been an added interest to read who came on board.    The last of the space shuttles.     I wonder what is in store for our future space adventures.    



I was checking out Facebook yesterday and saw these words and thought I would blog about them;  a small reminder to keep you aware that it is really truly all right to believe, especially in yourself . . . good and wonderful things do happen for when we believe . . . we work harder to make wonderful things happen in our lives.  We set a goal, work at it, and find that we can accomplish anything we really believe in.



Angie has icicles on her window panes.    Winter is always a 'big thing' in the Truckee area.    They are familiar with giant snow falls and cold that adds a different kind of beauty to their window panes.      It has a beauty all its own but it does make me shiver a bit as I know it is cold out there.    We are cold here this winter but we are also keeping our rain storms but with an occasional break to let us know the sun is still up there ready to shine and heat us up a bit.    

So today, enjoy the weather no matter what it is.    Dress warmly and go for a stroll around the block.    A winter Sunday to enjoy all day.    The Epiphany or Little Christmas as we used to call this date.     It is crab season and the crabs are finally big enough to catch and our fishermen are busy bringing them in by the boat load.   We had one treat the other day and found them to be meaty and so tasty we decided to treat ourselves to one more feast before the season ends.     They have a big price on them this year but well worth paying out a little extra for a special meal.  I still think they are a lot of work and prefer to have them all picked and ready to eat, but then to buy crab already to eat would cost a bigger fortune and then it wouldn't be the fun some folks think they are to pick and crack and shell ....well, I'm lazy or haven't learned how to use those tiny forks and those big nut crackers.    Everyone is so busy they don't have time to crack my crab.  I am on my own and am really getting better at it all the time . . . see, if you do believe in something wonderful is about to happen . . . in this instance, you go down to the port, pick out some big beautiful crabs and spread the newspaper on the table, get out those pickers and enjoy.    Wish you were here.  I wouldn't share but I'd be happy to hand you pickers for your own crab.    Make your Sunday a day of rest but only after you picked your crab clean.     Hugs to all.



Tulips



Day two of my new flowers from Jo.     What a difference a day makes.    They are beautiful and make the room come alive.   

Enjoy your Saturday morning, in fact enjoy the whole day.     I am hoping for sunshine again today.   Yesterday I was invited to go for a ride to Medford with son John.  We drove through narrow winding roads  (route 199) with caution signs warning of possible slides; with all the rain we had this year there have been several big slides cutting off the route for many hours.    The roads are narrow, curves all the way, mountain  on one side and the river on the other.     We had fog and sunshine and drove through some snow in the higher elevations.   The snow was muddy and blackened by the car emissions but further in it was pure white and beautiful;  winter at its best.   Grants Pass had much more of a winter coat than Medford where I was dropped off at the Medford Mall.....stores, stores, two floors filled with happy shoppers.     I sat in the food court area, after my first hike around, and watched people which is always a fun thing to do.    They come in all sizes and shapes and have their own special way in their walk and expressions.   It was fun to see those with their phones glued to their ears.   One young lady sat by the wall seats with her bag of goodies and settled her self in, opened her lunch bag, pulled out her cell phone and had a conversation as she munched her lunch.     Little ones are always fun to watch, one little guy had a car stroller of his very own but insisted on walking with his family group.    He wasn't going to move any faster than he could so he was swept up, under protest, in the arms of his mother.     The teens are awesome and put on a show all their own from the hair styles to the dress styles.   A lot of belly showing these days and a few cracks peek from overly tight jeans and meager tee shirts.     They go for color and all know their styles.     The generations are there to see and I saw a few octogenarians with their wheeled walkers...yeah, I wished I had mine with me as it works better than a cane when you are spending a long time on your feet. 
I did walk into a music store but felt lost;  my the generation gap is getting wider and wider.    I found prices soaring even with sixty percent sale signs.    I don't know how people can afford to buy anything.   Some of the newer merchandise is of new materials and strange to my way of thinking.    I am going to have to keep the old as the new is much more expensive and does not come with directions.     The new styles are made much longer, a sign of depression, and I have grown much shorter so 'never the twain shall meet' ;   but, it was fun to be out in the crowds and watch the people go by.    So today, take a stroll around your mall and keep your eyes and ears open and you may find you  have many blessings to count.     Smile and you get a smile back . . . frown and you get a blank stare.  What is that old adage. . . 'you get out of life what you put into it, no more no less' . . .um . . . seems I've said that a lot lately . . . it's true.  So practice, practice, practice. . . smile with your eyes a guarantee to get a similar return.  Hugs to all. 



Surprises



I heard a knock on my door but when I got there no one was there . . . but a long purple box with some flowers.  This is as they arrived, wait a day or two and I'll show you what they really look like.   Thank you Jo for being so thoughtful.   A lovely surprise, just another special kind of hug . . . and I love hugs and you too.



Here is the 'beast' we have been working on since Thanksgiving week.   The dining room table was taken up from one end to the other and no meals could be eaten at it.    There wasn't room for the pieces as 2,000 pieces need a lot of room.    At first there was eight paper plates with pieces, then a couple of cookie sheets were added, then a small table.  Day by day as we fitted in pieces we could add more to the surrounding area of the puzzle and soon all pieces were on the table defying us to find them.    Jo did a lot and was determined to finish it, but she had to leave for home and left an unfinished puzzle.   We would have kept her but her bosses wouldn't stand for her being gone any longer.    John finally relented and sat at the table and started to find a piece here and there;  Pat came in and managed to find the special piece that tied it in.  I stayed with it too and soon we had this beautiful picture with one piece missing just under the butterfly in the left corner;  where it disappeared to no one knows.   We searched but didn't find it.    Sad, but puzzle pieces stick to your clothing, fall under chairs and table legs and disappear.    It is still worth doing even with that one piece gone.   

I have had trouble in blog land and something happened so I cannot pull up my pictures as I once did.   I had John try a new way and it worked, all I have to do is remember the steps and maybe I can continue to blog.......with pictures.  We'll see, as the old timer would say, 'time will tell'.     I hope you have a great weekend to catch up with yourself.    I'm off to 'catch some z's' and don't have to blog in the early morning.    I don't know though, I'm a creature of habit, so we will see.      Sleep tight . . . dream softly and snuggle in.   Hugs to all.



Another Musing

Good Friday morning.    The New Year is here, day four, and the little computer fairies have been busy in the night and have taken away the power to get to 'my pictures' and load one or two up for you to view.   Some change has been made and not for the better, in my estimation, as I love to choose pictures that uplift, make you laugh out loud, or just introduce you to a new face and hopefully a new friend.   Well, you know what they say about 'mice and men';  I want my pictures back!

Meanwhile that two thousand piece jig saw puzzle Pat and Erin gave me at Thanksgiving time has been finished....yeah....with help from Jo and last evening son John pitched in.  Pat has been a god send and has found many a piece and has a knack for find the connecting piece which makes it a bit easier to get on with the finished puzzle.   I had a picture to show you, but that will have to wait until the computer folks let me publish the picture on the blog.    It really is a beauty and a brand new puzzle with one piece missing.  We checked thoroughly but not a sign of a missing piece on the rug.    I haven't vacuumed under the table for two weeks, not because I'm lazy but for fear of swooping up a puzzle piece.  Did I tell you that I got four more puzzles for Christmas.   Two are mystery puzzles which are different and should be fun to do, not sure if the picture on the box is the before or after scene of who the villan is;   guess we will have to try one and find out . . . but not for a week or two.

So today, be of good cheer.    Your weekend is here and you will have time to put your house in order.    Now with the puzzle done, I can get busy and chase a few dust kitties myself .  Whatever you choose to do with your seconds today are yours to do . . . curling up with a good book has some merit . . . didn't that new magazine come in yesterday's mail?  or you could finish your work project and hum a little tune or two.  Whatever you choose to do, do it with a smile in your eyes, love in your heart and share a hug or two.   And, before I forget it, I read in my new magazine that English Ivy plants in your home help to ward off the effects of mold . . . good to know, I'll have to buy a couple as there is a lot of sneezing that goes on in this old house.   Hugs to all.

Mornin!

day three of our new year . . . our ocean was  a beautiful true blue ocean color yesterday as the sun was out all day. 

Nature put on a show of her own as the smoke bellowed from the plywood plant and the sun played peek-a-boo on my living room windows.    I wasn't sure what was going on for a second or two as I had never seen the sun fading in and out on my curtains before.    It was like a signal and it made me wonder who, what or why it was happening.  It took a minute to look out and see the smoke was acting like a cloud and the sunshine was doing a dance of its own.    A little magic on a sunshine day.

I hope your today is filled with a bit of magic and that you find tiny miracles coming your way.  A new year, a new day, a new you filled with anticipation, grace and love . . . enjoy every second .  Hugs to all.

A Musing



A lone Native American Indian looking over the river and canyons of Nevada. What is he thinking?  What expectations did he have?  Railroad tracks leading somewhere, wonder if he wishes he could be riding the rails. Maybe he prefers a canoe, or maybe he enjoyed the view and went on to go fishing or hunting and enjoyed his day.   Some time ago I wrote a musing, one of the many I wrote, but this one I am blogging about as some folks need a reminder that we are sometimes our own worst enemy.     Some folks bring pain and anguish to themselves all because of expectations.

Expectations
JMS- 2006
The word 'expectation' according to the American Heritage Dictionary reads:  n. a. The act or state of expecting.  b.  Eager anticipation: eyes shining with expectation.  2.  The state of being expected.  3. A. Expectations.  Prospects. Esp of inheritance.  B.  Something expected.  4.  The expected value of a random variable, esp. the mean. 5. Expectancy (sense).

To me, the word 'expectation' is the harbinger of woe.  A suspenseful animation of things or events as we think they should be and when they do not come up to our 'expectations' we tend to feel used, abused, sad, lonely, miserable and depressed.
In order to survive our world we must see the reality as life is, and not as we wish it to be, or even expect it to be.  It is what it is, and we can only live it as we arise in the morning with the eastern sun and go to bed with the western wane as darkness approaches and we go off to sleep to rejuvenate our bodies and souls.
What I think I want may not be what I need.  Until we differentiate between the two, we live in a world of expectation and the circle goes around and around.
No two persons see the same object in the same light.   Each one sees but with a mind set that makes what they see different as they gaze at the texture, color and substance of the piece they are looking at.
The same with taste, each one has taste buds that differ and what is delicious to one maybe absolutely tasteless to another.
Our hearing follows the pattern and one may listen but each of us hears the words with a different connotation, and  thus tall tales are born.
We feel, some with hands that know the softness and handle delicately, while others are rough and feel hardness.
Dealing with each other could be very simple if we had no expectations and look for the inner beauty that shines in everyone and find the core of the person and do away with envy, greed, avarice, jealousy and hatred.



So today, think about your expectations.    Are you living your seconds in anticipation of the good things that will come by your own efforts to survive, or are you living in expectation that someone will 'provide' . . . the old adage "you get out of life, what you put into it, no more, no less" should squelsh expectations, and only you can make yourself 'happy'.   
We are starting a brand new year, one filled with challenges, so look over your list of resolutions and find out which ones are expectations and which ones are worth working on.     Make this year . . . your year . . . positive attitude, hard work and a smile from your eyes along with a walk in hug or two.   Hugs to all.



Happy New Year!

The stroke of midnight changed our date from 2012 to 2013, now that has a ring to it.     Let us all live the new year in faith, hope and charity.    Be sympathetic, helpful, benevolent,  but be careful as that one word has another meaning and that is, according to the dictionary . . . "A compulsory tax or payment exacted by some English sovereigns without the consent of Parliament" . . . while we have  a similar ongoing problem with our leaders who want to spend and tax, and tax and spend .  You knew I couldn't start the New Year without some thought to those who are playing the political game of cat and mouse.  Resolution one,  not to talk politics,  just went out the window . . . boy, I'm good.  Less eating of wondrous things; um, the ham and egg muffin just went down without a problem . . .well, maybe I'll be good tomorrow.   So the old adage of 'do what I say and not what I do' seems to be in order;   go, do your own thing and make 2013 your very best year ever.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL.    I COUNT EACH OF YOU AS A FRIEND AND A BLESSING.

HUGS TO ALL.