To keep current the many who've asked about my new life in Houston, the last place I would have EVER guessed I'd spend time. Please subscribe to or follow me, and visit my two other blogs!
Well if we are going to talk ugly (see last post) let's talk pretty. Or at least, once upon a time. Above, an ad for the haircut I did for a salon when I was about 19. Sigh. That was many moons ago.
Funny how much less I look in the mirror in the last few years. And how in my mind, I forever look like I did in the pictures of me in my late 30's early 40's... not the 19 year old one. That's too flawless to exist for long.
A few extra years, a few extra pounds, a few points dropped in the IQ (or at least it seems like it as I find myself word searching waaay too often).. what's it matter when you have friends? Below, a few pics from a meet up (in October, in Vegas!) of some of the fabulous people I've met in Blogland...
Gee these are small, click on pic to open larger:
Now this one below is more like it (size wise)....
I won't name anyone so they can remain anon-ish, but you can be sure several are regular commenters here. All of you fellow bloggers know how special some of our connections are through this little machine and the words that we type at odd hours... I've read many a blog post by you also marveling this discovery of support and camaraderie and watched as some of your relationships with commenters and co-followers have developed too. What a treat to then finally meet some of these people you've shared so much with. I highly recommend it!
OK, I'm laughing here... but also feeling quite creepy. It may be safe to say we all have bemoaned doing something like our mothers... In this case, I have to say, the photos that came back from this Halloween had me saying the above title, and it left me quite disturbed.
The older I've gotten, the more people tell me I look like my mother. This might be a compliment to some, but since I had a very strained relationship with her for most of my life, I don't feel great about that inside. Not to mention that for over a decade she's been severely demented, and while she has pretty skin and gorgeous white hair, the people who tell me I look like her are her round the clock caregivers. So technically, the more worn and distressed she looks, the more we look alike?
No need to be polite... it's the truth, and I have the proof right here. I've seen her dark looks many a time, and when a friend sent me this pic from her cell phone I saw her looking back at me through my pink feather under-eye lashes. Shit, I thought, they're right!
So of course I was making a face for the picture, washed out with my rhinestone eyebrows, blonde wig, and my face shape made thinner by wrapping a brown feather boa around it but take a look....
Okay and now here's my mother, taken in mid August.....
For a better comparison, here's a close up of me-as-Gaga-mom.
I was out having tea and trying to get a little writing in on a beautifully cool October day. I chose a table and chair outside under the trees to enjoy the fact that temps were finally livable (and of course, to share crumbs from my croissant with any birds and squirrels that might come along). I was in the midst of scribbling and for some reason I looked up and saw the most radiant little being. Snapped a quick pic because she had to be shared!
I always danced to the beat of a different drummer. For a long time I felt alien around all the kids going to school, waking up and going to bed at the same time each day, wearing the right clothes, doing homework without problems, driving the speed limit.
As a grown up, I learned to tone it down when necessary to pursue certain professional things that were important to me, like charity work at a very respectable international institution, and being an Image Consultant. I mean, I was paid to advise others in how to appeal to the masses...
As life progressed, and I made it through the hard knocks and celebrations, I learned that few people really have it all together, everyone has had doubts, wounds, struggles. That leveled things quite a bit and went a long way to seeing everyone as more like each other than not.
However, this is a recent picture of some of my family members:
Draw your own conclusions!
But don't they look like they're having a ball? Wouldn't you want to go out with these folks? I know I would!
Last year we were in Virgina about this time and the leaves were at their peak and decorations of the season were on every historic doorstep.
It is a fall weather day here in HOUSTON, believe it or not.
Cloudly, cool, and if not an actual snap in the air, there is no humidity... FALL weather! I made a whole chicken the other night so this morning I made soup from the broth and left over meat and added roots and dark, leafy vegetables: Carrot, parsnip, turnip, brussel sprouts, mushrooms and kale. That's the first sign the season has changed for me.
I also broke down last week and bought some pumpkins and gourds to put in a bowl on the table. It was a cool day then. The next day it returned to the low 90's and was very humid. But we are at that point in the year again where it's clear the tide is turning and we are slowly approaching the change of season. Maybe it's not as I have experienced it for most of my life, but southern Texas style. Today I am enjoying it so much, you'll hear no complaints from me.
I'm curious... what are your change of season rituals? What are the things you personally do that show a change has begun?
Last weekend I sat down with my husband to try to get a budget together.
We've been looking for houses (here and elsewhere -- oh where and oh when will we ever figure this out!) but I said, "This is crazy --we really haven't a clue how much we want to spend".
It is so hard these days to plan a few years in advance, let alone the old 5 -10 - 25 year plan I remember cutting my teeth on 35 years ago. Modern life has changed so much. May of us move, we change jobs, etc... so much more than our parents did. I probably move more than the average Joe and certainly never have life be routine, due to having always run my own business as a freelancer. And now that I am not on my own, but have a husband, a lovely mother-in law, and two young adult step-kids lives and well being to consider in addition, it is a whole different enchilada.
How much money will we have still coming in or do we need to keep coming in if we were to move away? In the next few years he could retire (early) and I am still on sabbatical, though jonesing for a paycheck... We probably will both still work in "retirement" but at what we want to, not what we have to, and that will mean smaller paychecks, but fine enough to live on and not take too much from our savings. If we stay here, Husband could continue to collect at his big job though, and replenish the coffers that are extinct because ongoing college expenses have left us at zero.
What will our own health needs bring to us as we age? How is health care going to change? Though we are to be covered by the big company he's worked for for 25 years, can we count on that? Will we be healthy and retain our marbles as we all strive to in twilight years or will our paths take the hideous road I have witnessed in both of my parents which required years of high-end medical and at home care? I am looking into annuities to pay me extra as I assume I will lower my income when I re-enter the work force, and perhaps pay now for Long Term Health Care to cover my arse, as I have no natural children, am the youngest in my family, am 7 years younger than my husband, and had two parents who suffered from different forms of dementia. I may exercise and eat better than they did to try to get around genetics, but I do have to plan to be on my own and unable to take care of myself SOMEHOW. But how?
More to the immediate, do we want a house big enough for lots of guests with land for animals etc, or a smaller house with a bit less land so we can travel more? I think we'd be best suited to have a condo here and a big farm with land elsewhere, but we want the land to grow vegetables and fruits and to have geese and ducks (and a pond) for me, and horses for him. We need to be there to do that, and don't have the $$ to have caregivers take care if it to fill in for us full time. You can get a high school kid, or future farmers or 4-H kids to work some, but if you can get them to be committed, then they will be off to college or to make thier own way, and I'd want someone who could be consistent (You never know, I may eat my words on that).
Decisions, decisions. We've recorded our assets, and while at times we seems to be living paycheck to paycheck to not touch savings, at least we have no debt. My husband has done his monthly expenses and I'm 3/4 of the way through mine. I don't like to estimate, I like accurate numbers and that takes a little longer. But what is the next step?
We can ask a financial manager, but I have only known of ones who are doing that planning so you will invest your money with them, and I already have a guy I invest with. Does anyone have ANYTHING at all to add to this conversation? How have you handled figuring out your own personal budget for not just today, but the unpredictable future? And for those of you who then went to an asset manager or financial planner -- was that a good thing? If so, what should we look for, ask, come prepared with besides these numbers?
And, is there anyone out there who can just tell me what to do with my life? (OK, I'm kidding ... *um, kind of, lol*). I've NEVER had a problem doing that, but I have been the master of my own destiny for 47 years. Then I got married. It's a whole new ballgame.
I have been in my usual denial... I deny that I no longer live where the seasons really change and therefore I keep my same old habits of denying that Labor Day is the end of summer. I always say, all of September will still be summer because I decree it... I mean, who was the guy who had the authority to say that Memorial Day starts it and Labor Day ends it anyway?
In the East Coast, this plan only worked for three weeks into the month at best. While I might take my turquoise towel and book out to the park on the Hudson River at noon, though the sun was out it got just a little too chilly to be comfortable laying there in my bathing suit. When the sun and planets and the laws of physics decide, I bow to it. That's inarguable.
And in NY, where every step carries you past store fronts showing goods that becon you to buy, suddenly things like corduroy pants, cashmere turtlenecks and newest leather boots in colors like burgandy and mahogany suddenly call to me (though I'd probably been successfully ignoring them since July, the ridiculous time they start showing up). Before I knew it, I'd be bringing home a few carefully selected pumpkins and bunches of rust and mustard colored flowers from the farmers market... and start changing over my closet (for those of you who live in homes with real space, in places like New York, Boston, Philly, D.C. you often have to totally switch out seasonal clothing, and it becomes as much a marker of the passage of time as any honored ritual).
Back to the here and now, today, in Houston Texas, the pumpkins have begun to appear, not just at Whole Foods and fancy garden shops but at Kroger. I put two in my basket a few days ago and then promptly put them back. I was not going to cave yet! But I noticed that as the three week mark approached, it was darker longer in the morning and earlier at night. And after months of brutal sunshine and drout, scattered clouds were a daily sight once again. This morning it was gray til 11:00 and pouring rain, the kind of day that feels like you need a nice scarf and jacket to go outside. Of course, I'm still startled when I step out on the porch... instead of the cool chrisp air I expect from years of living in the midwest and east, it's actually about 84 with 90% humidity. Yet that IS cooler, lol. After my 4th summer in Houston, I'm still apparently primally in tune with the rhythm of the seasons somewhere else. I actually don't want to lose that.
I just heard on the news that while yesterday was the last day of summer (I was writing this to post then but didn't finish, quel suprise), tomorrow is the first full day of Fall. So what is today?
I have more interesting things to say and show you but I have remained over my head with stuff to do. One of which is the new role of being a rehabber at home of baby squirrels. I have taken home 3 neonates, who didn't make it, one gray little boy who became hearty and is thriving, and now have three more -- two gray females and a male fox/red. I will be posting more about those on my animal blog.
And I have been writing for the Houston Zoo website. I have things in the que but I have had to learn several technical things so I can post them myself and access their photo library. Quite excited about that.
In the mean time, here is a little thing that fits into the category of Wacky Things. I am wracking my brain to remember where we were --but I walked into the john and saw this:
The seat and lid was jumbo sized. First time I've ever seen it. It was nice and white and new though. I stood and looked at it for a long time, wondering why I had never seen one before, and since I had never seen one before, why this was there. I kinds like the first shot. The contrast of the round white seat and the round shapes both within and the floor... all the different shades make it almost look like a black and white picture. Yes, I have found art in a toilet, let it be known!
More importantly, have you ever seen one of these?
Last week we were in Heaven, er... Martha's Vineyard. I've written about how summer does not feel like it to me unless I visit the cape HERE:
Life's been nothing but a whirlwind for many months, as my scarce blog posts/visits attest. After the wedding in Vermont, which was so lovely, the final giant thing in the last 6 months of non-stop giant things was done. Husband and I drove back to Boston's Logan airport where we turned in our rental car, caught the Peter Pan Bus to Woodshole, and caught the Ferry to the Vineyard. My vacation began on the bus, reading the dishy New York Post.
I always stay in Vineyard Haven, where it's far quieter than In Oak Bluffs or Edgartown. We caught a cab/van to our tiny gray shingled cabin and were back on the streets in no time to go get some dinner, stroll to the ice cream place, and pick up some groceries before we walked home.
We stayed for only 5 1/2 days but it was bliss. Always is. There I do not want to miss a moment, so I forget all about seeing if I have a my voice mail, or looking at my e-mail a hundred times a day. I read a little of a book, which in itself is a miracle, since I never get the chance anymore, but we weren't there long enough for me to feel I could "miss" any of the sights and sounds that I have come to love by napping or reading too much. It restores me to watch the waves and the seagulls, to smile at each passerby dressed in the most casual clothes, to take in each flower box which without fail is exploding with growth and color.
I could write many posts on the topic, but the most basic information is this: When I think of the Vineyard, I identify it with a few things that are my favorites.
* Hydrangea bushes, which bloom in profusion all over the island. Every house, store and roadside fence has these heavy headed blooms in the most gorgeous colors -- periwinkle blue, magenta, pink, burgandy, light green and white.
* Carly Simon is a famous year round resident, and she is quite private... but she does own one of the most intriguing stores on the island. It's calledMidnight Farm.
Within is a most intriguing collection of this and that. Small, choice items displayed in a warm, cozy way. Here's the stack of shoes that are so unusual -- never seen another collection like them -- displayed on a tall shelf. Click any picture to make it bigger. Purses are on bureau for sale behind them, or tucked into the corners of their overstuffed armchairs on display:
Below, the long table with rows and rows of ultra soft cashmere sweaters and velvety tees... all in subdued colors and simple designs with a twist (they all look like something Caryl Simon would have in her own closet). The clothes, mens and womens, are hanging smashed together on long poles coming out from the wall, so you really have to look through them. Mostly you only find one or two of each item. And unlike most stores, my size is always there. Browsing there to me is like spending an hour in an art museum. Such a treat for the senses, even if the merchandise isn't your cup of tea.
There's also choice jewelry, a truly unique collection of books, a smattering of CD's -- many by Carly and her children with James Taylor, Sally and Benjamin -- plus home furnishings, cards, bath/body soaps, and lotions, candles, shabby chic/East Indian bedding and a children's area. She even sells Salsa.
* I love their old time paper, the Vineyard Gazette. If you click on that name you can go to their website for a taste of the articles. But really, it's nothing like holding the paper in your hands. It's done on fine newspaper print and is an unusual size. There is a lovely wood print of grapes with vines and a lovely quote as the header. And it only covers local news... and pretty much all the news is good (how many times have we watched the latest endless repeat on our 24/7 cable news channels and wished for a station that only covered good news?). It's almost like what the fictional Lake Woebegone would have...
This editions quote:"Oh, Summer has clothed the earth In a cloak from the loom of the sun! And a mantle, too, of the skies' soft blue, and a belt where rivers run" -- Paul Lawrence Dunbar
There are stories on the arts, on gardening, on birding, on local heroes and common folk and every day occurences. And it lists the extensive activities each day: flea markets, poetry readings and book signings, community sings at the tabernacle, movies under the stars. It's simple and uncomplicated, the very thing my mind is primed for when I'm there. At the same time, it's literary and will not disappoint the sophisticated reader. It is published on Tuesdays and Fridays. I've decided I'm going to break down and subscribe to the paper version to be delivered to my door.
*And then there is my spot -- a little crescent shaped slip of sand at the edge of the village, right next to the place that the Ferry docks.
This is one of my pieces of heaven on earth... you know, those places that you feel entirely calm and at peace? In all honesty I can say I've only experienced true peace in a few places in the world and in my life. This is one of them.
I like to sit on a little bench there in the hour before the sun sets behind me and watch as the rays slant across the sand and water and makes my shadow grow long. The quality of the light changes almost imperceptibly every 10 minutes or so as the sun advances toward the horizon, casting an indescribably clean, almost sparkling glow on the white sails, the gray wooden pier pilings, the flecks of clam shells sprinkled across the little beach.
Here there's a pervading stillness in all things, and yet the gentlest ripple spreads across the water with a cooling breeze and makes a whisper of a lapping sound as they meet the shore. You can hear it right at the beginning of both little films, along with the distant call of a bird here and there or a dog bark. Yet it all seems muted, never marring the ultimate tranquility of the place.
Believe it or not, the parking lot and the long lines of cars to load and the people getting on the Ferry are right behind the bench, but it somehow does nothing to break the serenity as the footage attests.
Out from the mist, the big white Ferry suddenly appears, coming in faster than you'd expect. It shudders to a stop with the water beneath it churning, and that makes for little white waves for a few minutes.
I watch the people trudge aboard, sun-kissed, lugging the standard navy and bone colored canvas totes, with salty hair, wearing Black Dog tee shirts and flip flops, knowing that I will be doing that too, in time. But not now. Not tonight. Tonight I am sitting on the bench, and I get to stay.
That, to me at least, is the best feeling in the world.
Today I saw a ton of dark smoke billowing into the open sky and leaving a growing train in the air that looked miles long. Husband got out the telescope to see if it was one of the plants, as in this high rise with so little around that's tall, we can see THAT far --- all the way to the shipping channel in one direction, almost to Texas City (right near Galveston for those who live elsewhere) on a really clear day. He could not tell what it was, but it reminded me that we saw something similar in the same area a few months ago, and I took pictures, intending to post them here.
You can click on any picture for it to expand.
The smoke today was not light gray like this, but coal black. This IS from a plant, and Husband informed me that at points they do this purposefully, letting whatever they're working with burn off. I don't know what that means for the environment... if it's natural gas. Maybe you do.
Husband is always out there looking at the night sky, which is a really lovely thing about him. Even lovelier is the fact that he will call me out onto the patio to point out something I'd have missed otherwise.
Being a man of few words, he often just points in a direction and with my overly active mind I end up guessing about a dozen things in 10seconds time, all of them missing what he meant. (ie: What? A fire? A UFO? Skydiver? Hospital helicopter? A bird? A balloon? An accident? WHAT?!!??). This night, by way of giving a clue, he refined his pointing. It took me awhile but I suddenly saw it.
Once I did, I stepped inside to grab my camera, which is always close by. For the heck of it, I will virtually just point and see if you can find what I wanted you to see.
Look there, on the horizon. Do you see that red dot? That's the rising MOON!
I zoomed in. Close up, you could really see the shadows of the moon taking on facial features, as the moon is wont to do. But this time I didn't see the man in the moon, as we affectionately say when the moon is it's usual stark white. I guess it depends on the person, but I see the beautific face of a loving mother staring down at us and the little blue planet she guards.
I've never seen my car's thermometer read triple digits but it's been this way since I got back from New York. Again today---this reading is fresh from pulling out from our shaded garage too....
---with no end in sight. And no rain either, really, before the 4th. Sob.
You think Texas and you think hot, which I think you could also say about places like Arizona and, um, places like the Sahara, but it's been HOT for Texas the last week or so. Banding with a cluster of middle south states, we've endured days of 100-104 temps-- And I mean, that's what the temperature really IS, not what it feels like.
Then finally, Monday night a thunderstorm came in. The wind picked up and with it brought a 10 degree temperature drop... and much needed rain. It was torrential, but didn't last very long. I noticed this odd cloud in the sky. My husband calls it a Thunderhead.
Here's another view of it, over the view we have of downtown from our patio (A bit of trivia, off topic completely: The tall red building in the forefront at left is where we used to live.... and now we live on a higher floor across the street).
And a close up of that. Pretty cool huh? Have you ever seen one of these?
It was on the news last night that in New York people were looking skyward (and, as it now happens in our society, also taking pics and movies with their phones and digital pocket cams) in droves at odd cloud formations. As it was close to sunset they took on a reddish cast that apparently only made them look more beautiful and frightening. They are called Mammatus clouds. If you've ever seen the movie Judgement Day, the space ship comes out of just such a cloud formation. You can Google New York and Unusual clouds and June 26th or CLICK HERE or HERE for a sampling.
Anyway, it also rained a little yesterday. Hoping for more before the 4th because right now there's a no burn regulation on and that would mean we can't shoot off fireworks. I've never lived where you could buy your own fireworks, at least legally and I was so stoked I bought a Kings worth last 4th of July at midnight (Hey, it was all 50% off since the night was over). My husband has been thinking it would all blow up in our house someday and he can't wait to shoot it off this year, for different reasons than me, lol.
Has it cooled off (or heated up) where you are?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
A few last photos to show you from the cabin from our Colorado trip. I put out seed and we had many visitors of all colors on the porch fence in addition to the hummingbirds at their red feeder.
They all picked out the sunflower seeds exclusively. I'll remember that for next time.
I had a pocket book of Colorado birds and had fun trying to identify each one. I sat on the couch with the cabin door open and watched them come and go as if I were sitting right there on the porch.
I shot a few of these pics thru the window, hence the blur, and reduction of the brilliant of their feathers. We were astonished that this great a variety of birds lived this high up in the mountains, in such wide temperature changes in the short summer months.
This gorgeous blue bird was dive bombing our little chipmunk/prairie dog that lives in the log near our fire pit out back. Twice a day I put almonds and walnuts near his little tunnel but this bird and his mate wanted those nuts and were willing to do what they could to get them.
Here he is -- of course Husband calls him Dale. Or Chip. Or Chipendale. I love him and he was there last year when we were here too.
I'd never seen an antelope before visiting this cabin but you see many herds and a few solos running across the fields and plains from time to time. There are also buffalo, though they are on farms and belong to someone. Still good enough to sing... Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play....
Sweet sticky sap looks like morning dew at the end of new pine needles and offers food to some and I imagine serves to protect the seeds in the growing cones.
The ground is covered with scrub and a few small purple flowers. The air smells heavily of sage which also grows there... and here and there, to my surprise, is a small cactus, some with flowers. Click photo to see.
Now that I'm back from NYC, I'm looking forward to getting back to some real writing here again, and being able to visit your blogs too. Remember you can click on any of the photos to enlarge.
THIS RAINBOW IS POSTED IN MEMORY OF FARRAH FAWCETT.
En route to Colorado from Houston, maybe somewhere in the little slip of New Mexico that we pass through, Husband spotted a rainbow. I was driving on that stretch and didn't see it at all. We pulled over and got out and I could not believe what was there. One of those that you could see from end to end. It faded within a minute or two, so we did the best we could to capture it. Our lens could not get it all in one picture, that's how wide it was. It was far more vivid in person. Can you imagine how it was to see this? Click on the pic to enlarge.
So we switched the digital camera to movie mode and tried to get the full arc that way. My husband didn't shut it off at the end so you will see his shadow stretching across the roadside gravel and the golden growth in the fields at the end.
Beautiful all the same. It's amazing how it was already beginning to disperse at the edges by the time we got these taken. It is right there, so rich and marvelous before your eyes and you know this is a special moment. But before your brain can really grok it, it's gone, leaving you wondering if you might have imagined it. Come to think of it, you might be able to say the same about the setting sun.
Our very steep driveway, no kidding. This is not a trick shot, lol.
There is a little lake that you drive past just as you enter our driveway, and this is what it looks like from the top of the hill in the picture above.
Here's a view of the cabin as a whole -- on 13 acres, it's about 600 square feet? Currently it has a full bathroom but no running water or electricity. We have a gas generator for when we need it.
It's 10,000 feet up in the Rockies, so while the thermostat can say 34 degrees on the porch in the morning, we are so close to the sun that it makes for a rather comfortable breakfast.
Here's sunset to the West of the porch... This is really not anything compared to some of the amazing sunsets we've seen. It's too bright to make out the majesty of the snow capped mountains on the horizon.
And the view of that sunset reflected on the clouds and sky to the east side of the porch.
Same view, but how it looks to see a storm coming in the distance. And since it's not dusk, you can see the road that leads past the pond out from us, and the rocky hills and mountains beyond. Notice the hummingbird feeder... some video of that and our many bird visitors in the 4 short days we were there will be posted on Adventures in Nature next week, after I get back from NY. Don't forget you can click on any picture and it should blow up larger for you.
For the moment, of the many delicate hummingbirds that can whizzing by for a drink, this was the one that was irridescent forest green. It had a red throated friend and one that was cobalt blue too. And now a quick shot I took of the inside of the cabin as we were getting ready to lock the door and drive 18 hours back to Houston. The couches have white sheets covering them, as does the bed, to help with the dust between our visits, which average only every 6 months at best. It's a good thing too. The furniture was donated by a family member from his previous marriage and it's lime green... you can see a bit of it. Very Laugh In.
And here's where the ladder leads to -- we have a couch, a dresser and lamp and 2 twin mattresses up there. We had a well dug and came up to figure out where the pump to the house should go. I enjoy having to figure out how to work things out without relying on running water -- you realize just how much of it we waste, even when conserving here at home. Ditto getting everything done before last light, and occupying ones self without electronics day and night.
Here's how I make coffee (yes, we have gas heat and a gas stove, but no fridge. It we didn't have the gas heat it would all be impossible since it's so high up and almost goes down to freezing at night, even in the summer).
That makes the best coffee too! And here is the little bit of water we use to wash dishes. Heat up creek water in a galvenized bucket on the stove and pour and inch or two into both sides. One is for washing and one is for rinsing. By the end the both look the same. I have a tiny counter to work with, and we keep food in an ice chest. In the winter we can then store that outside because bears are in hibernation. If we did that in the summer it would be an invitation. That said, in the years before my husband had this cabin, he and his very amenable then wife would camp on this land, with those cold temps at night (and no sink or john)... with an infant and a 3 year old. They never had an encounter with a bear. Still, I don't know how they did it. The cabin is a luxury compared to that. With the water so scarce in Colorado and the laws changing it is good to have dug the well while we still can. And we may add on to this house, or begin renting it out, and it'll be good to have water for dishes and showering someday. But I do welcome the opportunity to sharpen my skills and live more easily with much much less.
It's not that hard for me to go from the modern world to hauling water from a stream and living by candlelight. Oprah has had two or three shows since January with families that almost collapse to have no TV or internet for only 7 days -- not just the kids but the family. It really is cause for alarm. With the way the world is today, anything could happen. I love my 60' flat screen and use my ipod every day, but I could live -- and live happily -- without them. Could you? Truthfully, how many notches could you bump down and do OK with if you had to?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Oh, hello. How are all of you, dear bloggy pals? I have missed you. This is my second try at this post. I had written two paragraphs of all that I'm doing and it reads like a page from the mind of Sybil so I deleted it. It made my head hurt to reread it, so I can't imagine it would be any fun for anyone else to read either, lol.
What I want to say is that I'm back from a weekend seminar. It was good, but we never left the hotel and worked late into each night. Seemed like I was gone for about 10 days. Glad to be home, sleeping in my own bed tonight. Tired as I was, I had to move the bod -- felt like the Tin Man from sitting in those hotel conference straight back chairs. I managed to take a bike ride around The Park and fed a squirrel or two, but the purpose of the ride was to burn calories not stop every 50 feet for 10 minutes coaxing wildlife to eat what I brought them... so I routed myself around the medical center and returned home, a bit less creaky for the exercise.
In one week I'll be on a plane to NYC to stay for a week. I've been taking classes for three years as a distance learner at a place there and I'm flying in to attend a last intensive and "graduate." There's an abundance of potential distractions in the short time before I go (a wedding Friday, a follow up to the seminar next Sunday), but I want to do only what's a priority and carve out the time for contemplation. There's notes to write to special classmates, gifts to wrap, packing to do, and bills to pay... and if I can keep the list to just that, I just might get it all done and arrive in one piece.
One exciting thing-- I'm meeting with my niece who lives in NYC and her fiancee to go over their wedding ceremony. They're getting hitched on July 25th at my sister's/her mother's house in Vermont, and I'm not only writing their ceremony but will be able to legally marry them.
I just have to make sure that I don't cry all through it. Much to my own surprise, I'm a total sop. Apparently my identity as a saavy, sophisticated, seasoned, street-wise city girl is a sham when it comes to something even the tiniest bit sentimental. I even cry at AT&T and Coke commercials. Madison Avenue's dream demographic... easily manipulated when they start tugging heartstrings. I think I can draw the line at Hallmark movies (um, because I don't really watch them?).... or at least at Hallmark cards.
Seriously though, I'm not one of those people who can talk through tears. And instead of an adorable quivering chin, I lean more toward what's known as the ugly cry. Oh yeah. Any shred of attractiveness I have is compromised by this charming combo. This is one reason I eloped. Didn't even have witnesses (I think the photographer and the driver signed the license).
I intend to practice the ceremony in privacy at home, with full on visualization... let the tears come until there are no more and I can perform this thing like a professional.... who IS the aunt of this fabulous person and her fabulous to-be husband. I mean, there will be some sentiment because of our relationship that I can't get around. And that's fine with me. Somehow I managed to get a grip on this in myself when I had to give my father's three eulogies. I got choked up, appropriately so, at only one point on one of them, and recovered quickly. That is what I'm aiming for come July.
I guess that title would make my third post in 2009 to bemoan how fast time is flying. That's hardly innovative. I know we all think that from time to time, but it really seems to be going-going-gone in the last 6 months. To top it off, yesterday I was astonished to discover that Monday is Memorial Day.
We've had the Colorado trip on the books for months and since the trip is about a scheduled meeting with they guys putting in our water pump, I wasn't thinking of it as a holiday get away. Now, I am.
As I mentioned last time, I've been not posting here much at all (though I manage to get out posts every other day on Adventures in Nature) and I haven't been making the rounds to the blogs I am following... or if I've read something, I haven't commented... this is ONLY because I've been jamming night and day on the last 6 weeks of school and preparing for graduation. I've not been able to do much but that... have skipped many of my normal volunteer shifts at both the Wildlife Rehab Center and the zoo... you know it has to be bad for me to give up that and reading your blogs!
I'll be back in a week, and things continue at breakneck speed fitting everything I'd do in the month of June in during the first two weeks, as I leave for NYC on June 15th. I will do a three day intensive at a retreat center in Riverdale with my classmates, and then come back into the city to graduate on Saturday June 20th. My husband will fly in for that. Then Monday morning after that I will be at city hall bright and early to register with the state of NYC.
In less than 30 days, I will be marrying my fabulous niece and her wonderful fiancee (who just happens to be from Houston, by complete serendipity). So it's not going to settle down for a few months.
Regardless of how busy things have been, on Monday I will be thinking of all those men and women who have served our country with deep gratitude in my heart.
When I was a kid and through my college years, the summer was determined of course by the school year. But I now associate the beginning of summer with this weekend, and the end with Labor Day from living two decades on the East coast, where people head to the Hamptons, the Cape, the Jersey Shore, Newport, etc... each weekend between those bookends.
I'm curious -- are these dates the marker of summer's beginning and end the same where you live? In Houston, it's summer 6 months of the year...
It's going to be a busy week, just like it was last week. I am bearing down on a project, with a final deadline of next Friday. Not posting much except on Adventures in Nature right now.
I have many things to get done before next weekend, when we'll be leaving for the cabin high in the Rockies for about a week. It's a real log cabin, only about 650 sq. feet. There's no running water or electricity, though there is a generator we use. We get water in big blue jugs from the nearby stream and boil it for washing and the like, and bring drinking water.
There is a normal kitchen sink, a bathtub/shower and toilet, but there is no water in them. To shower, we boil water in a galvenized bucket on the gas stove and pour it into a bladder through a funnel and hang it in the shower area. It has a tube attached with a cheap plastic "shower head" that really looks like the thing on the end of a watering can. You then jump in, turn a little lever on the bladder to let the water run out, get wet and turn it off while you soap up. This is where I start to shiver and I have actually pulled a muscle or two shivering. But somehow it's all part of the adventure. Then turn the lever again to rinse off with the hot water.If we had to pee outside, I would have drawn the line. But as long as I am inside for that, all the rest is fine by me.
It's nice to get up when it's light, and work with the sense that you only have till last light to get it all done. Some nights I ask DH to not turn on the generator, and we live by candlelight. I don't ever bring up our portable DVD player, though usually one night on the visit I may plug in my little ipod with speakers, to listen to some quiet music. But the silence is so profound, you almost feel like listening to it.
Sometimes you will hear a lone wolf howl --or, more eerie-- a pack. And it's utterly black. Inside the cabin and out. I mean you can't even see your hand if you wave it wildly in front of your nose... And the night SKY... the stars! I wrote about what they look like HERE. (It's beauty is beyond my capacity to attempt to describe again).
My husband has owned the land for many years, and had the cabin built by some loggers who asked if they could do it for a very low price, on their free time over one summer. Before that he camped on the land... when his kids were infants! His ex-wife had to have been a good sport. I'd be terrified to hear the howling wolves and think about bears being somewhere in that inky blackness on my own, let alone with not one but two babies.
We've finally invested in digging a well, as Colorado water laws are changing (apparently all that snow and mountain run off aside, water is not so plentiful there anymore). They had to go over 700 feet down for water, and I'm hoping it's not the rusty color that you find in those parts. So this trip is to oversee the installation of a pump. Once it's done, I will be able to brush my teeth without using bottled water to splash onto the bristles and rinse. I can wash dishes, shower and flush the john without a complex dance of many steps. Important if we ever want to start renting it out. But I'm kind of sad about it. I like getting a taste of how our ancestors had to do things; it sharpens the saw, so to speak, and that both makes me not so helpless when tornadoes or hurricanes or blackouts occur and more appreciative of the modern conveniences that we totally take for granted.
I tell myself we can still go to the stream, and light the candles and go back in time once again.
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Above, an ad for the haircut I did for a salon when I was about 19. Sigh. That was many moons ago.
Gee these are small, click on pic to open larger:
Now this one below is more like it (size wise)....
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