Category Archives: holiday
The calm before the storm
Something woke me early this morning and the lake was beautiful. Flat and calm, touched with the early morning sun – I had to run out and try to capture the peacefulness.
Of course last night I had thrown just about all my clothes in the washer, so everything was wet. No problem, I’ll just scoot out in my pj’s, who’s to see? It’s 6:30 in the morning, Alabama time.
The lake had that early morning stillness about it. Nothing to break the reflections, soft insect and bird noises. No people sounds.
The water looked so inviting, it made me want to run and jump off the dock. But yet there was something of a classical painting about it, and I didn’t want to disturb the quiet serenity.
All too soon the lake will be churning with weekenders and holiday visitors, and we won’t see this peacefulness for several days. So I turned to tiptoe back to the house. Then sprinted as I heard my neighbor bellow hello to a friend pulling up in their driveway.
Drats. Hope my pjs looked like walking shorts!
Things I learned while riding my bike
On this Memorial Day weekend, as part of my new focus on fitness I took the bike out for an hour and a half ride over the back roads nearby. I wasn’t out to find anything particular; just to see what I might see and enjoy the morning. Here’s what I learned:
- That it’s hard to see the potholes when you’re tearing down a hill wearing sunglasses.
- That for every long uphill you can hope for an equidistant downhill.
- That if you continue forward, even when you don’t know where you are, you’ll find your way.
- That these bits of wisdom apply to more than an adventure on a bicycle.
You think?
Mother's Day flowers
My Mom loved flowers – any kind of flowers – but mostly she liked wildflowers. You know, the kind you’d find on the side of the road or in the woods, or peaking out from behind rocks in the mountains, leaning into the breeze on an ocean coastline. The unexpected, the often missed, the little known. The ones you just catch a glimpse of, that you have to buy a book from the local bookseller to identify. Though we usually bought her a flats of petunias for Mother’s Day, perhaps her favorite gifts would be the grubby handfuls of flowers we’d bring home from the woods where we played as kids.
I remembered memories of our tramps in the woods yesterday as I drove on our neighborhood country roads. I passed a bunch of trillium in full bloom. Mom especially enjoyed these flowers because they were (in those days) so rare. Yesterday, thinking of her, I turned around and went back for a photo.
And I’ve also noticed that the marsh marigolds are blooming along the swampy stream beds. Once when I was a pre-teen I brought her a bucket or two filled with these plants, dug up from the bogs along the lake we lived on. We planted them along our own shoreline, but I don’t remember whether or not they flourished there. I do remember how happy I was dragging home the heavy, bog splattered buckets, my legs black with wet peat, arms aching, back straining, bringing them home to my Mom who was delighted, as always.
So this Mother’s Day morning Katie and I went out in search of a photo of a marsh marigold. It was 36 degrees, but the sun was shining as I scrambled down a bank to a small but overflowing stream. Mom would have loved it, there were golden flowers galore. But a chickadee, a titmouse and a robin were very upset that I had invaded their own mother’s day celebrations, so I snapped my pictures as quickly as I could, then returned to Katie who was waiting in the car.
So Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I’d send a bucket of marsh marigolds to you, but FTD doesn’t deliver in heaven.
Valentine's Day Conspiricy Update
I thought you’d all like to know how the Valentine’s Day caper turned out. I received a phone call from the 94 year old Aunt V. on Saturday evening. Her voice was much stronger, louder and even higher pitched than normal. She was excited. Why? She said she had received twelve Valentine’s Day cards! She couldn’t remember a Valentine’s Day so wonderful since she was a little girl. She hadn’t sent any out so she didn’t understand why she was getting so many, but “this is a Valentine’s Day I’m never going to forget!” She started rattling off who had sent her what cards, describing them, and the photos of families and children that were included in several. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but that’s the way it was supposed to be.
Monday was Presidents’ Day, so no mail. I stopped over to visit her on Tuesday and she was all aglow. She had a total of SIXTEEN Valentines by then and she was still excited. She has them in a stack on the table next to the chair she sits in most of the day. She gave them to me to see, one by one, while she told me who it was from and how long it had been since she’d seen some of the people. She pointed out the faces of little children in the photos and told me who was who (even though I knew) and read me bits of the notes people had written inside.
Then she tucked them all back into their pile and placed them gently back on the table. “I like to take them out and just look at them.” she said.
It was a small thing for each of us to do. The result? Priceless.
Happy Valentine's Day…
…from the Sweet One…
and us.
Valentine conspiracy
My husband and I have a 94 year old aunt who is doing really well living alone but who is needing a bit more assistance with things as her eyes begin to fail. This winter is becoming increasingly long as she can no longer see enough to drive and even reading is difficult. So her life revolves around television, phone conversations and visits from family and friend.
Often when I visit I go downstairs with her to get her mail and I see the disappointment when all that emerges from her box are junk mail fliers and the inevitable bills for health insurance and her phone. Though rarely is there anything interesting in her mailbox, she continues to hope and this is where the Valentine Conspiracy comes in. I have contacted almost all her family members, by phone and email, suggesting that we all send her a valentine this year…independently and “spontaneously” spread over the entire week…even going into next week. It doesn’t matter if they arrive late; what matters is that they arrive.
So far the response has been wonderful. Everyone says they will send her one. This could amount to a dozen or more valentines arriving in her mailbox. When she wasn’t really expecting anything. I hope she smiles as she opens them, smiles as she reads them, and smiles later on when she sees them piled beside her chair. Such a simple thing, so easy to generate a smile, so important to take that bit of time to make it happen.
So of course my message is that everyone can take a moment and look around. Is there someone you know and love who might be having a difficult time with the long winter? Who is a bit lonley? Perhaps home bound? Who feels perhaps that there isn’t much to look forward too? Doesn’t matter how old or young they are; if you know someone that could use a lift, send a valentine this week.
It’s only Tuesday, there’s plenty of time.
Bye bye Christmas
We packed up Christmas in our handy dandy new red and green tubs. No more digging through dusty boxes in the basement looking for stuff. All the tubs are labeled. I don’t believe I’ve ever been this organized!
But with the last tub put away I felt a slight twinge. A bit of sadness that happens every time I take Christmas down. I already miss the lights and festivities, the cards from family and friends, the visits, the music. I know, I know. It’s only been a couple weeks. But still.
Here are some last glimpses of Christmas past:
Pretty lights…
multi generational guests…
brilliant flowers…
and the fixings for fattening food!
Sigh. Just going to have to wait till next year I guess.
Mall walking and blood letting
I’ve been going out to the mall every day in an attempt to increase my exercise level. You know…from zero to anything. The mall is about 4 exits down the freeway from me but it’s worth the drive; it’s in the shape of a long oblong track, with stores on both sides and it’s just over a mile around! How perfect is that! It’s indoors, well lit, warm and there are lots of other people there in the mornings doing their walking. There’s lots of stuff to look at, and if you turn around every other lap you get to see all the store windows! I leave my wallet hidden in the car so I know I can’t spend anything.
One of the funniest things I’ve seen on my walks so far is a young man, walking ahead of me with his slightly heavier young friend. The T shirt hanging large on his slight frame was filthy dirty. His baggy dirty jeans hung low across his hips, puddling over his untied huge and ratty sneakers. The baseball cap worn backwards over his longish greasy hair did nothing to improve the total image. His friend was dressed in an over sized jacket and sloppy jeans, dirty sweatshirt, and backwards baseball cap. They were both eying all the young hip looking girls who were out “shopping”. What was written on the back of the first guy’s T shirt? “Ralph Lauren.” Somehow I’m thinking Ralph would be aghast.
Yesterday I was scheduled to give blood. The Red Cross called and I made an appointment for their blood drive up in Flint. New Year’s Eve morning I headed up there, arrived about 15 minutes early. Turns out I wasn’t on the list of people with appointments, even though the Red Cross had called the day before and confirmed the appointment. So I had to wait in line with all the people that had walked in. Ticked me off, but whatever. Then during the pre-donation interview I was asked for my SS number. I rattled it off and was told by a frowning nurse that I was incorrect. “That’s not your Social.” she said. Well…I said…yes it was. Turns out someone had entered my information with one digit off. But that caused a long argument between me and her as I tried to convince her I knew what my number was. More time ticked by. Finally I get to donate blood. But the nurse can’t get the needle in the vein. The blood won’t flow. She tries for a long long long time! She gets it started, walks away, then it stops and she has to poke around some more. Another nurse comes to help. More poking around. Other donors come and go. I’m still on the table. “Hold your arm this way, or that way.” Nothing helped. This is very weird as I normally have no trouble donating. Eventually they decided that there was a clot somewhere in their needle and they gave up. I think I was on the table for about 45 minutes. I returned home with a big bruise in my arm and a sad feeling that after all that I didn’t really get to donate. But I tried, and I’ll try again next time, hoping that this was just an anomaly and not something that will happen again.
Meanwhile I’m looking for a yoga class and considering starting again to play with the local community band. I’ve decided I should use this unemployed time to do some fun things even if I have to drop them once I find a job.
Here’s to a great new year, productive and fun, for all of us!
Happy New Year's Eve!
Ten years ago we were all sitting on the edge of our sofas watching the coming of the new millennium. Everyone was worried about things that turned out to be nothing at all, computers crashing, systems going down, electrical grids collapsing. Most of us were totally ignorant of what was going to be truly scary in the first decade of the new millennium; things like terrorism, war and economic collapse.
May the next ten years find us enjoying more peace! Katie says if we were really smart we’d live like she does…happy play, naps, good meals and tummy rubs! The world would be a better place if we all took her advice.
Be safe tonight everyone!
Change Is Hard 