Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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Like being on another planet

I’ve settled into southern living a bit, at least the part about living alone in a small house on a lake.  Sometimes I forget that I’m way down south.  But today, stopping at the local Piggly-Wiggly grocery store for a couple of bottles of water, I realize I’m no longer in Michigan.  For sure.  First off, the check out people are standing around waiting for someone to need them, and secondly their discussion centers on the after holiday sales.  As in “I’m fixin to get me some of that turkey spam that’s on special today.”

I smile and go find the water, then get in line behind a lady with 20 cans of cat food and a bottle of carpet spot remover.  I’m not going to think about that one too much.  Last night I went through a fast food drive through up in Alex City, the nearest “big” town.  I asked for a diet drink.  They didn’t have diet, so I asked for iced tea.  It came sweet.  Once again I forgot I was in the south.  🙂

Anyway, I’m fixin to go to Atlanta to pick up my brother who is flying “home” from a week of work in Minnosota.  He’ll probably have acquired a northern accent but I won’t laugh at him.  Ya’ll know how those northerners are.

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Wordless Wednesday a little late…and not wordless…

I’m sitting in the parking lot of the Dadeville Public Library in Alabama, connected into their wifi.  It’s just noon here and the Methodist church is playing the most lovely carillon music just a couple of blocks away.  I wonder if the people coming and going notice how nice it is.  I doubt the blond with her phone attached to her ear just now even knows it’s playing.  Silly people.

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The flowers are camellias that I cut from Mom’s bushes near the house.  It’s still fall down here in Alabama!  Home soon for a day, then on to DC!


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Still in Alabama

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I’m still in Alabama…sitting at a coffee shop in Auburn checking email.  I’ll be back home for one night and then I’m going to Washington DC  for a few days to meet with Transportation Secretary LaHood!  I’m excited to get to speak about our safety issues to someone so high in the administration.  I’m sure I”ll tell you more about that later.  For now I’m just relaxing and enjoying being with family.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Katie and I want to wish all of you a Very Happy Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for and your friendship is high on our list, right behind family and health!  We hope each of you has a special holiday with those you love.  I’m going south to visit family and won’t be home for over a week.  Don’t worry though, Katie is going to party it up with her Dad!

Katie 2041


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Thanks Ludo!

Gee Ludo, while your Mum is away you have been very busy!  Katie got a package in the mail from you, and she was very excited!  She begged me to open it, but I told her she had to wait until her Dad was home so he could see what it was too!

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This morning we opened it up.  First out of the bag was the Pedigree Meaty Sticks which Katie was VERY interested in sniffing…until she heard me rattle the paper wrapping a bit as I struggled to extract……a PINK doggie stuffie!!!!!!

WELL!  Katie grabbed that even before I had time to take the tag off and ran off with it!

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Notice the eyes.  She’s saying “This is MY toy and you can’t have it!”  She’s not so much about sharing.  I chased her around a bit trying to get a good picture, and steal it from her to cut off the tag.

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Katie 2101Finally I got it away from her, cut off the tag, and made her take a picture with the toy so you all could see how cute it is. (The toy, not Katie.  Katie, as you can tell, is mad at me.)

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As soon as I released her from her sit, it was back to this:

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She hasn’t even noticed the other bag of treats, the “Scrumptious Rolls of Red Fish!”  The bag says:  “Remember – dogs who don’t get lots of fresh water get poorly, grumpy and sad!”  True!  The bag made me smile, but then I haven’t opened it yet for that wonderful aroma of fish –  “dried in the cool Icelandic air, these delicious rolls are made with 100% red fish skin to make the perfect fishy treat for your dog.  What a lucky dog!”  Katie is going to LOVE these!  As soon as she stops playing with pink doggie that is!

Thanks Ludo!

Katie 2092


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PS: a little bit of this and a little bit of that

For those of you interested, here is a link to an Ann Arbor review of the concert I went to.  If you scroll down to the bottom you can see Dr. Nel play the piece he played for the encore.  The one that made me cry.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/aaso-review/

And for those dog lovers out there, Katie and I were in obedience class tonight.  She was “on” right from the start, though she threw up right at the beginning of the heeling.  Don’t know what that was about, she was fine the rest of the class.  During the long 3 minute sits and longer downs I was standing away from her, arms folded, watching her watch other dogs get up and I thought – “Sometimes I just love you so much Katie-girl!”  She was SO GOOD!

Katie 2076


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Baking with the past

Last night I made cookies.  A new recipe, something I noticed in a magazine the last time I was at the library, all ginger and dark chocolate.  Before I began  blending the butter and dark brown sugar I automatically reached for my “cookie spoon.”  Because I can’t make cookies without the special spoon that has been passed down to me from my mother, and her mother before.

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It doesn’t always happen, but on this evening as I pulled the spoon out of the drawer I thought about my grandmother.   She made the best spice cookies I’ve ever eaten, out of the crumbs of other deserts, probably with this very spoon.  She was born in 1888 and lived to be 94 years old.  She had a hard but  good life, just like most people, and during her lifetime the world changed.  She lived through the depression, feeding her family from the farm, drove a wagon pulled by horses, and learned to drive a car as an adult out in the cornfield.  I’m not sure that she ever truly believed we sent men to the moon.

I guess her life wasn’t anything extraordinary, a woman raising her family through changing times.  It happens everywhere – it’s happening now.  But when I think of the things she witnessed and learned to accept as normal, from cars to telephones to planes I am in awe.  Anyway, the warmest memories I have are of all of us sitting around her big table in the old farmhouse, eating something wonderful that she cooked for us.  And sneaking her  cookies when we thought she wasn’t looking.

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My cookies were great.  But not quite as good as the ones she made from leftover crumbs.  I hope she and my mother are pleased that I still use their spoon.  I think they are.


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Invasion of the fog

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Seems fog is the theme from across the country this week!  We woke up to it today as well.  And it’s not burning away with the rise of the sun, though the weather people said it would be gone by now.  I don’t really mind, it’s pretty in a soothing sort of way.

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Katie was outside in her pen, enjoying the challenge of watching for squirrels in the soupy light while I look for more pretty things in the backyard.

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Here’s one, a beet from my garden that I threw out into the yard for the deer.  The fog has frozen around the edges of the leaves.  So beautiful!

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My computer shows the local weather at the bottom; “Dense fog, 38 degrees.”  I have lots of things I should get done this morning.  But the fog has ways of slowing me down.  And that’s OK.  All the better to notice.

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It’s fun to look for other kinds of pretty now that the leaves have fallen.  If you take the time to look you’ll see pretty is everywhere.  All the time.


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New Park

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It was a beautiful day today, warm and a bit sunny.  So Katie and I went to the park; a new park today, as our favorite one is filled with hunters.  Katie got lots of sniffing in, and we met some other dogs too. Everyone was out to enjoy the last bit of our Indian Summer in November.  They predict snow next week!

We worked a bit on our recall…

Katie 2069…but mostly we just hung out.

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Can’t have a better day than this one was!

Katie 2061


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Things learned

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The things you learn when you drop a 9×13 Pyrex baking pan on a tile floor.

1.  That you can move really really fast while scooping up Sheltie dog to get her away from the shattered glass.

2.  That the glass goes everywhere…and a long way.

3.  That the shapes of the broken glass are sort of interesting; pretty in a sad and dangerous way.

4.  That those little flecks of light on the floor aren’t droplets of water.

4.  That you have to vacuum a whole lot before you don’t hear any bits of glass being pulled up the tube anymore.  And that you will continue to vacuum long after just to be sure.  Cause you’ve got little Sheltie feet to consider.

5.  That your floor was disgustingly dirty.  You just hadn’t realized it prior to today’s close inspection.

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