Rainy Day Mornings

Generally I’m not a rainy day person, but yesterday morning was like a moist warm blanket wrapped around me. I woke up with a little ditty in my head about rainy day mornings, but then I realized it was probably Gordon Lightfoot’s “Rainy Day People” instead. As I ventured out to fill the bird feeders, I could almost hear the ground sucking in the moisture like a straw, and I swear earthworms were down there, dancing for joy, wiggling their little bodies to the beat of the raindrops.

It's amazing how a change in the weather (up, down, wet, dry) can change our mood so quickly. After so many +90 days, a day in the 60's had me gazing at the sky, sure a snowflake or two would fall at any moment. I put my list of chores on the afternoon "powerplay", and snuggled under a blanket with the doggies for a bit. It wasn't just my reaction to the weather, either. A former co-worker txt'd me that it felt like a "Moongate" day - our favorite Asian delivery restaurant on blustery days at the office.

Autumn is not only on the horizon - it is flying in the wind, clinging to the leaves on the trees and resting on our skin. Turtlenecks and corduroys will soon replace capris and tank tops in the closet. Another year is edging to a close. It's been a busy one, to be sure, with lots of memories to treasure. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited to see what's in store on the flip-side of the calendar!

Are You Over-Sensitive?

I was chatting with a friend today about our both being over-sensitive. Why is it that situations and moments many years past still haunt us and hurt as much as they did when they first happened? I'm a pretty strong person, able to juggle lots of responsibilities and can be depended on for most anything. But just one negative comment can send me crashing to the emotional floor. Strange, isn't it?

I remember when I was in school and a "friend" thought my hair would look nice pulled back with barettes. We couldn't afford hair barettes, so I used two shiny red buttons with bobby pins to sweep my hair back on the sides. When she saw what I'd done, she laughed at me and embarrassed me in front of others. To this day, I can't forgive the pain, or the humiliation, she caused.



Then there was the time when I was in the Air Force and someone called me out on a phrase I'd used since my youth... "I hope how soon..." (Like, "I hope how soon Christmas comes" or "I hope how soon these clothes dry"...) Her telling me, in a not-so-nice way, that the phrase didn't make sense and what was I really trying to say, was enough to make me feel stupid and back-woods. It's too bad, too, because she ended up missing out on all the positives that having a friend from a different part of the country could bring.

There are many more such incidents that cause pain to me, or others, because someone thought their opinions or ideas were superior. But although I know it was a reflection on them and not on me, the scars are still there. Bullying has been around since the beginning of time. Too bad that we haven't been able to overcome it.

Where Has August Gone?

Good Morning Monday! It is August 27^th!!! Unbelievable.  Where did the month go? This whole summer I had so much going on, I can identify a month with something that I did that made it breeze by – May was rocks in my yard (and in my head); June was deck (and body) demolition; July was outa town, outa state, outa sight! August seems to have been a blur… star time, friend time... and it flew by just as quickly.  

I always thought that burning the candle at both ends, as I did in that "other" life I led, was the reason every day zoomed past without my taking the time to enjoy, relax or reflect. I'm fortunate to have that time now - an hour here and there to savor a book or puzzle, watching the birds at the feeders, playing (or vegging) with the doggies - so much time to enjoy just living, and yet I can still see the calendar pages flipping like they did in the old cartoons to indicate passage of time.

I'll never forget the feeling I had the spring between 6th grade and 7th when I stood in the elementary school playground and looked up at the junior high a block away thinking, "Oh no, I'm only halfway there! Six more years!" Little did I know, from that moment on time would speed up and speed by so fast that, until now, decades later, I'd be trying to lasso the remaining moments of my life...

Whether I have an hour remaining or a million hours, my time will be spent in awe and gratitude for the life I've lived, the moments I'm now experiencing and the anticipation of what's to come! Live Well!

Family Time

In mid-July, I was able to travel home to West Virginia to spend some time with my sisters and their families. What a wonderful time it was! I stayed almost two weeks - long enough to enjoy the routine of just hanging out yet not so long that the brothers-in-law were ready to oust me (almost, but not quite.)



Billy & Rita

Myron & Skippy

Here are pics of my beautiful sisters:

Rita, Florance, June, Rosa

Rita, June, Rosa, Florance

We spent a lot of time around Florance's large dining room table playing Scrabble, Banana Scrabble, Sequence, and a few other games. One afternoon my nephew Christopher invited us to grill hot dogs and marshmallows at his fire pit, something that's become a bit of a tradition. The kids, and grown-up kids, had a fun time.


Haven, June and Rosa

Mayra

Sarena, Haven, June, food




 


Little cousin Lakin and Florance

Drew and Crissy





Because of the rare weather phenomenon call a derecho that had gone through the area the end of June, there were many downed or broken trees on Muddy Creek Mountain, where most of my family lives.



Look at the way this one was split - it looks almost like mini-blinds:



Such devastation, and although there are thousands more trees in an area this dense, it still looks like something broken and torn. The smell of leaves and branches dying was deeply pungent.  So much clearing to be done on the land.

Rosa kept us well stocked with peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge and seafoam candy. If you haven't had seafoam, you're missing a rare treat. Some call it divinity, but it is lighter with a distinct brown sugar flavor.

You can't go home without being a part of the wildlife.  From the animals on Rosa and Billy's farm to the perpetual kittens at Florance's, there's always someone to cuddle. 

That is, of course, unless you come too near Billy's honeybees or Myron's hornet's nest:



From sunrise on the way to West Virginia, to sunset on the way back to my beloved Colorado, the trip was a delight!

And the very best part of all was falling back into the arms of my Douggy and those two howling hounds!

The 1st Day of Summer

So much has happened since I last posted the end of January! I'd thought that time would slow down when I no longer was burning the work/social calendar at both ends. It's amazing, though, that time clicks off quicker than ever. I'm so busy with projects and outings and getaways, that the end of a week comes and goes without my even realizing it.  I used to wake up saying to myself - "What day is it...Tuesday? No, it can't just be Tuesday!"  Now I awake thinking - "It's Thursday already?!?" Life is all about perspective, isn't it?

I'll do a little pictorial timeline of the past few months:

We headed off to Oahu, Hawaii the first week of February with Doug's sister and husband, spending a week there in the sun and surf. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and my retirement from 30 years at my job.

It was beautiful and unlike anywhere we'd ever been. We stayed at the Ko Olina Resort, enjoying the relaxing lagoons and warm, sandy beaches. The North Shore was our favorite spot, from huge crashing waves to succulent garlic and coconut shrimp. We were also fortunate to have family and friends there and had great times with them!




According to the calendar, I spent a lot of time eating out! Breakfasts at the Pancake House with my buddies Laurie and Maureen and at Mimi's with my John Denver group of ladies. Lunches with MDA friends, Georgetown with my JD buddies, and a volunteer luncheon at Cherry Creek Nursing Center.

Dinners were the best though! Dinner with Phil and Sarah before she and I enjoyed an evening of Canvas and Cocktails - a gift from her for my birthday.

Dinner with Rob and Vanessa before going to the play "American Idiot", a gift from him for my birthday.

The annual St. Paddy's Dinner at our friends', the Sonne's, preceded by a mini-Puzzle Pod with LaVon and Cyndi! (Earlier Pod, same pals!)

I spent time playing with Barbies this spring - making new clothes, sharing with my friend Carole, sprucing up the Barbie closet. All this was in conjunction with painting and reorganizing the '70's-themed guest room, or what I lovingly call my Marcia Brady Room. I was in the middle of working on it when my heart throb from the 60-70's, Davy Jones, passed away. Surreal to be listening to his music, seeing his pics and hearing of his life as I was working on the room.

March saw the excitement of my son, Phil's engagement to Sarah George, on the first day of spring at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Since then, there have been fittings, conversations and lists filling our lives.  The wedding is set for September 21st, the first day of fall!

As the weather turned nice, I began working outside and went crazy with all kinds of projects. The first was to put a rock border around my tree, to match my neighbor's landscaping (as seen in the background of this pic.)

Once I got started, however, there were more and more places that wanted to be bordered, like under Hector (who recently got a haircut and now has nice grass growing under him)

and then along the front walk in the flower bed, and not to be outdone, around the mailbox in front. Almost 2 tons of grey rose rock was hand loaded and transported, in numerous trips, in my little Sebring, Breezy. My elderly neighbor Marvin helped with the unloading and is standing at the ready when I break down and add a new rock garden along the edge of the yard (along the road in the background). Breezy is all for being done with that project!

And then came the deck...we knew it needed replacing, as the boards under our feet were feeling quite mushy. A few places had been patched, but the time had come to just deal with it. Originally, we thought we could just take off the flooring and put on new boards ourselves.  Unfortunately, bad wood, termites and moisture had beat us to it...this is what the underpinning looked like...

After several quotes that didn't fit our budget and not much confidence that we could do it ourselves, my friend Jody suggested I have her son take a look at it. He is redoing it using pressure-treated wood and a nice composite for the floor.

We're thinking it might all be completed today!

Another project I found interesting and took up was to crochet a birthing mat for women in Uganda.  My friend Laurie mentioned that she and a group from her church were doing it, so I decided to help out.  It starts with plastic grocery bags, cut in three sections, then connected and rolled into balls of "plarn" (plastic yarn).  Then using a large crochet hook, make the mat 4' x 6'. WOW! Quite a project, taking several hundred bags and probably an equal number of hours.  It was very rewarding, though, to hand the completed mat back over to her for shipment to Uganda in June.

Here is how it looked at the beginning of the process,


















and this is the finished product!

In early May, Doug and I took a little weekend jaunt to Boston to visit our good friend Cathy. Out on Friday, back on Monday and a lot of sites in between. We saw our friend Rich Trzepacz and spent an afternoon with his sister/husband in Maine. We even tipped our hats to The Bush Compound in Kinnebunkport.

That Saturday, we went to see a Red Sox/Orioles game at Fenway Park - home of THE best sweet Italian sausage dogs! Doug's talked them up for years, and Cathy always brings packs of sweet Italian sausages with her when she comes for July 4th each year. They are just as good - no, better - than he declared!

The Orioles beat the Sox 8-2, which was OK with us, because Doug has loved the Orioles since he was a kid. 
After the game, we stopped in at Sweet Caroline's near the Park to catch the Kentucky Derby.  I had more than my share of Mint Juleps! Grand time all around!

We also had time for a little camping outing a couple weeks ago.  We shared some huge laughs (and wine) with our friends. Of particular note was the game Boochie Ball.

This stance of Mike Abbott's was over the top, for sure!

So there's the past five months in a nutshell. It was just as fun putting together the pics and remembering the moments as it was experiencing them in the first place.  Life is to be lived, and Doug and I are doing our best!