The Sunday Morning Muse, March 30, 2014

 A snowy morning. Started the day "off the grid" with a power outtage in the township. Luckily it didn't last more than an hour. Got the internet up and running to check on the eaglet  by way of the webcam. Mother Bird was feeding the baby at 7:18 this morning and it was a joy to tune in just at that time. She then carefully returned to her job of keeping the baby and the other eggs warm.

Speaking of warm. Though it is is 32 out right now, it sure was nice to feel 60 degrees late Friday. I went out and trimmed the blueberry bushes.   Maybe spring isn't too far off after all.

Green...it's the color of Spring.

Vanlose Stairway

It's just nice to kick back and listen to Van and Georgie. A rainy cold Saturday night sipping tea and listening to Vanlose Stairway. Gives ya nothin but the blues. Send me some lovin......hold it right there! Don't Move.

The Sunday Morning Muse, March 2, 2014

“The storm starts, when the drops start dropping
When the drops stop dropping then the storm starts stopping.”
― Dr. Seuss

The above makes more sense than the weather forecasting these days.  We went from preparing
for Snowmegeddon II.... to a  winter weather advisory.  But it is snowing NOW and it will snow till
it stops. That is all we really know.

Weekend Mantra

Today's Thought

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." - Judy Garland

Snow, (again) in San Anselmo....

 I re post this every winter. Can't help myself.

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 16, 2014

A cloudy, 10 degree morning.  Snow in the yard has solidified into ice 5 inches deep, cumulative, from these weeks of sleet, ice and snow. The smaller critters in the back yard walk on top...the deer still sink in. Plenty of tracks around the edge of the woods and the dump out back.

Went into the city to Value City Furniture for their President's day sale yesterday, looking for bedroom furniture.  This is something I managed to put off for 3 and a half years...as I've made do with a vintage 1950's set mom and dad bought when they got married.  All mirrors and not enough storage. Very Heavy.

Walking in I was immediately overwhelmed by the size of everything.  Big puffy furniture....  bloated and oversized couches and chairs big enough for 350 pound people.  Huge sleigh beds.... Ass high off the
floor just to get onto them.    Large pictures of Zebras and crazy patterned modern art for the walls.   I just stared with mouth open.  Crazy looking chairs shaped like giant shoes.

Nothing there for me.

Then went up the highway to Ashley Furniture. Another huge place with  BIGGER huge furniture.... Most of it very dark wood.... or Black laquer and super gaudy.   Stuff with mirrors built in.....  or wild 1970s patterns and oddly juxtaposed colors.  Dining room sets you could put in an old mansion. The kind with a dinosaur under the staircase...

Our sales woman was named "Cat."  She had big  Donny Iris type glasses and short razor cut hair and was about  60.  She had wonderful perfume. And perfectly manicured nail tips.

I asked about an oak bedroom set.  Something Simple.  And a headboard to fit a "full" size mattress. She got this strange look and said we have nothing like that here.   Oh...wait.... maybe in the back.....so we walked.   Then walked more,  and there really WAS nothing like that there.

She said "no one" has full-sized beds anymore.  Just queen sized.... or King.   Was I interested in a children's bed?  You want oak?  We really don't have anything with "light" colored wood.  Did you want White?

No.

My head hurt and I was not doing well at this point,  a bit anxious.  So we left.

On the way home, the brother in law said let's stop at the Furniture Barn. (It's a place in the very small town where he lives.  Just a half mile from his house.  The town has one stop light and it sometimes just blinks.)

We walked in the building, which at one time probably was a barn.  The "office" is filled with old pictures of the "original" store.... with vintage cars from the 1950's out front....and a framed roster of  Civil war veterans with some names "from the family"  hanging on the wall.   It is a humble place with  a can of wasp spray on the window......and the clutter of years of business.

I asked the old man for an oak bedroom suite.   He said we'd have to "go upstairs."   So we did.

And way at the back in the corner was a perfect oak chest,  small oak dresser, simple oak framed mirror, oak side table and a simple headboard, that fits both Full and Queen.  And that was all he had in oak.  It is made in the USA, he added.

And I bought it.  In 10 minutes.   Free Delivery.  And he knows where I live. Because he remembered selling me a couch 16 years ago.

I  told him I'd be back soon for a new couch.

My Funny Valentine

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 9, 2013

A snowy, very cold Sunday Morning. Two cats curled up on the bed, and me fiddling with the Kindle, downloading a Ghost detector app. It's been rather isolating these days with the bad weather. Maybe I can talk to the ghosts.

Okay, I'm not that bored. I'm really procrastinating.  I want to start income taxes today.  I do. I really do. I think if I keep telling myself that, then I will do it.  But until then, I'm blogging and ghost detecting and doing all kinds of important things.  Eating a donut. Making more coffee.

It's hard to get out and see people in winter. (Work doesn't count.) Friends check in on Facebook, or leave an email, a text, maybe even a real phone call once in a while.  But short of the people at work, and the people in Lowe's, I am feeling a bit isolated lately.   The basement project continues. The floor wasn't all that level, so we bought "leveler" and leveled it up where the new yoga room is taking shape. It's a project that is making the winter months a bit more bearable. Shoveling snow is not a hobby. Thankfully I have had some help with the driveway, since this is the winter from....well not Hell, but maybe once Hell Freezes over, it can be described as that.

With the Olympics getting underway, I see the athletes enjoying the snow up there in the mountains of Russia.  Hope it works out well for them. Go Team USA.  I shudder with every flip the snowboarders do off the slopes.  Defying the laws of gravity seems like an endeavor that will inevitably result in bodily harm.  I admire the skills, but their fearlessness both impresses me and again, makes me shudder.

My Latest Addiction- TED Talks

There is a stranger in my bed every night. While I snuggle under the covers,  pillowtalk consists of the origins of the universe, the powers of being an introvert, or how to spot a liar. There I am, sacrificing good sleep time, Kindle next to my head on the pillow, listening to a talk on what Facebook and Google are hiding from the world. It's addictive. It's also a great way to feed my brain when I have so little free time to do so. The speakers share ideas worth spreading.

It's also a way to kill time waiting for another life on Candy Crush, my other addiction. (You can only play for free for so long, then you need a friend to send you a life, or you must wait a half hour.) Hey, everyone needs a mindless outlet, too!

It is Enough

I heard this poem by Anne Alexander Bingham on the Writer's Almanac on NPR yesterday. It reminds me of an essay I wrote in high school written with the same sentiments.  I wished I had saved it.  My great uncle, who was a lifelong teacher and flower/animal lover taught me about atoms, the building blocks of life. 
We are all stardust. 

It is Enough

To know that the atoms
of my body
will remain

to think of them rising
through the roots of a great oak
to live in
leaves, branches, twigs

perhaps to feed the
crimson peony
the blue iris
the broccoli

or rest on water
freeze and thaw
with the seasons

some atoms might become a
bit of fluff on the wing
of a chickadee
to feel the breeze
know the support of air

and some might drift
up and up into space
star dust returning from

whence it came
it is enough to know that
as long as there is a universe
I am a part of it.

Cold Ethyl

If this isn't one of the most perverse, bizarre videos made back then, I give up. Alice Cooper, and Cold Ethyl in Refrigerator Heaven.

Happy Birthday Janis

I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks want to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.

Janis Joplin

A Woman Left Lonely

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 19, 2014

A cloudy and bitter cold Sunday morning with just enough snow to be an annoyance for someone without a four wheel drive vehicle. I'm reading the headlines on my Kindle (after taking a break from Candy Crush Saga, Dang that game is addictive.)  It will be interesting to watch the fallout from Bridgegate.  New Jersey
politics is infamous for political paybacks. Takes me back to the Sopranos. Gosh I miss James Gandolfini. It was like losing someone you actually knew when he died.  He was Tony Soprano.

Headlines show the flu in like 40 states now. Next door neighbor is sick.  So far no flu here.  But plenty of other things.  I don't look all that sick but I am sure keeping doctors busy these past few weeks. Now I need an ENT for this ear thing going on.  I was at  the drugstore 3 times a week for quite a while now trying various things. I won't go on about it here, but my ears are still muffled and it is terribly annoying. At least the light fixture above the kitchen table doesn't buzz anymore.  But that may not be true.  It's probably still buzzing but I can't hear it.  

Fire in the Belly

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 12, 2014

Good morning dark, damp rainy world.  It's Sunday once again. The snow has melted away into a damp mess outside and the yard is squishy and full of mole holes. The woods looks haggard, with a few downed or leaning trees, lots of  what I call "weed stalks" and brush that needs cleared. Walking to the dump with the cat litter,  I looked back at the house and tried to imagine the tomato garden,  the 30 foot aerial with morning glory flowers all the way up....the flowers along the driveway....alas, nothing will look pretty again for months. The greenhouse has a leak in the roof, too. Something to fix. Don't really know how yet.

Work begins on the new yoga/quiet room downstairs. I'll update on the progress. Right now it is a clean space with a stack of DriCor subfloor panels on the floor, ready to go. Other homeowner issues have prevailed, so the start as been delayed a bit.  It's always something.

The guy who voiced the Yukon Cornelius character in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer died this week at age 91.  I vaguely remember actor Larry Mann from Bewitched.  The movie is a part of childhood. A classic, that will endure for a long time. We have a lot of reindeer toys and figurines I am still putting away from Christmas. Boxing up the holiday stuff till next year.  Next up, Valentine's Day.

In the meantime, I'm hearing  "gotta get through January, gotta get through February." as I listen to Van Morrison.

NPR is soliciting from listeners the six songs of your life.  I made a submission then spent time reading the others and I was pleased to see so many great songs that I  missed.A lot of Van Morrison fans out there. I picked a song associated with my young years, my school years, college days, young adult life and right now. But after I read everyone else's I wished I could add a whole lot more.  It brought back a lot of sweet memories.

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 5, 2014

A peek under the window blind reveals darkness and nothing much stirring as we await the bone chilling temperatures coming our way across the country.  Newspeople suddenly trade their "farm show" stories and the latest flu numbers for a flurry of weather stories, and the companion stories of.....Check on your elderly neighbors!  Buy Food! Open the cabinets so the pipes don't freeze! And, for the real stupid idiots out there: Don't forget to bring your pets inside. If you are cold they are cold!

Up in Newfie, my friend King Bhumi is caught in the midst of 15 inches of snow, blizzard wind conditions, and now rolling blackouts because of power company problems.  I couldn't live there.  I'm not hardy enough.  That is life or death weather, even more so when you have no power.  I feel for him with his coleman stove and can of stew.

Of course some knuckle dragger, (cue Donald Trump) continues to be all snarky about the bad weather.   That will play well for the rubes at Fox News. Back in the real world it is hardly worth explaining that Global Warming CAUSES extreme weather changes.  The nuance is lost on him.



Normally I don't even waste energy on stuff like this, but this morning I'm just feeling annoyed at things. I just hate all the extra hoops I have to jump through to live my normal routine when the weather gets bad.   Maybe if I were a "kept" woman who always had a driver with a heated all wheel drive vehicle. Or perhaps If I could take a winter escape....  go where the snow could fall as it may as I watch out of a bay window sipping hot chocolate next to a fire, stepping outside only to take a few scenic pictures or a quick, and  I do mean quick, hike just to experience the winter wonderland affect...and retreat right back inside. Then fast forward to spring.

Marijuana is legal for sale in Colorado. This doesn't affect my life one iota, as I do not smoke pot. I don't have a dog in his fight. But I was amused by some of the comments from people who seem pretty upset about it. One woman I heard said, "I don't like this at all....people are going to get all drugged up and go out and start shooting people."  

Oh save us from a state full of gun-toting stoners! Grab the Cheetos! That will hold them off until we get help!

 I coulda really jumped in with." how about drug testing before you can buy a gun? This way we will know if they smoke pot or do any other drugs.  Would that solve it?"   LOL.  My own snark.  But I didn't say anything. It's just so....unnecessary to argue about stuff like this

There will always be people who smoke pot. Legal or not. Good people and Bad people.  There will always be people who kill with guns. Good people and Bad people. That pretty much says it all.

Bye Bye Love

In honor of the death of Phil Everly...