Getting one's feathers ruffled

Are you even listening to me?

I saw this funny picture online, and I just went searching to see if I could find out who took it so I could acknowledge the artist. But no, I couldn't find it at all. It makes me laugh just to look at it and consider just what the birds might be saying to each other. I'll bet some of my readers can come up with some doozies.

When visiting a favorite blog, I saw on the sidebar a website that looked interesting, so I went to visit it. AnvilCloud's blog, called The AC is On, is pretty funny. He recently put up some hospital reports, some of which had me laughing out loud. Here's a short excerpt:

She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.

Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.  

The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor. 

Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities. 

When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room. 

The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed. 

I have seen these sorts of hospital reports before, but these were all new to me. In any event, this website is filled with humorous posts, so I'll be visiting there often. Hope you will also find something to laugh about in this post, too. After all, laughter is the best medicine.
:-)

Nice people in the world

Fox on left, two cheeky chickens on right

Yesterday I received a lovely gift in the mail from one of my virtual friends, Rian. She is a lover of all things feline, and also makes little clay animals. I admired them and she asked if I'd like to have one or two for myself. I said yes, of course, and here they are! The sleeping fox is apparently friends with the chickens, since he didn't bother waking up when I placed them next to him.

Rian's website is here, if you want to visit her and meet her cats as well. Since I've been following her for a long time, I know all the stories about the cats, and how much she's been enjoying her pottery métier. I'm happy to be able to offer a home to these critters.

I have another virtual friend who has sent me numerous gifts over the years, and it always amazes me that there are people in the world who give freely from their heart like they do. I am very blessed indeed. Puts a smile on my face just to think of them.
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Delightful December cards

Birthday cards (top) and Christmas cards (bottom)

I don't send out Christmas cards any more. In fact, I rarely receive any, and the ones I've received this year (along with my birthday cards) all have one important thing in common: they are homemade!!

Not only that, they are gorgeous. And thanks to Far Side of Fifty, who is responsible for the ones on the left, I even received a Christmas letter! I have to say it was a delight, one which I shared with SG, who laughed along with me at the funny parts. Rita at Soulcomfort's Corner is responsible for the card with the candles and the Happy Holidays card in front. I have followed both of these fellow bloggers for simply ages, and they know I am not likely to reciprocate in kind, but they continue to gift me with their thoughtfulness year after year. I am humbled and glad they consider me to be worthy!
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Netiquette

From The Free Dictionary

I had to laugh when I ran across this cartoon while looking for an appropriate image for this blog post about internet etiquette, now also known as netiquette. (I wrote a post about this topic back in 2010, and after re-reading it, I've found that things have changed quite a bit in that time.) That Wikipedia link now mostly addresses cellphone etiquette, rather than blogging etiquette. So it's time for a new post, as we are all netizens, and most of us have blogs of our own.

At least that's what I think as I read the comments left on each of my posts. I have almost 200 followers according to the Google link, and probably others signed up to follow this blog through the email link, which I provided upon the request of a frequent blogger. I follow almost a hundred blogs on The Old Reader, and several others by email. So there are definitely more than a hundred blogs that interest me enough to have any new posts written by any of you to come to my attention.

Fortunately for me, not everybody writes every day, and I don't comment on every post of the blogs I read; if something doesn't occur to me while reading it, I let it go. But I always read the comments that others leave on my blog, and comments left on other blogs (not always, but if the subject is of sufficient interest). I notice the same people who read and comment on my blog often comment on others I'm reading. It's a bit like seeing a note from a friend, and I'm rarely surprised by what is said, but sometimes I learn something new.

It's a rather intimate world, the blogosphere, wide open and somewhat personal at the same time. What prompted me to write this post is to ask whether my regular commenters expect a response from me. I know that many of you whom I follow respond to every comment, either online or privately. Not everybody gives me the option to reply privately, because if I try, some have not put their email out there, so I must go to their most recent post and type in a comment that answers the question.

Some people respond to each comment on line, but I rarely return to an already-read post because of time constraints. I will miss that published reply, unless I really feel the need to find a possible answer to a question I might have asked. What do you do?

Comments are important to me, since I get feedback and know whether or not the subject was of interest to my own personal netizens. But if your post did not require a comment, I might skip it, although I often let you know how much I enjoy your pictures, or learning about a new place, or about the recent events in your life, both bad and good. I've grown to care about so many of you who I will never lay eyes on, people who are as dear to me as family. Gosh, how did that happen? Whatever the reason, I'm glad it did.
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The Vashonistas meet again

Sandi, Jann, Linda, Deb, me, Sally

Last year at the beginning of October, six blogging friends met for the first time at the Lavender Hill Farm on Vashon Island. I wrote about it here. The above picture shows the six of us this morning at the Hardware Store, the same restaurant where we ate breakfast last year. Our gathering was such a success, and we now love each other even more, so here we are one year later, with another three days together at the end of October instead of at the beginning. We even have a tradition to follow: breakfast at the Hardware Store, a visit to the Farmers' Market, and dinner together on Friday night, fixed by our very own Sandi, cook extraordinaire.

Sandi preparing last night's lasagne

Today we went on a couple of new hikes, discovered by Deb, sure to become another tradition: finding places on the island to explore together. The beautiful farm house where we are staying is a joy to come back to, after having been out and about, exploring. The gorgeous views we had of Mt. Rainier are missing this year, since we are experiencing the same low clouds that the rest of Washington state has had for the past two weeks. But it's still beautiful, and the colors!

The Shinglemill Creek trail

The first place we went is called the Shinglemill Creek trail, maintained by the Vashon Maury Island Land Trust, which is dedicated to preserving the land to protect natural habitats on the island. It's a beautiful trail, which descends into a ravine before starting up again. It's got some pretty steep parts, but it's just beautiful, if a bit on the slippery side with all the fallen leaves.

There are steps under all those leaves

After we explored the area, we headed down to a beach where we could look for shells and rocks. Although that was fun, the big excitement was watching an eagle steal a gull's lunch. The gull tried for awhile to get the treat back, but finally gave up.

It's hard to intimidate an eagle

Then we split up, three Vashonistas deciding to do some shopping in town, while three others, me being one, came back to our lovely farm house to enjoy some lunch and get some blogging done. I walked around the grounds, looking for some pictures, and could not resist this stunning display of fall colors taken from the back porch.

It really is that brilliant

When the sun is out, colors sometimes wash out a bit, but when it's overcast, I've gotten some of my most vivid pictures. Today was no exception. I plan to finish this post and head into the kitchen for some leftover lasagne. I'm enjoying myself immensely and will put a post up on my Eye on the Edge post tomorrow morning before we start to pack up and head back home. What a gift these blogging friends are!
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A free-floating kind of day

Diamond-studded lupine plants

Well, I thought I'd probably be skydiving today, with my friends all planning on being available this weekend. But it's going to happen tomorrow, if at all. We got some rain here in Bellingham yesterday, the first in a month, and now the skies are filled with low clouds, making it less than optimal for jumping. Tomorrow might be different. So I went on my usual Saturday morning walk with the Fairhaven walking group, and then headed to the Farmers' Market.

Lovely idea for walking around with a nutritious snack

I bought an heirloom tomato and one of these cones filled with blueberries. I managed to forgive myself for eating them without washing them first and will hope for the best. It was a real treat as I strolled around looking at the smiling faces. In the gym yesterday I heard people exclaiming about how nice it was to have some rain for a change. We're a different breed in the Pacific Northwest.

Crowded market

As you can see by the skies in Bellingham, it got pretty nice for awhile, but then the clouds moved back in. That's fine with me, since my sister raved about a series that I have been stuck watching, Orange Is the New Black. It's a hit series available only on Netflix, so I signed up for the streaming video option, after having given up on the DVD option a while back. There's a free month, so I can stop after I've finished the 13-episode series, but I can see why they offer it: it's not likely I will stop using this with so many totally cool shows and movies available for $8/mo.

I am halfway through, and I do have to fight with myself to get out of the chair and get moving rather than vegetate as I watch one episode after another. I'm enjoying it very much, but darn, I HATE to get sucked into yet another show I can't bear to miss. It's all Norma Jean's fault.

I was sending Norma Jean a message and got to wondering if Siri (the voice personal assistant on the iPhone) made it easy to use ellipses and quotes, and whether it could capitalize certain words. I found this page that made it all clear to me. The short answer is yes, it does all those things and more. While I was at it, I watched the video link that goes to the best funny responses from Siri and had quite a few laughs. When I think about how much the world has changed in the past few decades, I am so glad I've gotten to experience all this. Not to mention that I am writing this to the entire world (potentially) with Blogger. What a world!
:-)

The more things change

This morning's nasturtium flower with dewdrops

This is what happens to me all the time: I was thinking of that phrase, "The more things change, the more they stay the same," and I took a quick look on Google to find the source of the proverb. Turns out it's translated from French (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose) and has been around for more than a century:

The proverb is of French origin and was used by the French novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-90). It also appears in George Bernard Shaw's 'Revolutionist's Handbook' (1903) (From answers.yahoo.com).

Who knew? And more than that, who cares? Well, I do, and there's the rub. I need to find my way through the thicket of comments that I received from my post expressing some dissatisfaction with my blog. Nobody can ever know for certain how one is received, and I learned that for at least a few of my followers, I am NOT boring and repetitive, which was my main concern. That, and the anxiety I have felt lately when writing about my daily life that I am missing an opportunity. Unfortunately, I can't express it any better, since I don't know just what that opportunity might be.

Perhaps the way forward for me is to remember that I can't really make any mistakes here, except by allowing my old ways of thinking and acting to inhibit what's trying to emerge. Writing from my heart instead of from my head is a good start. I'll try to remember that. One thing I know: I won't be writing more often, since every post takes a while to compose and nothing annoys me quite as much as getting lost in a thread, like I did with the proverb above. I frittered an hour away before I could even START writing.

And so what if I get nowhere? I'm going to flail around here for a bit, maybe, and it's possible that I won't get anywhere new. The more things change...

~~~

I've finished my front porch flower garden. I cheated a bit by going to the Farmers' Market today and buying a couple of pre-made gardens. A lady at the market creates the prettiest artistic arrangements, with stuff she's collected from secondhand stores and fills with plants and flowers. One of my purchases is an old basket, maybe it was an Easter basket, and the other is a recycled colander filled with succulents. The basket contains petunias, coleus, and some unidentified flowers, all with lots of growing to do for the summer. I'm enchanted and already enjoy them.

Basket behind, colander in the foreground

When I'm sitting in my favorite chair (where I am composing this post), I can see them through the front window. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and I'm feeling pretty good, after a nice walk this morning with the Fairhaven group, and knowing that tomorrow should be another fine day. I'll be heading down to Snohomish to play in the air with my friends.

The view from my chair

I've still got a pile of books to read, all of which I'm plowing my way through. A couple have been exceptionally good, and a couple didn't grab me at all. Probably just as well. I've got another one waiting for me at the library. Until sometime later, have a great day and stay out of trouble, okay?
:-)

The Vashonistas

Deb, Linda, DJan, Sally, Sandi, Jann: the Vashonistas

While we were at the Vashon Island Farmers' Market this past Saturday, I heard the announcer discussing a fashion show that would be held that evening, with "the Vashonistas" being the name given to the ladies who would model the fashions. I thought it was a perfect name for the six of us, bloggers all who have become fast friends after a wonderful retreat on Vashon Island. (For an extended tour of the farmhouse where we stayed, click here.) I am a little sad that this adventure of meeting five other bloggers, knowing little about each other except from our blogs, is now in the past. Please bear with me as I put up my final pictures from the weekend. I usually don't overload my post with pictures, but I've got no choice. You'll see why.

I was enchanted by the morning light coming through the living room. While standing in the dining room I saw the entire area turn to gold. Those curtains are cream colored except when the morning sun sets them on fire like this. There are also two sitting areas, and here's the one where we gathered Saturday night.

The wood in the lower right foreground is one of the arms of a large couch that seats three comfortably and makes into a bed, if needed. Each of us had her own bedroom, since there are two upstairs, two on the main floor, and two in the basement. During the day, we took full advantage of the covered porch, as you can see:

The gourmet kitchen is all it's advertised to be, and we filled the coffeepot with the provided coffee that would have lasted anybody for a week. We were treated to all kinds of tea, and we also had a wonderful time exploring all the kitchen's nooks and crannies. I didn't get a picture of the pantry, but I fell in love with it.

Everything that anybody could have asked for in order to create a wonderful meal was provided. Sandi gave us meals that satisfied everyone, including me (a vegetarian). I had some chicken on Saturday night, but she was willing to separate it if I had a problem with it. I didn't. As you look at this picture, you can see that we were in very capable culinary hands.

And you can see the actual color of the curtains in the living room: cream. It's evening in this picture and we are sitting down for our last dinner together. We did have a wonderful breakfast on Sunday, too. Since Deb and Sandi had to be at work on Monday morning (the only two not retired), we took one final picture before they left, and I used my tripod to get myself in it, too.

And even with all these pictures, I realized I couldn't leave it at this, so I made a new Flickr folder to put up 27 pictures to share with everyone. If you go to the sidebar under "My Relevant Links," choose "My Flickr Site" and find the folder called "Vashon Island." There should be enough pictures to satisfy anyone who needs to see more. The weather could not have been more perfect, and now I am happy to consider my task done. Oh, yes: I need to make sure all the Vashonista blogs are listed under "Fun Places to Visit," and THEN I'll be done!
:-)

Vashon Island retreat

Deb, Sandi, Sally, Jann (standing), and Linda at Lavender Hill

And me behind the camera! I brought along my tripod, but it was buried deep inside the trunk of Linda's car. The adventure began BEFORE this picture was taken of brand-new "skin" friends. Deb and Sandi drove north from southern Washington in Sandi's car, and Jann and I met at Linda's to drive to SeaTac and pick up Sally, who flew in from Colorado. The four of us set out for the Vashon Island Ferry. We promptly got lost, even though we had a GPS and two iPhones with maps. Getting to that ferry was an adventure in itself! We missed the ferry we thought we would be taking over to the island and, thanks to cellphones, we discovered that the other two got lost, too! They even ended up taking a different ferry that stopped at Fauntleroy ferry dock before going on to Vashon Island. By late afternoon, we all successfully ended up together.

And this farmhouse! It is the most beautiful place I could ever imagine. The late afternoon light is coming through the covered porch and lighting up the fall colors of the trees. You will be seeing more pictures of this wonderful place, but this morning we are waking up, taking showers, and getting ready to go out for breakfast. Back to yesterday: we still had the task of preparing dinner. Sandi brought the food, and three of us were happy to chop and stir, while the other three (one was me) sat and watched with admiration as the dinner took shape.

I went outside and caught this picture of our dinner coming together in this magnificent kitchen. Everything we could ask for, plus more! As we got everything together and sat at the dining room table to enjoy a fantastic dinner with each other, there was never a lull in the conversation. There was not one moment of thinking we were with "strangers." Thank you, Blogosphere! This is better than I could ever have imagined, and we have two more days!

Oh, and did I mention that we have a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier from the living room? We are blessed with perfect weather (if a bit on the chilly side), and lots and lots of adventures to come. Before I post this, I'm going to get some feedback from the others, and then YOU can join us!
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Feeling better today

October roses

Well, I feel almost back to normal today. I went outside looking for something to take a picture of to decorate my blog post, and I saw that there are still some lovely roses blooming in our apartment yard. These are so pretty that it almost makes up for the fact that our daylight is diminishing by more than three minutes per day, every day, as we move inexorably toward the winter solstice.

I spent a pretty uncomfortable Saturday and Sunday, but when I woke yesterday I felt good enough to get back into my routine, but I still didn't feel quite up to snuff. Today, however, I woke feeling much better, so this afternoon my friend Judy and I will go out to see a movie and maybe even have dinner together. I'm pretty sure it was a simple cold, since I never had a fever, but I sure felt awful for awhile. It didn't seem possible to me that I could be so much better so quickly.

At the grocery store today, I mentioned at the checkout stand that I spent the weekend in bed with a cold, and the checker told me she had the same cold: sick for two nights and then waking up feeling pretty good. So it's going around, welcoming us to the fall season. I hope I've been able to keep anybody else from getting it from me.

Sunday night the phone rang about 8:30pm (I was already asleep), and it was Linny telling me what a GREAT time they had at the Drop Zone, making five excellent skydives together, and everything worked so well! She said everybody wondered where I was, and she told them I was sick. Hmmpff! If there had been any way at all I could have joined them, I would have. The least they could have done is not had such a great time without me! (not really)

Our weather has been spectacular for two months now, no rain and lots of sunshine. In fact, we have just had two record-setting dry months here in Bellingham, according to this article in the Bellingham Herald. And next weekend I am heading off to Vashon Island to have an exciting retreat with five other bloggers. I'm really looking forward to it, and of course you will know all about it, too. We're going to be staying at the Lavender Hill Farm on the island. (The link will take you to a photo gallery of this fantastic farmhouse that we're renting for the weekend.) The weather should continue to be good throughout. I've already started to pack. Six women bloggers who don't know each other: this sounds like a formula for a great adventure to me!
:-)

Flowers for Leontien

{{Hugs}}

I am offering this perfect rose from last summer's Farmers' Market to Leontien, a woman I had never heard about until last week, when Theresa from the Run*Around*Ranch invited me to be in on yesterday's surprise for her.

Although I didn't participate, I checked into what was posted yesterday and the surprise bunch of blog posts with flowers for Leontien and am sitting here simply overwhelmed with what I've learned about the power of the blogosphere. Here's a bit of background.

Leontien is battling cancer and has determined that she will fight it with all her might, inspiring three bloggers with the idea of providing a list of blog posts that would make her realize that she is not alone in her struggle. Not having known anything about her until I looked at her blog (Four Leaf Clover Tales), I felt a bit reluctant to participate. Until today. The beautiful and overwhelming flowers and posts that have been created here cannot help but inspire anybody. Please take a look at Nancy's blog called A Rural Journal where you too can join the caravan (she's hosting the gift page) and give Leontien your flower, your hopes, a virtual hug, whatever. As soon as I've finished this, that's where this one is going.

This was all the brainchild of Buttons, who enlisted the help of Theresa and Nancy. I received an invitation to be part of the surprise from Theresa and, as I said, I declined. That said, the power of the blogosphere, of love and hope has given me the desire to spread this to Leontien from any of my own followers who might not have heard about it. At this moment (it changes continually), there are 186 flowers and posts on the site. The inspiration I've gained from a random sampling just fills my heart with joy. I'll spend a bit more time crying healing tears, not only for Leontien, but for all of us who have joined together to spread some love.
:-)

A disconcerting moment

While I was enjoying this beautiful latte this morning, after a thoroughly wonderful walk in the sunshine here in Bellingham, I didn't know that I would be coming home to a really disconcerting moment. When I walked in the door, Smart Guy was huddled over his laptop with a look of concentration that I know better than to interrupt. I tiptoed in and put the groceries on the table. He said, "I'll be with you in a moment." Well, that all seemed normal. But then he said, "I don't want you to freak out, but your blog is gone, it's been removed by Blogspot."

Now this might have bothered me WAY more if it hadn't already happened to a couple of bloggers whom I follow, and it wasn't a terribly difficult fix. That pesky button on the top of blogs that allows you to report blogs as objectionable must be irresistible to some people who want to gum up the works, or perhaps someone who works against the Preserve Galbraith group (which I linked to on my last post) might have decided to do it, who knows?

I logged into Blogspot and had to give them my phone number to receive a text message with a code in it, typed it in, and everything came back to normal. Now we all know that a free service such as Blogspot or Wordpress can make whatever changes or modifications it desires to our sites, and I have already given up on the thought that my four years of blogging material will be archived for the ages. Not gonna happen. I use my blog as a method of keeping track of changes in my life, communicating with my followers, and basically see it as a wonderful tool for keeping my writing chops in good working order.

Some of my blogging friends have moved over to Wordpress because they feel the interface is more stable, but I looked into it and don't think it's any better than Blogspot, just different. And quite a bit more powerful and complicated, which I don't need. My question to you is, does everything seem to be back to normal? A comment will tell me, or an email if you wish (which should be available to you on my profile).

On another matter, the weather here in the Pacific Northwest is simply stunning. I see that my old stomping grounds of Boulder are in the middle of a big snowstorm, the likes of which I remember well. I loved those days, but I am happy as I can be right here in my little corner of the universe.
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Constructing a life

Robert, Leo and Cheetah

I cut Robert's head off, unfortunately, when I took this picture at the coffee shop. I have been friends with Leo for the past two years, a full two-thirds of his life. When his father Robert first brought him in, Leo was just a little guy who cried until he got his way. But then I watched him learn to walk, first holding onto his dad's hand, then staggering over to the rest of us, and we became good friends. He turned three last month and has begun preschool, so I don't see him very often any more. I asked if I could take a picture of the two of them, and Leo insisted that his friend Cheetah be in the picture, too.

The coffee shop is kid friendly and has lots of toys and books that are enjoyed by the patrons' kids. Leo doesn't drink coffee but he sure enjoys the raisins and chocolate chips he begs from the staff. He has recently begun to talk in sentences and I adore reading to him or, more recently, carry on a conversation with him. In fact, I have several friends I met at this coffee shop who have become important to me. The time I spend having my coffee in a comfortable setting has led me to become a "regular." The staff know me and commiserated over my recent theft and were happy to see the iPad return.

It wasn't easy getting up this morning to catch the bus. Because it snowed heavily last night and was still snowing when I walked out the door, it was dark and forbidding. However, I knew I would be happy when I got to town and got to the coffee shop. By the time I finished my morning latte and walked the three blocks to the Y for my class, I didn't even mind the snow and messy sidewalks.

We had a couple of new people show up for our walk on Saturday, and they were wearing these shoes. Have you seen them before? I wondered how they would fare in the puddles and rain, and it turns out both of these wearers had very wet feet before we were done. At least the snow hadn't started yet. Another part of my daily routine is going out on Saturdays at 8:00am to walk with a group that walks much faster than I would on my own. We head around various parts of town, and I've learned of many trails that would have been unknown to me without going out on these walks. Then we have coffee afterwards, and I've met quite a few interesting people.

Everyone who follows this blog regularly knows about my Thursday hikes with the Senior Trailblazers. We hike rain or shine, as I've learned you must do if you want to exercise here in the Pacific Northwest. I've been living here close to four years now, and I realize that I've constructed a new life. In a conversation with my partner, I became aware of the fact that I need a temporal structure to my life, where he needs a spatial one. The need to have a schedule, places to go and things to do -- it's important to me not to simply drift along without a plan or a sense of direction.

So many years of my life were spent unquestioningly going to the office, following a schedule so that my tasks would be accomplished, and it seems I've transferred that need for structure into my life in retirement. Although nobody is going to be bent out of shape (or perhaps even notice) if I don't show up, I don't question whether I will get up, have breakfast, dress and head out for the bus so I can get to town and start my day's activities. I just do it.

The only day that has no pre-set schedule is Sunday, so it's become a free-floating day, unless it's summertime and then I go off to the Drop Zone and join my friends at play in the world of skydiving. Looking at my life and how I've designed it in retirement amazes me. I didn't plan it, but it's now part of who I am and what I do with myself.

The intellectual sense of belonging to a larger community comes from the blogosphere. I try to write something three times a week on this blog and once a week on my other one. The myriad blogs I follow are mostly written by people who stimulate my intellect and send me off in directions I would never have discovered otherwise. I look forward to comments and try to make sure that I leave a comment when a post moves me. I know how important it is to me to get feedback, so I try to be generous with my own.

And just like that, a day winds down into evening, when I spend time with my partner, watch a bit of TV or read a book. By the time I climb into bed, it's been a full day. The days pile up one after another, with the occasional blip of disruption... and then I fall back into my comfortable routine. Even though my life today seems predictable, I actually didn't know I would be enjoying myself so much in a world without a job at the center. Life is full of surprises.
:-)

A better day today

I just read my Christmas Eve post and really am looking for ways to move beyond the event, so I would like to give my dear blogging friends a picture from last winter, of this lovely grey jay, a gentle reminder of all the beauty in the world. The trekking poles add just enough color to the picture to make it one of my favorites.

I'm much better today, after the shock has worn off and the hemorrhaging of charges on my cards has stopped. The nice people who are allowing me to park my car in such a way that it is safe from vandalism until Tuesday afternoon (when the window will be fixed) reminds me that many people are more than willing to be helpful if asked. People also asked if they got my house key, and no they didn't; I carry a spare car key in the billfold to leave with the auto shop when work needs to be done. The rest of my keys were in my pocket. I'm thinking of having the locks changed in the car so I won't have to keep worrying about it. We'll see.

Last night I woke in the middle of the night and kept going over and over the things in my purse (it's actually a day pack that I use for a purse) and hoping I remembered all the important things. If I had been willing to learn how to download and use the "Find My iPad" software, I could have made it immediately unusable and locked it up tight. Next time, believe me. If you have one, do yourself a favor and learn about it. How much I would have loved to keep them from looking inside it.

And the final coup de grâce was this morning, Christmas morning, when I thought of the special treat I had bought myself: a chocolate bar with 88% dark chocolate. I went to get it... and remembered that it's gone, too. I sighed and gave it to the Universe along with all the rest. Ah, well.

The wind is blowing a gale outside and the birds keep getting blown off the feeder. The rain is coming down sideways, but I'm happily ensconced inside with lots of good food and great companionship. I talked with my brother today and my sister yesterday on iChat and feel a bit on the emotional side, but otherwise just fine. When I read my blogging friends' posts this morning, many of them caused tears to just stream down my face, unbidden. I welcomed them, and the gratitude for my community of dear friends continues to grow. Thank you for being part of my life.

News flash: Update to this blog, 2:38pm PST: My friend Holly (who was with me yesterday on the walk), just came to my house with her partner to bring me THIS! And she had not yet read this post:

So, I guess I was truly able to offer it up, and CiCi's revision to the Universe has made my day. I am just thrilled and feeling really and truly blessed. You might notice one of the chocolates is already eaten. :-)

Enjoy the day in whatever way brings you the most pleasure. That's what I'm doing...
:-)

Winter solstice

From Astronomy Picture of the Day

Boy, you can sure find some strange stuff on the Internet if you go searching for something as simple as "Winter Solstice." I am sure most of you know that the first day of winter begins when one of the Earth's hemispheres experiences its longest night and shortest day of the year. When you get into higher latitudes (such as where I am at the northern 49th parallel), the days are only a few minutes longer than eight hours, and the nights... well, the nights are VERY long, it seems. But soon now, we will begin the journey back to summer's long days and short nights. That picture above was taken in Tenerife, Canary Islands, during last year's lunar eclipse that occurred on December 21. If you want to know more about the picture, I've linked the Astronomy Picture of the Day that explains it.

I don't know about you, but I find the long nights and short days to be a time to pull inside and ponder the meaning of things. This year, the Winter Solstice will occur at 10:06pm on December 21 here on the Pacific coast of the United States. If you have some time to explore the Winter Solstice link above, you'll find that all over the world in every culture and in most religions, humans have acknowledged a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, gatherings, rituals, or other celebrations around that time. I'm sure there will be plenty of them around Bellingham this coming Wednesday night. You can bet I'll be fast asleep when it comes around this year. Usually if I am awake, I mark the moment.

I've been buried in books and have laid out my knitting needles to start a new project, both things I like to do when it's dark outside. Yesterday I finished Jodi Picoult's latest book, Sing You Home, which I enjoyed immensely. My only problem with her books is that I tend to keep reading until I've finished the story, anxious to find out what happens to her characters. She also keeps you guessing right up to the end.

Our local independent bookstore here in Bellingham, Village Books, gives its clients who sign up for an account 25% off any book in the store during your birthday month. Since I forgot to take my card for the discount, I'm forced to go back for another book before the end of December. You can tell I'm really sad about that (smile). My problem when I go there is trying to leave without taking home too many books. Plus I can bring them back and turn them in for a store credit once I'm finished. Because of that, I no longer write my name inside the books and ask friends who borrow them to treat the books gently.

Surrounded by plenty to read and at least two knitting projects to choose from, I'm feeling quite ready for long midwinter nights. And I have my blogging community of friends who keep me entertained with the comings and goings of their family and friends. For those who are struggling during these long nights, I am keeping you in my heart and will light a candle to push back the dark.
:-}

Interlude

Some people might recognize the detail of the beautiful heirloom tomato I purchased this morning at the Farmers' Market. I couldn't help myself, but this closeup of the almost two-pound tomato was so beautiful I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Here's the whole thing:

I have no idea whether it will taste as good as it looks, but it is truly a work of art, don't you think? This is one of those days when I can bask in the smiles and sunshine that greet my eye everywhere I look. After reading the news and checking the weather this morning, I headed to the ferry terminal to walk with the Fairhaven Walkers Group along the trails in south Bellingham (also known as Fairhaven). My legs needed a little bit of exercise to work out the kinks remaining from Thursday's hike. That was what I was hoping for, anyway. I'm still quite sore.

I forgot to tell you about a funny thing that happened on our Welcome Pass hike. Since the 67 switchbacks were challenging for five of us, Fred and Mike went on ahead (armed with walkie talkies to keep us connected) and charged up while the rest of us trudged more slowly. They ran into another hiker who was heading down, and he said, "Hey, it's the Senior Trailblazers. You're Fred." He was nowhere near old enough to be known to us by age; he told them that he reads this blog. Fred said that I was behind them with the others, and if he wanted to surprise me, he could call me by name when he saw us coming up the trail. And that's exactly what he did. After a few moments of confusion (do I know you?), we chatted briefly. I didn't think to ask him where he heard about the blog, but he found it somewhere and made my day. (Dave, say hello in the comments if you feel like it, and welcome!)

After the morning walk and a quick trip to the market, I headed over to the Y to swim a half mile. The pool is open again after having been emptied, painted, and filled with fresh clear water. The difference is astounding. Since I started using the pool in April, I didn't have any idea how nice the water could be. After a shower and noticing more smiling faces, I am now home and writing a post. This interlude of a wonderful day, filled with perfect weather (it's 76 degrees and still sunny), a blog post written in a very grateful frame of mind... it's hard to ask for much more.

However, in an hour or so I'm heading off to the movies with my friend Judy to see "The Help." Tomorrow I'll spend in Snohomish jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. Not to mention the good friends I have made here in the blogosphere. The depth and breadth of my life these days fills me with several magnitudes of thankfulness.
:-)

Browsers and blogging

Someone on my Google+ friends put up a picture of this guy who decided to be an advertisement for Chrome. The first picture is the favicon for the Chrome browser. I use it all the time for posting, commenting, and reading stuff on line. I find that it's much less buggy than some of the other browsers, and things load a whole lot faster, too. I wish there was a way to find out what makes my posts hang, and I suspect that if I spent the time to learn more about browsers, I could.

I also use Safari occasionally, and Firefox. When I got my iPad, which comes with Safari, I downloaded something called "Atomic" hoping that it would give me better results for the platform, but no such luck. I've found that posting anything, if using my iPad, must be done in HTML mode because it doesn't support anything else. Atomic is the same. And any little window that is supposed to scroll doesn't work, which must be a function of iPad not liking Flash. Again, I could probably find all this out, but it's a really big black hole that I'm not interested in getting caught up in.

Ever since that three-day crash of Blogspot, I notice that several of my regular commenters must use the "Anonymous" button in order to comment. Since Blogspot has a really good spam filter, it usually only catches real spam, but if you do need to use Anonymous, remember to sign your name; it must look for that, since spammers always put in a live link and don't sign their comments. Frankly, when I think of all the social networks coming on line, like Google+, I wonder where we are headed in this Brave New World.

I am on Facebook and now use Google+, but I haven't ventured into Twitter or other networking sites. My brother thinks Google+ is pretty neat, and every day another person invites me to become a "friend" on there. My Facebook friend list is now over 300, but it includes skydiving friends and acquaintances, people I once worked with, family, and now people I meet in Bellingham. Oh yes, I also have quite a few friends on Facebook from the blogosphere. I really like being able to see pictures of people I no longer see in person; it reminds me that we are all changing (and aging), not just me.
:-)

Lazy Sunday

Before snuggling into my favorite recliner with a book, I thought I'd post a little bit about this unusual (for me) Sunday: I've got nothing to do, no plans at all. The plans I had for the weekend were changed by the weather, since yesterday was sunny and bright, and this morning it's raining again. We should have a spell of some warm and dry weather after this front passes, however.

The picture I chose for this post is the best illustration I could find to direct you over to Teresa Evangeline's blog to read about the dream she had last night. She described it so perfectly that the images keep coming back to me, about floating silently down a stream in a little boat. She calls it "The Land Along the River," and I have pondered its meaning ever since I read it. It is very significant to me at this moment in time.

The other post that really got me this morning is from Friko, which she calls "Thank You, America." She's an Australian who lives in the UK and is concerned about seeing how unhappy so many of her American blogging friends are with this country's politics. Although I have refrained from posting anything about the politics of today (at least I think I have), I have not restrained myself in comments I've left on the posts of others. She reminded me of the kind and generous spirit that exists here, still to this day, and it lifted me up.

I am reminded again and again how important the virtual friendships I have made throughout the blogosphere are to me. I've even met a few in person here and there, and I find myself in a community of wonderful people who help point me toward concepts and ideas that I could not find alone. I follow a lot of blogs, and I sometimes fall behind and am forced to skip some of my favorites, but there are many moments these days when I change course completely because of something I have read, posted by a thoughtful and discerning blogger.

When I was working, I had no time for this activity. My days were spent in front of computers doing the bidding of my boss, my colleagues and coworkers -- not following the dreams and hopes and, yes, the trials and tribulations of my virtual community. Today, I can only offer my sincere gratitude for all of you for speaking your truths and opening your hearts.
:-)

Blogging buddies bodies meet

Linda and DJan at the Dropzone

Try saying THAT title three times fast! I looked in the dictionary for another "b" word that means the same thing as "meet" but I was unsuccessful. This picture was taken last Sunday, at Skydive Snohomish with the sun shining on a beautiful day with a perfect breeze. I got on the plane with my jumping buddies to make a skydive and when I returned to the Dropzone, there she was! I knew Linda immediately from her pictures on her blog, Thoughts of a Bag Lady in Waiting (and she knew me). We introduced ourselves and then she came inside to watch while I packed up my parachute. She asked a whole lot of questions, not only from me but also the other people around the Dropzone that I introduced her to. One person thought she was with the press. :-)

She is a very dynamic person and was hoping to make an observer ride when I told her about the possibility, but Skydive Snohomish no longer offers them. It's quite possible she will come back again and make a tandem jump. In any event, after we had spent the day together (while I packed my parachute and boarded the airplane and jumped out three separate times), I felt like I had expanded my universe in a direction that makes me very happy. It's amazing to me how the blogosphere brings us together because of mutual interests and gives us the option to actually meet in person!!

Linda mentioned the possibility of perhaps having a blogging buddy vacation weekend, where we could gather some of our mutual blogging friends living close by who might like to spend some time together, and I think this is a great idea! Although this is the first time we met in person, Linda and I are way more than simple acquaintances, as I know her hopes and dreams and she knows mine. That is one thing that blogging provides us that creates a brand new universe for many of us. Back in 2009, I wrote a blog post about Teilhard de Chardin who suggested that we are creating a new paradigm for human interaction through our connectivity.

I'm not sure what will come of all of it, but I know that my blogging buddies, two of whom I have now met in person, are adding more and more to my daily sense of satisfaction.
:-)

Oysters, Lizards, and a blogger

Beginning of hike at Chuckanut Drive

I had a hard time thinking of a title for this Senior Trailblazer trip. We met at the Senior Center and discussed our options: it was already raining and the skies looked terrible over Stewart Mountain, our scheduled hike for the day. We decided to flip this week's hike with next week's, so fourteen of us headed to Chuckanut Drive to start what was to be our nine-mile (round trip) hike to Oyster Dome and back.

We also had a new hiker with us today: Kimberly from just me - alive, a blogging friend who barely qualifies to hike with us (being a grandmother and in her mid-fifties, we let her get away with it). She had been reading my blog and decided to head to Bellingham from her home twenty miles south, and visit the Trailblazers! She walked in and introduced herself. If you visit her blog (which I linked), she compares what her medical numbers were before she decided to get in shape, and what they are now. It's very inspiring.

She was worried about keeping up. It was not a problem, as she is running half-marathons and is very strong. Not to mention a very fun person and I hope she comes back! This picture was taken with the only view we had all day, as the clouds thickened and made it feel quite cold, if you can call 37 degrees (2.7 C) cold (I can). Once the rain and snow hit (see previous picture), we decided not to make the final push to Oyster Dome but instead take the trail over to Lizard Lake. This would add about a mile to our hike, but we had already accomplished most of the uphill, so off we went, crunching snow underfoot and big drops of cold rain and snow falling onto our heads and down our backs.

As you can see from these skunk cabbage sprouting up through the snow on our way to Lizard Lake, even they are emerging slowly during this cold spring. It's a full month today since the first day of spring, and they should be much farther along. We finally got to Lizard Lake and had a very cold lunch break, taking maybe twenty minutes before heading back onto the trail. Everyone was cold and a bit miserable. We took the loop over to Samish Overlook before heading back down to the cars, and we saw this from the overlook:

You are looking out from Samish Bay towards the Olympic Mountains, and Samish Island is the land mass in the foreground. The Trailblazers commented that they have never seen the tide this low, making it look like you could walk right over to the island. They called it a "minus tide." After looking up the definition, it seems to be a low tide that is actually lower than sea level, which happens occasionally but not very often. By the time we left the overlook and started back on the final push to our cars, I realized that we had covered a fair distance: almost eight miles to be exact, and we still had two miles to go.

After ten full miles and more than 2,300 elevation up and down, I feel quite justified in self-medicating with a wonderful glass of wine. After we started our final push to the cars, the sun had the audacity to come out and shine on us! People were starting up the trail as we headed down, and now as I sit at my computer I'm looking out at skies filled with more sunshine than clouds. I feel pretty darn satisfied, though, and I've met my first blogging buddy, Kimberly! It was a great day.
:-)