Volume III is Ready for the Printers

Photos: Sunset from Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod.

I can’t believe Vol. III of Come Ride With Me has been burned onto a CD and will go to Staples in the next day or two (depending on time and weather) to be printed. I was feeling quite smug, thinking I was so early. I decided to check my on-line journal to see what date I did it last year. I found Nov. 18th where I said the books were all compiled and ready for gifting. WHAT? Here it is Nov. 29th and I’m thinking I’m doing pretty good with timing. Nothing like busting my own bubble!

Once it’s printed, I then have to put the pages in sheet protectors and assemble the books. That is truly back breaking. I have to find a method of assembly that doesn’t require me to hunch over so much. I’m thinking of using the long table in front of my desk and sit in a proper chair!

For some reason I had a tough time realizing today is Saturday. Kept thinking it was Friday, therefore nothing was making any sense. I was confused by the morning news anchor and weather person. What were they doing there on a Friday? Even after I realized it was Saturday, it was still a tough go for most of the morning.

Tomorrow night I hope to get outside with my camera and try to capture the Moon/Venus/Jupiter conjunction low in the southwestern sky just about sundown. I can’t do it from my yard because of all the trees. I need to go to the parking lot of The Shoppes at Buckland Hills where I will have a wide open view of the sky to the southwest. I heard that this conjunction will not happen again for another 54 years. The chances of my seeing the next one from Earth, in this body, is very slim to non-existent. ☺

I’ll Be Ready For Snow…Eventually

Photos:
Left: The skeletal silhouette of the trees makes a stark contrast. Taken in Brookside Gardens and Nature Center in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Right: A tree growing out of a different tree. I wonder if this could be called accidental grafting? Photo taken in West Branch Ecological Greenway in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Hanging around
Today I have a list of errands I need to do, but I have to stick around until Manchester Honda comes to get my snow blower. It’s going in for service. I would like to have the lawn mower done, too, but that’s more money than I want to spend right now. I don’t know how long before I get it back, so the snow had better hold off! ☺

I will be doing one last proofreading of Come Ride With Me before I take it to Staples for printing. That’s one errand on today’s To-Do list. While I’m there I will buy the 3-ring binders and special design paper for the section dividers. I will need to pick up another package of sheet protectors. Before I take it to Staples I will find out what my price/copy will be. There are several pages with color photos…those will cost more to print.

Right now it’s raining quite hard so I don’t want to go anywhere anyway.

Home for the day
Yesterday went very well. My mother came home just for the day, and was able to go up and down the stairs easily. That tells me her leg strength is good. Yesterday was also the 23rd day at the nursing home with more to come. She was ready to go back around 4 p.m. I’ll bet she slept well!

Much To Be Thankful For

Photos: Turkeys in my back yard. They are very thankful that they are still running free! ☺

Foremost today is being thankful that my mother will be able to come home just for the day. The nursing home has many residents who are able to go home with family just for one day. My mother has not been home since October 10th, so I’m sure everything will seem strange to her…especially that everything is so clean! ☺☺

I’m thankful for my family and many friends.

I’m thankful that I have a comfortable roof over my head, food in the fridge and clothes on my back.

I’m thankful for my excellent health.

And I’m thankful that there are men and women from this great country who are serving in our armed forces to make sure we are safe.

What Color Is It?

Photo: This is me at the dinosaur track kiosk in Windsor's Northwest Park. Photo courtesy of my good ol' hiking buddy, Jon Roe.

Not since the end of August have I colored my hair. That was just before my Erie Canal bike ride and since then there's been a lot of life happening and no time for all of it to happen in! Until today.

I have taken a day off from hectic running of errands and dashing over to the nursing home to visit my mother. Today I play catch-up. That included sleep.

Laundry is done.
The rest of the cleaning and picking up of the house is done.
I did go to the grocery stores. Some things just have to be done.
And, finally, my hair color is done, too!

No more mousy (my apologies to any mouse that might be offended) grey/ dirty blond/washout brown/yuck. It is all beautiful medium golden brown, thanks to Loving Care #78. My hair was never blond, but as the color fades to yuck, that's what it looks like.

When I was younger my hair was auburn. That beautiful shade of red/brown. It was long and thick and curly. Then it turned very dark brown. Then it started turning....grey. It has lost its curl, but in humid weather it is quite wavy.

Who cares? you might ask. I do and I'm the only one who matters.

Where Do I Start

Photos:
Top: Jacob and Andrew hiding in a hollow log!
Left: The boys contemplate a recent beaver chew.

Too much going on
The last three months have been crazy and chaotic.

September was the Erie Canal bike ride.

October had my mother in and out of the hospital for her 3rd, 4th, and 5th intestinal obstruction. The first two (Feb. and June) and the first two in October were resolved without surgery. The 5th one left her surgeon no other options. At age 96 her chances of surviving with or without surgery was 50/50. Surgery was a success and she is now completing her recovery at a skilled nursing facility. But, that has meant a lot of running back and forth for me. Or, in the case of this afternoon, sitting around doing nothing waiting for the transportation service to pick my mother up at her doctor’s office. They dropped her off before 2 p.m. for a 2:30 appointment and didn’t pick her up until 4:25 to go back to the nursing home. I met her there and waited with her. Both of us could have been more productive elsewhere! ☺

Because she is being so well cared for, I was able to fly to Maryland to visit my daughter, Anne, and her family this past weekend. I had a wonderful 5-day visit, which included helping out at Andrew’s school as a volunteer aide. That was fun! Her boys also took me on a couple of hikes.

Now I’m home again and trying to get all the loose ends tied before my mother comes home. There is laundry and cleaning. Then there is putting the finishing touches on my Christmas book, Come Ride With Me, which I publish for my family. This is Vol. III. I have a lot of work to do on this including proofing the stories I’ve written, making revisions, checking the poetry to be sure the ones I want to included are indeed included and listed, and I still have photos to scan in to finish off the story of my hang-gliding adventure out in California in 1991.

Thank goodness my journal and photos from the Erie Canal bike ride are up on the web and I can now let it go and move on to all these other things.

And so it goes. At times I get so frazzled by all I have to do, that I don’t get anything done. That’s when I have to take a deep breath and go into “what’s-the-most-important-thing-I-need-to do-now?” mode. That was all day today. Tomorrow should be easier. Sure.

So Much Is Going On!

On a recent hike through Northwest Park in Windsor, CT, we came upon this gigundous 'shroom. Actually it is an Artist's Fungus. I knew a woman years ago who would pick these, dry them in a very slow oven and do pen and ink drawings on them. Then she would shellac them and sell them. I'm not sure there is a market for them any more, but it could be a fun thing to do with your kids this winter.

My mother is finally out of the hospital and in a nursing home for rehab. She has not been home since Oct. 10th! However, she is doing remarkably well considering she's 96 has just had surgery! Even her surgeon says she's a tough old bird. All this driving back and forth every day has really racked up the miles.

I finally have my Erie Canal bike ride journal and photos up-loaded to a new, dedicated blog. Go to http://www.eriecanaladventure.blogspot.com if you are interested in reading all about it.

Let's see, what else is going on.

Oh, yes. I will be heading down to Maryland in the near future to visit my daughter, Anne, and her family. As long as my mother will be in the nursing home for a while it's a perfect opportunity for me to get away. I'll no doubt have pictures when I get back.

And finally, I'm starting work on my Christmas book for the family, Come Ride With Me. It is a 3-ring binder of my poetry, essays, and other writings. This year is Vol. III. When I'm no longer here, my kids and grandkids will have insight into who their mother and grandmother was.

I've been going crazy trying to do my fall cleaning so don't be surprised if I don't post anything for a while. I'm not even sure which year I'm working on! ☺☺☺

God Bless the United States of America

It will take a while for the reality of this election to sink in. Americans have made history!

I first heard of Barack Obama when he appeared on Oprah. I was taken by his honesty, loyalty, and ideas for a better future every American could be part of. I say better future, because what I, personally, was experiencing under the presidency of George W. Bush was not good.

I retired in 2001 and things looked pretty good. Then we were led down a slippery slope that ended in a global economic disaster that my great grand children will probably be paying for.

I pray, and I really mean that, I pray that by virtue of this election the people of the world will rally to work together. United we succeed, divided we destroy civilization and probably the planet.

It will not be easy. There is so much that needs to be repaired. The lose of life in two wars being waged simultaneously (one we never should have been in!) can never be fixed, and the economic crash that has brought the world to it’s knees will not be fixed in a few months or even a few years.

I am a registered Independent. I don’t care what party a candidate belongs to. I do care about a candidate’s ideas and vision for the future. That’s what I vote for. That’s why I voted for Obama.

Let us go forward as a united people.
Let us put God back into our public places and schools.
Let us admit God back into our daily lives.
Without unity and God, we don’t stand much of a chance.

The Universe is watching and waiting.

Published Poetry

Photos
Somewhere on the Berkshire Spur between Albany, NY and the Massachusetts state line.

I can't get over the fact that I have been published twice this fall.

The first poem, "Who Walks the Tower," published in Equinox, an annual literary journal of stories, poems, essays and art.

The second poem, "Worms", published in the brand new Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrtative poetry that sings.

Considering I'm pretty much a new-comer, it's quite humbling.