Wednesday-11am

Karma: What are you up to? Why are you moving around? Are you getting up?

Oh. Just the camera. Back to my nap.

Karma has been loving laying on the comfortable carpet in the sun when the porch door is open in the morning. Best of both worlds--LOL! That huge amber jar propping the door open is my penny jar. I loved the way the sunlight cast that orange shadow on the rug!

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Another exciting delivery yesterday! The plastic shelves (piled to the left) arrived...

...in an interesting box that had sturdy cardboard walls between each set of shelves.

This is Karma begging for bubble wrap--LOL!

She loves to lay on it, of course. It's a good thing she doesn't pop any bubbles because they scare her half to death! ROFL!

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We had a frost warning last night--29 degrees? No laying in the open door this morning for Miss Karma. I had the bedroom window open all night and it is still quite nippy in here. Only supposed to be in the 50s for highs the next couple days. One bad thing about not watching the news--I'm afraid to go out and check my plants on the porch. I peeked and it looks like a couple of the herbs in the pots have kind of collapsed. Who would have thought! Frost in September! Well...I meant well. Guess I'll haul them in and google how to properly dry herbs. ;)

Happy Wednesday! :):)

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"Good intentions are not enough. They've never put an onion in the soup yet."

Sonya Levien

Tuesday-1pm--Colorform Heads

Now this is more like it! A perfect fall day! Endless blue skies and pillowy clouds...

...69 degrees and...drum roll please...only 35% humidity!! Ahhh!! What a glorious day!

One of my signs of fall is the lawn turning brown around the building.

Odd those small dots of green...like measles or a rash? Wonder if it is because of all the chemicals they spray on the lawn?

Confession. I must have over-watered my philodendron. There are a lot of yellow leaves since I soaked it last time. Sadly, I am notorious for over-watering. :(

Exciting news! I ordered some cards from Judith Edwards-White and they arrived yesterday! She's a painter and scratchboard artist in Australia. I stumbled across her blog quite a while back and was totally amazed at this scratchboard art! Blows me away! These pictures are literally scratched off of a black painted canvas. The cards are enclosed in a cellophane wrapper when they arrive--pardon the glare.

I took a few out so you could see the detail!

This raccoon--"Snack Time".

"Freckle" is actually a rescued koala living at the Daisy Hill Koala Centre in Brisbane.

This baby chimp cradled in its mother's arms is called "A Mother's Love".

You can see the cards she has had made from her scratchboard art on her blog here. I am just fascinated by this medium which seems to work like magic under the right fingers--LOL! No, I have never tried it and probably never will. I don't think I have the talent (or the back) to patiently lift an image from the darkness with thousands of tiny scratches.

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Anyways, just wanted to share this treat. :):)

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I had been thinking about the seven things for Dee's award and I think I am just going to have to link you to my past blog post here, since I am not getting around to thinking of anything new it seems. This will have to do, I guess. Sorry. I hope you don't mind, Dee.

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I also have been meaning to mention the Colorforms hint I got from GA--LOL! After living in crowded downtown Minneapolis for a couple of years I discovered that I had somehow morphed into one of "those" drivers--swearing under my breath, pounding my hands on the wheel--generally getting disgusted, impatient, and frustrated with anybody who held me up or did anything stupid or dangerous on the road.

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One day I am in my usual hurry on the way to work (always got there early anyways-duh!) behind this pokey driver I could barely see above the headrest. I am sighing and swearing to myself and saying, "Come on! Come on!" out loud in the car and doing that stupid thing where you grab the wheel with both hands and shake the wheel back and forth thinking you can somehow magically push that person along faster.

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Suddenly in my head I heard, "What if that was your dad up there in that car...or your son?" And I had this vision of him peeling off a Colorform head and popping another one in its place...of my dad, grandma, son, friends....peel and stick, peel and stick, peel and stick. Hard to explain, but it made me laugh! Dissipated my anger and slowed me down.

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Whenever I start to feel that annoyance and impatience on the road...well, good old Colorform heads come to mind...and I giggle and relax. We are always more patient with people we love. And we should love everybody. Colorform Heads also come in handy waiting in lines, talking to phone call centers, etc, etc. Peel and stick. Peel and stick. ROFL!!

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Oh! Carol Burnett made her guest appearance for a couple of days on my dying soap last week. Such a delight to see her, brief as it was...even without the cat fight this time--LOL! I just loved the Carol Burnett Show!! She's such a sweet lady! Lookin' good, too!

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Dagan and Leah are supposed to come tomorrow night after work. Due to cancellations from both sides we haven't gotten together for a month! Will be so nice to see them. :):)

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On this perfect day I am heading out to the porch with Karma to read for a while.

Have a great Colorform Head day! :):)

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"We must we willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

Joseph Campbell

Sunday-8:30am: Personal Memory of 9-11

Ten years ago started out as just a typical day. I was a fifty-year old college student. When the alarm went off I hit the snooze and laid in bed with tears rolling off my cheeks into my ears and onto the pillow. School had barely started and I was already so physically weak, exhausted beyond belief, and with the now familiar constant searing pain all over my body, it was a challenge to get out of bed, let alone make it to the bus stop to get to class.

I'd adjusted the alarm to allow myself a good half hour to forty-five minutes of snooze tapping so that I could slowly stretch out some of the pain before I even attempted to get out of bed. I also needed that time to psyche myself up for meeting the challenge of another difficult day--hopefully with a smile on my face. No need to bring other people down, right?

I remember thinking in the shower and as I dressed how this year I was already physically worse than last year...and how, since I couldn't take less than a full load at Concordia (private school), that maybe I really should look into MSUM (public college) for next year so that I could have a lighter class load...then maybe I would feel much better and things would turn around for me.

Hobbling a little less, standing a little taller, I headed for the living room. Glancing out the window to assess the morning, I clicked on the TV so I could check the weather channel prediction before I packed up my books and decided on how many layers and which coat or jacket to wear. Remote in hand, I stood a few feet in front of the TV and waited for the screen to come on so I could punch in the weather channel.

What appeared on the screen was the picture of the first tower smoking against the blue sky. What?! The announcers were wondering what had happened. I watched and waited with the rest of the world. But then a plane disappeared into the other tower...erasing all doubt.

At that moment, I remember an almost physical sensation of this monstrous wave of black fear energy instantly radiating and spreading outward from the towers--even before they fell. It felt like the blast from an atomic bomb--knocking people backwards. My first thought was--No! I closed my eyes. Don't let this do that to you! I felt like I wanted to wrap my arms around everybody! Tell them--Don't be afraid. Please! Please! Hold onto the light! Choose the light!

This lifting sensation gradually came over me. My entire body buzzed and tingled. I stood, eyes closed--even the sounds from the TV faded away--and this core of calm took hold of me. A vision of waves of dark energy spreading across the earth like ripples on a pond increased in power as the initial fear and shock of the people gave birth to raw panic, anger, and hatred. I stood.

As I spread my arms I felt my heart open so wide it was my whole being. Waves of this love energy began to wash over me...or through me...or from me...I don't know. But suddenly I realized...I wasn't alone. It was as if I could see rays of bright lights all over the world...reaching out...almost as if we were holding hands...like this lace blanket of light covering the earth...

[I had to stop writing because just remembering this reduces me to tears...because it breaks my heart that so many people are still washed in that fear.]

Anyways, I stood in my living room like that for an hour (felt like a couple minutes). Never moved. Never felt my body. Only felt attached by energy to all those other people...radiating white light...the waves of love reaching outward. Never felt so connected to the light, to love, to humanity. And then it slowly subsided. I opened my eyes...was still holding the remote in my hand. They were replaying and replaying that scene...as they will probably do again today. I won't watch.

Horrible things happen all the time. It's not what has happened to us, but how we choose to live through it and what we take away from it that determines who we are.

I have never had an experience like that before or since. But 9-11 changed my life in an unexpectedly positive way. Our choices do matter. They do make a difference. We are not alone.

We have chosen.

We are already holding hands somewhere in that dark blanket or in the light blanket.

But we have the gift of free will.

And we can change our minds whenever we choose.

Saturday-8am

Oddly mystical, long skinny cloud across the sky at dawn.

These orange sunrises seem to coordinate with the 90% humidity and another hot day ahead.

Yesterday's mail was absolutely awesome! I didn't show you the fronts of these four letters because of the addresses...but these were the only pieces in my mailbox.

Four letters!! Whoohoo!

I don't think I have ever gotten four at once--ever!

And two of them were whoppers! :):)

What a delight to spend my afternoon sipping on coffee while slowly savoring the life stories of friends. Two of whom I have never actually met in "real life", but are just as dear to me. I pray we never lose the art of the handwritten letter!

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It pains me to read that some of the kids today can't even read cursive. It's like a foreign art form to them. I suppose it's possible, but I find it hard to wrap my head around, that one day people will get sweetly nostalgic remembering the days of texting. Will they hold that short message in their hand on an ancient smart phone and imagine the person's fingertips on the screen? Will any of those millions of texts be saved?

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If there was no electricity, no cell towers, no satellites...I am still able to write down my thoughts. And if I don't want to do it by hand...I have an old manual Underwood! ;)

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Karma, who lives contentedly in the moment, could care less about saved thoughts in any form.

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"That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent."

Chinese Proverb

Friday-11:15am

A couple days ago I caught this plane landing in the pre-dawn.

A few minutes later the cloudless sky was turning clear blue.

I've been back in my morning routine of rotating between online stuff and the books, journaling, and letter writing. And now a couple of the audio talk series have started up again (they run 60-90 minutes) so mornings pass quickly and I am often still at it in the afternoon with my necessary breaks. (Nothing ruins your day faster than a screaming body--LOL!)

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Wednesday afternoon Karma was lying about as I was journaling...

...when we heard a knock at the door.

Always startling because I normally have to buzz people in.

The black steel shelves arrived!!

(The other clear plastic set is due via UPS next Tuesday.)

These two boxes...

...were inside of this really big box...

...that Karma had to immediately check out.

So excited to see these!!

I know this bookcase shelf will have to be lowered when the extra shelves are sanded and arrive from Leah...

...but, of course, I couldn't resist removing all the paper from the sagging cardboard magazine holders and starting to sort!

Well, and I couldn't resist shoving Karma's cat bed inside of the really big box, either--LOL!

So, I puttered about with paper the past two afternoons.

Got this far.

Have this whole big stack of card stock to properly sort and match up all the colors for the last six shelves...

...while Karma sleeps in her new favorite spot.

Anything new, you know. ;)

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My Dad is scheduled for his hip replacement surgery on Monday the 19th. :):)

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I will probably take today off from sorting paper. This humidity makes my bones talk. Been wonderfully cool during the night (40-50s) and hot during the days (mid-80s). I absolutely can't resist having the windows open all night. Fall is my very, very favorite time of year. But this humidity sucks! For example, when I got up this morning a little after 7am (yes, I am on really normal morning hours--tada!) it was 54 degrees and 90% humidity. So, I hobble about--especially for those first few hours--but I am dang well not going to miss these awesome fall nights. Who knows how long they will last? Will we have a nice long fall as I am praying for? Or will we be shoveling snow in short order? With the crazy weather we've had this year all over the country--the world--I'm not taking any chances. ;)

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So with the 40+ degree swings every day up here I am running the AC in the afternoons and snuggled under my quilt during the chilly nights--ROFL! This time of year if you leave the house you have to wear layers you can remove and reclaim as the day goes on. Feels like fall is here. Even if it is a little too hot during the day yet for our normal fall.

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Prayers and good thoughts for everyone out east dealing with the current flooding and the aftermath of Irene. Hope it is a decent weekend for everybody. Sorry that some of us need some better days! I would be honored if I could ever be somebody's rainbow.....

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"Any one of us can be a rainbow in somebody's clouds."

Maya Angelou

Wednesday-8am: paper testing videos

These are boring for most people, but I did have a request to make videos showing all that paper tested I had recently done so this is what I did yesterday. I am a little out of practice...and I found out my camera only records for a little over 9 minutes. Never thought I'd ever go 9 minutes on the second one (right!)--but I was right at the end, anyways. Guess I need to set a timer in the future. ;)

Anyways, for those of you who asked...

Sunday-4am

Yesterday's dawn. Was a cloudy day with a little rain. May have been more than I know since I slept a lot.

I was sooo tired (chronic fatigue is a b*tch) that I fell asleep in my chair for three hours in the afternoon. I thought for sure this would goof up my hours, but I was still back in bed and slept the same hours I have for the past three nights now--7:30pm till 2:30am. Maybe today I won't be such a zombie? LOL!

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Was a quiet day. Karma was feeling lazy, too, and used her paw with her treat egg while laying down instead of walking it all over with her forehead.

She was sawing logs on the dark day, too.

I was excited to see that my Ink Drop came before the long weekend! This is the one year anniversary of The Goulet Pen Company's Ink Drop, so they added a surprise in the package this month! A little Clairfontaine notebook--whoohoo! You know I am a new fan and how much I appreciate this french paper with fountain pens. Also a new fan of Exacompta (my new journal--also french paper) and I want to try Rhodia paper because I've heard how nice that also is with fountain pens. Happiness is good paper--LOL!

What a wonderful treat! And I only have one of these sample inks, so I have four more to try. Well, more than four--have several sample vials from the past couple months. Only have so many pens--LOL!

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I'm not sure if you have heard of Story Corps or seen any of their animated videos, but I just love them!! The newest one is Miss Devine.

My favorite one so far is Danny and Annie.

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They also have a lot of audio interviews. I haven't heard them all, but I am fascinated by people's stories in their own words. They are in the process of trying to do an interview on every one of the people who died in 9-11. Gotta love public radio! (And, of course, public TV--which is where I first saw Dannie and Annie!)

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Okay...movies!!

I've seen a few memorable ones in the past week or so. First of all I watched a documentary that Caroline told me she couldn't believe was real on Instant Netflix called The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Not realizing that this was the documentary sequel to White Lightnin', which was also on the Instant Netflix list--so I had to watch that one, too.

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They made the movie White Lightnin' based on Jesco White's traumatic life--with actors--won awards. Then for The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia a documentary film crew spent a year with the actual White family and you get to meet the real Jesco White and his kin. It is an entire clan lifestyle where they are up against it from birth. Hard to describe. So sad. You have to see it to believe it. Broke my heart.

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Another one I really liked that I rented from Netflix was called Goodnight, Mister Tom. A touching movie, without being overly sentimental, about a young boy evacuated from London to the country in WWI where he stayed with Mister Tom.

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Snow Cake with Signorney Weaver and Alan Rickman is another one of those movies I can't believe I never heard anything about. I do so love these smaller independent films. Unique, unexpected, slowly unfolding, memorable performances.

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The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn was really good, too. Not as black and white as the trailer and description. Had more levels to it and left you wondering until the end.

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Two Weeks with Sally Field is the most realistic movie I've ever seen about a mother dying without becoming maudlin or trite or even overly depressing--and will probably often make you laugh, odd as that sounds. Probably because it was written by someone who had lived through the experience. Another movie I hadn't heard about. (I love cruising the Netflix lists--LOL!)

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The movie Yesterday is a movie that has left me thinking about unconditional love and forgiveness long after I watched it. Profound.

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To round off my eclectic list, I started watching Dexter (Season 5-the first DVD arrived) and have been watching (instant) episodes of Ancient Aliens. Both fascinating for completely different reason--LOLOL!

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I never like to tell too much if people want to see them, but you can check the links for more information and some of them have trailers you can watch.

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There. I am caught up on the movies I wanted to mention. :)

[Note: I have no idea why all the links in this post turned out two different colors?]

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Today is supposed to be a sunny day in the mid 60s! Despite the 83% humidity, I've had the bedroom window and the porch door open and will just put up with the dampness and feeling more stiff and achy. Just too dang nice to have it cool out!!!

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Happy, happy Sunday! :):)

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"Most of us look at our ideals, say how far we are from them, and get depressed. But it is heroic simply to say, 'Here are my ideals,' state them before the world, and then spend the rest of your life trying to live up to them."

Keshaven Nair

Saturday-3am

Since my 27 hour stint of being awake, I've been going to bed at around 7:30pm and waking up around 2:30am...wishing I had slept longer--hehe! But this is closer to regular hours and I'm happy with that. This is what I saw close to dawn through the porch door--LOL! Karma lounging up on her TV tray "observing" me. Karma's glowing eyes looked rather spooky-Halloweenish. ;)

Anyways, the dawn looked a little more promising.

As I said, can't lay anything down on the floor. I forget what these big socks with the rubber on the bottoms are called, but they're like slipper socks.

The sun did come up and the day was looking right beautiful. The swallows were having a wind party!! I think the recent batch of young ones were testing their new skills with joyous abandon...swooping and diving like small jet airplanes. Karma was in seventh heaven!

I decided to take a couple pictures of the blue sky and the predicted possible rain clouds rolling in...

...the sun was coming out from behind this big cloud and I thought to myself--I've never tried to turn the camera taller for a sky shot--so I did. And I just happened to catch....

....two swallows!!!

They seemed to deliberately dart up in front of me to make it into the shot while I was standing in the window!!! Like they were saying hello. :)

Awesome! It was a perfect instant. They are soooo fast! I wasn't sure I hadn't imagined it until I checked the picture. Came and went in a flash--and yet their dark silhouettes against the sky aren't even blurry! Happy dance time in Fargo!! Truly, a small miracle. :):) So--greetings to you all from the Fargo swallows!

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Somebody asked me about the herbs. They are doing well.

Looks like about time to do some cooking in September--LOL! ;)

And Karma hasn't bothered the catnip yet. Only because it's on the wiggly metal glider chair she doesn't like, I imagine.

It was a great day for cloud watching.

My check was in the bank early because the 3rd fell on a weekend. So I got to order groceries...and Karma got to play in the bags.

I ordered my paper shelves. The steel pair from Office Max...already got a shipment confirmation email here in the middle of the night. So, they will probably arrive either today or after the holiday on Tuesday. :)

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Leah said Dagan forgot that they have a ValleyCon meeting this coming Wednesday. Everything got pushed back a week, but the basic plan stands. So far, at least--you know how things are always tentative around here--LOL! ;)

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I can't remember if I mentioned that my folks didn't stick around this summer and went back to Florida early? My dad has a hip that has been bone on bone for some time and has been getting worse and worse. He is in such pain standing and walking with his walker that a permanent wheelchair life is looming in his immediate future. He'd been trying to get a hip replacement for some time but, since he's 90 (91 in November-but his mom lived to be 104), he got turned down for being too old. He'd gotten a lead on a new surgeon (in Florida where they live) and had his information sent to this new one. The doctor said he did want to see him and they went right back to Florida! :)

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Dad still had to be checked out by a cardiologist again. (Because it had been close to a year since he'd been checked--and okayed!!--but the last surgeon still turned him down anyways for being too old--duh!--like he didn't know how old he was in the first place!) Well, Dad just got the okay from the cardiologist! He's very happy. Now they meet with this new surgeon again next week and Dad hopes to have a date for surgery maybe in September. Wants to be able to walk on his own again and be free of the horrendous pain.

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Love you, Dad!! :):)

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Funny how sometimes I have nothing to talk about and then I have too much--LOL! I still have a 7 things award from Dee to do (still thinking) and I have some movies to mention, but this is long enough for me today. So, I am going to go start Dexter--Season Five! Those of you in the US who have plans for the long holiday weekend--I hope you have good weather and good times! Same goes for everybody else--holiday or not. ;)

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"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."

Helen Keller