That Cat

Here's Shadow the Cat's new furniture. She took a nap in each cat holder as soon as we brought it in!

World's Fair Expositions

There is a world of history to be savored by researching the world's fairs, such as the 1904 St. Louis fair, and the one in Chicago 1893. Here is a link for a grandmother's story of how she visited the fair in St. Louis when she was six: http://washingtonmo.com/1904/midi/stuartg.htm

When she was six, she was looking into a future of improved lifestyles, enriched by electric appliances and an invention that re-wired peoples' brains: ice cream. My own grandmother spoke often and awestruck of her introduction to it. And she always added, Don't eat too much of it or your rearend will be huge. Which, I found, to be accurate.

We can look backwards 106 years later and realize most of the modern wonders seen at the World's Fair for the first time and taken for granted or taken for entitlements now, aren't really any good for us. And they don't make us happy. And we don't appreciate them. And we're trying to learn to live without them now, so we won't use up all the earth's resources.

There were massive, intricate structures built just for the fair in St. Louis, and had to be torn down afterwards, for the most part. The story with all its details is just captivating.

I began to wonder what things I'm doing now that will be thrown into the dump and laughed at a hundred years from now. Or even sooner!

What a Ripoff!

Did I mention the gullible woman I am, believing someone who says they want to meet me for lunch? I thought we were actually going to eat a meal together! Instead, we paid an exhorbitant amount of money to sit in a gussied up room and eat a couple of tacos across the table from one another - I talked to the grandkid, and the current male in my life pretended to be involved with our conversation while his eyes flicked constantly to the ceiling-mounted TV tuned to a football game.

"Current male," because we've only been together 33 years. Nothing is set in concrete yet.

Meanwhile, Moving On

Daily decisions and less frequent interruptions. Ability to focus increases and able to get rid of the sensation of being scattered and out of control. Decisions about nutrition, scheduling, what's necessary, what would be a diversion. Record-keeping includes photos. Photo opps awareness is always in the back of my mind.

There's a red lily by the fence attracting a hummingbird. There's a bright red cardinal trying to hide on a branch. There's a black and orange butterfly teasing the cat on the back deck. There's a yellow school bus bringing a little boy home across the street. There's the mail-lady smiling with a package at the front door. There's a girl in the toy aisle smiling at her new doll. There's the clerk at my favorite grocery store making sure I don't forget any coupons. There's the bag-person loading the groceries into my car and wedging the flowers in upright. The neighbor waving from his garden gladiolas. The full moon lighting up the landscape last night was just gorgeous.

Rockin' Helen

Helen, Georgia - a great little faux Swiss village in the hills of north Georgia! When I worked and lived there for a summer in 1976, the scenic beer garden, Octoberfest, shops and a few restaurants were the main attractions. Yesterday with grandkid the waterpark, monster truck ride, go carts and river tubing revealed the Panama City Florida side of this fun resort. OH BOY it was exciting and colorful! After working hard having fun all day, this morning at 10:44 she is still sleeping it off. No wonder - she ran up the stairs on the big slides about 20 times, carrying a raft to rocket down in 2 seconds.

We stopped at a terrific toy store called Jolly's. Jolly makes lots of toys herself, and also stocks MILLIONS of cool toys and games and beautiful leather necklaces and on and on. We couldn't see everything in one visit but we will definitely be back. There was a musical marble tree made of wood. Drop one or more marbles at the top, and as they trickle down the wooden leaves you hear all the different musical tones.

Taking our own food saved a lot of time but there were lots of places to eat that looked interesting. My favorite would be one of the few that are right on the river, and have plenty of shade. The sunny temps were in the 90s, good for swimming but pretty sweaty for us non-swimmers.

The surrounding green hills top off the whole experience with an enchanted feeling - you just don't want to go home.

Color of Sterling and Aquamarine

Rough-cut

aqua-marine stones combined with little aqua-marine rounds and Thai silver accents. I tried to get a feeling of grape clusters on the earrings. This is kind of a fun and obviously handmade set, maybe suitable for lots of different casual outfits.

The lighting wasn't good for this shot but it gives the idea!

Ocean Treasure

These orangey coral beads were first made into a necklace for grandkid several years ago so it was very short. She lately has asked to have it made over so this time several little extras make it more ocean-y, like tanzanite color crystals, a pearl, an abalone coin, a sterling silver starfish from Thailand, and a soft sea-green jasper with some white striations that remind me of foam on the waves.

Pandora

Very cool radio website, pandora.com. Whatever music style or musician or band name I come up with, they make a radio station for me that plays just that kind of music. So far I've got James Taylor, Ottmar Liebert, The Gipsy Kings, Henry Mancini and Bob Dylan. They can also mix and vary in each station. Ingenious!

It's so nice to have free music of choice while working in the basement - which can seem a little closed in.

Grandkid's visit has been wonderful, and getting to work on a computer project with her was very enjoyable. She's certainly a child of her era, analytical and discerning. I also found out her favorite pattern is zebra stripes. She loves weird tv cartoon shows and Weird Al songs, and her favorite part of visiting us is getting corn tortillas, refried beans with cheese.

Many lilies are blooming around the place, along with roses, crepe myrtles and impatiens. The upside-down cherry tomato plant is doing well so far.

This Saturday morning the errands went well and now closed in the cool cavern, I'm working with our home library to clean and organize, still!

Hot Math

Counting the weeks between 100% humidity and the arrival of sweet autumn relief - looks like just about 14. The middle of September things start to get a little more comfortable here in north Georgia. That averages out to almost 100 days. Twenty-four hundred hours. One hundred forty-four thousand minutes. Of muggy sticky sweaty de-motivating unbelievable oven-hot heat. I'm ordering one of those hats with a fan inside. Meanwhile, sun on all the green leaves is very pretty to see out the window. And no shortage of birds taking baths, that's great entertainment.

The Massive Loss

Count your blessings, is how the comfort sounds when you sustain huge losses of any kind. Haven't we all heard it so many times. Now we as a family of humans will have to count our blessings and stay busier than ever before in our lives, to cope with the unbelievable grief and pain as our beautiful dreamy beaches are destroyed. The domino effect is rapidly bringing up the rear. From the smallest bits of food to the giant creatures living in the sea; from the sea to the sky to the wind to the seafood-eating diners to the fishers and coastal dwellers of every kind who take their living from the sea around the world, grief and loss will have to be endured.

How will all the lives change - we will know too soon and for too long. Inevitable change of the quality of life and the very existence of life.

From where I take my viewpoint, it's hard to see well enough to count the blessings - which will be disappearing faster than they can be counted.

Fun With Catalogs

The best fun to be had with catalogs is figuring out which are dispensable and throwing them into the recycle. They are just beautiful and the end result of untold hard work of many people. But keeping them all is unthinkable. Then the catalogs with photographs of continuing inspiration can actually be used creatively. So that kind of sifting goes on for a time. Turning on the music helps the process go well. We have found many forgotten treasures sitting in boxes waiting to be appreciated. The tedbear from grandkid got me going this evening! His little sweater says, "Grandma is a Mom...without the rules." She picked it up at a yard sale with her own money several years ago and knowing how much a kid wanted to make her grammaw happy is better than gold. Then a little container of paperclips turned up - at last! I thought I had looked everywhere for it but it's always the last box from the move of over a year ago, where you find the really good stuff.

What a Relief!

It is such a big deal to find a nice place to get a haircut, and even if you don't have a big job to go to everyday it does seem important to have hair shaped the way you want it. Funny how many hair cutting establishments there are, every direction you look, and how few people are in them who know how to listen and do what the customer wants.

I have sat down in many a hair chair when the beautician thought I was somebody else and was just dying to be scalped alive. "OH I AM SO SORRY! I thought you were somebody else! That's why I stuck my scissors under your hair at the base of your head and cut all the hair off that you were trying to grow out for the last six months!" "Don't worry, this short hair looks so sophisticated!" "This man's haircut makes your cheekbones more prominant!"

Except I'm not a man, is the only problem there.

So at my friend's recommendation (she's known as The Mermaid but that's a story for another bloggy), I ventured into Town, the north side of Atlanta and went to Salon 11 where a wonderful talented and tactful young man named Adam proceeded to work on my head as though I was an important person, and when he got done my hair looked shiny, shaped and swingy. His mysterious hair products smelled lovely. The shampoo included a neck massage in a very comfortable shampoo chair. The windows overlooked a beautiful view of the city. I had a $20 off coupon -- some days life IS good!

Before I left my next appointment was scheduled, for sure. How wonderful to find a great place for getting a haircut.

Getting The Clean-Up Habit

Here I are in the office awash with loose papers. Each one left on top of the desk. To be taken care of later. I guess we've reached Later. Lost my debit card today. Now I REALLY feel disorganized. After talking to the card cancellation lady I turn my attention to the mess here. Flylady calls it the Stash and Dash syndrome. NOT GOOD!

My new habit of making the bed every morning as soon as I get up, has finally taken hold. I do enjoy having the bed look neat whenever I walk in there.

So time to build a new habit! I've got the shredder here, the trash can, the sharpies for writing on file folders, filing drawers, lots of notebooks and the music playing to keep me company. Put the dang papers where they need to go - I'm too old to be this messy.

Housebound, March 2nd

Today is ANOTHER snow day, Shadow the cat dassn't dunk her paws so she stays on the porch. Then keeps begging to go out again.

What's Needed

Nice music is great to have while working. Crosby Stills Nash beautiful harmonizing just as great as forty-plus years ago. Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic all over my house and car. Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Little Feat, Simon and Garfunkel; of course Bob and many more. All fantastic musicians who decorate a room as much as carpet or paint. The windows media player is working well, now that I learned what I'm doing with it. Only took about five years. Just about any old song that occurs to me can be purchased and playing in less than two minutes. The great soundtracks from kid's movies, burned onto a cd for grandkid. Look for the bare necessities! I never would'a thunk being able to use the internet for buying music was a necessity but there you go.

Okay, That's More Like It

Today was just a blueskysun day, I could see all the way to the Blueridge hills and even some snow at the very tops. Still chilly but much better than the cold with rain/mixed precip/ice/sleet anything but dryness we been having.

Tonight's refreshments are lentil soup with cabbage from a couple days ago, hummus with pita bread. And I have to admit, a little glass of cheap chard, yes it is TIME!

Enough With The Cold Weather

Here we are in north Georgia and freezing to death. I have had it! Have to wear my coat all day from the minute I get up. Last night my feet stayed cold so long I could hardly fall asleep. We loved the high ceiling in this living room and the fake hardwood floors but cozy it isn't. Now there's a table and a rug in my room by the spaceheater and that's where I watch TV! I could be doing that in a camper or a tent.

I am not a penguin! I hate this!