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.