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.