The end of the summer

A week of sad. Labor Day has always been a good bye kind of holiday. Summer is over. Years ago school would be starting after Labor Day. Leave the ocean. Back to the winter house and neighbors and friends and clothes. Get out the shovels. Put Dinty Moore beef stew on the shelf and make sure you have candles, milk and bread before the Northeaster hits.

Now things aren't quite so bad but still . . a lot of neighbors are preparing to depart for the winter. Water is turned off. Windows are sometimes shuttered. The walk to the beach is darker and quieter than ever before. We can back out of our driveway in less than an hour since traffic becomes almost non-existent. It always gives me that fearful feeling of loss and loneliness.

Meanwhile I have to get back to the winter house for at least part of the week to do my duties. At least I'll be back and will spend a day on either end of this holiday to give me a really good long one.

Right now though, I'm sad.

Sew Anyway As I was Saying

Went shopping last night with a friend who is manic in her need to shop. Everything she touches must be tried on and if it fits will be on the counter for purchase. She whizzes through the store in a frenzy and by the time the bill is paid and we’re ready to go I am almost hyperventilating. I try to add up the cost of the stop and shop and lose track because the tag price is never the purchase price. There is a one day special if you are a senior and it’s Wednesday. If you have a coupon from the catalog and have spent more than $100 then you get so much off and if you buy two of one item the second is 30% or 50% or whatever the scratch ticket they handed you at the door says. Don’t scratch it off until you are ready to buy. Good Grief! How does anyone keep track of this stuff and what does it say about the original ticket price? How marked up did it have to be to survive all this nonsense and still make the store a profit? I am signing up for that sewing class and making my own stuff. Of course then I’ll have to go to fabric stores and who knows what contortions they set up in order to make shopping a fun and apparently bargain hunter’s dream experience?

The one thing I know is that if I were to make my own anythings I will know the quality of the item and appreciate its’ value. I knit and have made my own sweaters and this winter I am going to make one for me and one for my hubbie. I also crochet and have made tablecloths and runners and doilies etc. and will be making a few more of those items. I would really love to learn to sew with a machine and overcome my feeling of failure from the ninth grade home economics class when I got my first C. I just couldn’t do anything as neatly and smartly as the teacher wanted me to. I felt awkward and messy and sloppy and that has stayed with me. I am going to do as Abraham was told….leave my home and family and …I am going to leave the feeling I have that I can’t sew and get on with learning how to do so. I can do needlepoint and crewel and cross stitch and I do it beautifully. I can therefore learn to stitch a seam and make a buttonhole and install a zipper.

It’s good to have goals.

Cant stan'em

Here's what I'm sick of......for the past 6 years the press has been pounding their agenda, yes, agenda not news over our heads. Impeach Bush, Viet Nam, quaqmire, there will be a draft, gay marriage, hate speech, (fill in the blanks as long as its a Republican or anyone with common sense) is Hitler. Honestly, give. it. up. Go back to the Pravda school of mind bending and try again. Oh yes there is also the Children and innocent civilians are being torured and traumatized by smokers who are right wing Christians. Gitmo. Sobbing for Castro. Cindy Sheehan and her band of over the hill layabouts who smoked too much pot in the sixties and never got on the new drug of choice whatever that is........oh, I forgot - there's the civil war in Iraq or soon will be or almost could be or Pleeeeeeeze someone start one. Keep the talking heads happy with whatever the new depression of the day should be.. Bird Flu, Global Warming, Mad Cow. I could keep going and will. Obesity, the poor immigrants, profiling, warrantless wiretaps, OHMIGASPUMP the oillllllllllllllllllll prices. Pleeeeeeeze let the windfarms into the Atlantic, save the manatees and STOP spraying the mosquitoes.

I'm sick of every tree hugging nonsensical manipulation the press and their minions push at us every minute of every day as they attempt to destroy our world. Somehow they must think that whatever world remains, they will be in charge of it and that will make everything OkeyDokey since they are the most brilliant and caring individuals in the universe.

Bleeeecccccchhhhhh and Pffffffft to all of them.

Truth or Consequences

I know. I know. I said two posts for yesterday. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. That's all I have to say about that. I heard on the radio this morning that breaking your promise is the same as a lie. Yikes. It's funny but I always thought that a lie was a deliberate falsehood told to either protect yourself or someone else or it could be a deliberate falsehood meant to harm someone. I never really thought that breaking your promise was a lie. As a younger person a promise to be somewhere with someone was good as long as there was nothing better to do. It was stated that a promise is a promise. It doesn't melt when a better offer appears. Now that throws that situation into a whole new light. During that radio sermon it was also said that breaking your word is a lie. Not paying your bills is a lie. Liars are dealt with very severely. It was also said that lies are sometimes blessed. When the Jewish midwives in Egypt were told to kill all the new born baby boys and they lied to Pharoah saying the Jewish women were so lively that the babies were born before the midwives arrived, God blessed them. Also when Rahab lied to protect Joshua's spies she was placed in the honor roll of the faithful. Both of these lies were in effect, civil disobedience. God stresses that we must obey civil orders. The law of the land is to be obeyed whether we like it or not as long as it is not in violation of God's law.

I must go ponder. We are surrounded by lies 24 7 in our high tech world. Not misunderstandings but deliberate falsehoods told to make a situation look better or grimmer than it is. Lies, lies, lies. Not marketing or advertising or spin. Lies.

I am off to the showers, work and hopefully a day of truth.

Pray for me.

In which I attend a concert

More time flies by around here. I am always amazed at the date or the time of day. Where did it all go? I used to say that there is nothing of any importance to report on but so much trivial detail that I'm exhausted thinking about it.

Some of my huge adventures did involve life outside of the usual rut. We went to a concert a week ago and saw Natalie MacMasters, a Celtic fiddler and step dancer. WOW....she is amazing. Within a 5 minute period she had the whole audience on their feet and clapping and moving around. Just joyful. Then Del McCrory(sp) and his bluegrass music took over and that was followed by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Just fabulous, each and every one. I am in awe of such talent and the ability to be transported by the music as each of the artists can be. What a gift.

I have to fly right now and hit the morning commute to get to the office and then meetings, meetings, meetings but then some down time and I plan to post twice today. We'll see.

Have a good morning.

A Sad and Hot and Lighter Week

Wow! It's been a week since I wrote anything. I've thought about it but, and now here's the list of excuses no reasons why I have not written. Heat for one thing. Great swooping cranes it has been HOT. Humid too I might add. My house has window unit air and I only turn it on when I get home from work and by the time the comfort zone hits I'm asleep on the couch. My friends mother passed away last Monday. Quick wasn't it? That's not a bad thing at 95. Feel fine until 2 weeks before you pass on then have a pain, go to the hospital for tests, develop pneumonia, overcome that and die in your sleep after you saw your entire family and told them you love them. I vote for that.

My other friend's mother who also had a back pain is doing fine. A pulled muscle and she's also 95. So there's that.

The wake and funeral were on Friday and Saturday and I had some of the family at my house. There you have the reasons I did not write.

I learned a number of things during this hot sad time. I'm still mulling them over and will write later this week. Funny. I have such coherent and logical discussions in my head and then when I try to organize and write it down....what a difference.

Yes! If you're interested. I did lose weight again....almost two pounds so here we have an almost 8 pound weight loss. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to do this. I sincerely hope I can keep going. As I look back on my health issues a doctor's visit lingers in my memory. He was reviewing my blood work over the past few years. I go twice a year for work ups and he pointed to one that was outstanding. "Whatever you were doing back here," he said, "Do it again. Your results were amazingly good." Well I was going to Jenny and losing weight. I must really change my ways and keep this healthy eating going since I want to be just like my friends' mothers and be going strong at 95.

Now I must get on with my day and you with yours. Have a lovely one.

YAY!!!!!!

DOWN - Yes, the scale went DOWN! Hallelujah Hannah. Only a pound but honestly after the bloating and puffing up of the appendages on Sunday thanks to Saturday's festival, I was so grateful for that pound. I am motivated to go on for another week. I have to say that I feel better, I think I already said that right? I'm sorry it's the age thing. I do feel better though and my bras are not so tight. Yeah I know that's not a great thing in the feminine pulchritude world but it translates to the undergarments are not stopping the breathing. Well. On with the show and hoping for more downers in the future.