It's Over! March on in!

My cousin called last night from Florida, make that sunny Florida. She will be there in her condo with room for visitors until the sun comes out here and then she will come back this way. Maybe next winter I'll go down for a visit. She is a widow and she would love the husband to come too but a girls visit is nice. Maybe I will go down for a few days and then he can join us and then we will go home together. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

Well, the weather here is COLD and with the snow we got yesterday still clinging to patches of grass and sides of the road it looks cold. I commented to a friend that February around here is when the world turns black and white. The color of anything is so muted that it turns gray. Picture the Deer Hunter. That's the view from anywhere here in February. Sigh.

Hope springs eternal. Guess what today is? Yup! The last day of this unfortunate month of the year. Thank You Lord.

Sun

Finally. The sun is out. It's going to snow again tomorrow. As Howard Dean would say "Arrrrgh!" He kind of sounds like a pirate doesn't he?

Let it Snow! It will Anyway.

SNOW! Yes, more snow. Woke up this morning and thought it was bright outside even though my curtains were down and there it was and is. Snow! It's not over yet. You know, in 1978 here in the northeast of the USA, we were pounded with a blizzard in February. It began calmly with little tiny flakes. "The smaller the flake the bigger the storm." Don't thank me, you can use that one anytime, that's a saying picked from who knows where but around here someplace. Back to the 78 storm. It began quietly and built up to a blizzardly roar howling and yowling and piling up drifts the likes of which we haven't seen since thank you very much. But here's the thing. It never quit. It calmed down and then, like Chinese water torture, plink, plink,plink, every blessed day it snowed and trickled snow and poufed snow and showered snow and snow and snow and snow. Yes. We all went nutty with snow. It only blasted us that once but the little drifty flakes every, single, day. The gun metal grey sky and those blasted little drifty flakes just about drove us tee. totally insane.

This February? Not so much but coming close. Spring had better hustle it's bustle along and get here soon. That's all I'm saying.

RIP Wm F Buckley Jr.

What sad news. Wm F. Buckley Jr. died. It always feels like such a personal loss when a good and decent person dies.

Daffodils Make me Happy

I have trouble with the image adding thing....this picture on top should be next to the picture down below.....They are both Nantucket and aren't they gorgeous?

So I just blew off steam and became righteous about self righteous smug people who.......ahh...there I almost went again. I will put a whoa on that rant and rave about the sun, the glorious sun, it is out and shining and cheering us up. It actually made my husband agree to a ferry ride to Nantucket in April for Daffodil Days week end. We will only go for a day but that is fabulous. I now have a happy thought to keep when the snow starts again, and it will since it's only February stillllllll. It will never end it seems.

Here's a glimpse of what we will be enjoying in April...on Nantucket....can't wait

Righteous is as Righteous does

I just stopped by some of the blogs that I usually stop by and one started me thinking. That, by the way is why I love to stop by the blogs I usually stop by. That thinking thing. It's almost better than a fast walk around the block. Anyway, that thing that made me ponder was a comment made in an almost offhand way about how horrible our environment is. Yikes! How can you bear to be here and think daily or have in the background the thought that we live in a terrible environment???? That's like running a low grade fever or living with major depression that's medicated. My goodness. What is wrong with our lives and our country and our homes and families and environment? Nothing is perfect and there are things we as little specks of humanity can polish up and try to fix but honestly, that mind set of the 60's, that shaking your fist in the face of peace and comfort, that search to find something that you can rebel against and that self righteous attitude that comes over you, and you know it does, when you recycle that Poland Springs bottle or change a damned light bulb. "I did my bit to save the planet today. I walked to the store." Smile that smug self satisfied smile and raise your eyebrows at your neighbor's SUV and inground irrigation system. What the hell is wrong with enjoying your life and home and town and country? Just sayin'.

AA Heroes

Last night I went with a friend to an AA meeting. It's been a long time since I have done that and what mixed feelings I had to deal with. On the one hand I felt such relief that my immediate connections are not in need of that support. My late husband introduced me to the world of AA and Alanon. I credit those groups with holding my head above water for the time I needed it. On the other hand I felt my friend's pain since she was dealing with her husband's serious problem with alcohol and was going under.

One of her Alanon connections suggested that she attend this meeting and perhaps it would give her some hope. The meeting was a Big Book meeting and if you are not sure of what that is, in brief, it is going through the 12 steps in accordance with the directions and guidance of the Big Blue Book for AA. The step they were discussing was 5. That's where you basically read all of the step four writings concerning your moral inventory to your sponsor. What courage these people displayed. What a glorious tool those 12 steps are. What a shame we don't all use them to clear away the clutter and crap we surround ourselves with and face the world without our make-up and costumes and phony acts. We all do that and you know we do. Some do it more than others but none of us are without our props.

I really think that with all of our issues if we just give it to God as AA tells us to, if we build that solid foundation to make that giving away possible we would be so much better. I speak for me here since that's all I can do. I wish I had the courage of those people I sat with last night. All ages and genders, all broken by life and addictions, all fighting hard to get past the pain and do the work. God Bless them all and thank you Lord for sending me there last night. My sorry self needed that.

Break some Dishes

I have been so lazy all weekend. I also had a major crankin' mood going, one of those, "Oh Yeah? Says who?" moods. "Just itchin' for a fight ", my mother would say when we were kids. "Well go break dishes." We had a big pile of old and I mean old dishes and cups and saucers and you name it. They were in the garage and there was a big metal trash can there too. Get mad enough and you were sent to the garage to break some serious glassware. The sound was amazing and it certainly wore the edge off the hostilities. Mom was a woman of vision and wise beyond her years. All weekend long I had a dishbreaking kind of mood going. I tried to blow it off through a series of snarls with my husband but he's on to me and so are me very best friends. The one I almost caught realized before we went too far what I was up to, really before I realized, and the call was cut short. We have this thing that goes like this, "What? Can"t hear you. I'm going through a tunnel." As those words are said, and they are said louder and louder, if you can crumple up paper to achieve that statice sound it makes it perfect. At the end of your loud statement and background noise, hang up. Trust me. It has saved many a relationship.

I realize now in hindsight that I should have been breaking the dishes. I'm glad I have a good group around me who knows when to ignore me. Later Gater.

I Heart Dry Weather

All's dry that end's dry. That's the ticket this morning. You would of course know that it used to be wet not too long ago but that will dry as well. Some day we'll get that seen to. That's what we say when it's over. Of course the chances of that are only two and Slim's in Texas as they say.

I am very glad that I didn't stay up all night in a tizzy as I often do. I did check the weather for radar and saw no rain approaching. The rain was just about gone in the later evening and so I took a baby step of faith, called my husband who, of course, is away from home and asked him what he thought and I handed the problem to God and went to bed and actually slept like a rock. Where did that expression come from by the way? Do rocks sleep?

And now for the rest of the day. I did call the husband this am and advised him that we are not about to put in a claim for flood damage. He was glad to hear that and reminded me that he never thought we would have to. I hung up (not on him - the conversation was over) and realized that I never said Happy Valentine's Day and go figure, neither did he. Well Happy Valentine's Day to you and to me and have a wonderfully heartfilled and chocolate and no rain (Yay) kind of day.

Good Weather for Ducks - Donald of course

It has been raining and raining and raining and under these conditions, RAIN and frozen ground and snow upon the frozen ground, I find my basement gets water. Often there is enough water to pump and it has to be hooked up manually which entails slogging through that nasty water (feet wrapped in trash bags) and plugging in a cord while standing in that water -- eeeeek! and then monitoring the pump so that the water level doesn't drop below a spot where the pump will burn out. I am currently pretending that I am in Disneyworld and am oblivious to the weather and the water in my basement. I am of course fiercely praying that the rain will cease and the water will subside.......PLEASE!!! Bye for now. Isn't there a parade somewhere with Mickey and Minnie? Don't tell me it's rained out.

Queen Bee

I'm really slow on the uptake. The spell check on blogger is not working and hasn't been for quite some time and here I thought that I had somehow become the world's most accurate typist and speller. If anyone has read any recent postings and thought "This one is a true misfit in the spelling world" that is why. I used to win all the spelling bees in elementary school. We would have them at the end of the year and "Ta-Da" there I would be, the Spelling Queen Bee. don't laugh we had that title and it was mine. Now that age has done it's turn around my head and body, one of the victims of the train wreck is my spelling ability. It has been slammed and jammed and ripped asunder. I miss it.


Oh Well. Enough of me. For now that is. I will sign off and be cabk in a shile or ckab in a wihle or ......you know what I meen.

Grateful and Humbled

Alistair Begg Rocks. He started my day with this.

Father, thank you that your word is fixed in the heavens. That your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Thank you that past regrets and disappointments and failures and fears belong to yesterday. Thank you for clean pages, fresh starts and new opportunities. Thank you that sins confessed are sins forgiven. I pray that you grant us grace to resist the influence of the evil one who would seek to mar the benefit of positive advice by dragging us back to the garbage cans of sins forgiven.

He said a lot more and I am paraphrasing enormously but I so needed to hear that. How does God know what programs to put on the radio for me? He is an awesome God and I am so grateful.

How Old are You?

Here's another thing. I am so tired of "If someone on the right/left said that there would be ginormous repercussions. " Whatever was said or done was only said or done to get in the tabloids/newspapers or onto the Entertainment channels we call the mainstream news channels. Nothing is real anymore. Everything is Britney Spears real. Unless you are wild eyed and breathing through your mouth you are not experiencing life as we know it. Crazed outrage is the equivalent of inner peace nowadays. Whoever you disagree with at the moment is getting a pass from whoever gives those things out. The world has turned into an enormous ladies' room in high school and everyone has perfected the adolescent whine which finishes with "Yeah so? They did it first and they weren't called for it you are soooooo unfair". Stomps off and slams the door.

Praise and Support Only

Here's an observation. Reading through blogs for a long time has brought me to this conclusion, there are bloggers out there who tell the world their problems and then say they want no one's opinions unless they are in support of the blogger. What's that about? Why say anything and have open comments unless you want some? If you don't want anything but support then have some seriously non-controversial thoughts. Say things like, "I saw two butterflies today and they are such beautiful creatures. Little girls and boys are delightful and innocent. Apple pie is wonderful with ice cream." There. The opinions elicited will be ever so easy to deal with.

A Memo to Rowan

Dear Archbishop of Canterbury,

You are totally insane.

Yours truly,

Me

Lent and Libraries - Ramblings

Anyone else sick of Hillary, Obama, McCain and Romney? Yeah. Me too. I ran through a bunch of things that I might give up for Lent and this obsession with the news made the list. I don't know if it's possible to quit the daily check(s) of Drudge or Instapundit or NRO. Has anyone ever tried and been successful? I didn't think so. Oh there may be that person who didn't pay their internet connection bill and for a day or a week or so lost touch. During that time though I'll bet they went off to the Library or maybe got lucky with some random neighborhood wifi thing.

Speaking of the library, I was there over the weekend and one of the worker bees was showing a vounteer the ropes. She toured this person through the fiction area where I was browsing. Never once lowering her voice she carried on for all to hear and stopped at each row of books to review the conversation. Children were running around and it seemed they belonged to the many people occupying the desk areas by the window where they could connect with their lap tops to the world. The worker patted the kids on the head and said, in a loud voice, be careful, not be quiet, be careful. I can't tell you how annoyed I was. I couldn't tell anyone else either. Are all libraries the same now? Your behaviour doesn't have to change anymore. Keep talking and laughing and leave the kids to randomly annoy anyone. It's kind of like a mall with books. Makes me want to get away from there very quickly.

Super Tuesday

And now for a political moment on Super Tuesday. I will vote before going in to work. That is not the political moment by the way, here is that.

Just read that someone is supporting Hillary because she has served in the Senate and has an unprecedented eight years of on the job training in the White House. Would that same person support Laura Bush running for president? She seems to have unprecedented on the job training as well. Better yet, would she hire me to take care of her computer network? I have 17 years of training here watching my husband take care of his clients. Send me in coach. What a load of hogwash people are expected to lap up.

That kind of ties in to my malaise concerning Superbowl. Yes. I wanted the Patriots to win. Look at their record for the season. And now. It counts for zero. A team from nowhere with only the luck of the wild card system has knocked them out in one game. How dumb is that? Eli can't compare to Tom in the long haul. He is not the all time best ever quarterback. He got lucky and that is the way the game goes. Talent and skill count for nothing if you have a bad day. Baseball knows this. More than one game is played to prove the winners. That should be the case with football. That's all I have to say.

Go Celtics

Good thing the food was good. The game? What game? That was no game......well there's always the Celtics.

Super Sunday.....

Making chili and pulled pork and chicken fingers with dipping sauce. Well, actually I'm watching my husband do these things while I am encouraging and tasting and typing. Not a bad deal is it? The only huge problem is the huge possibility of weight gain due to the tasting and tasting and tasting some more. Man oh man he is one good cook. I think that by kick off time I will be approaching explode and nap. Hope everyone is enjoying the day. Go Pats!!!!!