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 |  Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c   |
| I can remember when I blogged about this last year and here I am again, looking at that blooming tulip tree across the street. It is so beautiful, and surprisingly I have azaleas blooming in my own backyard - - just too early! I can't help but enjoy them though, We are having crazy weather, highs in the 80's and lows in the 50's. It makes me think some bad weather is on the way. Our last frost is usually around the first of March...hmmm. I am continuing to enjoy my vegetarian diet. Although I've not lost any weight, I have stabilized where I am. My daughter sent me a cookbook for Christmas, Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin. Everything sounds good and I've tried a few of the recipes, but I'm not ready to give up eggs and cheese. I could care less about meat and even have a negative response to the smell of meat cooking. Fast food joints are history! My favorite new recipe is something I call "spinach, pasta and mushrooms" since I made it up. Easy-peasy and so delicious. Here it is if you would like to try it.... Spinach, Pasta and Mushrooms (for 1, that’s me) rotini noodles (amount is your call, I use a heaping half cup) a splash of olive oil clove of garlic, minced ¼ cup onion, diced ¼ T fresh thyme or a sprinkle of dried 1 c fresh mushrooms, sliced (I use baby bellas) ½ T flour ½ c milk (I use vanilla Almond Breeze) a handful of fresh spinach, chopped 1/8 c fresh basil, chopped or a big sprinkle of dried salt and pepper to taste grated parmesan Cook rotini as directed on box. Add oil to sauté pan & on medium heat cook garlic, onion and thyme around one minute. Add shrooms and cook another eight minutes. Sprinkle flour over & stir. Slowly add milk and boil three minutes. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and cook only till spinach wilts. Turn off heat and grate parmesan over. Toss with drained rotini and top with more parmesan as desired. Sometimes I throw in some broccoli florets with the rotini, and I have added a cut up tomato and zucchini to the pan mixture with the shrooms. If I don't have rotini, I'll use any pasta on hand...all is yummy! As you can see, nothing is written in stone and your taster will likely be different from mine so adjust any way you like it  .I read this today and it spoke to me so loudly I have to share... ring the bells that still can ring forget your perfect offering there is a crack in everything that's how the light gets in - by leonard cohen until next time...c |
| I decided to go ahead and put up my Christmas tree yesterday (artificial with lights already on, thank goodness). I thought it might make me sadder without Jim, but it actually cheered me up a little, all those sparkling colored lights and Mopsy acting crazy. It's sort of mesmerizing like the om in yoga. My tree is only a couple years old, but the decorations are ancient (1960's and 70's)...lots of good memories, some store-bought, some kid-made . I am glad I put it up. My sister-in-law's sister fell and broke her hip last week; the ball part was broken and had to be replaced. She is 85 and seems to be recovering well, although she will need to spend about thirty days in a rehab facility after release from the hospital. She was in some unimaginable pain after it happened, but with morphine and percoset, she soon started thinking of other things . What an imagination she has and so entertaining. It takes a while for those drugs to wear off...wish I'd had a recorder  .Lonewolf  gifted me a costumicon, a very pleasant surprise. I love it! It makes me feel special .Life is calling, so... until next time....c |
| It seems I am always clicking the little button called "Random Read". Stories, poetry, anything can come up to surprise me. The first thing I do after that is click on "Details" to find out a little more, when the article was written, a bit of description, and how long it might be. Then, I read. As I'm reading I tend to make assumptions about the author, where they are from, their age (young, middle, or old only), male or female. After a quick read-through, I can wait no longer, I must click on their suitcase. Urgently, it seems, I read their bio block. Sometimes, it tells me a lot, sometimes not much. I wonder how the author decides what to write, here, where most get their first impressions of the person inside. Yes, I consider the port as a little house with a person inside, a 'port in the storm' for many of us. Many bio blocks speak to the person's writing, their opinion of its value even, how long they/ve been at it, what they would like to accomplish through it. At this point, I am either really interested or too bored to go on. I guess it depends on the audience for whom the bio block is intended. If I go on, my next tab click is biography. Sometimes, I am very disappointed when this page comes up. Many people of all suitcase colors have not completed their biography! What a letdown after all that has led up to it. If there is nothing, what else to do? Review the story I've read without really knowing anything about the author? Usually, not. But if there is a biography, I read every word to see if any or all of my assumptions have been correct. It's a kind of game, I guess, and it gives me some insight into the story I just read. It's like reading S. King. I have to know something about his "real" life to try to understand what and why he writes. Reading the biography makes me feel a little bit closer to the author, puts me on speaking terms...so to speak. I'm not sure this is making much sense. I just want to share the personal importance I attach to the biography tab and why. You may not think it's important, but uncompleted, it could be a stumbling block for reviews from others as it is with me. Please take the time, tell me about you. until next time....c |
| I am so tired of hearing about the fiscal cliff! I don't think our representatives should get paid if they can't perform their jobs. The rest of us get fired when that happens. When we go to work, we are expected to leave our personal lives at home. They should have to do this, too. Quit thinking about the donations that will dry up if they don't do this or that. They do take a pledge of allegiance to the United States, don't they? Nough said. till next time...c |
| I had a wonderful day at Juanita's with all her children, grandchildren, and even a couple great grandchildren. Everyone brought some kind of food so you can imagine the assortment of tastes available, a perfect Thanksgiving dinner. Desserts (backwards that spells stressed, in case you hadn't noticed) were the specialty of the day from Mississippi Mud Cake to Pecan Pie...oh, the sugar highs. I was in a good zone, listening to all the youngsters talk, getting lost in their world for awhile. It's very chilly here this morning (38), my outside flowers are shivering. Saturday morning we are forecast to hit 33, maybe a frost. It does give some punch to the holidays. Mopsy stays on the sofa arm in the familyroom, underneath the lamp, sucking in its warmth. Travel safely... until next time....c |
| I've been sitting here a few minutes, staring at the screen and sipping a cup of Bigelow's Lemon Lift with a dollop of Orange Blossom Honey. I had to warm up my fingers. Today was library volunteer day with a pleasant surprise. We're having a Christmas Party! What a great gig. There's a show on PBS right now about turkeys. Watch it and you'll never eat another one. They are so smart and lovable and can teach us a lot about how to live and treat others. Yes, that's right...turkeys! Heartbreaking ending, though. Turkeys will be turkeys, I guess. Tomorrow I've been invited to have Thanksgiving dinner at my sister-in-law's so I must rise early and make a pumpkin pie to take with me. I want to wait until morning because I like them warm...and the smell should get me in the mood. I got her a really pretty bouquet, too. You can tell I'm looking forward to a little socializing for a change. My muse continues to refuse to tell me any stories. I am reading outside my comfort zone, though. I'm a little over a hundred pages through Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.), and I eyed some of LeGuin's books at the library today. Fantasy is not my thing, but it might become my thing .I am so thankful for all my friends here at writing.com and hope each of you has a very special and happy day tomorrow! until next time...c  |
| Small things, even insignificant things, make me happy and thankful. Separating plants in an overgrown dish garden and seeing the newly potted up greenery makes my heart sing. Mulching the pine needles with the mower, circling and circling the trees until the bits and pieces are scattered and stacked in neat circles around the trunks is satisfying and soothing to me. Fixing a vegetable chili with what is handy in the fridge and pantry, and having it taste better than anything I ever cooked before is awesome. All I have to do is notice... until next time....c |
| I had my stitches out yesterday and all the margins are clear on my path report. Next checkup, May 15th. Getting baked at the beach, back in the 1950's, was a popular pasttime. Little did we know forty or fifty years later, melanomas might pop up. Even after reading the perils of a sunburn, I and many others gave it little attention. Remember that cute little girl with the tan and the dog pulling down the back of her pants exposing white skin (Coppertone). What a horror to have white skin, right? But who wants melanomas, wrinkles, and skin cancers? Not a lesson to be learned through experience. It seems it was the same way with cigarettes. When my mom was young, there were no tv's or ads of people with holes in their throats warning against the consequences of smoking. She was bombarded with Marlboro Man billboards,actors puffing away on the big screen, and print ads of Kools in Look Magazine. How cool was that name? Not. At 48 my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was gone before she celebrated her 50th birthday. I could write about my Jim's life which followed along the same path (not sunburn or smoking, though), but my fingers do not want to type those words yet How easily we can be fooled and sucked into doing things that turn out to be very, very bad for us. All this doom and gloom thinking has made me look at some things I am doing that are most likely very bad for me. As a starter, I have given up eating meat. I don't think I need all those growth hormones and antibiotics being fed to livestock purposely for my consumption. And I do not think anything should have to die for me to live. At first I wondered if I would get enough protein (about 40 grams per day for my age) so I kept track for a few days. Even without tofu, which I cannot bring myself to eat, I found it very difficult to NOT get my quota. I love all kinds of beans, cheeses, and have eaten an egg almost every day forever. So, when eating meat, I was probably eating too much protein (which is bad for my kidneys). Vegetarianism seems an easy do; vegan...not so sure. If anyone has some tips for me, please share.... until next time....c |
| It's chilly here this morning, 41 degrees, but I have not turned on my heat yet this season since it continues to stay at 70 inside. I hate that terrible smell when the heat first comes on, all that stale, burnt air coming out of the vents. Lots of people are out walking their doggies, all bundled up in jackets, scarves, and hats (the people, that is). And then I'll see that one weirdo, jogging along in shorts and t-shirt, a hardy soul. I'll take my walk at 3 when the sun is at its warmest. I did that yesterday, and even then, I never really warmed up, but it was cloudy yesterday. I picked some beauty-berry http://templeterrace.patch.com/blog_posts/beautyberries-expect-the-unexpected and stuck it in the ground near the birdbath. My little mole is gone, replaced by a few stitches right now. They come out on the 15th. Contrary to what I expected, this one was not nearly as painful as the other .I got a card in the mail yesterday from the Friends of the Library thanking me for my volunteer effort and announcing their haul of $146,777.90. Wow! That made me feel great! This is a big weekend for Gainesville...UF Homecoming Weekend. It starts tomorrow with a 2-mile run/walk (Gator Gallop), then a parade with a trail of floats competing for first place, followed by Gator Growl, a huge pep-rally at the stadium tomorrow night. This year Josh Turner and Tracy Morgan are part of the entertainment. Jim and I have attended in years past. The noise is deafening! On Saturday morning there is a big barbeque and then, at 12.21, the main event. I'll leave with a link to my favorite commercial...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZthOZIdDKU until next time....c |
| My sister-in-law, who lives nearby, is planning a trip to visit her brother in WVA...tomorrow. She is eighty, and not only that, her sister is going with her and she is eighty-five. Yes, old age can be ignored . The weather may make their trip impossible though. They are traveling via Amtrak, and as of 11 A.M., the tracks from D.C. to Hinton, WVA, are not cleared. A forecasted storm for next week is presenting an additional roadblock, but her tickets are bought, and I know she will forge ahead if at all possible. They plan on staying two weeks, and their wardrobes have already been UPSed. Tell me old people aren't with it! One of her granddaughters is taking them to Jax where they will catch the train. There used to be a station at Waldo (only fifteen miles away), but I guess it did not do enough business and they closed it a few years ago. Juanita has already traveled to WVA by plane, bus and car, and is ready for a new experience. I hope I feel like that sometime in the future. Right now I have to practically make myself get out of the house. When I think of going more than ten miles away from home, it might as well be Mars. until next time...c |
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