%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
A metaphor for my take on life and how it affects me. |
|
|
| It's light outside and the clouds are still around but there is blue sky that can be seen. Five days of dark clouds full of water that came down in a steady stream. It wasn't 24/7 but if felt like it. We received 2 1/3 inches - not bad for the high desert. Looking forward to getting out with the dog this morning on our walk. We get a lot of puddles (no sidewalks) so I'll have to watch out. Our chances of getting sprayed are less account people are home and not out driving around. I watched my churches Good Friday service on YouTube last night. It was presented very well and the hymns played were good to hear. I'll be watching the Easter Service on Sunday. I miss our Sunday school class that I lead. We use the Cokesbury pamphlet called Life, Spring 2020. There are only Five of us but we talk about what we've read and give our personal opinion about what it means. These pamphlets are written by ministers and use some personal experiences along with passages from the Bible that the lesson is about. For me it adds some color to the Bible when I read it, and helps me understand some of the passages. I've continued to read through the weekly lessons and it makes me feel good. Looking outside my window I'm seeing more and more blue sky. What can I say, it brings a smile to my face, and my feet are starting to tap. Oh boy it's going to a Beautiful Day the Lord Has Made! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| Five days straight, it's not a record but it sure feels like it. I can't imagine what Noah felt when the rain came! "Supposedly" it's gonna quit later tonight and we should see some sun tomorrow. Hurrah! My wife ran back to the store to pick up a ham. I told her a pork chop would be good for our Easter Sunday meal but she wants ham. Who am I to argue? Happy WIFE Happy LIFE! While Lou was napping yesterday, I decided to walk around the house. I walked for 31 min and walked 1.25 miles. I will try to replicate that again today. The bike is still in the bedroom gathering dust, I have not used it once since the rain started. Must be a mental block. I was thinking about my progression with computers. My first desk computer was a Commodore, followed by a Gateway, then a self built (by someone else) computer. I went to a laptop made by Acer, MacBookPro then back to iMac. I also have iPads and iPhone. On all of these magnificent peaces of equipment, I've used maybe 1/1000 of their computing power. That's what happens when you start in mid life. The fear of breaking or getting stuck and not knowing how to unstick it! I don't play with computers to see what they can do or look into places I've never been. As the years progress I do less and less and it's a complete wast of these machines. There aren't to many times I wish I was young again but when it comes to computers, I do! I guess that's what cabin fever does to you, makes you become reflective and I don't want to go there. Have a great day and weekend! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| Here I sit wondering what do I really have to write about today. A friend once wrote about this dilemma, she posted that "once you start writing the words will flow". or something along that line. I'm not seeing any rivers passing through at the moment, maybe there is a beaver dam up river. The soggy weather continues and looks like it will last through tomorrow. The weatherman says we'll have sunshine this weekend. There's something to look forward too! We sprung a leak yesterday, not much of one but we did put a bucket underneath. It doesn't begin until we start having a strong downpour. I had our handyman come over after the last rain and he went onto the roof and put O Henrys around the air vents, He did not go into the attic and I believe that will be required this time. At 72 it's not something I should do, so I will need to call our guy back. In January we had a problem with our ice machine on the refrigerator and called a company out to repair it. He came out and changed out the ice making unit, and ever since we've had a leak. The gasket that meets up with the drop box when the door is closed does not seal properly. The air from the inside refrigerator is getting into the ice machine causing the ice up front to melt. He was the first person we've had in our house since the isolation order came out, he has to come back when the part he ordered comes in. Hopefully we'll remain Covid free! The wife has gone to the store to pick up a few items. Not much milk, bread, and few other essentials. This should make us good for another week or two. We had 4 packages arrive yesterday from orders placed last month. UPS, FedEx and USPS were the carriers. They arrived between 1 pm and 8:30 pm, quite a spread. I only have 2 more items left that are delayed account of Covid-19. I did receive a email this morning that one of those items have shipped. There is talk of opening things up again sometime in May or June, but I don't see how that can be done when they say the vaccine for this virus won't be ready for 18 months. We're talking a year and a half, I'm not looking forward to spending that much time in self imposed isolation. Someone will have to come up with something in less time than 18 months or we're all going to go crazy! Evidently the damm broke and the words flowed for me at least Life Is Good - God Bless |
| It's Wednesday - Trash day and it's still raining. The weatherman says it will rain tomorrow also. Who said "It never rains in Southern California"? It's was a dry January and February, and most people were concerned that we were headed into a drought situation. The rain we have received in March and now April brings us up too and a little over our average. It looks like another TV and Book day. We get tired of the TV and turn it off so we can have peace and quiet. It is nice to listen to rain falling on the roof. We have a gas fireplace and that is what we have used this winter instead of the overhead unit. The cost has been a little less than last year. Change of Subject! My Mother lives in a board and care facility approximately 60 miles from where I live. She is 94 turning 95 in October. She had been doing very well until she fell last Friday. Evidently she landed on her hand because it has swollen and the pain has been bad. She does not remember the fall. My Mother was concerned before the fall about coughing and feeling tired. She thought she had Covid-19 and wanted to go to the hospital. The owner called the Doctor and was told that she should not come in and to keep secluded and keep and eye on her. All is well The pain from the fall has been excruciating for her but the facility has put off taking her in. They called the Doctors office again and was told to wrap her wrist and see if it gets better. They were told to call back in a week. At her age going in and being around other people could cause her to be infected. There's not much you can say over the phone to help lesson the pain. It's been 3 weeks since I last saw my mom and it's hard to take. All we can do is pray and hope things get better for all of us. Each of us has a situation we are dealing with in this crisis. Times are trying but we must hang in there. I want to see how it all works out! Life Is Good -God Bless |
| It's Tuesday and it's gonna be a lot like Monday WET! Stay inside kind of day, and that makes for cabin fever. It doesn't bother me so much but my wife is having a hard time handling it. She doesn't like to sit for prolonged periods of time, and if she does she prefers to sit outside. She is the architect of our yard and enjoys spending time working on pruning, fertilizing, weeding and mowing. We live in the High Desert, operative word is Desert. Due to Southern Californias on and off again drought situation, we are required to watch our water usage. Several years ago we had to ration our water. Our front yard is dirt with various plants strategically placed along the perimeter of the house and wall that forms a patio. We have 3 medium sized pine trees out front. We've also place 3 of my yard art creations that are circular saw blades made into birds. On the south side of our driveway we had an additional driveway poured to make it a somewhat Circular drive. South of that is crushed rock and along the border 4 twisted junipers. Our back yard has mostly crushed rock except for 9 cypress that are placed along the back fence. We have 1 large fruitless mulberry tree and a circular patch of grass that is 34 feet in diameter. We have a picnic table and 4 benches I made with left over steel from our previous home. On our covered patio we have two 2x2 tables and 4 2 foot benches (that I made), along with store bought patio chairs. We also have a plethora of yard art, some I made and some bought. I like to give my wife a bad time by telling her a I want a sit down mower to cut the grass. She just smiles and says "in your dreams"! I have seven water valves to cover all of the plants. In my younger years I put in all of our irrigation needs when we moved (with the help of my wife). When you get older you can't do what you did before, so I paid to have it done. He did a good job and at least my wife isn't trying to water all this by hand. We just need sunshine and comfortable temps to enjoy our Shangri La Life Is Good - God Bless |
| Family Thursday, November 6, 2014 3:42 AM Family is the commodity you can’t change. With friends and acquaintances if you disagree or are hurt by them you can turn your back and let them go. With family you cannot, you are connected weather you like it or not. We can distance ourselves from the offending person or persons but we are connected by a umbilical cord, we share the blood that flows through our veins. Is blood thicker than water? When you grow up in a close family that does things together you don’t think about differences. We are peas from the same pod but each pea is evolving differently. Sometime those differences don’t come to life until we get older. What once was a cohesive family can become split and shattered. Each pea has developed differently from the others, and when you loose the person who kept the pod together you begin to see and feel those differences. You never give any thought about how someone will react. A simple act of kindness given in time of need may be seen by the others as a means of getting one up on the other. Feelings and emotions that have been festering for years come out. Words spoken and written cannot be taken back and the anger and vile thoughts expressed are like bombs going off. Each word cuts at that umbilical cord until the separation is complete. Forgiveness can be given, but if you feel that someone you have nurtured and helped over the years can come to that conclusion, then you wonder if staying connected is worth it. This is one scenario of a family gone wrong. There are so many more with children and parents. How do we make amends? What can be done to take away the hurt and bad feelings? Is there a simple answer or is this a lost cause? Family love um and hate um, but they are what made us. Staying connected is the best scenario but it doesn’t always work out. |
| The start of a new week, are we ready? I checked my calendar and it's clear. I'm free all week so if something unexpected pops up I can deal with it! The Surgeon General has said this week is our Pearl Harbor and 911 moment. I would agree for New York, Louisiana and Detroit. So far in California High Desert we haven't experienced that moment yet. At this moment in time I don't know anyone who has the virus or passed. I'm sure our Time is coming, but it hasn't arrived yet. Watching TV has brought home how fortunate we are. The people living in apartments have nowhere to go. I look around and we have a comfortable home to move around in and a front and back yard. We set outside in the mornings and watch the sun come up and enjoy being outside. My wife has made our yard look beautiful. Rain is predicted for us today but we never know. Our portion of the High Desert is located on the back side of the San Bernardino Mountains. It is not unusual for the rain coming off the coast to stop when it gets to the mountains. It is frustrating to watch the projected storm track on TV and the Station logo is placed in our area. Sometimes it splits and moves around us, Weather.com showed us 90% chance of rain last night yet none showed up. Did I say it was Monday, Cleaning day at our home, so the swifter is calling my name. Guess I should get moving and get this day underway. Life Is Good - God Bless |
| I've spent the morning working on a project to make a cheater cleat to shut off water valves. This is the second one I've made, As you get older your strength weakens and you can't do what you used to do. The need for the second is the location, opposite ends of the yard one's in the back the other out front. The other project I did this morning was to use a router to make an indentation in a piece of plywood I'm now using to lower my keyboard. I took a small board to change the angle of the keyboard, and I used a hand planer to wittle down the size and angle. I cut a 1/4 inch piece of plywood to lay over my middle drawer of my desk, it was this piece I used the router on. So far it's working as intended. I'm a hobbit welder, and I like to make things. I'm not an artist nor am I a craftsman. The things I make with iron or wood are functional not pretty. There is a couple in my Sunday school class who are artist, in fact Richard has some of his work hanging in the Smithsonian in Washington DC. They try to tell me I'm an artist and I tell them no way. I decided to work inside since the wind is blowing at 20 mph and the temp is 50 degrees and climbing slowly. I know I need to take my dog out and I will a little latter, but I'm not looking forward to it. Rain is scheduled (per the computer & weather man) for the next four days, so I'll miss out if I don't get moving. Life Is Good - God Bless |
| I'm trying to wrap my head around what the mind set is of people who ignore the order for self distancing. Now we need to put on a mask when going to the store or other public places. This along with shutter in place is making me wonder if a lot of people understand the seriousness of the situation. It would be easy to point fingers and place blame, or be a Monday morning quarterback. What good would that do, we have a problem and we need to Get er Done! Everyone needs to get on the same page, and have the same goal. Somebody needs to step up and take the bull by the horns. I don't believe Washington is there yet, some of the Governors have stepped up but it only applies to his or her state. What is the answer to our Dilemma? I don't have the answer, but I wish that someone would assign a person to be in charge of the distribution of supplies, equipment and enlist companies to make the PPE equipment. We need 1 person that the States can go to and work with to get what they need. Testing is still a problem that has not been satisfactorily addressed. The small communities throughout the United States don't have the test, so the infection is doubling and possible tripling while we wait. The small communities don't have the hospitals nor the staff needed when it hits our towns. We Are In Trouble! What have I accomplished by this small dissertation? Nothing - just blowing off steam and getting it off my chest! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| I saw a news story on TV about spousal abuse and that surprised me, and I mentioned it to my wife. She said "people aren't used to spending 24 hours a day with their families and some people can't handle it." I can see how that can happen but not to the point of physical or verbal abuse. This morning I was getting my breakfast and my wife said something about having a piece of white bread with avocado. Yesterday we had 2 heels left of the white bread and I toasted one, and last night we had salad for dinner. I was still hungry so I cut the last piece of bread and made a half of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't believe my wife is too happy right now. I'm beginning to see the big picture now. So many things are changing and we must roll with them. I'm diabetic and Lou cooks with sugar free products including brown and regular sugar. We haven't found it in stores lately and when I tried to order it on line from Target I picked the wrong one. Today I went looking for Swerve brown sugar and I found it. I told my wife that the cost of shipping was $6.99; she said "I'll get it at the store next time." We couldn't find it before and ordering it would keep her from going to the store. I felt like we should order it, so I did 3 bags. We talked about have Jersey Mikes for lunch today, and I downloaded the app and tried to set up an account. It kept asking me to verify my email address and I push the button and nothing was coming to my email. I must have done this 5 or 6 times. I was doing this on my iPhone and I was getting frustrated. I came into the computer room and looked in my email, nothing then I went to delete the Junk folder and low and behold there were their replies. I'm old and this is not good for my blood pressure. Anyway they show Free Delivery and our store is 4 miles away, when I punched in the delivery button and gave them my address, it came back we cannot deliver to you. Lou had her mouth set for a grinder and now it doesn't look like we will get it. Can anyone see the steam coming off the paper? Oh well it's just another day living under quarantine! Life Is Good - God Bless |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
