Pick a date, any date ...

Dragon Mood? -- humming to myself; and who the heck is Joni James???

Here's a cool and fun website someone brought to my attention (ahem, Mr. Sushi!).

https://home.comcast.net/~josh.hosler/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm


Check it out. I promise you, you'll have a little bit of fun with it.

Another Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- in a sunny mood

This week has been a busy one ... and an unnecessarily stressful one.

I wrote on Monday about being in a funk. From that low state of mind, I managed to make some errors at my stay-at-home job that shadowed me and perpetuated my stressful state for another three or four days. ArrrghHH!

So ... that is behind me ... it's the weekend ... and a SUNNY one at that! I heard from my good friend, Trice, yesterday about putting another iron in the possible employment fire ... in Martha's words, "that is a good thing." I hope to send out a couple more resumes this weekend. That would be even more of a good thing! It's sunny today! I got some extremely positive feedback from my project lead on the error-free work that I did this past week -- another positive thing that I need to hold onto and remind myself of when I have these dark "moments of the soul." Did I mention that the sun is shining today! Love it! Matt and Sarah are coming over this evening for a belated celebration of S's birthday. That will be fun. We may even get to play some fast-and-furious rounds of euchre. The Spartoonis are about to play the Fighting Illini in less than a half an hour. I'm hopeful they can finish out their regular season play with another win! AND ... guess what? The sun is shining BRIGHTLY today!

All together ... A VERY GOOD DAY!!

Oops --- a missed anniversary

Dragon Mood? -- forgetful

My last posting, I was so busy being in a funk, that I forgot to recognize calypsoDragon13's SECOND ANNIVERSARY! Yup, two years ago, on February 27th, I started this blog.

I'm still enjoying this blog ... very much!

There's funk and then there's FUNK

Dragon Mood? -- nervous ... and this Dragon doesn't do well feeling nervous!

Over the past several postings, I used the adjective "funky" numerous times to describe an environment I thought was fun and quaint/retro/dated and really quite charming.

Well ... there's funky and then there's FUNK ... as in, how I'm feeling this morning.

While I should be working, I feel the need to jump "over" to this little computer and take a few minutes to write about my feelings. I'm feeling anxious about getting a job and the long-term prospects.

I made the mistake (thinking I was being proactive) of logging onto monster.com and perusing the current listings. Pretty slim pickin's, if you know what I mean. Arrgh! Scary.

S and I had a pretty frank, straight-talking conversation (as straight as two lesbians can have, ha-ha) about our near-term prospects. S is anticipating (as only a far-sighted Aquarian can) that she will be asked (or mandated) to take a paycut in the very near future -- like the end of April and in the neighborhood of a 5 to 6% cut. If that happens (and I still don't have a secure job), we will definitely have to take some actions. Like selling a house. Yeah ... scary stuff.

At the same time, to her credit, S is encouraging me to get a job that I like, not just a get-by job. Which, given that my work for the last 16 years(!) has been to "get by" is a tremendously appealing prospect. And, need I mention, frightening at the same time?

Oh, I was feeling so calm and at peace yesterday. How could that have evaporated so quickly in so brief a time? ArrghhH!

A lovely quiet Sunday

Dragon Mood? -- relaxed and pensive

S and I are winding down on a lovely quiet Sunday. No trees falling, no working on Sunday, no snowstorm, no locusts and plagues. Just a quiet Sunday. Lovely.

We watched, rather I watched the Spartans lose another game. S couldn't bear to watch. I don't know exactly what's going on with the men's team, but they seem to have lost their heart, their fire for the game and for the win. Especially Paul Davis. He had several lightning passes come his way, through his hands and continue on, out of bounds. What's with that? He did end up fouling out with 3:30 to go in the second half. This is his last season as a Spartan. What's going on with him?

After the game, S and I mosied over to J & J's for a quick introduction to their newly-rescued Spanish water dog, named Allie or (C)allie, depending on if it's Joanne who's naming her. Joanne is in a permanent love affair with any and all things remotely related to California, hence the name, Callie.

Allie/Callie is a sweet, mellow four-year old Spanish water dog with a beautiful hypoallergenic, apricot & white coat. I sat on the floor to get acquainted with her. After a couple of minutes, she came over and literally flopped in my lap. "Hello, are you my mom?" What a sweetie-pie! While Jeanne and Joanne brought her back to Michigan, possibly for Jeanne's sister, Mary, methinks Allie/Callie is going nowhere but has captured both of their hearts (mine too!).

Meanwhile, our dog, lovely snarly yellow-dog Cisco was waiting patiently in the back of my hatchback. Little did she know that we had been unloyally fraternizing with a dog she would happily have eaten for a Sunday happy hour appetizer(!)

When we got home, I put on David and Steven Gordon's Drum Medicine CD, snuggled up on the couch and promptly fell asleep. Have I said anything recently about how much I love afternoon naps??? I DO! I love them.

Upon slo-o-owly waking up, I got up, warmed a cup of coffee au lait, took a hot, hot, long hot shower, washed my hair, shaved my legs and enjoyed the heat on some pesky tense back muscles. It felt wonderful.

S and I remade our bed with freshly laundered sheets (compliments of moi) and now I'm sitting here, at the computer, posting my life to the internet and for millions to see.

Oh yes ... and I'm drinking some, what I would call, Kool-aid wine, brought over by an elderly neighbor some months back. It's Blackberry Merlot (pronounced mer-LOT) like all good Warda Texans do.

Cheers!

Our funky Florida hideaway

Dragon Mood? -- let's see; we'll put yellow in the main area; shall we hang some beaded macrame curtains in the loggia???

We stayed in unit #10. It used to be a beach motel. Now it's a co-op of owner-occupied and rental condos. It's totally 1950's, funky and completely charming. I loved it from the moment I stepped in.



But, being a rental, it was a mite too bland for my dragonish tastes. So, Wednesday I went to the local dollar store, bought bright yellow crepe paper, a paper pinata that said "Happy Birthday!" and went to town decorating.



Did I mention the open-air inner atrium? Did I mention that it's two stories high? I love the columns that surround the atrium, their clean lines, their "orderliness" and predictability. If I could design a space for myself, it would have the feel of our funky Florida hideaway.



It was perfect for my tastes. I loved it!

So many posts, so little time

Dragon Mood? -- excited and romantic?

Where to start, where to start??

Let's start at 35,000 feet. That was our cruising altitude, wending our way to Florida -- at night. It was Valentine's Day night and I had the window seat on the left (and east) side of the plane. We had left the twinkling megalopolis that is Chicago behind with another one quickly approaching (Indianapolis). I looked to the east and saw this golden elliptical bulb low in the sky -- what is that? It's the moon. The moon rising, actually. S and I were exclaiming over it when the pilot announced the dramatic moon sighting over the PA. There were sharp "Ohs!" and exclamations all around us.

Now ... to that elliptical shape. S and I had quite the logical-cum-scientific conversation about it. I was discombobulated over its elliptical shape. S announced fairly quickly on that it was due to distortion from the Earth's atmosphere. I wondered, could it be our angle of view? Now, think about holding a ball in your outstretched hand; is there any way that you can twist your hand or your arm that will make that sphere *look* like an ellipse. Is there? No ... no, of course not. So, I answered my own question that it certainly couldn't be our angle of view.

So, back to S's hypothesis about the atmosphere. I questioned her about it. She said that due to our position in the plane and the moon rising up over the Earth's horizon, we were actually viewing the moon through the atmosphere and the atmosphere was distorting its spherical shape to look elliptical. Something like that, anyway. Sure enough, as we flew further south, the moon rose higher in the sky relative to our vantage point; the higher it rose, the more spherical it became. Brighter, less golden, too.

But don't let my pseudo-scientific ramblings distort the fact that it was a stunning sight, wondrous in its beauty and most personally, an especially romantic accompaniment to our Valentine's night flight to tropical Florida.

... to my hundreds of readers ...

... I want to wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day.

My Valentine and I are getting ready to jump on a plane and leave for Florida ... imminently! I am EXCITED!

What a treat for an unemployed, fifty-something person who, to mention it, has been under a bit of stress!

I think S and I are going to enjoy lazy days of sunning, reading, lazing around, drinking, sunning, wiggling our toes in the sand, drinking, walking on the beach, lazing around, drinking, well ... you get the picture, yes?

So ... Happy Valentine's Day everybody ... I'll remember you on the beach! Margaritas, everybody!

Workin' with smooth jazz in the background ...

It's Sunday, a sunny but cold February afternoon. I'm at the pied-a-terre, working today, trying to get some work done before I leave for our week in Florida.

I'm struggling to stay focused ... (can you tell?).

One of the side benefits of this working-at-home thing is listening to streaming audio from Yahoo's LaunchCast radio. What a treat, especially for someone who likes lots of music and also dislikes lots of music. LaunchCast gives you the ability to select a station with a specific type of music --OR-- create your own radio station, rating the songs you like highly and dissing the songs you don't. I'm getting to hear lots of music that I otherwise wouldn't hear. And I'm finding that I do enjoying listening to smooth jazz when I'm working. It's "easy on the ears." My biggest apologies to my son, Yosh ... who, as far as I can tell ... CAN'T STAND smooth jazz. I think all it conjures for him is Kenny G and his wailing sax.

But I like this. I plan on rating more smooth jazz with two, three, maybe even four stars! Sorry, Yosh!

Now ... back to work!

Fleeting Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- feeling good

Since my job lay-off, I have had intermittent bouts of insomnia. I think it goes with the territory. Last night was another one. I went to bed around 11:30 or midnight; by 4:30, I was awake. I laid in bed until 5:30, gave up on falling asleep again and got up. I made myself some hot tea, played the piano in the early morning darkness (something which I love) and simply 'existed' in the moment. I didn't think about tomorrow or yesterday or money. No mean feat when you're out of a job.

Around 7, I got online and began doing my taxes with Turbo Tax Online. This is probably the fourth, fifth, maybe even sixth year (?) I've used their software. I have no complaints with it, and it's certainly cheaper and easier than seeing a person to do my taxes. I really like the fact that it "remembers" data from the previous year and references it as I work my way through the process. For some reason, the software "remembering" is oddly comforting.

After a couple of hours (and a couple of wrong paths -- duh!) I've completed an initial pass through the software. I forgot one document at the pied-a-terre that I really need -- so I'll complete my taxes two weeks from now, after we get back from Florida.

Which brings me to the enjoyable part of this post; we leave for St. Pete's Beach on Valentine's Day and we'll be there for a whole, lovely, entire WEEK! That's something we have talked about for a number of years, but never made the commitment before to really do it. This year, thanks to Joann's great internet condo-rental sleuthing, we can afford to stay for seven days and seven nights. I say "afford" with tongue in cheek. As I'm unemployed, we can't really afford to do anything like this, but, what the hell, we're doing it!

An additional incentive for taking the week-in-Florida plunge is that S turns 50 this week, an event any 49-year-old-plus woman will agree deserves lots of hooplah. Jeanne and Joanne will be joining us for four of our seven days there. We plan to go out on S's birthday for a big grouper dinner and many drinks! I think it will be great!

Today, now that I've leaped over the taxes hurdle, only two things remain to do: watch the Michigan State vs. Minnesota basketball game (men's) at 2:30 p.m. and ... pack my suitcase. I've already pulled it out and piled a bunch of brightly colored, short-sleeved tops in there. Now I need to get serious and really figure out what I'm taking and not taking.

Oh, I can imagine the sun's warmth and the ocean breezes already! Mmmm!

Year of the Dog -- Happy New Year!

I opened Google this morning and found that it's the Chinese New Year. Wow! Year of the Dog!

Happy New Year (again), everybody!

January Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- dragons love glittery things!

Crazy weather in the past 24 hours. We had low 40-degree weather yesterday, then rain last night which turned to ice rain and then turned to snow. This morning all the tree limbs are covered with a thin topping of snow. Now the sun is out, the temperature is rising and I'm seeing little glittering diamonds on all the pine boughs dripping their crystals everywhere. Michigan weather is without a doubt the craziest you'll find!

I have good news as of Thursday afternoon. I HAVE A JOB(!), a temporary job that is, for the next eleven weeks, working from home, actually from the pied-a-terre, on a laptop, doing development work for a company located out in Colorado. I have a former boss to thank for this job. He wrote a letter recommending me along with four of my former co-workers for this temporary, pilot program. So, as of Monday, I will once again be working with Bonnie, Carolyn, Dennis and Rod. The Colorado company will be using us as 'guinea pigs' of a sort, measuring our performance and delivery for future projects like this.

So ... Sunday night I will accompany S to the pied-a-terre. Monday morning we have a teleconference scheduled. Also, as of Monday, S and I will now have a real land-line phone at the pied-a-terre(!). My laptop should be arriving Monday or Tuesday, via FedEx. (Oh, I feel so 21st-century, you know?) A phone modem, compliments of SBC, should also be arriving via UPS. That will entail some putting-it-all-together which I'm a bit nervous about, but let's be hopeful, shall we? Our new DSL line should be installed by Thursday.

There are still lots of variables and unknowns, many of which I probably haven't even thought of yet. But, as earlier, I'm trying to relax and trust this process, this process which I have no control over, but of which God certainly does. And I trust God on this process. It's all gonna work out okay, one way or another.

And, did I mention, that there is a possibility, not a guarantee, but a possibility that this could morph into a permanent position? How cool would that be, huh?

quotes to live by ...

I found these quotes in a temp file I created over a year ago. I'll think I'll post them now ...

"Faith involves patience. Accept that you may have to wait for results--and when they come, they may not be what you hoped or prayed for.

Faith is nothing but a living, wide-awake consciousness of God within." -- Gandhi


"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
-- William Arthur Ward

Long term influences

Dragon Mood? -- taking it all in

I love Astrodienst. And I particularly enjoy visiting their website on Thursdays, when they kindly open their longer-term forecasts to even non-paying subscribers like myself.

What with this job layoff and all, I thought I'd check some of those planetary influences going on right now. Here are several:

Half-hearted efforts
Valid during many months: This is not a good time to strike out to further your own self-interest in life. Your energy level is low, and you are subject to fits of discouragement and malaise. Whatever you do along these lines ­ working to get ahead in your job, beginning a new enterprise or embarking on a program of vigorous mental or physical activity ­ this influence will make it difficult for you to succeed. It is not that you are unlucky exactly but that you don't have enough push to follow through. Under this influence your efforts are likely to be half-hearted. Even if you want to do something, you may just feel too tired.

Another side of this influence is that you may get involved in an activity or project that is dishonest, misrepresented or simply subversive, although not necessarily politically. You may not be aware that it is dishonest, but if you are and choose to be involved anyway, you are running an enormous risk. Avoid any scheme that you know to be dishonest, because during this time you simply cannot count on it coming out favorably for you.

This is not a good time to advance yourself, but try not to get discouraged, for that will not help you. Instead, cut your losses and disengage yourself if possible from any activity that could create difficulties. Get into a position where you can afford to be unconcerned about results. Detaching yourself from your own energies is the best way to deal with this influence. Act because you enjoy the action, not because you are trying to win. If you can take this course of detached consciousness, you may learn something about how your life works; in fact, you may learn that your own efforts have fouled you up. In your eagerness to succeed, you may have aroused opposition that was not expressed openly, but waited subversively in the wings to trip you up.

Transit selected for today (by user):
Neptune Conjunction MarsNeptuneConjunctionMars
activity period from middle of February 2005 until middle of December 2006.

And here's one more:

Solid and real
Valid during many months: At this time in your life you will be able to get along with very little if necessary, and you will be able to keep plugging away at tasks with tremendous discipline. As a result this is a good time for getting your life ready for hard times, even if this is not an especially difficult period.

However, even if this is a difficult time, you can be sure that this influence will help you make it through. It gives you tremendous tenacity and toughness and the ability to apply constant pressure on a situation until it gradually changes. Patience is the watchword of this influence ­ not that you need patience, but that you have it.

Whatever your objectives, you will keep working at them until you achieve them. In a slow but powerful way, this influence helps you realize your goals, and because you work so slowly, the results you obtain are very lasting indeed.

You will also probably discover that you are changing during this period, not drastically and suddenly, but slowly and at a very profound level of your being. And these changes will make your life more solid and dependable. In general your life is moving from the less solid and abstract to the more solid and real.

You may work alone for the most part now. You will probably prefer it that way, at least until you have come somewhere near achieving your goals. This is a very good time for researching alone, especially when painstaking work is required. Your ability to discipline yourself is extremely high.

Transit selected for today (by user):
Pluto Sextile SaturnPlutoSextileSaturn
activity period from beginning of February 2005 until beginning of December 2006.

Solar celebrations of a b-ball-ian persuasion

Dragon Mood? -- quiet, for a change

The sun is actually shining here in gray-wool-sky land, otherwise known as mid-Michigan. I suspect it's the sun's way of celebrating the Spartan men's basketball team defeating the Hoosiers last night, quite handily I might add. Thank goodness they finally got one in the 'Win' column.

It's Thursday and it's rather quiet here this morning. I have a few calls I should make. I should also spend some more time brushing up on my AutoCAD skills. Ahhh, this job-hunting stuff could be a full-time occupation ... but the pay is lousy! Ha-ha, hee-hee, ho-ho.

Job-hunting feels kind of like fishing ... at least fishing as I understand it. You rig your line, you're actually pretty busy getting the line just right, the hook baited or selecting the right lure, you toss your line in .... and then you wait. And wait. And wait. In this instance, I have about six lines in the water (and probably should throw a few more in TODAY) and I'm waiting. And waiting. (Heavy sigh)

Okay (sitting up erect, shoulders back, toss the head). Be in the moment, Mary. Breathe deeply. Live each moment to its fullest. Be grateful. Be thankful. Do the things you need to do.

Back to the work of finding a job.

second day

Dragon Mood? -- grateful

It's going on midnight, the second day of my unemployment. Tomorrow I call the MESC (or whatever it's called now) to file for unemployment.

S called me after lunch. We shared news about our respective mornings. I told her how thankful I am that she is a hopeful person, an empathetic person, a person I feel comfortable telling how I feel. I can think of people who are negative, who find and focus on the underbelly of a situation and then talk loudly and incessantly about it. Thank God, S is not like that. I told her how I think we make a good team. We lift one another up. Our whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

I am very grateful for her in my life, especially now.

Spare words of lovelorn cowboys

Dragon Mood? -- remembering how sad it felt

Another post about Brokeback Mountain. Here's an excerpt of dialogue between Ennis and Jack, after twenty years of brief interludes:

Ennis Del Mar: I'm gonna tell you this one time, Jack fuckin' Twist, an' I ain't foolin'. What I don't know - all them things I don't know - could get you killed if I come to know them. I ain't jokin'.

Jack Twist: Yeah well try this one, and I'll say it just once!

Ennis Del Mar: Go ahead!

Jack Twist: Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together, fuckin' real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis! So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that, that's all we got boy, fuckin' all. So I hope you know that if you don't never know the rest! You count the damn few times we have been together in nearly twenty years and you measure the short fucking leash you keep me on, and then you ask me about Mexico and tell me you'll kill me for needing somethin' I don't hardly never get. You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you... I can't make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me Ennis, son of a whoreson bitch... I wish I knew how to quit you.

Ennis Del Mar: Well why don't you? Why don't you just let me be, huh? Because of you, Jack, that I'm like this. I'm nothing... and nowhere.

not a typical Sunday morning

Dragon Mood? -- anxious, ambivalent

Usually, I enjoy posting on calypsoDragon13 on weekend mornings. I woke up feeling like I wanted to write, but now ........ I also feel like I need to do something to find myself a job!

These are the moments, the times when I must trust, trust, TRUST that things are going to be okay, that God guides me in all that I do. I am not alone. God is very much present. I need to trust that.

(deep breath) Whew!

Have I talked about the weather recently?? (laughing) Well, here in Michigan the weather can change literally in moments. Or not! Our friend, Kevin, told me yesterday that Friday was the first day of sun here in 21 days! Yes, 21 days! It has been incredibly gray and gloomy, like someone threw a gray wool blanket over the entire region. (Even Lina and Yosh commented on the lack of sun while they were here visiting.)

So Friday, my last day on the job, I left work around 11:30, had lunch with Trice at the nearby Tim Horton's, swung by the pied-a-terre, picked up the dog and headed home to the pine trees. It was sunny! It was so sunny, I needed my cool Italian aviator sunglasses. Wonderful to finally see the sun!

And then guess what? Yesterday, Saturday, the gloom and grayness had returned. Along with with an ice rain/snow mixture that left all the side roads a treachery waiting to happen.

Jeanne and Joanne called at mid-day and invited us to join them and Kevin at the local theater to see a matinee showing of Brokeback Mountain. Go see it; it is wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time. The cinematography is gorgeous as one might expect. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger do fantastic jobs as the two protagonists of the movie. I especially enjoyed watching Jake Gyllenhaal. What a beautiful man! It's a love story in every sense of the word, lovely and tragic at the same time. Jeanne commented how much like a Greek tragedy it seemed.

After the movie, we headed over to Max & Erma's for a light dinner and then hit the Schuler's bookstore for a little book-browsing and a cup of coffee. We sat around a table and talked about our ever-so-slowly evolving plans for the future and retirement. By 9 o'clock, everyone took turns yawning. We all laughed at our aging selves.

As soon as we got home (safely), S helped me put my new YakTrax cleats on my boots and I safely and comfortably took the dog for a long walk around the neighborhood. I didn't slip once. I strongly recommend them for folks who are winter runners and/or winter dogwalkers. They DO the job!

as the dust clears ....

Dragon Mood? -- still sorting it all out

A life event happened to me this week. I was laid off from my job at one of the domestic auto companies, after sixteen years of contract design work.

When I got the call from my contract house rep, I was simply stunned. As I told him, after working for so many years under the Damoclean sword of layoff, I had ceased to worry about it. Now that the sword had actually fallen, severing me from steady work, I was and still am stunned.

When I went to work the next morning, I found out how truly not alone I was. Eighty-six people, counting me, were laid off in our department, virtually dismantling it. The people who remain can anticipate either being shuffled to another department or being laid off themselves. I feel for them. Overall, the company laid off over 550 people ... yesterday ... with supposedly more to come.

I'm trying to focus on the good things that go with this. I am finally free of a company that has never felt quite right to me. They pay you well enough that it's tough to leave; it's commonly known around the company as the "golden handcuffs."

I'm finally free to look at working for a company that I like and to do work that is more resonant with my interests. I still need to make money, but S is encouraging me not to make that my number #1 focus. I'm going to try to do that, at least for a little while.

Early January thaw

Dragon Mood? -- like the fire of a dragon's breath

See the original here.

wandering out of the post-holiday blur

Dragon Mood? -- dragonly dizzy

Wandering out of the post-holiday blur, I find myself at work today with 70 emails in my work inbox (mostly spam) and 130 emails in my gmail inbox (mostly for stuff I don't need or services I don't require).

It has been over two weeks since I last posted and I am truly stunned at the speed with which those two weeks flew by. I was literally in a Christmas whirlwind! Wow!

The short version of my answer in response to your polite question, "How was your holiday?" is that it was GREAT! I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with S and my wonderful kids, Lina and Yosh. We socialized almost every day with friends and family, took some side trips, drank lots of good wine, cooked together and had loads and loads of fun! I am overwhelmed and still exhausted from it all. It truly is a blur. I need time to take it all in, remember all the myriad details of conversations and interactions and activities, and then I need more time to digest it all.
But it was a great two weeks. Exhausting and great!

Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

Dragon Mood? -- trying to yodel and not spit fireballs at the same time

Well, it's official -- S and I have entered "old folks-hood." Instead of going out and Christmas shopping last night, we opted to stay in and excitedly discovered that "The Sound of Music" was airing on a local channel. Oh boy, oh boy, we're gonna watch The Sound of Music!

We have a joke in our family about the puppeteers in The Sound of Music being Wendish, a wonderfully playful falsehood imagined by Yosh and perpetuated by the rest of us, me in particular. I LOVE the idea of Wendish puppeteers, especially in The Sound of Music.

S and I sat in our little TV room, singing, smiling and bouncing along to the delightful, joie-de-vivre song, "The Lonely Goatherd." I woke up this morning with the yodeling still reverberating in my head. I googled it and found many sites with the lyrics. I reprint them here for your and my amusement.

Come on, come on, I bet you can't read it without singing along:

The Lonely Goatherd

Maria:
High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

the Children:
O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay

Maria:
A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Kurt:
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

the Children:
Men in the midst of a table d'hote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Maria:
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Brigitta:
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria:
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Maria and the Children:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Ummm (ummm) . . .
Odl lay ee (odl lay ee)
Odl lay hee hee (odl lay hee hee)
Odl lay ee . . .
. . . yodeling . . .

Child:
One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
Child:
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria:
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o . . .
. . . yodeling . . .
Soon the duet will become a trio
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay

the Children:
HOO!

I think, in the spirit of aspiring to be an eccentric, I may just take up yodeling as an elder pastime. Whaddaya think???

Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee

Which reindeer are YOU??

Dragon Mood? -- dragons EAT reindeer as hors d'oeuvres!

Being silly on my last day of work --for the year-- I took THE test ..........

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you're the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Turning 53

Dragon Mood? -- celebratory

Yesterday was my 53rd birthday.

I woke up sleepy and cotton-headed. I moved slowly. S wished me "Happy Birthday" with a sweetness rarely heard so early in the morning. I fixed coffee and hot oatmeal for us, a morning ritual that I'm growing to love.

I dressed carefully, putting on my red turtleneck, my brown cashmere sweater and my fiery, oh-so-Sagittarinan scarf from Ruth. I spent extra time with my hair. I rubbed moisturizer into my face to ease the dry tightness of my skin and hopefully diminish the increasing number of wrinkles. I looked good, I felt good.

My first phone call was from Yosh. (Actually, Lina called earlier but I missed her call.) My first received phone call was from Yosh. Did he sing to me? Yes, I think he did. Then Ruth called. She sang Happy Birthday to me in her smiling, soprano voice and offered lots of loving, congratulatory thoughts.

I got a lovely sotto-voce call from mijita, Lina, and we laughed heartily about my not recognizing her cold-induced baritone voice. I heard from Dad and Evelyn; from S at midday checking on how my birthday was going; from Don, a former boss; from Ron, a sweet guy (who I know is just dying to find out how truly good my omelets can be!); from Trice, my knitting buddy, with a silly, naughty e-card; from my cousin, Brenda, down in Texas who will always be four days older than me(!); from (in the most surprising call of the day) S's mom, Sally, and Grandma; from a former co-worker, Dennis, in California who never forgets my birthday; from my dear Uncle George in Texas; and finally, from our very own hurricane-survivors, Doris and Hemie, in Port Arthur, Texas.

By the time I left work, I felt remembered, lifted up and truly celebrated! Life can be wonderful and my birth day was definitely a wonder of love and care.
----
UPDATE: I also received a form letter from the car salesman (make that used car salesman) that I bought my Mazda Protege from this summer, wishing me a Happy Birthday. At the bottom he wrote, "No table dancing!" But of course!

Imagining a new kind of spiritual community

I read Real Live Preacher on a fairly regular basis. There is something about RLP's writings that moves me beyond my cynical, secular self and opens me to deeper, more tender ways of seeing people and the world.

He recently wrote a posting entitled "If We Could Do Church." I read his words, growing more and more excited as he outlined so many of the objections and concerns that I have felt about the direction of American "churchdom." I want to repeat some of his posting here:

First of all, we probably wouldn’t call ourselves a church. That English word is rather tired, I think. It really doesn’t communicate very well, and it’s not a biblical word in any case. We might call ourselves “A Gathering of Friends,” or perhaps, “A Community Living in the Way of Christ.” I don’t know what we would call ourselves; maybe we wouldn’t have a name at all.

I don’t think we would concern ourselves very much with what individuals in the community say about Jesus or even believe about Jesus. It’s not that what we say about Jesus doesn’t matter, but this community would begin with real living. There will be time enough for pretty Jesus words later on.

We would begin with between five and fifteen people who are committed to following in the way of Christ, confessing their weaknesses and turning their lives over to God as they understand him or her. We would make certain commitments to God and to each other:

We would meet once or twice a week to worship together. This meeting would be a very high priority in our lives.

We would make these friendships intentional ones and make it a point to spend time together.

We would agree to pray and study the scriptures together and on our own.

We would nurture each other and care for one another, especially if one of us was hurting or in need.

We would simplify our lives to the point where we could give 10% of our income to the community. Some who have been on the journey longer might give more.

Each of us would find a personal and fulfilling way to serve God by serving the world. Finding your joyful place of service would be a central part of being in this community, for we would agree that Christianity is a way of living more than a set of doctrines.

We would never pay anyone to be a professional Christian. There would be no staff, no paid ministers, no salaries, and no overhead. If there were even ten wage earners among us, our collected offerings might be between twenty and fifty thousand dollars. With no salaries, buildings, or other administrative costs, almost all of this money would be used to do good things in the name of Christ.

Maybe once a year we would sit around a kitchen table and say, “What do you want to do for God this year?”

There would be a little money left over to buy coffee or even a guitar if someone wanted to play it during worship. Maybe twice a year we would all go on an extended retreat together. Those with limited funds would never have to worry about being able to afford that sort of thing.

If there were children among us, they would sit on our laps and worship with us. We would not have children’s classes. We wouldn’t need them. We would teach the children ourselves and let them be a part of everything we do.

We would never purchase or rent a place to worship. Homes would suffice. If and when the gathering became too large to meet comfortably in a living room, we would divide into two groups. Perhaps the two living room churches would meet together once a month at a park or in some borrowed space. We wouldn't worry about what will happen someday. These things will work themselves out. I’m of the opinion that there is far too much planning in churches nowadays.

We would never advertise our faith community. Advertising tends to cheapen things, and I think we wouldn't want to start going down that road. We would bring friends with us as we felt led. I’m sure some would find us in very mysterious ways. We would trust that those who are ready to find us would find us. Anyone would be welcome to meet with us in the living room, of course. Some might join the community when they felt ready to embrace our commitments.

If there is preaching, it would be done by everyone. All who feel ready to share would take their turn. You would have weeks or even months to read your passage of scripture prayerfully. Then you would simply share the wisdom you found in the scriptures with your good friends.

The best news of all is that we would lay down the terrible burden of planning and strategizing for the business of church. Large budgets, buildings, and programs require business plans and outreach strategies. But you see, the big picture would not be our concern. The future would be left in the hands of God. We would content ourselves with our simple lives of service and devotion. What happens beyond that would be God’s business and not ours.

It sounds refreshing, does it not? And vaguely familiar. Even if you’ve never been a part of something like that, your heart knows that it would feel like going home.

from the inimitable Dr. Seuss

• "From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere."



• "How did it get so late so soon? / It's night before it's afternoon. / December is here before it's June. / My goodness how the time has flewn. / How did it get so late so soon?"



• "Today was good. / Today was fun. / Tomorrow is another one."

-- from Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, 1904-1991

A lamb's wool sky here ...

... in beautiful mid-Michigan for the next SEVEN days!

Geez, we can give Seattle-ites a run for their money when it comes to gloomy, depressing weather!

'Tis The Season To Be Broke

I heard Robert Reich's commentary on NPR's Marketplace last night as I was driving to my physical therapy appointment. I don't usually get too excited when listening to economists, but this guy hit the nail on the head! Read on ...

'Tis The Season To Be Broke

'Tis the season for retailers to be jolly if American consumers empty their wallets over the next three weeks. But how can we empty our wallets if our wallets are already empty?

Consumer confidence appears to have bounced back from the low brought on by the hurricanes and subsequently high gas prices. But it’s still below what it was before Katrina. And last week’s survey by the Conference Board showed something of a drop in shopper enthusiasm. Households say they intend to spend a bit less this holiday season than last.

Consumer spending is now more than three-quarters of the whole national economy – a record high. There’s nothing left to spend. Yes, gas prices have settled down a bit, but so have paychecks. General Motors, Merck, and major airlines are laying off tens of thousands. Job growth is anemic and pay is lousy. American families have exhausted all the coping mechanisms we’ve been using for years to spend more.

The first coping mechanism, which began decades ago when mens’ hourly wages first began dropping, was for spouses to go into paid work. But now that most adult women are on payrolls – including even the mothers of toddlers – this strategy has generated just about all the cash it can.

How else to pay for more spending? The second coping mechanism has been to work longer hours. This past year, the typical working American put in two full weeks more at the office or factory than was the case two decades ago. Americans are now working harder than even the notoriously industrious Japanese. But we’ve reached the limit. I mean, we have to sleep.

Which brings us to the third coping mechanism – taking equity out of our homes. Last year alone, Americans pulled out $600 billion through refinancing. But this cash machine is also about depleted because housing values have leveled off and mortgage rates are rising.

Where else to find the money? The final coping mechanism is to go deeper into debt. For five years now, American households have spent more money than they’ve earned – pushing their debt to a record high. But we’ve hit the wall here, too, folks. Interest payments on all that debt are exploding.

On top of that, there are tens of millions of baby boomers within sight of retirement. They have to start saving, or else their twilight years will be spent in darkness.

Put it all together and you see why we’re running on empty. We’re busted. We’ve exhausted all the coping mechanisms for spending more. Our buying binge has to come to an end.

The only question is whether the binge stops before Christmas shopping season, or American consumers make one big, final, irresponsible splurge over the next three weeks, and then call it quits.

Scary, scary and too damn close to the truth!

Thursday morning

Working.

Listening to Missa Gaia / Earth Mass with the Paul Winter Consort. Glorious sound!

From the CD cover:

A Mass in celebration of Mother Earth recorded live in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Grand Canyon.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon but I did have the opportunity to attend St. John the Divine one Sunday morning with my good friend Carol T., as we visited NYC. For such a large and imposing cathedral, the congregants were particularly welcoming and warm. Good memories!

November Wendishday

Dragon Mood? -- tired, yet excited

It dawned on me today that today is the last day of November ... and it's a Wendishday!

Today is my last day of so-called 'bachelorhood.' Tonight, S is joining me at the pied-a-terre after 10 weeks (is it?) to return to work. She is fairly well healed (on the outside, at least) from her surgery. Healing on the inside continues and she is still prohibited from picking up heavy objects.

While her reproductive system slowly returns to some semblance of equilibrium, her thyroid is quite out of whack, exacerbating the ups-and-downs of her hormones. Our doctor has prescribed a new prescription hormone replacement for S. And this morning, she finally got an ultrasound of a nodule in her thyroid; we're hoping it proves to be nothing.

I am looking forward to us living together after this forced separation of convalescence. We've had more than our fair share of forced separations over these past two-and-a-half years, you know?

We are both excited about the coming holidays, spending time with family and being away from work. Imagine that!

Re-filling the well -- or -- doing for yourself

In response to the question, "What are you doing for yourself TODAY?"... I answered with these:

• I woke up without an alarm this morning. That is always a pleasure rather than being jArRReD out of bed!



• I did walk on the treadmill for fifteen minutes -- a little shorter than I should, but certainly better than doing nothing!



• I sat and slowly drank a cup of coffee even though I knew it would make me late for work!



• I lovingly made myself a bowl of hot oatmeal with iodized sea salt, a teaspoon of brown sugar, crumbled walnuts and half a banana. I ate it slowly. Even more late.



• I used rosemary/mint shampoo this morning simply for the pleasure of smelling it. I stood in the shower and enjoyed the hot water hitting my upper back. Even later still!



• I wrote a brief thank-you note to our mail carrier and posted it inside the mailbox for her to find -- because it felt like a good and random-act-of-kindness thing to do. She had held our mail just by my talking to her, not running to the post office and filing any pieces of paper or anything. A thank-you note felt like the least I could do.



• I made myself a cup of tea after lunch -- Celestial Seasonings Moroccan Pomegranate Red -- just for simple sipping pleasure.



• I called Ruth this morning for a brief chat. Doris and Hemie left Roanoke early this afternoon for their trip back to Texas. I think we're going to talk more tonight.



• I think I'm going to crack open my last bottle of Crane Lake cabernet sauvignon this evening and sip on it while I make myself some dinner and do a little laundry.



• And .... I'm considering swinging by either a nearby Rite-Aid, a Target or the closest World Market just to do a little random Christmas elfing -- see what may grab my fancy.



• Funny .... I just realized that I brought a bunch of Christmas CDs from our 'other' home to work for my listening pleasure (including several that Lina and Yosh have burned for me over the last couple of years) and I haven't even DIPPPED into them yet!

So ... that's my day so far. I am feeling better today. But I have lots more serious TAKING CARE OF ME to do. I feel like I've filled the well up to about my ankles right now! :-) Lots more well-filling to do!

Sunday blues, Monday blues

(hum a bluesy tune)... "I got the Monday mornin' blues ..."

... that reared their mournful faces on Sunday, the blues that hunkered down with the gray skies on Saturday, even Friday and if truth be told, the ones, the very same ones that lurked in the shadows even on Turkey-lurkey Thursday.

I've been feeling blue since Thursday! Dammit!

I missed my kids, I missed being with my sister and her kids, I missed being with my family, with my people. I was with S's family, her kids, her family and that was good, that was fine. But it wasn't the same. And I missed being with people who make me feel special.

Pat, our therapist, for years and years -- his voice is now embedded in my head -- he's asking me what I've been doing to take care of me? Because, you see, when I don't do a good job of taking care of me, I start nit-picking at S, criticizing her, judging her in my all-too-familiar-critical-father voice, "She's not doing that right!" and generally trying to make her miserable enough to match my misery.

Dammit! That's not good!

So .... my goal, no, my MISSION ... is to take very good care of myself this week, EXTRA GOOD CARE of myself this week so that I can push, push, PUSH these inky staining clouds of blueness and sadness and depression right out of my skies. My skies want to be filled with deep, warm sunshine and periwinkle-blue clearness and white puffy clouds that shift and make shapes and swooping bluebirds singing their happy-bluebirdy songs.

That's my mission!

Overheard

Dragon Mood? -- amused

Overheard in the baking section of the local grocery store yesterday:

I just can't cook with crappy oil ..."

Bring on the extra virgins!

Three days to Turkey Day and counting

Dragon Mood? -- in the groove, listenin' to a new CD, "Quantique" by Yves Leveille

Havin' a pretty good day.

I heard my cell phone alarm go off this morning without that heavy-headed, cottony-feeling I've been experiencing. Instead, I woke up right away, thankfully clear-headed.

Dressed casually, jeans, wool socks, Birks, drove into town to buy just a couple of dollars worth of gas. Surprise -- gas was selling for $2.03 a gallon, so I filled up. Then I went over to the little coffee shop run by an ex-Baptist preacher (or so the grapevine says) to buy a latte. He looks tired, worn, a little thinner. I bet that's a hard job to do. I bought my latte and headed down the two-lane highway.

I made the 75-minute drive in about 70 minutes thanks to fast-moving traffic. Swapped my jeans out for some navy blue slacks and headed to work.

Slipped quietly into work, buckled down, and earned my salt (a pinch, at least!). Picked up my scrip at Sam's over lunch and finished out the day.

Now, it's back to the pied-a-terre to put my jeans back on, head to physical therapy for my ever-so-slowly-thawing frozen shoulder and then what? Probably, I'll buy a bomber soy chai at the handy-dandy Starbucks, jump on the freeway and head back to our home in the tall pines. Whew!

What a crazy, peripatetic gypsy life this is!

Let it be noted ....

Dragon Mood? -- dragons like looking at, not raking, falling leaves

.... last Friday, I raked leaves for two solid hours in 30-degree weather at the pied-a-terre. ArrghhHH!

It was harrrrrd work, matey!

fancy-schmancy; a pilfered conversation

Dragon Mood? -- laughing, laughing some more, laughing out loud

A "fancy-schmancy" Thanksgiving slide presentation from a national gourmet cuisine retailer came to me by way of email. I forwarded it to several other family members and it snowballed from there:

Nothing like celebrating Thanksgiving the traditional way the pilgrims did. With Cheese Straws and Onion Tarte Tatin.....

(laughing) Geez, S and I are always f*cking thrilled if we get the damn turkey cooked properly! One year we tried grilling it and that was a disaster . It was half-raw. Josh was totally grossed out! I say, anybody who has time to make Cheese Straws and Onion Tarte Tatin, f*ck 'em! Give me plain ol' Turkey Day food ... and lots of alcohol, of course!

I think that’s my new favorite Thanksgiving quote: “I say, anybody who has time to make Cheese Straws and Onion Tarte Tatin, f*ck ‘em!”

Exactly, Mary! A six-course Thanksgiving Day meal should look like this:
1. Bloody Marys
2. Beer
3. Turkey subs from Cousins
4. Football
5. More Beer
6. Irish Whiskey

Well, the half-raw turkey, no matter how you spin it, was pretty disastrous! I think the next year we were still so distressed about it, we had grilled new york strip steaks and flipped Matthew, S 's oldest son, out -- he's quite the believer in tradition! He still talks about that.

And speaking of drinking on Thanksgiving, ask Lina about the year (I think she may still have been in college here on this side of the lake) when she literally passed out at the dining room table, her head nodding and dangerously close to hitting the wild rice stuffing. I couldn't believe it! My beautiful daughter, the drunk! We had probably killed at least three bottles of wine while cooking that day. She got a little warm food in her tummy and bit the dust! (laughing some more)

Hah-hah-hah-hah! Lina hits the wall in between the cranberries and pumpkin pie!

I think, at the time, we called it something more like Stupid Turkey Goddamnit!

Although, we almost had another fiasco last year with the turkey roaster, placed out on the porch so we could keep the oven free for side dishes. We got the bird all prepared, lovely and nice with her rubbing of butter and dousing with lemon and orange juice, her cavity lovingly stuffed with said citrus fruits. And we put her in the roaster to cook…and, only about three hours later, realized we had the temperature a couple hundred degrees too low…DOH!

Yeah, well that was TOTALLY my fault. I misread the instructions and didn't THINK about what I was doing. Thank goodness we discovered it early enough to recover. Whew!

Yes, I did start falling asleep at the table, but I was fully coherent up to that point…Mom thinks anytime I fall asleep after I’ve been drinking, it means I’ve PASSED OUT. Now, me at Matt and Sarah’s wedding, with my feet up on whatever they were up on, and my dress hiked up, THAT was “passed out.” :)

Mom, even though we won’t be there for Thanksgiving, will you still make me some of your wild rice and pork sausage stuffing at Christmas? That stuff is soooooo good…I don’t even need any turkey to go with it…

We can certainly make some, if you want. We also can make our traditional beef stew OR smooshed potato soup for Christmas Eve OR another hoisin sauce-covered pork tenderloin .... AND whaddaya think about making some of your childhood Christmas cookies, the red-iced Santa Clauses and the blue-winged angels?

Speaking of which, you and I NEED to make some more wild Wendish Christmas stockings this year. We have THREE new members of the family: Sarah, Ell and Preston. I know, I know, you hate Ell... but I was thinking, maybe we could put gray felt lumps of coal on her stocking ... and make a hole at the bottom of the stocking ... so all the goodies fall out? (hee-hee)

Hah! Wendish Christmas Cheer at it's best!

Mom! You’re a wicked, wicked wench! I LOVE that about you! :D

Sure, we can make some more stockings! I think Cisco and Dakota need at least one to share, too, as long as we’re at it. And when Mr. Ronbo Delicious decides he wants to come join our party, we’ll make him one, too. Maybe with a semi-naked female elf with big bazongas on it… ;) Mom will put an omelet in it the first year…

Outstanding! but, don't take it personally if I check the bottom of the stocking for holes.....

You BET! It'll be the BEST, the JUICIEST, the HOTTEST omelette you've ever SEEN, SMELLED or TASTED!

And, isn’t it funny that, even though Mom says I “hate” Ell (which I don’t REALLY…but I would like to give her the occasional swift kick in the ass sometimes), the idea for the gray felt lumps of coal and “bottomless stocking” idea was ALL HERS? The wenchiness doesn’t fall far from the tree…

Okey, Miss Smarty-Pants -- what's the difference between falling asleep at the dinner table and PASSED OUT? Huh?

Well, there is some correlation between falling asleep and being at the table when said action occurs that leads oneto term it "passing out," I guess.......

YUP, I'll own up to my share of Wendish Christmas Cheer and Wenchiness. And I love that MY little girl's wenchiness came (at least in part) from me! :-D

Mom, are you coming on to ...?

Uhh .... uhh, NO! I just got carried AWAY with the sensuousNESS of it!

If she is, this will be the first time I've ever heard of omelettes used as a pickup mechanism!

You are just the cutest Mom ever. I can honestly say that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the emphasis put onto the “ness” part of “sensuousness.” That takes cojones!

Good news, bad news

Okay, the bad news first. It rained yesterday. A lot. I walked the 70 yards or so from my car to the building entrance at work and my feet were wet. Not on the top, but on the bottom. I sat down and looked at the soles of my brown leather shoes. Big cracks! No wonder my socks were positively squishy! Damn! Now I gotta buy some new shoes. There's a hundred bucks I wasn't counting on spending. That's the bad news.

The good news is that I talked to my benefits rep yesterday, and without going into gruesomely detailed details, I am entitled to more "free" days of pay than I realized. Like about FOUR MORE! Whoo-hoo!

you're a true Spartan if ...

As the college football season comes to a close (tongue-in-cheek) ...


You're a true Michigan State Spartan if ...

................ Michigan was playing against al-Qaeda, you'd root for al-Qaeda.

(It's a darn good thing hardly anyone looks at my blog, cuz this posting would probably get me in trouble. It's definitely not politically correct!)

the last day Ruth is 50

Dragon Mood? -- loving my sister

Tomorrow is my sister, Ruth's 51st birthday. Wow!

Ruth and I talk regularly. At least once a week, sometimes more. We are sisters, confidantes, sharers of family history, reminders of family events ("I just wanted to remind you that Josh is taking his test tomorrow") and chief cheerleaders for one another as we each face our challenges.

We do a lot of remembering and reminiscing. We remember our mom and her mom, Nana, laughing at some of their foibles and antics, waxing philosophically on some of their troubling behaviors. We talk about how we miss them. I tell her how I recall a certain event and she tells me how she saw it. It's always an amazing thing, what people remember, what they don't and even how different our perceptions of a shared event can be. Ruth remembers little details that, if I ever noticed them, I have long since forgotten. I can recall environments and physical layouts of places. She remembers things and objects far more than I do.

We talk about aging parents. We talk about how people change as they age, some gracefully, some not so gracefully. We question each other on our own aging. Will I be like that? Promise me you'll tell me if I ever do that! We talk about all the aunts and uncles that formed this hallowed circle around us as children, who are now in their late seventies and early eighties. Mom and Aunt Flora are gone. Who will be next?

We listen to one another about our fears, our annoyances, our jobs. Neither of us is particularly happy or challenged in our current jobs. We listen empathetically to one another about our partner/spouse and the challenges of long-term relationships. She offers advice to me about S and her stress-filled job. I encourage her to be patient with Paul as he struggles in a depressing job that was supposed to be "laid back."

We encourage each other to eat healthy, exercise regularly, take care of ourselves -- "go get that checked out by the doctor, promise me?" And, when we're both feeling particularly vulnerable about our health and unknown lifespan, we joke about Dad outliving us both -- and laugh heartily.

We tell each other things that no one else knows. Sometimes, the questions and their answers feel disturbing because they're just so damn intimate ... can they bear the light of day and potential for scrutiny? Can these confidences bear being voiced out loud?

That's when the essence of sisterhood becomes clear. I trust Ruth with a deep, implicit trust that really has no bounds. She's always been there, she's always been my ally and I know that she always wants the very best for me. She loves me in a deep, knowing way that I experience as true and profound. God blesses me with a sister like Ruth. Not all people have sisters or siblings who care like she does. I don't take her for granted. She is a gift to me.

And so, on this last day of my dear sister as a 50 year-old, I give thanks for her presence in my life. Happy Birthday, Ruth! I love you!

An uncelebrated birthday

Dragon Mood? -- snorting out celebratory puffs of fire

Last week, a birthday slipped by, quietly, uncelebrated. It is the 15th anniversary

"...of Tim Bernier-Lee's idea that there could be a worldwide web, linked not by spider silk but by hypertext links and transfer protocols and uniform resource locators."

The author of this article, James Boyle, goes on to say that the web is more amazing than we may realize. Why? Look at what the internet now contains: Google and Wikipedia and newspapers from around the globe; national maps, Project Gutenberg and blogs galore.

The worldwide web was created through the "conjunction of unlikely technologies." The web is reached by (deep breath for geek-speak)

"... general purpose computers that use open protocols – standards and languages that are owned by no one – to communicate with a network (there is no central point from which all data comes) whose mechanisms for transferring data are also open."

And ...

"The web developed because we went in the opposite direction – towards openness and lack of centralised control."

A third amazing thing about the worldwide web is that, were it to be created today, it would likely be crippled by special interests, if not downright illegal. According to this columnist, the web became too popular too quickly to control. The lawyers and the politicians and the copyright holders were not there at the time of its conception. If they had been,

It would have looked more like pay-television, or Minitel, the French computer network.
... Allow anyone to connect to the network? Anyone to decide what content to put up? That is a recipe for piracy and pornography. [Yeah for pirates!]

So, let's hear it for openness and lack of centralized control! And let's all celebrate the amazing thing -- imagine, in our lifetimes -- that is the worldwide web!

Pirates making a comeback?

Dragon Mood? -- pirates, as in Wendish pirates??

From various news sources including the Washington Post is this surprising "modern-day" development:

Pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns tried to hijack a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast Saturday, but the ship outran them, officials said.

Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast and opened fire while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.

"These are very well-organized pirates," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. "Somalia's coastline is the most dangerous place in the region in terms of maritime security."

The attackers never got close enough to board the Spirit, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, cruise line president Deborah Natansohn said. . . ."Our suspicion at this time is that the motive was theft," Good said, adding that the crew had been trained for "various scenarios, including people trying to get on the ship that you don't want on the ship."

Daily Kos makes this piquant comment:

I knew talking like pirates was all the rage. But actually being pirates?

And what will that ol' pirate princess, Wild Wend have to say about all this? Hmmm?

from Scarlet Letter's blog on MAKING ART!

Dragon Mood? -- dragon energies stirred up

Here's an interesting article that I found via many Firefox tabs, Scarlet Letter, on making art. I am reprinting these notes in their entirety, mostly for my reference:

1. Quality through quantity. Don't get hung up on making this one piece good -- make ten and one will certainly be pretty good.

2. Do NOT mix generating and editing. When you're making a piece, don't stop and get judgmental half-way through. If it's a piece of crap, get that piece of crap out of your system -- don't try to fix it mid-flow. Finish it, move on.

3. When to judge: After you've completed a piece, look at it and decide what direction you want to go in next. Or if you're selecting pieces for submission to a show, apply your critiquing mind then. Make a piece of art; look at it; make another.

4. Don't be afraid to re-use elements. If each piece has to be unique, then you're going to get hung-up when you create some bit that you like. But if you can re-use bits, then you can keep moving.

5. How to have "lots of ideas": permute. Start anywhere. Once a piece is done, try varying some aspect. Think of all the variables that could have permutations.

6. "Get through your first 50 failures as fast as you can." I don't think that we should be shooting for a place where we no longer make crappy art. A good artist is one who's in motion making lots of art -- you only think they're so much better because they produce so much quantity that their pile of "good art" has also been able to accumulate. For every piece of crap you create, you're one step closer to getting something you really like.

7. Don't even bother "fixing" pieces. Making art shouldn't be a struggle. You're simply "thinking out loud" onto the page, photo-paper, or canvas. If a product seems confused, leave it confused. Make another piece where you contemplate whatever issues you were wrestling with. Try something different. When clarity arrives, it will come in one living piece -- not be Frankensteined together out of a single infinitely re-worked, mangled corpse.

8. Work fast. Creativity is exciting. If you're not judging while you're making, then you can just throw things together as fast as your mind can move. You're smart; if you don't like what you've made, you'll know immediately. You might not know what to do about the problem you perceive... Don't "think", standing there cogitating -- try things. If your hands are in motion, you can be generating new permutations. The one that you want to pick will come out on its own time.

9. Let your level show. Let the world know that despite having years of investment in your art form, you're still a beginner who doesn't know it all. Rather than hide your thought process, let your questions be present in your work. You are a fundamentally more interesting artist if people get to see what it is that you're struggling with, rather than just your final answers. Show your work. Talk about what you still can't understand (unapologetically).

10. Don't hide your failures. If you are only willing to show those perfect pieces that you are aspiring towards, you're never going to display / publish your work. Show everything, the worst of the crap included, and let your ego be humbled -- and goaded to create more.

Good morning, world!

Good morning, world! It's Saturday morning, probably my favorite morning of the week, I'm home among the pine trees and with my sweetheart. All is well with my world!

S and I watched the final episode (for this year) of Bill Maher's Real Time last night. He had Joe Scarborough from MSNBC's Scarborough Country, as well as the former president of Ireland and now the United Nation's High Commissioner of Human Rights, Mary Robinson. I thoroughly enjoyed hearig her speak about the world's perception of the United States under George W. Bush's watch. Profoundly disturbing to the point of being tragic!

And ... I am writing this post from Writely once again, testing out the software. I think I might like this.

Make a wish

Dragon Mood? -- startled, excited

Tuesday evening, I was sitting outside, in the driveway of the pied-a-terre, talking to Lina on my cell phone. I noticed the sound of a plane flying overhead, so I looked up. The blinking lights of the plane passed by. Lina and I continued to talk.

And then, what to my wondering eyes should appear but ... a shooting star!?! I watched it from the right side of my view ALL-LLL the way across the sky. As it streamed across the darkness, it slowly burnt itself up in the atmosphere. Silently, arcing! Then, nothing. It was gone!



"Ooh-ooh, I just saw a shooting star!" I exclaimed.

"Make a wish, make a wish, Mom!," Lina prompted.

"What should I wish for?" I asked.

"Oh, you should have those wishes lined up!" she answered knowingly.

"Well, give me a second," I answered a little panicky. I certainly didn't want to blow my chance for a completely unexpected bonus wish!

Wishes, wishes? What should I wish for? S came to my mind. I'll make a wish for us both? No, I'll make a wish just for me. Oh, that's so selfish! Make a combined wish! Oh, okay!

So I did. A wish that incorporates good things for both S and me.

Let's hope.

I am hoping!

Testing Writely's blogging chops

Dragon Mood: this Dragon loves exploring new tech-y things!

I am drafting this posting inside of Writely, an online word processing application (if I'm understanding what this thing is doing at all). I ran across a reference to Writely the other day, but didn't have time to explore it. Now, it's Friday afternoon, the week is winding down and I thought I'd check it out.

one	two
three	four

Wow, Writely can even put a table in this posting for me. I'm rather impressed.

I think I'll post this now and see what it looks like.

Disgruntled on Halloween

Dragon Mood? -- a little embattled

It's the morning of the last morning of my four-day weekend ... and where has it gone? Sadly, I don't know.

I arrived about two hours before S's mom and grandma arrived here late Thursday evening and since then, the time has either flown by or been sucked up by the big family-of-S time Hoover. Do I sound bitter? I'll try to keep it under wraps.

Friday, S and Grandma and I made a fun trip to Horrock's for coffee, beer, gourds and flowers. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and I think we all enjoyed the trip. Sally went to her doctor's appointment. I didn't feel like cooking Friday evening so Sally bought us some pizza for dinner.

Saturday was a slow-moving day. I fixed a big pot of creamy chicken-and-vegetable stew. Mark and Lindsey arrived around six with Preston in tow. They dressed here for their Halloween party while four "grandmas" hovered over the baby.

Sunday was a blur because we were all sleep-deprived from having a seven-month old baby in the house. I took almost a two-hour nap late Sunday afternoon because I was tired, cranky and resentful of all the people in the house. Last night, we played four-handed rummy (even 89-year-old Alice played), which was lots of fun.

As a social Sagittarian and water Dragon, I enjoy people, but .... then GO HOME! I need my solitude and quiet! I am NOT fun to be around when people are here non-stop with no end in sight! (The only exception to that rule seems to be my wonderful dragon-kids, Lina and Yosh!)

Today is Halloween and I don't even feel like carving pumpkins! That's practically sacrilege, in my book. Who doesn't want to carve pumpkins, for crying out loud?

Thankfully, as I write this, the house is quiet and I am alone. Thank you, God! Believe it or not, I am actually looking forward to heading back to our pied-a-terre where I can hear myself think ... and do what the hell I want!

Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- pooped and winding down

I was shocked to realize that I haven't posted anything for eight days! Yikes!

I was also shocked at how fast-paced this past week seemed. I drove to the pied-a-terre Sunday evening, and before I could believe it, it was time to drive back to our home in the pine trees.

Why so fast? That's what I've been asking myself. I worked four long ten-hour days at work. I went to a meeting on Tuesday afternoon that I left from so pissed off, I promptly went back to my desk and posted my resume on Monster.com.

Even more surprising was the fact that within an hour (maybe even a half hour), I got a reply from a corporation telling me that I had "passed" the first round of screening and would I please respond to a second "pre-screening" document of only about twenty essay questions. Yikes! Talk about surprised!

So ... in hindsight, I think the 20-question essay exam definitely accelerated the pace and the pressure of this week. I decided that I wanted to respond no later than Friday, that is, yesterday. Thanks to Lina, my daughter and resume-writer extraordinaire, who helped me on four of the toughest questions, I met my own deadline. I laughed at the automated reply I received saying that I would hear a response back from the corporation no later than 30 days from now! Hah!

Today, I want to do some Christmas elf sewing, some for-fun sewing, watch the Michigan State homecoming game (even a little bit!) and maybe even take a nap. Our elderly neighbor, Bill, is coming over later today to drink some celebratory champagne with S and I, and maybe even play a little euchre.

S and I talked about guests last night. She had a good and lengthy phone conversation with her mom and grandma, who I think will be visiting us next weekend. Sally has a doctor's appointment next Friday, so she will be "down" anyway. We also talked about houseguests for Thanksgiving and even beyond to Christmas. I think we are going to have lots of family and new family around. I don't think S could be happier. As for me, I could be happier only if Lina and Yosh could defy the laws of physics and be in two places at one time! I have sweet memories from last year when Lina cooked up a storm and Yosh carved the turkey like a pro! Oh, well!

Doris & Hemie Update

Dragon Mood? -- thankful and relieved

Three weeks ago, hurricane Rita was pounding the Texas/Louisiana coastline. I know because it was the day before Sarah and Matt's wedding, Lina and Yosh had arrived from Wisconsin early on Friday morning and Sally and Grandma were here, too.

But Doris & Hemie were on our minds, as well. They live in Port Arthur, Texas, a fading refinery town right on the coast. I had called them late Thursday night; in fact, I woke Uncle Hemie up (Hemie is a nickname for Herman), scolded him about staying even for the night and encouraged them to leave.

Thankfully, they left within an hour and made it safely to the farm.

Now for the update part. I called Aunt Doris Wednesday evening, trying to locate them. I had no luck then, but happily, Aunt Doris called me back yesterday morning. We had a rapid-fire exchange for over 20 minutes, me asking questions and her answering them just as quickly back.

They got back to Port Arthur sometime late Sunday. Their house is still standing, the roof is still on (minus only ONE shingle!), the big old live oak in their backyard is alive and standing. Even the single-car carport on the hurricane-side (the east side) of their house was standing and in good shape, while Doris noted that 95% of nearby carports were damaged, if not destroyed. She thanked God while I sacriligiously noted that the standing carport was a testament to Hemie's superlative carpentry skills.

They didn't escape completely unscathed. Their step-down den, an addition sitting on a lower slab of concrete, and an adjoining "patio" which is a rustic, closed-in porch had both been inundated with six inches of water. Aunt Doris reported that the water was gone, but there was plenty of black mold, high-water marks on the wood furniture and carpeting still squishy with moisture. She said it smelled. And we didn't linger on the topic of all the frozen foods, good ol' farm sausage, shrimp and other meats they had to completely throw out -- after nineteen days of no electricity for the freezers. I told her all that can be replaced.

She said their yard was filled with debris. She briefly alluded to the fact that they spent a couple of days cleaning that up. She also credited the debris with channeling the storm surge away from their house, sparing the main living areas. (After spending a few days with them last spring though, I'd say Doris and Hemie do most of their living IN the den and the "patio." Ironic!)

As she talked, Aunt Doris expressed frustration at how long it is taking to get an insurance adjuster to the house to assess the damage. I guess not just one adjuster, but several. She noted that they had flood insurance (which I was very thankful to hear!) which requires a separate assessment. We never talked about their car or truck.

They are spending evenings and nights with Hemie's nephew(?) and wife, Doug and Sharon. Again, thank you, God, for caring family! Doris commented on how nice it was that Sharon is fixing meals for them. She also mentioned that the chemicals she's been using to clean are causing her body to itch. She said she's tried a bunch and had settled on Lysol for cleaning and removing the odor. I cautioned her on breathing that stuff too much. Her body's itchiness is already a VERY CLEAR sign of warning!

I asked about their church and their pastor. She reported that Pastor Dinger is "up" in LaGrange at Camp Lone Star. I presume he evacuated there, but we got sidetracked before I could follow up with her on that.

Just for all the folks who might be reading this, their house phone is back up and working (thanks to Uncle Hemie's sweet nature and asking the phone man "n-ah-ce and friendly"). Aunt Doris says she'd love to talk on the phone. But she also knows they've got a mighty mess on their hands and she's gonna be plenty busy for awhile.

Let's all give thanks that we still have our Aunt Doris and Uncle Hemie.

an excerpt from, "I'm at your service, Mr. DeLay"

I am unabashedly in "like" with Garrison Keillor. I like how the guy thinks and writes and exclaims!

Here's a wonderful open "letter" to Tom DeLay from GK:

This country was not built by nervous Nellies and Sunday school teachers but by bold marauders, dodgers, Sooners, buffalo hunters, forty-niners -- people who saw what they wanted and took it. You're one of them. Politics is about power. You grabbed hold of it and became King of the Republican Hill, a majority leader who knows that one can never have too much majority. I am disappointed by your attempts to beautify yourself. It's pitiful, sir, and demeaning to blow-dry your hair and try to project warmth through those drill-sergeant eyes and belt-sander voice. You're the man, sir, who redrew the map of Texas to squeeze more Republican congressmen out of it, and got Indian tribes to pay for you and yours to fly to Scotland first class and play golf, and who paid his wife as a consultant, etc., etc., etc. Personal warmth was not what got you to the dance. The rest of us tiptoe through the tulips, fearful of giving offense, but you, sir, are one brass monkey.

learning about RSS feeds

I am constantly amazed at how the web is growing, morphing, expanding.

I consider myself fairly computer-literate, but up until recently, I didn't really get the significance of RSS feeds. Maybe I still don't get them completely, but the ol' light bulb is starting to glimmer and glow.

Today, just today, I realized that I could get RSS feeds from Monster.com on job listings! As my sweet mijita will tell you, my looking for another job, well "that is a very good thing."

I'm hoping with all fingers crossed that this will help make that happen!

from USAToday: about those ol' Spartans

"QUOTE TO NOTE: 'We're not as good as what people thought we are. That team down there [referring to Michigan] still has five recruiting classes that were in the Top 10 throughout the country for the last five years. We're getting better and better, but if we don't execute to the best of our ability we're not a very good football team.' — Michigan State head coach John L. Smith on his assessment of his team during the bye week.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
THIS WEEK'S GAME: at Ohio State, Oct. 15 — There may have been time for a breather in the bye week, but there can be no let-up in intensity as the Spartans face one of the tallest tasks in the country in trying to win at Columbus.

PLAYERS TO WATCH:
QB Drew Stanton — He took the loss to Michigan hard and had an extra week to think about it before playing Ohio State. If Stanton can come through with an outstanding performance vs. the Buckeyes, he should be a serious Heisman Trophy candidate for the rest of the season.

WR Kyle Brown — Caught four passes for 53 yards against Michigan. Brown knows how to get open and is dangerous when he catches the ball in stride. He has caught 21 passes for 315 yards and two TDs.

RB Jason Teague — Freshman stud Javon Ringer has 404 yards and averages 7.9 yards per carry, but Teague can still get the job done. He had 72 yards and looked solid vs. Michigan.

DT Domata Peko — His 74-yard return of a fumble in the fourth quarter for a touchdown allowed the Spartans to tie the game and send it to overtime. Peko plays with fire and is very stout in the middle of the defensive line. He has 26 tackles, one TFL and one sack."

ROSTER REPORT: LB David Herron Jr. is still getting dizzy after coming out of the Sept. 24 game at Illinois, while fellow Kaleb Thornhill has "chronic knees." They should be ready for Ohio State. ... DL David Stanton and RB Javon Ringer are expected to recover fully from slight shoulder injuries. ... CB Irving Campbell and WR Aaron Alexander, who have spent considerable time on the bench with injuries, also are expected to re-join the team shortly.

Be outrageous ...

Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?

Good advice from Oprah's Mission Calendar Inspiration

I don't usually post about football BUT ...

Dragon Mood? -- dragon eyebrows lifted in surprise!

...Yesterday was a BIG upset day in the Big Ten.

First of all, Minnesota beat U of M. That's a reason to celebrate for any truegreen (as opposed to trueblue)Spartan! Minnesota won the game with a field goal in the last second of the game, 23-20.

Northwestern beat undefeated Wisconsin, 51-48. That's a BIG surprise!

And the biggest shocker of them all, is Penn State. Nationally-ranked #18 Penn State beat #6-ranked Ohio State in what sounds like a defensive slugfest, 17-10. Wow, Joe Paterno can still remember how to coach a winning team. Penn State is now LEADING the Big Ten with a 6-0 record! Let's hear it for the geriatrics!

Michigan State was idle yesterday. They travel to Columbus, Ohio, next week and hopefully will whoop the Buckeyes for a second time in two weeks.

Go State! Beat the Buckeyes!

More on Ms. Miers

Dragon Mood? -- the choices are what?

I found this in the Houston Chronicle, written by Ellen Goodman from the Boston Globe:

The one thing we know for sure is that the Texan is a certified FOG, Friend of George. In this case, the acronym is all too apt.

In the last days, she's been described as the president's "work wife," "pit bull," "fixer," and "a capable indentured servant of the Bush family." The word that has now attached itself to her hem is "crony." As one Republican strategist griped to Slate, the choice was "Crony or wing nut? Crony or wing nut? OK, this time we'll go with the crony."

It's progress of a sort when a woman can be called a "crony." It's better than being called a crone. [I beg your pardon!] But I am reminded of what Ruth Bader Ginsburg said last week when asked whether she wanted another woman on the bench. Yes, she said, but "any woman will not do. ... Some women who might be appointed would not advance human rights or women's rights."

Well said, Ms. Ginsburg!

Bush and SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers

Dragon Mood? -- is there no limit to this man's audacious stupidity?

from Daily Kos:

Cheers and Jeers: Thursday
By Bill in Portland Maine

Harriett Miers, meet the late-night crew...

"Big news this morning at the White House, President Bush defended his nominee, Harriet Miers, calling her 'plenty bright.' Not only that, but then the president said Miers has 'real purdy hair.' Then he got on a mule and headed south."
-- Conan O'Brien

"She's never been a judge before...never served on the bench. This is part of President Bush's strategy of surrounding himself with people who are also in over their heads." --Jay Leno

"Welcome to the 'Late Show,' ladies and gentlemen. It's like the Supreme Court, anyone can get in here."
--David Letterman

"As you might expect some people are criticizing the pick, especially conservative Republicans who worry that Harriet Miers is too liberal. Other critics say she's not a good pick because she hasn't been a judge before. Uh, had Paula Abdul been a judge before? Nobody had a problem when they picked her."
--Jimmy Kimmel

"Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in the this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't play, you know, Hide the Salami, or whatever it's called."
--Howard Dean on Hardball

And, as usual, the political cartoonists waste no ink. [See below for an example.]Y'know, it's just too easy. Like shooting cronies in a barrel...

------------------- ~ -- ~ -- ~ ------------------------

On a more serious note, I was stunned to hear about this comment from George F. Will, the conservative columnist:

... It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's "argument" for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons.

He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their pre-presidential careers, and this president particularly is not disposed to such reflections.

Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Miers's nomination resulted from the president's careful consultation with people capable of such judgments. If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers's name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists...