Is This the New Reality?

Overcast, grey, rainy, cloud cover day after day, rarely above 70 degrees, mold on all the roses...
We have had exactly one day above 80 since last October and that was a week ago. It has been overcast ever since.







It's just warm enough that the snow on the mountain is melting and now the rivers are approaching flood stage. I guess you could actually say it would be good if it didn't warm up in the foreseeable future until we get beyond that flooding danger zone.

Not much of a summer to look forward to from a weather perspective. It's a good thing I've got so many great family members and friends to replace my need for sunshine. And they can't give me melanoma!

Up Close and Personal

Today I saw the origin of a huge rainbow. It rose far into the sky from the middle of a nut orchard. It was such a strange phenomenon, all misty and ethereal with those beautiful hues coloring the air with brilliant, multi-colored stripes. Rainbows are truly magical!

When you are dealing with life's challenges, stresses, ugliness and disappointments, being so close to the pure beauty of nature is humbling and renewing. It actually reenergizes you to face anything with a new and fresh perspective.

Thank goodness for these moments.

I'm Afraid to Blink

You know how the older you get, the faster time seems to pass? Well, it's going so fast right now, I'm literally afraid to blink. There is so much to do between now and the first weekend in December, I need to do some time travel to borrow lots more hours from another dimension.

As usual I've got work to do right now so not much time to post but I just had to satisfy the urge to let off some steam, anxiety, you know, releasing the pressure from the pressure cooker.

This is Halloween week and I'm looking forward to opening the door to Mr. Red #8 (4 yrs.) and his sidekick, Elvis (1 1/2 yrs.). If prizes were to be given for brothers with the strangest costume combination, they would most certainly win.

I don't know if this was unusual but when I was in grade school (just a couple of years ago - make that a lot of decades ago) one of my favorite events was the school carnival, which usually occurred in March or April. There was the cake walk (musical chairs), the fishing pond, ring toss over glass pop bottles, throw the coins in the dishes, sandbag toss, shooting hoops, etc. I remember one of my prizes was a little blue and white striped felt beanie with the name of our grade school on it. I also remember winning three times the year my parents were in charge of the cake walk, as in three cakes (no, I was not cheating, how do you cheat at musical chairs?), after which I was permanently kicked out of the room.

Well, what goes around comes around and this-coming Saturday night, we are taking my grandsons to my oldest grandson's pre-school carnival. I think I'm as excited as he is. He was so fixated on the orange flyer, trying to figure out everything he was going to do, that he was driving his mom crazy so I am now in possession of the flyer. We'll see who is more tired at the end of the evening, them or us. It should make for some pretty cute video.

OK, I can't delay the working any longer. Until next time.

Tipping Point

I'm quite certain I've used this title before but I couldn't think of a better term for the point at which someone is unwilling to not only change their opinion but even to listen. Last night we were watching Bill Maher, whom I very much appreciate for hosting both his opponents and his allies. The subject was atheism or I guess more accurately it was embracing a religion, or even a new religion as an adult. He was chastising Obama and others who said they were born again or who "found their faith" as adults.

His thinking was that by the time you're grown, you should know better than to believe the myth. He compared religious faith to believing in Santa Claus I think. I guess I take a slightly different view.

I guess I should clarify first I'm probably more Agnostic than Athiest. I don't necessarily believe but my mind is still open (that was specifically what he couldn't fathom). I certainly don't believe in all the religious representations of the holidays we celebrate but yes, I still celebrate the holidays. I guess it's more about tolerance. If someone wants to pray at dinner, I won't stand in their way or denigrate them for it, but I also don't really believe in the "religious" power of prayer.

Now that's not to say there isn't power in group support and positive thinking, I simply don't believe in the supreme being with long, flowing gray hair and long white robes sitting on his throne on high calling all the shots. There is no one making you rich or making you skinny or making you smart, it's called "do it yourself" with maybe a little luck thrown in regarding the money wish in particular.

Anyway, I've been gone all day visiting with my parents and then the grandkids so now I'm tired and disinterested in continuing. That's alright, I captured the gist of my thinking.

Election Results

The right wing faction of this country excels at "the spin". If and when they get the opportunity, what I'm wondering is how they are going to manage to point the finger elsewhere when they come into power and aren't any more successful at righting this boat than the current party.

Sometimes I really hate what we have become. This political climate certainly encourages me to keep the television off. I have enough dissension at work, I don't need anymore at home.

The Innocence of Youth

My grandson celebrated his 4th birthday last weekend and he had his heart set on a bowling party. So on Saturday, there he was at Hollywood Bowl with 6 of his little 4 year old friends pushing, dropping and shoving their respective bowling balls down the alley.

There were a few times it was painful to watch the ball slowly, slowly come to a stop immediately in front of the 10 standing pins. It was almost like you could hear the pins taunting the ball.

It was also quite clear (when you're watching the ball in slow motion you notice much more than you otherwise would) that there are small grooves at the end of the alley, at the end of the gutter guards and immediately in front of the pins that caused the balls when going excruciatingly slow to veer off to the left or the right gutters without making contact with the pins at all. This, unfortunately, was a frequent occurrence.

Regardless, those 7 little kids had so much fun and were incredibly happy if they even got one pin down (let's be honest, everyone in the entire group was happy if they knocked one pin down, not just the kids). It also could have been a study in psychology because clearly the little girls were much more aggressive at this sport than the boys. One little 4 year old got a score of 80!

This timidity was even true of my grandson who had actually practiced in Bend in August. However, that particular alley had the little slide where he could put his ball at the top and it gathered enough momentum to get all the way down the alley with some impact left to spare. In this instance, the hard push concept just wasn't clicking, or it was just too hard.

My point being, these kids were lucky if they got 10 pins for the entire game but they had an absolute blast. A little cheese pizza, a little bowling, some stickers, cupcakes & ice cream and they each had a day made in heaven (and probably the best night's sleep of their lives).

Maybe that's the key, as adults we need to seriously rethink what is required to make us happy. We should literally scale back our expectations and our greed and find satisfaction and joy in everyday stuff like time with our families, beautiful flowers, good music, staying in touch with friends, a tasty home-cooked meal or a good old-fashioned board game.

Life is meant to be enjoyed, period. Just because I'm significantly older than my grandson and his friends doesn't give me any right to forget that.

Webs of Steel

I can't look out the dining room window without looking directly through a spider web with a good-sized spider in the middle that is incredibly strong. Think about the last time you tried to break through a spider web when you were watering the plants in your yard or just to walk outside. The bigger the spider, the stronger the web. In fact I've walked through them on the way to work and the silk was so clingy & strong I felt like it was on me all day.

I don't know that I've ever heard what the material is they are actually composed of but it's really quite amazing. If there were spiders the size of humans, I can't imagine how impossible their webs would be to break. Hm, that thought's kind of creeping me out. I guess this is a good pre-Halloween line of thinking.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried to duplicate the texture and strength of that natural substance. I would think it would have numerous uses. But it would take a better scientific mind then mine to try to figure out the chemical composition. Maybe "the Face" will figure it out someday, he seems to have unlimited brain power, he amazes me more everyday. It's very disturbing when your speech is corrected by a 3 year old, especially when he's right.

That's enough of this eight-legged post, I can't imagine how I went on so long about a bug I despise.