One Part Inspiration...

Not far from where I live, is a "park and ride" where my mother-in-law and I meet once or twice a week to carpool and save a little gas.  On Monday when I returned to the van, and started it up, I knew immediately something was wrong.  It is just NOT RIGHT when a mini-van sounds like it's trying out for 'The Fast and the Furious #299".  It's a mini-van afterall.  The decibel level was so loud, and the reverberation was so strong, that I turned off the ignition right away. Ever the optimist I am (not), I decided to try again.  I turned the ignition key once more, hoping for better results.  Carbon monoxide poisoning would have been immediate if I had been in a garage.  Huge blue puffs of smoke billowed out from underneath the van.  I got out.  I went to the back of the van, and kneeled on the ground (in my work clothes).  The muffler was still there.  Now I was completel...

It was a sunny September day.  I was enjoying a lunch with my  father-in-law.  The older kids were in school, and my baby was down for a nap.  It was quiet in the house except for the sound of our conversation.  And yet, every once in a while, I heard a crackling sound.  It was weird.  I wondered if wasps were trying to get through the roof again.  I looked around but saw nothing.  And then I heard it again.  I asked him what that sound was and he said he wasn’t sure.  We resumed eating.  But the sound became so insistent that we had to look for the source.  We looked out the window and found our answer. The barn, which he had been painstakingly taking apart and burning in the burn pile, had caught on fire. The flames were crackling,sizzling and hissing. The sky was ablaze.     It was impressive . We ran outside and pondered what to do.  I asked him if he wanted me to get the hose.  ...

Something you cannot see when you read my blog are my drafts . As of today, I am up to fifteen. Every time I open up my blog to write, I see them. They are highlighted with the word draft . Every once in a while, I open them up to see what I have written. I make an attempt to alter them, to make them satisfactory (in my opinion) for publishing. Some of them I completely revamp and publish; some have been there for a few years. Each draft hangs askew like a picture without a properly placed hook. It's hard to know exactly what to do with them. The draft file is the blog junk drawer - It contains odds and sods of useful bits and pieces I may use one day, and I am reluctant to press "Delete". Quotes I like. Topics that have appealed to me. My views on life in general, and nothing in particular. Most days I am content to close the drawer and open a new one because all that clutter confuses me and makes me unable to work. So I open up "New Post"...

Do you remember this? I forgive you if you don't. It is the arrangement which my husband gave me for Valentine's Day this year. Sadly, over the year, because of my black thumb, it has turned into this: Not all at once, but slowly, the plants gave up hoping that I would take care of them. All of them but the daisies. I went into the living room the other day and discovered that in spite of me the long, lanky stems had produced these: I was so pleased that I immediately salvaged them into this arrangement, so I could enjoy them on my table for a little while. Better that, than leave them to break because they were so top-heavy. I thanked the plant for what it had given me, and whispered the words of Winston Churchill as I trimmed it back and watered it: " Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparen...