One Part Inspiration...

Are you tired of me talking about moving yet? Well, tomorrow is the 'final' move. I use the 'final' lightly because it looks like the transitions are not quite finished. This is because the plumber has been very casual about plumbing, and there are actually very few pipes completed. Last I heard, he was on a motorcycle trip somewhere. Good for him. Not so good for me - who was counting on having a toilet to flush by the time I moved. So we are facing another round of transition. I love being a nomad. It's so fun. All that being said, I just wanted to announce that I really don't know how often I will be able to post on this forum for a while. You may check in and find that I've managed to get one in, and then again, maybe not. We are switching telephone/internet companies and there are complications with that as well. We thought we'd have service by today, but something went wrong, and they won't be back until Wednesday. Not having technology at my f...

Twenty-two years ago tonight, I could hardly sleep for the excitement of waking up the next morning to be a bride. I had everything laid out, ready for the big day. I read and re-read my vows, hoping not to mess up when I said them. Part of my pledge said: " I look forward to sharing my life with you, and whatever the future holds, I will stand with you and beside you, until death separates us ." After living out these vows for 8,035.335 days, I have a very different perspective on what those words meant. As a new bride, I looked forward to sharing life with my husband as an adventure - almost as if I was going to be on a long vacation with him. Now I look forward to sharing my life with him in more genuine ways. I look forward to a cup of tea at the end of the working day. I try to anticipate which tool he will need me to hand him when we are working together. I count on him listening to me vent about the challenges of my day, and making the ONE observation which cra...

I've been spending a lot of time on the phone - getting information from, and relaying information to parties who are connected, but don't want to talk to each other. Each has their own bureaucracy and set of rules. Neither will budge for the other. And I am caught in the middle. At one point today, I wanted to get each of them on separate phones and hold up the two receivers so they could talk to each other. Enough of this 'he said' - 'she said' stuff! Perhaps I will send them each this video. They can choose which they want to be. They will likely both want to be the "North -going Zax". Then I will be back at square one.

Do you ever watch T.V. with closed captioning? I do sometimes, when I am trying to settle down, but my husband is already sleeping. I put the T.V. on mute, and read the CC, to catch the action, while letting him rest. There are a few things I've noticed about CC. : First of all it's not always that accurate. Secondly, there's a lot of times when they throw letters together like the person is going to be able to figure out what they are talking about. Third, sometimes, whole batches of dialogue go by without any CC. It's like the scribe gets so involved in the action, they forget to tell the viewer what they are seeing. Recently, I wrote down some of these things I've seen on CC. just to prove my point I am transcribing them here, as I saw them. These are real folks. I am not making this stuff up. I find it endlessly entertaining. " Self steam ". Hmmm. Does that mean the person is self-motivated? Or needs help feeling better about themselve...

A week from now, we will be living at The Pokeaway. I feel good about it. It has been a lengthy year with more twists than a balloon animal. Even though we are moving long before the house is 'ready', there is a sense that we will soon be coming 'home'. It started with a trip with the real estate agent to look at potential homes - one of them was the one I refer to lovingly as the 'head- basher' house. It left quite an impression on me - literally and figuratively. Even today, I can put my hand up to my head and feel the indentation where the that beam dug into my scalp. Then it was roller-coaster ride to finish up the details to seal the deal on the place we had chosen to buy. At times it didn't look as it we would be able to, but in the end, we pulled through [Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition]. Following that, we began a waiting game to get into the house to assess what needed to be done. Meantime, my designer husband worked up some plans f...

Yesterday, in one of my groups, one of the ladies mentioned she'd met a new friend last week. She couldn't remember her name. We talked about it for a while, and then I recognized the description of the lady she was talking about. She commented "She's a really nice lady". I agreed. "Yes, she is very nice". One of the other ladies piped up "Well aren't we all dear, until someone has to live with us." I almost think that is a classic statement! As my dad used to repeat "To live with saints above, ohhh! That will be glory. But to live with saints below, now that's a different story!".

We start by stopping for ice cream. It's our little tradition. We don't mention it on the way up. But on the way back, when we have safely delivered the working boy to camp, one of us says: " Are we stopping for ice cream? " and the other responds with a smile of acknowledgment that the thought had already crossed their mind. There are two places from which to choose. We always go to the one on the left. My husband's choice. He likes tradition and it just wouldn't be the same if we turned right. He always asks for the same flavour - Chocolate Chip Mint. I like to experiment. Within reason. I'm not interested in Green Tea Ice cream. And I don't want Bubblegum either. However, Tiger is high on the list and something Chocolately is not far behind. Afterward, and since we have no kids and no place we have to be, we meander home through the back roads. We comment on houses we like. Barn colours which don't fit. And the unusual crops peopl...