New Year: New Buddy

Let me introduce you to my new buddy for the new year. I found him under the couch where he has been hiding since the grandgirls, Naomi and Leah, were here this spring. He stayed clean and happy (as well as very, very quiet) all these months. Mike and I had moved the couch which made cleaning around and under it much easier, so while he was in Bloomington during the last few days I undertook some major projects, including of course cleaning around and under the couch. Lo, and Behold! This happy guy emerged, who makes me smile; a real "feel good" critter that will be a joy to have around. Thanks, girls, for leaving me such a wonderful memory of your visit. I'll take good care of him.

Christmas' Aftermath

Christmas is over and done with for another year. It was low key but very pleasant and family centered, and that's what is important to me about Christmas. We spent some special time with Eric, Colleen, Sheryl, Lucas and Ian at their house; Marty came down from Indy for a few days, which is always a treat; phone calls and blog pictures shared with Danielle and Phil, Naomi and Leah kept us as close as we could get to them, even though they're all the way out in the snow in the Pacific Northwest; we wished Miki and Kevin "safe trip" as they left on a car trip to New York to spend time with Kevin's mom.

Mike is taking care of their houses and cats in Bloomington while they're gone, so I plan to catch up with year-end accounting for the golf course, put Christmas decorations away (few though they were!), and write thank you notes. It has also become necessary for a new fitness regimen to begin after way too much eating of all the wrong stuff over the holidays. Why is it so easy to gain weight and so slow taking it off? No fair.

Marty and I are winding up a big project we undertook this winter involving over a thousand family pictures scanned and organized. Actually, it's the kind of project that will never really be finished as long as we continue to take pictures that we feel need to be online in the Bird Family Albums. Marty and I agree that it was a struggle for us to determine exactly how to separate groups of pictures (by year? by person? by event? by location?) because each of us is obsessed with organization of any kind... making it too detailed, too critical and too difficult... but we did finally make some decisions that made sense (Picasa to the rescue!). When it is all finalized, I will post the URL for public viewing.

What will the New Year bring? No one really knows, but I have sensed an atmosphere of anticipation and hope. Perhaps there will be a resurgence of volunteerism, or at least increased interest in becoming involved in helping our world become a better place.

"Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope.
With hope, one can think, one can work, one can dream.
If you have hope, you have everything." Anonymous?

Sunshine in December

Many folks are suffering really unpleasant winter weather, including most of the Northwest and the Northeast. Here we are in beautiful southern Indiana with nothing worse than a little humidity caught between the panes of our windows. It's a little cold outside, surely not warm enough for golf, but there is blue sky and sunshine and Christmas is on its way. Aren't we lucky? Birds inside and out are singing ;-)

Early Christmas

Here is my early Christmas present... something I have been wanting for several years. Like everything, my wanting has a history. A few years ago when I was visiting a friend in Massachusetts, the guest room had a lovely, small wing chair that was very comfortable, and like Baby Bear I thought it was "just my size". The internet disclosed that it was an antique and priced in the exorbitant range. Then one day I was invited to try out the new chair at Wilma's house, and it was also small, with a narrow seat which extended just exactly to the back of my knees. It was a glider rocker. So I've been wanting one ever since.
Santa arrived early yesterday in a white Grand Cherokee, and carried into the house a large, heavy box which contained my very own lovely, small glider rocker. It is ensconced in our bedroom and looks great there because it just fits into the available space. (Our house is getting smaller and smaller the longer we live here.) I'll use it for reading in the evening before bed, or any time during the day when I am not on the computer or otherwise occupied. It's wonderful. It fits my body just right and when I sit there it feels like I'm snuggled in all nice and cozy. Thanks, Santa!

Pictures for Posterity

For years I have been the keeper of the family pictures, which are in several albums in three large plastic storage boxes shoved under the bed in the guest room. Younger daughter Danielle is familiar with the albums and with every picture in them, because whenever she comes home she looks at them again. It has occurred to me more than once that it would be wonderful if she had all those pictures more readily available for viewing at her own home. Because nothing lasts forever, and because there are so many available ways to save pictures on the internet, I have been haunted by the need to "get them up there" for some time. Adding to the self-imposed pressure is the fact that the ancients of my mother's family are perpetuated on celluloid in albums also in my care.

Older son Marty (our family technical guru) to the rescue! Recently he included the following in his blog: "Try www.getdropbox.com. Dropbox is an online storage / synchronizing service that is simple - it just works. They say "Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online." I'm sure there is some heavy duty stuff going on behind the scenes, but the programmers have done an excellent job of making the customer interface very simple. 2GB free, 50GB for $99. I love the fact that you can access your files from any internet-connected computer."

What is especially cool about "Dropbox" is that I can scan pictures into MY dropbox and they automatically "drop" into Marty's computer as well. That's the "share" part of "share and store". He is busy editing them, at which he is a master, and knowing his talent for organization, I expect he will have them divided by year and/or person and any other way he finds useful for the viewer.

This can be really tiresome work, even though the final outcome will be so wonderful, useful and important to future generations. Just a few hours of scanning a day is about all I manage at this point. Only I know how many albums there are (many, many, many), so it is a daunting task. Stay tuned!

Making Up

Making up. Why do we bother? In the picture below are products from Avon, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Revlon and Cover Girl. After a lifetime of comparison shopping and trying every new thing, I'm convinced it makes little difference what one buys. What matters is that, once bought, a person has to use the product. In truth, makeup makes me look like maybe I wasn't just dug up, but it is never going to make me look like Kim Novak again. Shucks.

There's a whole lot of water under the bridge between then and now, and no amount of "skin care" and "making up" is going to change all the sun exposure and neglect. It's hard to "make up" for lost time. Even products containing both elastin and collagen can't undo what's already happened to a person's skin, in spite of what the advertisers have to say. So the answer must be to start young and form good habits. Another "answer" at any age is to eat right, exercise, stay healthy, think happy thoughts and smile a lot. It probably wouldn't hurt to use moisturizer morning and night, too. ;-) You're only as young as you feel!!

Backing Up the Backups

Would you rather have your backups on 3-1/2" disks that only fit into your "A Drive" (if you still have one!) or would it make sense to transfer them to CDs that work in any 21st century computer? Or perhaps you have this great external hard drive that backs up everything on your computer every night. But, wait! That stuff that's on the little disks isn't on your computer any more! You moved it to backup disks because you wanted to save it for history, for looking at sometime in the future; and maybe you saved the chapters you started writing for the Great American Novel or for your autobiography in case you ever become famous. Well, you better put all that stuff on CDs, and the sooner the better. Some smarty-pants computer buffs don't even have a 3-1/2" drive.

That's what I've been doing off and on for the last two days... but of course I have to look at every single piece of data so I can remember why I saved it... and if it was childhood memories, or copies of letters I wrote 12 years ago, or several years' worth of emails from my sister, or entries from my Japan Journal, you can believe it took a lot of time.

Only a very few of the old files were corrupted and wouldn't transfer. Occasionally the A drive would start crunching and beeping. Major panic! I developed a devil-may-care attitude, telling myself "nothing ventured, nothing gained". Finally I discovered that things went more smoothly when I created a new folder on the old disk, then dragged and dropped the old files into it... and then copied the folder to a CD. Of course, one CD has skaboodles of room, so 20 disks became 4, and would have been fewer except I organized as I went (my autobiography AND my Great American Novel are both on one disk :)

This exercise isn't for the faint of heart. It's a learning experience all the way. Sure nice to learn how to do new stuff, though, and to figure it out all by yourself. Okay you smarty-pants gurus out there, I know it is a very simple procedure, but for an old dog like me, it was cause for celebration to learn this new trick.

Quilting Revisited

Here's the baby quilt I started some time ago, at the "sewing on the binding" stage. I think it looks pretty good for a first try at quilting. Every step takes me three times as long as it should because I'm learning as I go... measuring, remeasuring... cutting, recutting... stitching, restitching... adding the backing and middle layer and finding I had to measure and cut again. Taking this picture and posting it is supposed to serve as inspiration to get myself back into the guest room and finish it. Get that binding on. Tack the layers together. ... and then... Oh, No! ...start another one ;-)

Knowing that some small child will receive this quilt through Project Linus makes it all worthwhile, though. Surely the next project will be easier for someone who is no longer a "beginner"!

Noel Studio

Here I am at Noel Studios in Zionsville. Yes, I'm that little old lady clutching her purse (who IS that?!). Marty and I met at the Eagle Creek Coffee Company yesterday and then went to an open house at "The Sanctuary", where the artist Nancy Noel had some of her pictures displayed and some for sale.

Let me tell you about the coffee place first. It's on a corner on Main St., which if you know Zionsville at all you realize that its location is a prime spot, right on the brick road that runs through the most attractive part of town, and where many small shops are located. It is fairly large and cozy at the same time. At 11:00 am it was nearly full of people of all ages sitting at small and larger size tables. Customers go to the counter to order breakfast, lunch or a snack, and one of many excellent coffees or other beverages. The waitresses are young and welcoming and take their time, calling out your name when your order is ready so you can pick it up or they can bring it to you... let me tell you, though, this is nothing like a fast food restaurant. Marty had a breakfast burrito and coffee (Mr. Healthy), and I splurged with a coffee mocha and a blueberry scone, yum.

From there we walked half a block to The Sanctuary to check out the open house. It is an old First Methodist Church, completely restored and brought up to code. The building is a wonder in itself and a "must see" if you are ever in the area. The walls were covered with Nancy Noel's art, some of the pictures huge and all beautifully lighted. She has a large collection featuring Amish children, another of angels (mostly small children with wings... you have to see them to appreciate), another of African women in tribal dress, and one of animals. Many of her prints were on sale because they were being discontinued.

Whoever is in charge of marketing for Noel is a wizard. Her website for online ordering is excellent, and she generates both email and newsletters on a regular basis. Besides originals and prints, one can buy notecards, personal calendar/journals, or books, and framing can be done on site. We saw her as we were leaving; she had arrived to sign prints that were purchased that day; she's a lovely woman in her late 40s or early 50s.

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day in Zionsville, the first one in a while, and spending time with Marty is always fun. He's always excited about something and/or learning something new, and yesterday it was his new wide angle camera lens. After a leisurely look at just about everything there was to see, Marty went home to football games and I drove back south, stopping at the WalMart in Bloomington, where everybody in southern Indiana was working hard to help the economy and bring up the value of WalMart stock.

Injury Time Out

I have an elliptical exerciser, one of those things that looks like it is part treadmill, part stair-stepper, part bicycle, and that comes close to simulating cross country skiing motions. In an attempt to get some muscle tone back, I decided to increase the tension levels and time spent. I went from tension setting #4 to #6 and from 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week to 30 minutes twice a day. It was too much too soon and as a result I damaged something in my right ankle that brought everything to a halt. After a week of wearing an ankle brace and being very careful I am almost pain free. I'll be very conscious of exactly how and where I set that foot down for a while. Naturally I self diagnosed from the internet, decided what it was not (a break, a sprain, an Achilles tendon) and what it probably was (a muscle and/or ligament strain from overuse).

The elliptical itself was also a cause. The foot pads had loosened and were slipping forward as I walked (the right foot side especially), causing me to use my feet to hold them in place. I was wearing non-supportive slip on shoes. Then too, the exerciser was very close to the wall on the right side, which probably caused me to distribute my weight awkwardly. See top picture above... even the picture leans to the right ;-) Also! I always read while using the exerciser, holding the pages down with one hand or another, which probably caused an additional imbalance.

So today I moved the exerciser so it faces north, which will put my legs and arms away from the wall into a more open space. See second picture above. I removed the footpads and inserted a temporary cover over the remaining adhesive. I determined to wear supportive shoes while exercising and to make sure I was well balanced on the elliptical, not using one leg more than another, not turning my body at all and facing forward. I will, however, continue to read while exercising. After all, one of the major selling points was that it had a book rack.

Quilting

Yesterday I started a new project. Quilting. Over the years I've learned how to sew, knit, crochet, do embroidery, needlepoint and cross stitch, and have made everything from tiny doll clothes to huge comforters, but this will be my first time trying the quilt thing. My great and loyal friend, Catherine, has encouraged me to try this, and after seeing her wonderfully organized quilting room full of fabrics and supplies, not to mention her finished and in-progress quilts, I couldn't resist giving it a go. Even so, it has taken a long time for this project to grow legs and get started down the path. I've lurked around a couple quilting shops, not knowing what I'm looking for nor what I'm looking at, but fascinated nonetheless. Along the way I've picked up a cutting mat, a couple sizes of quality, razor-sharp fabric cutters, some patterns with detailed instructions and some fabric.

Finding myself between knitting projects, I dug out all that stuff, did some math, laid out my ideas on graph paper, and finally started cutting some squares. After a few stacks of fabric had piled up, I decided that I had gone beyond the fun part. It seemed like such a mindless effort, all that precise cutting. The next step would be to sew all those pieces together (more precision work, and likely to be frustrating considering my tendency to decide that close enough was good enough). Maybe the math part and the choosing fabrics part were the only best parts?

We'll see. Today I lay out the squares in the pattern I constructed, stack them up in rows, and finally start sewing. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a picture to post. One thing for sure, I'm going to have to put some music on to keep me awake. Right now it looks like a pretty boring exercise. :(

Lucas at 13 1/2

Lucas at 13 going on 23. Eric in the background. Both watching Notre Dame football. (Actually, it's a more thrilling game than it looks from this picture.) Hard to believe the grandsons are growing up so fast. I think Lucas is an inch or two taller here than he was a month ago... I have to go see him before it reaches the point that I can't recognize him!

Excellent Friends

Good friend Wilma and I, plus husbands, went out to dinner last night at a highly recommended but somewhat out of the way restaurant. The food was very good, but the company was the best. We started laughing before we got there and were still laughing when we got back home. Mike and his camera captured the spirit of the evening with this picture.

Excuse My Rant

Sorry, but I just have to comment about the economy. Personally, when Brian Williams or Jim Lehrer spends a half hour talking about how horrible things are I simply walk out of the room. Don't we already know how bad things are? Have you looked at your 401K or your IRA lately? Is there any wonder we are cutting back on our spending? Imagine working all your life and religiously setting aside money into savings that you couldn't really afford in order to have some semblance of a fund for your retirement years, only to watch those savings dwindle to half or less, finding out that after all you are going to have to keep working until you are 106 years old or dead. Forget watching sunsets from a desert isle (much less from a bathtub); you still have to get up and drag yourself to work forever and forever; that is, if you even have a job.

Economists are crying over the decrease in consumer spending; well, duh. Our local grocery store seems to be down to less than half of their usual customer base; at least when I am there the aisles are echo chambers. People are shopping sales and going to stores where you can get staples for much less, and a pretty good choice of brand and generic goods. The produce leaves something to be desired, but if you get there on delivery days it's not so bad. The dollar stores and St. Vincent's are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. St. V's is hurting for enough donations to fill the demand, which means people are reluctant to pass on what they have in case they are going to need it themselves down the road.

We got used to driving around less when the gas prices went through the roof. I think this encouraged less spending across the board; at least it made us aware that we could economize without too much distress. More people are shopping at WalMart stores, they say, but the last two times I went there it was not nearly as busy as before the "economic downturn". Those new WalMart shoppers will soon discover that the food prices are not that much less, not even enough to offset the gas burned to get there. Of course, I still have to go there if I want to get barley or our favorite rice or some of our favorite condiments, but it's easy enough to put those trips off for another week or two.

I find that I am shopping with a carefully constructed list, made after planning a week's meals, and if I find that something on the list is not available I just cross it off. If the broccoli looks yukky, I don't buy it. If the enchilada sauce cans are rusty or dented (and this is happening more and more as the retailers try to limit their own expenses!) I go back to making my own enchilada sauce or change the week's menu.

Remember the days when we would not buy any meat that cost over a dollar a pound? That's a joke now, for sure. Fortunately, Mike and I know how to stretch a dollar, we know how to cook from scratch, we like soups and stews, and we have always believed in "make do or do without". Now I can see that it is going to be a challenge to include all those expensive fruits and vegetables in our diet that is supposed to keep us healthy. They don't tend to be very filling, and the temptation is to fill up on starches and desserts.

This is a generalization, I know, and perhaps a little like a Pollyanna statement, but I believe that the American public is tough and resilient and capable of making changes (there's that word again... change) that make them proud of themselves rather than making them feel sorry for themselves. The sky is not falling; the world is not coming to an end; we shall overcome.

But that's just me.

Mike & Miki in B'town

Here's Mike, all aglow and very happy to be minus the nasty pain of a molar that was pulled by Dr. Howell in Bloomington. This nice doctor called last night to check on how Mike was doing, so I told him that Mike was doing well and that he was a tough old bird, which elicited a chuckle.


...and here is Miki, all sparkling and beautiful, our first-born, who took Mike out for breakfast at Bloomingfoods after the extraction. She is multi-talented and brilliant, of course, employed as managing editor extraordinaire at IU Press. She and Kevin are preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the family this year. Yea!

Backing Up

Mike came home from Bloomington today with this 400 gigabyte external hard drive, which he will use for a backup. It is also portable. Will wonders never cease? My nose is just slightly out of joint.

Some months ago, I bought this external hard drive for use with my computer. Even though it is bigger in actual size, it is only a 150 gigabyte, and would be awkward to lug around. I never thought I would need one with a higher capacity, but have used 36 of the 150 gigabytes already and am considering compressing the data to make more room. By the way, in case you're interested, I use software from Karenware called Karen's Replicator for backing up, and am quite happy with it. I also have two very portable 2.0 gigabyte USP flash drives that I use to back up Quick Books Pro and Quick Books Point of Sale... and other stuff I consider important. Ah, where would we be without our guru, Marty? Still in the dark ages, that's where. I have always considered Danielle to be our backup guru, and have no doubt that both Miki and Eric have outdistanced us by now.

Puzzle

Five days ago a bug sneaked up on me; whether it was a flu bug or a cold bug I'm not sure, but it laid me low in a hurry. After dragging around coughing for a day, I pulled out a new puzzle I had found at WalMart, thinking I might get back into a long-ago hobby. There was a time in my growing up years when a puzzle in progress could frequently be found on the back of the piano (it was a baby grand, so there was plenty of room for just about any size puzzle). Not wanting to exert any more energy than pulling out a new kneenex, working this puzzle was just what the doctor ordered (plus lots of liquids, sleep and Tylenol). For two days running, I could be found sitting at the table working on this puzzle. Just because my body and brain weren't working didn't mean that my eyes and fingers couldn't operate with efficiency. When I felt like living again, there were only a dozen pieces left. Mike couldn't resist and sneaked over in the middle of the night and finished it! Now I'm reluctant to put it back into the box; it's such a great picture of Times Square. Bet I could find another puzzle at the store, just in case I ever get sick again and need it.

I, Me, My, Our, Us

It was probably older son Marty who sent along a fascinating study about how many times people (bloggers in particular?) use personal pronouns, referring to themselves rather than to others or to places, things, ideas and so on. It has made me self-conscious about all communication, not only blogging but talking as well. It also reminded me of the unfortunate day when my mother said (not knowing it would stay with me forever) that I was the most selfish person she had ever known. Ouch. Once during grade school one of the good nuns saw something in me that prompted her to require me to write 100 times, "Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine." Ouch again. My apparent lack of humility was solidified when a friend told me that "it was always about me". Triple ouch.

So okay, I'm old enough and strong enough to start denying the power those comments had over me. After all, my blog is supposed to be about me, right? Right. The assumption that anyone even reads my blog or that they might give a hoot is selfish in itself. I think I've probably spent much of my life trying to be accommodating and self-effacing and humble in order to live down what felt like others' bad opinions of me.... and probably it's time to stop doing that.

I just counted 20 personal pronouns in this post. Oh, well. ;)

Colors

Aptly named, the burning bush provides splashes of lush red in Autumn, and never ceases to amaze as we glimpse it in passing. These bushes serve as 150 yd. markers on our golf course; our neighbor has a huge burning bush in his yard; we have three smaller ones.

The delicate pale gray-green of the herbal sage plant is one of my favorite colors. I matched the color when I painted the master bedroom, and it is very restful, seeming a cool color in summer and warm in winter. (Now if it only had the scent of true sage, which grows in the foothills of Idaho where I grew up, it would be perfect.) The blossoms on the herbal sage are a sweet shade of lavender.

Who doesn’t love the brilliant yellows and oranges of marigolds? They seem to thrive anywhere and are touted as good companion plants, and as bug deterrents as well. What’s more, it’s simple to harvest the seeds at the end of summer for assuring another crop next year. The garden was full of them this year, and they looked fabulous next to the lavender and purple blossoms of the volunteer cosmos, both of which thrived in spite of the lack of rain. Flowers far outdistanced vegetables in production and general health this summer.

After the dry summer, we didn’t expect much in the way of colorful leaves this fall, but were granted instead some of the most beautifully muted, soft and luscious colors. The maples tried hard to provide their usual yellow and red, and all of the native trees did their best, managing to come up with sensuous golds and tans and rusts that made this Autumn very special after all.

Though I wasn’t sure if it would survive in this zone, I planted a crape myrtle on the south side of our small metal shed several years ago and placed an old window pane behind it, hoping that the sun would warm it and keep it alive year round. It’s growing slowly and really needs to be transplanted to richer soil, but just look how the shadows play against the shed and what a lovely color the leaves are!

The two dwarf azaleas that grace the railing around the back patio have leaves that darken in the fall to a rich, deep purple. One of these bushes blooms a delicious rose pink and the other a delicate shade of red orange. This profusion of color is a welcome delight in the spring.

After the official closing on our Loogootee house, the previous owner mentioned bleakly that she hoped I liked gardening as much as she did. At the time I consoled her with “Oh yes, I do like to garden,” fervently wishing she wouldn’t hold me to it. After 25 years of painstakingly tilling the soil and trying to live off our land along the Lost River, it was not my wish to do more of the same. Later I found that she had planted perennials and ground cover around the house, most of which were in some shade of pink, lavender or purple. It was a charming touch to a wonderful house. Gardening in lavender definitely has its appeal.

Change of seasons

Mother Nature seems to be right in the swing of things, being the originator of "change", which is the catch word of this election season. It's been a weird year altogether, weather-wise, what with climate change and all. A wet spring, a dry summer, and now we're enjoying Indian summer, one of my favorite times of year.

Our apple tree went berserk this year and Mike is still picking perfect apples off the ground. For a while, he had them strung along the patio railing. In spite of the weather my flowers thrived, and the scraggly rose at the southeast corner of the house is still blooming like there was no tomorrow. I keep thinking I've seen the last rose of summer but then lots of new buds arrive.

Concentrate on the simple gifts of sky and trees and flowers, small children and animals, and try to calm your mind before you go into the voting booth on Tuesday. ;)