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  My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| All Saints Day is always Nov. 1. I suppose it started as the church's response to the Day of the Dead or Halloween. It is simply a day to remember or honor all saints, both known and unknown, even if they have their own commemorative day. The non-Catholic version began after that, in which you simply honor the memory of anyone you know who may have died since last All Saints Day. This can be very meaningful to a family that has lost a member or to a community that has lost a beloved leader. Many Protestant churches will take a small part of their first Sunday service in November to name its members or family of members who have passed. I have seen whole families go up front just to light a candle in honor a parent or sibling and have observed their continuing grief. I was especially moved when my young nephew went up with me to light a candle for my father. Since then, it has become an even more meaningful and moving experience for me. I want others to have that opportunity when they lose a loved one, to remember publicly in a reverent moment. Depending on the numbers, it's a very short ceremony. So if you have lost someone, a co-worker, neighbor, a friend, a family member in the last twelve months. Do yourself a favor. Light a candle tonight and just watch the flame for a minute or two in your own private moment of reverence. You will experience peace. Tears are permitted, but not required. |
| In my part of the world, the weather is unpredictable. One year for a Christmas outdoor light show in the closest botanical garden, we were freezing. I wore two pairs of gloves and my hands were like icicles. The following year, I went with family and a lot of children, including a 2 year old, warning them to wear coats, heavy socks, gloves and scarves, and we all thought we would suffocate. The kids shed clothes as they ran around in the grass in the dark. Some years for Halloween it is extremely cold. Kids wear coats over costumes, and some years they sweat inside the costume alone. I remember working in a haunted house downtown for Halloween and we had fans blowing to cool us down. Tonight this year, it will be very cold. I have to cover my plants for frost prevention. Last year for Thanksgiving, we ate outside on picnic tables. So much for the snowy roads to Grandma's house. Yet I've seen it snow on Veteran's Day before Thanksgiving. At least the leaves are beautiful this year. You can't always count on that either. You can count on raking a mass of them. I'm going to wait until the trees are bare, then mow the lawn. and rake all at once. I like the changing of the seasons, I just want Mother Nature to stick to a timetable. |
| I really anticipated this show with excitement. Finally, someone was going to recognize that people don't die inside just because they get old. They still have feelings and hopes. I am going to say after watching almost to the conclusion, that it is a disappointment. First, the whole idea of a competition for love and romance is ludicrous. I'm glad that no back stabbing or devious plots have taken place yet. The drama queens are definitely toned down. However, it's such a phony setup to build a relationship. They are all attractive women over 60, but they are all "in love" with this one very nice, always on his best behavior, guy. No way. Such artificial circumstances cannot lead to undying love. It's as though they all have agreed to be let down and feel like failures. Very few are walking away like it's been a fun adventure. Next, I wonder what kind of man, no mater how charming or polite he may be, can date all those women and believe that "she" might be the one. He's a floozy. H makes out with multiple women per day. If I were there, I would be thinking, "Keep your lips away from me. They're full of germs" or "I don't want to kiss her. Why let you carry her germs to me?" It is just gross. Why aren't these women thinking about things like building exclusive relationships, not shared ones. They're only responding to chemistry at this point, and the desire to win the competition. He's thinking about earning his paycheck by courting these women. He might even be overplaying the sympathetic role, worrying that he's hurting someone. If they run this another season, I hope they pick real women over 60, not potential models. Let them show a man and women with arthritis and a steady medication routine. People with bad tickers and hearing problems want love, too. Or is it only about what the audience is willing to watch? Surely, there are plenty of sponsors appealing to senior cash reserves. |
| Why is it so satisfying to dig in the dirt? To get your hands dirty and plant things or to pull stuff you don't want to grow? Why does dyed mulch please the eye so much? I don't do it to keep up with the neighbors or to brag about it. Sometimes I wish someone would notice my hard work and pay a compliment, but it doesn't happen. I am not going to win any prizes for outstanding blooms or best produce. The work has to be for the sole satisfaction of doing it. I only have to meet my own standards, no one else's. I stay out to nearly dark, dodging gnats, and getting cold. But I do feel a satisfaction I don't get from many other things. Lawn work is a solitary activity. I am stumped by transplanting peonies. I can't get them out of the ground without destroying them. I have a trench around a clump of them. I figure they've been there 15 years or more. They're intertwined which I'm told is normal. They are shallow, but I can't get the shovel underneath them. I'm told to get the whole clump up, then separate them. But I just can't get them up out of the ground, no matter how deep I go. That's frustrating. I'm doing much better with irises in a back yard bed, and begonias and geraniums in pots. I have to bring those in for the winter. I admit I do take some pride in having them survive from year to year and look beautiful. No one cares but me, but that's okay. |
| I think it was Martha Stewart who said most women don't go through their underwear drawers often enough. How true. We adult women need to go through those drawers with a trash can handy! No one needs to hold undies until they're threadbare. Anything with stretched out elastic needs to go. Missing snaps or hooks indicate it's time to discard. If it's new, and you can sew, you might replace hardware, but usually, these mishaps only happen to something past its prime. Martha tells us we need to recycle old bras. You have to remove the hardware and mail the items to a recycling company; she lists several. I don't have the postage, but if you belong to a club or group of friends, you can join together and save on shipping and still have a clear conscience. They use the parts for carpet padding. The fabric gets shredded up, treated and formed with many other scraps. No one looks underneath the carpet to the padding. This effort saves the landfills and the use of new chemicals. You can make donations of usable decent looking undergarments to homeless shelters of clothing centers. This is helpful for people who have changed sizes, up or down, like a teen who has outgrown her training bra. I volunteer at a center which caters primarily to homeless and others down on their luck. We get lots of smaller bras in excellent shape. On the other hand, no one wants a used thong! No matter how lacy or see through, no one wants to handle much less wear something that has been in someone's butt crack. Not may people still use slips, but they may be donated along with camisoles, as long as all straps are okay and no threads are dangling. If making donations, the rules are rips, stains, or played out elastic means "Throw away". Thongs, even if only tried on or worn once, "Throw away". Panties or boxers, if ever worn, "Throw away". If a multi-pack was bought and opened, but never all used, donate. That happens when the wrong size is purchased. Thermal underwear is okay, as long as they still have their shape and no stains. Nightgowns and pajamas are like thermals. They should not look frayed or worn thin or be stained. Used socks are okay, if they do not have holes or yellow or brown soles, particularly thermal socks. Homeless people walk all over town and need warm feet. Like the ad says on TV, socks and underwear are the most requested items. I have helped many men find the right size shorts or boxers and some white socks. So ladies, go through your drawers first, then your husband's, then the kids. Condense what you have. Then treat yourself to a new undergarment. Don't over shop; how many do you really need? But there is no crime in getting something new at least once in a while. Many women go for years without new panties of bras. Give yourself a break. At the shelter where I work one day a week, we also help refugees who are settling in our town and may not speak good English. People in every language need shoes, belts, underwear, and coats. We allow shoppers of all backgrounds without any questions about finances. People with referrals from churches, shelters, or Offender groups get free clothes, but we keep records for a year's total per person. Others pay cash by the bag full, not per item. |
| Sometimes I think I missed opportunity to learn things when I was younger. Like horticulture for one. I putter around with my plants and have discovered by accident mostly that I can maintain a few things in pots year after year, like certain varieties of begonias, hanging petunias, chives, and sage. I am lousy with rosemary no matter what I try. I save the seeds from miniature marigolds and cone flowers, label, and plant every spring. Now I have read that you can keep the cone flowers in the ground and not replant. Maybe next year. I mainly grow weeds and invasive vines. They choke out my butterfly bushes, irises and trees. The deer eat crocus, tulips, hostas, gladiolas, and vegetables. Groundhogs like vegetables, too. Squirrels like tomatoes in pots that grow near railings. They hang upside down from the rails and eat. They don't bother daffodils, basil, or peonies. Peonies spread quickly after a few years and get too crowded. I can't seem to dig them up without destroying them. I've also loved old black and white movies. Now after decades of watching, I've discovered there are college majors in cinema and film history. How did I miss that? I could have been in heaven, watching films and taking notes. Reading about them, the directors, and the actors is a thrill for me. No one wants to hear me talk about it, however. I could have worked for the Library of Congress or TCM and loved it. I'm not artistic, but I wish I had some drawing lessons when I was younger. I could have been sketching with Bob Ross. I could illustrate my own children's book. It would only be a hobby, but what fun! There are some old people who meet weekly at my church who paint. They're excellent and far too advanced for any novice to join. I can't do my needle crafts any longer because of hand cramps. There's unfinished projects now; I can't add art attempts to it. I console myself with my daily visits with my plants. I talk to them, but nothing personal. I water them and trim them and pull the weeds that are inevitable in outdoor pots. The flower beds are more time consuming and frustrating. Mother Nature insists on running things her way. |
| About 6 weeks since I picked my first ripe tomatoes from my plants. Those plants are pooping out. Granted their fruit was so sweet and delicious, but now I'm down to 7 or 8 tiny green tomatoes that will probably never ripen, and may not get much bigger. I water regularly and make sure they're getting sun, but I think they've quit. I've heard from more avid gardeners that their crops have quit. I guess it's time. Funny how they can vary in taste. All of mine were sweet and juicy. My neighbor gave me some yellow tomatoes and some mini Asian pear tomatoes, also yellow, and they were sweet like candy. Someone at church gave me red cherry tomatoes that actually tasted a little bitter. But they're all a big step up from those plastic-like tomatoes at the store. My grandfather used to talk about carrots. They were sweet, according to him, or bland, if the soil was "sweet". I guess he was referring to the acid levels of the soil. We didn't have sweet soil at our house, and neither did he. He did not allow for different varieties or breeding; just the dirt made a difference. Although, I am glad to end the 90 plus degree weather and the humidity, I am sorry to see things stop growing. I have already started gathering the seeds from my miniature marigolds. They are turning brown in both leaf and flower. I save the seeds every year for the next. Same with coneflowers. I have discovered by accident that begonias can be saved from year to year, depending on the variety. It makes me sad to discover these things so late in life. My age, my failing health, make me think I won't be doing this many more seasons. If I move to an apartment or an old folks home, I won't have space or outdoor access. Or if worse things happen, I just won't be able to dig in the dirt and save seeds no matter where I live. Of course, if I die, I'll garden in heaven, without deer or groundhogs as interlopers in my flower or vegetable gardens. At least for now, I can pretend that my "summer" will go on forever, and tend my flowers and herbs. |
| Well, I got my first red tomatoes off the vine! Oh, joy. The thrill of growing your own. I ate one small one already. No cherry or grape tomatoes this year. The plant labeled yellow tomato was mis-marked. It's rendering very red tomatoes. That's all I'm growing. I did plant a potato, and the plant looks lovely, but I don't know anything about harvesting a hill of potatoes. Someone at my volunteer workplace brought in onions and kale. The kale looked great, so we split it up. The onions had washed up in all the downpours and many were mushy. People took one or two that looked good. I took all the mushy leftovers, cleaned them up and now have a bowl of onions. Gotta find some recipes using onions because they won't last in this condition. I've got a pot of cooked kale steaming on the stove. Yum. The best part of summer is the home grown produce from your friends and neighbors. I did get one very small garlic bulb, dry at that. And something green that smells like mint. I'm not sure what to do with that. I miss the days when my dad brought in squash, zucchini, beets, green beans, pumpkins, etc. That freshly picked crop brings back memories. |
| I feel like we have barely survived the last round of campaigns, and now they're starting again. I screen my phone calls. I delete half my messages. I hesitate to state my thoughts for fear of backlash. However, I want to say it somewhere. I don't want anyone who has ever been president now or in the past to do it again! The next problem is that no one has much of a chance of winning other than the two noisy front-runners, both really bad choices. If I vote/ cheer for someone I like, my vote and energy will be wasted. If you don't back the power houses, you're backing losers. I have just completed a course in The Constitution, and have learned that the separation of powers has been gone at least for the last 100 years. The president since FDR has been another legislator with a different set of rules. I have listened to people campaigning and making promises, and I wondered, "How can you promise that as chief executive?" Now I understand. The rules aren't what we leaned in school, and people like me foolishly believed them. No, they can make outrageous promises, then do what it takes to enact them. In the meantime, it seems like the most important things that we, the represented, can do is to elect good legislators. Take that more seriously than the presidential runs. Then study history for ourselves, not just the kids. Read a book by someone we don't like. Stop getting our political thoughts from Facebook. Watch a variety of News shows, but only occasionally. Mostly, watch local news or business/farm news. There are free classes online. Adults should take advantage of these in economics, history, civics, government, or basic law. I can't solve any problems. I can wish a new, vital, open-minded, intelligent man or woman would step forward with a heart set on the country's welfare. (We all know anyone who would want to be president is not operating with a normal mindset.) Don't call me. I won't answer. |
| Years ago I posted a romance that didn't end well on this site site. A reviewer told me I should have a happy ending as required by the genre. I couldn't go back and redirect my characters. They had a life of their own. I have mulled this over ever since, noting in Nicholas Sparks stories they usually "get together", even for a bittersweet ending, I finally concluded that this was not my genre, and stopped trying. I hadn't given much thought to it before then, I concluded that I could not write romances with happy endings because I had no real experience to lean on. I've only had bad relationships, and a very bad marriage. Why would I think I could write a romance except as a fantasy? Then last night, while I was sick and unable to sleep, I watched the 1937 version of Prisoner of Zenda. Holy Moley! A romance with a very sad, if noble, ending. This started the ball rolling. What about Romeo and Juliet and all those great classic operas? No happy endings there. So I checked it out on The Web. It turns out to be a big controversial topic. You get into "feminine" versus "masculine" writing. The great romances are usually classified with another genre such as history or adventure. It turns out you don't have to have a happy ending unless you're catering to the cheap paperback audience. So if you want your romantic leads to go astray, commit murder or move to separate countries, go for it. You're just writing about real life. |
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