Stick Horse Cowgirls

Wow!  Did I ever discover a satisfying last-minute gift giving idea.  One of my facebook friends, Cindy Jackson Knull , posted this link to the New York Times : Gifts of Hope.   It lists several smaller (as opposed to the “biggies” you always hear about) nonprofits with varying angles of charitable giving. I have people on my list whom I just know will enjoy the fact that gifts have been made in their honor and, especially, in areas about which they are impassioned.  (And I KNOW they’ll enjoy it more than a trinket I might pick for them…). Check these out.  Myself, I am passionate about women’s issues, especially education.  I was pleased to donate to several of these organizations that promote education of women in Afghanistan and prenatal care in Somalia.  For the teacher on my list, I found the “First Book” program that distributes books to poor children in the United States.  For my nurse friend, there is Nurse-Family Partnership which sends...

My faithful l ittle Sheltie, Scout, is  now twelve years old.  The past couple weeks, MIL and I have noticed her having an occasional cough and it seems to take her longer to get from MIL’s to my house each evening. Scout is a near-perfect dog.  She is smart, attentive and willing.  MIL and I are central to both my dogs’ lives—their routine revolves around us, and we appreciate that. Scout is hardy.  She has only been to the vet for well-checks her entire life.  We had a Sheltie, “Gus,” at the time we got her and had planned to have puppies, but she never conceived.  She has lived all her years(save the first eight weeks!) here with me in the country.  She is an outside dog in the day (unless she cons MIL into letting her in, which happens frequently) and spends her nights in with me (occasionally staying the night with MIL). She is a peaceful soul who occasionally goes out on the back porch to visit Kitty Sasha with me—unlike Chili, who gets a pr...

I just really have to let you in on the kind of heart V has.  Last October we had a wonderful gathering in honor of her grandson’s first birthday.  The party was held at a park under a pavilion near a river and surrounded by woods.  We had a wonderful, beautiful day. As we ate, we noticed two young cats furtively watching us from the edge of the woods, occasionally inching closer and then disappearing back into the forest line.  (These pictures are not the cats of whom I speak, but I thought since I am on a cat theme, I’d use them anyway…) V began to take food out toward them and before we left, we saw them eat. But those cats, clearly abandoned to their own devices, weighed on V’s heart.  Since that day, most days she drives miles out of her way to feed these cats, usually after a hard day’s work.  She goes out on weekends, too.  Cats have to eat then, too. She worried about them when we were out of town. As word has gotten out, five cats ...

  When we think of holidays, we think of bustle, I know.  In my own life this is largely because I just haven’t gotten things done ahead of time, like I always plan.  But Christmas holiday preparations have their quiet serenity, too.  This morning is one of those times. The bustle this week was at my work.  This morning, as I wrap gifts, son is snoozing on the couch, after having coffee and conversation with his Mom.  The hard rain I awoke to has softened to a drizzle with occasional patter, and inside my home is warm, snug and comfy, although it is not cold enough here for a fire in the fireplace.  I am, I know, drinking too much coffee this morning, but it is so good as I linger in pajamas and as I Scotch tape beautiful paper around these gifts. As I wrapped, I realized that for years my gift list grew and grew with each year.  My sister and my youngest sister-in-law were prolific in their progeny (each with 4!) as compared to the other sib...

Appearances deceive sometimes.  Our minds can fill in what we want to see but isn’t there; our assumptions can lead us astray. Sometimes this is merely interesting.  Sometimes it can lead to peril. I was in an airport awaiting a flight to Florida some time ago.  Walking ahead of me was a woman in a brown leather jacket with a long, beautiful ponytail swishing attractively in high contrast to the dark leather.  I just could not help noticing and admiring these beautiful locks.  Imagine my surprise when she turned to expose an equally-impressive beard, a grizzled, worn face that I would never have put with that ponytail!  This was, in fact, a man! It happened again, to a lesser degree, on the same trip.   I was deplaning in Houston to make my connection, standing in the aisle.  I was behind a young African American woman.  I “knew” this because she had attractive braids streaming down her back, a cute figure dressed in jeans, and a ...

I’m not one to gripe about daylight savings time, but when I got home tonight at 6:30, it was pitch black outside.  I live in the woods, so the darkness is deep (I keep meaning to get a night light installed).  Tonight it seemed especially so. It’s not just the blackness, it’s that it feels late, too.  I was amazed that it was only 6:30, and not two or two-and-a-half hours later.  I remember when I used to show horses and wanted to inhibit the growth of their winter coats to keep them show-sleek.  We’d keep lights on in the stable longer at night  in the winter (not all night, but longer) to “fool” their bodies into not growing long hair.   I think the presence or absence of light is interpreted by our bodies as cues.  Well, this early nighttime seems a cue to mine to hit the h ay early! But, not to worry.  I got home to a wonderful meatloaf by MIL!  She knows  it is my favorite, and I never make it.  For some re...

I just had to preempt my post from earlier today with this YouTube clip sent by a friend.  I loved it—wish I had been there: My web browsing indicates this was at Welland Seaway Mall, Welland, Canada. It got me in the real Christmas Spirit!  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  C

I just finished a book recommended to me by my son called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.  Son gave it to me for two reasons: 1) He liked it; and 2) He knows I like the challenge of examining my own position on things and examining my beliefs.  I am just wondering:  Am I unusual in this preference?  Or are most of you out there like this? I ask because I have friends who distinctly do not like—even avoid—having their cherished beliefs challenged.  I actually relish it.  And I think it sometimes makes me look like a troublemaker. You need to know this about me: Just because I voice a proposition does not necessarily mean I subscribe to it.  If you ask me, I’ll tell you whether I am mulling over something that I’m just exploring or if I’m laying something on the table that I believe is a truth (getting rarer all the time, I’ll say, having learned in my old age that there are far fewer absolutes than I once thought). I just forget to distinguish...

I awoke with a start this morning before 4 a.m.  It is not unusual for me to be awake at this hour, but to be so fully awake and with such purpose right off  is not my norm.  What has got me going is the holiday bustle.  Belatedly. I’ve mentioned earlier that MIL came up with the bright idea of going out to eat.  It seemed, at first, an affront to long-standing family tradition, but as I thought it through, I came over to the other side.  We’ve found a lavish Thanksgiving buffet to attend and have duly made our reservations.  My family will gather at the restaurant this year, and each one of them seems excited by the change. Because I am not cooking for the meal, I have not purchased one, single extra item from the store.  Son is away at the beach for a week, so it’s only me here.  My mother is coming tonight.  So I knew I had to get a few things in for while she is here. And then it happened: the slide back toward busyness. ...

  I said before: For me, once Halloween passes, it seems like time hurdles toward Christmas.  MIL made a motion that we go out for Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s what we’re doing.  I had mixed emotions about it, being afraid that I would miss being totally exhausted by the time the meal is here and spending huge amounts of $$$$ on groceries and then having to clean up to boot.  I’ve decided I can get over that…I’ll miss the leftovers, but I surely don’t need them hanging around here.  And, let’s be real; my Thanksgiving dinners never looked like Norman Rockwell’s depiction, anyway. I will miss cooking at Thanksgiving, as I love to cook and no longer have any reason to…being single and all.  I have quashed that regret, however, mollifying myself with thoughts of cooking my you-know-what off for Christmas.  I have spent the morning sipping coffee and wrapping Christmas presents, and there is where the “smugness” of the title comes in.  I am...

My blog friend, “Dee from Tennessee” mentioned Mary Travers on her  facebook wall the other day.  This brought memories flooding over my soul, because Peter, Paul and Mary were a huge part of my early-teen-through-adulthood years.  My husband, too, loved this trio’s music dearly.  But there is one, particular, Mary Travers story that stands out in my mind. Years ago (maybe 16, 17 or so) my husband and I had to make a business trip to Dallas.  At the time there was a restaurant called “Star Canyon” down there that was all the buzz in our hometown because a local businessman was involved in it.  It was beyond our usual eating-out budget, but we were determined to go.  My husband wrangled us a reservation (and it took some wrangling, but that’s another story)… We showed at Star Canyon in our finest duds just ahead of our reservation time only to find that there was going to be ( sigh ) a wait.  Nothing to do but sit at the bar, situated so that w...

It’s Saturday, and I am so glad!!  Of course, here I am at 4 a.m. typing this post, so sleeping in has escaped me, but still I have the weekend ahead with no set responsibility!  I may snuggle back down in the bed for “second sleep” before it’s all over. Except I need to be doing house cleaning…. But that, too, is a luxury.  MIL has arranged for (and insisted I use) a housekeeper every other week.  I think she’s tired of the dust bunnies in my corners and all.  So, housekeeper comes this Wednesday.  What this means, of course, is that I ha ve to clean  my house!  If I don’t, she’ll turn on her heels and flee at first glance. I’ll be picking my mother up this afternoon to spend the rest of the weekend out here.  She’ll clean, too—nothing like extra hands!  Then she, MIL and I will go out on the town—Saturday night, you know! And, mundane post that this is, let me talk again about the weather:  It is glorious!  Instead o...

I guess it’s all in how you look at things…I woke up this morning hearing the rhythm of rain outside.  I knew it was coming.  I conned MIL into going out for spaghetti last night (enough left for lunch!), and it was beginning to drizzle as we made our way home. This morning it isn’t the heavy storm type of rain, just a notch up from a drizzle; just enough for me to hear it.  It made me want to snuggle down in the bed, although I feel rested. But, here I am at my early-morning computer session, listening to the pattering outside.  My on-line thermometer tells me that it is 50 degrees F outside, so it isn’t cold.  But the rain makes it feel cold…and the rain sound makes it feel like cold weather is coming.  It’s almost like it sounds different from sound of summertime rain.  This must be early-morning crazy, right? Anyway, I’ve been sipping hot coffee, got my winter fuzzy houseshoes on, and my big, warm robe.  The dogs are contentedly snoozing r...

I loved the discussion in my last post concerning the judge and his former clerk .   Thank you all for stimulating my brain, and making me examine issues. While we had lively comments on both sides of whether this judge can (and should be allowed to) separate his personal failings from his performance on the bench, this readership went pretty solidly in the “no” category.  Here are the results: IS HE FIT FOR THE BENCH? Yes. 2% No.  89% Other 5% WOULD YOU WORRY THAT THESE PERSONAL FAILINGS WOULD INFLUENCE HIS DECISIONS IN DIVORCE CASES? No.  6% Yes  83% Other  9% Some of you feel that this love/sex thing is a “gray area” in the realm of professional misconduct and ethics.  Others see it as black-and-white.  Now, of course, you must know that this only spurred my overac tive mind  to more thinking (my favorite past time which probably explains my tendency toward the porcine).  And these are the ...

Here’s the scenario: He’s a fifty-something married judge looking for a new law clerk.  She’s a bright, beautiful 24-year-old graduating lawyer.  She comes to work for him.  He has a policy of a one-year-only term for law clerks.  He breaks policy for her, ostensibly because she is so very competent in her job…She stays on two years.  Only one to do it… She marries and begins her family. Flash forward five years to right now.  He’s in his late 50’s and has his eye on the state Supreme Court, the highest judicial office in the state.  She has been in private practice for three years with a big firm in town.  She has two children u nder four years of age with a handsome man her own age. She works on the Judge’s campaign. You’re already onto this story, I know.  It burst into our papers over the weekend: She and the Judge have been having an affair.  It has broken up her household.  Her husband has actually named the judge ...

There was nothing on the slate, particularly, today.  I knew I had to work a trip into the office sometime this weekend, and there is always plenty of work to do around here on the weekend, but no schedule. So, my phone rang at 8:30 this morning as I was still sipping coffee in my pajamas.  It was V.  She had been on the phone with M, one of our close friends, and was now calling to invite me out with them.  So, see, it is either M’s or V’s fault (I suspect V). “ Can you meet M  and me for breakfast at 9:30?” I was game…I wouldn’t even shower.  I had just enough time.  “ Sure!  Where do we meet up?” You won’t believe what she said…I could hardly believe it when I heard it: “ Krispy Kreme .” What!!  This after I just wrote a post on the dangers of fast food?  Isn’t Krispy Kreme fast food danger squared???  V explained:  “ Well, it’s cheap, and I’m craving a maple iced doughnut.” That was enough justification f...