Stick Horse Cowgirls

Sunny weather induced outdoor activities this weekend at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Still a little too cool for comfort for me - Hello month of May! Will you please hurry up with your warm 75 to 80 degree weather that I prefer? Here is grandaughter and I at the park with our dog, Dudley. Anyway, with my cup of tea, I've been perusing blogs this Sabbath Day--no housework duties! If you haven't checked out "C"'s mother-in-law's blog at immigrant daughter then you are missing a real treat! She tells the compelling story of her upbringing as a Greek immigrant and the love story between she and her husband of 58 years. I'm captivated! Hope you'll visit her! Her story is worth hearing. Fondly, V

I was thinking the other day about how warm it makes us feel to hear from our elders the “lore” of our lives, especially the events of our initial birthday.  There is something about having a “history” known to others and repeated to us that grounds us.  Maybe it assures us of a place in the family tree.  Is it the development of roots?  I don’t know, but I believe that hearing from our elders about our early days is important, and that being deprived of this leaves one somewhat insecure the rest of his or her days. I have always enjoyed telling my son about his birth.  My husband and I had been married eleven years before our son was born.  I was a confirmed career woman, and he was the up-and-coming entrepreneur.  We had made a conscious decision to have no children because our life was just perfect as it was…until we neared husband’s thirtieth birthday.   At that time the urge to procreate hit him with an urgency. My husband lamented ...

OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! "Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! Oh! The Places You'll Go! ...You'll be on your way up! You'll be seeing great sights! You'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights." I couldn't help but think of this wonderful book by the incomparable Dr. Seuss when I began writing this post. I spent many years working with preschool children in the classroom, so Dr. Seuss is a favorite! Being by nature a tentative (to put it mildly) person, I love the "safety" of home with my feet on solid ground! Of course I know that familiarity and routine implies a false notion of "safety". No one ever knows what lies ahead (and that is a blessing), but it's only my deep desire to see new places that compels me to climb aboard an airplane (clammy palms gripping the armrest), or to spend an entire week aboard a ship, feeling the immense power of the sea bel...

If you’ve read our blog much at all, you know how much V and I love our animals.  For two years, our Belgian Malinois, Chili, has been a great companion to me, my son and Scout, our Shetland Sheepdog.  Chili came to us from the West Coast as a pup—special ordered just for me!  He has been a dream dog, maturing into a real macho-type dog, just what a Malinois ought to be We live far out in the country, off the main roads, so I have always let my dogs run free.  It seems to me a dream life for a dog—plenty to sniff at, room to run, and a warm, dry bed next to Mom’s each night, not to mention plenty of food in the dish.  There is little danger of them being hit by a car, and there has never been any problem whatsoever with them running off.  Until recently.  About six weeks ago Chili was not at home when I got home…strange.  The routine was entrenched: Dogs go out the door when I leave for work, they trot down the driveway to MIL’s and spen...

Besides pampering us silly, the cruise offered us a chance to visit new places.  You may remember that I have been on this tour (courtesy of MIL last year!) so I had a bit of confidence in getting around. V and I loved the idea of traipsing around, looking at new stuff, not bothering about how we looked really (those folks will never see us again, anyway) and just doing girlfriend stuff.  Our first stop was Grand Turk Isle/Caicos.  Grand Turk is just a little spit of an island.  From the top of the ship you can literally see across it to the other side.  V and I decided right real quick we would not want to live there, beautiful though it is. The beach on Grand Turk was pristine: And there was this little shopping area of maybe thirty shops just for us cruisers!   Okay, there were a few purchases made, but the shopping here kind of left us cold…staged, a bit.  We were both more into local arts, crafts, etc., which were not really to be fou...

Okay, now for pix.  Of course, I must say that I am reminding myself of the folks years ago who would drag people into their living room and show slides of their vacation!  ( zzzzzzzz ).  Remember “slide projectors?”  The difference is that you guys can leave—any time! V and flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and spent all day Friday driving around Miami.  We had a blast…sightseeing the beaches, the mansions, and the amazing throng of people!  We had a great dinner at a sidewalk cafe in Coconut Grove.  The weather was glorious !  V and I decided we fully understand why people retire down in Florida. Our hotel room looked out over a marina—some of yachts were amazing.  On Saturday we boarded Holland America’s Ms. Eurodam.  Our stateroom was spacious with a private balcony where we would have coffee and toast in the morning or tea in the evening.  Our steward tried to keep the room tidy, and he did a magnificent job against ...

Well, Saturday I left this: and I awoke Monday morning to these views from my front porch: We have had lots of snow (for our area, anyway) and I have missed my first two days back to the office.  My son and I drove up to get MIL on Monday afternoon—we don’t have to leave the driveway, mind you—and slid off the driveway into our ditch!  Our drive is as flat as anything I can imagine, but we were just to the left of center because we could not actually see where the drive was placed, and the slope of the edge was just enough to allow gravity to pull us into the ditch!  Needless to say, we got MIL and snuggled in at home. It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m waiting for daylight before striking out, but I am determined to be at my desk this morning.  I have spent some of my time off organizing pictures, and will be posting in the morning (I hope!) with some pictures of the trip.  Hopefully, V is doing the same! C

We’re baaaaack!   Came in late last night after TWELVE HOURS in airports and planes.  V was actually the better picture-taker, I’m afraid, so some of the pictures will have to wait on those downloads, but let me just say: the trip was awesome.  As you know, V and I have a lifetime of experience in dealing with one another, so she was just the perfect travel friend for me.  Isn’t it amazing how you can never run out of things to talk about even though you already know so much about each other?  We just had ten whole days of hedonism, and will be sharing more specifics about the trip over the coming days. But, I have some good lessons from this trip.  Let me tell you a couple: First:  If you have gorgeous food continuously available, you will basically eat continuously.  V and I consumed amazing quantities of food— great food that we won’t be duplicating at home.  V likes to say that she concentrated on fresh fruit and “did not do too ba...

We're between Grand Turk and Puerto Rico...our laptop seems to be on the blink, so no pictures for now. We're having a great time--no telling how much weight we have gained. Have our walking shoes on and are about to explore Old San Juan. Pictures later on--when we're able to upload! C and V