Stick Horse Cowgirls

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 ...