Time to Get Busy

I remember what he told me before the day.  Now, here I am passing each one by one by one until the blend into a blur.  My routine changes in hopes to remember that I am not just passing the same day over and over.

I write,  I create, I visit to see the places around me.  Did you know that He never traveled more than two hundred miles in any direction from his birthplace.  Even then, his effect was a shock wave hi and around and around to be for ever.

There is this place I remember.  It is in the fields along a wall of rocks about waist high.  It is at an intersection in the middle of the wheat that there is a lone tree.

I never thought that I would follow so earnestly this tale and invitation.  Half embarassed, it wasn't really me there when he talked of it.  Just overheard from a reading passed on, a message left for someone I dearly hoped would be

me too.

It was a nother time.

An innocent man.

Disappeared.  Exonerated.

I often wonder how that place might look, that place on the water.  And so I fall asleep between the tree and the wall, wondering.  And in the waking back to the walking, I looked forward to rise with the sun.

With hope.

Jimmy Barnes - Mustang Sally

Ok, let's fill those coffee mugs.  Break time.  Dance!

This one is among her favorites.  Ok now, don't hog all the spotlight, lady.  It's my turn to dance.  Woo!  Woosday, let's make it through all of you!

Another Labor Day?

Birth isn't the only time a woman celebrates her role as a mother.  Not to forget, there's also mothers by adoption or though marriage as a step parent.  I put together a website for fun to show on Mother's Day.  I started with the idea in 2006, but only now have I had the opportunity to spend time in making it.  Today, I feel it's ready to share.  Please be sure to take a look.

Catch my latest project, a website tribute to mothers!

There are a few stories, a poem or two, videos and photographs.  I would like to add more, and that may happen in the near future.  Have a wonderful day, mothers!  You are an inspiration.

Shopping Charicatures

Did you ever have one of those silly moments of humor while shopping?  Trying to be domestically responsible at home always brings me to film classics like Mister Mom with Michael Keaton.

I spotted this at Home Depot and did a double take before enjoying a chuckle.  The hardware and handyman types probably don't notice.  I thought "strippers" was out of place. What?

Well, I'll just go looking for my light bulbs and bug spray and go about my business.  Speaking of hardware stores, I had an interesting learning experience with my daughters.

We had a mouse problem in our home.  While shopping for a possible solution, I found myself explaining to a four and six year old what I was looking for, and what it would do.  There were the poisons, the spring traps... not the gruesome details, but thoughtfully, I found myself explaining that these traps would end the life of these rodents.

I know what you're thinking.  These are pests, and they must be abated before they overrun our home.  For my children, there was no difference between a furry puppy, a fiesty pony or a group of nesting mice.

We however, already had a plan.  In the last home we lived in, mice from the fields came into our kitchen through the sliding patio door.  The tiny rodents weren't even camping out, they got trapped when we shut the door behind them.  Chasing them with a broom only sent them scurrying elsewhere into the apartment.

Our choice, was "catch and release".  We would trap them and carry them away somewhere else, perhaps further back to their home in the wild fields.  What we got was slightly more expensive than a disposable, conventional trap.  This one we found online because the concept was not a popular one at the hardware stores on the island.

Mouse Cage Trap

A hardware store is an unusual place for an ecology lesson, but that was where other stories began.  After so many bedtime stories of little talking mice with families and personalities and friends, a piece of the real world pierces through but still meets with a gentle, alternative ending.

One afternoon, I heard the door clink shut and I called them over to check it out.  After watching the mice we trapped for a few minutes, the girls followed me on a short walk from our house on the roadside.  There they helped me find a suitable place to set our "lost" visitors free.

Shopping, with good judgement has lessons for all.

Why You Must Be

Can I Ride?

Sam had to watch while big sister enjoyed a ride on a "big kids" attraction.  The foreboding sign:  "you must be THIS tall to ride," was the the only thing holding her back from joining her sister.

Being more than one foot taller, there are many things that Samantha can't join with her sister.  When there aren't any rules however, like climbing trees or running fast she won't let her height prevent her from doing her best.

Place:  Alameda County Fairgrounds, 2015

Friends in Music

Guides

My friends enjoy music.  I will start recommending them here and the work they put in their Google Plus pages.

Lars is the son of my friend Rob.  I am excited to see the consistent work they both are putting into learning together how to play.  Some stories are developing in response to this selection of music, read what I have to contribute.

Almost Like a Dream
It has been years since Jingwa was allowed to leave the village on his own accord.  The a clearing on the forest floor opened up to view under the dim rays filtering through the canopy overhang.  The skittering of hungry birds tithered around the foot of the heavy trunks.  "Those old ske'erhen were just full of bull", Jing boasted into the unknown ahead.

Dragon Hunt
Wow, this one surprised me, this Lars, son of Rob.  There is a resemblance in the melody to the trudging march through the forests of yore where we searched for Orkus and discovered them among us, allies in the hunt.

Linus and Lucy

This one is a clip from the theme song that is popular from the Charley Brown cartoon.  It just makes me want to stand up and dance.

Boxcar Rumble
We trudged along the tracks by day and when opportunity came we'd ride the rails by boxcar.  It was a noble march our pilgrimage to find the mysterious boy who went missing while hunting for berries in the bushes that sprung up on the tracksides.  Gordie thought he most surely got hit by one train as nobody turns up after missing for weeks as long as he has.


Raindrops
Listen to the rhythm of this falling to bring a cozy inside, indoors feeling to your day.  Open the cloud gates and see what rain befells us.

To Whom it may concern...

Invitations DIY...

(Do It Yourself)

I was out shopping with Mariefe the other day and something brought back a memory of our wedding day.  There was a half full box of blank invitation card stock for a less than ten dollars.  They were half the size of am 8.5 inch x 11 " sheet of paper.   

This was the example print.

Half Sheet sized blank invitation

So the memory we had was sitting on the living room floor in front of an ink jet printer feeding the invitation card stock one at a time.

Attempt #1:  Not knowing how much time we had left before sending out invitiations would be soo late, we tried bringing a word processing document file and the blank cards to a printer shop.

The machine, they said takes only full sized sheets of paper stock.  Ugh.

Attempt #2:  I understood what the printers did say because I couldn't fit them into my inkjet printer without jamming.  Only one track guys get stuck here.

Attempt #3: PRO TIP!  First, on your word processor, write the invitation to center exactly as much vertically and horizontally.

Measure the center of the page indent (i.e., 2" on each side, for example) and mark the corners.  Hold each sheet in place on your guide sheet with "not so sticky" tape.

Print.

Repeat.

Not so high tech, but my only complaint about the product has to do with this kluge (workaround).  Print shops print on full sheets THEN they cut them... otherwise, you can put on some light jazz music and spend an afternoon with your fiancee on the floor... printing and checking off invitations from a list.

An obvious manipulation, but I'll take the free time with her any time.