Category Archives: 2017

Monday is for Musing…

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in no particular order…

My old Nikon is so old…and I’ve banged it around, left the lens caps off, and did I mention it is old?  I think its photos are about 3 pixels.  I’ve priced a new one and I’m just too cheap to buy it…  The disadvantage is that it is such a big camera and dragging it around my neck gets tiresome.  The advantage is that it has a viewfinder and I’m just bad at taking pictures using that screen-thing ya’ll are so accustomed to.

So it came to be that I needed a phone upgrade and got a Galaxy s7 edge the other day.  This baby takes lovely pictures, like going from analog to HD…but I’m struggling to get my composition right whilst using that dang screen to frame it.  I’ve been walking around the house practicing…

…and will hopefully be handy with it when we are on…

…our upcoming trip…

We’ve been cleaning up the house and gardens in preparation for our upcoming trip to Disney World.  Yes, we are Disney Freaks and try to visit every 2 years.   This year is very different, though, since Melissa and her brood can’t be with us.    Michael and I have been intently working on the trip since last Christmas.  Casey and I will be staying at the Fort Wilderness Campground and the Jrs were upgraded from Port Orleans to Animal Kingdom Lodge!  We have dining reservations at the Royal Table (and all the other good character dinners) and fast-passes for all the most popular rides.  Because we’ve usually had a group of 10 and adjoining rooms, because we’ve usually stayed 4 days and this time we’re staying 6, I’m sort of discombobulated by the amount of time Casey and I will be on our own…  The International Food and Wine Festival is going on at Epcot…very timely…

(The New Yorkers will be meeting us at WDW next July…we get to go every year for a while!)

…remember when facebook was fun..?

It’s been a while.  Long ago I began to “hide” people, putting them on my acquaintance list whenever they posted a hateful anti-Obama meme or spewed some other racist shit.  I felt that was “nicer” than un-friending them, and soon half of my fb-friends were hidden.

The other day, I put Everybody back on the Friend List and started to receive their little posts in my newsfeed…  No surprise that all of those “friends” are still posting anti-Obama and Hillary memes, anti-LGBT and immigrants posts, and are Angry that Most of us are opposed to their guy, acting like they were so respectful when they were opposed to Pres 44.  Can anybody say “Tea Party”?  Remember, that was about “taxes”, not that black guy who was president…

I have put most of them back on the acquaintance list…

..the self-acceptance summit…

My biggest personal problem, the one that I have struggled with Forever, it seems, is my self-hate.  I talk to myself like I would never speak to another person.  I call names, I demean, I beat myself up for every mistake I make.  My inner Judge has always been a bitch, stemming from blahblah childhood blahblah poor parenting, blahblah mean people blahblahblah…  I’ve prayed, I’ve meditated, I’ve tried the medicine…my struggle continues.  Ridding myself of people who reinforce such attitude has helped, and last week I attended a seminar on Self-Compassion that was Word when I needed it.

It was nice to “meet” some of my favorite authors–Elizabeth Gilbert, Danielle LaPorte, Kristin Neff, and Anne Lamott, to name a few.  What I was advised was to be my own friend and to respond to my Self with compassion, understanding, and forgiveness.  Sounds easy, eh?  Well, I’m trying.

What struck me most about these folks was their lack of perfection, their complete and honest admission that they are just as effed up inside as I am.  People who write best-sellers are still just messed up people like me….except they actually wrote best-sellers…

enough of musing…let’s have some music…

Peace

See ya next time, Summer..!

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We had what will most likely be our last day in the pool yesterday.  It was a bright, humid 89 degrees, so we oiled up one more time and floated for a while, savoring the sunshine.  It was windy, though, and last night a storm blew in and brought in autumnal temperatures, predicted to last for the next week or so.

It has been another great summertime, full of kids and fresh vegetables.  The chiggers outdid themselves this year–I picked up more last week!   I did the usual summer-rant, cursing the 100degreeshumidity70percent that is July, but that is what pools are for.   So many summertime songs passed through—from summer in the city to summer girls, summer of ’69 to summertime blues; and don’t ever forget Popsicle of Love (it’s summertime, babe)…

Of course, in my day, the day after Labor Day seriously, actually, was the end of summer as we marched back to school, wearing our new back-to-school clothes.  So it is that I have been going through all my clothes, trying to find something that I can wear on our upcoming Disney World trip.  I have trimmed down, as mentioned, and I’m so thrilled to be back in my old clothes again, but they are Obviously Old and Really Outdated.  My shoe situation is sad, too, as my closet is full of worn-out, but comfortable!, shoes.  I feel a shopping spree coming on…

We celebrated our son’s 36th birthday on Sunday at Bru Burger.  (isn’t my baby darling?  that’s his new smile)

There’s plenty of September chores for the garden, but I’m still going through stuff in the house.  One more big haul to charity will wrap up that project for the year and I’ll have some room to breathe…and buy new stuff…shiny things!

Peace

 

P.S.

 

Rummage

By Posted in 2017, Summer at Sonnystone Tagged , 1 Comment

before
after
before
after

It was a great success…and fun, too!  The after pictures look like we didn’t sell much, but we did.  The leftovers get spread out by the end of the day…  My attic is soo much lighter now…

Liv and Samantha made a nice bit of cash with their lemonade stand.  They were fascinated by pulling off the shells of the buckeyes in the yard (we have 2 buckeye trees) and Casey told them they were lucky, so Livvy was inspired to put a price on them!  Quite the entrepreneur…

I felt a little sad about selling my albums, but I own all/most of them on CD and I am just too lazy to get up and change a record all the time.  About 3/4 of them were sold, but it’s a little interesting to see what people Didn’t buy…all of my Dan Fogelberg and Kenny Loggins albums are still here, as well as Steve Winwood and Derek and the Dominoes, and some Allman Bros…and Pablo Cruise…

I kept Grateful Dead Europe 72…just because…

Peace

99% solar eclipse

By Posted in 2017 Tagged , 2 Comments

I wasn’t too awfully taken in with the Solar Eclipse phenom, but since we’re located so close to the action (81 miles to Hopkinsville, KY and 99 miles to Carbondale, IL) it has been the talk of the town.  People flocked to the areas of totality, and it looked to me like they had an Awesome experience.  Eville was to be 99% and I figured that would be good enough.  My son and his co-workers at the Hwy Department worked special hours today, driving to the roads to corral the hordes of folks expected to line the shoulders to see the eclipse.  They were warned that animals would be freaking out in the daytime-darkness and that bats would come out.

Well, what a surprise…  I went down to get my nails done and Kim, my manicurist, had some solar glasses.  I was the only customer and we all went outside and took turns using the glasses.

It was way cool…but…it did not get dark.  It was a little like having sunglasses on, and it felt a bit eerie, but the shadows remained strong.  I’m like…what?   There was just a sliver, a small rim of the sun still showing, but 1% was enough to cast a strong shadow.  Amazing.  That Sun is one helluva star… (No, the animals were cool with the event, and no crowds were lining the sides of the highway.)

I’ve been pulled away to help my cousin with his elderly dad and I’ve made a half-dozen trips to Grayville and back, all of which started After we had already made a mess pulling stuff out of the attic for the rummage sale.  In addition, we’re getting Olivia to and from school and watching Samantha on T-W-and part of Th.  The sale is this Saturday and the weather is supposed to be good.

I have to admit, kids, that the constant barrage of shit from Washington is making me sick and tired.  I try to ignore it, but I just can’t!  Just when things seem to calm down, another catastrophe occurs.  I’m trying to stay positive, but It’s Really Bumming me out…  I’m not writing much because I can’t act like I’m not moved and upset, but I don’t think I write very well about it.  I wish I could.

Anyway, I’ll see you at the rummage sale this week-end…I’m selling my old albums and a record player (that works)…you know you need you some vintage vinyl…

Peace

 

Yikes! The Trees!

By Posted in 2017, Summer at Sonnystone, updates Tagged , 1 Comment

Helllp!  I meant to get out of here and run chores all day while the tree-guys did their thing.  Up early, I got lazy…

They showed up in a gaggle and are out there putting all kinds of raucous motors to work.  I hate this.  But I’m awfully glad to get the dang thing down.  It has fallen a few feet every day, accompanied by the sinister snap, crack, and popp…  We were relaxed as cats out in the pool yesterday, when the swoosh and thwack of another fall sent us scurrying inside.  A bit of the branches are already on the wires, and we could just imagine ourselves fried to obliteration on our rafts and Michael would finally find us in a few days and be traumatized for life…or at least that’s what I imagined.

Now I’m hemmed in by various large trailers and forced to endure the sensory overstimulation that triggers my anxiety…

Deep Breaths…Centered..Om

Soon, though, just before the storms hit this evening, I’ll have one less worry and a lot less cash.

I hope this puts us back to “normal”, but I have to confess that I started re-arranging and cleaning as soon as I got home from NYC, so the house is in temporary disarray.   Yes, it’s another mental illness of mine…  This time, I’m really going to go through and throw things out.  Seriously.  All of the glassware!  Really, am I going to have a cocktail party for 40 and serve brandy in those snifters?  Am I seriously afraid that if my mother returns she’s going to want her stuff back?  Will Grandmother Mayne be checking to see if I still have her lamps?  It takes a lot of gumption for me to part with so-called heirlooms, as I consider myself a “Keeper of the Archives”.  Still, I have way too many broken-down chairs and chipped nick-nacks and I am determined to toss the excess junk.

Dreading it, but eventually this will culminate in a rummage sale.  I’ll let you in for a presale when we’re ready, probably a couple of weeks.  You need some new chairs…  and brandy is hip…

Peace

 

Epilogue

By Posted in 2017, Summer at Sonnystone Tagged , , , 1 Comment

Melissa came to visit her kids, arriving 7/17 and spending a leisurely week at Sonnystone before we (Mel, Me, O and the Ees)  took off for a couple of Feises in St. Louis the week-end of 7/22-23.    It was a great Road Trip!  In addition to enjoying the Feis, we went to the Arch, ate at Seamus McDaniel’s, and swam in the pool.  Melissa flew back to NYC from STL and the kids came back with me for one more week…***

We’re flying out of Indy today at 6pm, arriving LGA at 8pm…  It’s been a Great Visit…

I’m flying home Thursday…looking forward to writing more, though the quiet will be sad at first.  I’ll adjust…

Peace

 

***Shh…  The girls don’t know that the Jose’ fam has gotten a 3-bedroom apt. and Melissa and Eric have spent this “extra” week getting moved.  It all came up shortly into the visit, hence the extra time here.  They’ve done a good job of cover-up and the girls are going to be truly Surprised.  I’m so excited to see the new place!