Category Archives: 2019

Weekly Update

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It’s been a busy week here at the Acres.  Casey has taken on a painting project and I’m tripping over him as I meander through the house.  He’s painting all of the trim, the same color but semi-gloss instead of satin, showcasing the filth just before he covers it.

The Camp Sonnystone Height Chart will Never be covered…

As for me, I’m walking on air, so excited about my new winter projects…

I came this close to buying a new Nikon.  Before I hit the checkout button, I got out my old D60 and made sure that it was still working like crap.  It was, but I felt such a nostalgia for the old girl.  We had so many adventures together, and I have neglected her for years? now.  Feeling guilty, I got out the q-tips and cleaned, pulling out veritable furballs.  I reset it, bought it a new battery and lens covers and it’s working like a charm now, though that didn’t add the pixels that make the phone camera pictures look so lush.  What it’s got going for it is its superiority at long shots, especially birds…

So it was, that I took on a Photo Project:  a picture a day using a list of prompts…  I will use whichever camera works best for the subject, just get back into the picture-taking groove…   You can follow me over at Photo Synthesis — clever, eh? — and I may occasionally publicize that blog, as well.

Right after I cleaned up the camera and started the blog, I Finally bought into Ancestry dot com and damn!  I’m glad I waited until I had Time on my hands, because I am now Obsessed with it!  I am so excited to share what I have learned already, but let’s just say that you should probably be calling me Lady Jo…no curtsying, but all men should bow…oh, wait, that’s the way it’s always been.

That project will be yet Another Blog,  All My Grandparents, and I will keep you informed regarding its launch.  Currently I am organizing the individual trees and double-checking the info.  I got too many branches going at one time and it’s become a little confusing.

I love it, though I’m just sitting here growing my ass in front of this computer screen and I need to get up and Move Around…  I really wish Casey hadn’t bought me that bath scale.  If you put it on a certain spot inside my closet it will shave 10 lbs off the number it shows when it’s sitting on the bathroom floor…  Where would you keep it?  I’m thinking he should just hide it from me…

 

Peace

 

A Loss of Words

By Posted in 2019, Weekly Wrap-Up, Winter at Sonnystone Tagged , , 1 Comment

The unthinkable happened, the thing that I even stopped fearing could happen —  the draft of my Grandmother book is gone…  I know, you think because nothing dies in the internet that it is out there somewhere, but it never left this computer, and in particular WordPress, and it is not in either of those places.  I Know that I saved the draft… I KNOW that I did…but I guess I didn’t.  That was about 3200 + words—three thousand two hundred plus — it made me kinda sick when I made the discovery.  I guess I have to start over, but I really liked what I wrote.  New Beginnings…

While I’m complaining, I must say that last week was very disorienting…with New Years Eve on a Monday, holiday on Tuesday, it felt to me like Wednesday was really Monday and if it hadn’t been for Olivia’s piano lesson on the usual Saturday, I’d still be thinking it’s Friday…  And the weather didn’t help — we didn’t see the sun for a couple of those days, whichever they were.  I never thought I would look forward to a Real Monday so I can pass the dementia quiz.

Today definitely feels like Sunday, though, and the sunshine is beckoning me to bundle up and go outside.  I will get to the words later…

Peace

 

Looking Forward…

By Posted in 2019, New Year Day Special Edition, Winter at Sonnystone Tagged , , Leave a comment

My Goals are set, but they are not Lofty:  Write, Read, Walk, Travel, Blog, Join, and Play.

I am inspired by this poem by Dana Gioia, Buy his book, 99 Poems, here…   He is Poet Laureate of California — Did you know there was a Poet Laureate of California?  Well, there is and he is it.  His Imagery is Esquisite…

New Year’s
by Dana Gioia

Let other mornings honor the miraculous.
Eternity has festivals enough.
This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday.

On other days we misinterpret time,
Pretending that we live the present moment.
But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips

Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.

The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.

“New Year’s” by Dana Gioia.

 

We’re eating Skippin’ Jenny, which is actually leftover Hoppin’ John, and Casey’s painting the bathroom.  I’m going to (finally) sign up for the 2-week trial of My Heritage.  Casey got me a bath scale — !!A Bath Scale!! — for Christmas and I finally stepped on it this morning.  I haven’t weighed in since last June when the old scale broke down.  Today’s number was distressing, but not surprising, underscoring that good old “walk” intention.

As always, I thank you all for reading this drivel.

Here’s to the New Year 2019!

May it be filled to overflowing with

Peace and Love…