Stuff I will do someday
1. Learn Spanish
2. Learn Italian
3. Learn to play guitar
4. Learn to fly a prop plane (so I can crop dust)
5. Write for a magazine or ezine and actually get paid
6. Write and publish a book
7. Learn to develop photographs (old school with the chemicals)
8. Drive a race car at Daytona (not during a race, silly)
9. Own my own business
10. Be debt free
11. Design, build, launch and maintain a website from the code up
12. Learn to sail
13. Decorate the walls of my home with pictures I’ve taken
14. Ride a horse in a barrel race
15. Travel to every state in the union
16. Travel to Greece, Italy, England, Brazil
17. Retire at 55
18. Own a beach house
19. Learn to ski moguls without killing my knees
20. Host an anniversary party for my parents
21.
I'm sure this list will grow - this was just off the top of my head.
What do you want to do someday?
Today's Shuffle:
"The Moment I Said It" by Imogen Heap
"Technologicque Park" by Orbital
"It Would Be You" by Gary Allan
"Hey Porter" by Johnny Cash
"Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"100 Years" by Five For Fighting
Labels: lists
Fireworks
Discovered a new setting on the camera.
Today's Shuffle:
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Labels: cool
Love - and then some
Now if
this site isn't a time-suck, I don't know what is. Good for a laugh, tho.
more
graph humor and song chart memesSorry - I can't get the image to resize and render properly in Firefox (I don't even acknowledge the existence of IE anymore, so I have no clue what this looks like using other browsers.) I'm long overdue for a blog redesign anyway. Just another reason to block some time.
Enjoy your long holiday weekend (if you are in the states). (If not, enjoy your Friday and then your weekend.)
Today's Shuffle:
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Labels: fun
Cold feet
I mentioned yesterday that despite my newly-acquired, hard-earned authority status, I have no say in the thermostat setting at the office or at my home.
Sucks to be me.
But this explains to the casual passer-by of my office door the reason I’m wearing a college sweatshirt over the top of my dress shirt and slacks and my feet are stuffed like frozen sausages into casings of tube socks I found in the laundry basket this morning. (I think the socks may belong to one of Banana’s boyfriends. Sorry. Yeah – not really, because why the fuck am I washing socks that belong to a non-family member? I AXE YOU!?!)
Still sucks to be me. Now with extra laundry! And added bleach!
Just so you get the full visual, I do a complete costume change in the entry way of the office building. The sweatshirt comes off; the tube socks, too. I rearrange my hair and make sure my shirt is tucked into my pants appropriately and then slip on my sandals before I step outside. Reverse the process at the front door of my home.
I spend a lot of time on the road. I spend a lot of time on the screen porch at home.
Alone, usually. Yes. But with warm feet.
Today’s Shuffle:
“You Will Be My Ain True Love” by Alison Krauss (featuring Sting)
“Fightin’ Words” by Trace Adkins
“Side of a Bullet” by Nickelback
“Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes
“If You Had Called Yesterday” by Julie Roberts
“Where Corn Don’t Grow” by Travis Tritt
“We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This” by George Strait
Labels: stupid me
Stuff
Lots of stuff…not in any kind of order or rank:
~~My brother and his family are doing well in their New Mountain Home (that is what my nephews call it…the New Mountain Home. I’m wondering when they will come to understand that they now live there. As in permanent. Sad day.)
~~Grandma’s funeral. Let the dispersal of “stuff” begin in earnest. So far I’ve acquired an ironing board that can be used on a table top (Handy! Now if only I, you know, ironed stuff!) and a crochet wrap (that I made for her. The ultimate in re-gifting is the gift that is given back to the giver after the death of the receiver. Got that? Oy.).
~~Muffin’s birthday party (she turned 9 on Sunday). My house is now clean…or at least it was when I left the house on Monday morning.
~~I’ve returned to Road Warrior status with plans for more trips including one to Oklahoma and possibly Kansas. Now that I’m the boss lady, I can do that, I guess.
~~Email has overtaken my life, but since I live in a perpetual State of Denial, I don’t acknowledge the near 500 messages that are All Urgent and All Require My Immediate Attention. Suck it, Outlook. And my handy-dandy smart phone? Not so smart with the email. I’ll never get the settings right.
~~New purchases this summer include a 1976 Jeep and a 1995 fifth-wheel camper. The Boy’s cultivation of the money tree is doing well, I’m assuming.
~~I’ve only wanted to murder my 16-year-old five times a day instead of the usual 10 – so there is that.
~~Banana’s summer play was last week and she was marvelous. (Probably the reason for the reduction of murderous thoughts, but whatever.)
~~None of my summer clothes fit. I’m currently trying to figure out a suspender system for the khaki Capri pants (that have no belt loops) which I found at the back of my closet this morning.
~~Summer has finally arrived in the Northland which means the thermostat inside my office (policed by the office manager) and inside my home (policed by The Boy) is set to somewhere around zero degrees Fahrenheit. If I can find wifi in the park, I’m packing a cooler and heading off-site. I shouldn’t be able to see my breath in July. God.
~~I still suck as a friend. Several email messages in my G-mail account are waiting for reply. I’m not ignoring you. Really. I’m just stretched to my limit right now and that totally sucks as an excuse, but it is true.
Today’s Shuffle:
“Back Door Friend” by Magic Sam
“You’re All I Have” by Snow Patrol
“You Make Me Want To” by Luke Bryan
“Trailerhood” by Josh Turner
“Some Kind of Wonderful” by Joss Stone
“Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp
“I Can Sleep When I’m Dead” by Jason Michael Carroll
“004” by Fermin IV
Labels: lists, random
The Outlaw Torn
My dear friend has jumped into Bloglandia. He is new and just getting everything figured out, but I'm looking forward to reading more.
The Outlaw TornToday's Shuffle:
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Labels: elsewhere, friends
Quiet passion
In a few minutes, I’ll pack up my office, run up to the high school to pick up the oldest daughter from summer class, and drive 30 miles east to attend the funeral of The Boy’s grandmother. She was 90 years old in January, fiercely independent and when (six days before she died) she was forced to move into a nursing home, she finally released her hold and peacefully died in her sleep.
Grandma was a woman of quiet passions.
I never heard her raise her voice. I never heard of her getting upset or angry. She never had a cross word or bad thing to say about anyone. Ever. And I know that is difficult to believe, but it is true.
I think her first passion was for the land. She was born on a farm, not far from where she made her home with her husband where they worked the land and made a life together for more than 60 years. Knowing her husband depended on her to keep cranking out meals for the farm hands, despite no money, despite drought and flood, she found ways to support him and their farming life. She gardened. She canned vegetables. She picked chokecherries and wild plums for syrups and jellies. She had flower beds that rivaled any professional greenhouse.
Something I thought was completely batty was completely commonplace for her as a farm wife. When, during harvest, the men were in the fields furthest from the farm house, Grandma would pack up dinner (the noon meal was the biggest meal of the day) including real plates, silverware, etc. and haul it to where the men were working. She’d cart out tables and chairs, set the table with a cloth table cloth and serve dinner as if she were standing in her own kitchen. Completely batty, I think, but completely commonplace on the farm.
Since I married into this family, I really only have an outside-in viewpoint, but I believe the woman earned her wings and halo as the long-suffering wife of an angry man. But she would do anything for her husband, defended him to a fault, and never complained. Never. Again, difficult to believe, but Grandma was a fiercely loyal woman and carried her passion for her marriage close to her heart long after Grandpa died.
No one talks about this, but from everything I’ve been able to gather, I don’t believe Grandpa wanted children. Grandma did. And since they raised two sons, you know who won that argument. Her boys were another passion of hers. She raised them to value the same things she valued: the land and family. As her family grew, as her sons grew up, married, had grand children for her to fuss over and care for, her passion for her family grew.
My best memory of her was one of the first Christmas Eve’s I spent with her and her extended family. She sat in a comfortable chair at the far end of the room so she could see everyone and watch as everyone opened their gifts. That was all she wanted – to see everyone. There was a light in her eyes that glittered of the inexpressible passion she held for her family, her legacy.
Grandma had other passions, too: reading, crochet, cooking – and later in life, casino trips. And I’ve never seen anyone attack a plate of lutefisk, mashed potatoes and melted butter like Grandma.
At her 90th birthday party, I remember wondering how much longer she would be with us. She seemed so at peace with her life, quietly sitting in her chair, simply watching her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren celebrate her birthday. She wasn’t well, toward the end, and I know it is mostly for the survivor’s benefit that we say and think things like this, but I trust she is in a better place. I trust she is surrounded by her passions; her husband, the love of her family. And that there are meals for her to cook, gardens for her to tend, blankets for her to crochet, and plates of lutefisk for her to eat where ever she is now.
Today’s Shuffle:
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Labels: family, sad
Timing
Note to self: probably not a good idea to “over share” on the blog and then leave on a work-related trip for two days.
Beyond that, we got a call offering us money for our pontoon. I guess people take a long time to make decisions as it has not been advertised for sale since last fall. I took their number, looked up the loan, discovered it is almost paid off and called them back to turn the offer down. Why? Once the pontoon is paid for, it is extremely cheap to insure, costs us very little to operate, and is considered great summer entertainment. We’re keeping it. That and my parents have agreed to let us put a boat lift on their empty lake lot so it can be kept there and we won’t have to haul it around every time we want to use it.
That was easy.
Now if I could just find some nice weather. This weekend is looking good. Have a good one.
Today’s Shuffle:
“Sin Wagon” by Dixie Chicks
“South Carolina Low Country” by Josh Turner
“Red Rabbits” by The Shins
“It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Me” by Blake Shelton
“Seven Years” by Norah Jones
“Trailerhood” by Josh Turner
“Delia’s Gone” by Johnny Cash
Labels: random
