Gonna wash that cheer right outta my hair!

I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog even though it's posted on my Face Book page, but it's a good writing exercise none the less.

Summer has flown by, and Fall just hasn't seemed right this year...guess I was too busy enjoying all the sun shine and wasn't ready for a change.

Overnight rain and wind came which blew all the leaves down then compacted them into a mouldy, mushroomy, mossy, grass killing carpet. No wonderful walks through crackling, knee deep, yellow, gold, red and orange leaves. No dancing in leafy whirlwinds. No drives through painted landscapes. Just sogginess, fog, slugs and pureed leaves on the wheel wells of my car.

Today in the second week of November we are dealing with snow of all things! Not the exciting pretty kind you can play in, but the 'just enough to make things miserable' kind, crusty, frozen to the roads, heavy and wet. Yesterday was beautiful, but could we please get 2 or 3 consecutive day's just like it? I fear that I'll be raking that matted carpet of leaves come Christmas!

Christmas! Last year I was bursting with Yuletide eagerness and cheer, this year...not so much...yet. I think it all came early or something, I was ready for it in October, but that has fizzled since...I'm hoping the Christmas cheer returns before the Holiday does!

I sit here scratching my head, I, who lives for Autumn and Christmas, who loves storms with wind, rain and snow, am longing for summer and sunshine already.

I've tried to force myself back into the comfy, winter mood I cherish every Fall with fires in the fireplace, hot chocolate with a bit of Rumplemintz and 'The Holiday' DVD, all to no avail. Maybe a holiday boutique will do the trick...

I'll let you know!

Don't get me wrong!!!

A high school teacher once pronounced that "Kelly is the kind of girl that will never get an ulcer". I wondered about that statement at the time...was he insulting me by suggesting that I was an air-head or was he being ironic. Years and a modicum of wisdom suggest to me that it was the first one...and he obviously didn't know the first thing about me.

There is a line in an old movie called "The Boyfriend School" where Shelly Longs character states that she is "just naturally tightly wound" and that pretty much describes me! Unlike her, though, I think I keep it hidden for the most part...most of the time, hence the teachers errant evaluation.

When we go on vacation to the beach, I rarely sleep, at night, by the pool, on the plane, I actually have to be back home for a week before I get any rest. When I go to bed I think for an hour and when I finally get to sleep, I dream and usually remember most of them.

Even when Kent and I are alone at the cabin, where there is nothing but sun and lazy day's, I can't relax because I can "feel" Kent wanting me to pull him skiing or wanting to golf which are both stressful things for me when I just want to try and relax. You're probably thinking, just humor him, do the stressful thing and then relax which would be great advice if he didn't want to do those things everyday, all day, and me "feeling it".

The best vacation I ever had was when I decided to let Kent go to the cabin without me. I spent two day's cleaning and made a big tuna casserole, (Kent hates tuna) enough to last me nearly the entire two weeks worth of dinners. Then I RELAXED! I went to a couple of Shakespeare in the park performances, saw the matinee of 'Lord Of The Rings' SEVEN times, had lunch with friends, went shopping and RELAXED!!! I still had some of my old stressed out habits like getting fully showered, dressed, and makeup straight out of bed, no robe for me...what if somebody came to the door like Publishers Clearing House?! But for the most part I did relax, even skipping church in case someone said something hurtful to ruin my new found state of bliss.

When you are tightly wound, finding compartments is essential. Deadline over in compartment number 4, drama from friends or family number 6 please, diet off-line goes in compartment 3, procrastination guilt over in 10. This enables one to dial up compartments as required instead of a stinky, unhealthy, dumpster dive, free for all of stress.

If I don't respond intelligently to a comment or question, it doesn't mean I don't get it. What it most likely means is that the subject upsets me or, I don't agree and don't want to debate it or, you're wrong and I don't want to embarrass you or, I get the insult and don't want to start a fight about it 'cause that only makes it worse or, I'm playing dumb to get out of an undesirable response, etc, etc, etc!!!

While the teacher was correct in that I've never had an ulcer, I contribute that to the fact that every 'body' handles stress in different ways. People can get TMJ, rashes, migraines, heartburn, back spasms, intestinal maladies, etc. all from stress.

I admit that I have my "air-headed" moments, but I tend to be proud of them for the most part, because they refuse to see insult and malign. They almost always see the good no matter how unintended and have wisdom beyond consciousness.

nee-dle, v, to desire urgently.

Well....the birthday trip has transpired and it was officially a disaster!

Jeff Foxworthy in an unorthodox redneck dictionary had a word that kind of sums up my vacation! Nee-dle, v, to desire urgently. "After I finish this I'm gonna needle little vacation".

An hour and a half into our trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton we detoured into downtown Ellensburg for a bite to eat. Halfway through an intersection moving at 25mph on a green light we collided with a young man (driving his mom's car) when he turned left in front of us.

With only enough time for me to yell "watch out" and for Kent to swerve left slightly we crashed on my side of the car.

I immediately knew that it hurt, but figured it was just seat belt bruising. I was flummoxed as to why my leg hurt until I notice the caved in dash. Still I was walking and talking, only a bit shook up. Most importantly everyone else was perfectly fine.

After getting a ride to the tow yard with our mangled car I requested the tow driver give me a ride to the ER to make sure I was really OK. X-rays showed no problems which was a load off my mind so we decided to proceed on our trip.

After Kent got the only cab in town to drive him the 40 mile haul to Yakima for a rental car (there were none in Ellensburg) he transferred all the contents of our car to the rental, picked me up at the hospital and got my prescription. At 6pm we finally got some lunch, then proceeded on our trip.

We had planned on taking a few day's to get to Grand Teton's where our first reservations were, so I figured that the bruises would be tolerable by then and I could proceed with that part of the vacation as planned. I was looking forward to getting away from the crowds and doing some day hikes, fly fishing in the Firehole river, horse back riding and biking. I really didn't think I would even need the multiple heavy duty pain pills. By that evening though, I was beginning to realize how deep the bruises were.

If you've ever had a bruised or cracked rib you know how painful it is, so imagine bruising the place where all those ribs connect. My sternum was deeply bruised making breathing, talking, moving, even trying to open my bottle of pain pills an agony. My leg was so swollen I had trouble bending it, but it was mostly numb, so not much pain.

For the first week of the trip I sat in the car while Kent took short hikes and took pictures for me to see. I enjoyed most of the parks from the car window. It wasn't until the last few day's that I could walk a few hundred yards or so at a time and getting in and out of bed was a task of a few seconds instead of a few minutes.

To compound my discomfort our reservations were botched at Old Faithful Inn and a nasty excuse for a person lied to and humiliated us to the best of his ability...on my birthday! If you thought for even a second you were in favor of government health care, might I suggest staying in government housing such as a national park lodge. There is no incentive to be anything but passable...if that. No accountability, no empathy or concern, overpriced, bare bones accommodations, no recourse to making amends.

In the places we stayed outside the park, even modest motels, they went out of their way to make sure we had a good experience and sought our return business and/or word of mouth referral, all of which were totally lacking in government management.

We did the entire vacation ( if not exactly how we had planned it) and finally made it home after a 2 hour detour to exchange our rental car for a different one because of some stupid insurance company rule.

I'm still covered in bruises and have to be especially careful of sneezing. My leg is still numb and swollen and I vacillate between thinking "stupid kid" and "we all make mistakes".

All in all Yellowstone is still as "alive" as ever and the Grand Teton's are "ever present" and beautiful. The crowds were not too bad, but international tourists tended to be a pain with no respect for the parks nor fellow park goers.

If you don't mind shorter day's I recommend going in the Fall, having reservations for dinner anywhere in the parks (lots of seniors and asian tours that prebook everything and have you waiting until after 9pm for a table) and staying outside the park!!!

I needle little vacation now!

July

I luuuuv July! Not just the 4th but the entire month, the weather, Kent's birthday, my birthday, vacationing at the cabin, watermelon, cherries, red gingham, fireworks, festivals, hiking, BBQing.....in fact I'm more thankful for Christ's birth in July than I have "time" to be at Christmas.

So let the celebrating begin! A half century birthday and a quarter century anniversary are fast approaching and those are just too momentous to be confined to a couple of day's so I intend to milk them for all their worth, all summer long!

Last year I threw a big party for Kent which he loved, but I'm not much for being the center of attention, so I opted for some local sight seeing instead....just the two of us...Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, here we come! Watch out fish, I intend to catch a couple of you...sorry horses, my diet hasn't got me as trimmed down as I'd hoped to be by this time.

In the mean time, we've been treated to a birthday dinner with our good friends Rose and Dale Patterson at a favorite noshery, Serafina's, where I also received a beautiful golden bracelet from them.

This coming week my BFF Linda and I are celebrating our 'day apart' b-day's by going to see Show Boat at the local theater with shopping, food and presents preceding the show.

Kent and I have already exchanged combined b-day/anniversary gifts so we can each enjoy them all summer, mine involves karats and sparkle and his involves grass and gas!

Long sunny day's, starry nights, music in the parks, farmers markets, garage sales, golf, and enjoying Leelu's enjoyment of Crescent Lake make for fantabulous times and I'm so thankful God has given me Kent to enjoy them all with.

Thanks to Jesus I can enjoy my summers in Freedom and Peace with Hope in my heart, His Love on my head and the knowledge that it's all a vague shadow of the Eternal Celebration that awaits the Faithful at His party!

I'm still here!

I feel as if my eyeballs are square these day's and my poor blog spot is suffering. I've been spending too much time setting up a facebook page and even a twitter too!

I have several drafts started that will eventually be added here, but these posts take a lot more thought and writing skill than the off hand comments on facebook and twitter.

I promise I haven't abandoned this more creative outlet and hope to have something less boring to post soon.

In the mean time we can be friends if you'd like to set up a face book page too. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/ ...if I can do it, so can you!

Twitter is even easier http://www.twitter.com/ to sign up or you can find me at http://twitter.com/BOBBLEDOG

The Easy Bake Oven!

Back in the 60's we didn't have the massive selection of toy's that are available today, but we had the best none the less, even by today's standards, and they have proven themselves by withstanding the test of time.
Creepy Crawlers, pour the goo into the bug shaped molds and stick in the maker-baker then out comes a rubbery colorful bug. You can still buy one today but not the edible goo that pretty much tasted like slightly sweet rubber.
Silly putty, still morph's any comic hysterically.
Old Maid will never get old.
Operation, poor guy will never get off that gurney.
Spirograph, Etch-a-Sketch, Hot Wheels, Barbie, and my personal favorite...the Easy Bake Oven!
My Aunt Lori and I used to spend hours in the attic creating concoctions of candy calamity that only a child would find appetizing. I was flummoxed as to why no one wanted to sample our Sugar Babies-Bazooka Bubble Gum pizza!
It seemed like a miracle that with the heat of a light bulb I could bake cakes, cookies and pies. Time seemed suspended as I gazed through the tiny little window and watched as my culinary masterpieces began to rise or melt.
I guess I must have grown up and moved on to other, more mature persuits, but now as a fully grown adult ...I wish I still had my Easy Bake Oven, because I think it would still amaze me!

More Precious Than Gold!!!

The water was thick with vibrantly colored fish, as I sat on the bottom in deep soft sand, I gazed up and a giant upturned box of crayons came to mind. The way the sun played on the waves was beautiful but my attention was on holding my breath while I watched for the two sharks I knew were searching for me. If only my bathing suit were tan, not white with little pink rosebuds , then I might blend in with the sandy ocean bottom.

Not far away there was a deep inky canyon. I would have to swim over that to get to safety, and I was fairly certain that something more sinister than sharks lurked there. I felt brave enough to go for it, even a bit fool-hardy, but I had a reputation to maintain and some serious thought must occur before action ensued.

A large dark shadow above me interrupted my contemplation and my heart beat an alarm. Not sharks...just an island of seaweed and perhaps my salvation. I slowly stood up swaying in rhythm with the strands of seaweed that had begun to fall around me. I took hold of a strand and cautiously pulled myself up until I became a part of the house sized mass. While breathing the air from the bulbous ends of seaweed, I floated over the chasm, casting a tangled shadow on the ocean floor while moving closer to the little island that was my destination.

I called it Island X because it didn't exist on any map except the one I possessed, and on which was no label other than a little red X. It was rumored that on this island was to be found a rare treasure, rich enough to last a life time.

I had come upon my currant predicament while I was parachuting down to my mysterious island. Mischievous winds had caught me up to play a game of tether ball and since I was the ball it would have been rude to refuse. When they were finished I was quite off my course and like a giant air born jellyfish I floated with the tide of air, at it's mercy to be washed ashore or sent to sea. Descending, I spied the two sharks and they were obviously aware of me too, for they swam to intercept me with impossibly big gaping mouths. Dry land was unreachable now so with a quick swipe of my knife I released the chute and it fell over the sharks, obscuring from them, my dive to the bottom.

Releasing myself from the seaweed I now began to swim for shore with arms spinning faster than a windmill in a hurricane and feet paddling harder than a stern wheeler going upstream. I felt a sharks cold fishy breath on my backside as I ran onto shore and then turned to laugh at their missed opportunity. Surprisingly the sharks began to laugh too! Seeing sharks laugh with all those teeth made me laugh even more, they were so silly looking, sharks were just not made to laugh after all. We all laughed so hard that our sides ached and one of the sharks got the hiccups. We continued to laugh until we all began to cry and our tears raised the ocean high enough that my island began to float away and the sharks, still giggling, agreed to push it home for me.

Oh! and the treasure! It was laying right out in the open and I have it to this day. Can you guess what it is?

As kids my brothers and I would play "under the sea", jumping from bed to bed in our underwear, performing deeds of daring-do in impossible situations until we collapsed in laughter. I remember thinking at the time that I would never forget this especially merry moment and I never have....a treasure more precious than gold!

Google Maestro!

How did we ever get along without Google?

Encyclopedias with outdated info, libraries with business hours, telephone books for our region only, trial and error, time, gas, money......

In the middle of record breaking cold this winter the passenger side heater in my car went kaput! With a few hastily typed words into Google I was soon knee deep into car trouble blogdom. Within a few minutes I learned that I wasn't alone in my frigid Jeep and that the dealer fix was nearly 2k. Not to fear, however, some handy, entrepreneurial, mechanic had devised a cheap fix and told me all about it on the blog. So for 80.00 I have heat again, and although the dual control is now relegated to just the driver at least the passenger has heat again.

The joy of my life at the moment is my i-robot, Roomba! He cleans under the sofas, around table legs, behind things, even under the stove and when he's all done he goes back to his power dock and recharges himself, but last week he developed a limp. He told me I needed to clean his brushes, which I did to no avail, so I took him all apart and there were no discernible issues. As dog hair began to accumulate in the corners I was really feeling his loss and then above my head up popped the little Google light bulb again. Within five minutes I learned that the bearing caps came off and required cleaning (the printed manual failed to mention this). Within another five minutes Roomba was back at work with smooth precision.

My laptop computer was having issues with sound (there wasn't any) so Kent, thinking he could fix it, made it worse and took several hours to do so. Dah dah tah da! Google to the rescue! In three minutes I found a blog of folks with the same problem and geek squad soldiers with the fix. Another ten minutes and I was hearing loud and clear again!

A couple of hot spring day's in a row reminded me that the bedroom ceiling fan had gone on the fritz last Fall. I didn't want to waste money on another dud of a fan again so with the aid of Google I was able to research which brand, motor, and air output was best. Then I found a place with comparisons and ratings for just about every fan in existence and even found the one I wanted wholesale! It did take a few hours to achieve, but I doubt it would have even been possible without the good 'ol web!

Just a few moments ago, bearing a commission from my husband (who stands in awe of my Google abilities) I cracked my knuckles and Googled how to fix the water pump on the boat. It took less than a minute and the information is on its way to his email box!

Next stop is to peruse the wonders of YouTube for a "how to" tutorial on fly fishing in an effort to out-cast Kent on our next vacation!

Inspiration out of defeat!!!

At last! I think I've found my "tools"!

Whenever we travel, we take in the museums, go to art shows, and wander galleries. When I'm there I get all inspired, because I just know I could do a better job of it than at least 80% of the artists out there...including some of the masters! Have you ever taken a close look at a Matisse or Monet'?

Full up of artistic inspiration, my fingers are practically itching to produce work that will amaze the world. But when I get home and set to work, I'm confronted by my life long issue once again. It's not my drawing ability or lack of subject matter, time or inspiration...it's the tools!

After years of struggling with water-color paint, pastels, oil paint, acrylic paint, pen and ink, colored pencils and finally oil pastels I just couldn't get comfortable with any of them no matter how much I practiced or how well works turned out.

Then one day I decided to do an oil pastel portrait of our dog Leelu, I started it on water color paper and even blocked out the colors with water color so there wouldn't be so much white to cover. On bumpy paper this is an issue as the pastels want to stay on top of the bumps making the picture look like a 3rd grade coloring project unless they are blended down into the crevices (smooth surfaces don't have enough tooth to grab the pastels). Then I couldn't get my oil pastels to blend without copious amounts of rubbing with expensive rubbing sticks that tended to get mucked up with the wrong color. In a moment of inattention I picked up the stick which had been used to blend olive green and attempted to blend white and pink with disastrous results.

Nearly ready to throw the whole thing in the trash and with a "nothing to lose" attitude I bought some turpentine on a whim and set to work with a brush in an attempt at reclamation.

WoooHooo! It worked! I could blend, add, take away and rework to my hearts content. I have found my medium! Some people might ask why I don't just use paint to begin with, in fact I've asked myself that question.....aside from issues of mixing the same exact color twice on a pallet and having to open little tubes all the time, the pastels have an inherent soft quality I like, and it's just plain fun blending the colors right there on the canvas. Kent put it best when he observed that rather than putting specific pieces of furniture in a predetermined place in a room, I liked to get a bunch of furniture in there and move it around until it looked right.

I have run into some technical difficulties with colors bleeding through on water color paper and slick spots on canvas, but I'm still in love with the method. Much experimentation is taking place with blending mediums, brushes and canvases, so each work of art will probably have it's set of flaws for a while, but finally I'm at a place where it's hard to walk by the studio without putting at least a lick or two on the current project!

Think like an Alien!

I have spent most of my life worried whether or not I was doing things right. From how to wear my hair to what kind of molding to use with wood floors.
In the year 2000 while in mid-build on our house, I was in an argument with a sub-contractor about where to place an outlet. He absolutely refused to put one where I wanted it and in response to my inquiry of "why not?", his self assured response was "because it's just never done that way."
At that moment I had a life altering epiphany, I knew that there was no building code issue...it was safe...someone...somewhere had made a decision that it was not a proper thing to do and it became an unquestionable, non-reproachable standard.

From then on I've questioned just about every taken for granted decision I've had to make when it was prefaced by any variation of, "is this the right way t0____, correct thing for____, proper behavior of____?"

I've always been a rebel at heart and now I have a healthy way of diverting that streak by going against the tide of popular beliefs, standards, rules, even styles!

Now I'm not going to drive on the wrong side of the road (even though the colonies have made a point of their break from Brittan), that's just common sense, but I will be curly when straight is in, and wear pink because it looks good on me even though green is all the rage. I will not put shoe molding on my baseboards or tile on my back splash, and just because someones kid, many years ago, got their head stuck in a rail doesn't mean I will live with rails that have gaps no larger than 4".

I will use rugs and quilts for table clothes, picture frames for place mats, flower boxes for towel racks, plumbing pipe for curtain rods, and ice buckets for lamps. I will wear sneakers because they are comfortable and my hair long because my husband loves it that way. I will not wear 4" heels and deform my feet and throw my back out because some guy, or worse some young 20 year old girl, says that's what I should do to be in style.

I will pray over meals in restaurants because I'm thankful that the Lord has provided in such a wonderful way, not simply to make a point. I'll chat with strangers in line at the grocery store at the risk of looking uncool. At a rock concert I will sit with my eye's closed and truly listen rather than stand, scream, jump and hear nothing but noise.

I will vote my conscience not "our" conscience. I will be the one lemming to stand and watch the mad rush over the cliff.

There is a campy old comedy called Earth Girls are Easy in which aliens crash land on earth and try to use common everyday objects in unique way's and who's behavior is honest but not necessarily the norm, that's how I want to view the world...like an extra-terrestrial!

Since that cold rainy day doing battle with a brain locked sub, I've determinedly donned my "other dimension glasses" that permit me to look at the world with new perspective. The result has been a renewal of creative thinking when I was feeling hopeless of being original on a planet where I thought everything had been done, thought of, and created.

So the newly born alien won, with threats of non-payment, I now have outlets on my mantel, in the floor, in the closets, on a column, and four feet up on several walls.

Good Stressful Things

Tuckered.......Stressed.....Weather......Christmas.....Hawaii.....Happy New Year.....

I'm not sure what to call this blog! Weather is wearing me down even as the new year progresses. I went from being excited about the snow, Christmas and our trip to Hawaii, to just trying to get through it all with even a little bit of my usual enthusiasm.

No friends, Christmas cards or brown paper packages tied up with string for Christmas, as no-one, nor any delivery service could get to our house due to snow and ice.

After our simple Christmas we were able to make it to the airport (the weather relented briefly) and Hawaii was a welcome, sunny, warm, relief, yet oddly enough a bit stressful.

I was unable to sleep at night, or by the pool, or on the sofa and as our vacation passed by with me averaging only 4 interrupted hours of sleep a night, I was more stressed than before we embarked on our trip!

Add to that, unfortunate service, bad meals, and goof ups by hotels, restaurants, and airlines, plus our home security system going berserk in the middle of the night, concern over non typical behavior by Leelu at the dog sitters, fighting a cold the entire vacation and getting sea sick (that took a couple of day's to get over) on a boat trip.... well.....I didn't come home exactly rested!

We missed record flooding, wind and rain while in Hawaii, but since I've been home there has been a Scifi type fog....literally! It's a thick sticky fog that closes everything in and has you wiping your eyes to clear it away. It's just 30 degrees so it's freezing to everything too. The weirdest thing is, that up our hill or down our hill it's clear and sunny....it's just at our house!!!! Can you sing the Twilight Zone theme????

There were many good and memorable moments too, so I'll try and get my mood out of the fog long enough to mention that...Hawaii is always good for lots of spectacular sunsets, one special one that was spent at the Four Seasons Hotel with our feet in the sand while enjoying steak and lobster. Our condo was gorgeous with an ocean full of whales just off our lani. We actually heard them singing one evening....super special moment! New Years Eve found us at our favorite restaurant, Tommy Bahama's, where Adam Sandler dined just a couple of tables away from us. I won the final two games of pay 'd man and dominoes with Rose and Dale after being just about the biggest looser the entire two weeks! I bought myself a beautiful hand crafted bracelet in a Hawaiian gallery, and when we got home there were stacks of Christmas cards and presents in brown paper packages tied up with string waiting for us!

When friends ask how our trip went, I end up tongue tied wanting to say so-so and fantastic at the same time and I end up saying "good" with a tiny lack of enthusiasm.

Even as I whine a bit I can't help thinking about how fortunate we are that we have presents, late or not. That we are able to take wonderful warm vacations and that we have a cozy house to keep the fog and cold out.

So may fog always be somewhere else and may your New Year be better than good!!!!