Timing the Lightening

Tonight my sister in law made me come outside and look up in the clouds. There were huge clouds and when the lightening would show itself it would be gone in a flash (no pun intended ) --

So my niece and I both said, 'wish we had a camera!' ~ well, duh! I live here, so I went inside to get my camera. Madam B had it set on a fluorescent setting - which I wasn't aware of, but good thing really, as the only photo that turned out was pretty interesting.

It's really hard to 'catch lightening' in the act of being itself -

This scene is looking over the top of my son's house.

Next time, I'll try to be more prepared. Everything that could go wrong about owning a camera went wrong - I didn't know what the settings were because I didn't use the camera last, I couldn't see in the dark to take the picture, couldn't find the flash button, lightening doesn't pose exactly - you have to catch it in the act! - so I began 'timing' it, trying to anyway, counting the seconds in between and this is the only decent photo I got, along with about 12 blank spots, and the battery went dead, as well.

But ~ I'm happy. It's a memory we made. We were there together, and we will remember it with love - the love you have for your crazy relatives.

I'll be at the end of the line....

I'll never get it. Whatever 'it' is, if it is a 'tekkie' thing - it'll pass me by.

Part 1 - I had a post here, and I thought, because it says 'save now' constantly on the bottom of the little box you type in - that it was actually saving.

But I left to go practice some Spanish with Sean and it didn't save anything. Not now, nor then. Why? I don't know.

I haven't figured out how to blog. And most likely, I won't until it's the end of the blogging world and people will be on to something else, like Pling Sailing.

My son Sean has met a girl who taught herself to speak fluently 6 languages. He now wants to speak more than one language, too. So he's trying Spanish because if you can speak Spanish here in Sunny Florida - you have a much better chance of getting a job.

Part 2 - I asked Sean if maybe I could use his Spanish CD in my computer. Than I said, 'oh no, I can't because I don't have sound on mine.'

"What do you mean, you don't have sound? You have sound," he said, "I put the sound card in myself."

"I don't know then what happened."

Well, long story short - what happened was, my speakers got moved to another computer, and Mom thought - she had no sound - when infact - she had no speakers. (duh! - Which in Spanish is the same only with an upside down exclamation point in the front - making you twice as duh!)

Part 3 - There are many things you can do on your blog. I can do about three. I can post pictures now, I can type in the little box and look at the preview, I can add a link -- oh, and I learned about the 'labels for this post' box, but I have not learned how to link that to wherever it is that you can view those things together in their same likeness. That's a worm hole to me.

I am thinking about setting up a practice blog. One I can play on and try to do things with and not worry about what happens. You know what? I think I just came up with a very, very good idea.

The Blue Drawf

My latest Garden Discovery

I went out to my little garden the other day and found this little surprise.

Awhile back, I had used this area for a compost pile - then I decided to plant flowers, and I just covered up all the compost --

Well, seems something broke through. I knew it was a cantaloupe vine growing, but I never expected this!! ---

These photos were taken at two different times of the day. I notice that some insect is quickly eating into the vine. So, I don't know if I can save it. And, it's doubtful I can save the cantaloupe. I called a friend of mine who knows about these things, and she told me I have to find a way to support the cantaloupe because it will surely fall.

I don't know it's fate. But I was just pleased as punch when I found it hanging on the vine. Gave new meaning to 'hanging in there!'

Life is a celebration of awakenings, of new beginnings, and wonderful surprises that enlighten the soul. ~~ Cielo

After Enlightenment....

...the laundry. ~ Zen Proverb

I never really new what that meant. I actually thought some Zennist was making a joke about laundry being there all the time, but I don't think that is it.

I recently ran across this Zen Proverb -- Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

So, I got to thinking that what the saying means is, you still must work - no matter what you think you know, or don't know, or could know, or should know -- you still have work to do. Enlightenment, or knowing things, or being smart doesn't give you an excuse to be lazy and not do a job well.

I think what might happen to me, sometimes, is I become unnoticing of tasks that I consider mundane - you know, the regular reoccurring ones I wasn't allowing myself to focus, to be present as it were with the task and do a good and complete job every time. The laundry could not depend on me, but now it can! Because today was different, and I noticed that today I had more time to myself to actually do the laundry I had decided to do. (Usually I am interrupted many times, but today was quite peaceful) ...

So, as I did my laundry, I concentrated on the task before me more, and it was done perfectly. I felt calm and not rushed, the things are all folded nicely and in their places, and I have a special way I do my own clothes; I don't put them in the dryer --and since I don't have a clothes line, I have to convert my laundry room into one (that's always interesting)

--But at the end of the night - all done - all put away. And I feel enlightened. Think I'll go chop some wood and carry some water--or maybe empty the freezer. I think there is some Ben and Jerry's in there taking up to much space. I'll give all my concentration over to enjoyment of the task of sharing my new depth of enlightenment with Ben and Jerry. The carton is half full.

End of the week or beginning of the Weekend?

How do you look at it? I always think the Week has Ended! I love Fridays!

Tonight I didn't cook. I ordered pizza and a sub for the family - I had my Pasta Fagioli, which I make from scratch, and I love it - but no cooking, as there are dishes sitting in my kitchen from last night (okay, they are put away now, but they weren't at dinner time.). I've just been doing other things.

I have been painting my new and first bookshelf! The one Mr. B made for me this past week. As I was painting it, and for all the painting I have done, I was sorely disappointed in the job I as doing (two coats of primer and two coats of paint already!) - but, oh well - it's done with love and all that -- and

I was thinking about how important Carpentry is. Such a necessity to be a good carpenter if one should choose that profession. How many professions could you choose that your lack of skill could make something fall down?

Anyway, I decided to paint the shelf in a Ultra High Gloss White. Maybe that is the problem. It's not so easy for me working with this High Gloss paint. Maybe I didn't stir it enough. Maybe I shouldn't paint outside on a windy day. Maybe I have to heavy a hand. But I've seen the results of High Gloss White before, and this is turning out exactly like that, only this is not how I wanted it to look. Oh well. It'll be lovely when it's up.

And, I've been working on my sons books - business books that is- yes, aside from being a good cook (my husband told me that!), I have some minor bookkeeping skills. Really, it's just posting to a Quicken program, but somebody's got to do it, and since it's boring to a lot of people and accountants charge a ton of money, I volunteered.

I found a surprise for me in my garden. I'll try to post a photo of that tomorrow.

Poem selections - Emily Dickinson this week

My daughter loves poetry. I allow her to choose a poem each week for copy work and to use for dictation and memory work - here is the choice for this past week ~~


I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth,--the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

~~Emily Dickinson

Some of My Friends Peek Out

These are orange portulacas that I was hoping I could station next too some blue dwarf.


The same portulacas in yellow, next to their orange friends with some blue plumbago in the backdrop.


This photo above is one of my hanging baskets leaning just a little bit to far right. That happens sometimes.


This is a snapshot of the kids coming out to play. I just love the orange and blue theme going there with a toss of yellow thrown in there. I'm glad I got a shot of those little sunflowers because they got bit by something and I am trying to nurse them back to health at the present time.

My Pink Mandevilla

The are photographs of my front porch. The pink flowers on the edge of the porch are Mandevillas.

I noticed last week a real change in the plant, and so today I took a few leaves into the place where I bought them. Actually, they were a gift, but anyway -- I took the leaves in to ask what might be wrong with my Mandevillas, that I have grown to love so much.

I went over to the section of the store where the Mandevillas were and noticed that many of the ones there had leaves that looked the same as mine. A lady come around, and I showed her my leaves and she told me, "This looks like a mite has got them."

"But, they look the same as these right here." I said, and pointed to the ones for sale.

She started talking about mites and overwatering and pink mandevillas being more sensitive to things of nature as she lead me away from the flowers I was pointing to, and we ended in a section that sold fertilizer and treatment type things.

I listened to what she was saying and did buy a product that, she said, might save the Mandevilla, but I couldn't get out of my head that these people were selling flowers that might be diseased!

And she also told me that the leaves of the flowers needed to be discarded in an area away from other flowers as the other flowers, if sensitive to the same problem, could develop the disease, and I'm thinking, "Gee, you are not only selling flowers with disease, as your leaves look like my leaves, and you are leaving them right there together."

This was at Home Depot. This could be one of the reasons they are going out of business.

I am so sad about my Mandevillas. But doesn't that just represent life? It's here. And then, it's gone.

The Human Condition

I give over to the thought that no one can really explain the human condition. Mind and Body - oh gee, and oh well --

I am reporting today on mine, in the physical sense .

You see, I've decided that I will print out my blog for my family - my children really. No one, really, is concerned about what I write here, but in years past, I was bemoaning my late start in life. that is towards the business of having children, that is, my oldest wasn't born until I was 28 and my youngest was born when I was 41, so doubtful it is that I will know my grandchildren with my *right mind* in tact, as my oldest is not yet married, and neither my second or third...

So, in a conversation one day with my oldest several years ago, I was telling him I would dearly miss my grandchildren, as it would be doubtful I could play with them much or tell them things, as I most likely will be needing them to push me in my wheelchair or help me remember where I put my glasses and my teeth ...

So he said, back then, "Mom, why don't you just write down your thoughts everyday, and we will always have that. We will read it to them." That was before "blogs" ...That was before Leslie and Tim told me, "You should have a blog."

As I have dabbled in the blogging world, it has come to dawn on me, this perhaps could be something that I leave behind --.

So that leaves me to mention my human condition in the physical sense. My spiritual and emotional sense is fine. I am quite happy.

I am, though, terribly frustrated with my spine. I have these muscular-skeletal problems or situations, if you should prefer, that I am trying to figure out how to deal with. I obviously don't want surgery.

I most recently went to the doctor again with a reoccurring problem that is reoccurring more often. Every morning when I awake, no matter which side I am lying on, my left or my right, that whole arm including my hand is asleep. And my lower back has been spasming more, and the point of my back where the scoliosis is, is constantly bothering me. So my doctor is going to look again at the MRI I had done last year, to see, if perhaps, there might be something she can pinpoint without having me have another MRI (they are so bloody expensive even with my insurance!).

In the meantime, I am having to live with muscle relaxers, when I need them, and anti-inflammatories, when I need them. However, my orthopedic surgeon wants me on a regimen of anti-inflammatories 24/7, and I just can't do that.

So that's where I am right now. Unable to dig in my garden. That is so frustrating! I can pull weeds and water the plants!

But, no matter what it is, things could always be worse.

Ad absurdum

...the latin for 'to the point of absurdity' ...And that's what I feel happens when Mr. B gets time off! For more than three years in a row, when he has gotten a block of time off -- he gets sick.

He's off for 5 days, and he laying in there sick on the couch. And now I have a sore throat! Is ridiculous close to absurd? If he doesn't want to put the shelves up, just say so! (haha)

He did joke about how I was going to be asking him to do all these things around the house, and yes, I was so excited about getting my book shelves -- finally. And I have three days off next week (he's getting paid at least; I won't be), and I was so looking forward to putting books up on those shelves! Oh, the things we look forward to when we get old...

But alas, it shall not be. It shall be doing the mundane chores of every day - and more catching up --and moving these books around to more places until they are finally shelved. (Wah.)