Monday

Just a typical Monday. I did not have to be at work until 10am and that was strange. I am used to the 9:00 start time. Even though I did not go to work early I was tired this evening. We are fans of the TV show "24" and unfortunately I had to take a nap between 8 and 9 just so I could stay awake for the show (heavens - it is only Monday!). I did have to rearrange some things this week so I could fit in a hair appointment that was already scheduled and some required class time for work. Some of my day off will go to the class time but the good news is I did not have to change the hair appointment. I do not know how many of you actually look at this. I know two who do. One comments on the blog and the other just tells me about it. If any of you actually follow this to any degree could you please e-mail me and let me know. One suggestion was to have the size of the writing larger and I hope that I was able to accomplish that. I did say that I would put a picture of a wave on this. The picture was taken at Huntington Beach California in early January. I will post a few more in the next few days.

THAW?

"Let me remember that there is nothing more soothing than the sound of running water," from Meditations For WOMEN Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef

The sun is out today and it is glorious. The lake is thawing and with the breaks in the ice and the sun shining on the water - it is beautiful. It is still cold but a promise of warmer days is in the air. Unfortunately I have mundane domestic things to do today: laundry, menu planning, grocery shopping and some straightening up and general cleaning as well as catching up on taped TV shows and a play to attend tonight. A full day and yet I must find some time to just relax. The work week looms ahead. I enjoy the work but also enjoy the play. Last night the talk was of warmer days and golf. Something to definitely look forward to.

GO TEAM!

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh and swoosh. That represents the number of times our grandson put the ball through the basket during his game on Saturday. We had expected bumblebee basketball and it was definitely not that. He made four baskets, had four rebounds and tried to get at least about 4 more baskets. That was not bad for a 7 year old. No score is kept but it was somewhere around 24 to 18 or so. It was fun to watch and after each basket, he had such a big smile on his face. The grandaughter wore her cheerleading outfit although she did not cheer. It was so great to see them. It had been too long. We have had more snow and so we left the kids early so that we could get back. We then had dinner with friends and they served wonderful soups, salads and desserts. It has been a great weekend.

It was a busy Monday at work. It did not look as though it was going to be as busy as it was. There were only about 5 appointments but lots of chaos associated with those appointments. It seems as though for every 3 steps forward there was at least 1 1/2 backward. Oh well, I have all week. I enjoy sharing my pictures with you. I think that I will post two today. One from the weekend snow and one from our September trip to California. This is a picture of California redwoods. Two opposites. It allows us to think about spring and summer. I am going to save the really cool picture of a wave until later in the week.

Valentine's Day is this weekend. I remembered this morning what my first Valentine's Day present was from John. He gave me an 8 piece place setting of dishes from Okinawa. We were engaged but not yet married. We used those dishes for many years. His practicality has continued on for 40 years. This year V-Day falls on a Saturday so we are just having dinner with friends at their home. We figured that the restaurants will be too busy to even try to get into. I sent the Valentine's Day gifts to the grandkids and they will most likely get the package on Monday. I have the weekend off and it will be nice to relax.

Saddness

A few days ago a friend took his life. While not a close friend, it has nevertheless caused a pause in our lives. It is difficult to understand why this happened. He was approaching the one year mark of his wife's death in February 2008. However, he had been seen and spoken to recently and appeared fine. We never know though what demons lurk inside each of us and what causes us pain. At times like this I try to find solace in poetry or readings. I have not been able to find that comfort. I turned instead to music. The music is not totally appropriate for the situation but it is a song that I wanted sung at my mother's funeral. The title of the song is "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" by Thomas A Dorsey. The refrain is "Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on , let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, I am worn: Thru the storm, thru the night, lead me on to the light; take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home". This does give me some comfort.

WINTER BREAK

I tried this once already today and somehow had an error. So this is my second try. The picture of the squirrel is from this morning. He is really enjoying the bread we put out in the yard. It warmed up yesterday and suddenly most of the snow was gone. Some of you may have seen the news of the 150 ice fishermen who were stranded out on Lake Erie yesterday. I know one of them. There was a break in the ice from the Maumee River all the way to Davis Bessie. The wind was from the south and blew the ice floes out toward Canada. The Coast Guard had hydroplanes but they only carried up to about 3-4 people. The Coast Guard would take the fishermen across the open water and then deposit them on the ice. They then had to walk across the ice to get to shore. I guess it was a very stressful experience. I also realized that I had not read any poems since about 1 1/2 weeks ago. So this weekend I read another one. It was "A WOMAN'S QUESTION" by Lena Lathrop.

"I am fair and young, but the rose may fade

From my soft young cheek one day;

Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,

As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?"

Home Sweet Home

Changes (in life) are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.
___Gail Sheehy

No, I have not gone mad. This is my home away from home this week. I worked 60 hours this week (Saturday, Monday - Friday) and this is my cubicle. I have another 50 hour week and then back to normal. It has not been very busy and my clients have not yet started to come in. There is a lot of pain out there though. Lots of job loss with withdrawals from retirement accounts. Also several clients have passed away and that saddens me. The good news is that there will be a warm up with the weather and that can only be good. On an entirely different note, good friends have gone to the Carribean and have chartered a sail boat. She has put pictures on her blog with them out on the boat sailing. It looks warm, sunny and nice. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the nice weather (for early February) this coming week.