That's my story...and I'm stickin' to it!

This was one of those days.
You know the kind...a day that would have been good on any other day.
Except for this...
Stupid people turned this day upside down, inside out.
Stupid people doing stupid things, making everyone else's day a mess.

I love my job.
I love my job, with the singular exception of the times when someone with very little common sense turns my day inside out. Today was one of those days.

It's a simple thing to do your job, handle your own case, carry your own load of ka-ka.
Isn't it?
Really, truly, isn't it?
Apparently not, as was evidenced today.

All week, I've been cleaning up after another person, picking up her slack, hauling in her anchor, taking care of my own business as well as hers.
I know the rule about carrying your own suitcase and leaving others to carry their own for themselves.
That rule goes out the window when I'm wearing the hat for my clients, because my job is to do the best for my clients, even when that best includes carrying the whole load for myself and for the other realtor, as well.

Without going into the gory details, I will leave you with this little scene...after picking up the slack for over a week, carrying the load for everyone, I was pushed to the breaking point this afternoon and flipped out! My front office person heard a string of four-letter friend-getters that was surrounded by enough thick blue smoke to choke a horse!

After blowing my cork, swearing profusely and stomping around in my office for a few minutes, I went back to the front desk, apologized to my front office person for my profanity and for having subjected her to my pissed-offed-ness.

The darling girl laughed out loud, then said, "No problem! You were only saying out loud what I was thinking inside of my head!" We both laughed about it, then we both went home for the weekend.

Now, after a luscious comfort-food dinner of my favorite foods and 5 delish Dark Concerto biscuits for dessert, washed down with a glass of Oyster Bay chardonnay, I'm chillin', not cranky and relaxing, finally.

Do I understand what happened today? Of course.
Do I understand why stupid people are so.....stupid?
Nope, not even close.
Seems to me it is pretty simple to do your job and take care of your own kettle of corn.

Bottom line?
Take care of your own business.
I still don't understand why that's such a complex idea for some people to grasp.
Do you?

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." ~ Unknown

Yesterday, I went to Whitecourt, a 45 minute drive along a 4 lane divided highway. No reason to go, I just wanted to 'get out of Dodge' for an afternoon. It was a sunny warm winter day, when I pulled out onto Hwy. #43 and headed south.

My trips to Whitecourt are measured by the hills I drive up and down along the way. Heading down the steep, dangerous and accident-prone slope of Iosegun Hill, I was settling in for a relaxing drive, Andrea Bocelli's latest CD blasting from the luscious Bose sound system in my Denali.

As I reached the bottom of Iosegun and began the steep, curving ascent up the far side of the hill, I noticed a line of semis in front of me on the divided 4-lane...braking, slowing, stacking up one behind the next. Reaching the crest of the hill, I could see around the bend of the highway ahead of me. Cars, trucks, semis with full loads, backed up and stopped, as far as I could see.

I pulled in behind a semi hauling a flat deck and snuggled beside a semi that was pulling a full load and a pup. Wondering what the cause of the traffic lineup was, I looked ahead. Just more trucks, cars, semis and their loads.

Truckers were leaving their rigs and walking along the shoulder of the highway toward the front of the line of waiting vehicles, like some flood of lemmings heading for the cliff. Not wanting to join them and freeze my ca-hoonies off in the crisp winter wind sweeping along the ditches and the deep dark forest beside the road, I turned on my heated seat in my SUV and settled back to wait.

Luckily for me, I'd stopped at the library before I left, so I had my weekly stash of magazines that I like well enough to read, but not well enough to buy. Pulling Oprah from my bag, I cuddled down deeply into my heated seat and began to browse. After learning as much as I could about the fastest way to lose 45 pounds and the easiest way to look 20 years younger, I looked up from my reading and saw a group of truckers walking back along the highway. Rolling down my window, I asked, "What's going on up there?"

One of the men stopped to tell me what they'd seen.
"Looks like some crazy was tryin' to outrun the cops," he drawled. "That ol' spiked belt sure put a stop to his plans."
"Spiked belt? They had to use that?" I replied.
"Yeppers, and the cop told me it worked perfectly, until the guy hit it with his SUV, blew all 4 tires and sideswiped a semi," the trucker explained.

"Sheeesh! Is anyone hurt?" I asked.
"That crazy in the SUV...they're waiting for STARS air ambulance to airlift him out. He's in critical condition and we're gonna have to sit here until they take him out of the vehicle and clean up the mess he's left on road up there," he said, tears forming in his eyes, his hands shaking as he tried to light a filter-tip cigarette.

He left, shaking his head and wiping the tears from his cheeks as he walked unsteadily to the shelter of the cab of his truck. I settled back into my warm seat, turned the music up a little and thought about what might have caused this guy to try to outrun the cops. Not a good idea, especially with spiked belts, juiced-up cop cars and a radio link from one detachment to another along this highway. If the RCMP don't catch him along this stretch of highway, their members at the next town will. Not the smartest decision this guy's made today.

Finally, the line of traffic started to inch ahead. As I passed the accident site, I saw a dark blue SUV sitting in the center of the right hand lane, windshield shattered, both front doors blown off the vehicle and the engine resting in the driver's side of the front seat. That would have hurt some, I think, shaken by the devastation on the road. The semi sat in the ditch, jack-knifed in half, and the driver seemed unhurt, as he stood by his cab talking to the RCMP officers.

Driving much more slowly and carefully than I'd been before, I thought about what makes someone take that kind of chance while driving. Likely anything from fear to false bravado.

Arriving in town, I parked in front of the theatre, locked my car and went into Theodore's Comfort Zone for a pot of tea and a bowl of soup, grateful for my life and my safety this cold wintery Saturday afternoon.

"Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." ~ Captain Luc Picard, Star Trek: Generations

This is a heart-stopping video of a Lufthansa flight landing today at Hamburg in stiff crosswinds...watch the pilots struggle to bring the plane in on target.
Then the wind plays havoc with the plane, the left wingtip grazes the runway and the pilot pulls the plane up and out of danger, to circle the runway and lands successfully on the second go-round.
Many people saying their prayers on this flight, I think.
Many prayers were also answered.

"The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee." ~ Gunter's Second Law of Air Travel

I love Jim Carey.
I love his huge heart and his enormous sense of humour.
I love the story about a 10 year old Jim Carey sending a letter to Carol Burnett, asking to be hired for the Carol Burnett Show as a sidekick to Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. When he told about receiving a rejection letter from the show, he said, "I felt like I'd made it! A letter from Hollywood? Wow!"
I love how he and my son look like they are twins who have been separated at birth.
Most of all, I love Jim Carey because of something he said tonight on an interview on Entertainment Tonight Canada.
He was speaking about the new movie, Horton the Elephant Hear a Who, in which he is the voice of Horton. He talked about reading Dr. Seuss books to his partner Jenny McCarthy's 5 year old autistic son. He was asked if the little boy likes the Dr. Seuss books...his response was enchanting...
" I'm not sure if he actually gets it that he'd being read The Grinch by the grinch!"
That's why I love Jim Carey.

"My report card always said, 'Jim finishes first and then disrupts the other students'." ~ Jim Carey

On my way home from work tonight, I was driving along Kaybob Drive, the sun roof open and Boyzone cranked on my luscious Bose sound system. The sun was shining hot in my window, the cool still-winter breeze cleaning out the inside of my Denali. Then, my fav song on Boyzone's CD started...
No Matter What.

No Matter What...I adore this song.
It could be a love song performed at a wedding, or a spiritual piece for a church service when you want to speak about God, as you perceive Him or Her to be. I cannot maintain dry eyes when I listen to this music.

What it created for me today was a perfect moment, in perfect weather and in perfect unison with the world around me. For a few minutes, I felt like I was truly in the beam...standing in the eyes of Heaven.
Have a listen...see if you love it, also.

Mr. Lawson is a client of mine.
He's 87 years old.
He grows corn that is 12' high, sunflowers that top the tape at 14' every single year and peas that grow 8' high, producing the most abundant crop ever seen in this area.

Mr. Lawson calls my office every few days to talk. He always greets us with this question, "Is this the land of the kind and gentle people?"
How can you not be kind and gentle to this man? I ask you, how?

Today, he stopped by for a visit. He's already planning this year's garden in his mind. He knows exactly how many rows of each vegetable he will plant, the days he will begin to sow his garden and which kind of seed he's going to buy.

Mr. Lawson is looking for another place to live. He's been in the same home for more years than I can remember. There is an oversized apartment building popping up right next door to his tiny bungalow and he's feeling the dark shadow of the problems that will come with more apartments next door to his side yard...already he has had middle-of-the-night drunks attempting to park, and driving their cars into his fence which borders the apartment parking lot.

He's s simple guy. All he wants is a quiet, safe place to rest his bones. I'm looking for something for him, with all my heart. I want him safe and sound. At his age, he deserves that, at the very least.

As he left my office this afternoon, he stopped, turned around and said softly, "Oh, one more thing...I have this tiny little kitten living with me now. I want a place where he is welcome. He's my friend, you see. He talks to me every morning and sits with me at night when we watch TV together. So, I can't dump him like some people do. I want a home for the two of us, if that's ok with you?"

If that's ok with me?
Mr. Lawson, that's the most ok thing that I can imagine for you.
I'll find a place where you both are welcome.
I will, I promise.
Some place that sits smack in the center of the land of the kind and gentle people.

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~Mirabel Osler

Doesn't this look inviting?
That is my Intrepid, stuck to the wheelwells in a huge dump of snow last January.
Wet, heavy falling faster than I could shovel...this is what happened when I tried to park my car.
Winter in my corner of the Universe.
Welcome to my world!

"Winter is nature's way of saying, 'Up yours.'" ~ Robert Byrne

There's nothing more to say on the subject of cats than this...enjoy!

I met a guy in my office today who came in to ask about a rental property. I've known this man for many years. He took the rental list that I handed him, then looked me straight in the eye and said,
"I have a new Missus."
"Oh," I replied, wisely saying nothing else for the moment.
"Yes," he continued. "My old missus looked at me one night at supper and said, "I don't want to be your missus any more.' "
"Wow!" I replied, unable to think of what else to say to him.

"She's gone to be the missus for Robbie Simpson, now," he continued.
"I have a new missus. She's a lot younger. That's good. I like it."
"Uh-huh," I said.

"So, we need a new place to live, the new missus and me. We'd like to look at this place for rent," he told me, pointing at one of the addresses on the rental list. "We're all coming to look. The new missus, meself, my old missus and Robbie, her new mister. She wants to see where the kids will be staying when they are staying with me."
" I see," I replied. "All of you?"
"Yes," he said, "All."
"OK," I whispered. "OK."
"Good," he said, laughing. "Don't worry. We are all friends, now."
"OK," I told him. "Alright!"

He smiled, then left the office. Over his shoulder as he left, he looked at me, laughed and said, "It's all good, darlin' it's all good!"

This must be what my grandmother meant when she'd look at me and my friends, shake her head and say, "Ho, Lordy, the times sure are a-changing, darlin'!"
They sure are, Grandma...they sure are!

"Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage." ~ Ambrose Bierce

I'm going to Savannah.
Savannah, Georgia.
Really and truly...I'm actually going to Savannah!

I've wanted to go to Savannah, Georgia for ages, ever since I watched "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" one sultry hot Hawaiian January afternoon in 1999. I was on vacation, and 4 days into that trip, I came down with the worst case of 'flu I've ever had. Imagine being in Hawaii in that glorious weather and luscious location...and I'm sicker than a junkyard dog with a huge fever and headache.

I struggled into my jeans and a T-shirt, drove to Blockbuster and picked up 10 movies for 10 days for $10. Returning home to my little air-conditioned cottage, I wrapped up in a blanket and with a huge jar of iced tea and a bottle of Advil, proceeded to sog my way through that stack of movies.

The first 9 movies were forgettable.
To this day, I have no idea what I watched...it was merely for putting in time until I started feeling better.

The last movie left on the floor by the TV was Midnight in the Garden. I left it until last because I'm not a huge Clint Eastwood fan and I wasn't looking forward to seeing any movie that he'd directed. I had no idea what it was about, but I can tell you this... a few frames into it and I was hooked.
H-o-o-k-e-d, hooked.

I adored the look of the city of Savannah in the movie, the architecture, the glorious squares full to overflowing with luscious landscaping.
I soaked up the sights and sounds of the south...mostly that delicious southern drawl that rolled over my fevered brow like liquid honey over warm toast. I watched every single second of that movie, twice over.

Then, I wrote in my journal, "Some day, I am going to go to Savannah and see if it is all that it seems in this movie."

So, here I am, 9 years later and I'm actually going to Savannah! Slowtrav is a travel site that I belong to and we are holding a get-together for all of our North American members who can join us, and we are meeting in Savannah. So far, about 100 of us are meeting in that beautiful city to share good food, a few chilled libations and more than a few late night visits with each other.

I know the time will fly by and before I know it, I will be on a flight headed home. But, for the precious time I'm in Savannah, I plan to enjoy every single second of it.
I'm actually going to Savannah.
Amazing.

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." ~ Carl Sandburg

Photo credit:
Georgia Department of Economic Development

Three Things I Learned From My Grandfather...

*The benefit of buying the best I can afford.
His favorite quote..."The cheapest is the most expensive in the long run."

*The best way to grow the most fantastic garden in town.
His favorite trick for tomatoes...dig down 18" for the new baby tomato plants.
Fill the bottom 6" of the hole with wet newspaper and then backfill.
Plant the new plants right up to their leaf lines, so they grow roots right the way down.
Oh, the newspaper?
It acts like a blotter or giant sponge to provide lots of moisture for the 'matoes.

*The value of a quiet voice and a strong spine.
12 year old me: " I wish I'd never been BORN into this family!" Stomp, stomp, SLAM!
Grandfather, quietly: "If I'd known then what I know now, you wouldn't have been."

Three Things I Learned From My Grandmother...

*The value of a quiet, peaceful soul.
My grandmother could be calm through the greatest storm in the family, making tea, putting out the baking and the cream and sugar, pouring the tea and calming everyone down, without saying a word. With her innate quietness and her incredibly calm soul, she could change the tenor of the room in a few minutes...with only cookies and tea.

*How to make the best homemade bread in the world.
I have nothing to add...she simply made the best ever. Mine will never measure up!

*The value of an afternoon nap.
My grandmother would lie down right after lunch, with her bedroom door closed and the window blinds down.
She'd nap from 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. every single afternoon.
She lived to be 87 years old, and in excellent health. Can't hurt, might help!

Three Things I Learned From My Brother...

*How to laugh at my own mistakes.
Standing in the barn when I was 5 and he was 19, I was watching him cleaning the barn and shoveling the straw and manure out over the box stall wall and onto the stoneboat.
Wearing my brand new red felt tam and feeling like I owned the world, I walked just a little too close to the stoneboat, and the next forkful of straw and manure landed right on top of my brand new red felt tam, and me...juicily running down my face and over my entire body, covering me and soaking my brand new clothes and...my brand new red felt tam!

* How to have courage in the face of the most frightening circumstance.
At 4, climbing to the tippy-top of the huge windmill in the front yard by the barn, I froze, afraid to look down from that awful height.
My big brother climbed up the side ladder of the windmill, uncurled my tiny frozen fingers from the railing.
Then, he climbed down, backwards...with me squalling and shrieking in his arms.

* The value of looking on the sunny side, no matter how black the day.
Having been terminally ill for the last several years and with rapidly deteriorating health and quality of life, he still answers the phone with a cheery, "Hi, Brenda! How are you doing today?"
When asked how he's feeling, he most always says, "Oh, not too bad. Could be worse."
Amazing.

"If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."
George Bernard Shaw

Photo credit ~ Nancy Carter

Three Things I Learned From My Mother...

*How to be strong in character and determined in soul.
My mother was a successful single career woman, long before it was acceptable.
She worked for the Department of National Defense in Ottawa in the early 1940's, moving over a thousand miles away from her little farm home on the Manitoba prairies.
From the time I was born until the day she passed, my mother taught me how to stand up straight, stick my jaw out...just a little...walk tall and take no sass from nobody.

*How to love.
Really, how to love...
My mother was a single mother, long before it was acceptable.
She gave birth to me, all alone in a sterile hospital delivery room in St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, with no one in her corner to rub her back in the worst of the labour pain and no one to hold her hand and tell her she was beautiful.

My mother loved me so much that she brought me back to that little farm home and gave me to her parents, my grandparents, to raise. That's how much she loved me...enough to give me up, to hand me over to the very people who loved her so much and taught her so well. That's how much she loved me.

My mother loved me so much that she stayed in my life, living only 10 miles away with her new family, sewing new dresses for me and spending whatever time she could, teaching me to be strong and teaching me to know what it felt like to be loved more than anything else in the whole wide world.

* How to look the world in the eye and never let it get me down
My mother had a lot of pain and hardship, broken dreams and a broken heart, yet she always remembered to send me a beautiful birthday card and a gift made with love for my birthday. She never forgot, never missed and never was late...ever once in my life.

My mother lived a very difficult life with very little money and more than her share of hard knocks...yet she walked straight as an arrow, looked life in the eye and showed me what it meant to keep on keeping on. She talked the talk and walked the walk, better than anyone I've ever known.

"It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it."
~ From the television show The Golden Girls

Three things I wish everyone would learn from me...

* How to be on time, for God's sake!
What's so hard about being on time?
I really find chronic lateness intolerable.
I had no idea why, until one day I read a comment from a therapist..."When someone is late, they are telling you that they value themselves more than you."
That explains it! I'm not talking about occasional lateness...everyone has crap happen.
I'm talking about 'every single time' lateness.
Get a watch.
Learn how to tell time.
Then, do it!

*How to tell the truth...
No beating around the bush, just tell me the truth.
You think it will hurt my feelings?
What hurts my feelings is when you don't think I can handle the truth, when you think that I won't understand.
That's insulting.
You are deciding for me what I am capable of handling and you have no idea what I am capable of!
If you really knew me, you'd know that I'm a strong and very capable person, who can handle just about anything.
So, tell the truth. No small sidesteps, please!

*How to go to the wall for your friends...
There are some people who beg off early, others who walk along with you for awhile.
There are a special few who will go all the way to the wall with you, standing by your side and holding your hand until you are able to stand on your own.
It's not so hard...you just do it.

“Friends are the pillars on your porch that you see life through. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it's just enough to know that they are standing by.”
~ Merle Shain, my mentor

Three Things I Learned From My Baby Brother...
Bearing in mind he's only known I am his big sister for a little over a year, his generosity and his welcoming me into his family has been stunning.

* How much books mean to him
I gave him an omnibus of W. P. Kinsella's best stories for Christmas.
He told me he read the whole thing in a day and a half! It's close to 600 pages!
He's an amazing person. He's one of the slivers of sunshine in my life. Our phone conversations are full of talk about Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe, the books he has read and the books he's reading currently. He thinks I'm amazing and I think he's brilliant. A good combination, don't you agree?

*The depth of his thoughtfulness
For Christmas this year, he had a gold heart custom-made, with 4 birthstones laced carefully around the edge...he instructed the jeweler to set the stones in a very particular order...
a ruby first, then a pink topaz, followed by another ruby and bracketed on the other end by a diamond. These represent our mother, me, him and our baby sister. He's only known me as his big sister since our mother passed a year ago November, and yet he's adjusted to my presence in his life with grace and kindness, with joy and excitement. From the moment he was told that I am his big sister, he's been nothing but happy. It could have gone in many other directions, but for his huge heart and his total delight at having me in his life.

*What a wonderful mind he has
That mind of his holds every conceivable kind of information and detail about every possible thing.
There's nothing that doesn't fascinate him, nothing that doesn't catch his interest and cause him to think about it and turn it over in his mind like a sparkly stone from the river. He absorbs knowledge like a sponge soaking up rainwater. I run as fast as I can and he leaves me in his dust!

"It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea." ~ Dylan Thomas

Three Things I Learned From My Baby Sister...
Bearing in mind she's only been aware of our sister relationship for a little over a year, her gentle nature and openhearted sharing with me is amazing.

*Always remember to write thank you notes for gifts received
My baby sister never fails to send me a beautiful note card with a thank you hand-written inside, every time I send her a gift. People may send an e-mail or nothing at all, so her consistent, well-written gratitude is a breath of fresh air. It also points out my own lack of effort, because I call or send an email, but I'm out of the habit of writing thank you notes. I must begin, again...

*Share what you have with those that you love
After our mother passed, my newly-found sister asked me if there was anything I'd like from our mother's house. I mentioned several family heirlooms of sentimental value, not necessarily monetary in value. For Christmas this year, I received a huge box from her, full of treasures...
my grandmother's fur muff and hat, my great-grandparents' green wool plaid lap robe that they always wrapped around their legs in the horse-drawn cutter in cool weather, a tattered book of Bible stories with an inscription in the front from my mother to me...something I didn't even know existed. She also packed a lovely linen luncheon table cloth with matching napkins...a shower gift for my mother when she married my sister's father. As if that wasn't enough, I now have my christening gown and slip. I am overwhelmed. She has given me so much more than I even knew existed.

"How to appreciate the small things in life
My baby sister has a cat in residence with her, now!
The neighbours' cat has been a constant visitor to her home for a few years. When our mother was still living there, there was no possibility of the beautiful little cat coming in on a permanent basis.
"I don't want a cat in the house!" was our mother's firmly-spoken comment.
Now, the darling little thing lives with my sister full-time! Racing around the house and tearing across the living room furniture, it provides endless opportunities for my sister to laugh her brains out at the antics in the evenings. She loves the little one and it brings her such pleasure and joy...what a miracle that a little fur-ball can make a human being so content.

"If sisters were free to express how they really feel, parents would hear this:
'Give me all the attention and all the toys and send Rebecca to live with Grandma.'"
~Linda Sunshine

Paul Potts inspires me.
Someone sent me an e-mail with this Youtube link in it...I watched Paul auditioning for the British talent show, Britain's Got Talent, and was in tears by the time the piece was over. Watch it, please. See if it inspires you to take a leap of faith and do something you've always wanted to do, in spite of how scared you are.

Wednesday night, I was privileged to go to his Edmonton concert. This humble and gifted man, an ordinary guy like any one of us, brought his mug of tea onstage, set it on the small table by the piano, and explained to us that it isn't possible to separate a Brit from his tea. He was getting over a bad cold, so he drank copious mugs full of hot tea to comfort his throat throughout the concert.

Wandering through his wonderful repertoire of lusciously performed songs, he wove each song to the next with stories and personal images told in a wry and self-deprecating fashion. By the end of the nearly 3 hour concert, we were on our feet, giving him a well earned standing ovation, another encore and another standing O!

An amazing performance from an amazing man. An inspiration for me, because he had the courage to put himself on the line, in the face of some pretty huge obstacles and he won!
He won.
Here's lookin' at you, Paul!

Photo credit: Agricultural Research Center

My son-in-law is one of the funniest guys I know.
He's British, so that might explain it.
You know the Brits. They have the most wicked sense of humour in this Universe.

Tonight I mentioned to him that I will be going to Savannah next week.

" Oh," he said, "You're going to the Big Peach!"

My son-in-law is one of the most caring men I know.
He takes such gentle care of my daughter.
I never worry about her when she's ill with a 'flu or cold, because he does the best job in the world of looking after his beautiful wife.

My son-in-law is one of the most generous men I know.
Every spring, my daughter hosts a scrapbooking weekend in their home. Women from all over come and stay for the weekend, scrapbooking their heavenly little hearts out.
Guess who takes care of the kids, prepares meals, snacks and beverages for this houseful of scrapbookers?
Guess who wipes noses, mops up juice spills and runs the whole enchilada like a well-oiled machine?
My son-in-law.

He is one of the most meticulous men I know and a whiz at woodworking. He lovingly crafts gorgeous Hope Chests for each of my grandchildren as they are preparing to leave home. He invited me into the living room tonight to show me his latest project...a custom-designed-by-him shelving unit that will be simply stunning when it is finished. Glass doors on a solid, beautiful wall unit, structured around the hearth of their pellet stove. The glassed-in area is for his wife's delicate collection of Belleek porcelain and her Winnie the Pooh collectibles.

That's my son-in-law for you...hilariously funny, caring, generous and meticulous.
My daughter is blessed.
So am I.

I don't worry a bit about my child.
I know she's in such good hands.
He's such a peach.

"If two stand shoulder to shoulder against the gods,
Happy together, the gods themselves are helpless
Against them while they stand so."
~ Maxwell Anderson

My days at work can be slow as slow, and as surely as ginger cookies go with lemon tea, as soon as I am one day from leaving on vacation, the floodgates open, the phone lines ring, people stop by for a variety of reasons and there's no end of it!

Perhaps someone sends an e-mail to everyone else in my world, letting them know that "she's leaving for a few days, so get in there and keep her runnin' in circles"...that's possible. All I know is that it goes crazy just before I leave, and today was no exception.

I'm supposed to be packed, ready to leave around noon tomorrow.
Guess what?
I'm so not ready.
So not.

Rather than freaking out like always, I've decided to adjust my schedule for tomorrow and give myself a breather. I'll leave whenever I am ready, rather than making myself completely nuts by insisting on a preordained departure time. The bottom line is that I have to be at the airport by 10:30 A.M.on Friday morning. Anything earlier than that is a bonus.

So, my self-imposed deadlines are out the window and I'm trying something new...leaving for the airport when I'm ready! As long as I arrive a couple of hours before flight time, it's all good.

A new concept...being kind to myself!
I'll see how well I do with this.
I'll let you know how it goes, after it is over.

"I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.
I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing." ~ Michel de Montaigne

What a pain!
Here I am in Savannah, Georgia with no internet.
My apartment's internet connection has been iffy, as best.
I've looked for an internet cafe here in Savannah, and there aren't any that I can find. So, I signed myself in at the public library and used a free computer for a few minutes.

Today, my internet connection has been restored.
I have been saved!
And, it's also Sunday!
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Do you think this is God's way of reminding me of the important things in my life, more important than blogging, posting on my travel site and e-mailing my friends and family? D'ya think?

I'm one of the last hold-outs who refused to step into computer-land until a few years ago. I've been quite vocal at times about the amount of hours some folks spend on the internet and what a waste of time it is.

Now, I'm fearing that I might be one of them.
At least, you'd have thought so, if you'd been here to watch my breathless anticipation while waiting for my connection to be restored.

So, I have the internet back, I'm online, again...let the blogging begin!

"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day.
Teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks."
~ Author Unknown

Photography credit - me!

This artist was busily creating lovely colour and texture with his pastels this afternoon in Forsythe Park.

It is too damned cold to be painting today, yet the park was full of artists...watercolourist having their pieces blown dry much too fast to allow a decent wash to glaze properly, oil painters patiently picking the bits of dust and leaves that were blowing onto their freshly-laid pigment, and a couple of pastel artists forging ahead in the face of this blustery day.

This artist stopped and talked with me for over an hour, explaining why he loves pastels and why he'll never use another medium, he's so hooked on the pastel world of Schmincke, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Daler Rowney...he might have me convinced to have a go with pastels.

Then, back to his palette, on with his creation...
What a good way to spend an afternoon in Savannah!

Savannah Tea Room has become my cafe of choice.
The food's really good, the service is lovely and warm, and the teas are delish!
Today, I had a wonderful Mushroom and Parsley soup, then the best Cobb Salad ever and a tray of sweets to close the meal.
You must go there for lunch!
I'm now hoping to find someone who wants to come with me for afternoon tea!
The people today who were enjoying it had plates so heaped with Petite Fours, shortbread and other assorted yummilicious treats that they were taking what they couldn't eat home with them in doggie bags. I'd have gladly helped them out if they'd have asked!
Tea, anyone?

"We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe."
~ Rudyard Kipling