Old Shoes - New Trip

Awww shucks! I might have to buy a new camera. I'm sure I won't be able to find the exact same camera. I'll have to settle for a better one, one with more bells and whistles.
This camera is only 2 years old. But, it's been dropped on concrete streets more times than I can count. It's been dunked in the Mississippi River once and a glass of wine once.
Now it is having trouble timing the flash with the shutter.
The flash fires everytime I press the button, but it fires a split second AFTER the shutter. If I take the same shot 5 times in a row, I may luck into one where they synchronize themselves. But, that would be random luck.
So, I guess I will make a half-hearted attempt to check into getting it fixed....just to satisfy Dan. Then I'll begin shopping for a new camera. Lousy luck.

For Christmas, my aunt gave me a $25.00 gift certificate to Kiva.org.

I'm hooked! And I've not even had a paid back loan yet. I can't imagine how excited I will be when the first payment comes in and I get to send it out again to a new borrower.

I spend hours browsing the potential loan opportunities. I debate the virtues of one type of business to another. I log on every day to see if any of my favorite countries have new opportunities listed.

When I choose a new loan opportunity, I begin to fret over how long it will take for the entire request to be fulfilled. I'm really worried about my latest loan. He is not raising his requested amount as rapidly as the others did. I'm worried that it is because his picture is not very flattering. I'm worried that people won't understand how much he needs a new grinder.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=36176

I've had to put myself on a STRICT budget. Only one loan every two weeks. That's $50 a month. A lot less money than my Starbuck's habit costs me.

I was browsing Johnny Jet's site again tonight, and discovered that in October of 2005 he visited St. Louis. Here is a link to the video he did about his visit.

He obviously was as taken with City Museum as everyone else is when they experience it.

http://www.johnnyjet.com/movies/StlTour.wmv

Not many of my readers will remember this classic TV series that ran from 1955-1960.
But, since Kim has started everyone in the "February Blog Challenge" group posting about what they would do if they won the lottery, I flashed back to this TV show.

The premise was that a gazillionaire who lived on a huge 60,000 acre estate entertained himself by giving away One Million dollars per episode to a stranger.

He would call his trusty personal secretary:

Who arrived in the required hat with the required briefcase and was handed an envelope with the instructions to deliver it to the unsuspecting beneficiary.

We then heard the "back story" for 30 minutes while the guy hunted the person down to deliver the check.

Back to Kim's blog entry...what would I do with a windfall. First of all, if you compare the average household income in 1955 to 2008, that million dollar tax-free check would have to be 17 Million today.

So- if the never-seen John Beresford Tipton sent his faithful secretary, Michael Anthony to give me Seventeen Million dollars, what would I do with it?

1) 1.7 million to a list of worthy causes. [15.3 million left]

2) $500,000 (less 10% that I would donate to the charities of their choice) to each of my siblings and my siblings-in-law. They would each be responsible for using that money any way they choose. But they would also be responsible for passing a portion of it along to their own children and grandchildren. I would not give money to nieces and nephews or grand nieces and nephews. [10.8 million left]

3) 500,000 to the non-profit retirement community where my mother lives. [10.3 million left]

4) One million in a higher education trust fund for the benefit of our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. Given their young age and with good management, the principal should remain intact. [9.3 million left]

5) Three million each (less the 10% we will donate to charities of their choice) to our daughters. No strings attached. No advice. No demands. BUT with the understand that they need to build their own estate with that money, because our entire estate will go to charity when we die. [3.3 million left]

6) Three million to be invested for income to live and travel on for the rest of our lives.

7) After all of those initial disbursements, we will have $300,000.00 to celebrate the windfall with. We will use it to start chipping away at our 100 things to do before we die list. Since 90 of those 100 things are travel related, I figure (given that even unlimited money won't turn us into 5 Star travelers) we will get through about 18 months before we need to start using income.

OH, by the way....I did buy a 100M Power Ball ticket today.

I feel like a third grader - giddy with excitement. Weather has closed most of the businesses in our town.
We've got a major ice storm in the area. The St. Louis television camera crews have parked themselves in Fenton to get footage of all the people foolish enough to get into a car today.
I would have been one of those people, if it were not for the fact that wisdom prevailed and our store isn't opening.
So, I have a snow day! Except, it is really an ice day. And that means I can't go out in my snowsuit with the mittens attached to each other by a string running up my sleeves to make snow angels.
Instead, I'll stay inside with a glass of wine and try to get some vacation planning done.

Shirley is seriously invested in the philosophy of SlowTrav.

She's my aunt - my mother's baby sister. But it feels weird calling her "aunt" since she is only a year older than me and we grew up together. I much prefer to just call her my best friend, because that is what she really is.

When she isn't traveling, Shirley lives on a ranch in the Sierra foothills. She just recently turned a chunk of that property into a culinary grade lavender farm.

Anyway, back to the subject of her investment in Slow. Shirley has this habit of going to the same places for the same reasons every year. She goes to Cody, WY for an annual cowboy art festival. She goes to Clarksdale, Mississippi for a Blues Festival. She goes to Lake Tahoe so her dogs can play in the snow.

Now, If you know Shirley, you know she just doesn't like to stay in hotels. She likes the convenience of having an entire house to herself. She's also a pretty shrewd business woman.

So what does she do when she wants to keep going back to the same place at least once a year? Is she a regular at some cute little B & B? Does she find a favorite vacation rental?

HECK NO! She just buys a house.

She fixes it up to suit herself; blocks the dates she wants to use it every year and then lists it with vacation rental companies. She puts that sucker to work paying for itself.

Here are her three places here in the US. She has all of them listed on VRBO so I will just post the photo along with the listing number if anyone is interested in looking at them.

Tahoe VRBO #146495

Clarksdale, MS VRBO #146407

Cody, WY VRBO #69995

I'm just waiting to find out what will be her next new place to go, since that means another house will join the VRBO list.

Evidently there is a hotbed of lavender farming in Sequim, Washington. That's where the Lavender Festival is held in July every year.

SO, my bet is on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula.

Last week I got a call at work from the principal of one of my elementary schools.

The first graders were producing a musical. The name of the musical is "First Grade Musical". Cute, huh?

As part of their ongoing community service, the were also presenting several businesses in the area with potted plants. The flower pots were custom decorated by the kids. And, Barnes & Noble was one of the four businesses they chose.

So, I was invited to be a guest of honor, sitting in the front row at "First Grade Musical".

First Grade Musical is about Old McDonald's Farm. It seems that the cow wouldn't sing. All the animals in the barnyard were enlisted to try to convince the cow to break her silence.

The Pigs told silly jokes with vaudvillian timing. The Rooster brought all his cute little Chickies to dance. The Lambs sang a lament about losing Little Bo Peep. And finally, the Donkey suggested that if all the other barnyard animals would say nice things to Miss Cow to boost her self-esteem, she might have more confidence and be willing to sing.

So, after a series of gooey compliments about her big brown eyes, beautiful coat, great bone structure, and refined way of chewing cud, Miss Cow did indeed come out of her self imposed silence to sing a mooing song.

It was great fun, the kids were amazingly talented, and the costumes were adorable.

We've got some wonderful new neighbors. I could tell I was going to like them when they moved in this fall. But, it wasn't until two nights ago (Feb. 29th) that I realized just how much.

This is the display on their front lawn! My kind of people! (Thanks to Palma's post, I was inspired to go out and take the photo for my blog.)

SHHHHH !!!! It's a SURPRISE!

My Mom is an amazing woman. She is 88 years young, healthy, active, and loves adventure.

I get my wonderlust from her. If you say "Go" she will be packed and waiting at her front door without bothering to ask "Where?"

This year, my slightly delayed Mother's Day gift to her is a trip down Memory Lane. In a few weeks, I'm taking her back to the place we lived from the time I was three until I was 14.

When I was a kid (1953 - 1964), my dad was a teacher at College of the Ozarks.

Back then, it was called School of the Ozarks and was a four year boarding high school and junior college, founded in 1906 by the Presbyterian Church to give an education beyond 8th grade to kids from the Ozark backwoods.

S of O, as we insiders called it, was the closest thing you could get to a commune and still be mainstream protestant.

Teachers all lived in free housing on campus. Each teacher's spouse (who wasn't also a teacher) held a support job on campus. In the 1950's there weren't any Barbara-Billingsley-stay-at-home-moms at S of O. My mom was in charge of the Student Bank, & Commissary/Snack Shop.

Faculty kids called their friends mothers "Mama". My next door neighbor was Mama Good. My best friend's mother was Mama Clark. The fathers, however, were still all called "Mr." or "Dr."

Staff families were encouraged to eat their meals in the campus dining room if they wanted to. Mom always fixed a hot breakfast at home but we often had dinner with the students.

Speaking of students, they weren't allowed to pay to go to school at S of O. Instead they worked for their education, their room and board, and even their spending money.

The campus was amost totally self-sustaining. Students made their own furniture. Produced their own electricity. Raised all their own produce and livestock. They had a fire department, telephone company, printing plant, post office (Point Lookout, MO 65726), hospital, canning factory, dairy, flour mill, bakery, and weaving studio. They didn't have any police, however, not even a Barney Fife.

When we needed eggs, my mom sent me to the poultry farm with an empty egg carton. I signed a 'chit' and came back with a dozen fresh warm and still unwashed eggs that were laid that morning.

When we needed milk, she sent me with our wire basket full of empty glass bottles to the dairy. I signed another chit and came home with replacement bottles full of milk pasturized that morning.

Students held jobs in areas of campus life that gave them experiences toward their future career goals. Our family had a houskeeper who planned to be a high school home-economics teacher and a gardener who was studying horticulture. When our house needing painting, or a new roof, or a screen door fixed, one of the students who was studying construction sciences was assigned the task.

When school was out for the summer, we went barefoot six days a week and spent every one of those days in the schools olympic size swimming pool where students watched over us - kind of. If we were able to climb the ladder to the high-dive, nobody cared how young we were.

Sometimes we climbed down the bluff behind our house to the river to fish for blue gill. Or because there weren't any horses, we would go out to the fields with rope, and coax the cows over to the fence so we could climb up on them for a 'ride'. On rainy days we played inside the Museum (which was unlocked 24 hours a day). There was a fully furnished one room log cabin inside the museum that we used as our own personal playhouse.

My favorite holiday was Halloween. The "Campus Brats" as faculty kids were called, went trick-or-treating to the dorms --- with bushel baskets.

That life seemed so normal to me. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how truly charmed it really was.

Now it is time to take Mom back to see how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same, and let her know how thankful I am for her part in giving me that childhood.