Share Your World – 9/29/20

I haven’t done this for awhile, but this seems like a good morning to jump right in and play with Melanie and her friends.

Where do you feel most at home?  Please be more specific than “at home, doh” please. It could be a room in your home, a person, a location…  😝 😁 😇

There are a few places in my home I feel “most at home” – my morning room, my family room, my front deck. But when I read this question, I think outside my home – what other places make me feel most “at home” – most comfortable. That would have to be the ocean, oceanside, where I can hear, feel, smell, the ocean and see the sandy beaches. One of the Great Lakes might work too – they’re big enough to make ocean-type waves lapping on the shoreline. Such a comforting sound.

Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car?  🐎  🚗 🚲 If we’re just talking druther, I’d say ride a horse – in reality, I’ve only ridden a horse a couple of times in my life, not enough to be comfortable. But oh I would so love to be able to ride. If I must answer with some sense of reality, then it would be drive a car. Riding a bike was good when I was young – now I’m not all that comfortable with my sense of balance.

What song would you sing on “Karoke Night” (if you were forced to do so)?  🎤 🎶 🎻🎷🎺🎸🎵🎹 Oh, you really do not want to be exposed to my “singing”. Really, you do not!  But if I could sing, the song I would love to be able to sing well would be “Hallelujah” – I love that song.

University or life experience, which do you feel best prepares you for life?  🎓 I think life experience best prepares us. University can fill our brains with knowledge useful in earning a living so you can have a life, but I believe lessons most often remembered are those we’ve gained through first-hand experience.

IT’S AN ATTITUDE – GRATITUDE!  (Participation Always Optional Of Course)

What are you grateful for? Getting up this morning to watch the sun come over the hills behind me, the golden glow of early morning. This time of the year, the sun comes up much further south in the eastern sky, so the shadows it casts are not the same as during other times of the year. I am grateful for fall and its colors, the feel of its air, the calmness the season seems to provide, most of the time. I am grateful for my furry kids, my not furry adult kids, my friends. My life.

Focusing on Happy Thoughts

Because too many of my thoughts are not happy thoughts – today I need to focus on what’s good in this life. On those things that make me know I have enough.

Some of those happy things. My tiny little seedlings of three different kinds of basil. My micro greens reaching for the sun. The wheat grass for the cats. My Cyclamen having a grand time putting forth its cheerful blooms.

Yesterday evening as the sun began to lower in the sky, Shasta and I went out and sat on the front deck, me with my wine, her just having finished her dinner. It was lovely – the perfect kind of light at that time of day, wonderful temperature, calm, quiet. Birds bathing in the fountain bird bath and pecking around the ground for their dinners. The jackrabbits enjoying their grasses for dinner. Quiet. Calm. Restful.

Later in the evening, sitting before my electric fireplace, watching the flames flicker – it’s almost as restful as the ocean sounds are for me. These pretend flames with the little sound box emitting sounds of fire crackling – priceless.

My newest weaving project, a special request from a friend.

My furry kids, my companions. Shasta, the dog, who is getting old now and spends most of her days sleeping, although she really tries to keep up with me when we go outside.

The cat, the Nong, who spent her day going out and in, out and in, out through the cat door to the catio, protesting the fact that she could go no further than the catio. Because. Because she thinks she’s entitled to chase after all those birds, and rabbits, and squirrels. She spent a good part of the day telling the world how mean I am.

And there is the Queso – the elusive Queso, who I can pet only when I put down his wet food. But do not attempt to pick up – he has claws that scratch when he launches his escape. Still, he is a pretty boy sleeping in his basket in the catio.

All of these things that bring me joy, peace, happiness. These are the things that make me realize I do have enough.

Sadness

Sadness – along with frustration – seem to be my keywords this year. I keep thinking nothing more can happen to bring those words, those emotions to me – yet I am continually proven wrong. This sadness – the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsberg – is a huge sadness. A huge loss. In a world where reasoning and thoughtfulness seems to have disappeared, this lady was both of those things, as well as intelligent and a force to be reckoned with. She was a honor to our country.

To top off my sadness at her loss – my frustration with Mitch and his cohorts in the Senate is also rising up to my discomfort. Four years ago he refused to bring a candidate for the Supreme Court up for a vote because it “was too close to an election and that should be done by the coming president”. Now, suddenly, that no longer matters, and Mitch promises to fill the position quickly. Let’s not promote partisanship or anything – can’t be done if the sitting president is a Democrat, but must be done if the sitting president is a Republican.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

I have been quiet for awhile, because those words above – sadness and frustration – have been dwelling too often and too long in my world, and I didn’t want to give you another rant to suffer through. But those thoughts have to be released or I fear they will consume me. Every day brings more untruths, more chaos, more dishonor to our ears, to our lives, to our country.  Thank you, Electoral College. Thank you, people who are willing to accept this swamp creature as their representative. Thank you, government that cares nothing for the people or the country, but only for its political party. Lead us into a dictatorship, is the chant I’m hearing from the supporters of the current government. They don’t know that’s what they’re asking for – because reasoning and thoughtfulness is not part of their repertoire. Blame desperation, perhaps. I’m not sure, because I truly do not understand their beliefs or feelings.

Am I being harsh? Yes. If this government is re-elected, I’m not quite sure how I’ll handle it. My budget does not permit the concept of moving to a new country, but if it did, I would certainly seriously consider it. I used to be proud of my country – I used to feel we were a great country. Not so much, now, I’m very sorry – so sad – to say. I support those who support the country and its people – those who are willing to risk their lives for their beliefs – who are willing to go out and speak their minds, protest for their beliefs, in a peaceful manner. I do not support those who spread confusion and chaos, who consider denigrating other people that disagree with them, or cause violence and destruction – both physical and emotional.

I weep for those who think this person who is the sitting president, can “get it done”. Because I fear “getting it done” refers to his unfair fight against immigrants. I fear that feeling is underlying, unacknowledged racism. I fear more of this administration and we truly will not have an earth on which to reside, or peace in the valley, or pride in who we are.

And I wonder, as I yell “stop the earth, I want to get off”, if all of this that has gone on and is going on in this year of 2020 is the result of the anger of the higher being, punishing us for our thoughtlessness, greed, stupidity, and lack of integrity.

I never used to be a doomsday believer. Sadness. Frustration.

Fire Status

Just a quick update – I found a Facebook page for our fire today, and it appears they think they have it fairly well contained. Winds from the southeast are predicted for later today, which will test their Northern line. But at least the news is good. So far.

I want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and words. It is heart warming.

Hanging in there

I have found no updates on our fire this morning, which I take to be good news. I think it would be impossible to update for every single fire in this state at this time, it’s just unimaginable. Or was, until this summer. As Joanne, a blogger friend who lives in New South Wales was saying, it’s like their summer was last year.

While many areas are experiencing weird orange skies (which I have seen here one summer when there were no fires close by), our skies are gray, heavy with smoke, and I cannot see the hills that are behind my property, just across the highway. It looks like this:

As far as I am aware, all evacuation notices for the area have been dropped, and while I doubt the fire is truly contained, I think it must be being controlled. This is a good thing.

In the meantime, I am starting a new project on my loom, and I have bread proofing. Housework? Nah, I want to do things that make me happy. Housework will wait. I know from experience, it does not go away.

Hell on Earth Update

This is a map showing the 242 fire area. I am where the little blue dot is at the lower part of the map, just above the purple rectangle.

At this point, it appears they’re most concerned about the area to the east of highway 97. For now, our area is as safe as you can be with things as they are. We remain on alert, and pray the winds don’t start coming from the north. Actually, we pray the winds don’t come and rain does.

Hell on Earth

I think I might feel like a real person rather than someone on the edge of a complete breakdown today – because, well, this is how the world around me looks:

I am the little blue dot about mid-way down on the left. That fire shown immediately above the blue dot? That’s the TwoFourTwo fire that started late Monday evening and shook my routine way out into orbit. It was about 8 miles north of where I am when it started, and quickly escalated to 2000 acres, so suddenly my neighborhood (and many others) were in the “be prepared to flee evacuation zone”. Needless to say, Monday night was mostly sleepless, with the neighborhood packing absolute necessities in their cars. I retrieved the cat carriers from the garage, threw a few clothes in a suitcase, got dog and cat food into a bag and in the car. At 4:00 a.m., some of us took off to the parking lot of the nearby casino – which had become the Red Cross station – where we stayed until 7:00 a.m. when we came back home to spend our day checking news reports, on alert, sleepless and stressed. I now can relate in a small way to all those people who are interviewed on TV when faced with a natural disaster.

So far this morning, things seem to be more calm. I am poised, however, to flee if necessary. Yesterday I had thought I would head to my daughter’s house north of here – then learned that all roads to the north were blocked. By fires. Today I’ll pretend all is well, while keeping my eyes and ears open. The fire progressed to 6000 acres during the day yesterday, only a mile or so from my neighborhood, and it was only after the wind calmed down and the firefighting planes had spent the afternoon dumping water unto the flames that it settled down a bit.

So on this day, I feel extreme gratitude to those who fight the fires, who keep people informed, who are on hand to go door to door when it’s time to evacuate. I feel extreme gratitude that my house still stands, unscathed. I feel extreme gratitude that I still have enough.

However, I would like to make a formal announcement, loud and clear, to all who wish to listen: I’m over 2020. I’m ready to move on – forward, upward, back to the future as it looked 50 years ago. Thank you.

I Know A Predator When I See One

I got this blog from That Little Voice, https://margosviews.wordpress.com/2020/08/22/i-know-a-predator-when-i-see-one/#like-18745, who got it from Life in the Boomer Lane.

that little voice

This is a reblog from one of my favorite bloggers: Life in the Boomer Lane.

Life in the Boomer Lane

Musings of a former hula hoop champion

Posted on August 21, 2020

21

A predator in the animal kingdom is defined as an animal that kills or eats other animals for food. The most successful predators are not necessarily the biggest and the strongest. They are the ones with the sharpest predatory instincts. They are fast. They have heightened senses. They have good camoflage. They can attack without their prey ever sensing that they are in danger.

Richard Heinberg has studied predators. Human groups have “preyed” upon one another via two main pathways—intragroup and intergroup—which have often intersected or run parallel. Members of a complex society can “prey” upon other members of the same society via slavery (including sex slavery and debt slavery), caste, class, taxes…

View original post 453 more words

Rambling

Sitting by my window in my morning room, loving the sound of the hummingbirds coming in for a sip or two, watching the small birds flit around in the bush just beyond the bird tree. Little warblers, I think, although they don’t sit still long enough for a reliable identification.

Yesterday required a trip to the bigger town 30 miles down the road for groceries. I was much relieved to see people wearing masks in the store, so apparently the store is doing a good job of enforcing the governor’s order. Our little town is not so good at that.

I have decided – wait for it – that Covid is the wrath of God, by whatever name you might call your God, at the stupidity of her people on this earth in the choices they make and the thoughts they think. I decided to join the ranks of the conspiracy theorists. Why should I use logic and the brain I was given to think things through in an intelligent manner?

I’ve been watching the convention – at least Monday and Wednesday nights. I did not on Tuesday, and then regretted it, because people, this is important. Will I watch the RNC next week? Doubtful, because I don’t think my heart could take it. My heart deals poorly with too much time listening to lies. Because I have a hard time believing so many people out there believe those lies. Or can support a man like Trump.

My view of the Trump presidency, maybe not in a nutshell: It’s been all these years of perpetual campaigning for attention, hoping for adoration – no, demanding adoration or at least complete loyalty. Do not think for yourselves, followers of Trump, simply nod and bow in obedience. Years of name-calling – if you do not agree, you are Nasty, or Stupid, or some such negative term. Division – and you tell me to my face that man is not racist – anyone that can praise the white supremists cannot be otherwise.  never mind the man’s lack of morality – his lack of compassion, inability to feel empathy, total narcissism – OMG! This, people, is not a president! Before you vote, remember that the person you vote for will be standing in as you in front of the world. That person represents each one of us. Is the person you’re voting for someone you want representing you?

On a happier note, my microgreens garden is doing well. I’m not willing to put forth the work involved in an outside garden, so I opted to grow microgreens – good for on sandwiches, salads of any kind, in a taco, in a smoothie. Healthy food. Easy to grow.Yay!

That’s radish microgreens on the left, and mixed salad microgreens on the right.

We’ve had some dramatic skies the past few nights – threats of damaging thunder/lightning storms – the kind that cause wildfires – but we were lucky and only got the beautiful skies that come with those threats.

Because, sometimes, good things happen.

Share Your World – 8/10/2020

Melanie has added a “twist” to Share Your World now, but I am opting not to play the twist. I’ve seen the Harry Potter movies, but am not really a fan and remember very little of anything I saw in those movies. So, here I am, playing the untwisted part of sharing my world.

Would You Rather Live 120 Years That Are Comfortable But Boring, Or Live Half As Long, But Have An Exciting Adventure Packed Life? Can I have a long boring life punctuated with exciting adventures every now and then? I mean, comfort matters, up to a point, and adventure matters, up to a point. Or maybe it’s all in the definition of ‘boring’. Maybe your boring wouldn’t be boring for me. This might require some investigation and further thought.

What’s Something That Overwhelms You? You have to ask? The state of this country, the dysfunction of our government, the Donald on his way to being a single ruler of the country, screw the Congress – but then, the Congress can’t get together to do anything anyway. That’s what overwhelms me.

What Do or DID You Take For Granted? I did take a functional government for granted, up until fairly recently. I did take the ability of people to use logic and thought instead of just reacting for granted until fairly recently. I did take for granted time with my son and daughter in the summers until Covid. I will give these times that much – I take far less for granted now.

Hmmm – that got grumpy, didn’t it?

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Gratitude:   Please feel free to share some gratitude moments or thoughts you’ve had recently.  This section is entirely optional.