Renaissance morning

Just finished an hour of shoveling and blowing the 8% chance of snow we had for yesterday.  Came in and it hit me.  I was hungry for lemon meringue pie.  We have bridge tonight.  Why not make a pie and take it to bridge?  Well, there was only one sort of okay lemon, but some "real lemon" juice in the fridge (which probably has out dated some time ago.)  I managed to scrape off enough REAL zest for flavor and augmented the "real" lemon juice with a little lemon extract.  Tasted okay.  Thankfully, just before I added the water to the sugar mixture, I realized that I had used baking powder rather than corn starch.  If you are in need of two cups of sugar mixed with four tbs. of flour and four tbs. of baking powder, I know where you can find it!  Start over.  End result?  Looks fantastic.  We'll see how it tastes.  Dishes are done and I'm blogging for the day.  One might ask what Renaissance has to do with this post?  Beats me, but the title sounded good!  Hope you can enjoy a piece of pie and know you are loved!

A state...of mind

The outdoor thermometer says -2.  Of course, sitting in the car headed to Sioux Falls, it's difficult to determine the "feels like" temperature, and that may be a blessing.  The snow blows across the road, even though the sun (and its puppies) shines brightly.  A winter day with its chilling ability to depress and beat down the strongest of optimists.  Or so it would try.  But Pollyannas are not so easy to rile, and inherent belief in good somehow win over desolation!  I can't understand or explain it, but as we pass the exit for Ward, my mind immediately goes to Iyott's garden center and I'm planning spring!  The excitement of color.  The positioning of plants.  The hope that is to come.  What a warm, wonderful feeling!  Oh wait, that's the seat warmer toasting my buns!  And the knowledge that positive trumps negative every day of the year!  I'm thrilled we're out of town and happy I was born cup half full!  Could I offer you a drink?  You are loved!

Helpless

Having never had kids, I have to take on faith the discomfort parents feel when their little child is sick.  Unable to communicate the problem, the parental units have to observe, judge, and pray.  As a dog owner, I feel the same frustration.  Rocci, our almost 17 year old, didn't have a good day.  When I went to pick her up, she literally screamed.  When I put her down, she seemed okay...until we got home this afternoon.  Then I picked her up again and the screaming ensued...even after I put her back down.  Off to the vet.  No screaming.  She did leave a gigantic deposit on the scale, however.  Seems as she has no problem communicating her feelings of going to the vet.  Anyhow, during the entire time we are there, she makes not a peep.  Prodded, poked, and manipulated.  Nothing.  Our vet, who walks on water as far as I am concerned, said she may have some muscle weakness, but her temp was fine and she didn't seem to be in pain.  However, he did suggest she may scream again when she got home.  She was good...until the treat.  Scream.  After that, however, she has been relatively quiet.  I want her to tell me what hurts.  I want to make it better.  So I will observe, and judge...and pray.  It's what's left to do!  Know you are loved

I hand wrote a letter!

First, let me say I find it appalling that cursive writing is no longer being taught.  I understand it isn't the primary method of written communication.  I understand there is an overwhelming need to cram more dates and events into the minds of our students (okay, I don't, but it sounds good!).  But to not be able to sign your name?  To not be able to individualize your "font"?  To not be able to read what those of us coots continue to believe to be a preferable alternative of written communication?  Abhorrent!  But that's just my opinion.  Having said (yelled, cursed, profaned) that, I just finished writing a letter to a former student with whom I have kept contact for all these 45 years.  That bond, that relationship, deserves something other than a text, an e, a tweet, or for that matter, a facebook poke!  That relationship deserves the time...the effort...and the love inherent in a hand-written epistle.  Granted, the hand-writing (although "not bad for a boy"!) may be a little harder to read.  The strokes are a little shaky.  The pen, a little wobbly, but hopefully, he and his wife will realize the import they hold in my life.  Love comes in many forms.  And you are!

She asked for a salad

Sometimes, a simple request can lead to an interesting result.  In an attempt to alter her diet, my lovely bride said she'd just have a salad for supper.  You see, she's at church, running the sound system, and when she gets home, there's that football game she will want to watch, so I thought I would have her salad waiting for her.  Of course, I am, on occasion, wont to take a simple request and make it monumental.  Well, a salad is pretty hard to monumentize, but it is possible to dress it up a little.  The thing is, I don't see her as a simple salad.  I see her as a beautiful, appetizing, complex woman, who deserves a similar salad.  So this is what she gets!

Love comes in so many forms.  Understand that it comes to you!

I just don't get it

Three obvious preconceptions.  First, after 64 years, I am still amazingly naive when it comes to concepts of violence.  Second, I have lived an amazingly insulated life.  Third, I can't understand religious fervor calling for either overt violence or retribution.  Given those three things, you can imagine my consternation with recent global events.  Or for that matter, the inability of compromise, internationally, nationally, or locally!  I would purport our goal...our legacy...should be to leave the world better than it was before we were here.  And by better, I mean safer, happier, and joyful!  I intend to do my best.  Will you?  We can change what is to be!  And you are loved!

In the basement

-->The desktop computer is in the basement.  It has a full size keyboard.  I like that!
-->The washer and dryer are in the basement.  I can multi-task!  I like that!
-->My kitchen is in the basement and it is clean.  I can look at it without guilt.  I like that!
-->I can't hear the wind in the basement.  I like that a lot!
-->Therefore I deduce, even a pit has its benefits!  Oh, and I love you!