Look out Sioux City

My parents had two children.  My sister and me.  Those two children had three children.  My sister had three.  Those three children have 3 wonderful people with whom they are sharing their lives.  They likewise have among them, 7 children (one with a serious beau).  For the first time in ever so long, we will all converge on one location at one time this weekend.  That would Hilton Garden Inn in Sioux City.  Perhaps I should not mention the location.  There's still time for some crafty person to call and warn them, but I take that chance.  Here's the deal.  We're ALL crazy!  Among us we have several motorcycles, a myriad of tattoos, a penchant for depantsing their uncle in the K-Mart parking lot, a blogger, sports fan(atics) and a wanton disrespect for conventionality!  I've spoken of my parental units before.  W.A. and Miss Lucy would quite frequently roll their eyes, complain bitterly that they NEVER taught us this behavior, and all the while would be glowing in the realization that they have created a family that knows how to love each other and have fun!  So on Friday, my understanding wife and I will jump in the car, head south, and enjoy a weekend that has the promise of greatness.  And I will tie the drawstring on my shorts extra tight!  May you find in your family the same joy we anticipate, and know you are loved!

It's called an Amarine

As I understand it, you are looking at a flower that has only been imported into the United States for the lasts two weeks.  It is a cross between an amaryllis and a nerine, both native to South Africa.  When we got them, each stalk had one flower.  As they develop, they actually produce multiple flowers on each stalk, turning what seems to be a simple bloom into a sphere of color.  Watching them develop has already been an experience.  Isn't it amazing what can happen when you take one beautiful thing and cross it with another?  To me, it's sort of like attitude.  It is my belief that attitude is both infectious and contagious.  When I meet someone is a good mood, I feel buoyant...lighter than before meeting them.  When I meet someone with a crappy attitude, I do my best not the catch it.  I'm usually successful, but....  How much better, fuller, and prettier life would be if I maintained a positive attitude and CHOSE to surround myself with like people!  So it is with all of us.  I understand that life is not always rosy.  Sometimes you are the statute and sometimes you are the pigeon, but we can CHOOSE to avoid sinking into the poop!  Hows that for a Sunday philosophy?  And if nothing else, you got to see a rare and beautiful thing!  Ain't life grand?  And you are loved!

It oughta be...doggerel

The robins are chirping, red breasts are their bling
Proclaiming quite loudly, "It oughta be spring!"

Orange shorts I am clad with, sweat pants I do fling
The temp passes forty, it oughta be spring!

In season that's vernal, tulips are the king
Tenaciously growing, it oughta be spring!

The Neon complaining, the engine does ping
It's time for a tuneup, it oughta be spring!

It's forty-one years since I gave her the ring
Romance still does blossom, it oughta be spring!

The weather is changing, I won't miss its sting
I'm ready for planting, it oughta be spring!

By now you should notice the alphabet thing
In order, peculiar, let's hope it's soon spring!

I think it's soon over, from words I do wring
Penultimate rhymer that goes well with spring.

I'm skipping the yang/ying, I go straight to zing
That wonderful feeling to know it is spring!

So throw your eyes upward to heaven above
It's finally, actually, undoubtedly excitedly, stupendously, irrefutably, undeniably maybe here....
and it's you I do love!

Friday...

a great day to plan what to eat for the weekend.  And I have an amazingly simple dessert for you.  If you like lemon, you'll adore these bars.  If you like coconut, you'll fall in love.  Here it is.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. one step angel food cake mix
1 can lemon pie filling
1 small package coconut

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
juice and zest of one lemon

Process:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine first three ingredients (omit coconut if not a fan!)
Spread evenly into an UNGREASED jelly roll pan
Bake for 18 minutes.
While baking, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and zest
Spread on bars while still warm.

In my life, easy is good, and this is good and easy!  Find time to share these with someone you love, and know you are!

The mundane

Got up.  Did the puzzle.  Drank the coffee.  Played a little bridge.  Went for a run.  Cleaned my kitchen(!) Did some clothes. Had leftovers for lunch.  Watched a DVR episode of NCIS:Los Angeles.  Showered.  Put on same clothes I had on this morning (now clean and fresh thanks to item seven above!).  Last load in the washer.  And it's only one pm!  Truly, a typical day...well, except for that clean the kitchen thing!  I am remiss in that particular duty, but it looks so nice when I finally get it done!  What, you say, makes me think you give a rat's rump about my day?  Perhaps it's because it is in the mundane that we can find our blessings.  We often look for those "defining moments" in our lives...births, graduations, weddings, first jobs, new jobs, new houses, retirement, funerals...to do just that...define us.  To a degree, they may.  But I have my health, ergo, I got up this morning.  I still can fire up the gray matter, so I did the puzzle.  I am addicted to caffeine, so one caters to the monkey on one's back.  I love to play bridge!  I hate to run, but I hopefully will live longer to enjoy the other things if I do.  Okay, cleaning is a bit iffy.  Washing clothes?  I love how they look and smell, and how I look and smell when they are clean.  Eating?  Come on!  You've got to be kidding.  I run!  I eat more!  Spending time with mi esposa watching a tv show that intrigues us, a joy.  And the shower?  Well I do that for you folk.  It is truly in the everyday items that we can find joy...if we look for it.  Those big events?  They're transient.  The mundane can and should be celebrated every day.  I am blessed.  And you are loved!

WW III The battle for...

I speak not to war as we know it.  In fact, war is not even in the abbreviation.  I speak instead of our Wireless World.  I sit with my I-pad, and if I want to print what's on my screen, I send it to our wireless printer.  Currently, I sit at our desk-top computer, entering data on our wireless keyboard and manipulating our wireless mouse as needed.  If I want to call someone, I pick up my cell phone.  (Trust me, I NEVER want to text someone, but I could if I had to.!)  We wirelessly play bridge in the morning with people from all over the world.  When I want to go somewhere, I remotely start the car and raise the garage door.  I even paid the government my fair share of taxes with a wireless transfer from my bank.  Convenience, in all instances.  And yet, I fear convenience is trumping communication skill.  Freedom from contact is decreasing contact skills.  And yet we continue to find ways to transmit concepts without face time, without sharing, and without touch.  The possibility of poorly designed online classes scares the bejeezus out of me.  I understand their worth and their benefit, but unless they are integrated with classroom interaction and human presentation, they provide ONLY information.  Life is not about what I know.  It is about how I use it and how I can make the world a better place for those around me.  Doing so without personal interaction for me is far too sterile and atmosphere.  And we all know that sterility precludes growth.  Yes, we can get more information to a wider range of people.  Yes, we continue to go where no man has gone before.  And yes, there is a place for all of these wireless activities.  We must fight for the integration of them and personalization.  We must battle for the ability to write cogent sentences, to see the beauty in another person, and to know the joy of a simple touch.  So let it be written.  So let it be done.  In that vein, imagine if you will a 64 year old graying non-texter, embracing you in person and telling you that you are loved!

Namaste

There are parts of my thighs that don't hurt...I think.  Quick translation, I started Yoga yesterday.  That which is supposed to free my inner being is obviously fighting its way to the outside through said thighs.  I don't want to suggest that I am not in the best shape, but there are truths that cannot be hidden.  The simple whimper and groan when I stand give them away.  Of course, the Yoga of which  I speak is chair Yoga, designed for those of us who would more likely qualify for stewing roosters than young chicks.  Never-the-less, we obviously stretched parts that had hitherto remained in pristine, unexercised positions.  I can do the breathing.  It's a good thing.  I can take the upper body stretches and the shoulder rolls.  Great muscle relaxation.  It's the position in which you are squatting with that part of you that longs to be on the chair is thrust haphazardly behind you that has taken its toll.  I don't remember what the position is called.  I prefer to think of it as a pain in the assets.  At the end of the class, the instructor turns out the lights and asks us to completely relax.  I did that.  I could have done that all hour.  But being the non-quitting individual I am, if I am able to get out of bed tomorrow, I shall return, if only to give grist to the bitch-and-moan mill!  The one thing I did learn is the title of this particular epistle...I bow to the divine in you!  And know you are loved!