|
Bloggers, I need your input ....
|
Dec 19, 2011 7:02 am
1137 Views
|
|
Has anyone else had problems with the site recently in responding to a blog, clicking done to post and being kicked back to sign in? This has happened to me twice in the past couple of days. When I've signed in again and gone back to the blog I was responding to, my post has not been recorded there. Gurrrrrrrrrrr. All effort lost!
|
|
|
20
Comments
|
|
|
Christmas bird count ....
|
Dec 16, 2011 4:31 pm
960 Views
|
Tomorrow, my Jim and I are off for the annual Christmas bird count. Through Jim's interest and connections, we're given a territory to survey, to record and report the birds we are able to see. I say 'we' loosely, because Jim is the one with a background in, and a long-term interest in, ornithology. I'm learning as I go! (I opted for geology as an elective.)
Weather looks fair. Should be a good day.
At the tail-end of the territory we intend to cover in about four hours time lies the club house at the golf course we attend in the season of losing balls in the swamp holes or woods. LOL We'll enjoy one of their scrumptious bloody Mary's and a pizza to wind up the day.
Wish you could all join us!! 
|
|
|
7
Comments
|
|
|
Foto Friday - Christmas
|
Dec 16, 2011 10:43 am
1086 Views
|
Guess what? DEAD batteries in camera.  Thus ... no current shots to share.
This is a click I've shared before, but to participate, it'll have to serve. I don't know if I've ever presented anyone with a gift quite as much appreciated as this afghan I made for my daughter's cat, her only 'child,' and spoiled, to boot.
|
|
|
18
Comments
|
|
|
The evolution of my one and only SFF romantic venture .... time tested.
|
Dec 14, 2011 10:46 am
1410 Views
|
As most of you know, I've been on the site now for over eight years. Enter .... September, 2003.
This is going to take a bit, so relax, grab a beer and bear with me. This recollection is prompted by someone else's post on long-distance relationships ........
Within three months on the site, I received an e-mail from a gent who informed me very casually he would be in my territory very soon on a business connection. He had yet to set the exact appointment, but he asked if I'd be interested in meeting for a drink at the close of his business day. I responded just as casually with an agreement.
It was awhile before I heard from him, but when he wrote again, he asked that I pick a venue and assured me he'd find it ... with directions. In so doing, I was exceedingly cautious. I picked a supper club with a small, cozy bar directly across the street from my sister and brother-in-law's residence - my safety hatch - a place I'd been before, was acquainted with the owner and taking no chances. Okay, 4:30 p.m. on such and such a date at such and such a place. It was a date!
Between arrangement set and the time we met, there was no further communication except to confirm. No pictures exchanged, no details. I had no idea whatsoever what to expect and had not the foggiest notion of what the guy even looked like.
I arrived early and to calm my nerves, I sipped a glass of wine and shared with the owner of the establishment who tended the bar that I was there to meet someone I'd never met before in my life. He was alerted, and I felt good with taking yet another precaution. ( My sis and brother-in-law also knew I was right across the street at that very moment. Talk about paranoia!! ) It was early, too early for the dinner hour, so the bar was very quiet. I was the lone woman sitting there with my glass of wine. No mistaking who was waiting.
My eyes on the door, 4:30 SHARP, in walks this absolutely gorgeous looking man, spit-shined and meticulously dressed with tie and starched collar, the whole nine yards. WHOA!! What an amazingly delightful surprise. I liked what I saw!!
He approached me confidently with, "ET??" I responded with his handle?? "That would me," he said - or something like that - and we laughed. From moment of contact, he was so graciously easy .... our conversation flowed as naturally as the day is long; we talked and laughed at our uneasiness preceding, and I could tell, instinctively, he wasn't disappointed in me either! The physical attraction was there, and it was powerful. It was one of those rarely, "I dream of" connections.
We spent hours together that night ... not wanting it to end. More wine, lots of wonderful conversation, a slow and deliberate dine, even sharing bites and savoring every one. At one point he sweetly reached out and took my hand .... and OMG, my heart was a-flutter. The chemistry was there, no doubt about it.
At night's end, he walked me to my car and hugged me so lovingly. He had miles to go. He lived better than two hours away, it was winter driving, and we parted company, clasping hands and with one short but soft and sweet kiss on the lips .... but with no mention of when or if. It didn't even matter at the moment. It was a magical evening, and I drove home with my head in the clouds.
Began the e-mails .... the admission on his part that he was trying, trying, trying to arrange his work schedule to be here in town again soon and more frequently. That all ensued, in time, at intervals. He had a large territory to cover in his work which meant a lot of time on the road. At one point earlier, I came to learn, it was as much as three states.
So began a three-year, long-distance endearment .... BUT, grab onto your hats and grab another beer while you're at it .... there's more.
For the most part, it progressed as a weekend affair, sometimes a solitary week night when he was en route from point A to point B .... although, eventually, we took a couple of lovely extended vacation trips together. However, looking back and in my romantic haze, the 'best behavior' thingy definitely rang true, as it so happens when two are together only at intervals and only rarely from day to day.
I thought the world of the guy; he was a real gent. I fell madly in love with him. He was kind and sensitive, and I'd never been graced with so many beautiful bouquets of flowers before in my life, the wine flowed, and we cherished our time together.
He took me to meet his lovely mom who was elderly, became very ill and, in the course of our relationship, died of cancer. We attended her funeral together. I attended his eldest son's wedding with him; he attend my own son's wedding with me. We were solid .... or so I thought.
Oddly enough, though, when came those times that I would be invited to spend a weekend in his territory and at his residence, and the extended family entered the mix, his entire persona changed. He became distant and remote in the mix. I was never comfortable or myself there. NEVER.
Skipping though a whole lot of detail here .... at a slow and deliberate pace, it took nearly three years to see and feel the bigger and more real picture and to discover there were selfish meddlers lurking in the weeds - those who were dependent upon him and those who held the Family Trust purse strings - that determined our ultimate fate .... conniving, contriving and lying to maintain status-quo and control .... all purported to be 'good Catholics,' I might add, which I was/am not. Therein lay problems I knew I could not overcome .... much as I cared. No ... it was not in the offering that I would convert to Catholicism .... certainly not to be accepted into the fold.
I felt as though I was on the periphery of all that was involved in his family affairs, inter-dependency and excessive presence. I was keenly sensitive to it, though I didn't share my feelings. In the final analysis, it was too much. I walked away and put distance between us. I was not about to compete for the spoils, and I saw that he was entrenched. I didn't have it in me.
We tried, one more time - meeting on my turf - to resume as before, but without as much as addressing it with this man, I was feeling defeated by the whole family dynamic, very especially a sister-in-law who was cunning and deceptive and knew exactly how to drive a wedge. Without providing the sordid detail, I felt betrayed by the man I cared about in failing to see it, because it affected his trust in ME.
Burdened with THAT, and as chance and happenstance would have it, on the very fragile tail-end state of my on-going romance, I met the man I see now, a man in my own back yard .... one I could come to know in a completely different way and one always at hand ... one more like me .... one without all the meddling family joined at the hip and out to reek havoc .... one without the crutch of all the purported (but hypocritical) religious teachings ... one independent and calling his own shots.
I opted out .... though I will never say it wasn't beautiful while it lasted .... that is, before the ugly interference that sent me off in a state of enlightenment. *sigh* Left to our own resources and feelings for each other, we might have 'made it'.
Goodbye to love lost.
I still hear from him on my birthday and holidays, and I still remember with a sweet glow the wonderful times we shared. Actually, he had a tenderness about him that the man I see now doesn't quite possess. I guess maybe we can't have it all, can we?
|
|
|
41
Comments
|
|
|
I am woman! I've changed my mind!
|
Dec 12, 2011 9:41 am
1034 Views
|
Up to this morning - well, maybe even last night - I've been approaching the holidays with a real Scrooge attitude. I just have not been in the spirit at all. When alternate holidays require that my kids spend time with their father .... well, it leaves me pretty flat to face the holidays without them.
Last night I commented to my bf, 'Just think, Christmas is only fourteen days away. It's sneaked up on me."
His response was, 'Yeah, and I wish it was the 26th,' as though he'd just as soon by-pass it altogether, too.
When he left for a dental appt. this morning, and I was alone, I looked around my place and began to envision some semblance of the season, some sparkles, some lights, a beautiful poinsettia plant. I got the urge to decorate! Previously, I had had no inclination whatsoever to bother with it .... not a lick.
Today and tomorrow, I'm going for it! The next time that guy walks in the door it's going to look like Christmas around here!
I'm not going to go the whole nine yards with trimming that huge tree I have - which requires shoving furniture around - but I'm going to do the do ... put some lights around my bay window to shine from the outside looking in, trim my banister, place some of my lovely collectibles, pull out a lovely Christmas candelabra to place on that window table .... and I just might even bake some Christmas cookies. So there!
I think it will give me a huge lift to go with my current attitude flow, even though it's been a tad postponed.
|
|
|
18
Comments
|
|
|
Life expectancy .........
|
Dec 11, 2011 7:39 am
1129 Views
|
No, not mine! Least I haven't as yet been given a termination date. 
I'm talking about household appliances.
When I purchased my condo eight and a half years ago, it came quipped with a whole round of Whirlpool appliances .... washer/dryer, kitchen stove and dishwasher, all of mid 1980's vintage, all meticulously clean and in good working order. There was no refrigerator in place so I'm guessing it was the first item to give up the ghost. I bought new.
The elderly lady I purchased from was as meticulous in her record keeping as she was in her housekeeping. The place was immaculate. She left manuals and receipts for every appliance she'd purchased in the years she lived here so I'm aware of exactly how many years they've been in service.
The washer gave out three years ago. Prior to that, I'd had it serviced twice to keep it alive. Soooooooooo, let me see now .... it was purchased in 1986 and it finally bit the dust in 2008. It served me for five years, BUT it served its functional purpose for twenty-two years. ( The dryer yet functions perfectly at the age of 25! )
I bought a brand new Amana, heavy duty washer with a 'lifetime' stainless tub, ultra quiet and yada, yada, yada to the tune of about $650.00, with, guess what? A built in life expectancy of ten years! Tell me what I do with that 'lifetime' stainless tub? 
The brand new fridge I purchased when I moved in is now, of course, eight and a half years old. Again, it was claimed to have a life expectancy of ten years. Well, guess what? It's freezing lettuce. I've been checking on new. Do you realize the life expectancy of a fridge now has been reduced to eight years? My good lord!
My point .... I don't want to hear another person tell me, 'But everything now is made so much better than it ever was before, what with all of our wonderful technology,and blah, blah, blah .... and they're so much more 'energy efficient,' etc., etc.. It's all a bunch of happy crap!! I don't buy it.
EVERYTHING now is made to break down and die in less than half the time it used to, just to feed the consumption based society in which we live. NOTHING is made to endure, and for the high costs of replacement, it drives me insane.
My 25-yr-old dishwasher, my 25-yr-old kitchen stove, and my 25-yr-old dryer are still alive and well! The proof is in the puddin' . I'll live with them until I'm forced to buy the garbage on the market today.
I have a Sunbeam chrome toaster (1962), a Oster knife sharpener (1957) and an Osterizer blender(1969) and I 'ain't' giving them up! LOL Welcome to RETRO!  I swear by them.
This is a sorta-kinda, semi-democrat speaking .... an ultra conservative .... least as I define the word.
|
|
|
33
Comments
|
|
|
Foto Friday - Pets
|
Dec 9, 2011 8:50 am
954 Views
|
This is an old foto I snapped when I lived on a ranch in WY, a foto of my trusty herd dog, Herbie. Herbie was a cross between an Aussie Shepherd and a Border Collie and had the coloring of a Border Collie but bore the distinctive mark of the Aussie Shepherd in having one pale blue eye and one hazel eye. In my mind's eye, he was a gorgeous mix .... and smart as a whip.
With a natural herding instinct and very minimal training, Herbie assisted me in rounding up my small herd of about two hundred sheep on a nightly basis throughout most of the year. My herd was small since a thousand sheep is considered a 'herd' in those parts. Actually it was small until my ewes lambed and more than doubled that number. It was a brand new and personal venture for me .... and a handful. Way plenty. My ex had eight hundred beef cattle to tend and no time to help me. Herbie was my singular 'ranch hand'.
My sheep would graze in the daylight hours, but Herbie and I always corralled them at night to keep them safe from the coyotes and wolves, especially after they bore their little lambs. I think I could have sent Herbie out to do the job himself, but I always accompanied and assisted him. He was really the 'man' in charge and beautiful to watch.
Herbie is here 'nosing' one of my little 'bums,' a lamb that had lost its mother in birthing him. I'd wind up with several bums each season for one reason or another. Sometimes an ewe would have triplets and would reject the runt; sometimes the ewe would get 'milk fever'; sometimes the ewe would die of complications in birthing; sometimes a predator would overtake her. I'd keep the bums in a small fenced area near the house because they'd have to be bottle-fed.
I loved Herbie. He had the sweetest temperament. He was my buddy in that otherwise lonely place.
But one day he disappeared. I learned the next day a neighboring rancher had shot and killed him. Herbie had caught the scent of a female Border Collie in heat, and the rancher, guarding the pedigrees he raised and sold for good money, shot him dead.
I'm going to stop here .... because it's bringing back that sorrowful memory .............
I never again had a dog like Herbie. Never, ever.
|
|
|
15
Comments
|
|
|
One step forward, ten steps back.
|
Dec 8, 2011 6:14 am
833 Views
|
A couple of months ago I lifted the tank lids on my two toilets and realized how old and coated they were. You know how, in time, they accumulate that yellowish-white, lime residue that sticks to the ball? Yuck! It just looked gross! Even though both toilets were functioning just fine, I decided to have both mechanisms replaced. I called in a plumber. When he was finished, I could look inside those tanks and smile at how nice and clean they looked. *Grin* Small pleasures with the achievement of tidiness. I love it!
Welllllllllllllll .... yesterday, about two months after the fact, I received a lovely little notice from the water company that my water meter had been ticking up usage at a steady rate of 24 hours a day for an extended period of time!! WHAT???
Water consumption is expensive in this town, and I'm conscious of taking conservative measures with it! I don't even wash clothes unless I have a full load. I probably run my dishwasher only three/four times a week. I don't stand in the shower until the hot water runs out like my daughter does! YIKES!
In that letter they advised that I place a dye strip in each of my tanks, let it rest for about a half hour, and flush. It further advised that if any color whatsoever showed up in the water in the bowl, I had a leak. They nicely enclosed a couple of dye strips for that purpose.
Upstairs toilet water ran clear. No problem. Downstairs toilet water ......... sure enough ......... BRIGHT GREEN!
That same plumber will be here in less than an hour. After he smacked me for $200.00 for doing the job, he better not think of charging me again!! And, by the way, my friend told me after the fact, "Hell, I could have done that for you for nothing. That's an easy fix." Well .... I didn't want to bother him with it, and to be honest with you, I never expected it to cost that much! I bit the bullet.
And ............ I haven't even studied my water bill yet! I still have to look back at last month's bill to make a comparison of consumption to the month before - before I had the work done. I pay on a budget plan, so I'm always billed the same amount each month. I'm going to do that NOW, before that plumber arrives. Need to have my ducks in a row here. Catch ya later. I just KNOW that water bill is going to be a big ouch! That plumber just might be walking out of here holding his crotch!! ( OMG!! Did I say that? )
|
|
|
8
Comments
|
|
|
Just sayin'
|
Dec 6, 2011 10:50 am
984 Views
|
I listened to a broadcast on NPR just recently about a 'new' trend with schools going 'retro' .... a 'trend' where kids are back to using pencil and paper, where teachers are writing on blackboards and kids are taking notes, a trend where no electronic devices are permitted to provide an easy way out (calculators, smart-phones, computers, etc..), a trend where kids are challenged to use their own developing mental capacities to learn to think and reason, a trend where youngsters are required to fore-go the quick-find-fix, a trend where phonics, spelling and simple mathematical operations are carried out in print to ensure a grasping of logical sequence, a trend where, YES, some children will be left 'behind,' and where the cream will always rise to the top.
( Sorry folks, your kids and grand kids are NOT all geniuses! Surprise, surprise. If I hear again anyone tell me how much smarter kids are today than they used to be, I will scream. The adults that adhere to that myth are obviously not very bright themselves when evidence is clear that we're lagging behind way too many other industrialized nations in the race. )
I thought, WOW, what a truly amazing discovery! NOT!! It's the old tried and tested way of educating, a system that worked, a system that produced thinking people, a system that led the way, a system that was modeled after .... a system we've allowed to go by the wayside in pursuit of an artificially led electronic existence that boggles young minds.
The thrust of the program was to relate that the dumbing down of the American educational system, beginning with the very young, directly coincides with the introduction and ultimate influx of electronic devices into the classroom, devices affording ease of access to abounding information that a lot of adults can't even sort out - information more often than not that's completely unreliable and unverifiable, and all the while foregoing the logical operations involved in intellectually arriving at solutions/conclusions which are the mental gymnastics required to strengthen the maturing mind.
"Intellectual" .... now, ironically, there's a word/label that some would just as soon have erased from the vocabulary. It's a word/label that actually makes some feel inadequate, even threatened. I question why this should be! By definition, the intellect is the part or faculty of the human mind [that provides] the power to judge and comprehend; the thinking faculty; the understanding .... a state of being, to my thinking, that is in direct opposition to indoctrination.
Who on earth would combat anything as innate as the intellect? Who would deny that it be properly acknowledged and nurtured? Who would fear it? Who would not want the masses to think and reason?
We're left to our own powers to sort it out and arrive at answers, aren't we? How can we expect any more of our youth if we managing that ourselves?
I taught; therefore, I am. I shuddered at 'experimentation' which ran rampant in my years as a teacher - the new math, the look/say method of reading and a host of others that have now long been laid waste. I yield to the tried and tested, and I don't mind a bit if peeps tell me I'm 'old school'. I'm rather proud of that. I'd do it all over again.
Even as I speak, I'm aware that the goal of our local school system is that every sixth grade student arrives with their own laptop. H-E-L-P!!! Too much, too soon.
|
|
|
16
Comments
|
|
|
Taking a break ....
|
Dec 5, 2011 8:50 pm
1009 Views
|
from the toxicity of cyber. This is a world out of control. It just 'ain't' a world I can relate to or believe in any longer. It's become a mere diversion for me.
I listened to a broadcast on NPR recently about how schools are once again returning to a world where the internet is a no-no in the classroom until a later stage of development, and I couldn't agree more. The "information explosion" has become a reality and NONE, or very little of it, is reliable.
|
|
|
20
Comments
|
|
To link to this blog (earthytaurus3) use [blog earthytaurus3] in your messages.
|
|
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| |
|
11
|
21
|
3
|
42
|
51
|
6
|
7
|
81
|
92
|
10
|
111
|
121
|
|
131
|
14
|
151
|
161
|
171
|
181
|
19
|
|
201
|
21
|
22
|
232
|
241
|
251
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
|
|
Most Recent Comments by Others
|
