Brian texted me yesterday, saying, “There are hot air balloons out there.” They were pretty far away, but sure enough, they were there!
Balloon Adventures Thailand
I researched and found a place called, “Balloon Adventures Thailand” that sells rides of various lengths on hot air balloons. You can arrange for a 45 minute trip, for example, to get a bird’s eye view of Chiang Mai!
Balloon Adventures Thailand
I have put this in my “Wish List” of things I would love to do, see, experience, buy, etc. that I’m keeping for when things tame down, when we have the time, when it’s appropriate, when we win the lottery – depending on the size and cost of the wish. 😃
Balloon Adventures Thailand
Since we are now starting “The Cool Season” (the major time tourists come to Thailand) I’m hoping to see more hot air balloons as I look out my window.
Balloon Adventures Thailand
I will work on my ability to walk longer distances, climb up onto something, and stand for longer and longer while I wish to be able to do this in the future.
My day started with walking a mile on the treadmill at the gym, then breakfast with Brian, followed by a glorious massage. I look forward to my massages each week. I will NEVER forget Lynn Moody, and my wonderful massages in Arkansas🙏🏻, but I’m grateful I found another really skilled massage therapist I can trust here.
It occurred to me that I might not have left a review on Google about the place I go, so I checked this morning and I had NOT! So I rectified that just a minute ago, basically telling people my life has changed since finding a beautifully run, clean, caring place that has experienced people who care about their clients. Khun Weaw has her work cut out for her, dealing with a 78-year-old with a lot of stress. She knows just how much pressure to use to give me relief, but not ‘break’ me! 😁 🙏🏻
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I got back to my place, changed clothes and Brian and I went to visit Harvey at the nursing home. We had to pay an upcharge and long wait time to get a Grab, but I guess that was because of the Loy Krathong and Yi Peng celebrations. A lot of shops close, and maybe Grab was short of drivers with people going home to be with family. Also, people come from all over the globe to see these remarkable celebrations, so demand was probably very high for transportation.
Harvey was more alert than he was the last time we saw him. He wasn’t making a lot of sense, though. I was talking about something about the condo, and he asked “When did you move?” He said to Brian, “I thought you lived on Earth.” He talked about starting an import/export business, and then wanted us to bring ‘a dozen’ things from the grocery so he could sell them at the nursing home… He did acknowledge we were leaving and said, “See you soon.” He seemed comfortable, wasn’t hostile, and seemed glad we were there.
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By the time we got back, it was already time for my terrific housekeeper, Khun Nong, to be cleaning my place. We didn’t need to bother her because I had taken the things I wanted to take to the cafe to Brian’s place when we shared breakfast. We grabbed our stuff and left.
I enjoyed making some more sketches, read more of my current book in my Kindle, people and traffic watched – since I got my favorite seat by the front window – while enjoying an iced mocha and later a lemonade.
My housekeeper did a stellar job as usual. There isn’t a particle of dust anywhere, and everything is scrubbed. Things on tables are straightened and all is neat – not one of my strong suits! Today I sat down at my computer to catch up on email and saw this! The white flowers are in a shot-glass size glass vase and were left on my computer table. I just couldn’t stop grinning. I’m so grateful to have found her.
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We were gone from just after 11:00 until about 5:30. Then we had dinner and visited awhile. When I got back to my place and had caught up on email, I was so tired and sleepy I just didn’t write any posts for the blog. Apologies.
I hope you’re having a really nice day/evening today.
We just tried to go visit Harvey. We wanted to go today because Fridays are super-busy for us. I just wrote the post about the Yi Peng Lantern Festival and the Loy Krathong Festival. Apparently, the fact that the 2nd night of both festivals is tonight makes traveling anywhere really challenging. We ordered a Grab and then information came up while we were standing outside, saying they would charge more than twice the normal fare one way and that our wait time would be ridiculous. So what is a wonderful celebration tonight is not without problems for us today. We will go visit Harvey tomorrow.
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These are my latest painted sketches.
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Pixabay
I finished “Next of Kin: Rebel Ridge Book 1” the Sharon Sala book I told you about. I enjoyed it and would recommend you check her out. Now I’m re-reading “Watercolor Dreams” by R.G. Ryan, which is technically the first book in his Jake Moriarity series, though I just finished the “Prequel: The Last Happy Summer” that came out recently. I am looking forward to re-reading the 6 books I have and then getting more.
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I have rolled up towels on my window sills, hoping to contain whatever leaks I get from still more rain. I hope the rain doesn’t make the celebrations tonight impossible.
Brian is researching to see if we can go somewhere this evening where I can see some lanterns without getting in the middle of the huge crowd in the dark at the river. I would love to get the flavor of the celebration, but from a distance.
This is practiced at the river in Chiang Mai, as well as all over Thailand. I thought this clip showed the beautiful Krathongs people made and show them putting them in the water for the celebration.
I love the idea of letting go of bad things that happened this year, letting go of bad feelings you might have for any reason, shedding regret over things you did – or didn’t – do, and more, replacing all with embracing a clean slate, a brand new year with the promise of a better year to come. The beautiful ceremonies unite the people in their strong belief. Really wonderful!
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.” – C. Joybell C.
My husband and I were living in the house we built on top of a ridge line and lived in with our pets for almost 40 years, trying to keep up with all the house and yard work needed to keep everything afloat. It wasn’t easy, but we were managing. Then we both got Flu A at the same time. My husband also had pneumonia. I also had bronchitis and low blood oxygen. I ended up in the hospital receiving an emergency pacemaker after my heart stopped twice in the ER. We contacted my son and he said he would come to help us, flying 24 hours from Thailand to Arkansas.
A month later, we each packed a suitcase and a backpack, found wonderful, caring homes for our dog and cat, sold everything we owned and flew to Thailand to retire where we could be close to our son. Then my husband fell two weeks later, spent a month in the hospital and ended up in a nursing home.
Feeling a bit like “Stranger in a Strange Land,” – Robert A. Heinlein, we’re making sure my husband is getting the best care possible and I’m living in a condo in the same building as our son. I’m working slowly on learning Thai phrases, am learning how to honor the culture and traditions here, and am fascinated by all I’m seeing and experiencing.
I’m determined to embrace my new life. I was given a second chance at life by the hospital staff in February, and I won’t waste a minute. I am lucky that I am truly able to retire here. I never thought I would be able to say that. With careful juggling, I am enjoying perks here I never could afford in the States, such as a weekly housekeeper who scrubs my place until it shines; a weekly massage that takes out all the kinks and allows me to truly relax; my first-ever mani/pedi I get every 6 weeks or so; a haircut at the same interval; and recently, taking my clothes to the laundry to have them returned clean and nicely folded the following day.
My son and I spend a good amount of time together. We share meals twice a day, we go visit my husband three times each week, we go places together to run errands or just have fun exploring. We go to the gym every morning so that I can walk a mile on the treadmill, trying to retrain my brain to fix my balance issues, lose my extra weight. I’m doing yoga stretches, Internet balance exercises, and dance to fun music with water bottles doing exercises for my arms.
I plan my day around writing posts for my blog – an activity I truly love. I really enjoy finding things I find wonderful and sharing them with my readers. I have met some wonderful people I now feel close to through the blog, something I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.
I am learning to draw a bit better, sketching things I find on the net and painting them in an art alcove in my place. I read great books on my Kindle. I watch new and old movies on my TV, and love watching YouTube music videos. Music, new and old, is one of the treasures of my life.
I have time to reach out to old friends and new now. I’m so lucky to have good friends in my life. Most of my family is gone now, but my friends are all around me, just a text away.
So, I feel a bit suspended in mid air in a new country, with a different language, different customs, fascinating stores and food, learning new things each time I go out.
I embrace not knowing any of the answers. I am learning to go with the flow, just enjoying all the differences and trying to fit in as best I can. The people are so nice here, so welcoming, so forgiving of my bumbling efforts to say a few things.
As I learn, my wings are unfolding – I am learning and growing – grateful for the chance to build a whole new life – close to my husband and son.
“When robins appear, loved ones are near.” ~ Unknown
@frankaslothothuber.bsky.social
“… Once a penguin finds its perfect other penguin, they stay together pretty much forever.” ― Anna Staniszewski, The Prank List
@aintright.bsky.social
“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese,” by Steven Wright
@glengrambo.bsky.social
“Penguins are one of the best antidotes for despair that I know. They are living lessons in caring for the planet and its creatures, in all their beauty and vulnerability.” ― Charles Bergman, Every Penguin in the World: A Quest to See Them All
@annaquent.bsky.social
“You can’t keep a squirrel on the ground.“ ~ Mary Lasswell
We discovered, after a lot of waiting this morning, that because of fraud, the Thai government says banks cannot allow you to add someone else to your bank account. You must open the original account with your name and that of the other person you want on the account. It cannot be amended. You must start over and open another account. 😳
Otherwise, I’m having a very nice day. I’ve been painting my sketches and reading a good book on my Kindle.
Here’s my latest painted sketch.
This is the book I’m reading on my Kindle. Next of Kin, A Rebel Ridge Novel, Book 1, by Sharon Sala. This author was recommended by my friend, Marsha, and I’m hooked. The story is compelling, the action is thrilling, the characters intelligent, real, and I’m caring about them. I will definitely read more when I finish the current book.
Alexas_Fotos – Pixabay
It’s supposed to start raining around 3 this afternoon. I have the towels on my drying rack inside with the fan blowing on them, trying to dry them out as much as possible before we get more rain. It looks like maybe one more week of this and THEN “The Rainy Season” will come to an end this year…
“The Chiang Mai CAD Lantern Festival 2025, to be held on November 5–6, 2025, will be organized under the theme: “In Remembrance of the Boundless Grace and Eternal Gratitude to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, The Queen Mother.” This year’s event will be conducted with due respect and in reflection of Her Majesty’s immeasurable benevolence, who passed away on October 24, 2025.
The two-day festival aims to promote and preserve Thai traditions and cultural heritage. Activities such as lantern releases, cultural performances, and fireworks will proceed as usual,with opportunities provided for all participants to express their remembrance and pay their respects appropriately during this national mourning period.”
Loy Krathong Festival – Khao Lak Center
The Thai government has confirmed that the Loy Krathong festival will proceed nationwide as scheduled.
Celebrations are required to maintain a solemn and respectful tone to honor Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother.
Organizers have been asked to scale back festive elements such as live music and elaborate light-and-sound shows.
Some events will replace traditional fireworks with drone shows and use more subdued lighting to create a dignified atmosphere.
The purpose of the Loy Krathong and Yi Peng festivals is to “express gratitude, seek forgiveness, make wishes for the future, and show reverence to the water goddess (Loy Krathong) and the heavens/Buddha (Yi Peng). Both festivals, celebrated simultaneously, involve releasing lights—krathongs (baskets) on water and khom loy (sky lanterns) into the air—to symbolize letting go of misfortunes and ushering in good luck and renewal.”
Since there is usually a huge crowd at the river, and I’m not good in big crowds in the dark, Brian and I will honor the festivities more quietly. I look forward to seeing the lanterns, and I’ll try to find videos of people releasing krathongs into the water.
What a beautiful way to celebrate a ‘new year’ – letting go of the past year and embracing the promise of a new one!
My friend Marsha recommended an author she likes – Sharon Sala – so I’m trying one of her books. I’m really enjoying the story so far.
Unsplash
This is the perfect day to be doing a bit of reading. Guess what! It’s raining again! I keep wringing up the towels I rolled up and put on my window sills, then putting the towels back up. There is no point in trying to dry the towels at this point. Mother Nature is insisting that the rainy season isn’t over yet, so I’m just rolling with it, grateful that help may be on the way for my window leaks.
We met my husband, his nurse, and the doctor this morning at the hospital for a routine visit. The doctor is pushing us to let him put in. stomach tube. Harvey was lucid today and clearly said ‘no!’ when Brian asked him if he wanted that, so we told the doctor ‘no.’ We will just hope that Harvey is able to eat enough food the regular way that they can remove the nasal tube. We will see him again Thursday, since Friday will be a busy day for us.
We got a notice that our order for the turtle jigsaw puzzle had been canceled. Brian sent me links to two places we’ve ordered from before and I chose this one wiith the wonderful dolphins. Brian ordered it for me this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll have it soon.
Freepik
I think I told you that Brian insisted I start taking my clothes to the laundry rather than doing them myself. We took them yesterday, and they will be ready after 3pm today! The price was amazingly affordable and the turnaround time is certainly wonderful. They will return my stuff nicely folded in a transparent plastic bag. 😁
This is what I made yesterday. Harvey’s 82nd birthday is November 18th. I hope he likes it.
Soon it will be Election Day in the states. I will watch the results with great interest, even though I’m far away now.
This was sent to me by my good friend, Nora, today. Wow. What a stunning image!
It’s still raining here. I have my drying rack inside today, trying to dry the towels that were rolled up on my window sills to try to contain the leaks with all the rain. The rain has stopped now, so hopefully the fan on the drying rack will get the towels dry enough at least to roll up and put back on the window sills. I’m thinking of lending my hearing aids to Mother Nature, as she obviously hasn’t heard that “The Rainy Season” is over…
We have been doing a bunch of things to watch money since we moved here, due to the fact that we didn’t expect the medical emergency, month-long hospitalization and then move to a nursing home for my husband. It’s taken us a few months to get things in order and figure out where we are financially.
Yesterday Brian insisted that I start taking my clothes to the laundry downstairs rather than hand washing things and hanging them out on my drying rack on the balcony. I have been taking sheets and towels to Brian because he has a washing machine. I will continue to do that. But starting today, I’ll take my clothes to the laundry! I’ve done this a couple of times when we first moved here, and they do a really good job, handing you back a neatly packaged stack of nicely folded clean clothes. And the perks of being retired in Thailand continue to grow… 👍🙏🏻
My husband’s 82nd birthday is November 18th. Nothing that I would normally do, such as bake his favorite pineapple upside down cake, make a special dinner or take him out to dinner, is appropriate now. He doesn’t read or look at magazines anymore. SOOO – I’m going to try to draw a poster type picture wishing him a happy birthday that I hope the staff will allow to go on the wall somewhere he can see it. We’ll try to figure out something else special we can do.
I’m enjoying a quiet day today. Besides taking stuff to the laundry, I’m using a jewelry cleaner to polish the jewelry I brought with me to Thailand. I just got the jewelry cleaner a couple of days ago, and many of my pieces are in need of attention. I have the timer set on my phone so I can keep things going at a reasonable pace. (Each thing is supposed to be in the solution 3-5 minutes. Wish me luck!
Today’s treadmill walk was in Chicago. I was born there, but we only stayed three weeks, so it didn’t make much of an impression on me. 😁
We did go back years later to visit one of Harvey’s friends, who served as the best man at our wedding, but our visit then was very brief and mainly on Washington Island.
The walk today was in the heart of the city, with lots of sidewalks, tall buildings, people, traffic. It was quite impressive.
I couldn’t find a picture of it, but there was some green space as we were entering the city where there was a round ball sculpture. It was large enough that you could go INSIDE of the globe if you wanted to. I would imagine kids would either love it or be afraid of it, and that adults might take a look inside, but not enter it.
I walked THROUGH this sculpture. I researched this and discovered it is the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz of Poland, who did this in remembrance of World War II. It is at the south end of Grant Park.
Richard Serra Sculpture – “Reading Cones” – named for Reading, Pennsylvania where it was created. (We walked through this while I was on the treadmill.)
Soldier Field – I only saw the very front of this – the stone entrance. There were a bunch of people going into the building, but we just went close to the front doors, and then turned and went in a different direction to the side.
This was an impressive walk through parts of the city, and then ending up beside a big waterway where a big ship was moored.
Happy November! This is the mailbox decoration we put up each year at this time to celebrate Turkey Day.
And this is the ‘yard critter’ who stood at the base of a big tree toward the top of our steep driveway all year round.
Some of my relatives and friends are saying it’s cooling off in the states. The trees are starting to turn beautiful colors. Fall is in the air!
I always started trying to get the civilized part of our yard (the part right around the house) in shape for the coming winter. Mowing was usually over about now, but there was a lot of weed whacking and edging to be done to neaten things up. I weeded the flower planters and gathered leaves to grind up and put into the planters as mulch to protect the plants as much as possible. You wouldn’t believe the amount of leaves we got each year. It’s too bad no one wanted crushed up leaves. We could have had quite a business.
As the weather cooled, I started making us hot chocolate. We might have a fire in the fireplace, not because we needed it for warmth, but because of the FEEL of having it going. We would sit on the hearth with our backs close to the fire, absorbing the lovely warmth and good feelings. Our dog, Amber, and our cat, Jet (aka Monster Cat) seemed to ‘come to life’ as the weather cooled, taking crazy runs around the house, zooming around like their lives depended on it, making me laugh every time. It was so nice to have a nice warm home we loved, enjoying a peaceful evening with good food, good entertainment, and lots of love.
Officially “The Rainy Season” here in Chiang Mai is over and “The Cool Season” has started. Brian says it’s the ‘winter’ here. That means the constant rains have stopped officially and cooler temperatures are here. (Translation: a high in the 80’s). Mother Nature is laughing at us. We got caught in a really hard rain just after lunchtime today. It was really blowing and the rain was pretty serious. When we got to my place, I immediately started rolling up towels to go on all my window sills and got out my bucket. (I had a leak last night, but only a small one). So far, the rain has stopped for the moment and no leaks yet.
The building repair crew is officially starting repair of the exterior of our building, resealing windows (hooray!!!!) and other things before a repaint. I have no idea when this will actually start as the rain is supposed to last all week. It’s nice to know, though, that help will be on the way soon.
We saw Harvey this morning. He said he was glad to see us, but that was the only thing he said that made sense. We will have to be satisfied that he is comfortable, not upset, and we simply sit on either side of his bed, each of us holding a hand, trying to let him know we care. We will meet him and his nurse at the hospital Tuesday for his routine appointment for blood work and to see the doctor.
I’m trying to come up with some way to celebrate his birthday on the 18th. Cake is probably out, since he has a nasal feeding tube and probably won’t be able to eat bites of birthday cake, though we will think about it again closer to the date and see how he’s doing then. I may make him a birthday poster, just to show him I’m thinking of him. We’ll try to come up with something else special. He will be 82 this year.
I finished these thank you cards for Khun Nong, my housekeeper, yesterday. I give her one each week, along with her payment, to show her how MUCH I appreciate her work for me.
The rain stopped for a bit, but is coming down hard again, so I’m checking the window sills every few minutes to see if I need to put more rolled up towels on the window sills. Though it’s a pain, it IS good exercise….
I’m trying to make sure that Mother Nature gets the memo that TODAY is the official start of “The Cool Season” here in Thailand where the temperatures drop a bit and the hard rains STOP.
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Since I read “Prequel: The Last Happy Summer “ by R. G. Ryan, I want to read all the Jake Moriarity series books again. I made sure I either had them on my Kindle or downloaded them again this morning so I can reread the first 6 books again. If you want to get them, here is a source – https://www.amazon.com/The-Jake-Moriarity-Novels-6-book-series/dp/B07H9JMTN5
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I’m looking forward to painting more of my sketches today. I’m lucky that I have a lot of fun things to do – around wringing out wet towels from the window sills. 😄☔️
“It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” ~ Brackett – “Halloween” – 1978
I hope that you’re having a happy celebration today.
Latest sketch/painting.
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I’ve been up much of the night. We’ve been having a LOT of rain – still coming down now – and causing leaks from my windows. I have rolled up towels on all the window sills, and am making the rounds, wringing them into my bucket, and putting them back.
I brought my drying rack inside from the balcony and set up the sheet under it to catch drips while I drape towels over it and have the fan going to try to dry the towels as I can.
I’m hoping this is a ‘last hurrah” of “The Rainy Season. “It’s November 1st here, the official start of “The Cool Season” where the temperatures only get to the mid 80’s or so.
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We are planning to go visit Harvey in the nursing home later this morning. I’m hoping we don’t have to reschedule due to flooding and continuing hard rain, but we’ll see.
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Happy trick or treating and other fun tonight. Save a candy bar for me, please. 🎃👻💀
Today is “Pampered Friday” for me. I’m grinning just thinking about my day.
I went to the gym and walked my mile on the treadmill like a good girl. I’m going to add some more balance exercises to my day, thanks to a URL on balance videos that my friend, Marsha, sent.
At 10 I have my weekly massage. How lucky I am to be able to do this! A total luxury, I leave the place almost week-kneed with relaxation.
This afternoon, my housekeeper comes to make my place spotless once again. I do a number of things to get ready for her each week: I change the sheets on my bed, gather and take out the trash, try to get my laundry in and put away if it’s dry, and generally straighten things. She makes me feel like a slob, though, because she not only cleans everything, she lines things up. She even dries the soap in my shower!
I’ve never had the luxury of a housekeeper before and I truly love it. I can keep things picked up and reasonably neat, but the scrubbing she does of the balcony floor, the scrubbing of the shower floor, the getting every bit of dust that dares to come in here off the baseboards, off the floor, off every shelf, tabletop, or counter, is something that will become more difficult for me, no matter how fit I try to get. MUCH appreciated and NEVER to be taken for granted.
While she is here cleaning, Brian and I go to a cafe where you can stay as long as you like, nursing a drink of something, feeling very welcome and at home. I take my sketchbook and drawing supplies, my Kindle, and a sweatshirt to put on if I can’t get my favorite spot at the front window. (The rest of the place gets quite chilly.) If I’m lucky enough to get my favorite spot, the temperature is mostly comfortable and I can pass the time sketching, reading, playing on my phone, and watching the amazing traffic outside.
Soon after we come home, Brian calls me up to his place for dinner. He orders something and has it delivered, a luxury I’ve never enjoyed before. We lived too far out ‘in the sticks’ in Arkansas to get food delivered. Our driveway was also steep enough that many people would just refuse to even try to drive up it. Even Amazon would leave our packages at the bottom of the driveway…
We get ‘Western’ dinners a lot of the time. These are lower in carbs and don’t have a lot of hot spices. We are gradually eating more Thai food. We had what they call, “Stewed Pork Leg and Rice” the other night. It had a sauce to go with it. It wasn’t hot, tasted delicious, and cost about $3.00 US money for both of us!
Finally, after I prep for Saturday, I’ll sprawl on the lounge part of my sofa with my headphones and enjoy listening and watching music on YouTube on my TV.
I will never be able to thank our son enough for wanting us to come here to retire. He handled all the details, and is STILL taking care of both of us. It’s so wonderful to be part of his life now. We have such a good time doing things together!
I hope this link works for you. It shows one type of entertainment for the whole family going on today, which is already Halloween.
I did this yesterday.
I regret that the world is such that Halloween can’t be the simple child-centered holiday it was back in the old days when I was young.
I loved planning ‘what I would be’ each Halloween, using things I found around the house. We never bought store costumes. We loved searching the house for things that would make up our ‘costumes,’ sometimes wheedling, sometimes begging to be allowed to use something that had to be returned in perfect shape after the celebration was over.
My friends and I, usually a group of about six girls, would then walk down the hill toward the neighborhood where houses were much closer together and people really got into the spirit of trick-or-treating. They left their porch lights on if you were welcome to knock at the door. Many of the yards and porches were decorated with wonderful stuff, cute or scary.
My favorite treats were little candy bars. I liked the milk chocolate ones best, being a chocoholic, but ANY candy bars were wonderful. I also loved to get cookies or chips.
When our bags were full, we limped home, tired but elated by our celebration and freedom. My parents made my brother and I dump our goodies on our beds, where they received a cursory parental inspection. Back in those days the main threat was a razor blade in an apple. Then we could choose one big thing or three little things to eat. The rest went back in the bag to be doled out by my mom at her discretion. Those were the days!
I wish you a Happy Halloween – either today or tomorrow – wherever you are. I hope you have a great celebration.
I’ve always loved music, but now it has become one of my favorite things.
I put on my headphones every evening so I can listen to YouTube videos of music contests, compilations of them, plus a growing list of favorite artists I can choose to listen to as I wish. I can also listen to artists I haven’t heard in years. How wonderful that I can go off into another world, smiling, feeling full of happiness, without bothering any of my neighbors!
I can hear and oldie but goodie and be transported instantly to when I was 14 and newly in love with the boy who would become my husband 9 years later. I feel as if I’m hearing the song for the first time. The years drop away. I’m enveloped by my feelings when the whole world was ahead of me.
I hear music and pain fades. It’s wonderful therapy for things like aches and pains, depression, dread of a coming situation, and more. And all you need to do is put in some ear buds, don headphones, and help is on the way.
I’m surprised that hospitals and nursing homes, schools, daycare centers, offices where the wait to be seen will be long don’t have music as an option for people. I’m thinking of making some kind of recording for my husband, including lots of his favorite songs from over the years and taking it to him in the nursing home. His nurse could help him get it going, making sure he isn’t having any problems. I’ll talk with Brian about it. We would include some kind of player and ear buds with the recording.
I’m finding so many artists new to me who are fast becoming favorites. It’s amazing how ‘identifiable’ these artists are. You don’t have to be able to see them. Their voices and styles are distinctive, unique.
I feel so lucky to have the magic of music in my life!
These artists bring such different views about what to do with wood, their visions, and their methods of doing it. I’m blown away by all the different styles and the expertise it takes to create these things.
I have always been impressed by black and white images taken by skilled photographers, but I’m drawn like the proverbial moth to a flame to color. The more of it the better.
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Halloween is almost upon us. I have a couple of sketches ready to paint that have a Halloween theme. They make me feel as if I’m celebrating a bit, even though I’m in Thailand now. 😃. I’ll work on those today.
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Today I took a virtual treadmill vacation to ‘nature’s paradise’ I’ll call it. Maybe it was Oregon, but I enjoyed walking along wooded paths, across icy patches on hilly slopes, beside rushing streams, seeing some glorious waterfalls, mountain-top ponds and lakes, and finally up to huge boulders in the middle of a flat plain then down a path across the sand to the ocean! Not a person nor building to be found. Lovely!
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After breakfast Brian and I went to get cash for my massage and cleaning lady tomorrow. He followed me back to my place so he could take pictures of my finished jigsaw puzzle to order a glass print of it for me. When I told him about loving to FEEL the finished puzzle, he looked at me with his eyebrows raised. He said he would “leave us alone so we could have some privacy.” I laughed my head off. 🤣. I call myself a ‘puzzle pervert,’ but my friend Marsha suggested a much kinder term, a ‘puzzle appreciator.’
I will leave the finished puzzle on my table until the new one arrives. Then I’ll take it apart and leave it in a gallon-sized plastic bag with the picture that came with it in the recycle area in the building so someone else can enjoy it.
I’m looking forward to starting my turtle puzzle.
Remember to include some fun in your day. Laughing is great exercise, you know. 😂🤣😛
I just finished the puzzle!!!! I’m thrilled. It’s going to sit in all its glory on my puzzle table until my new one arrives – allowing me to run my hands over it. I really don’t remember ever enjoying FEELING a finished puzzle before, but now it’s one of my favorite things. I don’t get to do it often because I’m so slow, but I make up for it by feeling it and grinning at it at least once a day, if not more…
Brian will take a picture of it and we’ll send it to the glass print place so that I can display the piece on my special shelf.
When I get the new puzzle, I’ll bag up this one and give it away to another puzzle enthusiast.
Here is the new one I’ve chosen –
I love everything about this- the bright colors, the action underwater, the wonderful turtle, the smaller turtles, the clown fish, angel fish, coral, star fish and others. Brian is ordering it for me today. I don’t know how long it will take to arrive, but I’m having a blast enjoying the fact that I met the challenge of a beautiful puzzle with entirely too much black in it… 😃🥳
I melted into a puddle when I found this. I wish I looked a THIRD as cute on the treadmill.
Yesterday I had to opt out of my gym time, but today I felt fine. My balance was a bit wonky, but I managed to correct without having to hold on to anything – a win in my book.
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This is the last of the flowers my wonderful housekeeper, Khun Nong, brought me a week ago Friday. I had enough to fill this glass today. I have them sitting on my computer table as I type, making me smile.
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We will leave soon to go visit Harvey. I’m hoping he slept well and will be glad to see us this time. He did tell Brian he was glad we came last time, but I was in the bathroom and missed it. He didn’t say anything when I kissed him and told him how much I love him. I’m hoping he is comfortable and calm today.
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I will have the afternoon to myself today. Depending on when we get home from visiting Harvey, I’ll watch a movie, work on my puzzle, paint another of my sketches, or read my book. I have SUCH a hard life! 😂
We’re almost to Halloween. I have heard that children do dress up here a bit, but I don’t think they ‘trick or treat’ as kids in the states do. I’ll see if I can find another group of pictures to share.
I just love wooden sculpture. I had a bird that I kept by the computer in Arkansas. It didn’t cost a fortune, but I thought it was beautiful and it spoke to me. I often just held it in my hands and moved my hands over it. For some reason, that calmed me. Priceless.
GF5Bucks – Etsy
I love this! It puts me in a Christmas frame of mind no matter what the month. I love the chubby cheeks, the lush beard, the hats…
Ludde Nordin
The positive and negative in this piece are really creative. Simple, yet beautiful.
creativeartworksblog 