Dreams vs Reality

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October 30, 2022 · 9:06 am

Street Art – Kids

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Murais-Outubro-ArteSemFronteiras.com

Smates-Bart Smeets-Twitter.com

Smite-Akshay Kumar Mangla

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Thoughts on a Sunday 10-30-2022

fluffy-u-zezoro

Pretty little thing, isn’t it?

The rain has stopped now. It’s very gray outside and 56 degrees. Quiet and hushed.

My husband and I were both up in the middle of the night reading. No real problems – just a bit of trouble sleeping. I tried to take a nap yesterday afternoon to make up for sleep the previous night, but it just wasn’t happening. I don’t feel alert yet. I’m very thankful for the nice cup of coffee beside me.

It was cool and rainy all day yesterday, so the beef stew I made in the crock pot felt very comforting at dinner last night.

I wish you a calm, comforting Sunday.

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“Cat” Street Art

Street Art-by-Stamatis-Laskos-in-Volos-Greece-Caturday

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Ahhhh – Rain

Quora

It’s cloudy and drizzle-y here today. The rain started overnight and is due to continue through tomorrow. We sure can use the moisture. We’re under a burn ban and Arkansas suffered several wildfires yesterday.

I’m feeling good about my work in the yard yesterday. I was hurrying, trying to get at least SOME of my list done before the rain started. I finished spreading the potting soil in the planters, planted some iris in the niche planter by the house, and cut off the dead stuff from the elephant ear plants. Last night I had some complaints from my body about my activity, but I’m much better today. I’ll probably catch a nap later to try to make up for the bad night’s rest. :0)

The Chunky Chef

When I finish this post, I’m going in to get beef stew going in the crock pot for tonight. It’s cool, cloudy, drizzle-y and rainy, the perfect time for a comfort meal. We’ll have a bit of garlic bread with it.

shesaidbeauty.com – boredpanda.com

Yesterday I was doing my daily yoga practice. (DAY 105) My husband was in his recliner, eating some fritos and dip, reading on his Kindle. I was stretched out on my back, arms behind my head, eyes closed, breathing into my stretch and trying to relax when Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab, started nuzzling me, got on her back beside me, feet in the air, chewing on her front foot, trying to get me to play. I started to laugh and roll over toward her, and suddenly Abby, our cat, jumped up on my side! I laughed out loud at that point, and even my husband started laughing – before trying to help me.

Stay safe, warm, and dry today. I’ve got to go get the beef stew in the crockpot.

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Admission

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October 28, 2022 · 11:26 am

Dog Art I Love

Pomah Koposbkob

Christina Schulte-borzoi-art-uljanow.eu

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Cause for Confusion 3

Sent by a dear friend.

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Different Beginning for a Friday 10-28-2022

Ron Magill-totallythebomb.com

I’m typing this from the puddle into which I melted after seeing this photograph. Isn’t he SWEET?

Today has been a different Friday than usual for us.

First, everyone else is gone, so no Lunch Bunch today. Hopefully, we can all be there next Friday.

Second, we have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in the office for our computers. It started making weird noises this morning and then a red LED light came on. We looked it up and found that that is what it does when it needs new batteries. We shut everything down. My husband opened up the UPS and found it has FOUR large heavy batteries (picture small bricks). He was able to order more, so they’re on the way, but now we don’t have our usual backup. Hopefully, nothing will interrupt our power at a bad time when we’re on our computers until we can get the new batteries into the UPS and everything plugged into it again.

Third, Since I had to shut off my computer, I decided to get some of the stuff done outside. I stored our onion harvest, and then cleaned up the elephant ear planter a bit, cutting off LOTS of dead or battered leaves.

I moved seven 40-lb. bags of soil to the three planters near the house yesterday. I got the soil spread in the long tomato planter (above) and what will be the new iris planter (below).

I’ll save the spreading of the soil in the new tomato planter for later today.

I also plan to start weeding in the trio of brick planters that run between our front yard and the driveway area. Rain starts late tonight and will continue all day tomorrow, according to the forecasts.

Happy Friday!

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Friday Love 10-28-2022

Dominykas Niaura – boredpanda.com

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Racing the Coming Rain Again

Plant Addicts

Slow Progress in the yard work so far. I’m wheelbarrowing 40-lbs bags of potting soil from one end of the yard to where the new tomato planter, old iris planter, and second tomato planter are. I’ve moved three bags so far, loaded the last 4 bags we had on the pallet into the wheelbarrow, and have cleaned up the pallet area, gathering up the used-up tarp, some leaf bag covers, plastic covering that came with the pallet of soil, the now-rotted wood pallet, plus bricks, logs and bungie cords that were holding everything down. I’m now resting and gulping water.

I would LIKE to finish moving and spreading the bags of soil, trimming the elephant ear plants, and planting more iris before we’re due for rain starting tomorrow evening and raining all day Saturday. This is the type of project where I would be very happy if I were as tall as a basketball player, strong as a weight lifter, and had the stamina of a long distance runner. This old lady poops out pretty quickly. I CAN do several sessions, though, between now and tomorrow evening, so I’m hoping that will get it done.

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Your Awww for Thursday

Dominykas Niaura – BoredPanda.com

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Teak Art

teak-ram-modishstore.com

I love this. I want this. Isn’t he wonderful?

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More Amazing Ray Villafane Halloween Pumpkins

Ray Villafane Pumpkins – dailymail.co.uk – Tara Brady – Barcroft Media

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Street Art by Seth

Seth – Paris Street Art

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Thursday Thoughts 10-27-2022

NeoGAF

I managed NOT to come downstairs in the middle of the night and read while stuffing my face last night. I woke up like someone had nudged me about about 3am, but firmly laid there with my eyes shut, avoiding temptation. I’m NOT overeating at lunch and dinner, but I AM having to convince myself I’m not starving to death between meals and in the middle of the night. I know. I’m certainly old enough to know better.

I can’t believe how beautiful our weather has been since the two days of storms we had. It’s 57 degrees F. right now and the high is supposed to be 70 today. I’m planning to get outside after lunch and work in the yard. My onions still need to be stored, my elephant ears got pretty battered during the storm and I need to clean up what’s left as much as I can. I’m still working on replanting the iris I dug up when I converted the planter from an iris planter to a tomato planter for the spring. I’m not even THINKING of making a list of all I need to do outside because it’s overwhelming. I’ll just plod along and do what I can for now.

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DAY 104 for daily yoga practice. I wish I looked as nice as this lion when I practiced. I bet he’d be impressed with all the cracking and popping my body does as I move into the positions and stretches.

I hope that you’re enjoying a beautiful day, too. Make it a happy one. :0)

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Bryony Rose Jennings Fabric Art 4

Bryony Rose Jennings Fabric Art – Article by Margherita Cole, MyModernMet.com

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I Voted!

We had a nice outing this morning, running a few errands, voting early, and then hitting the grocery store.

Arkansas is not the most forward-thinking state, but I have to say that it has the best voting setup I personally have ever seen. Voting is always in a central location with easy access. They publicize it, so it never catches you by surprise.

We were expecting it to be at City Hall, but there was a sign there pointing us to the fairgrounds. We spent less than 5 minutes there, I think. Lots of parking. There were others voting and signing in, but they had lots of volunteers at several sign in stations. I presented my drivers license as a photo ID, answered questions the answers to which were on record, and I signed a screen for signature comparison and was handed a ballot.

The screens were easy to read and mark. There was a chance to review what I had marked, then I hit “print” and my ballot was created. I took the printed ballot to the counting machine at the front and put it in personally. I feel confident in the system here.

You don’t have to jump through hoops, but the sign-in process makes it clear that you are who you say you are, that you’ve registered to vote, that signatures can be compared (though that’s lenient because they ask you to sign a screen with a crayon type electronic marker, not touching the screen with your fingers or hands, at a weird slant). I don’t think someone could fraud the system, though I guess if you REALLY worked at it, it can always be done.

The only thing I wish were different is that, since we live outside the city limits, we don’t get to vote for local officials, such as the mayor, city council people, etc. We pay taxes, though, and live with the rules made by these officials. It won’t change, so I live with that. I can still stick a sign in my yard, donate to campaigns, and talk to my friends about people I hope will win, though, attend City Council meetings, etc. That’ll have to be enough.

Early voting started here last Monday and continues almost right up until voting day. Makes it really civilized and a pleasure to vote. :0)

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Cause for Confusion 2

sent to me by a dear friend.

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Book Delight!

ebay

I preordered a paperback of one of the Nora Roberts’ trilogy The Dragonheart Legacy books SEVERAL months ago.

I had the first one, The Awakening, and loved it. I had preordered the paperback of the second one – The Becoming.

I received it yesterday. I will re-read the first one before I dive into the second.

The third one – The Choice – won’t even be available in hardback until November. I’ll check in December or early next year to see if I can preorder that paperback.

I feel very lucky to be able to look forward to continuing this adventure.

Note: Speaking of lucky – I think I have another J.D. Robb IN DEATH series paperback book arriving at the end of December!

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Filed under Favorite Authors & Books, Hobbies, Reading is FUNdamental

Dose of Love on a Wednesday

Dominykas Niaura – BoredPanda.com

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, love

Cool, Sunny Wednesday 10-26-2022

NormaBradleyWalker.com

I just LOVE this painting. I’ve found more of her work and will share some with you soon.

Today is cool (43 degrees F.) right now and we have bright sunshine. We’re supposed to get to 65 this afternoon. A beautiful day! We’re planning to do some errands and vote early.

Though it might not sound earth-shaking to YOU, I’m relieved that our trash was picked up early yesterday, no mess for us to re-gather, no grousing from my husband about when we leave the trash can for them to pick up. Just like normal people! :0)

Though we had more wind and rain yesterday, we had no more trees across the driveway. I think that Mother Nature has finally decided the roller coaster isn’t amusing anymore and has calmed down to this being ‘fall.’ I hope we have a good, long fall this year. That would be really nice.

My husband bought a new watch and received it yesterday. He spent half the evening getting it set up, the band fixed to his liking, etc. In the middle of the night, he hit the light button so he could see what time it was. There was a really low level light that only illuminated one corner of the watch face, so he couldn’t read it. I’ve just spent 10 minutes typing for him on his computer with a person on chat, trying to arrange for us to return it for a refund. Happily, the man was helpful, and my doing the typing eased the process on this end.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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DAY 102

Giphy

As I look back to when I first started my old lady yoga stretches, trying to build a ‘habit,’ I see several improvements –

When I started, I –

  • Had trouble getting on the floor on the mat
  • had to wait a full minute or so for lying on my back to quit hurting
  • could not put my arms behind me over my head
  • could not bring my knees up high enough to grab them
  • could not even THINK about touching my toes
  • could not lift the front of my body up on my arms while lying on my stomach
  • had trouble balancing while on hands and knees for any stretching

Et cetera,. Et cetera, Et cetera. (Like Yul Brenner in “The King and I.”

I’m still old – even older now, but I have made a lot of progress. Each day I feel I’m a bit looser than I was the previous practice. It’s not a miracle, but it makes me feel better – more flexible, with less pain, able to balance much better. Some of my muscles are getting stronger. It has started to offset any overdoing I do in other things, bringing me back to being able to relax.

Daily yoga is not a habit – yet. I seem to be one of the harder nuts to crack about how long it takes to make something a habit. But I’m definitely seeing a difference and determined to keep going.

Time to go practice!

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Shot in the Dark?

Tim Calkins

Well –

I reached the wonderful guy who said he would fix our driveway. It’s been several months now and I hadn’t heard from him, so I called to find out if he 1) had been sucked into the void, 2) was still alive, 3) remembered us.

The good news is that he HADN’T been sucked into the void, IS still alive, and remembers us.

The bad news is that the second man, who was actually going to do the work with his equipment which was more suited to the job, has a problem. His rig burned up! Completely. It’s dead and gone.

So –

Our guy needs to find someone else who has a rig suitable for our job. I asked if he would call me when he finds someone. He said he would.

So –

I’m not really sure where we are now. We’re still waiting for the driveway to be healed. I WAS able to reach our guy, but I have no clue why he hadn’t bothered to call and let us know what had happened and that we were still on the list. I guess I’m a dinosaur, expecting common courtesy. I expect people to act as “I” would act, and I guess that shows how old I’ve gotten. People don’t seem to come, call, write, send carrier pigeons or smoke signals anymore. People say things just for form’s sake, not really feeling obligated to follow up.

When I sold a pair of earrings on my Etsy site recently, I messaged my customer, acknowledging the order and thanking her, telling her I planned to mail her earrings the next day and that I would let her know the tracking number when I had it. I messaged the next day giving her the tracking number and the expected delivery date. I got on the USPS site, entered the tracking number and entered the information needed so they would let me know when it was delivered. When I got the notice, I messaged my customer, asking if the earrings had arrived safely and if she was pleased with them. When she answered, telling me she was delighted with them, I wrote back, thanking her again for the order inviting her to return in the future. That’s just common courtesy.

So –

I guess one of my pet peeves is people making me feel hostile and unimportant when they don’t do what they say they will do. My list is growing.

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Cause for Confusion

Sent to me by a dear friend.

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More Bryony Jennings Textile Art

Bryony Rose Jennings Textile Artist

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Street Art – Murals – by Sasha Korban

Street-Art-Sasha-Korban-Kurt-Cobain-Ukraine
Street-Art-Sasha-Korban-Kyiv-Ukraine
Street-Art–Sasha-Korban-Mariupol-Ukraine
Street-Art-Sasha-Korban-Ukraine

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Clean, Fresh Tuesday 10-25-2022

WallpaperBetter

Our “world” here in Arkansas looks fresh and clean this morning, with some sunshine (!) before a new wave of rain is due to come through around 9:30. It looks as though we’ll only have about 4 hours of rain today. I think my friend Kay read that we needed about 9 inches of rain to get back up to normal here with the drought we’ve been in. No chance of that, but all we can get is welcome, though the gusty winds do concern me.

I’ve been having trouble signing in to our investment accounts lately. I CAN sign in as if I were my husband, with HIS electronic code thingie, but I HAVEN’T been able to sign in as ME. I had it on my list to call them this morning, but tried one more time to sign in first. I got right in and had access to everything! A miracle occurred and now I’m ‘healed.’ :0) The other call I need to make is to the wonderful man who is supposed to be healing our driveway…

Yesterday and today have been washouts as far as getting any yard work accomplished, so I’m enjoying working at the computer, reading, napping, and thinking about going up to my art room.

One of my all-time favorite actresses is Katharine Hepburn. I particularly have enjoyed her grit and independence. I’m reading a book called, “Kate Remembered” by A. Scott Berg and I’m just eating it up. The author writes it so you almost feel you are there, in the same room with the two of them. It’s one of the books I found at the library used book sale recently, and I just love it.

I’m also gifting myself time to listen to clips on YouTube of The Voice, American Idol, _____’s Got Talent, etc. I just love seeing a person with real talent blow the judges away and finally get some attention. Beautiful voices that get inside you and make you FEEL are so special and should be treasured. It’s fun to live vicariously through them, wishing each the best, wishing they ALL could win…

I hope that you are enjoying a clean, fresh, safe Tuesday, too.

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3D Street Art

3D Street Art by Pierrot (SCAF) – article by Hidreley – BoredPanda.com

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Love and Companionship

Dominykas Niaura – BoredPanda.com

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, love

Wet Monday 10-24-2022

CBC

We’re due for a rainy couple of days now, with a cold front moving through. We gathered our trash this morning, as usual. My husband shocked me by asking if I thought we should put the trash can at the bottom of the driveway NOW, rather than waiting until this evening! I told him I thought that was a GREAT idea, and we did that. :0) We seem to have truly turned the corner on this former ‘weighty problem.”

NO trees down in the driveway today!

Lewis “welcome” robot

We had to yank our huge robot up onto the side of the driveway, since wind gusts yesterday apparently blew him off his stand at the same time the tree went down in the driveway. He weighs about 200 lbs, and it’s a real problem when he blows over down the slope, so a couple of years ago we ran a heavy chain from around one tree behind the robot – to the robot and around his neck – and then around a second tree in front of him so that he can’t fall completely down anymore. He LEANS against the chain when a heavy gust of wind hits him just right.

So now we’re ready for the rain, hoping we don’t have any more problems from the gusty winds. We shut the front door and the garage door in preparation for the storms which are supposed to start in a couple of hours, continuing all day tomorrow, as well. Good thing we live on a hill!

I hope you’re safe and dry today.

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Filed under Mother Nature