http://alhenamaxphotos.com/ – LinkedIn
Something to Think About
123RF.com
I told you that I was very happy with the carpet cleaning company, ChemDry, in another post.
I went to their website yesterday and left a good review, thinking it might help them reach more people.
This morning I called the office, told the lady my name, and reminded her that I had my carpet cleaned yesterday afternoon. She said, “Yes, is there a problem?”
I went on to tell her that I couldn’t be happier with the job that Alex and Sao (spelling?) did. That they were careful, courteous, and professional. I also thanked HER for being so nice on the phone, and being so good at her job.
There were a couple of seconds of silence. She finally said, “I’m speechless. This is so nice.”
It reminded me how important it is to let people know when they do a good job, thanking them personally, and in any way you can think of to show others you’re happy with them.
I told her that she was so courteous and the company did such a good job that they stood out – particularly in this day and age where you feel like a number, or a necessary irritant in someone’s day. How NICE it is that someone calls you when they will be delayed, when the bill is what they SAID it would be, that they are super careful not to make a mess or hurt anything.
It was obvious that she was thrilled and that I had given her a much-needed boost.
After I got off the phone, I made a mental note to myself to be more conscientious in my efforts to say THANK YOU. I always try to be kind, but it only takes a few minutes to shake the workers’ hands and THANK them for a job well done. It only takes a few minutes to call and THANK the lady who is so nice and helpful when you call. It only takes a few minutes to let others know you’ve found a company worth your business.
Good job, ChemDry – and THANK YOU!
Here, Kitty Kitty!
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
“Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” ~ Anon.
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.” ~ Ellen Perry Berkeley
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” ~ Hippolyte Taine
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.” ~ Missy Dizick
Esma CETIN – LinkedIn
“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.” ~ Cleveland Amory
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
“Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, “I’ll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?” ~ Bette Midler
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.” –Jim Davis (Garfield creator)
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
“My husband said it was him or the cat… I miss him sometimes.” ~ Anon.
Two Things that Will Lift Your Spirits
THING ONE –
“Snapdragon – 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
THING TWO –
Painting by Alina Ciuciu – LinkedIn
I’m Feeling Sassy!
YouTube
I’m feeling sassy this morning because my first floor carpet is CLEAN for the first time in several years!
I’ve vacuumed and spot-cleaned, when necessary, to the point the only CLEAN spots – where we used RESOLVE – showed up horribly. I had put off using a professional carpet cleaning service because I’m a slob, but I don’t like to advertise the fact any more than I must. It’s depressing, though, to be doing all you can and for the carpet to still look grungy when you finish.
I finally called a company called, ChemDry. They serve the Crawford and Sebastian County area in Arkansas. They use a method that uses a lot less water and chemicals that are safe for kids and pets – a really important thing to me. I lucked out. I called one day and they were due to be in our area the next day so I got an appointment for 1:30 in the afternoon yesterday!
1:30 came and went, but then we got a phone call from the cleaning guy. He said they were running an hour late. I said, “Fine,” and we waited. They came right at 2:30. I showed them what we wanted done and they both listened carefully. They were very careful moving their equipment in and out, (a real challenge with dog gates in each doorway), very courteous, and total professionals. At one point they had me come in to look before they were finished. There was a clear line between where they had cleaned and what was left to be done. Very impressive!
Alex also told me about a product to use on spots on the carpet that is better than Resolve. It’s called Benefect Decon 30. It comes in a gallon jug. You pour some on the spot. Let it dry. If there is any ring, you wipe with a damp cloth. I ordered some on Amazon yesterday afternoon.
It took them approximately two hours to do our living room, office, and foyer. The only ones a bit frustrated at the activity were our dogs, who were out on the back porch. After the guys had gotten a good start, I went out and sat on the porch with our doggies, who welcomed me as if it had been YEARS since we had last seen each other, and then calmed down. I again left them after spending about an hour out there. We enjoyed it because it was a beautiful, unusually warm day for Arkansas in January, and I saw THREE PAIRS of cardinals in the evergreen trees in one side of our back yard!
I left a good review on their website and am trying this morning to call and talk to the nice lady who schedules appointments. I have put their name and phone number in my contacts list and will call them again. They also clean tile and grout!
As I’m moving small stuff back in place, I’m SMILING at my carpet!!!
Lovely Images
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Marybeth Bruchwalski – AR Sunrises and Sunsets via Cindy Basnett Thurman
Nature via Cathy Ruggiero
Svetlana Milenkovic – LinkedIn
Wim Beunderman – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Catherine Lee
Puddles
Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under anticipation, Attitude, Childlike Fun, Encouragement
Embarrassed
Yale Medicine
We have carpet cleaning people coming at 1:30 today to clean the carpet in our living room, office, and foyer on the first floor.
I’ve been moving the small stuff, but my husband insists he doesn’t want them to move anything except our chairs, as far as furniture is concerned.
Even with all the purging I’ve been doing over the past year, I’m amazed at how much STUFF we have on the floors!
I’m almost ready for them now. I vacuumed yesterday, but I know they’ll find a huge amount of dust, hair balls, and maybe even pencils, pens, cat toys, etc. under the heavy chairs. I’m hoping that they have really powerful vacuum cleaners when they come.
I chose a company called ChemDry because they don’t use nearly as much water. Their chemicals are safe for kids and pets (our two doggies and two cats will thank them for that. Our four fish are up on the divider between the kitchen and the dining area, so they don’t say much one way or the other.) The carpet is supposed to be dry in 2 hours.
In the office, things are pretty unmovable, so we’ll just ask them to clean the areas that they can get to, moving only our chairs. We have huge metal file cabinets, my old desk, shelving, roll-around carpet pads, etc. If they can just make the areas they can get to cleaner, we’ll be happy.
The foyer is fairly clear of stuff. We’ll put the dogs out on the back porch. I’ve already moved their huge bed out there (along with a gazillion little things that were on the floors). My husband and I will probably stay in the dining area, reading books, while they work.
I feel the same way today that I do when someone replaces an appliance, and years worth of YUCK are under and behind them. I feel SURE that every other housekeeper in the world gets under and behind everything with a toothbrush, leaving the areas pristine. I’m a slob, finding all kinds of things I would rather do than clean house.
I’m still trying to get up into my art room and play, but I tend to zone out when I’m up there, so it won’t be this afternoon.
All appendages – plus my eyes – are crossed that – once they get over how dirty our carpet is – they will be able to do a good job for us.
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
Apologizing
SayingImages.com
My husband and I were raking rocks, picking up tools, hauling bricks, and wrapping up the potting soil for the planter we had to demolish. My husband’s hearing is a bit challenged (I guess mine probably is, too), but I asked him, while he was raking rocks, if I should start gathering the tools. He gave me an exasperated look, stopped raking rocks, and started pitching tools into the wheelbarrow. I helped him finish that, hauled off some bricks, put away the tools, and came back and helped with the rock raking. We put some bricks on top of the tarp filled with soil and agreed that we would need to get a smaller tarp tomorrow to cover up the soil better.
While we were taking some pry bars back out to the shop, I apologized that I had made him angry. He finally said, “You wanted me to help raking rocks. THEN you decided to haul the bricks off instead of raking with me. THEN you wanted me to stop what I was doing and pick up tools.”
The fact that he was out there raking rocks and helping to get to a good stopping place on the planter meant more to me than the fact he got angry with me because he won’t admit he needs his hearing checked. I DO value our relationship, and it IS more important than my ego or who was right or wrong.
Filed under Family, Lewis projects
Frustrated
Shutterstock
I’m frustrated because it’s already Tuesday afternoon and my exercise plans are blown for the week.
I told you that I was going to do some combination of DANCING exercise video, WALKING exercise video, the elliptical trainer, Wii Fit Plus, and yoga during Monday through Friday to try to keep moving, give myself a lot of variety, and try to increase my health and mobility.
THEN, our brick planter collapsed, sending brick everywhere.
We KNEW that this planter we built years ago and one other (both 8 feet long and a foot wide in front of our home at either end) were failing and would need to be replaced. We just didn’t plan on it right NOW. We figure the mortar we used was bad, since the other 12 planters we built are doing fine.
Once it collapsed, there was nothing to do but demolish the planter, haul the bricks over to a storage place behind the well house, shovel out the potting soil, and prep the area to rebuild it.
We’ve spent part of two days on it so far. We got down to the concrete slab we poured and the bottom round of bricks. We tried with a sledge hammer, pic-ax, and other tools to loosen the bottom round of bricks, but they wouldn’t budge. We have now decided to prep the area, raking rocks out of the way, wrapping up the potting soil in a tarp, and will re-brick the planter ourselves when the weather and temperature are good.
I’m about to go out and rake rocks. I’m not sure yet, whether we’ll go ahead and demolish the other planter or just hope it stays in one piece until spring.
I’m frustrated because I know this kind of activity doesn’t really take the place of official exercises. I can do a lot around the house or yard and not activate all the muscles that need it. Even raking rocks, wrapping up soil, sweeping, etc., isn’t the same as one of my more official avenues of exercise.
Tomorrow a carpet cleaning company is coming to clean our living room, office, and foyer. I’ll be relocating small stuff all morning in preparation for their work. Then, when the carpet is dry, we’ll be putting things back. A lot of labor, but –
I’ll just go with the flow and start my ‘official’ exercises NEXT week…
Filed under exercise, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects
Wonderful Wolves
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Jim Zuckerman – LinkedIn
Edward Aldrich – American Artist- via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Jim Zuckerman – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
*A lot of talented people have gathered together to try to save endangered species. There are many talented photographers involved in these postings.
Joe Bailey Sculpture and Design
Joe Bailey Sculpture & Design
Joe Bailey is a very talented artist, creating wonderful sculptures and drawings. I’ve shown you some of his sculptures before on the blog. He has a website called, Joe Bailey Sculpture & Design where he features ‘Anham Hall Asylum’ sculptures and drawings. He describes this as, “A new, dark and haunting (but fun!) project that I’m working on featuring the sinister goings on at Anham Hall Asylum (Animal Asylum) ….welcome to the funny farm! :-)”
Click on this link to find some amazing work. Joe Bailey Sculpture & Design.
Filed under Joe Bailey Art, sculpture
Plans vs Actuality Update
Bubonik
We tried to go back out to work on finishing demolishing the brick planter after a late lunch, but weren’t making much progress. We decided to call it a day and hit it again tomorrow.
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects
Plans vs Actuality
WLOX.com
This picture gives you a BIT of an idea of what we’ve been doing since yesterday afternoon.
My husband went out to see if he might be able to dig a hydrangea out of one of two brick planters that are suddenly falling apart in front of our home. (We think the mortar we used must have been bad.) We built 12 others that are doing fine.
He just started to use a shovel – and part of the whole front of the planter came down with a crash. I was planning to go to my art room to play, and suddenly we were going to the local hardware store for two tarps for the “demolishing-the-planter” project.
We spread one tarp out and held it down with some of the bricks that had fallen off the planter. We spent an hour and a half yesterday trying to dig the big hydrangea out of one end of the planter. My husband dug and cut and I threw bricks into the wheelbarrow and carted them off behind our well house and then stacked them up. We FINALLY got the huge ball and roots of the hydrangea to let go and then spent 10 minutes with both of us working together trying to roll the ball off the end of the civilized portion of our front yard. (The rest is woods.) We called it a day right before dark.
Today we did errands, came home and had our Nutrisystem mid-morning snack. I came in to work on the computer and suddenly noticed things were quiet. (I had again been planning to go upstairs and play in my art room.)
________________
I looked around and discovered my husband had gone outside to tackle the planter again. I grabbed some gloves and went out to help.
We had another hydrangea, and I suggested we use a pick-ax to break it apart a little at a time. That seemed to work much better. My husband wielded the heavy pick-ax, then I shoveled up the dirt and threw it onto the pile on the tarp. This allowed each of us a bit of time to rest between periods of exertion.
We now have most of the potting soil on the tarp. We’re taking a break, drinking water, and relaxing a bit.
We’ll go back out and see if we can remove the rest of the bricks and then do an extensive clean up. We want to leave the concrete slab as clean as possible, raking the decorative rocks away from the edges of the slab. We’ll use a leaf blower to try to get the remaining soil out of the rocks. We’ll wrap up the tarp, putting bricks on top to keep the soil intact as much as possible.
We have another planter to do, but I’m not sure we’ll get to that one now. We have already purchased a pallet (or whatever you call it) of bricks to use to rebuild the planters. If we can find an expert to do it that we can afford, we’ll do it. If not, we’ll get busy mixing mortar in the spring…
Maybe TOMORROW I can play.
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects
It’s All in Your Attitude
Daryl Roy – LinkedIn
Smiling and laughing are contagious. I’ve seen videos where someone on a bus will start to laugh and all around him start laughing, too, even though they have no clue what is funny. I’ve seen faces of seeming bitter old people break out in a truly wonderful smile when someone smiles at THEM.
I’ve been in a sad state of mind and DECIDED I would smile at people (and animals) wherever I saw them. Not only did most smile back at me, MY spirits were raised, as well!
I have decided that attitude is all in life. You can’t control much of what happens to you and around you. You CAN control your reaction to it. I’m not saying I think one should go around with a silly grin on your face regardless of what is happening around you. I AM saying that many times you can CHOOSE which part of an event you’re reacting to.
Two examples –
- My sister-in-law died of Stage 4 breast cancer on New Year’s Eve. She was only 60. I can choose whether I will dwell on the fact that she’s gone, that her life was cut short, that a happy spark has gone out.
What I am choosing to react to is how lucky I am to have known her. How proud I was of her creative spirit and lust for life. I can celebrate her life.
- Our son came home to visit from where he lives and works in Thailand after an absence of over 3 years. He spent three weeks with us – celebrating his birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s with us. He is now in Florida visiting with friends, plus meeting with a client before going back to Thailand tomorrow. We have no clue how long it will be before we see him again.
I spent a couple of days on the verge of tears. (I’m tearing up NOW as I type.) I already miss him and his exquisite hugs so badly it hurts. I can choose to dwell on the fact that he’s gone. I can feel sorry for myself that he lives half way across the world. I can be depressed that it might be several years before he comes to visit again.
What I am choosing to do is to be grateful we have such a wonderful son – proud of the kind, caring man he is. I’m happy that he loves us not only as his parents, but as people he enjoys spending time with. He has gone to great lengths to set up a secure chat program so we can talk several times a day. (We’ve already spoken to him three times today.) He also set up a conference call program – like Skype – but infinitely better, where we can talk and see each other real-time when we’re all up and functional at the same time. (There is 12 hours difference between us.) I can remember every moment of our visit, laughing, teasing each other, having some serious talks, and the wonderful hugs.
I choose to look at the positive side of things as much as I am able. I want to concentrate on the NOW – the sounds, smells, feelings, people, pets, ideas. How lucky I am to be alive.
I want to “be so happy that when others look at me, they become happy, too.”
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Encouragement
Cyder
“Cyder” – Niki Firmin Pet Portraits – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
The Art of Hari Willy
Hari Willy via Beatriz Arroyo Carrasco – LinkedIn
Hari Willy via Beatriz Arroyo Carrasco – LinkedIn
Hari Willy via Beatriz Arroyo Carrasco – LinkedIn
Hari Willy via Beatriz Arroyo Carrasco – LinkedIn
Polar Bears
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
*These photographs by talented photographers all over the world are gathered and shared in an effort to increase people’s awareness of how wonderful and diverse our wildlife is, and how threatened it is by our society.
Happy Sunday
Fashion Design Images
I’m feeling happy today – on top of things – empowered. My plans are starting to come together.
- I told you that I got an iPhone 8 this week. Every day I’m figuring out new things. I’m finding it amazingly intuitive. I love the noise it makes when I get a text or a phone call. I like that I can actually FEEL a small vibration when the tone sounds with someone replying. I had a nice text chat with our son this morning, reaching out to him because he’s in Florida now, visiting friends and a client and will leave the country soon to go back to Thailand, PLUS he has an iPhone 8 and encouraged me to ask him questions on getting it set up. After talking to him, I have a starting list of apps I want to install, and he was able to answer my questions. I think I’m going to love this phone!
- Before going to the grocery store with my husband this morning, I cleaned out the fridges in the kitchen and the pantry, cut up fresh veggies for our lunches this week, and put out the resulting trash. We shopped, put the food away, cut up the fresh celery we bought, and started a roast beef in the crock pot.
- I’ve figured out my exercises for the coming week. (When it’s on my calendar, I tend to do it particularly if I put a gold star on the day.) So I’m planning to do dancing to a music exercise video Monday; yoga and abdominal exercises Tuesday; walking and exercise video Wednesday, Wii Fit Plus balance, reflexes, etc. Thursday; and elliptical trainer Friday. (I’ll ad lib on Sat and Sun.)
- My kitchen drawers are now cleaned out and organized. I’ll list the donations we’ll make on a spreadsheet so we’ll be ready when we have several bags full of things we hope others can use.
- I decided to go back to recording my food and water intake and activity on NuMi, the online tracker for Nutrisystem starting this morning. I’m basically into the routine now, but we’ve splurged with the holidays and our son being home for a visit, so I want to be sure I’m not fooling myself about eating during the day.
This afternoon I’ll vacuum the 1st floor carpet and then the 1st floor tiles. That’s going to be it for work today.
Finally, I’m giving myself permission to go up and PLAY in my art room this afternoon. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but my juices will start to flow when I start looking at the nice supplies I have. :0)
I hope that you are feeling happy and productive today, too.
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement, taking care of yourself
Kitchen Reorganization Project is Finished!
EMGN
I’ve spent about 3 hours cleaning out the four junk drawers in the kitchen. I finished – finally – and then fixed some lunch for us.
The drawer on the right is the original junk drawer, and is still the most averse to organization. I mostly took things OUT. The drawer on the left is now tools.
Drawer # 3 on the right is left-over tools, such as levels, stud finders, razor blades and holders, and measuring tape. The last drawer is my microwave steam cleaner, rolling-pin, extension cord and toothpicks.
Not perfect, but I threw away a ton of stuff, relocated things, and then reorganized what was left. We should have a much easier time finding things now.
I have officially called the end to the kitchen project now – at least for this Phase II pass.
I’ll decide the next project tomorrow.
Right now I may curl up in my chair and take a nap.
Seeing Spots?
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Dave Welling via RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
*These people are advocates for saving our wonderful wildlife all over the world. Many talented photographers are represented here – all sharing the same wish – that these beautiful animals are not allowed to go extinct.
Wonderful Drawings You Don’t Want to Miss
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Paul Mellender – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Saverio Scoleri Art
“Bridge Between Two Worlds”
“Bridge Between Two Worlds” – Paul Militaru Photography
Morphing Junk Drawer
Yesterday I cleaned out four more kitchen drawers.
We have always had what we call a ‘junk drawer’ in any kitchen we have. It’s the place we put nails, screws, twist-ties, tools, and other odds-and-ends We might need.
The problem with living in a nice home for over 30 years is that – unless one is a good housekeeper, which I’m NOT –
ONE junk drawer morphs into FOUR!
(The one we had set up got too full, so my husband moved some stuff out of the drawer next to it and put the new junk in there. And then, the next, and the next….)
Now we have FOUR junk drawers in the kitchen –
shutterstock.com
Drawer 1 – this is the ‘original’ junk drawer
Drawer 2
Drawer 3
Drawer 4
I know. We’re slobs. But we ARE trying to do better.
Today I will take EVERYTHING out. I’ll pitch a lot of things, relocate other things that shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and then try to organize what we’re keeping.
I’ll try to keep it to TWO junk drawers.
Junk drawers will never be ‘neat,’ but we are wasting lots of valuable space.
Your Awwwww for Friday
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Catherine Lee
Friends
My friends made me feel special today.
I’ve told you about the Lunch Bunch, and how two good friends (and sometimes others) meet me for Lunch every Friday. My husband has been made an honorary member of the group. We share what is happening with each other as we eat.
Recently we exchanged Christmas presents. My friend Kay gave me this gorgeous scarf. It’s a southwest design with lots and lots of metallic copper shimmering all through it.
When I told my friend Marsha about the pretty scarf, she had me choose from some copper earrings she made to wear with it! I received them this week and wore the scarf and earrings to Lunch Bunch.
I loved wearing the combination of the scarf, my furry brown vest, and my hammered copper earrings!
My friends made me feel special – another gift.
Filed under Friendship
Kitchen Reorganization Project Update
Original copyrighted work by Betty Ming Liu
(These aren’t MY kitchen drawers, but I wanted to give you a feel for what I’m dealing with.)
_________________
I’ve been through my kitchen and pantry once last year and made a lot of progress. Two drawers in our kitchen island, in particular, were jammed full of ‘stuff.’
I pulled everything out. I washed out the drawers and lined them with rubber sheet liners so things wouldn’t slide around in the drawers.
There were things in the drawers I honestly had no idea what their purpose was! I like having more than one of something, but enough is enough as far as duplicates.
I filled a large leaf bag with stuff from the two drawers, plus some things on my counters, plus things from a decorative wooden bar my husband mounted over the island where we have things hanging.
We took a donation to the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store yesterday – two leaf bags of Christmas decorations, a two-piece 8-foot-tall fake Christmas tree and stand, and the leaf bag full of kitchen stuff.
Here are the two drawers after the purge –
Drawer 1
Drawer 2
Today I’ll do more in the kitchen purge, but I feel good to have a start on Phase II of getting rid of ‘stuff’ from our over 30-year-old home!
Misuse of Imagination
Linda Sweigart via Cathy Ruggiero
In trying to make the most of 2019, I’m trying to put some of my bad habits behind me.
I am a CHAMPION worrier. I am not being boastful – this is one of my worst, most destructive behaviors and I would really like to change it.
My son and I had a good talk about this while he was home visiting. The gist of our talk, I guess, was the Serenity Prayer, but personalized to lots of my (and my son’s) particular worries. He is much more at peace since he became serious about meditating and he tried to share some of that with me. We talked openly about our fears, whether or not anything could be done to lessen or alleviate them, and at some points cried with each other. It was a really special time for us and I feel lucky we were able to share gut level feelings and help each other deal with them.
I’ve decided that this year I will –
- write down my fear
- explore honestly how valid the fear is
- if there is something I can do to lessen or alleviate it, I’ll do it
- if there is really nothing I can do about it, I’ll try to let go of it, leaving it in my journal
I’m hoping that facing each fear as it comes up will help me be more realistic and spend less time ‘playing the recording’ over and over in my head, causing me stress and anxiety and not changing anything for the better. My son and I have agreed that – even though he will again be across the world from me – we will both feel free to express any fears and help each other work through them.
I will try to use my imagination for my next art project!
Filed under Challenges, Changes, Family
Arrrgh!
Sonia Figueroa
I’m feeling older than dirt after our morning errands.
- First, we drove to Fort Smith to give a donation to the Disabled Veterans Thrift Store. They are always very nice, but the man today was looking at the fake Christmas tree, clearly puzzled. He said he had never seen a tree like this one. (It’s in two pieces, the top pole fitting into the bottom pole, and both fitting into the larger pole in the base my husband made.) He asked if WE had made this tree by hand! I told him we had bought it years ago. Then he was amazed that it was in such good shape, which got my nose back in joint a little bit….
- We stopped at the AT&T store when we got back to Greenwood. My husband decided, all of a sudden, that he wanted me to upgrade to an iPhone from the android ones we both had. I was happy, because I wanted to do this years ago and he was adamant he didn’t want to do it. What changed his mind was that he found something on the net saying if you pushed two buttons on the android phone simultaneously, a message would pop up, asking you where you wanted to send the photo you just took. He tried it. It didn’t work. So, he finally decided “I” should upgrade. We went for a two-year contract on an iPhone 8 – not the newest model, but more affordable. I now have a pretty new phone. No manual came with it, so the nice girl – who said, “Wow. You’ve really had this phone a LONG time, haven’t you?” was nice enough to transfer my contacts from the old phone to the new and get me signed up. I very graciously did NOT bite her in the leg for insulting me via insulting my OLD phone….
Now we’ve ordered a manual for it on the net. I’ve just spent quite awhile figuring out how to get the main screen to show. I also found the texting app and the make a call app. This was such a delight that I took a break and peeled, de-veined, and cooked the shrimp for our dinner tonight to rest up for the next ‘figure-out’ session…
- I guess being shown that you’re older than dirt is one of the many perks of living this long. We’ve endured exclamations about our thermostats – and have now changed them out for the latest that is good with our geothermal heating and cooling system. We have a security system for the house now and have managed to set it off erroneously only once since we’ve had it, managing to enter the code before police/fire/ambulance, etc. descending upon us. We have a new phone system that actually screens our calls pretty well, allows people who follow the directions to leave a message, etc.
- One of the latest assaults on our advancing age was when I was trying to list our DVD collection on Amazon for resale. They are quite specific on what is acceptable and what is not – particularly on DVDs, rather than books – requiring not only that the picture match, you indicate regular or Blu-ray, etc., and ALSO that your DVD is not considered too old. We matched on all but the copyright year, and Amazon wouldn’t list it. I guess the different copyright dates might indicate a different format. We ended up listing the ones that were ‘acceptable’ and giving the rest to the local library for their next fundraiser.
Otherwise, except for being shown time after time that we are OLD, we’re doing quite well, thank you!
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes
Lion Love
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
*These wonderful photos are taken by multiple talented photographers, all interested in preserving the habitat, lives, and futures of these wonderful creatures.
Beautiful Memorial Portrait
“Hitch” – Niki Firmin – LinkedIn
Filed under Amazing Animals, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
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