Today I sold my plasma for the third time and made $20 for what almost took 2 hours. The guy, I assume a male nurse that took my vitals told me first to shut my mouth. We both laughed, he had stuck a thermometer on to my tongue and I forgot to close my trap. Maybe that shared laughter prompted him to mention his marriage to "a good wife from Island." My male Hispanic nurse met her of all places in Espanola when he was 45 years old. With great enthusiasm he related that they have been married for 12 years now and that he will never let her go, that she makes for a great wife! I had no time to ask what does make a good wife? Maybe next time I will get a chance to continue this exchange. His enthusiasm though made me not just smile, but gave me hope. Good things happen even when we get older, some relationships may actually work, life can be good, maybe even great!
SUENOSDEUOMI'S RUMINATIONS AND PERSPECTIVE
Oh Happy Day
Out and about by 6:30 AM, yeah, wearing a sweater proved not to be the major issue I expected. The pups were delighted which translated in to rambunctious behavior and for me the whole day proved to be an energetic, 'got-get-it-done' kinda day. Nothing like accomplishing things. Oh happy day ...
Hanging Out
Hanging out in a hammock
is one of the great pleasures in life,
my Isabella-girl discovered.
Father's Day
I can not get this jingle out of my head:
Vater ist der beste Kunde im Lokal,
er haelt jede Nacht
an der Tecke Wacht.
Hat der Wirt auch keine Gaeste,
Vater ist der beste ...
My Mom used to sing this jingle with glee.
She adored her Dad.
I hope it was a mutual admiration situation.
My mom told me with great pride how her Dad
was capable of making her pretty dresses to wear to school.
I also know that he liked to laugh - and drink,
and he would not bother with the collection of dues.
Opa became a house painter, in business for himself
after he lost his wife's fortune during the great depression.
They had owned several houses, a convenience store and
"eine Gartenwirtschaft" a restaurant with a patio for music and dancing.
They must have been very outgoing and social.
My grandfather forbid his kids to join Hitler's youth group
and believed the Fuehrer to originate from the devil.
Vater ist der beste Kunde im Lokal,
er haelt jede Nacht
an der Tecke Wacht.
Hat der Wirt auch keine Gaeste,
Vater ist der beste ...
My Mom used to sing this jingle with glee.
She adored her Dad.
I hope it was a mutual admiration situation.
My mom told me with great pride how her Dad
was capable of making her pretty dresses to wear to school.
I also know that he liked to laugh - and drink,
and he would not bother with the collection of dues.
Opa became a house painter, in business for himself
after he lost his wife's fortune during the great depression.
They had owned several houses, a convenience store and
"eine Gartenwirtschaft" a restaurant with a patio for music and dancing.
They must have been very outgoing and social.
My grandfather forbid his kids to join Hitler's youth group
and believed the Fuehrer to originate from the devil.
He had though no compulsions about withdrawing my Mom's salaries from her bank account while she served in the army during WW II.
Is there such a thing as 'a bike-loving gene'?
My Opa, my Mom, and myself, we loved our bikes.
My Opa, my Mom, and myself, we loved our bikes.
I seem to remember vividly feeding the birds with my Mom's Dad.
I remember him as calm and kind and - old.
It was the fifties, my hair was still black, Tante Hannah was a single, older woman taking care of Opa. They were social people, hanging out in bars and restaurants, gambling with pennies, listening to the jukebox, laughing and probably drinking too much, but never getting wasted. I guess Opa coped, mostly silently unless he had a glass too many, with the aftermath of WW II.
Cats or Dogs?
Life is not an either or proposition.
While it can be entertaining to listen to hilarious reasons of preferences of one over another,
it is silly to compare apples and oranges.
I aspire to accept life for what it is.
I live with a cat and two dogs,
but consider myself neither a cat or a dog person.
A true sage has no preferences.
While it can be entertaining to listen to hilarious reasons of preferences of one over another,
it is silly to compare apples and oranges.
I aspire to accept life for what it is.
I live with a cat and two dogs,
but consider myself neither a cat or a dog person.
A true sage has no preferences.
Smoke
Smoke fills the air and may be responsible for my extreme tiredness today. A fire from a careless camp ground user about 50 miles away caused these low dark lying clouds a few days ago. Since, 3 more fires have broken out, no doubt due in part to the lack of monsoon rains and in larger part carelessness. The lack of oxygen feels real oppressive. My doors and windows are shut despite the need for cooling down during the night as tomorrow's temperatures will rise in to the nineties, but will feel even hotter.
Currently one fire encompasses 700 acres and another 9200 acres. Is there a limit to human carelessness?
Currently one fire encompasses 700 acres and another 9200 acres. Is there a limit to human carelessness?
Funny and True
True story that took place yesterday at one woman's annual check up:
Feet in stir ups, metal speculum up, you know where.
Woman says: "I do not enjoy this."
Doctor says: "You are not supposed to."
Burst of laughter from both.
Feet in stir ups, metal speculum up, you know where.
Woman says: "I do not enjoy this."
Doctor says: "You are not supposed to."
Burst of laughter from both.
One-Minute Writer; In 5 Years
Prompt:
How might we feel about frustrating aspects of life in 5 years?
How might we feel about frustrating aspects of life in 5 years?
On a societal level what frustrates me is the excessive powers and greed of corporations. Only earlier this year the Supreme Court awarded corporations same status as individuals. In 5 years this means that corporations will have bought important laws and regulations in their favor. The people will suffer more, the president will be blamed, the Democrats will have lost their strong hold and society will have slid back in to a morass of right wing stances, oppose science, health care and humanity, but be for profit at any price and the further rape of the environment.
Not One, but Two Minute Writing Prompt
Which Professions can we do without?
Institutionalized executioners have no role to play in a modern, enlightened society. Away already with the death penalty! Away with outdated, unsophisticated, inhumane ways of treating an offender, no matter how bad, how damaged, how dangerous, how horrendous. When we inflict our rage upon another and act less then with any human's best interest in mind, we damage not just the other, but ourselves and our society and fail to grow psychologically.
Along with executioners, let's do away with soldiers. War's can no longer be won the way they used to. Boundaries no longer exist the way they used to. Psychological growth demands from all of us sophisticated, non-violent methods of processing conflict. Nuclear exchanges can not be an option. Us versus them is an outdated concept. Remember Buffy Saint Marie: The Universal Soldier he really is to blame ....
Mentor
I was introduced to Dwuno on a cobble stone street in old town Zuerich. Her silvery hair hung over her back, her cheeks pronounced, her eyes dark, deep, large and full of mischief, her clothes seemingly home made, a tunic of sorts hung of her voluptious body, her feet stuck in sandals she had painted with sacred designs of her own pleasure. I was 19, Dwuno could have been my Mom, but then she could not. Dwuno gathered us in to "under-intellectual" Sunday gatherings. It was the seventies, meaning the sixties for us in Switzerland. Dwuno introduced me to an aspect of my self I did not know existed. A state of being, a state of bliss, a state of wholeness and movement with no intent. Dwuno, exotic, dramatic, stunningly beautiful was my very first mentor. I owe her, the world, a gift in kind.
Money
Das Geld, das aus den Fenstern fliegt,
wer weiss, wohin’s geraet!
Das Geld, das auf der Strasse liegt,
ist ziemlich duenn gesaet.
Erich Kaestner
wer weiss, wohin’s geraet!
Das Geld, das auf der Strasse liegt,
ist ziemlich duenn gesaet.
Erich Kaestner
Shocking Numbers
By the end of June and these first 6 months of 2010,
I will have driven my van around town for about 800 miles
which will have cost me about $800!
For gasoline about $200 (fluctuating prices around $3.50/gallon but so far under $4.)
Basic Liability Insurance: $184 in one lump sum for 6 months, more if payed in installments.
(I chosen Progressive at the time because they also insured my scooter, while Farmers did not)
Of course liability only is not good enough, not considering our state's proneness to drunk driving.
AAA Plus renewal due later this month will set me back about $55/1 year ($27.50 for half) a must.
Repairs for this first half year only, limited to the most necessary ones, come to a total of about $300.
Stuck window pulled up 1 hour $95 + (I can not afford to fix the mechanism for now)
Oil change and battery charge (too little driving!) $140 +
New air filter (way overdue I now realize) about $50 +
Projected Repairs total about $1000
Not included in this accounting are windshield wipe fluids, anti-freeeze, or oil.
Not included in this accounting are windshield wipe fluids, anti-freeeze, or oil.
And this after only $7000 miles over 3 1/2 years on a replaced engine! Back then I was assured that my van was sound and could run for a long time yet with another engine. It took 3 attempts to set one in. Twice the engine placed by two different mechanics in different shops exploded after just about 1000 miles of driving. Nobody could explain why. These days I only drive around town, mainly to the dog park and nearby shopping for items too heavy or bulky to carry back home by bike or on foot
I love my van, my snail house (Schneggehuus) my second, mobile home. It provides me with the most comfortable way of traveling that I know of. Traveling in my well organized mobile home offers me and my pups so much freedom and comfort on the road, both very important to us.
Can I afford to keep on driving my van though?
Ingenuity
My Ingenuity!
I brought my Begonia that had been sheltered indoors from potentially freezing temperatures out only this past, last day of May. 2 weeks later then our normal frost free date, May 15th. The winds had been real strong, not just for the month of March but all through out May.
As I wondered how to protect this Begonia from the literally burning, intense sun light of our arid, high altitude desert climate, I had a bright idea. I remembered my Mom's parapluie stored in my closet since her passing, now almost a decade ago. I am very pleased with the result and even more so with connecting the dots, and coming up with a new and workable solution. Something that had not crossed my mind in prior years when this Begonia suffered blistering burns.
My 'Goddess with an Attitude' of course does not mind in the least all the exposure to those to some so damaging sun rays. Rather she reminds me to swoon in the little pleasures that life offers, again and again.
My 'Goddess with an Attitude' of course does not mind in the least all the exposure to those to some so damaging sun rays. Rather she reminds me to swoon in the little pleasures that life offers, again and again.
So I wonder what other solutions we might be ignoring right now? What other resources might be lying there in reach, waiting for us, me and you, to remember?
The oil spill comes to mind and our dependence on fossil fuels. Where there is a will there is a way, my Mom used to say. Where is our collective will to get off the merry-go-round and get truly serious about green, renewable power. I suspect that collectively we are right now ignoring solutions that are lying in wait, eager to be employed and experimented with. Solar - and wind energy are so under utilized, it makes no sense at all.
President Obama was elected on a notion of change and a collective excitement on all that might be possible with a right set of mind frame. We are in dire need of change. Enough of this war mongering already! Let's get to work and use what Americans are so good at, the freedom to go ahead and change what needs changing and create what needs creating, and be once again at the scientific, technological, philosophical, modern forefront!
The oil spill comes to mind and our dependence on fossil fuels. Where there is a will there is a way, my Mom used to say. Where is our collective will to get off the merry-go-round and get truly serious about green, renewable power. I suspect that collectively we are right now ignoring solutions that are lying in wait, eager to be employed and experimented with. Solar - and wind energy are so under utilized, it makes no sense at all.
President Obama was elected on a notion of change and a collective excitement on all that might be possible with a right set of mind frame. We are in dire need of change. Enough of this war mongering already! Let's get to work and use what Americans are so good at, the freedom to go ahead and change what needs changing and create what needs creating, and be once again at the scientific, technological, philosophical, modern forefront!
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