Connecting

Posted on August 14, 2011 by


 
The first picture above shows the remains of a dish set my grandmother gave me around 1960. For some reason I was especially touched by seeing the poor broken coffee pot. The second picture shows the still-intact soup dish that I retrieved and washed.

I had never used the dishes…I don’t use china. But I was happy that my daughter was going to take them the next time she and Torben drove here. They weren’t her favorite pattern but she was going to take them because of the connection with my grandmother. Instead I did the connecting, looking up the pattern (Franconia Rose by Edelstein) on the internet and bringing back memories. My grandmother didn’t have much money, but it was important that she give my sister and me a good set of dishes, along with the cedar “hope” chest she had given us earlier. I still have the cedar chest, the memories and the gratitude that she would care enough to do that for us. Thanks, Grammy.

Thanks to Mike, Evan, bikehikebabe, Rummuser, Looney, Ursula and tammy for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Living Fully | 15 Comments

Moving Right Along

Posted on August 7, 2011 by


 
The above picture was taken at our local hardware store. Andy was looking at the merchandise, here some bolts, to find some of the items to put on our insurance list. When Andy found something Kaitlin put the information into a spreadsheet program on her iPhone and Torben took a picture with his. Needless to say their help was invaluable. Bless them both!

The visit was very short (Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon), but we had a good time and got a lot done. We even made it up to the land for about 15 minutes before we had to leave to get them to their plane. It’s a long story. We had to drive over an hour to get to the place where we could sign our waivers and get our keys, so we all got up between 5 and 5:30 to make it all happen. But it was a gorgeous day and an adventure. Our scorched, treeless land is still a downer, but no sense dwelling on that. I personally find I tend to tune out the scorched trees and focus on the new bits of green popping up.

What was your week like?

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, bikehikebabe, Cathy, nick, Ursula and tammy for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Following the Path, Living Fully | 18 Comments

Wisdom?

Posted on July 31, 2011 by


Do you think most people get wiser as they age? Do you ever wish you were younger? Or would you not be willing to give up what you’ve gained/learned over the years?

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, bikehikebabe, Cathy and tammy for commenting on last week’s post.

икониПравославни икони

Posted in Humor, Living Fully | 20 Comments

Aftermath

Posted on July 24, 2011 by

Las Conchas Fire Information. Creative Commons license.


June 26, 2011. Flames are slightly below our house.


July 18, 2011

 
The big story around here for the past month has been the fire, of course. That’s finally under control and the big concern now is dealing with the aftermath, i.e., rehabilitation. In the areas that were severely burned, the soil tends to repel water and the organic matter in it has been burned, so there’s danger of erosion and flash flooding if/when it rains. That means except for last Monday, when we landowners were escorted in with our insurance agents, we still can’t go up there. But the fire team turned the authority over to the Forest Service yesterday (Saturday, July 23rd) and hopefully they will give us permission sometime this week. In the fullness of time we can start dealing with our own aftermath. It should be interesting and keep us busy for a while.

So what’s new in your life?

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, bikehikebabe, Cathy and nick for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Change | 21 Comments

Amen to That

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

WebMD just posted an article that resonates with me right now: Marriage Advice: New Rules for a Good Marriage. The points I especially agree with are

  • Forget the old rule “Never go to bed angry.” Instead calm down, sleep on it and deal with the issue when you’re both well-rested and can put things in perspective. Don’t let things fester but don’t try to resolve problems when you’re both tired and being jerked around by your emotions.
  • Don’t feel that just because we each develop different interests over the years that it’s bad for the marriage. If both partners are happy with their different interests and still enjoy the time they spend together, it can invigorate the marriage, and
  • Don’t assume good marriages just happen. They require commitment and teamwork. Long-term marriages aren’t trouble-free, they simply require the partners work together to solve the problems. And solving those problems together gives richness and depth to the marriage.

That last one is one of the main reasons I’m so happy right now. If all goes well we’ll see the mess up in the mountains tomorrow.
 

 
We’re already making some contingency plans…together.

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, Looney, Ursula, bikehikebabe, tammy, nick, Lea, Cathy and gaelikaa for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Change | 12 Comments

Update 7/13/2011

Posted on July 14, 2011 by

It looks as if we will get to go up Monday morning at 10 am. A group of homeowners and insurance adjusters will be escorted in at the same time, which makes sense. We plan to take a lot of pictures.

In the meantime I have my spreadsheet set up for the personal property we had, as well as a system for organizing the documentation. We were warned that would be a lot of work, but now it’s broken down into small chunks.

Posted in Change | 6 Comments

Update, 7/11/2011

Posted on July 12, 2011 by

Three insurance representatives came up around 8:30 this morning so we got the ball rolling on the insurance. And Andy saw our architect at 10. It looks as if we will have enough money to build a smaller and more complete structure, but only time will tell. The fellows we talked to don’t have the authorization to seal the deal, and the higher ups may have different opinions. But we were impressed at how the company handled the hail damage to our car a few years ago, and our architect switched to the company after he saw how they handled the claims from the 2000 Cerro Grande fire. If our claim is handled properly we will tell the name of the company.

Then we phoned the Sandoval County Fire Department and started negotiating for an escort for us, the insurance claims representatives and the architect to go up there. We will probably be able to go Thursday or Friday. When we do we will definitely take some pictures.

The fire has now burned 147,642 acres and is 50% contained. We are having a bit of rain which helps put out the fire, but which brings concerns of its own…the danger of flash flooding. Fires this intense burn all the organic matter and cook the soil, making it impervious to water. The water rushes immediately off the hillsides, often causing havoc below.

More later!

Posted in Change | 14 Comments

Up in Smoke

Posted on June 27, 2011 by

June 24, 2011. Taken from outside of town.

June 25, 2011. Taken at the edge of town.

 
The above two pictures were taken of a fire in a national forest by Santa Fe, across the valley from us. It’s downwind so we haven’t been affected by it. But this area is so dry they are closing some of national forests around here:
 

 
And as I was starting to write this post earlier today I took this pictures from our porch of a new fire to the west of us:
 

 
As I was downloading the picture from the camera bikehikebabe phoned to say the main highway in the mountains was closed because of the fire. Andy was up on the land, so I phoned my daughter to let her know what was happening. As we were talking Andy came in with pictures and bad news–the pictures were of our land burning. For more pictures click here.

At the moment we’re being told evacuations are voluntary, but if we leave because the smoke gets too bad make sure we’re prepared to be gone for a while. We’re not too worried. The fire is only 12 miles away as I write, but a lot of the trees that were between us and the fire burned in the year 2000. We did evacuate then.

Who says life in the sticks is dull?

Update June 27: We’re being evacuated again. Will let you know.

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, Looney, Ursula, bikehikebabe, tammy, Cathy and nick for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Change | 27 Comments

Sniffing Around

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

 
One reason dogs are my role models is because they know how to enjoy themselves. They don’t worry about wasting time. They also like to explore, sniff around and follow their noses. I do too, albeit in my own way.

A simple example…. this past week I read the following quote on one of my favorite blogs:

Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

I’ve pretty much always believed that, but the quote had no attribution and it sounded vaguely familiar. So I Googled it and discovered it was written by Robert Brault 25 years ago and, as he says in a blog post,

[It] is one of the most quoted lines of the past 25 years. In several slight variations, it appears over a million times on the internet. It is quoted on more internet sites than any of the Ten Commandments and almost as many times as The Golden Rule. It has been used on calendars, greeting cards, stationery, t-shirts and novelty items of every sort. It has been the motto of at least two high school graduating classes.

I didn’t know that! Anyway, I’ve now added Brault to the list of blogs I read and also went to a site that has 294 of his quotes. I will only include one of them here:

As to the Seven Deadly Sins, I deplore Pride, Wrath, Lust, Envy and Greed. Gluttony and Sloth I pretty much plan my day around.

I’m not a big one for gluttony, mostly I choose foods that will keep me healthy and feeling good. But the bit about Sloth resonated. Yes! That’s me. I plan my life around Sloth. In fact, the Sloth is another of my role models and I think of him whenever there’s social pressure to do more than I’m doing.

closeup of sloth
Mr. Sardonicus. Used with permission. Owner reserves all rights.

 
What about you? Do you have any role models? Do you ever just “sniff around” and explore?

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, Evan, bikehikebabe, tammy, Cathy and nick for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Humor, Living Fully | 24 Comments

Wasting Time?

Posted on June 13, 2011 by

Wilf, used with permission.

 

As I lift Wilf into the back of the car he has a look on his face that says “Time that you enjoy wasting, was not wasted .”
—Angus, Wilf the PONS Discovers France: Life With A Blind Dog

 
tammy told me about Angus and Wilf last week. It’s a charming, heart-warming site. Wilf is blind and has cancer and Angus is making sure they both continue to celebrate the little pleasures in life while they still can. If you read nothing else please read the About Me section, on the right below the Blog Archive.

Angus does raise an interesting question: What does it mean to waste time? In a comment at Rummuser’s Ursula touched on the same subject:

…just to prove that I am the queen of wasting time, I will waste even more time on the subject…. Have fallen quite in love with the idea. WASTING time; rolls off your tongue; dreamy.

It seems to me to say we’re wasting time means we think there’s something more important we should be doing with it. And I’m fairly certain some of the things that are most important to me would seem like a waste of time to others. For me I’m wasting time if I’m not

  1. Enjoying myself, and/or
  2. Doing something constructive

As long as I can answer the question, “Is this a good use of my time” with a resounding “Yes!”, I’m not wasting my time and my life.

What do you think? What does “wasting time” mean to you?

Thanks to Rummuser, tammy, Ursula, Cathy, nick and wendy for commenting on last week’s post.
Posted in Happiness, Living Fully | 26 Comments