My Favorite Month

October has always been my favorite month. I really like fall, but September is frequently just a continuation of summer. October brings the cooler days and nippy nights, sometimes even some snowthat doesn'treally stay.It's just a teaser for winter. This year we got several snow storms in the early part of the month, then we got down to the sunny days and cool nights. On the 24th we had a gorgeous Harvest Moon. It was probably so colorful due to the the coming temperature inversion last week end. The air was horribly smoggy. When I was coming home from work and passing the Great Salt Lake, it almost looked as if the world dissappeared into mist as I looked out.

Even though there's 31 days in October, it felt like less. The month just whirled by. It's hard to believe that it's November tomorrow! Hopefully, the nice weather willcontinue for awhile. I'm working an extra day a week for the holidays and I'm dreading driving in snow. The extra time is playing havoc with my blog writing as well.

Count Your Blessings

I was reading a quote from Charles Dickensthat every man should count his blessings, as any man alive has many. We should not concentrate on the past, as everyone has some problems and disappointments. That's a loose quote, but the meaning should be clear. I'm sure that each and everyone of us has had problems and disappointments in the past, done things and said things that we regret. The secret is to learn from those mistakes,then move on. As far as blessings in the"now", well, we're alive and breathing, then go on from there.

I had my handicapped daughter for one of her twice monthly overnights last night, She went to sleep around 9:30 p.m. and slept all night. That was a great blessing. Sometimes, we're lucky if she's able to sleep 4 hours. The traffic into town to take her to her workshop was pretty well behaved. Another blessing. It's a pretty day, despite the building up of smog, the skies overhead are a beautiful blue.

I went to my lawyer to finally get some things finalized that have been hanging for quite a while. I discovered that I had more money in the bank than I thought, a mixed blessing though, there are still too many checks that haven't been cleared yet. Oh well, I'm just getting used to debit cards and paying online I guess, think things should be quick, quick, quick.

Another blessing, I have no credit cards. It can be interesting living on a cash basis, sometimes quite liberating. I have no doubt that this will prove, ultimately, a very big blessing indeed.

I have a wonderful and supportive family. I have super grandchildren and my granddaughter is having a birthday next week, my oldest grandson is in college and the youngest one is becoming a wonderful young man.

My health is relatively good. It's been a little over a year since I first went to work in a job that requires me to be on my feet for hours. I remember coming home and soaking my feet most nights. I haven't done that in quite a long time. I can do my day and still have some energy left on most days. A true blessing. there are many more, but you get the idea.

Moody

Today I'm feeling a bit down and I can't quite figure out why. The sun is shining,though we're starting on a new weather pattern of more frequent storms. I guess I should get out and enjoy the sun while I can. Maybe that's what I need is a little more mother nature. My work days were busy with lots of cooking. Yesterday was laundry day, plus I cleaned out a closet. I actually got my sewing machine up and running last week and started on an outfit that I've had cut out and waiting for over a year. Unfortunately, the pants are summer wieght fabric. Oh well, I'll wear them anyway.

I used to meditate every morning, but since I moved in with my Aunt, I don't manage to do it very often. Maybe that is what is making me feel out of balance. I keep planning on renewing my yoga practice, but don't. I could be lazy, or just have not quite enough motivation or maybe energy. Of course the activity would boost my energy,but where to find the initial energy to start with?

I just rejoined AARP. I went to thier web site to see what they have.On thier games and humor page they print a cartoon called "Bound and Gagged"that is really cute. Also on the site is the results of a poll about how people over 50 feel about death and dying. 94% believe in God. Something like 74% believe in heaven and 66% believe in Hell. I may have the numbers a little off,because I didn't write them down, but I'm close. I was a little surprised that there weren't so many who believed in Hell. Maybe by the time you get into your 50s, you start taking responsibilty for yourself and stop blaming "the Devil" for your problems. Just a thought.

Just Ramblin

I just received an ecard from my Granddaughter, Caitlyn. I really love hearing from her because it's almost like she's right here and I can hear her. She writes just like she sounds in person. It's always a bright spot in my day when I hear from any of my Grandchildren or from my Son or Daighter-in-Law. Since the Grandkids write infrequently, it's fortunate that my
daughter-in Law keeps me a little better posted, otherwise I wouldn't know what's going on. I know I could pick up the phone and talk in person, but they are all so busy, that it is hard to catch them at home. Holidays are hard, 'cause though I miss them all year, it seems most acute around the Holidays.

We've already had two snowstorms in the mountains. It gets warmer between storms. In fact, yesterday, it got quite warm, in the 80s in SLC. Today is a perfect Fall day, sunny, clear and in the mid 60s.

I heard on the news yesterday about the 14 year old boy in Cleveland, who shot 4 people and then turned the gun upon himself. While it is fortunate that he didn't kill anyone but himself, it is quite horrifying to think of a 14 year old with no reason to live. What is wrong with our society that leads these young people into a state of mind where they seem to feel their only option is violence and death?

While we need to address the problems of the depressed and hopeless, we must not forget the many young people who view life positively and look for ways to serve others, and there are many of them. I read a column by Thomas Friedman today. He had been to several colleges, talking to students. He's very impressed by their idealism and willingness to do their part to improve the world. He does, however, label them the "Q" generation,because they use the internet to communicate with others of thier mindset, but they don't get out and get vocal. He thinks they should be protesting, and certainly, they should be voting. I'm not sure about that, except for the voting part. The internet has been changing things. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how effective it is about changing the way politics is carried out. By the way, Friedman calls us the greedy generation. Ouch!

Me Thinks He Doth Protest Too Much

Recently, Pres. Bush said, again, that The U.S. does not torture. Has anyone kept track of how many times he has seen reason to make this comment? It seems like a lot. Makes you wonder if he's protesting too much. If it were really true, that the U.S. doesn't use torture, he'd not need to keep saying it.

Yesterday I read an article from Harper's Magazine online written by Scott Horton on the subject of torture. He talks about our "enhanced" questioning techniquics and the rendition policies that supposedly aren't torture and are viewed by the Bush Administration as an important part of fighting terrorism. I wonder what kind of Presidency Bush would have had if 9/11 had never happened. How would he have gotten us into Iraq? I'm sure it was on someone in the Administration's agenda from the very beginning.

Back to Scott Horton's article. He talks about torture being a crime greater than most because it corupts the core of state and society, a rot that spreads quickly, destoying other values. It breeds secrecy and tyranical expression of the power of the executive and imperils the democratic institutions. He goes on to point out that love endures and overcomes, while hatred can only destroy.

Really Cruel Veto

Today is a beautiful, sunny day. It's in the 60s, but we're starting to get a south wind blowing. This will blow in a storm in a day or two. It's too bad we can't guarentee a storm blowing in on President Bush as a response to his veto of the SCHIPS spending bill. His reasoning is that it puts us on a "slippery slope" toward national health care. I suspect he doesn't want to cut money from his war or offend the health insurance industry, though I can't see how providing health insurance to children who's parents can't afford it could possibly cause the insurance industry any problems. After all, they aren't losing customers at all. These are children who go without health care unless SCHIPS is there. These children go without basic care, wellness check ups, many vacinations, etc. They have to be sick enough to go to an emergency room. It very often ends up costing hospitals and/or State programs more money than SCHIPS would, not to mention children having to get sicker and take longer to heal.

My suggestion to those who care about children's heath, is to write, call or email your State Representative and your Senators that you want them to override Pres. Bush's veto. Surely, with all the money we're spending on Haliburton and Blackthorne, we can spare some for our children's health!

The Secret to Happiness

I read a news article today about a new study done about happiness. According to this study, Americans report being happy more than Europeans and Japanese, and report being happier. The study was about quality and quantity of happiness. It found that many Americans are very happy, but that they have such high expectations, that new happy experiences aren't always what they expect. It also found that nearly anything that went wrong with thier lives was cause for frustration and unhappiness. My opinion on that is that these people were looking outside themselves for happiness, rather than looking within.

The thing that drew me to the article was a story of a man who was in Italy when he was 70 years old. He was riding a bycycle down a hill, going fast, when he hit a bump. He was thrown over the handlebars and sustained head and spinal injuries. He lost part of his memory, the use of his legs, and though he could move his arms, he couldn't pick up small objects with his fingers. This man is now 80 years old. He still cannot walk, but has regained his memory and made other strides in being more self sufficient. While many might expect him to be bitter and unhappy. However, he says he has never been unhappy. He accepts responsibility for going too fast and causing his accident. He feels joy in being alive and is grateful for any progress he makes in being more able to take care of himself.

I feel that this man knows a great secret. Number one, he takes responsibility for his own actions and equally important, feels gratitude for all that he has. This man probably does not have the ups and downs that the people in the study have. He looks to himself to create his own happiness and his gratitude probably sustains him. The article doesn't mention anything about the man's religion or spiritual practises, but I would bet he is a spiritual person whether or not he belongs to any organised religion or not. It seems to me that we could all learn a lesson from people like him.

Progress, or Not

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Overdue Post

It has been 10 days since my last posting. I realise I'm getting lazy, or more likely just impatient. I got so spoiled when I had broadband, that I now rarely have enough patience to deal with anything more than checking emails and my bank balance online. It just seems to take forever whenever I try to do much online. My laptop isn't even plugged in when I'm not using it. I always kept it in hibirnation, but turning it on brought it right back. Now I need to take it into the kitchen and set it up every time I use it. Otherwise, I end up using my Aunt's computer.
she also has dial-up, but at least it's plugged in and on stand-by.

I've mentioned before that Fall is my favorite season.Unfortunately, Fallis not perfect. Fall brings the allergic reation to the dreaded chenopods and sage brush. At least this year I didn't start really reacting until mid September. Sometimes I have problems frrom mid August. I've had a sinus headache since Monday afternoon and it's now Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, it waxes and wanes in intensity,sometimes almost disappearing altogether. I've noticed, it's almost gone when I'm in a store with filtered air. It's good that I work in a store. It would help if the south wind would stop blowing, but as there's aslow moving cold front in California trying to get to Utah, I suppose it will be blowing for a few more days. Sadly,my best remedy is a good hard frost. Unfortunately, that can also be the start of winter, though not always. One can only hope I guess

This and That

I've actually been chilly today! After one of the hottest summers on record in Utah's Wasatch Front, we're actually getting some cooler days. Today may be only 69 degrees, tomorrow 72 or so and low 8os the rest of the week. I didn't even use my car air conditioner Sunday morning driving to work. I'm enjoying it, but am thinking of dressing a bit warmer. My Aunt wore a sweatshirt golfing last week!

The past 3 Saturdays, I've been acting Chef for our Saturday Chef Event at our Sam's Club. We normally have a wonderful chef named Harry, but he had to go back to Indonesia when his father passed away. The first Saturday was pretty scary, but my supervisors helped out a lot, doing much of the prep work, so all I had to do was cook the pork ribs. The next week, I was more comfortable cooking salmon, which I've done a lot of, so I did my own prep work. In this recipe, I breaded the salmon with a mixture of chopped almonds and seafood seasonings. The pasta dish that went with it was a Bertoli frozen dish that only needed heating. The last Saturday was pretty challenging. I cooked pork loin with mesquite seasoning, and a pasta dish from scratch. The pasta dish is great, with asparagus, onions, garlic, olive oil, parsley and parmesan cheese. Most of the cooking is done in the store proper, just the prep work is done in the kitchen. I was so worried about cooking pasta in the area we have to use. Fortunately, I had co-workers who helped, cooking pasta ahead of when I'd need it. There's 2 of us working the event, one cooking, one serving and both setting up and cleaning up. This Saturday, my server had the extra work of putting olive tappenade on crackers as well as serving the pork and pasta dishes. Of course, we were busy too. I was so delighted to see Harry this recent Saturday that I just had to give him a big hug.

The past several Mondays, my Aunt and I have been working on cleaning up the basement. I must say, it looks much better. There's still work to be done, organising, etc. but at least there are actually places with empty floor space. We threw away and gave away stuff. Of course, we still have lots of stuff anyway, but most of what we have is still usable and hopefully, some of it will actually be used eventually. But that's for another day.

Choose How You Age

I just recently read an article in Science of Mind about the new frontier of Ageless Living. The point of the article is that since we are living longer lives, we can choose to use our later ages to live in new ways from the first part of our lives. We can develope a new job and livlihood, start new hobbies and interests, try something we've thought about, but were too busy making a living and raising children to do. We can choose to be wise elders or cranky elders. we can blaze new territory, not worrying about being too old, or we can follow the old aging ideas of the pass and retire to our rocking chair on the front porch and complain about our aches and pains and complain about the younger generation and the state of the world. I think I prefer the first idea. I have days, like today, when I am tired and achy and want to take a little break, but the reason for the tiredness is some work days filled with activity and challenge and our usual Monday cleaning projects. At least with challenges you feel more alive, even though stressed. Besides, not all stress is bad for you.

There was a wonderful quote in the article of an e-mail that had been circulating on the web. No one seems to know the author,but it is a great sentiment, so I include it in today's posting. "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body.But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming woo-hoo, what a ride!"

It seems, to me, the trick would be to time it so you're not completely worn out until you're ready to go. Still, I really appreciate the quote's sprit, life is meant to be lived, and living can be messy and sometimes a little hard, but it's much better to live free from too much concern about appearences and opinions. I sometimes catch myself unconsciously limiting myself because I am of an older age, then I see a woman of 95 getting her BA degree and planning on getting her Masters next!

Obviously, getting older often brings some physical changes, but people often let that define them and limit them. Even with arthritic knees and carpel tunnel, you can still live a full life and do much of what you want to. You just need to work around any problems and don't make them reasons to stop living before you're actually dead.

I recieved an email from my daughter-in-law and she was commenting on the odd summer they've been having in Vancouver, Washington. They have lived there seven years and this time of year has always been dry. This year is different. The rainy conditions usual in other times of the year have continued all year. She's wondering if there has just been drought conditions the past 7 years and now it is reverting to normal. It's possible that's true, of course, but it seems to me that the weather patterns have been pretty skewed all over this year. I live in Utah and we're high desert country,so we're pretty used to dry conditions. Two years ago we were recovering from a 7 year drought. This last year, we didn't have enough snow pack and this summer has been hot and very dry. This July was the hottest July on record. We've had I think, 18 days of temperatures 100 degrees or over. We're nearly 6 inches below average in our water year. Even so, there are places in the South where they've had 100 degree temps with 90% or more humidity, causing deaths in the populace. It seems as "odd", in the sense of weather is getting to be the norm. I guess time will tell if this is a persistant trend, or if it's a fluke.

Internet Decisions

I realise that in my previous life,(living in the city, working full time with more money) that I got pretty spoiled with having broadband service. I also had a pretty good rate, bundles with my cable service. Now I am living with a relative,working part time so having considerably less money, and dealing with dial-up again. The bigger problem is that I have to move my laptop into the kitchen to be able to plug into a phone jack, as the other one is being used by my Aunt who logs on maybe once a week. In addition, it's an old house and until I get an 3 prong adaptor, I can only plug into the kitchen outlet. I've been looking at signing up for broadband again, but can't decide if I can afford it.The other option is to have a new phone line in my name put in and stay with dial-up. That may be the way I go for now, but eventually I'd like to send pictures to my kids and download music and that's really slow and sometimes impossible with dial-up. Darn,decisions, decisions. Changing your life always results in both positives and negatives. Heck, not changing your life is the same both positive and negative. I guess we just have to try to make choices that result in positive changes more than we choose changes that end up with negative results. The problem is choice. We don't always know whether the outcome will be the positive result we're hoping for. I'd had a little more frustrations lately, and that usually means that I need to spend a little more time in reflection and meditation. Now to find the time.

Back to Heat

The weather has gotten hot again. We were at 100 degrees on Sunday, 102 yesterday, and it's supposed to be over 100 again today. It's been staying fairly warm at night too. We may get some rain storms tomorrow, hopefully. The normal temp right now is 90 and it should drop into the 80s by the end of August, but who knows anymore.

Our miners are still in the collapsed mine. There seems to be very little progress being made. They've shown pictures from the camera lowered into one of the bore holes. There's empty space, no miners. They've started another hole farther down. They've been pumping air into the other holes, just in case. Nobody wants to give up hope just yet. I guess that's all the families have, that and the support of thier nieghbors.

There are some of our school districts that are starting school next week. It's going to be warm the first few weeks, most schools aren't air-conditioned. Many teachers around here buy fans out of thier own pockets to help make thier classrooms bearable. I know that's what my Aunt, a retired teacher used to do.

I just had my yearly review at work. I earned my raise for this year. Nice. They've made some changes this year in how your sales are counted and I wasn't sure I'd made it. You're given sales goals on whatever product you're demoing. It used to be 3 times the average daily sales, now it's 4 times. The fun thing is, the more successful you are by raising daily average sales, the higher your goal is the next time the product is demoed. Soon, they've raised the bar nearly beyond reach, unless you make a big business sale. Even if that happens, the bar is raised again. Still there are some good things about the job, like the people you meet and there are some sweet kids along with Mom and Dad too. Nice perks. That's it for today.

Just Musing Again

It'sfinally getting a little cooler here. It's still in the 90s, but the lowerand mid 90s.We'recloser to our average normal temps. Sofar, no 100s this month, though it is early in the month. We had a little fire just south of town yesterday,but they got it out fairly quickly. It only burned 45 acres.

There's been a mine cave-in down in central Utah. There are 6 people traped in a coal mine about 1500 feet deep and 2 and 1/2 or more miles from the mine entrance. It seems very scary to me to think of working that far under ground for any length of time. I'm afraid I'd get claustophobic. Maybe you get used to it. The mine owner claims that the collapse was caused by an earthquake. Scientists are claiming that the mine collapse caused the earthquake,which seems a little wierd. Yesterday, they were claiming that there was no quake,that the siesmic trace was just the mine collapse. I'm pretty sure that the miners and thier families don't care too much about the cause just now. They're more interested in being rescued,assumming that they are still alive,which nobody knows just yet. It may take several days to get to them, but they are drilling holes in the mountain above where they're supposed to be in order to get them air and supplies and communicate with them. That should be done sooner. In the meantime, everyone just hopes and prays.

Then there is the bridge collapse in Minniapolis. That certainly was a horrific site. The surprising thing was that there weren't more deaths.Maybe it fell slowly enough for people to get out,although the first people to go down probably had less chance. There have been warnings for a long time about the status of America's infrastructure. It's a shame it takes a disaster to get people to do something. I guess that's one problem with our form of government, it's run by committee. At least there's been inspections here in Utah, and I imagine most other States are doing the same.

We'reall going to see"the Bourne Ultimatum" tomorrow. It shoud be good.I enjoyed the first 2 a lot. Well, enough gab for now.

A Sunday Off

I finally have a Sunday off! My supervisor made me a deal. She needed me to work an extra day at the end of July to finish up the extra demos we'd been sent for the end of the quarter. I know most businesses have a different schedule for quarters, but our company's finacial year goes from Feb 1 to Jan 31. Go figure. Anyway, for doing the extra day, I was offered the whole weekend off for the first of August. I couldn't afford to take off 2 days, but I was more than happy to take off Sunday. I was invited to go to church, but I declined. I want to do mostly just what I want that is rejuvenating or uplifting or even lazy today.

So far, I've read my spiritual reading and added more, after all, it is Sunday. I've devoured the Sunday paper, I usually only hit the high points. I've checked my email, and I'm now updating my blog. I've also done dishes and thawed some chicken for dinner. Next on my list is making fruit smoothies for lunch.

I try to include God in my life everyday, so I'm not really prone to spending one day in church to spend my time with and for God. I think Spirit is with me always, I just need to quiet myself and listen, there He is! I admit, there is a nice social element to church, being with people of like minds, and it is a good place to organise people to help others that need help. To me, that element of serving those that need help is church's greatest function.

I erased my last paragraph as being too judgemental, something I keep trying to work on. Well, off to the rest of my Sunday.

Harry Potter

Last week I joined millions of others in reading the final installment of the Harry Potter series. I read it within 24 hours with time out for sleep, fixing dinner and doing the weekly laundry. I usually read the Harry Potter books at a fairly fast clip as they are so good, they are hard to put down. Whatever shortcomings J.K.Rowling may have in some things, she is a consumate story teller.

I approached book seven with just a little sense of trepidation. There had been so many questions about Harry's fate. One chapter had me quite worried, but the faith I had in Rowling was justified and she provided an elegant solution to Harry's being the 7th Horcruxe. She also answered the major questions and put the pieces together. My only complaint is that the epilogue takes place 19 years later. What happened in those 19 years? Maybe Harry got his wish and had a quiet happy life with no troubles. As he said, he'd already seen enough problems in his short 17 year life. Even so, it opens the door to more stories if Rowling ever decides to do them, though her latest interview says she's got no plans to go back to Harry's world.

I've tried to understand why I have been so enthralled with a so called children's book. Still, I've enjoyed quite a few other young adult or children's books before. I do like the way Rowling brings attitudes of caring and respect and ethical conduct into the stories without sounding like she's on a soapbox. I'm impressed with how she shows the love of thier children that the adults have, even to having the Malfoy's turn from Voldemort for Draco's sake.

All in all, the Harry Potter series has been a great edition to literature. I'm sad that there may be no more books, but look forward to the 2 movies yet to come. I have enjoyed being there as Harry, Ron, Herminone, and all the rest of the Hogwart's students grew up into full grown witches and wizards. Hopefully, J.K.Rowlings' next projects will be as exciting.

Growing Up is Over-rated

Today, my Aunt, who is in her 70s was told by her older sister,(80s) that we hadn't grown up yet because we were excited about the new Harry Potter film and book. I'm in my 60s, so I figure that if I'm not grown up yet, it's not likely to happen at all. Somehow, that does'nt seem so bad to me. After all, if growing up means losing the ability to use my imagination and get excited about new things, then I want no part of it. Obviously, we need to grow up enough to take responsibility for our actions, enough to function in a complicated world, but I believe we need to keep the heart and imagination of a child. We need to keep the ability to view things with the eyes of a child,to keep the beautiful wonder that can be our world and lives if only we're able to view it like a young child. We can't allow ourselves to buy into the cynicism that so many people have, thinking that it's just part of growing up. Let me be able to look at my world and find the wonder of a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a perfect flower, a beautiful baby. Life without wonder and thinking of "what if?" would be grim indeed!

Nothing Special, Just Rambling

It's been nearly a week since I've logged on to my blog. Between work and chores, etc. I've been a little lax. I've been reading a couple of new books. I,m reading the latest Darkover book. So far, it's pretty good, even though Marion Zimmer Bradley has passed on, the author she worked with and planned the futre of the series is doing well. I'm also still polding along through "The Secret" It's an okay book, it's just that the principles are not new to me. I had hoped there would be a little more about the "how" of applying the ideas. I'm half way through the book and the author finally mentions the importance of gratitude. I would expect it to be almost chapter one, after an explanation of the principles. You'd think that if I know the principles of the Law of Attraction that I'd be rich right? Obviously, I'm missing something. Probably too much negative thinking, or lack of faith or something.

Speaking of new books---what a tremendous amount of hype for the new Harry Potter book! Of course I will buy it. Usually by now I would have pre-ordered it, but as I am living on a cash basis, I'll wait . I'm planning on seeing the movie tomorrow. I kind of hate to see the series end in a way. I've really enjoyed it. I think J K Rowling understands the Law of Attraction, I understand she is a billionaire, plus she's given a lot of enjoyment to a lot of people.

Be Kind, Especially To Yourself

In the course of my lifetime, I've discovered that we are our own worst critics and judges. Now that isn't earth shaking news to anyone out there I'm sure. Still, when we're in the throws of beating ourselves up, we tend to forget to be kind. We wouldn't tell our best friend that they were being stupid and self destuctive, at least not in the uncomplimentary terms we use on ourselves. I'm not sure why we forget to offer ourselves the basic kindnesses that we would offer a total stranger, but that often seems to be the case. I know that I once obsessed for almost an entire week over a mistake I had made. Now I did learn from that mistake, but I didn't need to obsess for a week, I learned my lesson almost immediately. The rest of the time, I think I was intent on reliving the past enough that I could change it which is totally impossible!!

I guess what I'm saying is that we aren't perfect and we allow strangers the right to be imperfect, but not ourselves. The Bible tells us not to judge one another, but we still insist on judging ourselves. Let's be kind to one another, especially ourselves.