Follow my posts at shirleyjdietz.com

Sky Drama, Blog Drama



silver linings?




gathering storm



ready to rain

every day in August

This is the last day in August which has been a very rainy month.  I haven't minded.  It's too hot to be outside in the afternoon anyway and I love to hear the rain on our metal roof. 

This is also the last post I will make on this blogger site.  I've had too many problems with it.  When I want to write I don't want to have to wrestle with technology for a couple of hours first.  I certainly don't understand all about these blogging sites - so many terms and places to go for added services that I don't know if I need or not.  But in order to keep writing and following my goal I have changed course.  Please continue to follow my posts at shirleyjdietz.com.  All past posts, pics and comments are also there.  It is a Wordpress site and I haven't had time to make it beautiful yet but will be working on it - hoping for a few more rainy afternoons in September.

Back to the Farm

I love field flowers. I'm thankful for the time I spent in Wisconsin this summer, which is where this picture was taken.  I'm thinking about that family reunion Wisconsin trip and there were several happenings that I never mentioned that were very good.

A very satisfying element of the reunion was that it centered around my grandfather's farm which has undergone several major changes in the years since he passed away. My father and my youngest brother made a decision years ago to take advantage of the farm's location, close to town, and built a very attractive nine hole executive golf course.  The farm house became the club house with some clever remodeling, and also had living quarters for my brother.  The barn became the workshop for the golf carts and lawnmowers.  All of us who visited got to golf in the evenings when the paying crowd cleared out.  Many of the cousins got to peddle soft drinks to the thirsty golfers, hunt for lost golf balls and other chores.  The farm had never looked so good, with it's landscaped meadows and brooks and ponds.

My brother married and got tired of golfers looking in his living room window so he moved to another house.  The golf course hit a few bad years with weather, the economy, etc... and my brother built another business for his own income.  It was headquartered on the farm and largely internet based.  The second big change was made when the golf course was closed and the farm became Par Lane Condominiums.  My brother's family remodeled the clubhouse again and moved back.  The energy efficient duplexes that he built and sold were very attractive and the abundance of green space left room for walking trails and picnic areas.  My parents bought one of the units and love living there.  It's a safe and beautiful community where most of the owners know each other and socialize. Walmart moved in to the adjacent property and erected a nice, tall fence between them with a gate - it's like having a shopping mall in the back yard whenever something is needed. 

Even with Walmart next door, the farm is still on the edge of town where the woods and the wild meet the streets and buildings of Hayward.  The old barn is still standing and functions to hold lawn maintenance tools and tractors.  As we gathered  in the evenings at the reunion we often remembered the places we had played, the spot where Grandma's garden had been and where the chicken coop had stood.  The landscape is as beautiful as it ever was, even through all the changes.  One of the special occassions that my brother had planned for us was an afternoon photo shoot with a photographer.  She came and took photos  of all our families using the barn and the pond around it for backdrop.  In return for her services she had permission to use the setting for other photo shoots and I'm guessing it could become quite a popular place.

It was a good, good time.  And I'm thankful for family, for Wisconsin heritage, for all the memories that have been made in that spot. 

Begin Anywhere, Just Begin

This is a picture of the Gray Kitty that lives at my house.  Putting up her picture, or any other picture, is what I must do to begin posting on my page since I still have an "error on page" that keeps me from entering the cursor until I put in a picture.  Just as I had to figure out a way to begin my posts, through much frustration, I must also figure out a way to begin THE BOOK.  Every day at work I look at this month's calendar page with it's wisdom from Mary Engelbart "begin anywhere, just begin". So I think it's talking about the book that I'm supposed to be writing. 

Tonight on Facebook a friend back in my northern home town mentioned that she was working on her book.  She's an ambitious sort but I didn't know she was writing a book and telling people about it.  She sounded sort of confident and it made me think maybe she knew how to publish as well as write. " No", she said,  She didn't care if it ever got published, she was just determined to write it. That might be the right attitude and I'm going to try it on for starters.  Forget publishing for now. 

Tomorrow I'm going to make a plan, with deadlines and defined tasks.  I'm going to attempt to do at least one thing every day, no matter how small.  One of the small things that I did today was to address the confines of my paying job.  I requested a change of status - from full-time to stand-by.  Nothing will happen quickly, since we have to find a replacement for me and nothing of that sort seems to happen quickly if at all.  But once I am working less it will become more important that I work on the book as a job, regularly, with other people keeping me accountable.  I think that's what real writers do. 

I hope I don't regret this post in the future when a reader asks me how the book is coming along... I'm just sayin' it's a little scary making public committments, but it's a beginning, right?

Jacksonville



the storms gather...



and I get to watch for the 4 hours I'm traveling

I have had a few days off this week and decided to take the time up in Jacksonville with the daughter who doctors horses and other larger quadripeds. My history with veterinarians has always been on the client side, meaning that I see them come out, do their work and leave.  Now I have seen the practitioner side where they go from one job to another with multiple phone calls in between, maybe a meal, maybe not, and arrive home late with equipment to clean, supplies to restock, notes to record and file, and their own animals to tend.  This is not a job for the faint of heart.

Dressing a bad leg wound

Dr. Jules is just starting her practice and for that reason she takes any call that comes available to her.  Networking is important and every call provides an opportunity to meet people, make friends and pass out a business card.  Basically, what this means is that she will drive great distances for an appointment which nets her practically nothing monetarily.  Also since appointments come to her throughout the day, rather than all being in place in the morning when she starts, they can't be grouped geographically.  One day, for instance, we started out in south Jacksonville, next took a call over an hour away in the north, and ended the day back in the St. Augustine area, followed by the trip home to, you guessed it, north Jacksonville.  All that drive time, lest you think it is peaceful and relaxing, is office time.  The computer sits on a stand at her right hand, her personal phone is somewhere between the seats and her work phone is on her lap except when she's talking or texting. There is constant communication going on.

Her canine assistant sleeps on the floor behind her seat (nervously because articles in the shared space keep shifting and landing on top of her).

It rains almost every day lately and much work is done outside. Getting wet is common.

Most of the patients are large, frightened to the point of needing sedation, and non-English speaking.

I didn't get a picture of it (aaaarghgh... should have!) but frequently saw Dr. Jules' hand disappearing up to the elbow inside a horse's mouth to check a tooth.  Dental work is done with a grinder the size of a machine gun. I "got" to hold the tongue aside (grab it in whole hand and pull to the side, yuck) and keep the horses's head up in the air.  I also got to mess up an appointment on the computer, drop some papers in a large puddle, and get us lost driving to a farm - good job VetMa!  All in all, an interesting couple of days and I'm looking forward to a next time.
 

Two Things

This pic has nothing to do with my post, except that it made it possible to write it.

Where there is a will, there is a way, and I have found it! Today I am excited about two things. The first thing is that whenever I want to start writing a new post and get the "error on page" message, that's the one which means I can't get the cursor to appear in the text box, all I have to do is insert a picture.  It can be any picture because after I insert it, there is my cursor! I can delete the picture afterwards if it doesn't have anything to do with the post.  It still doesn't work quite right because I can only reposition the cursor with the up, down and sideways arrows, but at least I can get my writing done. There are other things wrong with my computer too but it has been a good companion for almost three years now so I'm going to honor it by not complaining.

The other exciting thing is the discovery of some new blogs by great writers about writing. I clicked on a friend's facebook link to an article about marrying young and it turned out to be one of many really great posts.  And that author had some guest writers, one of which was a literary agent who had written a book about how to publish your writing. I could hardly stop reading. My head is full of actual, concrete things I can do to move closer to writing a book. Wouldn't it be great to have that as a full time job? I'm just sayin' I think it would.  

Rest/Unrest

It is the weekend. I am waiting to be refreshed because that is what weekends are supposed to do, right?  I am unusually tired and it may be more mental/emotional than physical.  I have been watching people go through stressful things this week and I tend to vicariously feel their pain.  Underlying it all is my own need to make a decision about my own needs for freedom, work, family time and retirement. I don't even know if I should use the word "retirement" because I'm probably looking at a change rather than  retiring from anything.

I welcome change - well, at least the kinds of change I'm imagining.  I dream about relocating phsically.  Sometimes I picture myself living in Wisconsin near my parents, having coffee and taking walks with my mom in the mornings. Dad and I take rides in the country and talk about the history of different properties and buildings. In the afternoon I sit with my computer and work on writing my book.

Or I think about moving to north Florida and being vetma (my term for mother of a veterinarian).  I ride in the truck with Julie when she needs help and substitute in the office when the secretary is gone.  I pull weeds in Julie's garden and have supper ready when she comes home after a long day.  I write my book. 

Or I visit Esther and Jonathan, find an apartment, visit coffee shops and Schmidt Park and play with my granddogs. Esther and I discuss what we're reading and writing and I write my book.

Or I move to Cambodia where Dennis and I live on practically nothing in a second story apartment with beautiful tile floors and a balcony. I ride in tuk-tuks, or maybe a moto.  I have 44 orphan grandchildren who I visit regularly, helping them with their English and writing about their amazing lives. Book material for sure.

Or we move to North Carolina where we know no one and have no plan, no obligations. I write my book.

It's true, there is a theme here. I guess it's all about beginning, about finding the time to begin. Can I find the time to begin something in my present circumstances? The trouble with this train of thought is that it is addictive.  It compounds itself and grows in intensity. I actually have to pray for an attitude that allows me to go happily to work every day, to not be tired, to not be gloomy.  So while I wait for this good attitude to kick in I am studying what it would take to be able to afford this change.  I have conferred with a financial advisior and am studying up on social security. I'm investigating jobs that would afford more flexibility. I'm just saying that the answer will come and likely soon... just sayin'.