Wednesday, April 11, 2012
this beautiful day
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| Working on the second cup... |
Birthday aftermath - see how I've stretched this yearly event out in time over several posts? The pergola project certainly had a hand in the stretching out. It seems like I've made daily trips to hardware stores, and cooked multiple meals for my workers and we still have several things to finish. The photo on the last post was taken Sunday afternoon after Carroll and Hector had done some of the major work. That night, after we had returned from dinner and multiple desserts at Kim's house, Hector and Carroll showed up once again with a rather large three milk birthday cake from the Mexican deli. I've told you Hector is a rather unusual young man, and one of his quirks is that he feels a happy obligation to celebrate people and events. I am blessed by him. He told me when he ordered the cake it had to be large because the man told him he couldn't fit " Happy Birthday Shirley" on a small cake. So we stopped and had coffee and cake one more time. I told him next time "Hi Shirley" would do just fine.
The pergola is going to be stained grey, like driftwood, and that is about all that remains to be done. I'm looking for some grape vines to plant and maybe someday it will have lovely greenery growing up over the top, with bunches of grapes hanging down inside please. One interesting realization during the course of this project - a small metal brace with four holes in it for screws that cost $.65 in some past year when Carroll bought it, now costs $1.47! Since he had 10 of them already put in place I wanted to match the other 22 needed. It took me three hardware stores to find them, and they only had 22. Isn't that interesting. and expensive.
The lovely coffee cup pictured here has a pine cone on it, which is kind of a recurring theme between Esther and myself. It came in the mail yesterday, and gives me a reason to consider pine cones once again. What a crazy way to package seeds! A protective sleeve that pops open and releases new potential trees at the perfect time, and sits around looking lovely all the while, one of the zillions of amazing ideas God has had to make this world beautiful. I enjoy collecting pine cone things - did I mention that I found pine cone earrings in Cambodia? As I was looking at some silver items, the woman vendor noticed my necklace and being very good at her job, she just laid them out in front of me. They matched perfectly.
My A.W. Tozer thought for the day: "We have almost forgotten that God is a Person,... it is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored."
Birthday Memories 2012
I should probably be getting some sleep, but I really want to write. I was thinking about something I wanted to write late last night when I heard a light knocking on my bedroom door. It was 12:09 am. Julie had driven down from Gainesville and wanted to know if by chance she was the first one to wish me happy birthday. She was, and I was so glad and excited to see her that it took me another hour or so to get to sleep. Or maybe it was the cup of coffee I'd had earlier. Either way, it was a good start to April 8, 2012.
Church was good, not necessarily because the message was inspired or the service was awesome in any way but because I've been doing so much thinking, praying, conversing with God lately that I needed to express what I was feeling in an organized, public way. It felt good to have thought about what I was singing and to mean it. I love music. I think God would have let me be a musical Levite if I'd been an Israelite.
When we got back home after church, my men friends Carroll and Hector, were nearly finished putting up my pergola. A pergola is a fancy word for what Carroll calls a shade shed. I had asked if they would contribute the labor to make it as a birthday gift to me and they complied even though this was a busy week for them both. I was quite surprised that it worked out on time. It's looking really good and needs just a few more braces and lattice on top. It's my answer to "what to put in the front yard that won't die from blistering heat". The personal relationship side of this project was interesting to me. To watch Hector, who is a pretty skilled younger man, work patiently with Carroll, an 80 year old Cracker horse trainer with lots of experience building pole sheds, was amazing, amusing, and instructive. Clearly, I asked the right people to get this work done fast. It looks just like I imagined it would and I know I will enjoy it.Thanks guys.
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| Pergola (not pagoda) in progress |
Church was good, not necessarily because the message was inspired or the service was awesome in any way but because I've been doing so much thinking, praying, conversing with God lately that I needed to express what I was feeling in an organized, public way. It felt good to have thought about what I was singing and to mean it. I love music. I think God would have let me be a musical Levite if I'd been an Israelite.
When we got back home after church, my men friends Carroll and Hector, were nearly finished putting up my pergola. A pergola is a fancy word for what Carroll calls a shade shed. I had asked if they would contribute the labor to make it as a birthday gift to me and they complied even though this was a busy week for them both. I was quite surprised that it worked out on time. It's looking really good and needs just a few more braces and lattice on top. It's my answer to "what to put in the front yard that won't die from blistering heat". The personal relationship side of this project was interesting to me. To watch Hector, who is a pretty skilled younger man, work patiently with Carroll, an 80 year old Cracker horse trainer with lots of experience building pole sheds, was amazing, amusing, and instructive. Clearly, I asked the right people to get this work done fast. It looks just like I imagined it would and I know I will enjoy it.Thanks guys.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Lounging ( Not )
I spent the morning in the One Acre Woods. I'm pretty much exhausted. I have lounge chairs, three of them to be exact, in various places around the yard but I do not lounge in them, ever. Their purpose is mostly to slow down my lawn mowing and challenge my creativity in moving them while staying seated on the mower. I think "things" live in the cushion on one of them and the other two don't have cushions. I keep thinking I'm going to sit out and tan, or take a nap under a tree but it doesn't happen and won't as long as there is a chore to be done, a weed to be pulled, fruit to be picked, leaves to be raked. It's a woods and it keeps changing and producing tasks in a very glorious way.
I have discovered the trick which makes life easier - it is to have as many areas as possible where you are content with whatever nature naturally does. Or if not that, at least try not to have to move anything very far from where it originally started. My goal is that nothing should have to leave the premises. Fallen branches can be burned and the ash distributed. Leaves can be piled around the trees that produced them - serves them right - and called mulch. Today I cleared an area for a new vegetable bed and the clods of weed (no grass) and soil that I took out I spread out in low spots and around exposed roots. It's absolutely serendipitous that what is not wanted in one place is exactly what is needed in another.
The vegetable bed is done now, but at one point it was a very weedy patch of lawn or rather a weed plot with a few grass plants mixed in. Hector and I have been talking about where the sunniest spot might be for a bed and how to improve the sandy soil. He had brought me a load of composted horse maure which had been sitting in a corner for a couple months and it truly was growing some very healthy looking, big weeds. I didn't have to move the pile very far (see trick #2). I did have to carefully, carefully remove the foliage and clean the bed surface before putting the compost down. I say carefully because, as you would expect in a woods, there are lots of pretty thick tree roots very near the surface. Also, but as you would not expect, every cable and wire laid down in the last twenty years happened to run under the 5 foot by 16 foot spot I picked for a garden. It can be a scary thing when you are pulling roots and you get a strange black one that comes loose way too easy and is way too long. I could not tell which were functional but thankfully our tv and internet are still available. Of necessity the garden will be a raised bed.
Ultimately, what I want to say is that I love working outside in the One Acre Woods. It is totally absorbing and in a way quite like writing. Often I try to plan what to do with a new plant, or how to make an improvement but it doesn't turn out to be right and I'm stuck for a while. Then suddenly one day the solution will be obvious and I'll move things around and it will look wonderful. The excitement of trial and error and discovery, over and over. I think I'll sell the lounge chairs.
I have discovered the trick which makes life easier - it is to have as many areas as possible where you are content with whatever nature naturally does. Or if not that, at least try not to have to move anything very far from where it originally started. My goal is that nothing should have to leave the premises. Fallen branches can be burned and the ash distributed. Leaves can be piled around the trees that produced them - serves them right - and called mulch. Today I cleared an area for a new vegetable bed and the clods of weed (no grass) and soil that I took out I spread out in low spots and around exposed roots. It's absolutely serendipitous that what is not wanted in one place is exactly what is needed in another.
The vegetable bed is done now, but at one point it was a very weedy patch of lawn or rather a weed plot with a few grass plants mixed in. Hector and I have been talking about where the sunniest spot might be for a bed and how to improve the sandy soil. He had brought me a load of composted horse maure which had been sitting in a corner for a couple months and it truly was growing some very healthy looking, big weeds. I didn't have to move the pile very far (see trick #2). I did have to carefully, carefully remove the foliage and clean the bed surface before putting the compost down. I say carefully because, as you would expect in a woods, there are lots of pretty thick tree roots very near the surface. Also, but as you would not expect, every cable and wire laid down in the last twenty years happened to run under the 5 foot by 16 foot spot I picked for a garden. It can be a scary thing when you are pulling roots and you get a strange black one that comes loose way too easy and is way too long. I could not tell which were functional but thankfully our tv and internet are still available. Of necessity the garden will be a raised bed.
Ultimately, what I want to say is that I love working outside in the One Acre Woods. It is totally absorbing and in a way quite like writing. Often I try to plan what to do with a new plant, or how to make an improvement but it doesn't turn out to be right and I'm stuck for a while. Then suddenly one day the solution will be obvious and I'll move things around and it will look wonderful. The excitement of trial and error and discovery, over and over. I think I'll sell the lounge chairs.
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Home Cooked Meal
I invited two people over for supper. I don't really know what I'm going to serve them so it's a good thing they aren't fussy. They just want to eat something cooked in someone's home. I do this almost every week that I'm home and not traveling and the main reason is because it makes me clean at least part of the house, and cook a meal.
It isn't necessarily easy or quick to make supper for people, although I have put a beans and weenies meal on the table in less than 20 minutes for those who will eat them. Usually it takes me several hours to think of all the parts of it, check out what I have in the freezer than needs to be used, cook the main things, make a salad, get all the needed stuff out on the table, make a drink, ... and then there's the clean up if your kitchen is in view like mine is. Better plan on it taking the whole afternoon after I get home from work.
Today it has to be simple because in the middle of my prep time I'm having to go have a new serpentine belt put in my Aztek. And it's very possible there will be other interruptions. As I sit here, not cooking, I'm wondering if the frozen chicken breasts sitting on the counter will turn into something scrumptious by the time Hector and Carroll arrive at 7 pm. I'm looking to my creative side and wishing it would wake up and do something. Whatever happens I can be pretty sure they will come in with hugs and good appetites and eat it all up as long as I have Ranch dressing to go with it. Ranch dressing and ice tea mix - my magic meal ingredients.
Go to go. My creative side just said to get on up to Acapulco and buy Mexican take-out.
It isn't necessarily easy or quick to make supper for people, although I have put a beans and weenies meal on the table in less than 20 minutes for those who will eat them. Usually it takes me several hours to think of all the parts of it, check out what I have in the freezer than needs to be used, cook the main things, make a salad, get all the needed stuff out on the table, make a drink, ... and then there's the clean up if your kitchen is in view like mine is. Better plan on it taking the whole afternoon after I get home from work.
Today it has to be simple because in the middle of my prep time I'm having to go have a new serpentine belt put in my Aztek. And it's very possible there will be other interruptions. As I sit here, not cooking, I'm wondering if the frozen chicken breasts sitting on the counter will turn into something scrumptious by the time Hector and Carroll arrive at 7 pm. I'm looking to my creative side and wishing it would wake up and do something. Whatever happens I can be pretty sure they will come in with hugs and good appetites and eat it all up as long as I have Ranch dressing to go with it. Ranch dressing and ice tea mix - my magic meal ingredients.
Go to go. My creative side just said to get on up to Acapulco and buy Mexican take-out.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Power of Fun
I have barely touched the computer now for 10 days except to pack and unpack it. I took it to work with me in Ocala but as it turned out I couldn't connect with Scottie's network - we don't know why. I might have been able to figure it out if I'd had more time but honestly, in the five days we were there I had only minutes to myself and the most pressing decision was always whether to try to get a short nap or a short shower. I hope to avoid taking her there by myself in the future.
I love the novelty of being able to paddle to Mar Vista on the beach, pull up the kayak and sit at a table within feet of the water while having lunch. I always feel like a tourist, or a rich person. I had a mango daquiri and it was definitely a birthday splurge since it cost as much as the wrap sandwich I had for lunch. Each time I take someone new on this particular outing I remember the four or five other favorite people who've done it with me at other times. We had an excellent talk time while eating and watching people and boats. Now, don't you just want to get down here and do it?!
I was a little worried that my arms (shoulder) and wrists might pay the price for all this fun but decided that of all the things that might make me hurt, I would rather have it be my passion than my work. When I'm working the pain is during and after. When I'm having fun the pain, if there is any, is only after. I guess that's the power of fun.
This is the time of year that makes Florida famous. It is so remarkably gorgeous outside with cool nights and warm, sunny days. It was perfect yesterday for the second annual birthday kayak outing. This year instead of searching out the alligator infested swamps of Little Manatee River with a stranger for my paddle partner (like last year) I opted for the quiet inland waterway, with a cocktail and lunch at Mar Vista for the midpoint. The interesting part was introducing Arlette to a water experience completely new to her. I had asked several times if she would like to go out on the kayak with me but I always got a negative response - come to find out she's just not been a big fan of large bodies of water where she might have to save herself by swimming to shore. A little bit of inexperience and fear, which, I'm glad to say, we have now overcome.
Sam, bless his heart, was once again willing to lend me his two person kayak and trailer. I drove up and got them Tuesday night. Wednesday morning at 10 Arlette arrived and we drove together out to Longboat Key and put the boat in the bayou at Scottie's house. I am very proud of Arlette. Other than concentrating a little intensely for the first half hour she showed no signs of being uneasy. By the time we crossed under the bridge and pulled up by Whitney Beach she was pretty much in love with the whole thing, I'm thinking. The pelicans and herons were everywhere, the mullet were jumping, the water was so blue it didn't look real.
I was a little worried that my arms (shoulder) and wrists might pay the price for all this fun but decided that of all the things that might make me hurt, I would rather have it be my passion than my work. When I'm working the pain is during and after. When I'm having fun the pain, if there is any, is only after. I guess that's the power of fun.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Birthday Torture
It's not bad enough that I ache for days any time I use my muscles, not bad enough that my hair is way gray and my eyebrows are turning that non-color too, not bad enough that I keep thinking about another birthday on the near horizon... all this is not bad enough, someone had to leak it to the world of commerce. Now, every day I get a new catalog full of old people fashions, wrinkle creams and medical breakthrough pills to keep me from looking old. Who did this?
I will admit that I prefer shirts that don't shrink to above my (unpierced) belly button. I don't like plunging necklines and see-through holes all over. I don't want to worry about butt cracks showing or jeans so tight I can't bend over. I've been avoiding these things since I was thirty and don't consider them age characteristics. Just don't send me those catalogs, okay Boston Proper?
The one last week that was like an arrow right in the heart was a catalog called "As We Change". It made me mad because it had so many things in it that had me thinking "hmmm... been looking for something like that". How many times have I been out to the beach by myself and wished for a gadget to put sunscreen on that spot in the middle of my back? And those glasses with swivel lenses so you can put on eye makeup and see where you're putting it - genius. But, in general the catalog is full of things to hide what is really happening to bodies over sixty. The clothing is a pretty clear give away cause if you wear those things people are going to know you are old.
And today I got a 40 page brochure called "Have you tried my Skin Secret, Shirley Dietz?" Forty pages that said basically one thing - buy this cream so you won't have wrinkles on your face. And I don't remember how many times I read the words "free sample" to find out that it's only free if you don't like it and return it. Otherwise you pay four installments of $7.99. So not only do people over sixty look old and wrinkled but they also get suddenly dumb.
I save some of these mailings because, crumpled, they make good fire starters when I'm having burning fun in the backyard. Maybe someday I'll buy myself a birthday present from one of them but this year I've decided I will go kayaking again. It might hurt a little after but I'll take the chance. Arlette wants to go with me and I'll have her sit in the front where she won't see if I'm paddling, or not.
I will admit that I prefer shirts that don't shrink to above my (unpierced) belly button. I don't like plunging necklines and see-through holes all over. I don't want to worry about butt cracks showing or jeans so tight I can't bend over. I've been avoiding these things since I was thirty and don't consider them age characteristics. Just don't send me those catalogs, okay Boston Proper?
The one last week that was like an arrow right in the heart was a catalog called "As We Change". It made me mad because it had so many things in it that had me thinking "hmmm... been looking for something like that". How many times have I been out to the beach by myself and wished for a gadget to put sunscreen on that spot in the middle of my back? And those glasses with swivel lenses so you can put on eye makeup and see where you're putting it - genius. But, in general the catalog is full of things to hide what is really happening to bodies over sixty. The clothing is a pretty clear give away cause if you wear those things people are going to know you are old.
And today I got a 40 page brochure called "Have you tried my Skin Secret, Shirley Dietz?" Forty pages that said basically one thing - buy this cream so you won't have wrinkles on your face. And I don't remember how many times I read the words "free sample" to find out that it's only free if you don't like it and return it. Otherwise you pay four installments of $7.99. So not only do people over sixty look old and wrinkled but they also get suddenly dumb.
I save some of these mailings because, crumpled, they make good fire starters when I'm having burning fun in the backyard. Maybe someday I'll buy myself a birthday present from one of them but this year I've decided I will go kayaking again. It might hurt a little after but I'll take the chance. Arlette wants to go with me and I'll have her sit in the front where she won't see if I'm paddling, or not.
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