Bite Me

Wouldn't it be nice if we could really eat Tabasco and have mosquitos explode upon biting us? Anything to limit them to just one bite would be nice...



Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
- Helen Keller

Pass, Trash, Givers and Keepers

I'm cleaning out my world.
Or at least, I am trying.
It's overfilled...stuffed... too much.
I need for nothing, want for nothing.
I have all that I want or need and more.
To excess, in fact.
So much that I feel sometimes over-whelmed by it all.
In my cleaning, I am finding things...
things pushed to the side, stuffed in a drawer, tucked in a corner.
Things I really don't need to keep & in hindsight, a lot of it I guess I never did need.

I'm throwing most of it out.
Some of it goes into a pile of 'Maybe someone else will want this.'

One little drawer of my life...
stuffed...

a card of decorative buttons, a half empty battery package, a watch which needs those very batteries installed, a phone number to the long-ago boyfriend of a friend, signed medical releases for a child I once kept, dog tags for a dog now passed, various postcards and stamps, stickers and incense, old coins and a wooden ring, a four leaf clover I found last summer or the summer before, old photographs and a fingernail file, playing dice and a couple screwdrivers, expired vitamins and dirty old marbles from the yard, lotion samples, wooden peace signs... and some

and in the midst of all of this, I found un-opened and surely tucked safely away for later, an envelope post-marked September 10, 2007. In it, a letter from my Mother. Sprawling letters loopity-looping to the right, each word leaning right introducing the next...filling the single sheet of linen, that wrapped itself around a crisp twenty dollar bill.

I tucked the twenty back in the linen and stuffed it back into the envelope....

and put it in the pile I call 'I might need it later' along with my heart-shaped rocks & holey seashells...

Walk Through Hell

This is just a little something-something found on You Tube. This crazy young lady loves to play the ukulele, and she does so with an adorable passion, although she plays acoustic guitar in this covered ditty...
If you have problems with the word HELL, don't listen. If the word p-e-n-i-s bothers you, might I suggest you get over it momentarily, as she uses it only once... and it's worth it ;)
Music stops at about 3:40
Enjoy.
Peace.
Love.

How Old do You Wanna Live To Be?

Found this calculator which proposes to predict how old we will live to be based upon a number of personal factors.

Hmmm...
I was surprised because it predicted I would live to be 87.
WTH?
Did I not tell it that I smoked?
Yup, I sure did.
Still it says 87.

It goes on to advise me that I can add 3 months to my life by sleeping two more hours a night. Hmmm, let's 2 hrs a night by 365 nights by 45 years equals 32.850 hours. That equates to about 1369 hours or 57 days. Net profit of time in the end would be about a month...I guess I'll take the early payout, along with the 33 day penalty and enjoy my two hours a day.

It also says that I can add 3 months by giving up all caffeine. Me thinks not...how else am I supposed to function effectively deprived of two hours of sleep per night?

Smoking...a whole different can of worms. It says that if I quit I can add 8 years to my life.
I don't want eight more years.
I don't want to live to be ninety-five.
Instead I would rather enjoy the time I have.
Really, I wish I had never started smoking.
I wish I had the strength, the will, the passion, the drive. the belief... like I do for so many other things in life...to just stop.
Not because I want to live to be old... that's not it at all.

Because I want to be free...
because I want to breathe deep those two hours a night that I don't sleep...
because I want to savor the full flavor of the caffeine I take in...

I never buy lottery tickets, but tonight I bought a mega-millions thingy-ma-jig.
If I win, I plan on hiring an acupuncturist, a hypnotist, a psychologist and/or counselor, physical trainer, chef & a comedian.
I will take them all with me for 6-10 weeks to some remote island where they will be paid dearly to help me quit smoking.

She's an owner of a small boutique here in town and I was her patron... looking for a small special something, maybe a ring, for a dear girlfriend.
The shop keeper had large cat-like eyes that danced with laughter but sat with a thatched roof of deeply rooted frown lines.
I'm not really sure how it all happened, but one thing led to another & before I knew it, I knew the shop owner's story of life, love & loss...
We all have our stories, some more tragic than others. Although I would never say this to her because I know it is all relative, her's was none too unusual but something about it captivated me just the same ...
Husband of seventeen years fooling around with the receptionist ...
Busted by a paper trail of receipts to florists and day-spas, Japanese restaurants and Victoria Secrets.
I smiled & nodded, remembering how I found paper trails myself many moons ago.
She packed all of his stuff, tossed it in the yard, hired a pitbull of an attorney, took him to the cleaners and opened her little boutique.
I laughed...'Ok. Good for you! You're happy now, right?'
Ut-Oh.
I watched her furrows deepen.
She told me about her best friend. Her girlfriend since high school. And their final falling out...when she 'wiped her hands clean' of her.
Apparently this girlfriend always had a hard time recalling birthdays & even if she did, she wasn't big on making a to-do over them.
Post-divorce, this proved to be fatal to their friendship.
The shopkeeper was so very devastated by her girlfriends lack of thoughtfulness that she completely wrote her off.
When the friend called the Saturday after her birthday to wish her a happy day, she hung up on her...and hadn't accepted her calls since.
Doing the math, I figured at 42 this woman had been a dear friend for 25 or more years.
My jaw hit the floor.
One of my own best friends has been of my world for about this long and she too, imho, is sensitive about birthdays and such... but I cannot imagine her ever completely wiping her hands clean of me should I forget to acknowledge her birthday on the precise day.
She's my friend...one of my best friends. She knows me.
She knows I am not good with keeping up with the time of the day, the date of the month & the day of the week. She knows that I love & adore her everyday...even if we don't speak everyday
I couldn't help but share my take on life, love & friendship with the shopkeeper.
That was over a year ago.
Anytime, I go into her shop, she smiles big & hugs me and I usually leave with some little gift.

But I saw her out the other night, in faxt, the same day I last visited her shop... out of her element, out of her shop.
She was walking into a store as I was walking out and I saw her before she saw me.
I smiled big & when she matched eyes with me... her furrow didn't break.
She looked right at me...at me smiling, and kept on frowning and then looked through me.
It was obvious she didn't recognize me outside of her shop, which is ok.

What struck me as tragically sad was that she wasn't open, much less reciprocating, to my smile and I knew...
it wasn't just me, it was everyone...anyone.

And my heart broke for her.
I knew at that moment that when she had thrown her husbands clothes in the yard, she kept all the negative stuff inside and when she had wiped her hands clean of her friend, she had closed such an important door to life...

May we all be open to smiling..

Strangers on the Black Asphalt

Sometimes standing on the black asphalt and sometimes sitting, bent at the knees where he rested his elbows, he held onto his cardboard sign.
Sometimes I would see him walking up the overgrown hill behind the gas station using his makeshift sign as an umbrella in the rain.

Oliver once found one of his old discarded signs and brought it home to frame.

'Veteran. Homeless. Need Heart Surgery. Will Work Fore Money.'

Oliver said that the extra 'E' in 'Fore' , the water-logged cardboard dried by the sun & the roughly torn edges was an artistic reflection of our American culture.

One day the Sheriff came knocking on the door. He wanted to know when we had last seen the old man with the sign. It had been an unusual cold & snowy spell, so it had been a few days.
Shortly thereafter the maintenance man told me that he had found the homeless man in the electrical shed & he had apparently died of a heart attack.

Nowadays, there is a man who frequents my exit ramp with his dog & his cardboard sign. Several months ago, I took him a collar and a leash. More recently, I passed a doggies sweater and collapsible canvas dog food bowl to him. I could have taken him many more dog supplies, but instead I have a cardboard box in my trunk, within which I keep a forty pound bag of food and a scoop.

I have seen him...
crawl the hill and into the woods behind the gas station.
I could give him a lot more.
But to give him more than he can carry would be to give him a burden.
Sometimes the weight of one's own shoulder's is heavy enough...

40 Years & Still Learning

A Random List of Things I have Learned in the Past 40 Years

Wrinkles are like Merit Badges & we should wear them proudly.
Laughter is more contagious than the common cold, so we should all giggle when we sneeze.
Smart women know when to play dumb & dumb ones play like they are smart.
The truth often times is what you perceive it to be, but not necessarily what you want it to be.
Making mistakes is what gives us wisdom.
Frying bacon in the buff can be very dangerous.
Once an addict, always an addict... even if you haven't given in to your addiction in years.
Marriage is a legal binding contract, kinda like a lifelong lease & to get out of it, you must go to court.
Things that are painful, often become more painful, before they get better.
Being broke & being poor are two different things.
Pets help keep the heart & mind healthy.
Success is the sweetest revenge.
The seemingly smallest things can mean the most.
Quality over quantity.
Time is a limited resource and should never be taken for granted.
One can never have enough friends.
Family is not defined by bloodlines, but by circles of love.
You cannot help someone who is not willing to help themselves first.
Love Notes need not be long.
Everyone has their own Individual Divine Principles by which they live. Some define it for themselves, some pull from many different resources and still others allow it to be defined and transcribed to them.
The God Lord gave us sleep & dreams because he knew too much of anything, including the waking world, isn't a good thing.
Half of my life is a distraction from the other half.
Life is a mountain of moments, we should make each one count.
Those who fail to prepare are preparing to fail.
Honesty is the foundation of all healthy relationships. Without it, we cannot build a house of love, nor have windows of trust & floors of faith.
We should never assume that someone else would handle a situation the same as we would.
If we never chase our dreams, they will eventually become disappointments.
99% of communication is interpretation.
One mans' trash is another man's treasure.
Words, no matter how simple in form, backed by action are the most profound words of all.
'Endings' are new beginnings.
Love grows, even when we don't see it.
Smile big when getting your pic taken at the DMV...if you get pulled over, the officer should see a happy face.
A smile makes every one look better ... crooked teeth, no teeth, no matter what.
When we are young, we have resources but often lack the balls. When we grow older we have the balls to do just about anything...but don't always have the resources.
Never trust someone that your dog innately dislikes.

Life is for living, learning & loving & if we are not doing all 3 of these things, then we are not doing any one of them effectively.

Updates

Updates on the Skinny Little Blonde...
1- She misses her time spent leisurely traipsing through the blog-o-sphere & fears she will never be afforded such leisure time again... but is ever so grateful for the time she has had & thinks of many of all quite often.
2- Five of her five dogs have been sick or otherwise neurotic with the changes going on within her household. She is never lonesome & always feels needed.
3- Her hair measures 11" from the nape of her neck on the backside, so she will probably be getting it whacked around the holidays for Locks of Love.
4- Gone are her days of the 4-7 minute commute, as she is back into the grind of interstate travel, traffic jams & rush-hour mayhem. This means that approximately 55+ hours a week will be spent devoting herself to work....although this has proved to be a minimum.
5- Her automobile has a tribe of tiny ants residing in the rubber seals around the doors, the console & lord knows where else. She fears they will eat her electrical system & believes that they came from parking on her brick parkpad under the oak tree. These ants appear to all be crazy, as they do not walk in a uniform line & they are the fastest moving ants she has ever seen.
6- She will be attending a formal wedding & will, for the first time in her life, have to wear a cocktail dress... despite her belief that hippies should be exempt from such things, she is willing to do so for her good friend, the DeeBug ;)
7- For the first time in ages, she went to live musical venue, where she was able to meet, hug & get the autograph of G. Love from G Love & Special Sauce.
8- If she has her way, she will also be attending the Foo Fighters show in Atlanta on October 4th, maybe she will also get to meet, hug & get an autograph from the ever so talented David Grohl. She can't help but sing 'The Best of You' at the top of her lungs any time she hears it.
9- She has replaced her Starbucks bottled Coffee flavored Frappaccino addiction with McDonalds Regular Iced Coffees, but still believes McDonalds otherwise sucks.
10-Finally, the Skinny Little Blonde has started a small savings account for the first time in years...it is called 'Beach Money' and began with a twenty from SHE and is now up to 20.28!

Thanks for Keeping Me Grounded

Timmy Toes is camping out this week...not a bad deal.
He's loving it, as it's just about 10 minutes from his work and no rain is in the forecast.

He invited me to the campsite yesterday, my day off. So after running errands & tending to some house work & yard work, I stole some time and ran to the lake.

A lonesome cove found me floating out from the rocks and out from under the trees on a water-hammock. It was so very peaceful, quiet & relaxing.

I had one crazy critter that followed me through the water, but never really did anything threatening...even though I thought he looked like a yellow jacket.

Laying there with my eyes closed, I felt something ever so gently land on my brow just above the bridge of my nose. Not moving, I opened my eyes & looked up. A yellowish-blur was all I could see. I took my left hand and slowly went to scoop whatever it was up and off when it flew to my knee. It was the worlds largest dragonfly...yellow & brown. I have no pictures of it to share, as I had left my camera back on the rocks, but when I did return to the rocks, this baby was just waiting there.

I want to say THANK YOU to all of my blogging friends for all of your words of wisdom, encouragement & support. I know that me getting a divorce is not the end of the world and I know that I have not been the best at bouncing around this community like I would like for several months now... and for that, I apologize. Each & everyone has had a wonderful impact on me in one way or another and I just want you to know that I appreciate it very much. You guys have been my support network...thank you!

xoxox~ in the end, peace always wins and ends are really just new beginnings.

Pictures

I miss a lot of you very much.... I'm here, just wallowing around in my own world for a bit. I miss the great escape I have found in bouncing into some of your worlds & I just love that I so often learn so much about myself, while reading about you.
Until I get a chance to devote several hours to bouncing around & reading, I thought I'd share some of the prettier & more picturesque stuff from my recent wallowings with you ;)

These are rocks gathered throughout North Georgia by me & my DH. The large white conch shell is said to be about 100 years old. The rocks & shells are all grandfathers.


These guys were happy to join me in the fresh clean water, once everything was all
said & done. Pond has about 13-14 goldfish in it now & one devoted stray cat which lives in the shrubs...of course, the birds and neighborhood dogs love to come visit.



These rocks are so that if a bird should fall in, he might could climb up to a dry spot to take flight from... this heart shaped rock was one of many found so far this year. I knew my collection would come into good use.


The guitar-playing Ski Lodge skillet in the form of a rockin' chicken behind-bars guards the path less taken... the Gerber daisies have made there way, since this pic was taken, into the ground...but my rusty old guitar player still stands at attention.


Finally there's a good old-fashioned night out with the boys playing in the garage. Some of these fellows I have known 25 years & I always amazed at how much we have grown & changed, but I'm more amazed at how much we have remained the same.

The south rocks, the heart rocks and all of you rock... Until Next Time, P&L