You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

Since the landscape people came and dug up my front yard trying to find where the water was coming from that was flooding my basement, the yard still looked torn up. The leak creator was found and hopefully stopped but now the basement is still a wreck. At lease the front yard is trying to look better but now I made the mistake I always make – to many plants for the pots that I have. It’s the same problem I have when buying a Christmas tree. It grows two feet by the time I get it home. I have one more day to get the yard straight before I am doomed to sit on my backside for 6 weeks – foot surgery. A must do as it is effecting my balance. Once that is done and I still have issues I guess I will have to resign to the fact that I am getting old. Some of us grow old gracefully – me I am fighting it tooth and nail. My daughter just shakes her head at me and walks away.

Gardening is a wonderful relaxation for me. Although this year I tried bale gardening to keep from having to dig down in the dirt so much. I have raised gardens in the back but they are perennials that I do not want to move. So I tried 3 bales and only planted a few things but I over fertilized and now they have taken over between the two houses. Fortunately my neighbor doesn’t mind and we share the tomatoes – more than I know what to do with. All of the plants fell off of the bakes and became running plants, it’s the weirdest thing I have ever seen. The one watermelon I plated has taken over the bottom bale, down the hill, over the steps and into the back yard. Absolutely nuts. But it has been fun to watch.

 

Sounds a little silly doesn’t it…for the love of electricity. But think where we would be if some gentleman many years ago didn’t go play in the rain with a kite…or so the story goes. Think of all the modern things we have today that rely on electricity – even cars. While I am ever grateful as I sit typing on my computer, with the AC on, a ceiling fan turning above my head filling the room with the fragrance of the pot of homemade vegetable soup full of goodness from my garden (wow this a long sentence), that is not what this post is about.  This post is mostly a thank you for the power company in the repair of how would you say sheer confusion…”Hey are you hurt?”  “NO”  “Wait where are you going, do you need help?” No answer as he and his children rush off into the night and I call the police.

OK lets backup a bit so you understand what in the world I am talking about. Two weeks ago, I am sitting in front of the TV watching a favorite show when I hear a loud bang. Since I park out front on the street, my immediate thought was someone hit my car. I rush out side in relief as it was not my car but the telephone pole across the street. On a side note I still find it interesting that we still call them telephone poles when in fact the phone lines are under ground.

Please take note that he drove completely into the yard before hitting the pole on the passengers side of the car. When I ran outside I saw him and his 2 small children running for their lives down the street. I asked if he was hurt as he zoom by me and he said no, then I asked where are you going, do you need help, did you call the police. All of those question went up to the sky as he continued running away from the car. My next thought was its a stolen car, so I called the police. Turns out, it kind of was stolen as well as the kids. Dad, with no license and no right to the kids that lived two blocks down grabbed both but ended up meeting a pole instead. Sometimes the stupidity of people blows my mind. While I really try to not say people are sometimes stupid but not thinking clearly sometimes just doesn’t fit the situation. But that is also not the real reason for this post. Coming from the quality engineering world, I still get fascinated on the processes we use in modern times to create things, monitor things and to repair things. I know this will be boring to most so I added the “how we got here” above to let you shake you head at the amazement of people.

So yesterday morning the power company team shows up with their two trucks to replace the pole and move the wires over onto the new pole and being the geek that I am I went to watch. First off the auger drills a new hole about 10′ deep next to the existing pole. The guy in the bucket is already loosening things on the existing pole for an easy swap when the new pole is secure. Once the pole was in the ground came my immediate curiosity of how do you know the pole is straight. Well they showed me. The rope that comes from the crane that was transporting the pole is dropped from the crane head to dangle next to the pole and gravity does it work in pulling straight on the rope and creating an alignment guide for the pole. So once the pole was set, dirt added back in the hole and tamp down securely, they were ready to move wires. I noticed there was still a good amount of dirt left and said so to my neighbor who was also being entertained by the activities. (Sometimes it doesn’t take much for us retired folks.) My neighbor said it would probably be used to fill in the hole of the old pole once that got it removed. And it was. Everything all neatly tied together and old pole taken to wherever they take broken poles.

Wouldn’t it be great if all our problems were this easy to fix. And I think we sometimes forget due to the ease of how many thing are quickly fixed how marvelous and complex this life really is. Lots of checks and balances and lots of take it for granted decisions. Remember how different it was for our grandparents and now for our grandchildren. How many marvelous things will they take for granted. We must always remember the gift of  wonder in our life, the gift of having the ability to make decisions and to make our decision count for good, not for crazy run away antics.

Have a wonderful day.

The use of a large word and do I actually know what it means? Yes. A rarity for me I am sure and praying that I spell it correctly. Today’s challenge from Linda G. Hill of Stream of Conscious Saturday brings to mind the very obvious first thought when someone says bodily function. It is that of gas erupting from our body from one end or the other creating much alarm, disgust and lots of giggles. But that is not my choice for today, instead I chose something very intimate for my country on the approach of the anniversary date of 9/11. It is day much like Pearl Harbor Day when an attack on our country brought us into WWII. Its the anniversary day of the attack on USA from radical terrorism destroying many lives for the useless greed of power and control. And we start remembering the horrors in August to honor those who died in September. So with that in mind I chose lachrymation, the act of shedding tears.

There are three types of shedding tears – 1) Basal tears : used daily to keep our eyes moist. 2) Reflex tears : use to help wash out foreign objects that get into our eyes and irritate them. 3) Psychic tears : Tears produced as a response to a mental or emotional stimulus.

As you can probably tell, I am going to focus on Psychic tears. Yesterday I read an excellent article from a post by nathanpatrickroach.blog  titled Jesus Wept. It was a wonderful read and I suggest  you may want to read it as well. In a nutshell it shows how God gave us the ability to weep as a sign of mourning, to show compassion of a loved one lost. It is my belief that tears created from an emotional place shows the very love of God. As in the above mentioned story of loss and mourning or the sight of something so extremely beautiful or terrifying it brings us to tears. Or then there is the magnificent sound of hearing music so profound it makes the hair stand up on our arm as tears slide from our eyes. All of our senses can easily be tied to our emotional responses of life.

One form of tear shedding I have not hit on it and of course that is where I am going – the tears of laughter. We all need more laughter in  this scary world. When I was young, my brother and I were notorious for ruining the mid-day meal on Saturday. There were four of us children and he and I were the youngest. And there was more than one form of disruption we caused but it was usually because he could get me tickled at the drop of the hat. After a while it was almost expected and extra towels were brought to the table in case beverages were knocked over, creating more ruckus and laughter. My brother had the uncanny ability to get me laughing so hard that no sound was heard, or breathing for that matter, and tears would soak my cheeks. My mother, in her blessed southern proper way, would try to keep it in control so that my father would not get upset.  But if you caught him just right you would see the sparkle in his eyes as well.

So tears come in many fashions but most tears come from emotional responses that come from our hearts. And it is my firm belief that Jesus cries with us when we cry and laughs with us when we laugh.  Sometime He laughs at us in spite of ourselves. He gave us these emotions, so lets enjoy them, share them with others and use them to hold each other up together.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “bodily function.” Decide on one or write about a whole bunch of bodily functions. Bonus inspiration: here’s a website. Enjoy!

As I was reading my daily devotion, it reminded me of situations I had found myself in this past week, reminding me of similar situation in the recent past and lets not forget situations from youth that make me shake my head, some caused by me.

First let me thank Bayless Conley for his devotion titled True Satisfactions. It gave me pause to remember the root of self importance (www.christianity.com)

Coming from the south we are ingrained with being strong, having good character, being fair in all instances(tied into character) and being proud of who you are, where you are from and what your principals are. There have been many a marvelous movie to depict these thing depicting of the south, Gone with the Wind, for one. Very gentile, very strong and in some instances, self important. By the way, I was the one in my family who not only broke that mold of a gentile southern lady but disintegrated it from the top of whatever tree it was that day that I chose to climb. I now pay for those wild and crazy tomboy days every time I get up to walk.

I think as people across the world, we genuinely want to be the better side of character but sometime circumstances get the best of us and the wrong side shows up. This is where we need to remember what is really importance in that instance and react accordingly. For instance, in the grocery store the other day as I was trying to decide which can tomatoes I needed for my sauce for supper. Around the end of the isle came a running little boy, maybe 5 years old, that hit me and would have knocked me down had it not been for the buggy. It did however knock the little boy to the floor. As his mother came around end to try to control this out of control child, she yelled at me for knocking down her child. All I could say was “What?” She walked on with child in hand only for him to get away from her twice more that I saw, not sure if anyone else was fussed at for knocking down her son. But the point of this is when you take your strength of character and pride for who you are to the point of “I am more important than you”, then you have lost the true purpose of character.

Isaiah 14:12-15 tells us about Satan’s fall. Satan was full of self importance. He would boast of how he was going to be higher that God and more powerful, not realizing how God loved him and had bestowed on him beauty and wonder. But it was not enough, he wanted more. His pride and the greed it fosters is what took him down. And I think if we are not carful we could get on the wrong side of pride ourselves. Pride in itself does not have to be a bad thing but like with any over indulgence, it can become toxic.

We are all given fountains of love and wonderful gifts from above and if we follow the Gifter in how we use these gifts then we can make others feel His presence when they are low. Think about the beauty of a single flower as it stretches its height to the sky, swaying slightly in the breeze filling the air with the fragrance. It is short lived but while it was here its beauty and smell was refreshing and leaves a lasting remembrance.

May we always be more refreshing  that self important.

Dogs – Burden or family

The incessant barking of the dog next door really makes me wonder about owners who think puppies are great but have no idea of the commitment involved in being a dog owner. A dog on a chain left for long hours due to your inconvenience is no family pet. Yelling at it because it is not doing what you think it needs to do when the owner has no consideration for what the animal may be feeling. Being left on said chain when its raining or cold or blessedly hot as it has been here lately. Simply inexcusable. Now don’t get me wrong, Mimi(my current protector in her own mind) has a chain that is attached outside and comes inside with her so that I have control of her in case the dreaded mailman were to dare come to our house. But she comes in and out as she pleases. She whines or paws the door depending on which side of it she is on. The door currently needs repainting, both sides. But Mimi is family. She owns the top portion of the house and knows she is loved and she knows she does not have to repeatedly bark, whine and ask for love from her caretakers. As does Max, my daughters dog who owns the downstairs portion of the house. I say own as all of you true pet owners know they give us permission to sit with them on the couch or sleep on their bed if they don’t have a bed of their own, Mimi has three. Her doggie bed which she uses only to store her toys, the guestroom bed which has views for the back of the house and of course my bed(excuse me her bed) If I happen to be up later than she wants she goes ahead to bed making sure all the covers are in the appropriate ball in the middle. Its the inconveniences I am willing to put up with as my dog is family. When I was younger, my house was a wreck because of children, now its my dog and she is a lot less messy.

You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants

 

This is Max, an extremely mistreated love of the household. Can’t you tell? He is currently disgusted with us as we have no carpet in his area of the house. An unfortunate issue with a busted water source creating flooding situation resulting in no carpet and drywall removal at 2′ from the floor. Well at least we will get rid of the awful wallpaper and can add a much more calming paint color.

As you can see from the 2nd photo laying on the floor while cuddling our favorite pillow is a wonderful thing. Now playing with the pillow is not as much fun on the cold hard concrete. Now don’t get me wrong, the sofa is also awesome, allowing for various forms of wallowing.  Max is the member of the family that always has a happy smile and tail wag to make everything feel better for those days where life hits you hard. But Max may be struggling a bit because the normal things around him have changed making it a little difficult to be the member to help you get over your bad day.

I think life in general is very much this way. When the comforts of our normal life are no longer available, sometimes we have a hard time adjusting to the new norm. We rely on friends and family to help but we also have another source to rely on if we are willing. It a resource that is so easy but its the most difficult to use because it carries the stigma ‘What will people think of me if I rely on this source of strength’. Psalm 119 is a consolidation of who, what and how God will take care of all life’s bumps in the road. Teach me, guide me, strengthen me, fulfill me, love me…to name just a few. If we can just let go and let God he will take care of all of it. It may not be what we think it should be or what we really want  but He knows what’s down the road for each of us and will get us where we need to be. It’s the easiest hard thing you will ever do.

Yes, it was time for a new one. The old one lasted a long time comparatively, almost 6 weeks before we broke it. But now that we have a new one we must follow the correct procedures before we can play with it. When we get tired of the old ball we start tearing holes in it – we don’t eat the rubber pieces, we just spit them on the floor for mom to pick up because they clog up the vacuum. This is how we get a new ball – but yet dogs are not smart. Don’t know what planet someone was on when they said that but not this one.

Before playing with the new ball she must first defuzz it – nothing quite as unpleasant as fuzz in her mouth. Lots of shaking and tongue movements because we don’t have fingers to remove the fuzz. So we continue to pull it off with our front teeth, shake our head and spit the fuzz on the floor until we feel enough is gone.

 Notice the small patches of fuzz all around her. Due to her long coon hound toes, she can easily cup a ball like guys can palm a basketball. The ball will have a few bare spots on it but she has mastered defuzzing without breaking ball. Once defuzzing is complete to her satisfaction we then can play with it.  That’s where the human come in. Its not the normal throw and retrieve for Mimi – its all about the chase. She is going to bring it to you to play but stay just out of reach. When you get up to get closer, she runs. Chase me, chase me. When the human gets tired of her game and sits still, then she will bring it to you to be thrown.

The simple and loving life of a family pet. Its not a dog, its a 4 legged family member and should be treated as such. Their love is true and unconditional. There is only one other living entity that loves us unconditionally and only wants us to love in like manner in return and that is God. He created all things, loves all things and only wants love in return.

 

 

When my children were young they were not allowed to swear so they came up with the phrase  ‘For the love of Nancy’. I don’t know where they got it from but all of their friends and their parents knew what it meant. I tried to make them understand that regardless of not using the Lord’s name – the implication was still there. But I tolerated that version much better. Well, for the last 2 weeks that term has reared its head again as for the third time since buying this house 6 years ago, we have a flooded basement, due again to carelessness of contractors. The things I have learned while living in this house could right a book by itself and one day I may just do that. I guess the blessing in disguise is that this time their insurance is covering the cost to tear out all damaged wall board and carpet and I am hoping they will pay for putting it back together again. (We will see if Nancy come to life again on that situation.) When removing a raised platform and a built in wall unit, we were shocked at the amount of mold and disgust growing in ‘dark places’. It is a wonder no one was sick.

It brings me back to God’s grace and how if we will let him, he will take care of us, even when we don’t know it. Scripture tells us all the time how he will lead us, comfort us, be there for us. We just have to let go and let God. Now saying that doesn’t mean its going to be a cake walk. It just means we have hope that it will all turn out for the best even though that alley way looks dark and foreboding.  There is always light at the end of the alley. Sometime that alley is long and the light at the end seems very dim but I promise it is there. God is always there and he always has a plan. Just reach for Him and he will grab your hand and hold it tight.

The sun is shinning today, have a great day.