It's science fiction

2010. For a child of the 60's and 70's, 2010 sounds to me like science fiction. I start thinking about all the stuff we have now, and it is truly mind-blowing. I was trying to explain again to my kids about how much easier grocery shopping was when I was I kid. There just wasn't much to choose from, and salsa... we didn't know the word here in rural Michigan way back then, let alone have 30 different ones for our selection pleasure conundrum. And TV, 4 or 5 channels. Yes, I am seriously old.

And lately, I have felt a lot older than I am. I have spent the past few months trying to get off from pain meds, which I was still taking for pain from the surgeries I had almost 2 years ago. A sucky situation. Turns out, I can live without pain killers, but it ain't pretty. I believe I have an above-average or actually high pain tolerance, and I believe one can get used to a level of pain... eventually. But meantime, I found the level of pain was making me tight as a ton of knots, which triggered Vertigo again. And on my job, it's full-on, heavy-duty 4th quarter and year-end close time... So, yeah, back on the pain meds for now. Shit.

I've not had the oomph to do much of anything, not blogging, not cooking or baking, not pottery... if Joyce hadn't been running the Christmas show for our family this year, I dare say it would've been a flop. We did not send out Christmas cards this year. I was shopping for presents right up to Christmas Eve, and that is not like me. And Joycie wrapped most of the gifts for me.

So, though I am not making a New Year's Resolution, because I do not believe in those, I have decided to try to blog more often. I have so many family milestones, events and just plain moments that have gone undocumented in my blog since early 2008. I write this blog truly mostly for myself. It is like a journal of our family events, and I like to go back to older posts and read and look at photos, and remember. So that's my decision... post more on my blog and catch up on events in our lives over the past 2 years. I'm not deciding to Post Every Day and I'm not deciding to cover Events in Chronological Order. Whatever will be, will be.

I think that if I make an effort to write a blog post more often, other things in my life will, well.... fall into place. Blogging gets my creative juices flowing, and that feels good.

Oh, and I've also decided that Salt is the Enemy. It really, really is. Caffeine comes in a close 2nd, but no freakin' way am I going without coffee. That's just inhumane.

Oh, and I've also decided to free myself from post titles. You'll see what I mean.

Last minute holiday shopping?...

What to get for the person who has everything? Stumped for ideas? Shopping crowds got you down? Sick of trying to find a parking spot that isn't 2 miles away? Tired of clicking through web pages? ... Well, don't just give up!

Meet my brand new grand-niece

Elliana

I'm not 100% sure what time she was born, but I think it was close to midnight and I think her birthday is Dec. 9th. I am 100% sure she is beautiful! She's 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 21 inches of beautiful. I love how she's looking at the camera... you can tell Elliana is smart... those eyes! She almost looks like she's smirking, an expression I've seen on her momma's face a time or two... !

My niece, Sara, and also her husband Derek, must have had a long afternoon and evening... I got the text they were heading into the hospital at about 2pm yesterday. But mostly Sara... coz I heard they finally went with a C-Section around 11pm. Both momma and baby daughter are doing well. Sara sent me Elliana's photo in a text message this morning at 7am.

My fingers are itching to hold her!

You can run...

Awesome, eh?! This photo of a hawk was the only photo that turned out at all of the 8 taken on Kev's game camera. But what a shot. Kev set up his game camera overlooking a deer carcass, which I cleverly eliminated from the above photo... well, perhaps not so cleverly because that's why the picture looks a little choppy under the bird's belly and left wing (his left, not yours). We were surprised to get only 8 shots, and the other 7 turned out with 1 white with just the photo label at bottom with the other 6 just blanks. Total blanks. We don't know yet if there is something wrong with the camera or what. Here's hoping not.

If you wanna see the original pic in all its carcass glory, click on the one below to enlarge. It's kinda yukky, though. So you've been warned...

Moonset

This morning, the full moon was just above the horizon in the western sky with a smattering of flimsy clouds around it. It was gorgeous. It had a ring around it, too. Sam was driving (yes! driving!) to school, and we were waiting at the drive-up window at the coffee shop... I said, "Look how beautiful the moon is!"

He said, "Werewolves."

He was right, too.

Hello yourself

So yeah, anyway, I'm still breathing. This is a photo I just took this morning of the women's bathroom at work. As you can see, it is a long, narrow room. With a total of nine - count 'em, NINE - stalls, the last 2 being the larger wheel chair access types. So I enter the bathroom the other morning, and it is entirely empty. Like it was when I took this pic. This actually happens quite often. I select a stall mid-way down the row, and I am happily peeing away when I hear the bathroom entrance door open and the hurried click-clack, click-clack of shoes on the tile floor. With not even a slight hesitation, the woman pushes in the door of the stall I am in. While I'm peeing. The only closed door in the row of nine - count 'em, NINE - doors. Yes, I locked the door, but our door locks are meant to only keep the doors closed... if you push hard enough the doors will open as it's some kind of safety feature. And yes, she pushed well hard enough... HELLO THERE! CARE TO JOIN ME????...

How obtuse does one have to be to choose the only closed door in a row of nine stalls?