Roasted Broccoli

Ingredients:  One bunch fresh broccoli cleaned and separated into bite sized pieces, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves garlic minced, salt and pepper to taste
Directions:  Add all ingredients to a clean plastic bag.  Shake contents until fully mixed.  Spread broccoli on a non-stick flat cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

This broccoli is really good.  Although I'm a vegetarian, broccoli isn't a favorite of mine.  But I made it last night and it was so delicious I ate almost the entire amount with my supper.  I had about a cup left over.  I took my left over  broccoli to work.  At about 10 o'clock I thought I'd have a little healthy snack at my desk.  So I opened my tupperware container of broccoli.  Maybe it was a little smelly.  As I munched away on my healthy broccoli I heard my boss say, "Does anyone smell natural gas?"  I kept working.  I heard other people say, "I smell eggs."  and "I smell sauerkraut."  My boss says, "Sue, come out here and tell me if you smell gas."  I go out there.  By now I'm suspecting my broccoli is more pungent than I thought.  My snack could be the reason for all this concern about natural gas.  So what is my plan of action?  Confess to having a smelly snack?  Heck no.  I say, "I can't smell anything." and go back to my snack.  My boss can't let it go though.  He has the receptionist call the maintenance department.  I snicker and put my evidence empty tupperware away.  Ten minutes later, as I'm leaving the office, I see our kindly maintenance man coming in the door holding a can of air freshener.  OMG, I had better eat my broccoli at home or in the lunchroom from now on.

The Invention of Wings

Lucky me!  I just finished reading a book that goes into my "Top 20 Favorite Books" list.  I'm sad to leave the characters of Sarah Grimke, Hettie, Nina Grimke and Charlotte who inhabit the pages of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.  Sarah and Hettie are the two main characters and both are based on actual women who lived in Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1800's.  This historical fiction is told by Sarah and Hettie as they take turns telling their sides of the story over a 30 year period of time.  They become close after Sarah's 11th birthday when she is given Hettie as her personal slave.  Sarah doesn't want a slave.  She doesn't believe in slavery.  Hettie may be the slave of the story but Sarah is also trapped into a situation she can't seem to escape.  Both Sarah and Hettie struggle to escape their bonds.  The author bases the story on historical research.  And this fiction gives me a better picture of the civil war and the rip that slavery tore into the social fabric of the time.  The description of some of the slave punishments made me very sad when I read them.  ِAnd the descriptions of the human spirit and passions was inspiring.  I enjoyed every minute of this book.   

She Knows

I'm lucky to have such a good friend.

I have a friend.  We met in 1975.  My first impression of her?  She looks like she has a lot of fun.  We met at work.  We became friends.  We have stayed friends.  She has known me before I graduated from college, before I had children, before so many, many things have happened to me.  She knows me completely. She knows my faults and my mistakes. We have few secrets.  There is no need for me to pretend with her. When we talk on the phone it's always over an hour long conversation.  Always.  My friend is a good listener. Her memory is so sharp there are some things I wish she would forget.  She reminds me of events in my life that I have completely forgotten about. Sometimes she makes me feel humbled and loved in the same moment. She gently prods me sometimes.  She challenges me to aim higher. She reminds me that is healthy to relax and take care of my needs.  When I loose perspective she helps me find it again.  And she laughs.  She laughs all the time.  She laughs at me and with me and sometimes she laughs for me.  She encourages me to follow my passions. And so yesterday, when I was having a tough day because of stress at work and stress with another friendship it was no surprise to me at all that she called.  She knows.  She knows when I need her.  What did we talk about?  The weather, her job, my job, her family, my family, her aches and pains, my aches and pains.  We used to talk about going to wild parties and handsome men and now we talk about aches and pains.  Every encounter I have with her makes me feel good and better and included and trusted and respected and appreciated.  She fertilizes the quality of kindness inside me.  She didn't say anything specifically about the problems I was having yesterday but she helped me through it. When I hung up the phone I felt stronger and empowered. We can go for weeks or months without talking or seeing each other but it doesn't matter.  I'm there for her.  She's there for me.  She has enhanced my life more than I can measure.  She's made me a better person in all aspects of my life. It's my honor to have her as my friend. Relationships - it's what life is all about.

 

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_friendship.html#LRFKDtC4vGvhYVek.99

Impulse Decision

I impulsively singed up for a community ed class Tuesday evening.  It's a line dance for Beyonce's single ladies. I started liking this song and dance when I saw Justin Timberlake do it dressed in tights, high heels and a leotard.  I'm not wearing tights or a leotard or high heels.  What have I done?  Well, I won't worry.  With this weather chances are the class will be cancelled due to weather.

Choose Your Poison - Shiver or Shovel

I'm not the only one complaining about winter this year.  I don't think it's very healthy to complain about something over which we have no control. But seriously, it's been either shovel or shiver.  If the temps aren't miserably cold, it snows.  Back in early December it snowed pretty hard and I decided it wouldn't last so I didn't shovel my driveway completely - only a little more than what I absolutely needed to get by.  And that snow has stayed and more piled on top of it.  So I'm stuck with what I thought would be a temporary decision. The banks are so high by the road that it's getting hard to lift the shovel that high.  I have another high bank by the edge of the house that is getting too high to throw any more snow on top of it.  I have to wear snow pants to fill the bird feeders and to empty the compost because the snow is so deep.  My little windmill is squeaking very loudly in these cold wintry winds and it's going to continue to squeak unless I strap on show shoes to get out there and oil it because it's way on the other side of the yard where no paths have been formed.  It's amazing that our bodies can take a 90 degree difference in temperature day in and day out without more serious consequences than dry skin and a bad attitude toward winter.

I Might Go Duck Hunting

It all started with a comment in the break room to a coworker reading the newspaper.  "Any good news in there today?" I asked, just to be social.  Turns out there was good news in the paper.  A man he knew was featured in an article about falconry.  This guy he knows takes his falcon out hunting in the winter in a creek where the water remains open near Northtown shopping center.  I ask a few questions.  He asks if I'd be interested in tagging along when this falconer takes his falcon duck hunting.  WOULD I?  YES I WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED.  He's going to hook me up.  He says sometimes it is not easy walking.  Sometimes the falconer has to walk into the stream because that is where the falcon and the duck end up.  I still want to go.  I want to see a falcon go duck hunting.  This is the sport of kings.  Falconry has been around longer than hunting with guns.  I definitely want to go.  I would hope the dead duck turns out to be a mallard and not a hooded merganser or a common golden eye.  If I get to go, I will definitely blog about it. This could be a very adventurous bird watching expedition.

A Guy Walks Into A Bar

The Access database training went well today.  The two people helping to train me even laughed at my one and only database joke:  A guy walks into a bar.  He sees two tables.  He asks, "May I join you?"  Maybe they were only being kind when they laughed.  I've been saving up database changes since Dec. 18 so I had a big stack of changes to make.  We started making a few changes and found glitches in the program.  Some drop down menus did not work.  Some memo boxes were limited to 250 characters which are not enough some people.  We found this out when one person had "high bloo."  She actually has high blood pressure but the d in blood was the 251st character in the memo box so until that gets fixed she has high bloo.  So that is how the morning went.  I would try and make a change in the database and we'd find problems and my helpers would fix the database.  So I can't actually use it yet.  They're keeping it over the weekend to make more changes and we'll give it a try again next week.  The process was not stressful at all.  (When a IT programmer says "keep it for the weekend," I wonder how long that will be).  #lessgulliblenow

Access to Access

Tomorrow will be a mentally challenging day for me.  I want to be prepared.  We're migrating the database at work to Access and it's being rolled out tomorrow morning.  When they took our data (in the middle of December) they said it would take 3 or 4 days to migrate.  "Oh, keep it for the weekend!" we said in gullible generosity.  So It's about time this program rolled out.  But as the point person on this project, I have to be mentally ready.  I know these people speak in a different language.  I will have to mentally translate what they say back into English to understand it plus translate my questions into their language when I pose a query question.  It's been a couple of months since our last training on Access. Database!  Primary Keys!  Relationships! How much have I forgotten?  This had better work tomorrow or we are sunk.  I don't want to freak myself out by worrying too much.  If I'm nervous I'll only make it worse.  I'll just do my best.  I'll go to bed early, think positive thoughts, and take an extra fish oil pill before I got to bed. 

Two Words: You Can

Twelve Things That Are A Waste of Time

"Seven Things That Indicate Your Relationship Is In Trouble."  "Six Celebrities Who Used To Be Bank Tellers."  "Ten Secrets To Happiness."  "Eight Foods That Will Extend Your Life."  I have got to quit reading these silly lists!  They're not real information.  The numbers indicate how many the author could come up with in a ten minute writing session.  These lists are a complete waste of my time.  Resolved: Stop being so gullible! 

One Summer

I read David Baldacci's One Summer last week.  I never read any of his books before.  I thought he was one of those guys who writes about political assassins and terrorists.  And maybe he is but this book was a melodramatic, simpering piece of light literature that reminds me of Nicholas Sparks.  Well, it wasn't quite as bad as Nicholas Sparks but it was closer than I would like.  Some unnamed incurable illness is cured?  C'mon!  After the high stress week at work though I needed something light to distract me and to cleanse my mind of "Legislature Speak" and the stress of watching our paperwork standards at work swing like a pendulum back in time to 15 years ago.  Although I wouldn't highly recommend this book, it did serve a purpose for me.

The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri wrote The Lowland. This book is about the tormented family of Subdash and his brother Udayan.  The two brothers live in Calcutta near a swamp that fills with water during the rainy season.  Subdash grows up to study in Rhode Island.  He comes home to Calcutta when his brother Udayan is executed for political reasons.  Subdash, seeing his sister-in-law is pregnant and ostracized in Calcutta, offers her marriage and a life in Rhode Island.  In return, the wife must keep the fact that he is the baby's uncle and not the father a secret.  Hence the torment.  Lahiri does an amazing job of describing the torment with dialogue and description of behavior.  Her words are emotionally precise and I hated to see read the last chapter because I didn't want it to end. Subdash is a character I will be thinking about for a long time.

I Quit

Not my job.  I didn't quit my job.  I quit this 30 day plank challenge that I started at the beginning of the year.  The first day of the challenge was hard.  Twenty seconds seemed like forever.  I had to hold my breath for the last five seconds which made it difficult to count 15 one-thousand, 16 one-thousand, etc.  But I made it twenty seconds.  After that I made it to 30 seconds.  I found it hard to count so I started using the stop watch on my cell phone.  But when my phone went dark and I touched it to wake it up the stop watch would end.  So then I started using the microwave timer.  If I wanted to plant for a minute, for example, I would set the timer for 69 seconds, take off my slippers, hit start and rush over to my yoga mat and get into position.  Eventually worked my way up to 150 seconds which is 2.5 minutes.  I was amazed how strong I was getting.  I could feel a new strength in my core when I was swimming.  I think one reason I found the challenge manageable was that I was planking three times a day. I never read any instructions on how many times a day to plank. The goal is to plank for 5 minutes by the end of the month. If I kept up with planking three times a day, I had begun to wonder how long I wanted to plank for 15 minutes a day.  Planking is boring because all I can do is stare at the four inches of space between my eyes and my blue yoga mat.  But the other day I decided to quit altogether.  The moment came after a swim.  I was applying lotion to my arms after a shower and OUCH!  What is wrong with my elbows?  I looked.  Both elbows were callused and sore.  The skin was breaking down on both sides.  Well, if you've been planking for 2.5 minutes three times a day your elbows would be sore.  So that is the end of the challenge.  Once my elbows heal I think I will plank again but once daily at the most.  I quit the challenge but not the planking.

Everybody Needs A Little Green In Their Life

I had a need to see something green and living.  Plus I wanted to feel some heat and humidity.  No better place to go than the Como Conservatory - one of my favorite places.

She has a body I never had and never will have.

Colorful amaryllis

Some kind of lily

Another nude.  This one is in the sunken garden.

This flower is very large.

The reflection of the pot above the water was better in person than in the photo.

Check out these striped leaves.

I like how the sunlight shines on the leaves.

The sun is bright today.

Orchid orchid

White orchid

It pays to look up sometimes.

The leaves are so shiny in the sun.

This leaf was at least a yard long.

A red flower hangs over the goldfish pool.

Yum!  A chocolate tree.

These leaves are 10 feet long!

Moss hanging from the tree.

Bold koi, not coy koi

These vines must be crazy!  They seem to want to grow their way out the window.  Don't they know how cold it is out there?

This leaf is camouflaged.

My Mom called these "little boys."

Loved these leaves with the thick white veins.

Interesting texture to the bark on this palm.

What I Got At The Grocery Store

This morning I went shopping after my work out to pick up a few things.  I got some suet for the birds, some fruit, some vegetables, some yogurt, some dark chocolate and the vaccination against shingles.  That's right, I got the shingles shot.  And of all those items, only the shingles shot was free (although I'm sure my insurance paid for it).  Now I will be 80% more likely never to get shingles again.  And if I do get shingles again, it will be less painful and I'll be ill for a shorter time.  The icing on the cake is that I probably won't get that shingles side effect of postherpetic neuralgia (also known as shingles extended release) where the nerve pain lingers on and on and on.   I've never been lucky in the chicken pox/shingles area.  I had the chicken pox twice.  The second time I got chicken pox I was 20 years old and I don't think I have yet forgiven the neighbors who let their 3 boys run around the neighborhood with open chicken pox sores.  And I got shingles about 7 years ago when I was under a lot of stress because Offspring #1 was serving our country in Iraq.  So I'm feeling pretty good because I followed through on a decision to protect my health and because I didn't have to pay out of pocket for this vaccine.  Some days it pays to be old!

You Can Only Be Young Once But You Can Always Be Immature

At work I try to be professional.  I do my best.  But cut me some slack.  It was Friday afternoon.  And a coworker said it not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times, "big jugs."  I held it together the first three times but I had to cover my face after the fourth time.  I snickered silently though!  She was only talking about work materials and she had no clue of the effect she was having on me.  Other people were thinking immature thoughts like me.  So it wasn't just me.  But I'm the one who had to cover her face.  Golly, if I haven't grown up by now, will it ever happen?

Charming Billy

My book club read Charming Billy by Alice McDermott this month.  As I indicated a few days ago, the author does some really good writing.  But the whole was less impressive than the parts.  Some paragraphs were outstanding but sometimes I wondered where this story was going.  Some characters were developed a little bit, enough to get me interested, and then we never heard of them again.  You'd think that Billy would be a main character because the book was named after him but he turned out to be a minor player.  Dennis, Billy's cousin and good friend, was the main character.  And Dennis did Billy a very big disservice when he lied to Billy about the love of his life.  Dennis meant to be kind to his cousin but all their lives may have turned out differently if Dennis had done Billy the honor in having enough faith in him to handle the truth.  One of the members in our group was sure that the book was named after the old song, "Oh where have you been?  Billy Boy? Billy Boy?  Where have you been Charming Billy?"  I don't really understand the connection between the song and the plot of the book but maybe I'm missing something.  Overall the book was equally liked and disliked by the members in our group.  The story takes place at Billy's funeral where his friends and family sit back and reminisce about his life, his work, his first love, his marriage, his alcoholism, and his death.

Liking Lichen

Yesterday was a long day.  I had a 7 hour class on a new legislative rule.  Can you say boring?  The instructor did her best but rules are inherently boring and we were packed in there like sardines or, worse yet,  airline passengers.  When I told my companions that I was going to another class that evening on lichens all three of them looked at my with sympathy in their eyes and asked, "Why?"  I like lichen.  Quiet, harmless, beautiful and often overlooked, lichen are a cool mixture of fungus and algae And our instructor was awesome.  No power point for us.  We had stories, songs, magnifying glasses, hands on examples, and even paper hats.  We made and wore our paper hats because we wanted to remember George Washington who, with all this troops, nearly starved at Valley Forge but managed to survive because they made a broth out of lichen.  And the biblical manna from heaven?  Most likely scientific explanation is lichen - pieces of it broken off and flying in the wind.  Lichen, there is a million fascinating stories about them.  My favorite is the fruticose lichen.  When looked at under a microscope the fruticose lichen looks like a miniature forest and I feel like the big guy, Gulliver, who traveled to the land of the little people.

Trip to Monticello

On Sunday a friend took me out for my birthday movie (Philomena - two thumbs up for Judi Dench) and a trip to Monticello to see the Trumpeter Swans.  Swans were trumpeting and could be heard as soon as we opened the car door in the parking lot.  Honk, honk, honk, what are they all talking about?  We saw a couple hundred trumpeter swans milling about in the river, on the river bank, and even up on the lawn next to the park.  Canadian geese, looking so tiny next the the big trumpeters, were waddling around with the mallard ducks.  Mallards!  When I hear them quack I always think of Burgess Meredith who played the penguin on the Batman television show.  We watched for a good ten minutes when a big group of trumpeters took off flying down river.  Others followed.  And then all the Trumpeters took off down river!  The sky was filled with big white birds and their 7 foot wing spans flying around flourishing those wing feathers as daintily as a ballerina extends her fingers.  We soon found out why all the Trumpeters took off.  Somebody was coming down the river in a black rubber boat!  It wasn't a canoe and it wasn't a kayak.  It was an inflatable one person boat.  The boater was covered in fabric and I couldn't see if they were wearing a life vest.  As fun as I think it would be to paddle down the Mississippi through Monticello and stir up a huge flock of Trumpeter Swans, I wouldn't do it.  What if that boat tipped?  It's just too dangerous for me.  And although we weren't happy with the boater for scaring off the Trumpeters like that, we did enjoy the show when they all took off.  We waited around and in about 15 minutes some Trumpeters did return in dribs and drabs.  After we stood there for about 15 minutes we saw, on the shore, a dead trumpeter lying on the ice with it's head extended toward the riverbank.  How had we missed seeing it before?  Because now that we knew it was there, it was all we could see.  Poor thing.  Despite the carcass on the shore, we enjoyed our trip to Monticello to see the swans.  I only wish I had remembered to bring my camera.

New Dog Breeds

The following breeds are now recognized by the American Kennel Club:

Collie & Lhasa Apso
Collapso: a dog that folds up for easy transport

Spitz & Chow Chow
Spitz-Chow: a dog that throws up a lot

Pointer & Setter
Pointsetter: A traditional Christmas pet

Great Pyrenees & Dachshund
Pyradachs: A puzzling breed

Pekinese & Lhasa Apso
Peekaso: An abstract dog

Irish Water Spaniel & English Springer Spaniel
Irish Springer: A dog fresh and clean as a whistle

Labrador Retriever & Curly Coated Retriever
Lab Coat Retriever: The choice of research scientists

Newfoundland & Basset Hound
Newfound Asset Hound: A dog for financial advisors

Terrier & Bulldog
Terribull: A dog that makes awful mistakes

Bloodhound & Labrador
Blabador: A dog that barks incessantly

Malamute & Pointer
Moot Point: A dog owned by ….oh, well, it doesn’t matter

Collie & Malamute
Commute: A dog that travels to work

Deerhound & Terrier
Derriere: A dog that is true to the end

Bull Terrier & Shitzu
Bu….Oh, never mind.

Who Does This Remind You Of?

I am reading Charming Billy posthaste because we're discussing it on Tuesday.  It's by Alice McDermott and I thought I had read it before but it turns out I haven't so I need to hurry up.  I get to page 52 and read this:

"My parents, I have to believe, had a marriage that ran the typical course from early infatuation to serious love, to affection occasionally diminished by impatience and disagreement, bolstered by interdependence, fanned now and then by fondness, by humor.  That they loved each other is a given, I suppose, although I suppose, too that there were months, maybe years, when their love for one another might have disappeared altogether and their lives proceeded only out of habit or the failure to imagine any other alternative.

A good-enough, a typical kind of mid-twentieth-century marriage that suddenly blossomed into something else in the year she was dying.  I hesitate to use the word about a time that was filled with so much pain, that was for me only awful, but I think it was during my mother's illness that my parents became passionate about one another.  Their meeting, their courtship, their years raising children, every ordinary day they had spent together until then all became merely the running start they had taken to vault this moment.  To sail, gracefully and in tandem, across the abyss."

End of quote.  Now who does that remind you of?  It's as if a sibling, some very talented sibling wrote this.  I love Alice McDermott. 

The Lords of Discipline

How long has it been since you read a book that you could not put down, that infiltrated your dreams and discussions?  The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy has done that for me.  After reading the first chapter I had a nightmare about Offspring #1 that was so real I was nervous all the next morning.  I dreamed that he got into a fistfight while home on leave (and he had just come home on leave) and was arrested.  He was in trouble with the Navy big time.  When a book can disturb your dreams you know it is an impressive volume of literature.  In the forward the author says that this book is based on his recollection of attending the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Caroline.  In the book he calls it the Carolina Institute.  He loves and hates the Citadel.  The abuse of the freshman class is positively appalling.   The author says it is based on his recollections.  He starts out the book with the sentence, "I wear the ring."  And with that sentence he feels he wrote the best sentence he has ever written.  This author is the guy who wrote The Prince of Tides and South of Broad and The Great Santini.  He is one of the top living southern authors.  His books have been made into movies.  I was moved by this book.  In fact, I am going to ask my nephew who just finished Army boot camp a few months ago, to yell at me the way a drill instructor yelled at him.  I want to experience that if only for a few minutes.  Maybe this will be asking too much of my nephew to yell at his aunt like that but I'd like to hear just a little of it.  I can't imagine.  In his forward the author states that he gets many letters from young men and women saying they want to attend the Citadel because of this book.  He asks them if they are dyslexic or learning disabled.  This is a pertinent question because no one, in their right mind, could possibly want to take the abuse he describes.  They tell him they want to attend because of the loyalty; the brotherhood or (now) the sisterhood involved.  I am the opposite.  I read this book and congratulate myself on my decision NOT to join any armed forces.  Even though this book describes a life I would not want, I still count it in my top ten list of books I ever read.

Good Question!

What if…

What if when you die …
…What if they ask you, “How was Heaven?”

ِA Joy Shared Is A Joy Increased

I got an email this morning.  The "regarding" line read, "What's so hard about finding a snowy owl?"  I open it up to see the words "Photo of me and a friend in Lutsen last summer."  It's my friend and what is that?  A snowy owl?  What the he11?  How did he insert a snowy owl into his photo like that? I blocked out his face to blog about it but still, how did he do that?  If I HADN'T seen a snowy owl the previous evening this email would have really riled me up.  Turns out he printed his photo, copied a snowy owl photo, shrank it to an appropriate size, printed it, cut it out, glued it to his photo, and scanned it to send it to me.  That was a lot of work.  This guy puts a lot of energy into his jokes.  I love the way the snowy owl is turned toward him as if they're having a conversation over coffee and lemmings. And he is glad I saw a snowy owl last night and so are a lot of other people because it's all I've been talking about lately.  If there is one thing I've learned this week, like is more fun when you share your enthusiasm.  Like Norman Vincent Peale said, "If you have zest and enthusiasm, you attract zest and enthusiasm.  Life does give back in kind."  Also my friend from city hall thought about buying mice for the owl.  He thinks the mice would stay on top of the snow.  But he fears the mice might run into the road causing the owl to follow and possibly creating an collision between an owl and a vehicle.  So he's not going to feed mice to the owl.  I agree with his thinking.  He also thinks the owl is stunning and magnificent - both worthy adjectives in my opinion. I've had phone calls from birding friends and master naturalist friends about this owl.  At work I've had several conversations about owls and lemmings.  Oh, and by the way, lemmings do not commit mass suicide by jumping off a cliff.  That was a misconception fueled by cartoons, video games and music.    

Today Has Been a Great Day Because I SAW A SNOWY OWL!!!!!!

Normally I work out after work but tonight I skipped so I could get to the snowy owl territory before the sun went down.  I approached the area heading west on Sunwood Drive.  When I saw a lump on top of the third lamp post my heart started thudding in my chest.  I parked a respectable distance away and took out my binoculars to see MY FIRST SNOWY OWL!

I watched him for 15 minutes as he rotated his head around and bobbed up and down.  Sometimes he turned to look at me with his bright yellow eyes.  Some guy got out of his car right below the owl to take a photo and scared him away to a tree half a block north of here.

And I watched the owl for another 10 minutes as the sky behind him darkened to a carnation pink.  Then the owl flew in front of my car and back to this field again where I lost it in a depression.  I hope it found something to eat.  The bird was magnificent and I was lucky to get a long good look at it.  Today has been a great day for me!

A Snowy Owl in My City!

Color me frustrated!  I heard rumors about a snowy owl hanging out in my city near Armstrong and Bunker Lake Boulevard.  On Monday night I went to look for it as soon as I could which was about 5:15 p.m.  The sun was setting.  I looked at the tops of all the towers and poles in the area but did not see it.  I emailed a friend of mine who works at city hall.  He responds that he saw the snowy owl near some apartments on Sunwood Boulevard at 7:24 a.m. and that it was a beautiful creature.  He said the area was a poor spot for the owl to look for mice.  I asked if he would go to the pet store, buy some mice and feed the owl one a day so that it would stay in the vicinity until I am free to find it (not until Saturday). He didn't respond to that email.  But I think if a dozen mice were delivered to his office he'd know who they were from.  At 1 p.m. another birder saw the snowy owl on the cellular tower near Armstrong and Bunker.  He watched it for an hour and posted beautiful photos of this magnificent bird.  Other birders saw one across Highway 10 so there may be TWO SNOWY OWLS in my city.  Curses!  My schedule keeps me hopping from dawn until after dusk.  I'm glad to have a job but I want to see this SNOWY OWL!  Maybe I should call in.  "I am going to be in late today.  I'm feeling owly."  Or I could just say it straight out, "I'm going to be late today because I'm taking time off to see a snowy owl for the first time in my life."   I'm sure they'd understand.  I thought about leaving early today but I didn't have my binoculars with me or my camera.  I think I'll put those in the car right now so they will be there when I need them  I'll be so happy if I can see a snowy owl.

My Christmas Tree Tried to Grow

Light green new growth sprouted on the sunny side of the tree.

New cones were forming.

I'm not sure what these dangling growths are but they weren't there when I put the tree up.

As I took my black spruce tree down this weekend I noticed it had dropped only a handful of needles.  As I took the decorations off I noticed new growth on the side of the tree that was closest to the sunny southern window.  My tree, in a desperate attempt to live, had tried to grow in the Christmas tree stand.

A New Year Vignette

Imagine a crowded family room full of people; not enough chairs for everyone.  There were a lot of people in their 20's; the oldest was in his 80's and the youngest in single digits.  Three nephews sat slouched in an uncomfortable short sofa.  Next to them sat an older man, somewhat deaf, in a recliner.  All three nephews are looking down at something - was it their food or their phones, I can't remember.  One nephew quietly mumbles softly, "Menomena."  The two nephews to his right, while still looking down simultaneously tilt their heads to the right and respond, "Dee Dee," tilt left "Dee Dee Deet."  After a 3 second pause the single nephew repeats, "Menomena."  The two nephews on his right respond (right) "Deet Dee" (left) "Dee Dee."  Again, an unusually long pause passes before the first nephew mumbles quietly, "Menomena."  As I and the older man look on with a look of confused amazement, the two nephews respond with heads tilted right, "Deet Dee Dee Dee Dee," tilt left "Deee Dee Dee," tilt right "Dee Deet Dee," tilt right, "Deet Deet Dee Dee Dee Dee."  There is a small smattering of applause and the nephews look up and seemed surprised anyone heard them.  But not everyone did hear them.  A quarter of an hour passes before the man in the recliner asks the three nephews if they can do "that head tilting thing" again.  It's doubtful he heard a single note of the song but he enjoyed the performance anyway.  The nephews decline to repeat their act claiming they can't do it on request, only when inspired.  This ends one vignette from our family holiday.

Paint It Black

Janet Fitch wrote White Oleander and Paint it Black.  One book about white and the other about black but both books were about broken people.  I liked the main character, Josie Tyrell in Paint it Black.  She has spunk and creativity.  She falls in love with another broken person named Michael.  Michael is an imposter; a fake person who just about drains the life out of Josie.  The characters are riveting and the story is so clearly told that I can almost feel the pain and congestion in my chest from smoking so many cigarettes.

Holidays Are Over

 Now the holidays are officially over.  Schedules will return to the normal hum-drum cycle of working 5 days and not working 2 days.  I have one Xmas cookie left plus 2 pieces of fudge.  After those are gone it's time to return to the normal diet which (I hope) will have fewer sweets.  I plan to take down the tree this weekend.  I enjoy a real tree until it's time to take it down.  I enjoy putting up the tree 5 times more than taking it down.  I do enjoy the light it shines in my living room.  With my electric timer the tree lights up by itself at 6:10 a.m.  This lets me know that I can disregard the alarm at 6 a.m. and relax until the tree lights come on. When the tree lights come on, it's time to pull the covers off and face the world.  I had a good holiday season.  I enjoyed having extra days off.  Sometimes I was alone and I enjoyed that.  Sometimes I had company and I enjoyed that too.  Once I was in a crowded room with 27 others and that was fun too.  I noticed that my back yard is full of life.  On Christmas Day we had a wildlife show during our lunch.  While we enjoyed some homemade pasta at the kitchen table we watched a flock of 20 robins plus 3 cedar waxwings pretending to be robins eat crab apples off the trees.  A pair of pileated woodpeckers ate suet along with the hairy and downy woodpeckers.  A red bellied woodpecker ate from the peanut feeder.  Juncos ate from the leftover canary food I threw on the deck.  Blue jays and robins drank from the bird bath.  A pair of cardinals looked amazingly red in the white snow.  Chickadees ate their seeds one at a time and the white breasted nuthatches creeped headfirst down the tree trunks.  Does all this natural birdy splendor happen 7 days a week?  I sure miss a lot when I go to work.. 

30 Days! (Or maybe more)

A plank is a yoga position where you hold your body rigid like a plank while resting your toes and your forearms on the floor.  I only heard about this yesterday and I must have been in a receptive mood because it sounded like a good idea.  I held the position for 20 seconds just now and more core is aching.  I think it's harder to hold the position on my forearms than holding my arms straight out like in a push up.  I got a feeling this might take me more than 30 days to get to 300 seconds.