All Saints Day

As we look forward to all the little ghouls and goblins ringing our doorbells, may we also give a thought to the historical background to Halloween. All Saints Day. A day to remember those who have died and influenced our lives. Today some of us have even taken on remembering those still with us who have inspired us.

Who are the saints in your life? Who inspired you?

I am thinking about my father, a giant in his own right with wisdom and love. A woman in my childhood church: "Miss Ilene" ~ who taught love and forgiveness. And of course those saints of the world ~ Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. There are lot more on my list and for this year I will remember these amazing folks. May you enjoy your gratitude to all your saints ~ with blessings

Interesting

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a question both here and on Facebook: What book started you reading, inspired you to read for the rest of your life? Between the blog and FB I received 5 answers: two from members of my family.

On the same day on FB a friend asked, What commercials are you sick and tired of and never want to see again? She received over a dozen answers.

Does this say something about our society? Maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe she has Lots more friends on FB and so our percentages were the same. Maybe we really do care more about tv than reading. At least one of her respondents suggested that they watch too much tv. I don't know. I was just fascinated that it happened. ~ blessings

Home to Cyberspace

I mentioned our dependency on cyberspace. Every home we were in had a hard time giving us their password ~ because they couldn't remember it! Every hotel charged a rather large fee for wifi ~ so we shared the wifi stick. That was a little clumsy and besides we were busy so neither of us had a lot of time to spend on line anyway. Then driving home we spent a lot of time in the desert ~ where our cells had "No Signal", spelled out just like that in case we didn't get it.

So we are glad to be home for our own bed, our own dog, our own cold tap water and . . . our own wifi. And a chance to get back to you and writing thoughts and ideas and sending them out into cyberspace. Welcome home! ~ with blessings

Travel ~ part 2

We are so dependent on cyberspace these days and to travel with no wifi or way to be in contact is really interesting. Homes we were in couldn't remember their password if they had wifi. The hotel we are in tonight charges a lot. Dean has a usb stick so he has been on working. I have spent my time talking and visiting. Finally I borrowed the stick and am on and discovering all sorts of things ~ including a daughter's blog that has brought me up to date on her life, lots of emails, and I guess I will even check in with facebook in a while.

We are a week into this travel: having been to the wedding, several meetings and are now in Tucson in a networking meeting. It has all been good. Glad I only went a week without writing. :) We had a good seminar this afternoon on using social networking in your business. I knew more than I thought ~ and learned a Lot more. It feels good to be back in touch ~ with blessings

Travel

We are off on an adventure today. In some ways it is an ordinary trip mixing business and pleasure (a friend's wedding). In another way, the transportation creates its own adventure. We are driving and flying and driving and flying and driving some more. A mixture of strict schedules and loose and easy time on the road.

What clothes may be left in our car in order to be available for the last meeting? What clothes need to be taken the whole way - with a bit of laundry in the middle?

Business has not taken us away in a while as it used to. Pleasure hasn't either really. So ~ here we go. Packing is not as familiar nor as easy as it once was when either of us could throw things in the suitcase 15 minutes before leaving the house and everything was in order. Airports do not have their comfortable, "oh, here I am again" feel. Time to remember and get back in the routine.

We are looking forward to the trip. We will see some long time friends who have made it with us into the present so we anticipate fun catch up and move forward conversation. It will be an interesting time. Traveling blessings to us all.

Kindle

House Guest had a Kindle and I asked to see it. His is the third generation that supports pdf files and allows for several more business oriented functions than I will want. It is also a little bigger than the usual one. Nevertheless, I have now held a Kindle in my hand.

As much as I love the idea of holding a book, this was intriguing and . . . possible. We are getting ready to travel and I'm thinking of those flights, carrying weight, and being able to have more than one or two books at my finger tips. I look at my library wall, full to over-flowing already, and think about having 4000 books in one tiny space always available. Hmmmm -

I am told that Apple is coming out with their version in several months and they do have a way of making things easier. Hmmmm - for now I will wait. And at least I have held one. We will see what happens ~ with blessings

About Books ~ 2

What book are you reading now? What book lies at your hand waiting for you to pick it up, find that marked page and continue whatever fascinating journey it has for you?

Mine is a mystery by Donna Andrews, "No Nest for the Wicket". :) She writes with a delightful, punny sense of humor. Light, airy and I don't have to worry about a thing because I know in the end Meg will solve the case.

You may be reading something dark or historically or political or technical. Science fiction or science reality. Religion, philosophy or cook. The categories are many and varied and come with their own special blessings ~

Fall Kitchen Aromas

Ahh the aroma of fall. Yesterday Trinity and I picked apples off the tree in her backyard. Today I am making apple sauce from my share. The whole house has the aroma of fresh cooking apples.

The Farmers' Market this morning was rather sparse and I have frozen corn and tomatoes to use in winter soups. Of course my daughters are reading this and wondering who took over their mom's blog. :D :D

Although not the cook in the family, once in a while I channel my Aunt Lalah and homemade goodies do come forth from my kitchen. This will probably be the best apple sauce I have ever made simply because of the freshness of the apples. A friend told me I didn't have to cook corn and tomatoes to freeze them - just slice and pop in the freezer. That I can do! And the weather tells me the season for soups is close at hand. ~ with blessings

About Books

What book first inspired you to read?

Example: for me it was "Mary Poppins". I was already a reader. My parents saw to that. It was just something I did and did well. My third grade year in Texas was Hot. So after lunch our teacher would take us outside under a tree (no AC in the building) and read to us. One of the books she read was "Mary Poppins".

That book opened to me the magic of books. All sorts of books. If I read, I could go anywhere, be anybody, magic or historical. Stories were everywhere once I knew what a book could offer. What about you? What book opened that world to you? ~ with blessings

Everybody talks about . . .

The weather! We usually don't here in the mountains. In the summer it is warm to hot and clear, clear, clear. In the winter, once the snow falls, it is cold, ski-able and clear, clear, clear. Now it is fall -- and we have No idea what is going on.

Huge snow storm due yesterday and last night. Instead we had a couple of "showers" ~ maybe got 1 1/2 inches the second time. Most of that is gone now except in shady places. It is Cold today however. Not chilly or brisk. Cold. Dressing is weird. Bundled today. By tomorrow afternoon we may be back in short sleeves and sandals. Or not. We just have No Idea.

And so we talk, debate, check very inaccurate weather reports (the professionals don't know either), talk some more and layer, layer, layer. It won't be long though until we can go back to being the intelligent, educated adults we are with something else on our minds besides the weather. ~ blessings

40 Years ago today - Oct. 3

Happy Birthday, dear Daughter! Born under a full moon and a snow storm as deep as she was long (19"), the babe arrived and at the end of the day, her dad wrote on the oh-so-important list "punt". :D

I only know that of the list, diapers did get washed before we came home from the hospital.

I don't often look back to the births of my daughters any more. And these decade years are important ones, both for the birthday woman and for her mother. And once again the full moon looks down and blesses the woman the babe has become and sends her on her continuing journey into a bright and blessed future. ~ with love

40 years ago today - Oct. 2

I woke with incredible energy to clean and organize. Amazing. And I did and by the end of the day the nursery was established and ready to welcome the baby. There was a list posted in the kitchen of all the things that still had to be done in the next two weeks before the arrival. If I recall correctly after all these years, I had washed little clothes but not the diapers yet. Yes, we used cloth diapers back then although disposables were just appearing. So first on the list was to wash all the diapers that had been stored for a while. Lots to do, lots to do ~

Forty years ago today (Oct. 1)

At about 8:45 on a glorious fall day in Denver, I put my 3 1/2 year old daughter on the back of my bike and cycled her to day-care about 3 blocks away. This had a been a regular routine for a while. It only becomes notable on Oct. 1st because of the next two days. ~ until then