Saturday, April 30, 2016

Leaving Arizona!

 Leaving this behind in Arizona so we...




...can go to Oregon to this!

Life is good!

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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Lois, Let's Go to Bed So These People Can Go Home

Goodbye little Doll House!
It is tricky to know just the right minute to leave. Going home from and party is only one time when we face that dilemma. Leaving our home in Arizona is another.

When we are at a party, I usually am ready to go home before it is polite and my husband just ignores me. Then, once in awhile I will settle in for the duration. Getting up just doesn't appeal to me so I ignore the signs...yawns, sighs and big gaps in the conversation. Going home can be tricky.

Now we are thinking about going home to Oregon. We need to leave our Doll House for six months. It will go to bed and we will wake up the house in Oregon. But the trick is WHEN?

We usually have a schedule that we decide on long before the departure date. I will begin ironing and even packing so far ahead of that time that I find myself digging through suitcases to retrieve clothes.

This year we have a new plan. We are going to wait until the day before our departure, pack our suitcases and the car, go to bed and leave early the next morning. (Our party hosts are glad we don't do that at their house!)

Our little house is saying, "Lois, let's go to bed so these people can go home!"

Have a wonderful day.

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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Leaping Off the Cliff

Have you ever read an article in the newspaper or online and felt the need to write about it? The headline just makes you want to say something that you really shouldn't say and yet there is a rant waiting to be posted. Have you done that?

I do it more often than I care to admit. In fact, I did that thing this very morning. THEN I went back, reread the newspaper article and deleted what I had written. I had ranted without really thinking it through.

I have always known that the less I know the stronger my opinion will be. Information leads to uncertainty and doubt...which is a good thing. I should not to leap off the cliff before I learn how far the fall with be.

What do you think?

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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Why Should We Change Lanes?

Dinner with friends is always very interesting. They bring a new insight to the table every time we meet. For example, a friend told me that she heard of a man that lived a very long time and attributed his longevity to never making a left turn.

See, that just sets me off on a trail of life lessons that probably will never end.

Should we always turn right?
My uncle told about a car he and some friends bought as emergency transportation when he worked on the railroad...it may have been free though. It could not turn left. A bent fender on the left side of the car make it impossible. The very small town in Eastern Oregon made it possible for them to maneuver the car to where they wanted to go simply by turn right enough times. I laugh every time I picture them going by the drug store on main street in a different direction until they arrived at the local greasy spoon.

As for the man that never turned left, my friend thought the man was onto something. She always drove in the right lane if she could. She avoids changing lanes at all cost so if a left turn is necessary she will drive all the way across town in the left lane just in case. She does not want to be blocked when she actually needs to make her turn.

I am not afraid to change lanes even though I do get honked at once in awhile. As I have aged, I like taking more risks and turning left either on the road or even in my life gives me the sense that I am not boxed into one ride over and over.

Don't you think that turning left once in awhile is a wonderful idea? Are you afraid to make a left turn?

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Note: This is not a political discussion but......! After all, I am a liberal.

Monday, April 11, 2016

How to Wander Aimlessly

Oh The Places I Go and the Things That I See....
Wandering aimlessly is a skill I learned on my computer. I know...some people, particularly old people like me with diminishing mental abilities will escape out the back door and go on a very long walk to no place. But me...I sit down at my computer and begin wandering.

It is amazing what you will learn and see when you do that. Like the lessons taught by the Dr. Seuss book Oh the Place You'll Go...I find myself on the path to see some very amazing thing. The world wide web is my window to the adventure.
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” 
― Dr. SeussOh, The Places You'll Go!
So today my exploration out in that wonderful world on the web took me back to Schrodinger's Cat.  I was reading a blog post on Adam Scott's Dilbert Blog about the writer's opinions on our upcoming election. Dilbert is about as close to edgy as I will come when it comes to that subject. The writer was talking about various election issues that are very real and pertinent when the Cat popped up.

The Cat was part of a quantum physics theory put forth by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The brain puzzle asks the question "Does an event happen if it cannot be observed." I read it again this morning. The idea is fascinating if only because I think it relates more closely to the belief in God than it does to any scientific theory. Quantum physics is like that I think.

Then just because I needed a dose of beautiful, I opened Pinterest. That was where I found A Buzz Feed article called 31 Tiny House Hacks . My tiny house living is becoming so popular these day that it is not hard at all to find all kinds of websites and blog posts about the subject. There were some very good ideas I thought.

By the way on that same subject I heard that senior citizens have are now discovering park model living as a choice...just now!  Wow! There are park models in this resort that date back to the early and even pre-70's era. But I suppose the "rediscovery" is a worthy subject too. :)

From there I went to a blog called White Living. The clean lines and lovely well used objects caught my eye. Even though I cannot speak German it was written in the pictures were worth a thousand words.

I have to finish reading my Ivan Doig book Last Bus to Wisdom: A Novel. It seems I don't just love it as much as I should but still...there is something about it. Just in case I am needing something very good to read I took a little look at Powell's Book Store  website on Pinterest. I need to get busy. 

Now you have to admit that my aimless wanderings do lead to places that are interesting. Where did you wander to today?

Friday, April 8, 2016

Creative Ways to Get Nothing Done

English: A historic wooden ironing board. Pict...
See what happens when you use the ironing board too much? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I read a blog post the other day about procrastination. It was genius I think. The author renamed the dirty "p" work calling it Productive Procrastination or something like that. The whole idea made me laugh. I could only think that PP was the best example of an oxymoron I had ever come across.

Do I procrastinate? You bet I do and I am proud of it. In fact my husband and I have made a science of not doing what we need to do while appearing to be doing it. Hence the pieces of napkins under the table leg. It appears to be fixed but the first time I vacuum (later) it will come out and the table will wobble just like it did before.

The author of the article was in the habit of making lists....probably the biggest waste of time in my world that was ever suggested. I am much better at naming what I have done than I am at listing what I am going to do. First of all the done list is very short and second of all the minute the pen and paper is placed in front of me to list what I am going to do what is left of my mind goes blank. The true procrastinator in me emerges and nothing I think of REALLY needs to be done today. It can all wait a while.

Hiding the mess in a drawer, taking the lawn mower to the repair shop then waiting a month or two to pick it up, putting the ironing in a closet or near the ironing board so it is handy...all of those things are ways to not do what needs doing while appearing to be actually do it.

So what do you do...are you as creative as you could be?

Have a wonderful day.

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Monday, April 4, 2016

WAIT A DOGGONE MINUTE...I HAVE STUFF I NEED TO DO!

As I am drawing my last breath I will pop up from the bed yelling Wait a minute! I have stuff I need to do! My husband just shrugs his shoulders and laughs. He knows the truth and you know it now too.
So I am thinking about cutting bottles right now because I think it would be fun to create new stuff. My cutter arrived day before yesterday and we are saving wine bottles (no you do not need to help...I will take care of the drinking part, thank you.)

I really does work so we are off to the races. I am excited.

What do you think? I like these a lot!

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