Thoughts to Ponder on a mid-November Night

     I haven't written much lately-my blog is getting dusty. I used to write at least once a week, but it's just been too busy of late.

     Not that I'm making excuses. I thought I'd make up for lost time by recapping what I've been up to the past few months. This will be an encapsulated edition of several blog posts I started but never finished.

    For several weeks I've been lamenting the loss of warm weather and dreading the onslaught of what they promise is going to be another grueling winter. I always marvel at how I can't wait for the heat and humidity to end, yet the first frost I'm pining for a heatwave. I always have a melancholy feeling about the end of daylight savings time-it feels so extreme, how early the sun goes down. It's weird that in November, 7 pm might as well be the middle of the night, but in April or May, the night is still very young.

This year I was at my niece's baby shower the Sunday we lost the hour (I was home by dark). I tried not to pay too much attention to it.

     The main thing on my mind these days is getting my drivers license. It's not progressing as fast as I'd like, and that annoys me. I thought I'd be road-test ready by the six lessons-but after three lessons, it's clear that I'm going to need more, unless I get lots of extra practice in. One thing I have noticed is, that it seems everybody I talk to has a friend or relative that is learning to drive at an advanced age. I salute them, so maybe I should salute myself too. I know I can do it, it's just going to take time.

     The problem (and the reason I'm taking lessons to begin with) is I don't have a vehicle to drive, or a relative nearby to take me out.  All I can do is be patient and take my time. I hope the wonderful people who pick me up and drop me off will continue to be as kind and patient as they've been so far.
    I've made it to my first anniversary of my "new" job, and celebrated by taking a week off! It was nice to get away for a few days, and not think about work hardly at all. I didn't do everything on my to-do list, but got some much needed rest.
     Now I'm ready to tackle the holiday season. If I had any more time off, I'd get lazy. I love my job, I just have to solve my driving dilemma, and I'll be happy.
     2014 went fast, and I hope the trend continues! I'm happy that Halloween is over with, it seemed to go on for months. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the start of a new year with new possibilities. And hopefully, more blog posts!
Take Care,
Karin

     

Seeing is Believing!

    Today is a special day. Sunny, warm, but melancholy as summer draws to a close.  It gets dark earlier each evening, and the loud song of chirping crickets jumps in your ears when you step outside. I make the most of it, appreciating what will soon be gone.

     

    I had a nice day at work today, and as I awaited my ride home, I chatted on the front porch with two of the residents. Suddenly, as I happened to glance at the mini petunias hanging on the porch front, my eyes widened in amazement.

   

   A hummingbird!! A real live, honest to goodness hummingbird. It was hovering around the flowers, just as I've seen a thousand times on TV. In an instant, it was gone. I couldn't even tell what color it was, because we were in the shade.

   

   I was so excited as I told the ladies, and for the rest of the time I was there, probably five minutes, I kept looking and hoping the elusive bird would come back, but it didn't. Still, I was happy. I'm almost 46 years old, and have been waiting basically all my life to see a hummingbird.

   

   I understand hummingbirds are common. My Dad often tells me that when he was a kid, and he spent summers on Cape Cod, the hummers were everywhere. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were giant bees, due to the loud buzz of their flapping wings.

     The hummingbird I saw today was a quiet one, I didn't hear any buzzing. What I saw was like magic, like animation, and before I could believe my eyes, it was gone.

       On any other day, this might just be a nice story for my blog. But today isn't just any day. It's September 3rd. The anniversary of my grandmother's passing in 2008. I realized the anniversary date when I got home, and tears came to my eyes.

     I can't believe it's been six years. The time goes fast, but in my heart, the six years seems more like sixty. I miss my grandmother and hope to be reunited someday.  I would love to think she's nearby, close to me. She'd love it where I work, we even have an orange cat sleeping on the porch.

     After waiting for a sign or hello from Grammy all this time, I don't care if other people think today's hummingbird is a coincidence or just wishful thinking.  For me, it was a moment I will never forget, and I'm very thankful. 

Maybe next year I'll see my first bluebird!

I love you, Grammy.

Here's the front porch where I work. The flowers hanging above are the ones my hummingbird was flying around.

Here's the orange cat. We don't know it's name or where it lives, but it spends a lot of time on our porch.

Here are Grammy's favorite flowers, pansies! We have a few pots of those on the porch, too.

I'll be setting up a nectar feeder on the porch to see if my hummingbird will come back, maybe with some friends. I'd love to get a picture!

     

     

Happy Birthday, Cindy!

Happy Birthday Cindy! You've made it to ten years old! There isn't much to say that I haven't already said about my loyal dog. She really is man's best friend.

  
Cindy is smart, friendly and devoted. She loves to eat, bark, and soak up the sun. She especially loves to meet strangers, children, and the mailman (unlike some dogs, she LOVES people in uniform).

  
Cindy enjoys going for rides, and you'd be surprised how many compliments she gets from passers by, many saying she's the nicest looking dog they've ever seen. And they can only see her smiling face, which in the car is usually panting and drooling all over the place.

   My regrets for Cindy? I wish I had gotten her to obedience school very young. I always wish I could have her walk by my side without a leash, without fear she'd run away or get hit by a car.

   I wish she could have had a play-mate, but I don't think she'd have liked sharing us with another dog, or even a cat. I must admit I really miss having a cat, but with Cindy's herding instincts, a cat is out of the question.

   
The most important thing I could tell you about Cindy is that she really understands. I truly believe she can comprehend everything we say to her. She's a good listener, and she really cares. I couldn't ask for a better companion. There probably aren't many pictures of Cindy I haven't posted, but let's see what I can come up with.

Cindy guarding her territory

Overlooking the front yard

With me a few years ago at the Charles River

On the job, watching everything go by

On the job, watching everything go by

As you can see, she's a beauty. Happy Birthday, girl! May there be many more.

PS-by the time you read this, Cindy's birthday is long over...Blogger wasn't working when I originally wrote this post. Her birthday is July 1st.

  

Lots to say, But No Time to Say it!

   I haven't written in ages! Not because I don't want to, I just don't have much time or energy these days. My last post was on February 28th, for Bigfoot's birthday anniversary.

  So I never got around to doing a post about Bootsie and Chester's birthday on March 26th, or my favorite topic, the start of daylight savings on March 9th, and the start of spring on March 20th. Those are all important milestones to me.

   There were other things that would've made good stories, like my visits back to my old job, and my exasperation at trying to fix my cell phone. The real plot of that story was the lack of customer service with Tracfone, and trying to get a real person on the phone. It was the worst runaround I've ever experienced. But now that it's been resolved, the thought of going over it again isn't really worth the trouble.
   There could have been a dozen blog posts about how nasty the weather was. I spent a lot of time in the thick of it, waiting for rides into work. The cold was bitter, and the amount of snow depressing. But it's finally over, and I'm thankful. Now April is almost over, and it's hard to believe because it's still pretty chilly. 
    I could've written a story about how happy I was at dumping cable TV for a few months. Cable TV costs way too much, and all you get are commercials and re-runs most of the time. In the four months without it, we saved a lot of money, and were free of the annoyance of ads. It meant more peace and quiet, more listening to talk radio (unfortunately, couldn't escape the ads on the radio) and utilizing all the videotapes and DVDs we've accumulated over the years. 
    I could've spun off another post about candlepin bowling, and how cool it was that You Tube had a couple hundred episodes of old bowling that we were able to watch. The only downside is that quite often the Internet or whatever would break down, or wouldn't work at all. That can be pretty annoying. But overall, You Tube is a great invention. Almost any old show or old song you could want is there.
   I guess the common theme among all these stories is irritation. People have a tendency to talk about or write about things that are annoying or bad than happy and good. 
    At any rate, I hope to be back on track with blog posts soon!

  

Happy Birthday, Biggie Boy!

   Wow, it's been a year that has gone awfully quick. It seems like only a couple months ago I was wishing my Bigfoot a happy 35th birthday. Now it's almost midnight, so I have to hurry and post this-happy 36th, Biggie.

    He was quite a cat. He had all kinds of nick-names: Mr. Foot, Sasquatch, Striperino. There were many more that escape me at the moment.  He was a beautiful sight, with all his fluffy fur, especially his tail and tufts on either side of his head. And of course, his feet, all 27 toes. He could knock on  the door with a claw!

   I'll close for now-if you knew Bigfoot, you remember him fondly. So do I! Miss you!

Updates and corrections to previous posts

 It never seems to fail that no matter how much proof-reading I do, there's always at least one mistake in every blog post I write. Sometimes, it's not my fault, and sometimes I'm just not careful enough.

  I just posted one a couple of days ago, and even though I never touched the font size settings, a few sentences are bigger than the rest- it looks pretty stupid. But if I fix it, my "subscribers" will get another copy that they don't want or need. So I've been leaving in the mistakes. I wouldn't mind except that the bigger print error didn't show up on the "preview" page I was using to proofread!
     I made a big boo-boo in the post I did about Christmas- I posted the wrong Jethro Tull Christmas song! First, I should confess that my computer is always on the mute setting unless I'm actually listening to something. I was in a hurry to post my blog, and I didn't know that Jethro Tull had a whole album of Christmas songs! So I confused "Another Christmas Song" with the song I was trying to showcase, "A Christmas Song"! So maybe I'll try again at the end of this. I didn't listen to the Kinks song to make sure it was the original, maybe I'll post a different version of that one, with the actual Kinks performance-I did listen to some of that one after I realized my other mistake.
    God bless my friend Linda, who read my blog about Christmas. CITRON is what I was trying to think of when I was talking about the crap they put in fruitcake! It's sour and the consistency of a gum drop. That stuff gives all fruitcakes a bad name.
   A quick update on my new job, and my old one. As you recall, I left my old job when I didn't get the well deserved promotion. They hired another woman, who was fine. But she decided to leave after three weeks! That was enough for her, with the "old" director still around to louse things up. Then she decided to leave too, or at least that's the last I heard. 
    I've only been up there to visit once, and it was great to see the residents again, I do miss them and my co-workers. But thankfully, I've managed to adjust to the slower pace of my new building. It doesn't seem  nearly as slow now. 

   Well, I'm going to run the correct songs now, hope you will listen!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

  Well, we made it alive through another year. Are you any better off than a year ago? Did we make progress, embrace change, and reach any goals we set for ourselves?

    I can only speak for myself. I don't usually make resolutions, because I inevitably break them, or don't accomplish them.  I do think this is a rare occasion where I actually did make some headway. 

    First, I utilized my certification by getting a new job as an Activity Director. I was lucky, getting the best possible position and working conditions one could ask for.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without a lot of help with transportation. I had a hard time adjusting to the slower pace, and I've had to learn to like the way some things are.  If you had told me at the beginning of 2013 that I'd take a new job, I wouldn't have believed it. I almost surprised myself at how quickly I took action when I finally realized that it was time to go.

     Naturally, I still have a sense of what goes on at my old facility, since my mom still works there. I keep in touch with my activity cohorts, and they tell me how lucky I am that I escaped.  A part of me still wishes that I was there, that I had been chosen to run the department again. But that's a post for another day. 
   So without calling them resolutions, what do I wish to accomplish this year of 2014? My list is long, of things I not only want to do, but have to do. Here's what I can think of off-hand:

• Get my learner's permit this month, and my license within 3-4 months
• Find an affordable vehicle that I like.
• Get the college credits I need towards my certification. I have six years to get 12, and 7 of them, though I've earned them, I have to pay for them, almost 130 dollars. Not thrilled about that, but I have to do it anyway.
• I need another 30 hours of continuing education each year, to keep the certificate up to date. That means finding a course, paying for it and finding the time to do it. I do have a class I can order that gives me all 30 hours at once, so I'll probably get that one. 
• I have to take the activity director national exam too- that's another 90 or hundred bucks, but worth it, of course.
• Less pressing goals, but still important to me: writing in my journal every day, putting my photos in my photo albums, and sending away for the scanner I need for my old 35 millimeter negatives. 
• Get organized, and donate all the old stuff I don't need anymore

I'm sure there's much more, but that's all I can think of right now. Except for wanting to do more blog posts! I like doing one at least weekly, but it's been more like monthly lately.  I'll check back with you next January and see how much of my list I actually accomplished!

       Happy New Year!!