Spring Cleaning Zen

Posted a photo of this table on FB as a "giveaway" although many might have thought I was wanting to sell it as I did not specify. I would like to get money for it, but I would like to get it out of this corner even more.  It folds out to dining room size. I may replace it with an old, small oak roll top desk so that I have a place for a lamp. No one sent me a message that they might want it...

Stuff! Old people have too much stuff! I gave away an oriental rug last year to an animal habitat center for their rummage sale. The same pattern and size were being sold on the Internet for between $1,000 and $2,000 dollars! It was a big, heavy, old rug that was kept in a roll in the basement for years. I had tripped over it many times on my way to the shelf for paper towels. It had belonged to my husband's parents, and we had no room large enough for it.  See a third of it still rolled up below.  I do not know if it sold at the rummage sale. (Taking the standard deduction this year, so all this stuff is truly donations.)

We replaced the old cast iron BBQ with a new one this year and that is on its way to the thrift shop...if they will accept it. It still works but has a problem with baffles cooking evenly.

I have a collection of baby furniture from my daughter to hold for my son.  It appears that my son cannot have children...so do I give away the crib and other stuff?  Do I hold out hope they will adopt?  Do I just leave it in the stairwell under the basement stairs?

I have too much food as well as stuff.  I reorganized (did not say cleaned out, although a batch of expired stuff made it to the trash can) my pantry.  I have food in there for years.  How many types of rice and pasta does one need?  One would think I lived through a major recession!  

I am going to try to live a more Zen life.  I think it is healthier to not keep things that one does not use.  Life is too cluttered already.

Now I am going out to get rid of too much in the way of weeds.  That I really have too much of!!!

The High Wire Balancing of Hi-Tech

I will begin the post with something I stole from my son's house. I actually asked him if he or his wife used it and he said no. I asked if I could have it and he said yes. BUT it really belonged to his wife who got it as a promotional gift months earlier and she was in NYC at the time. It is a computerized coffee/teacup. You charge a battery in the bottom of the cup through the saucer, you set the temp from about 120f to 145F and your drink stays hot from the first to the last drop. It takes a bit of intelligence, acumen, tech-experience, etc. to get the App to show you what is happening on your computer...only took me under an hour! I even selected the color for charged and for heating. It pulses when heating. It works reasonably well and I like having a "hot" drink from start to finish. Would I buy one of these? Never. Too expensive. Also, there are other ways to ensure hot coffee, like a travel cup and I also feel the cup is too small.

My next techie thing was a gift I got for Christmas...a VERY expensive wireless headset. (My kids have connections and probably got a discount). I would never have bought such a high end one of these, but I do LOVE it. I can quietly listen to my digital courses, listen to my favorite podcasts, and even watch TV from my laptop without disturbing others. The sound is phenomenal...so I have to start using it for music. Since it is wireless I can go to the kitchen and make coffee while listening or if carefully holding my head, put in another load of laundry. This little device only took me three days to figure out how to connect to my laptop AND my computer in various modes. Would I have bought this for myself...now after using it for months? Yes! The sound quality and noise canceling are really good.

My old cell phone was very old. I could not upgrade any Apps and my son explained it was time for me to get a new one with much more memory. I decided it would be nice to have a phone with a better camera lens and so I got a high-end Google Pixel. They were on sale in the shop and they always set it up nicely so that you pay for it over time through your phone bill, thus naively avoiding the sticker shock. Maybe in two years, I will actually own it. I love the ease of use and extra memory. I have not downloaded many new Apps, except this morning I spent an hour trying to figure out how to connect to my DSLR through the house Wi-Fi and to the phone. I kept going through the assistance directions on my laptop, but it never seemed to let me get to the next step. I wanted to use it for remote control of the DSLR with ease like the guy on the YOUTube video showed. I did succeed in spilling the hot coffee on the tray on the cushion next to me. Thus I spent the next 15 minutes washing coffee off the couch and changing my clothes! 

I do have a remote control for my camera, and I also have a delay timer on the DSLR, but what fun it would be to see through the phone before snapping me in the group photo!  Oh well, another day.

I am surrounded by techies.  My 13-year-old grandson was impressed that I had replaced my old clunker cell phone with this new one. I was feeling a little guilty that I get praise from him by spending a small fortune on technology.  Yes, two of the grands were into technology big time when we were up there grand-child sitting.

Where she gets those legs???

And Hubby was not going to be outdone reading his book on his Kindle at the same time.

But there is still one primitive soul at the house that does his high wire act the old-fashioned way...and I was just a bit jealous.

Let Me Add a New Term to Your Vocabulary.

The lady that likes to hibernate is being forced into the usual crazy spring schedule: weekends doing a scheduled weekend of grandchild sitting, a weekend birthday, family flying in from Colorado for a VERY BRIEF meetup where we drive up to the city to see them just for lunch (long involved story of two weddings), a dinner out with friends, spring projects such as getting a window washer in ( I have always done this myself, but find it just too draining), finding some yard help in this very rural area, and finally being roped into assisting a reefball project in the county.  

You may ask, "What are reefballs?"  Please go to this link and read to your heart's content. 

It took us over half the day to complete what is called the "build" part of the project.  We missed the second day which was the "hatch" because we had to drive up to the city.

Photos below for those who like to build projects that improve the environment:

 Molds are sprayed with sugar water to prevent the cement from adhering when the mold is opened.

Our illustrious leader explained how to put together the molds.  He covered safety as well and did a bang-up job!

The high school students were then released to team build their molds.

A layer of sand goes on the bottom to protect the  cement from adhering to the plywood platform.

 New floats (air bladders) are inserted and an air pump inflates them part of the way.

 About 9 plastic small balls are slipped down the side of the mold to create the holes so that fish can swim in and out.

The students were then taught how to mix cement.

They carefully added the wet cement and others tapped on the sides and top to vibrate the cement down the sides to the bottom. 

These troopers made about 16 reef balls before the day was over.

A grant helped get money for all new tools which we tried to keep clean after use.  Note that they are leaning against other reefballs made a few months ago.  The primary reason for the build is to get oyster spat to attach and help purify the Bay.

Harbinger

The first "harbingers" of spring are the rewards for the work you do in November and December, and this work is drying bulbs, dusting off their dirt and cutting away all the dead stuff, wrapping them in the newspaper, and storing them in the dark basement; and when you cannot stand another long dark winter day, bringing them up and partially burying them in fresh potting soil in freshly cleaned pots that are soaked in hot water.  The bulbs wake up with an extreme urge to find the light, flash their brief beauty to live again another year...much like us.

I was sitting on the floor in my kitchen enjoying the peace of a very quiet morning. Hubby has been gone on a reunion-type trip for four days, my house heating system has been broken for the same four days (which makes it even quieter than normal), and there is all the rest of the stuff going on in my life that I will avoid burdening you about.  I needed the resilience of seeing the rare sunrise through my "harbingers" of spring's showy skirts against the kitchen window from a new low angle with camera in hand.  Amaryllis dance the samba, so who can ignore the joy in that?

The wooden floor in the kitchen is colder than usual and my nose is a bit colder than usual, and soon I need to move my old joints and collect the wood from the rack on the front porch and get a warming fire going.  We have lots of wood because my forest is dying and hubby made sure he split a lot before he left.  The trees are tall and should live longer, but they cannot fight the dramatic shifts in climate that did not challenge their ancestors.  I have at least six species of woodpeckers moving in with their hammering and shredding, very content about all of this.

The weatherman has promised 60-degree weather in the days ahead, which also will probably mean the repairmen will arrive much more promptly since I need them less now.  No one stocks parts, parts are held in warehouses in other states, and repairmen give you 5-hour windows and show up at the exact time the window closes to do their work.  Only us retired folks can deal with this.

Each evening I have snuggled down in the heavy quilt at night as a blanket of 27-degree air hung around the windows begging to get in.  Each morning, once the chill is off with a warming fire, I can do chores and blogging and cooking and forget I am not a pioneer woman.

Shot with hand-held telephoto...guess it is not that cold.

Out of Pocket

This is going to be a very difficult week ahead for me. Without going into the details it involves a loved one and a test for the family.  I do not think  I will be  able to  have  energy to post in the coming days, but I will still be here,   just focused elsewhere.   Please send good  vibes into the universe or helpful prayers to your spiritual leader that we will have a successful outcome for all.  Thank you!

Playing along with Words for Wednesday.

I got my "Words for Wednesday" prompt from Messymimi who got them from the link provided on River at Drifting Through Life.  This Wednesday's words are:

1. passport 2. movies 3. puffed 4. complete 5.transport and 6. bleach. 

 The "and/or" second set is  1. avenue 2. helicopter 3. fair 4. clearly 5. foolishness and 6. ability

My effort at something creative using  the words is below...if you feel like joining in check at Messymimi above:

"The rising sun hit the window bleaching the sky across the desert: this piercing sun and the jerky transport of the train shook me awake. I immediately placed my hand reassuringly on my passport as I began to clear my head. It was winter, but the calm weather should have dissuaded my foolish thoughts about the helicopter not being there at journey’s end. I fingered the folder paper and re-read the directions which clearly stated I was to catch a cab at Avenue E by 10:00 A.M..  I had experienced this kind of foolishness only in the movies, and while life is not fair I had somehow thrown myself into the unfairness of something odd and frightening just to see if I had the ability to prove my love and complete my possible destiny. As we slowed pulling into the station I saw the steam from the brakes feather the air against my window, puffed clouds naturally reminding me I needed a cigarette."

Paperwork and Brain Fog

Aging is supposed to be something we accept with grace as the trade-off for living a longer life, and other than a few "dammit"s  now and again, I think I am dealing with it as best I can. 

As mentioned in a post a while back, we are planning a lengthy trip to China. We used to live in Asia and traveled to a number of Asian countries.  While I had not been to China over my life, I avoided such a trip wanting instead to place resources, time and money, to learn more about Europe.  Recently, my sister and sister-in-law encouraged us to join them on a China adventure and wanting to spend time with my relatives who live so far away, I decided to spend the money. The trip requires completion of a 4-page visa including attaching a few other documents and copies of documents. The trip organizer also included a rather lengthy set of instructions for all the paperwork. I put it off over the holidays. In January my sister sent me an email wondering if we had made our plane reservations since we needed to do that before filling out the Visa.   For some reason, I thought this was also a reminder to hurry and get Visa stuff done.  Another example of aging since I panic and do not think things through and do not ask for clarification as I plod forward.  We made our plane reservations a few weeks ago.

It took me three days to complete the Visa application (which is valid for ten years - China really loves us!).  I would spend three hours each morning and then put it aside for my sanity's sake.  I kept making mistakes because I realized that I was just filling out the PDF and not reading the directions on how and what to fill out!  As I age, I think I know more than I know and I hate the tediousness of directions anyway.  I used to be more careful about directions, but now I like plug and play stuff far more or resort to bribery to get someone else to do it.  Finally, I started to re-complete the application by reading whole sections of the directions.  That improved my accuracy slightly when I reviewed both of our sets of papers.   Finally, on the third day of this nightmare and after a few emails from my two sisters, I went through the application step by step, line by line. (For some reason in our inclusion of all the hotels and dates, they do not want to see you are going to Tibet - Political? - so we followed those directions and I omitted information on that stop.) Thank goodness this is all done electronically or I would have wasted reams of paper and expensive toner ink.  I scanned our driver's licenses, attached a check, completed the return address form and tucked in our passports.

I was sooooo proud of myself that I poured a glass of wine.  That afternoon I drove to the drugstore and bought a FANCY stiff envelope for mailing of the paperwork including our passports to a service that will do all the running around at the Chinese Embassy as well as send whatever is necessary to our travel company.  They said it could take up to 6 weeks for processing, so I should be sure we did not need our Passports before that time.   No problem!

Today I got an email from one of my sisters explaining that we should not send the stuff off more than 6 months ahead of the trip!  This would be seven months ahead of time when I counted my mailing.  I am hoping they will give me a pass...please.  If they send it back in a week or so, I will just have to return it, because it will then be in the correct time frame. (I actually expected them to send them back for some minuscule error anyway.)

I think sitting around all winter and passively watching birds, passively taking photos, passively eating carbs, and passively binge-watching TV in the evenings has overcome the blood-gorged pathways that send nutrition to my synapses when I ran the elliptical and lifted my weights two or three times a week.  You can't win.

The Giant Night and the Devil Moon

Sleep is a big deal in our society. Lack of sleep is also a big deal and has generated 1,000s of articles discussing causes, cures, temporary or permanent relief and so on. My husband sleeps like a full-bellied infant. I sleep like a watchful night guard. I can drift off to sleep usually fairly easily, but if I get a tickle in my throat or on my foot or hear my husband snort a few times I am awake and must start the relaxing process all over again.

My bedroom is well-designed for the end of a busy day. The only distractions are small and medium stacks of books in regimental rows, along with two e-readers and the landline and a clock radio on the end tables. I work at keeping the bedroom as zen as possible, to the point that I took down a bunch of pictures a few years ago and have not got around to replacing them with something more sleep-inducing. I still need to add some small photos or art to the wall at the foot of the bed.

I work at this because I have periods of insomnia. I avoid alcohol, caffeine, and sugar in the evening. I read my Kindle on the non-blue light mode; I do not read the news or social media or text friends and family.  I keep to a routine as much as possible and being retired this is 90% possible.  I keep plants in the bedroom in the winter to purify air and create a non-wintery mood.  In the photo above the plants are on a stand in the window behind me as I take this photo.  About the only thing I do not have is a noise machine.

Good sleep for an individual can range from 6 hours to 9 hours a night depending on the individual and his/her metabolism.  My fitbit does tell me I average 7.5 most nights.  Please note the first two items on the list below are Friday...I guess I really caught up with a nap, although I know for a fact I did NOT nap that long, my naps rarely lasting more than 30 to 45 minutes.  Maybe I was just reading and lying VERY STILL?

Some doctor's say that insomnia is a psychiatric disorder.  I am not that willing to submit to that.  I think it is chemical, but then chemistry impacts our psychiatric response to things, so who knows.

I have noticed that full moons are usually a trigger for my sleeplessness.  I close my non-blackout curtains but still seem to find myself wide awake around 2:00 A.M.  I lie restless for 20 minutes while my mind goes through a roller coaster of 100's of subjects, issues, problems, etc.  Eventually, I throw back the blankets and get up to find some way to fall back asleep again.

Two nights ago I was mocked by the full moon.  It seems to want to "parhteee" in the black and piercing, cold, winter air while all is still and oh so quiet.

I have no desire to dance. I feel like a zombie and am just thankful I do not have anything on my schedule for the next day!

I put on my slippers and take my camera outside.  I forget to check the settings and in the dark attempt a few photos with no tripod but also no shakey caffeine drug.

While it is indeed freezing the water is not and dances with the moon to the quietest of waltzes.  At least the moon has some company.  It is light enough that I could go for a walk without a flashlight.

Eventually, the cold seeps into my hands and shoulders and I cannot control the shake of the camera and get the watery photo above.  I look to the inviting warmth of the light through my kitchen window.

It is time to go inside.  Maybe I can wrap myself again in blankets and warm slowly to a coziness and finally get the sleep I deserve!

Social on Unsocial Media

There are days, especially those short and gray and cold winter days, when I spend too much time on Facebook, reading and laughing at memes...you know what those are, right? I also get a peek at the lives of the very few people I have met only peripherally but who I friended because I knew them through Blogger for years.  (I do not friend friends-of-friends unless I know them.)  I am able to throw rotten apples at those elected officials that are really rotten at the core (pun intended), and I throw more incisive comments at my elected officials that are walking too moderate a line and I hit the like or love button for those elected officials (mostly not mine) who are carrying a torch for Democracy, freedom of speech and transparency.

I follow friends I have made that live hundred and thousands of miles from me.  I  watch their children grow and have children of  their own.  If it was not for FB I  would not be  able to follow their lives as closely.

I also post photos that are manipulated slightly or greatly because it is an addiction that I have to share.  I love the play of light and color and shape and shadow.  I post these photos whether they are worthy or not, because I am moving through my 70th decade and do not give a ####.

My son is no longer on FB because he has serious and difficult issues in his life and FB  can be a dangerous sink-hole when you are trying to get your life together.  Most people are just trying to get through the day when they post a photo of their breakfast or their good-looking barista.  Others are posting the best of their life and making it all look so easy.  A few are honest and post both the lows and highs.

My daughter is  on FB and posts just a few photos of her many travels with family or the girl's weekend stuff that women her age post.  All of them are in perfect shape and dressed fashionably whether on the thin or chunky side with perfect glossy hair and a glass of  wine or a plate of dessert in the foreground.  It is hard to be a 40 something I am thinking!  She is not shallow as she posts rarely,but ... she sometimes posts the family skiing, or cheering, or concerting, or attending a sports event...you get the idea.

My sister and brothers will rarely comment on anything and never post.  I comment more on their kid's posts.  I am young at heart.

My daughter comments every so often on my posts.  But I  cannot tell you how it makes my heart sing when she asks about a photo, a bird photo, and asked its ID!  She did this today and my heart just bloomed.  She does not care about birds as I do and the very fact that she noticed certainly made me feel like I had just been sucked  into her planetary orbit ever so briefly as she rushes off on her hundreds of errands and meet-ups in other space dimensions.

Some Days...

Some days there are flowers and some days they are forgotten. Today is a flower day.

Happy Valentine's Day. Love someone today. Throw a kiss to the bird on the tree or pat your neighbor's dog or kiss someone...anyone.

Old Ladies Just Want to Have Fun

When I was young and with toddlers I lived in Indonesia. I am sure I have mentioned this a few times before on this blog. I had a maid/washerwoman, a cook, and a yard/nightwatchman. I did not have any appliances so everything in the house was manual labor.  Also, culturally we were supposed to hire servants because our wealth in the community was too obvious and the U.S. wanted a better profile for its civil servants.  It all balanced out because I truly needed them.  Shopping for food took a half day three days a week!

It took me a short time to adjust to having strangers in my house, perhaps an unusually short time because I am not uncomfortable around people I employ if I trust them and like them. I am an introvert, but when you employ someone you can see them as often or "unoften" as you like.  My cook was Muslim and my maid was Catholic and the night watchman, Jaga Malam, was a young good looking man in his late teens who seemed so sweet I could eat him. I must have been a good employer as they all stayed with me for the two years and we became friends. (Other Americans had trouble hanging on to their staff and I think one of the husbands had a "hand" problem and one of the wives was a perfectionist bitch.  Another family were Christian missionaries and refused to have anyone not Christian in their home, which narrowed the servant pool greatly.)  God knows I need all the various religions I can get and I thought about them all.

Anyway...where was I going with this?  Oh, yes.  There was/is a lot of poverty in Indonesia.  It was not unusual to have beggars come to our door offering odd things to sell for money.  It was not unusual for me to see a woman in rags and in one case stark naked, offering an empty rice bowl for food.  I was young and very busy trying to teach at the mission school and raise a family and adjust to living outside my homeland, therefore I was able to hand some money over and shelve the images to the back of my mind before they touched my heart and soul.  I grew up with a family that lived pay check to pay check, so perhaps I was hardened to the hardness of life.

Somewhere when I had passed middle age, my children were out on their own and we began to live an upper-middle-class lifestyle (or maybe it is just middle class), I started to see such things as poverty with more insight.  When I travel now, I truly enjoy the food, the music, the art, the history, but I hate seeing poverty.  It grabs me like a clawed hand and throws me back against the wall.  It grabs my gut and shakes it roughly.  I become angry at the injustice of life across the globe.  I am a liberal in the purest sense that I believe most people want an honest and fair living and the prevention of that goal is usually due to large, wealthy, powerful corporations that lie.  As an example here is an incident that happened in Santarem, Brazil where Cargill has left a polluted imprint and poverty is tremendous and Cargill has not come through on its promises to raise the standard of living.

I have burned into my brain the sorrowful face of a Brazilian man in his 40s or 50s who offered to take us around his town on his bicycle cart.  The rain was drenching as we left an elaborate cultural school dance show and we just wanted to get back to our boat and get dry and sit in a stuffed chair on the foredeck and catch our breath and clear our heads from the sugary rum drinks they had passed out before the show.  

The man was small and dressed all in dark grays as he held in front of his chest a sign in English offering tours.  My husband speaks enough Spanish to explain to him that we could not go because of the rain.  He was still standing near the wall with the sign as we stood in line and pulled out IDs to get back on the cruise boat.  I asked my husband to go offer him some money...enough for a ride, enough to feed his children, enough to make me wash guilt from my mind that evening.  I hated doing that because he wanted to work, he did not want charity.  I knew that.  He accepted, but I could not watch his face and turned away and do not know if he was relieved, embarrassed, or reflected numbness.

Would he tell his wife that he got one customer in spite of the rain?  What work did he do when the Cruise ship was not in town?  Why did life rob him of his dignity in this way?

That evening we ordered a lobster dinner to celebrate the nearing of the end of our trip.  The lobster tasted great.  My guilt did not overcome my enjoyment of the meal.  Lobster is still an expensive ritual in my life.

BUT, I just want to go on a trip to exotic areas of the world and have fun.  I do not want to bring home so much reality.  His face stays with me to this day.  This fall I am going to China!

How Many Face Lifts Can You Have?

There is an actress who used to be on a U.S soap opera.  Her name is Susan Lucci. I used to watch soap operas when I was stuck at home with babies in diapers, and although I did not  watch her show, she was very famous. These shows were a compulsive distraction for many housewives stuck at home and I am guessing  they still are. The people were all beautiful and protected from aging, except for the token octogenarian with money and power who was either well loved or extremely feared. The women wore  the height of fashion whether it was a tennis outfit or  ball gown.  The sets were usually rooms in luxurious mansions.  The lives of the characters were always exciting and dramatic and unusually melodramatic in their multiple love affairs.  Anyway Ms. Lucci was the evil seductress for decades. Her character was the one you loved to hate.  She never aged and was always glamorous for her 31 years on the show becoming the highest paid soap opera star and finally winning an Emmy in 1999.

This week she was in a fashion show to promote heart health. She is 72 (her birthday only a few days from mine) and has had serious heart issues. Her close call has motivated her to be an advocate for living a lifestyle for heart health. She was layered in some off the shoulder red dress which hugged her 110 pound body frame with flowing layers of cloth turning her into a brunette Barbie. She still wears high heels and somehow her feet went out from under her and she hit the runway with her bottom. The photos of the incident are truly delightful as she looks as if someone had surprised her with a fun ride. She does not break her stride or sense of grace and got a standing ovation. She is 72 and looks 40 if you don't zoom in too closely and notice all the lifting.  She seems like a truly nice and normal person even being married to her first husband for decades.

I just strikes me oddly how we  are the same age,  took  totally different  paths in our lives  and she looks  like she could be a daughter that  I had early in my life.  Better living  through chemistry?

Back in July

Cleaning and organizing photos is a great way to stumble upon fun memories. Back in July hubby and I went to Washington, D.C. to the Building Museum. It is not a public venue but private and supported by a professional association and you must pay a fee to go inside. They have some very interesting displays and I wish I went more often. The rest of the museum, like most museums, has various rooms addressing issues with habitat, history, and relation to buildings. Maybe someday I will post about that aspect because it is certainly just as interesting if not more so.  For more on the museum go here.   The temporary exhibit held in the grand hall on the day I was there was certainly compelling.

Above is a description of the primary areas...mostly for children. Below is the living room every child would like to have!

In some of the areas, there were challenges like this one above with black marbles and a plastic tube maze. The whole exhibit was mostly in black and white!

There was an area for even more fun and the toddlers took advantage.  I did blur faces a little as a courtesy to those who were in front of the lens.

Note, the mom/guardian is taking her own photo here.

Lots of room for fun.  This area above looked like a destroyed building.

The building is a classic and when this room is cleared it is used for grand events.  My daughter's company holds some formal parties here.  She has seen it in its true glory.  I will go again.

Wading In and Out

My biggest cheerleader is my husband...this is both a good thing and a really bad thing. (Flattery will get you not very far with me because I tend to be a realist and know that people are just being nice...or they want something from me.)

Hubby is a mixture of both.  He sees my talents, efforts, and energy through rose-colored glasses. He works with a group of community-minded folks that have passion, some have money and even a very few have connections and power. They want to save their little portion of the bay through restoration efforts. This also includes an education component and they have been able to contact at least FIVE schools from elementary, to high school to vocational tech, to help participate in these efforts.  Recently, after some arm twisting on hubby's part telling me I worked so well with children,  I volunteered at one of the elementary schools to help a STEM class with hands-on work with data collection on oyster shells counting oyster spat that about 6 adult volunteers and teachers brought to the class.  The kids were intuitive, smart and well-behaved and it was a fun afternoon.  Not sure what they really learned as scientific data collection is a long term effort in reality, but we found a lot of interesting wildlife on the oyster shells when we removed them from the aquarium.  An elderly lady, my age, ran the effort and did a great job.

Oysters we sometimes eat over the winter that hang out in cages under our dock...the only photo I have of oysters.

Well, the woman who was coordinating the effort emailed me the next day and asked if I would like to be on a "steering committee" toward this effort.  I emailed back that I was NOT a meeting person, but if the meetings were short and few I would come.  I have now attended two that last over an hour and were two weeks apart.  The first meeting had about 8 people and the agenda was somewhat all over the place as we had industry folks, fishermen, biologists, and some hands-on aquaculture guys.  They had projects and plans like an octopus has legs.  I took notes, asked questions and left at the end.  This effort includes building and deploying "reef balls" with attached oyster spat throughout the bay while training the students!  They do have money for cement, wood, a large trailer and are now collecting tools, etc.

The second meeting was last night and plans got a bit more solidified and filled up a calendar for the next few months.  They (only five attended this time) were suggesting we needed a chair for this group.  Everyone (some still worked full time) were shifting eyes and were too busy.  They looked at me and one suggested if I had time.  Well, I was not born yesterday, and I immediately explained that I was coming way late to this group, did not have the experience and connections they needed, and would be willing to volunteer at events, but NOT coordinate anything.  I looked directly at the gal that had invited me, an elderly woman, one of those dynamic movers and shakers.  She had the honesty to look down and make some notes. (I am sure hubby had praised me to her!)

Hubby and she ended up being co-chairs.  Hubby has NO time for this, but that is his problem.

There was an after meeting of a much larger group (fishermen) to which hubby belongs, so I took my car and headed home.  While watching the last episode of Hinterland, hubby returned and talked about someone at the second meeting.  

He asked if I remembered a person who joined the group late and sat across the table and I said, "No."  Well, this person is a really good nature artist and donates lovely water bird paintings to the auction/money raising effort that the fishermen/conservation group holds annually.  I have seen them.  I guess the fellow was out that morning with his camera trying to get some good bird photos as references for his artwork and came back without anything useful and complained to my husband.

Hubby immediately told him we had Canvas Back ducks in the river last week and that I got some good great photos.  Not true, the photos were barely in focus and far away.  The artist was excited and asked for my email and if I would mail him my photos for his work...OMG! to throw out a valley girl expression.  Did I say hubby exaggerates my talents?

This morning I went through a bunch of waterbird photos taken over the years and will email the chap two of them explaining that as he gets to know my husband better he will realize that he exaggerates a bit.

This is the photo that I took last week.

Below is a better photo that I took many years ago.

 (To add insult to injury, last week my DSLR broke and I had to send it out for an expensive repair.  I put my telephoto on another smaller older DSLR that I own and in a few hours the telephoto broke!  In all fairness, this equipment is over 12 years old and while I am careful with it, it does see a lot of outdoor use.)

Re-Entry

Hubby and fishing pals returned two days early from the great Everglades swamp. They caught some fish (didn't bring me any) saw alligators and dolphin and got to sleep under the stars as this was truly camping out. They had two canoes and one kayak all pulled by a small motor, so with navigation by maps and GPS they covered over 100 miles of the islands going from fresh water to salt water. I think they had fun, although this would not be my cup of swamp water even if warmed before a cozy fire. They came back two days early because the weather was nippier than usual...yes, even in Southern Florida.

Fortunately, I had food for dinner and we ate a new recipe of marinated herbed chicken wings that I was trying.  This dinner was all prepared after I got my kitchen back from their unpacking!!

These photos above were taken after hubby had done most of his cleaning!  I know.  The two men that went with hubby are people he has known for decades, one was a student working under him in Hawaii and the other was a high school chum.  The fourth fellow who is the oldest of all had a serious heart incident prior to the trip and thus could not go as he has gone before, but you see him standing below wishing them well.  These trips do get precious as time moves on.

Re-Classify History

I firmly believe that we must exercise the brain as well as the body as we age. Being more honest, I have always loved being a student and liked school and am always looking for learning experiences.

Hubby and I are watching a Great Courses series called "The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales." It is probably a bit of a slog to those who live in those countries, but it is a particularly enjoyable experience to tour from our armchair. A tour that is not just lovely drone photos of famous structures and areas, but also includes a bit of history, architecture and personal experience from the teacher.

A Castle I took a photo of  in Ireland back in 2014.

While watching one of these digital downloads it occurred to me how those of us across the pond romanticize the castles and ancient churches that are going to ruins.  We are lascivious about the people who lead these times, how they dressed, what they ate, who they loved and how they used their powers to change history while moving through these castles and churches.  We rarely think about those who died building them.

A famous church in Ireland, photo taken in 2014.

As I pause the video, I realize that these castles and churches only existed because there was an oligarchy that took advantage of the poorer uneducated classes of citizens demanding a tax from limited resources.  Those citizens (perhaps like our President's supporters) knew their place in society and gave fealty to the oligarchy, and in turn, might look down on other more poor sinning outsiders seeking safety, to reassure themselves they were not at the bottom of the totem pole of resources after all.

Democracies do not lend themselves to castles.  Democratic religions do not lend themselves to preachers with jets and palatial homes or entire protected cities with secret bank accounts and an ability to live by a different set of rules than their worshipers.

Don't get me wrong.   I do not denigrate the wealthy from enjoying their hard-earned wealth...I just want to make sure it was earned on their own backs,  otherwise, I believe in a more socialized distribution of the wealth that is acquired.