A Magical Encounter in Minneapolis - 10/1/10

On my return flight from Portland, Oregon, I had a stop in Minneapolis with a layover of about an hour or so.  I was sitting at the gate for my next flight and happened to notice a group of people sitting two rows up with their backs towards me.  There was a middle aged woman on the left, a man of similar age (who I took to be her husband) sitting in the middle and a younger man with long hair sitting on the right.  I'd first noticed the younger man because he had a t-shirt with a wolf on the back of it.  This group didn't appear to be family, but the intensity of their conversation with this young man was compelling me to watch.

The young man reached into a leather case and pulled out a large quartz crystal and placed it in the woman's hand.  She held it for a few moments.  I couldn't see if she gave it back or not.  Then the woman took her husband's hand and the younger man placed his hand on top of theirs.  They all bowed their heads as if in prayer.  I saw a small human like figure fall down into their clasped hands and then a large, egg shaped energy field appeared above them.  In a few moments they unclasped their hands and the husband and wife said thanks to the younger man and they all got up and got their things together to board another flight.  When the younger man got up, he put on a western leather jacket with beading on it and a black southwestern type hat and I realized I was looking at a medicine man (healer).  That was the first time I had ever actually seen healing energy and I felt really blessed to have been a witness to their encounter.

Everyday Things 9/30/10

I am inspired this morning by Bennett's "Blog About Nothing and Weighing Cats".  Its about finding meaning and beauty in everyday things and being grateful for what is right in front of you.  For a long time I've struggled with what to write about.  I felt as if I'd lost my voice and hadn't found a new place from which to speak.  I think I've been blind or perhaps just numb.  Grief can do that to you.

Yesterday I spent two and a half hours at the vet's office with my cat Max.  Over the past few months I've noticed that he's been drinking more and more water and of course urinating more and more.  I was afraid he was becoming diabetic and would require daily insulin shots.  I was not looking forward to that.  However, his glucose levels were normal.  All the tests are not back, but the vet suspects he either has a hyperthyroid and/or a kidney problem both of which are more easily treatable and fairly common in elderly cats.  Max will be 16 next Spring.  He'd lost close to two pounds since his last visit, but he is such a fur ball you couldn't tell that by looking at him.


I spent two weeks in the Pacific Northwest (or as Tom Linton calls it, the Pacific NorthWET) visiting with on-line friends.  For those of you who remember Cat's blogs, I was staying with her friend Skylark.  She and I drove up to Port Townsend, Washington and met Tom Linton and Jessica Macbeth both blog friends.  Tom treated us to a lovely lunch and gave us a tour of Port Townsend.  It was a wonderful day.

After leaving Port Townsend, Skylark and I drove on to Forks, Washington.  I just had to do it being so close and being such a fan of the Twilight series.  It didn't look at all like the movie showed it of course, but at least I can say I've been to Forks and bought the sweatshirt.

We drove back to Oregon down the coast and as luck would have it, it was rainy and foggy the whole way back.  In fact the only time it was sunny was when we were in Forks (those of you who have read the Twilight books will understand the irony of that).  That being said during my trip I saw some beautiful scenery, met some wonderful people and had a really great time. I saw Mt. Hood and Mt. Ranier, Seattle and even got to ride on a ferry.

I think I could easily live out there, but for now I'm on the East Coast.  Today it is pouring rain here and will be most of the day.  We do that here, no rain for months then we get it all in one day.

Hopefully I will get back here again soon. 

My Brother the Uni-Bomber - August 12, 2010

I had dinner at my youngest brother's home on Sunday.  We got to talking/joking around like we always do about things and somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, my brother started talking about wanting a slide rule and how hard they were to find these days.  He said he even looked on E-bay for one.  Somehow he feels the need to have the ability to do higher math functions even if the power is out and all the batteries in the calculators are dead.  Let me just add here that he is not a mathematician.  I said "never fear dear brother, for I have a slide rule and you can have it."  My husband was an electrical engineer and graduated from VPI in 1961, before the age of electronic calculators.  I have a foot long, engineer's slide rule in a leather carrying case with a belt loop!  It has his name stamped on the front in gold letters too.  I didn't have the heart to throw it away so I'm very glad I found someone who feels so passionately about it.  I told my brother that I found his fascination with slide rules slightly disturbing and just might have to blog about it.  I told him I'd title it my brother the Uni-Bomber.  And so it is.

One Thing Leads to Another - August 10, 2010

I had plans today to start (yet again) to clean out my husbands garage or at least to organize the things I want to have hauled away.  However, I went to get something out of the freezer and decided that the freezer was in chaos and needed to be organized immediately.  So out came all the frozen foods so that they could be put back in in such as way as to be easily found again.  I found a mystery meat wrapped in foil and unwrapped it to ascertain its animal of origin and discovered a ham bone I'd placed in there for soup making.  Hmm, soup!  So next I made a pot of split pea soup with ham. 

Since I'm in the kitchen anyway, I decide to go through the vegetable drawer (fondly called the rotter) to see what needed tending to.  Unfortunately the romaine had gone the way of all flesh and was tossed.  I trimmed and washed a bag of radishes, peeled and cut into spears 2 cucumbers, and sliced up a red onion.

I still wasn't done.  Yesterday I had poached two large chicken bosoms in broth and deboned them.  Today I used the broth and some of the chicken and some vegetables to make a small pot of chicken soup.  I also made up some chicken salad.

I haven't spent that much time cooking in awhile.  Never did get out to the garage, but tomorrow is another day to procrastinate.  I wonder if I have room in the freezer for all that soup.

Unused Space

Just in here dusting off the virtual cobwebs on my blog.

I Don't Mind the Age, Its the Upkeep that is the Problem

I'm not sure what to title this....."Back from the Dead", "Age Related", or "Its not the age, its the upkeep".  I've been missing here for quite awhile now.  I just stare blankly at my page and nothing screams "write me down", so I don't.

The past month has been a whirlwind of activity.  Most of it on doctors visits.  Once you've had the big "C" you're destined for lots of periodic follow ups.  I've seen the oncologist, the radiologist, my primary care physician, a gastroenterologist, had a CT scan, had a colonoscopy, visited the dentist, got a crown that took three tries to get the permanent one right (that temporary was a trooper though).  And last but not least on the 30th I got my eyes examined, got new glasses and got a referral to a retinologist. According to the Optometrist, I have the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes and I have a floater in my right eye that is directly in my line of vision (I knew that).  The concern with the floater is that most of them are connected to the retina with a tiny string, mine is connected with a "rope".  Therefore, we need a specialist to look at it too.  I have declared July to be a no doctor zone.  If you find me unconscious on the floor, please just leave me there until August 1st.  The results of all that is that I'm basically doing fine.  No sign of recurrent disease.  Just a bunch of age related junk.

Also in June, my granddaughter Megan graduated from High School and my daughter threw her a big outdoor picnic/party.  The party was nice even though it did turn out to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far. Special thanks go out to my daughter's friends Sharon and Frank for all the help they provided for the party.  Frank cooked and Sharon helped with the decorating and set up and probably lots of other things I don't know about.  Friends are a true blessing.

My Mom decided she needed a break, so she invited herself down to spend the 4th of July weekend with me.  Something tells me I'll need a break after that.

We're have beautiful weather here in Maryland at the moment; sunny, not too hot and no humidity.  You've got to love that, because it won't last.  We'll be back to hazy, hot and humid by next week.

This We Have Now - May 13, 2010

Again Rumi puts into words that which I can not.

This We Have Now

This we have now
is not imagination.

This is not
grief or joy.

Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.

Those come and go.
This is the presence that doesn't.

Remembering Cat - 4/10/10

"Cat" departed this life three years ago, April 10, 2007.  I still miss her presence in the blogosphere.

Winter in the Mid-Atlantic - 2/18/10

This is what happens when you have 2 blizzards within a week of each other.  You end up with piles of snow that will probably still be with us in April.  They were running out of places to pile the snow.  Luckily my car was in the garage.  I never lost power so was pretty comfortable throughout.  I was alone during the first blizzard but my granddaughter was here for 8 days after the second one.  Schools were closed for over a week.  Surprisingly enough, I'm not concerned about global warming at this point in time.