The Holiday Season is Here

I just had a flash. It's it interesting we have our best holidays as daylight is declining. I wonder if this is because the ancient people thought they needed to get their partying done before the world ended.

I realized this year Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And for the first time in a long time, I cooked our Thanksgiving Dinner. And we served it to some of my favorite relatives: Mom, 2 of her sisters, my sister and her husband. Then we celebrated 2 of the many birthdays my family has in November & December.

Earlier in my blog, I mentioned that I had a business I was contemplating. Well, I'm into it. I'm doing Virtual Assisting. I find my jobs on the internet and the client emails the work to me and I email it back. I'm finishing up a "leaflet" (brochure) for a client in Australia. And I'm in the middle of editing a book for a client in Singapore.

I'm doing what I love and making money at it. I'm working with elance.com a great organization with a terrific website. Here's my profile http://www.elance.com/s/yourofficetoolbox/

I can't recall if I'm mentioned the fact that we've been remodeling our kitchen. Well, it's finished except for some painting. And it's terrific. Here's are two photos of before and after. I have room for everything. Thanks to my sister and her organizational abilities! Love you, Rebecca.

                                                                              
Before (we had already started moving stuff out.)                               

After (this is the left side of the other photo)

Amazing change, huh! I'm loving it. I could stay in there all day. 

Check out more on my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1364355181

The Wind is Blowing and the Leaves are Falling

The weather for the last few days has been wild. I am a weather lover.

Unless it's HOT or COLD, I love the weather. One of my favorite things to do is stand facing the wind with my arms up open wide! Exhilarating! Try it! It's like you're embracing life fully.

So many people are afraid of storms, but I love them. I love the flashes of lightning and the rain pounding and the wind blowing and the snow flying! I've had some very interesting trips during monstrous snow storms. The wildest one was a trip back from Watertown, NY after Thanksgiving. Thanks to turkey sandwiches and half a cranberry/peach pie (without sugar, another story) my sister-in-law, at the time, packed for us, we didn't starve. Thank you, Gloria.

When we left Watertown, we headed west toward Lake Erie. Neil had never seen any of the great lakes, so in Pennsylvania, when we got close, I took a side road and we drove straight to the lake. Once there, we got out and stood at the edge of a cliff looking out at the lake. There were great trees, their roots were out of the dirt. There was ice all over them and water slapping against the cliff. And the wind was blowing. It was very, very cold!

Before we got into Ohio, we were in a blizzard, the blizzard of 1977, some may remember. We were in my Opal GT. Remember those, very low to the ground, with the gas tank opening on top of the back end. No trunk. As I drove, we were in blinding snow and I could not even see the front of our car. I was driving in snow ruts with the snow rubbing the underside of the car. I was driving about 30 miles per hour and just praying nothing was stopped in front of me. Fortunately, not.

At one time, we sat on a clean highway for three hours. Neil had to go into a gas station for a cup of hot water to pour over the gas cap to get it open. We ate all the food and that sugarless cranberry/peach pie was delicious. (The recipe called for sugar in the ingredients but didn't tell the cook when to add it. So it wasn't added.)

I'll tell about the other wild snow storm trip some other time. Love that weather! I know sometimes property is damaged and people are killed. But if I survive, I love the energy.

Remember the Opal GTs.  My Opal had been painted a great kelly green. See, tiny!

(thanks to www.cougars-den.com/ for the photo)

Moving On

I'm not going to dwell on the loss of my friend, Barbara, but I do want to share some good stuff.

The Memorial Service last week was very nice. She would have really enjoyed it.

She painted and knitted and her daughter and others had brought several things she had knitted and painted. The minister who conducted the service knew her and they had had a good relationship. At one time, he pretended he had dropped something and bent over to pick it up saying, "Excuse me." When he stood back up, he had on a neon orange toboggan and scarf. The toboggan had a huge orange tassel hanging from the top of it. Barbara had made them for him for Christmas last year. The attendees loved it.

Her friend Bertha and I were asked to speak about her and the remarks were appreciated. There were several amusing remarks about her politics and political emails. Some had deleted all with out reading, some had deleted some without reading, and some had read them all.

It was so obvious that everyone loved her. I got to meet several people she had spoken of frequently, especially her aunt B and her cousin J.

I hope that my memorial service is as entertaining and leaves people feeling as good about life.

B, I love you and miss you.

You don't know what you've got till it's gone!

About 10 days ago, I had a chance to go to Atlanta to visit my sister at a hotel where she was in a training seminar. I didn't think I should go. I have a kitchen I'm trying to get together after remodeling. I've got painting to do, dishes to recabinet, and a pantry to arrange.
Finally I realized, I could go by and see Barbara a friend of 26 years and Bertha who has recently had some health problems that aren't out of the picture yet. I could also see Crystal Moon, but that seemed like too many things to try to get done in a 24 hour period.
Getting to see my friends was the turning point. I drove down on Tuesday morning, had lunch with Barbara as we drove over to Bertha's for a good visit. When we got back to Barbara's, I had to head into Buckhead. My sister and I had a great time visiting, eating at the Cheesecake Factory,  and reminiscing about our years living in Atlanta together. And a luxurious hotel didn't hurt.
The next morning after Rebecca headed down to class, I got myself together and got onto the highway. As I drove the opposite direction of the morning incoming traffic, I decided I had to go back by and visit a little more with Barbara. So I did. We sat and talked about 2 hours and caught up on the latest news. And I headed back to Middle Tennessee.
Once I was on the road and out of Atlanta, I got a phone call from Crystal Moon. She was also on 75 headed North about 25 miles ahead of me. So we stopped and had lunch together. What a treat! Visiting with Barbara for that 2 hours allowed up to have a special meet-up.
This was probably the best 36 hour trip I have ever had. Saw my sister and all my friends who live in Atlanta.
Yesterday, I was truly grateful for that visit with Barbara. I got an email that said she was gone. She had died early in the morning in her bedroom while she slept. I will sorely miss her. She was my yardstick, my confident, and my lifter-upper. Anytime we spoke on the phone when one of us was down, we'd both be laughing before we hung up. Barbara, I already miss you mightily and will always love you.

Can you hear me now?

I thought about starting this when I changed from employee to unemployee. Is that a word? Anyway, so many things have happened since then, I couldn't catch you up if I tried.

But here are the highlight: John has had 3 eye surgeries this summer; I sold my motorhome; We're remoding our kitchen; and I just spent 2 days in Atlanta.

You can see pictures of our kitchen and my front porch on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/profile.php?id=1364355181&v=photos. I updated those today. There are a couple from Atlanta.

I am also working on starting a business that will hopefully use all my talents or most of them, and will give me the variety my heart craves. I'll update everyone as I go along. This week I've been working on policies and procedures. I'm not sure about procedures, but I'm getting the policies down.

Feel free to comment on my comments or share with your friends.

Care for yourself, too!