Monday Musing: Good Advice from a Soldier

Since today is Memorial Day, I wanted to share something that I've had for the last 10 years on my bulletin board. Sometimes it gets so covered up by other things that I don't see it for weeks -- maybe months -- at a time. But eventually it always surfaces. These are General Colin Powell's 13 rules to live by. It's reported that he kept these written on a small white card. These rules seem to have worked remarkably well for General Powell. You might want to make up your own card and carry it or post it where you can see it every once in a while.

1. It ain't as bad as you think it is. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that, when your
position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else
make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or nay sayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Thank you to all the soldiers who have fought and continue to fight for the American way.

Monday Musing: To Facebook or Not - What a Question

Over the weekend I read an article out of Newsweek about the "high price of Facebook"; namely, that you pay for it through your loss of privacy. It reported that last year when Facebook changed their rules (yet again), the company made it so that your city and profile picture and the names of all your friends were shared with anybody and everybody on the Internet. But (big but), you had the option to change it all back and make it all private again. Now, Newsweek reports that "Facebook is going even further by insisting that unless you agree to make things like your hometown, interests, and friends' names public, then you can't list them at all."

Facebook is fun and I'm glad I signed up for it last year. Although truth to tell, my sister had to talk me in to it. I stay in touch with friends and family and get to see pictures of everybody's kids, etc. etc. But on the other hand, Facebook is the biggest time waster in the universe......much worse than TV. All those little games you get addicted to and the constant checking to see who's doing what and where and with whom.........it's nuts. And not only does it waste time, but I also think it kills any spark of creativity you might have flickering. The whole Facebook exercise is mind-deadening.....you don't have to really think or do much of anything at all to be wrapped up in its very addictive world.

Newsweek reports that many techie-types are jumping the Facebook ship. Of course, there are more than 400 million Facebookers, so I guess it would have to be a LOT of them to make a blip on the FB screen. It does make one stop and think though. I don't know what Facebook knows about me or what it does with the information. I'm not savvy enough to be able to stop them even if I knew. But for right now, I think I'll hang around. Putting myself on a Facebook diet though probably wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Monday Musing: And the Winner Is....

Okay, I have to admit:  I have a soft spot for beauty pageants.  I know that's not P.C. these days.  So, sue me.  Yes, in my (much) younger years, I was a beauty pageant contestant, so I kind of understand the landscape.  And, I had family members who were beauty queens.  I think maybe it's a Southern thing.

On Sunday night for the first time in a very long time, I watched a pageant:  the Miss USA pageant.  To say that these things have changed since my day would be a vast understatement.  But I guess they are still good entertainment.  (Although I can remember watching a Miss America pageant one year when I was in the 9th or 10th grade and writing a short story for English while I watched......one eye on the swimsuits and one on how many more pages I had to come up with.  As I recall, I got an A for that paper.  So, I guess I wasn't as "entertained" as I thought....just had my imagination fired up!)

I was happy to see the South well-represented..... as usual.  Hey, say what you will.  Down here, we know how to turn out a queen.  Miss Alabama came up with the Miss Photogenic trophy.  My pick for the win didn't even make the top 10:  Miss Mississippi.  What a knockout she was!  And Miss Maine..... wow... all 6 feet of her.  The judges I wasn't so enthralled with.  What in the world could Paula Deen have to offer as a judge?  Except, of course, she's Southern.........LOL.  Mrs. Donald Trump?  Johnny Weir?  Come on, y'all.  If you're going to have a pageant, have a PAGEANT....get some folks who know what to look for.  Not Donald Trump's ex-employees.

It strikes me that the Miss USA pageant has become a venue for "professionals"....girls who are looking for a job.  At least, the Miss America and America's Junior Miss pageants have been holding on to their scholarship base as a reason for being.  Lots of the girls last night looked a trifle "shopworn" to me -- kind of that "rode hard, put up wet" look.  Miss Colorado was the most fresh-faced.  Every other contestant had the same sprayed-on tan, the same Barbie-doll hair-do and the same set of implants.  Ladies, could you not be just a little bit more individual?  Although,there were a couple of fairly good answers to the questions presented to the Top 5 contestants.  (Shout out to Miss Oklahoma and Miss Virginia!)

I know..........times have changed and I need to change with them. (I'm not even going to bring up the Victoria Secret-type photo shoots.) Guess that's why I haven't watched many pageants in the last 20 years.  I knew they'd be a disappointment.  Boy, I'd hate to think I had to be in one now.

Monday Musing: A Long Mother's Day Weekend

Talk about peaks and valleys.  It's Sunday afternoon and I'm pretty much exhausted.

Friday delivered the kick in the head with Dosi's passing.  And even though she wasn't a human child, I "mothered" her for almost 14 years nonetheless.  So, in a sense, I lost a child of the fur variety.  I don't think that's really sunk in yet.

On Saturday, my wonderful neice graduated from college.  It was a full day of celebration.  She looked lovely and has a grand future ahead of her.  I couldn't help but think about what my future might hold in the coming years.  New beginnings and all that...........  Her life is changing and I think so is mine.  She has no idea what she's going to be doing (like all new grads) and basically, neither do I.  I just have this feeling.

Today, we celebrated Mother's Day with the MOTH's family which was nice as we just don't do it that often.  On the drive home, I catnapped.  The rollercoaster of emotions has caught up with me and I feel a hundred years old.

I think I feel a reassessment coming on..............

Monday Musing: The Country Life

Sometimes I get really caught up in bitching, moaning and complaining about where I live.  It's "out in the country", but not so far that it takes half a day to get to anywhere else.  It just seems that way quite often.  It's inconvenient if you want to just "dash out", "run by" or "run down to ___".  Planning is much more meaningful -- and necessary -- when you live "out in the country". And there's WAY too much yard work.  I could keep a yard crew busy with no problems at all.  Alas, I AM the yard crew (with help from the MOTH).

Yesterday morning though was one of those times that I remember why "city people" yearn to be where I am.  I was kind of glad I was here, too.  I took a nice walk.  The sky was blue, blue, blue.  The breeze was fresh, fresh, fresh.  And I was smilin', smilin', smilin'.  I was on my way back towards the house when about 100 feet in front of me, a momma 'possum walked across the road.  She was waddling for all she was worth and for a second I couldn't figure out why or why she looked so odd.  Then it dawned on me:  she had a back full of babies!  She walked parallel to the road along a hedgerow, so I crossed the road and walked with her about 30 feet out.  She didn't seem too concerned that I was there.  I got a really good look at all these 5 pairs of beady black eyes looking at me from her back.  It was just way cool, I have to say.  After a few minutes, she disappeared into the underbrush headed out across a pasture.  That's the first time in my life I've seen a live 'possum (not even counting the baby thing) that wasn't in a zoo.  Usually, I see the aftermath of run-ins with cars on the road.

So, today I'm celebrating being "out in the country" where you never know what fun surprise might be right around the corner.  From now on, I think I better remember to take a camera.

Monday Musing: It's All Good

That's what I keep telling myself anyway.  Today, I'm tired and the mullygrubbies have me in their grip.  You know how it is: a day that you just can't get enthused about nuthin'.  So, what to do?  Nothing came to mind that sounded like it would pull me out of the doldrums, so I just cleaned house.  (I was sort of hoping that those pesky mullygrubbies would be whisked down the toilet bowl during the cleaning process, but they stubbornly refused to go.)

When the world seems to take on a rather gray tint, I just put my head down and watch my feet take one step and then another.  Right now I believe they are attempting to pilot me to the ironing board.  Sigh.

In the words of that brilliant Southern lady, Miss Scarlett, "Tomorrow IS another day."

See y'all then............

Monday Musing: Busy as a Bee

The past ten days or so has been chock full of "doings".  I had a birthday.  It was Easter.  But most importantly, it's just SPRING.  There is so much that has to be done at this time of year.  At least there is if you live where yards and growing things are important.  The grass starts growing about an inch a day.  The lawn mower needs to be tuned up.  All the pots that didn't get emptied in the fall require that now.  Bedding plants start calling your name at Lowe's and Home Depot and other nurseries.  And the pollen starts clogging up the air -- not to mention your lungs -- and making everything golden yellow.  It's at this time of the year that I just start turning circles in the floor, not knowing where in the hell to start first.  So, here I am; this is where I started:

Another Lowe's visit.

Aren't I just the picture of garden chic?  I swear, just once I'd like to look like those ladies who do yard work looking like they stepped out of the latest Better Homes & Gardens instead of something the dogs dragged in.  Never mind.  I got a couple of Knock Out roses which I"m hoping will bloom like crazy all summer...........as advertised!

Monday Musing - Facebook Games

Hello, my name is Donna and I'm a Facebook games addict.  I really don't know how it happened.  A friend invited me to play Farm Town and that was kind of neat.  A few weeks later I got an invitation (from the same "friend" whose neck I would cheerfully wring right about now) to participate in FarmVille.  Okay, why not?  The merry-go-round got faster.  YoVille.  PetVille.  Country Life.  Zoo Something.  All of those invitations I managed to turn down.

Then, I discovered My Town on my own.  I was simply lost.

What makes reasonably intelligent people sit down in front of a computer and spend HOURS farming virtual fields and building little cities?  It's crazy.  I've been late for appointments because I just had to do "one more thing" on my farm.  Is it the control factor?  Is it some latent autistic bent.....mindlessly clicking that mouse?  I have no idea.  Surely my life can't be THAT boring, can it?

What I do know is this:  I have a REAL house with a REAL yard that REAL people live in with our REAL animals.  And all of that requires REAL work to maintain.  True, it's a lot more messy to manage than anything on Facebook.  Real things tend to be sort of messy in my experience.  But I think I should remember that it's a lot more satisfying to go smell a REAL flower growing in REAL dirt, even if I can't control how well it grows or how much it blooms.

There's a place and time for games, just not every day.  And maybe not even on a computer.  Anyone for a game of Hearts?

Monday Musing - New Year's First Report

So, it's almost the end of March.  How am I doing on those hopeful New Year's Resolutions from January?  I thought I'd better check in with myself to see.

More Adventures:  hmmmm.....I guess walking the dogs through the pastures a few times doesn't qualify.  I hate to be whiney about the whole thing, but damn.....the weather just hasn't been conducive to many outings.  That's going to get better though soon.  So, I better have a couple of places in mind.  And no; I don't have my "See Alabama First" list on the refrigerator yet.  Oh dear....guess that should be the first thing I get done.

No More Recipes:  can I just say that I've been BETTER?  It's hard to resist those yummy looking magazine layouts.  But I have cut back.  Really, truly.

Becoming More Techie:  boy, I'm thinking I'm about to get a failing grade on Resolutions 101.  I have gotten the computer and it works (and the printer, too, finally).  I am working on figuring out how to get the pictures from the camera (that I really don't know how to use yet) to the computer.  I've put Windows 7 on the back burner for now--way too much information to take in all at once.  Haven't done one damn thing with this blog.  BAD BLOGGER.

National Park Visit:  I've identified the one I want to go to first.  That would be Hot Springs, Arkansas.  It's fairly close and I've never been to Arkansas before.  Now to research the whens, hows, wheres.

Support for Responsible Dog Owners:  AH HA.........now I see where the bulk of the time has gone.  These first 3 months have been filled with writing letters, runs to the state capitol, the day-to-day details of being an officer of the state federation, web research.  More balance, Donna.  More balance.

Okay.  So maybe the first quarter report ain't so hot.  Let's see what April, May & June hold.

Monday Musing - Remodeling Blues

I stayed angry pretty much the whole entire week last week.  I'm trying to get over it, but it's taking a whole lot of effort......and I'm not there yet.

I contracted with a man -- supposedly a professional landscape architect, but now I'm wondering -- to lay a flagstone patio for me.  In my mind, it started out as a smallish job, but sort of grew.  I agreed to that based on the estimate he gave me.  He started on Monday.  The weather has been uncooperative which hasn't helped.  It still isn't finished and the cost is now double his estimate.  Plus, my yard has sand piles where we usually walk and ruts where some imbecile tried to drive their truck out of the "big" backyard, forgetting that it has rained off and on for days and the ground is SOFT.  To their credit, they did attempt to fill the ruts with MORE SAND.

As you might imagine, I am fed up with the whole process and cannot wait for them to finish and leave.  All week I've wondered one thing:  do I just attract incompetent help or are there really no workman left who can be trusted to do a good job and stand by their word?

There were a couple of bright spots to the week.  I managed to have lunch with two friends on two different days..... one I hadn't seen in quite a while.  I am hoping for a much more peaceful week; in my heart, anyway.

Monday Musing - Scottie Kisses

Last week was pretty busy, so no notes from me.  I'm not exactly sure WHY it was so busy except for two things:  one was a lot of emailing/phoning/conversation back and forth for the Alabama Canine Coalition and the other was Jake.

At the beginning of the week, I was notified by a friend that there was a Scottie boy still in our county shelter for the second week.  I didn't know who the Alabama Scottie rescue person was, but I quickly found out. After a flurry of phone calls from her to me to the shelter to my vet's office, I pulled the poor boy on Thursday and took him for vetting.  And what a wonderful little guy he is!  He, along with 2 or 3 other dog sidekicks, were abandoned by their family -- another foreclosure casualty.  I'm not pointing fingers, because I don't know the particulars.  All I know is that I would be very hardpressed to just walk off and leave my dogs in the backyard.  Especially if they were all like Jake.  We found out he's full of worms (but heartworm negative, thank goodness) but actually in pretty good shape.  We also found out that he loves EVERYBODY.....kids, other dogs, people of all shapes and sizes.  Thankfully, he already has a home eagerly waiting for his release from the vet's.

I like busy weeks like this past one.  Especially when they are accompanied by lots of very sweet Scottie boy kisses.

Monday Musing - Just a Small Tremor

Earthquakes seem to be going on everywhere.  First, Haiti; now Chile.  And now.....me.  Obviously, my measly little shake-rattle-and-rolls aren't a drop in the bucket to the utter devastation and misery in those countries.  I can't even imagine....words fail to do those tragedies justice.

But yes, the earth under my feet is perceptibly shifting.  Last week was a busy one.  This week looks to be similar in activity level.  But the focus is changing.  Things that were once so terribly important seem to be losing their immediacy in my life.

Over the weekend, I attended a function with a group that I have been a part of for quite some time.  I always felt comfortable there up until now.  A part of me is saddened by the alteration in ambiance; a part of me feels a lifting of a burden that I really didn't know I was carrying.

Spring in the world is around the corner.....evidence of new beginnings will be appearing all around.  Spring in my heart is pushing toward the sun.   

Monday Musing - The Disappearance of Days

What happened to last week?  Somehow, I lost it.  It's always a mystery to me that chunks of days can somehow just evaporate, or at least seem to.

Thursday before last, all was well.  There were some political dog issues on the horizon and some work to do with the Alabama Canine Coalition with those.  By Friday afternoon, that had blown up in to a major "event".  Phone calls flying back and forth all day Friday.....Monday.... Tuesday I was on my way to the state capitol for a meeting.  Wednesday I was back.  Friday I left for a grooming seminar in Nashville for the weekend.  Home yesterday afternoon.

It sounds so simple when you just type it out.  But nothing is ever simple, is it?  All the phone calls, writing, emailing, research paperwork that went into the ACC meeting isn't reflected in that little laundry list.  Having to do the housewifely chores on Thursday before leaving on Friday, plus getting together all the grooming paraphanalia and begin loading up the car doesn't show up.  Nor does making sure the dog that went to the seminar with me was bathed and clean and fluffed on Friday morning before leaving Friday afternoon.

I'm hoping for a much slower paced week this week...... no surprises.  I still have to get my technology running up to speed, for heaven's sakes.  Sometimes boring is good.

Monday Musing - Electronic Upgrade

Well, I finally did it.  After agonizing for weeks over what kind of computer to get for myself, I just bought one.  It's an HP Pavilion laptop.....don't ask me what's on it or any of that stuff.  Mr. Head Geek Man at Best Buy helped me when I took the configuration I had made up for one on the HP website to his store. 

Bless him.......he was so very patient and kind.  He got me all "fixed" and scheduled Mr. Second-in-Command Geek Man to come put it all together for me the end of this week.  I even sprung for a new wireless printer. 

One of my new year's resolutions -- the one to become more electronically literate -- is on the road to reality.  I just hope Windows 7 is simple to learn and navigate.  And that all the 1001 things that can go wrong with new equipment of any kind -- but especially computers -- skips by me.  Otherwise, I will certainly be bald from pulling my hair out in frustration.

My bank account is in cardiac arrest..........

Monday Musing - Mad Men Mania

Yes, it's true.  I'm just a born-again Mad Men Minx.  I didn't discover this TV show till just a couple of months ago.  Why didn't somebody tell me sooner that it's SO GOOD???  Don Draper:  bad boy you can't help but be crazy for.

I sure hope they show the 3rd season before the new season starts this summer.  It's not out on DVD yet and I'm dying to know what happened.  They have some little recaps at the AMC-TV site, but I want it ALL.  Every once in a while I fall in love with a TV show.  This is it for now.  I speculate it's not only because it's fabulously written and acted that I am enamored.  Having been a teenager in the Fab 60s, I can remember the decade in spades.  All the adults always having or going to cocktail parties, smoking, the fashions, etc. etc.  The weekly hairdresser appointment.  It's like revisiting a little teensy part of my past.  I was too young to indulge in most of the goings-on, but I was a VERY OBSERVANT student.  Teehee........

Monday Musing: The Organizing Month

Organizing: I'm such a sucker for "getting organized".  And truth to tell, I hardly ever am no matter how many Rubbermaid bins I buy.  Junk sticks to me like stink on a skunk.  But I keep trying.  It doesn't help that EVERY magazine in the month of January ballyhoos organization.

But I've run across an organizer -- AND full-time RV'er -- with attitude to spare.  Visit her over at http://www.ramonacreel.com/ and dive in to spunkier straightening up.  If you get tired of contemplating how to clean out your junk drawer, you can read about her RV travels.

This week I have an office area to tackle.....again.  I'm always tackling it and it's always throwing me for a loss.

The 2010 Bucket List

Once more into the fray of a brand new year.  I spent the first weekend of this year considering the question of "resolutions" among other things.  I reviewed the ones I set out for 2009.  It was the same background music of my life that continues to play all the time, regardless of what year it is or what else is going on:  more training time with the dogs, more exercising, less eating, more being "happy" and less being "angry", getting organized, cutting the clutter, etc. etc.  All things that serve to make me feel more guilty and less productive when I don't hit them with all cylinders firing.  So this year I'm trying something a little different -- a bucket list of things I want to do whether they are "good" for me or not.

First up is MORE ADVENTURES.  Alone, with others, with the dogs.  Just getting out and about, seeing and experiencing, getting involved in the living part of life rather than the thinking part.  I'm making a list to put on the refrigerator of "See Alabama First" things to do over the next months.  If I run out of those things, I might sneak in some other Southeastern destinations and experiences.

Second would be NO MORE RECIPES CUT OUT OF MAGAZINES.  I swear, I have enough cookbooks for a whole neighborhood and hundreds more clipped out ones in 3 ring binders.  From the looks of things, you'd think all I did was cook.  I don't even like to cook.  So, I'm limiting myself to TWO new recipes per month.  Simple Southern recipes.  If I want exotic and/or foreign, I'll go out.

Third, and related to #2, is not stockpiling food.  It's shameful what gets thrown out in this house.  There's only two of us here, not Cox's army.  (No, I don't know who Cox was.....it's just something I've heard all my life from my grandmother, mother and any other female relative when discussing amounts of food.  As in "we've got enough here to feed Cox's army!")  While cooking for Christmas, I threw away several cans of food from the back of the pantry  that were older than a kindergartener.  Ridiculous!

Fourth is BECOMING MORE TECHNOLOGICALLY EDUCATED.  For example, stuff to spiff up this blog.  I want to be able to know stuff that 10-year olds take for granted:  how to burn a CD, download music.  Just things that I've never taken the time to do because basically, I didn't have to.  I don't want to be a clueless little old bluehaired lady.  Not yet anyway.

Fifth, is to VISIT ONE NATIONAL PARK I'VE NEVER BEEN TO.  After watching Ken Burns' PBS special on our national park system a few months ago, I can see that I've been missing out on some spectacular places.  Why go to Europe when what we've got right here is so amazing?

Sixth, CONTINUE TO HELP RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS AND BREEDERS IN MY STATE AND NATIONALLY PROTECT THEIR RIGHTS TO OWN AND BREED DOGS.  However I can and as often as I can.

And then pretty much all that other stuff held over from last year.  2010 could prove to be a very full, but lighter, year.  After all, I've still got to lose 15 pounds!

Monday Musing

Christmas is over.  I'm sure there are people out there very sad about this.  I am, however, not one of them.  The relief that I felt on the 26th getting that Christmas tree down was huge.  I'm not a total Grinch:  I do still have the wreath on the front door.  But it will soon be coming down, too.

That being said, I had a wonderful Christmas.  The company was sterling; the food was wonderful (and fattening); the presents surprising and satisfying.  My sweet Significant Husband gifted me with a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, which I ordered yesterday.  It will actually be a Valentine's present, too, since it isn't shipping till February 1st.  But hey -- something to look forward to in the dreary grip of winter.

I am ready to move on to a new year.  Well, I'm ALMOST ready to move on.  I need to get my office and craft areas cleared out and rearranged to meet 2010 with conviction.  Betcha can't guess what I'm going to be doing for the next several days.

Monday Musing

Christmas traditions really can be fun even when you've done them for years on end and you may think they are getting rather stale.

Yesterday, the women of the family(along with one lone boyfriend) trekked downtown to the grand old Alabama Theater to watch "White Christmas" on the big screen.  We can't remember precisely, but it seems that this must be at least the 7th year for this.  And every year -- even though we can quote whole scenes worth of the script -- it's just as much fun.  The mighty Wurlitzer organ is played superbly for a half hour before show time.  Then comes the audience Christmas carol singalong.  The organ disappears under the stage, the lights go down, the velvet curtains open and the event begins; always with a classic Disney cartoon.  This year it was Donald Duck's turn at bat.

Throughout the movie, you can hear people (usually me, but others, too) softly singing under their breath.  The laughter comes easily.  We love Bing.  We love Rosemary.  We are in awe of Vera Ellen and her teeny, tiny waist.  But oh, how we ADORE Danny Kaye.  I really think it's the only reason my mother continues to attend.  Well, that and she loves all the 50s ambiance.  She says it reminds her of "how much fun we used to have......y'all just don't know how to have a good time now."  The Sisters's song is probably my and my sister's highlight.  Both the versions. 

And at the last when Bing, Danny, Rosemary & Vera Ellen stand before the glorious Christmas tree and encourage their film audience to join them in the last chorus of "White Christmas", the Alabama crowd is THERE and we oblige.  The theater rings as we sing out and enjoy the White Christmas experience for another year.

Monday Musing

That soft little breeze whispering by your cheek just now was a sigh.  From me.  I think I'm finally to the point in the holiday season where I can begin to unknot the kinks in my shoulders.  I think.

There are two more presents to wrap.  There are 3 bottles of wine to pick up sometime this week.  I have two gifts left to mail today. The Little Black Dogs get taken to the groomers tomorrow for Christmas Cleanup (just hope that lasts a little longer than 36 hours).  I know which food items I will be attempting this year for our Christmas get-together.....all easy recipes, thank God.  So right about now, I'm feeling pretty good.  Tomorrow could be another story, but I'm not looking ahead.

Well, actually that's a lie.  While doing all those housewifely chores this morning, I was contemplating what I'd like for 2010 to be like.  Maybe by New Year's Eve, I'll have some kind of list.  Not that much ever gets checked off each year, but it makes me feel positive about turning over that new leaf.

Right now though, I think I'll just enjoy some holiday breathing space.