Rain, Rain ... Stay!

How many times, as a child, did you sing "Rain, rain, go away?"

Rain, rain, go away,
come again another day.
Little Johnny 
wants to play. 

Because I remember and can sing the tune so well, I think I must have sung it thousands of times. We replaced the name "Johnny" with my name, my brother's or sister's, and later, with my children's names. The song would come about when we endured a day or two more of rain and were feeling cooped up and wanted to be outside.

In retrospect, as Central Texas endures a debilitating drought, I would love to have the Mother Goose song be eliminated from pre-school and elementary school song lists, for Texas at least. While some areas of the country endure rainy weather for weeks and months at a time (May Gray and June Gloom in California), in the Austin area, we LOVE the rain. Sure, it was a downer on all those weekender events planned for Memorial Day weekend on the lake and in backyard pools, but alternatives to the rain exist.

As we attended an outdoor concert on Saturday night, attacked by a deluge of rain five minutes after we arrived, people adapted. The kids played in puddles and splashed around in the rain. The performers, just a couple out of about six, moved under the cabana and sang with just a guitar and a mike.

On Sunday, out on the lake, we hung out on the boat dock as the sprinkles came and went, and eventually moved the chips, bread and sandwich makings to the porch up the lawn. While we were on the lake, it rained for maybe ten minutes, but aren't boats and their passengers allowed to be wet?

Monday morning brought thunderstorms and rain, rain, rain until early afternoon. Perfect weather for sleeping in and taking care of indoor tasks, but it didn't keep my teenage daughter from participating in the wet skies and road and taking a run. With more rain in the forecast, we are rejoicing and willing to pull out our umbrellas.

I love watching the rain on the radar, as it approaches from the west, east, north or south. I take delight in the lightening and thunder, especially when it is dark outside. Rain is an ally, a partner, and a friend, that I do not want to go away,

Fireflies are here!

From the top, it looks like a one-eyed insect, larger than a lady bug but smaller than a grasshopper. The red, upper crown with the single "black eye" and searching antennae, along with the black body sprouting spindly legs is nothing special to look at, until the sun starts to set and the winged critter begins to fly among the trees and bushes of the front or back lawn. You see, this is a unique creature that has an extraordinary ability to illuminate the evening sky with dedicated "light organs" in its abdomen.

This paper clip-sized beetle is the delight of young and old as the start of summer approaches. I felt an ease and pleasure as I saw my first fireflies of the season last night. Its a special time of year for me, because I have so many fond memories of playing with them and catching them as a child. We would carry around a mayonnaise or mason jar, and place some grass and picked wildflowers in it, as lightening bugs enjoy feasting on pollen. When we saw the intermittent flashing of the abdomen, the brother, sister or friend, without the jar, would chase after it and capture it in his or her hands and throw it in the jar. The poor thing would have to flutter about the container with holes punched in the metal top without a friend, until one of us was able to catch another. What fun it was to watch them glow together.

The emotional impression of fireflies that I have is the knowledge that summer is beginning. With children, this means I can sleep in a little every morning, and have a long afternoon involved in a project without school activity interruptions. In central Texas, it means long summer evenings with light in the sky until 10 pm in late June. It means warm nights. I feel the ease of hanging out with friends on the back porch, playing darts, gatherings with family with young children, barbecues, boats and beaches. With summer, I have rest, friendship and fun. Welcome fireflies!

I'm an ADD Writer

Sitting, standing, walking, lying down. I can write in all of those positions, and I do, on a regular basis.

When imagining me writing, one should not visualize me hunkering down on the computer for hours and days at a time. It's 15-30 minutes MAX that I can stay sitting at a computer writing. Often, I stand over the computer taking notes to a client's video, while I stretch out.  This is after taking a one and a half to three mile walk up and down strenuous hills, while either reading or listening to client presentations, and then typing information about it into an email to myself. the writing provides a perfect distraction to the strain on my legs and the beating down of the sun on my head.

Lying on my bed is not a regular position for me, as when I move to the bedroom to work, my eyes picture the lateral position, my sense of touch recognizes feel of the soft pillows, and my nose detects the leftover effects of the aromatic "bedtime" spray. It's a lot quieter in there, perfect for repose. I don't last very long before my eyelids hover over my eyeballs, my head begins to nod, and I lose track of what I'm reading and writing. Oh, and I forgot about the driving position. After researching a project all day, I may record insight via the speaker module of the phone, again, in an email to myself to be copied and pasted into the completed document.

If I'm not writing, I'm attending to the list that grows by the hour of chores, exercises and tasks to complete each day, week and month. It runs from the loading of the laundry in the washer and dryer to cooking the meals in daily chores to self-pedicures and physical fitness for personal revival. By the time I've taken my daughter to school and picked her up in the afternoon, I've consumed two hours of my day, which leaves less time for hammering out words on the computer. And speaking of consuming, food is another huge distraction. A multi-level indulgence of nuts, fruit, yogurt, veggies, salty snacks and candy can make up one "meal" over a four hour period.  That's a movement for each item - stand up, go to refrigerator, pantry or desk to retrieve it, wash it, unwrap it or pop it into my mouth.

So why am I a writer, you may ask, thinking that writer types spit out thousands of words per day on a keyboard, conjuring, explaining and describing all types of material for students and clients, from resorts in Australia to a dentist office in California. In addition to the constant movement my body requires, my brain also experiences the traveling of thoughts in and out, up and down. There are cards to write, art materials to collect and assemble, in addition to the myriad of clients for which to write. It all needs to spill out somewhere, and why not here and there?

I am an ADD writer, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Setting

Tonight I appreciated the sun at the end of the day, as it appears to fall in the sky, off the edge of the earth. Travelling west, towards the grand Texas Hill Country, I encountered the most wonderful panorama surrounding the ball of fire as it slowly made its way through the feathery, waterflow-shaped clouds. The road took me down, through the valley of Bee Creek, and then winded up to a plateau at the top of the canyon, viewing the grand sky and a much larger vista, allowing miles and miles of scenic views.

My first observation of the gorgeous sight was at the top of the first descent, where little evidence of population exists. The golden orb was slightly masked by sheets of clouds at the bottom, but they were transparent enough to see a faint outline of the bottom of the circle. While the tiny water droplets floating in the sky were tinted by the apparent color of the sun and its refraction off the earth, they took on a more rosy glow as the landscape extended around it. The sun was a lighter, brighter, whiter circle in the sky that was pasted onto the background with the tissue-paper like clouds upon it. The very blue sky of springtime contrasted and merged with the pomegranate red, orange sweet potato and yellow mango of the color wheel, with wisps of white and other white daring to cross the spectrum. The distraction was great, as I wanted to keep my eyes on the perceived movement of the sun, as opposed to the swiftly moving cars around me.

The power and heat of the sun was upon me as I squinted behind my sunglasses, and failed at adjusting the visor to cover its brightness. I gave in to the beauty of the sky, flipped up the shade, and considered pulling over to take a photo, but knew that it was futile to capture the beauty, and the feeling of peace and awe that the picture had upon me at that instant. I wanted to stay in that inspiring moment for as long as possible, but alas, I descended into the valley of the river and as the earth turned, the panorama was obstructed by yet another bump in the landscape, and the elusive sunset, and view of it, escaped me.

I do hope to capture the setting sun, and the pleasure of its beauty, again tomorrow.

How Do I Use Ideas?

You read a fabulous book, you watch an incredible movie or listen to a original tune on the radio or live. And what do you do with this incredible outpouring of creativity from individuals that you may never see or meet? Other sources of inspiration may come from God's masterfully orchestrated sunsets, sunrises or a beautiful cloud formation or rain storm. The beauty from nature is immense, from the tiny flowerettes on a miniature weed in the yard to a hesitant songbird approaching you on the back deck of your house.

I have been inspired lately, and this is due to the lack of pressure from the whirlwind of work and family duties, and my own letting down of the expectations of what others will presume that I will complete for them. It's Spring Break for school, therefore no teaching, grading or questioning my teaching skills; waiting on my accounting books approval from my interior design client, a website complete for my real estate client, and blog posts and Facebook postings for the San Diego dentist are done. That means I can sleep in, read a book, watch movies on television, exercise to foot-pounding music on a partly sunny day through the hills and dales of the neighborhood, cook and bake with leisure, and pursue writing here.

Back to my question of what we do with the creativity. Everyone is different in the way they use the imaginativeness of another, and each one's originality can be interpreted in another way than the person, such as I, who enjoys writing about such enriching experiences, although I rarely find time to do it. The two books I read recently, vastly different from one another, have inspired me to dive into my two books that are currently swirling about as bits of gray matter in my head. I have not had a week such as this in a long time, and look forward to putting fingers to keyboard to produce the outcome of hopefully, two progressive book outlines to yield best-sellers one day - just like the two books I just read!

Post Christmas Wrap-up

Wow! What an exciting Christmas season we had this year. So exciting, in fact, that I am just now able to post something about the incredible activities in which my family participated in during the holidays. It's nothing fancy, merely a recount of what we did, so in ten years when Kevin, or one of the girls says, "remember when ...," we can look it up on whatever form of cloud is in existence at the time and state what exactly we ate for breakfast on Christmas Day, 2013.

Christmas 2013

Christmas, to me, officially begins on the last day of public school. That is when I can relax and know that I don’t have to make a lunch each morning and take Kristin to school or the bus, to return to pick her up from school in the afternoon.

Friday

2013 started with a neighborhood party two houses down. To keep mom and dad in line, Kristin was invited to and attended a Thesbian club party half an hour away. We hit the grocery store afterwards to load up with baking items to prep for our company.

Saturday

Kevin traveled to San Angelo for a project Saturday morning.

Prep for Fenners – baking, cleaning, wrapping and other food prep.

Sunday

Made “Almost 50” birthday sign for after church surprise birthday party for Jenny.

Sun morning church service at PRF

Fun barbeque birthday party for Jenny at the Merlick’s with Mom and Don, Melanie, Avery and Doug, Skip, Christa and Jesse. A beautiful chocolate cake with mint icing for dessert!

We played Games, games, games before coming home!

Monday

Busy, busy in the morning, with long afternoon lunch at Mel’s. Post office and other errands, back to Merlick’s, Daniel dropped off Kevin from San Angelo, then we piled into the car to the grocery for steak dinner and headed home.

Steaks, potatoes, butternut squash soup, green bean casserole and beer bread made up the dinner in which we hosted the Wickham’s and Melanie.

Mom and Don gave Ormsby’s our Christmas gifts – a new microwave and other gifties!

After we had cookies and caramel corn for dessert, we played a few board and made-up games.

Tuesday

Late steak, potatoes and eggs breakfast prepared by Matt.

Boys to airport to pick up Alison and conduct last minute shopping.

Made Grandmother’s Mexican Wedding cake cookies.

Wrappingfest at the Ormsby’s to prep for Christmas giving.

Dress up and load up car to attend Christmas Eve candlelight service with Christa joining the Wickham/Austin Merlick/Ormsby/Fenner clan at Austin Ridge.

Meet at the Merlick’s afterwards for chili by J and J and Jan and Mike, with Melanie, Christa, John, Jacob and Avery Rose and Avery and Doug. Sweet potato soup, Chex mix, sugar cookies and caramel corn by the Ormsbys, desserts, salads and other tasties enjoyed by all with wine and beer.

Sang Christmas carols in the neighborhood, to welcoming neighbors!

A bit of dancing afterwards to warm up …

Home to continue wrapping and watch Miracle on 34^th St.

Wednesday, Christmas Day

Pigs in a blanket awakened the troops.

Opened plenty of presents and made a mess.

Whipped up grandmother’s party potatoes, dressed and went to Mom and Don’s.

Car-caroling led by Kristin and Allison on the ukulele was fun on the road!

Enjoyed turkey, ham, broccoli, potatoes, salad and gingerbread cake by Grammy and cheesecake by Melanie.

Opened more presents!

Jerry came along home with the Ormsby’s and played Risk until 3 AM! (BTW – Kristin, an HH, won the game!)

We scarfed queso and chips, hummus and veggies, Lays and onion dip, almonds and cookies and caramel corn while undergoing the drama.

Thursday

Boys are up by ten to go meet Bob Gruczynski in town and then to the Merlick’s to set up the impossible trampoline with just a few bashes and injuries.

The girls left for downtown to visit the Blanton, perused the gift shop and grabbed a snack.

Back to the Merlick’s to meet the boys and Rachel, who was mall shopping.

Fenner’s and Ormsby’s take Gru to the airport and on the way, stop off at Patsy’s to enjoy a burger, tuna melt and crispy fish tacos.

Visited the Zilker park tree and spun around for a few minutes, then stopped off at The Moon to partake of a beer and a few karaoke songs with the DJ.

Ended the evening with a showing of the third Lord of the Rings movie. (snoring commenced)

Friday

Waffles and bacon for breakfast.

Girl thrifting in Marble Falls, after a snack at Brother’s Bakery. Bargains galore at Vintage Vogue and Bargain Barn.

Ali to the airport with a one hour window.

On to Mom’s for ham and turkey sandwiches, salad and awesome salted caramel chocolate pecan pie.

Rockin’ Anniversary Party (Fenner’s 27^th) with the juke box set up to incredible 80’s music for the first hour and a half at The Moon. Karaoke and star singing by Jenny, Matt, Karl, Danna, Kevin and Alee, with additional dancers Liz, Michael and Julie.

Saturday

Grammy’s eggs with mushrooms, onion, garlic and cheese, served with tasty rolls and San Fran coffee.

After packing and snacking, the crew loaded up and played at Jerry’s for Pizza, while Avery and Doug joined the group on their 50^th wedding anniversary! Mom and Don joined us and brought salad, awesome pecan pie and fresh fruit.

Packed into the car again, the Ormsby’s and Fenner’s made the fourth trip to the airport in five days.

Ormsby’s drove home to enjoy a quiet house for the evening.

Sunday

After a peaceful church service, Ormsby’s were home in the afternoon for laundry (thankfully using the Darwin’s dryer) and another production of caramel corn for the Dallas bunch.

We began packing our things for the trip to Fort Worth in the morning.

Monday

Another day of sleeping later than usual was in store for us, but I was able to finish drying two more loads of laundry, wrap a few Dallas presents, print a few Christmas photos for Dallas gifts, and make the last batch of sugar cookies for the year.

Our original departure time of 1 pm occurred at 2 pm, in which we caught up with the mail carrier to obtain a check.

We deposited the check, picked up a few items at the grocery and hit I-35 by 3 pm.

Arriving much later than previously planned, we enjoyed a cocktail with Dad and Malinda while watching the end of the first half of the UT game (Horns lost L), and then ate dinner at a superb restored gas station, Winslow’s for a tasty meal, then retired to their home to watch the Texas Tech game (Red Raiders won).

Gifts were exchanged before we went to dinner.

Tuesday, New Year’s Eve

Slept in again, this time until ten, and then feasted on tasty eggs, bacon and onion on flour tortillas and delicious fruit salad.

After Kristin gave us a mini-concert on the ukulele Grandaddy gave to her, we headed east to Dallas to see Phil, Jr. and Kristin with their new baby, Paisley, at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Before the ½ hour stop, we dined on two #1 boxes at In and Out Burger and toured our old neighborhood.

Arrived at Gran’mom’s and exchanged gifts – with the Austin Ormsby’s loading up on nuts, wine, cheese, soap and lotions.

After a respite from the road, the Ormsby’s dressed up in fancy festivity clothes and drove to the Kravik’s to participate in their annual New Year’s Eve celebration.

Wednesday, Happy 2014!

After a quick  bite to eat, we jumped in the car and went to Karen’s for the New Year’s Day meal.

On the menu was Turkey breast, spiral cut ham, crescent rolls, scalloped potatoes, creamed corn, black eyed peas and cabbage.

For dessert were chocolate cupcakes, pineapple angelfood cake and sugar cookies.

During a long visit we were able to see Kelly and Luis with precious baby Landry, Macy and Luke. We jumped in the car and made it to Dillard’s in Waco for one remaining hour of the 40% off previously reduced merchandise. We all found bargains, but Rachel found the steal with a $400 BCBG dress for $70.

The days following the excellent but exhausting week and a half are a blur now (since  I didn’t write down any more details after the New Year’s day drive home). We probably just did boring things like … catch up on work life (!) and that’s why this is so late a posting. Now that this biggie is posted, maybe you’ll see more writing this year!

Affordable Boat Act - A Re-post

The government has just passed a new law called: "The Affordable Boat Act" declaring that every citizen MUST purchase a new boat, by April 2014. These "affordable" boats will cost an average of $24,000-$124,000 each. This does not include taxes, trailers, towing fees, insurance, fuel, docking and storage fees, maintenance or repair costs.

This law has been passed, because until now, typically only financially responsible and working people have been able to purchase boats. This new laws ensures that every American can now have a "affordable" boat of their own, because everyone is "entitled" to a boat. 

In order to make sure everyone purchases an affordable boat, the costs of owning a boat will increase on average of 250-400% per year. This way, working taxpayers will pay more for something that other people don't want or can't afford to maintain. But to be fair, people who can't afford to maintain their boat will be regularly fined and children (under the age of 26) can use their parents boats to party on until they turn 27; then must purchase their own boat.

If you already have a boat, you can keep yours (just kidding; no you can't). If you don't want or don't need a boat, you are required to buy one anyhow. If you refuse to buy one, you will be fined until you purchase one or face imprisonment. For those that cannot afford one, they will get a free boat with a monthly check for all ownership costs listed above at taxpayer expense.

Failure to use the boat will also result in fines. People living in the desert, inner cities or areas with no access to lakes are not exempt. Age, motion sickness, experience, knowledge nor lack of desire are acceptable excuses for not using your boat. 

A government review board will decide everything, including; when, where, how often and for what purposes you can use your boat along with how many people can ride your boat and determine if one is too old or healthy enough to be able to use their boat. They will also decide if your boat has out lived its usefulness or if you must purchase specific accessories, or a newer and more expensive boat. (Cash for Clunkers guidelines will be used).

Government officials are exempt from this new law. If they want a boat, they and their families can obtain boats free, at the expense of tax payers. Unions, special interest and major donors are also exempt.

I just had to re-post this - too much for a Facebook post, but too funny not to share!