SUMMER 2014 June 21 Saturday (A Lull in the Life in the Midst of Chaos) The Deed is Done

75 degrees this morning, still a little coolness in the air.

Life in the midst of moving boxes. We are currently living in "travel mode" since most of our belongings were packed up yesterday.

The deed is done.  We have officially sold our beloved house, with the wonderful patio, and must move by Monday. We "closed" Friday afternoon, with possession until Monday night. The next three days will be a period of goodbyes and final steps.  My wi fi continues, unaware it will permanently end on Monday, as with the phone service.  Thank goodness we have them over the weekend!

Walk this morning, two Sheriff patrol vehicles drove through.  Not sure if I should feel safe or scared!  Shelby County does an excellent job of patrolling the city, another aspect of life in Lakeland I will miss.  

The Lease for the house we planned to lease arrived, and we realized it contained provisions unacceptable to us so we will be "homeless" as of Monday night with until July 3 to find a home for our belongings.  The proposed lease we received contained a provision that the rent increased 10% after one year! and provisions on how we were responsible for all kinds of items most landlords take care of routinely.  It was one of those national businesses that bought up a homogenous number of houses in foreclosure and is now renting them out.  Nothing wrong with that, but they apparently need to work on their business practices.  I can't imagine anyone signing a lease like that.

This morning I realized I had coffee and a coffee maker, but no filters.  A quick trip and that matter was settled!  I didn't have any coffee yesterday at all, and I was in the mood for some coffee.  As I say, coffee is my only vice, and I am going to enjoy it!

Sitting outside on my patio, as I enjoy it for the last few times.  I can't imagine being able to get anything like it at another house (I haven't seen anything anyway), so I will enjoy it while I can.  I will miss the singing (and some simply noise) of the birds and the occasional deer and the silly antics of the squirrels.  Right now, I can even hear a deer, but can't see it.

The much anticipated first day of Summer has arrived, with little fanfare.  Of course, there is always that felling in the back of my mind that the days will now start getting shorter with the descent into Winter, although there is a lot of time left in Summer.  

I am trying to figure out how to forward mail etc. when I don't know my forwarding address.  It sounds kind of suspicious to say "no forwarding address"!  Actually, I fully expect to have something within a few days, but it means our priority has become finding a reasonably good house.  We really liked the one we had picked out, but many others are comparable or close and we may find something even better.

Today we are saying goodbye to a number of people, tomorrow we take care of some final moving details , getting ready for the Monday move as well as saying some more hard to say goodbyes, Monday  we move to who knows where.  Interesting times.

But in the final analysis, we are glad the decision has finally been made.  Living in the never-never land of now knowing where we were going, and not being able to make any decisions, (in spite of being pleasant with our friends, the house, and the things we love about the Memphis area, which are many) was beginning to get old.  We knew we couldn't stay in the house or Lakeland, since we can't stand to see the deterioration of Lakeland into the "no where city" it is rapidly becoming. Sometimes, it is better to remember what was, than what is.  

That's it for now, Saturday, June 21, 2014, the first day of Summer.  

Spring 2014 5 23 Friday

70 degrees this morning.  Trying to sit on the patio, but there is still a slight coolness in the air (sigh).  Normally Memorial Day is about the time it really starts getting hot in the morning, so hopefully this weekend is it.

The Veterans Job Fair went well.  It was very professionally done and while I really wasn't suited or interested in many of the jobs offered, (there were a few which made it well worthwhile going, if nothing else just for the experience) and the organizations/businesses there were very open to questions and providing information.  They even offered a lot of "freebies", which I skipped except for a "string backpack" that I use when I bike and normally break about one every three months.  However, the one I am currently using has lasted for a long time, maybe even a year.

Trying to get my iPhoto library organized.  The most frustrating part has been getting ride of "duplicates, thumbnails and the "faces" that Apple uses that somehow duplicated to about 14,000 images.  The Apple Store staff has been very helpful in helping me approach this.  I'm not sure where Apple recruits for their store, but they hire a lot of really great people.  (They hire a good variety of ages, etc. also, which makes me feel good about the company.)

I don't quite know how my iPhoto library got so disorganized (probably through years of "tu it" delays!), but I am intent on getting it organized into albums and then stored somewhere.  I am actually learning a lot, it is interesting.  Apple apparently added more "1 to 1" staff, which is great, until everyone else learns about it and then it will be hard to get an appointment again!  They have a lot more appointment times available for the "1 to 1 personal", which is either 30 minutes or an hour of direct "1 to 1" training, which is great, because I always learn a lot.  "Open Training" is for when you have a project that you don't need continuous help, but you may need some assistance to help you over  hump and that  is also great.

 I noticed I am just scanning Facebook more and more as more "sponsored" ads and junk are in the "news feed".  Hope I don't miss anything I world really like to see, but I only have so much time. 

Looks like it will be a great day.  I even have another appointment at the Apple Store this mooring, hopefully can break through the problems on iPhoto.  I don't mind spending the time on it, I just hate to waste time.  The time on the patio this morning has been good, even if a little cool, it is good to be back and see the trees, hear the wind through the tress and the birds.

We no longer have our bird feeders.  It just got too messy.  We miss the birds, but it was a continual hassle fighting the squirrels, raccoons and other varmints as well as we weren't sure what type of pests were in our lawn to eat the discarded seeds.

We will try to go to a Redbirds baseball game (or two) this weekend.  That is always fun when the weather is nice. 

Just looked at my gmail account spam folder, I had over 200 spam in the last three days!

That's it for now, Friday, May 23, 2014

Summer 2013 September 10

76/79 degrees.  Seems cool.  Just walked and lifted weights this morning, no cycle yet.  6th day since dental surgery.  Still bothers me, actually hurts worse this morning than before.  Apparently effects of swelling etc.  Just not ready to cycle yet.  

Extremely busy day yesterday, just really feel time limited to say the least.  Still limited in what I eat (obviously I chew on the right side of my mouth, but carrots and apples are still a hard sell to eat right now!).  

Birds out out again this morning, but a different type of bird, not the "cawing' bird.  Heard the cicadas last night, the sound always brings back my childhood when they were abundant.  The sound doesn't bother me in fact I kind of like it (like tree frogs).  

A number of meetings this week.  While I realize they are necessary, they take up a lot of time.  

Kali and Katherine are into school again.  I remember when I was their age, I always silently wish them well.  It is difficult and each person has to live it herself.

Summer is ending soon.  Life cycles fast.  I know that everyone has to change, it is a necessary process, but... 

The Apple announcement is today.  I always look forward to what they are going to present, hopefully a "surprise" this year!  I jumped from an iPhone 3 to an iPhone 5 (I really like the iPhone 5), so I am unlikely to upgrade to just an enhanced iPhone 5s very soon.  I have learned to check the "product cycle" since it seems I tend to purchase something just as it becomes obsolete by the next cycle.  (Purchased my first iMac, just before the change to the intel chip etc.) Anyway, that has made me very cautious  about buying Apple products that have been around for awhile.  

My poem today, from "The World Without End is Ending" is "Celebration".  Again, I was in a Poetry class where each poem was aimed at a certain objective.  I don't know what the objective was on this one, but I enjoyed writing it.  some of my favorite things are in there, coffee, the mail (now e-mail!), lifting weights (I used to do it at noon, which was a wonderful break in the day, not I do it early morning), cherry pie and twilight.  

CELEBRATION

I celebrate

The first jolting cup of hot black coffee

Lake a blade cutting through the fading dreams

I celebrate the ritual of 

Lifting weights of iron

In the middle of daily chaos

 I celebrate the surprise phone calls

The morning mail,

A letter or card arriving

Like a sudden unexpected gift

I celebrate the cherry pie

Delightfully red and sweet

A marvel of perfection

Amid the routine of ordinary

I celebrate the twilight

And all stars defending the settling

Of darkness

Summer 2013 September 7, 2013

71/73 degrees this morning.  Relatively cool.  Third day after dental surgery (for implant). Jaw still feels somewhat numb, oddly enough.  Most uncomfortable where the bone was grafted from for the tooth to be implanted (or teeth, since there are two of them).  I am surprised at how many people I know that have had or going through the implant procedure.  I have quit taking any pain medicine, but am still taking antibiotics.  Still have difficulty eating, especially anything but "soft" food, but that is ok for right now.

E-mails really piled up while I was out of the office, in spite of the fact I tried to keep up at home.  I don't think I ever fully realize just how much time it takes to read and respond to an e-mail.  

Birds are noisily this morning for some reason.  Maybe they are seeing the snake I saw the other morning, or maybe it is a cat playing with them.  The birds are making a "cawing" noise, a lot of them. 

The poem today, from "The World Without End is Ending" is "My Day of Gray".  This is probably one of my more favorite of the poems.  While it illustrates a day at the office, when I read it, I am reminded of when I was in the first to fourth grade in a Country, old fashioned one-room school that actually had one teacher (Miss Porterfield) who taught all eight grades.  I remember looking out the windows of the school onto a beautiful scene day after day of trees and grass.  It was wonderful.  I'm not sure where the idea for the "blue buffalo" came.

MY DAY OF GRAY

Blue Buffalo scatter in the green grass

Outside my window

 Brightening an otherwise cloudy gray day

 While I,

 Hearing the sound of duty

 Eventually

 Return to

 Reading the dry reports

 Yellowing on my desk

Summer 2013: August 8

81 degrees this morning.  Some lightning (no rain yet), so I just walked and didn't cycle.

Hoping the new plants in the yard will furbish (I think that is the right word).  I hate to see a plant die, even more when it cost so much to plant it!  

Crepe Myrtle are so beautiful this time of year.  I love Spring with all the flowers, new grass and leaves etc. and the reason I like Crepe Myrtle and Day Lilies so much is that they bloom in the late Summer (I guess "bloom" is the correct word).  I like the beauty of annuals, but I hate that they only live one season, although I guess that is their purpose.

I got a "candidate" brochure put on my mailbox last night.  Not "in" my mailbox, that is fine, but "on" my mailbox.  I don't know why people who are running for elected office (or their supporters) think they can break the law, actually technically a federal law.  I should have left it on the mailbox for the mail carrier to deal with, but instead i just tore it up.  (It didn't matter whose it was. Illegal is illegal.)

The "forest" in back of my house seems to lurk in the summer, when it is full of trees.  At night, it could actually even be the scene for a scary movie.  However, I look at it as having hundreds of friendly birds, and the home for many other animals, probably including some I don't really want to think about!

I miss my bird feeders (or rather the birds they attracted), but I don't want to deal with the raccoons, and the pests who come up to feed on the feed the birds drop.  

When I was a child, I remember birds "teasing" the cats by flying at them, occasionally the bird would get nailed by the cat. Fortunately, no cats ever came around the bird feeders, at least that I am aware of. 

Summer 2013 August 3

79 degrees this morning, very pleasant day, cloudy 

I especially enjoy Saturday and Sunday morning for the opportunity to sit out on the patio a little longer.  Even then, the time goes too fast!  Soon the time will come when it is too cool to sit out on the patio, although I usually can until early November.  

The woods sit in back of my house, quiet and presenting a smooth surface to what I expect is a seething caldron of birds, insects, animals etc. playing out their daily life.  It is much more open in winter without all the leaves etc.

Soon we will have lived in our house (with this wonderful view!) for almost 8 years (I believe-it is amazing how time gets lost in the mass of time gone by).  We actually bought the house in August and moved in in December.  It is a wonderful house, and we have really enjoyed it, especially the view.

I finally had to take down the bird feeders, and haven't put them back up, since raccoons or some other animal kept getting into them.  (I was also concerned about the pests that came to feed on the seed the birds dropped.) The birds always throughly enjoyed the feeders, although I expect there are many others available.