The Music is all around Us

Stroll passionately along the beach of the small barrier island and enter into an open air museum.  Look intently at the crumpled lobster trap embedded in the sand and envision a bronze sculpture growing from the earth.  Touch the barnacle encrusted anchor from a shipwrecked fishing boat and feel the past surge through your veins.  Listen quietly as the white capped wave’s crash against the rusted metal buoy. Breathe in the aroma from the salty sea that has washed a single red rose onto the rocks.   Imagine all these wonderful treasures placed before your eyes to enjoy for today only.

Stroll passionately along the beach of the small barrier island and enter into an open air museum.  Look intently at the crumpled lobster trap embedded in the sand and envision a bronze sculpture growing from the earth.  Touch the barnacle encrusted anchor from a shipwrecked fishing boat and feel the past surge through your veins.  Listen quietly as the white capped wave’s crash against the rusted metal buoy. Breathe in the aroma from the salty sea that has washed a single red rose onto the rocks.   Imagine all these wonderful treasures placed before your eyes to enjoy for today only.

The meaning of moon

I looked up into the sky this morning and the butter crescent moon looked like a giant smile.  What a way to start a Friday.  A sereneness foats and flutters saying yes-yes-yes - it's going to be a marvelous day.  During the hot summer months planes fly low above the crowded beaches pulling messages about towels, suntan lotion and rides in the sky. Life can be good if we watch for it and want it or it can just smack us right in the face - surprise.

Then again, it reminded me of a hammock strung on some lovely, awesome, spectacular, enchanted,  remote tropical island - far away from work, unhappiness and drudgery.  If I watch long enough the yellow hammock begins to swing and sway with sand dusted feet hanging over the side.  A completeness covers the hammock and the occupant. 

My mind can wander at times as my imagination burns like a forest fire out of control.  In Florida control burnsare a necessity as my mind wanderings are also a necessity for my inner being.  I kick back in my hammock in the sky and smile.

Catching a ride

Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law but it is close to stupidity.  Who in their right mind would hop on the back of an endangered manatee and go for a ride?  Why would one think it is okay to jump on a poor defenseless critter and ride the waves.  A 52 year old woman from St. Petersburg did just that and she has no excuse as she is a tourist.  She lives in Florida.  Everyone knows about the manatees and if they don't they must live in a cave without any communication from the real world. 
I really hope this slightly screwy individual gets a hefty fine.  Make her do community service and give something back to the community instead of plain stupidity. 
Riding a manatee like it was some type of mechanical bull in a bar - hello.......

Fight for whats right

There should be a law and there isn't.  So perhaps I will try to lobby for one.  I believe millions will follow me and try to get the law enacted.  Let us get together and take this to our legislators.......No work on rainy days.  Eliminate working on days that it rains but we still need to be paid........

Clouds are moving

Well, I have finally reached almost to the top of the pit that I let myself fall into.  I can see little patches of hope the color of blue whipped together with white puffy clouds.  How did this happen?  I don't know it just did.  At last I have almost, not quite, sort of reached the rim to the real world.  Even thought he real world can be a pretty ugly place to be passing thru. 

Like the dog that was obviously lost or dropped off to fend for himself roaming around the neighborhood in search of food.  Early in the evening he would creep out from between a house and follow us.  I would call to him but off he would run.  To where?  The deep dark pit that I fell into?  Perhaps.  Now he is gone back to his owners - I hope. 

The food I left out for him was uneaten.  I wonder if he knew I was trying to help?  I wonder if his owners were bleating like baby lambs at his disappearance?  Perhaps.  Then - could be they had fallen into that pit and maybe they are still there waiting and hoping for his return.  Get out of the pit - I say to myself also. 

I think I can, I think I can huffed the Little Engine that could.  I know I can I know I can whispered the shattered ego.  And then Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  Okay so make scrambled eggs.  Be creative.  Be energetic.  Up inside that blue sky with the white puffed clouds is a colorful rainbow waiting to be discovered.

Hot pants

I will never - ever - ever again make snide remarks about the 'People of Walmart'.  I think perhaps, maybe I have a little better of an understanding of where their train station is.  I thought before the train had run off the track but now I think I see the mirror and who is looking back at me. 
This morning as I am sitting in the vet's office holding the poor hurt kitty - waiting and waiting ( they squeezed me in) but also charged me double -  the light bulb more than went off - it  - BURST.  Burst right there in front of my face - a face stricken with panic and stupidity.  Kitty is crying her pitiful ' i hate the doctor' meow and I look down to console the poor baby and EEEKKKK!!!!!!!!!!  OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have my shorts on INSIDE OUT!!!!!!!!!! The total humiliation is like getting knooked down by a rogue wave in the kiddie pool. 
I look for a hole to crawl into but I am out of luck.  Kitty meows again but I'm now thinking she knows my shorts are on inside out and she is embarassed to have such an absent minded owner.  I see abathroom down the long dark hallway and I make a break for it.  DANG!!!!!!!!!  The door is locked.  My luck has never been that good and this is the icing on the cupcake and me on a diet.
Maybe no one will notice.  Maybe they will feel sorry for me and lessen the bill.  It ain't over till the fat lady sings and no one in the vets office is singing only me signing the blues.

Easter

Tonight as I was dutifully doing my laps in the pool I looked up into the powder blue sky that was almost cloudless. Hanging precariously in the western sky were several puffy pink clouds in the shape of a giant cross. The horizontal section of the cloud cross began to drip and became like feathers. Angel feathers.
Slowly night began to take over and the pink puffy clouds dazzling my imagination pointed toward the planet Venus. According to mythology Venus was the Roman goddess of Love. So my cross, angel was now pointing to a representative of Love.

It all comes together inside my head and heart.

Waiting for a plane

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my sisters' flight to arrive (three hours late) trying to get into the holiday spirit. Spending three hours at the airport waiting on a plane is not the most glorious time. After devouring ice cream (way too expensive) buying Florida nick nacks and pacing the floors I plopped my weary body down next to Gate E. There was a family singing Christmas carols holding signs and a group of people standing really close to the gate with lots of loud voices. I listened and saw an amazing act.

My heart melted into a puddle of pudding - right there by Gate E.
I saw people holding 'Welcome Home' signs, kids and adults waving American flags and retired men in military dress saluting military individuals coming through the gate.

The retired personnel announced the branch of service the individual was in and shouted 'Welcome Home'. Then all the onlookers clapped. It was awesome.

A young injured army man walked down the aisle of Gate E leaning on his cane. This is when my puddle became a roaring river. The clapping and cheering boomed inside the busy airport lounge. My heart turned over with admiration and relief - they are home. The waiting no longer seemed boring and unproductive.

Invasion of the body snatchers

At this point in time I am taking an oral prednisone/steroid, an inhaled prednisone/steroid and yesterday an injected prednisone/steroid. Perhaps I can be the next Hulk with all of this steroid being pulsed into my body. Reading the literature it states the evil side effects like suppressing your immune system. HHHMMMM. Don't I need my immune system to fight off all the bad stuff that enters my body?

I am in desperation mode to fight off this asthma - naturally. I keep hitting that brick wall and continue to get sicker and sicker. There must be a better way. All the drugs seem to do nothing. I am taking so many vitamins and supplements and medications that I need a giant pill box to contain them.

Frustration is my shadow and my shadow seems to be overtaking me. I keep fighting this battle that continues to go downhill. I keep painting on the positive face and searching for answer that never work. I want to overcome this boil of despair and toss all the drugs that I am dumping into my body. And most important I want to obtain an immune system that fights off the bad gunk invading my body.

Begin with the end in mind

It's an awesome morning in Florida as fall sweeps across the sand dunes and sand spurs. A dip in the pool has completely shaken the sleepiness from me. I recline on the chaise in the lanai and look dreamily up at the sky littered with so many twinkling stars and planets.

The morning darkness is still lurking like a feral cat with a cool breeze (some Floridans think 70 is cool) rippling across my body. The quiet and serenity wraps me in a soft cocoon. I count the shining stars and search for the big dipper. Total silence fills my space and I enjoy every second of the peacefulness.

The blinking of the stars lulls me off to dreamland. I take in deep Yoga breaths and my body becomes a feather light vessel. I could stay in this position forever with the breeze and darkness and the stillness soaking in the beauty of the morning. Coffee calls me but I cannot leave this wonderful tranquil space where morning has greeted me with the gems of the earth.

Ballet blunder

I need to remember not to point fingers, or make judgements against others behaviors and actions. Do not criticize - empathise.

I've possibly lost my marbles, gone round the bend or had a senior moment. It was a busy weekend but that is NO excuse. I have no one to blame except for my memory lapse.

Hubby and I were going to the strip mall (there are so many in Florida) pay on the New Years cruise, go to the tractor supply and a few other errands.
We are traveling down the road and suddenly I look down at my feet.....Hello....
I have on my grungy old house slippers. LOL.... and we are about to enter a public domain where everyone can see me.

What to do? I slump around in those ratty old slippers and can feel the laughing/mocking eyes upon my slipper clad feet. Then I see the new TCBY and cannot contain my self. We go inside and splurge on yogurt. There I sit for the whole world to see me eating yogurt in a pair of threadbare house slippers.

Turn the car around

I wish I had the power to fix the world. If I did I would wave my magic wand over the earth and watch it blossom. I would sprinkle fairy dust over those I love to make everything all better. I don't have that power and my loved ones seem lost and drifting in a sea of cloudy water - falling to the bottom.

My shoulders are buckling from the burden of their issues. The weight upon me is squashing my soul. If only I could turn the car around - just like the song -
Shattered. Need a change from this burn out town. Stumble around in the pouring rain. No umbrella - no safety net - no shelter.

I sit and contemplate the issues that burn inside my thoughts and why HOW does this happen again and again.

What to do - what to do? How many times do I break till I shatter? I always turn the car around, Why can't they turn the car?

Tigress Woods

She took 1st. place in the WorldAm and she is ten years old. We are so proud of Kayla.

http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/08/29/2358461/myrtle-beach-10-year-old-well.html#storylink=misearch



http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2011/08/oldest-youngest-prep-for-golfcom-world-am.html

Sealed with a kiss

I have been sick for more than a week – yuck. I dislike being sick wrapped up in that cocoon of helplessness. I still have to work feeling cranky, worn out and disoriented. Such is life when you live in the real world. Where is my Utopia? I believe it fell off the earth a long time ago when the earth was flat like a Frisbee but now it has turned into a giant beach ball shape. I live in the sun and fun state without any fun at the moment.

My chest creaks like an old barn door, my eyes are a runny mass of a melting creamsicle without the stick, my lips have craters the size of the Grand Canyon, my nose drips like the faucet out by the shed and my power of thinking has short circuited. My body, my hand controls and my mind are unsynced and living separate lives. I’m a mess – just a mess.

My actions are slightly bent to the left with my almost non functioning body parts on a holiday. So here I am sitting in this defunct body trying to do basic skills. Oh the nose drips, oh the dry skin curling my downturned lips – I need a tissue for the drips and a softening agent for my pucker. Without revving up the slow brain to half speed I open my drawer and grab the lip balm and give my sore cracked lips a double whammy smear to soothe the pain.

Has anyone ever noticed the similarities between a lip balm dispenser and a glue stick? Apparently I have never noticed this similarity. FYI – glue sticks were never meant to be used as lip balm. At times I wonder in amazement that I have made it thus far in life. My coughing has decreased only because my lips have been sealed shut.

Dance of the sugar plum fairy

Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. A phrase with romance dripping from every consonant sound and adventure wrapped up in every vowel sound. A visual memory combining a graceful ballet dancer with Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall sends my senses slip sliding away. You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away. Thank you Paul for your weaving of melodious words. Words and visual images cast upon my wild imagination rocking gently against the high seas.

What exactly is a sugar plum? A plum is a plum is a plumb but dare tell what is a sugar plum? Is it a distant relative to the sour plum? Is it a plain Jane plumb soaked in honey and liquor? Or is it a FIG ment of my imagination? Is a fig related to a plum? Have I gone plumb loco?

The image of a dried up old fig drenched in sugar does little for my creative imagination. Who in their right mind would dream about dried up figs dancing around inside the realm of darkness. My weary brain, my sleep deprivation and the revolution going on inside my lungs drains every last droplet of energy I possess.

Rough day on the high seas and the mind cannot - will not shut down and drift away to dreamland or at least to the REM sleep world. Where mostly pleasant vivid colorful dreams fill my mind space and wash away the day’s disasters. If only I could close my baby blues and rests them on a huge white puffy cumulus cloud and slip away to the land of opportunity. To a place where rainbows sprinkle color onto thoughts and music lets the mind slip slide away and visions of sugar plums dance inside my head.

Stop – wait! No, No! A sugar plum is not my vision. I see a bright red strawberry swimming in creamy Godiva chocolate dancing before my eyes that are tempting me into dreamland. The nearer the destination the more you slip slide away right into a chocolate fountain. Take me away to a better place, take me away and sugar coat my dreams.

Terrific Tuesday

I’m sitting here by the window in the early morning darkness with only the computer monitor for light taking in the beauty of a spring day. There’s a bird somewhere outside my window chirping like his life depends on it and perhaps it does. Way off in the distance I hear an answer to his chirp. A softer chirp responds most likely belonging to a possible mate, friend or worldly traveler.

I reach down and scratch the mosquito lump on my knee. Mosquito’s and other critters seem to enter through my open door policy but still I cannot shut the door. I love the freshness of the early morning so the doors remain open. The scant breeze drifts aimlessly in the open space and cools my morning coffee. I scratch my knee again.

The morning chatters have quieted and the buzzing of distant traffic has replaced the morning song. Soon more noises will pollute the solitude of this spring morning and the birds will fly away taking their songs of joy along with them. I hear a snort beyond the fence and a rustling of dewy grass. The local armadillo is searching for breakfast in the green lush lawns of my neighbors. He ignores mine filled with weeds and sandspurs.

My welts are itching and need attention. I need to shut the door. Life would be almost near perfect if not for those pesky skeeters.

Two are better than one

Yesterday I saw the light- saw it all - saw the ultimate foolishness or addiction. I left early to reach work before the storm broke and dropped upon us the torrential rains. The sky was black and the darkness was spreading fast. I tossed my gear in baby car and headed East just inches ahead of the mean and ugly looking storm. It was to be a replay of last Thursday's disaster.

I was buzzing along just a wee bit over the speed limit watching the blackness behind me in the race to work. I did my left on to Moon Lake Road and out of the corner of my eye I see a man walking a really cute little dog. I go to mush when I see a cute little dog walking so proudly by his master. He was a tiny little critter prancing (almost like Russ) as fast as he could.

I think he could feel the storm approaching and was in a hurry to get his business done. His owner not too concerned about the deluge that was about to drop. I looked out my rear window at the ugliness. She was picking up speed and was no contest for the baby car. Who would be out walking a tiny little creature with the storm of the century fast approaching?

I slowed a bit as I wheeled around the corner and glanced at the man and the dog. I looked again. Here was this dog walking man with two not one but two cigarettes in his mouth. Double the effect? WHAT? Why in the hill would he do that? Then - why would he be out walking his dog minutes before a gigantic storm? That's Florida - land of opportunity.

Within seconds after my car passed the dog walker puffing away at two cigarettes at once and walking a tiny dog the storm broke. Buckets of rain splashed on my windshield making driving very difficult and hazardous - then the hail thunder and the fireworks in the sky. OMG!!! I waited for my windshield to break. The lightening danced around the baby car almost causing my hair to curl.

My thoughts wandered back to the little doggie and the man smoking two cigarettes. Perhaps he didn't have a match and he was wanting the lightening strikes to light his smokes. A death trap waiting for another death trap. I'm hoping the cute little doggie wasn't as terrified as I was.

Between a rock and a soft spot

Sometimes it doesn't pay much to get out of bed in the morning. Actually the pay is usually a strong cup of coffee and a stale danish. Whatever.

It seems like my karma has gone bad, flipped out and crawled under a rock. A slippery rock. I had this awesome stone/gem and it was olive green in color and I have forgotten the correct name of this rock/gem but I distinctly remember that the rock hound said it brings wealth and good fortune. I need those two items.

I was pondering the fact that perhaps this was a myth or a I had collected a defective stone/gem or an oddball rock hound. My sister informed me that I needed to cleanse my GEM to obtain all the benefits it held. So I left my gem outside to be cleansed by the sun and the moon. After two days of cleansing I took my precious gem and placed it right next to my heart. For three days I walked the earth with that uncomfortable rock right inside my sports bra. The things people will do.

That very weekend hubby and I cleaned the garage with no help from the sun or the moon. And what did I find but a bag of coins. Dimes and nickels about $9.00 worth. I had hit the mother load. So now I am on a roll and decided to cleanse my gem a little more before I purchased the Powerball ticket. For some strange and mysterious reason my rock/gem has disappeared from the face of the earth. It's gone-gone-gone and so are my chances for obtaining my wealth. Life is tough and then you misplace your rocks.

Raindrops are falling on the road

The monsoons hit yesterday with a bang. The pool was very close to overflowing, the backyard was a giant mud puddle and the hose to the washing machine burst and flooded the garage. It was a wet and wild day. Driving was near impossible in the downpour.

The car in front of me stopped on a dime and in my daydream state of not being fully alert I slammed on the brakes and came to an instant stop even in the rain. At that very instant I looked up into the rear view mirror and watched my tailgater as they could not come to an instantaneous stop. Their attempt at stopping pulled their SUV into the center of the road. I'm thanking my lucky stars about that center lane.

The scary part is the SUV came to an abrupt stop right next to my vehicle. Feeling nervous and a little miffed I kept my head held straight on and only moved my eyes to look at the SUV parked right next to me. I'm thinking (too early on the morning for that stuff) if not for that center lane that SUV would be in my trunk and quite possible in my back seat. And where would I be? Out the window.

I whisper thank you's to myself but still want to pass the evil eye to the driver of the SUV. Driving the roads is a dangerous hobby and one has to be conscious of the other wild drivers. I can't say - "What if?"

Today the rain has become a drizzle but I will drive to work with a better awareness of the other wackos on the road. And just because one drives a big ash SUV that guzzles way too much gas (who can afford that) it doesn't mean you have great driving skills and you have control of that giant box. The baby car handled impressively.

The Rain will explain

The rain falls mainly on top of my head as I walk around the back yard in the dark of this rainy Monday morning. In my nightgown. I was surely not expecting this downpour - although we need it and so do my plants at school. I won't have to spend and hour watering them.

So, of all the mornings why won't the dogs get their business done ASAP. No - nope -nada!!!!! They do this to me to push me over the edge of the cliff that I cling to with both hands. Cliff climbing or hanging on to for my life is not one of my strong points. Neither is wandering around the backyard at 4 AM in my flimsy nightie waiting for the dogs to take a pee.

No need to take a morning dip in the pool because I am currently soaking-sopping wet. Have the dogs done their duty? No.......How many times will this take for just a little tinkle from them and then the big one? I am more concerned with the big one than the tinkles. Our schedule is off.

Monday morning begins with a bang or more precisely a damp and dreary atmosphere. Why is this morning rain such a mystery to me? Oh yeah hubby had the T.V. on basketball games all day - so no news. I'm needing a T.V. in the computer room.