Monday Moods: Check up From the Neck Up

Mondays are my weekly check up from the neck up. A few minutes to pause, think and write about what is happening in my mind and my moods. 

Remember to take care of yourself, or you won't be here to take care of others.  My focus is on making this blog a place of kindness, encouragement, and hope. 

As the sun rises each morning, and in the words of Willie Nelson, I "woke up not dead again today", I have the gift of another day, to find happiness, to do a little part to make the world a better place, to seek peace on earth. 

I can choose how I respond to the world. I can suppress the urge to react in instinctive ways. I can pause and reflect, sometimes for a few days before responding.  A week or so, I was asked about joining another board, kind of an honor to be asked. I read through the details, and I didn't respond for several days. It would be meaningful, but also an additional obligation. Ultimately I answered, thank you for the interest, but I really don't want to add anything right now. 

Something a customer service trainer 40 years ago, pounded into my head, it is better to say, "I'd rather turn you down today, than let you down later." If I am not ready to commit, I should say so upfront. The flaw in being "voluntold", being volunteered without being asked, is a lack of commitment leading to poor performance.  I don't need a line on my CV for having my name on a board list, if I don't have time to do the grunt work, I need to remember to say, thanks but no thanks. 

Treat each day as a gift, an opportunity. 

Make wise choices. 

Say, thanks, but no thanks, if that is the best answer for you. 

Think twice, speak once. 

Have a gentle week, take care of yourself. 

I had a longer post written. That talked about the challenges in the world. And there are challenges. I don't want to spread ugliness. Bad news is easy enough to find. I love my daily blog reads, but I have to avoid some posts when I have reached the limit of how much I can let in. If I don't have something kind to say, or the post is outside my sphere, I don't comment. It does not mean that I don't care, or that I haven't read, it simply means I don't have anything positive to say. 

 

The Sunday Five: Idleness

1: When was the last time you spent a day, doing nothing? 

2: What was the last museum you wandered through? 

3: When was your last afternoon nap, planned or unplanned? 

4: What are you reading, just because you want to read it? 

5: How do you feel about wasting time? 

My answers: 

1: When was the last time you spent a day, doing nothing? It has probably been a month ago, a Saturday when I felt like doing nothing and tried to do even a little less than that. 

2: What was the last museum you wandered through? The Hirshorn, a wonderful building and an interesting collection of modern American art. 

3: When was your last afternoon nap, planned or unplanned? Yesterday, I felt the urge and turned off YouTube for 40 minutes or so. 

4: What are you reading, just because you want to read it? A book about spices. 

5: How do you feel about wasting time?  There is no such thing, idle time is time our minds need. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall

There is an old story about a young musician visiting New York City for the first time, he was excited to see the sights, but especially excited to see Carnegie Hall.  Only the best musicians play at Carnegie Hall and the young man's dream was to someday be one of them.  He saw an older man wearing a tuxedo carrying a violin case on the sidewalk and assumed correctly that the man was a professional musician.  He asked the man "how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The old man replied, "practice, practice, practice." 

With any art, you get better, when you practice your art.  Some researchers say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. Looking back over time, tradesmen apprenticed or 5-10 years, 10,000 to 20,000 hours at 2,000 hours a year. 

To master your art, you have to work at it. This probably means producing years of work, that leaves you wanting to do better.  We learn and develop our skills not by being perfect, but by being imperfect and continuing to work at it.  All too many give up, when the work is not good enough. Every musician who plays the stage at Carnegie Hall, spent years playing music that would not get them on the stage at Carnegie Hall, and learning from it, and continuing to play and practice. 

Not that all of us will be great artists, but we can all be better artists, to get there we need to follow the old man's advice, practice, practice, practice.   

Freestyle Friday: YouTubers that I enjoy

There are hundreds of extremely talented content producers laboring away.  YouTube has provided a platform not only to share content, but also to monetize that content. The feeds with 1,000,000 or more subscribers, most likely are earning a full time living from it. It can't be easy. But many produce wonderful content. 

I watch less and less commercial television. With over 100 channels to choose from, there is often little that I am interested in. Why do they call it the travel channel, if it is mostly ghost hunting? Why did the Food Network become an endless stream of poorly conceived cooking competitions and game shows? 

Here are a few of favorites from independent producers: 

https://www.youtube.com/@ThePethericks

Billy is a British guy, partnered with a French woman and two delightful children, living in a small town in France. They own a Chateau, and are renovating a Convent. Most of the content is about the renovation process. He posts about five times a week. 

https://www.youtube.com/@escapetoruralfrance

Dan is another Brit, living in rural France. He is divorced (in the last couple of years) with a couple of kids. He started about two years ago, rescuing a burned out Chateau, when he started there were literally trees growing inside the shell that had suffered a devastating fire 40 years before. With just a handful of people working, the progress has been amazing. He posts four or five times a week, with a couple of breaks a year when he travels with his children. 

https://www.youtube.com/@Brianslifeinfrance

Brian is an Irish guy, living in rural France.  Brian's Life in France is a spin off from Escape to Rural France. When Brian first bought his little farm in France, he hired Dan to help rebuild fences on the farm. For the last year and a half, Brian has been working for Dan helping to rebuild the Chateau. When not working on the Chateau he fiddles around on his farm, and explores the wonders of France, hop in the car and let's go. He posts 2 to 5 times a week, depending on the work schedule at the Chateau. 

https://www.youtube.com/@GlenAndFriendsCooking

Glen and Friends Cooking is based near Toronto, Canada. Glen has a background in commercial video production and about ten years ago, he started making videos for YouTube.  He collects cookbooks, and does research. He build a kitchen studio behind his home. When he finishes each recipe, his charming wife appears and taste tests the results along with him. I love his style of working, his understanding that there is no one correct way. He cooks by technique not chemistry formula. He posts a couple of times a week, and also has an aviation channel and a cocktails channel.  I heard about him by reading a blog. 

https://www.youtube.com/@PrintmakingwithEugene

Printmaking with Eugene is based in Singapore. I am exploring linocut printing, something I have not done in 45 years. This is a relatively new and small channel. He posts about once a week, the videos are about 10 minutes long. His style and work is very peaceful. He is a little soft spoken, you may need to turn the volume up. 

https://www.youtube.com/@rewildingjude

Rewilding Jude is based in Rural Scotland. After his parents died, he decided to make bold choices and live his life his way, and that included buying a fixer upper in the Scottish Highlands, planting a big garden, keeping chickens, learning new ways to make things with his own hands. He posts nearly every weekend, one 20-30 minute video. Give him a watch. There is more to the story of the talented and brave young man. 

https://www.youtube.com/@ChateauPoseidon

Chateau Poseidon is two Canadian guys, starting work on a Chateau in rural France. This channel is new this year. The channel started with their move from Vancouver, and arrival at their new home in France. The first project has been rebuilding the gardener's house to live in while starting on the massive neglected Chateau. They are cute, and very talented. They post once a week, again in the 20-30 minute range. 

These are channels that I have found that have good story telling, editing, production, that move forward with intelligence. 

The Thursday Ramble: Be True To Thine Own Self.

Stay true to thine own self, a slight variation on Shakespeare. There have been a few points in my life when this needed to guide my way forward. The first home building company I worked had been a small family owned company, I was there seven years, in the last few months I was there the company was sold to an international conglomerate,  lots of change took place, I was miserable. I looked around, found another job, I remember going into the bosses office to resign, when she asked why, the words "I have lost the faith" tumbled out. I didn't believe in the way the company was starting to do business. To be true to myself, I needed to move on.

Certainly admitting to the world that I am gay, attracted to men, was a huge step in being true to thine own self.  I had hidden behind the closet door, making myself and sadly others miserable in the process.  I remember saying to my first spouse, "you are not happy, I am not happy, and we both deserve happiness." Change is miserable, but sometimes essential to be true to yourself, to find your happiness. 

There is a line in a Jimmy Buffet song, "he went to Paris, seeking answers to questions that bothered him so." Many of us, struggle to define the question. When you define what bothers you, change it. Do what is needed.  Sometimes regime change starts at home. 

It is a rough week. Take care of yourself. Don't let the world eat you alive. Be true to thine own self. Oh, and come November, VOTE like your life depended on it. 

My World of Wonders - January 7, 2026

Where have I been this week? Mostly around home, the pool, the treadmill.  A shopping run to Target and Aldi.  Giuseppe and Larry hosted First Friday, so we were up to the 6th floor, Anna and Susan invited everyone to the 8th floor to see their spectacular kitchen has just been finished after more than 2 months of work. It is the time of the year when my car only gets driven once or twice a week.  

What have I been up to in the Kitchen? I made roast pork, baked beans and roasted carrots and parsnips for New Year's day. For First Friday I made mini quiches, Saturday Sweet Bear was feeling off so I didn't cook, Sunday was meatloaf. Pork Schnitzel on Tuesday. 

What have I been read? Two books, My Queer, Unsettled Life a bio-history by Mitchell's hubby, and How Dry We Weren't a book about prohibition in Washington DC. Not bad, two books in the first week of the year. I have about four more books on the stack, and I should make a library run sometime soon. 

When am I planning to leave the house? I am having lunch with a former colleague on Friday, I haven't talked with her in two years. 

What artsy things am I up to? There is a portrait on the easel, Friday is change out for the Showcase, the Gallery show is being changed by another committee this month, the Show Opening I Saturday afternoon.  

What am I blogging about?  The creative Saturday Morning Posts are being created ahead of time, and I have started creating posts for the month we will on a great adventure in late spring. I will have a month of posts planned before we leave - work on that has already started. 

What about the annoying advertising?  Ads have been minimized, the payment threshold has been reached, as soon as the next payment transfer takes place, I will eliminate the last of the ads on this site. It was a noble experiment. 

What sadness hit the blogging family this week? Judy, the wife of Bruce at Oddball Observations died this week. Judy was 89, they had been together for decades and decades. The same day, Diane at House Dust and Wanderlust shared the sad news of two death's in her life, the daughter of a friend and the older brother of another friend.  

 

Travel Tuesday: Onward to France