The Thursday Rambles: Life is Good

I can remember as a kid, complaining to my grandmother that I was bored and there was nothing to do. She had me follow her out to the garage and handed me gardening tools and reminded me that there are always good things to do. They might not be the things you want to do, but there are always good things to do. 

There was a cartoon years ago. Researchers put two kids in a room with piles of straw and horse manure. One sat down on the floor and cried, he was the pessimist. The other one ran around tossing the straw in the air and exploring every corner of the room, shouting "with all of shit there has to be a pony in here somewhere" - the optimist.  Same place, same time, the difference is how you look at the world around you. There is always something good to be found. 

One of the things I enjoy about retirement, is being in charge of my time. It can also be the hardest part of retirement. Each day, I have to decide if I am going to despair, or go in search of the pony. 

Where will I walk today? I have made walking a habit, it feels weird if I miss a day. A good walk, is good for me. 

What artsy stuff will I do - this one is too easy to skip. When I don't create, I don't make the good stuff. And I like the good stuff.   

How many bloggers will I read today? Will I comment on them? I will, if I have something good to say. 

What will I read today? And how much. Feeding my mind with the good stuff.  

What will I do today, to show that life is good. 

My World of Wonders: November 4, 2026

Where have I been this week? The Farmers market, a walk in north Old Town, a walk along the River, a walk from Eisenhower Ave to King Street, the Community Center, Old Town North to Sister's Restaurant for lunch, the grocery store. 

Who have a talked to?  Tons of people at the art show opening. Amy, Pratibha, Jon, Kevin,  Ruth, Rebecca, Anna, Susan, Warren, Marcell. 

What failed me this week? About 20 years ago, I bought a Targus wireless computer remote, the thingy you use to advance PowerPoint slides from anyplace in the room. Saturday afternoon as I was setting up for the art show opening, I took it out of the case and it fell apart in my hands. The plastic molding that the screws holding the parts of it together, had failed. In a way I am surprised that it lasted this long, I have been through five or six laptop computers while I have used this. Sad, but it served me well. When I was producing the National Aging and Law Conference, I was always budget conscious. The AV contractors at the hotels charged $40-$50 a day to rent these. I went online and ordered them for about $10 a piece. I have a couple of back-ups. 

What frustrates me? My oldest brother is apparently trading text messages with our one-and-only first cousin, but is not replying to either my sister or me. A simple, "still here," would be reassuring. 

A question I don't know the answer to? How long do I keep checking blogs that for decades posted daily, and now rarely post? Weeks, months? 

What did the Arts opening reception look like? 

What reminded me of family this week?  From sometime in the late 1920's until the mid 1950's my grandfather worked at Ford. He set up and adjusted the massive machines that ground the finishes on gears. He literally would shut down the machine, climb inside of it, and spend  7 or 8 hours meticulously replacing and adjusting every grinding and cutting wheel.  Virtually every new Ford built during those years contained one or more parts, made on the machines that he kept running. This was in one of garages here at the condo, me helped make one or more of the parts that went into it. I have owned 16 cars, and I have never owned a Ford. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Huntley Meadows

Monday Moods:

A dear friend asked if life was really as "humdrum" as I make it sound.  Life can be stressful. I carry most stress and worry internally. After 34 odd years, Sweet Bear still has a hard time reading when I am down, or stressed. I know, but I don't show it. Maybe I learned to repress my feeling from my parents (they were a product of their upbringing.)   

I have spent years learning not to let stress get to me. Most of what we worry about either already has happened or never will happen. And the rest we often have limited control over. I do what I can, little things like VOTING, but the rest is fate. I am sure I will be surprised to wake up dead someday, but I know it will happen. I assume the stress will all end at that point. 

This is not to say I don't have opinions. Oh, I do. I was reading a policy paper the other day, and responded with the following comment, "we need affordable housing, not homeless concentration camps." In eight words, everyone knew how I felt about a current administration policy. 

I try to be kind to others. I send cards, and sometimes gifts. While it is nice to hear back, my real goal is to brighten the day of another person.  Kind of like a radio transmission, we send it out there, and hope that someone hears it. But often you never really know. 

On my blog I try to send out a positive message. To make someone's day just a little better. If I reach one person, it is mission accomplished. 

So yes, life is a bit stressful at the moment. Such is life. Bloom where you are planted. When the horn honks, maybe it is a comment on your looks and not your driving.  

The Sunday Five: Time Travel

 1: If you could go back in time, what advice would you have for your 20 year old self? 

2: If you could travel forward in time, what advice would you have for your 80 year old self? 

3: What grandparent would you most like to spend an hour talking with today? 

4: How do you cope with travel across time zones? 

5: Should we stop "daylight savings time" (shifting the clocks forward and back for summer and winter)? 

My answers: 

1: If you could go back in time, what advice would you have for your 20 year old self?  Be true to yourself, be honest with yourself. 

2: If you could travel forward in time, what advice would you have for your 80 year old self?  Relax, we are all going to die. 

3: What grandparent would you most like to spend an hour talking with today? My paternal Grandmother Emily.  

4: How do you cope with travel across time zones?  One or two hours, I do fine, longer shifts the first day I rest and relax. 

5: Should we stop "daylight savings time" (shifting the clocks forward and back for summer and winter)?  Yes, it is a silly. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Halloween Day and Creativity

I have to admit, I have been a bit mystified by adults who are infatuated with Halloween.  In my journey to explore creativity this year, maybe I get it, maybe I understand why. 

Celebrating Halloween as an adult allows adults to do, say, and create things that break the rules of being an adult. They can dress in theatrical way, and not be seen as weird. They can decorate and be creative - there are few rules about what is an acceptable Halloween decoration - it allows adults to be comfortable being creative. It allows the freedom to be wicked, to be naughty, even a little devilish. 

Most of us, allow society's norms, to constrain our creativity. For some Halloween is an exception, they are free from the shackles of daily adult life, and can be as strange or weird as they want to be for a day or two. 

In our creative lives we need to give ourselves permission to be weird all of the time. Paint the weird painting, create a drawing that breaks all of the rules, sing off tune, write what you think, sentence fragments and offbeat punctuation, that reflect what flows out of your mind. We discover what we can do, by doing things that break the rules, things that ignore the norms. 

Use Halloween as the perfect excuse to be weird and offbeat, and treat every creative day as Halloween. 

Foodie Friday:Taming Grandma's Fire Water

 

A couple of years ago we were in the liquor store and Sweet Bear noticed bottles of Silivocia on the shelf.  He remembered his grandmother keeping bottles of this at hand, and drinking it. It is a plum brandy, this one is made in Croatia. It is unaged and 80 proof. 

I bought a bottle, and tried it. It will knock your socks off. I don't know if grandma downed it in shots or sipped it slowly, but either way she had to be one strong woman. It was relegated to the bottom shelf in the liquor cabinet for a couple of years. 

Recently I wondered if I could make something drinkable of it. Hmm? 

I decided to try cinnamon and sweetness. I had a bottle in the spice cabinet with three cinnamon sticks in it. You buy them, use one, and the others slowly get old. I dropped a couple of them in a small saucepan, added 3/4 of a cup of sugar and 3/4 of a cup of water, a dollop of corn syrup and put over a medium low heat. I dropped the remaining cinnamon stick in the half empty bottle of fire water. The corn syrup changes the molecular structure of the simple syrup, making it less likely to crystalize.  I heated and stirred a little until the sugar had dissolved, not quite to a boil.  I fished the cinnamon sticks out and dropped them in the bottle, and then funelled the sugar syrup into the bottle, capped and shook it up. I shook it a couple of times over the next 24 hours, then sampled a little bit. Oh my, it tastes like apple pie. It brings out the fruit in the brandy and adds that wonderful cinnamon bite on top. I shake it each day, it picks up just a little more flavor, and it is drinkable. And probably 60 proof.  I have tamed Granny's fire water.  

How good was it? It is all gone.