Rambling Red, Candy Dish,....and a Little Bit of Oil.

 

It's interesting the things we find ourselves googling for in the span of a week or two. I don't know how we did without the Internet and the information that is so readily available at our fingertips.

Need directions before driving some where? Google it. Need to know how to spell a word? Google it. Need a pic, want to know the symptoms to a mysterious disease you think you might have contracted, or just wanting to look up someone you use to know... Google it.

I blame my latest foray into googling on Vero. Yes Vero had to go and post a pic and talk about a rose she has growing and I of course had to google it. I had heard of the rose before. If I remember right another multiply user (Morgan Fields) , had also sung the praises of this pretty pink rose. I found out a lot about the rose by my googling. It can grow in shade, has few thorns, it's hardy, all sorts of things a gardener in the midwest likes to hear. But googling info on that particular rose was not enough. It lead me to googling other hardy roses like those in the Harkness/Parkland/Explorer series of roses, and it has me now thinking I want a Rambling Red rose. I need a hardy rose or vine for an arbor that is in full sun and in a bit of an open area. I worried that Vero's rose that can be grown in the shade might wilt when exposed so much.

My googling didn't stop there. I had initially been looking at hostas for awhile.  I want to rip up part of a flower bed on the East side of the garage and plant more hostas. I thought I had my choices made until stumbling upon another website on hostas. Clicking on their new additions I came across, "candy dish". I now have extreme lust for a hosta and oddly there is no candy included. The hosta though is very shiny with rippled leaves and is quite striking in it's photo. Of course I HAD to look thru their whole listings for hostas and have notes jotted down on almost a whole page of hosta possibilities.

Googling can be dangerous for some people. It can be addicting. It can have us desiring things we didn't even know existed.

I have often wondered when typing in my search requests, what would people think if they saw my browsing history? Most would automatically think, ah a gardener, look at all of those gardening sites visited. They would also find this week, my googling for more pics of the blue Fugates of Kentucky. After reading an article on Yahoo about them I wanted to see more pics of blue people.

I also googled for a song I had heard but couldn't think of the title. I spent awhile on Youtube and searched for a lot of old songs. There was some bluegrass, some country, some pop and rock. Everything from Adele to ZZtop, it's all there just waiting to be found with just a word typed in the search box.

Quite awhile ago I did a lot of googling on oil, specifically the TransCanada Keystone pipeline that was to weave it's way across Nebraska. The more I read on the tar sands, the more I wanted to dig deeper. I googled the company, it's sister companies, I googled owners, lobbyists and all sorts of theories. I was starting to develop a theory of my own that linked Warren Buffet, Hilary Clinton, Ben Nelson, China and Israel. It was a vast network that seemed to creep in so many directions. I even  wrote a blog on it for multiply, but somehow it disappeared when I went to post it. As I fumed and grumbled at my computer for eating my hard work, I began to wonder if a certain string of words when put together in a web search, suddenly had you been searched.

I got nervous, I got scared, I was feeling like Julia Roberts and her pelican brief and had no Denzel Washington to fall back on. Before I could finish up my theory, the pipeline was deemed defeated by Nebraska law makers. Hollywood left the capital steps and all sides against the Keystone pipeline claimed victory.

It had me wondering just what had happened here? The pipeline seemed to be so quiet, sneaking it's way across the prairie and suddenly it was up front and in your face. People were showing up, a political activist embraced it and made it their newest "cause".  In a matter of weeks the big oil giant was ousted by legislation that even had the President involved.

It has me itching to do more googling. To follow the money trail and oil and lobbyists again. It has me wondering who was this original activist that seemed to come out of nowhere and how can enviromentalists claim victory when they will continue harvesting from the tar sands, but just reroute the oil in another pipeline? It has me wanting more answers. It was too easy. It was too fast. It reeks of oily money and puppeteers in Washington.

It has me feeling like I should be googling in the dark. It has me thinking what if my googles are somehow being tracked by more than just my computer? It doesn't help when reading about Google's new privacy policy. Your searches and visits to web pages are being compiled, but somehow they want you to think of it as a benefit to you. It's the same with facebook. Your life on the computer is being compiled into a neat little file or page.

It's unsettling when thinking how you are being followed and tracked and all of your googling moves watched.

I think I should go back to googling just flowers, they seem a lot safer, ....well except for my pocketbook.

When the Circus Comes to Town...

 

It's been awhile since I have been to the circus. The last time I have ever been to a circus was when I was a small child in grade school.

I remember standing in line with hordes of other school children from other schools who migrated to Lincoln for their own personal field trip. As we waited in the long lines, a clown worked his way thru the crowds trying to entertain and keep our minds off of our long wait.

I hadn't even seen a clown so close up before. The only clowns I had ever seen were in parades driving little cars. They were off in the distance not so up close and personal. I think that is when it struck me that clowns aren't so funny looking up close. They look like grown men in my mom's lipstick, they were guys with make-up, they were creepy and not so comical all close up like that.

The day at the circus didn't fail to entertain, with all of the animals, acrobats, marveling feats that were preformed. Ladies standing up on horseback, a guy with little dogs in outfits that walked on their hind legs, elephants that made circles and sat on little drums and put the front legs on the hindquarters of the elephant in front of them. There were motorcycles that were in big circles that seemed to defy gravity as they drove them like little roller coasters up and around and upside down in those big caged circles. There were acrobats on the high wire, a lady that seemed to hang and spin by just her teeth when suspended in the air, as she twirled in the spotlight. There was a seal that played a horn, big striped tigers that growled and did their tricks with just the crack of the trainer's whip in the air. There was a big gorilla brought out by a clown, that I knew, I just knew, wasn't real but a guy in a costume. I couldn't help it though when the gorilla ran into the stands and the ring man cautioned us all to stay perfectly still so not to spook the gorilla, that I slid a little lower in my seat telling myself it was all a trick, yet hoping that the gorilla man would not come my way. As the gorilla tore off the hood of his costume and all the kids laughed, I could only sit back a little straighter in my seat and silently scoff, I knew it was a guy in costume, I just knew it, while I looked cautiously around to see if anyone had seen my little bit of momentary doubt.

It was a big day for this hick from the sticks. Something new and exciting and so different from the ordinary. It was loud and colorful, with moments of the unknown, unseen, and unexpected. It was the first time I had cotton candy. That sticky substance that melted the moment it touched my tongue. Of course one had to quench one's thirst with an equally sweet and sticky snow cone after eating the cotton candy. It was a day of indulgence and everything one can hope for experiencing as a child. It made me start to wonder if there was still a circus that traveled the country anywhere. Or had it become like so many things, a victim of time and expense, and from a lack of innocence from today's children. It's hard to be wowed by much any more.

The circus never came to town this summer but my twin brother did. He pulled up with his huge moving truck pulling a trailer with his smaller pick up truck, followed by my sister-in-law in her small car with three dogs and a cat in their small menagerie.

It was hectic, and exciting, and full of many moments of anxiousness. A time of wonder, disbelief, doubt, speculation, and joy. It was a rare time, a time where the prodigal son seemed to come home, but I knew, I knew like I knew about that man in the gorilla suit it wasn't real, it wasn't going to last. So I am not quite sure why it took me by surprise when the day before Christmas he quietly told us he was moving back East.

It was expected, I knew the day would be coming. Part of me was surprised he lasted as long as he did back home. A bigger part of me was surprised when he seemed to finally be settling down that he would abruptly pull up stakes and move again. In just a few days he was packed up, in another big truck, pulling another trailer with his wife following behind with their animals on the seat beside them.

It seems like the sawdust is just now finally settling, that things are starting to get back to normal around here. There are some projects to re-do from projects my brother started, never finished, or done that seemed to work for him but wouldn't for the rest of us.

I think of my brother and his big dreams, big plans, and constant changing ideas. He has always been carefree and living for the moment and despite any falls or minor spills he still seems to fall on his feet. He is charming and charismatic and can sell himself well. I know him better than himself. I don't know if that is from being his twin or just knowing him for a lifetime.

I can only shake my head sometimes as his foolishness, his not thinking thru on situations and his failing to realize that everything has an impact that reaches past each of us. We each have to live our own life and what works for one person won't work for another. Perhaps it is my practicality that can't fathom where his ideas come from. That I am too worried thinking of what lies down the road ahead that I can't see what is before me now. We are as different as two peas in a pod, and I worry that he needs to think more, and that maybe I need to think less.

I know with a certainty that he won't be back, not to stay anyways, but just for the briefest of visits... like the circus.

Buckets and Lists

This blog is inspired by fishing4silence who wrote a blog on her bucket list. She remarked on how short her list seemed to be and I had a giggle, thinking surely she just needed another cup of coffee to get her woke up so she could concentrate more to finish out her list of things to do before one literally kicks the bucket.

I thought, hmmmm, since it's a bit slow today on Multiply I should have everyone make a list of 10 things they would have on their own "bucket list". Pretty simple stuff really, and how interesting it would be to see everyone's perspective and what they want to experience or have yet to experience in this life.

So I sat here for a bit and started to think, what would I put on my bucket list? I found though that my list was not quite materializing the way I thought it would. I realized that my thoughts kept wandering in other directions. Ooooh I thought, I want a new and bigger kitchen, no make that a brand new house built the way I want it designed. Ooooh, a new car, a brand spanking new car with 0 miles on it. Just googling for the image above had me ooohing, what a kewl bucket, I would like a neat bucket like that.

It was then that I realized I wasn't really following the bucket list rules. I was listing things, material things that I wanted and I wasn't really thinking or keeping this thing in perspective. The list was or is suppose to include experiences. Things that I haven't yet experienced or want to experience or do before my time is called up.

There were a few obvious things that came to mind such as see the ocean. I have never been to either coast or been out of the US for that matter. Travel was a biggy, but then after that I was starting to draw a blank. My list was starting to look even smaller than Fishing4silence's list and I couldn't claim I just needed another cup of coffee when I don't even drink the stuff.

It made me think that I shouldn't have to think so hard of what should or should not be on this bucket list. Why was it so hard to come up with stuff? Had I really been so content with life that I felt it could not be enriched further? Had I given up dreaming so long ago that I couldn't grasp that concept any more? It has me perplexed and thinking and wondering that perhaps I really should make a real bucket list in order to give me a kick start in that dreaming direction. That I should forget about this wanting stuff and go for that stuff that can't be bought but only felt.

So tell me Multiply people, do you have a list? How long is your list? Is it something you dream about or are you like me and have to really give this some thought, and that those items don't just jump to the fore front of your mind?

Is it as hard for you as it is for me, when thinking about buckets and lists?

 

Merry Christmas Multiply...

Merry Christmas Multiply! I tried visiting all of my friend's guest books or at least the ones who seem to still be here. I always fear that I have unintentionally omitted or over looked someone and don't want anyone to feel left out by any oversight by me.

I do hope the holiday finds all of you warm, happy, surrounded by the people that matter to you the most. My wish for all of you is to have the best in the upcoming new year and that if not all your dreams come true, at least the one that matters most.

I am including a video of my favorite Christmas song.

**(you will note John that this song does not contain a partridge and should therefore be safe from Vero's soup pot,lol)

 

http://youtu.be/zq9c4C2573o

 

Twelve...

 

I can't believe it is already December 19th. Whatever happened to the 12 days of Christmas? If my math serves me correctly, there is only 6 days left til Christmas. I could have swore just a day or so ago I had two weeks til that holiday was upon us. I am blaming it on the government and inflation and the fact that everything is being downsized including the days in the month of December.

I always have good intentions, I always have big plans, and I try to implement those plans but nothing ever really seems to go without a hitch.

I came across the cartoon above and thought it was hysterical. It would be more funny if I actually wrote a holiday newsletter and had all my Christmas cards sent out. As it is I have only a handful that are actually in the mail and a distinct possibility of not getting any more sent out. I should look to see if they sell boxes of just winter holiday cards that wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentines day, and St. Patrick's day all rolled into one. I would then have several months in which to send out those cards and still be covered. I, of course, also run the risk of procrastinating with those cards as well and then I would be late for not just one holiday but several consecutive ones.

(sigh) I am so tired.

And I am not even sure why I am so tired, it doesn't seem like I have a lot accomplished when I look around and take stock. I did finally get a bunch of plates of candy delivered to all my neighbors, (well not all of them, just the ones I like,lol). It seemed like it took weeks to just whip up a few batches of candy and even then I didn't get everything made on my list. I have given it all away and yet I can not scratch that chore off my list, as I will once again have to make more goodies for when my family members all get together for the holiday.

Friday I made a dash to the post office to get some pack and ship boxes, what a madhouse. I wedged my way out of there and realized when packing up the boxes of goodies later that the boxes seemed a bit bare so I wandered back into the kitchen to make another batch of candy to fill out their boxes. One more package to assemble was a gift for a special overseas pooch when I realized I had a small problem with the packaging. The shipping envelope I had bought was smaller than I thought, or the gift was bigger than I had imagined. No matter how hard I looked at that gift in it's pretty gift bag, there was no way it was going to fit in that envelope. Desperate times call for desperate measures though and I took it out of it's gift bag and tried to carefully wrap it in tissue and stuff it in it's envelope. It fit, but the envelope now looked like a balloon about to burst. Hmmm, decisions,decisions, another trip to town for a new envelope or box and wait til Monday to post the package or send the puffy package. I opted to send the puffy package.

(sigh)

 I keep telling myself, next year, next year I will be better prepared. I will be on top of things, I will be in total control. I will not be a frazzled, crazed woman running around in circles. I will be on time, maybe even early. I will hand make all my Christmas presents and cards. I will be one of those people whom everyone envies because of their cool ingenuity and craftiness. I will be perfect.

Yeah, I will keep telling myself year after year. It's like Santa Claus, one has to have something to believe in.

Merry Christmas Multiply!

 

I'll have mine on the side, please...

 

Have you ever noticed how some people can make a whole meal out of condiments? I never really thought much about that til having lunch one day with my mom this week.

We ordered the exact same thing at the eating establishment, and as I sat there at the table, I looked over and realized her lunch was twice the size of my own.

It struck me then... my mom is a condiment abuser. Oh I had secretly somewhat already known this for years. The hoard of little packets of ketchup, mustard, taco sauce, the overflowing frigerator door, not to mention the "extra" bottles in her cabinet left little doubt as to her love of condiments.

It left me wondering what really is the purpose of condiments? Are they to enhance the food already prepared or are they there to cover up a multitude of sins?

Condiments are sneaky. Some condiments are swimming in fat and calories, while some make you feel you can partake wildly because of their fat free status in the condiment world. My mom is guilty of all of them. I don't think I can remember a time that she didn't eat anything without some sort of condiment accompaniment. Chili always needed extra ketchup, mustard, and sometimes honey. Or that holy grail of condiments to her,...honey mustard. Vegetables need a large drizzle of dressing. Meat dishes need a splash of barbeque sauce, or steak sauce, or more ketchup. And don't even get her started on miracle whip and pickles.

It's staggering when you walk down the aisle at the grocery and view all of the condiments available. It can be overwhelming, and some people want to try them all. They want that sense of adventure in the door of their fridge. Which leads me to admitting....I am boring in my condiment collection.

Most times I will order something plain, and will put some ketchup on the side. Oh I like pickles, onions, mustard, etc. But usually just a blob of ketchup will suffice. In fact, ketchup is my go to condiment of choice. Somethings I just don't want to eat if I don't have ketchup for it. It's as if, it no longer is worth the effort if I don't have my ketchup.

Yet I know ketchup is bad for me. It's laden with corn syrup, vinegar, sodium and 57 other ingredients according to Heinz...or maybe they make 57 other condiments, I don't know... I just know I need my ketchup.

I remember as kid going to my grandmother's and just being in awe of her refrigerators (she had 3). Stuffed in the door and on shelves would be almost every condiment imaginable. Ketchup, hot sauce, barbeque, mustard, thousand island dressing, ranch dressing, french dressing, 6 or more kinds of dressing. There would be dill pickle chips, dill pickle spears, sweet pickles, pickle relish, green olives, black olives, pimento cheese, jarred pimentos, jarred peppers. If it was a condiment she most likely had it. A far cry from my ketchup and mustard filled world.

I think a lot of it is what you get use to. I was a picky kid  growing up, and didn't like my food to touch on my plate. Very few foods now  do I use or add more than one condiment too. Sure I have cupboard full of spices and jams and jellies and other things that some consider a condiment. Some of them have been there for ages. I should toss them, but then I worry maybe someone will visit and ask if I have any low sodium soy sauce or hot pepper sauce, stone ground mustard, or bit of mayo instead of miracle whip on their food selections.

It's crazy the love people have for condiments. Most refrigerators will sport at least a couple. In fact most of us have some of the same condiments, even the same brands of those condiments in our kitchens. Some condiments have become so ingrained in our eating habits, we can not enjoy our meal without them.

Last week I watched my mom pour a reddish looking liquid into a large quart jar that she had been cooking. She smiled brightly and told me it had to cool down and then she could put it in her fridge. It was a homemade version of Dorothy Lynch salad dressing she had come across in a cook book. Where she is going to find room in her frigerator door to put it I don't know.

For some people, condiments are a sickness. They just can't do without them. Maybe those people  should be considered as more adventurous eaters. Just ketchup won't do it for them, they need more. Maybe I need to rethink my condiment choices. It's hard to break some habits, I do love my ketchup.

Fess up,...come clean and tell me your condiment cover ups...

Fire In The Sky....

It's hot...really, really, really hot. So hot it makes one think there really could be a fire in the sky.

There doesn't seem to be an end to it either. The forecast continues to look bleak with the heat and humidity. It does make one think a lot of global warming and the causes for the extreme weather the world seems to be having lately.

It was just the other day that a neighbor was over helping to fix an old door when our conversation turned to movies. I casually mentioned that with this kind of weather, it was good for curling up with a book or a good movie to escape the heat. My neighbor mentioned he wished he could find an old movie called, "Fire in the Sky". I hadn't heard of it before and he went on to tell me how it was a true account of a man named Travis Walton who had been abducted by aliens. As he went on describing more of the story, I could only mumble," wow, really, I hadn't read the book or seen the movie". It was a true story, the guy didn't lie, his friends backed him up, took lie detector tests, etc. etc.

I tried to look politely engrossed with what my neighbor was saying. Aliens...he believes in them. He also believes in ghosts, spirits, and all of those supernatural things that can't be explained. I have to admit the alien angle threw me a bit. Spirits and ghosts and the supernatural were one thing, but aliens?

Today I googled on-line for the movie and found it and ordered it as a gift for my neighbor. I know he will be tickled to have it to add to his movie collection. It had me wondering though if I was being hasty in my dismissal of all things extraterrestrial. Maybe I was not in the majority as I thought, but a minority in my personal beliefs of the spacial creatures.

I have to admit, as much as I like my neighbor I couldn't help but think he was a little nuts in his beliefs. I am pessimistic, I am a skeptic, I have yet to see any glowing discs in the sky that resemble a hovering aircraft. I haven't been beamed aboard anything or probed. Or at least I don't think I have been. Maybe I have been, and my mind was erased by the aliens of the encounter?

I am full of questions. Questions of what those aliens intentions are. Questions of why are those people abducted are allowed to come back to earth? Questions of why are they always probed, but never autopsied?  Wouldn't that give the aliens better answers? Are all aliens so courteous as to only give a minor once over and then back home you go?

Though I scoff and joke on all things alien, I wonder how many people out there really do believe and yet are afraid to voice their views on them. Does the fear of ridicule keep them quiet? There might be a whole lot of believers out there, people I know who sorta believe that it's possible, that there really could be something out there, but won't mention those opinions out loud for all to hear.

I remember back to some of those sci-fi movies on aliens and wonder if maybe the whole world is full of aliens and I just don't know it. It would explain an awful lot about most of California and Washington D.C.

 I sorta feel like I could be like that lady in the end of the movie, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I would finally find my Donald Sutherland only to have him point me out as being human while he makes that alien-like squeal of his. I feel like I am the only sane one in a crazy world that makes no sense other than they all seem to be from a different planet.

One person's craziness is another person's sanity. One person's beliefs are another person's joke. One person's fear, is another person's indifference. Just like one person's fire in the sky is more than just the blazing hot sun.

Who knows, maybe it's not really the effects of the blazing hot sun we are feeling but the gama rays or lazer beams of another world and life form. We, at this very moment, are being tested and scored or monitored by other unknown beings. It has me worried, thinking all of this time I could be wrong in my thoughts. I start to wonder if I should stock up on Reese's pieces, Skittles, or whatever kind of candy it is that extraterrestrials consume. I should be more prepared for any possible abductions. I want to remain on the good side of all of those aliens.

I won't be wearing any tinfoil on my head, despite my wandering thoughts of aliens. I won't be searching the skies for floating discs or orbs of possible spaceships. I won't be worried about any fires in the sky, except for the sun and it's warming rays. I will, however, refrain from looking directly at the sun though,....and candy, I'll need to buy candy... just to be safe.