A change of scenery and a public service announcement

We left the cold wintry midwest for the gulf shores of Florida.  It was the best Christmas present we've ever given ourselves. We have never gone anywhere warm for the winter holiday season, and now I am wondering why?

Our daughter was invited to the USA Volleyball High Performance Camp in Clearwater, so we decided if she was going, we all were going. All except the dog, that is.

It's been a lovely change of pace and scenery. Last week we were dealing with ice storms, snow and sub zero temperatures, and this week, we are in shorts and flip flops. It has been rejuvenating and refreshing. Just what we needed.

While our daughter was at camp, the boys went golfing and I went to the beach to comb for shells and shark teeth. I had the best day. The sound of the waves, the smell of salt water, the cries of the gulls, the sun sparkling on the water, the pelicans floating overhead - all perfectly relaxing.

I saw an amazing flock of black skimmers, sharing the beach with a flock of gulls. They lined up into the wind in formation, and I was mesmerized.

 

 

If the weather holds, I'll go back tomorrow for more.

 

I've been sleeping terribly, before and during this vacation.

Besides the standard hotflashes, I'm having blue ribbon nightmares that wake me up and keep me up for hours. My lower back is killing me, I'm having new and exciting arthritis joint pain in my elbows, and now, my Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigois flaring up again, which means when I roll over or turn my head wrong the room spins. So far, no falling over, so that's good news, but it's back to physical therapy to manipulate my head and hope to get those inner ear crystals back in place. What a wierd and strange thing to have wrong with a body. It's a constant mystery, the things that quit working or malfunction as I get older. A plethora of miseries, none fatal, but all draining. I'm an early achiever on the falling apart program. But here's the thing - lately, I don't care. I just laugh, shrug my shoulders and hope for something better tomorrow. It could be worse......

 

In other news, and the PSA part of the program:

 

My sister's dog got bit in the face by a rabid raccoon on Christmas Day, and she, her boyfriend and his daughters and granddaughter have to get rabies shots now so they don't die in case they contacted the virus when they were taking care of the dog. 

 

The shots for the uninsured cost $6800 for the first of four shots, and who knows what the other three shots will cost, the hospitals don't even know, and the cost for those with insurance ranges from $300 to $5000, thanks to high deductables, so it was a shitty, shitty Christmas present. The shots have to be administered at an Emergency Room so they get to pay those fees too. The poor dog is in quarantine for 45 days, and it's a wait and see if his rabies vaccination worked, he still may have to be put down. Just horrible, awful Christmas news.

 

FYI, bats, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and squirrels are common rabies carriers in the US. If you have had a rabies vaccination and get bitten or have contact risk, the cost is under $1000 to get the shots to insure you do not die. If you have not had the vaccination, the first shot costs anywhere from $5000-$11000, depending on where you live and the current availibility of the limitied supply of globulin. It's ridiculous, but true. I was sure there was some mistake, or some back woods hospital price gouging, but no. It is a very, very expensive problem to have. If there is any risk of infection the shots are the only way to risk dying a certain and painful death. So.

 

My sister has worked through her anger, denial and grief and is now in the acceptance part of the program. I'm still in shock and my heart aches for her and her family. Not fair, at all. I'm planning on a visit back east next month, but before I go, I'll be getting a rabies vaccine, just in case.

 

Here's to hoping no rabid critters wander into your lives and wreak financial havoc and distress on you and your loved ones. 

 

And may we all have a safe, healthy and happy New Year.

 

Ooh, Look...

My blog list is pretty far flung, and it's hard to keep up with all the blogs I'd like to visit. But I try.

If you want to see something lovely and transporting, click HERE and follow me down one of my favorite rabbit holes.

I'm staring out my window at too much snow, and we have freezing rain on the way, so this link made me smile.

:)

A Wickedly Cold Adventure

My daughter and I took a mini vacation into the city to see Wicked and visit the Adler Planetarium. It was awesome.
Here is the view of the sunset from our hotel window.

Waiting in line outside for the show. It was crazy cold, minus twenty with the wind chill. Wicked was very well done and we loved every minute of it.

The next day was much better, mid twenties, milder winds. We walked all over.

After many years of driving by, I finally got to walk among Agora, by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz whose her art draws on her fear of crowds, which she once described as "brainless organisms acting on command, worshiping on command and hating on command". The picture doesn't do them justice as there are 106 of them. People either love or hate them, but I am very moved by their commentary on mindless masses and their role in history.

It was a lovely winter walk through the museum campus on the lakefront.

The skyline reflected on the lake ice was so pretty. Pity it was too chilly to enjoy longer.

My girl.

Our destination was the Adler Planetarium. My daughter went for a school trip earlier this year and wanted to go back. I hadn't been in years and was happy to go. It was mind boggling, watching the sky shows, seeing all the satellite orbits around our earth, zooming in to see earth from space and zooming out into the known universe. I got a little motion sickness from the sky show, but it was worth it. We saw almost everything there and practically had the place to ourselves.

One of the Planetarium flight crew took this picture for us. I am definitely shrinking.

When we were leaving, the staff was getting ready for an important guest to arrive. We saw her limo and body guards, but even in these crazy shoes Lady Gaga was shorter than the SUV that brought her. We did see the back of her coat though. Does that count as a celebrity sighting?

It was a nice thought that she wanted to geek out on space and science stuff, too, but it turns out that she was just there for a photo shoot. Oh well. 

Our trip was a grand adventure, and my daughter is a wonderful travel companion. 

But I have to admit that aside from the lovely Christmas decorations and lights, Chicago is a lot more fun to visit in warmer weather.

Hope your week has had it's share of grand adventures.

Hello Google Docs!

Wow. A few weeks ago I got on an agitated cleaning bin and have filled my garage with donations, I've rearranged, cleared out a ton of clutter...... and entropy is happening to me again, but I made progress and I'm motivated to make more.

My mantra is put it away, give it away, throw it away.  And if it is broken or worn, replace it.

I got new entryway rugs at a hell of a bargain, and it is amazing how dingy things got after almost two decades, and how you can really get used to things that should have been thrown out years ago.

My favorite replace was getting rid of my mismatched, barely functional toaster. I bought a sleek four slot model that made family breakfast so much easier, with bagel and defrost settings that haven't burnt anything yet. And it looks great on the counter.  I decided that this new toaster was going to change my life. Here I come functionality, simplicity, ease of use.

Well I'll see how great a change that toaster gets me. But this week, I know I found something that will change my life.

Google Docs.

My daughter has been using them all year at school. For the first year in five or six years, we no longer scramble for usb drives or external media to shuffle school papers, or worry that the document will be lost or jumbled in email. That by it's self is priceless. But wait - there's more.

As a Windows Office user since the the early 90's I've been frustrated with every new version that I have to relearn where all the functions I use have hidden this time. I knew Office and Excel inside out in the 3.1 version and after Vista and Windows 7 versions are done with me, I can barely make a table without staring at little picture icons for half an hour. I spend more time on help looking for things that have moved or been hidden or my favorite, removed than I spend on the actual documents I make.

Enter Google Docs. You don't need external software, just internet and Google. The document interface is functional, simple and it looks great, just like my toaster. Creating a document is as simple as this blogger template, I just didn't know there was an app. I asked my daughter to show me how it works last night - total training time less than two minutes. The Google docs icon looks like a recycling triangle, and once I clicked that and found the create button, I was good to go.

But wait - there's more. Google docs is updated every keystroke. So if like me, your computers periodically glitch out or your creaky fingers hit the wrong key and you lose something, that can't happen on google docs.

I have stopped using my old Office products, because Google docs is a quantum leap into the product I didn't know I needed. It is my word processor and hard drive in the cloud. It will seem silly to me that I ever had to hunt through my documents on multiple devices to find something I needed. It will please me endlessly to stop finding new ways to despise the ever changing and increasingly troubled Microsoft products.

Google Calendar simplified scheduling our lives in ways I couldn't have imagined. Youtube, Blogger, Kindle Cloud Drive, Google Search, I love them all.  I am going to let Google whisk me into the future.

Google Docs. This will change my life for the better. I'm sure of it.

Amanda Palmer Monday

Because, why not? I adore Amanda and her Ted Talk. She is a rare human being.




I also could watch her sing Dear Daily Mail all day. Yes, she gets naked, for all the right reasons.




Enjoy.

Oh, and can you imagine how perfect a couple she and Neil Gaiman must be? :)
Thanks Elizabeth for reminding me about Amanda today.

a dog in the fog

I took over a hundred pictures and thought over a hundred thoughts these past two days walking in the fog. Maybe I'll blog it all down if I can find the time.

Strange, strange weather and arctic frigid cold is bearing down. I'm hunkering down, like I do.

Christmas in November

So far, November has been kind to me, in her way.

It's been crazy weather wise, but we've been spared the tornadoes spawned by last week's 65 degrees, the floods that came with the storms, and now we are remembering what below freezing temperatures and wind chills feel like. They suck.

Almost everybody I love has been sick, and it's a lingerer. This crud comes with respiratory infections and pneuomonia for the unlucky like my son and my Mom.  Husband and I have been spared, mercifully, and everyone is on the mend.

I've have every ache and pain and issue known to Mel this month, but I am dealing and I just keep moving forward. The worse I feel, the more I need to get outside, see blue skies, hear a hawk screech, crunch leaves underfoot and feel the wind on my face. It makes me smile, even when I don't feel like smiling.

The dog and I have walked many a mile this month, and I'm surprised how addicting exercise can be.
I'm also surprised to have a new pain in the hips to add to the list. Mary, I feel your pain too, now. I think it's from the walking, but I do not intend to stop.

I'm losing weight, feeling ok despite the arthritis and nerve pain, eating well and trying to keep the wine consumption to a respectable level. Trying.

I've had plenty to worry about, but I think I'm keeping it in perspective. Sandwich generation issues, life issues, neverending existential crisis issues.  So I'm gonna just keep on walking, and counting my blessings.
Being Thankful. And Grateful.

Sixteen years I've lived here, maybe four or five times I've been to the forest preserve three miles from my house, but I never knew where the trails were. It's been Christmas in November for me, truly. The dog has never been happier. He loves our walks, and he's a better behaved and less antsy dog now. He's lost four pounds and I've lost eight since this summer. The dog's doctor was very pleased, and I assume mine will be too. I finally got my BMI into the green zone. I didn't like being in the yellow zone, not with my heart health history. I'm doing what I can, which turns out to be more than I thought I was willing to do.

The ripple effect is interesting. The more I do, the more I want to do. I've starting picking up the free weights again, deciding once more that I don't have to have Grandma arms, not yet. I've started jogging for parts of the walk, and this is huge. I hate to run, I always have, and yet, here I am seeing how far I can push myself, how far I can go, how many steps I can add to my day.

I've given myself a gift I knew I needed but didn't know how to get.

Here's some pictures from our latest excursions to the very awesome and close by trails, which transition from the grassy knolls of glacial kames and moraines to the crunchy trails of an old oak forest. I adore everything about it. Even the train tracks, constantly stacked up with freight and coal and who knows what.

I sang John Prine on this walk, Mr. Peabody's Coal Train has hauled it away......

 I love how the trails meander, following the countours of the land.

I love that there is always a red tailed hawk, sometimes two. 

They don't much care for the dog, and this one flew overhead, screeching his discontent.

Tucker was not interested in the hawks. There are squirrels everywhere.

 Today was too cold for a walk, but tomorrow, we might bundle up and go anyway. I need it.


In other news, my kids are amazing. They are giants to me, so tall and so very grown up. I come up maybe to their shoulders, and it's comical.

I'm so, so lucky to have them be such awesome human beings, healthy and mostly happy.
This is daughter on her way to the high school volleyball awards banquet. She had a very good year.
Lots of accolades and even caught the eye of a big ten recruiting coach. Not that she's interested in any more hard court indoor volleyball. She wants bare feet and sand in her toes, and she aims to get it. I'd bet on her.

This is my son and his most photogenic girlfriend, at the formal dance for her honors sorority.

I always told my kids, from the time they were little that whoever they fell for better meet three requirements: smart, funny and your biggest fan. My son got it right, because she is all of that, and so much more. We just love her, she's perfect for him, and they complement each other so well.

So, I have much to be thankful for, I really do. For all the worrying I do, things are so far, so good.

I'm going to wallow in that for a while, and coast right through the dreaded holiday season and the chill of winter on that wave of good fortune.

Wishing the same for all of you -

nice walks, moments of gratitude and grace,

a quick passage through the cold and dreary months ahead.

xo

I've been bitten

So, I don't usually care about my blog stats. I delete that weekly email from Google without so much as looking at it. But when I view my posts all lined up on my blogger page, it shows comments and hits. I tend to run about 1:5 on the comments/page views ratio. That is until lately.

My long rambling nature post about coyotes and hawks and pheasants got five times more hits and I wondered why so I clicked on the analytics. There is a referer site that drives traffic to get ad money called vampire stats. There are dozens of these referer sites, zombie stats is another. Don't do what I did.

Do not click their links. At the least you will drive more imaginary traffic to your site. At the worst you will get infected with a virus, the least of which bogus redirects your google searches, the most severe which tries to steal your personal information. I found the blog telling me not to click the link AFTER I clicked the link. That's just how my life goes, curiosity kills the cat sometimes.

I don't think I got a virus, but I've had several already this year, scary ones, and I'm starting to get a little paranoid out here in the heartland.

Now I'm off to do a full scan and wonder once again, why I do this, put my thoughts and words and pictures out there for other people to use, abuse or monetize. It makes me a little queasy and a lot pissed.

Feel free to visit the blog over at Spam Spoiler to learn more, to commiserate and to learn that there is nothing that you or google or anyone else can or will do at this point in time. Just like the damn spam phone calls, we are apparently stuck with this new world order.

This bite is gonna itch for a while, I'm pretty sure.

Nature's Concerto

This post comes with a lovely soundtrack, press play then enjoy the eye candy.



The leaves didn't so much fall as get flung to the ground by rain and wind this week. I wish there were a gentler slide into the cold dark months. Wouldn't it be grand if the leaves changed color and held on for a month or two instead of a week or two?  Maybe that's why I take SO MANY pictures. I can look at them as long as I want on my computer screen. Not quite the same, though.

There have been some amazing tricks of light: morning sun setting oaks ablaze in amber, evening sun spinning hickory leaves into gold. There have been  hard frosts, crisp crystalline mornings. There have been so many moments captured in bits and bytes on my magic camera.

Here is a glimpse:

Morning.....

Evening.....

Morning.....

Crystalline....

Symphonies of color and texture.....

Music for our eyes.

Happy Fall, y'all.

xo

ps about the volleyball. We won Tuesday's game and lost a tough 3 set match Thursday in the State final 16. It was a good run and so much fun.