Friday, August 29, 2014

Ponders & Google



It's a weighty decision whether to chin up to the violence and sadness in the world where buildings and people are blown up or to retreat to the sight of my grandfather's birdbath just outside my kitchen window where I watch all these birds splash their mornings away. Yes I know I can do both and I do. But it's still about what I let into my head and my consciousness and how that then affects the energy I give and receive.

I keep up with the news. Lately I'm likely to write a check or a letter or both in support of the values I believe in. Thanks to Facebook and Utube, I am well more sensitive to the plight of animals and thanks to my age, I am well more able to make choices about my time and efforts.

I am knee deep into writing a novel that will span forty years and god knows how many people. I have 30,000 words done which on average is a third of the length required by publishers. Unlike my first book, there will be back stories and places as characters. The back stories and dates require research and I like that even though plugging it all in accurately and orderly confuses the heck out of me. 

It's the end of August and the air says it's Fall already. I've returned to work until early next spring. I will return to Provincetown in two days after a season of rentals and I'm glad for that. I am laying pavers around my garden here at # 9 and that is such a 'concrete' act it tickles me.

Meanwhile, are you like me? Do you google every day? Multiple times a day? It makes me laugh to think of the index cards I would bring to the library before there was Google; how I would organize my homework and assignments with those index cards and how I would then type each word from the cards onto my typewriter.  Now, I sit at my desk or on my couch and I research the world. I'm doing a lot of research for my novel but also for things small and large that give thanks for my life. This week on Google: 

1. Gay legal employment issues in 2001

2. How a seventeen year old would enter the Sisters of Mercy to become a Nun

3. How to bleach a weathered wood fence

4. The significance of 1969 (JFK, MLK, Bobby Kennedy)

5.  Inexpensive wood enclosed outdoor showers

6. Stand up tents from LL Bean

7. Ordering a copy of 'Patty Jane's House of Curl"

8. What can I give 5 year old Drew and 7 year old Ryan for their first day of school?

9. Researching Meniere's Disease

10. WTF with Iraq, Ukraine, and ISIS

What are the last two things you've googled? I and everyone here would love to know :^)

love love
kj


Sunday, August 03, 2014

Close to Heaven


It meant a lot to me, this week's vacation in Provincetown with my family, and I hoped it would feel like a real vacation for each of us. I hoped it would go well. 

Turned out to be one of best times ever. JB, my daughter Jess, sil Mike, their four kids ages 1 through 7, and a fantastic mother-in-law named Pat--nine of us in all--fit perfectly into our little house by the sea and together and apart we each had enough of everything good. 


 It's a beautiful place--Provincetown. We are located one block from the beach and we walked that block so easily every day. Some days we went to the little beach, some to the wacky Provincetown Inn pool, other times visiting Auntie Heather's family in her nearby motel pool. 

The kids looked for hermit crabs and shells and sea glass and in the company of at least one adult, waded and swam over their heads. 
ryan and drew

We had the most perfect weather.


There was posing in front of murals depicting ptown's early years.


And mid mornings swims and again after afternoon naps. 

reese turns one 
logan
We filled the kiddie shark pool on our deck. 


And sprawled out in the sand.


Floated on crocodiles.


 I cannot describe my deep joy knowing my daughter is happy and loved and so blessed with a wonderful husband and these great precious children.


We collected shells


And drew pictures


We caught some minnows and caught some light


We giggled over lobster rolls and fried clams and fries and chicken tenders


and….hahahaha…I'll let this photo speak for itself.

I'm exhausted. 

And jubilant. 

It might have been my best vacation ever. It was all I hoped for.

Thank you, universe. Thank you so much.

love
kj