IT'S TRUE...IT'S TRUE....SPRING IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

Oh glorious day! It was simply beautiful today, not a cloud in the sky, sun shining with wonderful warmth......a feeling of renewal that we've waited for all winter. We got outside and hooked up the hose and washed our cars. We wondered to ourselves and outloud where everyone was on such a breath-taking day. It was much too pretty a day to be all cooped up inside....there will still be days for that in the next few weeks. But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is sunshine and it is pretty flowers and bushes and trees opening their eyes and stretching to the light after a long long winter's sleep. On a day like today you know what faith is, especially in Maine.

I think Mr. Fleischman should have ended his little verse with "Maine" instead of Cleveland:

You can't see Canada across lake Erie, but you know it's there.
It's the same with spring. You have to have faith, especially in Cleveland. ~Paul Fleischman

I hope you got outside today and enjoyed the day!

LOST TRACK OF TIME....IMAGINE THAT!

I just realized when I posted earlier today (March 7) that I had previously posted on January 7th.....so instead of 3 weeks or a month......it's been 2 months!! I must be more diligent about this. The writer John Manderino (Crying at the Movies) gets up and writes for 4 hours everyday............NOTE TO SELF: "TO BE A WRITER, YOU MUST WRITE!"

SIMPLE THINGS.....PERHAPS

I started writing this 3 weeks ago and am just now getting time to finish it up and post it.....I thought I'd just leave it as it was started because I still need the advice on relaxing...

And so it started...........

Aaah....a week off from work....time to relax and refresh....a time to try to overlook the fact that it seems winter just isn't going to end this year or that my dry cracking hands will never be soft and smooth again. I laugh at myself because instead of relaxing and enjoying the time off, I immediately, in anticipation of the time off coming, start making my "to-do" lists. List of those little projects I've been wanting to get to, but never seem to have the time to do.....cleaning out the spice cabinet and the pantry, rearranging my linen closet, sorting through the clothes and taking out the things I never wear. And all the while I'm doing these little chores, on my week off, I'm thinking that I never take the time to just relax...to read a good book....to write another chapter in my never written novel...to lazily soak in a bubble bath.....to make an entry in my blog. I wrote a friend of mine today and told her that I think that's why I don't write more, because I'm thinking of all the little projects I should be doing (instead of doing something I enjoy)! How bizarre am I ? I told her I settle in on the recliner with a good book and wrap myself in a blanket of guilt. (Feel free to jump in here and offer some advice on "how to relax and take some time for yourself")


It seems like forever since I've been here and actually it's been a month. Since I wrote, the Christmas decorations have come down, we've had more snow, we've gone to Texas to see my folks and the month of February has (as it usually does) tiptoed past us and is gone....sweeping it's way behind it to welcome in March........aaah March, the month of hope....the month that on it's 4th day you can truly say March Fourth (and think) March Forth! We may have more snow storms.......well no may about it...we will have more snow storms....big heavy wet ones, but when March rolls around, you can say with joy that April is only 4 weeks away and thoughts of spring bring the joyful feeling of renewal, warmer days, more sunshine, closer to the flower time.......and less and less the thought of how warm the 80 degrees in Texas in January felt. So I'm dusting off my spring bonnet, looking out at the snow in the front and back yard toward the areas where I planted bulbs in November with hopes that they are stretching their little roots and will pop through the ground bringing the inspiration of spring with them.




I don't know about any of you....but I'm betting that a lot of you are just about as tired as I am of this gut wrenching roller coaster ride the economy is taking us on......at least I'm hoping that we're not the only ones who see our personal spreadsheet of when we might be able to retire get longer and longer. I'm certainly no financial adviser but I find it so hard to try to figure our how America got itself in such a mess.....and painstakingly wonder how will we get out of it.....except the way that most people (short of some inheritance or windfall) gets out of debt....by tightening their belts, sucking up, stepping back and reassessing their true needs, paying off their bills and quit spending. I don't mind helping people in real need (and I truly don't mean to offend anyone), but we've worked hard for our money, worked diligently to pay our bills and not spend beyond our means and the thought of my tax money being used to help someone who spent beyond their means doesn't make me a happy camper. But what do you do. We're kind of all in this together....even if you don't have any debt. If the ones that need help aren't helped it will eventually affect the ones who don't need the help. I thought it was interesting the analogy that I heard...."It's kind of like people were told to learn how to swim, to not go near the deep end if they couldn't swim, but they didn't listen, they jumped in the deep end anyway (to get a piece of the American dream) and now they're drowning. Somehow they are tethered to us and if we don't save them, we're going down with them". But there just seems something wrong with a picture of borrowing money to pay the interest on the money we're borrowing. It's scary! I count my blessing everyday and truly wonder how people are making it. It's the crazy domino effect. Look at the state of California, getting ready to lay off 20,000 people from government jobs. Those 20,000 people buy gasoline for their cars, food for their meals, clothes, all kinds of household products....their loss will affect all of those areas and more.....because less buying of food affects the food industry, which affects the trucking industry carrying the food, which affects every industry used by the truckers. It affects the farmers, which affects the stores that supply seed and on and on and on........ We're all in this together. We need to get back to the basics.

I've spent the last week in a computer class learning how to use a newish product called Infinite Campus. It can track students in a school from 1st registration through all their school years; keeping records of who makes up their family, address(es), phone numbers, allergies, grades, courses, behavior, etc. etc. and allows a school, a district or the state to collect this data in report form on one or all of the children. It is truly an intricate integrated system. It reminds me very much of a system built years ago by Price-Waterhouse to track oil and gas wells from the time the land was leased to the time the well was plugged and all the conceivable things in between--permitting for drilling, production, repairs, revenue........from the onset we were told that system was built to eliminate jobs.........and it did. But what strides the world of technology has made in such a short time.

The computer is a marvelous wonder of the world. It has made the world a much smaller place. It has made communication and ways to acquire knowledge a vast never ending, continually renewing and advancing reality. It has kept loved ones in touch, brought people across the world together..........opened our minds and abilities to do all kinds of things just by striking a few keys on a keyboard. Marvelous, phenomenal, life changing don't come close to describing the wonder of this century........and we've only scratched the surface. But in all it's glory it has and will continue to change the dynamics of our lives. It's changed the way we communicate; changed the way we read the news; changed the way we entertain ourselves........which in turn has affected and in many ways hurt the old ways we use to communicate, read the news, entertain ourselves. And in turn all those old ways, writing and mailing paper letters, sending documents, brochures, advertising, reading a paper newspaper, going to a walk-in movie.......are now forever changed along with the people who use to work in those areas.

Perhaps what has happened to our world can be compared to a town that all of a sudden has a huge influx of people and the roads and highways around the town can no longer contain the traffic flow.........planners didn't fully anticipate or plan for such growth or the resulting gigantic traffic congestion and snarls or give thought to the people it would affect along the way.

Perhaps the world of technology is moving so fast that we haven't fully planned for the ramifications. "Perhaps" lenders just got too greedy. "Perhaps" some people spent beyond their means. Perhaps the love of and importance of money is over-rated.....Perhaps those people who live from day to day or those who live for the moment are happier........

Perhaps it's time for the world as a whole (jointly) to step back for a moment, retrace our steps, calculate how far we've come and plan for the inevitable and daily mind boggling changes of the future........but most importantly... perhaps it's time to remember where we came from and how much simpler life was....step back and regroup.........all of us together.

Uh oh.....I'm rambling............Whew! Sorry! Let me step down off my soap box! For a minute there I was a big old balloon that got pricked by a pin whirling around this blog box whistling loudly, spinning eratically, bouncing off in a million directions.

I think I'll go downstairs, make myself a cup of hot chocolate, get some stationary and write my mother an old fashion letter while I watch the gray squirrel scurry across the snow to nibble on the bird seed that fell out of the bird feeder.

Till later....take care.

P.S. Please be assured that I think technology and computers are true marvels that I can barely live without..........but there is so much to be said for the simple things in life.



Do I think the world is in a mess? Yes I do.

Do I have faith that somehow we will pull ourselves out of the intractable murky mire? Yes I do.

I think there is a lot to be said for having hope and pledging to help in whatever way I can....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kAw4OTlA0

Do I believe that prayer changes things? Yes I do.

As many of you, my gut aches as I dare to open my quarterly portfolio report watch retirement money dwindle with the stock market....but I try to remind myself that no matter what.........the really truly important things in life don't, and never will, cost a dime.

I wonder what ever happened to that old TV show called "Good News"(where they only reported good news). I think it would be a hit today!