Wednesday, May 24, 2006

What is wrong with this picture?

In less than two minutes I saw a TV commercial where the yard man bribed his client and got away with it....that one was selling Las Vegas; then I saw one where a woman was effectively stealing someone's camera while holding it in her hands and exclaiming over the phone about how awful it was that they had lost it.

I think I must be losing it. Is this the world? It's everywhere, in every piece of marketing, all around me.

Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing this....
...or is it just that you have already stopped watching that idiot machine!

Monday, May 15, 2006

Women ROCK!

Kristi, Erin, and Nancy, that must have been SOME KIND OF DANCING!
Skies began to look stormy just before sunset, with that strange yellow-gray that you sometimes see before storms. Then winds picked up and the clouds rolled in and the drops started falling.

I must say, the lightening was a little scary, given our dry conditions, but there wasn't much of it. Rain seemed to continue gently for many hours...we went to bed so I don't know how long.
Given the depth of the pond and other signs, I think we may have only gotten about 1/4 inch.
(Weather.com is not telling me how much and I've already packed the rain guage.)

This morning is foggy and cool with a 60% chance of more precipitation later this morning.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

If you feel like more dancin', GO FOR IT!
This rain won't change the forest restrictions, but it has let us all take a deep breath' it's washed off the layer of dust on everything, and gives us hope that we will last 'til the rainy season...early July. I can just hear the plants and animals all breathing a sigh.....

THANKS!

Friday, May 12, 2006

The Forest is CLOSED!

locked, chained, barred, lights out!

Dry, dry, dry - dryer - driest.
Did you know that a forest can be closed? Road blocks up at the turnoffs. Plastic tape across trailheads. It's really amazing.

And that's how DRY it is here. The fire danger is HUGE! We're considered to be a tinderbox in a flint factory. There are hot-shot crews camping out in local motels because the risks are so high.
You know what else? Ruidoso has virtually no water. You can hand-water outdoor plants on Tuesdays only.
Whew....

Tourists are greeted at the edges of towns with lighted signs saying, No Campfires, Forest Closed, No Outdoor Smoking....oh, yeah, and Welcome to Ruidoso...

It is no longer legal to smoke anywhere except inside your home or vehicle. (Well, there are several money-grubbing restaurants which still insist on maintaining smoking sections and we have one cigar bar.)
I saw a young (addicted) woman outside a (no smoking inside) convenience store where she works trying to smoke: she was crouched on the ground between an ice machine and the open door (to the store) in a tiny triangle created by machine, door and wall.....
A local was fined $500 for throwing a cigerette out her car window.

When a friend inquired about a fire in her firepit (for her birthday bash) she was told that the fine w/be $5000, and that rangers would come looking for the source of smoke.

It's serious, folks.
Please think moist thoughts.

We've had our usual fire season talk here at home. We know which file drawer has to go into the car, and which art pieces need to be grabbed and where the cat box is (it's already stocked with food).
If a fire actually breaks, we'll start putting things in the cars. Since so much of our stuff is packed, we might even load a small trailer we have.....

We smelled smoke this morning. Joel said she first smelled it about 4:30 AM. Normally, we'd ignore it; today we got up and drove around looking for smoke... didn't find it/heard no sirens/saw the hot-shot trucks still at the motel, so we finally decided that someone had gotten cold in the night and lit a fireplace fire...still legal.... Whew!

The 'rainy season' here usually doesn't start until July 4th. 6-7 weeks.

Another reason a move is a good idea.

If you know a rain dance, or a rain dancer....get to it, please.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

OK, I confess...

The bike is a loaner.

Its owner, my friend Ile, is house-sitting a few doors away and has parked it here and left me the key so I can play with it.

It was so much fun...
...and SO scary.... !

Riding with finesse takes practice. And in these mountains, it's hard to find a long, fairly straight road for practicing without hitting traffic, or gravel, or VERY tight corners, not to mention steep hills (the downs are so much worse than the ups!).

It felt nothing like my old bike (24 years ago!).
And my perspective is very different now.
And my awareness of the kinds of damage that this body might sustain is more acute.

It was a great physical fit: It sits so low that I could put my feet flat on the ground. The center of gravity is also low, so I wasn't really worried about laying it down.
But I'd forgotten the feel of cornering - it happens with leaning more than steering.
I'd lost the feel of gear shifting. Hands and feet have to work together so differently than they do in driving a four-wheeled vehicle.

I remembered the freedom of flying, though - and it's still there.
I remembered the camaraderie of bikers - and it's still there.
I remembered the sense of power and the 'outlaw' spirit - and they're still there.

I was in my 30's when I last owned a motorcycle. I DON'T remember ever being afraid.
(well, once, when I laid the bike down on a street my brother told me NEVER to ride on!)
But, yesterday, it was there...just a little voice of fear. Not enough to spoil the moment, but changing the experience, none the less.

I'm going to ride again...!
I'm going out early in the morning, maybe Sunday, before the church goers are up, when the traffic is practically nonexistent and I can practice all my skills.
AND THEN, I'm going for a real ride.
I'll be back to tell you all about it. :)

Meanwhile...
...go do something that's just a little scary. It feels GREAT!!!

Monday, May 08, 2006

When I'm Not the Omnicrone, I'm...

Big Mama!













Check it out!!!!!

took ten minutes to clean the bugs off my teeth, but -
Woopee! What a ride!!


















Thursday, May 04, 2006

So MUCH stuff going around in my head!

More and more, I'm coming to appreciate the work of Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By, and especially this post about the limitations of age. Her comments spring from packing to move, as we are doing, so it's doubly appropriate.

And Laura's been exploring some very rich territory recently. See her posts (and comments) for a few days around this one: Can We REALLY Change...? and her series on Creativity here. There are 7 parts so far, but that may not be all.....

All of these posts (and many of the comments) are talking about things very 'up' for me these days.
I'm effectively retired (at 58 11/12), a miraculous blessing in itself. My Mom's forethought - actually my Grandfather's - has made it possible for me to get out of corporate America without having to go to war for workplace respect and without having to live in fear of losing a pension to corporate greed.

I'm young, though, to consider sitting around in front of a computer all day, or reading, or....
What shall I do with my time?

I want to 'give back'. Well, what the hell does THAT mean?

I'm still working with the domestic violence group here... a little...
I found that being on the board was not all it was cracked up to be. I learned that I do not really play well with others, at least in that realm. I want the job to get done. I want you to give me the task, or give me the list of instructions that you want followed, and then leave me alone so that I can get busy. I do NOT want to manage people. I do NOT want to sit in a meeting for 90 minutes discussing important items that need decisions, but about which we can do nothing because we had NO Quorum! And I certainly do not want that condition to repeat itself when there are bylaws in place to prevent it.

OK, my patience is flawed.
I can wait for you to arrive at a lunch date for ages because you have a life and things come up, but I can't wait on a committee which encourages irresponsibility by continually accepting the same behavior by the same individuals.
I chaired a committee myself, for a while. 8 - 10 volunteered, 5 - 6 showed up for lunch meetings, 2 did the work. Not my thing.
The 'committee' died by attrition, the work goes on by those who DO it.
..........sorry....spleen needed venting...

But I come back to Laura's question: What is my 'Right Work'?
Damned if I know - for sure - but an image is forming. And it fits with a vision I had years ago about 'my perfect house'. Turns out that the house had a resident, and that resident was....
The Omnicrone. :)
She had no name at the time, but I could see her clearly. She's a grandmotherly type. Not tall, a little plump, a great gardener, possesses a comfortable lap, makes bread, beats on drums, is always at home, never locks her doors (who, me?!), practices Tai Chi and meditation, and has cats and birds living in her garden.

This may be my right work.
Earth Grandmother/Omnicrone
She who holds the sacred space, where all are comfortable, where there is always permission to cry, or to laugh, or to create and the only lesson is about adding to the love in the world.

I thought my right work was coaching.
But coaches have no professional use for laps.

I thought my right work might be preaching
but that implies a dogma or the belief that I know something you don't.

Decades ago I thought that my right work was to marry a preacher and have 10 kids! EEEK!!!
(Thank you, god, for letting me grow past that one while still childless)

Even while I was in it, I knew that banking was not my right work.
Somebody's maybe, but not mine.

And this brings me back to Ronni Bennett's blog about the limits of age. I'm feeling my years when I move packed boxes, and I have hated needing help. (I'm supposed to be the one who offers help.)
My left knee hurts sometimes, I can't really breathe well at this altitude (I used to think that was because I just work hard. Now that it may be about altitude, I get scared about my heart sometimes...)
And I'm beginning to see 'ageism' everywhere.

I think I may be growing into the Omnicrone. She's a little thinner than I and much more physically fit, but otherwise, I'm getting there.
I know I can create that kind of space. I do it now in my home; I think I can take it on the road.

Will I?
Stay tuned for developments as they break.