Rusty Nails

Today I watered all the yard trees and while I was waiting for the troughs to fill, I started dragging around a magnet on a string. I unearthed about 30 rusty nails, a dozen staples, some wire and other debris from the sandy yard. The wild birds enjoyed taking a bird bath around one of the trees before the water drained away. Its warm outside and cold indoors so as soon as I finish my daily blog posts, I'm going back outside to enjoy the birds.  I saw a new bird today. Smaller than a sparrow with a green tint to it's brown feathers and a little tiny red dot on top of it's head.

Yesterday's self portrait.

Bittersweet Memories

Today it was an eye opener to unpack a box that has been in storage for 14 years. So many bittersweet memories. Photos from before the divorce. Photos of pets no longer with us. Photos of pets I don't even remember having. When did we have a rabbit named Daffodil? Maybe it was a friend's rabbit.  Lots of news clippings and advertisements from when I worked as a psychic, a belly dancer, and other things.  Photos of a Renaissance Faire I danced at. Where did the life go that I once had?


Lots of mail art, both received and meant to be sent. Letters to a guy that broke my heart. Tons of jewelry from my dancing days. Stickers and stationary and old make-up. A letter from an old friend who has the same name as my grandson. Goals realized and unrealized.

People wonder why I don't go through all my boxes and get things squared away.  I don't go through them because it's heart wrenching. I still feel angry and hurt when my boyfriend's Mom said, "We'll just send Dick over there (her husband). He'll throw everything away." How callous. No one but me can decide what is important to me and worth saving. Would he even know what to do with a tarot deck? Would he know which photos were of my child's first steps or their 5th birthday party? Would he know a valuable piece of jewelry from a sentimental one and which one had more value? He's got Alzheimer's. He barely even knows where he lives so it was asinine for her to suggest sending him over. And why is she so concerned with my stuff? Hasn't she got enough to worry about taking care of him 24/7. I'm not married and I don't need a nagging mother-in-law.

A mermaid ring I found in storage.

Postoids from a long ago mail art project.

All In A Day

Today I made a list of things I could do immediately to improve my life. It was refreshing to see that there were things that I could do right now. Like laundry.

I got some great roasted garlic salsa at the local market. We had lunch at the laundromat that also included a banana, saltines and pepper jack cheese. The laundromat is next door to a grocery/hardware store which comes in handy sometimes.  I worked on my knitting while the clothes were tumbling.

I wanted to get more knitting done but we were done before you know it. It goes a lot faster with 2 people to fold clothes and schlep things in and out of the truck.

Then I had a surprise on the way home when the sky roof panel on the truck came crashing down on our heads!  I blame the bumpy dirt road and the fact that he tried to open it last Sat. and didn't get it screwed back in tight. Glad I wasn't on a freeway when that happened. Then the gasket fell down and he yelled "Snake". Very funny. Actually it was kind of funny because I'm not afraid of snakes.

Small Improvements Will Equal Big Results

Suddenly I have more confidence. My life is finally going in a direction I want it to go. I give some of that credit to Bob Parsons and his success list. I pick one or two of those each day and try to do something on it. http://www.bobparsons.me/archive_article.php?entry_id=120 
Scroll down, the list is towards the bottom.

I'm making myself slow down and get more sleep so I won't have a relapse of the cold from hell. I took a long nap. I'm tracking my eating. I'm not trying to change it yet on a conscious level. Merely being aware will do a lot towards changing it. I thought I'd just track it for a few weeks and resist the urge to feel like a failure because my eating habits are so poor. I'm pretty sure my subconscious mind will assimilate the changes over time.

I'm nourishing old friendships online. I'm adding people to my Facebook. I'm making improvements daily.

No Wonder I'm Overweight

After reading Bob Parson's 16 Rules For Success #9 'Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched improves', I decided to go back to the Sparkpeople website and track my eating. It's not even 2 PM and I've consumed all but 338 of my allotted daily calories, none of which contained any fresh vegetables. Sigh. And I haven't had lunch or dinner yet.

Glorious Sunset

To say it's windy today is an understatement. I'm surprised it didn't blow my clothes right off. I did get some nice sunset photos yesterday though. I grabbed a cheeseburger at the local diner called 247. Considering there wasn't much food in the house and I didn't want to waste time or gas driving all the way to Apple Valley to go grocery shopping, it was well worth it.

Tomorrow the rocket boys will be back at the dry lake bet shooting off their model rockets if the wind calms down and it's not raining. I hope we can go watch. With both of us being sick, we didn't make any weekend plans, but I'm seriously getting cabin fever.

Smugmug

http://harper.smugmug.com/ I'm checking out smugmug and their free trial as a way to sell my photos. Anyone have an opinion of that site?

A sunset from this evening.