Happy New Year Past Life

Happy New Year, 'hood! Here's a little ditty I found on You Tube from Tacoma's First Night celebration 2008. The music, editing, and sights on this production are pretty cool. Enjoy! Peace.

Your Invitation to Education

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US FOR A
SCREENING OF THE AWARD-WINNING
LYME DOCUMENTARY "UNDER OUR SKIN"

This event is
dedicated to the memory of
Leslie Rae Wermers
7/7/'67 ~ 11/2/'08
A Lyme Warrior

WHEN: Tues. Jan. 13th. 6:30pm
WHERE: Gig Harbor High School
ADMISSION: Free
(Donations may be made to Open Eye Pictures for the Turn the Corner Foundation, which funds Lyme disease research and education)

FOLLOWING THE FILM WILL BE A Q. & A. SESSION WITH A PANEL CONSISTING OF:
A Lyme-literate MD
A Lyme-literate ND
A Lyme-literate RN
Chronic Lyme patients
A full-time caregiver

OUR GOAL:
ADVOCATE & EDUCATE IN WA. STATE!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/WALDUC-Support/

Lyme disease (with co-infections) is the fastest-growing vector-borne disease in the world today, an estimated 200,000 possible new infections every year in N. America.

December 30th. Sunrise

Golden skies in the morning,
Wind will rise
So take warning!

Tagging & Sex In The Backyard!

So, there seems to be a "tagging" game in blogs lately...a nice idea for getting the word out about each other's writings. My problem is that I don't know about many other bloggers, except the good folks here in the neighbourhood. I'm not much of a surfer (just not enough hours in the day) and, perhaps selfishly, my need to write is often greater than my need to read. When I was recently tagged, I felt a panic that I could not come up with one, let alone six!

Yesterday, with great serendipity-doo-dah, a bandmate of mine sent me an email and told me to check his friend Sally's writing out. With a friend named Poppy, they put out a blog called "Mixed Greens" which is just great and I wanted to point you in their direction.

In particular, I was told to check out this one particularly fascinating entry with a video. Mark's email was cryptic...and his subject line made me quite curious. "Sex in the backyard," it said. Well, I don't know too many people who wouldn't take the bait...though I was slightly nervous as I clicked on the link!

Oh my dear friends...you just HAVE to see this video, if only to prove to yourself that you are a genuine mossback who belongs here! I do believe you will also really enjoy the writing. I know I'll be going back. I've failed miserably at the tagging game...but I think I've found a treasure to share, so I shall. You ready for a little sex in the backyard?

http://mixedgreensblog.com/2008/12/27/under-the-table/whats-really-going-on-in-your-backyard/

It's Never Too Late To Explore New Horizons

It's been almost two years since the opportunity was made by The News Tribune for readers to blog at "In Your Neighborhood". Prior to that opportunity I was only vaguely aware of what has now become for me - the blogging universe, and it's difficult to remember on some days how life managed to be in those days before I got most all of my news online.

So it was with a great deal of interest that I read about the exploits of a fellow Washington State blogger by the name of Lorrene Lemaster, 80, whose story was profiled in a story by Pat Muir, at the Yakima Herald Republic and then picked up by the Seattle Times ("Yakima grandma is a rarity - a blogging octogenarian", Sunday, December 28, 2008).

According to Muir, Lemaster credits "letter writing....is how she developed the style, pacing and tone that make her blog so hard to stop reading." After reading this, I stopped briefly to weigh this bit of reasoning on my own and realized that for me it makes all the sense in the world.

But this also brought a thought to mind that this question of what skills we had prior to coming to this reader site played the largest or greatest role in what has come to be our regular output. So I'd like to take this moment to bounce this idea off my colleagues on the blog. So what do you all think?

Additionally were there any other factors that led you to take up blogging for the newspaper, rather than at a later date, or independently, or at yet another site, etc. Of course, if you haven't had the pleasure of doing so (readers as well as on-site bloggers), I'd encourage you to check out Lemaster's blog by clicking the link right here.

It's Getting Cold And Grey Outside... But

I could see green fields, the melting snow, cleared streets, and I got in my car and went shopping.












Mild temperature, sun bright enough for sun glasses, and I just filled my house bound lungs with fresh air!








I was ready to start getting out to see what is going on and grooving with folks on the streets, at work, by phone, by blog... warm sunshine, warming my heart!!!

Time to groove through the grey days with Grover Washington

Cleaning Up My Act

Spring cleaning is good, but New Year’s cleaning is even better. It plays into the theme of discarding the spiritual clutter in our lives by making resolutions when we discard the clutter of our physical lives. In the Spring the weather is likely to distract you from an inside mission and the garden will call you as well.

Recently I was able to avail myself of the enforced seclusion of the snow storm by sorting, dusting, vacuuming and general cleaning. I have plenty left to do and will pause long enough to head to the coast to tend to my mother, but I have a few days when I return before I go back to work and intend to take up where I’m leaving off. Not only do I want to be cleaner and more organized for the New Year, I hope to keep up with it this year.

Along with developing a new relationship with my things I hope to develop a new relationship with my money. This would be a good exercise even were we not in a recession, but takes on a new urgency when trying to make do in hard times.

I am setting up an accounting system of a sort to keep track of every penny I have as advised in Your Money or Your Life. I will keep track of what is food spending vs. nonfood spending. I am particularly interested in those amounts as I believe that food and discretionary spending is the only sector of spending that I have control over. I want to see where I’m putting my money, or as Dominguez and Robin say in Your Money or Your Life, where I’m putting my life energy.

It’s a revelation to me to think of a pay check in terms of life energy, but that’s what it is. I am giving my time and my life to receive that money which deserves conscious spending. Obviously keeping good accounts (especially when one has been as lax as I in knowing how much money I have) will cost me time, but getting a handle on where my money goes will make it time well spent.

Another aspect of spending my life energy is to give it to others thoughtfully. I am too often one to submit to someone else’s desires in order to please someone special. It is in my nature to nurture those I care for, but I am going to nurture myself more in 2009 and say “no thank you” without explanation more often. At nearly 58 and past middle age, my time is more valuable than ever.

All this de-cluttering and voluntary simplicity not only will benefit me, but the environment as well. By keeping unneeded items in the thrift circuit and making purchases wisely, I can impact landfills and the air while keeping my money in my purse. I may not be able to afford a farm or have the expertise to run one, but I can make a difference in my little corner of the universe.

And so my time during this break from work is being spent cleaning the spiritual, physical, and financial clutter out of my life. January 1st is a great time for new beginnings and recommitments to last year’s resolutions.

Next stop, planning a garden and building a chicken coop.

Image by media.rd.com