MOVING FORWARD...QUIT BITCHIN' & DO SOMETHING!

It's Friday the 13th.  It has been a good day.  There was sunshine today. Trying to catch of for the past several years!
 Workcamp is full now of teens and there is a wait list.  The residents for this summer are wonderful gracious people who have a wide variety of needs.  The teens are going to get a rich and intimate experience in July!  Over half of the 26 work crews have been adopted by civic,church and business groups for lunch deliveries.  It's all going very smoothly thank God!  In upcoming posts, I plan to take photos of downtown so that folks can get a feeling of what we are in the middle of in the hot July sun.  I am a crybaby now (yes, I have been so stoic most of my 67 years!) so there have been more than a couple of homes I left and parked a few streets over to compose myself.  There are going to be some incredible happenings at some of these homes.

I am writing songs and music after 40 years of silence.  I just wrote a song about one of our residents the other night.  I will be putting them up here occasionally once I figure out how.  Also, I know the videos from the previous post didn't work.  I have forgotten how to do the links, but will get my brain sorted to do it soon.  I am loving singing again.  My mom always said I "talked like Gomer Pyle, but I sang like Jim Nabors".  I am super critical of myself tho, so the songs I have written have only been shared with two people on CDs and I have shared a random song with a couple of girlfriends.  It's hard to explain, but when I lay these offerings up, it's like standing onstage  and I forgot my clothes!  Most of you recognize that old dream!
O well , I am trying to organize my thoughts here, but it looks like they are going to be random again LOL.
I ordered a new, small 61 key Yamaha keyboard with tons of other sounds because banging out songs on my piano is getting hard to express really what I'm hearing in my head...not vocally, but playing the piano for me is limited.  Want to produce a NORA JONES kind of accompanyment.
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So "Chuck" was here early this morning.  A pump had been running all night and all of the water was pumped out of the 25 year old pool.  The liner hadn't been replaced in 13 years and is overdue.  So, another check off my list.
I had to replace the ceiling fans in the living area because one of them stopped working after continuously running for 30 plus years so I had both of them replaced.

This young 45 year old kid (well he looked like a young kid) named "RANDALL", came and was like a squirrel up and down the ladder as I assembled the parts and handed them to him. We talked about his sons and their journeys.   He was very sweet.  He said , "Maam, I would feel really bad driving out of the driveway if I didn't fix that gutter hanging down over your garage front before I left".  When he finished, I hugged him, paid him in cash and told him he was a gem of a guy and thanked him for his generosity and good work. I'm a firm believer if you encourage people and are kind, it will come back to you tenfold!

OK, back to the pool story. For about 4 years I have fought with the pool and now it feels so good think of  it remedied and ready for this summer. It is all worth it when I am floating in the dark, listening to the whipperwills, and the owls calling to each other and seeing the occasional bat swoop by me to scoop up a sip of water.  Fires by the pool in the evenings are wonderful in the fall too.

 

After typing for what seemed like forever, I took off for Boulevard Flowers.  Too early to purchase marigolds (love them because they are sturdy and grow back year after year).  I didn't fall into the pansy trap although their little faces were begging me to take them home to last only for a few weeks.

I don't know the names of the plants I chose, but the gardener assured me that they would live until the frost this fall, so I bought enough for the barrel around the mailbox, the barrels by the garage door and the little patch of dirt running along the front sidewalk.  My only hesitation there was that it could be good hiding cover for snakes.  Their beauty won though.  Sorry, you can't see them very well in this photo.

-  Last night was supposed to be my first SWING DANCE CLASS at the Y, but too germy to be
   grabbing hands with some stranger.  To strengthen my ankle for the big "jump" on the 28th I am taking a Tai Chi class and a Line Dancing class (definitely not country music!).  The swing class happens on Thursday nights from 7-8pm.  I'm very excited to try it, but I have to get over holding hands and dancing with a stranger.
You know...it's not about my getting sick or getting the virus.  It's about me picking it up and carrying it to someone vulnerable.  That's how it spreads...not me getting sick but carrying it to someone else. I'm  not risking it right now though.   Will wait a couple weeks.

-  I have an invite to come stay at David & Jerry's estate on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for
EASTER.  Ben is working and Al says she might go with me.  I plan to go for at least two nights even if I travel alone.  I haven't been across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel in Y E A R S !

-  Al had planned to come down this weekend, but with all the international traffic coming through their office, she is afraid of bringing something down to infect me.  Lots going on in that arena both work and personally.  More in future posts.

-  People know I LOVE GETTING CARDS.  Linda D sends me the funniest and kindest cards ever.  I also get the sweetest notes from my 97 year old mentor &sage  Sheila.  I received a sweet note/card today from a dear friend.  So in this time of recluse, I think people might be stepping back and possibly writing more.  That could be a plus for this Corona situation. The Hallmark people should make a killing.

-  I am holding off on my vocals about Gaza and the rest of Palestine.  So much is happening over there and it is so tragic.  I just can't open up myself to that right at the moment.  Too much hurt.

Bought Judith another venus fly trap. The first one I surprised her with finally bit the dust! 

I hope family and friends are finding this a good way to stay in touch.  There are so many things that are just too much for Facebook, and all my relatives and friends are not on FB.  It feels good to be back here after such a long stretch of silence.  I'm having fun going back and reading  posts from 2008!  I leave you with this little lady....she's a hoot!! Be sure to read until the end!!