Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Thanksgiving List

So, I will name one thing or perhaps a person and list all the reasons I am thankful for it or them.

This week it is fall weather.
1. I love the brilliant, clear blue skies this time of year.
2. I love the lower humidity.
3. I love the smells in the air. Drying leaves, backyard fire-pits and wood stove smoke.
4. The start of wearing sweaters, jackets and boots, and sometimes hats.
5. Waking up to a chill in the air, bundling up in a robe, and really relishing that morning cup of java!
6. Chili, apples, and baking.
7. Walking, biking, and hiking in the lower air temps and humidity. I can breathe!!
8. It's still warm enough many days to wear flip flops, but cool enough to wear a robe in the morning and a sweatshirt in the evening.
9. Knowing that this is the time before all the holiday rush and a chance to catch your breath allowing you to mentally prepare for the holiday season.
10. The way the cool/warm days and chilly nights and morns ease you into the coming winter weather.
11. The hope that those plants that will shortly be dormant, "going to sleep" for the winter are dropping seeds and preparing to rest so that next spring new life will issue forth after a long winter.

So there's my list. I welcome any comments.

Friday, October 1, 2010

My First Blogger List: Pet Peeves

I am the queen of lists.
Just ask my family. And our past sitters. And anyone I did ministry or worked with.
Heck! Ask Fred! Although I am getting better. I don't add things into my list that weren't originally on it quite as often! You know you do this too if you even remotely have performance motivation issues!
I'm going to try to do a Thanksgiving List once a week and name one thing I am thankful about and a list of "whys" and reasons that I am thankful for it.

However THIS list is a list of  Pet Peeves:


1. People who do not use their turn signals
2. When I say "Thank you" to a fast food drive-thru window attendant and they act like they're doing ME a favor by taking my money and doing their job and never even acknowledge my presence.
3. People who do not trim back their shrubs and trees that overhang the streets and sidewalks that I walk on.
4. People who say that "his barks worse than his bite" as their dog lunges at me on my walk and they struggle to hold him or her back with the leash.
5. People who drive too close to me when I am walking. (There! Got all the walking ones out!)
6. When I love, love something whether a grocery item or a clothing or beauty product item or whatever and they discontinue it, stop stocking it, or replace it with a "new and improved" version.
7. Being put on hold and being made to jump through hoops in a voice menu.
8. talking to someone who is either answering their phone, checking their phone, or getting ready to and then using their phone, but never says "Excuse me" or " I'm sorry I do need to take this". Just hold up a sign that says "You are not my priority right now, but when I'm talking to someone else in person, I'll be sure to call or text you."
9. The way so many products are encased in plastic so that you have to use a sharp object to get it open at the risk of impaling yourself with the sharp object or the jagged edges of the plastic you've just attempted to cut open.
10. Why would there be some clothing items that merchandisers decide to make in "petite" but not in "tall"? So, I guess this pet peeve is "height bias".
11. Talking to someone who I can tell is already thinking of and formulating their response and not really paying attention to (the rest of) what I am saying. (I KNOW I have done this and THAT'S a pet peeve as well!)
12. Waiting in  a checkout line forever  and then another checker opens up just after I've placed the last item from my cart onto the little conveyor belt.
I am guessing there are plenty of you that have your own pet peeves and would love for you to share them with the rest of us if you want.
I am siting outside on our screened porch watching those giant black and yellow bumble bees swirl around the Mexican Petunias just outside our porch. They are languid yet somewhat frantic if that makes any sense. They are "languidly frantic" or "frantically languid".






They are drifting around in the October sunshine out there as though it is going to be summer forever and yet they seem to know "the gig is up"!
It's as if their internal body clocks know that there's only so much time until they'll be oh-so-dormant and they are trying to store up as much nectar or whatever they do as fast much as possible before the first killing frost.

                      I also haven't seen the hummingbirds as frequently this past few days.



The other birds aren't at the feeders as much now that their young are mostly grown and on their own.
Mama Flicker (woodpecker) feeding her young.
You'll need to click on this photo because Blogger won't show the whole picture for some formatting reason, but if you click on it you'll see the whole thing.


It's as if everyone, at least the above-mentioned critters, but me is ready for the next event, the next season...in the year, in their life. I love fall, I do not love St Louis winters!!! Wait! I feel like I missed spring and summer!I also am keenly aware that part of the reason that this year and its seasons passed oh so fast is I was preoccupied with caring for my dying parent and that sort of takes your focus off of the everyday passage of time.

Well, the seasons are changing and I will with them, I just at times am struck by how unprepared I am for what's next. Then I think, " I don't have to be all prepared, I just need to continue to practice being in God's presence and HE will prepare me and my heart and mind and soul as well as all the swirl of life's ebb and flow around me.'
Then I get flooded with this peace.
It's sort of like I'm languidly approaching the frenzy of the world and the days ahead. I like that!