Nesting Eagles Hornby Island

I embedded a live cam if a bald eagle's nest at Hornby Island at the very bottom of the blog. I saw one egg in the nest. Stay tuned!
TTFN

A new Leaf: Counting My Blessings

I decided to try something new today - meditation MY WAY. I was inspired by some Indian fellow on GMA who suggested that meditating on the things one is thankful for will enrich one's life in a myriad of ways. Of course he said more than this but this is a summary of what I remember.

I have never been very good at meditating. Maybe I am ADD? No matter how hard I try, my thoughts meander here and there and everywhere. I tried TM back in college but remember being mad at myself for thinking about how cute the guy was who was instructing me and whether he would be able to tell that I wasn't really meditating and if would he hate me for pretending etc. In short, I never could do it.

Today I decided to meditate by counting my blessings in the shower. I chose the shower rather than bedtime (ala the song "count your blessings instead of sheep") because I am blessed with the ability to sleep the moment my head touches the pillow.

I started by reciting in my mind how thankful I am for my family...but then I found myself thinking that the water was too hot so I thought about how thankful I am for hot running water. Next I thought how thankful I am for my health ... but soon found myself noting that I have so much to do today so I pulled the thoughts back by thinking how thankful I am that my time is filled. Each time an unrelated thought crept in, I converted it to a thought about a related blessing. I can do this!

I emerged from the shower with wrinkly skin but feeling refreshed and, well, .... thankful!

March Madness

I am back (hopefully) to blogging after my long, dark, winter hiatus. I am the first to admit that winter saps my energy and joie de vivre. All it takes to revive me is the slightest hint of Spring (ie the Ides of March and a weather forecast that suggests 60 degrees on Monday). So, here I am. Back. I apparently have forgotten that the thermometer read -10 three days ago but never mind. Spring IS around the corner and I am hopeful it will come sooner than later.

My winter this year was particularly long and dark. I was alone for most of the darkest days and found that while I wasn't miserable I wasn't liking it much either. Emil had a mill to start up in Australia and left in early November. I was tempted to join him but thought better of it when his best lifetime (from kindergarten) friend Heinz decided to join him for 7 weeks - it turns out that Australia was on his bucket list. Lizzie came home for Thanksgiving and we both went to Oregon for Christmas.


The stories of our attempts to get to Salem in time for Christmas are sagas in themselves. All flights in and out of Portland were cancelled from Saturday Dec 20th until Dec 22 with only a handful getting in before the 24th. Fortunately I made it out on the 22nd. I didn't even attempt to get on my Dec 20 flight after hearing Lizzie's was cancelled and noting that the raging blizzard outside here would make a trip to the airport difficult. I spent the time (3 hours) instead on the phone with Northwest rebooking for the 22nd. I found out that those who went to the airport ended up spending the night before NWA announced the flight cancellation and were too late by that time to rebook. The waiting list for my flight was 65 and scads more were waiting to get on the waiting list. My flight was delayed 8 hours but we did get out of MSP and made it safely to PDX. My shuttle van ride from Portland to Salem was harrowing (to say the least) and reminded me at times of the Polar Express. The snow was blowing, the power lines were down and the roads were completely snow covered and rutted. There was a long line of vehicles on the only lane of I-5 that was drivable. Lizzie's story was similar to mine only she couldn't get out of Vegas until the 23rd and her shuttle bus never arrived at PDX. A bunch of would-be passengers hired a van taxi to take them the 45 miles. I was madly texting her to get out of the taxi when she told me the driver was not American and he did not have chains on the vehicle. I was thinking Somali like all the drivers in MN but it turned out the guy was from Siberia or some such place and had studs on his tires. Of course my frantic text messages only served to scare Lizzie to death (thanks Mom!). She made it and so did Tony (her boyfriend)! My mom was in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery to correct a bowel blockage so it was going to be an unusual Christmas anyway but the weather added an unexpected wrinkle to visit! As it turned out, Mom was recovering well and the doctor let her come home on Christmas day! The rest of the visit was uneventful. I extended my visit a few days (to Jan 9th) to make sure Mom was going to be ok to stay alone. While I enjoyed spending Christmas with family, I think I will make most of my future trips at less traveled times!



January went on forever. We had nearly a week of sub-zero temperatures (and not wimpy below zero temps either - more like minus 20) and I think the whole month was below freezing.


Emil finally got home the 26th of January - just in time for our Caribbean cruise on the 31st. The cruise was wonderful (though Miami had record cold temps when we arrived and when we left) - warm and sunny with white sand beaches, reggae music and great food and drink. Mom made a remarkable recovery from her surgery just a month before, and was able to make the trip and felt well enough to participate in most of the activities. She shared a cabin with her sister, Charlotte and Betsy shared a cabin with our cousin Margaret Ann. Emil did a great job (and displayed a wonderful sense of humor) in escorting his harem. We visited Samana in the Dominican Republic, Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas VI, Tortola (British VI) and made an unscheduled stop (due to cold and bad weather) at Nassau. The cruise was a short one (7 days) and we were soon back to sub-zero Minnesota.






Enough of the winter talk - it's almost behind us! The days are longer (DST started early) and the sun is warm. We have had a lot of snow in March but it only sticks around a few days - The patches of ground beneath the snow are growing daily - by tomorrow it should be patches of snow on the barren ground instead of the other way around. Emil walked the length of the lake yesterday and we saw a car out on the ice but I am pretty sure that is the last time he can do that!

I communicate with Jessie (in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan) several times a week via telephone, Google IM's and emails. She is doing well - has had some ups and downs and suffered a textbook case of "early termination-itis" (Peace Corps handbook describes this phase nearly every volunteer everywhere experiences: they wonder what am I doing here, am I wasting my time, I thought I would be changing the world and am doing nothing worthwhile here etc etc). She seems to have survived that struggle and has found some meaningful work. It turns out that the job they are sent to do is not always the job they end up doing. Jessie is the first volunteer in her Woman's NGO and the organization itself has changed focus in the time between when they applied for a volunteer and when Jessie arrived. I am certain she will find her way.

Lizzie has had a very challenging class this year. She was warned that one of her students was the most difficult in the whole 1st grade (and her school is 90% school lunch/extremely transient, ESL and low income - we are talking about a school full of difficult students). Lizzie got through to him (he pretended not to understand English but she KNEW he understood and was actually very bright) but had a hard time managing his violent outbursts. A lot of that was cultural (she explained that in his tribe in Africa students could just get up and leave if they didn't want to stay in school any longer) but clearly the child has anger management issues as well. He threw a chair at her one time and nearly knocked her out with a punch from behind another time. She had to press charges for the KO blow so the child would be evaluated for EBD. He ended up being her favorite student but suddenly the family moved to Iowa - leaving her sad that she wouldn't get to see the fruits of her labor! A similar thing happened to her favorite student last year - a move in the middle of the night to San Diego. I hope she won't get discouraged and calloused! She is such a warm, caring teacher and I would hate to see that special part about her change. She is exactly what those children need at this most important time in their lives. It has to be very disappointing not to be able to see the difference she has made to those children but she just has to have faith that she has made a difference!

Selling on eBay is not as fun as it once was. Too many changes - fees are high and the economy is bad all over. Still, I like it a lot - just need to get revved up and excited about it again. I know that I will need to find other venues or set up my own website if I want to grow my business - just have to decide if I really want to grow it or maintain it.

Whew - this is enough writing for now. It's Sunday and Emil is still sleeping. He wants to go to church and I'd like to get a little work done beforehand. TTFN.