Good Morning Sunday, November 30, 2014

Hello World,

Today I woke up to a cat pawing me around 3AM.  She continued to annoy me until I got up at 4 and fed her with her siblings.  When will her “clock” change!  I suppose if I put her out of the room with the door closed, she would just paw on that and the others would paw on the closed door from the inside – I never close that door.  Anyway, I’ll just have to hope I can change her clock somehow – but her constant pawing is “endearing” and annoying at the same time.  Ah life with cats!  That’s what this is all about anyway.

So this morning Richard Rohr got my attention.  He said, “Love is where we came from. And love is where we are going. When we live in love, we will not be afraid to die. We have built a bridge between worlds. As Paul says ‘Love does not come to an end’ and ‘Love never fails’ (1 Corinthians 13:8, 13).”  He goes on to say that we “will know a new freedom” just like the “Promises”!

Yesterday was a great day.  I started off going to Common Solutions.  Great meeting and it was good hearing Patsy speak.  She has attended our Corrections meetings and wants to take meetings into the jails.  So now I have a little more insight into her journey.  Next I wanted to fix my wooden clock and went to Michael’s to find a clock for it.  There was only one left on the shelf so I grabbed it.  It turned out to be a little short, but I decided to “Gorilla” glue it into place so now it’s working fine, although when this clock stops, it may be difficult to fix again without a hammer and chisel.  This is a clock that was given to Beirne and me back in ’85 from our friend Charlie Ross.  It is hand carved with an inscription on the back.  I wonder if he carved it.  He was a good friend that worked for us at The Chef’s Garden many years ago.  He got married and moved to St. Croix.  He had a son named Andrew.  I saw him on FB a while back.  I wonder what ever happened to him and if he’s still married.  I remember him being a “bit wild”.  But I love that clock.  Here is a picture of it:

Charlie’s Clock

I put a picture of a lighthouse from Cape Cod on it that I took a few years back when we had a family reunion in Chatham.  I was amazed at how great that picture came out.  This was before I had an iPhone.  I don’t think the pictures that are taken with my phone are as good as the ones from a digital camera, but it’s just so convenient to take pictures that way.  I still have my digital camera and I’ve been thinking I should get another one, but not sure I want to do that.  It’s just another thing to tote around and the pictures I get with my phone are “good enough”.  I do miss making pictures on glossy paper.  The printer I have that I used to make pictures on glossy paper doesn’t work right any longer.  Now that might be a good thing to research to replace.  I don’t think that’s all that much money and I do like having real “pictures”.

So I’ve taken the plunge.  I wrote Ralph and told him I’d “stand” for secretary of District 20.  I’ve already started working on the minutes format and I’ll need to have Gary switch over the email for the secretary to my email.  I was thinking about the treasurer position.  I don’t know Quick Books so I don’t want to do that, although with as little as we do with money, an excel sheet would probably work out fine.  That is all I do for Corrections.  Anyway, since Brandon may not get any position at Intergroup, perhaps that would be the place for him to be on the Steering Committee.  He is “willing” to serve after all.  Perhaps I’ll suggest that to him after the meeting on Wednesday.  Plus he may get something at Intergroup – more shall be revealed.  Anyway, I’m a little excited about taking on that commitment.  That means I’ll need to go to 2 meetings at the Quarterlies beginning in January.  But I may “give up” the Chair of Grapevine and just be on that committee.  Time will tell.

So today Domino is keeping me company while I blog.  He is so sweet!

Such a pretty cat – for a male!

He is the most unique cat.  He can be very sweet and then he can be wild and biting.  He HATES getting his claws clipped which I mentioned before.  Next time, we’ll put the “mask” on him and hope it calms him down.  I sure hope it does – it’s so stressful for me too!

I started re-reading the book on Steve Jobs.  He was a pretty unique person.  It’s a good book and I’ll probably read some more of it this afternoon after church.  I think I’ll ride Red to Church this morning.  Yesterday I didn’t ride to Common Solutions and was sorry as the day warmed up.  I never got on Red yesterday, but today will be different.  Even though it is 55 degrees this morning, I’ve found that the leather jacket keeps me very “toasty” and keeps the chill out.

John Whiting made homemade soup yesterday and he brought me some last night.  I ate 1/2 of the split pea last night after the Naples Group.  It was REALLY good.  He also made lentil and I’m going to try that tonight.  That was very thoughtful of him.  I was really touched by that gesture.  He said he rode to Immokkalee yesterday on his motorcycle to take a meeting to the jail.  He said it was a “great” ride.  I’m not sure I could keep up with them on their Harleys.  I’m a little slow going and not very risky in my riding.  But I enjoy riding by myself anyway.  It’s pretty awesome.

I’m really happy to know the Whitings.   I LOVE Polly!  She is amazing!  Just realized we have similar birthdays – hers is Dec. 6th and I’m Dec. 7th.  Couldn’t be much closer than that.  Of course she’s 16 years younger than me – found that out on FB, but that doesn’t really matter anymore to me.  She posted a picture of John vacuuming the fan in their house yesterday.  Now that’s a guy worth keeping.  Anyone who would pull out the vacuum and do “housework” has a gold star in my book.

Well, I’m over 1000 words today.  Time to move on to other things – I hear the drying calling me with a buzz so I better pull out the clothes now.  Have a beautiful day today!