The question

The question is less

"Whose fault is the flood?"

than

"Who is able to mop?"

There are many problems in our city,
our country,
our world;
for 11 months,
I've sat on the sidelines
and contemplated them all.

A mop has been handed to me -
and I'm back in the game of cleaning up.

It's time.

First 'official' day is tomorrow.

Weeks end ...

Tea Roses!

It's been too long!

But its been a discouraging week

since I was disfigured and disabled by arthritis

and I needed something cheerful;

I couldn't do much else - 

but admire flowers, 

get xrays, bloodwork,

wait for the swelling to go down

and push a camera button!

Yesterday my finger felt like it was one minute away 

from needing a fasciotomy!

As my Peeps will say in a few days -

I need beauty!

Writing with a pen is impossible,

even typing hurts;

hoping this flare recedes before I start working again full time!

Feeling as bleak as the weather.

Being wrong

Have you considered the possibility 

that everything you believe is wrong,

not merely off a bit, 

but totally wrong,

nothing like things as they really are?

If you’ve done this, 

you know how durably fragile 

those phantoms we hold in our heads are,

those wisps of thought 

that people die and kill for,

betray lovers for, 

give up lifelong friendships for.

If you’ve not done this, 

you probably don’t understand this poem 

or think it’s not even a poem, 

but a bit of opaque nonsense,

occupying too much of your day’s time, 

so you probably should stop reading it here, 

now.

But if you’ve arrived at this line,

maybe, 

just maybe, 

you’re open to that possibility,

the possibility of being absolutely completely wrong,

about everything that matters.

How different the world seems then. 

everyone who was your enemy is your friend,

everything you hated, 

you now love,

and everything you love 

slips through your fingers 

like sand.

All of this is my way of saying
I'm still here;
struggling with working again,
finding time for self and soul
and
being proven wrong about many things.

It's exciting,
it's scary,
it's real life.

More later.

And the winner is -

MUCH better!

Ordered and on the way.

~~~~~~~~~~

After a weekend with 70 degree temperatures, 

I was amazed to receive this photo from family in Iowa,

just 4 hours north,

of their weekend!

While I have missed having snow this winter,

now that I'm about to go back to work,

I don't want it to start in now!

~~~~~~~~~~

Ash Wednesday will be here before you know it -

and I've been busy getting ready for 

Peep Show 2015.

Marking the 3rd year of this obsession...

see here, here, here and here for previous samples of the madness.

Don't even want to think about what it means that it just doesn't get old!
Get ready!

Goodbye borders -

the last vestiges of the 80's are gone!

(Well, I'm still here 

but that can't be helped!)

The bathroom is finally stripped

and ready for the plasterer/painter 

sometime in the spring.

(The kitchen still has wallpaper behind the refrigerator 

that has to be vanquished before the date can be set;

although that should be removed by next week!

Celebrating baby steps

as they come...)

 Time to concentrate on the all important issue of 

which shower curtain to get!

Have to focus my decorating 'vision' around something, right? 

Keeping in mind that the tub and tile are light blue

(and I'm NOT completely remodeling to remove them!)

and the walls will be a solid pale yellow -

the 3 top contenders so far:

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

"Dog people" -

a descriptor that, apparently, 

has many meanings!

 Not simply someone who loves canines,

but the perfect material for collages using antique cabinet photos.

A phenomenon that works cross species too!

I can't begin to tell you how much these images appeal to me!

You just KNOW I'll be doing my own versions soon!

Gone to the Dogs...

Now that my 'retirement' is drawing to a close - 

for the time being, at least, -

I wanted to get one more thing off the 'to-do' list.

Flying to Paris?

A trip to NYC?

Come on, you know me better than that;

I'm a simple girl.

I've wanted to see the Dog museum ever since it opened

and, with one thing or another, 

it just hadn't happened.

Well, now it has!

I'm SO glad I went;

what fun.

paintings,
etchings,
photographs,
porcelains,
bronzes;

all breeds
and
all eras.

BTW - the image below is a painting -
so exquisitely fine it looks photographic.

 An absolutely delightful way
to spend the better part of an hour.

Think it's excessive to devote so much time/space
to our canine companions?
Consider this-
the National Retail Federation estimated Americans will spend $700 MILLION
on Valentines Day presents -
for their pets!

Don't tell my two though -
I'm throwing them a bone and calling it a night!