Job finished!

Well, I finished my medical directory job today. I printed the final pages abot 2:30 and have been saving and backing up data and word processing files to be on the safe side.


It seemed to go faster this year and I am assuming that is because I have been doing this so many years that I have pretty much figured out the best way to to it all.


But I think also for the first time in many years, I did it with nothing else hanging over me. Knowing that this job was all I had to do (read worry about!) made it go much faster. Even the fact that I have a new computer and a new printer, and I ended up having to print each page of the copy separately because I kept getting line spaces and hard column codes inserted in strange places. So I would get each page right and then print it before going on to the next one. A little slow but easier than trying to print it over and over, wasting expensive laser paper and toner.


I have been escorted every key stroke by my roommates, Bella and Fred. This afternoon it was almost like Fred knew it was over, because I caught this picture just now (his favoriate sleeping position).

17th Century Nun's Prayer

Lord you know better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old.

Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out every body's affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but You know Lord that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details, give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pain, but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint, some of them are so hard to live with, but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good in unexpected places, talents in unexpected people, and give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.
Amen

I need to pray this daily!

Dreams

We have a program here in the Arkasnas Diocese of the Episcopal Church called Seadworks that explores personal spirituality through dreams. I have never been much of a believer in the work this group does, although I know that many people benefit greatly from it.

I do think that our subconscious speaks to us through our dreams and that if we understand what they mean we can get new insights about ourselves.

I dreamed last night of Mother and Daddy, together, for the first time. Although the edges of the dream became vague after I woke up, the main part of it remains clear in my mind. They were in a small cottage furnished with a bed and two comfortable chairs. Mother was cooking something on a camp stove and Daddy was working on a balkly window shade. I was there and they were discussing arrangements for an air mattress for me to sleep on.

That is what I remember now in the light of day. Very mundane things, but so typical of their life. My subconscious reminding me they are together and happy?

Redheaded Females

I imagine everyone knows that Elizabeth I was a red head, but did you know that Cleopatra had red hair, and my favorite poet, Emily Dickinson was also red headed. I have red heads in my more immediate life, the niece to whom I am "tamsaunt" is a red head, with a gene from her grandfather, my dad.
But the red headed female with which I am most intimately involved is Bella, the cat
Red heads are characterized in stereotype as being fiery tempered and Bella certainly fits that description. When held down for a pedicure or immunization she hisses and spits with vehemence. But when released she will lick the hand that held her, so she doesn’t hold a grudge.
But nowhere does her redheadedness show more than with Fred, the new guy on the block. Fred is a pretty laid back guy, and since he was used to being with older cats he accepts her dominance–mostly. But when she has picked just a little too much, he will stand his ground, rearing up on his hindquarters and fending her off with his front paws. When things get too tense, he comes and sits on my lap and lets me do the fending off.
There are days when I despair of ever having real harmony in the house again, and then we will have two or three days when she seems to be accepting him.. I take hope in those days, but yesterday was not one of them! So, here’s to redheads everwhere.

Gobsmacked by the cold!

For those of you who do not know the meaning of "Gobsmacked" it’s something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks. While I wasn't exactly speechless, I was certainly dead in my tracks yesterday when the midday temperature barely made it to 24F degrees.

I am like a lizard when it comes to cold weather, my body just shuts down and concentrates on trying to survive. I had a lot of work I had planned to do yesterday on my medical society project, but my hands were so cold I couldn't control the mouse on my computer, let alone type with any accuracy, so wrapped in many layers of sweaters, long johns, shawls, plush throws and two live hot water bottles named Bella and Fred, I sat in my comfy chair and read all day long. Thanks be for my Kindle, because I read 2 1/2 books on it with only one finger exposed to press the page forward button!

I have aways been a hot house plant. My first tour in the Foreign Service was in Korea. I arrived there in February on a bright sunny day and was hit with 18 degree weather at noon. I had experienced some cold weather in the four previous years in Washington DC but I was not prepared either emotionally or wardrobely (sic) for long days of very cold weather.

I tried to avoid cold places after that with pretty good success although I did spend a winter in London that was called the coldest winter since 1947 when we had frozen snow and ice on the streets over over two weeks. But other than that I spent most of my career in places with wonderfully mild to warm weather, i.e., Nigeria, Taiwan, Damascus, Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

The good news about yesterday's weather is that sometime during the night the winds switched to the south and it started getting warmer. It was 34 degrees when I got up this morning and we are forecast to have a high today in the high 50s, something I can live with.

So out of hibernation and back to work today.

A new look for the New Year

I liked what JB did to her blog so I got inspired to do something new with mine. The picture of clouds is one I took this summer in England. We saw oil sketches by Constable at the Victoria and Albert museum while in London and then one day when I was out walking in the country around our hotel I took this picture which looks very much like one of the cloud formations in the paintings.

When I got back I got a copy of one of the oil sketches and have it hanging where I see it every day.

I have a new key board, really a new computer also (a Christmas present) and I am having a very hard time getting used to it. Those of us who learned to type on a manual typewriter have trouble with computer keyboards anyway. The one that came with the computer was impossible so I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse, giving up my beloved trackball mouse in the process.

Fred had a little adventure yesterday--a tiny one. I was bringing things in the house and thought the front door was pulled shut--it wasn't. When I got back with the next load, he was sitting on the front porch. Bella was sitting just inside the door watching him. I didn't make a big deal, I just pushed the door wide open and started in and he came in behind me. Then I got scared, because he doesn't wear a collar and if he gets out he could end up in the pound!

Happy New Year!

Well 2008 is over and we have started on 2009. Christmas was subdued, my mother's older sister died Dec 19 and we had the funeral on the 22nd. Since Mother died just a year earlier, it brought back some of that sadness also. We have informed their surviving sibling, my aunt Mackie, that under no circumstances may she die in December.

I closed the books for the Bookstore in the black, not much but enough to guarantee we continue for at least another year. We are a non-profit but you do have to have operating funds.

Fred is settling in well

and Bella has found a new place to nap:

Since I am going to need that mail tray in a couple of days I hope she gets tired of it!