October's end...

3 days left before we start the dreaded move into Holiday Mode.

  Already the stores are usurping their Thanksgiving displays with Christmas. No wonder we're all so crazy this time of year. What a blessing is a life that encompasses One Day At A Time as it's basic tenet...it [almost] saves me from the insanity that comes with this time of year. It feels like dancing as fast as you can, but never quite catching up to the music. lol  If I let it.

We're are trying to decide if we'll be going to Wisconsin this year or staying home and then taking a trip someplace warm in January (if we can pull it off).  The Irishman is suddenly feeling guilty that he has been taking all the trips the past couple of years and I am always staying home. lol  He still has a ways to go, truth be told, to catch up with all the travelling I did up to 5 years ago. It is such a chore to try to go somewhere...so many animals and so few people willing to help or even be hired to do it.   We shall see...

 I really wanted to get to back to daily blogging this past summer and it didn't happen. Life got in the way. Now it's time for NaNoWriMo, and I am completely out of the habit of writing every day. We'll see if I can make it through this year or not.  I have my pal Mary to look up to for inspiration and fun...If anyone can inspire me, she can [again].  I will never be a writer...I have no discipline. None whatsoever.  I am like an errant child, whining and griping all the way. I won't write for days on end, and then I'll go crazy and write like a maniac for hours and hours without stopping.  

 I am one sick puppy.

 On a brighter note...I got some peppers strung and am getting ready to start some French Onion Soup. The Irishman is working today OT, this is our one day that we try to spend together...he will be home this afternoon sometime, I guess, and not work the whole 10 hour shift that he normally does. So..I shall make soup. And clean and putter and do anything except all the things I should be doing. lol

  Cold cold this morning. It was 10:30 before the frost finally burned off...a hard one this first time of the year. I need to sally forth and check out my backyard...

  Blessings and salutations to all y'all out there. Have a blessed day....

Namaste.

October 18, 2009...Sunday night

This is a plant called coral bells ..it comes back every year if you baby it just a little, and the leaves come in every color from this light green with red veins to a dark crimson color. This is at my house in NC, from 5 years ago. This little thing would just bloom like crazy every year...the most beautiful and fragile looking white flowers. It's really quite gorgeous.


The yard and gardens have that yucky end of season look. Here in the midwest, when things are done, they are DONE. lol I suddenly have giant radishes coming up in the garden though...rather, they're leafing out again. I planted icicle radishes all scattered throughout the gardens because they are a good form of pest control in an organic garden. Lots of buggies are attracted to them. I've been pulling them up and feeding them to the chickens, who adore them. I even pulled up some volunteer peas...

All my lilies and roses and flowers look terrible, as we just had our first near miss of a frost last night. It's warmer today and tonight, but still chilly. 41 right now @ 10:30. Tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer than it has been. That's fine by me. lol

I brought home a 5 gallon bucket of coffee grounds today from the District meeting. The facilities guy said, I'm throwing these out. He's a friend of mine and I said I'd take them for my garden. He doesn't have a hard time giving them away in the summer apparently. I told him I'd throw 'em in my compost and on my garden beds, if he wanted to keep them for me.

It was a small meeting today, and our delegate was there to give a report on his participation at the 2009 GSO conference. He's a very nice man and it was interesting (to me, anyway). I chaired the meeting in the absence of our DCM...good practice for me. I think when the time comes next year, I will stand for the chair in the election. I've stayed active in service and it brings me great satisfaction...I know lots of people don't like this end of the AA game, but I do.


I'm grateful that I have something to give back. I'm blessed to have had lots of bad experiences in my life that have made me useful to God. I'm really grateful to be sober...to have a good life...and to be me today.

I'm grateful to have made friends in the rooms 19 years ago that are still my friends today. I'm grateful that I know somebody who's sober in almost every state in the union. I'm blessed to have an extended family that reaches across continents, and no matter where I go in the world, I am home.

Waiting for a young girl to call me back who's having a rough time of late. She's going to come out tomorrow and stay a bit and see if we can get through some serious issues and find some possible solutions. I thank my Creator for the opportunity, no matter how far down the scale I had gone, to be useful and helpful and compassionate. And for giving me just enough of everything I need to be able to help someone else from time to time.


Such a deal....



Namaste.