A letter to Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I can’t even imagine the amount of work you have to do. What with keeping us on our toes all the time with the weather and all, along with the fact that you check in with millions of women all over the world once a month. You are very busy that’s for sure, but may I request something from you, if you don’t mind that is. Please stay the hell out of my life. For years you have checked in on me on a regular bases making sure that I never forgot who was in charge. Believe me I have never forgotten. I do realize you have saved me on a number of occasions over the years and for that I really am grateful. I can even accept that you have allowed me to feel the effects of gravity as the number in my years creep higher. I know I have mumbled and cursed as I tried to pull and stretch the little creases that have appeared around my eyes and mouth so they will not be TO noticeable. I have even plucked the dis-coloured strands of hair from my head without too much complaint. I am now reduced to spending my hard earned money on trying to keep the colour in my hair and the wrinkles hidden as best I can. I was even able to cover my mouth before an ear-piercing scream ripped from my lips one morning when I found 1 long, thick and very noticeable hair growing from my chin. With shaking hands I did manage to pluck that little ****er right out by its root!! Can you PLEASE explain where this came from???????Mother Nature I do have to say it’s very rude for you just to pop in whenever you choose to, but it’s inexcusably rude for YOU to invite others to invade my personal space.  What I am really having a problem with is your infrequent visits.  Listen if you still feel you have to check up on me every month that’s ok. I will adjust my schedule to accommodate you, but if you chose to stay away for a few months and then make an unannounced visit I have to say that you are being just plain disrespectful! Can you imagine how over-joyed I was to think I was free from your monthly visits, but alas my happiness was short lived. I don’t know what is worse. Your monthly visits or the times you drop in whenever you choose. I feel I have paid my dues on being a woman and I think it is time for you to stop making me cry at the drop of a hat, or making me burst out with angry words that I never thought would fall from my mouth.  I have lived through every emotion you have chosen to blanket me with at a moment’s notice and I have survived, so have the people around me. It’s time I get a full night’s sleep without waking up in a snow blizzard and wanting to turn on the central air. I no longer want to feel my face and body burning and turning red from having my internal body temperature sky-rocket into the triple digits for no good reason. We as young women are encouraged to accept impending age with grace and dignity. I’m sorry Mother Nature, but I can no longer heed those words while you feel the need to constantly inhabit my life with so many cruel jokes and pranks. Please if you feel even a glimmer of kindness I beg of you to find somewhere else to go when you are bored. I will end this with…..

Respectfully yours…..

DM

Over the hills they go.........

Even though Old Man Winter made an appearance I bundled myself up and took Bentley for his walk. Well actually he took me for a walk, but that’s neither here nor there. I did wait until just before the dinner hour since to be honest I felt too lazy earlier in the day to be bothered. I took my normal route which took me by the golf course and wow did the memories come rushing into my cob webbed mind.

Once upon a time in the cold dark early evening hours a young girl (me) and some friends went to the neighbourhood golf course to do some tobogganing. This is going back more than a few decades ago but watching the children screaming with delight as they slid, turned, twirled and tumbled down the snow covered hills brought back many happy memories. As Bentley sniffed around I stood watching the children and as I shivered from the frigid cold I shook my head. Those children didn’t give 2 hoots how cold it was. Their laughter and screams of fun echoed through the early evening air. Oh to be young again! Not worrying about how cold your hands, feet or legs are, but instead ignoring the fact and having fun! Even the long tiring trek up the hills

didn’t seem to deter the children. With a smile on my face I made my way back home so that I could warm up with a hot chocolate and a nice neat shot of Baileys! What a delicious appetizer while waiting for dinner to finish cooking on a cold January evening. I guess there are a FEW benefits of being a grown up!

From Rabbit to Dragon

I’m not really into astrology, but sometimes it is fun to read your horoscope and find out if there was even the tiniest bit of truth to the forecasted telling. The other forecast I kind of enjoy is the Chinese Astrology. Today I was reading all the different forecast Astrology’s for my sign Sagittarius, and had to laugh at a few of the different forecasts’ for me. I was born during the Year of the Rat, but the year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. This is what the Chinese Astrology has predicated for me during the Year of the Dragon!!  

In a Dragon year, everything is magnified tenfold. And after the rather meat-and-potatoes Metal Rabbit year we just lived through in 2011, we are in for the ride of our lives. Commotion, turmoil and general hullabaloo will characterize the Dragon year ahead. As of January 23, 2012, better get ready to rock and roll -- or else crawl under a rock until it's over.

Think of the Water Dragon year as a 12-month-long, bumpy road with interludes of elaborate and joyful festivity. Fortunes will be made and lost with lightning speed. All events will be charged with a rare intensity. In short, 2012 will be a year of derring-do, hell-raising and exorbitant fun.

Dragon years are favorable for the enterprising and ambitious. If you want to succeed at something major, start early in the Dragon year. Don't give up. Express yourself openly. Show no fear. In China, it is said that the Dragon year brings luck to those who dare to speak out, to take charge and even to take over.

Dragons are fearless and direct to a fault -- but they are not without ruse. They're clever go-getters who are always in the running for first place. They want to excel at every endeavor. Dragon years, therefore, are propitious for people who have the courage to take risks, to stand fast in the face of danger and hold firmly to their principles. For those among us who are timid and shy, who shrink in the face of challenge and who daren't speak up for what it is they want, Dragon years can be rigorous and even a little bit frightening at times.

If you are a Fearful Freddy, you won't need tranquilizers. The Water Dragon won't charge into your kitchen and grab you by the throat. But the months ahead will be tumultuous, stormy and chock-full of rebellion. Dragons may be despotic, but they’re also benevolent and sentimental. In this coming Dragon year, anyone who’s hurting is going to hoot and holler until they get their fair share.

Hummmmmmmmmmmm…now dis sounz veddy veddy interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.

Well so far this brand new year has been good. Oh I know, it’s only 9 days into it, but hey, for me, 9 days is a milestone. The weather has been rather different and some days I can honestly say it’s been downright enjoyable. Yes “Old Man Winter” is going to rear it’s ugly head sometime, but for now I’m just going to enjoy the small amount of sunshine and yes, even the rain while I can. It’s a lot better than envisioning the sound of shovels scrapping off snow and ice from the walkways or the rumbling of snow blowers as they shoot snow out the machine gun like cannon. I am having a wee little problem when it comes to having a very rambunctious Golden Retriever who will find any small patch of dirt and manage to coat his entire body with mud and then expect to be let into the main area of the house as though nothing was wrong. He gives me that “sad, I’m sorry look” and that in turns sends the guilt racing through me as I block him in the MUD room. Ah the joys of owning a dog!

One of my New Years resolutions was that I was not going to blog about my work any more. I had a chance to look back over my old blogging posts and realized that wasting my time and energy worrying about something that I have no control over was not very productive, so…………… no more work blogs, unless there is something really good that has happened. Then and only then will I rip the tape off my hands and let my fingers do the telling. Until that time my fingers will refrain from boring everyone with the same old thing over and over again.

Friday morning I went to get my hair done and what a wonderful laugh filled 2 hours I had. There were times when I was so glad I was sitting because good lord I would have pee’d my pants. So many jokes and a few memories of people’s vacations were told that I’m sure the laughter was heard through the closed doors and windows. I have gotten to know the woman that does my hair on a more personal level and we have connected in many avenues of our lives. What can I say? Sometimes a Hairdresser can be a friend as well as sounding board. She’s heard me gripe about work, co-workers and home life and has extended her hand and shoulder on more than one occasion. This is the kind of Salon where one is offered a tea or coffee while having their locks trimmed, dyed, styled or streaked so…….. with dryers going, scissors snipping and laughter galore, it was the quickest 2 hours that I have spent in a long time!

Always remember this my dear friends.......

All the things we really like are either immoral, illegal or fattening.

The Green Thing..................

I have this posted on my Facebook as well, but to all those who do not have Facebook, I thought I'd share it here as well.

Happy reading.......

Remember when.....
Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then…? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have.... Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right. We didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Happy New Year