Age is Just a Number

A Song for the New Year

Get out of your chair, turn this up and have a little dance to celebrate a New Year....

Stand By Me

Mark as "Unread"

It started with the Divine Inspiration to incorporate the Purple Boxes on my calendar the beginning of this month.  The Purple Boxes were the attempt to apply disc pressure to the wheel speed of my days.  That was about the time of the second interview.  Too metaphoric?

Around February I passively passed along my resume to suspecting individuals due to the fact that the company I currently work for decided to sell 80% of its assets.  Metaphorically, if you take chips off the table then a corresponding number of players need to leave that table, right?  So, in casting my lines I landed a fish.  Sorry, mixing metaphors.  It's 4 a.m. okay?

Here I sit coming into the end of the month.  I will start a new job in two weeks.  My old job is winding down at light speed and my list of To Do's is wide and strong.  Call it driven, call it pride, but it's my list, okay?

Combine all this with an insane inability to manage an Inbox, and I've taken to using my only sanity saftety factor and started marking emails that I need to get back to as "Unread", rendering them black instead of gray, hoping to regrab my attention at a later date - hopefully before two weeks are up.  That's the work email.  I found this same feature on my personal email as well.  Sorry to those of you who are wondering when I'll get back to you.  It's temporary ... I hope to promise.  Needless to say that my once rather nicely paced workdays, where I had time to post a little blog here and there, answer an email or several, have been completely taken over by massive deadline projects; this work stuff really cuts into my personal time.

Until the next sleepless morning, which I hope are few and far between, you know where I am. 

Wednesday Pic

Warm Fuzzies ...

A Worthy Website

I stumbled upon this website earlier this year :   Sierra Trading Post   If you've never heard of it, in short, it is a fun place to shop for big discounts on items for active minded folks, specifically including clothing, outdoor gear and home decor (okay, garden stuff is active minded stuff).  You probably won't find lace here.

It is actually a rather tidy database with sort features to narrow your query, like only finding the closeouts on my size of shoe.  I've had fun window shopping, loading up the shopping cart and eventually closing out the web page after I've long forgotten what I thought I really needed.  No foul, no $ spent.  However, I have ordered a couple things for our upcoming adventure, like a wrinkle free skirt.  I am long on the lookout in the shoe section.   Spouse-man even likes it and sorts on pants or shirts for under $20.   He has yet to purchase anything because when he found several pants for something like $9.95, he went back the next day and they were sold out.  So that's a bit of a key here; if you see it, need it (or want it), it's best not to dawdle.  I've had good experiences with their customer service, and with returning an item for a different size:  I had the new size in the house before I had a chance to get the other one to the post office to send back.

This post is not entirely a commercial break for Sierra Trading Post though.   The noteworthy point I wanted to point out is that upon browsing through my shopping cart just to see what kinds of ridiculous items I thought I needed, and eliminating all but the $11.95 pair of all-purpose khaki pants, I proceeded through the checkout and noted at the top of the screen this:

John 10:10    ... I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

Not many businesses, I think, have the nerve to put their beliefs out there, so I thought this was intriguing.  I dug a little deeper and found their We Believe page:

About Us > We Believe Sierra Trading Post wants to be your first choice for outdoor clothing and equipment. In order to be the best, we follow three simple "We Believe" statements. 1. That our customers must be given the best possible service. 2. That we must keep our operating costs as low as possible- to keep your savings as high as possible. 3. That our business ethics must be consistent with the faith of the owners in Jesus Christ and His teachings. We invite you to write our founder and president, Keith Richardson, if what we do does not match what we believe... We Will Make It Right I admire this business because I think it takes a lot of courage to stand up and put the name Jesus Christ out there for the public to see.  So, I wonder what people think when they know this is a mission statement behind a business.  Does it cause them to want to shop here; to want to support this business?  Does it drive them away, thinking these folks are freaks!  Do customers think they can get a better deal with some sort of view that Christians are naive?  Or, get taken because they think Christians are hypocrites?  My cynical side starts speaking up because maybe I have the same thoughts;  I've seen a few too many hypocrites.  You know the ones; they raise their hands and voices in church and run you down in the parking lot getting out.  That ain't what I want.  Not to take the fun out of shopping (have I mentioned I am not a world class shopper?) I also don't want to pay full price for clothing - needed or wanted - so I'll keep going back to this website <insert smiley icon here>.  Any other views?

The Bungee is Getting Tight

Boing!

Spouse-man has been able to visit freely with his oldest for a while, now that she is out of The Mother’s house and on her own in college. It’s really a cool sight to see from my vantage point. I see The Mother Bungee getting taut; it looks more like a worn out old rope. It just might not snap back.



On one hand I can see The Mother has lost interest in this whole Mom/Competition thing – I’d like to think it’s because we offered up nothing for her to compete with. Also, I think she is ready for more "me time". So there’s been an interesting shift: erratic moments of Mommy Force Exertion mixed with a blatant sense of No Involvement. Maybe peri-menopause is creeping into her endocrine system.

Spouse-man made it sort of a mantra of sorts – just get through this time. He let go when his daughter disassociated herself at 16. He decided that if he was going to have a relationship with her, it would be when she chose it, not when The Mother chose it. What kind of step of Faith is that? It’s happening; she calls, they have breakfast, she tells him about stuff, or not, he gives her fatherly wisdom and there is no strife. It’s not all that simple, of course, but it sure is better than it was when she was 14, 15, 16…

She has expressed her desire to transfer to a college out of state. She hasn’t told The Mother yet. She expressed her anxiety in her words, "but mom pays for abc and xyz" (shocking, I know). I can hear the weight in that statement, I can feel the burn of the brand in her words – The Mother Bungee. Spouse-man said the most magical, empowering words I think any dad could have come up with.

He said, "So? Quit living someone else’s life."

Now I don’t know about how a 19 year old takes that, but hearing it now, at my age, with the knowledge of her life, her upbringing … I felt freedom. I felt freedom for her. I felt the priceless love her dad just extended to her in words. I felt hope for her. I felt how blessed she is to have her dad. I could almost sense her wheels turning in her head. She’ll need to process that – maybe for a day, maybe for a decade.

I have a sense that The Mother Bungee is starting to fray. Like in the movies, the dramatic scene where one cord snaps, it gains momentum and suddenly all the fibers are springing loose with a whipping sound and suddenly the ship breaks free. Wow, what a feeling! I hope this is the case for my step-daughter, not to soothe my ire with The Mother, but for her sake. Freedom to find her way without a price.

They're EveryWhere!

Isn't it funny how, when you buy a different or new car, you suddenly start seeing them everywhere.  Like they never existed before, but now they cross your path, pass you on the road, park beside you and and just show up.

We bought a slightly used Jeep Liberty this week.  A neighbor grunted something about "things going well" and Spouse-man replied, "It was in self-defense".

You see, the slick little Volkswagen Jetta we traded in was beating us up with the Check Engine light.  I was starting to get a hives breakout every time the dang thing came on.  I added up the receipts of car repairs and I am embarrassed to share the number in fear that you will think we are slow on the uptake as to when to bail.  So, after the last little orange light glared at me on the dash we drove immediately to a dealer and didn't pass Go to collect $200.  For those of you who love Volkswagens, good for you.  Personally I think they probably still are pretty good, just not ours. 

So far Spouse-man has let me drive it once.   I think he likes it.  Think 19k miles on a 3 year old car is good?   Yeah, me too.  When I first saw these little SUVs the first year they came out, my response to their look was, "Hey, I am surprised I am a Jeep too!"  Doesn't it just look like they have raised eyebrows?  It's growing on me.

 

Where to Light the Fire

Addendum to yesterday's bloggy love post ....  I found spouse-man's blog, sitting quietly on the galaxy, undisturbed by posts or comments.  If you feel the urge to toss a lit match his way, here's the link:

Spouse-man

And They Call It ... Bloggy Lu-uh-uh-uv

Is it bad for a flat panel monitor when the cat uses both paws to chase the mouse  curser? 

I sit here basking in bloggy love sent my way by Stephanie.   Is it bad for my blog reputation to say that I do not venture out very much and read/comment on others?  I have really good excuses.  Really.  Another post another time.

However, I do read Steph's regularly and since she is my partner in stepmothering crime - wait, we don't commit crimes - we're the good witches, right? - And, because she just puts out the most words per day of any blogs I do venture out to read, she does, indeedy doody, win the laugh/sigh/cry/rant blog award!  Drum roll.....ta dum.....

   Ms. Mama's House - Congratulations.


And for pure mind blowing content, and a close second, perhaps a tie,  for words per day, is Mr. Prodigal himself, Jon Acuff.  This guy gets it;  life, being imperfect and wrestling with God ... or rather, with himself.

Not to be outdone, yet I will say, shorter on words, is my friend and comedian Misssster Rrrrrrob Kelly!  This soul is truly comfortable in his skin, and he'd probably have a story about that too.   I hear he runs fast.

Linked arm and arm, and standing behind him holding him up, is his lovely wife cakboliv.   This woman is, from the song Rock and Roll Woman, "A Joy To Know".  I want to be like her when I grow up.

My friend Scott is short on blogs and long on heart, so he deserves the bloggy love just the same.  Big Giant Gentle Bear.  When ya gonna write, Scott?

And Tulips?  Once you get past this hump, you'll get back to the Laughs.  Guarantee it.  We'll still be here.

Techy, erudite Joel, I know you want to be a great blogger, really, I do.  But you know, by who's blog measure are you using?   C'mon, take the meme challenge, man.

There are others who suffer from my laziness in not linking up, and reading as regularly as I wish:

Diane (come baaaack!), Jeanie, Dave ...

Once at Steph's blog, I breeze through various links on her sight - I don't want to name one and leave another out - so, those of you on her "blogs I read" list - okay, so maybe this is a bit of a bail - at the risk of  going vanilla here - I enjoy your reads or else I wouldn't swing by.   Thanks for posting.  I spend too much time there at the expense of my employer.  Oh wait, I AM my employer.

And last, but not least, the Lame Blogger Award, ding ding ding!  Goes to Spouse-Man.  Will somebody light a fire under his hiney?  Wait, I think his blog died from lack of attention.  I can't find it anymore....

Today's Quote

Avoid stupid happiness [such as Schadenfreude]

~ the Dalai Lama

Got Orange?

My sister, who recently found an early birthday present for me at a consignment shop, coyly asked if I wore much Orange.  What do you think?

No, this is not a staged photo.