Category: Stuff About Me

I thought you might like a picture of an elephant

I took this photo from a mokoro (canoe) in Botswana at Linyanti Bush Camp in Chobe National Park, Botswana, in late November 2019. Isn’t the elephant magnicient?

I used to to blog about my travels but haven’t done so in quite some time. It was a lot of work, and I need to reserve my computer time for writing and business of writing now that my noggin has been koko-bonked (IFYKYK).

But from time to time I’ll share some of my fave photos.

We visited Rwanda, then traveled via Kenya to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (where I bought some seemingly indestructible sunglasses to replace a pair forgotten at the Victoria Falls Hotel during high tea), three camps in Botswana, and then Cape Town in South Africa.

I adored the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda, but in Botswana the elephants were my fave. They are so graceful. They are loving. They persevere.

And so do I.

I am a turtle writer. I am slow. And a lot of that is because I’ve been in 3 car accidents that, accumulatively, have greatly impacted me physically. But I am determined. I am attending various body therapies. And I do not know how to give up, a trait I inherited from my grandfather.

This elephant reminds me of Duke. Steadfast. Resolute. Thirsty for life.

Just a note that if you visit the Duke page, it is from my original website and most of the links to articles about my grandfather on the web no longer work. But his Wikipedia page stands.

Happy Friday the 13th!

A friend from high school turned 58 today on Friday the 13th! She was born on a Friday the 13th, and, guess what? 5 + 8 = 13. That’s pretty lucky. For years, until I was 13 and met this friend and another born on April 13th, who both set me straight and showed me calendars from the year of our birthday to prove how wrong I was, I thought I was born on a Friday the 13th in January.
 
Turns out I was born on a Wednesday. My mom had 3 kids close together and couldn’t remember the day of the week I was born. My dad only knew he was working out of town and came home on Wednesdays and Fridays. So I was therefore born on one of those days. Thirteen years of thinking I’d been born on Friday the 13th flew out the window! I had to console myself with being born on the 13th day of the 13th month.
 
Happy birthday to everyone born on the 13th of a month, but especially to the Friday the 13th babies! It’s not unlucky. We’re a bit weird, but, hey, weird is wonderful. Embrace it!

Quick Palm Springs Break

I recently returned from a week’s visit to Palm Springs with my husband. This gave me a great chance to see where my parents spend their winters. My first time in Palm Springs, and I loved it. Palm Springs has a great, laid-back vibe, and, well, it kinda reminded me of Fred Flintstone’s Bedrock City. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bedrock City is based on Palm Springs (I shall have to google that and see if I’m right).

We had some “bad weather” (aka clouds) while there, but still plenty of pool time. Had a chance to visit the zoo and also ride the Aerial Tram. Here’s a shot of me with my Dad at the top of the tram.

Here’s another of my husband playing with the big rocks:

And me, afraid of slipping down the slope, so this is as far as I got:

I usually post photos on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. I’m trying to get better at doing it here.

Did you have a chance to take a break somewhere warm this winter? I’m now back to snow, which thankfully is finally melting (slowly…so slow…ly…).

A Slushy Walk

Between bouts of clouds and slushy snow, it’s a beautiful day. Ghost of Allie pulled me away from my laptop and took me for a walk. She’s much faster now that she’s not in earthly form. We happened to pass the house of one of my “old man friends” from the dog park. There were two special old guys with dogs with the same name (different breeds). Both called Shadow, humans named Bob and Jim. I remembered their names by thinking of Jim-Bob Walton. Bob passed away from an aggressive cancer maybe over a year ago. Maybe longer. His Shadow died a week later. Jim continued to walk to the park even after his own Shadow died. But then Allie and I changed our patterns, and I stopped seeing Jim.

What a delight to find Jim out shoveling snow today (he’s in his late 80s last I knew). I didn’t know if he was still around or not. I don’t know if he recognized me, but we chatted, and I was so pleased Ghost of Allie decided to drag me on this walk. It just lifted my spirits to see Jim still in his huge house and still obviously managing. Way to go, Jim. Thinking of Bob. Jim-Bob Dog Park Old Man Friends…I’ll remember you both fondly.

A New Year – A New Word(s) of Intention

I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions. The surest way for me not to attain a resolution is to set it in stone. I don’t know, the rebel in me just balks. So for the past couple of years, I have chosen a Word of Intention for the year. 2016 was Gratitude. Each day, I strove (strived? stroved? egad) to feel grateful for some aspect of my life, no matter how small. My mood is affected by not only the ups and downs of daily life, the losses that naturally increase as we and our loved ones age, but also by the weather. And in my part of the world, in the winters we get our fair share of white-shrouded skies, in the spring comes the gray clouds and sometimes torrential rains (our region suffered severe flooding in 2017), and the summers, while usually nice, lately we are experiencing drought and forest fires up the whazoo, which makes for more clouds–with smoke–obscuring the skies. Something about a blue sky just lifts my spirits. The weight of clouds weighs me down. So my annual Word of Intention helps me get through those rainy or fire-smoky days,

For 2017, I chose Positivity as my Word of Intention. In retrospect, this was a fantastic choice. My dear doggie left this world in November, and I spent most of last year as her caregiver. Reminding myself to find the positive in a day–no matter how small–helped me focus on the positivity animals, and especially dogs, radiate. Once Allie died, I got very ill with a host of viruses that seemed to swoop in and take advantage of my total lack of defenses. Only wrapping myself in the feeling of positivity Allie gave me helped me through some of those days.

So along came the time to choose my word for 2018. I chose Joy, as an extension of Gratitude and Positivity. Here we are less than 10 days into the new year, though, and Joy alone isn’t quite working. As I gazed at the white sky while on a solo walk without my beloved pooch, I wondered why. And I decided Joy wasn’t…verby enough. It’s a fine plan to try and embrace a spark of joy in daily life as we proceed through the year, but I needed something more active to spur me along. Joy is my goal, but being Proactive every day, in my writing and in my life, I believe will help set me on the path to Joy.

And you know what? It’s working. The days I can’t find joy, I remind myself to just be proactive, to take a step toward a writing or personal goal. And once I’m in the midst of doing that, well, there comes my joy.

Some days, joy is elusive. And you know what? That’s okay. It’s hard to find joy when someone passes away or another sort of tragedy befalls a loved one. But by being proactive, I am confident that step by step, I will find my way back to joy every time.

What about you? Do you set Resolutions? Or do you have a Word of Intention for the year? The season? This month? That’s sort of the approach I’m taking with 2018. If February requires a word other than Proactive to pave the path to Joy, so be it. Don’t fence me in! My year is wide open.