Seeing the bright side of things.

It's about getting older. I'm already old, but I have the great luck of being alive, and also getting (even) older. See, here is a benefit already! I'm alive!

What I was thinking of, though, was the more mundane consequences of getting older. Today in the shower, I noticed that I have less leg  hair than when I was younger. Then I was musing on the fact that this has been going on for years, now.  Sort of handy.  I can skip a few days of shaving, or even all of winter, and take up the habit again in late spring.

Similarly, with housekeeping, I seem to be less reckless about what I drag inside, and the other half is more considerate than in previous years. I can't see well out the windows, especially not the small things I'm trying to spot outside, and that turn out to be small, dead insects on the inside of the glass, but other than that, it stays fairly decent inside, when it comes to clean and tidy.

Or so I thought. My reality may be much, much more frightening. Now, today I suspect it's been creeping upon me, and I might have denied this for a while because it was with such... stealth, it crept.

I think I need reading glasses. Or some kind of glasses.

Thinking back a month or several, we had some younger friends visiting for the first time, Their children were excited by all the barnyard animals, and we all had a fun visit. Once the kids had petted everybody, and gotten comfortable with true ranch living, we settled inside of the house for a spell.  I hadn't had the time to fix the bed or do the breakfast dishes, but I had no worries about being judged.

Well, the children ran about as kids do, and when they had investigated the rooms, including my yoga and sewing loft, they excitedly told the world "... and there's spider webs everywhere!"

I really didn't know what to say, so I brought them all outside to inspect the tomatoes in the greenhouse.

This is not the greenhouse, but a room in the house. I call it the library, but it's also the piano and costume room. If I put on my glasses, it might need some dusting...

Why do they have the saying "older than dirt"?.

And for my soul...

Just when we are all certain that I am only totally comfortable inside of my little country slot, here's something new...

There is music! I love the passion in singing, dancing, drumming and strumming.

Let me share:
Playing For Change | La Tierra del Olvido

This kind of music makes me want to laugh and dance and hug anybody who is near!  Maybe music is the only way to world peace. Music is passionate and peaceful at the same time - what a wonderful feeling that is!

This particular song would be a cluster of crazy wild roses if it were in anybody's garden, I'd like to think.  Deep red, of course.

My photo is wild enough, though it looks a bit restrained, and maybe my local cactus flowers are more like a crosscut of me and the other me. Pink, not red, but trying for bright and being quite hopeful.

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The aftermath

Thanksgiving came and went, and it was good, and it didn't leave much in its wake. It took us most of the day to watch the turkey in the smoker, and a good portion of the night to eat it. A two-piece day, so to speak.

OK, there was some more to it:  Friends dropping by. Us dropping by at friends' places. Lots more food being prepared. A good holiday.

A funny thing in my memory was that I had decided to wish all the animals Happy Thanksgiving independently, but my mind was racing, so it took a long time from my morning route to do so. After the incubator with chicks-to-be, and the little turk-ling and baby chicks in the brooder AND the donkeys and so on... well, I had to make the decision just to chant the blessings and well-wishes. Which I did with the remaining twenty-something turks.

My newest horse got a special hug, just because she is such a love. And I almost prayed for family and friends, for their health and happiness.

This is the turkey and a whole salmon on our barbecue:

 There are left-overs. And, oh, we smelled of camp fire!

Pick me! Pick me!

Thanksgiving is near. This morning I had twenty-five live turkeys. Now, at lunch time, I have one less. It's a lot of work processing them for the table. It's also a lot of work breeding the critters and feeding and caring for them.

Then comes the day when I bring a rope instead of breakfast. They all line up and gobble; all wanting to be the one who gets most of my attention. It sucks to feel I betray them, but it's that or... just have jams and stuffing.

I don't take these chores lightly. Also, when a turkey is served up, I don't over-eat, or throw the left-overs in the trash. I gnaw on each little morsel just like I can imagine the pilgrims did, if they indeed had turkeys to eat.

Just philosophizing, if that's a word.

Little pleasures?

My car passed smog testing!  Wow!  I mean, I did expect it to pass, but I suppose it's like taking a health test and wonder how your life will change and get awful and you have to sell your house to pay the bills and all that.
The car is nice, but it's sort of old, and who knows what could conceivably happen to it.

I'm also really attached to it, desert varnish and all. (That's a polite way of saying that the paint is flaking off because I don't have a garage and the sun is relentless here.)

Not that I mind. The part about the sun. I love that. Especially today when my main means of transportation (excluding my feet and my horse) got a clean bill of health.

Supposedly, now, I'd include something nasty about the State of California taking more of my money than really should happen, but I'm happy.

The car even runs better, it feels like.

Forbidden words!

In my ideal world, there will be very few rules. I love the rule of "Be Nice", so that one is a definite keeper. It will cover most situations, won't it?

What it WILL NOT COVER IS  (forgive the yelling :) the marketing expression of "exciting new yada yada experience".

Even the most reputable and for the most part (?) rich corporations fall for this, and think that will sell me.
No. It really turns me off.  It's not exciting and it's not new and it is not an experience because I'm not buying it.

I don't buy stuff that's "green" in the ads either.

Maybe there will be a very nice post from me next.  It's overdue. This picture sums up my feelings:

I found the statue outside a restaurant near Palm Springs.

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Things.

There are things and then there are THINGS. There are lots of them, and some are large ones. Many little ones are in boxes and bags.

I am a minimalist. pretty much.  The sort of person who does not like to shop. Also, I do not like to throw things away, so, fortunately I have little reason to shop.  I'm happy with my five things.

OK, not five. I have clothes and books and tools. Also, we have a few acres to spread things around on. Not an excess of belongings; easy enough to manage. Not worth writing about, really.

Now, the other half, that's different. The other half grew up wanting a junk yard. Yes, it's the truth. After he got done going to fashion school, or maybe it was to become an architect, he got back to his "roots" and started collecting tires.  Often they are connected to the large pieces of metal that is cars. Those smell, they make lots of noise, and they take up a lot of space. They make dark puddles in the sand where the oil drips. They choke my breath on early morning walks.

Eh. I'm sounding whiny.  So we have over a hundred tires (with attached cars) parked here. I just felt like saying it. There's also a half dozen cats here, needing their own little "houses"s to crawl into and call home.
I make sure the side windows are open for them.

Since I can't show a picture of that (other half might find out!), here's a pretty cat who just recently passed away, and he's happily occupying the house.

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Fashion faux-pas

Yesterday, late afternoon, there was a ground squirrel in the trap that sits in the "orchard-to-be"... that's when the trees grow up a bit, and that is if the squirrels don't eat them first. It's sad that we can't share at this point, but that's how it is.

The critter was sent to the big squirrel wheel in the sky. Then this picture was taken.
I have a hard time believing this is me. Squirrel or no squirrel.

Do I really dress like that...?  I should be embarrassed. But it was cold.

Anyway., speaking of dressing, I dressed out the squirrel. I fed the meat to the cats. The skin goes to fixing a Dan Boone hat. If it tans right.

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Limping to Nirvana

That's one of  the sayings of my yoga teacher after any of our more challenging classes. It has also become one of my repetitive thoughts, as I go through any attempt at "bettering myself" AKA "You are going to regret this before you like it".  Ayeii!

Why is there always a price to be paid for any activity we do because it's GOOD for us? Why can't we just go through what's going to make us so virtuous or healthy or... I guess even... more insightful (?) and then get our "dessert".  Huh?  Huh?

Say I'm trying to reach my toes while not bending my knees. That's important, right...?  So I stretch, and pull my hamstring, and then I'm in pain for the next few months.  Where's my cookie?  Yeah, after all that I CAN reach my toes. Eh.

Or I go through a heartbreak of one sort or the other, and it hurts and hurts. One day I am "better", and it doesn't hurt much anymore, which is important to know.  But still no cookie.

I put in the work. I suffered the pain. Can I please have a cookie?   :)

No yoga picture. Here's one of a Cholla cactus - pleasure and pain, I suppose.
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Slap! - waking up to reality

I had really psyched myself up to the face that we were going to have our first frost tonight. It's not my favorite milestone of the year, but it needs to be dealt with. Wrap some pipes and faucets, and take in the last of the veggies from the garden. Lay up some wood in the house and office, for heat and just to feel cozy.

But that should be tonight - not last night. Tonight. I don't know what the weather people were thinking. Or I.

It did feel cool in the morning, as I was waking up the old bones with a slow jog to the barn. My eyes were half open by the time I had poured my coffee, and I was assessing the day ahead when I looked out over the garden. It was frozen.

Not a little frozen, like a fairy dusting of frost on leaves, but there was ice everywhere. Like this:

It's my own sad version of the hanging gardens. You don't get this effect easily in the desert.
(I had turned on the irrigation hoses last night, and left it at that.)
Considering that the East coast just had an October storm, I don't expect any sympathy, but I will happily accept advice what to do with defrosted peppers and tomatoes.

It's a lesson in "form your own opinion" and "don't believe everything you read".

El día de los muertos

That's Spanish for "The day of the dead". I learned about this holiday in Mexico, and took it home to California. Not that there aren't people here who celebrate it - there are millions of Mexicans here. Anyway, it's a very old (pre-hispanic) ritual, welcoming the dead back to this side at the very beginning of November, every year, and celebrating with the souls.

There are altars with pictures of the dead, and nice offerings of whatever they needed and liked while here on earth. Food and drink, of course, to share! Masses of marigold flowers! There is the Catrinas, and the sugar skulls and music. Candles and more candles.

I was looking for a nice video to post a link to, but they were all so good that I just sat there and got nothing done. Copy my subject line and look it up. You, too, can get stuck in the web.

What I did do: I did take a picture of my Catrina, and of my "ofrenda", my offering of rice, beans, fresh vegetables, and herbs and chiles.

There was also tequila on the table, in case some soul wanted it.  Just sayin'...

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