Pre-Dempsey-- They'll Leave the Light on for Me

I'm innately friendly.  I like people.  I like little people.  I like older adults.  I visit.

(When I was in junior high and high school I worked in a nursing home feeding people supper.  I learned to carry on a conversation with people who couldn't talk.  I would move from patient to patient feeding them supper and visiting up a storm.   It has been said I could talk to a lamp and have a great time.)

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Remember, I'm growing my wavy hair to give to a group who makes wigs for cancer patients....it's getting long and wild.  Free-flowing hair-- wildly blowing hair-- hair that looks like the long gray haired guy in the Oakridge Boys.  I might look like a witch-- scratch that, I really have a very easy time looking like a witch.

Remember, I have another bad knee.  My left knee is getting better after a bout of "dog pulling woman down the front steps while having a sprained knee, i.e. taking painful knees to the next level."  I am still limping like Tiny Tim in a Christmas carol.   Aspercream is my new favorite beauty product.

Remember, I love to walk to Jeannene's restaurant to have a vegetable plate and have twenty minutes of quiet time. It's in downtown Macon.  It's about a block from where I work but it's worth the pain and the agony of walking.  Yes, I love their chocolate pie.

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I have a hitch in my giddy-up.

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So, I'm moving slowly, limping back from a nice lunch with my hair blowing wildly in the winds of September when I was stopped by a street lady.

"Say, dearie, did you used to live at the Dempsey Hotel?"

"No, Ma'am," I replied.  "But I'm about ready to move in."

"Well, we'd love to have you."

"Thank you.  You're so sweet to me."


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The Dempsey is a beautiful, old hotel in downtown Macon.  It was converted into 194 apartments for the elderly, those on government assistance and the disabled.

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I guess I fit two out of the three categories.

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And, I can't take any tube socks.  Right, Carol?

A Little Recess is Good for ALL of US

I think play is underrated.  It scares me how many children never get to go outside and run amuck.  I enjoyed that part of my childhood.  Running amock is something I still do quite well.

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We have students so entrenched in school.  So focused.  So stressed.  I liked the parts of school that would be considered frivolous today-- I always loved coloring leaves the fall colors of red, orange, and yellow.  There's probably not a standard that matches that activity.

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"Go outside and get some of this energy used up."  I remember all of my teachers telling that to our class.  We had a short recess at 10:00, after lunch, and at 2:00.  "Time to get back to work."

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I am watchful when I'm keeping Mary Michael and Sally.  Bugs, hidden perils, unyielding ground, steep steps, bath water, stove, dogs, cats, running in the house.  I sure don't want them hurting themselves. Sharp pencils, running with sticks, fire, glass, poison ivy-- I am on Red Alert when the girls are here.

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Let me tell you about the time I:

1.  Played with matches

2.  Petted strange dogs

3.  Created a bug zoo

4.  Raced to see how fast I could ride my bike down a hill

5.  Climbed a tree and hung out over a highway to see what was on the tops of semi trucks

6.  Tried to see if we could shoot a neighbor with a bee bee gun (we could and did)

7.  Watched a Kindergarten friend fall off the top of the slide and break his arm (the teacher was right-- do not stand up on that platform) (the teacher did get more credibility in my 5 year old eyes)

8.  Rode a mean Shetland pony all around Colo, Iowa with a friend, Deb Liston, for  $5.00 per day

9.  Took my clamp on roller skates to school for recess-- we all skated

10.  Left Kindergarten and walked home by myself because I was tired of her (the teacher) bossing people around.   That was not a good idea.

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Obviously, I wasn't the easiest child with whom to deal, but I don't think I was horrid.  I might have been challenging.  I could also read upside down and made sure I knew everything on the teacher's desk-- everyday.  I could have been a spy.  I still could be a spy if my eyesight was better.

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So, I'm hear to tell you that we all need to run a little more, laugh a little more, love a little more, and learn a little more.  School is serious business....but our children need to the benefit of all of our knowledge....and that knowledge includes knowing that "play is a child's work and work can be their play."  Instruction can have depth of focus and still be fun-- I learned most of my physics content from my bike accidents, my biology by my collections of crazy outside stuff, and my chemistry by cooking with Daria.

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I am not on my high horse tonight.....I am still thinking about that mean little Shetland pony.  That was $5.00 well spent.  Right, Deb?

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Those side effects-- boredom, apathy, a selfish me me me world.  Playgrounds teach the negotiation skills, agility, and strength of character.  A pick up kick ball game creates sequential thinking, analytical reasoning, and evaluation of fellow team members.

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So, it might be worth your while to take a recess, folks.  We're "grown up" but it wouldn't hurt any of us to "go outside" and "get rid of some of that energy".  It's time to get along and compromise.  Grow and love.  Take time to watch the clouds and smell the flowers.  Me, I'm going to find a Shetland pony to love!

Starry, starry morning!

Raggs and I were up at the usual time-- zero dark thirty.  We had to go outside in the crisp morning air.

Fall was there-- we felt it.

The stars sparkled.

O O O O O O O Opossum

I always wandered why possum was spelled with an O.....opossum.  I learned last night.

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Norman and Biggles, our big farm cats, were howling on the back porch last night.  "My goodness, " I thought.  "I bet they want a can of cat food.  I bet they're parched.  I bet they're hungry.  They know I'm home.  I'll give them a treat."

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I flung open the back door, turned on the light, and there, in the middle of the bowl of dried cat food was the biggest possum I've ever seen....about one yard away from me.  The only one more scared than me was the possum.  That possum ran off the side of the porch ten feet off the ground.

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"O O O O O O O O O O .......possum," I wailed.

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Opossum.  I rest my case.

Coming.....to your city......Game Day

I look forward to college football.  I love going to THE University of Georgia and seeing the Bulldogs play between the hedges.  I enjoy watching Iowa State (my alma mater) and the University of Iowa (Bill's alma mater).  I like watching the  SEC....but

One of my favorite shows on tv is "Game Day."  I love listening to the banter between the guys as they talk about football, coaches, players, places, trophies, awards, fans.....

And when Lee Corso makes the final prediction and plops that mascot on his head....I just grin and my week is automatically better.

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Lee had four live chickens and a Leprechaun hat on his head at the end of the show today.   That man is crazy.  (Mark Harmon was also on as the Guest picker....that was a nice touch.)

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Georgia won and I enjoyed every minute of the game.

Funny end to a great day!  It's time for some caramel cake.

Art and Erin

Howard Finster is my favorite artist.  No one else is even close.  Well, maybe Van Gogh...but he wasn't my kind of artist.  I love Howard!

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Howard is from the primitive/ naive style.  He was a self-taught, preacher/artist.

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I get wild hairs and I want to throw caution to the wind and buy one of his angels on e-bay....".Dear Bill, Please forgive me.  I just did this.  Ooops." (I won't do this, I won't do this.)

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What I love about his art is that he wanted to convey a message through his art.....and he often added words to his art so that the consumer didn't have to think about why he created it.

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Howard believed in taking the "left overs" and making something beautiful.  From souls to statues, this man had it going on.

I want to see the possibilities in everyday life to make the world a little prettier, a little kinder, a little more loving, and a lot more fun.

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Proverbs 17:17