Reading Time

Thank you very kindly for spending a few minutes reading time with me; I do appreciate your kindness.

This blog post will undoubtedly be all over the place as I feel like I'm bursting at the seams with things to write about. Before I launch into things, let me just tell you that I finally got around to watching ADELE at the Brit Awards and if you don't watch it yourself, you are really missing one of the great talents of the day. Here's a few things I love about Adele:

• She's sort of big. Not grossly fat or anything, but regular size.
• She wears false eyelashes so well.
• She's got great hair.
• Did I mention her lips?
• She appears to have her own breasts.
• Her laugh is a cackle which doesn't seem to embarrass her in the least.
• Saving the best for last, that voice! It gives me either the shivers or tears.

Several years ago Matt gave me her first album which was excellent, however, this new one blows me away. In fact, I have to ration my listening because I can't get the songs out of my head! Mostly she sings about heartbreak, which I've mostly avoided, so go figure why it gets to me so. Although I've talked to Matt several times since he last saw her, I keep forgetting to get the low down on the concert. She was small time when he saw her several years ago, wonder how she's handling things now? From my observations, she sounds even better live.

One of the best parts about my bridge playing adventures is the ladies. I've told you that before haven't I? Anyway, I'm sad to say that one of them, Debbie, has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Calling her this morning for an update, I was delighted to hear how well she's taking the news. Preliminary tests show that it hasn't spread, which I don't have to tell you, is great. Apparently she's got a "super" husband like I do and he's supporting her like nobodies business.

Speaking of husbands, today is my sweetheart's 58th birthday. He's traveling; it's Wednesday after all. While mowing the lawn this morning I was thinking how long we've been best buddies. A long time my friends. 44 years. It's been heaven on earth. Seriously. Mostly I don't dwell on us getting older, however, there's no denying that we are. I hope we have lots and lots more birthdays to celebrate together.

While getting gas for the mower on Sunday, Bruce called me at the market saying he'd found this:

Surprisingly, it was only after I showed him this that he realized she was naked.

Can I just tell you that we are having a re-run of Spring? Glorious day today. Greater Summer was sneaking up on us, however, Spring reclaimed the day. Thank God! Lawn mowing today was a pleasure, especially so now that the grass is filling in. There's nothing quite like the smell of newly mown grass is there? With such low humidity(30%!!!),  I've been keeping the windows open, enjoying not only the cooling breezes, but the sounds of the birds. When we were little there was no way you could leave the doors wide open because of the FLIES. Every Florida home had at least one fly swatter because invariably flies would follow children inside when they came in from playing outdoors. I can still remember them lighting on the screens by the dozens! Seems like our fly population decreased as our people population increased.

So, what have I been up to?

A visit to Eric's house around the corner to see their wild jungle of a yard. In a crazy incident of Orlando being a small town, last Thursday, while I was imprisoned at the Apple store, Bruce went to the Agricultural Center to ask some questions regarding our new tree. The volunteers turned out to be none other than Eric, AND, a girl we went to high school with. Plus, her husband works with David! Small town life folks. Anyway, Eric came by the house to look at the tree, and was he ever surprised it was ours. He told me they found a lens that I must have dropped in their garden on one of my last visits. What it was is kind of like a poor man's macro lens; you screw it on the front of your lens and it magnifies the image. Thus, I went over there Monday morning and have the bites to prove it! This picture is not great, however, you may be interested to know that this is the flower they use to make the wildly expensive perfume, Joy.

Eric, like most of the master gardeners I know, love the challenge of growing exotic plants.

I just got an email letting me know that my submission for the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival poster contest was not selected. I'm not surprised in the least, however, I figured I had ZERO chance unless I entered. 

Pictured above is my work table filled with crazy art projects. Make me stop!

Finally I finished As Always, Julia and was it ever terrific! Can you imagine working on something for ten years? That's about how long it took for Mastering the Art of French Cooking to be written and published. Oh my, the ups and downs! Interestingly enough, the publishers dreamed up the brilliant title. I may have touched on this earlier, if so, please put up with me for a moment, the letters were so informative on so many topics of the day, chiefly politics! Bruce spends what I consider an inordinate amount of time watching CNN. What struck me so while reading the book was that the more things change, the more things stay the same. Insert the names of today's politicians and they would fit right into the 50's and 60's political scene. You think bi-partisan politics is something new? Think again. Particularly if you are of a certain age, you will really like this book. 

Occasionally, when I look at other blogs, I'm almost embarrassed that I don't have better photos to share with you. That said, this blog is mostly about words, with pictures filling in the gaps. I try to show you, and my future self, what my life is like on a week to week basis. This blog is invaluable to a person such as myself with a VERY faulty memory. I do so hope it stays put. Last week when there was the outage, one of my posts disappeared completely. I would be very sad indeed if they all did; they help me keep track of time, which seems to be moving as fast as the grains of sand in this hourglass.