I Have Turned into My Parents

Yes, it has arrived.  That moment when, listening to my son's music, I heard myself say, "I can't understand anything they are saying."

Then I heard myself say, "I sound just like my parents used to."

I asked Ironing Man to take my picture, as this seemed like a "blog-worthy" moment.

Shoot.

What Would Jesus Drive?

I have been thinking about Jesus lately. I wonder what he'd think of me, of my lifestyle, if he were around.  Why do I care?  Not sure except when you really admire someone, you want to think they'd approve of your choices, right?  Well, bad news.  I'm pretty sure he'd be disappointed in me.

 For starters he would say, "Listen, if you are going to go around the countryside trying to heal the sick and help the lame to walk, why are you doing it in a gas-powered vehicle that pollutes the environment and heats up the atmosphere.?"

I would mutter something in an embarrassed voice about how it gets an average of 34 miles per gallon.

He would not be impressed.

"Walking was good enough for me, why do you have to drive to do your work?"

I would remind him that my productivity standards require me to see a certain number of patients per 8 hour day.

He would just stare at me and roll his eyes.  He might mention I could ride on an ass.

I would probably go out on a limb and say that, in a way, I'm already doing that.  But after we both got over our case of the giggles, he'd say, "Ok, a horse.  a camel. a bicycle.  or how about an electric vehicle?"

Hmm...the EVs only go about 70 miles on one charge, and I often drive more than that.

BUT...just last week I got reassigned to a new territory and I usually will be driving much less than 70 miles in a day.  In fact last week I only drove 102 miles ALL WEEK for work.  So maybe an EV is a possibility.

And then with some solar panels, maybe I can stop contributing QUITE so much to the mess.

Zencatangle

I made up that word!  I like it.  Is it a dance?  A kind of puzzle?   A children's toy?  A bird?  A plane?

No it's just a made up word combining the ideas of Zentangle (which is a form of meditative doodling I learned about a few weeks ago) and this crazy Pi cat as seen on the hood of The Player's car as I was heading off to work Friday morning.

I do love my cell phone's features:  Camera.  Compass.  Internet access.  Stopwatch.  Timer.  Clock.  Alarms.  Notepad.  Weather updates.  Maps!  Animation program. DId I forget anything?  Oh, yeah, you can CALL people and TALK to them, too!  Wowee wow wow!

Here are some of my zentangles:

Materials needed - little squares of nice watercolor paper, a 0.01 mm pen, and a little imagination.  There are standard zentangle patterns, easily found on the internet, and if you repeat them in your drawing while relaxing and thinking about your breathing, you are zentangling!

Plus you get a nice little piece of art when you are done!  What could be better?

Blood Moons and Smelly Cats

Last night....a beautiful lunar eclipse at about 5 a.m.  J-dude got us all up in time to see it, to photograph it, and to send it via email to his science teacher for Extra Credit.

.

Not the greatest camera for hundreds-o-thousands-o-miles away, but still enough for...10 points?  We will see.


Also last night a very odiferous skunk sprayed some space outside our bedroom window.   Sadly, not only did the room stink but Pi the night-time wanderer must have wandered through the musk-mist.  He got a bath today, in vinegar, baking soda, dish soap, then followed with a rinse through some dog shampoo.  Oh, the humiliation!

La Mosaicista and the Captain

That's what my Smart Phone auto-corrected (is that a verb?  Well, it is now.)  the word "mosaicist" as when I texted it to my sister Connie Lou.  I actually typed Geeky Mosaicist  which then became geeky mosaicista...which I kind of like now.

So, now you are wondering what made me choose the adjective GEEKY?  Well, I hope you are wondering and not saying to yourself self, that is totally the perfect adjective for Kim.  Because even though it may be true, I still would like to pretend otherwise much of the time.  But here is the proof that I am, indeed, at least sometimes, GEEKY as in I-Love-Star-Trek-geeky:

I have a broken Star Trek mug and I'm not afraid to use it!!

Quite Possibly This is The Best News Ever

Usually when I watch or listen to the news, I just get sad or blue or bummed out or mad or frustrated or I feel hopeless or desparate or sad or blue or...you get the idea.

So imagine my absolute GLEE last evening when we watched Sixty Minutes and happened upon the news out of the University of California at Irvine:  a study of what differentiates people who live in to their nineties (and live well and healthily for the most part.)

Number 1....something that may surprise you to find out did not make any difference:  taking vitamins.  Any vitamins.  Not B, not C, not DEF or Z.   (I take a children's vitamin just because that's what I can remember to take, and I don't really mind taking them but still if money gets tight you can bet that I will cut that right off the shopping list.  Because if I do live into my nineties I will definitely not have enough money for everything so that will be the first thing off the grocery budget!)

Number 2...being overweight in your 70's turns out to be a predictor of living into your 90's! Wow!  I am way (weigh) ahead of the game being slightly overweight in my 50's.  Just call me over-achiever when it comes to this one!

Number 3...having slightly high blood pressure ALSO good in your nineties.  So I can cross THAT med off the shopping list when the time arrives (if it arrives) as well!!

Number 4...best news of all.  Moderate consumption of coffee and alcohol are BETTER than not drinking them at all.  And the alcohol does not have to be red wine, though that is my adult beverage of choice.  I can opt for something cheaper if... (see items 1 and 3 above.)

So eat drink and be merry!  For tomorrow you may be NINETY!!

Frigorific!!

We've started a "word of the day" at our house, to help with Sisi's spelling and everyone's vocabulary.  We take turns suggesting the words.  I prefer to look through the big blue or big red dictionaries and find new words...which is how we found Cacodemon and Frigorific.  You must admit those are way more interesting than Hypocrite or Non sequitur.

No frigorific doesn't have anything to do with "friggin'" to replace a derivative of the more famous f-word.  It has to do with frigid, an adjective meaning 'making cold.'    Brrrr...not a bad thought though in these hot-n-humid days of August.

Speaking of August, here are some interesting photos of our morning glories.  Before you look at these photos, know that I bought only one packet of morning glory seeds and planted all at the same time in the same flower bed along 2 trellises.  We seem to have something odd going on though, as there are 2 colors of flowers that have appeared this month:  purple and light blue.

We think there might be some non-verbal color-oriented communication between the red hummingbird feeders and the flowers on the closer trellis.  But we don't know.  We're just speck-you-lating.  I reckon.

In other news there was a birthday and a peach pie.  You may have seen it on Facebook but here is a new view:

The Player looks very young for his age.  Which is not 1 year old in spite of the candle.  But he looks young.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Here is somewhere I went for work this week.  I drive on gravel roads from time to time, but this one takes the cake!   (But not the pie.)