Magic in the Making

If this gets posted it's technology magic created by a unicorn over a rainbow somewhere.

This blogger platform keeps changing rapidly as to who owns it, where it's hosted and how I sign in to use it and I am constantly notified to change this or that because they have changed this or that and made the existing system to sign in or make a post obsolete.

Again! Again! Again!

The mil-idiots seem to change the programs, the websites, the hardware, the flatware, the software more often than they change their undies.

I have this disgusting image of techno folks chained to their puter and phones wearing stinky overly soiled undies with eyes propped open with toothpicks while they work 23 hours a day CHANGING anything and everything so the hapless consumer can no longer make it work unless they have the most expensive latest and greatest equipment and tons of hours to manipulate it. Even then, poof, it probably won't work next week or next month.

Our landfills and dumps are filling up with obsolete crap that was good stuff in working order just a few short months ago and now it's updated, upgraded, improved, new featured into obsolescence garble-de-gook.

My phone and laptop are both failing and both seem to rely on one another, something I don't like. Both take enormous amounts of time to do a SIMPLE task. Stuff I could do in 1 minute a few short months (or years?) ago now takes an hour or more. 

Where do people find time for this technology  foolishness? 

I needed to make an important call to get some help and my 10 month old phone failed again. It took 2 days to get it going again and it still doesn't work right. This RV park doesn't allow fires at one's site or else I would have sent out smoke signals for help. 

Heck, maybe I should fire up smoke signals just so someone will show up to tell me to put it out. Hmm... why didn't I think of this sooner?

I am out of time, it took me an hour to battle my way into blogger and post this. 

Life is goof.  

But hey, enough of the whining...

I WOKE UP ALIVE!

YIPPEE!

And if I line up the stars and moon perfectly while standing on my head chanting backwards in an unknown language while juggling razor sharp knives  this will post and you can read it. 

PHEW. 
 

Your Stairway Lies on the Whispering Wind

Stairway to Heaven

A beautiful day in paradise.

This looks like a good used vehicle for me. When I get lost I can just zip up the stairs and take a grand view of things. I could back it up to my 5th wheel roof and see what's fallen on it next.  Sometimes squirrels or birds toss things down or the massive oak trees drop a dead branch in a high wind. Often it's just quiet leaves or needles from the cedar tree that rest up there until the next wind or rains cart them away.

Driving this truck, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my vehicle in a crowded parking lot. I could probably find it pretty easy.

It's a real bargain, all it needs (according to the current owner) is  very MINOR work and a shovel to dig it out.  Minor work being; some mirrors,  radiator, transmission oh and an engine, probably get a rebuilt one for cheap. Amazing how helpful the current owner is to point these minor things out for me.

This truck for some strange reason reminds me of  Stairway to Heaven, the iconic song written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)

 “Stairway to Heaven” is one of their most famous recordings, and many consider it the greatest rock song of all time.

The song resonated with listeners, opening up a door to a different realm of spirituality and transporting them into a more mystical view of life. The vagueness of the lyrics also allowed listeners to interpret the song in their own way, adding to the magic and mystery of the abstract lyrics.

Back in my 20's I used to play this on the piano with something like 22 pages of sheet music. I have no musical ear, but I could read sheet music and play on an old upright piano for my own fun. 

Recently a friend sent me their recorded version and I thought it was superior to Led Zeppelin's.
So I've had great fun listening to both versions and trying to remember how on earth did I ever manage those 22 pages on the piano? I remember it was complicated and it took me a long time to finally get good enough to make it through the entire song. On piano.

Life is goof!

You can listen to Stairway to Heaven here.

Lyrics to Stairway to Heaven:
 

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
  
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she's buying a stairway to heaven

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh and Happy Memorial Day and thank you for spending a spell here today.

Calvin's Flowers

A thing of beauty.

Every day try to find something beautiful to smile about and marvel in the daily miracle.

No idea what this plant is called but the blooms are gorgeous. I've nurtured this on a shoestring budget from dead to alive and blooming.

Oh sure it's had ups and downs from coming alive to nearly dying again to a few blooms last year to abundant blooms coming in this year. 

It gives me great hope for a better future.

Maybe I can patch up and nurture some of the crazy chaos in my life, to a less stressful happier scene.

But that takes WORK.

It would be so much easier to whine about it than to fix it.

It's hard to work at making a difference but it can be done however small, it might even turn into something large.

I have to get up from the puter and go endeavor to make my difference!

I tried looking up red flower succulent at Amazon and discovered all sorts of beautiful plants delivered to your door.  Then I tried red flower cactus and found loads of decorating ideas, but still no concrete answer to what plant this is. 

Then I decided it didn't really matter. 

 

I just think of my deceased friend when I see this plant. He died and the plants he had died. I had never seen this in bloom at his place either. When his relatives left they let me have his dying plants so I could presumably reuse the pots, but I nurtured them for grins and well, now it's that red flowering plant I call Calvin's flowers.

Finding hope and encouragement is a good thing. 

Life is goof. 

SNAKE!

Watch out it's a snake, he's wearing denim, he's shooting venom
you can find him in the back seat of your car
you can find him in the neighborhood bar

Partial Lyrics from Rickey Godrey's song The Snake, from the album Let The Big Dog Eat

That brings back some pleasant memories of time well spent messing about with music. I had Rickey's album on vinyl in the 80's at my then home in South Carolina. Rickey and I hail from the same hometown. Matter of fact we grew up just blocks apart but we didn't become friends until we were young adults. I had heard of him as a teenager because he fought mightily with the South Carolina school system for a right to an education (a battle I later had to fight for myself, for different reasons.)

Rickey had been schooled at  the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind. He wanted to attend the local high school. The SC education system wanted him to stay put. Finally he won over and was able to enter the high school where he met my brother (now deceased). They used to battle wills over a chess board. The high school was in awe of this young blind man who spent his weekends playing in bands, most notably Garfield Ruff which was picked up by Capital Records.

Speed forward a few years... at that time my career in the states had me working around assorted businesses that were connected by music and musicians. I was tired of a long commute and had bought a home near my office.

Rickey and other musicians  would often visit and play music at my house. In those days I had a piano, a guitar, microphones, speakers and the ubiquitous stereo with a turntable.

I was trying to remember the words to his snake song, so I decided to call him up. I figured I would get his voice mail, he's a very busy musician, always on the go.   But he answered and I was doubly surprised. We were both almost talking at once, where are you? I'm in Nashville, where are you, I'm in a tiny town way out in the country in Florida, somewhere between Orlando and Tampa. 

We were so busy yacking it up that um well, I forgot to get the lyrics to The Snake. Ooops!

So to make a short story even longer... this morning I was trying to get ready to go ride my bicycle and take the garbage to the dumpster. 

When SNAKE!

I do not like snakes. So I am always startled when I encounter one. I tend to say something like "agggggggggg" at the top of my lungs and typically run the other direction. 

I had already stuck a small grocery bag of garbage in my rear bicycle basket. I had walked back inside to go get water when I realized my water bottle was still on the bike from last evening. As I reached over the front basket to grab the bottle I wondered why there was a big rope dangling there then I realized there should not be a rope there, but I was inches away from a very long rat snake's head!

SNAKE!

AGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

When I moved here to this little lot in the middle of nowhere in Florida,  I threw up this  bicycle shelter after hurricane Irma, with a little help from a friend and some judicious dumpster diving. I found the gray tent tarp in a dumpster at Wickham Park in Melbourne, Florida a few years back. It looked brand new. Folded up it took scant room in my motorhome and was just one of those useful things riding around with me. It sure did come in handy making this little bicycle shelter. Even though my lot came with a shed, the bicycle does not fit inside the shed very well at all. The way the lot is laid out and the way the shed is located with the door and so on, it's just not workable to put the bike inside the shed sad to say.

My bicycle cover had become wore out from the sunshine and was no longer waterproof or weatherproof since it was ripped and more or less dry rotted from tons of use. I had taped it up when I was sitting in North Georgia after running from hurricane Irma (fall of 2017). However Irma sent torrential rains to north Georgia (I was camping near Helen, Georgia, the little town converted to look like a place in the Bavarian alps.) and knocked down a lot of trees which took out the power, cable, internet and water since the camp was on well water pump. Those pesky pumps like elec-tricky to run. Afterwards, I discovered my bicycle cover was not exactly waterproof. In those days in my motorhome, I traveled with the bicycle on the back of the RV on a homemade bike rack.

Returning to Florida and my RV lot home, I wanted something to help protect my bicycle from the elements.

I did go get help but I managed to snap a blurry picture of the snake. My hands were shaking!

He was LONG and the man who helped me says he was a rat snake and somehow in the removal the snake escaped and ran for cover down a hole under the shed.

Which is how I came to be sitting here trying to remember the lyrics to

Watch out it's a snake, he's wearing denim, he's shooting venom
you can find him in the back seat of your car
you can find him in the neighborhood bar...

That song is of course about a different kind of snake...

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. 
It turns what we have into enough, and more. 
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. 
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. 

Melody Beattie

It was early morning fog when I snapped this picture.
Some days I ride my bicycle or walk my dog to go look at this diminutive aerated pond. 
Waterfalls can produce negative ions and positive vibes. 
Perhaps it's why it naturally attracts me to seek out this brief euphoria.
I focus on the water, listening to the droplets fall, trying to remember to be grateful, grateful, grateful.
A simple start to a great day.


May your day be full of joy and peace.

I was lost in thoughts... in unfamiliar territory.

Never give up.

These plants give me hope every day.

A little water, a little food and loads of love.

I can survive, grow and blossom!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My friend had done a ton of work helping me after my hospitalization. Around his birthday I was fishing for ideas while we chatted outside on my patio.

He said "I don't *curse* need *curse* a thing. I have *curse* everything and *curse* just want to *curse* forget my birthday *curse* this year.

Every time he cursed he was swatting at a pesky mosquito.

So I bought him the Black Flag Bug Zapper.
 
The day he opened it,  a mosquito magically appeared. This thing made a huge satisfying crack while the mosquito was pulverized. He was hooked and dispatched about 10 more mosquitoes then went hiking in search of more.

He was like a child with a new toy... at age 72!

I've since had a few phone calls about how much he loves sapping mosquitoes.

Life is goof.

Dear Mom

Today I asked an angel to fly over the rainbow and deliver a message to my beloved mother:

Dear Mom,

Thank you for not selling me to the circus.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Meowther Day

Happy Meowther Day!

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

Life is beautiful.

Be kind to others.

Their rope might be frayed, their knot might be loose.

Spring has sprung and these gorgeous flowers above were in a memorial garden.

Sending you all peace and love.

May your day be splendid.

Find something beautiful every day.

Love with abandon.

Magical Rainbows

A small prism hangs outside my tiny home. These magical rainbows appeared this morning giving me smiles and joy.  I even managed to capture them on camera for you to see too. I had been sitting there with eyes closed praying for a miracle. When I opened my eyes the little rainbows seemed to be surrounding me.

Some believe that crystals and prisms hung in the window help  increase chi energy. Crystals and prisms are often used in Feng shui which is the traditional Chinese method of arranging the human and social world in auspicious alignment with the forces of the cosmos, including qi and yin-yang.

Feng shui, especially as it affects interior design is increasing in popularity across many cultures.

Chi (pronounced chee)  translates roughly to "vital energy" in Chinese (also spelled Qi). It refers to the life force that flows through all plants, animals and human beings. "Chi" is that energy in the body which makes us alive.

Native Americans have the Great Spirit which permeates the universe.

Nearly all cultures and beliefs seem to have their own word for chi.

Being alive, feeling alive it's all feels so GOOD no matter how it's achieved.





Nothing wrong with believing in miracles and rainbows (and of course mermaids!).

Inner peace.
Outer harmony.

Life is goof.