To add to the day's joy

I miss having a schedule to keep. If you are reading my blogs, you can tell.

I am going to go to an art gallery tomorrow. I am always inspired by beautiful things, workmanship, color, artistry, etc. There are so many beautiful things in nature that I am also adding a trip to the woods to my list of things to do. A running brook usually has lovely colored rocks and silvery fish and ripples of color running right through it. There are always gorgeous colors in the bark of different trees, the leaves, the flowers on the roadside, and even on the strata of the rocks of the hillsides. The clouds and sky colors inspire a huge AHHHHHHH! My honey calls me a tree hugger and I guess I must be cause I have actually hugged a tree. I am impressed with the different shapes and sounds of the forest and with the calm that lives there. When my life is not calm enough, the woods are a comfort. So too is an art gallery to me. Therefore I must say there are two kinds of galleries, indoor ones and outdoor ones. Hurray for both.

Staying home

Staying home is sort of tough for a non-self-starter. I love it. But in order to get anything done I have to make myself focus. Without a child to follow around focus goes out the window. Now I must make a list. It's the only way.

Today I had the pleasure

Today I had the pleasure of talking to my daughter several times. Hurrah for cell phones. I can reach my kids at the drop of a hat. That is if they answer. I remember that it used to cost so much for a long distance call that I rarely made them. How much nicer it would have been to call MOM and say HI and not have to cram a month's worth of stuff into 10 minutes. I can now consult on the haircut my daughter will get and Mom just had to comment on pictures when I could afford to get them printed and mailed. What a wonderful change for families. Especially now when many families must move across the country for jobs or retirement or whatever, what a blessing it is to be able to just converse with loved ones. How wonderful!

Today is also a banner day. I didn't have to go to work. Darn I like that. I feel as if I have been let out of prison.

What's with the gas here? Where it is available, it is 50 cents per gallon more expensive than anywhere else in the Southeast. Think price gouging. Think go elsewhere for gas when I find out who started the trend.

The weather couldn't be better here. The days are balmy and the nights are cool. So super to walk outside and not have to take a shower when I come back in. Maybe that is partly responsible for the boost in energy I have felt also. Anything is more fun for me when I'm not sweating.

I would love to say something wise and deep today but --- oh well!

What's really important

My son. His car, that he has enjoyed and worked on and loved was damaged in a crash and what is important to me is not the car but the love he put into it and the fact that he is unhappy. Fortunately he was just banged up a bit. But I spoke with him and he sounds so darn sad. As a MOM I know that there are things I would really miss. And I know about cars that I missed when they went away. Old Rusty was the family car for so many years and boy did we put the memories into that ride. However, mourning for the car was my son't because he had known no other car but that one. It is truly important to have things to be interested in and the automobile certainly fills the bill for a lot of men. Then there are the Steelers. But that is another story.

Is anybody out there?

Just try staying home with only yourself for company for a few days and you can completely lose track of the world. Of course there is the TV. Now my world expands to cover the whole Gulf of Mexico, Most of Texas and wherever the new VP candidate is trying to sound intelligent. Whoopee! I am truly enlightened.

Of course there are other ways to see what is out there. There is always the discover channels, the green channels, the decorating channels, the cooking channels, and, of course, reruns of crime scene shows. So now I know that a lot of people are killers and they WILL get caught. Some stay home and cook and redecorate. Some are learning to save the planet and others want to know what is here to save.

Ok. There is a lot of room on the TV channels for really interesting and informative info. Like what a Gekko thinks about insurance, Glade candles are from France or at least lying to friends is OK. One poor guy on an insurance commercial is going to die when he gets home for forgetting to tell the missus about the boat, motorcycle and rv. It seems to be OK to throw stuff out of windows if you're mad, no matter what you hit. You can add two hours to your life by taking medicine. Some idiot is releasing baloons to celebrate birth control. And of course there are the paid ad shows which fix the body, the face, walking, cleaning and just about everything you want to cook.

So there are no reasons to go outside my house. The whole world is going to come to me through the power of the satellite. I feel so much better I just might stay home forever.

Just an example.

Last week I was fired from my job. I admit that I did rest my eyes sometimes when at work but I didn't sleep. After all, who could. I wouldn't let myself do it because I snore so loud. It would be too embarassing. Anyway, I no longer have to get up and go to work at a job I hate. Truly hate!
So what now? I grin a lot. Haven't needed nearly as much antidepressant. Maybe won't need any. I am looking forward to my days. I've been cleaning house and cooking and enjoying the things I never felt energy enough to do before. I am cleaning out the rooms of the house one at a time and amazingly enough the job doesn't seem as overwhelming as it did before.

I have learned a good lesson about life because of the loss of the job. I need money to pay bills. I don't have enough to stay home for good and retire right now. However there is something worth so much more and that is time. I have time to enjoy cooking, and cleaning, etc. I am 63. I would love to have 20 or 30 more good years to enjoy life. I wasn't enjoying even a moment of life while I was working at a job I hated. I was so miserable at the thought of working 3 more years until retirement that I was working myself up at the thought. But I thought I had no options. Ha! When the boss says you're fired, you start digging up options. Everyone has options all the time. We just can't always see them. Thank God for bosses who are idiots. His actions made it possible for me to see the options for happiness. I am just too easily lulled into status quo. The marriage ended and my life improved immediately. I learned nothing from it. So here I am again. The job ended and am I going to learn this time? You bet I am! Here's to the future!