Lemon Bay Evening

Lemon Bay Evening
Sunset

Monday, September 30, 2013

When Plan A gets Trumped ... by plan B ...

...and Plan B Gets Cancelled ...

Go To ... Plan C !!!

Paddling again ! After seven years of absence from these back waters of Florida... like the first drink after a week in the desert ... satisfying .. nourishing.. and life sustaining. 

With this post I am sending you to another blog of this author for a photo journey of this past Thursday's Kayak adventure. Hope you enjoy it. 

http://dogs-n-blogs.blogspot.com/      Stories from Big Sur, CA to the Gulf Coast of Florida.



Sunday, September 29, 2013

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The REAL Mother ...


A Classic


...Makes a Mother Proud ...

I've been looking for this book for some time now. Thrift Stores ... Yard Sales ... book stores with used books .... with no success.  Today, while re-packing some of my (grown up)son's treasures for storage ... LO and BEHOLD !  I raised a brilliant man! This is a treasure he has stored for his daughter... a beautiful... bright... sensitive... funny ... did I say.. also brilliant like her Daddy? .. young 16 year old...  Some days are just awesome!




Wednesday, September 25, 2013

When You're Smiling ...when you're smiling ....

LAUGHING OUT LOUD AGAIN !
I can feel most of my face, upper lip, and cheeks again.  (Two hours since I left the dentist’s office, 4 hours since I sat in the chair for the fix… and although the discomfort of my upper lip being stretched over my head for working room still reminds me where I went this morning,)  I am doing the “new tooth” dance !!   Even having a high tolerance for pain cannot prevent some of the dental agony in the aftermath of a great sculptor.  But today, parting with nearly three hundred dollars total for this positive result, I am excited to be able to smile my toothy smile in public, laugh with my head tossed back, and make those “cheesy” faces when relating descriptive stories to friends and strangers.




Caught exposing the gap at Busch Gardens Tampa !


Earlier this summer, I walked into the kitchen to declare that I had sufficient evidence to argue that one should not brush their teeth. The gaping hole in the front row of my not so perfect teeth, and the last bit of the old filling in the palm of my hand.  Sporatic years of irregularly scheduled check - ups, cleanings, fillings and such is no substitute for consistent, daily diligence to my own hygiene. 







Fully owning the responsibility of my inactions for my dental practices, I am grateful for the technology and skill available now.  I recently learned that due to the political pressures for Americans to provide their own health insurance, there is a disappearing element. Any county, state or otherwise, free health clinics.  
As a result, I went searching for some reduced cost clinics and discovered one nearby.  The Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida Inc. You can check out their website at http://www.fhcswf.org/.  
While waiting for the full impact of the numbing injection, we made some inquiries about the FHC and learned that it is a non profit organization, with careful hiring practices to insure that the staff has the same work ethic and dedication to providing the best patient care as the individual who started this company nearly thirty years ago.  Without going all mushy or overstating an opinion, I just want to say here, that this organization seems to have a handle on blending the “old school” medical practices with current state of the art tools, and topping it all off with a friendly, courteous, knowledgeable, compassionate staff. KUDOS ! to The Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida ! 
... The Whole World Smiles !


Sunday, September 15, 2013

First Encounters .... A Journey of Trust


Tom and Darrell



The phone call came mid morning, a Saturday in October. "MJ, do you know of any very inexpensive place we could stay here in Memphis? Our return flight to L.A. is next Saturday, and the family made it clear we are not going to be staying with any of them."
(We knew Tom and Darrell were going to meet Darrell's family just outside of Memphis, hopefully to get answers and explanations for Darrell and more research for the book Tom was writing.)
Over thinking a situation has never been my strength... in fact just the opposite. Impulsive. That describes me... at least most of my life. Although I am practicing the art of procrastination in these more recent years.
So we determined they would stay in the motel for one more night, and hubby and I would drive to Beale Street and pick them up the next afternoon. 
Hubby spotted Darrell first. Standing outside the door of The Hard Rock Cafe.         

Tom had just stepped inside to check out the Tee shirts... for his collection... and left Darrell to watch for our arrival... explaining to Darrell that he would recognize me by my hair... long and white/gray. 

When hubby spoke Darrell's name as we approached, Darrell, mildly startled, turned to see who would know him on Beale Street at this time in his life, and immediately embraced the big stranger in a warm hug. Then turning to me, embraced with assurance, our friendship. Tom came out the door just in time to see this tender encounter, and got in on the hugs and greetings. 
That first five minutes grew into a week long sharing of love...laughter...fears... and dreams...plus a lifetime of loving friendship that is priceless. The details of some of this can be found in the book.




TRUST: belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective

In a world where a trip to the market can end tragically, trust is a thin leg to stand on when asking strangers for help. OR it can define the character of who you are. 

A sidebar to that first night in our home in Melbourne , Arkansas, a three hour drive from Memphis, where we spirited Tom and Darrell away from the world for one week. Once settled into bed for the night, I , in a very paranoid moment, voiced my concern to hubby. " What if they are some psychotic, crazed murderers, who come in during the night and bludgeon us to death... and NO ONE knows who they are, because we told NO ONE what we were doing... bringing strangers into our home for a week?"   Then with a nervous chuckle, he dismissed my thoughts as yes, paranoia, and we slept like babies. Now, the humor in all of this, is to tell you that, in their own little 'heaven in Melbourne', in the Funfinder RV in the yard, Tom and Darrell shared the same moment of fears about US !! 





















Silhouette by the Light of a Supermoon

A Super Moon Night in New Smyrna Beach


What is a supermoon? The word supermoon didn’t come from astronomy. Instead, it came from astrology. Astrologer Richard Nolle of the website astropro.com takes credit for coining the term supermoon. In 1979, he defined it as:…a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, moon and sun are all in a line, with moon in its nearest approach to Earth.  http://earthsky.org/
Saturday,  June 22, 2013

Walking along the quiet shoreline in New Smyrna Beach, there came an incredible sense of power from the east. Turning to look over the peaceful Atlantic I saw the rising full moon and knew immediately that what I was experiencing came from this summer event.

Borrowing a quote from a blogspot I follow, http://helloworld420.blogspot.com/ ,  I became aware of the fact that turning on the light requires an action, or effort, to get the result. For me, I had to turn and see the light.

 "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

Albus Dumbledore - The Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling



SILHOUETTE

...the outline of a body viewed as circumscribing a mass (circumscribe : to surround by or as if by a boundary ) http://www.merriam-webster.com






Self Portrait
6/22/2013

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Wondering if it's A Personal Plague ...

I get the feeling there is a message here ... but have yet to hear it clearly.  Frogs ... there is a "frog magnetic field" around my person. The following photos (taken by me) are of actual up close and personal events with these amphibians... just three of dozens over the years...
 Wiki...  http://www.wikipedia.org/      opens the "frog" page with this statement: Frogs are a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (Ancient Greek an-,without + oura, tail). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. 

So ... am I an ancient soul.. being sought after for reconnection? ... or do I look like a great meal for a jinourmous appetite? 


 The Sky is the Limit

 ...and the black button is where? 

...a zen moment in the Ozarks ...