Some views of friends and a favorite restaurant

 When having a lovely luncheon with friends last Saturday, most of them refused to have a photo taken of themselves.

When I asked Bette if she'd let me take a selfie with her, this is what she did.

Then she was brave and let me see her smile. I reminded her the last time I took her photo had been at the Pisgah Inn in the spring. She smiled more then...and proposed another trip there. 

I said, I had to buy new horses to take us!

There are changes being made at Ole's.  Roof over the garden part of the patio...rather dark but maybe cooler.

Glad that tree was finally cut...it didn't look long for the safety of the restaurant.

This is what I've been doing all weekend...

They are selling quickly, I believe...so I doubt that I'll see these exact cars when my friend M. takes me looking at them Monday.  By the time you read this I'd happily amend it to say I've got a new car.

Today's quote:

George Santayana said the famous phrase: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Unnamed Journal

A journal of each day for a whole week. (as hosted Here)

 Monday, August 22, 2022

Waited all day for a call from an insurance adjuster. Finally a call from my local agency. Gave me the name and number to call to have adjuster go see car in impound lot. After 5 so I waited till next morning.

Had a nice lunch with C. at Ole's Guacamole, my favorite Baja shrimp tacos. Listed to a Louise Penny novel in the afternoon and evening on the mini iPad...one I don't remember too well, as it took place in Paris (at least the first part). I probably have read it, but the advantage of being 80 is that I forget things I read 10 years ago!

Today was my dear daughter-in-law's birthday, Barbara B, who has a macaron business selling at various venues of pop-up variety and the street fairs of St. Pete and Tampa...as well as some conventions. Anyway, she's either baking them, or selling them, and couldn't take the weekend off to come to the mountains. I missed her fun quirky slant on things!

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Well it's finally here, the 80th birthday of this incarnation! I've led a rather unexciting life, but did push the envelope a bit as far as trying to do things that were not expected of me...at least from the former generation. I've talked enough about my life before on blogs.

Retired in 2007 at 65, and moved here to Black Mountain NC. where I spent the next 12 years making and selling pottery. Now after one heart attack I'm not sure what I'll do next. Something to help with adjusting to climate crisis I think.

Lunch at Trail-head, another wonderful restaurant here, with another wonderful friend (who's older than me!). Then she helped me do some errands. I got a call from insurance that in 48 hours I'll know what the status of the car is.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Finally got a document from insurance about the car. They offered me a check for complete loss of car. They call it "totaled." I'm not sure that I can find another used car that's in as good a condition as this one. I had a good zoom conversation with two men from church to determine what the best course of action would be.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

H. drove me around to get some checks ready to buy some new (to me) car. She also took me to the impound yard to get the rest of my things from Grey Hawk. It's sad to say goodbye to a car that has been so reliable, and taken me so many places.

Friday, August 26, 2022

I just wanted to stay in bed. So I did. Till someone called with a recorded message. Oh well, I needed fresh coffee. And then look for cars on line. Ugh. I hate shopping of any kind. I will probably take the first car I see that meets my needs, price, durability, age, etc. I am definitely grieving for the loss of my little car.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Friend took me to meet another friend for lunch, then to our big grocery where I got just what I could carry in 5 bags. Talked with son #2 about cars...and looked at my favorites of the ones my friend has posted. I haven't been able to find anything myself. Talked with friends at lunch as to what I could do with some left over Kaiser buns...for the pot luck at church tomorrow. They wanted me to make sandwiches. I don't have the energy to do that. May or may not take them, depending on how I feel in the morning. Friends will pick me up to take me and bring me home. What a great community meeting the needs of others.

Sunday August 28, 2022

Got a ride to church, and home. Didn't fix anything for the pot luck, and I was the last person to get a plate in the line (we don't use plastic or paper goods, being Green) and the few people behind me got bowls. I just decided I had enough to do, and making little sandwiches just wasn't in me. I did mention that I needed to find a car, around 10 years old. It was great to see all my friends too!

Today's quote:

George Santayana said "History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there."

Texas Piney Woods

 My early Texas ancestors were from New England and Tennessee. Some of them were in the lumber business, with many shipments going out of Galveston as ships.

"The people who live in the pine woods of Eastern Texas are very primitive in their habits. This this was the first part of Texas that was settled by the early pioneers, their descendants form the principal part of the population ..... You often find grown men and women that have never seen a prairie country, mountain or valley, railroad or steamboat. They grow to manhood and womanhood in the heart of the thick pine woods, and are contented and happy in their log cabins.

Their diets would by no means please the stomach of an epicure. Cornbread, bacon and potatoes, with an occasional treat of venison, give them perfect satisfaction. Nearly all the children born and reared in the pine woods have light hair; it is rare to see a back-haired family."

----- John A. Caplan, "The Sunny South," November 5, 1887

As posted on FaceBook by Traces of Texas on 8.24.22

See my previous posts about Galveston when it was the biggest port in Texas. Here and HERE.

Today's quote:

Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry ... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery. 

-George Polya, mathematician (13 Dec 1887-1985)

Reminiscing

Here's my last car purchase, on...

Saturday, January 7, 2017.

It's been 16 years since I bought my last car. (Purchased in 2000, a 1996 Toyota Corola)
I dearly loved the 100,000 miles I sat behind the wheel in it!

But a 20 year old Toyota Corolla, even with only 2 old women owners, sometimes needs to be replaced.

So now I'm going to be happily driving a 2004 Toyota Echo. And a friend and her mother were the only owners...if that helps in any way. My friend named it Grey Hawk, which seems appropriate.

And yesterday, August 25, 2022, I said good-bye to the little Grey Hawk, leaving her in an impound yard to be towed to some auction for parts. 

I didn't write down the mileage she had when I bought her, but she shows 158,608 when she stopped at that small accident a week ago. Apparently it was enough. (I wasn't hurt, and neither was the driver of the car I hit.) 

Over the years I'd decorated her with some of my favorite causes. I will miss those stickers, and wonder now if I'll do the same thing to my next car...

So I am feeling sad, but working on finding another car. One of my granddaughters has gone away from home to college, for the first time. She was feeling a bit home sick. But I bet when she starts classes on Mon. she may forget all about that feeling. Same hope for me...shop for my new vehicle!

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My Blog from 2016...ah the life I was living just 6 years ago! Anticipation

I don't post much over at Alchemy of Clay any more...since I retired the second time from making clay 2-1/2 years ago.

I did enjoy finding that post to share, and reminisce of course.

Oh, and here's a blog of the finished hummingbird platter. Hummingbird Platter out of kiln

Today's quote:

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. -Juan Ramon Jimenez, poet, Nobel Prize in literature (23 Dec 1881-1958)

The love in families

 Today's theme, families showing the love between them...especially some children!

When I was 3-1/2 years old my baby sister came into my life. A real disruption! But also some moments of joy. Here I am in 1946 holding my baby sister!

1912 South Carolina 

Fisherman and family on Mississippi docked in Missouri, 1914

1920

Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia, Sept 1938

High School in the 50s - when children think they are adults!

Lewis Hunter with his family, Lady's Island, Beaufort, SC, by Carl Mydans, June1936

Mom's birthday gang (2022) turned B&W.

L to R. W, C, A, R, C2, Mom, T, M, M2. to protect the innocent!

Sepia Saturday this week!

Sitting on a bench by a lake

 Some days this is the best thing to do. I also took a few pics of us, and the ducks!

Since I'm still carless, my friend H. took me for a ride and an enjoyable sit by the lake.

An egret came to check out the ducks' favorite area. ducks kind of gave him right of way.

We liked this mixed breed female.

Then her mate came along and got her to come with him. This was at Charles D. Owen Park in Swannanoa NC.

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It seems I add something at the last minute a lot these days. Yesterday I accepted that my old car was now the property of the insurance company, and cleared out all my meager belongings in the impound lot. I also went to my savings bank and got a check made out to me, so I can easily put it towards the purchase of another car, once that insurance check arrives.

Today's quote:

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost." Gustave Flaubert

It's fig season!

These delicate lovelies never make it to a supermarket. That's why a Tailgate Market on Saturdays is so special! I asked a friend to get me a bunch (a pint I think) and here they are. These are ripe already, and beginning to squish up.

So I cut up some ciabatta bread and spread cream cheese on it, then a layer of spinach yogurt dip, then the mashed up figs.

Next time I'll skip the spinach yogurt. It was a good supper though!

And today I had figs and yogurt (no spinach) for breakfast. Definitely a good thing!

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An NPR article crossed my desk yesterday...worth looking at to consider the Racism behind the Jan. 6 insurrection. HERE.

and if only...

Today's quote:

There isn’t time - so brief is life - for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving - and but an instant, so to speak, for that.
 

—Mark Twain,
in a letter to Clara Spaulding, 
20 August 1886

 

Gratitude, depression, and wonderment

Reposting this description of a meditation. I was feeling depressed, and certainly not liking myself today (note, some weeks agao)..so looked for past uses of gratitude. Thinking I wouldn't have to rewrite my gratitude list, which usually helps me get out of depression. So I think I'll try this meditation from Jan 4, '21...it's nice and slow and doesn't require much effort...

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I was not following any guidance when meditating the other day...just had some background music going. Looking out the window at the fog as it lifted, first only being able to see the top of a power pole at Hwy. 70, then slowly having the ridge line of the mountain appear. The fog remained in the middle between these two points, a valley full of cloud. Somewhere down there the little Swannanoa River wanders back and forth through the valley that carries its name.

Some days my meditation just comes to me. Today, gratitude was top of my list.

Often meditation starts with deep breaths. And then awareness of parts of the body...starting with the feet, legs and going up each part. But today I started with my heart, then lungs. And from there I focused on each of the systems of my body...muscles, nerves, skin etc. I almost forgot the digestive and kidneys/bladder systems. I did remember hair and finger nails.  

Anyway, it was good to be grateful for all the wonderful pieces that make up this pie called Barbara. What amazing things homo sapiens are.

My winter-time view of the mountains.

And the summertime view out my living room windows.

Today's quote:

Moving in the flow of compassion and deepening enquiry,
we engage with all beings in ways that support the integrity,
the stability and the beauty of the entire living world.

Engaging with this [flow] of birthing/dying living,
embracing it, surrendering to it, [we find that] the mystery
is tremendously integrated.
It is extraordinarily stable.  It has been in action for
billions of years.  It is breath-stoppingly beautiful in
all its vulnerability...

My medicine is wonderment...

Tarchin Hearn

Excerpts from: 
The Dharma of Illness and The Medicine of Wonderment

Finally the big 80

 I was preceded in celebration by Big Daddy Dave over in Tennessee. That's just fine. I've had more celebrations that I could have imagined possible.

The weekend that I will never forget in the woods near Lake Lure and Old Fort...in the mansion/cabin...and with most of my family! What a treat which I hope they will cherish as much as I do.

Standing Rock Falls...which had upper falls and lower falls. I managed down the stairs and back to upper falls, and let the hiking younger family members go down to lower falls. (As already covered in a previous post!)

Custards setting which became Crème brulee! (fun when the portable flame thrower needed more gas, so they were all put under the boiler and came out great!)

M. at the end of the table had a birthday in Oct...so he raised his hand as the last annual birthday of the group. They each had a birthday card from me to celebrate together by having fun!

Me and the crystals!

The whole gang, when I took the pic. so Kendra is in it...

A fun fast card game of as many players playing double sol as you've got decks! I think it's called Nerts!

One of the fabulous cooks that weekend, as well as the only daughter-in-law who could come. I was so glad to have time with her! My three sons honored my request that I wouldn't prepare any meals. I just bought the groceries, since I lived in the area! I admit they had two more grocery trips after we were found to be missing some of the things I bought and forgot in my fridge. Hey I'm an elder, I can forget things!

My three sons, and my grandkids (most of them). Kendra took this photo.

Today's quote:

You know why trees smell the way they do?” Murphy asked, looking up. “Sap?” Logan guessed. “Chlorophyll?”

Murphy shook her head. “Stars. Trees breathe in starlight year after year, and it goes deep into their bones. So when you cut a tree open, you smell a hundred years worth of light. Ancient starlight that took millions of years to reach Earth. That’s why trees smell so beautiful and old."

—Frances O’Roark Dowell