Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. Tagore

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Just for Fun

It was too cold to go out to take photos today, but I want to stick with my commitment to myself to add something to this blog everyday.
I took photos in the room I'm huddled in today...the warm room.

 I like my wall art to be images of  places I've enjoyed and would like to again
I'm testing the philosophy:
 "What you focus on is what you get"

 Artichoke from my sister-in-law, Virginia's garden
Book of Prayers from my sister, DJ
Parties book from my sister-in-law, Charlie
Camelot the Kennedy Years from friend Jackie


 A piazza in Rome I've been to with sister, Lanora and daughter, Jennifer
Painting by Lloyd, brother-in-law of my brother-in-law, Mike

 Posted inside the door of my "guest room"...a Murphy bed closet

 From a Renoir Poster picked up in Paris in 1985

 Bridge over the Seine, Paris

 Christmas present from a Monterey hotel from my meeting planner days with the League of California Cities.
I have several different fish from several Christmas's.

 Celtic Cross from Sister-in-Law, Charlie
She got in in Texas

 Bought on Amalfi Coast, Italy on a trip with Jude and Jennifer

 Paris restaurant scenes decoupaged onto a small table...see the brush strokes!


Random Shots from a Jimmy Kimmel show 











 



I think I should go back to taking nature photos!!!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

A walk today...a little bit more fall color...a lot of leafless trees...pretty flowers...and much COLD, but I wasn't able to capture that

 Figs. old leaves and gravel




 Another one of these enduring shrubs just outside the front door of St. John's Lutheran

 There is always a camellia blooming in Sacramento




 I never would have considered using pink with brown and golden orange, but it looks good in nature




 There is no "last rose of summer" in Sacramento

 I think a different color roof would be better; but what color?

 The orange against the purple is quite eye-catching





Friday, December 28, 2012

The Year Is Almost Over...It's Mostly been Very Good


There are some days when I have no new photos,
when there is nothing particular on my mind to post about.
This is one of those days.

 I have been thinking about a 2013 bucket-type list and all I can come up with is the list of things I need to do today.  Maybe this would be a good place to make my list.  Perhaps I'd be more inclined to follow-through, as I'd be accountable to friends and strangers.
 Being accountable to myself doesn't always work.
Friday's To Do List
1.  Reschedule appointment for annual physical.
2.  Call SilverScript to see if I really have to pay them for January Drug Plan, since it's supposed to be taken out of
my social security check.
3.  Call Dental Office to get appointment for device adjustment
4.  Go to Grocery Store
5.  Call California Sleep Study to arrange a later wake up call.  No one wants to pick me up at 5:30 a.m., on Jan 3.  
6.  Call Comcast to find out why website is not allowing me to get past repeatedly entering my user name and password.
7.  Schedule Mammogram
8.  Complete information for Sleep Study
9.  Get Printer Ink
10.  Call Kathleen about attending her 70th birthday
party in Palm Springs
11.  Buy Stamps
12.  Pay Blue Cross Anthem
14.  Take checks to mailbox
15. Eat fresh fruit....enough with the sugar!

Yikes, I'm tired....

One only has to read this list to understand the reason for the blog title; at least the aging and humility and woman, part.
Haven't found the humor today.  I'm not through my wake-up coffee though.  Maybe  the caffeine will bring on the amusement.  

Here's a photo of me taken on Christmas Eve.
What it points out most clearly is that over the years, I've lost my neck.  I used to wear high turtle neck sweaters.  
Now, even a mock turtleneck is too much.  My head appears to be resting on my shoulders.
Either this is something no one tells you about the aging process, or it was something I refused to hear.  That's more likely.
My friends of similar age tell me they too  have lost their ability to wear a turtleneck.  All things equal, not the worse thing, just unexpected and odd.  And, I had some really nice turtleneck sweaters!

I've completed most of the things on my list today.  Reward time.

And just for the sheer pleasure of it I watched this video of Venice.
It comes as close to portraying the Venice of my heart and mind as anything except the real thing can.


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Legacy - We All Leave One


I watched the Kennedy Center Honors last night.
You are rarely selected for an honor until you are well into "aging"
 Last night was no exception.


The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, broadcast on CBS on Wednesday night, is the annual event in which celebrities in various fields get all gussied up, travel to Washington, D.C., rub shoulders with the President, and hear exalting speeches about themselves. This year, the testimonials were laced with traces that don’t often make it into a taped TV awards-show final cut: frankness, near-brutal honesty, and almost tearful love.

david-letterman

Most of the honorees are still actively performing; or teaching.
I found all the faces to be far more interesting and even beautiful for having lived a full and accomplished life
than they were in their youth.  

Caroline Kennedy was born on  November 27, 1957.  
Looks at those arms!

 Brought to you by Dodge, apparently Orange Dodge

The Kennedy Center Honors, with their formal rigor and mix of artists, can yield some surprising reactions. The three members of Zeppelin present — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones — sat in the audience looking like delighted, if aging, schoolboys let into a grown-ups’ party; they were all smiles, as much during salutes to Hoffman and Letterman as when an array of musicians, including Lenny Kravtiz and Kid Rock, performed Zeppelin music.


 


and here they are now....
 
 
Tributes
 Music doesn't recognize age


 Worn, but what a story that face tells.

 President Obama is on that Stairway to Heaven and apparently enjoying the memory

 





 
 


The recipients this year were David Letterman, Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Guy, Led Zeppelin, and Natalia Makarova.

And later on Letterman
 Jimmy: 9 January 1944
Jonesy: 3 January 1946
Robert: 20 August 1948

"Every legend was way-back a crying baby."