Perfect favorite day

Today was perfect! Clear skies, about 65ºF, wearing shorts weather, with chores finished, and an invitation to explore the desert. I could not resist! My favorite pastime is driving deep into the desert to climb the mountains and hike in the dry washes, called arroyos out here. I like to pick up rocks and old wood as embellishments for my garden, and to breathe in the fragrance of the desert flora as I gather items in hushed SILENCE.

I have a bottle of cologne (Morning Dew) that has the same scent of the desert. I found it many years ago at a western store in Wickenburg, Arizona. It's always on my gift list. On the way home from our desert wanderings, we always stop for a cheese crisp with extra hot sauce from our favorite Mexican food restaurant. It’s the finishing flourish to our fantastic, marvelous, perfect day!!!

Delighted and Elated

Today I'm DELIGHTED! My bathroom remodel is complete! During the redo I started to declutter, purge, and organize my whole house! No small task for me --never one to acquire any of the three habits! It is getting easier to let go of the things I thought I needed to make me happy! Oh, the money I wasted on the shallow, trivial and foolish thingamajigs! Getting rid of the disorder has made me feel like the clouds--weightless, airy and free! Well, not weightless--that is another story.

Today I'm ELATED! I had my house professionally cleaned! Nothing more to say!

Memories

Yea, from the table of my memory

- Shakespeare

Today I started the dreaded Atkins diet. It's a cruel diet that conjures up memories that haunt me as I ponder my daily list of diet NO-NO'S.

I remember the smell of Grandmother's baking bread, of climbing the date palm eating my fill of dates, over and over again, then sitting under the fig tree and finding the ripest fallen fruit. Or of scooping out honey from the 5-gallon container on the back of the wood stove, then having as much custard as often as I wanted, all in a day's time.

Then I think of eating grapes from the vines surrounding the back porch. Or of picking oranges, grapefruit and tangerines from the orchard, and eating them on the spot, sometimes with the skin, and then filling up on mulberries as they stained our clothes and bodies.

The best part of childhood was never getting FAT! Dieting should not be a part of aging! Maybe I should eat the last two bananas and orange in the house before starting the DIET!

My Hero

Fall Flowers

My camera is dead. I tried to revive it to no avail. I was in the anger stage of the seven steps of mourning it when my sister said, “Just get a new one." It pulled me right out of that hopeless angry feeling. I ordered one today. The only thing I know about it is the price. It should be here soon.

My sister is my hero--not only does she come up with obviously simple one-liners, but she knows almost everything about almost anything. Just yesterday, I asked her if should I put the new bathroom faucet on the right or left side of the sink. She said, "It goes in the back!" Of course! Who else could I ask that stupid question! I know most of my questions are pretty foolish. Sometimes she laughs, sometime she gets mad and tells me my only answer is suicide, but in the end she keeps the fact of my obtuseness in the family. Unfortunately, I just let it out.

Clouds Gathering

Rainbow Promise

The world as I knew it is, quite frankly, gone. Things naturally change over time, and I can accept that, but the changes I see now are not quite right. My belief is based on what is true, or what I believe in my own mind.

Weather changes are probably first on my list, because of the fact that I like to spend my winters on my swing. It has been too warm to enjoy sitting outside, and the air conditioning is still running in the house. Doors remain closed, and I'm DEPRESSED!

The recalls from China are OVERWHELMING! Gas prices, UNWARRANTED! Quantity over quality, FOOLISH! Lies over truth, and evil over good, SHAMEFUL! Open borders, ABSURD!

Even with things filled with uncertainty and everything twisted throughout the earth, there is a rainbow in my life. My concern for the state of the world just shifted to neutral, because I just saw my nearly finished, remodeled bathroom! It's magnificent! I'll worry about the world another day.

Bone Dry

Traverse the desert, and then ye can tell

What treasures exist in the cold deep well,

Sink in despair on the red parch'd earth,

And then ye may reckon what water is worth.

Miss Eliza Coor