on aging, barrels and bubble wrap

When I went to the post office Friday I found a pretty pink envelope addressed to me and it was emblazoned with the words, a Gift for Vonda Keon. Now I love a gift as much as anyone. So I eagerly tore into the envelope to see what the gift was. It was 50% off a hearing aid at a hearing clinic in Oxford. I was insulted! I may be 55 but there is nothing wrong with my hearing. Ask my kids, I can hear and identify the most minute sounds and conversations.

So what is the deal? Are we automatically in some AGE related databank that spits out cards for hearing test discounts, or scooter chairs or Depends? I started asking around and found out that several people I know have gotten similar mail and it all started at the age of 50.

I know that I don’t give into the aging process easily. Just because I am 55 doesn’t mean that I am ready to turn into a sedentary vegetable. Retirement is a long way off for me in spite of what my daughters may think. I will probably working until I just drop one day.

We all know that we are getting older. Each day most of us are waking up to the sounds of snap crackle and pop and I am not talking about a bowl of Rice Krispies cereal. I’m talking about the sounds our aging joints are starting to make. Some days I wake up and wonder how I am going to make it across the room. But after a few minutes of moving around and a hot cup of coffee, things start to loosen up a bit and I don’t hear those popping and creaking sounds any longer.

Age is a funny thing. I prefer it to the alternative; not getting older. But it seems like it leaps upon us when its least expected. Such as a few years back, the Spring of 2004 to be exact, I was still home schooling several children in my downstairs study. One day we were studying Newton’s Laws of Motion and I decided that we would do some practical experiments to prove them. One of the experiments involved a 55 gallon plastic barrel and rolling down the hill in my side yard.

I watched those kids crawl into the barrel and go rolling down the hill and then pop out of it whooping and hollering and having the best time. It really did look like a lot of fun. Finally I could not stand it any longer and after a bit of coaxing from the kids, I folded my then 50 year old fat self into that barrel. DJ, Kyle, Hunter and Corey gave that barrel a good shove and there I was trapped inside a white plastic barrel tumbling down a hill that seemed to go on forever.

I heard a loud pop when the barrel came to a sudden stop at the base of a large oak tree on the edge of my mothers’ yard. When the boys started pulling me out of the barrel I realized that something wasn’t quite right. Every bone in my body hurt and I couldn’t take a deep breath. I limped around and sat pretty straight for a couple of days before I finally gave in and went to see Dr. Bruce. After laughing at my account of the great barrel roll he told me I had broken a rib. Then he said there was nothing he could do for it except tell me to take Tylenol for pain and to stay out of barrels. And THEN he had the audacity to tell me that I wasn’t a spring chicken any longer. I would have hit him if I wasn’t hurting so bad at the time.

To add insult to injury, some anonymous friend thought it would be really funny to send me a huge roll of bubble wrap so that I might wrap myself in that before my next trip in the barrel. Ha ha! If I thought that would work I would try it but my husband has cut my barrels in half to make my container gardens. So my barrel rolling days are over and I will never know if the bubble wrap would work.

I CAN hear you laughing you know.

Mary, Mary, Where you going to?

Last week, on one of what I like to call my daily adventures, I struck out Thursday morning in the direction of Grenada for a little rescue mission. I had recently gotten a distress call from a childhood friend of mine who is now in ill health. Gwen has to move closer to her children in another state so they can help care for her but she can’t take all of her pets with her so she called and wanted to know if I could help her find homes for her furry babies.

During a previous visit, I had already met most of her fur babies and one in particular had stood out. Little Mary. Little Mary is a medium sized mutt or a “dukes mixture.” She has the saddest brown eyes and the air of a dog that has suffered abuse. Gwen had rescued Mary from a grocery parking lot in Grenada but it took many visits and several chicken tenders to gain the dogs’ trust. Mary also came with 10 puppies. The first day I met Little Mary she walked to me allowed me to touch her. My friend was shocked and she said that she knew that Mary would be fine with me.

I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked out a new lease and a collar and some other doggy supplies like shampoo and flea products and food and then went on Operation Rescue Mary. Gwen had been telling little Mary daily that she loved her and she wasn’t throwing her away. I arrived at their home in the boonies of Grenada Lake with the new lease and some chicken tenders.

The other fur babies along with Little Mary’s 10 babies had already been picked up and carried to new homes. Only Mary and couple of others remained. I offered Mary a piece of chicken and she gently took it from me and chewed it while I talked to her and put her on the lease. That was a new experience for her. I ended up picking her up and putting her in the front of the van. Then I got in and we drove off.

Mary just looked at me with her soulful brown eyes and I talked to her all the way home. She never took her eyes off of me and she stood the whole trip down 330 and then 32 to Bruce. I didn’t know how she would react when we got home because it was time to pick up the girls from school. She just looked at them as they got into the van.

When we arrived at home, she came into the house and looked around and lay down on the floor and never made a sound. She promptly went to sleep and slept for hours. She woke up and ate and drank some water. Then she drank some water and crawled under my bed and went to sleep again.

When I woke up Friday morning she was sitting on the loveseat at the foot of my bed and shyly wagged her tail. I put the lease on her and she walked outside with me. We walked around the yard and she sniffed and listened and looked around. Then she sat and wouldn’t move.

While giving her a much needed bath I discovered that she is absolutely terrified of hoses which leads me to think that she was hit with a hose and while she doesn’t mind water in a tub, don’t even think about pouring it on her. So bath time was a traumatic time for us. She tolerated it and I have the sore muscles and a few bruises to show for it.

The good news is that after a few days she no longer tucks her tail and drops her head. Her favorite spot is curling up on the sofa or sitting at my feet with her head on my knee. She has even rolled over on her back and allowed me to scratch her tummy. So far she still hasn’t made a sound except for a grunt when she wants to go out.

I promised my friend that I would give Little Mary a good home and unconditional love. I think Mary has found out she has nothing to worry about.

I don't know but I've been told!!!

I don’t know but I’ve been told…
I’m going to school to get some smarts!
We learn our Math and History…
English Comp and Chemistry!
If we can make it through these tests…
We deserve a Summer Rest!
Sound off…
One, two!
Sound off…
Three. Four!

The school year is winding down at an alarming rate for students and parents alike. I am watching the girls here in my house studying like there is no tomorrow. Ping went to Ms. Newlin’s History ‘Boot Camp’ several afternoons last week to cram for tests. Ji Eun comes in grabs a snack, shuts the door to her room and I hear books flying and pages flipping. Erin is reading books or working on papers and projects in between cutting the grass at Grandmommie’s house and dance recital practice. And Ariel has her head plunged into the books and is busily writing those final reports and going through printer ink and reams of paper.

Ping wants to return here to go to an American University. She has already taken the ACT test and she scored a 21 which is good considering English is not her primary language and is her weakest subject. But her determination is amazing and she wants to work in the international business market with her father. Her father called us last weekend to thank us for taking care of his daughter and helping her to assimilate our American culture. He is familiar with this area because he comes to the furniture market in Tupelo. He was very excited that his daughter was coming to an area of the US he was familiar with. He is ready for his daughter to return home for a couple of years and then come back to the US to go to college. He is a worried parent just like any of us would be.

Ping and Ji Eun will be leaving us the last week of May to return to their families. It will be sad to see them leave but they have learned a lot about rural American life in the 10 months they have lived with us. They have made new friends, learned to better use the English language and even speak it with a bit of a Southern Drawl. They have learned some slang and hopefully better understand the American Southern culture. But I know they are anxious to get back to what they are familiar with. I just wonder how it will be for them to readjust to going back to their culture and their schools where individuality is not encouraged.

My family is very excited to be a part of the Global Youth exchange program. I can’t tell you enough how much this has meant to us to be involved in this program. Yes there are ups and downs but we just treat these girls like they are our own daughters. I urge you to pray about it and think about how you can help shape the world, one person at a time. Families interested in hosting will have the opportunity to broaden their horizons, provide a unique contribution to their community and make a positive impact on global youth.
Why don’t you join us in this International Adventure? Let me tell you how.

AYUSA International, a non-profit youth exchange organization, is seeking families in the area who are interested in hosting one of these outstanding scholars. AYUSA students will arrive in Calhoun County at the beginning of August, equipped with medical insurance, spending money, a firm command of English and a strong commitment to becoming a member of your community. Host families are asked only to provide a warm, loving home, meals and sleeping quarters, either shared or private. Students pay for all other personal expenses while on program. This is something that you have to go over with them. If they want to go shopping, they do it when you go. If they want to eat something you don’t normally eat, they buy it. You just have to lay out the ground rules at the beginning. Our girls did their own laundry, kept their rooms clean and learned to cook. If they wanted to go to prom or the movies or eat out, they paid for their part. I monitored their spending and made sure they didn’t fritter it away and they had to account for all of their spending with their parents. They parents just loved that part!

We are already preparing for the next exchange student that will be coming to live with us in August. Her name is Anna and she is a FLEX student from Armenia. We are already doing our homework, learning what we can about her country before she arrives. Armenia is a small country. The state of Mississippi is 4 times larger than her country and we have half the population! She is coming from a mountainous country where Noah’s Ark is thought to have come to rest after the Flood to a land of rolling hills and many trees. Her country was at one time under communist rule but it is the oldest Christian country in the world and that is exciting for me to think about.

The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program gives strong academic achievers from former Soviet Union countries the opportunity to come to the United States to study and gain exposure to American values and democratic principles. FLEX scholarships are awarded through a rigorous and highly competitive application process. These kids are coming here to learn what it is like to live in a democratic republic. They are the future leaders of their countries and they come here to learn and take that knowledge of living in freedom back to their homeland!
Please call me or email me for more information on how to host or be an exchange student, please contact Donna @ 662.682.9971 or 662.682.7456, dwilliams.ayusa@gmail.com or visit our web site www.ayusa.org . Be sure and say Vonda sent you!

No matter where I go or what I see, a W Girl I will always be.

After sewing the 'official' red dress for daughter Ariel to wear at Homecoming at the W,, she returned to campus and showed off my handiwork to the the other neophytes. Tuesday I got a text message asking if I could bring my sewing machine with me when I went down for the festivities. It seems there were a couple of young ladies that needed some alterations to their frocks.

My darling husband needed the white whale so he graciously drove me to Columbus. We arrived at the W bright and early Friday morning and unloaded my stuff and I set up my sewing machine in Ariel's dorm room. she already had some dresses for me to work on. I ripped out hems and re-hemmed them, shortened some and lengthened others. I had one wearing hers wrong side out so I could pin it on her to make it more tailored. One top hung like a potato sack. That one was almost a complete redo. I had a zipper to fix and a few hooks and eyes to sew on. All in all I was a sewing fool for a few hours while I visited with her Social Club sisters.

I was pleased with the results the next morning at the Homecoming convocation when all the Lockhearts marched in wearing their red dresses. While I fussed about that pattern, now that I have done it, I know I can do it again. I even told the girls that I would make the dresses for the next 3 years for each new class...for a price of course. And they have to be fitted because that is the only way that particular dress will look right on each girl.

I enjoyed visiting with all of my former classmates and fellow Alumnae. we are not really welcome on the campus since our Alumnae organization was disaffiliated. It's a sad sad day when a university administrator decides that the Alumnae are not important and takes umbrage with the very people that are the true supporters of the school. We can't even call ourselves MUW Alumnae without fear of getting a letter telling us to cease and desist. But we can proudly call ourselves Mississippi's FIRST Alumnae Association since 1889.

We have been called renegades and blued haired shills and accused of histrionics and hate mongering. people that don't know us or even know what all this brouhaha is all about think we are trying to live in the past which is so far from the truth. We are all progressively minded women and men that want our beloved Alma Mater to move forward and continue to be viable in this 21st century. We have good ideas and are quite capable of recruiting and helping the school in more ways than the administration can imagine. But for some strange reason they think they are the only ones that know what is best for the school.

The biggest bugaboo is the name. The W was established 125 years ago to give women a college education which was unheard of in that era. It has continued to have women's studies as its focus for years. Yes, it was in 1982 that the W was forced to make the change and accept male students for the first time. Many men have graduated from there and I suspect no one has laughed at their diplomas. But the mission of the school has always been to help women. Until the last 7 years that is.

The current administration is now pushing for another name change as if that will be the powerful cure all for what ever it is they think is ailing the W. The other Alums and I sat at an event that was supposed to be a celebration of the loyal daughters and sons that returned to their Alma Mater for class reunions and to visit with fellow alums. Instead we listened to a speech about how changing the name would double admissions and attract people that otherwise would never come to the school to which I now respond with a loud Bronx Cheer. The only name change that I see that needs to come about that will help the future of the W is to change the name of the administrators.

No matter where I go or what I see...A W girl I will always be!

Simply Sewing is so en Vogue!

Years ago, back when I was in high school, one of the subjects taught was Home Ec. It was taught to the female students primarily and we were taught how to prepare and cook everything from homemade biscuits to yeast rolls to a complete dinner meal. We were also taught sewing. I remember those instructions.

My Mom was an excellent seamstress. Every night I would be working on my sewing homework project and she would be looking over my shoulder. She actually taught me more about sewing than Ms. Bert Johnson. Mother had me ripping out seams and redoing them constantly. But I did learn to sew. I also learned that Simplicity made the best patterns and Vogue made impossible one.

When I went off to college at the ‘W’, one of the things that I took with me was a brand new Singer Touch and Sew sewing machine. It was a graduation gift from Mom. It came in handy many times.

The Touch and Sew finally blew a ‘gasket’ one day and I upgraded for a newer model that had some more bells and whistles on it. I continued to make some of my own clothes for several years and when my girls were little I made some outfits for them. Then alas the dear little sewing machine sat silently within its case, gathering dust in a forgotten dark corner of my closet.

Until last week, that is. Darling daughter Ariel, the college freshman, is in a Social Club. They have to have their ‘official’ red dress for those special club occasions. So I told her that I would make her dress. How hard could it be?

It was back in January that she told me about needing the dress. Every week I would ask where is the pattern and the fabric. Every week I go the same answer. Finally, on Palm Sunday no less, she comes home for a day visit and hands me the fabric and the pattern. It was a Vogue pattern and Chinese red silk shantung. Obviously whomever had picked the pattern and the style of dress AND the type of fabric, had never sewn a single stitch in their lives.

Then she told me she needed it to be finished by Easter Sunday!

For the sewing clueless, Vogue is probably the hardest patterns to sew because they are sized so strangely and silk shantung is the slickest, nubbiest fabric you can encounter. She didn’t have a notion what a notion was so I had to make a trip to Oxford to get the two zippers, the thread, the interfacing, hooks and a new pair of scissors. It seems that some one had gotten my good fabric shears and had cut paper with them.

I didn’t get the pattern pinned on and the pieces cut until Thursday evening. I realized that even tho she had gotten the size she thought she needed, I was going to have to make some adjustments. I had to take her measurements and do some creative cutting to make everything fit properly.

Friday afternoon I started sewing. My audience of teenage girls stood and watched me as I pinned pieces and matched notches and lined up seams and sewed them together. Ariel had to press out each seam as I finished. They were all full of questions about why there was interfacing and why I had to make the darts and why did I have to clip the curved seams.

The zipper was the big determining factor for me. I called dear sweet Mom during one of my frustrated moments and was asking her about a weird sewing term that was in the Vogue instructions. She had never heard of it either. I was on my own. After a shaky start I got the hidden zippers in both the skirt and the blouse. I made the last hem stitch at about 10 pm Saturday night.

The moment of truth had finally arrived. Ariel put the outfit on and lo and behold it fit like a glove. Ever thing was where it was supposed to be….I could not believe that I had actually done it. We went to Mom’s to show her. She didn’t find anything wrong with it so I knew I was home free.

I don’t know what Ariel’s other Pledge Sisters are doing about their short notice dresses. But my daughter is going to be prancing around in the dress that her Mom made. And she thinks that I am ‘Da bomb!’ because I know how to sew. Whew!

Farmer Wannabe

As usual, early spring weather and I are going to war. All of these nice sunny days have given me the chance to get out and get my container gardens and garden boxes ready for planting. So far I have broken the handles in my hoe AND my rake and I am feeling the burn in every muscle in my body as I stretch and dig and pull to get my ‘garden’ planted.

I love to garden mainly because I have a bad habit called eating. Eating a tomato or a pepper that I grew is very satisfying and I have always had some sort of garden.

For years I lived in apartments with itty bitty patios and no yards. One of my neighbors was heavily into patio gardening and introduced me to container gardening. For a while I had huge wooden whiskey barrels from the Jack Daniels distillery. Let me tell you, I grew some pretty happy plants in those barrels. I was good at growing little salad gardens too. If it could be grown in a container, I would plant it. I also grew roses. I loved having roses that bloomed year round. I would bring them home after a while, when my rose bushes grew too large, and plant them at Moms or at my grandmothers.

When Scott and I bought our first home in 1990, it had a large back yard and some of the poorest soil I had ever encountered. We worked constantly making gardening beds in the yard. He liked black berries and grapes and I liked my flowers and salad veggies. When we moved to Bruce in 1996 I really hated to leave my flowers. I had some of the happiest, healthiest roses and Scott’s blackberries and grapes had finally started producing.

My yard now isn’t large enough for a traditional garden so Scott built me 4 x 4 garden boxes. I can sit on all four sides and reach across to weed and seed and feed. I can also make the soil any Ph I want it to be. I had one box full of strawberries for several years but the fire ants took it over last year and put a stop to those. I have since reclaimed my box and am working on getting the soil healthy again. It is going to be my compost box for this year.

Last year I tried my hand at growing tomatoes in hanging five gallon buckets. It was an experiment and it went well. Now that I have my learning curve, I am ready to plant even more hanging tomato vines. We took some five gallon plastic buckets and filled them with soil and drilled holes in the bottom and planted the tomato vines. In the top of the buckets I planted sweet basil. Then we hung the buckets on an old swing set frame. The basil does two things. It makes the tomatoes taste wonderful and it keeps away those ugly tomato horn worms. I love to cook with basil also so it’s a great herb to have around.
My tomato plants are sitting inside waiting for this cold snap to go on. I learned a long time ago not to plant my tomatoes before Easter Sunday.


I also grow potatoes in containers. The first time I tried it, I didn’t think I would get any potatoes. I had some seed potatoes and I planted them and pretty much forgot about them until just before the really hot summer weather hit. When I went and started and turning the dirt over with the pitch fork I was shocked at the potatoes that had grown. That 4 x 4 box was packed full of nice sized baking potatoes. Since I had good luck previously, I planted my seed potatoes again over the weekend. And with the quirky weather we are having, I covered my containers with plastic sheeting to keep the soil warm. Potatoes are heavy nutrient feeders so I have to make sure to keep the soil really rich in that box. In 90 days I expect to be enjoying from fine potatoes.


This year I want to have carrots and onions and bell peppers and jalapeno peppers. We learned a valuable lesson one year about peppers. We love jalapenos as well sweet banana peppers. The bees apparently loved both also and cross pollinated some of my peppers. We had some sweet banana peppers that were packing enough heat to bring tears to your eyes and then a small crop of jalapenos with no bite at all. I have never planted my hot peppers near another type of pepper since then.

Uncle Jim told me once that I had to be really angry when I planted my hot peppers or they wouldn’t be hot. I’ll have to work on a good ‘mad’ when I put those plants out this year. And with the stiffness I am feeling at the moment that is not going to be too hard to do. All I need now is a few Tylenol or Motrin, some warm weather, just a little rain and time for the fruits of my labor to end up on my table. It’ll be worth it when I get to eat that first juicy tomato sandwich with a hot pepper on the side!

When Doves Cry

Blogging from Bruce
March 30, 2009

Vonda Keon

For someone who has suddenly been thrust out into the land of job seeking once more, I have been staying pretty busy. Redoing my resume and bringing it up to date took a major portion of my time last week. In today’s economy and job market there are 40 plus people competing for the same jobs so I have my work cut out for me while I try to standout in the crowd.

At one job I applied for, being a stand out wasn’t too hard. I was the only one over the age of 30 and the only one that was dressed in business type attire and not blue jeans and sneakers. I may be “old school” in my thinking but I don’t care if you are trying to get a job flipping burgers or cleaning the sewers, when applying for a job you should look like you care about your appearance. If you care about your appearance then you will probably care about the job you are trying to get.


After doing several interviews last week now I have to wait and see if I made a good enough impression to be called back for the second round of interviews. I do have a few skills that some people don’t, such as I actually know how to take dictation and to transcribe it. And I did learn to type the proper way thanks to Ms. Sandra Hubbard and Ms. Rosie Daniels back in the day when typing and office procedures were actually taught. Add those skills to knowing my way around a computer and Microsoft Excel and Office, plus past experience in running an office, I might just be marketable after all. We will see.

I have to be doing something and now that I have some leisure time, I am not just sitting around twittling my thumbs. There is spring cleaning to be done and organizing my cabinets again and digging through all of the papers that have stacked up on my desk. I have never just been used to sitting still and doing nothing.

I did, however, take a breather and sat outside one day last week during a nice day and soaked up the wonderful warmth of Spring. I was watching the stray cat that has adopted us as she cared for her new litter of kittens. She doesn’t speak much. She just comes over for the occasional neck rub and to thank me for the food and water and the nice box I made for her new little family. She is extremely protective of her little ones but she tolerates me checking on them as she keeps a watchful eye out for the many roaming tomcats that come sashaying through the yard.

One tomcat was making his way across the street when his attention was diverted by a family of doves that have made their nest in a hedgerow in my neighbor’s yard. This rather large gray tomcat crouched and went into hunter mode. I could tell he was getting so excited about the prospects of capturing a bird for his afternoon snack. His long tail was the only thing twitching as he slowly crept closer to the nest. Then all of a sudden one of the doves crashed to the ground and was running and crying and dragging its wings. The cat turned its attention to the injured bird. That bird stay just out of reach each time the cat pounced. I sat there fascinated by the ingenuity of the dove as it ran on the ground across the street and up my driveway with the cat in hot pursuit.

I was prepared to swat at the cat with my broom and when the dove ran down the hill by my gazebo and came to a stop on one of the large rocks that make up the creek bed that separates my yard from my moms. The cat spied the dove and slowly made its way down the hill and under the little bridge never once taking its eyes off the dove. The little dove was sitting on that rock making a distress noise and preening its wing feathers seemingly oblivious to the danger that was steadily creeping toward it.

As I watched I realized what the sly little bird was doing. The rock it was perched on was no where near dry land. It was sticking up out what appeared to be a pile of leaves. Under that deceptive layer of leaves was a lot of cold water. Mr. Tomcat was not aware of this cold wet danger as he only had his eyes on that bird with the sagging wing. He slowly and steadily moved into a position to ambush the injured bird. It was a beautiful and scary sight to watch the cat as he homed in on his prey. The concentration and the control over every muscle was amazing.

Then the cat was airborne, his strong leg muscles propelled him toward the bird still serenely sitting on the tip of that rock in the sea of leaves. Just before the cat hit, the bird had a miraculous recovery and flew straight up, the cat’s paws were grasping at empty air when he plopped into the cold water. Cats don’t swim you know. This one was trying his best to walk on water though! It took him a while to get out of the water and onto the safety of the creek bank.

I sat and laughed at the poor wet bedraggled creature as did that sneaky dove and my little mama kitty. The last we saw of him he was skulking off shaking each wet foot in a desperate attempt to dry off. Mama kitty went back to her little hungry litter, the doves decided to rebuild their nest in a little higher spot that happens to be hanging right over the creek bed and I felt a little better about being unemployed for the moment. If I had been at work I never would have seen the antics that occur in nature.

Tomorrow is another Day!

Spring Break is over and I can truthfully say that was one of the most stressful weeks I have ever experienced in my life for a myriad of reasons that I won’t bore you with. I was desperately in need of hearing Scarlett O’Hara utter those famous words, “Tomorrow is another day!”

Ariel and Erin felt sorry for me because my Monday had turned into the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day, and after spending the better part of it trying to get my blood pressure down to a reasonable level and battling a rare migraine, they decided that I should accompany them on their little adventure up and down the Natchez Trace. The Trace is 444 miles from Natchez to just before you reach Nashville. They wanted to do it in 2 days.

Tuesday morning all I can say is, my daughters kidnapped me and put me into the back seat of the red car and off we went. It was the Keon version of Thelma and Louise and Chevy Chase’s Family Vacation minus me being strapped to the top of a motor home! They just wanted me for my pocketbook and navigational skills I am sure.

We had to make a stop at the grocery store to pick up some provisions. The cooler was soon filled with bottles of water, some sodas, sliced turkey, apples, grapes, and bananas, the good old stand jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread and a few other snacky things. Toss a bag of ice in on that and a full tank of gas and we were off to follow the Devils Backbone from Davis Lake to Natchez.

We stopped at every little historical marker except Pigeon Roost because there was some serious road construction going on there. But we did see all of the Indian Mounds and the dead spots at Witch Dance. We walked the Cypress Swamp and got a great shot of an alligator sunning itself on a log. It acted like it didn’t see us and it wasn’t moving a muscle. I preferred to react just the same way. I didn’t want to see it but I did keep moving in case it decided I might make a nice lunch!

The day wore on and we noticed and few folks that must have been doing the same thing we were as we kept running into them at different stops. Our goal was to get to the very first historical marker on the Trace before sunset! We made it to Emerald Mound and climbed to the top of that mound atop of another eight acre mound. That was a pretty awesome sight to see. Then we had a few more stops to see before we came to the beginning of the Trace. The sun was rapidly setting but we achieved our goal that day and turned around and head for home. We arrived back home around 11:30pm. We had covered 562 miles in one day!

The next day dawned with me getting up before the girls did and making sure that the car was loaded down again and off we went in the northern direction, again leaving from the Davis Lake exit. Its fewer miles going north but a lot more to stops it seems. We stopped and looked at the Bay Springs Lock and Dam, walked some of the Old Trace and saw the Confederate grave sites, found a cave with a spring and got as far as Cherokee Alabama and Buzzards Roost when we decided to take off on a rabbit trail. We decided to go to Tuscumbia and visit Helen Keller’s birth place at Ivy Green.

Much to my disappointment, they have taken down the sign that said, “Come see what she couldn’t”. In its place though is a large picture of Miss America 1995, Heather Whitestone as she was being crowned Miss America. She was the first woman with a disability to win the title of Miss America. Heather was deaf and stated that Helen Keller was her inspiration since Helen was also deaf and mute and learned to read, and write as well as speak. The caption on Heather Whitestone’s sign is “her parents were told that she would never make it past the 3rd grade. She apparently wasn’t listening.” I took a photo of it just in case anyone doesn’t believe me!

We had to cut our trip short at that point and head on back home. We are saving the Tennessee portion of the Trace Trip for a time when Scott can ride along with us. It wasn’t the beach or Disney World, but they turned my Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day into 2 days of sitting in the backseat of the car with forgotten cares watching the country side go slowly by and feeling my stress slip away as we revisited some southern history. Fiddle Dee Dee. Tomorrow is another day.

Nerds Spring Break

Well it’s Spring Break and here I sit. The much anticipated and sorely longed for trip to visit the house of THE Mouse was doomed as soon as we did our tax return. And ‘return’ is the operative word. So the Spring Break trip turned into the Spring Break day trip to Huntsville, Alabama to visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. It’s Alabama’s No.1 tourist attraction. You can’t miss it. There is a 363 foot tall Saturn V rocket standing tall on the side of the highway.

Saturday morning before the ‘crack of dawn’ we were herding some very sleepy girls into the van. It is a four hour trip one way to Huntsville and it was rainy and just plain nasty weather but the Space Center is one of our favorite spots to visit. The girls slept most of the way to ‘nerd heaven’.

The U.S. Space and Rocket Center houses the largest space museum in the world and is the result of the inspirational insight of Dr. Werhner von Braun. Now a nerdy kid like me knew all those rocket scientists names. I read all about Chuck Yeager, Robert Goddard and von Braun and their work on the rockets that would eventually put men on the moon. I met astronaut Alan Shepard at Ole Miss during a field trip once time. I recall I embarrassed the teacher that was our chaperone (I can’t remember who it was) but I broke away from the group and walked right up to Mr. Shepard and talked to him about being the first American into space.

The Rocket Center is also home to Space Camp and Aviation Challenge. Oh to be a kid again so I could go there and go through some of the paces the astronauts go through before going up into space. I think I would have loved to ride atop one of those huge roman candles for the chance to ride to the edge of space and see what the universe really looks like. I still get goose bumps when I see a shuttle take off and land. I get on the internet and listen to the daily reports from the astronauts that are in the Space Station or on Shuttle Missions. I can even tell you when you can walk outside at night and see the blinking lights of the Space Station as it is speeding over our heads.

We had a very good time there in spite of the weather. We didn’t get to do the space shot or the centrifuge rides due to the rain but there was plenty to see and do. I watched the kids as they scaled the 60 foot tall rock wall. It looked like a lot of fun and I was seriously considering trying it until a woman about my age but much smaller started climbing. Then I got to thinking about how ridiculous I would be looking strapping on what looked like a leather chastity belt with a tether attached and trying to haul my big ole booty up that wall. Plus some of the men didn’t make it up the wall so I stopped entertaining that thought and said it was time for us to get into the van for the 4 hour long return trip.

A little R and R is a good thing, making a fool of myself is not. I would have probably broken a rib in some freakish accident and then would have to explain to Dr. Bruce that I was not acting my age again.

Ariel and Erin have decided to set out on their own little road trip this week and travel the Natchez Trace and stop at all the historical markers. I did that one time many moons ago and it was a great experience in Mississippi history. There is so much to see in our great state and we just take for granted. The beauty of the Trace is free and should not be missed.

Ji Eun and Ping will be going to St. Louis with some other exchange students for their little Spring Break Trip. They will probably sleep on that 6 plus hour trip too, which will be a good thing for their chaperone. I keep telling them that they are missing some great scenery by sleeping.

To me that is part of the fun of a trip; looking out the window seeing the ever changing landscape and wondering when are we going to get there and maybe even seeing something that makes me want to stop and investigate. Like the Coon Dog cemetery near Florence. After seeing Sweet Home Alabama, I want to go and check that place out. Then there is Tuscumbia, Alabama, home of the most politically incorrect sign on the face of the earth. “Welcome to Tuscumbia, Home of Ivy Green, birth place of Helen Keller. Come see what she couldn’t.” I kid you not! I couldn’t make something up like that! Others have seen that sign and they were just as shocked as I was.

Maybe those folks are nerds like me and think being politically correct is a crock.

I have never really considered myself a political activist.

Blogging from Bruce
March 1, 2009


I have never really considered myself a political activist. I have voted in every election that has rolled around since I first registered to vote in 1971. The first thing I did when I moved to a different town was go to the city hall or court house and register to vote. My right to vote in the democratic process has always been very important to me. As I have gotten older and more knowledgeable of the workings of city and state governments, I see how important it is to have accessibility to the people that are elected so that your voice can be heard. That said, I have decided to run for the post of Alderman in Ward 5 in Bruce.

Running for office is not about a popularity vote. The good Lord knows I have never been popular. Someone like me that has a mind of my own and is not afraid to say what is on my mind is never popular. If I see something that I believe needs to be addressed, I will study it, walk around and mull it over, try to look at all the angles, weigh the pros and cons and then state my case. I’ve been known to state my case quietly and I have been known to ambush someone to get my point across. I’m not afraid to take chances nor am I opposed to change. That is just me in a nutshell.

Now onto something else that I feel strongly about; Saturday was food pantry day. In spite of the bitter cold weather, the usually crowd was lined up in Bollinger’s parking lot waiting for me to cross their names off the list to get their voucher so they could go and pick up their boxes.

We give out a pretty decent box of food each month and its contents vary because we depend solely on donations and contributions from people like you and the Mississippi Food Network. But all boxes do not contain the same items which I think some folks don’t understand. We have no control over what food items are given to us. We just pick up the shipment and bring it back to Bruce and divide it up.

Some of our elderly recipients can’t make it to the pantry to pick up their boxes and they will call upon other people to come and pick up their box and take it to them. We have allowed this practice from the beginning because we know what a hardship it is for some. Alas, I may have to stop that practice tho. For the last couple of months, it was brought to my attention that one of these ‘good Samaritans’ was stopping in the parking lot of a local store and going through the boxes and keeping the ‘good stuff’ for themselves.

I didn’t want to believe that any of the people on our list would be so dishonest but I called one of the little ladies on my list and asked her if she had enjoyed her Christmas ham. She didn’t get one even tho I know that I personally put a ham in each box that was loaded into the car that was picking up her box. In January, a couple of our Pantry volunteers witnessed the rearranging of the boxes again in another location. This month, I personally followed the car and watched as they pulled over and got out to check out the contents of the boxes and then did a bit of picking and choosing.
I am greatly disappointed and enraged at the behavior of these people. They are supposedly helping out another person in need and they go through the boxes and take out what they want first and leave what is left for the person that trusted them to come and bring back a box of food. This is something that I will have to pray about long and hard before I say anything directly to the people in question.

When we started the Our Daily Bread Food Pantry nearly 9 years ago it was to fill a need that has proven to be sorely needed for the elderly that live on fixed incomes and as an emergency food source for those in need. We did it with the intentions of being the face of Christ to others and to do what he admonished us to do which is “That you continue to love one another in the way I have loved you, that you also love one another. This is how everyone shall know that you are my disciples, if you have that love toward one another." John 13:34-35

Saturday I found it very hard to love someone that I know is stealing from another person in need. I will find the proper time and place to be the Voice for those out there that need one. And if that makes me a political activist then I guess I am.

Things that make me go HUH!

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
February 23,2009

Have you ever read something or heard something that made you stop…shake your head in disbelief and go HUH?

The other day I was reading with interest about the new Economic Stimulus Package that President Obama signed. I was a little startled to see what he and some other Washington politicians considered a middle class income. The range is from $200,000 down to $96,000 a year. I don’t know about you but this little ole country gal would absolutely love to be somewhere close to the lower of those two numbers. In my book that is a rich income!

I happen to be privy to what the income for poverty level is nation wide since I have to fill out the paperwork for the food pantry each month. Are you ready for this? Ok, a single person making $13,520 a year, is poverty level. A married couple living on 18,200 is poverty level. A family of 4 trying to pay rent, pay off a car note, send a kid to junior college and another one in high school trying to make ends meet with 27,560 a month is poverty level. These numbers are nationwide folks. It’s a darn good thing that people in Mississippi are used to having smaller incomes and a lower cost of living than other places.

Upper, Middle and Lower class are just words and nothing more. I think we are divided by working class and retired, blue collar workers and white collar workers, college educated and highschool educated. I’m sure you have known some ‘low class’ rich folks just like I know some ‘high class po’folk’. But still, seeing what the politicians in Washington consider the ‘Middle class income’ just made me go ‘HUH”?

Now to the next thing that recently made me stop and stare and go HUH? For the past few weeks I had decided that I was having some pretty vivid dreams mostly starring a rooster welcoming the morning with his loud and boastful cockadoodle do!

Living in the Town of Bruce, having chickens roaming in the yards is slightly frowned upon and if I am not mistaken there is an ordinance against such barn yard birds inside the city limits. Well imagine my surprise when, a couple of weeks ago I was returning home after a meeting with Coach Grubbs about the exchange student program, Scott and I had just come to a stop at the 4 way sign near our home and we noticed a rooster strutting his stuff.

I am not well versed in chicken-ology but I know one when I see one. And Mr. Rooster was not alone….he was chasing a cackling hen. My first initial thought was thank the Lord I am not crazy. I HAVE been hearing a rooster crowing. My second thought was, why is that rooster and hen in town? It seems one of my neighbors has decided to join the "urban chicken movement" and raise their own backyard flock.

I am all for fresh eggs but if I walk out my door and see somebody wringing a chicken’s neck so they can eat that bird for dinner I may just go ballistic. I have nothing against eating chicken, its my meat of choice. But I have an exceptionally vivid memory of seeing a woman wring a chicken’s neck when I was about 7 or 8. The sight of that headless white bird flopping around that woman’s yard was worse than any horror movie that Hollywood can dream up. I still shudder at the thought.

And now I will leave you with one more thing to ponder. Do you use the drive-up ATMS? Why do they put Braille on the buttons of the drive through bank machines?
HUH?

I wanna be a deer and not a fat grumpy bear

Blogging from Bruce
February 16 2009

I hate diets. I love food but I hate diets. You know the kind that promises that if you spend mega bucks on this food or that food or this pill/supplement of eat this like the ‘stars’ do after just 2 weeks look just like their glorious emaciated bodies. Ha! Yeah right.

I am just like every other woman that has hit the over fifty age mark. After having two children and working at jobs where I sit on my tushie most of the day, my metabolism has slowed to a snails pace. It seems that every bite I take ends up putting a bit more ‘junk in my trunk’ than I really want to lug around. A tummy tuck and butt lift is fine on TV but out of the question for me. I am sorry. I will own up to reconstruction surgery after my mastectomy but I gotta tell ya, after the pain I experienced for the year that the reconstruction went on, I will not be doing any kind of rearranging or reduction of my body flab that involves being put to sleep, scalpels or crazy dream inducing drugs!

I know people that have tried Jenny Craig and Nutri-system and it worked great for the couple of months until they could not stand the cardboard and soy bean tastes any longer. I have seen some people cut out all carbs and eat only meat, I have seen some that cut out meats and proteins and eat only veggies. I’ve seen the cabbage soup diet which is a particularly nasty one and I love cabbage. The ‘negative calorie diet’ is out there and I can’t figure that one out unless it’s the old “does drinking a Diet Coke cancel out the calories of this mega jumbo Snickers bar that I am going to cram in my mouth!” diet.

Hollywood Diet, South Beach Diet, Slim Fast Diet, Special K Diet, Atkins Diet, Herbal Life Diet, Rachel Rays Diet, Oprah’s Diet (that one is going to full you up and out from the looks of her and she has a personal cook!) The list can go on and on. I have come to the conclusion that these are all just quick fixes and not even a fix at that. There is a good solution if people would just do it.

Many years ago I found out I was hypoglycemic. That means my blood sugar is chronically lower that it should be. If I want to feel good and be at my best, I need to eat small portions of something 6 or 7 times a day. In other words, I need to ‘graze’. Over the last few years I have gotten away from the grazing and started eating 3 big meals and that is when the scales started tipping against me.

I think the time has come for me to start grazing like the many deer I see standing on the roadside instead of eating like bear going into hibernation mode! You may laugh, but it actually makes sense. Just take a look at the animal world. A deer is svelte, toned and strong. He grazes on grass intermittently throughout the day. A bear, on the other hand, eats with a hunter-gatherer frame of mind, meaning that he stocks up every time he eats to get himself ready for the winter fast.

As humans, we're really more like the deer when you think about it. We have food stores at our disposal. Everywhere we turn there's a 24-hour grocery store, coffee shop or burger joint for our feasting enjoyment. However, the majority of the population is obese because we eat like bears as if every meal were our last. It's true, when we eat 3 meals a day we tend to eat until we get our fill and then some. The problem is people don't hibernate for the winter. Nor are we homeless or experiencing a food storage, so our bodies process all of these excess calories and turn them into fat storage. And where does all that fat land? Look in that full length mirror and you will see what is following you and it’s not a steady stream of admirers! It’s called a boo-tay. Or a spare tire or love handles. Yeah right.

The grazing-eating strategy is far more effective for metabolism and weight control than dieting because you're not depriving yourself. When the body is deprived on a diet it's programmed to go into survival mode and it will eventually binge at the fear of starving. Grazing, on the other hand, reprograms your body. It says, I'm only feeding you a little now because you'll be fed again in 2 hours. And you have to feed it according to the food pyramid.
Each night I weigh out my lunch for the next day at work. I make sure that I get my portions just right. If I can eat 4 oz of meat I weigh it out. I can put all of my little quarter and half cups of fruits and salads and cheeses and veggies and grains in little containers and take it with me to eat. I drink water instead of sugar or sodium filled sodas.
And of course I need to get up off my lazy sit down and walk it off. I have my exercise bike and I sit on it to watch my 3 TV programs. Plus I walk briskly; I don’t ‘mosey’ down the hall way when I am at work. I may not ever see a size 9 again but I am going to tone this weight thing down and keep on feeling good. I really do want to be more lean like a deer instead of a fat grumpy old bear. So excuse me while I munch on my lunch.

Butterflys are Free

Blogging from Bruce
February 8, 2009


There are times when I see life unfolding around me like a butterfly breaking its way out of its chrysalis. It takes a lot of time and energy for the butterfly to squeeze its way out of the confines of the silk cocoon and then rest its weary wings while they dry and grow stronger until it is ready to flutter away.

When our family decided we wanted to be a host family to two international exchange students we thought we were prepared. We were already going to be experiencing major changes. Ariel was going off to the W for her first year of college. Erin was going back to public school after being homeschooled for the past 10 years. I was training for a new position at work and we had worked to get the rooms ready and to make this a second home for two more girls. Not only was there going to be a language barrier, there would be the added areas of culture and food but we were up for the challenge.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I really like it when things to go smoothly and nothing falls apart. No such luck. The dishwasher died, then the central heat and air units bit the dust and that was just the first week! Thankfully we were able to get those things replaced but at a big bite to the family economy.

Food didn’t turn out to be an issue as both girls have an adventurous spirit when it comes to eating. I also showed them how to use my stove and I told them to make themselves at home and they could cook anytime they were hungry. It’s been fun to watch them learn to make pan cakes and waffles and other things. And like typical teenagers they can leave some pretty big messes. But they will help clean up when I go in and start putting things away. They feel pretty comfortable in both the kitchen and laundry room now.

I worried at first about them staying in their rooms so much. But little by little they have both ventured out as they learned that they didn’t have to wait for an invitation to come and join the family. We have played games and had birthday parties and eaten huge meals and snacked in front of the television. The girls like to watch CSI as well as Scott and I do and it has made for some interesting conversations.

Friday evening I arrived home from work with a horrible migraine. I have the ocular type that affects my vision before the pain strikes. I made it home just before the pounding started. I was sitting down stairs in my bedroom in the dark when Ji Eun came down looking for some bottled water. I could tell by her voice that her throat was a little scratchy. She could tell that I was not doing to well either. She was hungry and I was a little so we went upstairs and I threw together a pot of spaghetti with meat sauce. It was quick, easy and the girls love spaghetti. Ping joined Ji Eun and me as we ate. We talked about how our day had been.

They told that there was no school on Monday and they were wondering what holy day it was. I sat there for a moment thinking about holy day and then I realized that holiday looks like ‘holy day’ to them. That led us into a long discussion about how English speakers pronounce things. Ji Eun then surprised me by pulling out my keyboard and playing a song for me that I love. I knew she had been practicing something in her room. It was a wonderful gift for me.

Ping has been studying to take the ACT test for the first time on Saturday. She was nervous and we talked about that. English as her new second language was going to be an issue and I know how she is about making a high grade so I talked to her about the test and how she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and to just use the first test as a the learning curve to get a feel for it and then retake it for the grade. She was up early the next morning fixing her breakfast and then she walked over to the school. I was cleaning house when she came back at noon. All she could say when she walked in the door was “whoooa! It was a lot of words!” I just laughed. She was starving, so she and Ji Eun headed down town to Jeffrey’s for a sandwich.

Later Saturday evening, Ping was doing her laundry when the washing machine decided to give up the ghost. And it gave it up in a big way. I thought the belt on my vacuum cleaner was burning. No, it was much bigger than that. The whole basement filled with smoke when the motor burned up during the spin cycle. The girl’s new assignment for this week is to go with Scott to find another washing machine because we won’t survive more that a couple of days without one; not with 3 teenage girls and 2 adults in under one roof.

Since their arrival in August, they have gone from being the exchange students and guests to being a real part of the family. Their time with us will come to an end after school is out in May. We have all been working our ways out of our little cocoons. Soon they will fly away. It’s going to be hard for me to say goodbye.

Save the Planet! learn to peel an egg!

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon

February 02 2009

It’s Ground Hog Day as I sit down to finish this up in the wee hours of the morning or the
late hours of the night. I’m sitting here trying to think of ways to save the planet. First
we have to save ourselves from being so lazy. So why do we depend on the groundhog
to predict our weather?

According to tradition, the most famous forecaster of spring, Punxsutawney Phil, a
groundhog leaves his burrow where he has been hibernating to discover whether cold
winter weather will continue. If the Phil cannot see his shadow, he presumably remains
above ground, ending his hibernation. But if his shadow is visible—that is, if the sun is
shining—six more weeks of cold weather will follow, and the furry little prognosticator
returns to his nice warm burrow. There is no scientific evidence for this belief.

The legend or tradition that animals can predict the weather has been going on for centuries. Now how that ties in with Punxsutawney Phil I don’t have a clue. I just thought I would throw it out at you. As I wrote earlier, if Phil sees his shadow it means six more weeks of winter, and no shadow means spring is around the corner. Groundhog Day proponents state that the rodents' forecasts are accurate 75% to 90%. A Canadian study for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37%. Also, the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall predictions accuracy rate is around 39%. I think that is better than Dick Rice’s predictions!

The rule of thumb around here is if Dick Rice says it’s going to snow, people run to the grocery stores and stock up on bread and milk and sandwich meat and fill their cars with gas. Then it doesn’t snow. If he says its going to warm up, it gets cold. He can’t predict it any more than Al Gore can predict global warming. Matter of fact I think the ground hog might actually do a better job. I seem to remember when I was in school that the scientists were calling for the next ice age.

Which brings me to my next head scratching pondering. Just how lazy are people getting? Have you ever heard the phrase, “she couldn’t boil water without directions”?
I think one of the worst things that ever happened in the school systems was when they dropped home economics classes. People don’t know how to cook. Kids know how to open the freezer and yank out a pretty cardboard box and poke holes in the frosty ice crystal covered plastic. Then they fling it in the microwave and nuke it for 3 to 6 minutes and viola! A handy dandy tasty meal full of sodium but low in carbs and taste.

When was the last time you cooked something totally from scratch? Can’t remember can you? I use a lot of shortcuts in my cooking but I do still use recipe books that I have collected and recipes that have been handed down in my family. I still make pancakes from scratch. I like them better than toaster and nuked ones. Homemade waffles are just so much better. And I know how to make French toast too.

It’s that wonderful time of year called TAX season, and we have discovered that we did not make Tax Freedom day. 'Tax freedom day' -- the mythical day we Americans can stop working for government and start working for themselves. (Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor from laughing hysterically.) And what does Tax Freedom day have to do with cooking from scratch? Well I’ll tell you. When you suddenly find out that you have to pay Uncle Sam even more, you have to tighten up the budget even more and that means planning meals down to the penny and pinching those little fake copper Lincolns.

As I was making my rounds with my carefully planned 2 week menu, hunting down the best deals in several grocery stores, I started noticing the prepackaged convenience foods. Most I am sure you have seen, but I spied one new thing that just blew me away. You can now buy bags of hard boiled, pre-peeled eggs. Yep. You don’t even have to boil an egg any more. And for those that are challenged in the egg peeling department it’s the perfect thing. So throw away the little pan and the egg timers. Just go to the fridge, yank out the zip locked bag of preboiled, prepeeled, cold rubbery eggs to make your deviled eggs. Now THAT is lazy. Bring back Home Ec. Save the Planet that way!

Happy Year of the Ox!

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
January 26, 2009

Happy New Year!
I started suspecting something was up when Ping tried her hand at cooking rice. She can cook a lot of things but rice is not one of her accomplishments. I finally went in a got the rice cooker going for her instead of her trying to do it on the stove top. Then Ji Eun began helping me clean up the kitchen and she was talking…..a lot! She is usually very quiet but tonight she was talking to me about Korean traditions at Sol and the traditional foods and how Ping could tell me more.

Later on they were both in their rooms changing the linens and hanging up clothes and washing clothes and just doing general all around getting their rooms in order. I thought about taking their temperatures to see if they were running a fever! As the evening progressed, Ji Eun came downstairs and asked what special songs I wanted her to play on the keyboard.

A few days ago I came home and she was playing the piano and she plays beautifully. I mentioned that I wished she could learn a couple of my favorite special songs so she could play for me in church. I gave her the sheet music and she started practicing!

I decided that I better check the internet to see what holiday was upon us. Then it jumped right off the screen. The Lunar New Year! This is the week of the Chinese New Year also known as the Lunar New Year in Asian communities around the world. The date of the new year is determined by the lunar calendar, so festivities begin with the new cycle of the moon that falls between January 21 and February 19. Each year is named for one of 12 symbolic animals in sequence. The animals, in their sequential order, are the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. This year of 2009 is the year of the Ox. It sounds like it is going to be an obstinate year!

I read about all of the Asian traditions concerning the Lunar New Year. In the Asian countries they will take any where from 3 days to 7 days of holiday and each day different things are done. They have quirky traditions as we do as to what foods are eaten and my favorite one, cleaning the house before and hiding the broom because you want to start the New Year with a clean house and you don’t want to do any sweeping during New Years because you might sweep all of your new good luck out the door! They shoot firecrackers and fireworks off to chase away the bad (where did you think we got that noisy tradition from!) and it is also the time when the paper lions and paper dragons dance in the streets in the parades.

I wish I could cook their traditional foods for them but I am woefully inadequate when it comes to that and all of the Chinese restaurants in Oxford are closed for the week so no help there! Perhaps having the rice cooked for them and cooking a nice big meal on Monday night will suffice this year for them. I once spent Christmas in Japan and even tho I was with my mom and dad and sister, it still wasn’t the same.

Thanks to technology they can visit with their families on the internet, but they can’t eat their moms cooking or hug their relatives or get their little red envelopes of lucky money.

I decided to look on the Chinese Horoscope page and see what animal year I was born in. 1953 was the year of the snake. And according to the calendar it is a favorable year for me. Erin was born in the year of the Monkey and I had to laugh as I read hers. Ariel was born in 1990, the year of the horse. ‘Nuff said! Scott was born in 1962, the year of the Tiger. Ox and Tiger and Horse are not very harmonious.

Its fun for me to learn about the different cultures and the underlying things that make up their lives and lifestyles. It helps me to understand the diverse community that is my family and my workplace. It’s a small world you know and getting smaller every day. Happy New Year!

Nailing Jell-O to a wall!

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon

January 18, 2009

I NEED a vacation. Not just a few days off so I can stay at home and clean house or read a book. I mean a REAL, pack a bag with t-shirts and blue jeans, get into the van and drive somewhere, vacation.

Ain’t nothing going to break my stride once I get started doing something. So far 2009 has been very busy for me and mine. My work schedule has been pretty tight with all the babies that have been coming into the world.

It’s a mad dash up to the floor to get all of a newborn’s information and to get the mom and dad to fill out the work sheet so I can type up the birth certificate. It gets even more hectic if the parents haven’t picked out a name or are arguing about what to name their child. Then I have to explain that the child has to be named before leaving the hospital and that one or both of the parents has to sign the birth certificate after I type it. Some days I make several phone calls and trips up to the fourth floor before I get everything I need. I may be frustrated some days but no body is going to hold me down. I’ve got to keep on moving and typing. I wore a pedometer one week and found out I was walking over 5 miles a day! I get my exercise mentally and physically. The mental is why I NEED a vacation!

So that is why we are planning a trip for the Exchange Students. Disney World is our destination and trying to get everything just so and within a tight budget is like nailing Jell-O to the wall! Between talking on the phone with the Disney folk to get the best possible package we can for as little money as we can and rounding up which kids will be going with us and getting their trip money and information, it’s a wonder that Scott and I have any hair left.

Donna Williams, our Ayusa contact had approached us early on about taking several of the kids to Disney World in our white whale people mover. At that time, someone elsewhere was supposedly coming up with the trip package. First we heard one price and then another and then when it looked like the whole thing was going to be called off, I did what I always do…I jumped in. When it comes to going to the land of The Mouse, I get really ferocious. Besides I had already gotten my hopes up and I have an appointment with Tinkerbell! So I took over.

When we plan a trip, we look at location, price of rooms, does it come with a refrigerator and microwave and hairdryer and can we get suites to sleep 6 to 8 people with a kitchenette. Then we look at the gas prices (the van will have to make several stops to fill up and the passengers need to stretch and grab a bite to eat). Do we want to stay on Disney property or not. Do we want to do 4 days or 5 days? Do we want park hopper passes and meal deals? Are we going to drive straight through like we have always done? The ‘do we’ list goes on and on. But it is going to be nailed down this week if we want to go at Spring Break.

Getting that idea across to the Exchange Students is actually the Jell-O part. They don’t comprehend the need to plan so far ahead and pay up front to lock in the deals part of the trip. Unfortunately that is what has to happen when planning a trip to the ‘Mouse House’.

I thought it would be nice to see something we have never seen during our previous trips there. The Hoopity Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness is booked 1 year in advance so I scratched that idea off my list. Catching breakfast with some of the Characters is much easier than that. Except in Cinderella’s Castle. Old Cindy is booked up well over a year in advance. The last time we visited in June of 2000 we lucked up on a Character Breakfast in Animal Kingdom that didn’t have enough people so we got in. Perhaps that will happen again. Not only is the breakfast buffet all you can eat, there are all sorts of larger than life Disney characters that come around to your tables and you can get their autographs and take pictures. When at a character breakfast remember, don’t chase them around because they will ignore you. If you sit and wait they will come on over and visit for a while and they like ‘old’ kids just as well as little kids. Good thing since lots of ‘older’ graying folks like me like to go there.

Whenever we have gone to Disney World in the past, I always take my old autograph book. My game plan is to get autographs of as many characters as I can. I have dusted the books off and I am ready for round 4. The girls will be trying to out do me this time since they can get off on their own. We will just see how many autographs each of us can get. Donald and Daisy Duck and Ariel are pretty hard to find. My goal this year is to get the ‘princesses’ and the ducks.

Scott and I have always taken a backpack in with us with a bottle of water for each of us and little snacks to keep the energy level up. We are going to suggest strongly that each one in our group has a backpack. I noticed the other day that there is now a mesh one and that will be good for several reasons. When going into the parks, all bags are checked. Since 9/11 that is just a reality, so a see-through backpack would speed up the process. Plus it will be a lot cooler on the back. And in the case of a sudden Florida rain shower, I can find my trusty little plastic poncho pronto!


Hopefully by the end of this week I will be humming “When you wish upon a Star!” as we finally nail that wiggly Jell-O to the wall.

Change is on the Way

I am usually a creature of habit. I have set little patterns of things that I do in my own sweet time and I really get a bit compulsive about it. But I am also not opposed to learning new things and applying what I have learned to my job or my art or life in general. That said, change is in the air and while it terrifies me at times, I also am intrigued by it.

I was driving home from work last week, listening to Talk Radio, I think it was the Dennis Miller show, and someone called in and was rambling on and on about life needing a remote control. I figure whoever the caller was, he must have just watched that Adam Sandler movie CLICK. I haven’t seen the movie and have no desire to but it could be kind of interesting if we could do life with a remote control. Something happens at work just hit the clicker and it fast forwards or changes the time. Or maybe even rewind so you can still get some special little project finished.


This next week is going to be a change for the United States we all hope. Tuesday is Inauguration Day for President Obama. While I didn’t vote for him, I hope he is a successful president…For all our sakes. He is a young man that is taking on a new job of enormous responsibility and that carries long lasting effects. It will be interesting to see how his presidency unfolds. Will he be able to carry out his campaign promises? I have my doubts on some of them. But I do hope he can change a few things.

Some of the changes that I personally would like to see happen, is that the sieve that is the border be plugged up. The land of opportunity is hurting right now. I had a young woman from a Middle Eastern country tell me that in America everyone can get Medicaid. I was trying to explain to her about birth certificates and social security and the process one has to go through. She would not believe me though. She will find out soon enough. I know too many people that have a job but don’t have insurance because they can’t afford the premiums, but they make too much to get Medicaid.

Another change I would like to see is in the cost of utilities. Did anyone else nearly have a heart attack when you got your power bill or your gas bill? Now before you say something about my Christmas lights let me ‘splain something about that. Our lights have their own electrical meter and a computer that controls the amount of time they are on and what percentage they are on. They are never all on at the same time nor are they ever at full power. The house was a different matter. Our bill was nearly double. I cook with gas, we heat water with gas. The majority of the lights in the house are compact fluorescents. The only new thing is we had a heat pump installed this year. So either the heat pump is not as energy efficient as I have been led to believe or that price increase that TVA laid on us was one heck of an increase. And didn’t the price of fuel go down?
So why in heavens name, are we always soaked at the electrical meter each winter?

I read that the power company in the southern part of the state had admitted to overcharging its customers. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the end. Some of the folks that I know in the Jackson area don’t want a rebate, but they sure would like to the see the rates drops to a more reasonable level. Wouldn’t we all?

Perhaps some of the things that President Obama needs to address is the outrageous costs of electricity and fuel in our country. I don’t know what the answers are. I turn off lights and try to make sure that the rest of the household does too. But we can’t sit in the dark all the time and we have to stay a warm. The thermostat is set at 68 and we all wear socks and long sleeves.

I don’t envy the man in his new job. I am sure the thoughts going round the dinner table when Obama had lunch with Bush, Daddy Bush, Carter and Clinton were something along the lines of, ‘I’m glad it’s him and not me’. While I won’t be able to see the historic inauguration on the 20th because I will be at work, I will be thinking about it. There is no changing of the channels and fast forwarding. We are headed for change to be sure. Matter of fact that is all I have in my purse at the moment, Just a bunch of change and not even enough to buy a Mountain Dew at Joe’s Market. I hope I get more change in my purse. I hope the economy does change. I hope the cost of electricity does change for the better. I hope that the cost of fuel at the pump keeps going down so I can afford to go to work. I hope that the new President has a special clicker that can fast forward our country out of the mess it is in.

New Year remembrances

January 4, 2009

Ahhh the first column of 2009. A blank piece of paper or blank screen on the computer that I can actually turn into something stupendous or stupid.

New Years Eve was very quiet for me. Scott had to work, Erin, Ping and Ji Eun were at a New Years celebration at Parker Baptist, and Ariel had driven to Columbus to ring in the new year with her Lockheart sisters. So here I sat all by myself enjoying the peace and quiet of my inner sanctum. I turned on the TV just to see when the “ball” would drop in Times Square and listen to Auld Lang Syne.

I started thinking about the many people and events that have happened in my lifetime of 55 years that are complete standouts. Having the Asian exchange students living with us is a constant reminder of when I was their age and my Mom and Dad were host parents of Lee and Hideaki. Lee stayed and became a US citizen. Hideaki went back to Japan and we went to visit him during the Christmas of 1969. That is an event that I will never ever forget.

People constantly ask Ping and Ji Eun about what has been the most difficult or different thing to them while living here. Aside from the language differences they usually both answer the food. And while we have tried to find Asian food for them to eat, as Ji Eun likes to say, it’s so so. I suspect it’s also because its not their Mama’s cooking.

Spending time in a foreign land is hard enough trying to learn their customs and picking up the language and then there are the food differences. When my family was in Japan in 1969 it was cold. I just thought it got cold here. Nope. It gets beyond cold in Japan. We are practically tropical here. I love rice and that wasn’t a big issue. Sleeping on the tatami was not a problem. As a matter of fact I had Scott build me a traditional Japanese bed and it is the best sleep I have had in years.

Opening the refrigerator one morning to discover the pretty white bowl that had tentacles hanging over the sides just about did me in. Mom and I had gone into the kitchen of Hideaki’s mom to cook up some eggs American style. When I opened that little refrigerator to get the eggs and there sat that bowl full of tentacles, well needless to say, I was extremely suspicious of anything and everything I ate after that. If it wasn’t obviously beef, chicken, shrimp, or rice with dried seaweed, it did not pass through my lips!

Another ‘adventure’ in Japan centered on going to the toilet. We joke in the US about worshiping the great white porcelain throne which usually means some one is sick as a dog and barfing up their toes. Well you go to the Asian countries and you are in the traditional homes or a non-western hotel and you will suddenly start longing for that type of idol worship!
The common old everyday toilet with a seat and tank like we are used to is not the norm in the Asian nations. They have squat toilets. Uh huh. You read that correctly. Imagine this. I was 15 years old, in a foreign land for the first time, in a traditional Japanese home and had to go to the bathroom to relieve myself after that long ride from the airport that has a runway that begins right at the literal edge of the Sea of Japan. Our host points me in the direction of the rest room and I went in and there is no toilet that I could see. There was what appeared to be a sink in the floor but no toilet seat. Hmmm. There is a toilet paper holder on the wall with a roll of paper on it right down on near that hole in the floor. Then I noticed the flush handle. I also noticed there is a small sliding frosted glass window at the floor level and at the ceiling level. And they are both slightly open creating a cold windy effect in there.

So I backed out of the room and came face to face with Obaha-san or the grandmother. Obaha-san doesn’t speak a lick of English and the only word in Japanese that I could muster at this painful point is bano or bathroom. She silently points back in that cold little room smiling in that enigmatic Asian way. Then she showed me how to pull the handle and I watched that little sink in the floor and realized in horror that I am going to have to squat and hover over this thing to do my business. Obaha-san closed the door of the water closet and left me in there as she tottered away chuckling to herself probably thinking to herself that crazy Americans don’t know how to use a proper toilet.

It was a bit unsettling to be squatting over a water filled porcelain hole in the floor with a small window right beside my……ummm…. foot. All of a sudden I could hear voices and feet appeared right outside that window. Needless to say, I got out of there in a hurry. Mom had a somewhat similar experience. Several days later on one of our trips out into the countryside of Japan, Mom happened to notice a public bathroom that had the word Alien stenciled on the door. Curiosity got the better of her and to our delight it was a good old American style toilet. After that we were on the constant look out for the word Alien. We were indeed worshiping that great white porcelain throne.

I am sure that Ping and Ji Eun haven’t had that strange adjustment to make but they do have some funny stories to tell when they get home in the spring and most of them will probably be about have something to do with food, squid and my reaction to seeing those tentacles. They learned early on not to bring the squid out of their care packages from their families in my presence. I still have an aversion to anything with tentacles and suction cups! Even to this day 40 years later.

Happy New Year!

Tick tock…tick tock…tick tock…2008 is nearly gone. I am anticipating my first meal of the New Year; Hoppin John, boiled cabbage, baked ham and perhaps a donut or two just for good measure. I will spend most of New Years Eve cooking my delectable traditional feast so I can sit and eat some of it right after we pop off a few fireworks at the stroke of Midnight. Then I will pack some of my feast so I can eat it for lunch when I go to work.

Yes I am going to go to work on New Years Day. I read once that what ever you do on New Years Day is what you will be doing the rest of the year. I believe it too. For a few years it seemed like I spent all day doing laundry while Scott played games with the girls. I was inundated with mountains of laundry after that!

Last year I made the effort to have my house neat and all the laundry finished and folded neatly or hanging in the closets. Then I went to work.. That worked just fine for me. The laundry hasn’t been as overwhelming as in past years and I now have a great job. So I will keep that little ‘tradition’ going for me. I write birth certificates for all the babies born at Baptist Hospital North Mississippi. I can’t wait to see the first baby of 2009.

This year it seems that I will have to wait one extra second to ring in the New Year tho. It’s time for that pesky extra leap second to be added to the atomic clock. Those eager to put 2008 behind them will have to hold their good-byes for just a moment this New Year's Eve.

The world's official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earth's slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors like solar wind and space dust.

The U.S. Naval Observatory, keeper of the Pentagon's master clock, said it would add the extra second on Wednesday in coordination with the world's atomic clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. That corresponds to 5:59:59 p.m. CST (23:59:59 GMT), when an extra second will tick by -- the 24th to be added to UTC since 1972, when the practice began. The first leap second was introduced into UTC on June 30, 1972. The last was added on December 31, 2005.

So what does this mean for my New Years Feast? Well I will have to wait just one second longer to dig into my Hoppin John. Traditional New Year foods are thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune. I’m not the least bit Dutch but I love donuts and I think I will have one with chocolate on it just for good measure.

Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the New Year by consuming black-eyed peas. The peas are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. I love baked ham so that is on my menu. Black-eyed peas have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day. That is why I love Hoppin John. That dish incorporates black-eyed peas and rice and I throw in a few jalapenos so I know that I can look forward to a rather lively 2009!

I gave up on resolutions years ago. I never could keep them so I resolved to never have a News Years Resolution. That is one that I have been able to keep. I do however have some goals I would like to attain. Oh now you didn’t think I was going to tell you did you? Rest assured that as I reach each goal, I will write about it.

For now, I am just ready to put 2008 behind and go forward into 2009. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery. I will live in the present and give it my all. Right after I have consumed my peas and ham and cabbage. Look out 2009! Here I am!
And a Prosperous Happy New Year to every one.

A Christmas Story

It was the day before Christmas but she didn’t feel any Christmas spirit. “Christmas spirit. Ha! Just what is that emotion?” she thought to herself as she bustled around getting ready to go work. She had tried to find someone to take care of her baby because the day care decided at the last minute to close early and she really needed to go to work.
In her frustration, hot tears started streaming down her cheeks. She threw her purse across the room and lay down in the floor and prayed. “Lord” she cried, “please help me to find Christmas spirit. I don’t seem to feel it like I should.”


She watched as her precious little girl was playing contentedly in front of the sparse little Christmas tree that she fondly referred to as the ‘Charlie Brown’ tree. She had found it one day when she took the trash out. There it stood leaning on the dumpster, a huge box filled with fake evergreen limbs. She dragged it back to the little apartment and took out all of the pieces.


The poor tree had seen better days so she had improvised and just used the top of the tree and a few extra branches and made a short table top tree. Her daughter’s eyes sparkled with delight as she put on a single string of lights and plugged it in. The lights transformed the pathetic little tree into something magical. For ornaments she had dug all of the little Happy Meal toys from the toy box and hot glued ribbon to them and tied them to the little branches. It didn’t look like all of the beautiful trees in the department stores but it was still a special tree to her child and that was all that mattered.


Since she couldn’t find a sitter, she decided to bundle up her daughter and take her into work, after all it was the day before Christmas and there wouldn’t be much for her to do. Most people had already taken their Christmas holiday and wouldn’t be there so a coloring book and a few crayons would occupy her daughter while she did some paperwork. She didn’t have any Christmas holiday time because she had already used up any time off that she had accrued. The tension headaches were pretty bad some days and she couldn’t work when those hit. And sometimes her precious daughter was sick and she would stay home with her. It was tough being a single mother but she didn’t complain.


She didn’t have many friends. There wasn’t any time to make friends and the only people she ever saw was the other women that she worked with. They were all wrapped up in their own lives anyway she thought. Why would they want to be her friend? She just kept to herself and didn’t offer too much information about her life. She went to work, then picked up her daughter at day care and then home. Whatever she cooked for supper the night before became the next days lunch at work. She preferred to eat alone so that no one would see that she sometimes ate Mac and cheese over and over again.


They arrived at her office and when she went to her desk she noticed a large envelope taped to her monitor. She opened it and it was a musical card playing some little Christmas ditty. In it her boss had written that an anonymous someone in the office had donated some of their extra vacation hours to her so that she could take off a few days for Christmas.


She could not believe what she was reading! She scooped up her daughter and they ran back out to their car. There were still many errands that she had to run and paying the electric bill before her power was cut off was first on her to do list.


The ladies at the Power Company were just getting ready to close and go home early when she ran through the door. She laid the bill down and counted out the money while the clerk pulled up her file on the computer. Then the lady smiled at her and said,”why honey, you must have forgotten. Your bill has already been paid and you have a credit for the next month.”


She stood there in disbelief. “There must be a mistake” she stammered. She didn’t remember paying the bill. She had just gotten paid and the money was still in her purse. Before she could ask the question that was on her mind, the clerk smiled at her and said, “maybe Christmas is arriving a little early for you Sweetie.”


She slowly turned and walked out the door into the cold and got back into her car. As she was buckling her daughter into the car seat, the little girl just giggled and said “mare Chrism Mama!”

She was pondering many thoughts as she drove back to the little apartment, like who donated time to her and how did the electric bill get paid? She stopped and checked her mail box and there was a bright red envelope in it addressed to her and her daughter but no return address was on it. When she opened it there was a Wal-Mart gift card and a Kroger card. She just sat there looking at them. The Wal-Mart card had the words ‘go to customer service’ printed on it and the Kroger card had the words ‘go to the deli’ printed on it. The only other thing that was in the envelope was a slip of paper that said “Merry Christmas.”


“This is so bizarre” she said partly to herself and partly to her daughter. Her daughter just smiled and rocked in her car seat and said “Mare Chrism Mama”. They drove to Wal-Mart and she and her daughter went and stood in the long line of grouchy people at the Customer Service desk. Finally it was her turn and she told the cashier that she had gotten the gift card and when she showed it the cashier smiled and said “Oh we have been waiting for you to come.” With that said, the cashier called someone and they came out of the back pushing a large buggy filled to the top with many brightly wrapped presents some with tags addressed to her and some addressed to her daughter. The cashier smiled and said “Merry Christmas Miss. Do you need help getting that into your car?” She couldn’t speak any more. She just shook her head no and pushed the buggy out to her car.



By this time she was numb. She drove on to Kroger and went to the Deli. She showed them the card and they asked her for her name. Then they started getting all sorts of things together. There was a large pan of chicken and dressing and all the trimmings and a small baked ham and sweet potato pie and a fruit salad. It was a feast fit for a queen and little princess. She quizzed the Deli staff about who ordered the food but they said they didn’t know that the order came over the phone.


She and her daughter took all of the goodies back to the car. The little girl was clapping her hands and singing softly ‘Mare Chrism Mama.”


That evening, as she was heating up the wonderful Christmas dinner, she remembered the prayer of desperation earlier that day and how she had prayed for Christmas Spirit. She realized that the Lord had answered her prayer as she looked at the many packages under the tree and watched her daughter as she sat gazing at the twinkling lights. She was filled with wonder at the events of the day and the generosity of anonymous Christmas angels.


Her little daughter turned to her and cocked her head to one side and smiled. “Mare Chrism Mama!” “Merry Christmas to you my precious!” she replied. “Merry Christmas to all on this Night before Jesus. And God Bless us everyone”

its a Wonderful Life

Saturday was not going well for me for some reason. I didn’t feel good, I was looking at the stack of bills that seems to never end, and trying to figure out where I was going to find a jar of blackberry preserves with seeds for the jam cake. The cake has to be made with blackberry preserves with seeds or it doesn’t taste right. So as I sat there moping, I noticed that It’s a Wonderful Life was starting on the television. I rarely watch TV so it was providential that the talking box was on or I would have missed it.

It’s the time of year when I watch all of Christmas favorites on TV. When I was a child it was always Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer and anything with Santa Claus in it. But my all time favorite is It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. I can watch that over and over and over again. I know some folks that love that movie like I do and I know a select few that would consider it torture to watch it. I have watched that movie so many times I can almost tell you the dialog word for word.

So I settled back wrapped snuggly in my blankie and a hanky for my eyes because I knew that I was in a good squall. Sure enough, watching poor old George Bailey deal with his ups and downs and waylaid dreams did not let me down. I wept when he wept, railed at old man Potter when he did and laughed and jumped for joy when I heard the bell ring for Clarence.

This is what I get out of watching It’s a Wonderful Life. Close your eyes and imagine with me. You wake up each day and find a beautifully wrapped package sitting on your bed. Out of curiosity, you rip open the gift before you do anything else because you want to know what is inside. Maybe you find something in the box that you don’t really care for so you just put it back in the box and set it aside, wondering what to do about it.

The next day you wake up to find another box sitting there and this time when you open it, there is something wonderful inside. It could be a card from someone far away, a memory of someone, a beautiful outfit you saw in a store, the keys to a fuel-efficient car, a warm coat, a job or a pretty flower from someone that is thinking about you.

This happens every day but you don’t realize it….every day when you wake up, it is there in front of you, a present sent to you by God….a whole day to use in the best way possible. Sometimes it comes with problems and issues that you don’t seem to be able to solve. Sometimes the present comes with sadness and deception and tears. Other times it comes full of happiness, success and achievements.

The important thing to remember is that every day you receive a present, wrapped up especially for you while you sleep. Today is your PRESENT. And the next day is another gift and you wake up to find that every morning is a PRESENT. It is the Present of Life.

Life is not always what you wished and hoped for…. God does give us what is best for you, what you need most, what you have to learn and what you need to grow mentally and spiritually. If you don’t receive the present you wanted today, wait until the next one and appreciate what you received today. Open your Present everyday by giving Thanks first to God who made you and second to the Son who gave you new birth…and do this before you find out what is in your box.

Tomorrow, when you wake up and open you present, do it with love and enthusiasm because one day your dreams and life plan will be inside that box and you will finally realize the riches that have been given to you. Life is not about what you want. It’s about what you need. And The Lord will gift you with a new present everyday.


Does life have a soundtrack or a script like the movies? Sometimes I think it does. Or maybe I just wish it did. Or perhaps I pretend it does just to make it through some of the things that life throws in my way.

In this economy there is going to be some hard times. People were counting on the Toyota jobs. What will the people that do that are being laid off from other factories? What is going to happen now? I don’t know. I don’t have a magic wand to wave. But I hope that each person can find the good in their Present and as for me…I am going to make my own blackberry preserves and bake my cake and then I am going to ring some bells so an angel somewhere will earn his wings.