A FEW SNAPSHOTS

Just to let you know I am still around, kicking my heels, raisin' a little cane, opining and stirring up the pots, etc.,  I am posting a few photos I have had so little time to do.

The remodeling jobs are winding down, but there is cleanup and then I have to get my hanging pots going outdoors.  Since I am drinking decaf now, I don't have enough same size coffee cans for my usual steps, so I will have to come up with another idea.

All the CUTIES (clementines or madarin oranges or  a cross, depending on who you ask) photos are straight out of the camera and were really an interesting study of light coming in a kitchen window.

Two pieces were lying on the counter and the light fascinated me when I viewed different angles. So the only thing that moved in the multiple photos is me and the camera. I think there is a subtle mood change in a couple of them.

The forsythia is the first to open in my yard. There were 4 in one day.

Daffodils In Yucca

I've had daffodils for a month.

The moon photo is a poor representation of what I saw. I am going to have to read up on taking full moons. I think it involves a tripod and long exposure

When I first saw the moon it was at a dangerous Flippin AR intersection. It was barely peeking over the horizon; its color was darker then the clementines, nearly red. I have never seen a moon so colorful. By the time I got home it had risen and much of the color diminished.

Full Moon 03/09/2012

PHOTOS: NitWit1 unless otherwise attributed.








CLEMENTINES (CUTIES):
STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA (lLight and camera perspective study)

This comes close to being my favorite, but would have
preferred the label been facing camera, and left
Cutie not chopped off.

The light shining or reflecting through the two Cuties
obliterated the bottom of the second Cutie. WEIRD!

NOT AWOL.

NO, I am not AWOL. We are renovating 5 rooms of our double-wide mauufactured home. I am designated decorator. I have to clean and put the rooms back together and position hardware like towel racks, paintings, photos, shelves. YUCK.

We have an excellent carpenter who needed work, and is looking for a full-time job. Hope we finish before he finds one, but if he does, as well as his wife, we are OK about it. She is my housekeeper.

Cleaning is endurable because some days I have a housekeeper to help. But have you ever put up towel bars, especially two, that have to be side by side, and have to be level across the wall of a manufactured home which has nothing level, nothing square, and nothing on the vertical ?

I finished two towel bars yesterday. By the time I finished the second one, I had said most of the "sailor cussing" I have not yet eliminated from my vocabulary. I still have two pieces in same bathroom, one of which has to be centered and leveled above the previously installed two bars. The other is a round towel circle for hand towels.

The toilet tissue holder took 3 hours. It had to also be leveled. between the bath vanity and the toilet in this very small bathroom. I was sore for 3 days from all the contortuous configurations my body was forced to be in, to install this sucker level and secure.

I have another bathroom to do. Then I like backplates on my cabinet/vanitiy/cupboards/drawers to prevent wearing finish off the units.

Well, backplates seem to be old-fashioned and not carried in the big box stores anymore, so I am having to resort to INTERNET where there is plenty in all sorts of design. So that hardware is on hold; usually adding a backplate requires a longer screw--no use putting it up twice!

We are replacing an old wallpaper remodel with beadboard in 5 areas: two bathrooms, a small hallway, the casual dining/den and washroom.

Only the washroom is nearly completion. I haven't found a satisfactory hook to hang one clothes basket. The washroom is also where we store what we recycle, the large garbage can and feed Luckie, besides the freezer, washer, and hot water heater closet. This room retained some of its color but we added some bead board. The hardware remains the same. It has been cleaned, too.

The hallway lacks 1-2 hangings -- not difficult.

The casual dining/den lacks deep cleaning and a few wall hangings. This is a big room with lots of shelving, etc.

The master bath has only just began; it requires some plumbing movement and, if possible, may be the most difficult room.

But I am reading when I have a moment or two.

THIS HAND - A SOLILOQUY

MY 75+ YEAR-OLD HAND

Once in awhile, in short moments of reflection, memories and stories of my life click, like a slide show, or roll like a movie, before my eyes.

Noticing the aged and wrinkled look of my hand, I took this picture. Viewing all the wrinkles, I reflected some of the events of my life this hand had endured, enjoyed, sometime survived.

Once it was a chubby, perfectly formed hand,  of a newborn child whose mother had endured the pain of delivery coupled with the depression of separation from her child due to personal circumstances.

A loving, childless couple almost immediately adopted the child with perfect hand, and to them the priceless gift of another, made it entirely perfect.

This hand, all too soon was learning to hug hold and play.  Soon this hand had siblings with which to interact. and play. Sometimes as siblings do, there little tempers rose and this hand, as others, were used in small skirmishes. There were many good times, too.

This hand helped her Mother with chores and thereby learned household skills needed in later years.

This hand developed love of music, art, and work and football. After several events, it was trained in a service profession, pharmacy. In retirement love of music, art and football continue.

This hand has witnessed the extinct great mammoths of South Dakota to the dromedaries of Morocco. It has interacted with many cultures inside the US and some outside of US.

This hand held the spoon  to taste heavenly date honey in the Sahara to the varied honeys of America.  The cuisines are inumerable as the memories of them, both inside and outside US.


This hand has played in childhood sandboxes and sifted sands of the Sahara desert. It has seen sunrises and sunsets on many US  lakes and also a sand dune in the Sahara desert.

This hand learned there were moral and spiritual forces in life including prayer, often performed by intertwining with both hands.  Prayer became an early habit in childhood as this hands and the hands of the siblings all said evening prayers.

This hand was entranced and enthralled with learning, starting with a private kindergarten through the university level to this day as it helps type this blog, and probably will continue until the mind fails to instruct, or it is silenced by departure of its soul.

This hand has traveled many miles both in touring and in living. It has learned some of life's lessons the hard way; it has also helped endure some of life's saddest events as well asenjoy  some its most joyous events.

This hand learned to share in others' joy, sorrow and misfortune, helping or comforting when it understood the need.

This hand is not that of a perfect person. It has seen sometimes shameful behavior, particularly in younger years, hypocrisy in moral values and not always respectful of the dignity of all peoples and their belief systems.

This hand has endured several health issues and about 12 minor or major surgeries. It has always bounced back. It seems to have indominable spirit of recovery.

This hand has loved nature and animals. It has patted and loved many dogs and a few cats.

This hand has had a companion of 43 years, holding and pledging the traditional vows to each other 43 years Feb. 22, 1969. There have been more good times than bad,  nor was it match made in heaven. This hand might have done some things differently, but learned however slowly.

Like the rest of life, there have been laughter, tears, some anger, some compromise. However, this hand did not  have the fortune of good health, but its opposite partner has endured and supported through the years.

Now this hand and that of its companion are facing the sunset years of  life. These years continue to be as they were trained so many years ago. It seems the only difference is the length of time it  takes to complete ordinary daily tasks.

So with this somewhat wandering  soliloquy I end. It is time for me to prune the neglected roses in my yard, which are showing new leaves and buds, as are the forsythia bushes.

PHOTOS: NitWit1, unless otherwise attributed.