1-6-2018
Moving ahead with life.
A person can benefit greatly from a longer view. Knowing now just how long consequences can last. I feel more compelled to plan projects and forecast needs with consequences in mind. Due deligence.
Here is this year's project. The Oven of My Dreams. Artsustain presents your neighborhood horno: Bake bread, cook in mass protein or vegetable resources for future use. Appointments available through social media, email or locals can call. Like us on Facebook for further details.
Love food but so want a new way to enjoy it? I used to cook for a restaurant that could roast huge pans of boneless chicken, bake it's own flat bread in mass for its sandwiches, and as sides to soup made from scratch and fresh washed chopped romaine heads for salad. The most fresh ingredients prepared for broad use. Food prep would begin a couple of hours before lunch. Prep cooks roast red peppers and eggplant for use in recipes for the daily cooking in some way prepared in this huge wonderful earth oven. I had the pleasure of building an horno and seeing it used at the Coloraod State Fair when I was in college. After working with an horno (say "orno")in a successful restaurant, I have wanted to build one ever since.
Although the wood oven is huge and needs mindful tending, I see now how efficient the focus was in that restaurant and playing in the fire was fun. I know how to get a cook fire going with out much tending as long as your wood is dry. I feel there are elements of that commercial experience could work in residential food preparation.
Cooking with a group of people for a common goal can be a fun event. Plan uses for food cooked en mass. Promoting "gang" cooking where a group prepares simple delicious flexible food packaged for use in the future. I am going to explore my latest Laura Ingalls Wilder's book for ideas for future sustainable projects. If only Laura had the use of a freezer. Holding food properly is key. I want to promote simple meal planning for better spending habits, food variety, and better refuse disposal. Most of all plan for better health and food security.
My first step is building the oven. The rest will come. Details to follow.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Friday, January 5, 2018
So Over It. My Line In The Sand.
Bored. So over my sad, tragic back story.
I understand how this whole crummy story happened. Like so many other sad stories it comes down to someone else's lies, a horrible divorce and crazy situations in my family. Then there my life choices. The lies, parental divorce, and prior psycho drama I lay the blame at the feet of my mother. While I have sympathy for her sad story, she is not let off the hook. My mother's inabilities as a human being and a mother has been felt by me, many family members, and my siblings. But let's scale it back a bit. It's not my mother's story. It is mine.
Once upon a time there was this prideful Missouri farmer born in the 19th century who became an over controlling father of three girls in the 1920's. The middle daughter became an over controlling mother then a grandmother. Her daughter grew up to be a scared crazy mother of a scared anxious daughter that resulted in another sad complicated childhood story. Thanks folks; I'll take it from here. It is time to draw a line through it and get on with the happier grown up story. I need to see past the back story. It truly is past, but how to make me feel it. I have had the real pleasure of living as I choose for the last 12 years. Inside my consciousness it feels like it is still becoming.
This life began when I consciously stopped running from the many types of pain in my past. I live in beauty and make myself look very hard at it's source. Pleasure rarely appears without pain. Being depressed is like getting scheduled torture. A depressed mind has a ready supply of ways to distract, complicate and under-achieve. Any real recognition of goals and desires tends to bring out the demons and gremlins. Add in a few natural complications like achieving them is a problem: "Oh no...the inappropriate shame of it all, getting exactly what I wanted. And now the world revolves around me. Such a scary vulnerable feeling. My mother had assured me many times as a child this just was not the case at all.....because silly girl, it revolved around her.
My life has worked out. I see me and my husband making this life for us. Unfortunately this can be problematic for my little girl issues. They don't just fizzle away when I see hard evidence of our achievement everywhere. This has taken up so much of my time. It is confusing why I still have these episodes of low self esteem. Why must there be the return of rotten little girl hurts and periods of difficulty?
Short, trite answer is: The afflicted mind has a hard time living it's own dream. Time to learn. Time to move on and live in the light of the dream.
I understand how this whole crummy story happened. Like so many other sad stories it comes down to someone else's lies, a horrible divorce and crazy situations in my family. Then there my life choices. The lies, parental divorce, and prior psycho drama I lay the blame at the feet of my mother. While I have sympathy for her sad story, she is not let off the hook. My mother's inabilities as a human being and a mother has been felt by me, many family members, and my siblings. But let's scale it back a bit. It's not my mother's story. It is mine.
Once upon a time there was this prideful Missouri farmer born in the 19th century who became an over controlling father of three girls in the 1920's. The middle daughter became an over controlling mother then a grandmother. Her daughter grew up to be a scared crazy mother of a scared anxious daughter that resulted in another sad complicated childhood story. Thanks folks; I'll take it from here. It is time to draw a line through it and get on with the happier grown up story. I need to see past the back story. It truly is past, but how to make me feel it. I have had the real pleasure of living as I choose for the last 12 years. Inside my consciousness it feels like it is still becoming.
This life began when I consciously stopped running from the many types of pain in my past. I live in beauty and make myself look very hard at it's source. Pleasure rarely appears without pain. Being depressed is like getting scheduled torture. A depressed mind has a ready supply of ways to distract, complicate and under-achieve. Any real recognition of goals and desires tends to bring out the demons and gremlins. Add in a few natural complications like achieving them is a problem: "Oh no...the inappropriate shame of it all, getting exactly what I wanted. And now the world revolves around me. Such a scary vulnerable feeling. My mother had assured me many times as a child this just was not the case at all.....because silly girl, it revolved around her.
My life has worked out. I see me and my husband making this life for us. Unfortunately this can be problematic for my little girl issues. They don't just fizzle away when I see hard evidence of our achievement everywhere. This has taken up so much of my time. It is confusing why I still have these episodes of low self esteem. Why must there be the return of rotten little girl hurts and periods of difficulty?
Short, trite answer is: The afflicted mind has a hard time living it's own dream. Time to learn. Time to move on and live in the light of the dream.
Friday, October 31, 2014
A sad lesson: Pets MUST have a vet visit once a year, period, end of story.
I have learned a bitter but very significant lesson about pet care.
When it comes to cats they MUST have vaccines once a year.
Now I will bet there are a bunch of you snorting and claiming: " I take care of MY pets! Of course they need to go to the vet once a year!" I hear that and of course I want to do as I should. I also know how, due to the availability of money, lack of time, and, the shear horror that wells up in cats when they have to visit the vet; it can get put off. Dogs are easy compared to catching the kitty for the car carrier and then there is the car ride, all the yowling and panting all the way to the vet office. I have felt; who needs that stress? I had convinced myself I of this. All I can say now is: I was wrong.
Jerry was a beautiful solid gray short haired male, Buster is a tri-colored male, both neutered. My cats have been generally healthy, well fed. They stay in most of the time but visit outside while humans are home....we live out in the country and work to control their interactions with wildlife in our area the best we can. Buster survived a rattlesnake bite a couple of years ago but other than that it seemed I could protect my kitties just fine; I know now I was very wrong.
We also have had kitty orphans. Three in total, one got to go home right away( He was wearing an ID tag with a phone number--Lazlo, a black and white neutered adult male, His owner told us was missing for 6 months, it is good story--another time.) I say orphans because they wandered in off the prairie. I felt sure at some point someone intended to keep them; they are neutered long-haired adult males. Well, I just couldn't just chase them off. They were stealing kitchen left overs from my chickens. Coyotes sing quite regularly. We compromised and let them stay in the storage shed. They help control the vermin as well. That was in 2009.
We all have got along as long as long as the outside kitties were kept separate. Occasionally there would be a fight because of human error. One is a beautiful orange tabby who is about 6 years old and the other is a stunning black on beige tabby...has a black strike down his nose and is probably about 10 to 12 years old. Orange Kitty and Kiran. After a couple of years Kiran got sick with what I thought was abscessed bad teeth. I found a vet who would help him pro bono, I was very grateful. She explained it as extreme gingivitis. Kiran recovered but he has bad breath and still drools to this day in varying degrees. Long story endless there was a brief cat fight recently and then my gray kitty was sick. It began as a pea sized knot behind his jaw bone that grew to almond size and he looked to me like he had the mumps. He right away wouldn't eat which is very bad news for kitties. He didn't make it and passed away at home yesterday.
Our present vet believes it was feline calicivirus. I now feel sure the vet would have come to it sooner if I had made it a point to say Jerry's shots were not up to date. I was paying so much attention to his symptoms and how he and Kiran fought. It is my fault and it is very hard to accept, so I "Googled" it. It led me to the Wikipedia page on feline vaccines. It seems there are "core" vaccines that help prevent this and other feline illness. They need to be administered every year. I was ignorant of this fact. So I am pretty sad. I feel very guilty of bad decisions and am resolved to be different in the future. I feel that with yearly visits we would have enjoyed a few more years with my beloved gray kitty. Our new vet makes home visits which is just wonderful. A box of facial tissues, a few old towels, and a clean old sheet over the kitchen island, and our veterinarian has a nice examining table to use. We are planning for the next vet visit to get all our fur babies looked at and caught up on vaccines. So I can honestly say things are already different but I wish it didn't mean that Jerry had to leave us.
When it comes to cats they MUST have vaccines once a year.
Now I will bet there are a bunch of you snorting and claiming: " I take care of MY pets! Of course they need to go to the vet once a year!" I hear that and of course I want to do as I should. I also know how, due to the availability of money, lack of time, and, the shear horror that wells up in cats when they have to visit the vet; it can get put off. Dogs are easy compared to catching the kitty for the car carrier and then there is the car ride, all the yowling and panting all the way to the vet office. I have felt; who needs that stress? I had convinced myself I of this. All I can say now is: I was wrong.
Jerry was a beautiful solid gray short haired male, Buster is a tri-colored male, both neutered. My cats have been generally healthy, well fed. They stay in most of the time but visit outside while humans are home....we live out in the country and work to control their interactions with wildlife in our area the best we can. Buster survived a rattlesnake bite a couple of years ago but other than that it seemed I could protect my kitties just fine; I know now I was very wrong.
We also have had kitty orphans. Three in total, one got to go home right away( He was wearing an ID tag with a phone number--Lazlo, a black and white neutered adult male, His owner told us was missing for 6 months, it is good story--another time.) I say orphans because they wandered in off the prairie. I felt sure at some point someone intended to keep them; they are neutered long-haired adult males. Well, I just couldn't just chase them off. They were stealing kitchen left overs from my chickens. Coyotes sing quite regularly. We compromised and let them stay in the storage shed. They help control the vermin as well. That was in 2009.
We all have got along as long as long as the outside kitties were kept separate. Occasionally there would be a fight because of human error. One is a beautiful orange tabby who is about 6 years old and the other is a stunning black on beige tabby...has a black strike down his nose and is probably about 10 to 12 years old. Orange Kitty and Kiran. After a couple of years Kiran got sick with what I thought was abscessed bad teeth. I found a vet who would help him pro bono, I was very grateful. She explained it as extreme gingivitis. Kiran recovered but he has bad breath and still drools to this day in varying degrees. Long story endless there was a brief cat fight recently and then my gray kitty was sick. It began as a pea sized knot behind his jaw bone that grew to almond size and he looked to me like he had the mumps. He right away wouldn't eat which is very bad news for kitties. He didn't make it and passed away at home yesterday.
Our present vet believes it was feline calicivirus. I now feel sure the vet would have come to it sooner if I had made it a point to say Jerry's shots were not up to date. I was paying so much attention to his symptoms and how he and Kiran fought. It is my fault and it is very hard to accept, so I "Googled" it. It led me to the Wikipedia page on feline vaccines. It seems there are "core" vaccines that help prevent this and other feline illness. They need to be administered every year. I was ignorant of this fact. So I am pretty sad. I feel very guilty of bad decisions and am resolved to be different in the future. I feel that with yearly visits we would have enjoyed a few more years with my beloved gray kitty. Our new vet makes home visits which is just wonderful. A box of facial tissues, a few old towels, and a clean old sheet over the kitchen island, and our veterinarian has a nice examining table to use. We are planning for the next vet visit to get all our fur babies looked at and caught up on vaccines. So I can honestly say things are already different but I wish it didn't mean that Jerry had to leave us.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Please! Find a Bathroom!
What do you do if people driving down your street in front of your house threw trash possibly containing human waste in and around your neighborhood? It has been a burning question of mine for quite some time now. First thing is to try and raise some awareness. Bring it to attention to those committing the offense.
Living live three steps off a U. S. highway, I am blessed with beautiful, enormous 360 degree vistas. My husband and I have our very own little house on the prairie. After 8 years one detail has marred the joy of it all. You see, it is not the presence of the road but some habits of people traveling on it. Them and their inability to find a place to relieve their human needs. Didn't you ever learn to go use a bathroom before you start out on a trip? I got it said often enough. Even riding on Greyhound they made it a point to let you know when to get off for personal needs.
I try to get out and pick up cans and such, my grandson helps and we take aluminum for recycling. A few bucks here and there. We pick some trash but do not pick up any shopping bags or plastic bottles. They have been used as road-side (or on the fly) toilet solutions and flung out into the night, or an opportune time during the day. Colorado fines $1,000 for littering but how to catch an offender? I am open to suggestions.
I grew up during a time there were Public Service Announcements, you know, the early 1970's. Keep America Beautiful, remember anyone? I was hugely impressed with the images of Iron Eyes Cody with a tear rolling down his face in response to the serious amount of roadside trash and industrial dumping and just plain ruining the very thing that gives life, water and land.
Now, don't get the idea I have any problem with tourism, I do not. I was married to a one time trucker (divorce was inevitable when I found out we were rednecks) and know them in general to be a stubborn lot but they do a great service in their jobs, people need their commerce. Commuters emergencies happen but try going to the bathroom before you start out for your commute! Highway travelers of all kinds, must you deface my property in the process of you getting to where you need? Potentially threaten loss to my neighbor if he loses a cow to problems from eating garbage?
The human waste thing just has to stop, really, it is plain unsanitary. My grandson plays out in my front yard! The plastic bottles full of pee lay and degrade in the sun into alien looking things. Sure, stop along the road to take in the view, just watch your step, yes might be snakes but there might be a plastic pop bottle full of urine as well. We have mowing along side of the road so plastic bottles get shredded and they drain, still gross. There are shredded tin or aluminum cans and are a danger. They are razor sharp, then there is the glass problem, people make gross time capsules of what they did on their road trip if they didn't shatter. People in pick-up trucks with open beds; the loose trash you threw in back is now in my front yard. Two words: Garbage bag! Further simple instructions; place in proper trash receptacle! A U.S. highway isn't a dump site. We have the best and the biggest highway system on the planet, show some respect.
Living live three steps off a U. S. highway, I am blessed with beautiful, enormous 360 degree vistas. My husband and I have our very own little house on the prairie. After 8 years one detail has marred the joy of it all. You see, it is not the presence of the road but some habits of people traveling on it. Them and their inability to find a place to relieve their human needs. Didn't you ever learn to go use a bathroom before you start out on a trip? I got it said often enough. Even riding on Greyhound they made it a point to let you know when to get off for personal needs.
I try to get out and pick up cans and such, my grandson helps and we take aluminum for recycling. A few bucks here and there. We pick some trash but do not pick up any shopping bags or plastic bottles. They have been used as road-side (or on the fly) toilet solutions and flung out into the night, or an opportune time during the day. Colorado fines $1,000 for littering but how to catch an offender? I am open to suggestions.
I grew up during a time there were Public Service Announcements, you know, the early 1970's. Keep America Beautiful, remember anyone? I was hugely impressed with the images of Iron Eyes Cody with a tear rolling down his face in response to the serious amount of roadside trash and industrial dumping and just plain ruining the very thing that gives life, water and land.
Now, don't get the idea I have any problem with tourism, I do not. I was married to a one time trucker (divorce was inevitable when I found out we were rednecks) and know them in general to be a stubborn lot but they do a great service in their jobs, people need their commerce. Commuters emergencies happen but try going to the bathroom before you start out for your commute! Highway travelers of all kinds, must you deface my property in the process of you getting to where you need? Potentially threaten loss to my neighbor if he loses a cow to problems from eating garbage?
The human waste thing just has to stop, really, it is plain unsanitary. My grandson plays out in my front yard! The plastic bottles full of pee lay and degrade in the sun into alien looking things. Sure, stop along the road to take in the view, just watch your step, yes might be snakes but there might be a plastic pop bottle full of urine as well. We have mowing along side of the road so plastic bottles get shredded and they drain, still gross. There are shredded tin or aluminum cans and are a danger. They are razor sharp, then there is the glass problem, people make gross time capsules of what they did on their road trip if they didn't shatter. People in pick-up trucks with open beds; the loose trash you threw in back is now in my front yard. Two words: Garbage bag! Further simple instructions; place in proper trash receptacle! A U.S. highway isn't a dump site. We have the best and the biggest highway system on the planet, show some respect.
Friday, September 21, 2012
"......it's just a bunch of guys!"--Zero Effect
It has been said I have a odd taste in film. Zero Effect is this movie from 1998. "the world's most private detective" Bill Pullman plays the elusive Darryl Zero and gets 3 stars from Rotten Tomatoes. I found that harsh! I truly enjoyed it. Watched it many times, I know it almost by heart. Along with Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller co-stars as Steve Arlo, his trusty front man assistant. The story was interesting. Really weird characters with interesting stories to tell on their own within the plot. Good cast, Ryan O'Neal plays ivy-league brat in a grown up body and needs Pullman's character to help him. Kim Dixon plays a woman of mystery. All characters are brilliantly flawed. Music for the sound track was excellent, a great mix of artists and songs From Elvis Costello's "Mystery Dance" to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "Into My Arms". Some folks who I have introduced to the movie say it has some places that are slow. Not in my opinion. This movie has everything for me, comedy, drama, crime, and the characters all get to learn a good lesson whether they wanted it or not. I recommend looking on IMDB to see the reviews, they are the most fair to the film and rated it at 6.8 stars, and hey it is not the last movie you are ever going to watch.
There is this tense scene where Pullman's character is ranting about good guys and bad guys. Darryl has this view that is almost like some god (or demi-god) complex that he can help these people entangled in their messes, right the wrongs that they do because he sees the big picture and is the worlds greatest detective. His fees are huge and only the very rich who "mess up" can think to afford him. Darryl does his job well but his assitant has had enough of these kind of people. Darryl does not want Steve to quit. He needs him for legal advice and rock solid research. So he rants on about the good guys and bad guys, and Steve yells at him that it is not about the good guys or bad guys, "....it's just a bunch of guys!"
I want to draw attention to this quote because when I am looking around in my world, listening to NPR radio, listening to my family, and people in my immediate community I notice a loss of civility. Current polarity in politics seems to encourage people to openly call others names and blame them for all that is wrong in our system. It is just plain illogical and a poor display of manners! If we let our political process get reduced to war chests, influence and revenue for media corporations and a huge group of "type A" personalities fervently working to get someone into political office then it is up to the citizens of this nation to get involved to give it relevancy, meaning, and depth .
Our system is our system. It is what it is because of the nature of politics. "It is hard to blame a cat for being a cat" from Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, I had read the book to my grandson and use the quote a lot. Politics is a loud, long war of facts and factoids, sound bytes, super pacs. TV spots are expensive. It is the way it is and has served well to get people motivated and interested in the political process, which is never a bad thing. It is up to the citizens of our nation to shape and mold the government to the ever changing need of our country. One should always check facts about the election and who wants to get into political office. It is the responsibility of the citizens.
This system is annoying and kind of goofy but for all that it is or not, it works. It does not please all the citizens but all do not participate. Apathy and citizen non-participation has it's influence on the system. All are people pursuing life with freedoms that do not exist everywhere on the globe. All deserve decent human treatment. Yelling at fellow citizens and saying one group is to blame for the demise of our country's "way of life" is just plain rude. The level of rudeness and incivility in today's political process is maddening. It shows a pure lack of respect for people in general. It is not about us and them, we all are just a bunch of people with strong feelings about what might be wrong with the nation's way forward. Instead of yelling and finger pointing perhaps a conversation is in order. Pigeon-holing 47% of the population into "them" that is to blame is just plain dangerous.
It is not about the rights and wrongs of political parties and their view of government; it is the result of the conversation we have to act with prudence and respect to shape the government into a system that works for more than a few. Perhaps it is time to give a good hard look at who really benefits when everyone is so "grid-locked" and angry in politics. Demonizing groups and name-calling gets the process nowhere and the biggest example of it is our MOST DO NOTHING CONGRESS EVER! So who does it benefit? A suggestion would be to look at who benefits from the UN-action. Look around and see what it means if congress does nothing or very little between now and then end of the year. Have true but civil conversations that yield real facts and workable ideas not just the verbal jousting with what super pacs put out in bytes and portions of the issues that are important the country.
There is this tense scene where Pullman's character is ranting about good guys and bad guys. Darryl has this view that is almost like some god (or demi-god) complex that he can help these people entangled in their messes, right the wrongs that they do because he sees the big picture and is the worlds greatest detective. His fees are huge and only the very rich who "mess up" can think to afford him. Darryl does his job well but his assitant has had enough of these kind of people. Darryl does not want Steve to quit. He needs him for legal advice and rock solid research. So he rants on about the good guys and bad guys, and Steve yells at him that it is not about the good guys or bad guys, "....it's just a bunch of guys!"
I want to draw attention to this quote because when I am looking around in my world, listening to NPR radio, listening to my family, and people in my immediate community I notice a loss of civility. Current polarity in politics seems to encourage people to openly call others names and blame them for all that is wrong in our system. It is just plain illogical and a poor display of manners! If we let our political process get reduced to war chests, influence and revenue for media corporations and a huge group of "type A" personalities fervently working to get someone into political office then it is up to the citizens of this nation to get involved to give it relevancy, meaning, and depth .
Our system is our system. It is what it is because of the nature of politics. "It is hard to blame a cat for being a cat" from Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, I had read the book to my grandson and use the quote a lot. Politics is a loud, long war of facts and factoids, sound bytes, super pacs. TV spots are expensive. It is the way it is and has served well to get people motivated and interested in the political process, which is never a bad thing. It is up to the citizens of our nation to shape and mold the government to the ever changing need of our country. One should always check facts about the election and who wants to get into political office. It is the responsibility of the citizens.
This system is annoying and kind of goofy but for all that it is or not, it works. It does not please all the citizens but all do not participate. Apathy and citizen non-participation has it's influence on the system. All are people pursuing life with freedoms that do not exist everywhere on the globe. All deserve decent human treatment. Yelling at fellow citizens and saying one group is to blame for the demise of our country's "way of life" is just plain rude. The level of rudeness and incivility in today's political process is maddening. It shows a pure lack of respect for people in general. It is not about us and them, we all are just a bunch of people with strong feelings about what might be wrong with the nation's way forward. Instead of yelling and finger pointing perhaps a conversation is in order. Pigeon-holing 47% of the population into "them" that is to blame is just plain dangerous.
It is not about the rights and wrongs of political parties and their view of government; it is the result of the conversation we have to act with prudence and respect to shape the government into a system that works for more than a few. Perhaps it is time to give a good hard look at who really benefits when everyone is so "grid-locked" and angry in politics. Demonizing groups and name-calling gets the process nowhere and the biggest example of it is our MOST DO NOTHING CONGRESS EVER! So who does it benefit? A suggestion would be to look at who benefits from the UN-action. Look around and see what it means if congress does nothing or very little between now and then end of the year. Have true but civil conversations that yield real facts and workable ideas not just the verbal jousting with what super pacs put out in bytes and portions of the issues that are important the country.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Public Radio
Radio has been an intimate part of my life. Since the first grade, living near Montgomery, Alabama, music was present in my life. My father was in a quartet that sang in area Baptist church congregations. My mother sang in church with a clear soprano voice. It was obvious she liked to sing. She was still pretty young at the end of the sixties and had diverse tastes in music. Whille riding in the car she would sing. I discovered I could sing along too. Music became fun. I tried to make up songs in my head. When there was a piano in the house I tried to compose my own songs and play from songs on the radio. My favorites were popular rock and roll and country rock. Yes, Chicago, Beach Boys, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and of course the Eagles.
It was in an art class in college that an art professor made a remark, strongly suggesting that students might have more knowlege of what was going on in the world if they would listen to more than hard rock on the local radio station. Where was that? Public radio. As an older student with a daughter in grade school, it was easy to tune out inclusive remarks made about students' habits, but I listened to the very station he had sneered at. This particular professor was not one I respected, but this time his tone made me feel insulted. What was so wrong with my radio choice? On the ride home I tuned in a public radio station that didn't play primarily classical music or head banging rock. It was KRCC out of Colorado College in Colorado Springs. I did it for no real reason but to reinforce my feelings that this was just an egotistical professor, an over educated, slightly better than average, elitest artist. He was all that but he was also correct.
Public radio was an acquired taste for me. Quickly I realized how the news was some how more fresh and current. The music was unfamiliar. Violence in Bosnia and Kosevo was escalating at the time. The news was stunning. Before switching the radio dial, I had no idea how bad life conditions were in a war torn country, now present in my lifetime. The news articles were gripping and insightful. The music could be strange, KRCC from Colorado Springs was dedicated to playing obsure music not played elsewhere. There also was a good dose of guitar and blues. I learned be patient and listen through the other stuff. Instead of using the radio as an instrument to forget the day, I was becoming more informed. My music sense was expanding. How grown up of me.
It was in an art class in college that an art professor made a remark, strongly suggesting that students might have more knowlege of what was going on in the world if they would listen to more than hard rock on the local radio station. Where was that? Public radio. As an older student with a daughter in grade school, it was easy to tune out inclusive remarks made about students' habits, but I listened to the very station he had sneered at. This particular professor was not one I respected, but this time his tone made me feel insulted. What was so wrong with my radio choice? On the ride home I tuned in a public radio station that didn't play primarily classical music or head banging rock. It was KRCC out of Colorado College in Colorado Springs. I did it for no real reason but to reinforce my feelings that this was just an egotistical professor, an over educated, slightly better than average, elitest artist. He was all that but he was also correct.
Public radio was an acquired taste for me. Quickly I realized how the news was some how more fresh and current. The music was unfamiliar. Violence in Bosnia and Kosevo was escalating at the time. The news was stunning. Before switching the radio dial, I had no idea how bad life conditions were in a war torn country, now present in my lifetime. The news articles were gripping and insightful. The music could be strange, KRCC from Colorado Springs was dedicated to playing obsure music not played elsewhere. There also was a good dose of guitar and blues. I learned be patient and listen through the other stuff. Instead of using the radio as an instrument to forget the day, I was becoming more informed. My music sense was expanding. How grown up of me.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
So now what?
I was just talking to Bill, my partner here on the Edge, about what this blog is for. Bill mentions how he believes it has to be a marketing and money making tool. Of course, he is right but I get anxious when I think about it like that and the pressure about what I don't know becomes a stifling problem. So instead of concentrating on the money possiblities that might be, I focus on what I like about sharingon a blog. I get more excited about connecting to my family and letting them know something about me in one central spot. The people we love are so spread out across the country and the globe.
Living out in the country is the way for me. Having big sweeping prairies and magnificent views with the Rockies in the background sounds lovely doesn't it? Let me mention the night sky, unobstructed! No one around for miles. It's not for everyone. Lonliness and isolation can be a problem. Yet it is what I have always wanted. It is very soothing after so many years of the needs of others, frantic feelings, numerous addresses, and, dysfuntional dramas. So the challenge is to make a life that satisfies. Out here I feel it is easier for Bill and me to focus on what that means. It is a good thing that Bill feels the same way.
What is the real balance of what one does to make a life? Well that can be for another post.
Until next time, Cheers!
Living out in the country is the way for me. Having big sweeping prairies and magnificent views with the Rockies in the background sounds lovely doesn't it? Let me mention the night sky, unobstructed! No one around for miles. It's not for everyone. Lonliness and isolation can be a problem. Yet it is what I have always wanted. It is very soothing after so many years of the needs of others, frantic feelings, numerous addresses, and, dysfuntional dramas. So the challenge is to make a life that satisfies. Out here I feel it is easier for Bill and me to focus on what that means. It is a good thing that Bill feels the same way.
What is the real balance of what one does to make a life? Well that can be for another post.
Until next time, Cheers!
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