November wanderings of the mind

How about that lunar eclipse, the last one we'll see for three years?  I'm always up early, but I did set a reminder on Alexa in the living room telling me to go look at the moon at 4 A.M.  Later, as I went to bed, I realized I usually don't get out of bed quite that early, so I told my bedroom Alexa (actually, I gave that one a man's voice and named him Ziggy) to wake me up at 3:55 A.M. so I could shut off Alexa in the living room when I heard my reminder.  Crazy, I know.  I could have gone to the living room and told her to cancel the reminder. 

 Sometimes I don't think things out.  

Unfortunately, when Ziggy woke me up, I wanted a little more sleep.  After all, the best part of the eclipse was at 5 A.M.  I told him to stop, went to the living room, and canceled the reminder; I did go back to sleep and woke up around 5 with no help from any device, so I saw the eclipse at its best.  I must say, after you've seen an eclipse of the sun, the eclipse of the moon leaves something to be desired.  Just my opinion.

While looking for something of interest in my old "Country Life" blog a while ago, I re-discovered a singer/songwriter I had no recollection of, John Flynn.  These days most songs I put on my blog are pulled off by Youtube, but this guy probably isn't so well-known, and perhaps isn't worried about people sharing his music without paying.  We shall see.  If it does disappear, the link is HERE.   I realize most folks don't click on musical links anyhow, but the guy seems serious about making the world a better place.

We are still in our winter mode, which means plenty of naps and lots of reading.  I'm still reading through the Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt; I'm on the sixth book now, which means I have 19 to go.  I'm sure I'll want to stop for a while, read something entirely different, and then go back to Andy Carpenter.  I like my legal thrillers to have some humor in them.  He also has books besides the Andy Carpenter series.

I did take a break to read Take My Hand; it's a good book, although of the things some of the characters did in it weren't very believable to me.  I'm having trouble finding enough nonfiction for Cliff to read; he's reading the last book I chose for him, but says he's about ready for a Virgil Flowers book, by John Sandford.  That'll be easy for me, although I don't remember which ones he's already read; but he's probably only read three or four of them.  He actually knows how to go to the Libby app, make it to the library, and check out a book; but the only trouble is, he can only choose a book by its title.  I get online and see what the book is about, what kind of ratings it has, and so forth.  It takes time, and if he tried to do it it would be difficult at best. 

Since Veteran's Day is coming up, I'll leave you with a picture of my son from his Army days. 

Autumn: The solemn season

I wouldn't say I'm depressed, but I feel solemn and without humor for the most part; perhaps bemused and preoccupied says it best.  The leaves have been lovely this year, but they are only with us for a short time.  Most of them are on the ground now.  The garden that so delighted me through summer in spite of a drought is brown, wilted and barren.  

I find myself sitting and reading a lot;  I've also been trying to get my left-hand writing more legible using my Apple pencil on the iPad... whew!  Why do it, you say, when I've been writing with my right hand my whole life?  Well, not much challenges me these days.  So that's a challenge I can handle.  I'm trying to get good enough so that when Cliff has that month of no hearing after his surgery, I can write my notes to him on the iPad and delete them when I'm done.  I'll give you a sample of my writing; I'm not proud of it, but I do much better on paper.  Excuses, I know.

 It is hard to post Blog entries when nothing much is happening.  I could tell you my dog stinks and needs a bath, but I really don't want to give him one; that didn't take long though.  

I think I'll look at the past instead.  For instance, a photo from 2005, when I watched two granddaughters before and after school each day.  We walked back to the woods one day and took a lot of pictures.  Both these girls are mothers now.

Or this, from 2006.  It's my old friend Blue and my little filly.  This was after a I went for a jaunt, riding Blue and leading the filly (that's called "ponying" the horse). I've always wished I'd kept her, just for a pasture-pet.  She liked people and was so very calm, always content to be petted.

An Arkansas motorcycle ride in 2008:

And a canyon in Arkansas we've visited several times:

Fun on the Gold Wing:

When these pictures were taken, I had stories.  Now, I can only reminisce.