The Lantern Project

On 7-18 December 2009, leaders from around the world will meet in Copenhagen to talk about ways to deal with global warming. They aim to agree on worldwide targets for reducing harmful emissions and protecting the environment for the future.

Show world leaders that YOU think the world is worth saving by joining the Earth Hour Lantern Project. Just make a lantern as your vote for Earth, and it will be sent to Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference.

Please go to this website to make a lantern and join the most important vote in history:

http://www.earthhour.org/lantern/

Thanks,
Gail

St Nicholas

Saturday morning we had a St. Nicholas Day Festival at church. Lots of fun activities for kids and adults. St. Nicholas even showed up and gave the kids a "goodie bag." I was able to take a picture of him before he got away.

I was in charge of making grilled cheese sandwiches for all. Yum!

Giving Thanks

Forty five years ago today I missed my Thanksgiving dinner. It was the day my son, Eric, was born. So food, or no food, I had a lot to be thankful for.

Today I went to my daughter's home for Thanksgiving dinner. I still have a lot to be thankful for: I'm thankful I have enough to eat and family to eat with. I'm thankful I have a home to come home to, a job which enables me to earn some money, the nice music I am listening too right now, the candles which are glowing on this table, the wonderful weather we are having and the beauty of nature.

Grandson, Chris and son-law, Chip straining gravy!

You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together with joy.
- Psalm 65:11-13

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Ride to Work

The weather has been beautiful this week, inspiring me to pump up my bike tires and ride to work. I have had this bike since the mid-eighties. It still works fine. The dent in the back fender came from the garage door coming down on it a few years back.

Inspired by my friend Wanda's pictures taken on a ride down the road to Lucerne from Holden, I grabbed my camera on the way out the door the other day. I liked her shadow picture, so took one of my own. Whereas she took hers while riding, I actually stopped to take mine. I'm not so brave!

I pass this tree a couple of blocks from home. This is the real reason I took my camera. The morning sun shining on this tree turns it to a bright burnt orange. I am in awe every morning as I pass by. I wanted to preserve it before it's too late. Rain is predicted early next week and the leaves may be gone after that. I may never have paid attention to such a beautiful sight while driving a car.

The Old Bag!

I have this old clothespin bag. When I moved into my house 38 years ago, it was here - left behind by the former owners. Since they were the original owners and the house was nine years old when I moved in, this poor bag could be anywhere from 39 to 47 years old.

This bag has been here all this time. I have used it all this time. I have never liked the design or colors on the fabric. Why is it still here? Because I love this bag. I love the way it hangs over the clothesline, the way the clothespins sound when I drop them into it, the way it relaxes in the laundry basket as I carry it in or out of the house. This clothespin bag and I have grown old together. I have not used this bag faithfully over the years as I have used a dryer most of the time. I have, however, used it during certain seasons of the year, mostly fall and winter.

But...now I have not used my dryer for over a year. I vowed that I would do my part for the environment by not drying my clothes in a dryer. And I haven't. So the clothespin bag and I trek out to the back yard every Saturday morning (if it's not raining) and hang my clothes on the clothesline. The poor clothespin bag is falling apart after all these years. I am going to try to repair it and see how much longer it will last. Why am I doing this? Good question. For some reason when something is that old, I want to keep it. Maybe I want to see how much longer it will last. I have been watching it go downhill now for several years, and have planned to make repairs. It's at the point now where I will have to either repair it or toss it. I choose to repair it if I can. It is strange, but I just want to keep the old bag!

Two Weeks at Holden

Flowers still bloom in the flower boxes while snow falls on the mountain tops

I just returned from spending two glorious weeks at Holden.
A time to enjoy
sunshine, blue skies,
cool days and cooler nights,
starry skies, full moon.
A time to be with old friends and meet new ones.
A time to work, time to relax.
A time to attend sessions.
A time to watch "Fellowship of the Rings" again.
A time to ride my bike alone and with friends.
A time to share hopes and dreams.

Vacation - Part VII - Back Home

August 11th.

We left Ferry Beach about 7:30 a.m. Liz drove me back to the train depot in Saco. The rain that had been predicted for a few days hit while I was waiting for the train, but stopped soon after I boarded. (Or maybe the train just moved away from it.)

The two hour trip back to Boston went pretty fast. I sat next to a woman from Paris, France, and we had a really nice discussion about how things are done there versus in the U.S. It was very interesting to hear about their child care and medical care programs.

After riding the subway in Boston back to the airport, I had time for a quick lunch before boarding the plane back to DFW. I must say a few words about Midwest Airlines. They are a really good airline. The crew is so friendly and hospitable. The seats are good sized and there is enough leg room, unlike some other airlines. And on each flight they serve two complimentary homemade (on the plane) warm chocolate chip cookies. Well, since I was on two flights today (Boston to Milwaukee and Milwaukee to DFW) I got to have four of those cookies. What more could you ask for?

Epilogue - August 12th

After the bike ride Monday and sitting all day yesterday on trains and planes, I was really stiff today. I am hoping tomorrow will be an improvement in my movement!

Vacation - Part VI

August 10th -

Yesterday I found out about the bike rides. Ben is a biker who plans to do bike rides every day this week. I was sitting near him and his family at dinner and mentioned I would like to go, but didn't have a bike here. His wife, Erica, told me I could use her bike since she was working with the children's program today and wouldn't be riding.

There were six of us who showed up for the ride this morning. Everyone but me was an avid bike rider, so I knew I couldn't keep up with them. Ben took pity on me and sent the other four off on an 8-10 mile ride while he and I headed out for a 3 mile ride. When we finished the 3 miles, we decided to go around the loop again. Part way around we went into the state park thinking there was a short cut back to the road. There wasn't. So we rode back out the way we came and continued the ride. As we neared the end of the ride, we met up with the other four riders. They had ridden the 8 mile route and were just finishing up too. Ben had an odometer on his bike and it turned out that the two of us had gone 7 miles. I felt really good about that since I haven't ridden more than 2 miles in the last 9 months or so. I love bike riding and wish it wasn't so hot in Texas in the summer. I plan to ride more this fall.

Liz got off work at 2:30 and we drove up the coast to Freeport, Maine, and went to the LL Bean store. I just wanted to see it after all these years of looking a their catalogs. I bought a thermos bottle there. On the way back we stopped in Portland and ate dinner at one of Liz's favorite restaurants overlooking the water at a place where the ferry boats pick up passengers to take them to the various islands. We lingered over the meal and had a good amount of time to chat. Then back to Ferry Beach where we went to a get together for staff women who are over 50. Kinf of like the crone get togethers we had a Holden when I was there.

Vacation - Part V

August 8th -

This place is right on the beach. I got up early (as usual) and walked to the beach and sat in the sun reading. I also walked barefoot down the beach. The tide was out so the part of the beach that is covered with water later in the afternoon, was very walkable, almost like walking on a path. I had forgotten how neat beaches are. The sun was quite warm, but it was cool in the shade, almost too cool sometimes. Liz had to work all day and into the evening so I spent a lot of time sitting on the porch reading. This place reminds me a lot of Holden Village, except it isn't set apart from the rest of the community and you can drive into town in 10 minutes! What reminds of it though is the people. All greeting each other after a year or so, coming back to the place year after year - some have been coming for 30 years or more. Ferry Beach is over 100 years old so there is a lot of history here too.

A view on the beach.

The building called Quillen houses the summer registration office, a living room, and the dining hall on the first floor. I never did find out what is on the upper floors. the porch is a popular place to sit and talk or read.

August 9th -

I attended the Sunday morning worship service which was held in the outdoor chapel. Liz played the piano for the service along with people playing guitars. Afterward we strolled through the memorial garden and then had refreshments in the camp ground. The camp ground is for those people who want to camp in tents or RV's.

I had another cousin visit today. This time it was Paula and her husband, Bob. They drove over from their home in Winchendon, MA to visit with me. We had lunch in the dining hall with a pastor who has a church in Winchendon, so they had a lot to talk about. After lunch we took a drive down the coast of Maine to Kennybunkport. Talk about a tourist town!!! There wasn't even room on the main street to get a car through the crowds of people!. We didn't stop there, but drove a little farther down the coast and back. We stopped once at the only place along the shore that we could find a place to park the car. Paula and I walked down on the shore and I took a few pictures--as usual.

Paula taking a picture along the shore near Kennybunkport

Vacation - Part IV

August 7th -

I left Green Bay at 4:30 a.m. in order to get to Milwaukee, turn in my rental car and make it to the airport for my flight to Boston.

When I made my reservations for this trip, I reserved a rental car from Enterprise in downtown Milwaukee because it was about 2 1/2 times cheaper than renting at the airport. I didn't know how I was going to get downtown until I got to the Milwaukee airport. I asked at the information desk and the kind woman told me I could take the city bus (number 80) which stopped right outside the terminal I was in. It was a 1/2 hour bus ride into town and I got off only two short blocks from the rental office. I was quite proud and happy about how this turned out.

It was a good thing I left Green Bay at 4:30 a.m. because I got a little lost on the way back. Both cousins, Gordon and Sharon, had told me that there was an exit for Wisconsin Ave from I-43. That wasn't so.....therefore I went too far. After finally getting off, turning around and then taking the wrong fork in the road on the way back, I did manage to make it back to the rental office right at 7:30 a.m. Enterprise took me back to the bus stop even though it was only two blocks! I managed to get on the right bus and got back to the airport by 8:30 for my 10:10 flight to Boston.

Once in Boston I again took public transportation, in this case the subway, to get to the Amtrak station to board the train to Maine. It was so easy. Within an hour after getting off the plane I was at the train depot. I hadn't known when I booked the trip just how much time it would take to get there, so I gave myself plenty of time. Therefore I had a three hour wait at the train depot before my train left for Maine.

I was met at the station in Saco by my friend Liz who is working at a Unitarian camp near there. We went out to eat dinner and caught up on each others lives since we last saw each other two years ago at Holden. I am staying at the camp/conference center where she is working for the summer.

Vacation - Part III

August 4th -

I left Janesville for Green Bay shortly after another of Barb's wonderful breakfasts. I have two cousins living here, Sharon and Audrey. I am staying with Sharon in her beautiful condo. Tonight Audrey had us over to her apartment for dinner. It is getting really hard to stay on my diet on this trip, so I guess I'll just give up on it for the duration.

August 5th -

Sharon, Audrey and I drove to Marinette to visit another cousin, Karen. The four of us then drove to Menominee, Michigan, for lunch. We walked along the dock of the marina where there were gobs of huge sailboats. Can't figure out how so many people can afford this kind of living.

Here are the four cousins having lunch on the porch of a small restaurant in Menominee.

August 6th -
Today we drove around Marinette looking at the town. A short distance out of the city limits is this house that my father built back in 1940, shortly before I was born. It was a farmhouse then with more land around it. I understand we even had a cow at that time. I didn't live there very long as we moved into town and lived there for awhile before moving to Milwaukee.

The house that dad built!

I certainly don't remember living here, of course. But it was really fun to see the place. I have been collecting pictures of all the houses I have lived in in my lifetime. It's really fun to see them. I am thinking of making a collage or something of them in the future.

Tonight Sharon and I went to a concert on the lawn of the botanical garden in Green Bay. I see all the gorgeous flowers and wish I could have just a little piece of beauty like that in my yard at home. There was a big full moon tonight too and that added to the lovely surroundings and mood of the evening.

Vacation - Part II

After lunch on Sunday, I drove to Janesville to visit my cousin, Gordon, and his wife, Barb. I had not seen them for several years and had never been to their home.


Gordon has a really cool garden train set up. There are several trains that go around the different tracks. The tracks go all over the back yard (they live in a wooded area just outside of town). It is just an amazing thing to see, especially if you like trains (I do!) I took quite a few picture of it, of course.

Here one of the trains is going over a tressel he built in the yard. There are many interesting items in the yard, such as a box car with a couple of hobos playing "oh Susanna", a frustrated sounding elephant roaring in the circus train, a bear standing on top of one of the caves that the train goes through. At night the trains go into the round house. The trains are taken into the basement in winter, but the track stays out year around.

Rotary Gardens - Janesville, Wisconsin

On Monday, after a scrumptious breakfast, we went to the botanical gardens in Janesville. This was a really gorgeous place and so many flowers were blooming.


They had benches around the gardens with nature/environmental sayings carved into them. I was really enthralled and took picture of some of them. Here is one of them. At the gift store Gordon found a book with all the saying it in and he bought it for me. Now I don't need the pictures.

Vacation - Part I

The first "leg" of my trip was a visit with my high school friend, Jeanne. We attended our 50th high school reunion on August 1st.

I flew to Milwaukee on Thursday, rented a car and drove to West Bend where Jeanne lives with her husband, Jim. On Friday we went to Hartford (the old home town) and had lunch with another high school friend, Irene. I hadn't seen Irene in 45 years. We had a wonderful visit.

Jeanne and Jim volunteer at a retirement home residence on a beautiful lake setting. On Saturday, we went there and walked on some trails and then sat by the lake and talked for an hour. That night was the reunion. (It turned out to be more fun that I expected!) I wish I had a 50 year old picture to add to this, but I'm not too hip on scanning, etc. Being together with our class of 50 years ago was quite interesting.

Getting Ready

I'm going on vacation. I leave Thursday for 13 days. It seems getting ready to go on vacation is a huge job in and of itself. Why? Every time I go away from home, I spend several days straightening up the house. Why? I live in it the way it is when I am here. Why does it have to be cleaned up (so to speak) when I am getting ready to leave? Maybe I'm getting ready in case I don't come back? I don't know. I only know this is my M.O. whenever I am going away.

Now I am thinking......maybe I should go away more often. I just might have a spectacularly clean house all the time.

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television."

Quote from commencement address by Paul Hawken to the class of 2009 at the University of Portland. To read the whole address (I recommend it) click here.

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring :: Paul Hawken's Commencement Address to the Class of 2009

The graduate

Congratulations, Tom
You rock!

Love, Grandma

Struggling with simplicity

I am struggling. I think I lead a very simple life. I don't shop much. I recycle, I reuse, and I refuse! However, my struggle is with getting rid of stuff that has accumulated over 40+ years in my home. Every time I try to get rid of stuff, more stuff shows up. Right now I have a roomful of stuff to get rid of and there's more to be added. Do I really need this? What if I get rid of it and next week or next month I do need it? If I find something that I've forgotten I owned, does that mean get rid of it even it it brings back memories of something long past?

Some people always have stuff from the past that can be put in the history books, or the museum, or their offspring's house. What if I have some of those things and I throw them out?

As you may guess, it's almost garage sale time.

Writer's Block

Not that I ever considered myself a writer, but I have really enjoyed keeping this blog...especially when I was a Holden and there was a lot to write about. I realize I have not been as consistent lately as nothing really exciting happens here.

I think I mentioned in a previous entry that I am the stewardship chairperson on the church council now. I am trying to keep all aspects of being a steward in front of the congregation and one of the ways I am doing this is with a new blog. I am not ending this one (yet), but since I have not been as diligent about entries, you may think I have. Anyway, when this one does not change often, I invite you to take a look at my stewardship blog. The url is www.thoughtsonstewardship.blogspot.com. Actually, if anyone has any comments or suggestions for entries, I can use the help, so feel free to let me know your thoughts on stewardship also. I am feeling my way through this (not quite blindly, but somewhat handicapped--see the first sentence!) I am open to any and all ideas.

Check back here too as something may come up that I feel is worth writing about. It just may not be too often.

Christ is Risen!

Here's an update on the Lenten prayer cross.....on Easter Sunday the Sunday School children decorated it with streamers and signs made out of paper plates that said "He is Risen." I thought it looked so neat and the children got to celebrate in this way.

Lenten Prayer Cross

"Let our prayer rise before you as incense....as an offering to you."

From Psalm 141: Holden Evening Prayer

Every Lenten season for over twenty years we pull out the "old rugged cross" and set if up in the chancel area of the church. The cross has slits in it and during our Wednesday night Lenten vesper services we place prayers on the cross. We start with an empty cross on Ash Wednesday and during the time of offering we place our prayers in the slots on the cross. By this time in the season, it is overflowing with the prayers that have been lifted up.

Earth Hour

My son and I participated in Earth hour Saturday night. We turned off all lights inside and out. I lit a fire and some candles and it was really a neat experience. Eric went outside once to see if any of the neighbors were in the dark, and couldn't see any other dark houses. Oh, well, at least one house on my block took part.

There are some really cool pictures of different cities around the globe going dark. It was on Boston.com March 30. You can click on the before pictures and watch it go dark. It is really neat.
It's great how many places around the world took part. It was a stand against global warming, but also seems like a stand for world solidarity; so many countries standing for the same thing!

VOTE EARTH

I had not heard of this before, but will be participating.

YOUR LIGHT SWITCH IS YOUR VOTE

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

When: March 28, 2009

Turn off your lights in support of the earth. 8:30-9:30 p.m.

Check out this website for more informaton: www.earthhour.org.

Return to Holden (the week in review)

I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Holden this past week. I arrived on Monday and left on Friday. While there I took a lot of pictures and enjoyed various events. Here are some of the highlights:

TUESDAY

I woke up Tuesday morning to a snow covered wonderland. As I walked from Chalet 2 toward the dining hall I stopped to take a few pictures. As I looked up I saw.......
....Wanda heading toward the dining hall also taking pictures. We both stopped and took a picture of each other!!

Later that morning I took this picture of the cloud covered sun trying to shine. The view through the branches of this snow covered tree was amazing.

This is Holden's 1958 Bombadier. It is one of three of these that are put into use to transport folks to and from the Lucerne boat dock when there is too much snow on the road for the buses to get through. After lunch, Terry, the mechanic, wanted to take this one (called Yellowstone) for a trial run since it hadn't been out yet this year. He invited anyone interested in riding with him to go along.

Here are a few of the nine crunched into the back (notice baby Aubrey, age 6 months...her mom thought it would be fun! I am riding shotgun and taking pictures.

All went well on the ride down the road, but on the way back, old Yellowstone overheated and steam poured out. Terry called back to the village to have a jug of antifreeze brought down for the rescue. Most of us decided to walk back instead of wait in the cold. We were about 1 1/2 miles from the village.

Here we are walking back. The people in the picture are the teenagers, who got back in plenty of time for the afternoon school session. The rest of us walked a little slower and before we got back, Terry had gotten the bombadier running and picked us up on the way back.

Tuesday night we celebrated Mardi Gras with costumes, face painting, masks, and a true Cagen meal of shrimp gumbo (or vegan gumbo for those of us who don't eat shrimp.) Here are some of the faces painted by Rachel Weeks. (She is the unpainted one.)

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning saw more snow....more beautiful that Tuesday. Big, fat, fluffy flakes that came down all day long. This was Nancy's birthday. Every year, on her birthday, Nancy, her husband, Mark, and daughter, Raina, along with any other daring souls, take a dip in Railroad Creek. Last year I watched and took pictures. They all got lost off my computer somehow, so I have to repeat the event this year.

Here are the hearty souls (minus two) before the big dip.

Here they are dipping in the creek. The air temperature was about 20 degrees.

After the big dip! Luckily they had warm clothes to put on before walking back to the dining hall.

Later tonight we had our Ash Wednesday Service led by Dawn Coffey. Jack preached and I served as Assisting Minister.

THURSDAY

Thursday afternoon was cold and sunny. Several of us took a walk to the Ten Mile Bridge and back. (A total of two miles). It was a beautiful day with the bluest sky you ever saw. It was fun to walk and talk with these friends again.

The view from Ten Mile Bridge...the creek is mostly frozen over here.

This is the view of Buckskin Mountain we saw on the way back to the village.
Believe me, the picture doesn't do it justice.

My trip ended too soon on Friday morning. But I got to travel downlake with several Holden people who were going out for the winter school break. This was a great week....and these are just some of the highlights.

Texas Ice Storm

Here are some pictures of yesterday's ice storm.

Everything was covered with a sheet of ice.

Icicles on the roof.

It's the closest to winter that we have had so far this year.

Update

I haven't posted in awhile but I kinda doubt anyone is reading this anymore anyway. But I did want to update it with what I have been doing (beside working). Oops, that was a wrong way to start because I don't do a lot besides working!

One thing I started doing was volunteering to help sign up children for the Texas CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) program. It is an interesting process. So far I have been to a training meeting and this morning went for the first time to actually interact with the people who are signing up. I mainly watched and listened to the pros and helped pass out paperwork. I think I am learning what to ask and how to tell them to fill out the application. It is interesting. The only qualifications besides the low income is that the children are either citizens or legal aliens and have social security cards. It doesn't matter if the parents are or not. The information is not shared with other agencies. Richardson is a very diverse community, culture wise, and we had several different nationalities applying this morning.

Another thing I am getting involved in is the Stewardship Program at my church. I have been interested in doing more with the program, which traditionally focuses on getting pledges of money. I am going to try to expand it as, to me, stewardship involves much more than money. I hope to involve health, wellness, time management, natural resources (the environment), as well as how we use our money. I have just finished reading a real good book called "Faith and Money" edited by Michael Schut that really brings up so many things I have thought about for years. (I love it when I find something that backs up my beliefs.) I have been toying with the idea of setting up a blog for church members to read. I will have to see how that will work out and let you know.