Got my Iowa FIX!

I went to Van Buren County, Iowa, last Saturday.  Intended to stay 3 nites but the weather was wonderful and I was enjoying myself I ended up staying one more day.  This is the old Manning Hotel B&B that I stayed at one nite.  My room was right above the T in Hotel.  Was a good experience.

Of course the room was a small bedroom with this antique furniture and bathroom, complete with creaky floors and an all night light shining in thru the door transom.  No TV, phone, frig, or dryer. Working at the hotel coffee shop when I was about 15 was one of my very first jobs.  So I thought I should spend one night there.  After that I stayed with friends.

This is the Bentonsport bridge on the Des Moines River.  As you can see the river was very low.  We were looking for steel spikes that loosen up from the old timbers that are visible only when the water is low.  There used to be a dam across the river many years ago.  The guy is Bill Printy who is a black smith and makes beautiful things from the spikes.

This is Betty Printy "whipping" up a challis for a church that needed to be done ASAP.  She is the partner of Iron and Lace.  The lace being the queen anne's lace flower that is fired into her pottery. She and I go back to our growing up years in that area.   http://ironandlace.com/index.htm  Her website if anyone wants to learn more about the area.

This is April, their daughter (who I happened to help deliver 30 years ago)  I got to work with her to pick up some skills of wrapping warp on a huge 60 inch loom.

This was one of the best things about the trip.  I got to have a REAL pork tenderloin sandwich as only VB County can make.  It was awesome!!
I have more pictures to share but that's it for now.

Thought for the day:  It is good to have an end to journey toward: but it is the journey that matters, in the end.... Ursula K LeGuin

Reincarnation

REINCARNATION



by Wally McRae


What is reincarnation? The Cowpoke asked his friend

His pal replied it happens when your life has reached its end

They comb your hair and wash your neck and clean your fingernails

And lay you in a padded box away from life's travails

And the box then goes in a hole that's been dug in the ground

And reincarnation starts in when your're planted neath the mound

Then clods melt down, just like the box, and you who is inside

And then you're just beginning on your transformation ride

Meanwhile the grass will grow upon your rendered mound

And soon upon your lonely grave a single flower is found

And then a horse will wonder by and graze upon flower

That once was you and now become your vegetated bower

The posie that the horse done eat along with his other feed

Makes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed

But some is left that he can't use and so it passes thru

And finally lays upon the ground this thing that once was you

And say by chance I wanders by, and sees this on the ground

And I ponders and wonders at this object that I've found

And I thinks of reincarnation and life and death and such

And I come away concluding you ain't changed all that much.

Gotta love Maxine

So after landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter,


a good find for many retirees, I lasted less than a day....



About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud,

unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into the store with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.

I said pleasantly, 'Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart.

Nice children you have there. Are they twins?'

The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say,

'Hell no, they ain't twins. The oldest one's 9, and the other one's 7.

Why the hell would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or stupid?'

So I replied,

'I'm neither blind nor stupid, Ma'am, I just couldn't believe someone slept with you twice. Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.'

My supervisor said I probably wasn't cut out for this line of work.

Just a tidbid from my trip

I drive an 89 Toyota 4Runner and while on my trip this week it turned over the big one.  So I pulled right over on the interstate and took a pic of the dial!

This is a picture of an Iowa port tenderloin!!  They know how to do it right up there! Went back to my roots for a few days.  The weather was awesome!  I just sucked in that Iowa air and enjoyed every minute of it.  I feel like my cup runneth over.  Well after eating this tenderloin, something is runnething over!

Yup, frost is on the pumpkin

Got our first frost this week, 2 nites in a row.  Had to put the winter blanket on the bed, and we have fired up the fireplace.  Feels and looks good even if it is gas.

OK so I am a quilter

My first blocks.  My sister spend a day with me this week and taught me how to cut and stitch the blocks.  Please take note of the perfect corners that meet!!!!  The sign of a real Quilter!   LOL  The second one is to take to the quilt club. (Both blocks are made from the same fabric, the color of the top is sharper because of the lighting.)
We are bringing a 12 in. block in red, white, and blue then will join them all together to make a quilt to raffle off next 4th of July!!!  Make money for the club.
Been a quiet week at the store.  Have a couple here today set up to buy gold.  We been advertising all week but so far no takers.  They offered my 80$ for my class ring, but I think not.

Thought for the day:  Women will never be equal to men.  Only men can walk down the sidewalk with a bald head and beer gut and still think they are sexy!

I think I am a junk yard junky!

Don't know if there is a cure for this but I think I have had it all my life.  I love a bargain, I hate waste, & I like to recycle stuff.  I see something and always think, "what could I make out of that?" I don't have the skills to do the heavy duty stuff like welding axles and lawn mower handles together, but that sounds like fun.
Here is a picture of a little footstool that I got at a garage sale for $1 and painted it. I made a crazy quilt top from some yard sale fabric samples and used my handy dandy electric staple gun and Walla! Here is the stool.  Ready to give to my 3 year old great grand daughter.

I like a bargain so much that my husband says "you are so cheap, you screw your shoes on!"

Five steps of Grief

I copied this from the internet when I looked it up.  This is to share with a special person and you know who you are.  I was taking a psyc class way back when, during the time that I was separating from my first husband.  As it says at the end of this list, it was originally developed to stage the steps of grief when one finds they have a terminal disease.  But the steps also follow along with any great loss in your life.  I remember feeling that I went thru every step here.  I have read that sometimes you don't go thru them in order or you may bounce between one or the other, but eventually you end up at the same place and that is acceptance.  And that is what we have to do when we are overwhelmed with a loss.
So to that special person, know you are not alone, not the first, even though it may feel like it. No loss should ever be minimized as we each have to deal with it in our own time and way.  So read this, it is for you and for the other one.

1.Denial — "I feel fine."; "This can't be happening, not to me."


Denial is usually only a temporary defense for the individual. This feeling is generally replaced with heightened awareness of possessions and individuals that will be left behind after death.

2.Anger — "Why me? It's not fair!"; "How can this happen to me?"; '"Who is to blame?"

Once in the second stage, the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue. Because of anger, the person is very difficult to care for due to misplaced feelings of rage and envy.

3.Bargaining — "I'll do anything for a few more years."; "I will give my life savings if..."

The third stage involves the hope that the individual can somehow postpone or delay death. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made with a higher power in exchange for a reformed lifestyle. Psychologically, the individual is saying, "I understand I will die, but if I could just do something to buy more time..."

4.Depression — "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die soon so what's the point... What's the point?"; "I miss my loved one, why go on?"

During the fourth stage, the dying person begins to understand the certainty of death. Because of this, the individual may become silent, refuse visitors and spend much of the time crying and grieving. This process allows the dying person to disconnect from things of love and affection. It is not recommended to attempt to cheer up an individual who is in this stage. It is an important time for grieving that must be processed.

5.Acceptance — "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it."

In this last stage, individuals begin to come to terms with their mortality, or that of a loved one, or other tragic event.

Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to people suffering from terminal illness, later to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). This may also include significant life events such as the death of a loved one, major rejection, end of a relationship or divorce, drug addiction, incarceration, the onset of a disease or chronic illness, an infertility diagnosis, as well many tragedies and disasters

What if you knew when your death would come?

Would you live your daily life differently? 
I laid in bed last night thinking about this.  Would we waste our last days doing the same old thing, day in and day out?  Or would we try to look at each day as a gift to be lived to the fullest?
And what does that really mean when the end will still be the same?  In the afterlive will we remember how we lived this life?  I believe this life is a stepping stone for further spiritual growth and we will come back to learn more lessons as we grow in our spirit (soul)  choose your own word there.
It only makes sense to me that when we see suffering or experience it ourselves it is for a purpose.
All that we experience, good and bad is what makes us who we are at any given time in our life.
I am not the same person I was when I was 20, 30, 40, or 50.  I guess actually I am not the same person I was yesterday.  Each day changes who we are. We are the sum total of all our life experiences. 
And you know when you are young you don't know this stuff! We waste so much of our time because we think we have SO much time that we don't even think of it.
OK enough philosophy for today.  Just some things I ponder.  I have lost a brother and a sister this last decade, and it does make you realize that our days really are numbered, wheather we know it or not.