Spring Contrasts: Flowers Old and New

From my in-laws' backyard:


From my building's front area:


I.... don't have anything else to say today! I hope to take more flower photos this year than last year. Can you believe I have not yet plugged in the camera I won at BlogHer last year? It's been sitting on my desk collecting dust.

What's sitting right under your nose collecting dust and reminding you of fallen intentions?

Working from Home: LOL

Here's one of our MOCA speakers, Kathy Mallary, talking to us about how people generally work on big projects: "They leave the stuff for later and pretty soon they've got a big pile of hard..."


Here's my favorite exchange from the telesummit so far:

Husband: "Paulette, can I ask a question?"
Paulette Ensign: "Sure. You just did!"
Husband: [Recovers his composure] "I love you, Paulette..."
Paulette: "I love you too!"

Haiku Friday: Listening for God

Where is God at work
in the people around me?
I look and listen ...

Focus on the good,
then I can find where to help,
where God would guide me.

I am reading a workbook called Experiencing God as part of a group I'm in. It's oretty hardcore and sometimes contradictory, but overall I am getting the message to listen for where God is working in order to find where my place of service is.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!

Haiku Friday: Anxiety and Sunshine

wind etches the cliff
like lines of worry on the
face i hold so dear

I don't totally know why I wrote this haiku. It came to me last night as I lay in bed. Husband and I are anxious about several things (not the least of which was my Masters of Client Attraction call yesterday, which went really well, and his today!); maybe that's why.

Dear Internet, I love you too much to end on this downer. So, part 2:

Happy sunshine warms
wings and beaks, arms and noses --
chirps and smiles emerge.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!

Do I Really Want to Friend my Electric Company?

This the back of the envelope my electric bill came in.

I am enjoying getting more active on Facebook, and I've become a fan on several companies I like -- Oreos, Shining Stars stuffed animals -- but my electric company?

Talk about just jumping on the bandwagon.

The tips on the ConEd fan page actually aren't bad, but I just can't bring myself to become a FAN of my UTILITY COMPANY who has the government's permission, nay, blessing, to OVERCHARGE me.

It's probably going to become some scary Big Brother thing where if you DON'T become a fan you'll get cut off... AAAAAAGH!


Ahem. Excuse me!
Don't know what got into me there.


Isn't it a little weird, though? Next thing you know the cable company will want me to friend them. Sorry, I already got free HBO 'cause I've got real friends in my building (meaning the co-op board, who hooked us all up legally).

Is It Spring Yet? Haiku Friday

Through the stale dry earth
thin knives of green cut upward,
take in air and sun

A chill edge of night
makes the leaves hug together
until warm spring stays.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!

Haiku in the News

This "news" is a month old but I thought it was funny. All my facts are from the February 5 New York Post, page 30.

Former CEO of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, announced his resignation via this Tweeted haiku:

Financial crisis
Stalled too many customers
CEO no more.

How funny is that? I guess when you're leaving with $12 million severance, you don't really care.

Oh, and the best part: people were taking his verse to task, like, "If it's not about a season it's not a haiku..."

This is still RT'ing its way around the Twitterverse, so I don't feel so out of date. Plus, another Sun exec just quit today, confirming it via his blog, so it's got a timely edge to it. (Even though, if it weren't for the haiku, I don't know any of these people and would care less... but anyway!)

Good thing that person doesn't read my 'ku! Though I have found this year's snow to be very 'ku-spirational.

SURVEY!
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Haiku Friday: Memories Lost, Memories Made

What's Alzheimers like?
amnesia or swiss cheese, holes
in your memory ...

Eyes search for meaning:
I think that I should know you,
but I don't know why

Connections won't come
every day is new, yet not
what day is it now?

What day is it now?
Did I just put these clothes on...
(no, it's been a week.)

My dad has had Alzheimers/dementia for several years now. My brother, God bless him, took him into his home and has cared for him, even though Dad has been ornery and stubborn. (Amazing how some of the personality doesn't go away...)

Currently Dad is in a nursing home for rehab after a stint in hospital, but he is uncooperative with the physical therapies they are trying, so it is coming to a head whether he needs to stay there permanently -- in which case, the home would like to be paid full-rate instead of the medicare post-hospital stipend for dealing with the ornery old man.

His father, Grandpa Wright, developed the same thing and we kept him at home as long as we could, with someone coming in to check on him and cook for him every day. When at last he had to enter a home, he never spoke ... or, I think, smiled ... again.

Ironically, one of the most important goals Dad had for his life was "not to end up like my father." He swore (sometimes literally...) up and down that he would keep his brain active, he'd never retire (the dastardly act to which he accounted Grandpa's mental decline), he was a stronger man by far.

Yet here he is. Not stronger than genetics. I'm just glad he doesn't know.

Well now, isn't that a cheery thing to end on! Sheesh!

How about a more-fun haiku to lift the mood. I'm trying reeeeally hard not to write another snow-theme haiku, but it is snowing again a little bit. Come on, brain, focus......

Oh, it's no use, I can't think of another haiku. I've got waffles on the brain ... we're going to a diner shortly!

But here's a fun snowman who was at the playground next to our house. We didn't build him, but that is DuckyBoy in the pic for size comparison. I had to sneak it so it's his back, sorry. He only wanted his Puffle in the picture, so when he was placing it I snapped this.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!

Funny and Yet, Sad Quote

"The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket."

From The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance. Which I have not read but have heard of.

The War of Art is a great little book, each page is short but packs a punch. The first part is about resistance, and it's written in a way that makes it easy to see, and laugh about, the ways I sabotage my own efforts at success. This quote is from the page about how others can work to keep you down (so they feel better about their ow inability to overcome resistance and move forward).

The link above is my Amazon affiliate link to the book, but I'd recommend you pick it up anywhere you happen to be!