Month: August 2003

  • My dreams are of gardeners. 


    They frighten the beaters of flowers with their gentle faces. 


    They answer what the old heart asks. 


    I close with effort the illusion of my nights.


    (poem by me)


    ________________________________________


    A Passage Through August – some lovely August poems by other poets:


    http://www.augustpoetry.org/index.htm


    Deep Thought:  If I was the head of a country that lost a war, and I had to sign a peace treaty, just as I was signing, I’d glance over the treaty and then suddenly act surprised. “Wait a minute! I thought we won!”


  • What I’m reading now. Wish I could get someone from my family to see the movie with me, but NO…… This is for you papa – I’ll see the movie and read the book and think of you. (My dad loved horses though we never had one, so every time I see one I remember him.)

  • Here’s my daughter Jane.  Isn’t she gorgeous?  She has a new blog at turtle dove.


    http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=turtle_dove

  • 25 Things
    I’m most proud of accomplishing this past year
    • Being proactive about my health
    • Staying in Recovery for 18+ years
    • Attending a weekly women’s circle and not running away
    • Caring for 5 raggedy cats
    • Being a consistently loving grandmother and mother
    • Getting my first and only house painted for the first and only time after living here 9 years
    • Continuing to hope for some enlightenment about life in spite of the odds
    • Befriending my lonely 77-year-old neighbor
    • Creating and maintaining my department’s web pages even though no one ever takes an interest Visit
    • Writing up this list
    • Creating a web site and forum for women in our 60′s Visit
    • Continuing to care for the art of my aunt Marjorie (who died at 96 some years ago) Visit
    • Making a nice visit for my grandson’s childhood friend when he came from Colorado in July
    • Making my bed before I leave for work each day
    • Planting two hawthorne trees on the strip beside my front sidewalk and helping Friends of Trees plant trees for several neighbors
    • Putting a sign against the war in Iraq in my window
    • Starting a TAG group for families in my area and arranging chess and cranium games each month
    • Cleaning my birdbath regularly so it won’t grow West Nile Virus
    • Recycling weekly
    • Feeding squirrels and birds in my back yard
    • Photographing and videotaping my family so we will have history
    • Continuing to write
      poetry       and an
      autobiography
    • Being a reader still in the days of electronics
    • Wishful thinking

    (whew!)

  • The Blaster Worm

    It struck 6000 users at OHSU this week here in Portland. I’ve spent hours helping folks get their PCs running again. Thank god I have a Mac at home.


  • These are my two angels. 

  • entourage
    Here’s a web poem I made of a collage I stuck together years ago when I was in my 20′s. You can see little glimpses of me in it.

  • Well, I tell you I’m feeling a little frustrated with Xanga this morning. First off, I tried to use the Search Members function and I did get in there and looked through about 40 entries – almost all of them were kids even though I had selected ages 65-74. So that doesn’t work.
    Secondly, I tried to load a photo and got nowhere.
    Now I was going to just leave a message and don’t see those choices I paid for of different colored fonts etc.
    Maybe I’m just having a bad day.

  • I went to my Tuesday night women’s group last night after missing 2 weeks because of the heat. I’ve been going there for over a year now and I still can’t decide whether it’s making me feel better or worse. It’s a small group – usually about 6 at a time. There are the group dynamic issues – like that some people talk more than their share of the alloted time (which is 90 minutes) consistently, leaving others less time. Then there are other issues – like being aware that some of the young mothers are probably being abusive to their children from the way they describe interactions. One member is admittedly anorexic, which is difficult to watch. One of the members near my age recently reached out to me to get together socially, a time was set, and then after saying there might be a conflict with something else she had to do she neglected to get back to me. One of the reasons I stay is that I so often in my life operate by the principle “I’m out of here” when anything bothers me. I just go and don’t look back. I told myself this time I would stay no matter what and so far I have. But the jury is out…..

  • OK, I’m starting to get the hang of this place a little bit though I still can’t get the Search Members function to work.

    It’s sticky warm tonight in Portland. No wind at all. Maybe some moisture tomorrow they say.

    Whoa, I finally got a DVD player. One of the last people on earth that didn’t have one before. I see there’s going to be another adjustment to watch wide-screen DVDs (as opposed to full-screen). Reminds me of the old Cinemascope movies. Got it because now when you try to order movies from the library they’re only stocking DVDs and even at the video store sometimes you can only get a film in DVD. I can see the writing on the wall.

    Went for a walk with my 77-year-old widowed neighbor tonight. Talk about writing on the wall… She’s very independent. Was describing a friend of hers who is 84 and holding out against her children who want her to move into a condominium they bought. Actually, if it was me at 84, I think I’d welcome being near my children. We’ll see.