Pumpkin Heads

Do you think I could use this as my holiday card picture?

The Bird and Company

Hope everybody had a happy and safe Halloween.

Wishing you a beautiful Saturday.

Life's Little Distractions

It's been almost a week since I returned from my little junket to Miami. 

 And I am going to reveal a dirty little secret. 

 I haven't unpacked yet.  

Well, I did do some.  

Just not all of it.

I've been busy. 

Sort of busy.

 See those little green suede loafers? 

 They have been through the wringer.

And that grocery bag?  Full of baby pictures.

My babies are 17.

I may or may not finish unpacking today.

In the meantime, let's look at some pictures I took while I was driving down the Merritt Parkway and in Greenwich on Monday.

Aren't they festive?

Happy Halloween everybody!

Holy Double Chin

Guess who?

UPDATE:

Holy Moly Batman!  

Burt Ward was Robin.

source

This-n-That Thursday

Because I know you've been wondering....

• I am not admitting how many times this month I have aimed the phone at the television and cussed when the channel didn't change.
  
• I stopped watching the stock market three weeks ago.
• I happily wrote a check for  $50  To The Connecticut Foodbank.  Thanks to everyone who commented (all 42 of you...I rounded up).
• My inability to suffer fools increases daily.
• Have you noticed how many fools there are these days?
• Should I do the Mental P Mama Book Club, and how would it work?
• I don't think I can wait until this election is over.  Campaign Fatigue.
• I am craving a new puppy.  Wonder if it's hormonal?
• Did anyone ever see the movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes?  Best Horror movie ever.  I actually saw it in a theater.  Pronounced "thee-ater" at the time.
• Everyone should make Dlyn's Apple Cheese Crisp tonight.  It's that good.
• Tonight is Mischief Night.  Hmmm.
• I have had the song "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight" stuck in my head for what seems like weeks.

The Wassup Guys--Eight Years Later

Remember this Budweiser ad for the Super Bowl a few years ago?

One week to go....

This is a fast look, and a good one.

Attachments

One of the books I read during the little vacation I had last weekend was The Shack by William P. Young.  It is a work of fiction in which the protagonist Mack endures many heartaches and losses in his life, and a final blow is the death of a young daughter.  He suffers under the heaviness of his Great Sadness for several years until he is mysteriously summoned back to the shack, in the Oregon wilderness, where his daughter may have been murdered.

Once there, Mack encounters an unlikely and diverse trio who represent the Holy Trinity.  Alongside them, Mack works on uncovering answers to his questions about where God was when he and his loved ones needed him, and why there is so much pain and suffering.  I think the shack itself is a metaphor for the heavy and palpable pain and feelings of inadequacy that Mack, and, if I'm honest, myself, have felt during our lives.  Actually, he attached himself to his pain.  It was how he knew he was alive in many ways--by feeling the pain.  The lessons he learns are transformative.  My favorite notion is that there are no real do's and don'ts.  No right and no wrong.  No good, no evil.  Just lots of food for thought.

While the book is Christian in its literal reading, I think the metaphor/lesson crosses all understandings and doctrines.  As a matter of fact, in The Shack, I found a great deal of the core Buddhist tenet that suffering is inevitable.  Suffering is born of attachments to objects that are transient, and the loss of such objects is both inevitable and painful.  I think it is far more about spirit and being gentle than about any set religion.

While this is a very cursory and subjective take on the book, I would love to hear what others have thought about it.  Faith is a great healer, and while I often thought of that movie Oh, God! with John Denver and George Burns while I read some of this, the overwhelming message for me is that a loving relationship with others and kindnesses to all is a transformative, healing power. 

Fast forward.

Yesterday morning, I found out that half of a neighborhood shopping area was destroyed by fire overnight.  One of the stores was my dry cleaner and another, a favorite wine shop.  I know.

My first impulse was to mentally list all the clothes I had at the dry cleaners, and then I added up how much they were worth.  Then I promptly forgot my stuff.  At least five businesses have been physically destroyed.  These businesses have employees who are working their butts off, like everybody else, to eek out a living.  Like Mack, I wondered why.  Why did this happen to these people?  What comes of all this is the only answer we have.   

After this, I attended a Mother/Daughter Service at The Bird's school.  This is an annual tradition, and each year during the Liturgy, a Senior and her mother each give a reflection on their past and what lies ahead.  Some years, I have to breathe into a paper bag to regain my composure, but yesterday was different.  I feel hopeful.  While I am facing the necessary loss of my beautiful babies leaving the nest, I am doing my best to embrace it as anything but a loss.  They are gaining a new life, a new step on their paths, and I do revel in the possibilities for them.  

In the meantime, I will continue to work in my garden/soul as Mack does, and live in the possibility.  A garden is, after all, a continual work in progress.

Vacation is Over

And as a reminder, my friend Mimi just sent this to me....

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy
has to say about New Englanders...  

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September thr ough May, you live in New England. 
  
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in New England. 
  
If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in New England . 
  
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in New England. 
  
If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of New York City for the weekend, you live in New England. 
  
If you measure distance in hours, you live in New England. 
  
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in New England. 
  
If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again, you live in New England. 
  
If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in New England.
  ; 
If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you live in New England. 
  
If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in New England. 
  
If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in New England 
  
If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you live in New England. 
  
If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in New England. 
  
If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in New England. 
  
If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in New England. 
  
If you find 10 degrees 'a little chilly', you live in New England. 
  
If there's a Dunkin Donuts on every corner, you live in New England.