Preparations

A lot of you know that we are in the process of selling our house..or should I say trying to sell our house! It, most likely, will be a long haul. But that is okay and we know it. It is a far different market here in Mason City than it was trying to sell a house in the Charlotte area! Actually I think the houses are listed within $10, 000 of each other but this house is waaaaaaaaaaaaayyy better in my humble opinion! In North Carolina we had over 100 showings...I was always getting the house ready. Here....not so much. We have an open house this weekend and we will probably be lucky if one person comes through but hey---all you need is one person, right?

Some thoughts: it is MUCH easier having a house for sale when you don't have kids and animals around. It is also much easier to have a house ready to show when your husband travels a lot. It is also much easier to show a house when you are not employed!!! With all those things said......I should be able to get this sold, right?? Well, I am hanging in there and realize that when the time is right it will sell. And until then I will keep baking cookies and making the house look and smell yummy!

I also know that this is my favorite house. If I could take the backyard of our house in Freeport, IL, add the pool from North Carolina, the laundry/mud room from the Hawthorne Woods, IL house I think i would have a pretty perfect house. Oh and keep the neighbors from Freeport, IL!!! They were and still are the best! It is funny how when we don't need so much space and room as empty nesters we have the biggest house we have ever had here. Wonder why that is? Lots of room for family and friends!!!

So when you see a house for sale sign in a yard think of us here with this fabulous house just waiting for the perfect family!!! I would LOVE to miss the Iowa winter but I am thinking I need to hunker down ....bought a snow shovel the other day and got a lot of glares in the store as I walked through and out....but I want to be prepared!!!!

Flying in the year 2009!

One of the latest news stories that is getting a lot of air time especially in our area is the Northwest airline flight that was going to Minneapolis that overshot the airport by 150 miles and had to turn around. It sure got my attention!!! Especially since I had just flown a NWA flight from SFO to Minneapolis a couple of days before! So....no one could get hold of the pilots in the cockpit, there was no contact for over an hour and finally a flight attendant was the one who was able to get them to respond. Several theories have been postulated---pilot fatigue, they were arguing, they were distracted (you think??) and finally the truth begins to come out. They were using their laptops and were unaware of their location ---time got away from them!!! YIKES!

Okay so a few questions here:
Why did the flight attendants not know that they were supposed to be landing and they weren't?? They knew the flight time, they knew what the departure time was and what the arrival time should be. Why did they not wonder why they were not getting the call to ready the cabin for arrival?

With all the technology today I find it hard to imagine that the pilots did not get some kind of "communication" from the autopilot system telling them it was almost time to land! Come on, now. From what I have read a lot of the flying is just automated these days and the pilots just kind of hang out. well, obviously these guys were hanging out.

I heard someone liken this to texting while driving but worse and I think that is pretty accurate!! Here you have 2 guys who have responsibility for around 150 lives and they are taking that way too lightly. They are distracted and probably more often than not fatigued to the point that they are incapable of making great decisions.

I think the tip of the iceberg is showing and as the investigation continues we will find out more horrors of flying--not what I want to hear since Chris flies almost weekly! And NWA / Delta is the normal airline we use. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to the industry ---flying has become such a hassle these days with security and surly, yes I said surly, flight attendants who don't offer much help when it comes to passenger customer service. I am amazed how flyers are treated some times! Crazy!!! As I told my seatmate on the last trip "I try to kill them with kindness and make them feel guilty for being so nasty!"!!!! I know they are tired! A lot of people are. But come on folks, take your job seriously and make it as nice for the passengers as you can!

Enough of my airline tirade---sorry but it just rankles me to see the coverage on something that never should have happened. I will put it to rest now.....till I see the next news report on it!

More from California!

Looking up at the Chandelier Tree

I had to back the car back out---my mirrors would not fit through!!!

A reverse tree hug

Tree hugger

My buddy the rock squirrel

He loved Quaker granola bars...that was all I had but he stuffed it all in his mouth!

Roosevelt Elk

Chapter 4: The Ten Commandments Laws of the Heart

It is my week with my sister to lead the discussion on our book and this week the commandment highlighted is "honor your father and mother". Doesn't seem like you can get much simpler than that but as usual, Chittister puts some new thoughts to paper and challenges me to think beyond the simple definition of this commandment.

Of course we honor our parents! That seems ridiculous to question what this commandment means but the author challenges us to think perhaps beyond our biological parents and think of all the "sages" that have influenced our lives. We are to care for those who cared for us AND think about the generations to come.

It was interesting that she highlighted 3 specific funeral rituals of Judaism that I had no knowledge of but am glad that she provided in the book.
1. A dead body is likened to a damaged Torah scroll: while it is no longer able to be used for its original purpose it is still to be revered for its holy purpose.
2. Kaddish-the Jewish prayer that affirms life and reiterates faith and acceptance of God's will is actually said daily for 11 months - 1 day. This allows the parents to show that parenthood in itself is a holy act.
3. The celebration of Avelur--the 12 month mourning period that many Jewish communities follow as parents is longer than the mourning period for any other relationship even a spouse. Our parents deserve special reverence

Our relationships with our families may be a little bit different than those in early Israel where tribes and families were the backbone of society. Our current families suffer all kinds of fissures and we do not "take care of our own" like many other cultures do. I don't know what the answer is but we sure could use some work on our care of those who came before us and who need us now. There are some great examples of good care out there but then there are so many that are forgotten. That is what breaks my heart.

I guess the main thing that I took away from this chapter was this---"It is not simply a mandate to remember the past but to be aware through it of our own responsibility to the future. We are the sages of tomorrow, we come to realize." Yikes---I hardly can think of myself as a sage but I get what she means. It is our responsibility to make the best for future generations. It begins with honoring the past, our parents and those who made a place for us. I was blessed with parents who were fabulous examples--I know not everyone has that in their lives but I did and count it a huge blessing.

In closing I liked what she said in her thoughts to ponder:
"No parents are typical. No parents are perfect. We do not honor them for that. We honor them becasue they did what they could in making us what we are. The rest we were meant to do for ourselves." AMEN!!!

A few words about California

It took me FOREVER to get a shot of this when it was lit up!!

Monument to honor fisherman who have lost their lives

2 harbor seals swimming around

Harry the Harbor Seal---he was looking for love but no one was taking him up on it!

By the Golden Gate Bridge

The amazing Golden Gate Bridge

Me and my sailor dude friend!

Chris had a vendor to see in Eureka, CA so we jetted off there last weekend. Of course our travel plans are always a little bit convoluted but then I don't know what I would do if we did anything normally! Chris had to go to Pennsylvania on Thursday morning so we drove to Minneapolis to spend the night since he had a very early flight. He caught the hotel shuttle to the airport so I could sleep in---well that sure didn't happen! I got on the road and headed back to Mason City and then on Friday headed back to Minneapolis to meet him in the airport so we could fly to San Francisco. We had a good trip but got in pretty late ----3 am our time so we were dragging! On Saturday we headed to Eureka, the weather was pretty abysmal but we did get to see the Golden Gate bridge in the daytime which was great! It is a pretty neat thing to see and be able to drive across. We shared the driving so it wasn't too bad and we stopped along the way to see stuff so it was a nice drive.

Saturday was taken up with driving, got into the hotel around 5 and headed out to find a seafood place, saw a lighthouse and Chris got a great shot of Harry the Harbor Seal (I need to give him credit for a lot of the great pictures!). I have a Picasa album of photos and I will be happy to send that along if anyone wants to see all of our pictures. I will post a few select ones here over the next couple of days. I usually try to keep up with this day by day but I have been having some laptop issues so I didn't take it along with me this time. But all is well and I am trying to get back into the blogaspere.

Birds of a different feather!

Aren't they cute??? Sorry the pictures aren't that great---I had to sneak and take them on my phone without them running off but my feeders were raided by 5 of these cuties this afternoon around 3 pm. They just strolled through and decided that it was a good place to munch---right at the right level for them ---and they helped themselves! I do love watching them and it reminds me of when we lived in Freeport, IL where we had them in the back yard all the time. Kind of makes the cold weather tolerable when these little cuties show up!

The first snow!

Well, it happened. It was bound to but I had hoped it would wait a few more weeks. A bit of snow today but by evening most of it had melted away. It was pretty coming down but I am not quite ready for it. Had to go out and buy snowbrush/scrapers for the cars since ours are nowhere to be found. So now it begins......I am going to make the best of it and enjoy it as much as I can. Just don't like the cold but with my ever changing thermostat these days maybe that won't be an issue!!! :-)