The Weekend Looms - Huzzah!

As we get ready to enter the final week of the Winter Olympics, I have to say I'm enthralled once again with the Olympics in general. The competition between the athletes is breathtaking, but what I love most of all is the camaraderie shown by the athletes towards each other. Maybe instead of killing the lawyers, as Shakespeare proposed, we should just get rid of the politicians and exist in a world-wide society of celebration of achievement in sports, art, and personal expression. Everyone has something they're good at. Maybe our world should celebrate that instead of pointing out our political differences - emphasize the positive instead of the negative. 

What a good thought! But never saying anything negative
about others is almost too hard for most human beings.
So criticize with kindness, look for the positives, and
greet performance with encouragement. Make the
world a nicer place in which to live. 

A 7.2M earthquake hit south-central Mexico last night, south of Acapulco in the provide of Oaxaca. The area had six earlier earthquakes ranging from 4.2 to 5.8, starting on the 14th. Oaxaca is less densely populated than Mexico City or other cities in Mexico, but there was still damage and I'm quite sure that people lost their lives and homes and possibly their livelihood. I haven't heard any rumblings of "Gee, sorry this happened. Would you like some help?" coming from Washington DC. Shame on us! 

Did any phone calls go from the White House to the
President of Mexico asking this question? You'd think
it would be plastered on the front pages, and I haven't
seen a single word. Hmmm ....

Thursday and Friday I spent most of my workday doing repairs and restrings for customers. I had two of my favorite ladies bring in some really interesting antique necklaces and bracelets that they wanted repaired, so I had some fun for a couple of days getting them looking like new. I'll email each of them today to let them know their items are fixed and that they can pick them up. I love it when my repairs revolve around antique pieces and interesting designs. They kick my brain into high gear and pull my focus from my surroundings into the task at hand. It might not be MY art, but it is someone's, and I have so much fun making their vision perfect once again. 

The Men's Figure Skating was Yuzuru Hanyu's to lose, and he skated
brilliantly. The talk of the night was Nathan Chen's SIX quad
jumps, though. The pressure was off the USA Champion and he
relaxed and did an amazing performance. Still Hanyu got the gold,
and well done! 

On that note, I'm closing this off and heading out to the pool. We're supposed to get anywhere from 3-8 inches of snow starting tomorrow night, just in time for my bi-weekly Chiropractor appointment. I hate driving in snow, and it looks like that's the way it's going to be on Monday. Oh well, I'll enjoy my weekend up until the flakes start falling. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday, (although my Monday blog might be very short since I'll have to shovel before leaving for the pool). Have a fun weekend and go watch some Olympics! 

A Look Back

Last night's corned beef dinner was fantastic, and the best part of it was that I didn't have to cook it.  My DH did a great job cooking (of course, there really wasn't much to it - the beef gets boiled with spices, the cabbage gets heated up, and the potatoes get added to the water XXX amount of time before the meal is complete.  Pretty darned easy.  But it was really, really good.  So today is Friday and that means fish for dinner.  We'll finish the last of the leftovers on Sunday since we eat pasta on Saturdays. 

We didn't do carrots, and our cabbage is kraut because we

like our corned beef as Reuben sandwiches, but it was ALL good! 

Japan still is having after-shocks and the damage from the earthquake and tsunami are beyond understanding.  The daily activities of those brave people trying to keep the nuclear plant from melt-down is phenomenal and heart-breaking.  There has been so much death and destruction over the past few months.  It does lead me to wonder what is happening to our world. 

This pic is one of the explosions at the nuclear plant.  Now they

are talking about possible burying the reactors in concrete and sand. 

I keep having very frightening flashbacks to Chernobyl. 

And I keep writing and keep having fun doing it.  My author friends have been very encouraging, and my grouping of stories is starting to fall into some cohesion.  The B2ME prompts go through the end of the month, so I'm onto the bottom half of posts, but I am truly enjoying exercising my mind in Tolkien's playground. 

So there you have it - a post of general nothing, but sometimes posts like this can have their own value.  Enjoy your Friday and do something creative today! 

Groceries - Why are they necessary?

So, we've been trying to save more money on our groceries and have started shopping for the staples, etc., at Target instead of our local grocery store.  Admittedly, the cost is less, but we seem to buy more, so I'm not so sure that it is any improvement.  Why is it that I can rarely walk through the doors of Target and not have at least $100 in the basket?  Money is really tight right now until our income tax rebate comes through, and I don't need this extra stress, but I have it anyway :-)  I am determined that we will not go shopping next Sunday. 

NCAA March Madness starts on Tuesday.  For those of you outside the US, or who just don't follow/care about sports, that would be the National College Athletic Association basketball tournament where they will move from 64 top teams to number 1 in two weeks of intense games.  I don't follow it as closely as some, but I do enjoy watching the games when I can catch some of them.  And I usually try to guess the brackets and make a guess on who will end up winning it all.  There are always some surprises, and that makes it very fun. 

Japan.  What can be said.  The devastation that country has experienced and is continuing to experience is harrowing.  The issues with the nuclear plants, the tsunami, the amazing videos.  Japan is the most earthquake prepared nation in the world, and they still experienced this type of destruction.  All I can do is thank Spirit that this quake did not happen in an area that had no safeguards in place. 

Prayers For Japan

I had a restless night, waking at 1:00 am.  I went downstairs to the couch to finish sleeping there and for some odd reason (probably because I was tired - DUH) I set my small alarm for an hour and fifteen minutes.  So when it went off closer to 2:30 am, I got up and went downstairs to realize that instead of my norm, I had turned my computer off for the night.  I turned on my computer and the TV and wondered why I wasn't hearing the news....  Then I looked at the clock on the computer and realized I could go back to sleep for an hour.  I went back upstairs, set the small alarm for another hour, but only managed another 45 minutes.  I'll be a wreck tonight, but this short stints of sleep followed by sleeplessness is swiftly becoming my norm and I don't like it.  There is some stress somewhere in me that I'm just not finding and can't conquer that is affecting my sleep habits to my detriment. 

When I finally got to the computer and the news, I heard about the Japanese earthquake which had struck shortly before.  The news sources can't agree on the strength of this earthquake - estimates range from 7.9 to 8.9.  Either way, it was strong and seriously damaging with tsunami waves crashing over the north island and extended throughout the entire Pacific ring. 

I don't think that the Earth and Spirit are very happy with our stewardship right now and they are making their unhappiness felt.  Earthquakes, major ones, have been happening more frequently over the past year or so.  And there have been other major weather changes - increased warmth in Antarctica, and increased snow in the snowbelt of the US and Canada.  Tornadoes are increasing, rain in general is increasing causing more flooding,   My prayers go out to the people, but also to our world who is trying so very hard to get us to pay attention to her. 

Back to Reality

Well, the Olympics are finally over. They were a delightful 16 days of excitement and late nights, it will be a true relief to be able to go to sleep at 10pm again. But it does seem that the world is starting to get back to us with a vengence now. I am getting drips in my livingroom windows. That means that our ice dams are backing up under our shingles and ruining not only my roof but my walls. The worst of it is that I can't do anything about it until Tuesday. So I'm hoping that since we're going to be above freezing for the next couple of days (during the day only, of course), that it may clear itself up during the day. At least I can hope.

Just LOVE the Canadian Olympic clothing. The sweater and knitted hat are wonderful!

And there was another major earthquake. This time in Chile, South America. The quake was huge - over 8.0 on the scale. But even though there is serious damage, the death toll is much less because this is a nation that understands earthquakes and builds accordingly. So, instead of the devestation and huge death toll that Haiti had last month, we have a relatively low death toll and devastation because buildings used rebar and were built to withstand these forces of nature. I fully admit that even a single death is one too many, but 1000's is far better than 10's of 1000's. I hope that you have a non-catastrophic day today, even though it is a Monday!