Tarot Wraps Up and An Unexpected Family Contact

OK, I've got about 10 minutes to pull this together and post it before leaving for the pool today. I finished up the final session in my "Guide to Tarot" meditation quest today. That was a very long quest, one card of the deck every day.  l learned a lot, and I might do this one again in a month or two as a refresher. But for now, it's on to a new guided meditation tomorrow and for the next few days while I internalize what I learned and continue my journey. 

The course started by going through each of 
the four suits in order, then moved to the 
Major Arcana. So it covered all 78 cards over 
the time, one day at a time. I loved it. 

It's my final swimming day of the week today. It's been a different composition of people, especially on our Wednesdays which are always our busiest day of the three days I am in the water. For years we've had the "Three Amigos" on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I heard that one of them had moved to Boston within the past month, so it was down to two. But those two had been showing up as usual. Until this week, when neither of them were there at all. Curious. 

Most of the funds in my Health Savings Account 
are invested. To get the funds moved over to 
active money that I can access, I had to initiate the 
sale of the dollar amount I needed. The funds will 
appear in my accessible funds within three days 
or so. 

I arranged for funds to be shifted to accessible in my Health Savings Account, and yesterday I contacted the orthodontic office to get a corroborating letter from the Orthodontist stating that straightening my teeth was medically advisable. I have the email in my in-box now and will download it and print it our tonight. I'll set up a folder for DeVoe Orthodontics and be ready to go. Funny thing, though. It turns out that the person in the financial office of my orthodontist, is my former niece-in-law, Holly. We had a bit of a laugh about intersecting with each other when I spoke to her about the letter needed, and I'll see her on November 2nd when I sign contracts, etc. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of her next week when I'm there for molds and measurements too. It's a remarkably small world. 

I haven't thought about my ex-niece-in-law for 
years. It was quite a surprise to find out she was 
in charge of the finance department at my 
orthodontist's office. It'll be nice to see her again, 
but I'm not sure I'll tell the rest of the family 
about this. It wasn't the greatest of times for 
my nephew and his new wife is a jewel. 

So, since I'm running a bit late, I'm closing this down for the day. Have a truly excellent Thursday, brighten someone's day today, and again, as always, Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Memorial Service is an Odd Way to Spend a Birthday - But It Was Actually Really Nice

The memorial service yesterday actually was quite nice. I arrived to find my oldest niece already there, so we had a chance to catch up for a few minutes, then my middle niece drove up with my sister-in-law in the car with her. I hadn't seen any of them in person since pre-Covid, so it was delightful to get hugs and catch up a little while we were waiting for the cemetery person to escort us to the graveside. Of course, none of the family had seen my tattoo except in photos before yesterday, so everyone took a good look and my sister-in-law was over-the-moon with joy at how well it was done. Rodney is indeed a tattoo master. 

The vase for the cremains was quite nice - reminiscent of 
a Chinese Ming vase with that lovely blue and white 
color. The white tulips were requested by Sara who wasn't 
able to attend, the other white flowers were from Janet. 
After asking, I found out that the cemetery uses an auger 
that drills down about 3-1/2 to 4 feet deep. The container 
is then placed at the bottom of the hole and it is filled 
in. When the headstone is ready, it is put on top and the 
sod is allowed to regrow up to the stone's borders. 

We followed the cemetery dude and cousin Janet (the daughter-in-law of Aunt Phyllis) to the prepared plot. The man carried the urn Janet had chosen into the cemetery grounds and it was a very slow ride over to the far side where they do combination burial and cremains in the ground. The "headstones" are all footstones in this area, so it looks unmarked, although there are dead planted everywhere. There was a small platform covering the hole where the dude placed the vase and then he left us so that we could spend whatever time we needed. 

This part of the cemetery uses flat grave markers for 
almost all of the gravesites. I suppose it's easier for 
maintenance purposes (mowing the grass, etc), but 
it's also less expensive for the family. Janet's husband's 
stone was a few rows before the place for Aunt 
Phyllis and her husband, Uncle Gene. 

I'd say we spent about 230-25 minutes between the four of us (my sister-in-law opted to stay in the car because her legs were bothering her and the ground was uneven). My older niece kicked things off by speaking about an eagle that had flown around her car that morning on the way into the Cities, and a song that had come up on her radio that seemed appropriate for the circumstances. We talked about the other relations Phyllis had known and loved, including Sara who lives in New Zealand and (obviously) didn't fly out for the service. We dove into memories and shared experiences and basically remembered Phyllis and the larger family. 

To my surprise, actually to almost everyone's surprise except Janet's (she was the one who mentioned it), Elly, the wife of my mother-in-law's brother, is still living. She's now 105 years old, still living in the Denver area. I think we were all shocked, thinking that all of that generation was now dead and gone. I always was fond of Elly - she was a spitfire and not one to mince words, but I found her delightful. (Elly's son, on the other hand, was an idiot. I knew him in college - we were in the same dormitory for our first year at Colorado State. I think he spent the entire first quarter drunk.) 

I'm switching my Swarovski crystal photos from a 
4x4 grid to a 3x3 grid. This allows me to have one 
overall photo and then detail photos of each of the 
nine colors per page so that the customer can easily 
see the specific color they are interested in. I think 
it's a better format, although I had to retake all of 
the 8mm photos. 

After we wrapped it up and I was invited to lunch, I politely declined, returned home after returning a package to Amazon at my local Kohl's, and dove into taking product photos of the 6mm Swarovski cubes. I worked until the last possible moment, then put my stuff away. I'll continue this on Friday. 

So, I'm off and running again today. The pool, then work, then home. We had some serious weather run through last night with the sirens going off for almost 10 minutes close to 9:00 pm. It wasn't a tornado, but was some serious straight-line winds. DH will be cleaning gutters today before we get the next round of storms running through tonight. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back to celebrate Friday with you tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

International Women's Day and Ukraine - Don't Read If You Are Tired Of the War

Today is International Women's Day - a day that I think should be celebrated every day, but apparently we get a "special" day just for ourselves. So ... that's OK. It's good to remind others of the strength and depth that women have to offer. When I look at the people fleeing their homes and leaving everything behind in the war zone, it's the women that are being pushed toward the borders. They're running, caring for the children, and leaving everything behind them. Could you do that? I hope you never have to try. 

Hitler entered Austria on March 12th and 
addressed the people of Vienna from what's 
now called the "Hitler Balcony" on the 
first of April. There was a lot of support for 
him in the nation, it was a bloodless coup. 

My own mother had to do that. She was young, less than a month away from her 26th birthday. Hitler entered Austria on the 12th of March, 1938, and was greeted with jubilation by the Austrians. Mom was on her way to England the next day, leaving Dad behind to try and walk his way to freedom through Switzerland. They wouldn't be reunited for many long years. The only positive was her lack of children - she didn't have to take kids along with her as she escaped. But with only two suitcases to her name, she left everything else behind her and ran for her life. They had been married for a bit less than six years. 

Women and children are fleeing Ukraine - almost 
1-1/2 million people have left the nation so far, leaving 
their husbands, fathers and brothers behind to try and 
stall the Russian troops. Thank goodness for the prompt 
opening of the neighboring borders to these refugees. 
They are finding welcome and assistance in Poland, 
as well as some other neighboring nations. 

I see the women pushing into the buses and trains now, children in their arms or clinging to their coats. It's cold in Ukraine right now, cold, damp, wet. The world is weeping as they flee from the Soviet forces, and their husbands are left behind to do whatever they can against a large, well armed invader. I'm amazed and uplifted by the strength I'm seeing in these women and children. Some take the difficulties easier than others, but it's a hard journey for everyone with no real end in sight. Many of them might not see their husbands, brothers, or fathers again, and that's beyond tragic. 

Ukrainian refugees aren't going to go north to 
Belerus. Belerus is a satellite of Russia, so no 
refuge there. Slovakia and Hungary are helping 
somewhat, as is Romania, but the largest border 
and most welcoming nation is Poland. Poland 
has been outstanding in all of this - opening 
their border, their hearts and their homes to 
the refugees. 

Meanwhile, politics continues. People make speeches and exclaim with pity and sorrow, but nothing really gets done. That angers me. As a free world, we should be doing a lot more than we are, to help Ukraine. But we're sitting on our hands, and I can't figure out why. Do the leaders of the "free world" really think that Putin will stop with Ukraine? No. After Ukraine will come Poland - a land that Russia has wanted back under it's control for a long time. Slovakia and the other neighboring nations will fall, and then Putin will be ready, at the back door of free Europe, to begin chipping away at the many smaller nations in Europe. It's not a big stretch of the imagination. If the free world drops the ball on helping Ukraine and stopping the advances of Russia now, within five years, they'll be facing the same decisions as the Ukrainians, only this time on their own borders. 

The map is a bit dated, Russia is grabbing a 
toe hold in Ukraine at several points, but 
Ukraine is still standing, still fighting, and 
still alive, despite a serious lack of assistance 
from the West. Is this the beginning of 
WWIII, if you actually check the history, 
we've probably be in WWIII already for several 
years, we just haven't recognized it. 

On that depressing note, I'm out of here. It's a swimming day today, and I think I need to leave some of my frustrations in the pool. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with a more upbeat post. Peace!