A Day of Accomplishment and Frustration Combined

I started yesterday out driving to the licensing division to get the license for our Going Out of Business sign. It wasn't a problem to find, and parking was no charge (a rarity for downtown St Paul). Although the website said their hours started at 7:30 am, their doors actually didn't open until 8:00 am, so I waited for about 15 minutes. No problem. 

The banner license is given by these people. It 
has to be within certain dimensions, and placed 
in a way that it's not impeding traffic or other things. 
That's fine, but if their computers are down for 
the week, they'll need to send it to me by hand. 

When I spoke to the young woman about my signage license, she directed me to fill out the information on their on-line system ... PROBLEM! Their on-line system is actually down for the week while they download the past 20 years of records into their new system. When I pointed that out to the young woman, she consulted with another person, and sent me to the zoning department at the other end of their very large room with lots of desks. (Of course, since it's a governmental thing - the desks are on one side of a barrier, the public on the other - LOL). 

I'm not sure exactly what my sign says - DH didn't 
even unfold it when the box arrived yesterday. It 
should be something similar to this, though, and 
measures three feet high and 8-1/2 feet long. 

At Zoning, I spoke with an older woman - very friendly. She told me the same thing, I again pointed out that their computer system is down for the week, and she gave me a paper form to fill out. I did that, she double-checked that I had everything there for their guy, and then we bonded over the store closing, and how she loved Native American art and crafts, and is moving from her place to a different place. She noted my address and said she'd try and drop by during our sale. She's more than welcome. We chatted for a bit, and when I left she said she would personally take my paperwork to the appropriate person when they arrived for the day. If I don't have the appropriate permit for my sign, I did everything that I could. 

My baked fruit - which varies from batch to batch - is my 
normal daily breakfast, along with a couple of slices of 
gluten-free toast. 

I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. I have no idea when I'll have any chance to cook again with the sale starting soon, so I made my next batch of fruit which will take me through a couple of weeks, and also made my "Ogre Juice" for the next week. I didn't get a chance to make the soup I had wanted to get cooked, but that's actually something I can do at night. If necessary, I can put it into the crock pot overnight and pack it up when I wake in the morning. Since my pulled sciatica muscle still isn't allowing me to treadmill, I'd have time in the morning to get the soup packed up and put into the refrigerator. I'll probably get that going tonight. 

I'm sure that in some ways, Travis is regretting 
taking us on as clients. However, we're picky 
about what's happening, and we've paid him 
a LOT of money, so he can gripe all he wants, 
but he'd better come through. 

So, plans are made. I spent several hours exchanging grumbly texts with Travis. They set up a website for us specifically for the sale, StormcloudTrading dot Net. When I pull it up, I get the store closing information , but I'm also getting a subheading that says "Ann Crittenden Hallmark". If you have a chance, could you go on to stormcloudtrading.net and see what the splash page looks like to you? I'd love some additional input from people not directly connected with either Travis or STC. 

If you have a chance to check out the website, I'd appreciate 
it. There's a ghost website coming up in the header when 
I check here, and I want that eliminated and the correct 
web address inserted. 

On that note, I'm wrapping this up and hoping to make it to the pool. We had a possibility of icy stuff overnight, and if it's a skating rink out there on the roads, I'll skip the swim today and try for tomorrow instead. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Friday and I'm Falling Behind Schedule

 I'm giving up on my certificates, and I'll have to tell DH about it. I think I'll do better with that in writing, so I'll have to type something up to give to him. 

I'm giving up. If the certificates show up, that's 
great, but I'm thinking they are long gone now. 

In the meantime, today is a very busy day. I'll be losing my Fridays soon - if we're going to be able to close on time, I'll have to be in the shop for at least part of those days. Right now, though, there doesn't seem to be a great deal that I can do to move us forward. I have to start some serious thinking about what needs to be done before we begin our liquidation sale. We have less than two months to have everything ready to go, and we're nowhere close right now. 

The time for our Going Out of Business Sale is quickly 
approaching and we're nowhere CLOSE to being ready 
to go. This might be a disaster of epic proportions. 

The whole idea of liquidating the shop is absolutely frightening, but maybe that's why the initial payment to Travis is as large as it is. It fixes the reality firmly and puts us onto the schedule. I need to phone him - we were supposed to have received a questionnaire of some sort, but I haven't seen anything come my way yet. If he sent it, I haven't caught the email. 

I'm generally a pretty positive person, but I've been turning 
into a Negative Nelly. I don't like that aspect of myself, so I 
need to work on turning things back to the positive. 

Anyway, I don't have a lot of positive things to say today, so I'll just say that I had an excellent run/walk this morning on the treadmill, and a great hot shower afterwards. That started my day in a super positive way. Have a wonderful Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap things up for the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Schedule Shifts Will Be Necessary For a Few Days

I won't be posting tomorrow. I'll be focusing on my breast biopsy and the time schedules for that, as well as what I want/need to cook for the upcoming week. I'll try to drop by the grocery store today or tonight and get the ingredients. I'm trying a new recipe - "Cabbage Roll Casserole". It reads well, seems to not be too horribly difficult, and doesn't take forever to cook. 

I'll be focusing on my schedule - when I have to 
be where, what needs to be done at home and 
after the biopsy, etc. I'll also be thinking about 
what happens if the biopsy is X or Y. DH is 
quite worried, although he doesn't express it 
very well. 

I'm also arranging a time for my equipment people to come by and install one part that had been missing from my treadmill. The part (just a face plate, so nothing critical) had been the incorrect one in the box, so they ordered the correct one when they set the treadmill up. I was warned by the factory that it wouldn't be available until January, but it wasn't critical - nothing would be harmed by not having the faceplate in position. So I didn't worry about it and told them to contact me when it came in. Of course, it came in on this week - a crazy week. Oh well, That's my life in a nutshell. 

What is life in a nutshell? What aspects of living 
constitute YOUR life? That's the essence of what 
life in a nutshell is all about, and we're all living it. 

I'm trying my best to remain calm about tomorrow's exploratory surgery, but it's difficult. You know how it goes ... a thousand scenarios, many of which are not good. But I'm basically an optimistic person, so I'm going to head into this surgery tomorrow with a positive attitude and not worry overly about the future at this point. I'll leave that to DH. He's the worrywart in the family. And since I want the incision to heal completely before returning to the pool, I'll be using the treadmill extensively over the next two weeks until I think I'm healed enough to return to the water again. After I've dealt with the "...possible architectural distortion at the 10 o'clock position at middle depth on the right breast...". 

I'm quite needle phobic, so the biopsy has 
me in a bit of a twist. I do much better with 
major surgery - LOL. Still, I've probably 
lived through worse in my many years. 
I'll make it through this one too. 

I want my future examinations to say what the next sentence says - "The remainder of the breast tissue is unremarkable." What a lovely statement. LOL So, as I get my swimming stuff together and double-check what ingredients I'll need from the grocery store on my way either to or from work today, I'll try to push tomorrow off to the side in my mind. It'll come soon enough ... it always does. Have an excellent Tuesday. I'm not sure if I'll post tomorrow, and I can't guarantee I'll post on Thursday, although I'll try. Don't worry about the radio silence. I'll be back to bug all of you, my dear readers, as soon as possible. Slava Ukraini. 

Today's Plan - Accentuate the Positives, Pass Along the Love

It's going to be a good day. I'm determined that it will be, and I'm alive, the birds are singing (actually, not quite yet. The birds are intelligent enough to not sing for another hour or so.), and I'm ready to head to the swimming pool. I actually slept until my 3:00 am alarm went off - a rarity these days of tension and too many thoughts for deep sleep. I'm going to have a tremendous day today - are you? 

Today is going to be a GREAT day. You're alive, you're 
safe, you have food on your table and friends around 
you. Frankly, that's really all that we need for happiness. 

There are many things that can make a good day. Simple things - a loving pet, a child's smile, a silly joke or a funny antic by a pet or wild animal. There are always good things around us that can make a day special and lift our spirits. The problem is the negatives that surround us, smothering us, dampening our joy at living. Don't allow those outside negatives to dampen your glow today. Instead, allow your glow to lighten the lives of others with whom you'll have contact today. Spread that light throughout the shade and darkness encroaching in from the sides. 

I don't think my dog was ever this comfortable with my 
cats, although they got along well enough. The cats could 
easily have made mince-meat of my pup, and she was wise 
enough to know that - LOL. 

Look at your life. What can you positively impact today? It's not going to be earthshaking. We're normal people in our own small circles of interactions. But can you bring a smile to someone's face? Can you help someone in some small fashion - reaching something down for them that they can't reach, or simply smiling. Smiling is contagious, after all. That simple act actually changes the body chemistry for the positive, pushing away the negatives - at least for a small time. 

Smiling is contagious. Sometimes we forget 
that, going through the day gloomy or simply 
lost in our own thoughts. But today, pull yourself 
out of yourself and spread a small bit of joy to 
others - one-to-one, one by one. 

Do one thing that you love to do today. Do you like listening to music? Listen and dance for five minutes. Do you enjoy gardening? Plot, plan, dig and clean - make those plants happier and they'll reward you with oxygen to breathe. Wave to a neighbor, smile at a stranger. Pass along positives, they'll reflect back to you ten-fold. 

Accentuate the positives today. It's be a benefit to 
you and everyone you come into contact with. 

I'm going to put up two shelving units that I got in yesterday's Amazon shipment. I also got a small extendable garden rake that DH had been wanting. He was VERY pleased - put it right down with his gardening stuff. I'm sure it will be used on Thursday when he's back in the yard. So, I passed a little sunshine into DH's perpetual rain cloud mood. Even those who have dark skies above them can smile with the right reward. Let's spread love and happiness today. We need it. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Positive Thoughts - I'm Trying to Focus on Those

Short and sweet today because I'm running a little late. It's a swimming day, else I wouldn't have a deadline, but the gym doors unlock precisely at 5:00 am and I want to be in the pool very shortly afterward. I'm not thrilled with the book I'm listening to just now, but I want to get through it to start the next volume in the series. I think it's more a matter of not liking the supplementary characters very much that's making it a harder listen. Still, it's a long series, and one little blip won't stop me from listening to all of them in sequence. I don't recall how many books there are total, but I still have quite a few more in the list. 

There are a LOT of colors of Swarovski 
crystals. These are the available colors of the 
4mm round size. I carry rounds in this size, 
as well as smaller and larger. That's not counting 
the bicone, square and specialty shapes. I have 
a LOT of Swarovski inventory and I'm trying 
to get this efficient so that we can actually 
sell it "easily" during a clearance sale. 

I was pretty busy with customers yesterday, so didn't get anything done on my Swarovski Sale project. I'm pushing that sale up to end of April, maybe even end of May. There's just so much prep work to be done. The methodology of how I'll need to run the sale is coming clear - or at least a bit clearer - but the actual nuts and bolts of organization are all on me. When I'm dealing with customers, quarterly taxes, and the general maintenance stuff to keep the store going, I don't have a lot of time to devote to specials like our Swarovski Sale. Still, it will happen. Just not on my timeline (obviously). 

I love my morning meditation time. I'm a bit crunched 
for time on my swimming days, but it's worth it. 
There's just something about sitting and meditating 
first thing every morning that just starts my day out 
on an excellent note. 

Meditation this morning was delightful, however, so that makes up for lack of sleep. I ended up getting to bed almost a half-hour late last night because I had to fight with the federal taxes website to get my monthly withholding tax paid and the receipt printed out. Still, I got it done. Then, this morning, I realized I hadn't plugged my phone in for charging, so I only had about 20% for my morning meditation exercises. Oops! I actually had to plug in for most of them, meaning the sounds were not pulling in through headphones. It's the single disadvantage I can find with my Google phone - the power and the headphones connect through the same portal, so to use headphones, I can't be charging the phone. Still, it's a minor inconvenience, and it's happily up to almost 50% already, despite having been used for my morning routines. 

Have a simply glorious day. It's one more day on this 
fabulous earth, and one more day to enjoy the wind, 
the weather, the clouds, the sounds of the birds, etc. Make 
it one of the best days of your life. 

So, I'm off to the pool. I hope all of you have a splendid Tuesday, I know I have every intention of having one on my end. I'll be back tomorrow and wish you a glorious day. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Inventory - A New System Might be a Breakthrough Positive Thing for Me

Looking at my post counts, this week will be a serious milestone week for me and for my readers - my 5000th post! Yes, that's THREE zeroes! When I started this blog years ago, I would never have imagined that I would be doing this so long and meeting so many fabulous people near and far. I'm totally blessed. 

Friends - friends are the BEST thing ever, and I'm 
so very fortunate with my on-line friends. Some of 
you I've known for more than a decade now, a few 
of you close to two decades. I'm totally blessed 
with my friends. 

I've been working hard on inventory at the shop - inventory for the various boxes of product that we have out with sale prices for our customers to browse through. They are separated by size/type of bead, but there are some lovely bargains in there at 30% off the marked price. (The super expensive choices are in a separate bin, under glass, and we pull that bin out on request.) 

I made full lists of the contents of each box, put them into a spreadsheet I designed, and I'm hoping, through this new method, that we can keep a much better lock on the inventory of the boxes. I'm looking at the sheets for the "8o Hex Beads by Part Number" right now, and that one list got totally "berspukled" - (I don't think that's a real word, but it is in my world - my Mom used it sometimes - LOL). So, today's chore, after doing some inventory checks on the sheets I did yesterday, is to get this one list knocked into shape and accurate. Right now the part numbers and inventory numbers aren't correct, so I'll correct the inventory numbers - those are the ones that got messed up. The part numbers are just fine. 

My inventory lists really comprise three columns followed 
by tight columns for check marks next to each item. It's rather 
like a grid, with three organizational columns - Price Lookup 
Number, Part Number, and Price followed by a lot of 
blank grids where we put in the date the inventory was 
done and check off the beads that were present in the 
boxes. Empty boxes equals missing beads. Pretty easy and 
effective. 

But I did a solid inventory check yesterday using the sheets and it worked REALLY well, - smoothly and efficiently. I found a few duplicates which I removed, caught some missing beads that I restocked, and I think we'll be on a flat plane once I get this last sheet under control. Then, doing inventory for the boxes shouldn't take much more than an hour in the mornings. That's something I can easily do four times a week, and it will give us better control of this inventory. 

There's always one bad apple in every group, and in 
this case it was my 8o bead list where the PLU 
numbers were completely incorrect. So ... I'll be going 
through that box again today and correcting those 
numbers to the proper ones. A necessary evil, but easier 
to do with the box of beads than on the computer at this 
time. 

So that's my excitement for the day - LOL. Correcting long sheets of numbers so that they are actually in order and correct. Go CRAZY, me! LOLOL So, on that note, I'm off to the swimming pool. My trivet lady sent me a lovely email yesterday and said she's starting to feel a bit better. She credits all of us with her recovery, and I know that she's absolutely correct. The power of the people I'm in touch with through my daily blog is strong, powerful, and loving. A trifecta of positive energy flowing through the ether. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Servants and Blessings - I Have No Idea How I Got From Here to There

I have a 100-pack (somewhat depleted by now) of "rubber" ear stoppers on my desk right now. They're old, and slightly discolored, and they don't work well any more. We sell these (newer) regularly - they're placed on the back of earrings to help keep them in the ears instead of falling out. In winter, with higher collars and many layers plus coats, lost earrings are common without using these "rubber" stoppers. 

I sell two different styles of clear "rubber" earring backs, 
and this style is my favorite and is the more popular style 
of my customers as well. But they do deteriorate over 
time. The package I pulled from the shop because of age 
aren't very good any more, but they still work for a few 
days before needing to be replaced. 

However, the bag on my desk was a bag I pulled from the shop as "unsellable" because they've aged out. I've been selling these for at least thirty years, so they could potentially date that old. I doubt they're much older than 15 years, but still, a respectable age for an earring component such as this. Instead of a bright, clear appearance, they are more golden, and instead of gripping the earwire tightly, they are a bit loose, unwilling to do much clutching at all. 

Every few days I toss the set I've had on my earrings and replace them, working my way down through the bag. I expect it will be another year or so, but I'll work my way down to the end of that bag eventually, and then will be ready to actually purchase a new bag. The set of earrings I wear are VERY light weight, and I truly wouldn't notice losing one on a high collar or bulky sweater if I didn't have the backs in place. They serve an important purpose, even if they're meant to be almost invisible. 

I just bought this book, I'll download it 
when I'm finished with my current read. 
It looks like something I'll find quite 
interesting. 

It's rather like the servants in the old estates. They weren't really acknowledged, in fact, they shouldn't have been noticed at all. In some cases, they might have been perceived as mobile furniture - quite demeaning. They worked hard, slept in the attic rooms, but had at least one meal a day, and usually got a half-day off every two weeks or so. Why work under such conditions? Because conditions "back home" were often far worse - too many kids, too little money, and backbreaking work in the fields. That's what was known as life in the multitude of years before the Industrial Revolution, after whch which new avenues of exploitation of labor opened up, and eventually led to the world we currently live in. Have we bettered ourselves? Have we improved out lot in life? I'd love to think we have, but I also know I'm damned lucky to be living where I am, having had the parents and upbringing I've had, and the opportunities I've taken advantage of. 

It's so easy to shut the door on possible blessings. It's 
rather scary to open the door wide and welcome in 
the unknown. But often, if you do, you find the other 
side of that great step to be the answer you've 
been seeking all along. 

So, I might be getting older and more yellow. I might not be holding the earrings quite as securely as a younger me would have. But I'm so very lucky to be where I am, doing what I do, and chatting with you - my friends from afar - day in and day out. Look around you and see your own blessings. I guarantee you have many. They're just every-day things, but what richness we truly have. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Trying To Look at the Positive Things Today

The indoor pool is closed for two weeks of maintenance, so we ALL have to use the outdoor pool. Now, in the summer months, I adore the outdoor pool. It gives me a super great workout, and I can wear my bigger fins for some speed. The only downside is if the weather is like it was yesterday - thunder, lightning, and the pool would have been closed for safety. I just have to remain flexible and move with the punches. Flexibility is key to life, after all. 

I have two sets of swim fins - one short 
and one long. I can only wear the long 
fins in the outdoor pool. They're a bit 
of overkill in the shorter indoor pool. 
I like that feeling of speed, though, since 
I'm not a fast swimmer, so it's a lovely 
and different feeling to cut through 
the water. 

I awakened at 1:45 am this morning, and decided to just stay up, do my morning meditation without rushing, and start my day out right. That turned out to be a good decision, because here it is, 10 after three, and DH is up, interrupting my morning routine. Apparently his hip is acting up. I suppose that's understandable - he's been spending most of his time working in the warehouse on cleaning and repair work. But it also meant that he came down to chat with me, so ... interruptions. LOL

My morning ended up being interrupted, but since I 
awakened early, I got all of my meditation in before I 
had to interact with anyone human. I'm pleased about 
that. 

I was going to order another 6-9 months of my brain pills, and realized that I might have actually done that earlier in the week. It wouldn't be a tragedy to have a double shipment, but it would be hard on my bank account. The pills aren't inexpensive, and I really can't easily afford to double-order them. I still have six weeks left, so I'll hold off for two weeks or so to see if I already ordered them, or if I need to get an order going. I can order directly (which is what I think I did), or from Amazon. It didn't appear on my Amazon orders when I double-checked, but I seem to recall the Stonehenge website (the manufacturer of my pills), so I suspect I've already placed my order. 

"Out of all the things I've lost, I miss my 
brain the most," is the saying, and I have 
to agree. I've been taking these for more 
than a year, and I do notice a difference. 
Now it's automatic. I awaken, I take two 
pills along with a swig of water, then I'm 
ready to plug in my earphones and listen 
to whatever guided meditation I've chosen 
for the day. 

I'm ahead of things today. Will that last for the day? It's unlikely, but I'll take the positives when I can get them. I'm already thinking about my "day off" tomorrow and what I need to get done. It's time to be highly scheduled because my time is starting to crunch. Under ideal conditions (having already retired), I'd be flying out to New York City today to attend the family reunion over the next few days. I'm extremely disappointed to be missing this - who knows what kind of physical and/or mental state I'll be in when I'm 74? Or, if they will even hold another reunion. The only certainty, is that if they do hold a reunion in five years, it won't be in the USA. Well, I tried and things just didn't fall into place for this dream. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and heading out to the pool. It's only in the mid-50's right now, (12.7 C) so it's going to be a bit "crisp" before we're in the water. Then, the temperature won't matter because we'll all be swimming. I only hope the pool won't be too crowded. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Flip Flopping, Positive Vibes and Driving Around

Today I start my day out by driving to the eye doctor for my final checkup and, hopefully, a new prescription for eyeglasses. The appointment is for 7:30, and I want to check in no later than 7:15 am. Since that would crunch my swim/gym time, I decided to flip days so I'll swim on Friday and take today as my "off" day. It's not a problem, just a shift. 

Switching my schedule today just seemed much 
easier than being super rushed. So I'll swim 
tomorrow instead of today and breathe a little 
easier. 

My Doctor came through with a prescription for an antibiotic - 2 pills a day, 12 hours apart with food. That's another detail that is pushing me to do my swim tomorrow. Adding in breakfast after my swim and before heading out to the far Southeastern suburb of my eye clinic simply wouldn't work. So, I'll have a lovely toasted no-grain bagel after I get this posted, and keep on my 6:30 am/6:30 pm schedule for the pills. I already feel much better after only one day's worth, so I'm sure this will kick that UTI out of the park and out of my life. 

I'm really good about taking my daily vitamins, but having 
to take a med two times a day, 12 hours apart is a bit more 
challenging. It's easiest to take with my breakfast around 
6:45 am, and with dinner 12 hours later, so I just need to 
keep to that schedule for a few days. 

I've been doing some work for DH on old invoices that he's using with his AFS inventory reduction plan. I spent a bit more than an hour with Photoshop, getting miscellaneous things off the form, and now I'll go through again and pull away specific prices that he wants out of there. It took a while to figure out what would work the best/easiest, but I was successful. Unfortunately, I can't do this on my laptop - the "light" version of Photoshop that I have on the laptop doesn't allow me to do what needs to be done. So, that limits me to working on these at home only. Oh well. 

I use Photoshop every morning for the pictures that I 
post here in my blog. I have Photoshop Elements on my 
laptop, and I find it more challenging and less 
satisfying. I suppose I'll have to save my $ because I'll want 
the full Photoshop when I upgrade my desktop computer. 

I'm sending lots of positive thoughts out to Aearwen today as she looks at two possible places for her and her son to move to. Due to many extenuating circumstances, she has to sell her home which has been in her family for almost 60 years, and move to a smaller place. In the long run, it's going to be fabulous for them - but getting everything done and taken care of efficiently ... that'll be a much harder chore. So, positive thoughts, everyone. 

It never hurts to have positive vibes sent 
to friends who are a bit overwhelmed, so I'm 
asking for all of you to send positives 
to Aearwen as she sorts out this move. It's 
a major thing to move out of the family 
home after all these years. 

So, on that note, I'm plugging in photos and getting my day underway. I hope your Thursday is awesome and spectacular, it's the only Thursday, June 8, 2023 you're ever going to get, so make the best of it. I'll be back tomorrow with a short post before I head off to the pool. Slava Ukraini. 

Sending Healing Thoughts - Please Join Me

I'm tight on time today because I actually slept until my alarm went off. Unfortunately, after my morning meditation, that leaves me 20 minutes to get today's blog written and posted. So ... rushed. Still ... I've got my first load of laundry running in the washer, I remembered (against all odds) to put my swimming goggles into my swim bag, and I'm here in time to at least get something posted. 

Most swimming goggles are very uncomfortable for 
me - after trying many different styles, I found one that 
works well, so when I leave them at home by mistake, 
it makes for a painful swim - either by chlorine without 
protection, or if I am able to borrow a set, from goggles 
that hit my eye orbits poorly. 

It was a great night's sleep - we're in temperate temperatures for another day or two and I'll happily take it. Next week we'll be back in the oven again, and sleep will be a bit harder - more challenging probably would be the better term. 

I'm sending healing thoughts out to my friend, and hope 
you also could spare a thought to send into her direction. 
Positive thoughts have immense healing power. 

I'm asking for positive thoughts for a friend overseas who is in the hospital in Intensive Care. Keiless is a good friend of many years, we've shared thoughts and pictures and stories back and forth. She had been feeling poorly, but thought it was only a harsh cold or maybe a touch of the flu. A mutual online friend posted that she had been in hospital a couple of days ago, and I can't stop thinking about her in my quiet moments, sending positive thoughts out. The more positive thoughts, the better, so I'm putting her out to you - my readers - and asking for your healing thoughts as well. 

Healing can be personal or shared, public or private, 
hidden or exposed. No matter how it is expressed, 
we all need healing now and again, and a variety of 
sources exist in our lives upon which we can lean 
or pull for strength during this process. 

I'm going to concentrate on that for a bit, so I'm going to wrap this up for the day. Have a wonderful Wednesday. I know mine will be busy, busy, busy, but hopefully it will also be an excellent day. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's A Day For Positive Thoughts and Future Crops

I'm sending all positive thoughts south to Chickie Mama who is undergoing what should be a relatively small, exploratory surgery today. Except ... apparently her doctors at Mayo had a hissy fit because she should have been scheduled months ago. Apparently she has cancer (news to me) and it is a very aggressive type of cancer. The fact that she slipped through the cracks and was given an appointment six months out when she phoned the Clinic to get scheduled was unacceptable to her Mayo team. That's very understandable, and I'm really hoping that extended delay didn't end up harming her beyond their capabilities of healing. We'll see. The surgery is first thing this morning. 

I think ChickieMama is scheduled for laproscopic 
surgery this morning. But I'm not super clear on exactly 
what is going to be done, so I'm just sending general 
"heal quickly" thoughts towards Claire. 

It's hot and humid here, so my run was a sweat-fest and now, more than half-an-hour after my shower, I'm still overheated. At least I'm in the basement computer room, so that's one of the cooler rooms of the house in the summer months. I'll cool down shortly, I'm sure. 

My bean plants have blossoms now, so I'm anxiously 
waiting for my first bean pods to start growing. My peas 
also have blossoms, so snap peas are also in my future. 
Yummy! 

I've got flowers on my beans and flowers on my peas, my tomato plants are arrayed with lots of green tomatoes ready to ripen, and my raspberries are starting to bear. The only disappointment are my strawberries, which we've been trying to establish for years now and which never bear much. I think I'll probably scrap the strawberries next year, they're not worth the time and trouble. 

My raspberry patch is starting to bear fruit again. I love this 
patch. We've had it for years and years, and it doesn't bear 
large fruit, but they are very flavorful. At peak, it gives us quite 
a lot of wonderful fruit, and leaves plenty to share with the 
birds and bunnies. 

Yesterday was a very busy day at the shop, I was hopping all day. That's great, though. I like to be busy, and there was only one time when I was super swamped. My customers were patient, though, so all was well. DH has been working on rewiring the ballasts in our fluorescent fixtures, and he was downstairs working on the wiring so I couldn't call him up for assistance. That was OK. Our landlord will be over today to consult with DH about one wiring question he has, and we'll come over on Sunday to deal with two of the fixtures on the sales floor. With ceilings 12 feet high, we need to set up the big ladder, and we can't chance any customer needing to pass through that area while we're high up. 

I've worked hard at being a positive person over the 
years, and it hasn't always been easy. In the main, I 
think I succeed, but it's really easy to fall back into 
negative thoughts. I vastly prefer positive ones, though. 

So, that's about it for today. All things told, I think it's going to be a good Friday; I'm thinking lots of positive thoughts, at any rate. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Life Can Get Out of Control - As Humans, However, We Need Control

Our temps are back to a comfortable level, and the clouds and storms have left us behind for a little while, so I should be able to see a lovely sunrise today while in the pool. There's just something wonderful about sunrise - it's my favorite time of the day. Sunrise means the day is ahead of me - untrammeled. It means that I can make my decisions to react to things in a positive way, instead of a negative one. I can decide to mindfully react to customers, any problems that arise, or tasks of varying industry through a positive outlook instead of a negative one. That point of view is my own - totally within my own control. 

During the height of Covid, when we were all under 
quarantine, these items were our focus to allow us 
to remain under control of our lives. It hasn't 
really changed much, even though the world has 
re-opened in many respects. 

Of course outside influences will try to intervene. Traffic may be bad, customers might be pushy or even angry (it's rare, but it can happen), the news on the television may be bad (almost a guarantee these days with our world in a trashcan the way that it seems to be), but I can keep an inner core of calm, and while acknowledging the outside influences, hold onto my personal center. Easier said than done? Sometimes. But well worth the attempt and if I fall down, I'll just pick myself up again and continue trying. 

"Normal" is a constantly shifting platform upon which 
we are trying to keep our balance. But looking through 
mankind's history, "normal" is a constantly shifting 
thing - dependent on location, historic/prehistoric 
time period, and politics. Were two small bands 
trying to join forces for their mutual good? Or was 
a King with expansion desires making war on 
the people next door. That's our history - long, bloody, 
and repetitious. Maybe we should try something else. 

Today's task is to finish working on the 4mm cubes so that I can bring that section live into Etsy. Maybe I can start work on the 6mm cubes too. That would be lovely. I'll do the 8mm cubes last, since they are already up from the very beginning and I'm just replacing them with the new format and photos. So I still have quite a bit of work to be done, but I'm farther along the path than I was a month ago. 

  

After I finish the 4mm size, I'll start on the 6mm size. The 
photos are complete and ready to upload onto Etsy. Here 
is one page from a 6mm splash page in the AB section. You 
can tell from looking at these vs the 4mm from earlier this 
week, there is a serious size difference between the cubes. 

The heat wave has passed over us with yesterday's storms. It's much more comfortable today. We had some serious winds pass over us, but they were to the north, or south, to the east or they never arrived from the west. Places to the east of us were hit by tornadoes, but all we got was a fast rain. It's summer in the Great Plains of the USA, and that's always weather, weather and weather. Come to think of it, that's all of the time because in the Winter, it's the various snow storms, and in the Spring/Summer, it's the rain and wind. Yesterday's swim was under clouds, but today I should be back to watching the sunrise while swimming my mile. Yippee! 

Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Be kind, be patient and remember to be kind to yourself as well as others. Slava Ukraini. 

Habits, A Bit of Personal History, and Looking Ahead Into a New Sunrise

My usual Friday Zoom calls are now on Wednesday, and that's left me looking at my calendar, wondering what is missing. It's rather amazing how quickly something can become a habit. I have plenty of computer things and on-line classes to try and catch up on, so I won't be bored. I'll still be sitting in front of a computer screen for much of the day. But habits, once formed and etched into our souls through repetition, can be difficult to overwrite. 

Habits form from repetition, and repetition really 
strikes when conditions are wide open and you 
are receptive to those conditions. Choose carefully. 
You only want habits to be Constructive, not 
Destructive. 

It's reliance on habit that can cause deadly habits to form, send down roots, and finally, kill. It's habit when a smoker pulls out their next cigarette. It's habit when a drug addict turns to their next fix. And sometimes it's habit when a parent raises a hand to a child. Either habit ... or conditioning. 

Habit v Conditioning - it's a pathway that has been 
studied for years, but it's still a bit of a mystery. I 
looked through dozens of graphics, but ended up with one 
of the simplest. Associative Learning leads 
to Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning. 
Non-associative Learning leads to Habituation 
and Sensitization. Observational Learning 
is on it's own platform. 

Raising a hand to a child is often conditioning - poor parenting from their own parents being carried through to the next generation. When you add external pressures to the mix, pressures like low income, poor education, inability to find work that pays a living wage, and inability to take time to find better jobs, you've got a downward spiraling situation. In the middle of all of that, those most innocent, the children, are also apt to be the least vocal and most convenient victims. 

This wasn't me, although it potentially could have 
been DH since we were both adopted, but he was 
born in St Paul. However, what really gets me on 
this headline from the Minneapolis Paper sometime 
in the 1950's is the headline - "Babies Who 'Have No 
Right to be Born'". Wow. Just Wow. 

I was born in the last century during a time when having a baby outside of marriage was frowned on. My mother, engaged to a man who was not my father, abandoned me at birth to start a new family with a new man, and I was left to find my own way. I had wonderful adoptive parents - I was extremely fortunate in who raised me. But underneath everything is always that thought that I had been tossed away like an old pair of shoes or a threadbare sock. There are times when that comes back to haunt me. 

My Chakra Healing class teaches that the root chakra 
forms around your earliest days - whether you were 
held closely and felt love, whether you felt safe. My 
WildFit program dates some things back to whether you 
were breast fed or bottle fed. So many things go back 
to the early days of your life. Mine was institutional, so 
I guarantee I was bottle fed. As for cuddled? Maybe. 
Sometimes. 

I never searched for my birth mother - I never wanted to see her, meet her, see if there was another family where I "belonged". Mom and Dad were willing to help me as much as they could, but I didn't have an interest. I still don't. It's unlikely that my birth mother is still living, after all, I'm in my 60's now. But looking at things through a long lens, I have to say I'm grateful I was a throw-away. Because of that, I got great adoptive parents, had a loving household, went to good schools, and married a man who is frustrating in the extreme, but who loves me none-the-less. I've had a good life, and I expect to continue having a good life for as many more years as I'm given (hopefully at least two more decades). 

Every sunrise offers us new opportunities and a 
chance for a new beginning. You can dwell on 
the past, but that won't move you forward. Choose 
instead to focus on the path ahead, rather than 
the road already traveled. Learn from the past, 
but don't dwell on it. 

Are you lucky in your life? Have you had times in your life when you felt worthless, but picked yourself back up, shook the mud from your fur, and rejoined the human race? I think we all have times of doubt and feelings of low self-worth. The key to success is pushing through those days and waking to new possibilities, new experiences, and new things to love. A new sunrise is a new start. Have an excellent day. I'll be back tomorrow. Please remember to be kind, and stay safe.