Time Flies

You must have been warned against letting the
golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden

only because we let them slip by. ~ J.M. Barrie

First, I have to thank everyone who entered the drawing for the Thimbleberries quilting book. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the response, but promise that all of those who left a comment on why they love quilts will be entered in the drawing. Thank you for stopping by!

Second, click on the photo above and look closely. It's a fabric clock, and the face is made of sewing implements! Isn't that clever? I found it on a fun website I want to explore in more detail called Fiber Artists at Loose Ends. Boy, there are such creative people in this world of ours!

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But now I have a question...

Who stole September? Where did it go?

For that matter, where has this year gone? Isn't it still March, with the whole year ahead of us? How can it be October already??

I had my annual physical this week and my doctor and I were talking about this idea that time flies by faster, the older we get. He said he has a clear memory of sitting in elementary school one day, where classes let out at 3:00. It was 2:45 and he was watching the clock slowly move. Dr. W. said he distinctly remembers the minutes just crawling by, as if those hands would never reach 3:00. It took an eternity for 15 minutes to pass.

Now, he says he blinks and another month has gone by.

I agree completely.

What is it about this feeling of time speeding up the older we get? Is it because our days are just more full now, with several to-do's and have-to's on our list? Or does time become more precious as we age because we realize that we have more time behind us than in front of us?

I don't know that I can explain the phenomenon, but it sure is real.

I'm working very hard to stay conscious of the days so they don't slip by in a blur. I didn't do so well in September, probably because we were gone for half the month in Alaska, then my dear cousin came for a visit. I relished every minute of both events, but before I knew it, it was time to change the calendars and pull out the Halloween decorations. Of course, my sense of time distortion is not helped at all by the fact that the stores already have Christmas decorations out. (I'm the queen of Christmas and revel in the season, but this is ridiculous!)

There's an old expression about living in the moment: not wasting time fretting over the past or worrying about the future. I want to work on this area -- to really savor each hour of my life because they're disappearing so quickly.

Many of us have blogged recently about all the things we love about autumn. So let's take time to really enjoy every minute of October this year. Smile when you see the leaves falling, and laugh at the kids jumping into a freshly-raked pile. Heck, go jump in one yourself! Enjoy a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa when the afternoon turns chilly. Treat yourself to a cozy knitted scarf or mittens, in your favorite fall colors.

Let's savor these days of autumn before they disappear!

Until next time...

It's a Privilege

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight

for democracy, but won't cross the street to

vote in a national election. ~Bill Vaughan

I'm a political person. I have very strong opinions about who should be elected president in November (ask my hubby: he supports the other guy!) But I keep that side of me out of my blog because - well - I just want this space to be about the positive things in life. And right now, politics isn't very positive.

But I have to put in a pitch for something about which I feel extremely passionate: getting registered and voting.

I just signed up to work a polling place on November 4th. I'm doing it as part of the American Association of University Women, so several of us in our branch will be there as volunteers. I wanted to take the 10-2 shift, but help wasn't needed at that time. So I instead volunteered for the morning shift, starting at 6:00 AM.

You gotta know how strongly I feel about this issue if I'm willing to be up and at 'em at that hour!


I know that it sounds so corny, but I can't help thinking of the people who came before us, who fought long and hard for the privilege to vote. And it is a privilege! Think of all the countries around the world ruled by dictators and tyrants, where free elections are only the stuff of dreams. The young man I tutor can't vote: he's a convicted felon and it's one of the rights he lost when he was sentenced to prison.

There's a great deal of apathy in our country, which stems from a feeling that we can't make a difference in Washington. I always hear talk of "the government did this," or "the government did that." What we've all seemed to have forgotten is that the government is US: you and me and our neighbors and co-workers.

So if you haven't done so already, get registered to vote (check here for the deadline in your state) then get to the polls on November 4th. I'm not much into exercising lately, but I will exercise my right to vote! I hope you're planning to do the same.


Until next time...

Mish Mash Friday Post

There is little chance that meteorologists can solve

the mysteries of weather until they gain an

understanding of the mutual attraction of

rain and weekends. ~ Arnot Sheppard

Ahhh, it's the weekend! I'm very grateful Friday is here. I don't even have a formal job, and I'm still thinking, "TGIF!" Some weeks are just like that, and this was one of them.

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Hubby and I were awakened at 1:30 this morning by the strangest sound. We had to lie there and listen for quite some time to recognize it, since it had been so darn long since we'd last heard it...

It was raining!

I realize that this would be no big deal for many of you. But here in my corner of southern California, rain is a rare thing. We've been in a draught for so long that I honestly can’t remember the last time it stormed. It was wonderful to lie in bed this morning, listening to the rain come down. What a soothing sound!

My tomatoes are happy this morning...

So are the pomegranates. Our bush is loaded this year! They won't be ready to harvest until October and November, though. Only a few of them are just starting to turn red.

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Part of why I'm so glad it's Friday is that this old brain of mine is tired. It's been asked to think about things it hasn't accessed in 30 years or more!

When was the last time you sat down and diagramed a sentence? I'm talking verbs and nouns and subjects and predicates? Now, if you're a teacher, you're not allowed to answer my question: you probably do it for a living (and God bless you for it!) But for those of us who are not professionals...

I did two tutoring session with Mark this week, and I honestly feel like I'm only one step ahead of him when it comes to this stuff. It's not that I don’t know how to write a proper sentence: most of us who blog are fairly decent writers, and we can spot grammatical errors a mile away. But trying to teach someone these basic ideas we learned decades ago is really taxing. As I keep telling Mark, our brains are like a muscle that just needs to be stretched and strengthened, to get in top shape. Well folks, my brain is sore from working out this week! I'm truly not complaining: I love what I'm doing. I just wish my recall was a bit better!

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Do you like blueberries? If so, head over to Pea's Corner. She's giving away blueberries - well, not real berries, but the next best thing! It's a basket full of blueberry-themed goodies such as tea and soap and note cards, etc. Be sure to stop by and tell her hello.

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I hope you have plans to do something fun and relaxing this weekend? We've got friends coming for dinner Saturday night, which is always nice. I'm going to be studying sentence structure at some point this weekend. Oh boy! But I'm also starting another quilting project. I'm designing a scrappy quilt, to use up some of my leftover fabrics from other projects...

I've got lots of little three-inch squares already cut, ready to be pieced into what I hope will be a leaf block. Pretty apropos for autumn, don’t you think – which is just around the corner. Stay tuned, and watch it grow!

Have a great weekend!

Until next time...

Maybe I'm Just Getting Old...

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions

confine themselves to facts. ~ Mark Twain

I've been thinking lately (a dangerous thing to do!) about a couple of things that bug me. Well, let's be honest: lots more than a couple of things bug me, but these happen to be in the front of my mind, so to speak. I'm going to put on my Andy Rooney hat for a moment because I'm kinda curious to see if anyone else shares my feelings.

Have you noticed how tricky spammers are getting lately?

Nobody likes SPAM mail. I've learned through the years to just delete it because as of this moment, I haven't found a way to stop it from getting in. 99% gets put into my Spam folder, so it's easy to pick out. But unfortunately, a lot of real email gets put there too, so I can't just blindly delete all of it. I have to sort the wheat from the chaff, as it were.

But the new trend I'm seeing is how well the spam mail is disguised. They're making it look like a politically-themed email. The older I'm getting, the more I'm getting into all things political, so I'm very interested in reading emails about the upcoming presidential race. So if the subject line references John McCain or Barack Omama, I open it...

... and find links to porn sites. Grrrr.

Now while many people might think politics and porn are the same thing, I don't. So stop sending me this junk, ok?

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The other thing I want to rant about is not related to porn. It's about women's breasts (hmmm... maybe there is a tie-in.) :-)

Have you noticed that breasts are everywhere, displayed for all the world to see? Don't get me wrong: I love breasts. I happen to have two that I'm very fond of (even if they aren't as perky as they once were!) I think breasts are a beautiful thing and a great part of being a woman.

I just don't want to see them every time I turn around.

I went in to get my hair done last week, and my stylist greeted me wearing jeans and one of those spaghetti-strapped baby-doll tops. She looked fantastic: she's got a figure that I would kill for. She's also got a large, proud pair of ta-tas that were right there. The whole time she's coloring my hair and shampooing me, I kept my eyes closed. Seriously. Because I was sitting and she was standing, her girls were literally at eye level for me and frankly, it's hard to carry on a conversation when all you can see are breasts (and I'm a straight female. Imagine how flustered her poor male and lesbian clients feel!)

This trend to show more and more seems to be everywhere: in the mall, at restaurants. A few months back, hubby and I were having lunch at one of those places that has one continuous bench a long one wall, and small tables with a chair facing it. We were happily munching away when two young women were seated next to us. The gal facing me was lovely and very well-endowed -- and all I could see when I looked her way were her girls. I finally admitted to hubby that I couldn't help looking: they were so right there. Hubby calmly (and wisely) said, "I think that's what she's after - to be stared at."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that we go back to Victorian dress, when women were covered from head to toe. I'm truly not a prude, and I think if ya got 'em, flaunt 'em. But be choosy about when and around whom you do it, ladies. There's a time and a place for everything.

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So there you have it. And now I'm curious: what are your thoughts? Am I just getting to be an old fart?

Maybe you shouldn't answer that last question!

Until next time...

Go Ahead - Hug a Tree

We shall require a substantially new

manner of thinking if mankind

is to survive. ~ Albert Einstein

Egad! I pulled into our local cheap-o gas station today, and just about fainted. I paid $4.63 a gallon -- at the cheap station! It was $4.67 at a Mobil station I passed on the way home. I keep hearing predictions that we're going to reach a national average of $5.00 a gallon before the end of summer.

Folks, I think we'll hit that here in southern California by the end of this month.

It's really getting scary, isn't it? The price of fuel is driving up the price of everything these days: groceries, manufactured goods that have to be transported, air travel -- you name it. I'm truly not a doomsayer, but it does make me wonder when it's going to end?

One piece of good news that I ran into today: Albertsons, one of our local supermarket chains in here in the West, was giving away a free cloth grocery bag with every $50 spent. I got three free bags today (see previous note about the rising cost of food!) and I bought three more bags for a dollar each. I've been meaning to convert to cloth grocery bags for a while now, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been thinking along those lines. Kudos to Albertsons for pushing me to do something easy that's also good for the environment.

Now, if I can just remember to get them out of my trunk each time I shop!


I have never consider myself to be an environmentalist per se, but my eyes are sure being opened to what the rising cost of fuel is doing to the world. I'm horrified by the stories I read and hear on the news lately: people are going hungry because of the high price of food? Here we are, a nation of overweight people (myself included) who have an abundance of food, while people in Afghanistan and elsewhere can't afford to buy bread. What's wrong with this picture??

I don't think anyone can argue that things need to change. I can't make an impact on what OPEC charges for a barrel of oil. But I can use cloth grocery bags, and drive less often, and buy produce from my local farmers market. Every little bit helps.

How about you? I'm interested in hearing about the small (and large) things you do to help the environment. Maybe we can all learn from each other and together, make a bigger impact



Until next time...