Sailing on Promise

Next month I am leaving on a trip of a lifetime....setting the sailboat Promise's course for the  San Juan islands. These islands are tucked away in the Northwest corner of the state of Washington and their rugged beauty,  mild climate and remoteness make them a true "get away from it all " destination. 

I think I will make a good sailor. I've been deep sea fishing numerous times and never got sick so I do have that in my favor....I love the water....and I do have an adventurous spirit..... but that was a few years back and as I age I seemed to have lost some of my adventurous spirit. But then again a few months back I did said "Yes" immediately to para sailing in Cabo and zip lining on the island of St Lucia...but two months of sailing?? Not sure why I feel a bit apprehensive the Captain has hours and hours of sailing experience and a few years back he sailed to Hawaii by himself.  So that sets my mind at ease and gives me a measure of comfort. But also coming along increasing my comfort level is a friend who also is an experienced sailor. So when learning that for the trip up the Pacific ocean into the straits of Juan De Fuca there would be two experienced sailors at the helm my bold...adventurous..daring...cheek...determined spirit returned.

                                                                  

                                                                      Will I have to do this?

                                                                        

This past few weeks while assisting the Captain getting the boat sea worth I have been listening and learning quite a bit of the sailing lingo. I checked out some library books on ocean sailing but I found myself skipping over the terms associated with ocean voyages...terms like grab a bucket and start bailing...what happened to the Dinghy?...what's a storm surge?...abandon ship (your kidding right?) ...is flogging still practiced?  But one term I'm worried I may get quite familiar with is "down the hatch".

                                                                                                 
We set sail sometime the last week of April or the first week in May...we will be waiting and watching the weather looking for a good window of no storms and calm sea's. There will be four on board for the ocean part of the sail...Captain Warren, Captain Lanny, my friend Victoria and myself.

My plan is to keep family and friends current and updated via my blog.....

LAUGHING WITH THE ANGELS...

More than likely he had just played a joke on someone!!

 Tomorrow is my birthday but the day I remember most is today...the day before my birthday. Two years ago today my Reuben took a trip of a life time...a trip that he had been preparing for his whole life. The last six months before he left he was in constant preparation. But he had no bags to pack...no little baggie to hold all his liquids..no passport...no money needed for this trip....in fact he didn't need to take a thing ..except a heart and soul that was devoted to his maker his whole life.

Reuben loved to laugh and he loved making others laugh...especially me. There's no doubt in my mind that he is not only laughing with the angels but also making them laugh.

You family is thinking of you and remembering you today Reub...
                  

BIRTHDAY.....AGAIN????

Guess what......in a couple of weeks I will be 1,096 days short of being seven decades old. WOW!!
As I sit here writing this I am at an over 55 hot mineral water resort in Southern California and most everyone is way over 55. My daughter and neice in their 40's came to visit for a week and they loved being "the young hot babes" at the pool. One of my husband's favorite sayings's was "getting old is not for sissy's." and I have to admit he was right. I have noticed while living amoung "old" people...ooops..excuse me....senior adults.... this past couple of months is that most of the time the conversation's in the pool reside around their past surgery's...their achy joints....bad knees....bad backs...medications...and or numerous other ailments.

I don't mind being old but I sure hate looking old....and I sure wish I could have had some practice before hand. But it seems I just woke up one morning and realized....I am old. It just sorta snuck up on me. One day I was the "hot babe at the pool" and the next I'm buying slimmers disquised as a cami. It's called a flex-eez and incidently the name is a complete oxi-moron... there is nothing at all that you can flex..let alone flex with ease, while wearing this cami.  It is made of some miracle spandex so strong that I have to remember to breathe. Note to self...OK now it's time to breathe in then wait a couple seconds then... breathe out.

Oh there were signs along the way that I was getting older but I guess I just ignored them. Like random hair growth. I had my upper lip and chin waxed for the very first time a couple of month's ago. OUCH...then she had the nerve to ask if I wanted a bikini wax also. A bikini wax...after feeling the pain of the upper lip wax....who in their right mind would say yes to that question. But that poses another question: what would make her think that I would need... or want...or enjoy...a bikini wax? ..and no I did not tell her about my random hair growth in the vicinity of the girls.

Another sign along the way that I must have just ignored is my neck...I think I have turkey genes that are runnning rampent in my family. If this keeps up I can actually see myself being afraid to go outdoors on Thanksgiving. My neck tissue seems to have developed a life of it's own. Young girls take care of your neck. I know....wrap it in one of those FLEX-EEZ every night before bed.

I used to have an amazing memory Tell me your phone number once and could remember it and dial it a week later. Now I have problems not only with my memory...but my hearing as well. When driving to the store I have to make three left turns...why don't I just turn my signal on when I leave home and then I won't have to remember to turn it on..then off again.  Seems so much easier to me.

My greatest fear is driving the wrong way. Just lately I went east on the freeway for 40 miles before realizing I needed to go west. Easy mistake for even young people to make....isn't it?  I have gone down a one-way street the wrong way....I tend to get out of elevators as soon as the door opens...note to self: check to see what floor your on.  I tend not to believe my GPS lady....she enjoys sending me the wrong direction. As if I know more than the satelites that the military rely on for national security issues. My greatest fear lately is heading through the car wash going the wrong direction. Now that would be funny....especially if I meet another directionally impaired senior adult lady that immediately assumes she's going the wrong way and starts backing up. Now that's funny...I don't care who you are!!

Talking to God...pondering things!!

My prayer for today God....I don't want to do nice things for people any more.... I don't want to do nice things for people just to be "nice" ...or so that I will be nice and others will think I'm nice. Help me to be nice...for absolutely no reason. What a concept!!


Because....it is better to wear out doing nice than to rust out doing little or nothing.


God always gives His best to those who let Him choose....God help me..let you.


No matter how many goals I have or have achieved ...God help me to remember to set my sights on the highest one.


Help me to remember that I am not a human being on a spiritual journey...but instead I am a spiritual being on a human journey.


If my desire to write is not accomplished by actual writing...than my desire is not to write. If my desire is to please God and then I do unpleasing things...than my desire is not to please Him.

A single sunbeam can drive away all shadows...God you are my sunbeam.

Thank you God for all the lessons I have learned in the past two years.
You have walked with me and guided me through some tough times. Thank you for teaching me that happiness is a choice...and I choose happiness. You have taught me not to dwell on sad things because I relinquish to them a power they were never meant to have and I don't want to give that kind of power to things I have no control over.

Thank you for putting a friend in my path that helped me to choose happiness.
Today God just let me rest in you!!

MY DIET QUEST!

I'm on a quest or mission to find a diet that actually works. I've tried high carb, low carb, count points, diet for my blood type, low food and no food .... and my observation is dieting is not a piece of cake. At the present time I am in Southern California enjoying the beautiful sun...the hot mineral water....and the FOOD!! My two favorite places to visit...and I'm thinking technically I may qualify as a squatter... is the date farm and their famous date shakes.... and my all time fav is the DOUBLE DOUBLE from the In-and-Out. So this week I'm back on WW and counting points. Well I really must be truthful about this and say, "I'm attempting to count points".  Some days I have to just give up and say, "thank God tomorrow is another day and I haven't eaten a thing in that day yet.


So in my quest to find the EASY diet I did a little surfing and read a few blog's on dieting and I found this.

  A diet where I don't have to do anything....the tape worm does it all.
PTL my quest is over I found the perfect diet....NOT. I wonder if this was a real add in a magazine or a joke.

So in my quest the only conclusion I came to is I have to eat less food. Eat less food?? So I guess that means giving up mashed potatoes and gravy. Mashed potatoes and gravy make me think of my Mom...they bring me comfort. Her theory was, "if something comes with gravy then use it". Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat. And always...always...make your mashed potatoes with cream or if your dieting then it's OK to use half and half. 

JIMINY CRICKETTS!!

Jiminy Crickett was a comical and wise little character who accompied Pinocchio on his many adventures.

Well I think this comical and wise little fictous crickett is alive and mating in my closet. Cricketts!!

We all remember warm summer evenings as little kids the pleasant sound of cricketts chirping away. They are field crickettts. Now I bet you didn't know there are also house cricketts...yes house cricketts....and they all reside in my little rented house in Desert Hot Springs. Also house cricketts don't have much of anything to do while living in  a house except make that "pleasant crickett chirp" and make more cricketts. Each adult female lays hundreds of eggs and those eggs my friend hatch into hundreds of baby cricketts...and those baby's grow up to "make that pleasant crickett chirp" and of course make more cricketts. Are you getting the picture??

Just in case your not getting the picture...                   

here they are....crickett's that make that "pleasant chirping sound".

Not only are they noisy but they are bugs...ugly bugs that hop just about the time I get my courage up to smash it into a brown gooey mess on my kitchen floor.

Yes I admit it....I hate spiders....bugs....bees...fly's.
My girlfriend was visiting me last week and she was my crickett killer and my daughter will be here in two weeks to visit....and she can be the crickett killer. But until then I'm totally alone...well almost alone...I have the company of hudnreds of cricketts "making that pleasant chirping sound".

Grandma's Christmas tree

As we age it seems it get's harder and harder to get the ladder and haul out the Christmas decorations...and then 4 weeks later we have to store them all away again for another year...and I guess I am no exception. For many years we had a tree 18 feet high and we had to bring the ladder in the house just to decorate it. Now my tree is a fiber Optic fake little thing and I never have to decorate it.

But last year I re-instated the family tradition that was started many years ago by my husbands mother. Grandma Schultz was never one to decorate much but she always had a tree. Then as she got older even the tree disappeared. But that only lasted for a year or two because I think she got tired of all the whining and complaints, "but Grandma you need a tree, where do we put the presents"?  So I think in frustration she started hanging Christmas tree ornaments on her lamp shade. She got a good laugh from us all but in the back of our minds we were all thinking and asking ourselves, "is Grandma loosing it?" But never the less she continued this tradition for many years.

Well I think this Grandma is also loosing it. Last Christmas as I got out my Christmas decorations I remembered with affection and Love my mother-in-law's decorated lamp shade and I just knew in my heart that I had to continue this  tradition. When my daughter saw my decorated lamp shade it brought a huge smile to her face remembering her Granadma.

This Christmas season my prayer is for everyone to remember those family traditions and try keeping them alive by telling the stories to your kids and grandkids and pass on the old traditions and maybe start new ones.  

Have a wonderful Christmas and remember Jesus is the reason for the season!!