*My Favorite Things

*See photos at bottom of page.

Quote by MK Haley Permission to be awkward and weird granted.” (by Disney Imagineers)



By Joyce:

I missed you guys.

DD, BD and I flew away, and now we are back on the farm.

I am here once again in the early morning hours—a sprinkle of rain just ran through the yard, and now a Coqui frog “Coquied” his joy in having called the rain. I sit jamming a figurative scrap of paper into a figurative bottle—let’s do a champagne bottle, my guests deserve the finest. Did it bob up on a wave for you? Can you see it? Do you need tweezers to get the note out of the bottle?

My favorite time in California was sitting in bed with a grandson under reach arm reading to them. A four-year-old and a one-year-old, both love being read to. I love it.

And DD, BD and I had Daughter number one with grandson for seven wonderful days—a blessing, a joy, it was terrific.

And DD and I studied Disneyland.

Disney said he didn’t want his guests to know an outside world existed while they were at Disneyland, and that was pretty much the case. For those people who think Disneyland is about rides they are missing the grand picture. My belief is as you do not judge a horse by its color; you do not only see rides at Disneyland—although they are pretty awesome. The boys loved the Jungle Cruse ride, The Enchanted Tiki Room, The Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World and the Submarine ride.

I was intimidated by the creativity that abounds in the Disney Park. Husband Dear reminds me that I am seeing the end result.

So I read through The Imagineering Workout book, and I see that I can make a lot of mistakes—that’s part of the creative process. I can learn techniques, have fun first—do rules second. Don’t be hard on oneself, they say. Panic. Share your stuff.

A To-do list:

Get going.

Get committed,

Get donuts or cookies

Get different opinions,

Get confused.

Get stuck.

Get unstuck.

Get your hands dirty.

Get reactions.

Get it on paper.

Did you know there is a basket ball court in the Matterhorn Mountain, built for the construction workers? And that in the Indiana Jones ride when the monstrous ball is rolling toward you it is not you moving, but the room? (Inspired by a car-wash, where you feel you are moving, but it is not you it is the machinery.) Have you seen the topiary work at It’s a Small World? Real trees, really sculpted. It takes 10 years to grow one of those critter sculptures, but that didn’t dissuade the Disney way. Get to work, do it.

Disney was a man who didn’t let naysayers get in his way, a visionary, man who loved it when his Imagineers said, “Yes, if.” Not “Yes, but.”

Whatever an Imagineer is asked to do something he/she says, “Yes.” They often do not know how to do it. There might be head banging privately back at their desk, but they set out.

The attention to detail at Disneyland is awesome. Even a simple little film like It’s a Bug’s World, has a theater to support it with such detail one is transported to another world—complete with the feeling of bugs crawling under your seat.

In the park there is attention to the long shot—everyplace you look is picture perfect. The various styles of architecture do not clash with each other, everyplace is clean. The close up shots are beret with detail-- “layering,” they call it. There is detail upon detail, so much you can’t take it all in, but it adds to the ambiance.

Once when I commented about the crowds DD said, “It’s a party.” So I rallied, got in the spirit of it, and off we went.

And then back home those two little baby goats I thought were so cute decided to dance on the hood of our Toyota Pruis, and the storage shed we thought we had fenced them out of—we didn’t.

Ah, life on the farm.

Awesome

Watching a banana tree unfurl—awesome. I have never seen anything like it, and it is in our yard.

Next Thursday DD, Baby D and I are going on a dream vacation—not so much that it is a lifelong dream or anything like that, but one where dreams are spread out if their full glory. It is Disneyland—DD’s favorite place on earth and a trip she wanted for her 40th birthday. Daughter number one and Grandson number one are joining us, and it will be four-year-old Grandson number one’s first trip. Already he thinks he has seen Disneyland for his mother told him about our contest when they were kids. “The first person to see the Matterhorn got a dime.”

“Dream, Believe, Dare Do.” That is the Disney way, and one DD and I are attempting to emulate. “Do your teams participate in off-site retreats where they engage in strategy and planning?” the Disney management asks other company CEO’s. That’s what DD and I are doing, going to a place where Dreams fly, where believing is encouraged, and where you dare to do the thing you thought couldn’t be done.

We will have flight hours to brainstorm. We have been doing a lot of that lately, including coming up with a business plan, incorporating the name The Frog Song, Inc. writing a proposal to the IRS for non-profit status, and then shelving it when we found out the grant that would be perfect for us required that we be in business already for three years.

“That was satisfying,” said DD when she canceled a check to the IRS. Although disappointing at first, we were glad that plan didn’t work out—there is something better in store for us.

After Disney built the Pirates of the Caribbean he had all the workers take the ride and asked them if they saw a way it could be improved to tell him. The attraction was ready to open, and it took considerable time to have every worker take the ride, but Disney requested it. One fellow said something was missing but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Disney told him to keep riding until he found it.

“Fireflies,” he said, “a bayou isn’t complete without fireflies.” And so during your trip through a Louisiana Bayou preparing for the romping ride down a waterfall and into a pirates lair, you see fireflies lighting the dusky darkness.

                                                  “A wish is a dream your heart makes.”


                                                                                   --Jiminy Cricket

A Little Aloha Here, a Little There.

Coconuts in tree on our property

When I saw on the internet that a memo was leaked that the Republicans were suggesting increasing the fear load among the American people I thought of Claude M. Bristol’s book, The Magic of Believing. (Copyright 1948.)

On page 65 he wrote:

“In the depression years—and there may be years like them in the future—we saw this same suggestive force working overtime. Day after day we heard the expressions, “Times are hard,” “Business in poor,”’ “The banks are failing.” “Prosperity hasn’t a chance,” and wild stories about business failures on every hand, until they became the national chant, and millions believed that prosperous days would never return. Hundreds, yes thousands, of strong-willed men go down under the constant hammering, the continuous tap, tapping of the same fear vibratory thoughts. Money, always sensitive, runs to cover when fear suggestions begin to circulate, and business failures and unemployment follow quickly. We hear thousands of stories of bank failures, huge concerns going to the wall, etc., and people believe them readily and act accordingly.


“There will never be another business depression if people generally realize that it is with their own fear thoughts that they literally create hard times. The think hard times, and hard times follow. So it is with wars. When peoples of the world stop thinking depressions and wars, they will become non-existent.

Life on the Big Island:

When it rains here it is as though someone unzips the big water bag in the sky and a Niagara of water drenches all below. It could be that our 6 week drought is over. Perhaps the vegetation will perk up now. It was looking a bit shop-worn.

We traipsed around in the little town of Pahoa today—well, we’re from Oregon so we do not let rain stop us, but it was cold today, not a fun rain. In the bookstore I was reading about life in Hawaii, and how one ought to investigate before moving here, and that it is expensive—that was depressive—but I am glad we moved as we did, full of hope and love for the Island. It’s true that as love affairs sometimes disappoint, so has this island shown itself to be extreme and processes its new inhabitants like a Militant EST training leader. “Do you deserve to live here?” It asks. “Can you take it, or will you run tail between your legs?”

I want to get the Aloha spirit, and we do feel it here—that the people and land are one. That the people look out for each other. That they offer assistance without expecting anything in return. Drivers are so courteouos you wouldn't believe it. Aloha is alive and well on the Big Island.

I came across this story: During a rainstorm two men boarded a bus. For protection against the onslaught they were holding newspapers over their heads. The one telling the story said he noticed that the bus was filled with Asians and that they were scowling. Strange, he though, they don’t like us. One lady came up to the man, and while still scowling, took his paper and handed him something. “Stay dry,” she said.

The other man explained that on the island everyone carries a plastic bag for such rainy days, and she was giving him hers.

May all Your Tsunamis be Minuscule

The warning came; people evacuated the shorelines, the water sloshed in and out of Hilo Bay. Then it left. Wonderful, no injuries, no problem. I’m sure the evacuation was troublesome, for all shorelines were emptied. They hauled in one man who was swimming in the ocean during the warning. I don’t know if he was trying to kill himself or what. I think they were partying at the University.

For the last two days the wind has howled through the trees like a Banshee. It brought down some coconuts though, now if we could just get into them…In this early morning hour the wind’s sound has settled to a kitten’s mew.

After four months of emails, of Faxes, of phone calls, of so many trips to FED X that we have become friends with the clerk, (who has a child in the school on our road, and that led to DD, Baby D, and I visiting the school), we got out loan on this house. Yea. We celebrated by buying a refrigerator. The next step is getting a solar panel for it, and a battery, and an inverter.

We decided on an electric refrigerator instead of a propane one. A couple at the propane store, who were going through the same thing we are going through, gave us the story on electricity verses propane. It turns out to be less expensive to go with electricity, even with buying all the accessories. One, there are rebates on solar, two, propane will not go down in price, and we will not have to keep buying it. Hope this works. Imagine a refrigerator!

And I found a wonderful chiropractor who set my back to un-groan. Ah, things are looking up. The Cancer society even responded to my inquiry about buying our Oregon house—don’t know where that will go, the response, however, amazed me.

Onward, upward and head,

Joyce

Here is life on the farm: A boy and his goat