I swear my nose grew during those 7 months in Hawaii, but I was telling the truth, honest.
It’s strange though about memory isn’t it? That experience is there vivid, yet far away already. Makes me wonder about fact verses fiction, and how memory is fluid sometimes.
About my nose, it seems bigger to me, everybody else would probably say, “But you have always had a big nose.” Maybe I didn’t notice its size before, or I lost some weight initially, and thus it seemed bigger. I think, though, I am noticing my age.
“I’ve learned that old age is not a defeat but a victory, not a punishment but a privilege.”
—age 79 (From a book, dear Barry the caretaker of the Hawaiian farm left behind)
That touched me for I feel I aged 20 years during our Hawaiian stint. DD says no, but she is my Darling Daughter and wants to make her mother feel good. (My body feels good though, and if I don’t look in the mirror I’m fine. I’m grateful.)
Meanwhile in the grand state of California, It is storming over Big Rock Candy Mountain.
The mountain lies beyond the swath of green that is the grapefruit orchard. The mountain looks like a humungous Baby Ruth bar. We named it.
It was 104 degrees this morning, and then the clouds rolled in and thunder and lightning struck, really struck, and made a small brush fire behind the mountain, then sprinkles came—lasted long enough for DD to bring in the furniture she was painting--and then it was over, the fire was out, all returned to normal. We wondered if it ever rained here, although I don’t believe those little spits of water could, in all conscience, be called rain.
About Temecula, at first I thought this town was Eat, Shop, Eat Shop, Eat Shop, then it dawned on me. This is a planned community, and they placed a shopping center every mile or so. I guess so every little residential area has close access to food and shopping. It has no central old downtown area as do so many older cities. It has an old town, though, that looks like an old western town—I believe that was planned as well, or at least updated. I did feel at home when we went into a Laundromat and a sign read, “Do not wash horse blankets in the machines.”
No more Laundromats for us now though, we can wash our clothing at home. Hallelujah. And between DD and me we save about $50.00 a week.
We are recovering from colds—A strange one, “I feel like I am coming down with something. No, I feel fine. It went away. I’m out of sorts. The world’s in the pits. Rats, my head aches. Now my nose is running. I have a cold, I’m getting over it, ‘Cough, cough,’ Well, not yet.” A week coming, a week here, let’s hope not another week to leave.
I have decided since success is our goal, and wise people have said wise things, that I am going to include something motivational in each blog post. Here is my first:
“You are not your brain. Your brains are like your arms or your fingers, your heart or your lungs. They do their best work when you stay out of their way. Just try listening to your heartbeat for a couple of minutes, or pay close attention to your breathing. Chances are, you’ll get so worried about the whole process, you’ll wind up hyperventilating.”
“Or try this when you’re typing—figure out which finger presses the next key to spell out a word. You’ll bring the whole typing process to an immediate standstill.
“So there you are: you try to help out, and you wind up hyperventilated and totally unproductive. The thing about creativity is this: don’t think about it. And that’s perfect, because that leaves the productive parts of your brain free to work.”
—Brush Gordon, Project Director, Creative Development, Disney Imagineer.
