A Groovy Baby Boomer Flashback

Edster, Bruno, Arthur, and I are on vacation...and I tend to keep my online presence to a minimum.  You know...kind of unplug.  Not on Facebook much...not answering much email...and definitely not poking my head into anything work related...for real!

Our tires crossed the West Virginia border on Friday.  You don't have to see the Welcome Sign...because everywhere are "signs" telling you where you are.

After a slow, lazy Saturday morning (coffee first, schemes later)...we boarded the Fabian Fun Van off to a local, annual event...The Leaf Peepers Festival...in Davis, West Virginia (population 660)...the closest town to the Canaan Valley.  Now...Canaan is not pronounced as in the promised land of the Bible...but is pronouced Ka-NANE Valley (in case you visit...you'll stick out big time if you say it wrong).

A people watcher by nature...I started clickin away with my paparazzi zoom lens.  I kept seeing these variations on a theme...

Did I step into a hippie convention by accident?

Hair...everywhere!!!

And this guy...

I found myself singing to myself ...back from the late 60s...envisioning a lava lamp and Peter Max poster.,,


I know...a pretty bizarre post...but, hey...I'm on vacation!!!

The Phantom Mustache

Something weird happened at work today...

Quietly, mysteriously, eerily...

Almost like...not almost like...it WAS...

THE PHANTOM MUSTACHE

These little mustaches started showing up on all the computer monitors...

One...
          by....
                   One...

At first, I thought this could only be the work of one person...

Yes...that Kristina Rust...

She has this odd obsession with mustaches...including on her coffee mug so it looks like she even HAS one.

But she's on the West Coast...

Who else could it have been?

Oh yeah...it was ME!

Thankful for a little levity today!

Anorexics and Fences

Have I ever showed you my favorite fence photo I ever took for all time?  Joy Dare October is past...a good discipline for me.  Oh...I will continue to focus on God's everyday gifts...but I'm back to mixing it up.

Now Happy Fence Friday is something that is common among those who post on Flickr regularly, but Donna Catterick clued me into a Fence Friday at Life According to Jan and Jer...so this is my pick!



One of those magical times when you see something unusual (I rarely see Turkey Vultures not flying that don't fly away when you try to capture them)...and then you find the PERFECT quote.

I've always loved Erma Bombeck...and miss her wit, wisdom, and self-deprecating humor.  Definitely found another quote I'm going to use soon!

May God give you the gift of laughter for a moment today!

The Dare Continues ~ 3 Gifts Prayed For ~ Day 8

The calendar pages of my vacation have been peeled off slowly one by one...and it is hard to believe we leave Canaan Valley on Thursday morning...it has been wonderful!

And today is three gifts prayed for:

 

 

•  I adored my father...but he was quirky, cerebral, task-oriented, and his need for people was only on his terms.  Many have speculated, me included, that he may have had a high form of Asperger's.  Intelligent and very rigid and routined...keeping his anxiety in check often bulldozed over his relationships.  At times I felt invisible and almost an interference.  Example:  Call home...dad answers, "Hi Denise...I'm fine...here's your mom." (Oh, the stories I could tell...which are humorous and endearing to me now!)   Mind you, the impact of his behavior on me was beyond any personal insight he could grasp.  I prayed that I might have a meaningful relationship with my dad...a connection.  I did not expect God's gift of connecting with my dad to be provided through pain.  But as my mother developed Alzheimer's dementia...as my mom's caregiver, my dad was transformed...  During the past six years of his life, as God transformed him through caregiving, God bestowed to me the gift of a connected, close relationship with my father.

• One of the desires of my heart was to get some good photographs of white-tailed deer.  Look at this beauty...and she was really that close!  No cropping and at only 70mm.  What a gift!

• While on vacation...Edster has been putting a floodlight out on the deck over the back lawn and putting "goodlies" (corn, peanut puffs, spicy cheez-its) out for critters.  Last night we had 12 deer (4 bucks), 2 red tailed foxes, one baby raccoon, and a skunk... So Edster and Bruno went out to replenish the supply...despite the commands of his master, Bruno corners the skunk!  And he got SKUNKED!!  Edster was so upset...and there was no way Bruno could come inside.  I prayed, "Lord help us find a remedy so that he won't fume us out on the drive back to Ohio!"  After a mixture of Tom Collins drink mix, diluted tomato soup concentrate, and tomato sauce "Massengilled" into Bruno's coat...and subsequent rinse off and shower...he was back in the house by the time we went to bed.  A little dejected...but he was odorless.  Another gift prayed for!  While not funny at the time...it is this morning...another great story...just like the story about...well, I'll save it for another blog entry. <smile>

More to come...