waning summer dark moods

Does anyone else feel a dampening of spirits as these hot, humid days of summer begin to wane?  I'm sleep deprived, feeling blue.  I long for crisp fall air.  It never fails to envigorate me!  I need inspiration!!!!

Even my Buddy the Beagle feels my mood.  He follows me everywhere, even up on my bed to sleep away the morning.  We just can't fact another day of heat and humidity.  We miss our walks in the cool morning air.

What's the solution?  Chats with friends help.  I'm sure exercise would lighten my mood, but the heat prevents me from pumping it up.  When a friend acknowledges my plight, offers companionship and a long chat, it does make me feel better.  Thank goodness for girlfriends!  Why is it that guys don't get our mood shifts?  Just a hug, sitting down to talk and commiserate, what a difference that can make in a gal's mood!  Where is that kind of a fella?

Spinning Wheels

It’s got to be a virus!  My head throbs; ears are plugged; throat is swollen almost shut; I’m freezing, sweating; my stomach is upset. 

The upside is that I’m having fabulous dreams, and I’m not eating.  What a way to lose weight! 

It could be the heat and humidity causing me to hallucinate.  However, I do remember the phone ringing: I spoke with several friends today, each concerned about my health.   Come to think of it, I’ve also been on the internet...  Do you suppose the combination of virus, out of control humidity and temperatures, fever, friend’s tales and computer suggestions are about to produce an upcoming, sure-hit movie?  This spinning tale of mine has all the ingredients: espionage, drugs, travel, intrigue, romance, and stars.

I’ve always had my suspicions about internet intrigue.  Possibilities for stories of deception, drugs and denials are rampant when it comes to internet sleuthing.  Fascinated by names, I googled Leonardo, Antonio, Vincente, and Armando. When several names I googled came up with connections to drug dealing, wealthy sportsman, Brazil, drugs and drug trafficking, I knew I had to be onto something big.

My doorbell rang.  Appearing at the door was this lithe damsel with bouncy curls talking time travel, Detroit crime scenes, guns, and police scanners.  Scanners flash in my mind; immediately Mom came to mind. I was back in the sheriff’s office at the jail with Mom listening to calls on the police scanner to see if Dad needed to check out some bank robbery in Starbuck, a shooting at the abandoned railroad yards, or a beer bust on the lake. 

LAKE brings to mind Italy and the Isle of Capri where nephew Karl and his fiancé Katie are jetting to a Hollywood-scaled wedding of her high school classmate, a ballet dancer in LA.  This long-legged beauty is marrying a Hollywood producer at a dream location.   What new worlds of glamour and intrigue are opening with my fanciful imagination!  

Hollywood flashes; I conjure a movie set, a Brazilian fishing camp with wealthy sportsmen parading big bellies dripping with gold chains, natives in stages of undress, stirring pots of lobster bisque or some foreign food.  The scene must have something to do with drug cartels and Hollywood producers.  I envision a private jet carrying a drug lord arriving at the scene, puffing a Cuban cigar in Panama hat and white linen suit.  His son Pablo is riding in a helicopter to a first grade classroom in Mexico City, taught by my daughter Kate.  I know there must be something sinister involving those wealthy folks who attend private schools in Mexico with barbed wire and cement walls.  Patrolling guards surround the school armed with machine guns to ward off abductions asking for exorbitant ransoms.  A few years ago, Kate attended parties at the home of a Mexican TV executive whose daughter was kidnapped and held for ransom for several years.  So much intrigue south of the border!

Mexico flashes, bringing to mind my handsome son-in-law Bernardo as well as his friends Fernando, who runs fleets of trucks throughout Mexico, and Cesar, who ships pineapples from the family plantation.  A truck Bernardo runs in Mexico was abandoned by a disgruntled driver who needed cash.  The boss wasn’t giving raises, so the driver stole the tires and sold them.  The law operates differently on the other side of the border.  When Bernardo was held up at a gas station, after withdrawing cash at the bank to pay wages for his cleaning crews, he didn’t bother to contact the police.  He knew there could have been repercussions: the robbers got his wallet with all his identification and a picture of his blonde American wife.

Law flashes.  Law enforcement in Mexico is nothing like it was in Pope County, when Dad was Sheriff DeKok and his side-kick Deputy Lynn Krook apprehended bank robbers and drunks.  In the sixties, some crooks actually enjoyed returning to jail for Mom’s cooking.  Talk about different worlds.

Beverly called.  My actress-cousin is getting humorous “senior” roles for film, movies, and commercials.  She’s had a nightmare day, but also the “time of her life” at her latest “SHOOT”.   Beverly, alias “Scarface”, has a badly bruised face from a fall.  She’s not starring in a horror flick, but Bev’s shoot is being filmed in an 1870’s farmhouse in rural Minnesota where Hollywood’s makeup artists are doing a fine job covering her black eye, bruised chin and thin black scar running down her face.  The film is set in “Charlie Tumbledown”, a farmhouse basement and barn filled to the rafters with questionable treasures.  Quite the character, Bev keeps on jumping into new adventures.  Her last Grand Casino commercial line “We’re BUSTED!” got raves!

OH, my aching head...Time to take another aspirin.  My head is really spinning today. 

Funerals can be celebrations of life.  That was the feeling yesterday at the Stradtman funeral we attended.  We celebrated the release from pain of Jill who had been confined to a wheelchair at rest homes for so many years following a devastating auto accident.  The chapel was filled with supporters of Jill and her parents who have been so instrumental in Glenwood's retail and civic life, present and future.  Former teachers, friends and family assembled to reacquaint with each other and share the comforts of Glenwood's close community.  Adding to the day was the emergence of warm temperatures of spring sunshine!

Let's go Fishing!

Reel it in!  Try your hand at writing with writers' circle!  March 30, Wednesday mornings from 10-noon, we meet at my home on Carmen's Bay and work on words.  This month we'll be trying
1.  Hook readers with spicy titles
2. Bait readers with intriguing first lines
3.  Reel in readers with a memorable mesage
IT'S FUN to create and discuss writing.  We'll try essays and short stories, poetry and flash fiction.  As Eleanor Roosevelt said, :You must do the thing you think you cannot do."  Face it, you've always thought about writing your ideas.  Now DO IT! 
E-mail me at writerscircle@q.com or call 952-471-7152 about the writing class.

"Our real weakness is not to acknowledge the extent of our power."  Pearl Buck

no more snow...ALMOST!

ALMOST no more snow on Carmen's Bay; slick ice coats the surface of Lake Minnetonka.  Yesterday a cross-country skiier was sliding across our Bay.  Today, even the snowmobiles will question the safety of the ice.  LOVE these days of 50 degrees.  Spring is actually arrivingt!  I see a few nubbins of plant shoots in my garden.  Puddles abound; gooey mud is everywhere.  Buddy, my Beagle, has such messy feet, his little paws have to be wiped many times a day as he loves to romp outside in the water and mud. 

The view out my window has an absence of color.  Only white and gray are in existence.  But I know.  By the weekend, I'm betting on a few patches of greening grass.  I'm waking up from my winter sluggishness, getting out the seed catalogues and hanging up the baking with sugar and butter.  Enough of sweet calories!  Time to get out and walk once more...

PAT--FROM MY WINDOW: CATCALLS & CARDINALS

PAT--FROM MY WINDOW: CATCALLS & CARDINALS: "WHAT A MORNING! CARDINALS ARE CAT-CALLING THEIR BIRDY PALS AT 6AM WHEN I BRAVE THE ELEMENTS TO GET THE NEWSPAPER OUTSIDE...AND IT'S LI..."

PAT--FROM MY WINDOW: new writing class offered

PAT--FROM MY WINDOW: new writing class offered: "It's SPRING! Let's go fishing to hook new readers! This 4 week Writers' Circle class, with on-line classes offered also, will be..."

new writing class offered

It's SPRING!  Let's go fishing to hook new readers!  This 4 week Writers' Circle class, with on-line classes offered also, will begin March 30 and continue until April 20.  We'll meet in my home on Casco Pt of Lake Minnetonka from 10-12 AM with a friendly, lively coffee discussion at 9:30.  Naturally, I'll have fresh pasteries for writers to munch on...
We'll want to
1. Hook readers with spicy titles
2. Bail raders with intriguing first lines
3. Reel in readers with a memorable message

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."  Eleanor Roosevelt

Our real weakness is not to acknowledge the extent of our power."  Pearl Buck

Take the challenge to do something you've always thought about...WRITE NOW! 
Call 952-471-7152 or email writerscircle@q.com with questions

art, sun, new energy

"As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life."  Elbert Hubbard  So goes my life...my new interest in painting with acrylics has enlivened my days with new color and energy.  My first work "Red Chair Insouciance" featured a gal "with attitude" relaxing in her red chair.  I just sent that piece off as a birthday present to my pal in New Mexico who covets my red chairs.  My second work is of two metal lawn chairs rocking on a fall lawn of scattered leaves...I really like that one!  It feels good!   That feeling comes through with bold brush strokes and vivid color in the paintings.  Now I'm working on two others more complicated: backgrounds of purple and fuchia squares highlight giant sunflowers.  Another is of a French appearing street which fades away as the buildings lead up a hill.  I love the houses of pinks, purples, oranges and  blues..so like those quaint buildings we saw in Provance when traveling there to Kate's place where she was a summer girl in France.  Delightful sunny homes on the Mediterranan fiilled with sunshine where diners broke into song.  What a memory!

CATCALLS & CARDINALS

WHAT A MORNING!  CARDINALS ARE CAT-CALLING THEIR BIRDY PALS AT 6AM WHEN I BRAVE THE ELEMENTS TO GET THE NEWSPAPER OUTSIDE...AND IT'S LIGHT ALREADY!  Spring MUST be just around the corner.  Puddles prevail on my sidewalk and the street and woods where Buddy and I take our daily jaunt in the neighborhood.  It's amazing how much better i feel when the weather warms and NO SNOW IS FALLING TODAY!

duck adrift, aimless, no enthusiasm

Have you seen the yellow duck? Just like Moby Dick's search for the white whale, I'm a yellow duck adrift on endless waters...This may not be April, "the cruelest month", as T.S.Eliot coined the phrase, but the endless snowfall has me despondent, in search of a passion and enthusiasm I normally feel!

Just read about Donovan Hohn's MOBY-DUCK in the NYTIMES book review section. A load of bath toys had plummeted off a storm-wracked ship in the Pacific in 1992. Beachcombers found toys on the coastlines for years to come. That instance prompted Hohn to give up his teaching job and investigate where the ducks drifted and why. Searching the watery wilderness refreshed his capacity for awe.

I need to go into the snowy woods with my Beagle Buddy to search for new inspiration. No longer do I want to be a duck adrift; I want a purpose, a goal that will inspire me! What's it gonna be?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! May your day be rosy and filled with love...may you enjoy chocolates, flowers, preferably daisies for fresh life, and valentine messages from your friends like me.

KITE SKIING

Would I want to be 26 all over again? That was the age of too much energy and angst about relationships. Nope 26 is no longer interests me...my son and his pal Cody are off to go kite skiing on the lake. Sunshine is lighting up the frozen lake, inviting outdoor enthusiasts to come out and play. They guys are going kite skiing, another new adventure for them. Yesterday one of their pals broke his shoulder while enjoying his ski; that hasn't deterred these guys!

Walking in the woods with Buddy, my favorite Beagle, is enjoyment enough for me!

Bummed about Valentine's Day

Totally bummed...I wanted to look forward to something for the special day. But how many wives have husbands who actually plan a date for Valentine's? By this time, I ought to know better and not be so disappointed! And I don't like roses...that's his mother's favorite! Me, I'm the daisy queen...and chocolates. But what I'd truly love is dinner at this little Italian restaurant in St Paul Restaurante Luci where the paste is homemade and so fresh; desserts are to die for! Service is attentive with white linen tablecloths and quaint surroundings. A Bohemian crowd of professors and arty types frequent the place...ah, how I'd enjoy dinner there. It's been several years. Guess I'll have to find another valentine to dine with.

Three days in Mexico City with our daughter Kate and her husband Bernardo were grand! Weather there is always sunny in the 70's...WOW! What a welcome reprieve from Mpls weather below zero...so chilling! We visited Chapultapac Park, the Castle there housing luxurious historic carriages, costumes, jewels and rooms so opulent it took my breath away!

The outdoor parks throughout the city were filled with families and their pets. Little kids and adults were floating boats in the ponds and eating cotton candy and ice cream. Delightful family scenes reminded me of our children's younger days.

We viewed the Super Bowl game at a restaurant, cheering on the Packers to victory. Kate's inlaws were Packer fans too. Such a fun-filled day, I was exhausted so the following day we stayed in bed watching 4 movies. "Dispicable Me" and "Valentine Day" were my favorites but I'll always have a warm spot for "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan and that Italian scenery so lush and romantic!

Outside my window the lake and sky blur together into soft grayness. But on my afternoon walk with Buddy, my very intelligent Beagle, the western sky was glaring with brilliant sunshine to make the FRIGID temperature a bit more palatable...lovely winter, but .........I do wish for more warmth. The furnace is belching out blasts of warm air which is NOT doing the job it should. Yes, we probably need newer windows, but a wall of windows would be so costly. I wonder how long that bill would take to pay back our investment. It'd pay off in more comfortable indoor temperatures;I'm sure of that!