Book Two, Chapter Five

One of the bright spots of an East Tennessee winter is that the Bluebirds hang around. They don't eat the standard bird seed mix, but they visit the feeders occasionally anyway. Sometimes we will sight 6 or 8 of them perched on the gutters perusing for worms.

Got another free dinner last night at the Chop House - a great salad, hot bread, half rack of ribs, baked sweet potato and pretty good coffee. There was so much food that we have enough leftovers to be lunch today.

Had to listen to a sales pitch about thermal insulation which was actually very intersting. The product (Temper Shield) consists of two 97% aluminum sheets sandwiched around a kevlar mesh then coated on both sides by mylar. It was very tough and in a test he conducted with heat lamps, it conducted absolutely no heat. The stuff is quite $$$$, but only if you have it installed. If you can do it yourself - depending on a few other factors - you could recoup your $$$ in 12 to 18 months. Jerry did a little research last night when we got home and there are apparently several other brands available.

Book Two, Chapter Two, Part Three

Miracle on The Hudson indeed! I don't know why I didn't post on this subject earlier (the incident happened on Jan 15), but Ellen had eight passengers on her show today and it reminded me. I can't imagine how many things had to go right so that all of the people on US Airways Flight 1549 could be alive and well today. Congratulations to Chesley Sullenberger III on his remarkable ditching. Rather than rehash things here, I will just add a link to the Wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549

Book Two, Chapter Four

It's official. Barak Obama is now the 44th President of the United States of America. Is this a great country or what? The President and the First Lady just got out of the limo and are walking down Pennsylvania Ave. I hope Stephen Fairey doesn't mind that I 'lifted' his iconic portrait for my lttle blog. I have purchased a pin with this image on it.

I haven't been this excited about politics since the inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. I was only 10 years old, but my 5th grade teacher had us studying about the candidates all year and then we had a mock election on election day. My parents let me stay up until midnight on election night to watch the returns come in and then we had to go to bed still not knowing the result.

A couple of things that really struck me during Barak Obama's inaugural address:

"The challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America, they will be met." and "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America."

On a lighter note, the weathermen finally got it right. After predicting snow three or four times this year and getting wrong we had about two inches yesterday. It snowed almost all day and was so beautiful. At times it was very light and we thought it was going to quite but then it would start up again. Jack had a great time. Jerry even let him out in the yard without a leash so he could run and romp and rut. Woo hoo!

"Few things are harder to put up with than a good example." ~Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Book Two, Chapter Three

Brrrrrr! 6 degrees fahrenheit this morning at 7:30 am. It was so cold the front door was frozen shut and Jerry had to take Jack out through the basement. When he got out there he started shaking so badly he couldn't poop, just peed and headed for the garage. It's now 10:00 am and still only 9 degress. But the sun is out, the sky is the most beautiful blue, and it is so clear we can see the ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains above the treetops down by the road.

Happy Birthday Paula! Today is her birthday and we are all going out for dinner tonight to celebrate her birthday and Jerry's birthday which is Sunday.

Have to finish putting Christmas away. It always takes me three or four weeks. Winter is just too depressing. One year it was February 1.

I added several new bracelets and a couple of earrings to my Etsy shop yesterday. There have been lots of views on all of the items but no sales since the first two.

Book Two, Chapter Two

I got an email yesterday from Susana. She mentioned that her brother Alfredo had set up a website for their mother Chelo to showcase her paintings. I really like her landscapes. I also love one she painted for Susana. It was a captivating study of a solitary woman on a street that appeared to be in Morocco.

I'm not quite sure how long she has been painting, but many of her canvases are copies of famous paintings and some were painted from a photograph. She did this to learn technique. I think she has found a style that is all her own. She offered me the choice of several paintings when we visited last April, but in all the rush of leaving I forgot to get it. Our visit was just too short.

Chelo's website is: http://www.chelopilar.es/. I will put a permenant link on the right side of the blog.

Alfredo is a very talented commercial artist. Susana's son Alvaro (13) also paints as does her daughter Violeta (9.) Apparently creative talent runs in the family.

Book Two, Chapter 1

Happy 2009


I was going to say that I'm glad to kiss 2008 goodbye, but then I got to thinking about the good things that happened last year and it's a pretty nice list:

~ Sean has been drug free for 10 and a half months

~ Sean has a place to live

~ Sean has been working pretty steadily

~Mom & Dad and Jerry & I and Lindy & Cindy and Terry & Debie and Mike & Laura and Cyndi & Ray and Sean & Jack and Jenalee and Jera all stayed pretty healthy

~ We had lots and tons of fun with Jack

~ We had a wonderful time on our 25th Anniversary trip, seeing new places and visiting old friends we hadn't seen since shortly after we were married

~ I finally got my jewelry business up and running on Etsy

~ We got to do a lot of camping this year

~ The Lady Vols won their 8th National Championship

~ The US had a history making Presidential election

~ The UT fired football coach Philip Fulmer



Now for the down side:

~ I lost my job to 'downsizing'

~ The economy is the worst we've had in my lifetime

~ We did not get to Tampa for the Women's Final Four

~ The UT fired football coach Philip Fulmer

~I still haven't found a job



All in all a pretty good year.

Let's see if we can improve on it this year.