Random Wordiness: The Musical

Word of the Post
Today's word is: anathema
/a*nath"e*ma/ noun
I found this on dict.org, my first dictionary site, and decided they had the best explanation:
Anything devoted (especially to evil), a curse, to dedicate.
1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
2. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
This definition makes me want to read Colleen Coble's newest book, Anathema. (Anathematized... wow that looks like a $10 word I could use in a sentence! Ooh, and Solemnity. I love vocabulary building!)
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I have always enjoyed watching a passing storm. Dad used to turn the couch around to let us view it all through the widescreen of our picture window. Today, the raindrops fall on the trees in gentle music, tickling the ivory keys of the leaves, percussion falling on different surfaces below, creating a symphony of sounds. Like parts of the music in Fantasia (Disney presentation), the scene would be almost serene, save for the clashes of the lightning and resulting thunder's sonic booms. "Drip, drip, drop, little April showers..."

(Funny, that looked a lot longer in the notebook when I wrote it yesterday than it does now that it is typed.) This is the big branch that is still in our backyard. The big tree in the center of the yard is partially dead, and likes to "drop hints" that it needs to be pruned.



So now that you have the soft plinking of piano in the background of your head, I can share more of my last two weeks. The royal owners of the plantation, the cats, were having a busy day guarding the grounds. Can you tell what they are so interested in?



Yes, that is a squirrel... on the front stoop, taunting the cats. Oh, for a paintball gun, or a pellet gun. These nasty little creatures have made all our lives miserable recently. They have managed to get back into the formerly sealed hole in the roof, I think, and they are making a wreck of the cats' senses. Nasty vermin.

On Friday, June 6, when I was granted an audience with the Prince Gum Drop, I took the moment to be paparazzi. (I thought that was a collective term. I wonder how I am one female photographer of stars? Papparazza?) Most of my pictures, and experience, up to that day had been with both the Candy Kids. Here is me, and the Gum Drop.



After we had dinner with Gramma and Grampa, we played in the back of Grampa's truck. Gum Drop left little "ghost" footprints in the dirt in the bed of the truck. Here we see the path of the Sasquatch, coming toward us, through the rough terrain.



This is the resulting dirty foot.



The ants are still around, but only show their faces when DH leaves a little juice in the bottom of the glass. This photo was taken after a three day absence of ants.



I played a little with the view at the side of the glass. Does anyone else read "OC" there? Ack! They are coming back to haunt me! I paid them off, and now they want more. Beware the groove.... Groove!



I spent Monday this week doing laundry and my nails. I told Niki in an email that I had chosen to go with "an obscenely bright pink". This is one of my new little bottles of joy from O.P.I. nail products. The bottles are big enough to give me four or five manicures, and small enough that if I don't like them, they are not a huge loss when I throw them away. If I really like them, then I can buy a full-sized bottle.



This is WAY out of my comfort zone, but will go nicely with the purple shirt I am wearing today for our Steak 'N' Shake luncheon today. Niki is doing what we try to do when we travel. We love to go to restaurants that we don't have at home. When we went to Colorado, DH picked Black Eyed Pea, because we haven't seen one outside of Texas in several years.



I got this picture of Marvel yesterday. I love how I somehow caught him looking at me, and you can see that he has gorgeous eye color. I am amazed that it didn't turn out looking like reflective marbles like my picture attempts usually give me.



This is one happy kitty! Look at those whiskers!


I hope the world is rubbing you the right way today. Have a nap, have a party, have a quiet time with God. Do whatever makes you happy today.

Going Home, I'm A-Going Home

When last we saw our heroine, she was leaving Gallup, and winging her way East, toward another edition of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bloggers. (Thanks to Niki who was the clever one to come up with that parody. I wish I had thought of it first.) Aren't the clouds pretty? You can see them all over the Southwest. Sky isn't as open in the big city.

We proceeded to Albuquerque. This is near the interchange at I25 and I40. In Dallas, they call their big messy area the “Mix Master”. Oklahoma City has flyover loops, but not many areas that are so many levels.

Driving through Albuquerque, I always get the sense that they are working on making the City pretty. Their overpasses are painted, their highway walls are stucco and have impressions of art on them. There is a tall thing that lights up at night. Jenna is embarrassed by the thing, but it is nothing if not interesting. I certainly wouldn't call it pretty. It is near the highway, so I didn't get a good picture of it. Which may be for the best.

We first went to Jenna's house, to clean out the car, and visit for a little bit. One of her dogs, Charlie Brown, is convinced that I have to be stared at. He knows my Mom, and he knows me. He seems to know we are similar, but he also knows we are not the same. I wonder sometimes if he has figured out that I am essentially her "pup". He sits on my lap, and looks deeply into my eyes, which for most dogs means a challenge. He will not bark at Mom when she visits. He sits near her when she is at Jenna's, as if she is in need of a guard. Jenna is sweet, moving the dogs to her room, where they can go outside if they choose. DH likes this, because he isn't really a dog person. I am OK with dogs as long as they don't bite me.

We then went to LooneyMom's home for a wonderful dinner. She prepared a Green Chile Stew, and even made tortillas from scratch! We got to meet her lovely family, and we had a good time visiting with her. Some of the people I have met online (and then in person) have spouses who wonder why they are letting this crazy lady into their lives. Not so with Liz's husband.

He was involved in the conversation, and was happy to meet us. I got to enjoy my favorite things about New Mexico: The green chiles and the people I miss so much. I got to indulge myself in a little homemade peach ice cream. We had a fun visit. Like so many other visits before, it ended far too soon. I cropped the pictures so that you can't see the writing on the wall. (There were household scribbles on the white board behind us, and they looked important, but Liz didn't want me to show them to you.)

We left Liz and went back to Jenna's to spend the night. I tried to get a picture of Albuquerque from Jenna's back door. She lives above the city. It was a spectacular view, but my camera didn't do it the justice it deserved.

Saturday, we decided that the 10 hour drive was going to be easy. We were not in a rush to get home. We drove at a leisurely pace, and stopped to see the things we had never stopped to visit. The one thing that really was in my mind was the huge cross on the highway at Groom, TX.

I have seen it from both directions for over 10 years, but this is the first time either of us had ever stopped to actually visit the scene. As I am not Catholic, I don't completely understand or agree with all the 14 Stations of the Cross. I took pictures of the ones that made sense to me. Here is Pilate washing his hands of the responsibility of killing Jesus.

Here is Jesus carrying the cross, with help from Simon of Cyrene.

Here is the Soldier nailing Jesus down to the wood.

A closeup of the hand of the Soldier, holding the hammer. I think of this as all my sin and anger nailing Christ to the Cross. I have this as my thumbnail picture on my profile. It is profound to me, and precious. Jesus still loves me after THAT. How can I help but live for Him?

Near here, they have a replica of the tomb. Up on top of the replica of the tomb there is a scene of three men hanging on crosses. The Center is, of course, Jesus. The other two are the criminals that were mentioned in the Biblical accounts. In the recreation, the thief on the right (the left of Christ) is the one that is repentent, and the one on the left (to the right of Christ) is the angry one. I got pictures of those in the sunset. It was hard to tell the features, because of all the back lighting.

But, that gives us my favorite picture. This is the representation of Christ hanging on the Cross, between two criminals that should have been me, you and everyone who has ever lived.

The area impacted me. It is not often that I can find meaning in images of what people think Christ looked like. These are bronze statues, so there is the earthen color of them, to make His skin look darker, which is closer to the actual Jewish heritage, and less like the Rennaisance/Romance/Pink Jesus usually depicted in art. I can't help but think that we are too gentle with the thought that He was pretty to look at. Isaiah said there was nothing about His features that made us come to Him. It was His love for us, not His pretty face, that put Him on that Cross for ME. It was His words and His way of caring for us that made Him attractive, not the soft hands and well-groomed beard and straight, golden-lit medium brown hair. I find it hard to think of these statues too long, as they are part of what I would consider as a graven image. God thought images were so important not to do, that he made it one of His Top 10 List of Do's and Don'ts.

I have pondered long and hard about huge crosses, because after Groom presented theirs to the world, a Community Church in Edmond went through a lot of trouble to recreate it here. That church put more money in Legal Fees fighting to get the “right” to build such a monstrosity, than my church family makes in many years. What if, for the sake of argument, they had used that heap of cash to feed the poor, heal the sick, provide for the community? Which acts would have shown the world who Jesus truly was? Now, they still have a hurting world to care for, and the only evidence I see of their faith is an ugly structure that may have cost their souls. I simply don't understand what is so important about displaying a cross instead of displaying the love of the One who suffered the cross to save us.

This is the large cross as I saw it looking down from the top of the hill where the three crosses were. You can see the “stations” around it.

To the left of me from this view, there is a building. It has in the center of it, a water fountain, with an image of Jesus standing in the middle, I guess making a speech.

There is a gift shop (that was closed because we were there far too late in the evening). The area continues to grow. The builders are working on a nativity scene. The family and visitors of baby Jesus.

The camel that likely brought them from afar.

Everything was made of, or pointed to, the cross. Even the light fixtures that shine on it at night are supported by crosses.

The rest of our trip through Texas and Oklahoma was made primarily in the dark. We got home, and had to remind the cats that we still live here, and that we would not harm them. We have never been away for a full two weeks before. Even though they had occasional company from our wonderful friend Cathy who came every day to feed them, they thought we had officially lost our marbles. Which I have not. In fact, I even bought one in Boulder.

I am sorry that the Vacation Chronicles have taken so long to finish. We have had a collapse of computer access. My DH is so intelligent. He rescued a lot of our pictures and word files from our failed laptop. He saved us at least $100, by getting into our desktops and burning CD's of information. I couldn't get the thing to let me into any of the programs. We did have to buy a “genuine” copy of Windows XP Home, and that is now loaded. We still have to get a driver, to tell the computer that it has, and can operate, the wireless modem. (We found out after we loaded the new Windows programs that we could have burned that information, too. C'est la vie!)

This post brought to you by the Awesome DH, and the marvels of modern technology. And by the letter T. And also by the number 3.

Oh Six, Oh Seven, Oh Eight.... Oh My!

Several people have emailed and commented to me that I should put something new on the blog. I have been hesitating and procrastinating. I decided from Jayme's Life Lessons Learned that I cannot spend my "5 minutes" wasted on thinking of doing something when I must DO something. I also chose to put away the putting off of duty, delegation and desire. I should not put off the good I can do today, to wait for better tomorrow, as I may not have a tomorrow. Without further ado...

On Wednesday, June 4, the world should have celebrated a great milestone. However, most of you will never even know about it. 71 years ago on June 4, a man named Sylvan Goldman invented the shopping cart. He first produced them by building a little cart with wheels, that held two small shopping baskets. He also invented the later addition, a child seat in the top part of the cart. They were first used in Oklahoma City. (the news station told me, so don't think I made this up)

Also on June 4 back in 1919, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was instated. It guaranteed the right of Women to Vote. Handy to remember all those 19's.

On Friday, June 6, I was entrusted with a very valuable cargo. I got the opportunity to watch my nephew, Gum Drop, for a few hours while his daddy went to work. His mommy and sister (Jelly Bean) are out of the state on an adventure. This weekend, Gramma and Grampa are borrowing Gum Drop. They have never gotten to have him all by himself, because he is the second child. So, I was trusted to take Gum Drop to the Baby Swap meeting, near half-way between our fair city and Gramma's home. This is a 45 minute drive from Gum Drop's house. He is so laid back, such an easy baby. Totally different from his high-maintenance sister. (Not to say that she is bad; on the contrary, she was an easy baby, too. She just demands more attention.) I took a picture Friday that reminded me much of an old picture of Jelly Bean. Maybe I can get the two pictures side by side here for you someday soon.

I finished reading the most recent book I couldn't put down. It was "Abomination" by Colleen Coble. I loved Colleen's book. It was the perfect blend of thought-provoking and scary. Chills. I was certain the killer was someone else. I see now how she dropped little clues. I didn't see it at the time. Oh, it was great!

I hate to tell her, but there were two mistakes I caught. One of them ruined a bit of the early drama, and the other was a minor typo (and probably not her mistakes at all). I do relish being a Proofreader. I miss it greatly. I need to be in contact with some of the publishers. I want to get transcripts to things electronically, and "telecommute" to work. I don't really want to Edit, per se, but I would love to correct everyone's grammatical and spelling errors. I would so very much enjoy fixing the writers' and publishers' mistakes. Spell Check on your computer program cannot possible find all the mistakes. See? Possibly, you missed it? In a hypothetically perfect world, "an" and "a" would not be interchangeable, particularly in front of words beginning with H. I know. I am a psycho; but my little world is so much more clear, and fun for me.

Today is 06-07-08. It is THE wedding day of the year, supposedly. DH suggested to one bride we know that she should have the wedding start at 3:45. I wonder if there are babies being born today, that will be happy to know their birthday is such an interesting set of numbers? Yesterday was a birthday for a friend from High School (that I have since lost track of). There were three of us, S. born on 04-04, Me born on 05-05 and V. born on 06-06. V. was into lots of strange things, like Numerology, smoking and E.S.P. She commented once on the fact that my upbringing (church of Christ) would not allow me to go to dances, while hers (United Methodist) threw them. It isn't so much that my church wouldn't let me go, but my mother thought I needed to be more mature to go. I was planning to go to my Senior Prom, but when nobody asked (one of two or three nobody's in very particular), I took my father to see a movie. Daddy/Daughter dates were rare, and I enjoyed it. The only downside was that he had to drive home in the downpour of driving, sheeting, bucketing, cats-and-dogs rain.

I have been quietly cleaning up the blog, adding the books I have finished for the 888 Challenge, and massaging the links that I have. I have added a few new links that I have checked often for a long time, but decided to share with those of you who may not go the same route I have traveled. I have removed some links that have not updated for several months. (Jared, I would add you back at a moment's notice, so don't despair!) I finally took down my link to Suezque. It breaks my heart all over again to have to remove something so cherished. I saved the link, and have looked at it often, but I couldn't stare at it anymore on my side bar. In fact, it has been hard for me to come up with something new for the blog, because adding another post would move their remembrance from the top three posts, and I wasn't ready yet for that to happen. I may never be ready, so I decided to do it today.

Flip Flop Mamma lost a close friend recently, as well. He was only 32, and was an amazing story of faith and strength. One of her friends, while at Steve's funeral, said to FFM, "Can you imagine being so amazing that God only needs you on Earth for 32 years?" My memory gave a start, because at the Whitlow graveside service, the second uncle of the three to speak pondered, "The greatest Man to ever walk this Earth died when He was only 33." He was referring to Jesus, of course, and the fact that Gary had not yet made it to his 34th Birthday. I am just 34 myself, and barely so. Stark realizations have set in. I can't imagine that my funeral would be as positive. I must work to change that. I don't believe Gary's age was "coincidence", any more than I think that the tornado was an "accident".

Sally said that she had a friend whose daughter was touched by Gary and Kim's story and dedicated her young life to Christ. What greater good can come out of such tragedy? The work of the Lord goes on, in the lives and hearts of younger people all the time. Legacy. We inherited it from our family or mentors or teachers. It will be passed on to the following generations in the same ways, for all time to come on this Earth. Until Jesus comes back to take us all home, we must forge ahead. Forging is not always an easy or pleasant job. I have to remember to keep looking for good. I have to be good to others, and not let my own disappointment and depression keep me mired in the mud where I seem to be stuck. God will give me His Joy.

DH just told me that Big Brown finished Third. I don't know why that is still so intriguing to me. When I was a child, reading all the horse books I could get my hands on, the current running of the Triple Crown was the only sport I was curious to watch. Big Brown this year had already won the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Today was the running of the Kentucky Derby, the third and largest (well, most televised and talked about) race of the Triple Crown. I was rather hoping Big Brown would win. It has been many years since one horse captured all three races. Rare, and exciting to follow. I think Black Beauty got me hooked on the real races, and riding my cousin's horse in the summer trips to Kansas.

Blessings on your weekend!