The last two mornings I have been quite taken with the beauty of the moon going down in the west.  This morning a herd of deer crossed the road before I did.  I KNOW that one of them was carrying the picture of a motor vehicle they are supposed to find should Mr Phelps accept the Mission.

I have two cats in time out.  Seems that my #1 and #2 dominant cats – both male and neutered have taken a disliking in the last 3 days to female cat #6.  It’s rock and roll with hissing, batting, chasing and fighting.  Anyone know what is going on.  #6 has lived here about 5 months…she has been a constant hisser but they normally just give her a wide berth. 

I’m trying to give the separation of church and state some time off today.  It exhausts me!

Why is the fact that someone commits suicide anyone’s business…why is it necessary for the news media to rape the family’s history, emotions and grief.  I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT.  It is not news…perhaps a suicide in a public place information has merit…keeps the speculations down..but why are any of the details public record …. it just makes my head want to explode.  Leave the family alone you damn vultures!

I get to see my girls this weekend.  I’m very excited..I’m giddy…

Until next time…

“I see a real possibility that because of law suits already filed, soon we will be okaying multiple partners as well as beastial marriages.”

The ignorance of that statement made me so mad that I shut off my computer and went in and watched Ellen and listened to the cats hissing at each other.  They must have read it too.    I will not respond to the statement other than on my own blog where I can say whatever it is I want to say.  We have freedom of speech…he has every right to say what he thinks.  I’m just embarrassed for christians … he is a minister and he is representing them…

Until next time..

Today I’m not talking to you sign carriers of God Hates Fags.  While, yes…you have a right to your opinion and while yes…for the most part…I will listen to anyone’s opinion, you are hate mongers and I loathe you!

Today I’m not talking to you folks who genuinely believe that your God wants you to not support gay and marriage equality…that is okay.  I disagree with you but that is okay.

Today I’m talking to those of you who fear homosexuality for whatever reason.  You don’t want to be gay and have the burdens of living in our society with a target on your back…you are gay and you know that your friends and family will cast you out.  You have no idea how gays can do it sexually…the thought of it makes you cringe…hahaha..just think about what having sex with you is like for your partner.  Somewhere while growing up, you had it beat into your head, while at church or at the dinner table, you learned that you should be against those homos.

Please let go of everything you have heard and told to believe.  Please open your heart…really self reflect…how will marriage equality have any affect on you?  I’m not talking about all of the rhetoric that you can type out in the comments field…I’m talking about down deep inside…if you are not gay…what possible difference could this make to you?

I’m quite confident that some day, we will look back at the discrimination of homosexual people the same way we look back at the discrimination when we didn’t believe in race equality.  At least you probably don’t know when you are sitting at the front of the bus with a gay person and thankfully they don’t have to drink out of separate water fountains…because it isn’t catchy if that is what you are afraid of.

Until next time….

I think it was female deacons in the church which sent me off the do-as-I-say paved road to heaven.  From my conservative christian church vision of how it should be, I tumbled and stumbled but it was the more mildly liberal church with their females taking up the “collection” and serving the communion which I mentally struggled with.  What happened to women taking the submissive role in the church. 

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 

The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

….and this was in the new testament.  So…do we obey the bible or do we pick and choose what we obey in the bible.

Yup…this was the beginning!

Until next time….

I don’t believe in bringing a knife to a gun fight which is the reason I’m venting on my own blog; but, I must say your weak, pathetic, vague explanation just irritated me.  The bloggest you were answering is mostly vague and defensive too…so birds of a feather.

I feel better.

It’s snowing.  I could talk about my feelings…but, really, what is the point?  At least it isn’t piled up 3 feet high along the gravel roads!

Each decade of life – and perhaps I will actually say every 5 year of life after you turn 50 – brings forth different ways of thinking.  Up until a few years ago, I felt immortal.  My fears of dying would be an accidental death.  As I age and more of my peers or peers 10 years older are passing on, I think about my health….I’m not doing anything to increase my longevity..but I’m thinking about it.

I remember my parents – especially my dad – saved things for retirement…when they passed, I found clothing, shoes, stuff in perfectly good or new condition that they had put back for later…I believe it was the depression generations who never lost that mindset. 

I save things back…for me in this time of my life…is this normal or some ingrained teaching I need to work thru?

I’ve quit dying my hair.  It may make me look older..I have had positive comments from people about my gray/white hair.  I don’t mind it.  I decided to do it as a statement..probably the same reason I sported a nose ring for several years.  This is me…I don’t apologize..I want to be genuine..and I want to be different….I don’t want to be a conformist…I’m still kicking and screaming…

Until next time…

I could really find nothing wrong with this car.  It was a little larger than I like but rode like a dream.  Oh…this was our rental…Actually the rental agencies must be using Chargers a lot because we saw a million of them on the road…most were white.  One thing Las Vegas has figured out is the airport/rental car process…All or most of the rentals are picked up in one huge garage and getting to and from the airport by shuttle is very easy.

This next picture is for my daughters…He and I walked the strip one day…toward the end, my feet were killing me until I found a sketchers store and bought a pair of walking shoes…awwww…but as I continued to walk, the hurtful place on my foot continued to hurt…I needed a pair of socks…and I was wearing crop pants…we stopped at a drugstore and all they had were white ankle socks or crazy knee socks.  For some reason, I thought the white socks would look better…OKAY…none of them would look good…I put them on my foot and rolled them under my heel so they wouldn’t look like ankle socks…ya…it looked good.  I took a picture because we laughed hysterically about what the girls would say if they knew I was running around Vegas like this.  Actually..I’ve become my mother.l

Our first couple of nights were at TI…Treasure Island…we had a extreme corner window so we could see both ways on the strip…nice room.

Our second night was the Luxor.  No one told us that there was one elevator to the 17th floor…This hotel/casino is built like a pyramid – the rooms are around the outside of the pyramid and the casino is encased in the center.  Our room was exactly opposite corner of the elevator…so it was an all day journey down two identical hallways to get there.  Because of this fact, I can’t see us staying there again.  We did have a beautiful view of the Mandalay Bay and the airport which was wonderful for us.  Our room was wonderful…I was very happy there…but if you left the room…you wanted to make sure you had everything you might need with you because it was just too far to run back to the room!

We ate several meals on the mezzanine because the food prices were very reasonable and tasty.  We especially liked the Nathan’s hot dog booth!!!!

What totally irritated me were the prices on the strip.  I wasn’t surprised..just irritated.  Here’s $8.

We both love Caesers Palace and will probably stay there if we ever go back … Here’s some random pictures I took…and no..he did not get a Rolex…

We had the intention to spend more time watching the fountains at the Belagio…but only made it once. 

Can you tell what music is playing?

We had more tears-in-the-eyes, stomach-hurting laughter during this trip than we have had for a long time.  Not our best vacation…but we enjoyed each other.

Until next time…

I have never traveled any place where a curve in the road could open a vista of completely different landscape.  I didn’t want to do anything to distract me from the windshield views.  The rocks colors change from white to pink to red and back again in just a few miles…the desert goes from redish clay to covered in a taupe grass of some type.

The landscapes were nothing of what I expected.

Driving thru the desert to the Grand Canyon had a unreal movie feel to it.  This is barren land.  Every now and then, the road would pass near the home of someone…I think these next pictures are actually Navajo country…but I would often think to myself (using my lush green Iowa filter) what is it like to live in this nothingness?]

I’m glad we went to see the Grand Canyon.  I mentioned earlier that it is a lotta rock and a little water.  I learned a lot about how the canyon formed and while it is still incredible, I was a little disappointed that the big ole’ Colorado river didn’t just rush thru the canyon creating a the ravines…there was also a lot of crumbling of the sandrock etc.  Had I read a big girl book about it, I probably wouldn’t have held onto my elementary thoughts on the matter.  It is beautiful, it is incredible…there was total wow factor….but, I’ve seen it now and that is enough.

Until next time…

The name just rolls off the tongue.  It is a beautiful place.

We ate breakfast at the same little cafe in the older tourist part of downtown.  What a view each morning.

We were both in a strange mood this vacation.  He made the comment as we were heading back to Nevada that this seemed like the longest vacation we’ve ever had and we still have 2 more days.  I’m not sure what we were expecting in Sedona.  We decided that if you were wanting a very relaxing layed back vacation and loved the mountains and rocks – this was a great place to go…and if you love hiking and rock climbing…again…this is your town.  We just were not in that mood…the altitude bothered me and we were just restless.  We left a day earlier than we had planned and ate the price of one night’s lodging..I suppose that is what was different this vacation…it was actually planned out, reservations made and for He and I…that is not the way to travel!

Until next time….

 Birthdays changed for me after my mom and Aunt Frances died (2009).  When you are an only child, no one remembers the event of your birth once those who were around at the time of your birth have passed on.  In my particular situation, this does not take anything away from my cousin John Green because as the story goes, when I was first introduced to him, he danced around and said he wasn’t going to look at Ninna until he could look at her good.  

But, those who witnesses, so to speak, my momentous birth are gone now….and it feels different…that…and mom, dad and Aunt Frances did not miss celebrating everyone’s birthday….if not on the actual day, then at least on the next weekend.  I miss that too…some times it would rather annoy me…but be careful what you wish for.

He has given me a week of birthday celebration.  i love him dearly!

Until next time when I will be firmly 57…..on my way to 58 *forearm on forehead.

Do you ever have one of those uh oh moments where you hear dueling banjos in your head and then you think about all of the movies you see where something tragic happens to the older Midwest couple when they stop for a bite to eat in the desert…maybe it wasn’t a movie maybe it was just my fertile imagination…but

We were following the navigation on my phone between Las Vegas and Sedona,Az…so we get to a corner and navi tells us to turn right….this is a gravel road in the desert for crying out loud. There was a “restaurant”-souvenir shop on the corner…this is a souvenir shop full of dirty shelves containing dirty shot glasses, dime store authentic Indian jewelry and indian dream catchers next to the little restaurant.

On the way in we pass a plywood sign advertising chili.

We are greeted at the dining counter by a young, blond girl 22 years old give or take 5 years…if you are picturing her chewing gum…she wasn’t.

WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?

Something to eat…

He chimes in with a bowl of chili.

*far off look…..ssilence….OH WE HAVE CHILI ON THE SIGN. WE HAVE TACOs

He and I look at each other and say that 2 tacos apiece will be fine

For the next 40 minutes we sit at the counter drinking our soft drinks that thank god were in sealed bottles while she moves around the in side of the horseshoe of the counter humming, writing things on paper and scotch taping them to various bottles while we watched Karate Kid on the TV. After 40 minutes she asked if we wanted salsa, sour cream or guacamole..we both said sour cream….10 minutes later she came humming from the back with 4 tacos…guacamole, salsa and sour cream. We ate quickly and got the hell out of dodge..when we walked out of the restaurant, I was expecting to see our rental car on jacks, totally stripped.

all was well, we followed navigation down the dirt road, thru a desert village and over to the highway to go south With a memory filled with laughter and disbelief and a story to retell a thousand times as old people do.

Until next time….