Alice's Bedroom's Evolution

Back in 2005, when I first bought my house, my bedroom was painted white, and I was okay with that for a few months, but then I painted it a pale green.  

Not long after I painted my bedroom green, I became obsessed with painting a tree mural in the corner of the room.  No clue why other than one night when I was painting that mural, there was a loud BOOM and the whole house shook.  I assumed it was an earthquake, as earthquakes are fairly commonplace in Charleston, SC.  My boy dog, Buster, came running inside through the dog doors and was breathing so very hard that he took all my attention until I went to sleep that night.  I guessed the earthquake scared him.

I was wrong.

The next morning when I woke up, I noticed there was a HUGE tree in my backyard!!!  That tree used to stand behind my nextdoor neighbors' back fence. It had fallen and demolished a good portion of both our fences, which meant I suddenly didn't have a yard for my dogs anymore until the tree was removed, but that is another story.  

Today's story has to do with my bedroom.  

Yes.  I painted the tree on the green wall in 2006 and it looked like this:

I loved the tree for a long time, but I grew tired of the green, so a few years later, I painted my bedroom blue, but I kept the tree.  It looked like this:

I liked it okay, but the tree looked better on its original green wall, I think.  Still, I kept it for many years until yesterday, March 26, 2017, when I decided to have a normal bedroom again.  Now it looks like this:

and I LOVE it so very much!  Here's another shot of the room I took today:

This is the corner where the tree mural was.  It feels so calm and comforting in the room now.  I really love it.  All things pass when the time is right.  It was time for the tree to go, and I couldn't be more pleased. 

The color is really more of a grey with blue/green undertones, but for some reason my camera's eyes saw it as a pinkish color in this light.  It is really a more beautiful relaxing color in real life.  Lovely and it makes me happy!

What do you think?

Parallel Universes

Today I'm thinking about parallel universes and parallel universe theories.  Fascinating. 

I recently came across a year old article that talks about how scientists in Geneva, Switzerland have discovered a way to detect or even create black holes to other parallel universes. 

What?  Can this be true, and if so, did they really do it already and nobody told me???

To read this article for yourself click HERE and let me know what you think!

Then you may like to watch the ten minute video below.  It is fascinating and will definitely make you wonder about a LOT of things.

Enjoy!

A True Story: As It Was Told to Me

For the past few days I've been giving someone a ride extremely early in the morning to their tech college in a nearby town. 

Yesterday I noticed high schoolish children getting on their school bus before 6:30 AM, which means they'd probably been standing there in the dark and cold since 6:00 AM, and I was thankful all I had to do was walk a few blocks to school everyday when I was growing up.

An adult male was driving that school bus yesterday, which reminded me of when I was in high school and other high school children drove the school buses.

Yes.  You read that right.  Our school bus drivers back then were, for the most part, 16 years old with a few 17s and a couple of 18s thrown in for good measure.  No adults at all.  None.

In fact, my ex-husband, my brother Tom, and many of my friends (both male and female) were bus drivers in high school. Which reminded me of the story my ex-husband used to tell about his first time driving a school bus.

Back then drivers licenses could not be printed at the DMV.  No such thing as personal computers, and what few computers did exist were HUGE and housed in important places like NASA or the Pentagon, NOT in your local DMV.  No such thing as personal printers either.  What happened was you went to the DMV, passed all the tests, and then waited weeks for your actual license to arrive via snail mail before you could legally drive.  That is how it worked when everything was paper and pencil.

So...my ex-husband had passed all his tests and was in the process of waiting for his school bus driver's license to arrive, but that particular day they were a bus driver short and really needed someone to drive the bus, so the football coach in charge of the buses that day wrote my ex-husband a note:

"Mr. Hambright has my permission to drive this school bus."

or some such nonsense, and signed it: Coach Blanton.  Then he put my ex-husband on the bus and told him to take all the little children home, which my ex did because no one ever argued with the Coach. 

Now as I think back on this, I have to laugh at the absurdity of a football coach thinking he had the power to overrule SC laws of the road.  The audacity it took.  The sheer nerve.  What a megalomaniac!  AND he got away with things like that all the time because he was a winning football coach.  Amazes me.

But then I look up the salaries of football coaches in major colleges and universities and see that they are often the highest paid people on campus, so I guess it makes sense that they would think highly of themselves.  -shrug-

I often wonder what would have happened if a state patrol officer or another officer of the law had stopped my ex with only a note from the coach that allowed him to drive a school bus.  If it were a local policeman, I'm betting he would have accepted the note.  If it were a state patrolman, I'm thinking my ex would have been in big trouble. 

I'm also wondering how many other times that Coach wrote similar permission slips for yet unlicensed 16 year old school bus drivers???

What do you think???

Glen Campbell

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Glen Campbell?

I read the saddest thing this past Sunday.  Glen Campbell's present wife (his fourth wife) told reporters this past weekend that her husband can no longer play his guitar.

This country music icon, who still plays the background music in my head when I think of my life in the late 1960s, can in reality no longer play the guitar.

When I read that, it made me too sad to think of anything else for a few minutes. Can you think of anything sadder than a guitarist forgetting how to play his instrument??? So very sad.

Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease back in 2011.  He is in the late stages of the disease today, and I fear we will lose this talented man very soon. 

Alzheimer's is the Devil.  

Back in 1967 when I was at that awkward age of 12, too old to be a child and too young to be an adult, Mr. Campbell's Gentle on My Mind and By The Time I Get To Phoenix (both grammy winners) played through long afternoons of homework and daydreaming of being 16 and grown-up.  

The next year, when I was at the even more awkward age of 13, it was Witchita Lineman playing on the 8-track-tape-players of my friends' cars as we rode around the neighborhoods and trolled all the local teen hot spots.

NOTE:  In 1968 in South Carolina you could get your drivers license at age 14, but that changed the next year, so I had to be 15 before I could get my license and then it was restricted to daylight hours until I turned 16, but my friends, only two years older than me, had their licenses in 1968, so we often rode around together when I was 13.  

I can still hear that Witchita Lineman song playing over and over and over.  ♫♪♪♫•*•.¸♫♪♪♫He's still on the liiiiine.♫♪♪♫•*•.¸♫♪♪♫

The next year, 1969, it was ♫♪♪♫•*•.¸♫♪♪♫Galveston, oh Galveston; I still hear your seawinds blowing; I still see her dark eyes glowing. She was twenty one, when I left Galveston.♫♪♪♫•*•.¸♫♪♪♫ and so on until life took over and I didn't hear from Glen Campbell for quite awhile.

Then in 2015 Mr. Cambell's song, I'm Not Gonna Miss You, won the grammy.  Remarkable.  

That thief people call, Alzheimer's, has now stolen this man's memories, as well as stolen his music left unwritten. Someone please find a cure.  Please.

Here is his grammy winning song, I'm Not Gonna Miss You, for your listening pleasure.  Please send him healing and comforting thoughts as you watch the video.  

What a talent lost.  What a talent lost. 

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Today is a very special day.  It's the first day of Spring!!  The day and the night will be equal lengths today.  Tomorrow the day will begin slowly overpowering the night until the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice in late June, when the night begins its turn in power once again.

Earth is a wondrous balancing act of day and night and hot and cold.  Weak and strong.  The yin and yang of life as we know it on this planet.  Amazing when you think about it.

I almost never think about the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere of this planet since I live in the Northern Hemisphere, but on the Vernal Equinox, it always occurs to me that in places like South America today they are having their Autumnal Equinox, which heralds their Fall of the year, my very favorite time of year. 

I often wish I were ridiculously rich so that I could always live in Autumn and Winter.  Oh, early Spring is lovely and nice, but if given the choice I'd never live in Spring past April.  I'd move on to Autumn and Winter.   I'd most likely never experience Summer ever again unless it was on a mountaintop where it cools down to at least 70 degrees every single night - preferable colder than that.  I've had enough Summertime these past 22 years to last me a lifetime.  If I never see Summer again, that is okay with me.

But today it is Spring.  The birds are singing.  The trees are greening.  The flowers are blooming.  The weather is still nice and cool in the mornings.  The sun is shining, and all seems right with the world. 

Happy Spring 2017 everyone!  Enjoy your day!

For some information about some interesting Spring traditions people do all around the world: Click HERE.  Hungry to read more about Spring traditions??  Click HERE.  Enjoy!

Indian Summer - A Poem

Indian Summer is a poem I wrote a few years ago.  It is published in my poetry book Alice's Verse.  You can hear me read it below.

I've been thinking of this poem recently as I face my retirement and turn the page on a new chapter of my life.  Enjoy!

Indian Summer

the dance
giggled through my limbs
twisting and turning me -
a jackstone on end

I laughed through those days
happily ignoring
the oncoming frost
the pale grey days
of impending winter

reveling in the harvest
of my years
I spent the time
entwined in the eyes
of tall and handsome
fair weather lovers

gluttonous
I ate of their sweetness
writhing in their beds
with only thoughts
of pleasure
enjoying all the confections
denied in my youth

Ah...those glorious fleeting days
of Indian summer
now but a memory
frozen in the lines
around my eyes

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

St Patrick's Day is not really supposed to be about leprechauns and green beer.  St Patrick was a real person.  He lived during the 5th century and was the Patron Saint of Ireland. He died March 17th.

Instead of writing his story for you, here are two short videos from the History Channel that explain it better than I could.  Enjoy!




Now, one last thing before I go.  I hope you're wearing green today, or I will pinch you!!!  -evil laughter-  Do you know why??

Well, if any of you have Irish friends and/or relatives, you know that the Irish love a good tale, especially if that tale is about giants or the wee people.  So there is a story about why I must pinch you today if you are not wearing green.  

 It has to do with leprechauns, of course.

The story goes that leprechauns LOVE to pinch people.  All those bruises you find on your body that you have no idea where they came from?? Yep. You guessed it.  Those wily leprechauns pinched you in your sleep!  

Now.  Many people don't know that leprechauns are color blind.  Oh, not the human kind of color blind that you're thinking about, but the leprechaun kind of color blind.  Leprechauns can not see humans if they are wearing green!  Therefore, anytime you wear green, the leprechauns can not see you and won't pinch you.

However, if you are NOT wearing green on St Patrick's Day, you will definitely be pinched, as everyone is an honorary leprechaun on St Patrick's Day!  This makes us all duty bound to pinch you unless you have green clothes or green eyes, which makes you always invisible to leprechauns, of course.  

Sorry.  Being green with envy will not work.  I'll pinch you anyway.  -impish grin-

Have fun today!  Be safe. 

Beware the Ides of March

Yesterday was the Ides of March (March 15th), and I meant to post this then, but as is fitting of a day that is synonymous with conspiracy and betrayal, I kept getting side-tracked.  So...I've decided to post this today.

Nowadays I often find myself a day late and a dollar short, so this makes perfect sense to me.

The Ides of March, as you may recall, was the day in 44 BC that Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and about 60 other conspirators whom he considered friends and confidants.  A soothsayer had predicted this event, but Julius Caesar was a non-believer.  I suspect he believes the soothsayer now.

William Shakespeare immortalized this event in his play, Julius Caesar, making the quotes, "Beware the Ides of March!" and "Et tu Brute?" famous.  Hollywood has made movies about it.  Teachers have taught it.  News people have reported it.  You have probably quoted it yourself. 

This is how the Ides of March eventually worked its way into our society as a day of doom, which yesterday certainly proved correct for me in some ways:  

• Too much to do and not enough time to finish anything.  
• Too much traffic and other frustrations which has lead to yesterday's tasks having to be redone today in some instances.  

Wasted hours instead of a wasted life.  I'll take it.
 
With all the political hoo ha going on in our nation today, I can't help but think of Julius Caesar's plight on that fated Ides of March.  

Julius Caesar was, of course, a Roman politician, but also a military General.  Some say he remains the greatest military commander in all of history.  He amassed great power in Rome and abroad, and in 44 BC he was becoming a tyrant. 

Everyone noticed it.  His closest allies watched as he craved more and more power. Enough was never enough. 

Caesar, as all tyrants do, eventually stepped on the wrong toes, and the tide turned against him.  There was civil war.  His own senators are the ones who assassinated him.

The rest is history.

We should always study history.  Lest we forget and repeat the same patterns.

Some modern day "soothsayers" and political historians are warning us that some of the circumstances of Julius Caesar's life are happening in these United States today.  I find this extremely disturbing, and I hope those in political power at this time in history are paying attention and reading their history books.

We should all at least know Julius Caesar's true life story.  He led the life of fantasy including great military victories, intrigue, mystery, and even a dalliance with Egypt's famous Cleopatra herself. 

To read a biography of his life click HERE.  This book is FREE TODAY, March 16, 2017, for your Kindle.  Hurry.  FREE is a good price! 

Or if you prefer movies, click HERE.

Enjoy.

Solar Roofs and 3-D Printed Houses

Today I've requested updates from https://www.tesla.com/solar for their solar roof.  These roofs are AMAZING.  They are made up of solar panels and actually power your home, AND they are to start production on them Summer 2017!!  A few short months away!

Watch this!



All I can say is, "WOW" and "About time!"

Then after doing a little research about solar roofs, I contacted the 3-D Printing Company, Sunconomy, in Texas to ask them if they can print a house in the Asheville or Hendersonville, NC area and include a Tesla solar roof.  I'll let you know what they say when I hear back from them.

The 3-D Printed Houses are awesome and only cost around $10,000.00 to print.  You'd have to add the transportation cost of bringing the house printer and construction engineers to your area, then add the foundation, flooring, wiring, plumbing, ceilings, sheet rock, appliances, light fixtures, ceiling fans, landscaping, fencing, etc. to that price, but you'd still have an awesome home way cheaper and way quicker and way more energy efficient that sight built or modular homes. 

Watch this, but know there are many designs to choose from.  The video only shows the first printed. By the way, they print with cement!



So...these are my thoughts for today.

Yes. I'm thinking about where I will live after I sell my house again. It needs to be somewhere cheap and somewhere very good that will make me glad I moved.

Wish me good luck, and let me know what you think!

Karma

Today I've been thinking a lot about karma.

A formal definition of karma is:

In Hinduism and Buddhism the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence decides their fate in future existences.

But I just think of karma as being more a cause and effect thing where our actions color and/or define our destiny.  Hmm...maybe that is saying the same thing in a less formal way. 

The best thing I've ever seen to define karma is this photo though:

That reminds me of what happened yesterday.  Yesterday I took the dogs to the dog park and then afterwards we took our normal walk along a wooded path before heading home.  My dogs LOVE that walk and always beg to go after leaving the dog park.

Along the path, both  my dogs were on leashes, as the park rules dictate when you're outside the dog park area. 

We had not been walking long, when suddenly an unleashed dog appeared with a woman following.  The woman called the dog, but the dog came on and attacked my sweet, precious, elderly girl, Dolly, anyway.

The dog didn't cause any visible damage to my girl, and the woman apologized, but I was very upset.  Dolly will be 12 years old later this year, and she has arthritis.  That dog jumped on her back.  I know it hurt my sweet girl. 

My first reaction was to be very upset at the woman for allowing her dog off-leash in that area, but then I remembered something that happened about three years ago.

About three years ago my boy, Stark, did something very akin to what happened to Dolly yesterday.  

We were at a city park at the time.  At that particular park the off leash area is not fenced.  Stark didn't really understand the boundaries of where he should and should not be.  Without a fence, the off leash area is not really well defined to humans, much less dogs.

That day Stark ran out of the unleashed area and decided to try to start a fight with a very large elderly dog who was with his owner and minding his own business.  Stark did not hurt the dog, but he made a LOT of noise, and it upset the owner.  I apologized profusely, but it didn't help.

NOW I understand exactly how I made that elderly dog's owner feel. 

Karma.

Realizing the karmic implications of what happened yesterday, made me think, "How many other things have I done in my life that will come home to me soon?  Will they be good things?  Bad things?  How do my past actions color the days I'm living now?"

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? 

Sadly, upon reflection, I believe I do bad things all the time without even knowing it.  I'm sure I hurt people's feelings unknowingly.  I'm sure I'm demanding and just plain mean at times.  I've heard people say behind my back, "She's sweet now, but don't cross her.  Alice will bite you."

I could think up excuses for my behavior all day long, but today I'm thinking excuses don't matter.  I'm thinking whatever we put out into the Universe comes back to us tenfold, just like the photo above. 

This leads me to believe that I need to spread more good.  I need to:

• Think positive, good thoughts
• Do nice things for others without having to be asked
• Stop jumping to conclusions
• Have patience
• Smile more
• Work at being happy
• Be more thankful
• Count my blessings every single day
• Meditate more
• Pray more
• Have faith that all things are happening as they should
• If I think nice things about someone, tell them what I think NOW
• BELIEVE that things will work out for the best
• STOP WORRYING about things I can not change

I'll leave you with one other thing to think about.  I've forgotten where I first heard this, but I'm sure I didn't make it up myself.  It is just a saying.  Who knows where it first originated??  

Praying is talking to God.  Meditating is listening to God.

I need to listen more for sure.

Personal 3D Printers. The Future is NOW.

One of my sons is studying to be an engineer.  No, not the "drive the train down the railroad" fun kind of engineer.  More the "I have to know how to do crazy hard math problems and trouble-shoot difficult things" kind of engineer.

When I was visiting him recently, he looked up from one of his many notebooks filled with the kind of math that gives me a headache, and said, "Did I show you my 3D printer?"

What?  A personal 3D printer???  Is that a real thing?

Turns out it is a real thing, and turns out one of my sons has one!!

Okay.  He has one of the least expensive ones you can buy.  It was only about the price of a regular printer, but it still prints in 3D!

I was so impressed.  He printed me a little cat figurine thing to take home with me.  It is awesome, and I am keeping it on my desk at work so I can brag about my son anytime anyone notices it.  (NOTE: Don't say I didn't warn you. -grin-)

My son is learning how to write programs to make 3D printers print his own designs.  Fascinating.

If you are ever interested in purchasing your own personal 3D printer, be careful.  I've poked around the internet a little bit and discovered that some of the cheaper ones are cheap for a reason.  Others, like the one my son has, are really good though.  Still, right now, you have to know how to use the software to print anything useful, but if you're willing to learn something new, I think 3D printing may very well be the wave of the future!!

Here is a comparison of two 3D personal printers.  There are many types, of course.  These are only two of the more popular ones.


Nowadays they even have inexpensive 3D doodle pens that I had never heard of before.  Check this out!  I love this!


One last thing.  If you are wondering why I'm so excited that one of my sons is learning how to write programs to 3D print his designs, watch the video below.  

3D printers are awesome and profitable!  

Seeing the incredible things they have already printed makes me have hope for the future, and that is a very powerful thing.  

Enjoy!

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, and, therefore, the first day of Lent.

What are you giving up for Lent??  I've decided to give up procrastinating because that is obviously one of my most beloved pastimes of late.  We'll see how long this lasts, but I'm going to try.

We give up something we enjoy for Lent as a penance or self-punishment for all our transgressions and Christian short-comings.  Some people actually do fast for the 40 days of Lent (not counting Sundays).  Some people include things in their daily schedules like reading daily scriptures or the like to help them be more mindful Christians during this time.

I'm not going to fast though because if I do, my medicine will make me very sick.  This getting old thing is not as much fun as I was led to believe as a child.

Yes, it is exactly 40 days, not counting Sundays, from Ash Wednesday until Easter, which happens to fall on my younger granddaughter's Sweet 16 birthday this year.  Traditionally, those are 40 days of fasting, with feasting on the Sundays. 

Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and other Christian denominations observe Ash Wednesday.  Ashes from the blessed and burned palm branches of the previous year's Palm Sunday are placed on the foreheads of worshipers as the pastor or priest says:

“You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

This is a day in which we are reminded of our mortality and sinfulness, so that we can truly appreciate the gift of forgiveness that Jesus gave us with his mortal life.  After the self-discovery of Lent, we will be able to better understand Jesus's sacrifice for us and appreciate the joy we feel in celebrating His resurrection come Easter Sunday.

Lent is truly a time of self-reflection.  It is a time for us to be honest with ourselves and assess why we are here and what we want to accomplish in the time we have left on this planet.  It is a time to repent of our sins and try to become the best person we can be.

Yes.  This is a daunting task.  Lent is not easy.  No one ever promised that knowing yourself and living a good life would be easy.  Much like everything else worth having, we have to work at being a good person and living a good life.  

So...today, of all days, even if you are not a Christian, please take a moment to be thankful for your life and ask yourself, "Why am I here?  What have I accomplished in this life?  What do I want to accomplish before I return to dust?  How would I like to live the rest of this life?  What can I do to become the best person I can?"