I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

CLC - toasting, with my huge mug of hot green tea to your having a BORING, ROUTINE ( b4 bc) year, as the beginning of many more.  Less stress, more ease, and GOOD HEALTH

Riley - happy new home. Happy new noises, which will soon disappear and happy YOUR OWN BED, and decorating.

Barbara - good to know you are still with us, and thinking of you - hoping job is better or even better, a new job?

Athena - loved the video, Notself too - especially the SHOES, even I could wear those shoes;-)

Anyone who loves fashion ever watch the TV series: The House of Eliot.  My favorite clothes, not for my sausage shaped body, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the look to look at.

Here's to a wonderful convention week - less rain for those who don't need it, and more for those who do.  Ours is on the way - had to pick all my sun gold tomatoes (12 plants!) even the green ones to hopefuly ripen indoors, as that damned blight is here, again.  Somehow the jerusalem artichokes ( sun chokes) which I dug down to 3 feet to remove last year, are still alive and thriving ( I give up, they can have that part of the garden) next to my bedroom window, and are attracting the MOST amazing birds: male indigo buntings, male gold finches( don't know where the females are, maybe duller so I don't see them?) to the 7 foot high leaves & bugs.  Amazing...to watch them inches from the window screen munching bugs on the "branches" of the chokes - which will soon all have yelow flowers.

Will dig them up AGAIN in the Fall well after the frost, and cook the roots ( the edible parts) - but know they won't give up ;-)  so trying to learn to just let them be....

I especially like the first day of school after retiring from a 30+ years career. Some friends and I are planning a road trip for the first day of school, tomorrow. Because we can.

I loved Kam's wishes, too!  Thanks, Kam!

Mary...here is hoping that we both have lots of lovely surprises.  Maybe if we look for them, and ignore the bad one's, we will have a great year!  

Good luck to all  of us this school year. Mine didn't start to well. We had a major water pipe leak that flooded half of the school. What a mess. The day of open house the school stunk to high heavens. Then last week Monday our principal had a stoke. So now we are waiting to find out how long he will be gone.

We are also dealing with lots of cuts.

I'm really worried about Marybe. She is such an incredible woman and inspiration to us all. So glad Barbara will be there for her. Praying she will overcome this difficulty. 

I never interacted with Marybe, but certainly remember her avatar. My heart goes out to her, her family and friends, both near her and at BCO.

good morning (barely) all.  I had no idea there were so many teachers both past and present on this board.  I give you all my fondest thanks.  You chose a path that I wouldn't have chosen in my wildest dreams.  Teachers are the most underappreciated and underpaid group of necessary devoted people on the face of the earth in my opinion.  Good for all of you that you chose (and stuck with!) such a difficult career.

I believe most people have been somewhat disappointed with Obama, and I count myself among them.  The fault, however, does not, I believe lie with him.  It lies rather with too high an expectation, and too deep a need on the part of Democrats and other non-wonkers, to see a return to sanity in the White House and government at large.  We all (well, I) tend to forget that he  is just one person and cannot make changes without the legislature.  He had a legislature that didn't want to do anything other than block him - so they could (as they are) then claim that he didn't accomplish what he promised.  It never crossed my mind, though to not vote for him again, though for awhile, my husband threatened to sit this one out - after Romney's pick of Ryan, though, that changed in a BIG hurry!!

And, of course, as someone else stated, Obama was never very far left.  He is a centrist and the "change" that he hoped to accomplish was to bring some level of accord back to government.  It took him too long (IMO) to realize that the Republicans did not have governance in mind.  They wanted to block Obama.  Period.  Full stop.

THANK-YOU, Linda.  I very much appreciate the link, and will use it myself.  Like I said in my earlier post, the disappointment that many feel is in part from ridiculous (looking only at myself) expectations.  The other part is that when we hear unendingly (from Republicans, admittedly) that he didn't do anything, well...  unfortunately, the Republicans do the lie thing for a reason - it does work.  If you hear something often enough, you start to believe it. 

Thanks again for a slap of reality. 

Sorry to hear about Marybe - great that she has so many people around her who love her. That's the best one can hope for at life's end.

Barbara has just gotten to Marybe's bedside.

There is a - not a poem, exactly. I think it's actually part of a sermon on the subject of death. It struck me so much, I had it printed out and framed and placed it on my father's casket. I have it still, and it will one day stand on my coffin.

"Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!" - Henry Scott Holland

The Holland piece was read at my husbands funeral Mass by my oldest son............it was so beautiful, and many tears were shed when it was spoken by him........................he died on Sept. 2nd, and was buried 1 week later..........so many discussions about Pancreatic cancer, and now these poems which are so familiar to me, brings back memories of those days, even though it was 21 years ago......................the hurt never goes away.........................it just becomes more bearable.......................love you all

Prayers for Marybe..........

Blue.............hope your doing well................I need to come here more often.........your a great bunch......hugs

I don't know Marybe, and i feel the poorer for it.  She has the greatest of all treasures: friends who care for her.

Peace.

I love all the poems that have been shared. Today has been a day of tears. Just not wanting to lose another dear sister right now .... Marybe is one very special friend to so many.