King of the Woods

After a long day at work I was driving home through the dark on the quiet county road. The 30 mile commute on this cool autumn night was fairly uneventful until I neared the river bottoms. Approaching the river is my cue to perk up and force my tired eyes to scan the ditches closely for deer. As I started down the hill carrying me into the valley, I spotted you...an unusual movement off to the right side of the road. I slowed to almost a stop. You turned and I saw you in your grandeur; wearing your antlers like a proud crown of years upon your head. With no hesitation in your purposeful stride, in a seemingly slow-motion and fluid gesture, you turned your crowning glory and leapt over the fence as you had done a hundred times before, disappearing into the black of night. As I drove home, I silently sent you good wishes and a prayer of invisibility that you could hide from the cars, arrows and bullets for the rest of your years. A hope for a lifelong monarchy for this king of the woods.

Here we go again

Giving the blog another shot. Life's made some changes in the past year and good ones at that. Listed our house for sale, it sold to a wonderful couple that will be great caretakers. We moved to our new community in SW Minnesota that we absolutely love and say it out loud several times a week. We both have new jobs that are going great. It sounds just too nice right? I know! I keep waiting for the hammer to fall but apparently we keep seeing the positives around us and maybe the hammers falling, we just don't care. Life is good.

I look forward to writing about our discoveries in this "new land" of ours. There is an abundance of good people, beautiful scenery, creative souls and great reminders that the important things in life are not things.

We've made many friends here in town and one very good friend is the city clerk. Another one of those creative souls I was talking about. Well, every month she sends out the bill for city utilities to everyone. I'm not sure why I did, probably to brighten her day at work a bit, but I started "decorating" the envelopes that contain our check and invoice stub for the monthly utility bill. It's usually a combination of a poem and some drawings. She says she's been saving them. That doesn't surprise me as she's a scrapbooker. It is expected now so it got me into a creative schedule again. At least once a month I do something creative. I hope she enjoys getting it as much as I enjoy doodling it out. This month I wrote a poem and a few doodles...thought I'd share it with you. Enjoy!

Skeleton-Skeletoff

I need to make one of these next Halloween. Found this over at a fun blog called ubersuper...

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Oldelaf - le Café (english subtitles)

Been a while

I've escaped for a moment to make sure I still have a blog account. It's here. I'm here. I've been kidnapped by Facebook and have been brainwashed into thinking and writing in two or three sentence blurts. It's wearing off a bit now and I miss catching up with my blogroll.

Why Facebook? All the nieces and nephews are on it and since they're in the early 20's, they don't mind having old Aunt Balou on their friends list. Why addicted? Not sure, but I thought this little girl said it better than I ever could...

Chocolate Fun

I've posted this before - but I don't care. It's still funny...

Searched and Found

It's almost Easter again but I don't need a calendar to inform me of this. Other than the special Easter candy showing up in the stores, my signal is the keywords sending new visitors to my blog. For one specific keyword search on Google, a born-a-girl post is #1 in the Google search and the other is #2. It's amazing to me that out of all the websites the Google spiders crawl through in the "interwebosphere," that my 'lil old posts would come up so high on any list.

When you type in the keywords "leftover easter egg dye," this post comes up as the #2 choice. It was a fun improvisation my nephew and I dreamt up and I think I'll need to go get some dye, eggs and Bounty paper towels just to play again.

And, when you type in the keywords "easter bells" I come up number one because of this post. Instead of an Easter bunny, Europeans have Easter bells. I only found out about the tradition from the David Sedaris essay from "I Talk Pretty One Day" which I quote on the page. It's a fun read if you have a few minutes.

How about you? What Google keywords bring new visitors to your blog?

Hello to Birds

Yet another sign of spring, some of my old bird friends are returning. The starlings have made their home yet again in the two unused chimneys on the hill. They make the strangest noises and must have a vast vocabulary compared to most birds. Either that or maybe, like some people, they feel it necessary to chatter on about nothing and fill the quiet moments with jibber jabber. I've known some featherless two-leggeds with similar traits.

The purple finches have been busy working on the plethora of pine cones our pine trees dropped this winter. This is the heaviest drop of cones we've noticed in the 20 years we've been here. I recall a few winter mornings where the white snow under the pines transformed into a round carpet of little brown pine cones. It's fun to watch them work at getting their seedy rewards.

Back to featherless two-leggeds...there's a new "bird-song" I've been enjoying. I was just introduced to the beautiful, haunting music of Andrew Bird. I am admittedly infatuated. He is a "Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and whistler." It was the whistling that sealed the deal. A good whistler will always turn my head.

When I went to the show listing on his website, I was excited to see that he is playing in Minneapolis April 11th. Only to be followed with quick disappointment when reading the show was sold out. I'll be on the watch-out for future local performances.

Here are a couple of videos. Enjoy!

Oh Happy Day!

The hubby walked outside with the phone when the call came. At the first interview the week before, he came home with the gut feeling that he was their top pick. He's pretty savvy with those gut feelings. After the second interview, he said he was pretty sure he had the job but they hadn't said the words yet. Owner had to talk to the #2 guy yet. I was listening as hard as I could to hear the conversation outside but my walls are too well insulated. I refocused on my work. He came in, ignoring my "tell me right now or I will die" gaze, sat down at the computer and plinked at the keyboard and said "So I suppose I better send an email to cancel that test I was scheduled to take for that other job." His jokester way of saying he got the job! There was much hugging and my waterworks turned on.

Watching the news I feel like we won the lottery in finding a new job in just two months. There are so many out of work for months and months not finding jobs. Although, hubby assured me time and time again that he was never worried and just knew his amazing talents, good looks and winning personality would win everyone over. Always the modest one in the crowd. ;)

He just finished his first week at the new job and is in the midst of learning all about the intricate workings of hydraulic systems and air compressors. He worked with heavy equipment before but his mechanical know-how translates to many platforms. It took him a while to realize he needed to open his horizons and not focus on one industry when searching for job openings.

We're breathing easier here on the hill, breaking out in an occasional happy dance and realizing we need to count our lucky stars hubby was blessed with amazing talents, good looks and a winning personality. And because the job is within an easy commute, we won't have to worry about selling this place right now. Thanks to all for your concern and kind words. Let's keep all of those still searching in our thoughts and help others as we can.