A Few Favorite Quotes

I have all sorts of random rumblings in my brain today, but none have come forth to solidly form a blog - so, I'm "putting to pen" some of my favorite quotes - I have many - enjoy buddies!

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Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.  Plato

Myth: Old people get nasty and senile." Bruce Davis PhD: “That's not true. Nasty and senile people get old. They learn to do it better with practice.”

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do." Ralph Waldo Emerson

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams 

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. Langston Hughes

Insist on yourself. Never imitate. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kind words are the music of the world. F. W. Faber

Ask yourself this question: "Will this matter a year from now?" Richard Carlson writing in Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life. Jean Paul Richter

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So in parting my buddies, I cherish each of you and the part you hold of my heart.  "Think of me, think of me fondly when we've said goodbye.  Remember me once in a while, please promise me, you'll try." Phantom of the Opera

It Takes a Team

As I started to scurry about with my day, random thoughts of the Tour de France have filled my head and I had to stop and do a short bit of typing on one thought in particular:

I loved seeing Team Radio Shack taking the podium for the No. 1 Team ...... Team, Team, Team - and yes they are a Team of dedicated professionals willing to do whatever it takes ... whether it is to work for the Team leader, the will to allow another to take over as a Team leader and even for that leader to pass that role on to yet another Team rider ... yet in the end it is the Team benefiting from everyone's hard work.

This, in my humble opinion, speaks volumes towards Team #28 and how many people a cancer patient/survivor, or the families of those who have not survived , need a great Team around them to beat this obnoxious disease that is taking the World by storm.  People who accept Team mates and have much loving support around them - stand a much better chance at winning, than those who choose to, or have to, go it alone ... no one should ever have to go it alone - that is just sad.

So, not only did I love seeing The Shack on the podium for the Team win - I enjoyed seeing them all sporting the Team #28 jersey - take it to heart WORLD WE NEED TO KICK CANCER'S BEHIND!

I also don't choose to ridicule the UCI and their decision - I mean it provided more EXPOSURE for Team #28 than it would have otherwise :-) as I stated on Twitter ... it is darn shame they didn't make them change the bib too, I mean those weren't their regular "shorts" ... see, now I go to the silly side of me :-)

As always I will have a few more parting random observances of mine - as to a few things I so enjoyed seeing this year:

1.   Vino happy - yes, I know many do not like him and never did .. particularly when he blood doped .. but for some reason I've not been able to disengage the little scrapper from my heart - of which he broke, even after last year's obnoxiousness .... anyway, it is good to see him moving on and being happy again (unlike Landis and LeMond - who seem "hell bent" to remain bitter and drag anyone and everyone into their pit of dispare.)

2.  LOVE all the characters on side of roads -- I've picked out a few of my favorites and the next race I attend will be sporting some of the decore myself :-) ... hum Austin Livestrong Challenge, I'm running -- wonder what I can come up with for that??!!

3.  As commercials went, Road ID - a fabulous idea and the bunnies with the snakes and the majority of the whale commercials .. isn't that weird, they were some of my favorites and I know can't come up with the name of the insurance company!  Sorry guys :-)

4.  Last and not least -- did I say short at the beginning?  Anywhoooooo, I loved seeing the "old" ladies on the side of the road clapping as the Tour passed their homes.  I mean, stop and think of how many years that has happened for them, how do they feel - what do they think ... a couple of times they showed them, really almost made me tear up.

In closing ... looking forward to the future -- yes, Alberto and Andy going at it BUT BOYS BE WARNED there is young talent coming up that are chomping at the bit to take your glory!

LIVESTRONG my friends and become part of TEAM #28 ... Let's Kick Cancer Butt!

Like Reading? Why Not Revisit the Classics?

Okay, I know there's many of "us" to love to read and personally I like listening to books on tape while working out or traveling in a car - a nice break from music.  So recently I discovered through iTunes U a fabulous little website and am currently listening Call of the Wild while working out AND loving every minute of it ... it has been a really long time since I've read/listened to any of the "classics" - so it is about time to revisit them! 

So the entire point of this blog is to share this link -- explore it, download them (or you can even just read them online also) and enjoy them - much unlike "having to read" them in high school/college and "get them right" for a grade!  "OH" the best part of it all ... every single one is free - granted not current titles, but as I said: when was the last time you read about "Buck" and his journey to Alaska?!

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/

Angel Loves Home

If you are an animal lover - you may enjoy this short vid .. or not :-)

When we travel, we take Angel with us (sometimes if we have to fly she has to stay in the "hotel") but mostly she travels with us and has since she was small and she is a very good traveler.  She has one eye that had to be removed at age three and before that it was always having to be medicated (like twice a day) and her other eye is the one the doctors actually thought was no good -- well, when she lost the eye they thought she was seeing out of, it became apparent the "bad" eye was the eye she was seeing out of ... she chases birds, watches flies and does what normal cats can do - she doesn't know she's different!  Anyway, she travels with us because (1) she's become afraid of the cat door - I think one of her sisters jumped on her one time and (2) when she gets in a hurry, if she turns right (the side with no eye) she has a tendency to run into things ... it really is okay to laugh, now I chuckle at her myself.

Okay ... so long story, the cat has an uncanny knack of knowing when we get home even before I tell her - so as soon as she started in with her "home" meows, I started the vid (it is edited because ... well you would toss up your cookies ... the camera got a little wild there for a bit!)

Turn off the music above and listen to the meows and sqweaks - and yes, she really does get in her traveler because she knows she can't get out of the car if she isn't in there :-)

Random Acts of Kindness

The other day as I was driving home, down my very own street, in my very own neighborhood, minding my own business, a boy (12’ish) standing on the side of the road - with a friend - flipped me off. Yes, he did - for no apparent reason except the fact that he could. I well imagine them having a good laugh about it and feeling like “grown ups.” This, of course, got me thinking about the state of our world today and the parents raising this young man to think that something to that affect was okay. I would normally defend the parents saying it wasn’t their fault BUT -- have you observed how rude our world has become in - at least - the last decade?

I could get carried away at this point with how people think it is okay to cut loose on someone “oh say” on Twitter, Facebook and forums. I suppose being anonymous lends itself to more than freedom of speech -- but okay, this isn’t what this blog is about -- but this, along with the child flipping me off -- started my brain thinking!

I truly wish everyone would deploy doing a random act of kindness at least once a day. Not to “toot” my own horn, but I try to practice this (sometimes it doesn’t happen - daily, but when it does you can see it on the recipient’s face -- and I get a warm and fuzzy feeling!) It doesn’t have to be anything more than some small unexpected thing (which is also sad, because some of these small unexpected things ... used to be ... the normal):

• Open the door for someone with a smile on your face and in your eyes. 
• Say Good morning, good evening or simply have a great day. 
• Offer someone your seat (and not just an elderly person). 
• Leave a larger tip every once in a while. 
• Compliment a fellow person on the shirt/blouse/shoes they have on. 
• Have bunches of stuff in a store line - let someone go in front of you. 
• Have not a bunches of stuff in a store line - let someone go in front of you.

I think you get the drift, the “act” doesn’t have to be big, just nice! One day, here in dry West Texas, I wound up with two umbrellas at the office -- fodder for another blog -- as we all dove out the door at 5:00, I was by a young lady (I didn’t know) and we hit the overhang and it had started pouring down rain. She said: “Nooooo, I left my umbrella in my car at lunch.” So, actually without thinking, I handed her my extra umbrella. She asked if I was sure, as I pulled the second umbrella out and I said “Yeppers, see.” She asked me where I worked so she could return it and I told her not to worry about it .. as umbrellas go, it wasn’t an expensive one. She thanked me and we both dove into the rain.

  

A random act of kindness done for “us” - a week after Neal came home from the hospital, the yard was going out-of-control and my girlfriend gave me the name of a friend :-) that did yard work and I arranged for the yard to be done. I think this was our first “yard” act of kindness because I swear if that is all he charges that - really - for yard work -- he will go broke! So, anyway the really random act was about 1 month later, as I was just fixing to call this fellow again (because Neal and I had just spoken about the yard needing to be done again) and Neal called me from the house and asked “Did you call that fella about the yard.” ummmm “Not yet” *pause* “Well there is someone doing our yard.” Come to find out our neighbor had hired his guy not only to do his yard, but ours too! He did this one other time and then Neal got to feeling up to doing a bit himself (it still takes him like a week to do the front and back .. but he’s coming along!)

I say we need to all practice our “PSR” (Personal Social Responsibility) or simply put: be kind to your fellow man and maybe more 12’ish year old children won’t think it is okay to flip someone off that is simply driving down the street.

Change/Serenity

Another of my favorite entries in the book Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef:

Change/Serenity

"People change and forget to tell each other."  Lillian Hellman

How tenaciously we cling to the illusion that we will get our lives in order and they will stay that way!  How resistant we are to the normal process of change!  We often feel personally attacked if someone near and dear to us changes without clearing those changes with us first.  We have somehow come to believe that security and stasis are synonymous.

Change is the manifestation of our ability to grow and become.  When it occurs in those nearest and dearest to us it is an opportunity for celebration.  When it happens in ourselves, it allows us to share ourselves on a new level.  When we try to protect others from the awareness of our changes, we are being dishonest.  No one can care for who we are unless they know who we are.

The only constant is change.  

Marfa, Texas - Come Ride With Us

In the true fashion of a goofball, I vid'ed a drive through Marfa, Texas for ya -- aaahhhh come on ... you know you're dying to see the place Lance is always talking about (although I'm sure he has his very own "special" place there!)  Not too long, but I guarantee - it may be a little entertaining (or not!)

Vid 1:  We started it as a complete "tour" but then ran into just a small snag :-)

Then we finally found the snag ... and it was closed!!!

Day 3 - Alpine/Madera Canyon/Marfa/Alpine

Monday - Day 3 was yet another wonderfully relaxing day of chasing clouds and tombstones!  The following is the funniest thing we saw today - I actually turned the car around to go back and take the photo, I was laughing so hard (and Neal had missed seeing the sight)!  I'm so fascinated by climbing goats - this one was standing on a board that was probably 4 inches wide (with the back feet) and spanned across to a "make do" work table of some kind ... they are such goofs!

Our first stop was St. Joseph's Cemetery in Fort Davis, here are two sortly odd headstones, you tell me - aliens markings?

At the other Ft. Davis Cemetery (not the Pioneer one, we didn't go there this time) we found this pretty ...

... a Freemason

and a neat idea for keeping family together

This family had other stones "who died in AZ," "who died in Ohio" neat idea.  We had lunch at a picnic area in Madera Canyon, where the Nature Conservancy has purchased and set aside a nice little trail to walk, browse and enjoy ... we didn't today, because we were chasing clouds!

The clouds as they form

and they performed nicely

As I close this TravelBlog, I hope you've enjoyed a little rambling of trip photos and I will leave you with birds in the ladies room - the Moms were not happy I was in there!

Day 2 Extra - Come Walk the Window Trail With Us!

You might wanna mute the background music, if you wanna hear crunching feet! :-)

Video of a short portion of the Window Trail -- 5.0 miles round trip ... we didn't walk the whole thing today, although we have several times over the years!  It is a rather civilized trail, as hiking trails go and you can always see great scenery, of course, and if early enough all sorts of critters :-)

Day 2 Alpine-Big Bend-Marathon-Alpine

Today's gamble was that most of the rain and clouds that had been moving north, would be out of the Big Bend, or forming themselves into great structures over the mountains ... so Big Bend was our destination loop-o-the-day.  In discussing when the last time was that we had camped Big Bend, we discovered we'd not made a camping trip there since we moved into our house in 1994 --- way too long!  We were soon wondering about "my" logic when we "ran into" the Great Smoky Mts. of Texas.

We arrived at Study (Stoo dee) Butte, which marks that you are about to enter the fantasticly beautiful, rugged, rustic and primitive area of Big Bend.  Here you have the choice to "hang a right" ... well if you are coming in from Alpine it is to the right ... and make a little side trip to Terlingua and Lajitas.  We turned right and made our way out to Lajitas (which has been turned into a "rich man's" playground in the middle of nowhere -- but that is another story!)  We found the cemetery (state historical site), rather rustic ... and a few of its living tenants.

Rain Bug and Millipede

Then being cemetery crazed, we head back toward Big Bend and hit up the Terlinqua Cemetery too (on the register of national and historic places).

It was still overcast ... sooooo, we carried on anyway AND the Chisos Mts. are hiding under the clouds somewhere in this photo.

We were on our way to the Chisos Basin and thought it would be socked in too, but pleasantly it wasn't so we did a little walking around, viewed the Window and some of the wild life.

Millipede in a Tree = Bird Snack

White Tail Deer = Cougar Snack

The Window of the Chisos

Our Honeymoon was Camping/Hiking at Big Bend "aaaahhhhh"

 By this time we were getting hungry since we'd had breakfast pretty early in order to hit the road "soon" ... and yes, we were good this morning - breakfast was instant oatmeal in the room.  Lunch was soon to be baked chips and a tuna salad sammy ... YUM ... and we ate at the Dugout Wells and you really couldn't ask for better scenery, while chowing on healthy fare.

So then we were on our way out of the Big Bend towards Marathon, which presented some "not so shabby" scenery of its own.

Stopped and chatted with the Border Patrol boys and gals (well, okay we didn't have a choice of stopping or not) so I thought I could at least make them laugh on this fine day -- they are always so somber -- as we drove away, all three of them were cracking up ... sometimes being a "dork" counts for something!)

We stopped briefly at the Marathon Cemetery - observation: lots of Woodsmen of the World ... weird, since Marathon is in the desert!  I guess the principal of Woodsmen stood everywhere!

Back to Alpine and a nap in the room (by this time it was almost 4:00) .. then we decided to go eat at one of our other favorite restaurants "The Longhorn" ... well, long story -- 4th of July parade going that way ... closed .... etc. we wound back up at Penny's Diner, which is good at any time of the day.

We then went cloud hunting and made the loop from yesterday once again ... once again Marfa = raining; Marfa to Ft. Davis = raining; Ft. Davis to Alpine = a couple of good pictures ... how "Texas".

Now we are contemplating sleep and one more glorious day of our beloved Alpine/Big Bend -- yes, I think of the Tour de France, yes I miss watching the Tour de France, no - I don't regret coming to Alpine!

Texas: Alpine-Marfa-Ft. Davis-Alpine Loop 3 July 2010

After you're "hit" with a major event (in this case my hubby's heart attack and the next day, a triple bypass surgery - followed by more than his fair share of things going wrong), the road to recovery is difficult - at best - and you can't realize that one day life will return to normal - a "new" normal, but normal nonetheless! Yes, we went to Carlsbad, NM three months after the "event" ... and it was a fun "testing of the waters" ... yet very stressful, because there's always the "what if" factor. So, now is the time we have declared our INDEPENDENCE from worry and fear and we are enjoying ourselves this July 4th weekend in the Big Bend area of Texas. We could not resist also knowing we would be arriving in the area the same day as the remains from Hurricane Alex ... what could be more perfect?

Day 1 started off with me saying "Okay, honey you have been so good in eating right and exercising - you may have anything you want to eat today ... um, within reason!" (First time he's heard me say that since the "event"!) We went for a late breakfast at Penny's Diner, one of our favorites - great atmosphere, good food, friendly people and you don't have to auction off a kidney to pay your bill!
The decision was then to roam the shops "downtown" Alpine - first stopping at the fabulous "old girl" the Brewster County Courthouse, all decked out in her 4th of July glory.

Then after roaming in and out of some shops, I went to inspect the old caboose at the "Railroad Park" ... stepped into some very slick, very wet ... did I say slick ... mud WITH BOTH FEET ... saw my life flash before my eyes, before I got control of my balance and managed not to wind up face down in the mud - whew!
Then we viewed the Hotel Ritchey .. well okay remains .... my question, is it haunted - I bet so!

After several hours we stopped and had snowcones at Murphy Street Raspa Co. -- how quaint and atmospheric it was!

While we rested and cooled off the Amtrak showed up, stopped, off-loaded, on-loaded and stayed, and stayed, and stayed, and stayed ... well you get it, it was still there by the time we got back to the car and left ourselves -- they obviously don't rush ... too much.

So off we went to Marfa ... we got as far as the Marfa Lights viewing area and got out to take photos of clouds ... and caught, yet a different train! I, of course, waived at the engineer - don't know if he waived back, I had a camera up against my nose.
Here is where we caught the most promising of clouds of the day, it was slightly rotating and pushing down a wall cloud - it was trying hard and I thought we might at least get a water spout (as it was too cooled by the area rains) - we watched it for quite a while, then moved on.

Marfa = pouring rain ... so we'll go back another day this weekend - if it clears up, but between Marfa and Ft. Davis the rain let up just enough to catch this beauty.

We then got "socked in" - couldn't see much of anything, so when we got to Ft. Davis (unfortunately it appears all 4th of July festivities got canceled) we then had a late lunch at another favorite of ours: The Chuck Wagon .... yes, I let him have a bacon cheeseburger!

....and I chomped one too -- with french fries (we were living dangerous today - can't eat -zero fat all the time ... gotta treat once in a blue moon!)

As we left Ft. Davis to head back to Alpine .. finishing up the loop .. we were "socked in" again.

We had a fabulous day and I didn't once think "Where is the nearest hospital?!" So, we have reclaimed our right to live again, not as a wife with a recouping husband (although he won't be able to eat what he wants tomorrow!) ... but as a happily married and wonderfully in love couple!

Stay tuned for more fun ... if you can stand it - our traveling companion Angel says:

YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!