inspiration, copyright, celebration

How do i begin this post?
For many are writing as of late...
Why we blog...
That is easy -
for what started as just a random thing
became very specific regarding my journey of recovery, My Adventure as i call it.
that journey has not ended
and even if my sight were to return to normal tomorrow,
i would still be on that adventure...
For life is a treasure
 and that brings me to the next portion...
For each of you who visits,
outspoken,
anonymous
or just silent...
is a treasure to me.
And as i visit, sometimes speaking, i am inspired by many things.
I keep treasures,
mementos of the visit for only me to know.
For those who worry about copyrights, I will not take and use with out express permission, i will ask.
But sometimes i take to view on a cold and dreary day,
to lift my heart.
They are stored safely and none else knows or sees.
So for so much inspiration, thank all of you.

And to the last portion -
last night i was taken to a favorite restaurant in Byram/Greenwich a Mexican inspired Tequilla bar (i had 2 margaritas and they were good), Lollitas.
Much food was had at our table - a Red Snapper delight (which i wish i had ordered),
a carne Assada to die for, steak quesadillas and a lime chicken.  a smoked poblamo pepper soup was brought to the table and a marvelous pork taco.
I had a bitr of every ones food cause i forgot it was not Texas and ordered a brisket taco - which was good, but not the Texas brisket flavor i wanted.
It is a pricey place to eat and drink, but if you have the money, worth it.

Today was a good day

i did not go in to work today, I went with David for his operation.
The operation, removing his appendix, which was stuck in a hernia, took 20 minutes.
It took longer to recover from the anesthesia, but he was home 5 hours after he went in.
He is doing well.
in the process, i discovered that with out the strain of work on my eyes, I was up doing things until 3 PM, that included some computer work, cooking and cleaning.
That says a lot.
For those of you who are ever interested in such things, John, who is my co-conspirator with this house and ever helpful with driving, tells me i make an awful alcoholic.
he should know, he is 33 years sober and still will not touch anything.
Why that story?
When I am down emotionally, I have zero desire to drink anything.
Why?
When i drink, it is to celebrate and to enjoy the taste, the alcohol is incidental.
Drinking to get drunk has never made sense to me.
So in this time of celebration, I may have a glass (or a half and leave the rest some where forgotten), but it will be in the spirit of celebration, which is what my life feels like it is turning into as of late.

Experiencing Life.

It has been cold finally and it is strange for me to say it.
I do not like cold weather, yet this year, i want to experience it.
I could not tell you what last year was like, cold, wet, snowy or anything, it is only a blur in my mind.
My mind was focusing on getting better, becoming me again after having lost me.
I want to see snow.
I do not like the snow that happens in Stamford, it becomes ugly and dirty and create dangers and difficulties getting around, yet I WANT to experience it.
I have other strange things happening - I FEEL people's presence, when they are near or far, if they are in trouble or not, what their mood is, what they are going through.
It is not like seeing their face and knowing, it is like knowing they are around a corner and what is going on with them. It is kind of intense.
Is all of this because of the loss of a tumor?
Or is it because of a loss of my self for some indeterminable time period?
Or is it just that my heart has been wakened from a long slumber?
I do not have an answer, but it is some of the changes I like.
Tonight, as a celebration, i am attempting to make Baklava.
I think that is an appropriate way to celebrate.

I am still a bit off the wall

These E mails still are getting to me. The last one was not so hateful, but it missed something important.
For those who read this and do not claim to be "christian", this tirade really does not pertain to you.
Those others, well read on.
We as a people or race like to blame everything on someone or something else.
We do not like to take responsibility for much of anything, yet in reality, most of the things we complain about, especially in this country, can be laid squarely at our own feet.
The lastest is to blame some organization for trying to take Christ out of Christmas, yet when the stores opened on Sundays, we were very happy and flocked to them, basically telling them we did not believe in a day of rest.
When the Christmas displays kept showing up earlier and earlier, we bought early, telling the stores that Christmas was only a commercial holiday and had no religeous significance.
Christmas is only a day, among many and is really not a particular day anyone was born, but a day some church fathers decided that such a day would be celebrated.
Giving is for every day, niot just for this holiday.
Ask the food pantries that serve those without. Thanksgiving and Christmas, their pantries are full, but coem summertime, they are begging for donations.
Enough of my stupidness.
I like to celebrate and I do enjoy this time of year and no one can take my spirituality out of this season, except me and I choose to embrace it!

It is Sunday

I woke up feeling like a kid on Christmas. went out side and thought; "this is such a beautiful day, perfect for finishing the floor...may be i should cancel the party? "
Of course not a chance would i do such a thing.
What I did do is finish my Hors D'Oeuvres plate, crackers with fresh basil (my own), olive oil, and fresh mozzarella cheese.I have a salad to make and 2 things to cook, salmon and the beef cubes.
The cooking will start just before 2 PM, which is a bit before everyone comes.
The salad, I will do soon.
This for me is not a birthday party, even though the date is synchronous, it is I survived to see 55 years after a very frightening and harrowing year (I think that those two words describe my emotions well).
I am not out of the woods yet, but I have survived and done so gaining more inner strength and in reality, I am not letting my work run over me (they seem to be trying very hard to do that).
I have also received my "official" letter from my doctor describing in detail the issues i am having, mostly with vision. She says this can occur for some time and make take more than a year to resolve.
I also was able to look up the kind of tumor which i had (a subependymoma) and discovered many interesting things concerning my recovery, most of which I have experienced and found to be somewhat dismaying.
Knowledge is helpful and in this case it brings me more peace and it helps those around me also.
They stress that recovery can take a number of years!
That puts a lot in perspective and is letting me relax a bit.
It also makes the amount that I am able to do, to say the very least amazing and remarkable.
I always wondered why the health care providers looked at me like I had 2 heads when I told them I was back to work.
It makes me laugh, it gives me joy. and i can be thankful for all of this!

We interupt the suspense...

I will give all of the rest of you a chance to guess, so far Barry has got it right, a lot of food. All the other guesses are close, but no cigar. I will publish the recipes in a day or two.
There is a possibility of 21 people coming at various times through the afternoon of the 8th.
Now for the interruption, as many can guess, I do love to celebrate and any excuse is good.
I have fun on Halloween, but for many years the holiday of a celebration of all soul has been taken to a dark place. I personally blame the Puritans, with all their emphasis on evil and witches and the fundamentalist, who basically went the same way. So the celebration in the beautiful season of Autumn of everyone who has lived has been turned into something dark and sinister, spooky and scary, full of evil and horror.
That is not the way I celebrate.
I have pumpkins (the harvest)


and scarecrows (again the autumn harvest)


and candles (for all the souls).
The worst spooky thing I have is spiders, and the ones I see, come out about this time anyway,
so they are an Autumn thing.



And the web I weave!


The colors are Orange, which is Autumn and black (so it gets dark earlier also)!

There will be smiles and laughter and all the kids in the neighborhood know I will have candy (think cavities and hyperactivity parents)!

planng a celebration

I am planning something.
It has been running around in the back of my mind for some time.
I began to prepare a menu and have just started to gather the things i need.
It means that my days off will be busy until November 9, because on November 8, I am throwing a party.
I think i have something to celebrate, it will be my birthday on the 9th, but the 8th is a Sunday.
I think I may be just a little bit crazy.
No, make that a lot crazy.
But there is much to celebrate!
No more painting till this is out of my system!
I know that I must balance rest with this, but I want to have fun.
Last year, i was too much in the thick of it to even think this way.
I am happy I can even think to do this.

Labor day cookout

We had the 2 members of the community up from Virginia for this weekend, so of course I got to celebrate by cooking a BBQ.
I know it was a bit cool, but that made it even more important.
I keep wanting all of to get down there and I know it will happen, just as i know that there will be a time that my double vision will become single again.

There are advantages to the current economic problems, Iceland did not buy up the Maine lobsters, so they are at a very reduced price and so that was on the menu.
I wanted scallops for some time and they also happened to be on sale - lucky me.
Cherry tomatoes and then onions.
Store bought zucchini and then a nice eggplant from the garden.
These were cut in half, soaked with olive oil and garlic and salt and put on the grill.
Corn was also on sale.
The corn i buttered first with a mint butter (melt butter with mint, then strain), the grilled with the husks on (should have soaked the husks, but forgot so they caught fire).
I set up skewers with onions, tomatoes and scallops.
The scallops I had marinated in a butter and orange juice (the orange flavor was lost).
For one person who was a shellfish allergy, I pulled out the last 2 pieces of beef tenderloin that I had made something like 4 meals already out of and marinated that in burgundy wine, cayenne pepper and a bit of brown sugar. The cayenne got lost, but showed up when i cooked the mushrooms with the marinate.
I cooked everything not seafood first, so there would be no chance of anaphylaxis (she has had that before).

The peppers from my garden (Hot and sweet)
The last of the lettuce, started a salad.
That was followed with scallion and chives and basil and parsley ( all from the garden).
Finishing with 2 beautiful large tomatoes from the garden.

What a feast!

There were 7 of us and there are left overs to nibble on.

To all the new followers, thank you for stopping by.
My life has been, well, interesting since the operation and any chance I get to celebrate, i do.

This was a great celebration.