Staying Vertical

Home from New Orleans and a great adventure with one of my besties. Alone in the big house for a bit, I’ve cranked up the stereo — Crosby, Stills, Nash, &Young (Taylor & Reeves): Deja Vu. Still one of the greatest albums of all time, a Mother’s Day gift from the greatest son of all time; or at least my favorite son, who made it safely to his destination for his next adventure. I’m feeling pretty content. Serene. Thankful.

The Spring has finally come to the Front Range of Colorado. Birds are nesting, seeds are sprouting, trees are blossoming. There is news of babies being born and more on the way. We’ve had rains to ease the dryness, and there is a snow pack to feed a run-off to the streams and rivers. Sometimes, you just have to stop and count your blessings — name them one by one, as the old hymn goes.

Tonight I feel like a very wealthy woman. If you’re reading this, I’m further blessed. Thank you for being with me as I wander down this road.

OK. I know I promised, pledged, and swore I would write something everyday until, what was it? May 22? But you see, the thing of it is, I’m in New Orleans with one of my best friends and I haven’t been writing at all, except for an occasional Facebook update on our activities. There has been so much to do and see (my first trip to the Big Easy) and we’ve been going strong from morning until night! Even meals are an event (so many world-class restaurants — so little time). When I get back to Denver, I will upload a few of the pictures of the paddle-boat ride and some of the other sites we saw yesterday. We still have a cooking class, a ghost walk, and much more music to listen to before I head home.

Last night, we had dinner at Dickie Brennan’s, where we received roses to commemorate Mother’s Day. It was one of the meals that goes into my memory as among the most memorable (along with my first Kobe beef at the Kyoto Hotel in Koza City, Okinawa in 1974 or the sumptuous southern dinner at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg, Tennessee in 1992). From the before-dinner martini to the bananas foster bread pudding, delicious!

My son has been pushing me toward more independence. Just like a parent who lets their kindergartner walk ahead a few paces, he’s been arranging experiences for me that challenge the dependency and fear in me. Today was like finals day. Two tasks, both of which I would have normally relied on him to take care of, neither of which I would have imagined myself performing even six months ago.

First Task: Remove and replace the poppet assembly in the back pressure valve for the sprinkler system.
Second Task: Remove and replace broken antenna cable for the power antenna on my 1995 Lexus.

I won’t bore you with the details, but I was awesome! Of course it took me a little longer to do it than a professional would, and I am going to have to redo the antenna thing one more time (I forgot to attach the cable to the radio); however, it also cost me a whole lot less! In the case of the antenna, one tenth of the cost! All of the instructions were available on the internet, as well as videos.

If you can read a recipe, you can do home repair and even some auto repair. It’s not magic. It’s not scary. And boy howdy is it self-satisfying! When I turned the water back on and the valve didn’t leak and when I turned the key on the Lexus and the antenna went up — well you just can’t buy that kind of satisfaction.

By the way, I’m pretty proud of my son, too. He’s done a super job teaching and coaching a ditzy old lady to take care of herself!

Walls cleared of memories
speak of possibilities —
unmapped, uncharted.

As I may have mentioned, I was nominated for the Sunshine Award by my friend, Sherry. What I learned in researching it is that it is an award bestowed upon bloggers by other bloggers and recognizes blogs that inspire other bloggers and people who read blogs. So thank you, Sherry. I humbly accept. Thank you for thinking of me, and for the very nice things you said. Old friends are the best!

Of course there are rules. This is where I rebel. I’m just going to accept the nomination and the compliment and skip the part about my favorite color and alcoholic beverage, etc., and submitting my ten nominees for the award (which would be the links you see on the right under Blogroll).

As I read the rules, however, this negates my nomination — so, I apologize in advance to the folks I didn’t nominate. You still inspire me. Every one of you.