Humble Eyes

As a typical, average everyday, person, I find myself along with thousands of other typical, average everyday people, thinking this is the only time of the year to be thankful and to be grateful.   We  should be thanking our lucky stars each day we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, friends and family to share our joy, tears, and laughter.   Mother Nature showed us that she's still in charge.  She carved out a path of destruction in the midwest recently.  Just in time to displace many people and put more sadness and sorrow in peoples hearts that don't deserve to have their hearts taken up with it.

My human being, bless her heart, has been living in destruction and construction for a month now.  She has no room to complain with what happened recently.  A lot has been going on in the house, but the destruction she's had does not compare to the lives lost, the houses destroyed, or the families displaced from Mother Natures wrath.   With these recent events, now isn't the time to show the changes her house is going through when she knows others don't have a home..........it's high time for me and my human to count our many blessings and be thankful.  Thankful and grateful we woke up and saw daylight once again.  Pictures of the new fireplace can wait until next week.................

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"Over the river and through the woods"................it's that time of year you want to burst out into song, sing Christmas carols that are playing everywhere, watch the Hallmark Channel with nonstop Christmas movies, eat to your hearts content and ignore your complaining stomach..........pretty sure Tums, Rolaids, and other OTC antacids make a killing this time of the year......

Once Halloween is over with, concentrating on Christmas becomes center stage.  Thanksgiving is just a day you eat big fat turkeys stuffed with goodness.   Pile mashed potatoes high, smother them in giblet gravy, and spoon green bean casserole onto your plate.  Pass around the cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and melted marsh mellows.   Have a homemade roll with butter and jam.   If you live in Utah......J-E-L-L-O, whether it be plain and jiggly, or with fruit inside placed on a bed of cottage cheese or lettuce.........Now that you are stuffed just like the Big Tom you ate, lets top it off with a slice of pumpkin pie or pecan pie or both, with real whipping cream..............praise the Lord that you don't keel over with a heart attack.  In all seriousness, when she sits down to the dinner table with her hubby and boys,  she will take a moment to be thankful for what she's got and not for what she wants.  Her needs are simple.  She has warmth from a hug, a heart full of love, and a family that she adores.

....I am and she is....grateful:

To live in a country where I am free to roam, express myself, and enjoy freedom of speech.

To travel the dusty roads of this fine country.  Take the scenic road, get off the beaten path.  Not having to follow a straight line.  Being free to chose where I might wander.

 For walking outside my back door and seeing this.  Having two eyes still able to see..........

Living in a state that gives me magnificent and breath taking views....no matter where I go.........

BEAR LAKE

PACIFIC OCEAN

For the lake and the ocean that has so much of  my heart scattered along the sandy shores..My eyes will never get tired of looking at these bodies of water, nor will my heart ever stop beating for them.........

My fur babies...... Charlie the dog who travels with me, keeps me company on the long, lonely highways.   I'm grateful for Bear the Shitzu.  He tries my patience at times, but the unconditional love he gives is worth it.

The sky that gives me pleasure in the clouds that dance across it.  The air I breath, the wind that blows against my face......I never get tired of looking around or looking up........

For these three goof balls who take great delight in flipping off my human being.  God bless her and her soul (me) for raising such characters.  They are the apples of her eyes......the mischievous, fun loving trio of testosterone.................

Her loving husband.....she's grateful for the man she married, who puts up with her wandering down the road ways with camera in hand, never getting lost and always finding her way home.

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Happy Thanksgiving my friends......may your day be filled with joy and laughter.  Your bellies full of good food prepared by loving hands.  I hope your day fills your heart with more love than it will hold.  Share this overflow........open up your arms and surround your heart with the warmth from a hug.   Make the moments count......you're going to be passed out from the sedation the turkey gave you.

A happy and thankful day to my friends who don't live in America.....have a great day, enjoy your family, your friends and know that I will be thinking of you and wishing you well................

Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

Hidden Treasure

I'm learning to live with drywall dust, workers coming and going like worker ants, leaving little, no not little, but BIG piles of crap, scraps of wood, screws, and nails. They do clean up, somewhat, after themselves.....Trying to live in a construction zone is not easy.  Not easy at all. Your home is supposed to be your castle.  Well, it's not while it's undergoing surgery.  You are at the mercy of the construction doctors making much needed repairs and improvements to a houses body.  Just like a plastic surgeon would do to a real live person.   The smell of the mud the drywall dude uses as a facial to the walls.......stinks.........horribly.........gagging almost!!!  Hallelujah he's done.  Did I mention drywall dust? It's everywhere.  My TV screen has pretty finger pictures on it, the furniture....well, lets just say that dusting it is a waste of time and energy..........

This past week has been like opening an early Christmas gift for my human.  A blank wall in the dining room was opened up and  it revealed a sweet hidden cabinet.  A built in china cabinet.  Why would you want to hide a treasure like that?  She'll never know.   Right now, who cares.  It's open, the doors have been built and put on.  Glass knobs will open and close it, and clean, crisp white paint will coat it inside and out.   On a scale of 1 to 10, this is her 10.  Her simple pleasure.

Blank Slate

I can honestly say I was "tickled pink" when  the hammer met the wall

A buried treasure has been uncovered

The doors are on.........I can't wait for the knobs and paint...

The remodel is progressing well.  Crown molding is up.  The interior doors get hung tomorrow.  Next week......we're hoping for the fireplace surround and mantel be done and installed.  Then the tile work can get going.  The tile is all picked out and ordered.  Paint color has been decided on......well almost decided on.  My human, bless her heart, cannot make up her mind between two color families for the living room and dining room.  Kitchen color is picked out, bedroom colors are done, but the living room/dining room is making her crazy.  Will it be in the sage green family?  Will it be in the gray family?  Either one will go with the rest of her color choices...........The yellow that has been a part of her life for the last 10 years is going away........yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......................

On her scale of exciting things to take place in this little remodel, the china cabinet was number one.....the fireplace is number two..............

The contractor is building the surround and mantel.   Maybe with a little luck, the fireplace will be put in place, and the tile work started or finished by next week.

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The snow that fell has melted, but Mother Nature doesn't disappointment.  She's got plenty to spare and share.  More is on the way for the weekend.  I'm ready for it......I'm going to grasp the flakes as they fall and embrace the beauty of winter.  I'm eager to get out after a fresh fallen snow and head over to my favorite park where the snow will be heavy on tree branches and the mountains standing tall in the background all covered in white.  Yep........I think I am going to have to invest in some boots...........but dang, these construction workers need to hurry the hell up and get out!!!.................


Twitter@CotySimon
Instragram.com/Howunique310

Under Construction.......

My human host is getting a good idea of how it feels to be wrapped up like a cocoon.   I know already how it feels since I make my home deep inside her.  She is now living a life all wrapped in painters plastic.

For the next several weeks, instead of taking pictures of what life is like in the outside world, her world will be shot inside the home she shares with her hubby and their two dogs.......a little bit of construction is being done, walls will be painted, new flooring put down.  A few things here and there........its about time it was done.


The awful, horrible, white rock wall that flanks the west side of her living room has come down.  Yippee, no more.........it's gone.  Felt sorry for the contractor.  The stone was cemented in 3 inches of old, gray cement and thought at one time, we were going to have to live with the ugly wall.  A lot of elbow grease, a hammer and chisel, it finally came crumbling down...........whew.........my human could breath at last a sigh of relief.  No more ugly rock...........

What was before, is now gone.............

On each side of the fireplace are two windows that have been buried since sometime before they bought the home.  She'd love to have them open once again, but that poses another set of problems.  She's knows they are there, not going anywhere, and will in time be opened up so the sun can shine in.  Right now, the drywall goes back up and the windows sealed again.

Holy crap.....the walls, the windows, the trim,
were painted this color.........I'd cover them up, too!!

This house was built post World War II when building material was still at a premium, brick laying was still a craft.....I  wonder about the hands that touched these bricks, laid the mortar down and pain staking tucked each one in place. If only walls could talk and carry on a conversation with me.  The stories they could tell, I can only imagine.   This home is built solid.  Real wood, real brick, and a lot of hard work.  This human host of mine, is keeping with the integrity of the home.  A new mantel, surround, and hearth will go back to where it once stood.  It won't be like stepping into 1947 when it's done, but it will still have that feel of simpler times, when you could go play kick ball in the streets after dark........Over the next few weeks as the work progresses, more before and during pics will be posted.

The dining room is part of the living room, L-shaped.....behind a wall is a buried treasure she knew about..........it's finally being opened up.  So, with camera in hand, I'm off to help my human celebrate the demolition of uncovering a built in china cabinet.......................

Later....................

twitter@CotySimon
Instragram.com/Howunique310