Keeping it Simple..

City sidewalks busy sidewalks dressed in holiday style.  In the air there's a feeling of Christmas.  Children laughing, people passing meeting smile after smile, and on every street corner you'll hear.......

Silver bells silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city

Ring-a-ling, hear them sing

soon it will be Christmas day.

For the first time ever in all my years, I have not been out on the busy sidewalks or inside the crowded malls doing what I thought I liked to do.......shop.  What shopping I have done has been inside my home where it's warm, comfortable, and in my jammies........I had a love affair this year with Amazon.com.......

By my own doing (actually stupidity and clumsiness) I have to keep it simple this year.  I go all out in decorating my house for the holidays.  Why not?  I love Christmas.  The colors, the candle aroma of cinnamon and other spices.  The hustle and bustle of shopping amongst all the other crazy and harried people.  Cooking......baking................but not this year..............

I watched as my middle son brought out the Christmas tree, set it up, and then placed each ornament on a branch.  As he pulled out the ornaments, I gave him a history lesson on a few of them, actually a lot of them.  I have ornaments from when I was a child in the prehistoric days, some we bought as a married couple for our first Christmas together.  Ornaments for each birth of our children.  I have sailboats, moose, sea shells, sea horses (I'm quite fond of the ocean & lakes), snowmen, shiny baubles, bears.......its an eclectic mix.  Ornaments that my mother had as a child.  My most precious are the ones my children made me.  A little battered and torn, but they still go on the tree.  My all time favorite is one I had as a child.  It's a round, yellow orb with a face painted on it.  Supposed to be a sun I am presuming.  It was a Christmas light that was part of a light strand in our tree.  I remember so well the year it burned out.  Nothing could control the sobs of a 5 year old.  My mother threw nothing away.  She recycled, reused, repurposed everything.  As I look at my little orb of yellow, this one time I am grateful she didn't throw it away.  It still has the original foil she put around the socket to hold the pipe cleaner so she could hang it on the tree as my special ornament.  I haven't bothered to fix it and make it look better.  If I did that, then it wouldn't be my special ornament.

The repercussion of falling in a hole and breaking bones is still haunting me and keeping me from doing what I love to do this time of the year.  I can't do anymore, nor can I do any less.  It is what it is.........I have all that matters...............family...................and a Christmas tree that shines brightly in the corner of my living room....................and a Charlie Brown poinsettia.

I was given this exactly one year ago.  I nurtured, watered, and held conversations with this plant.  It eventually shed it's red leaves and dropped a few more of the green ones.  It's come back to life once again with deep red leaves.  I'll continue to water, nurture, and carry on more conversations with it after the holidays are over.  Along side of it, I will do the same with a new plant I got this year.  It's a pretty plant and I like it, but I love the other one better.  It's simple.  Along with everything else this year, I am keeping it simple.................

Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

Thanks.......

I have a lot of time on my hands, a lot of time to think and ponder.  Having too much time has made me realize that all I can do is take it one day at a time.  I'd like to say "take it one step at a time" but I cannot  even do that......yet!!!  Hahaha............Am I thinking with so much time on my hands that I should feel sorry for myself?  Nope....NOT.AT.ALL............It is after all, November, the month of giving thanks.

..........when did it all of a sudden become fashionable to give up shaving ones face and grow a mustache and/or beard and have it be a good thing?  I know some women could out shadow a guy with the mustaches they can grow, but I'm afraid that wouldn't be socially acceptable.  Could we as women go a month without shaving our underarms and legs and have our men think it's okay? By the time the month ended, we'd be braiding, curling, mousing them into all sorts of shapes and styles.  Some men, and most women, do not look good with a mustache and/or beard.  Though on the other hand, some need the beard and mustache to look good......it's not a win win situation........I can't imagine if this month all men quit shaving their backs, arms, legs, chests.........that is not a pretty picture to plant in my gray matter!  I personally like facial hair.  The hubs has a "tache"...I have never seen his upper lip be naked of facial hair......ever!!!....... The plumbing business must rake in the dollars come December 1 from clogged pipes full of hair........Yuk!

***********************

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving.....turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, vegetables, rolls......all the butter laden, fat producing food that my hips love.  It is one day of the year that I am thankful for such good grub it puts me in a food induced coma while sitting at the table, waking up briefly to slather whipping cream all over a piece of scrumptious pumpkin pie.

This will be the first Thanksgiving in years that I will not be preparing the feast for the family........It really sucks when you cannot lift one foot in front of the other and move about.  I am thankful for the ability of walking again soon.  In the meantime someone else will be filling their house up with the wonderful aroma of turkey cooking in the oven....We will have a dinner delivered and prepared by caring and loving hands.

I have a lot to be thankful for each and every day.  My family who I adore and would be lost without them.  Friends, neighbors who have rallied around our house to make sure we have meals on our table while I am recouping.  Being thankful and very grateful for a husband who has to wait on me.  My boys who make me smile.  I am so proud of the fine men they have become..............and to a special lady on social media who has become one of my best friends.  She makes me laugh, giggle, and smile.  Without her my days would be dull and boring.

I have two eyes that sit in my head that love to look around and see what's out there in this big world of ours.   A heart full of love and a smile a mile wide.  Anything further south is drooping and falling apart.  If I can wake up each morning, that is a beautiful thing and the beginning of a good day................

When I look up, this is what I find.........

A thumb print and seal of approval 

Cotton Balls maybe??

There is nothing better than seeing the sun peek
over the mountain tops at my favorite  place on earth....

I'm looking forward to the day I can pick up  my camera and snap away.  Soon........very soon.........


Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

Yesterday Today.........

Today is another day and for most people, another dollar to be made.   I always tell myself that yesterday is gone, it's a done deal, don't worry about it or worry about what happened or didn't happen.  Today is here.....enjoy it, relish it, embrace it, and tomorrow.....well it's too far away in the future to even think about what the tomorrows will bring.

I am a day late and a dollar short......yesterday was Tuesday, November 11, 2014.  Another day for some.  Not so for others.  Here in the Americas we celebrate a day to honor those who have served our country and who are still serving our country, protecting our country, fighting for our country.  We raise the American flag to fly in all her glory.  The stars and stripes, the red, white and blue.

It's no joke when I say that my human being loves to take pictures.  She's not a professional photographer by any means.  Just a simple, fun lovin', mischief makin' human (the latter being with my help, her inner child).......

Cruising through another social media site, I came across a picture of an American flag.  What is it that this piece of cloth brings tears to my eyes when I see it flying?  I do have a special bond with the picture.  It was a picture that I took over a year ago just prior to the anniversary of a dreadful day in September.

I was leaving work on a warm, pre-fall afternoon.  In the parking lot, waving way up high on a flag pole was a magnificent huge American flag whipping around violently from the wind that had picked up.  A storm was brewing and getting ready to unleash it's power.  I made it to my car, sat there and watched this flag twist and turn, whip and lash out into the air.  I am never without some sort of camera to take a picture or a dozen.  I snapped several shots of this flag, turned my car on, and drove home.  As I drove I couldn't help but notice the many flags that were flying.  It occurred to me that I use some of these flags that fly really high up on a flag pole as reference points to where I am going, places of business, or areas that I am headed to.  I also realized that if I didn't see these flags, I would be lost without them.

 If I didn't have the service men and women in this country protecting us, I would be lost without them, too.  I may be a day late and a dollar short in recognizing these fine people on their day, Veterans Day, which is always the second Tuesday of November, so I am doing it now.  I am doing it now because one day is not enough to honor these people.  This is a everyday honor.  My hubby served in the Army proudly during the Viet Nam war.  I thank him and every one else for a job well done and for coming home...................

Thank you Carol S. for the inspiration for this blog post.  Thank you also for using my picture.  I post the pictures for people to enjoy.  I don't do it for gratification.  I do it for others to see and enjoy.  Sharing is caring and that is what I do.......................

My country tis of thee.......sweet land of liberty..............

And, I am PROUD to be an AMERICAN............



Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

Eyes Rise

The Good.................................

It's been weeks since I learned about a lantern festival.  You write messages on huge paper lanterns, fill them with hot air, and then release them into the night time sky.  This was on my bucket list, and I was tickled to death to learn that there would be one here in the United States and close by.

I got the tickets for a group of us to attend, made all the arrangements to get there and a place to stay.  Now all we had to do was wait for the magical date to come around.

The day of October 18, 2014 was finally here. Couldn't have asked for better weather or better company to enjoy this event. We left in plenty of time to head to Jean, Nevada.  Along with several thousand other people, we left on large air conditioned buses that transported us to the middle of nowhere, dropped us off, and we walked to where the magic was going to happen.  Out in this desolate desert called the Mojave, was a place filled with torches waiting to be lit, a huge "RISE" sign that gave us the go ahead to enter.  We found our place, opened our mats to sit on, and waited for nightfall to appear.

Writing from my heart, words and expressions on the sides of the lantern, made me feel very vulnerable.  I wanted to write a lot, but once there and the lantern was in my hands, my brain froze, left me speechless, and my fingers paralyzed.  Then the aha moment came.......it's not  how many words I write, but what I am feeling.  One or two words can speak volumes.  Letting go is hard for some people.  Letting go is hard for me.  Letting go of emotions that have kept me a prisoner at times.  This was that aha moment......I learned I can let go.  I can let go of the emotional baggage.   I know this because I watched in float away, up high, in the night time sky...........I released my first lantern with two words.....LET GO................

Releasing that first lantern was letting go of emotions that I was happy to see disappear......As I watched lantern #2 soar upwards, the beginning of a new chapter in my life with the words written on the side........NEW BEGINNINGS...........planted itself firmly in my heart and made a smile a mile wide on my face.........

I am still in shock on how beautiful this experience was.  Next to the birth of my children, this definitely takes a place right along side...Looking around and seeing the joy, the happiness, the tears on peoples faces was incredible.  We all came for different reasons, but I left with a feeling of something so breath takenly beautiful, emotional, and humbling, that I will never forget it........

What I wrote was for me.  It was something that made my heart sing loud, ease my mind, and  give me a calm feeling.  I know now how it feels to have peace hugging you.    I have never been around anything quite like this and nor have I felt anything so electric and magnificent. The charisma generated from the crowd was incredible.  It's a spectacular sight to behold and to participate in.  

The Bad...............

Getting back to the buses to take everyone home was a nightmare.  I'm not putting the blame on anybody.  But it could have been executed a little differently.  The crowd of 15,000+ people didn't see it that way.  I roll with the flow and roll I did, right smack dab into a hole, ravine, whatever.  All I know is that both my ankles buckled inward.  When you feel something snap in your leg/ankle, you know there is something wrong.  I couldn't get up.  Thanks to the kind gesture of two guys, they literally carried me and my fat ass to where the paramedics were stationed.  Thank goodness they were not too far away.  I was assessed, my ankle wrapped (they left my right ankle alone even though it was a big as an orange at that time).  While they drove me via a 4 wheeler back to a shuttle,  the crowd was getting wild and very angry.  Words were heard to us as we drove by that all it took was faking an injury or sickness and you got a free ride back to town.  I felt bad, but I was hurt.....for real...........I will not apologize for getting hurt.  Believe me, it was the last thing that I wanted to do.  My friend and I became separated from the other 3 ladies.  Before our phones died, we managed to send an SOS to them that we'd meet back up with them at the car, in Jean, at the Casino.  We got back at 10:30..........they got to us at 2:30 am.  It was cold, the crowd was crazy, and many started to walk back in the dark not willing to wait for a shuttle.  That was their choice.  You make your own choices and you live with them.

The Ugly...................

Stupid me didn't want to go to the hospital in Nevada.  I wanted to go home.  I managed to get to the airport on Sunday morning, be wheeled through security, get on a plane, be wheeled off the plane and picked up by my hubby at curbside.  The first words out of his mouth were "That's it!!! No more traveling without me!!!"   This was a weekender girls trip, thus no hubs with me.  Instead of going home, we drove directly to an emergency care facility where I got the diagnosis that I already new.....a badly sprained right ankle and a broken left fibula with possible torn ligaments.  This is exactly what I wanted to hear...........NOT...........So it's a huge lie that what happens in Vegas, doesn't always stay in Vegas.  It came home with me and in such a way that I will remember that Festival for years to come.......come Monday, I head to the operating room where my leg will be adorned inside with a metal plate and screws and the ligaments all tied up nice and pretty.   It hasn't been easy getting around, but I have managed.  I have wonderful neighbors and a great husband. And, I have no one to blame but myself........not Rise, not the angry crowd, just me...........


I definitely will do this again.  Sometime in my life  I will go to a foreign country and experience it.  It was an item on my bucket list that I could have checked off.  But why check it off.  It will stay on my list of things to do as it's worth doing again, and again, and again.  And, if it goes back to Vegas, yes, I will go there again, regardless of what happened this time.  There is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in life period.  I didn't think I would experience all three at the same time though!!!

I do have to get on the ground and look up to see what I am missing sometimes and this was one of those times.  There is a whole big world out there that exists.  I'm grateful I did this and even more I feel truly blessed that if my inner child hadn't been so "obsessed" at one time with @JefHolm, I never would have known about this Festival.  It was a nice bonus to see him in person and it was nice to know that everything my inner child wrote, was spot on, he's just as handsome if not more, and just as nice as I knew he would be.........I watched him, actually stared at him, while he smiled, waved, and worked hard to help pull this magical moment for everyone off, including his family.  I'll get to shake his hand sometime.....and maybe get a picture with him as well.

Thank you @RiseFestival, @danjackhill for this wonderful experience.  I will never forget this as it's etched in my gray matter forever, and will be hanging on the walls in my home.............

Peace be with you.......................


twitter @CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

Details

I often wonder how many people can truly see what's in front of them.....see what's in their reach, but choose to not extend their arms any further then they have to.  I'm guilty of not seeing what's in front of me.  I'm guilty of not seeing what's ahead.  I'm guilty as charged.

After having my eyes rid of troublesome cataracts, I can see clearly.......literally... and I'm still looking with eyes wide open and marveling what I have missed for such a long time.  Details.  It's all in the details.....walking outside in the back yard and seeing blades of grass.  Yes I saw them before, but not the crease in the middle of the blade.  I see petals on flowers, veins on tree leaves........

I can see.  I can see more than a few feet in front of me with clear, focused eyes.  I can see things that I haven't been able to see in years.  I thought my vision was normal, clearly in focus, and oblivious to anything else....I guess it's why I see with eyes wide open, looking ahead of me and what's above me.   I don't want to miss anything.  What is normal for me, is not for someone else.......I don't live in a perfect world, and I still miss what's in front of me.  But that is what makes my journey in life exciting.  I can go back and see what I missed the first time around.  Chances are I won't see it all, but I'll see what I need to see.......

From a pair of eyes that were blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other, with contact lenses, and a pair of reading glasses, that equals 3 pairs of blurry visionary eyes....now its a normal pair of eyes with clear vision topped off with occasionally putting readers on to see the really, really, really fine print..............has this opened my eyes?  You bet it has.  Will it improve anything or everything I do in my life moving forward?  Nope....... I am who I am.......with better vision to see with.  And, just in time, too.............................I have an eye opening experience coming up this week............



Twitter@CotySimon
Instagram.com/Howunique310

One eye open.......

There is a saying.........Blind in one eye, can't see out of the other.......or here's another.....the blind leading the blind.......I'm referring to me and my human........

I headed to the lake for one last time for the year.  Our traveling home needed to come down and  be put to bed in storage for the winter and I needed one last trip up there to recoup.  As soon as the other eye is done, I won't be the blind leading the blind anymore.  I/we will be seeing clearly and in focus.........

One morning with coffee in hand I managed to maneuver my way to the beach. This was a perfect time to go puddle jumping.  To bad it was too cold to do just that.  Kick off the shoes, stomp in the rain water.  Loved doing that as a child.  Still love doing that as an adult.   A slight drizzle was falling. I didn't care.  I wasn't going to melt.......yet....... I was surprised to see that the sunrise managed to burn a path along the top of the mountain and give me a show of the most brilliant red.  Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.  Red sky at night, sailors delight.  I should have listened to the warning.

There's something to be said having Mother Nature give you a wake up call that makes you sit upright in bed.  Being in the mountains, the thunder echos and bounces off the mountains clear across the lake.  The lightening strikes are bright and flashy. Add the heavy sound of rain beating on the roof top and you have the makings of staying inside all day watching movies or reading a good book.

The lake in the backfround...no worries.. There was the makings of
an entirely new lake right in front of us.  We had the perfect spot for
beach front property, including having a picnic table smack dab in the
middle of it.  

The fall colors are gorgeous right now. The rain seemed to be bathing them, washing off the dust and dirt.  They were bright and colorful.   The clouds hung low on the mountain sides and hugged the tops of the trees.  It rained so hard taking pictures was out of the question.  So I did the next best thing.........took pictures from a moving car, rapid trigger finger snapping away.

Soon the leaves will be gone and the branches once full of leaves will be replaced with a blanket of snow...............all will be quiet.

All will be quiet until I show up once again next spring making as much noise as I possibly can.......don't think for one minute I am going to let my human curl up in a ball and roll away.  Nope..ain't gonna happen..........I'll make sure she gets refueled, regenerated, and revived........she'll be good as new and seeing with two good eyes..................




Twitter @CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

Mountain High.......

There is no better way to spend a lovely last Saturday of Fall than in the mountains.  Octoberfest is a happening place to be.  Song, dance, beer, brats, people.....mountain air, leaves just turning colors......When someone suggests to "head for the hills"....I will do just that...don't have to ask me twice.  I don't need to burn rubber.....it's a glorious short 20 minute ride.......the mountains give me another place to mellow the mind.  Beer and thin air has that affect on me.......

Taking a Tram up to the mountain top where the air is thin, kind of leaves you weak in the knees and short of breath.  The view takes my breath away literally.  Elevation approximately 9,000+ feet above sea level.  No wonder I leave my heart on sandy beaches.  I can breath at sea level.   I do feel closer to heaven up here though.  I won't have far to go if I should happen to kick the bucket up here.    

On a clear day you can see the valley floor of Salt Lake City.   Just not
today.  Hazy smoke filled the skies from the fires burning
in California.  

In a few weeks, these mountain sides will be covered with a blanket of deep
white powdery snow.   The skiers will be heading down the hills.  

Over yonder mountain tops, lies the beautiful valley of Heber  City.   Clouds riding
the jet stream.  

There is 360 degrees of gorgeous views ...I want to stay here forever.  

When I look at the mountains from here in the valley, I feel safe and secure.  They are my security blanket.  Being on top of these mountains, I can see how people feel they are on top of the world.  I get it.......because you are.......The terrain changes along with the seasons.  From green to brown to a multitude of colors, to just plain white.  You put it against a bright blue sky background and it's breath taking.  As much as I complain about hating the winters, hating being cold, I can't say that I hate looking at the mountains.....no matter what color they are.  I'll bundle up, buck up, and handle the cold winter once again when it comes around this year.  Winter will be here sooner than I want.  

"The Mountain Song"

And someday when you're feeling awkward

and someday when you're down

Come to me I will give you anything

I'll turn your frown around

I wish I knew who wrote and who sang this song.  I could only find it as a ringtone.  No songwriter listed, no singer(s) listed if this song was ever recorded.  Whoever wrote/sang this, I would like to give them credit.  I've put an excerpt of part of the song lyrics in this blog.  This little part of the song just seemed to fit.  

Twitter@CotySimon

Instagram/Howunique310

Out of Focus

Having two eyes firmly planted in your head, wearing a pair of contact lenses, and then putting on a pair of reading glasses to see the small stuff in front of you, is not fun.  Try looking through a camera lens with all that plastic attached to your face.  It ain't easy McGee!!

Over the past few months the eyesight has changed...for the worse.........not being able to see clearly is unsettling.  It was time to see the eye doc anyway and I figured my human was due for a prescription change.  Little did I know that walking out of this appointment I would be walking back into another seeing a surgeon.  Nothing serious.  Just cataracts that have finally told my human it's time.  It's time to take the buggers out and put in lenses that will enable her to see clearly without benefit of glasses and/or contact lenses.

I'm young at heart, but my eyes are telling me that I am aging.  I don't qualify for Medicare so I am still young! Age doesn't matter when it comes to cataracts.  Babies can be born with them.  You can develop them at anytime in your life.  I've battled mine for years.  Small at first, didn't give me any trouble or grief, and then wham.......they became larger than life and it was time to realize the reason I could not see clearly was due to the fact that cataracts have taken over my vision.  I've realized now that I have tried to compensate for my lack of clear sightedness.  I got used to it.  It was normal for me.  I haven't seen clearly, like every detail on a tree, leaves with veins, flowers, and the biggest......street signs for a long time.   I feel like I have been Helen Keller driving behind the wheel.  As scary as that sounds, I can see, but I don't have to read street signs as I know where I going. I know where I am headed.  Objects in front of me are not blurry.  Slightly out of focus, but not blurry. I don't see double.  I don't see triple of anything, although there have been times seeing double/triple would have been a pleasing sight to these eyes of mine!!!

I rely on my vision for a lot of things.  I  have realized it's just another item on my list that I have taken for granted.  My senses are everything.  Sight, hearing, smell, taste and sound........... Soon I will have a new lease on my sight.  I'll be able to see clearly again.  I'm almost scared to go back and look at past photos I've taken.  Will they be as clear to me now as I thought they were then?  Or....so out of focus that it has left my mind muddled with doubt?

After receiving the news that I will need a very simple 10 minute procedure on my eyes to correct my vision, I headed to the park.  One of my favorites parks to go to mediate, to contemplate.........I have mountains, water, and birds to look at....................

I learned to say a long time ago that "never and can't" are not words.  I will never do this....I will never do that.....I can't do it....I've replaced those words with I will try...........

I will try to be an inner child that pushes my human to do better.  I will try to remain who I am...........who I am is me.............take me as I am or not at all.  I can only change for me.........Will my new clear vision improve my photos?  Probably not, but at least I will be able to say I tried....................will it improve what I type on the keyboard?  Definitely not.......unless I tell myself to "try" and change my attitude.......for sure, I will try to remain "me" to the best of my ability with some new sauciness thrown in the mix with a side of humble pie..............I am after all, just an inner child who loves to do crazy, spontaneous things in life.  Never boring, never dull..................



Twitter @CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310