November 23, 2015

Hi y’all,

I truly hope you are happy and healthy.

My current desktop photo is an early morning shot of the dam.

I haven’t been running outside for a couple of weeks now. I have discovered that I am not a cold weather runner. When the temps drop below 45 degrees, I’d rather run on the treadmill. And I hate running on the treadmill. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I was perfectly happy running on the treadmill until I started running outside. Now I find running on the treadmill boring-which I combat by reading and not thinking about what I might be missing outside. Reading on the treadmill...that’s a good thing. I love to read. Temperature controlled climate...that’s a good thing too. I don’t like to be cold. But missing out on shots like my current desktop photo...that’s a very bad thing. I love this shot of Bagnell Dam. I think I’ll have a 24x36 canvas print of it made.



We had snow here this past week. At least three inches but Mike thinks we got more than that.

“Peg, where are our snow photos?” you ask.

I’m so glad you asked!

It didn’t take me long to hook up Itsy and Ginger, grab my camera and go looking for pretty snow pictures. In fact, it was still snowing when I went out.

 

 I like this shot of our iconic Indian, here on the Strip, in the softly falling snow. I have another shot of him that I really like too, but instead of using my space to show you two photos of the same thing-even if they are two different views-I’m going to show a landscape that I like a lot too.

 

This was taken the next day-when it wasn’t snowing-along with three other landscape photos that I picked out to show you. But I won’t show them here either, at least not right now.

How about this one?

Can you see him?

These guys are much easier to spot now, sitting in the bare trees along the highways, than they are in the summer time. I took a photo of a polar bear in the gently falling snow too, and I like the shot-once I edited out the power lines-but I won’t show you two animal photos either, even if the bear wasn’t a real one, or maybe especially since he wasn’t a real one.

Instead, how about one of three Winter Flower photos I picked out to show you? They look like stars in the snow, don’t you think?

So there you have it. There you have a variety of photos I’ve taken this past week. I think I’ve covered most every category except maybe nude.

“Nude!” you exclaim. “Peg! This is a family letter! No nudes!”

Okay! Okay! She wasn’t really nude anyway, but I’ll tell you what. I was so surprised to be coming home from my Saturday morning run and seven o’clock in the morning see a gal wearing nothing but a tank top and a pair of panties, walking around on the front deck of a local watering hole-talking on a cell phone!

Did she have too much too drink and sleep there? I wonder. It was a pretty mild night last night. Then I see some clothes laying on the ground behind a parked SUV. Maybe she fouled herself and took her clothes off, I think. And guess she may have slept in the parked vehicle.

“Mike, you won’t believe what I just saw,” I said to Mike as soon as I walked through the door a few minutes later. Then I told him. Guys always seem to perk up when you talk about girls walking around in their panties, don’t they. I didn’t put a question mark there because guess what? It’s not a question!

About ten minutes later our friend Margaret, a regal lady of 88-89 on December 7th!-pulled in the parking lot for our long standing Saturday Morning Breakfast at The Golden Corral.

“Let’s go down the Strip and see if she’s still there,” I suggested as we joined Margaret in the van.

Well, she was. She was sitting at one of the tables in front of the closed bar and grill and as we were passing, she stood up! Can you believe that? If it had been me, I’d have been hiding someplace! Like behind one of the stools. Not much coverage but better than being half naked in public! But she didn’t hide. She stood up, looked right at us, flipped her hair back over her shoulder and started walking around. Just like that! I couldn’t believe it.

“Maybe we should see if she needs some help,” I said.

“She was on a cell phone, remember?” Mike said.

Oh. Yeah. She could have called for help if she needed it.

After our breakfast and chat-fest with all of the regulars and staff of the Golden Corral, catching up on everyone’s news from the past week, we piled back into Margaret’s van and headed for home.

“Let’s see if she’s still there,” I said as we neared the Strip. “And if she is, I think we should stop and see if she needs some help.” But she was gone, the clothes were gone and the only thing left behind was the white SUV.



Last week I used the word ‘decadent’, do you remember? I said something to the effect that Dream Bars are decadent tasting but oh so easy to make. When I wrote that last week I wondered if I had spelled decadent correctly. Sometimes I write the wrong word, but I bet you never notice, do you? So if there is any doubt in my mind, I use the dictionary on my letter writing program and make sure I have the write word...just kidding. Right word.

I was surprised when I pulled up decadent and found out it meant in decline; immoral. That doesn’t sound anything like what I thought decadent meant. It didn’t sound anything like the way I wanted to use the word decadent either. Maybe I am just spelling it wrong. I’ve done that before. But every time I tried varying the letters it brought me right back to decadent. So what did I do? I did what I always do when I have a problem.

“You called your mother?” you guess.

Yes, I called my mother. We had a big long discussion on decadent, and of course she knew what it meant, but could I use it the way I wanted to?

She wasn’t sure and she needed to think about it for a minute.

“Where did I get that idea that decadent meant rich tasting?” I asked Momma. But she didn’t know.

It wasn’t long after I talked with her that I needed a break from writing and I jumped up on the internet and guess what I found in my Inbox? A recipe for chocolate pudding.

Decadent Chocolate Pudding. It read. Go ahead, indulge! We understand! Our recipe for Decadent Chocolate Pudding is so luxuriously rich and creamy, it’s hard to resist falling in love with this dessert.

I called Momma back and read this to her. “But it doesn’t say decadent tasting...can I say decadent tasting?”

“I think so,” she allowed.

“Well, if it’s wrong, someone will let me know,” I said to her. But you guys never do. Mostly I think you are just happy to get a letter from me and that you wouldn’t even think about complaining about the little things. Sometimes Momma will point out to me when I’ve written a wrong word, like I wrote road once when I meant rode.

“I read it the way you mean it,” Momma told me and I believe that is what most of you do.

 

 

Now, speaking of remembrances, do you remember last year when I spent hours photographing the cedar waxwings feeding on wild grapes? On my run this morning I see the grapes are all gone. I missed it. And that made me a little sad. I was hoping to see it again this year. Then I remembered that I have lived here for a lot of years. That I have been walking this route for a lot of years and I’ve only ever seen it once.

Count your blessings, me reminds myself.

Something else that I noticed is gone is the black vultures. At first, when I didn’t see them roosting where they usually roost, I thought they may have already flown the coop-so to speak-for the day and were off somewhere where I couldn’t see them. But it’s been nearly a month now and even though I didn’t run outside for a couple of those weeks, I’m convinced they decided to go south for the winter. Do they do that? I’ll have to google it and see.

I heard back from the ombudsmen regarding the droppings of a couple of weeks ago. He thinks it was left by a raccoon, possibly, and the seeds were those of persimmons. Here I thought persimmons had tiny little seeds. That shows to go ya that I have not eaten one myself, but guess what I’m going to do now. Yep. Open one up. Maybe I’ll even eat it, you never know. And just this morning, on my run, I spotted another persimmon tree loaded with fruit.



Something that has been on my list to talk about for several weeks now is the kitten that I gave to Momma’s caregiver, Marilyn.

“I got to hold her the other day,” Momma told me. “She has the softest fur!” And I know exactly what she means. One of the first kittens we had gotten from Mama Kat had the softest fur. Since this one is a descendant of the same mother, I can imagine how it feels.

Jenny, Marilyn’s daughter, has been taking care of the kitten. Jenny has a young son, two-years-old now, and Jenny has evicted all animals from her house. All of them that is, except this new little one that she is taking care of. “Hayden and the kitten have bonded and the kitten even sleeps with him,” Momma told me. I bet that is one cute picture.

I just was happy to hear the kitten is still alive.

 

I finished this jigsaw puzzle this week. One piece missing. The eternal optimist in me thinks I may find it on the floor yet. Just because I did look and didn’t find it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I can always hope can’t I?

 

I started a new puzzle but I haven’t been able to work on it very much. You see, I have a new project on the table, on top of the puzzle. I keep the puzzle under Plexiglas to prevent the cats from taking pieces or puking on it.

My new project is decorating my cabinets with reindeer, snowmen, birds, trees. Mike bought me a new cartridge for my Cricut machine, Winter Wonderland, and I’m having a lot of fun playing with it.

Kevin came in after work this past Friday and looked at my cabinets. Andrew is the only name I’ve put up. “I guess we know who’s important around here, don’t we?” I joked with Kevin.

“I can see that!”

Let’s call this one done,

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike