Simply Moments

Honestly, could Ted Cruz or his wife, be any more tone-deaf or heartless?  Not only do they leave their home state and millions of Texans during an epic winter storm crisis without a backward glance, but they left a tiny poodle named Snowflake alone in their frigid house while they jetted off to Mexico. According to tweets sent by Mrs Heartless to friends, it was FREEZING (her caps) and they wanted to get away from the weather and hang out for five days at the Ritz in Cancun where it was warm and sunny.  She invited others to join them at the Ritz, where she apparently can't resist flaunting that this is where they've stayed "many times before".  I'm pretty sure their fellow Texans, out of heat, food and water, were thrilled to hear it. Supposedly, the wee dog was being watched by a Cruz security guard, although he was in his nice, warm car outside while little Snowflake was inside the FREEZING house day and night. Today is National Love Your Pet Day.  Mr & Mr

 January.  What a month, in a long stretch of awful months. It was such a dreadful month, in fact, that I lost the plot entirely and couldn't write a thing for weeks. It's hard to believe we're approaching one full year of this pandemic with almost no end or relief in sight.  The vaccine isn't rolling out as quickly as we'd hoped, and now with the mutations happening across the globe, it might not even work anyway in the long run. The horror of over 440,000 dead today in America alone just makes me want to scream and rage. One of my old neighbors in Edinburgh passed away on January 7th, from Covid.  It was heartbreaking news.  We'd been friends for years, even after I returned to America.  We'd emailed just before Christmas when she told me her husband had the virus and was in the hospital; she was in quarantine at home with a negative test and no symptoms.  Then I sent her a New Year's email, expecting to hear that she was fine and her husband was home

Yesterday UPS dropped off this really heavy box of parts for Nick's drill press. It probably weighs twice as much as Benny's 13 lbs, however that didn't stop him one bit.  Ever since opening his Christmas presents, he thinks everything in a box is totally his...

I'm pretty sure 2020 will go down in history as one of the worst years ever.  With the pandemic, politics, and presidential incompetence, it was a never-ending Machiavellian drama of epic proportions.  To put it mildly. Yesterday I was going through my photo program and ended up looking at the entire year, month by month.  Some months didn't have many images, others--mostly Summer--had far too many.  It was a pictorial trip through the year, which I decided would be a good way to finish off the blog for 2020.  After all, a picture's worth a thousand words... January :  The only thing noteworthy was my orchid, which hadn't bloomed in five years, until by some miracle it finally did this month and ultimately went on to have six gorgeous flowers clear into May... February :  The virus news was just starting to worry everyone globally, but I don't think anyone ever expected what happened next.  Most of this month I took pictures of the early blossoming flowers as I look

Over the years I've collected, or been given, several very cool snow globes.  I always forget how wonderful they are until that moment when I unbox them at Christmas. I love the fun in shaking them to swirl the snow, then listening to the perfect tunes when I wind the musical key.  That's when I know it's Christmas... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nick shaved my head again last week. I asked him to just give me a trim as the April shave had finally grown out enough to be a bit wild and unruly.  We couldn't remember which trimmer attachment we'd used before, though I didn't want it shaved as close as last time because now it's Winter and I'd freeze without hair. We settled on the #5 attachment.  I asked him to start at my neck where it was really shaggy, though for some unknown reason he buzzed straight from the back of my neck to my forehead in one long swipe. Then there was a total, deep silence. I raised my head to see why he wasn't talking or moving.  Holy

Every January for the past seven years, Adriene Mishler, my yoga teacher, has started the new year with a 30-day challenge: yoga every day for the whole month.  This will be my third year and I'm really looking forward to the event. Each year's yoga journey has a theme: Home, Dedicate, True, etc.  This time it's Breath.  In the yoga world, breath is everything.  It can calm, invigorate, heal; it's the one thing we can control, that also keeps us alive and kicking.  Adriene has many practices on her YouTube channel and in every single one, she actively encourages listening to the breath; it's amazing really how effective it is to "find your breath" and use it. I would truly like to invite anyone reading to join in.  It's free, it's rewarding beyond measure, you don't need any experience and all you have to do is show up every day.  An added benefit is the thrill of getting to January 31st and realizing you actually did it!! Since January is shap