Thank You

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'Thank You,' that would suffice."

 (Thought to be a quote from Meister Eckhart in the early 1300's. Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. (c. 1260 – c. 1327), commonly known as Meister Eckhart[ˈmaɪ̯stɐ ˈɛkʰaʀt], was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic.)

Be thankful and have a great Thanksgiving Day tomorrow!

Girly Car

Last Spring I saw this girly automobile on one of our walks to the grocery store. As usual, I did not have my camera. Seven months later we made the same walk, but this time I remembered to take along my iPhone. 

And here is one of the girliest vehicles I have ever seen. Pink and flowers and EYELASHES! Now! Now! Ain't that SWEET!

What a profile!

And pink piggies for headrests!

Everybody Ride on my Morning Walk

This is the craziest bike traffic sign I have ever seen:

This sign says all bikes have a green light at the same time. Is that not nuts?

If you look carefully, there is even a countdown to disaster.

Would you trust your kiddoes at this stoplight?

Now for the rest of my walk this morning--

A carpet of fallen leaves.

Typical window dressing for at least 40 years.

Underground garbage disposal. Each bag deposit costs Euro 2.50.

 Is this plastic? I won't check!

This is what you get when you charge so much for depositing garbage. Full public trash bins!

Blogger and Pinterest Friends

In case you think this blog post today is a "pity party," get those thoughts out of your head. I am happy with my life. (Even if the workers do not show up to finish our remodeling before we go back home!!!!)

Back in 1979, I chose to turn my life around. I chose to leave my friends and family and most of my worldly belongings behind and begin a new life with my love in a new land.

Since that time my family has grown, but the friend group has stayed pretty thin. My hub had (and still has) some super friends. They became my friends, too. But "real" friends like I think I had back before my hub, I have not found. 

But I am still trying to make and keep friends.

My iPad has been a great medium for being and staying "friendly." Just last evening we Facetimed with our friends A and J, while our friends M and J were visiting us in our newly remodeled apartment. My mom and I were even in the middle of an iMessage chat while we were Facetiming! (I know what you are thinking, but this situation with the technology is rare. I do not walk or drive while texting, and in fact my iPhone is rarely even turned on.)

In the last few months I have made some good Blog and Pinterest friends. Although the whole idea may seem creepy to some folks, I do not feel "creeped" out at all. If I notice something peculiar about a follower (or friend), I know that I have the possibility to block them or stop following them. In other words, I can "unfriend" them. But luckily that has been the exception instead of the case.

Every morning when I turn on my iPad I look forward to seeing if my Wetcreek and Wetcreek Museum blogs have gotten Comments. Then I begin to read the blogs that I follow. I comment when I think I should, and even stop following when I realize I really am not interested in the blog. The texts and projects and photos give me the kind of friendship that I missed for many years. My hub even gets to listen to my recounting of my "blog friends'" stories and lives.

I hope you are not sitting reading this and saying " oh, how sad." Because it isn't sad! I cherish the friends I have made on both Pinterest and Blogger. 

Ideally your friends should live next door or down the street, but mine are right here in my lap. 

On my iPad!!!

No Toilet Tomorrow Night!

Last night we almost ate our babi pangang and bami with our fingers out of the plastic containers. You guessed it, we had no access to our kitchen. And guess who forgot to rescue forks, knives, spoons, and plates from our kitchen before the floor guys forbid us to walk across the newly oiled wooden floors!

After picking up our Chinese dinner, we realized that we needed utensils and dinnerware. So back to the grocery store for plasticware it was!

Tonight we are sleeping in the living room. We can still make it through the rubble and dust to our bathroom, but that will not be the case tomorrow night. We will have to play hopscotch with polishing clothes to get to the toilet. 

And we are supposed to have a sleep-over guest. 

Pajama party at our age? Hope she doesn't mind :P

Compassion

When my maternal grandfather passed away on November 11, 1959, I remember the telephone call that my mother received with the sad news. 

She cried. And I cried. 

I was an elementary school student and knew my Papaw well and was so sad that he had passed away. But I think I cried because I was sad for my mother. She had lost her father, and we lived far away from her family.

On Sunday during the Jewish tour, I felt some of the same compassionate feelings when our guide mentioned the families who during WWII were taken from their homes and later put to death.

And then what about the compassionate feelings that we all have about the thousands of men, women, and children who are suffering from the devastating typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines?

These people need more than compassionate thoughts and prayers. 

They need help!

Not Quite Finished

Countdown time. We have one week to finish up what we can here at the Beltway Apartment. 

Our "jack of all trades" says he can come finish up his job on the 25th of November, but we will be back at home on November 21st. So I am not sure if those jobs will be"finished" until Spring 2014 :(. 

But the wooden floor guys showed up at 11:00 AM today and say they will be finished by Friday. We may be sleeping in our bed in the living room sometime this week, but at least maybe that flooring job will be done. We had already cleared out the living/dining and kitchen for the painters a couple of weeks ago, and it was still virtually empty. So ripping out the blue/green carpet should be easy.

With an empty room and no curtains and time on my hands, I started getting ideas. The bare windows looking out on the beautiful old city and the balcony were just too bare and sterile. So two weeks ago I decided that we needed simple curtains to "frame" the huge windows. What better curtains than "Lenda" from Ikea! They are the same curtains/drapes that we have in our home in the US. 

Last night I almost finished hemming these new curtains, except I ran out of iron-on hem tape. I have ordered 5 more meters from the Hema (free next day delivery!), which should be delivered sometime today.

Just like everything else these last five weeks.

Not quite "finished."

Oh, well (deep sigh).