Sammy comes for a visit and now he goes home!

My son flew in from Dallas a week or so ago and what a time we had.  Rather then rent a car or have me drive up to Denver, he opted for the little plane that shuttles passengers down here.  Methinks he may not make that choice again.  He is a seasoned traveler, unlike his stay at home mother, but this was his first flight on in a "crop duster.  His first clue that this might be different was when he stepped through the door and was told they would need to "balance the load".  He chose to set right behind the pilot so he would not have to look out the window.  He deemed the pilot to be a school boy out on Spring Break.  The co pilot seemed to be his baby sitter.  He was first instructed that in case of an emergency he would be in charge of unlatching the door and kicking it open!  And he took the orders very seriously!

The flight down was only 39 minutes from take off to landing, but he still had time to look around the cabin.  He spotted an instruction manual in the flap on the back of the co pilot's seat and wondered why they were required to carry them, being seasoned pilots and all.  At that moment the lady co pilot reached back and got the book, and my optimistic little son was sure she was reading the part entitled "How to Land the Plane."  But he did take precautions when they said they would be landing in Pueblo in just a few moments.  He braced one foot on the aisle seat and his arm against the fuselage.  OMG!  I would have given an arm and a leg to have been on that plane!  When he came down the stairs and into the lobby he was laughing that hysterical laughter that is a sign that one has been wound too tight and is now coming unwound.  Good to see.

And home to dear sisters we went.  Dona is my middle child.  She looked at Sam and the conversation that ensued is as follows:
"Oh, Sammy!  You have no hair!"
"Never had any.  Male pattern baldness!"
"You are getting pudgy!"
"Well, I have not been working out because I am busy at work."
"Still with so and so?"
"Yes."
"Wow you are lucky to still have the same one after all this time.  You are lucky to have anyone!"
At this point Sam turned to me and said, "Boy she really missed her calling!  She should have been a motivational speaker, because she is sure motivating me towards suicide!"

We did have a lovely 5 days which passed much to quickly.  And then it was back to the airport to send the little guy home.

Sammy at the check in counter.

In the "holding area"

 

Taxiing down the runway!

Up, up and

away!

Sam makes the flying thing look so easy.  I wanted to take a train trip this summer.  I could leave here and stop in Garden City and spend a day with the girls, then to Hutchinson and spend a few days with the sisters, and then Kansas City and visit Shirley, on to St. Louis to see Jeffery and Fred, and then finally to Dallas.  See, the train does not go North and South, just East and West.  And the train ride is roughly 24 hours with all the layovers and such.  Plane goes straight.  Much quicker.  I labor under the notion that if the good Lord wanted me to fly he would have made me a bird!

But I have only been on an airplane once in my life and that was because Kenny and Clifford tricked me and I almost showed them how to have massive coronary over a mountain pass!  But that is another story all together.

So, the son is back in Dallas, the girl's are back in Kansas and I am once more home alone.  Life goes on and time passes.  Right now, I am off to take care of the geese, then downstairs to sew and then up one level to list on eBay.  I leave you with this video from youtube.  Rather made my day.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z1mhPVs0llI

 

Copied directly from MSN News in case you missed it on the PFLAG Blog.

Following her son's beating death 15 years ago, Judy Shepard has become a forceful voice for gay rights and a sort of mother figure for gay teens turned away by their own families.

NEW YORK — The mother who championed gay rights after her son was tied to a fence and beaten to death couldn't bear to sit through the play that has helped keep his memory alive for the nearly 15 years since his murder.
But this weekend, at the opening of a double-billing of Moises Kaufman's "The Laramie Project" and "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Judy Shepard — seated in an aisle seat to allow for an easy escape — soldiered through the entire five-hour production, which recalls the story of Matthew Shepard's death in 1998.
"I just really didn't feel I needed to watch it because I lived it. And so many of the scenes bring back such horrific memories. I've never felt comfortable crying in public," Shepard said just before the Saturday performance. "It's been 15 years. I should be able to do this now."
Shepard made it through with the help of hugs from well-wishers at the intermissions.
Kaufman, a playwright and director who leads the Tectonic Theater Project, recalled the Shepard murder as a watershed moment that helped create a generation of activists and energize "straight allies" to the cause of gay rights.
"All of a sudden we had an image, we had an event, that operated as a catalyst," said Kaufman, a Venezuelan native who lives in New York.
The original play was born from the question of why Shepard's murder resonated more than other hate crimes, Kaufman said. The play has been staged more than 1,000 times.
Ten years after Shepard's death, Kaufman and Tectonic returned to Laramie, Wyo., to produce an epilogue and to interview Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, who are serving life sentences for the murder.
Nine U.S. states have legalized same-sex marriage, and in March the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage under federal law as being between a man and a woman, and whether Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage, should be struck down.
ANATOMY OF A MURDER
Henderson and McKinney confessed to meeting the 21-year-old at a Laramie bar on the night of Oct. 6-7, pretending to be gay and offering him a ride home, with the intent to rob him. They grew enraged after Shepard made a sexual advance, they said, and took him to a desolate area in the outskirts of town, tied him to a fence and repeatedly struck him in the head with a handgun.
Shepard was close to death when he was discovered 18 hours later and he died in a Colorado hospital on Oct. 12. In her 2010 book, "The Meaning of Matthew," Judy Shepard wrote that while she was at her son's side, she was barely aware of the rallies by thousands of well-wishers in cities across the country.
Judy Shepard, who is soft-spoken and shy despite her years in the limelight, says she is a reluctant advocate. But she has become a forceful voice for gay rights and a sort of mother figure for gay teens turned away by their own families.
"Many of us feel that Judy is the mother we never had. But it goes way beyond that," Kaufman said. "It's a story of a person who was put in an untenable situation and got the skills to triumph in that situation."
Shepard, who still lives in Wyoming, heads the Matthew Shepard Foundation and has fought for gay rights in her home state and for a federal hate crimes bill, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009 with Shepard at his side.
"I did what people didn't expect me to do, which was not go away," she said. "As a straight person, I have a gravitas that someone in the gay community saying the things that I say would not have."
She said she has been frustrated that change in Wyoming, also the setting of the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain," has come slowly. The state has no hate crimes law and this year the legislature rejected a gay marriage bill and a domestic partnership bill for same-sex couples.
Before the performance, a man who said he was about the same age as Matthew Shepard would be now tearfully thanked Shepard for her advocacy and said gay people "could not have had a better angel and a better mother."
Shepard's eyes also filled with tears, but she quickly regained her composure, saying: "This is what happens when you piss off somebody's mom."
 ——

No call lists and unsubscribe emails.

Seems like every couple weeks my e-mail box begins to fill up overly quickly.  This is because AOL does not kick everything that is spam over to the spam box which I can delete.  And when I delete the spam I am really not solving anything, because they just send more.  So I read each one until I reach the unsubscribe link and go that way.  So today I cut the ties on super cheap Viagra, declined funding Diane De Gette's run for congress, lost the contact with match.com, lost my chance at a time share and unsubscribed from Adstars 5 times.  I feel good about all this though I do resent having to unsubscribe from something I never subscribed to in the first place.
I have had lord only knows how many phone calls from companies wanting to sell me supplemental insurance and this confuses me.  I was under the impression there is only a small window of time that I can change insurances with, but they do not seem to have any time limit on when they can call and ding away at me.  Seems like the "Do Not Call" list is just a list and nothing really happens because it does not really stop anyone from calling.
Oh, and a survey!  Click.
And I am still fielding phone calls for a grandson that lived here  13 years ago and someone else who never lived here, but used my phone number for what ever reason.  And try to tell these people that I have lost contact numbers for them.
Oh, and today was Valentine Day so in honor of the big occasion, I dug out my wedding rings, just so I can remember that once upon a time, Valentine's Day actually mattered.  And better days are ahead.  Sam will be here on Saturday and so will two of the girls.  And I have a quilt in the quilter, the towels are off the loom and life in general is still good.  Or as good as it gets around here.
 

My take on the 18th Annual Chocolate Indulgence.

Welcome to the Chocolate Indulgence chocolate competition.  Here we have Susan and Adele, ready to accept my entry.  Since Dan had to work I also took his in for him.  And you know me and my better early than on time attitude.   I was the second one to bring my items.  Judging will be from 1:00 - 3:00 this afternoon.  So I drifted off to the YWCA to pick up Dan's ticket and then up to the hospital to see John  followed by meeting Tim at the Airport for lunch.

Here are my gluten free brownies and Dan's lace cookie w/bourbon butterscotch brownie waiting on the table for the judging.

And in case you think we were the only ones, take a look here!  Plenty of competition.

There were two tables of judges.  This is the table closest to where I sat.

Ah!  The auditors who are counting the ballots. 

See, each table has 6 judges and they taste every item.  It is then judged by each judge for flavor, appearance, texture, and creativity.  Flavor counts 40 points and the other 3 are worth 20 each.  The auditors then add the points and choose a winner.  No peeking for me!  I tried, but they did not seem to like that, so I just had to wait until that evening.

 

  Poor little Lou.  In all fairness, I do not know how many of you have tried the gluten free products, but they do no stand a chance in competition with regular product made with wheat, and I knew this.  I was sure I would not win, because of that.  My brownies were very good (for the record), but they finished some where way down the line and went to the "luck of the draw" table.  I am sure they found a good home!

And the first place winner goes to Mr. Dan Leavenworth and his Lace Cookie with Bourbon Butterscotch Brownie!  I shine with pride!  Dan is quite the chef extraordinaire!

 

And this concluded our evening at the 18th Annual Chocolate Indulgence hosted by the YWCA to benefit the Women's Shelter and Domestic Violence Programs.  I am not familiar enough with the work at the YWCA to name all the people connected with the organization, so I am not going to say I am.  I do know a few people there and love them dearly.  Dennis and  Brandi are the two I deal with most.  Oh and the lovely lady at the desk.  And the girl in the office behind Dennis.  And Doris Kester's daughter.  And I love their pool!  It is 90 degrees which is good for my old bones.

 

I do know the YWCA has been a bulwark in Pueblo society forever and I am going to start volunteering there, I hope.  Just as soon as I get a little time, because I feel this organization has done more to bolster women than a lot of other places and let's face it kids, where would we be without women?

 

And am I going back next year?  Let me see.  Chocolate everything.  Eat free with your admission ticket.  Chocolate everything.  Eat free with your admission ticket.  That answer would be

"Hell, Yeah!"

 

Big day today and next week is coming up fast!

I am setting here in my pajama's thinking about what a wonderful time I had at the Chocolate Indulgence last night and this is not a good thing, because pretty quick there are going to be a bunch of people show up here to load books out of my garage.  I told Ross I would make some Monkey Bread and coffee.  But first I have to go feed Nancy's cats.  Well, before that I have to get dressed and here I set.
See, PFLAG is going to have a big book sale up at PCC.  I told you my garage is getting very full!  Also someone is bringing another load of furniture and the place is starting to strain at the seams as it is!  So here is my plan. 
I am going to get dressed.  I will run over and take care of the cats.  I will hurry back here and throw the Monkey bread in the oven and throw together a few breakfast burritos.  After they leave I will clean up my mess and turn on the computer down stairs and download the pictures I took yesterday and hopefully figure out how to do the slide show thing and then do my blog on the Chocolate Indulgence by the YWCA to benefit the women's shelter and domestic violence program.  Empowering women is what it is all about. 
So, you just check back later or maybe even tomorrow and I should have last night's report.  It was a most wonderful event and since this is the first time I have attended it, you will see it through my innocent little eyes!  For now, I am off in search of clothes!
And if you get a chance stop by the Pueblo Community College February 11 & 12 and check out our selection of books.  Going to be something for everyone!  And I will be there both days.  Hopefully I will be dressed!

Phases of my life

I was just sitting here with the Super Bowl on down stairs and not listening to it and I started thinking about different mantras I have had hang on my wall and how little impact they actually made in the grand scheme of things. 
Right after I married Earl Duane, I made a little cross stitch thing that said "Home Sweet Home". 
Two  divorces and 5 kids later I had a bumper sticker that said "If It Feels Good Do It." 
Then I changed cars and husbands and of course a new bumper sticker.  "Horn Broken.  Watch for finger!"  That was my rebellious years. 
Followed by "Love Many, Trust Few, Always Paddle Your Own Canoe."
Then came Kenny and I began to grow into myself.  The needlework on the bathroom wall now said "Ewe's not fat, Ewe's fluffy!  That was the cutesy one. 
Then came "When you are over the hill, you pick up speed."
 That was followed immediately by  "You know you are old when everything either, sags, dries up, or leaks."
Today I stare at my final thought for the day.  "Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most."