Finally got our photos!

Frank had the SD card with all the photos on it from the two Pearl Jam concerts. I finally got hold of it, so here are my top three choices of photos to blog...

 

Here are my very happy boys. They enjoyed it very much. So did I.

Pearl Jam - Telephoto

 

At Madison Square Garden, 2008

Another Monday Morning

...and I feel fine... (REM is cycling through my head a little bit today.)

I was reading that book my mother recommended to me right before bed last night, the one by Eckhart Tolle, that's an Oprah book, about living a conscious life. A few thoughts were left in my brain for today.

You have to live every moment in the "now", and with one of three attitudes:
1. Acceptance
2. Enjoyment
3. Enthusiasm

-- If you are doing something that you have to do, but don't really enjoy, you should approach it with acceptance, not with anger or bitterness or some other negative emotion.

-- In most everything of your life, you should try to approach things with enjoyment. Even if the task itself isn't completely enjoyable, you can enjoy just "being". For example, it isn't enjoyable to wash dishes, but it is enjoyable to feel the warm water on your hands and listen to music while you wash dishes.

-- In some things, you should have a real enthusiasm, because it produces such an energetic excitement and joy.

But you should try to stay in the "now", because later and before are not real, they are constructs of your mind.

I'm going to try to do that. I don't know how well it will work, but it does make a certain amount of sense.

Pearl Jam.

OK, I've put videos of Pearl Jam on here before, and I know you all don't really care, but I went to the show on Tuesday -- and Frank and Frankie went to the show on Wednesday, also -- and you all have NO IDEA what kind of an experience.

The video doesn't do it much justice, either. I searched the you tube site, and this was one of several good clips. But you just can't get the full effect. The camera has an eye that's too small. The microphone isn't big enough. You can't feel the vibrations.

I'm telling you, it's like a religion. More than a little.

No one around here, of my friends, have any interest in Pearl Jam. No one of the kids friends do either. It almost feels like no one likes them. And yet the concert was sold out within 7 minutes. I know of people who came from Greece and Portugal and Texas to be at this show. When you start to really get into it, you are willing to spend the money to travel purely for the concert.

Every seat was full, and every person in the stadium seemed to know every word to every song. People were singing and dancing. The concrete stadium was actually bouncing, literally. It doesn't usually.

I hated Pearl Jam when I first heard them. They were too hard, and all the words blurred together, I had no idea what they were saying. But after years, I'm converted.



Garden (live)
Time: 6:52
Gossard, Ament, Vedder
From the single "Dissident"
She don't wander in here don't wander in here she
She don't wander in here don't wander in here
The direction of the eye so misleading
The defection of the soul yea nauseously clear
I don't question our existence
I just question our modern needs don't wander in here she
She don't wander in here
I will walk with my hands bound
I will walk with my face blood
I will walk with my shadow flag
A-into your garden garden of stone yeah
After all is done and we're still alone yea
I won't be taken yet I'll go with my hands bound
I will walk with my face blood
I will walk with my shadow flag
Into your garden garden of stone-ah yeah
I don't show I don't share
I don't need yeah What you have to give yeah ah
Oooh I will walk with my hands bound
I will walk with my face blood
I will walk with my shadow flag
Into your garden garden oh
I will walk with my hands bound
I will walk into your garden garden of stone yea
I don't show I don't care
I don't need yeah no need to live me to live me to live Ha
---------------------
I still don't know exactly what he's saying, but the feeling comes through.

Vegetation, Escaping

I didn't set this photo up, and I didn't do anything to the colors, either. This is the way it really looks in my back yard garden.

This flower is attempting to make a break for it. It's decided the garden is too stifling of an environment. It wants to ROCK.

Farmers Market with the Scouts

 

We went to the Woodbridge Farmer's Market today with the Boy Scout troop. It was partially a fundraiser -- we sold drinks, $1 for a bottle of water or iced tea or a can of coke or diet coke.

The other part was a conservation project. A business had donated a bunch of white pine seedlings to the troop, thinking we could possibly use them. We used some. But there were a LOT of little trees. So we gave them out.

It was a lovely day, and we did really well. Most of the trees went to good homes. I hope they survive.

Have you GotCrowd?

Today is the launch of a new website GotCrowd. <-- Click here to get there, and take a look around! It's a great idea (I'm sorry I didn't think of it myself!) and I hope they do really well with it.

Basically, it's a social networking site for artistic people who would like to find an audience. I've got a page there, as "Susyluwho", and I've posted a few photos and paintings. Pretty soon I'm gonna post a few tattoo designs as well, and maybe a poem or two one of these days. Take a look, sign up for a page, and request me as a friend! There are categories for arts, music, sports, writing, and stuff like that.

I have to give the owners a lot of kudos for getting something like this going. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Childhood Flowers

 

And now, for the post of the night.

Childhood flowers.

I took pictures of a bunch of things while I was waiting for the guys on the 50 mile bike trip. I didn't have a theme going, but I realize now that a theme developed. It's childhood flowers. This one is my favorite.

Make a wish!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

 

I'm too cheap to send a card :)
Happy Anniversary!

50 Mile Bike Trip!!!

 

So, spur of the moment on Friday night, we realized that this would be a good weekend to try to get the 50 mile bike trip finished. For those of you who remember, Frankie has completed his Boy Scout eagle project. The only thing left to complete before he does a board of review is the Cycling merit badge.

Most Boy Scouts in our troop -- well, I should say all Boy Scouts in our troop -- get the swimming merit badge at camp. You can get swimming, or cycling, or hiking. But you have to get one of the three.

Swimming is easy for most but was very difficult for Frankie, because of his health problems. Cycling seemed like a more possible option. But the 50 mile trip was hanging over his head for ages. It had to be done within a limited amount of time.

So Friday evening, he met with the Cycling Merit Badge counselor. Then, he planned his trip, and then he went out with his friends for the evening.

We woke up early Saturday morning. Frank and Thor were the team, and I was the chase car.

Fresh as a Daisy.

 

Look how excited and fresh they are! 50 miles - no problem!

stretching to get ready

 

Off they go

 

Stopping for lunch along the way.

 

This was in Lambertville, NJ. I had more trouble parking the car close to the trail and I had to walk with the lunch stuff, but at least there was a little bench there! Up to this point, everyone was going strong. I think it got progressively harder from this point on... but the last 10 miles was the hardest of all.

No, not finished.

 

This was the halfway point. It was an exercise course just past Washington Crossing State Park. Frankie took the camera this far on the bike, because I didn't make it there. I sat and waited at Washington Crossing, with my book and a pitcher of iced tea.

I had a lovely day.

 

sitting and waiting, reading...

The home stretch

 

The thrill of victory? Or the agony of defeat?

 

You can't really be certain from this picture. But this was the honest reaction upon completing the ride.

He rode straight to the end, and then was exhausted. He wasn't crying, although that's what it looks like. He was just wiped out...

They did it!

 

This is AFTER 50 miles on a bike.

They were much better today... Thor's legs hurt sporadically, but everyone has recovered nicely.

My Daddy

Happy Fathers Day, Pop!

 

This is my father... the greatest guy you'll ever meet. In fact, plenty of people have told me that he is one of the nicest people they have ever met, and even my in-laws think he could almost be a saint. So it's not just me saying so.

I always thought of him as Daddy when I was a little girl, but now that he has grandsons, he goes by "Pop" more often. He was a great daddy when I was growing up. He was very quiet and laid back, and he really didn't lecture as much as explain things to you. He gave very sensible guidance, even when I didn't want to hear it, and he was probably always right.

He is very philosophical, even though he might not think of himself in this way. He always accepts reality, but he is usually positive. He forgives easily and then forgets, and he always tries to look on the bright side. And one of my own personal favorites -- "If it's your time, it's your time." I really don't ever remember him complaining about anything, ever. Not because everything was always perfect -- but only because he was always on such an even keel.

I remember him trying to teach me how to catch. I was a clutz. I remember him teaching me how to drive. I can imagine how scary THAT was! He worked as much as he could, but usually started in the early morning hours so that he would be home in the evenings with us. He always made sure we had a vacation to look forward to, and he loves to travel. He learned how to golf, and he taught the grandkids. He taught me how to read when I was little, and even though I don't remember him reading much when I was a kid, now that he's retired, he really enjoys it. Like his own father before him, now that he's retired he is all about the grandchildren, which in his case means three boys. He is a great role model for them. And also like his father, he enjoys "puttering around the garden." His yard is always a work of art in progress.

When my kids were little, he thought nothing of driving the hour and a half to my house, picking up the kids, then driving the hour and a half back to his house -- keeping the kids all weekend -- and then driving them home again on Sunday, three more hours in the car. They loved to go to his house. He paid all kinds of attention to them, playing catch and basketball, riding bicycles, and just hanging out. He always has a good idea of something interesting to do.

There are so many good things to say that it's hard to say them all. But anyway, he's a great daddy, and I love him very much. Happy Fathers Day!

Enlightenment

 

"Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to the recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. ... Using the word "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants." -- from A NEW EARTH: Awakening to our Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle. Copyright September 2006.

Taking pictures of roses in the dark

 

Life in the Garden

 
Today at 90 something degrees was a lovely day for a water fight.

Swimming laps

 
I was peacefully swimming laps when Thor came up behind me with the hose and doused me with cold water!

Still only a work in progress.

 

So far, the only progress I've made is to sit and look at it a lot.

Maybe I'll work on it today.

Tea time

 

I love iced tea in the summer, and hot tea in the winter. Don't you?

I took this photo to help the painting I have in progress. I can see the colors and lines better on the computer. I can see what I want to do differently, and how I want to fix the painting. Of course, it still won't look exactly like the photo. It's more the "idea" than the reality that I'm looking for. But this definitely helps!

I got my sidebar back!

I admit, though, that I finally did it by shrinking up the Floyd Festival video. Adding junkmail posts didn't help at all.

So disregard the following photos.

I want my sidebar back.

so I'm posting anything to move the posts down.

It doesn't seem to work that way.

take off the wrapper

 

hey, bud.

 

for the birds.

 

I'm tired of missing my sidebar.

So I needed to post a bunch of stuff to get the posts to move down to get my sidebar back. I don't know if it's going to work, but there you go.

The Red Tent

I found my book! Jan recommended it to me. It's called The Red Tent -- I've started it and it's very interesting. It's set in old testament times, in the family of Joseph and his brothers, but it focuses on the women. The red tent was where the women of the family went when they had their period, to rest and wait and worship the female gods.

Interestingly enough, as I'm on the verge of Menopause, I start reading this book.

So I go to my doctor, (Bringing the book, for while I wait, but not BECAUSE of the book, obviously.)

And he says... "You are too young for menopause." He's got this magic pill, called "bio-identical hormone replacement therapy," which will cure me of being old. So I signed up for it.

And right now I haven't taken any yet. I take it right before bed. But right now it's perfect, because it's pure potential and no reality yet. It has the promise of being the fountain of youth. Right now, it could be the perfect answer to everything -- my pudgy gut, my dry skin and falling out hair, my cranky paranoia. It could be the complete cure for everything that makes me feel like my grandmother.

And since I haven't taken it yet, it is still perfect.

Cross your fingers, I'm going to take my medicine and go read in bed now.

I hope to awaken at the age of... maybe 27? That would be young enough.