Saturday, October 01, 2016

October, My Favorite Month

 Leaf Of The Day
October 1st, 2016

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there Octobers!"

~L.M. Montgomery
 Anne Of Green Gables

 October is finally here! It's my favorite month. It brings pumpkins and heirloom tomatoes. It brings shorter days, and allows me to finally put back on my favorite sweaters and sweater dresses! It has spooky movies to get me into the mood for Halloween, and October, particularly the later part of the month, is when the Dogwoods usually begin to bloom, but to my delight, this year, the Dogwood trees are celebrating a little earlier than usual. So, it's my delight to display some on Ellipsis early this year!

Magical things happen in autumn. This autumn will be challenging, with the presidential race, so unpredictable, and leaves smiling early, and of course, my upcoming test. I am thankful for the leaves to take my mind off of the frightening me. This season understands me, I really believe that, so I am trusting it to carry me through!

I love living in a world with Octobers!



Mood: Quiet

~Me :)



Friday, September 30, 2016

The Last Smiles Of The Year On Tawny Leaves

Leaf Of The Day
September 30th, 2016 

"Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical description extant of autumn... that season peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness... that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling."

~Jane Austin
Persuasion

 I loved jumping in big piles of leaves when I was a little girl! And I loved going leaf hunting in my yard. I could find all kinds of leaves and colors I didn't know existed! We had a huge Maple tree, with giant leaves, and I just loved everything about that tree. One day, my parents took me aside, and told me that the tree would have to come down. Well, as you might guess, that did not go over well! Gosh, I cried for days, and I swear I felt the pain of each branch as the saw went through it! My friend was being murdered before my very eyes! A living breathing soul was being tortured to death! And it was my parents who ordered the hit!

Life was terribly unfair! 

That was my first lesson about how just unfair life really is. Since then I have had much harsher lessons, and some humorous ones as well, about how sometimes things just have their time. Saying goodbye for me is always bittersweet. Like Autumn. It's been called the last beautiful blast of the year, and of course, it is. I guess that's why I have always felt that, no matter how the rest of the year went, autumn always deserves to be appreciated! I have been jumping in big piles of leaves for 50 years or so, and I don't plan to stop any time soon. And this leaf, in the picture above, is from the front yard of my own home, that coincidently, is the same age as me! Sometimes I like to think that the trees knew I was coming here one day!

Silly. I know.


Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Leaf Of The Day For September 29th, 2016

"We know that in September we will wander
 through the warm winds
  of summer's wreckage.
We will welcome summer's ghost."

~Henry Rollins




Mood: Quiet But Happy

~Me :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

All I Need To Know




"Fear is always with us,
 but we just don't have time for it.
 Not now."

~ Hillary Clinton
Living History


There was a video 9 years ago, that was so endearing, so perfect, that it sealed how I felt about Hillary Clinton as a leader, and how I saw her as a potential president. I have thought about that video many times over the years. It was a tongue in cheek parody of the Sopranos. It ended similar to the Sopranos ended, with us choosing the outcome. And the rest you know. But it's been difficult, especially in the hardest times, not to look back and wonder what might have been. 

So, here we are, a couple days after the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and while most outlets give her the debate by a wide margin, I wake up to find that Trump supporters have engaged in silly shenanigans by rigging non scientific online polls to unfairly project Donald Trump the winner. It's stupid. It's petty. And it doesn't fool anyone. Mostly, at least for me, it just makes me sad.

Hillary prepared for the debate. Donald Trump didn't. It's a part of history now, but to see the continued refusal of his supporters to call him on his lies, misogyny, or any of his ridiculous behavior just hurts my heart. When did that kind of behavior become acceptable? When did we give up on the truth? On civility? On rational thinking? On manners? On each other?

 I don't think the debates to come will do much to sway voters. If you don't know by this point how you feel, then you are incapable of knowing what you want for breakfast. I doubt I will post many more posts specifically about politics, at least until close to the election. It takes too much out of me. I can't keep hurting myself on a daily basis by drowning in the negativity of this election season. The harshest, saddest, most frightening of my lifetime. I have my mind made up. I decided 9 years ago when Hillary ran the first time, that she was what we needed then, and she still is!




This told me all I need to know about Bill and Hillary Clinton.

 

Leaf Of The Day
September 28th, 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me 

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Bite Me!

"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels!"

~Governor Ann Richards




I am so proud of our next president, Hillary Clinton. She faced the big orange menace, Donald J. Trump, at the debate, with class, panache, style, intelligence, knowledge, facts, and a fierce toughness that will inspire a new generation of little girls to grow up and become great women! More will choose their paths with confidence, because of her efforts to finally break that glass ceiling! 

I wonder how might life might be different right now, had we had our first woman president a couple of generations before I was born? I think I was probably born into the last generation where there was still a condescending snicker, when the thought of a woman president was mentioned. Don't get me wrong, I knew I could be a lawyer or doctor, I knew I could study political science and run for some public office when I was a young woman, but I took a different path, and I have never regretted it, but I wonder sometimes if I had gone down that other road, how far I would have gotten before the misogyny scared me away from my own goals?

 I faced my fair share of it, when I worked as a draftsman for a title company, and it was difficult! It, at times, made me not want to go to work. I mourned my job when that company downsized and turned my position over to the bosses brother, but I never missed the treatment I would get from some of the men I worked with! After I got married I wanted to stay home and be a wife  and mother because I longed for a real family unit I didn't get to have as a child, but don't think for a minute the men of the world didn't have a little more condescension left for whatever woman crossed their path! I faced misogyny just a couple years ago when I went to purchase my car! The first thing out of a car salesman's mouth to a woman should never be... "what color would you like?" There is no need to dwell on how well that deal went. We'll just say, that salesman learned really quick who he was dealing with!

But back to Hillary! Her handling of Donald Trump at the first presidential debate was masterful! She is one more step closer to the White House, where she will be our next president, and I will be damn proud to see the race called for her! And I will be damn happy to see this long election finally over, although I have a feeling the men of this world who find strong, capable women threatening, will ramp up the misogyny. I hold no real hope that as a woman, I will suddenly be treated better, but I can hope that as we heal as a nation from the many things that leave us shattered, we will heal, and one day, I won't have to worry about being treated like I don't know a red car doesn't get better gas mileage then a green car does!

 Leaf Of The Day
September 27th 2016



Mood: Encouraged

~Me :) 

Monday, September 26, 2016

A Beautiful Autumn Home!

Leaf Of The Day
September 26th, 2016 

"THERE is something in the autumn that is native to my blood...
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time."

~Bliss Carman

  My mind is on so many things. My upcoming medical test. The debate, the holidays coming up really fast, but even when I am completely distracted, autumn reminds me to slow down and concentrate on the beauty of the leaves. It's the last big party Mother Nature gives us for the year! It's our gift for long, dark winter days, spring days when all I seem to do is sneeze, and summer days that are so hot, that keeping a straight thought isn't even a possibility! Autumn is a gift! And when I saw this collection of leaves I just had to smile. I can understand why a spider would spin a web among those leaves... they make for a wonderful, warm, beautiful autumn home! That spider has good taste in real estate!




Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Prep And Repeat

Leaf Of The Day
September 25th, 2016 

"Your enemies are not to be destroyed, grant them longevity to witness your success."

~Michael Bassey Johnson

Tomorrow evening we will witness the first of three scheduled presidential debates. As a Hillary Clinton supporter, since she was our First Lady, I have been waiting for this time for what feels like forever. I have been anticipating her performance and that of her political adversary, Donald Trump, with a mixture of pride, and anxiety. Pride in Hillary, and anxiety at what stupid stunt might be pulled by Trump. You see, he has no political prowess. No special insightful skills for dealing with world leaders, no diplomatic insights... at all... he got to this place by being a bully and a skillful street fighter. Great if you are a common thug, but not what a reasoned and responsible person want's to see in the person who holds the highest office in the world. 

But here we are. Standing at the edge of a dangerous cliff. Some tough punches have already been thrown. Hillary has invited Mark Cuban, who is one of Trump's most vocal critics, which led to an all out Twitter meltdown of Donald Trump, resulting in the counter-puncher, inviting Bill Clinton's former lover Gennifer Flowers to share the coveted front row with Cuban. Tacky. Mean-spirited. And stupid. Stupid because he tipped his hand, two days before the debate. He proved Hillary right that he can't be trusted to keep his temper in check over something that should have caused him to barely shrug. Instead he responded with what he thought would do the most damage... throwing a painful memory in Hillary's face. And he failed miserably!

Hillary has long since dealt with that pain. She has long since dealt with the embarrassment of a cheating husband. She has long since dealt with all of it. And she did it on the national stage with a great deal of grace. And so have all of us who believed in Bill Clinton! When the whole sleazy mess came out, 20 some years ago, I didn't really care then, any more than I do now. I was sad for them as a couple, and sad for Chelsea that her parents sadness had to be splattered on every newspaper in the world. It was painful to watch, but it was the Clinton's to deal with! Bill Clinton kept his promises to me and my friends felt pretty much the same as I did. I will always consider it an honor that the first vote I ever cast was for the leader of my country, went to President Bill Clinton. He was our man from Hope. And he lived up to his political promises.

So, here we are, with Hillary Clinton poised to become the first female president, and I couldn't be happier to cast my vote for her. She is capable. Knowledgeable. Diplomatic. Intelligent. Strong. Resilient. Brave. And I trust her to be president. She showed me a lot about how she handled that scandal caused by her husband. I began to admire her courage and her strength. She could have divorsed him. Given up on her marriage, and moved on, but she didn't. She stuck it out. She is a brave woman, who deserves respect! And look at what she has already accomplished. She has Trump rattled before they ever took the stage for their debate! She is smart, and she learned how to handle her adversary!

Well done, Madam President! I am proud of you! 


 Mood: Hopeful

~Me :)