Sunflowers - a Poem by Tamar

In the spring time she planted some sunflower seeds
They grew in the backyard among all the weeds
The grasses grew wild and the thistles grew tall
But the seeds starting growing and outgrew them all
In august the flowers would follow the sun
And pray in the evening when daylight was done
And the seeds in their petals were food for the birds
Who would thank her by tweeting their little bird words
...

In October the stems lost their strength and bowed down
And the frost in the morning turned yellow to brown
And she gathered the seeds so when spring came again
She would scatter them out to the sun and the rain
They would grow in the backyard again, feed the birds
Who would sing her their songs with their little bird words.
...

The seasons would pass as her years added on
Til one summer she sighed and her spirit was gone
So her children would gather the sunflower seeds
And there on her grave they would grow with the weeds
Til they outgrew the grasses, the thistles and all,
And they’d sway in the sunlight, so yellow and tall,
And she smiled from above at the sound of the birds
Who ate all the seeds and and sang little bird words.

Battle of the Bulge - by Roxie

All right, I’m doing it I told myself this morning. I’m losing this ten pounds of fat off my ass if it’s the last thing I do. I walked four miles yesterday and wasn’t feeling so enthusiastic about it today, but I’m determined since we’re probably going to be swimming in the Caribbean come July 4^th. Of course after my four-mile walk yesterday and counting calories all day as well, trying to keep it to 1,200 calories or less, I was ravenous come American Idol. So what did I do, you ask? Why, I ate everything I could find in the pantry. Pita chips and hummus, the last of the nuts, two granola bars and a banana. I stopped myself when I reached for the chocolate chips for baking. Well, I stopped myself after two handfuls.

Needless to say, I didn’t lose any weight yesterday, probably put on two pounds. So, I’m mad at myself today. They say to just start over, one day at a time, today’s a new day, I’ll do better today, and I’ll have the will power to slowly back away from the chocolate chips today. Right? Right? Someone please tell me I will!

I’m thinking about hiring someone to follow me around and simply slap the bad stuff out of my hands as soon as I grab it. Or shackle me to a chair and feed me only things that are good for me. I wonder if it would work. I can be quite convincing at times. I could probably talk someone into giving me the chocolate chips if I really wanted the damn things. They’d have to be very strong willed and not listen to my pleas and conviction that I deserve those blasted chocolate chips so give ‘em to me already. Maybe earplugs would work.

I did go on another four-mile walk today and actually did it in less time because I jogged some of the way. Trying to burn off the screw-up of last night’s binge. I’m hoping I won’t devour the sofa tonight. Any volunteers to keep the food away from my mouth? Anyone?

Why is it that now that I’m older it’s sooo much harder to keep the weight off? Metabolism? What? I was blessed with a skinny body for years and literally could eat anything and never gain an ounce. In fact, I tried to GAIN weight, if you can imagine that. Even drank that liquid Nutrament crap that was supposed to help you put on a few pounds. That didn’t work either. Alas, I pine for the good old days when I couldn’t gain weight no matter what I tried.

Although that's not actually my ass at the top of the page, if I don't do something soon that will be me with the industrial sized chocolate chips in hand! For today I will strive to do better and if anybody has any grand ideas that might help me – hey, I’m open to all suggestions!

The Night God Spoke - by Roxie

I can’t think of anything that has impacted me more than the words I heard that strange night so many years ago.

In the middle of the night I had an upsetting and horrible dream about alien abduction and I awoke in a panic. My legs and feet were thrashing under the covers, I had an extremely rapid pulse and labored breathing, my eyes were wide open searching the room, and tears were streaming down my cheeks. I broke into a sweat. I sat straight up in bed and was looking around for the small big-eyed creatures of my dream, the adrenaline pumping throughout my body. The fight or flight instinct was kicking in rapidly and I was looking around for a weapon, apparently choosing fight over flight. And then something happened.

I heard a very clear, normal volume, male voice that said, “Everything is as it should be.” I audibly heard it. I stopped looking around for a weapon. I sat as still as a statue. All thought left my mind. I immediately knew it was a clear message from the God I believed in. I sensed, felt, and recognized down to my very soul that what I had just heard was the essence of truth. “Everything is as it should be.” I calmed down within seconds of hearing it, for not only had I heard it, I felt it. A complete and utter calmness came over me immediately. All my fear vanished in a heartbeat.

“Everything is as it should be.” That was and still is the most profound statement I’ve ever heard. Even in the depths of a pity party I have remembered those words and they always comfort me. I remember them and realize that I will eventually get past the sadness, hurt or anger and there will be a reason for what has happened. Some of my most rewarding periods of growth have come from some heart wrenching experience. I wish I could say that I haven’t had very many of those but life inevitably has a way of throwing wrenches into your plans from time to time. But I always get past them. I always survive and live to tell those words to whoever will listen.

Sometimes I believe I was put on this earth to spread that message. “Everything is as it should be.” It always is and will always be. I’ve learned not to resist life’s lessons as much as I once did. Remembering that everything is as it should be helps me every single day of my life.

Worst Nightmare - by Roxie

My brush with sheer and utter panic and fear occurred this afternoon around 12:24 p.m. I turned on the living room television to watch my all time favorite soap opera that was in the process of recording and the screen immediately and in high definition showed a frightening scene. All thoughts of Pine Valley drama immediately vanished from my mind. I sat down on the ottoman to see what horrible tragedy had transpired in our now tenuously safe world.

The channel tuned to Randy’s favorite news show, Fox, had a ticker tape flashing across the bottom revealing the burning and smoking building was located in Texas. Okay, I thought, maybe (probably) in Houston or Dallas. Next thing I read is that a small private plane had taken off from Georgetown, Texas and crashed shortly thereafter. That’s when my heart began its staccato beating and instantaneous horror of WHERE it had crashed filled my terrorized mind.

Georgetown is just north of Austin, where several people I love live and work. My son, Brandon, is one of them and resides in Round Rock, which is between Georgetown and Austin, and my instantaneous alarm focused on him. I kept my eyes glued to the screen, frantically searched for the location of the burning high-rise and wondered why they hadn't revealed “where in the hell IS that building?!!!” I was terrified. Tears blurred my vision and I had to find out where it was and where my son was.

Finally, the beautiful blonde woman announced it was the Echelon Building III. I vaguely remembered that name because I had a brush with the IRS in that same building many years ago. My trusty laptop and I immediately went to work figuring out its location, but already my panic had subsided because if it was the building I believed it to be, my son was nowhere near it.

God will forgive me for breathing a sigh of relief when I discovered the address on-line because I know some people must have died in what the screen revealed as a black-smoke-filled inferno. I said a prayer for those unknown people whose loved ones passed on because their horror-filled day had just begun. My story could be quite different and I am sufficiently frightened of the terrors of this world we now live in to know that.

I watched the scene unfold as policemen and firemen did their jobs and the talking heads on Fox and authorities in Austin reassured us it wasn’t a terrorist attack. They explained bit-by-bit the events that lead to this tragedy. After a few minutes I broke down and had myself a good cry.

God help us all if a world exists where I can turn on the television and imagine my worst nightmare happens so easily. We are in deep doo-doo, people.

OLYMPIC (mis)ADVENTURE - Tamar

Go Canada Go!

.

The Olympics are finally here, and last Saturday we left, not bright and early, but cloudy and early, to find some Olympic excitement in Vancouver.

.

Despite warnings by VANOC of hour-long line-ups for buses and sky trains, we enjoyed a sit-down ride on a nearly empty Canada Line to downtown Vancouver. It was nice to see the streets turned into sidewalks filled with lots of people - here there were definitely signs of something wonderful happening. I think everyone had the same purpose as we did, so we just followed the sea of red jackets past the Vancouver Convention Centre to the Olympic Flame. Everyone was as disappointed as we were to discover the Flame was burning brightly behind a six foot Olympic security fence, with one 3-foot wide space cut down enough so people could get a look-see.

The official reasoning is because the Flame is in the vicinity of the Conference Centre, which has become a tightly-secured Media Centre. I just believe they are afraid someone will go poof the fire out.

The next item on our agenda was to head for the Irish House, which is supposed to be the biggest party place in Vancouver. It already had made the headlines for all the noise it was producing, keeping residents awake all night long. So we headed up Granville Street, which was full of displays celebrating the Chinese New Year Festival, for a damp 25-minute walk.

Irish House is a humongous white tented structure, which was sprouting a line-up at 11am, so we joined the end around the corner. After waiting for about five minutes, we heard someone ahead explain, "There's a ten dollar cover charge, and you get a free drink ticket..."

Well, we certainly didn't mind the ten dollar charge, if we had known about it already. But since we went travelling with a debit card, a MasterCard, and about $25 in cash, and Olympic venues only accept Visa or cash, and we didn't want to spend all our cash money just to enter and not be able to buy anything to eat, we slipped out of line. Needless to say, neither of us were very happy, but since I had had nothing to eat all day, not even breakfast, I wasn't willing to spend eatin' money on two alcoholic drinks for my husband.

The day wasn't going real well up to this point - if daddy's not happy, nobody's happy - so we decided to head back to Richmond. As in,

"Well, what do you want to do now?"

"I don't care."

"F..k it, let's just go back home."

So, another non-crowded ride back to Richmond, where we dined on A&W at the Richmond Centre, then took a raindrop walk to the Ozone for a visit to the Heineken House at Minoru - after a stop at the bank to withdraw some cash (just in case.)

Joining the lineup to enter the Ozone, which is Richmond's Olympic Party Headquarters, we realized that big umbrellas, like the one Howard was using to keep dry, are banned from the premises, along with backpacks and weapons.

Needless to say, it was a silent bus ride home.

So our first Olympic adventure was but a learning experience. Next Saturday we're going to try again. Wish us luck.

I Don't Smell Anything, Do You?

This past week, we noticed a faint odor emanating from somewhere unknown near our back door. It wasn't the dogs, as Howard assumed, and it wasn't Charlie the rat. Days passed and the faint odor became a bit more rancid, and still we had no idea what it was - until my husband discovered the plug to the freezer had become separated from the wall. The proof of that particular pudding hit me in the face when I walked in after a hard day's work.

"Ok then," I said. "Let's haul this outdoors and bag all the stuff so we can get rid of it." (Thank heavens there wasn't a lot of food involved.)

"No," he said. "I just plugged it back in. The stuff will freeze, the smell will disappear, and we can just put it out with the garbage on Wednesday."

Well, that sounded like a great idea, from a clever shipwright who is full of great ideas. However, the smell didn't quite disappear, although it did settle down a tad. Just keep the lid on til Wednesday.

Garbage day came, not soon enough. Howard was smart enough to skedaddle off to work without doing the garbage thingie, so it was up to me to tackle the job. I hauled in a huge breath, and grabbed a plastic baggie that used to have un-decomposing meat in it.

Oh oh. The top of the baggie came off in my hands, leaving its contents, along with the rest of our yummies, frozen solid to the bottom of the freezer. I thought maybe I would need a jackhammer to loosen this mess. Down goes the lid again, and I run outdoors to get a good intake of cool fresh air, thanking the gods that I had to go to work in a little while.

So this morning, I dragged the smelly offender outdoors to await another thaw, at least a partial thaw, that would allow me to double-triple-quadruple garbage bag the remains.

Life is good.

By the way, if you know anyone who wants to buy a freezer, let me know. It's going cheap.

The Dandelion - by Tamar

I'm glad they never told me

When I was just a seed

That I'd be growing up to be a weed

-----

For if I'd known my future

I might have hid my face

And now I wouldn't be here in this place

-----

A little bit of summer

And it's not even Spring

I'm glad of all the smiles and hopes I bring

Pre-Olympic Wanderings - by Tamar

Everything is coming up red and white. Richmond, as well as Vancouver, is starting to bloom with the Canada colours, getting ready for the Olympics. Yesterday I saw some creative person had the Olympic rings made out of Christmas lights on his front lawn. That was pretty cool, much cooler than the few souls who are still displaying full Christmas get-up(do they not realize it’s almost the end of January?)

On Saturday we decided to walk around Richmond and see what pre-Olympic stuff was going on, plus take a look at, as well as pictures of, the strange looking sculptures that are presently implanted in our beautiful city – Vancouver doesn’t have the dibs on odd, it seems.

Howard wasn’t very pleased when I gave him shit for parking in the mall parking lot while we walked – I could imagine coming back to an empty parking stall as our car was conveniently parked under a sign that warned us if we left the lot, our car would be towed. Then before we actually walked off the lot, I happened to ask him if he had the camera, which he hadn’t. Needless to say, neither did I.

No one spoke a word as we drove back to the house for the camera. The air was pretty staticky though. One wrong word and the car would have exploded.

This time he didn’t drive to the mall, but headed out in search of a place we could park with no threat of being impounded. Ha. I don’t know where the people in charge of the Olympics found them, but everywhere we looked had No Parking signs planted. We drove by some spectacular looking objets d’art – a huge head of Lenin with a crossbar-carrying dancer on his head – no, I’m not kidding – and a gigantic Inukshuk made of these huge boxes they use to transport goods. How impressive can you get.
The Olympic Oval was screened in with double fences and security guards, but I did manage to get a shot of the weird red thingies that hang in front of the building. The Oval is a gorgeous building. The weird red thingies look like oversized sieves. Words cannot express.

I’m looking forward to the Olympics, to the thousands of people milling around (and hopefully spending money at our store), to the Ozone, which is a 24 hour Party Zone sponsored by the Netherlands and is a couple of miles away from where we live. I’m hoping to meet lots of people, discover new things, and hopefully have fun – you’ll be sure to hear about it!

So if you get a chance to watch some TV coverage of the Olympics (besides the competitions, who the heck can afford to go to the events?) keep an eye out for me. I’ll be wearing a camera, carrying a notebook, and hopefully not bumping into flagpoles. I’ll wave!