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I got a seal of approval from the specialists I work for yesterday, telling me I'm saving the department money and have job security here (a raise would have been nice but I'm not pushing my luck). I'm happy to be employed.
This happened yesterday...a bit longish. I was grumping about how long the day was going to be. We've had a string of overcast, showery days. Finally, yesterday is going to be freaking gorgeous sun and temps. And me? I have a six-hour test in the windowless basement floor of a hospital...grump, grump, grump.
So, the taxi driver picks me up at 8:30 to drive me to the next town. The sun is still a reddish-yellow ball with lots of purplish streaky clouds in the sky, making the light a bit "unreal." Outside of town we pass a big stretch of wasteland and rough pasterage crossed by a few small streams that only have water in the winter. There was a light ground mist on the land, and amazingly there were probably two dozen ibises feeding there - two different species, one white, the other varigated. The scene was gorgeous: the unusual light and clouds, the mist, the vast empty landscape except for these graceful birds feeding there alone. It had the quality of an old Chinese or Japanese painting.
I go for the test, and get out just before dusk...the taxi guy comes back. On the way out of town we top a hill, which has one of my most favorite views in the area, though no one else has ever commented on it. I always tap the break and go slowly over the hill and coast down so I can have a prolonged look. The sun was bright. From the top of the hill you look down past a village of white houses that straggled down the road a bit, then beyond the land sweeps gently down into a broad valley dotted with white houses, and then rises in the distance to green hills, and above them two small mountain that yesterday were a lavender-blue colour, and through some trick of light seemed to loom much bigger than they really are. I love this two/three minute view, and yesterday it looked like a picture postcard that you'd want to send to folks back home.
And I realized that if I "lost" the day in the basement, that it had been bookended by two wonderful sights....a Far Eastern print and a picture postcard. And I arrived home quite happy about the trip there and back.
Sounds like some truly beautiful scenery, and it really does provide balm to the soul to be able to contemplate and appreciate it as you did. We see many species of wading birds in our neck of the woods, including ibises, herons, storks, as we live on an estuarial river, and it is always a joy to see them. It might be that the varigated ibises you saw were juveniles of the same species as the white ones, that is what we usually see but you never know.
And I hope you get good results from your test as well.
I am delighted with the six inches of SNOW! we got in the last ten hours! There is more to come later today. It finally looks like it should, here in northern Minnesota!
Last night we went to our granddaughter's Girl Scout investiture as a Daisy. Her delivery of the Girl Scout promise by herself was strong and clear. She is the poster child for "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.."
This morning was our grandson's Christmas program at his preschool. He was one of the kings and was quite sober about it all and we were quite proud of him. The program head gave a little speech before it started and set the expectations by saying while rehearsals have gone well, they've learned the actual program can bring many surprises. Isn't that the truth about do many things?
<--- happy and grateful Grandma
The thoughts of the school Christmas play and the teacher's comments about it made me think of a scenario that happened long ago, but which still makes me smile when I remember it. My brother, age 7 at the time, was in a school play that had the Holy Family celebrating the occasion of Jesus' birth a few years later. My brother played the part of little boy Jesus, and he had to sing a song in this play. He had the sweetest boy soprano voice, and it was a pleasure to listen to him sing. But.... as he stood up there on stage singing his song, he had unsnapped the little robe he was wearing, so his clothes underneath showed. And as he sang, he was busy zipping and unzipping the fly on his pants. I don't think his teachers on the stage noticed him doing it, but it was very evident to the audience, and we ( his family, consisting of parents and three sisters) did our best to keep our snickering to ourselves. We knew he was nervous about being on stage, and probably wasn't even aware that he was doing it.
But it's sure provided a good laugh-even from my brother- when someone has told the tale over the years.
This morning I received a text that my e-mail might have been compromised. This usually makes me slightly angry, but today, it made me resolve to limit my online activities. Not here of course, but other things that I use e-mail for frequently. unsubscribe from all sorts of groups. I'm always de-cluttering my closet - why not this!
This morning I received a text that my e-mail might have been compromised. This usually makes me slightly angry, but today, it made me resolve to limit my online activities. Not here of course, but other things that I use e-mail for frequently. unsubscribe from all sorts of groups. I'm always de-cluttering my closet - why not this!
I have 3 different emails I use.
I have my main one which is for important stuff.
Then I have 2 gmail accounts that I use for non important stuff which usually generates spam.
gmail is free and you can set up a number of accounts to use.
This morning I received a text that my e-mail might have been compromised. This usually makes me slightly angry, but today, it made me resolve to limit my online activities. Not here of course, but other things that I use e-mail for frequently. unsubscribe from all sorts of groups. I'm always de-cluttering my closet - why not this!
Might be all you need to do is change your password?
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It finally looks like it should, here in northern Minnesota! 
