Wait! It's Not Supposed To Be Winter Yet!!

Early Winter
By C.K. Armistead
Nov 16, 2014

Freezing air that greets
My reluctantly waking feets
I pull them back under the sheets
While the alarm clock uselessly bleats.

Seeking warmth, I hit the shower
Hot water seems to take an hour
Before it gets to its full power
Helping sweeten my mood so sour.

Joints that normally don't pain me
Today rebel and seek to blame me
For the cold that seems to contain me
Making them all inflamed, you see.

Oh, the joy of my cozy nook
To curl up and read a book
A window to help me look
Upon the trees by cold winds shook.

  

Winter Signs on A Fall Afternoon
C.K. Armistead
Nov. 2014

Swirling, falling drifting
Lightly dusting and sifting,
Flakes flying on north winds
Coating shrubs and ground again.

Fluffing, chattering, then still
Sparrows huddled on my windowsill.
Waiting for a decrease in the wind
So they can go after the seeds again.

The singing kettle, the bubbling pot
On the stove, making a lot
Of good things to drink and eat
To take our minds off of snow and sleet.

To keep the cabin fever away,
Time on the elliptical to bob and sway
Also burning as much as I should
Of all that good and hearty food!

So, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.  It is usually nowhere near this cold here this time of year.  Fall is usually the nicest time weather wise in Oklahoma.  I'm glad they switched from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change", because Climate Change is more descriptive of what happens as the earth has these temperature cycles.  It has happened before.  With or without man, our planet goes through changes.  Oh, we probably make it worse, but it isn't ALL on us.  The geological record upholds that fact.  The problem is, we ARE putting more chemicals, particles, etc into the air than would otherwise be there.  It DOES do nasty things to the planetary environment.  So, we do our little part to help curtail some of it.  Walk to the store instead of drive if I can, recycle everything I can. (But I have to drive to the recycling center.  That kind of rankles...)
My plans for today include making some more home made applesauce, and a batch of shortbread.  I also want to try to make some little meat pies with the egg roll wraps we have left.  (Not as fattening as pasties, but maybe ALMOST as good.  We'll see...)  The laundry is almost all done, including the towels.  I need to make out a grocery list and pay some bills.  Also praying for the weather to not leave us with a real mess on the roads in the morning.  (I'd like to do my shopping and get it all put away before I have to leave for Voice.)

Looks as though the roads will be iffy for quite a bit of tomorrow.  The schools are going to be closed.  (Oh, joy.)  May have to shop Tues before work.

Just feel so run down and tired and vaguely irritable during this weather.  Never fails to show up when I have other stuff to do! 

Here's the dessert I made tonight:

So, now that I've put my big, cozy sweater on, and had a bowl of this, I'm full and I'm SLEEPY!  Catch you later!

Friends Out Of The Ether

A couple of weeks ago
, I went to a Halloween party.  It was also a "club" meeting of sorts.  I got to meet two more of my online friends in person, and reconnect with two others.  That's the five of us in that picture, with me in the middle, evidently discovering something in Easy Street (the Hard Way) that I missed the first time.
Yes, we are some of the #Perlgirls.  We are all fans of Ron Perlman, and most of us have met him.  The fact that we have other interests in common, and that we have fun whenever we get together made this a very interesting weekend.

So much of social media is dismissed as being phony or shallow.  Well, some of it may well be, but sometimes you find real and wonderful friends there.  I have.  These ladies are dear to me, we've had long online chats, and now, in person chats.  We've laughed together, and pulled each other through sad times, too.  All because we found each other due to our mutual affection for a certain craggy faced actor with a warm, loving heart.

The trip was fun, but also a bit stressful.  My husband and I had a six hour drive to Austin for the party, and I-35 is VERY much under construction in many places along the way.  I am thankful my husband is such a good sport, and such a good driver  After all, these weren't HIS friends we were going to meet. He did enjoy himself though, and both of us met some really fun and interesting people at that party.

We have decided that while we think Austin is a beautiful city, we also find it to be one of the most confusing places we've ever been.  With all the road construction going on, it is VERY easy to get lost.  (At least for us.) The sad saga of us ending up at the wrong hotel the first time, and TWO long, frustrating treks through rush hour and construction congestion is best left at that.  It was probably my fault.  I probably touched the wrong address selection on Google Maps when offered the options. Everyone we met in Austin was friendly and pleasant, and even the crowds we encountered seemed good natured and easy going.

We had a nice trip home, once we got clear of the last big construction zone.  We made our traditional stop at the Davis CTS so we could buy some more Bedree chocolate.  (Also,  that must be the nicest, cleanest, friendliest travel center on all of I-35.)  Anytime we travel that far south on I-35, the CTS is a mandatory stop! As always, the familiar sights near home are always welcome after being away.  Perhaps it is because I hadn't been back home all that long after my last trip away before going on this one.
Most remarkable thing about my trip was that I traveled to another state for a whole week earlier this month with just my small carry-on bag and my purse.  For this trip, because it involved a costume party, I had my small carryon, my makeup case, a garment bag, my laptop bag, and two shopping bags.  When I have to get all dolled up, I need LOTS of backup! (Well, I AM over 50, and spackle, I mean makeup, takes up a lot of space.) Didn't need any makeup to go do yard work at my Mom's.

I've been letting this post marinate for awhile.  I knew I wasn't quite finished, that there was more I had to process and percolate before I could finish it. 
One big result of the preparation and completion of the costume for this trip is that I have started caring about my appearance again.  I had been being lazy, and truthfully, rather depressed about my aging self until this costume caused me to work with makeup again.  I have to make the time to put it on, and I have to take better care of my skin, but those are things I used to do all the time, I just gave up awhile back. 
Since meeting these ladies, and especially since reading Ron's book Easy Street (the Hard Way) , I have been conscious of all the things I stopped doing, and examining the REAL reason I stopped.  I didn't stop using makeup because I really decided I looked better without it, I stopped because I got lazy.  I decided it didn't MATTER how I looked, I didn't matter that much, nobody looked at me.  Did not even realize I had been thinking that way until reading Easy Street made me look at how I've been dealing with life. (Or rather NOT dealing with it.)  Since I've started this process, I've been more careful about choosing the things I do or don't do.  I have to clean out more stuff around here as part of all that.  Matt and I both need to cull out the junk that is cluttering up our lives (and our house!) 

I find that caring about my appearance gives me more confidence, I feel more capable.  I know it doesn't really change anything, but the psychological boost is real.  Working out and taking care of my body has been making big changes in how I feel about myself for more than a year now.  I have managed to lose and keep off about 25 pounds.  I lost more than 30, some crept back on, and I am in the process of losing it and keeping it off.  But this is the longest I have sustained a weight loss ever. 
I am stronger, have more stamina, can sing better (when my sinuses cooperate!) and I look better than I have in a long time!  I have less energy on the days I don't exercise, and I find it harder to fall asleep on those days, for some reason.

Last week some dear friends told me they'd seen a change in me over the last few years, especially since I started doing really well with the voice lessons.  Perhaps the fact that I had found something I could stick with, something I felt real joy doing, gave me more confidence.  I don't know.  Always before in my life, there would be something I would prepare for, and try to do, and fail at.  Singing became a source of hard work that paid off.  It is spilling over into other parts of my life now.  I am taking on more challenges at work, I am writing more, too.  Also, even five years ago, I probably wouldn't have made the trip to Dallas to meet Ron, let alone this trip to Austin to meet the other girls.  There just seems to be more of a willingness to do things and try things than I've ever had before.  I had become very risk-averse, and while I still wouldn't want to make any BIG changes, I at least have the courage to take the small steps.  I was frozen before.

So, thank you to Karen Smith-Pearson, my voice coach, for helping me find out that I DO have a voice, and that it is worth hearing.  Thanks to my long suffering husband Matthew, who has put up with all my fears, trepidations, and enthusiasms for more than 30 years now.  Thanks to the rest of the #Perlgirls, especially Mary, Kelly, Jana, Fi, and Mallory for helping me break out of my shell a bit. 
Thanks to the man himself, too.  The light you shed on this world reaches farther than you think, Mr. Perlman! 

The Owl Woman

For All The Saints

This Sunday is the day our church celebrates all the faithful who have gone before us into that unknowable land beyond this world.  We remember them, the ways they touched lives while they were here on earth, and how their examples and deeds continue to touch lives. 
Not just the "official" saints, but the everyday saints, the ones you probably have in your own life. 
We remember Sunday school teachers we have known, family members, neighbors, friends, people whose love and caring influenced our lives.  We remember them.  They live on, both in that land beyond, and in our hearts.

After the service at church this morning, I found a text from my sister telling me that our aunt had passed on into the nearer presence of God.  We were afraid this was coming.  She had been very ill, and had lost interest in things that she used to be very involved in.  Not a shock, but still a sadness.  Won't get to hear her heavily southern accented voice again, she won't hug my neck again in this life.  But she is still with me.  She lives on, just as my Pop, my Uncles and cousins who have gone on.  The impressions they made on the lives of others live on.  They are remembered, and remembered with love.

There is a movie out right now that I highly recommend, especially to those who have recently lost a loved one.  The Book of Life is a lovely tale, well told, of love and loss,  and the triumph of love.  In this movie, the afterlife is explained as containing two kingdoms.  Not Heaven and Hell, as we sometimes think of them, but the Land of the Remembered, and the Land of the Forgotten.  The Land of the Remembered is colorful and beautiful, and there are fiestas every day.  The Land of the Forgotten is bleak and colorless, and everyone  there is very quiet and sad.

My aunt will forever dwell in the Land of the Remembered.  She touched SO many lives.  In the town she (and for the last 20 plus years, my Mom) lived in, she is surprisingly well known.  People knew we were relatives, and on our last visit, my sister and I were asked repeatedly how our aunt was doing, and heard many stories of how very much she is loved.  Nearly everyone I met in that town who knew her, adored her.  She was so loving and giving, and until very recently made birthday cakes for LOTS of the people in town.  She taught Sunday School at one of the largest churches in town, and there are legions of former students who will never forget her caring and her teaching. 
All of us in the family will remember her with love for the many wonderful vacations we spent being overfed and spoiled by her.  I have a few recipes that she gave Mom over the years, and all of the congregation of the 11am service at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oklahoma City should call her blessed, because she gave me the recipe for Sausage Balls.  Nearly every time Matt and I did refreshments for the "After the 11" fellowship, I took Sausage Balls.  If I didn't, there were disappointed people who always looked forward to them.  So, all my fellow St. Paul's 11 o'clockers, please say a prayer of thanks for the life of Margaret Smyly, who helped teach me how to always bake with love.

On this day set aside in the church to remember those gone on before us, please think about those folks that you remember from the past, not just family, but friends, coworkers, teachers, anyone who made a difference, however small, in your life.  Remember them, say a prayer of thanks for their lives on this earth, and thereby know that they always dwell in the Land of the Remembered.

I leave you with the words to this hymn we sang today at a baptism.  It is a bit saccharine, but the last verse is so very true.  There are hundreds of thousands still today who do the right thing, the good thing, the difficult thing, the thing Jesus asked his followers to do.  They love their neighbor and show it in their actions.  Like my Aunt Margaret.  May we all do the things that will keep us in the Land of those Remembered with love.


I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God - and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake,
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there's not any reason, no not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
there are hundreds of thousands still,
the world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will,
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.

Words by Lesbia Scott
From the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, # 293 

Poems From My Travels

Ruminations on A Storm
By C.K.Armistead
Oct. 2014


Rumbledy thumps
Bumps and crackles
Mutter, moans, and
Ghostly cackles
The storm is getting
Some practice in
Before Halloween
Comes again.




Cloud music
Static crackling
Low grumbling
On it goes
A symphony of
Noise and light
Lasting all night.






Grumbling thunder
Flashes of light
An Oklahoma melody
On an Alabama night.
So it kept you awake,
and anxious perhaps:
But I slept just fine
Though the sky was alive
The song that it sang
An Oklahoma Lullaby.






How I Felt After I Read Your Book
(For Ron Perlman, on his book, Easy Street (the Hard Way)


C.K. Armistead Oct. 2014


Searching now for ways
To share the love,
The care I've received
From others
Back into the world
To help the world
Be a little better, kinder,
Easier for others.


Because that's what you do
You give back more than you know.
Have made days brighter
Hearts lighter
Just by doing what you always do
Making fictional people come alive
And making us care about them
Giving back the love
Your fans give you.
Cause love just grows
The more you give it away!






Inspiration
By C.K. Armistead
October, 2014


And so sleep once again
Proves an elusive beast.
Just when I think my brain will give in,
Words come in a poetic feast.


The loud clamoring words
Demanding to be put down
Saying rest is for cowards
Writing the way to win the crown.

Mom's House and Other Adventures

I am spending a week at my  mother's house helping my sister with various chores that Mom can't get to.

It was quite an adventure to get there, and quite an adventure while we were there, and an adventure to get back.  Not as bad as it could be, but for me, any venture away from my familiar place and routine is fraught with danger.

Biggest danger was to my wallet while I was waiting for three hours in Houston for the next flight, and for my sister to get in so we could catch that flight together.  There are many little shops in the Houston airport.   All with high prices.  I managed to find one with reasonable post cards, and a small bagel shop that was also more reasonable, and I sat myself down and did postcards for awhile.  There was no good place to sit and read in anything resembling comfort.  That is one of the noisiest airports I've ever been in, and it has a distinct lack of seating in the area of B terminal near B1-11.

My sister and I usually stop to eat before we leave the last airport near our destination and drive to Mom's. This time, we didn't.  We drove on in the town where Mom lives, got  the house opened and took inventory, then went to eat something.  We stopped to see Mom, added to our shopping list, and made the first of MANY trips to WalMart.  Seems we can't do stuff at Mom's house without having to go get more stuff from WalMart.  Or Winn-Dixie.  Those are the two places we seem to find ourselves when we really just came to do yard work and visit with Mom.  There's always something we thought we had at the house that we don't have, something Mom needs at the assisted living place, just always something!

So, we survived the yardwork, and a week in a SMALL town.  The trip home was uneventful, even though we both had to RUN to catch our connecting flights home from Houston.  Soon as I got on that plane to OKC, I felt so good, even though I still had the vestiges of a sinus headache.  I do believe I'm allergic to Alabama.  First time I ever visited there, I got a headache, and it's happened ever single visit since.  I just make sure I have Excedrin Tension Headache and decongestant on hand when I get there.

This trip was so much more pleasant.  My sister seemed to feel better.  Mom is doing well at the assisted living, and there's just a lot less stress all around.  Mom looks better than she has in a while, she's eating right, she takes her medicine right, and actually interacts with other humans besides Aunt Margaret!  It's amazing.  She's just SO much better.  This facility is absolutely wonderful, and the people who work there obviously care about the folks they are responsible for.

On our trip back to the Pensacola airport to come home,  C-130 flew overhead, obviously associated with one of the military bases in the area.  That was a good omen to me.  C-130s are always a good omen to me.  Scrappy little cargo haulers that Matt used to fly on.  Love the sound they make.

Got home in one piece, had plenty of time between flights, even though I was afraid it was going to be too close.  Spent some time with good friends after I got home, got the laundry done, and made margaritas!  Yes, #KatieMargarita rides again!  (As the #Perlgirls will tell you.)

This week has flown much faster than last week did.  I have tomorrow off to prepare for another trip, this one to Austin, TX.  I've never been there before, so it will be fun to see a new place, and I get to meet a few more online friends in person, plus see a couple I've already met again!  Good times, and good friends.  It's going to be a great weekend.

More on that experience later, perhaps.

A Few Words...

 Leavin' On A Jet Plane

Before I leave and probably won't have a chance to access this blog for more than a week, I'd just like to check in and say thanks for reading! 
My review of Easy Street (the Hard Way) by Ron Perlman has been one of my most popular posts.  Right up there with the pieces written in the aftermath of the tornadoes and for some reason, my music lists. 

I do hope Easy Street makes some noise in the publishing world. It's a great read, a very honest book, and well, the author is someone I've admired for a long time. It would be great to see "best selling author" added to his numerous credits. 

Perhaps I will have a chance to make some notes in order to do a little post on travel.  I don't particularly like to travel, I have a problem with not being able to bring all the "stuff" I'd like to have around me.  I also don't like being in the midst of big groups of people. 

At any rate, I must try to shut the brain down for a little sleep now.  Not easy, since I am by nature a night owl.  I fear greatly that I may bite someone's head off in the morning.  I DON'T do mornings before 9:30 or 10, really. (Plane leaves at 7:20, which means I gotta be at the airport by about 6:20 at the latest. It ain't gonna be pretty.)

As they say in Germany,
 Tschuess!

Saturday Summations

Things I discovered today:

1.  Tiny pieces of onion skins are really a sentient life form.  They are tenacious, resourceful, and have the ability to reproduce.  Obviously, because they are ubiquitous, and  they evade every standard cleaning measure except being picked up individually, by hand.
 

2.  When God really needs you to be somewhere, you will be there.  Happened to be in the right place at the right time to help someone today.  Nice to know that we can all be instruments used to make someone's day!

3.  The beer worth drinking is usually expensive. 

4. Few things are as precious as good friends you can have fun with.

5. Apple pies can retain heat for a LONG time.

6. If OU has a week off between football games, they will forget how to play before the next game.

7. Coffee is like beer.  You can't buy it, you can only rent it. (Original quote from Archie Bunker : "Yez can't buy beer, yez can only rent it.")

8. Laundry never sleeps.

9.  Two people can get a house messier than a family with 2 kids and a dog and a cat.  At least the two of us can.  (It's called having too many hobbies...)

10.  I find myself loving music now that I would have been mortified to be caught listening to when I was a teen.  Shows how much influence peer pressure had at one point.  Now, I love the songs that my Mom listened to.  (Well, maybe not Tammy Wynette) The big band tunes, Sinatra, Dean Martin, even early Elvis.  Nothing can get your feet moving quite like "Sing, Sing, Sing."  The music of the Big Band Era just sounds like it was fun to play.  Hard to not have a great time and be in a great mood when that music plays.  My parents' "song" was "Mares Eat Oats"  because the jukebox was broken at Camp (now Fort) Rucker where they met.  That was the only song it would play.
I don't know whose version they heard, because the earliest recording I could find is dated 1944. They met in '43, I think.
Here's a link


Just my little insights gleaned this Saturday.