NYC

Lots to see and do. Loud and fast. Amazing appointments with Lostart.com, Anne Klein, Macy's, Color USA. Great shopping and travel. Expensive food. Awesome Broadway plays - Wicked and Jersey Boys. Home and listening to the silence of snowfall.

Bus Driver

Parked on the north end of Palisades Drive, an empty school bus idles as I enjoy my morning run. We always give the "Hello Familiar Stranger" wave to each other during winter months as he sits behind the wheel reading his book. He's always there as I make the return loop. A mini-thought has often crossed my brain wondering why his schedule requires this park, idle, and wait.

The spot he occupies has been vacant lately, but I didn't realize it until today, when he was there again. After the wave a new thought occurred, "Isn't this a waste of fuel?" In the blizzard snowfall of my return loop I realized the purpose of his idle and wait.

He's warming that ol' bus up for the knocked-kneed little junior high kids, too cool to wear shoes, jackets, and long pants in an April snow storm.

Tote Goat

This is the genuine version of what the kids in Orem rode around town for kicks - a tote goat. My family had two, with two kids squeezed on one with Dad and one kid squeezed on the other one with mom. We rode them as a family up the canyons and on picnics. Around town, we could ride them in orchards, around the yard, down the diagonal road (before completion) or through open fields. At my most recent trip to Costco (where I used to ride through dirt and trees), it shocked me how much things had changed. Not only is my home dempolshed and shopping in its place, I recognize nobody in Costco, this land feeling somewhat mine because of the miles and miles of tote goat trails that were forged right in this very spot. The same location years earlier I recognized everybody I passed tote goating along. Solo riding gave us kids a responsible, grown up feeling until we rode it up a wall or through a tree. These machines were heavy suckers to upright. Probably due to the fact that the dads that made them were machinists at Geneva Steel and knew the business of creating a sturdy ride. And no, we didn't wear helmets, take lessons, or wear seat belts or protective gear. It was just you and your goat against the dirt and rocks.

Gratitude #10

- Friends and Family -
The funny ones, the serious ones, the counseling ones, the laughing ones, the energetic ones, the spiritual ones, the mellow ones, the fiesty ones, the wise ones, the wise-cracking ones, the adventurous ones, the listening ones, the talking ones, the sincere ones, the intellectual ones, the athletic ones, the pondering ones, the advising ones, the hard-working ones, the wacky ones. If you are one of these ones, I'm grateful for you, each and every one!

Gratitude #9

-My View-
What luck to have this view - right out my front window! Seasonal changes always altering the sight. Clearing the blinds to bare glass gives an unobstructed show of massive variety in rock, vegetation, snowpack, cloud formation and contrast to sky.

Gratitude #8

...whole wheat, pumpernickel, french, white, multi-grain...
bread - the one food item must-have

Gratitude #7

Would people 100 years ago have even imagined being transported in climate controlled vehicles??? Automobile heating and air conditioning is an amazing modern-day marvel.