Thursday, January 13, 2011

Thursday's Thoughts About This and That

My mind is acting like a ping-pong ball, going back and forth from one possible blog idea to another.  There are so many issues at the forefront right now, it's difficult to settle on only one. 

A half-eaten chocolate chip Kwik Star muffin sits beside me next to my half-full cup of coffee.  Came downstairs this morning at 10:15.  Yup, I slept late, after staying up last night to watch CNN's replay of President Obama's memorial speech in Arizona. 

Yesterday my husband and I went on a date.  First, I called for an appointment to get my hair cut.  Actually, I got it restyled.  I might be in my sixties, but I got one of those really short spiky cuts.  When I walked into the salon and the new stylist came for me, I fell in love with her youthful cut and asked her to perform a magic act and give me one just like it.  The cut is versatile, because I can spike it or wear it like normal people my age wear their hair.  Will see what I end up doing with it.

From there, we went out for coffee, cookie, and conversation at a coffee shop to fill the hour gap until 4:45 when Little Fockers started at the local cinema.  We bought our senior citizen tickets, two for $10.  A bucket of popcorn and two drinks cost $12, but we didn't partake in that because after the movie we were heading to a local Chinese restaurant for their buffet. 

By the time we got back home and turned on the television, President Obama's speech was well underway.  It felt good to see his audience of 13,000 give him a standing ovation and support for his comforting and uplifting words to the families and to the rest of us.  "Let's make this nation one that Christina would be proud of." 
  
Our leaky vehicle is still at the dealership.  We called over to check on why it's taking so long and were told that they still haven't been able to locate a replacement for the defective transmission seal, because it's become a nation-wide problem with that particular vehicle.  They tell us it may be the end of the month before we get our vehicle back.  As I've noted before, they gave us a 2010 Escape with 24,000 miles to drive in the interim.  Later this afternoon we plan to go for a drive in the bluff country.  Both of us are nicely entertained by the sights, sounds, and structures that Mother Nature always seems to have waiting up ahead and around the corner. 

When I was a little girl, I would go road hunting with my parents.  I was relegated to the back seat, and it was my job to watch the fence lines for the brightly colored rooster pheasants.  My dad would watch me from his rear-view mirror and verbally nudge me to be on the look-out and not fiddle around like little girls are prone to do.  So it is easy for me now to be a nature watcher simply by habit. 

These nature jaunts are so much fun.  One day last week we were out driving around when an opossum crossed the road in front of us, and we also saw a turkey up in a tree.  Sometimes we're able to capture a photo, and other times we aren't quick enough or quiet enough.  But, that's okay, cuz they're securely saved in the mega-byted data bases of our minds.