The Autumn of My Life: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

After being at the Relay For Life
I had print this poem.

What Cancer Cannot Do

It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot destroy peace.
It cannot kill friendships.
It cannot suppress memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot invade the soul.
It cannot steal eternal life.
It cannot conquer the spirit.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Relay For Life

Relay for Life

5-30-09

Ned, Donna and son Erik

Friends came to support Donna
Claudia, Patty and Gary
(Sorry Jill, Sally, Bob and Pris no photos of you)

The color guard.

The Survivors begin the relay.

I love this guys sneakers!

Fun to see young one participating.

Some walked, some rode.

My luminary for Bill.

Some actually spend the night!

Thought of the day: Fight for the cure!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Photo Hunt ~ Weekly Theme: Book(s)

Weekly Theme: BOOK(S)

When I was young, I heard poetry read by my maternal grandfather in
his Scottish broque accent. I also heard poetry read by my father with
his rich, expressive voice. This is when I learned to love poetry.
(Their voices still resonate in my mind today.) As an elementary
teacher and a parent I truly enjoyed sharing poetry for children
with my classes and my own children. Actually, I still love it to this day.
The above is one of my all time favorite children's poetry book.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

Early Saturday morning, my girlfriend (since 9th grade, O so many years ago) arrives about 9:00 a.m. We shared a yummy breakfast, and could barely catch our breath between our rapid fire conversations. Therefore, we took an afternoon nap before heading out for the evening. Sidebar: Now I’ve often expounded on the many wonderful weekend activities that Redding has to offer. ex. last weekend--I hear the blues on Fri., jazz on Sat. and the symphony on Sun. Well, this particular weekend, our choices were~~ Local Senior Idol, Skits & situations performed by the disabled and a tribute to Bob Dylan by local performers. We went to the Bob Dylan tribute...wrong choice!

As a guest in my “Jamaica guest room”, Linda, allowed me to shoot a photo of her.

Along the way to Burney Falls

Linda cooling her heels, as we wait to get into the Falls.

The amazing Falls

Sunday we drove 1 & 1/2 hrs. to Burney Falls. Beautiful scenery along the way. However, when we got to the park, we were told it was full. The 1st guard said that we could not enter...come back in a couple hours, next guard station told us to come back in an hour, after parking and hiking to creek and walking along it...we headed back to the Falls a again. Luckily, we got in! We loved the amazing falls and checked out Britton Lake at the bottom where you can swim or take out your boat. Returning home we rented a video to relax with and enjoyed some laughs.

Monday, we had a slow morning, but then headed to Whiskeytown Lake...knowing that it would be packed! Luckily, we got an empty spot at the point, where I always like to go. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and so serene! Although, my dear friend Donna, had invited me to a BBQ, later after Linda left, I was just too zapped by the sun...so I stayed home, and relaxed.

How blest am I to live in this amazing part of California and to have the wonderful friends I have!

thought of the day: "I'm on Island time!"

Friday, May 22, 2009

Photo Hunt ~ Weekly Theme: Plastic

Weekly Theme: Plastic

This made me think of the movie "The Graduate"!
I really went with the obvious!

I did not know I had so many, luckily, I only use
a couple of these.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Weekly Theme: Painted

This is my former sister-in-law, Joey.
She is a very talented artist.

Here she is working on one of her many
wall paintings.

This is the practically completed painting.

Another wall painting, this is in her bathroom.

Retired North State Teachers Spell It Out: F-U-N

By Doni Greenberg May 12th, 2009
published in online newpaper
A NEWS CAFE
www.anewscafe.com

Photo by Doni Greenberg

Thursday I borrowed wireless from Yaks on Bechelli Lane (thanks, Yaks!).

I managed to get some work done, despite my utter preoccupation with the coffee roasting process right behind my table. How that nice guy gets anything done is a miracle - everyone has a million questions - OK, I had a million questions.

Anyway, while there I also bumped into Mary Burns (second from the right in the above photo).

Mary and I have known each other since her kids (Scott and Heather) and my kids (Sarah, Josh, Joe) attended Redding Co-Op Preschool just a couple of years ago (feels that way sometimes).

coffee-guy

Photo by Doni Greenberg

Mary said she was there to meet her friends for their standing Thursday-afternoon Scrabble session.
Every Thursday?
Every Thursday.
I did what you would have done.

I stood on a chair and snapped the group’s photo. (One of the Scrabble-istas arrived too late for the photo.)

Then I asked if they would mind sharing their story with us.

You’ll find that story below. Enjoy.

Story By Patty Mullett

What do retired teachers do with their spare time? This group chooses to get together once a week and play Scrabble. They’ve gotten together since their kids were little. Between birthday parties, Brandy Creek outings, water slides - they named themselves “Pool Potatoes” and “Ladies of the Lake”.

Two years ago they started meeting at each others’ homes to play.

Now they meet at Yak’s Coffee Shop; it’s easier than cleaning house!

Photo by Claudia Hastings

The group consists of Ann Martin (actually still working at Parsons), Patty Mullett and Pris Brutlag, retired from Enterprise School District, Claudia Hastings from Evergreen, Mary Burns, Redding School District, and Viv Thompson from Junction School District.
They insist they’re learning new words by allowing the use of a Scrabble dictionary - mostly it’s just to get more points! But it’s really about catching up with gossip, sharing family stories and just having a lot of laughs (and sometimes winning)!

Claudia comments, "Now you see how exciting Redding. CA and my life are!"

thought for the day: "Tomorrow is one of the greatest labor saving devices of today."

Friday, May 08, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Thursday April 30th, I drove to Sacramento airport to pick up sister. She was visiting me from San Diego. We headed back to Redding in dreary weather. Unfortunately, rain was the forecast for her entire visit. Yet, we did have a pleasant dinner with her friend from Paradise who just happened to to be in Redding. We went to a restaurant called Rivers. So named since it overlooks the Sacramento River, A little too cool to sit outside, however, we were lucky to be able to sit by window, lovely view. and good food!

Friday, we had some errands to run and stayed low key. We bought groceries and made a new recipe: delicious brown rice, black bean salad for dinner, (will definitely make again).

Saturday, still rainy, but we managed to check out the North Valley Art League Gallery. There we enjoyed an exhibit by local photographers.

Since Saturday was Pat’s birthday, we went to Market Street Steak House for dinner (Chris works as a bartender there). He had roses on the table for her and had already arranged for her creme brulee desert to be brought to her. After a wonderful dinner, went to hear a concert at Shasta College.

Band gets ready to perform songs from The Wizard of Oz.

Sunday afternoon, we played scrabble with two of my scrabble gals at my house. That evening we had a simple dinner at home and later attended the 1st Sunday of the month jazz concert at Old City Hall. As always a great performance! My favorite part was the when Paul Senn sang with only a stand up bass accompaniment. He sang a poem in an incredible style, I believe called “vocalese”.

Monday, she headed back to San Diego. But not before trying to fill up jars with rainwater for dry San Diego.