The TrUtH According to Lisa

Merry Christmas...Happy Hannukah...Peace, Love, Hope, and Happiness...

Christmas 2008, Lowell, MA dawns as a sunny, blue sky morning. The rain that pelted in the night is gone, having washed away the icicles and the snow from the building across the canal and bringing with it temperatures in the mid-40s, but dipping back down to 15 again tonight.

It is an odd Christmas, as we are not with my parents or my children. Our Christmas cards will be delayed as the old address in my profile somehow got used. This holiday, like those that follow a late Thanksgiving, always catch me unaware, as that extra week or two is needed to help me ramp up my holiday spirit and get my shopping, baking, and shipping done. Since everyone lives away, shipping is a big deal, but I have help. A store I use keeps my shipping list on their system and I take my gifts and they pack, label and mail. I like the shop owner, we take some classes together and she actually helped me find my feng shui teacher and that opened up a entirely new path for me a little over one year ago.

Wally and I did a lot of traveling this year. He has invested in his photography, which has paid off in him being accepted into his third show.  I am very proud of him. His patience boggles my mind...and that camera of  his is big and bulky and I know that alone would make me think twice about doing what he does, but he does it anyway, with joy and even gets up at the crack of dawn to do some pictures with the morning light. I have to admit, I am very happy sleeping in on those mornings. "Sure honey, no problem, you go take pictures, yawn, bye!" ha-ha.

Me, I got a new computer. My MacBook Pro just could not handle one of my hobbies, Second Life, so it needs to be fixed. Something about the network card, which I think is attached to the graphics card and it totally wigs the system. Plus there are issues with Internet speeds...and Apple is still trying to resolve this for me, but with the holidays, I put it aside. The darn thing works fine when I use my Verizon Wireless device, but not with the internal card.

So, we bought each other a few thoughtful gifts. Our gifts mainly are supporting each other's hobbies and the random travel we do throughout the year. We don't need anything. Okay, so my Kitchen Aide mixer could be replaced, but honestly, that is about it.  Perhaps we could use a free travel pass to get from here to FL, TX, and CA where parents and kids live...sometimes I wish travel in real life was as easy as in Second Life, where I can simply teleport for one location to another using a 'landmark." In real life we could use a GPS setting, could be great...except I keep thinking of the movie, "The Fly." Okay, I digress...

My friend Mike has IM'd me saying last night's temperature went as high as 52 degrees with winds howling up to 30 to 40 miles per hour during the night. I heard nothing. I slept like a rock only to be awaken by Wally as he rose earlier than me. Mike also said that his two feet of snow melted to six inches overnight...crazy.  New England lives up to the local saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Who needs to watch the weather on TV, we have Mike and his weather station. Thanks Mike. Mike will be over for dinner later this afternoon.

So, it will be a relaxing day, sorta. After we clean up and after we get the dinner rolling...let's see...here is what I get to cook:

Roast turkey with traditional bread stuffing, gravy, homemade yeast rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, peas and pearl onions, sauteed mushrooms, green bean casserole, pecan or pumpkin pie with whip cream. I could make more food, but geez only three of us...I have condiments too, and really good wine.

We talked about taking in a movie, but if we do, I need to get cracking...relaxing, well, maybe I am delusional. Anyway, to those who read my blog, may you and yours have an amazing holiday season. I wish you all good health and happiness.

Winter Solstice...

Winter rolled in like a lion leaving another 12 inches yesterday. On Friday, I spoke to one of our ham radio friends up in New Hampshire. He was on day eight with no power, with no power in site until the new year. I counted my blessings. We never lost power. He spoke to me from his car, using a 44o radio. I was relieved to hear he was okay.

I had been worried about Ed. He and his wife sold their house in Chelmsford and moved to a beautiful but very rural NH town. I knew he was likely in a bad spot, but I had no idea how bad until he told me all the telephone poles had been snapped off like tooth picks. Trees that blocked his view of the Monadnock Mountains had lost enough limbs to open the view. He spoke of the area looking like a war zone.

Ed is hearty. Nothing gets Ed down. I admire him. Nothing he cannot do or fix. He is someone you want with you if you are ever stranded on a desert island, you know you won't die. Ed said he and his wife took coffee to their neighbors and you would have thought they were offering gold. I thought it was amazing he thought of others when he could easily have been a whiner. The most profound thing Ed told me was the utilities are running out of parts. The parts are no longer made in the US and have to come out of Germany. A disaster this bad just cannot be dealt with in a manner that we as American have grown to expect. We except instant relief. We expect endless resources. We do not expect to suffer and often are not prepared when we have to live with out the comforts we have grown to enjoy.

I learned, if you live in more rural locations during something like this, expect to wait. You should have a good generator and access to get gasoline. You better own a chain saw as trees will block your way. If you have children, you better plan on how to entertain them on dark nights with no electronics to be their babysitters. You should have a way to cook without electricity. You need to plan on having no Internet. If you have cell phones, you need a way to power them. 

Ed does not know yet when he will be back on a power grid. His entire town is black. The downed wires are now located under more than a foot of snow. I cannot imagine dealing with what Ed is dealing with, but, I am sure if anyone is thriving under those conditions it is Ed, whom I imagine issomeone who can find adventure in just about everything.

Winter drops its icey veil. . .

Last night, as I rushed to get to a meeting, I was stopped cold by my ice encrusted car. My husband had called to warn me, and I have had ice to deal with in the past, but this time the ice on one side of my car was nearly impenetrable. I chipped away at it some, I started my engine, cranked up the heat, turned on the defroster and looked around the dimly lit lot at the few others who were slowly chipping away at their cars.

One Chinese gentleman was making little or no progress. At first I thought he was using a credit card, perhaps caught by surprise with the first storm of winter. As I approached with my long ice scraper in hand, I am still not sure what he was using, but I offered mine. "This will work a lot better for you, I am running some heat in my car to loosen my ice, would you like to use this for a while?" He gladly accepted.  Later he came back with it and I was able to finally get my ice under control. The ice was glass like, and hard. As I chipped away at one side, I thought I had cracked my window, but it was only fractured ice.

This morning, glass like shards of ice covered the back of my car. It was so beautiful. Winter is like that. In the painful reality of last week's debilitating ice storm was the beauty of the ice crystals that t enveloped everything. Beauty and danger. Funny how it can be that way.

As pretty as parts of winter can be, I long already for the warmth of summer.

Cars, companies, and jobs...

This morning  on the news was a blurb about the failed rescue package for the auto industry. I am losing no sleep about it.

Last April, I was laid off of my job. I got no severence. I have no retirement plan from a company, never did. I have no guarantees. I do not feel a company owes me anything, no matter how loyal I am be or how hard I work. I am not guaranteed I can leave my office at 5 pm. I am expected to get my job done.

A few months ago, I was talking to someone whose wife worked for the auto industry and they felt the company OWED his wife a job and retirement...I laughed.

This was not my first layoff. After 911, I was laid off the first time. I learned long ago that hard work did not promise me a company would take care of me when times get tough, I learned that I take care of me.

I think all companies and all jobs should rise or fall based on the validity of the business. The rest of us taxpayers who will be paying to rescue them have no promises. I hear the unions do not want to accept pay cuts for their employees. I have had pay cuts and pay freezes as needed by my companies...this year I did get a raise. Unions need to learn that companies need to make money before employees get paid.

Personally, I wish we had not bailed out the banks. I have no sympathy for the car companies. I just wish everyone would have to play by the same rules.

Wally's First Photo Showing

Last night, Wally had the first showing of his large format black and white photos at Gallery 7 in Mayard, MA. It was well attended with over 100 attendees.  

Many of our friends and his co-workers attended. There were other artists, but none of them as excited as Wally was to be there. 

Wally has worked very hard to be in this place. He goes to Boston often two or three times a week, lugging heavy materials to the New England School of Photography. The amount of effort it is to work with a large format camera is hard for me to explain, but from all appearances, Wally surpasses me in the patience department and he has done it with diligence and the effort has paid off with elegant photos that are well executed. 

We thank Brian Lambert for all the photos except for the two camera phone ones that Sarajane took of me.

My favorite picture, is one of the first one Wally took last winter. It is a snowy river, near where we used to live. He had to brave a very cold morning to capture this lovely photo.

I like the fact that these photos are very large. It makes the details pop. The photos are for sale and we heard someone is considering them. Wally hand develops each one of his photos, which is no small task.

Wally worked the entire show. My friend Sarajane, her husband Randy, Brian and a friend all went over for some dinner during the show. 

For a look of the show, click here .

Going Home...Cocoa Beach, FL

Some say, you can never go home again. But, I have. I love going home at Thanksgiving and this year travel was not bad...We had three perfect days of weather. I even got a little sun. I swear, I feel completely energized. We had a wonder Thanksgiving with my parents, my Uncle Bob, and my sister Nina. I made two pumpkin pies and they loved them. I still need to cook a turkey dinner at home to make up for not cooking this year...This photo is the view west, out to the waterways leading to the Banana River. This is the canal behind my parent's house. 

Nina and I had  a wonderful walk down to the beach and I took video, which I will be posting soon. We stopped at Coconuts for drinks and boiled shrimp. 

Here is a picture from the Beach at 4th Street North.

I was happy to see the beach returning back to its natural beauty. Last time I was here, they had dredged the beach, making it hilly and brown, and the water was murky. The sands are flattening back down and the water was pretty and blue. 

I have to say, I love this beach. The town is still sort of beach tacky. But I never saw it look so good as it did this visit. The seedier parts of town seem to have been fixed up...even the homes on the other side of the causeway looked good. I remember less happier days in Cocoa Beach.

Nina and I walked south down to where Coconuts Bar is. It was a picture perfect day. We passed surfers, and a fisherman. We saw a pelican, and dolphins or sharks,

It was perfect. 

The bar was amazing...we sat outside looking at the ocean. I had two pina coladas. YUM! Here is a picture of me at the bar.

We walked through town and I video taped what used to be a reoccurring dream that I had for the 15 years I did not go home. My parents were transferred to both California and to Huntsville, AL for those years...and so going home was not a priority. Filming that video was empowering. That dream was just a walk down my street to my house where I felt I was there, but would always wake up and be sad.

Friday, was the memorial for my choir teacher, Mr. Milton Borens. It was a huge gathering and wonderful tribute to a man who was more talented than the average high school teacher ever should be. We even sang a few songs and it brought back a lot of memories. After this gathering, about 12 people came over to my parents house for a few hours of reminiscing. I think we had a blast, and laughed into the night...Even Wally had a good time and enjoyed my friends. Pictures to follow soon.

This is in my parent's yard. They have three stalks of bananas growing like this...just amazing!

Wally and I did the beach and bar the next day and yes, I had another pina colada!

I have to say, this was one of the best trips we have had in a very long time.