Thursday's Thinks

Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Voltaire

I have decided to put Thankful Thursday to rest. It's not that I don't think I have things to be thankful for, but mostly I believe I have expressed my thanks. So then it becomes forced and when I feel forced you get something crotchety like last weeks! So, goodnight sweet Thankful Thursday, you served me well, but goodnight.

Now I am borrowing a term from Ganeida. She calls thought thinks and I so like that I have copied it. Something about imitation being the highest form of praise! And I will probably never run out of thinks, but I can't guarantee they will be profound. Actually, I probably can guarantee they won't!

So my thinks for the day.

Bush gives his farewell speech tonight. Would you please just crawl in your hole and stay there you meshugener mamzer! Every time you show your face, more people lose their jobs.

The Obama's get a redecorating allowance, I believe I would use it for fumigation.

I want Bush and Cheney to face war crime charges, but I don't think our elected officials have the baitsim to pursue it.

I think I need to get a paper bag and breath into it, slowly!

Ok, I think I need to give the incoming president a chance before I decide I'm mad at him.

I think I'm really tired of this winter, -25 below this AM with -40 windchill. Is it any wonder I seem a bit testy?

I will never be given the award of Miss Congeniality : ) 

I KNOW January 20th can't get here soon enough. Clear the megillah out and start again and push them to do better.

Wasn't this a positive experience! I think I need to eat breakfast.

 *Thought I should say I don't often swear, for no reason other than I think there are other words to use and that people curse so much in general conversation that it loses its relevance. When I discuss Bush and company I want to use a lot of colorful words, and I will admit I do in my 'real' life. So I used some Yiddish in this post. Megillah is not swearing, it means the whole works. I can swear in a couple of languages.  

Poetry Wednesday

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

Anne Sexton

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

haunting the black air, braver at night;

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

over the plain houses, light by light:

lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

I have been that kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

A woman like that is misunderstood.

I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

learning the last bright routes, survivor

where your flames still bite my thigh

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

I have been her kind.

Anne Sexton 1928 - 1974

I have been reading a little bit of poetry lately, mostly poetry written by tragic women. Anne Sexton is one of those women. She asphyxiated herself by automobile in her garage after having lunch with a friend and fellow poet, Maxine Kumin.

It seems great poetry and tragic lives go hand-in-hand. I don't know, do they feel too much, which makes them great or, are they so damaged early on that the way to deal with it is poetry. It's probably both.

I like this poem. 

 

From A Friend

When you love, you complete a circle,
When you die, the circle remains.

A friend just sent this to me. I think it is lovely and I wanted to post it. It was sent to my friend from a dear friend during a time of loss in her life. Thank you Karen, it is beautiful.

Goodbye Old Friend

Heaven is high and earth wide.  If you ride three feet higher above the ground than other men, you will know what that means.  

Rudolf C. Binding

Bluespruce Tanzar

02/03/82 - 01/12/09

Tanzar drew his last breath at 2:30 yesterday afternoon. He went as he lived, with calm dignity. He will be remembered as what he was, the best horse on the farm. Not the prettiest or the flashiest. Not the most talented or the most engaging, but by general consensus, the best.

He had bad legs which finally gave up trying to carry his sturdy body around, so he was peacefully euthanized in the company of the people who loved him. I tip my hat to the wonderful old man who never made a wrong move in his long life. I know he is frolicking on lush pasture, free from pain. Happy trails old friend.

I've Been Interviewed!

I don't know where it started, but there is an interview system in the blogosphere. One blogger sends a list of questions to another to answer. I came upon Shaun's blog All Of These Voices... 

I decided I would like to be interviewed by someone younger than I and who is in a totally different place in life. So I asked Shaun to interview me and below are the results. I hope there is something new that my friends didn't know about me, but it is likely not so! Thank you Shaun for asking questions that are pertinent to my life.

I would be pleased to continue this from here, so any of my bloggy friends who may want to give this a try, all you need to do is say interview me in your response. I will send a list of questions that I come up with and you post questions and answers on your blog. It was fun to answer the questions. I don't know how much is learned about me, but I had a good time doing this!

1. Just from looking at your blog, I can tell that horses are a passion of yours. How did your interest in horses begin?

I was born to it. My father had a great love of horses and I learned it from him. I got my first horse when I was a little girl. There is an extra gene or something in some people that makes the very idea of life without horses unimaginable and I am one of those people. I have to admit that there have been a few times I have viewed it as a curse, but mostly I feel blessed.

2. What do you experience (feelings, emotions) when riding horses?

I will start by saying that I stopped being a rider several years ago. No particular reason, I just stopped. I rode a horse a few times last year after no interest in doing so for a long time, so I will talk about that experience and not all the years when riding came as easily as walking! 

I felt joy when I got on two horses that I raised, but had never ridden. It was so much fun. I also experienced something which I'm not accustomed to feeling around horses, vulnerability. My mind knew how to ride a horse and my body thought it did, but the balance and the muscle were absent, so I had a sense of my own weakness. It was a very strange feeling for someone who spends most of her life handling and caring for a large number of horses. I also rode my long time pal, Spenser, and that was a more secure feeling for me, as we had spent many hours riding together when both of us were much younger. What a wonderful adventure we had on a trail ride through the park on a glorious fall day! 

3. I'm using this question from my interviewer, because I think it tells a lot about a person. What would be your favorite film double feature and why?

As did you, I have trouble answering this. I don't watch many modern films, so I'm not well-versed in that area. I'm going to go with the first images that came to my mind: Out Of Africa, visually stunning. Babe, simply because it was a sweet story and I liked it.

4. If granted one wish, what would yours be and why?

This is going to sound like a beauty pageant answer but I really would wish to have the mess the country and the world is in to be fixed. This is not entirely altruistic, as this would benefit me more than I think any other wish. I don't need to be rich but I do need to be secure in my life and the unsettled times we are in leave me feeling insecure. 

5. Besides horses, what makes Sandra...well, Sandra?

If I am to answer this as what are my other interests, I am a gardener, at one time an avid gardener. I am an accomplished cook and I recently have begun baking bread. I enjoy the kneading process, I get to take all of my aggressions out on the dough! I am the 'cat lady' version of a dog owner, although I have dropped down to three at the time: Atlas, a German Shepherd/Afghan Hound cross, Grace the Greyhound and my little bundle of cuteness Howard the Basset Hound. I am used to my shadow including a bunch of dogs. I am also a mother of an adult son and motherhood is always a part of you and can't help but form who you are. But, I think what really makes me, me is dogged determination. When I decide on something, it happens!

A Ball Of Yarn?

Reach for the moon, because if you don't make it you'll land among the stars.

Unknown

We had a clear sky and a full moon and this is the eerie photo I got through the cedar tree. I stood outside in my slippers and no coat for some while as the camera made its adjustments. I didn't realize I would be freezing my toches off or I would have put on a coat. I'm not skilled in photography, but I have a camera that can help me somewhat. A skilled photographer would have got a better photo, but someone who knows nothing got a weird photo!

It's snowing! I have been whining about lack of snow cover over the ice for a couple of weeks, so I think it finally paid off. Of course we get a wallop tomorrow with -30 degrees, but that's the place I live.

I'm watching Bush's final press conference. January 20th can't come too soon. The press "misunderestimated him". OMG, leave already.

Sorry, distracted by a, well I won't say it. Anyway, lovely snow is falling and I have lots to do today, so that's it from here for now.

Ho Hum

Weather forecast for tonight:  dark.  

George Carlin

Back to a day that isn't my birthday. I didn't talk much about my approach to that glorious day! I have always felt a sense of awe that I was born, by that I mean I think about my mother laboring to have me. It's easy to forget when you know yourself as 'just am', but I always acknowledge her on that day.

Now back to normal. We have been in the grip of a particularly unpleasant winter and I wonder if I am beginning to be affected by the lack of light. The melt we had a month ago has made life very difficult, as we have not had the snow most of the state has had to cover the ice and make the ground passable for the horses. Life with cooped up horses is enough to make anyone testy. Including them. There is a 70% chance of snow for tomorrow, so I'm going to do a snow dance. It can't hurt!

The dark, dreary days are dismal, but the bright, sunny days bring cold temperatures, so I'll complain either way. Complaining about the weather is a job requirement in MN!

I need to think like this:  It's going to be a pleasant day in the low 20's and no wind. But I'm a native of this state, so I can't do that, it's not in our genetic code. I am much more content with thinking that it's dreary and the ice isn't covered and that the predicted snow will miss us and it's going to get bitterly cold and I should get on a plane to anywhere that isn't here and never come back! Now I feel better.

For a Lovely Young Blogger

I have finished my awards. Sienna is Ashley's daughter. She has recently taken over her own blog and the quality of her efforts is beyond her years. She is a poised and intelligent young person. I think we will see great things from this creative young lady.

She has a smile that could stop the world and her parents call her 'Sienna Sunshine', so I think this is her own personal award. I look forward to the progression of a new blogger!

Presents to Ashley and Christie on my Birthday

I was having difficulty with Ashley. I wanted something that represented her as I see her. Then I came upon this sentence:  The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. The rest was easy! A little Portuguese and voila! Ashley's personal award.
Christy was easy. She is a mother whom home schools her own as well as some other children. She is cheerful and luckily possesses a sense of humor. My take is she is either off her rocker or she is an angel. I decided it is the latter. This is Christy's personal blog award.

I think giving presents on my birthday is the most fun ever!

For Ganeida

I made an award just for you. Rather fitting, I think!

I will need to think about what to make for the other blogger friends, but Ganeida was easy.