Category Archives: My Life

Indescribable Beauty

There are many indescribably beautiful natural sights in my home state of California. I am not a flowery writer who can speak poetically in my description. Even if I were, I think the beauty is so great that words can not do it justice. One of the natural wonders that come to mind are the coastal redwood groves off the Avenue of the Giants in Northern California. The trees are so big they give you the impression of being in a prehistoric landscape. Some of the trees there are thousands of years old. They are resistant to insects and fire but are threatened by the wind effect that has been created by the new freeway that was put in near there. Some of the trees are getting blown over. Another indescribably beautiful sight is the view from the coastal Highway 1 on a sunny day. The section between Monterey/Carmel and Cambria are particularly magnificent but I like the view between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay as well. If you get a chance to visit San Simeon take a look toward the ocean from atop the hills there. The Hurst Family has kept a large swath of land from the castle down to the ocean free from development by giving the land to a nature conservancy. Thank you Hurst family. That is the Hurst family of William Randolph Hurst, who was a wealthy newspaper owner. The classic film Citizen Kane was supposed to be based in part on his life. And the castle I am talking about is Hurst Castle in San Simeon. Highway 101 from Ventura and up the state to Salinas allows a view of soft rolling hills dotted with oak trees and nowadays acres and acres of vineyards have popped up along the highway. The Salinas area is called “the Salad Bowl of the World.” This is where so much produce is grown. Near Santa Cruz you will find fields of artichokes. The original wine country in Northern California is another favorite, with Sonoma and Napa counties. Sonoma has The Valley of the Moon. Jack London lived there. Who wouldn’t love a place called The Valley of the Moon. I had a chance to visit the city of Healdsburg in Sonoma county not too long ago. Wine is a major product in California all up and down the state. I did not think Sonoma could hold any more vineyards and then I saw the vineyards around Healdsburg, as far as the eye can see. San Francisco is where I was born. It holds a special place in my heart , a jewel of a city. There are some pretty nice views there as well looking down from Nob Hill to the bay. A well known San Francisco Newspaper columnist from the past said of San Francisco:

“One day if I do go to heaven…. I’ll look around and say, It ain’t bad but it ain’t San Francisco.” —Herb Caen

I’ve only scratched a very small surface with my descriptions, I have left out many places like Yosemite ,(a famous national park), Sequoia National Park, Mendocino, Santa Barbara, San Diego, La Jolla, and oh well you get the idea. There is just too much to cover in my stream of consciousness and in one small post. I hope you will get a chance to visit my beautiful state of California someday.

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Here’s a drones eye view of San Francisco by danesdrone that I have posted previously:

There is another beautiful city that we are all thinking about and hoping they soon heal from the terrible recent events. I have not had the privilege of seeing beautiful Paris but hope I will someday.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosted by Linda G Hill

Mood Indigo

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We don’t always have to be perky bunnies, do we? We can have low times. I am not talking about Depression. Because full blown Depression is not a mood to luxuriate in. I read an essay The Case for Melancholy by Loren Stover, which had some good points. That there is this big push to be Happy :))))) all the time and if you are not then you can read an article in Huffington Post, and just follow these 3 easy steps, and find your bliss.

There is something to be said for quiet, down days, when you can take it slow and think deep thoughts, or take naps, or watch old romantic movies, or read old romantic books, and recharge your batteries.

Stover says Happiness is overrated and bit much for us to aspire to continually, “Happiness, like the sun, is ridiculously bright, a hope you can never live up to, or even look at straight on.” At least not all the time. I am grateful I have experienced joyful times and some happiness but not continually. That would probably be a little weird, like Stepford Wives.

Her advice: “Should melancholy descend, you may as well welcome it, wear your finest lounging outfit; give it your finest fainting couch or chaise to lounge in, or that hammock stretched between two elm trees. Let it settle in….and no running shoes under any circumstances.”

Yes, no running shoes. No braggy, happy face of you on Facebook completing your 5 K or whatever.

A little quiet music:

Via DavidFarandWide on You Tube:

and

via evie 1942

and via disc 070s

What are your thoughts?

Still Looking for Intelligent Life in the Universe

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Has anyone else been following this story? A star has been spotted between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra during a joint survey of 150,000 stars by the Kepler Space Telescope and amateur astronomers. They have been looking for signs of planets circling these stars. What is unusual about this star according to an article in the Atlantic, The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy, is that there was a strange light blocking pattern seen that may indicate not a planet but a very large alien made structure or structures that are blocking the light of the star as it orbits around it. The SETI Research Center at UC Berkeley is planning on pointing a very large radio dish toward the star in January to see if they can pick up any electronic transmissions. This is scary to me because what if it is an alien structure and they get wind of us pointing our listening devices toward them. And then decide to see who is listening. Dr. Michio Kaku says that if this is an alien structure, it may be as big as our planet Jupiter, and they are far advanced to our civilization. I think I am going to start wearing an aluminum foil hat.

I was still hoping to see another form of intelligent life here on earth close up last weekend, whales. I was a bit disappointed in my whale watching expedition. I went out on a whale watching boat this past Sunday with my daughter. It was a beautiful sunny day off Monterey for the most part. We did hit some fog out at sea on the way back to Monterey Bay harbor. I had high expectations and I think that was the problem. I expected to see huge whales breaching right near the boat. I wanted to get fantastically exciting photos. I realize now that you do not get to see breaching whales close up every day and that taking a photo, from a boat that is moving up and down, of whales and other sea life who are also moving up and down and various other directions requires luck and probably the talent of a professional photographer and at least a camera with a telescopic lens. Our whale watching was originally planned for Saturday but was canceled by the tour company due to rough weather at sea. So on Saturday I attempted to find the Monarch butterflies and found some at the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary. There were not many near ground level and I had to look through a telescope, assisted by a sanctuary worker, at the top of a eucalyptus tree. She helped me get a nice photo through the telescope as well.

One of the things I learned on the whale watching boat is when the guide sights a whale or other interesting sea life and calls it out, all the people go to that side of the boat and, unless you are fast, it is hard to get a good view. Like when he sighted a pod of orcas and a dolphin stampede. That’s right, I said a dolphin stampede. The dolphins were in the hundreds and were stampeding because they knew the orcas were around. The stampede caused a large patch of turbulence and some of the dolphins were leaping out of the water. Unfortunately some of them swam straight to the orca pod. Next the orca pod is chasing a dolphin and it did not end well for the dolphin. I am glad I did not see it all close up. Then we went out quite a distance in the ocean to off of Moss Landing. We saw some Humpback Whales, dolphins and sea lions there. We saw a whale in the distance do a partial breach, saw others spouting and some flukes. A dolphin popped up doing a partial breach, called spy-hopping, as well. Later we went to a different location and saw the orca pod again. The guide called the large male orca “Fat Fin.” This orca had already been identified by scientists. The whole trip was about 4 hours. This is a video from the Monterey Bay Whale Watch website. We did not have the owner or her dogs on our tour. Their research vessel was near us at the different viewing locations.

And here are a few of my photos:

Monarch Sanctuary

A few monarchs here

View through telescope at Pacific Grove Butterfly Sanctuary

Beautiful Daughter

Hike along beach at Point Lobos

Research vessel

Dolphins off Moss Landing

Guide with Telescopic Lens taking photo of Orcas

This is my contribution to Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosted by the intelligent Linda G Hill.

If Only You Believed in Miracles Baby

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Do you believe in miracles? This was from my generation. But I think many of us lost some of our beliefs along the way somewhere. “If only you believed in miracles baby we’d get by….”

Jefferson Airplane via Vevo on You Tube:

Reblogging this post because I love the song and the founder of the group Jefferson Airplane and lead singer for this song, Marty Balin, just died 9/27/2018. This music still holds up today.

There Be Whales

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I am off, driving up the coast on my trip to the Monterey Bay, California area, this weekend. I heard the reports that there are many whales and other marine animals in abundance there. Taking a whale watching boat to see for myself. There are a few species of whales I hope to see, Humpbacks, Blue, Orcas, and maybe some Grays. Will report when I get back. Due to the weekend of whale watching and possibly Monarch Butterfly watching I may not be posting my usual writing. Get back to you next week….

265px-Monarch_Butterfly_(6235522618) via wikimedia

7995058755_8cd6dfe7d9_m Monterey Bay area old map via AAA and davecito on Flickr

16228606725_33529a04ca_m Sea Otters Monterey Bay Aquarium by Christopher Michel on Flickr

Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosted by the lovely LindaGHill

There’s a Conference in the U.K. All About Werewolves Next Month

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There’s a Conference in the U.K. All About Werewolves Next Month. This from the Smithsonian on my Facebook page kind of tickled my funny bone. I want to go. It stimulates the imagination too. OK story, mild mannered older woman goes to UK for Werewolf Conference and is really enjoying it when one night when the moon is full she feels “some pricking in her thumbs”……….Or mild mannered older woman attending Werewolf Conference and having a great time by the way and one night when the moon is full she feels a strange urge and looks in the mirror and thinks oh my I need some new moisture cream because look at my skin and I think I need to tweeze out a few hairs here!

UK Conference Website: |Company of Wolves/Open MindsOpenGraves|

#This Oppresses Women

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“Women, are you sick of being bombarded with advertisements that depict women as sexual objects? That use our bodies to sell products? That embolden men to disrespect us? That tell us we are not worthy unless we conform to unrealistic, sexist, racist, and unhealthy beauty standards?” ( National Women’s Liberation)

A campaign by National Women’s Liberation and Red Stocking to place stickers on ads that are exploitive of women and, I like the last sentence, “tell us we are not worthy unless we conform to unrealistic, sexist, racist and unhealthy beauty standards.”

Do you see a contradiction between breast augmentation, push up bras, and minimizer bras? It seems like we are never supposed to be happy with the way we are.

This add really makes you want to do this, NO.

Suggests bigger is not better

Breast Augmentation

Wonderbra or Push Up

Minimizer Bra by Olga

SOCS-Ready

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Are you ready for this? I am ready as I’ll ever be. I answer this way when I am thinking of doing something pretty far outside of my comfort zone. It means I am ready to throw myself into something however not ready I may be. Things aren’t going to get any better so I may as well forge ahead. Face the fear and uncertainty and step out onto the stage.

One thing I am never ready for is being in a high place. Things like bungee jumping, sky diving or hiking along the edge of a high cliff. I know I could work on overcoming these fears but I am not ready yet.

A recurrent bad dream I have (thankfully not too often) is that I am walking along or toward the edge of a very, very high cliff and suddenly I am pulled to the edge and over it. I have this horrible feeling in my stomach and, oh no! , here I go over the edge and have the sensation of falling a long way down until….I end up in the ocean below.

I know I would not like going to the Grand Canyon and looking over the edge or riding one of those little donkeys down those narrow little, slippery paths to the floor of the canyon either. There is this Sky Walk platform that loops out from the edge of the canyon. It is clear plastic so you can see through your feet to all the way down below. Hey if we were meant to “sky walk” we would have wings right?

I think the trouble is I have a good imagination and I can imagine the donkey coming across a rattlesnake on the path ….or my donkey being kicked by another donkey ….or losing it’s footing and….if I ever rode one down I would have to look at that skinny little path and see how high up I was. You know how they tell you when you are climbing up a high mountain, “Don’t look down.” I could imagine that Sky Walk coming loose from its cantilevers or whatever is bolting it to the cliff and…or the walkway starts to crack under the weight of so many people…or someone bumps me over the rail and ….you get the idea.

Dangerous Cliff Edge

Sky Walk Grand Canyon

Sky Walk Aerial View

Me Calling for Help?

Notice that loose rock wall along the edge?

Pretty view

This outlook doesn’t look too scarey

This post is my contribution to Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

One Year Anniversary

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Dear Readers,

I received notification today that this is my One Year Anniversary with WordPress. I have learned a few things since I started and still have more things to learn. It has been great to meet other bloggers who have stayed my readers. I really appreciate it! I hope to continue to inspire you all to continue reading my posts and welcome others who may want to join in. 🙂

Love,

Deborah Drucker

Notes Tied On The Sagebrush

Making Connections the Introvert Way

17 Replies

We have all heard about how it is important to have social connections, important for our well-being. But making connections can be daunting for someone with an Introvert temperament. There needs to be a good fit. I have felt this in my own life when looking for outside interests. I did not see this issue addressed in any books or articles I had read other than to say how introverts can push themselves out and try to be more extroverted. Until I saw this post by Emily White.

In her post she talks about how she was made to leave an environment that had been ideally suited to her and move back to a big city. This was interesting to me because I have felt as she did about the city environment. I live near Los Angeles which definitely qualifies as a big city. What is daunting about such a big city is that there is so much of it and this can be a bit overwhelming. You have to really focus in and look around to find your niche in such a big place. It is like looking at a big cluttered room and trying to decide what to do first and where to begin. Ms. White gave me some food for thought and showed me that you can succeed in making connections as an introvert even in a big city. She doesn’t say we have to morph into an extrovert or do extroverted activities that involve things that introverts do not like such as making a lot of small talk or participating in groups. Unless the group is involved in a cause we are passionate about.

I really like that she is addressing this and discussing how she found connections that fit her. It is good to see posts like this because it gives support to people who want to make connections but want to feel comfortable doing so and do it in their own way.

Since I have started into a semi-retired stage, I have been looking for activities and projects that are engaging to me. I have done the usual book group at the library and I am doing volunteer and paid tutoring. My blog is something very new for me. I definitely was not into social media and I do think introverts approach social media differently from extroverts. I can get very overloaded with social media and the internet. So I am working at balancing my involvement. Which means limiting the time I spend on WordPress, Facebook and email. There must be time set aside for reflection and quiet pursuits.

Some views of Los Angeles, a very big city, and some parts of it that suit my interests, (not the crowded freeways).