Tag Archives: Nano Poblano

We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges

isurvivednanopoblano  image via fish of gold

Yes we do. We need badges for completing the November daily blogging challenge NaBloPoMo and Nano Poblano.  It gives one a sense of accomplishment and relief as well to be finishing. It was quite an experience. It seems like it was so long ago that we started. I do appreciate my badges.

But thinking of badges got me thinking of the title of another classic film. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston. It was directed by John Huston. There is a famous line in the film uttered by the leader of a gang of banditos when he was asked to show identification to verify his claim of being a Federales. Here is the film clip via John Benedetti on You Tube:

 

The film was adapted from the book of the same name by B. Traven.

4621865696_2e99f1d137_z  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre via Fried Dough on flickr

It is a classic story of the search for gold and the how greed affects people.

Well some more good news. It is raining in Southern California! It will not make up for the long drought but it is a start.

 

|Nano Poblano|  farewell until next time.

 

 

Patience

It is a good feeling to be looking back at this daily blogging challenge from the end. It wasn’t as hard as I had anticipated. On the whole, I am glad I did it. It was good to participate in the Nano Poblano community group because it helped me with meeting some new blogging friends.

I will be participating in a writing course with WordPress in December but may not be posting everything from that project. I plan to continue to post at least three times a week here on my blog. Well, here is my last post for this month.

Rain

When clouds form in the skies we know that rain will follow but we must not wait for it. Nothing will be achieved by attempting to interfere with the future before the time is ripe. Patience is needed.”

I Ching

 

This quote says more to me than just about being patient while waiting for rain. It can relate to any kind of waiting for something to happen. I know the restless, agitated feeling of wanting to find the answer to whatever I am seeking. I have found that I must learn to be patient. I have had this experience in the past. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen when it is time for it to happen. Patience.

 

“Significant rain to much of Southwest California Tuesday into Wednesday….This storm has the potential to bring heavy rainfall to much of Southern California next week.” —The Weather Channel (11/29)

We have been patient for quite a while. Good news to a state gripped by drought. We have had beautiful weather for most of November but we need rain. It is a bit cooler today, Saturday. We need rain because when things get so dried out and the weather stays hot the fire danger increases.

I saw a report online this morning that Northern California’s Fire Season is now over because their temperatures have been dropping. We are waiting for the same news here in Southern California. Patience.

Raincoat via wikipedia

 

 

|Nano Poblano|

 

 

 

 

 

 

SoCS-Senses and Scents

untitled  Chanel No. 5 via wikipedia

I have a very sensitive sense of smell. In Nursing you must use all of your senses in observation and assessment of patients. The sense of sight to note color and appearance or facial expression. The sense of touch to note temperature, moisture or dryness, texture and edema. The sense of hearing for breath, bowel and heart sounds. The sense of smell for the odor of infection. Blood has a smell.

I am sensitive to scents that people wear whether mens cologne or ladies perfume. I really don’t like it when people drench themselves in scent. It can be overpowering and not in a good way.

Heavy scents are really bad for people with allergies or people sick in the hospital. I was told in Nursing School that it is not good for Nurses to wear perfume when working with patients. It can be uncomfortable for them and cause nausea.

I recently read a novel about a young girl coming of age in the South called  Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal.  It is set in New Orleans. I have always thought that part of the country romantic and mysterious. A place of Cajuns, zydeco, jazz, voodoo, bayou, mardi gras and the French Quarter. In the book the main character, Ibby, is taken to a perfumery by her grandmother. The owner makes up special perfumes for each client. The client gets to choose the scents that are blended together to make one unique perfume.

I do not wear perfume every day. I usually wear it when dressing up for a special occasion. I guess I think of it as something special for a special time. I like Chanel No. 5. I have had some bottles of it for several years and they have held their fragrance.

When you shop for perfume you can spray it on a small paper card to sample the various fragrances. Your nose will wear out after sampling a few. Scent overload.

Perfume scents will smell differently on different people. It has to do with our individual body chemistries. We have our natural pheromones as well. Our own natural smell that is supposed to attract us to each other.

Many smells can be appetizing. Like the smell of fresh bread, coffee and fresh soup on the stove. Yesterday the smell of the giblets cooking with onions and celery on the stove and later the stuffed turkey roasting in the oven filled the house. When the kids or my husband came in the house they said it smelled great. I remarked that I should bottle the scent and market it. I could call it Debbie’s Thanksgiving.

 

images412SCJTC  Jars Green Glass, bottle via pixabay

 

 

|Nano Poblano|

|LindaGHill|

socs-badge

Gratitude

66466082_85943b551c_z  Happy Thanksgiving via Scott Robinson Flickr  text added

 

We all have something to be thankful for if we think about it a little bit. I hope all my fellow bloggers can find that peace today, Thanksgiving Day.  I am thankful for many things and here are a few of them. I am thankful for my friends and family. I am thankful for my life and health. I am thankful I live in California. I am thankful I can read books and write. I am thankful for all the nice bloggers I have met.  🙂  Here are a few words from a wise man.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”

– Buddha
What are you thankful for?

Countdown to T Day

images  Happy Thanksgiving via creative commons and Gluten-free in the Hudson Valley

Well the countdown clock has started. My husband picked up our Thanksgiving turkey from the market yesterday. We like to get one that is all natural and a hen. We are not having many guests this year. That is fine with me. My kids will be here and a brother-in-law.

We have a funny tradition that has developed over the years. Seems like every year we take a picture of the turkey after it comes out of the oven with me standing by it. I told my husband’s Aunt Audrey, who is more like a sister friend, that I should have a Turkey Album to have a record of all the turkeys over the years. The only way you can tell the difference between the photos is that I am getting older.

I always want to make the Thanksgiving Dinner here at our house. I think it is because I like my own cooking. I like the way my own food tastes. So we usually have it here. My daughter likes to cook with me now as well.

When I was younger, I would usually be the one to do it all. The chopping of the vegetables for the dressing, the sautéing of the vegetables and giblets and making the side dishes. Over the years more and more I have let others bring some of the food and let my daughter and husband help with any preparation that goes on here.

I still make the stuffing and stuff the turkey, get it in the oven and watch over it. Last year I made the candied yams. I use fresh yams. My daughter helped with side dishes like the mashed potatoes and a vegetable. My husband chopped all the vegetables for my stuffing and made the fresh cranberry sauce. Our cranberry sauce recipe is a variation on Aunt Audrey’s recipe. She now lives in Australia and has not been able to join us every year like she used to. She always brought her delicious fresh cranberry sauce.  My daughter will sometimes make a pie. Otherwise my brother-in-law will buy the pies. I usually buy my bread rolls from a nice bakery.

It is much easier and more fun to make it a family effort. Looking forward to a relaxing and peaceful day. Many things to be thankful for. My family and our health are two big ones.

Thinking about some fellow bloggers that  are having some hard times right now and sending love their way. Celebrating a holiday like Thanksgiving is not just for people who have Norman Rockwell type families if there really are any families like that. I read an article on Next Avenue by a blogger who is estranged from some of his family and he talks about how we can create our own families. I think this is very true we can chose to celebrate with our friends.

While we are celebrating with the people we love we can be thankful for them while remembering there are people who are not so lucky.

I wish everyone to have peace and love on Thanksgiving.

 

|Nano Poblano|  Happy Thanksgiving to The Peppers and all my blogger friends!

 

 

The Creative Mind

images  Pearl S. Buck via wikipedia

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him… a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.”

–Pearl S. Buck

 

|Nano Poblano|

 

Gratitude for Imperfection

Learning to Accept Our Imperfections. This post really spoke to me about when we make social gaffes or say things we later regret. Then end up beating ourselves up about it.

Imperfect Happiness

On the train home from Boston the other night, I referred to my friend’s son by the wrong name.

She was very nice about it when she corrected me. “Now that you mention it, he does look like a Josh,” she said. She was sweet, but I was mortified.

Five hours later, I found myself unable to sleep because I felt so embarrassed about my gaffe. My friend had laughed it off and given me a hug, and the other friend who was with us dismissed it as not a problem at all. “We don’t see each other’s kids much,” she comforted, but still I felt embarrassed, which made me feel even sillier because how silly is it to feel upset about this when no one else does?

While reading Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess with my kids, I was struck by Sara Crewe’s practice of letting an inner sense guide her actions…

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