Does Blogspot have an Official Cereal...The Breakfast of Bloggers? I need the special toy inside...

Today I did something I've never done before: I tie-dyed. It seems like tie-dying is the kind of thing EVERYONE does at some point in their lives. I've always felt rather left out as I've contemplated that void in my range of experiences; somehow I've gone twenty seven years without doing it. ( I just had to stop and think for a minute because I couldn't remember how old I am. Good grief!) I've always been sort of mystified by the process but today, all was made plain. However, I have yet to see the finished product because we have to let them sit for twenty four hours and then wash them. Pretty fun. Mine is all different colors on the front and all purple on the back. AND all the T-shirts have a great little anti-tobacco logo on the front! How nifty is that?

Yet another thing to tuck away for the future: I once got paid to tie-dye a T-shirt. "And yet you're leaving this job?" you say. Hmmm. Yes. Yes, I am leaving...with bells on. Well, really, I will miss many aspects of the job- like the staff - they're great people- and the fun activities...but I'm ready to do something a little different, I think. These days, I'm telling myself that like it or not, change is coming- so why not embrace it? As Frank Exley says in his poem, "...then go forward boldly, one step is far enough for faith to see."

When I first encountered this word verification/spam blocker thing on a blog, I was rather confused and intimidated. I thought I had to figure out the word encoded within the letters and type the secret password into the blank. WHAT on earth are you supposed to do with a configuration like "kpxnryfl"? WHERE'S the DECODER RING? And what cereal box does THAT come in? Sigh. Keep it simple, stupid. Fortunately, I have a smart husband.

I go to a Hootenanny.

Yesterday, my first day back at work, was absolutely horrendous and I had a sinking feeling that these next two weeks were going to be the longest of my life. I kicked myself for giving five weeks notice instead of two.

I drove in this morning full of dread...and then I think God kind of chucked me under the chin and told me to quit stewing on the what ifs and focus on Him instead. Okay. Huh. What a novel thought. So I tried it. And what do you know- it turned out to be a pretty good day. In fact, quite blogworthy...

This morning, Matt told me that there were only five who were going on the field trip this afternoon - a meeting of the local Birding and Gardening Club which was open to the public because there was a presentation on owls. ( The girls are studying birds of prey right now.) He was going to take them and didn't need me to go but I asked if I could come along anyway. Well, to be truthful, I practically BEGGED him to let me go. It sounded too fascinating to pass up...and hey- good blog-fodder. So, kind boss that he is, he said yes. Too bad Marci couldn't come...

There were probably around forty to fifty women- most of whom were well upwards of 55- and maybe six or seven men. So walking in with 5 teenage girls and Matt was interesting. "Which one of these does not belong?"

Well, this woman who gave the presentation is an owl FANATIC. She and her husband photograph owls and they own several different varieties of owls- all with disabilities or who were born in captivity. As some of the owls can live up to forty or, even in some cases, fifty years old, she said they had made provision for them in their WILL! Oh my word. Some of the owls have the run of her house! She gave a fascinating slide presentation and I learned more about owls than I thought I'd ever know. She had brought with her six or seven live owls and brought them out from boxes one or two at a time, tethered to her hand of course so they couldn't fly around the room. Included were a saw-whet owl, a great horned owl, spectacled? owls- native to Central and South America, a barred owl, a Eur-asian variety ( can't remember the name), and a screech owl. She asked for volunteers to come up and practice hooting the different calls with her. Several of our girls volunteered and it was fun to watch them try to mimic her owl calls; they also got to call to different owls when they came out of their boxes. Some of the owls even hooted back.

The owl lady also asked for a "Brave Volunteer" and another of our girls raised her hand and went up. Then the lady said that she was going to put her on whitewash patrol- basically to clean up any poopy messes that might occur as she brought the owls out. Oh how we laughed. But the girl was a really good sport. She also got to clean up owl pellets. This was the most fascinating and disgusting thing I learned; owls cough up the solid leftovers of what they have eaten the night before- rodent bones, skulls, etc. in these awful little dark bundles of nastiness. None of them coughed up the pellets in front of us, but there were some in the boxes- wonderful little surprises. Of course, the owl lady gave our girl gloves and paper towels and stuff...But, as I said to Matt, " She'll never complain about cleaning the bathrooms again!"

So, it was a pretty fantastic day...and such a contrast to yesterday. Sigh. This job STILL boggles me. One day I'm tearing my hair out because there are two terrible twits giving me a run for my money, and the next, I'm learning about owls and laughing my head off...

Non Nobis...etc

We just got home and have collapsed in blessed relief into our humble abode. It is SOOOO good to be home. I'm not even going to THINK about all that is to come later in the month.

I was inordinately excited to be flying home today. Manchester never looked so welcoming!

It seems absolutely incredible to me when I think back over this week...I just can't take it in that we actually DID everything that we did. It was truly God's miraculous power that pulled us through...Things actually went pretty well.

You know what's REALLY mind-boggling? Yesterday- Friday- we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, as we descended into Manchester, we glimpsed the skyline of Boston in the distance. Wow. From sea to shining sea- literally! Except, the Pacific was pretty UN-shiny...and I couldn't quite glimpse the Atlantic...but STILL!