Little Details

I've read numerous articles and books that suggest paying attention to little details in life to help me appreciate things around me. I have done this often and seen the tiny details of various plants, bugs, flowers, etc. outside. Most often I do not go through my day looking for those tiny details.

About a month ago I was sitting at our kitchen island on a barstool and enjoying a bowl of cereal. Our kitchen island and countertops have a white granite surface. For the first time I noticed, really noticed, the granite. My wife and I have lived in this home for four years and this is the first time that I really looked closely at the granite. I focused on what I was looking at and noticed the different colors and flecks of material within the granite. I noticed how cool the quartz looked within the granite. There were several spots of quartz that appeared to have depth due to the clarity of the quartz. As I looked closely, I was amazed at how interesting and beautiful the granite was. I thoroughly enjoyed the moment and felt like I was finally seeing the granite for the beauty it was. When my wife woke up, I had her come look at the granite with my newly found vision for details. She wasn't as enthused as I was and I am pretty sure she thought I was finally losing it a little!

Now that I have seen the details for the countertop, I notice the small details in it every time I'm in the kitchen. It truly gave me a new appreciation for something as simple as a countertop. As I type this post, I have noticed, more closely, the wood grain on my desk top. I now notice a few knots that I haven't noticed before. The visible tree rings are beautiful and shows the wet years and dry years in the spacing. On the negative side, I also notice the glass top needs cleaning!

If you haven't looked at something recently to inspect the small details, I highly recommend you give it a try. Here is your homework for this post. If you have granite countertop, go take a look and see if you are as amazed as I am about the details. If not granite, pick something else and really examine it like you never have before. Please report back in the comment section and I will give you a grade for the assignment!

Not only did I notice the details in the granite, it made me curious about granite. I began to search the internet for how granite is formed, how different colors were made, what are the small flecks and colors within the granite, etc. So, not only did I notice something in a new way, I also learned a little bit along the way. It is the little things in life that make daily living a wonderous thing. So, get out there and pay more attention to the small stuff of life!

Have you noticed any small details recently? Were you as happy as I was when really looking closely at something and rediscovering it all over again? 

Unique Gifts

Christmas, Birthday and Father's Day are all gift receiving days for me. It seems like in this stage of life, I have about everything I need. When asked for gift ideas, it is very hard to come up with a wish list. 

This Christmas I received several unique gifts that I really enjoyed opening. I received a grill cleaning tool from my daughter that is very unique. She explained that the cleaning head was made of the same material firefighter clothing is made of and is supposed to last for years. You soak the end in water and use it to steam scrub your grill grates. I can't wait to give it a try! Another unique gift was from my wife. She gave me a two piece set of tube squeezers. They are simple little devices to put on the end of a tube of toothpaste or medicine and roll up the tube as you use it. Very cool! She also gifted me a set of silver dice that have dining options on each face of the dice. We often want to eat out but can't make up our mind where to go. Now, I can roll the dice and land on a decision of Mexican, Pasta, Subs, Chinese, Chicken, Pizza and many more. None of these gifts would have crossed my mind to add to a wish list, nor did I even know they existed as a gift option.

I gave a unique gift to my son. It was a pen made from bullet casings. It is a very nice and heavy pen and writes very good. I hinted that I might need one for Father's Day! My wife loves to chew on nugget type ice and always refills her drink cup at certain restaurants with ice to take home and munch on throughout the day. For Christmas, I got her a countertop nugget ice machine. She loves having a constant supply of her favorite nugget ice. I just need to get a set of noise cancelling headphones for the crunching!

Did you receive any unique gifts at Christmas or over the past year? Did you give any unique gifts? How many of you got the old standby of socks and underwear? I got those too!

ABQ Balloon Fiesta

 

 

During my recent three month blogging break my wife and I added a few trips for 2023. In October we went to Albuquerque and attended the International Balloon Fiesta. This event has been on my bucket list for several years and we finally made the trip out. During my career I had oversight of an office in Albuquerque and made a couple of visits during the Fiesta but never made it out to the actual event.

We attended two night sessions which included a Special Shapes Glow and a general glow. Both of those nights were spectacular. During the glow, the announcer would count down and the balloons would all light their flames for an incredible sight. During the glow they would also do several flickers in which the flames were turned on and off rapidly which made the balloons twinkle across the field. The Fiesta is unique in the fact that you can walk among the balloon field while balloons are being inflated and during the glow sessions. It was just an incredible experience! We stayed one night for a drone show and fireworks show. Both shows were very good.

We attended one morning session for a mass ascension. What a sight to behold! We were there early and saw the balloons being inflated and then ascending in mass. It was an absolutely incredible scene to walk among the balloons and gaze skyward as all the colorful balloons floated just above you and on into the sky! If you can tell from my writing, I was very excited about this event. Everyone needs to attend it at least once. I can only describe the night glow and mass ascension as "magical". I was in awe of the whole thing and liken it to a "grand canyon" moment when you first see the grand canyon from the edge and see how fantastic it is. 

A ride in a hot air balloon is also on my list. You can do one during the Fiesta but it is extremely expensive compared to booking a ride throughout the year. The expense is probably worth it during the Fiesta because once there, it appeared that some rides could be done during the mass ascension. That would be one great ride!

I will warn you of one thing...there are a lot of people at this event! But, it was well worth navigating through a crowd to see this. We chose the park and ride option and parked at a local mall and were shuttled in and out on school buses. It was definitely the way to go. I heard someone on our bus say they would never drive a car to it again because they waited in traffic for hours. The shuttle buses have a dedicated route that makes the bus ride an easy ride to the event. The buses were also interesting as the drivers had decorated the inside. One of ours was decorated with all things balloon related and the other was decorated for Halloween. 

We got a bonus during this trip that I didn't realize when I booked it. The full solar eclipse happened while we were there at the Fiesta! 

Any of you been to the Fiesta? If so, did you enjoy it as much as I did? Have any of you rode in a hot air balloon? This trip will be hard to beat and I highly recommend you put it on your list!

Happy New Year!

Where Have I Been?

 

If you check my blog regularly, you have noticed I haven't posted since Oct 2, 2023. I took a little unscheduled break. 

It wasn't planned.

It wasn't expected.

It just happened.

I just went one week without posting and then another and another and so on. I thought about stopping altogether, but decided I enjoyed doing this and will give it another go. I just need to come up with some interesting topics and away I will go. Stay tuned. My first 2024 post will be out soon!

Relationships: Neighbors

I've read numerous articles and blogs about the importance of relationships in life. Having great relationships helps us lead a more satisfying and happy life. When I think about relationships, I think about the many different kind of relationships we may have in life. We may have relationships with fellow students while in school with the common thread of school and school activities. Then move on to work relationships with coworkers and business associates. We have relationships with family, friends and other people we meet along the way. We have relationships that are church, club or other organization related. 

This post will focus on relationships with neighbors. I grew up with my two sisters and parents on 26 acres out on a little gravel country road in Texas. Our closest neighbors were about a quarter mile away on their own 50 acres. Prior to that we lived in a trailer park for a year or so and I remember being friends with two other kids in the park and playing with them some. I was probably about 5 or 6 at the time, so the memories are a little fuzzy. In the trailer park I remember a neighbor who had a pristine lawn with a sign that said something to the effect of "stay off". There was an elderly man in the neighborhood, Mr. Wilson, that would have us kids in for popcorn. Now that I'm older and wiser, I wonder about Mr. Wilson's motives were with his friendliness towards young kids. I hope he was just a grandfather type who loved kids in 1970. 

Our country neighbor, Tom, that was a quarter mile down the country road and was a great guy. He was married and his kids were grown. We saw him all the time running up and down that country road in an old Toyota pickup. He loved fishing and took me on many fishing trips. He would stop by the house often and drop off ready-to-eat catfish and was just an all around good man. He took the time to take me fishing and allowed me to fish in his pond on his property. He acted the part of a grandpa at the time. My dad would help him with anything he needed and Tom would help my dad any way he could. You couldn't ask for a better country neighbor. 

Over the years we have moved around and lived in many different neighborhoods. When our kids were young, we usually lived in neighborhoods with similar aged families and kids. In one neighborhood, every nice evening would find several families, on the street, outside in lawn chairs watching the kids play. All of us enjoyed the time outside and enjoyed seeing each other at school functions and neighborhood social events. The neighborhood had a pool and we would see neighbors frequently at the pool. Other neighborhoods, that we have lived, found us barely knowing our next door neighbors. It seemed everyone was too busy to socialize and stayed inside when they were home. 

Our current neighborhood is full of people our age or older. There are very few kids playing around unless someone has grandkids over. Most appear to be retired and take great care of their homes. We have met some great people on our street, behind us and in the neighborhood. Our neighbors across the street recently moved and have their house up for sale. Another neighbor a few houses down is about to sell and move into a retirement center. So, we will be seeing some transition on the street. 

We know our neighbors, but aren't super close to them. A couple of them have stepped into our house, but we haven't really had any over for a party or dinner or anything. When our kids were young, we had Halloween, Christmas and other parties and enjoyed them very much. I know we need to reach out and build a closer relationship with a few of our current neighbors as they will probably be our neighbors for years into the future. I always come up with excuses of having too much to do, or it is too hot to visit in the backyard, or some other lame excuse. I need to just invite a couple over, have a coke and visit.

Our neighbor behind us is a Vietnam Veteran and is widowed and would have some great stories to tell, I'm sure. Our next door neighbor is a widow and probably would like some company and someone to talk to. Again, my wife and I need to make that effort to reach out and build those relationships. We need to get to party planning!

How close are your relationships with your neighbors? Do you have frequent meetings, parties, etc. with them? Do you have any neighbors that are also great friends? Any advice to share in building relationships with neighbors? And for fun, any of you have any horrible neighbor stories?

The Great Stuff of Life!

During my 58 years on this earth I have amassed some great memories. Some are great memories, some are memories of not so great things. The totality of all those experiences is what makes living on this earth so awesome. The good memories and the fun memories are the great stuff of life! 

I was in Home Depot the other day and noticed something on the shelf that brought back a funny memory and one that gets brought up every now and then. Many years ago, my wife and I decided to build a small pond in the backyard of our new home. The back lawn was a pretty bare landscape with no plants or features other than grass laid by the homebuilder. We planted a few trees and shrubs and added a flower bed or two. Our grand plan was to put a nice pond in the middle of the yard with a nice rock waterfall on one end that would produce a relaxing, running water sound. 

We purchased a solid plastic pond form and dug a big hole in the hard clay soil. We piled the dirt from the hole up on one end so we could lay our rocks and make a waterfall. I researched the size of pump needed and purchased and set it in place. We had researched different ways to set the rocks for the waterfall and the best way to fill in the cracks in between the rocks so the water would flow correctly. A more involved process involved mortar and an easy process involved the spray foam Great Stuff. We chose the easier way and bought a can or two of Great Stuff. 

I filled in the cracks as best I could with the Great Stuff. It takes some practice to judge how much the foam expands so you don't get too little or too much. My plan was to let the foam dry and then trim any areas with a knife or razor blade. 

My wife decided she was going to smooth out the spray foam with her fingers while it was wet. Not a great idea!!  I was in the house cleaning up or doing something else when she walked in with sticky spray foam all over her hands. I laughed and made some comment about that not being a great idea. She laughed too and was determined to clean this stuff off her hands. The sticky foam does not come off easy. You need a solvent of some kind to get it off. It is as sticky as getting Super Glue all over your hands. Her next great idea was to grab some paper towels to wipe off the sticky spray foam. You can guess how that went. Now she had bits and pieces of paper towels stuck to the Great Stuff that was stuck to her hands. It was the biggest mess ever! We were both laughing so hard as the situation continued to get worse. I wish we had a video to send off to America's Funniest Videos or to put on the internet to go viral. 

My only solution was to grab some gasoline. It took a lot of scrubbing with gasoline to get the mess off her hands. To this day, we laugh about that experience and she has never touched Great Stuff again! Our pond turned out great but never looked very natural in the middle of our yard. We later had trouble with algae growing down the waterfall and into the pond. It never did look like a Better Homes & Garden backyard pond. But, we have one great memory from that pond building experience!

What great stuff memory do you have from your life experience? Any of you had similar experiences with the actual Great Stuff, Super Glue or something similar?

How Talented Are We! Pottery Throwing

I started to put a question mark at the end of "How Talented Are We"  but changed it to an exclamation to make it a statement of fact rather than a question. You can make the determination of which is the most appropriate.

I've posted in the past about trying new things and continue to look for opportunities to experience something that I haven't done before. Last month my wife and I took a two hour pottery throwing class. This was something we have never done and thought would be fun to try. It was a lot of fun!

We put on an apron and then sat at our own pottery wheel with four other students. After a brief demonstration by our instructor we were handed three chunks of clay to make our three masterpieces. I had joked for a month that I was going to make three ashtrays, even though no one in our family smokes. 

I slammed down the chunk of clay into the center of the wheel. Yes, you really have to slam it on to make it stick good. My first piece was fairly easy to do and I got pretty confident in my abilities at making pottery! I made a nice little bowl. I slammed my second piece of clay and started on my second masterpiece. I decided to make this one a little taller so it could be considered a vase. Boy, oh boy, the second try was a disaster. I collapsed my bowl vase ashtray thing several times. I would try to form it up as it was spinning and then it would get all out of balance and clay flew everywhere. I finally gave up on that piece and attribute the failure to bad clay! My third piece of clay went much better and then the instructor gave me another piece of clay to try again.

We completed three pieces each and had our aprons, arms and hands covered in slimy clay mud. After the pieces were glazed and fired we picked them up a couple of weeks later. We were impressed with how well they came out. The photos below show our pieces,  mine are blue and my wife's are green. I made three bowls and she made a spoon rest, jewelry bowl and bowl. We did a Facebook post and my youngest sister said one of mine looked a little "wonky". I agree it is a little imperfect but was a pretty cool piece made by my own hands. Besides that, my sister is a little "wonky" herself! I told her and will tell you all, pottery throwing is not as easy as it looks.

Has anyone tried a pottery wheel? Are any of you really into it as a hobby and make awesome pieces? Have any of you tried a new thing lately? If not, I encourage you to try something new to try. As I always say "You never know 'til you go"!