Month: August 2014

The Promise of Spring

On By DGThomaIn WritingLeave a comment

Sharing a post from Spring of this year.

DGThoma's avatarKatrinaWightman.com

The Promise of Spring

A few days ago, a lovely purple iris bloom appeared in my garden.  The iris was a gift from my father’s garden.  He shared it with me a few years ago, but this is the first time it has bloomed.  I couldn’t help but smile when I found the bloom!  It stirred memories of time spent in the garden with my dad and let me know that Spring has arrived here in Central Texas.  Our roads are lined with wildflowers such as Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush, but the single iris bloom was more significant to me.  I felt the stirrings of new beginnings and wondrous memories yet to be made with my children and grandchildren.

In researching the color purple I discovered that it is a combination of blue and red.  Blue is calming and red represents energy.  How perfect!  I also learned that the color purple doesn’t often appear in…

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Why did the chicken cross the road????

On By DGThomaIn Animal Stories, Family, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment
ElginTXWPAPostOfficeMuralBG
Elgin Post Office Mural “Texas Farm” by Julius Woeltz Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson

Urban farming is making a resurgence and Austin, TX is no exception.  Raising backyard chickens is popular in Austin and has been for quite some time.  A few months ago, my neighbors took the plunge and started raising chickens for the eggs.  We live in a rural area, just outside of Austin, and I’m sure chickens have roamed these acres many times in the past.

The adage of a rooster crowing to start the morning is a complete myth.  Roosters crow all the time!  They crow to establish their turf or to assert dominance.  They even crow when a hen lays an egg.

My husband and I have grown accustomed to the noise and rarely notice it any longer.  Our visitors are generally less prepared for around the clock crowing.  Recently my son, who was visiting from out of town, commented about 10:00 PM, “That is going to drive me crazy!”

I had to smile, remembering the first weeks the rooster moved in next door.  I thought I would never get used to hearing the noise.

I did get used to the noise.  In fact when we drove to pick up breakfast tacos the next morning, at the local doughnut shop, it took a minute to realize I was hearing a rooster crow.  As I waited in the car, a rooster strutted up to the door of the doughnut shop and serenaded everyone with his “Cock a Doodle Doo!”  Continuing his rise and shine revelry, he made his way down the side walk pecking at the concrete.

Even in our community in the great state of Texas, that’s not a normal site.  So now I know why the chicken crossed the road…..  To get to the Doughnut shop!

 

 

Sleepless in Austin, Texas…..

On By DGThomaIn Writing1 Comment

I hate waking in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep or not being able to fall asleep once I lay down.  I feel shortchanged all the next day.  I’m not one of those people who can sleep easily during the day. No matter how silly it may seem I feel I have lost something I will never get back when I sleep during daylight hours.

Sleeping comfortably

If only I could sleep anywhere, anytime!

Occasionally, the chaos of the day causes my brain to kick into overdrive just when it should be shutting down to recharge.  Going to bed at my normal time, I usually fall asleep relatively quickly.  On the nights that restless thoughts worm their way into my consciousness, I wake up after just an hour or so.  Once I’m awake, I toss and turn and try anxiously to fall back asleep.

Bed Sweet Bed!!
Bed Sweet Bed!!

Recently, after having fallen asleep at 10:00 PM, I woke up at 2:30 AM.  Tossing and turning for over half an hour, I finally gave up and got out of bed.  I was wide awake!  Since I had to be at work at 7:00 AM I decided to give up and get out of bed.

It turned into an amazing experience!  I sat down and worked on some writing tasks, washed a load of clothes, ran the dishwasher, polished my nails….. Well I did a lot of things I would never have had time to do if I had gotten up at my normal 5:00 AM.

Incredibly I made it through the day smiling and alert!  I was still refreshingly awake at 7:00 PM when I got home.

One of my favorite things is an unexpected “Gift of Time”.  A meeting unexpectedly cancelled, or an obligation that changes and frees my time.  That’s what I call a “Gift of Time”.

A Gift of Time

Although, I doubt getting up in the middle of the night on a work day is anything that I should do on a regular basis, for that one day, it was an absolutely  wonderful “Gift of Time”!

Tybee Island, GA trip

On By DGThomaIn Family, Travel, WritingLeave a comment

This spring, my daughter and I embarked on our second of what will hopefully become an annual trip.  My daughter, Kat, planned a lovely trip to Tybee Island, Ga.  I flew into Tulsa, OK on a Thursday evening so we could begin our road trip the next afternoon.  We chose to take a road trip because even though flying would have been quicker, we knew we would miss a lot of experiences by flying.  You just can’t duck into that little out-of-the-way shop along the way if you are on an airplane!  We had a wonderful trip with a lot of great experiences.

 

We stayed at the Beachview Bed and Breakfast  in Tybee Island, Ga.   First thing Saturday morning, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of egg rolls (the name absolutely doesn’t do this dish justice), fresh fruit, pastries and freshly brewed coffee.  We carried our food out onto the second floor veranda and enjoyed the delicious gourmet breakfast in the fresh island air.

After our breakfast, we headed to Fort Pulaski for a tour of the historic fort and one of the original lighthouses.  With a cool breeze, we had a wonderful walk through the grounds and out to the lighthouse.

Leaving the fort, we headed to several outdoor markets for shopping.  We found some wonderful, unique items for sale and enjoyed a delicious warm beverage from Tybean Art & Coffee bar.

Tybean Coffee Bar

Sitting outside, at TYBEAN Art and Coffee Bar , we enjoyed an outdoor game of checkers playing with milk jug lids!  Honestly, this little interlude was one of my favorite memories.

Milk Jug Lid CheckersWe had many more fun and adventuresome activities on the trip, but just taking a minute out of a busy fun-filled trip to play a game of checkers with my daughter, while I sipped a delicious Chai tea, was exactly what I needed on a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

The All Too Common Condition

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

…Of having no patience.   Grocery store checkouts are crazy places to be at the best of times.  Our local supermarket HEB (The first initials of Howard E. Butt) is always packed with people.  Ducking in for a quick minute is a complete contradiction.

HEBEven knowing that, I still think I can just run in and pick up something quickly.  Yesterday I attempted to run into HEB and grab something light for dinner.  It was 3:45 PM in the afternoon.  How bad could it be?

My husband was with me and we decided on a salad with some fruit and sautéed shrimp tossed on top.  Splitting up to grab the ingredients, we tackled the grocery list. Mathematically it shouldn’t be possible to spend one hour grabbing 16 items, but that is exactly what happened.

One hour later we were making our way to the checkout.  Of course I was guilty of leaving my cell phone in the cart and heading off to pick up some tea.  In my defense, my husband was supposed to wait for me at the cheese counter and he wandered off to enjoy some of the food samples.  We spent a good 15 minutes trying to find each other.  I absolutely refused to have him paged over the intercom!

Finally back together and ready to head to the checkout, we counted our items.  16.  All the express lines were for 15 or less.  Of course!  Yes, my nickname is Girl Scout at work, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get in the 15 item line and I didn’t see anything I was willing to leave behind.  So, we moved to the shortest regular line we could find.

We were standing behind a gentleman who didn’t have a cart; just something in his hands and only one person checking out in front of him.  Things were looking pretty good.  Suddenly this woman darts in with an overflowing basket and pushes in front of us.  The man looks up and smiles and says, “Man, I really hate to do this to you.  This is my wife”.  And she just smiles and says “Yeah, I’m a little slow”.

Shock took over and I couldn’t even respond.  It is amazing how quickly your anger can flair when you are already frazzled.  I left my husband and the cart and went in search of a different line.  I found one with only two carts and it seemed reasonable.  I motioned my husband down to get in line.  The elderly customer at the head of the line, checking out was almost done and the cart in front of us was full but at least not overflowing.

Even though, the lady had been almost finished when got in line, it was taking a while and I joked to my husband, she is probably writing a check.  Sure enough, that is exactly what she was doing. The checkout lady was holding the check up and reading it as if she had never seen one before.  “Unbelievable!” I was thinking, still fuming a little from the first lady who cut in front of us.

Finally finished, the elderly lady gathered her purse and was being helped to her car by one of the young store clerks.  The couple in front of us had their purchases on the counter and the clerk was starting to ring them up.  The lady spoke up and said, “I need to pay for these school supplies separately.”

What?  Now I’m normally pretty patient but I can’t believe what I’m hearing as she starts sorting the items into two stacks.  At least she didn’t pay by check.

When we finally got up to the checkout, it moved pretty fast. We did only have 16 items after all.