“Life is an occasion, rise to it.” – Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Magorium

About 10 days or so ago, Glynis said it was 22 degrees below in Anchorage with tons of snow and now she emails that it was 50 degrees, snow all melted and so much flooding that they canceled two days of school at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and she was unable to attend her classes.

 
Carole Dalphin sends us this “Two Little Old Ladies? chuckle
Two little old ladies were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress.
The thin one leaned over and said, “Life is so boring. We never have any fun any more. For $10 I’d take my clothes off and streak through that stupid flower show!”

 
“You’re on!” said the other old lady, holding up a $10 bill. The first little old lady slowly fumbled her way out of her clothes and, completely naked, streaked (as fast as an old lady can) through the front door of the flower show.
Waiting outside, her friend soon heard a huge commotion inside the hall, followed by loud applause and shrill whistling. The smiling and naked old lady came through the exit door surrounded by a cheering crowd.
“What happened?” asked her waiting friend.
“I won 1st prize as Best Dried Arrangement.”

 
Mary Converse sends this very, very interesting link. “Arlene, Thought this might interest you. It blew my mind. We knew the times and tech. is moving fast. Mary
Subject: Education And The Future of Technology”

Education And The Future of Technology

 
Nita sends us this news.
We’ve had a few terrifying days here. With humidity levels down in the single digits, we knew the fire danger was high but we have wide open spaces to watch the clouds or smoke as it may be. Thursday about noon, I was smelling smoke and when the clouds were no longer clouds but billows of smoke, I first called the county dispatcher and he says those dreaded words, evacuate. So, I called Randy at work and told him to hurry. He got home in time to grab up Sly and I jumped into the truck. He took us to his mother’s house in town but came back to see what he could see. By that time the hillside was completely engulfed in flames.

Randy couldn’t get very close for a good long time but the fire through the tall trees looked to be right where our house was. He was crying when the news crew was talking to him and he was a nervous wreck.

 
Our next door neighbor to the north was frantic, bringing in a tractor to cut a ring around his house. It was spared as was our neighbor to the south. They lost their motor home and a van but their house was not hurt. The dairy on down the road is gone along with their huge hay field and all the tractors and equipment. There was another home lost but the lady had been staying with relatives since her husband had died. She lost all of her treasures and old photos and was most distraught.

It was probably well after midnight before Randy could sneak behind the police guard and go back to our house. He wasn’t allowed to drive back in so he walked. When he saw there was nothing left of the pump house or the big trash can, he was crying again.
You can imagine his surprise to find our house intact with no damage. We lost the old chicken coop and the old greenhouse, lots of trees and brush but there were points where the fire just ran in little rivers and not up to the treetops. The brush piles we’d hoped to burn off one day when the burn ban was lifted are not longer around. I’ll have some photos soon so you can see how incredible it is. 2,600 acres burned but not a lot more buildings and homes destroyed. Incredible.

 
Sly was a gentleman but he sure did not like being in a strange place and given a food he did not like but Ruth’s neighbor was kind enough to share. He paced and cried almost all night long and that was after hiding under the bed for hours. Not a happy kitty. But he is back to sleeping in his favorite place and is indeed again a happy cat.

 
The electric company was out early yesterday and had the poles fixed and power back. The irrigation company will be out with a crew on Monday morning and say that it should not be a problem to fix. They have the people and equipment. Where Randyworks say that they will pay for getting the water going again. It is such a wonderful offer. The refuse company will be out Monday with a new trash can. We will recover.

The chickens and cockatiels wonder what all the fuss was about. With all the smoke, I don’t see how they survived. But they did. I am washing dishes and hope to clean enough to make it through until the water is running again. Randy went and bought extra gallons of drinking water. It tastes terrible but if fine for washing dishes, bathing and flushing. We do still have some well water but it has set in the bird’s room for years and many jugs had leaked and were empty. It’s just so good to be home again.

We feel blessed with God helping us out and making us appreciate what we do have and just stop worrying about what we don’t have. It could have been so much worse.Take good care of your sweet self, Nita

Glynis recommended we go and see Clint Eastwoods new movie “Grand Torina” and it is the best movie we have seen in years. Wonderful!!!

It is still cold here and we are finally getting out of our slump. I started some work in the studio with some glass and Carl is back working also. Between being reluctant to put the heat on in both studios, Carl still dealing with his leg operation neither one of us has been producing any creative work.

 
I also started a small oil painting today and since it takes so long for oils to dry I whipped out this 4″ x 19″ inch acrylics on board called “Barnyard Biddies”.

Glynis made some cookies for where she works up in Alaska and she used the new cookie cutters we sprung for so she had penquins, seals and Eskimos. She also had some gingerbread cookie cutters that looked like they had bites out of them.
Again there was a hospital contest during Christmas and it was for Gingerbread houses.

Here is the picture of her gingerbread house.  Note the smoke coming out of the chimney.

George and Barbara are back from FL. and they enjoyed the wedding.

Donna called and said she was working for a week up at the ski lodge at Lake Titus.

 Patti Griffin says she is still taking watercolor painting lessons with Jef Derig and enjoying it.  She also had some kingd of accident with one of her horses and had to had part of one of her fingers removed.  Guess one should not look a gift horse in the mouth. Patti.