THE MAGIC BANK ACCOUNT

I’ve been absent this page for weeks and I’m still engaged in time consuming commitments. Much of it has to do with the building project in Oregon and some time out for friends and appointments, and downsizing here at home, before heading back on the road with Jim. Downsizing my email was also on the list. I’ve got at least three months of emails unanswered or waiting to be deleted. Aha! Light at the end of the tunnel. I ran across this email that I received from a friend and thought it worth blogging.

It is called The Magic Bank Account:
The author is unknown. It was found in the billfold of Coach Paul Bear Bryant, Alabama after he died in 1982.

Imagine, a magic bank account that you had won; the prize in a contest:  Each morning, your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use. However, this prize has a set of rules:

#1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

#2. You may not simply transfer money into another account.

#3. You may only spend it.

#4. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

#5. The bank can end the game at any time and say “game over”. It can close the account without warning and you will not receive a new one.

What would YOU personally do?  You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?

Not only for yourself, but for all the people you
love and care for. Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t
possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every
penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?

ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL
Shocked ???
YES!

Each of us is already a winner
of this *PRIZE*. We just can’t seem to see it.

The PRIZE is
*TIME*

1. Each morning we awaken to
receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

2. And when we go to sleep at
night, any remaining time is Not credited to us.

3. What we haven’t used up that
day is forever lost.

4. Yesterday is forever
gone.

5. Each morning the account is
refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING…

SO, what will YOU do with your
86,400 seconds?

 Those seconds are worth so much
more than the same amount in dollars.  Think about it and remember to
enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than
you think.

“DON’T COMPLAIN
ABOUT GROWING OLD.

SOME PEOPLE DON’T GET THE
PRIVILEGE!”

GOTTA GO. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS ADVICE AS MUCH AS I DID.

IRISH DAYS IN MURPHYS.

When Main St. Murphys sports a shamrock and the yellow line turns green, (magically, doncha know), it is nearing St. Patrick’s Day.

Leprechauns dancing in the street with fairies, mind you. You’ve never seen anything like it.

In a heavy Irish brogue this tall fellow told me my picture wouldn’t turn out because you cannot photograph leprechauns. I think that was the old photo development style. He doesn’t know about digital. Aha! The joke is on him.

They come in all shapes and sizes and it is the only time of year you can catch a glimpse of the wiley creatures.

The street was jammed with thousands of people. Judging from the cars parked and the loaded shuttle buses that ferried people from Kautz Winery, where there is ample parking.  I’d guesstimate 15,000 people came to visit.

The bagpiper band marched and played their special kind of music.

I know of The Daughters of The American Revolution. I didn’t know there was a Sons Of the American Revolution. In each case, they are people who are direct descendants of men and women who served in the American Revolutionary War. They have to be able to give proof to join.

Kids love a parade.

And what would a parade be without them.

I’m not sure how dogs feel about a parade. But there were plenty of them and they don’t seem to mind. Many people bring their dogs with them when they travel. Years ago, dogs would snap and tangle and challenge. Now, they are so socialized, I didn’t hear a-one bark or snap or seem uncomfortable. The Humane Society has done a marvelous job of training people how to handle animals, and temporizing their more aggressive behaviors.

A group of skaters surprised me by executing dance steps and interesting moves in a community where sidewalks are not all that common.

Here you are more likely to see horses and they are nice to see close up for people who don’t often get the chance. The kids love them. This young lady won Rodeo queen, a position she holds for a year.

Of course, you don’t have to be queen of anything to enter yourself and your horse in the parade.

Miss Calaveras and her princesses hung out the windows of a fire truck, which was unique.

The food choices on the street grab you with their smells. Kettlecorn, and sausages get the juices rumbling but we ended up having corned beef sandwiches at the Native Sons of the Golden West, another great organization in town. It was so crowded I couldn’t get near the Irish Soda Bread from St. Patricks Catholic Church Ladies Guild. It is wonderful.

I always meet people I know at the Hall and I like to support them. The sandwiches were delicious, along with potato salad, a pickle and real horseradish to clear the sinuses.
I took a lot of pictures if you are interested, double click on the picture and you can view a slideshow. (And please ignore that I misspelled Irish and Murphys when I uploaded my file.)

2014-3-15-IrshDaysMurphsy

MOON PARTY GIBBERISH.

Sunday night, I was invited to a moon watching party. My neighbor Jan loves things zany and fun. I showed up in my midnight sweater and yellow moon shirt, I intended to gossip and dish the dirt.

I told them they wouldn't be seeing the moon because I lassoed it and cooked it like a young spring loon.

Through the overcast, we didn't see a star, the moon was cooked or someplace far. But, Jan had a star tied to her fence;  I think we're both evil and must commence- a magic spell.

But, the night was early, we munched and ate dinner and played games for hours, when the hint was for a swim suit the answer was flowers. Becky was jubilant when she guessed one right.  She wanted my hat, but I said, "not without a fight."

I did take pictures of it; not meant for a queen, it is more on the style of a time machine.

A moon at midnight, takes timing and watches, (that's literally watches the hat holds seven.)

It's power was weak, it didn't influence heaven.

As the evening wore on, Cheryl opened her pouch.
An all-seeing crystal and rose, clear and smoky quartz. A geode of sky blue, magic was about.

Cheryl placed them strategically, a gateway to the moon.

Jan and I atoned for our evil sin. May the whole world let the light in..

...and find peace and love, everywhere. And, it works one person at a time, I know, I was there.
Happy Moonday!

MODERN CHINA-2006

With my first digital camera, I visited China in 2006 , when China was in the middle of changing from a Socialist/market economy to a capitalistic economy. As a child, I watched a neighbor dig a deep hole in his lawn. Every few minutes, he’d say, “Look at this?  He’d hand me a penny he’d supposedly found, and tell me “We must be getting close to China.”  He regaled me with fantastic stories about dragons and castles and magic, all happening on the other side of the earth.  Simple things that fostered a dream.

We whizzed through Beijing with 300,000 vehicles in a city of 13 million people. Fifteen percent of families now own cars that intersperse with weird motor driven carts piled high with goods,  and 8 million bikes, motor cycles carrying whole families  and buses and pedestrians all mingling  in a way that you are sure someone is going to get killed at any minute.  I saw a man carrying a baby high above his head as he squeezed between two moving buses. You just have to turn your head away. We stop at Tiananman Square, so huge it defies the camera’s ability to capture it. A flag pole so tall the flag can be seen all over the city.

Just like us, Chinese tourists, something new for China, have their picture taken at their seat of government,  much like us having our picture taken outside of the White House. Sixty per cent of the citizens of Beijing work for the government just like the greatest percent of people in D.C. are under some kind of government employ.

The grounds around the building are beautiful where once there was a forbidding wall around the buildings and the whole city. Chairman Mau tore down the old city walls and built what they call ring roads to replace the  feudal walls of China’s  cities.

This is “modern” China. We were very quickly dispelled of the notion that we would see Chinese men and women in black sack pants and shirts wearing straw hats. This is the infamous square that led to student deaths in 1989, forever giving China a black eye over their aggressive policies. We are mobbed by vendors selling post cards. Capitalism is grasped very quickly.

We move on to the Forbidden City which was built, or finished anyway, in 1420. Eleven Emperors  have lived  in this multiple complex of buildings between 1419 to 1911. It has 9,999 half rooms in the palace. Nine is the supreme number. Nine gates, each gate measures nine x nine. Our guide tells us that the Last Emperor,  the movie, is very accurate about what happened to their last Emperor.

This is one of 18 water pots around the square, (a multiple of nine). They represent the 18 provinces. All must be in harmony.

Soldiers still guard the palace and live here. Notice their boots and shoes  lined up next to their “barracks”. The living quarters of the Emperor  is approached by a series of stairs and nine gates to pass through.  Each gate is a building with marvelous gold, jade carvings, incredibly fancy decoration as part of the building, with real gold leaf.   The rooms that store antiquities are  not lighted, tall columnar rooms, no windows. Pictures don’t reflect  the glorious treasures inside.

It seems as though every inch of the building is exquisitely decorated like this mantel above a doorway.

My traveling companion, Michal Houston and I posed before this Chinese guard lion. His left foot is crushing some small creature, I think.

His right foot is balanced on this ball. I’ve forgotten the significance of this stance, and its meaning, but it is the same wherever these lions are seen. And, the dog-like face of Chinese lions was rendered by artists who had never seen a lion. They only had a description of lions from explorers/travelers  who passed through China.  I always wondered about that. Now I know and so do you.

The roof of the palaces are  protected, as you can see. It seems a bit strange to us that the superstitions of old are still, if not believed, at least respected and revered. Visiting China  helps to understand many mysteries about the Chinese people’s beliefs that hang on.

This little boy knows nothing of the Ming Dynasty, 1420 to 1644 or the Ching Dynasty, 1644 to 1911, or the turbulent  history of  the gate he is crawling through. Notice you step over the deep thresh hold as you move from one gate, which brings you to another palace, and on to the next.

And I got to see many dragons. This gives you an idea of the size and scope of these carved wall panels.
Aren’t they gorgeous?  There are nine of them at the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.

We see so much, it is difficult to take it all in and remember it all.

More tomorrow.