Monday, January 30, 2017

Gratitude Monday -- As Promised, God, Edition

I promised God I would thank him publicly so here it is.
This happened:
Our computer crashed or claimed to do so Saturday night. We were terrified. Mike had been looking up information on hellebore when a popup came up saying a virus had crashed the hard drive.
We couldn't get rid of it and couldn't see the pop up behind it.
What we could see was a mostly blue screen behind it.

I presumed this was a scam so unplugged the internet as I could not make the popups go away. Mike suggested shutting it off, and as we were both panicking because neither of us have a clue, I pushed the button rather than shut down in an orderly fashion.

When I put the computer back on I got the usual screen about not shutting down properly and the choice of safe mode or starting normally. I chose safe mode.  Instead of starting it went to a screen offering start normally or the highlighted choice of using startup repair.
Tried that. It went to the Lenovo screen. Nothing else appeared to be happening. We left it a few minutes. Nothing happened. Shut it down from the button again as there was no other way.
After trying a normal start and getting this choice again, I shut it down deciding to let the pros look at it on Monday.
But I thought to try again and be patient. I did. I chose start up repair again and left it. Soon I saw some life as the second green button flickered. This gave me hope.
I live in fear of my computer dying even as I have most things backed up. What I hadn't backed up yet was the novella rewrite I had completed the day before.  I had an uncorrected version as well as the scrawled notes on the hard copy. I lost a hard drive in 2012 and this novella was on it. I found half of it back then and rewrote the rest from the hard copy.  I thought I might have to do something similar this time.

About 15 minutes had gone by. I was desperate. I prayed. I actually folded my hands at my desk and asked God to fix the computer. Then I said thanks and mentioned if it got fixed I would say so on my blog.
I opened my eyes and there in front of me was a small screen saying computer start up repair was searching for the problem.
Over the course of the evening it got fixed.
God got the program rolling, and I am grateful. Thank you, God.
Science did the actual repair work, and I am grateful for that as well.


Monday, January 23, 2017

Gratitude Monday - Show Time Edition

The other day at lunch my friend Kathy Feys gave me the first season of Newsroom.
She said it was the best show on TV. I had never seen it as it is HBO and we have low grade cable. I was always curious about it.
I watched some of it, like it a great deal, am grateful for it, and for the thoughtfulness of my friend.


Monday, January 16, 2017

Gratitude Monday - Wake Up To What? Edition

I had another spirit wake up call early Sunday morning. I am grateful for it, and for all the others I've had.
They'd slacked off for a time and when they came back they were rare and quite weak sounding.
If you're just tuning in or need a refresher I refer to being roused out of a sound sleep to the ringing of a telephone.
It only rings once and as soon as I am awake I realize the ringing is only in my head.
They've been back for a while now and I have written about them in the past.
Sunday's call came at 01:29 shortly after my husband left for his night shift to check the local highways.
It was loud. It was insistent. It was a single ring inside my head.
I am happy I get these. I've experienced them since late 1989 or so though the early ones were the door buzzer for my apartment. I've awakened to many spiritual things over the years from meditation to past life regression,to clearing and cleansing energy, you get the idea.
Of course there's more to learn and experience. I am sure there are many things I have yet to hear of and even more I may never hear of. There's something ahead for me. I look forward to it. But I wonder what I am waking up to?



Monday, January 9, 2017

Gratitude Monday - The Flour Downstairs Edition

Today I am grateful the flour downstairs is still good.
It's been a bit of a glutenfest around here lately. I craved proper toast the other day and rather than go out to a restaurant, get an order of toast and coffee, and be done with it I decided to bake bread.
Rice toast is fine, but at the end of the chew it gets a weird consistency like one is chewing cooked sugar. Essentially, one is.
Further, I'd had a nagging thought to eat a bit of gluten again and that's what really put it over the net. Five years ago I had a nagging thought to stop eating gluten, "for a week" as an experiment. It's been great, and it is not over, but it was time for a wee change.
I dug out the spelt I had in the cupboard, sniffed and sorted through it to make sure it was okay, and then fired up the bread machine.
I am so grateful for toast and coffee that I made myself. It was the best.
Then I decided to try making bagels with the rye and barley flours we had in the cupboard.
Yesterday I decided to try making pretzels. That meant a trip downstairs to the stash in the big tote.
Not only was it in fine form it does not require sifting. The stuff we had upstairs did.
I am grateful for that.
There are several large (ice cream sized) pails of it and that's wonderful because I have an urge to make tortillas and buns, and maybe more bread, and anything else that comes to mind.
It's fun. And I realized as I was rolling out the dough in ropes to make pretzels it is not the eating, it is the procedure that I am enjoying so much.
For that, I am grateful.

The pretzels:

are very tasty. 

Monday, January 2, 2017

Gratitude Monday - New Year Edition

It's another new year with no mistakes* in it yet and for it I am grateful.
I can do so much this year.  I make no promises that I will, but I can so I might.
Possibilities include, but are not restricted to,  I can continue to grow and change and improve. I can approach people openly with love in my heart. I can think before I speak, hold my tongue, or better yet, not hold my tongue.
Too much that should be said is left unsaid out of fear of hurting others.
What a load of crap.
Not that I advocate being malicious, I merely mean if a thing is bothering you, then get it out and get it taken care of. Keeping it inside eats away at our emotional innards and we end up living a lie.
This serves no none, least of all ourselves.
In that vein if you love someone, say so.
If you want someone to fuck off, say so.
Both are equally important, and ultimately, those who hear it will be grateful.
Have a great 2017. I know I'm going to.
 __

* Paraphrase of Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery