The Good Old Days or Things I Miss and Things I Don't

How often to we hear people say "it used to be...." or "back then..." or some other variation of that sentiment? We miss the days when people picked up the telephone or stopped by the house instead of text messaging and email. Yet those things help bring us closer together with family and friends. Letters from generations past bring us comfort and sometimes knowledge of their lives. Is the art of letter writing gone with like the days of 45 records and 8 track tapes?

On the other hand, we have the convenience of paying our bills online, eliminating the tedium of writing checks, getting stamps and mailing them. Good for us, bad for the Post Office, but no, I don't miss that. As the world and technology continue to evolve, I watch as my life becomes more and more paperless. In almost every case, I embrace this change for many reasons, some personal, some ecological. Recently I had the pleasure of copying tons of documents for work, reminding me that one thing I don't miss about paper is paper cuts. Why is it that nothing hurts like a paper cut?

One thing I do miss, as much as I love my digital camera, there is a part of me that truly misses photographs that I can touch and feel.

Posted via email from BJ's posterous

A look back at 2009 and hopes for 2010

I've been sitting here looking back on the year now past, thinking about all the changes, memorable events, and just stuff that has transpired in the last 12 months. Lots of joys and frustrations, lots of laughter and a few tears, some cool adventures and some plain Jane
ho hum.

It has been a year of watching my daughter and my grandson both grow in leaps and bounds. Seeing them both experience the joy of accomplishment makes my heart soar. I am so very proud of both of them. Of course, as is normal, they have both experienced frustrations and set backs, yet they have handled them with determination and stubbornness. Wonder where they get that from?

A good portion of the year was spent in remodeling and updating our house, an exciting and frustrating undertaking. With a little prodding we made some rather bold and fun decisions for us, since we are both pretty subdued when it comes to decorating. Our guest bath is totally motorcycle themed complete with toolbox red cabinets, chrome diamond plate trim, motorcycle plates, motorcycle based accents and art. So we are finally rid of the Pepto pink bathtub, the 1950's pink flowered wallpaper and have added a shower. Our formerly bland white living room is now a nice green, although when we decided to use green in the living room,. I thought we were talking about one wall, not the entire room. So you can imagine my shock when I came home to a full room of green. It grew on me pretty quickly and now I am really glad it was done that way. Our kitchen counters were also redone, extended out and raised to form a bar which is really cool. We decided not to buy pre-made counter tops and to have a company come in and refinished the rebuilt counters. Word to the wise, unless you can leave your house for at least a week to have it done, buy the counter tops. It's a huge mess and smelly, it didn't help that the
workmen didn't do as good a job as we expected. Finally got flooring in the rest of the bedrooms and grouting in the remaining tile. The entire process took a great deal longer than we expected and some stuff has yet to be completed, it will get done eventually.

We traveled to Keystone CO with friends for the AMA Women & Motorcycling conference. We took some extra time to that we could take a scenic route, passing through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Met awesome new friends and spent time with old friends and remembered one we had recently lost who had touched our lives with her unique self and selflessness. Joined the Motor Maids, the oldest women's motorcycle club in the country. On the way home from Keystone we were on one of the scariest roads I've ever been on, in the rain no less. Thankfully my bike waited until AFTER we were down the mountain before breaking down in the dark in the middle of nowhere. The end result was that after getting it repaired and
going back to Durango two weeks later to get it, I decided that I didn't want to be in the situation again where I couldn't find a shop that could work on my bike within 50 miles. So, I started looking around and bought my first cruiser, a Honda VTX1300 and I am loving it.

Thanks to Facebook, I have had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and relatives. I'm looking forward to exploring those relationships more and reconnecting with more folks.

We have been blessed to have not suffered the financial hardships so many others have experienced due to the economy. We have done our best to show our gratitude by giving back whenever we can. Our church has been a great blessing, allowing me to take a well needed break from the stress, responsibility and turmoil we had been feeling at our former church. I am so grateful to be a part of First Church, now that my batteries are recharged and I am looking forward to more opportunities to help those who need it and serve where ever I can.

Here is to the New Year, with hopes of more joy, growth, fun and riding. Prayers for those we know, and those we don't, who are suffering hardships due to the economy. Wishes for more adventure, more time with my love, more hugs and kisses from the grandson, more good times with the daughter, more time with friends, more forgiveness, more tolerance, more humility, more peace, more laughter, more of Steve's amazing sermons and more of a still speaking God.

Namaste.

Posted via email from BJ's posterous