Chicken Song Mystery finally solved!

I want to thank The Mad Music Archive for sending me the link that solves the chicken song mystery! Bless You!
(see Jan 2008)
I should have guessed Jimmie Dale would be involved somehow...


http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/artist_details.aspx?ArtistID=2847


The record was from the Hub City Movers

Deadheads and crystal bowls

Check out this guy playing the crystal bowls. I had the pleasure of catching his show a few weeks ago. It was amazing. The whole room was vibrating with the bowls singing. You could feel it to your bones. The whole vibration of the universe right there in the room with you. I thought at one point I saw tiny, little, small angels dancing over my head. When the performance was finished, the silence in the room was amazing as well, I could feel everyone sitting, silent, supporting the silence and each other. Breathing in and out together- just the presence of the energy of each of us, supporting the silence. It was really beautiful- if you ever get the chance to go to one of his shows, take it. Oh, he said the Grateful Dead saved him from a life of violence and crime...he saw his first show and became a deadhead instead, in 1990. Yeah, that's what I said- 1990?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r237ViPHBxw

PS the riding lessons are going good so far- the horse is BIG! More on that later.

Swine Flu Shime Flu

Check out Jon Stewart's rant on this "pandemic"- I agree completely!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/snoutbreak-09-the-daily-s_n_192151.html

Popular Author Found Meandering After Long Unexplained Absence

Well, you may have been wondering where I have been, and I will tell you. Working. Gasp! OH MY GOD! She works!

Yes, and thanks to our current challenging economy, she now works two jobs to make half as much as she used to make in her one job. But hey, I think most of us are challenged one way or another at this time, and I don't want to be moaning and groaning about my misfortune. I just don't have the time. Nor do I have the time to write as much as I would like. I'm also going to admit that although I like to think of myself as a good writer, I have been challenged to come up with story ideas that are funny, enlightening and entertaining, which, if you remember, is the goal behind this blog.

Nuff said. Any-who, I am starting to get used to my new schedule and hope to be reporting in more often in the near future.

Now, in the thick of all this, I keep reminding myself to be thankful for what I have and to appreciate the little things. Like the fact that I took a walk yesterday in sandals. Yes, my feet are finally free from woolly socks and big boots. I'm soooooo thankful!

I also have reminded myself that when the going gets tough, the tough play. Play is the ultimate stress reducer, so I have been hitting the golf ball (it doesn't cost much to go to the driving range) I signed up for horse riding lessons (I'm bartering with the barn owner), and I have added a few games of pool to my crowded schedule each week, just because I truly love the sport.

I hope if you are under stress you will take a few moments to be thankful, to play, and, because laughter is the best medicine, continue reading.

I spent the day yesterday on a bird watching expidetion. It was my first, and I was amazed to find that bird watching is such a social sport! We were out in the middle of no where, miles from a main road, in a field on top of a bluff,near a great lake, and there was a major party going on. Dozens of people with lawn chairs, coolers and big binoculars were sitting around chatting. We settled in among the crowd and waited. Every now and then someone would point up and start yelling and "the bird guide guy" would take a peek through his binoculars and announce the birds name, rank and serial number. He would then give coordinates for spotting the bird, just in case you were bird viewing challenged and could not spot the literally tiny spot in the sky.

This went on for hours, and we did see a few big birds, however I swear the largest flying thing I saw was the big bumble bee that flew in the car window when we were leaving the bird viewing area. Of course, when it flew in the window I did not really see it, I just saw something big coming at me out of the corner of my eye. I screamed. I think that must be a defense mechanism, because honestly, I did not mean too, it just came out. I must have thought, way back in my unconscious reptilian brain, that a cobra or a scorpion or some other deadly thing was coming at me. I just saw movement and screamed. The driver of the car was so startled that she screamed, and swerved, which caused me to scream again.

Then, the driver looked to see what I was screaming about and she let out a world class shriek when she saw the giant mutant bumble bee flying around my arm, and by then I figured out what had flown in the window so I screamed again, again by accident, really, I know a scream is not going to chase off a giant mutant bumble bee. Meanwhile I had tried to hop over the gear shift. Which caused the driver to swerve even more which caused us both to start screaming and shrieking again.

In the back seat, things were lively too as the passengers back there started yelling at us for screaming and shrieking. They were oblivious to the fact that we were under attach by a winged 14 pound aberration of nature. About that time the humongous flying devil flew back out the window and I started yelling "roll up the windows" and "did it fly in back there?", meanwhile the driver was trying to get us back on the road and the two people in the back seat were still trying to figure out what had happened. It was exciting- really- we could not stop laughing so the driver had to pull over while we regained our composure, meanwhile the back seat drivers were still wondering what the heck happened.

I'm thankful for laughter. Hope you have a good week, Meandering

Friends, Faith and Facebook

One of my friends e-mailed me recently. "You have to join Facebook" was the message. I shot back- "Really? Do I really have to do this?"
"Yes" came the reply, "just go do it".

Well, OK I thought, because this friend has never steered me wrong, so I joined facebook. Much to my dismay, I found some people I knew there, and got caught up on what was happening in their lives. I also started getting messages from people I didn't know, but what the heck, you can never have to many friends.

So I hooked up with the guy from Wales that shares my last name, he was gathering people that share our name, and, it turns out, he has quite the sense of humor. I hooked up with "shared name people" from here to the edges of the known world. I figure we may be faintly related by name but we are definitely related by species. After all, we are all human, and in our brief notes back and forth, we are all sharing not only a name, but the things that make us human. All one, all the same somehow.

I also hooked up with the guy from Italy that is interested in Tibet, and things Tibetan. Then I hooked him up with my friend Chophel, the East LA kid turned Magna Cum Laude, turned Tibetan Buddhist Monk. Now the guy from Italy, and all my other new friends are enjoying Chophel's updates from his trip to the monastery in India.

See how Facebook works? It's like a giant cocktail party in cyberspace, and small talk rules as you work the room, making contacts and sharing contacts and learning about people.

I also, one day, got a "friends request" from a long lost friend. I had not talked with this friend since we graduated from the university, we had lost track rather quickly and I had not thought about her in many moons. We quickly got caught up on the where are you, what are you doing kind of information that is so interesting. I was happy to hear about her successful business, marriage, three children and her positive attitude about life that was a cornerstone of our friendship many years earlier.

When you run into someone at a cocktail party that you really connect with, the small talk slips away before long and you get to the questions that tickle at the back of our minds, those that we normally only speak of with close friends. Eventually, you find yourself standing in a corner with an empty cocktail glass after the party has wound down, contemplating some big question with your new found friend. Somehow it's reaffirming to know that a total stranger shares the same ideas that you have, and it's comforting if they can help refine the picture in your mind by giving up some insight that was obvious to them, but somehow had eluded you until this very moment in cocktail party history.

It didn't take my long lost friend and I very long to get to the nitty gritty. What is the nature of faith? What do you believe when you think of the almighty? Is a fortunate incident luck or is it divine intervention?

Albert Einstein said "God does not play dice with the universe."
Stephen Hawking said "Not only does God play dice with the universe, he cheats."
Two of the biggest brains ever born and they can't agree. Where does that leave us normal folk when we are pondering the big questions? Is it possible to know the answer to something like this?

My long lost friend related a incident of very good fortune involving a broken down car on the highway, a roving car full of unsavory guys, and a couple stopping to offer assistance- they just happened to be going my friends way, and just in the nick of time swept, her out of harms reach and right to the door of her destination. Her thought? "It wasn't luck."

My reply was the story of how I found my best pet. I wanted a pet, but was getting ready to make a move across the country. I was in conflict about the move, it would be difficult, but I thought it was the right thing to do. I admit I bargained with God. "I'm going to do what I think is right but you damn well better send me a cat to keep me company in my new life." was what I told God.

Two days after I arrived at my destination, I parked the car in a driveway and opened the door. A kitten jumped in my car and right into my lap. I don't know to this day how I did not run that kitten over when I pulled in the driveway. I thought it must belong to the people in the house, so I took it inside. It was not their cat. They lived in the middle of no where so it could not be the neighbors cat. It was so young it still had it's kitten teeth, and it turned out to be a Norwegian Forest cat, the breed at the top of my list for next time I got a cat. ( By the way, no one knew my top cat preference but me). I named him Fe, which is Spanish for faith. That cat is the most loving and loyal animal I have ever had, and that is saying a lot because I have had dogs that would follow me to hell and back, and cats that glued themselves to me when I walked in the door of the house, and had to be peeled away before I could walk out the door. My thought? It wasn't luck.

I bet everyone has a story like that, something that happened that can't really be explained, but can't be dismissed either. Everyone has a story that illuminates the question we ponder- is it luck or divine intervention? I don't know the answer for you, but I do for me. I'm with Einstein, God does not play dice with the universe, if it appears that she does, it's just because we don't understand the patterns of the universe.

What do you think? Take a moment and share your story in the comment section, I will publish all of them.

Peace, Meandering.

Size Really Does Matter!

Now, regardless of where your mind went, what you thought of when you saw the title for this newest post, what I was referring to is food portion sizes.

I started an experiment some months ago, to really pay attention to the size portions I was eating. I was curious about this because I see so many clients who have weight concerns. So I decided to check the portion sizes of everything I ate. My goal was not to loose weight, but to find out how we can be tricked in to eating way to much at one sitting.

The result of this experiment was that I lost 10 pounds. I also became very aware of what others were eating, I found myself staring at other diners when I ate out, watching with fascination as they loaded up on huge mounds of food. I wondered if they knew that a plate the size of a hub cap covered with food was enough to feed a family of 13.

I really did not change what I was eating, just how much. It's tricky, because when you check things like those little serving bags of chips you get with a sandwich when you order out, you find that the tiny bag has two servings in it. Look at a mounds bar and you find it's not one, but two servings. A serving of cereal is 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup, depending on the brand. Put it in a bowl and 1/4 of a cup of cereal looks like just enough to feed one mouse. A serving of cheese is just a couple of ounces, which again, looks like enough to feed a mouse.

It reminds me that some theories on how to eat right would say that we are born to eat a hand full of food at a setting, and some would say that eating less calories extends your life. Now I can definitely hold a pie in one hand, but I don't think that is what they meant.

I found that eating one person portions satisfied my hunger, but it returned sooner than I expected and I added a few meals a day to my regular 4 meal schedule. I still lost weight. Maybe this meandering will come in handy for someone out there. I know that people tend to start thinking about loosing weight in the spring, which is a good time to do it because you really don't need that winter fat to keep you warm anymore. Add that to the fact that the dreaded bathing suit weather is just around the corner and you get a big handful of motivation to go with you little hand fulls of food.

So now I'm wondering, who came up with the big gulp? Who invented the double cheese burger with bacon? Who decided that plates at a restaurant should be the size of a 50 gallon barrel top? And how did we all get tricked into thinking that is how we should eat?

It brings to mind a dear friend, who had traveled the world as the wife of a Ambassador of a large county. She was in the US after many years away, and commented on how easy it was to find food here. Any time of day or night she mused, all you have to do is hit the nearest quick stop and load up. She thought 24 hour diners were amazing and the selection at the grocery store was mind boggling, all of which we Americans take for granted. To her, it was easy to see why the obesity rates are so high here. She assured me that the whole world was not like that.

Thinking about loosing weight? Next time you look at your full plate, imagine you are a mouse, and eat what you need to feel full, because I can assure you, size matters.

Early Spring Morning

Tiny snow flakes falling,
maybe it's an illusion.
Robins hop about shivering,
spring flower buds wear white crowns.
Nothing lasts forever, thank heavens!