Look Out!

Something new has been added to my life. 

      No, we did not have another child!  Vera, retired, and for the first time in over 45 years, I have a new girlfriend.

     Work as all of you know, provides income, a support group, direction for you life, it also takes time.  It is the contract we silently sign to give time for money, etc.  Done out of the necessity clothe, house, and support the needs of a family, it drains away all inertia to improve relationships, open vistas of travel, create masterpieces of art and craft.  

      Vera and I met as she was about to enter college and I was  living the BMOC (Big Man on Campus) role.  We saw each other and as they say we were hit by the thunder bolt.  We both agreed that having our children early and spaced together was best for us because we had so much that we wanted to do. We did travel with our children and we loved having their activities to be a apart of, but we are the type that like to hold hands and share life as a couple.  So, now world, look out!  Here come "Cactus and Dimples".  There are books to share, places to go trouble to get into.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

  What a great day is Valentines Day.  Besides making tons of money for greeting card manufacturers and confectioners, it gives all people a reason to be nice to each other.  Now you wouldn't think you would need an excuse to be nice but the nature of the electronic and cave-like existence we "urbanites" experience makes for seclusion and non expression.
   Expressing affection makes us vulnerable.  What happens when you say, "I like you"?  We give the other person the chance to give us a response (if they give one at all) that is not up to what we wanted or expected. The spine shrivels, the tears form, and we slither away back into our safe little dark caves.
   Well I'm here to tell you that you don't have to worry!  You are NOT going to be rejected, if you don't get the "Hurrah or Fanfare" that you expected, learn to take what you got a enjoy it.  The point is that the declaration of affection will return 10 or 100 fold.  I have clung to an old song all my life that has a phrase that goes like this:
   "If you don't want to love me baby, somebody else will, somebody else will, somebody else
     will, if you don't want do love me baby, somebody else will,

somebody else will LOVE ME BETTER!"  

Love to all, be good to one another

   We live in California.  Having said that, last week we had evening temperatures in the 30s and that folks is cause for panic in the Southwest!  If we had had rain, the local police would have closed the roads, and if it had snowed or gotten ice on the roads we would have called FEMA!  Therefore, the sun and 70 degree weather today is like the beginning of Spring and all things are well with the world.

https://www.facebook.com/briancaselles?fref=ts   My dear friend and life companion of over 45 years is retiring today!  She encouraged me to retire in 2002 but continued to work part time at the local college library.  Today she calls it quits and that means we get to play.  We are hoping to use our RV more often, attend the gym together, interfere in our grand children's lives, and create havoc where ever we go.  I realize that this blog is mainly me talking to me, but should anyone else read this, send us your comments and maybe a few suggestions as to what to do, now that someone has let the dogs out.

A New Year

     A new year begins and another one fades into the past.  Some are excited about the future and some see only the regrets.  2012 was filled with natural disaster, criminal acts of tragic proportions, controversial elections and mind numbing economy.  You know what???? We can expect the same in the next year as well.  Sounds fatalistic.... it is not meant to be negative. It is meant to take a realistic look at life.  God knows we would love to have everything tied up with warm fuzzies and sugar coated kisses.  But I say, nay, nay!  

    Not all the peanuts in the jar taste good.  But that should not be the criteria for avoiding snacks.  Remember the words of Auntie Mame,  "life is a banquet and most suckers don't even get up to the table!"  Did you lose your job?  Did someone die?  Did you lose parts?  If you want someone to hold you and support you, I'm your man.  If you expect everything to go perfectly, you are living in la la land.

    This year brought friends death, personal pain and illness, frustration and malaise.  And I consider this year to be one of the most wonderful years of my life!  Why, because I am surrounded by those who love me, respect what I do and think about, because I have a means to express my inner self, AND the expectation of a new beginning each day!  Why don't we begin the new year with the expectation that life will be nothing more, nothing less than life!  Live through the crap and remember the roses.  You and I are unique. We are special and we only go around once!  Reach out and hand a friend or a stranger the boon of YOU!  

May you and yours have the best of New Years!

Drinking in the Christmas Spirits

    'Tis the day after Christmas and all through the web it seems as though the people are anxious to move on.    To leave behind the tinsel and egg nog and get on to "the next thing".  To that I say Bah Humbug!  Goodness people have we learned nothing from the last election, Newtown, the economy, the Mayans or even Dickens, that we can't keep Christmas in our hearts at least until January!!!!
   Can't you still feel the warmth of family and good food?  Gifts exchanges with love and children stuffed with sweets and eyes wide with expectation.   Can't we try to remember as least for a few days that it is the birth of our Savior that we are celebrating and that it is he that provides all good gifts?
   Think back to your own youth, those mornings filled with good smells and laughter, new toys and the feeling that if you had any more happiness inside you that you would burst!
  Remember yesterday, live today!  Tomorrow will get along by itself.

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE!

   Well I have started constructing a website!  Hopefully, it will feature news and pictures of our family, pictures of the little pots that I make, and views of the travel we do with and without our RV friends.  I am really tired right now. I taught a ceramic class and spent 3 hours in the lab trying to get my head around the fact that all my pots were part of a kiln catastrophe. Somehow the temperature was allow to increase to maximum instead of in small increments and all the pots blew up.  All this with a show/sale this Saturday.  It is hard to believe that just last week we were in Hawaii, calm, serene and content.  I am going to have a cup of Earl Gray and relax. Tomorrow is another day!

     OK!  I am back after a long bout with second thoughts and underground hostility.  It seems that being in pain and suffering illness does indeed affect your outlook on life. Before I retired work drained any reflection of life out of me but seduced me with the notion that I really was doing something worthy.  However, rather than dwell upon the sad effects of that realization, I am here to scream at the world,  I'm Back!  

     Thanks to friends and acquaintances  especially those in pottery, RV, and past school buddies, I am encouraged to take forward steps.  I just got back from a little vacation to the island of Kauai.  There I did NOTHING!  I did it good and lots of it.  Every day I would say to myself, "you came here to get stronger".  I rested, read, caught up with correspondence and did I say, rested.  At the end of the week I was mimicking bird calls and drinking Longnecks by the bar.  Definitely getting stronger!  

     I am on a quest to build a website.  Not an easy task, but one I feel necessary to showcase my pottery for those wonderful interested patrons. (I am as surprised as you might be)  I also hope to tweak this blog.  Hopefully to make it more attractive.  Wish me luck.