Wild Pears

Enjoy the view of our gnarly pear tree. This was taken this past week. I looked up into the tree as the fresh fruit hung ready to be picked, and thought this was just a beautiful perspective.

These Dreams

I've been having some very odd dreams for about two weeks, at least, maybe even three weeks. These dreams are so strange I am looking to buy one or two dream interpretation books and have taken to writing some of the dreams down in order to review them later. Some do not require interpretation, these are the Mel Gibson variety, as he's always been favorite eye candy for me. And the one about my mother performing my step dad's heart surgery, which has since been cancelled, was pretty obvious as well. It's the dreams like the one of Fudgy the Whale, of Carvel Ice Cream cake fame, as a hand puppet singing and dancing on a kid's show that I need help with!

In other news regarding dreams, I am reading The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch (http://www.thelastlecture.com/). Randy passed away in July from Pancreatic Cancer, and his last lecture was about fulfilling your childhood dreams.

My childhood dream was to become a writer, to do the book tour, talk show and radio circuit; I even practiced my interviews complete with chalk for a cigarette (I do not smoke but growing up in the 70's, smoking seemed like just the thing a successful writer would be doing during an interview), and many times I had a British or French accent, for no apparent reason other than to seem posh.

I have one or two stories I wrote when I was about eight or nine and they are completely without merit. Very soap opera melodrama with twin sisters discovering each other while one serves as a nurse in the hospital where the other is giving birth type of stories. Then I have some from college, including two children's short stories with strong female leads. I'm currently working on two manuscripts, but working is a loose description as I've not penned more on them for a few months at least.

The premise of the most recent one is a woman who works to kindle an unrequited love from her teen years while the love she seeks has become a pastor for a community in the Midwest. It's a "what - if" scenario, as in "what if what didn't happen had happened? Where would these characters be now?" I think the "what if" scenario is a good way for someone to take a different path than maybe they chose in real life and see where it might have led.

The other story line is more non-fiction but with some embellishments. I've kind of been typing whatever comes into my head about various people in my life and my reflections on them, our relationship, recalling the most significant times I've had with them, my impressions of them, things of that nature. It's draft title is Love is Not All, taken from an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem which speaks to a specific time in my life, when I infinitely happy yet also had my heart broken, the one true time as I have not let it be that vulnerable before or since.

So Randy's book had me thinking about my own childhood dreams as I'm sure he'd hoped it would and I leave to sleep tonight reflecting on his words. Check out his site and lecture at the link above. Take from it what you will.

Save the Rainforest with Care2 eCards

This eCard site has cards for every reason under the sun, and now each card sent will generate a donation to save one square foot of the rainforest. Check it out!

Halloween Cards

Scasco Oil Company

So I said in my last post that my next post would be about the lack of customer service from our oil company, but since then, we have come to a satisfactory agreement for the approaching heating season. With that in place, I will not go into all the nasty details I was originally planning to, except to remind people that a signature on a contract means it's legally binding - I didn't sign so I was in the right - and that a verbal agreement should be followed up by a confirmation of that agreement and not a request to sign to make it valid - the two are contradictory. Also, no matter how professional you might be in your life, do not expect the same from everyone else; it's simply not as clear to everyone else how they should behave when they are in business.

Thanks to Paul S., Scasco's sales manager, for understanding the importance of keeping customers and how to speak with them and to them, which is, respectfully.

Been Working

Just a quick note as I've been working and was home today to help my Mom with shopping and other errands. The Birthday Countdown starts soon, on September 1st, and this year it's the 38th birthday - ugh!

Next post will focus on the Scasco oil company and their own special brand of customer service - not the good kind!