The Stuff of LIfe~!

You really can't make some STUFF up.

Life is completely unpredictable.  The best plans blow up.  

That's what makes each day different, enjoyable, maddening, upsetting, delightful, zany, hopeless, and completely crazy.  What more do we want from life?

I certainly don't want predictability.  I do want continued love and laughter...think I have that portion of my life pretty wrapped up, but I don't take anything for granted.

My grand-daughter is away at the beach for a much needed break from a gruelling school year.  I thought I would let her know I was thinking of her; I was on HOLD on the landline.  You know that HOLD ~ THE HOLD FROM HELL and you know if you choose to hang up the phone...you would have been answered the very next second.  In a way I don't mind holding because I do other STUFF while HOLDING.  I do some banking business; check emails; scroll through fb, open some old fashioned snail mail.  I get so pissed off because chunks of my time are being taken by HOLDING that I've now started to collect a to do list and pile it in front of me before I ring a number.  In this instance I thought I would use WhatsApp and text my grand-not-so-baby-daughter.   I started tapping out my text - short/brief.  In the middle of texting a voice said 'Hello' on my land line and I thought I ticked out 'xxo' to my precious being.  Got off the phone and looked at my text and was a bit horrified.

I texted:  Love you usually.  Aaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!  That is NOT how my fingers danced on my phone; I swear I did not text THAT, but it was THERE - staring back in front of me.  I thought 'OMG' am I going to give my grand-one a complex???  BURST out laughing though...unbelievable.  Then, I stopped and thought about it:  It may be a true statement.  I DO love her...usually, but there have been times when I wanted to pop her on her bottom - even at her ripe old age of 16.  I quickly sent an apology and a kissy face and told her I loved her always.  True.  Always.  And.  Forever.  Even.  When.  She's.  Grumpy.

I have yet to hear back from my granddaughter. 





See?  3 women whom love each other 'usually'!  Ha!!!

The other evening Tinto and I were chatting in our sitting room and the telly was on; the sound was down.  There was Elvis.  We like Elvis.  I did not appreciate him when I was much younger as much as I do now, but it appeared to be a new special on his life.  I thought we had seen them all.  Then...we realized it WAS a new feature and Priscilla was the producer.  Nope.  Not having it.  Enough.  That woman is his EX-wife.  She has remarried and moved on, but, NO, not really...has she? 

We switched channels and were pleased to see an ABC special on Janis Joplin: 

Janis:  Little Girl Blue

Friggin' fantastic ~ that's what this was.

Janis was brilliant.  Janis was more than talented and, yes, she was complicated.

She felt life.  She felt everything happening around her at all times, perhaps too perceptive for her own bloody good.

I have her albums.  I love her soul.

This special was magic.

You got a chance to see inside of her mind.

Tragic.  Parts of her life so painful; but...strong - strong-willed woman

willing to fight for what she believed was right.

And...this woman KNEW herself; knew herself so well - too well

and it

may have been the undoing of Janis.

IF you can catch this on YouTube or anywhere else and you are a big fan of Janis' - catch

Janis:  Little Girl Blue when you can.

Tinto and I are tripping over each other while renovating.  I want the building site to be kept clean and tidy, but...that ain't happenin' folks.  Tinto needs every tool OUT and he leaves them left OUT on the verandah.  I roll my eyes.  I sigh.  I offer to file everything and I do.  STUFF looks nice for about an hour and then...a tornado must have ripped through or a tidal wave because I cannot even recognize our own verandah yet again.

See???  THIS IS HARD FOR ME.  Tinto assures me just another couple of weeks.  HELP ~ renovating madness.

Items arrive.  STUFF arrives to replace the old and damaged STUFF.  We get notices to pick up STUFF from the post office.  I strive, truly, to get rid of STUFF while other pieces of STUFF enter our home.  It is hard handling STUFF.  I DO like a blank, clean slate and IF some of this STUFF doesn't leave our lives soon I see a big, bad, bond fire in the Maxwell Garden soon.



Enough.  STUFF.

There are some goals I want to accomplish professionally so I feel/think that the renovations need to be COMPLETED, so I can move on.  But, truly, renovations are like a piece of nice art; I'm not certain when everything will be finished because Maxwell House appears organic at present ~ we make a change; we alter a space and then...it opens our minds to brand new ideas - even MORE CHANGES.  Gheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.

Tinto is drawing/planning on building me something very special.  He is ON IT.  He is INTO IT.  But, then, he walks past me (every day) and asks me why I need it?   What am I going to do with it?  I smile.  I smirk.  I ask him if he is seriously wanting to know because I would never ask him what he was going to do with something he really wanted.  Sometimes you need your quiet spot, don't you?  A place where you can ponder YOUR own thoughts - that loop that continually plays through your mind - and work out what your mind is trying to tell you.  It's always trying to share something with you.  We don't listen.  We're always in a rush - trying to get to the next place.

Nope.  NOT.  ANYMORE.  Travelling around Europe in a motorhome taught me or reinforced in me the important matters of life.  STOP.  SETTLE.  Always tell those dearest to you how much you care for them.

IF you think a good thought even about a stranger - share it.  I've said this many times before.

So, now I'm going outside to share with Tinto how much I value his work and his effort and his vision for The Maxwell House.

Blanco, of the Roaming & Renovating Stevens...

Cheers!

Come by for a cuppa ~ ignore the building MESS and tell Henry 'Hello' as you try to get into the gate.  Oh, and yeah...we WILL have a new gate. 
CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?  LONG, long overdue...



PS:  Please excuse all typos.