Category: Uncategorized

In this morning’s dream I was part of a small group of Americans chosen to help foreigners learn to speak English. The method of doing that was to assign us a very small cabin-type room in which we were to complete a project as a group. We had a few foreigners assigned to us and we began work on our project with everyone making an effort to speak clear English while doing so. As we proceeded, one by one more foreigners were added to our group making the room very crowded. Eventually, they began speaking among themselves in other languages which none of us Americans understood. Finally, I became exasperated and demanded to know if they had not come to this project to learn to speak English. “No,” one replied. “We already know how to speak English. We came here to learn to speak American.” Finally, the overcrowding of our room became unbearable and we decided to break into two smaller groups. We intended that some of the Americans should be part of each group but several of the foreigners decided to stay together to become their own group without the interference of the Americans.

That dream set me to thinking about language and it’s impact on belonging. We belong to many groups. Our primary group speaks RVing. The members of the group we met with last night speak railroading. When we meet with Dave’s former coworkers they speak computers. I know a few diabetics and, when together, we speak carbs. My newest group is Weight Watchers and they speak points. What groups do you belong to? What languages do they speak?

TTYL,

Linda

As you may have guessed, I sometimes have some weird dreams. Sometimes they seem to make sense. This morning I woke up having just finished a dream in which I was a student and the master (Think Yoda or The Karate Kid) was explaining to me, “Start when you are ready. Do what you do. Stop when you are done.”

Does that make sense? Of course it does. Let’s think about it.

“Start when you are ready.” How often have we started a project because we thought we should rather than because we were ready to do so? How did that work out? I’d guess not well. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until you can gather the right tools? And the right motivation? Do we sometimes have to declare ourselves ready just to get started? If so is that OK?

“Do what you do.” How often have we tried to do what someone else thought we should do? How often have we tried to imitate someone else’s perceived success? Wouldn’t it be better to recognize our own talents and develop them? Let’s try being ourselves and see if that works better for us.

“Stop when you are done.” That seems so obvious, but is it? How do you know when you are done? Is perfection required? Or can we stop at good enough? How do we decide when it is right to stop? Instead of just going on and on would it be better to pick a point at which we just stop?

Start, do, stop. I wonder if I can?

TTYL,

Linda

I stayed up last night until 2 am reading other people’s blogs, comments, and replies. Then I woke up this morning wondering how many of my readers never comment because they think they won’t get an answer to any question they ask? So, I decided I better explain my system.

Every comment made on my blog comes to me as an email. And I answer every one. As an email. That often starts a discussion that may go back and forth several times.

Some of those discussions become very personal but many do not. The ones that do not could, obviously, be posted to the blog. But, I now generally answer those comments using my iPad and I have not figured out how to copy from my email and paste to my blog. So, it is very seldom that my answer to one person becomes an answer to many.

Is this the best system for my replies? Maybe. Maybe not. What do you think?

TTYL,

Linda

I can’t say it any better than this.

http://badnickblog.com/2011/05/its-not-about-cookouts/

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=92018

TTYL,

Linda

It has been rainy/stormy most of the time since we moved to Minnesota for the summer. That means we have not been running as many errands as we should. So, when we realized today would be sunny with the temperature mostly in the 60s we decided to head out.

Things to take to the car included:

1. the trash to drop off at the dumpster on our way out of the park

2. a couple bags of clothing to be dropped off at Goodwill

3. the new backup drive that turned out to be defective so needed to be exchanged

4. my Nook to be mailed off to our daughter even though it hasn’t been packed up yet

5. the battery for my scooter, said battery not being safe to leave in a hot car

6. my lumbar pillow which travels back and forth between the car and RV because we’ve not been able to find a suitable replacement yet

7. my beverage since I rarely go anywhere without one

8. my phone which needed to be unplugged from the charger to go with me because our daughter sent me an email this morning saying she wants to chat today so I will call her while Dave exchanges the hard drive

9. my iPad because it has addresses on it I’m going to need while out

10. my chair/cane which goes everywhere that I might need to sit down while waiting for anything including cashiers

11. and my “bag” which carries a lot of stuff including those things most people carry in a pocket or purse

So, off we went. Dumped the garbage, dropped off stuff at Goodwill, stopped for lunch, and exchanged the disk drive. Next stop the Segway shop to sell back to them the Segway they sold me three years ago.

Oops! The bag of Segway accessories, including the keys for it, is still at home in the RV. How did we ever mange to overlook that while packing for the day’s errands?

TTYL,

Linda