A New Look

I have been having problems with my old layout so I am hoping this will be better. I would line it all up, check it and tweak it and get everything just right going back and forth from edit and post. Everyone elses Blog looks so good and mine is crap. Whenever i publish things happen that don't look anything like what I just typed up with the huge spaces etc. So I'm trying something new. Let me know what you think. Ok so as I ramble on I am sharing some of my nature photos I've taken. This is a Black and White of dead windswept aspen (shows you how bad the winds can get here).

Okay so I've added some new elements. I've included a link to two of the blogs I am following, then I put a horse slide show in but I think I'm going to just put a slideshow of my pictures there. So I got up at 1:30 this morning, yesterdday @ 2:30 and the day before that @ 3:30 so I figure maybe I should just skip sleeping all together tonight. Luckily I have another Drs. appt on Tuesday. I am still learning how to do everything. I really wanted to be able to post sports scores for my husband.

Here is a picture of my favorite stream on the mountain.

Every year my family bets 10 bucks on our NCAA pics...you know bracketology. Yeah...well I'm not super knowledgeable when it comes to sports but I know so much more since I met David. His TV stations are all ESPNs, The Golf Channel (of course....we can't miss Grey Goose Weds.) and of course all the major networks when they have important stuff on. I usually do pretty well with my picks for my brackets but this year I suck like I did with NFL football. Every week my dad and I bet on the Monday Night Game. I always kick his butt every year but this year I started so strong winning the first 6 0r 7 games and then I just fizzled out to nothing. My dad had an excellent year however. And now College Hoops I suck at too.

The above picture is of a bee feasting on utah thistle.

So on my My Space page I was able to download all this music I LOVE and am creating playlists. The playlist titled Lisa's Special Songs are all songs that fit my personality or is a memory of mine. I have a long way to go and will need to do some major tweaking but I have a great start. This is wildflowers I'm not sure of species but they are growing up through the desert sage.

I will be back later...I'm going to try to take a morning nap.

Windstorm in Blanding

Well today started as a nice sunny day that quickly became a storm with hurricane force winds.







The winds were approximately 30-40 mph with gusts that reached upwards towards 60 mph. Here is a view I have down my street.



















This man is Neil Joslin who runs our little weekly paper here called The Panorama. Our one traffic light here lost one of its wires. Max, my next door neighbors dog, went over to peruse with the police officer and this type of catastrophic type damage in town brought the big guns of The Panorama.











As you can see here we have quite a problem which has brought all the important townsmen to discuss the best course of action. I was the only other camera out there though so I'm hoping this is my big break. Anyhoo....David and I thought it would be fun to storm chase. I remember the crazies in Tidewater VA that storm chased. Well this was on a much smaller scale but every bit as intense. As I took the all important shots my sidekick helped by taking shots of me.

Here is my crew David who is my driver and all other such matters. What a trooper....always ready to find the excitement and to get me there first!!

Me having a wee bit of fun. I am standing on main street in front of our ONE eye doctor, Dr. Kirk, who is also a Bishop. He is probably one of the nicest men in town. I know I have dropped a ton of weight and I LOVE it. Just have to go buy some clothes that fit me again.

Me taking pictures of Recapture Canyon and Recapture Lake. One day I will tell you the story about Recapture but I will wait till I can get a beautiful picture of the lake and the Blue Mountain (also called The Abajo....Navajo for Blue).

As you can see it was so freaking windy. I thought I was going to get swept away. It seemed almost as bad as the winds from Hurricane Isabel that robbed me of my power for 8 days!!

I have to say this is one of my favorite pictures of myself I have ever seen. It helps you can't see my face but that's not it. Its a picture of me doing something I love. I hope I can get good enough to be published someday. This is my start.

And this is literally all I have done today. I found out on My Space page I can download all the music I love and I have been going crazy. So this is exactly what I look like right at this moment.

Goddesses of the Zodiac

As promised I am here to report what I learned last night. First things first, it was a lecture per se on the 4 goddesses of the zodiac. The woman who lectured was from Cortez CO. where she is an astrologist and does readings and things. For this post to make any sense, you must know I know NOTHING about this stuff and the majority of what this woman (Cassandra) said was greek to me. However as I was sitting there listening to her talk it reminded me of what it must have been like when the oral traditions were the only way people learned. Before books and even primitive writing there were the villages and each village had a wise one that was entrusted to pass down all the stories, legends, etc. to the next generation.

Cassandra lit a candle and talked about the 4 goddesses. The other thing I found fun was each goddess story reminded me of all the greek mythology I had to learn in school as a child and I always loved studying the myths.

The lady in the center is Cassandra.

The woman to the far left in a black top is my boss Karen Whipple who owns all The Peace Tree Cafes. More than that though is she has become a dear friend.

And this person is Kathy who has also become a very dear friend. She has worked for Karen for a year. She was originally from Albuquerque.

Okay so for the goddesses:

First goddess is Black Moon Lilith. She is our wild woman. She is in all of us. Astrologically she is a moving focal point in the moon's orbit with a 9 year cycle, spending 9 months in each sign. She is currently at 3 degrees Capricorn. What does this all mean? I have absolutely no idea but what I did love is hearing the myths around Lilith. She was before Eve but she wasn't subservient to Adam and finally took off and God felt bad for Adam so he made Eve from Adams side and she was sweet and docile and gave up the nookie whenever he wanted until one day a snake approaches her and convinces her to eat the apple. Lilith is the snake and both Lilith and Eve represent two sides of every woman. But I like Lilith way more. She doesn't care what people think. She is always true to herself. But everytime she is she pays a horrible price.

Second goddess is Ceres. She is the smallest dwarf planet and largest object in the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. She is beautiful, pearly white and nearly perfectly round. Her orbit takes 4.6 years, discovered in 1871, currently at 2 degrees of Virgo (again....I don't know). Her myth was really cool that explained the seasons. She I remember from greek mythology but she went by a different name. Anyhoo...she is agriculture and the seasons. Winter is when her daughter has to go back to the underworld to hang out with Hades and do what he says. She is nuturing but unleashes a fury if her child is threatened but she is the resurrection of our own intuition. She is also the chaos that Pandoras box sprang forth.

Third goddess is Eris. She is a dwarf planet first known as Xena, she orbits the sun from the Kuyper Belt far beyond Pluto. her orbit is 560 years (Plutos is 280 years) so shes the outcast woman like so many have been if they stay true to themselves. She was discovered in 2005 and is currently at 20 Aries (?????). She represents Strife but she also respresent Striving. As Strife she is talked about in the Sleeping Beauty Tale. She was the fairy that was not invited and she got super heavy duty PISSED and she did all sorts of horrible things. Also known as Discordia.

And the fourth goddess is my favorite Sedna. She lives at the bottom of the sea. She is actually a "minor planet" in the outer edge of the Kuyper Belt or the inner "Oort Cloud". TRhis cloud is a source of comets and other frozen bodies and she is halfway to Alpha Centaurus which is the next closest star to us. She is 1000 miles in diameter and she is solid ice but glows red like Mars. She was discovered in 2003 and is currently at 20 degrees Taurus. I can't remeber the whole myth but the inuit people if too old will go out on their own to die. The girls get married off early because families cannot support them. Well Sedna didn't like the guy that picked for her so her father took out to the freezing sea and threw her over board ( I know .....I thought that was a wee bit harsh but until you've walked a mile in my shoes yada yada yada). Sedna was hanging onto the boat to save herself and her father cut off her fingers so thats why she glows red.

Anyway...she is the guardian of the earth and sea. She is warning us humans to take care of the earth or bad things will happen. They've happened before like with the dinosauer extinction, the many ice ages, floods, etc.

As I write all this down in fun I realize how much I miss college and for a while now I have wanted to go back to get my bachelors in Theology. I find it fascinating.

I also have started a My Space page for my friends. Its still very new but her is the link:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=460940699

"If you are showing love to your fellow human being, you are showing love to your God."

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Update

Good morning everyone. Well I recovering from my 4th bought with bronchitis and to be quite frank I am as over being sick as a person can be. Today will be my first day back at work since Monday. I slept, ate Easter candy and watched movies, while knitting a hat and cross stitching a mothers day gift to my wonderful mother in law.

Tonight after work however I have someplace to that should make for a great post tomorrow. I'm going to a lecture in our sister town Monticello titled Goddesses of the Zodiac. This woman is a healer.

Right now I am on hold for the third time to my Internet company because my mail is acting weird and I want a new address to stop the ginormous amount of junk mail on such things as male enhancement ( a extremely important medical epidemic I guess) and luscious twins ready to do all sorts of naughty things to me.

So I watched Juno which I loved and Smart People which I really loved. I've seen Hancock...not as good as I thought it was going to be. For Christmas I got my mother a membership to Netflix. But they get delivered to my house so I get to watch them first. I got to see Get Smart and Nights of Rodanthe...a typical Nicholas Sparks tear jerker.

Speaking of Christmas David and I drove to Salt Lake to see Jessica and the Christmas lights all throughout the Temple Square. This was a trip in honor of Davids Birthday. It just so happens a BYU game was playing at the Energy Solutions Arena where the Jazz play. Now unless you live here and see the frenzied devotion of all Utah sports fans but there are truly no better fans on earth than the BYU fans. So Jessie and her boyfriend Tyler went in their truck and David and I followed in the mustang. Well David and I were high on life man....high on life....however Jessie was becoming more frustrated as the exodus to Temple Square. They pulled into a parking garage but Dave and I were immersed in the beauty of the city. Well we found another entrance to the parking garage but the is a HUGE parking garage full of BYU fans. Jess would text me and I would text her. They finally found a place to park but now they realized the money had been left at home. By this time Dave and I parked and were happily watching the horse drawn carriages jam up the overwhelming traffic just that much more. I smile as I sipped my hot chocolate with my handsome husband and I was rejoicing in my Christmas spirit....the beauty and wonder of it all. At this moment Jess texts me with an "ABORT!!!!!!@!! FUCK CHRISTMAS!! That's when I knew my Christmas would be a special one and the reasons for celebrating is for family and universal love. Jessie....my sweet little princess was not feeling the Christmas spirit. So they drive by us as Dave threw some money in the moving vehicle. I was "jazzed" because I knew it would be nothing but fun and wonder from here on out. We texted them the exact location (which was the north gate of Temple Square. Now mind you there is only 4 entrances and only one of these were called North. David and I waited and waited and waited. I get frantic texts that she is ready to punch out some guy playing the bagpipes. We finally see her and I embrace her with all the love in my heart and told to watch the beautiful horses. That's when she said "Fuck the horses" and off we went into the wonderland of lights. At the end of our time there David, Jessie and I posed for a picture that captures the memories of that wondrous night.

Here are some more fun pictures at Christmas:

My mother...who is the most adorable thing to see Christmas morning.

And my own special Grinch:

And finally just me and David. We had a nice quiet Christmas. And now its SPRING!!!!!!

"If an individual has a clam state of mind, that person's attitudes and views will be calm and tranquil even in the presence of great agitation"

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tribute to Mikey

One of the awful things that happened to me in January is I was notified one of my dearest friends in Virginia committed suicide. This was a devastating loss to me for several reasons.

One he was one of those people that is too nice for this world and it caught up with him. He was always happy to see David and I and sometime we would just hang out with him. He loved his friends but because he couldn't drive we had to come to him. If I needed to escape I would just go there. He had this cat named Guido. This is the meanest cat I ever saw. He literally HATED everyone but Mikey who spoiled him beyond explanation.

I always knew he was lonely and he had this huge capacity to love. He hadn't dated a girl since the last one broke his heart 15 years ago. He reminded me of all the loner characters in movies such as Edward Scissor hands or a mountain man or Galileo that died in exile alone.

Everyone took advantage of him because he was sooo nice. I didn't. I was alone too at the time (as far as friends go...thank God David has always been by my side). I could see the pain of these people who used him all over his face. So he became one of my best friends.

Well last winter he got throat cancer and had to stay in a hospital. He own a fairly successful motorcycle repair shop at the time so he asked a friend he desperately wanted to trust to run things for him until he was released from the hospital. This "friend" in a few short months had destroyed his business. it was so heinous I cannot even begin to tell you specifics but Mikey was released from the hospital owing 50,000 dollars when he was way in the black when he got sick. After struggling to salvage his dream he finally gave up and committed suicide.

The reason I am writing about this is because I haven't really talked about it and I guess a part of me identifies with him and last but not least he had become such a dear sweet friend. My heart is broken.

I took a picture of this old dead tree the other day and as I looked at my photo later that old dead tree reminded me of Mikey.

It took people a week to find his body (he was a loner as I mentioned) and I don't believe I have even allowed my self to grieve but when i took the picture I felt closure.

I shall miss him. I was so lucky to know a person with a pure heart. They are kind of rare these days. When I found out I was so PISSED, then so very sad. If I was still in Virginia I would've found him immediately. It breaks my heart.

I told you I would start to update you on some of the goings on in my life that made keeping up a blog impossible. Here is one of those reasons.

I'm going to leave you with a quote from the Dalai Lama (of course) but I dedicate this to my dear friend who is no doubt an angel now:

"Some people when we talk about compassion and love, think it is a religious matter. Compassion is the universal religion".

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Spring Equinox

I know....I know....I have been very remiss in my writing. It was a difficult fall that ended in an even more difficult winter. At least in my own mind. But I am back. Spring is back and so am I.
Today I finally took my Christmas tree down. I left it up for a reason I left it up was to ensure I got through this winter absorbing as much joy as I could from those that surrounded me. My favorite part of winter is a Christmas tree. In fact when I was a very young little girl my mother was a single mom and very small salary. Because my birthday was so close to Christmas and because money was so tight one of my gifts became the Christmas tree. I know more times than not my mother regretted this little tradition considering I went through my exotic tree phase. You know small children...the brighter the color the better the product so we had pink trees, silver trees, white trees until she finally got remarried and we began to enjoy live trees that were.....wait for it.......wait for it......green! WOW!! However I loved the tradition so much that getting a tree for/on my birthday and decorating it was a tradition I still practice today. This year I began a new tradition. Leave the tree up until the spring equinox. One day I shall have one up all year long and decorate it for all the seasons but for now I will keep the tree up until spring. It makes the dreary months of winter much easier to face.
Now David and I have been spring cleaning and organizing. It started with my mothers sewing room/office when my parents went to St. George Utah. Now our shed and Davids work area. He is building my a garden bench with a gardening area for me.
The other good thing that happened this Christmas was I finally got my Nikon D60 and all the bells and whistles that go with it. I am passionate about nature photography. As I learn and travel my photography journey I will share my progress with you.
I also began working this fall for The Peace Tree Juice Cafe. I figured I was there several times a day anyway why not just work there so I have and love it. I have met such a great group of people through my job and all the beautiful characters I get to share my day with.
In fact one of the reasons I stopped writing is I was really struggling with some issues. I also started seeing a therapist and Prozac. All of these things combined are getting me through my midlife crisis, my age panic and also getting adjusted to a new place that is so different compared to other places I have lived.
So anyway I am back and I will write about this crazy journey of mine called life as much as I can.

"If you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others".
_His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Day 2 part 2 Backpacking

We had a very full day so I broke down the second day into two parts. Part of our trip was going to Gold Beach Oregon. I went a couple years ago and it was so beautiful I wanted to share it with my daughter. Now mind you we had maps from Map Quest for the whole trip but I made Jess my navigator so I left it up to her. The way map quest had us go was through 299 which dipped way down into California then up the coast to Oregon but Jess studied the map and decided we could just go 140 West which was a straight shot. As we got on the road nothing but mountains were before us.

We had already had a hard trip down a mountain with a 9% grade which Jess was not at all impressed but we thought this was a fast and safe route so 140 West it was. We got stuck in Klamath Falls for an hour and after asking 5 gas stations for directions we finally got on our way. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful Oregon is and I plan on moving there as soon as I can. In the meantime we had a run in with some die hard golfers. I had no idea golfers could get so cut throat and I am married to one but these people where unbelievable. After they rode our ass I finally let them by and we had to snap a picture for the memories.

I mean I have never seen such serious golfers and they drove like James Bond. They brought their own golf cart for the love of God. These grey hairs were on a serious mission!!!

Okay so we get on I-5 for just a bit then we got off on a road that had no name on the map. It was a little grey line on the map but led right to Gold Beach. We found the road and it said Gold Beach was only 69 miles away. Meanwhile Jessie was reading me Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. It started so niche but then I began to notice the two lane highway was really one lane that was going straight up and the road was really curving and I was heading straight up. Jessie was happily reading away and I quickly realized this was going to get very ugly. We were heading straight up with no guard rails and sometimes the two lane highway that was really only one lane was shrinking. Parts of the road had started to sink down the mountain and I realized were now heading above the clouds. In the meantime there were speeding Suburbans towing 6 boats that barreled around the corners that I had begun to take at 10-15 miles an hour. There were no guard rails and the one time I looked over I got vertigo. It was one of those things that if I flew off the side of the mountain I would have 10 minutes to think about how I was going to die I was so high up. Well unfortunately we ran over an area that was on a curve that had had a mud slide. As gingerly as I traipsed over it Jessie's head popped up and that was the end of my reading. She was aghast and pissed to say the least. For the rest of the journey her eyes were glued to the road with colorful metaphors pouring forth unchecked from her mouth. I could even hear her finger nails digging into the dash board. I think the imprints will be on my car forever. In short a 69 mile ride took us over two hours and it was approaching dark. We finally made it and all we could think of to do was to get a hotel and find some alcohol. We checked into this great room that had a veranda facing the ocean and the marine layer (mist) was covering the town. It was breath taking.

The room was heaven. We could sit on the veranda and hear the surf pounding. I felt I was home and I felt such a sense of peace.

But dinner....We decided a place we could walk to would be wise. My fingers were still curled as if gripping the steering wheel. The hotel lady said the road was called Bear Camp Road and that a family had died on it last year....nice.

So we walk to Spinners and order appetizers that were to DIE for, especially the freshly caught crab that day (Jessie's favorite....We don't get fresh seafood in Utah). She ordered two watermelon martinis and I ordered what they call Flirtini's which consist of vodka, pineapple juice and champagne. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. Then we limped our way back to the hotel and sat outside just listening to the surf. Despite the stress and sheer terror of the day I don't believe I felt that at peace and at ease since I was a child. Whenever I'm with Jess I just laugh. That girl who is so precious and beautiful to me can make me laugh like only my dear friend from Greece, Beth, could. I never wanted to leave. In fact the next morning I got up at 4 and just sat outside and listened to the surf and watch the sun try to pry through the mist that was much to think to penetrate. I was in heaven. So as can see we had a long and eventful and absolutely precious day that will forever be etched in my memory.

"Love is critical...and remember, when anyone gives love to another, happiness emerges from their mind, and they then are the biggest beneficiaries."

His Holiness the Dalai Lama