60 minutes of bliss…

Or the return to “normal” time.

Ah the preciousness of those 60 minutes once a year: I awoke promptly at 8:00 this morning then recalled – hey it’s only 7:00 actually!

An hour later I finally put my book down, snoozed a bit more then started my finally-a-calm-Sunday routine, ie. A bread pretzel (Bretzel to those in the know), peanut butter and orange marmalade (that is often a berry jelly) and pressed coffee (and no that doesn’t mean that I pressed coffee beans then poured water over them – a “French Press”).

After which if I looked at one clock it was almost 10, but if I chose to look at another only 9.

I love living like a schizophrenic for one day. As in order to get the full benefit of that extra hour I resist changes the few clocks that aren’t radio controlled until just before going to bed on Sunday night. A free hour on Monday is always worth more than on Sunday!

Jon Tyson on Unsplash

And due to recent discussions in Brussels I live in the hope that come Spring I will no longer have to “spring forward”. I’ll keep my hour thank you.

I want to pick and choose.

I love the fall, but when I awoke at my usual time to dark random thoughts flowed through my head.

Fall is my favorite season: the cooler temperatures, the colors, the clear sunny days (mostly that is and of course today isn’t one of them), the possibility of fires in the fireplace, the chestnuts: in short most everything. I even love the return to “normal” time.

So I’ll pick the fall as my favorite season, but choose longer days.

And even dead, beautiful leaves

I enjoy fruitcakes: I’ll pick the treat and keep nuts and raisins, but choose one without candied fruits.

Food is still a favorite item: I’ll pick the cheese cake, the lemon meringue pie, the champagne, but I’ll choose for them to be healthy and calorie free.

I enjoy having a pet and would love a dog, however my life as it is doesn’t allow for the necessary consistency: I’ll pick the animals, but choose cats.

Babette and Clea - sisters!

 Weather: I returned to Europe as I disliked seeing the sun every day – that still holds true, I love the seasons so I’ll pick them but choose to have my rain overnight, my fog briefly and my sun (in the summer) not to hot.

And a heart in every pool of water

I know that the world contains both good, bad and indifferent: I’ll pick to be here, but choose to only have the good (o.k. a spot of indifferent is acceptable).

Disease, illness, pain, and sorrow – they all hit us at some point in our lives: I’ll pick to be here, but choose for none of these to affect any of my family and friends.

It’s a New Day

The old adage “everything will seem better in the morning” is always true, unless one doesn’t sleep that night.

“A new day, a new dawn” from the Bible, and there are thousands of similar quotes from various well-known or little known or anonymous writers all on the same theme. In fact in trying to track down the original author of the first phrase the closest I came was C.S.Lewis.

Some authors say that it’s the greatest lie ever told, but for me it always works. A good sleep and even if all problems are not resolved they are either mitigated or easier to bear.

The last few weeks have been rather stressful but yesterday saw a young friend getting a diagnosis of Keratocystic Odontogenic Tumor – not cancer! It also saw my younger son off on another adventure, one that will hopefully suit him much better than his hometown.

I have managed to clear up a few tasks – always rewarding and reconnect with friends left to the side as I dealt with more urgent events.

Today is truly a new day as will be tomorrow, the next and the next. Grateful for the blessing of sleep and a cat on my typing arm!

And yes they are blurred pictures: I defy anyone to take a clear picture with a lousy cell phone one-handed...

7 or…

Numbers and me.

I have already written a blog – probably several even – about how I find coincidences in numbers, such as seeing the digital clock quite often when there is a double number, ie. 17:17, 21:21 and of course the best 22:22.

And if 3 is my personal favorite 7s have figured over abundantly in my life these past few weeks, months and days.

As this is also my 700^th blog it is only fitting that there have been so many sevens recently!

What fun to look at the car odometer and see the following just recently and, of course, to top it off – it isn’t so long ago that I celebrated that lovely 70^th birthday.

we won't mention the 666.6

Yikes, maybe I should pick another favorite number.

But then it’s fun collecting 7’s!