The Power

I recently saw a news item on TV that showed a woman, sobbing in her car, yelling at the passenger, "They lost because you let me paint my nails blue!  If I had painted them yellow, they would have won!"  She meant it.  She, and her blue nails, were solely responsible for her favorite team being pummeled and dragged through the mud in a 42 to 3 rout.  If only I had her power!

We've all been afraid to jinx something...as if talking about something could keep it from happening.  This winter, we in the Northeast, have had a considerable lack of snow.  After last winter when the snow fell, not in flakes, but in buckets, we can only scratch our heads and wonder why.

I had a "snow outfit" which brought snow within two days every time I wore it.  A former Superintendent, recognizing what was causing all the snow days, requested that I give him a break and buy something new.  A teacher I knew, so tired of not being able to teach a full week's lesson plan, knew that he had to blow up his "snow tie" and did so very publicly in a video posted on Facebook.  The tie's mere existence was cause enough for all the snow and had to be destroyed.  So, now we have no snow.  What POWER!

But what about the snow blower my friend bought her husband?  Or the snowshoes given to my nephew, the lift tickets or the planned trip to that big resort in the west?  They have no snow out there either, which only proves that buying tickets to Lake Tahoe early in the season when they are cheap will cause the weather patterns to change, and the entire western part of the nation will be plunged into a "snow drought" as punishment.  Two of my three children went west to ski this winter, only to find that, not only was there no snow, it was too warm to wear their new jackets, hats and gloves. It just goes to show you how these things work!  It's the POWER!

Whatever it is, I would like all the jinxes and curses and anti-snow messages sent to the gods to be taken back.  We need snow.  I want snow.  Do you think if I burn the lift tickets and return the snowshoes, I'll have the power to bring on the snow?  Surely the reverse of the jinx will have the desired effect on the weather.  I'm sure it will work because that is the way that the POWER works.  Now if I can just get all those other people to stop working against me....

Stromboli

 Off the coast of Sicily sits a small island which, to all intents and purposes, a volcano rising from the see.  The first thing you notice as you approach, is that the volcano is active, emitting steam from it's crater.  As it rises majestically from the see, your first thought is to look around for a giant sleeping reptile that will soon rise to bring terror and mayhem to the area.

 One of the most intriguing things I found is that there are villages on the island.  Who would want to live there?  What kind of insurance can they get?  Apparently, the volcano in continuously doing something..spewing steam, sending up fireballs, having lava pour down it's sides.

Lava flowing to the sea

As we left the island in our wake, I couldn't help but look around for the beast who was surely lurking somewhere nearby and giving credit to the brave souls who make their home in the shadow of an active volcano.  Ya gotta believe!

From the Bus in Cairo

You can find a slice of life anywhere as you travel on tours, but you can't always capture it the way you want to.  Magazines show us pictures of life "on the street" but most of us don't have the guts to point our camera in the face of an old toothless Egyptian guy sitting in the doorway and take his picture.  He may be the greatest subject ever, but the fact that he just might pull out an AK47 in answer to your lens is always foremost in the mind of the amateur photographer.  On my recent trip through Europe, we travelled extensively by bus, and I discovered that it is possible to take some pictures from the safety of your seat on the bus.  They don't always come out and you will get many blurry shots, but putting your camera in the "action" mode sometimes helps.

Praying on the Nile

Sailing on the Nile in a luxury dinner boat, decked out to simulate Cleopatra's barge, we were wined and dined and treated to the charms of a belly dancer. 

But life must go on, and so must prayer.                                                                                                                                     As the guests ate and were entertained, some of the crew members were bound to pray.

I had never seen Muslim prayer before, and found it very moving.

There were several prayers, in several different positions.

Both men chanted the same prayers at the same time and moved through their worship together.

I don't think the yawn was part of the prayer, but it was just as heartfelt.  When they were finished, they rolled up the mat and continued on with their duties for the ship.  It was all very spiritual and filled us with a sense of peace.

BIMBO ALERT: TRANSPARENCY

You are a Bimbo if you like the word "Transparency".  Today, that is the new buzzword and  everyone who is in the public eye is claiming that they are transparent.  What the heck is that supposed to mean?

transparent |tranˈspe(ə)rənt; -ˈspar-|adjective(of a material or article) allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be distinctly seen : transparent blue water.• easy to perceive or detect : the residents will see through any transparent attempt to buy their votes | the meaning of the poem is by no means transparent.• having thoughts, feelings, or motives that are easily perceived : you'd be no good at poker—you're too transparent.

Now we all know that everyone has something to hide.  No one wants light to pass through them so that all their secrets can be easily seen.  Certainly Eliot Spitzer and Weiner (did he have a first name?) didn't want their inner motives or outer actions to be easily perceived or detected.  Yet they claimed to be transparent.

People traveling through airports are protesting the new scanners make them transparent enough to allow inspectors to detect a bomb they may be carrying on their person.  Both the innocent and the terrorist don't want to be transparent.

When I was younger I wanted to be invisible.  Is that the same thing?  Light passes through you so that objects behind you can be easily seen, so it must be.

Think about it.  Transparency is supposed to stand for honesty, and yet, no one can afford to be completely honest all the time.  We would lose girlfriends and jobs if we didn't cover our butts with some kind of lie.  We know those jeans make us look fat, but that little lie makes us feel good and so we accept it.  The problem comes in when the little lie changes to a big lie that is not designed to make us feel good, but to cover up something illegal or hurtful.

So, Transparency...there has to be a better word to represent the idea we are trying to convey.  No one believes "transparent government" any more than they did "honest government".  They are both oxymorons.

I figure we have another year or two until all the bimbos figure out that this word doesn't work and change it to a new word that also doesn't work.

Mariposa Grove

There are not words to adequately describe the Mariposa Grove.  Sequoias, Giant Redwoods:  we've all heard about them.  But, until you are standing at the base of one, looking up at it's splendor, you have no idea of the actual size of these wonderful trees.  I can't imagine the feelings of awe when the first settlers came upon the not one, but dozens of these magnificent beings.  And, to know that they are thousands of years old and withstood droughts, fires, floods, blizzards and anything else Mother Nature could throw at them, makes them all the more incredible.

By the side of the road in California

What is with the terrain in California?  For miles and miles you see hills, covered with tall, sand colored grass, softly waving with the breeze and looking as if it has not seen water in months. Then, you come upon a hill with a tree, all lush and green.  Then a hill with two trees, then a line of trees.  It's easy to see where the water runs down the hill in gullies because the vegetation is full on either side while the rest of the hill looks like sand.  

The Midwest is where the tornadoes are, isn't it?  On the way back to San Francisco from the mountains, we passed through beautiful farmland, a resort lake and several small towns. The forecast was for rain and thunderstorms, and this one looked like it had a little extra thrown into the mix.  The wind kicked in even though we were miles from the town, and I was looking around for cover!

At Yosemite Park, the rangers had opened Glacier Point Road about an hour before we arrived because they had just finished clearing the snow.  As we wound our way up the mountain the long line of cars in front of us served to keep slow us down so we could see the magnificent vistas from the warmth of the car.  When the line stopped moving we wondered if someone had skidded on the ice and taken a plunge down the mountain over cliff. Inching upward, we finally saw what was slowing everyone down.  A mamma and her baby.  

And who is prouder of their babies than we humans?  I just had to take this picture...with all the beautiful scenery and views, the celebrity is their child!