2015 - Day 318/47 - Saturday...

It was not my fault. Brian was already not feeling well (and having a bad hair day) before Erica and I snook (snuck?) behind the curtains to visit with the NAR staff at the convention. Everyone back there was really fun and having a great time, except (possibly) for Brian, who was experiencing some physical distress, but he was a really good sport about everything!

First thing this morning was a Professional Development Committee Meeting, then a forum here and there, and then this afternoon was the general Session. During the display of nations with REALTOR® colleagues attending the conference, the delegate from France received a very nice standing ovation and accepted the recognition with grace and humility. There were lots of other recognitions of our colleagues who go out of their way on a daily basis for community outreach, advocacy and volunteer servitude, as well as recognition of our state REALTORS® of the Year (Bill Jones from the Temple-Belton area is our Texas REALTOR® of the Year). Afterwards, Emmitt Smith former Dallas Cowboy (and a REALTOR®) was our keynote speaker, and that was very entertaining.

Tonight is my second visit to the USS Midway, and that will be fun. I need to be downstairs in eight minutes to board a bus and head out.

Tomorrow will be another busy day.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, LEARNING, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 317/48 - Friday...

If you pray, please pray for Paris. If you pray, please pray for all of us. Whatever it is you do to communicate to the deity of your choice, please do it. if you are more of an affirmation sort, please affirm for Paris and all of us.

Aside from all the craziness in the world that touches our lives, I was a safe and lucky person today, attending another round of meetings and forums at the annual NAR conference. As I write this, I am watching the television news, so it is somewhat difficult for me to focus on fun and normalcy, but I am going forward because we all need to keep going and go about our lives in spite of the crazies. In that regard, after my most recent round of forum attendance, I did manage to walk through MOST of the trade show, and did not stand in line to get my photo taken with the Property Brothers, but I did manage to take a photo of them as a bystander. We are pretty much addicted to HGTV, so it was fun to see them just a few feet away. There was no lack of attention being paid to them, either.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, HGTV, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 316/49 - Thursday...

Is it still Thursday? It seems like it should be Friday or Saturday already. I took off from Austin this morning and headed for San Diego, arrived at about Noon San Diego time, and did not get into my room until after 4 pm San Diego time. I did have lunch, but hanging in the lobby was not that exciting. I missed a couple meetings that I wanted to attend, but tomorrow is another day. There is a dinner (Installation of our new NAR Chairman) this evening, and my day starts really early in the morning, although it is not really that early Austin time. I did kind of luck out in the room/view department after all was said and done. Not too shabby. I always enjoy visiting San Diego, and I even got in a few minutes of sock shopping after lunch with my friend Candy.

The next several days are going to be busy, and I am looking forward to seeing lots of friends and colleagues from across the country.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NAR ANNUAL, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 315/50 - Veteran's Day...

Happy Veteran's Day and thank all of you for fighting for my right to write this crap on a daily basis.

We did not receive any of the forecast rain today. We did, however, achieve an unwanted record high temperature of 87 degrees, and humidity levels of about 500%. There are supposed to be two (not one boys and girls, count them, two) cold fronts overnight, reducing the daily high temperatures by about 20 degrees. Bring it on. There were some lovely clouds on the way home, and the sun was trying its best to break through.

Hump day, and I survived it. That was no great feat, honestly, and it is becoming a bit easier to breathe, and that seems like an accomplishment in itself. According to my friend Casey (who says he has broken, cracked or fractured every single rib in his body, it will get better, but there is not much you can do about it. He suggested an ace bandage to constrict the rib somewhat, but also cautioned that I would need to unwrap it every hour or face pneumonia or some other malady, so I think I will just keep winging it.

Out of town tomorrow morning through Monday, I will check in with you from a remote location for the next several days. Stay tuned!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, STUPIDITY, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 314/51 - Tuesday...

It has been cloudy and overcast all day. When I got home from work, and between various stories on the various news reports, I took the girl dog out for a walk. While I was taking storm cloud photos for this entry, I noticed a great blue heron flying past. There were actually two of them flying past at the same time, but only got this photo with one of them even barely recognizable. If you look closely, you can see the wings spread, kind of like birds we drew when we were little kids.

Here is an update on the cracked rib. It is getting progressively painful, and I even had a little bit of trouble finding a comfortable position to sleep last night. I had been surprised that there was no evident bruise, but the bruise appeared today, and it is a doozy! I think that is crazy; very little pain when it first happened, but the pain is building (to a crescendo?), no bruising right away but 48 hours later there is an impressive bruise a-brewing. Interesting stuff!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, STORMS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 313/52 - Monday...

Same meter, different frog. Or is it a toad? How can you tell the difference. I used to know the difference between a turtle and a tortoise, but I really only knew it for the test. Short term memory. Info for testing is stored in short term memory, experiences are stored in long term memory. Now I forgot what I was talking about. Oh yeah, frogs. Frogs are really not that interesting. I still don't know how these (yes there are more than one in that meter cavity) frogs get in and out of there. There are (I am sure) plenty of bugs in there for them to eat, but I would think they need a conduit for coming and going. I did get four toads (or maybe they are just big frogs) out of the pool skimmer basket and the Polaris bag yesterday. Sadly, only three of them made it, and they hopped merrily off into another body of water (of which we have plenty these days), and the less fortunate of the four was (most likely) consumed by the winning chicken that happened upon it first. If your scrambled eggs taster like frog (but don't frogs taste like chicken?), now you know why that is. Chickens will eat anything.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, FROGS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2015 - Day 312/53 - Sunday...

This cow (her name is Violet, her mother's name is Orchid) was our first born, and she was the one bawling for her calf as I reported on Wednesday. When the berm gave way (collapsed) the calf was washed under the fence into the neighbors pasture and could not get back, so that set the two of them to bawling all evening, into the night, the next morning and into the afternoon, when the calf finally figured out which way he came from and walked back under the fence. Our neighbor Jim had been on his property most of the morning trying to coax him back across, but that didn't work and he finally figured it out for himself. Violet is a small calf, but has always been a good mama. That is the second calf born of Mr. Speckles stock since he drowned. There is a possibility there could be one more in the oven, so we will give it a while an see if any other calves appear.

I am really happy with the accomplishments that were made this weekend. I finished the second of two distance learning classes (I consider myself to be a pretty good instructor but not a very good student), removed grape vines from the gazebo so the painters can get to it later this week, cracked (fractured? is it all the same?) a rib doing that, went into Georgetown to get some lumber and supplies, and the painters were able to get some work done on the house since it did not rain for a change. All-in-all a good day!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NAME THE CALF, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!