So much to do about nothing ...

    this time!  

   Obviously the biggest news in my little corner of the world over the past few days has been Ernesto. Although we expect these storms (they are common place here) we still have a little preparing to do when we know one is on it's way.

   Shutters up, gas tank full, ice and plenty of drinking water. Canned foods, flash light, candles, and a radio with batteries ... check, check, check, check, check!                                 

    One final grocery store run for extra toilet paper, paper plates, napkins and maybe some fun hurricane snacks. Then a plan to simply settle in and enjoy a relaxing hurricane day or two. This is sort of our way of making up for the snow days that we don't get here in South Florida.

                              

    There is never any real way to tell just how severe the storm will be when it finally gets here, this time we're just getting a lot of rain and some wind. Of course I am in no way disappointed that Ernesto did not turn into a hurricane, but this so much to do about nothing, is actually quite inconvenient.

                                                       

Today ...

     we start preparing for Ernesto. But yesterday was the most perfect, perfect, perfect day in paradise.

                    

     One day weekends ... sometimes they are enough. OK, so they never really will be enough but, sometimes that one single day can be so perfect that nothing else really matters.

     Story and more photos to come if I can find the time to post them. Have a good week ahead, and if you are in the projected path of this storm, be safe.

                                               

Happy Anniversary ...

     I was not able to make it last night to join in on all the anniversary festivities but I was thinking about all of you.

     I originally designed this hand made graphic for J-Lands First Anniversary Celebration. It won a contest for the cover of the Haiku Journal. You can see the original graphic and Ku HERE.

     This past year has been full of so many ups and downs because of the whole banner ads fiasco with AOL. It was devastating at best (at least for me) when so many of our friends and neighbors decided to leave this community but somehow we have managed to survive and even to thrive.

     Even though I am really busy these days and have less time than ever to read and write here, I am still very grateful to be part of this little community we still call J Land.  

     I also want to say how nice it was to have some of our old friends pay us a visit over the past few days like Vivian, Carly,  Steven  and Patrick to name a few. I hope they will always feel welcome here and who knows ... now that AOL will be offering their services for free, maybe we will start seeing some of our favorite writers return. 

                                                      

                                                                    

Kaizen ...

    Japanese for constant improvement. <- click

                  

     A culture that understands the impact that continuously making tiny refinements can have on the quality of business and on the quality of life.

     A concept worth exploring further.

                                             

                                        

Overcoming the fear ...

of making a wrong decision. I'm about 90 days or so into my new job. Making a real decision, a real commitment to change the entire direction of your small but stable and for the most part stress free life, is never easy.

     Today I'm contemplating the amount of pain one has to endure in order to reach the pleasure of the big payoff. I'm sure this next year will be filled with many ups and downs as I'm learning the ropes. I've just got to focus on remaining flexible enough to change my strategies when necessary.                                                                                                           

                      

     I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence and pains be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.

                              Michael Montaigne.

 

     Any thoughts about this whole pleasure and pain concept?

                                                

    

Don and Vincent ...

    Nothing new ... this song and painting just happen to be on my mind, thought I'd share.

                                                                                     Webmuseum

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...
                                                        Lyrics: Don McLean

The more things change ...

       The more things stay the same. Because some of you have asked about the purple passion guy ... It's not that it's any big secret or anything, I just make it a practice to write mostly about myself here at Rain and not about my family or friends. (Well, except for maybe Mandy, I think she secretly likes reading about herself here.)

      The purple passion guy is my friend David, he's the closest friend that I have. You know ... like a best girlfriend that you have to discuss every single detail about every single thing in your life with as well as all world issues both current and old.

     We've known each other for nearly 10 years, our friendship is so close and so deep that it's difficult to even imagine how we would get by a single day without it and ... sometimes it's easy to mistake that for love. I don't really think that it is, but sometimes I want it to be so badly that I can think of little else. This is a huge part of my current stuck at status quo issues.  

     It's way past time to make some changes. We will no doubt stay friends until the end of time (we may need each other when we're old) but I know that out there somewhere there has to be more and how am I ever going to find it if I keep letting him take up all the space where someone else should be?

     Below is a reprint from last November, it's one of the few entries I've posted about David over the years and it's also the reason I sometimes refer to him as the Purple Passion guy.

     I don't think he reads Rain very often, and hope that if he were to run across this entry that he would not be to offended. He certainly knows how much time I spend writing here and I guess it's possible he could be one of the secret lurkers that reads and never comments. He doesn't really have to read though, he knows about everything I write here, even before I write it.

    Come to think about it, David is actually the one that told me about AOL J's, 2 1/2 years ago. The first journal I ever read here was Slo Mo I started Rain thevery same day and the rest is history as they say.

    There ... I've said it and if I regret it after I post it, there is always the delete option I suppose. Actually it sort of feels good to write about what's really on my mind, I feel better already. Thanks for asking about this tonight Ash.

      

    

11/29/05

Purple Passion ...

Old friends, paths crossed, tentative thoughts of possibility.

Entwined hands, awkward kiss, passion grows, valentine.

Gratifying small talk, struggling hearts. Daring to live, love, laugh and trust again.

Opening up and then closing the door, the good bad and ugly, being fully understood.

Hope grows, as the unknown becomes familiar and then adored.

Giving and taking, wanting more, succumbing to passion yet two years later still somewhat reserved.

 Sometimes helpless and hopeless, other times in complete control. I love you is spoken, but is it really heard?

Vulnerable hearts wanting nothing more than to love and be loved, but not quite prepared to surrender.

Cosmic courtship of Venus and Mars, discontentedly accepting the silence and preparing to dance solo in the rain.

Purple Passion!

                                                        

Update on ...

        Discontentment and Status Quo!

     Nothing has changed, actually everything is just about the same. Can't shake the feeling that there is something really, really important I'm supposed to be doing, but no matter how hard I search I can't figure out what it is.

     In the mean time ... I'm getting some really great iguana shots. I stop by quite often now that I know where they are and I'm starting to run into other people there that make frequent visits as well. 

                 

        Awww ... just look at those faces. No two are exactly the same.