Sunday, January 31, 2010

My Weekend

I'm having a long weekend here and being somewhat lazy as usual.
Still not finished with laundry yet.
Been reading the trashy magazines that someone in this building put out on the "free-chair"
Wasted time playing to many silly computer games
Spending to much time on facebook & twitter
Walked up to rec center yesterday to pick up food co-op boxes
Need to get paperwork together again to take up to clinic in the morning.

Now I need to make a batch of homemade pasta sauce, or it might end up being more like a chunky tomato soup sorta thing or I could just call it "my version of V-8 juice"
tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, garlic, celery & whatever spices I grab off my shelf.
Maybe I'll make enough to bring up to Brenda. I need to bring her some tomatoes anyways, cuz I have way to many and don't want them to spoil.

I still need to find someone to pass on the grapefruit to (Brenda & I don't like them) and want to figure out something to do with the fresh asparagus that I got yesterday. Got quite a few ideas from people on facebook. Hey the fresh stuff HAS to taste better then the canned crap that John used to buy.

Well its a nice sunny day outside again but we have a 20% chance of rain & snow starting on Tuesday. Yesterday there seemed to be quite a bit of dogs & cats running loose through my parking lot. Unusual for here...Usually the only animals I see coming through this area alone are the deer & elk.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bucket List

Once again, someone's bucketlist made the front page of Yahoo. An 100-yr old NH, woman got her bachelor's degree, 3 weeks after her birthday and the day before she died.

Brenda had also sent me an email recently and mentioned something that she was putting on her buckelist, and I seem to remember another friend writing a blog about bucketlists last year.


I think that creating a “bucket list” is a great way to expand your sense of who you are and what you’re capable of. Even if your day-to-day life is routine and completely unglamorous, doing something outrageous once a year–such as hang gliding or visiting an exotic destination–can bring back the sense of life as a daring adventure.

There are many things in life that we wish we could do. When you make the association with death, you understand that there is an undertermined deadline so to speak. This could either cause one to take on a list of things they wish they could do, or just give someone a chance to think about it. Let's look at the bigger picture. If we all understand that our days are numbered, we might choose to live more passionately. Thumbs-up to people who live well and enjoy the amazing gifts life brings. Unfortunately, I don't always and therefore, stress can weigh me down more then I would like.

Here are our suggestions for creating and managing your Bucket List: (found this online)
1. Make sure you get satisfaction and joy from your day to day stuff. Don’t suffer the 99% to get to the 1% you enjoy. Make the whole experience an enjoyable one.
2. Don’t buy into your ideas and turn them into goals right away. Mull them over. If you weigh them carefully, you’ll probably find you can improve, replace or cancel them while enhancing your overall life experience.
3. Make a plan and enjoy the process. Planning is not optional. It is a generally accepted as being a requirement by most of the experts in the field of setting and achieving goals.
4. Review list items often to make sure you still want to do it. The bucket list should be open ended. Maintain enough flexibility that you don’t become a slave to your own list. Make sure you keep working on adding new items while completing others.
5. Find ways to make each goal more meaningful. Include dimensions of quality within the items on your list. If you involve like minded people in group activities, you’ll likely get much more from the experience than if you don’t. For solitary pursuits, take steps to ensure you get the most from the experience.
6. Document and share your goals for added enjoyment. If life is worth living, it ought to be worth writing about so commit some of these planning steps to writing. Writing the stuff down is a proven technique for turning goals into reality. Sharing them with others helps to cement your commitment to the goals and to bring others into the process. Don’t involve pessimists or nay-sayers in the process.
7. Don’t get obsessed with big “retail” goals. You are not required to share your secret fetish goals, or any goals for that matter, with others if you don’t want to. One strategy is to identify public and private goals and only share the public ones. Keep quiet about the private ones. Financial goals are often ones that are wise to keep private. But do celebrate your private accomplishments as you would your public ones. Don’t worry about it if they aren’t big or flashy.
8. Ensure your goals are consistent with who you are. Or reshape them to suit your style and preferences. For example, introverts and extroverts alike can enjoy a certain travel destination like say the Eiffel Tower, yet experience it quite differently.

Now as a kid, I remember joking with my brother saying stuff like "when I get big, I'm gonna do------ & ----- (fill in the blanks). I'm sure all kids assumed they would get to do exciting stuff SOMEDAY in the future. Well for some people, someday never gets here. Kids get uncurable diseases, or die in some tragic accidents. Then some people just exist through life going through the motions of a minor trivial day-to-day existence.
We might not be Jack Nicholson in a movie and maybe my bucketlist won't be as exciting as his, but thats ok cuz we life in real life not a Hollywood movie. But it's a great movie and I advise everyone to see it.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

weather break


Tonight...Partly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows around 12 on the plateau to around 26 along the colorado river. Light winds.


Monday...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs around 42 on the plateau to around 49 along the colorado river. Light winds.

Monday Night...Partly cloudy in the evening...mostly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of rain and snow showers after midnight. No snow accumulation. Snow level 7000 feet. Lows around 24 on the plateau to around 32 along the colorado river. Light winds.


Tuesday...Mostly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of rain and snow showers. Snow level 6000 feet. Highs around 44. Light winds becoming south around 15 mph in the afternoon.

Tuesday Night...Snow and rain showers likely. Light snow accumulations. Snow level 5500 feet. Lows 23 to 29. Light winds. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.


Wednesday...Snow and rain showers likely. Highs around 37 on the plateau to around 47 along the colorado river. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Wednesday Night...Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow showers. Lows around 25 on the plateau to around 32 along the colorado river.


Thursday And Thursday Night...Partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of snow and rain showers. Highs around 42 on the plateau to around 52 along the colorado river. Lows around 24 on the plateau to around 32 along the colorado river.


Friday And Friday Night...Partly cloudy. Highs around 45 on the plateau to around 53 along the colorado river. Lows around 24 on the plateau to around 32 along the colorado river.


Saturday...Mostly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of rain and snow showers. Highs around 43 on the plateau to around 53 along the colorado river.

Saturday Night...Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow and rain showers. Lows around 25 on the plateau to around 32 along the colorado river.


Sunday...Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow showers. Highs around 42 on the plateau to around 52 along the colorado river.
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That is our forcast for this week...so far.
Brenda told me that the weatherman is the 1 profession, where you can be wrong every single day at work and still keep your job.

I'm just glad it wasn't snowing today when I went up to the store. In fact the picture above was taken on the trail from the Shrine going up to the store.

day off

The weather is giving us a break today. Today is a nice sunny day outside and I have the day off.
Got these pics from other people as I have not gone outside yet. I thought they were great pics and wanted to save them.
Jason got this picture of the mule deer.

Hopi House~actually I rarely get pictures of this building, but I liked it with the snow.


Course I had to snag this pic of Look-Out Studio...its probably in alot of pics that I have taken myself too. I always love its location on the rim.


ok, I need to get ready to go up to the store to re-stock a few groceries. I haven't been up to the store in about 2 weeks (actually the last time I went grocery shopping was with Brenda in Flagstaff) and I want to make sure I have stuff to throw into the crockpot later this week when we are supposed to get more snow.
A lady down the hall (Janice) had trouble getting her car out of the parking lot today..I see other cars are still buried in snow. Hopefully Marketplaza & the trail from the Shrine is plowed...hey, I guess walking thru snow might be considered a workout.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

More snow

Willie is outside clearing snow around Taco's place and all the other apts nearby. At least now maybe Taco's grandmother won't be out in this weather shoveling like she usually does.
These 2 pics were taken from the top of the staircase near my room. Was trying different light-settings on my camera to see which way would look better. Bottom pic is the backside of Ben's apt.

Our latest road-weather update: copied & pasted from facebook.

Grand Canyon Jobs Winter Weather Advisory for Grand Canyon Area: I-17 is closed and no estimate on it opening. SR89A from Flagstaff to Sedona is closed and no estimate on when it will reopen. SR 87 from Winslow down to Pine is closed and no estimate on when it will reopen. I-40 is still open. No major accidents have been reported.
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ok, I woke up with a headache today and figured seeing as there are 3 other lineservers on tonights schedule, Maswik really didn't need me to come in today so I called off work.
So at the moment I'm sipping tea and watching the snow fall out my window.
Brenda went home at lunchtime & she also gets tomorrow off, so she is having a "snow-day" from work too.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

snowy days

Took these pics this morning at Maswik Cafe. Supposedly we have a blizzard coming in tonight. Read online that Highway 180 was closed, which means business will be slow again tomorrow. We have been averaging about 80 rooms sold each night in the entire park this week...which is LOW
It was just very light flurries out as I walked home tonight from work...not really icy out (yet), but some people say we will get 4 feet of snow during the night. Seeing as I live close enough to work that I can walk, I don't mind the snow~actually its quite pretty and sorta fun but it sure makes for a long boring night at work.
Tonight I brought a paperback book into work and probably read almost 1/2 of it. The cashier had a book and 1 other lineserver also brought a book into work. We started joking about starting a Maswik book club.
About the only excitment at work was in the new "pizza pub" when 1 of the bartenders got fired tonight. Yup, they changed Maswik Bar into a pizza pub and now only sell beer, wine & pizza. People are upset cuz they took out the pool tables & air-hockey game too. It sure is alot quieter in there now.
Sunday should be a sunny day...first day without snowing this week and I am scheduled to have Sunday & Tuesday off for this week.
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Today was also my daughter's 21st birthday, so if Amanda is reading this
I hope you had a great day!!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Happiness 101

Happy 101 award:
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with this award,(saw this on someone elses blog) it's a way of sharing happiness. (and after this last weekend I needed a reminder of what brings me happiness)


~So here are the things that bring me happiness lately~
1. doing stuff with Brenda
2. sunsets/sunrises...
3. taking pictures
4. listening to music
5. hiking
6. talking/laughing with co-workers
7. making smoothies or homemade juice
8. reading new magazines/blogs
9. trying a new recipe...without a kitchen: yes it can be done
10 family

1. This shoulda been a no-brainer as Brenda is the person I spend the most time with outside of work.

2. After almost 3 years here, sunsets still amaze me

3. Almost everyone at this park will tell you, that I take pics of everything & anything

4. I love a variety of music...what can I say

5. hiking is a new love since living at the canyon. My nextcamping trip at Indian Gardens is all set for the end of March.

6. Cracking jokes with co-workers is a great way to pass the time during the slow winter months.

7. If you have never tried throwing fresh produce into a juicer,and watched/smelled it get spit out into a container, then you don't know what you're missing. 1 sip and you KNOW it's fresh!

8. I love searching new blogs online...some for laughs, some for informative reasons, some just to catch up with what friends are doing.

9. Hey food is a necessity right & I actually like getting inventive, and don't mind not having a kitchen. If I ever won the lottery and wanted to build a houseI think I would leave out the kitchen...or at least what most people think of as a kitchen. Wonder how much cheaper a house would cost with a "kitchen"?

10. The family members that still write are special: my brother Allan & his daughterAmber, 2 of my kids Liz & Philip (rarely Kevin will email) and the messeges I get on facebookfrom brothers:David and scott & their wives, and cousin Michael.Pinky & JR will usually only send me email-style chain letter things.

Now to complete my acceptance of this Happy 101 award, I must pass it on. I could choose 10 people as the rules clearly stated or I could make my own rules. This is my blog after all. Shouldn't I be able to do things my way?
So,If you're reading this blog right now and you've not received the Happy 101 award, consider yourself officially nominated by Sunni-Day. Then remember to pass the happiness along by sharing 10 things that make you happy.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Winter Traveling

Years ago when I had a car, I had to learn the hard way that some of my cars needed extra care when doing lots of driving around or just whenever I wanted to go long distances. Few things my ex-husband was able to drill into my head was to always have certain stuff in my car...
Jumper cables
jugs of water
oil
shovel
bags of sand
extra tire
tire changing tools & other tools
chains
blankets
extra shoes
flashlight, whistle. mirror


Now that I don't have my own car, I never give it a second thought to ask whoever I'm with if they are prepared for winter travel. Well I learned yesterday, that I should start asking others.
Last night on the way home, Brenda got a flat tire. It was just getting dark & it was damn cold outside. Enrique gave us a ride home about 8:40pm and when we checked online it was 20-22 degrees out.


As u can see, we got the flat in the middle of nowhere...as this is the view from around the car. It's about 15 1/2 miles from the Park gate. I took the picture when Doris drove us down to get all our groceries that we left in the car.






This is the flat...guess it's also the same tire Brenda drove out here with, 2 1/2 years ago from NY too. So it was also pretty worn and should of been changed awhile ago.






Seeing as most people here like going to Flagstaff often, to get away from the park for fun it is really important to take care of necessary upkeep of the car because Flagstaff is about 90 miles away and its a whole lot of nothingness in between...so its not place or a good time of year to break down.
People in the park wonder why NPS doesn't take care of the roads better in the park...well NPS doesn't want to spend $$$$ if they can get away with it. A couple weeks ago we had a bad 3 car accident on ET hill, because NPS wouldn't put cedar rocks out until AFTER the accident, then they completely covered every inch of the hill. Why didn't they put cedar rocks down before our storm or make sure the hill was safe for travel after the storm....same reason people don't want to use $$$$ for their own travel safety outside of the park.
And if people can only have fun by going to Flagstaff.....money needs to go to the car first!!!!!!!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Hello 2010

Well I finally got up about 10am...after looking at my watch a couple times then throwing blankets back over my head. Got an email from Forrest just to let me know that Phil took the 5am bus to Logan airport today. Still no messege from Rick and I don't expect to get anymore either..Oh Well.

It's a bright sunny day outside and I hear someone trying to clean the snow out of the parking lot. Gee does that mean someone is getting ready for the next snowstorm? Well I hope the next storm waits until Sunday evening at least. Yavapai Cafe closes again on Sunday, so I should be home around 2pm and then I have Monday-Wednesday off.

Hmmm, what to do with 3 days off:
Go outside & take pictures
make a snowman
organize all my picture files on my computer
vaccum
watch DVD movies
Color my hair

Last year for New Year's Day~Jack & I went to Brenda's to play cards, and the year before I played cards with Brenda & Susan. I have to work today but maybe I should go play cards with Brenda on Sunday when I get out of work.