Dancing like nobody's watching

I am not a dancer.  Sure, I wiggled around in school like everyone else and shook my bootie, but it's never come easy to me. But I found out recently that I can dance...with the proper motivation.

Lesson learned and motivation for my midnight dancing: open ceiling vents and a thunderstorm equal soggy carpet and a wet toilet. 

After enjoying the glorious sounds of raindrops on the roof I was inspired to use the bathroom....all those water sounds I guess.  When I stepped into the bathroom area I was greeted with wet carpet.  Yuck.  The ceiling vent is directly over the toilet, so that was wet also.  It is a strange sensation to sit on the toilet and feel water dripping on your head.  Okay, Too Much Information.

Being vertically challenged, the only way to reach this vent is to step up on the higher level (that the toilet is on) while grabbing the underside of the cabinets with my right hand and stretching up with my left hand to reach the knobs to close the vent.  This isn't normally such a bad job except for when it's dark and wet.  Now picture this:  as the knob is turned and the vent begins to lower, it shutters and shakes and disperses yet more water that has pooled there.  It was a bit like the shoilet of yesteryear as I received a shower perched in this strange position.  Having accomplished that I decided not to dry anything off so that Left Brain could enjoy the thrill also.

One down, one to go.  The ceiling vent in the living room is the same height, but with no little step up it is almost out of my reach.  Usually I stand on a little folding stool but I couldn't find it in the dark and didn't want to turn on lights as the blinds are all up to allow air flow and well, I'm not wearing any pajamas.  Sorry, again TMI.

So I stretched my 5'3" as high as I could and reached for the knob.  Memories of an old Richard Simmons video swept into my mind.  The cold water drizzled down my neck and shoulders and I dropped my right arm back down.  Yuck....meaning the water, no reflection on Richard himself, although instead of sweating to the oldies I have become a sweaty oldie.

But, this must be done...so I stretched upwards again in my best John Travolta "Staying alive" dance move and tried it again. once more.  Eeeeuuuuwwww!  The water is splattering down on me and I'm trying to look up to see if it's shut.  I can barely reach it and I was losing my balance, causing a bit of a pirouette. Only a Norwegian such as myself would be spinning my whole body to turn the knob.

Now I'm wide awake due to my nocturnal showers and considered how this must look.  Naturally, this caused a case of the giggles and I gave my rendition of "singing in the rain" while adding some spins as I splashed barefoot on the wet carpet.  It's a good thing Left Brain can sleep through anything and the neighbors aren't able to observe this.

By this time She Devil has joined me since I'm standing in proximity to her food dish.   It's hard to read disgust in the face of a cat, but that's the best way I can describe her expression.  If she could talk I'm sure she would have muttered "seriously?"

So, mission having been accomplished and musical number completed,  I toweled off and returned to bed.

Long Live the Dancing Queen

Loving this new lens

I never thought I could shoot well without a tripod....but I can!

When the salesman said he felt the Tamron VC (vibration control) was more powerful than Canon's IS (image stabilization), I thought it was just sales talk.  He may have been right. 

This photo is with the Tamron 18- 270 zoomed all the way out and handheld.   I couldn't believe the detail in the wings and twig.  There has been no enhancement to this shot, just the basic adjustment of the levels and cropping.  The background blurred beautifully with the lake and lily pads.

I'm loving it!  And now that I'm getting comfortable making the adjustments in Lightroom 4 I'm excited again about getting out there to shoot every day.

It is a goal of mine to take my own photos and add quotes that I admire to create motivational photos/posters.  It would be fun to see mine being shared on Facebook by everyone.  This is why much of my cropping is done to allow some text in the background for future use.

Long Live the Queen of Her New Lens

Life in the Shade

No filters or effects used - this is how it came out of the camera!

It's quiet here in the shady confines of northern Minnesota.  The heat wave finally broke and it is once again bearable to be outdoors.
It's the quiet I love the most about our new lifestyle.  We go to bed listening to the owls and wake to the sound of the loons.

His face makes me laugh...but mine probably has the same effect on him.

Now that it's cooler I can get out more with the camera and work on becoming familiar with my new lens, the Tamrom 18-270.

I am so glad I was willing to choke back on my own words about not buying something new and getting this lens.

I really do think the vibration control is better than what I had on the Canon as the photos seem sharper to me.  Using a tripod always results in better photos, but I'm basically lazy and hate to drag it out and set it up, so handheld is my prefered method.

Our complete set up, RV, scooter, car, screen tent, Left Brain....

We've added a couple of new things to our set up.  While we love the shade, the mosquitos are fierce...of course, this IS Minnesota after all.  So our first investment was in the screen tent.  It is super easy to set up and not terribly big and heavy for hauling.  It also adds a splash of color with the red sides.  You can see the bright blue scooter in the front that we take for rides to catch a breeze when it's hot.

Since using the plastic folding tables tends to wreck them, we bought a special cookstove table that has wire on one side for the cooking part, and the other side is handy for plates and food.

It folds in half just like the other ones so it makes handling it very easy.  Now we'd like to find a folding picnic table and bench seats for inside the screen tent.

We had our cousins, Joel and  Anne, over for supper Sunday night and served our meal in the screen tent. 
It's very comfortable for four but I'd like to have the bench seats instead of the larger folding chairs.  But after a few beers and margueritas nobody seems to mind it at all.
Supper was a simple affair - beef and chicken kabobs on the grill, deli salad and angel food cake with cool whip and lots of berries for dessert.  It's all about the people and sharing stories...not the fussing with the food and fancy set ups.

Long Live the Queen of the Shade

Rodeo Fun

I've always loved rodeos.  But that's probably a given for a little girl growing up on Westerns and cowboys in her formative years.  I wanted to be a cowboy (note...not a cowgirl) but ended up marrying an Indian instead.  I guess I figured that way I could always play cowboys and Indians.  But....I digress.

During my first marriage to my Indian husband I became a member of the Koochiching Tribe and lived for a while on a reservation.  This brings up too many memories and stories to begin to recount at this time or the blog would become a book.

Anyway, while married and living on the Canadian border I had the pleasure of owning two horses, Pete and Ginger.  We didn't have central heat or running water, but we had two horses, two dogs and two cats.  Pete came to me already trained and I used him to barrel race until I was far enough along in my pregnancy that I posed a bigger threat to knocking over the barrels than he did.  Ginger was only rough broke and I had the honor of training her to use leg commands in the true Native American style. 

To refer to my lifestyle as being "Indian" is in no means a belittling term.  This is what they called themselves in the early 70's and many prefer this to the white man's term of "Native American".  This was in the same vein as being called Chippewa by the whites, but we refered to ourselves as Ojibwa.  My son's first language was in Ojibwa to make up for the fact his father was never allowed to learn his own tongue in the Indian Boarding schools.  But again...I digress.

After the marriage headed south, so did I.  I lived with my cousin and her two children for a while and let's just say Bonnie's passion for horses may have exceeded even my own.  She lived in Spooner Wisconsin where they have a large rodeo every year and I often went with her to each performance and then we'd chase men in tight jeans and cowboy hats at the bars afterwards.  Oh the fun and memories.  Now they would refer to me as "ma'am" as I'm too old to chase them.  Moreover, if I caught one I don't remember what to do with them any more.

The rodeos were larger than life for me, these men were heros in my eyes.  In hindsight I see I've always been attracted to insane men, but at the time they exlemplified the Marlboro Man and were gorgeous.  Who else would get on a bucking bull with their fractured ribs taped up so they could compete.  Dislocated shoulder from the last bull ride?  No problem...just get someone to pop it back in for you so you can compete again tomorrow.  Ever wonder sometimes why their boots don't quite match?  That would be a sprained or broken ankle that has swollen too much to fit.  Crazy men...crazy times....crazy memories.

But I never thought I'd ever see a woman bullrider.  All we were ever allowed to do were the barrel racing and trick riding.  Little did I know that barrier had been crossed and that I would get to see a woman riding a bull at the rodeo with my family and grandkids watching. 

Her name is Maggie Parker.  She's a 19 year old from Shaftsburg Michigan and became the first woman in PRCA history to earn a check in bull riding competition on June 2, 2012 at the Bennington PRCA rodeo.  She now shares history with another woman (a saddle bronc rider) as the only female contestants to place in any roughstock event.

I've attached a You Tube clip here to show the June 2nd ride that made history.  I am so proud of this young woman and grateful that my granddaughters could see this woman ride.  She didn't manage to stay on long enough that night to place at the Hamel Rodeo, but then nobody did.

I think they just sums up how well women have adapted to handling bull in their life.

Ignore the following thing - it wouldn't load properly and I can't seem to get it deleted.




Long Live the Queen of the Rodeo

What's in your wallet?

When we were at the Science Museum exhibit on Pirates with the grandkids recently, all I could think of was the commercial with the pirates asking "what's in YOUR wallet?".

This reminded me of a couple of things.  Not everyone uses a wallet.  Some people (mainly woman) prefer to carry a purse or a little wrist purse instead.  And then there are those woman who like to keep it really light and use their cleavage instead.

I am not one of these women and not because I wouldn't, but I can't.  You need to have considerably more assets than I was born with to pull this off.  Sure, I've tried it...but when things just drop straight through enough times I gave it up.

It's amazing to me what women will store in their "chest of drawers".  Just follow around some at Wal-Mart and see what I mean.

I recall the time that the Divine Miss M and I were plant shopping and we wandered into this little Mom and Pop Garden Center and were browsing around.  Neither of us gave much thought when we heard the cell phone ringing but both were astonished by where the phone was.

The lady for whom the bell tolled calmly pulled her blouse up bunching it under her chin and fished the phone out from her amble bossum.  What really flabbergasted us was that she proceeded to then have a lengthly conversation with the blouse still resting on top of her bra.  Thank goodness she was wearing a bra!  This didn't seem to bother her at all and we tried not to stare....or laugh.  It was all we could do to contain ourselves until we both convulsed into giggling the second the car doors closed.  Could this have been Ma Bell? Yikes.

I have seen women whip out pens, makeup, kleenex, pacifiers and other sundry items from their Victoria's Secret Storage Locker.  So what happened the other day shouldn't have surprised me...but it did.

My daughter and I were enjoying some bonding time and had just finished a lovely Indian cuisine and long conversation.  While we were driving back home I thanked her for the lovely lunch since she accepted the bill for both of us.  Such a sweet girl!

Her eyes got huge and she swooped into her cleavage and yanked out her credit card while shouting "I didn't!"   Oooops.  We were so engrossed in our chatting that we walked out of the restraunt without paying.  Uh oh.  Talk about feeling like a Boob...pun intended.

But due to the beauty of cell phones (regardless of where they might be stored) we were able to Google the restraunt, call them and make payment over the phone with the Visa card.  She gave him a very nice tip for his inconvenience.

So, perhaps we need a new commercial with a theme of "What's in YOUR cleavage?"

Long Live the Queen of Purses