Flotsam and Jetsam #2

My friend Deb, when she's blogging about random this and that without a cohesive theme, labels those particular posts "Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #..." A handy title to have around. I find I want to label similar random sharings "Flotsam and Jetsam" because it goes with my Beach theme - just bits and pieces of ideas floating back and forth with the waves or thrown up on the sand. So I think I'll steal... er, borrow Deb's lovely idea and designate and use a repetitive title, numbered, for this type of post, from this day forward, forever and ever, speak now or forever hold your.... uhm, I think that's enough for you to get the idea.

I know I have one or more posts already titled thusly, so I'll start with #2 just to keep the confusion to a minimum. From now on, if you see "Flotsam and Jetsam #-" in the title, you'll know you'll be treated to a mix of ponderings that I've thought to share but couldn't quite figure out how to make an entire post out of - or perhaps it isn't worth an entire post.

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I've officially signed up for a six month Wardrobe Refashion pledge. I posted about it in detail on Laume's Studio today, click here for that particular post, but since it ties in with my travails and kevetching about my general decluttering and my ponderings on ecology and simple living, I thought I'd mention it here too. I'll probably continue to mention it here from time to time, but I decided to sign up under my studio blog in case I actually refashioned anything (beyond the plan to NOT BUY anything new), since then I'd want to display it on my theoretically more arty blog.

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Ironically the one year I'm feeling "eh" about celebrating the 4th of July, hubby's work schedule gave him the rare day home on the holiday. William hasn't been willing to go watch the fireworks display with me for a couple of years now, but I told him that his papa was fantasizing about a family celebration so he was a good sport and joined us. Hubby was so sure we were gonna miss the display he had us leave the house over an hour early. Small town serendipity, we ended up parking in the dark near our friends and neighbors, and William's best friend. They had family with them, visiting from Italy. At first we thought the display (one of the few community displays not cancelled this year in California) was reworked to keep the fireworks low to the ground because we saw what looked like the fireworks only they were completely boring. We were all laughing and explaining to the Italian couple that, honestly, this wasn't what it was really like, that people didn't celebrate by just standing out in a dark field and see sparks a mile away behind a building. But then the REAL display started and it was quite nice. It's just a small town display, but fun.

I entertained myself by trying out my new camera on the sky. I didn't get any great shots, but my camera did a lot of self adjusting and was fun to try to time it to get unusual affects.

This one is pretty typical fireworks looking, but I liked the round red explosion with the streaking white light.

Sometimes I'd get lucky and it would find a sharp focus.

But more often I'd get something slightly time lapse. This one reminded me of a giant chrysanthemum shaped spaceship hovering over the town.

Even more fun, and I wish I'd discovered I could do this earlier in the display, close ups gave me these cool scatterings of colored fireflies. I scored some green ones, pink ones, a couple of other colors.

My favorite though was this one lone firework that, intentionally designed to do this or not, looked like a giant yellow and blue butterfly. It made me gasp out loud. Click on the photo to see it in more detail.

I ended up enjoying myself. The smoke from the fires had cleared out yesterday and so I was feeling better with a day of clean air. The haze started to spread back into the valley by evening though, so not sure how much of that was from the big fires and what was from the fireworks. I'm so sick of the smoke I wanted nothing to do with the fireworks this year and refused to even buy William a few smoke bombs. I wanted to go eat at the local French restaurant for the 4th of July. And we ended up celebrating it with Italians. We joked that maybe I have somehow become an ex-pat that is accidentally still living in-country.

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Speaking of feelings for country, I have a one of those magnet ribbons on my car that says "Bring the Troops Home". Last week while I was shopping, someone took it off my car in a parking lot, threw it on the ground, and spit on it. It really upset me.

Is it really still debatable whether this whole scenario wasn't created from lies and misinformation and mangled beyond belief in execution?! It pisses me off to be thought of as unpatriotic because I want our troops to be safe. What this asshole spitter didn't know is that I also had a "Support Our Troops" magnet on my car right next to the other one. Some honest patriot stole it a while back. Yeah.

I have a son in the military. And other family members, and friends, and friends' children, all in active duty, some in Iraq or Afghanistan as we speak. All putting their lives on the line for our country. That's pretty damn patriotic. I think they deserve their patriotism to not be manipulated by the country they are serving.

I can't help but think that if I had caught whoever it was that felt they needed to cowardly attack my personal property, chances are that I'd be face to face with someone who hasn't bothered to research, study, understand, or question any of the "patriotic" garbage they regurtitate whenever they feel threatened by their ignorance on the subject. Some of these people.... grrrrr..... it's like some man trying to tell me what childbirth is like. Or a nonparent giving me parenting advice. I can't claim to know everything I need to know to understand the mess in the Middle East, but I do as much as I can to stay on top of things so that my opinions are as much based on fact as they are on emotion. Unless you can say you do at least as much, and can hold your own with some seriously gathered information or have some real life experience with the subject, it just sends my blood pressure rocketing to have someone spouting some Fox News bullshit to me and calling me unpatriotic.

Okay, I'm done. It just pissed me off. It still pisses me off.

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My daughter called me this morning and wanted to ask my opinion on a BIG DECISION. We discussed all the pros and cons, bits and pieces, of the ISSUE and then she said "What should I do, Mom. Tell me what to do." I can't tell you how often I've complained, only half jokingly - "I'm at that difficult inbetween stage where my parents are too young and I can't tell them what to do yet while my children are too old and I can't tell them what to do anymore either."

I finally got the opportunity and the only thing I could do in all good conscience was sigh and say "Honey, I can't tell you what to do, you have to make that decision for yourself."

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I found this coffee mug that says "Made in England" at the thrift store yesterday. (It was open on the 4th, weird, huh.) We certainly don't need any more coffee mugs, but this one was too pretty to pass up.

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Yesterday was smoke free for most of the day. I got a lot done both inside the house and out. Today the smoke is back and low to the ground. I'm not even gonna try to attempt much physically, so maybe I can avoid a full headache. I might be able to work in the studio or do some computer or paper work. Meanwhile, four loads of laundry are hanging on the clothesline, soaking in that outdoorsy "eau de campfire" scent.