The Day the Mini Almost Died

What happens when you don't change the oil in a mini for 2 years or 27,000 miles? You seize up the supercharger and have to replace it. The only thing that could have been worse is if the entire engine had seized up. Yesterday before we received this diagnosis, my mind went to all sorts of dark places. What if the damage was fatal? What if we had to put the mini down? Will I even get an opportunity to say good-bye? I was a wreck. Is it rational to get this upset over a car? I'd say no, but then again this isn't just any car, this is my mini. (OK, there is a possibility I may need a bit of therapy.)

An Artful Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I went with my art buddy Christie B to the Red Brick gallery in Ventura for a watercolor class in negative space flower painting. It is a very different technique than I'm used to, but it was very freeing and fun. The teacher below assured me that with another 10,000 hours...Something that looks like this...

could look like this!

Hope I live that long!

Fieldtrip

Christie B admiring a painting.

Neither rain, nor traffic nor medical emergencies could keep our painting group from the Joseph Raffael exhibit at Soka University in Aliso Viejo. What an amazing artist!

Embracing the Empty Nest

Until I figure out how to post pictures you may be stuck with musings from me. Not so long ago I had a problem with the term Empty Nest. I would not go to any activity that defined the participants as Empty Nesters. I felt it had such a negative connotation. Like going without something, lacking in some way. Allen knew of my aversion to the term and tried to come up with his own definition for this time of life. He came up with Phase Two. I shot that down quickly saying it sounded like something you would hear at a rocket launch. Being an engineer, that made him like the term even more. Not satisfied, I let the matter rest for awhile. Then the other day when considering a new blog, the image of the empty nest came to mind. But this time I considered it in a different way. The mother bird knows when it is time for her babies to fly, oftentimes before they do, and has to push them out of the nest. Then I pictured myself doing the same to all five of my little birdies and saying, "Fly birdie, fly!" to each of them. And guess what? They flew! I'm so proud of all of my soaring birdies. And so it begins with an empty nest...

Testing, Testing, 123

Mom and Dad have a blog- yay! Looking forward to your posts, mom!