January 13, 2019 – That looks familiar since I am the artist.

         I have a Habitat for Humanity resale shop about 3 or 4 miles from my home.  I dropped in to make an appointment for them to pick up my donated office furniture.

         I must say, they are great merchandizers.  There wasn’t a single parking space left a 1:15 p.m. and I had to wait in a queue until someone left so that I could pull in.  And, the line of shoppers was amazing.  They were 6 deep at the cash register the whole time I was there.

         Directly inside the front door, they have a seasonal table and it is jam packed with everything Valentine.  From stuffed animals to heart decorated coffee cups and heart shaped bowls it is really an inexpensive place to shop.

         I browsed their used books and picked up an old paperback by Clancy – The Hunt for Red October for 50 cents.  Last month, after I watched the movie for the umpteenth time I declared what a good story it is and bet the book would be better than the movie.  We shall compare as I feel the movie is one of the top 20 movies of all time.  So, when this snow storm we are anticipating is swirling the flurries, I will curl up and put my nose in an old classic.

         Then, I noticed something interesting.  The balance of the unsold donations I made to my last year’s church rummage sale must have ended up being dropped off at this entity.  In several departments I noticed things that I am sure I donated merely by their familiar scratches or subtle dents.

         Amongst the Valentine items I noticed hand cut wooden houses that I hand burned with designs.  I never got around to painting all of them.  It looks like all the painted ones sold and the non-painted ones are left.  It made me smile that they were out on a merchandising display right at the front door. 

            Someone might find their charm and buy them.  I was surprised the personnel pricing them felt they were worthy of $1.00 each.  I guess they classified it as ‘rustic art’.

         What a charming thought – my cast off art lives on. Even though they are 25+ years old someone still thinks they are worthy of at least a dollar bill each.  How about that – could it be a subtle sign of inflation?

January 10, 2017 – The Russian Tea Room – “Coffee, please?”

          The news lately is mostly about Russian hackers, or the KGB did this, or the Russian operatives are doing that . . .

          Two nights ago I woke up gasping for breath from a vivid dream.  

I was being chased in the dark; a searching flash light highlighted me as I was climbing a chain linked fence in pointy high heels.  Somehow I managed to scale the fence and drop to a crouch landing.  Then I slipped away to flatten myself in the nearest dark doorway as multiple bullets ricocheted off the tarmac too close for my comfort.  Catching my breath I had to find a way to get to the roof of the next building for extraction . . .    

          It seemed so vividly real in the darkness of my bedroom.  It had been a while since I have had a dream that was so dramatic.  I instantly knew I was being chased by the Ruskies in my dream.  I enjoy these occasional vivid dreams – I sort of live a vicarious life through them.

          No, I had not been watching too many spy movies lately; it was just the culmination of the recent news casts.

          When I was a kid, it was the Soviet Union or USSR and we knew who the bad guys were - the Russians.   James Bond movies were chock full of them, as well as countless other thrillers over the years.

          However, we are now dealing with a current event – Russian Putin and the results of the invasion of Ukraine has been in the news lately with the Tillotson hearings. 

          I am simply an average person reading the local paper and watching national news. 

          In fact, when TV gets boring around this house in the dull winter months, I would prefer to watch a movie I can understand in the American espionage thriller category, for example “Where Eagles Dare” [1968] with Richard Burton and hunk Clint Eastwood or “The Hunt for Red October” [1990] with Sean Connery, Scott Glenn and Alex Baldwin.  They are both great movies.  I could probably name a dozen of this type if I put my mind to it.  But, I won’t bore you.

          It is soothing TV for my husband and myself – we can easily identify the bad guys [from our Red/White/Blue American perspective] in the first few moments when someone says, “comrade” or “nyet”.

          And, after watching “The Hunt for Red October” several weeks ago I have a new phrase I seem to constantly use with my husband in the mornings.  I am supposed to be going sugar free – hard road for me to shake the habit.  I can manage about three days and then I slip back into one teaspoon for a few days in my coffee.

Most mornings my husband brings me a cup of coffee in bed.  He brings it to me and then retreats to the living room for quiet time for himself. Works out great for me, I like to snuggle in on cold mornings and savor my first cup in quiet.  Yes, he does treat me like a Queen.  I love it.

He will call from the kitchen when he is pouring coffee, “Are you having sugar today or not in your coffee?”

“One ping . . . one ping only.”  I answer just like Sean Connery, as Captain Ramius requests in the movie The Hunt for Red October.

He spoons in one sugar and brings me my coffee.  We both smile at our “secret code”.