In Search of the Plush Diamond

We are off for a week in search of the Plush Diamond.

http://www.mtlilygems.com/mineinfo/plshinfo.html

http://www.globere.com/yes/Plush_Diamond/index.htm

The Plush diamond is a semi-precious stone that is found near the town of Plush in eastern Oregon. They are the Oregon state stone and sometimes called Sunstones. They are beautiful clear stones that can be cut and faceted and look like a diamond when finished. They can have red, orange or pink in them. There is a free collecting site on the BLM land there and my friend says you just pick them up between the sagebrush! More photos when we return.

Thanks for listening....

Good Swimming Weather

My old friends Seiza http://www.seizaroo.blogspot.com/and Linda Grace came for a visit this week and we spent the afternoons at the creek. Cow Creek.

The Cow Creek swimming hole is about 10 miles from the house but worth every mile. We can ride our bikes to a place to swim on the Umpqua River, it is huge wide bend in the river with a long and deep swimming channel. The only drawback it that it is that the freeway is on the other side. Cow Creek is off the main road and very quiet and private. There are several swimming holes off a small dirt side road. The first spot to park accesses the little beach that we are at. The unwritten rule is that if a car is parked there, they have the beach below. Further upstream there are spots to park just below the small rapids and above that the huge swimming hole. Seiza wanted to swim in the big swimming hole even though it had several families, kids and dogs already there. But then we noticed a engine noise and saw a machine there on a raft that was sifting the sand and looking for gold. It was so completely annoying that they would be so selfish as to dredge right there where we all go to swim. There were several dredges when we really looked around and we decided to go back to the first beach where we had a very relaxing and private day.

Thanks for listening.
Deborah

Be Prepared for Old Age - It Happens!

We have just returned and mostly recovered from our trip to Sacramento. We moved William's parents into an assisted care facility. So for now they are safe if not happy. The lesson here is to be prepared for old age. William's parents are in their middle 80's, they have talked about moving from the huge house they raised their kids in but nothing ever came of it. When William's dad started having trouble walking, his mom took care of him. Taking care of him compromised her health and she ended up in the hospital in June. So she can't take care of herself, she needs help and she can't take care of him anymore. The only choice was assisted care and we moved them to the only nice one with an opening. They are now looking at another place where they have some friends, so it looks like we will be going down again and moving them....

it is just as hard watching your parents suffer the consequenses of their own actions as it is watching your kids suffer the consequences of the theirs.

Don Juan said that there are 4 enemies of man, that one has to conquer. The first is Fear, the second, Knowledge, the third Power and the 4th, Old Age. He said the problem with the forth enemy is that you can never conquer it, only stave it off. Just when you have worked all your life and have it somewhat together, moving through fear into knowledge and into power, Old Age, rears it's head.

Betty Davis said that old age is not for sissies. The only way to not grow old it to die young.

This drama with William's parents has been going on for months now and when I finally got to Sacramento it wasn't the old people who drove me crazy but William and his sister. What is it about family that is so annoying? Erma Bombeck has a book intitled - "Family, the Ties that Bind and Gag". Seiza said that it is so easy for parents to push your buttons because they installed them. What do I know, I am just an in-law. Jim, William's brother in-law calls it being an out-law. I am not sure how helpful that is.

The photo is of William's parent's Jane and Bill on one of their last days in their house. The lovely young woman in the middle is Vashti, the wife of William's nephew. Carson and Vashti came from the east coast to visit his and her family on the west coast and I was luckly enough to overlap and get to see them. Carson is a few years away from being a doctor he is at Harvard, doing his intership and Vashti it an attorny, working for a judge (her father and grandfather being judges!) A delightful young couple and I was so glad to spend an evening with them.

Tonight we are going into Roseburg to hear Los Lobos play in the park. A few of the little towns around here have a weekly free concert in their park. Roseburg has the best music. Myrtle Creek does not have as good of music but we can walk down or ride our bikes to the park, that makes everything sound better somehow.

We have had the craziest weather here in southern Oregon. Cloudy, cool, windy. Not like the Julys I remember. We go to the river everyday and swim anyway, we just don't stay very long. There is a great swimming hole about a mile from us on the Umpqua River where the railroad bridge crosses south of town. We ride our bikes down most days. I love to swim and that is one of the reasons we moved here.

Thanks for listening.

In Honor of Frida

Today is the 100th anniversary of Frida Kahlo's birth, 7-6-1907 / 2007. "Over the course of her lifetime, she only produced about 130 paintings, most of them on relatively tiny canvases and squares of sheet metal. And almost all of her paintings were self-portraits. But in spite of her small output, she's now considered one of the greatest Mexican artists and one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century. It was only after her death that her work became well known. Today, her paintings fetch prices at auctions equal to paintings by Picasso and Van Gogh!" (Todays Writers Almanac, e-mail version from Garrison Keller)http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ check it out, it's always interesting.

Bravo Frida, Feliz Cumpleanas!

The blog is back. I have been encouraged by several friends who blog that a blog is not just my "book" it is an on going conversaton with my friends - soooo - back to blogging. My other blogger friends have big cancer things they are writing about, me, I'm just trying to think, everyday. I heard somewhere once that most people are good in a crisis, it's the day to day ordinary life that wears people down....

Thanks for all the feedback on the rough draft of my book. I think one chapter is really good and one ok and the rest well..... my plan is to use the good chapter and fashion something different around it. But thanks for hanging in there it meant a lot to me and I really appreacite it.

Check out Noah, William's son, on the internet - he is "Mr. Mike" and he is doing a video blog called a vlog, for Game Net TV. I think he is a natural; witty and handsome.

http://www.gamenettv.com/index.php?action=Profile.browse_profiles

Scroll down till you see the Mr. Mike photo above, click on the small "i", that brings up his menu. Click on "videos" to see his blogs, I mean vlogs!

Carolyn, I have finally found a St. Francis Statue, I have wanted one since I saw yours in Cuyutlan. You really should do a blog - remodeling an old property outside of Mexico City....

I live to water. I am in love with my garden. We swam at the Cow Creek swimming hole for the first time this year and the summer is heating up here in southern Oregon.

Check back often, thanks for reading, I'd love to hear from you.

Here's to thinking,

Love,

Deborah