UK Soon!

I am listening to my Zencasts on my iPod and posting antique furniture to sell so I can move forward to UK.

I consider generosity to be a wonderful door to open, and of course it brings more happiness back than given. Generosity in more matters than material things. I am looking forward to being generous with friends and my future flat in UK. It is hard to be generous with people here, most of my friends have moved to cities where they can make a better wage and find more culture. I phoned a neighbor yesterday and realized she was putting decorations on her tree and not listening but talking about herself,which was fine, but it should work both ways.

It is a fair snow outside,with weather forecasts of temperatures of 17 degrees below zero fahrenheit, and similar temperatures this week.

I need to walk to get some butter and cat litter today, determined to not use my car, I found a cart in the basement to load groceries on. Didn’t even realize I still had that, my work is cut out for me as to emptying out  my home of 35 years.

angel helper Louis

it has been a slow day in south dakota. a slow day is good. my home page is The Guardian. I am trying to figure out what is going on with X Factor via that link.

My friend Steve is coming in a week to help me get the house ready for rooms, and I am trying to post big objects on craigslist. It is 2:30p here, about the time it gets dark in Brighton. It is snowing a bit here, and the coffee, radio, thoughts and flow are pure Saturday mellow. I had a great Saturday 2 weeks ago! I have to put up some Christmas lights soon. I had a good sleep with Raphael snoring on my chest, not too exciting but heavenly.

in the well small hours of the morning snow and cold

Brookie invited me for supper, she cooked for at least an hour-pasta & chicken, garlic butter biscuits, green bean and onion ring casserole, it was delicious. Her husband was gone, so I slept overnite on the couch, and played with Louis until bedtime and in the morning, making faces, staying on the floor the entire time to be at his level, playing peek a boo,

reading him books and singing,”row row row your boat gently down the stream,and if you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream eeeeeeeeeeeeee!” so I sang this song during most of the meal, Louis stared at me and ate, and Brooke kept on talking pleasantly. I had a great time.

I visited my family of friends at Shankar jewelry in Deadwood (google their website) and sat around and had some Sprite, and watched Debbie do the Christmas windows and talked to Phil about my trip and plans.

The canyon was slippery and snowy with wreckers towing away cars and cars in the ditches after I got off the interstate and took the shortcut, but it was beautiful as always.

My kitties Hendrix, Raphael and Sydney guarded the house all night then went and sat out in the sun with me this morning. Hendrix is still giving me a cuddle as I write. I pray he can come with me to UK.

I had some moving to UK errands to run today and spotted a few flakes and now 3 hours later, snow is covering the ground and the snowflakes blowing with winds. This is exciting, December snow.

The October snows of days and days made me miss bicycle riding to get my knees and legs in shape for walking up and down Brighton hills and trying not to fly thru the front windows of your buses with that coming to a stop stuff..whoa.

I also had to stay overnite at my job 50 miles away and went off the road twice at night. Good thing I didn’t buy snow tires, that would have put me more in debt with that job.

but enough about that. I remembered I had some $$ left on my Starbucks card so I pulled in to read my Nursing  Registration in England mail and my new bank information now that I jumped off Pirate ship called Wells Fargo Bank yesterday.

This coffeehouse adventure was a stark change from Mr. Hard of Hearing’s loud elk hunting story and elk sounds from McDonalds yesterday. Starbucks had Amy Winehouse music playing (how hip am I knowing by osmosis that that was her voice?) and fun people watching.  It was thoroughly enjoyable.

No time to waste, tonite is finale of Mary Queen of Shops on BBC tv and she is back in Brighton at Juju’s! saw it in the previews briefly..

tomorrow is more adventures in starting my new life, happy snow everybody! I will put up a previous picture from the end of my street re: snow in my neighborhood and one of the few joys of living in the Sacred Black Hills.

Beauty @ the end of my street- I never get tired of living here on Harter Drive.

it was good to hear some Christmas music this morning coming from the radio in the basement that I leave on 24hrs/day. You all remember my creative fun in the basement yesterday smelling laundry soap and playing solitaire until the spin was done!

I  was totally over the moon having found some time this morning to check on EastEnders adventures and bookmark the page, then the video said it wasn’t available in my area, just when Ian was in the frame starting to say something annoying like he usually does-

Blimey, I’m knackered!!! Time to take a few walks to the bank to get myself online so I can sell Ebay and come live out there, empty my treasures of living here 33 years in my home, and raise some money. Then my Brighton adventures continue. Merry Christmas Holidays mates/

so I totally forgot to mention why my local coffee shop attempt-

this man was talking really really loud and it was about Elk hunting. I tried not to listen to him, having regretted not bringing my iPod,

until he started making hooting grunting elk noises, and went on to talk bout how he had to drag it for 4 hours and how many cars went by and didn’t stop…whatever. These hunting stories get old and really annoying.

I need some feedback, should I keep getting out and pretending it is coffee in Brighton, or should I save my money and sit at my kitchen table and have some peace of mind. Plan B is very very tempting after my virgin coffeeshop trial run today. thanks for your feedback.

I am having a wonderful time enjoying temporary unemployment. I know it is a rare gem in my life. But hey, I got the nursing registration pack from NHS in the mail yesterday so here I come!

So I bought cloves in the spice department, and shook the powder on my radiators and couch and carpets, it smells way better than any candles or cleaning products. I bought some black beans and soaked them with some fresh garlic, that’s a great smell.

I have been hanging laundry outside, winter winds are drying them, and the basement smells wonderfully of laundry soap. I remember my Granny Amy used to sit in her basement when she did laundry and sew..I wait til the washer is done spinning at a table with a deck of playing cards, and think while I play solitaire and wait til the washer is done.

These smells are wonderful and like I said when I read Hal Borland on my radio show (he was the Nature editorial writer for the New York Times in the 50’s and he has many books out)-I used to say, “that’s from Hal Borland’s book Sundial of the Seasons, when people actually took the time to enjoy what was around them.

I am thankful I can take the time these days to see all the beauty.When I hung out the laundry the cats were like monkeys jumping around out there, what a world, they really need something to do they are so inquisitive, I am trying to be their playmate and roll balls around  but mostly they like the neighbor who fed ;them while I was gone.

time for that coffee smell and I bought some eggnog cream to put in it. one of my favorite email addresses I had was coffeeahhh@—-

s

my plan today was to continue my coffeeshop and walk for groceries life. Unfortunately the closest and most convenient place is McDonalds and I should have seen it coming……

(Jake and Janelle, you are so cool, don’t think reality slams at South Dakota have anything to do with you, I love you all)

It was so crowded with God bless their hearts retirees I couldn’t even find the paper, me circling the tables probably looked like I was flirting but I still missed the paper. I had a great view and enjoyed my Brighton Art Galleries Christmas open houses booklet that I picked up in the Lanes-

paintings of Brighton and maps to show where the galleries were, photographs of the pier in snow- I was in my own world and it was great.