I didn’t have a single *&^% left… until I did!

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Mary Beth Frezon

This is totally off the wall advice but I give it based on my own experience. You know how we laugh with a friend or groups that we’re “just outta fucks to give”?

A couple years ago I gifted a friend with a ziplock baggie of the word fuck written on some colored cardstock I had and cut into tiny slips, one word to a slip.

I sat over several nights writing sheets full of the same word with a little sharpie pen. Nothing fancy.

My friend laughed when she got the new supply of fucks to give but here’s the thing: I felt great while I was writing and after. I wasn’t shouting FFF with each scribble, but at some level it was a great purge of my psyche.

So whether it’s you or your friends who need a new supply, give it a try. Let me know if it works for you like it did for me.

Posted in badass-ness, Do the Work, family and friends, fountain pens, note to self, RESIST, Ripped from the headlines, words | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

November 5, 2024

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Mary Beth Frezon

I just went out to check for mail and to empty my coffee grounds into the garden. Beautiful sunny day, almost seventy degrees. Heading out in a bit to pick up Mom and spend the rest of the day together.

No mail, grounds given to the worms, I turned to go back in and looked up to see a bald eagle flying overhead. That’s a sight that never gets old!

I thought – and that, folks, is why you need to keep looking UP, keep pointing your thoughts UP but keep looking up: you see wonderful things you might not expect. If your head’s up, you can see where you’re going further into the distance.

If your head and thoughts are downward, you only see dirt, and where your feet are and you think everything and everyone is worthless and below you. Who knows what will happen if you move your feet? You can’t see too far ahead so everything seems risky and perilous.

So, perhaps a pollyanna moment but I’m keeping it no matter what. The pizza dough is rising, the toppings are ready and there’s plenty of wine and other beverages and noshies in the house.

If you haven’t voted yet, Do it now. Vote for yourself and all your loved ones, to keep them safe and to give them a good future where they can look up everyday. Go where eagles go.

Posted in badass-ness, birds and chickens, Do the Work, family and friends, good causes, gratitude, In the neighborhood, note to self, taking time to look | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Stay Tuned

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Mary Beth Frezon

The Cat Cam is undergoing some renovation because the long-time software, EvoCam, isn’t being updated anymore. So, while it works most oƒ the time, it has become increasingly prone to crashes etc. I can’t complain after all these years, but it really was a wonderful piece of software. It did exactly what folks wanted and in a clear and simple way.

Anyway, I’m trying a new software, with the somewhat scary name of SecuritySpy. It’s designed to let you view multiple cameras around the house etc but I’m just interested in viewing birds and cats. It’s not free but I don’t mind paying for software that does what it advertises to do. The only thing I don’t see is how to not end up with five thousand cat pics when ten will suffice if updated as they happen.

This is just to say
I’m trialing new software
to show you the cats.

Posted in Administrivia, cats helpful cats, Do the Work, geeky stuff, kittens, life on the web, photography | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

We Remember – September 11, 2024

Posted on September 11, 2024 by Mary Beth Frezon

Today was a beautiful September day. Brilliant sunlight in a cool, blue-sky morning. Just like the morning of September 11 2001, when the world changed.

Now it’s been 23 years and we still gather to remember, still remember in the little moments of the day. How today was like that day that was so different from other days. A day we remember in fine detail: where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, what we had planned, what happened to those plans.

I just packed up the big thick book that has lived behind my computer since being published. It’s the book compiling all the remembrances of everyone killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11. Most have small photos and some remembrances from family or a co-worker.

As I picked it up to pack it, I opened it and flipped through and read the names and remembrances of the two people I’d known through dancing. I didn’t know them well, but I knew them. And they knew each other. One was on a plane and the other on top of a tower. I remembered them and the discussion amongst the dancing community about how to respond to this violent act.

Now it’s 23 years later and we don’t have that before life of never imagining such a thing could happen. We can only work towards a world that won’t do it again. We can only remember their names.

As I do every year, I pause to remember the day, the two I knew, the thousands I didn’t, and all of us left behind in a different world.

REMEMBER

911, quilt by Mary Beth Frezon, 2001. Photo by Pearl Yee Wong of the Michigan State University Museum
Posted in Poetry and Lyrics, quilting, Sept. 11 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How’s the weather?

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Mary Beth Frezon

I achieved a lifetime goal – I set up my own weather station! I had recently taken the NWS Weather Spotter course and hoped to do this even more. But now I have a great place to put it and I look forward to watching the clouds roll by AND know what the rest of the weather is doing too.

powered by Ambient Weather

Posted in Administrivia, badass-ness, geeky stuff, In the neighborhood, overhead, taking time to look, weather | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment