Life – Page 63 – Sheila365

Yet another little luxury.

Monte and I are thankful for many things – very fortunate and blessed.

Annddd, with that being said… we indulged this Christmas in a 12V television & DVD player for the boat. Actually, each of us bought the other a TV and wallmount for the boat, heh heh 😀 That was worth a chuckle on Christmas morning. We picked the best of the two and returned the other. And today we went to the boat again so that Monte could finish up the wiring, and we brought a DVD to try when we fired everything up.

It works GREAT! I’m looking forward to trying it out while at anchor in our favorite cove.

A walk in the woods.

The cold and rain finally let up here in Austin, after a week. So, I set out to explore the new North Walnut Creek trail that was supposed to be recently finished. I was looking forward to a 6+ mile walk on the new trail. The nice, new trailhead at Balcones Park:

The lovely paved sidewalk ended about 100 yards later and the rest of my walk was through muddy, rocky trails. Walnut Creek was flowing pretty good due to recent rain, so I wasn’t always able to cross where the trail crossed. My shoes and feet were wet before too long. I got pretty messy, but it was great!

I was taken aback by the amount of trash near the trail. We’ll have to rally the troops to clean it up. This was one sight – the tire has been there a while…the tree has grown up through it.

And, I guess if you must deface things with spray paint, the least you can do is make it pretty and add a thought provoking statement…

AND While I was out and about, I found 7 geocaches. 🙂

A fun Sunday!

Playing hooky.

It’s COLD in Austin today! And since we are both off work, we decided to make it an adventure. We took the Austin MetroRail train downtown to check out the Austin Boat Show at the convention center.

Commuter rail is really only in its infancy in Austin. It doesn’t go to too many places, but it’s a start. People can and do debate the pros and cons of what Cap Metro has implemented. We have never tried it though, til today. Here are some things I observed:

– no park & ride parking lot at Kramer station. we had to drive around to find a free spot on a street nearby.
– a day pass is $5.50 per person (actually valid for 24 hours), easy to purchase at the kiosk. though one of the 2 machines was out of order at that station.
– trains don’t run into the evening (i.e. past 6:30 pm) on weeknights. but, since today was Friday, trains do run til about midnight.
– the train was nice, on time, and warm.
– the cars have wireless for passengers to use.
– there are bike racks inside the train car.
– there were not many riders – each train appeared to only have 2 cars.
– the ride from Kramer station to downtown station, which is right outside the convention center, took about 25 minutes, with only a handful of stops.
– overall, it was a nice commute. I’d ride it again.

After we got downtown, we were only 2 blocks away from one of my favorite restaurants, Chez Nous. And they had just opened for lunch! So, we had to go in. Delicious, as usual.

The boatshow was nice. Lots of power boats, travel trailers, and our favorite vendor: Texas Sailing. Go check them out! The show runs through this Sunday.

From Zihua with love.

After her graduation last month, Julie spent a week in Zihuatanejo, Mexico with a friend – a well-earned treat after 2 1/2 years of hard work. She brought us back this painted, wooden bowl as a gift. She painted it herself! And, I think it’s beautiful.

She packed up her things and drove back to Washington State this week and is now back in God’s country. She starts her dream job next week and has a limitless future ahead of her. Well done, Julie! We miss you already.

Ever heard of Zihuatanejo? It’s a town on the southwest coast of Mexico. I’ve never been. I only know of it from Julie’s trip. And from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Great movie! Anyway, at the end of the movie, after Andy escapes from prison, he finds his freedom in this beach town and his buddy, Red, meets him there in the closing scene, after making parole. Great quote from the flick: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Amen.

Treasure trove.

I recently discovered OpenCulture, a website that touts itself as “the best free cultural & educational media on the web.” And i’m a fan!

They have compiled a listing of free audiobooks, movies, massive open online courses (aka MOOCs), and bunch of other interesting tidbits to enlighten and amuse. I’m currently listening to a dramatized reading of Brave New World, narrated by its author, Aldous Huxley back in the 50s. I read this novel in a mind-expanding and life-changing English literature class when I was in highschool. It’s a treat for my brain, now that I have reached such an advanced age. 🙂

OpenCulture also has daily posts that usually are clickworthy, you can add them as a blog (using their url) to follow via your WordPress Reader page or another RSS reader, or like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Check it out!

First Sunday!

The Texas state history museum offers free admission to all exhibits the first Sunday of every month. Today we headed downtown and met Laura to see 2 new exhibits: Fly Girls of WWII, and the 300+ year old shipwreck of La Belle. Both worth the trip.

Afterwards, we hit happy hour at Clark’s. Half-price off all bottles of wine! Oh and the food is good, too. 🙂

A very nice Sunday.

Ohmigosh, 2015 already!?!

I want to wish you a most happy New Year and all the best to you and yours in 2015! I have been away a while. Partly due to distractions. But also partly due to the fact that I had run out of online storage space for my blog @ wordpress, and I wanted time to think about how and or whether to upgrade the options for my blog.

In the end I decided to simply buy a storage upgrade (to add an additional 10G to the default 3G limit). When my domain options are up for renewal next year, I might consider upgrading to Premium on wordpress, which includes the increased storage, but I bought myself some time.

I think last we crossed paths out here in the blogosphere I was headed home from a long visit in Seattle, back to Austin. Suffice to say I have not been idle.

The day after coming home, we left for a fantastic week in Paris – a trip we took with little pre-planning; celebrating a birthday in a place we both love. And since then: Thanksgiving, family visiting, Julie graduated and left Austin to take the next step in her life’s path (sniffle), Christmas & New Year’s, and we have spent some fun times with friends.

Somewhere in there 2014 slipped away. Today I find myself on the second day of a new year — a few weeks delinquent in blog posts but looking forward instead of behind.

Here are just a few picks to fill in since last I posted:

Bon Anniversaire!

Post-Thanksgiving Day sail:

A day trip through the Hill Country and a hike to the top of Enchanted Rock on a clear December day with my sister & brother-in-law:

Christmas Eve:

And New Year’s Eve:

I can’t wait to see how 2015 unfolds….

Cloudy.

Headed back home.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, leetle seester!

Caching in the cold.

Fran and I went geocaching today. This cold front brought temps in the 20s overnight. And apparently it stays below freezing in parts of the woods.
This is one of the ponds we encountered, covered in ice.

A great day.

Today Mom and I headed to Seattle Center to see the amazing Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. Fran, Aaron and Colleen joined us. It was an amazingly clear, sunny day. We also went up in the Space Needle to see the 360 degree view. I took too many pictures to share here, but will leave you with a few.

Thank you, Veterans.

“Never…was so much owed by so many to so few.” — Winston Churchill

I visited several of the haunting and beautiful war monuments on my recent trip to Washington, D.C.

This is for Ross:

From the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

And this is for my Dad:

From the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Thanks to all who have served, both in peace and in war. Because we have so much to lose.

From the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Factoid of the day.

Because I’m wont to do such things when bored, I googled some mushroom terminology on the web. You know…inquiring minds, and all….
And so now I know that this is a troop of mushroom clusters. 🙂

Bonus factoid: After writing the text above, I wondered if the correct term was “inquiring minds” or “enquiring minds.” So, I googled that too. Apparently, there may be a difference in some British texts; but I think I’m ok. You get the idea. 🙂 🙂

100% chance of woo hoo!

I’m very thrilled to see the weather forecast for the next few days. FINALLY some not-rainy days!

Screen Shot 2014-11-07 at 1.33.28 PM

I’m looking forward to spending some time outside! This morning I got an early start… went for a long hike in the woods. This shot shows the just risen sun peeking through the tree trunks at the horizon.

And in the middle of my hike I came upon this tranquil view. Very pretty.

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