What's on my mind this morning ...

Herein are my Morning Musings and

with Wordful Wednesday too

1. It's been a while since I've just 'mused' in the morning, but I want to begin again ... so here goes. It's dark and damp outside this morning. I know because I just put the trash cans out. They're full because I've been clearing clutter from my desk area all week.

2. I turn 65 on February 23rd and should have applied for Medicare months ago. Alas, procrastination got the better of me (yet again) and my back's to the wall. I cleaned to find the folder with information from a Medicare 101 seminar I attended (at the urging of a good friend) last November ... found it (hooray) ... spent HOURS yesterday on the phone with Social Security (exhaling as I remember the experience of listening to information I already knew, giving the same information repeatedly ... first to an 'automated voice' and then to three people before finally connecting with Montrey in Seattle who told me he could sign me up over the phone ... put me 'on hold' while he made copies of necessary paperwork) ... whereupon I got disconnected.

3. After waiting an hour hoping Montrey would call back (I'd given my phone number repeatedly to everyone ... didn't I give it to him?) ... I started over ... finally reached a person (Keisha) after 25 minutes of 'automated' messages & questions and told her my tale of woe. Bless her heart, she listened ... went 'off script' and connected me with Mr. Mason who apologized profusely and didn't put me 'on hold' when he went to make the necessary copies ... so I'm officially 'signed up' w/o having to go to the local office ... a 'secure envelope' is on the way so I can sent him the required documention to verify my eligibility ... and coverage will begin on February 1st even if my Award Letter and/or Medicare card haven't arrived. I'm relieved ... but my next decisions involve deciding on a 'supplemental care' and 'prescription' plan.

4. I attended my Photoshop Elements 'collage' class last night ... learned some kewl new techniques and think I'm ready to purchase PSE8 (since I'm currently using PSE6) because it has nifty features to explore.

5. I'm spending today with my sister and will deal with pressing matters later this week. We'll begin by picking my Nikon D60 up (the camera shop called last night to say it's ready ... HOORAY!) and dropping her's off for its annual cleaning & adjustment. I've experienced significant withdrawal symptoms being without it for the past week, but I'm delighted I won't need to 'fix' the spots on my photos any more and am hoping that cleaning the contacts will correct the problems I've had with my Tamron 28-300mm lens.

6. She wants to walk a mall (something I've pretty much given up since my decision to avoid new acquisitions & focus on getting rid of stuph 3 years ago). I'll avoid 'shopping' by taking photos while following her around. It'll be fun to catch up as we walk ... enjoy a tasty lunch together ... just like old times before she hit the road with her husband to travel full time in their RV a few years back. Sounds like they'll be around at least until March so (happily) this may be the first of many such days spent together.

7. I bought a flat of pansies and a can of 'coyote urine' granules over the weekend. I need some way to keep the neighbor's cats out of my garden ... and am willing to try just about anything at this point.

8. After adding a few photos to illustrate my musings, I accidentally published this prematurely ... so I'm hoping so one drops by to comment before it's finished. I'm reminded that this used to happen frequently and I could have used my 'test blog' to create it before adding it here. Perhaps I'll remember to do so in the future ...(or not).

9. Let's see ... what else? It's about 6am and I need to eat breakfast, take a shower ... then take Molly for a walk ... so I don't know how much time I'll have to visit blogs before my sister arrives. I guess I'll be catching up with others this evening (if I'm not exhausted) and/or tomorrow. The weatherman sez we might get a bit of rain this evening and tomorrow ... with another storm predicted for the weekend. We certainly NEED the rain so I'm hoping he's right. My little 'fur-kid' just celebrated her 5th birthday on December 31!

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and for others participating in
Random Tuesday Thoughts
Wordful Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus



Here's wishing everyone a delightful day ;-)

Did you know???
January 10-12 are National Delurking Days ...
so how about making a commitment to:

Thought for Today
"Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself." Chinese Proverb

A Penny for Your Comments and Everyday Kindness

If you read this blog
I hope that you're commenting.
If you're not, please do.

Sharing what you think
keeps me writing when I might
slack off for a day.

Finding what you write
in the morning when I check
e-mail makes me smile.

I will do my best
to respond to everyone
as soon as I can.

If you check the box
to receive the follow up
comments , you'll receive ...

Email every time
I sit down to answer you.
Hopefully, you'll smile.

If the rest of this post looks familiar, you must be reading Small Reflections ... and for that I am grateful. Because I've added the Everyday Kindness logo to this blog (and haven't yet figured out how to make the whole thing fit just yet*), I decided to share the following information here as well. If you've seen it already, feel free to jump right to comments and share your thoughts before moving on. *Falling asleep last night, it occured to me HOW to change the size and make it fit ... and now I have. I love learning new things!!!

While meandering through the Blogosphere visiting T-13ers on Thursday, I happened upon this Everyday Kindness logo near the end of a excellent illustrated list entitled 13 Rules for Living. After leaving a comment about the post, I clicked on the logo itself and discovered an invitation to join Claudia in making kindness a commitment during 2008. I was sipping coffee from a favorite mug at the time inscribed with the words, "Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty" ... a campaign of a few years back that shifted my awareness at the time. The basic idea was to smile (and perhaps even say hello) to people you encountered, do an unexpected (and perhaps anonymous) thing for someone (whether or not you knew them) like put a quarter in the parking meter when you notice it's expired (especially if you see someone writing tickets approaching). What I remember most about adopting the practice myself at the time was how happy I felt after taking such action.

Since I subscribe to the belief that "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous," I left a comment indicating my interest ... saved the image on my computer to add to my sidebar later ... and made a note to post about it when time permitted, all the while smiling to myself and thinking what an excellent idea this is to share. So ... I'm offering a bit of link-love and some encouragement to anyone who might want to adopt the practice and spread the word.

Sunday morning addendum:
In addition to figuring out how to make the Everyday Kindness logo smaller to fit in my sidebar, I remembered adding another "kindness" reminder to my sidebar when I first started my blogs. It's way down near the bottom and looks like this, and when you click on the purple button ... it takes you to a brief video clip worth watching. Maybe you have time today?

Thought or today

"We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)