Life With My Family on “Normal Street,” U.S.A.
December 2, 2014 by admin · Leave a Comment
I didn’t blog about my visit last month with my family, The Kirkhams of Golden, (Denver), Colorado. I worked as hard as anyone else. While they went to jobs and school: Kevin, V.P. of Bank of America; my daughter, Jennifer, Customer Relations for an Aerospace firm; Riley, 16, a Junior in high school and Molly, 14, an eighth grader, I took the dog for two walks a day…more, if he could wangle me out of the chair as I attempted to upgrade my photography and computer skills.
Soda’s going to miss me, but he remembers from year to year, that I am the Walk Granny. That dog knows how to count….not only walks and the time of day in which they are due….but how many treats he gets for being so cooperative and humoring me by coming along.
So, here’s a photo essay of life on “Normal Street” and having lots of family good times. Just like you! 
I’d just arrived at Halloween, so Molly wore the authentic Spanish Dancer dress I had bought for her in Madrid.
Riley had a great time with Uncle Randy’s old megaphone found forgotten in a suitcase dragged down from the attic for me to use. It had sirens and police car sounds! What guy doesn’t go crazy with that? We had to beg him to stop.
Randy, who died in 2011, was an artist and last Friday night we burned some of his non-art…..the papers he mixed the paint on. Jennifer brought ALL of his work home with her and has framed his wonderful paintings….. with museum lights attached to the top of each frame . Maybe I’ll showcase them soon in a blog? They are really good! But, here were all the nothing-in-particular papers from his studio. So, we built a fire in the fireplace and had a Memorial to Randy night burning his art trash.
Two Mollys, mine and a next-door neighbor, decorated to say goodbye to me. I, who am GaGa to that family. All in all, it was a great visit!
Chatting With Two Dead Co-Workers
November 12, 2009 by rtwsenior · Leave a Comment
(Continued… check the three previous posts for the beginning of this story)
I thought that title would get you! This is the final installment of my story of the stuffed lynx and the taxidermied bust of an antelope, which occupied the retail store at the Snowmass Village, Colorado, ski mall, where I worked about six years ago. We three, manned that small space, day after day; though this particular slow day in question is the only time I made an effort to have a discussion with them. Since I journal all interesting events in my life, I was writing it down as it occurred. I do recommend that you read the previous three posts for the whole story, as it will explain my fascination with the art of think-talking, which is just what it sounds like: forming your sentences in your head, but not enunciating them into the air with your mouth. It’s a little more deliberate than just “thinking,” but isn’t all that hard.
Okay, when I left off yesterday, I had taken the small lynx off of the shelf behind my head, and was having a fine conversation with him. We two had spoken of the antelope, which perpetually looks out of the front window. This day was very odd, in that it had witnessed two inquiries about purchasing these animals. Every other day, before and after, they just sat there like decorations, with no one showing any interest in buying them. The attention of these customers was surely what caused me look at them in a new light and come up with the idea of this very strange conversation. To continue my journal entry:
“2:45 p.m. – A broadly smiling, friendly man just popped in to price the antelope, so let’s interview it before it gets away.
Me – Hi Antelope! May I interview you from this desk while you continue to gaze out of the window?
Antelope – Yes, of course. This is our customary position. I don’t know what we’ll talk about… (This is a very talkative animal. Keeps talking faster and longer than I can write.)
Me – First things first. Are you a male or a female? I don’t like to call you “It.”
Antelope – I am female. And, I do not know about any lynxes behind me. I can’t see in there. If there is one, it is very good to me. I just learned about it when I picked up your thoughts mentioning me in the same context with a lynx in the store. Would you tell me about this situation? I don’t think there’s any danger to me. I don’t think so, because I don’t smell him.
Lynx – You can’t smell! They did something to us!
Antelope – But, not to worry about anything. People are walking by here all the time, and I see that they are not trying to hurt me. Even the dogs are only sniffing quietly at me and not biting my legs.
Lynx – That’s ’cause you don’t have any legs, anymore! They did something to them.
Antelope – Whose is that voice?
Me – It’s Bucky Cat (a comic strip cat character), the lynx in here. Tell me, Antelope, how did you die? As if I didn’t know.
Antelope – I was shot!
Lynx – So was I!
Me – See how much you have in common, guys? I think you make a very good balance in here. In fact, I think it’s the literal fulfillment of the Bible Prophecy concerning the “lion lying down with the lamb.” You’re an antelope, instead of an actual lamb, but it still fits. And, this mountain lion IS lying down. So, I’m sure that it is so! Very portentous!
Antelope – Why do people stuff us?
Lynx – I don’t know, actually, why they do it. But, I don’t think that it’s a good idea, because everything should be recycled, and I’m stuck in this very comfortable, but completely immobile, position.
Antelope – Anyway, I think it’s not so bad. I would be dead now, anyway, and at least, I can look at things, still. I can’t dart away, like I used to; so I just stay in one place, and I do think that’s okay. So, that’s what I think about it.
Me – Can you hear the music playing out in the Mall?
Antelope – Actually, I do! I think that it’s very interesting. No, I never had any babies…(in answer to my thought-of, but un-think-talked, question.) I did not create any family, and now, I think that I am definitely glad that I didn’t.
Me – Would you like to go home with either the young family, or the man who just inquired about you?
Antelope – No! I would not want to leave this very convenient listening post. It is very special to me. Never in my difficult life have I ever felt so very happy. Difficult, because there were so many dangers out there. And, difficult because of my constant hunger. And now, I don’t seem to get hungry any more. Especially, when I can’t move any longer. It’s very convenient that we don’t have to leap around, eating all over the countryside, and then running from our enemies. Thank you, Lynx-in-the-store, for not chasing after me!
Lynx – It’s nothing to me, because I can’t get up. But, actually, I don’t have to chase you because I’m not hungry, either. I’m really pretty comfortable. Listen, it’s definitely nicer than starving out in the wild.
Antelope – I’ll tell you what, Lynx! Don’t chase me and I will not stomp you! I think that’s a good plan, don’t you?
Me – Do you suppose that the two of you can talk together and keep each other company without my serving as a go-between? Just for your own enjoyment?
Antelope – I think maybe we could. I didn’t even know about him, so I don’t know if we can. What do you think, Lynx?
Lynx – I don’t care! You see, I am not in the habit of talking to anybody, especially to prey.
Me – Well, wait a minute! This article said that you eat rabbits. An antelope is too big for just one of you to hunt, anyway.
Antelope – That’s true. I don’t think any of us are used to chatting very much, but it would be so nice for me to explain to you what is going on outside.
Lynx – Yes, it would! I can’t always tell from up here. Okay, let’s do it, if we can, without this woman in-between.
Me – I’m going to try to set things up so that you two can communicate easily.
And so, it has been done! Let this serve as the symbolic coming together of traditional enemies; of bullies and victims; who no longer need to stay polarized, but who can now begin to help and appreciate each other.”
And that’s the whole story of the Antelope, the Lynx, and me. If you are ever in the outdoor Mall, right up on the ski slopes of Snowmass Village, Colorado, (just a few miles from famous Aspen,) please visit Stephen’s Fur Store, and you will probably see these two wild friends still carrying on their conversation to this very day.
Talking To Stuffed Animals???
November 10, 2009 by rtwsenior · Leave a Comment
(Continued from last post)
I lived in Snowmass Village, Colorado, and in its nearby neighbor, Aspen, Colorado, for about nine years before moving to Florida. This episode occurred in March, 2003, while I was working in a beautiful, high-end store in the Snowmass Village Mall, right on the ski slopes. I had long been conducting inner, think-talk conversations with The Holy Spirit, but this was the first time in my life (and the only time, actually) that I ever attempted to discuss anything with a taxidermied animal.
This entry is thanks to Anne Anderson, whom I met this week at her booth during Dunedin’s Art Harvest Fair. She makes beautiful, life-like wild animal busts and statues using sisal from the agave plant. They look amazingly real and alive. Somehow, we began our conversation with the subject of telepathy, probably because I was remembering the few moments of animal telepathy, about to be described here. She has never communicated with her creations, but she did admit to an active inner life. Nor do I usually open my conversations with strangers by revealing anything about this inner nature of mine, either.
Anyway, when I came home, I rooted around in my journal entries; found this account, and the next day, gave her a copy. Then I figured, why not share this with you guys, since you respond so well to the woo-woo stories. Keep that up. I’ll have a book out soon – name of Inner Answers.
Okay, to continue yesterday’s report:
“Let’s explore this topic of the stuffed animals in the store to see if there’s anything to that. Telekinesis! I think that’s the word used to describe the touching of an object to learn something about it with your mind. I’ve never really spent the time necessary to do justice to it, though I once did it with photographs, quite a lot, placing my fingers on them and then getting told something by The Holy Spirit. These are things that I could cultivate which would make my downtime much more exciting and meaningful, if only I could remember to do more of it. (Still haven’t done that yet.)
Oh, my Holy Spirit! What about me talking to inanimate objects? Would You please explain to me about the Voice that I hear answering me?
“Yes, I will tell you about this talent of yours. Everything that you directly address can hear you and does answer you back. The fact that you thought that it was Me, putting words in their mouth and answering you with what I thought they were thinking, is not the case at all. You do, actually, hear them speaking. Sometimes, they don’t have anything much to say and so, you probably thought that I didn’t want to go into the conversation very deeply.
But, let Me assure you, Honey, that you are very capable of talking directly to anything, and anything is very capable of answering you back. Now, specifically, on the subject of these animals in your store, they are definitely good and you probably did pick up on their calm vibrations all along. Now, they are so glad that you have discovered this secret, and they will love to talk to you directly. Let’s do try that today.
Oh My God! Let’s do this as much as we can. I would love to hear what these objects would say to you. I cannot tell what they are thinking, without touching them directly, engaging them in conversation, Myself, so it would have been silly for Me to step in and answer for them all this time. I admit, you have not tried to do this very often and I wondered why you did not talk very long, once you did receive a response from something you spoke to, in think-talk.”
(To be continued… I know my posts are long but my journal entries are even longer, so I must break these into several days’ worth. Tomorrow, I promise, you will hear the comments of the lynx and the antelope. Now, what you may think of all this, I have no idea. I wouldn’t believe it either if it hadn’t happened to me. But, it is a rather interesting story. Stay tuned.)
An InterGalactic Friend Who Got Away
September 16, 2009 by rtwsenior · Leave a Comment
Continuing the theme of what has probably been labeled, “Love At First Sight,” by most people, down through the ages, simply for lack of a better term for it, I shall give more examples of InterGalactic Friendship mentioned in the previous blog.
It is something like love at first sight; but it isn’t necessarily all that heavy, and weighted down with destiny as such a phrase implies.
In my experience, that phrase limits the phenomenon severely, because it usually doesn’t (conveniently) strike only those who are free of obligations and available for taking up a whirlwind romance with an attractive stranger. It almost always hits when you have a full plate. And, it can be most inconvenient, unless you have a handle on what is going on. Very possibly, two people, who suddenly feel this way, once did have a deep relationship — in a past life with each other… and neither has forgotten that connection on a cellular level. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are destined to spend this life together. Perhaps this interesting stranger is a “walk-on” in your present stage play.
These powerful “Love At First Sighters” are called InterGalactic Friends in my book. That would explain what happened to Wallis Simpson and King Edward of England. All that abdication and divorce might not have been really necessary, if they had only known what was really going on. That said, I think it’s the lucky ones who can pull off a marriage with one of these mythical beings whom they have known and loved before.
Let me share with you a journal entry that I wrote in 2001, right after I spotted an InterGalactic Friend in the grocery store, but didn’t meet him. Written down the next morning, while the experience was fresh, it’s a good report on how this kind of thing feels. I have no idea who he was and never laid eyes on him again. At the time, I had experienced this a few times, but had no concept of what it was.
“December 11, 2001 – Guess what? I saw a most beautiful man yesterday and followed him around City Market, just to look at him! I didn’t think I would ever see any man again who appealed to me. I look at them, but they all fall so far short, that I had just stopped thinking in terms of ever noticing a guy again. This one even spoke to me as I was entering the store. Maybe I wouldn’t have picked up on his presence if he hadn’t greeted me. Aspen is full of “beautiful people” during the ski season, most of whom don’t do a thing for me. But, he was at the door when I came through it, and he said, “Good-looking jacket!” to me, complimenting me on the old brown suede jacket, with the fur-rimmed hood, that I was wearing. I replied, “It’s good and warm.” and went to get a basket. Well, what would you have said? I was scrounging around for something more witty, but it just didn’t happen. I’m not really in practice for picking up guys in grocery stores. Or cooperating with being picked up… though I wish I had been in this case.
But, I was saying, “Wow!” all the way into the store. He was slender and had the nicest slim face and his hair was white but hung forward in a straight shock over his forehead. He, himself, looked young and boyish, but he was, at the same time, in my age-range. Boy! Did I ever want to get to know him!!! I just peeked at him a lot as we shopped through the mutual aisles. We sort of followed each other around and I had the sense that he was doing the same sort of peeking. We wound up in the checkout line together and I got so flustered that I left a bag of groceries behind.
He was the sort of guy that I would trust with my life, immediately; whom I would marry, instantly, if he had asked me, right there in City Market. I’m just as much a sucker as I ever was, for the right-looking man. I went out in a daze.
Did we mutually affect each other like that? I can’t see how it could be otherwise. We must have known each other on other planes of existence, in other times, because the reaction was instantaneous. If only that could happen to me in some situation where we could really meet and really talk, and which would throw us together for awhile. I think he did pretty well, to think of something to say. That old jacket really isn’t at all spectacular, especially here in the land of truly good-looking ski jackets. No one has commented on this one before. Wish I could have been as original, tossing out a comeback that someone could build a conversation on.
“What, this old thing? I’ve just worn it on a long trek through the Himalayas. See, here’s a little yak butter still on the sleeve.” Now, that would have had possibilities.”
If such a thing has ever happened to you, don’t just chalk it up to your wandering eye. More than likely, you have just recognized an Old Friend… whom you absolutely know you have never met in this life. But you do know them! And you do remember them! And you’ve just passed another Cosmic Test… halfway. You never got to say Hello, down here; or report in and hear their report to you. But you did salute them, somehow.
Your two ships will steam on through the night, in opposite directions, without even the acknowledgment of a few good whistle blasts. Ah well, what can be done?
Note to the comment on my last blog: Bob Lowhorn, is that you? Class of ’55? I’m still giggling over your absolutely logical comment. Yes, my dear… but you didn’t even take into account that I might be the oldest one, and he, the youngster. It was in New York, in my sixty-something salad days, (actually, I was 60) and he was in his early twenties. (actually 24) (so, actually, only a 36-year-difference) But, I shall now look forward to testing the theory on that 110 year-old that you mention. IGFs are different from the rest!
