Welcome to a new week.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Answers

Response to July 7- July 13, 2002

"Hi" she says tentatively; while peeking around the door jamb, then sidling into the room...

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Response to July 7- July 13, 2002

Ok, I checked that noone else was putting up the same over the fence thread. Now I can continue. :o) Yesterday we pressure washed the floor of the barn. What a neato little toy those things are! I wasn't counting on quite so much back spray though...took awhile in the shower to get the smell etc off. I gave a whole new meaning to "Looking like crap". Then when I was clean I put my sun jam on the stove to cook...strawberry- rhubarb. It had been sitting in the sun in a bowl all day (covered with saran wrap) and was ready for cooking a bottling. Tonight I have another batch sitting letting the juices out before I cook it but on the kitchen counter since there is no sun today.

This morning was a rough 'un. I called my friend next door to see if she wanted to come over for a coffee and while we were on the phone she asked "Why didn't you tell me Don died!!?" Don is my minister and friend. "Uhhmmm ...because I didn't know.." was my stunned reply. Don was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and last I heard last week was that he wasn't well and probably wasn't going to last much longer and was in a hospital close to his home place about 2 hours away. He died this pastw eek and his funeral was yesterday. I was in a bit of a temper to find out this way. I guess I figured that being an elder I'd get a call about this stuff so I could either get there to say goodbye or to attend his funeral. Today there was a service dedicated to him and I cried through the whole thing (not big boo hoos..just lots of sniffling and kleenex) and afterward I just sat in my van draped over my steering wheel and bawled long and loud where noone could see me or hear me. When I was somewhat cried out I tried to start my van. I discovered that my battery was dead because I'd left my lights on in my rush to get to the service on time. How Don would have laughed and teased!!! I'm going to miss my friend so much both for his guidance and his humor and camaraderie. Thanks for listening.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Response to July 7- July 13, 2002

I'm back from Michigan in one piece. I'll write more later, right now I'm ordering a pizza and doing laundry.

Alison, that really sucks about your friend. I'm sorry you missed the funeral.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

I'm "back" too -- physically, if not mentally!

DID anything happen over the weekend? I have mostly been out of touch, but the radio has been burbling it's usually mix of music and commercials, instead of screaming about attacks, so I assume nothing happened . . . .

Alison, I was high-handed and changed the title to include Over the Fence, just so folks could find it easier .. . . .

I had a great weekend, but I am still processing. And tomorrow it's back to my own little rat race treadmill . . . . {sigh}

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

So sorry about your sadness, Alison; that must've really hurt to be left out. Hugs to you........

Polly, when you're talking about your gatherings, it sorta reminds me of my family's when I was a kid. My folks are both one of seven kids, so our get-togethers were huge; I have about 60 first cousins. There was always way too much food, but we always had a good time. One of my grandparents lived on a farm and the other ones left the farm when I was very young and lived on a beautiful northern MN lake, so the ambience was sensational either way. I think its lovely the way your family seems to work together so well, and enjoy the simple wonders of life. Kinda envious here; my family is disjointed for the most part, and I really have a hard time finding anything in common with most of them. Thank goodness I get along famously with my kids.

We've had a lazy weekend, felt good not to feel any responsibilities. Spent a lot of time in the pool, cooling off and getting exercise. Had three cookouts......the weather has been perfect, except for the occassional passing thunderstorm.

Lotus goes into the studio to record a demo this week. She's havin a panic attack about it, although I dont know why. The band practices all the time in the basement and they sound damn good to me. I still have issues with her voice, but keep em to myself. Far be it from me to argue with everyone else's opinion, or to discourage her in any way. The kid knows how to make things happen.

Her band, for instance. She has managed to put together a group of fine musicians, which is difficult enough. It took some doing; she's been sifting through applicants for about a year and a half. Many of em want nothin to do with an 18 year ol blues player, much less a girl! There's this old line of thinking ingrained into the blues mentality that you cant do the blues till you've suffered enough. Such crap. (like those old beliefs about you can't be any kind of artist unless your life has been hellish).

Anyway, she's been very particular about who she settles down to really work with, knowing full well that personality and dedication has as much importance as does talent. She knows what she wants and it always comes to her. Her band consists of an excellent drummer in his 40's, father of three and a very nice guy; a bass player also in his 40's , father of two, although divorced and just now getting really reacquainted with his kids, just a sweetheart; a cello player, age 27, has an unusual form of autism called Ausburger's Syndrome, fantastic guy, very musically educated (classical.....his mother is mortified he loves to play the blues on his cello!......but its so cool!); and on second guitar, a Japanese-American woman in her 40's, has shared custody of a 12 year old daughter, is a biker.....rides a huge Harley, used to be a really wild gal but sobered up and straightened up about 9 years ago, and absolutely the sweetest gal, very nurturing to Lotus, they have become great friends, and I am getting to know her pretty well too. (Lotus met her on the internet). These are all good people, none of em has a substance problem (well the bass player has a few too many occassionally, but havent seen it be a problem). Do you know how many musicians there are who are not flakes?? Not many!!

So, my kids inspire me once again.

Been thinkin about maybe taking a road trip. Tren has been asking me to come out there forever, and I keep making excuses. Well sometimes I've almost made the plane reservations, but then remember how flying does not interest me much anymore, and so forth and so on. So I was wonderin if I should just take off in the car, but I've never taken a long road trip alone before..........little scarey......

Ali has decided (for this week anyway) that she wants to go to film school. So we'll hafta get our act together and see what kinds of studies she needs to do to get into college. She'll hafta buckle down; she's not exactly a workaholic type!

Well, guess I'll go do some writing. I'm still working on that "response" to the teen's guide to vegetarianism, and have started on a parenting book. Sounds pretentious, I know, but it was my kids' idea, after all. I'm just kind of in an outline stage, see how it goes.

Blessings to all,

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

I'm running five dehydrators and harvesting grass for the worms.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Did I mention that we all have poison ivy? My husband has it the worst and since I never got it before, a friend suggested mine may be poison oak. He really hates this house at the moment, especially since he just started a two week vacation.

I got in touch with someone about buying my baby goats direct but they didn't speak English. I got a friend to call them and they said the person I had to talk to would be in the next day and that they were interested in the goats. She called back and a woman answered and said they weren't interested. My friend didn't tell me this until after she hung up (it was on three way) or I would have had her ask for the owner since all along they were interested. She suggested we just drive there one day with the goats...can't hurt.

This week I'm going to start working on those levels in the backyard. I want to get that done this year. I also want to put wood chips down for a rock garden around my pond (which I still didn't clean but it doesn't look too bad) Have to get rid of the chickens first.

We got a solar heater for the pool. It's a black panel that lays on the ground and works really well. Temp is up by at least 10 degrees. Makes swimming alot nicer for the summer. I don't care what anyone says, if it's too cold, it's not fun. Was glad to have it for the 4th...really hot.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Sorry about your loss Alison.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Well, my computer survived the weekend and so did I, although I'm pretty tired and sore (can't speak for my peecee). It rained like crazy on the Fourth as well as today, but in between we had some glorious weather. I had four days off (and will pay for it tomorrow, getting caught up at the office...groan...).

I dogsat for my neighbors (kept their shepherd/collie cross in the house for a couple of days while they were out of town...he doesn't do fireworks very well) and also crittersat their horses, cat, and bunnies; gardened madly (barely catching up to the weeds!!!); and got some visiting in with family (croquet, barbecue, and frisbee). Had some good worship at church this a.m. I'm also glad that the rain is keeping my lawn green and the new perennials established. I cleaned and mucked the barn a couple of times (more pasture=more poop). Watched the Mariners/Twins series a few times (pee-yeww).

Nothing else interesting, which is great news! Looking forward to our kayaking trip off Vancouver Island next week.

j.r.: How are you doing? Are you near the floods? Hope you are all fine.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2002

Hey Alison in NS, sorry to hear about your minister passing away. I think a phone call should have been made to you too, but let it go, I'm sure no one meant anything by it.

Hi sheepish; we're fine down here, the floods are in central Texas, and screwed up my family's plans for a mini vacation. We were all set to get out of the house and see the Texas hill country last week when the rain forecast for San Antonio was put out. We decided to drive out to Laredo, (about 300 miles southwest of S.A.) and sleep out for one night and see if floods wouldn't come our way.

No dice. The area we planned on going to had many road closeds by Texas Department of Public Safety, and though we probably could have found a route, why risk it - white knuckles around a steering wheel - that's a vacation :^) ?

So we stayed in Laredo 'till Saturday. It was fun (pretty hot though), I've always driven through that city getting to other places. Neat town, though all the driver's there are recent escapees from insane asylums, demolition derbys and the Indy 500. They drive like someone spilled boiling water in their laps and they are looking for the nearest space to pull over. And about half the cars have dinged doors or bent up bumpers. Not the place to drive your Bently, if you know what I mean.

The city has a really old church, San Augustin Church was established in 1755, and resembles some of the 'real old stuff' locatated down in old Mexico. Pretty cool. Pretty cheap shopping in their downtown area; we bought some souveniers (sp?) and stuff. Didn't find what I was really looking for though - a clay 'jarro' (bean pot) at a decent price. Shoulda just crossed in neighboring Nuevo Laredo (the Mexican sister town of Laredo, just across the border) for it, but it was too hot, I was hoofing my son on my back, and my wife had the little one in a carrier. Wow, our backs really felt that one - I'm getting too old too quick. We got back Saturday, so we had yesterday to shake off the cobwebs. Wasn't too bad all things considered - make a nice weekend trip.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

Alison, I'm sorry about your situation, too. I didn't know what to say, but I hope saying I'm sorry is some support. You should have been informed. However, in my experience, church communication is ~okay at best. Oftentimes someone drops the ball or assumes that "everyone already knows". Or doesn't know what to say (see sentence No. 2). Hope things are better.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

I drove up to Michigan on Thursday. Usually it takes me about 5 1/2 hours but there was a wreck and the freeway was closed for 20 minutes while they cleaned things up. It seemed strange to be sitting in my car on the freeway with the windows open and the motor off, just reading a book. Once I made it through that mess I put the pedal to the metal and still made it home on time.

Later that evening my mom and I went to visit my grandparents. They live in the next little town up the road, about 10 miles away. During the drive my mom had to give me the updated "litany of things not to tell grandma and grandpa". This trip's litany was short, but what it lacked in quantity it made up in quality. (1) Don't tell them that Aunt Linda (mom's sister who lives in Florida) won't be coming home for the family reunion next month, and (2) Don't tell them the reason why Aunt Linda won't be coming home is because she was just diagnosed with breast cancer, she had a lumpectomy yesterday but she'll still be having radiation treatments and can't travel for the reunion. Actually, there was supposed to also be a #3: don't tell them that Keith and I won't be home for the reunion either, but I didn't honor that one. Two lies is about my limit nowadays. :) Grandpa is 88 and he just had a pacemaker put in last week but he's looking pretty good. His driver's license is about to expire and he's worried that he won't be able to pass the eye test to renew it. Grandma never learned to drive so if Grandpa loses his license they'll be housebound. Grandma had to tell me all about the new people who moved in across the street. The woman isn't married, she has a baby, and the baby is black, the last part said in a shocked whisper. Small town life, what a hoot! The largest minority in this area is the Amish!

Friday I took my mom and my neices Sasha and Jordan to the movies for Jordan's birthday. She wanted to see "Mr Deeds". I'm not an Adam Sandler fan so it's not a movie that I would have chosen to see on my own, but it wasn't too bad. That evening we had a little family birthday party, just hamburgers on the grill and an ice cream cake. Mr and Mrs Sutton (my sister's in-laws) were talking about a wedding they had been to the week before where all of the bridesmaids had at least one visible tattoo, and how they thought tattoos were so nasty and disgusting and low-class, etc. So my mom turns to me and says "Why don't you show them your tattoo". I think they were expecting a dainty little rose or some such, so their eyes about bugged out when I rolled up my sleeve and showed them my rainbow colored Celtic knotwork armband that completely encircles my left upper arm. In my family, I'm the one who "made it", I graduated from the toughest college in the state, got a good job, moved to the big city, has a nice house and car, etc. It's always fun when someone finds out that the "good one" has a tattoo!

On Saturday Jordan had her friend Alessandra over for a visit, so I had to entertain both of them. I think that I was almost beauty shopped to death! I guess I should have gotten my hair cut short before I went up there. That evening we went to visit my other sister. She's renting the bottom half of a double, whoever was dividing this house up into apartments must have been doing some bad drugs because there is a toilet in the kitchen. My dad calls it the "Polish Dishwasher". Kinda gives a whole new meaning to saying that your cooking tastes like sh*t! The good part to her apartment is that you can walk out of her living room right to the St Clair river. It's very pretty, we sat outside and watched the freighters go up the river and my nephew Evan got to go "pishin" with his little toy fishing pole (he's 4 years old) Evan wasn't quite grasping the concept of potty training until one of his uncles explained the manly art of peeing outside and that if you want to pee outside you have to wear big-boy underwear, not a diaper. He potty trained himself the next day, but the problem now is that whenever he's outside and has to go he just whips it out and lets it fly. He thinks its great fun to "water" the grass, trees, side of the garage, etc. Shelli (his mom) says it's a good thing he's not going to kindergarden this fall because he's probably pee on the playground too.

These trips home are nice because they remind me why I don't want to move back home again! :)

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

Oh, Alison, my brain was NOT engaged last night. I'm sorry for your loss and that I didn't acknowledge it last night! :-(

Still just trying to get back to "normal" (whatever that is) around here, and have to dash off momentarily to an appointment. Still hot here. Supposedly will get cooler tomorrow. We'll see . . . .

EM wrote: "Many of em want nothin to do with an 18 year ol blues player, much less a girl! There's this old line of thinking ingrained into the blues mentality that you cant do the blues till you've suffered enough." How about she tells them that she gets her blues from her past X number of lives and all the suffering she did in them? {snicker, snort!} Blow they tiny minds! ;-)

I think I'm still feeling the weird effects of this weekend. Heck, I may never be the same again . . . that could be good! :-)

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

Thanks for the kindness guys regarding the loss of my friend. I have a grapevine he gave me two years ago to remember him by as well as great memories of him healthy and hearty. No slight was intended at all in my not being phoned. Its just that most people that attend that church and others in the parish have known each other forever and a day or live close by one another so word spread over in the village but I live about 20 minutes away so I didn't hear anything. Like someone here said, church communications is usually an only okay thing at best. ;o) Man I went nuts today and vacuumed and mopped and did laundry and cleaned the bathroom. I think the kids don't know where they live now!! LOL great day for all this, not too hot and humid (at least earlier it wasn't) though things look hazy out there now but it could be high flying smoke drift from the wildfires (started by lightening and out of control) in Quebec that was said to be drifting east. I remember one summer I woke to weird light outside my windows. It was a strange golden kind of haze that the sun was trying to shine through so it seemed dusk like out. Turned out it was smoke that had drifted east from Alberta and Quebec forest fires that were burning at the same time. Could get a faint scent of it too. Now thats a pile o' smoke eh?

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

EM,

Hey, go for the road trip. It isn't really all that scarey after you do it once. I use to make the 1400 mile trip from Maryland to my Mom's in Oklahoma with our three children. Recently I have made two trips (only about 900 miles now) to my Mom's with our young son that has Down Syndrome. What I started doing is instead of stopping at the interstate rest stops, I stop at a food/gas place (like Amoco or Citgo, etc.) and use the restrooms there. They usually have a unisex or family restroom where I can either go in with my son or send him in by himself, knowing there is not anyone else in there. There are also a lot of local people around that I feel would help if you were in trouble. The restroom bit is my concern now in traveling and being out somewhere when it is just my son and me alone. Our 900 mile trip takes about 16 hours, so now that I usually make it without my husband or older sons, I always stop at a motel for the night so I don't have to be stopping for gas when it is dark.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

I can't believe that here it is July 8th! Why is this summer going soooo fast??!! I haven't even turned this webtv thing on since last Friday!! Although Harry just can't seem to stay away from his online "games"!!

We closed the garage business down for a four-day weekend, and had sorta crappy weather for most of it. You know...weather forecast says "partly cloudy/sunny with the chance of a thunderstorm"....what the heck does that mean??!! It wasn't until Sat. that we assumed that the weather would be okay for boating. We certainly do not want to get caught out on open water in a thunderstorm!! After tending our traps...no lobsters this time, just lotsa crabs, we did some serious striper fishing. Sunday was absolutely beautiful, so we headed out across the Penobscot River to an oil tanker drop off point and watched the ships from Europe delivering their crude oil...what a thrill :-)!! Just kidding...it was kinda boring, really. We did get lots more info loaded into our GPS system so we wouldn't get lost out there in "Lake Atlantic"!! Although, til visions of the movie "The Perfect Storm" are totally gone from my memory, it will be a LONG time before I venture out of sight of land!!!

Had my granddaughter here for most of the day today. Usually Wednesday is our day with her, but I felt guilty about not being home on Sunday when she called us and left a message on our answering machine and wanted to come over. So I called her this morning and took her to the feed store with me...her favorite place! Of course, I came home with not only grain and shavings, but MORE baby chicks. Guess I'm just a "sucker" for baby animals!! 'Course Morgan is kind of "bad" influence on me :-)!!

With all the hot and humid weather we've been having here, surprisingly...our garden is doing great...with the exception of the spinach and chard. So I guess we'll be replanting them again in August for a good fall crop! Just fed out the last of the cellar-stored potatoes from last year to our pigs. They were getting quite squishy and had started growing roots of their own!! Not the pigs...the potatoes! I still have lots of canned potatoes on hand. I'm really anticipating trying to can onions this year. We just used up the last of our cellar-stored onions...which did quite well through the winter, but I'd really like to be able to can some of them.

Alison...really sorry to here about your friend/minister. Living in a really small town here, myself, I know what it's like when everyone else just assumes that you "know" things when in reality...you don't! Funny how you could be so close and yet so far apart!!! Hey, we had haze and a smoke smell in the air today from all those fires up north in Canada!! Sure hope that they're all under control soon!

Polly....Why are you sidling around the door and peeking in? Come on in!!!!! I really LOVE hearing about your family happenings!!

Aunty Em...I think you should go on that road trip, too! If you ever get this far east, please DO drop in!!!!! And most definitely bring your Pug!!

It's after ten o'clock here and I'm pooped. I'll play "catch up" tomorrow....later folks!

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2002

Hey EM, if you do decide to come out to Ohio, I'm about 3 hours SW of Tren. Maybe I could come out that way and meet you all.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

How come nobody comes to Nova Scotia?? You get more bang for yer buck up here with the exchange!!

So, the store at this point is a go! Oh my..our own business..I think I am getting an ulcer already. Richard has been tweeking our business plan while he was away in Montreal (on his way home now)for meetings and fancy golf with an insurance company VP thats courting him (fancy golf as opposed to the golf we are used to where you carry your own clubs etc). He's coming home sounding pretty pleased with himself. They want him to start and agency and he'd be the only one in the Atlantic provinces representing this company so the potential is..shall we say..HUGE? :o) (maybe he'll strike it rich and I can get me a bigger farm someday???) Our tentative plan at this point (he hasn't agreed yet to the company)is that we start the international newstand (finally Countryside etc will be available to the South Shore!!)and he will use the upstairs space of the shop for his insurance office. This way the rent is divided between the two businesses as well as the utilities. Down side is that the hours between store and home were to be divided between us and now that won't work, but the upside is that we will be able to afford an employee right away so I can still be home for Cameron and the animals a lot and Richard is upstairs from the shop so he will have good hands on when I'm not there. This is all so scarey!! Exciting and thrilling but scarey as hell. What if the shop bombs even though our plan and research shows that it can't help but succeed? Oh my. Life is such a crap shoot, eh? Keep those fingers crossed for us won't you?? I'll keep you posted on how your entrepeneur friend is doing as events warrant.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

We're planning on coming to N.S. Alison. Thanks to the heat here and the drop in my goats milk production, I've put them on once a day milking so we can get away at least for an over nighter! Hope to head over on the "Cat" as soon as we can make arrangements with a friend to feed the pigs, turkeys, chickens and goats!! Just got my "Doers and Dreamers" guide last week.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

Oh Marcia thats so cool. Do you want to meet up for a drink or something? Its a beautiful day here today. Clear, low humidity, and nice and cool. My van is leaking powersteering fluid like mad. The mechanic says its a busted line again (argh) so I am scheduled for repairs on Tuesday..AGAIN. Just two weeks ago it was brakes. This vehicle is becoming a money pit at this point in its life. Went to the feed store yesterday to get hog grower and my bank account was bare. How embarrassing!!!!!! Today is payday. I ended up cooking them up some slops from stuff in my cupboards (rice, barley, soupmix with beans and lentils etc in it plus whatever veg scraps were on hand). Got grower this AM on my way back from the garage so the piggies should be happy today if I can hump that 88 pound bag down there by myself. Yipes! Have a great day guys. I'm goin' to hang my laundry out!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

Don't know yet when we'll be coming, but I'll definitely keep ya posted, Alison. That would be great to meet up somewhere!! What year and make is your van? Maybe Harry can give you some online advice :-)!!

Got my granddaughter coming today. She's due to walk over any minute....so there goes the rest of my day!! Today we hope to introduce her to the fine "art" of pulling lobster traps! I'll check in tonight...if I'm not too pooped out :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

"How come nobody comes to Nova Scotia?? "

Well sheesh, silly goose, its kinda a long way to Tiperary, I mean Nova Scotia! Actually I think I mentioned this once before, but I always wanted to go there and visit that gorgeous Fjord farm. But its so far away!

Thanks for all the invites.....wow that's so sweet! As far as me being scared to go, its not really an issue of personal safety, I generally dont give that sort of thing very much energy. Maybe I should have said nerve-wracking, cuz I dont like freeway driving, especially multi-lane with lotsa trux! I love to drive in the country though; it would probably take me a week just to drive to Ohio taking the back roads. And its always comforting to have someone else along in case something happens, like I get lost or somesuch. I must admit that the idea of going it alone IS kinda appealing though. Perhaps I am in need of some sort of accomplishment. And then there's the issue of being nervous meeting online friends........does anyone else feel that way? I mean, what if they dont like the real me? I spose y'all know already that I can be obnoxious, but still......THAT'S what's kinda scarey! :)

I hafta tell ya what happened yesterday, but first a little background info. Lotus has been designing her next tatoo (she plans on getting a new one on each birthday) for several months. It's a beautiful dragonfly (which she has always considered a spirit guide), with each of four wings holding within it a representation of a concept important to her. This project is close to MY heart, because she honored me so by asking me to supply the four themes for the wings. What she wants the wings to represent are four things that I would want her to take with her into the world when she leaves home. (SOB). She always wears a dragonfly ankle jewelry too.

Yesterday was the first of two days of Lotus' band recording their demo, and I went along to help unload and offer moral support. They are using a studio in a guy's garage; he's done well for others we know and is a lot cheaper than the bigger fancy places. So Lo and me and AJ, the bassist, were standing in the entryhall, just shootin the breeze, when in the open door and down the hall toward us, slowly and purposefully, flies a huge dragonfly, and gently lands right in front of our faces on the top corner of the door trim!!! Lotus and I looked at each other, dropped our jaws, and hugged. AJ thought we were crazy of course, but that's ok. The engineer walked over to see what we were so excited about, and he said he hardly ever sees any dragonflies around there, and never has seen one that large. HA! Now THAT'S what I call an omen, and I know it helped give the band confidence that all would be well. (I did not make this up!!)

LIfe is good,

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

EM...I know what ya mean about free-way driving!! We're in Maine and both Harry and I have family on Cape Cod in Mass. which is only about a 6 hr. drive. BUT...the last time we went to Mass. to dog shows on the Cape and at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, the traffic on the 4-lane highways was SCARY to say the least!! We love driving the back roads, but it's hard to find really good maps. As for the actuality of meeting "cyber-friends", don't worry about it! I've always felt that if you can "mind meld" with people either over the phone or thru the "puter", then when you finally meet face to face it will be almost like reuniting with family. Does that make sense to anyone??

That is so wonderful about the dragonfly. You should most definitly interpret it as a good omen!!! I'm sending good wishes for the success of Lotus' demo!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

Sounds cool Marcia!!!

EM you are so funny (long way to Tiperary indeed!!). Very cool about the dragonfly. Sometimes there are signs that just show you that you are on the right track..like with Richard and I about the newstand. 1) we both came up with the idea seperately from one another..wierd. 2) the other convenience/coffee shop/lunch counter kinda place on that block is closing this month (retiring)so we might get their customers. 3) the best space for us on that block is going to become vacant at the end of the month and the rent is very good.

Its like these things (downsizing, opportunities surfacing all at the same time to point us in the direction we are heading) are a cosmic shove to make us conquer fears etc. So wild!! Not as picturesque or mystical as a huge dragonfly though. We are planning to have some little bistro type tables at the front of the store and a little serve yourself coffee bar..whats in the paper yesterday? A big full page article on a LOCAL company that roasts and sells specialty coffees including and organic shade grown blend!! Guess who we'll be talking to for our coffee supply!! Lotus has a dragonfly..I have a chunky guy that roasts green coffee beans... ain't the Universe groovy???

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2002