Feed: saintvi's Xanga - AggScore: 47.4

Yesterday

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Too Busy To Blog

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Yesterday was spent learning how to set up and run emergency shelters. The training finished a little earlier than expected, so I took the opportunity to kidnap the Homeland Security officer who was sitting next to me during the training and introduce her to geocaching. I had none of my gear with me; not even my GPS. But we found a cache I'd found a year or two ago, still there but harder to find in summer than it was in late fall. I think I turned my new friend to the dark side. She gave me her email address and asked me to let her know next time I'm in her area.

I'd had to get up early to drop Boo at daycare and get to the training, so I was tired by the time I got home. I started to catch up on my xanga subs, but next thing I knew I was waking up on the couch with a sore neck and just enough time to get into my swimsuit and drive to the pool for water aerobics. You'd think the icy water might have woke me up; you'd be wrong. I yawned all the way through the class.

Today I'm preparing to leave for GeoWoodstock. @murisopsis and @OldDogSparky are picking me up in the morning and we're headed down to southern Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. We're making a brief stop along the way to meet @ata_grandma and show her what this geocaching thing is all about. Come to the dark side, @ata_grandma ! Friday evening's plans involve tie-dyed shirts and events with names like "Miles of Smiles Meet & Greet" and "Zombie Horde Flash Mob" as well as nighttime caching along the river walk with a view of the Louisville skyline.

I'm still making notes of all the caches on our list. I've finished the Friday ones and will start in on the Saturday caches later. For now, I need to walk Boo, put the lasagna together, finish packing, organize my cache bag, do a load of laundry, get the van ready to go into the shop tonight, check the mail... In other words, I need to get off the computer and get moving! I may be able to catch up with you via the Xanga Mobile App depending on wireless signals along our route. If I'm not too exhausted I'll look in on xanga and Facebook from the hotel Friday and Saturday nights.

I'm pretty sure we're all crazy.

Something's Not Write

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I saw a photo similar to this on Facebook the other day. I wasn't sure where to find it, so I took my own. The sad thing is that we actually had some of these things kicking around the house.

Ditch Flowers

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Sunday Morning Moment of Zen

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Tortoise (UPDATED)

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UPDATE: @Joyouswind and I walked for Lory's Place this morning. Lory's Place was founded by Hospice at Home to meet a need they perceived in the region. Community and corporate support, along with fundraisers like this morning's 5K Run, Walk and Rock allow Lory's Place to offer free grief counseling. It was begun with emphasis on helping children ages 3-18 through the grieving process. They are now able to offer their services to children, adults and families. Joyouswind's employer offered to cover the registration fee and sponsor any employee who wished to walk, plus one friend or family member of each employee. I was Krysten's Plus One.

We arrived at the starting area around 8:15 AM. We had planned to get there by 8:00, but we had to park further away than anticipated. There were 1,198 people registered for the 5K.

If Xanga Were a Doughnut...

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@Bookmark61 showed me this article on Geek.com that explains how different social media sites work using the analogy of eating doughnuts. I had to laugh, especially at the G+ analogy.

Catching Up & A Creepy Cemetery

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Not a whole lot to catch you up on. I've been riding my bike around the residential streets of The 'Duh, which is about 95% of the village. I haven't gone any great distance yet; I'm still trying to get used to riding again. It's been about 35 years since I was last on a bicycle. It feels good. I mean, my knees hurt a little while I'm pedaling and my butt hurts when I get off the bike, but I love the feel of the wind in my face and the sense of freedom just like I felt when I was a kid and got my first bike. I'm eventually going to have to start looking for a few accessories, like a pump and a vehicle rack, but for now I'm just enjoying wheeling around the village streets. In related news, I got my first sunburn of the year yesterday. Time to start remembering the sunscreen!

I've been reading The Dresden Files series of books. I've finished the fifth book. I ordered the DVDs of the TV series and about the best I can say is that it passes the time.

Still doing water aerobics, tai chi, Red Cross courses and volunteering, geocaching and trying new recipes. Last night was coconut chicken with mango and pineapple salsa. It was pretty good, but not as good as the fried chicken, cornflake chicken, savory chicken, garlic lime chicken, creamed chicken, or grilled chicken we have routinely rotating through the menu.

There's a fun little survey going on over at Huffington Post. I know, I know - they're like the National Enquirer of the internet, but occasionally they accidentally post something interesting. This time it's voting for America's spookiest cemetery. I just found out about it today and it's already in the semifinal round. You should go HERE and vote for Glenwood, MS. It's actually Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City, Mississippi. I've been there, and I've seen the witch's grave with the broken chain surrounding it.

You can read about the witch and her curse, the fire that destroyed Yazoo City and the mysteriously broken chain HERE.

And that's all I've got time for today. I need to walk the dog, pick up the mail, run to the grocery store, and have dinner cooked in two-and-a-half hours. It's time to get moving.

Up To Good

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I'm not sure whether any of you noticed that I haven't been around as much lately. I've tried to get on xanga in spare moments to read and comment, but that's been a little hit or miss, especially if your blog has slipped off the first page of my inbox. I apologize for not being as attentive as I should have been, but I'm not sorry for the reason I've been away so much.

In early March, severe storms swept across the country and caused widespread devastation, including an area of southern Indiana that was pretty much wiped off the map by tornadoes. In the past few years, tornadoes have struck Fort Smith, Arkansas where my sisters live; Yazoo City, Mississippi where my nieces and nephew live; Joplin, Missouri which is where I turn south when I'm driving to Arkansas; rural Oklahoma where @WildWomanOfTheWest lost everything she owned, and now an area of southern Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky where I am planning to attend GeoWoodstock in less than two weeks. Tornadoes have intruded on my placid life in the past two or three years. A small F1 tornado even struck right here, about a mile from my beloved 'Duh. I've seen the damage in some of those places; I've seen the changes in other places where buildings and trees that had stood for more than a century are gone.

For some time now, I've been considering volunteering with the American Red Cross. I would like to go to those places that have been devastated by disaster and bring basic needs; food, water, clean-up kits, hugs and hope to people whose lives have been turned upside down. The tornadoes in southern Indiana were the last straw. I drove to the nearest Red Cross office and offered my services. I was immediately enrolled in several training courses all over the region to learn about the history of the Red Cross, disasters and how the Red Cross responds (Allegan, MI); how to care for people involved in a disaster (Battle Creek, MI); how to perform data entry using the saba software program (online course), the role of various agencies (including the Red Cross) in a radiological emergency (Cassopolis, MI), Basic Food Safety (online course); Defensive Driving (online course); and most recently, the role of the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) and how to operate it (Kalamazoo, MI).


I still need to get First Aid and CPR certifications (probably in South Bend, IN) in order to get my ERV driver certification, but I stayed behind after class and took the driving test in the rain on unfamiliar roads and I passed. I'd never driven anything that big before, and I've never had a garage so I'd never had to park a vehicle of any kind in a garage until last Saturday. My very first time to do it, and it was an ambulance-shaped truck with no back window and only about three inches of clearance on each side. Not to mention the instructor was standing behind the ERV giving me hand signals so besides worrying about taking off a side mirror, I was a little concerned about squishing the instructor against the back wall of the garage. But it all worked out in the end. It took me four tries to get the ERV lined up properly, but I did it and no mirrors or instructors were damaged in the process.

I have more training ahead; Shelter Operations, Shelter Simulation, Psychological First Aid, Helping People With Disabilities, First Aid, CPR... I'm also volunteering at the local chapter once a week to answer phones. I make a lot of mistakes, but they appreciate me anyway. In the next few weeks I'll begin doing data entry. Some day, I'll earn my vest and I'll be out there when disaster hits, doing something to help.

Volunteering with the Red Cross has been one of my steps in the No Fear process. I have gone to unfamiliar towns and cities and found the building I needed, introduced myself to new people, learned new things. I've driven a truck bigger than anything I've ever driven, and I backed it into a snug space in a garage. I've pushed myself to learn a very confusing software program, and I'm answering phones in an office where I don't know the answers to most of the questions I'm asked. For a shy person like me, these are huge steps in overcoming deep-seated fears.

Here's my challenge to you: If I can do these things, you can too. Maybe not the exact same things, but you can take steps to overcome your fears. It's a beautiful, empowering feeling to take hold of your fear, shake it out and show it who's boss. I'm in the process of doing that. Don't wait as long as I did. Be bold, be strong, have No Fear.

New Wheels

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Wow - I got the coolest Mother's Day gift ever! It's so cool, I'm good until Christmas. Maybe even Valentine's Day. My daughter and my husband got me a new set of wheels for Mother's Day. Yellow, with brown seat and accents and turquoise rims.

Wanna see it?