Work for Happiness

Yesterday's skies were lovely all day.... hence the photo.

Got a short walk in today and it was wonderful. Met up with another walker who has just moved to the neighbourhood. She is afraid of dogs too and lives between here and the beach. I gave her my number and said that I'm available most of the time at the drop of the hat. Yeah to the life of the unemployed.

I've been thinking a lot of a friend who passed away recently. He and his partner, both friends of mine, had four kids, all grown now. They stayed together for the kids and shouldn't have. They lived very unhappy lives together, became ill with different cancers and have both died in their early and mid fifties. It makes you see the mind-body connection first hand. Be happy. However it can come to you, find it. Whatever you may need to do to achieve it, just do it.

I've got a couple of short but great Ray Charles songs for today, I Want to Know and Don't You Know . Think of the mind body spirit connection and those titles. I know that I want to know what I don't know. It's constant work just to be - let alone being happy all the time but it's work I will do.

Summer Perfection

I thought it was strange that my pedometer was recording an average of 34,000 steps for the last week instead of the average 25,000 steps that a work shift had usually entailed. I discovered I had the mode on calories all week. Whew! Still, I walk about 20 km. per shift but it's a bit more sane that 28.

A cool front arrived a few days ago taking the humidity away. Since then, sleeping has been wonderful. I swear that when it was so hot and humid I was averaging four or five hours of sleep in total per night. With no humidity the clear blue skies with big fluffy clouds show the bright red and green colours of our landscape at it's best.

Three more weeks till my family comes home. A friend is getting married that day too but I won't be attending any weddings or partied. I'll be hugging my kids and grandkids. Having four days off work in a row will be great too.

I've long been a fan of the great songwriter Leon Russell. I saw him live in '70 in Massachusetts and in Toronto in '71. I've featured him a few times. I was reminded of him yesterday by another blogger mentioning that Russell wrote This Masquerade that he had up with George Benson singing. This link is from my post in April. I too love this version by Benson. Leon Russell's most famous song that has been covered by so, so many is Singin' This Song For You. Here's the original by him and another version where he is the pianist and gets some help from Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.

Glorious Summer

What a glorious day to be off. It's going to be very hot but there is a beautiful breeze and all is well with my world. The highlight of my day so far was to go to the local strawberry field, get a couple of boxes of still-warm, fat, juicy berries and then the store to get a container of cold heavy cream. I put the two together and voila, the real highlight of the day.....so far.

I'm having a friend for supper who is in serious need of comfort after a devastating blow in the relationship field. Who hasn't had one of those and needed a shoulder to cry on.

I asked my son this morning what he wanted for a home-cooked meal today and he said tacos and French onion soup. I'm afraid neither is on the menu with company coming to dinner but I'll try that combination for tomorrow. I thought it was kind of a strange combination but everyone has individual tastes.

That brings me to music. I love how musical tastes are so diverse. It also changes over time. I was listening to a song today that I like very much but it ends with loud rock and roll. I always want to turn it off at that point. I certainly loved loud rock and roll at one time but have moved away from it to a large degree.

Something I never understood was that my mother did not like The Moody Blues. She liked Frank Zappa, Led Zeplin, Neil Young, CSNY, The Beatles and Stones and all that I listened to back in the late sixties but could not stand The Moody Blues. My oldest son does not like The Waifs and my uncle doesn't like Ray Charles. I don't understand it but accept that others have different musical tastes.

Since my Uncle Ray doesn't read this blog I'm posting Ray Charles. There is so much to choose from from this great, great artist that it's a difficult task. I've chosen two very different styles because he had blues hits, pop hits and country hits. Here's some blues, Hard Times, and some country, Seven Spanish Angels, where he's singing with Willie Nelson. Seven Spanish Angels may not work. If anyone else using Putfile has already uploaded a song mine piggybacks it and it is used on my page. It doesn't seem to be working but may later. It does not good to upload it again as it will piggyback to there again. I've uploaded another. I had I've Got a Woman on a 45 that I remember so well. I found it in a hiding place before Christmas and never told anyone - until now.

Monday Musings

I loved visiting the north shore beaches last week. I keep looking at the photos. I wish it had been a less bitter day though. We really were quite cold. You can dress for the weather but when you're photographing, your hands are uncovered and your photo subject might have you facing the head-on wind.

Managed a one hour hike today but nothing strenuous. That's for tomorrow. Monday's I'm a bit tired after Sunday's shift. Had lunch and a visit with a friend and we made plans for another photo shoot/hike on Friday. I have a full week with activities of some sort every day. I was thinking about the price of gas and how it costs so much to go anywhere. I realized that if I am out driving around, the furnace at home is off whereas if I was home and not driving in the car, the furnace is on keeping me warm. A reasonable trade off that made me not feel as bad.

I'm going to invite my sister-in-law for supper tonight if she drops in after work. If she already has plans I will have cooked my supper for tomorrow night. Pretty good either way. She probably has fish planned as her hubby is returning soon.

I needed a song uploaded the other day that had been on Page One and is not longer there. It was for another reason but it's such a fantastic piece that it is good as a choice for today. Crepuscular Solidao by Bonnie Raitt and Cesaria Evora is that song. Since Bonnie is so good in that duet, song number two is another one featuring her. It is Do I Ever Cross Your Mind with Ray Charles. She certainly has a voice and a style that make her fantastic in duets. I still have her first two albums on vinyl. A lot of people aren't familiar with them because she became famous only after her third and later were released.

What's Good For the Soul

No Squirrels!

Took a friend to the hospital today for a medical procedure that required anaesthetic thus she couldn't drive. Her appointment was 12:30 and she got in around 3:00. I'm up on current events now thanks to Time, MacLeans, Reader's Digest and Chatelaine. Usually waiting rooms have very old magazines but this waiting room had current ones. Waiting rooms are the only time I read magazines. I don't think I've bought one since I was a pre-teen though for years I had a subscription to National Geographic.

Books are another story but I won't get started on that other than it is absolutely impossible for me to fall asleep unless I read. I remember camping a few years ago and I'd forgotten to bring a flashlight or lantern. I laid there all night, then had to drive all the next day, then laid there all night the next night. I was completely wrecked....all because I couldn't read.

We are having very cold temperatures and wind for the next few days then moderating, above freezing temperatures for the weekend.

Music will be links again. With all that I've been reading on the music blogs, the music page may have to go. It is a wait and see situation. I don't have much new music, only old nostalgic songs, so it may not be as important to the forces that be. You Don't Know Me by Ray and Diana ( I can shorten it because I've introduced it properly before) and Maria Lando by Susana Baca - for your soul (or mine, anyway).

Purple Haze

Kenz won't let me type; she wants some love. Let me get rid of her. I certainly don't deny the kitties, just have to change the time to suit my needs sometimes. There! The photo above is of last night's sky or just a moment of it. I got some other shots that look nothing like this. The colors changed dramatically over the short period of time. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Today has not been perfect. I woke up with a cold. A half a box of Kleenex kind of cold. It will probably be gone in a few days because I have a great immune system and care for it daily. PEI has been reporting the worst cold and flu season in several years and I know lots of people who have been sticken. I've been very careful. I have strong feelings about not spreading these things but have to go to town on Thursday for a very important medical appointment that has been scheduled for a long time. With our long wait times for tests and procedures, you don't simply reschedule for a little cold. I can ask for a mask.

The other day I talked about covers sometimes not being able to stand up to the writer's version of a song. Today I have an example of the opposite. Sometimes a cover is soooo great. Diana Krall and Ray Charles' version of You Don't Know Me is a real favorite of mine. It is the 8th song I uploaded in the 490 that are on the music page. I don't know if the original version is by Eddy Arnold but it's the version that brings me right back to my parents and life in the 50's or 60's, whenever it was popular; probably early 60's. It was definitely from one the albums my parents played. I've put that up today and have linked Diana and Ray's version.

Saying Goodbye Again

I keep forgetting that I won't be getting any more paycheques. It certainly is the downside of not working. I knew I had to work the 22nd. Just realized today that it's this Sunday....and I was making other plans.

Dinner and trivia tonight with a friend who is moving to Newfoundland. Dinner will be with our winter team and our off-season game will be fun. We are losing a member of the team though so that's sad. I made her a cd today; she's a wonderful musician and loves music. I love putting together cd's for someone like that.

Music: Ray Charles and Betty Carter - Everytime We Say Goodbye and There are Places I Remember by the Beatles.

Today's link: A huge art site called Art For Housewives.