Turn Your Blue Mind On

Hi Everyone... These pictures (I think from 1986) are of Lake Argyle near Macomb, IL which is the town Western Illinois University is & is where I earned my Bachelors in Psychology & worked on my Masters for 1 term. I loved WIU! I didn't have a car when I was in college, so I didn't get out there very many times in the 4 1/2 yrs, but I LOVED it when I did. So relaxing, LOTS of laughing also! Unfortunately, Lake Argyle is about 4 hours away from where I grew up & live now ,so not very easy to head there now either.

Hi Everyone... I'm going to really age myself here. These pictures are from summers of 1979, & 1983 (last one I think?) . HA! So this little boy is quite older now! HA! They are from my visits to Michigan. Other than some visits to shop in Michigan City, I've vacationed in Michigan I believe 4 times. Twice I went with family friends to their cottage near the lake, once for my 8th grade graduation & once for my high school graduation. The picture above is from one of those times. Now it was the time I graduated high school that I claimed the water (ok, sand and sun too) was Medicine & healed me! Yep, I believed in 1983! You see, I had to have my tonsils out after my graduation. Very bad...on antibiotics for weeks and weeks so I could graduate, then on graduation day they got bad again, so different antibiotics and surgery postponed for a week or so until they kicked in. A week after the surgery I went up to Michigan with our family friends. OMG that week my hea...

Hi Everyone... I'm sure this may be true for other areas now, though some warmer areas may have been a bit earlier. Please be on the look out as she says in the video!!! While my baby "Sam" left me about 5 yrs ago "Ella" is still going strong. She will be 17 yrs old this July. She and my kitty "Sterling" usually wake me up in the morning...talk about meal conditioning HA! "Ella" decides to splash around in her tank (it is in my bedroom) and move the big smooth rocks. "Sterling" probably hears that & then starts licking me. HA! "Sam" & "Ella" (Sam was the bigger one on top" I have changed the big rocks now as they would move them. Strong turtles! Here is just "Ella" from some pics I took today...she is a big girl now! "Ella" is the calm & quiet one. "Sam" was the feisty & dominant one. She would tell you when she was not happy. Ha! "Sterli...

Hi Everyone... Today my post is to Honor a Hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice last Monday (Memorial Day) when he was attempting to rescue a man who fell from his boat into the Chicago River. Juan Bucio was a Chicago policeman for 3 years and then fireman for 15 years and was part of the Marine & Dive Unit for 11 years. During his funeral services today they explained Juan loved the water! He was a lifeguard when he was a young teen for the Chicago beaches. He is one of 9 siblings, including a brother who is a fireman and a sister who is a policewoman. He had two sons 10 & 9 yrs old. If you would like to donate to help his sons you may here . I know this is a somber post, but I believe it is a very important one. So many of us enjoy oceans, lakes, rivers, & pools and we don't always think about those who are protecting us or come to our aid. They do this because they love to help us. They do it every day! Maybe we should think of that & yes, I'll say, ...

Hi Everyone... Sometimes the posts come to you! :-) This looks like a great idea but as we know, not everyone has access to lakes, streams oceans nor can afford to do a room like the one they show. We can get as close as possible though. Again, they show water but do NOT mention it really. Booo! Though sometimes it is not silent at the lake or beach if there is lots of people there. And well you can't shush a Seagull! Ha! Well you can but...ha...and actually sea gulls make me relax. Again, they have been just associated with lakes and oceans so much that now when I see or hear them in even a mall parking lot I relax. I guess good thing it was associated since I don't get to be by the lake or ocean often. Today my water from drinking, laundry and sprinkling the plants on my deck.

Hi Everyone... Well today's water consisted of doing the dishes & laundry! HA! We also got a bit of rain this evening. I can't seem to find a picture yet of our first pool at our first house. Still searching though. This one was at our second house. We had an acre and 1/3 of woods. We just took the trees out where the house & driveway would be and just a smidge around it to have a bit of a lawn. The house in the background is our neighbors. This pool was the biggest we had and I loved it. I could really get quite a bit of swimming in. I also loved floating and looking up to the underneath side of the leaves and seeing the water moving as a reflection on them. The colors were cool also with the sun going through some of them. Of course, I'd also get to listen to the birds and see the squirrels racing around chasing each other and jumping from limb to limb. I'm probably odd, but even the sound of the pool filter relaxed me, probably because it was sim...

Hi Everyone... I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had not heard of Andy Irons nor Kelly Slater since I'm from the Midwest and well surfing is just not a big thing here! HA! I first learned about Kelly Slater recently when he was interviewed on StarTalk , a show I love & record. :-) I thought I would share the episode with you in case you have not seen it. (I don't see any way to share the video in the post and you'll have to pick your service provider.)  Kelly starts off talking about living near Kennedy Space Station & his mom working there. He too felt the shuttles were kinda common place/routine events yet feeling his house shake when the Challenger exploded. He said he watched until that launch, but Neil never asked him why he didn't watch after that? Interesting! I too remember being in college and each night sitting in my bed watching tv and for several days they would scrub the launch due to weather. I also remember the day it exploded....