April 16 - Day after Tax Day!

"If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare." ~John Lithgow

"Sometimes I'll go by and there are a couple of swans, the next day it's a few ducks. I'd like to stop there every day for a year and capture how it changes, then put it all together to create an incredible image of a traditional English scene."
~ Graeme Le Saux

“There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.”
~ T.S. Eliot quotes

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Friday My Town~ Shoot Outs has deemed today as the day after taxes day.. Dave and I filed ours a long time ago in January and had spent the small amount of cash returned to us long before it gathered any dust in our pockets.. Money seems to go faster than it comes to us.. But I do think that is the way it is with almost everyone we know.. we were lucky in that we got a small amount back.. Many people have to pay more money in to the IRS..

Now that the work and worry of figuring out what you can claim and how you will ever come up with the extra cash to pay Uncle Sam has passed... we are asked to look through out Town photo's and choose just one that makes you smile or chuckle.. maybe even laugh..

Dave and I were walking along the lake today searching for a cactus.. ( don't ask it's a whole different story!).. when we spotted this young family along the walkway across the damn.. we had been watching a mother duck with a nest and hurried to check and see if this was the brood we have been watching and waiting on to hatch... As we got close they took off into the water with Both Mom and Dad quacking loudly... our duck was right where we left her a few days ago still sitting on her nest of warm bluish green eggs.. She even moved a tiny bit away when I asked nicely with the swish of a small leafy limb that hides them.. Counting quickly I saw that she still had nine eggs and moved away so that she could return to her vigil..

We watched as the parents swam away and then back to the damn as we walked on.. every time we came close they swam out again and would lead the babies right back as soon as we stepped away.. finally as we had our backs turned they dashed across the damn and settled on the edge of a large submerged rock.. Mama and Papa swam in circles around and around the boulder keeping the babies on their safe if rocky perch.. every time the papa came around to the side where we were he quacked at us as loud as I imagine he could.. I had to laugh at him.. I quickly snapped this photo.. It's a good thing too since I am not sure I had another "make you smile" photo in my stash.. Finally we decided that we didn't see the cactus we were looking for and headed back along the path to the car and home.. The young ducks are fluffy and sweet but you really don't want to come to near to them.. Mallards are great protectors of their young and though it might have made a funny photo I am sure that neither of us wanted to be attacked by a Papa duck today.. We prefer instead to enjoy their silly antics from a distance where we are safe from being quacked to death..

I hope you had a wonderful day after taxes day! I hope you had reasons to smile. giggle or laugh today.. If you didn't then maybe you can imagine me running from a quacking.. wing flapping. fluttering.. angry Papa duck.. see.. I know you laughed at that! Have a wonderful night!

Patsy

A Sepia Sun!

"A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes. " ~ Joseph Addison

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." ~ Steve Martin



Sepia Scenes # 54~




Welcome to SEPIA SCENES for October 29/2009.


I love smiles and sunshine.. I have these clay sun faces hidden in many spots around my yard.. you may stumble upon one smiling on you from above or even from a spot on or near the ground.. My Great Niece.. Dorie.. informed me on her last visit that they are secret path smilers.. She has such a wonderful imagination...She spots secret paths that were secret even to me.. have a great Night!
Patsy

Advice For the "Kids"... Are you listening to me?

"A little girl is sugar and spice and everything nice - especially when she's taking a nap."
~Author Unknown

"A child is a curly dimpled lunatic." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In America there are two classes of travel - first class, and with children." ~Robert Benchley

Finally tonight I have only a few tidbits of advice for the "Kids".... I was reminded of being a young Mother myself by yesterdays soccer practice and by the swarm of school children I saw up town on the circle today when I went to pay a bill.. I wondered why there were so many of the little critters hanging around in town till someone reminded me that this was home coming week for our football team.. Apparently they came out in droves of short skirted; face painted; nasty mouthed; girls just for the parade.. I had to hurry and get off of the circle.. I can't abide smart mouthed kids.. I remember back in the day when the boys were the ones you had to watch out for.. they would get into things that would make your hair stand on end... Now days I fear the boys are out matched by the girls.. the girls learn young how to dress or maybe I should say undress to catch the eye.. my fear is that they will catch the wrong eye.. and the sad thing is that they don't care.. they don't hear or heed the warnings we old folks try to give them.. Just a few weeks ago one of my teen aged nieces said to me.. "Awe Aunt Patsy .. you soooooooooooo crazy.. you so funny!" ..... I had asked a simple question.. how was I to know that they make shorts now so that half of your cheek hangs out?? My Daddy would have whipped them things the rest of the way off of me.. with his belt.. I was trying to be helpful when I asked her what happened to her pants... honestly she looked like a dog might have attacked her.. shorts gnawed off up passed her butt.. the legs ragged and they were pulled down just as far as they could possibly go without showing what I once heard a child call "the front butt"..I was flabbergasted.. she called me crazy and funny and there she stood in dog gnawed britches about to show the front butt.. already showing more than half of the back butt... Did everyone who is raising kids forget how to dress them... Do they look at their kids before they leave the house? and thus begins my advice for tonight...

1-]~ Look at what your children are wearing.. and if you are a kid.. look at what you are wearing.. does it project the image you want to have? Is some part of your body hanging half out? Cover that up!!! Perverts are watching you! If you are a parent think of who might be watching your child.. is it safe for them to waltz around half naked? I am well aware that styles have changed.. I even own some shorts myself.. I am not a prude.. and parents.. don't fall for the everyone wears this routine... tell them like I told mine.. " No everyone is not wearing that style with the butt hanging out britches..." and when they asked.. "who's not?" I said "YOU ARE NOT!" we all want our children to be happy and yes even popular to some extent.. but some of them need some dressing lessons... If you wouldn't want to see me or your Grandmother in those clothes.. don't wear them yourself..

2-]~ When you wake up each morning complete the following statement, 'My
purpose is to __________ today.' this is supposed to be a great self motivator and help you set goals for the day.. honestly I usually fill the space with ~ Make it through~ Please don't fill the space with anything weird or kinky like get lucky or get laid.. try phrases like learn something new.. or be helpful .. or even clean my room or read a book.. smile at a little old lady.. try to do something productive every day.. and I guess if all else fails you can always join me and try to just make it through the day.. But at least make the effort to think in productive terms.. I think that maybe tomorrow morning I will try a new phrase.. tomorrow morning I will try get lucky.. get kinky.. get laid.. I think I have some shorts that I can let the dog gnaw off just above the butt and then maybe my phrase might come true!

3-]~ Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful... that mean clear your desk.. your home.. your car.. your box under the bridge.. of anything (or anyone) that is taking up space but has no purpose in your life.. and let new and flowing energy into your life...and just so you know.. I am both joyful and useful.. we can't all be beautiful..

4-]~Try to make at least three people smile each day. This really is easy.. smile are infectious.. Most people..unless they are just a mean spirited old codger.. will smile back at you if you smile at them from the heart.. sometimes a person needs a smile and your smiling will help both your feelings and theirs.. When Em was a baby and we were always off to the hospital for one thing or another.. platelets were low or time for radiation... or even just a check up.. I wondered how the Doctors and other staff there always had a smile.. I asked Dr Red one day how they managed to pull it off.. he laughed and patted my hand.. " Go look in the mirror" he said.. when you have gritted your teeth long enough.. it begins to resemble a smile!" I realized right then that I didn't want to go through life with gritted teeth.. I smiled at him and smiled at the other parents and the children we met there.. My children needed smiles.. I needed smiles and when I gave them out I got them back.. Smile at the old lady in the car next to you at the red light.. smile at the child looking at you so intently from his Mommy's shopping cart.. smile at the hateful girl ringing up your purchases at the Wal-mart.. smile at as many people as you can in one day.. see if you can get them to smile back.. Maybe on days when you can think of nothing else you can make this your purpose for advice tip #2 above.. "My Purpose is to make an old lady.. a child and a cranky clerk smile at me today" ... I like it!

5-]~ Say No to projects that won't fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health. If you don't have time.. say "I don't have time" and never ever let anyone push you into something that you feel is morally or ethically wrong..in fact if you just plain don't want to then say that too.. NO NO NO!!..I almost never say no.. I even say yes sometimes when I would rather have said no.. I try to be helpful to anyone when I can.. But trust me.. If I really.. really didn't want to do something.. No one could make me.. I couldn't be convinced or as Daddy said corns-waggled into it.. I believe in helping where we can.. But sometimes the answer just needs to be NO! I won't get mad if you tell me no.. but Me and Dave will talk about you.. and about how we have done so much for you and then you have the audacity to tell us no.. when we ask for a simple little favor.. are you corns-waggled yet?? The answer is still NO? Good I would think less of a person I could corns-waggle into my way of thinking.. NO I can't.. No I don't want too.. No I think it's a stupid plan.. sometimes you just gotta say NO! You can tell them Mama.. Aunt Patsy.. Grandma.. boss-Heifer.. said NO!

Have a wonderful night!
Patsy