CEDARHILL

Mother's New Perm

I took mother for a new perm at The Body Shoppe. With an "e". It is a collection of  local women who have been doing hair for their favorites...for years. And occassionally a new one...like Mother. Adrienne (on the left) did my hair a few  weeks ago. I was probably one of her older clients at the time. So, when Debbie (center) who is known for doing "older ladies" wasn't available, I made an appt with Adrienne to do Mothers perm. She was game, but admitted, once we were into the perm process, that she hadn't "done one for awhile." So Debbie and Kate stepped in to help. It was a Globe Moment.

I sat in the wings for the 2.5 hours it took to  complete the process and had  two women come up to me to say how wonderful my mother was....and  hug me for taking care of her. One of them had taken care of her mother for four years with alzheimers. But in fact, everyone in that shop was keeping their eye out for mother.

So, although it took much longer than I had anticipated, it was an experience I will tuck into my memory as one worth holding on to.     It was a Steel Magnolias moment.

Cinema Hometown

Ever since the Pioneer Hotel burned down July '05 and took out the Globe Theater with it, this town has been missing a hometown theater. Lots of discussion and talk later...we still don't have one. So that's when Linda O and I talked about just doing what we did at CedarHill.

Paint a Wall, get a projector, bring some lawn chairs...and show a movie. And so we did. Last night.

Got alot of help from others. DJS contributed a free port-apotty. The Lyons Club set up a drink stand. George and his son who own a Bar-B-Que place, not only brought pulled pork and brisquet sandwiches, but George also painted our 15'  Screen on the side of the Bernstein Building. And Linda got the college to loan us their hi-dollar projection unit  (we used Donna's at the house)...and I brought my not so hi-dollar computer speakers from home.

And the last big "give me" was a friends mother who came up with the original SANDLOT dvd, when I had forgotten to get it earlier and the day of the movie...it was checked out. So I was at Hog Haven - the bar-b-que joint getting food and talking about my dilemma when one of the cooks piped up and said.... I think my mom has that movie. Sure enough she did!  SAVED! (cause any afficianado will tell you that the sequels were not near as good as the original).

Linda O and I didn't want to promote it much since we weren't sure of of all the details...but still - about 30 people showed up with kids and lawn chairs and blankets and.

Brandon & Leslie...parents of three little girls, regretted not bringing their FOURTH girl.... a mastiff (like the dog in Sandlot). Next time maybe he will.  They loved it and thanked us for putting on an event where the kids could hang out. Leslie thinks we should do PRINCESS BRIDE next time. One of my favorites...

I'm sure we'll have a bigger crowd next time. People who drove by on the street stopped to look and ask questions.. Couldn't believe we were showing a movie in the middle of the Old Pioneer building. It was a great nite! Perfect weather. No wind.   (This is Linda and husband, Rich, getting a pulled pork sandwich, while we waited for the sun to go down and get dark enough to show the pic......

All this FUN...and right across from the house. Since Guy left to go to Payson for mothers day, we had Rick Uhl sitting with the ladies and he was a prince, so watch The Lawrence Welk Show with mother till 8:30. 

Earlier that day was the annual fund raiser for the battered women and children's shelter here in Globe and Sarah was not only a hostess (meaning you 'set' your table with a theme and bring dessert, and  stock your table with warm bodies), but she also put on a fashion show of her clothing....with  all of us friends as models. Everything Sarah does is classy, and this year her table had that international flair, down to vintage name holders from India, and silk embroidered bags with a porcelain necklace for each of us....and a personal note of thanks for attending the event at each place setting.

The fashion show was fun. We each got to go down earlier in the week and pick out two outfits we wanted to wear . ANYTHING.  Dana even modeled a pair of her fabulous floral printed pajamas, and sarah just desribed the outfits as we walked around the tables. "Bit a Bing, Bit a Bang" as Sarah said. Keep it simple. It was. And everyone enjoyed themselves. Plus raised a few thousand. It was a FULL DAY around here!

The Ladies High Tea

I had never been to a High Tea before, but could hardly turn down the  invitation to experience such a  social affair - and for a good cause (the Center for the Arts). Our two hostesses treated us  to an elegant afternoon of tea - poured from silver pots- and homemade scones, rich whipped cream butter,finger sandwiches and lemon bars and petit fours. We then retired to the back patio for alittle wine and conversation.
The only thing I regret is
n ot wearing gloves and a hat. One should take every opportunity to don such things.There are far to few reasons to do so these days and I let this one get away from me.
 
I can see why High Tea is a pleasure. The British were on to something there! Nothing too heavy.
Not the food. Not the conversation. Not the demands on ones' time.

And so it was that in a busy, hectic life... 20 women found time to Chill, Contribute, and Converse. Nice.

   

The Night that Was

Nite before last night was one of those nights.  Mother was up and down all night long. She was convinced she was supposed to be anywhere but here. And I don't know what happens with the brain , but it seems to loose the good sense it once had that says a body needs sleep. Luckily, Guy had volunteered to spot me a nite and so HE was the one up and down with Mother.
The body finally took over from the brain about mid morning and mother got some much needed sleep. Not so with Guy who worked all day.
Last night was my night again...and it was relatively quiet. This experience reminds me of parenting where your hearing  gets attuned to  the noises your children make. And you develop the ability to determine - mostly- which are "good noises" and which are "bad noises."
Like - complete quiet all of a sudden is bad. Loud booms are bad.  Running water is generally OK (except the other day when the toilet overflowed  on the main floor and flooded the downstairs ceiling).(Mother explained she was  cleaning up things in the living room and had put a few things 'down the sink.' )The bumping noise as the wheelchair goes from the living room to the kitchen, helps to identify just where someone is, as does the bumping sound into walls and doors. Its acts as a sonar radar of sorts. Mother is always surprised by how much we DO know about her comings and goings. And we are occassionally surprised by how little we know sometimes. Like the time she went out the window to get to the front porch. Her independent nature is still in charge even though her brain is not always making those connections. Guy and I just try to keep up.

 

A Fine Morning

It has been awhile since I posted pics of mother or me, so I had Guy snap a few this morning.  Mother is finally letting her hair go white (which I find more beautiful than the blonde she kept insisting on)....and i finally gave up letting my hair gray naturally and dyed it auburn again.
Mother was wondering around this morning ...early...and after perusing the entire house and grounds decided it was a "nice place"...Wasn't sure she believed me when I told her it was our place...but for the moment she was satisfied with the state of things.

The weather here is getting warm enough to have breakfast on the back patio, but with temps in the high 90's in Phoenix, it won't be long before it's too hot. 

Tough Enough to Wear Pink

The theme this year for the Gila County Rodeo Parade was "tough enough to wear pink."
So the Budweiser Truck, along with horses, cowboys and cowgirls all dressed in pink. It was an atypical theme for a Rodeo Parade,
but it seems it is a theme which has a familiar ring among many in this community.

OK...so not everybody was wearing PINK. There was Alice in one of her signature hats. She logs about ten miles a day in her rounds of Globe. Since giving up driving several years ago, she walks everywhere; to Safeway, the bank, everyw here! Up and down these hills. She is probably in better shape at age 85+ than I am at 51! She says she'd be crippled up just like everyone else her age who just sits around. Her healthcare plan is to walk.
And then there was Ed Bacon who rode the  wagon in the parade. Again, if you're a Bacon you don't have to do anything but show up. Like most "events" in Globe, the joy is in watching your neighbors.

Cabbage Rolls

Katie came over today to show Guy how to make a special breed of cabbage roles known to this area. She brought her grandkids with her and Guy lined up all the ingredients before hand and was a most excellent audience for nearly 3 hours while he and Katie steamed, mixed and rolled stuffing into about 40 cabbage rolls.

The end result was a big pot of cabbage rolls steeped in tomato sauce and bavarian sauerkraut. On top of all this, it was Katie's B-Day today and THIS is what she wanted to do with her day..... cook at Cedar Hill. Thanks katie!
(cabbage rolls before the sauce....)

More & Better...a book about water & oil

The book I'm reading now is "Deep Economy". It starts out by saying that "two birds MORE and BETTER used to roost on the same branch"... but the way our world has evolved, you now have to choose between them. Either MORE. or BETTER. And he makes the point that MORE has landed us in the predicament we now face.

The chapter I was reading last night talked about happiness. Or satisfaction more to the point. It seems that once the basic needs are met, the degree of satisfaction does NOT rise with more money. He points out the life satisfaction of pavement dwellers- that is, homeless people -in Calcutta was among the lowest recorded, but it almost doubled when they mved into a slum, at which point they were basically as satisfied with their lives as a sample of college students drawn from forty-seven nations.".."In general researchers report that money consistenly buys happiness right up to about $10,000 per capita income, and that after that point the correlation disappears."  On the list of important mistakes we've made as a species, this one seems pretty high up. A single-minded focus on increasing wealth has driven the planet's ecological systems to the brink of failure, without making us happier.

(He gives the examle of a Chinese girl in a factory who wishes for a stuffed animal. When the author brought one back to her, there were tears in her eyes. It was a zenith moment. And her co-workers were also happy for her. Unlike his daughter, who had a room full of beanie babies. Another stuffed animal? really? So what? One reason our approach to Christmas doesn't work very well. The polls say we dread it because it adds more stuff to our lives. Amen to that!)

This is one of the things I notice with living in Globe. It is less about the stuff. I am exhausted by the choices and the distractions I find in Tucson or Phoenix. Fun - but overwhelming. It's nice to live in a town with one shoe store. And when we get a new movie theater, it will be greeted with the same intensity as the little girl and her stuffed animal. It will be COOL!. Not, like the cities where a new 12-plex can go up with barely a yawn.

"The economists, and the political leaders they advise, have developed a wonderful set of tools for getting more.Achieving ever greater econmies of scale. ..."

But there is something we give up, trade off and loose in that process. Take the food chain for instance..

*...The average bite of American food has traveled more than 1500 miles before it reaches your lips, changing hands an average of six times along the way.  ...75% of the apples for sale in New York City come from the West Coast or overseas, even though New York State produces ten times as many apples as the residents of the Big Apple consume."

"Americans import Danish sugar cookies, and Danes import American sugar cookies. Exchanging reipes would surely be more efficient!"

In the interest of efficiencies we have created huge farms for everything from apples to pigs to wheat.

Did you know..FOUR companies slaughter 81% of the beef in ths country, and 2 American companies control 75% of the globe's grain trade? Archer Daniels and Cargill. And huge pig farms?  There is one in North Carolina which handles 1.5 million hogs and produces more sewage than Los Angeles!

As McKibben points out...we may beable to fix the sewage problems and distribution issues. But there are two things that BIG AG relies on which is running out: Water and Oil. And there is no "fixing" those without shifting our view and our practices as to what constitutes MORE and BETTER.

I talked to one of the owners recently of a local Mexican restuarant. She tells me a sack of flour has gone from $15 to over $60! It makes me think there might come a time - very soon- where we appreciate just ONE flour tortilla for what it is...rather than take even the smallest thing for granted.   

A Day of Salt River Rafting

Today I went rafting with the girls. Seven of us who have busy lives, with businesses, kids, and long to-do lists said good-bye to all those responsibilities and headed off to the Salt River for a full day of rafting. It's funny, the response of this from those in our lives. Guy reminded me that there was nothing on paper about important numbers he should know or things he may be called on to do if i'm not around. I concur, but didn't have time to do much more than give him John and Susan's number.  Sarah's mother had a similar response, telling Sarah she better make it back because she (her mother) did not want to be raising 2 young children.     Leslie, who is a mother of three young children (under 5) was given a complete day  of freedom as hubby, Brandon took on the care and feeding of young ones. (I'm sure he said something about making it back in one piece!)...

I was not too worried, until we listened to the "safety lesson" and discovered all sorts of ways one could end up in the river.

And it was Waaay to cold today to be cavalier about going into the river. So we listened.

(At the end of the day when none of us had fallen overboard, we asked our guide just how many people did end up in the river. He told us it was unusual to complete a run without atleast one overboard. I attribute that to the sensibilities of our little gang of seven. We do not go for that kind of discomfort and drama in our life. So we worked at staying in the boat. Which we did!)

As for the rafting itself, the clothes leave alittle to be desired. First you have to pull on a semi-wet wetsuit (used from the day before) and pull on those little waterproof booties. Then layer that with a splash jacket and a life vest...which, when taken as a whole....makes you feel a bit mummiefied..it is a wonder that you can walk - let alone climb in a raft and row!

We opted for the full day on the river, which included a wonderful hamburger grill - compliments of our guide(s). about mid-day. By then we'd traveled 5 miles and multiple rapids and some of were very wet, and all of us were very hungry. We finished up on the river about 3:30...and as our guide said, we complete our day by managing a level 3 rapids....and a level 4 Bus trip back through narrow canyon roads which drop off and stream beds with loose bottoms. yep...that was well said.  But we survived. And so did the bus.We decided to close out our day of total irresponsibility at The Drift Inn. Ahhh.... what a day! 

Uploaded the Bollywood Pics

See the PhotoAlbum to the Left...for all pics. Courtesy of Bruce and Guy who were our official photographers for the nite and did a Fine Job!...

What a great evening!  I think I'd rank it right up there with one of the best parties ever at cedarhill!

A very fine Bollywood Nite!

                                                                                                                                      

Bollywood came to Globe and it was a great nite! Although I did struggle with not only HOW to wear a Saree...but actually walking, talking and entertaining in one. Honestly, I don't see how Indian women do it!. But the fabric is great!

Guy looked FAB in the digs which Andrew sent. Thanks A! And don't worry. Guy kept the white pants clean. Even insisting on kneeling on a blanket when we did the group shot!

Our guests were the best of all! Most people put time and thought into what they wanted to wear and cook for the evening. Group shots to follow! I actually was NOT the photographer at this event. Guy and Bruce were....so I'll upload their pics when i get them tomorrow. But the outdoor movie was a hit, the food will be talked about for weeks...and all in all it was the perfect evening for friends and food. We have plans to show more outdoor movies. It's amazing how clear the picture is even on a concrete wall!. We all miss our MOVIE theater! Although some of the crowd thinned out before the 4 hour movie was done, a good 20 or so people stayed till the end. We always have a good time at CedarHill parties...but this was one of my favorites!

Helen's 97th Birthday!

Helen turned 97 last week and John and Sue threw a big party for her at their house. She draws a pretty big crowd - even at this age. She's got alot of friends who like to keep track of her and celebrate those milestones!.And John & Sue put out quite the spread!

Happy Birthday Helen!

You are a most amazing person!

Spring Edition '08 has Sprung!

The paper went to press last nite and it is always such a good feeling!

There was so much material to work with this time, from amazing wildflower shots to the beautiful beadwork which Dale and Claire Gilbert produce..and the grill-work on vintage cars!

I am slowly getting more of a system to producing the paper each time I sent one to print. And I've already got a start on articles for Summer.

Anyway- look for more blog posts from me now that the publication is off my desk for awhile!

An unexpected shot

I ran over to the Golden Oldies car show in Miami yesterday to get a few quick shots for this Edition of the paper and when I got back and downloaded shots, I got this un-expected surprise. The reflection of Miami in the hi-gloss shine of this 1930's Ford.  Love it.  (Still on deadline with the paper, so I'll post this now...and  catch up on the rest of my blogging next week)

Mayor Council

An interview with Helen

My friend Renee drove up from the Valley today for a quick visit overnight and found herself having to occupy her time while I was busy with meetings and interviews and advertising deadlines. So it was fun to arrive back home about 6 to find everyone sitting on the back patio, grill going, conversation in high gear with the couples from downstairs, and Guy and Tracy and Renee and Mother... (pics to follow)

As soon as I sat down, Renee pulls out this piece of paper and informs me that she marked time this afternoon by "interviewing" mother. I love her for this! I would not have thought to ask Mother these questions...and yet her answers are ones I'll always treasure...

Renee: Who always brings a smile to your face when you think of him?
Mother: ...pause...Grant McDaniel.. He was a "do it all" kind of man and he was father's fulltime hired hand for years. Whenever I needed anything I knew I could always count on him. I'd have to give him that honor."

Renee: If there's anything in the world you could give your kids what would that be?
Mother: Well....They are so grown. each would have have a different thing.
             Linda- Money so she could spend time in a different city.  Renee: Like Where?  Oh, I think she would like a Southern City.
             Susan- I would like to give a long trip on the water to include her four children.
             John - I would like to give him his choice of a trip on the water but it wouldn't just be up to him because his wife would have to decide what they would want to do on the water.

Renee: Where's your favorite place you've ever lived?
Mother: I think it would probably be in Kansas. And in a small town there. I lived in several places.

Renee: What's the most important characteristic for the world to posess?
Mother: To give everyone a broad range of acceptance where you are not making the things that would            criticize them for.  (her actual words. alittle jumbled...but you get the idea)

Renee: What do you like about Linda the most?
Mother: Oh my gosh. everything. I don't find any negative I could say that I'm not crazy about that."

      

Tia

This is why I love doing the paper.
I get to work on cool stories and hang out with people like Tia and the younger women in her life; her sister (right) family friend (center) and daughter(right).

They were modeling Sunrise Dresses which have been beaded by Dale and Claire Gilbert, who we will be featuring this Spring.

i wish I'd gotten a photo of the Air Jordan tennis Shoes...next to to the moccassins.!

A Sunrise Dress takes anywhere from 3 months to a year to complete and is worn once by the young girl.

Here, the two dresses were both beaded and adorned by the Gilberts, although they won't say who did which dress. but you can def. see two styles!

The Price of Gas

I thought this was worth passing on. It was sent to me by a friend.

Hiring a Pro

Brother John just sent these pics of his newly landscaped yard. He's like the rest of us. We think how hard can it be to plant a few plants, and watch them grow into some semblance of Sunset Gardens?

Appears it is quite hard.

That's why he decided to hire a pro. (After spending years and $$$$ on attempting this on his own..)

So I suspect that THESE plants will have a good chance of growing in this climate and being the right height,width etc for where they are.

It looks great now John.... but I'm sure it will be even better when the plants get bigger. Looks like a great variety of color, texture and "fluff"... Ahhhh... the joys of working with a proffessional.

I am still winging it. And will be planting my garden again this year on a WHIM. i like Tomatoes and Chilis. I'm hoping I can just stick them in the ground and they will do their thing. But I'm allowing for the possibility that they will die - like all the ones before them. Except this year I have help. So MAYBE!

Bro... I LOVE your new landscaping!!!

Ask your landscaper to STAND BY... I may need him next!

Enjoying the Sunshine....

Mother is in her element.

An open door.

A bit of sunshine.

A nap.