HAPPY 2011 TO EVERYONE!!!



Photo by Itsuo Inouye, Associated Press 2010



The Circle of Time

Poor Deby can't believe yet another year has come and gone.  Some of it good, some of it bad, most of it pretty neutral.  Neutral is good.  It's neither up nor down, good nor evil, democrat or republican.... eh, how did that get in there?  Anyway, Poor Deby has been cleaning and purging out old things in preparation of the New year, New beginnings, New stuff to take the place of the Old stuff.  Not really.  This time the old stuff is going and it's going to be gone to stay, not just going to be replaced with more new stuff.  Enough with the Stuff!  But, can this really be done? Are we doomed to repeat the cycle year in and year out? Are we just chasing our own tails?

While cleaning and purging Poor Deby came across an excerpt she had copied from the Hermetica, a 3,000+ year old book of ancient Egyptian wisdom.  In it, Poor Deby found that time is circular, with no beginning and no end. What goes around comes around.  Nothing is new under the sun.  We won't be the first and we won't be the last.  Here is the very excerpt she found:





The Circle of Time

The present issues from the past,
and the future from the present.
Everything is made one by this continuity.
Time is like a circle,
where all the points are so linked
that you cannot say
where it begins or ends,
for all points both precede
and follow one another for ever.

Yet, there is an even deeper understanding.
The past has departed and no longer is.
The future has not arrived and is yet to be.
Even the present does not last,
so how can it be said to exist,
when it doesn't stay still for a moment? 

What does this mean? Who knows. But Poor Deby likes it and believes it means you better enjoy every moment, right here, right now. Like the ancient wisdom says, the past is gone, the future doesn't exist yet, and the present is even questionable since the second you say "WTF?" the moment is gone.  It's now the past.  Which doesn't exist anymore.  Get it?  Back to the Future meets the Fockers meets the Smoke Monster who used to be John Locke before he was kilt by Benjamin Linus. Don't worry about it. Eat the cupcake now!   

So, Happy New Year to Everybody.  And since Time is just one big ole' circle, Poor Deby expects to see you all whizzing by on the great Merry-Go-Round-of-Life real soon!

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down... and Then Some.

So, Poor Deby stayed home sick today. Yesterday was a real drag at work for Poor Deby.  She was sneezing and snotting and felt miserable all day. This morning she woke up at 4:00 and couldn't get back to sleep, so she got up at 6:00 and callled in sick. She remembers looking outside and thinking "Stupid liar weathermen. There's no snow out there." (They had said the snow was "supposed" to start around midnight last night.) So then Poor Deby went back to bed and Hubby Dave got up and took his shower. When he was done Poor Deby went into the kitchen to get some asprin and Hubby Dave pointed out that it had "snowed" while he was in the shower. Poor Deby looked outside and sure enough saw a smattering of white covering the deck, but on closer inspection saw that it was only tiny little hail balls, not really "snow". She went back to bed again and Dave finished getting ready for work, making his coffee, etc. Poor Deby heard the front door open as Hubby Dave was leaving, but then she heard the door close again with no footsteps going down the outside stairs. Hubby Dave came back into the bedroom and said "It snowed. I'm not going anywhere." Poor Deby jumped up and looked outside and saw that there was about 1-1/2 inches of the real stuff on the deck! She couldn't believe it! It had only been about 20 minutes from when she had looked outside before. Now it was a raging blizzard! By 8:30 there was about 4 inches. And it kept going on and off all day. The news was saying it wasn't even snowing in Bellevue or Seattle. Poor Deby never found out if the snow ever did get over there, but she has been pretty much house-bound today. Fine with her! She was home either way today with her stupid cold.

Hubby Dave warning Poor Deby about the snowfall outside...

All photos by Deby Alm, Artistic License Photography

Cocktail of the Day:  Grey Goose vodka with any kind of juice containing Vitamin C.  Oh, and a side of Kleenix tissue, please.  Aaaa-Chooo!

Field Trip Seattle

Sometimes you just have to take off and go on an exotic excursion.... and when time is short, that excursion may very well be in your own backyard.  Lately Poor Deby has been longing for less time in front of the television and more time for spontaneous, fun-filled adventures.  She decided to take a personal excursion last Sunday with her friend Michelle into the vast expanses of downtown Seattle: namely, the Space Needle and surrounding vicinity.

It's the Christmas Season, and the weather outside was frightful.... oh, forget-about-it... it was just plain grey with a capitol G... but, hey, it's Seattle and what do you expect?  This skyline has grown quite a bit since Poor Deby moved here from Los Angeles way back in 1996.  And even more so from when she was here for the Seattle World's Fair in 1962!  Whew!  Poor Deby is O-L-D!!! 

Poor Deby was awfully sad to see that her photographic options were pretty limited due to the dull grey overcast skies, but she decided to see how many various ways she could photograph the Space Needle from wherever she happened to be at any given moment in time on that day:

So, this is where Poor Deby's Space Needle documentation project begins.  This photo was shot from the Seattle monorail, looking up at the Space Needle while approaching Seattle Center on the 3.5 minute ride from downtown.

The monorail is getting closer to Seattle Center and affords yet another view of the Space Needle.  Wow.  It's so thoughtful how they eliminated some of the dark-grey-sunscreen-crosshatching-window-film so you can get a nice clear view of the Needle..

Typical cloudy and kinda grey Seattle day.  Makes a nice reflection of the Space Needle on the side of the EMP (Experience Music Project, Paul Allen's rock-n-roll tribute museum designed by architect Frank Gehry.)  I must say I don't care much for Frank's architecture designs, but I do like some of the jewelry he has designed for Tiffany & Co!

Sometimes those grey, cloudy days make for a splendid backdrop.

And, on such a low contrast type of day, Poor Deby was challenged to find ways to add a little color back into the scene.

Now, there is no way that Poor Deby could even think about going into Seattle without a stop for lunch at the new Hard Rock Cafe for the best ever cheeseburger and onion rings!  They truly rock the burgers-and-rings.  And Poor Deby is such a sucker for the touchy-feelie Hard Rock motto: "LOVE ALL SERVE ALL."

Now, this is Poor Deby's definition of "Happy Meal."  Rock On!  YuMMM!

Useful Tip of the Day:  Whenever Poor Deby goes to the Hard Rock Cafe she saves the receipt and uses it to log onto the Hard Rock website where she fills out a brief survey and in return the Hard Rock rewards her with a "$5.00 off" coupon good for her next visit, which is never too far away for P.D.!!!  Poor Deby always gives the Hard Rock great reviews on the survey, except for the question that asks about the volume level of music in the restaurant.  She always says it was "too loud."  Poor Deby really, really loves music, but when it's overwhelming her conversation with her tablemates or even the voices in her head, it needs a bit of lowering!