paper or paperless

All bank statements and other bills of the sort always ask if you want paper or paperless. Nice thought but does it really work? I always check paperless in that I can print things off at home if I truly want them. Being of the paper generation I prefer to have things in a hard copy for my files, so I do opt to print most things at home. However, if it is paperless then how come I spend so much of my time shuffling papers? Seems like I sit down to my desk and there is always this collection of papers that need attention. They need to be filed, they need to be paid, they need to be read and so the list goes. And my complaints are minimal in the grand scheme of things, after all, my life is not that complicated!

The radio keeps talking about help getting folks out of debt and that makes me wonder how much paper the average person has to deal with. I don't have a fraction of what many have. I wish the world knew the simplicity that used to exist before Credit cards. You had the money, you purchased the item, no money no purchase. It was a pretty simple formula but it did not give the financial institutions the scope to make massive profits. Credit cards came into being and banks sprouted up like dandelions in the yard. Where there was one bank there are now eight banks, and all seem to be doing quite well as far as I can tell. Of course, they are all working off of my money, mine as in a tax payer, but their top echelons have to have their yachts and bonuses you know! Boy would I love to close all banks but a couple and then have the CEO make no more than double the line worker. All would win and maybe we could stop spending what we don't have.

Back to my papers and then to a walk. Should do it the other way around but I am waiting for the day to warm up a little before I take off.

Another use for canned salmon

It is always fun when you come up with another use of something you have. And that something is canned salmon. It needs to be used, 2006 variety and aged a plenty. So, with that in mind, I was thinking what I could do. I have made fritters and they are amazing but I wanted something different. So I did the old Hot Chicken Salad thing but substituted Salmon and added some fresh lemon juice and fresh parsley. I then served it with chives on the top and, though no one is home to eat it but me, it is mighty fine. I get so tired of the same foods and am always trying to come up with new ideas. This is not a new idea, but a turn on an old idea that pleased me greatly.

I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy eating out so much. The idea part, the taste part and let us not forget that they do the dishes after all is said and done. I have been watching the "food network" on T.V. some evenings to harvest some new ideas. And I have found several things that I have either tried or intend to try. It isn't as much fun as eating out but it is more fun that eating alone and eating the same stuff you have been eating for the past century (and I can honestly say that!).

Todays enlightenment from the food network was deseeding roma tomatoes. Easy process and it makes them better in many salads. Cut them in half and then grab them and squeeze the seeds out of them. Chop up the other parts and away we go. What a simple concept and it will be helpful in many things. I loved Chopped tomotoes in things, but sometimes they just get too seedy and runny, this will solve the problem. It is nice to learn something new!

I could get used to this

I don't know who has messed with the climate on Island but I could really learn to like it the way it is at present. For the past two weeks we have had as close to perfect weather as they give forth in this world. High temperatures around the mid seventy range and lows in the upper 50 range. What could be better? Mornings tend to be overcast but the sun has been out and on full display by lunch and remained that way for the remainder of the day. OK, this is not typical but I am liking it all the same. Makes it a little hard to get tasks done but the cool, overcast mornings aren't bad for working and then, of course, the sunny afternoons are excellent for not working!

People that live further South don't get it. They seem to think the glory is to wake up every morning and have the sun out. I could rapidly learn to detest that. It is the fact that it is not out all the time that makes it so wonderful. Washington is always in a state of change, if it is raining and you are unhappy about that, well, wait a bit and it might change. Our hot spells never last all that long and the rain, well, OK, sometimes that does go on way too long. But it only makes the breaks in the overcast more special. I don't think I could enjoy a climate that was even remotely predictable. I look at the high dessert folk and sigh because they always have sunshine and it gets old fast, or at least for me. Give me variety and I will be a happy girl.

Thank you

I did the first of my piano recitals last night, the most difficult of the two because I had to play that darn Beethoven that I have complained so much about, plus a Clementi and a Kuhlau Duet. Went well, didn't play near as well as I would have hoped but my hands are really well trained and when I get started crooked they just seem to know how to bail me out. I deleted a couple of runs that were just too risky and improvised them...worked OK. Remind me to avoid pieces that accentuate the 4 crosses with these hands. They just hurt when I do too many of those crosses. Maybe I should just stick with chords and/or slow pieces.

But that was not really my topic. Several of my students brought me flowers (the best kind, home grown) and cards (equally as perfect as they were home made). Why is it we, as a society, believe it is not important to say thank you. Even more so, not even acknowledge that something kind has been done. Are we really so selfish that a short note is too much of an investment? I don't do things for the thanks, but it sure makes me want to invest the next time and when no thanks come occasion after occasion I just kind of stop investing my thoughts and send (or not) perfunctory things.

I think the ones that hurt the most are the ones that you really invest in. I am not talking money here but thought and love. You spend hours and hours working on something either physically or mentally. You give something that you are so heavily invested in and they either say nothing or a short little thanks. I walk away feeling like I have made a huge mistake and that I should not have done what I did. Does that mean I give for recognition? I don't think so, I guess I just need the validation that you appreciated what came your way as much as I invested in giving same to you. Tough subject, and for those that don't subscribe it is a subject that causes much hurt. I just know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the vast majority of problems in this world could be solved if people would just express, either verbally or physically, their thanks. We are told to offer our thanks in prayers, but we also need to offer them to each other.

That said, I had a wonderful whirlwind of a trip to Utah for Garret's blessing and I am beyond words thankful that I have the family that I have, one and all. I hope my actions as well as my words convey that because I try to do that. And now my actions must convey paint to the walls of the bedroom at the beach. Ah the variance of the word convey!!!