Odd Shots--More Odd Dots

This is the host site for Odd Shots on Monday. We post something that strikes us as odd each Monday to share. If you have an odd shot to share, post a comment here to let us know, and visit some other odd sights through the comments or the blogroll. Odd Shots details can always be found by clicking the Odd Shots Camera logo in the side bar.

Last week's Odd Socks reminded me of this picture I took while out barnstorming this spring. Most well houses are just plain little sheds. This one has its own bit of whimsy.

Sunday's Psalm

O God, let all the nations praise you!

Daughters of Charity, Madurai

May God have pity on us and bless us;

may he let his face shine upon us.

So may your way be known upon earth;

among all nations, your salvation.

congregation, Krasny Pochara, Siberia, 1998

O God, let all the nations praise you!
Statue, St. Thomas, Chennai

May the nations be glad and exult

because you rule the peoples in equity;

the nations on the earth you guide.
First Baptist Church, Yakima
O God, let all the nations praise you!

St. Aloysius, Spokane

May the peoples praise you, O God;

may all the peoples praise you!

chapel, Boys Village, Tamil Nadu

O God, let all the nations praise you!
Sergiev Posad, Russia

May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
Fr. Alvaro, now retired to his native Colombia

O God, let all the nations praise you!

Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

My award collection.

Rocky Mountain Girl Michele sent this hug to blog friends and I am keeping it here.

The rest of this is awards I have received while I have been blogging. I set out to put them in order received, but oddly, they kind of arranged themselves as they chose.

This first came from Paulie.

Then I got this Nice Matters one from Dragonstar.

CrazyCath and Mrs. Nesbitt both awarded me the Excellent Blog...

and AnnBerit thought I had purpose.

Mother of this Lot Jackie said I cheered her up.

and Lillie and Hootin' Annie both gave me another Made My Day.
Mother of this Lot assured me that I was a blogger friend.
and Inland Empire Girl presented the Premio Arte Brilliante.

I was delighted to be consider a maven by Mrs. Nesbitt.

More about friendship from CrazyCath.

Brillante

from Starnitesky

...and this one from Nydia.

Now this is the declaration I made about blog awards:

Stop, I say. Stop! I'm not going to divest myself of my oscars here, but I am beginning to find awards a little tedious. All that passing them on and your best blog friends are going to get a little annoyed with you and do you have 7½ friends left after saddling them witht he award requirements. So, though these will sit right here on my sidebar, I will not participate in the passing on of any more. In fact, I haven't passed on some of these. I am sure the blogworld will survive.

Photo Hunt--Theme: Colorful

See TnChick for more Colorful Photo Hunters.

I have found no place in the world that is more colorful than India.

In the summer of 2000, I spent four weeks in India working with the Christian Brothers at St. Joseph Boys' Village, a home for orphaned, abandoned, and poor boys. Our task was some light construction work around the compound during early part of each day. After the boys had returned from school and done their chores, we interacted with them during their recreation time. In the evenings, we visited a number of other community development projects sponsored by the brothers in nearby villages to meet and learn about the people and what they were doing to improve the economic, health, and educational opportunities in their villages.

These women in their colorful saris invited us to dance with them. They thought we were pretty funny.

The villagers were proud of the credit union arrangements they had organized to help each other to start small businesses. Often, the women were the first to organize and show the men what could be done.
On laundry day, the young women who worked at Boys Village as secretary and housemother laid their saris out on the courtyard to dry.

If you ever have the opportunity to take part in a mission to another country or within your own country, go for it. Travel as other than tourist will change your outlook on many things. I found great hope among the people I met in India. I learned what hope was. I hope I have put this to work in my life since then.

Words and thoughts I need to ponder now--how does hope fit into my present circumstances?
Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD. Psalm 31:24

Awards

First posted on Friday and then the green and blue parts added on Saturday since I had to think before I could do them and sometimes that's hard.

You know something? If someone gives you an award, then you probably should remember who it was so you can say thank you. But then, I've been on four different excursions in the last ten days and it's hard to keep up. So you can imagine how crazy I was when, searching back for an award that I was told would come on Tuesday and then not finding it on Tuesday that I was so glad that when I went back a whole 'nuther Tuesday I found it--right there where I was looking for it. Whew! I was afraid I was going to have to go search every blog I'd ever seen from the UK as I remembered it came from a friend in that part of the world and I DID have the right friend after all.

So thank you Crazy Cath for the friendship which I value greatly, from Krazy Katney whose brain must be old today because great things come in multiples and someone else posted me an award and now I have to remember when and where that one was from. If retirement is like this summer has been then it will have to be called reTIREment.
~
Crazy Cath left no instructions for passing this along, so I will wait until I find the other one and contemplate them both together.

Okay, I have come back now after sleeping on it (well, for how many days? you may ask.) and I am ready to fling some bling. (You didn't knwo I could talk like that, did you?) I'm going to pass this on to three bloggers. I'm not flinging it back at Crazy Cath because that is obvious, but I am going to name three bloggers I think of as friends. Two in the Pacific Northwest and one in the UK.

I know Paulie is a friend because we have a lot in common and actually get together occasionally--well, twice in the last four years but we are going camping next week. We have some similarities in our faith and experiences. Paulie likes to walk and hike and is learning to knit. I like to walk and hike and if I don't learn to knit something other than hats with big fat yarn, well...everyone I know has a hat knit with big fat yarn--even Paulie. She's taking a blogging break for a bit, but I'm sure shell stop by and say "Hi, friend."

I feel like I know Inland Empire Girl, who also lives in the Pacific Northwest. I thought of her when we spent a day with the kids at the lake last week because it is closer to her neck of the woods. Speaking of woods, she's almost as fond of them as I am, but her camping trailer is bigger than mine--lol. I'd love to meet you in person sometime, IEG. Maybe we should go camping. BTW, let me know if you come to Mt. Rainier and I will meet you there.

Now I'm not likely to meet up with Liz real soon as my travel budget is questionable after retiring, but I would love to. I did travel to her neck of the woods once (which is Wales), more than 40 years ago. Oooh, I think I am sounding old. There is a fourth friend to bestow this on, too. George. If you stop by Liz's blog you will meet George. I would love to meet George and give him some wise advice.

I feel like I have made a lot of friends since blogging, but I will mention just these three for now--er, oops, four.

<>

I found it!

Thank heavens I found it. I was about to appeal to St. Anthony and I try not to bother him unless it is really important but it was. It was Starnitesky who gave me this award and it was just on Wednesday. The day before yesterday! Clearly my brain has retired. I hope it enjoys itself.

Ah, duh! She gave me this brilliante award right after I took her off the Odd Shots blogroll. Maybe if she had noticed that she would have reconsidered. But she hasn't done an Odd Shot for a couple of weeks and she can be back when she participates again and she's in my favorites and that means she's one of my--er--favorites. (Thanks, Starnitesky.)

~

This one has rules: 1.Put the logo on your blog;
2.Add a link to the person who awarded it to you;
3.Nominate at least five other blogs;
4.Add links to them on your blog;
5.Leave a message for your nominee on their blogs.

I have done the first two. I will let that brain refresh itself before I do nominees 'cause you know how well I could bungle that up while my brain is retired, Right! So I will deal with these tomorrow, okay?

Okay, it's tomorrow now. I have made a list of five. I have thought about it and contemplated and I would say that these five (and lots of others I visit) deserve this brilliante thing.

Michelle--Rocky Mountain Retreat--well, just look at that blog and you'll know why and it doesn't hurt that it has lots of mountains.

Leslie--The Pedalogue--Leslie seems to be really enjoying her retirement and I want to imitate that! Best of everything for your upcoming surgery, Les, because afterwards you will enjoy it even more. But I won't come play tennis with you--I tried that once.

Liz again at Finding Life Hard (can you do two to the same person at the same time is there some sort of blog law about that? If there is then phhhhht!)

Granny Smith at, well, Granny Smith, who should probably be in the earlier bling fling because she believes that blog friends are real not virtual. (Some might be virtuOUS, though, but I'm not sure.)

Then finally and always, Daryl at Out and about in NYC who says it like she sees it and is a fun and faithful blogger. (Hey, Daryl, we want more stories of Bridzilla.)

There, I've done my duty.

Sky Watch Friday--fishing lessons

Grampa gave fishing lessons to a couple of the Grandkids when we visited them at the lake. They used marshmallows as bait.

Sasha found himself successful since the fish nibbled some of his marshmallows.

Masha caught some weeds that were shaped like fish.

All in all a perfect evening.

Masha renamed marshmallows "fisherman's snacks".

Oops! no dessert after that.

Sky Watch Friday originated with Dot and keeping it going is now a team effort. You will find the details here.

ABC Wednesday--a Quilter's ABC--D

A little while ago I commented to David that I was working on my D. When I told him that, I really meant that I was working on them. For AB and C, I had several quilts and quilt blocks already made that I could photograph. When it came to D, I could not find anything.

I was deteremined to keep to my theme, though, so I just had to do some piecing.

This one is called Dutchman's Puzzle. It is another block design from the Ladies' Art Company and is a pretty simple block to put together.

This next block is a challenging one to piece because of the curves, but with a few pins and a little practice it is not so bad. You can see the parts under construction here. The block is called Drunkard's Path.

Once the individual pieces are made, they can be assembled in a number of different ways. I though I had a name for this one, but could not find it again. It is similar to Fool's Puzzle.

Arranged like this, the blocks become Doves--do you see them?

This arrangement is a Chain.

...and this one is Polka Dots.

There are lots of other possibilities, and I do not know which I will choose when I put these parts together.

ABC Wednesday now has its own blog where you can see a variety of ABC posts from many bloggers, as well as a site where you can find ABC bloggers signed up on Mr. Linky. Thanks to Denise who started it all and also starts with D.

Twofer Tuesday--Hammering Man

The Hammering Man stands on the corner outside the main venue of the Seattle Art Museum in downtown Seattle. The museum reopened just over a year ago after a sixteen month long expansion project.

Seattle's Hammering Man is 48 feet high. Other Hammering Man sculptures by sculptor Jonathan Borofsky are located in cities around the world and vary in size. The Hammering Man celebrates the worker. He hammers four times a minute fifteen hours a day, resting in the evening and on Labor Day.

Jonna started doing Two fer Tuesday and some of us have joined her. Post two related photos or photos in related pairs. Stop by to visit her.

Odd pair

This is the home of Odd Shots. Post a comment to this post to let others know you are participating this week. The Odd Shots details can always be found by clicking the Odd Shots Camera logo in my sidebar. I try to update the blogroll regularly, but fell behind while I was traveling. If your blog should appear there and doesn't, please let me know and I will catch it up.

~

Do you ever get dressed in the dark? or semi-dark of an early morning? For the last few years during the winter I would leave home in the dark and return home in the dark, ans since my library was an inside room, would sometimes have no clue what the weather was like outside. (It was always sunny with my books, though!)

~

Since my husband did not have to get up till after I left--and once he retired even later--I would often dress in the shadowy predawn light of the bedroom so as not to disturb him. Fortunately, I usually would have my clothing choices laid out the night before. But sometimes...

~

Since I hate shopping--especially for shoes--I often buy two or three pair of the same shoes in different colors. Consequently, I have gone to school with one black shoe and one blue one. Socks ought to be matched up in the drawer, but sometimes...

~

Of course, many of my shoes are such that I could just remove the socks. Couldn't remove the shoes. I was stuck.

~

My worst dressing disaster was not because of the dark, but because of Halloween. I had been working in the unemployment office for a short time, and as Halloween approached, everyone was talking about dressing up. It was pretty much obvious that dressing in costume for Halloween was expected. I dressed as a cowboy. Fortunately no more exotic than that.

~

Perhaps half of the staff DID dress up. Most of those worked in the back offices not meeting the public. Those who did work in the front office who dressed up changed after our early morning meeting. Except for one cowboy.

~

Who didn't know to bring a change of clothes.

~

Who couldn't go home on a break to change because her daughter had to use the car that day and had dropped her off at work.

~

Who couldn't even take off the cowboy hat and look halfway normal because the "hat hair" was so bad.

~

So that brings me to the Odd Shot--taken a week and a half ago at the High Desert Museum's cafe. We had helped the mom of this two or three year old rescue her from a chair in which she had managed to become entangled. It was entertaining to sit back and know that we'd been there and done that with an active twoish year old antics multiple times and survived and could now rest on our grandparently laurels most of the time.

~

And then I saw the socks.

I wonder when Mom noticed.

Meeting

"So guess who I met at the supermarket--no-- you will never guess, so I will tell you."

OK

"It was that couple--we haven't seen them for a long time. She is big and he is not and we went to a barbecue at their house, remember?"

Nothing.

"They don't go to our church."

My mind is scouring the 33 years we have lived in this town, every barbecue we have been to of a couple--she big/he not--that don't go to our church.

Nothing.

My mind is thinking of every couple we have known in this town where she is big and he is not and we have ever been to anything at their house and they don't go to our church.

My mind is thinking of every couple we have ever known whom we haven't seen for a long time.

Who eat.

Who don't go to our church.

And might shop at the supermarket.

Let's see. They moved away. They went to our church and they also moved away. He sees them every once in a while. He mentioned seeing them just the other day and called them by name. They were both big. They were both not.

Nothing.

"Maybe they lived in S---."

Nothing.

"Out in the country in a mobile home."

I think maybe I need to take over the grocery shopping.