It felt like Christmas in our garage today. Good friend L was putting up fiber optic trees and Christmas sculptures that she’ll be selling at our yard sale tomorrow. Sparkle, sparkle. She also made sure a bear and small reindeer were twinkling brightly. That was cool to see.  I generally don’t pay attention to the wintery holiday season until after my birthday, wouldn’t you? I’d rather have a birthday two weeks before Christmas than share the same day with a sibling. Or, maybe not. There could be joy in that, but more likely in another dimension for my brother and me. Nobody explained Christmas to me when I was a kid—why you put up a tree, give presents, and go to church at night, and so on. And, what was with that old man with the beard in the funny red suit prowling the five and dime store. Whenever I saw him coming my way, I quickly ducked away.  In first grade, I was assigned the role of Mrs. Santa Claus. How can you tell your teacher that you do not want to be Mrs. S...

In 1982, February 15 also fell on a Monday. That was the first day of my new job as an assistant editor at  a small special education publishing house, the start of a new era for me. Because it was a paid federal holiday for the company, I didn't start until the next day. Nine years ago, I wrote a post about this first job that started me on my writing career. Please click here if you interested. This being President's Day, I chose to find a quote by President James A Garfield. In doing so, I learned that he was a progressive man for his times, including the Republican Party to which he belonged. It was unfortunate that the 20th U.S. president only served six months in office, of which the last two months, he tried to recover from a bullet in his abdomen. President Garfield was assassinated by a mad man in July 1881. Some experts say that his death could have been avoided if his doctors had sterilized their hands and instruments before treating him. Here's a quote from ...

Cheers to another year of celebrating the brave and bold actions of our country's founding fathers to sever ties with Great Britain!  Hope you all had a joyful and safe celebration. Until the fireworks started, we had a pleasant Fourth of July. Surprisingly, all was quiet with an occasional vroom of motorcycles in the distance.  Because of the pandemic, thousands of bikers haven't descended on our small community this Fourth of July for the sometimes annual biker rally commemorating the day bikers went wild downtown in 1947.  The actual bar in which a biker drove through still thrives today. The 1950s movie "The Wild One" with Marlon Brando is loosely based on the incident. Nightfall was a different story. It was a steady diet of  KAPOW, rat-a-tat-a-tat, pow-pow-pow, bang-bang-BANG, and long-whistle BOOM from 7:30 p.m. to nearly 12:30 a.m. I felt like we were on an island caught between two feuding factions. I do not want to imagine what a war ...

That's the main street of our little city of Hollister as it looked in Eliza Does-a-lot's driver's side-view mirror. I snapped it the other day while waiting for the Husband. As a kid, the festive garlands and bows above San Benito Street was one of my clues that the holiday season was upon us. With luck, I would be able to avoid any Santa Claus lurking in the downtown stores. Yup, Santa Claus was a scary figure to this kid. In 2008, the Husband played Santa Claus at the annual Christmas Ball, held by the Filipino American Community of San Benito. For the first time, I sat on Santa's lap. This was a Mister Claus who did not creep me out. Last year the Husband created a Holiday Spirit tree with lights in the living room, more specifically next to Molly the (wild) Cat's condo. She has no problem sleeping while the lights twinkle brightly. Here's a photo from last year of the sleeping (wild) beauty and our Twinkle Twinkle Tree. This year I have cooki...

Hullo. Missus Lady begged my pardon this morning and said she won't be joining me on the blog today. I told her my Christmas present to her is today's post. Purrrrrrrrrr. I wandered around the backyard earlier for a few minutes. Brrrr. It's supposed to rain big-time today. That's a good Christmas gift, too. I can watch the world from the upstairs bedroom window. Purrrrrr. My Humans are scurrying around the house, scanning shelves and cabinets, peeking into nooks and crannies, and opening boxes and drawers to find gifts for each other. This morning Missus Lady proposed that she and Hero Man exchange five gifts, to which he agreed. One gift had to be a coupon for something that costs nothing, while the other four gifts were things (not heavy nor large) that each found anywhere in the house, garage, and yards. Missus Lady says the fun and joy is in the hunt, along with the opening of surprises. Purrrrrrrrr. A week ago, Missus Lady found a box of angel chimes among ...

Two Fridays ago, the Husband created an Xmas tree out of Xmas lights. All I had to do was find the lights and point out the spot for him to make it. Sparkle, sparkle. The other day I was helping undecorate a small Christmas tree at the local museum where I volunteer. I started to unwind a garland made of small colored glass balls when Head Volunteer said, "Susie, take the tinsel off first." She proceeded to quickly pluck and pull the silvery strands. I imitated her. The tinsel off, I went for the garland. Said Head Volunteer, "Susie, it'll be easier if you take ornaments off then the garland." Okey-dokey. As I finally unwound the garland, Head Volunteer reminded me that it was old, then kindly remarked that she had already broken three vintage decorations. Sometimes I can be like that bull in a china shop. Several hours later while reading Christmas posts by blogger friends, I realized that I'm out of practice when it comes to decorating/undecoratin...

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the first day of the Year of the Dog, a new year on the Chinese lunar calendar. The Dog is one of the 12 symbolic animals in the Chinese zodiac, meaning each animal-year comes up every 12 years.  The rose is one of the lucky flowers for those born in the year of the Dog. Interestingly, 2018 is not such a lucky year for Dogs. Do you want to know more about the Year of the Dog, whether you're a Dog, the Chinese zodiac, or the Chinese lunar calendar? Here's one web page to check out.

This first day of 2018, I'm taking Molly the Cat's cue and making like it's a holiday. Of course every day is a holiday for Molly. "Hey!" says Molly. Purrrrrrrrrrrr.  Okay, Molly. Being retired, every day is essentially a holiday. For that matter, every day is the start of a new year. Hmmmm. "There you go," says Molly. Purrrrrrrrrrr.  

Suman is my all-time favorite Filipino dessert that the Mama made during the Christmas season when I was a kid. It is a decadent sweet rice concoction made from sticky rice (aka glutinous rice and sweet rice), brown sugar, and coconut milk. The delightfulness about suman is the memory of it being made, usually on a cold, rainy day. I'm anywhere from age four to seven. The Daddy cracks open two or three coconuts, pouring the juice into a waiting glass. I have yet to taste coconut water as good as what I drank way back when. The Daddy scrapes the coconut meat from the shell carefully and precisely on a a flat, round serrated scraper that he attached to a thick chunk of wood that he straddled. "I want to do it," I say every so often, as I watch the coconut transform into tiny slips of whiteness as it falls from the scraper into a large white metal basin with red trim. Eventually the parents let me sit on the homemade coconut scraper and try for a short bit. It is not easy...

Wishing you good health, peace and joy, love and happiness! ~ Su-sieee! Mac 

I don't know what got into me today. First thing this morning I went into the garage and pulled out the Christmas stuff. Red bows are now strung in the front yard, the mailbox looks festive with ribbons and red and blue balls, and a rickety wooden chair is adorned with fake snow-covered pine branches. Ooh-la-la. A small, vintage plastic Christmas tree came out of its box to become the centerpiece of the festive festiveness that you see in the photo. Methinks this tree has found its home in that old-fashioned milk can. The ornaments, too, most likely. Anyone else think its funny that our holidaze tree is outside among the living plants? Ha ha ha. This may be one of my favorite Christmas trees ever.

Have you ever wondered what Thanksgiving Day is all about? How it came to be?  It's not about the big box store sales that start earlier each year on Thanksgiving Day.  Or, is it? It's not about the huge generous portions of turkey, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and other yummy food that friends and family gather together to consume. Though that is much to be thankful for, especially if you don't have to do anything but eat. It's not even about the Pilgrims who supposedly ate the first Thanksgiving meal in the New World with the original residents of the land. According to the Wikipedia article, Thanksgiving Day originated as a kind of harvest festival. You know, as in thank you, God, for all the food that we have been able to grow, gather, eat, and store for the harsh cold months until we can grow food again.  I am indeed very thankful for the lemons, persimmons, avocados, apples, and tomatoes that we harvest from our backyard. In the early years of the United State...

Happy Fourth of July, One and All!

This week Teresa's Friday Hunt includes 1) Starts with the Letter B. 2) Week's Favorite and 3) Patriotic. My photo covers all three items. Hurrah! My town holds a lot of parades every year. Seven, if I'm counting correctly. My favorite is the Fourth of July Kiddies Parade. It's the sweetest, cutest, shortest, and quickest of them all. I'm not kidding about quick. You blink your eyes too often and you've missed all the children, the parents, and grandparents marching by. The Husband and I like to join in at the tail end for half-a-block of so. What's the letter B, you ask? B is for bitty as in the darling itty bitty girl pulling her horse. I thought her rather strong. Ready to go check out other blogs taking part in this week's Friday Hunt? Click here then.

"Today is a holiday," I reminded the Mama this morning. "So, no mail. No library. No banks. No schools." "What's the holiday?" the Mama asked. "Martin Luther King Day." "Is this the day he was born?" "Yes." The Mama sighed. "The good people die too soon. Poor man." She shook her head. "The crazy person who killed him. Too many crazy people. What's wrong with people?" The Mama's question had me pondering throughout the morning. My conclusion, at the moment: Insecurity. Fear is based on insecurity. Anger? A person gets angry because she does not get her way, which puts her in an insecure position. Jealousy is essentially feeling insecure for not having what someone else has. Greed in a person is due to his insecurity that he don't have what others have. Unfortunately, there are greedy, angry, jealous, and fearful people in this world who manipulate our insecurities for their...

2016 is hours away  (on our side of the world). Let's greet the New Year with wonder and cheer! Love ya all, Su- sieee! Mac The Husband The Mama Molly the Cat 

I didn't notice the good-luck jade plants growing next to the Mama's red rose bush by the patio until I started playing with this photo in Photoshop. Now, why did I think the jade plant in the front yard is the only one sporting white flowers? Silly me. The red rose was what caught my eye the other morning when Molly the Cat and I went out to stalk a squirrel we saw tiptoeing along the fence. A bird distracted Molly from the squirrel. Not good hunters are we. Which is just as well. After all, what would we do with the squirrel had we caught it.  Fortunate squirrel. From the Husband, the Mama, Molly the Cat, and Me, Su- sieee! Mac:     Happy Holidays!

Back in 1990 (or 1991), when I was in my mid-30s, I decided to reclaim Christmas. To celebrate it. To enjoy it. Without commercialism. But, with meaning. With joy. With fun. For years, until that moment, Christmas was something I went through. Ho, ho, humbug, ho, ho. Not totally. I enjoyed singing Christmas carols and I liked the sparkle-sparkle of the Christmas lights. And, I loved giving presents. So, you see, I wasn't a complete loss into grumpiness or miserableness around Christmas-time. I simply thought the spirit of Christmas was lost beneath all the excessive Buy! Buy! Buy! I don't recall exactly when the light bulb went over my head, but it did, thank goodness. I didn't have to be depressed about Christmas being commercial. Bingo! The first thing I did was make a fireplace to hang up Christmas socks and pin Christmas cards around. See the white sock? A yellow pterodactyl sat on top of the  sock. I put the space heater in front of the fireplace, so the Fir...