Saturday, April 16, 2011

Thoughts for the Day

I saw a cartoon in the newspaper last week, I think it was the Pickles strip, where Grandmother was reading a book that "Intelligent Men Marry Intelligent Women."  And remarking that "dumb women marry dumb men."  That brought the question, what do intelligent women do?  And the answer - they have cats!

Welcome to the Family

Well, as I'm learning how to create a blog, I've also been learning how to use a digital camera.  My husband was an avid photographer, and I became interested in the hobby, though was never in his league.  But, I learned photography back in the SLR days, when you had to know about F stops and film speed and focusing.  Since Stan's death, I've been using the single-use cameras, but finally decided I needed something better than that.  Of  course, when I unpacked my camera and discovered that the instruction book was bigger than the camera, I was afraid I was in over my head.  But, fortunately, the camera seems to be pretty intuitive and user friendly. 

Well, what should I take a picture of, as I try to learn how my new camera works?  The answer was obvious, my cat Max.  We found Max at the local animal shelter, someone had moved out of town and left him behind in their vacated apartment.  So, early on we had a very difficult time ever leaving the house - Max insisted on trying to walk out the door with us, he was afraid of being left behind.  That has fortunately gotten better, but I still make sure to say when I leave, "Bye bye, Max.  Have a good day.  See you later."  He is usually delighted to see me when I get home.

My First Thoughts

Gosh.  What do I want to say on my very first posting to my brand new blog?  Somehow I'm thinking it should be something earth shaking...  This will be less a diary and more a journal, of perhaps random thoughts. My father's birthday is May 7th, which also happens to be Robert Browning's birthday.  On the occasion of my father's 90th birthday, we're looking at Robert Browning quotations.  Many are noteworthy, the one that sticks in my mind on this occasion is "Stung by the splendor of a sudden thought."  Let's let that be the watchword for this blog.

One of the things I continue to miss most following my husband's death four years ago, is having someone to share interesting tidbits and thoughts with at the end of the day.  I still learn of things in the news or read things in the newspaper, or something funny happens, and I think, "Oh I need to make sure to tell Stan about this."  So maybe this can fill that continuing need.

But the thought of keeping a diary, having to write something every day, seems too much like work.  So this will be a journal, with entries as I have things to say.