My friend Colleen's column

Perhaps those who may be new to this blog do not know that Colleen and I are friends and we walk two miles every summer morning that we possibly can. We meet at the bike trail depot in Jefferson Iowa at 7:00 AM and walk to the one-mile marker and then return to the depot. On these walks we talk about nearly every subject under the sun and the time flies!
Here is her latest column....I had been thinking along these very lines for the past few days.

Time. And time again.
December 31, 2014
~a column by Colleen O’Brien

It took me a long time to get to the millennium, and now it’s 2015?

My dad told me when I was a grade schooler that time would speed up as I got older. “I can remember everything that happened to me before you and your sisters were born,” he said. “And then it speeded up and it’s a blur.”

I wasn’t sure if this was an insult or just an observation, and I had a millisecond of recognition that perhaps my existence wasn’t as exciting to Dad as it was to me, but it didn’t make much sense at the time. It took forever for Christmas to come and once the new year turned, it lasted forever. Apparently there was something very different about being an adult.

But, in my current role as a woman of a certain age, about a week after January 1, 2015, it will be Christmas and I’ll be looking at 2016.

I do know that when I keep a journal, I at least can look back to see what came and went so quickly, but most of the time now I forget for days at a time to write in it because, really, not much happens worth writing about and all my thoughts and surmises are hackneyed or I wrote them down 20 years ago.

Reading the old diaries is much more fun than trying to keep up with the current one. I was terribly whiney when the kids were little: I moaned and groaned about trying to be a better mom, quit yelling, play more Candyland (boy, did I hate that game). One of my entries read: “Putting dry Cheerios in their beds works! They don’t get me up! Of course I can’t tell anyone. I am a horrible mother.”

This makes me smile now; then, I was horrified at myself, even as I continued in my devious ways.

When I started writing for a living, I was always making notes on things to write about or jotting down characteristics of people I might use in a story. Once in a while I return to journals for ideas for columns, so I guess it wasn’t all futility, although some of those jottings make absolutely no sense to me now.

All through the years I’ve copied lines I’ve loved from whatever books I’m reading. If I wanted to look up these hallowed words, I’d never find them, but they are pretty good reading randomly. Some writers are just so good with a sentence I turn green with envy and write it down. I don’t know why I do this because I don’t use the quotes, repeat them in conversations, write to the author to tell her how brilliant she is. Maybe I think the copying of a good line will rub off on me as I pen it.

Two years ago, on New Year’s Day, I decided not to start another diary but to write what I titled “Pome-a-Day.” I got up to #247 when I began skipping days. Soon I was skipping weeks. Then my computer crashed (literally; onto the floor) and I lost them all. Now I’m back to writing a poem when it’s time for a poetry meeting.

I do read a poem a day, however, in “Writers Almanac” online. This is a Garrison Keillor idea, and he publishes well-known and obscure poets each morning . . . a very fine idea and never a waste of time, something we’re always warned against. In fact, I am a pro at wasting time. I think I’ve been gazing out the window for years.

The speed of my days these days is hardly news to anyone old. It is certainly dismaying, however, for I feel like I’m missing something . . . not paying attention to life perhaps, or, the Big Scare – losing my marbles to the great length of time I’ve survived. My friends and I talk about it periodically, laughing the gallows laugh as we recall occasions in which we lost our word and sat there mouths agape and puzzlement in our eyes. Sometimes we call one another to ask, “What is that tall flower that grows in alleys and you can make dolls out of?”

The old saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” is indeed true; but it also flies when you’re simply old and not really having any fun at all. Dr. Seuss, as usual, summed it up nicely: “December is here before it’s June. My goodness, how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

Happy New Year!

Hunkered

We are having a cold spell. Cold spell here means 40's. Trouble is, it is temps in the 40's day and night. We are on our third day of it. Actually that isn't too bad if the wind isn't blowing. It blew the first day but the last two have been quiet. It is dark, cloudy, wet and 45 degrees. We have more ahead of us.
So really what does this mean? The woman who announces the news says she has watched 3 movies in the last two days. Everyone hunkers down and endures until the sun comes out again. I will let you all know when that happens.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

I posted this recipe on the magnolia blog but not all of you are tuned into both so thought I would add it here too. Enjoy! 8 hours? really? I do not believe 8 hours are critical for this recipe. Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 8 Hours Ready In: 8 Hours 30 Minutes Servings: 8

"A quick, no-fuss version of chicken tortilla soup! All you do is put everything into the slow cooker, and turn it on. Then garnish with baked corn tortilla strips!"

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound shredded, cooked chicken 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce 1 medium onion, chopped 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups water 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth

1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 bay leaf 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro 7 corn tortillas vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3.	Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
4.	Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.

A day on South Padre

New friends Cathy and Bob Jones are staying at Edinburg TX for a couple of months. We both have Snow Mountain Ranch connections in our pasts and became better acquainted at Canyon Lake in October. We had decided to do a day at South Padre sometime this season but the weather last year did not hold one of those days so we were on the lookout for one and yesterday promised to fill the bill. It really did too with the only missing element being sunshine. It was warm with a breeze less than 15mph out of the south. Good pictures require good light but we did the best we could and here they are...

My favorite meal at Dirty Al's. And below we stopped to see if Paul and Karen Pope from Jefferson were in the the KOA park and indeed they were having arrived the day before.

 Then we went for a beach walk. I wore my muddy Iowa construction Crocs so I could leave a bit of black Iowa dirt in the Gulf of Mexico.

These are the current crop of jellyfish washing up on the beach.

There were some good players in this group. 

Barb and Butch

Cathy and Bob

Sandpiper