I swore I'd never

 I swore I'd never blog. Too self-involved, too navel gazing for me.

Yet, here I am.

I swore I'd never join Facebook. Too many people wanting to be friends with someone (that'd be me) who's not really all that friendly.

Yet, you can find me on Facebook...in not just one place but two: personal and bloggy FB pages.

I swore I'd never join Twitter. Too silly and psycho with all that personal disclosure of little import streaming by.

Yet, you can find me there daily, tooting and tweeting as @GrandmasBriefs.

I swore I'd never post videos on YouTube. Too many bad videos of kids hiding out in their bedrooms creating snippets of stuff their parents should ground them the rest of their lives for doing.

Yet, I not only visit it often, I regularly share videos from there and, get this, even have my own YouTube channel.

I swore I'd never join Pinterest...mostly because I didn't understand what the <cuss> it was.

Yet now I'm pinning and pining away on Pinterest...far more often than I should be...am far more in love with it, am more obsessed with it, than I should be.

I swore I'd never win Publishers Clearing House.

WAIT! That's not true! I've sworn again and again and again, for years and years and years, that I was going to win PCH!

I think I get it now: All these years, I have taken the wrong route to reward with PCH, using positive declarations and visualization techniques in hopes of seeing the Prize Patrol Van show up in my driveway.

High time to change all that.

I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...I swear I'll never win PCH...

Today's fill-in-the-blank:

I swore I'd never ____________, yet now I'm _______________.

What I did

When the towers came down, I lived thousands of miles away. I had no personal connection, no intimate relation to the horrific events.

Yet, I was glued to the television. For hours that turned into days.

Instead of continuing the wringing of my hands as I cried watching the news, I put them to work. Still crying. Still watching the news.

This is what I did:

For myself. For my family. For anyone who wanted one.

It didn't make any difference. Except to me.

I've not looked in this tin since then. Until today.

Maybe I'll make another.

To never forget.

The Saturday Post: Grandparents Day edition

Tomorrow, September 11, will be (rightfully) overshadowed by bigger events, tributes, and remembrances, so today I want to take a moment to pay tribute to another happening on the calendar for tomorrow: National Grandparents Day.

Happy Grandparents Day, one and all!

Five points for moving along

As I walked the dogs yesterday morning, I saw through the trees ahead a buck of substantial size. I often see deer along that road, but rarely bucks. Each time I see deer (or fox, sometimes even squirrels, birds, butterflies. leaves blowing across the road) it's a struggle to keep the dogs—Mickey in particular—under control. So I swiftly crossed the dogs to the other side of the road in hopes they wouldn't notice it as we passed it by.

Naturally, that's right when Mickey saw the buck...and the second it was bounding to meet up with. I tugged the yelping dogs in line and did my best to keep moving along.

"I can tell from that yelp that your dogs have seen the buck," said a gentleman—refined and eerily akin to 60-year-old Anderson Cooper—as he stepped from behind a bush. A bush he'd been working near, plucking weeds from his yard, not a bush he'd been lurking behind for unknown nefarious reasons. I think.

Me: Yeah, he certainly did.

Gentleman (clearly in awe): Five-by-five there.

Me (thinking WTH? Size? Must have to do with size): Oh yeah? It is big. I've not seen one that large yet this year.

Gentleman: I haven't either, but those are two five-by-fives and one four-by-three.

Me (using my infinite conversational skills): Three? Wow! I only saw two.

Gentleman: Oh yeah, there's three.

Me (pulling on dog leashes and itching to move along): Wow!

Gentleman (slowly shaking his head in disgust): Yeah, two five-by-fives. And I'm a bow-hunter and there ain't nothing I can do about it.

Me (in pseudo similar disgust): Yeah, you gotta just wave as they go on by.

Gentleman (in resignation): Ha...Yeah...

Me: Well, you have a good day.

Gentleman: You, too.

The gentleman gazed across the road at the three bucks ambling toward the ridge, lust and longing palpable as he slowly shook his head.

The dogs and I moved along as I resisted the urge to shake my own head...for a very different reason, to be sure.

Photo: stock.xchng...since I didn't have my camera with me.

Today's question:

Thoughts on bucks, city hunting, or neighbors lurking behind bushes?

8 signs fall is nearly here

COMING THIS FALL!1. I had to throw on a sweater over my jammies while watching TV last night.

2. The USAFA Thunderbird jets have been loudly cavorting overhead, practicing for their shows of support during Air Force Falcon football games.

3. Visions of pumpkin bread have started dancing in my head.

4. Windows throughout the house are no longer left open at night.

5. Piles of catalogs arrive in the mail each day as retailers rally for holiday dollars.

6. Fall crafts are on clearance at Hobby Lobby as, typical of craft stores, current season decor is so last month.

7. I've given up watering annuals in the yard—flowers that never grew well, many that never even flowered at all, thanks to the blistering, record-setting heat of this past summer.

8. Best of all: Megan is lonesome for home...and has planned a trip here with Bubby and Baby Mac in a few weeks because fall is her favorite time of year in Colorado.

Mine, too!

Today's question:

What signals have you experienced of fall's impending arrival?