Early morning reading...

I took this picture a number of years ago while in Edinburgh, Scotland. I even had notecards made using the picture as the cover!

I've been doing a lot of early morning reading. Tim's still in bed and Lucy is curled up by me on the sofa. I've got my tea, window open with a slight breeze coming in. It's quiet...no diesels running yet and the sun is just beginning to rise. The book I'm reading is Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone! Tim and I watched his PBS special a few days ago which prompted me to go out and buy the book. It's one of these books I'm glad I saw the special first because it's a thought provoking one and since it's about "thoughts" I'm afraid my thoughts would be lost on the book if I hadn't seen the special first. Follow me on that one???

Another book I read quite awhile ago - How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Mark Victor Hansen and Art Linkletter brings to mind our neighbors here. You'll need to hang with me here...there is a tie in coming. In one of the chapters Art Linkletter was talking about where one lives. He said, of course in his opinion, that living in one of those 55+ gated communities would suck the life out of you (my words, not his...I can't remember his...but it was similar). He said when you live with like people - same age, mind set, same activities - you don't grow...you remain stagnet maybe even regress. Your conversations have to do with "Did you hear so and so died last night? Had a stroke? Cancer? What's your (golf) Handicap? Those grandkids were in the pool when they shouldn't be...they were suppose to be out 5 minutes ago. And, so on and so on. Of course, I read the book while living in one of "those" communities. And, it was sucking the life out of me.

So, back to our current neighbors and the book tie in. They are a young family with 2 children ages 5 (boy) and 7 (girl) and 2 beagles. Did you know beagles howl? They have been parked beside us for the last 10 days. They are here from the Seattle area on vacation. When they first backed their 5th wheel in and piled out of the truck I cringed...especially the howling dogs. Campground sites are relatively small. You are close to your neighbors. If you sneeze, your neighbors will say "God Bless You". My first thought was this is going to be a long 2 weeks. How wrong I was. Tim and I have enjoyed every minute they have been here (including the howlers). First off, they are great parents. It's so nice to know there are still (young people) out there who are parenting well behaved and respectful children. Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite too many times. This vacation has really been for the kids because Mom and Dad have taken them to the pool, playground, pool, playground, playground, pool, lake, and playground and board games. It has been a hoot listening to their conversations. I couldn't even begin to tell you about the conversations we had with them. They are leaving today and we are sorry to see them go. However, it does reinforce for us we would rather live (and travel) where there is diversity and in this case, youth, rather than "sameness". You don't get the life sucked out of you. Lucy, however, didn't care for the howlers.