Magpie's Nest

Donnie and I saw the new Star Trek last night. WOW! What a ride! It had everything: fast paced action, comedy, romance. The list goes on. I'm not usually a fan of action movies, but this one is the exception.

The characters managed to incorporate many of the mannerisms of the original crew while keeping it fresh and current. Leonard Nimoy was the only original character who made an appearance as a much older and somewhat more emotional Spock. Wondering how and why he made an appearance since the younger Spock was the main Spock character? Go see the movie.

Would I recommend it? Yep, you bet. Take a couple hours off this weekend, get a bucket of popcorn,strap in and enjoy the show.

Brantley out.

Nine years ago today I was bustling around getting ready for a wedding. Mine! Family arrived at intervals throughout the day, meals were shared and then there was the big event itself.

We intended a smallish wedding and sent out minimal written invitations. What happened though is, we verbally invited folks not really thinking they would come. Well, they did. They were literally standing along the walls when I walked in. It was great!

The happiest day of my life I was cocooned by family and friends. Donnie and I only got small bites of food at the reception, but were told it was pretty good.

We changed clothes and scurried off to Gatlinburg after stopping to eat since we didn't get much food at the reception. Two months later we went to Cancun for a week where Donnie picked up a nasty bug.

I remember Donnie and I saying how much we looked forward to getting past the wedding and getting on with "real" life. Nine years later, a lot of water has gone under that bridge, equal parts happy and sad, and I love him more than I ever thought possible.

Happy anniversary, baby. I love you!

I've only been fifty for a little over a week now and I've already started acting like my mom. I went to get allergy shots today. Before I left, I laced up my sneakers and, off I went. Spent forty-five min. at the allergist, shopped a bit and came home.

So, I'm relaxing on the couch, I hug my dog and my eyes happen to land on my sneakers. I have two different pairs of shoes on! Yes, I went into public with two different shoes on. I noticed several people trying to hide a smile, but thought nothing of it. Now I get it.

It was the shoes.

What happens next? Will I forget to put a shirt on? Probably.

So, today is my 50th birthday. I know,half-century, genuine antique person. I've heard 'em all. Though I've received some nice gifts, here's a list of things I got that I'm not especially happy about:
1. A set of jowls I hadn't noticed before (wont' tell you any more than that)
2. The beginnings of a turkey waddle under my chiny-chin-chin
3. More wrinkles and crinkles

And, then I saw my mother's hand coming out the end of my coat sleeve and realized it was mine. Sheez.

I have gained some wisdom over this half-century though.

I've learned that even though salt is a preservative, it doesn't necessarily work when old people eat it. It just makes us retain water and drives the old blood pressure up.

I've learned that even though alcohol is also a preservative, it doesn't necessarily work when old people drink it. The end result is that your liver and brain are pickled and that doesn't always translate into a good thing.

Okay, so I haven't picked up that much wisdom. At least I have some good memories...if I could just remember what they are.

We've had overnight temps in the teens and single digits lately, so you can image my surprise when I discovered the day lilies poking through the soil.

Just one more reason to remember that even in harsh conditions, life presses on.

We've been waiting for snow all year and it's finally here! I'm sitting on my couch,looking out the front door watching fat snow flakes as big as feathers plummet to the ground willy-nilly. They're beautiful! The snow is coming down so fast its hard to focus on any one flake. It literally looks like there's a feather pillow fight going on above us and thousands of feather pillows have burst open. Or, could it be that all the snowmen above us have exploded and this is what remains of them?

The temperature is dropping like a rock, but the humidity is fairly high which may be why the flakes are falling so fast.

I've tried to lock my eye on a single snow flake and follow it to the ground, but they're falling so fast it's hard to enjoy them. I've seen huge flakes like this that simply floated on the air and took their sweet time before hitting the ground. This ain't that kind of snow.

It's starting to lay on the ground now and looks beautiful. As a child, I made snow angels, built snowmen, snow women and snow families. I even built a snow Volks Wagon once. I threw snowballs and make snow forts. I spent ten minutes climbing a snow covered hill only to slide down it in 2.3 seconds. I opened my mouth and let the flakes melt on my tongue and eyelashes.

Now, as an adult, I feel the same rush of excitement watching the giant snowflakes fall as I did when I was a kid. This probably won't give us enough snow to build anything, but it won't stop me from sticking out my tongue or enjoying the feeling of melting snow on my skin.

If you're a rodent lover, don't read this post.

While I was raking leaves today ( yeah, it's four months late, but we're having a nice day) I found a pretty big sink hole in our back yard. I pulled the leaves away and found what I believe to be a hole where something has dug out a nice home for itself in this frigid weather.

My neighbor came over to see what I was looking at.  I showed her and said, "They have things for varmints like that." Her eyes got big and she said, "You're not going to kill it are you?"

Now, what I wanted to say was, Oh, no! We're going to buy it pajamas and build it a room onto the back of the house. What I said though, was: "Yep, that's what I'm gonna do."

She gave me a lecture about how we're all God's children, blah, blah, blah, so I told her that I would be happy to trap it and move it to her back yard if she thought she'd like to give it a nice home with her and her family. She didn't  have a good response to that idea and turned on her heels and stomped back across the green belt.

Poor Donnie. He'll be the one to have to give the varmint it's last meal. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to kill animals, but when they dig holes the size of a subdivision in my yard, it's me or them! In this case, it's them.

My apologies to all the rodent lovers out there. If you want to save this one's life, come and get it today!

When I was born it wasn't possible for whites and blacks to mingle. There was still very much of a divide that said blacks must use one door and whites the other.

Today, as I watched the inauguration, I remembered those who gave their lives on battlefields all over the world so this peaceful transfer of power was possible. I also remembered the lives of black men and women who lay down their lives on the black top and deserted country sides so a black man could take the oath of office in 2009.

It's been a long time coming, but America took a giant step today and for that I'm proud.
Whether you voted for President Obama or not, you have to agree that he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and he's in for a hell of a ride.

I think of myself as a very patriotic American and the National Anthem always gets to me. I spent a good deal of the morning swallowing tears for various reasons. In the afterglow of the day I still feel so fortunate to live in America. For all its faults, it's still the best place to live.

President Obama has been handed a tough job. We'll see what the future holds.

I'll be turning 50 next month. It seems impossible to me that I've lived this long. Looking back it feels like I just graduated high school last week, but when I started thinking about it today I realized A LOT has happened in my life time. Here's an incomplete list:

Assasination of JFK
Man walked on the moon
Color TV
Rock-n-Roll
Computers
Internet
Wireless phone
Cell phone
Berlin Wall fell
Fall of Communism in Russia
Turn of the century
Terrorist attack on home soil
First African-American President of the US

Whew! I HAVE lived a long time. Makes you wonder what the next 50 years holds. First female president?

Most of the USA is suffering from bone chilling weather this winter. It's not much different for us here in the South. Today we woke up to 6 degrees F and a wind chill of zero or below. That's extremely cold for us. My hat's off to the folks dealing with the misery that 20-40 below zero inflicts.

I couldn't help but think about the comparison in weather and writing. Yep, that's right, there's a comparison and here it is. Looking out of my window the sun is shining and it looks like it could be a nice day. Okay, so the wind chime is being blown sideways, but other than that, it could be a nice day. I step out on the porch and realize it's bitter, bitter cold. I step back inside, close the door, rub my arms and scold myself for being so stupid.

Now, sitting on my couch putting the final touch on a story before sending it out for consideration, I think: That's not bad, who wouldn't want to publish that AND give me money for it? I hit send and off it goes. Not long after that, the rejection comes or the list of winners is posted and my name is not there and I realize the wind chill has hit bone. I sit on the couch, dab a tear and, just for a minute think: How could you be so stupid to put yourself out there like that.

After a bit of consoling though, I'm right back on the computer putting the final touches on yet another story with my finger poised to hit the send button.