Positively ... Positive

 by Mauverneen

I wake to a morning that's cloudy and grey

but I guess I'll get dressed anyway.

The sun may shine and the birds might sing

so I need to be ready for anything!

And if it rains and if it pours

there's plenty for me to do indoors.

I'll draw or paint or bake a cake

sometimes our own sunshine we have to make.

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint. However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it! Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com See more photos at 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

Positively Metaphorically

 by Mauverneen

Every morning, like most people, the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee. I still prefer multiple cups rather than the one cup wonders. My coffee maker uses these little paper filters. One morning it struck me how much those filters reminded me of life.  

When they're new, they're all perfectly shaped, standing tall, stacked together for support. As one by one they're taken out, the rest begin to sag and spread. From tall and perky to saggy and wrinkled. And  as always, a new pack, a new generation, eventually will take its place. And it struck me how like life that is. 

When we're young, we're bright and shiny, we have all our friends and family for support. As we go through life that support we have relied on begins to disappear, one by one, leaving us to wilt like that stack of remaining coffee filters. 

The thing is, even the last one still has value, still has purpose, still does the job. A good thing to remember - no matter where in the stack we are.

Coffee filters - a metaphor for life. Who'd have thought?

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint. However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it! Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com See more photos at 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

 

Positively Learning

 by Mauverneen  

Learning to fly fish

I like learning new things, trying new experiences, new food... 

A baked brie - look how they've sliced the apple! So pretty.

Learning, in general, keeps our minds active, like reading, or working puzzles. It exercises that mass up inside our heads. 

I tried fly fishing a couple of weeks ago, on a visit to Utah to see my oldest daughter. I just wanted to try it. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope I can do it again some time. 

My daughter and myself in the Provo River

I'm also learning a new language. Czech. Why Czech? Well, next year I am going on a trip to Prague, so I thought I'd try to learn a little of the language. I know in the city most people will speak English, and I probably won't get out of the city to find out if I would really need to know the language, but it's something I want to do. Even knowing how to say 'please' and 'thank you' in the native language is usually welcomed. So, every day I go through my flash cards and review the words I've learned - I'm surprised how well this works! - and learn new ones. Some words stick in my head for whatever reason, and others, well, they just don't want to play nice and will elude me forever. 

I'm already planning on learning another language next year, after my trip. I'm going to learn Spanish. I've been wanting to for some time. I may never be fluent in any of these, but I'll know a few basics, and maybe a bit more than that. In any case, it'll keep my mind active. Now I have to find ways to keep my body active. I'd sure like these joints of mine to be as limber as my brain! That seems to be a lot harder.

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint. However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it! Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com See more photos at 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

Positively A Hoot!

 by Mauverneen

The local Wild Birds Unlimited store had an event on Saturday that I positively had to go to. Owls. They had owls. Two beauties - a Great Horned Owl and a Barred Owl. 

What gorgeous creatures, so calm and serene. I just wanted to pet them because they looked so soft. But one look at those beaks and I wouldn't dare try! On the information table there were a couple of 'wings'. They were as soft as I imagined. Too bad I can't have one for a pet. 

I have only ever seen a live owl in the wild once. Last year in fact, while on vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was outside my bedroom window one afternoon. I was hypnotized! 

If you ever see an owl out in the wild - consider yourself lucky!

The owls were provided by Wings and Talons, an organization that provides and cares for raptors in their care, and those in the wild through education and conservation.

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint. However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it! Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com See more photos at 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

Positively Testing

 by Mauverneen

I guess you might call this a public service announcement - with a bit of history.

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 a test is planned of the nation’s Emergency Alert system, to ensure everything is working correctly in the event of a national disaster or an attack. Every cellphone, TV and radio in the US should blare out the jarring electronic warning of an emergency alert, accompanied by a notice something like: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.” On cellphones, it will come as a short text message: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” Phones on which the main menu is set to Spanish will see the message in Spanish. 

The message will go out at the same moment across every time zone in the U.S (12:20 p.m.Central time). It will go out only once, and will last about a minute. Should there be “widespread severe weather or other significant events,”  it could be postponed to the backup testing date of Oct. 11.

The first national emergency broadcasting system in the U.S. was created in 1951 under President Harry S. Truman. CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) was intended to allow continuous broadcast of civil defense information using radio stations to warn the nation in the event of war, threat of war, enemy attack or other grave national crisis.

 CONELRAD was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) in August 1963, and was later replaced by the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in 1997.

 The first nationwide test of the EAS took place November 9, 2011. That check revealed problems that could have meant not everyone would hear the alert in the event of a real emergency. The system was subsequently improved and strengthened. 

The upcoming test on Oct. 4 will be the 7th nationwide test sent to radios and televisions, the 3rd to consumer cellphones and the second to all cellular devices. 

Although the system was never used for a national emergency, it has been activated more than 20,000 times between 1976 and 1996 to broadcast civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards.

Mistaken messages have occasionally been sent out that triggered false alarms at local levels, especially in the 1950s when the system was new. The most recent false alarm was  in 2018 when the  Hawaii Management Agency system sent an alert warning of a ballistic missile threat. It took 38 minutes to clarify that during a shift change, someone had selected the wrong item on a computer.

As always, the words are my own, and require permission to reprint. However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it! Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com See more photos at 

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html