Anthony Bourdain!! What!? ...

Anthony Bourdain. Dead at 61. Apparent suicide.

How can a man who has everything... looks, money, travel, family, love... most things that each of us  feel would make us so much happier... think that throwing it all away is going to release his troubled soul?

Satan is the biggest liar.

From my point of belief, he has just gone from the frying pan into the fire.

Bourdain, over the years has admitted to cocaine and heroin addiction. How many times did he reject the notion of God? How many times did he turn from the open arms of Jesus? How many times did he say No, out loud, to the only One who could save him and give him peace?

Time and time again, the enemy whispered in Tony's ear that that could not possibly an option... that is was just a child's story... that he was worth nothing... and that everything he had ever done wrong in his life would be weighted upon him to suffer through until he died... and if he would just speed that moment up, he could be free of that weight forever! What the Deceiver did not tell Tony, was that now he would be paying for his own sins for the rest of all eternity, tormented forever.... way beyond the trouble he felt during his life on earth.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish but have everlasting life."

Jesus, the Son of God, who came to this world to die on the cross with our sins upon Him so that we might be cleansed and pure in the sight of His Father, is asking you today to come to Him. Be born again in Jesus and accept what He freely gives.... love, forgiveness, peace.

Don't be deceived by the enemy.

If you have questions, please contact me!

Still Alive, Too Involved and Other Miscellaneous.... MORE TO COME

So earlier today I almost had a really bad day.  Was at the 4-way stop outside of the campground, and the car opposite waved me forward. I waved my appreciation, took my foot off my brake and looked to my right as I was about to turn. A little red car was coming




6/4/2018

Here it is June already! Only 93 more days until Labor Day and the end of summer.

There are moments in time when I just feel I should be writing down all of the things that are going on in my life...

Today:

I am Day 5 of a severe cold. Appears the sore throat has finally basically left, but still having lots of sinus drainage down the back of my throat and that makes my throat rough and raw. I got the sore throat on Wednesday evening, and had eaten some fish tacos and the feta cheese and sauce really did a number on me Thursday all during work! Was battling a lot that day.

My mechanic texted me with a craidgs

My Nutritarian Lifestyle Adventure... MORE TO COME

Time and Motivation...

I have no idea where the time has gone... I feel like I have been on a spin cycle of my own that has abruptly stopped.

Every one of my past "weekends" I have headed up to Astoria, but this weekend I really don't have enough gas money to head up there. And my motivation is about zip. It's cloudy with some sun breaks, but I am not accomplishing much.

I am in the adult lodge, watching some tv and need to write some emails.

* * *

I got those emails written. But I only received one reply, so I really have no idea if people get my emails or if people really do not respond to emails. The response I received was polite, but negative.

* * *

The following week, the sun was shining, and I felt my hair was not looking its best, so I

Retirement...

So, I was having a text conversation with someone, who has known me for just about forever, about his upcoming birthday and retirement...

Absolutely LOVE the positive attitude :D


.

My Uncle Jimmy... MORE TO COME

It was in the news yesterday, that Billionaire Paul Allen (I believe the co-founder of Microsoft, with Bill Gates) found the wreck of a WWII ship, the USS Juneau, on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, 2018. The Juneau was famous for the Sullivan Boys... 5 brothers who wanted to serve together. Sadly, their ship was hit and all 5 perished. The Navy, believing that no family should have to endure such a great loss, would no longer put brothers on the same ship. Which was why my Uncle Jimmy and my Uncle Gordon were not on the same ships during their time in the Navy during WWII.

This got me to starting to research my uncle, and his lost ship, on the internet, in the middle of the night.

Jimmy was oldest of the four Long boys, my father's oldest brother. I do not know if he joined up or was drafted.

First I went to findagrave.com to find his memorial stone in the cemetery in Bedford, Indiana, my family's home town. This gave me the date of his death.

I then went to a page I found that listed all of the Naval ships that were lost during WWII. I went through each category until I found one with the same date, July 18th, 1943... the LST-342. I had asked my oldest cousin some time ago if my aunt remembered the name of Jimmy's ship. It really didn't have a name, just a number...

There had always been the story that when Jimmy's ship was struck, the back half with most of the crew had sunk immediately. That appears to be the fact.

More of the same general information...

I am not sure if this map shows where LST-342 was hit, or where the bow was towed and remains abandoned.

Iron Bottom Sound is located here...

But at least in this general area, is where we lost our family's son, brother and uncle...

The bow was towed...

So busy....

OhMyGracious... I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I last posted. I have just been so busy with the emotions and transactions of being a Business View Photographer, that I have barely had time to do much beside get to work on time, and sleep... and eat.

Yes, went 12 days without sugar, even while stress eating, but then broke down with creamer in my McDonald's coffee when I didn't have time to purchase Almond Milk. So have started again and I think I am heading into Day 3 because then the next day I muffed it up with some Nutella. Every day I don't eat a chocolate donut is a true success, in my opinion :)

On my days off from the toy shoppe, I am up in Astoria talking to businesses. First Tuesday, talked with 15 people. Wednesday, 10 people... and landed my first real shoot: Baked Alaska. Went Monday to shoot and have been battling a problem with "moderating a constellation" since I got my edited stitched panos from my guy in Romania. Yeah, I "have a guy"... in Romania.... long story. But he does a great job with hiding my stupid tripod by working my 5th floor shot into the pano, and isn't charging me much at all. This is totally a no-brainer for me since I can concentrate on talking and selling, and not fretting over the editing part of this adventure. I may learn eventually, but in the meantime, this is "Outsourcing" and it's perfectly acceptable because a lot of professionals do it.

I am waiting on some help with the problem I am having, but otherwise, I am ready to upload the tour and deposit the check!!

That Tuesday, after I took the pics, I took the day off to relax, and then on Wednesday, I talked to about 7 people. I have a few places I feel really good about, some I haven't been able to propery connect with yet, but even though I am not hitting the goals I originally set for myself, I feel like it is happening at the correct pace. Any more and I would be strung out emotionally to the brink!

Locked my keys in the van at Fred Meyers the other day. Too much on my brain. Then an unexpected blessing from the adventure... The lock guy was really tweaking my door with his inflatable pillows in order to reach in with his tools... and guess what? My majorly jacked door hinge which had gotten blown hard by the wind a month or more ago, is closing more smoothly without me having to lift it up each time I close it! Like Wow!!

Business at the toy shopped is picking up... Spring Breakers are beginning to show up. Nice to be busy. Winter boredom was tough.

Night before last, I closed the store to check out the sunset, and it was beautiful. Then as I called away the clouds above kept getting more bright pink. I had to go back up the street for a few more shots.

Sunset, Cannon Beach, OR, March 16th, 2018

My Old Class Page...

Last night I was sharing my latest adventure product with an old friend on FB, who actually is the person who first introduced me to computers!

He was asking me about hosting sites on a new website idea he has. I told him I didn't know much about those because I was Old School and write HTML5. This got me thinking about the class page I had developed for all my lessons and videos in about 2011 or so.

It took me quite a bit of ferreting to find it, but I did! You can catch it here. A lot of time went into these pages full of information and videos....

https://sites.google.com/site/susanstvcc/home

It looks like I only put non-working links to the support pages to my Christmas Play. It would sure be nice to find out where I put that and find it again as well.

In the early half of the 2000's, I had written homeschool unit study educational web pages for the Iditarod, the Oregon Trail, and an Advent Calendar.... those seem to be missing off the internet so I have sent an email to the company that looks like they took over the company whose server I had them on.  Hopefully they will  be able to forward the code for them to me to put up on another page.

Otherwise, I am thinking the code may still be on one of my old computers in a file somewhere. That would be cool.

And gosh, way, way back when, I had holiday pages up on the net from time in Atwater when I first discovered the internet. I have tried to find those and previously have not been able to.

It would be wow to find all of those and have them in one place.


:)

Always wear your Happy Hat!! It makes your day SO much better!

Ha! I also had a related blogspot that we had to do for one of the classes...

http://susansmithtvcc.blogspot.com/ 

Hope you have a great day!

Great Accomplishments...

and my future awaits.

I haven't talked about it much on this blog, but I have been working on a career project for the past 4 months. The long and short of it is: "A guy walks into a toy shoppe..." and, "What have you got to lose but that you have camera equipment to sell on Craigslist?"

And here we are! My very first "tour" on Google Maps.

Once I actually get a paid job up on the net, I can call myself a "Google Business View Photographer" officially! And only 50 spins will get me a "Trusted" Photographer standing with Google.

I am on my way! :)

LIttle Girl Lost...

I have been on "spin cycle" along with my son, not knowing about his job opportunity and when he was going to hear something. Then when he got the job, how long it would be until his Business Visa came through. Then not knowing when he was taking off for Sweden permanently.

I asked for extra days off three times after he arrived back just before Thanksgiving when his 3 month Visitor's Visa in Sweden ran out. We had nice visits, and even though we sometimes get terse with each other, there is still a lot more love.

Yesterday morning I took him to the Portland International Airport and sent him off through security.

This morning, he messaged to say he had arrived safely <3

He has now officially begun the "grown up" part of his life.... college graduate, married, new job, new country.

With my older son already over there for 4 years now, I kinda feel like my job as a mom is complete.

* * *

So now I am Little Girl Lost.

Alone. All by myself on this side of the pond.

I have been mentally preparing myself for this time, but still, it's difficult.

I praise God that He has given me a new adventure in which to put my time and energy. A prospect of making some decent money if I put myself into it, and the opportunity to travel as well!

Looking forward to the future, but still a little anxious that I have no one pinned down to be an emergency contact here to get a hold of the boys in case something happens.

Ah well.


:)

UPDATE 2/10/2018

Son on west side of country went for visit with son in the east side.  They video messaged me to say "Hej!" <3 I guess I am still loved and not forgotten. It was early morning and I was still snoozing before I needed to get ready for work...

:)

Fun Last Weekend...

My son's Business Visa was finally approved and he made flight reservations for  5 days later.

I was able to take an extra day off and we spent a time getting him up to Portland for a day and a half, some good sleep and some good eats and some good hugs before he left for Sweden for the next 5 years or so.

My Blessing Jar... ONGOING

There is an idea that runs around the internet about a Blessings Jar... To take a jar and each time you are blessed, or something makes you happy, you write a note and pop it in the jar. The plan is that at the end of the year, you look through all your blessings.

I don't need another item rolling around in the van, so I have decided to try and keep a list here. I will not be making a list of my frustrations and hurts, which DO happen in my world, because I don't need negativity in my life, and no one should hold onto those types of things.

I feel blessed in so many ways each day, but I will try to keep a log of the biggies, and some of the little ones :)

9. In Astoria, I parked near the hospital to catch their wifi. Left my lights on while I was sitting there on my computer and could not start the van. Thank goodness I always have my bed with me, so I overnighted there, and 8 hours later, when I turned the key, the van STARTED!! So blessed that I did not have to stand in the rain to ask someone for a jump! 1/23/Tuesday night

8. Alaska had an earthquake. I was at the Safeway in Astoria, woke up at 3am, checked my phone and saw that the entire west coast was under a tsunami watch. I texted the boys and got dressed. Was going to go up to the Astoria Column, but figured if that earthquake triggered the Cascadian Subduction Zone, then I would only slide off of the top there... so I started to head east. I called 2 friends... it was only a Watch. I was waiting to see what happened in Kodiak, AK first in order to evaluate the possible upscaling to Advisory before I started to call everyone I know. I drove for about a half hour to Westport, OR... elevation before I was able to check my phone and find out the watch had been cancelled because Kodiak only experienced wave height of 6 inches. Glory! Better to be safe than sorry, so I took a nap, and breakfast in a cute little place called The Berry Patch :)  1/23/Tuesday morning

7. Found out that I can come into the campground during the week that I am "out" to still use the facilities... shower, laundry, pool, spa, and lodges with wifi, as long as I don't park in a camp spot!

6. We got an order of games at work, and I felt I just could not sell one certain "game" (that starts with an O) due to my personal religious beliefs and experiences. Took me a day to compose what I wanted to say to my boss. But when I did share that I could not sell this to anyone, she said that was fine, she would send it back. Praise God!  1/19/Friday

5. Thought the day was going to be rainy, but it turned out to be a beautiful day! Went to The Cove for some ocean wave time 1/16/Tuesday

4. Went to Warrenton to look for a laptop cover. Whenever I am in the area, I stop at Fred Meyer's to pick up a Highlander Panini sandwich because I am totally addicted to them. I usually get there late and so leftover sandwiches are put in the cold case. I picked one up and since there was still someone in the deli, I asked if they could toast it up warm for me. She said usually the oven is turned off when they set the sandwiches in the case, but tonight, they forgot! So the oven was still hot and I got my sandwich toasted up :) 1/10/Wednesday

3. Tirzah got sick this morning, and was acting very lethargic, along with shallow breathing. I prayed this was not her end. She was being very distant, but after a while she curled up in a ball and started snoring... I took that as a good sign. Then, sometime later she actually sat up and started purring. She seems fairly fine now and has had some water and has eaten a little. TYJ  1/9/Tuesday

2. I got pulled over for not signaling for a turn. I did not get a ticket.  1/8/Tuesday

1. Signing in to Seaside Thousand Trails, they had a nice plastic bag someone else had left, for putting my site sheet in to mark my spot. Also, I think I have now met everyone who works here, and they have not pressured me with being a Conversion Van, etc.  1/8/Monday  Follow-up note: We had a wind storm and my plastic bag blew away!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year - 2018...

The new year is already well on it's way.... the first week is in the books.

I haven't really made any resolutions, however there are things I want to accomplish...

• Continue to learn to eat healthier
• Kill the Sugar Dragon
• Get good at my new business
• Begin traveling and making plans for my future in an optimistic light
• Be a better me in general
• Get myself mostly out of CC debt

I think I will get the detox program I have recently looked at.  I have not ever done any detoxing because I don't know exactly what to do and what to expect. People say do this or do that, but I am not sure they know what they are talking about. This program does cost for the downloaded digital audio with no books, but I like the guy who has put it together... Ty Bollinger, "The Truth About Cancer".