The Plates and All

My monitor isn't too bright. (That could be taken two ways...and since I like to see pictures as they are, the insulting way is one of the ways I mean it.) I hope the resolution on yours is better than the resolution on mine, so you can see the plates a little better than I'm seeing them here in my picture.

The plates from left to right are: Wisconsin Dells, where we rode the Ducks, amphibious tour boats, adapted from World War (hmm, which one?); the Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio, where we dined with Charles Dickens (well, okay, he wasn't there when I was but it was still neat to know that he HAD); Hershey, Pennsylvania, where Mary and I flew together a few years ago and discovered that in some places, it's just better to rent a car after you get there...but we had a great time); and Disneyland. Ah, Disneyland. A connection to my childhood, when we would drive down there from Washington State; and to my years with Ed and the older kids when we lived in California, a couple of lifetimes ago.

The picture hanging on the wall to the right is called L'Angelus, by Millet. It had been in my dear mother-in-law's house. When I brought it home in a suitcase, on an airplane, the glass broke, slightly damaging the picture - to my chagrin. However, with a new frame, it looks like new. (Well, now, should a print of a classical painting look like new?)

On the little bookcase, you can see a plate and a bell that my daughter brought me back from Hawaii a few years ago (she was working for an airline); the Bible; a tall thin wooden statue of Mary brought to me from Hawaii years ago by my Mom, and a unique hand-crafted statue of Mary brought to me from the Holy Land by a dear friend. The little ceramic circular Nativity that you wind up, that was given to me by another dear friend, didn't get in the picture, but it's there to the right.

Clutter gathers on this bookcase, in and around these items, like dust; and I have to keep chasing the clutter away. Nothing should be here but the items pictured (or described). Are you reading this, family? (That includes me. You know, like the little cardboard box brought home from church for collecting coins for the poor during Lent. What better place for it, right? W-e-l-l...)

Those plates on the wall are saving us money. Can you believe that? No, I didn't think so. Well, you see, it's like this. We have been whittling away at our storage unit for months. We are now almost ready to move our stored items into a smaller unit. So everything that we sell, give away, throw away, or bring to the apartment is a step toward monthly savings on the storage rent. It's nice when you can save money by adding beauty to your life, isn't it?