just ponderin'

… on the give away pile

September 21, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

There is nothing like getting ready to move that shows you what an impractical human being you are… which could be another term for intervention-bound hoarder. There is just so much stuff! We are knee-deep in what any responsible human being who has ever stumbled across an Oprah episode on decluttering and organizing does. We are making piles. “Keep it” “Toss it” “Give it away” All using the decorating/interior design Golden Rule of “live with what you love”. Do you love it – for […]

Categories: Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', musings, secrets to happiness • Tags: dealing with narcissists, joy, just ponderin', musings, narcissism, secrets to happiness, stepping back from toxic relationships, toxic friendships, toxic relationships

… on hunting season and blending in

September 16, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Okay, sure. Clocks weren’t melting and I didn’t wake up with a skinny, long and somewhat disturbing mustache. But the point is I could have. Seriously. To fit in, I may even change my name (I might hyphenate, as Lisa Dingle-Dali has a certain ring to it). So, turns out the surrealist movement in twenty-first century Maine starts out with gunshots. No, really. You wake up on… let me see… September 15th to two shots (which could also have been called blasts […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, just ponderin', Maine, musings, Old Yankee Man, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: comedic writing, comedy, humor, hunting season, just ponderin', maine, maine hunting, musings, old yankee man

… on taking time to smell the offices

September 14, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

When I was a younger version of me, still in my teens, I was going to community college and had signed up with a ‘temp agency’ for some summer work because a friend told me that I could make good money and not touch food and probably not deal with the general public. Mostly I was assigned to companies who needed cheap labor to stuff envelopes for a marketing campaign, or to temporarily recept when the receptionist was away for […]

Categories: dogs, family, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', memories, musings, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: doing the impossible, humor, joy, overcoming odds, photography, secrets to happiness

… on a college boy’s girl

September 3, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

She watched with great confidence as Her Boy got busy earlier in the summer. She checked on Him as He sorted through the clothes and socks and shoes in the room where He slept all the years since He chose her above all others. She made sure all the bags and packages and new-smelling things that appeared in the eating room were safe. She knew some of the bags were the ones He used only when he left the house […]

Categories: child rearing, just ponderin', memories, musings, omd! (oh my dog(s)!), unique observation • Tags: a dog and her boy, boys and dogs, dogs missing people, german shepherd, just ponderin', kids going to college, photography

… on acorns and oaks

August 29, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

There is a college a wee bit south of us… Okay, eleven hours south. Fifteen if there are multiple pile-ups on i95, somewhere around Washington, D.C. where I’m pretty sure people forgot that close quarters combined with high speed and brake lights equal the random, often highly impactful colliding of rather heavy mechanical objects (but who’s keeping track?) Anyway. It seems that centers for higher eduction are a bit addicted to ceremony, often with a smidgen of pomp and a dash […]

Categories: child rearing, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', musings, my perfect cherubs, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: dropping off at college, Elon, Elon University, empty nest, family, first year of college, humor, joy, just ponderin', kid going to college, photography

… on that half smile

August 24, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Gabe has had a thing for shoes, pretty much from his womb-period. Swear to Gawd, the kid was born knowing how to spell ‘Nike’… along with ‘cleat’, ‘sneaker’, ‘dress shoe’ (originally expressed as ‘shine-y shoe’), ‘flip-flop’, and ‘slipper’. And, just to make it clear that he wasn’t actually born with brand names in mind, ‘Nike’ was his word for ‘shoe’ for a really long time (as in, “I need new Nikes” every time he wanted a new pair of shoes (which […]

Categories: child rearing, family, memories, musings, my perfect cherubs • Tags: empty nest, family, growing up, just ponderin', kid leaving for college, leaving for college, musings, nike, photography

… on different perspectives, same place

August 17, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

If you follow the trees from the left to the right… you can see a break in the pines and spruce. Sort of a flat spot. That’s the bridge to the island. A swing bridge. Instead of rising up, like a drawbridge, the main span – all 187 feet of it – swings open, allowing boats to glide toward and away from the nearby harbor. For me, in summer, passing over the bridge means leaving the atmosphere of the island, and […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', Maine, musings, secrets to happiness, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: boothbay maine, gratitude, humor, joy, joyful life, just ponderin', Maine Island, mid coast maine, photography, secrets to happiness, southport maine

… on a welcome sense of otherness

August 12, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

I know. Very cool. When I was getting these photos ready to put up, I actually googled the difference between ‘fog’ and ‘mist’, because I first typed ‘Mystical Morning’ and then that made me think of ‘misty’, and I liked using ‘mist’ better than ‘fog’ right then. But then I thought, ‘Well wait. I need to look this up because someone is bound to call me on it if I use the wrong word.’ No, really. Like, ‘Uh, Lisa? This […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, joy, just ponderin', Maine, musings, the maine thing, Uncategorized, unique observation • Tags: fog, humor, joy, just ponderin', maine, mist, musings, photography, Southport, the way life should be

… on a visitor’s return home

August 7, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Spike! He’s all adult-y! I knew he’d be back. Last year we had some rather interesting initial indications of his presence (made known in particularly impactful style to one Marshal Dillon Dingle). And then, early one morning he made his little, juvenile self known. He posed for a few pics to boot and even ended up on the front page of the Boothbay Register (Regi-stah). I was a bit worried that the celebrity went to his head, to be honest. Since the […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', Maine, marshal dillon dingle, musings, the maine thing • Tags: humor, joy, just ponderin', maine, musings, photography, porcupine

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