Author: Becky

Button Sunday


I’ve been thinking a lot about bridges lately because of something I wrote. Many titles containing bridges drifted through my musings…

Songs instantly familiar to me included “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “59th Street Bridge Song,” both by Simon and Garfunkel, “Love Can Build A Bridge,” The Judds, “Under The Bridge,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, “The Bridge,” Elton John, and “Seven Bridges Road,” The Eagles. I did a Google search, and found so many more! (And lots of songs that feature bridges, too, like “Ode to Billie Joe”.)

A few movie/book titles that I’ve seen or read also came to mind: The Bridge On the River Kwai, The Bridges of Madison County, Bridge to Terebithia, Waterloo Bridge, A Bridge Too Far.

Bridges can be treacherous, beautiful, meaningful, sad, hopeful. I guess it’s all in one’s perspective, so I found a few buttons online with varying takes on bridges. I eliminated any buttons about the game of Bridge, about which I have no concept because I’ve never played or watched anyone else play.

Now that I’ve brought up the subject, it’s a safe bet you’ll start seeing bridges or hearing about them, too. The bridges were always in front of you or inside your brain, of course. This post is just helping you remember or notice. Maybe bridges are like cows, and we see one every day…

(pre)occupied


I got four of these coloring books, one each for the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I decided to start by choosing something from the 60s. I like the books with one caveat. The paper is thin, which means the descriptive text on the backs of a coloring page (which usually relates to the next coloring page in the book) bleeds through. Drawings bleed through to the descriptions, too.

You can see what I mean in this description of the page I’m sharing today.

Still, she’s lovely, even with reversed words showing across her throat, and I hope I did her justice. The colors are a little more vivid than they appear in this artifical light.

My mother loved this song, and I don’t have access to my 45s at the moment, but I feel like I still have our copy from when it was released. I swear there’s a girl in this user-created video who’s a character in the Neverending Saga. Though none of the books are set in San Francisco, the city is mentioned often and it casts a long shadow over some of the characters’ lives.


ETA: Today is my father’s birthdate, and I miss him so much. He’d be 109 if he were alive, and he’d probably tell me to get the heck out of Texas. Not sure Alabama would be any friendlier to an old hippie wannabe like me. These are not my times…not because I’m living in the past. But I’m out of sync with so much of the culture and the politics.

Two friends for “Rome”

“Rome,” so named because Debby’s granddaughter Rome once painted a zebra for her.

Mid-July, I posted a coloring page I did using an iron-on transfer of a zebra I’d saved from the early 1990s. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever used it, but then later, I found a photo of the shirt I’d painted with the zebra and two other carousel animals for Lynne. I showed it to her in comments to that post, and though she didn’t remember it, and I’d forgotten doing it, it does provide proof that the transfers were used, and I likely saved them with thoughts of doing something with them later. When I found them again, coloring seemed like the natural solution.


Here’s the shirt I painted for Lynne. Judging by the dates on the album it was in, it was probably a birthday gift.

Last week when I was doing a lot of coloring during some lengthy phone conversations, I took out the other two carousel animals and colored them. I needed the focus and calm that coloring provides. My book of coloring pages now has Rome’s two friends.


“Pat Dye,” carousel tiger. Pat Dye served with my father in the military and was later a football coach at Auburn University, home of the Auburn Tigers and alma mater of at least five family members. (And biggest football rival of my alma mater, the University of Alabama, where Dye was an assistant coach under the legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant for nine seasons.)


“Duchess,” carousel horse. She got her name from a Palamino horse belonging to one of the characters in the Neverending Saga.

ETA: I texted with my former sister-in-law Terri earlier today to wish her a happy birthday. She’s one of the most dedicated Auburn football fans I know, so in honor of the occasion, “War Eagle!” to Terri.

“War Eagle” is not an Auburn mascot, though the school does have an eagle that flies over the games. “War Eagle” is described as Auburn’s battle cry. “The phrase has a long history and deep significance among the Auburn Family … who use it to greet and identify with each other all over the world,” according to Auburn’s website.

Tiny Tuesday!

Yesterday morning I stepped outside just after daybreak and looked toward the tall trees on the other side of our back fence. First, I noticed the dance of tiny hummingbirds in and out of the top branches. Then I saw one of my favorite sites: a tiny sliver of the moon. This one’s a waning crescent moon, which makes me think of fall (a welcome prospect).

I mentally began composing a poem to that moon, but when I came inside, there were dogs to feed, meds to be given and taken, and the busy-ness of the day at hand. By late afternoon today, hopefully I can remember my thoughts from yesterday morning and get that poem on paper. If not, maybe I have a moon collection of magnetic poetry to dip into.

ETA: Though I wished him a happy one in messages, today’s Jim’s birthday, and I will always happily celebrate him. I love you, Jim! ❤️

more coloring pages


I’m a proud participant in and proponent of coloring as therapy. In a variety of waiting rooms, cars, classrooms, parks, hotel rooms, beach houses, mountain cabins, and homes, spanning decades of friendships, passages, and events both happy and sad, coloring has brought me peace of mind.

Today, I’ve been thinking of happy family celebrations while I colored.