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September 03 We are staying in Texas during the winter 2009/10We extended our commitment working as hosts in Island RV Resort in Port Aransas till March 2010. April 06 Opening e-cards is dangerous to your computer's health.Friends, please note:
I stopped opening e-cards coming from a "free" website. Sorry! I hope you are not offended. I subscribe to http://www.jacquielawson.com . The cards are very artistic and have classical background music. I need a password to get into that side. Those cards are secure. Before I send one, I usually send a note beforehand to tell the recipient that a secure card is coming. I want to keep my computer running !!!! April 04 In Port Aransas, TXWe arrived here on March 23. 2009 and we are starting our work as hosts in Island RV Resort on April 7. Our training is finished.
February 17 Leaving ArizonaWe will leave Arizona on March 2., 2009. We will be in Texas in summer and might be in Florida winter 2009/10. Please look into my travel blog I pointed out in the last post. January 14 Enjoying Arizona againWe are in Florence, AZ, since Dec. 29. 2008. Not on our former property but on the same street. We can stay here as long as we want. Right now we are looking into the newest edition of "Workamper News", which means that we want to find a little work which pays for a stay in a nice area. Will see where we "land" in summer 2009.
Have a wonderful year 2009 everyone! Stay healthy and happy!
Since Windows Live overhauled their entire system, friends who are not members of Windows Live networks cannot look into this site anymore. But of course, if you are, visit me and listen to the videos of Rod Stewart. You find those by scrolling down a little. I had a health challenge lately and blogged about in : http://www.karinbartsch.com/apps/blog You can also find many pictures there on the Photo Gallery page. If you are interested in how our live goes, please, visit my website often. I keep you posted about almost everything. Take care!
November 05 Election campain is over....Usually I stay out of politics eventhough I have my strong opinions about it because I love peace and quiet in my immediate surroundings. But now I have to write a couple of sentences...I live in the USA since 1984 and I compared this country to my homeland Germany in so many regards. People here did not educate themselves enough about what is going on in Washington. Complaining is easy. It was gruesome lately to observe how people suffered more and more under the B administration, the country looked almost doomed after the latest money issues and job losses.
But then came along a very cool and collected, well educated young man who was able to wake this country up with his political reasoning and also energized all African Americans because of his skin color. Barack Obama is President elect now. The last stretch of the election and Nov. 4. was an event nobody will forget in his/her lifetime. Time Square in New York was packed, like so many places in other metropolitan areas, people cried because they felt relieved. Hope for a better country, for better foreign relations in the world, for better social issues, like health insurance and alternative energy sources.
Most of my heart was and always will be in Germany. But yesterday night I had a feeling I sofar never had since my naturalization in 1990 - I was proud to be an American! When we visited Dieters parents in 1962 in New Jersey, who immigrated from Germany into the USA in 1953, Dieter and I still whitnessed that black people made room on a pathway for whites. On a later visit, being in the J.F. Kennedy Airport in NY, I addressed a luggage carrier who was an elderly black man helping us with our suitcases with "Sir". He stared at me and almost cried. Those times seems to be over now. And therefore I feel good inside. January 28 My book is also available now at Amazon.com and Barnes & NobleMy book
"Childhood Memories....surviving World War II" by Karin Bartsch
is now available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble ( bn.com ).
You find it there in the books category by typing the first half of the book title into their search browser or entering 978-1-4303-2866-7 ( ISBN ).
You should be able now to order it in any bookstore by providing the ISBN.
If you find it more convenient to download the book onto your computer's harddrive, you can do that by ordering it at the publisher lulu.com , it is cheaper as a download.
If you read it and don't have anything negative to say about my book, please, go back to the website where you bought it and click on "Review" to write a couple of sentences why you liked the book, which helps the distribution of my book.
I thank you all in advance! Karin Bartsch. January 01 New Year's Resolution 2008.Here am I, looking forward to all the future happenings yet still hidden to me, at least partially, but eagerly awaited anyway. The older I get the more I feel that life is short, which means that I should take life in daily increments instead of looking 365 days ahead. Since I don't have to worry about relatives, jobs or how to invest money ( we are poor), I can concentrate on life itself, can act selfishly - together with my husband Dieter. We quit smoking 25 years ago, together and cold turkey, and since then I watch like a hawk over our health, studied privately the matter of healthy cooking, natural supplements, and avoiding junk food. You might have read in my blogs that Dieter's health is not a fixum and that his Immune System has to be carefully nourished and upheld. I have a monthly subscription to a newsletter of a holistic doctor to gain insights about what we as individuals can do to boost our health and to arm myself with basic knowledge to convince the doctor not to describe designer drugs for Dieter, which would ruin his Immune System. Instead he gets Bee Pollen, Raw Honey, Curcumin Complex capsules, an apple daily, home-baked bread, yogurt with live acidophilus cultures, fermented food ( like Sauerkraut) - and the list goes on. Nothing artificial, only the whole food, nothing pre-packed, no artificial sweeteners, no unhealthy fats, meals from scratch. Sounds boring? Not at all, you simply have to sit on my dinner table to understand.
I got carried away. What is my resolution, you ask? To keep Dieter healthy, to keep myself going, to be aware of a healthy environment, to fight weight gain, which is my lifelong fight, and stay connected to my friends, which I love - in the purest sense of the word. When I look at my friends list in Karin's Hide-out, I feel blessed but sad at the same time, because there is no physical connection, no hug, no little kiss. What do they really look like, what is their voice? Therefore I like real picture avatars, that helps already. I have my cellphone number displayed, don't hesitate to call me (Mountain Time -from 9 AM to 9 PM - at weekends, please) or send me e-mails. When I answer a question, I put my heart into it, and I am disappointed when there is no response, no thanks, no comments, but that is rare anyway.
A big outlook on 2008 is our resolve to travel again, go on the road again in March. I will blog that plan when time comes, and I will keep you posted about our plans and travel route.
Again, I wish you all a prosperous and healthy New Year! And please, think about the fact that you yourself are the master of your life - -of course, the hand of your life partner on that steering wheel of your life counts too, but that can be corrected a little. :)   Karin.December 01 Happy Holidays!QnA is a site with participants from all over this world - therefore it is so appealing to all of us, to learn about different cultures and religions. I grew up as a Lutheran and learned later in my life that all religions have something in common: Fundamental priciples of humanity and ethics to live a good life, commandments to do no harm and radiate love. In this sense I wish all my friends here wonderful and meaningful holidays - with or without a Christmas tree or carols. You all have surely something to celebrate, according to your individual religion.
So I address each and everyone of you wishing you the best, also a very good new year 2008, which may give us all hope for a more peaceful world! For all Christian friends: Merry Christmas!
Your friend Karin..... July 11 We are coming out of a shadow.....Enjoying a summer month in the high country of Colorado in 2004, Dieter had suddenly to visit an emergency room because his legs were swelling up enormously. He got some test performed on him, including a blood test. The doctors did not like a number in the bloodtest and suggested visiting a doctor at home. Since we wanted to spend the next winter in Arizona, we went to a doctor near our camping resort. He diagnosed Dieter with nephrotic syndrome, which could mean so many things, he was thinking of Multiple Myeloma. He sent us to an oncologist in Mesa, who had Dieter undergo every test there is, including biopsy of the kidneys, the spinal cord and the hipbone, MRI's and so on. The diagnosis was Primary Amyloidosis, a rare blood cancer. The outlook was bleak. Dieter's kidneys could shut down any moment and the sickness is potentially deadly.
He underwent 2 strong chemo therapies , got tired and weak and gained about 60 pounds on water weight. We both had the feeling we had to go out of Arizona and drive to Florida, to be "nearer" to our children and grandchildren, who all live in Germany. Dieter was able to drive the motorhome to the Tampa area, were we knew one of the best cancer centers of this country was located, the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, which we visited also to get a second opinion. The diagnosis was confirmed there. Dieter felt fairly good and wanted to visit the east coast once more, to see the beach and the waves in St.Augustine. We drove there and Dieter just made it into the campground and then he got very sick, I mean sick-sick. We thought the chemo finally catched up with him, but when he was brought into the emergency room of the Flagler Hospital there, it turned out to be a bowel obstruction, which might have been also caused by the high doses of chemo. Dieter spent 3 weeks in the Intensive Unit there. Besides cleaning him out totally to try to operate on him, the doctors were confronted with Lung Embolies, Liver Infarkt, Heart failure. They could not do the surgery because the high dosis of heparin made his guts bleeding even more. So they implanted a Greenfield Filter (permanently) into his vena cava, to prevent blood clots from reaching the lungs. Then they could operate. The doctors in Flagler Hospital saved Dieter's life. Who pushed us to go to Florida? We never will know. At one point I was e-mailing our 3 children that Dieter is failing and they came, all three and our son-in-law. That gave him the final push for the better! Our second son had been jobwise in Australia and he met up with his siblings in Germany to fly over here. Even after living only on some ice chips for 3 weeks, he had enough strength to fight this thing. He was so positive that he was a "pet-case" of the doctors. He was released after 3 weeks into my care into the motorhome. He had to wear oxygen equipment and had to take lots of medication. But I had to be next to him, when he tried to walk a little, every day a bit more. He was falling asleep in the middle of a conversation! Then a hurricane came into the area. The campground had to be emptied out, and I was ready to drive our motorhome the first time, after having observed all the driving tricks for a long time a a "co-pilot". Dieter drove the 135 miles back to Bushnell all by himself, proudly, but when we arrived, he needed help with setting up. In camper circles, that is no problem. People practically stay in line to help.That was now in 2005. After being just a short time in Bushnell, another hurricane had to move us north to Silver Springs. That was the time, when we decided to drive back to Arizona, to live without the danger of hurricanes or flooding. We found out in the meantime, that the flights costs the same, no matter whether you land in New York or Phoenix.
Dieter gained his old strength back, slowly but surely, we even were able to make a long trip in summer 2006 from Arizona to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and back to here, and in Nov./Dec. 2006 we both flew to Germany, to see our kids and grandkids and my dear sister and family. We wanted to show our sons and daughter how their father had changed from a sceleton to a "normal" man. We had fun in those 2 weeks, but it was hard on us both. The flight from Phoenix to Cinncinnati, to Frankfurt takes a long time against the clock. Since we came back, we decided to slow down overall from camping and enjoy living with all our friends here in AZ. We exchanged the motorhome against a big Fifth Wheel with three slide-outs to have more living space. We were even able to celebrate our 50th!!
Today we drove to Apache Junction to look for a one-ton pick-up truck to be able to travel again next spring. We were lucky and found a fitting one. We delayed that decision until now, until Dieter and I really had the gut feeling that everything will be good.
Yes, everything will be good, we never admitted to ourselves that it would not. Whatever our God has in mind with us - it will be fine!
June 08 Cherokee Wisdom.An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life.
He said to them: "A fight is going on inside me...it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.
The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
The grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather: "Which wolf will win?"
The elder Cherokee gently smiled and replied: "The one you feed."
June 05 Indian Prayers and Poetry.Mohawk Indian Prayer
====================
O Great Spirit, Creator of all things,
human beings, trees, grass, berries,
help us be kind to us.
Let us be happy on earth and
enjoy our life to an old age.
Give us good minds to love one another,
o Great Spirit, be kind to us.
Give us people the favor to see green trees,
green grass, flowers and birds the next spring,
so we all meet again.
O Great Spirit, we ask of you!
Author unknown.
Sioux Prayer
============
As quietly as little rabbits feet
the morning glory sun arrives to greet
the RED MAN as he worships in his way.
For this he asks the Spirit every day:
" Before I judge my friend,
o let me wear his moccasins
for 2 long weeks and share
the path that he would take
in wearing them;
than I shall understand and not condemn!"
Peggy Windsor Garnett
Ojibwa Prayer
=============
O Great Spirit,
whoes voice I hear in the winds
and whoes breath gives life to everyone,
hear me!
I come to you as one of your many children;
I am weak sometimes,
I need your wisdom and your strength.
Let me walk in beauty,
and make my eyes ever behold
the red and purple sunsets.
Make my hands respect the things you have made,
and make my eyes sharp,
so I may hear your voice.
Make me wise, so that I may understand
what you have taught the people
and the lessons you have hidden
in each leaf and each rock.
I ask for wisdom and strength,
not to be superior to my brothers,
but to be able to fight my greatest enemy - myself!
Make me ever ready to come before you
with clean hands and a straight eye,
so as life fades away as a fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.
Author unknown.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Cherokee Poetry
===============
You are part of me
You are part of me now-
You touched me.
With Your kindness and love
so enchanted.
Your soft lips are kind.
Your eyes glow with life.
I am glad You touched me.
You are part of me now.
-Lloyd Carl Owle-
May 20 Pantheism.Pantheism believes that the universe and nature are worthy of the deepest religious reference.
Understanding them, appreciating their beauty and preserving nature should be the central focus of our lives.
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For Spinoza, God and nature were one. True religion was based not on dogma but on a feeling for the rationality and the unity underlying all finite and temporal things, on a feeling of wonder and awe that generates the idea of God, but a God that lacks any anthropomorphic conception.
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Einstein- about his cosmic religion:
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery- even mixed with fear- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity.
In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man. I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existense-- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.
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Stephan Hawking: Larry King (Dec. 1999) asks: "Do you believe in God?"
Stephan Hawking: "Yes - if by God is meant the embodiment of the laws of the universe".
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Mikhail Gorbachev: I believe in the cosmos. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
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Margaret Atwood: God is not the voice in the whirlwind, god is the whirlwind!
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So, my friends, you guessed it -- that's where I stand, when I refer to God or use the word God.
April 21 Fulltiming.Did you ever travel? As a business man/woman you hurry from point A to point B - seen nothing.
As an invited guest for a family party you are glad to be home again after having seen loved ones.
A few days off from your work? You might have seen a lot, but nothing could nourish your soul, no time for that!
You know what "full-timers" are? We are talking modern gypsies! There are also "Snowbirds", which are really half-timers. Most of them are worrying about their property when they live somewhere in the south during the winter and are looking forward to go south when they are home in the north. They have to deal with tax deadlines, with weeds overgrowing their yards, with traveling the same roads over and over, from home to the secondary home in the south or retour.
Full-timing is a rapidly growing industry. More Recreational Vehicles are produced every year, campgrounds expand and modernize and so on. As an individual, your first decision is a very hard one - to part from your belongings and keep only things you need to function. I took most of my clothing, later on I realized that campers dress simple and need mainly t-shirts and sport shoes. Coffee tasts as good out of mugs than out of fine china cups. One set of dishes of a lighter weight is fine and the glass you fill with wine in the evening is not french crystal anymore. To take our pet cat with us was a non-negotiable decision. At one point, your RV is filled to the limit. If you buy one thing, another one has to go. After a certain time you start to feel free, free of the thought of "must have", and you start to notice your friendly camper neighbors ( you just ignore the few who never behave as they should) , hear their travel stories, which are overall fascinating and contribute with your own travel reports. If you have a laptop computer next to the nessecary cellphone(s), you can exchange reports about your locations and get new travel tips, photos and meeting those e-mail friends here and there anew. You connect to nature for good, it's our church.
You might ask: What about getting mail or having a steady address? No problemo, there are mail-forwarding memberships and real addresses (billing addresses) out there. You have to do some search work and ask fellow campers. Some campers are not retired yet, taking their jobs on the road and have different views out of their bedroom window every so often. If you are a real adventurer and drive into the wilderness, you have incredible views of raw nature out of every window! If you feel sick, no problem either. A hospital is always nearby. Some very excellent doctors in Florida saved my husbands life in 2005. - - -
Rock-hounding, fishing, walking, hiking, sight-seeing and sozializing -- and almost no housework, compared to your former life! No lawn mowing, no snow plowing, no leaves collecting, no maintaining a big property. What a life! Hobbies can be taken on the road, also. If you want to do something you just have to put your mind to it and make it happen! My loving husband accepted my hobby of jigsaw-puzzling and cut a piece of paneling to accomodate my 1000 pieces puzzles, which I could transfer from table to atop the bed or to the outside. In the meantime I advanced to puzzling on the computer, where I use our own photographs to convert to jigsaws. Get the picture? We love our way of living! Till next time - Karin. |
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