Author brilliantviewpoint

Rhode Island — Signs from Heaven

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Sometimes we realize we have signs from Heaven! When I was in Rhode Island, I kept finding Lucky Pennies, then two quarters. I have not found lucky pennies in a long time. I found it strange to keep finding money like this in the oddest of places.

THEN I realized, signs from my cousin in Heaven. She died this summer of illness / COVID. What’s important here, is that she went to Rhode Island School of Design. Here I was in Rhode Island walking where she walked for four years. Once I realized this, my HEART grew so big. When I would find another coin, I would think, “OK, YES, I’m looking at your beautiful city.”

I always have this blue pouch in my purse with my Angel, so I kept adding the coins I found to the blue pouch.

Another strange thing happened. The day I was leaving, I found two lucky pennies in the airport. One was RIGH UNDER the seat where I was sitting. My cousin saying, “Good Bye.”

Stranger… the next day, I found out her father passed away while I was at the airport.

Life is interesting — signs, coincidences?

I don’t know, but I do feel a sense of comfort at this moment. Might be silly to some, but to me, it’s a loving sign!

Be open to signs that might come to you for whatever reason or purpose! They do come!

Rhode Island – Sunset on way home.

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I’ve always wanted to see Rhode Island and this was the time. I traveled with my daughter, we stayed in Providence and took a day trip to Newport. TRAVEL TIP: Take the bus from Airport to the city – $2 / bus versus $35+ / Uber. We also took the bus to Newport about one hour 15 min ride. Again, $2 per trip versus $60+ / Uber. Can’t beat that and it was a pleasant bus ride driving through the different cities along the way to Newport.

I REALLY liked Newport. It’s on the water and has the most amazing homes, shops, etc. In fact, on our way to the Cliff Walk, I found an Irish shop and bought this cute hat. You can see a view of the Cliff walk too.

This huge home is The Breakers. Cornelius Vanderbilt II built this as a summer home between 1893-1895. In 1994 it was declared a National Historic Landmark. It’s now a tourist spot with tours, owned and operated by the Newport Preservation Society. The Society agreed to let the Vanderbilts live on the third floor, which is closed to the public. It appears in 2017, the Society wanted the Vanderbilts out. After 120 years of living there the Vanderbilts were told there were issues with electrical/plumbing, etc.

So many articles, hard to keep up with the latest. I will leave that to YOU, if you are interested. BUT there is an article stating that Trump bought The Breakers for $112M, plans to turn it into a casino? That would be sad, I hope not. This is such a beautiful area, why have a casino there.

This house is next door to The Breakers.

Many homes are hidden by bushes, so you cannot see them. In many ways, this walk reminded me of parts of Ireland on the cliffs and also the weather was sunny, then shady like it might rain.

There are a lot of nice shops down by the marina. Shop owners said they really suffered last year during COVID, not sure if they could stay open with no tourists, hard to pay the rent, so some places closed, some remained.

It’s a BEAUTIFUL area. I’d like to go back and stay a few days in Newport, explore that area more.

Happy Halloween Birthday — You know who you are!

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I was visiting a friend, we went walking and saw FUN Halloween decorations! Some houses were really creative. It makes walking more interesting.

GUESS WHAT — I have a friend whose birthday is on Halloween!

So, a BIG SHOUT OUT TO Maura. If she’s reading, she’ll know I’m thinking about her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MAKE IT FUN!

And if YOUR birthday is on Halloween… Happy Birthday to YOU too!

Diners… American Breakfast – the BEST!

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This past weekend, I was in the mood for a “real breakfast.” I mean a little bit of everything. There is something wonderful about going to a diner, they still have that old fashioned feel. Simple and full of choices.

When I got there I knew exactly what I wanted. Although, if I go to The Original Pancake House in California, I like to order the 49er pancakes, they are huge and bit chewy – wonderful! They are probably crepes, just made larger.

Back to my diner experience, I went for the usual… scrambled eggs well done (my mother used to make them so runny, I could not eat them), bacon or sausage, toast and pancakes. I KNOW, this is why they say Americans are fat. So true, this meal is really for two people, I could not eat it all. Mainly, I like the variety. So, too bad they can’t offer one egg, one slice of bacon/sausage, one slice of toast and two small pancakes, right! Anyhow, I wasn’t going to complain, this is what I wanted.

Oh, when I got to the diner, there was a line. So, I put my name on the waiting list. To keep myself busy, I got the menu. Laughing, everyone is line was eyeing each other. I mean, what else do you do, when you are waiting, right.

There was a man next to me, it appeared he was with his wife. He decided to be flirty. I wasn’t too keen on that. His wife looked grumpy. He asked me HOW I got the menu. REALLY – the menus were on the counter in front of us. To try and shooooo him away, I said, “There they are, but here you can have mine, I’m done with it.”

To which he said, “So, what are you going to order?” He leaned into me like an eager puppy to look at menu with me.

WHAT??? Wasn’t that his wife next to him??

This guy was an expert at trying to pick someone up. I didn’t like it!

So, I politely looked at his female companion, smiled, said I had not decided AND moved away.

I HOPE that wasn’t his wife. Awful to have a husband like that.

GOOD NEWS – they did not seat me next to them. Thank goodness or my dining experience would have been ruined.

Instead, I was next to a family with a little girl who was loud and super talkative. She must have been two years old. Then another family across from me. The little boy kept talking about coloring his monsters, looked like he had a coloring book.

So, I had a delightful dining experience!

Photography – A rabbit poses…

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By chance, I became a photographer. This rabbit ran in front of me and then stopped in the bushes. Of course, I wanted to get a better look at him. As you see, he had his back to me. He wasn’t afraid, but definitely hesitant of my presence.

I took the first picture, which was a back view. Playing photographer, I wanted to see him more from a side or front view. After waiting for what seemed like an hour for him to move, not really, but it seemed that way. I politely told the rabbit that seeing his derrière was not the best photo. It would be nice if he could turn toward me a little bit for a front view.

I kid you not, as soon as I said that and moved just a little that made a noise. The rabbit shifted his stance to a side view. Laughing, that was the BEST he was going to offer. I took my photos, thanked him and went on my merry way.

Ah… it’s nice to see a rabbit when you are not expecting it.

Have a great weekend!

Halloween – How do YOU write your SPOOKY story?

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A spooky typewriter. I LOVE this! I’m sad it’s not real!!

When I saw it, I immediately thought how perfect it was. In fact, as it has a page in it already, I thought of this old dusty piano my grandfather had that played music by itself. This would be similar.

Imagine you get up in the morning, depending on the keys you hit, the typewriter starts typing! You sit with your coffee, feet kicked up on the desk, reading the newspaper. What a glorious morning. Typewriter makes a cackling sound when story is done. You rip off the pages. THEN – Off to the editor!

My girlfriend’s birthday is on Halloween. She’s been doing research on her Irish family. They have some haunted cemeteries there. She could use this typewriter to RECORD family history. What do you think?

I HAVE SOMETHING BETTER. Although, if she survived the heart attack on opening the birthday box, I’m not sure we would still be friends. Imagine my fright, when I was “innocently” looking at Halloween stuff, turned TOO QUICKLY and saw this boa constrictor.

Oh my gosh — I DID JUMP BACK!! Realized it was a FAKE, then said a few… well, BAD WORDS!!

So, I decided neither of these were quite right.

The search continues… I did see a HUGE purple spider in someone’s yard. It had googly eyes. FUNNY!

I enjoy seeing the decorations. Some people go ALL OUT with their Halloween decorations & costumes.

A Sheep & Wool Festival

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Since we can’t travel very far, suddenly we are exploring our area. Someone told me about a Sheep & Wool Festival in Wisconsin. I went, it was FUN. They had a lot of sheep and some goats too.

Here is one of the sheep, I caught him while he was eating. He was kind enough to pose, so perfectly for me. They sold yarn and wool for felting. I’ve never heard of felting. I do knit, but haven’t for a while, so it was fun to see what shawls, hats, socks and scarf patterns were out there. Also, I was amazed at how many sheep farms there are in the U.S.

I found this lovely sheep painting. As soon as I saw it, I smiled. Isn’t that a good determining factor for making a purchase?!

So, I leave you with thoughts of sheep. If you are having trouble sleeping at night, we are told to count sheep. Here you have two, just keep it going… and SOON you will be FAST ASLEEP!

I’m looking forward to exploring a pumpkin patch next!

Travel Virtually– NEW site — Heygo!

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I just came across this virtual travel site called, “Heygo.” It looks like a great site, the idea is good. Of course, right now it is FREE; however, you can’t view a tour unless you sign up on the site. They are asking that you tip the tour guides, which is fair.

It appears that “VirtualTrips.io,” was founded in May 2020 by Liam Garrison and John Tertan. This year, April 2021, they changed name to “Heygo,” which is a fun name (HEY – GO!). They say new name better reflects who they are. I was able to view a snippet of a Quebec tour, it was quick before they cut me off. Need to sign up on site to view full tour.

Sharing with you. We can’t travel Internationally yet, virtual it is.

They have 200+ tours around the world. A place for everyone to travel.

Let me know what you think.

Oatmeal – WHY must I eat it?

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Why do I resist eating oatmeal? Same feelings toward Greek yogurt or smoothies. As soon as I hear those words: oatmeal, greek yogurt and smoothies — I GET MAD!

I think none of us want something shoved down our throat, so to speak. Media, any kind, is on a health kick. That’s fine! I do my best to eat healthy, but sometimes they go OVER BOARD. They make us FEEL guilty. If we don’t eat oatmeal, greek yogurt and smoothies that ANY health issues we have are DIRECTLY RELATED to not eating these foods, THAT they TOLD US, we needed to eat, to STAY ALIVE!

Phew, my rant is complete!

I don’t mind these foods, I just don’t want to be told EVERY DAY to eat them. I feel like a little kid annoyed with his mother for telling him to drink his milk. Trying to change my mind set.

My ex/father/n/law was a doctor. He LOVED oatmeal. At 99 years old when he had his leg amputated from diabetes — YES, this was a sad situation, ALL he wanted was — OATMEAL!

I need to lower my cholesterol. First food on the list to help with this — OATMEAL. Laughing, the dreaded oatmeal. To enjoy oatmeal and cross off a lot of healthy food boxes, I got creative. I read walnuts help lower cholesterol. Also, they say, “An Apple a Day, Keeps the Dr Away.” So, walnuts and an apple went into the oatmeal.

I ONLY used 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup too much. Start out small. Learn to EMBRACE the love of oatmeal.

See photo, my oatmeal looked and tasted good. Apple adds a lot of sweetness. Food is about presentation, Folks. I made the effort.

WARNING -> Eat oatmeal warm. Once it gets cold, it becomes a blob, not liquidy anymore.

You know what will happen, don’t you? Soon, I will ONLY want oatmeal for breakfast. I’ll even bring instant oatmeal packets on vacation.

Oh no… PLEASE, don’t say that will happen!

England – The SINGING Plumber

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I wish the media would share MORE uplifting stories like this. Miracles happening when we least expect it. Here is a Kev Crane, 49, a plumber who enjoys singing, he even sings on the job. He’s hired for a plumbing job, by a man who “happens” to have his own record label.

The owner hears him singing, LIKES his singing AND there is the miracle!!

A STAR IS BORN!

A DREAM FULFILLED!

Keep doing what makes you HAPPY!

Share uplifting stories.

We need to stay positive and know that break throughs can happen ANY DAY at ANY TIME!