%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| I am playing hand bells for the first time in my life. It's not a spectacular feat. The local women's prison allowed it under the old warden. The new warden just made it impossible for the musicians to work with the ladies. Those women had no musical background, and they did just fine. I do read music, but for bells, it's a little different. You can't be late for rehearsal. They can't start without you, or notes will be missing. It's not like a choir, or even a big band. Everyone has to be there. It would be like removing some piano keys. So if you're on vacation or out for a funeral or whatever, you have to find a substitute who knows at least the basic principles. It takes the whole team, not a few isolated or talented individuals. One performance, someone got off. The director stopped us, turned to the audience and said, "If we don't start over now all together, it will only get worse." It's like any organization, a club, a church, a committee, or a business. Sometimes you get out of sync. You have to stop, examine what you're doing, and all get back on the same page. For us, it was a little embarrassing, but we finished amazingly well. Considering at least one person had never read music before and still has trouble keeping count, and that three of us had never played a bell before, we're doing a pretty good job. The average audience can't tell when a chord is incomplete or your dynamics are off. I still have trouble changing methods, going from a ring to a clunk or a thumb damp, or switching from bells to chimes. Or I ring when I'm supposed to use a mallet. And when switching the bells around, you have to have it turned up properly, or you won't get any sound when you ring it. I finally figured out how to turn the clapper from soft to medium or hard yesterday. Most of us are challenged by page turns. I try to remember what comes next, so I can put down the bell I'm not using to turn a page, or turn early, but keep the count. In a group like that, no one can outshine the rest. They are all dependent on each other and must work together. And they all must follow the leader. To ignore him is disaster. We all cheer each other and spread the encouragement. Lessons from bells can be applied to life. |
| I once knew a man, a Vietnam vet, who was meticulous about everything. He claimed his sock drawer was perfect, all neatly folded and lined up to perfection. It drove his wife crazy. I have known others who could not relax with friends or in front of the TV if they noticed the vacuum marks on the rug weren't lined up evenly. They'd have to plug in the vacuum immediately and take care of it. Obviously, this is deviant behavior in my messy world. My favorite refrigerator magnet said "Only dull women have immaculate homes". I've lost the magnet, but I still live by the code. I'm dreading emptying my attic, so that new duct work can be installed. When I bring all that stuff down, I have to rearrange everything downstairs to make room for about a week. Everyone related to me is a clutter collector. I just pulled out a thin storage bin in my bedroom and found 3 magazines from 2003 and 2004. I've thumbed through them and have no idea why I saved them. Part of the magazine problem is that we once loved them for the pretty pictures, ideas, and entertainment. Now, with age, we know that those articles and ideas are duplicated all over the place. Plus almost everything you want can be found on a computer. Only the "cloud" is cluttered. Printed magazines have lost their value and appeal to our culture in general. So we question why we ever saved a holiday mag or recipe collection. As for recipes, I have shelves of cookbooks, mine and what belonged to my mother. But when I need a recipe, I look it up on the Internet. I have one plastic box of recipes I've copied from friends, printed out or cut out of magazines, or got from the store. My intentions were good at the time, but I never used them, probably never will. When I was married, my husband liked to leave tools on the kitchen counter or coffee table. He would get mad if I asked him to move them. Now I live with my father who is the same way. But add flashlights, batteries, and nail files to the assortment. The dining room doubles as his office. I have removed candles from the drawers, and coffee service and the usual dining room items to make room for his stacks of mail, office supplies, pending bills, checkbook, etc. Still mail sits on the book case in the other room, the kitchen counter. Receipts and greeting cards get displayed in the china cabinet. His snacks that he wants to keep away from the preschoolers go up with the stem ware behind the glass doors. Bottom line, it just looks messy all the time. Preparing to serve a meal for company every week becomes a nightmare, lest I misplace something and raise his ire. I'm pretty bad myself about flat surfaces, but I do clean them up occasionally. What's out of sight, like closets, drawers, or boxes are another story. Greeting cards are something abut which I've come to change my mind. Once I thought for sentimental reasons I would keep them. I even heard a motivational speaker once say to keep them in an accordion folder to review when you feel down. You remind yourself how much people care about you. But she didn't say how long to keep them. I've decided that if there is only a signature, and it's not someone famous, toss it after six months or less. If there is some personal note, keep it longer. A store bought card is pretty or cute, but as long as the card was not a financial sacrifice by the giver, t thoughtfulness wears off quickly. Does the card really have sentimental value? Or historical vale? If it's the first card ever from the person who is now your spouse of many years, keep it. What I'm saying is that you can end up with a room full of pretty cards that are finished serving their purpose. Parting with them is not an insult to the giver, nor is it a sign that you don't love the individual today. I scribble notes to myself all the time. So I'm trying to consolidate all my notebooks into one place. Just when I think I've found them all, I discover one more in the bottom of a drawer or in a box of books. Most of it is probably trash, but there may be some pearls in there. Sometimes I find something I've written, and I'm shocked at how good it sounds. Not my usual experience. And then there's the family tree. I never know where I might be when I discover something I have to write down, expecting later to transfer it. When I discover the notes later, I don't know if I copied it or discovered it somewhere else or if this is still helpful. I've got to organize that, or it will all be lost when I'm gone. There are so many things to do. When I do give in to fits of cleaning, I feel so good about it. Clean baseboards and dust-free louvered doors and vents have a way of making you feel lighter. When I pull out a dresser and wash the back of it, or the back of the refrigerator, I feel like my mom is looking down from Heaven and smiling. Funny how certain jobs just make you feel like Mom is right there with you. It feels good to make Mom happy. Maybe if I were neater and more organized on a regular basis, that feeling would wear off. |
| My dad doesn't like a lot of attention. He retired at 87, but refused to let us have a retirement party. But his 90th birthday is coming up, and it's a good excuse for the rest of us to have a party. So I have to coordinate this with two brothers. There are so many possibilities. Staying at home is not my idea of a good time, because you have to do such a good clean-up before company, cook, bake, and then there's the aftermath. I don't belong to The Elks but I know someone who does. I'm checking that out. There's always restaurants, park shelters, etc. You can't decorate a picnic shelter or a restaurant, so that takes out that element. A restaurant limits the time and space for visiting and mingling and remembering things from 50 years ago or more. I don't have any large rooms at home for mingling. I've got a good restaurant north of town with affordable meals. They have a banquet room where I could serve our own cake. But on a Saturday night, we won't be allowed to have the whole room to ourselves unless we have 60 guests. I'm predicting 30 max. Price wise it might be a little much for families with 3 children who are picky eaters. This restaurant does have a Clint Eastwood burger and a Chuck Norris burger, as well as the usual dinner entrees. I'm not ruling out the Elks Club yet, or even my church. I can fall back on this place. 90 is fairly significant. You deserve a party for making it that long. Being the backbone of my family even though he's getting feeble is worthy of celebration, too. So I have to figure out who goes on the guest list and what to do to make this memorable. Most importantly, how can we make him realize how special he's been to so many people? |
| One of the best lines I've heard on TV in a long time: "I know I've said this so many times, it's beginning to lose it's meaning. But our kids have destroyed our lives." This is said by an intelligent lower middle class mom to her history professor husband. They are all about family and raising decent well-rounded kids. Child-rearing is an all-out, time-consuming, life-altering job which they take very seriously and voluntarily The show is American Housewife. They have real life problems, and the leading lady is a slightly overweight average mom. It's all so believable. Another family show which is not such an everyday family is Speechless. This one brings attention to a special needs family, and shows how each member of the family suffers or prospers because of the one with the challenge (disability is not a cool word to use these days). But it's a slightly wacky family. It's not your normal, calm or even uneducated family. I guess a wacky family is a good way to introduce the concept of treating physically challenged young people fairly. Not all mothers of children with challenges are perky, energetic, brave, defiant, and as strong as this one. I see the kids in my family and others and don't see them reflected on TV. The extended family drilled them on the meaning of July 4. Their parents constantly remind them of please and thank you. Apologies that are meaningless abound. They're enforced anyway; maybe someday they'll be sincere. There's visiting with and sharing with cousins. There's the homework problems. One man I know tried to help his kid with math. He ended up copying the problems, taking them to work and having a coworker there show him how to do the process. Then he could help his kid catch up with his schoolwork. I remember when my baby brother was struggling in high school. I had never read A Tale of Two Cities, which he was working on. I went to the second hand book store to get my own copy. I read it and we had discussions about it. That encouraged him to keep at it, and he did well in class. When he had to do a term paper on World War II, I took him to the library and showed him how to do research, keep note cards, and do a bibliography. Somehow he didn't get that in school. He did such a good job with his own outline (different from my suggested one), that the teacher thought he had plagiarized it. I told her to give him a verbal test; he knew the material well. But things like this are never shown on family TV shows. It might give parents a good idea of what their job entails, and even pass along some learning things to kids. Every show has its own agenda, more about the working parents, or the decade, or the extended family, or to showcase a particular star. American Housewife and Speechless do the best at showing what a hard job parenting really is. It consumes a person(s). And both shows do it without making it look like the world's worst job. |
| This was a bestseller that went straight to TV for a 10 part series. I have watched all 7 episodes so far on AMC. I do not like the companion talk show that follows it. I think that show misses the opportunity to discuss real issues addressed in the story, like the cosmetic and clothing industries, weight loss businesses, surgeries, etc. This show is not going to stop girls from cutting, eating disorders, or spending all their money on changing what and who they are. Instead this companion show allows these minor celebrities to showcase themselves and their own humor and express liberal politics. Not all women's issues involve liberal politics. And conservatives are interested in women's issues. I watch only the show itself now. While it's very interesting, it's very hard to follow. I still don't have all the major characters straight. If I weren't so interested in a young woman who can't accept herself I wouldn't keep watching. At times it's a little too graphic and even repulsive. While the occasional nasty word may be necessary to convey the message, the vulgarity is excessive. There are several story lines going on at once which usually enhances a story. However, here it is told a little jaggedly, like someone who is excited after an emergency and can't tell the story straight and jumps around too much for you to get the bottom line. At first I thought I might like to read the book and absorb the issues slowly. But at this point, I may not want to bother. I realize the TV show may digress a lot; there are different screen writers for each episode. But if the book is like the show, it's too exhaustive in trying to cover as many issues as possible and would be like trying to follow a Russian novel where you need a list of characters to follow the action. I noticed the number of viewers each week is going down. Like me, they're probably losing interest so when other things come up, they bail. I will probably stick it out for three more episodes, simply because I've invested this much time in it. May as well see it through. It had a lot of potential. It might pick up. |
| I just read an article about foods you have to know how to cook if you're a Southerner. I guess I'm not quite making it. Some things on the list I just don't want to cook. But I'd say some things were left off. First, I don't believe I have ever tried to make buttermilk biscuits. But I'm willing to give it a try. Maybe tomorrow. I've never made shrimp and grits, although it sounds good. I've only heard of it recently, but more than once. So it must be faddish right now. In my locale, we didn't eat grits. I never had them until after college graduation. Some students from South Carolina couldn't believe I had never eaten grits, so we took care of that, just plain with butter. Then it became sort of trendy to have cheese grits at "after" parties, you know late late night breakfasts. Now chain restaurants make them a regular offering. Trendy cafes serve cheese grits casserole for Saturday brunch. I do like grits and will eat them now, with or without cheese, but no cheese "sauce". Grits by themselves did not make the must list. I can make a good jambalaya, but I was inspired by Duck Dynasty. We didn't grow up with that either. I suppose the shrimp dishes must be deep South, as in Gulf supplied shrimp areas. My area was more into crabs and oysters. For a few years now, local crabs and oysters have been banned for conservation efforts. We'll take them from other areas of the Atlantic. Oysters from the Gulf are second choice, but very suitable. After that, we want them from Washington or Oregon. San Francisco oysters are last choice. Even poor people grew up eating fried or stewed oysters for special occasions. Sweet tea makes the list. That's kind of hard to mess up. However, our doctors tell us to have it unsweetened as we get older. It may not be as refreshing or bring back memories of Grandma, but it threatens pre-diabetes less. Fried chicken is everywhere and everybody's mother made the best. So I never tried to compete. I stick with baked. I do make an excellent Brunswick stew from chickens I boil. But that wasn't on the list. Chicken and dumplings are on the list. I can make those, but hardly ever bother. Too many leftovers, lots of calories. Peach cobbler is on the list. I can do that and most kinds of cobbler. I do make skillet cornbread, on the list, but I also make spoon bread, just like Mom used to make. Corn pudding was on the list, but I have trouble finding a really good recipe for it. Mom lost hers before she died, and she struggled with different recipes for it as well. Greens, of any kind, should be on the list. Various ham dishes, stewed tomatoes, and beans cooked with fatback should be on the list. Okra was on the list. We didn't eat okra and still don't unless it's in some restaurant offering. Mom didn't like it and wouldn't cook it. It's not locally grown. That must be another deep South vegetable. Fried apples is Southern, and not so easy to make. Some varieties of apples are better than others, and it takes practice not to end up with greasy applesauce. Fried green tomatoes did make the list, and those I can do. Yum! As for desserts, they listed something with meringue and banana pudding. Not all banana puddings are created equal, but most are acceptable. Alton Brown has a recipe that may not be too Southern, but it's excellent! As for meringue, my grandmother made the best lemon meringue pies in the world. The heat just barely browns the sweet egg whites and makes the vanilla bead up on top. I would add pineapple upside down cake and homemade pecan pie (Georgia pecans). It occurs to me that Southern cooking is a regional thing. We don't fix crawdads, but some areas would specialize in them. Or Cajun fish dishes. Texan cooking would have more Mexican spices. Florida might consider good lemonade an art. I want to keep on experimenting. I will fix buttermilk biscuits. I will finally find a good corn pudding recipe. But I guess I can make anything and call it a Southern dish, since I'm a Southern girl, and my family and most of my friends are Southerners. |
| We passed the holiday with just family at my niece's farm about 30 miles south of town. It is wilderness there with winding roads, lots of flags at the end of driveways. Her driveway is between other people's homes, since her farm is not accessible to the road. She lost her husband last year, when she was 3 months pregnant. We like to gather there because the kids love the chickens and pigs and huge dog. They also have lots of room to run around not wander into the street. We older folks like the open barn. There's a hayloft that they use to store kayaks and such. There are some exterior doors to storage rooms within, but there's a big cross section with no doors. We pull up the chairs or the bales of hay and sit in the breeze. My brother, the grandfather to six of these kids, has rigged up a big fan, so we can sit in the shade and stay dry in the heat. It has a dirt floor, so he scatters straw around. There is an attached chicken coop and fenced in yard, but the chickens and roosters are free range during the day when folks are home. He's fenced in one end of the cross section for a dog corral. She gets shade, some grass outside the barn border. My niece never uses it, but he puts the dog in it when he's babysitting and has to leave. The dog tears up the toys and makes a mess in the house, which drives him crazy. She slobbers really badly. Yesterday she ran freely, inside and out at will. She can open the front door to get in. I cleaned up the outdoor trash a couple of times and pulled her out of the barrel. My dad and I took most of the food. We had to search for a watermelon with seeds, so we could have a spitting contest! At the last minute this niece ran to the closest store, which is not close at all, to buy chips, tea, and mini ice cream sandwiches for the kids. Her sister and husband brought beer and water, an extra table and small folding chairs. My second brother, who came from furthest away, brought trash bags, utensils, plates, and fruit and dip, and his own 5 year old son, the picky eater in the group. The older brother/grandfather had cut the grass and set up the barn. He has cancer and tires very easily. He lives for the kids. I brought table cloths and some decorations, so the barn looked festive. The kids wouldn't stop playing to eat. One of the two year olds went down for a very long nap. The other one wouldn't nap, but passed out before we did fireworks. They were grilled by several people throughout the afternoon and evening about the meaning of July 4. My nephew kept throwing out some names like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He obviously has heard the stories, but can't quite grasp it yet. For the fireworks, they pulled the folding chairs out of the barn without being prompted and set up a straight line, so that they could watch side by side. I set a wooden rocker behind them for Big Pop, who is a month away from turning 90, and unsure on the gravel and grass. His hearing is not so good, but they all interact with him. We started a little before dark, but it turned dark before we were finished. Neighbors were doing the same thing with louder booms. I started out with the six month old in my lap, but when he got fussy, his mother took him. The two year old was soon in my lap. He had started bravely, cheering with all the other kids. But the sizzle and the colors were a little unsettling for him. Thankfully, the sun faded before dark, so the heat was a little less intense. I sat before that fan and thought about people in more Southern states. How did they make it before air conditioning? And what about farm workers? A few hours weeding in the yard, and I'm done in. And that's when I felt a kinship with Southerners sweltering in the heat and humidity. No wonder ceiling fans were invented. So the fourth was kind of a lazy, hot, humid, slow day with screaming kids and lots of food. I fed watermelon rinds to the pigs and took pictures of multi-colored chickens scratching in the straw. It was a nice day with family. |
| I finally got around to reading this 1992 novel. It was a best seller in 1993 and made into a hit movie in 1995. I'm a little late to the show. I did see the movie and thought it was okay. However, the book was much more engaging. Okay, yes, I teared up a few times. I think there is something about it with which most people can connect, even if they disapprove of the forbidden love. First, on reading the book, I don't picture Streep or Eastwood. Francesca is a plain woman, slight due to genetics, hard work as a farm wife, and eating home grown, home cooked natural foods. I picture her a little shorter, sturdy from working hard not working out, small boned, and darker skin. She was first generation Italian. The guy, Robert, is tall, but maybe not Eastwood tall, and certainly smaller than Eastwood. He's a vegan, lean from not eating regularly, climbing mountains, camping out. You know, the rugged outdoors type, tanned and hardened. She was about 45, so her dark hair would have had some grays. He was about 52, and his hair was gray and long. Hippies weren't around quite yet, at least not in rural Iowa. If you don't like romances, this is not the book to read. It really isn't about bridges. It really is fiction, made to appear as a fictionalized true story. The author, Robert James Waller, involves himself in the story. He tells about getting the idea, doing the research, conducting interviews, and the usual things with which writers can identify. This lends an air of authenticity to the story. He's even a photographer himself, so he adds a lot of detail about his character who is also a photographer. People will identify with unfulfilled dreams, lost passions, too comfortable marriages, being in a rut. Even the traveling life of a world photographer gets too routine. But there's this special spark, this romance, between two lonely people who weren't looking for love. Their intensity and sensitivity to others is powerful. "I want to feel like that" is what you think after finishing the book. I want that magic in my life. I've got to see the movie again. Maybe it went over my head. Or maybe it just fell short of the book. Books usually are better than the movie, like every Nicholas Spark book that's been made into a movie. Maybe that's the case here. |
| I love seeing movies from the 30's and 40's, and even beyond. Seeing the stars in the early days is like making a big, exciting discovery. Seeing attitudes and artistic approaches to history and culture in other eras is enlightening, too. (I don't like to admit that movies from the 50's to the 80's are now of historical interest, since I was alive when they were made.) I wish AMC and TCM and other nostalgia channels had been around when I was younger. I've always had a thing for black and white, but You didn't have access to so many, or commentary on them. I believe I could have found a happier niche in life had film history been an available college major when I was young. I'd be in heaven studying directors, acting technique, theater history, editing, and so forth, and watching film without feeling like I was neglecting more important things. In my old age, I'd be an authority on something I loved. Now, since I've developed an obsession with westerns and consider it my hobby to gather info, I do know a lot of the old stars and am beginning to recognize recurring themes. Instead of just watching for the story lines and the messages that an English major would notice, I pay attention to editing, to lighting, to costuming and make-up, to authenticity of the timelines and historical settings, even the appropriateness of musical backgrounds. Yvonne De Carlo played Lily Munster, so whenever I saw her in something, I would think of the woman who played Lily, a face known in every household. Now I've seen her in a number of westerns, including Bonanza and The Virginian, I remember her name. She was an important supporting character in a John Wayne movie, McClintock, and was attractive. In one episode of The Virginian she played a comical role; although an attractive mother, it was typical of the mixed up comedy of The Munsters. In a second episode, she was a beautiful opera singer and love interest of Judge Garth, almost unrecognizable, but more like her real self. I recently saw her in a 1949 film in the leading role, The Gal Who Took The West. It was a comedy, but she was beautiful and sexy. I don't believe it was the usual cowboy era, but later on. Nonetheless, it was exciting to see her in a different type role with more subtle hair and make-up. Gunsmoke was on TV for 20 years. I believe just about every movie star or TV star working during that time period appeared at least once on Gunsmoke. I surprise myself now at how many young faces I recognize on that show, people I never knew before. You know all these faces you've seen before but you never knew their names. I know a lot of the names now. Or at the least I see a cowboy and know that he was in some famous movies. I never paid attention before. I think TCM is playing older movies than they did at first. I appreciate the commentary on innovations in each film. Like a Sci-Fi movie before Spielberg. Just a little thing, like demonstrating a simple technique to make it look like a stationary train was moving through a long tunnel. Movies tend to be more authentic than TV shows in some respects, but they can mess up, too. Like having a performance within a show that uses a song or music style that didn't really exist in the time period of the story. Or putting pointy toe high heels on saloon girls from the 1880's. Or using blue eye shadow on females prior to the 50's; these were made primarily in the 60's and 70's, proving the costumers and make-up people didn't do their homework. Another error is putting women's jewelry from the 50's or beyond on Indians, both male and female. Indian costumes were frequently made up and not researched. Study some photos from the turn of the century and you'll see the commonly made errors there. I;d like to think that today's TV shows and movies are avoiding these common oversights. The ease of surfing the Internet for historical data and National Geographic files should help quite a bit. At any rate, it makes me happy to see an old film I've never seen or haven't seen in along time. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
