%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
Musings on anything. |
|
My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| I love singing in harmony. There is something about not singing the melody that captivates me. I sing in harmony with Christmas carols over the radio. Today, however, I blew it. I am in a very small choir and several people were out. So we crunched up. The baritone next to me was singing the same notes, but an octave lower. I just couldn't get some of the right notes when new phrases started. I could pick it up from the accompaniment most of the time after a few notes. I can hardly hear in my other ear, and the other alto isn't always right. She follows me. We needed a little more practice. I even missed an entrance altogether. the music score put all the words together, and I am accustomed to seeing my lines below the staff. In this case they were above. So my eyes just didn't go to the right place in time. You don't need great voices to sound good together. You do need to sing the right notes and put the words in the right place. Sometimes I take the music home and practice only my part. It is still a jolt to put it with other parts. If there be critics out there, let them come join or take my place! |
| How did we ever make it day to day without smartphones? I use mine for photos all the time, maybe not enough. I wish I had discovered it sooner. Everyday my phone recycles old photos, sometimes based on the anniversary of the date taken. At times they are cute and bring back some pleasant memories or at least a smile. Other times they make me sad or nostalgic, especially if it is one of someone who has passed away. My mom was shy of cameras and tried not to be photographed. She didn't want to be reminded of the way she looked or dressed, too self-conscious. My dad on the other hand loved the camera. He didn't care how he was dressed or how he looked, he smiled and posed gladly. So, I have lots of pictures of him planting glowers or wearing goofy hats or just sitting in the shade. Fortunately for my mom, I didn't have a smartphone while she was alive, but that is my loss. Then there's the picture of my great-nephew with his face inside the big bowl, licking the chocolate brownie batter. The next photo shows a big smile on his little face with chocolate all around his mouth and nose. That always makes me laugh. He is still the trimmest of the kids, but he loves to cook. The rotating photos on my phone are kind of a pleasant moment in the day. I can appreciate the past and feel good in the present. Some things about cellphones are great. |
| The big ugly piles of black stained snow and ice are melting and draining across the parking lots. You have to get your feet wet despite the sunshine and shirt sleeve temps when you go to any store. I gave into impulse buying today and got 5 packs of flower seeds. They weren't expensive but were only 45 seeds per pack. I know from past experience they don't last until next year. I had already checked online where you can order 500 seeds in my chosen variety for 3.99 but the leftover seeds would be wasted. If you want a lot or are willing to give seeds to all your friends and relatives, get them online. Type in the kind you want, like red zinnias or dwarf marigolds. Seed vendors will be the first thing that pops up. If you choose to look at the packs yourself, don't buy from the grocer or any place that charges $4 a pack for a quarter teaspoon of seeds. Go to a home supply or Walmart. I also bought some fertilizer for house plants. I have a poinsettia from this year that is still beautiful. I have one that is at least 3 years old. It is tall and straggly with tiny leaves. I put it in a window next to my desktop which gets the sun all day. The tiny leaves are turning red! Obviously, not enough light. I have turned it red before keeping it in a closet. I have never been able to improve the size of the leaves. In the summer I leave it on the back porch in full sun, and it seems to thrive, but doesn't grow bigger leaves. My ongoing experiment! Spring fever may be coming on, but usually it gets too hot too fast to enjoy it. Meanwhile, the pollen will start. The wildlife will continue to party on my patio. I'd like to make spring a little longer and autumn, too, but we'd have to cut summer and winter back a little. When I came in this afternoon through the garage, I looked out the side door and thought someone had painted the side of my wheelchair ramp yellow. Maybe my brother had done it for safety. The second intentional look revealed it was just the setting sun peering around the corner of the house and hit the side brace of the wooden ramp. It did not light the pavement beneath it. Just another beautiful brief spring picture. |
| I bet you thought I was going to write about lilacs and roses and fresh air, and so forth. Those are all wonderful things. Honeysuckle growing on a fence, peonies in the full bloom of spring, so heavy with blooms that they fall over. I love to walk by them and smell them, but they aren't blooming yet. No, I just came in from blowing leaves off my patio and wheelchair ramp (no one in a wheelchair any longer but I like to use the ramp). the squirrels chew off the ends of the cedar branches so the ramp was covered with a carpet of green. Now that the snow and ice are gone, the ground cover is still a little wet but needs to come up. I was soon overwhelmed with the funky odor of rotting leaves and mud. I had to hold my breath and keep going. In a few days when it is a little drier out, I will clean again. I know there will be new stuff on the ground, abut I want to stay ahead of April showers to avoid more funkiness. I saw creeping charley growing up against the sides of the ramp, so next week I have to start weeding again. I have a few purple crocus up. No sign of lilies yet in my lily patch, but irises are coming along. I think I saw peonies popping up out front. Pretty, yes, but a lot of work. |
| We just finished up a study of the book of Jonah. I don't think any of us held out for the story literally happening. It is just a little hard to swallow. We ended up with the theory that it is really about ancient Israel, which was supposed to be a channel of blessing for all the world, running away from God and not doing as instructed. Being swallowed by a whale or a big fish is representative of being cut off from God. The place where he was sent were not Jews but readily accepted the warning and changed their ways, winning God's favor, which caused Jonah to be upset. He recounts the tale in a prayer that indicates he went to the bottom of the sea, below where a real whale would actually be swimming and eating. This is where a lot of people compare to the three days after Jesus' burial to his resurrection, which according to the Nicene Creed not the Bible, is when Jesus went to hell and returned. I am not a Bible scholar and don't want to interpret or teach the book. At my church we believe in the priesthood of the believer and allow free interpretation by the individual, as long as the big boundaries are intact. We don't dictate. I was surprised no one in that group was acquainted with the song from Porgy and Bess by a devilish figure, Sportin' Life. This guy is a gambler, a criminal, a shady guy of the streets and he sings It Ain't Necessarily So. The song mentions Jonah's home in the fish's abdomen, followed with "It ain't necessarily so." It's almost as though some of these stories are fantastic just to challenge the intellect, Of course, the bad guys would tell you not to believe any of this if you can't explain one little part of it. One of the things the teacher pointed out to us was what I called a form of poetry. In Hebrew (only the scholars understand ancient Hebrew) it starts with 38 words then 5, etc., then reverses itself. I pointed out there are many forms of poetry in English and new ones are developed rather frequently. This was a foreign concept to a room full of non-poets. I do believe that some of the stories, like the parables, are not news reports, but rather didactic lessons for us. Someone did point out that Biblical Israel may or may not be the Israel the world knows today. What we learn from the study of Jonah is that God loves all people and intends for all of them to be "saved". God gives us more than one chance to fulfill the tasks given to us. I think every day that we wake up, we have another chance to make a difference, to be a better person, to be more and love more than yesterday. When we mess up or come out of a bad time in our lives, it's like being rescued from a whale and we can start over. |
| In a new TV game show, which seems to be built on a concept of Family Feud, I was inspired by one of the tasks. The first half of the show, the contestants guess what the average person in a survey said, not necessarily correct. The last half the contestants who lasted through that make bets on the host completing a task. The one that caught my attention was to name movies with sports themes. They don't have to be about the sport, but will have the sport as a major part of story. I guessed more than the host did. I found afterward that I was still trying to remember the names of ones I had seen. You could do that with almost any theme. For example, at Christmas, someone always asks for movies with Christmas themes. Some of them are far fetched because Christmas is not a major theme, but is an element of time and activity. Titles I came up with include Chariots of Fire, Talladega Nights, Days of Thunder, The Replacements, A League of Their Own, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Angel in the Outfield, The Mighty Ducks, and Major League. Of course, there is Rocky, Rocky II, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, Blades of Glory, Happy Gilmore, Caddyshack, The Swimmer (Burt Lancaster), The Longest Yard (Burt Reynolds). And so many more I can't remember or have never seen. Drop me a note if you think of one I haven't listed. I might think of more next week. |
| OK, it is snowing today, maybe sleeting. It won't last like in January or February. So, I am thinking of the crocus I have seen popping up and the hyacinths that have shot up green blades. Now I won't to think flower pots, garden beds and seeds. (The crocus are blooming.) I pulled out the plant book to read. I will look for seed catalogs. I have particular varieties I want this year, and they aren't at Walmart or the grocer's. I have some clay tubing I want to use as containers, but I need to put bottoms in them and a way to fill the bottom so I use less potting soil. The extra depth is just for looks.These clay tubes are square shaped in different lengths. They might make a nice border. II might have destroyed my rosebush by trimming back too much or incorrectly cutting the stems. Time will tell. The clematis next to it should have been trimmed more, but I was chicken, so now it just looks messy. As soon as the ground is dry enough I need to pull weeds and mulch around the plants and shrubs that are staying. It is hard to work around them when they're growing, especially thorny roses or sharp yucca leaves. I don't think I'm jumping the gun, just trying to do a little planning in order to be ready when the time comes. My grandmother would have her tomato seeds planted by now in small trays, sitting in a sunny window. She would transplant the healthy seedlings to bigger pots. When the weather was right, my dad would plow and dig the holes in the ground. She'd carry out her strong plants and help him set them in the ground. Then it was his job to weed and fertilize. She would water them while he worked on hot summer days. Every year she had those pans of seedlings in the window before the spring weather set in. I'll never have my grandmother's green thumb. I can strive for the sheer fun of it. |
| I stepped outside my front door this morning to find red feathers everywhere. It was a garbled mess with softer white fuzzy feathers all over the large mat. It is a covered stoop. Apparently it is a safe haven for some nasty creature of the night. I stepped over it in horror to rush to a meeting at church. I went home after the service, got out the leaf blower to remove the feathers. I didn't want to put a broom into the mess. I finally had to use the rake and snow shovel to get up the mangled parts and discard. The soft stuff was almost ground into the rug. I blew it some more, but think it needs to come up and be washed. I know Mother Nature operates this way, but I am still horrified to know birds are being killed on my front step. And a red bird, no less! The only outdoor cat in the neighborhood is declawed and doesn't hang out at my front door. There is scat on my patio every day which I have to clean away, so I'm thinking a fox or possum, if they attack birds. We do have cuywholves (they are slightly bigger than coyotes, which are not native to my area), I think ground hogs are vegetarians. It was a nasty way to start the day. |
| Did you ever wonder about what the fictional town of Mayberry would be like in 2026? The show was made in the early 1960's and even then the small town seemed like a fairy tale. I have found a few places that came close, but everywhere seems to be changing so fast. Small towns have turned into strictly residential areas of larger towns or have been run over by industry and highways. I imagine that at the very least the modern Mayberry would have at least one McDonald's and a big chain gas stop where you pump it yourself. Maybe it would have a convenience store and deli attached and, of course, public bathrooms. There would probably be a garden supply store just outside of town, and maybe a doughnut shop. Wiley would have retired and sold his shop to a couple who ran a repair shop on a busy intersection. They would use computers to order parts and probably have 3 or 4 bays to work on multiple autos. The wife would do the books and take the money as an equal business partner with her husband. Like other small towns growing up, there would be a Food Lion or other grocery chain with a big parking lot. Across the street would be a CVS, while loyal customers would still choose to go to the existing drugstore. Soda fountains inside a store are just a novelty these days, but it still might exist. Most likely there would be a secondhand store, either run for profit or by local churches. The church one would offer free clothes and shoes for homeless people or people referred by social workers or bargains for people on a tight budget. One run for profit would benefit first time homeowners who want furniture they can paint or refinish or bargain hunters from Mount Pilot or Raleigh. (I used to love going to such stores in the country.) There would have to be more than one deputy. With increased population in the surrounding area, there would be more traffic, more accidents, more burglaries. There are homeless people everywhere. The lake would be a prime location for people to camp out without offending people. There would be women, too, not just men like you occasionally saw on Andy Griffith. Abandoned homes or sheds would be occupied. There still might not be a need for a gun in the town limits, but the crime rate would surely go up. I think it would be safe to say there would still be a friendly atmosphere. I have visited some small towns, maybe not as small or picturesque as Mayberry, but they tend to be welcoming and congenial. They want your business and know one another. They recognize you as an outsider, which would never happen where I live now. I am afraid that these towns won't be so small or accommodating 20 years from now. If only we could bottle that sense of community and keep it even when enterprise tries to squeeze us out. |
| I have the bad habit of assuming everyone is as interested as I am in whatever topic I approach. I'm sure I come across as a bore. I know a very smart woman, who speaks in a monotone, and will go off in a direction no one expects, expounding on German history or whatever from 300 years ago. The average person has no idea to what she is referring or how it fits into the current discussion. I am so afraid that I am like her that I sometimes I stop myself after I start talking and say, "Never mind." I excuse myself when I don't stop by remembering I at least have a little inflection in my voice. It is so easy to go off into a rabbit hole, particularly when you are leading a discussion or teaching a class. Group discussions will go astray like that. In a class the leader has to rope everyone back in to the subject at hand. Our group minds wander just like our own personal thinking does, I guess. When writing, we can just as easily go astray. The writer has control and can take it where she wants, but the story or article might get off the course. With fiction that might work as the story will go in a new direction. I've had that happen. The story is in control, not the writer. Nonfiction requires a steady thinker and staying on topic. My mind wanders too much. I need to stick to very short essays. |
un: 
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Community Feed
Puzzle Hub
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
