Life's Too Short...

I bought another book today.  (Yes.  Another. One.)  It was an impulse buy and easy to make since I was at the local Dollar Tree and therefore, it was only one whole dollar.

It's by a lady named Pat Lorenz and is called Life's Too Short to Fold Your Underwear.  The title amused me (no, I don't fold my underwear) so I got it.

In the chapter entitled 'Life's Too Short to Worry about Getting Old'.  In this chapter she talks about how, after entering her 50's, she entered a whole new world and sums up her new basic philosophies concerning cooking and cleaning.  The summary follows:

- Help keep the kitchen clean - eat out.
- My next house will have no kitchen, just vending machines.
- A messy house is a sign of a misspent life.
- A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen and this kitchen is delirious.
- Countless numbers of people have eaten in this kitchen and gone on to lead normal lives.
- Housework done properly can kill you.
- A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

As long as at least one of those cookies contains white chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts, I entirely agree with all of the above.

Now I've got the munchies.  I think I'll go to my deliriously happy kitchen and see if I can find something fun to eat.

Papillon

Endless Horizons

As I mentioned in yesterday's posting, I've been visiting my mom who lives in west Texas.  There's no easy way to get from where I live to where my mom lives.  It's not easy to fly there and it's equally not easy to drive there.

On the most recent visit I drove.  This is not brain surgery.  And there are parts of the drive that can be very interesting.

That said - there are parts of western Texas and eastern New Mexico that should bottle and sell a cure for insomniacs.  Initially when you see the endless vistas, it can be very interesting especially if it's your first time in this part of the country.  However, after several hours it can become, well, the equivalent of a giant geographical sleeping pill.

Granted, there are some very cool things to look at.  Since there's so much available space, there are a number of wind farms in and around Big Spring and Sterling City.  Up close they're rather hypnotic (in a good way).  Rather stately.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm not dissing west Texas and east New Mexico.  There's some gorgeous scenery and the people have always been uniformly pleasant.  It's just -- there's a whole lot of flat going on in some places.

Papillon

The End of an Era

As you may have noticed, it's been a week since my last blog posting.

Earlier this year, my mom had several episodes where she fell, one especially bad fall in early March.  Since then my mom has gone into a nice assisted living place (researched by my older sister).   Since then both of my sisters and I have been working on getting my mom's house cleaned out and put up for sale.

Over this past weekend we held an estate sale.  A very lovely and talented woman (Kay) and her team of lovely and talented workers conducted the sale.  (We are very grateful for their professionalism!)  My sisters and my brother-in-law and I helped by being watchers and runners and generally doing what we could to make things run as smoothly as possible.

All in all it was an exhausting weekend and I just really didn't have the mental energy to blog.

The title of this posting mentions the end of an era.  When my dad retired, he and my mom moved into the house that is currently my mom's home (my dad died in the early 1980's).  So the house has been in my family for over 30 years.  Needless to say, there are lots of memories connected to the house and its furnishings.

I find myself becoming sentimental over any number of things that could be considered small or silly.  But they'll trigger a memory or two or three.  As to be expected, some of the memories are happy, some sad. 

Was it C.S. Lewis who said that memories are what give us roses in December?

Anyway, my mom seems to be doing well at the assisted living home.  It was definitely the right move.  She seems to be making new friends to go with all her former friends who've been very good about visiting her.

Prior to the estate sale, my sisters and I very amicably decided on what we wanted to keep.  It was still tough seeing some things being sold.  I kept having memories of 'remember when'.  I just kept telling myself that the items being sold would now be giving good memories to their new owners. 

Papillon

Drip Drip Drop

It is no use to grumble and complain; It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain - Why, rain's my choice. - James Whitcomb Riley

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
-Langston Hughes

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you. - Langston Hughes

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. - Saint Basil
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We got a very lovely rain storm a short while ago.  Such a pleasantly blowing diversion.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love the weather here in New Mexico.  I could never, ever live someplace like Seattle.  All that rain would have me putting my head in a gas stove.

I do love sunshine.

That said, it has been a very dry rainy season so far. 

People who don't live in New Mexico tend to laugh when we say that we have a rainy season.  After all, this is a high desert.  But we do have two months (July and August) where we are supposed to get a large portion of our annual moisture. 

We tend to worry when the moisure heads north or stays to the east.  This has been the case so far thanks to a high pressure system in the northeast corner of the state.  That has moved off to the east, allowing more moisture to head in.  Which lead to this evening's storm.  Lots of wind and a significant amount of rain.
 
My car now looks cleaner.  Up until now, all we'd had were a couple of quick bursts of moisture followed by blowing dust.  Which made my car look grubby.  The dirt is now mostly gone.  Hooray!
 
All in all, a very good result was had.
 
Papillon

Friends and Fun

Several friends and I got together yesterday for a quick field trip to a quilt shop on the (far) east side of town.  OK, to be truthful, it's just a weensy bit out of town.  But that was all OK, too, because it was a lovely day, if a tiny bit hot.  But that's to be expected in mid-July.  And, it IS a 'dry' heat after all!

We got to the quilt store, found out they were having their 2nd anniversary sale and promptly ran amok.  The store owners and staff were a tough bunch, entirely capable of dealing with quilters and their amok-ness.  They were rewarded for their efforts and we walked away with more projects for the future.

I say 'more projects' because most/all quilters have way more projects in mind than they will ever have time to do.  That is because all creative types live in fear that they will wake up some morning and find themselves with nothing to work on/look forward to.

I feel this way, not only with my craft projects, but also with books.  Which is why my house is generally decorated with books, books and even more books.  Not to mention needlepoint and quilts.  I obviously wear my creative endeavors on my sleeve (and on the wall plus various bookcases).
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I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~William Ewart Gladstone
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Afterwards we all went to lunch (being famished after all that running amok).  Fortunately there was a pleasant little restaurant right across the parking lot.  We got our aerobic exercise in the walk there.  While perusing the menu, I noticed they had a burger that was stuffed with chiles and cheese and then deep fried.  We were tempted to order but figured that our stomachs and arteries would kill us. Literally.

Later we got together at our host's house (thanks!) and admired the views and each other's purchases and the key lime pie we had for dessert (yum!).

All in all, a fun day was had.  Good friends, a quilt store having a sale, good food, lovely views and key lime pie.  Can a day get any better?

Papillon

Minor Annoyances

Because I live just outside of Albuquerque, I have access to both my town's library and the libraries in Albuquerque.  This is fun because it significantly widens the pool of book possibilities.

The closest Albuquerque branch library is in the Taylor Ranch neighborhood.  Sometimes I think the library staff is psychic in a slightly annoying sort of way.

This is because I had requested several books.  They left me a voice mail message the other day saying I had a book ready to be picked up.  I got busy and waited a couple of days before picking it up today.  After I got home, I found another message - another book is ready to be picked up.  Grrr!  The second book was NOT on the hold shelf when I picked up the first book. 

Oh, well.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a petty annoyance indeed.  It could be worse.  And if this is the worst thing that happens to me this year, it'll be a pretty good year.

Another annoyance?  The weather.  Mother Nature is being a great big tease.  For most of the afternoon, there've have been lovely dark clouds all around my house.  Have I seen a drop of rain?  Why no.  To rub salt in the wound, the local news showed that the east side of town had gotten a very lovely shower. 

Ah, well.

Keeping my

Driving Around

I was driving around today and for a while was behind a car that had a sign on its back windown that said "Singing Lessons - All Age."  Let's put aside the nitpicking about whether it should have read "All Ages" - perhaps the 'S' had come loose and the lack was not noticed by the vehicle's owner.

I bring this up because it got me thinking about the audition process for the show 'American Idol' and specifically for the 2010 season.  I don't watch the bulk of the show, but I do like to watch the auditions.  I do this with the same morbid fascination that I usually reserve for train wrecks.  There are just so many people who are so very eager to display their complete and utter lack of talent on national TV.  They quite often do so with the complete and utter ignorance of what very little talent they have.

In the auditions for the 2010 season, one young woman was turned down by the panel.  She did have a modicum of singing ability.  She wasn't as horribly bad as William Hung.  But she definitely did not have anywhere near enough talent to be considered as a viable contestant.

She took umbrage at the panel's opinions and very irately told them that she DID have talent and that she's got the singing teachers to prove it.  Yes, teachers, plural.  You could see it on everyone's face - perhaps she needed to go back to her teachers and ask for a partial refund of fees paid.  Because if she's had YEARS of lessons from multiple teachers, then she either should have a better singing voice or her teachers should have been more straightforward with her concerning her potential as a singer.  I would guess the teachers were more interested in receiving the fees than in telling the young woman the truth.

Oh, the places my thoughts go when I'm behind a car at a stoplight.

Papillon

Random Thoughts

One last entry from Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter:

A few interesting revelations made by David Ewen in his American Popular Songs..."Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the song classic about America's favorite sport, was written by Albert von Tilzer, who didn't see a baseball game until twenty years after he wrote the lyrics; "My Blue Heaven," one of the most successful songs about marital bliss, was written by Walter Donaldson, a bachelor; the most celebrated songs about the Southland were the work of Stephen Foster, who never set foot below the Mason-Dixon line; and Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" was inspired by the composer's visit to New York's Central Park, which has no apple trees.
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Otherwise, I don't have much in the way of thoughts, random or otherwise.

We had some fairly ferocious looking clouds earlier in the afternoon and I was really hoping for some rain.  But they were all tease and no action, at least not at my house.

I hope you're having a great weekend.

Papillon

Oh, My

Another excerpt from the previously mentioned book Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter:
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Well-brought-up young ladies in the 1870's learned their good manners from the pages of a book that is unbelievable by present-day standards.  It was called Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms and it has just been republished under the slightly updated title of Never Give a Lady a Restive Horse.

Professor Hill gave strict orders to young ladies just climbing out of bed in the morning.  "Take a complete bath at once," he commanded, adding, "A simple washing out of the eyes will not do at all."  In the chapter headed "Errors to be avoided," Professor Hill brooked no nonsense from male readers, either.  "NEVER," he ordered, "allow butter, soup, or other food to remain on your whiskers."  There are forty-one other "nevers" listed by Professor Hill, including things not to be done in hansom cabs and other horse-drawn vehicles.
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OK, I'm now kinda grossed out at the thought of what bearded men are allowing to remain in and on their whiskers.  Ick!  At least he was trying to get people to bathe regularly.  It certainly helps to reduce the 'funk' in a room full of mostly unwashed people.

Hmmmm, I may go over to Amazon and see if I can locate a copy of this book.  It sounds like it could be a fun read.  Perhaps similar to a list I read a while back from perhaps the 1940's or 1950's with rules for wives and how they should maintain their households and keep their husbands happy.  It's a good thing I wasn't a housewife back then or my head would have been inside that gas oven hoping for a quick end.

Papillon

A Glitter of Unicorns?

As has already been mentioned, I love going to places like Goodwill & looking through their used books.  Most recently (yesterday to be precise), I found a book edited by Bennett Cerf.  (For those too young to remember him, he was a publisher, lecturer, columnist, toastmaster, and TV personality.)

The book is Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter.  It was published in 1970 and there is a fair amount of humor in it that is rather dated or is what would now be considered politically incorrect.

However, I have run across some items that I like.  Here's one:

"Almost everybody knows that lions travel in prides, that pups come in litters, that elephants en masse are referred to as herds, and that fish navigate in schools.  But you'll have to dig into James Lipton's unique book An Exaltation of Larks to find that in their time and fashion, good folks have referred to an ostentation of peacocks, an impatience of wives, an unction of undertakers, a sneer of butlers, a twinge of dentists, a tantrum of decorators, an indifference of waiters, a descent of relatives, a no-no of nannies, and a babble of barbers.  If the game appeals to you, you might strike out on your own."

I may just have to see if I can find a copy of Lipton's book.  It sounds rather a hoot (of owls?).

So what sorts of things can you come up with?

Papillon

Happy Independence Day!

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.


- Benjamin Franklin
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We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

- Declaration of Independence of United States of America
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Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

- John F. Kennedy
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To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

- Theodore H. White
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Several years ago I read an interesting bit of information concerning the phrase 'the pursuit of happiness'.  (I don't the title of the book/article where the information was.)  In the 1700's the use of the word 'pursuit' was not confined to meaning 'to chase or hunt after'.  Instead, it was also used to mean the study of a subject.  So Jefferson most likely did not mean that we should chase after happiness as if it were a butterfly flying just out of our reach.  Rather, we should study happiness and find out how to make happiness work for our particular situation.

By the way, did you know that in 1777 Mary Katherine Goddard was picked by the Continental Congress to do the first official printing of the Declaration of Independence with the names of all the signers?  Mary Katherine was one of a family of printers doing business in and around Rhode Island and Maryland.  The family business was headed by her mother, Sarah Updike Goddard, and also included Sarah's son/Mary Katherine's brother, William.

Have a great day!

Papillon

July Thoughts

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”


Erma Bombeck
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One of the things I like about summer is the ability to go out at night and just stand and look at the stars.  Let's face it, it's just too cold in the wintertime to be outside for any length of time.  But sometimes on a summer's evening I like to walk outside and just look up and wonder who else is out there in the great beyond.  I find it to be a very nice way to relax.

I live in a generally quiet neighborhood where most folks don't stay up really late.  So when I walk outside it feels peaceful, as if I have the whole place just to myself.  Once in a while I can hear traffic on the nearest major street, but generally it's just me and Mother Nature.

I do have to laugh at myself sometimes.  I'll be standing outside and the wind will pick up a little bit.  Occasionally something will be blown by the wind and consequently will make an odd noise (usually it's just a leaf scraping across the pavement).  It'll startle me and I'll then begin wondering if it isn't actually a member of the local coyote population.  Or some other kind of critter.  I'll then hot foot it back into the house.  Silly me.

Thinking of the local critters, there was the cutest little bunny sitting in my driveway earlier.  He wasn't a baby but wasn't big enough to be full grown.  I guess the bunny equivalent of a tween.  I almost OD'ed on the cuteness of that bunny.  I would have loved to pick him (her?) up and just snuggle the heck out of him/her.  But I didn't just because I knew I couldn't get anywhere close enough.  No point in trying.  But it did sit there awhile and let me admire.

Otherwise, I'm just sitting here thinking about how the year's already half gone.  When I was a chld, the grownups would tell me that time goes by faster as you become an adult.  They didn't warn me that sometimes it feels like I'm in a speeding car or a bullet train.

Papillon