Laura Ingalls Wilder

I grew up reading the 'Little House' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I even progressed to the series of books written by Roger Lea MacBride which takes up the story after Laura's last book and tells about the years the Wilders spent on Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri.

As mentioned in previous blog entries, I love looking through secondhand books.  There's the $3-a-bag sales that the Albuquerque main library holds twice a year.  About once a week I cruise the book section at Goodwill - which can sometimes prove to be a gold mine.  I have found several books signed by the auther, including an autobiography by Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper.

My most recent find (not signed) is called Little House in the Ozarks.  Laura Ingalls Wilder starting writing her 'Little House' books when she was 65.  However, that was not her first attempt.  About twenty years before she started these books, she was writing articles for regional newspapers and magazines.  The articles were written between 1911 and 1925 and covered topics ranging from everyday life on Rocky Ridge Farm to concerns about World War I to visiting the San Francisco Exhibition (around 1915). 

Finding this book was a very pleasant surprise and an interesting read.  (FYI:  the book was edited by Stephen W. Hines, a lifelong fan of Wilder's.)  It doesn't include all of her articles, but it does contain a majority.  Fun to see the woman behind the author.

Papillon

Incorrect Attribution

Here is a quote that is usually attributed to John Lennon:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

While Lennon probably said this at some point - it turns out he was not the first to have done so.

I love books.  Love 'em.  Have them all over my house.

Twice a year, the Albuquerque main library has a $3-a-bag book sale.  You take a bag

and stuff as many books into it as you can.  You can buy as many bags of books as you want.  Love it!  One of the books I bought in November 2010's sale was Bennett Cerf's Laugh Day.  It bills itself as a "treasury of over 1000 humorous stories, anecdotes...."

At one point in the book, Cerf mentions that he loves to collect quotes.  (Me, too!)  One of the quotes is:
"Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans."  Cerf attributes the quote to a Robert Balzer.  (I haven't looked him up so am not sure who he is.)  As you can see, other than Lennon's use of the word 'busy', the quotes are identical.

Cerf was not ignoring Lennon since the book was published in 1965, right about the time that Lennon was rising to enough prominence to be quoted.  Cerf does not say when he first noted the quote from Balzer, but considering the amount of time it takes to compile and publish a book, it had to have been at least several years before 1965.

It's likely that Lennon (who was NOT a stupid man) saw or heard the quote someplace and used it.  People who didn't know about Balzer then gave Lennon all the credit.

It was just interesting to be reading a 45-year-old book and run across the quote.
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Also seen in this book is a list of words that are now obsolete.  (Note:  the list is from another book, Your English Words by John Moore.)
Example:
Quockerwodger - it's a puppet.
Skilligolete - a soup served sometimes to prisoners or sailors (now there's an odd combination).
Calibogus - a mixture of spruce beer and rum (eew?).
Jobbernowl - a blockhead.
Rumblegumption - a Scottish word for common sense.

All for now.
Papillon

Happy New Year!

Courtesy of http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/

I think somebody needs to cut back on the catnip!

Papillon

Christmas trip

For Christmas, my sisters, brother-in-law and I all met up in San Angelo to spend time with my mom.  As mentioned in my Thanksgiving post, the drive for me is long and, at times, rather boring.

The trip to San Angelo was rather unusual this time.  I called ahead and checked on the condition of the roads.  The recording said they were fine.  The recording did not mention the foggy conditions that were pretty much in place until I got to Roswell, NM.  Sometimes you could see several hundred yards to a mile.  That's unusual for the country I was driving through where you can normally see for several miles in all directions.  In Lincoln County, NM the fog was especially heavy.  Not much fun to drive in.  Here's a picture of when conditions were foggy but not too bad.

Normally you could see for at least 5 to 10 miles -- at least.

All the fog plus temperatures around freezing put a frost on the vegetation.  Just north of Vaughn, NM, I spotted a couple of trees.  I pulled over to take a photo.  When I rolled down my car window, it sounded like there was a light rain.  It turns out I had stopped about the time that the temps got just above freezing and it was the sound of frost sliding off branches and plopping on the ground.  Here's one of the trees.

Just north of Vaughn is a very small town called Encino.  Here's a sad little house.  I always wonder what it's history was and why it looks like this now.

On the trip to San Angelo I was very glad I had finished all my shopping.  One of the towns I went through was LaMesa, TX and the strip center with WalMart was PACKED.  Ditto in Big Spring, TX.

Between LaMesa and Big Spring I almost ran off the road when I spotted what I thought was a full-grown, real, live reindeer.  I checked again on the way home and decided (due to the other animals in the pasture) that it was probably an elk instead.  I think the ranch it was located on hosts hunters for a living.

Christmas was nice and so was the drive home.  It was sunny and windy and a bit chilly.  As I got to Brownfield I noticed several long ribbons of geese headed in an easterly direction.  Not sure why and where they were going, but they were pretty to look at.  Also spotted on the drive home was a solitary hawk perched in the only tree for several miles.

It's good to be home.

Papillon

Make It Stop

I suddenly like political ads better than Christmas ads.  Why?  Because the day after the election, the political ads stop.

Apparently this is no longer true of either Christmas ads or Christmas music.  After having both start up before Thanksgiving, it looks like folks are trying to wring every last bit of sentiment out of them.  Especially annoying is the incessant Christmas music.  Yesterday I was hoping area merchants were just letting the music linger through the weekend.

Then I was in a local restaurant today and what do my ears behold?  More Christmas music.  Fortunately the restaurant was a bit noisy and I could tune most of it out.

All I can say is - make it STOP!
Papillon

A Snow Day

It's been a long dry autumn here in New Mexico.  So we felt some relief when the weather forecasters said we'd be getting some precipitation starting yesterday.

The forecasters were right.  I woke up yesterday to cloudy and rainy skies.  Hooray!  I ran some errands and then headed home since the forecast was for the rain to turn to snow.  Sure enough, it did shortly after I got home.  I was expecting an inch or two.  That expectation was dashed when it kept snowing and snowing and snowing.

Here's what it looked like out my front door around 10 PM last night.

This morning I woke up to approximately 4-5 inches of snow.  We rarely get this much snow here on the west side of Albuquerque.  Needless to say, I'm going to spend most of the day here at home. 

It's supposed to warm up to 40 degrees.  However, as of noon, we are still in the low to mid 30's.  Some melting has occurred, but there's still a whole lot of snow hanging around.

Papillon



Feeling Good

After having spent some time as one of the countless unemployed persons and having my resumes ignored by all and sundry, I suddenly am having much better 'luck'.

Around mid-week I was contacted about my interest in a position at a local entity which runs/owns two of the local TV stations.  Since then, I've had my first interview.

Then, at about the same time, I was contacted by Sandia National Lab about my interest in a position there.  Friday morning I went in for testing - they want to make sure you can read and do math and follow instructions and have more than a passing familiarity with Microsoft Office.  I did well on all of the tests except for Excel.  Even though I use Excel on a regular basis, they were using 2007.  I have not had a chance to use it and with the 24 hour notice I did not have a chance to track down a tutorial to run.  So, for a while I was pulling out my hair, but eventually got through it with a passing score.  Hooray!

I go in for an initial interview on Monday for Sandia.  I'm waiting to hear if the TV stations want to do a second interview.

Woohoo!  It sure feels nice to be popular.

Papillon