A song that never ends ...

Did you ever have one of those days?  You know the kind.  You wake up in the morning and are blithely going about your daily tasks and then it hits you ... that little noise niggling in the back of your mind until you realize it is the song you have been singing for the past half hour.  Try as you might the silly thing will not go away ... at least not for very long.  Yesterday, I kid you not, I had Leonard Nimoy singing 'The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" traversing the Misty Mountains.  I suppose it might have been worse.  It could have been Bobby Goldsboro warbling about poor Frodo and his nine fingers.  OK, so I have to admit I enjoy the animated versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (even though they could have completed the story.)  This morning, it was a Chopin polonaise.  Frequently hymns will fill my mind.  Today my hubby and I were shopping and as we were driving down the street a red rubber ball bounced and came rolling in front of us ... you guessed it, there it was "Red Rubber Ball" by the Cyrkles.  What can I say?  I like music; well, most music that is.  A criteria centers on the fact that I have to be able to understand the words so that leaves out a whole gamut of Rap, Metallic, most Country and, dare I say it, Opera. There is one song, however, that will stick in my head for days.  I can mention it as I am doing right now and it may not phase me, but should there be a music station playing and this song come on, I am sunk.  Oh no!  There is is!  The lilting march is starting and now the Beatles are singing!  "... a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine ... We all live in a yellow..." 

Fresh bread

Today I'm talking bread ... the kind you eat, not the slang for currency.  I bake my own bread.  Is there anything that smells better than fresh baked or baking bread as that wonderful aroma from those wholesome loaves wafts its way throughout the house out open windows filling the area with a sense of warmth and goodness? There is a saying that "_____ is the best thing since sliced bread."  (I"ll let you fill in the blank.)  Sliced bread certainly is a novelty when one stops to think about it, but it doesn't necessarily fit the total picture of wonderful.  Each culture has their own version of bread each providing a sense of home and satisfaction.  In many places in the world one would be hard pressed to attempt to slice bread.  To name a few, think about the Middle Eastern pitas which are folded, the tortilla which is also folded, the Norwegian lefsa which is rolled and the Ashkenazic bagel ... Ok, so modern culture has decided the bagel may be sliced latitudinally to force them into the guise of a sandwich; still, the bagel did not begin with this intent and many sticklers refuse to give in here.  While we are talking sandwiches, this was the revolutionary idea of the 18th century which developed into the notion of slicing bread and credited to the British 4th Earl of Sandwich who refused to leave off gaming for meals and required his servants to bring him a piece of meat between two pieces of bread.  Before this time, chunks of bread were broken from a loaf and slathered with creamy butter and jams.  It did not need to be sliced to enjoy its savor.  I submit that hot fresh baked bread is better than sliced bread anyway you cut it.   One can almost smell the delicious atroma ...

Let's pay it forward

Pay it forward ... what a novel idea and so simple.  I realize this has been going on for a couple of years now.  It's a shame it hasn't been going on for millennia and, to be fair, perhaps it has.  Is it possible we just haven't noticed before a time when everybody is in a world of hurt and so a nice gesture takes on new meaning?  That is the whole point:  to pay it forward is an act of giving to someone something you have even just a little bit extra of without expecting anything in return.  We might think of this as some of the milk of human kindness.  Everyone has needs and these needs are not always a tangible commodity.  Think about the manner in which a smile or laughter is able to brighten up a person's day.   What about a word of encouragement to the person who is feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.  I think everyone should try to make at least one person happy everday.  I don't mean just among our friends, although friends have needs too.  I am thinking of the person who may not be the most well-liked of our associates.  They too have needs.  Do not forget the perfect stranger and this is where the whole pay it forward program began.  I challenged my FB friends to day to give abit of encouragement to those around them as we begin a new week.  Let us all take up the challenge and follow through in our day to day lives.  We might be surprised by how much brighter our paths seem to us.

My elusive goal

Some days it is just simply difficult to attain my elusive goal.  Oh sure, I wake up in the morning with a grandiose scheme in my head as to everything that will be accomplished during the course of the day.  I do all the little things that are necesary to get myself going.  Today this included scaring our tomcat who assumed he was next in line for the shower.  I started a load of laundry and swept the floors.  Is my list still on task?  Good!  Now, how about indulging in that second mug of coffee ... Mmmm.  Might as well take a break and look over the paper or checkout things on FB.  After all, I might have missed something since the last time I was on.  Post and update.  It is important to remember I have my own page to worry about plus the page for my book.  Done?  Good!  Now, get back to work.  I have a sink full of dishes from last night and hubby wants pancakes for brunch since it's Saturday, but he'll fix them.  Yay!  I clear out the sink and hubby walks in the door.  Better pile those dishes back into the sink so he can work!  Meanwhile, I put clothes in dryer and hang tops that need to be line dried.  I help hubby by setting the table and brunch is ready.  We sit down to eat and one of our daughters calls, but we can call her back.  Brunch is over and I clear the table, but will have to wait to wash dishes because the griddle is still hot.  Then I check on the laundry and the phone rings again.  I can afford to chat amicably for a few minutes before foisting this call off onto hubby.  I finally get to call our daughter back and an hour later, before getting off the phone, she is posting a recipe on my FB page and since I am there anyway I might as well see if anything new has happened, right?  I knew you would agree.  Now, by this time the griddle is cool and I can get the dishes done.  With that task finished, I check on the laundry again and decide it is time to terrorize another one of the cats by doing the vacuuming.  Snack time!  We munch a couple crackers and drink a glass of water ... yeah, I know not very high class, but it is what it is on a Saturday.  I finally get to put the load of scatter rugs in the dryer and fold and put away the clothes that were washed today.  Sitting down at my keyboard to write this blog I am about two-thirds of the way through when my daughter calls again just to chat while she takes a break to go check on her mail.  Twenty minutes later I am back to typing and correcting all the typos made while trying to type and hold onto the phone at the same time.  Now it is time to prepare dinner and I still haven't had time to work on anything related to my book today ... sigh ...  Nevertheless, I did get a few things done and as Scarlett O'hara would say, "Tomorrow is another day."

Lest we forget

Lest we forget - today is the day of Yom HaShoah in the nation of Isreal - the Day of Remembrance.  It is the day when the holocaust is remembered.  It is a day the world should remember.  Let us never forget this horrific act and vow to see this inhumanity never again perpetrated against any group of people.  It saddens me to know there are those in the world who did in the past and others who would now or in the future turn a blind eye to atrocities against mankind and a deaf ear towards screams for mercy.  I pity those who claim such actions never took place, yet, just maybe, and I am trying to put the best constructin on the subject, just maybe the facts are too heinous for their minds to accpt as real.  We cannot change the past; we can only strive to be better to make sure the future does not re-live the past.

Pithiness

Time to talk about a word.  As I have said before, I like words.  Depending upon your point of view, I can spend or waste a lot of time looking up a word in the dictionary.  Sometimes I just want to check on a variant spelling; sometimes I am narrowing down the meaning and right there my focus is lost as my eyes flit over scores of words.  I find myself reading down a whole column before I remember I need to get back to the task at hand or my computer will go into screensaver mode and I realize I am not even within the bounds of the first letter of the word I was trying to look up in the first place.  The word for tonight is 'pithy' - 'of, like or full of pith'.  Sounds daring.  Well, what is pith.  I think of fruit having pith so it's sort of the meat of the matter or something with substance.  Pith has substance, gist or vigor.  According to the dictionary, 'pithy' means 'full of substance, meaning or force, as a pithy style.'  So, pithy stresses a deeper, more substantial meaning to what is being expressed.  While a useful word, I have also discovered pithy is also a fun word to use when playing word games.  Having been challenged for use of this word on the grounds that I had both made up the word and was trying to lead a group of students astray by deliberately mispronouncing a word which was not exactly school appropriate, I pulled out my dictionary and won the round.  Words can be lifesavers and gamesavers; nevertheless, the study of words can be a pithy experience to round the corners of life's expressions.

Just when you thought you were safe

Ah, Springtime!  I love this time of year.  The days slowly lengthen.  Even though the wind still howls it somehow feels warmer.  One can stand outside at night to bask in the beauty of the stars without feeling too chilled.  The grass changes from a ruddy brownish hue to a lovely shade of green.  Trees and shrubs begin to leaf out so quickly the changes go from weekly to daily and almost hourly in their growth.  Bulbs which have been peeking out of the ground are suddlenly tall stalks with flowers waiting to burst open and then one by one the yard is exploding in the colors of crocuses, hyacinths and paperwhites all in shades of yellow, white or purple.  The daffodils and jonquils rapidly take over shouting their glory in hues of yellow and orange with a touch of white.  Purple and red lilacs scent the neighborhood and tulips provide a flourish of pinks, yellows, orange, red and purple.  Sometimes they are ruffled and others striped to add to their performance.  The short winter brought my spring flowers out early this season.  The irises seem to have sprung up overnight and are just beginning to open.  Not to be outdone, all the cats in the area decide it is time to stake a claim and go through their rituals for procreating.  Birds flock back to the area; some more noisily than others as they too locate safe havens for nesting and choosing their mates.  Though the days are growing longer we have to put up with the ridiculous daylight savings time, but get used to it after a few months in time to turn the clocks back once more.  Storm windows are removed and houses are opened up to the cleanliness of the awakening earth.  Warmer weather also allows one the chance to open up the windows at night to breathe in the fresh air and get a truly good night's sleep and all is right with the world.  Nevertheless, just when you thought you were safe, it is too late.  There is nowhere to hide from the pungent perfume wafting on the gentle breeze of those cute, little, black and white, nocturnal critters wandering about leaving their own telltale mark on an otherwise peaceful night.