It's Hobbit Day!

Today is Hobbit Day declared so by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and, in part, in anticipation of Peter Jackson's upcoming film trilogy based on Tolkien's book The Hobbit.  Why was today, the first day of autumn, chosen?  Anyone who has read Tolkien's books can tell you September 22nd is the joint birthday celebration of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.  It is also the day (their birthdays) on which adventures begin and come to their conclusion.  Picnics, pubs, readings, film marathons, the internet, and birthday parties will bring devotees together around the globe to share their enthusiasm for the films and the books.  Pathetic, silly, and nonsense some might denounce these celebrations undertaken by a weird bunch of nerdy losers.  Really?  Is camaraderie over a story any worse, or different for that matter, than people getting together to watch groups of all ages running around and tussling over a ball or throwing a ball into a hoop or hitting a ball with a stick or driving a car or engaging in pugilistics?  We think nothing of watching sports and purchasing all manner of sports related memorabilia and clothing.  Why should we criticize those who care more about books or the arts or academics.  The world is made up of all different types of people.  What an uninteresting planet this would be if we were all exactly alike.  Now, how about another piece of cake, Mr. Baggins?

Life Creates a Hiatus

Well, it's been a while and all I can say is 'Sorry about that!'  Don't know why but the title 'Death Takes a Holiday' springs to mind, though no one has died, at least not in the sense of my long break.  It is more rather a sense of 'Life creates a hiatus'.  This seems much more fitting, though I haven't even had any sort of vacatin, yet ... except it would seem from my blog.  My schedule just grew to be a little bit hectic.  So the question is where have I been and what have I been up to?  Yes, I know that is two questions and not one.  Remember I can get a little wordy and if it seemed appropriate here, I would insert a winking emoticon.  The answer to the first question is quite simple:  I've been right here.  Ok, so if I'm honest I have been within a 50 mile radius of my computer.  The answer to the second is more exciting depending upon your point of view and your thoughts concerning Church and State.  The first portion of the summer was spent preparing for and instructing sessions of old-fashioned Vacation Bible School at each of the parishes we serve.  The totality of June through August ... except for the part about VBS ... was spent in meetings, arranging and running around to set up the celebration of our town's Quasquicentennial - a big fancy word meaning 125 years.  I was priveleged to work on the planning committe with a great group of people and honored to serve as the chair.  Was it a wonderful celebration?  Yes!  Am I glad it is over?  Yes!  Since the celebration the end of August, there has been some paperwork to complete and acknowledgments to get out as the committe gradualy winds down and recovers.  Through it all, I don't want you to think I have been totally slacking off with my book.  I have completed an edit, numbered the chapters, pared my synopsis, written a back cover blurb and worked on my query letter.  Nevertheless, I have not forgotten about you and have even spared my blog a moment or two of guilt from time to time as various topics flooded my mind like waves washing the shore only to recede leaving pebbles and bits and pieces of who knows what in their wake.  Now it is time to get back on track, sift through the pebbles and put pen to paper ... or fingers to keyboard ... once more.  Or, in other words, as Samwise Gamgee would say "Well, I'm back."

The yellow brick road

Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Frank L. Baum (May 15, 1856 - May 6, 1919) author of The wizard of Oz and a whole series of delightful tales centering on the mythical land of Oz.  I have often wondered why he chose the home of Dorothy Gale one of his most notorious characters as a small rural setting in the state of Kansas.  If one has ever visited the Sunflower State, it would soon be obvious by the 'slight' breezes.  Even Dorothy's surname proclaims the propensity for forceful gusts of wind.  It is not a well-known fact that even though Chicago is nicknamed 'the Windy City', central Kansas is actually a windier locale.  The tornadic weather from time to time naturally leant to the whole story of Dorothy's farmhouse drawn up through a swirling storm and plopped unceremoniously down where it did not belong.  These were facts I could readily accept even as a child while watching the classic film or reading Mr. Baum's books.  Little did I ever think I would one day reside in Kansas and in fact had never visited the state before my family moved here some years ago.  When one thinks of Kansas one autoimatically thinks of Dorothy and her ruby slippers.  Being short of stature I was struck by the number of fellow members  of the vertically challenged masses.  I have thought Mr. Baum must surely have visited Kansas at one time to have such insight into the number of smaller people and my mind readily accepted a reasoning for the beloved characters known as Munkins.  Well, all this is well and good, but Mr. Baum really missed the mark with the 'yellow brick road'.   I realize he passed on nearly a century ago, but seriously, had he ever travelled the roads in Kansas he would be well aware that it is the cities and larger towns that have paved roads; rural areas are lucky to have gravel and the gravel is actually huge chunks of sharp rock that ruin many a tire on our modern vehicles such at the automobile.  Sometimes they put down a couple layers called 'chip and seal'.  This like the rocky gravel is cared for by graders called 'maintainers' which push the debris to the sides and then back into the center of the roads which, by the way, have no shoulders.  All too soon any stretch of road is pocked with huge ruts and gaping holes to resemble a war zone.  Finally enough citizens complain and the right politicians tour an area and after years of patchwork and hemming and hawing something might be done about the roads.  I am very gratreful and proud to say the time has come for our small hamlet sized town.  It isn't a yellow brick road; nevertheless, we finally have a paved road leading to one of the entrances of our town. To the members of our community, having a road paved with asphalt is tantamount to having a road paved with gold.   It might be too much to ask, I suppose, to have the other roads done as well.  Or would it?  Don't make me call the flying monkeys!

Right on, Hilary!

I will rarely talk politics.  They tend to annoy me.  Without further adieu, I will also freely state the topic of politics I have reserved for a future blog post.  With this said, I must say, political views aside, I will applaud anyone who can get the job done.  I have gained a whole new respect for Hilary Clinton over the past couple of years.  There is a degree of hindsight that makes one pause to consider the manner in which she might have served as our President.  Be that as it may, the timing apparently was not right and I have already stated the purpose of this post is not to discuss political views.  A couple weeks ago after viewing a morning news broadcast, friends on FB got into a discussion of Hilary's appearance and how she had 'cetainly let herself go'.  There were of course crude jokes which are both offensive and disrespectful.  My response was to the effect that the perfomance of her duties as Secretary of State would seemingly age anyone and sometimes events happen that are not conducive to perfect hair styles.  Watching tonight's broadcast of ABC's Evening News, I see ours has not been the only discussion on the topic.  Mrs. Clinton was in the news today making a statement not about politics but, rather, about life.  To paraphrase her statement, she said she is happy to be at a point in her life when what she does is more important than how people see her. If she chooses to put her hair up or pull it back she will do so for ease and comfort. The same goes for make-up and wearing her glasses instead of contacts.  She said she would allow others to worry about such things for themselves if they felt they needed to.  The point is:  we may 'view' someone for the actions they take which have an impact on life around us or we can in a more shallow manner 'see' someone soley by their appearance.  Well said, Hilary!  I commend you!

Here we go already

I am reminded of the rather caustic saying "The horn works. Try the lights!"  We live in the Great Plains region of the country.  Last year it was just plain hot!  I'm not really complaining.  It was hot everywhere and it was, after all, summer.  One should expect some amount of warmer weather.  It seems we are never satisfied.  We compalin about heat in the summer, cold in the winter, rain if it rains, and no moisture if it doesn't.  We need to learn to be content with the state we are in.  Nevertheless, we seemed to have an inordinate amount of heat last year as records were broken and drought conditions made it worse.  Still, we managed to save a lot on the utility bills by cutting back on the amount of water we put on the garden ... it was a colossal flop but nobody had a decent garden last year.  We also kept the electic bills lower by setting the air conditioner at about 80 degrees and running fans during the day.  We ran a ceiling fan at night and could open the bedroom windows.  Everything was closed up again in the morning.  As this process seemed to work, Hubby and I agreed to do this same program this year.  We have already had temperatures in the mid 90's and brought the fans up from the basement and even and run them a couple of times.  It looks like our early spring may be marching quickly towards summer.  Last week the air conditioner was uncovered.  I was preparing dinner last night when the air kicked on.  Being frugal, we decided it was too late in the day to run the air so the unit was set at 82 degrees and flipped from 'cool' to 'off'.  The realization was made that we might have to give in and run the air today.  Sure enough, it was slightly before noon and just shy of 90 degrees outside.  Hubby had just arrived home and said we had better close up the house.  We ran around (no, not literally) and closed windows and doors.  When I said it sounded like the air was already on, he looked at the unit outside the kitchen window and assured me it wasn't running yet.  When I kept hearing something running, I placed a bare foot over one of the floor vents to discover not cool air but heat.  "Um, Honey, the furnace works.  Try the air!"

A recipe for the future?

I'm hostessing a special meeting of a ladies' group tomorrow evening.  What makes the event so special is that we will be at the home of the eldest member of the group ... she'll turn 100 years old this summer.  We met at her home a year ago and she wanted us to make sure we included her on the calendar this year.  Ladies are always watching their weight, but if we are honest we really like to eat too.  This being the case, I knew I would have to come up with a special dessert to fit the occasion and began leafing through my collection of church cookbooks.  Don't laugh!  They have the best recipes because they are all time honored and taste tested.  Having lived in various states, I possess a nice assortment.  I talked the choices over with my hubby as to ease and availability of ingredients.  I narrowed the choice down to two; one from a cookbook; and the other, a family recipe and of course I hadn't made either one of these desserts in years.  My hubby came to the rescue and made the decision I should make the family recipe.  Sounded good to me too.  I've been feeling a bit homesick lately and this is my grandmother's recipe for Pretzel Torte.  Try as I might, I could not find my copy of the recipe.  Now, I used to make this dessert a lot so I had a vague recollection but I'm trying to impress the ladies and figured I better have the real thing.  I got on Facebook and messaged my mom, one of my sisters, my aunt and four cousins.  One of them was bound to have Grandma's recipe.  Within hours as they heard my plight I received the recipe from a cousin via her phone to my e-mail.  Another cousin couldn't find her copy either and wanted me to share when I got the recipe.  My mom e-mailed me her copy that night.  Don't you just love this modern technology?  Meanwhile Hubby got on the internet and was trying to find the recipe too.  There are a lot of versions for this dessert!  My aunt had a copy but hadn't tried the recipe and  all the cousins wanted to try this too.  So I wrote up what I received and was able to message everyone.  Isn't it wonderful that we are able to contact one another in this manner and share over the internet something so connective as an old family recipe?  I've decided this would make a great family re-union.  We can pick a date which works for each of our families and each family can make Grandma's Pretzel Torte and there we have it ... a family re-union without leaving the comfort of one's own home.  Chatting and texting are already in force among so many.  Skyping would be the icing on the cake.  Voila! The family re-union of the future is born!  Somehow I don't really think this is what Grandma had in mind.

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..."