Miss Poke

 Whilst traveling ALONE, on old 69 Highway, downtown and back, I often sing along to the car radio. Yes, I realize it really isn't radio anymore, it's some kind of playlist thing. In this modern world, you can select what you want to hear, with no advertisements. Mostly, I choose to listen to 60s and 70s rock or soft rock. Anyway, I sing along, belting out those oldies, often quite animatedly. 

Well, my Tesla screen prints the titles of the playlist I've chosen, and rather offhandedly, I noticed, that for the last 40 or so years, I had been misspeaking the title, and lyrics of the Steely Dan Hit, "Reelin' in the Years". Your stellar vocalist here, has been singing "Ease" instead of years. Well. That got me to thinking....what else have I been screwing up?

Plenty, it seems. Everyone has joined in with Dan Fogarty, in "There's a BATHROOM on the RIGHT." I understand that he even sings it that way, sometimes. "out tonight" does sound like "on the right." Aretha belted out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and improved every teenagers spelling. However, what I thought was PCP (some kind of pipe) is actually TCB, as in Taking Care of Business. And, that Eagles hit isn't about Granny.....it's "take a load off Fanny."

So, it appears that misspoken lyrics are quite common. Some are definitely changed on purpose, for a laugh, as in that popular Easter Hymn "Up From the Gravy and the Roast", or the popular church song, "Here I am Lord" that my sons changed ......"Finest bread I will provide" adding, "and the meat is chicken fried". So wrong...but amusing. Right?

Anyway, right lyrics or wrong, I'm going to keep on singing. 

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All Knowing Lord:  Humor makes life so very enjoyable. Sometimes we get too serious. You are always with us. You want us to live life to the fullest. We need to focus on Trust and Obey.

"Long and Winding Road"

 In May of 2024, I published a post about improving my vocabulary. Specifically, using two seldom (I don't often speak or write them) used words.....plethora and ethereal. I can sadly say, that in the years since, I have used plethora, a few times. Exaggeration is a fault of mine. However, the word ethereal, is still not fitting into my written or spoken vocabulary. I've learned to pronounce it, just not how and when to use it.

I must admit, that improving my vocabulary, especially at my age, is not high on my personal improvement list. Truthfully, I am thankful that I can still think and speak with reasonable intelligence. I believe that I am holding steady, not slipping, but certainly not improving. 

However, last week, when a passing acquaintance spoke the word "lachrymose", in an unusually long, accusatory tirade, I was stunned for a moment. Not because I didn't know what the word meant, because I certainly did! But, for the rest of the one-way conversation, I kept thinking, seriously, who uses that word?????

Maybe, I should find time to study the dictionary or at least start following the New York Times "Word of the Day". And, just maybe, avoiding boring conversations with jerks, should be at the top of my "to accomplish" list.

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All knowing and all powerful Lord. Patience is a Virtue. Help us in our struggle to master it and improve our many faults. We ask these things in Your Holy Name. 

 

(Lachrymose: tearful or given to weeping. Extreme sadness) 

"..bringing words of Wisdom....."

 So, I saw this post on Facebook, today. You know the kind I'm writing about. The posts that scream "Who on God's earth is old enough to remember.??????..." whatever it is they are showing. Well, since I am really old, of course I remember everything ancient. In this case it was Buster Brown Shoes.

My mother, like almost all moms of the 1950's, believed it was okay to skimp on lots of things, but not on your children's footwear. Buster Brown shoes were considered the best children's shoes on the market. I don't actually know what they cost, but I'll bet it was between four and five dollars a pair. That was high dollar in the post-war years.

Buster Brown had a catchy slogan. Every shoe had a picture of a oddly dressed kid (Buster) and his dog, Tige, imprinted on the liner of the sole. The slogan went like this: "I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. Here's my dog, Tige, he lives in there, too." Cute. It sold shoes.

But, let me tell you. I hated those shoes. I wanted "Mary Janes". Becky wore "Mary Janes". They were pretty and strappy. My Buster Browns were ugly brown oxfords, that looked like boys' shoes. Plus they had laces to tie. Yuck. Fortunately, I do not have a picture of me, wearing my Buster Browns. I do however have a kindergarten photo, featuring little boys, including my friend, Rick, sitting in the front row (hiding my Ugly Ass shoes). Very interesting. Most of them are wearing, wouldn't you know it, Buster Brown, brown oxford shoes.

Lord: We are blessed. We are definitely way too picky. Show us the way to peace and contentment.

"Stop and consider the wondrous works of God." Job 37:14

 I've been a city dweller for over 60 years, but really all it takes is a short trip, out on the highway, to remind me that neat uniform houses and the finely trimmed green lawns of the suburbs, aren't really the norm. Out here, in the vast middle land of the United States, we have a whole lot more.

Today, I drove South for several hours, heading toward a small community. Along the way, I passed field after field of harvested corn and soybeans. Although, I traveled the entire day on Kansas Highways, the infamous amber waves of grain are found West, of where I traveled. I saw no wheat stumble on this trip. This time of year, before planting, the fields are Winter messy with dried weeds, plant stubble and a few volunteer cedar tree seedlings sprouting up. 

I also observed an annual ritual, as I passed the same fields on my way home, going North. There were columns of smoke rising from those fields and pastures. Controlled burning of farmland is very common, in the Spring, in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. And burning is best controlled a few days after some heavy rain.

I am not a crop expert, but I do know that controlled burning has been proved to naturally eliminate volunteer trees and invasive foreign plants, like honeysuckle and hedge trees. And, burning warms up the soil for easier planting and earlier germination of seed. Some folks fuss about the air pollution from the smoke, and burning can be dangerous. But, there are always some negatives in every process. 

Vast prairies once covered most of the Middle States. Natural fires kept the trees scarce and the grasses grew very tall and dense. As the Indians and the bison were removed, farmers and ranchers moved into the West. Their plants and animals took over the prairies and burning ceased. 

Burning is back, and as an observer, it's an awesome sight. 

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 Masterful Creator of lightening, storms and weather: We give thanks for the seasons and Your many blessings. Let us be good stewards of Your Earth.

 

It's Classic

 OK folks. there is nothing like a raging cold/flu to make your mind wander and come up with the most bizarre thoughts. I'm suspecting that I was in the midst of a middle-grade fever and not quite coherent, when I decided to listen to opera on the U-tube Channel. Normally, I am not a fan of opera. You know the stories are all scary and numerous people are dying left and right. The boy may or may not get the girl, depending on whether he kills her or she kills him!

Well, I was in the mood to listen to some really '"close to perfect" music. The first thing I chose was Luciano Pavarotti, singing Nessun Dorma, the Tenor solo, from Puccini's Opera, "Turandot".  Well, the tears started rolling down my face. It's moving. Tremendously moving. I've seen several performances of "Turandot", live, and it's a nasty gory, severed "heads on poles" story. But, that aria, sung with all the passion that Pavarotti can muster, is the best.

Then, again because, I was feverish, I wiped my tears and listened to four different sopranos sing "Queen of the Night", the coloratura solo from Mozart's, "The Magic Flute". Masterpieces, every rendition. No tears this time, but I was awestruck. Staccato high notes, that make you smile, every time. and, it's a classic "earworm" melody. Anybody, even the tone deaf can sing it. Oh, it will sound awful, but you can belt it out. Check around the Internet and you can hear the talented Meryl Streep, literally butcher it....on purpose.

I'm on the mend. No more opera, today.....just a few Beatles songs and a oldie or two.

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Dear Lord. Reflection is good. No matter what choices we make, we know that you are there to guide and lead us. Protect us from our foibles. Forgive our stupidity.

 

 

 

 

"Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain"

 You can only visit so many gorgeous beaches and stunning land formations, on a vacation to a tropical island. We did have some down time, suitable for a couple of house-bound activities, and a good rule of thumb for hosting is to ALWAYS provide house guests with a choice of activities.

Our first 4 guests this year, in the Dominican Republic, were Domino Players. They play together, regularly at the Y, near their homes. While staying with us, if they had a couple of non-touristy hours to spare, they spent it playing Mexican Train Dominoes, on the patio of the Villa. (BTW...Mexican Train Dominoes has nothing to connect it to trains or Mexicans. )

Dominoes is played avidly, in all Caribbean Nations. It's probably one of the few things the feuding Dominicans and Haitians, have in common. Our guests were excited to observe Dominican locals playing Dominoes. The intensity of the play...slamming down tiles to complete your turn, was a little frighting for the four friendly-lady Domino players from Kansas. Turns out we have a outdoor Domino Pavillion, on the beach next to our house, and our snorkeling guests regularly find discarded Domino Tiles, along with sea glass and shells, in the surf. (Dealt you a couple of game terms, in that paragraph ;)

Then, on a whim, I decided to pack a 1000 piece Jig-saw puzzle, in my checked bag. All four groups of our guests, worked on the "Wizard of Oz Puzzle", completing it three time, during the vacation. It was a fun activity to discover pieces and parts of Four separate Dorothys, both the good and the bad witch, other characters and a plethora of yellow bricks.

BTW...I did look up the spelling of Domino....and the plural can be either an added e or es. Also, it seems that you may still win the Spelling Bee is you spell the singular, with a final E or not.  

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 Dear God. Your world is a wondrous place. There is so much to see and do. We are grateful for the opportunities that we have been given. Remind us to look at the whole picture and the whole world. We are blessed.

 

 

 

 

Todo bien.

 Spending a month in a foreign country, where the spoken language is not your native tongue, is a challenge. When folks say..."Everybody everywhere knows enough English, to communicate.", they are wrong. More correctly....."Most Americans know just enough Spanish, to make them look stupid and get them in trouble." And, I'm absolutely, one of those Americans.

No hablo Espanol.  Well, actually, I know a lot of nouns in Spanish. I proudly have the vocabulary of a 2 year-old Spanish speaker. I can read and order most anything, from a restaurant menu. I have a few road signs down pat and most of the time I can tell you what types of stores we are passing. I can say Hello and Goodbye.

But, I understand very little conversation-wise. The two years of French, that I took in high school, were wasted time and effort. Beyond parlez-vous, francaise...It's all been long forgotten.

My recent time in the Dominican Republic (native language Spanish), and my pitiful attempts to communicate, reminded me of the time, years ago, that I was asked to teach foreign language classes in a Middle School. To my credit, I did okay, while teaching the beginning French classes, but I hit the wall when I tried to teach those wise 7th graders to ask...."How old are you?" in Spanish? Immediately after pronouncing the phrase, in my best fake-Spanish, I was corrected by Jose', who sat in the last row of the classroom. Jose' said, "Teacherlady. You say ass-hole, instead of years." 

Well, there you go. Proof of just enough knowledge to get you in trouble. 

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 Kind and Gracious Lord. Forgive our errors. Lead us "in the path of righteousness". Remind us that we are not all-knowing and humble us enough to make us palatable to others.