Category: Random

I Love the Internet Part 2

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As I have said many times, I love music. I’m not a fan of rap and I don’t really appreciate opera, but you’ll find a sample of almost every other kinds of music in my iTunes Library.

When I was a kid, traveling sales people used to visit large places of business and peddle their wares. One such sales person sold records (you know the plastic discs) at the newspaper where my mother worked. One day she came home with A Friend of Mine Is Going Blind by John Dawson Read. Never heard of it? The title single hit only hit #70 on the Billboard Charts. Other than the title track, there was one other song that stuck with me all these years. Sally Ally Sunday is a song about a family taking a day trip and spending time as a family. The music is guitar and mostly mellow folk.

I liked the record and played it incessantly. Over the years, I recorded many of my LPs (go look that term up kiddies), to cassette tape (oh and that term too) but A Friend of Mind Is Going Blind never made it. I’ve searched for it in the digital world, but had no luck. August saw us taking a lot of Sally Ally Sunday trips as a family and I decided to hunt once again for this piece of my past.

This time, I found a lyrics site that listed lyrics for A Friend of Mine is Going Blind. Somewhere in the comments. someone listed a link to John Dawson Read’s web site (I’d Googled him, but spelled his last name Reed). Jackpot! I learned quite a bit, turns how he had two commercially available albums and had just recently turned out a new CD of studio songs.

On a whim, I emailed and asked where I could purchase a digital version of Sally Ally Sunday. HE WROTE BACK!! Not only did he write back, he attached an MP3 of Sally Ally Sunday! I was seriously over the moon. He also told me that the original album had been digitally remastered. I ordered a copy and it arrived promptly, I’ve been enjoying the meander down memory lane as I listen to it.

I LOVE THE INTERNET

I Love the Internet Part 1

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As we sat at the picnic table devouring an amazing labor day meal, D (as he is wanton to do), began to sing. I don’t remember the song exactly, but I’d bet that it was Jimmy Buffett song. Then he said “Second verse same as the first a little be louder and a whole lot worse.”

I knew that lyric was from a song we sang at Girl Scout Camp, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the song. I stretched and stretched and while I could see the dining hall and remember the meals and the pastel plates. I could not get my head around the song.

It was really bugging me, so, I did what any other 21st century woman would do, I hit Facebook. I posted the lyric and begged for help. Within an hour, I was rewarded with my answer.


Fried Ham, Fried Ham, Cheese and Bolgona, and after the macaroni we’ll have some onions, and pickles, and peppers, and then we’ll have some more fried ham, fried ham, fried ham…

THAT’S IT! Thanks TM! There were others who pointed out it was from Henry the 8th, but Fried Ham was the song I was looking for.

The memories came flooding back, the dining hall, the summer barn program, the musty tents and the latrines. Good stuff (well except the latrines of course).

Tell me, how did we get by without the Internet???

Time

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Summer is over; I have to wear my watch again.

Over summer vacation time was more or less relative. There were a scant few times when punctuality was required, but now that school is back in session and both kids are gone for at least part of the day, timing is everything.

Time is of the essence especially in the morning. Time to wake up, early enough to make the bus, but late enough, to savor every last precious moment of slumber. Time to eat, time to get dressed, time to GO! Our bus stop is early on the route and our bus driver is prompt. Mr. C. is at the bottom of my driveway at 8:11 every Monday through Friday excluding holidays. At 8:12 they are off to school, where their schedule is thankfully beyond my control, and I am off to my day.

Kindergarten is only a half day so I have a brief three and one half hours to myself. This may sound like a lot, but let me assure you it is not. We’re only eight days into this school year and I can already tell if I’m going to get anything accomplished, I’m going to need a solid plan of action heading into the day. And, I’m going to have to eliminate all distractions. Otherwise, those three and one half hours will slip away and I will be back at the bus stop not having accomplished a single thing.

Time after Noon moves at a different pace depending on what is on the agenda and if Mim is happy to play by himself. If the afternoon is consumed by errands, time is compressed. If there is nowhere to go or Mim is pining for his sister’s companionship, time passes at a speed comparable to ketchup oozing out of a glass bottle plop by agonizing plop.

Eventually, four o’clock will roll round and Fish will join us. Then, time speeds up. There is downtime, homework, dinner, lunches for the next day, tubs and showers, reading, and bed. By then, I don’t need a watch to tell me that it’s almost my bedtime. I remove my watch, crawl between the sheets and set the alarm so I can get up and do it all again.

I’m already looking forward to June, when I can once again lose track of my watch and the time.

The First Day of School

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Today is the first day of school. The 5th first day for Fish and the 1st first day for Mim. Both are ready and excited.

We practiced getting up, eating, and getting dressed early enough to catch the bus. The bus, that according to the schedule, would be arriving 20 minutes earlier than last year. Last night, showers were taken, lunches and snacks assembled, and backpacks packed. We were ready.

Mostly.

When we practiced our morning routine, we forgot to include applying sunblock, and THAT, can be a painstaking process.

Our bus driver is a wonderful man who is NOTHING if not prompt, so there was copious encouragement from mom to pick up the pace. We were a little later than I would have liked, but when we finally made it to the bus stop Grammy and Grandpa (who arrived ahead of us) assured us, the bus had not come.

So, we waited.

No bus. Hmmmm, this IS odd, but hey, it is the first day of school, we’ll roll with it.

5 minutes late, (unheard of on this bus route)

10 minutes late (wow, something’s wrong)

12 minutes late Fish has to go to the bathroom. Uh, are you sure? YES. Ok, we’ll ride the bus tomorrow, everybody up to the house. Mim wants to ride the bus, but I’m not keen on putting him on by himself the first day, if only because he’d tell the entire bus that his sister had to go POOP! (That is to say nothing of the fact that I just told the entire Internet).

When we get back to the house, I put him in the car and grab, my keys. Then, I try to find the schedule online, so we can jump the route and I can put them on at a later stop. Fish finishes before I can locate it, so we hop in the car and speed back down the driveway, where Grammy & Grandpa are still waiting.

No bus. We all laugh.

Last year the schedule had our pick up at 8:20. We sauntered down at 8:10 to find the bus pulling up to our driveway. The posted schedule was wrong. Clearly, the schedule is wrong again.

May as well relax, we’ve got 6 minutes to wait. Mr. C will be here at 8:13. At 8:12, I can hear the hum of the diesel, at 8:13, he’s stopped at the bottom of the drieway red lights flashing and, they are off!

Summer’s over

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This year more than others, I’m really noticing the end of summer.  Thus my documentation of the subject here.

I looked down the other day and realized that indeed summer was over.  The polish on my toes was in serious need of removal.

I’m not a girly girl by ANY stretch, but I likes me some painted toes in the summertime.  I’m so fair skinned, I enjoy the contrast of bright or dark colors.  I don’t have time for a real pedicure, so I just do the polish myself.   I can usually sneak a coat or two in between emails or phone calls while I’m in my office working (note, I work from home so I’m not asphyxiatingiating my co-workers). I am pretty good about staying on top of chips and growth but clearly I’ve fallen behind.  No touch up would save these toes.  It was going to have to be a complete removal and re-polish.  Ahh, but what’s the point, I probably only have another two to three weeks in sandals tops.

This morning, I broke out the polish remove and did away with the “Back to the Fuchsia”.  I was all set to go O’natural for the rest of sandal season, but then I looked closely at the poor piggies.  Seems summer wasn’t quite ready to go.  “Back to the Fuchsia” had left behind a light tint that even straight acetone wouldn’t remove. So I whipped out “Made You Blush” just to get me through the next few weeks.
Don’t look too close M’kay?

That didn’t take long . . .

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I have some things in mind that I want to blog about and I was hoping that day to day life would generate a few bloggable moments, but I didn’t expect anything to materialize so quickly.

Fish’s first homework assignment is “A box about me”.  She needs to decorate a box and fill it with items that represent her and what she likes.
It was assigned yesterday and is due Tuesday.  Being the fastidious student she is, she wanted to get started right away.  Last night was haircuts, a quick dinner out, home and bed.  So today was really the first time she had to work on it.  I am an avid recycler, so boxes either get reused or sent to the cardboard pile in the basement.  Unable to locate any boxes upstairs, I sent her to the basement to find a suitable box.
This is what she came back with.