Wordless Wednesday
Share Your World
This week’s questions:
Did you wake up in a good mood this morning?
I am writing this on Monday, and yes I did wake up in a good mood. Here’s why; I took the day off from school as it was an “in service” day, waste of time workshops, I am not returning next year anyway, and instead drove an hour out to the country to spend the day with my BFF.
What was the first thing you thought of when you awoke?
What’s the weather, is it cold.
Tea, coffee, or fruit juice/smoothie for breakfast?
Always coffee, then an hour later breakfast, which is oatmeal with almond milk, cottage cheese and blueberries.
What topping do you prefer on your toast?
Never have toast, don’t own a toaster. If I do have bread (gluten free) I do love peanut butter and jelly on it.
The Compliment
The best compliment I received was a child telling me I was very kind.
You Got to Accentuate the Positive-Eliminate the Negative
Well my initial reaction to this prompt, the one that popped into my head was “A lot of cursing.” Exactly which negative feelings are they asking? Negative feelings about people I work with? I stay away from them and try to have no interactions with them. Negative feelings about what is going on in the world? I stay away from reading too much in the paper or watching any news. I sing at the time of my lungs in the car with the volume turned way up. I suppose you could call these “coping strategies” the buzz word they use in school all the time for kids. In truth, I clean. I find cleaning gets the tension brought on by something negative out of my system. It feels productive. And cursing under my breath while doing it.
You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-between
You got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
And have faith, or pandemonium
Wordless Wednesday
Re-watching Movies & Shows
Five times is a lot, but I did see the movie The Big Chill maybe three times. Terms of Endearment also three or four times. Once I know the ending, it is not always worth my time to sit through a movie again. I re watched The Sopranos for a second time, and now on Tik Tok people post 3 minute clips from the show which I love watching, Edie Falco was genius in her role as Carmela, Tony Soprano’s wife.
Heads up to the graphic language used in this scene from the show.
Monday Portrait
Make sure you get my better side, please
Weekend Sky
Lens-Artists Challenge: Circular Wonders
FOTD: Crocus
What’s in a Name
Daily writing prompt
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
My middle name is my mother’s first name, Pauline. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Pauline, who was a pattern maker. (b. 1881; Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany – d. July 6, 1932; Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA) Sadly, she died at age 51 from what they believe was untreated Diabetes. It’s an old fashioned name, not heard often anymore if ever.
My grandmother, grandfather and Pauline, my great grandmother
My Mother Pauline
Wordless Wednesday
How Many Children Do You Have?
I am more annoyed by the assumption of this question than hate having it asked. I chose not to have children. I married a man who was divorced with four children, the youngest eight at the time we married. I knew myself, and knew motherhood was really not for me. When telling acquaintances I often get, “No, you would have been different, no you’d have been able to handle it”, all their assumptions about what kind of a mother I would have been are offered. Yes, I am nurturing, but that is not all it takes. It’s ALOT of work, it takes patience, it takes a lot of selflessness. I married when I was 33, and had no desire to have my own children. I was a great stepmother, weekends, vacations, speaking on the phone every night, helping with school projects, that was plenty. This is how it usually goes when someone asks:
“How many children do you have?”
None, my husband and I have no children together.”
Dead silence. Odd look. Confusion. And then the pitying “Oh”. Or “sorry”. Someone was once rude enough to ask why not. After that when I was asked I usually immediately followed up with “I opted out” That usually brought a look of shock which I’ll admit I enjoyed seeing.
Next generation
Last on the Card: February 2024
Joining in on Brian‘s request for our the last photos we took in February.
My family of Crows have returned. Lots of squawking in the tree above my yard to let me know they have arrived once again. Here’s one chowing down on the golden raisins they love so much.
One of the beautiful Eagles that built a nest a few blocks from my home.
A girls overnight in Ocean Grove at the NJ Shore. Sea, Sunrise, Shopping!
Failure and Success
Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
You can’t fail if you never try. As I tried to think of failures throughout my life and could not think of any really meaningful ones, I realized that thinking I would fail at something, prevented me from even trying it. Growing up with a fairly negative mother (yeah I know, it’s always the mother’s fault) who did little to encourage me to try new things, and when I did usually found fault, eventually led to my not trying at all. Perhaps a child with a different nature than mine would have persevered and tried anyway, but that was not who I was and eventually you come to believe you will fail at what you’d like to try. My husband is completely the opposite, always up for a challenge, willing to try something new, who cares if it doesn’t work out. I will share how this was brought to the fore for me, shortly after I was married, already in my late 30’s.
We had gone to a Quilt Show as years back I was a Quilter, sewing all by hand. There was a woman demonstrating sewing machines and allowing people to try them and sew together a few pieces of fabric. My husband said why don’t I try it. I immediately said no, no. He pushed and said why not, I responded with I probably won’t be able to do it. He was nonplussed, and said what do you have to lose. Something clicked in my brain, thinking yeah, what do I have to lose. I tried, no problem running the machine, sewing the fabric together. I remember him telling me you always think you can’t, but you CAN. Honestly it is still in me to hesitate before taking that leap into doing something “unknown” but I have become more confident about trying before saying no. A lifetime of a work in progress, yeah, that’s me.
The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Taken from Below
Unbeknownst to me, my hand must have hit the button on my cell phone and took this photo while I was looking up at the sky.
Autobiography
Daily writing prompt
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Why did the line from Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities” immediately pop into my head when I saw the prompt? No idea, but it did. Perhaps because that is what life is filled with, good times, challenging times, bad times, coasting along times. Celebrations, funerals, health, sickness, growth, loss. It is said if it weren’t for the bad times we wouldn’t know the good times.
Bird of the Week: Bald Eagle
I have chosen the Bald Eagle because right now they are very much on my mind. A pair of Bald Eagles have built a nest just two blocks from my home, in a very suburban area, in a tree in someone’s backyard. Very unusual and also very thrilling. We who love Bald Eagles are trying to keep this fairly quiet, as crowds of onlookers could possibly make them abandon the nest, which they have now laid eggs in. I usually go over twice a day and watch, take a few photos, and eagerly await the hatching of the eggs.
The bald eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.
The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 4 m (13 ft) deep, 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide, and 1 metric ton (1.1 short tons) in weight. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years. Their wing span ranges from 6 to 7ft.
Bald eagles are not bald; the name derives from an older meaning of the word, “white headed”. The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males. The yellow beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown.
The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal.
The bald eagle was added to the Federal list of endangered species in 1967, and to the California list of endangered species in 1971. They were on the verge of extinction. (The use of the pesticide DDT did not allow their eggs to mature) Populations have since recovered, and the species status was upgraded from “endangered” to “threatened” in 1995, and removed from the list altogether in 2007.
Bald Eagles visit the area where I live all winter, but leave for Canada when the weather warms. I see them along a local river or overlooking a local pond, where I have taken many of the following photos.
A Juvenile about 4 years old, the head has not turned white yet, the bill not yellow
Juvenile older than the 1st photo, bill beginning to change and head too.
A Juvenile, close to 4 yrs old, head and bill changing color
Adult watching over the river for food
Adult
CMMC – February Alphabet W or X
X ray of Elbow
Yes, that is my very shattered Olecranon, the bone otherwise known as an elbow.
These screws and plate held everything in place for six months until through what I consider a miracle of the human body, my olecranon grew back into one piece, and I had the hardware removed.
X ray for Wisdom tooth issue
I had three of my wisdom teeth removed when I was in my late 20’s. I never knew why they didn’t take out all 4 at the time. Fast forward 35 years and I was having pain in my jaw and met with an endodontist. He took an X ray and could see right away why they hadn’t removed it. It was right next to an important nerve that had they disturbed it, my speech and face could have been affected. As it turned out it was not the Wisdom tooth causing the pain, but my clenching my teeth.
End of an Era
Perfect timing to respond to this question, answer: not anymore. I am an assistant teacher and I will be leaving my job at the end of this school year. Not returning next year, no longer living by the school calendar from September to June. No longer adding no purpose Faculty Meetings to my calendar. No longer having to deal with rude and toxic behaviors from other staff. I have been teaching for six years at the school I am presently in. I taught nine years in a different school before that. To say education has changed is an understatement. To say the students and parents have changed, a major understatement. I do still enjoy parts of my job, the connection I make with the children, teaching something and then seeing the lightbulb moment of recognition. The camaraderie I have with the people I work with. Other staff I have spoken with have said it comes from the top, and I agree with that. There is no leadership. Children need a lot more services than years ago, behaviors are sometimes hard to believe. One of the teachers I work with said they expect her to be a behaviorist, therapist, social worker, nurse and oh by the way, teacher too. Controlling disruptive behaviors often steals major time from teaching. I will miss the teachers I work with who have become friends, the laughs we have together, and those rewarding moments working with children. But I am ready to say good bye.
It’s Not Hard to Say Goodbye
Daily writing prompt
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
This prompt got me thinking. Was there a phase in my life so far that was difficult to say goodbye to? It certainly wasn’t graduating high school, that was more like good riddance. Figuring out what I wanted to do with my life while in my twenties, I was glad to finally land on something and go forward. Leaving my parents home and having my own apartment also not difficult, exciting. Getting married in my 30’s and saying so long to single life, also a welcome hello and happy to close the door on dating. I embraced the day my stepdaughter turned 18 and I no longer had to have anything to do with my husband’s ex-wife and her insanity. Looking back, I think there were more phases I was happy to let go of than difficult to say goodbye to. As I age it is difficult to accept the limitations my body may have- I can’t work out as vigorously as I did when I was younger or I’ll pay the price. I can’t see as well when driving at night and so I do it less and less. Life is not static, there are always changes and maybe I just roll with them, changes in jobs, changes in friendships. Each phase in my life has allowed me to grow, to experience something different.
Wordless Wednesday
RDP Sunday: Tile
The Journey of A Thousand Miles Begins With One Step
The Adler Aphasia Center in New Jersey is a place where people who have Aphasia come to take classes, come for the camaraderie, come to improve their speaking, come to learn and laugh and know they are not being judged. Aphasia is a language disorder, usually brought about when a person suffers a brain injury (from a stroke, a car accident, an aneurysm.) It makes remembering words hard, communicating those words difficult when they are remembered, or using the wrong words. The brain is thinking one thing, the mouth another. Some people are not able to speak at all. It is a frustrating and misunderstood disorder. Very often intelligence is not affected, but people assume it is when they are not able to understand what someone is trying to say. I volunteered at the center for 10 years and I wrote about the impact it had on my life here. I had to stop volunteering once I went back to work full time, but I paid a visit to the many friends I made there over the years a few years ago, that I hadn’t seen in a while.
The front lobby had been redone since I was there last, and a beautiful tiled mosaic wall greeted me as I entered, with this message written in the tile: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
So many that have come through the doors of the center had to take that first step- to enter a world unfamiliar to them, a world sprung upon them unexpectedly. Taking that step has led many of them to a better place than they were after first suffering a brain injury. My friend Bill had a brain aneurysm when he was in his 40’s and when he came to the center could not utter a word. On the day I visited we sat together and he spoke in full sentences. It is still not easy for him, but how far he has come through his sheer determination and constant pushing to improve. He was a football coach in a school which he someday would like to return to. I hope he gets there.
The mosaic in the lobby contains mosaic flowers, each one made by a member of the center.
Here’s my friend Ken showing me which one he made.
The mosaic artist who created the finished piece says, “The design contains a curved path representing a journey, a journey isn’t always straight, or clear or easy. Many of our journeys need courage and strength to travel. But along the journey we can be inspired by the beauty of the scenery around us and by those who help us travel along the way. This pathway goes through a bright uplifting garden of mosaic flowers.” To my mind each of those flowers represents the person who made it and their personal journey.
Once again I was reminded of the different paths and journeys we all are on, and to remember how important it is to take that first step.
Wordless Wednesday
My Life vs. The Lives of My Parents
This is something I have thought about often. My mother and I were very different personalities, and I have thought about the differences in the lives we have led and what she was doing, compared to what I was doing in my life and with my life when reaching the same age. My mother was a stay at home mom until we all were in school, and then went back to work. I remember her favorite job was as the secretary to the Dean of a College, she enjoyed the students that came through her office and was always up for a chat. She was an accomplished typist, and of course had learned short hand (look it up, iykyk) which continued to serve her well. By the time she reached the age I am now, she had retired, was divorced from my father for 20 years, and had moved out of the state where she had lived for over 30 years, moving near my sister. She was somewhat busy with her grandchildren, and my brother had also moved close by. She talked about volunteering, but never seemed to get around to it. She took trips abroad with her sister which filled some of her time. In honesty, I wondered what she did with her days, she had always been busy and active and being in one’s 60’s was certainly still “young”. This contrasts with what I am doing, which is still working, volunteering, married, enjoying Sunday outings for walks and spending as much of my free time as I can at the beach. Still curious about new things going on around me and willing to learn, which my mother was not at this age.
My father by age 66 had lost the beautiful home he and his wife had lived in due to poor financial decisions. At the time he hadn’t been working for many years, and soon after developed an awful neurological disorder called progressive supranuclear palsy. He was in his late sixties at the time. It is similar to Parkinson’s but comes with its own set of awful challenges. He died in 2005 at the age of 72.
My life is very different from the paths my parent’s lives took. I am friendly, outgoing, emotional and a good listener like my father was. Organized like my mother, creative too, though she kept those talents mostly hidden. I have looked in the mirror some mornings and am startled by seeing my mother’s face, but as I apply makeup, do my hair and get dressed, find little resemblance between her life and mine.
My mother at the age I am now. I was 41 in this photo.
Sunday Stills: Feed the Birds February
February is feed the birds month, but in truth all 11 other months are feed the bird months for me. This year I was gifted a bird feeder webcam, it has a camera that snaps a photo whenever a bird comes to eat. I am also able to take live video from the app on my phone. I just love it!
Here are a few I’ve posted before in case you missed them:
I still take my own photos of the visiting birds. My summer crow came back to visit when it snowed.
Mr. Starling, a regular dropped in too.
A frequent flyer all year the Red Wing Blackbird
Momma Cardinal sizing up the choices
Weekend!
Make it a good one 🙂
Last on the Card : January 2024
Brian invites us to…
- Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 31st January or whenever your last photo was taken.
- No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
- You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do
- Create a Pingback to this post or link in the comments
- Use the tags The Last Photo and #LastOnTheCard
Took a ride to visit my BFF who lives an hour away, we drank some coffee and did some shopping. Last pics for the month of January.
Invention of the Computer: Daily Prompt 1835
It is funny that this is the prompt for today, as just yesterday as we were learning about Inventions in my 3rd grade class and this topic came up. The students are learning about how many inventions came about out of a need, and the cause and effect they had. The wheel, the motor engine, etc. In their reading, mention was made of old computers, with photos like this:
One of the kids asked, “Miss Lisa, what kind of computer did you have in 3rd grade?” I paused, and then replied that computers had not yet been invented when I was in 3rd grade. (Not desktop or laptop) They looked at me very quizzically, and said “WHAT?” As if I don’t already feel ancient working with my colleagues who could be my kids, now I really felt ANCIENT. The computers pictured above look like the first computers I worked on in the 1980’s. I will forever be grateful to the man who was helping me adjust to using the computer in our office as I was trying to learn my way around Microsoft Word. He told me just go into all the drop down lists, see what is there, try things out. There is nothing to be afraid of. Get comfortable. His words have come back to me over the years when I challenge myself to explore something within the workings of the actual computer, or within the Google Workspace.
Fandango’s Provocative Question
What do you do for a living? If you are retired, what did you do before you retired? If you’re currently unemployed, what did you do before becoming unemployed?
I’m hard pressed to say I actually teach for a “living” based on the pittance I am compensated with, which no one could actually “live on”. In any case, I have worked as an assistant/associate/para teacher for the last 15 years in grades 1,2 and currently 3. I began as a volunteer shadow for a boy in first grade 15 years ago, and then moved on to a paid position as an assistant a few years later. This year I cut my hours to half day, which has worked out quite well, I leave work with a smile rather than a frown. It is a changed world, and the challenges in the classroom are many. Children are not parented the same way as they were years ago, there are many more special needs/behavioral challenges to face too. Most days I enjoy it, many of the kids make me smile or laugh, like yesterday when two of them told me they play Mah Jongg, which was a surprise to hear coming from 9 year olds. They said their grandmother’s taught them. I told them with this new knowledge we’ll have a to form a Mah Jongg club in school! Many days over the years have been rewarding, I have one student from my first grade class who is now in 8th grade and comes to visit me once a year. His mother told me he has never forgotten the help I gave him when he was struggling in First Grade. That’s what it’s all about. Making a difference in a child’s life in some small way.
Portraits given to me by two students-striking resemblance I’d say.
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Monday! Get Started!
Share Your World 22nd January
Do you find yourself smiling at people for no apparent reason?
There is a saying I have always loved. ““ a smile is the shortest distance between two people.” I often find myself smiling at someone I see on the street or in a store, sometimes just because we happen to look at each other at the same time, and it’s such an easy thing to do.
If someone smiles at you in the street, do you return it?
Yes, always. And especially when it is a NYC Firefighter!
Do you feel comfortable on a crowded street?
Working in NYC for 30 years I became used to walking on crowded streets during rush hour. I can’t say I was “comfortable” but being small I learned to weave my way in and out of people. I’d rather be in a crowd then walking a deserted street.
Would you prefer a walk in the woods, a walk on the beach, or a walk round a town seeing the sights?
Ha! I think most of you know the answer to this one! Beach hands down. I do love a walk around a town to take in the sights, but beach would be my first choice.
Sunday Stills: Windows on the World
Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ, with a wonderful view of the sky
A view of the ocean in Ocean Grove, NJ
The view through my garden window one winter morning
Our Aunt, who never missed waving good bye to us after a visit as we left her apartment
Our Sammy, who loved to sit in this bedroom window and watch the world go by.
RDP Sunday: Letter
Something that has gone missing from our world today is letter writing. I write letters to all my nieces when they go away to summer camp, and am still thrilled to receive their letters in return. I have saved many of them- for posterity? To show them someday when they are grown up, for them to laugh perhaps at what they were thinking at the age of 12.
I grew up in a time where we learned penmanship and practiced writing everyday in school. I can remember my 4th grade teacher making us draw slanted ovals- they slanted to the right, over and over and over. That was the warm up before we got down to the business of forming all those letters in the alphabet. My handwriting did develop into something quite pretty to look at, always legible, each letter formed nicely, both capitals and lower case.
As a child, I corresponded with my Grandmother in the months between when I would see her. I received letters from her in her old fashioned script handwriting. I remember the thrill of receiving mail, a letter especially for me in there among the bills and junk mail-how special it made me feel. Her letters were filled with what she and my grandfather were up to, a sense of humor coming through that I don’t remember noticing when spending time with her. Her voice in her letters allowing her a freedom that perhaps she didn’t feel when face to face with someone.
Email is a wonderful way to communicate, typing less cumbersome than handwriting, but there is something about putting pen to paper, to feel the pen glide as the words from your brain come out through your hand onto the sheet. Is it more heartfelt? Maybe that is the feeling I get when I am writing by hand. It is truly a part of me I am sharing through that pen to paper.
I have saved the letters my grandmother wrote to me, a part of her still with me though she has been gone since 1975. Had we corresponded in email I most likely would have lost her words in the 2 computer crashes I had with no back up at the time. I set to cleaning out old things that clutter my shelves and take up space, but those letters have always remained, will always remain. I take them out every now and then to read, remembering my Grandmother, smiling at the thought of her, so glad to still have this tangible piece of her.
Weekly Prompt Wednesday: Divorce
This week, the Wednesday Challenge is Divorce
Gerry & Susan say: Even though the divorce process is emotionally devastating, financially draining and, in some instances, socially stigmatizing, there are positive aspects that many divorced individuals may experience.
My husband is divorced from his first wife for 35 years now. Were there losses and was there fallout as a result of the divorce? Yes. Was it a stigma to get divorced when he did back then? Yes. Was there the opportunity to have a better life moving forward? Yes too. A decision that took years to make and follow through with, was not just made overnight. Weighing the pros and cons, the counseling, the upheaval. The emotional toll divorce takes on a person can be far reaching. It is further complicated when an ex spouse does not move forward and on with their life, stays bitter for their remaining years. When there are children involved it is gut wrenching and scenarios appear that one would never think possible. In recent years divorce carries less or no stigma than it did years ago. In my in laws generation – the 1950’s it was basically unheard of, hence the following reaction from my mother in law when she was told her son was divorcing. He told her he was extremely unhappy and could not live another forty years as he was. Her response, “Who needs to be happy?” Times have changed and divorce is an acceptable option to escape a bad marriage now. “Friendly” divorces do exist but I believe they are a rarity. No one should think all parties come out unscathed – they do not. Not the couple who divorced, not their children, not a future spouse. The implications are far reaching. Do I have regrets having married a man who was divorced with four children? Not one, not for a minute, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Wordless Wednesday
Mixed Music Bag 2024: Week #2
In the month of January the MMB theme is to find a group or solo singer beginning with the letter A or B
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including “I Don’t Like Mondays” They were a band I followed at the time and saw in concert at New York’s Palladium Theatre in 1979.
The single “I Don’t Like Mondays” was released in July 1979 and reached No. 1 in the UK. The song was written in response to a school shooting in California, documenting the 1979 Elementary School shooting during which a 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, opened fire killing the school principal and a custodian and injuring eight children and a police officer. The reason that Spencer gave for committing the atrocity was confounding in itself: “I don’t like Mondays”.
Bob Geldof read about the incident and was particularly struck by Spencer’s claim that she did it because she did not like Mondays, writing a song about it. It was released in July 1979, was number one for four weeks in the United Kingdom, and was the band’s biggest hit in their native Ireland. Although it did not make the Top 40 in the U.S., it still received extensive radio airplay (outside of the San Diego area) despite the Spencer family’s efforts to prevent it.
The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna go to school today
She’s going to make them stay at home
And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was as good as gold
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down
The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world
And mother feels so shocked
Father’s world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl
Sweet 16 ain’t so peachy keen
No, it ain’t so neat to admit defeat
They can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need?
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down, down, down
Shoot it all down
And all the playing’s stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die
And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain tackles
With the problems and the how’s and why’s
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die, die?
And the silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna go to school today
She’s going to make them stay at home
And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was as good as gold
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like, I don’t like
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like, I don’t like
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why?
I don’t like Mondays
I wanna shoot
The whole day down
Mission Happy
Daily Writing Prompt: Living Long
Daily Prompt 1811: What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
Youth allows us to think we want to live to old age. Ageing changes that perspective. Sickness, disease, chronic illness the many ailments that can befall a person as they age, makes one rethink living a long life. I had an Uncle who lived to age 107, was mentally sharp and physically able. He traveled overseas two months before he died, walking everywhere, taking in the sights. What a blessing. He was sick for one week, then died. If you’d like to read about him, you can find the post HERE. My sister in law was felled by Lewy Body Dementia six years ago when she was 76. It has robbed her of the ability to move every part of her body, she cannot speak, and also has dementia. This is not how my brother in law who is 84 envisioned his “golden years.” If living a long life healthy with mind intact is an option, then I am all for it. But we hold no crystal balls. Living a long life is just a “concept” as the question today asks. A concept is a “general notion.” But if life becomes so diminished what is the point of living a very long life?
Happy Monday!
CWWC: Which Way with Snow
With weather patterns changing, we have not had repeated snowstorms in a few years. One year I can remember snow staring in November and every month there seemed to be another storm to add to the already piled up snow. Last winter there was a brief falling of snow with barely an accumulation, which suited me fine. Yesterday we had an inch which turned to rain by afternoon and temps are expected to be in the 50’s this Wednesday. Good with me, as you know I am a summer girl. These photos were from some big storms in 2017 and 2018.
CFFC: Red
Last On The Card: December 2023
So long, 2023- here we are in 2024. December 31st is my birthday, so it is not only the last day of the year, but as an old friend texted me that morning, another trip around the sun for me, and “what a long strange trip it’s been.” (name that tune)
I spent the morning setting up the Video Bird Feeder a friend gave me for my birthday, which proved to be very entertaining throughout the day. To say I am obsessed might be accurate. I can watch a live feed on my phone of the action taking place, as seen below.
My husband and I planned on taking a walk around a lake we frequent often, and then going out for lunch. I was getting ready when my niece called to wish me a happy birthday, we were chatting for a few minutes when I was interrupted by a knock on the door. I told her to hold on a sec, needed to answer the door, only to find her standing there!! She had been staying about 20 minutes away on Saturday overnight and said she couldn’t go home to NY without stopping in. What a fabulous surprise! The timing was perfect- we said she should come along with us and spend the day, which she did. It made my birthday extra special.
Mid afternoon I had another surprise, I received a beautiful gift from a blogger I met 10 years ago here on WordPress, who has become a friend. We have never met in person as we live many states apart, but have spoken on the phone and of course keep up to date on the blogs. She sent me a beautiful birthday gift which I photographed as I opened to share with her. Another special moment that made my day.
Those were my last on the card for December 2023, looking forward to a new year!
Song Lyric Sunday: Gone But Not Forgotten: Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine. (December 13, 1949 – January 28, 2023)
Born Thomas Miller, later creating his stage name, a reference to the French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine. He began studying piano at an early age, but switched to saxophone in middle school after hearing a record by Stan Getz, and later taking up guitar. Tom became friends with future bandmate and punk icon Richard Hell (Richard Meyers) while at Stanford. They quickly discovered that they shared a passion for music and poetry. Neither Verlaine nor Hell graduated from Sanford and they later moved to New York City.
Forming the band Television, they began playing at seminal punk clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. The band is considered influential in the development of punk and alternative rock. Verlaine dated poet and musician Patti Smith when they were both in the burgeoning New York punk scene. Television released two albums, Marquee Moon and Adventure, to great critical acclaim and modest sales before breaking up in July 1978.
Although they recorded in a stripped-down, guitar-based manner similar to their punk contemporaries, Television’s music was by comparison clean, improvisational, and technically proficient, drawing influence from jazz and 1960s rock. The group’s 1977 debut album, Marquee Moon, is considered one of the defining releases of the punk era.
Verlaine died in New York City on January 28, 2023, at the age of 73. According to his former Television band mate, Richard Lloyd, Verlaine had “been sick for quite a while,” battling prostate cancer, which had metastasized.
Here is a comment left on a chat about the meaning of the song:
It’s primarily about Tom’s friendship with Richard Hell. It sets itself up as this recalling of memories about when they were young, hanging out in New York and how he felt in those days with each verse progressively getting more negative.
At first everything is “bright” and “Alive” then Tom talks about laughing with a friend and feeling “like” he’s on a drug. The drug line ironically means that the song has nothing to do with drugs since he’s basically saying that hanging out with his friend makes him feel like he’s high. Then the final verse talks about how he no longer holds the illusions he had in the first two verses and he turns down his friend when he tells them he wants to impersonate cops. The implication is that he’s just grown out of the immature behavior while his friend has not.
The chorus is brilliant to this song. It’s basically Tom being asked if he is saddened that he no longer is friends with Richard Hell. To which he replies that it doesn’t mean anything to him and claiming he fell right into the arms of Venus de Milo. Venus de Milo is a famous statue that has no arms… So essentially he is lying to these people because he wants everyone to think he’s okay even though he’s really not.
I saw them many times in the clubs in New York City, and the song Venus de Milo was always one of my favorites.
Tight toy night, streets so bright
The room looked so thin between my bones and skin
There stood another person who was a little surprised
To be face to face with a world so alive
How I fell (did you feel low?)
No (huh?)
I fell right into the arms of Venus de Milo
You know it’s all like some new kind of drug
My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves
And Broadway looked so medieval
It seemed to flap, like little pages
I fell sideways laughing
With a friend from many stages
How I fell (did you feel low?)
Not at all (huh?)
I fell right into the arms of Venus de Milo
Suddenly, my eyes went so soft and shaky
I knew there was pain, but pain is not aching
Then Richie, Richie said
“Hey man, let’s dress up like cops, think of what we could do”
But something, oh, something
It said, “Hey, you’d better not”
And I fell (did you feel low?)
Nah (huh?)
I stood up, walked out of the arms of Venus de Milo
RDP Friday: Sleigh
Well, not exactly dashing through the snow…
But back in 1966 I was ready for action! And I still have that sled hanging in my garage!
A Day In The Life 
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