Good Morning!
It’s Friday!!!
But how can it be Oct. 31st/Halloween already?
At least it gives me a reason to use my favorite colors today. 🙂
Today’s header photo is Spooky/Scary birds, ton’s of ’em in fact. The sun was setting and the lake was already in shadow. The whole flock flew over us and landed in the sunlit tree to catch the last of its rays for the day. The tree looked orange in the fading light. Beautiful, and quite a sight to see. They’re cormorants I believe.
How many did you count in the header photo?
Here’s another Spooky/Scary bird, or at least he thought so. 🙂
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On this day in 1517 Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace Church.
In 1860 Juliette Low, the founder off the Girl Scouts, was born.
In 1868 Postmaster General Alexander Williams Randall approved a standard uniform for postal carriers.
In 1941 the U.S. Navy destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed by a German submarine near Iceland
And in 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.
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Quote of the Day
“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.”
John Evelyn
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It’s this guy’s birthday. What’s scary is that this was ever popular. 😯
Yeah it’s the short version because I can only take so much. 🙂
And it’s Dex Alexander’s too.
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Wandering Views 
Good morning. First?
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Mornin’ Six. Yep, you are. 🙂
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Hi, AJ. Are you rested and refreshed from your vacation? I’m enjoying the pictures you’ve been putting up. But don’t ask me how many birds are in today’s header photo — it’s too early in the morning to count that high. 😉
Now — what’s my favorite color? — that I can handle! Violet. I love that color so much, one of my daughters got that for a middle name. 🙂
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And good evening to Jo if she is around. 🙂
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So, after meeting yesterday with my potential new piano student and one of his parents yesterday, I felt like everything went well.
Then what does my brain do in the middle of the night, but think about all the things I think I could have said differently, or left out, or…or…
Why do I do stuff like that? Anyone else have that trouble at night?
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And I said “yesterday” twice in the first sentence above. Should go back to bed. 😉
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yup, I’m around. Morning all. So nice that Halloween is not celebrated here. Some kids wore costumes to dinner at the Teen Centre tonight. Next week the high school puts on our annual Carnival. Lots of fun and yummy food.
Teal!
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OK, now for a rant, even though it’s only Friday.
Since it’s Halloween, I want to talk about the walking dead. Not to alarm anyone, but there are millions of them out there.
I saw the largest concentration I’d ever seen while we were in Florida. There were thousands of them. They seemed to be everywhere, shuffling mindlessly about, probably looking for brains since they seemed to be lacking one of their own. They would walk right into you if you weren’t careful.
You can’t miss them. They walk around oblivious to their surroundings. There seems to be a particularly bad outbreak among the 10 to 30 year old crowd. They have one focus only, their cellphone.
Get on a bus, every kid on the bus has their face glued to one. Walk the crowds and they’re legion. It got to the point where I would see them coming at me and I would swerve (because they won’t, they’re too busy to notice you) or even push one away as they were about to walk into me. Then they looked shocked like you’re the rude one. But then it’s right back to the phone as they shuffle off. Wait in line with them and you have to constantly tell them to move up because they don’t notice that the line has moved on in front of them.
There’s very little conversation amongst families of them. I saw entire families of zombies, everyone of them with their face in a phone. I even saw it at the tables during dinner. No conversation, only faces in phones. Even while eating. Depressing and sad.
Chas mentioned a story yesterday about brainwaves controlling computers. I think it’s the other way around. The computer is controlling their brains. At this point I don’t ever wanna buy my daughter a cell phone if it’s going to turn her into a zombie.
If you’re one of the walking dead there is only one cure. PUT THE STUPID PHONE DOWN! Really people, this is getting out of hand.
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Good morning.
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Rant away, AJ. I agree, it’s a huge problem. And people driving in parking lots, using their phones. It’s downright scary how oblivious they are to pedestrians. Can they not use their phones, if they have to, when they’re PARKED in a stall, unmoving?
On the road is a problem, too, of course.
But even if they don’t compromise their (and others’) safety by using them while driving, the problem with the use of them during what could (and should) be conversational time with family, face-to-face and not face-to-screen, half-listening to the humans in their physical world (if anyone is actually talking aloud, and frequently they’re not), is so sickeningly prevalent these days.
That was one of the beautiful things about the scene I recounted last night on the blog, where all eight of us were home, sitting around the table, sharing a meal and, yes, conversation! The two adult children have smart phones, but they did not bring them to the table. No electronics in sight. Just plain, old-fashioned visiting. I treasure moments like that, and if we don’t guard our time and our tech use, those experiences will sadly fade into the past.
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When I left Chicago (’03), the cell phone thing was becoming a big problem. I couldn’t shop without someone in my aisle talking on their phone. I moved to Nashville and was happy to see them used less . . . but by the time I married and moved away (’11), they were as bad a problem in Nashville, or worse. Now I’m out in the country, with my mailing address a small town, and we get behind or next to drivers who are texting. Yikes!
Ans yes, there is something extremely sad about someone who can never be with the person he is with, but has to be texting someone else. I had a housemate in Nashville who would come home from work and come into the den to tell me about her day, and in the course of ten minutes she would say “Hang on” ten times. She’d read the text that had come in, write a quick reply, and talk to me for a few more seconds. Most of it was probably her fiancee, but it still just seemed odd to me.
I’ve probably told on here before about sitting in the airport waiting to go back to Nashville after my hubby and I got engaged. The flight got delayed twenty minutes or so, and as I waited I watched two separate families with children who were pre-teens. One family, the mother came to them and said, “Good news! Our vacation is going to last 20 minutes longer!” which was the most creative way I’d ever seen of treating a flight delay. That family took out Mad Libs and everyone participated. I don’t remember the ages of the children in that family.
The other family had young children, a boy who was maybe four and a girl three or four years older. Initially their mother was with them. The little girl was playing on some device, and so was the mother. The little boy took the one the mother had and started playing with it, so she reached into her purse and got out another. Then the father rejoined the family, and showed an i-pod or something he had just bought. The mother fussed at him for spending the money, and then they settled down, four people on four electronic devices with no conversation, while the other family played Mad Libs as a family. (Of course, in my own family there were times when everyone had their nose in a separate book, but I really don’t think it’s the same thing. But we also played board games together, went on family hikes or bike rides, and talked.)
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It’s Friday!
You know what that means?
We don’t celebrate/observe Halloween in this area of Hendersonville.
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What were their names?
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If I hadn’t read these Friday Funnies before posting them, I could have gotten here before Chas. ~Sigh~.
Today is the 29th birthday of my oldest daughter. Since she was born this early in the morning, we refuse to say she is a Halloween baby, especially because we do not celebrate the holiday. No, we always say “Happy Reformation Day!”
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Janice, I didn’t know you were going to Charleston. I could have given you some traveling advice.
When you go back, be advised that the longest way is the quickest way. When we lived in Virginia, we would visit my parents in Charleston and Chuck when he lived in Augusta. We tried the US 78 route a couple of times but learned that the quickest and best way is to take the interstate. Take I-26 to Columbia and I-20 to Augusta. It’s longer but you don’t have the small towns. And the speed limit is 70 part of the way. You can cut several miles off by taking the US 1 exit 111 on I’26. Go west to I-20. US 1 is not a bad road..
It defies logic because you’re going the acute angles of a triangle, but it’s the best way.
I hope you enjoy Charleston. We visit there occasionally. I used to live on the fourth floor of 102 Broad St. And I sold peanuts at the battery. (White Point Gardens to you.) You may want to visit the Battery while you’re there. It’s the point where the Ashley River joins the Cooper River to form the Atlantic Ocean.
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Good Morning, Y’all!
Don’t waste a lot of time on Halloween.
Favorite color is deep blue or indigo…especially the deep blue color of cobalt glass.
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Hey, AJ. It’s your blog so rant away.
Sometimes I feel like taking the phone away from these idiots who are tied to their phones. Years ago we heard an evangelist who warned not to watch TV because “Satan appears as an angel of light”. I think he was ahead of his time (this was before computers took over our lives). I really think the cell phone addiction is another of Satan’s traps, getting people to concentrate on something other than what matters.
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My father is somewhere laughing at me and thinking “pay back time”. Yesterday I had BG do some banking for me. I was making a cash deposit so I let her keep $50. I told her I wanted her to use part of it to put gas in her car. She had a coupon to Ruby Tuesday’s so she asked if I wanted to go out to dinner with her. I agreed but told her since she had just scored $50 SHE was paying for dinner. She grumbled. We met and had dinner. She thought I would go weak and pay, but I made her do it and told her I would leave the tip (explaining that when you have a coupon to a restaurant you still leave the tip on what the full amount would have been without the coupon).
She went home and complained to her father that I made her pay for dinner. He sent me a message saying “good for you, making her pay, but she tricked you into giving her gas money she has plenty in her bank account” I explained that the cost of dinner I actually paid for since I was the original source of the funds.
This is SOOOOO like something I would have done to my father when I was her age. Many years ago before there were ATM’s and debit cards my father would send me to the bank to cash a check for him. There was a $20 check cashing fee—a girl has to have gas money!
True maturity comes when you take your parent to dinner and DON’T expect them to pay.
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Oh, my favorite color is periwinkle blue
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Along the lines of Aj’s rant. I see in the Times-News that a Baylor University study finds that male college students spend eight hours a day on the phone. Female students spend ten.
I can’t imagine what they have to say.
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Kim, one of our daugthers took her dad out to breakfast or lunch a few months ago. She had been moody for a couple of days, and he was worrying in advance about what it might be that was bothering her, and that she needed to talk about. It turns out she just took him out to apologize for having been grumpy and hard to live with!
My favorite color is emerald green.
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Don’t get me started….
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Husband read the sports pages while we had “our” complementary hotel buffet breakfast. I thought of pulling out my phone or Kindle, but decided I wouldn’t. Of course I was wondering how it related to the rant AJ wrote that I had earlier shared with my husband.
A friend told me about a Thanksgiving dinner when one of the families present all had their phones out. Last year we did have our phone on speaker so our son in TX could join in our conversation at the dinner table. That was a better use of the phone at the table. Once at a family reunion we had a relative going around taping people who wanted to say hello to an elderly relative who could not attend. That was quite thoughtful.
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Daughter came home from helping with Bible Club the other day. She said two new six year olds were there and had their Iphones. She told them they had to put them in their backpacks but they said their moms told them they had to keep them with them all of the time. She told them they had to put them away. They were not the only ones.
Son sometimes asks me for parenting advice, which I don’t give him as he does not actually want to hear it. Though I do tell him to be consistent with whatever he does. He has a couple of wild little boys who are often on the cell phone playing games. They take it from their mom whenever they like or whine it out of her. She sets them down with it to occupy them while she is busy. Parents don’t think the boys are on it all that much, and probably not relatively speaking. But probably way more than they need and definitely way more than their attitudes warrant. Not saying their behavior is caused by cell phones but their cell phone playing is a reflection of their attitudes.
When you come to my house to visit me, I am putting aside my things to visit with you. I am not interested in setting them aside to watch you talk with somebody else on your cell phone. If you are going to be on your phone, I will probably be outside chopping firewood. Fortunately, a lot of people don’t get cell service where I live so it is less of a problem than in other places.
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Mumsee, I’m trying to find your “start” button. 🙂
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We have a possibility of snow today. 😦 Can we at least wait till November?!
(Misten probably requested it for her birthday, and it’s a day late. She turned ten yesterday. But hopefully it will miss us.)
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Years ago, I went to dinner with somebody who pulled out her cell phone to make a phone call. I got up and went outside to wait for her to finish. I doubt the point was made.
Husband has learned not to take phone calls during dinner. We don’t generally answer the phone (landline) at all when he is gone, unless somebody we know starts leaving a message. we don’t have caller ID and way too many junk calls.
I still never figured out how, within two days of getting a new cell phone number on husband’s old retired phone, I was receiving phone calls directly to me from somebody in jail. I did not know my number and certainly did not share it with her.
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too late, Cheryl.
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“Mumsee, I’m trying to find your “start” button. ”
Cheryl- I think someone else pressed it already.
Really? A 6 year old with an iPhone? Really? We’ve spoiled the child. I can see letting a child have a talk-text only phone for safety, but a smart phone for a 6 year old? That presses my button!
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I suppose if you are busy with your own things and don’t want to send your child outside to play and you want to impress your neighbors, it makes sense to hand the child something like that. Way too many times have I seen children on the playground, with their noses in somebody’s tablet or phone rather than running around playing. And their parents don’t notice as they have their noses in their phones or tablets.
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An interesting spot of decor on this hotel bed was a towel folded in the shape of a loggerhead turtle with a card about a related tour. Someone had to get real creative with their towel folding and twisting to make that happen. It is towel origami. 🙂
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I sent a picture of the loggerhead towel turtle, AJ.
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Just back from the two miler with Jake and Barney and Clyde and sixteen and thirteen and seven. Later today, Betty and Brutus and I will do that again. Someday I hope to be done with the blood pressure meds but since husband got back, I have gained nearly ten pounds. Lost twenty five while he was gone so still ahead but not by much.
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Chas, no one actually talks that much on a cell phone anymore. 🙂
They have been a great help in the work that we do, and I much prefer texting to calling for quick messages with an editor or co-worker.
But it is odd when you stop to take notice of how many people are completely focused on their phones out in public. Someday they’ll perfect those google glasses and we’ll just wear funny glasses that will display a screen and allow us to talk without having anything in our hands, I suppose. Or the watches that Apple has come out with.
But enough of that, time to celebrate the real revolution … Happy Reformation Day!
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Survey of auto dealership waiting room reveals:
2 men watching sports on TV (one is my husband).
2 men on phones
1 man reading
3 ladies on phones including moi
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All the ladies are on their phones now.
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That is 4 ladies on their phones now.
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And this could be scary, technology on our phones that can detect lies (it’s all very Twilight Zone):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/10/31/what-happens-when-your-friends-smartphone-can-tell-that-youre-lying/
” … There are also some potentially negative consequences. If you can simply run a person’s image and voice through an app to determine their emotions and veracity, we will have to adjust as a society. Many of our daily interactions are built on small lies: “So happy to see you”, “Of course I remember you,” and “This is the best (food, activity or place).” In other words, society’s function is smoothed by little white lies – do we really want to eliminate that? …”
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Janice, “on their phones” in terms of talking or surfing/reading?
(It is kind of nice to have all your books & all the updated news sites with you when you’re stuck waiting somewhere, I’ll admit — but it’s probably better to use the time to strike up “real” conversations with the strangers around you; I’ve done both — but if all the strangers around you are “reading” their phones, well, you don’t want to interrupt…)
There are some people who spend all their time looking at their phones at the dog park. I’ll only do that if there’s no one there to talk to. But I guess I could/should talk to Cowboy in those cases.
Cowboy likes it when I talk to him. 🙂
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The Real, that picture is scary. I counted 23 cormorants and cormorants are a menace. Several years ago, I was walking in a nature preserve. It was along a large bay, and there was an small island in the middle of the bay. The island looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb – just a bare, black surface, with dark shapes of cormorants moving around on the surface. There was a sign by the path that said that the island used to be covered by trees, but cormorants began nesting there and within a few years, it had been reduced to its present appearance.
I agree with the rant over smart phones. I occasionally attending a local Bible study group for single people my age. I often end up feeling completely left out, as everyone spends as much time on their phone as talking to each other. The truth is, it is an escape mechanism. It is easier to text someone else than to talk to the person sitting next to you.
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In time for Halloween, we’ve been taken over by The Birds. The whole block has been covered with grackles, thousands of them. My husband and I have each (separately) once seen a larger flock of starlings, but this is easily one of the biggest flocks any of us has ever seen, with our daughter saying it’s the biggest she has seen. And common grackles are not a tiny little bird. This was thirty acres of a medium-sized bird with fierce-looking yellow eyes. I got quite a few pictures, hopefully some good ones.
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Blue – on the purple side
Husband and I went out for supper 2 days ago – half the tables had people on their phones. We enjoyed great conversation and a wonderful meal.
Last night at supper with our son and his girlfriend, we didn’t pull out the phones until after the meal and then it was to share pictures and things with everyone at the table. I think that usage is okay as we were telling the stories and showing the pics that went along with them.
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Cheryl, they foregathered here a few weeks ago. We have trees surrounding the house and a forest with swamp behind us, so flocks of migrating birds often stop here. A couple Saturdays ago, I had my windows open to wash them when a flock of crows descending on the tree tops outside. More and more kept joining, until the gathering became too large for the number of trees in the yard. They made quite a noise with their cawing. Then they flew off to the forest, to gather in greater numbers.
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Donna, re social little white lies. My sister, when she was single, late twenties, living in South Carolina, had a couple great pranks she played on people based on the assumption that no one in the South will ever admit to not remembering you or not knowing one of their neighbors:
(1) She and my brother would call random strangers (from the phone book) and pretend to be a radio station, and tell the person that they are calling because they’ve heard she has such an amazing dog. “You’re on the air now. Your neighbor, Mrs. Jones, told us about your amazing dog. You know Mrs. Jones, don’t you?” And of course the little old lady had to admit that yes, she knows Mrs. Jones well. So then, they want the dog to bark for their listeners, so this lady is out in the backyard trying to call or catch her amazing dog so that he can bark on the radio.
(2) She told a teenage girl who was in the car with her that she could stop the car and talk to a random stranger, and the person wouldn’t admit to not knowing her. The girl didn’t believe her that she had ever done such a thing, or that she could do it now. So next time they saw a person out in the yard, my sister pulled over the car to talk to him. “Mr. O’Connor, how are you? How is your wife? How are the kids? It’s so good to see you. What’s it been? Five years?” And he’s saying, “Yeah, five or six years, something like that. Hey, come around back! The missus will want to see you!” “No, no, I don’t have time to stop; I was just driving through and I saw you out in your yard. But tell her I said hi.” “No, come on back–she’ll be so disappointed she didn’t get to see you–come say hi.” “No, I really can’t, not this time. Maybe another time.” And of course the guy is thinking, “I sure can’t remember who that is, but my wife will know. And I’ll feel so silly telling her someone said hi if I can’t even tell her who it was or where we knew her from!” When she got back in the car, the girl said, “But you knew him already.” “No, I didn’t. I’d never met him before.” “Then how did you know his name?” “The mailbox.”
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Favorite colour? It depends on the context: white and pink roses, red poppies, blue forget-me-nots, gold and scarlet maple leaves; green fields in spring, golden fields in late summer, white fields in winter; turquoise skies at midday, flame-coloured sunsets, silver moonlit nights. All colour is good. I wear deep colours – dark blue, burgundy, black – but I loved the colour combinations of West African clothing – blue with green, yellow with purple, orange with red. I don’t like monochromatic décor.
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What a perfect picture for Halloween! I would not want to have that bird after me, either.
I take two different kindles to my husband’s music jam and I usually use them both. Sometimes I also have a book or magazine. Like most women, I am perfectly capable of doing more than one thing at a time. If there is someone to visit with when I am there, I will play a game that does not require a lot of attention and can be interrupted. Or I will stay off the device altogether, if that is appropriate.
I don’t have a problem with children being entertained by a device at appropriate times. I do agree that many people get way too involved with their phones. Most do not need to be connected at all times. There are exceptions. Some people are able to BE out, because they can text for work purposes.
I think it is easy to misread strangers that we see. I remember one man at church claiming that if he sees a couple who aren’t engrossed in conversation, while out to eat, he is sure they are not happily married! Has he considered that some couples are so happily married they do not need endless conversation—especially if they are with one another almost all the time? This same man disapproved of parents sitting apart with their children in between them at church. He thought it showed less love for a spouse!
I make it a point to stay away from an electronic device at certain times. To me it is no different from any other technology. Children have to be disciplined to use them all appropriately until they gain self-discipline. I don’t allow them at the dinner table at home and may not when out to eat.
I do find it irritating when trying to visit people to have them interrupted all the time by a phone. Ironically, this is often done by some who raged against others doing it.
My favorite color is blue.
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We got snow yesterday. The sun has chased it away. That won’t happen too much anymore. Once it gets cold, I prefer the snow anyway.
I love the bright clothing I have seen on African women. Only one color would be boring. However, I like a monochromatic design at times. I made one quilt with only shades of beige and I really like it. It is amazing how many shades and tints there can be of a color.
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Another blue lover . . . in various shades.
I was taken aback when a 13 year old at our church whose parents had little money had an Iphone–particularly since I didn’t think I could justify the expense for one! I now have my second Iphone–I buy the old one from a young friend when she updates to a new. I’m making out like a bandit, cost-wise.
I use it a lot while traveling and do check it often, but I try not to use it in company.
Thank you, Ki. Sometimes my husband and I sit in silence at restaurants and I remember a comment like you referenced and worry that I’ve become dull, my marriage is stale, I’m boring and so forth. I’m going to choose to relax and not worry what I look like if we’re sitting in silence not saying anything! 🙂
Raining, blissful rain, here in northern CA!
Very busy day, the Trunk and Treat has been moved in doors. We’re going as spies anyway in our matching trench coats, but now I don’t even have to decorate the car, so I can work on my to do list. Being gone six days has me behind–particularly with a book launch (Yuletide Bride) on Monday.
Loved the BG story. I did the same thing with my kids.
Oh, and for Chas: ideas about WWI might have been avoided: http://io9.com/11-intriguing-ways-world-war-i-could-have-turned-out-di-1652195903
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Michelle, the best way WW I would have ended was not have happened. It was a mistake caused by alliances that should never have been. And Der Schliffen plan shouldn’t have been implemented. I’m sure, in your studies, you realized that the generals (likely on both sides, but I’m familiar mostly with the allies.) were largely a bunch of dunces. Slaughtering men without effect. And the peace treaty caused WW II. And WW II made Europe pacifist and unable to resist the threat Russia imposes.
The stupidity of men in power is amazing.
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GW Bush was against “nation building” before the war in Iraq. Yet, he tried to make a democracy in Iraq. Democracy is anathema to Muslims. The only government that will work is dictatorship. That’s ultimately what they strive for. The Caliphate. Dictatorship of the chief Imam.
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I received a call earlier today that my Mama Ruth had fallen again and was in Neuro ICU. I went to the hospital to see her. She knew who I was this time. She told me she was drunk. I asked what she drank–water. A little while later she told me she had the worst hangover she has ever had in her life. As far as I know she has never had anything to drink that would have remotely caused a hangover.
I told her I loved her. She said, “You do not.” I said, “I think I would know if I loved you”. Some more conversation happened. She told me she only fell so she could come to the hospital and get attention. I got ready to leave and told her again that I loved her.
As I was walking out of her cubicle she said, “I love you too. You know that don’t you?” I had to stop and turn around and tell her, ” Yes, I DO know that you love me. I’ve known that for a long time.”
I went back to the ICU waiting room and told her two biological daughters that I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. So I told them our conversation. We laughed and when I got to the end we all three cried.
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Sad story Kim. But we all encounter that sometimes. Chuck said that my mother often thought he was me when he went to see her.
Serious question. A comic has Monica Lewinski saying “Follow me on twitter”.
Question: What benefit is there in having someone, a dozen or a million, follow you on twitter?
I would think that if I were famous, the fewer people who know my personal life, the better.
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And that, Chas, may just be why you are not famous.
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This afternoon I had one of those moments of being glad my attitude was in check. I was shopping, and needed dental floss. An elderly lady was choosing floss and taking quite a while to do it. I didn’t know whether she knew I was waiting; I was prepared for her to turn around and apologize for taking so long, and if she had I would have told her (genuinely) that it was quite all right. I learned long ago to be patient with the elderly, and it truly doesn’t bother me to wait (unless I really am in a hurry, like my husband is waiting in the car so I can grab what we need before we go somewhere).
The lady finished and turned and spoke to me–and it was my mother-in-law. We’ve run into her shopping a time or two before, and we do run into other people we know occasionally. I’m a big-city girl, but there are some nice aspects of living in a small town.
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Whenever this new gravatar loads, it will be one of the 10,000 or so grackles that descended to descend on our front and back yards, at least the neighbors on either side of us (and possibly yards beyond theirs), and the farmer’s field behind us. My husband said 10,000, but I have a hunch it was several times that.
Oh, and it’s raining and windy . . . and snowing. We don’t get trick-or-treaters here (we’re too far out in the country, and none of our immediate neighbors currently have young children), but I can imagine there are some disappointed children out there.
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You need twitter followers if you’re trying to establish a platform to prove to publishers that people are interested in what you have to say thus, in theory, they might buy your book. I have a whopping 300 or so Twitter followers which is no where near enough for today’s marketing needs.
So, feel free to follow me on Twitter. 🙂
Donna has a lot more.
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I like Roscuro’s take on favorite colors. 🙂
I guess I’m a bit of a non-conformist, since “blue” has been written off my list as even a possible favorite color since I was a little girl, simply because it seems it is the favorite color of at least 50% of the population. And at any given time, roughly 75% of people in any room of people will be wearing at least some blue. So it seemed too boring to be a good favorite color. But blue is my husband’s favorite color, and I’m told it looks good on me (I have blue eyes), so I wear it more than I used to. But I can be found in green or in pink (or in any of several other colors) more often. Any color but orange. . . .
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lost my post 😦
I forgot that I wasn’t online
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On our way home we stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch. I told husband I would load Bosley ‘s picture as wallpaper on his phone. I got involved trying to get it right so anyone watching would have thought I was ignoring my husband when I was trying to help him. It is difficult to know what is going on if you are not a part of the group. People could be playing the board game Words With Friends together on their phones while at a table while waiting for food.
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Colors I like include a light greenish turquoise, raspberry, lilac, peach, and cornflower blue.
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My husband’s jam group played for the nursing home this afternoon. The woman at our table will turn 105 in two days. There are four people over 100 in this particular home right now. They sure appreciate the music.
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62!
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Cheryl, I almost never wear blue even though it’s my favourite colour. (I don’t count blue jeans as blue tho – they’re a neutral in my world)
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Wow, Kare, you just about shoved me out of the way for my number! I never saw you coming. Good thing you didn’t, or, boy, would there be trouble. 🙂
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My grandmother was born 120 years ago today. She lived to the age of 91.
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And my grandpa, her husband (my dad’s parents) lived to be 95.
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My piano teacher I had as a teenager always held her yearly student recital at a nursing home. The residents certainly do enjoy that sort of thing.
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6 Arrows, my younger daughter is periodically visiting a woman with dementia with assisted living. Each visit she has to play some songs on the piano. More than her friend enjoy it that she does so!
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Cheryl – I’m behind on reading the comments, but I wanted to pop in here to reply to your reply from last night, about homeopathy. (Excuse me if someone else has already mentioned this.)
I am not against natural remedies, but homeopathy is different. The beginning of the Wikipedia article on it explains it pretty well…
“Homeopathy … is a system of alternative medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann based on his doctrine of like cures like: a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. Homeopathy is considered a pseudoscience, and its remedies have been found to be no more effective than placebos.
“Hahnemann believed the underlying causes of disease were phenomena that he termed miasms, and that homeopathic remedies addressed these. The remedies are prepared by repeatedly diluting a chosen substance in alcohol or distilled water, followed by forceful striking on an elastic body. Dilution usually continues well past the point where no molecules of the original substance remain. …
“Homeopathy lacks biological plausibility, and the axioms of homeopathy are contradicted by scientific facts. The postulated mechanisms of action of homeopathic remedies are both scientifically implausible and not physically possible.”
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Thanks, Karen. I’ve heard the term “homeopathic medicine” but had never looked into it!
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Good for your daughter, Cheryl. Music can be so soothing for the elderly, especially when the pieces were familiar to them from an earlier time.
My grandpa and grandma next door when I was growing up had a piano (the one I practiced on), and from time to time, Grandma would come down to the basement where I was practicing and ask me to play some of her favorite hymns. Onward Christian Soldiers was probably her favorite, and she’d sit next to me on the bench and sing until the tears came and she couldn’t sing for the rest of the song.
Grandpa’s favorite was Be Still My Soul, and though he didn’t usually come downstairs while I played it, when I would go back upstairs to go home, he’d regularly thank me for playing it. Grandma would sometimes tell me how he’d sit in his favorite easy chair in the living room while I played it, stopping what he was doing, even turning off the TV, to listen.
And now, for me, it is a soothing thought to reminisce on those memories, and, really, was a blessing to me at the time, too, to play music in which they (and others) delighted.
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And I got teary reading about Kim’s Mama Ruth today.
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Halloween is finally winding down here.
I don’t think I’ve heard such a “scream-y” one, though — for about the last hour there seems to have been large groups of children screaming at the top of their lungs, running up and down, screaming, running, screaming, running.
“FREE CANDY!!! FREE CANDY!!! SCREEEEEAM!!!!”
Sheesh.
Just a little too much sugar I think.
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so nice and quiet here. Went to a receital today. Kids here have a lot of time to practice and everything was very well done. Most of the students were 9th and 10th grade and half of them I had taught in kinder. Such fun
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75!
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