Buh...Buh... Buh...

 

Using an explosive “b” (as in buh, buh, buh)... and way too much repetition … 

Needing a big break from the bleak blunders and blurry blasts of build back better… I come to you today with a few questions.

•      Did we anticipate that a lot of what we cherish had to be destroyed in order to build back better?
•          Did we have to allow one large country in Central Asia collapse and at the same time potentially desert Americans and allies in order to build back better?
•          Did we have to make our great nation become weak and disrespected across the entire world in order to build back better?
•          Did we have to annihilate the fuel independence of the United States in order to build back better?
•         Did we have to let a booming economy slide toward recession in order to build back better?
•         Did we have to allow – even encourage crime to run rampant in order to build back better?
•         Did we have to increase consumer prices across the board – in food, travel, gasoline, and vehicle prices in order to build back better?
•          Did we have to allow open southern borders and thus enhance the spread of the damncovid throughout unexpecting and generous communities throughout the country in order to build back better?
•         Did we have to try to cram through legislation that will create debt that generations to come will struggle to pay in order to build back better?

To add insult to injury, just as promised, we will get to pay for all of this with increased taxes.   You know – -- to build back better.

·         Just what does it mean to build back better?

·         Do we have to ignore/put down/sabotage all that is good about our   country to build back better?

·         When does the good part of build back better begin?

I wait with bated breath while I watch biden’s back as he turns and walks away from the American people and perhaps heads to his basement bunker… as usual.  One final question.  Who is it that instructs the President to answer only questions from designated members of the press?  Who has that power? Who prepares his answers? Better believe that is baffling.  Okay – enough.

Heart Hugs... again....

 

Recently my granddaughter was helping me go through a bunch of photos and papers in preparation for having to move a ton of stuff for my latest reorganize the house plan. She ran across some old blogs of mine and promptly cuddled down into the big reading chair in my “Book Room” to read them.  The first one that caught her eye was the one I wrote in 2015 about her dog.  It is entitled “I call her the Lovely Luna”, and she laughed out loud as she read my description of Luna rolling in bear meadow muffins while pasture prancing.  Then there was “Stranger on the Porch” in which her Uncle Garrett was featured as the hero who came to my back porch with his blow gun to try to dispatch what we think was a rabid fox.  Anyway – as I glanced back through those old blogs, I was struck by how light hearted most of them are/were.  They were pre-damncovid and pre-the latest political unrest as well as pre-times of a world struggling yet once again with all kinds of concerns of such magnitude that they seem insurmountable.  I realized that, as I reread them, I was beginning to think in terms of the good olde days and yet -- they were just a little while ago really.

There was “Klutz Factor” and “Purring Grandma", “There's an app for that….”, and “Presbyterian Bunnies”.  “I Cry at Parades” was about how much I love small town America. I wrote about Tee-shirts decorated with fun sayings and about unsuccessful attempts at home repair. I wrote about upcoming elections, even including a memo that I sent to Donald Trump a year prior to the 2016 election.  I wrote about “Tchotchkes and Other Assorted Treasures”, “Scammed! Not a good feeling”, and “Mouse in the House!”.  And … I wrote about “Ladies Who Lunch” which was the one about my sister and her lovely friends sharing lunch with me when I was visiting in 2016.

So many….  As I was looking through them, the one that struck me the most though was “Heart Hugs” – so much so that I am going to repeat it today.  If you need to, in these days of social distancing -- you can think of these hugs as mental “air hugs”, those symbolic hugs of the damncovid times.  So – here it is – first published on 10/15/2015.  Who couldn’t use a good hug these days? Some things are worth repeating.

 

                                             Heart Hugs 

I had a wonderful friend who gave what he called heart hugs.  They were the kind of hugs where you wrapped your arms around each other and pressed your hearts together.  They were indescribably wonderful.  He, being much taller than I, sometimes made these hugs hard to manage, but if I could find a step to stand on, they were perfect.  I miss him. 

Recently on Facebook someone shared a copyrighted “Photo” that made me remember these hugs.  It was a scene of Charlie Brown and Snoopy hugging.  The words? “I love the kind of hugs where you can physically feel the sadness leaving.”  I think the source was something like “You are My O2”.  It was sort of hard to see. Anyway – that is the best definition of a heart hug that I could ever imagine.  Perfect…

A wise woman once shared with me that she never passed up a hug.  She was one smart lady and she was definitely a hugger and thrived on them.  Not all people are huggers though.  I think hugging may be a learned behavior and some families are just not into it.  I am from a hugging family and sometimes I am not into it.  I get it.

Hugs are healthy in general.  Not all may be heart hugs, but all hugs are a good thing… even the ones that send your glasses flying.  I have taught my grandchildren the heart hug. Some things are worth passing on from generation to generation.   I consider it a gift from my friend to them.  They never had a chance to meet him.  I think, as he did, that it is important to share the good things, the best things about people who have passed through your life, whose lives have been a blessing to you and others.  It’s a poignant kind of immortality – if the best that was them continues on.

Heart hugs all around.

Freedom...

 

With all that is going on in the world this week, I was hesitant to even post a blog – especially this particular one.  Hope I made the correct decision….  I wrote this entry before the takeover of Kabul which … as we know… may send all women in Afghanistan, young and old, back to the 13^th century.

 

One personal truth is that I have never been one who reacts well to being told what to do.  This attitude had “consequences” while growing up --- as you may well imagine.  I never could shake it.  I am even actually sort of proud of it now and then. It takes courage sometimes to go against the flow – especially when people in power are being mean and nasty about things. It seems to me that there are way too many people telling me what to do and how to live my life these days.  I am not reacting well to this.  I bristle. I am thinking that you may understand the feeling.

I remember when I moved the second year into my career as an English Instructor.  A new job brought me back to Pennsylvania where my classroom was in a garage behind the main school building.  My new room was unique -complete with a door that opened one entire side “wall” from the bottom up.  It was pretty cool – sort of an air-conditioning system in and of itself – not so good in the winter or when it was raining. My students (who were mega fun, by the way) and I were all relieved when a “man door” was added to the design. Anyway -- the mornings were nippy “out back behind” as the school year moved through October toward November.  Remember – this is in Northwest Pennsylvania. I decided one day to wear wool cuffed wool slacks to school -- along with a sweater, jacket, thick socks and warm shoes.  Apparently, a woman in dress wool pants was a no no.  I received a stern rebuke from my principal (note that I did not capitalize the title). That did not sit well with me.  I replied sweetly, through somewhat gritted teeth, that I would consider wearing what he told me to wear if he would give me a clothing allowance. Wish I could have thought of something more clever, but his attitude caught me off guard. Anyway - others must have heard about this because slacks became suddenly popular among the preciously skirted. I loved these people and I didn’t even know their names yet. It was a bit of a silent support system. I worked for this school district for almost 30 more years and sometimes I wore slacks – even jeans on dress-down days. That principal barely lasted through that one year – in fact – I think he actually left before the end of the year.  Just sayin’ – I have seen suits come and I have seen them go – but – that is not the point of this this writing …. 

Then there was the time when I talked back to a police officer who had asked me to move my car. Not smart on my part at all, but… he didn’t ask me nicely. I didn’t respond well to that.  Long story short - my smarty pants response did not work well for me. I moved my car – luckily no hand cuffs were involved. The point is that I think it is important to ask nicely and not to discount the thinking of others. People have reasons for the things that they do and for what they say.  They also have reasons for things that they choose not to do/say and that fact needs to be considered as well.  In either situation – none of these reasons are really anyone else’s business. In these times ham fisted, shaming and cancel culture are running rampant.  I do not react well to any of that.  I am pleased to see that there are others who are also inclined to bristle and to resist this bullying behavior that some have from time to time described as ugly, arrogant, self-righteous..., and condescending. I get that.

The thing is – it is not a matter of black and white – there are shades of gray.  Each extreme has its reasons – probably each with at least some validity.  It boils down to a difference of opinion. That’s all. I think it is okay to disagree.  Wouldn’t the world be a boring place if we all liked the same things?  It would also be creepy… sort of like watching those masses of people in Communist China all dressed alike while performing their morning exercises in unison. Wait. What?  Think about it. Perhaps we should cherish our right to disagree and honor and respect the freedoms we have in the United States of America. Perhaps we should be a little nicer to those with whom we may disagree… even really listen to each other. I know that I would appreciate it seeing as I do not react well to being told what to do… especially if people are being condescending or tyrannical about it.  While I am on a bit of a rant -- I also detest all fear mongering. The generation of fear is a most effective manipulation tool.  It has worked for – well – always. Scary when you think about it. Come to think of it, fear mongering works as well as guilt inducing.

One nice thing about getting older is that I don’t even have to think about telling my kids what to do anymore.  It’s a huge relief now that they are adults.  Seriously.  It takes the pressure off.  They get to figure it all out now on their own. I sometimes watch if I am not too busy goofing off. I love that about adult children. I love that about getting older.  Now that I think about it – I may harbor some unpopular beliefs, but I am an adult and am not your responsibility either. You don’t get to decide what I do or not do or what I say or do not say.  Yep. Plus – I don’t tell you what you should or should not do/say.  I don’t even pretend to be that smart.

Now that I have that off my chest – thanks for reading and have a lovely day.  Enjoy your freedoms – especially those of choice and speech. Live your life on your own terms. One thing for sure – I won’t be the one telling you what those terms should be.

Snurl...

Recently I came across a post on Facebook that I find to be wonderful (Thank you, MB 😁).  It isn’t one of those inspirational ones or one of the clever statements you find on a Word Porn post. (Pause here. I cannot figure out, for the life of me, why that site is called WordPorn. (Check it out at WordPorn.com. It is a site where people share literary content, from all sorts of places, that deals with writing.)  Does anyone know why it is called that?)  Anyway – this friend of mine occasionally posts from a site called Grandiloquent Word of the Day. Now I have no idea how many of you find words to be interesting on several different levels, but I, for one, like to take them out and play with them.

So – the grandiloquent word in this particular post was snurl or snirl –pronounced [snurl].  It makes me laugh even before I say it. You can also say it three times real fast and that’s fun. I am thinking that some of you tried to do that just now.  Anyway -- picture the word and beside the definition is a woman snurling - in the sense of the first definition below. To add to the charm, the picture is in sepia as are all these posts… perfect color to feature old timey stuff. 

The word snurl is defined in two ways – both verbs… but I checked… snurl may also be a noun.  So glad about that.

                             Snurl or Snirl:

            1.   To turn up one’s nose in scorn

            2.   To curl up, twist, snort, wrinkle (I particularly love the snort part…)

Now one of my grandmas had perfected the snurl. She was a master.  In fact, I think she looked at a lot of things with disgust, derision and/or contempt.  Her smiles were rare, and I didn’t spend much time trying to make her smile. I think I was a bit afraid of her… walked a wide circle around her. She yelled the word “hark!” a lot when all her grandchildren were little, and it took me more than half a century to realize that meant “listen” as in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. (Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out things.)  She was little, but sort of scary. She had not had an easy life, plus her knees and feet always hurt.  It’s a shame really that she could not see past the hard times to when times were better... and they were.  Then again – maybe she just didn’t like little kids. I doubt that though. Hmm… too late to worry about it now. Some things cannot be changed.  Some people are just “snurly” (snurly is not a word by the way… at least not in my spell check)

Moving on -- I, personally, snurl.  I snurl illogically at foods that I have never ever even tried to eat – like escargot or cottage cheese.  Then there is cream cheese… just don’t like the consistency, and it was rarely available in my house when I was growing up so I never tried it when sometimes forced to try things as a child.  We were butter and peanut butter people. I still am. Then again… a lot of political shenanigans also bring out a hearty snurl from me as do freshly fertilized fields in the spring and summer.  If you are a city folk, you may not have experienced the particular “delight” of freshly fertilized fields or of driving behind a manure spreader on a country road… snurl worthy for sure. Trust me on that. Some things you don’t need to personally experience to know that they smell bad – like politics -- or fertilized fields.  Actually, I just realized that political game playing and fresh fertilizer have a lot in common really and both are snurl worthy.

Thought: as we find our way through these times, what if we become an entire country/world of snorting snurlers? (Snurlers is not a word either, but you know what I mean.) I so hope that doesn’t happen. It’s not an attractive look…ever. Actually, a hearty snurl often contributes to a problem. That's never good.

It's complicated...

 

As for change of plans and miscommunications…  I think both are a part of busy lives. That and the fact that the world moves faster, is more distracting and complicated than it used to be.  There always seems to be a lot bombarding us at once these days.  Sometimes I look back fondly at the days without cell phones, iPads, computers, etc.  Then I remember how scary and worrisome it was to not be able to call someone, how heavy dictionaries and encyclopedias were, and how difficult it was to correct a mistake on a typewriter. (Remember those?)

 I think I wrote about this fast-changing world a few years back (and maybe a couple of weeks ago) – but – a lot has changed since then for sure. Change has become an everyday thing. Let’s leave the damncovid out of it for now and all the changes that it brought about.  Let’s just think about new inventions and new ways of doing things. Let’s also put aside scary stuff like hackers compromising the security barriers of large corporations and individual identity thefts of all sorts.  Let’s focus on other less scary everyday life things. Let’s, for example, talk about weeds.

 So – just the other day I had the opportunity to watch my son-in-law burn weeds with a mini blow torch designed just for that purpose. To think that I previously thought the Grandpas’ Weeder was the best invention ever. Who knew? When I saw him using this wonderful invention, I thought to myself, “I think I need one of those weed torches now… if only to handle the weeds in the cracks of my patio.  Then again, I also thought “I can probably borrow his or better yet – get him to do it for me if I play my cards right.”  Now I thought these things because he is a good sport about stuff like that. Both he and my daughter are good that way – so are their kids.  I think it was last year – or maybe it was the year before that - they power washed everything in sight around my property including part of my fence. Anyway – guess what happened?  My son-in-law showed up the other evening with the torch in hand.  By the end of the evening there was nothing left in any of the cracks of my patio.  It was sort of Tom Sawyer kind of thing – everyone here insisting on trying out the torch – so much fun to watch those pesky, hard to grasp crevice weeds burst into flames and blow away. Amazing what 7 people can accomplish with one little weed torch. I should have known I could count on him. I didn’t even have to play my cards….  He also used this wonderful invention to edge part of my gardens and rock gardens. (I have one of these torches backordered as I type. Plus -- I already purchased a small propane tank to have ready for when it arrives… not that I am excited about it or anything.)  Now here’s the thing.  They aren’t really called torches.  I forget the actual name even though I have been “corrected” many times.  Don’t care.

 Anyway -- while I am on the subject of helpful, I have to tell you that I am double blessed -- my son and his family are also great about doing stuff around here – it’s just that they only get back to this neck of the woods once or twice a year in non-pandemic times.  My son and his wife are particularly excellent at cleaning out basements (I mean outstanding! No cobweb left standing. The last time they went down stairs, we had two pickup truck loads of stuff move to a new home. Impressive, right?  My son is also especially good at trimming every tree/shrub/bush within sight and then burning the cuttings. It’s just another one of his many talents. Plus, it is always fun if the weather cooperates. Marshmallows cooked over one of the pasture burn pile fires he makes to clean up all the clippings from one of those trimming fests are also tasty.  By the way -- did you know that one can purchase marshmallows with chocolate inside now?  S’more making has taken on a whole new meaning. I never could get the chocolate to melt properly. Chocolate inside Marshmallows is a good kind of change for sure.  Fun times….

 Now here is the perfect combo… tried and true…. one can start a burn pile of clippings with a weed-burning torch.  Perfect. Yep --The world is fast changing for sure in many ways, and … perhaps not all change is bad when I think about it and… I am not a fan of change…usually.   It’s complicated.