Play it again, Sam

 

I am taking a bit of a break from writing this weekly blog because I need to catch up on some things for the next month or so. The most important of these is time with family. The "out of towners" arrive tomorrow. Fun times! That said -- for the next few weeks "blogwise", I am going to repost some of the more popular blogs since its beginning in 2014.  From Pencil Box to Keyboard has been viewed over 25,000 times now. With readers mostly from the US, but also from Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, South America, and, surprisingly to me, from Russia which, I just recently relearned, is part in Europe and part in Asia. It fun to see where in the world people are accessing my rambles. It is also fun to see which blogs, for whatever reason, have been the most read. Lucky for me, BlogSpot, which hosts my blog, keeps track of all the stats. 

That being said, here is "Play it again... #1"

                                    Purring Grandma

Recently I was chatting with a good friend of mine.  She was telling me about time spent with her Mom during the previous week..  They had spent several days together planning and working on a project. ( I was exhausted just listening to all that they had accomplished.) Anyway --  at one point her Mom, who is a young 88, sat down, put her feet up, closed her eyes and shortly thereafter began to purr softly. (That whole scenario makes me smile.)  My friend found this to be amazing and wonderful at the same time.  The thing that surprised her was not just the purring, but that her Mom actually stopped to take a bit of a nap.  Now I personally don't find the desire to take a bit of a nap at all surprising.  In fact I find it hard to believe that there are people who never nap and seem to take great pride in the fact that they don't.. I do believe them when the say they don't even feel the need, but I still find it necessary to "suspend my disbelief", if you know what I mean. Anyway -- I decided to take an informal poll.  I discovered that many people, including a random sampling at the local Walmart as well as of some of my friends, highly recommend napping on a regular basis. There are those who use strong terms like "power nap". Others just mumble as if napping needs to be a confession of some sort.   Actually there are many terms that people use in reference to napping.  It is sort of like areas of the country that have twenty-seven different words for snow. The more important the subject, the more words to describe it.  I was talking with my  three-year-old granddaughter just the other day about the importance and benefits of napping. As I was looking at her and gabbing away, she closed her eyes and tipped over on me sound asleep. I guess she doesn't need to be convinced. She is, after all, a fourth generation "napper". As I watched her sleep the sleep of a three year old, I wished that she too did a little soft purring. There is something so nice about that.  

Trying to keep it on the light side...

 

From Pencil Box to Keyboard has been a bit on the serious side lately.  Bummer. I was looking back over the topics and realized, that, once again, the serious topics have moved in and brought their heavy, dreary belongings with them.  I used to be more fun.  I miss that.  I want to return to the days of writing about light “stuff” – like list making, purses, Hershey Kisses, Snow Brownies and things that make you forget the heavy issues – if only for a few minutes.

With that in mind - I briefly considered telling you about cleaning my garbage disposal this week.  It was impressive and easy… and this time I didn’t need to have it replaced when I was done.  Then again... I also reorganized my pantry… an adventure of sorts. Or – I could tell you about spending a wonderful afternoon with my remarkable granddaughter in my basement going through old albums and boxes of black & white photos of unnamed grim faced ancestors with startlingly unusual and unattractive hats. My granddaughter asked why no one smiled back in the day.  That reminded me that there was a time when she thought the world used to be black and white.  Guess I have a lot of old photos around. 🥴  Anyway ... I have to mention that these albums and photos smelled very bad – sort of tonsil-grabbing if you know what I mean. It isn't a project that you want to spend too much time doing.  These albums and photos also reminded me that I should take the time to write names on the back of my photos – you know… for future generations. They also “tell” me to forego hats and to smile more.

To continue in the photo line of thinking – I noticed a while back that I didn’t have any photos that I could hold in my hands.  I think I went digital without being totally aware of it.  I saw my camera in a drawer in my laundry room just the other day and wondered for a moment what it was. Anyway – realizing that I didn’t have any “real” photos, I figured out (with the help of my brilliant daughter) how to transfer the digital ones from my phone to my pc and from there to one of those sites on a cloud somewhere unknown in the universe that will print them for you.  Ta Da. Magic. Anyway – in no time at all, I suddenly had 358 hands-on real photos in a little basket on my coffee table.  Many who have been to my house have spent time looking through them – real photos – sort of a rarity.  A blast from the past. Alas… I haven’t’ written any names on the back of them – yet.  Maybe next week…. 

The original title of this blog was "Ugly Hats and Grim Faces..." I changed it after waking up this morning to the news of Russia attacking the Ukraine... an event both ugly and grim.

                These are difficult times to be sure.  Hope we all find many good things today -- things to smile about. We have so much for which to be thankful this February morning.