Middle of Nowhere...

 

According to the Washington Post Glasgow, Montana is the official Middle of Nowhere in the United States.  Glasgow, population of around 75,000, is 4 ½ hours from any other major city.

Of course there is also a town in Oklahoma that is actually named Nowhere.  Imagine saying that you are from Nowhere.  It could develop into an entire “Who’s on first” thing.

When people say they are visiting or living in a city, it is often because where they really are is near a city that people have heard of and no one has ever heard of where they actually are, so they just say they are in the bigger city.   I personally never say I am from Erie.  I just say Northwest Pennsylvania .  One time when I was in Upper New York State near the Vermont border, I said that, and the person asked me the name of the town. When I responded Corry, they got the biggest smile. They were from Spartansburg  - about 6 miles away. It was nice  -- a moment of bonding over living in the:

middle of nowhere

backwoods

wilds

you can’t get there from here

boonies

boondocks

sticks

hicksville

Now here's the thing. There is a lot to be said for living relatively untouched by the outside world.  I mean – you know the world is there, but it ignores you and underestimates you.  It is a position of power actually. Think about that for a moment, and unless you are one of those who thinks that bigger is always better or one of those who thinks you are too good to live in any one of the above list of places, you will get it.

One further point – sort of related…   It occurs to me suddenly out of the blue ... that the town of Northeast, Pennsylvania is actually in Northwest Pennsylvania.  Now I am wondering why Northeast is called Northeast.  Hmmm…  One has the time to think about things like that when they live in the middle of nowhere.   

Second further point -- you can get here from there. My small city in Northwest Pennsylvania is almost smack dab in the middle of where they say "it" is happening.  My small city is sort of equidistant from three cities people have heard of --  Cleveland is "Westish", Pittsburgh is "Southish", and Buffalo is "Northish". Personally I prefer in the middle of nowhere. No offense intended to all you city slickers or city slicker want-to-bes out there. 

It has been said more than once, actually, that "Some call it the middle of nowhere. We call it the center of everything."  I even saw that on a poster somewhere.  I think it was an America Crop Producer poster.  Where would you be without them? Grocery stores don't produce food, it comes from places listed above.

One last thing.... Just curious....  Is anyone besides me asking what happened to all the homeless people in San Francisco who where moved for the visit of Xi Jinping et al.  Did they disappear? Were they allowed to take their tents with them?  Were they rehomed under a highway overpass?  Will they come back once the VIP's are gone?  They don't seem to be in the Middle of Nowhere.   Asking for a friend.

 

 

Hurkle - durkle

 It's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  For those of you who have your Christmas shopping done or who would rather not brave the shopping frensy of the day, this is my advice:

                        Hurkle - durkle

Now thinking that perhaps this term is new to some as it was to me...

"Hurkle-durkle is a 200 year-old Scottish term meaning to lounge in bed long after it is time to get up.  Happiness is hurkle-durkling."

Source you ask?  This info came from a meme of im not right in the head.com sent to me by a dear friend whose name will remain a secret as she said she learned it from her crazy cousin.  She knows I love new words and she likes anonymity in general and probably especially in his case since she called her cousin crazy.

Anyway -- I think that after days of preparation for a feast, hurkle-durkling is just what the doctor ordered. I wrote this two days before Thanksgiving, so that I could hurkle-durkle properly on this the day after.   

Gobble... Gobble....

With some modifications, this is my Thanksgiving To-Do list from last year.  Some things are helpful to repeat, and ... it's a busy week. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  So much for which to be thankful.  

                    Feast Preparation To Do List

All pans and casserole dishes at the ready   ✔

Large Platter, good cutting board and carving set located ✔

Great Grandma’s little side fruit bowls washed and dried ✔

All ingredients for everything on the counters ✔

Turkey ready to go into the oven ✔

Peanut Butter ice cream pie made and tightly covered in the freezer ✔

Stuffing ready put together and into muffin pans for “stuffin' muffins" ✔

Green bean casserole all set ✔

Grandma Betty’s fruit salad just needs whipped cream ✔

Cheesy potato/bacon casserole ready to pop into oven ✔

Mashed potatoes set to microwave ✔

Table set ✔

Note written to remember the cranberry sauce this year ✔

House about to smell wonderful ✔

Local family about to arrive ✔

Smile on my face – again -- so much for which to be thankful ✔

Beware of the Phubber

I learned a new word today, so... of course I had to share it.  Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, know that I am compelled to share new stuff about language... especially if the word has developed recently and strikes me as a perfect descriptor of our world, although I do love old, even antiquated, words as well -- if they are fun to say out loud.

It appears that this word appeared between 2010 and 2015 as a result of an experiment of sorts. Picture this.  A bunch of lexicographers, authors and poets got together to make a new word that is a combination of phone and snub. Now exactly why they set about to do this, I have no idea.  Perhaps it was because a new word was necessary to describe a relatively new, (annoying) phenomenon.  I do love the result of their work.

Picture sitting at the dinner table with a group of adults -- some of whom are on their phones ignoring the rest of the people there, or call to mind trying to talk to a grandchild while they are thumb texting.  The situations are endless and I know that you have been there.  We all have... and we know how it feels. Right?

The word?  

                    PHUB 

                                                [fuhb] verb

I think it's perfect.  

Definition: to ignore a person or one's surroundings when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device.

Personally I find phubbing disturbing. Look around.  It's everywhere.  I am especially flummoxed by the situation where a person is phubbing while walking in the street.  Stupidity at its best.  Ah -- Flummoxed by Phubbing.  Say that five times real fast.

Best Gift Ever

The Holidays are almost upon us.  Time to get into gear folks.  Let the fun begin.  Halloween, thankfully, is over.  Next -- Thanksgiving... my favorite holiday of the year. I think the aroma of all the favorite foods gives this holiday the edge. Then the Christmas season slams in during which the spirit of giving prevails. I love the gentleness and good will of the Christmas season. I ignore all the stressful parts of both holidays as much as possible. I am pretty good at doing that...lots of practice at my age.

Now some are not excited about the holiday season and I do feel bad for them. They grumble-grumble and snarl about commercialization, decorating too early, etc.  I'm okay; you're okay.  I just do not let the negative ooze its way onto my turf. I think it is all about attitude and making a decision to let some things slide, put other things on the shelf to be considered later, and just get into the holiday mode... sometimes maybe easier said than done, but important nevertheless. Holiday seasons are like vacations from the bad stuff... or they should be.

Don't think I am crazy ... I love preparation for Thanksgiving.  I spread it out over several days.  There is the list making, the inventory of the pantry, the laying out of pans and in time -- a home that smells so wonderful for a few days in a row that the atmosphere is simply beyond welcoming.  Then there is the gathering itself.   Blessings abound.  I love it all. So much for which to be thankful.

Then before you can turn around twice, there is the Christmas holiday for which I have been mentally preparing since the last one.  Personally I start decorating for Christmas when the dishwasher is running at the end of day on Thanksgiving and ... I start using the special Christmas dishes the day after. (They get put away on New Year's day.)  I like to think of Christmas as a time of giving... a time when maybe people are a little kinder, gentler, etc.  Please don't burst my bubble.  The only glitch is that I have trouble thinking of what to give and no one seems to want to help me decide, and I love to give gifts.  I figure if that is my only problem, I am fortunate indeed.  As for me and gift ideas --there is this "thing" that cleans shower walls and a superb kite that I have been looking at ... but really...  I just want time with my wonderful family... always the best gift ever.  Whenever we can get together, no matter what the exact day -- huge gift. Yep -- best gift ever.

Time Sensitive Snow Alert

Now... if you do not or have never lived in snow country, you may not see the humor in this.  Just a warning also, that I may be making fun of those of you who stay home when it sprinkles a wee bit from a passing dark cloud or if there is a lone snow flake in the air… or even the potential of one.  You know if I am taking about you.  No offense. I just find your behavior to be humorous and perhaps a bit wimpy.  Remember we Snow Belt NW Pennsylvanians take pride in our ability to survive. We know how to knit stuff to keep warm. We do things like lay in supplies and carry and stack wood. We know how to build fires and how to use all different kinds of shovels. We have a bunch of different words to describe all different kinds of snow. We know people with generators. We live in Snow Country.

Today, the day before Halloween, when it is drizzly, damp to wet, in the low forties and I was moving around outside with no coat for a while thinking nothing of it, I received a screen shot of my son’s phone.  He lives a bit west of Indianapolis in a lovely town called Danville, Indiana. It's the County Seat of  Hendrick's County. So nice there! They don’t really know there about winter though -- not the way we do. I mean their annual snowfall averages around 20 inches and they get a lot of sun there... unlike here where we average around 150 inches and have been know to get half that much in one single storm. Further , we are not known for sunny days.  We notice them when we do get them. We do not take them for granted.  Anyway - The following is a direct quote of his screen shot:

TIME SENSITIVE

Snow Alert

Danville: A brief snow shower will begin around Mon, Oct 30 9:59 EDT.

Really – a time sensitive weather warning about a “brief snow shower”?  Of course it was issued by The Weather Channel – which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.  What do they in Atlanta know about snow really? I once witnessed them freaking out about potential for 6 inches of the white stuff in Boston.  We had six feet in 24-36 hours at that same time and not even a mere mention of us.  Erie ran out of lake to push it into and didn’t totally dig out until the following Spring. Seriously -- I have great friends who didn't celebrate Christmas until April that year.

Anyway – not sure how my son was reacting to this “alert”. I would like to think that he was making fun of it, but I didn't know how to interpret his accompanying emoji.  He has lived in Indiana for a long time now and maybe now has wimped out from lack of exposure to a real winter. I'm not sure he even has a real winter coat now. But -- I mean he was the kid who used to dig snow tunnels all day long, downhill ski and more than once went trick or treating in a foot or more of snow – who had to plan his costumes every single year to include warm outerwear.  He was a child of snow country, a boy who once drove from here to Stowe, Vermont in a blizzard to ski. Is it possible that he may have become one who even notices a brief snow shower? I find it amusing. I mean he lived in Rutland, Vermont and went to school in New England. He knows what snow is. BTW – I told him I was going to write about his screen shot.  He laughed.  He finds me amusing.  I am thankful for that and for him.  I find him amusing as well.  It’s a mutual thing. Actually I am blessed with an entire family of funny people.  

Note -- The forecast here today is for the possibility of snow for the next 4 days.  I will believe it when I see it. I can guarantee you that The Weather Channel will not be sending out alerts  to us... ever.  

Moments in Time

Don't know if it is age related or if it is just that the older a person is, the more time they find to think about things and the more memories there are to think about.  Moments in time just sort of pop up -- good and bad.  It's interesting. 

The other day, out of nowhere, a moment of my Dad and I walking through the woods popped up. It was a warm Summer day. We stopped at a stream and he cupped his hands together, dipped them into the water, and offered me a drink. The water was cool and ... salty.  That was probably over 65 years ago. Wow....

We all have historical moments frozen in time as well.  I was sitting in a 9th grade English class when JFK was shot. I was a Freshman in college, on my way to the dining hall, when I heard that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.  I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV putting rollers in my hair as I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969. I was standing in a high school hallway watching students pass by in between classes when I heard that the Twin Towers had been hit by terrorists in 2001. 

Then sometimes moments with my kids when they were little drop in.  My son used to like to drag his little sister around in a wagon complete with as many sticks as he could fit in around her.  She never seemed to mind. My daughter spent time with her Boxer puppy in what we called the fat cupboard.  I always knew they were playing in there when I found all the pots and pans scattered all over the kitchen floor. Both children loved to dress up their dogs. Lots of fun memories of patient Boxers there.  I remember every detail of the first moments of seeing my children for the first time. I remember their first smiles, steps, moments of laughter and tears. Brief glimpses of my childhood moments pop in for a visit as well. So many.... I remember the last moments with my parents and my sister ... poignant beyond words. Memories just appear unexpectedly - moments in time.

It seems to me that life is full of little moments  -- each significant --sometimes beyond words. Some are just plain hard; some are just plain wonderful. I know that I, for one, am thankful for the memories whenever they drop in for a visit. Sometimes it is the small moments that are the most important over time. I am thinking/knowing that you definitely know what I mean.