Not even ready for Halfbakery:
KING-SIZE BED PARTNER PINGER: This beanbag printed with a friendly "Where are you?" will help you find your partner if, like me, you frequently lose her in a too-large bed. Just toss it in the general direction and if you hear an "ouch," you know you're on the right track.
Step 1: Don't put the Bible on top of the Koran. Gosh, even I know that.
I know why the archive pages aren't working. Because THERE ARE NONE. I'll have to replace them someday. But first, I will have to get a clue.
Maybe I'll knock on that neighbor's door and just offer to help her with her dog. If the county came and took pity on her, then somebody needs to take pity on the dog. And if not, maybe I just need to take some action. What could possibly go wrong?
UPDATE: And what should show up in my inbox but:
Thought for the Day: A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Scripture for the Day: Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap…And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:7,9
Thanks, Cathy!
Besides the planned accompaniment of the Cherub Choir at church this morning, I got recruited to play the drum for my chancel choir's rendition of "O Filii et filiae" today. This was, I believe, the first time I've ever held a drum for the entire duration of a song. It actually came out all right. I had to catch myself up once - I don't know if it was due to the choir missing an entrance (which they do a lot) or due to my missing a beat, but it was pretty effortless.
And as usual I'm playing for my International Congregation this afternoon. Quite the musical day for me!
Battle Creek, Michigan was my home from the time I was about 7 until I was 13. I'll put up a link-richer post about that but for now, here's how I feel when I think about it. This was what it felt like to be a 10-year-old in a rented farmhouse with a mom & a dad & a brother and a few cats fields and a barn in Battle Creek in the late '60's.
Fern Hill
by Dylan Thomas
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
I don't get up early enough to work out before leaving for the office, and I read somewhere that it's optimal to work out in the mornings and not before bed. So by the time the kids are in bed, I don't have time to work out at any time that's not "right before bed."
My Magic 8-Ball script told me to blog something, so I'm blogging my Magic 8-ball script telling me to blog something.
I keep a simple little script on my desktop and execute it when I find myself procrastinating or at loose ends. Here it is if you want to clone it. It's not going to tell me to blog very frequently, as you can see.
$text1 = 'Get up & walk around a bit';
$text2 = 'Find some actual work to do';
$text3 = 'Surf the web';
$text4 = 'Learn something';
$text5 = 'Blog something';
$text6 = 'Go talk to somebody about that project';
$text7 = 'Clear the decks';
$text8 = 'Check notes';
@a = ($text2,$text2,$text2,$text2,$text1,$text1,$text3,$text4,$text4,$text4,$text4,$text5,$text6,$text6,$text7,$text8,$text8,$text8,);
print $a[int rand($#a)];
$goodbye = <STDIN>;
I have created a new word!
Mitch Berg mentions a woman who pretended to give birth to septuplets in order to cadge community support.
My descriptor? "Ziptuplets."
I had fun after work the last couple of nights working in the yard. I think that's the way things are going to get done around the house. I simply cannot commit to long periods of "cleaning the house" or "working on the yard." So I ran the lawnmower Monday night (started 1st pull, after a long Winter break!), and putzed around in the yard for an hour or so last night. After I moved some brush to the burn barrel, Annie & I wound up picking up rocks in the Mud Feature (i.e. the dirt left behind from this winter's septic field lines installation.) I did feel a bit of a burn and such so maybe I'm doing something right. Now if I can STOP EATING AN ENTIRE BOX OF GIRL SCOUT COOKIES IN ONE SITTING I'll get some benefit. (3 boxes left.)
The neighbor's dog is a continuing shock to me. It's a smallish breed and is in shocking condition. Her(?) fur is filthy and matted, and at times I've seen ribs clearly pressing out from her little chest. Annie & I went to look at her (she's in a fence) and Annie said that a neighbor lady had told her that she had given the owner some money to feed the dog.
I've reported the situation to Gwinnett County Animal Control twice now, but have seen no sign of their having done anything. So I took pictures last night...I'll post them here and send them on to Animal Control soon.
My play was a huge success...for the audiences who saw it. For the venue, and the theatre group, not so much, I'm sad to say. The culprit, as elucidated by my director: scheduling. Putting up a show on both weekends surrounding Spring Break? Not too smart. The Flying Saucer wound up cancelling shows with too few reservations, and I can't say I blame them. As a Community Theatre actor, I work for free - but the venue has to make money, and putting on a kitchen and wait staff for 5 dinner theatre patrons ain't the way to do it. I've fallen prey to poor scheduling of shows before, and so I tend to go along with this overall explanation. I can't complain about the marketing of the show, as it was more vigorous than other shows I've been involved with. We certainly had few if any dissatisfied patrons and so word-of-mouth must have been pretty good.
Oh, well - it was extremely satisfying and I got to do what I love best: make large groups of people laugh. What's next for me I do not know. Annie's ballet is this weekend and Tasha's play is at the start of May. I'm hoping to audition in May and direct in February but that's all subject to change.