Off We Go
Hello World,
Well, I see that July 4th has come and gone, and I was glad to have a long three-day weekend to enjoy it with no other obligations to get in the way. The Flag Brigade did an excellent job of putting the flags out in the morning, upstairs and downstairs, and also remembering to take them back inside later, which is not something we take for granted with The Flag Brigade around here, believe me. On Saturday, we got our plaid on for the 88th annual Round Hill Highland Games at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, and a fine time was had by all, particularly all of us fans of our favorite Celtic fusion band, Mac Talla M'or, who are always a special treat to see live. With the sound of bagpipes still ringing in our ears, we headed off to Denny's for dinner, which somehow managed to add even more wonderfulness to an already wonderful day, especially with their delightful new Hawaiian Tropical Smoothie thrown in for good measure. This is my idea of time off for good behavior, and we made the most of it, by golly.
Yesterday it must have been about 90 degrees out, so I was understandably surprised when I leaned against one of the radiators in the house and burned my hand. I walked around and checked, and sure enough, all of the radiators were red hot and tossing off heat like a drunken sailor throwing punches in a bar-room brawl. Having the heat running full-blast in the middle of July is not a common occurrence in our experience, and it must be said that all of this heat in no way improved the interior conditions in the place at the time, I can tell you that. Of course, Bill leaped into action, and dashed headlong down the basement stairs, and soon had the furnace back under control, from where it had apparently lost its steam-powered marbles, either in a misguided fit of unseasonable insanity, or perhaps diabolical instructions from our power company, I shouldn't wonder. On the other hand, everyone knows that I wouldn't rule out the ghost of Affirmed, either.
Meanwhile at work, the stupid little lot where I park happens to be on the street that the municipality runs their road tests for people applying for a drivers license, and on the days when they do this, you can see the dead-end part of the street is parked solid with driving hopefuls and their instructors, just awaiting the signal to begin. Earlier in the week, I was walking to my building from the parking lot at the same time that one of the applicants took off, no doubt with high hopes and cheerful enthusiasm, only to get to the very first corner and drive right over the curb. Ouch! I'm thinking that's not the most auspicious start to the test, and I'm sure our old friends the dinosaurs would agree with me on that, if they would only stop laughing long enough.
Speaking of inauspicious starts, alert readers may recall that my camping gear was moved out of the attic last year, after the furry varmints chewed on it, thanks not, and after I came back from vacation, it stayed in the living room, where at least I didn't have to worry about it getting chewed on by anybody. Unfortunately, the furry varmints had the last laugh after all, because it turned out to be in a spot that was under a leak, and I never noticed it until I was gathering up everything I needed to pack, and was disheartened to find things like the cot and beach towels all soggy, and once again, thanks so very much not. Now, I will admit that taking pre-wet towels to the beach might be someone's idea of a time-saving concept, but it's the kind of slippery moral prevarication that I simply have to draw the line at, and that's all there is to it.
And while we're on the subject of drawing lines, we had a gaggle of contractors at our house earlier, who arrived en masse to consider what might be done about our sagging porch. In fact, there were so many of them, and they created such a disturbance with their equipment, that they actually chased off the neighbor's redoubtable kitty, the omnipresent Cinna-Mooch, and don't forget, this was the cat who plunged head-first into the Vimovo commercial shoot across the street without a second thought. In any case, the contractors decided that they needed to clear some space from the front steps to the side porch, and chopped down some of the more obstreperous weeds along the way, and my poor little pink bleeding heart plant right along with it, thanks not. But I noticed later that they didn't touch the rampant alien mutant poison ivy that was right next to it, they just left it standing right there, waving its tentacles in a menacing fashion, and just as much in the way as anything else that they already cut down. Say, I guess those contractors aren't as dumb as they look, after all.
Alert readers may recall a previous note on the topic of early Christmas music for churches, and by "early," I don't mean early in the history of the Christian church throughout the ages, but early in the sense of arriving in June, rather than closer to the holiday in December. After giving this some thought, Bill had this to say about it:
============================
I also loved the "ready to sing" songs. Makes me wonder if people have gotten SO ahead of themselves that they are impatient with EVERYTHING. Like the fine print on the Regular Songs might read "we are so excited about bringing this new music to you that we are publishing it before the composer is done writing it. Please be advised that early-adopters will be notified when a complete score becomes available. Your results may vary and sample MP3s are not typical."
Or, perhaps, the Ready To Sing songs actually come complete with singers? Maybe you fill in which parts you, personally sing and they provide the missing people? "Even people with desperate performance anxiety can now perform our Ready To Sing songs with no fear whatsoever! All songs come with a pre-certified singer, Ready To Sing them for you."
============================
I think he may be onto something there, and frankly, I love that idea of the singers that come along with the music. Taking that a step further, how great it would be to order Sunday School curriculum materials and have them send a teacher with it; or a cookbook that included a first-class chef; or mail-order plants that came with their own gardener - the possibilities are endless. That last one sounds like a winner to me, although there would probably be some disclaimer in the fine print that they are not required to deal with rampant alien mutant poison ivy, alas.
I took a day off today so that I could finish packing for vacation, and now I'm just about as ready as I'm going to be. In the local area, it spent the day mostly raining on and off, so I'm hoping that it has now gotten it out of its system, and I can look forward to a whole week of beautiful weather, not like last year, for heaven's sake. So nobody will hear from me next week, as I will be out in the woods, and splashing in the waves, and completely "off the grid" in terms of modern technology and electronic gadgets of all kinds. In fact, the dinosaurs even suggested that I leave the tent at home, and fashion myself a lean-to out of branches and vines, but I thought that was taking it a bit too far. I mean, I realize that they find themselves hugely amusing - one might even say of epic proportions - but I had to remind them there's a reason they became extinct.
Elle
Well, I see that July 4th has come and gone, and I was glad to have a long three-day weekend to enjoy it with no other obligations to get in the way. The Flag Brigade did an excellent job of putting the flags out in the morning, upstairs and downstairs, and also remembering to take them back inside later, which is not something we take for granted with The Flag Brigade around here, believe me. On Saturday, we got our plaid on for the 88th annual Round Hill Highland Games at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, and a fine time was had by all, particularly all of us fans of our favorite Celtic fusion band, Mac Talla M'or, who are always a special treat to see live. With the sound of bagpipes still ringing in our ears, we headed off to Denny's for dinner, which somehow managed to add even more wonderfulness to an already wonderful day, especially with their delightful new Hawaiian Tropical Smoothie thrown in for good measure. This is my idea of time off for good behavior, and we made the most of it, by golly.
Yesterday it must have been about 90 degrees out, so I was understandably surprised when I leaned against one of the radiators in the house and burned my hand. I walked around and checked, and sure enough, all of the radiators were red hot and tossing off heat like a drunken sailor throwing punches in a bar-room brawl. Having the heat running full-blast in the middle of July is not a common occurrence in our experience, and it must be said that all of this heat in no way improved the interior conditions in the place at the time, I can tell you that. Of course, Bill leaped into action, and dashed headlong down the basement stairs, and soon had the furnace back under control, from where it had apparently lost its steam-powered marbles, either in a misguided fit of unseasonable insanity, or perhaps diabolical instructions from our power company, I shouldn't wonder. On the other hand, everyone knows that I wouldn't rule out the ghost of Affirmed, either.
Meanwhile at work, the stupid little lot where I park happens to be on the street that the municipality runs their road tests for people applying for a drivers license, and on the days when they do this, you can see the dead-end part of the street is parked solid with driving hopefuls and their instructors, just awaiting the signal to begin. Earlier in the week, I was walking to my building from the parking lot at the same time that one of the applicants took off, no doubt with high hopes and cheerful enthusiasm, only to get to the very first corner and drive right over the curb. Ouch! I'm thinking that's not the most auspicious start to the test, and I'm sure our old friends the dinosaurs would agree with me on that, if they would only stop laughing long enough.
Speaking of inauspicious starts, alert readers may recall that my camping gear was moved out of the attic last year, after the furry varmints chewed on it, thanks not, and after I came back from vacation, it stayed in the living room, where at least I didn't have to worry about it getting chewed on by anybody. Unfortunately, the furry varmints had the last laugh after all, because it turned out to be in a spot that was under a leak, and I never noticed it until I was gathering up everything I needed to pack, and was disheartened to find things like the cot and beach towels all soggy, and once again, thanks so very much not. Now, I will admit that taking pre-wet towels to the beach might be someone's idea of a time-saving concept, but it's the kind of slippery moral prevarication that I simply have to draw the line at, and that's all there is to it.
And while we're on the subject of drawing lines, we had a gaggle of contractors at our house earlier, who arrived en masse to consider what might be done about our sagging porch. In fact, there were so many of them, and they created such a disturbance with their equipment, that they actually chased off the neighbor's redoubtable kitty, the omnipresent Cinna-Mooch, and don't forget, this was the cat who plunged head-first into the Vimovo commercial shoot across the street without a second thought. In any case, the contractors decided that they needed to clear some space from the front steps to the side porch, and chopped down some of the more obstreperous weeds along the way, and my poor little pink bleeding heart plant right along with it, thanks not. But I noticed later that they didn't touch the rampant alien mutant poison ivy that was right next to it, they just left it standing right there, waving its tentacles in a menacing fashion, and just as much in the way as anything else that they already cut down. Say, I guess those contractors aren't as dumb as they look, after all.
Alert readers may recall a previous note on the topic of early Christmas music for churches, and by "early," I don't mean early in the history of the Christian church throughout the ages, but early in the sense of arriving in June, rather than closer to the holiday in December. After giving this some thought, Bill had this to say about it:
============================
I also loved the "ready to sing" songs. Makes me wonder if people have gotten SO ahead of themselves that they are impatient with EVERYTHING. Like the fine print on the Regular Songs might read "we are so excited about bringing this new music to you that we are publishing it before the composer is done writing it. Please be advised that early-adopters will be notified when a complete score becomes available. Your results may vary and sample MP3s are not typical."
Or, perhaps, the Ready To Sing songs actually come complete with singers? Maybe you fill in which parts you, personally sing and they provide the missing people? "Even people with desperate performance anxiety can now perform our Ready To Sing songs with no fear whatsoever! All songs come with a pre-certified singer, Ready To Sing them for you."
============================
I think he may be onto something there, and frankly, I love that idea of the singers that come along with the music. Taking that a step further, how great it would be to order Sunday School curriculum materials and have them send a teacher with it; or a cookbook that included a first-class chef; or mail-order plants that came with their own gardener - the possibilities are endless. That last one sounds like a winner to me, although there would probably be some disclaimer in the fine print that they are not required to deal with rampant alien mutant poison ivy, alas.
I took a day off today so that I could finish packing for vacation, and now I'm just about as ready as I'm going to be. In the local area, it spent the day mostly raining on and off, so I'm hoping that it has now gotten it out of its system, and I can look forward to a whole week of beautiful weather, not like last year, for heaven's sake. So nobody will hear from me next week, as I will be out in the woods, and splashing in the waves, and completely "off the grid" in terms of modern technology and electronic gadgets of all kinds. In fact, the dinosaurs even suggested that I leave the tent at home, and fashion myself a lean-to out of branches and vines, but I thought that was taking it a bit too far. I mean, I realize that they find themselves hugely amusing - one might even say of epic proportions - but I had to remind them there's a reason they became extinct.
Elle
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 6:19 PM
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