Sound and Fury

Went to the symphony in Sioux Falls yesterday.  Bus trip.  Mostly geezers like us.  The music, as always, was awesome.  The second part was Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, an interactive presentation with the Augustana drama department and an amazing chorus.  It SHOULD have been an absolutely enthralling experience.  It was, instead, as the title suggests, sound and fury.  The sound system at Washington Pavilion was once again incredibly bad!  I could barely distinguish the language much less the nuances necessary for enjoyment.  The acting, although at times way over the top, even for this comedy, was consistent and for several, amazingly well done.  (I'm sure I should play Puck in another life!)  Now, if I had only been able to understand what they were saying!  Such a shame in a place touted for its acoustics. It truly reminded me that we listen with our ears and our eyes.  The visual was fun.  The music was fun.  And while I wouldn't say I'm furious about the sound, I ain't happy!  So it is.  A little Monday morning rant to start the week.  "Ah, what fools these mortals be."  I hear that!  And you are loved!

Sunday morning random

Supposedly, we are currently enjoying the balm before the storm.  Ran sans coat--even took off the gloves!

No one is as happy to see you as a hungry cat.

I'm not sure whether it speaks to my eye for detail, or my shape, but I didn't notice I had my running pants on backward until I tried to put my gloves in my pocket.  Hmmmm.

64 ounces of water seems like a lot more coming out than going in.

Why is it something you don't anticipate with joy usually turns out to be okay?   Lower expectations yield higher emotional results?

One should retire one's running clothes after two sojourns.  The third time is not the charm.  Of course, they're easy to get ready for the wash.  Simply stand them next to the machine!

Onions, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mayonnaise should not make an absolutely phenomenal hot dip.  They do.  8 oz. cream cheese, 1 cup chopped onion, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup mayo.  Mix together and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  YUM!

Why do you always want to read to the end of my blog?  To get the surprise recipes!

In a world that goes too fast and at times is hard to fathom, rest assured that there is one constant.  You are loved!

The simple things

I consider myself a man of simple needs...a comfortable home, tasty food, a pet or two, and a woman I love with whom to share these things.  Simply put, I am amazingly blessed.  Why then do you suppose it is impossible for me to keep a clear path from the bottom of the basement stairs to my computer six feet away?  I am well intentioned.  Every time I clear a path, I vow to keep it that way.  Yeah, right!  Life happens, we get busy doing the things we enjoy, and quietly, surreptitiously, something small gets left out.  Then, during the night, someone feeds it, and like Gremlins, it self propagates and turns into a plethora of animalistic items precluding safe passage.  So today, I take my basement taming whip and chair, and come Helen Highwater, I shall reclaim!  Already this morning, I can get to the shoe rack.  It took 35 minutes and two garbage cans, but the beast(s) have retreated!  Of course, small victories must be celebrated, so it's time for coffee and puzzles in my comfortable porch, complete with breakfast, the dogs, AND the woman I love!  As I said, simple!  And you are loved!

There are many shades of gray...

In the car.  Headed north from Brookings.  Everything is the same color.  Gray.  The sky, which was bright and radiant when we left home is now gray.  The snow in the ditch allows glimpses of growth underneath, turning the overall hue to gray.  The asphalt is gray.  I understand now the root word of monotonous!  One starts to look forward to the breaks...the brilliant green of the mile markers.  The golden yellow of the left shoulder paint warning us that we have been lulled into a stupor by the sameness.  The bright reflectors to announce cross overs.  The welcoming bright blue of the rest area signs.  And the vibrant splash of color announcing Jean's bridal shop.  But the big picture?  Gray!  Even the cars we meet...gray.  I search the horizon.  I spot a farmhouse.  It has a barn.  It must be....  You guessed it.  Steel building gray.
On the horizon, I spot a school bus...all a bright yellow loaded I imagine with children excited to be done for the day, planning their weekend, and reveling in their youth.  The imagined exuberance, the remembered excitement, and the knowledge that if Annie is right, the sun will come up tomorrow, shifts my mood.  And while I look ahead to the gray sky, Cathy points out some burros along the way.  Now that, as the gate keeper of Oz would say, is a horse of a different color.  Two literary allusions in one paragraph?  That's pretty colorful prose, somewhere between the extremes of black and white!  You bring color to my life, and you are loved!

Do I? Don't I?

Infinite variety my aunt Mabel's behind!  Tease? 

Perhaps.  Disgusting?  Definitely! Enough? 

On a scale of one to ten, that would be an 

affirmative response at a 12! I speak to the 

rain.  I speak to the sleet.  I speak to the 

snow.  I speak to the wind. Knock this crap 

off.  Ordinarily, I'm the "at least it won't 

last long" kind of guy during bad weather in 

March.  I realize I have no direct control 

over it, so why let this stuff bother me? 

Because I am old and cranky.  Because I think 

I suffer from Seasonal Attitude Disorder 

(looking outside I am definitely SAD!). 

Because this has been the longest fricking 

winter in my long and rose colored recollection. 

And I have these garishly green shorts that I 

want the whole world to enjoy!  But no.  It rains.

It sleets.  It snows.  It blows. 

What, you might ask, does this have to so with 

the title of this blog? We're supposed to host 

bridge club tonight, and none of us is young. 

Will this quit in time to be safely on the road? 

Should I call and cancel?  Dilemma!  I know!  I'll 

let Cath decide!  Finally, a forecast I can live 

with!  Stay tuned for more ranting, 

raving, and reassurances that you are loved!

A different drum

On our way to Sioux Falls for the first of two appointments this week for Cath.  Today, it's a second opinion on why she is still having knee pain.  Friday, it's checkup time at the otodontist.  I'm sure that's more information than you cared to know, but we're old and infirmities are discussable.  Not the reason for today's opine, however.  The radio, as it is want to do, just took me back 44 years.  I'm  a junior/senior at Moorhead State, and planning my mid-term unit for Teaching English in the Secondary Schools (one of the three times I made it to class!):  The American transcendentals and the concept of traveling to the beat of a different drummer.  It strikes me...why not a wedding of Henry David Thoreau and Linda Ronstadt?  (Bizarre conceptualization has never been a stretch for me...perhaps. It's because I do indeed hear a different...). While one speaks philosophically and one speaks romantically, both espouse the fact that we are all different, and rather than see those differences as divisive, we should see them as positives.  It is, after all, the differences that excite and attract, and while we may not agree on all things, see things in the same light, or at times even be in the same book not to mention on the same page, we need to encourage the difference and embrace the diversity.  If we simply surround ourselves with like images, the cadence may be harmonious, but extremely predictable (translate...boring!).  Henry would tell you to let them follow their beat (and you follow yours) and according to the radio (and that lesson plan from so long ago) Linda would encourage you to wait until you can blend rhythms into a unique and wonderful beat!  All this because we're in the car!  Amazing.  And you are loved!

Don't you wish you were in Drama Study Club?

What do they say?  One picture is worth a thousand words? 

I have four words to add.

Lemon, left.  Coconut, right.

And you are loved!