Norms Bait and Tackle

[MarsGal]

All this bad news is getting me down. I do hope we all get some good news soon. We all need it.

I am not feeling too chipper myself these last few days. Got my second COVID shot on Tuesday and now I have been dealing with a warm to the touch itchy rash just below the injection site. If it doesn't clear up by Monday I may call the doctor. It is a similar reaction to what I get with a Tetanus booster which the doctor won't give me anymore unless necessary.

It has been cool and damps here since yesterday. We still have rain this morning with the temp at 49^oF. I think I"ll go put the heat on this morning since it is to stay in the 50s today.

[MaryPage]

Hey, Beverly!  Good to touch base with you once again.  Well, we are grey-headed ancients now, and the lack of blooming good health is disconcerting, to say the least.  I protest on a daily basis, and, on a daily basis have to accept all over again that youth ain't coming back to the moaning & groaning organs I carry around and medicate because they are filling up and falling apart with decay and disease.  So be it: I'll keep kicking that can down the road as long as I am able to see there IS a road. Oh, it IS good to hear your family-growing news, Beverly!

Raining here.  I feel sorry for the hoards of the healthy who have not had a vacation for over a year now and made reservations at the myriad hotels & motels that line what were once pristine ocean beaches all along the Eastern limits of our beautiful state of Maryland.  How discouraged they must be feeling as they strap the kids in the car seats and hand them snacks and check their little movie screens.  Sure a different coming and going than we knew back in the day.  I think my 27 great grandchildren think of me as that crazy old woman who tells all those tall tales about her youthful experiences.  No TV?  That's insane!  What on Earth did people do?

Rain & Fog, with a bay full of dark, choppy water.  Happy is the Old Crone privileged to Stay At Home and let the rains pour down on the ducks and disappointeds!  I'm cozy!

[patricia19]

Bev, I was glad to see your post but sorry to hear about your contained ill health.  Bev, I'm confused. Didn't you have twin great-granddaughters who would be a year or just past?

[Beverly]

MarsGal - I've heard about others who had the rash. Chape had a slight rash on his arm.

Jackie - You have certainly had more than your share of troubles! I will try to post more often.

Sandy - My daughter from Westbrook was here last week. She's the one who will be grandmother to three this year.

Mary Page - There are so many things our grands can't imagine. Like long trips with our three in the back of our station wagon with the seats down. We liked driving at night. The kids would get into their PJs and sleep for hours. Less "Are we there yet?" questions. 

Patricia - I'm wondering if you're thinking of Mary Ann Tock. Norm's grandson and his wife had twin girls and Mary Ann posted several pictures of them. Nary a twin in my family! 

[patricia19]

Than who are these twins?

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Beverly do what you can when you can, re, postings but, just keep posting to let us members know we dont need to worry over not seeing a posting from you, if that makes sense...Now waiting on our Joy to pop in and make her long overdue posting...

[Beverly]

Patricia- NOW I know what you're talking about! That's Everleigh and Ellie, Chape's youngest sister's great-grandchildren. I was focusing on my immediate family.  Those two are still adorable and over a year old now.  Our granddaughter Brynn's husband has twin uncles. Sooner or later twins sneak in!  Any twins in your family?

[patricia19]

Thanks for clearing that up Bev! It stuck in my mind because of the name similarities with MaryAnn's great-nieces. And I had to go looking for a photo in the photo reserves because I knew there had been twins at some point or I was 

We have sets of twins, but only one I'm aware of after the fifties; both sides of the family continue to grow and are unfortunately not as close as they were when I was growing up.

 

[Vanilla-Jackie]

To my friends...tomorrow is the day, ( my move day )
...i have a carer, ( well not my carer ) just that she is free tomorrow to give me a hand, re my move, who will be here bright and early, i have not met her but was given her details via my local MS Society when i contacted him for any help they can give, to help me when removals are ready to leave, booking the taxi-handing my key back, help to carry one of my bags as i grab onto my rollator etc,  i know my MS body will be letting me down and i will struggle to move, as i am struggling now, i know i am becoming very clumsy, already dropped and broke a couple of things that meant something special to me and my Richard....
...I will strip my bed and take meter readings, ( fridge-freezer defrosted and unplugged yesterday, ) phone the estate agent when i am on my way, someone should meet me there with the key...
... Tomorrow is going to be a UK all day, hot dry sunny day...i think what i am looking forwards to the most is being on flat ground with doors open and fresh air coming in, and if i hear birds singing in my garden, that will be a blessing...

[Marilyne]

Jackie - Hooray!  I'm really happy for you, and feel that this will be a much needed change.  The move itself, will be difficult, but once it's accomplished, you can sit back and enjoy yourself.  The cottage size and the ability to go outside whenever you want to, will be big improvement from where you are now.  Here's hoping that everything runs smoothly for you tomorrow.   

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Marilyne...
... this is my second move in 10 months and i am assuming a final move will take place as i cant-wont be able to look after myself, when i become a danger to myself, it is edging towards that way...but i will enjoy what i can while i still can...we know everything good comes to an end...

[MaryPage]

Jackie, you are just flat out amazing. I admire and wish I could emulate your spunk. I also want to say, Ditto everything Marilyne just said.

I seem to remember at one time knowing you only as Vanilla. And didn't Denver Darling & her Bob meet up with you when they went to England?  It is all so long ago and far away, and I feel all of the gravel pits of creeping dementia making miserable going these days. Caught in a tight wedge between wanting to complain at the top of my lungs to the four winds and feeling deeply shamed by your immense fortitude, I cower.  If I lived anywhere within a reasonable distance, I would position a huge banner over your new doorway: "HAPPY LIFE HERE IN YOUR NEW HOME, JACKIE!"

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Mary Page...yes we did meet when Jenny and Bob came to UK ( London ) we met up in Regents Park, an enjoyable couple of hours and good company....I had slight walking issues but we met before my MS diagnoses, so did not know what was waiting for me...

[CallieOK]

  and for Moving Day, Jackie.  Can't wait to read about your new home. 

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Callie - Mary Page...you know i would welcome you round if only you both lived closer...

[Denver]

It is Memorial Day here in the USA 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Rest In Peace, ALL of the Vets who fought for our freedom and died doing so so can we enjoy a free country today ‼️

Great to see your newsy post, BEVERLY.  HAPPY to read about the new awaited littles coming to your family. 

JACKIE, I do hope you can rest well tonight in preparation for your move tomorrow.  I do hope the helper is a good strong person that can do all you need her to do.  The sound of your new home makes me smile as I think you are going to be so much more comfortable there being on one floor and being able to get out in the garden to enjoy fresh air and listen to the birds💞

MARYPAGE it would be so delightful IF we ALL could go stand under that "HAPPY LIFE HERE IN YOUR NEW HOME, JACKIE" banner😘

PATRICIA, thank you for posting the picture of the twins....I knew where you were going when you asked about the recent twins, but I could not remember any details about them.

MARSGAL, I could not agree more regarding us having some good news to read about here!  We have been dark and drearily weekend 😩😩 I need some sunshine badly.  I hope the irritation from your shot is much better today.

Enjoy the holiday every one.

Jenny

[FlaJean]

Beverly, I was so glad to see your post.  Have thought of you often and wondered how you were doing.

Jackie, here's hoping all goes smoothly today with your moving.

Jenny, the news about Michele is so sad.  I often wonder how she keeps going.

We've been having some lovely weather.  Somehow the storms and heavy rains in the Gulf area have missed us.

We are losing our newest neighbor next door.  She has only been there a little over a year.  She just put it up for sale a couple of days ago and got multiple offers and already has it under contract.  I hope the new neighbors will be as nice as she and her boyfriend have been.  Most of the families on our street have been here for years.

Thinking of you Mary Page sitting in your comfy chair and enjoying the view.

Marilyne, Your area will soon be in fire season and our area will be in hurricane season.  Sure hope we will be spared again this year.

Patricia, Noticed that most people at Walmart's yesterday were not wearing their masks, but we are still being cautious.

Marsgal, hope you are feeling better today.

Have a good day all.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Jenny, if you see this, is your Michele starting to get some of her strength back now she is back home, i hope she s getting more stronger than what she was a few days ago when the hospital released her...

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Oh Jenny, makes you wonder if all this treatments she has been on is really worth it if it is making her so ill..( i have heard it mentioned that the treatment is worse than the cancer, ) what these treatments are doing to her, to her already frail body...is it the cancer or the treatments that is making her so frail and weak..not forgetting the pile of medications her body is being bombarded and overloaded with...I wish we had that magic wand to make all her misery just fade away into oblivion...

[patricia19]

I was going through the BobVilla.com internet site for some gardening advice when I saw a thread for nine towns that will pay you to live there. So I took a look and found this...Do you dream of living in Alaska? If you do, you could earn $1,000 a year just for living there. The state of Alaska maintains a Permanent Reserve Fund that pays dividends to residents who have lived in the state for at least one calendar year and plan to remain there indefinitely. So, pack your thermals and head out for a new life of adventure.

Unfortunately, this isn't true. When oil was discovered in the state many, many years ago, the state legislators decided to form an estimated dividend program for state residents based on the current year's oil lease earnings. People started moving in, homeless and broke, yet demanding their share of the dividends. So, the state made it a provision to live in the state for one calendar year before becoming eligible. And you need to reapply yearly. Now the oil boom is stuttering; oil is becoming scarce just like Texas and other oil states, so the dividend is on its way out.

[Marilyne]

"And what is so rare as a day in June?"

A poem that always reminds me of my Mother, who would often recite that first line,  during the Month of June.  She loved summer, and to  her, June 1, was the first day of her favorite season.  It is a particularly lovely month in Southern California, where I grew up.  Looking out the window from any house,  driving on a freeway,  walking in the neighborhoods and  parks, you will enjoy the gorgeous blue/purple Jacaranda trees blooming everywhere.  It's a sight to behold!  We also have them here in the Northern part of the state, but not as prolific, as the L.A. area.  Rose gardens are in full bloom everywhere,  and fruit trees here in my County, are filled with plums, apricots, and early peaches. 

The weather is just about perfect . . .  cool overnight and in the morning, and warm in the afternoon  and evening.  Everything outside is fresh, clean, and green and in bloom.  Then by July, everything is fading and starting to dry out,  and it turns hot, hot hot!     This year we are in another drought, so we will be on full water rationing by July.  Impossible to keep the yards looking nice, and green for the remainder of the Summer, so we have to let them go.     By August the wildfires start up around the State, and in recent years, they burgeon out of control, in  September and October.    So I will especially enjoy June, this year! 

"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten"

―James Russell Lowell

[MaryPage]

This is the one I remember, Marilyne. I memorized it when I was about thirteen, and have never been able to get it out of my head since. Mind you, that head is full of blanks concerning this very day, not to mention yesterday or last week; but remembers this.

April, April,
Laugh thy girlish laughter;
Then, the moment after,
Weep thy girlish tears!
April, that mine ears
Like a lover greetest,
If I tell thee, sweetest,
All my hopes and fears,
April, April,
Laugh thy golden laughter,
But, the moment after,
Weep thy golden tears!

William Watson, I believe

April used to be MY favorite month, you see; back when I was a Romantic.  Now the sensible old me loves May best.  I get presents all month long, for Mother's Day and my birthday.  Pretty cool, I think!

Speaking of "cool," don't you just hate it when you read a story or a book about say, the forties & World War Two times, and they use that and other expressions in the dialogue and you know perfectly well they were not yet in use!  Bugs me to bits.  Whats wrong with Swell or Golly or Gee Whiz?  We should give them a lexicon, is that the word?

I am very fond of October, as well and all, and I wrote this when I was sixteen:

October's bright blue weather
Clinging to the eaves:
Heart light as a feather
Dancing with the leaves,
My soul wants to wander,
Bursting from my heart,
Way up over yonder.
Wind, give me a start!

[Marilyne]

Mary Page - Your "October" poem is very good,  and one that should've been published!   Did you ever send a short story or a poem to a magazine, in hopes that they might like it, and you would see it published in an upcoming issue?   I worked hard on many a story or poem, and off it would go to  Seventeen or  Calling All Girls . . . never to be seen again!   I gave up in time, but my youngest daughter followed in my footsteps.  Instead of poems and stories, she was much more practical, and wrote many  Letters to the Editor, to our local San Jose Newspaper.   A few of them of them were actually published. 

YES,   my personal pet peeve, is a book or a movie about the 1940's/War Years, written or directed by someone who wasn't even born until the 1950's or later.  The dialogue is always wrong, the hairstyles and clothes are wrong, and the general attitude of the characters is wrong.  If you want to have a glimpse of what life was actually like in the 40's, you have to watch the old black and white movies, like,  "The Best Years of Our Lives",  "From Here to Eternity",  "Since You Went Away", and many many others.

I liked the "April" poem you posted as well.  I hope others will post a favorite poem?   Lots of good ones about the months of the year, but a poem about anything would be nice to read. 

Here is a short one about April.  I saved this one because the daughter I mentioned above, was born on April First.  Kind of describes her personality -

Always Marry An April Girl
   
Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.

- Ogden Nash

[MaryPage]

Love it!  And I adore Ogden Nash and have, literally, been reading him almost all of my life and have read whole books of his stuff and yet, and yet I am constantly bumping into stuff I have no memory of. This is one. How delightful!

I have dozens of his poems to memory, but the problem is, I get them all mixed up with some of Dorothy Parker's and Dixon Lanier Merritt.  I can remember rolling on the floor, literally, and laughing when I was quite young. "A wonderful bird is the pelican" or "Men seldom make passes" are two that I think were not Nash's. I now sound like my great grandmother, and I hate being tiresome in this way, but people could be hilarious back in the day, and never use a single unwholesome reference or unseemly remark.  Nowadays, I find the witty people rude, crude and unrefined, as we used to say.  And almost as bad, I seldom know what on earth they are talking about!

[Denver]

Today was to be a nicer day with sunshine and 71°.......ah, yeh, hasn't been that way and after a full holiday weekend with nothing but dreary and rainy days, Infor one was more than ready for some sunshine 😘

I enjoyed the poems....every one of them!



I just heard on the news that Colorado had more rain this past month than Washington and Oregon combined!  No doubt we need all we can get, BUT....enough is enough!

We are sitting here with Michele tonight as Dave is with Matt at his second lacrosse game.  He won the JV Game and now is playing a varsity game.  Poor guy is going to be exhausted when he comes home tonight.

I had PT today so I am feeling really sore and achy.  .PT says I am doing great! 

Hopefully JACKIES move went good today and she will back with us soon. 

Have a good rest of your evening. 
Jenny

[MarsGal]

Oh, Ogden Nash. I was first introduced to him when I was in high school. His limericks were great.  This is one of his excellent longer poems that I only just discovered thanks to you all for reminding me of his poetry.

Look What You Did, Christopher!

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
Someone sailed the ocean blue.
Somebody borrowed the fare in Spain
For a business trip on the bounding main,
And to prove to the people, by actual test,
You could get to the East by sailing West.
Somebody said, Sail on! Sail on!
And studied China and China's lingo,
And cried from the bow, There's China now!
And promptly bumped into San Domingo.
Somebody murmured, Oh dear, oh dear!
I've discovered the Western Hemisphere.

And that, you may think, my friends, was that.
But it wasn't. Not by a fireman's hat.
Well enough wasn't left alone,
And Columbus was only a cornerstone.
There came the Spaniards,
There came the Greeks,
There came the Pilgrims in leather breeks.
There came the Dutch,
And the Poles and Swedes,
The Persians, too,
And perhaps the Medes,
The Letts, the Lapps, and the Lithuanians,
Regal Russians, and ripe Roumanians.
There came the French
And there came the Finns,
And the Japanese
With their formal grins.
The Tartars came,
And the Terrible Turks -
In a word, humanity shot the works.
And the country that should have been Cathay
Decided to be
The U.S.A.

And that, you may think, my friends, was that.
But it wasn't. Not by a fireman's hat.
Christopher C. was the cornerstone,
And well enough wasn't left alone.
For those who followed
When he was through,
They burned to discover something, too.
Somebody, bored with rural scenery,
Went to work and invented machinery,
While a couple of other mental giants
Got together
And thought up Science.
Platinum blondes
(They were once peroxide),
Peruvian bonds
And carbon monoxide,
Tax evaders
And Vitamin A,
Vice crusaders,
And tattletale gray -
These, with many another phobia,
We owe to that famous Twelfth of Octobia.
O misery, misery, mumble and moan!
Someone invented the telephone,
And interrupted a nation's slumbers,
Ringing wrong but similar numbers.
Someone devised the silver screen
And the intimate Hollywood magazine,
And life is a Hades
Of clicking cameras,
And foreign ladies
Behaving amorous.
Gags have erased
Amusing dialog,
As gas has replaced
The crackling firelog.
All that glitters is sold as gold,
And our daily diet grows odder and odder,
And breakfast foods are dusty and cold -
It's a wise child
That knows its fodder.
Someone invented the automobile,
And good Americans took the wheel
To view American rivers and rills
And justly famous forests and hills -
But someone equally enterprising
Had invented billboard advertising.
You linger at home
In dark despair,
And wistfully try the electric air.
You hope against hope for a quiz imperial,
And what do they give you?
A doctor serial.
Oh, Columbus was only a cornerstone,
And well enough wasn't left alone,
For the Inquisition was less tyrannical
Than the iron rules of an age mechanical,
Which, because of an error in '92,
Are clamped like corsets on me and you,
While Children of Nature we'd be today
If San Domingo
Had been Cathay.

And that, you may think, my friends, is that.
But it isn't - not by a fireman's hat.
The American people,
With grins jocose,
Always survive the fatal dose.
And though our systems are slightly wobbly,
We'll fool the doctor this time, probly.

[phyllis]

Ogden Nash!  Who doesn't love his poetry!  But, "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses"....that was Dorothy Parker.  Another witty poet and favorite of mine.

[CallieOK]

I'm also a fan of Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker.

Mars Gal,  had never heard of the lengthy poem.
 
...Someone invented the telephone,
And interrupted a nation's slumbers,
Ringing wrong but similar numbers.
reminded me of the one Nash verse I can remember:
"If called by a panther
Don't anther"

MaryPage,  your mention of  "pelican" reminded me of another Nash poem I liked but I had to look it up because all I could remember was the last word.

A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill can hold more than his belican.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.

[MarsGal]

  I remember that one. What a character Nash must have been.

All I remember of Dorothy Parker is that she was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table and that she wrote columns. Didn't know she did Poetry. I doubt I ever read anything of hers unless I ran across a reprint of some reprinted essays or stories. Back in the early 60s I was reading my Dad's Esquire magazine, got my hands on a Playboy or two (That is where I first met up with Arthur C. Clarke. They did have good articles if you ignored the porn), The Atlantic and The New Yorker, oh, and The New York Times. Parker died two years after I graduated high school.

[patricia19]

Dorothy Parker has always been one of my heroes.

"Résumé
Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live."
― Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope


"In youth, it was a way I had,
To do my best to please.
And change, with every passing lad
To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do,
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you."
― Dorothy Parker, The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker


"By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this --
One of you is lying."
― Dorothy Parker


"Don't look at me in that tone of voice."

"I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
after four I'm under my host."


"You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think."