Sep16

100 Things

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100 Things

If you had to think of 100 things that make you happy, could you? Not ridiculous things, like winning the lottery, or once-in-a-blue-moon things, like a tropical vacation, but those little things that might just go unnoticed until you think about them.

By the way, if “tropical vacation” is a “regular thing” in your life, just skip this post.  Maybe even this entire blog.  I’m not sure I like you.

Here’s my hundred, in no particular order.  I hope you take the time to think about yours, and realize that every day gives us reason to smile, to celebrate, to be grateful.

  1.  Bacon
  2. The first hummingbird of the season
  3. Having morning coffee on the porch with Steve
  4. The smell of BBQ wafting up into the house
  5. Watching the fountain show at Bellagio
  6. A St. Louis Cardinal baseball game at Busch Stadium, even in the crappy seats
  7. Changing the seasonal wreath on the front porch
  8. Baking Christmas cookies
  9. A really good haircut
  10. Moose sneaking up on the couch to fall asleep with his head in my lap
  11. Gathering chicken eggs in the morning
  12. A good thunderstorm, with plenty of lightning
  13. Jack in the Box tacos, the ones that have fake meat in them
  14. Our ornamental plum tree, when it’s in full bloom
  15. A good fresh tomato
  16. Turning the kitchen calendar, which is always purchased for beautiful photos, to a new month
  17. Watching it snow
  18. A good book
  19. Shark Week on Discovery Channel
  20. Darsee & David’s Hemingway scented candles
  21. Making menus for a family meal
  22. Playing Spades with friends, or Poker with anyone
  23. Bumpy airplane flights
  24. Making a new decorative wreath
  25. Writing….anything
  26. People watching anywhere, but especially from a comfy chair with a refreshment
  27. Queso & chips, the homemade kind with white cheese
  28. Watching the St. Louis Cardinals on TV
  29. Strolling Soulard Market
  30. Picking out new paint colors for a wall
  31. A road trip to ANYWHERE with Steve
  32. An hour in Barnes & Noble
  33. Trying out a new recipe, bonus if it turns out correctly
  34. Putting up the Christmas Tree
  35. Towels right out of the dryer
  36. Windows down, 45 mph or faster, singing at the top of my lungs
  37. Ice crystals in the trees
  38. All the other hummingbirds
  39. Having a standoff with a fence lizard on the porch to see who moves first
  40. Watching the bats swoop around at dusk
  41. Seeing the Clydesdales, extra points for full regalia and in formation
  42. Kids on Halloween
  43. Fishing with Steve
  44. Having my house full of people
  45. A Sunday newspaper spread out on the bed
  46. Helping kids write letters to Santa
  47. Holding a puppy that still has “puppy smell”
  48. Turning the lights on the Christmas Village every night,  bonus for the first time each season
  49. Finding money I didn’t know I had in my pocket
  50. Taking photographs
  51. Snuggling up to watch a movie
  52. Popcorn popped on the stove, in a big heavy pot, with real butter
  53. Sitting around a fire in the backyard
  54. Coming home to a miraculously clean house, thanks to my husband
  55. Watching the roosters chase each other around in the yard
  56. An email or phone call from a friend that I’ve not seen in awhile
  57. Stumbling onto a Fall Festival or Craft Fair
  58. Getting the new Rand McNally Road Atlas that comes out every year (WalMart, $5.97)
  59. Making green pancakes for my grandson
  60. Cardinals huddling in the tree during the winter
  61. A trip to the St. Louis Zoo
  62. Watching deer on the trail behind the house, when they don’t notice me
  63. Listening to my mother-in-law tell a story
  64. Watching my adult children transform into teenagers whenever they’re in a room together
  65. The smell of freshly cut grass, especially when it’s mine and I can enjoy a well manicured lawn
  66. Listening to Louie Armstrong sing “What a Wonderful World”
  67. Listening to the dogs snore
  68. Re-reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” for the umpteenth time
  69. Making Easter baskets, and choosing which color grass to use for each one
  70. A really good watermelon
  71. A wander through any nature preserve, state park, or national forest
  72. Bull riding (watching bull riding….I know my limits)
  73. Watching toddlers spontaneously start dancing
  74. Repotting a plant
  75. Putting on flannel pajamas on a cold night
  76. Making donuts out of refrigerator biscuits with the grandkids
  77. Finding a bird’s nest tucked into a bush (or Steve’s work bench)
  78. Christmas music blasting through the house….especially pre-1970 recordings
  79. Catching a movie version of a classic musical on TV, especially West Side Story or The Music Man
  80. Parades, especially those featuring high school marching bands
  81. The smell of burning leaves
  82. A well applied new coat of nail polish on my toes, with no “oopsies”
  83. Seeing a hot air balloon in the sky
  84. Really good, really authentic English Toffee
  85. Driving on the High Road during peak “color changing” weeks in the Fall
  86. Listening to peepers in the evening
  87. Playing Scrabble
  88. An unplanned afternoon nap on the couch
  89. Finding out my hotel room has complimentary CONDITIONER along with the shampoo
  90. A blooming flower garden, bonus for purple flowers
  91. Hot cocoa made from scratch, with real vanilla in it
  92. Getting together with my siblings
  93. Watching the light bulb go on when teaching one of the grandkids something
  94. Getting a new catalog in the mail, even though I’m not going to order anything from it
  95. Having all the windows open in the house instead of using the furnace or AC
  96. Realizing that I’ve hit the airplane seat assignment jackpot:  Exit Row, Aisle
  97. Perusing the olive oil store (yes, we have a store dedicated to olive oil) or the candle store
  98. Watching the sun rise from the back deck
  99. Realizing it’s Girl Scout Cookie season

 

Looking up through the trees

And, finally, 100.  Finishing a project, whether it be writing Christmas cards, rearranging the pantry, or making a list of 100 things that make me happy.

Feb26

Randomness from a sleepy mind

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Randomness from a sleepy mind

I want to know what the potential buyers from House Hunters International do for a living.   I mean, I’m happy for people who can spend $800,000 for an apartment in Italy, but they’re 23 years old and look like retail clerks.  Jealous?  Maybe.

Why can’t scientists genetically engineer a grass that only grows 3 inches high?  You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult.   They’ve come up with giant watermelon and tomatoes the size of my thumbnail, but they can’t muck around with grass?  Is Husqvarna  involved in some giant conspiracy to keep our lawns out of control?

Who came up with the popcorn ceiling and why?  Texture, schmexture, it’s nothing but ugly.  I want to meet the guy who convinced people that this was a good look for any room anywhere.

Remember when the advantage of cable television was that there were no commercials?  That’s why you PAID for television, because you could watch shows, even complete movies, with no interruptions.  Now I’ve got 750 channels, and 494 of them are nothing but infomercials.   Satellite radio subscribers, take note.  This is happening on the radio, too.

I can’t remember the last time I was in a restaurant that offered soft boiled eggs for breakfast.  What happened to soft boiled eggs?

Elephants are huge, and they only eat vegetation.  Lions are lean, and they only eat meat.  Why should I have salad EVER?

Why is there an Easter Bunny rather than an Easter Chicken, or Easter Duck, or some other egg bearing animal?

Why don’t they sell cashews or macadamias in their shells?

Society has decided that a person isn’t responsible enough to drive before the age of 16, vote before the age of 18, or drink alcohol before the age of 21, yet  can retain custody of a child as long as you gave birth to it, even if you were only 12.  Brilliant.

When will we finally have hover travel, like in The Jetsons?

Are airline tickets for flights on 12.13.12 going to be really really cheap?

Why hasn’t someone invented a pillow that stays cool on both sides so you don’t have to flip it over?  Battery operated, maybe, or on a swivel cord?  (I’m claiming rights to this idea, in case any of you try to patent it tomorrow.

Conversely, I have seats that heat in my car, but I can’t get a mattress with built in heat.  Why, oh why am I destined to have a cold arse for the first 30 minutes of sleep?

The national average salary for a high school teacher is $52,000 annually; astronauts range from $65,000 – $100,000 annually; the President of the United States earns $400,000; LeBron James earned $45,000,000 last year.   That’s a head scratcher.

Why hasn’t Jelly Belly made a bacon flavored jelly bean?  How did cappuccino flavor make it to market before bacon?

Jan15

Remembering Miss Opal

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Remembering Miss Opal

My little home office is not really an office.  It’s a small rectangle on one side of our loft bedroom, and it consists of an old kitchen table and a 1 drawer filing cabinet.  It’s functional, though, and the placement of the kitchen table in front of the southern window offers views that make up for the lack of fancy digs.

Today I was looking out that window, watching the smoke from the neighbor’s chimney float up into the winter trees, and suddenly I could practically taste my grandmother’s cherry pie.

Just as quickly, I started to cry.  Seriously, is there a pill that controls erratic emotional responses?  Someone please send me some.

For as long as I can remember, my parents would take me, and usually my sisters, to Granny’s the weekend after school was dismissed for summer break, and pick me up the weekend before school was to start again.  I thought it was a great reward, but have come to realize that it was my mother’s way of getting a breather.  My summers were spent weeding the vegetable garden, fishing with Grandpa, picking strawberries, watching Days of Our Lives and  wrestling on TV (from the Chase Park Plaza hotel, dontcha know!), and listening to Granny rant about whatever had gotten her dander up.  On real hot days, we’d sit under the big tree in the yard on the aluminum folding chairs with the green and white nylon webbing, drinking lemonade or sometimes even a bottle of Double Cola, and talk about the neighbors.

Her name was Florence Opal, but she must not have liked Florence very much because everyone called her Opal. She was born the second of 10 children in 1904, and her personality was typical of someone who survived The Great Depression.  She saved everything, from scraps of tin foil, to bread bags, to gift wrap and Christmas bows.  She took in ironing for neighbors to bring extra money into the house.  She would stand for hours at that ironing board, sprinkling the shirts and slacks with water from an old Vess soda bottle to make steam.  My job was to be ready with a hanger when each piece was finished, making sure the creases were just right.  She made quilts by hand from children’s clothes long outgrown, grew her own vegetables, and could make one chicken feed 5 people for one supper and 2 dinners.  (If you don’t know the difference between a supper and a dinner, call a friend in the Midwest to explain it to you.)

She most certainly wasn’t a saint.  She was known to throw back shots of whiskey rather early in the day “for my nerves”, and she harbored a temper that would make you run for a hiding spot.  She was the finest grudge holder I’ve ever known, at one point refusing to speak to her own mother for several years.  It’s one of the traits I wish she’d not passed down to me.

Oh, the food.  My grandparents ran a tavern in St. Louis for many years, long before I entered the family, and Granny never lost her ability to put a spread on the table.  She made a mean fried chicken, wilted salad with hot bacon drippings, mashed potatoes with pan dripping gravy, and an unrivaled spaghetti sauce….and the cherry pie.  She made the best cherry pie ever, and once she knew you liked her cherry pie, she’d make sure there was a fresh one anytime she saw you.

Miss Opal left us in 1997, long after the loss of her husband and two of her three children.  I’d like to think that it was a good life, but I’m not sure it was.  She worked hard every day, and had very little to show for it.  I can only remember Granny going to a restaurant once, on a Mother’s Day when they were visiting us in St. Louis.  She never bought herself clothes, wearing housecoats most days, and alternating her 2 church dresses when the need arose.  I never saw her in a pair of pants, ever. She didn’t have jewelry, or fancy dishes, or a big house.  She never took a vacation.  She had no hobbies that I know of, and I only hope she enjoyed the cooking and canning and sewing that she did every day.  The last few months of her life were spent in a nursing home, which provided more medical supervision, but the loss of her familiar surroundings took what was left of her memory and independence.  I remember thinking when she died that she deserved to leave this earth with more dignity than she did, and that was the most painful part.

The tears are still a mystery.  Part melancholy, part guilt over not knowing her more, part realization that someday, my grandchildren will be thinking about something they miss about me.  It certainly won’t be my cherry pie, because of all the things Miss Opal taught me, it wasn’t how to bake a pie or fry a chicken.  I got her temper and her wicked tongue, but not her cooking skill.  God’s funny like that.

I hope Granny is at rest now, reunited with her husband and all her children.  If I had one more day with her, I’d ask her about her happiest days, and regrets she had, and what it was like to live through the Depression….and I’d let her know I don’t even bother eating cherry pie anymore, because it never tastes the way it should.