Twice on the way home I had to pull over; the rain was just too much. Made me think of the Carolinas, and of Bill Cosby’s Noah. Let’s say you get your own Ark. Enough cubits to be comfortable – size of a hotel room. You have one day to pack.
What goes with you on your Ark?
I had a long day yesterday. No fault of mine – just an enormous number of little fires to put out besides the one that needed attending. A hard deadline this morning meant I just had to push through and accept that I would be working quite late. As a confirmed morning person, I reacted to the impending late night by abandoning the healthy lunch I brought for pizza, downing one can of caffeinated pop and then one bottle of caffeinated pop. Then I had a bag of chips and a bag of trail mix for dinner. Dreadful behavior and of course, I eventually ended up at home late with a headache and a queasy stomach.
How do YOU get a second (or third) wind when you need it?
It made big news yesterday that Elon Musk has chosen tech billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, as the first moon tourist for his company, SpaceX. Maezawa is 42 and made his fortune in e-commerce, music and online fashion. He will be taking 10 other artists with him on the journey that should take 4-5 days. The SpaceX rocket won’t actually land on the moon, it’s called a slingshot trip around the Moon and is currently on track for 2023.
Maezawa seems very excited about his adventure but I say “to each his own”. Letting tons of rocket fuel go up in flame under my keester just doesn’t seem like a good idea. And, of course, I couldn’t go that far from my library!
Shot up into space
In a really small tin can?
Leave it to others.
Would you like to visit another planet (or moon)? Extra points for haiku or rhyming!
A few days ago Linda reminded me that the mute button on my tv remote is going to be my best friend for the next six weeks – until the election is over.
As a child, I was the remote control and the mute button, both in my own home and at my grandparents. Luckily, turning the sound down didn’t come up very often back then, although my grandfather did like to switch channels during commercials. Also luckily there were only 4 channels back then.
So I’d like to give a salute to Robert Adler and Eugene Polley, the recognized fathers of the remote control. Although there were a couple of earlier versions of the remote control, it was the Zenith Space Command that came out in 1956 that paved the way for future remotes. Adler and Polley won an Emmy for this work!
Is there an inventor you’d like to canonize?
You all know I’m a little obsessed with all things Sherlock Holmes. I don’t usually go looking for Sherlock but occasionally Sherlock comes to me when I’m not paying attention.
Last week I was looking for something else and stumbled across Sherlock Bones and the Missing Cheese, a children’s picture book. In that same foray I discovered that there is a video out there also named Sherlock Bones with a terrier starring as the illustrious detective. I also discovered that there is a series of books pairing Sherlock with Elizabeth Bennet, another character who has lived on past her initial publication. All of this took about 5 minutes!
The Missing Cheese book was at the local library, the Sherlock Holmes and Elizabeth Bennett is in paperback for a price I’m willing to pay on Amazon. Unfortunately the video is more than I’m willing to pay. I’m working to find it on some other library. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, the children’s book has great illustrations and the story line is fun, however, the poetry itself leaves a little to be desired. But in the category of new ways to portray Sherlock Holmes, it gets an “A”.
Tell me about a favorite character, or an author you follow loyally or a series you can’t get enough of.
On the way home from work I spied a card table on the boulevard with a little girl sitting behind it. I pulled over quickly; a card table on the boulevard with a child means just one thing – a lemonade stand.
When I was a kid, money was tight. My mother’s go to response when my sister or I asked for something was “there’s no money for that this month”. We were not poor by any means but there weren’t a lot of frills. So I was always trying to figure out ways to make a little bit of money, for candy or ice cream and the occasional Scholastic book.
One of those ways was a Kool-Aid stand. I could almost always convince my mother to part with one or two of the little Kool-Aid packets that we had in the pantry as well as the sugar. Construction paper and crayons were essential as well as paper cups. I sold the Kool-Aid for five cents and we lived on a fairly busy street so I could usually rake in a buck if I stayed at it long enough. I’m sure my folks spent more to fund my financial forays than I actually made. I never asked my dad about this but I’m sure he thought I was learning a good life lesson. My mother was probably just happy to have me occupied for a few hours.
I’m not sure if I learned any life lessons but I did become a lemonade stand aficionado. I always pull over for a lemonade stand; I’ve even been known to go around a block if I don’t see the stand soon enough to pull right over. These days juice, Kool-Aid or lemonade goes for a lot more than five cents but I’m always glad to pay it.
What can get you to pull over?
As this is published, Hurricane Florence is taking out her wrath on the southeast coast. I don’t know anyone named Florence, but I do know a Maria, a Katrina, a Sandy, a Patricia and a Rita – all big hurricanes in the last ten years. None of these folks are all that thrilled about having their name attached to a nasty hurricane. I realize that with an unusual name I probably will never have to worry about this happening to me!
What would you like to be named after you? And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest.
I’ve bitten off quite a bit to chew for Solstice this year; my card design is quite…um, robust, shall we say. No other word for the situation. I’ve been having dreams about being late to places recently and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m feeling behind schedule. I’ve decided I need to do at least an hour a day in my studio for the next few weeks to try to get on track. As I’ve said here before, this is difficult because once I get home from work, I’m basically worthless without a looming deadline. I’m hoping that saying to myself “you have to do an hour a day” will make it seem like a looming deadline!
When was the last time you bit off more than you could chew?
I scrubbed off all my temporary tattoos tonight. It’s official – the State Fair is over.
Most people I know don’t understand my love affair with the Great Minnesota Get Together and to be honest, it occasionally mystifies me a bit. But one of the things I do know is that I love getting temporary tattoos at the Fair. I got nine this year over my four days of attendance – 3 from the airbrush tattoo guy, 2 from Kemps, 2 from the AG building, 1 from the lamb building and my favorite, one of the emerald ash borer. There was a young man dressed up as an emerald ash borer at the DNR booth, trying to engage people about this new threat to ash trees and I felt sorry for him so I let him put his temporary tattoo alongside my others.
The airbrushed tattoos wear off the soonest (which is truly irritating, since they cost money) but over a week later, my free ones were still going strong. Every day last week I had to explain them at least twice a day to one or the other of my co-workers and today my book club members (my OTHER book club) wanted a full run down. It’s been my way of extending the Fair – however tentatively.
But tonight when I was closing a couple of windows (because it’s been getting chilly at night) I realized that it’s time to let this year Fair go and start dreaming of next year.
Do you have a tattoo? If you were to get one, what would you get?
The younger of our kitties, Nimue, came into the household 9 years ago like a whirlwind. She was into everything and the number of items that she wrecked was legion. Everyone told me that she would eventually settle down. Can somebody tell me WHEN?
I like to display my birthday cards along the top of the built-in buffet in the dining room. The picture above is what it looks like.
The picture below is what I came home to this afternoon. Nimue has lots of nicknames, but now she has another – DESTRUCTO KITTY.
What do you think makes a grown-up?
Trail Baboon 