Well, it is Halloween, and it is time to think about cats. We have two. They are considered mysterious and spooky, but to me they are fun and silly. Ours are totally indoor cats. I noticed a tuxedo cat in our yard tonight who ran away when I called it. If it keeps showing up I will see what we need to do about it. Every home needs three cats, don’t you think?
Tell about the cats in your life and your past. What is it about cats that has made people assume cat are associated with the magical?
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Husband challenged me-what composer, visual artist, and writer would you invite to dinner? I am still thinking. I know the composers would be either Brahms, because I love his harmonies, Bartok, because I want to know if he is really on the Autism Spectrum, or Stravinsky, because I think he would be a good conversationalist. Visual artists, well that would be Vermeer, and for the writer, either Dorothy Sayers, because she is both a theologian as well as a mystery writer, or C.S. Lewis, for sort of the same reasons.
What composer, visual artist, and writer would you invite to dinner? What would you serve?
Tuesday the temperature here was 75. Yesterday we had a winter storm blowing in. I was getting ready for work yesterday and I noticed a large welt on my calf. It was a mosquito bite! I searched and saw it flying around in the dining room. The little devil got me while I was wandering around the house with my coffee cup. It probably stowed away in the spinach I harvested on Tuesday night. How ironic! A mosquito bite on the day of a snow storm.
What are the recent or not so recent ironies in your life? Got any good mosquito stories?
Last week was pretty dull for me at work, as two of my favorite floor mates were gone, one to Montana, and one to California. They are Developmental Disability Case managers, and I have worked with them for 20 years. We tease, laugh, and help each other out. We only see each other at work. Work is mere drudgery without them. We are all set to retire about the same time, and imagine ourselves waltzing out the door on our last day like Dorothy, the Scare Crow, and the Tin Man.
Tell about your best work buddies. What made them special?
I think that vanity license plates are aptly named. I was at the grocery store last night in some snowy weather and almost ran into a Mercedes with a license plate that read “GAS”. We have some pretty affluent oil industry folks out here, as well as landowners who have oil royalties. The driver and passenger looked pretty elderly. I would love to know their story.
What are some memorable vanity plates you have seen or heard of? Give some hypotheses about the Mercedes I saw last night.
As I was turning the corner after leaving the library, I saw a man walking his big dog. Only the big dog was walking up on the retaining wall along the sidewalk. He was walking very steadily on the wall, which was about 2 feet high, negotiating the corner with ease.
I slowed down and called out my car window to the man, asking if his dog likes all retaining walls or just this one. He laughed and said “all walls, but this is his favorite”. He said to have a good day and I drove off.
Tell me about your favorite circus memory!
In the news today, Strawberry Fields, the spot that sparked John Lennon’s imagination and led to their great song will be opening to the public soon. You will be able to walk the gardens and grounds and there is a visitor center with interactive exhibits that highlight Lennon’s early life.
According to the story, about 60,000 visitors gather at the gates to Strawberry Fields every year.
What spot inspired by song would YOU like to visit?
I get an email every day from Dictionary.com with a “Word of the Day”. Then on Mondays there is a quiz of the last seven days worth of words. And occasionally there are other emails about word-related things. Last week there was an email with a link to “Words All Book Lovers Should be Using”. You know I can’t resist that.
Here are the words.
How many of them do you know? How many of them describe YOU? Any other words you think all book lover should be using?
Overheard outside my library last Monday (the electronic book return was full/closed):
“Oh no – it’s a library emergency. My book is overdue.”
I was able to reassure her that a Monday holiday is the same as a Sunday… as long as you your book is physically inside the library before it opens for business next, even using the old-fashioned non-electronic book drop (which I was able to show her), you don’t get docked. She told me that she had kept it as long as possible so she could finish it before it was due. I completely get it.
What was the last book you rushed to finish?
Last week when I was in Madison, my friend and I spent a couple of hours yakking in her bedroom. At one point she had to take a phone call so I was left to let my mind wander. That was when I noticed that all her books are sorted first by fiction/non-fiction and then alphabetically by author and THEN alphabetically by title.
Except for putting titles by the same author together (mostly), my books are not categorized at all. My fiction and non-fiction are wantonly cavorting together and nothing is alphabetized at all. I feel so inadequate.
Do you have your books organized? Tell me how?
Trail Baboon 