Daylight Savings Time

Last night I apparently lost an hour of sleep.  Since at my age I need all the sleep I can get, losing an hour involuntarily does not suit me.  However, in the long run of things, maybe just an hour isn't such a big deal.  For example ...

• Lindley turned three in January, which is weird since it seems she was just born yesterday.  I remember it well because I was at boot camp when Sam tried to call me and tell me the news.
• Everley will be one in a few weeks, which is weird since it seems she was also just born yesterday.  I remember it well because I was at breakfast with KB when I got the text that Maribeth was in labor.
• My eldest, Sam, will be 33 this year, which is weird because I only feel like I should be in my forties, which makes it sort of hard to have such an old child.  How did he get to be nearly as old as I think I should be?
• I went on my first Disney cruise in 2000, which seems like just a little while ago.  But it's been 13 years ago, and I've taken a few more Disney cruises since then, although we really needn't get into how many cruises there have been.  Since 2000 doesn't seem so long ago, I don't see how I could have been on so many cruises in that short period of time.
• This year I will have been married 36 years, which is a long time for someone who thinks she's as young as I think I should be.

So, you can see why this whole daylights savings time has me a bit bumfuzzled.  Apparently all those hours lost have added up into quite a few years of  speeded-up lost years.  And what's really amazing is that it has happened to me - at my young age!!

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The Good News for Today: beautiful day for safe road trip back home; Udderly Pink meeting; superb 3-Day video by Sharon; happy news from the North

Just The Basics. Please!!

In my recent travels, I have done my fair share of eatin'.  Some of my eatin' has been pretty fancy.  Possibly even eatin' on a fancy eatin' table (if you understand that reference, then you are my peeps).  However, I would be remiss if I didn't express my recent dissatisfaction with the desecration of what I consider to be a favorite of mine - shrimp and grits.

Basically, I like grits, especially cheese grits.  And I like shrimp, just about any Forrest Gump way you would like to prepare them for me.  And I consider it fine dining if you would combine both into one dish and serve it up to me.  But please - keep it simple.  In fact, just use three ingredients - grits, cheese, and cooked shrimp.  I say this because in my very recent forays into shrimpandgritsdom, I have found that one person's shrimp and grits are not everyone's shrimp and grits.

In Jacksonville, this is what my ordered shrimp and grits looked like.  Fried grit patties - good.  Shrimp - good.  Glopped together with a rich thick white sauce - not so good.  And before you ask, yes - I ate it nearly all gone.  Being as cultured and as refined as I am, I thought that perhaps I needed the experience of somebody else's slant on this delicacy.  In retrospect, I didn't.

This weekend in Columbus, I again noticed that shrimp and grits were on the menu at the local eating establishment we were visiting.  Being back in the South where grits and shrimp go together like peas and carrots, I decided to give it another whirl.  Out came the plate with the fish and grits - somewhere buried underneath the spicy reddish-colored sauce.  Did I eat it?  Why yes, yes I did.  I also drank 17 pitchers of iced tea because I don't do spicy.  Was it good?  It was fine - it just wasn't what I really wanted.  So why did I eat it?  Well, the answer to that would take so many session of therapy that  would be impossible to transcribe here, so just make up your own reason why and move on.

I'm not sure what my lack of appreciation for the finer variations of shrimp and grits says about me as a gourmand.  Maybe it would help my status if I told you that I know what a pot passer and a meat stabber  is?

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The Good Stuff From Today:  getting some writing accomplished; decluttering some kitchen stuff; dinner with Steve, Gdizzle, and Anne

It's A Small World After All ... In North Alabama

Today Steve and I headed off to Mississippi to spend the weekend with his dad.  As we were on our usual route through North Alabama, our conversation went like this:

Steve:  (pointing to a facility that used to be a motel)  "I had Andy (a guy in his office) look at that facility for our company.  The owner has two grandsons who play baseball for Samford and Mississippi State."

Me:  (as the neurons in my pea-brain started surging and connecting and remembering some posts I had read on facebook)  "Um, his last name wouldn't be Irby, would it?"


Steve:  "It might be - let me text Andy and ask him."

Me:  "Well, it might not be, but it would be a wild coincidence if there were two people from North Alabama who have sons who play at Samford and Mississippi State."

Steve:  "Well, the one at Mississippi State doesn't play there yet."

Me:  "I know - he just signed a few months ago."

Anyhow, Andy texted back, and sure enough, it was Irby, in fact Ken Irby's dad who owns the facility, and Ken Irby's sons who play baseball.  And who is Ken Irby?  Somebody I went to high school with back in the Dark Ages, who I probably haven't spoken to in a billion years, who I just happen to be fb friends with and have read his posts about his sons.

So, what was the chances of my going with Steve this weekend, him mentioning the facility and the owner's grandsons, my remembering some facebook posts, and the whole thing circling back to growing up in Starkville, Mississippi?  Pretty good, if you believe that God puts things in motion, sometimes just to delight us and help us realize that He is in control of this world.

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The Good Stuff From Today:  beautiful day for a drive; safe travel to GDizzle's; dinner with GDizzle, Steve, and Ann

The Ups and Downs of Daily Blogging

Some days I have brilliant ideas (okay no comments - just because you believe you've never read any of those and you read every day).  Some days I have an idea, period.  And some days I have no ideas.  And yet I still blog.  Or at least type in some words.

Anyhoo, I wonder sometimes what would happen if I decided to be controversial.  You know, like saying pink is the new black, or wearing red means you're a floosie, or that the only kind of correct marriage is marrying somebody with the same initials as yours.   But that's not me.  I do not like controversy.  While I have my opinions and might not even mind sharing them, I do not wish to hear anyone fuss at me because my opinion is not his/her opinion and therefore my opinion is a wrong opinion.  I got enough of that during election season, just reading the comments fly back and forth on facebook.

So, what shall I blog about today?  Piano lessons.  I took them, as did my siblings.  My first child took them, only because by the time the second and third came along piano-lesson-wise, we had moved and it was too much trouble to find a new piano teacher.

Anyhow, my point is that even though I took piano lessons, I do not consider myself a pianist.  I could probably still play a bit, maybe even so listeners could pick out the tune I was plunking out on the keyboard.  But does even just a little ability make you something even though your ability is small?

I wog races - does that make me an athlete (we won't even discuss being a runner).  I can operate a sewing machine - does that make me a seamstress?  I somehow manage to eventually get words on this blog on a daily (or late-daily) basis - does that make me a writer?  I guess I wonder in a world of labels, how do we label ourselves?

Yeah, I don't know either.  And that's about as controversial as it gets here ...

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The Good Stuff From Today:  spaghetti dinner with most of the family; Lindley and Everley time

Wednesday

Yup, it's been another one of those days.  No blog ideas, but lots of vacation planning ideas.  Yup, some for me and some for other people.  And some for other people that I have to go on, also.

Happy Wednesday ...  For other people AND me!!

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The Good Stuff From Today:  Disney plans for family trips; lunch with Sam; Everley time; bathroom progress at Molly's; signed Mickey card from KB; Jo's generous donation to the 3-Day