I have gotten feedback from several of you about the great missing sock mystery. One reader is convinced that the socks escape before they even hit the washing machine. hmmm. Another thinks that my socks are at her house, as she does not recognize half the mismatched socks that come out of her dryer. She may have a point. I have socks like that in my sock bin. They don’t look remotely familiar. I always assumed they were left over from some neighbor kid who spent the night…but I haven’t had neighbor kids over for years!! My sock bin, by the way, is a cardboard box in my laundry room that contains the orphan socks…including many expensive Thorlo’s that I don’t dare throw away. The day I do, the missing one is guaranteed to come hopping in like the prodigal son, expecting some big welcome home celebration. I will then have to disappoint the poor fellow by telling him he is a sorry,useless piece of poly/cotton, that he is a day late, and that his brother is dead.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The sock mystery continued
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Lost socks
Thursday, October 7th, 2010How is it possible that when I do a load of laundry…(with no children left in the home to complicate things laundrerial,) and I take the clothes out of the dryer, I can find exactly SEVEN of my very own socks with NO PARTNERs?? Where do they go? Do they just not get along anymore?? Are they happier on their own? Was the sock I saw in the gutter on Broadway Avenue one of mine?
The pigeon. R.I.P
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010So I’m driving down Warm Springs Ave. today out by the golf course, and there’s this pigeon crossing the road. (Why it was crossing the road is a discussion we can have later.) The bird appears to be either injured or mentally challenged, because as I approach it, it does not fly away. So I stop. The bird is out of sight under my bumper, and I wait for it to pass. One cannot stop indefinitely on Warm Springs Ave. ( I know this, because I was rear-ended there many years ago.) So I start the car up again, and thump. Ewwww. A glance in the rearview mirror confirms my perfect timing. There are so many other things I would have rather run over with my right front tire…the poor pigeon wasn’t one of them. Maybe a crow, or a peacock, or the neighbor’s stupid howling beagles. That would have been a public service I could have been proud of.
Davey, the Genius
Monday, September 6th, 2010Got a visit from two of my kids this past weekend. It’s always good to see them. Sunday morning I found my 22 year old engineering student son standing proudly over an old broken oscillating fan that, for quite some time, has made a horrific grinding noise when turned on. The fan was now whirring perfectly. When I gave him an astonished look, he said, “Mom, you just don’t appreciate what a mechanical genius you have for a son!” I agreed, and left him there to figure out how to put the outer cage back on the fan. There followed much clanging, bumping, and muttering…then a shriek . He came rushing out of his room with blood dripping down his hand. My genius had stabbed himself with a screwdriver. I cannot count the number of times in his life I have had to tell this particular son NOT to get BLOOD on the carpet.
Flying Money
Monday, August 23rd, 2010Had a bit of an eventful night at Willowcreek Grill on Saturday! Remember how windy it was that night? Well, in spite of the wind, many people chose to sit on the patio because the temperature was nice, and the music was, as usual, very lovely 
Right at 8:30, I wrapped up the night by thanking everyone for coming out, and remarking on how we hadn’t been blown away. As if on cue, a big gust came up and blew my lucky tip jar off of its stand, smashing it to smithereens on the concrete. It had been a good tip night and this was an unfortunate event, as much of my money went whipping across the patio, headed for Oregon. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law were at the show, and it turns out they are much more nimble than they appear. Cheri was fielding bills like an MLB shortstop. Much scrambling ensued. I looked up and saw my 76 year old mother-in-law triumphantly holding a dollar bill in each fist, with a five pinned under each foot. It was like a game show, and she was the winner. There is nothing like flying money to get the old adrenaline pumping. Thanks to everyone’s help, I think we got most of it. But next time you find a stray dollar bill in a bush, a lake, or under your bed, it’s probably mine, and I would like to have it.
Right at 8:30, I wrapped up the night by thanking everyone for coming out, and remarking on how we hadn’t been blown away. As if on cue, a big gust came up and blew my lucky tip jar off of its stand, smashing it to smithereens on the concrete. It had been a good tip night and this was an unfortunate event, as much of my money went whipping across the patio, headed for Oregon. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law were at the show, and it turns out they are much more nimble than they appear. Cheri was fielding bills like an MLB shortstop. Much scrambling ensued. I looked up and saw my 76 year old mother-in-law triumphantly holding a dollar bill in each fist, with a five pinned under each foot. It was like a game show, and she was the winner. There is nothing like flying money to get the old adrenaline pumping. Thanks to everyone’s help, I think we got most of it. But next time you find a stray dollar bill in a bush, a lake, or under your bed, it’s probably mine, and I would like to have it.REAL camping
Monday, August 16th, 2010Some of my friends who have been reading my newsletters have been mocking me lately. They say that my camping trip with the girls from church did not qualify as “camping”. Well, okay, truth is there were cabins… ….with electricity….with running water…with a refrigerator…with a stove. BUT I did not stay in the cabin. I actually pitched a tent. ( Me and a couple of other ladies looked like Dumb and Dumber doing it, but it remained standing for at least a day and a half.) Does it matter that I did not actually SLEEP in the tent?? That someone offered me the comfort of their RV….with electricity…with a refrigerator…with a stove… is this something I could turn down just so I could impress you guys with my wilderness savvy? I think not. I built a fire, I swatted mosquitoes, I stunk. I think these things all qualify as camping. We did NOT have a young, handsome cabin boy. And his name was NOT Alejandro. I swear.
Headlamps—aargh.
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010I’m back from church girls’ camp and I have a tip for you guitar players out there: When you are playing your guitar around the camp fire and you can not see your songbook, do NOT strap one of those headlights on your forehead in order to see your song charts. I had moths the size of humming birds slapping me in the face! It was like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. Okay, so I guess moths can’t peck your eyes out, but it was still the stuff of horror movies.
We were up by Lake Alturas, and had beautiful weather. It rained one evening for about an hour and then stopped in time for a ten o’clock camp fire. My favorite night was skit night. Even the shy girls worked it out. Tons of laughter and not a whole lot of sleep.
We were up by Lake Alturas, and had beautiful weather. It rained one evening for about an hour and then stopped in time for a ten o’clock camp fire. My favorite night was skit night. Even the shy girls worked it out. Tons of laughter and not a whole lot of sleep.
Smoky Mtn. & Campfire sing-alongs
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010One show this week, then it’s off to Girls’ Camp in the mountains. I am the fearless camp leader of thirteen teenage girls from church, and they will be looking to me for strength and fortitude in conquering the wilderness. They may be sorely disappointed. I’m afraid my only camping strength is singing around the fire. I’m actually very good at that! But my sing-along books are filled with outdated songs by Green Day and Alanis Morissette. (Anything older than a couple of years is ANCIENT to these girls.) Time to learn some Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga! “ p-p-p-poker face”!
Bug guts
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010July 19, 2010: We had a great trip on Saturday to Sun Valley with Steve’s mom & sister. Then on Sunday we headed to Redfish Lake Lodge for the “Music from Stanley” show. So beautiful. I’m basically a city girl, but I really appreciate the beauty of nature, as long as I don’t have to sleep in a tent and sit in the dirt.
On the way home…11:30 PM on a Sunday night, we got pulled over in Idaho City. The cop wants to know why we didn’t turn our high beams down. Wuh???? I guess there is not much for police to do in Idaho City on a Sunday night. (The high beams were on cuz we were on the lookout for those pesky deer that love to jump out of nowhere.) Well, he didn’t give us a ticket. He should have been more concerned about our windshield which was covered with bug guts so thick we could barely see out of it. We were out of the blue stuff that you squirt on your windshield. We are ALWAYS out of the blue stuff when we go on trips, because we NEVER remember to fill it up when we leave. So we usually end up buying a jug at a gas station somewhere down the road, and now we have about 8 jugs of blue stuff sitting on a shelf in our garage.
songwriting
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010July 12: At Smoky Mountain, Joel and I are going to run through our set list for Music from Stanley. So you will be hearing many of my originals, which I don’t play very often. I have gotten positive feedback from other songwriters, and have decided to set aside some insecurities, and share these songs more often. I’m also going to spend less time practicing (for instance:) melodic minor scale licks over blues chords (which always seems to sound bad no matter how many hours I spend on it) and devote more hours/week to crafting songs.
