Category Archives: April

How’s That ?

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“People are always so boring when they band together.
You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies
that make a person interesting.”
Andy Warhol

Hows That

Everybody has their own idiosyncrasies. Some people bite their nails. Some people twist their hair. Some have a particular way they speak. And some have sayings that they always use.

A common idiosyncrasy of a young person is using the word “like”. Like they say it all the time. Like when they are telling a story, or like when they are quoting something someone said. I remember using this word in every sentence when I was young. It took a great deal of effort to break this habit of mine.

The last few years I’ve noticed that my husband has a saying he uses quite often. He’s an Italian native New Yorker, so he has a repertoire of sayings such as: fugeddaboudit, how ya doin’?, boombots and stuppiad (these I hear quite often when we are kidding around). He has been using, “how’s that?” at the end of most of his sentences when he’s telling me a story.

So this post is dedicated to my husband. How’s that?

Shine On

iTunes

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“Occasionally when I’m procrastinating writing,
I’ll while away the hours on iTunes. You can just keep going
forever and find these bands you’d never normally hear of.”
Marisha Pessl
iTunes

Listening to music has become so much easier since the introduction of iTunes.

My son introduced me to iTunes over a decade ago. This is when I got my first iPod. Believe me, I waited and put up quite a fight to give up my CDs, but iTunes is a work of pure genius that we all take for granted.

Back in the 1970s when 8-track tapes were all the rage, I hated 8-tracks! You’d be listening to a great piece of music and the damn track would just end in the middle of a song. This made listening to music entirely unenjoyable.

So, I bought a small cassette recorder/player and bought all my music in cassette format. I can remember listening to music in my car using the portable cassette player. Then the technology went to CD players. I held out for quite a few years before I bought my first CD player.

When I began using iTunes, I decided to sell my 100s of CDs. I created a Craigslist account, posted the CD’s for sale, and as soon as I hit that post button, I instantly received several calls from people wanting to buy the entire collection. I sold the CD collection within one hour of posting them for sale. I haven’t looked back since.

With iTunes I can organize my music with Playlists. I have music to write by, music to create with, music for banjo playing. Then I have my Pop Music to walk and workout to, as well as my classical music to do my Ballet Beautiful workout and to chill out to, all in different Playlists with easy access. But what I really think is cool, is that my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro all have the exact music I want on each device.

Thanks Steve Jobs. You really were a genius when it came to technology. Thanks Jeff Robbin, Bill Kincaid, and Dave Heller for developing iTunes. A thousand years from now, you guys will be the Benjamin Franklin’s of the next new millennium because of your development of iTunes.

Shine On

Spring Visitor

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“The traveler sees what he sees,
the tourist sees what he has come to see.
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Lisa Orchid2

Orchid Plant from Lisa April 2015.

My son visited us the other day with his friend Lisa, from Germany. She has been to California before but never to Redondo Beach. Sweet Lisa brought me an orchid plant. It’s so beautiful, I had to take a picture and share it with my fellow bloggers.

Erics Orchid April 2 2015

Last years Orchid Plant from my son. First new blossom January 2015.

A few months back, I posted a photo of the new blossom on the orchid plant my son gave me last year for my birthday.

I can’t believe the flower is several months old and still is fresh as ever. Here’s the original post, Spring Arrived Early

Looks like my collection of fresh orchid plants is growing with each spring visitor.

If you click on the images, you can see the flowers in greater detail.

Shine On

Farmer’s Philosophy

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Common Sense

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.
Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.
Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.
Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life… Then when you get older and think back,
you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don ‘t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with,
watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.
Good judgment comes from experience,
and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence,
try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around..

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.

Don’t pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.

Most times, it just gets down to common sense.

Shine On