He Ain't Heavy, He's My Husband

I know I pick on the Mister a lot. From what you've read, I'm sure you agree I am entitled. He does, however, have several endearing traits. Yes, really! For one, he's always been Mr. Errand Man. Nothing too small or too embarrassing for the Mister. Like back in the olden day's, if I needed any lady-stuff he had no problem whatsoever going out by himself to make the necessary purchases. I've seen gown men pale at the thought of going into a woman's clothing store, or carry ladies laundry to the dry cleaner. They would never, ever pop into a Walgreen's to pick up lady stuff. Better they should be eaten by a lion then to ask on which aisle the Tampax are located. Not the Mister. Any time night or day. Anything. The more embarrassing to the average male the better. I know I've got a gem here.

He's not a church going man, but he does attend on Mother's Day, just for me, and on the major Holidays that match his initials : E C. Easter and Christmas. Today I wanted to attend the Baptism of several of our church members. He suggested it might be better if he clean the swimming pool and maybe pop over to Walmart for some paper towels, but I reminded him that the way to Fred Howard Park is a complete never to be unravelled mystery to me. 400 turns and back roads to get to a beach that is only about 7 miles from our house. You go north and end up going south. They have signs showing the way to the park, but when you come out they don't have any signs showing you how to get back home again. No problem for the Mister. He was more than happy to go with me. No bribes necessary, just the possibility that I might use up a tank of gas coming and going.
Yes - we have our baptisms in the Gulf of Mexico - it's a perfect place. I was re-baptised there about 2 1/2 years ago. The Mister came without being asked and took lots of pictures.

He is all of a sudden getting iffy on his errand runs. It used to be I could run out of Heinz 57 sauce (don't know why I used this for an example. We don't even use the stuff) and he would dust the potato chip crumbs off his turquoise t-shirt, change out of those blue shorts that he is not even allowed to go to the mail box in, and dash off without so much as a sigh. Just in the past few months, however, he has started to balk at errands. Says he doesn't really like popping out for stuff anymore. I told him he cannot change his mind now. No. He's been doing this for 38 years and I'm not even sure how to go about running an errand. I do not know which aisle they keep the Tampax in (don't know why I used this as an example, I don't even use the stuff any more) (Hallelujah and praise the Lord) Don't get me wrong, I've driven all over the state, from Michigan to Florida and traveled to several states on my own. No problem. But those were work related or to visit my family. They weren't to dash out for a quart of milk. He cannot change his mind at this late stage of my life. Batting my eyes doesn't really work anymore - we both just laugh at my efforts at feminine guiles. This is a developing story. I'll let you know how this goes. I think I might need a box of Raisinettes, or maybe some Heinz 57 sauce since we haven't had any in about 32 years. Thanks for stopping by! Did you take the quiz on yesterday's post?

Some Thoughts on Poetry - Painless Lesson #1

Did you know poems are intended to be read aloud? The best method for reading a poem is to read it three times? The first time to get an idea of the rhythm, words and subject. The second time to better understand what it is all about. What is the poet telling you? The third time, read it out loud to get the full enjoyment of it.

One of the most well known opening lines of all time is from a poem. Do you recognize this:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

We've probably all said these lines or heard them sometime in our lives. This is sonnet #43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She was a recluse for many years after the tragic death of her brother. She rarely left her bedroom, yet she wrote beautiful, haunting and imaginative poetry. She did eventually marry, at age 40 - she eloped - and had a happy marriage and gave birth to a child at age 43.

This is the entire sonnet:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

The classic verse form she used is called a Petrarchan Sonnet.

Besides verse form, poets use many different devices in their poetry such as irony, figures of speech, imagery, metaphor.

Check out this short poem and imagine the color and texture of what he is saying:

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

The author just wrote a few short lines, yet with his use of figurative language, didn't he pop open your imagination with colors and texture? Aren't those chickens bright against the red of the wheelbarrow. Did you get your feet wet standing out there in the rain looking at it?

Another short poem where the author uses irony:

Earth by John Hall Wheelock

"A planet doesn't explode of itself," said dryly

The Martian astonomer, gazing off into the air-

"That they are able to do it is proof that highly

Intelligent beings must have been living there."

The irony, I'm sure you noted is that the people living on the planet - probably earth- are so intelligent they figured out how to blow themselves into oblivion. How intelligent was that?

I have to get real now and go wash the floors and take some spaghetti sauce out of the freezer for dinner. So I gotta go. I was in a poetry mood and wanted to share a few bits of information with you. I'll probably do it again soon, so I've called this lesson number one. Watch out for those white chickens! See you later.

Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain!

Renoir's "The Umbrellas"

It rained last night! Here - in Palm Harbor! I spent another day, yesterday, watching the rain clouds move north, south, east and west of us, and NOTHING here. Nothing. My soul was parched for water from the sky. And so is my grapefruit tree, which is suffering more noticeably that I. Last night, around 12:30 am, I was reading in bed when, after plenty of rumblings from the sky, it started to pour. Here! On my house, and trees and flowers. I just laid there and listened for a half hour or so until I fell asleep. Layla the dog opted to hide under the bed.

This morning, the pond is full, my pool is an inch and a half deeper, my garden looks happy and I am happy. Just as, in Michigan, when I could barely get out of bed after it drizzled for the 5th day in a row, I am affected in Florida by a 6 month of drought. I get to the point where the waiting interferes with my ability to be the least bit productive.

It rained again today! I left my car in the driveway after church this morning with the passenger window down a few inches. I remembered when I heard the Mister go out and open the door later and say "You'd better bring a towel with you." Ooops. Not much water - just enough to get the passenger seat nice and clean.

We were at Hooters having dinner several summers ago when the sky opened up and torrents of rain blasted out of the sky like Noah's flood. Someone had left the convertible top on their mustang down, and every few minutes an employee would announce, will the person with the white Mustang..yatta yatta... It kept pouring. They kept announcing. Finally after about 45 minutes a guy at the bar realized that it was his convertible - he forgot which car he drove to Hooters. The thing had about 4 inches of water in it.

Before I wander off to another subject, here's a poem about rain. Not the Florida summer rain, but a northern 5th day of a cold drizzle type rain:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rain Dance

I watch from the train
On this cold grey day
Dressed in woolen plaid
Cheek pressed against the window
Peering through rivulets
At dark umbrellas
Twirling gracefully past
Like ballerinas in mourning

Hiding somber faces
Of those who come and go
In quiet discontent
Wishing for warmth, I think
And sun
And better things to do than
Pirouette though puddles

By Muse-Swings 1994

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I forgot that all the Dad's would be given an ice cold bottle of Root Beer (for Father's Day) on their way into church this morning. I looked down from the loft (where I was managing the lighting for the service) and it looked like the guys were drinking beer down there. Some of the kids too. I didn't think much of that, after all I AM Polish.

I took several empties home with me for my bottle tree! Anyone reading this who sees me on a regular basis: I am still working on my bottle tree (see picture down on the right side of this blog) If you have any empty wine bottles- colored glass is especially preferred - or bottles smaller than wine bottles, please bag 'em up and drop them off next time you see me. I have plenty of green, brown and clear glass, so drink some Blue Nun or something. Thanks in advance. I'm not getting much turnover on my own wine collection, so I might just start handing out bottles and collecting the empties. I'll put an updated Bottle Tree picture on my post in a day or two so you can see how it's coming along.

The Mister is enjoying his Father's day watching the Michigan 500 (that's a stock car race) mostly through his eye-lids. He keeps dozing off. Jason and I took him out for breakfast. I found a looooovely card for him yesterday. I had to push a lady out of the way so I could get one. She was looking at every card! It's for a guy. You just grab one. Any one.

Actually I spent a little time looking through them myself. Got him some chocolate covered cashews too. Big Spender, I am. So I'm not working, okay? For an extra special time we watched a couple of episodes of Burn Notice that we taped earlier. I love that show. New season starts 7/10. Check it out.

I'll go sit next to the Mister for a while now. He likes that. I'll catch you later.

May I please see your Green Card?

Is these pictures magic or what? A friend of mine - who happens to own a hummingbird feather - sent these pics of a friend of hers. With a little patience she has these sweet little birds eating out of her hand!

I spot a lone hummingbird once in a while in the yard, but not often enough to try this. I'd just wind up with a bunch of squirrels sitting on my head.

We were on our way to dinner at Sonny's last night and walked by the 24 hr Starbucks. The mister said - is that your Bosnian soccer team? (That's from a post of several weeks ago when I was there with my Bible study posse) Sure enough, it was. I wanted to stop for coffee after we ate - I wanted to see if they thought the Mr. was one of their compadre's and would talk to him. This is based on his swarthy Romanian looks. He opted not to stop, and kind of steered me away by walking right next to me and sort of leaning me off to the left towards the car.

During lunch hours I used to go to a Starbucks in N. St. Pete with my friend Kathy. Every day there was a group of Bosnian men there. One cup of espresso on the table. A dozen guys. All day. It used to tick off the Starbucks employees and the customers because these guys used up most of the tables and chairs. They'd be there for hours. Kathy and I'd manage to find a seat most times. But this group of guys was particularily unfriendly and were kind of distracting when their friends would pull up next to the curb to shout at each other.

Kathy and I found an on line translation site and we figured out how to say things like:

May I please see your Green Card?

Would you please move your fat-ass van out of the fire lane?

No, you may not take that chair.

Is that a detonator in your pocket?

We never really took the opportunity to say anything to them( they were rather surly) , but we'd crack ourselves up putting Bosnian sentences together.

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against people from Bosnia - I just don't like getting crowded out of Starbucks. And typically it's a group of Bosnian men who are good at doing that. There was a shooting at the downtown Clearwater Starbucks (Over by the Scientology Hotel) several years ago. One guy got killed. Bosnians. Probably a fight over chairs. How do you say "watch your head" in Bosnian?

I'm just planning to do things around the house today. No outside adventures further away than the mail box. Got to re pot a couple of orchids, sweep the lanai and keep an eye out for rain. We got about 10 drops total yesterday, meanwhile it was pouring buckets north, south, east and west of us. I was standing outside while it was raining and I couldn't even feel it. I'll let you know how today goes! Good of you to stop by! What are you up to today?