Oddly, many of us really came to this conclusion Light Years ago...

We all live in a Holodeck.    Sims are what we all really are..  Isn't Nature Wonderful?  Just wait until we start upping our game!

Click on the Link in the Photo for the Whole Rodeo!

Scientific American Catches Up.  

Wordless Wednesday…shhhh

 

Monday Music: Zac Brown Band & Ingrid Andress - Any Day Now (Live)

Music Monday: “Sound of Silence” played on Incan Flutes

 

My Sharona

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions!

Saturday 9: My Sharona (1979)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here

1) The Knack's lead singer Doug Fieger wrote this song for his girlfriend, Sharona Alperin. That's Sharona on the record sleeve shown here. Who took the most recent photo of you?  It was probably a selfie. lol  Modern Times call for modern measures. 

2) Today Sharona Alperin is a realtor in Southern California. (The photo on her website is more demure than the recorded sleeve.) She specializes in high-end properties. Have you ever attended an open house, not because you were interested in purchasing the property but because you were curious about the inside?

 No, I haven't done that.  You are going to get a book here. . . .

The reason is that I wasn't curious about big houses anymore.  Several of my maternal Great Aunties and Uncles lived in a few of them in Pasadena and Altadena.  Our family all went to visit many times when I was small.  

I was especially in awe of the giant  Kitchen-maid mixers, and so was my little bro who climbed into one once.  I remember him peeping over the edge of the bowl.  I'm glad we weren't caught!  My great Aunt TH, and her husband, were so tolerant of children!  When my Grandpa was visiting from Ohio one year, one of my Great Aunts danced with me while Uncle B played the piano.  It was fun. 

Anyway, the staircases were something out of Gone With the Wind.  The Bedrooms were fabulous, we were still small enough to take naps so my little bro and I were allowed to rest there.

Much later, in my teens, I worked in the old houses that were being torn down in Altadena and Pasadena when a crew was helping to salvage fine woods and built-in furnishings inside of them.  It's sad that it even happened that they were teardowns, because they were all such beautiful houses.   

3) Doug Fieger's brother is Geoffrey Fieger, a prominent attorney in Detroit. Have you ever consulted a lawyer? Yes, to draw up a Living Trust. 

4) The Knack's record producer was Jimmy Miller, who also worked with The Rolling Stones. What's your favorite Rolling Stones song?  I really never liked Mick Jagger;s voice that much with the exception of this song and one other.  I still am in Like with their chief song writer and lead guitarist.... Keith Richards. 

5. In 1994, more than a decade after its initial release, "My Sharona" became popular with a new audience because it was included on the soundtrack of the movie Reality Bites. What's the most recent movie you watched? 

Last night we watched, "Brain on Fire"  I had to watch it again because it's one of the things I forgot after that kitchen fall.  Life is getting strange for me Lol... I only forgot movies.  Not Books, music, or anything else.  Mighty curious.. Sort of "Doolalee" with a Twist of "Rogue Wildebeest".  

6) President George W. Bush said he loved listening to "My Sharona" on his headphones while riding his bike. Do you often have music on when you exercise?  I used to.  Now I like to hear the sound of the hand held vacuum cleaner because that is how I get exercise now.  That puppy is HEAVY and works wonders for upper body strength. 

7) In 1979, when this song was popular, the CBS TV show Alice was a hit. It was about a widowed mom who made ends meet working in a diner. Have you ever worked at a restaurant?  No.  Unless, that is, fast food counts.  

8) Also in 1979, the Voyager spacecraft sent back photos of Jupiter and its rings. Without looking it up, can you name all the planets in our solar system?  Yes.  And, I am not a splitter... Uranus stays!  The Cheek of some Astronomers!  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.  I think that is from the Sun, outward.  I'm never sure of Neptune and Uranus though. 

9) Random question: If you could erase your most painful day from your memory, would you do it?  No.  But I am not sure.  I think that a person learns from everything that has happened to them. And the older I get, the more I've come to realize that for me, this is true.  

Thank you Sam!  These all really made me think about a few things.  

Readers:  Want to see the linkie for other responses?  Go HERE

  

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen things I love to collect or remember about.

This will likely be a set of photos..... or maybe not.  My brain is fighting me every inch of the way as it wants to take over my mind to try to run things.  Mind is going to win. Brain knows nothing about how to fight a Mind. No no no no no… Mind is Sneaky…

  1. Shells… 

 I like to collect all sorts of them, though these are from a Puzzle game.

2.

Yarn.  It's an illness. 😵‍💫  I collect yarn 

       

Lots and LOTS of Sock 🧶 yarn.  
This is, by NO MEANS all of it. 

3. 

I love rusty things and I collect pictures of rusty things 
if they are to big to cart home.
The rest of the rust lives in boxes and jars of them if they are 
not. This is also from a puzzle game.

4. I collect Sky Shots mostly of clouds.  These are from my back garden.  This morning a crow flew in and peered down at me from the roof.  He, or she, was looking for new baby tortoises.  Crows eat them. Sad but true.  

 Sky Watcher Photos for the Group....

We collect Clouds

5. I read, and collect. a lot of books.  Happily 2000+ of them are digital.  I LOVE BOOKS!  

In fact if I spend less time on the internet, books are the reason.  Violence and Strife, and the Wars and Rumors of Wars have made escape into books, knitting, and eating ice cream the only sensible options.  At least it certainly seems that way.  

Somehow, the Punic Wars, when merely read about, seem distant, arcane, and definitely not as threatening. 

This one was fun. The author says that he is Autistic,
and he does seem to have an interesting "Voice".

6. 

I wanted to visit these beautiful trees this year but Alas.  They are in Henry Cowles. 
So, I collected their leafy magnificence into a few snaps when we were there a few years ago..

7.  I’ve collected a respectable trove of Sewing patterns but I have also sent two big boxes to a local theater company’s costumer makers.

 8.  A photo of our now ghost puppy, Wolfie.  He has settled in now with our little “pack” though…and we still miss him.  

Wolfie. 
I hope that you get to play all day, in heaven with
Jazzie, Rocky, Shadow, Taffy, Pépe, Tobie.
and all the other doggies.

 

9. I like to be able to make a lot of things, and have  collected the crafting skills , but I'm not very good at organizing the materials and I'm also a whole lot slower these days. 

Cleaning the sewing room out for a possible life changing move is a real challenge.  I'm coming up against my ability to collect stuff a lot quicker than I could ever use it.  I never realized how many times I was going to fall and break bones, or how easy it was to do so!  Mon Dieu! 

Just to be clear… I'm not as bad as the people on Hoarders by any means. but I still feel the weight of it on my mind.  I'm therefore inching my way back to being neat and tidy.  Success is in repurposing and recycling and re-imagining a lot of materials.  

10. I want a Maine Coon cat. I love them!  Would someone just put a kitten on my porch please? I will leave a box out there, with a blanket in it. 

This is a Maine Coon Cat kitten.
 I guess I’d settle for any kitten at all.

11.

😂 This made me laugh!  So funny!🤣
❤️ I love this comic strip.❤️

12..

 If I can’t have a kitten can I have this puppy? 
Please! Please! Please!

13.  The green Aran sweater is out of the bag and will be attended to in “workman” fashion. This Saga of the Love Sweater is inching its way off the needles.  I was going to say something like, “if it’s the last thing I will do!” but that seemed a little ominous at my age.  😜

Good night, and Good Luck.

Wordless Wednesday: shhhhh

 

Music Monday: Somewhere - (There's A Place For Us) - West Side Story - Lucy Thomas C/o of Suzie

Michelle

 Saturday 9: Michelle (1965)  

Saturday 9: Michelle (1965)

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions!

 

 Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 1) In this song, Paul McCartney sings to Michelle in French, "Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble." Can you say anything else in French? 

Yes....  Ave-vous mal a la-tete?   And some other phrases.   I could read and was fluent in French at a child's level as a 3 through 6 year old which was a long time ago. That all sort of faded out as no one besides my dad spoke it to me.    

2) Paul admits he that, as a teenager, he'd perform the first few bars at parties to impress girls. It was John Lennon who encouraged him to "turn it into a proper song." Tell us about a time you were glad you took advice from a friend or coworker. 

My coworker advised me that, "Adversity makes you stronger" when the dreaded dragon - the boss - of a yarn factory outlet started picking at everything I did.  The boss was notorious for doing this.  The coworker was a friend to hers, but didn't like what she did anymore than the little scape goats who got caught in b****'s meanness.  

The same advice was given me by a friend who was advising about alienation in a family.  In the first case, it was true, and it made me stronger.  However, the other made me weaker in that I don't assert myself anymore, and I likely never will.  I see it as a good thing.  I never wanted to have to be assertive.  I am actually meant to be "A Watcher".  

3) A big Elvis fan, Paul is proud to own the bass that was played on the 1954 recording of "That's Alright, Mama." Tell us about one of your prized possessions.  

My Maternal Grandmother's reading glasses, though they are right now at my sister's house.  

4) John was also an Elvis fan and honored The King by naming one of his cats Elvis. Do you share your home with any pets? If so, let us know their names.  

We .. sadly.. are pet-less at the moment.  It's not likely to change.

5) John was a heavy smoker who often attempted to quit. He tried hypnosis but that didn't work. Have you ever been hypnotized? 

No.

6) George Harrison fell in love with Hawaii and bought a 63-acre estate. If you could take off tomorrow for a vacation to any of our 50 states, which one would you choose?

I'd go to Central Coast, just above Monterey Bay

6) While Ringo Starr quit signing autographs for fans in 2008, he will donate autographed memorabilia to charity for auction. Have you ever bid on an item at auction? Did you win?  

I have.  I won the bidding on a lovely little folding mirror that I still have. PS.  A long time ago I  won lessons in a PBS auction for piano lessons.  It was fun to go to givers place and laugh whenever a jet went over because we had to wait to hear each other again.  

7) As a young boy, Ringo had a severe case of appendicitis and his appendix was removed. Do you still have your appendix? 

I do.

8) In 1965 -- before Advil and Tylenol and Aleve -- Americans took aspirin to relieve pain. If we peered into your medicine chest, would we find aspirin?

There would be a generic in the medicine cabinet at the far end of the house.  I'm allergic to all that stuff, and stay as far away from it as possible. 😖

9) Random question: You're at dinner with a married couple who begins to argue. Would you intercede and try to make peace? Or would you just sit back and mind your own business?  It would depend on a lot of things.  If we were old friends I might try to calm them down.  Or..... I would drag a couple pairs of beat up old boxing gloves out of my ample purse and lay them out on the table.  Then I'd ask them to step outside.   I tolerate no food throwing or 100 decibel cuss words so that's a game changer also. 

Thank you Gal!  This is always fun.  

Readers:  If you want to see more posts for this Saturday9, go HERE to the Mother Ship. 

Thursday Thirteen: Musings and a little memory lane...

1. New Glasses!  😎  I cannot express my happiness at my new eyesight.  Thanks to my wonderful surgeon and his team!  All the colors are vibrant again!  I thought that there was something wrong with my computer because yellows were so ugly!  Think about flowers.. some of the yellows were sort of tan.. a lot tan.  Now my favorite color has made a comeback!

Female Yellow Tanager
C/O of Audubon Website

2.  This- see below- is the instruction for the 26 or so year-old Aran sweater project that I've been making for Mr. Z.  I've dug everything out YET AGAIN... and will finish it in the next six months.  I can't let it defeat me any longer!  

It's a complicated pattern from Garn Studios, Drops Design, and I had no trouble at all knitting it up to the break for front and back.  And it's now been sitting untouched since before the change of the CENTURY.... It's time.  And yes, I am ashamed of myself.  😔

This is the sweater.. It's gorgeous!  I have knit all the in the round of  body and sleeves, up to  the flat knitting.  As I said, shame on me.  But my new eyes have encouraged me to get out my knitting and go AT IT!  The Model is probably a grandfather by now!

4.  I am missing our RockHounding days, especially when I go through the photos and remember how much fun it was to just be "out there" with the whole gang. 

Near the Wheeler Ranch in Arizona

Steam Engine Mountain at entrance to Wheeler Ranch

Late Snow in Luna New Mexico where we
were hunting for agates.

Burro Creek in the evening. 
Mr. Z, who was cooking Jazzie's dinner.

I would do all of this again in a 🤙🏻heartbeat!  Ahh.  If only I were only 55 again.  There is NO WAY that I can drag my 81 (almost) year old arse around them thar hills, now, with any safety al all.

5.  I'm reading a book about a family that got torn apart when the mother took a lover.  And of course she accused her husband of doing it first.  I don't think that was found to be true.  Unhappily, it's non-fiction.  She tried to take the house and all the kids away from the dad.  She also got the local social "justice" bloggers involved and needless to say, they didn't do a very good job of vetting her story to make her the victim.  Sounds like a novel, doesn’t it?  How sad is that?  It took more than a village, let me tell you... The book is written by a person who was involved in the legal team.  This sort of thing is just heartbreaking.  Sometimes I think it would be better to just stick to Cozy Mysteries, haha.  Less hassle and heartbreak.

6.  I found a couple more bags of sock yarn.  I'm definitely in the S.A.B.L.E  stage of life.  Knitters would understand this. Anywho...... I pitch the emails from anything, and I mean ANYTHING that has to do with yarn or the purchasing thereof.   Sorry WEBs and KnitPicks.  See you next year.  Maybe. 

7.  My entry for the Accidental Art contest on line.  And yes, it is a THING...  I call this "Whale, in the Compost"  I'm not seriously going to enter it, but I just thought that it has a certain,  off beat "Artistic Appeal" that things headed for the compost heap sometimes have.

8.  I think I'll have a little glass of wine or maybe a VERY big scoop of Ice Cream tonight because I really do feel the need to indulge my inner piglet.

9. 

My Viking: Always watching the Sea...
When we were Young
IB Pier

10.  

Elle Age: 5, I.B. House.

11. 

Bee: Age 4 Tasting the paint.

12.  Trying to stay hale and hardy is quite the chore, but in honor of all of those wonderful people who didn't get to this age, I will live my life as a tribute, and try to be happy.  My amazing daughter, 51, my maternal grandparents, 49, and 54, and my mother., age 63. 

13.  It's not pizza night.  I may leave and have a good cry.  That book has made me sad, people who don't value their mates and then try to divide their children's Love make me sad.  I feel the need of comfort foods.  Can you tell?  Remember this...  👇

Remember this from Willy Wonka..."Candy's dandy, but Liquor's Quicker"

Thanks for reading my blog.  Much Obliged. 

Wordless Wednesday: Ancient imprints of a Ghost Grrrl's shoes....

 

Music Monday: Credence Clear Water.. "It Ain't Me"

And I found the Albert Hall version!  It's a little longer but not by much....  Thank you, Suzi, for the suggestion!

Bloom where you are planted

 

"Bloom Where You Are Planted."

Three on Thursday...

Eye Candy

1. It was off to see the eye surgery wizards this week.  I am so sorry ... no time to do a Thursday 13 this time around.

2. This is the last surgery planned for the year.. Yay! 

3. Herein find some delicious looking "Eye Candy"....

Hope you all have a good, and restful, week end!  

See you all next week.  

Wordless Wednesday....shhhhhh

 

Tina Turner - Lotus Sutra / Purity of Mind (2H Meditation)

Linda: Saturday 9

 

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

Readers:  here is a Link to Sam's Blog so you can view the whole list of Niners

Linda (1946)  

1) In this song, Buddy Clark sings that when he can't sleep he doesn't count sheep, he enumerates Linda's charms. Did you sleep well last night?  

Well, I slept as well as I usually do, which is to say that sleeping for old gals is fraught with many things so we get to take naps the next day. 

2) In addition to singing with big bands, Buddy sang commercial jingles live on radio programs and was the voice of Carnation Milk. Can you think of a jingle that's stayed in your head?  

Oh!  Yes, it finally popped into my head.  It's the one for Mission Pac Fruit gifts that my sweet mama sent to her snow bound relatives in Ohio.  It's still in my head.  The warning is that if you listen to it, you may never be able to get it out of your head.  So bloody TRUE!  I've never forgotten it.

3) For "Linda," Buddy Clark performed with bandleader Ray Noble. Ray was classically trained at London's Royal Academy of Music, but much preferred big band music to that of Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin. When did you last listen to classical music? 

I listen to it every day.  It's on my iPod and we listen to the songs on that while we do jigsaw and crossword puzzles together.  There is a lot of other music on the pod but we play classical at least half the time. 

4) Composer Jack Lawrence named this song after a particular little girl, the daughter of his lawyer, Lee Eastman. Without looking it up, do you know what became of Lee Eastman's daughter Linda?

If Linda didn't become the wife of Paul McCartney of the Beatles, then I have no idea what became of her. 

5) According to the Social Security Administration Linda was long one of the most popular names for American baby girls. It was #2 in the 1940s and 1950s (second only to Mary). By the 1960s it slipped to #7 and by the 1970s it fell to #68. Are there many Lindas in your life? 

Not any more.  My best friend in High School was named Linda.  I have No idea what became of her.  Last time I saw her she was pregnant with her first child, as was I.  She probably has 15 great grand kids by now. lol

6) 1946, the year this record was released, is regarded as the first year of the Baby Boom, which lasted until 1964. Are you from The Silent Generation or are you Boomer, a Gen-Xer, a Gen-Yer, or a Millennial?

I'm a war baby

7) In the summer of '46, hats were a standard part of any woman's outfit. Hats for day, hats for evening, hats for rainy days ... The 1946 Sears Spring-Summer catalog devoted nine pages to women's hats. Do you own many hats? If yes, for what occasions do you wear them?

I have sun hats and knitted winter hats.  And one flowery wide brimmed hat ringed with Red silk roses one that I still wear from time to time. 

8) Also in 1946, the Mensa Society was created. The only qualification to join was an IQ in the top 98th percentile. Do you know your IQ? Yes

9) Random question: Tell us something you admire about your best friend.

My best friend I admired for her calm ways and gentle council.  She is no longer alive. 

Thank you, Sam, for this great meme on a Saturday.  It's always a lot of fun. 🌸

Thursday Thirteen: My Usual Hodge Podge of Irrelevant, disjointed thoughts

Would you like to join in?  The button on the side bar is linked to the mother ship.  The trouble is that you have to search diligently for it.  So I shall link it  HERE.. 

Let the fun begin!

1. The situation in The World at Large looks rather dim, but never fear.  Some one is going to do something, somewhere, that will flip the whole nasty string of events to an even higher level of RED alert which changes nothing except that it will make me go off spartan diet and eat all the ice cream that I can possibly stuff into the Freezer before the weekend.  Ice cream.  The surest antidote for Life’s hideous little surprises.

2.  

I say, Let’s eat Cake with that! 

3. I have found photos of a lot of yarn that I’d forgotten I even had.  😱 Please do NOT report this to the Yarn Patrol.  Thank you!  I will be forever in your debt.  Let’s to not tell the world, either.  Oops.  🫢 

4. I've been really struggling to get rid of “anything” at all. The reason is that I'm sure I'll get a Round tuit.  Then I think, " Who am I kidding?"  You see, I have even LESS time to use them with every passing day. What's more,  has anyone ever even SEEN a Round Tuit?  Does it look like this?  

This is an REAL Egyptian Round TUIT

From HERE,  though I really think it’s someone trying to rewrite world history.   It’s very suspicious 🤨 

5. I can hardly stand to spend any time thinking about the creeps that run big countries anymore.  So, I’ve taken to distracting myself by making VooDoo dolls to ram PINS into, and to burn in a fire pit at the beach.  This one is called "Puteenie".

The Neosporin may be applied later
But... probably not.

6. Today is a relatively cool August day.  The rest of the country is in trouble, weather wise, but we got all that this winter.  I'm truly glad to have a little good weather break.  That isn't to say I'm not sorry for everyone else with the weather they are getting.  Here, in truth, it's a not exactly a nice cool knitting day, but almost. 

7.  We have a Jackie Chan movie for this evening's entertainment.  I never tire of Jackie Chan and his Exploits.

8. Mr. Z has fixed the Sewing Room clock!  I am SO PLEASED!  After years of unfailing service, this pretty thing had packed it in.  Now it's got a brand new brain and new hands.  It's chugged along faithfully for about an Eon, but the little electric chugger quit recently.  Amazon seller to the rescue!

 

9.  The five tortoises are out and about and four are now fighting over the back yard.  I'm thinking of letting my Girl go and stay at another garden so she can get away from these stupid battles.  This one is Churchy and he also needs to get away, too.  He is the father of the brood but his green eyed son is twice his size now and Churchy is now losing every fight.  I feel for him. 

10.  Mother and Son.  They are the ones who have green eyes.

Lucky on the Left, Poko Ono on the Right

11.  This is how small he once was.

BEBE Fresh out of the nest

12.  I hope to pay a lot more attention to my Ukulele.. I want to spend time learning to play my "little flea"

13. My music for it.  It's time to devote at least an hour a day to learning it. 

You all be good and see you next week! 🙏❤️ 

Thank you to the moderators for this lovely meme. 💐

Wordless Wednesday: Shhhhh

 

A funny Article about vacations both before and after having a little child in tow....

We lived close to the Mountains, in fact in the foothills, when we were new parents.  

Link doesn’t work…. Sorry.   

The article is from "The Cut" at New Yorker Magazine, sort of hit me in a soft spot of my heart and in the funny bone, too. 

I hope you enjoy it and maybe it will bring some smiles for you also.