I needed a break today from shoveling in the hot sun.
As luck would have it, I got just the break I needed:
Moral of the story: hard work pays off.
The Daily Post daily one-word prompt: Reprieve
Break Time
11
Category Archives: humor
Park at your own Risk
One might think discovering a bunch of tree limbs on your car would be rather disconcerting; fortunately not the case here.
The Daily Post weekly photo challenge: Reflecting
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: letters S or T (T for trees)
and per se and
We’ve made it through the #AtoZChallenge, and hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did. But wait! There’s that 27th letter of the alphabet: &.
The ampersand is a ligature of the letters “e” and “t,” for the Latin word “et,” meaning “and.” The word “and,” displayed as &, used to be considered the final letter of the English alphabet. Wikipedia has an entry that tells all about it. I won’t attempt to go into it, because I would only confuse myself, and probably you as well. Interesting reading, though, if you’ve ever wondered about ampersands and such
In the spirit of being thorough in completing the #AtoZChallenge, I herewith offer my post for the 27th and (at one time) final letter of the English alphabet:
& so it began
& from A we went to Z
& ended with &
Now that’s really & truly the end.
![survivor-atoz [2017] v1](https://whatrhymeswithstanza.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/survivor-atoz-2017-v1.jpg?w=584)
Weekend Coffee Share 4/16/17
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’m boycotting my kitchen today. It has nothing to do with not wanting to cook a nice Easter dinner for family. I boycott that scenario every year. No, today I’m avoiding the kitchen because I’m frustrated with my DIY kitchen remodel project. But I don’t even want to think about that, so instead I’ll tell you about my yard.
As you see by the photos, I have lots of dandelions. Lush, healthy, organically grown, beautiful dandelions. I took the photo of my front lawn through my living room window. The neighbors don’t seem to appreciate my weeds as they have a habit of becoming everyone’s weeds when their seeds blow. So I thought it might not go over well if I am observed in my yard proudly photographing this year’s bumper crop.
I still have a ways to go on the whole not-caring-what-other-people-think thing. I suppose on the flip side, it could be seen as a not-being-a-good-neighbor thing to let my weeds grow and spread to the others’ chemically-induced pristine lawns. But we all have our neighborly vices. Screaming kids, barking dogs, loud parties, random rusting appliances abandoned in the front yard… and wayward weeds.
Anyway… what I was going to tell you before I got sidetracked with broken appliance yard decor is that today I came across a recipe for dandelion jelly! I’m kinda stoked to try it, but my stove is still unavailable, what with the whole kitchen remodel thing that I’m not talking about today. I’m thinking maybe if I pick the blossoms and show up at a neighbor’s door with all the ingredients, perhaps they’ll see that weeds aren’t all bad, and they’ll welcome me inside to make the jelly in their kitchen.
Or they might just scream, “Run! It’s that weird weed woman!” and slam the door in my face.
Maybe I should just go out and mow the lawn, sending all my beautiful weeds to mulch heaven. I’ll ponder that idea while we enjoy the rest of our coffee. It feels like a good day to sit back and relax, admire my flowers, and let the lawn, the kitchen remodel and myself have a pleasant day of rest.
For all who celebrate Easter, I send wishes for a happy, blessed day.
#WeekendCoffeeShare is graciously hosted by Emily at NerdintheBrain.com.
The kinda big Reveal
Last year I took part in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge using a secondary blog that I was maintaining at the time. The challenge, as described on the A to Z site, is,
“Can you post every day except Sundays during [the] month [of April]? And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?”
In other words, on April 1st, the topic for a post would be something beginning with the letter A, and so on ‘til the end of the month when you reach Z. Some bloggers use themes to tie their posts for the month together. I didn’t do that last year, since I only learned of the challenge on April 1st, and was scrambling to come up with the requisite posts, let alone something thematic. But this year…
I decided that if I’m going to barrage readers with daily posts, I’ll keep them short and sweet – well, short anyway. So my “theme” is to write a 5-7-5 poem each day (a poem in the form of three lines with corresponding syllables per line of 5, 7 and 5). Some would call it haiku, and haiku purists would be aghast if you called it haiku. So I’ll just leave it at 5-7-5.
And in keeping with the alphabetical theme, each day’s poem will be on a topic beginning with the assigned letter, AND — just to make it even more challenging — each line of the poem will also begin with the letter of the day.
Confused? Yeah, me too. But with April just around the corner, it will all become clear. I hope.
Bottom line: One month (April), short posts, alphabetical, haiku-ish.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I must
attempt
being
competently
diligent
effecting
future
gaity
here
in
jovial
keeping
like
many
notable
other
posts
quite
recently
such
that
understandably
visitors
won’t
eXit
yawning
Zzzzzzzzzz’s
not too swift
snail murmuration
slight delayed reaction time
slow motion ballet
The Daily Post daily prompt: Murmuration
Body Dump
After multiple seasons of chipping my lawnmower blade on a chunk of concrete protruding from the grass at the very edge of my property, I decided one day to dig the offending obstruction out of the ground.
I grabbed a shovel and set to it. The more I dug, however, the more I found. Ultimately, I discovered I had come upon the burial site of a heavy concrete birdbath — pedestal and all – chunked into several pieces. Kind of like a victim in a creepy ax murder movie, only with cement dust instead of blood. More than I had bargained for, at any rate.
I loaded the pieces into my wheelbarrow and dumped them next to my driveway until I could figure out a way to get rid of the body – er, I mean birdbath. After a few months of staring at the rubble, I came up with a plan. I would hide the body in plain sight!
I had dug up a circular section of turf in the middle of my yard several months previously, admittedly with no clue as to how I was going to incorporate it into my landscape theme (or lack thereof). Keep the neighbors guessing, I always say.
So here I had this garden-like circular space and these rock-like concrete chunks. What better way to kill two birds with one birdbath, than to combine the garden and the rocks to build a rock garden!
Of course, I don’t really know how to make a rock garden, but I lined the circle area with the concrete chunks, and then planted a shrub in the middle for good measure. Maybe shrubs don’t belong in rock gardens, and maybe the rock garden will morph into something else over time. Apparently it’s not just the neighbors whom I confound with my actions; I have no clue either as to what I’m doing.
I think I’ve pulled off disguising the birdbath corpse, though. At least there haven’t been any robins or sparrows in long black overcoats and fedora hats pulled low over their eyes knocking at my door.
I wonder what else I will uncover as I continue my random landscape projects. I’m thinking of tearing down the old shed behind my house… what do you suppose lies hidden beneath that?
The Daily Post weekly photo challenge: Repurpose
green grass
Cat Wisdom
This post is based upon a post I wrote for a prior blog I maintained in a previous lifetime.
Cats are amazing creatures. Not just the whole landing on their feet thing, although that is pretty impressive. But think about it: how can an animal that spends so much of its time sleeping actually manage to develop a personality? And speaking of personalities: how does a pet that really doesn’t give a rip about anything or anyone become so endearing to us?
There’s a lot we can learn from cats, and not just how to eat an entire shrew in one piece. Here are five takeaways from my feline observations:
1. Two naps are better than one. At times when we are trying to weigh out a difficult matter, we are advised that it might be best to “sleep on it” rather than making a rash decision. Cats are very deliberate. They sleep on everything. Eat now or later? No rush, let’s sleep on it awhile. Tease the dog or ignore the dog? No need to decide right now. Sleep on it. Someone has laid out their best clothing for a very important engagement? Oh, cool! Let’s sleep on it!
2. A little spit goes a long way. Cats make do. They are masters at grooming. And yet, compare what they have to work with to our arsenal of personal hygiene products. We have deodorant, shampoos, conditioner, body soap, body lotion, skin cleansers, skin softeners… just to name some bare essentials. Cats have rough tongues and spit. They are minimalists, but they get the job done quite efficiently.
3. Sometimes you just have to cough up a hairball. Cats are unceremonious about getting rid of what’s bugging them. They don’t worry about proper protocol; they just do what needs to be done. Sometimes we spend so much time hemming and hawing about how to do or say something that we forget what the issue was in the first place. You got something to say? Spit it out. Tactfully, of course. And not on the carpet.
4. Fetch is a four-letter word (and cats can’t spell). Cats don’t kowtow to anyone. You wanna throw a stick… you go fetch it. It’s not that they don’t care about anyone else. Well, maybe that’s it exactly. But for our purpose here, let’s just say that cats have high self-esteem and don’t feel the need to grovel. Groveling is bad, and it messes up the fur.
5. If it didn’t sit well the first time, don’t eat it again (are you dogs out there listening?!?). Cats are known for being finicky about what they eat. And not to pick on dogs, but dogs will eat things that cats won’t even look at sideways. In fact, dogs will eat things that cats have already eaten once. But I digress.
The lesson here is that we can be discriminating about what we will and will not accept or put up with in our lives. And just because someone else thinks something is a good idea for us, just remember it’s not their face in the food bowl.
As I watch my kitty sitting next to me and staring blankly into space, I’m sure he is contemplating more nuggets of wisdom to reveal to me some day.
We’ve only just clawed the furniture – er, I mean scratched the surface.
The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Conventional Wisdom
Alternative Facts
Image
What Rhymes with Stanza? 