Today's Song

 

Today's song is Deck the Halls.  

When I ask people if they hear music in their minds, they will tell me they do.  What song is playing right now? I ask.  "Right now?  Nothing right now."  See?  This music in my mind is all day and all night.  If you should ask me what song I am hearing, there will be a song.  

This Deck the Halls was crazy.  It's not the season to be jolly.  The fa la la was a month ago.  The song got louder.  If I ignore it, the volume goes up.   Mrs. Billingsley received a cute sweatshirt for Christmas that says Fa La La in sequins.  It had to go in the washing machine today.  I hung it up to dry.  OK.  That's where the Deck the Halls came from.  If it weren't Deck the Halls it would be something else.  

What will tomorrow's song be?

The Music Windmills of My Mind

 

I am probably not the only person in the world that hears music in my mind, all day every day.  Beautiful music?  You be the judge.  Today's selection - "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes."  Wonderful.   Over and over and over.  All day.  Another choice of some part of my subconscious mind, "Puff the Magic Dragon."  "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."  Listen to that all day.  Usually it's a new song every day at least.  I'm sometimes afraid to listen to music because it will wind up replaying in my mind all day.  Do I dream of music?  Of course.  Sometimes it's pretty good.  Symphonies.  The theme song to The Virginian.  I wonder what my song will be tomorrow?  

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The Will O the Wisp

 

Have you ever seen the will o the wisp?  I imagine you have.  I know I have.   Often more than one person will see it, and one will ask the other, "What's that?" in a whisper.   "That's a will o the wisp!" the other will say.   Or the other person will say, "Do I see what?"  "Right there!" the person cries, now becoming alarmed, probably wondering if this is a hallucination.   It is not.  It is the will o the wisp.  

As often as not the will o the wisp will appear as a twinkle in the woods, and even move.  It's always at night.  Is it a spirit?  Some will say yes, as if they know.  Or they might claim it is headlights of a far away car, or motorcycle.  "There's no road over there!" one may point out.   Other increasingly luny ideas are floated, and shot down.  "I heard something!" one may say.  "It said, 'I'm coming for the English!'"  "It did not!  It said, 'I'm coming for the Engrish.'"  

I saw this one eyed menace last night!  The lights were out, but I noticed that even though it was pitch dark, there was light coming in through the window on the door.  I went to a window to ascertain its origin.  It was a large will o the wisp!  

 

The Donald

 

Walmart Delivery

 

I suddenly realized that Walmart will deliver today to my home.  I decided to try it.  I knew I could get shipping, but I didn't think they would deliver all the groceries over here today.  I have not gone shopping because of the weather, and I was still nervous about going today.  If Helene won't go to Walmart, Walmart will come to Helene.  Niiiiice.  Yay!

Church Cookbook Recipes

 

Have you ever read a church cookbook?  

Once a friend of mine,  a not so well friend, was telling me euphorically about a new casserole she had eaten at a church supper.  And guess what?  She had the recipe!  It was so delicious.  I've been to church suppers and shuddered to see what people were eating.  Did they just eat this at church suppers, or was this what they usually ate?  

"Take one can of...." she started.  OK, let me guess.  Cream of mushroom soup?  "Cream of mushroom soup..."  Let's see.  What else?  Probably tuna.  That makes it healthy.  "A can of tuna..."  "You know what would be perfect?" I thought, "Cheez Whiz!"  "Cheez Whiz.."  And potato chips?  "And potato chips."  

My friend was in her forties,  diabetic, and had been having heart trouble.   Now this suicidal casserole?   I had lectured her in the past about processed food, and how a keto diet would help her.  No way.  She told me she couldn't afford to eat a keto diet.  ??  She could afford potato chips, Cheez Whiz, Coco Puffs,  all sorts of dangerous foods.   Mostly just convenience foods.  But I don't think she did the math.  She didn't know what was on the keto diet.  I suppose she jumped to the usual conclusion - high protein, therefore ribeye steak twice a day, and ten eggs for breakfast.  Well, not really, but that would be an improvement, and how much do eggs cost?  Still, I bit my tongue.  She liked to eat the danger diet.  I think the expression on my face hurt her feelings.  I needed to back off.  

I remember being astonished at the last church dinner I went to.  The preacher stood next to me, and even sat with me at the table.  That was nice.  On the table was spaghetti that had been kept warm in a crock pot during the service.   The preacher took a man sized serving.  Half of the choices were pies and cakes.  Many brownies.  Typical.  Wait.  Chicken.  There.  I was saved.  I took two pieces.  Another friend was standing behind me, and actually slapped my hand, and took one piece off my plate. !!  OK.  What else?  Death defying cole slaw.  I suppose the marshmallows in it scared me.  There was a shredded lettuce.  And that was it.  A leaf of lettuce and a chicken wing.  

Looking through a church cookbook, I snickered at the way they all seemed to begin with "one can of cream of mushroom soup."  Not that that's such a terrible food.  It's just in every recipe.  "Green beans in cream of mushroom soup sauce."  And always crunched up potato chips on top.  I don't see much redeeming about potato chips.  Pasta salad and potato salad swimming in mayo.  Then the rest is pies, cakes, and brownies.  

I like to take deviled eggs to church suppers.  They're pretty healthy and nourishing, and not expensive.   They taste delicious.  There are never any left to take home.    I guess my deviled eggs recipe should be contributed to the church cookbook.  

Stranded Motorist

 

I walked into the living room.  Mrs. Billingsley was in a swivet about a stranded motorist.  "Where is the stranded motorist?"  She pointed with both hands outside on the lawn.  ??  "How can you see any stranded motorist over there?"  She rambled on for a while.  It was already night, so it was hard to see anything.  Also, the road has been impassable due to snow and ice.  No one has come this way in a few days.  She asked me to call the police and ask them to come over here and help rescue this person.  Mrs. Billingsley's story became wilder and wilder.  She had been driving down the road and saw this car pulled over on the side of the road.  She said she stopped and said, "Hi!"  Then they wanted a ride.  Sure.  She drove them somewhere on "the new highway."  It was twenty miles away.  She just got back.  "That was a strange drive," she said.  "I never saw another car on the road, or a service station, or anything else."  She doesn't drive, so this was all an invention of eating too many carbs at dinner.  She was scaring me in a spooky way.  I assured her that the police had been called and had gone to rescue the stranded motorist, so everything was OK.  Then I asked her if she was ready to go to sleep.  Yes.  So, she's all tucked in dreaming of rides down the new highway.  

Rolling Around Out in the Snow

 

Mrs. Billingsley had sternly warned me about going outside into the snow.  "You'll fall down and not be able to get back up and spend the day rolling around in the snow!" she told me.  

Yesterday we actually got a foot of snow.  Then it continued to snow all night and part of today.  No way I was going out there.  Some had assured me that when the temperature got up to 38º the snow would melt.  Did the snow melt?  Some.  

I pondered and pondered the warning about falling down and not being able to get back up and rolling around in the snow.  I wouldn't like that.  Would that really happen?  I collected the trash.  Surely I could just tiptoe out to the trash bin.  

It wasn't very long until I fell down in the snow, which was now about 7 inches deep.   About halfway out to the trash bin I guess.  I attempted to get up, but it was not that easy.  Maybe I should roll.  I looked back at the house.  Roll 20 feet?   I managed to stand up and decided to leave the trash where it was and stagger back into the house.  When I got there I saw that I was barefoot, my shoes out in the snow somewhere.  I think that's how this happened.  My feet got cold and I fell because of the numbness.  Cheesh.  

I sat in the living room and told Mrs. Billingsley how I had fallen down and rolled around in the snow.  Then I began to worry about leaving the trash in the yard.  Maybe I should call David.  No.  OK.  I called David.  "This is Helene," I said.  "Yeah," he said, not trying to disguise being annoyed.  "Never mind," I said.  Finally I told him that I had tried to take out the trash and fallen down in the snow and given up.  Is there any way he could get it into the trash bin?  ........  He said he'd do it tomorrow.  Great.  :)

Kitty Pot Pie

 

There has been a winter storm.  The brunt of it hit here - a foot of snow.  Yesterday I toyed with the idea of grocery shopping at Walmart, then I chickened out.  I have been asked what I plan to eat now.  The yard is littered with stray cats.  Strangely enough, chubby stray cats.  Hey, that gives me an idea.  

Oh, no problem.  The snow will be melted by tomorrow.  The reality is, today the temperature is forecast to reach 38º in "the heat of the day."  Right now it's 32º.  I suppose there will be some melting around 3:00 - 4:00 pm/.  Then the temperature will rapidly drop to 19º.  Then what?  A big layer of ice on top of the snow.  There it will sit for a few days.  But "the snow plows" will be out by then, right?  Sure.  

It hasn't come to eating cats, or shoe leather yet.  I'm going to eat chicken pot pie.   I have to go ahead and eat the food in the freezer now.  The thing I'm dreading is a power outage.  So far the lights have flickered but stayed on.  Typically ice storms cause a power outage.  Oh, but they'll fix that right away, won't they?  Well, probably within four days.  

I didn't get the mail yesterday because I forgot.  I keep thinking of going out to the mailbox.  Mrs. Billingsley advises against it.  She says, "If you fall down out there you won't be able to get up.  Then you'll be rolling around out in the snow all day."  

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Mrs. Billingsley's Senior Moment

 

Mrs. Billingsley was puzzled about some things this evening.  Where was she going to live anyway?  She said she didn't have her house anymore.   She was considering going to live in Aunt Louise's and Uncle Bert's house, because there needed to be room for all five of "us."  She said these children were demanding that she do something.  "Who are you talking about?" I asked, not really expecting to get an answer.  She changed the subject, and said she had thought of living in the house where she lived before, but the people there didn't recognize her.   "Which house?"  "The one on 40th Street."  She lived there as a teenager.  "You can live here, OK?" I said.  She was satisfied with that.  "The Chaplins have moved to California," she informed me.  Uh oh.  She had been trying to sort out why she no longer heard from her grandparents, or her mother or her uncle.  "Uncle Charlie is in California?" I asked her, curious to see where that went.  She paused, for a moment, trying to make that fit her new narrative.  For some reason that wasn't working.  Why?  Finally she told me that, yes, he too had gone to California.   "OK.  So you know what I think?"  "What do you think?"  "I think you're tired."  "I am tired."  "Would you like to go to bed now?"  "Yes."   So Mrs. Billingsley is sleeping it off.  

Happy New Year 2025

 

Traditional New Year's Dinner

 

1)  Black eyed peas. 

2). Corn. 

3)  Pork.  

4)   Greens. 

So is this what I ate for dinner?  Yes.  Why not go with tradition?