Category Archives: Life

Jan29

listen carefully.

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“have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”

-norton  juster, the phantom tollbooth 

 

 

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huron river, ann arbor, mi, usa – january 2022

Jan26

a day to remember.

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the great blizzards and a birthday – michigan history!

today is the anniversary of two of michigan’s greatest blizzards.

which both started on the same date January 26th, one in 1967 and the other in 1978.

 also on this date

my brother scott, was born in 1965 under clear skies.

happy birthday!

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The 1965 birthday. Scott was born, he was cute, and I wanted to bring him in for show and tell, but my mom refused and made me bring a picture, which I was really mad about. He did not like shoveling snow, but he did enjoy playing in it, sledding on our school hill at recess, and throwing it at us.

The 1967 storm. The big Blizzard went down as one of the all-time worst blizzards in Michigan’s history mainly because of the way the weather conditions quickly changed drastically and people were caught off guard. In the days leading up to the blizzard, some areas had temps in the 60s, quickly plummeted, and the skies dumped 1 1/2 feet of snow in a very short time.

The 1978 storm. Snowfalls for the entire storm included a whopping 30 inches in some Michigan locations. There were already 4 to 6 feet of snow on the ground before the storm started, and there were many drifts of over 15 feet.

In both storms there were wind gusts up to 65 MPH and both had several periods of thunderstorms with the snow, (thunder-snow).So far there has not been a storm that has come close to the intensity of either of the storms since 1978.  My brother still enjoys playing in the snow and celebrating his birthday. And I’m glad for all of this. 

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“apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.’

-mark twain

 

 

 

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credits: michigan history, clarence white

Jan24

‘this is the great secret of life.’ – michael beckwith

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written by one of my idols-

 for her writing, her wisdom, and in how she chose to fully live her life.

Jan23

it fell from the sky.

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after last week’s surprise package of tempting treats

another food surprise arrived

 a couple of breakfast meals

seem to have fallen from the sky

right to my front door

this time delivered by grub hub 

with no address on the receipt 

delivered in the morning when i was at school

 huge portions of pancakes and eggs benedict

i’m sure they were hot and delicious when they arrived

another set of challenges to my healthy eating

testing my temptation limits

is my door the common delivery area for every address on my street?

what will appear next?

should i leave snacks and drinks out for all of the delivery people yet to come?

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“when fortune knocks open the door.”

-proverb

Jan21

memoir.

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the kinder wondered what happened to the big, old tree they used to play under

it was a good tree

we sat under it when it was hot in the sun and its shade kept us cool

we collected pretty leaves that floated down from it in the fall

it was on a hill and we ran by it in the winter when we were playing in the snow

pieces of it had been falling off for a very long time

we guess that maybe it was very old and very sick and it was getting too tired

 the kinder began to put its little pieces back on to decorate it

we hope that in the spring

a new sapling will come up near where the old tree used to stand so tall.

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“a tree’s wood is also its memoir.”     

-hope jahren

Jan20

unexpected.

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last night when i walked outside

i tripped over a bag left at my front door

it was filled with treats

cookies, candy, and ice cream

(the three c’s, the holy trinity of sweets, cake can be subbed in as needed)

i had no idea who it was from, no note inside, such a great surprise

then i noticed the address

guessed the delivery person had just reversed it

i could go and deliver it myself

 tried to imagine who was waiting for it

maybe

it was from a parent

who sent it to their child/college student cramming for an exam?

the victim of a recent romantic breakup needing sugar therapy?

a parent who just needed a break and a treat?

a dieter on a sweets bender?

a family waiting for dessert to go with their board game?

a hallmark movie night for friends?

was it a test from the universe

to challenge my recent healthy eating resolve?

cadbury is my favorite chocolate

 the cookies aren’t that big

 i could eat one spoon of ice cream a day

i had no idea how long it had been out there

no one had knocked

the ice cream was beginning to soften

i felt for whoever was expecting it

called the company on the bag

they said the customer had reordered when it didn’t arrive

they had already sent them out a new bag of treats

 i was welcome to eat it or throw it out

i chose a third option

i delivered this unexpected gift to my daughter

at her house in the light of day.

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“life is always bringing unexpected gifts.”

-may sarton

Jan16

action.

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in light of the very cold weather
this is my plan of action for today.
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“action is what will produce your desired results.”
― Rosette Mugidde Wamambe
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illustration credit: richard scarry
Jan13

the right days.

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it’s january and i see the easter bunny

is already busy laying chocolate eggs

maybe she’s switching holidays

planning to take over groundhog day?

 

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“we have christmas and thanksgiving, and easter,

although we’re not exactly sure we celebrate them on the right days.”

–Henry De Vere Stacpoole

Jan9

bubbles….

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 someone, (not me) celebrating by bubble-bathing 

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last night

i once again celebrated one of my favorite holidays

national bubblebath day

 actually i celebrate this most every day

i’m a huge fan of baths, less so of showers

 often so relaxing that i fall asleep in the bath

if ever my post doesn’t show up one morning

you’ll know what has happened to me.

what about you? are you team bath or team shower?

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national bubble bath day:

Few things are as soothing and relaxing as a bubble bath. This is especially true if the bather decides to take their bubble bath to the next level using scented bath oils. Because bubbles form an insulating layer on top of the water, bubble baths also tend to stay warmer longer than ordinary baths. With that said, it’s National Bubble Bath Day, which celebrates the joys of these baths.

history of the bubble bath:

Although soap is a substance used since ancient times, it was very different from today’s soap. Baths were important to the Greeks and Romans, but most of the time oil, not soap, was used to dissolve dirt and grime on the skin. Sometimes this oil would be mixed with fire ashes, which creates a primitive soap that dissolves dirt and oils.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the Dark Ages and bathing fell out of fashion. That’s because suspicion and myths arose around the act of bathing, and many households only had access to primitive soaps. As bathing declined, the public became more prone to various diseases and plagues which continued until the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, scented bath oils became extremely popular, but they were only enjoyed by the aristocracy and they didn’t produce a whole lot of bubbles. Fortunately, during this time, bathing also increased among the lower classes. However, the types of soaps used by the upper and the lower classes differed greatly. While the upper classes enjoyed high-quality scented soaps made from olive oils, the lower class had to be content with lye-based soaps made from rendered animal fats.

Bubble baths as we would know them today started with the invention of soap flakes—which was around the turn of the 20th century. By the 1930s, bubble baths were a widespread practice and the practice continued to increase in popularity from the 1940s on. Today, a variety of bubble baths are produced and enjoyed by people all over the world.

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“you can often wash your troubles away with the right kind of bath.

throw everything you have into the tub; bubble gels, bubble oils, bubble powders, bubble gum. “

-henry beard

 

 

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image credit: bored panda

Jan7

smoot.

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The Smoot is a unit of length, defined as the height in 1958 of Oliver R. Smoot, who later became the Chairman of the American National Standard Institute (ANSI, and then the president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The unit is used to measure the length of the Harvard Bridge. Originally in 1958 when Smoot was a Lambda Chi Alpha pledge at MIT (class of 1962), the bridge was measured to be 364.4 Smoots, plus or minus one ear, using Mr. Smoot himself as a ruler. At the time, Smoot was 5 feet, 7 inches,  or 170cm tall. Google Earth and Calculator both include the smoot as a unit of measurement.

The Cambridge, Mass. police department adopted the convention of using Smoots to measure the locations of accidents and incidents on the bridge. When the original markings were removed or covered over during bridge maintenance, the police had to request that someone reapply the Smoot scale markings. During a major bridge rebuild, the concrete sidewalk was permanently divided into segments one Smoot in length, as opposed to the regular division of six feet.

i’d love to have measurement named after me –

how many ‘peaches’ equal the length of a subaru?

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“measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.”

-galileo galilei

 

 

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photo credits: MIT alum