by jphilo | Jan 7, 2016 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Every year, my only New Year’s resolution is to make no New Year’s resolutions. Doing so allows me to break it while making it and then move on.
- I thought Carrie Fisher looked totally like her real father, Eddie Fisher, in the first Star Wars movie. In Episode 7 more of her mother, Debbie Reynolds, peeked through. The Unsinkable Princess Leah as it were.
- Contentment: Sipping coffee from my favorite coffee shop while nibbling on fresh pumpkin bread and watching The Lord of the Ring movies with the Man of Steel on a cold winter day. You?
by jphilo | Dec 31, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- The hand therapist signed my official release from treatment almost 12 weeks to the day from surgery to reconnect my thumb tendon. I can now wear my wrist watch and wedding rings, type as swiftly and inaccurately as ever, drive, dress and groom myself, cook. and dust (sigh) like a a big girl. Life is good!
- Unfortunately, I still can’t use my good hand to lift chips with salsa to my mouth without dripping it on the only spot of white shirt showing beneath a woolly winter sweater. Many thanks to the staff of La Caretta and my husband for pretending not to notice my personal eating disorder.
- And, though the hand therapist’s office was mere blocks from the library, I totally forgot to check out the Downton Abbey DVDs in order and in time to watch all 5 seasons before the upcoming premiere of season 6. As if I haven’t already suffered sufficient consequences from the careless handling of kitchen knives.
How are you preparing for the premiere of Downton Abbey? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Dec 24, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Our sump pumps have been running now and then since last week’s big rain. Never thought I’d be saying that on Christmas Eve.
- Normally, I keep my mouth shut about politics. But Vladimir Putin’s statement about Donald Trump being flamboyant and talented has forced me to break the silence. If this country needs a flamboyant and talented president, let’s vote for Liberace.
- My favorite Christmas tradition is attending a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Yours?
by jphilo | Dec 17, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- This Iowa December is beginning to look a lot like the rainy month when Laura and Mary worried Santa wouldn’t make it over the flooded river to their Little House on the Prairie. Here’s hoping Santa doesn’t overshoot his mark and land in the puddle in our basement this Christmas.
- When making cinnamon-apple ornaments with a three-year-old grandson, it takes approximately two minutes for the dough to morph into dirt, the spatula into an earth digger, and the rolling pin into a steam roller.
- Thank you, Netflix, for making The Wonder Years available for streaming. I’m not too proud to admit I have a junior high crush on Kevin Arnold. His smile makes this heart beat faster.
Who was your junior high crush? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Dec 15, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
I love historical fiction. Here’s what I’ve learned during my most recent foray into a historic friction trilogy that encompasses events around the globe during the 20th century.
10 The audio version of Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy is an excellent listening choice for someone going through hand exercises for 7 weeks. The best time to start listening is when moving uncooked elbow macaroni from here to there piece by tiny piece for twenty minutes every two hours loses its luster and becomes common place.
9. On the other hand, an audio book is not the best medium for tracing several, intertwining family trees that span a hundred years.
8. An uncommon word like “fracas” can be used only so many times before it starts to stand out awkwardly.
7. If I had to choose between living in the communist countries of East Germany, Soviet Union, and Cuba, I would choose Cuba. Because it would be easier to live under communist oppression where it’s warm.
6. Fictional historical characters and leaders, unlike real ones, always have reliable political instincts.
5. According to this historical fictional author, any kind of sex is okay if you think the world is ending within twenty-four hours.*
4. Several excellent high school history teachers, along with personal experience, extensive reading of historical fiction and biography for the past 40 years gave me a good foundation about the following 20th century events: WW1, the League of Nations, the Great Depression, WW2, the West Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, the partition of East Germany, and the Civil Rights movement.
3. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War was a total miss.
2. Ditto for the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis. How did I miss the fact that the world was on the brink of nuclear war when I was six years old?
1. On the other hand, six is a good age to be when the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Because in October of 1962, six-year-olds were consumed with who they would be for Halloween rather than the end of the world. Proof positive that ignorance is bliss.
*I don’t plan to apply this lesson in real life.
What lessons have you learned from historical fiction? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Dec 10, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- My new passport arrived in the mail the other day, along with a pamphlet that claimed, “With your US passport, the world is yours!” When the Man of Steel heard the world is mine, but not his, he contemplated getting his own passport. But we finally decided it would be better for me to just share half of the world I now own with him so we could save the $110 passport fee, plus $12.50 for the picture. World ownership is no excuse for needless spending.
- 8 weeks post-op, my arm splint has been relegated to night time wear only. Which means I can drive again. Can you say F-R-E-E-D-O-M?
- Hand therapy continues for four more weeks at least, so I’m making a Christmas present for my hand therapist, the woman who makes me pick up macaroni with thumb and pinkie and then move it from one pile to another and back again. I can’t wait to see her open the Christmas tree creation I’m making by picking up macaroni and green glitter gluing it to a styrafoam cone. Cool, huh?
What’s the coolest Christmas present you’ve ever made? Leave a comment.
