Friday, December 18, 2020

THE TROUBLE WITH BLOGSPOT.COM

I've been blogging on Blogspot and it is very limiting. You are not allowed more than 14 followers for starters. Today, if time permits, I am changing my blog back to Wordpress. If you are interested, you can find me at my old address when I blogged for six years with my Partner, Jim. Then we were OTRWJAM@wordpress.com. Now, it will read Marysramblins@wordpress.com, that is if the title is still available. I'll be working on it. 

Ciao

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

PROVERBS TO LIVE BY

 We're all in favor of progress, providing we can have it without change.  Bill Vaughn-Kansas.

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.  French Proverb.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.  Bernard Shaw.

Happy is the person who can laugh at himself. He will never cease to be amused.  Habib Bourguiba.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.  Goethe.

Put all your eggs in one basket- and watch that basket.  Mark Twain from Puddin Head Wilson.

A political convention is called to decide who's going to be the life of the party.  Earl wilson.

Nobody knows the age of the human race,  but all agree that it is old enough to know better. Shaw.

 If hard work is the key to success, most people would rather pick the lock.  Claude McDonald.

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that three of his fingers are pointing at himself.   Anonymous. 

Every time you try to smother a truth, two others get their breath. Bill Copeland.

Worry is a fast getaway on a wooden horse..   Stanley Horowitz.

The more help a person has in his garden, the less it belongs to him.  William H. Davis.

Country Music has come to town! It gives you a shiver like the faraway whistle of a night train; and the age-old lament for love lost or the joy of love discovered. The wry humor of hard workers and lonely drifters. It is life in a tune with its trials and rewards. You'll hear it in big cities and small towns from coast to coast. It is uniquely ALL AMERICAN.


Ciao

 

 

Sunday, November 1, 2020

QUIRKY QUOTES FOR FUN.

If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal. 

A whale swims all day, only eats fish, and drinks water, but is still fat. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years, while a tortoise doesn't run and does mostly nothing yet lives for 150 years, and they tell us to exercise?  I don't think so.

Now that I'm older, here's what I've discovered in numerical order:

1. I started out with nothing and still have most of it

2. My wild oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes and Allbran.

3. Funny, I don't remember being absent minded. 

4. Funny, I don't remember being absent minded.

5.If all is not lost, then where the heck is it?

6. It was a whole lot easier to get older than it was to get wiser.

7. Some days you're the top dog, some days you're the hydrant.

8. I wish the buck really would stop here. I sure could use a few of them.

9. Kids in the back seat cause accidents. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.

10. It is hard to make a come back when you haven't been anywhere.

11. The world only beats a path to your door when you're in the bathroom or you owe money.

12. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he'd have put them on my knees.

13. When I'm finally holding all he right cards, everyone wants to play chess.

14. It is not hard to meet expenses...they're everywhere.

15. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

16. These days I spend a lot time thinking about the hereafter...I go somewhere to get something and wonder what I'm "here after."

17. Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded?

18. Have I sent you this message before?? Or did I get it from you?

And last, some BUMPER SNICKERS:

Spotted in North Platte, Nebraska:  Keep your doors locked. This is Zucchini season!

On a crumpled bumper in Atlanta: "I break for tailgaters".

From California:  "Private bumper sticker. Do not read."

 

 

 

 

 


Saturday, October 31, 2020

WISDOM KEEPERS

That's me. A wisdom keeper.  It seems to me, in my youth, I came up with a very cogent quote. I can't remember it anymore.  Age robs us of more than years. Memory goes woggly, as well. But, there are so many wonderful quotes from others I hope to share today. Then, I'll print them out and read them now and then to stay up to date.

My favorite:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” ― Mark Twain 

"No Nation or state can advance faster than it's working classes."-   H. A. Rucker

"Respect existence or expect resistance"-  Martin Luther King

"Share the same garment of opportunity, for no human is illegal."-   Martin Luther King

"Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class and brutalizes our lower class.-         Matthew Arnold 

"The gulf between employers and employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful and the other the poor who are toiling."  President Hoover

"The wealth of a country is its working people."  Theodore Herzl

Wisdom is fine, but life must have some fun. A couple of young people loved to quote this in front of any serious conversations to jar the adults away from being too dull.

"Sex is evil,  Evil is sin,  Sin is forgiven,  So, sex is in!!!"

Don't you love it when the kids are more clever than the adults?

Cha, cha, cha.












 

 

 

NO ONE FOR PRESIDENT

I'm prone to collecting expressions or statements that people make that either tickle my sense of humor or strike me s interesting, odd or unusual. Here are a few of them that have been hanging around on a scrap of paper.

I had a store in Murphys at one time and an older woman, Mrs. Fisher would visit me. She would joke about a cheap establishment from her day saying people called them:  "Hotel De Bum Bill of Fare."

And another store friend, among many who hung out at my store and the next door barbershop where they'd come to me for their drinks after having their hair cut. It was known in the neighborhood as "The 4:30 Club. Kind of the end of the day. Business slowed down.

Buster Riedel loved to say with a twinkle in his eye:

When I was young I spent my money on booze and girls.  The rest of it was wasted.

He also recited this bit:

When your heels hit hard, and your head feels queer, and your thoughts foam up like froth on a beer and you laugh like hell at some damn fool song, You're drunk, by God, You're drunk.

His wife, Rosie, didn't approve of the 4:30 Club so he would leave for home with these words:

" I gotta go home and get some hot tongue and cold shoulder." 

He was in his 90's. He once owned a grocery store in downtown Murphys and he would drive to Stockton to order his bread and other stuff. He no longer ran the store, but he made it a point to make the trip and bring the 4:30 Club members, and other friends fresh bread about once a month. Those  were fun times.

Murphys was full of interesting characters. Another was Betty Dunkle. She liked to repeat an old toast at any occasion where the wine and scotch flowed.

"Heres to you and here's to me, the best of friends we'll always be, If you have a friend both good and true, stab her in the back before she stabs you. 

Another she was fond of was: Early to rise and early to bed, makes a girl healthy but socially dead. 

I think I was the healthy one and socially dead, but I learned how to be a little bit wild with her as my friend. 

So much for Tomfoolery. Don't know who Tom was, but I'm going to look him up on the internet where someone knows all and then I'll tell you.

Ciao


 

 

Friday, October 30, 2020

DEATH AND DISEASE

The Corona Virus is a scary disease, but there have been much worse. Flu epidemics were deadly and people of the early 1920's saw fit to wear masks, not quite like those we find today. But, in 1867 Yellow Fever killed 1/3 of the population of Texas, Louisiana and the Mississippi low country. No one knew at the time that mosquitoes carried the deadly virus. 

Many areas were prone to flooding at the time. Many houses were built on stilts to keep the flood waters at bay. In fact, even garbage cans were on stilts. To empty them, they could be tipped over and dumped and then moved back to level again. 

When Jim and I traveled in Louisiana and Mississippi, we saw many houses on stilts though at the time, I didn't realized how deadly and destructive some of the weather there could be. Nor did I realize that Texas was a hot bed for flooding diseases. We take for granted that waterways are very much controlled by ditches and dams. It was not always so.

I'm astounded at how much history we forget. And, when we forget, we are destined to repeat



Sunday, October 18, 2020

CHEERS # II

The popular Cheers character, Norm Peterson, was known for his one-line zingers. It was a long running popular program that I enjoyed very much. I hope you did too. More remembrances.

SAM:  Beer Norm?

NORM:  Have I gotten that predictable?  Good!

SAM:  Whatcha up to Norm?

NORM:   My ideal weight if I were eleven feet tall.

WOODY:  How's it going Mr. Peterson?

NORM:  Poor.

WOODY:  I'm sorry to hear that.

NORM:  No, I mean pour.

SAM:  How's life treating you Norm?

NORM:  Like it caught me sleeping with its wife,

 SAM:  What's going down, Normie?

NORM:  My butt cheeks on that bar stool.

WOODY:  Pour you a beer Mr. Peterson? 

NORM:  Alright, but stop me at one...make that thirty one.

WOODY:  How's it going Mr. Peterson?

NORM:  It's a dog eat dog world, Woody, and I'm wearing milk bone underwear.

SAM:  What's the story Norm?

NORM:  Boy meets beer. Boy drinks beer. Boy meets another beer.

WOODY:  Can I pour you a beer Mr. Pertson?

NORM:  A little early isn't it Woody?

WOODY:  For a beer?

NORM:  No, for stupid questions.


And, so it goes. I'm sure there are many more. 

Exit stage right.......


 

 

 

 

Saturday, October 17, 2020

CHEERS POPULAR TV PROGRAM

 Norman Peterson quotes from the Cheers show are very funny. Thought I'd repeat some of them here.

    Sam:  What's new Normie?

    Norm: Terrorists Sam. They've taken over my stomach & theyre demanding beer. 

    Sam: What'll you have Normie?

    Norm: A reason to live. Give me another beer. 

    Sam:  What'll you have Normie?

    Norm: I'm in a gambling mood Sammy. I'll take whatever comes out of that tap.  

    Sam: Looks like beer Norm.

    Norm:  Call me Mr. Lucky.

    SAM:  Hey Norm, hows the world been treating you.

    Norm:  Like a baby treats a diaper.

    Woody: Hey Mr. Peterson, there's a cold one waiting for you.

    Norm:   I know, if she calls I'm not here.


More Normie quotes later.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

INHERITED HABITS

My mom and my dad's sister, my Aunt Mary Rowe, were great communicators. They would write a pithy quote on their letters and cards to each other and other relatives as well. I expect I've inherited their love of these short little quips of wisdom or humor.  With the Corona Virus and sequestering, I've found I do not have more time than usual. But I do more things that I like to do in the time I do have. So, here are some words from ages:

Well, first, a word of wisdom from me:  Don't do business with AT&T if you can avoid it. They have to be one of the worst companies for customer service.

Now, to the greats:

No man can conform his faith
to the dictates of another.
The life and essence of religion
consists in the internal
persuasion or belief of the mind

                   Thomas Jefferson, 1819

That woman tempted me,
And she tempts me still.
I pray to God,
She always will!

                  Perhaps the author (unk.) was fearful to sign it.

Life is short, live it!
Love is rare, grab it!
Anger is bad, dump it!
Fear is awful, face it!
Memories are sweet, cherish them!

                  Another unknown author but
                  a great quote.

Anything too stupid to be said, is sung.

                  Voltaire  (1694-1778)

Last words of a dying Pancho Villa:

Don't let it end like this,
Tell them I said something-  (1877-1923)

This is lousy weather for a wedding toast
but then it is lousy weather for just about anything.
It poured rain, ceaselessly all day.

Here is to the Bride
May you always have diamonds on your fingers
and knock-you-dead-destroy-the-paycheck
dresses to wear.
Here is to the Groom
May you have an indestructible paycheck.





 

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

QUIPS AND QUOTES

Sometimes, we need a little levity.

To be alive, not just the carcass
But the spark. That's crudely put
But if we are not supposed to dance
Then why all the music?
                                        By Gregory Orr

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and ah, my friends...
It gives a lovely light.
                                         Edna St. Vincent Millay

He who doesn't like
Wine,women and song
Remains a fool
His whole life long.

                                        Author unknown to me.

Fortune favors the brave.

                                        Virgil Aeneid 70 BC-19 BC

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

                                          Voltaire  (1694-1778)

Aside:  Those oldsters didn't mince words.

The hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the earth;
The hand that holds four aces,
Bet on it for all you're worth.

                                           Author unknown to me, but it sounds good.

Ciao
 

Friday, March 20, 2020

GREED AND FEAR.

No one is responsible for the Corona Virus. It just happened. People are fearful and hopefully, as I, and others face Isolation things will improve. For the first time since I've been diagnosed with cancer, my Doctor asked me to skip a treatment and stay home. Part of the reason is that I'm doing well and I'm at great risk to have blood work and an infusion at my age with a serious disease.

My grandson,  Stewart and his fiance, Allie,  returned from Europe three days ago. They were immediately quarantined. I asked them what they were doing and they told me they were working jigsaw puzzles and eating a lot of popcorn. Allie is a nurse and Stewart is a tech writer, so he can work from home as long as his services are needed. And Allie will soon be needed with her skills.

My daughter bought me a lot of groceries so I could last a month without going to a grocery store. I'm at risk because of age and disease. I'm being very careful. But, I went to the post office. That is not very careful. I was out for therapy and I convinced myself it was all right. NOT! No one in the post office, not the customers or the workers wore masks or seemed at all concerned. I immediately came home and washed, washed, washed. I shouldn't have gone there.

My son Doug walked in his ankle boot cast to his local grocery and found the shelves quite empty. He has a turkey in his freezer, and was looking to buy some potatoes to go with the turkey. He said, "I can live for a week or more on a turkey. He called me from the market and I suggested he get stuffing mix to go with his turkey, or boxed potato flakes. All gone!  Looking at the emptiness he asked a checker whey the shelves were so bare. She told him that a group of men, swooped in and took everything. She found out they were hoping to sell the stuff on the black market when things get desperate. That is criminal greed.

I was stunned. Doug was too. However, the store had a sign up front that said no returns would be granted on receipts for purchases from March 17th forward. According to her, that put a stop to it. .

Now, let's talk about fear. This happened in a Save Mart, earlier, where Doug went to buy some hamburger and the butcher told him they were out at the moment but he was getting a side of beef in and to come back in about two hours and he'd have some meat in the case.
He returned and a man and his wife took all of the meat the butcher had cut and wrapped and put in the case. The butcher asked the guy to take a package or two. Allow someone else to have a some meat. The guy defiantly went to the check stand. The checker asked him to put some of it back and only take two packages. He growled at her, "Check me out!"
 And she did. I consider that greed and fear.

 I don't know if that Save Mart made it a policy, by posting a  sign, requiring patrons to limit their purchases to what they need immediately.  Doug's truck broke down and he cannot drive anymore and must hobble in his cast to the local market with the empty shelves. Maybe, deliveries will continue and the shelves will have more than bare spaces.

I hope we have leadership in Washington that can get help for everyone very soon. After all this isn't a political issue, it is a health issue and we should all be working together to keep the Corona Virus from spreading. I'm so grateful that I have stupendous neighbors who call and check on me and ask if I need anything. I'm grateful that I don't need anything but resolve.

May we all get through this with a minimum of disease among our friends and families. This pandemic is like nothing we have ever faced as a nation before. It is financially troubling especially for people like young waiters and waitresses who depend on tips to make ends meet and suddenly are unemployed with nothing coming in. And, who will gather the homeless and find treatment and testing for them who can continue to spread the virus without check?

Isolation, though not permanent, can surely slow the spread of this deadly disease. I pledge.






Tuesday, March 17, 2020

AN IRISH BLESSING.

It is St. Patricks Day today and I recently learned that using the term Paddy is a derogative term. So I shan't go there.
My mother was French and my father was Irish, English, Belgian, Scotch and a wee bit of this and that. My mother wryly commented, "You can be a Heintz 57, but if there is a little bit of Irish in you,  you consider yourself Irish."  And so it was with my father. He drank heavy as a young man and to save his marriage he became a teetotaler.  Once in a while, he'd sip a little and he'd sing us those Irish ballads he remembered from his youth. Sad and soulful, Oh Danny Boy, would have we kids in tears. As his tongue got thick, the accent got thicker and the songs much more fun. This one comes to mind:

Oh, lady would you be kind enough to give me a bite to eat,
A slice of bread and butter with a ten foot slice of meat,
A piece of pie and custard would tickle me appetite
For really I am so hungry I don't know where I'll sleep tonight.

Chorus:
Hallelujah, I'm a bum,
Hallelujah, bum again,
Hallelujah, give us a handout to revive us again.

The Little Rock Candy Mountains, was another favorite.  Ah, I guess I'm awash in memories.

But here then is the Irish Blessing, author unknown.

May there always be
work for your hands to do,

May your purse
always hold a coin or two,

May the sun always shine
on your windowpane,

May a rainbow be certain
to follow the rain. 

May the hand of a friend
always be near you,

May God fill your heart
with gladness to cheer you.

Top o' the mornin' to ya!



Saturday, February 29, 2020

WAS VOTING EASIER?

I ask the question, was voting easier?  In a word, NO!  I took directions from the newspaper. Turn on-to Stanislaus Ave. Turn right on Tuolumne Rd. Turn right again and you will see directions to the polling place. Nope. Turned up Stanislaus, dead ended into Cliff Rd. Turned right found Oneida Rd. Rt. again, Tuolumne Rd and signs for the polling place. Whoops, sorry, the polls don't open until 8:00. My protest: I called the County and they said 7:00 a.m. I did not get a mail ballot. They should have mailed one to everyone, I was told.

I went out for breakfast and returned approximately 8:45. The machines weren't working. After 15 minutes or so, the machines cooperated and they found that I was indeed a registered voter. I voted in less then 10 minutes and left. The poll workers were extremely nice and helpful. I'm still miffed that after 44 years in Murphys, there was not one polling place in our fair village.

Sour grapes on my part. I hope it is better organized in November.

Friday, February 28, 2020

MAKING VOTING EASIER?

Most of my news comes from my newspaper. I was under the impression that the powers that be were trying to make voting easier, by having more voting days, meaning more choices. What a shocker when I found out that there is NO PLACE IN MURPHYS to vote. I've lived here for 44 years and there is not place to vote in Murphys? How can that be. Guaranteed, voting will be down from normal with conditions I will list:

I can vote election day in Arnold at the Library. Take note, Arnold is an area with more vacation homes than permanent residents. They are only open election day.  Did I get something in the mail explaining all of these changes?  NO!  Arnold is twenty-five miles from me one way. Drive 50 miles to vote?  Not very practical for most people I know.

Tomorrow, on a Saturday,  I can drive to Angels Camp, only eleven miles from my house to go and vote. Is it in a recognizable hall? NO!  I was told over the phone, go to Stanislaus St until it ends, turn right , then another right on Tuolumne St. and signs will direct you where to go. Again, this is the only day that site will be open. When our voting ability has gotten worse, not better, turnout is sure to be diminished.

I'm really bummed about this and feeling helpless to do anything about it.  A letter to the newspaper may help get people riled up before the general election. Riled up enough to perhaps get some stability in our election process. Democracy depends on our right and our ability to vote.

I'm still stunned that this is so.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

NO HOT WATER

Plumbing is for plumbers. A blocked sink that suddenly will not open makes me laugh, but the undrainable sink isn't really funny until I lie on the floor and try to fix it and get the giggles. I don't know who invented rubber gloves, but oh, how I treasure them for plumbing tasks. Living single is challenging. Getting up on a ladder to clean the screen on my wood stove pipe would give me a warmer, less smokey house.Getting on the roof at my age with a bum knee on the right and a bum ankle on the left is something I shouldn't try. If I get desperate enough I will. I'm frigorific and shrammed. (I'm into new vocabulary words.)  Yes, I'm showing off, because I'm fascinated by some of these old English words because they are so useless, or, as the old English say, bootless. I actually started collecting them because I wanted to wow my daughter with words she probably wouldn't know when we play scrabble. As busy as we are that hardly ever happens anymore. Such long words aren't practical anyway.  Loess will work when you have too many esses in your hand. It means windblown soil, like drifted desert deposits. Zolaf is good when you have a hard to use Z with combined with a hard to use  F. It is a tea spout sleeve. Just what everyone needs, but hey, in a scrabble game, it works. These daffynitions come from Merrium Webster. I swear they are real. How about saln, for peace and harmony. Or serac, a cut in the earth. Stupa, a mostly conical structure for storing bones. I have personal knowledge of stupas from my trip to Thailand. Too many N's?  How about nene. A Hawaiian goose. Xerus is a type of giant squirrel. Zeru is a humped bovine. You've heard the word capo. Sounds like a mobster boss instead of a moveable bar on a guitar.
Well, I've had my fun with words. I must heat water on the stove to wash my dishes and hope Monday brings someone agile and talented to my rescue. Ciao.