Rainy Days and Mondays

What a good song that was, way back many years ago. Seems fitting for today with the relentless rain we are receiving. However, the line of the song that says “rainy days and Monday’s always get me down” doesn’t hold much water today. We here in Alabama very much need the rain falling right now and most of us are off work today, that makes the wet situation a little more tolerable.

Rainy days are great for freelancers like myself. The steady drum of the rain on the roof is quite relaxing. A relaxed writer is a happy writer. Today is my day to work on whatever comes to mind…no deadlines to beat. I can work on my book that I have been putting off for some time now, or I can simply start a new project that may take me in a whole different direction entirely.

What will you choose to do with your rainy day? Will you let it get you down or will you appreciate it for what it really is…a gift from someone much bigger than ourselves. Our water supply which was dropping every day will now be replenished, our grass will turn green again and all the baby ducks will splash and play…what a nice day.

Are we alone?

Is life on other planets really that far fetched, or is the notion just good movie fodder? Well, water has been found elsewhere so the whole idea is possible I guess. What exactly would that mean to us if suddenly we did find out we aren’t alone? What if from out of the bright blue sky tomorrow a spaceship full of beings from somewhere else lands in our back yard. What will we do and how will we act?

The chances of us being able to communicate with them probably aren’t very good. Maybe if they have been monitoring our TV for a while we could just hand them a coke, they would know we were friendly then. Well, that’s how it works on television anyway.

I also have to wonder how long before we put together our own self sufficient space craft. One that can stay gone for years at a time, and truly explore our solar system. Many laugh at such an idea, but we have the technology readily available to us. For those of you that remember watching the original Star Trek series, just think of all the things they had that were not possible then but are everyday now. They used communicators to talk to each other…we have cell phones. They had gigantic super computers that ran their ship…we have laptops equally as powerful.

I doubt our government will play much of a part in this bold new venture into space…we are broke. More than likely some multi billionaire with more money than can be spent will fund such a project. I wouldn’t doubt that such billionaire will find a way to make even more money while doing so. After all it takes money to make money…least that’s what I’ve always been told.

Anywhere can be a classroom

Ah…what a beautiful morning down here on the river. The sun hasn’t been up long enough to make it too hot yet. Birds are busy chirping, singing and just generally doing whatever it is birds do. As for me I am enjoying my off day and my first cup of coffee. Not much better than an off day and coffee in my opinion.

Took my grand daughter Kadince on her first canoe ride yesterday. She did very well, had a great time and we didn’t turn over. Although it was pretty hot at times, she was a trooper and didn’t complain much. I think she was in awe most of the time at simply being out on the water and how much wildlife there was around us. It’s amazing the things you don’t see any more as a grown up. The world is truly a different place through a child’s eyes.

Each little thing that went on around us seemed to spawn many new questions for me to answer. Why do those little bugs on the water not sink and what do they eat, these were only two of about a hundred I had to answer. She got to see where beavers live and all the sticks they had stripped the bark from, which were scattered all around the edge of the pond.

All in all it was probably a good learning experience for both of us, I hope she never loses her zest for learning and her love for mother nature. I can see many more canoe trips in the near future. Have a great day…Lowell

Old people can be so funny!

A nurse walked into a room with her patients lunch tray. “Would you like me to put it here” she asked…pointing at the table by the bed. “ No, no, it’s way too early for beer” he replied. You see the “Price is Right” was on and he was totally engrossed in it, and a little hard of hearing too. Shaking her head she put the tray on the table and walked out.

After about an hour of making rounds the nurse came back into the patients room to check on him and collect his tray. He was then sitting on the side of the bed and talking to an old friend that had stopped by to visit. She quietly collected the tray and headed for the door. Just as she was exiting the room she heard the friend say “why didn’t you get us a couple of those beers she told you about earlier.” She couldn’t help but smile all the way back to the nurses station.

Another day and another patient, this same nurse had another humorous situation. Her morning had been a little frantic, everyone in the place seemed to want her for something. She enters the room of her patient who had pressed his call button…or so she had thought. “Hello Mr. Jones, can I help you with anything,” she asked. “No” he replied. “Not unless you are a TV repairman” he added. He went on to say that he didn’t want to watch the show that was on but he couldn’t change the channel. She quickly reached up and flipped the channel until he saw what he wanted to watch and then headed back on down the hall.

About thirty minutes or so went by and Mr. Jones’s call light went to blinking again. Once again she headed back to see him. Upon entering she found him once again muttering about his TV. Now this frustrated her just a little. She really didn’t have time to run up and down the hall all day to change TV channels. Then she saw it, the call button remote was sitting beside the patient and the TV remote was sitting on his table. She picked up the TV remote and fiddled with it for a minute and handed it to him. Without letting him see, she put the call button on the table… “there I think I fixed it for you Mr. Jones,” she said. Mr. Jones didn’t mash his call button anymore that day.

Lucy Turns 100 Today

If you have clicked on the little T.V. that Google has on their homepage today, you already know that today would have been Lucille Balls 100^th birthday. Having grown up watching “I Love Lucy” reruns it still hard to imagine that she’s no longer with us. Even though she passed away back in 1989 she is still missed by much of the world.

The very beautiful comedienne was one of my favorite actresses of all time. Not only was she pretty and talented, she was good in business as well. She sold her production company “Desilu” back in the 60’s to the tune of 17 million and simply started herself another one.

Her syndicated shows to this day are seen all over the world and never seem to lose popularity. This lovely redhead left the world a better place than she found it as far as I can tell. Happy birthday Lucy…wherever you are.