October

Mums of gold and burgundy
against the smoke from burning leaves.
Trees’ bright party clothes fading
to old world tapestries.

Crystals of dew on spiders’ webs,
preserves put up in jars.
Warm fires, sweaters, friends,
crisp nights spent gazing at the stars.

Hay stacked beneath bright blue skies,
stalks of corn tied together with twine,
plowed fields of brown corduroy,
russet red apples and warm pumpkin pie.

Tracings of white on window panes,
the scent of snow in the air,
caterpillars wound in silken robes,
the calendar sauntering down the year.

Halloween creeps nearer
with bonfires and tiny spooks
seeking treasure from strangers
who freely hand out loot.

Winter’s on the horizon,
frost’s upon the ground,
apple cider and doughnuts,
leaves all falling down.

In the know

Other than a very few words, English is the only language I speak. I take silly pride in being about to say “garage” in English (garage), French (garage) and Russian (garage) though I doubt someone from France or Russia would be amused. Especially if that person is trying to learn English. I think that must be one of the biggest roadblocks to learning any new language. Not getting the jokes, the references, the slang. Not being in the know.

When someone says, “We might as well be wearing red shirts,” a large number of people know this is a Star Trek reference to those hapless and usually unnamed non-speaking members of a Landing Party whose imminent “death by alien” is the first clue the society into which they have had Scotty beam them down is unfriendly. No so someone who is new to English and who doesn’t know about Scotty’s beaming abilities, either.

The Super Bowl of (insert competition here). Arm wrestling - potato chip flinging, we know this is THE Big Event.

The Edsel of (insert product here). A big uh-oh, maybe like New Coke.

“I think you’ve jumped the shark there, pal.” You’re wishing you could have a do-over while someone new to English is thinking the office staff just got back from a trip to the aquarium.

But I don’t think I’ll fret too much over this. Even computers have trouble translating. When someone in a brain trust somewhere designed a computer program which would translate from one language into another, one of the test sentences was “Out of sight, out of mind” which, when turned from English into Chinese and back into English, became, “Invisible idiot.”

Hooking

The best way I’ve found to keep a touch of nervousness at bay is to do something that requires creativity. Even as I write this there may be a queue of well-dressed people waiting to taste the chocolate truffles E & E, short for the proprietresses of Seductions Chocolates, have slaved over. Or not, and that’s where the nervousness comes into play. It’s best right now if I keep busy.

I have a wool rug I’m hooking and it is calling to me to work on it. The rug will end up in the half bath which, as it looks now, is a cold room. It’s a simple design with a horse. I’m new to rug hooking and didn’t want to go too far afield with my first attempt at designing my own rug. So, it’s a horse I traced from a boot scraper I’ve had for a long time. Very basic. Not as basic as the first thought I had and then discarded for the half bath, PISS OFF, but still, and it is going fairly well.

My next design is very far afield. I’ll be translating a quilt design I saw on the cover of a magazine into a large hooked rug. A wind blown tree on a small knoll with leaves swirling down and around. It won't be an original design, but it will give me practice that will stretch my talents.

I find rug hooking to be very soothing and meditative. Not unlike the process of making chocolate truffles. I suppose if I ever improve my hooked rugs to the extent that I present them to the public, I’ll have to find something else to do to keep the nerves from frazzling.

Truffle anyone?

A Good Book

I peek in on only a few other blogs, musingsonaperfectlyaveragelife.blogspot.com and Skywritings at lighthawks.blogspot.com where I just finished reading a post on reading (how appropriate). She is way more eloquent than I could be, sez who, sez me, but one does reflect on THE books of one's life, especially those books read when young, and the role reading has played in shaping a person.

I can vividly remember being about twelve and my mother telling me that books were not a substitute for life. I thought, no, but they'll do for now and, in the meantime, they'll help me figure out the life I want.

They have. I learned how people are supposed to behave, not that they always do behave in books as in life, but how they are supposed to behave, a standard by which to measure my own behavior. I found role models in characters who were flawed, but often still did the right thing. I learned about foods beyond meatloaf and places beyond Galien, Michigan. I learned that I was not alone.

Gone Away Lake
Five Run Away Together
Watership Down
Magic Elizabeth
A Christmas Carol
Nicholas Nickleby
Bleak House
The Captains and the Kings
Airs Above the Ground
The Hidden Staircase
Jane Eyre
The Great Time Machine Hoax

Forget nuture vrs nature. Books shaped me.

Favorite lines and what to do with them

There are certain lines or situations in movies or television programs that just make me fall over laughing. Here are a handful of my favorites.

James Garner in The Americanization of Emily - "The moon didn't come out!"
Charles Coburn trying to knock the toupee off Jean Arthur's fiance's head in "The More the Merrier."
Art Carney addressing the golf ball in The Honeymooners, "Hello, ball."
I'm not the biggest I Love Lucy fan in the world, but when Ricky Ricardo says, "I'm not the father of that cheese," I cry with laughter.
Barney Fife remarking, "Giraffes are selfish."
Pretty much anything from the Dick Van Dyke Show, but a special favorite is the scene when Rob walks in the living room from the kitchen completely dressed except for the pants Laura is pressing and is a bit embarrassed to find Sally and Buddy standing there. He does a slight double take back toward the kitchen, then, in true Rob Petrie form, puts a hand over his own eyes and walks on to the bedroom.

God forbid I'm ever in a coma, but if I ever am, please bring my DVD set of the Dick Van Dyke Show to by bedside and play them so I can hear. If there is any brain activity at all, I will respond to Rob/Laura/Sally/Buddy and Milly/Jerry. Also, please feel free to laugh yourself, because if Dick Van Dyke doesn't bring me back, the sound of my loved ones laughing will. You'll have to be brave, though, because there may by looks of shock from others who don't understand why you're laughing until you cry while standing by the bedside of someone in a coma. Persevere. If it works, we can always explain it later. If it doesn't work, at least you'll know you did all you could.

And God forbid you're ever in a coma, but if you are, I'll do the same for you.

Best advice ever

In a conversation about the best advice we'd ever been given and in order to make my husband laugh, I once said the best advice I'd ever been given had been, "Run for it!" And it worked, he laughed, but I've been thinking about that advice. Run FOR it. Not run away from it, but for it, to it. Run to what you want, don't be unsure, don't be afraid.

So, in the future, if anyone should ask for my learned advice,.........

Run for it!

Still learning

I'm going to take a class. The class is geared toward those who want to start a business making and selling gourmet chocolates. I need the class not only because I, along with my daughter, Em, want to start such a business (building on the chocolate truffles we already make over which people have literally drooled), but because the only thing I truly know about chocolate is that I like chocolate. Really like chocolate.

So I'm going to learn and I'm going to experiment and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to create and I'm going to have a blast. I'm going to mess about with chocolate.

The class doesn't start until January. Until then, I'll continue experimenting with different chocolate truffle flavors, caramel for one and, for Christmas, peppermint. I'll continue learning and experimenting and working hard and creating and having a blast.