QuidNunc/QuidTunc?

The other day as we were visiting our neighbors and I was speculating about what I could do for  a job, I saw a tour bus and I said, I could give tours. There is usually someone in the front who talks as they ride around the countryside. They started talking about someone they know who is “English” (non-Amish) who gives buggy rides and how an Amish friend of theirs, when he is riding in a car (not driving, mind you) likes to pull up alongside the buggy driver and say to his passengers, “Don’t believe half of what he tells you!”

Another friend drove our Amish friends out to visit people in Indiana and became so enamored with their culture he said, “Maybe I’ll become Amish” One of the Amish men said, “Can you wait till we get home so you can drive us there?”

This happened a while ago, but we were sitting with our friends having coffee in their kitchen and Jeannette dropped Luisa off and left. She had just gotten her first car, a stick shift , that day and when she went out of the driveway the gravel rather flew. So we were trying to explain manual and automatic to them. They looked at us with puzzled expressions and asked ‘Why.. would anyone drive stick.. when they could drive automatic????” I thought they walked right into that one! I replied “Why… would anyone drive a buggy ..when they could drive a car???” They hooted!

Asi es la vita (I think I spelled that right!) or Se la vie (probably not spelled right!)

All that and I am spending my day in front of the computer. I used to have one day off a week while I was teaching and I would surf the Web. I learned a lot that way! I learned that ‘a lot’ is/are two words! I was on a chat list called Formal Grammar for a while. I spent time tryuing to sign in a Flickr account only to be told I have one and would I like to merge and what is the user and password for that… I do not know and I finally found Rachael’s pictures without signing in… via Nick! So I bookmarked them.

I was reading a book I picked up when I went to BH&G with Diana about cleaning up clutter. I can hear my family’s sighs of relief! At first, when you look at these books, they seem all about spending money or remodeling, or much younger houses. But as I keep reading , I can start working them into my own house. So in my head, I have gotten the bathroom fixed up. When the man comes home from Trade Show season we’ll dig in. I like to work on things in large chunks of time and get it all done, but I am rarely afforded that kind of time, so I have to think about tasks differently. One suggestion was going through all the drawers once or twice a year, even if you do just one drawer in the evening. If I think of it in those terms, I can do that. If I think that I am going to do the whole thing of something, I have to wait for Large Chunk of Time, or I won’t finish.

Scott and Mary came Friday night. They went to a Dayspring reunion while we took Joel’s mom to a cousin’s for dinner. She lives about 10 minutes away from Joel’s mom and just discovered it a couple months ago. It was Joel’s mom’s first outing since last September! It went pretty well but the wheelchair carrier really scraped on the driveway. We all cringed! We took Katarina with us, and she had a good time,too. She is always game for a good time, like her parents! The next day we found out that Scott had never had an Italian soda, so we trotted off to Lititz to the ‘Spill the Beans’ cafe and had our sodas. The young man was quite taken with them! We did a little shopping and came home and had yummy sweet corn for lunch. Nick had just showed up and Sam aroused from his Harry Potter book , so we had quite a party. They drove off and in a little while Jeannette and Ellis drove in. So we had a full day of kids! Jeanette took Luisa home with her for a few days, Joel has left for Atlantic City , and Sam is off to work, so I get to have Peace and Quiet. What is that line from ‘What About Bob”? “I’ll be quiet. I’ll be peace!” Actually I have paint cans in the kitchen wating to be opened and administered to walls. I think I can find the means to a grilled cheese sandwich and then maybe I will pop a paint can.

There is a reason for quiet in my blogging world. I have having too much fun to sit and write. But since I can find time to read a book, a little, anyway, I’ll warm this engine up again. I should have written days ago and called it “XXX Anni” as Joel and i celebrated our 30th anniversary.  I did think of titling a blog that way. The very day found us doing things we like to do- working in the yard and working in the yard. We had just gotten back from a road trip that went as far as Minnesota for a family reunion during which my Uncle Paul declared the canoe trip down the St. Croix an annual event, traveling across Iowa. It was just the two of us, except when we picked up Mom and went to MN, and we stopped when we wanted. Coming back we went the small town route through Iowa of places I had not been to for a very long time. There is still a thriving magnolia tree in Central City. We went down Buffalo Ridge Road that goes along the Buffalo River. Joel and I first spotted Virginia Bluebells along the Buffalo River. It is also the river that ran near our home when I was a kid that was probably the most remote we ever lived, being 5 miles from a paved road. I don’t remember going on that road before, but perhaps I have many eons ago in my childhood. We found Stone City. I remembered it was something to look at, and it is. I have a few pictures when I get clever enough to load them. I promise I will soon. It was great catching up with old friends and we got to visit a piano technician’s shop with the Belzes, right out there in the middle of the cornfield!

So… we got back, worked on the yard and went to Baltimore, the land of our beginnings. We stayed in town and spent a lot of time at the Inner Harbor, riding around in the water taxi like regular tourists! One of them was called the Indefatigable, for Horatio Hornblower fans! We ate crabs the way they were meant to be eaten, over newspaper, and in delicately broiled crabcakes, and watched fireworks over the harbor. It is always nice of people to do fireworks for our anniversary. we always appreciate it! Anybody else get fireworks for theirs????  Truth be told , we watched them from our motel room and we had given up and had the New York ones on TV, since the weather had had a nasty turn. Then about 9:45 we hear boom boom and music that didn’t go with the TV, so we turned off the TV and enjoyed the local show. We checked in to the Art Museum which is free in Balto, to see some mosaics from Antioch, splendid things.

We concluded with a ride on dinner boat on the Harbor, which was very nice. We were a little surprised when we weren’t getting our own table and were seated at a table for 8, but it turned out okay. The couple across from us were from Lancaster. The husband had grown up around the corner from us. Another woman was from Iowa City and her husband was from Annapolis. They are both musicians in the USAF. I showed her my recent pictures from my camera of which there are too many cloud pictures and we drooled together. They were celebrating their 3rd anniversary.

After that, well, Joel had a cough that sounded deep and after getting some medication he had an allergic reaction to it and ended up in the ER plus an overnight at the hospital. He has gradually recuperated and left me for part 2 of Trade Show season.  I wrestled with these white polo shirts he has to wear and told him to tel his boss I hate them. He said he already knows! Well, at least it isn’t the dead of winter and I  don’t have to be mainly occupied in keeping the house warm, plus, I’ve got Sam and Lu for company and I can go places if I want to, not being tied down to a job.

Well, that’s all for now, folks, people got appetites rolling in right around the corner and somehow they got conditioned that i will do something about it!