Young Folks Music

M and I were watching the Today Show this morning.  They were announcing Ariana Grande would be performing a concert for them today.  They showed the streets around the studio packed with screaming fans.

M said, "we're old, I don't even know who that is."  I had heard the girl's name before, but nothing else.  A few minutes later one of the hosts was talking about favorite songs for the summer.  They posted the names of three songs everyone was voting on:

Bang Bang, 

Fancy

All about that bass

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk&feature=youtu.be

I had heard of the last two, and out of all the songs, I really like the last one.  I like the tune, the catchy lyrics.  I really love the video.  I like the pastels, the guy dancing, the neon lipstick on the wigged back-up singers, but then I realized I am old.  Of all the parts of the video I like, I always watch for the painted wooden furniture in the background.  I'm currently obsessed with painted wooden furniture, because I'm thinking about doing that for a future project.  When I was younger, I would have liked the tune for it's danceable beat or the fashions.  You're old when you like a music video for its furnishings.

Finding my way

I have (so far) successfully avoided "liking" or posting anything to Facebook for 48 hours.  It has been tempting, especially since my friends have been taunting me and trying to push my buttons to get me to respond.  There have been a number of things I have found funny or interesting that I wanted to share with my friends, but instead of posting to FB, I called, I e-mailed, I texted, I shared in person.  

I know I enjoyed seeing and hearing people's responses to dumb jokes, more than just their comments of, "oh, that's so dumb, yet funny."  Yet, it is difficult not participating in a forum where all my friends hang out.  I also think about how unimportant all my dumb ramblings are, my positions on current events.  Me ranting on an electronic bulletin board isn't really changing the world or my life.  It's just one more yip in the crowded electronic playground.  It's also as Betty White so aptly said, "a major time suck."  

So what about blogging?  That takes more time and thought than FB.  Isn't that also a time suck?  I don't think it is in the same way.  I don't have the need to sit at my computer all day waiting for responses or new postings while blogging, like I do with FB.  FB is like an addiction.  You constantly need to satisfy it.  It is an ever present object in the back of your mind, its needs always waiting to be met.  It's like popping M&Ms all day.  They taste good initially, there's a little satisfaction in the flavor, but they are not a meal.  FB doesn't ever satisfy.  You really never have anything to show for your time.  So I hope not only do I manage to stay away for a week, but that I will break away permanently.

Now, as for blogging, maybe my ramblings here are equally as unimportant, but here, I have more control, can add more depth and detail, and it feels like a journal.  I love going back through my blog and remembering things I've thought and done over the years.  I don't do that with FB.  Everything on FB is disposable and doesn't matter after it's been posted.  

Helllllooooo, anybody there?

I have been cleaning up my blog, the sidebar in particular.  I've hidden the blogs I used to frequent because their authors have not posted in 2, 3, 4 years.  I miss Tshsmom.  I miss her insight, empathy, her pictures and stories.  All good things must come to an end I suppose.  It just feels like losing a good friend, even though we had never met.

I looked at other Bloggers' sidebars and they too have links to people who haven't posted in years.  I hate to think blogging has seen its day.  I don't care if it's not popular so that tons of people no longer do it, but I do care that it's still done.  There is a need for longer posts, deeper thought and discussion than Twitter or Facebook can provide.  There is a need to share thoughts with others without commercials or algorithms directing things toward you or away from you.

I just want to be left alone to write and communicate because it seems like everything else, everyplace else, is moving too fast, at too superficial a level, and it's too impersonal.  I am moving too fast, just scanning pages, leaving too brief comments, if any at all, because I just don't have time.  Time!  Time!  Time!

When did we all get too busy and too preoccupied to make contact with one another?  I'm guiltier than most.  I'm always over scheduled, always taking on too much and never leaving myself enough quiet time or down time.  It reminds me of the old Alabama song:

I'm in a hurry to get things done.  Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun.  All I really gotta do is live and die.  But I'm in a hurry and don't know why.

I just looked through my Facebook page.  A good 90% is politics related.  When did I become so locked into politics?  I thought I walked away from it 3 years ago.  I know FB's algorithm has figured out what things push my buttons and get me to respond, politics.  I looked through my Blog, and I think this is a truer measure of who I am and what interests me, yes there are political posts, but there are also craft and remodeling posts, family posts, humor, and other things of interest.

I think if I remain glued to FB, I shall lose my fuller self.  I am going to take a vow not to Like or post to FB for one week.  Let's see if I make it through the next hour, and while I'm avoiding FB, I think I'll mess with my template.  Time for a little redecorating.

Feeling too sensitive

New info on WWII

This one of two articles on a little known piece of information on WWII.  A fellow professor brought these articles to my attention.  This first reveals the hub of transportation in NY that the Nazis tried to take out.

Full Story at Sploid

This next story I found very scary.  Apparently Hitler sent men and 27 subs to the Texas Gulf Coast where they sank at least 50 of our ships, and Americans never knew, because the government didn't want them to know.  I'm off to learn more about this.  I love it when I learn something new.
Full story at Sploid

Current state of crazy here

Feeling a little melancholy

Click on the song title.  Enjoy.

Only Time

One of my latest projects

I've been absent a lot lately because I've been doing too much as usual.  It would have been nice to tackle one thing at a time, but timing is everything.  So the painters finished painting the house, but other than the outside framing, they didn't paint the porch.  They also didn't put up new screens.  So M and I put up new screens.  I will trim them out at the end of summer, it's just too hot and humid to be on a ladder doing manual labor.  That said, I did have a few days of decent weather, during which I sanded and painted the porch.  It didn't make sense to put all the furniture and do-dads back on, only to pull them back off to paint it.  

One of the issues I've had with the porch is keeping it clean of dust, pollen, and food (we eat out there quite a bit).  In particular, the rug we had under the table would catch everything in it's weave.  It was also impossible to slide chairs in and away from the table without snagging the rug.  It would be so much easier if there was just one surface and I could hose it down when needed.  So I decided to paint a rug on the porch.  Here are the steps:  

1.  Scrap and sand the floor to prep it for primer.

2.  Then I painted the whole floor white.  White is not a good color for a porch, you will see all the dirt, but any others color would be hot underfoot because we cut down the trees along the side of the house so now our porch gets lots of sun in morning and evening.  Also if you paint the floor, besides dirt, chairs will scrape the paint off.  I decided to polyurethane the floor when I was done to give it a hard finish that could be hosed off.  

3.  Next I had to measure and tape off the size rug that I wanted.  I had to decide whether the rug would be centered on the floor or centered with the screened wall.  I centered it on the floor.  

4.  I had to think about what would be painted white and what would be the yellowish green once I removed the tape.  

5.  Now for the paint.  I put on three coats.  The paint looks yellow in the sunlight and lime green at night.  

6.  Next I removed the tape and thought about what sort of pattern I wanted.  After much thought and research, I decided on the quickest route to completion, stencils.  

7.  I chose a simple border at each end and a larger center medallion.  The quickest way to find the center of a rectangle is string.

8.  I had to create the center medallion by combining three different stencils.

9.  I also painted a runner rug from the screen door to the front door with a smaller center medallion.

10.  Everything was going so well, just as planned . . . Yeah, that couldn't last.  I chose a clear polyurethane that was supposed to dry clear.

It didn't.  It looks like I dumped weak coffee water all over the floor.  The only way to fix that would be to sand the whole floor and start all over.  I don't have time for that.  M says it looks like I antiqued the floor and that it won't be so noticeable once all the furniture is on the porch.  Oh well, no time for regrets, have to move on to the next project.

Smith Island Cake

Happy birthday to me!

Slow process

Work continues on the house.  We've put new screens back up on the front porch.  We're waiting for estimates on the trim moulding for the porch.  We're also waiting on an estimate to take down another tree and grind a half dozen stumps.  Once we know how much we're in for with the tree guy, then we will know when we can afford to have another guy install new windows in the basement.  

In the mean time I've been looking at metal artwork to go on the front of the house on the second floor between the two windows.  We really like it when we have the wreath up there during the Christmas holiday season and decided we wanted something there the rest of the year as well.  After looking at hundreds of pieces and trying to agree on the same thing, we decided to put a compass rose up there.  Here's the one we plan to use.  It will be black and almost as large as the wreath.

I've also been looking at black window flower boxes for the side of the house because it's all blue with white trim and there are no shutters on that side.  While at a yard sale last Saturday I stumbled upon 3 tiny flower boxes that will fit perfectly on the tiny window on the side of the chimney, and it's twin on the other side of the house.  Here are the boxes I have so far.

Because I can't have any down time (I'm incapable of sitting still) I'm also cleaning out my son's room to make it habitable for family visiting next week.  I've picked 15 pounds of blueberries and frozen them, and now I'm in the process of painting rugs on the front porch.  I will do a separate post on that, here are pictures to give you an idea of what painted rugs look like.