022 Resolve or not?

Resolve or not?

The expert opinion is that New Year's resolutions are a bad idea--that making resolutions sets you up for disappointment.

I think, however, that a fresh start has appeal.

There is also advice if you are going to make resolutions. Men are more likely to be successful if they set up intermediate goals for each resolution and then keep a checklist of goals.  Women, on the other hand, fare better if they share their plans with their friends.

Neither approach has much appeal.  A checklist is an ugly reminder of the unaccomplished.   (Yeah, isn't that the idea?)  Or, I can imagine my friends closely monitoring my progress on the resolutions I share.  But I guess I am sharing my resolutions after all.  Promise, no gossiping about my progress!

I made many resolutions upon retirement.  Some I have achieved and others get a place on the New Year's resolution lists.

I say lists because I have two categories of New Year Resolutions:

I Can Do This!

Lose weight; eat healthy.

Learn something new--does watching the 

Smithsonian & National Geographic channels count?

     same one every year but I am doing okay . . .

Walk & exercise more.

     as soon as I figure out my Fitbit--stay tuned!

Organize something.

     the key to good resolutions is to make them so broad that you have to attain them!

Read more books.

     I am a librarian!

Make the world a better place.

     well, I do recycle, volunteer, & contribute to worthy causes . . .

Express love and appreciation more often.

     By the way, thanks to all you blog readers! 

[Can I check this one off?]

                                                      

Hah, Hah! [List 2]

Shop less, exercise more.
Isn't shopping Exercise?

Clean more often.
Clean out closets.
Clean out garage.

Weed even when the weather is hot.

Paint the interior trim.

Probably Calvin says it best.

Trish        

  

021 Let It Snow

Let It Snow!

                                                     

Okay, okay!  You are likely thinking I really do march to a different drummer.  I do love snow! 

Snow makes my imagination come alive. I love the “beautiful sight …as we walk in the winter wonderland.” I can picture a Grandma Moses winter scene, a Currier & Ives Christmas card, an old fashioned sleigh, and smoke from a chimney curling above bare tree limbs sprinkled with sparkly white. For me there is something charming, something calming, and something pure about snow.  

Snow is peaceful.  Snow covers the dead leaves and detritus of barren winter ground.  A sudden snowfall makes the world seem untainted.  

Is there anything more enchanting than our state bird signaling more snow to come!  

                                                                                                                         

Sometimes, instead of these old-fashioned sentimental thoughts, I think of fun.  We have always made snowmen.  Sometimes traditional ones, more often not.   This one, I think, was after much shoveling!  

There is sledding and skiing and an occasional snowball fight. The dogs (including Mad Max) like crusty snow so they can walk on the top – not so happy when they find this doesn’t work.  But neither they nor I really care.  If the door opens they are out in the snow.  Not rain.  They will not deign to put their little paws on wet ground.  Snow is somehow different.  

Maybe the pro-snow attitude is from 35 years of teaching school.  Nothing was better than a snow day before the holidays!  An extra day – a reprieve from the heavens to make cookies, drink tea and read a good book in front of the fire. The gift of time!

If you do not like winter and do not like snow, please have a laugh from these cartoons.

   Happy holidays to all and remember ~

                                                                Glenne      

020 Holiday Downsizing

Love, hate relationship

Holidays --- I love’em and hate ’em --- both at the same time.

Every year when the holidays roll around, I get the same, familiar feelings --- too much to do, too little time --- what to buy, what to bake, what to wear --- mixed with excitement and anticipation.

I don’t think any of us ever get over the feelings we had as children -- waiting for Santa to come Christmas morning, taking part in programs at school, and attending countless church services to celebrate the season. There is always the feeling of wonder and expectation of giving. And we can never forget the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season.

But as adults those feelings were joined with lists and lists of what had to be done before the arrival of the season.

In my younger years, I remember thinking that all the hype was a conspiracy against women who not only had to take care of the holiday preparations but also fulfill all the normal household duties and work outside the home.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this time of year, but I had to downsize to survive.

I still buy and wrap and bake, but when I hit the senior years. and was still working full time, I made a few adjustments to not totally lose my mind. 

We have stopped putting up an enormous Christmas tree. (We had some that we could barely get into the house and would have to be lopped off to fit our high ceilings.) And taking them out was another real treat with needles scattered so that some would be around through the spring. 

Since we have grandchildren, we made the decision years ago to travel to our children’s homes instead of them coming to our house so decorating is not a priority We add ornaments to a small Norfolk Island Pine tree and it works just fine.

Christmas cards were abandoned many years ago. With social media, I can send greetings via email and Facebook. It is not the same but reduces the time and frustration spent writing, addressing, and mailing.

Wrapping gifts is one job I have not figured out how to improve. But I start at least a week before Christmas and wrap stacks and stacks of boxes until I see the light at the end of the tunnel. And once again the mounds of gifts are ready to be tossed and shaken and ripped open in excited expectation.

I really like the shopping and actually do it all year. Finding just the right item is something I take seriously and won’t stop until the mission is accomplished which can be exhausting!



I also love hearing Christmas carols blaring from radio stations and sounds systems in  retail stores, playing the all-time favorites as well as a few new renditions. There’s nothing like singing along with familiar carols and hearing others joining in. It really helps get the season going.


My traditional cookies, pizzelles, cannot go by the wayside. I start a few days before Christmas and package them as jolly as I can. Off they go to neighbors and friends with a card tucked inside.

This is the first holiday season since I retired so I am hoping it will be a little easier and I will have more time, but I am sure I will always have the feeling of too much to do and too little time.








Even though there is the excitement of what is to come, there is also the letdown after it is over. The days fly by and before you know it, the festivities are over and true winter sets in. All the glitter and glitz is put away until the next year while cold and snow take over. I have always felt it should be extended at least until the middle of January.


All that fuss and muss, and it is over in a blink, but I think that is the way it is supposed to be until the cycle begins again next year. 


I only wish there was a magic wand that could be waved to make all the tasks quicker and easier

Frances C. Lowe      

019 Earworms

Those Songs You Can't Get Out of Your Head

Earworms--almost everyone experiences them, according to researchers. You probably have had a song stuck in your head no matter how hard you try to unstuck it!

I started thinking about this topic because an annoying jingle for Wayfair.com became lodged in my brain. I wasn't aware that I was even paying attention to the commercial, but Wayfair, you've got what I need, kept popping up.

Then, a week later, I started writing this post and could not remember it at all. I had not heard it lately on television so I lost it. Unfortunately, it came back!

Frequent repetition is one way songs enter our brain. I knew I had not been listening to pop music for some time when I saw a list of tunes that earworm studies reported as frequent offenders. For instance, I could not hum any of the titles listed that were by Lady Gaga--"Alejandro," "Bad Romance," "Just Dance," and "Paparazzi."

Another theory about earworms is that when you remember only part of a song, the brain fixates on completing it. We went on vacation with a friend who for two days whistled one part of "Send in the Clowns":    But where are the clowns? Quick send in the clowns. . . . 

Finally on day two, I jumped in: Don't bother they're here! 

He had no idea what he had been whistling and irritating me. 

Hear a beautiful version by Judy Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6KGuTr9TI

The self-styled Dr. Earworm, James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati states that certain songs excite an abnormal reaction in an individual’s brain and the brain tries to process it by repetition. Since all our memories and brains are different, it is no surprise that there is a huge variety in the earworms people report.

My thought on the unresolved song in the brain is to find the lyrics and/or listen to the song on YouTube. That doesn't work well at 2 a.m. so I tried making up lyrics to the parts I could not remember. Once I started thinking about earworms, songs that had plagued me in the past came back. I hate mindless lyrics like Crimson and Clover, over and over. And over and over and over again! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4-NDc2jRmQ

Or what about 

It's a small world after all, It's a small world after all. . . . 

I don't want to know the rest of these lyrics! It did seem to help to make up inane lyrics to accompany these tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9YqCP_B7EU

Another strategy I use is to substitute another song. “Rockin’ Robin” is my standby. It probably works because I have to concentrate to remember the lyrics. After thinking about this strategy, I recently woke up with 

Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee. Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee. Whoops!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvTnrQYRXdY#t=11

Viewing an image, hearing a word, seeing a person or being at an event can also trigger an earworm. A wedding, for instance, may remind you of the music at some other wedding. Researchers who were surveying people at the time of the Michael Jackson trial said there was a big increase in the number of Jackson earworms reported.

I hear the words respect and satisfaction emphasized in an uttered sentence and you know what happens!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAI_Nv3qWto

Daniel Levitin of McGill University thinks earworms are a natural outcome of evolution when remembering oral information such as what plants are poisonous was a necessity. One more piece of research—concentrating on a mental task such as crosswords, Sudoku or anagrams was found to be fairly successful in combating those pesky worms. If I haven’t overwhelmed you with research, a lot more can be found at the Earworm Project: 

 http://www.gold.ac.uk/music-mind-brain/earworm-project/

Have I infected you with an earworm? Or were you already afflicted? 

Let us know your personal bedevilments!

Trish