What Have I Done?

OMG.  As if I didn't have enough trouble before I had to go be a smartass and offer to do a blog on my late husband, Pete.
Well, it is too late for regrets and recriminations, I guess, but all of you who encouraged me to do said blog will now have to suffer for your kindness.  I have spent all my blogging time this weekend in wrestling with Pete's bio and in producing a series of blogs containing the pages of same.  And you know very well what that means.  Yes, not only did I not get  to work on my taxes but I did not get to deposit any of my deathless prose on a posting for THIS site.  Consequently I am riddled with double guilt......first over the taxes and secondly over depriving you, my beloveds, of  any new goodies to munch on.

Well, I can go one of two ways with this and considering that I do not really need any more guilt I have decided to blame it all on you who encouraged me.  However, being a forgiving soul I will not punish you too severely for your sins.....I have a bunch of drafts and will get around to adding to one of them within the next day or two so do not give up hope.

Hmmmm.....two blogs.........I surely must have been out of my mind......

Bloggers, Be Grateful

I know I often sink into that treacly Pollyanna-glad-glad-glad and I realize that, for some, the cloying sweetness is somewhat gagging.  My apologies if I make you urp.  Trouble is that the little compartment in my being labelled "Gratitude" has somehow grown disporportionately into a giant size walk-in closet........I somehow cannot help being grateful for all the blessings that fall around, over, under and inbetween the inevitable ghastly periods.  Consequently I seem to write an awful lot about stuff I'm grateful for...if my attitude offends, I am sorry.....I don't mean to suggest that you have to be grateful too.....(only that I think you oughta.)  Anyway, here is my latest bow of gratitude.

Attention All Bloggers :  Do you Know that You are the Luckiest people in the World ?

I just finished gorging on todays offerings of the blogs on my reading list and I realized that we bloggers are indeed the luckiest people maybe in the universe. Not only are bloggers the smartest people, the most evolved, the cleverest and the most interesting, but we have the most incredible social opportunity ever offered to mankind. Stop that hissing and booing......Hear me out, please.

I have always detested parties....especially cocktail parties and have resisted attending them for most of my life. Why would I want to go to an event where I  have to stand up clutching a watery drink,  balancing uncomfortably on stilletto heels, trying to look anything but disgusted and horrified at the mostly idiotic interactions going on around me? Why would I subject myself to the pain of trying to hold a conversation with someone who walks off in the middle of my  sentence in order to "talk" to someone else who looks more interesting? And, why endure the agony of having to listen to the inane, pointless babbling of a half drunk or, worse yet, mentally challenged sober person and struggle to try to figure out some appropriate response out of deference to my host or hostess who thought they were doing me a favor by inviting me?

Why indeed any of the above and, consequently, I strove (is that a real word?) never to do so and, as you guessed, I got labelled as a sourpuss, an anti-social oddball, the world's worst party pooper and ceased to be invited to just about everything. And that was fine with me. Except that once in a while I would get a bit wistful over the fact that, like Shirley Valentine in that fantastic movie of the same name, (does anyone remember it beside me?) I found myself talking to rocks in order to not forget the art of conversation.

However, now all that is changed. I now choose to live in the Blog World for an hour or two daily....a parallel universe which is infinitely superior in many ways to what the uninitiated call the Real World. Now, at any moment of the day or nite, on any day of the week, daytime, nightime, rain, hail or moonshine I can attend a whole string of wonderful parties at the click of a Mouse. I can now bounce effortlessly around the cyber world and participate, on any given afternoon, in a hundred fascinating, witty, profound and/or thought-provoking chats and interchanges with fellow bloggers and their followers from all over the world.

Or not.   That is not participate but still savor and enjoy.

Yes, I do not even have to exert myself one little smidgeon. And, far from wearing agonizingly painful stilletto heels I can go in my tatty ratty bathrobe or even straight from the shower clad in nothing at all but my bunny slippers.  I am allowed to wander through and eavesdrop on all that is going on, sample all the delicious canapes, nosh to my heart's and tummy's content on the marvelous spread on the buffet and not contribute a damned thing if I am not inspired or inclined to do so. It is a free feast almost too vast and delicious to be borne. And if I DO want to join in, all I need do is Comment...... and practically anyone who is at this particular party will attend to my remarks, but most particularly, the host who, like all bloggers, adores comments, will pay attention and definitely not wander off in mid sentence.. It is called Browsing the Blogs and there is nothing like it in the whole friggin' world.

I am awestruck by this amazing fringe benefit of Blogging.......so much so that I invite all my readers to let me know whether this same idea has occurred to them, being that most everyone is a more seasoned blogger than me. I am not trying to take credit for this idea...just to share it in case no one has expressed it before me.

Please, do let me know. And thank you for your participation, (you lucky dogs, you).

A Teaser

Hello, my darlings:

One of my precious followers mentioned wanting to know more about my late husband, Pete Daily, the wonderful Jazz cornetist whose Dixieland bands in Chicago and Los Angeles brought joy and happy feet to a multitude of fans through the 40's and 50's. (It is very dangerous to encourage me in that fashion, as you are about to learn).

I have been wanting for years to develop a website for him but wasn't sure just how to do it.  It just occurred to me that I could set up a Blogsite for him in the twinkling of an eye and have an immediate potential audience of at least 35, so that is what I have done.

I have not had the time to post more than the first page of a bio I wrote about him a number of years ago and I am having some technical difficulties which I will solve somehow, but I have posted the first page and if anyone cares to have a look and comment I will be thrilled.  I pulled up page 1 of my stored bio and found that it shows on the blog page in much reduced form.  However, I also found that if you click on the image you get a blown up version that is easy reading....almost too large.

I hate to whet your appetites and leave you in midsentence, so to speak, but I promise I will get all 20 some pages posted as soon as I am able, in case you want to "eat the whole thing".

The Blog is called "Pete and re. Pete" and the site address is    http://petedaily.blogspot.com/. 
Do visit if you are interested.

Has anyone Self-Published?

This is a deadly serious request for info and advice.  I have been intending to take advantage of the publishing service offered somewhere here and at least publish some of my family blogs to give to....who else....my family.

I saved the site when I first saw it and as I recall they offer some limited number of pages....20?.....for $14.95 and up and additional pages at .35 or some such.   Sounds great to me.    Have any of you dear bloggers ever done this?  If so, did it come out to your satisfaction?  I would be hugely grateful for any information you can offer on the subject.

Thank you kindly.

This and That (Still Cheating)

Well, hell, since I have opened a window into my brain and invited you all to look inside I guess there is no use in being reticent about showing you some of the views outside my head. 

I am not doing very well at all with my latest digital camera so most of these shots have flaws to put it kindly.  However, they are better than the proverbial poke in the eye with a sharp stick so I will post them with apologies.

The photo to the left is out of the my kitchen window and shows my lovely little fountain which burbles comfortingly during the warm months.  As is everything else in my little plot of land, the planting beds are all overcrowded and overgrown.....................  I never know when to stop.,,,,,,I never can resist poking a broken off shoot into the ground on the remote chance that it will grow........and often it does much to my mixed delight and horror.. 

Out this window is also the site of 5 of my 8 hummingbird feeders.  As I stand there washing kitty dishes or chopping onions or veggies for my own needs I can watch the little devils as they feed and chase each other in their selfish attempts to lay claim to all the feeders to the exclusion of the rest of the flock.  Mine are the variety called Anna's Hummingbirds I think..... In sunlight their backs are a gorgeous irridescent green, their heads are magenta red and there is s bit of black and white for accent here and there.  In the shade they look nearly drab brown, but there is always a flash of the wonderful green or red as they whirr around and duel with each other.  I will never forget the time I found one lying on the ground at the base of one of my sliding glass doors.  He had flown into the glass and bonked himself silly.  He looked dead as a doornail and I was wailing and moaning as I gently picked him up to see if I could give him CPR. (?)  As it happened I noticed that his body was not limp and floppy like the dead birds that Gussie occasionally favors me with so I rushed into the house clutching him, mixed up a little batch of sugar water with a dollop of brandy and proceeded to trickle it into his beak with a toothpick.  After a few minutes of my tender ministrations his little eyes snapped open and he began to struggle to get free so I carried him back out and gently opened my hand.  He sat there for a few moments fluttering his wings and checking out the situation and then, without even a "thank you" or an  I'll send you a post card" off he whizzed up to the top telephone wire.  I watched him getting his bearings and probably wondering why the world was swinging around a bit in his head (that was good Brandy) and then off he went on his rounds.  That was many years ago but I often wonder if it his descendents who are guzzling my sugar syrup are wondering when I am going to spike their nectar with some of the good stuff.

The photo below shows one of my resident hummingbirds feeding and,  I believe, a second in the bush waiting his turn. It also shows, unfortunately, the flash in my kitchen window and probably reflections of some portions of Lois that were better not seen.  Oh, no....that's OK it is only my hands.  (I know I should have killed the flash but then the birds might not have been as clear.)

To the right is a rather amazing picture.  I live in a very urban area even though it is given the bucolic name -San Fernando Valley.  I have lived in this same  house for  38 years and only once or twice did I ever see the type of bird called a raptor.  Most of my clientele are songbirds, sparrows, doves and hummers with the great crows showing up fairly frequently.  My favorites are the mockingbirds....I am crazy about that nutty dance they do on the top of the telegraph pole......leaping in the air about 3 feet, with much fluttering of wings and then drifting down to settle back on their take off spot.  I don't know if it is a mating thing or what but it always makes me giggle.  And I love their song.   But I digress.

The bird to the right is sitting on my next door neighbor's roof right outside of my kitchen window and I swear it is some kind of hawk.  Probably Troutbirder can tell me exactly what kind, but this guy showed up swooping over the rooftops one day in summer, looked over the terrain to see what might be on the menu for him and apparently turned up his nose at the neighborhood squirrels and kitties.....thank heaven.  Then off he flew never to be seen again, but I was really awed and impressed that he had honored me with his presence.  By George, you never know WHAT you are going to see out of that kitchen window......it is a veritable Nature's Peep Show.

OK, Blabby, enough, already.  I must confess I am a total failure at doing cheating type Blogs.   I am so addicted to this damned blogging that I am beginning to get a bit uneasy.  Several times when I have wakened at 4am and don't fall right back to sleep I have caught myself sneaking around in a suspicious manner, tippy toeing (so as not to give my intentions away) into the den  where the computer has been oddly  left ON and adding a few sentences or a photo to one of my drafts for the next day.  (Of course, I am not totally insane.....I do go back to sleep after a half hour or so of this nonsense....still.......the ominous signs are there.  Dammit, no sooner does a person get rid of one Obsessive-Compulsive behavior than another one leaps up to take its place.  Sigh.  I have heard that Nature abhors a vacuum.....I used to wonder what she had against cleaning machines......(sorry....couldn't resist).  

I will sign off with my usual threat.....More later.

More cheating- Ol' Green River

Writing about my husband, Pete, the other day and the trials and tribulations of those who wrestle with Demon Rum  brought back a wonderful old Dixieland Jazz song that I can't get out of my head. I wish I could publish the music so you could sing along, but I do not have it so I will simply quote the lyrics and try to give you an idea of the rhythm.   Please remember that this is old fashioned stuff where the lyrics tell a simple story and the melody has.....well melody....many of you young whippersnappers may find it difficult to relate.

I was floating down
    that old Green River
On the good ship Rock and Rye.

But I drifted too far,
   I got stuck on a bar

I was left all alone
  Wishing that I was home......

The ship went down with
     the Captain and Crew
    So there was only
          one thing to do.

I had to drink
 that whole Green River dry
   to get back
       home to yoooooou.


What a hoot! 

I remember vividly the first time I heard Dixieland (or, as I prefer to call it, Classic Jazz.  I was about 10 years old.  My Mother, Dad and I were sitting around the kitchen table with watercolor paints and brushes, adding color to a stack of Christmas cards my Dad had just printed after carving the image into a linoleum block.  (This was one of the few times that Pappy roped me into one of his projects that I was tickled pink to cooperate.)  As was usual in those days, the radio was on and it began to broadcast a show that was entitled "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street."  The host was Milton Cross, a very respected announcer and commentator of the weekly broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House.  The program started out very seriously as a spoof of a classical music concert and then the music began and it was glorious jazz with a fantastic little band of consummate musicians and a vocalist who was just getting started named Dinah Shore.

At the first driving phrase my heart pounded, I couldn't breathe and then I couldn't keep my feet from tapping......I was in love.  It was a love affair I never got over.  Almost 40 years later, after I had met Pete, I had the incredible joy of meeting one of the same musicians who had been a regular on that show. His name was Henry "Hot Lips" Levine, by then in his 70's or maybe 80's,  and he was playing with his great little 5 or 6 piece band in a lounge in one of the big hotels in Las Vegas.  Of course he knew Pete and was tickled to see him after many years  so I got a hug and a kiss from this idol of my childhood and had the chance to sit and eavesdrop while they schmoozed about the good old days.  What a double hoot.

I must be honest and confess that, even though I am faily well adjusted to this technological age, every now and then I wish for the days when you could turn on your radio and listen to the The Shadow, The Green Hornet, Fibber McGee and Molly and......Basin Street Chamber Music.

The drawing above is barely related to anything else on this page, but what  the hell.........it is sort of related to music.  It comes from my previous life as an Artist and while I often still do these scribbles for my own amusement or to celebrate some occasion in a friend's life I do not do it often enough. Perhaps the Blog will get me back to my roots and I can begin leading a double life for your entertainment.

Random Images - a cheating Blog...more pictures than words....

This is one of my favorite roses a gorgeous thing called Sonrisa,,,,,the gang at Disney sent it to me when Pete died because they knew my heart would heal at the sight of a beautiful rose.  That was 24 years ago and this magnificent bush has been pampering my heart ever since with profuse buds of love.

Below is a photo of my two precious Russian Blues....Minnie and Moe.....no longer with me but never forgotten.  When the litter was born I threatened to name them Eeny, Meeny, Minnie and Moe and I carried through on the last part of the threat.

                                                                 

(Oh, I wish I knew how to control the placing of this text around photos.)     To the left is a poor shot of my beloved Gussie, Senior Cat and affectionately referred as Gabby...(sometimes called "Oh,  shut up will you, for the love of God.")  It is Gussie for whom I immerse my hands up to the elbows  in bloody beef liver each week as I apportion out the 3 pounds just purchased into daily rations for freezing and strip the skin the butchers so unkindly leave on the product when they cut it up for sale.  While doing this I never fail to think of the many bloggers whom I follow who have delicate stomachs and are constantly going "eeeeewwwh" and "yuk" and "ugh" in response to things which I may have once considered a bit icky, but which no longer have the power to faze me. 

And last but not least is a shot of my garden with a smidgeon of my glorious swimming pool and two of my dear mourning doves who come daily for their ration of birdseed and chatting with their friends.  Please forgive the evidence of bird seed shells along the tile coping.  When I tell people that I am fortunate beyond belief to live in paradise they sometimes look askance at me, but, believe me, my darlings, I have been around and I know what's what and I am telling you ................if this ain't heaven it'll have to do....

until the real thing comes along. 

 (apologies to the song of similar lyrics)