Tag Archives: Tennessee

Summer lovin’

humor, hope, LIFE, Old Age, Tennessee, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

Tennessee state welcome sign
Tennessee state welcome sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who has heard me in the more recent years, whether in ear shot or taken the time to read my written words, has heard me say how much I hate snow…cold weather…all things winter. So I may be the only one in the state of Tennessee that isn’t bewildered by the delicious heat wave we are now experiencing.

I am pretty sure that it is because I have slipped into the old age syndrome of enjoying hot weather more. I can remember when I was a little girl and my grandmother would have us out in the yard “rendering lard” on a hot summer day. Or maybe it was a fall day that was still like summer….sadly another sign of my agedness…memory loss of what time of the year we did this gross chore. Any way, I can remember how she would be so hot stirring the pot and I would think….can’t we go play?..it is soooooo hot sitting here watching her stir!” At least when running we could catch a breeze. My granny though would just endure it…not complaining. I suppose it wouldn’t have done any good…that is the way life was for her on the farm.

I am not in any way saying that a temperature of 104 is nice…yes it is awful…my sweat is sweating (sexy huh!) but I still say it is better than the cold. I even get cold inside our house…my feet are cold, I have to put on socks for which I hate….then I sit wrapped up in a quilt (not a snuggy, how moronic!). I think I must have tired blood.Or maybe I have the rickets…when was the last time I ate an orange, maybe that is scurvy I am thinking about? Could be I am becoming less of a complainer….? Nahhh not me, can’t be that one.

Maybe I am in the process of becoming skinny somehow(it could happen!) …seems like skinny women are always cold, with their brittle little fingers and tiny arms all shivery. And I am the world worse to complain when the car is hot or I feel smooshed in a hot room…panic attack begins to hit…no ventilation…no fan! Yet I am as happy as a clam in our sweltering heat. Go figure!

The only thing I can find wrong is that fall is soon to come…darkness is early and the gloomy winter isn’t far behind. But until then I will revel in the HOT days of summer. I still have all of July and August, maybe they will be slooowwww and breezy. Another thing,  I have gotten in the habit of wanting a huge amount of ice in my drink…which scares me to death…my mother-in-law does that and I also have been carrying around a plastic glass with a lid and straw a lot lately….oh Lord, say it ain’t so! I feel those smirks from my husband…and my daughter….curses!

Oh well it could be worse I guess. At least we stay hydrated!

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June…here we go!

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SO the month of June is upon us and for me it is the beginning of real summer. Today is the beginning of all things summer…hot days, flip-flops, old lady shorts (pedal pushers) as well as “happy hour” at SONIC! Gotta love them cherry lime-aides! Yes, it has happened…I am not cool any more.

This does not come to me as a surprise…I felt it coming….creaking joints, pain in the back, and gray hair. I can take it all except the gray hair. I am not willing to give into that one. Gotta keep it colored. Makes since why my mom did it..now! Back in the day I was pushing April to wear flip flops…even if my toes were a bit chilly, I was there. Then cut-off jean shorts and a raggedy tee-shirt and I was good to go. Now days I usually schlep around in corrective looking sandals and pedal pushers with a “big” shirt as to cover that “oh so spacious” acreage around the middle. OH Lordy!!

June is the place of beginnings…schools out and time to have fun…lay by the pool, put SunIn in my hair and listen to top forty on the radio. But that was a long time ago and I am not so sure girls do that anymore….the Sun-In and top forty radio. They have become so sophisticated now….foiled hair and IPods are the choices now! At least June has stayed the same.

June bugs are a cool product of June as well as all the fat yellow and black striped bumble bees. Have there ever been a more cute insect? Considering the word insect I think not. Maybe a Caterpillar because of the fuzzy factor but not really because of the wormy-ness too close to its ancestor the snake. Also, June is the month you start to hear the ice cream truck. Yesterday, probably as a pre-June trial run, I heard the music way in the distance and it made me smile.

June is also a good month for a picnic. The heat is usually not as hot as in July and August so this is the best time for a picnic. Later in the year it will be unbearable. I actually mean the ones that are in the backyard, under a tree with the wind blowing, laying on your back watching the leaves twirl. There is no more peaceful a place than on a quilt laying under the trees. Unless you are fortunate to have a hammock that is. Now that is livin’!

June is also a good time to shop for back to school clothes..shorts that is. They are on sale about now and good to start the hot new year. In Tennessee it is hot right up through Halloween most of the time, so we wear summer clothes till we are sick of them. We can’t wait for that first cool crisp evening and the turning of the leaves. (oops different month!)

So to wrap up this frivolous homage to June, I will end with a hope and a wish. I hope everyone takes the time to picnic under the trees, while the grass is still fresh and green, take your shoes off and let your feet breath and walk in the crispness. Take caution for the June bugs but are brave enough to catch one, tie a thread around its leg and play….I suppose that may be not so PC! Would that go under the heading of endangerment to insects? If so forgive me and do not do it. Just enjoy watching them buzz along with the Bumble Bees….look for Zenia’s they love those!

Now on to a wish….a wish for summer to last as long as it did when I was a kid. It was nearly six months worth or it felt like it. If not that then, for the summer to be FUN! We all need a bit of FUN! I revel in the summer sun and it is a commodity I wish could be bottled up. If only I could, to take away those ugly, sad, cold winter months. No matter how hot it is it is never as bad as the cold…bitter cold of winter.

So June….here we go, oh how I adore thee!

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Michael Dean Church | NEW! Artist – Nashville

enjoyment, encouragement, LIFE, Tennessee, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Michael Dean Church | NEW! Artist – Nashville. Great New Artist here in the city of everything country! Nashville New Artist….ya’ll give him a listen!!

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Ice Cream makes me nervous!

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Maybe I am the only one that seems to have problems when eating an ice cream cone!?!

The dilemma is when you ask the soft serve ice cream server to only give you about half the size he usually does and he stares at you like just asked for it free! What is so weird? Why would it matter to him? Saves money for the store. I only want a smaller amount of ice cream and NO I don’t want to reduce the price! I don’t mind paying the full amount. I’m just incapable of eating that much ice cream! Silly as it sounds but, I can’t!

Even though I am so happy to be back in East TN and, even more, the beautiful Cades Cove Park which is a “loop” that’s very scenic. 20120323-182638.jpgAlso fun to do on a hay wagon but, on this day we were in a car. After our drive we go into the park store with all the sweet souvenirs, Smokey Bear and all, and buy the best one of all — soft-serve Mayfield brand ice cream. Only the best, I must say and the cones were HUGE. More than I could eat (believe it or not!) and I just wanted less, no tricks Sir, just can not eat it all.

After the funny looks, he was kind enough to back off a bit though it was still too much, we go outside to bird watch and to my joy — a red-headed woodpecker, one of my favorite birds. They could not be cuter! I do have a history with these birds. We had one that lived in the trees for a season at our home and I enjoyed watching him so much.

So the trouble of keeping my cone from melting all over my hand while attempting to watch the cool bird was more than I could stand! Ugh!! Silly Ice cream! Makes me so nervous trying to eat fast enough to keep up with the incessant melting.

Geeez we can send a man to the moon and we can’t make ice cream give us a break! Drip, drip, slurp!

And the eventual squishing of the excess ice cream out of the cone — wasting good ice cream, which was my goal to avoid to begin with! Let’s just be real. The cone was my goal in the first place. The ice cream was only the means to an end. So after several brain freezes and nervous moments of OCD fears of the chocolate drips ending up on the front of my shirt (bad thing while away from home (a limited amount of clothing packed!) the woodpecker left us. My shirt was still clean and I finally got to eat the cone.

Onward for more fun on our vacation weekend! And more opportunity for nervousness!20120324-185504.jpg

What-a-ya-gonna-do.com! Ha ha!

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Peyton ….who needs ya!!


Not that I am any big sports fan and anyone that knows me can attest to that but, really Peyton? You have to know that all of Tennessee or at least the die-hard University of TN (GO VOLS!!!) fans were praying and fasting (which is ridiculous, btw)for their boy to come back home. Really, would you be surprised?

I lived in the Knoxville area for more than twenty-six years, I married an East TN boy, a die-hard UT fan, tried and true. I was there when you splashed on the scene to bring the VOLS home with victories….there was nobody like you. You were everywhere. We couldn’t turn on the television without enduring those sweet St. Mary’s Hospital commercials with you and the Nuns. Very quaint and endearing. You were the face of Knoxville at that time with the exception of Pat Head Summit, the VOLS Women’s BBall coach, the best one ever no less! And might I point out…hasn’t left us! Two words…LOY-AL!

So when you leave the Colts and go shopping around for a new team and you actually come on over and tease us this way….well that was just mean. Nashville, which is where we live now….and was my hometown area, was all giddy over the prospect of our Tennessee VOL hometown hero coming back to finish out here. Literally the place was all a Twitter! and Facebook, TV news reports, news papers and etcetera! etcetera! etcetera! as Willy Wonka would say! Once again, PEYTON FEVER! UGH!

My own dear saintly husband…the dyed in the wool UT fan, the man who made me denounce Vanderbilt before he would marry me because, I was a VOLS fan NOW……….this poor man who works hard and has few carnal things he asks for, walks in the door today…his head hung low, barely able to take one more step……crushed in defeat!

“Honey what’s wrong” …I say in my sweet loving wife voice. He being a preacher I thought…… maybe he lost his favorite Bible or one our church folks were sick, or at least ……he lost his golf match (and I was sooo glad he went, good exercise and vitamin D) that he just came home from for which is the first time he has played in months and months. A big fat NO!

NO Peyton it’s all your fault! You in one single decision, selfishly and without any concern for all the fans who loyally have followed you “Through the Years”…….(picture in your head if you will…Kenny Rogers singing song by same name, for drama), Peyton you had the option to pay us all back in one fail swoop but NO! Selfishness is so ugly and I hope when it snows so deep where you are going you remember our nice mild winters here in the great State ofTennessee.

Sure Peyton, life will go on, my precious husband of thirty years will live to love another player, and as I comfort him in the sweet caring loving way that all who know me will be assured I will just repeat these words…….

Peyton…who needs ya!

p.s.

I don’t think our uniform looks very good on you anyways!

p.s.s

This was written in fun….I really could care less….just saying!

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Oh poor Spring!

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Poor spring!

Here you are coming out all over the place, only to probably be zapped in the face with wintertime!

Here in the South this happens. We fear the dreaded snow and ice and power outages and “black ice!” and when it doesn’t happen, slowly but surely spring starts showing it’s pretty face. First on the scene are the teeny, tiny little crocus, so small they are looked over. Tough kids they are, they peek out even when there is snow and always a signal of more to come.

Next up are the “yep I’m here” buttercups! S-o-o beautiful! I am astonished at their beauty. I so love them. They make me happy. Not to be confused with the happiest flowers on earth, my beloved Daisy! Yet nearly as Great. Every year those precious bulbs force themselves up thru the ground to become the vibrant yellow jewels of spring.

I have been tempted more than once to jump out of the car and “borrow” some! There is a field near my home that is full with rows and rows of these special flowers, which reminds me of the ones at my old home place on the farm. Such sweet memories. I actually, if the truth be known, did borrow a handful from The Great Smokey Mountains National Park about thirty years ago!

It was the first time my new husband took me through Cades Cove and there they were – loads of them. I couldn’t help myself! My hubs was driving the getaway car and you could only go about ten miles an hour! Some thief! Back then I could nearly run faster. Pre-childbirth and might I mention four kids and before mom jeans! I was still in my Calvin Kleins for pete’s sake. Needless to say a VERY long time ago! So yes, I have stolen from a National Park, I am not proud which reminds me not to stop on the side if the road and snatch the pretty spring wake up calls!

Actually I only want to spare them from a sure death because we never get away with an early spring — that keeps. It will snow or frost or freeze the little cups and saucers. (Willie Wonka visual.) Shrivel them up. Sad little joyous flowers. So, poor Spring, you are fun while you last and when you actually come to stay awhile, short as it will be because summer will slam us, zipping to 98 degree’s immediately!

AUGH, it’s the circle of life. One that never gets easier the older I get. Just tryin’ to enjoy the ride!

P.S.: I did snatch the beautiful pic from a friend of some TENNESSEE buttercups. We have the best!

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