This is what happens when you work from home.

I’ve never been a birdwatcher, but there’s drama outside the window this week. The pictures are fuzzy because I took them from inside the house. These birds have already been through enough.

Our backyard has recently been Crow City.  My daughter hung this bird feeder a few days ago and the crows took it over. It’s meant for smaller birds, like the ones above,  but the crows tilt it so the birdseed falls to the ground, then they call each other in loud voices to come gobble it up. A little consideration would be nice. Do these crows not remember when a couple of their babies fell into the yard and were rescued right here at Crow Hospital?

Small birds avoided us until this week.  It’s the first time we’ve seen anything besides crows fly into the yard.  Wonder if this bluebird is a good sign.

All those empty boxes!

After Christmas a friend said, only half-kidding, that he should hire himself out as a break-er down-er of Amazon boxes.  A news report later covered how many pounds of flattened Amazon boxes were taken to  recycling centers.  A staggering number. (Photo/Getty Images)

Our Amazon boxes lived outside under the eaves for weeks.  We flattened them bit by bit to squish them into the recycle bin for pickup.  We just finished the stack from Christmas.

Only after the holidays did I learn about Give Back Box.  I haven’t checked it out yet, but it looks interesting – a way to do some good while re-using all those empty boxes.

 

Revised Definition Of Happiness

New week.  New season arriving soon.  New definition. Remember when we were very young and thought “happy” was our birthright?  As years went by, we did a lot of things just to get some of that.  Today I think “content” or “peaceful most of the time” will suffice.  I don’t think of these as compromises, but as more likely-sustainable states of mind.

Fifteen Minute Nostalgia Rule

By Anita Garner

Those were the days, weren’t they?  In memory, they’re golden. We also want to know about a colleague’s passing, comfort each other about health issues, but that can also occupy every conversation.

A  friend and colleague, Don Barrett, is Los Angeles radio’s teller of tales, and often our prophet, at www.laradio.com. He’s had several careers with contacts ranging far and wide, and he’s in touch with multitudes of people he knows in movies and broadcasting. Don’s our resource when we need to find someone.

But Don has a fifteen minute nostalgia rule and then he wants to know about today. Are you still on the beach? (In radio talk, being out of work is being “on the beach.” I don’t know why.) Do you have plans? He’d rather hear about right now.  What are you doing?  Where?  How do you feel about it?

Radio and television and newspaper and all manner of media ruled our careers for decades, creating exciting relationships, and then when that part of life moves on, there’s a desire to remember when, with groups we once worked with. I like Facebook for that.  And emails. But I also respect Don’s approach to staying in touch with what’s happening now.

Music this week is “Moon River.” Chris Whiteman on guitar.

Version 2

 

Chris plays “Moon River” on his 1959 Gibson ES-125T

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjBXNTW5hb4

And more mighty fine listening from Chris here.

Subscribe to Chris’ You Tube channel here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lies We Tell Our Kids

I’m borrowing these from Reader’s Digest this week.  Wish I’d thought of these lies we tell our kids.

— “If the ice cream truck is playing music, it means it’s run out of ice cream.”

— “Her Dad said if she looked after a special growing rock and watered it until it stopped growing, she could get a dog. She watered it and while she was at school, her Dad replaced it with a bigger rock.”

— “Toys grow under the weeds in the yard and if you pull the weeds, eventually a toy will pop out.”

— “They don’t sell replacement batteries for that toy.

— And a personal one:  Because my Daddy was a Southern preacher who was often in touch with Jesus, I’m cautious about this one. My brother and I prayed every night for a blue Schwinn bicycle.

Daddy said Baby Jesus provides for all our needs but maybe not our wants and besides it was rude to ask Him for something so specific. My brother said if he had a bike, he could get a paper route.

A bicycle soon appeared on the front porch of the parsonage. It wasn’t new.  It wasn’t blue, but it worked. Daddy never admitted to buying it.

Colin Tribe and grandson, Edward

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

Faded Photographs

First of the year organizing brings up the same question each time.  How to separate the precious from the merely familiar? What to let go of? What to keep?

I’m the guardian of my parents’ memories.  Boxes of them.  Stacks of them. So many photo albums my camera couldn’t fit them into one picture to show you.

How to know which I’ll regret parting with?  What’ll be valuable to someone in the future? Do I keep all of this and leave it for my daughter to decide?  Do I call on the gods of technology and ask if there’s an affordable answer?

Sticky notes mark my feeble attempt to identify by decade

I’ve moved them around for years and don’t know if anyone else will want them someday. There’s the option to preserve them digitally, but there are so many of them. My scanner isn’t great and each time I start to scan one, I stop and remember stories. Obviously I’m not suited for this job, and I know I’m not alone. I’ve met other people whose garages belong half to them and half to the past.

During my own broadcast career I’ve let go of boxes of tapes, lots of shows and commercials, moving some to digital formats. That wasn’t hard to do, but this isn’t really my stuff, so here I am starting another year, still in possession of all my parents’ memories.
                                                        – – – – – – – – —
Thank you, Tony, for the music

Tony R. Clef, guitar

“When I’m sixty four”

I Love you,Taco Bell

By Anita Garner

Taco Bell I love you, yes I do.  This isn’t a commercial. It’s a love song. Every once in a while, I have to park near the sign with the bell. In the beginning, the bell was bright yellow. In Southern California, my brother and I drove from wherever we were to the first location in Downey and walked up to the order window in the tiny, distinctive hut. We surrendered that day.

Original location on the right, today’s look on the left.

I can say no to some things, but with Taco Bell, I don’t even try. It’s not a matter of if, but when I’ll stop by. Taco Bell calls me even when I’m headed in the other direction. I resist and resist but once in a while, when the day is full and the stomach is empty, I turn around.

So many reasons to love Taco Bell. some crunchy, some soft. This won’t take long because a very few ingredients are responsible for fulfilling all the promises of the menu. Ground beef.  Cheese. Lettuce. Tomatoes. Tortillas. Beans. Sour Cream. Red sauce. And also now chicken.I love that so many things can be assembled from these magic ingredients and served in different shapes.

The drink bar at most locations offers power to the button pusher. Fill the cup with ice and here’s my choice. Push the iced tea spigot. Move along and push for lemonade.  Mix them together. In California we call this drink Arnold Palmer. I call the whole Taco Bell experience perfect.


 

The Warmest Spot

By Anita Garner.

This week it’s the kitchen, the place where everybody gathers, and it’s not just because of the stove. The coffee pot’s in there too.

In the kitchen, several old things are new again. In the 70’s we went to each other’s houses for dinner, which was often potluck, and our Crock Pots ® stayed on the counter because we used them so often.

Then the Crock Pot was relegated to a shelf in the garage and last time I went to a potluck supper, many of the dishes were store-bought. Not a single tuna and noodle and peas casserole in sight.

Crock Pots returned in sleek versions we call slow cookers and we’re all exchanging recipes. Here’s mine: put one onion in a crock pot and the house smells like home all day.

Casseroles are now known as one-dish meals with many more than the three or four ingredients we relied on.

We’ll need to buy some new casserole dishes.  I gave away the last one a long time ago and I don’t know where we stored the Pyrex. ?

“Tea For Two”  performed by Australian guitarist, Gilbertt Kat.

Here’s his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gilbkat

Artwork above generously loaned by Susan Branch, whose blog and books I read faithfully. www.susanbranch.com

Kinky Boots

Listen to this blog here.

I love to tell this story. It’s about generous performers, actors and singers, and four degrees of separation.  Greg (North) Zerkle directed a reading of my musical, The Glory Road in Los Angeles.

At the last minute, one of our actors had to drop out to take another role.  


Brent Schindele  said, “An actor I know is in town right now appearing in The Lion King at the Pantages.  Let’s see if he can do it.”

Brent Schindele

Brent contacted Eugene Ware-Hill, who came over from The Lion King and without rehearsal, performed at our reading.  He was magnificent.

                                                             Eugene Ware-Hill

Fast forward. Eugene is in Kinky Boots on Broadway. The Grand has a crush on a rock star, Brendon Urie  who sang a lead role in the show this summer. Her girlfriend was traveling to New York and would get to see the show.  The Grand couldn’t go. Heartbreak.

I asked Eugene if he could please get her an autograph. He did even more. He sent a Kinky Boots playbill with a personal note from Brendon addressed to the Grand. This treasure occupies the place of honor in her room.

              Playbill from Kinky Boots

I think about how these four degrees of gorgeous proved what our grammas used to say, “Pretty is as pretty does.”

And wait  – one more.

The musician playing this ukulele version of Lullaby of Broadway is Colin Tribe. Colin lives in England where he teaches, arranges and performs.

                                           Edward and his grandpa, Colin Tribe

Colin’s YouTube channel is linked below.

Or reach him here:

colinrtribe@btinternet.com