Whensday

This GIF made me laugh. 

And then it reminded me of when I was a very little girl, and lived in this house:

Of course, when I lived there, things were a little different.  There were no solar panels on the roof back then.  And that huge pine tree in the front yard?  I helped my father plant it.  It was about 4 feet tall when we planted it – it was about as big as I was.  Maybe even a bit bigger. 

Anyway, as you can see, it’s a 2-story house.  One of my most favorite games to play was to get a blanket and then sit on it at the top of the stairs, pull the bottom edge up and hang on to it, and then whoosh with bumpity-bump-bumps all the way down!  When I was 3, that was probably the “funnest game ever”.  :D 

Can’t forget though, in addition to sliding down those stairs, I also fell down them more than once.  Yes, I know you’re thinking, “Well, that explains a lot!”  LOL

 

EXTREEEEEEEEEEME! – Cheezburger

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Whensday

Oh my gosh, when I first saw this LOLCat, it brought back a memory that made me bust out laughing. 

Darc and I hadn’t been married long.  A few months, at best.  One night a fly somehow managed to get into our apartment and it drove us crazy.  It was a big fly and it had an annoying buzz, and it seemed like it would get right in our faces and then fly off before we could get it.

Well, Darc was not one to be deterred by an insect.  He was going to get that blasted fly if it darn near killed him.  Every time he’d try to sneak up on it, whoosh, there it would go again, teasing him mercilessly. 

Darc got mad.  He grabbed one of those sales papers from the newspaper to use as a weapon.   That fly’s goose was cooked, if someone could ever catch it.  Darc was chasing it all over the place, going from room to room, and by that time I was laughing at how silly the whole thing had become. 

Eventually the fly stopped on the ceiling for a breather and Darc took his chance.  He snuck up slowly … clenched his paper roll ever tighter … then jumped as high as he could and SMACKED that fly to death.

And left behind on the ceiling was a lovely swath of blue, from the sales flyer he’d used as a weapon. 

But that doggone fly was dead!

The blue streak stayed until we moved out, proof of a hard-won victory.  🙂

 

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Whensday

I am a theme junkie.  I admit it!  I probably check out the Windows 7 themes – Microsoft Windows website every few days to see if there’s anything new.  I go to Windows 7 Themes | VikiTech.com and do the same thing.  I must have close to 200 themes now, some of which I made myself.  I change themes every couple of days.  I like the pretty, rotating pictures. 

The most recent theme I got was the Animal Affection theme – Microsoft Windows.  It sounded cute.  The thumbnail looked cute. 

But as the pictures slowly refreshed, this one came up on my other monitor.

And it knocked me back in time about mumble years or so, to when I was a little girl about 7 or 8.  For some reason, I got a parakeet just like the green one in the picture.  I don’t remember why I wanted the bird but I learned how to take care of him and clip his wings and clean the cage and all that goes along with taking care of birds.  I loved my bird.  I named him Sunshine.  He was my little buddy and he’d sing and sit on my shoulder while I played. 

Not long after that, I got a friend for him, a pretty little blue girl just like the one in the picture.  Not being very creative with names but thinking I was oh-so-clever, I named her Moonshine.  I thought they were very appropriate names, he with his sunny yellow colors and she with her nighttime sky palette. 

My father laughed and I didn’t know why.

My bird story ended as pretty much most bird stories do, when I was 9 or so.  But seeing that picture so unexpectedly brought so many memories rushing back.  It was like peeking into a window of my childhood. 

 

Whensday

Watching the fireworks last week called to mind one of the first times I ever saw them.  It must have been 1970 or ‘71.  It was after my parents divorce, and before my father traded in his old Mercury.

I loved that Mercury.  I’m not sure what model it was, but it looked a lot like the one in the photo below, and the middle one from the old ad below that.  It was a silvery gray color, might have been primer for all I know.  But the most amazing thing about that car was the back window.  My father could push a button on the dash, and that rear window would raise and lower like magic. 

I must have pitched a hissy – let me tell you, I was good at that! – because my father relented and agreed to take me to see the Independence Day fireworks.  On his terms, because he hated fireworks and traffic and crowds.  He drove to some hilly area that was dark and didn’t have any houses – not hard to do back then despite it being the SF Bay Area.  There were still lots of orchards around.  It was pitch dark where he pulled over.  I was a little perplexed when he parked facing away from the fireworks.  Being in the back seat, that would hamper my view.

But then that magic rear window came oozing down and my father said, “Go ‘head, climb onto the trunk, you can watch from there.”

So I climbed out through that wonderful window.  I lay down facing the sky, on the wide trunk of that car, totally enthralled with the show.  It’s a love affair that’s never ended, actually. 

My father passed the time reading by the dome light.  Shortly after that,  he traded in that big family car for a 2-seater.  No more back seats and no more trips to see fireworks. 

I never forgot that car though.  It will always remain one of the top classics in my mind.

Just like fireworks.

  

Mercury Monterey – Books, pictures, posters and news on your pursuit, hobbies, interests and worries

 

From my chair…: Mercury … another one bites the dust

Whensday

Apparently there’s been a bit of a buzz recently with the re-release of the Titanic movie.  I’ve seen a few articles around that talk about how so many of the people who saw the movie didn’t realize it was an actual event.  Major *facepalm* right?  LOL  I never saw the movie but I did read about the Titanic in history class.

But it reminded me of something that happened way back in the olden days, the 90s. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was a teen, we all listened to that crazy rock and roll music.  Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, the Stones, Aerosmith, The Doors, et al.  Some grew out of it and some of us will keep listening to it until they pry our tapes out of our cold, dead fingers.  Rock on!  *ahem* 

Anyway, when The Doors movie came out, I insisted on seeing it.  I don’t remember a whole lot from it, but I do recall thinking that Val Kilmer did an amazing job as Jim Morrison, who died when I was a little girl, like 1971, about 20 years before the movie was made. 

As we were coming out of the theater, there was a line of people waiting to go in, and the lines were moving next to each other, just like auto traffic.  The kid in front of us saw a friend of his who was in the line going in to see the movie.  They yelled greetings to each other, and the kid in the “enter” line asked, “Hey dude, how was it?  Is it any good?” 

The kid in front of me replied, “Oh yeah, it was great, but just so you know, the guy dies at the end.”

“Aw man!  He dies?  Why’d you have to go and ruin it for me, dude!  I paid to see this and you just spoiled the end!”  And he gave his buddy a playful punch on the arm as the line moved past. 

I laughed all the way to the car.  I laughed all the way home.  I still laugh when I think about it!   Twenty years of giggles for the price of a movie ticket.  Not a bad deal!  LOL

The Doors–People Are Strange

Whensday

It’s odd, but I can recall when the Monkees were on TV in prime time.  I think I was about 2 or 3, but I remember being in the room upstairs of the house we lived in at the time, watching them.

When I was about 6, my sister and her friend gave me all their old copies of their Monkees albums and I was in heaven.  I watched the show, then in syndication, every Saturday without fail.  I was going to grow up and marry Davy, you see, and Saturdays were my only chance to “see” him. 

I was also never going to be taller than 5’3”, because he was 5’3” and I couldn’t be taller than him.  That’s what I decided anyway, lol.  Isn’t it funny how at 6 you think you can control those things?

Of course, Davy would always remain as he was, until I caught up to him age-wise.  He would wait for me!  I was certain of that.  Then we would grow old together. 

By 9, I’d moved on to Donny – such is the fickleness of youth!  But Davy would always be my first “love.” 

And when I was 6, no one, and I mean NO ONE, had moves like he did!  As much as 6 years olds can, he made me swoon. 

It’s hard to believe he’s gone! 

Thank you for the memories, Davy.  My condolences to your wife and daughters. 

 

 

 

Whensday

I cracked up when I first saw this picture, and posted it on FaceBook.  It brings up a very special family memory for me.  The story behind the giggle is kind of cute though but first I wanted to give some background.

I don’t do horror very well.  As a little kid, my sister would terrorize me by making me watch Dark Shadows, after which I could be found cowering under the bed.

As a teen, I came of age in the Halloween, and Friday the 13th era, which became popular date films.  I almost walked out of The Boogeyman but my date convinced me not to.  I remember perhaps 1 scene from each of those, the rest of the time spent hiding behind my hands.  I would have walked out on My Bloody Valentine but was a guest at someone else’s home and didn’t want to look childish.  So you can see, horror and I never mixed well. 

And then, then I married a horror writer.  Proof that the Lord does indeed have an interesting sense of humor! 

To his credit, the only horror movie Darc ever really strongly encouraged me to watch was The Exorcist.  We caught the 30th anniversary release.  Afterward, I could only wonder what all the fuss was about.

Eventually I realized that what I really loathe is what I’ve come to call “gorror,” that cross between horror and outright, gratuitous gore.  I hate the gory stuff, the bloody, slashing, stabbing, gooey, icky, red yuck.  But suspense I can handle okay.

So when the MiniNess was about 4, Darc picked up a copy of Alien, one of his all time favorite horror movies, and wanted to watch it during family movie time.  I was a bit dubious.  The kids were kind of little for that, I thought.  But we put it in figuring we could stop it if they seemed like they were getting scared.  During the first “facehugger” scene, the scene where the creature leaps onto John Hurt’s face and attaches itself, which startled me since it was the first time I’d ever seen it myself, I heard the little gasps come out of the kids.  Oh here we go! I thought, they’re going to freak out and have nightmares and I shouldn’t have let them see this and …

“Can we watch it again, Daddy?  Can you back up so we can see it again?  That was so cool!”

This is my 4 year old?  My sweet, precious, baby girl?  She wants to see it again?!

“That’s my girl!” exclaimed the proud daddy. 

She couldn’t handle the sight of the vacuum at the time, that sent her screaming to her bed to hide under the covers, but the facehugger in Alien was definitely not a problem.

Yep, that’s not thunder you hear, those are heavenly guffaws. 

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