Response to a Recent Comment

To Frank, thanks for your encouragement about learning Italian. As soon as I get past "Hi, how are you?" (how do you stay?) Maybe I will start looking for some other resources, like some reading material to try and translate, and then maybe I can find myself a conversation group. I recently learned to order a glass of wine at a restaurant. I consider that essential, but my first thought was, wait, I need to order a whole bottle! I now own an Italian-English dictionary.

My husband agreed to learn with me, but I can see he now regrets that. He joked that maybe he would just learn to say, "My wife speaks Italian." He feels that it is impossible to learn a language in a year, and he is right. But, I feel that I can have a pretty good clue by then. We were supposed to watch a lesson twice per week, but that already hasn't happened. Our plan was to do this Sunday and Tuesday, but we both got out of work late yesterday (Tuesday) and we agreed to meet and go food shopping together. By the time we got home it was 8pm, so no one was in the mood to learn Italian at that point.

My husband is a plumber. Sometimes he can get a little bit dirty on the job. Sometimes he gets a lot dirty. I could not believe what he looked like when I met him at the supermarket yesterday. He had just pulled a well pump and was completely splashed with mud. When I spoke to him earlier he said he was going back to the shop to wash up, and he did, but his clothes were still crazy. I like when he comes with me, because we talk and laugh while we shop, so we quickly got into that mode and I forgot about what he looked like, but I wonder what people thought when they saw him. It's just funny to think about.

Back to Italian, what is the deal with those verbs??? You say each verb 20 different ways, depending on who you speak to or who is doing the speaking, and past, present, future, etc. Obviously we have things like this in English, i.e. you go, she goes, she went, but Italian is extreme. Still, I refuse to be daunted!I will soldier on.

So now about Gay, Michigan. I mispoke when I said it was near Copper Harbor. I said that because I didn't feel like looking up the word Keweenaw. Gay is a little town on the eastern side of the Keweenaw penninsula. Copper Harbor is at the tip of the Pennisula, not really that close to Gay. While I was looking to see how to spell Keweenaw, I found that Gay actually has a Wikipedia page, and they have a picture of the Gay Bar sign! I have also learned that they have a 4th of July parade every year, locally known as the Gay parade. Cute.

Thanks to everyone and anyone who has commented lately. It's the only way I know anyone looks at this blog. I was never able to figure out what is wrong with my Google Analytics, so I don't know how many people stop by. One day in the middle of July, 11 people from Brazil looked at it. I have no idea what that is about.

A Mistake

I just had a look at this blog and found that I had inadvertantly posted a title. No content. That is part of an unfinished post, I'm not sure how just the title alone got posted.

I was out weeding the front garden on Saturday. I want to tell you that I love my garden, and I can't spend as much time as I would like in it. Generally the gardens around here aren't doing very well because of all the rainy, cool weather we've been having. I was anxious to get in there and weed, since the weeds are doing very, very well.

My neighbor comes out of her house and says she is about to leave for the Martin Guitar Fest in Nazareth, PA. She is a guitar freak. She says we should go, (Joe was there) and starts to tell us why this is such a wonderful event. It sounds like it could be fun, but I am commited to working in the garden. She tells me that I should not be working on a Saturday, I should be going to the Martin Guitar Fest, because it is so much fun. I try to tell her that, for me, this is not work. Work is that crap I do all week at the office. She will not let up. She keeps reiterating how amazing this event is, (even for someone who does not play guitar and would rather be in the garden) and finally says she will help me weed the garden later if I go to the guitar fest now.

I just looked up at her, from my squatting position amongst the creeping charlie. I wanted to say, "What can I do right now to get you to leave me the hell alone?" This woman does not work, so she was double pissing me off. She has all day, every day, to do exactly as she pleases. I have maybe one day per week to do what I want and I should stop to go do what she wants? Joe, sensing my feelings, kind of gave her the "yeah, maybe we'll see you over there..." and finally she left. SHEESH!

There are so many things I want to do and seemingly no time for any of it. I'm trying to not worry about it all. I haven't touched my sewing machine in about 5 weeks. I am putting outdoor persuits ahead. It is summer, kind of, after all. I did sit in the yard yesterday and worked on a small section of my epic quilt. At one point I spread it out on the grass to reposition the quiting hoop, and I thought, "This will never get done."

Of course, adding the learn Italian thing to the mix is not helping. You have to pick your priorities, and I have decided that travelling is very important. I have always wanted to learn Italian, and there is no way to learn it except to take the time to do it. I also have books I want to read and movies I want to watch. This used to freak me out a little, but now I am trying to see it as a good thing, to have so many options. I am working on focusing.

Here is another picture from my recent trip. This bar is in Gay, Michigan, near Copper Harbor. I suppose it is meant to be funny. If we mentioned that we had gone to Copper Harbor, people often asked if we had our picture taken at the Gay Bar. I suppose it is quite a landmark!