Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
SHOP LOCALLY
I know this has become a global economy, but the way things have been lately, why don't we shop locally whenever we can? Even if it's the nearest big-box store, you're still shopping in a place that employs people of your community.
(R.A.T...Rose About Town...signs off now and heads for the neighborhood grocery store, where she always runs into someone she knows. Can you say the same?)
(R.A.T...Rose About Town...signs off now and heads for the neighborhood grocery store, where she always runs into someone she knows. Can you say the same?)
Thursday, January 8, 2009
'DOWN SWEPT THE CHILL WIND...'
"Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak,
from the snow five thousand summers old;
On open wold (sic) and hilltop bleak,
it had gathered all the cold...
It carried a shiver everywhere,
from the unleafed boughs and pastures bare... "
---James Russell Lowell, from "Vision of Sir Launfaul"
What carried me back to this favorite passage from Lowell's epic poem? Simply walking out into the stormy, windy cold today, after an hour of sweat-producing work at the Geauga YMCA.
It was a shock to the senses, particularly on my bare face, though the storms of this day were made beautiful by large snowflakes floating down and piling up quickly in this rural setting... I could imagine I was walking through a Victorian-style snow globe. I'm the sort of nut who likes that sort of thing.
On days like this it takes a hardy soul to venture out and drive through the storms for an hour of exercise, but I love this Y, and that's my motivation.
I love that this facility surrounds me with all sorts of people of all ages, from a 90-plus year-old woman to the little children who peer in from the hallway and giggle at the exercise routines of us "vintage" people.
I love too, that my routine here has helped me to walk taller and to move with a spring in my step... and restored some of the balance that allows me to navigate the icy walks without falling on my butt!
From this classic northeast Ohio January day, R.A.T. (Rose Around Town) sends a blizzard of good wishes to all of you.
from the snow five thousand summers old;
On open wold (sic) and hilltop bleak,
it had gathered all the cold...
It carried a shiver everywhere,
from the unleafed boughs and pastures bare... "
---James Russell Lowell, from "Vision of Sir Launfaul"
What carried me back to this favorite passage from Lowell's epic poem? Simply walking out into the stormy, windy cold today, after an hour of sweat-producing work at the Geauga YMCA.
It was a shock to the senses, particularly on my bare face, though the storms of this day were made beautiful by large snowflakes floating down and piling up quickly in this rural setting... I could imagine I was walking through a Victorian-style snow globe. I'm the sort of nut who likes that sort of thing.
On days like this it takes a hardy soul to venture out and drive through the storms for an hour of exercise, but I love this Y, and that's my motivation.
I love that this facility surrounds me with all sorts of people of all ages, from a 90-plus year-old woman to the little children who peer in from the hallway and giggle at the exercise routines of us "vintage" people.
I love too, that my routine here has helped me to walk taller and to move with a spring in my step... and restored some of the balance that allows me to navigate the icy walks without falling on my butt!
From this classic northeast Ohio January day, R.A.T. (Rose Around Town) sends a blizzard of good wishes to all of you.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE, I LEARNED FROM TV THIS AFTERNOON
*All the TV pitchmen (and women) have graduated from the SAWYA (Scream and Wave Your Arms)School of Broadcasting, founded by ultra-pitchman Billie Mayes.
*All natural human processes can be conducted in public. So say protestors who are mad at Face Book for yanking personal breast-feeding videos from their site. Hmm... "natural processes"... like urination? sex? child birth...? (Although teenagers who see that LAST item might be inclined to avoid child birth for awhile).
Me... I'm inclined to separate the women who know how to breast feed modestly, as opposed to those I've seen who feed their old-enough-to-walk children at malls--by openly and brazenly pulling their t-shirts waaay up and popping the kids onto their bare chests. (I've seen many a senior citizen fall off their chairs when they see THAT one!)
*For $19.95, so say the frequent commercials, I can buy a Loud'N'Clear amplifying earpiece and listen in on other people's conversations and even walk around at parties and listen to what they're secretly saying about ME. Gotta BUY that!
*I can also buy a bottle of a magic-something called LIPOZENE and lose fat fast,without even working at it, because, as everybody knows, . "you can't lose weight any other way no matter how hard you work at it."
*TV commercials are SUPPOSED to be twice as loud as the program that's been putting you to sleep. If you're lying too close to the edge of the couch, you're also SUPPOSED to fall off when the commercial startles you awake.
G'DAY, MATES! Always glad to share new knowledge with you!
R.A.T. (Rose About Town).
*All natural human processes can be conducted in public. So say protestors who are mad at Face Book for yanking personal breast-feeding videos from their site. Hmm... "natural processes"... like urination? sex? child birth...? (Although teenagers who see that LAST item might be inclined to avoid child birth for awhile).
Me... I'm inclined to separate the women who know how to breast feed modestly, as opposed to those I've seen who feed their old-enough-to-walk children at malls--by openly and brazenly pulling their t-shirts waaay up and popping the kids onto their bare chests. (I've seen many a senior citizen fall off their chairs when they see THAT one!)
*For $19.95, so say the frequent commercials, I can buy a Loud'N'Clear amplifying earpiece and listen in on other people's conversations and even walk around at parties and listen to what they're secretly saying about ME. Gotta BUY that!
*I can also buy a bottle of a magic-something called LIPOZENE and lose fat fast,without even working at it, because, as everybody knows, . "you can't lose weight any other way no matter how hard you work at it."
*TV commercials are SUPPOSED to be twice as loud as the program that's been putting you to sleep. If you're lying too close to the edge of the couch, you're also SUPPOSED to fall off when the commercial startles you awake.
G'DAY, MATES! Always glad to share new knowledge with you!
R.A.T. (Rose About Town).
Monday, January 5, 2009
GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD?
Today I'm hearing lists of pork buried in a legislative draft for a federal stimulus package that will await the new administration. Things like tennis courts, snow making machines, golf courses; you name it. Even if government money for such projects could make jobs temporarily for some, it's little more than a bandaid approach. What we need is not another spending spree, but basics and necessities... infrastructure work, carefully supervised and done. Our aging, failing sewer and water systems, highways, bridges, railroad systems... all these things will really mean something to the future. And if we're going to mortgage the future for our children and grandchildren, infrastructure improvement is something that could benefit them in their lifetime.
At least... according to R.A.T. (Rose Around Town)
At least... according to R.A.T. (Rose Around Town)
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