Zombie Apocalypse

I woke up with a jolt.  Did Hubby say goodbye to me this morning?  I thought hard.  I squinted and thought harder.  I remembered him talking to Brandy who was tucked tightly under the blankets like a hot dog.  Was that today?  Or was that yesterday?

*shrugs*

Then I heard the radio from the other bedroom.  He snores.....end of story.  It turns out he called in "sick" today.  He says he just didn't feel like going to work today.  It must be nice.

I drank my morning coffee and ate a bowl of blueberry Special K, which incidentally does not have one single real blueberry in the whole box.  I guess that's what makes it so special.  I watched a half hour of Live with Kelly.  During the second half of the show I climbed on my stationary bike.  I was three quarters through with my doctor prescribed bike ride when the power went out.  Not a flicker.  Not a surge.  Dead.

Hubby scrounged around for an A&W coupon and decided to go for a bus ride.  He'd never waste a perfectly good sick day by actually being sick.

No power.  No internet.  No radio.  No heat.

Brandy tried to mooch morsels of a smores poptart from me as we kept warm under a blanket in the living room.  The wind would kick up and the stove vent flap would clang.  Its raining and blowing and then I think.....I haven't seen anyone.....not a soul on the street all morning.

There could be a zombie apocalypse and I'd never know it.

I sit with my eyes trained on the street pondering the idea. 

Then my neighbour's van pulls into her drive and their two little kids scamper out to the front door of their house.  Neighbour Mom is behind them toting a bag from A&W.

No zombies today I guess.

At least not yet.

I hear the tv snap a little as current tries to surge through it but nothing happens.  Then the wind gusts and the oven vent clangs again.

Attack of the Pod Person

It began innocently enough on a December afternoon as I sat perusing a reward point website which was in conjunction with the diet my sister in law coached me for and which I had used in my ongoing weigh loss battle. I had accumulated many points. I was very excited to use some of them to claim a bracelet from Eclipse. It was a replica of the one given to Bella in the movie with a brown wolf dangling from one end and a “diamond” heart pendant from the other. I really wanted to use up all my points because I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to get the products from across the border. I happened to click onto the electronics tab next. Appearing before me was a selection of iPod Shuffle's in various colours of the rainbow. I chose green. When faced with a decision of colour, green was always the answer. 

 

♫ Green is the colour.....Football is the game.... ♪

When it arrived I was forced into installing all the necessary Apple programing. All I intended was to use it for music and maybe hook it up in the car for long trips. But on further investigations into iTunes.....I found out I could also use it for Podcasts and Audio Books. With all this investigating I became fluent in the “i” language. iRock.

I recalled as a kid listening to old style mystery radio shows late at night and often they'd put me to sleep. So I did a search in iTunes for these types of radio programs and to my delight I found out many of them were free to subscribe. Since it was just before Christmas I looked for Christmas programming and happened upon a selection of Abbot & Costello doing some Christmas shopping as well as Red Skeleton and the Martin & Lewis Show. It was only 3 shows but I downloaded them to my green pod and whisked them off with me to my parents for the Christmas holidays where on the Eve of the Chubby Dude arriving we hooked up the Pod to a “ghetto blaster” and listened and laughed to these relic radio shows. It was memorable.

Once Christmas was over I still wanted to enjoy these programs and decided I really enjoyed the Martin & Lewis programs the best. I found someone on iTunes who had made podcasts on a regular basis and quickly subscribed. I went back to the very beginning.....waaaay back to 1949.....a time warp. The comedy was clean and truly funny and I found myself often chuckling in the darkness waiting to fall asleep. Often Dean Martin's voice would swoon me to sleep.

♫ I'm at heaven's door.....Innamorata ♪

Honestly the only memories I had were of Dean Martin. I really knew nothing of his partnership with Jerry Lewis. I remember seeing some of the Dean Martin roasts on TV and had vague memories of The Dean Martin Show from my childhood and always thought he was a boozer. I am not one to leave a stone unturned and after Googling found out a great deal about them. I began watching clips on Youtube from the Colgate Comedy Hour and even ordered some episodes from Amazon. One DVD included a movie At War with the Army. This movie opened up a whole new era to appreciate and enjoy.

I've really found that I was craving this type of entertainment in my life. I find there is very little on TV to watch and music these days are somewhat of a disappointment to me. Plus, I am always looking for a new way to express music in my teaching. I may not teach this specific style of music but it really does impact us today. That's what I love most.....is finding something from another time and space and applying the concept to what we do today. Did you know that Elvis heard a Dean Martin song and wanted to record it? Then that song became his 2^nd big hit? It's true. Here's another thing I discovered. I am not the only person yearning for this type of programing.

Why have I told you this big long story?  I watched all of the movies featuring the duo of Dean and Jerry . I also wanted to tell everyone how one little decision changed my life over the last three months. Had I never clicked on that link on the reward page and ordered that little green Pod you would have never had to endure all my crazy ramblings over these weeks and months. At the same time, my eyes have been opened along with my heart to a time and place that only half exists on audio and film even though the impact is woven intricately into the tapestry of Hollywood and television. It leaves me wondering if what we see and hear today could also stand the test of the passing of 60 years.

Tastes Like Chicken

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....is it a duck? What if its something else? What if it's Maxwell Smart's shoe phone? Or something else in disguise? Remember not everything is as it seems.

One night a few weeks ago.....or was it months.....I was watching an episode of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. It's patterned after the books and is a very cute show to watch if you ever have the chance. Anyhow, the office was broken into and the thief had taken the Banana Stapler. I thought, “Gee, I'd like a banana stapler.” But then I thought some more.....why would I want something that looks like something else? I mean, what if I got hungry and gnawed on my stapler? Seriously, why would I have the need for an item that looks like another thing?

~ A donut by any other name would taste just as sweet. ~

In the mail today, I received an advert from McDonald's. It was showing the new Rolo flavored iced coffee. I said, “Wow, I wanna try that!” But I gave it a second thought – Why not just eat a Rolo? - I mean, the small coffee advertised said it was 120 calories. How many Rolo's could one eat for 120 calories? According to Google.....yes, I Googled.....there are 27 calories in one single Rolo. So you could eat 4.5 Rolo's. Huh. I admit that if I.....ahem, not me [as my health coach would be out to get me], but rather a hypothetical human bean were craving both a cup of Joe and a Rolo at the same time that person might be willing to fork over a Toonie for the said luscious drink.

~ Your chocolate landed in my peanut butter! ~

Or was it the other way around? Missed it by THAT much! Anyway, someone somewhere obviously thought the world needed that combo. And, I thank them. But what about pizza flavored Cheeto's, chicken flavored potato chips or chocolaty cocoa puffs? If we really wanted pizza, chicken or chocolate.....why don't we just eat it? Why does other food come disguised as the things we really want?

Because we've fooled ourselves into thinking its healthier. They are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Worse yet, what's happened is our taste buds have gotten so accustomed to eating these mock foods that we've forgotten what the real thing tastes like. We have Taste Bud KAOS. In some cases, that's a good thing. I used to crave chocolate badly. I yearned to forget what it tasted like. I've worked hard to remove it from my voCADBURY.

Okay, so I did think that nanner stapler was pretty cute. AND, I did find a totally awesome donut USB drive on the interweb. Once upon a time I did have a notepad that looked like a sandwich. Is it a desk or a buffet table? We're not sure. 

Quack.....quack.