Entertainment

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Friday Dance Party – Being Set “Free” With Graffiti6

It’s time for another edition of Friday Dance Party here on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

I’ve been set free several times this week.  I just haven’t been in the groove much at all this week.  It all started when I realized that last weekend was Labor Day weekend.  For some reason, I thought it was this coming weekend.  How do I totally miss a holiday weekend?  When someone at work mentioned the long weekend ahead, I thought they were joking.  Then I began to think about what I would have felt like if I had come into the office on the actual Labor Day Monday and no one would have been there.  That would have really set me free.

At the beginning of this week, it hit me that Summer was drawing to a close.  Another feeling of being set free.  Where did Summer go?  It seems like a couple of weeks ago that I went home for a visit over Memorial Day.  Like a few days ago that we left to spend the Fourth of July in Las Vegas.  Are you telling me that it is time to officially not wear white, harvest the remainder of the vegetables from the garden, winterize the swimming pool in the backyard and, the worst part, begin to locate all of the winter snow shovels so I can put them inside the garage in anticipation of our first snow storm.  Am I really beginning to think about snow?

I also thought this week was close week.  Close week is the time every 28 days that my company closes their books and sees how much money they made or didn’t make.  When my company exceeds their profit forecast, it is chalked up to excellent execution.  When they don’t make their profit forecast, it’s the accountants fault.  Those damn accountants…they must have made ANOTHER mistake.  Needless to say, close week is fairly stressful and I got all crazed and fired up for it a week too early.  Close week is next week.  Wasting all this energy on something that didn’t happen really set me free.

And now this weekend I’m being set free on the Jersey Shore.  We’re off to Asbury Park…home of Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.  Actually, I’d be just as happy to get a glimpse of Snooki or The Situation.  I would set my family and friends free as they watch me take off my shirt, do a little dancing with some fist pumps and then leave with my new friends (drunk, of course) and go do some GTL.  I can only hope!

So with a week’s worth of being set free, it’s time to give thanks for making it through.  We did it again!  So let’s dance this week and be set “Free” from Graffiti6, a London-formed duo that began in 2009.  Let’s give thanks for all that we have and all that we’ve done to close out another week.  By chance, if you see me on the MTV channel with my Jersey Shore friends, let me tell you in advance that I am so sorry for setting you free.  I know the feeling!

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Friday Dance Party – Where Have You Been?

It’s time for another edition of Friday Dance Party here on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

If my calculations are correct, I am just finishing up my eighth Summer here on Glen Road.  It’s crazy how time flies!  Over the course of all these years, I’ve done and seen so many things on our property.  I’ve worked to landscape our huge yard (both in the front and in the back), built several raised beds to grow vegetables in, planted fruit trees and, as you well know, I’ve witnessed a lot of wildlife that either lives or visits our property.  Some of these critter interactions are bad ones (woodchuck, I’m talking about you!), but the majority of them are really quite pleasant.  The one that is absolutely my favorite is to watch and listen to all the different birds that fly through on a daily basis.  I’ve seen cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, goldfinches and lots of other unique varieties.  Some that I can’t even name.  I think I’ve seen most of what Connecticut has to offer in the bird arena…..except one and it is my favorite.  The bird that never seems to visit my yard is the smallest of them all and that is a hummingbird.  I was never sure why I had never seen one.  In fact, there were many times I would discuss this with my Dad (another bird lover).  He didn’t know why either.  He said I had sufficient red flowers everywhere, lots of Spring/Summer/Fall bloomers, enough forest for them to nest in and I even had a hummingbird feeder.  It was a true mystery.

Well, I’m happy to tell all of you that on Sunday of last week, I was taking a little break from an intense day of gardening.  It was what I call a quiet moment.  One where you sit down (or sometimes lay down) right where you are gardening and you just lay still and listen to Nature.  You listen to the wind, you watch the birds, you listen to the birds singing.  Basically, you just sit there and appreciate life.  Meditation for gardeners.  As I laid there last Sunday, something wonderful happened.  I saw two hummingbirds fly to a butterfly bush and begin to feed off the blooms.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  So small and so quick.  They eventually made a couple of sounds to each other and then sat on a low-hanging branch at the beginning of the woods.  As they flew away, I slowly picked myself up off the ground and started to walk back to the house.  On my way, I ran into another hummingbird enjoying my zinnia patch.  This might sound weird to many of you, but my eyes filled with tears at the sight of this third bird.  Yes, I had finally seen some beautiful hummingbirds in my garden, but more than that, I am sure I was witnessing some divine intervention or, better said, what I believe to be some Dad intervention all the way from Heaven.

So this week’s song is dedicated to the three hummingbirds that finally visited.  It’s Rihanna’s big Summer hit “Where Have You Been”.  It’s another week down and, for most of us, a three-day weekend.  Happy Labor Day!  Turn the speakers up and celebrate life and say goodbye to Summer.  Hasn’t it gone by so quickly?  Dance to celebrate that we’ve made it through another week and, better yet, another season.  As well, know that I’ll be out in my yard this weekend asking those three hummingbirds…..”Where Have You Been?”  Do you think they’ll answer?

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I’m Not Proud Of What I Wear In The Garden

I don’t really think about what I’m wearing when I’m in my garden.  I want to be in clothes that are comfortable, but other than that, I don’t really care what I look like nor do I have any other requirements.  My clothes don’t need to match (and usually they don’t), they don’t need to be designer (I mean, I’m rolling around in dirt) and the more holes in the cloth, the better (I think of the holes as added air conditioning).  There are a few things I always wear or have with me–my plastic gardening clogs, my wide-brim hat with its SPF of 50, light-weight gardening gloves and I always have my foam cushion handy for my knees when I’m down on all fours digging or planting.

Yesterday was no exception.  I had on my wide-brim hat, a purple t-shirt, my blue gardening gloves, charcoal sweat pant cutoffs (to accentuate my pale white legs), dress socks and my gardening clogs.  What was different was that I had a friend stop by who walked into the back yard and surprised me.  He looked at me with a horrified, yet amused, look on his face and told me that I was some gardener.  I said thank you as I took off my hat and ran my hand through my thick and sweaty hair that was sticking four inches up into the air.  You know the look….the one that looked like you curled your hair with dynamite sticks.  This was not one of my more handsomer days.

After my friend left, I got to thinking that most gardening blogs that I read never really show the actual gardener in all of his or her glory, unless the picture is a staged one taken by a photographer.  You don’t really see what the gardener looks like or what the gardener is wearing in the many posts that are out there from our vast gardening community.  Do we not show ourselves very much because, like me, we tend to look a little on the crazy side?  Or perhaps, unlike me, most gardeners look great and wear nice polo shirts, jeans and comb their hair before spending the day out in the garden?  So my fellow gardeners, it is time to confess…..what do you look like when you have a long day of gardening ahead of you?

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The Crazy Things We Do As Gardeners – My Havahart Trap Results

Since my garden has taken on a second life, I have been keeping the Havahart trap armed and ready for action.  I’ve come a long way since catching that first woodchuck.  I no longer scream when I discover a critter inside the trap.  I have a process down that when I see that I’ve trapped something, I call this man who comes over and removes the critter to a place far, far away.  I still am too scared to release the critter by myself.   I also have the perfect recipe down to put inside the trap–two chunks of cantaloupe, two chunks of apple, a carrot, a stalk of celery and two cabbage leaves by the entrance to entice the critter to enter the trap versus the garden.  It seems to be working although recently I’ve mixed into racoons versus woodchucks.  I know what kind of destruction a woodchuck can create in a garden.  What about the racoons?  Does anyone have garden issues caused by racoons?  I can’t say I’ve ever heard of garden woes caused by racoons, but I’m sure there are stories.  At best, the racoons have gotten into our garbage can and made a mess, but I have never seen them among the rows of vegetables out in my backyard.

There is a part of me though that is still sad every time the man takes the animals away.  It’s sort of a feeling that I’m putting the balance of nature in my backyard out of whack.  That I’m disrupting some sort of backyard ecological balance.  Isn’t nature all about survival of the fittest?  I’ve read stories on other blogs of people battling nature in order to grow a garden, so I know I’m not alone.  I guess it’s just another one of the tough and crazy decisions you have to make when you start a garden.

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Friday Dance Party – Missing The Olympics But Liking Ed Sheeran

Guess what?  It is time for another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

I really can’t say that I watch much television.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have nothing against TV or those that watch hours and hours of it each week.  It’s just that when I start watching TV, I start thinking of a thousand other things I should be doing and that just ruins it for me.  That all changed when the London Summer Olympics came on every night for a little over two weeks.  I felt that I was literally glued to the TV.  I was into TV once again.  I liked sports.  I could talk to my friends about sports and know who they were talking about.  Who knew the Olympics could do this to me?  Each night there was new television filled with moments of nail-biting suspense, stories about incredible athletes who worked so hard and were so dedicated, times you felt so proud to be an American and times where you couldn’t hold back your emotions.  There were many times when my eyes filled up with tears watching moments like Gabby Douglas win her gold in women’s gymnastics, Clarissa Shields amazing story about her journey that culminated in her winning the gold in the first-ever women’s boxing event and to watch Michael Phelps make Olympic history by winning the most medals of any athlete in Olympic history.  My list can go on and on.  This is what I call “must see TV”.  Then, in a flash, it was all over.  No more evenings spent watching great competition.  No more emotional moments listening to the Star Spangled Banner.  Yes, it was over and I miss it.  I’m lonely.  I feel a little empty the last few evenings.  Here’s to Brazil in 2016.  It can’t come soon enough.

During the closing ceremonies, a singer by the name of Ed Sheeran sang.  He was the singer who sang Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”.  There was something in his voice that moved me.  I jotted his name down to do some research on him and listen to some of his own music.  I’m glad I did.  He has a great voice and writes some remarkable lyrics…..almost haunting in a way.  While not the sunniest of tunes, here is his current hit “The A Team”.  It’s our song to dance to this week.  Take a listen and move to the music.  We’ve made it through another week.  Let’s give thanks for that.  I think we all deserve a gold medal for winning in the game of life!

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Friday Dance Party – Me, A Prima Donna?

It’s time for another edition of Friday Dance Party here on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

“You’re a prima donna.”  I looked at my co-worker with a look of surprise and disgust on my face.  This is not the first time I have ever heard this in my life after I have responded that I am not going to do something and, let’s be honest, I always wonder if you can even call a man a prima donna.  My surprise (and disgust) is always based on the fact that I don’t think I am too spoiled in any way.  It’s just that I am fairly certain of what I want to do in my life and what I don’t want to do and I am not afraid to express my thoughts, even if my thoughts are unpopular.  I’m ok with saying “no”.  So let’s back up.  I got into this predicament because a group of people who I work with asked me if I would go with a large group of employees on a route ride.  In its simplest definition, a route ride is where you ride around with a delivery person in their big truck and deliver product to customers all day.  Doing this helps you understand the company’s business better, or so they say.  Let me clarify even further….you drive around in a big truck delivering product and:

  • You start around 5:30 AM,
  • You end your day at around 6:30 – 7:00 PM,
  • You are asked to dress similar to the polyester uniforms my company makes the drivers wear,
  • The product you deliver is heavy and bulky,
  • You sweat a lot and get very, very dirty,
  • The temperature is 90+ degrees,
  • It is humid, and
  • I am sure the cab on the truck is not air-conditioned.

I could go on further, but I think you get the picture.  So let me ask you, “Would you do it?”  Why is someone who says “no” to things in their life viewed as difficult, bitchy, grouchy or a prima donna?  Why wouldn’t they be called confident, self-aware, in touch or assured?  It’s not like I’m saying I wouldn’t donate blood to a sick child.  I’m just saying no to a ride in a delivery truck.  Do you think that knowing what you want in today’s world is taken as a blessing or as a curse?  Why is saying what you really feel taken as a negative thing versus a positive one?  Is it really being a prima donna or is it just being true to yourself?  Enough ranting…. let’s start dancing.  We’ve made it through another week and it’s time for us to give thanks.  The song this week is ‘Primadonna’ by Marina and the Diamonds.  Can the song be any more appropriate?  Celebrate life and get to dancing.  Start now…..I mean it…..shake it….remember, I’m a prima donna and I always get what I want!