It's All Good....

My friend at work will be singing this at his church soon. He's been playing this in his office lately as he prepares and I've taken a liking to it. Beautiful harmonies. Enjoy!

Old Mr. Umph Had a Puncture in His Tire. . .

. . . and he fixed it with a wad of chewing gum.

We used to sing that song as children, does anyone else remember it? I think the 'real' version was Old Mr. Ford had a puncture in his tire. I believe the 'umph' part comes from singing the song and replacing words one at a time with the word umph. You know, like when you sing rounds of B-I-N-G-O and gradually replace each letter with a hand-clap. It's right up there with, "On Top of Spaghetti" and "John Jacob Jinkleheimer Schmidt".

There's a word for this sort of improvised repair: jerry-rigging. The term comes from either a) jury-rigging, a sailing term; or b) the WWII slang for German engineering on the fly. When I was young and first heard this term I thought it referred to my uncle Jerry. It's plausible! He did farming and construction, so of course he would know how to rig things. Then again, my dad, grandfather and other uncles had the same abilities so the term could have been named for any one of them. I didn't really stop to wonder.

Well, just like Mr. Umph, we've all had occasion to make a repair to something using less than ideal materials. There's glue, duct tape and twine. And then there's the more unusual remedies. In early May I was driving to south Florida for my nephew's wedding when a piece of plastic trim around my front windshield came loose. It wasn't a hazard so much as a nuisance, as it kept flapping up in the wind. I pulled off for a rest break and began to search my car for tape. All I could could come up with was . . . a band-aid. Yep, I fixed my car's boo-boo with a band-aid. Got some funny looks but it worked.

I've heard of people filling small nail holes in the wall with toothpaste (basic white, not gel!). My parents once used dental floss to rig the windshield wiper on their RV when it gave out during a rainy drive. I believe they had to thread it back through the side window and give a pull now and then. Once my ex super-glued some small parts together in our car engine when we got stuck on the road somewhere and it held up quite well. I'll bet you can all think of plenty more examples, so tell me about your inner MacGyver - what's one of your creative fixes?

Meandering Monday

Well, well. It was quite a day at work and when I came home all I wanted was dinner and down time. Too bad! Never is life that simple! So, after cooking dinner, doing some errand running and whatnot I finally got some time to sit down and get online.

After meandering about the internet for a while I decided to find something new. I did this by going to a random blog and then clicking on one of the blogs listed in the side bar. I then repeated the random blog selections until I landed somewhere that caught my fancy. Which is where the above picture comes in. What you see up top is a lovely Holiday Cottage in the Scottish Highlands called Papa Stour's Bolt Hole. You can rent it out. I'd like to rent it out. All by myself. For about a week. Yeah - a week by myself....mmmmm, sounds good!

At any rate, since I'm not able to skip off on a holiday, post haste, I'm taking a little mental vacation this evening. I'll just imagine myself there, enjoying the scenery, reading, napping, taking long walks. I'll bet there's tea and scones. At Papa Stour's Bolt Hole. In the Scottish Highlands. No, I don't know what a "Bolt Hole" is - perhaps a place you 'bolt' to when you need a break? Don't make me think hard!

If you want to have a look/get more info:

www.papastour.com/holiday-cottage.php

Porkarito Pirate

Once upon a time a girl of about 4 years of age went on a trip, and for a souvenir she brought home a pirate treasure map along with a pirate and his chest. Since this girl was only 4 she had trouble pronouncing certain words. When the girl named her pirate she mispronounced Puerto Rico (from whence she decided pirates came) and called him Porkarito Pirate. Thus began the illustrious adventures of Porkarito Pirate and his multitude of pirate friends, sailing ships and other piratey playthings.

That 4 year old girl is now 12 and not too long ago, on a boring summer day, she came across a bunch of magnets and got busy. The air-conditioner intake is in our hallway and provides a nice flat, metal surface that was perfect for her creative inspiration. What she created was something akin to a village of cliff-dwelling pirates, which is what you see here on this series of platforms supported by magnets. Moving from top to bottom (along the 'stepping stone' magnets) we have:

A pirate roasting a fish over a campfire; a viking pirate and his keg with a tropical drink on it; a pirate with a carafe and some potted flowers;(who knew pirates are into flowers?) a platform piled with booty; and a tiki statue with a dog sitting next to it - this is the 'grand entry'. Apparently cliff dwelling pirates like a grand entry.

What you don't see is the series of ships and pirates down on the hallway floor. Many an ocean full of island villages have been built here, complete with markets for food and animals in pens. Porkarito Pirate has been a great creative inspiration. Which leads us to this monkey.

So what has this monkey got to do with anything? Well, a couple years ago I redecorated the girls bathroom. The shower curtain has a rich, maroon/gold paisley pattern, the towels are in maroon and gold and the wall decor includes a carved wooden panel - sort of a Morrocan feeling. My daughter's describe the style as Porkaritan Splendor. But our splendorous bathroom was lacking for something and one day I found just the thing: this monkey. I brought him home, put him on this shelf, and he became known as The Porkaritan Splendor Monkey. Ever since then the entire bathroom is now referred to as The Porkaritan Splendor Bath. Who would have thought that a few dollars worth of plastic pirate stuff would create such a lasting legacy?

By the way, the boob word of the day is: headlights. Are yours high beams or low beams? I wonder what it means to have halogen? And what about fog lights? Are foglights an extra, smaller set?