My entertainment

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Thursday, May 1, 2008

It's a living breathing thing!

A salamander was running alongside the top of my fence on my patio. I believe I sat about half an hour watching this tiny specimen creature, one of God's creations.

A little red thing would energize every couple of seconds from his throat area and I didn't know if it was his breathing, catching bugs, or a sexual thing.

One thing I do know! It reminded me of how a dynasaur must have looked a billion years ago except a lot diminished in size.

Is this part of the reptile family? Is it a bug? Whatever, he was so cute that I would never dare deliberately take him out of this world. Some people refer to them as geicos...others as lizards.

Little children when they visit from the north want to take them home with them...but I explain that it's a tropical creature.

Some people meditate...others do yoga. Me...I watch salamanders.

We need the immigrants!!

hildag3@gmail.com... I like your visits...come again soon!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

We need the immigrants!!

I wondering what America thinks of the really hard workers who do very manual labor....

For those of us living in villas and condominiums, the immigrant men keep our lawns well manicured.

I was watching from out my back window...backbreaking work....never stopping for a second even though they're not being watched.

Raking..raking...making a pile then putting all the debris into a large cylinder container...to be emptied into their trucks.

I'm sure they don't make much money...not even sure if they have hospitalization or social security.

They are willing to live in incredibly substandard housing — witness all the garage renovations found in foreclosure housing. They are willing to live with others in a room in houses full of strangers. For these reasons, for many employers, they are more desirable as employees

They're very poor people....but very hard working.   Wonder if they find contentment when they fill up the big dump truck....to be moved on to the next location.

Are they thinking about their families back in Haiti...and of the money that they'll be sending home.

Rice and beans...one's a starch and the other a legume.   Is their enough nourishment so that they can labor another day.

I wonder what all the fuss is about ... immigration!   They're doing us a favor!

Soon hurricane season will be scaring us!

Lots of people claim they wouldn't want to make Florida their retirement home because of our hurricanes.

They are awful...and I've lived through a couple...and it wasn't pleasant.    Actually scary to say the least, especially when  you've lost your power for 8 days...and the nights are sooooo very dark.

There's a song I used to sing to myself during these periods...."Hello Darkness My Old Friend--I've Come to Be With You Again".

Anyway, High Point, my development discovered the way to prevent the horrors of hurricanes....they bought a generator....and I pass this everyday on my way to our pool, and it's the best un-used thing we own.

The batteries are patiently waiting...my propane grill is properly full...my hurricane lamps fit nicely on my end table....and the battery fan is hidden safely away in a closet.

So....I'll use my cans of tuna and my salmon..spread my peanut  butter on some of the bread that I've frozen away...for when it  was needed.

Mother's Day 2015

A queen size bed welcomes my body every night,  allowing me to think about what's happened in my life , luring me into blissful unconsciousnesss, my head nesting comfortably sinking into  familiar pillows allowing me to cuddle to myself.   Not to the very edge of the bed permitting me the luxury of not falling, but almost in the middle.   Many of my friends find themselves on the floor.
  

Waking up remembering  that today is Mother's Day and Jeff and Donna were coming over and we were spending the day together.


Restaurants are out for us on this day, notoriously being known as the busiest day of the year letting children and husbands entertain the  joy of releasing mom from cooking and taking her 'out'.


Every eating place is so busy and waitresses are impatient with the demands thrust upon them.


Nope...Jeff and Donna were bringing food to me, served by them, in my dining room...and it was such a feast...a little bit of this...and some of that.   I loved it!


For desert I had made baked apples...the only ingredient I had in the house for this specialty...so deciding this is how receipes are created ...searching my pantry I discovered a can of whole cranberries and a package of roasted, toasted, sunflower seeds.    I had lots of cinnamon and added a tad of sweet whipped butter.


My oven which I rarely use these days was gladly accepting the casserole of this sweet smelling fruit.


After our tummies were full  my grown up children led me into my bedroom where my TV and computer are....and with magic of  WI FI, converted the pictures I had on my Piccasso in my computer, transferring  them to my 52 inch TV.....all in beautiful living color for me to enjoy sitting in my comfortable recliner.


I had such a good time and I'm so grateful for my family.

I wouldn't be able to go to bed in good conscience if I did not publish this piece on the origin of where we got the piano.   It happens to be my favorite instrument, and used as a solo, it's absolutely soul searching.  Before TV and radio, most middle class homes owned a piano because that was their entertainment, and if someone could sing with accent sweet, it made for an evening of sheer enjoyment......so here we go...

Who invented the piano? And why was he forgotten?

    

One of Cristofori's early pianos. Dea/L.De Masi/Getty Images

   

The piano is one of those inventions that's hard to think of as an invention because it's just always been ... there. When you do think about someone actually inventing it, it's hard not to wonder: why haven't I heard of this person before? And why isn't his name plastered on every piano in existence?
Bartolomeo Cristofori, who celebrates his 360th birthday today, is generally credited with being the sole inventor of the piano. The fact that his name is largely forgotten is a reflection of his times, when a genius could be just another employee.

The piano eventually beat the harpsichord by solving its biggest problem

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A 1750 drawing shows a man playing a harpsichord.

The first official record of the piano appears in 1700, though Cristofori may have been working on it for a couple of years before then. Cristofori's most recognizable piano dates later, to 1720. But more important than the date was the step forward the piano represented.
At the time, the harpsichord was the dominant keyboard instrument. The biggest problem was that it couldn't play notes with differing degrees of softness. To play a note, a tiny device called a plectrum plucked a string, and the note played. There wasn't an easy way to modify the sound and give it additional nuance. Though there were some hacks (and other instruments) that tried to fix the problem, they never worked well enough.
The piano was clearly indebted to the harpsichord — in early records, Cristofori called the piano an Arpicembalo, which means "harp-harpsichord," and he frequently worked on and invented other harpsichord-like devices. But the piano took one big step beyond that instrument by using a hammer instead of plucking a string. That allowed for a better modulation of volume thanks to its hammers and dampers, which could more artfully manipulate sound than the plucking motion of the harpsichord.
The earliest surviving piano is from 1721, and it's clear it was a transitional instrument: there are hints of the harpsichord in its sound. As the Metropolitan Museum of Art notes, it had a narrower range, thinner strings, and harder hammers than modern pianos, which are part of the reason it sounds a bit like a harpsichord.
But even then, it's obvious why the piano changed music forever:

Soon, the piano got its name. Cristofori also referred to his invention as "un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte" (a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud), and over time it was shortened to piano forte, and eventually just piano.
It's rare that such an old instrument has so clear an inventor and is so obviously a revelation. So why do we have to be reminded of Bartolomeo Cristofori's name? After all, there must be a reason pianos aren't called Cristoforis.