Wandering
I wasn’t much in the mood for anything today. I needed to write a report, I needed to correct papers, I needed to plan those stupid reading lessons.
I did none of that.
What did I do?
I went to the bookstore, I went to the craft store, and I just wandered around like a happy mindless moron.
I didn’t even buy anything, but I managed to waste the entire afternoon. It was odd that nothing appealed to me. I couldn’t find a thing at the craft store that I wanted. I was actually looking for a quilling tool, but they didn’t have any.
I decided I needed this tool because I saw a project in a stamping magazine that I decided I had to try. Of course I’d buy the tool, but then not get to the project for months and months.
That’s pretty much my M.O.
But they didn’t have the tool, so that is a moot point. I’ll find it eventually I’m sure. By the time I do I’ll forget what the project was.
Nothing called to me at the bookstore, either. It might be because of the twelve-zillion unread novels I have stacked up around here. If I were really creative I’d build a headboard and a nightstand out of them. Then the bedroom wouldn’t look so cluttered.
I just can’t find anything to hold my interest. I’m thinking that what I need to do is reread an old favorite that makes me smile.
Maybe once I feel rested enough to actually stay awake to read I’ll get going again.
I picked up a few groceries and came home to surf the net. I’ve decided that I want to make a tape of songs about New York City. So I went on a quest for titles. It turns out that much of what I want is considered to be Cabaret or jazz, so I ended up ordering one CD by Mel Torme and another by Bobby Short. I’m not a big Mel Torme fan, but I like Bobby Short, he reminds me of the smart set who frequent jazz clubs in New York.
Something I want to be part of.
Sigh.
I hope the shipment arrives before vacation next week. It’ll give me something to listen to while I clean.
I’ve discovered a radio commercial that makes me crazy. It’s advertising a crematorium that’s located on Cape Cod. I think it’s just so morbid.
I know death comes to us all, but do we really need to listen to ads about what our options are when we need to get rid of the body?
It makes me just want to scream every time I hear it.
Listening to: Broadway Love Songs
Reading: Call It Destiny Jayne Ann Krentz
Weather: 40, sunny
Trivia:When was the parachute first used?
An umbrella-like device for slowing the descent of a body (or any other object) falling through the atmosphere, the parachute was originally conceived as a way for pilots to safely escape from a disabled aircraft. Interestingly, the parachute was invented at virtually the same time as the balloon but independently of it. The principle behind a parachute had been recognized by several writers, including Leonardo da Vinci, but the first man to demonstrate it in action was Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand; in 1783 he jumped from a tree with two parasols. Just a few years later, other French aeronauts jumped from balloons. But it was Andre-Jacques Garnerin who was the first to use a parachute regularly, making a number of exhibition jumps, including one of about 8,000 feet in England in 1802. The earliest parachutes were made of canvas but, later, lighter-weight silk was employed. The first successful descent from an airplane was by Capt. Albert Berry of the U.S. Army in 1912. But in World War I, although parachutes were used with great frequency by observers escaping from captive observation balloons, they were considered impractical for airplanes, and were only introduced in the last stage of the war. In World War II, however, parachutes really came into their own as a tool of combat, including landing special "airborne" troops for combat, supplying isolated or inaccessible troops, infiltrating agents into enemy territory, and stabilizing and retarding airborne weapons. Additionally, with the increased speed of aircraft the ejection seat was first developed, which shot the pilot free of the disabled aircraft and automatically opened his chute after he had cleared it. By the 1950s sport parachuting, or sky diving, had become an international athletic event. A new component, the sleeve, made sport parachutes, or parafoils, exceptionally safe by drawing the parachutist upright and by making entanglement in the chute impossible. Today, most airborne troops are deployed by helicopter, but the parachute is still an important military tool, and sky diving still enjoys great popularity.
Cool word:sutler [n. SUT-lur]
In the days when armies traveled on foot, there were merchants called sutlers who would follow along behind them hawking food and supplies. The encampment behind the lines where the sutlers worked was called a suttlery. Today, armies travel in high-tech motorized vehicles and bring along their own provisions, so the sutlers are gone. The opportunistic, greedy sutlers were generally reviled among the troops. They often inflated prices as much as possible, and sold very poor quality food, liquor, and supplies. The soldiers' low view of the sutlers was reflected in the origin of the word, Dutch soeteler (one who performs base, menial work). That word was originally based on German sudeln (to make filthy).
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Horoscope
Aries
Your personal life should be zooming along at a rapid pace right now, with interesting developments popping up almost everyday. You'll probably be perfectly happy to make sacrifices for someone you truly love. But you could be willing to put a dull, predictable relationship on hold in order to focus on an exciting, new opportunity.