Skipping right along to.....

We're at the Lake

Handsprings! OK...I'm just too old for handsprings but I'm doing them mentally. I did unpack most of our stuff. It's amazing how quickly one can remove the three carloads of stuff that is crammed into one car. It took so long to cram it all in properly on that day we left Arizona. Watching my husband and my son unpack the car was kind of like watching Mary Poppins with her famous carpetbag. If you never saw Mary Poppins, you'll just have to go rent it so you can understand that last statement. It's a Disney movie. I own it. I own a lot of old movies.

I was going to post a blog when we got here to "The Lake" but no-one would let me near a computer. I spent my evening UNPACKING and rediscovering the place. Every year it's the same. I have to remember where I put things before I can unpack and put things away. If you don't know where to put things away it takes a lot longer to unpack. It's hard to put away the silverware if you can't remember where the silverware is kept. I label the lightswitches because every year I'd forget which light switches turned on which lights. Labeling the lightswitches was my Dad's idea. I picked it up from him. It came about because the electrician that wired his place was amazingly creative. The lightswitches don't always make a whole lot of sense. The same guy wired my place. There is no way that I could possibly remember which switch belonged to which light if I didn't label them. I've labeled the switches in Arizona too. I like my little Casio label maker. We've become good friends. I don't label my drawers. While I figured that people would politely ignore my light switch labels, I think I would have gotten a few strange looks if I labeled the drawers. I did label the wastebaskets in the wastebasket cabinet but people still ask me which wastebasket is for recycling and which on is for garbage. I kindly tell them that the one in the back is for recycling and the one in the front is for garbage. Then I (trying not to sound superior and smug) tell them that the wastebaskets are labeled. "Oh, What a good idea!", they exclaim. I've discovered that not many people read labels. That's OK. I do. The labels are for me. There's enough confusion created when I'm unpacking . Someone asked me recently if I was obsessive, compulsive by any chance. Yup! Sure am! It's better then telling everyone that I'm getting old and forgetful. Labeling is my way of removing just a little bit of the confusion which inhabits my world.

Cliche of the Day

Hunky Dory. All right, safe, cozy. You can find several explanations for this one, inclucing the fact that a major street in Yokohama, often frequented by American sailors, was Hunchodori. "Hunk", however, is an old word, derived from the Dutch honk, meaning goal. Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms defined it in 1860: "To be all hunk is to have reached the goal...to be all safe." John Farmer's Americanisms(1889) had the whole expression, saying "Both these strange words stand for superlatively good."