Ahhh.
The music of Lerner and Loewe.
Remember? “My Fair Lady“?
Can ya hear it? (hint – click on my song of the week and you will)
Well, this is my version…not music to the ears, but hopefully music to the eyes.
~♥~Happy Fall my friends ~♥~
(and as always…a click on the image for the full view)
If both ‘My Fair Camera’ and the weather continue cooperating…tomorrow I may venture out and end up…
Keep an eye out will ya?
I take cream and a touch of sugar in my coffee…
♥
Thunder claps.
The only alarm that ever could, wake me.
I could sleep (provided I am sleeping) through the most annoying man-made alarm out there.
But give me a good clap of thunder and awake, out of bed, and standing at the wide-open front door I am.
In a flash.
One thing I do not do is waste a good thunderstorm.
Even as we speak, the noise rolls across the sky; it sounds miles away before it fades.
Lightning on its tail.
One, two, three…you know the drill.
I don’t question this fascination and love (yup, love) of the great God of Thunder.
It just is, and always has been.
A family tradition even.
As a teen, I recall being on the front porch with my father and one of my brothers during a storm.
It was e l e c t r i c !!
The porch was long, flat, ground level, and concrete.
The rain was coming so fast the ground could not absorb it fast enough.
The puddles began to form on this electrifying porch, during this electrifying storm.
One sound I recall hearing on that particular evening was a clap so loud I had to cover my ears while I shouted my delight.
The sound that followed was as loud a boom as any you’d hear on the fourth of July.
Drawing not the oohs and ahs of appreciation. No.
But screams, yelps, and moans of the three of us on the porch.
The only thing louder was primal screams as my Mother ran out of the house onto the porch seconds after the sound that woke the devil and the moans that followed.
Some noise came from the direction where my brother had sat in an aluminum lawn chair.
A chair which now lay on its side, empty, in the puddle that had formed under it.
He was now flat on the ground, still shocked.
The other chair’s occupant, my Father, came out of his like his ass was on fire, releasing a sound no one would mistake as an exclamation of happy surprise.
For myself, I danced the dance of the mouse in an electrified cage, as I was standing barefoot in my puddle of what began strictly as rain before I added my own brand of yellow dew drops.
The porch had become my own Skinner Box.
The humming inside my head so loud it’s a wonder I heard anything else at all.
Confused, being pushed and pulled, seemingly in all directions at once, we finally managed to get inside.
A lesson – One for a lifetime.
Go inside, close the windows, pull the shades, hide under the bed during a thunderstorm?
Hell no…
Don’t use aluminum lawn chairs or stand in puddles barefooted on a flat, ground level, concrete porch of course!
Now please excuse while I return to the chair I’ve placed center stage to enjoy the show.
A chair made of wood, on dry ground, INSIDE.
😯
Do you believe?
Big question.
There are signs everywhere.
Do you see them as such?
If you do, then you must believe they are signs.
But who determines what the signs mean?
To each his own?
Are there rules?
Some easy ones:
The palm of your hand itches:
You are coming into money.
You are going to have company.
I’ve heard both explanations and neither has been the case for me.
So far, it Just means my damned hand itches.
Ringing in your ears:
Someone is talking about you.
Oh yeah? Not anything to do with that 44 magnum you used for target practice, because it’s very important you know how to blow that poor tree to smithereens?
A black cat crosses your path:
Bad luck.
Well shit, I can have bad luck without a furry black puss within a 1,000 miles…so what gives?
But I’m guessing you get the idea.
Okay, so what of symbols?
Who decided what these ‘designs’ are symbols for?
Can we choose our own?
Can I say I like roosters so I’ve decided they are a symbol of love or happiness or well-being?
No…
The Greeks decided the cock was the symbol of victory over the night.
Hell…if anything I’d say he’s more a sign of him fucking up your morning (no pun intended)
But that’s just me.
We wear moons and stars in our ears…you wear one, he/she will wear one.
The universe is yours or maybe you see the moon/stars in each others eyes?
More like, I’m a cheap bastard and I’m only buying one set, you wear one and I’ll wear one. How about that?
We wear others too…either ones we’ve chosen, or others have chosen for us.
A bracelet with a circle:
Meant to symbolize the circle of life?
Karma?
Well, besides being ever thankful for the heartfelt gift and the generosity behind the giving…I can honestly say the one that’s been on my wrist for months now, has pretty much been my symbol for life going round in circles.
And personally, that fits.
Or hey…what of a piece with an infinity ∞ symbol:
Always and Forever?
Hell to the No…not in my experience and don’t believe it likely is for many.
We wear rings on our fingers…left hand, third finger:
Til death?
It could mean death, certainly…see below
Symbol of fidelity?
Sure, but only if you remember to take it off first, or leave it on and face the possibility of death…unnatural death that is.
The beginning and the end with just one?
Sure…one at a time.
You kiss someone and you hear thunder claps and see lighting strikes:
That person is The One; your Soul-mate.
Um, listen up folks…it means get your ass inside dummies.
I don’t mean to be judgmental. I do believe in live and let live and to each his own.
But…
I also believe there are times when signs and symbols get in the way of seeing life for what it is; seeing things for what they are.
Not hoodoo voodoo.
Not some preordained circumstance formed in the heavens waiting for the right moment to ‘come out’.
No…I think looking for / believing in / abiding by signs is too easy a trap to fall into for those looking for reasons for and meanings to, the things that occur in our lives, good or bad.
Shit happens…now there’s a sign I can live with
And I also think attributing symbolic meaning to the shapes and designs of life, can lead you down a path of missing the forest for the trees.
Of letting someone else do the thinking for you.
For me, I’d rather see something for what it is, appreciate it’s natural (or man-made) beauty in its own light, for its own sake, than believe it means something someone I’ve never met…will never meet…and believe knows enough nothing of my life to have a say about what I should think of it.
At least, that’s me now. No signs – No symbols – Just life
Just a mind wandering and pondering on a Saturday afternoon.
Um, helloooooooo Saturday. 🙂
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
~♥~
Three years ago today…March 1, 2013, I re-entered the blogosphere to share my thoughts and speak my mind on life’s many shades of gray. Having survived the hugely regretful menopause fueled meltdown deletion of my original blogonality, Help Me Rhonda, I’m more than happy I made the decision to try again.
I am also very thankful for the old friends that found the new me, and thrilled with the new friends I’ve made since. So, I’d like to celebrate this birthday with a stroll down memory lane by revisiting 50 Shades of Gray Hair’s inaugural post…as well as thanking you all once again, for adding your own hues to my 50 shades, and leaving your heart-prints all over mine.
And I just have to point out…the first sentence of the 4th paragraph? The one I’ve highlighted in red? Oy…prophetic or WHAT!! 🙂
This first official post has me feeling like I’m coming back to Junior High after summer break. But instead of that obligatory ‘How I Spent My Summer Vacation’ essay, I’m standing in front of the class reading mine entitled…
‘Where Did My Life Go and What the Hell is THAT?’
Though I am no longer the pimply-faced teen, sweating the small stuff…I AM a wrinkly-faced grandmother sweating with the flashes and spending way too much time looking for those things I knew I needed, at the time I needed them but forgot I had…and when I did find them, I couldn’t remember why I needed them in the first place.
Ha…I’m not really wrinkly-faced; it’s more of a wrinkly feeeeling. The memory thing is spot on though, as are the questions about where life went and what new and wonderful surprises will pop up, slide down, fall off, or turn colors, each and every morning.
[Not to mention what happens AFTER I leave the bathroom…yikes]
Those first steps of the day can make it or break your leg...if you’re not paying attention. Life’s stairs are steep; you need to open your eyes, clear your head, hang onto the handrail, and take one step at a time. That isn’t to say you can’t ride the rail once in a while…hop on the banister and whoop your way down…
…Just watch out for the splinters along the way. They are a pain in the ass!
No one said it would be easy. At least no one said it to me. Of course, no one said it would be this hard either. But, I have realized, it’s only as hard as we make it. Which, I believe, is why I’m here…again.
Life can be hard, but never as hard as when you turn inward thinking to shelter and protect, only to wake up and realize you are just adding more and more wrinkles. Those ‘oldest woman on earth’ kind of wrinkles; ‘my wrinkles have wrinkles’ kind of wrinkles; ‘when I stand I sound like an accordion‘ kind of wrinkles.
Old.
I’m talking feeling old!
And I’m too young to feel this old.
Too young to BE this old.
So, I’m starting by ironing and straightening out some of those internal wrinkles. Getting up and out of my life’s laundry basket and getting to work. (Don’t worry, I won’t ever use that term again! And if any of you remember anything about my old blog…you may recall I HATE IRONING!)
Each day – a new stretch
Each stretch – one less wrinkle.
And I know I’m not doing it alone.
That’s the key. I’m letting those that love me take one end while I take the other…and together we’ll pull some of those suckers out.
And for the one’s that can’t be pulled…I have a turbo charged steam iron.
Yes, I do.
It’s called ‘The Future”!
And when the time comes to let the roots show, I’ll be ready.
But for now it’s…
Rhonda-Van-Wrinkle time to wake up!
Morning everybody…what Shade are we today?
50 Shades of Gray Hair 
You must be logged in to post a comment.