Thursday, October 14, 2010

SCURRYING AROUND LIKE A MOUSE IN A MAZE

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SOMEWHERE IN THIS AUTUMN JUNGLE IS OUR HOUSE

Well, it's going to be a short blog so I'll throw in a longer Groaner at the end.  Spent the majority of my day in the mobility van scurrying around like a little mouse in a maze.  My travels took me in & around the town of Exeter Ontario today.  Aside from accidentally stepping on a man's long oxygen hose while wheeling him out of a local hospital & pulling the tube out of his nose, my day went pretty well.  It was late afternoon by the time I got home & I had to turn right around & head for Clinton Ontario to attend the annual driver's meeting for the company I drive for.  It's 9 P.M. now & I have just got home.

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COULD THIS GRASSY SOUTHERN ONTARIO HILLSIDE BE THE LONG LOST RESTING PLACE OF....NOAH'S ARK??

Only thing I managed to get written today was early this morning & it was about Kelly's Daughter.

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ONLY INHABITANTS AT THE BEACH WEDNESDAY WERE THESE CANADA GEESE

Kelly’s youngest daughter Rebecca lives in the tiny country of Andorra & this week she made it onto CNN’s iReport with an article sent in about Andorra.  You can read about Rebecca’s article here at CNN iREPORT Rebecca has spent time in Japan, India, Spain & England and her Andorra articles are here..... BECCAFLO  Kelly also has 2 twin daughters & two Son’s.  I have a Jeep.

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GROANER'S CORNER:(  And for anyone who thinks the English language is easy to learn, check this out.......... 

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce .
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ...
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France .. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?


How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

 
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this ..
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is
'UP.'
It's easy to understand
UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed
UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP ... When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things
UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry
UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it
UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

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9 comments:

  1. Well Al, we know how your day was, but I can't help wondering about the old guy whose oxygen tube you stepped on (accidentally) and pulled it out of his nose?

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  2. So, did the guy quit breathing or suffer whiplash? Those things usually have a strap around the patients head, don't they?? Sadly, that made me laugh for a full five minutes! :(

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  3. Bruce wanted to know if you had to wheel the old guy back in for treatment? I swear this one had me really laughing, Al.

    Glad you got to enjoy those meals at McDonald's. :)

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  4. Really enjoyed Rebecca's CNNiReport on Andorra. What a gorgeous and interesting country. Glad I had the chance to "see a bit of it" through her photos.

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  5. At least th O2 bottled didn't go crashing down on his toe, could have been worse I guess, As long as he took it well, your ok. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..

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  6. Wow~thanks for sharing Rebecca's report--I'd never heard about Andorra.

    The groaner is awesome, maybe that's why I've always had trouble with English!

    Donna

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  7. For English language foible lovers like us, that was the best groaner ever! Now I have to match it UP with some other stuff I have saved.

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  8. I laughed outloud about the oxygen ...that sounds like something I would do...And, yes, you have a jeep...but a really NIIIIIIICE JEEP!!!

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  9. Kelly has lots to be proud of. Loved the groaner's corner today. The up thing is really amazing. Stay safe.

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