Soundsations

The Christmas season started yesterday for me with a trip to the old folks home :o) Not to play and not to take up residence,  but to listen to my friend, Arlene, sing. She belongs to a women's choir from our community who love to sing as much as my band buddies like to play, so Len and I went to listen. We sat waaaaay in the back, that way Len wouldn't have to walk too far, and I did manage to give you a good shot of how the woman in front of me  braids and scrunchies her hair, but I also got a fairly good recording of this song too....one of my favorites :o)

Black Friday

Black Friday is appropriately named as far as I am concerned. Not because the stores hope to see their balance sheets  go from red to black, but because it's a real downer for those who, after spending a special day with family and friends,  have to go to work at midnight and take on crazed mobs. I'm not the only one that feels this way.
And  something completely different that most of us would probably love to do...or would have in our youth :o)

Thanksgiving past

Not sure what year this was taken, possibly 1959, but again, I love the way mom always set a nice table.

Happy Thanksgiving

Whether your family is the one on the left or the one on the right, may you all have as much fun as they are having. Happy Thanksgiving.
And, just for fun :o)

Rosedale School

Mrs. Cheney was the combined first and second grade teacher at the two room school house in Rosedale and those of us in her class were very lucky as she was so very kind and patient. I went to school in Gig Harbor in the first grade, but because of crowding, those of us who lived in Purdy were switched to Rosedale the next year. Because I didn't attend the year this picture was taken, you wont see my smiling face. but, you will see someone who has built a business at which you might have enjoyed a dinner with friends. The Crab Pot restaurant in Bellevue is his and when I heard he was in the restaurant business, I wasn't surprised because when we were in high school he was the one selling hotdogs at the football games and he was the one figuring out all kinds of ways to sell things. In the picture, he is the tall boy, on the top level, far right, Harold Griffith, super salesman.

Floor of flour

If you're in need of a good laugh today, give this video a watch. As I sat and watched little Jack try to explain with his limited vocabulary, my mind was trying to figure out how one would go about cleaning up the mess. I think the first thing one would do is pop the kids in the tub..and make sure there is no shampoo anywhere near.

Tuna

No wonder people get upset with government........Here is an article from The Anchoress' blog....

I understand why the rule exists, but really, this story just feels wrong:

This fish story may lack the epic qualities of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 classic“The Old Man and the Sea,” but for New Bedford’s Carlos Rafael, the outcome was about the same. In both cases, despite capturing and bringing home a huge fish, powerful circum­stances conspired to deprive the luckless fishermen of a potentially huge reward.
Boat owner Rafael, a big player in the local fishing industry, was elated when the crew of his 76-foot steel dragger Apollo told him they had unwittingly captured a giant bluefin tuna in their trawl gear while fishing offshore.
“They didn’t catch that fish on the bottom,” he said. “They probably got it in the mid­water when they were setting out and it just got corralled in the net. That only happens once in a blue moon.”
Rafael, who in the last four years purchased 15 tuna permits for his groundfish boats to cover just such an eventuality, imme­diately called a bluefin tuna hot line maintained by fishery regu­lators to report the catch.
When the weather offshore deteriorated, the Apollo decided to seek shelter in Provincetown Harbor on Nov. 12. Rafael imme­diately set off in a truck to meet the boat.
“I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat,”he said.“It was a beautiful fish.”
It was also a lucrative one. Highly prized in Japan, a 754­pound specimen fetched a record price at a Tokyo auction in January this year, selling for nearly $396,000. These fish can grow to enormous size. The world record for a bluefin, which has stood since 1979, was set when a 1,496-pound specimen was caught off Nova Scotia.
However, when Rafael rolled down the dock in Provincetown there was an unexpected and unwelcome development. The authorities were waiting. Agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement informed him they were confis­cating his fish — all 881 pounds of it.
Even though the catch had been declared and the boat had a tuna permit, the rules do not allow fishermen to catch bluefin tuna in a net.
“They said it had to be caught with rod and reel,” a frustrated Rafael said.“We didn’t try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn’t catch it with a net.”

So, one way or another, the fish is dead. Apparently whatever the fed sells it for will be held in suspense until the situation is resolved. One assumes that someone buying numerous licenses to fish Tuna would be responsible to understand what the license covers, so I have no doubt it will resolve in the fed’s favor.
Still, it just seems like the feel-good stories are few and far between.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/