Back To The Beginning

For several weeks I have been dealing with some pretty severe pain issues and have relied on banked blog articles to post. I always have at least two book reports on hand and I try to have a couple other pieces as well. For today I didn’t have anything, so I decided to go way back to when I first starting blogging on MySpace. (Anybody remember that? Remember Tom?) So into the files I went. I used to blog a lot more often than I do now, and the blogs were a lot shorter. For Bruce, Sara and Tracy (my original readers) forgive me for the re-run. But hey, it’s summer. That’s when re-runs used to take place…

Current comments will be in parenthesis.

“And So It Begins” May 23, 2006

I have no idea what I’m doing, so I’ll just plunge right in. I have various and sundry opinions on a lot of things, and from time to time as the whim hits me, I will share. Right now, my opinion is that chocolate should be part of every day. The end. (I still have this opinion, BTW.)

(The following was written about 5 months after I’d had my left knee replaced)

“Knee Deep In Dreams” May 24, 2006

Last night I dreamed I could fully bend my left knee. I was so amazed by this that I was showing everyone: “Look! I can bend my knee in half!” I still couldn’t bend it much while walking or doing stairs, but man, I could just bend it for the sake of bending it. I’ve had several dreams of that nature since the operation: having full use of the leg. I’ve even had running dreams where I’m running for the pure joy of being able to do it. I’ve NEVER enjoyed running! Unless it was running toward chocolate! ;-)

“Africa” May 24, 2006

Greeting Earthlings! (??) I just finished a cute little book, “A Lurk of Leopards” by Betty Dinneen. I got it several years ago at a surplus book sale at the library and finally got around to reading it. It’s from the juvenile section, but sometimes those are the best. It’s a fictional account of life in Africa in the late 50’s for a young British girl and her family. I’ve always loved stories about Africa. I never missed an episode of Daktari. I admit a big part of that was watching Yale Summers. (BIG crush!) I still enjoy the Mowgli and Jungle Book stories. After watching the movie Out of Africa, I became very interested in Isak Dinesen and her writings. I read a couple of biographies on her and then read the two autobiographical books on which the movie was based. I enjoyed those books much more than the movie, except for the wonderful scenery in the movie. Some more favorite Africa movies: Living Free; The Gods Must Be Crazy 1+2; The African Queen; various Tarzan movies. Another book I loved was The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley. (Her autobiography) And probably the best of all for African fiction: H. Rider Haggard. Which brings to mind the wonderful Hallmark TV version of King Solomon’s Mines starring Patrick Swayze. Yum! Of course, all these dealt with an Africa that no longer exists. I still love it when we have missionaries speak at church about their work over there, but it’s pretty sad stuff sometimes.