It's The Lord's Day. The 2nd Sunday of Easter. Did you know there are 7 Sundays of Easter? Fifty days passed from Jesus' resurrection to His ascension. Pentecost meaning fiftieth day. And on Pentecost the Holy Spirit 'fell' on the believers. Thanks be to God!
I'm titling this blog, Gratitude and intending to recall stuff for which I'm thankful. Not only the obvious but some things I take for granted. This may become introspective so feel free to X this out and go read a book or mow the lawn. C U Later?
I'm thankful for music. I'm told that as a 2 or 3 year old I stood in the car on the trip from Nashua to Richland and would sing and clap to 'Deep in the Heart of Texas." The stars at night, Are big and bright. Clap, clap, clap,clap; Deep in the Heart of Texas. The prairie sky is wide and high, Clap clap clap clap, Deep in the heart of Texas. There was a player piano in the Mortensen's Cafe in Richland where mom worked that I loved to have them load up with a roll so I could flip the play switch and watch and listen to the keys playing all by themselves that great ragtime special, Alexander's Rag time Band. Someone must have pushed on the pedals for me too. Later I was taught, and I use that term loosely but lovingly, for these were not formal teaching experiences. To continue, I'm about 9 or 10 now and mom and I live in the building she bought to house the Post office and where she and husband George, 1952, later lived and ran Squires Grocery. But while it was just mom and me and the P.O. folks would come in and wait for their mail to be sorted. It came on the train then and altho it's 'no way to run a railraod' the train was often not on time, but when it tooted everyone waited a while and then 'came on down' to get the mail.' Our living quarters were behind a flimsy 3/8 inch plywood partition 8 ft, high and the ceilings were 10 or 12 ft. high. People liked to come back there for a visit. It was visually private but not audibly so much. My first thanx goes to Bob Collins,a friend of mom's, for bringing the piano, a Kimball with an 1895 tuning date inside, to our house to store it but then never took it along when he left. Second... Thank you Marie Settera for coming on back and teaching me to play the chords in the key of C. Her dad played the fiddle and she was good at 'by ear" playing. She was in eighth grade then. The third thank you is for Kate Sodnak. Kate in my eyes was an old lady then. She'd had polio years before and was left with one leg much shorter than the other causing her to walk with a pronounced limp. She had small feet that were no doubt painful, and wore ladylike oxford type lace up shoes with one having been built up in an attempt to account for the problem. Kate could play the keyboard accordian. Hers was a small one and she later gave it to Tootsie. She and husband Oscar had known Tootsie since she was a baby, having lived near the Bondy's out on the farm. Kate would sit down at our piano and play "old time waltzes." The one I learned from her was titled in Norske, 'Levitiefinnsskogen.' The spelling is phonetical and is sposed to mean, Life in the Finn Woods. According to Garrison Keilor I learned years later that the Norwegian fellas were lumberjacks over in Finland and that song was about their escapades while there. Tootsie played it too and some of the older fellows would put a quarter down on the piano and have us play that waltz for them.. That was the extent of out repertoire. Thank you number 4...music class in school... we learned the treble clef was FACE on the spaces and
Every Good Boy Does Fine on the lines of the treble staff. Number 5 thanks goes to late night radio over Del Rio Texas,I heard the advertisement for the Dean Ross Piano Course for only $2.98 I ordered it and voila... octave chord, chord, for 3/4 time and octave chord.octave,chord for 4/4 time. Also a color coded chord selector that fit over an octave in the bass clef and that's pretty much it for the education that's produced so much joy in my life. A few old hymnbooks of mom's and stacks of sheet music belonging to Mrs.Tess Omundson whose husband was my 6th grade teacher, were my practise books. On the stage of the gym in the basement of the Richland schoolhouse on the hill,(it's still there) I plinked my way throught recesses and noon hours on the piano. Recesses 10;30 til 10:45 2:30 to 2:45 Noon hour was an hour, 12 til 1:00. We ate at home. School from 9: to 4:00. Number 6 will be for cousin Elinor and how could I have forgotten her teaching me the synchopated rhythm of Mr. Whatchacallit whatcha doin' tonight? With both hands yet! It's better known as "In The Mood." Then there's the all time school kid favorite of Doctor, Doctor Can You Tell?
I did take one quarter of lessons my second year of college at Havre but by then my bad habits were pretty much ingrained. Later when Vicki took lessons in about'79 or 80 from Mrs. Alvin Kliewer, Elizabeth, in Lustre I attempted some again and I suppose the most that can be said is that. every little bit helps. So with heartfelt gratitude I say thank you Dean, Tess, Elinor and Elizabeth, and the very patient lady at Northern Mt college circa 1956/7 who's name I disremember. Because of you I now enjoy playing for chuch services each Sunday for our little congregation here in Nashua Mt, Grace Lutheran LCMC. How do we ever know or realize when we've been blessed to be a blessing? Many thousand thanks, Munga tussen takke. :) And heaven and nature sing!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Okkel Dokkel as my Uncle Warren used to say, Second blog comin up. Roses are red, sunflowers are gold, stick your nose outside, and it'll get cold. Uffda! (This will be the weather portion of the show, thanx Vicki for giving me that idea,) Winter, it's time you were outta here. So, so long, farewell, auf weidersein, good night (think Sound of Music .) Isn't there another hemisphere expecting you to show up and cool it off? Yeah? I thought so. Get a move on and don't return for nine months okay? Well I just spent several minits trying to make a new paragraph, my attempts were unsuccessful so will proceed unparagraphically, at least in the accepted way, and trust you'll be okkel dokkel with it. Okkel dokkel? Topic two: In a a 'real' letter you often or sometimes always :) (what's the term that describes the rule I just broke by saying sometimes always?) begin with, how are you? I am fine.,and then move to the weather, so the cart is sorta before the horse here in blog two but just crack the whip, say giddyup and I'll move right along. I'm havin' a struggle comin' up with topic two, can you tell? Someone Else could make a suggestion right about now...What's for lunch might do okay if I had that figured out yet and here it is 11:45 already. But not to worry cuz I've often pulled a Rachael Ray and had somethn' ready in 30 minutes, haven't you? Probably not 3 courses though so Rach don't get your knickers is a knot, your job is safe for the foreseeable future from me. Over in the unplugged Slo cooker there is a too long package of on sale chicken drumsticks leaning and thawing so they can be busted to fit in there and the appliance plugged in and then they can be annointed with either Campbells, Western Family or Lipton's products and simmered to gourmet perfection for supper. Whaddaya think? Baked potatoes and green beans? Yeah, a salad would be ideal but nobody went to the store and the last head of lettuce is now decomposing in the garbage can after vacationing in the crisper drawer for longer than it should have. I have alot of heads in the lettuce department 'go off' that way. Heard some good advice once about shopping and or eating healthily, 'Buy food that spoils(w/o chemicals.) and eat it before it does.' Now that's quite a feat. But then again, chicken with rice is very nice...or it would be, if one were not cooking for one Norske who thinks rice is really only nice with butter,cinnamon and sugar. Well lunch is now underway and the suspense is over. The winning menu is...tah dah...Lalon's recipe for mac and cheese made with commodities found in the pantry and the frig. And piping hot from the Turbo oven from the dairy case at Reynolds, we have Western Family on sale, jumbo, flaky, biscuits. A little heavy on the carbs and fat you say and that is sure true. Guess we'll have a slice of balony meat on the biscuit for balance. What say Rachael? I also found two ripe tomatoes in the kool kupett (my spelling of the Norsk words for icebox) so we did have a veggie after all and some strawberry jam on a piece of biscuit for 'pudding and also half of a Fuji apple apiece. Who says Harlequin's aren't educational?. Pudding is British for desert, so there. Those biscuits are the pull apart kind and two pulled apart with a piece of bolony betwixt is a tasty and tender morsel. Well friends I'm thinkin there won't be a topic three in this my second blog(should the b be capitalized?) Come to think ( and don't you know someone should be, thinking, that is) there wasn't in Blog one either. So the advice is worthwhile that sez, "begin the way you intend to finish,' or words of that ilk. You can be relieved that future blogs will be confined to a two topic length. Roses are multi-colored like the dragons that snap, and I'm outta here cuz it's time for my nap. Signed, 'The Meandering Mind,' Blog Two
Blog 3 Arlene Ramsbacher Trang
Roses are red and very lovelee,Blog 2 is lost and I'm tryin' for 3. Well. It's a deep hole, if you ever dig one, drop in. That is not a polite way to begin is it? However, as a kid we said it alot and thought we were very clever. Speaking of which. being clever, that is, this machine is confounding all the clever I ever had. I lost my second blog and have a premonition this one may also end up in laptop limbo, so literature lovers this could be your lucky day.
The reason I began bluntly with Well, is, I was surprised to have clicked and arrived here and that's what came out of my mouth. From my lips to the page as it were. So much for red roses and blue violets this time. But I wish to afirm that it is still sweet of all you Someone Elses out there to tune in to read anything that ends up on this spot. Let's hear it for you guys okay? I had rather planned to begin all these blogs with a floral tribute but...Hey... I still could with this curser thing... editing( I'm tempted to call it cursing since it's doing something with a curser but maybe but , and here's a good one, 'disgression is the better part of valor' "they" say and who am I to argue with "they?") (meanwhile, back at the ranch) editing means you don't need to do all your planning ahead, just like the title of that movie, ' Love means you don't have to say you're sorry.' But,thinking that through you'll run into some bumps, so I'm a thinkin'. Well... Here we are at the water hole again... They are such great places for gathering, water holes, that is. Oases in deserts, water coolers at the office, shall we gather at the river? Cheers, where everybody knows your na-a-ame. Every creature, four footed or bi-pedal (or are they two-wheelers?) and even those that slither need liquid refreshment and socializing don't they? Not only creatures of course but every living thing is dependent on the showers of blessing from above. Amen? Just did a re-read and how does a slithering creature drink anyway? That skinny snake tongue seems hardly capable of a decent lap-ing slurp. Okay, would Someone Else get back to me on that? Thanx :). Well, " it's been a quiet week here in Lake Woebegone." What a great bunch of stories Garrison Keilor wrote about that place. (I mentioned to cousin DaNelle Bakke a while back that my thoughts hop about like a grasshopper and she didn't unfriend me and you already figured that out so I'll continue.) FB posted it was his 70th birthday a couple weeks ago. Just a real spring chicken yet. You ever get out Montana way Mr. Keilor, our little city's chicken coop is down on main street between the civic center and the B&B grocery store. If you like pinnochle and puzzles (jig saw) and good home cookin' and care to visit with some old roosters and hens, feel free to come on in and set a spell...Well...that'll happen...but it's nuts what pops into my head just triggered by the word well. Our week was quiet here in Nashua. Lalon keeps an eye peeled out the south picture window and has determined that the fellow we call 'Alaska' across the hiway sw of us must be driving his dog to do his business out of town. (Don't tell the Chamber of Commerce, you know how they want you to do everything locally.) He loads it, the dog up and heads north in the direction of Bergies but is never gone long enough to have coffee let alone breakfast before he's back. In the summer he's been seen tossing stuff in a shovel into the vacant crappy house yard next door. (Bergies is our cafe and ice cream parlor up on the hiway.well not on it but near it you know?) Well... It's Holy Week here in Nashua and everywhere else in Christendom, for that matter, and Grace Lutheran is having Good Friday services @ 5, well that'd be today now since it's 1 in the morning already. Easter services will be @ the regular time of 9:30 on Sunday but the newspaper said 9 so Pastor Jeannie said since she forgot to make the correction she'd bring muffins and if folks did heed the paper's time she'd serve the usual after service lunch before instead. Today, or rather yesterday already, was Maundy Thursday so I looked up Maundy in Webster's College edition. (So did our niece Darcy and she posted it which I thought was good since I'm thinkin' she and I aren't the only ones that didn't know the definition.. Maundy means mandate and is what Jesus gave the disciples after washing their feet. A mandate or command to humble themselves and become servants even as he was unto them. Well, with that information in mind it would seem well/good to say good night and Shalom my friends, Shalom. Pray for the peace of Isreal/Jerusalem, they shall prosper who love her. Psalm 122:6 Have a Bless-ed Easter.
The reason I began bluntly with Well, is, I was surprised to have clicked and arrived here and that's what came out of my mouth. From my lips to the page as it were. So much for red roses and blue violets this time. But I wish to afirm that it is still sweet of all you Someone Elses out there to tune in to read anything that ends up on this spot. Let's hear it for you guys okay? I had rather planned to begin all these blogs with a floral tribute but...Hey... I still could with this curser thing... editing( I'm tempted to call it cursing since it's doing something with a curser but maybe but , and here's a good one, 'disgression is the better part of valor' "they" say and who am I to argue with "they?") (meanwhile, back at the ranch) editing means you don't need to do all your planning ahead, just like the title of that movie, ' Love means you don't have to say you're sorry.' But,thinking that through you'll run into some bumps, so I'm a thinkin'. Well... Here we are at the water hole again... They are such great places for gathering, water holes, that is. Oases in deserts, water coolers at the office, shall we gather at the river? Cheers, where everybody knows your na-a-ame. Every creature, four footed or bi-pedal (or are they two-wheelers?) and even those that slither need liquid refreshment and socializing don't they? Not only creatures of course but every living thing is dependent on the showers of blessing from above. Amen? Just did a re-read and how does a slithering creature drink anyway? That skinny snake tongue seems hardly capable of a decent lap-ing slurp. Okay, would Someone Else get back to me on that? Thanx :). Well, " it's been a quiet week here in Lake Woebegone." What a great bunch of stories Garrison Keilor wrote about that place. (I mentioned to cousin DaNelle Bakke a while back that my thoughts hop about like a grasshopper and she didn't unfriend me and you already figured that out so I'll continue.) FB posted it was his 70th birthday a couple weeks ago. Just a real spring chicken yet. You ever get out Montana way Mr. Keilor, our little city's chicken coop is down on main street between the civic center and the B&B grocery store. If you like pinnochle and puzzles (jig saw) and good home cookin' and care to visit with some old roosters and hens, feel free to come on in and set a spell...Well...that'll happen...but it's nuts what pops into my head just triggered by the word well. Our week was quiet here in Nashua. Lalon keeps an eye peeled out the south picture window and has determined that the fellow we call 'Alaska' across the hiway sw of us must be driving his dog to do his business out of town. (Don't tell the Chamber of Commerce, you know how they want you to do everything locally.) He loads it, the dog up and heads north in the direction of Bergies but is never gone long enough to have coffee let alone breakfast before he's back. In the summer he's been seen tossing stuff in a shovel into the vacant crappy house yard next door. (Bergies is our cafe and ice cream parlor up on the hiway.well not on it but near it you know?) Well... It's Holy Week here in Nashua and everywhere else in Christendom, for that matter, and Grace Lutheran is having Good Friday services @ 5, well that'd be today now since it's 1 in the morning already. Easter services will be @ the regular time of 9:30 on Sunday but the newspaper said 9 so Pastor Jeannie said since she forgot to make the correction she'd bring muffins and if folks did heed the paper's time she'd serve the usual after service lunch before instead. Today, or rather yesterday already, was Maundy Thursday so I looked up Maundy in Webster's College edition. (So did our niece Darcy and she posted it which I thought was good since I'm thinkin' she and I aren't the only ones that didn't know the definition.. Maundy means mandate and is what Jesus gave the disciples after washing their feet. A mandate or command to humble themselves and become servants even as he was unto them. Well, with that information in mind it would seem well/good to say good night and Shalom my friends, Shalom. Pray for the peace of Isreal/Jerusalem, they shall prosper who love her. Psalm 122:6 Have a Bless-ed Easter.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
My First Blog Arlene Marie Ramsbacher Trang
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. Barbara Gayle you are such a motivator! Here I am composing on my own blog spot. Fancy that! (Being grateful at the same time that I'm not decomposing in another spot :) ) Having had this laptop only 13 months, thank you Morgan Lee, here I am blogging and that sounds sooh like I know what I'm doing. Not. The rhyme at the beginning is one we used to paraphrase alot, and perhaps later one will pop out that fits this momentous occasion also. One's first blog should be special? Yes?
Alas however, writer's block, (dare that term be applied to me?) has struck and my mind is sort of blank at the moment. It's like talking to oneself at first, this blogging, so I'm thinkin' that imagination will play a big role in this undertaking. Someone else is across from me and we're having a nice chat. Right? I'm thinkin' that person should have a name. Someone Marie Else might be a good one. Girls of my age often had Marie for a middle name and since I didn't use it for our daughters, I'm thinkin' that's what I'll call this blogger friend of mine. Someone Marie Else or Someone Else for short. Which reminds me of a storybook little girl who wondered why people weren't called 'for long.' And speaking of names,that reminds me of sister-in-law Sharon Trang's mother. Sharon, I'm still wondering why with such a charming and delightful name that you or Someone Else haven't used it for a children's story. Hilda Mathilda could really charm the socks off as a mischievous little pioneer girl don'tcha think? Then add her last name and voila, watch out Pippi Longstockings! Hankensifken. (This coming from me with the surname,Ramsbacher pronounced with the German for ach that sounds like one needs to hawk and spit. :) Philosophically speaking, the question was asked, "what's in a name?" Ya never know do ya? Fame and fortune? A book? A blog? I'm thinkin' it's time for Someone Else to say something so I'll close this first page (think Paul Harvey and page 2 here) momentous or not with a farewell rhyme; Roses are red, lilies are white, Been fun talkin' to you, good nite and sleep tight. ( the bedbug thing makes it too long? =[ )
Alas however, writer's block, (dare that term be applied to me?) has struck and my mind is sort of blank at the moment. It's like talking to oneself at first, this blogging, so I'm thinkin' that imagination will play a big role in this undertaking. Someone else is across from me and we're having a nice chat. Right? I'm thinkin' that person should have a name. Someone Marie Else might be a good one. Girls of my age often had Marie for a middle name and since I didn't use it for our daughters, I'm thinkin' that's what I'll call this blogger friend of mine. Someone Marie Else or Someone Else for short. Which reminds me of a storybook little girl who wondered why people weren't called 'for long.' And speaking of names,that reminds me of sister-in-law Sharon Trang's mother. Sharon, I'm still wondering why with such a charming and delightful name that you or Someone Else haven't used it for a children's story. Hilda Mathilda could really charm the socks off as a mischievous little pioneer girl don'tcha think? Then add her last name and voila, watch out Pippi Longstockings! Hankensifken. (This coming from me with the surname,Ramsbacher pronounced with the German for ach that sounds like one needs to hawk and spit. :) Philosophically speaking, the question was asked, "what's in a name?" Ya never know do ya? Fame and fortune? A book? A blog? I'm thinkin' it's time for Someone Else to say something so I'll close this first page (think Paul Harvey and page 2 here) momentous or not with a farewell rhyme; Roses are red, lilies are white, Been fun talkin' to you, good nite and sleep tight. ( the bedbug thing makes it too long? =[ )
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