Sophie's Story

   Patricia, the grammarian extraodinaire (my word, not hers), went on a mission several weeks ago to encourage the Small Town Toastmasters to eliminate the word 'great' from their vocabulary. It's not that she has a problem with the word great, to her, it is being overused. There are many much better and more descriptive words that can be used instead. She handed out a list for us to use as a reference.   Ever since she did that, I have been pondering words that I wish would become extinct. The English language has so many words, surely there are better ones to use. I present a few on my list for your amusment.   These first two are the ones that annoy me the most. They are 'baby bump' and 'old school'.    I'm not sure when baby bump first started to be used. I find it annoying. It sounds like some sort of abnormal growth. Bumps are not known to be desirable things. There is a bump on the road, bump and run, acne bumps, none of these are goo...

  It was a hard week. The days all felt like 12 hour days. I didn't seem to be getting anything done or making any progress. I was tired. Laundry was piling up, dishes were piling up and I hadn't had time to practice my instruments or knit.   Last night it stormed. The power went out and C had to sleep without his CPAP. When he sleeps without it the snoring could shake the paint off the walls. Of course this means that I don't get any sleep either. I managed to get a few hours and then lay awake the rest of the night wondering what I was going to do if the power was off for more than a day.   I finally got up at about 6:30 am. the power was still out, but I had to feed the cats. I went into the living room feeling pretty groggy and was met by an anxious Scamp. I'm sure the noise from the storms bothered him. I sat down in a chair and petted him until he felt better. Then I got up and went to feed them.    I read in the living room until C got up. We were tr...

   Last night C,Patricia and I went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a lot of fun. I grew up around choir music and sang in church choirs until I was out of high school.    The first part of the concert were hymns,folk hymns and spiritual songs. It was interesting to hear a mix of more classical music and songs like "Down to the River to Pray", which is definitely southern Baptist.    After the intermission, the concert took a different turn. The choir sang songs of rejoicing from various cultures. There was even a little choreography involved. They sang "Count your Blessings Instead of Sheep" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing".   The organist played a song by himself. It was "I Got Rhythm", a Gershwin tune. It was interesting to watch. The organist was playing on a organ with three keyboards and full foot pedals. He played all over that instrument. Sometimes he just played with his feet. He did a masterful job. There was jus...

   C had been checking the weather for several days. We really needed to get our garden put in. It's been raining a lot lately. When it isn't raining C and I have had other commitments that have prevented us from working in the garden. Finally we found a day where we were both off work, had nothing else we needed to do and it wasn't supposed to rain.    I started supper as soon as I got home from work. The sooner we ate, the sooner we could get out. We had just finished the before meal prayer when C's cell phone rang. He answered it. It was one of my stepdaughters who needed some advice. He talked to her while he ate.    It looked like this conversation was going to take awhile so I ate quickly and changed into some work clothes. I went out into the garage and pulled out our tools. I grabbed a rake, a hoe and a bag with some trowels in it.   A friend of mine had given me some plants. She gave me tomatoes,peppers, marigolds and the usual surprise p...

   Hi, this is Scamp. I want to tell you what happened yesterday.    Sophie had told me earlier in the week that she was going to visit a friend on Friday morning. She planned to be home at about 2:30 or so. I was fine with that. Colby and I like to nap in the morning. She would have the rest of the afternoon to groom me and spend time with me.    She gave Colby and I a little pet as she always does before she leaves the house. I was tired so all I did was move my tail a little.    When 2:30 came along she wasn't home yet. I didn't worry. Sometimes she gets involved in something and can't get away right away. I decided a bit more rest wouldn't hurt me. I woke up an hour later and she was still not home. Where was she? I hoped that she was all right. I was a little worried about her and a little mad. She had been working all week and had not had time to give me a good grooming. I have lovely, silky, long fur. She knows that it is very importan...

   I was on my regular morning run when I saw something on the side of the road. It was a driver's license. I picked it up. It didn't look like it had been lying there long. I looked up and down the street wondering if another runner had dropped it. There was no one around. I looked around to see if there was a wallet or maybe a card case lying around. There was nothing, just the license.   I was certain the the owner of the license was nearby and would be back for it. I laid it off the road, where it could still be seen and went back to running. I hadn't gone very far when I decided that I couldn't leave the license there. I needed to pick it up and mail it to the owner.   I ran back and grabbed it. The address was a nearby suburb. There was no way this had been dropped this morning. While I ran I thought about the owner of the license. Did she know it was missing? Was she tearing apart her house in a frantic search for it? How did it get where it was?   ...