Sophie's Story

   One of my favourite movies is "The King's Speech". It is about King George VI of the United Kingdom and his struggle with stammering. One of my favourite parts of the movie is at the end. The King gives a radio address after the announcement that war has been declared on Germany. In the movie the focus is on his ability to get through the speech with minimal or no stammering. I personally like to think about that speech.   It must have been a hard speech to give on many levels. King George VI had been involved in World War I as he was in the Royal Navy and later transferred to the Air Force. Although he served in staff positions,he did become a qualified pilot. He knew the effects of war.   He may have known that this war was not going to be like the last. In the last war, which ended only 20 years before, the fighting was mainly in Europe, Africa and Asia. This time the fighting would come closer to home as planes could now drop bombs on the citizen...

   One of the things that most people don't know about me that that I am a perfectionist. I attribute this to a couple of things. When I was younger I was raised with the attitude of "do it right or don't do it at all" I had some very high expectations placed on me. I didn't want to disappoint people. I worked as hard as I could to meet those expectations. The other thing that happened was my first job review. I was a nurse's aid in a nursing home and the head nurse doing my review ripped me apart. It was brutal. The last thing she said to me when she was that if it weren't for the fact that we were short staffed, she would have fired me. I guess the fact that I tended to work more slowly and more carefully was not acceptable to her. (The reason for this was that I was trying to avoid being injured and also because I wanted to be respectful of the residents that I cared for. I was one of the few employees who did not sustain a major back injury while wor...

  This is Scamp. I'm typing very quietly because I'm not supposed to be in here. C and Sophie do not know that I have snuck in here.    When Sophie came in here to get some yarn, I snuck in behind her. Cats can move very quietly. I went to my new favourite hiding place. It's under the hat rack.    I used to think hiding in the closet was the best place, but the hat rack is much better. Sophie has some big brimmed hats on the bottom of the rack. If I crawl in under them and lay right in the corner, I can't be seen. It's perfect. It's the best thing ever.    Sophie has a lot of hats. I think there are about 43 of them on this rack. Only the hats are on the hat rack. The ball caps are in another closet. There are three more hats that are also in the closet with the ball caps. Two of them are too big for the hat rack. The other one is white and too delicate to be left out.   My favourite hat is a reddish purple hat. It has cool looking fe...

   I am working on an advanced manual for Toastmasters. It is a series of projects on imperative reading. Unlike most projects in Toastmasters, you take material written by others and present it. I decided to work on the projected entitled "The Oratorical Speech"    I was very interested in this project as it was similar to the "Great Speeches" category I remember from Declamation (competitive speech team) in high school. You take a famous speech and deliver it.   Most people would use the many famous speeches that are out there, inaugural  addresses from Presidents Lincoln or Kennedy or any speech from Sir Winston Churchill. I was interested in doing something a bit more obscure. I chose a speech given by Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 when she was Princess Elizabeth, heiress presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom. It was given on her 21st birthday, a significant date as she had reached the age of her majority.  It was an usual choice as it ...

  Now that we are home, unpacked and mostly rested, I thought I'd share a few snapshots from our recent trip to South Carolina. These are in no particular order.   1. One of the things I wanted to do was have some boiled peanuts and a grape Nehi. (Had to be grape, no other flavor will do.) We stopped at a service  station for gas on the way 6to Myrtle Beach. Lo and behold they had snacks including two larger cookers that had boiled peanuts. One of them was Cajun flavor. I was a little nervous about trying them so I stuck to the original. I dipped the steaming peanuts into a Styrofoam cup that was there for that purpose. I filled the cup about half full as I was afraid the peanuts on the bottom would get cold. Cold boiled peanuts are nasty. I soon realized that I should have taken two cups, One cup for the peanuts and another for the shells. I feasted happily on the peanuts which were pretty good although a bit salty.    We were wandering around Charleston ar...

   Yesterday we went to visit my sister-in law Myna. This was a significant thing to do. About 11 years ago we had a falling out with her. It's a long story that I'm not going to tell. Suffice it to say that we broke off all contact. I hunted down anything I thought she might have given us and either put it away or gave it to someone who might us it.    I was really mad at her. I didn't want to see her, talk to her or talk about her ever again. I did not have room for people like that in my life.   Years passed and we did not communicate with her at all. When my father-in-law passed away, she had someone else call C to let him know. (Fortunately, their older sister called C first.) It was another mess and I was more mad at her. (I didn't think it was possible to be that mad at someone, but I sure was.)   More years passed. Earlier this year, C started communicating with her on Facebook. At the same time he also started communicating with some of her c...

   At the risk of exciting envy from some of my readers, I am writing this at 5:25 local time. I am at the dining room table of a small, nicely furnished condo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. If I look up from my work, I have a view from a balcony window that faces the Atlantic Ocean. If it weren't for the fact that the balcony door is broken, I would be sitting on the balcony. We are here courtesy of C's cousin, Jack, who is letting us stay here for part of the week. The only thing that would make this more perfect is a cup of hot herbal tea. Unfortunately, Jack's taste runs more towards coffee.   We spent yesterday in Charleston. If you are ever in Charleston and looking for something to do, take a carriage ride. There are several carriage companies operating in the city. The carriages seat about 12-16 people and are pulled by one or two draft horses or mules.   According to our guide, there are more carriage companies in Charleston than anywhere else. The ind...