Winter thoughts, warm coffee, and football.

Hello Hodgepodge and Facebook friends.

 

As usual we have a mix of subjects to touch on in this week's Hodgepodge questions.  Let's just get right to it. 

 

1. Share a winter memory from your childhood. 

 

I have never been a lover of cold and snow.  Even as a kid.  I have a memory of when I was probably in about 5th or 6th grade, living in our house on Thorne Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  This Cleveland suburb was on the east side, the side that always got more snow accumulations than the west side,  due to the "lake effect."   I had a bed that was pushed up against an outside wall in my bedroom.  There was a window in the wall, down by my feet.  I remember feeling the cold air coming in through the closed window.    The window pane was freezing to touch.  The bottom of it didn't close tight.  I could feel cold air and sometimes the wind whistled through it a little.

2. What was on your blog this time last year? (Besides the Hodgepodge of course!) If you weren't blogging, what in the world were you doing with all that free time? 
 



I just looked back and I had blogged about my daughter's bachelorette party last January.  It was the first weekend of January, and it was held in Charleston.  My other daughter, the maid of honor, had arranged it all, but I got to help with decorating, making the goody bags, etc.

I didn't stay with the bride & all her bridemaids in the house they rented, but I stayed in a hotel near by and I got to be involved with some of the activities.  It was a fun weekend!  I loved seeing all the girls together.  Oh, what a difference a year makes!  Now, the April wedding is long behind us and the newlyweds are doing well, living in North Carolina. 




3. Ellen Goodman is quoted as saying, 'We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential.' 

Do you see more flaws or more potential in your life at the start of a new year? Have you done anything specific this month to address either one? Does the new year truly begin for you on January 1, or is there some other month of the year that feels like a fresh start and new beginning?

Well. My my.  You want me to list my flaws?!?   lol   I'd rather not.  Believe me, I know them.   I always think of a new year as a clean slate - a new beginning.  The sermon just this past Sunday at church was about everyone having today... and how to use it (this day) to God's glory.   We can only live in the here and now.    Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not come yet.   There definitely must be a country song in there somewhere!  ha 

I don't have a specific other date on the calendar that seems like the right time for a fresh start.  Every morning is is a new day, and every new day is a new beginning.


4. Who's an athlete you admire or respect and why?

I like this question because it seems we too often focus on the disappointing professional athletes: the ones that try to live "above the law," that can't handle success, that turn to drugs to stay on top of the game.

As I have been watching the football play-offs,  I have noted that during each game a player from each team is recognized/announced. It is someone who has done much for their community, for children, health issues, etc.   One player will get the top trophy, named for the wonderful Chicago Bear Walter Payton, on Super Bowl Sunday.    I admire those who have used their ability, and their star power, to give back.

Some athletes I admire?   Arthur Ashe,  Arnold Palmer,  Phil Mickelson, Peyton & Eli Manning, Russell Wilson, to name a few.
 
5. Do you like cream in your coffee? Whipped cream on your pumpkin pie? Cream cheese on a bagel? Sour cream on a baked potato? Cream of wheat for breakfast? Have you ever had a scone with clotted cream? Of all the creamy foods mentioned, which one sounds most appealing to you right this very minute?

Yes, cream in my coffee!  (Extra cream, no sugar)  No, on the whipped cream on pumpkin pie.  Definitely cream cheese slathered on a bagel.  And, yes, a dollop of sour cream on a baked potato.  No thanks to cream of wheat.   And, I have never tried clotted cream on a scone.

Right now I could go for a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, just the way I like it.  But for now,  I will settle for a cup of International Coffee's Cafe Francais here at home.

6. Where were you last kept waiting for 'hours on end'? Or for what felt like hours on end? How well did you cope?

Oh, this is certainly a pet peeve of mine!   I have recently waited - and it seems like I ALWAYS have to wait - too long in the exam room at the doctor's office before being seen.   For the life of me I can not figure out why the staff can not wait until the doctor is already in seeing the person right before me before bringing me back.   Yes, I know the assistant/nurse has to ask me a few questions and make me get on a scale.  They check my blood pressure.   But then....   wait...  wait...  wait.   What's worse is the exam room walls are always paper-thin and I can hear the doctor and patient talking next door.  I can hear EVERYTHING.  I am sitting on the exam table, staring around... waiting....  waiting... waiting.    I have certainly learned to bring in a book.  And, yes, there have been times after a half hour or so I have opened the door and looked around, like "Hello - I"m here!!"    Grrrrrr


It truly amazes me that we all have sit in small exam rooms where people have been feeling ill, etc. for so long.  My back aches sitting on the table waiting, and I don't LIKE IT!!!   Can you tell?


7. Believe it or not, when next week's Hodgepodge rolls around it will be February. Huh?!? Bid adieu here to January in seven words or less.

Quick go, come on Spring.

I did it in 5 words!  Ha!!


8.  Insert your own random thought here. 

So, anybody else watching "The Bachelor?"   It's my Monday night veg out time.  I like Ben... and I think he'd be good with Becca.     Got any opinions?