Rivers Rising

I pulled an all-niter and went to bed at 7:40 this morning. I wish I could say I was partying or having fun somehow. I was on flood watch or pump call, whatever term you'd use when your basement is flooded and you manually have to turn the pump off and on. Flooding is a pain semi-annually suffered by those who live in hollows. We had a tremendous melt and run off yesterday. There was water across many roads while I was driving around the countryside (that's my absence excuse) and levels very high in waterways. I had noticed how high my own pond was early in the morning.

Anyway, I'm not working in all cylinders. Anyone who knows me understands I like an order to my twenty-four hours. Deviations can be hard on me and one so extreme has fried my brain. I slept from 7:45 till noon and had another nap for an hour, waking at four-thirty. I can't even tell you how awful I felt before that nap. I feel better now.

Ha, I just returned from the main page of this blog to check something and find that I posted a gull on my last post as well. The last shot is a couple years old. Today's was from Friday.

Oh course we need music about rivers or floods and I have lots to choose from. It is a theme in music from the beginning. Love, as a theme in music, comes first and probably water is second. Here's Annie Lennox with Take Me to the River. I also have a treat for live music lovers; a bootleg cut of James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen song Springsteen's, The River. It's not a mastered recording so not as sharp but a nice concert feel. I would gladly have been there.

Alone Again Or

I've just come from a little Sunday afternoon rest. It was supposed to be a nap but the phone kept ringing. It's a perfect day to curl up. The wind is howling. We had a couple of inches of snow overnight and its cool enough that it didn't melt off today. The photo is of my sister exploring around the pond yesterday. We'd had some fresh fallen snow that made everything pretty again but the afternoon temps and sunshine made it all melt off.

My sister is gone - back to her own life. I was so sorry for her to go. She kept me in line. Not once did I move heavy furniture or carry rocks. That was a harder job than it sounds. I carry mountains of rocks and say that's what's kept me in shape for all these years. I will also have the task of trying to pay as much attention to Bella as my sister did. Bella is a cat with constant needs and my sister fulfilled them leaving no meow unheeded. Those are big shoes to fill and I'm sure that in this matter I will fail. There will be a lot of meowing around here for a while.

Twice in the last while I had to change a gender word in a song title to make it fit. Today it's Who's Going To Help Brother Get Further by Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello. I want to change Brother to Sister. It is a given that Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves would be a selection today. So is Alone Again Or by Calexico.

Let's Eat Cake

It is my sister-in-laws birthday today and my sister's was two days ago. My sister-in-law is like a sister and I think that it's neat that their birthday is two days apart with the way our family has multiples on birthdays so often. I gave them each two cd's that were very personal from me to them. I find it very satisfying to do this. Music can say my feelings so much better than I can with words. Sis-in-law has been incredible to help me so much this winter, cheerfully driving me places and keeping my spirits up. My sister is coming for two weeks to take care of me after I return from hospital. I want to celebrate their love and kindness.

My oldest son has his flight booked to come while I have my surgery. About an hour after he sent an itinerary, I had a message from the OR booking department saying to call them as they had a booking change. All was well as they were only changing the time and date for my pre-surgery clinic as I had requested a consult with an anaesthetist. Gave me a bit of a scare though as I kept dialing their number and getting busy signal after busy signal. My daughter may be coming from Alberta this weekend and my other son returns from Boston on Sunday. It's going to be a busy household again.

I did not include this song on any of the four cds I made for my sisters because they are not dancers. I include it on every dance cd I make though as I spent the late eighties dancing to this great song. I made tapes then and made them often for women's events that we invariably ended with dancing. Just playing it now has me groovin' Here is Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves by Aretha and Annie Lennox - such a classic! Sticking with Aretha, I also have today, a song that I've been looking for on mp3 for years. I have it on cassette but wanted to be able to add it to playlists. Ralph, a new blogger friend, was pleased when I sent him some songs and asked if there was anything I was looking for. I certainly was and said so in a about a second. He quickly supplied it and I was thrilled to finally have a copy of Kind of Man. The song has nothing to do with sisters or birthdays but it's Aretha, which is fabulous in itself, and it is a fantastic ballad.