Three Years Smoke Free Today!!!

The pond has not frozen over well enough to skate on this year. Yet. There is time left this winter so I hope it does. My pond was a very active community site 30 or so years ago when all the boys of the community kept it clean and it was the village's official hockey rink. Then a rink was built in the community and hockey and skating moved to the new facility. I bought the property 25 years ago and my sister-in-law and I kept it clear for several years, when our kids were young. Since then the current changed and the climate has changed and it doesn't always freeze well enough for skating.

There is nothing like skating on an outdoor pond. Nature is all around. You can see the bird nests in the trees from the previous year, fresh tracks of pond visitors and a sense of being out there in the wild. OK, a car drives by now and then.

It is three years ago today that I quit smoking. I think of smoking now as an unfortunate period in my life that lasted forty years. I beat it finally, after many monstrous attempts, and know I will never smoke again. I beat the addiction. I may sound smug to some but feel very certain and proud of this accomplishment.

I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter says it all. She even talks about lighting up a smoke. Jolie Holland's Old Fashioned Morphine and John Prine's Sam Stone fit the bill too in talking about addiction today.

For anyone struggling with addiction I can say only - persevere! I could give pointers that all that I learned but feel it is an individual battle where you have to learn enough to finally conquer an addiction to anything. It's all in the mind set, attitude and way of being.

Three Hours

Logged on here two hours ago and got the following sentence typed:

My neighbour cut the hay today so

I have absolutely no idea what I planned to say after that. I took a few shots of this year's operation but have put up a photo of last year's cut as the new shots are still in the camera. The photo had been put up two hours ago as well. I usually start with the photo.

I've had visitors, put finishing touches on supper (ribs, potato salad and Monday salad again) but haven't eaten yet. I'm waiting for my son but not much longer - only till seven.

Update: It's now 7:07 and Sonny has been here and gone - off to a barbecue at his cousin's house. It's a holiday after all.

The weather is muggy and hot but I love it. Being in the sun today, on the deck, and in the garden in between household chores was fabulous. I'm going on a little jaunt tomorrow, exploring some towns and the countryside. It should be beautiful with the lupins still at large. I get another day off in lieu of today, as my regular day off is a holiday. I'm taking it later in the month, before my daughter and son and his family come for a visit. I'll need that extra day then.

OK, I'm rambling....Songs, that's what this all about. On and On It Goes by Mary Chapin Carpenter first comes to mind so I'll put that up. The other song today is for the top searcher who cre8ive1 depends on month after month. Ingrid Michaelson is the top search for people who find this blog. For her fans here's Die Alone. Turns out On and On It Goes is already up so here is a second one for the Ingrid fan, Corner of Your Heart.

I'ts now three hours since I logged onto the Blogger Dashboard.

Genealogy Bug

I've been bitten by the genealogy bug once again. Every once in a while I open the files and start again where I left off. I began yesterday, have bookmarked about twenty-five pages, continued all day today and am going to take a break. I had a big breakthrough last year and am looking for the next one.

The above photo was taken in 1983 when there were still five generations in our family. This was taken in Ontario where my great-grandmother and grandmother lived. My oldest son is the same age as my niece in the front but he was home in PEI so I didn't get a five generation photo. There is one, in a way, because I was very pregnant at this time and if you could see through the belly bump in the photo, there was my daughter.

I'm very lucky to have the complete genealogy for my father and for my mother's mother's side (the people above) so am working on my mother's father's family. The big breakthrough last year came when I found the family in a different province in the 1911 census than in the 1901 census. For several years I exhausted every possibility in the province where I thought they were. Today, after searching for two days I thought I had reached a dead end. Then about an hour ago I had a call from a relative in this family and she told me she thought a cousin might have some leads. That's my next step.

Dead End Road by JJ Cale and Eric Clapton seems to be the right song for this post, as well as, On And On It Goes by Mary Chapin Carpenter. And now, my eyes and brain need a rest.

Music Stats Again

Not the one I'm thinking of, Xenmate. I think I deleted it.

It's music stat day, interesting as usual but no big surprises as there have been in the past.

• Three songs received no plays this month. One was My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas. One other month it received none and then the next month it was 22, then 2, now zero again. Al Green's version of A Change Is Gonna Come was another. I have lots of versions of the song up there and the rest received plays but NOT AL GREEN???? The third was the lively, Mirada Latina by Vilma Diaz y la Senora
  
• Those receiving 20 hits were: Shirley Hornes version of There's A Boat That's Leavin' Soon For New York, Harpo's Blues by Phoebe Snow, Baila Moreno by Mana and Zuchero, Old Fashioned Morphine by Jolie Holland, Heartbeat by Jose Gonzales, Llave de Paso by Negra Luca, both The Haircut and Lies by The Waifs, and Music by Leela James.
  
• Heart Attack and Vine by Tom Waits received 22 hits
• With 24 hits were S'Wonderful by Diana Krall, Buona Sera by Louis Prima, Alison Crowe's version of Halleluja, Sunshine on a Rainy Day by Zoe, and God Planned It by Billy Preston.
• Back Home To Me by Sophie Millman got 26 hits this month as did Leonard's own version of Dance Me To the End of Love. Back Home to Me was up here last month as well, with 32 hits.
  
• Lila Down's, Quisas, Quisas, Quisas is on the list again with 28 plays; down a bit from last month's 30. It is the only song that has been consistantly played more than 20 times per month, every month.
• With 30 hits is the powerful Llorona by the powerful Chevala Vargas.
• Sonny's Dream by the Wonderful Grand Band received 34 plays. I can contribute those to my two sons, according to their comments about the song but now that they can be downloaded and one of the son's did download it, it will most likely be down next month.
• The biggies this month were The Pussycat Song by th Asylum Street Spankers which got 60 plays and the long time favorite of someone, Don't Lie by The Black Eyed Peas. It is way down this month though receiving 84 hits after it's record breaking 410 hits last month and over 200 the month before.

Music for today: Something that you don't get often from me....music from a country singer. Bells Are Ringing by Mary Chapin Carpenter is very nice I think, so is up today. In keeping with bells is a song by Our lady of Bells. It's hard to choose one but here's Adeline.

Home At Last

The photo is of a sunset this week. It was really spectacular and a photo does not do it justice.

S and I had fun yesterday with lunch, shopping, trivia, dinner and a short visit with a friend. A great day! We won at trivia so this is three wins in a row for our team. We each had gift certificates for lunch and the trivia win so we could afford to go out for supper.

I'm ready to send all the long distance Christmas gifts off to make the Canada Post deadline. I received some in the mail yesterday from my aunt and uncle. I've finished four cd's for them and want to do one more today to get them in the mail tomorrow. With cleaning and laundry, I'm going to have a busy day. It is such a treat to have a Sunday at home.

Music: Bells Are Ringing by Mary Chapin Carpenter and New Religion by Alice Smith.