Bits and Tids

I came up with a new potpourri title this morning, so I guess that's what I'm gonna do: potpourri. Bits and Tids has a good ring to it, and one must be careful not to spoonerize in anyway. To spoonerize Bits and Tids could get a person into big time trouble with the political correctness police. So, if you go out there today and tell folks you read Marianne's Bits and Tids piece today, be extra careful how it dribbles off your lips.

Bits and Tids No. 1: A few days ago, I commented to Bill that we sure haven't seen the numbers of wild game here at the Lovestead that we enjoyed last year. I mentioned turkeys in particular. Bill said he thought it was late July last year when we spotted the first turkeys slinking through the pasture from Stan Meserve's place. I got to thinking about it, and I agreed. We were too busy moving boxes and trying to organize this place to notice turkeys in the grass throughout most of July last year. I've noticed through this first year how sights and sounds tend to come at certain times. For example, those hawks, crows, barking dogs, and bellering bulls were piercing the outdoor airwaves the week we moved in, just as they did during that precise week a year later. So, it stands to reason that while retrieving Miss Lily from the pasture yesterday noon, I noticed some black movement in the next pasture over, near the woods. Studying for a second, I chuckled at the sight of two turkeys and their babies slinking through the grass. This morning, Bill and I both enjoyed the double treat of our resident mother deer and her spotted fawn in the pasture next to Lily's and the turkey couple with their polts in the next pasture over. The deer left before Lily went out for the day, but the turkeys hung around, inciting some close inspection from Lily as she trotted out to her favorite spot in the field. So, I guess we have game, and we can expect to see turkeys from now 'til winter. It's nice to cue in on the annual cycle.

Bits and Tids, No. 2: How many out there are getting as weary of the Presidential candidates interminable marathon as I am? And, what difference does it make which blowhard with a gimmick gets elected? Furthermore, what have any of our politicians in Washington, D.C. from either party done to improve America in the past several years? Seems to me this time around Republicans screwed things up, and Democrats just keep screwing with the screwed up messes rather than offering anything any different? Why do we allow hundreds of billions of dollars which could be spent on something more productive, like smarting up America rather than dumbing it down, flow into perpetuating this ongoing political misery? And, to think the Presidential and Congressional elections are still more than a year away.

Bits and Tids, No. 3: I'm starting to hear and see the name Lyle Lovett more and more as Festival Time approaches. I've thought of that name and the strange hairdo that accompanies it with great disdain ever since the last time Mr. Lyle Lovett came to town. Back then, the story was that his wifey Julia Roberts came with him and hid out at the Deshon mansion. That was back in the mid-'90s. Who's Lyle's wifey this time, and what's she gonna do now that Deshons don't own that mansion? I think of Lyle with disdain because of the way our ushers were treated the night of his concert. We always had to arrive at Memorial Field by 5 or 5:30 to be ready for the gates to open. So, as we gathered that evening with our usher crew, we began our usual visiting, only to be rounded up like cattle and herded into the athletic field house by some obnoxious tough guy while Lyle did sound checks. His crew of hit men even guarded the door to see that we lowly Festival volunteers remained incarcerated while Himself continued his warm-up on stage. It was demeaning and insulting at best and a far cry from the graciousness we saw from Festival performers like Wynton Marsalis, Maureen McGovern and Michael Martin Murphey. I'm wondering if Lyle has mellowed in the past decade and if his crew still slings those F-words as freely as they did throughout their stay here way back when. I know I'll not be anywhere near Memorial Field when Lyle and his band of thugs show up in town this year. It was the Lyle era that gave Bill and me the first hint, after five years, that heading up the Festival Usher crew needed to become someone else's responsibility. We haven't missed those days, but we do miss the fun visits and camaraderie of all those great volunteers who helped us out every night.

Bits and Tids, No. 4: I don't want to sound like a griper this morning. I was just trying Bits and Tids out for size, and it seems to work okay. So, I'll use it every so often as a slight detour to slightdetour. On a positive note, a fun weekend lies ahead---dinner with the Raihas tonight, hopes of SHS Class of 1987 sightings, book signing at Hastings in Coeur d'Alene tomorrow at 2, which means more reconnections with old friends and former students. And, with the temps dropping to the 80s, summer doesn't get any better.

Bits and Tids, No. 5 (posted just after noon). Water water everywhere but we have no drops to drink. Something went wrong with the Oden Water System----a transformer fried or something like that----so we, in the Selle Valley, may not have water until tomorrow. Why am I thirsty and suddenly feeling pretty gritty?

Have a happy Friday, and go mind your bits and tids!