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The funny thing about this weather is it's so high stakes. If you break down while driving to work you can freeze to death. Hopefully you have a charged cell phone and Triple A. If you don't run the water in the pipes the pipes will freeze and possibly burst, If you don't secure the puppy she will escape and can hurt herself... and on and on.
Sunday, February 08, 2026
Saturday, February 07, 2026
Lulu's Back in Town by Fats Waller
Gotta get my old tuxedo pressed, gotta sew a button on my vest
'cause tonight I've gotta look my best, Lulu's back in town
Gotta get a half a buck somewhere, gotta shine my shoes and slick my hair
Gotta get myself a boutonniere, Lulu's back in town
You can tell all my pets, all my Harlem coquettes
Mister Otis regrets, that he won't be aroun'
You can tell the mailman not to call, I ain't comin' home until the fall
And I might not get back home at all... Lulu's back in town
Saved the Turkey Vegetable Soup
I was able to save the frozen soup by defrosting and diluting it. Most of my soups are generally too concentrated or too think. Maybe it's just my tendency to be too intense. I call them gloops. But this is still a soup and the broth need to be diluted because back when I first made it I roasted the turkey carcass and made a stock in the pressure cooker. Everything is concentrated in the pressure cooker it's almost like a dehydrator that way.
Today I added chick pea stock and canned whole tomatoes (best flavor) and I added potatoes, and water and strips of carrots using the peeler and then my naughty over processed ingredient, powdered chicken broth.
Anyway it's delicious.
Then I made mashed potatoes from the salvaged red potatoes and added them!
Courage to Learn Courage to Teach
Four adult women joined my swim class that started yesterday. It was awesome. We start with bobbing by breathing and humming.
For the three ladies who already swim, I talked about keeping your head lower in the water when swimming. Basically the body as aiming for the shish kebob position of your whole body lined up on top of the water. Your head is a tomato on the shish kebob and it turns slightly so you can breathe. If you lift up your whole head rather than gently turn it, your legs sink. Then I helped my beginner to float on her back while supporting her lower back. Lift up your hips and your chin and throw your head back far enough to get your eyebrows wet. Try to relax, I've got you. When you are tense your muscles tighten and cause you to sink!
My students said they were thrilled to learn how to breathe better and noticed the difference in their buoyancy. Then I told them most problems dissolve in water. Most problems are water soluble!! Breathing is the yoga unity aspect of swimming and it also takes your worries away --as long as you are not panicked and fear drowning! We all laughed.
I remind them to drink water after the lesson when they are taking a hot shower. Don't wait for thirst! We forget that we sweat while we swim and if we become dehydrated it can cause headaches. I speak from experience. Then I lost my voice at the pool as I often do--it's a reaction to the pool chemicals but I won't quit. I'll hold up signs if I have to, I said laughing.
In the locker room I noticed one woman has a few toes missing from
complications from lupus. We talked about places to adopt cats and dogs
because she wants a 4th specifically senior cat. Another woman had a double mastectomy and was born with a brain injury and other health problems. She spoke to me about her
grandson's awful 4th grade teacher. She swims to tamp down her anxiety. The water is the best anti-anxiety medication I know! I said.
It's a
real community of love and support. Another women attends 3 water
aerobics classes a day sometimes because as she said it takes her mind
off of her back pain. She's a jolly lady with spinal stenosis. She has
grand children and a husband and two King Cavaliers that sleep in their
king sized bed.
Perpetual Trigger
When I escaped my family of origin by running away they contacted friends of mine. Let's make Emily jealous, they said. They invited my ex for Thanksgiving, and took a friend from my post-college life out to the fanciest restaurant in NYC.
So the current climate of politics mirrors the bully-power King-and-Queen behavior of my now deceased but historically dreadful parents. The news cycle is all reruns for me. A perpetual trigger. Children in cages! That's us.
Trump’s Big Loser Energy, and Other Tales From the Annals of Political Messaging
In a democratic republic (and really in all times and places), the slavish hunger to be in the thrall of a strongman or a king is the ultimate moral degeneracy. It is a perverse form of moral weakness. The mores of civic democracy are rooted in strength, and self-respect. One of the strangest aspects of contemporary politics is the way that what were once the emblems of weakness and humiliation became rebranded as a kind of power: grievance, special pleading, whining, the demand for protection from the sting of defeat. It’s extremely weird. Trump is, more than anything else, a loser. He fears defeat and he can’t take it and he’s making wild claims to try to wriggle out of accountability and the public rebuke that he experiences as a moral death. Contempt, scorn and, yes, laughter are the only proper responses to Trump’s claims and demands. They’re weakness rather than strength, and no one should be fooled into treating them any other way.
Josh Marshall
We all have a picture of the world, an idea of what is real, inside which we live. Sudden disaster–the death of a loved one, the loss of a vital job, a murder, a meltdown at a nearby nuclear reactor–breaks that picture and we have to try to reconstruct it, or something like it, or something completely different.
Salman Rushdie, “A Sundering,” in Suleika Jaouad, The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (2025), 271.
Karin Wulf
Karin Wulf is the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian at the John Carter Brown Library and Professor of History, Brown University. She is a historian with a research specialty in family, gender and politics in eighteenth-century British America and has experience in non-profit humanities publishing.
God’s present to me is my own life. It’s not D. H. Lawrence’s or Tolstoy’s or Virginia Woolf’s—much as I might like it to be. And, whoever is reading this, your life is your present, your dowry, your donnée. No one on earth is going to have the same list of Most Important Characters as you. Carolyn See
Friday, February 06, 2026
The Voice of a Swimming Teacher
Having trained as a singer, Lisa Smith, STA’s Technical Support Officer knows a thing or two about the voice, and how important it is for swimming teachers to protect their vocal chords.
It is very common for teachers, lecturers or anyone who is required to speak excessively as part of their job to have at some stage in their working life a problem with their voice, and especially for swimming teachers who are projecting their voice in a noisy environment.
Symptoms such as a lack of voice strength and croakiness are typical of vocal abuse, and permanent damage can be caused to the voice unless good habits are adopted:
- Keep the vocal chords hydrated by taking regular sips of water whilst on poolside
- Project the voice, don’t shout, a thumbs up or clapping can motivate learners just as effectively
- Use the voice correctly when speaking, this is aided by good posture, and good breath support
- When speaking to learners, bring them close enough so that a quiet voice can be used
- Warming up the voice with vocal exercises such as humming before lessons can help.
Most importantly, I would advise anyone who suffers from a change in their voice or hoarseness for more than two weeks to visit their GP.
Lisa Smith
STA Technical Support Officer
https://www.sta.co.uk/news/2013/08/02/the-voice-of-a-swimming-teacher/
Cozy Safe and Settled
My new 1 year old rescue pup Lulu is snoring little piggy snorty sounds and it's lovely. I met her a week ago and adopted her last Sunday.
This morning our two dogs were sharing a bed for warmth but they each have their own bed and fleece blankets. Lulu and Romeo are settling nicely. We are finding our daily rhythm.
I've been the the mother to dogs for 45 years.
Yesterday I ran into Joni and told her about our new baby pup added to the family and I said, we all sleep in the bed, and she said. Oh yeah we bought a king sized bed to accommodate our two King Cavaliers because they stretch out horizontally. I told my husband we should've done this years ago because it's birth control. She laughed. She has multiple grandchildren.
Cornbread Baked with Sliced Onion inside!
Try it! We love INDIAN HEAD stone ground YELLOW CORNMEAL and the savory recipe on the bag. I skip sugar and salt. It's fabulous!! I use my (greased) number 5 cast iron skillet to bake in.
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