humor – The Hermits' Rest

All that sick time had one benefit

Being ill last weekend meant all I could do was sit around and watch television. I hurt too much to read or do crafts. Thanks to all that watching, I can pass on my recommendations to you. That’s the benefit.

(Note that no animals harmed any people or other animals today. Both Kathleen and Harvey are taking it easy and trying to heal.)

Harvey, poor old guy. He’s a mess. But remarkably cheerful. At least this angle shows no injuries.

So, what has Suna been watching?

The Crown. Lee and I had low expectations for this, especially since he is not a royalist at all. I did have to explain who people were to him (my English roots make me slightly interested in the monarchy). I now understand all those awards that went to the actors. Most of them did an eerily accurate representation of the people they were playing. There were three main casts, representing the family of QE2 at different ages. The only ones who weren’t super accurate (to me) were the final Charles and Harry. All the Dianas were so realistic, as were the queens.

My favorite parts of the series (other than scenes of England, interiors of palaces, fancy horses, and old English cars) were interactions with the characters. You ended up seeing how each of them ended up with their quirks. I didn’t feel like they made anyone out to be more saintly or awful than anyone else. I was even able to drum up a little sympathy for Margaret Thatcher and Queen Camilla. They were all pretty sad people except maybe Prince William and Kate.

The series is a great introduction to 20th century history in the form of a soap opera/travelogue. The only parts I didn’t like were when dead people started showing up and chatting with the living. My conclusion is I’m glad I’m not a member of that family. I also concluded that after watching Victoria. Combine those two shows and you have 200 years of English history class.

Now put on your tinfoil hat! (From Pexels)

Resident Alien. You know how much I have needed to laugh lately. This show is guaranteed to make you laugh, if you have a certain sense of humor. Everyone on this show is a fine actor and all the characters are built out to be realistic, believable people, even though they are very funny. This show is hilarious. We have to stop the television to laugh sometimes. The alien is played by Alan Tudyk, who is always good at playing weird guys, but he doesn’t dominate. It’s an ensemble. The science fiction aspect of the show gives it some drama (more as the shot goes on), but I’m just in it for the laughs.

The two children in the show are both great. But the little girl is a force of nature. She wore her tinfoil under her hijab, which made me laugh so hard. It’s a relief to have a Muslim character who’s so genuine.

The Fall and Rose of Reggie Dinkins. This is the kind of show Lee hates, where much of the comedy derives from someone being incredibly obtuse and kind of awful, but succeeds anyway. However, it was developed by Tina Fey and has actors I find funny (and Harry Potter!). I also laugh a lot at this one, even though it’s silly and totally unrealistic. I mean, Tracy Morgan as an ex football player is ridiculous right from the start. I do like the “family dynamic” where Reggie’s ex-wife and fiancée end up getting along, and both characters are more than stereotypes. For a network comedy, it’s not bad. Just don’t expect Shakespeare.

Image break: creeping cucumber growing on the chicken pens, the only photo I took today other than Harvey .

The Madison. Back to drama. Don’t laugh, but this is my first Taylor Sheridan show. I’m not good at jumping on bandwagons, so I skipped all the Yellowstone stuff. If I want to see cowboys, I just go to the Mexican restaurant at lunchtime. However, I started watching this with Kathleen and kept going whenever Lee was upstairs binding books or analyzing his vital statistics for his journal (his journal is very thorough).

I literally just found out what he Taylor Sheridan looks like. That’s a rugged and manly fellow. Photo by Michael Buckner.

I got all distracted there for a second. So manly. As for the show, it’s an entire collection of episodes about how sad and messed up a bunch of New York rich folk are after the rich family patriarch dies while returning from a visit to his rugged and manly ranch in Wyoming, Montana, or somewhere like that. Nonetheless, the scenery and soundtrack are fantastic. If they just took the whiny people out and left the scenery and rugged manly soon-to-be-dead men fishing, I’d still have watched it.

Seriously, though, you do see a lot of personal growth, introspection, and learning in the Madison, especially in Michelle Pfeiffer as Madison. She’s a good poetic sniffler. And I was happy that good old rugged and manly Kurt Russell doesn’t disappear after dying in the first episode.

I managed to enjoy the show, which did have some humor, too. And it’s only a few episodes, so not a huge commitment like the Crown. I even hope it returns.

Maybe I’ll do more reviews. But I won’t have so many series to talk about now that I’m feeling almost well.

Weird Illness Symptom

I have a virus or bad allergies since yesterday. Not horrible, but my throat hurts and I’m tired. I do seem to have one off symptom, though. I remember things in the wrong color. What?

Lee brought home a loaner vehicle while my car was getting serviced. It was very nice and looked very much like my car. More than once I referred to it as the black car. It was quite white. Just as white as my car (but sadly lacking the snazzy red interior).

My car, which looks like half the cars on the road today.

I also mentioned the pink book I was reading. I went to bed and saw the deer book and the next book on my nightstand. Both are green.

Yes, I’m reading a popular self-help book about a topic I’ve already been working on. This kind of book serves as a good reminder.

I do think the color thing has a non-viral source!

That’s all I have for you, friends. I took NyQuil, so the zzzzzz is calling.

Book Report: The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America

I got this little book from 2019 yesterday and found it necessary to plow through it last night before I went to sleep. Matt Kracht, the author, tries to present himself as a curmudgeonly bird hater who hates all that screeching and pooping birds do. But you can tell from his charming and accurate drawings that he’s secretly quite fond of birds.

Sample page featuring a bird name that’s not too full of curse words.

Though it’s really funny, the book isn’t for kids, due to f-bombs and such. But it’s hilarious for those of us comfortable with adult language. And Kracht includes lots of birding/birdwatching advice, bird feeding information, and “helpful” information that’s both funny and sorta useful underneath.

This is not a book I’d recommend for a person who’s new to birds but it’s a great amusement for your experienced bird-loving friend, white-elephant gift for your nature group gift exchange. Or you could leave it in the bathroom for visitors to enjoy.

I certainly felt it was worth $7! See if they have it at your local bookstore.

I Don’t Want to Be an Influencer

Honestly, I don’t understand why anyone is interested in that “career path.” I’m familiar with a few interesting people who have or would like to become internet celebrities. More than one of them has mentioned feeling weary of trying to stay “on brand” and repeating their talking points (or whatever influencers call them—remember I’m not one). Oh, and artificially big lips and eyelashes, which I assume look good to the influencer subculture.

Early on in my time writing blogs (I’m not sure I’m really a blogger, either), it became clear to me that there was a formula the successfully monetized blogs all followed. There’s a lot of mentioning products so they can get paid in goods, and there’s lots and lots of teasing and bloviating before taking you to the “interesting” content so you have to plow through ads. That doesn’t sound like writing or sharing. It’s marketing. Yuck.

It’s like you have to make a new fake you. This is definitely a fake me.

I like to write things that interest me. I don’t have a brand, unless it’s quirky older woman goes on and on about nature and personal growth. I do have cute animals, but they don’t often do anything totally precious enough to have their own fan base.

Carlton’s most crazed look and he doesn’t even need Snapchat.

Like cats, my animals generally only have one expression, so every photo of a chicken, turkey, horse, or dog in my blog looks the same. It would be hard to influence anyone with this material to work with.

I look like this every day, unless I’ve been fighting, says Carlton

Of course that’s fine. I don’t want my social media presence to be a job. Whenever it veers that way, I veer back to just sharing stories about a rural-life newbie and her unswerving desire to become a good person who enjoys life however she can. That will not garner 200K of fans.

But it’s the real Suna. Rumpled but content.

I think I may want to influence you to share my quest for peace, love, and kindness. In these challenging times, we all can use some inspiration, so if I cheer anyone up, give someone a new idea, or make a reader chuckle, that’s enough for me.

This is intended to make you chuckle. It worked for me.

Thanks for your contributions to cheering ME up! I needed it after my day of breaking browsers and enterprise software products. It really WAS a Monday today.

Am I Paranoid or Are They Really Out to Get Me?

I’m not doing myself any favors by watching the news. And it’s really not a good idea to listen to friends’ conspiracy theories. I try to avoid them but they sneak in, leading to nightmares like I used to get during the “duck and cover” years. Yes, yes, I’m too sensitive.

I always felt bad about those trees. And the people nearby.

I get told “they” are making lists of us members of a nonexistent terrorist organization. I can’t find the local meeting schedule or the state office. Maybe I don’t know the secret handshake? I don’t wear the correct golden pin on my lapel? Besides, I thought we fought whole wars against certain kinds of dictatorships. Anyway, if you’re putting me on a list, note that I tried to be kind.

Maybe that Mockingbird who watches me so closely is secretly a spy drone. I hope my birding doesn’t put the people watching the footage to sleep.

I get told to not mention certain topics while my phone is “listening,” and I guess I should be careful what I blog about, since the Chinese are so interested in my writing (really, that still cracks me up). No wonder my subconscious can get paranoid.

Lest you think I was kidding, check out these September 17 stats.

Heck, I did a Mabon tarot reading tonight with my online group, and YOW. It was paranoid! I got the nightmare card, the card about being trapped, and one about swimming against the tide. The rest were all unpleasant wands. My tarot friends pointed out that there IS an escape route on that 8 of swords, and the blindfold can be undone.

All kidding aside, I think my subconscious is just trying to ensure that I don’t wear rose-colored glasses so thick that they allow me to sink so far into denial that I don’t notice important indicators of potential danger. Whatever happens is going to happen, though, so dwelling on possibilities won’t change things—paying attention and swimming against the current without letting myself drown—seems prudent.

And by the way. Things keep breaking. Our upstairs air conditioner’s fan decided now would be a good time to quit working. We will add air conditioner repair to the list, along with RV generator repair. I’m now laughing at it. I promise I’m not invoking broken infrastructure!

And don’t worry, there’s plenty of good stuff to balance things out, appropriate for the season. At least I knew the Rapture wasn’t gonna come get me. I appreciate the wisdom of Jesus, but not what’s been done in his name, especially lately.

Book Report: How the Hell Did I Not Know That?

I needed some light and humorous reading this week, so I picked up this book to read before bedtime rather than the depressing memoir I’m reading at other times of the day. How the Hell Did I Not Know That: My midlife year from couch to curiosity, by Lucie Frost, certainly provided me with laughs and gave me other things to think about than cults of personality and so on.

One of my friends from when my kids were younger recommended the book, and I believe most everything this friend says, so I bought it. Lucie Frost lives in San Antonio and is an actual Native Texan (who lived in Mexico for some time as a child, so also speaks Spanish). She is also sort of foul-mouthed in an endearing way, so if you don’t like curse words in your books, skip this one.

The idea here is that Frost retired early, in her 50s, then didn’t know what to do with herself. She came up with the idea of trying to learn new things to get herself to stop bingeing on reality television and wine. Spoiler: she got better.

The fun of the book is going along with Frost’s journey of knowledge, in which she freely admits to being ignorant about things many people know about, but also bravely provides a peek at how her mind functions in coming up with questions to ask. She has a pretty funny mind. My favorite of her discoveries is what the balls for different ball sports were made of when the sports were invented. Hint: animals.

While this may not be the most well-written book on earth, it’s quite entertaining and worth spending some pre-snooze time on. Since she and I have much in common spiritually and philosophically, I probably got more out of the book than some folks I know. But if you’re “a person like Suna,” you can get a good chuckle or two from Frost’s stories, and you’ll heartily agree with her conclusions that by keeping your senses open to new things and living in the world with a curious mindset, you’ll feel a lot better.

Example of Vicki’s extremely cute Sheltie puppies. Don’t tell Lee his hair is thinning.

Let me know if this was too controversial and I’ll try harder next time. I’m now limiting Facebook/Instagram posts to cute little animals, except for blog links, which mostly will be cute little animals and book reviews for the near future.

Do I Have the Blues?

It looks like I do. I made a drink from one of Kathleen’s little flavor packets and ended up with the blues: blue drink, nails, hair, and glasses. I will point out that I had a brown shirt (with a blue Roadrunner on it).

Good thing the light washed out my hair.

On a more serious note, I shared this story on Facebook this morning:

What a morning at my birding platform. First, I was just sitting here, watching Baltimore Orioles flying around, when I heard a Green Heron. Then I saw it, flying toward me, aiming directly over my head. I thought how pretty it was, but wondered what would happen if it pooped. Then a big white glob came down! Thankfully it landed just inches off my concrete pad. My blue hair is safe!

Then, after measuring yesterday’s .02” of rain, I gazed over at the fence. Oh my gosh, something was hanging from one of the chrysalises I’d been watching! It was a fresh, new Gulf Fritillary. It’s our most common large butterfly, since we have lots of sorrel vines that they love. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a butterfly emerging in the wild. What a privilege!

The humor and beauty carried me through an intense work day just fine! A meeting ended early, too, so I had time to give Vicki some slightly old frozen meat to make into dog food and exercise the horses. Neither horse was into it. I think I should have let them rest.

They were peaceful on our evening stroll, though. It’s hard to get them all in one photo.

Just a little relaxation with the animals prevents the psychological blues from coming over me, though. Watching the dogs play in the long grass at sunset was a great way for me and Lee to wind down. They don’t get out much, but for once they stayed with us and didn’t run off to roll in poop.

I’m thinking about so many of you all, dealing with what comes your way as best you can. We are in this together. As my friend Kathy just reminded me, we’re all under the same moon!

Don’t Call Me Sue

Where did your name come from?

Since today was just fine (not too hot!) and I don’t want to come across too perky like I did yesterday, I’ll just answer this here question.

My name is *Rhynchomitra recurva –* I’m a leafhopper.

My name is Sue Ann. This is nothing new to evil internet scum. The internet has known my name since 1989, back in Usenet days.

Two-word given names are common in the southern USA, from where I and my ancestors of many generations hailed. Most of my dad’s sisters had them, Bettye Sue and Doris Ann were two of them. It appears that my parents were expecting a boy when I emerged from Mom’s twilight sleep. But there I was, including all my curly hair. They were going to name a boy Edwin (my father’s first name that he only used on official business) but they must have rejected Edwina (a name of a very funny older woman I once knew). I’m glad they saved it for my brother (Lee also had a brother named Edwin).

Look, corn. Someone lost their harvest. Nothing to do with names, except to say, “We call it maize.”

Anyway, I’m glad they eventually named me after the above-mentioned two of Dad’s sisters. Again, I’m relieved not to be Bettye Doris. Most of my life I liked my name other than a brief time I wanted to be Susanna. What I don’t like is the name Sue by itself. It’s fine for my friends named Sue (popular name of my generation), but I don’t like it for me. I don’t respond to it, and if someone calls me that, they go down a notch in my estimation. It’s like calling someone who goes by Will, Bill. So, if you ever meet me or send me a message, remember my two-word name.

Sue Ann means graceful lily according to name origins. So not me. I’m more sturdy, like this snow on the prairie plant.

You are always welcome to call me my alternate name, Suna, which I’ve had over half my life. Long story there.

No doubt I’ve told this particular story before, but I’m not up to scouring the archives to see. You can do it, of course. Feel free!

Alternative: look at the pretty morning sky.

Off I go, now, to come up with better topics and hope for rains.

Wossamotta U?

What’s your favorite cartoon?

Since I was young I just loved the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. It probably started me down the road to my love of puns. Every single segment just cracked me up, even when I had to ask my parents about some of the humor.

Jay Ward, the creator of this weirdly wonderful cartoon show, was a genius. I had many serious scholars of his work as friends during my academic years, so I may have overdosed on the reruns and analysis, but I still chuckle if I see a clip. If you are young, look it up and read about it in the article linked above. Then binge on Moose and Squirrel, Boris and Natasha, Mr. Peabody, and Dudley Do-Right.

I’m still thinking about things and issues, but more kindnesses from neighbors and some pleasant weather helped a lot today. I got things done that are hard for a person whose brain is not firing on all cylinders.

Still, the three days of much-needed rain put me way behind on bur removal, with only Apache done. I’ll try to get someone else in the herd done before my lesson tomorrow—since the horses finally have a round bale again, they won’t be so invested in getting tidbits of grass from between cocklebur plants.

Book Report: Holy Sh*t

I’m way behind on book reports, and I want to catch up before I flee Texas for a couple of weeks again. So let me share this delightful volume that Lee got at the bookstore/coffee shop in Rockdale (one of the few reasons I would volunteer to go there).

Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing (2013) is worth looking for in your local used book store. Melissa Mohr has a fine way of blending academically rigorous prose with sneaky bits of humor. For little linguist Suna, this was a delightful and engaging combination.

I’m sure my friends are glad I finished reading it, because I was compelled to regale my family and friends (and complete strangers who were willing to listen) with tidbits about the origins of curses and swear words. I feel quite educated in how the English language developed its words not fit for polite company.

I was extra glad that Mohr started out with how the Romans used swearing in Latin. I learned some good Latin and laughed a lot at their creative bathroom scrawls. Actually, they scrawled on all the exterior walls, too. I also learned more about their sexual practices than I did before. I’m not putting that stuff in the blog, though.

The main point of Mohr’s research was that what US and British society found to be the most offensive type of words has changed over time. early on you could babble on and on about shitting and fucking, but you’d better watch your tongue when uttering oaths or insulting God. The worst was to swear by God’s body, like God’s blood! They felt that you truly hurt God when you did that.

As time passed, oaths and swearing became less of a touchy subject. Nowadays we swear to God or whatever, and most sects don’t get up in arms. It’s the bodily functions that are taboo. Now we pass gas, have a bowel movement, urinate, and copulate. That’s all thanks to our Victorian ancestors.

The history of what was allowed under what circumstances is fascinating, though. You have to get used to reading all those “naughty” words, of course. It’s worth it. I haven’t laughed and learned at the same time to this extent in a long time.

I’m happy to lend it out once Lee reads it.