Normally, I do not discuss famous people here. Mainly because famous people have very little effect on me, I do not hang out with them; I do not see them in my day to day life etc. However, I am going to discuss the deaths that have occurred in the last few days.
Poor Farrah, not only did she die a painful death, she had the misfortune to die on the same day as Michael Jackson and thereby was upstaged in her death. I feel very bad for her and her family.
Michael Jackson… I will say right now I was not a huge fan. I did not listen to the Jackson 5 as a child. However, I was in high school when “Thriller” came out so to say he did not have an impact would be a lie. I remember I had a friend who had a jacket like he wore in the “Beat It” video, okay, not exactly like since hers was bought at Kmart and was made of pleather, but it was as close as anyone was going to get in my tiny rural hometown. We were all very jealous. The “Billie Jean”, ‘Beat It’ and “Thriller” videos (especially the “Thriller” video) were shear genius and changed the world of music videos. This does not seem like much, but take a look at some of the other videos released around the same time; some of them were really quite dull (J. Geiles Band’s “Centerfold” is a prime example). It was exciting to watch the videos. The music was pretty good, but truthfully, the Michael Jackson song I liked best and still like to this day is “Billie Jean”. It has a great tune, it has interesting lyrics and I always like the imagery (especially the line I used for the title of this posting) which he used. To me, “Billie Jean” really represents what fame brings; the idea that you could meet someone once and suddenly, they want a piece of you.
However, I think one can not overlook the fact Michael Jackson spiraled out of control in the late 80s. I remember saying to someone that he needed someone to tell him no. I think when you have tons of money and fame, it is easy to surround yourself with people who agree with you and allow you to follow every whim. A person should not follow every whim; it leads to certain despair and doom. And I think that is what happened in Mr. Jackson’s life.
Still, it is sad that someone should die at 50.
Speaking of that, I heard this morning that Billy Mays (the guy from the Oxiclean ads) died over the weekend, he was also 50 and apparently he died of a bump on the head. This is very sad to me because, well, he was very amusing. I actually have been following his ads for a while. I remember several years ago he was in an ad for some sort of glue and he had obviously gained a little weight and I made a comment that he must be doing well since he was eating better. I think I was probably one of a few people who even noticed. I know, I know, there is something wrong with me. It is sad that he too is gone. And let’s face it, there will be not be hours and hours spent discussing his influences. This, I think is too bad.
Okay, this is a really depressing post so far.
How about a little weekend update to cheer you up?
I finally heard from my mom on Friday. She wanted to get together today (Monday), but I have to work because it is the holiday week and we have to work the normal 8 hour days. So instead, we agreed to meet on 7/13 and yesterday (which I will get to in a moment).
On Saturday, we went out and picked strawberries. Much to my surprise and delight, The Girl said she wanted to come with. She has not gone berry picking with us in years. Of course, it rained quite hard during the night and so I knew the ground would be wet. What I did not expect, was that it would start to rain when we got there and we picked berries in the rain. It was not a hard rain, but it did mess up my picking prowess. Normally, I get into a certain Zen state and I can pick quite a lot of berries. This year, I was able to pick only 9 ½ pounds. The Girl picked more than me (10 pounds). The Hub picked 9 pounds. So there was a grand total of 28 ½ pounds of strawberries. Normally, The Hub and I pick more than that alone. There have been years when I have picked over 20 pounds by myself. My knees started to hurt and my glasses were very wet (which is always a distraction), so I gave up early. The Girl mocked me and we had to crown her “the hostess with the mostest”. It was shameful. I was thinking about going back and picking more, but we have a lot of strawberries already and probably do not need any more. I just want to redeem myself.
After berry picking we went to breakfast at Perkins (The Girl love Perkins, I personally can take it or leave it) and we had a really nice talk. It was a really good day.
On Sunday we went down to my niece’s house so we could see my mom. My mom had given me the address and some vague directions. However, she had told me the wrong town (which she denied when we got there). So we were running late anyway and then we were driving around in a totally different area. It was awful. The Hub and I got into a fight and basically, I was really crabby by the time we got to where we were going. Of course, everyone acted like nothing had happened over the last 9 months. On the phone, my mom had said it was all my SILs (my crazy brother’s wife) fault and that no one else had cared. They are such liars! However, I suspect my mom talked to them about it in her confused manner and they all knew what they had done and had to cover it up stat.
Anyway, we all sat outside as my family is wont to do and I got terribly sunburned. I knew we would be sitting outside and I can not explain why I did not wear sunscreen. I have no excuse. Everyone except The Baby got sunburned to one degree or another. I have not been this badly sunburned in a long time and I am in a lot of pain today.
Knitting News
I finished one arm of my Daily Sweater. I decided I wanted it to be a ¾ length sleeve since I wear that length a lot. However, I do not like how the cuff part looks. It was supposed to be 2 ½ inches, which is just too long for a cuff for me on a good day, but it would have looked bizarre on a ¾ length, so I only did 1”. I like the length, but it looks weird because of the increases, it sort of flares out at the end of the sleeve. I am thinking of ripping it back and doing it with fewer stitches per round.
I will let you know what I do. I do understand what they are trying to do with the increases, it is not supposed to be a tight cuff, but it is just really floppy. It is probably worse since I did not decrease all the way recommended in the pattern.
I figured out I need to do almost 400 yards a week in order to complete the 5K by the 1st day of fall. Maybe, I will have the deadline be the end of September. I will have to think about it.
I am thinking I will start my mom’s rug tonight and hopefully I could have it done by the time she is ready to leave. I will be seeing her the day before she goes. We will see.
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