A Very Grey Beginning...

....to 2023!  Whoa, baby, but where the heck is the sun?!  It's been rainy and gloomy all day.  I thought I had planned my daily walk pretty well to avoid getting drenched, but about two blocks from home, thunder rumbles erupted and then plooks of rain started and that was all she wrote.  I guess it's better than the snow we should be getting at this time of year, so I'll stop whining about it.

Side bar - when the forecast called for rain, my mom always said, "It's going to plook!"  Aren't family inside vocabulary and phrases a wonderful thing? My parents were both awesomely creative on that front.  My dad rarely called anyone by their given name.  If I'm going to be honest, sometimes he was pretty mean in the names he came up with, but the charming ones are the ones that I'd rather remember.  He called me Kris, Kriswell, Krisley, Kristmastree, Krissy.  I think he only called me Kristie when he was angry or trying to make a point. He called squirrels squirkels, cats feltons, and Eisenhower Eisenheimer. Mom was and still is much more respectful of all living things.  She preferred to call someone by their whole name, not shortened name, so Jim was always James, Rich was always Richard, Howie was always Howard.  She called teeth tzaners and unidentifiable floaties that shouldn't be in your drink fertisis.  Though my parents probably never should have married each other, they did share that love of play with language and passed it on to me and my sibs. Things come out of my mouth that are just part of my lexicon and that I don't even think about, I'll get a funny look, and then I'll happily explain what the heck I mean :-)

I hope your day is full of joyful, playful discovery.