Bogged down, blogged down

Grover is in the pits.  The tar pits.  He has fallen, and he can't get up.  I can really feel the suck of the asphalt immobilizing the Sesame Street inaction figure in the condo parking lot.  My walking buddy and I discovered Grover on our walk right after the rain ended this noon.

Sucks, mired, immobilized.  Sounds like my life lately, and it is time to pull myself out.

I'm starting a bucket list just so I can put the La Brea Tar Pits on it.  For now my bucket is half full of rubber bands, not half empty.


© 2012 Nancy L. Ruder

Recording reading to toddlers

Unearthed a box of cassette tapes deep in the closet today, and found a joy. When my oldest son was about eighteen months old I made a recording while I read several of his favorite stories and poems to him. The goal was to make a good tape for settling down at naptime. I also wanted to record one particularly annoying book about Bert and Ernie and a wrong telephone number so I would never, ever have to read it again, and wouldn't feel too guilty if the book somehow disappeared.

The joy was hearing tiny Jeffy talking as I read. He was pointing out some of the pictures, naming the animals and characters--"lamb", "children", "pweeceman small". It brought back wonderful memories. I wish I had recorded more, and done the same with my other sons.

© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder

Teeny Little Surfer Guys

Sesame Street debuted in 1969, when I was in my teen babysitting career mode. I made between thirty-five cents and a dollar per hour babysitting. My young charges were sometimes allowed to watch Sesame Street or Mister Roger's Neighborhood. My own kids watched Sesame Street sometimes, but they preferred Reading Rainbow. I did too, since it encouraged development of a longer attention span.

There are three songs* from Sesame Street that pop into my brain uninvited. One is the Teeny Little Super Guy. Had to confer with colleagues of similar age to come up with the visual memory of the Guy when my class started work on their teeny little surfer guys for our Surf City art project. Our Surf City is also inspired by last year's movie Riding Giants, which should have been on my list of cool movies this week, and by Gloria and Ted Rand's picture book, Aloha, Salty. That's why you'll see some surfing puppies if you look real close.



Female Singers: Teeny Little Super Guy
Pops right up before your eye
He's no bigger than your thumb
Teeny Little Super Guy: Snap your fingers, here I come
Now stop me if you've heard this one...



*The other two Sesame Street song flashbacks:

Takes a lot of little nuts
To make a jar of peanut butter
'Cause one peanut in a jar
Really doesn't go too far
Gotta crack and shell and mix 'em
There's no other way to fix 'em
Takes a lot of little nuts to do the job

and

I'm a dog
I'm a workin' dog
I'm a hard workin' dog
Hard workin' dog

Jan & Dean
Surf City
(Brian Wilson/Jan Berry)

I bought a pretty cool wagon and we call it a woody
(Surf City, here we come)
You know, it's not very cherry, it's an oldie but a goody
(Surf City, here we come)
Well, it ain't got a backseat or a rear window
But it still gets me where I wanna go
Chorus:
And we're goin' Surf City, 'cause it's two to one
You know we're goin' Surf City, gonna have some fun
Yeah we're goin' Surf City, 'cause it's two to one
You know we're goin' Surf City, gonna have some fun, now