I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Author: Sheila Morris

  • Hurricane Helene, Israel v Iran, lives well lived, first and 10 for Coach Walz tonight – and one special birthday

    Hurricane Helene, Israel v Iran, lives well lived, first and 10 for Coach Walz tonight – and one special birthday


    Headlines scary for high stakes happenings in the past week – my head is rotating at warp speeds that add well-defined layers to my general free-floating anxiety. Missiles in the Middle East, final sounds of a Sunday morning going down for British actor Maggie Smith and Texas songwriter/actor Kris Kristofferson, Hurricane Helene ravaging the states in the Southeastern section of the United States, a Veep debate tonight between a high school teacher/coach who became governor of Minnesota and a venture capitalist fiction writer who became a senator from Ohio. The mind races to absorb the twists and turns of a world gone mad in many ways to this nonfiction writer who actually voted for a President Jimmy Carter in 1976, a man who celebrates his 100th birthday today.

    But yesterday Pretty and I took a break from the troubles of Hurricane Helene which miraculously left us safe and relatively sound to spend the day with our granddaughter Ella who didn’t have school because the school had no power, her home had no power, but her grandmothers’ home was loaded with fun and power. How old will you be tomorrow, my darling girl? I’ll be 5, Naynay!

    All pool toys had been put up over the weekend, but Ella couldn’t wait for next year to christen the new pool liner so…out she and her Nana came for an afternoon fling on her birthday eve.

    Ella always brings the joy when she visits, and yesterday was icing on the “pretend” birthday cake. She and her Nana had fun with fashion shows, body paintings, gathering acorns while they might from our gigantic oak tree that withstood the winds of Hurricane Helene but mostly they both celebrated their love of the swimming pool. Brrrr is all I can say.

    I was thrilled when Ella finally allowed me for the first time in her five years to completely read a book that she chose. She loved it so much she asked me to read it again. The book? 101 Dalmatians.

    Soon she will be reading it to me. I can’t wait!

    Happy Birthday, Ella – your Nana and I love you to the moon and back.

  • hey, girls, raise your hands if you feel better?

    hey, girls, raise your hands if you feel better?


    Jill Colvin of the Associated Press reported yesterday (September 25th.) on former president Trump’s remarks in Pennsylvania two days earlier.

    On Monday night, Trump cast himself as a “protector” of women, saying in battleground Pennsylvania that he will save them from fear and loneliness and they will no longer have to think about abortion.

    “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today,” Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”

    Houston, we have a problem.

  • Morning Joe, Tennis Channel, or Sunrise?

    Morning Joe, Tennis Channel, or Sunrise?


    Every morning my dog Carl and I are the first creatures to stir in our household and, after his morning constitutional around the backyard, he takes his first nap of the day while I weigh my before-the-dawn-cracks television programming options.

    Third choice goes to the Tennis Channel if there is a “Live” match from across any Ponds with players I enjoy watching in a different time zone from our Eastern Daylight Time. Jet lag is my constant friend during the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon tournaments – and I never have to leave the comfort of my recliner in the den.

    Second choice belongs to Morning Joe, the MSNBC news show that begins a four-hour time slot at 6:00 a.m. with co-hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. Morning Joe would probably be #1 for me if it were Morning Mika and/or had producers with less interest in a former president who is a convicted felon. Ugh. Same old, same old.

    But my Number One early morning favorite goes to…(drum roll, please)… Sunrise! on local WIS TV-10 from 4:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.

    “Sunrise” team Jamal Goss, Intisar Faulkner, Chandlor Jordan (weather)

    I’m not sure what these young people drink with their coffee, but whatever it is, I’d like to have some. If they don’t enjoy what they’re doing, they hide it well with onscreen fun, shared laughter, corny jokes, subtle reluctance to deliver bad news. My cynical old self has been won over by these fresh smiling faces.

    Do you have a Top Three to start your day? Inquiring minds want to know.

  • Hey, Molly – Hey, what? Wanna play hooky?

    Hey, Molly – Hey, what? Wanna play hooky?


    Ask yourself. What would you rather do? Stew over 55 days remaining until Election Day in the US on November 5th., worry over wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, angst over California wildfires and Hurricane Francine, watch a Davis Cup tennis match between Spain and Czechia, write a blog post – OR would you rather play hooky with your 2-year-old granddaughter Molly and go to the zoo?!

    Molly and her Neena play in the best and biggest sand box

    I’m gonna catch you, Neena!

    Neena, you not a dinosaur!

    Neena and Molly take a breather after their wild escapades together

    Meanwhile, Naynay and Molly play a different game on the wide open spaces of grass at the zoo playground.

    I can do it by myself

    Naynay, don’t touch

    be careful, Naynay

    just before a gigantic fall

    Huge kudos to Pretty for service above and beyond during our zoo trip for carrying Molly all afternoon from one fun exhibit to another because Molly (who weighs 33 pounds) refused to walk for some strange reason known only to herself, asking for a stroller instead when we entered at the back gate. Pretty’s arthritic knee was killing her, but she soldiered on. I played the old age card whenever Molly reached for me, but Pretty and I both bemoaned not being able to find a stroller at the back entrance of the zoo when we came in.

    On the way out of the zoo while Pretty went to get the car to come pick up Molly and me, Molly flew to sit down in a stroller she must have spotted when we came in and was trying to tell us about it. Sigh. Double sigh.

    We also forgot to take water, apple juice, snacks, and anything else of importance. We had focused entirely on remembering our zoo membership card which was evidently our collective brains’ capacity.

    Let the good times roll. Happy National Grandparents Day!

  • Texas Spike, Carolina Charly and the new pool liner

    Texas Spike, Carolina Charly and the new pool liner


    Spike came to us on Worsham Street in Texas courtesy of neighbors Dana, Carol, Becky and Lisa who found him cowering in the street, managed to get him into our front yard with an original plan to find his owner, and luckily for us became a part of our family since that rescue in 2012. We had four other dogs back then, but Spike settled into the pack without struggles or discord. Pretty and I wonder together sometimes how in the world we had five dogs at once, but usually three of them stayed with me in Texas and two stayed with Pretty in South Carolina until we sold the Worsham Street home in 2014. Everyone hunkered down together then at Casa de Canterbury, selected their own best buddies in the pack, and mourned later losses as they went down the valley one by one.

    Old Man Spike slower but maintains patrol duties

    Charly was saved from a kill shelter in Columbia by Pawmetto Lifeline in the spring of 2016, turned in by owners not interested in trying to take care of her and her seven puppies. When we decided we needed another dog to keep Spike company (he was the last survivor of our five and did not like being the only dog), we went to Pawmetto Lifeline and were told all of her puppies had been adopted but she wasn’t. We took her home that day – I wouldn’t know how to act without her staying stuck to my side like glue 24/7. We think she’s probably 10 years old, still feisty, still barking at anyone who dares to come for a visit.

    Finally, for everyone who asked about our new swimming pool liner (fewer than I can count on two hands), we are pleased to announce the pool has been restored, renewed and ready for swims in two days.

    where did summer go?

    *************

    Two students and two teachers were killed yesterday in a high school in Winder, Georgia with eight more students hospitalized. Words like senseless, tragic, mind-numbing pain, sorrow mix with anger, futility, anger, frustration, anger, and fear in a battle of jumbled thoughts in my mind. None of the words adequately describe my feelings when I saw the 14-year-old alleged killer and his father this morning in court. A child who studied mass school shootings? Neither do I have adequate words for the families and friends of the deceased who sat in the courtroom to confront them. The unimaginable became the unthinkable.