I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Random

  • It’s Raining 3’s, Hallelujah!


    The basketball leaves Kaela Davis’s hands as she stands behind the line that separates the mundane from the magical; it seems to be suspended at the top of a long slow arc toward the rafters and then swish! comes down cleanly through the rim with the sweetest sound in basketball, the ball passing through the hoop with nothing but the grace of the shooter surrounding it.

    Wow – Davis was on fire yesterday for Coach Staley’s USC Lady Gamecocks as she was responsible for six 3-pointers to lead the 3-point parade of a Dawn Staley – era record of 16 during the Gamecocks win over Minnesota at home in the Colonial Life Arena. Allisha Gray had four more, and Ty Harris added three to help erase our memory of last week’s performance against Duke at their storied Cameron Indoor Stadium. We were six of twenty-three from the 3-point range in that less-than-stellar loss.

    Ugh. Pretty and I traveled to the Duke game last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on our first visit to Duke University – loved the campus.

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    We Believe in Diversity

    What’s not to like about a school that embraces diversity?

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    Morris Williams Stadium

    Or what’s not to like about a university that names a stadium after me and Pretty? Have mercy – our first stadium namesake.

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    Cameron Indoor Stadium

    Or a major university that refuses to cave to commercialism and leaves its basketball court just like it was when the pilgrims played on it?

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    The smiles of our selfie were before that game when we were still having fun “oohing and aahing” over the bleachers inside Cameron blissfully unaware of the dangers of another “away” game for us. Our record is not good with our favorite Lady G’s when we take to the road with them.

    Our first road trip was to the Final Four in Tampa Bay, Florida in 2015 where we played Notre Dame…and lost.

    Our second road trip was earlier this year to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the Round of 16 game against Syracuse…and lost. That was a LONG ride home.

    Which brings us to last weekend’s shorter trip to Durham, North Carolina for the Duke game that, as I said earlier, we lost.

    Three road trips…three losses…we were talking yesterday about going to Savannah, Georgia next week for the game against Savannah State, and our Basketball Buddy Garner threatened to take away our car keys. Please don’t go, he said. I just can’t take it any more.

    Hm. Something to mull over.

    In the meantime, It’s Raining 3’s, Hallelujah!

     

  • Merry Ho-Hum


    And so this is Christmas at Casa de Canterbury…Pretty had to make an unexpected trip to Florida to drive her father to see his brother this week, and Spike and Charly are left with me during the holiday season.

    As you can see, they are not hopeful for Merry Ho, Ho this week without Pretty.

    duke-trip-and-potpourri

    The weather outside is frightful, and my dear, you’re not delightful…whenever did my fun become pain? Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain. Sigh.

    Come home soon, Pretty – we are all struggling without you.

     

  • Today is the First Day of…


    …the rest of your life? Exactly….but today is also the First Day of December which means Christmas music, holiday parties, magical outdoor lighting and indoor decorated trees, Santa sightings, frantic shopping sprees, too many cookies – not enough fiber, too much eggnog – not enough water, too many rum cakes – not enough veggies…too many reindeer – not enough sleighs.

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    Annual Cookie Walk in Montgomery, Texas

    Ellen’s busy giving away the farm with her Twelve Days of Christmas, and Pretty is busy wondering why we aren’t in the audience for one of those days. I told her we would make that part of our financial plan for 2017. As a matter of fact, we can make that the cornerstone of our financial plan for next year.

    So clearly in the spirit of the season, the president-elect is tweeting “we the people” our leadership gifts for the next four years.

    On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    a partridge in a pear tree –

     a promise to drain the swamp in D. C.

    On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    two turtle doves –

    (Breitbart Steve and Reince)

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    three guys named Mike –

    (Pence, Flynn, Pompeo),

    Breitbart Steve and Reince –

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    three billionaires and their Goldman Sachs adviser –

    (Betsy, Wilbur, Donald, Steven),

    three guys named Mike,

    Breitbart Steve and Reince,

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

    five Golden Tweets –

    three billionaires and their Goldman Sachs Adviser,

    three guys named Mike,

    Breitbart Steve and Reince,

    and a promise to drain the swamp in D.C.

    Ah, the joys of the holiday season in a presidential election year. I can hear the bells going jingle, jangle – or is that my nerves.

    Party hearty.

     

     

     

  • Suzanne (Part I)


     

    Thank you for Suzanne and all the other music you gave us. Rest in peace, Leonard Cohen.

    (Reblogged from February 28, 2014)

    Sheila Morris's avatarI'll Call It Like I See It

    Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

    You can hear the boats go by, you can stay the night beside her

    And you know that she’s half-crazy, but that’s why you want to be there.

    And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her,

    She feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China

    Then she gets you on her wave-length and lets the river answer

    that you’ve always been her lover.

    And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind

    And you know that you can trust her,

    for you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

    ————- Leonard Cohen

    Alrighty then.  Why Suzanne?  Why Leonard Cohen?  All I can tell you is that my friend Donna and her partner Jenn served delicious fruit as a healthy dessert choice to go with the German chocolate…

    View original post 422 more words

  • A Little Good News and Sweet Dreams


    When I was a little tomboy growing up in Grimes County, Texas, which was one of the poorest counties in the rural southeastern Piney Woods side of the state, my dad’s brother, my Uncle Ray who lived in the big city of Houston, was a huge country music fan…and when I say huge, I do mean huge. He was like the most faithful Saturday night radio Grand Ole Opry  and Louisiana Hayride kind of country music fan.

    The rest of my family was luke-warm to what are now considered the country music classics because they were all gospel music folks, snow white Southern Baptist church music kind of folks: quartets, singing conventions on Sunday afternoons with dinner on the grounds, Baptist Hymnal songs played on the organ and piano on Sunday mornings for the congregational singing.

    Out of that place I began to sing solos in the little country church we attended before I could read the words to the songs. My mother taught them to me by repeating the words over and over until I could remember them. Then she would have me stand on a little folding chair on the floor just below the minister’s pulpit on Sunday morning to sing the “special music” for the service while she accompanied me on the piano.

    I could look out on a congregation of maybe 50 people that included my two grandmothers, my dad, my grandfather, and at least two of my uncles…sometimes one more if my Uncle Ray came from Houston for Sunday lunch at my grandmother’s house. They all beamed back at me with love and great appreciation for my singing talents.

    So much so that my Uncle Ray paid me the highest compliment he could give me one Sunday when I graduated to standing without the chair and actually was able to read the words to the music on my own. I must have been around eight years old at the time.

    Sheila Rae, he said, you sing as good as Patsy Cline. You should be on the radio on the Opry or the Louisiana Hayride.

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    Well, now this suggestion made quite the impression on my prepubescent self – remember this was in the 1950s before American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, The Voice and reality TV – and that comment sparked my interest in country music that has lasted for the past 60 years. Could I sing as well as Patsy Cline? Clearly not, but I could fall in love with her music.

    In times of trouble and deep distress, therefore, I am more apt to listen to George Jones than I am Hootie and the Blowfish or the new country sound of Darius Rucker. Yesterday I resisted MSNBC, Blue Bloods, In the Heat of the Night, a tennis tournament in Singapore, Ellen and Sharon Osborne… and found myself with the Country Classics. It was good for what ails you.

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    Here’s a portion of my playlist…

    That Woman I Had Wrapped Around My Finger

    Came Unwound

    (George Strait)

    A Wound Time Can’t Erase

    (Stonewall Jackson)

    Blue Moon with Heartache

    (Rosanne Cash)

    It’s a Long, Long Way to Georgia

    (Don Gibson)

    If I Miss You Again Tonight

    (Tommy Overstreet)

    Ghost Riders in the Sky

    (Johnny Cash)

    Sweet Dreams

    (Patsy Cline)

    I Met a Friend of Yours Today

    (Mel Street)

    Don’t Fight the Feelings of Love

    (Charley Pride)

    Together Again

    (EmmyLou Harris)

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    The Right Combination

    (Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner)

    A Little Good News

    (Anne Murray)

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    I’ll let the titles do the talking.

    Until we meet again, I leave you with this Irish blessing: may all of your troubles be less and your blessings be more and may nothing but happiness come through your door.