Monday Meanderings - Aug 9

A bald headed Red Bird comes to our feeder. This is a male, and male Cardinals are supposed to look like this:

Imagine, if you will this Red Bird with no feathers on its head. The head is completely black with just a very few tufts of  feathers; no top notch.  I tried to create that image for you with a paint program, but I'm not that skillful. To be sure, Mr Cardinal is rather embarrassed about being bald; he's not a frequent visitor and he stays only long enough to grab a seed and leave. I keep trying to tell him that getting old is nothing to be ashamed of, but I think he needs hearing aids too. Then again, perhaps it's domestic. Does the term "snatched him bald headed" mean anything to you.?

Here's a little something to casually drop into a conversation. This August has 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays, and 5 Tuesdays, all in one month. It happens once in 823 years!

This piece of flotsam floated by on the Internet. It is interesting.

How many words do you know that are listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]? Especially 2-letter words?

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and  fix UP the old   car.

At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.  To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped  UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it is soaked UP by the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now  ........my time is UP, so I'll shut UP.

Inscribed on the chalk board at Poke Jo's BBQ --- "Sleep until you are hungry; eat until you are sleepy." I think I just found a new philosophy of life.

And I leave you with what appears to be an ordinary snapshot. But I remind you that this is Austin. Look again.