Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
What grades do you think of when you hear the expression, ‘old school’ (as in, ‘time to go a little old school’ or ‘that’s so old school, I love it!’)? I’ll be ever so grateful if it turns out that most of you picture grammar school in your heads and then laugh to yourself and resolve to write a comment. (1) For our new(er) Readers/TToTeer’s getting used to the circus-car-full-of-clowns that comprise the Rules, Exceptions, Options and Exceptions that are not only permitted, but encouraged, here at the bloghop-that-Lizzi-built, let me remind you that, for those more difficult weeks writing, we have the notion of hypo-gratitude… for example, ‘old school’ for me brings to mind ‘Our Lady of Mercy School’… run and taught by the sarcastically named Order of the Sisters of Mercy… I will be eternally hypo-grateful for those 6 years! (2). Speaking of ‘our Ms Rogers‘, she caused me to feel funny (in a good, but in no way creepy) when she tagged me on ‘the Facebook’ this week informing everyone about the elevation of ‘Frist’ to the status of ‘a Real Thing’! (3). My response was, (and seems to remain), “hey! cool!” which is saying something for a clark, right? (4).
Totally grateful for the ‘Gravity Challenge’ crewchristine, kristi, lisa, val, joy… they totally get me up in the morning. (5) Also grateful in a truly ambidextrous way for zoe (and her fairy blog mother, Josie) for her weekly dose of ‘hey grass hopper, go out and bring in the hibachi‘* aka Six Sentence Stories. (6) For reasons not quite clear, I hesitate when I try to express how much I welcome the opportunity to ‘play with those more skilled’ (7)
The tree house and home project have been neatly interactive this week, i.e. there is a gully formed by a small hill about 10′ before the stairs to the treehouse, so what happens, as you approach the stairs, is the path dips and rises, the length about ten feet, max depth about 3.5 feet. I’ve decided that I need to fill that in and make the approach path level and all. My source of dirt is on the other side of the property, about 500′ away and so, for a couple of lunch hours this week past, I’ve come home, fed Una changed clothes and moved the earth. (About half way there, probably another 20 or so wheelbarrow-worth to go). (8). I’m grateful to Lizzi and the co-hostinae for their liberal approach to the time-honored gratitude list, in the form of this here bloghop, i.e. anyone with the proper attitude can write pretty much anything and no one will say, ‘hey! get with the program, that’s not how it’s done’, well that surely must be number (9).
Although I usually end with SR 1.3, I’ll go a little more explicit and say, ‘I’m way grateful for the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) not only for what it offers me as a participant and how it also challenges me as a participant. More to the heart of the matter, I’m grateful that it’s very existence brings out the quality that is within anyone who writes a blog (at least anyone who writes more than, I don’t know, 5 posts over, say, 3 months…that is probably where the curve starts to climb), the drive and desire for creating section of reality that is your own, like the clubhouse or indoors fort (usually constructed with large furniture and stolen blankets and, often accompanied by rules such as ‘can’t touch the floor’)… like that, only we’re adults now. well, sorta (10).
(oh man!! Why didn’t ya tell me this was Woodstock Weekend??!! well, here’s a little Joe Cocker… to get you in the mood while you dig out the tie-dyed t-shirts and fringe jackets and head bands! ) (young people? too bad… it was cool)
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Wow no 1.3 …goin old school on number 10! Which for me is cranky Sister Agnes at Precious Blood and the Sisters of St.Joseph.
Frist
fa…rist!
yeah parochial schools and blogposts! talk about shooting your 5,000 fishes in a barrel!
Yo, funny :)
hahahhahhahahahaaa…. love a loaves and fishes joke yo!
(I knew you’d enjoy it*)
* and get it, as the set up was a bit strained
Glad the tree house project is going well. Hoping to see Una up there!
will get photos, she does like to sit with Phyllis on the deck (off the treehouse)…pictures surely to follow.
The nonnumber10. Right there with you. And I do! Accept the self challenge inherent in #10. For my own damn self.
As to #7 – you realize that some forts have moats. It would not be unreasonable to build a structure to accomodate however, the fill idea is better.
Old school = high school to me.
Tree house? How have I missed out on a tree house?
… too you people are old enough to remember Woodstock (not that it was anything special per se…it’s just the strength and comprehensive-ness of the memory echos that it creates for those of us growing up in those days.*)
tree house: Phyllis got it into her mind that what we really needed was a real treehouse. So we have a treehouse (there are some posts back a few weeks to describe the process: contractor hired to put Phyllis’s idea of what a treehouse should be into plans and then to build the structure (Phyllis along with some of her favorite relatives did the siding work) and presto! treehouse
* yes, I accept that every generation has it’s iconic events and features… but we had Jimi Hendrix and Joe Cocker! lol
Treehouse? How wonderful! :)
yes…Phyllis is totally enjoying the concept and the reality.
frist!!! jeneay
…almost (this is a pretty quick crowd of Readers ’round here these days, can’t remember the last time I scored a ‘FRIST’ lol)
I enjoy the concept
and don’t care as much about the reality :)
I figure if I think I am frist, that is good
I concur! (happy Woodstock Weekend!*)
* not that you’re old enough to remember it…. but still
I love, love, love your last paragraph, and I’m so glad that you agreed to co-host this madcap idea with me, and that we’re still going strong.
this is very true
OH! AND that you’re building a tree house. I’m a little envious.
So glad for the treehouse update. Can not tell you how envious I am. Even a playhouse on the ground would suffice. Just a little get-away. That’s what I am dreaming of.
Phyllis does find the very concept enjoyable (as there is no one living at the house who doesn’t remember the 70’s) but sometimes (often times) the concept is the thing.
Tree house? Intriguing. And cool.
I love the TToT for all the reasons here and more. Period.
Old school for me is a time I have no real claim on – I have aunts and uncles who are 5, 9, and 14 years older than I am. I grew up listening to their music, knowing their TV shows, their pop culture as well as my own. So to me old school equals all of that. Somehow that makes me feel better about the fact that the music of MY generation and specific childhood decade has long since moved into the “oldies” category. It’s sobering – and hilarious, really – to hit the “classic” stations on the radio and hear tunes from my childhood and teen years. Always makes me wonder how the hell those songs are “classics” because I most certainly am not old enough to be one.
How’s that for a digression?
excellent…. and I loved the synchronicity this week with the Joe Cocker
Hey! speaking of Joe Cocker, I made a discovery (I think) watching the video… you know how air guitar was the rage in the 1980’s? well… Joe was like 20 years ahead of his time! what him in the video… the gestures and hand-and-arm stuff? he’s totally playing guitar! We have to tell the world! It’s like discovery that there is a really big pyramid buried next to the Great Pyramid of Giza!!
(yeah, I enjoy the digressioning!)
I am looking forward to photos of that there tree house!
Dirt moving is no easy task. I’ve been doing it quite a bit this summer. It has got to help with the gravity challenge! (Although, my numbers haven’t exactly proven that theory…)
hot off the presses!
(for me the exercise serves to burn the newly added (and necessary calories of, say, lunch)…. then whatever I might do for main meals is more controllable and not get into trouble eating too little which has a side-effect of nodding off in the middle of work)
I understand now, how you keep that gravity number in check, moving barrels of dirt and the like. Your snarky little crack about the sisters of Mercy made me laugh. While I did not attend Catholic school, I did teach in one for awhile. Friday was Bingo and the kids were banished from the cafeteria to the classroom for lunch. Lest they be engulfed in a cloud of smoke. (The cigarette kind, not the incense kind). There you go, you got me remembering old school days.
I find it really helps to ‘match’ exercise with calorie intake, (if I can afford the time, then having lunch at home allows me to work off the calories before returning to the office)
I really am looking forward to seeing that completed tree house. Perhaps I’ll have one of my own in the next house.
The picture below is close to complete. at least for this season… Phyllis has opted for roll-up curtains/shades/bamboo somethings for the windows… maybe something in a sliding door… on-going and such
I love, love, love that tree house! That is so “cool.” Now that is an old-school expression from when it was a popular expression the first time around. Of course, I may be incorrect in saying that was the first time for it to be used (my generation). I remember talking about the shift dresses a lot of the girls were wearing and about how it was a new style. My mother said that they wore that style for a while when she was young! Now, I know that the styles, colors, just about everything keeps coming around every so many years.
very true (with there is nothing new under the sun)… and it’s kind of reassuring that a good expression lasts (for very different subsequent generations).
YAY for TToT and an old school tree house.
:-)
Okay, probably made no sense, but I am up late reading TToT posts and it sounds like perfect sense to me.
:-)
totally makes sense, but then again, this is the Wakefield Doctrine blog… lol
heheheheh!! Congratulations on being given the FRIST accolade!!
‘Old school’ makes me think of how Will Smith’s mother dresses him in his video for…I can’t think of the name of the song. Something from my childhood. Let me ask Brian–Parents Just Don’t Understand.
Old school…doesn’t that just mean the right way to do something??
sure… to someone who went to or taught at… lol, I hope the range of meaning includes, ‘hey! in times past, they manner we would approach (a thing, a person, 3 people, an institution or parking on the first date) would be. Though to be more specific (yeah, I know! why start now?!!) in the early days of the TToT when we first started veering off from the traditional convention of listing gratitude items as 1 through 10 in a simple vertical format. (Dyanne and and Christine show how elegant this style can be, in the hands of a skilled writer)… for me, variety has become the A1 Sauce of a badly cooked meal and so, the odd ways of presenting my list of Thankfuls.
I should stop typing now, I may accidently make a point and, well, you know, there goes the reputation!