Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop.
Kristi is our host each week and she invites us to share what we would, of the people, places and things that have caused us to feel gratitude. Now, lest my less-than-polished, passive-voice description of our theme suggest that this is a typical ‘gratitude ‘hop, I will say two things: Book of Secret Rules, videos from forty years ago and Boudreaux & Thibodeaux* That’s how not a one-of-654-plain-vanilla a grat hop this TToT is.
Seriously, if you’re still reading, (maybe you’ve stumble onto us by following a link from Lisa’s excellent blog or Pat’s always enjoyable ‘view from the upper left of the continent’), stick around! Better yet, join in. We guarantee that you will find something to make you smile or nod in identification with at least one of the talented writers who make this the best bloghop in the ‘sphere.
And then, there’s us, here at the Wakefield Doctrine. lol
1) Una →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→↓
2) Phyllis ↑
3) Wakefield Doctrine, cause sine qua non, yo, sine qua non.
4) ocean and weather and such
5) technology for the aforementioned environment not the least of which must be the power windows… this in a case of drive up, ‘roll down’ passenger side window shot and leave. All that being said, it was in the mid-50s at the time. Very pleasing.
6) The Hobbomock Chronicles speaking of which, watch this space for Episode Five. (Note of gratitude for the process of writing, or more precisely, the fun of research (pursuant to writing): the scene where our un-named real estate broker greets Victor Ross. I tried for hours to describe the physical interaction. Couldn’t get happy with anything, then lying in bed, running the scene through my head, thinking, ‘ok, this is all 21stC gangsta greeting, with all the superfluous waves and gestures… our protagonist is trying to be a real thug…. it’s a ‘thug hug’! Needless to say, I jumped out of bed to write it into the current draft. Then, being a clark, I searched the term ‘thug hug’ and there it already was! Take that Carl Jung… ain’t no minimum time limit for archetypes yo!) Be sure to check back here, mid-afternoon today. Should have Episode Five published. And tell your friends and share it (I post ‘the Chronicles’ separately on ‘the Facebook) and remember to sign up for auto notification and such.
7) whole-house generators… the day of Grat #4 started out rainy with rising temperatures, (from high thirties to mid fities), then the wind grew as the rain stopped and the sky cleared. For our area, southern New England, it was a typical progression: wind out of the southeast (warm) clearing skies, then coming around out of the west/northwest which means increasing wind speeds and decreasing temperatures. The video was from the excellent in-between phase sunny, warm(ish) and windy.
oh, yeah and it blew down trees that knocked out the power through most of our area. The generator? As I drove home, through a suburban graveyard of darken and powerless homes, I caught a glimpse of artificial lighting through the woods that surround our house. Our driveway is long, but my smile was broad as I hit the button of the garage door opener and…. it opened. (“Quickly, sire! The neighbors are restless corpses, you will be safe and warm within, as soon as I close this door.”) The power stayed off from that afternoon until the next morning. Phyllis and Una and I stayed inside, warm and illuminated. Around us, the desperate shriek of small, just-enough-for-the-furnace-and,-ok-one-TV, portable generators, filled the night as we… hey! I used this music video just last week at Kristi’s FTSF, but what the hell, it’s totally appropriate to this week’s TToT. (“Yes, dearly beloved, clark’s life was a hodgepodge of coyly-appropriate and inferential music videos. We’ll so miss the impromptu musical score of his admittedly err peculiar adventures. Now, let us all rise and, in final tribute, hum the melody to….”)
Grateful for the good fortune of having an automatic generator that turns itself on when needed and off when it’s time to rejoin the world around us.
8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE In case anyone has a semi-drive to participate, but would prefer a taste… this is your chance! Send in your Grat Item, I’ll scootch these words off to the side and presto printo! TToT for your sampling! Try it!
9) something, something
10) Secret Rule 1.3
* this is one of the features over at Mimi’s blog that she does each week, I believe on Sundays, so you’ll want to try today’s post over at ‘meanderings…. after you read our TToT posts, of course.
music of some sort As discovered in the Grat Item 7, surely this says it best about our evening “in the velvet darkness”
(since we’re in the mood)
About clarkscottroger
Happy TToT. The photo of Phyllis and Una makes me smile. Hehe.
As for the generator. Oh lawd, reading that brought back memories. Memories of a 2008 snowstorm that left FEET of snow on the ground, and the branches on every tree droopy with wet weight that eventually snapped most trees and powerlines in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We didn’t have power over 9 days going from Christmas to New Year’s. We’d never been in a situation like that before, and let me tell you, it SUCKED. I will full-on admit that the pioneering lifestyle seems like a lovely idea until you have to hike up a mountain to get water from the well, put water in the toilet every time you need to use it, store all your refrigerated goods in the snowbank, and bundle up in 12 different layers so that your extremities don’t fall off from frostbite. Then there’s the cooking of a meal..more hikes up the mountain to get water. Clean a dish? Hike for more water. Then there was the task of driving over fallen trees in your old 4×4 truck to go get more propane filled in the only tank (and object) that didn’t use electricity to generate heat. That was when I decided – even though we lived there another five years – that modern life suits me very well, thank you very much. Don’t get me wrong: I still love camping trips and roughing it. But generally it’s on MY terms, not when I’m at home and need to get things done: working electronically from the computer, doing laundry, counting on the running water to work. Yup. We got a household generator after that. And in those five years, we didn’t need to use it. 🙄 I mean I’m grateful, but…Now that we live in the city we don’t have a generator. We live so close to downtown that when the power does go out, in the four years we’ve lived here, we’ve figured out quickly that we get our power back on fast. The longest we’ve had it out was a few hours. We have a fireplace and a covered grilling area and a portable generator…we’ll probably be okay in the apocalypse. 😝
We lose power about three times a year (for a significant length of time)… not a fan of no electricity. As you know, when you’re on a well, if you lose electricity, you lose plumbing (pronounced: ‘Bathroom,’) lol
When we invested in the whole house generator, we were prepared to have uninterrupted power for years (that happened when we bought our first, portable generator)… but not this time. Well worth the investment relative to frequency of use.
Great TToT – linking the magical to the daily.
Thank you
Una is waiting patiently for dog food. :)
She is good like that… sit, wait no pestering as she knows that we would never forget her meals.
Una is so patiently waiting (I think, but in reality I am not able to hear any of her vocalizations. HaHa)
After your comment on my TToT, seeing the Rocky Horror Time Warp video made me laugh. Their “exercise routine” is considerably more active than anything I am attempting. 🤪
So glad you have that generator to rely on during the stormy conditions and power outages.
I know, right? ;p. (“It’s just a jump to the left!”)
I was just commenting to Carin, Una does not make any noise regarding meals. Only when she needs to alert us to nearby squirrels or rabbits or deer. Or the hated cat. (If I had audio recordings of her barking you would totally know when she was barking at cats versus other annoying but to be tolerated animals.
That whole house generator must be nice. The other day I was in Costco when the power went out (briefly, before the generator kicked on). In that brief time in the dark, another customer noted that at least we wouldn’t run out of supplies!
the cool thing about this generator (compared to our previous one) this one I don’t have to start, or stop for that matter* once it senses a loss of power it starts itself up.
*the decision to turn off a generator is often a pain, you have to try and decide if the neighbors lights are from their generator or the restoration of power…lol this one will turn itself off when the power has been on for long enough for it to decide its not needed.
Having a generator does come in handy. Love the list.