Texting and The Messenger

This is our sweet granddaughter Kiley Renee', since birth the family has called her "Nay-Nay," or "Nay."  Our roots derive in the South, if you're a Southerner than you know that's it's mandatory that everyone in the family has a "nick-name."  As a child mine was "Katrinka," our friends even had nick-names by my parents.  "The Man" and our son Jared have the same nick-name........."Boo."  I can holler at "Boo" and either one of them will know by the inflection in my voice, which one should respond.  Stifles people how that works..........it's a Southern thing!

Recently our 10 year old granddaughter has learned to "text."  She is fascinated by her ability to communicate with the family without making a single phone call...........call it progress I guess.  Now I'll be the first to tell you that I was "never going to own a cell phone."  However, at much whining from the kids and my sister, I ended up with a cell phone  given me on a "heck of a plan, so it's FREE!"  "We're the Verizon family!"  My mother is on it, my sister, nephew, kids, husband...........just about anyone I care to talk to............sooooo, I'm part of the "texting," and "cell phone" world.  I admit, I'm a quick learner, I can take pictures(zoom in and out), save um', send um', and I can use Word to text(I'm actually getting pretty fast), I can add contacts, fill the calendar and have it remind me of "very important stuff," and I can even use vibrate(so I'm not disturbed with a cell tone in the middle of something important!).  Yeah, it's a pretty fascinating world we live in!

Every morning I get on my computer, rarely do I miss a day, and since I wake anywhere from 4a.m. -5a.m., I'm on-line before most of the U.S. When my darling granddaughter is done with chores for the morning, it's become our routine to "poke" one another on-line.  I actually love that she thinks of me immediatley, see's I'm on-line and starts sending me lil' pokes and jabs. I'll be typing away, checking out various "stuff" on-line and all of a sudden I hear the "pop."  Someone has sent me a message...........it's Nay-Nay.  She's discovered Yahoo messenger!  However, I did teach her(on-line) mind you, how to create an avatar, you know the lil' picture you create that has the words spewing out of it's mouth on messenger?  Yesterday, I'm surfing the web when I hear the ever familiar "pop," it was her.  And of course I had to send her a message back saying, "Oh no, not you again!"  That of course set her up for her favorite part of messenger..............poking fun at her "Nana." 

I actually hate that our granddaughter is growing up soooo fast, learning how to text, send text's via the internet, Yahoo messenger, talk about boys.................oops, did I say that?!  However, I love that she has a means to communicate with me without even picking up a phone, that we can chat daily, I can tell her how much I love her, to have a good day at school, stay away from the boys! 

Yesterday's chat did benefit me quite well, she asked me what I was doing for the day(she always does), I told her I HAD to clean house and I sure wish she could help me, I'd even buy her lunch.  She liked the idea of a lunch with her Nana, but didn't relish the idea of housecleaning.  Throughout the conversation through messenger, she must have asked her mother (the school teacher) if she could "ditch" school for the day, come out to the ranch, help her Nana clean house for a "free" lunch.  "Well I'll be" if Jessica didn't go with it(that was actually a bit short of miraculous for both Nay-Nay and myself) as Jessica is a strict parent, rarely bending the rules when it comes to her childrens education.  Once both of us were over the shock, I drove 17 miles into town, picked up my sweet lil' girl and drove her back out to the ranch. 

Clean house....................yes she did.  She scrubbed down the bathroom, dusted our bedroom and mopped both those floors for me while I attended to the remainder of the ol' homestead.  I paid up on my end of the deal as well, at noon we went to her favorite lil' Mexican restaurant in town La Concina de Evas.  She ordered a red chile cheese enchilada, a shredded beef taco and a side of beans, and "yup" she ate every bite and downed it with a Dr. Pepper.  Afterwards, we came home and played several games of backgammon, she whipped my butt by the way, she even backgammoned me the first game.......ouch!

So, technology...........not always a BAD thing.  This technology has allowed me to stay closer to a lil' girl that is growing up quickly before my eyes.  I know that when she becomes a teen-ager, I'll probably be the last person she text's, messenger's or whatever may be the newest, latest wave, but for now.............text/mess away "Nay."  I love you more and the most!

The Resurrection Fern

I am at my best in the mornings, I'm happy, ready to greet the day, and feeling positive. I'm definitley a morning person.

Routinely after my morning chores I sit down to my computer for news updates, email, banking/bill paying, and of course blogging.  Listening to music is essential to my morning.  I have a terrific radio station I've been listening to for quite awhile , it's an internet station out of the U.K. 

As I'm aging, I'm  more into music that evokes emotion, earthiness, acoustical, pastoral.............FOLK!!  Particularly, Indie Folk music. Indie folk music arose in the 1980's and 1990's from singer/songwriters affected by indie alternative/rock music.  Festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella demanded the genres rise.  It's a musical style primarily categorized by "independent" smaller music labels supporting progressive folk music artists. I'm sure this genre of music appeals to me because of the many, talented musicians I lived among, hung with, and was friends with,  in Northern California many moons ago. 

One morning while listening to my radio station, I heard a song that truly hit me to the core....."Resurrection Fern," a twangy, haunting, folksie, pastoral, radiant...............song.  It's the epitome of "indie genre" and I fell in love with Iron and Wine, especially the poet Sam Beam.  I can actually say, "I want to mother his  children"................o.k., well maybe not mother his children but pretty darn close. 

After listening to it several times I pulled up a botany website, this is what I found about
the "resurrection fern."  

Biology of "resurrection fern" :

a resurrection fern is an epiphyte(non-parasitic, does not grow in the ground, like the ghost orchid) that grows on the branches of cypress and live oak trees.  It's name is derived from it's ability to survive long periods of drought.  When there is no rain, the ferns will curl up their undersides and turn brown, appearing dead.  Then, when the slightest bit of moisture is present, it will immediately "resurrect" and restore itself to it's rich green color.  With ferns most water is absorbed on the undersides of the leaf blades, making the resurrection fern particularly clever.  These plants can lose almost all their water which is needed to hydrate cells and still survive.  Botanists have long held that the resurrection fern could go 100 years with out water and still revive after just one rain shower.

It's hard not to see how this remarkable plant can translate into our own lives. It's a beautiful thing to ponder, but today I'll let you draw your own conclusions.............listen to the song...............!

'Resurrection Fern'

In our days we will live

like our ghosts will live:

pitching glass at cornfield crows

and folding clothes.

Like tubborn boys across the road

we'll keep everything:

grandma's gun and the black bear claw

that took her dog.

When sister Laurie says, "Amen"

we won't hear anything:

the ten-car trains will take that word

that fledgling bird.

And the fallen house across the way

it'll keep everything:

the babys breath

our bravery wasted and our shame.

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire

both our tender bellies wound in bailing wire:

all the more a pair of underwater pearls

than the oak tree and the resurrection fern.

In our days we will say

what our ghosts will say:

we gave the world what it saw fit

and what'd we get?

Like stubborn boys with big green eyes

we'll see everything:

in the timid shade of the autumn leaves

and the buzzards wing.

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire

our tender bellies wound in bailing wire

all the more a pair of underwater pearls

than the oak tree and the resurrection fern.