We’ve had 5 days in the mountains at Little House in the Rockies.
What an incredible blessing.
Do we mind that it rained every afternoon?
In a word: NO!
There’s blog-writing to do. (Done! Finally back on track with a post every day; let’s see if it lasts after this vacation week.)
There’s tax-filing to do. (Done! Our return and the Musical Millennial’s, all on time for the July 15 deadline.)
There’s sausage-making to do. (Done! We took some of the Peppercorn Beef Sausage on our picnic yesterday. Yum!)
Books need to be read. (Done! Just finished the Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker, a taut, disturbing, intellectually challenging set of books.)
Birds need to be watched! There have been some new species this week, including the Northern Flicker, our first time to meet this bird. (You’ll meet him or her here soon, in a bird prom picture.)
Sitting and chatting needs to happen. The world makes more sense when we look out at the mountains, have our afternoon cocktail, and tell stories and test theories.
And Scrabble needs to be played! This post is about that.
Earlier this week, the Grill-Meister beat me in a Scrabble scrimmage by 1 point. He used the word “iliad”. I challenged this, thinking it was a formal name, like, you know, the book by Homer? Apparently, The Iliad has made its way into the vernacular as “iliad”:
1. A series of miseries or disastrous events.
2. A series of exploits regarded as suitable for an epic.
4. An epic in the Homeric tradition.
Who knew?! I was all proud because I thought Iliad was a proper noun, which is not permitted, so I lost my turn over an ‘iliadic’ challenge (I made that word up, so don’t try to use it in Scrabble). I also challenged the word “xi”, and several other non-word words (if you want my real opinion), which put me on my back foot.
But it rained again late this afternoon, and we once again had our Scrabble / Happy Hour / Birdwatching event.
Today, I reigned. Finally.
Out of respect for the Grill-Meister, I won’t quote my margin of victory. But let’s just say that we’ve been married for twelve years, and that we started playing Scrabble on a family vacation a couple of years before that when he whupped the whole family (he had “tux”, then “tuxedo”, then “tuxedoed”) and created a Scrabblized wound we will never forget) and that today’s event evened it out for me. I don’t think I’ve beaten him in all that time.
Wishing you great tiles that make great words during this pandemic isolation.
© 2020, Glover Gardens
Hilarious and great, Kim.
I knew it: You’re a natural-born flip-thinker!
Remember I told you about “Omdenken”:
https://omdenken.com/flip-thinking/
What if the problem (rain) was the purpose (things need to be done)?
I love flip thinking, and really appreciate the link! Most often, the problem can BECOME the purpose. You’ve actually just given me an idea for a work thing tomorrow – thanks!
Congratulations! I like the idea of afternoon cocktails too. I read Pat Barker’s trilogy some years ago – powerful stuff. I also saw the film of the first one (I think there’s only been one film). The Craiglockhart Hospital Building is now part of Napier University in Edinburgh. I’ve been in it a few times.
I didn’t realize there was a film! I will have to check that out.
Regeneration, 1997 – just checked it out because I couldn’t remember who was in it. Spotted a couple of the Trainspotting actors before they were famous (not sure if that reference carries across the Atlantic!), and James McAvoy was way down the cast list (I think he translates). I knew Pat Barker before Regeneration as a novelist of contemporary social realism, set in my native NE England, so this historical trilogy came out of the blue for me.