Rhythmic Rhapsody

 

Rhythmic Rhapsody

Each night when I go to bed,

As I lay down my weary head,

The serenade of a beautiful love song is playing,

Encouraging me while I am praying,

Casting its spell, aiding my slumber,

A symphony of frogs croaking in number,

Rhythmic rhapsody filling a silent night,

On again, off again until the morning light,

The holding pond behind my home,

Offers wildlife a place to roam,

Canadian geese are often there,

 And Mallard ducks, a quacking pair,

The most unusual? … a group of otter,

Swimming playfully in the water,

Above the surface, a turtle quietly pokes its head,

While I am peacefully in my bed,

A world of delightful creatures, just outside my door,

Who could ask for anything more?

Tammy Harvey

8/7/2024

Bull or No?

 

That’s No Bull

Another story from our recent trip to Tennessee is worth retelling.  We made our way to Pigeon Forge from the Cades Cove area.  Cassie’s parents, Randy and Sande, however, who were meeting us there came from Raleigh, the opposite direction.  They had followed a GPS route that took them through some back roads to get there.  Sometimes GPS routes you way out of your way, but you may end up encountering something new.  Sande conveyed this story to us not long after we arrived.  She said they were out in the middle of nowhere (via GPS) and happened upon a little dog in the middle of the road.  Avoiding the dog, they proceeded and along the next stretch of road they encountered a large black bull standing in the middle of the road.  Luckily, they avoided hitting it too, but were pretty shook up by the siting.  At this point in her story, I asked her what she had been drinking and/or smoking.  I pretended to not believe such a silly story, but she promised that it happened.  What made her think of it was that the boys were watching Ferdinand on the television.  I could not help myself.  I hit here with a barrage of bull jokes, including “well, it’s a good thing your truck wasn’t red”!  For the next day and a half, I kept questioning the “bull” she had told us she saw.  I’d taunt her with: “Maybe it was a bull” or “Are you sure it wasn’t a bull?” when she would be having a conversation with me.  It’s a good thing that my son’s mother-in-law has a good sense of humor.  Recently, I found a set of vintage bull salt/pepper shakers during one of my thrifting outings.  Sande’s Birthday is in September and guess what she is getting from me?   It is fun to have an inside running joke with someone, especially if the jokes on them!
That’s no bull!

Tammy Harvey

8/7/2024

Chairlift to the Tip Top

 

Chairlift to the Tip Top

On our recent Great Smoky Mountain trip, we had intended all along to go to Dollywood.  As we arrived there, we decided to skip the amusement park scene and opted to go to Ober Gatlinburg instead.  It was my daughter-in-law Cassie and her two boys and myself that went on this grand adventure.  Ted and Rande were golfing at the Gatlinburg golf course.  Sande stayed in the room and kept baby Hannah.  By the way, Ted ended up beating his personal best and shot a 78 on a par 72 mountainous course.  He is still coming down off the elation that he felt.  Back to the story of Ober Gatlinburg.  A huge gondola that probably holds 75 people took us to the activities at the top of the mountain.  It was about a 15-minute ride and the scenery from that vantage point was amazing.  Charles spotted two black bears on the road below.  These were the only bears we saw on our trip.  There was a house built on the side of the mountain that was a copy of the original Barbie toy house.  Another house was called the stilt house and only 6 inches of the house was actually built on the ground and the rest was supported by stilts.  The ride up in itself was a treat, but at the top was an indoor skating rink.  Right away Charles wanted to go get on the ice.  He had taken skating lessons when he was 3 years old, so he was ready to try his skills.  They had small plastic apparatuses that could be used to assist in balancing while pushing it in front of you.  Charles got a hold of one of those and went cautiously on his way.  He only fell a couple of times before getting the hang of it.  Later, when Cassie and Grayson joined us, Charles pushed Grayson around while he sat on the pushcart.  Also at the top was a variety of challenging outdoor experiences.  There was a mountain roller coaster, mountain trail biking, a zipline, a rock-climbing tower, a jump pillow, a tube ride, swing chair ride, and a spider jump trampoline equipped with harness for doing flips!  They did many of these activities while I enjoyed watching.  The mountain roller coaster had a 2 hour wait time so that was unfortunate.  We were not willing to wait for Cassie and Charles to ride.  A large screen was positioned outside that offered news and sports.  The breaking news happened that President Biden had dropped out of the Presidential race while we were there.  It was one of those “where were you when” moments. My favorite attraction, however, was the chair lift.  We were already on top of a mountain, but not at the tip top.  The chair lift went to the tip top.  Cassie and Grayson rode together, and Charles and I rode together.  Only a metal bar across our laps separated us from the ground below.  It was a slow ride, and the view was incredible. I suppose we were only 20 ft off the ground. I wondered why I didn’t see sandals, cell phones, sunglasses or hats on the ground below. It would have been easy to accidentally drop something off the chair.  A bear was spotted up ahead of us.  The folks on the way down that we passed were all excited and telling us about it, but unfortunately the bear was gone by the time we arrived at that spot.  There was nothing at the tip top to see except the view and a tourist stand selling photos that they took of our approaching the top.  Charles wanted to have a picture of us kissing, so he held a constant lip lock on my cheek for what seemed like 5 minutes to ensure it was in the photo.  It was cute, but we passed on the photo and headed down again.  We were able to take our own photos because going up we were ahead of Cassie and Grayson and when we dismounted, we took a photo of their arrival.  The same is true when we returned to the bottom and Cassie took our arrival.  They sat in front of us on the way back.  The funniest thing started to happen as we descended the mountain on our chairlift.  The people we passed initiated games of rock/paper/scissors with the approaching chair.  Charles had a grand time playing this well-known game with the passing tourists.  In fact, he won with the majority of his games.  Grayson was also playing, and we could see him in front of us.  It was a reminder that ultimately, we are all in the same chairlift, dangling our feet above the ground, reaching for the sky and celebrating with strangers.  What a ride!

Tammy Harvey

8/7/2024

Strong Ears

 

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

You can’t make this stuff up.  That’s what I would call the story I’m about to share.  It happened on a recent mountain trip with my son Ted’s family.  They had just had a baby girl six weeks before to add to their two rambunctious boys.  It was their first long outing with three children in tow.  My son drove, his wife rode in the passenger seat, I sat next to the baby’s car seat and the two older boys were each in a car seat at the very back.  My job was rather easy because the baby slept most of the trip.  I mostly was the liaison between the front and back seats with an occasional pacifier replacement duty.  We had just left Tuckaleechee Caverns in Townsend, TN where we enjoyed a long and exhausting tour of the fascinating underground cave.  There were over 200 slippery steps to maneuver and various places where you had to watch your head.  Although I didn’t have to watch my head because I am the height of a fifth grader, it was exciting and educational too.  On our way back to our resort in Pigeon Forge, Cassie, my daughter-in-law suggested we take another more scenic route.  We wanted to see everything we possibly could on our travels.  It turned out to be a rather mountainous, winding road.  The nearly five-year-old, Grayson, in the back was looking at a phone and all of a sudden shouted out that he thought he was going to throw up!  Cassie handed me the first thing she could find to act as a “bucket” for him to use.  After all, we had borrowed her mother’s car for the trip, and it was our responsibility to keep it as clean as possible given we had 3 children to transport.  What she handed me to give him was a quart-sized soda cup half-filled with Dr. Pepper.  I quickly passed it to him, and he promptly tilted it to the side and spilled most of it on the car interior.  My son, in the meantime, was looking for a place to pull off to the side of the road.  I had purchased a book at the gift shop and had a small plastic sack available at my feet.  I hurriedly took the book out and handed the bag to Grayson for insurance that he might use it to throw up in.  He took it and without hesitation put one handle on his right ear and one handle on his left ear and then proceeded to wear it like a feed bag in front of his mouth!  It was hilarious.  Charles, who is seven years old corrected him saying he better hang onto it with his hands, or it would fall down if he threw up in it.  Grayson shouted back “NO, my ears are strong!” and continued to wear his makeshift throw up invention until we arrived back at the resort.  He didn’t ever throw up, but my son did have to clean up the Dr. Pepper that was spilled.  These are the moments that memories are made of!

Tammy Harvey

7/31/2024