Chicken Hawks and Podcasts....

NaBloPoMo #5

And Getting That Look From the Daughter

I talk to myself a lot. And I sing to myself. And sometimes I make up words about what I'm doing or thinking and put them to well-known tunes. (Doesn't everyone?!?) My family is used to it. I think it is therapeutic. I try not to talk to myself when people are around, but sometimes I forget. I try not to talk to myself when just my husband is around because he thinks I'm talking to him and will say, "What?" And then I have to interrupt my one-way conversation with myself to say, "Nothing, I was just talking to myself." Talking to myself is a stress reliever, I believe. When I'm puttering around the house, cleaning, putting away laundry, cooking, doing dishes, I talk to myself, and I feel relaxed. I wonder if a study has ever been done on the benefits of talking to oneself. 

Anyway, this evening Thomas had gone to bed, and Eler Beth had just gone to her room to do pet things before getting herself ready for bed. I was puttering around and thinking to myself (not talking) about what I needed to do before I sat down to do my blog post and then go to bed. Thomas had brought Eler Beth some pretty guineafowl feathers he'd picked up at a friends' house today (they happen to raise guineas) and what looked like a hawk feather and had given them to Eler Beth right before he went to bed. She likes things like that, and we like to use them in decorations. So anyway, their conversation about the feathers from earlier that evening was going through my mind too.

Eler Beth came out of her room and handed me a big 4-cup scoop that we use to measure out the dogs' food and that she'd forgotten to put away earlier. I thanked her, took it, and she turned to go back to her room. At least I thought she had turned to go back to her room. I turned to go to put it away and I thought of the little chicken hawk (Henery Hawk) in the old Foghorn Leghorn cartoons.

In a high-pitched voice I started to say what he said in the cartoon. "I'm a rootin' tootin', lasso-loopin', shotgun shootin'....(changing to my own conversational voice) no, wait, that's not right. (changing back to the Chicken Hawk's voice) I'm a rootin' tootin', lasso-loopin', six-gun shootin'....(changing to my own voice) No! That's not right either. Haha. What was it now? Oh yeah! (Changing back to the chicken hawk's voice) I'm a rootin' tootin', lasso-loopin', popgun shootin' Chicken Hawk! (back to my own voice) Ha! That's it!!"

And turning I saw my daughter standing just a few feet away, eyeing me a bit sideways, a small tentative smile on her lips, expression clearly saying, "Has Mom lost her mind?" What she actually said was, "What...what are you doing?"

Well, I lost it, and so did she!

I told her I was trying to remember what the chicken hawk said. And then I told her how I'd messed up the last part twice and remembered it correctly the third time. She said she hadn't been able to make out what I had said the first two times I tried to say it. She just heard me start it, stop myself, mutter something to myself, and then try it again. Then at the end I said the whole thing and laughed a bit scarily! 

Ah well. Someday she'll be old. :)

So then, a few minutes later I sat down at the computer and decided I'd load my iPod before I did my blog post. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my little iPod Shuffle. I have books and magazines on there, newscasts, and lots of radio shows. I pulled up my iTunes library, plugged in my iPod and began to delete the podcasts I'd listened to and to load new ones.

While I was doing this Eler Beth came into the living room again and sat down and started talking to me about something. I continued moving podcasts from my library to my iPod while we talked. At some point neither of us was talking, and this is what I said, aloud, to myself -- and this is what she heard me say, aloud, to myself, without the benefit of knowing the context.

Said quickly and in an excited voice: "Oh wow! Williwaw! That's a completely new one to me. I almost always know the word and what it means, but I like to learn the origin. But williwaw! They threw a new one at me today! Cool! Williwaw! Wonder what that is?" 

And then I stopped babbling and looked at my daughter. She was looking at me askance again. 

"What are you talking about?!?" she said.

I was laughing so hard it took a few seconds before I could tell her. I pointed at my computer screen. " 'Merriam Webster's Word of the Day' podcast," I said. "Today's word is 'williwaw,' and I don't think I know that word. It's new to me, see?"

She saw.

And we laughed. And then I scrapped my other idea for tonight's blog post and shared this one instead. :)  And in case you were wondering, a "williwaw" is "a sudden, violent storm blowing offshore from a mountainous coast." 

Happy Blogging!

~ ~ Lori