December 21

Some soft looking clouds in our sky being battered around by the, back with avenges, wind. That same wind is aggravating the land dwellers somewhat too but not yet as near as it will by Friday according to the weathermen. They've suggested securing down all of anything outside including any Christmas decorations. "Well blow me down", may not be just a stupid phrase anymore after Thursday. We'll see.

Yesterday we picked up a few things and Sam's Club, a few at Big Lots and since we were so close to Sam's Town Casino we decided to pick up a little spare change there. It didn't work out that way but we didn't leave any either. That wasn't because none of our change is spare rather because we left with exactly what we went in with. Initially we both won some but greed overcame us and we played it back trying to double it. When we got back down to our carry in money we left. Shoot, that right there made us a winner!

Today is Glenda and Aunt Ruby's day out. A day where I stay home, cook my own meals and after a few need to dos, I read one of the books we've acquired.

Our five pomegranate trees out back has shed their leaves so I may out there with a rake. All I'll need to do is pull them out into the open and let the windy mother nature move them out. From our free and handy 'Gurunet' program I copied the following for you.

pomegranate (pŏm'grănĭt, pŏm'ə–) , handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum) belonging to the family Punicaceae, native to semitropical Asia and naturalized in the Mediterranean region in very early times. It has long been cultivated as an ornamental and for its edible fruit. The fruit, about the size of an apple, bears many seeds, each within a fleshy crimson seed coating, enclosed in a tough yellowish to deep red rind. Pomegranates are either eaten fresh or used for grenadine syrup, in which the juice of the acid fruit pulp is the chief ingredient. Grenadine syrup, sometimes made from red currants, is a flavoring for wines, cocktails, carbonated beverages, preserves, and confectionery. The astringent properties of the rind and bark have been valued medicinally for several thousand years, especially as a vermifuge. The pomegranate is now cultivated in most warm climates, to a greater extent in the Old World than in America; in North America it is grown commercially chiefly from California and Arizona south into the tropics. The fruit has long been a religious and artistic symbol. It is described in the most ancient of Asian literature. In the Old Testament, Solomon sang of an “orchard of pomegranates.” Because of its role in the Greek legend of Persephone, the pomegranate came to symbolize fertility, death, and eternity and was an emblem of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Christian art, it is a symbol of hope.

In my memory somewhere comes the word 'filler' to describe the last paragraph. Looks like it works fine for that as well as being educational.

"A good listener or reader is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something." -- Wilson Mizner, Author (with a word or two added?