Hodge Podge - Volume 82

It is Wednesday again and that means Joyce is serving up another weekly helping of Hodgepodge.  She has given us the questions and it is our job to answer them, link back to her, and read the others responses.  Are you up for a good challenge and to find out interesting facts about people.....if so...click here and check out Joyce's post with her answers.

1. Summer officially rolls in with the Hodgepodge this week, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. What song says summer 2012 to you?  Because I just got back from Niagara Falls, Canada and witnessed Nik Wallenda cross the falls on a tightrope my song would have to be Leon Russell's song, "Tightrope."  The whole time Wallenda was walking that song was playing over and over in my head.  Since that was the big kickoff of my summer vacation I guess it will be my Summer 2012 song.  Here are the lyrics and a link to the youtube video for you: 

I'm up on the tightwire
one side's ice and one is fire
its a circus game with you and me
I'm up on the tightrope
one side's hate and one is hope
but the tophat on my head is all you see
And the wire seems to be
the only place for me
a comedy of errors
and I'm falling

**Chorus**
Like a rubber-neck giraffe
you look into my past
well maybe you're just to blind to - see
I'm up in the spotlight
ohh does it feel right
ohh the altitude
seems to get to me

I'm up on the tightwire
flanked by life and the funeral pyre
putting on a show
for you to see

**Chorus**
Like a rubber-neck giraffe
you look into my past
well maybe you're just too blind to - see
I'm up in the spotlight
ohh does it feel right
ohh the altitude
really gets to get to me

I'm up on the tightwire
flanked by life and the funeral pyre
putting on a show for you to see

2. What's your favorite quintessential summer food?   That one is easy it is fresh fruits and veggies straight off the plant.  I also like something grilled to go with that.

 

3. I've spent a lot of time traipsing up and down the NJ Turnpike in recent weeks. Did you know the rest areas on the turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, and Gover Clevland just to name a few. Of those I listed, who would you most like to have known and why?  As a writer I would have loved to have sat down with Walt Whitman, Joyce Kilmer, and James Fenimore Cooper just to get some hints on their writing styles and techniques.  As a woman/teacher I would have loved to have met Clara Barton. 

4. At what age did you move out of your parent's house and what prompted the move?  I was 19 and I came to Alabama to attend Auburn and help take care of my grandmother. 

 

5. What's more satisfying to you-saving time or saving money?  I personally like them both but saving money is my all time favorite.  I have found in life that when you save time....someone else has to pick it up somewhere down the road.  I love a good bargain!

6. Name something you think brings out the good in people. Wow!  This could be an endless answer and something as simple as a smile.  For me, a smile, a hug, respect, courtesy, kindness, are things that definitely bring out the good in me. 

7. This last question comes to you courtesy of Kathy over at Reflections...will you be taking a vacation or a staycation this summer? If so where will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?   I have started my summer running.  I have been to the beach for a week with Frank and some of our good friends.  I just got back from Niagara Falls after a long weekend girl trip called KLAMS (KLAMS stands for Karen, Linda, Amanda, Melissa, and Susan).  We started this last year and went to Martha's Vineyard....we AND got to see Nik Wallenda cross the falls. 

 

8. Insert your own random thought here. Today is June 20th and that means it is the Summer Solstsice.  In keeping with Joyce's summer theme do you know what Summer Solstice is?  Well....if you don't...Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 7:08 EDT will mark this year's summer solstice, the exact time when the sun is the farthest north in the sky and directly above the Tropic of Cancer. Even though the solstice is the longest day of the year and the first day of summer, it doesn't tend to be the warmest.