Story Land Jamboree

Greetings to the Tribe!  I hope everyone is enjoying a great holiday season. (I'm sorry if holiday greetings sound trite or overused to some people, BUT kiss my fanny, I really mean it, anyway!)  In my local area, a few years ago, I used to have a weekly humorist-style column in the local newspaper that became rather popular. It was known as "The Story Hour." I have decided to get in my often amusing stories about my family -- and/or my own self-involved neuroses -- right here at the Storyland Jamboree blog. So .... if ya'll are game, then so am I. Today I may post more than one just to get us started. This blog started off as a writing inspiration blog and now I have decided that the best way to get myself writing is to do what comes most natural to me -- making fun of myself and those that I love.  To get us started, let me introduce you to my husband, Keith. See Keith? This IS his happy face, by the way.  I told the following story on Facebook a few mon

With little or no preamble this evening, I thought I would just let go with a stream of consciousness rant I penned earlier today.  I have found that silence has a unique presence. We all need daily doses of it to inoculate ourselves from being afraid of it. We crave sound these days because it is a distraction. We don't want to think and feel, or act upon, all the crap we see going on around us. If we spend some time in silence each day, we just might begin to loosen the cogs in our cognitive functions -- we might start THINKING for ourselves and awaken from our mind-numbing routines of work, home, sleep, eat, gossip, passive entertainments -- usually of the frivolous sort -- and DO something important. The simple act of reading a book, or taking a walk, or visiting a friend and having a real conversation, has become overwhelming for so many of us. I think the thing that frustrates me the most about humanity these days (and I speak for myself, as well) is the spectacular was