After a rough night with Buddy, I decided to stay home this morning from church. It is a beautiful morning with a breeze. The sun is fighting through the clouds to make a full appearance and the sun seems to be winning that battle today. Since staying home from church gave an easy feel to the morning, it seemed best to tune in via Zoom to the Dayspring Life Bible Study class at HFBC. Dena began the book of Isaiah and her lesson was great. So fun to see familiar faces on the screen. It was also the first time back to meet in person. So there were people in the classroom as well as on Zoom.
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The fog is lifting outside and the fog inside is lifting as well. On my second cup of coffee. When I went out back this morning, just a few of the fam were there. Always throws a bit of a scare in me when the ones who are usually waiting on treat time aren't visible even after whistling the food call. The little kittens have discovered the front deck and some wild games of chase were happening. Punky finally showed up but she came from the gravel road. Lately, they have been staying away from the allure of that area, only Mama Cat going that way. She must have a safe place to still be alive after all these years, which is only three years in November but that is a lifetime in feral years. Mama Cat still gives me a morning hiss or two yet she is trying, or it looks like she is trying, to be friendlier towards me. She doesn't rub my legs like some of the others but she now sits near to where the food is being prepared. She is even meowing at me in a very quiet tone, so progress is being made. After doing my chores, garage cans to the road, pulling weeds and sweeping, I stayed out an played a bit with the older and younger kittens. The fishing rod broke, so I improvised with play toy on a stick. The young ones almost had no fear of me as they chased the gold and purple cat toy. When I pick them up finally, I want to be prepared, so I am seeing ways to catch them.
Saturday night Reelz TV had a documentary on Lucille Ball. During the years I have read a myriad of books on her life, books specifically focused on I Love Lucy, and a few memoirs by those who worked on the show. There was a time I knew a lot of trivia about her and the show. The tele-prompter was invented by one of the writers on the show, the three cameras filming was Desi's idea and he knew the show would be much funnier if they had a studio audience. Lucy could hold a pose or contort her face to get the laughs. The documentary focused quite a bit on life for Lucy after I Love Lucy...divorcing Desi, meeting Gary Morton, and doing her Here's Lucy etc kind of shows. In life Lucy was not funny, like being witty or telling a story, but she knew what to do while the film was rolling. She was precise in her comedy and micro managing on others to get the best out of them. It is well documented that she and Vivian Vance had a love/hate friendship. Vivian was the perfect Ethyl to Lucy but on Here's Lucy, Vivian got tired of the same ol' stuff, recycled story lines and the like. After three years she stepped away and didn't appear except for a handful of times. She had remarried and lived in Conn so her interests had diversified. Because Lucy depended on slapstick humor, as she aged, she couldn't do all the things she used to be able to do. I think the saddest part of her life is when Aaron Spelling and Gary Morton talked her into doing another sitcom when she was 75, in the 1970's. I don't even remember it nor do I think I ever watched it. They filmed thirteen episodes which only eight were on. ABC axed it quickly. The critics and many fans criticized the show and Lucy, as told on the documentary, was hurt. Her first non successful show. They showed a few clips from the show and you know how you get embarrassed for someone, well that is how it felt. She was still trying to do her "act" and it didn't age well. She still wore her hair bright red, too much eye makeup. The over-reaching acting in those few clips...
These days there are times I say something, maybe it is a funny I have said all my life, but now it is an old lady saying it, I can feel it...deep inside. Stop it! You can bank it that if I can find a song title to go with the conversation, I'm doing that. Now, more for my amusement than anything. All I need to remember to keep my witty, insightful, sarcastic thoughts to myself cause now it's old lady speak. My father, oh my. He would repeat stories, over and over, all the time...the very thing he despised in his parents, he took up the mantle with vigor. Being the kind hearted family we are, cough cough, we would say, you told us this story a million times! He would then say or preface his story with, I like telling and hearing this story, so.... I do not want to pick up this mantle with vigor or with apathy.
I remember reading Lucy had died while waiting for my tennis lesson at The Met. The tennis pro who was from North Carolina and whose name escapes me could see I was visibly shaken and I think she was surprised when I told her Lucille Ball had died. On the documentary, interviews of comediennes came in between segments. Most of them had dissected the best comedic bits from the show.They honored her, by telling how she made the way for them to do what they do. She was the first woman to be the lead and have the title. She was smart and organized, she helped other women as they traversed the slippery slope of comedy.
CBS still makes 20 million a year on the reruns. She is on somewhere on the earth everyday. My favorite and I have many but my favorite is Lucy Writes An Operetta. She sings Queen of the Gypsies in it. Most will think it is because she is playing a tambourine but it is more than that. Her Vitameatavegimin commercial is classic. She made a mistake in the script, she got ahead of herself. We have this classic because they didn't stop filming and she had the mindfulness to pick up where she left off. I think when she says, I tell ya what you got to do...the rest is improvised. That is comedic genius!
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