Everybody Dance Now

Ripley's Believe It Or Not

I enjoy reading about medieval times, so, the little ditty in the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not cartoon the other day caught my attention. Imagine my delight that there is more ancient history new to me to investigate.

Brains much more disciplined than mine have researched the dancing mania of 1518 in Strasbourg, France. There are a number of articles on the internet if one is so inclined. I read one article that said it could have been a disease caused by a mold on their bread that caused hallucinations. Another stated it was the grinding poverty combined with a practice of worshipping “saints”, especially one that was a god of dance, then a mass hysteria ensued. There's probably a multitude of other theories floating around. But no one really seems to know for sure what happened except that hundreds died dancing.

It’s a fascinating read. Has anyone else ever heard of this strange event?

A Few Articles Of Note:

Dancing Plague of 1518 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dancing Plague of 1518 - Historic Mysteries

Dancing death - BBC - Today

Monday Observations ~ What's On Your Desk Top

It’s June. I’m weary of hearing about politics and watching the stock market crash. Money is such a fleeting thing. Thanks to the government, it has no real value anymore. Thus the "I have a hankerin’ to post silly observations". June in Southeast Georgia is such a boring month. Besides, my hands ache more and more from arthritis. Some days it’s almost unbearable. My greatest fear is that one day it will curtail my riding a manual motorcycle. There are automatics available but, oh, please, that’s blasphemy! *lol* At the moment, the tingling pain and swelling can be temporarily abated with soaking the hands in warm water, Aleve and then wearing a wrist brace when typing or gardening.

I think I want my next big writing project to be rewriting the My Faith section here (I've evolved there and need to express it).

So, this is today’s observation.

Up until yesterday I had a nice summer photo of our heavily shaded dirt road viewed through the V-Strom’s windscreen. I bored with that and this weekend changed it to a brilliant orange canna lily my husband snapped on one of his solitary rides. This one was growing wild against a Stop sign.

By the way, on our rides, we carry the portable Samsung 45-22.5 mm 1:25-63 25 mm HD camera. It’s lightweight, inexpensive to replace, and takes sharp photos when needed.

What's on your Desk Top?

Sunday Musings

I awoke at the unholy hour of 6 am, on a Sunday no less. Since the afternoons have been blistering riding early was the name of the game. This morning was deceptively cool, no hint of the temperature cruelty to follow. I decided to join the inmates at our local watering hole for breakfast. The topic on everyone’s lips will undoubtedly be the weather.

I eased the metal steed onto the dirt road as the sun was peeping over the horizon. The well worn rubber kicked up small clouds of dust around the first curve but on approaching the second curve it was feather the clutch, lean back in the seat, give it the gas, and force the 467 pounds of uncooperative steel through the shifting sand. Then I could cruise to the end of the lane without the drama. It was a lovely morn. There was a light fog gently drifting on the neighbor’s cow field. A few clouds teased from high. “No rain for you,” they seem to taunt. “Tease”, I mumbled back through my helmet. But I could smell the damp. Rain would be God’s special blessing right now.

After I was happily sated by eggs, bacon, whole wheat toast and grits, it was back in the saddle. Time to head home before they’ll be frying the eggs on the sidewalk. It was a satisfying way to start the day.

What can I say. Life is good.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Psalm 118:24 NKJV

Funny Friday ~ Just Miscellaneous Fun

Not much going on in our neighborhood, so, thought I'd share some funnies.

And on that silly note, I'll say 'bye for now! Hope your weekend is blessed, happy, and profitable.

My Tail Is Dragon

Hallelujah, we both have our laptop computers back and they seem in tiptop order. It was so unusual to have both our computers crash at the same time. Thankfully, I didn't miss the internet too much until it was time to pay the bills. Then it became a bit of a bother. It seems our Computer Guy did a bang up job, as always.

I have finally returned from the four day excursion to that foreign land known as western North Carolina. Not being a mountain person I get homesick real quick. My preference is to enjoy them from a distance. That said, though, the enjoyment level was high this time. We stayed at the San Ran Motel in Robbinsville, NC. The photos make it look cleaner than it is. [cough] It must have been built in the 1950s. Upon closer inspection it's obvious the owners never spent a dime on renovations or extensive cleaning. The town has bupkis by way of entertainment or eating establishments and Graham county is "dry". Next time we'll stay in Franklin or perhaps Cherokee where all the grownups are. Much more to do there.

My husband is a member of an on-line forum for CB-1100 owners. One day, these fine specimens of human kind all decided it would be grand to meet at The Dragon and hang out together for a few days. That's what brought us to the area.

More Photos Are At Shutterfly

Yep, that's me in the forefront! On May 28th I rode the Tail Of The Dragon At Deals Gap and lived to talk about it. My 2012 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 carried me many treacherous, nail-biting, butt puckerin' miles last week. Steve, of course, was on his red 2013 Honda CB-1100. The photo on the left shows Steve (yellow helmet) keeping an eye on my performance. After the grueling 11 miles which turned into 30 minutes or so traversing repeated switchbacks, blind curves and slow Harley's, our group stopped at a now forgotten rest area to compare notes. Steve stated that I rode like a champ. Thankfully, he didn't see the hard save I did about 10 minutes into the journey where I came perilously close to going over the edge with a sheer drop. The Dragon almost claimed another victim! I'm just thankful I wear clean underwear after that little "moment".

The link to all the vacation photos above have just been uploaded. It may take me several days to label them all. But for now, enjoy! I'll be around to visit everyone's blogs soon.

I hope you have a fantastic week.