YouTube - Keep On The Sunny Side - June Carter Cash

YouTube - Keep On The Sunny Side - June Carter Cash

DEAR YUM-YUM

"Dear Yum-Yum,
Am I half empty or half full?
signed,
restaurant water glass
Fresno, Ca"
***************************************
Dear Restaurant Water Glass,

If you sing the song "Keep On The Sunny Side" you are half full.

If you listen to Fox News Network, you are vacuously empty.
Just shake your pretty, luminous glassy booty. Customers will assume
that the "Big One" is finally hitting California. They will rush
to change the T.V. channel from FOX to a local channel to hear the earthquake news.
NOW: begin singing "The Sunny Side
of Life." The clarity of your transparent vocals will cause
a quiet hush to come over the patrons who will then join you. They shall begin
to smile as they sing along, merrily, I tell thee!
They will order more water so they can sing louder, thus filling you up again.
You will discover that you, dear restaurant water glass, are
no longer half, but completely, full!

Now, please enjoy June Carter Cash and her beautiful song and Know Thyself:
(SEE POST ABOVE US.)
You'll remember who you are.

YumYum on the Sunny Side

"JUST ASK DR. YUM-YUM"

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately, we have not discovered our "city muse" yet because we were inspired creatively by the natural environment of Scudder Pond and are not exactly Inspired here, yet!

Therefore, to wit, heretofore, and forever more, we are adding a new advice column to our blog entitled "Just Ask Dr. YumYum" until we come up with a better name. We will be syndicated momentarily throughout the Universe, as Oprah's people have already called our people.

Why? you ask? What makes Dr. YumYum different from all the other Doctor Advice Shows and Columnists? you ask?

THIS: We will take soul-searching questions from all souls, animate and inanimate, as we believe the Universe is totally alive and that means even rocks suffer and even a garbage can has relationship issues when its very own lid stops fitting correctly...I mean, really, who ya gonna call:  Home Depot, Dr. Phil, or moi?!

People are not the only ones with problems. And we will be the first completely inclusive Advice Column who recognize even coke cans get big OWIES when they are SLURPED DRY, CRUSHED ON THEIR PEOPLES' FOREHEADS, tossed off as litter, AND THEN
run over by cars.

THAT HAS TO HURT.

Life is hard. We are now open for business!

Original?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Who cares?

What else you got going on?   So, now "Dr. YumYum is Listening"

WE FEEL A LITTLE OUT OF PLACE

Hey, it's me, YumYum, and this is the giraffe mom loved to feed in Seattle when she worked at the zoo, not me, OK?

The city hasn't changed me THAT MUCH  (yet.) We are moved.

OK, only sort of moved:  lots of mom's stuff not here, but who cares? WE ARE MOVED. US PIGGIES
IS IN THE CITY!

Now that we cannot hear, feel, smell, see, touch, and be touched by the marsh, mom has become so disoriented she did a dreadful thing to us.

By accident, of course, but we must, in the interest of full journalistic disclosure, expose her wrong-doing:

It was our first night here without Edwin, maybe that was Sunday night. All the energy efficient windows were closed.

Shut. The condo was not energy efficient, and if you don't believe me take a look at our winter heating bill. But mom at
least knew when it was cold because the wind blew in, she could smell the fragrance of each storm, listen to the melody
of rain or ice pellets dancing off our windows, and we got COLD!

Not anymore...

She was so exhausted and under a warm blanket when the storm came, but we are now removed from the Song of Scudder Pond which Sang to us and Shared her moods, colors, fragrances, and sounds.

What I'm waxing poetically about is that mom slept through a sudden, unpredicted winter storm in May and. She:
FROZE US!

Seriously. When she woke up and came out, did we wheek for breakfast? I DON'T THINK SO! WE WERE CRYOGENICALLY
CONGEALED INTO 3 COLD FURBALLS. It was the worst thing ever, took us hours to defrost, and finally move about, and now my fur is falling out!  Mom thinks I'm shedding but it's the pretty, pretty, swirly fur what froze that falling out now, because it's roots got blocked, I know it.

And now you do, too.

Bad mom: No nature?!  Now she don'know what she doin' and we suffering the consequences. Now she leaves the heat on in our energy-sealed new home and we are, I have to admit, enjoying all the sunlight that came in today, but mom turned into a giraffe instead of a Hip, Urban, Bohemian Artist.  Like a giraffe lost in a zoo instead of wandering at home across the wide, open, grassy African savanna it born on.  Mom and giraffe alike: both of them Confused: Where Home Go?

Except for being near coffee shops, mom lost! We knew she not hip. Now all you know, too.

NOT hip: lost, didn't wake up, froze us in May, now pretty fur falling out!

Giraffe In The City! No eagle, no beaver, no storm smell come over the mountains on us...

One good thing: she plays with me a lot because she so lonely for Beaver and Eagle and swallows and wood ducks and ruddy ducks, and Owl, and Raccon, and Deer, and all our friends and neighbors, especially am and Oboe-san. She really miss am and Oboe-san a lot!

Dark now, sleep, you dear creatures, and we will get to know you who hide in the city by day then come out at night, FIND YOU WE WILL, gazing out our weatherized, energy-efficient windows.

peace out,
YumYum, the Frozen BeastieBoy of Spring

"I NEED TO EXPRESS MYSELF!" RAJ INFORMS US, SO WE INVITE HIM TO COMPOSE AND RECITE A POEM ABOUT OUR MOVE

RAJ MAHAL READING HIS FIRST POEM ALOUD!

RAJ MAHAL'S FIRST POEM

"Move to the City"

i spy with my little eye

so much i can't identify

sights and sounds, so loud and new

my tongue can tell me what to do!

if mom will feed us hay and treats

i'll dance upon four happy feets!

Ponderings of Two Guinea Pigs: My portrait

Ponderings of Two Guinea Pigs: My portrait

NOTE FROM EDITOR: This is a beautiful portrait of Wiggley, one of the guinea pigs who inspired PandaPig to start his own blog. Wiggley's mom is a talented artist, wouldn't you say?

And why is YumYum not blogging, you ask? It is moving day. YumYum appeared to have a petit mal
seizure this morning during feeding time. His eyes were glazed and he was unresponsive to mom hovering
over him, calling his name, which has never happened, especially during feeding time. He is still grieving
deeply for PandaPig and Bear, and although he loves being with the Mahals has already tried to attack
them during Runabout, so, other than PandaPig who raised him, YumYum cannot actually snuggle or
play with any other guinea pigs because he viciously attacks anyone who is not Panda and mom's hand
has been at the receiving end of it 3 times now.

Please say a little prayer for YumYum? A friend coming over now to help move the 3 piggies to our
new home so we can sequester them in the bedroom closet and minimize their exposure to trauma.

Thank you, dear readers. And please enjoy Ponderings of Two Guinea Pigs, it is a heartwarming blog!

TAJ HUGGING RAJ MAHAL

Gentle Readers,

You may notice these next posts take us on a little trip down memory lane. We are waxing nostalgic just days before our move and thought it would be fun to enjoy some of our recent, lighter moments together at PandaPigSanctuary on Scudder Pond.

Also, to help out anyone still confused about the Mahals:  Taj Mahal is the brown, swirly pig on TOP hugging Raj Mahal (calico, long-haired) on the bottom!  They are both sweet and riotously playful, full of laughter and pranks, like stealing each others' food and chasing one another in and out of their big, blue Pigloo.  Good Mahals! Showing us punky pigs that making nice is a good thing! 

OUR FAVORITE SONG, STILL!

REMEMBERING MOM'S HAPPY TIMES WITH GUINEA PIGGIN' AT MOUNT BAKER BEFORE BLIZZARD!

Dear Readers,

Before we move from the Outback into the city, the Mahals and I wanted to feature some pictures of mom at her happiest:
up way high, closer to heaven, setting up Guinea Piggin' for his pre-blizzard photo shoot! This is where mom longs to be and most belongs! She was a wildlife photographer/outdoor writer/environmental educator before she got sick in 1986. She feels most bestest out in the wilderness with Guinea Piggin' and cross-county skis, and - OF COURSE! - a camera or two! That's a happy mom! And a happy little Guinea Piggin' from the looks of it. Since Edwin is in Seattle, Guinea Piggin is the only one who can go up to Mount Baker with her until school gets out and her bff, Susan, comes back up for some summer trekking!

Mom, we hope you are not in a wheelchair. We hope Susan caffeinates you sufficiently for some high country Burly Mountain Girl Time and you give us pictures to post!

Meanwhile, get that rainbow in your head to behave because all us Pigolletos know we have GOOD TIMES AHEAD!

MOM, DON'T WORRY! BE HAPPY!

love,
me (YumYum, Raj, and Taj Mahal)

p.s. mom, when is the "Count DracuPig" nameplate coming off my cage? seriously, you weren't going to leave it there, not after i wrote this post of you all happy, right? put back "YumYum, the One and Only Greatest Guinea Pig Ever" please. thank you. YY.

MOM'S INNER RAINBOW GONE ASKEW!

Dear Readers, Sweet, Wonderful Readers: We are now 48 hours from The Big Move and mom seems ajar, somehow.
So, we are all being very sweet and nice and affectionate and supportive.
She adores the new place, an artistic cathedral of LIGHT, and rumor has it we may even receive two junior zoo-keepers to help mom socialize Raj and Taj, who are actually coming along really well. This morning is the first time Taj actually came out seeking affection from mom instead of food! And he let her pet and play with him through the bars of his cage!

But Junior Zookeepers would be SO COOL! She even still has her Zoo Vest and another vest they could wear while they play with us and teach us that being loved by people is safe and feels good. I already know that, but the Mahals are just beginning to.

Mom, I am sorry for biting you. But it really hurt my feelings when you took your big blue magic marker and wrote:
"Count DracuPig" on the name plate of my cage. I never mean to bite you, I'm just chattering my teeth to teach the new Mahals who is boss, ya know...but maybe I could be nice and maybe we don't need a boss, really, just love.

The Junior Zookeepers would really help.

Mom, do you want me to be sweet all the time? Because, if you do, I could start when we move. It'll be a fresh start.

Part of the problem is the grief I still feel (and know you do, too) over PandaPig and Bear. I miss them all the time. And maybe, although I do love the Mahals, I've been trying to tell them they can never replace PandaPig and Bear. And maybe that is not the healthiest way to grieve, especially since their living here has cheered us all up so much and we laugh and they have so much fun "WWWWWWWhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeking!" and popcorning and chasing each other and stealing each other's food and just bringing us comfort and joy to help turn grief into happiness.

So, mom, I am going to join you when we move, and become a Hip, Urban, Bohemian, Art Pig (HUBAP) as we move forward.

Maybe your rainbow will be right-side-up Inside your head tomorrow, because I know you miss Panda And Bear, too.

love,
the newly reformed (tell Auntie Ann! tell Auntie Ann!)
Yum-Yum