So much for my great new career as a podcaster. Truly, I had hoped to have fun, and bring some smiles, perchance even chuckles, into your lives. Alas, I fear it ain’t gonna happen as I hoped.

Seems I’ve got allergies. Nothing new, really. I’ve had them since forever. Unfortunately, my Achilles tendon is located in my vocal cords. When I’m around smoke of any kind, for any duration, I lose my voice. Also, certain perfumes cause the voice to take a sudden vacation without any warning. Gone. Poof. No voice. I can barely croak. Or squeak. 

And we’ve had fires. Lots of them. Small ones, large ones, near ones, far ones. I live in the Columbia Basin. This basin is a big bowl, and all the smoke from miles arounds falls into our big bowl and stays there for a very long time. 

And after this last bout, where I not only lost my voice for a month, this time it was accompanied by pain — felt like my vocal cords were strained, and even attempting to speak hurt like a son of a gun, I came to the realization that I couldn’t in good conscience make podcasts like I want. One must be able to make them and post them on a regular basis.

Oh, what’s a gal gonna do? I had my heart set on doing this as a fun way to get through these madding times. An escape. A short, Coffee Break Escape to share with all my friends both present and those to comer. I took two aspirin, grabbed my cuppa, and thunk and thunk and voila! I came up with a solution. As I can, I shall record my podcasts, as if they were podcasts, but instead, I will post them under the Spoken Word tab above and not send them out to the platform. (I also won’t have to pay for platform use!) Not really what I wanted, but necessity is the mother of strange workarounds. (And hunger is the mother of weird stir-fries—what can I say?)  

I can still play with my new podcast mic, and you can still hear me. A win-win, yes? Well, at least for me. 😉 Even though I’ll never get my Star on Hollywood Boulevard with a microphone, I’ll never become an overnight “Divine Miss L” of podcasting fame, I can still dream the impossible dream…. But it was fun while it lasted. And dreams are fun. Though the killing of them is sometimes painful. Especially when it’s some silly thing like reality that steps on them and squishes them flatter than that bug under your shoe!

I feel badly for my young friend, Farris Hallaj who wrote and performed the theme song for my podcasts. I’ll still use it, because it’s fun, but at the same time, not nearly as many people will hear it, unless of course, you enjoy it and send the link to people. Farris can be found on Facebook at Farris Hallaj Music, and on YouTube right here. He is an amazing young man. Please, take a few minutes to listen to some of his music. Especially Louisiana Sun!

This pelican fits my mood perzactaly! If I can’t swim with the podcasting crowd, I’ll head off in my own Spoken Word direction!

Addendum to last week’s Recipe post: For those of you who haven’t tried baking biscotti, I just received notice of this Biscotti Pan from King Arthur Flour. It looks to be wonderful, and I may have to get one, myself. Just for the uniformity of size. And, true to Alton Brown, it can be used for baking cakes, brownies, and whatevers—it’s a multi-tasker. Oooh, Auntie Lenora wants…

Entertainment:

Netflix: Oooh, Auntie Lenora is soooooo frustrated. She started watching yet another Korean drama, Hospital Playlist. Definitely not for the squeamish! Anyhow, there are dramatic events, but also lots of laugh-out-loud moments. We got to a story end, and Auntie Lenora was all set for the next episode when up popped a notice that the next season would premier in 2021. What??? How dare they??? Auntie Lenora is not a happy camper! She’s going to have to watch like a normal person? Weekly episodes?

Hospital Playlist follows five young doctors from their internships to ‘professorship’ in a Korean hospital. Four guys and one gal—neurosurgery, general surgery, pediatric surgery, and ob/gyn. Unlike an American soap opera, this one moves right along, and though there is some blood here and there, nothing like ours of blood and gore upon the floor. Still, if one is squeamish, well, forewarned is forearmed. Now, I have to wait until next year to see what happens next. I never got into Gray’s Anatomy, but think this might be similar but different. Think Gray’s Anatomy, the Musical?

How will the pandemic affect season 2? I’ll let you know sometime next year.

In the meantime, Lucifer’s final season has started. I have every hope of parsing the episodes out to no more than one per night, but, knowing me, I won’t. I’ll binge. He is such eye candy. Talk about impossible dreams! /snicker/ Oh, be still my beating heart. (I have made it through the first 3 episodes at only one per night. It’s not easy.)

Books: Check out Rainy Day Reads for new book reviews since the last post.

Show your love; wear your mask. Show you care for your family, your friends, your neighbors, your dog, your cat, even your goldfish. And y’all come back next week, same bat time, same bat channel. The coffee is always on, the biscotti are home made, and we’ve always got time for a coffee break and a visit. (And, we’ll be properly socially distanced, so you may remove your mask.)