10 on the 10th: May!

I hope it’s been as glorious in your part of the world as it has been in mine! We did have several days of rain and gloom, but the last few days have been sunshine and warm temperatures. Honestly, if it would stay like this for the next four or five months, I’d be happy! It’s May 10th which means it’s time for another 10 on the 10th. When I write these, I don’t write them with my own answers in mind. That means it can be just as difficult for me to answer as it is for some of you! I do hope you’ll join in the link party below.

Without further ado…

  • Can you whistle?
    • I cannot whistle at all! I have tried all my life to do it. You know, now that I write this, one thing I’ve never done is google it! I’ll just bet there’s a YouTube tutorial on how to whistle! If I produce a whistling sound, I’m either snoring or inhaling (rather than exhaling as one should). But, my teacher whistle would knock your socks off! I had to put it in my mouth, plug my ears with my fingers, and then blow!
  • Can you touch your toes flat to the ground?
    • Nope, no way, no how! I have never been flexible, even in my younger, skinnier days. I have a friend who can put her palms flat to the ground. She can also do the splits…another thing I’ve never been able to do! I also realize this is a dumb question because, of course, my toes touch flat to the ground. I hope you all knew what I meant!
  • Can you remember all your teachers from Kindergarten to graduation?
    • I can, indeed, remember all of them! I can also remember the various teachers in each subject throughout high school. The strange thing is I can barely remember my college courses let alone the professors! Just as an aside…I didn’t go to Kindergarten. My school didn’t have a kindergarten class until the year I was in third grade. My little sister was the only one of us who went to kindergarten.
  • Can you ride a motorcycle?
    • Another big old no for this one! When Nigel had his Harley, we actually tried to find one for me. The problem is my vertically challenged self! I could just barely touch the ground with my toes. And, those motorcycles are heavy. I made a very good back warmer, though! Nigel just informed me I was also a monkey when we had the Ural. I was so comfortable on the back of the Harley. Now, getting on that goofy thing was another story! I would often watch women (usually) walk up to the parked Harley and just sling their legs over the back of the seat and get on. I was so envious of their carelessly easy mounting of the motorcycle!
  • Can you groom a dog?
    • Well, I have done my fair share of cutting the hair off of a dog, but I wouldn’t exactly call it grooming! We had a black Chow Chow many, many years ago. Bowzer (my mom named him) had always been on a chain (when he went outside) when he was a puppy because we were in the process of building our long-time house. He lived with my mom for about three months. So, he never got used to running loose. We fenced in a good portion of our backyard just for him. One night, he got out of the backyard and took off! Because he was black, we couldn’t see him anywhere. And, he was not going to come back easily given this newfound freedom! But, soon, an awful stench came wafting up to our house…you guessed it. Good ol’ Bowzer had a run-in with a skunk. Let me just tell you tomato juice does not get rid of skunk stink! Chows have two coats…the outer which is rather rough, and the inner which is soft and wooly. That skunk soaked both! The next day, which was a Saturday, Nigel zipped off to the store, bought dog clippers, and I shaved that malodorous stuff right off of him…Bowzer, not Nigel! I can still see the look of gratitude he gave me when we got that stink off of him. I’ve also been known to shave a Westie or two…with not much success!
  • Can you remember the first vacation you ever went on?
    • Well, I’m going to hedge my bets a little with this one. I know my family would go on short, little jaunts occasionally. But, the first true vacation we took was in 1968! We went to Washington, DC and took my Grandma Rose. She was my dad’s mom, fiercely independent, and a staunch member of the Republican party (always, always voted a straight ticket). She had also broken her jaw and wore this hockey helmet looking cast on her head. Oh, she was a stinker, but I loved her so. I honestly don’t remember much except visiting the Lincoln Monument and the Capitol building.
  • Can you create things from scratch (knit, paint, weld, etc.)?
    • Well, given the luck I’ve had with my knitting recently, I’m not sure if I can say, “Yes, I can knit” or not! I have knitted a few garments (a pullover for me, a sweater for one granddaughter, and a dress for another). I also knitted my youngest a Kevin hat (from Home Alone). If you need a knitted shawl, I’m your girl! I have oodles of them because I love to knit lace. But, I rarely wear them. I have crocheted several afghans, some pocket shawls, and lots and lots of granny squares. I also make a mean felted flower wreath. I would love to say I can paint, but the extent of my expertise is painting walls!
  • Can you wire an outlet?
    • OK, I know this is a weird one. But, my dad was an electrical guy (not a degreed electrician though), and Nigel is an Electrical Engineer. I’ve helped him install many an outlet. If push came to shove, I could definitely wire an outlet, but I haven’t actually done so!
  • Can you remember your first job?
    • Well, technically, my first job was babysitting. I had two families for whom I babysat regularly. I did not enjoy that at all! My second first job was in a small retail store, P N Hirsch & Co. I started working there in high school, shortly after my sixteenth birthday. I worked there until I got married. I remember how excited I was when I was allowed to run the cash register. But, the really big moment was when I was given the ability to close the store…not that that entailed much back in those days!
  • Can you reupholster a chair?
    • The simple answer here is I did reupholster a chair. Was it a good job? Absolutely not! I had watched tutorials, pinned posts, and thought myself well prepared. I was not, and Pinterest lies! That chair now resides in my oldest son’s office. That office is tucked away in the basement of a building on a large university so it’s not as cool as it sounds!
brown and white armchair
Photo by EVG Kowalievska on Pexels.com

Wrap it up, Marsha!

You know, as much as I try, I always have at least one stinker of a prompt! And, this time was no exception! Oh, well! It’s a fun exercise in remembering, writing, and sharing, right? So, can we talk? Which question did you think was a stinker? Did you have a favorite question because it brought back fond memories or made you giggle? Have you ever had a dog have a run-in with a skunk? Please leave a comment or two, and we can talk! I promise I will respond within a couple of days.

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Thank you!

Thank you for so much for being a part of my blog. I appreciate those of you who comment, subscribe, email, or just follow along! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion StyleMy Bijou LIfe, Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez MireileThe Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping BagDoused in Pink, I do deClaireMummabstylish, and Style Splash. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend with Michelle every Thursday. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

And, now, it’s your turn!

Please link up your favorite 10 on the 10th posts as well as baking, cooking, decorating, fashion, DIY! Please do visit some of the links! If you don’t have a blog, here is your chance to find a new one! You can also drop all or some of your answers in the comments!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

20 Comments

  1. I love to read these more personal things! And you always write in a fun way so thank you for the peek inside!

  2. Oy my goodness, I did not know what you meant by toes flat to the ground! I loved reading your answers especially your dog grooming one. So funny!

    Shelbee

    • Hahaha!!! I thought I had it defined quite well until I was answering the questions myself!!! I left out when I groomed the Westies…not a cute look for either of them. Luckily, they weren’t tall enough to look in the mirror! But, I think they were probably making fun of each other behind my back!

  3. My 10 on the 10th.
    I can whistle, but you wouldn’t want to hear me doing it.
    I can touch m’y toes flat to the ground, which I think is amazing at my age.
    No, I can’t remember all my teachers. Not their names for sure. I remember pictures or certain events during my school years. My brain is filled with so many picture and mini films.
    Don’t know how to ride a motorcycle and don’t want to. My son does though. He can also fly a small plane and has parachuted out of a plane and scuba dives. He is a dare devil like his dad. Me, nope .
    I don’t groom my dog. I will bathe the dog but nails and hair cutting are left to the groomer. I don’t cut my own hair either.
    I remember my parents taking us to the mountains and the seaside as a child. I remember the first time friends and I spent a weekend at the beach. They all used baby oil and tanned. I used sunscreen and covered up and burned. Unfair!
    Yes, I can make things from scratch. I have done embroidery and crochet! I still crochet.
    No. My father would roll over in his grave as he was an electrician. I leave that to my hubby. My daughter has learned to do so many things on her own. She is much braver than I. Sounds like both my children are braver than I. So I take credit for encouraging them to live fuller lives than me.
    My first job —unpaid—was babysitter for my younger siblings. First paid job was as a cashier for Horn & Hardart’s cafeterias in high school.
    I have never tried upholstery on a whole chair, but have re-upholstered the seats of our dining room chairs.

    • Isn’t it funny how we can remember certain events in our lives, like events and even rooms from our school years? Both the grade school and high school I attended have been torn down so that’s all I can have are memories and photos. Oh, gosh, I remember people using baby oil and iodine. I never did that because my mom would have killed me for wasting it! But, I just naturally tanned back then. Good for you for raising children who are confident in themselves. My poor older sister was the babysitter of the rest of us. She is five years older than me and ten years older than our little sister! Thanks so much for commenting, Eileen! I’m so glad to learn more about you.

  4. Boy do I feel you on being vertically challenged – especially when it comes to motorcycles. And poor Bowser! And his humans too. That sounds totally awful. Thanks for hosting, Marsha!

    Michelle
    https://funkyfashionstyle.com

    • I knew that would resonate with you, Michelle! I wanted, just once, to throw my leg over the back and hop on! Never happened. Yeah, poor Bowzer…he smelled so bad. You could honestly see he was relieved once I’d shaved him!

  5. These are fun to read and I’m working on my post for tomorrow!

  6. I am laughing because I wrote up my post for Friday already and I totally took #2 literally and thought “wow, are there people who have toes that don’t touch the ground!” It makes much more sense you way. LOL. I can touch the floor with my feet flat on the ground but I could also do splits and things until just a few years ago too. I have a much harder time remembering college professors and courses too; I think probably because we only saw them a few times a week for a couple of month versus seeing them very day for nearly a year. I thought these questions were a lot of fun!

    • Hahaha!!! I really thought I had that description down right…I mean I rewrote it several times. Then, when I was answering it, I realized how dumb it was! Oh, I like your reasoning about why I can’t remember the professors. I can remember most all of them from graduate school because the college was so small that we had the same prof for most classes.

      Thanks for playing along, Joanne!

  7. Ha! I totally forgot about my babysitting jobs! Doh! I was a good babysitter for other families, and was horribly mean when I sat my siblings. I transformed into a tyrant! The power!

    Thanks, as always, for the fun questions.

    • I was lucky and too young to babysit the younger sibs! But, I really and truly disliked babysitting. The kids I babysat for were just old enough to be pains! Hahaha!! I love the version of you as a tyrant! I’m glad you enjoy this! I’ll pop over to your blog in a bit!

  8. I am still quite flexible but I work at it daily. It’s one of those things that I still like doing.
    And I love seeing your knitting. We all have those times things don’t turn out, but you still knit wonderfully,
    XOOX
    Jodie
    http://www.jtouchofstyle.com

    • I wish I were flexible, but I never have been. I can still remember gym class in fifth grade. We were supposed to reach behind our backs with one arm coming from the top and the other from the bottom and grasp hands. I could not do it! I could barely touch my toes…I sometimes wonder if I have overly short arms!

      Thank you so much, Jodie! I love to knit. There’s just something so meditative about taking wool and creating from it. I’m at the bottom rib of this top down sweater. I still have to do the sleeves…these are the attached kind so I couldn’t do both at the same time. I’ll just have to take really good notes!

  9. Grandma Rose sounded a character! Seeing her in a hockey helmet in bed could have been a but scary. I enjoyed the story of Bowzer’s brush with a skunk. Great set of questions

    • Oh, my Grandma Rose was one of my favorite people! She was truly cantankerous even before having a stroke and being in a nursing home for years. I loved being with her. I would spend weeks with her after Grandpa died. We would just putter about at her house…take walks into her very small town and have vanilla milkshakes! Oof…that skunk stink was awful! Poor dog! It was even worse for him, but it happened too late at night to do much for him. We shaved him first thing the next morning!

  10. Ha! There probably is a Youtube video for whistling…my grandson always says “just look on You Tube Nannie”…haha. I enjoyed all your answers. GLad I wasn’t alone in not being able to do a few of them. THank you for hosting. I’m glad I remembered this month.

    • Hi, Kirstin! I’ll come visit in a bit. I would just about bet there is a YouTube video for it! Don’t you just love grandkids?

      Thanks for coming by!