Rainy Days... And Brick Thoughts

It's raining here. A lot.

This would not be a surprise in other parts of the world, particularly Michigan, where I grew up. On our trips there, we used to joke about leaving the sun in Des Moines and picking it up on our trip back.

    But in Colorado, where it's High Desert, a rainshower, especially an all-day one, is an event.

The plants are busy slurping up moisture -- it may be a few weeks or even a month before they get more. Fine with me, as long as we don't get hail -- it was bad in Denver yesterday, and we got a shower of tiny stuff ourself. So far, this isn't turning into snow, either...which means running around like a crazy woman, covering up flowers.

The sky is a puffy haze of gray velvet, punctuated with silver splashes.

It's just quiet, misty rain.



Time for hot coffee, good books and a snuggly blanket. Too bad I have to get work done, instead.

Friend Phyllis Hatcher found this patch on a Crazy quilt she was appraising from Vivian Lukasiak's collection:

Does somebody have a concrete fetish?  

Actually, it was a compliment. The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins says:

"Brick of a man -- A good, solid, substantial person that you can rely upon. The expression is said to have originated with King Lycurgus of Sparta, who was questioned about the absence of defensive walls around his city. 'There are Sparta's walls,' he replied, pointing at his soldiers. 'And every man is a brick.'"
      Every woman too, I would hope.

That makes up for all the times people say "thick as a brick" or "I ran into a brick wall," stop abashed and stare at us. When our pastor did a series on "the yellow brick road," I got soooo tired of being gawked at.

Actually, our last name is based on the Gaelic word for "badger." Three Brick brothers emigrated from Ireland; one of them founded Bricktown, New Jersey.

Phyllis, who started all this in the first place, pointed out, "My family WERE brickmakers. They came from Germany and made most of the bricks in Trenton, New Jersey. Their last name was Fell, however -- not Brick."

Go figure. (Thanks Phyllis and Vivian, for permission to share.)