Glen Brammell

It is always interesting to me find out more about our language. Every once in awhile you may hear a word or a phrase and wonder how it came to be. I have heard the expression three sheets to the wind and I finally heard an explanation of its origins. It seems to have been invented on the high seas.

This particular expression of being drunk comes from the fact that the word “sheet” is the term for a rope that controls a square sail on a ship. The sails are uncontrollable if the sheets are loose and the ship will drift until the situation is corrected. Thus came the phrase three sheets to the wind!

Picked up a paperback book at Target and started reading it last night. The book is called, “Resolution,” about a western town with that name. It has a couple of main characters who used to be sheriffs in another town and quit to get some peace in their lives, but then they caught up in the politics of the new place they end up. It’s pretty interesting to read the human dynamics of surviving in the old west. Imagine living in a town with no law, just bullies and gunslingers.

Usually I buy my books from the local bookstore instead of going to the public library. I think books are meant to be owned, not borrowed.

Well, to be honest, the bookstore is not all that local – it’s a huge nationwide chain. I mean local in that I just drive down to that shopping center near my house and spend an hour walking around looking at the books. I’ll buy a book based on the author’s or sometimes the title intrigues me. For example, any book by John Grisham is an instant sale. And once I bought a book “For Dummies” just to see what all the fuss was about.

It really stinks to work hard all week and look forward to a big weekend full of plans for outdoor fun and then have it all ruined by two days of rain.

Every weekend in May and the rest of the summer months ahead has a variety of fun things to do outside, from fishing to races and tons of festivals and sporting events.

Yesterday I had to stay in and got a lot of chores done instead of having fun. I was hoping to go to a baseball game this afternoon, but thunder and lightning will keep me indoors instead. I guess I’ll do some paperwork and surf the internet for a while, then break out a good book and read for a few hours.