Ya Gotta Know This About That: Chocolate Day Wednesday

Time For A Chocolate Candy Bar

Being the chocoholic that I am, it's time to stop and smell the roses (chocolate that is).....drag out the chocolate bar, tear off the wrapper and eat it. Who cares that it's 4:30 a. m. in the morning. Chocolate is for anyone, at any time.

I doubt that I will soon see a healthy diet come out which says "Eat Chocolate Every Meal", but I sure can wish for that. But at least the medical environment doesn't frown upon chocolate like they use to.....now they say you can eat dark chocolate and it's good for you. They probably wouldn't include my desire to eat chocolate for three meals a day in the healthy medicinal report, but I can at least feel I'm doing something healthy when I rip that candy bar wrapper from the dark chocolate Milky Way Bar.....oh my goodness I really like those!

I've loved eating chocolate since I was a kid. I remember my mom telling me years ago to never buy a chocolate candy bar from a machine in the summer because it would have bugs in it......but I bought them anyway.....I wonder how many bugs I ate in my lifetime from buying chocolate bars in the summer from a machine.

That good old chocolate just gives you a boost....gives you pleasure and always gave me pimples as a teen....but did that stop me from eating it....NOOOOO! If I could have joined Willy Wonka at his chocolate factory I would have.

Whew it's 4:45 a. m.....I feel better after eating that candy bar from which I ripped the wrapper .....and stuffed half of the candy bar at one time in my mouth. All the while I was typing, I had chocolate slobbers running from both sides of my mouth....who cares....it was wonderful and I'm satisfied now. Besides you can't see me .... good thing too.....chocolate slobbers on my frog pajamas sure isn't a pretty sight. But now it's time to share my other half of my candy bar ..... Chocolate anyone??????

Old Tyme Stuff
The following is a continuation of the History of Menard County from the 1879 book, The History of Menard and Mason Counties:

At the session of the Legislature in 1838-39, Menard County was stricken off from Sangamon, and named in honor of Col. Pierre Menard, a Frenchman, who settled at Kaskaskia in 1790. Menard was so popular in his day, with the people of Illinois, that when the Convention framed the Constitution of the State, a clause was included in the schedule to the Constitution providing that
" any citizen of the United States, who had resided in the State for two years, might be eligible to the office of Lieutenant Governor." This was done in order that Col. Menard, who had only been naturalized a year or two at the time, might be made Lieutenant Governor under Shadrach Bond, first Governor of Illinois, after its formation into a State.

As Menard County was named after this popular Frenchman, it may be interesting to the reader to give a brief account of his life. Pierre Menard was born in Quebec in the year 1767. He remained in his native city till in his nineteenth year, when his native spirit of adventure led him to seek his fortunes in the Territories watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries. He was, therefore, soon found in the town of Vincennes, on the Wabash River, in the employ
of a merchant, one Col. Vigo. In the year 1790, he formed a partnership with one Du Bois, a merchant of Vincennes, and they removed their stock to Kaskaskia, in Illinois. Menard, though possessed of but a limited education, was a man of quick perception and of almost unerring judgment. He was candid and honest, full of energy and industry, and these qualities soon marked him as a leader among the scattered population of his adopted home. For a number of years, he was Government Agent for the Indians, and his candor and integrity soon won for him the esteem and friendship of the Indian tribes. This fact secured him great advantage as a merchant, as he could buy their pelts for half that they could be purchased by the " Longknives." He was a member of the Lower House of the Legislature while Illinois was under the Indiana regime, and, from 1812 to 1818, he was a member of the Illinois Legislative Council, being the President of that body. He was Lieutenant Governor from 1818 to 1822, and after that he declined to accept further honors at the hands of the people. He acquired a considerable fortune, but much of it was lost through his liberality in going security for his- friends. He died at the good old age of seventy-seven years, in Tazewell County. Such was the man
for whom the county of Menard was named.

Note: I will continue the history of Menard County in a future post.

Recipe
Chocolate Chip Pie
2 eggs
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/ cup melted butter, cooled to room temperature
1/2 bag of chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 nine inch pie shell, thawed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add white and brown sugars, beat until well blended. Stir in flour until well combined. Add chips. Pour into pie shell and bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Yummy

Thought For The Day - a poem for true friends

Suppose that everything that greens and grows
should blacken in one moment, flowers and branch.
I think I would find your blinded hand.
Suppose that your cry and mine were lost among numberless cries
in a city of fire when the earth is afire.
I must still believe that somehow I would find your blinded hand.
Through flames everywhere consuming earth and air
I must believe that somehow, if only one moment were offered,
I would find your hand.
I know as, of course, you know the immeasurable wilderness that would exist in the moment of fire.
But I would hear your cry and you'd hear mine and each of us
would find the other's hand.
We know that it might not be so.
But for this quiet moment, if only for this moment,
and against all reason, let us believe, and believe in our hearts,
that somehow it would be so.
I'd hear your cry, you mine -
And each of us would find a blinded hand.
~Tennessee Williams

Normally I try to write at twice the speed of life. My definition of that is to give me a word or a thought and I will write as fast as I can or as fast as my fingers can type. "Got to get the jumbled thoughts on paper" is my motto. Kind of like being a kamikazi writer.....survive as long as you can, writing at top speed....just get it done!!

But....lately I think my speed of life has greatly slowed. I'm lucky if I get two paragraphs written in 15 minutes....totally unusual for me. I think everyone's speed of life changes with the weather, with the climate, with the daily routine of your life and especially if your world is moving too fast. Mine is I think. Time for this chick to put on the brakes and write with the golden pen, but a slow golden pen....let the thoughts flow at a slower pace and don't crowd the old brain fluid (poor thing is having a brain fart). Or, maybe come up with some better blog ideas so that the brain fluid is thinner and flows faster.

If I'm boring you with my posts, let me know. It's hard to judge what others think when I'm having a writer's melt down....which happens to most writers ..... I think it's called writer's block. It's really weird to sit and stare at a blank page and your mind is as blank as the blank page.

I think this happens when I'm multi-tasking and I go on alert....waiting for the next digital task to happen......I'm either a Digital Junkie or a Digital Dummy .... whichever suits me best.

Awareness creates choice....so let me know if you have a specific topic that would suit this blog. I'm sure I could use some hints right about now with this writer's block giving me brain-itis.....whatever that is.