Thursday, November 13, 2014

What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?


Here's the thing...no matter what is happening in my life, I always have a song for it.  Recently, I had quite a bit of extra typing to do at work and combined with some problems with side effects of some medication, I could hardly lift my right arm. It made it difficult to drive, type or even to turn a doorknob.  Oh dear.  It is better now, thank goodness! Still, for a while there, it was very painful.
Now, at night...when I tried to sleep, that brought on more troubles! What do you do with your arms at night while you are sleeping? Are they down by your side? Do you throw one arm over your head and the other one behind you? You don't even think about it until you have such a degree of pain that it makes you think about it!  So...for me, I kept thinking of the song (sea shanty, really) called, "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor"...only for me, I changed it to "What Do You With An Aching Arm"!  Ha!  Do I have a song for everything that happens in my life? Of course! Doesn't everyone?

What is a sea shanty?  It is a song that sailors would sing to make their work go faster and I believe to make their lives more pleasant.  John from his blog "Reflections" just wrote a post about sea shanties!  Go and read his post just here!  He has a picture of a sailing ship along with a diagram of all the parts of a ship too!  I don't know why I am so crazy about the sea when I am such a daughter of many generations of the farmers of the land!

Ha! And Richard has always sung this as "What DO you do with a drunken sailor, it looks like it is, What WILL you do!  Oh well, if you are singing just for yourself, you can change things around as much as you like!  Keep a song in your heart, always! 

24 comments:

  1. What do you do with a drunken sailor? Put him in the longboat 'til he's sober, of course! Love some of those sea shanties, they are easy and catchy, and, as you've noted, can be changed to fit the cicumstances.

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    1. I am afraid that I have always put my own words to tunes, you should ask anybody that I know! Music can be such fun, if only we can remember that!

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  2. I sympathize with your sore arm. Once I had a soft tissue injury in my shoulder and the pain would radiate down my arm every night unless I slept with it propped up on a yoga brick. So that's what I did for about 6 months, LOL! Enjoyed that rollicking song too -- sounds a bit like Great Big Sea perhaps.

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    1. Six months! My word, if my arm hurts that long, I will be such a grouch! And I don't need anything to make me any grouchier! :-)

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  3. Kay, I am so sorry to hear you are in pain. I sure hope it heals up soon. You may need more little pillows in bed to arrange under your sore arm. Blessings to you today, xoxo,Susie

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    1. Thanks, Susie! It is much better now! When the pain began to ease, I felt like celebrating! Blessings to you! Stay warm! xx

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  4. Your header picture is just lovely featuring the fall color there. I love the idea of keeping a song in your heart...I do believe there is a song for that one too. Hope you are soon off those meds.

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    1. Our fall colors just came out this past week and they are gorgeous! I am thinking that the side effects will go away soon. :-)

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  5. Well, that arm sounds like a real pain. Tell it to get better!
    I sing as I work too. Many times when I sweep the barn I find myself singing Donna Summer's hit, but with my words..."She works hard for no money...so hard for no money...". Makes me laugh at myself!

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    1. HA! Now I will think of you singing that every time you show us a photo of the barn! So funny!
      Next time I have pain, I will tell my body to get in gear!

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  6. Ahh the good old fashioned sea shanties. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. There have been way too many times when I've been listening to a song and thought to myself "This is so my life right now". The only downside is most of them were pretty dark.

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    1. I say that life can be sad enough, that we need to have happy songs to help us along. See my post about Oscar Hammerstein! I added that quote of his after I did the post, but I loved it so much, I felt I had to put it in there.

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  7. Ha! I prefer that ship to your singing!
    Change those tablets and let Richard sleep!

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    1. Believe it or not, I am a good singer!
      For Richard's sake, I didn't sing the song aloud. Except when I would drag myself out of bed in the morning, I think I did sing, "Hay oh, and up she rises"!

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  8. What do you do with a drunken sailor? Put him in the bed with the captain's daughter. It is not as nice a thing as it sounds. The captain's daughter is actually a whip! As William Congreve said, "Music has charms to soothe the savage breast". Music is what most people can use to deal with feelings. So what did you do with your aching arm?

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    1. So, the cat o'nine tails is the captain's daughter! I didn't know that but now I do! Thank you! So many of our English expressions are from naval terms but hardly anyone knows them!
      Music has always been important to me. I always have a melody in my mind.
      What did I do with my arm? Nothing much, just held it to my side like an injured bird and didn't get much sleep for a while!

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  9. Dear Kay, may you be well and free of pain.......I have bad arthritis in my right shoulder and often have these problems. Sometimes holding my arm straight up in the air for a minute of two helps....Sometimes pillows to prop it up on will help......Sometimes just saying, "this, too, shall pass." And realizing that this is a small problem in the light of the world........

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    1. I will try the arm straight up in the air. I look forward to seeing what my co-workers will say about that one! HA!
      This arm problem was one of the main things that kept me from the internet, so I wanted my blogging friends to know that. I am usually very healthy and I know I am lucky in that regard. Hope YOU are doing well! xx

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  10. I do that, too, putting my own words to some songs :-)
    Sorry to hear you had such trouble with your arm. You're right, until one is in pain, one never thinks about such things like what do you do with your arms (or legs) at night. I mostly sleep on my side with one hand under my pillow and the other arm just lying in front of me.

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    1. You know, I am such a strong sleeper, I have never even thought about how I sleep....I probably flop all over the place like a fish upon the shore, Richard better watch out! :-)

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  11. Sorry to hear that you are in pain! I hope that it will be better soon. If it is appropriate, I can recommend massage for helping with this sort of thing. xx

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    1. Thank you, Amy! And I welcome all suggestions! My arm is getting better now, I really think it was a side effect from some of the medication.
      Looks like I need to stay healthy since drugs are bad for my body!
      xx

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  12. Hi Kay

    Hoping that this finds you on the road to recovery.

    If you want to spend an hour or so listening to shanties, you do a lot worse than 'Traditional English Sea Songs and Shanties from the last days of sail' by Bob Roberts et al. Some of the lyrics leave little to the imagination.

    The redoubtable Roger McGuinn has also entered this field albeit with rather milder examples of the genre.

    Take good care of yourself

    Henry

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    1. Hey Henry!
      Thank you for the well wishes and the sea shanty recommendations!
      Hope all is going well for all of you in England.

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