Why is it that some days, some weeks actually, the more I try to hurry or get this or that accomplished, the slower things seem to move for me? It's like I can't get ahead no matter what I try to do.
Or so it does seem to be at times.
Last week, for example, I had planned -in my mind -that I was going to bake a batch of rye bread probably around Friday to have fresh bread for Mother's Day and some then to freeze as well. Guess what didn't get made?
I put my embroidery stuff up on the shelf about 10-11 days ago in order to give my right thumb and index finger a bit of a rest as they were both getting really raggedy from way too many pricks with the darned needle. And, in the interim, I started to play with some of the yarn I happen to have in my stash. Seemed like a really good idea to me.
I have had this pattern waiting in the wings for about 3 years now that I wanted to make a cape for myself from the leaflet. I had initially purchased this particular leaflet oh, about 40 years ago now and had made this particular cape before -made it for my Mom and was quite pleased with the way it had turned out. I was not then (nor am I now either) a very fast knitter but back then, I also had a 6-year-old and a 6-month-old to tend to, along with a house, husband, a growing Avon Route as well so didn't have much time to spend sitting and just knitting then. As a result, I had started this particular project in early spring that year (1974) with the grand idea in mind I could have it finished in time for Mother's Day that year and could present it to my Mom then for that occasion.
You know, don't 'cha, that old adage about the best laid plans of mice and men? Well, that sure applied to my timetable with respect to making that cape! Mother's Day arrived and I was no where near being finished with my project so I thought, oh well, I'll get it done for Mom's birthday (which was in November). Surely that would give me enough time? Wrong again. November came and went and no finished cape so I moved the plan up that the cape would be my Christmas present to her but even that whizzed by and the cape, although much further along, closer to being completed, still wasn't done.
I finally managed to get it completed in late January of 1975! Took me close to a year to get it done but I was very happy that I did finally finish it and gave it to my Mom as a very belated Mother's Day, Birthday and Christmas gift.
I had a lot of trepidation about giving this to her though as she was very much a perfectionist about all things hand made and prior to making this cape, anything I had tried to make for her came under really heavy scrutiny and often, she would even be seen taking seams out, resewing things -stuff like that which had a tendency to anger my ex-husband and needless to say, it did hurt my feelings at times when she would get a bit overboard on the perfectionism stuff.
Amazingly, she liked the cape! I was astonished, really I was! But she liked it, wore it a lot over the last four years of her life then too. I don't know today what eventually happened to the cape after she passed because I can't remember giving it to someone else and definitely can't picture that I would have possibly discarded it because for me to throw something out, it has to have virtually no usefulness whatsoever left in it! I tend to be very much on the "packrat" side of life. Not quite up to being a hoarder although my kids accuse me of hoarding embroidery, knitting or crochet supplies and kits, etc.
Anyway, over the years, I had somehow managed to lose or misplace the leaflet with this particular pattern in it. Once I got my own computer and learned about things like Vintage Shops online, I went on a search and destroy mission and lucked out when I found a little place in Oregon that had two children's/babies knit pattern books along with this particular leaflet I'd been hunting and so I ordered the three items. I've now been keeping this leaflet under close wraps (so as to not lose it again) and planning to remake this particular cape for myself.
This winter, I found some yarn on sale that looked like it would work to use to make the cape, so I purchased more than enough quantity to make it. Last Sunday, I decided with the embroidery stuff on hiatus for a little while, the time had come for me to get brave and try again to make myself this cape.
I started work on it and things were progressing -not exactly by leaps and bounds, but moving along all the same. That is until Friday evening when it all came to a stop as I completed the 23rd row of the pattern and realized there was an error some where along the way. Actually, I had made some earlier errors in the pattern but had found them early on -except for one that I had to rip clear back to the ribbing at the neckline -but anyway, I had cleared those errors, reknitted up to row 23 and boom! My count was off by 2 stitches which I couldn't find where I had erred to end up with these two extra stitches on my needle. What was even more disconcerting was that in the beginning of that row, it appeared there that I would end up short stitches, not with two extra ones and being sort in that part of the pattern would throw the entire appearance of the finished product way off center!
I posted of my dilemma on a knitter's forum site I subscribe to in hopes someone who participates there and is a much more accomplished knitter than I would see my post and be able to offer a solution. Although I did get a tiny bit of feedback on that site, no one -thus far -has come forward to offer me any type of suggestion to fix my problem! So there I am now -stuck!
What really annoys me about this though is that when I made this cape 40 years ago, I had no problems interpreting the pattern -just mainly had delays due to lack of free time to work on it. Today, I have a good bit of "free" time to spend and here I am, confounded by the damned pattern! Go figure that one out, will ya?
So, the cape stuff is now on top of my mantel, waiting patiently -unlike me, as I am very impatient about this mess -but anyway, that's where it is right now. In the meantime, I picked up some other yarns (since I have a pretty healthy supply of that substance to choose from) and have crocheted 3 wash clothes and a place mat since Sunday! Not any major feat for anyone who is a really accomplished crafter-knitter-crocheter person but good for me because I tried two new patterns and got them finished then without any major ripouts or screwups!
I'm still in the process of trying to learn more too about how to go about applying for a reverse mortgage -not sure how to start that process yet -as I think this may possibly be the only solution possible for me to remain in my family homestead for whatever length of time I may have available to live independently. So far, I haven't come across anything that sends up alarm signals to me -as my one couÇin warned me about things that he had heard about this process that could be detrimental but I'm trying to be very cautious about how I proceed with this idea.
Last week was also a very upsetting week for both Mandy and for me with respect to Kurtis. His behavior issues had resurfaced and he was becoming borderline for even possibly being suspended -if you can picture a first grader being suspended! Well, it could happen! Or, he could possibly be held back too and have to repeat first grade because of his poor choices and bad behavior. That would be a shame too as academically, he's doing very well. Just has a whole lot of difficulty following behaviorial directions though. Thankfully, none of the behaviors this time involved mooning other students or teacher like we had to deal with back during the winter months! Just hope thing finally settle down for the kid because he is basically such a little sweetheart.
Mother's Day here, came and went -older daughter and grandson came up for dinner and my son joined us for Sunday's main meal then too of baked chicken breast with provolone cheese and ham, candied sweet potatoes, creamed corn and two different desserts -strawberry shortcake or chocolate-peanut butter cream pie! Just the type of meal any diabetic really needs, isn't it? Heavy duty on the carbs and starches and sugar content!
So that brings me pretty much up to date with today now. Still having frequent bouts dealing with the depression but I keep telling myself to work through it, things will iron out, eventually -just hoping that it irons out without scorching too much in the process though!
Hope everyone else had a great Mother's Day celebration with family surrounding you. I am very blessed in that all three of my kids, all three of my grandkids too, are close enough to where I live that we were able to be together. This will probably be the last year we will be able to do that with relative ease once Mandy and the children move down towards Harrisburg sometime this summer.
Maya told me one day last week that she doesn't want to move away from here and she hopes her Mom changes her mind about this. Well, I wish she would have a change of heart about that too but I don't really think that's ever going to happen now. Just hope whatever move she does make that it all works out for the best for her.
And that's pretty much how my last week here as moved along!
Hope yours has been a whole lot better!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Monday, May 06, 2013
Privacy?
There have been some issues at school this past year with Kurtis -issues that are not of the academic sort but rather "Socialization Skills."
I think I'd rather deal with the academic issues because making headway with him on these socialization skills things is like beating a brick wall -or so it has often seemed to be.
For several months, over the winter, we had problems with him using the bathroom. Not that he didn't use the bathroom appropriately for what it's meant to be used for but because almost every time he went into the bathroom he came out exposing himself -primarily, his back side!
Yeah -not even 7-years old and already trying to moon everyone!
At home though, he frequently becomes "Mr. Modesty" himself! If you happen to open the bathroom door and he's in there, regardless of his mission, he's likely to scream at you "No come in here! No loooka me!" Okay, okay! And we've learned to back off and slink away until he vacates the premises.
Now, his "mooning" has tapered off lately -hasn't done that in about 6 weeks or so, and perhaps -if we're lucky -maybe we've seen the last of those episodes. But the modesty attacks at home still continue.''
However, the other morning, I had just gotten out of the shower and was standing on the mat in front of the tub and he came charging in there (knocking is an unheard of entity, ya know) and there I was in all my naked glory, with only a bath towel wrapped as far around me as it would reach.
He glanced over at me and began to giggle so I decided to give him a dose of his own medicine as I yelled out at him, "No look at me! No look at me!"
Mandy and Maya were both in the bathroom with me as Mandy was doing Maya's hair and both of them totally cracked up laughing as Kurtis scampered as fast as he could go, out of the bathroom and to a safer place at that time.
One with no X-rated views, I would imagine!
I think I'd rather deal with the academic issues because making headway with him on these socialization skills things is like beating a brick wall -or so it has often seemed to be.
For several months, over the winter, we had problems with him using the bathroom. Not that he didn't use the bathroom appropriately for what it's meant to be used for but because almost every time he went into the bathroom he came out exposing himself -primarily, his back side!
Yeah -not even 7-years old and already trying to moon everyone!
At home though, he frequently becomes "Mr. Modesty" himself! If you happen to open the bathroom door and he's in there, regardless of his mission, he's likely to scream at you "No come in here! No loooka me!" Okay, okay! And we've learned to back off and slink away until he vacates the premises.
Now, his "mooning" has tapered off lately -hasn't done that in about 6 weeks or so, and perhaps -if we're lucky -maybe we've seen the last of those episodes. But the modesty attacks at home still continue.''
However, the other morning, I had just gotten out of the shower and was standing on the mat in front of the tub and he came charging in there (knocking is an unheard of entity, ya know) and there I was in all my naked glory, with only a bath towel wrapped as far around me as it would reach.
He glanced over at me and began to giggle so I decided to give him a dose of his own medicine as I yelled out at him, "No look at me! No look at me!"
Mandy and Maya were both in the bathroom with me as Mandy was doing Maya's hair and both of them totally cracked up laughing as Kurtis scampered as fast as he could go, out of the bathroom and to a safer place at that time.
One with no X-rated views, I would imagine!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Independence - Fading....
I have always been a pretty independent type of person. Well, I always thought of myself in that vein. However, no one could possibly beat my Mom for being independent I think -although perhaps that depends too on how one views it too.
I worked hard over the years. For many, many years I maintained two jobs almost all the time. And if I didn't have the second job, I was working at least 15-20 hours of overtime every week! I did that for a long time back in the days when I was living in Maryland, just outside the D.C. line and working in the district.
But I never had what one would call a really "good" job though -not one that, by itself, as my only form of income, paid all that well. However, with overtime work and/or a second job, I managed to support myself, my older daughter and my Mom too. We didn't have a fancy-schmancy apartment but did live in a very nice "garden" apartment, air-conditioned, balcony, dishwasher -the things that were nice accoutrements to have back in those days.
I even managed to buy a new car when my daughter was about 8 months old and that was a dream I'd had since I was a little kid -to have my own new car some day! Well, it too wasn't a big fancy deal either -just a pretty much stripped down Chevy Nova -but hey, I bought it new and I still remember the sticker price on it -new -too - $2,619! That included white wall tires, a heater and AM radio!
When I worked down in D.C., I really never had any difficulty in locating employment, at least not part time work -as I was pretty content to stay with the full time job I had as long as business was running pretty good and there was overtime work almost always available.
I didn't have money to go buy anything I pleased but I made enough to keep a decent roof over our heads, put food on the table, clothes on our backs and even once in a while, do things of a frivolous nature too -like a trip to the shore once in a while. Vacations, where one would go someplace ultra special weren't part of my lifestyle as my vacations each year were generally spent back here in this house for our family reunions every year.
It was, in essence, really a very simple life but I enjoyed it because I loved the company -and especially the people -where I worked and as a general rule, I looked forward to going to work every day mainly because the people I worked for and with made it a very interesting and fun atmosphere.
Then, my ex-husband and I decided that the D.C. lifestyle was not our cup of tea -mainly because the costs of housing was beginning to escalate and finding a place to buy was getting very difficult to do if you were looking for something relatively affordable. So we thought things over and decided we wanted to go live someplace in a quieter atmosphere. We considered moving to one of three places -either go whole hog and move to Arizona (Phoenix area -which I'm sure would have probably led to a rerun of the issues we didn't like about D.C), or moving to his home town in Illinois or else, moving to my hometown up here in Pennsylvania.
Okay -since you know I live in PA, in the house my grandparents built, now -without making rocket science out of any of this story, you know which place won out, don't you?
We moved here in August of 1972, rented a small apartment in a nearby town (Philipsburg) and lived there for about 6 months before we found a house for rent about 4 miles from my family home and we moved there. Lived in that house for about 19 months until the house we built was completed enough that we could move in there. That house, one of those package type units where they supply all the materials and you supply the labor -or, if necessary, contract some jobs out -was a small 3 bedroom ranch -nice enough but nothing outstanding. Just a nice little house.
We lived in that from 1974 until 1979 when a series of events in my life caused some major life changes. My husband and I split up; about 2 months after that, my Mom died and 2 weeks after her passing, the minister at the church I attended then (still do) transferred to another parish in southeastern PA. He was pretty much my shoulder to lean on -someone I could talk to and get reasonable good counsel from him and with him gone, along with my Mom -all I had left then were 3 children under the age of 12 (ages 12, 6 and 3), no full time job and a boatload of depression.
By February of 1980, I had found a full time job and had also moved from the house my ex and I built over to my family homestead. I worked full time as a casher or waitress at the nearby truckstop plus I had a fairly large and relatively productive route too as an Avonlady, going door to door, selling those products. That income plus child support and I made ends meet -barely -but at least we were never at risk of being homeless and I always managed to have food on the table for the kids and myself as well as generally keeping the cupboards pretty well stocked too. (I think with my Mom having lived through the Great Depression and always telling about how hard those times were, how the family scrimped and saved to have money for the bare necessities that it hammered home to me the idea of having well stocked cupboards at the very least!)
But I wanted more than work as a waitress and the shift work I had to take just to have a job -first, midnight shift, then the afternoon evening shift. I wanted something that didn't beat my body up -running and running and running -to keep up with the tables and customers, ya know -so I started applying for work in the State College area -location of Penn State University's main campus and that's the largest employer, pretty much, in the central Pennsylvania region. I applied for virtually every office type job I saw advertised or heard about or knew about and my experiences then should have been a warning sign to me when, after several years of applying for other than food service work, I decided well, I'll go to college and that will help my odds of finding a better job.
Little did I know that was actually, for me, the beginning of the end.
I worked full time at first during my 1st year at Penn State, then dropped down to a part-time job for the last 3 years of school. That, plus it being a 1 hour commute each way to school, trying to oversee clothing, food and a roof over our heads too for myself and my kids -two still at home in high school -was a bit of a rough process but I survived it and even made the Dean's List on three different occasions too.
After graduation, I lucked out and got hired by a non-profit agency in Baltimore where I worked Monday thru Friday, came back home to Pa Friday night and worked at the part time job I'd had durig my last 3 years in college -a 220 mile drive one-way on Friday and the same drive again back to Baltimore late Monday night and I kept that routine going for a year until things began to go south back on the home front where my two daughters, were sharing the family house and were taking care of the expenses on the place here while I worked in Baltimore. My son by that time was in the Army but my girls were both through school and working full time but also, apparently not seeing eye to eye with each other about the shared responsibilities around the house. So, back to PA I came!
And after that, I had one horrible time trying to find a full time job! I had several part time jobs -all the while, thankfully, still holding on to the one job I'd had through college years and after five long years, I finally got hired in a full time position.
The only problem with that was that it was back at the place I had been working as a shift manager when I decided to go to college. Yep! Same place, same position and same "career: field too -food services -which was the one type of employment I had wanted desperately to escape!
And that lasted for about 2 1/2 years when I finally could not take any more of the issues that the general manager was laying out as being my fault, my problem -till the last straw when he gave me a week off without pay for the way I had handled a situation one busy weekend and the cause of the situation I had been rammed into was caused directly by the manager and so, I quit and got hired at the local truckstop to home as a waitress, three nites a week on the graveyard shift. I ended up not working there as a waitress but as shift manager -again -and yes, another truck stop -and hated every bloody minute of the work at that place! Till by December of that year I was laid off due to the normal slowdown of business that hits trucking and food services both in January through February or March. And that began the rest of my downslide in employability.
A year later I was diagnosed with cancer, ended up on disability, four surgeries in a 7-year period, plus two herniated discs as well (the 4th surgery was also for cancer but for a totally different type of cancer than the first was). I'm relatively speaking, fine now except some minor issues with arthritis in my knees and hip and some repercussions from time to time from the abdominal surgeries that are a pain in the dupa to deal with but, well -that's life!
So now, I find myself in a completely different predicament. My daughter and her two children who have been living here with me for the past 10 years -this has been the only home the two grandkids have ever know -are going to be moving out some time this summer, going to move down around the Harrisburg area, which is where my daughter's boyfriend lives and that leaves me here, alone in this house and not enough income to be self-supporting!
With a mortgage on the house -due to repairs and additional remodeling done after the place caught fire back in 1991 -plus utility bills that have increased GREATLY over the years -a whole lot faster than social security will ever increase -and I find myself no longer able to pay my own way!
There have been all kinds of ideas tossed around about how to allow me to stay in my own home well mine and the banks, but anyway -one of which was that my son could rent his house out and he and his girlfriend and her three boys could move in here with me. Sounds relatively viable bu something that ultimately scared the hell out of my son as his main worry was his sister would move out, then, find she either didn't like it in the Harrisburg area or couldn't manage there and decide to move back home and well, where would that put him and his family -plus the additional worries of finding a tenant who wouldn't wreck his house and who would also be timely in rent payment too!
As it currently stands, I am now going to look into the prospect of refinancing the homestead by way of a reverse mortgage.
And if you don't know what that is, I'm not going to explain it completely here mainly because I still don't know what all the little hoops and such are that one has to jump through in order to qualify for said mortgage. All I can say is that the bank or loan company will give you anywhere from 45% to 75% of the value of your home, you then pay off your mortgage, maintain the insurance and tax fees on the place but you then live there as long as you want/can with no mortgage payment overhead. And, when you die, the house is then sold -either to a family member who wants it then or an outside party! No, not exactly that simplistic, but that's the gist of it at any rate.
And at our family meeting today, my son was the only one who addressed the issue that is equally disturbing for me as the financial issues are and that's how am I going to be able to cope with the loss of my grandkids -without having them here with me, 24/7, ya know?
And I honestly don't know how I'll cope with their absence.
Sure there will be loads of time available to me then to do whatever I want to do -embroidery, knitting, sewing, reading, just watching tv -but he's wanting me to to try to become more of a "social butterfly" (in an old timer's way) once again. Yes, I have friends here -life long friends -but they all have family that they do things with -like shopping for one thing or going to various small events, etc. and they have someone to go with. I'm like a bump on a stump with no family to have join me to go to a movie or other little entertainment deals now and again. I gave up frequently the local pubs here about 10 years ago and have no desire to have that as my only form of outside entertainment again.
I used to be a pretty outgoing individual but over the past so many years of working at crap jobs with long, long hours that I have lost the ability to communicate well in that respect today. My phone rarely rings with someone on the other end just calling to tell me the latest news or a joke or some such other thing.
I have, in essence, become rather reclusive. No, not to the point of being agoraphobic -nothing quite that drastic -but more than a bit paranoid at times at how to regain friendships or make new ones today.
A few people think I should just sell the house and move to a senior citizen complex but that would mean leaving this little village and I've spent close to 60 years living here and to be honest, I like the scenery here fine and dandy!
I suppose to many none of this makes any sense -about wanting to stay in a big old house simply because, in my find, I still "feel" the presence in little ways here of my grandparents, my aunts/uncles long departed, my Mom, cousins and lots of old friendships that came and went through this place too!
I know one thing for sure, I don't want to be forced out and into a cracker box efficiency-type apartment and be alone there.
So, for now, my little dog Sammy and I will be here all by ourselves -just us and the tv and whatever crafting crap I can keep my mind focused on for any length of time.
I wish I could find a job -20-25 hours a week at most -which would allow me enough to manage to get by at least then. But seems like my employability track record is still following me around as I did have an interview back in November for a reasonably well-paying job (a major shock that was) and it even involved using my college major too. However, the one who ended up being hired -a 26-year-old single parent who has never even had any coursework in counseling type classes, much less a degree. (Her only coursework to date -accounting and an English class! And this for a job that requires a person be able to empathize with clients in distress and knows how to work with them, etc. So, now you go figure that type of employment theories out there because I sure can't!
I'm trying very hard, believe me, to maintain my sanity -which my kids will tell you is already shaky at best too -and I'd just like to go out eventually from the same house that was my first home many years ago too. I'd like to be able to do it with a bit of independence as well but that -well it remains to be seen I guess how well that aspect will play out over the next several months or hopefully years!
I worked hard over the years. For many, many years I maintained two jobs almost all the time. And if I didn't have the second job, I was working at least 15-20 hours of overtime every week! I did that for a long time back in the days when I was living in Maryland, just outside the D.C. line and working in the district.
But I never had what one would call a really "good" job though -not one that, by itself, as my only form of income, paid all that well. However, with overtime work and/or a second job, I managed to support myself, my older daughter and my Mom too. We didn't have a fancy-schmancy apartment but did live in a very nice "garden" apartment, air-conditioned, balcony, dishwasher -the things that were nice accoutrements to have back in those days.
I even managed to buy a new car when my daughter was about 8 months old and that was a dream I'd had since I was a little kid -to have my own new car some day! Well, it too wasn't a big fancy deal either -just a pretty much stripped down Chevy Nova -but hey, I bought it new and I still remember the sticker price on it -new -too - $2,619! That included white wall tires, a heater and AM radio!
When I worked down in D.C., I really never had any difficulty in locating employment, at least not part time work -as I was pretty content to stay with the full time job I had as long as business was running pretty good and there was overtime work almost always available.
I didn't have money to go buy anything I pleased but I made enough to keep a decent roof over our heads, put food on the table, clothes on our backs and even once in a while, do things of a frivolous nature too -like a trip to the shore once in a while. Vacations, where one would go someplace ultra special weren't part of my lifestyle as my vacations each year were generally spent back here in this house for our family reunions every year.
It was, in essence, really a very simple life but I enjoyed it because I loved the company -and especially the people -where I worked and as a general rule, I looked forward to going to work every day mainly because the people I worked for and with made it a very interesting and fun atmosphere.
Then, my ex-husband and I decided that the D.C. lifestyle was not our cup of tea -mainly because the costs of housing was beginning to escalate and finding a place to buy was getting very difficult to do if you were looking for something relatively affordable. So we thought things over and decided we wanted to go live someplace in a quieter atmosphere. We considered moving to one of three places -either go whole hog and move to Arizona (Phoenix area -which I'm sure would have probably led to a rerun of the issues we didn't like about D.C), or moving to his home town in Illinois or else, moving to my hometown up here in Pennsylvania.
Okay -since you know I live in PA, in the house my grandparents built, now -without making rocket science out of any of this story, you know which place won out, don't you?
We moved here in August of 1972, rented a small apartment in a nearby town (Philipsburg) and lived there for about 6 months before we found a house for rent about 4 miles from my family home and we moved there. Lived in that house for about 19 months until the house we built was completed enough that we could move in there. That house, one of those package type units where they supply all the materials and you supply the labor -or, if necessary, contract some jobs out -was a small 3 bedroom ranch -nice enough but nothing outstanding. Just a nice little house.
We lived in that from 1974 until 1979 when a series of events in my life caused some major life changes. My husband and I split up; about 2 months after that, my Mom died and 2 weeks after her passing, the minister at the church I attended then (still do) transferred to another parish in southeastern PA. He was pretty much my shoulder to lean on -someone I could talk to and get reasonable good counsel from him and with him gone, along with my Mom -all I had left then were 3 children under the age of 12 (ages 12, 6 and 3), no full time job and a boatload of depression.
By February of 1980, I had found a full time job and had also moved from the house my ex and I built over to my family homestead. I worked full time as a casher or waitress at the nearby truckstop plus I had a fairly large and relatively productive route too as an Avonlady, going door to door, selling those products. That income plus child support and I made ends meet -barely -but at least we were never at risk of being homeless and I always managed to have food on the table for the kids and myself as well as generally keeping the cupboards pretty well stocked too. (I think with my Mom having lived through the Great Depression and always telling about how hard those times were, how the family scrimped and saved to have money for the bare necessities that it hammered home to me the idea of having well stocked cupboards at the very least!)
But I wanted more than work as a waitress and the shift work I had to take just to have a job -first, midnight shift, then the afternoon evening shift. I wanted something that didn't beat my body up -running and running and running -to keep up with the tables and customers, ya know -so I started applying for work in the State College area -location of Penn State University's main campus and that's the largest employer, pretty much, in the central Pennsylvania region. I applied for virtually every office type job I saw advertised or heard about or knew about and my experiences then should have been a warning sign to me when, after several years of applying for other than food service work, I decided well, I'll go to college and that will help my odds of finding a better job.
Little did I know that was actually, for me, the beginning of the end.
I worked full time at first during my 1st year at Penn State, then dropped down to a part-time job for the last 3 years of school. That, plus it being a 1 hour commute each way to school, trying to oversee clothing, food and a roof over our heads too for myself and my kids -two still at home in high school -was a bit of a rough process but I survived it and even made the Dean's List on three different occasions too.
After graduation, I lucked out and got hired by a non-profit agency in Baltimore where I worked Monday thru Friday, came back home to Pa Friday night and worked at the part time job I'd had durig my last 3 years in college -a 220 mile drive one-way on Friday and the same drive again back to Baltimore late Monday night and I kept that routine going for a year until things began to go south back on the home front where my two daughters, were sharing the family house and were taking care of the expenses on the place here while I worked in Baltimore. My son by that time was in the Army but my girls were both through school and working full time but also, apparently not seeing eye to eye with each other about the shared responsibilities around the house. So, back to PA I came!
And after that, I had one horrible time trying to find a full time job! I had several part time jobs -all the while, thankfully, still holding on to the one job I'd had through college years and after five long years, I finally got hired in a full time position.
The only problem with that was that it was back at the place I had been working as a shift manager when I decided to go to college. Yep! Same place, same position and same "career: field too -food services -which was the one type of employment I had wanted desperately to escape!
And that lasted for about 2 1/2 years when I finally could not take any more of the issues that the general manager was laying out as being my fault, my problem -till the last straw when he gave me a week off without pay for the way I had handled a situation one busy weekend and the cause of the situation I had been rammed into was caused directly by the manager and so, I quit and got hired at the local truckstop to home as a waitress, three nites a week on the graveyard shift. I ended up not working there as a waitress but as shift manager -again -and yes, another truck stop -and hated every bloody minute of the work at that place! Till by December of that year I was laid off due to the normal slowdown of business that hits trucking and food services both in January through February or March. And that began the rest of my downslide in employability.
A year later I was diagnosed with cancer, ended up on disability, four surgeries in a 7-year period, plus two herniated discs as well (the 4th surgery was also for cancer but for a totally different type of cancer than the first was). I'm relatively speaking, fine now except some minor issues with arthritis in my knees and hip and some repercussions from time to time from the abdominal surgeries that are a pain in the dupa to deal with but, well -that's life!
So now, I find myself in a completely different predicament. My daughter and her two children who have been living here with me for the past 10 years -this has been the only home the two grandkids have ever know -are going to be moving out some time this summer, going to move down around the Harrisburg area, which is where my daughter's boyfriend lives and that leaves me here, alone in this house and not enough income to be self-supporting!
With a mortgage on the house -due to repairs and additional remodeling done after the place caught fire back in 1991 -plus utility bills that have increased GREATLY over the years -a whole lot faster than social security will ever increase -and I find myself no longer able to pay my own way!
There have been all kinds of ideas tossed around about how to allow me to stay in my own home well mine and the banks, but anyway -one of which was that my son could rent his house out and he and his girlfriend and her three boys could move in here with me. Sounds relatively viable bu something that ultimately scared the hell out of my son as his main worry was his sister would move out, then, find she either didn't like it in the Harrisburg area or couldn't manage there and decide to move back home and well, where would that put him and his family -plus the additional worries of finding a tenant who wouldn't wreck his house and who would also be timely in rent payment too!
As it currently stands, I am now going to look into the prospect of refinancing the homestead by way of a reverse mortgage.
And if you don't know what that is, I'm not going to explain it completely here mainly because I still don't know what all the little hoops and such are that one has to jump through in order to qualify for said mortgage. All I can say is that the bank or loan company will give you anywhere from 45% to 75% of the value of your home, you then pay off your mortgage, maintain the insurance and tax fees on the place but you then live there as long as you want/can with no mortgage payment overhead. And, when you die, the house is then sold -either to a family member who wants it then or an outside party! No, not exactly that simplistic, but that's the gist of it at any rate.
And at our family meeting today, my son was the only one who addressed the issue that is equally disturbing for me as the financial issues are and that's how am I going to be able to cope with the loss of my grandkids -without having them here with me, 24/7, ya know?
And I honestly don't know how I'll cope with their absence.
Sure there will be loads of time available to me then to do whatever I want to do -embroidery, knitting, sewing, reading, just watching tv -but he's wanting me to to try to become more of a "social butterfly" (in an old timer's way) once again. Yes, I have friends here -life long friends -but they all have family that they do things with -like shopping for one thing or going to various small events, etc. and they have someone to go with. I'm like a bump on a stump with no family to have join me to go to a movie or other little entertainment deals now and again. I gave up frequently the local pubs here about 10 years ago and have no desire to have that as my only form of outside entertainment again.
I used to be a pretty outgoing individual but over the past so many years of working at crap jobs with long, long hours that I have lost the ability to communicate well in that respect today. My phone rarely rings with someone on the other end just calling to tell me the latest news or a joke or some such other thing.
I have, in essence, become rather reclusive. No, not to the point of being agoraphobic -nothing quite that drastic -but more than a bit paranoid at times at how to regain friendships or make new ones today.
A few people think I should just sell the house and move to a senior citizen complex but that would mean leaving this little village and I've spent close to 60 years living here and to be honest, I like the scenery here fine and dandy!
I suppose to many none of this makes any sense -about wanting to stay in a big old house simply because, in my find, I still "feel" the presence in little ways here of my grandparents, my aunts/uncles long departed, my Mom, cousins and lots of old friendships that came and went through this place too!
I know one thing for sure, I don't want to be forced out and into a cracker box efficiency-type apartment and be alone there.
So, for now, my little dog Sammy and I will be here all by ourselves -just us and the tv and whatever crafting crap I can keep my mind focused on for any length of time.
I wish I could find a job -20-25 hours a week at most -which would allow me enough to manage to get by at least then. But seems like my employability track record is still following me around as I did have an interview back in November for a reasonably well-paying job (a major shock that was) and it even involved using my college major too. However, the one who ended up being hired -a 26-year-old single parent who has never even had any coursework in counseling type classes, much less a degree. (Her only coursework to date -accounting and an English class! And this for a job that requires a person be able to empathize with clients in distress and knows how to work with them, etc. So, now you go figure that type of employment theories out there because I sure can't!
I'm trying very hard, believe me, to maintain my sanity -which my kids will tell you is already shaky at best too -and I'd just like to go out eventually from the same house that was my first home many years ago too. I'd like to be able to do it with a bit of independence as well but that -well it remains to be seen I guess how well that aspect will play out over the next several months or hopefully years!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
I Beg Your Pardon....
Well, after getting a lot off my chest with my last post here, (and if I offended anyone in the process -well, I'm sorry but I'm not sorry that I wrote what I did.) so guess it will just have to be left alone to stand for my beliefs -or at least a few of them anyway.
So now, off and on to yet another post where I get to express my ideas or feelings, beliefs, etc., etc., etc.
Tonight's topic is identity -names, particulars, ways to identify a person so you can and will (maybe if you are lucky) remember who they are the next time you meet.
For me, where this becomes a problem is in trying to keep straight which kid is which of my grandchildren's friends! I'm not really around them all that frequently but even so, when they do show up here at our house, I then have problems keeping it straight if this is Jodi or Lori or Mauve or Destiny or Montana or who else, I don't know.
I have come to the conclusion that I need to have some kind of blank magnetic name tags that I can employ by maybe putting a strip of tape on the tag and writing the name of the individual in my presence at whatever given time so as to be able to remember that child's name if I need to address her during her play visit here. Kind of would help a bit to be able to call the child by it's given name as opposed to saying simply "Oh, hey you!" don't 'cha think?
I would of course, also have to request the child spell their name for me too so as to avoid any confrontations about how I had the name spelled on the tag -if I didn't realize that there are many new ways to say and spell various names too and get it wrong -wow, there's someone ready to have a hissy fit that you spelled or mispronounced their child's name in an incorrect fashion and the poor child is probably scarred for life now from that traumatic event. (If you don't want to run up against problems like that, then choose a name with a standard spelling to it in the first place as it avoids confusions.)
My view for today and I'm sticking to it!
So now, off and on to yet another post where I get to express my ideas or feelings, beliefs, etc., etc., etc.
Tonight's topic is identity -names, particulars, ways to identify a person so you can and will (maybe if you are lucky) remember who they are the next time you meet.
For me, where this becomes a problem is in trying to keep straight which kid is which of my grandchildren's friends! I'm not really around them all that frequently but even so, when they do show up here at our house, I then have problems keeping it straight if this is Jodi or Lori or Mauve or Destiny or Montana or who else, I don't know.
I have come to the conclusion that I need to have some kind of blank magnetic name tags that I can employ by maybe putting a strip of tape on the tag and writing the name of the individual in my presence at whatever given time so as to be able to remember that child's name if I need to address her during her play visit here. Kind of would help a bit to be able to call the child by it's given name as opposed to saying simply "Oh, hey you!" don't 'cha think?
I would of course, also have to request the child spell their name for me too so as to avoid any confrontations about how I had the name spelled on the tag -if I didn't realize that there are many new ways to say and spell various names too and get it wrong -wow, there's someone ready to have a hissy fit that you spelled or mispronounced their child's name in an incorrect fashion and the poor child is probably scarred for life now from that traumatic event. (If you don't want to run up against problems like that, then choose a name with a standard spelling to it in the first place as it avoids confusions.)
My view for today and I'm sticking to it!
Monday, April 22, 2013
Enough Already!!!
Sometimes, seeing some of the things that fly by and occasionally land, on my Facebook wall do totally appall me!
Maybe I'm still just a tad edgy after the events of the last week what with the bombing in Boston, the manhunt for the bombers, the explosion in Texas that leveled the better part of a small town and well, a myriad of other little things that, as my Grandma would say "Just get your commies."
To this day, I still don't know exactly what "Commies" are, when used in the context she applied them but I understood early on this basically meant it was something that really riled a person or got under your skin or "Got your goat" -which was another expression she also often used.
Like a lot of others, I'm on Facebook (as alluded to above) and when I see some of the things others post there, I wonder what their full logic is behind some of those statements.
Granted, I can see the illogical side when people often do have to have a drug test to get hired or to be eligible to stay on as an employee and yet, others can collect unemployment or even SS Disability, etc., or get food stamps and never get tested yet, maybe they might be some of the biggest druggies you can imagine. Doesn't seem fair, does it? But at the same time, one has to stop and think that perhaps that person who is getting what many believe to be wonderful benefits for free, or for not working, also has children at home that need those food stamps, or the unemployment check or social security to enable the family to have a roof over their heads. Disallowing benefits of this type because an individual may not seem to deserve it or is using that financial help in an inappropriate manner puts more than just the one person at risk but often, other family members as well. And does anyone, for a New York Minute really think to curb someone who is an addict -regardless of the type of substance -will stop using whatever if you curb any social supports? Not hardly!
Normally, when I see the posts along those lines -they seem innocuous enough at first glance (until you look beneath the surface and see beyond the one person) I usually look at them and see their point, not that I agree with it, but then, move on -no comment.
However, this evening there was one that read "Food Stamps should not be accepted at restaurants." And, for whatever reason I'm not really sure, but this one really rankled me -greatly!
Sure, from time to time, depending on my frame of mind and whether or not I am actively working on the idea of trying to quit smoking, I get a tad agitated over the commentary about what terrible people smokers must be. (Okay, so not those words, but if you've seen some of the blurbs that are conservative commentary about those of us who still continue to smoke, we must totally be the scum of the earth.) Anyway, sometimes, I'd like to take the person who posts something against smokers and tell that person that they should also be penalized for indulging in whatever their own particular sweet indulgence may be -whether it be stuffing one's self with high-fat content foods by the bucketful or impulse shopping to the point of way over-extending one's credit limits or whatever the little demon is that is on the shoulder of each one of us -and we all have at least one little demon sitting there, whether people care to admit that or not, 'fess up folks and admit that there's something there that you overindulge in or "abuse" from time to time.
Today though, when I read that comment about how people who are on food stamps should not be allowed to use them in a restaurant, that to me, was about the last straw!
How much colder and uncaring a society can we become when we would want to force people, just because they have food stamps to rely on for their daily bread, to almost make it mandatory then that they exist virtually on bread and water? Okay -perhaps that sounds a bit harsh but let me explain. For a lot of folks, I know, to go to a restaurant and eat out is considered a treat or a bit of a luxury. There are times when I can't really justify going to a restaurant, even one that has very reasonable prices, when most of the time I can fix the same foods at home and do it just as well too. But sometimes, it is nice to sit down and have a bite to eat, even if it is just a hamburger or hot dog, or a bowl of soup, knowing you didn't have to do anything to prepare that bite or spoonful and you don't have to do anything in the way of clean-up after you eat either!
And, think of this too, there are people who could fix their own food, if they had the facility available to use to cook a meal -like a kitchen which most housing usually comes with a kitchen ya know, but if someone can't find a place to live, it's pretty hard then to have a kitchen manifest itself before that person just so they can fix a home-cooked meal and not go sit down in a restaurant and order even the barest of substances for a meal!
My thoughts on if they took away the ability of those who perhaps are in such straits or maybe, due to some type of medical issue, aren't physically capable of preparing a meal for themselves now too, and denied them the ability to get even the barest of necessities of food via a restaurant, that this would, to my mind, be criminal.
As I stated above, I don't normally toss my opinion out when I see the comments many put up there that are more than obviously along the conservative bent, but this one today, just set my teeth totally on edge! I commented and added that those who think along those lines most likely would like to see the government, in its infinite wisdom with doling out food stamps, also put out lists of foods -items or even by brand names (don't want the people to spend more than is necessary, ya know) that would be acceptable for purchasing with food stamps.
I just wish more people would try the adage of "Walk a mile in my shoes" and try being a bit more compassionate in their ideals and such. Sure there are those who do participate in a vicious cycle of welfare usage -but when people are born into that system and are raised in it, breaking free of that syndrome can be a difficult thing to do.
However, most people who receive food stamps and other government assistance programs are just like the majority of our society and would be hard workers, productive members, if they could actually do it!
Think about it this way too, someday, those among us who feel so smug about being so good and perfect -non-smokers, not obese, employed, home owners or tenants in their own apartment someplace, may just find themselves on the other side of the good, nice door -perhaps an illness that takes you down and you have to apply for Social Security disability but before you can get that, you have to deplete every last ounce of money you have to your name -and then some -and try then to return to living a relatively normal life on what you receive on disability payments. It's a far cry from what most of those who yell the loudest at those of us they feel are using their money unwisely generally have to come and go on. Just a little food for thought as things like that can happen -and do too -to any of us!
In the blink of an eye -ya know -or except for the Grace of God, that could be me.
Before you go firing off your agreement by forwarding more of those statements -like or similar to those I've mentioned here -think about it and think who and how many are actually affected by what you are discerning as being something that is a waste of tax dollars -or your tax dollars to be specific -and if it were you in need or a helping hand for just yourself or your family, and people were making comments like those around you or about you, how would THAT then make you feel?
And don't be so smug as to say Well, I'd get a job or I'd work whatever number of jobs at any rate of pay to cover expenses, etc., for myself and family -perhaps you would -if you could! Not everyone can just waltz out and into an establishment and say "Here I am. Now where do I hang my coat and what do you want me to do?" because there is only one Frank Costanza and to my knowledge, he's still just a fictional character on the Seinfeld show!
Maybe I'm still just a tad edgy after the events of the last week what with the bombing in Boston, the manhunt for the bombers, the explosion in Texas that leveled the better part of a small town and well, a myriad of other little things that, as my Grandma would say "Just get your commies."
To this day, I still don't know exactly what "Commies" are, when used in the context she applied them but I understood early on this basically meant it was something that really riled a person or got under your skin or "Got your goat" -which was another expression she also often used.
Like a lot of others, I'm on Facebook (as alluded to above) and when I see some of the things others post there, I wonder what their full logic is behind some of those statements.
Granted, I can see the illogical side when people often do have to have a drug test to get hired or to be eligible to stay on as an employee and yet, others can collect unemployment or even SS Disability, etc., or get food stamps and never get tested yet, maybe they might be some of the biggest druggies you can imagine. Doesn't seem fair, does it? But at the same time, one has to stop and think that perhaps that person who is getting what many believe to be wonderful benefits for free, or for not working, also has children at home that need those food stamps, or the unemployment check or social security to enable the family to have a roof over their heads. Disallowing benefits of this type because an individual may not seem to deserve it or is using that financial help in an inappropriate manner puts more than just the one person at risk but often, other family members as well. And does anyone, for a New York Minute really think to curb someone who is an addict -regardless of the type of substance -will stop using whatever if you curb any social supports? Not hardly!
Normally, when I see the posts along those lines -they seem innocuous enough at first glance (until you look beneath the surface and see beyond the one person) I usually look at them and see their point, not that I agree with it, but then, move on -no comment.
However, this evening there was one that read "Food Stamps should not be accepted at restaurants." And, for whatever reason I'm not really sure, but this one really rankled me -greatly!
Sure, from time to time, depending on my frame of mind and whether or not I am actively working on the idea of trying to quit smoking, I get a tad agitated over the commentary about what terrible people smokers must be. (Okay, so not those words, but if you've seen some of the blurbs that are conservative commentary about those of us who still continue to smoke, we must totally be the scum of the earth.) Anyway, sometimes, I'd like to take the person who posts something against smokers and tell that person that they should also be penalized for indulging in whatever their own particular sweet indulgence may be -whether it be stuffing one's self with high-fat content foods by the bucketful or impulse shopping to the point of way over-extending one's credit limits or whatever the little demon is that is on the shoulder of each one of us -and we all have at least one little demon sitting there, whether people care to admit that or not, 'fess up folks and admit that there's something there that you overindulge in or "abuse" from time to time.
Today though, when I read that comment about how people who are on food stamps should not be allowed to use them in a restaurant, that to me, was about the last straw!
How much colder and uncaring a society can we become when we would want to force people, just because they have food stamps to rely on for their daily bread, to almost make it mandatory then that they exist virtually on bread and water? Okay -perhaps that sounds a bit harsh but let me explain. For a lot of folks, I know, to go to a restaurant and eat out is considered a treat or a bit of a luxury. There are times when I can't really justify going to a restaurant, even one that has very reasonable prices, when most of the time I can fix the same foods at home and do it just as well too. But sometimes, it is nice to sit down and have a bite to eat, even if it is just a hamburger or hot dog, or a bowl of soup, knowing you didn't have to do anything to prepare that bite or spoonful and you don't have to do anything in the way of clean-up after you eat either!
And, think of this too, there are people who could fix their own food, if they had the facility available to use to cook a meal -like a kitchen which most housing usually comes with a kitchen ya know, but if someone can't find a place to live, it's pretty hard then to have a kitchen manifest itself before that person just so they can fix a home-cooked meal and not go sit down in a restaurant and order even the barest of substances for a meal!
My thoughts on if they took away the ability of those who perhaps are in such straits or maybe, due to some type of medical issue, aren't physically capable of preparing a meal for themselves now too, and denied them the ability to get even the barest of necessities of food via a restaurant, that this would, to my mind, be criminal.
As I stated above, I don't normally toss my opinion out when I see the comments many put up there that are more than obviously along the conservative bent, but this one today, just set my teeth totally on edge! I commented and added that those who think along those lines most likely would like to see the government, in its infinite wisdom with doling out food stamps, also put out lists of foods -items or even by brand names (don't want the people to spend more than is necessary, ya know) that would be acceptable for purchasing with food stamps.
I just wish more people would try the adage of "Walk a mile in my shoes" and try being a bit more compassionate in their ideals and such. Sure there are those who do participate in a vicious cycle of welfare usage -but when people are born into that system and are raised in it, breaking free of that syndrome can be a difficult thing to do.
However, most people who receive food stamps and other government assistance programs are just like the majority of our society and would be hard workers, productive members, if they could actually do it!
Think about it this way too, someday, those among us who feel so smug about being so good and perfect -non-smokers, not obese, employed, home owners or tenants in their own apartment someplace, may just find themselves on the other side of the good, nice door -perhaps an illness that takes you down and you have to apply for Social Security disability but before you can get that, you have to deplete every last ounce of money you have to your name -and then some -and try then to return to living a relatively normal life on what you receive on disability payments. It's a far cry from what most of those who yell the loudest at those of us they feel are using their money unwisely generally have to come and go on. Just a little food for thought as things like that can happen -and do too -to any of us!
In the blink of an eye -ya know -or except for the Grace of God, that could be me.
Before you go firing off your agreement by forwarding more of those statements -like or similar to those I've mentioned here -think about it and think who and how many are actually affected by what you are discerning as being something that is a waste of tax dollars -or your tax dollars to be specific -and if it were you in need or a helping hand for just yourself or your family, and people were making comments like those around you or about you, how would THAT then make you feel?
And don't be so smug as to say Well, I'd get a job or I'd work whatever number of jobs at any rate of pay to cover expenses, etc., for myself and family -perhaps you would -if you could! Not everyone can just waltz out and into an establishment and say "Here I am. Now where do I hang my coat and what do you want me to do?" because there is only one Frank Costanza and to my knowledge, he's still just a fictional character on the Seinfeld show!
Moving on the Learning Curve
I marvel all the time as I watch how much Kurtis and Maya are learning -every day -something new and different comes my way from them. Just amazing how they are little sponges, soaking up all kinds of things on a constant basis.
What really gets me is how they learn things and you don't realize when they learned something much less how they picked this or that tidbit of knowledge up too. Sometimes, it's random stuff you can track back fairly quickly to what they learned on the TV a few minutes earlier but other times, it's so subtle you just can't ever seem to put your finger on it.
I think back to 10 years ago this summer when I was in the hospital recuperating from abdominal surgery to remove a malignant tumor and my older daughter and her son came to see me. The grandson was then almost 6 years old, just having finished kindergarten I believe. Anyway, they came in and my daughter informed me that Alex had a card he had made, just for me. It was a lovely little hand-drawn get-well card with flowers all over the inside -very cute, indeed. And I thanked him as well as complimented him on his prowess in drawing all those pretty flowers.
I remarked to him then that perhaps he too has a lot of artistic talents, like his Uncle Clate and who knows but maybe someday when he grows up he can be an artist.
His response floored both me and his mother and he stated, flatly, "No, Gram. I'm just going to be a paleontologist."
Hmmm. Really? What the heck is that?
Well, actually I knew what a paleontologist does, basically anyway, but I know darned well that when I was that same age I had never heard of that word!
Even at my ripe old age now, I find myself learning all kinds of new words -maybe not every day but frequently enough for me.
If you'd asked me about two-three months ago what an epiphone was, much less an epiphone Les Paul I know I couldn't have told you -other than figuring it must have something to do with music because I remember listening, as a kid, to songs done by Les Paul and Mary Ford and I remember he played a guitar too.
But now, I know and have a bit of an idea about how this -an epiphone -is quite the creme de la creme, apparently, in the music world!
Yep -learn something new every day and keep on doing that!
What really gets me is how they learn things and you don't realize when they learned something much less how they picked this or that tidbit of knowledge up too. Sometimes, it's random stuff you can track back fairly quickly to what they learned on the TV a few minutes earlier but other times, it's so subtle you just can't ever seem to put your finger on it.
I think back to 10 years ago this summer when I was in the hospital recuperating from abdominal surgery to remove a malignant tumor and my older daughter and her son came to see me. The grandson was then almost 6 years old, just having finished kindergarten I believe. Anyway, they came in and my daughter informed me that Alex had a card he had made, just for me. It was a lovely little hand-drawn get-well card with flowers all over the inside -very cute, indeed. And I thanked him as well as complimented him on his prowess in drawing all those pretty flowers.
I remarked to him then that perhaps he too has a lot of artistic talents, like his Uncle Clate and who knows but maybe someday when he grows up he can be an artist.
His response floored both me and his mother and he stated, flatly, "No, Gram. I'm just going to be a paleontologist."
Hmmm. Really? What the heck is that?
Well, actually I knew what a paleontologist does, basically anyway, but I know darned well that when I was that same age I had never heard of that word!
Even at my ripe old age now, I find myself learning all kinds of new words -maybe not every day but frequently enough for me.
If you'd asked me about two-three months ago what an epiphone was, much less an epiphone Les Paul I know I couldn't have told you -other than figuring it must have something to do with music because I remember listening, as a kid, to songs done by Les Paul and Mary Ford and I remember he played a guitar too.
But now, I know and have a bit of an idea about how this -an epiphone -is quite the creme de la creme, apparently, in the music world!
Yep -learn something new every day and keep on doing that!
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Little Absurdities
Funny thing, isn't it, how things happen that don't quite make sense -or at least not to some of us.
Take here, this morning, when I got up and walked into the dining room where I could see the dining room table had been moved, pushed back a good two foot of so towards the cabinet along the back wall.
I glanced down at all that extra floor space and the first thought that crossed my mind was that Sam must have had a watering accident this morning and Mandy had to push the table back to clean it up. I said this aloud and Maya just gave me a sort of strange look --of "Well, whatever, Gram," and went about her business.
Then I looked again and saw there were several pieces of paper also on the floor and that got me to thinking that no, Mandy wouldn't have cleaned up dog whiz and left papers laying around then too.Hmmm. Wonder who really moved this table?
So I asked Maya if she had pushed the table back and she replied that no, she hadn't done that but Kurtis had.
Say what? No way! I definitely knew that was a lie as that table is a big and very heavy unit and there is absolutely NO WAY Kurtis could have budged it an inch, much less 2 foot or so. So I asked Maya why on earth he would want to move the table and her reply to that was "Because he wanted to dance and needed more room."
Ah ha! I knew too that the last thing in the world Kurt would be interested in doing would be dancing but Maya -now there's a horse of a different color for sure as she spends hours with various videos playing on the computer as she tries to teach herself new moves in her "original" dance routines.
So I asked her if maybe she and Kurtis, together, had moved the table and yes, it turns out that was exactly what had happened. Because SHE wanted to dance!
See how smart I can be at times?
And see just how absurd the lies kids tell on each other can be at times too!
Take here, this morning, when I got up and walked into the dining room where I could see the dining room table had been moved, pushed back a good two foot of so towards the cabinet along the back wall.
I glanced down at all that extra floor space and the first thought that crossed my mind was that Sam must have had a watering accident this morning and Mandy had to push the table back to clean it up. I said this aloud and Maya just gave me a sort of strange look --of "Well, whatever, Gram," and went about her business.
Then I looked again and saw there were several pieces of paper also on the floor and that got me to thinking that no, Mandy wouldn't have cleaned up dog whiz and left papers laying around then too.Hmmm. Wonder who really moved this table?
So I asked Maya if she had pushed the table back and she replied that no, she hadn't done that but Kurtis had.
Say what? No way! I definitely knew that was a lie as that table is a big and very heavy unit and there is absolutely NO WAY Kurtis could have budged it an inch, much less 2 foot or so. So I asked Maya why on earth he would want to move the table and her reply to that was "Because he wanted to dance and needed more room."
Ah ha! I knew too that the last thing in the world Kurt would be interested in doing would be dancing but Maya -now there's a horse of a different color for sure as she spends hours with various videos playing on the computer as she tries to teach herself new moves in her "original" dance routines.
So I asked her if maybe she and Kurtis, together, had moved the table and yes, it turns out that was exactly what had happened. Because SHE wanted to dance!
See how smart I can be at times?
And see just how absurd the lies kids tell on each other can be at times too!
Monday, April 15, 2013
A Little Bit of Good Fortune....
One of my good friends here phoned me a couple days back and asked me if I still needed a new stove or perhaps, a refrigerator too.
Her question kind of floored me but then she said she remember a while back I had mentioned that we were looking for a stove as the one we had only had two burners that were working but, we lucked out about 18 months ago when my daughter came across one that some lady about 30 miles from here was giving away!
That stove works okay -for the most part. One burner is a bit tricky to keep it working all the time and it has no working clock/timer on it but otherwise, it's not bad and the price -free -was definitely right for our budget!
As to a refrigerator though, the one we have isn't all that old and it -knock on wood -has been chugging along for about 5 years now with no problems.
Then she told me why she was asking about this. Seems she just purchased a new refrigerator and a new stove for her house and was looking for someone who might need just such appliances to give these to someone in need.
When I mentioned the offer to my daughter, she said "Ask her if the stove has a clock and timer and if it does and they work, tell her we'll take it!"
And so, that's how I will be getting a new-to-me-new stove next Saturday!
And, my son will be acquiring a new-to-him-new refrigerator too as the one he currently has, he figures is probably at least 25 years old and he's worried that it may croak on him at some point in time when he can't find a decent, affordable refrigerator.
Isn't that how things usually happen though?
But one thing is for sure, getting this stove -which I know will be in ace condition because I know how meticulous this friend is about her things -sure will save a lot of headaches of searching for another stove and definitely save a whole lot of money too, even if we were to shop for discount appliances online for either a stove or refrigerator, the prices of things like that would have me looking for a small business loan for sure!
Have you priced any of these things lately?
Holy Rip!
Hope this stove I'll be receiving and the refrigerator that is going to my son's give us both lots and lots of good days (years) of usage ahead!
Her question kind of floored me but then she said she remember a while back I had mentioned that we were looking for a stove as the one we had only had two burners that were working but, we lucked out about 18 months ago when my daughter came across one that some lady about 30 miles from here was giving away!
That stove works okay -for the most part. One burner is a bit tricky to keep it working all the time and it has no working clock/timer on it but otherwise, it's not bad and the price -free -was definitely right for our budget!
As to a refrigerator though, the one we have isn't all that old and it -knock on wood -has been chugging along for about 5 years now with no problems.
Then she told me why she was asking about this. Seems she just purchased a new refrigerator and a new stove for her house and was looking for someone who might need just such appliances to give these to someone in need.
When I mentioned the offer to my daughter, she said "Ask her if the stove has a clock and timer and if it does and they work, tell her we'll take it!"
And so, that's how I will be getting a new-to-me-new stove next Saturday!
And, my son will be acquiring a new-to-him-new refrigerator too as the one he currently has, he figures is probably at least 25 years old and he's worried that it may croak on him at some point in time when he can't find a decent, affordable refrigerator.
Isn't that how things usually happen though?
But one thing is for sure, getting this stove -which I know will be in ace condition because I know how meticulous this friend is about her things -sure will save a lot of headaches of searching for another stove and definitely save a whole lot of money too, even if we were to shop for discount appliances online for either a stove or refrigerator, the prices of things like that would have me looking for a small business loan for sure!
Have you priced any of these things lately?
Holy Rip!
Hope this stove I'll be receiving and the refrigerator that is going to my son's give us both lots and lots of good days (years) of usage ahead!
Needles Working Again!
For the past 4-5 years now, I have been spending a whole lot of my free time -which is to say the bulk of my time, really -doing all kinds of embroidery stuff. Tablecloths, tabletoppers, pillow cases, tea towels and the like, along with even doing a couple of items that required framing.
Then, this winter, I switched off the embroidery stuff for a while -opting to do some reading for a change and also, some knitting and crochet work. The latter items there were for a specific event -the birth on February 1st of my step-great-granddaughter, little Miss Lola Rae.
Last summer, when we first learned there was going to be a baby arriving in January/February of this year, I broke out the knitting needles and yarn and made a little baby cardigan in a very pale blue -suitable for a little boy or girl and gave it to Katie prior to Lola's birth. Made me feel really good too when the first time Katie brought the baby down to the house, she had that little sweater on her!
Then I dug out a pattern I had used oh, 36 years ago when my youngest was just a baby and I had purchased some yarn in a very, very pale mint green. I loved the feel of this yarn -it felt kind of like a nice furry sort of eyelash yarn but wasn't that. I still haven't figured out how to describe it. But anyway, I proceeded to make a hooded cardigan out of some of that yarn for Lola along with a pair of baby booties. (Something else I hadn't made in many, many years!)
Then I put up the knitting needles and got out the crochet hook and made a crib blanket for her too. This was probably the easiest of the projects I did for Lola!
I read a couple more books too along the way and then about 3 weeks ago, I decided it was time to revert back to the embroidery again for a spell.
Over the past three weeks, I made an item that is completed as far as stitching goes but it is a sampler-type item that I finished the stitching on it -appropriately -on April 6th, which is my older daughter's birthday and this sampler was intended as a gift for her birthday. Now, to get over to Michael's and select a frame and matte for it and then, fight to get it stretched out so it is tight in the frame and give it to my daughter. It isn't a counted cross stitch sampler -just regular embroidery (stamped) and cross stitch and it says, "Daughter -Always on my mind, Forever in my heart." I showed it to her when she was here for a brief visit this past Saturday to get her thoughts on what type of frame should would like and what color she thinks would show it off best in the matte then too.
Since the 6th of April though, I've been back embroidering other things and thus far, finished a very pretty tabletopper in a bright red with stars and/or snowflakes on it -kind of a Scandinavian-type of Christmas design, finished one set of tea towels and have half of another set of tea towels done now too!
Tomorrow now, I will take a break from the embroidery for a day or so because I have a request from an old friend from my high school days to bake some Swedish Limpa Rye bread for her. She told me she would like to purchase 5 loaves of the bread if that is possible for me to make that many and it just so happens, a batch of that dough will generally yield 5 nice sized loaves of what we call around here
"Kaka" bread. Most of those who make Kaka bread here make the Swedish sweet white flat bread and although I do make that once in a while, my grandkids and the whole family really, now prefers the Rye kakas.
So, that will keep me busy most of the day tomorrow now.
The baking will net me enough money to invest in another large bag of the special rye flour I get for them -with a couple bucks leftover -enough to go buy a beer if I so desire but most likely that won't happen as I rarely venture out to any of the local pubs here any more.
Then it will be back to the embroidery as I am trying to finish as many of the kits as I have stashed away in the hopes of maybe this year, actually getting an Etsy account set up to display the needlecraft stuff and who knows, perhaps even sell a couple items here and there in the process then too!
I also found some websites last night too with instructions on how to take two or three plates and make a tiered serving dish by getting some candlestick holders or even coffee mugs to glue in place between the plates to make the tiers. A local lady had made one of these -a three-tier server -that was really pretty and she brought some type of finger sandwiches or cupcakes on it to my neighbor's daughter's wedding shower awhile back and when she went to leave and someone pointed out to her that she hadn't picked up the plate she had brought that food in on, she replied that we (the women of our church) could keep it as if she needed another one, she would get plates and just make one!
Well, the women of our church group were so taken by this tiered plate that we thought if we could get instructions on how to put one together, perhaps we could gather up some suitable plates and amke a couple of these things and then, sell them at our annual bazaar in November!
So, today when I was in town, I went to the Goodwill Store and checked out their dishes and such to see if I could find something that would work to make into a tiered plate and I came home with two large dinner plates with two matching salad plates along with to clear glass candlestick holders to use as the separators between the plates. I didn't realize it until I got the plates home and was washing them that they are made by Pfaltzgraff and the pattern is called "Perennials" a very pretty springy type pattern. I'm hoping to try my luck at putting these plates together with some kind of epoxy and see how they look.
Maybe, I'll even find time again to take some photographs and post them here too of my latest ventures into the wonderful world of crafts!
Then, this winter, I switched off the embroidery stuff for a while -opting to do some reading for a change and also, some knitting and crochet work. The latter items there were for a specific event -the birth on February 1st of my step-great-granddaughter, little Miss Lola Rae.
Last summer, when we first learned there was going to be a baby arriving in January/February of this year, I broke out the knitting needles and yarn and made a little baby cardigan in a very pale blue -suitable for a little boy or girl and gave it to Katie prior to Lola's birth. Made me feel really good too when the first time Katie brought the baby down to the house, she had that little sweater on her!
Then I dug out a pattern I had used oh, 36 years ago when my youngest was just a baby and I had purchased some yarn in a very, very pale mint green. I loved the feel of this yarn -it felt kind of like a nice furry sort of eyelash yarn but wasn't that. I still haven't figured out how to describe it. But anyway, I proceeded to make a hooded cardigan out of some of that yarn for Lola along with a pair of baby booties. (Something else I hadn't made in many, many years!)
Then I put up the knitting needles and got out the crochet hook and made a crib blanket for her too. This was probably the easiest of the projects I did for Lola!
I read a couple more books too along the way and then about 3 weeks ago, I decided it was time to revert back to the embroidery again for a spell.
Over the past three weeks, I made an item that is completed as far as stitching goes but it is a sampler-type item that I finished the stitching on it -appropriately -on April 6th, which is my older daughter's birthday and this sampler was intended as a gift for her birthday. Now, to get over to Michael's and select a frame and matte for it and then, fight to get it stretched out so it is tight in the frame and give it to my daughter. It isn't a counted cross stitch sampler -just regular embroidery (stamped) and cross stitch and it says, "Daughter -Always on my mind, Forever in my heart." I showed it to her when she was here for a brief visit this past Saturday to get her thoughts on what type of frame should would like and what color she thinks would show it off best in the matte then too.
Since the 6th of April though, I've been back embroidering other things and thus far, finished a very pretty tabletopper in a bright red with stars and/or snowflakes on it -kind of a Scandinavian-type of Christmas design, finished one set of tea towels and have half of another set of tea towels done now too!
Tomorrow now, I will take a break from the embroidery for a day or so because I have a request from an old friend from my high school days to bake some Swedish Limpa Rye bread for her. She told me she would like to purchase 5 loaves of the bread if that is possible for me to make that many and it just so happens, a batch of that dough will generally yield 5 nice sized loaves of what we call around here
"Kaka" bread. Most of those who make Kaka bread here make the Swedish sweet white flat bread and although I do make that once in a while, my grandkids and the whole family really, now prefers the Rye kakas.
So, that will keep me busy most of the day tomorrow now.
The baking will net me enough money to invest in another large bag of the special rye flour I get for them -with a couple bucks leftover -enough to go buy a beer if I so desire but most likely that won't happen as I rarely venture out to any of the local pubs here any more.
Then it will be back to the embroidery as I am trying to finish as many of the kits as I have stashed away in the hopes of maybe this year, actually getting an Etsy account set up to display the needlecraft stuff and who knows, perhaps even sell a couple items here and there in the process then too!
I also found some websites last night too with instructions on how to take two or three plates and make a tiered serving dish by getting some candlestick holders or even coffee mugs to glue in place between the plates to make the tiers. A local lady had made one of these -a three-tier server -that was really pretty and she brought some type of finger sandwiches or cupcakes on it to my neighbor's daughter's wedding shower awhile back and when she went to leave and someone pointed out to her that she hadn't picked up the plate she had brought that food in on, she replied that we (the women of our church) could keep it as if she needed another one, she would get plates and just make one!
Well, the women of our church group were so taken by this tiered plate that we thought if we could get instructions on how to put one together, perhaps we could gather up some suitable plates and amke a couple of these things and then, sell them at our annual bazaar in November!
So, today when I was in town, I went to the Goodwill Store and checked out their dishes and such to see if I could find something that would work to make into a tiered plate and I came home with two large dinner plates with two matching salad plates along with to clear glass candlestick holders to use as the separators between the plates. I didn't realize it until I got the plates home and was washing them that they are made by Pfaltzgraff and the pattern is called "Perennials" a very pretty springy type pattern. I'm hoping to try my luck at putting these plates together with some kind of epoxy and see how they look.
Maybe, I'll even find time again to take some photographs and post them here too of my latest ventures into the wonderful world of crafts!
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