Boy, when I tell you that the past two days here were full, trust me, I'm not just whistling Dixie, Baby!
First, there was the episode on Monday of finding a lady who belonged to that church in Pittsburgh that my late aunt and uncle -and all five of their kids -along with two cousins of my Mom's had belonged to and that this lady, she was sure, had the cookbook I was searching for -well, many of you commented that this was really an incredible find for me.
And yes, it was -while it lasted!
Which is to say that Tuesday a.m. the lady phoned me to get my mailing address as she had planned to mail said cookbook to me and in our talk then, she got to looking more at the book she had and I asked her to look at the front page and tell me the copyright date or when it was published. Then my bubble broke as she said it was 1949! Oh rats! Apparently this book she still had was the same as the one my friend here had given me. So this one then wasn't the "updated" version I was so hoping it would be -complete with a bunch of recipes from those two cousins as well as recipes my aunt had contributed to a later edition. So, for now, I'm back to the drawing board now. However, this dear lady told me she would check further in her home to see if perhaps she might have a copy of the updated version stashed away someplace and if not, she thought maybe she might be able to locate a few other folks who had been members of the church or some one of their family had been a member back then and perhaps one of those friends might just happen to have a copy they'd be willing to part with -or at least share, temporally with me.
Such is life, ya know!
Monday afternoon, Mandy and Kurtis were in her car, going to Clearfield I think, and Kurtis, sitting in his car seat, was jabbering as he does when riding in the car. At one point though, Mandy began to pay attention to what he was saying and she said it was all she could do to keep from totally breaking up laughing as she heard him talking to himself and he said, "Kurtis, you sure are something else!" And boy, now we know he does really hear just about everything we say and yes, he is recording those things in his mind for future use too apparently!
Tuesday, I spent the better part of four hours -from about 10 a.m. till almost 2 p.m. -screwing around with my computer which was not being the nice, normal cooperative piece of equipment I wanted it to be. I needed to open a new page via my OpenOffice.org file and for some reason or other, could not get the computer to allow a new page -or even an old page, for that matter -to open for me. In frustration, I posted on Facebook about this dilemma and a good friend and fellow blogger/facebooker suggested I try something really, really tricky -like doing a restart! DUH! What was I thinking that I never thought to do that! As usually happens when things like this go awry, most of the time I forget the easy fix type things that quite often we can use and things then just fall into place and get themselves all fixed up. Translated -I did the "restart" and yep, everything then began to work, fine and dandy -except for all the time I had just squandered away trying to fix my problem! So as a result, I was late leaving the house to go out and try to make some more contacts with local business in an effort to sell a bit more advertising for our cookbook!
I did succeed in making a few contacts that might pay off and I did come home too though with one sale as well. So all's well that ends well -right?
This morning, I woke up around 6:30 a.m. -the automatic wake-up call my system almost always gives me around that time -alerting me that I better get up and get moving or I'm not gonna be happy at all with the potential consequences if I don't get up, rise and shine and head to the bathroom -right then!
When I came back out, I saw Mandy was up, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing and Ken was here.He was telling Mandy about some local excitement this morning in which some guy ran his nice new SUV type vehicle into the front of the little building where the gas attendants take care of business transactions at the local gas station up at Kylertown! This story went like wildfire on Facebook in this region as some guy had apparently happened on the place in the middle of the night and got a picture of the vehicle that had been deliberately "parked" right in the front door and window of the place.
Don't believe me? Watch this video from the news broadcast tonight out of Johnstown, PA's NBC station there and then tell me this story isn't just a tad more than insane!
http://www.wjactv.com/video/28756976/index.html
Because of some schedule conflicts that Mandy had to deal with, when I left the house today to pick up a few things I needed from the grocery store in Kylertown and then make a run to Philipsburg too, I had to take Kurtis with me. Now there's an interesting situation to have to go "cold-calling" on people to ask them to buy an ad for your cookbook with a 5-year-old also in tow.
But anyway, as we went up the hill to leave town here, and as I neared my son's house, I realized I was in for my second shock of the day. There, in his front yard, sat the big "bus" -ambulance from Philipsburg, door hanging open and no attendants in sight. Well, you know I whipped my little jeep off the road, into the grass at my son's place and went moving down through the yard as fast as my fat little legs would propel me. Inside the house -with three paramedics there -was Elizabeth, my son's girl friend and her little boy, Ryan, sitting on the sofa and the paramedics were then in the process of removing those little test things they put all over your body when they do and EKG. Seems little Ryan -who has the most impish and curious nature of ANY little boy I've ever seen I think -had found his Mom's Epi-Pen and managed to poke it in his mouth, into his gum! Thankfully, he was okay -none the worse for wear although, I'm not too sure about how calm his Mother really was! She's usually pretty cool, calm and collected about just about anything that comes her way and today, if she was a bit nervous or scared, she was doing a really good job of hiding it!
So from there -got those few groceries, went to Philipsburg and got what I had to get there and then, made a few more contacts for ads for the cookbook.
As I went to leave the business that was to be my last stop in town there, the jeep began to make this terrible clanking noise -sounded at first like something dragging on the ground but when I got out and looked under the jeep, I couldn't see anything hanging where it shouldn't have been hanging. But because at times I do become more than a bit of a nervous nellie about possible car problems -sure as hell didn't want to risk having the little buggy break down on me half way home especially not with my five-year-old grandson in the back seat, so I doubled back to the garage where the ex-son-in-law works as a mechanic and had him check the jeep out quickly then.
Hmmm. Turns out yes there was a problem but it was one that could be fixed temporally at least with some heavy-duty wire as he wound it around the tailpipe to hold it up! Seems some bolts had fallen off and it was banging and clanking around. The bad new out of this part of my day was the ex-son-in-law said I needed a new tailpipe and muffler too. So he's gonna order that for me and we will schedule a repair job then up at my son's house as soon as he gets the parts!
So now, that's the crux of the exciting two days I've just had! Tomorrow -what's ahead? Well, for openers, I have an appointment with my Insurance Guy to review the policy I have with him, maybe have to do a little upgrading and a few changes to that. In that process though, I'm going to have a little talk with him too about -hopefully -getting him to buy an ad for the cookbook too though! Trade-offs, ya know!
I did mention this on Facebook but apparently anyone who saw it must have thought I was just joking but I had posted there that if anyone on my Facebook -especially people originally from around here who now live a good distance away -if they'd be interested in supporting our Women's Group by purchasing what is known as a "Patron" ad, they can then give our group a little head's up,wishing us luck and good fortune with the cookbook and leave their name behind then -all for a donation of $15.00 to our women's group!
Not a bad deal really -help us defray some of our publishing costs and leave a footprint in the sand of the cookbook by giving us a nice greeting and see their name in print then too.
So -now I'll make that same offer to any of you my readers -if you'd like to do that too!
Just let me know via e-mail and I'll send you my snail mail address where you can send a check for our group's, hopefully, successful venture into the realm of cookbook publishing!
Just a thought but not a joke as I am serious about this so if you're feeling ultra generous, we most certainly would very much appreciate the two lines of text for the donation to our cause! Why? Well, because our group and our cause -all very much worth the investment, ya see!
Peace!
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