Homage

I know a lot of people -virtual as well as "physical" friends -who don't just like to read but who love to read and, I consider myself to being one of those who does love to read.

The only problem I have with that is that I love to embroider too and so far, I haven't figured out a way in which I can work on my embroidery stuff and also, to read simultaneously.

So the result is that one suffers from no attention when the other takes over the spotlight.

One thing though, for sure, is if I get into reading a book and am really liking it, I have to keep reading, pushing myself to stay awake for as long as it may take (if possible) until I finish the book. Embroidery, on the other hand -well, sometimes I can manage to push myself -and my needle -up and down for fairly long periods of time, but definitely not keep going until the project is completed. To be able to do that would really be a very, very long period of insomnia, for sure!

Right now, I do have an embroidery project I should be working on however, the other day I made a purchase at Walmart of a book that I thought looked interesting. Actually, I thought it was the book daughter Mandy was reading a couple weeks ago but which she hadn't brought up with her over Thanksgiving to share it with me. And, I thought perhaps this book would make for a nice gift for Christmas for someone on my gift list.

Now my kids all know that if I buy a book to give to one of them (or even if it is intended for a non-family member) the odds that I will read the book before giving it to whoever I thought would like it are very high that as my kids say about this habit of mine, I give "second-hand" books because I read them all first.

There's a method to my madness, if you will, in doing that though. Especially on those rare occasions when I find several books that appeal to me and that I think maybe this or that person probably would like to read too, in that if I read it before giving it, it helps me determine who I think would most enjoy this book!

Well, I decided to read this particular book - "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman -and it was, for me, one of those books that I didn't want to put down until I finished it.

But this time the reason I couldn't put it down was a bit strange, even for me, because after I got started reading it, the story was very familiar to me -like I had read it before. However, if I did read it before, it is the first time I have NOT recognized that I'd already read it by simply by looking at the title and author's name nor by any of the little blurb of description about the book on the cover either!

But the more I read, the more I knew I had at least had this book at some time and had read at least half or more of it at some time but I also knew I had never finished it because when I got close to the end, it then became new territory, unexplored previously by me on one of my reading binges.

Seriously, I have never had that happen before -NEVER! I've had books that I have begun reading and not finished for one reason or another but I have always recognized the titles and authors of them upon sight of those books.

The thing is there are some books that I have read and reread several times, including two very large books -"Gone With The Wind" and "Not As A Stranger!" But the book I have read and reread several times was one I read in the 6th grade and for the next 4 years, I took that book out, again and again from the bookmobile and reread it -"Jonica's Island" by Gladys Malvern! Much as I really did (and still do) love GWTW -book and the movie -"Jonica's Island" is my all-time favorite book ever. Although it's been well over five decades that have passed now since the last time I read that book and yes, it is a young girl's type of reading material, I got the bright idea about 2-3 years ago that I'd like to get a copy of it and reread it and then, pass it along to my granddaughter, Miss Maya, who is becoming a bit of a voracious reader now too.

However, in trying to find a copy of it, all I found was information that it is long ago out of print and a copy of it now, if one were available to purchase, would run me close to $300 which is considerably out of my price range! I can only hope that someday Maya will have the good fortune of coming across this book in a library someplace and read it and fall in love with that story as much as I did, many, many years ago!

Now that I have polished off this latest book, I can  return to working on my embroidery project again until the urge to read comes over me again if I should happen to come across another book that I just can't bring myself to put down!

It would be nice if I could bring myself to pick up and finish one of a few books I have here that I started to read but have yet to finish -rare though that type are in my bookshelf. I'm thinking about the copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I started to read over 11 years ago and have not yet completed reading it or "Paradise" by Toni Morrison which I have started to read at least three times now and have yet to get beyond about completing maybe half of that book! (When Oprah said, as she recommended that book for her Book Club that it was a difficult book to read, she sure just wasn't whistling Dixie there!)

Wish me luck in trying to divide my time between my two favorite things equally now! (And here's hoping those I often give books to give me some hints about books they'd like to receive too!)

More problems? Perhaps.

As if having a computer and occasionally having it do strange things that you don't know how to counteract to correct isn't enough, in a fleeting moment of temporary insanity, I decided I needed to own a tablet!

Why, I'm not really sure now what my logic was in getting one of these things but I took the leap.

Okay, I was egged on via some pre-Black Friday sales online at Walmart. But, I think somewhere deep inside of me, I had some kind of real rationale that after several days of pondering the idea of the purchase, I broke down and made the more to purchase a Nexbook unit.

It's a 4-quad -whatever that means -with 16 GB according to the ad for this fine unit, and a 7" screen, plus other accoutrements that I don't even know for sure what the heck some of them are for.

This is definitely going to be one heck of a learning experience for me. That much, I have determined for sure in the two short days since I picked this little gem up at my local Walmart location.

And the first thing I have figured out is that I definitely need 10 new fingers! Well, at least 10 much smaller fingertips would do the trick, I think. Shifting gears all the time between the type of keyboard I need to be using is a neat learning trick in and of itself, for sure.

But let me clarify one main sticking point here as to my reasons for purchasing this thing.

It was between getting myself a new camera or a tablet and I decided on the tablet because -well, it also has a camera. So now -once again -I will be able to take pictures and post them too (maybe, if they turn out okay) and I will also be able to do Facebook and communicate possibly better when I am away from the house from time to time and therefore, unable to be accessible via e-mail or Facebook.

Hey -it seemed like a good, very viable bit of logic to me.

I struggled for several hours the first night of playing with this toy, trying to get my Facebook presence on this thing before I finally conceded defeat of that cause. Tonight though, lo and behold, I fired it up and just like that -presto, magic, ya know -there was my Facebook live and online! About an hour later, I actually managed to find the keyboard and type a status update on Facebook that "Woo Hoo. I am actually using Facebook on my new tablet."

And after that major success, I decided to stop playing with this puppy while I was still ahead in the game of learning how to use a tablet and I shut it down then.

I had planned on doing some baking tonight but unfortunately, the urge to nap overtook me and I fell asleep then in my recliner for about 3 hours or so. Now -at 2:00 a.m. -I am wide awake and this will no doubt cause me to oversleep Sunday morning and not make it to things I should be attending to -like my spiritual life, ya know.

Earlier this evening though, my younger daughter (that would be Mandy) called me and we had a very brief conversation before she had to hang up. During our fast chat though, Kurtis had something very important he wanted to share with me. And I absolutely have to share this with everyone here.

Kurtis:   "Hi Gram! Guess what? We went caroling and sang to a bunch of old ladies!"
Me: struggling to talk to him because I was totally cracking up laughing - "That's great, Kurtis!"

Kids! Gotta love their interpretation of events, don't 'cha?

I'm wondering now what the age ranges may have been of these ladies they sang to that he classified them as being "old ladies?" Wonder too if, in his mind, I made the cut?

And that pretty much sums up what's been going on here today -another rainy December day but at least today's rain was soft and didn't add to the ice cover that was on my car all day yesterday!

Oh and I just remembered something Mandy told me in our brief chat this evening as I was complaining about my fat fingers not being able to utilize the keyboard very well on this tablet.

"You need to get a Stylus, Mom!"

Alright! Good to know there is a device that will help me to use this sweet little instrument perhaps a bit easier.  Hopefully, it won't break the bank to get me one of those things cause that would then just add lots and lots more problems, wouldn't it?

Happenings!

I honestly don't know where the time goes that days pass by so quickly and I still am just as darned disorganized with my blog and postings here! I start out with all the best of intentions and somehow or other, things get overlooked or just plain forgotten about.

And I don't know which to blame right now for the fact it has been well over a month since I last posted something here.

I've had so many things -ideas -that have popped up in my mind and intended to write about them but then, somehow or other, I got waylaid, or busy with something else and well, it just totally slipped my mind then.

I've been -of course -still dealing with the Avon and definitely not setting the financial world, much less my own personal status on fire with that business! Thankfully, this year, although I have had a few issues now and again with items not being available, it hasn't been near as bad as it was last year during the Christmas selling season. But the strange thing is last year -problems with orders and all -I still had way better sales than I have had this year. Oh well. Live and learn and deal with it!

I've been trying to incorporate a little extra time for me to devote to my embroidery projects but even that hasn't been what it used to be. I did finally finish a tabletopper this past week but, although I had done this particular tabletopper a couple of years back and managed to get it done within 2-3 weeks, my stitching must have slowed down drastically this year because this time it took me over 2 months to finish that thing! I have since started a new topper project -a Christmas piece -and so far, it seems to be moving fairly fast -which is to say there is a remote possibility I can finish it before the holiday!

Last week though -Thanksgiving Week -I had the company of my two younger grandchildren (Maya and Kurtis) here all week. They had the pleasure of accompanying me to deliver several of my Avon orders and provided a good bit of entertainment in the process for me.

The weather here has been so up and down -one day it's like springtime, another day, like a rainy summer day and then, boom, out of no where it seems, Mother Nature decides to attack with a bit of revenge to remind us that it is very near to wintertime here!

Most of the nasty weather has involved my most hated type of weather conditions, that being freezing rain. Gosh I do hate that stuff with an absolute passion because it makes driving as near to impossible and is possible! Had a good bit of that substance here this morning and as yet today, I haven't been out of the house, but I know my car is going to need a lot of muscle to clear all the layer of ice on my windshield, for openers, before I will be able to go anyplace now!

Now, I know several people who say they love rainy days and don't even mind the days when the rain freezes upon contact with the ground, or changes over in mid-stream to sleet. (I think those people are insane, but that's my opinion.) They tell me that, to their minds, it is like a form of music to their ears when they hear it hitting their roof or the windows in their homes.

I do love music, for sure, but that kind of music doesn't make me think of PA's music at all.  Nope, no way! To my ears, that kind of music from Mother Nature sounds like a big old orchestra trying to tune up and not giving any harmonizing tones to it at all yet!

And now, because Sammy - my little old mutt here -is doing his kind of music of whimpering and whining and telling me by that to get my boots, coat, scarf and gloves on and please take him out for a walk very soon or I will be making some bad music of my own here, with a bit of cursing involved, as I will have a mess on my hands then to clean up after him!

So, off I go -into the wild, dusk, sort of gray, gradually turning black, yonder so he can find some areas along the road and our little walk to stay on my good side for the rest of today.

That much, I can control for now, today!