I did it! I walked 3K today!
Yep, today was the day of the 3K walk (also a 5K race too) to benefit the Cure Autism Now organization and I did the walk and lived (barely) to tell about it now too!
Keep in mind here, prior to even registering to participate in this event, I did the comparison thing online to see what exactly did 3K equate to in terminology I understand and it worked out to be 1.86 miles. I figured since a walk around the village here where I live amounts to about 2 miles, that this was comparable, on a bit more level ground too, so I decided I dared to try this.
There were eleven of us on our team. My older daughter, Carrie, her fiance, Robert, her son- my grandson, the Prince, Alex (age 9), my son, Clayton, my younger daughter, Mandy and her younger stepdaughter, Sierra, who is eleven. In addition, there was Lois - a friend and co-worker of Mandy's at the grocery store, Amie -my son's former girlfriend who came up here last night from Littlestown (near Gettysburg) to do the walk with us and a dear friend of mine from my high school days, Sharon, who now lives in State College - and of course, fat old me!
While Sharon and I made this a pretty much leisurely stroll around State College, along the pretty tree-lined streets lined with fraternity houses and gorgeous older homes with the stone fronts and all, the rest of the group with us moved along at a somewhat faster pace. However, when Sharon and I had completed the walk, our time was 55:58 minutes and there were still about 10 walkers behind us - all who were also much younger too than Sharon and I are! So we felt pretty doggone good and pleased as punch with ourselves for having made it around the course.
We had initially planned to take both the little ones with us too but because the weather forecasts for today got yuckier and yuckier as the week progressed, calling for rain, temps to be in the 30's, Mandy decided we'd best not take a chance on lugging them along. HOwever, although it probably only did get up to the high 30's during the walk, there was (thankfully) no precipitation and Mandy then felt quite guilty about having left Miss Maya at home with her Aunt Kathy -her dad's sister. I think Maya probably would have enjoyed the whole thing very much and also, it may have cured her from asking us almost daily "Walk me? Walk me?" regardless of how miserable the weather might be. Then again, maybe it would have started a life-long habit of enjoying the prospects of a nice crisp and brisk walk too.
Who knows? I sure don't but not much can be done now to rectify that.
Right now, I'm not sure exactly how much our team will end up with for our contribution to the fund raiser though. We have $843 tallied up on our team at this time, plus I turned in checks totally $60 at the event today. I don't know if we can get credit to our team for the three new walkers who went with us - Lois, Amie and Sierra - or not as Mandy said they didn't ask if they were on a specific team or anything but if I can contact the coordinator and see about that, it might add another $45 to our donation totals. And, if I understand and have all the paperwork completed properly, we should then qualify to have Thrivent, a Lutheran service agency, match what monies we collected, up to $1,000 which then would give us at least $1,800 in contributions to the organization.
And I think that was a pretty respectable sum we collected even without the potential matching funds, don' t you?
When I got home today though, I must confess that I was then - and still am at this time now too -stiff, very, very stiff. Probably will ache even more all day Sunday now I suppose, too. Oh well, take another Alleve and shut up about it as it was worth every step and every lingering ache tonight in my ankles, knees and my hip/leg joints too!
Sunday now, I have to get moving enough to cook for the birthday celebration Mandy has planned for little Kurtis who was a whole big year old this past Friday - the 13th - but we aren't having his birthday party until today. Gotta cook up a huge batch of Sloppy Joe stuff, along with a casserole of macaroni and cheese (something that is pretty much guaranteed that will be acceptable fare for the princess, Miss Maya here), plus Mandy is making a really good pasta salad that a cousin of ours had fixed for our family reunion last summer. So, there will be no starving folks in this house today at any rate. (Although some of us here could use a bit of "starvation" in order to be able to fit better into some decent clothes she recently purchased to wear to her big 45th Class Reunion coming up on June 2nd! Gee, wonder who that might be?)
And now, I am off to beddy bye in hopes that I will still be able to walk when I wake up come morning!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Remember What?
They say the memory is the second thing to go - to disappear - on you and I forget what the first thing is.
Yep, that's me. That's my dilemma. As in another old line -"I walked out to the kitchen but when I got there, I forgot what I went there for."
Anyone else have major memory lapses like that? Come on, 'fess up. I'm betting you've got more folks in the same boat that you could shake a stick at.
As a general rule, my long-term memory is pretty good. My extended family marvels at how I can remember minute details about this or that relative. I can even remember information about various family members long before my time, things my Grandfather told me about people in his life. But, ask me about something that happened recently and I am totally dead in the water. Can't remember diddly squat.
Which brings me to my post tonight. I sat down, trying to remember what, if anything, had happened today that was post-worthy and be darned if I could remember what on earth I had done today!
Well, my neighbor and good friend, Kate (also classmate and our class president who also is in charge of this year's 45th class reunion) stopped by - brought some senior photos of some of our classmates who have indicated they will be attending our big event with her. She also brought some really, really old photos too - much older than she and I are - to see if I had a clue as to who any of the people are in these pictures.
Some of these old photos she had they had found in the attic of the house when they bought it back in 1968. It had been the family home of the Louis Johnson family here in this little village. The only members of the family I ever knew to live in the house were a brother and sister - Axel and Freda Johnson. When we were kids, their great-nephew, who lived in the Philadelphia area someplace used to come up with his grandparents to visit and most every summer, he would stay on for his "vacation" with his great-aunt and great-uncle. I don't remember now if his surname was Johnson or something else - just remember his name was Ricky, he was a couple of years younger than Kate and I and I really used to look forward to his visits here.
I plan to scan these old photos, even though I have no clue as to who the people on them are, except for one, taken of a WWI soldier in his uniform, holding a gun, which Kate and I both can make out it was Axel Johnson, the brother who lived in this house. All the rest are totally unknown to us. One photo, taken in front of the house adjacent to Kate's place is of two young men and we think they may be two brothers of the Werner family who lived next door to the Johnsons. I'll have to remember to show that one to a cousin of my Mom's who might be better able to figure out if it is indeed, two of the Werner brothers or not.
And after that I cooked supper, took a little cat nap - which I will probably regret because it will most likely be just enough to keep me from falling asleep tonight now too!
I did get an e-mail from a very good friend of mine in the Cleveland area tonight though with some not very good news in it. A former neighbor of mine died today. He was only two years older than me and had been battling major problems from a malignant brain tumor for probably at least the past two years. He was a very bright man - also an excellent musician, very talented. He, along with a younger friend in Michigan and I shared a love of the local history as well as family tree research. And I was very saddened to learn of his passing, needless to say. So, if anyone reading this knew Ray Lyncha, son of Joe and Anna Kendrick Lyncha, say a prayer for him and for his family for the loss they are now dealing with.
In anticipation that tomorrow I might forgot to make a posting as I have to keep my mind focused on last minute details I have to put together for our walk on Saturday for the Cure Autism Now 3K Walk in State College, I'm going to post the Bushism for Friday along with the one that covers Saturday and Sunday combined. Maybe I need to get a great big old calendar, with huge blocks for every day and hang it on the wall by my computer and then, write in there what I have to do and allot a time to begin this or that task, etc., to get me organized so I remember what I need to do and maybe it might help me to remember what I actually managed then to get accomplished each day. Yeah - a great big blank piece of paper is probably what it would stay as too cause I'd probably forget to write in my directives for the day anyway!
Friday, April 13, 2007 - hey this one's special cause it's my grandson's first birthday now today! Yay, Yay, I remembered something!
"After all, Europe is America's closest ally." - Mainz, Germany, February 23, 2005
and - for April 14 and 15, 2006 (Saturday and Sunday)
"We have practically banished religious values and religous institutions from the public square and constructed a 'discomfort zone' for even discussing our faith in public settings." - Milwaukee, Wisconsin - September 9, 2000
Yep, that's me. That's my dilemma. As in another old line -"I walked out to the kitchen but when I got there, I forgot what I went there for."
Anyone else have major memory lapses like that? Come on, 'fess up. I'm betting you've got more folks in the same boat that you could shake a stick at.
As a general rule, my long-term memory is pretty good. My extended family marvels at how I can remember minute details about this or that relative. I can even remember information about various family members long before my time, things my Grandfather told me about people in his life. But, ask me about something that happened recently and I am totally dead in the water. Can't remember diddly squat.
Which brings me to my post tonight. I sat down, trying to remember what, if anything, had happened today that was post-worthy and be darned if I could remember what on earth I had done today!
Well, my neighbor and good friend, Kate (also classmate and our class president who also is in charge of this year's 45th class reunion) stopped by - brought some senior photos of some of our classmates who have indicated they will be attending our big event with her. She also brought some really, really old photos too - much older than she and I are - to see if I had a clue as to who any of the people are in these pictures.
Some of these old photos she had they had found in the attic of the house when they bought it back in 1968. It had been the family home of the Louis Johnson family here in this little village. The only members of the family I ever knew to live in the house were a brother and sister - Axel and Freda Johnson. When we were kids, their great-nephew, who lived in the Philadelphia area someplace used to come up with his grandparents to visit and most every summer, he would stay on for his "vacation" with his great-aunt and great-uncle. I don't remember now if his surname was Johnson or something else - just remember his name was Ricky, he was a couple of years younger than Kate and I and I really used to look forward to his visits here.
I plan to scan these old photos, even though I have no clue as to who the people on them are, except for one, taken of a WWI soldier in his uniform, holding a gun, which Kate and I both can make out it was Axel Johnson, the brother who lived in this house. All the rest are totally unknown to us. One photo, taken in front of the house adjacent to Kate's place is of two young men and we think they may be two brothers of the Werner family who lived next door to the Johnsons. I'll have to remember to show that one to a cousin of my Mom's who might be better able to figure out if it is indeed, two of the Werner brothers or not.
And after that I cooked supper, took a little cat nap - which I will probably regret because it will most likely be just enough to keep me from falling asleep tonight now too!
I did get an e-mail from a very good friend of mine in the Cleveland area tonight though with some not very good news in it. A former neighbor of mine died today. He was only two years older than me and had been battling major problems from a malignant brain tumor for probably at least the past two years. He was a very bright man - also an excellent musician, very talented. He, along with a younger friend in Michigan and I shared a love of the local history as well as family tree research. And I was very saddened to learn of his passing, needless to say. So, if anyone reading this knew Ray Lyncha, son of Joe and Anna Kendrick Lyncha, say a prayer for him and for his family for the loss they are now dealing with.
In anticipation that tomorrow I might forgot to make a posting as I have to keep my mind focused on last minute details I have to put together for our walk on Saturday for the Cure Autism Now 3K Walk in State College, I'm going to post the Bushism for Friday along with the one that covers Saturday and Sunday combined. Maybe I need to get a great big old calendar, with huge blocks for every day and hang it on the wall by my computer and then, write in there what I have to do and allot a time to begin this or that task, etc., to get me organized so I remember what I need to do and maybe it might help me to remember what I actually managed then to get accomplished each day. Yeah - a great big blank piece of paper is probably what it would stay as too cause I'd probably forget to write in my directives for the day anyway!
Friday, April 13, 2007 - hey this one's special cause it's my grandson's first birthday now today! Yay, Yay, I remembered something!
"After all, Europe is America's closest ally." - Mainz, Germany, February 23, 2005
and - for April 14 and 15, 2006 (Saturday and Sunday)
"We have practically banished religious values and religous institutions from the public square and constructed a 'discomfort zone' for even discussing our faith in public settings." - Milwaukee, Wisconsin - September 9, 2000
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Little Things; Funny Things
Ok - here it is now 2 a.m. and of course, though I could barely hold my eyes open about 2 hours ago, now, they don't want to go shut. Go figure!
So, I decided heck, may as well write up the silly goings-on in the house yesterday before I forget what they were. Things do fly in and out of my mind really quickly and though sometimes, I can retrieve a thought, more often than not, once it flys out, it's frequently "Gone With The Wind!"
So, here's the scene for the first little event.
It was around noonish - my son and I were sitting at the counter in the kitchen, talking, drinking coffee, getting kind of caught up (for him) on what's happened around home, around town, etc., while he's been out on the road for the past 5 days.
I happened to glance down at the middle of the kitchen floor and it looks wet to me so I ask him if it looks like something wet has been spilled on the floor there. He says yeah, looks that way to him and I remark that at least it's not yellow so we know it's not cat whiz then. (Gracie, our poor old cat, has developed a nasty habit recently of whizzing on the kitchen floor, right smack dab in front of the doggone sink, no less! Very annoying too it is since she tends to do that in the wee (no pun intended) hours of the morning shortly before the son-in-law gets up to make coffee and he generally is the one who steps in it, of course. Sometimes she catches me though too if I am just going to bed around 5 or 6 a.m. and decide to be a nice mother-in-law and make coffee so it's all ready for Bill when he staggers downstairs.)
So I grab some paper towels and wipe this -whatever it is - up and as I was wiping it up, my son mentions that it kind of smells like some kind of floor cleaner or some such. I told him that Mandy had just mopped up both the living room and dining room floors though before she left for work so the whole downstairs smells like lemon pinesol or some thing like that.
I sit back down at the counter and we pick up our conversation again and about that time, Miss Maya comes out and decides she is going to get into the cupboards and starts with the one where we keep the potatoes, onions and cat food. I really am not in the mood to be retrieving potatoes or onions from under the radiator or cat food (dry stuff) from all over the floor so I get after her to get the heck out of that cupboard. And, surprise, surprise, she listens. And, I'm all proud of myself that apparently the stern sound in my voice caught her attention or -well, whatever.
Just as I lift my coffee cup to take a sip though, out of the corner of my eye, I see a quick movement and before I can set the cup down and move a muscle, Maya has the cupboard under the sink open, is standing there with a spray-type container of some cleaner substance like 409 or along those lines and quick as a wink, she's gleefully squirting it all over the danged floor!
Uncle Clate starts laughing too - I even had to chuckle and I said to him, "Well, now we know what the wet substance was that was on the floor!"
And we decided that perhaps we should rename Maya - change her name to "Hazel" -which was my Mom's name and my Mom was a cleanaholic, if ever there was one. Seems that Mom's housecleaning genes may have bypassed me completely, dusted lightly on my girls and have landed full force in Maya. She loves to take the wet ones -moistened towelettes from under the baby's changing table and is happy as a pig in doo-doo then going all over the house wiping down windowsills, the tv screen - anything she can reach. The only other thing I've seen her do that gives her more pleasure than that is when she is busy with her crayons - coloring the walls, the windows, the tv screen. Right now, the marks still on the tv screen are so nicely placed that sometimes, in a certain light, they seem to line up perfectly at about where the actors faces are on the screen - just above the lips - so it looks like almost everyone- male or female - has a nice thin mustache there too now!
But, I think back too when my son was about Maya's age to a stunt he pulled on me one morning while I was back cleaning the bedrooms. He was supposed to be watching Sesame Street - which was usually a guaranteed program to keep his attention, keep him out of things if I was busy elsewhere in the house. I was running the vacuum and realized I heard no giggles, no noise of anytype coming from the living room so, as most any parent will agree, this is generally a bad sign!
I went out to check on him and he had migrated to the kitchen to the cupboard where I stored the cold cereal and had taken every single box of cereal out, dumped each and every one into a pile on the floor. Then he had emptied the oatmeal box on that pile and for good measure, had poured a bottle of pancake syrup over top of the whole mess.
Actually, his real grand finale there was that he also walked through that sticky pile. He was still dressed in his flannel pajamas and there he stood, with all this oatmeal sticking to his pant legs, looking just like he'd been tarred and feathered. Which, by the way, is exactly what I wanted to do to him too!
So, Maya's little playing around today was not nearly as difficult to clean up - actually was kind of helpful in a way as I wiped up the kitchen floor a bit more then using the stuff she had sprayed around there.
About 2:30 or so, after feeding Kurtis, he developed a severe odor so I took him into the bathroom to change him. In doing so, I discovered there had been a little bit of leakage around the snap area of his onesie so I had to undress him completely to remove that clothing item and when I redressed him, I didn't have a clean onesie handy to put back on him so I just put his tee shirt back on along with the pamper and put him in his playpen. And, I went out to the kitchen to mix up the bread I was baking today. After getting it all mixed up and ready to set it on one of the big living room radiators, all wrapped in tea towels and a big blanket to help it raise, as I passed his playpen, I noticed something was missing there. He still had the shirt on but had done an excellent job of removing the tabs on the pamper and was sitting there, bare butt, kicking away, flapping his little hands and chortling over and over with his little you know what just a flapping away with each movement too!
Hmmmm. This kid, I was thinking, as I took him back to the bathroom to put the pamper (which was still clean and dry) back on him must really take after his mother AND his Uncle Clate because they both, at about that age, had some very bad habits that really used to drive me bonkers. My son, if you put him in a playpen or his crib and didn't put pajama bottoms or jeans or shorts - something over the pamper -and if he made a nice mess in it, he would dig it out and finger paint with it -all over the playpen or the crib mattress, rails, the walls, you name it! Kurtis' mother was even worse though - she would completely strip regardless of how many layers of clothes you had on her and then, dip into the matter and finger paint!
So, by comparison you see, the grandson's actions, though somewhat similar to his mother's and his uncles, were just cute and humorous - as are almost all actions done by grandchildren though, aren't they!
We do, when we become grandparents, forgive a whole raft of things the kids do that if their parent, or sibling of the parent had done the same thing, they'd have been nursing a sore fanny for a while. As my son keeps telling Katie, the 15-year-old as he points to me, "Be very glad because THAT is not the same person that I grew up with!" And he's right because in so many ways, I am much, much more mellow than I was way back when my kids were little!
Maybe Bill Cosby is right when he warns children about grandparents that we are all just old people trying to be nice so we can get into heaven!
Or maybe it is that my neighbor up the street, my friend Shirley likes to say "If I'd know grandchildren were so darned much fun, I'd have had them first!" And boy, do I ever agree with that as they really are so much more fun than the "first edition!"
Now, I'm REALLY going to bed and hopefully, to sleep this time!
Nite all!
So, I decided heck, may as well write up the silly goings-on in the house yesterday before I forget what they were. Things do fly in and out of my mind really quickly and though sometimes, I can retrieve a thought, more often than not, once it flys out, it's frequently "Gone With The Wind!"
So, here's the scene for the first little event.
It was around noonish - my son and I were sitting at the counter in the kitchen, talking, drinking coffee, getting kind of caught up (for him) on what's happened around home, around town, etc., while he's been out on the road for the past 5 days.
I happened to glance down at the middle of the kitchen floor and it looks wet to me so I ask him if it looks like something wet has been spilled on the floor there. He says yeah, looks that way to him and I remark that at least it's not yellow so we know it's not cat whiz then. (Gracie, our poor old cat, has developed a nasty habit recently of whizzing on the kitchen floor, right smack dab in front of the doggone sink, no less! Very annoying too it is since she tends to do that in the wee (no pun intended) hours of the morning shortly before the son-in-law gets up to make coffee and he generally is the one who steps in it, of course. Sometimes she catches me though too if I am just going to bed around 5 or 6 a.m. and decide to be a nice mother-in-law and make coffee so it's all ready for Bill when he staggers downstairs.)
So I grab some paper towels and wipe this -whatever it is - up and as I was wiping it up, my son mentions that it kind of smells like some kind of floor cleaner or some such. I told him that Mandy had just mopped up both the living room and dining room floors though before she left for work so the whole downstairs smells like lemon pinesol or some thing like that.
I sit back down at the counter and we pick up our conversation again and about that time, Miss Maya comes out and decides she is going to get into the cupboards and starts with the one where we keep the potatoes, onions and cat food. I really am not in the mood to be retrieving potatoes or onions from under the radiator or cat food (dry stuff) from all over the floor so I get after her to get the heck out of that cupboard. And, surprise, surprise, she listens. And, I'm all proud of myself that apparently the stern sound in my voice caught her attention or -well, whatever.
Just as I lift my coffee cup to take a sip though, out of the corner of my eye, I see a quick movement and before I can set the cup down and move a muscle, Maya has the cupboard under the sink open, is standing there with a spray-type container of some cleaner substance like 409 or along those lines and quick as a wink, she's gleefully squirting it all over the danged floor!
Uncle Clate starts laughing too - I even had to chuckle and I said to him, "Well, now we know what the wet substance was that was on the floor!"
And we decided that perhaps we should rename Maya - change her name to "Hazel" -which was my Mom's name and my Mom was a cleanaholic, if ever there was one. Seems that Mom's housecleaning genes may have bypassed me completely, dusted lightly on my girls and have landed full force in Maya. She loves to take the wet ones -moistened towelettes from under the baby's changing table and is happy as a pig in doo-doo then going all over the house wiping down windowsills, the tv screen - anything she can reach. The only other thing I've seen her do that gives her more pleasure than that is when she is busy with her crayons - coloring the walls, the windows, the tv screen. Right now, the marks still on the tv screen are so nicely placed that sometimes, in a certain light, they seem to line up perfectly at about where the actors faces are on the screen - just above the lips - so it looks like almost everyone- male or female - has a nice thin mustache there too now!
But, I think back too when my son was about Maya's age to a stunt he pulled on me one morning while I was back cleaning the bedrooms. He was supposed to be watching Sesame Street - which was usually a guaranteed program to keep his attention, keep him out of things if I was busy elsewhere in the house. I was running the vacuum and realized I heard no giggles, no noise of anytype coming from the living room so, as most any parent will agree, this is generally a bad sign!
I went out to check on him and he had migrated to the kitchen to the cupboard where I stored the cold cereal and had taken every single box of cereal out, dumped each and every one into a pile on the floor. Then he had emptied the oatmeal box on that pile and for good measure, had poured a bottle of pancake syrup over top of the whole mess.
Actually, his real grand finale there was that he also walked through that sticky pile. He was still dressed in his flannel pajamas and there he stood, with all this oatmeal sticking to his pant legs, looking just like he'd been tarred and feathered. Which, by the way, is exactly what I wanted to do to him too!
So, Maya's little playing around today was not nearly as difficult to clean up - actually was kind of helpful in a way as I wiped up the kitchen floor a bit more then using the stuff she had sprayed around there.
About 2:30 or so, after feeding Kurtis, he developed a severe odor so I took him into the bathroom to change him. In doing so, I discovered there had been a little bit of leakage around the snap area of his onesie so I had to undress him completely to remove that clothing item and when I redressed him, I didn't have a clean onesie handy to put back on him so I just put his tee shirt back on along with the pamper and put him in his playpen. And, I went out to the kitchen to mix up the bread I was baking today. After getting it all mixed up and ready to set it on one of the big living room radiators, all wrapped in tea towels and a big blanket to help it raise, as I passed his playpen, I noticed something was missing there. He still had the shirt on but had done an excellent job of removing the tabs on the pamper and was sitting there, bare butt, kicking away, flapping his little hands and chortling over and over with his little you know what just a flapping away with each movement too!
Hmmmm. This kid, I was thinking, as I took him back to the bathroom to put the pamper (which was still clean and dry) back on him must really take after his mother AND his Uncle Clate because they both, at about that age, had some very bad habits that really used to drive me bonkers. My son, if you put him in a playpen or his crib and didn't put pajama bottoms or jeans or shorts - something over the pamper -and if he made a nice mess in it, he would dig it out and finger paint with it -all over the playpen or the crib mattress, rails, the walls, you name it! Kurtis' mother was even worse though - she would completely strip regardless of how many layers of clothes you had on her and then, dip into the matter and finger paint!
So, by comparison you see, the grandson's actions, though somewhat similar to his mother's and his uncles, were just cute and humorous - as are almost all actions done by grandchildren though, aren't they!
We do, when we become grandparents, forgive a whole raft of things the kids do that if their parent, or sibling of the parent had done the same thing, they'd have been nursing a sore fanny for a while. As my son keeps telling Katie, the 15-year-old as he points to me, "Be very glad because THAT is not the same person that I grew up with!" And he's right because in so many ways, I am much, much more mellow than I was way back when my kids were little!
Maybe Bill Cosby is right when he warns children about grandparents that we are all just old people trying to be nice so we can get into heaven!
Or maybe it is that my neighbor up the street, my friend Shirley likes to say "If I'd know grandchildren were so darned much fun, I'd have had them first!" And boy, do I ever agree with that as they really are so much more fun than the "first edition!"
Now, I'm REALLY going to bed and hopefully, to sleep this time!
Nite all!
Tuckered Out
Today has been one wild and funny day! So many things happened today that had all of us laughing and laughing -from Miss Maya this morning and her antics in the kitchen, little Kurtis pulled a number on me very reminiscent of something his mother used to do around his age. I cooked a big supper tonight -meatloaf, two veggies, pasta plus fresh hot Swedish Rye bread right out of the oven. The camaraderie tonight between my son and daughter along with the 15-year-old was just excellent - so nice, sooo very good to see everyone joking, teasing and the house full of laughter. Wish it were like that every day!
Because I am really super tired tonight - a rare thing for me at this hour, I know - I'm only going to share one small item that had us all howling tonight. Then post the Bushisms for Wednesday and Thursday too - kill two birds with one stone -er post, that is! And after that, off to bed for me!
Ok - here's the scene. Kate was going to send a cute little thank you card to her great-aunt Cyndi to thank her for taking her to Dubois shopping yesterday and for lunch - whole nine yards ya know. So, things started going downhill for her -by that I mean she became the brunt of a lot of the wise cracks that flew about - early on as she was trying to compose her own little thank you message. It started with "how do you spell "old fashioned" - followed quickly with "field," does the "i" come first or the "e" to which I replied "I before E except after C" and she muttered that she had spelled the word wrong then as she had the e first. I then said to sound it out - and that what she had written was "fee ild" not "field" which brought a look from her with much eye-ball rolling and groaning. Eventually, she put the card in the envelope, sealed it and proceeded to address it - then wanted to know where to put the stamp and a couple more of her "normal" yet down right goofy questions for one who is 15-years-old and a freshman in high school. Gees, I knew where the postage stamp went on an envelope way before that age! Okk, I was nice on that one and said nothing.
Shortly after she had this card all addressed, stamp in place, etc., and laying on the counter for my daughter to mail it out tomorrow, Mandy happened to pick it up and started to laugh.
"Kate! How do you expect this card to get to Cyndi's place anyway?" she asked. And Kate's repy was something to the effect of put it in the mailbox and they'll deliver it.
However, Mandy then showed the card to my son and me and we both about split our sides laughing because as neatly as possible, Kate had addressed the card to herself with the return address being that of her Aunt Cyndi's! I mean - come on folks - who the heck at age 15 doesn't know how to address an envelope anyway? So the rest of the evening, Kate took a heck of a ribbing about addressing envelopes and such - anything anyone could think of to toss a wise crack her way, that's where it went.
Ok - doesn't sound near as funny written out as it was when we were looking at that envelope but trust me, it was hilarious at the time. Guess you had to be here, huh?
Or maybe I am just too doggone tired tonight cause I am bushed - no pun intended there as I move on here and post two Bushisms tonight for your reading pleasure.
Wednesday - April 11, 2007
"We don't want to discourage the innovators and those who take risks because they're afraid of getting sued by a lawsuit." - Washington, D.C.; June 24, 2004
Thursday, April 12, 2007
"It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce." Quebec City, Canada; April 21, 2001.
And, with that wonderful quote that lead me to say a simple "DUH!" I'm shutting down shop for tonight. Provided I remember all the "fun and jocularity" that happened here today, I may try to remember it and use that for my post for tomorrow then! How about them apples, huh?
Because I am really super tired tonight - a rare thing for me at this hour, I know - I'm only going to share one small item that had us all howling tonight. Then post the Bushisms for Wednesday and Thursday too - kill two birds with one stone -er post, that is! And after that, off to bed for me!
Ok - here's the scene. Kate was going to send a cute little thank you card to her great-aunt Cyndi to thank her for taking her to Dubois shopping yesterday and for lunch - whole nine yards ya know. So, things started going downhill for her -by that I mean she became the brunt of a lot of the wise cracks that flew about - early on as she was trying to compose her own little thank you message. It started with "how do you spell "old fashioned" - followed quickly with "field," does the "i" come first or the "e" to which I replied "I before E except after C" and she muttered that she had spelled the word wrong then as she had the e first. I then said to sound it out - and that what she had written was "fee ild" not "field" which brought a look from her with much eye-ball rolling and groaning. Eventually, she put the card in the envelope, sealed it and proceeded to address it - then wanted to know where to put the stamp and a couple more of her "normal" yet down right goofy questions for one who is 15-years-old and a freshman in high school. Gees, I knew where the postage stamp went on an envelope way before that age! Okk, I was nice on that one and said nothing.
Shortly after she had this card all addressed, stamp in place, etc., and laying on the counter for my daughter to mail it out tomorrow, Mandy happened to pick it up and started to laugh.
"Kate! How do you expect this card to get to Cyndi's place anyway?" she asked. And Kate's repy was something to the effect of put it in the mailbox and they'll deliver it.
However, Mandy then showed the card to my son and me and we both about split our sides laughing because as neatly as possible, Kate had addressed the card to herself with the return address being that of her Aunt Cyndi's! I mean - come on folks - who the heck at age 15 doesn't know how to address an envelope anyway? So the rest of the evening, Kate took a heck of a ribbing about addressing envelopes and such - anything anyone could think of to toss a wise crack her way, that's where it went.
Ok - doesn't sound near as funny written out as it was when we were looking at that envelope but trust me, it was hilarious at the time. Guess you had to be here, huh?
Or maybe I am just too doggone tired tonight cause I am bushed - no pun intended there as I move on here and post two Bushisms tonight for your reading pleasure.
Wednesday - April 11, 2007
"We don't want to discourage the innovators and those who take risks because they're afraid of getting sued by a lawsuit." - Washington, D.C.; June 24, 2004
Thursday, April 12, 2007
"It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce." Quebec City, Canada; April 21, 2001.
And, with that wonderful quote that lead me to say a simple "DUH!" I'm shutting down shop for tonight. Provided I remember all the "fun and jocularity" that happened here today, I may try to remember it and use that for my post for tomorrow then! How about them apples, huh?
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
A Promise Made, A Promise Done
I've been promising for a week now that I would post the results from the Red Moshannon Downriver Race that took place on March 31st and now, I'm happy to post these here for your long-awaited reading pleasure. After typing in these results, I think I now know why I was getting numerous hits from a reader in Albion, Michigan over the past week too. Glad you came by to visit and hope you'll come back and visit often. Feel free to leave comments on the blog at any time as well so I know if you have other things I can find and post here for you to read.
And, just to clarify something too - if anyone reading this happened to be a customer at the grocery store near to Grassflat and overheard some employee of that store talking about having a state police officer posted along the road past our house on the morning of the race so as to keep people from speeding along there, she really was only joking! That would have been my daughter and she would really like to see some participants slow down a bit enroute down to the Peale bridge and for that matter, so would I. I'd really hate to see anyone get a speeding ticket or worse, be in an accident on their way down to the race. Only want to post your name and time it took you to get down the Red Mo to the bridge -no "high speed driving awards" on the highways, just the waterways. Fair enough?
Finally! The results are in! Published in today’s (April 10, 2007) issue of the Clearfield Progress, the winners of the 40th Red Moshannon Downriver Race. The following information is excerpted from the article written by Timothy Nebgen, Staff Writer.
This race is the oldest and largest on the East Coast and this year’s event had 217 racers in 154 boats going down the 7.5 mile stretch of the Red Moshannon. The race begins at the Peale Bridge, located below Grassflat, where the ghost coal mining town of Peale used to stand, and ends at the bridge on state Route 53 at the point where the Red Moshannon and Black Moshannon creeks converge.
The “Top Dog Award” for the fastest time of the day went to Jeff Rankinen and Todd Roadman who cmpleted the race in 44 minutes, 12 seconds.
K-1 WOMEN SHORT: Carol Yeckley, Morrisdale, 1:02:06; LeeAnn DeArmit, Pennsylvania Furnace, 1:04:26; Jean Voigt, Boalsburg, 1:10:44
K-1 WOMEN LONG: Susan Williams, Secane, 0:55:04; Diane Fisher, Kane, 0:57:15; Molly Sturniolo, Warriors Mark, 1:02:54
K-1 MEN SHORT: Ken Damelio, New Columbia, 0:55:11; Steven Smith, Curtisville, 0:56:03; John Workinger, Huntingdon, 0:57:58
K-1 MEN LONG: David Shubert, Gasport, NY, 0:54:36; Jesse Rakovan, Brookville, 1:03:22; Christopher Johns, Erie, DNF
OC 2 MIXED: Zaak Havens, Albion, Mich/Emily Magyar, Gables, Mich., 0:52:15; Jim Goochee, Port Allegheny/Teresa Stout, Sorsica, 0:54:56; Lauren Sugg/Jon Reynolds; 0:55:13
K-2 REC UNLIMITED: Arpad Batizy, Medina, Ohio/Tass Batizy, Erie, 0:52:52; Ron Matchock/Hunter McClelland, Ramey, 1:00:50; Ryan Coleman, Julian/Scott Dehart, Julian, 1:19:30
OC 2 OVER/UNDER: Randy Stout/Logan Stout, Corsica, 0:53:44; Todd Shaffer/Scott Shaffer, Drumore, 0:56:57; Jake Smith, Williamsport/Rick Shumaker, Binghamton, 0:57:28
K-1 WOMEN UNLIMITED: Joanne Simpson, Littlestown, 0:55:10; Dawn McCracken, Curwensville, 0:55:54; Linda Kay Volpe, Grampian, 0:55:58
K-1 MEN UNLIMITED: Andrew Augustine, Throop, 0:53:38; Brian English, Morrisdale 0:53:54; Jared Shrader, Lewisburg, 0:54:20
k-1 men unlimited composite: Doug Keiper, Celebration, Fla., 0:52:31
OC 2 CENTURY: Ken Gerg, Emporium/Glen Vandewinckel, Webster, NY, 0:53:49; Michael Burk, Ebensburg/Greg Gdula, Johnstown, 0:54:28; Howard Pillot, State College/Edward Prince, 0:54:34
OC 2 SHORT: Randy Bailey, Driftwood/Alex Kostra, Transfer, 0:52:20; Chuck Wendler, Lanse/Bob Horton, Clearfield, 0:53:36; John Koenig/William Koenig, 0:53:44And, just to clarify something too - if anyone reading this happened to be a customer at the grocery store near to Grassflat and overheard some employee of that store talking about having a state police officer posted along the road past our house on the morning of the race so as to keep people from speeding along there, she really was only joking! That would have been my daughter and she would really like to see some participants slow down a bit enroute down to the Peale bridge and for that matter, so would I. I'd really hate to see anyone get a speeding ticket or worse, be in an accident on their way down to the race. Only want to post your name and time it took you to get down the Red Mo to the bridge -no "high speed driving awards" on the highways, just the waterways. Fair enough?
One, Two, Three
Ok! I've got the "earworm" thingy going on in my head right now. I owe it all to Miss Maya, my little princess here too. She loves to watch the Country Music Channel and the country music videos - of course. One of her favorite videos and which she has picked up the first line of it and has been singing it over and over here all day is the one by Tim McGraw -his latest hit - "One, two three, like a bird I sing." Maya sings it but changed the last word in that line to "tree." I suppose that made more sense to her that way - I dunno. I'm surprised she didn't pick up the lines in the song - the "Ha ha ha" part.
But of course, although she's been chortling that song all day, when the next-door-neighbor happened by and I asked her to sing for Deb, she said she was "All done, all done." Translated from Maya-ese, that means simply, don't bother asking me to do anything YOU want! Yeah, she's a little bit on the bull-headed side - like as stubborn as the proverbial mule, ya know.
The Easter weekend flew by - or so it seemed. Mandy, the little guy and Grammy here made it to the 10 a.m. church service. No way on earth were we going to do the sunrise service at 7 a.m.! No way, JOSE! It was a very beautiful service though, good sermon, and on the last hymn, apparently Kurtis wanted to let everyone know he likes music too because he began to do his own particular brand of "singing" too. Nope, not crying, but putting forth his best attempt at making as much other noise as his little voice would allow. Maybe we have two up-and-comers here in the house to the music world a few years down the line. Who knows?
Yesterday, the older daughter's fiance came up, bringing with him my little Prince, Alex, the older grandson and they brought more Easter candy - which Miss Maya really needed (like another whole in the head ya know), plus some cute shirts for both kids, a whole casual outfit for old Gram (knee-length white pants, a pretty shell and a very sharp blue and white casual camp shirt to go with it. And then, Alex and Robert rolled in the big gun item - a really snazzy two-wheeler bike - with training wheels of course - for the Princess!
The bike was somewhat of a shock to my system, needless to say. Maya has a little low-rider type bike - hard-plastic type - but it works fine for in the house, for her purposes and although she's had it since last summer, she still isn't really adept at the pedal thing. This bike - the new one - she is in awe of it, yes. She can get on it and sit there, but doesn't grasp the pedal concept any better really with it than she does with the low-rider bike. And too, this one, once she gets her little self up on it, she can't get back down so she sits there, wiggles the handlebars and such till she gets bored with that and then she whines till someone comes and lifts her off it.
The weather here over the weekend was something else too - SNOW! We had maybe an inch or a little over that on the ground here Sunday morning but we were lucky compared to a town about 25-30 miles to the west of us - good old Curwensville - where they ended up with an accumulation of eight (8) inches of the wet, white stuff. Better them than us is all I have to say about that scene!
I've been trying to keep tabs now on the weather forecasts for this coming weekend - particularly for Saturday - for the Cure Autism Now walk the family is going to be participating in - and right now, the forecast is for temperatures around 63 but the icon showing for that day also indicates some potential for rain. Hope it doesn't come about until way, way late in the day!
Donations to our team have still be coming in too - and we have matching funding coming too through Thrivent - the Lutheran service group -of up to $1,000. So if we can collect at least $1,000 to go to Cure Autism Now, that would give us a donation of $2,000 total or more if we go over $1,000 in our collections. Here's hoping we get that and then some!
If you'd like to help our cause - here's the website http://www.psucureautismnow.org/
Go there, click on register or donate and from there, just search for "Maya's Team" and you can help us move closer toward our goal. But it isn't just getting our team closer to OUR goal, but to get the Cure Autism Now closer to their goal of finding the cause and ways to help people who have this disorder.
Having seen first hand how much good has come from the therapists who come to the house every week, for only an hour each, with our little Princess here, it shows me that much -so very much - can be accomplished. And also, shows how much still needs to be done too, but it's a very positive stream flowing here in that respect now - that much I have to say too.
And now - gotta go try to get some things ready for supper tonight so here's the closer for today - yep - you guessed it - the Bushism for the day.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
"This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs and the farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of those struggling to get ahead." - Des Moines, Iowa; August 21, 2000.
And, that one really has me wondering though - how well do ANY politicians today hear the voices of the many in this country to "get ahead?" Sometimes, it sure does appear the only voice heard in that respect is one crying in their heads of "how well will I be able to get ahead" with no concern for the general public.
But of course, although she's been chortling that song all day, when the next-door-neighbor happened by and I asked her to sing for Deb, she said she was "All done, all done." Translated from Maya-ese, that means simply, don't bother asking me to do anything YOU want! Yeah, she's a little bit on the bull-headed side - like as stubborn as the proverbial mule, ya know.
The Easter weekend flew by - or so it seemed. Mandy, the little guy and Grammy here made it to the 10 a.m. church service. No way on earth were we going to do the sunrise service at 7 a.m.! No way, JOSE! It was a very beautiful service though, good sermon, and on the last hymn, apparently Kurtis wanted to let everyone know he likes music too because he began to do his own particular brand of "singing" too. Nope, not crying, but putting forth his best attempt at making as much other noise as his little voice would allow. Maybe we have two up-and-comers here in the house to the music world a few years down the line. Who knows?
Yesterday, the older daughter's fiance came up, bringing with him my little Prince, Alex, the older grandson and they brought more Easter candy - which Miss Maya really needed (like another whole in the head ya know), plus some cute shirts for both kids, a whole casual outfit for old Gram (knee-length white pants, a pretty shell and a very sharp blue and white casual camp shirt to go with it. And then, Alex and Robert rolled in the big gun item - a really snazzy two-wheeler bike - with training wheels of course - for the Princess!
The bike was somewhat of a shock to my system, needless to say. Maya has a little low-rider type bike - hard-plastic type - but it works fine for in the house, for her purposes and although she's had it since last summer, she still isn't really adept at the pedal thing. This bike - the new one - she is in awe of it, yes. She can get on it and sit there, but doesn't grasp the pedal concept any better really with it than she does with the low-rider bike. And too, this one, once she gets her little self up on it, she can't get back down so she sits there, wiggles the handlebars and such till she gets bored with that and then she whines till someone comes and lifts her off it.
The weather here over the weekend was something else too - SNOW! We had maybe an inch or a little over that on the ground here Sunday morning but we were lucky compared to a town about 25-30 miles to the west of us - good old Curwensville - where they ended up with an accumulation of eight (8) inches of the wet, white stuff. Better them than us is all I have to say about that scene!
I've been trying to keep tabs now on the weather forecasts for this coming weekend - particularly for Saturday - for the Cure Autism Now walk the family is going to be participating in - and right now, the forecast is for temperatures around 63 but the icon showing for that day also indicates some potential for rain. Hope it doesn't come about until way, way late in the day!
Donations to our team have still be coming in too - and we have matching funding coming too through Thrivent - the Lutheran service group -of up to $1,000. So if we can collect at least $1,000 to go to Cure Autism Now, that would give us a donation of $2,000 total or more if we go over $1,000 in our collections. Here's hoping we get that and then some!
If you'd like to help our cause - here's the website http://www.psucureautismnow.org/
Go there, click on register or donate and from there, just search for "Maya's Team" and you can help us move closer toward our goal. But it isn't just getting our team closer to OUR goal, but to get the Cure Autism Now closer to their goal of finding the cause and ways to help people who have this disorder.
Having seen first hand how much good has come from the therapists who come to the house every week, for only an hour each, with our little Princess here, it shows me that much -so very much - can be accomplished. And also, shows how much still needs to be done too, but it's a very positive stream flowing here in that respect now - that much I have to say too.
And now - gotta go try to get some things ready for supper tonight so here's the closer for today - yep - you guessed it - the Bushism for the day.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
"This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs and the farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of those struggling to get ahead." - Des Moines, Iowa; August 21, 2000.
And, that one really has me wondering though - how well do ANY politicians today hear the voices of the many in this country to "get ahead?" Sometimes, it sure does appear the only voice heard in that respect is one crying in their heads of "how well will I be able to get ahead" with no concern for the general public.
Riding Down The Red Mo
A few - okay, several posts back, I wrote about the annual canoe/kayak race that takes place near my home on the last Saturday of March -and this year marked the 40th anniversary of that race. If you recall, I also posted some photos I happen to have on hand that were provided to me a couple years back when I wrote an article about the Red Mo Race and focused on a father/daughter team who often competed in this race.
I also promised to post results from the 40th race but as yet, I haven't found them posted in either of the local papers, so I guess I'll have to bite the bullet, sign of the internet so I can make a long distance call to Tussey Mountain Outfitters over in Bellefonte and see if they will provide that information to me.
However, I do have something today about the race. I asked my friend, Howard Pillot, who I have really known "forever" (since they brought him home from the hospital anyway) and whose photos I posted about him and his daughter prior to the race, if he would give me a bit of a report from the race this year. I love the way Howie writes things - makes you feel as if you are right there at the race with him!
When I wrote that piece, he had offered then -if I was interested - to take me along on a ride down the Red Mo. Considering at that point in time, my back was totally on the blink, I declined his offer. But boy, this is something if my old and often aching joints would cooperate and if my nerve would hold up too, I'd love to take him up on that offer. My son would totally enjoy an outing like that too! (Maybe provide him with a form of entertainment that is totally wholesome as well? A mother's dream, I suppose.)
So anyway, here's his take on the race this year - hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did. I put Howie's note in this color because it is sort of the same shade the water of the Red Moshannon often has - rusty. And yes, as Howie describes this body of water, it is truly a beautiful sight in the mountains here as it cuts its way downstream to the Susquehanna's West Branch.
I fear the dump proposed for the area. I can't understand why anyone in government would allow such a massive dump in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. The other irony is that the water from here flows right past the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Seems like the Moshannon Valley has suffered enough from abuse from mining. If anything we should be cleaning up the Moshannon and if I had my way the Creek would become a linear park from at least Philipsburg to the mouth at Miller's Landing in Karthaus. It is a great resource for the area and polluting it more seems evil to me. I hope somebody important sees the value in having clean water and an untouched river basin like this because it would be a shame for it to get worse and ruin it for good!
I also promised to post results from the 40th race but as yet, I haven't found them posted in either of the local papers, so I guess I'll have to bite the bullet, sign of the internet so I can make a long distance call to Tussey Mountain Outfitters over in Bellefonte and see if they will provide that information to me.
However, I do have something today about the race. I asked my friend, Howard Pillot, who I have really known "forever" (since they brought him home from the hospital anyway) and whose photos I posted about him and his daughter prior to the race, if he would give me a bit of a report from the race this year. I love the way Howie writes things - makes you feel as if you are right there at the race with him!
When I wrote that piece, he had offered then -if I was interested - to take me along on a ride down the Red Mo. Considering at that point in time, my back was totally on the blink, I declined his offer. But boy, this is something if my old and often aching joints would cooperate and if my nerve would hold up too, I'd love to take him up on that offer. My son would totally enjoy an outing like that too! (Maybe provide him with a form of entertainment that is totally wholesome as well? A mother's dream, I suppose.)
So anyway, here's his take on the race this year - hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did. I put Howie's note in this color because it is sort of the same shade the water of the Red Moshannon often has - rusty. And yes, as Howie describes this body of water, it is truly a beautiful sight in the mountains here as it cuts its way downstream to the Susquehanna's West Branch.
Here goes... This was the 40th year for the Moshannon Creek Downriver Race. A record crowd of paddlers and I wonder how much more it will grow? As I think about the 40th year I remember being 9 years old watching the boats go down the road to Peale, wondering what paddling the creek was like. I'm sure seeing the boats each spring was a major influence in why I took up the sport of canoeing in the first place. My first year in the race I was a senior in high school, I think, and it was a very high water experience with lots of spills.
The race has changed over the years as recreational kayaks are much more popular today. However, the race still draws the canoe crowd, and I'll always paddle an open canoe. I've been in the race with many partners over the years. My fondest memories are with my children and we had great runs. Now they are so busy with school and other interests that I've had to seek out new partners. Last year I had a partner from Norway. Trygve was great and we placed second in the master class and probably would've done better if the front seat had not broken in the canoe. My canoe is pretty old and the seat suffered dry rot. The seat broke right at the start and Trygve was pretty uncomfortable for seven miles. This year my partner was Ed, a doctor from State College. Ed experienced his first race and we were able to place third in the century class (combined age of over 100 years). We add up to 103 years. He did really well for his first time and we worked hard to stay in with the top three boats in our class. Seems odd to be in the century class after being in the over 30 under 16 class for so many years with my children.
The water level this year was really good. Last year it was the lowest level I could remember. This year was much better. The last mile of the race had plenty of nice bouncy waves and a healthy flow. Everyone seemed to enjoy it this year and the weather turned out to be just about perfect. The race is always a fun way to make the transition from winter into spring. It would take me a while to figure out how many times I've paddled the Moshannon. It always goes by so fast in the race and I can't wait to get back on it again to just enjoy it. It is a very special stretch of water away from the civilized world.
I fear the dump proposed for the area. I can't understand why anyone in government would allow such a massive dump in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. The other irony is that the water from here flows right past the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Seems like the Moshannon Valley has suffered enough from abuse from mining. If anything we should be cleaning up the Moshannon and if I had my way the Creek would become a linear park from at least Philipsburg to the mouth at Miller's Landing in Karthaus. It is a great resource for the area and polluting it more seems evil to me. I hope somebody important sees the value in having clean water and an untouched river basin like this because it would be a shame for it to get worse and ruin it for good!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Another Week
I'm already behind starting this week off - the procrastination gene has apparently kicked into overdrive.
Just a little follow-up on the classmate who isn't coming to our 45th Class Reunion - I called and talked to him Saturday evening and NO, he says he still won't go! One of his comments to me was that at our last class reunion he felt he had a better time at both his parents funerals. No offense to any of us there, but that's his opinion, his reason and ok, I'm backing out of trying to cajole him into showing up. There's always the possibility one of the guys from our class can change his mind, but as stubborn and bullheaded as I know he can be when he wants to, I rather think it's pretty much a lost cause now and the concrete has pretty much solidified there.
My son, who was due home from his latest work jaunt - truck driving - called earlier this morning and talked to Mandy - said he was on his way then to Atlanta so he won't be home till tomorrow sometime now. And, he added that he has a toothache. Ouch. He's had a lot of problems with his teeth since high school -mainly because he didn't take good care of his teeth then and was constantly drinking Mountain Dew so the acid just really ate away at the enamel, etc. He needs a lot of work done - extractions, plate, etc., and beaucoup bucks of course to finance that - plus time to get this all done too. Scheduling an appointment when he never knows when he will be home is a problem as is saving up enough money to get it done.
He just phoned and told me apparently when he was telling his sister his tooth woes and he thought his boss was asleep at the time (remember he drives a team operation and his boss is his co-driver), but his boss wasn't sleeping. His boss told him that they (the company) will finance his dental work and take it out of his pay in increments of maybe $50 a week or so! And, for him to start trying while he's home this week to see what he can arrange to get done.
Now, I ask you, how fantastic is that anyway? This boy is so darned lucky! His sister says -and I agree too - "He better not do anything to muck up that job!" Yep, for sure!
Miss Maya is still having a field day today with the goodies the "Easter Bunny" left behind here yesterday. Thankfully, her basket wasn't filled to the brim with chocolate or she'd probably be really hyper by this time! Just enough to be very appealing to a three-year-old though.
This morning, she followed me into the bathroom dragging her little cassette player with the microphone (that works) behind and as I was combing my hair, she was behind me, standing in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door, practicing her singing style and movements by "singing" to the image in the mirror. Too cute, just too darned cute!
I think I'm having a little bout of PMSS here -in my case it would be POST-Menopausal Stress Syndrome! These things creep up on my sometimes, smack me upside the back of my head and then it leaves me just with a case of the blues for a while. It'll pass, just not quickly enough to suit me though. I hate when this happens cause all I want to do then is sit in a corner, pull my hair out, one strand at a time and cry.
And that's pretty much the bulk of what's new, what's exciting (or not) around here as this week opens up for us.
And now, for your reading pleasure - the Bushism for today -
Monday, April 9, 2007
"See, we love - we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love." - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; August 29, 2002
Well, I certainly am glad he explained that to us - aren't you?
Just a little follow-up on the classmate who isn't coming to our 45th Class Reunion - I called and talked to him Saturday evening and NO, he says he still won't go! One of his comments to me was that at our last class reunion he felt he had a better time at both his parents funerals. No offense to any of us there, but that's his opinion, his reason and ok, I'm backing out of trying to cajole him into showing up. There's always the possibility one of the guys from our class can change his mind, but as stubborn and bullheaded as I know he can be when he wants to, I rather think it's pretty much a lost cause now and the concrete has pretty much solidified there.
My son, who was due home from his latest work jaunt - truck driving - called earlier this morning and talked to Mandy - said he was on his way then to Atlanta so he won't be home till tomorrow sometime now. And, he added that he has a toothache. Ouch. He's had a lot of problems with his teeth since high school -mainly because he didn't take good care of his teeth then and was constantly drinking Mountain Dew so the acid just really ate away at the enamel, etc. He needs a lot of work done - extractions, plate, etc., and beaucoup bucks of course to finance that - plus time to get this all done too. Scheduling an appointment when he never knows when he will be home is a problem as is saving up enough money to get it done.
He just phoned and told me apparently when he was telling his sister his tooth woes and he thought his boss was asleep at the time (remember he drives a team operation and his boss is his co-driver), but his boss wasn't sleeping. His boss told him that they (the company) will finance his dental work and take it out of his pay in increments of maybe $50 a week or so! And, for him to start trying while he's home this week to see what he can arrange to get done.
Now, I ask you, how fantastic is that anyway? This boy is so darned lucky! His sister says -and I agree too - "He better not do anything to muck up that job!" Yep, for sure!
Miss Maya is still having a field day today with the goodies the "Easter Bunny" left behind here yesterday. Thankfully, her basket wasn't filled to the brim with chocolate or she'd probably be really hyper by this time! Just enough to be very appealing to a three-year-old though.
This morning, she followed me into the bathroom dragging her little cassette player with the microphone (that works) behind and as I was combing my hair, she was behind me, standing in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door, practicing her singing style and movements by "singing" to the image in the mirror. Too cute, just too darned cute!
I think I'm having a little bout of PMSS here -in my case it would be POST-Menopausal Stress Syndrome! These things creep up on my sometimes, smack me upside the back of my head and then it leaves me just with a case of the blues for a while. It'll pass, just not quickly enough to suit me though. I hate when this happens cause all I want to do then is sit in a corner, pull my hair out, one strand at a time and cry.
And that's pretty much the bulk of what's new, what's exciting (or not) around here as this week opens up for us.
And now, for your reading pleasure - the Bushism for today -
Monday, April 9, 2007
"See, we love - we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love." - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; August 29, 2002
Well, I certainly am glad he explained that to us - aren't you?
Saturday, April 07, 2007
PLEASE, Say It Isn't So!????
Yesterday was a really crazy, very mixed up, get very little accomplished day for me.
For openers, I'm struggling with filling out forms to get an organization affiliated with our church to, hopefully, back us with extra funds for the Cure Autism Now Organization's walk/race fund raiser here in State College next Saturday. I've e-mailed I think every friend and relative, even casual acquaintance I can think of whose address is somehow magically listed in my e-mail address book. My kids- each one has been trying to "talk up" the walk, donations, etc., for our team. We're not doing poorly with it but because this event really means so much to me, because the cause hits home directly with my little princess, Miss Maya, I want it to be that our team has a good showing.
Now, I know we can't begin to compete against the fraternity and sorority teams that are involved in this event, but still I think we can do well but can also always do better. And, every little bit we gather up helps is my belief here.
I know we are very fortunate with Miss Maya as she is picking up so much, just amazes us some days to see how far she has come. Then, out of the blue, things turn on a dime with her and she will suddenly go into an absolute meltdown that may last a matter of mere minutes or in some instances, may go on and on and ON till you want, as daughter Mandy says, that advertisement of years back to be available right now for you - "Calgon, take me away!" It is at times extremely frustrating to try to cope with some of her actions, moods, you name it.
But I still wouldn't trade her for the world! And I'm sure anyone reading this -whether you have an autistic child, or one who is facing a life-threatening illness, or so, so many other challenges life often bestows on the littlest ones that seems so unfair to them, to parents/grandparents, family, friends alike at times, you know what I mean there, don't you now?
But that is just one item on my "challenging" list yesterday.
The other just so happens to be my 45th high school class reunion - coming up now shortly on June 2nd. I know, I've mentioned this before but yesterday, something came up that really threw me for a big loop.
I'm not the one planning this event - my friend, neighbor, former classmate, former class president too she was, is in charge of that. I'm just here to help here once in a blue moon with piddling little things - like trying to see if I can locate maybe a long-lost classmate, or communicate with some class members I keep in contact with fairly regularly who live far, far away from here. And this year, I'm supposed to be coming up with some little bit of entertainment, of sorts. No, I'm not a stand-up comic - far from it! But, I'm just trying to figure out some little thing we can do that will serve to entertain the troops and keep us still wanting to come back together in, hopefully, another five years.
So yesterday, I got an e-mail from Kate - the coordinator of this event. In it, she told me which classmates had responded that they will definitely BE THERE and right now, it appears we have 16 classmates coming and 8 are bringing a guest. That's good - gives us a total head count now of 24 and possibly 25 if Nancy, out in Colorado comes home and convinces her husband to come with her, it will then give us the 25 needed for our reservation so we won't have to pay extra for a room fee. Yippy!
Then I read further in Kate's note as to a couple kids who responded that they WON'T be coming this year and that is something that is always disappointing to see who can't come.
But this year, one name stood out as someone not planning to attend and when I read that name, I said out loud, talking to the computer screen of course, OH NO, This can't be! This is a real BUMMER! Please, say it isn't so!!! Joe's gotta come cause it just won't be right within our class reunion world without him there!
Shortly after reading Kate's note, I was composing a response to her when my daughter (the birthday girl) called and I told her this piece of news. To my surprise, really, she said "OH my Mom, that's terrible! He has to go or you'll have no fun at all without him there!" Wow, even my kid knows him, and knows how much I enjoy being around both him and his wife. I almost always sit at the same table with him and two other guys from our class and their spouses. Not that I don't associate with the rest of my classmates but those three guys, their wives - well, I just am totally at ease around them.
My daughter told me then too "Mom, you have to call him. If you call and talk to him, I betcha you can talk him into coming after all. You know, you HAVE to do that!" And I thought and thought about that idea and finally decided ok, I'd take a chance and do just that.
I made the call -his wife answered. We exchanged opening pleasantries, not having talked to the other for quite a long time although they only live maybe 5 miles or so from my home.
I asked her if it was true that he wasn't going to attend - that they weren't coming and she said yes, he had decided he wasn't going to go.
Now, I have my own theory as to why Joe had made this decision. You see for our 30th and 35th reunions, he had graciously invited our class to their home - a beautiful area out in the country here, not anything grand, pretentious, just a pretty home, fixed up very nicely, with lots and lots of open space around, plenty of room to park, and also, to party!
A businessman in the community, Joe had also opened up our reunion to invite kids from classes three years above our and three years below ours plus he had included kids who had attended with us but for one reason or another, hadn't finished school with us. His theory - and I happen to concur with him on this - they were all still our "classmates." Then too, he invited the people who worked for him in his construction company, and from the bar he owned at that time too. Keep in mind, many of his employees had attended school with us too, so it wasn't that they were unknown entities exactly. All this made for a bigger event than we would have had if we only invited those who actually graduated and their spouse or guest. Because of the way he did this, he was also of course, able to use it as a tax write-off too but the base cost to his classmates was minimal compared to what others were shelling out to go to their particular class reunions at the time. He also had a DJ present, several kegs of beer and an open bar too - no "cash and carry" stuff with the drinks - it all came with the price of our acceptance to attend - $10 a head! His wife's niece and a friend had begun a catering venture at the time and they catered these reunions - one being an ox roast, the other a pig roast - and the food was excellent! No complaints at all from the peanut gallery on that.
For my part, I loved it too because it was casual - meaning I didn't have to go on a search and destroy mission for some special dressy outfit that I would only ever wear most likely that one time and which, because I have expanded more than my mind over the years since graduation, regardless of what dress style I found, it would still make me look and feel like was was an over-stuffed sausage! Now, jeans, or even slightly dressier slacks and a loose top -hey, I figured it would hide a few of the multitude of caloric sins I had obviously committed over those years between high school and the reunions.
Well, at our 35th reunion, some of the girls were kind of grumping that they would prefer our next reunion to be one held at some nice, relatively upscale restaurant - a place where they could visit, be wined and dine, then even dance to a band of some type too. Some were even kind of quietly growling too about there being so many people at these gatherings who weren't even part of "OUR CLASS!" Well, that part didn't bother me in the least cause I looked at it as a chance to see lots of other kids I wouldn't have a chance to see and talk to any other way. Actually, I loved that aspect of those reunions too!
But anyway, a vote was taken and the ones in favor of a change of place, of participants, etc., won out.
Now I'm not saying I know my old classmate Joe like a book or anything like that but I KNEW how much he had put his heart and soul into these two events and how much he wanted to provide the best time possible for his classmates -along with yes, a lot of other friends too. And hearing him speak up there about changing the place, etc., I could see by the look on his face the disappointment there that he was actually struggling very hard to hide. But I knew then and have seen it in his eyes when we've talked on occasion since then, the hurt, that he felt he'd been slapped in the face for all his hard work, his efforts, his caring for his class. But he's also one very macho individual so if you were to talk to him about this, he would respond in his gruffest voice and try to put on the mask that heck, this didn't bother him at all. And, especially those who maybe only saw him once every fifth year at our reunions, they would believe he meant that too.
Talking with his wife, she pretty much verified my thoughts were on target there. And, because of things that happened at our last reunion, it solidified his feelings into not wanting to be a part of this scene.
Now, his wife is going to talk to him, tell him I called and that I want him to return my call. If/when he does that, I plan to open with the fact even my daughter knows that it's JOE who really makes our reunions flow, come together. As soon as you hear him laugh - and he does like a good laugh and a long one - and his laugh booms and echos and makes you want to laugh too whether you know what he's found humorous or not - it's the contagion there that he brings. It relaxes everyone around him to see him flash that big smile, that laugh then gives you a nice comfortable feeling that somehow, all is in its place and right within this little corner of the world for that short period of time.
So, that's where I am now - waiting, hoping he will return my call. Hoping I can tell him what my daughter said, how I feel about him not being there and if I have to, yes I will probably beg him too!
Please Joe - Say it isn't so! Come on Buddy, you've got to go! You HAVE to be there! He's a big, big part of the cement that keeps us glued tightly together and wanting to return to see others from our class. To feel his big strong hand clasped on your shoulder and saying "HEY! How're you doing?" And know, that he really does care about everyone who shows up for these things.
Now, say a few extra prayers that somehow I can cajole him into changing his mind about this whole process. If need be, I'll try to call in some reserves too who might be able to talk to him and get him to change his mind too.
Wish us all luck there, please now, will ya?
Come on Joe - You've GOTTA GO!
For openers, I'm struggling with filling out forms to get an organization affiliated with our church to, hopefully, back us with extra funds for the Cure Autism Now Organization's walk/race fund raiser here in State College next Saturday. I've e-mailed I think every friend and relative, even casual acquaintance I can think of whose address is somehow magically listed in my e-mail address book. My kids- each one has been trying to "talk up" the walk, donations, etc., for our team. We're not doing poorly with it but because this event really means so much to me, because the cause hits home directly with my little princess, Miss Maya, I want it to be that our team has a good showing.
Now, I know we can't begin to compete against the fraternity and sorority teams that are involved in this event, but still I think we can do well but can also always do better. And, every little bit we gather up helps is my belief here.
I know we are very fortunate with Miss Maya as she is picking up so much, just amazes us some days to see how far she has come. Then, out of the blue, things turn on a dime with her and she will suddenly go into an absolute meltdown that may last a matter of mere minutes or in some instances, may go on and on and ON till you want, as daughter Mandy says, that advertisement of years back to be available right now for you - "Calgon, take me away!" It is at times extremely frustrating to try to cope with some of her actions, moods, you name it.
But I still wouldn't trade her for the world! And I'm sure anyone reading this -whether you have an autistic child, or one who is facing a life-threatening illness, or so, so many other challenges life often bestows on the littlest ones that seems so unfair to them, to parents/grandparents, family, friends alike at times, you know what I mean there, don't you now?
But that is just one item on my "challenging" list yesterday.
The other just so happens to be my 45th high school class reunion - coming up now shortly on June 2nd. I know, I've mentioned this before but yesterday, something came up that really threw me for a big loop.
I'm not the one planning this event - my friend, neighbor, former classmate, former class president too she was, is in charge of that. I'm just here to help here once in a blue moon with piddling little things - like trying to see if I can locate maybe a long-lost classmate, or communicate with some class members I keep in contact with fairly regularly who live far, far away from here. And this year, I'm supposed to be coming up with some little bit of entertainment, of sorts. No, I'm not a stand-up comic - far from it! But, I'm just trying to figure out some little thing we can do that will serve to entertain the troops and keep us still wanting to come back together in, hopefully, another five years.
So yesterday, I got an e-mail from Kate - the coordinator of this event. In it, she told me which classmates had responded that they will definitely BE THERE and right now, it appears we have 16 classmates coming and 8 are bringing a guest. That's good - gives us a total head count now of 24 and possibly 25 if Nancy, out in Colorado comes home and convinces her husband to come with her, it will then give us the 25 needed for our reservation so we won't have to pay extra for a room fee. Yippy!
Then I read further in Kate's note as to a couple kids who responded that they WON'T be coming this year and that is something that is always disappointing to see who can't come.
But this year, one name stood out as someone not planning to attend and when I read that name, I said out loud, talking to the computer screen of course, OH NO, This can't be! This is a real BUMMER! Please, say it isn't so!!! Joe's gotta come cause it just won't be right within our class reunion world without him there!
Shortly after reading Kate's note, I was composing a response to her when my daughter (the birthday girl) called and I told her this piece of news. To my surprise, really, she said "OH my Mom, that's terrible! He has to go or you'll have no fun at all without him there!" Wow, even my kid knows him, and knows how much I enjoy being around both him and his wife. I almost always sit at the same table with him and two other guys from our class and their spouses. Not that I don't associate with the rest of my classmates but those three guys, their wives - well, I just am totally at ease around them.
My daughter told me then too "Mom, you have to call him. If you call and talk to him, I betcha you can talk him into coming after all. You know, you HAVE to do that!" And I thought and thought about that idea and finally decided ok, I'd take a chance and do just that.
I made the call -his wife answered. We exchanged opening pleasantries, not having talked to the other for quite a long time although they only live maybe 5 miles or so from my home.
I asked her if it was true that he wasn't going to attend - that they weren't coming and she said yes, he had decided he wasn't going to go.
Now, I have my own theory as to why Joe had made this decision. You see for our 30th and 35th reunions, he had graciously invited our class to their home - a beautiful area out in the country here, not anything grand, pretentious, just a pretty home, fixed up very nicely, with lots and lots of open space around, plenty of room to park, and also, to party!
A businessman in the community, Joe had also opened up our reunion to invite kids from classes three years above our and three years below ours plus he had included kids who had attended with us but for one reason or another, hadn't finished school with us. His theory - and I happen to concur with him on this - they were all still our "classmates." Then too, he invited the people who worked for him in his construction company, and from the bar he owned at that time too. Keep in mind, many of his employees had attended school with us too, so it wasn't that they were unknown entities exactly. All this made for a bigger event than we would have had if we only invited those who actually graduated and their spouse or guest. Because of the way he did this, he was also of course, able to use it as a tax write-off too but the base cost to his classmates was minimal compared to what others were shelling out to go to their particular class reunions at the time. He also had a DJ present, several kegs of beer and an open bar too - no "cash and carry" stuff with the drinks - it all came with the price of our acceptance to attend - $10 a head! His wife's niece and a friend had begun a catering venture at the time and they catered these reunions - one being an ox roast, the other a pig roast - and the food was excellent! No complaints at all from the peanut gallery on that.
For my part, I loved it too because it was casual - meaning I didn't have to go on a search and destroy mission for some special dressy outfit that I would only ever wear most likely that one time and which, because I have expanded more than my mind over the years since graduation, regardless of what dress style I found, it would still make me look and feel like was was an over-stuffed sausage! Now, jeans, or even slightly dressier slacks and a loose top -hey, I figured it would hide a few of the multitude of caloric sins I had obviously committed over those years between high school and the reunions.
Well, at our 35th reunion, some of the girls were kind of grumping that they would prefer our next reunion to be one held at some nice, relatively upscale restaurant - a place where they could visit, be wined and dine, then even dance to a band of some type too. Some were even kind of quietly growling too about there being so many people at these gatherings who weren't even part of "OUR CLASS!" Well, that part didn't bother me in the least cause I looked at it as a chance to see lots of other kids I wouldn't have a chance to see and talk to any other way. Actually, I loved that aspect of those reunions too!
But anyway, a vote was taken and the ones in favor of a change of place, of participants, etc., won out.
Now I'm not saying I know my old classmate Joe like a book or anything like that but I KNEW how much he had put his heart and soul into these two events and how much he wanted to provide the best time possible for his classmates -along with yes, a lot of other friends too. And hearing him speak up there about changing the place, etc., I could see by the look on his face the disappointment there that he was actually struggling very hard to hide. But I knew then and have seen it in his eyes when we've talked on occasion since then, the hurt, that he felt he'd been slapped in the face for all his hard work, his efforts, his caring for his class. But he's also one very macho individual so if you were to talk to him about this, he would respond in his gruffest voice and try to put on the mask that heck, this didn't bother him at all. And, especially those who maybe only saw him once every fifth year at our reunions, they would believe he meant that too.
Talking with his wife, she pretty much verified my thoughts were on target there. And, because of things that happened at our last reunion, it solidified his feelings into not wanting to be a part of this scene.
Now, his wife is going to talk to him, tell him I called and that I want him to return my call. If/when he does that, I plan to open with the fact even my daughter knows that it's JOE who really makes our reunions flow, come together. As soon as you hear him laugh - and he does like a good laugh and a long one - and his laugh booms and echos and makes you want to laugh too whether you know what he's found humorous or not - it's the contagion there that he brings. It relaxes everyone around him to see him flash that big smile, that laugh then gives you a nice comfortable feeling that somehow, all is in its place and right within this little corner of the world for that short period of time.
So, that's where I am now - waiting, hoping he will return my call. Hoping I can tell him what my daughter said, how I feel about him not being there and if I have to, yes I will probably beg him too!
Please Joe - Say it isn't so! Come on Buddy, you've got to go! You HAVE to be there! He's a big, big part of the cement that keeps us glued tightly together and wanting to return to see others from our class. To feel his big strong hand clasped on your shoulder and saying "HEY! How're you doing?" And know, that he really does care about everyone who shows up for these things.
Now, say a few extra prayers that somehow I can cajole him into changing his mind about this whole process. If need be, I'll try to call in some reserves too who might be able to talk to him and get him to change his mind too.
Wish us all luck there, please now, will ya?
Come on Joe - You've GOTTA GO!
Crazy Saturday Jumbles
Wow! It's been an interesting day thus far, to say the least!
First, drop back to yesterday, when I never even got around to doing a post.
I got into some hot water yesterday because you see, it was my oldest child's birthday and not just any birthday, but she hit the big 40. And when she called me yesterday to chitty-chat a bit, I had a kazillion things floating about in my pea brain that I had to tell her about. Now, when I get multiple things moving in my mind at once, I have to try to speak them as soon as possible or one or several will manage to go off track on me and I will forget it completely or forget when it was I wanted/needed to say about it -either/or will happen and then I will be ticked off, frustrated, unable to recall until later or sometimes till it is way too late period.
So I was unloading information packets to her, one after the other and somehow, by the time she hung up, I had never wished her a happy birthday although throughout the entire conversation, her birthday was floating there in the upper recesses or folds or whatever in my grey matter because I was trying to figure out if they were coming up for supper, what exactly would I cook for a nice birthday dinner for her and her fiance and maybe my grandson too!
So this morning, I tried to keep "birthday -Carrie" there as an uppermost thought in case she happened to call me. Well at about 10:45 the phone rang and I figured it might be her so when I picked up and heard her say hello, before she got another word out, I launched into singing - very VERY loudly too, I must add, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" (belated version albeit) to her! I even have two books for her for her present too - although I haven't read either one (usually I read the books I plan to give my kids as gifts first just to ascertain which one would be the better gift for which kid, etc.)
The upshot of the conversation with daughter Carrie today was that she and her fiance had to go to the ER at 5 a.m. this morning as he was in excruciating pain. Two hours later, he's still being checked and she had to leave because she is a home health care assistant and had to go work for 2 1/2 hours with one of her clients. When she returned to the ER to pick him up - as they has then said he could come home - they knew the answer to his issue - two kidney stones. OUCH! I sure as heck don't envy him that and I doubt anyone reading this who has ever had even a touch of a kidney stone issue would either.
But today, while doing my "rounds" visiting my favorite bloggers, I saw so many really neat things there that I just have to comment on them.
My first stop - "A Blue State Of Mind" written by a sweetheart lady out in Phoenix (Debo Blue) whose topic today was really an ode to her little one-year-old niece. And if you look further down through some of Debo's other posts, you'll see where she has a picture posted of this little darling. Just brought to my mind how comforting it is when I pick up my grandson and the first thing he does, often, is to just fold himself against me, so soft, so loving, so trusting and boy, such a nice feeling it gives one to hold a little one, snuggling against you like that. Tensions do just seem to flow like a river out of you at times like that. Indeed, they do, Debo!
My next stop was to check in on the SmallTown RN up in British Columbia to just look in on her as yesterday, she had some very upsetting, unsettling news about her sister who had just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. RN writes an excellent blog, posts some great photos too of the landscape in her neck of the woods that makes you want to pull up stakes and head to the Great Northwest and escape the travails of whatever one's current world holds. Stop by her place, read a while and tell her to BELIEVE (she'll know what you mean if you put it in caps) pertaining to her sister.
I left RN's place and headed off to visit my good Buddy "Rotten Robert" over in Calgary, Alberta to see how he's coming along in his bid to run for President of the US. Yes, I know he's Canadian, he knows that too but well ...to understand all this, you really need to go read what Bob has to say about politics and lots and lots of other subjects he tackles all the time. Fair warning though, when reading Bob's stuff, I recommend you do NOT take a sip of any beverage or be eating anything as you could find yourself having to do a really hurried job of cleaning off your keyboard, desk - whole nine yards, along with running a huge risk of choking yourself in the process.
Moving along, there's my favorite law student who posts some of the neatest pictures, lately has been listing music she's tuned into and gee, she's now put up the beginning of a new MEME, to begin next Tuesday. Give her a visit and sit back and relax -enjoy your stay there. Tell her I sent you too.
After Shelby's stop, I went on to see how Nicole made out yesterday with her visit to see her husband. She's one super lady who has a whole lot to juggle on her plate these days and is doing a darned great job making the best of a terrible situation. I think you'll love reading the two poems she has posted today too though.
My next stop - this one requires fair warning too if you've never visited this guy's place it's also one where you enter at your own risk, don't drink, don't eat while reading his stuff. Produce is his name, definitely good humor his game although some of it isn't for the faint of heart at times. Just procede with an open mind there is about all I can say as you really have to experience his blog yourself to get the true picture.
Now so far, in these blog travels today, I've led you from Arizona up to British Columbia, then to Alberta, Canada, from there down to Alabama (or is it Mississipi where my law student lives), then back up to Pennsylvania, down to Georgia and though I did visit other blogs after this, I'm going to end this post by taking you back up to British Columbia -to the real outback territory where Vic lives and she like Smalltown RN often posts wonderful pictures of the scenery around her. Vic's post today which actually is about Good Friday (yesterday) is an excellent writing - as are all her posts -and because of the topic, the holiday we are observing this weekend, I'll let you read for yourself what an excellent observation she makes that really could/should apply to one and all, regardless of one's religious beliefs.
Now, I have to pull myself together a bit, pick up the rubble Miss Maya has left laying hither, thither and yon about the living room, scrub the area on a different wall that she manage to color today while I was talking to her aunt on the phone, figure out a meal plan for supper, just in case Carrie and Robert decide to come up - they better since her sister got a cake for her at the deli where she works -all decorated so pretty too with yellow writing, one big yellow rose and three "black" roses. The black roses are the mourning flowers for having left the 30's behind, the yellow one, Mandy says is for "hope" that the future is always brighter. Ya know, sometimes the things my kids come up with do really amaze me!
Today, Miss Maya also surprised me with two little things she said. One came about when I was clicking on the vote thing to Fuel My Blog for one of my favorite bloggers and when it registered my vote, Maya, standing by my side looked up at the screen and said "Ohhhh - Easter eggs." And, I thinking where the heck does this kid see "Easter eggs" but I looked where she was pointing and by darn, there was someone's Fuel My Blog photo consisting of yes, I guess, "Easter eggs." But where Maya learned about Easter eggs looking like that beats me.
Then, for our breakfast/lunch combined (Brunch works for me here) I fixed us something I haven't made in quite some time - pancakes. If it weren't for the fact they always tend to make me sooooo in need of a nap within 10 minutes of eating them, I'd probably make them more often too cause I love 'em. But anyway, I mixed up some batter - yes, from a mix, not from scratch - and as I was ladling out our pancakes, again Maya appeared by my side, points to the batter as it drizzled down to the griddle and she looks at me and says "Buttermilk?" HUH? I know she can recognize here name when it is printed out and I looked at the package but it said nothing of buttermilk on it and now, I'm wondering where she even learned the word, Buttermilk. Kids sure are amazing how they learn, pick up things we are totally unaware that they have even noticed much less processed it into their memory, aren't they?
Now, to get my last little detail over and done with on this post (I'm still processing thoughts on a post later today), here's those lovely Bushisms - one for yesterday because I didn't make a post and then one that covers for today and tomorrow combined.
Friday, APril6, 2007
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - Washington, D.C.; December 18, 2002
and
For Saturday and Sunday, April 7th and 8th, 2007
"Laura and I are proud to call John and Michelle Engler our friends, I know you're proud to call him governor. What a good man the Englers are." - Grand Rapids, Michigan; November 3, 2000.
First, drop back to yesterday, when I never even got around to doing a post.
I got into some hot water yesterday because you see, it was my oldest child's birthday and not just any birthday, but she hit the big 40. And when she called me yesterday to chitty-chat a bit, I had a kazillion things floating about in my pea brain that I had to tell her about. Now, when I get multiple things moving in my mind at once, I have to try to speak them as soon as possible or one or several will manage to go off track on me and I will forget it completely or forget when it was I wanted/needed to say about it -either/or will happen and then I will be ticked off, frustrated, unable to recall until later or sometimes till it is way too late period.
So I was unloading information packets to her, one after the other and somehow, by the time she hung up, I had never wished her a happy birthday although throughout the entire conversation, her birthday was floating there in the upper recesses or folds or whatever in my grey matter because I was trying to figure out if they were coming up for supper, what exactly would I cook for a nice birthday dinner for her and her fiance and maybe my grandson too!
So this morning, I tried to keep "birthday -Carrie" there as an uppermost thought in case she happened to call me. Well at about 10:45 the phone rang and I figured it might be her so when I picked up and heard her say hello, before she got another word out, I launched into singing - very VERY loudly too, I must add, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" (belated version albeit) to her! I even have two books for her for her present too - although I haven't read either one (usually I read the books I plan to give my kids as gifts first just to ascertain which one would be the better gift for which kid, etc.)
The upshot of the conversation with daughter Carrie today was that she and her fiance had to go to the ER at 5 a.m. this morning as he was in excruciating pain. Two hours later, he's still being checked and she had to leave because she is a home health care assistant and had to go work for 2 1/2 hours with one of her clients. When she returned to the ER to pick him up - as they has then said he could come home - they knew the answer to his issue - two kidney stones. OUCH! I sure as heck don't envy him that and I doubt anyone reading this who has ever had even a touch of a kidney stone issue would either.
But today, while doing my "rounds" visiting my favorite bloggers, I saw so many really neat things there that I just have to comment on them.
My first stop - "A Blue State Of Mind" written by a sweetheart lady out in Phoenix (Debo Blue) whose topic today was really an ode to her little one-year-old niece. And if you look further down through some of Debo's other posts, you'll see where she has a picture posted of this little darling. Just brought to my mind how comforting it is when I pick up my grandson and the first thing he does, often, is to just fold himself against me, so soft, so loving, so trusting and boy, such a nice feeling it gives one to hold a little one, snuggling against you like that. Tensions do just seem to flow like a river out of you at times like that. Indeed, they do, Debo!
My next stop was to check in on the SmallTown RN up in British Columbia to just look in on her as yesterday, she had some very upsetting, unsettling news about her sister who had just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. RN writes an excellent blog, posts some great photos too of the landscape in her neck of the woods that makes you want to pull up stakes and head to the Great Northwest and escape the travails of whatever one's current world holds. Stop by her place, read a while and tell her to BELIEVE (she'll know what you mean if you put it in caps) pertaining to her sister.
I left RN's place and headed off to visit my good Buddy "Rotten Robert" over in Calgary, Alberta to see how he's coming along in his bid to run for President of the US. Yes, I know he's Canadian, he knows that too but well ...to understand all this, you really need to go read what Bob has to say about politics and lots and lots of other subjects he tackles all the time. Fair warning though, when reading Bob's stuff, I recommend you do NOT take a sip of any beverage or be eating anything as you could find yourself having to do a really hurried job of cleaning off your keyboard, desk - whole nine yards, along with running a huge risk of choking yourself in the process.
Moving along, there's my favorite law student who posts some of the neatest pictures, lately has been listing music she's tuned into and gee, she's now put up the beginning of a new MEME, to begin next Tuesday. Give her a visit and sit back and relax -enjoy your stay there. Tell her I sent you too.
After Shelby's stop, I went on to see how Nicole made out yesterday with her visit to see her husband. She's one super lady who has a whole lot to juggle on her plate these days and is doing a darned great job making the best of a terrible situation. I think you'll love reading the two poems she has posted today too though.
My next stop - this one requires fair warning too if you've never visited this guy's place it's also one where you enter at your own risk, don't drink, don't eat while reading his stuff. Produce is his name, definitely good humor his game although some of it isn't for the faint of heart at times. Just procede with an open mind there is about all I can say as you really have to experience his blog yourself to get the true picture.
Now so far, in these blog travels today, I've led you from Arizona up to British Columbia, then to Alberta, Canada, from there down to Alabama (or is it Mississipi where my law student lives), then back up to Pennsylvania, down to Georgia and though I did visit other blogs after this, I'm going to end this post by taking you back up to British Columbia -to the real outback territory where Vic lives and she like Smalltown RN often posts wonderful pictures of the scenery around her. Vic's post today which actually is about Good Friday (yesterday) is an excellent writing - as are all her posts -and because of the topic, the holiday we are observing this weekend, I'll let you read for yourself what an excellent observation she makes that really could/should apply to one and all, regardless of one's religious beliefs.
Now, I have to pull myself together a bit, pick up the rubble Miss Maya has left laying hither, thither and yon about the living room, scrub the area on a different wall that she manage to color today while I was talking to her aunt on the phone, figure out a meal plan for supper, just in case Carrie and Robert decide to come up - they better since her sister got a cake for her at the deli where she works -all decorated so pretty too with yellow writing, one big yellow rose and three "black" roses. The black roses are the mourning flowers for having left the 30's behind, the yellow one, Mandy says is for "hope" that the future is always brighter. Ya know, sometimes the things my kids come up with do really amaze me!
Today, Miss Maya also surprised me with two little things she said. One came about when I was clicking on the vote thing to Fuel My Blog for one of my favorite bloggers and when it registered my vote, Maya, standing by my side looked up at the screen and said "Ohhhh - Easter eggs." And, I thinking where the heck does this kid see "Easter eggs" but I looked where she was pointing and by darn, there was someone's Fuel My Blog photo consisting of yes, I guess, "Easter eggs." But where Maya learned about Easter eggs looking like that beats me.
Then, for our breakfast/lunch combined (Brunch works for me here) I fixed us something I haven't made in quite some time - pancakes. If it weren't for the fact they always tend to make me sooooo in need of a nap within 10 minutes of eating them, I'd probably make them more often too cause I love 'em. But anyway, I mixed up some batter - yes, from a mix, not from scratch - and as I was ladling out our pancakes, again Maya appeared by my side, points to the batter as it drizzled down to the griddle and she looks at me and says "Buttermilk?" HUH? I know she can recognize here name when it is printed out and I looked at the package but it said nothing of buttermilk on it and now, I'm wondering where she even learned the word, Buttermilk. Kids sure are amazing how they learn, pick up things we are totally unaware that they have even noticed much less processed it into their memory, aren't they?
Now, to get my last little detail over and done with on this post (I'm still processing thoughts on a post later today), here's those lovely Bushisms - one for yesterday because I didn't make a post and then one that covers for today and tomorrow combined.
Friday, APril6, 2007
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - Washington, D.C.; December 18, 2002
and
For Saturday and Sunday, April 7th and 8th, 2007
"Laura and I are proud to call John and Michelle Engler our friends, I know you're proud to call him governor. What a good man the Englers are." - Grand Rapids, Michigan; November 3, 2000.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Soap Opera Central -or The Drama Continues!
Yesterday was indeed a bad day! One thing compiled on another which worked on something else and presto magic - overload. A lot of it compiled easier than it should have too because I didn't take my meds yesterday. OK, lesson learned from that and I took my lovely xanax this morning before I even had a sip of my first cup of coffee. So things are a lot more level today.
Well, they were until about 1 p.m. anyway!
Mandy was sitting on the sofa, folding clothes, watching tv; I was in my normal spot - yeah, right here at ye olde computer - and suddenly she jumps up, crying "What's WRONG with MY CAT?"
Whadda ya mean, 'what's wrong with your cat?' -what are you talking about is my calm reaction and then she starts crying "MY cat, my cat is bleeding all over the place!" WHAT? WHERE?
I get up, look over, the cat is sitting on an old notebook that Maya is allowed to have to color/draw/scribble in (in hopes it will keep her from coloring/drawing/scribbling on the walls and the cushions too on the sofa) and on the page the cat is perched on I spy what Mandy is screaming about - a pretty good sized drop of blood alright!
Now the first thing you have to realize here is my daughter, Mandy, the baby, is a total cat lover! She likes dogs ok, but she LOVES cats! Any cats! But, most especially this cat!
Gracie - this cat - well yeah, she's pretty special to all of us I suppose it would be safe to say. For one thing, we've had her longer than any other animal that has ever graced these doors and floors - 15 years last November to be precise. Yep, we acquired her right around Thanksgiving of 1991! She was the cutest, most loveable, friendly little kitten and is today, still a loveable -albeit sometimes not too bright, a bit standoffish too now and again, but generally friendly big old cat now.
She's a calico I guess - black with tiny gold speckles really -and very furry! Her tail is one that stands up, curls around is extremely furry/fluffy! She really is a beautiful old cat, for sure!
I looked where Mandy said she had found the blood was coming from and it was near her mouth but off to the side a bit. Looked more like a hole of some type to which Mandy said it almost looks like she has a warble. A warble? Thought cats had to be going in and out of the house to get them, but what do I know? This cat rarely is OUTSIDE! In her 15 years of living with us, you could probably count on both hands only how many times she has been in the OUTSIDE world!
I told Mandy to call her brother, which she did - telling him in no uncertain terms to "GET DOWN HERE! There's something wrong with Gracie!" And to him, that constitutes a major emergency too because you see, he and his sister are definitely cut from the same fabric there as BOTH of them are mega Cat lovers! Within five minutes time, he was here, checking Grace out, listening patiently to his sister crying as she searched the phone book for the number of a local vet!
Several phone calls and at least an hour later, they had rounded up a cat carrier from our neighbor two doors over, had made arrangements for a vet over in State College to look at Grace and off they went. And, I gave them my bank card as they left the house just in case the cost was more than what Mandy had in the "extra funds" department. (I'm still kind of cringing at the idea of having given her my bank card while taking the cat to the vet! I may have to go nicotine free this month whether I want to or not!)
It's an hour drive from here to State College - at least - so allowing for travel time, waiting time, examination time and all that, I finally took a chance and called my son on his cell phone to see if they had any news yet. And yes, they did!
They were on their way home with good news and bad.
The good news is that for a cat her age, Grace is pretty sound - heart, ok, other organs appeared to check out alright too. The area affected - appears to be some kind of benign tumor that ruptured is the vet's opinion, but apparently not believed to be life threatening to her at any rate.
The bad news - she has to go back to the vet in about two weeks to have the tumor removed. Base cost for that $130, but that is WITHOUT him doing a lot of other tests, blood work, etc., etc., etc., which will up the cost at least double!
Damn, why didn't I put the cat on some kind of insurance policy?
But you know, bottom line here is Gracie is gonna be fine, just fine and who knows, maybe even last another few more years living with us and being loved by most everyone in the house -except for the son-in-law, who would have loved nothing better than for the vet to have told Mandy today to put her out of her misery!
But when that day comes, if Bill is simple enough to even look like he is the least bit happy and excited to have a cat free home, he'd best watch his p's and q's there or he won't be the recipient of any of the little amenities that are generally assumed to be a big part of being married!
And the rest of us will no doubt go into a major state of mourning too when we have to say goodbye to the prettiest cat ever! Hope it isn't for a long, long time to come, ya know!
This isn't exactly the best photo ever taken of our Sweet Gracie, but it's the only one I could find right now. But, if you zoom in, I'm sure you can see what a gorgeous cat she is. Pretty darned patient one too being caged up like that with the infamous "Miss Maya" too!
Well, they were until about 1 p.m. anyway!
Mandy was sitting on the sofa, folding clothes, watching tv; I was in my normal spot - yeah, right here at ye olde computer - and suddenly she jumps up, crying "What's WRONG with MY CAT?"
Whadda ya mean, 'what's wrong with your cat?' -what are you talking about is my calm reaction and then she starts crying "MY cat, my cat is bleeding all over the place!" WHAT? WHERE?
I get up, look over, the cat is sitting on an old notebook that Maya is allowed to have to color/draw/scribble in (in hopes it will keep her from coloring/drawing/scribbling on the walls and the cushions too on the sofa) and on the page the cat is perched on I spy what Mandy is screaming about - a pretty good sized drop of blood alright!
Now the first thing you have to realize here is my daughter, Mandy, the baby, is a total cat lover! She likes dogs ok, but she LOVES cats! Any cats! But, most especially this cat!
Gracie - this cat - well yeah, she's pretty special to all of us I suppose it would be safe to say. For one thing, we've had her longer than any other animal that has ever graced these doors and floors - 15 years last November to be precise. Yep, we acquired her right around Thanksgiving of 1991! She was the cutest, most loveable, friendly little kitten and is today, still a loveable -albeit sometimes not too bright, a bit standoffish too now and again, but generally friendly big old cat now.
She's a calico I guess - black with tiny gold speckles really -and very furry! Her tail is one that stands up, curls around is extremely furry/fluffy! She really is a beautiful old cat, for sure!
I looked where Mandy said she had found the blood was coming from and it was near her mouth but off to the side a bit. Looked more like a hole of some type to which Mandy said it almost looks like she has a warble. A warble? Thought cats had to be going in and out of the house to get them, but what do I know? This cat rarely is OUTSIDE! In her 15 years of living with us, you could probably count on both hands only how many times she has been in the OUTSIDE world!
I told Mandy to call her brother, which she did - telling him in no uncertain terms to "GET DOWN HERE! There's something wrong with Gracie!" And to him, that constitutes a major emergency too because you see, he and his sister are definitely cut from the same fabric there as BOTH of them are mega Cat lovers! Within five minutes time, he was here, checking Grace out, listening patiently to his sister crying as she searched the phone book for the number of a local vet!
Several phone calls and at least an hour later, they had rounded up a cat carrier from our neighbor two doors over, had made arrangements for a vet over in State College to look at Grace and off they went. And, I gave them my bank card as they left the house just in case the cost was more than what Mandy had in the "extra funds" department. (I'm still kind of cringing at the idea of having given her my bank card while taking the cat to the vet! I may have to go nicotine free this month whether I want to or not!)
It's an hour drive from here to State College - at least - so allowing for travel time, waiting time, examination time and all that, I finally took a chance and called my son on his cell phone to see if they had any news yet. And yes, they did!
They were on their way home with good news and bad.
The good news is that for a cat her age, Grace is pretty sound - heart, ok, other organs appeared to check out alright too. The area affected - appears to be some kind of benign tumor that ruptured is the vet's opinion, but apparently not believed to be life threatening to her at any rate.
The bad news - she has to go back to the vet in about two weeks to have the tumor removed. Base cost for that $130, but that is WITHOUT him doing a lot of other tests, blood work, etc., etc., etc., which will up the cost at least double!
Damn, why didn't I put the cat on some kind of insurance policy?
But you know, bottom line here is Gracie is gonna be fine, just fine and who knows, maybe even last another few more years living with us and being loved by most everyone in the house -except for the son-in-law, who would have loved nothing better than for the vet to have told Mandy today to put her out of her misery!
But when that day comes, if Bill is simple enough to even look like he is the least bit happy and excited to have a cat free home, he'd best watch his p's and q's there or he won't be the recipient of any of the little amenities that are generally assumed to be a big part of being married!
And the rest of us will no doubt go into a major state of mourning too when we have to say goodbye to the prettiest cat ever! Hope it isn't for a long, long time to come, ya know!
This isn't exactly the best photo ever taken of our Sweet Gracie, but it's the only one I could find right now. But, if you zoom in, I'm sure you can see what a gorgeous cat she is. Pretty darned patient one too being caged up like that with the infamous "Miss Maya" too!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Catch a Break; Catch a Falling Star
I'm a little "off" tonight - edgy, antsy, extra turmoil in the house today. I've had some thoughts off and on today of what to post about and am not sure I can pull anything from the hat. Like I ALWAYS pull things from that hat and they turn out snazzy. Yeah. Right. NOT!
So first things first -because I'm not sure yet where my mind is wandering, I'm going to give you today's as well as tomorrow's Bushism for the day. Just in case the train of thought it still really off track tomorrow too, that way, I won't have forgotten about that important item. LOL
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." - Brussels, Belgium; February 22, 2005.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
"All up and down the different aspects of our society, we had meaningful discussions. Not only in the Cabinet Room, but prior to this and after this day,k our secretaries, respective secretaries, will continue to interact to create the conditions necessary for prosperity to reign." - Washington, D.C.; May 19, 2003
Wednesday for me began really early - like about 5 a.m. when my daughter woke me up to tell me she had to go pick up her brother. Seems he had just called, was having a problem and he needed to have one of us come get him. I won't go into detail here, but no vehicles were wrecked - there's a switch - and no one had been involved in a fight (which has only ever once been an issue with him and that episode wouldn't even qualify as a fight) and no, he wasn't in jail. He was pretty close to the edge on that but it was a "close, but no cigar" deal for which he - and we - are thankful.
And, I've been up since 5 a.m. - still edgy from the episode with the "favorite (only) son", no make-up nap time in between today either, plus two of my little Princesses "people" were here today - the Toy Lady and the Speech Therapist. That was followed with a counselor involved with the 15-year-old's issues due to her grades at school, then supper and well, the edge junk just never left me.
This evening, while "favorite son" was doing his laundry in preparation that he MIGHT get called to go out on the road early tomorrow morning, he and I watched a video Mandy had rented. And, I really think the video is pushing real hard on my edginess tonight.
Anyone here seen "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith? Mandy and the 15-year-old had watched it over the weekend but I hadn't seen it then for some odd reason which I can't remember cause I rarely go any place to have missed viewing it. But, anyway, I hadn't seen it and Mandy re-rented it so I could watch it as she was sure I would love it.
And to be honest, yes I really did like it.
But, I think the struggles of the character portrayed by Will Smith just hit home a little too closely tonight. Watching him try to catch a break, to make a sale of the bone density machine, to keep a roof over his own and his son's head, to complete an unpaid internship with no guarantee for employment at the end, and all the things that befell him along the way, just a bit too close for comfort maybe.
I know there are no guarantees in life - no sure things - except for two - taxes and death. In the past decade, I have several years where I ended up owing the IRS way more than my meager income could shell out and it took me a couple years to get that squared away. Having faced cancer, a couple other medical issues and I'm still here - ok, let's look at that as kind of at least "looking" at death, maybe in passing.
I'm at an age and a stage in my life where I had once thought by this time I would be in a position to be able to help my kids - something I rarely had much opportunity to do when they were growing up -other than to work, and then, work some more just to scrape by.
Since for much of my work life I was frequently told my employers and potential employers too that if I had a college degree - no particular field, just a B.S. in SOMETHING, they could have paid me more or hired me. But, after I put myself in major debt with student loans, no one was even willing to grant an interview, much less hire me! All of which pushed me further in debt then too.
And the episodes since Christmas that have hit my daughter and son-in-law, my son, along with my older daughter too topped by watching this video tonight just gave me way too much of an empathy factor I guess with Will Smith's character.
Made me feel the same pain all over again watching him trying to just "catch a break."
Seeing his struggles there made me think maybe I DIDN'T do all I could have done, somehow forced a card here and there to acquire an interview or something. I don't know. And, there's no going back to try again now.
So I'm just going to go kind of lick my wounds that reopened tonight and wish maybe somewhere there is still a falling star I can catch - maybe over the rainbow.
And then again - as my favorite heroine of all time once said "I'll worry about it tomorrow!" Or, maybe not.
Nite now.
So first things first -because I'm not sure yet where my mind is wandering, I'm going to give you today's as well as tomorrow's Bushism for the day. Just in case the train of thought it still really off track tomorrow too, that way, I won't have forgotten about that important item. LOL
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." - Brussels, Belgium; February 22, 2005.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
"All up and down the different aspects of our society, we had meaningful discussions. Not only in the Cabinet Room, but prior to this and after this day,k our secretaries, respective secretaries, will continue to interact to create the conditions necessary for prosperity to reign." - Washington, D.C.; May 19, 2003
Wednesday for me began really early - like about 5 a.m. when my daughter woke me up to tell me she had to go pick up her brother. Seems he had just called, was having a problem and he needed to have one of us come get him. I won't go into detail here, but no vehicles were wrecked - there's a switch - and no one had been involved in a fight (which has only ever once been an issue with him and that episode wouldn't even qualify as a fight) and no, he wasn't in jail. He was pretty close to the edge on that but it was a "close, but no cigar" deal for which he - and we - are thankful.
And, I've been up since 5 a.m. - still edgy from the episode with the "favorite (only) son", no make-up nap time in between today either, plus two of my little Princesses "people" were here today - the Toy Lady and the Speech Therapist. That was followed with a counselor involved with the 15-year-old's issues due to her grades at school, then supper and well, the edge junk just never left me.
This evening, while "favorite son" was doing his laundry in preparation that he MIGHT get called to go out on the road early tomorrow morning, he and I watched a video Mandy had rented. And, I really think the video is pushing real hard on my edginess tonight.
Anyone here seen "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith? Mandy and the 15-year-old had watched it over the weekend but I hadn't seen it then for some odd reason which I can't remember cause I rarely go any place to have missed viewing it. But, anyway, I hadn't seen it and Mandy re-rented it so I could watch it as she was sure I would love it.
And to be honest, yes I really did like it.
But, I think the struggles of the character portrayed by Will Smith just hit home a little too closely tonight. Watching him try to catch a break, to make a sale of the bone density machine, to keep a roof over his own and his son's head, to complete an unpaid internship with no guarantee for employment at the end, and all the things that befell him along the way, just a bit too close for comfort maybe.
I know there are no guarantees in life - no sure things - except for two - taxes and death. In the past decade, I have several years where I ended up owing the IRS way more than my meager income could shell out and it took me a couple years to get that squared away. Having faced cancer, a couple other medical issues and I'm still here - ok, let's look at that as kind of at least "looking" at death, maybe in passing.
I'm at an age and a stage in my life where I had once thought by this time I would be in a position to be able to help my kids - something I rarely had much opportunity to do when they were growing up -other than to work, and then, work some more just to scrape by.
Since for much of my work life I was frequently told my employers and potential employers too that if I had a college degree - no particular field, just a B.S. in SOMETHING, they could have paid me more or hired me. But, after I put myself in major debt with student loans, no one was even willing to grant an interview, much less hire me! All of which pushed me further in debt then too.
And the episodes since Christmas that have hit my daughter and son-in-law, my son, along with my older daughter too topped by watching this video tonight just gave me way too much of an empathy factor I guess with Will Smith's character.
Made me feel the same pain all over again watching him trying to just "catch a break."
Seeing his struggles there made me think maybe I DIDN'T do all I could have done, somehow forced a card here and there to acquire an interview or something. I don't know. And, there's no going back to try again now.
So I'm just going to go kind of lick my wounds that reopened tonight and wish maybe somewhere there is still a falling star I can catch - maybe over the rainbow.
And then again - as my favorite heroine of all time once said "I'll worry about it tomorrow!" Or, maybe not.
Nite now.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Changing
Reading through my favorite blogs this morning, I read something in Claire's blog that reminded me of something I did many years ago.
Claire says she plans to dye her hair tonight - apparently a bright, flamboyant red color no less. And, thinking back to when I got an idea I wanted my hair frosted, it brought back some memories I thought I'd share here today.
I don't remember the exact date -heck, I don't even remember what month it was when I got this hair-brained idea in my head. It was winter -that much I do remember though - of 1965. Yes, I told you at the onset this story took place a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time ago.
My hair color is a dark brown and for some reason or other -like many others I suppose - I got this idea that it would be soooo very neat and nice and pretty and of course, sexy too if my hair had these lovely frosted colors in it - a little blonde, a little darker blonde shade here and there. Oh yeah, it would be, absolutely, the cat's meow!
Yeah, right.
I had seen these kits in the stores where you could apply this junk to your hair and presto, magic, you had frosted it yourself and saved beaucoup bucks at the beauty shop having a professional do the job. Since my life back then was a poor, financially speaking, as it is today - seems to be a thread throughout my life, apparently - I decided to take the el cheapo route -of course - and be a "do-it-yourselfer."
I bought the kid and knowing how impatient I was then - still am most of the time today too - I probably read the instructions but probably not fully. Gee, imagine that, huh?
I don't remember each step of the procedure but you do have to bleach out a good bit of the hair when your normal hair color is the shade mine is. And that is where I ran into problems.
By 9 p.m., on a very, very snowy Sunday night, I realized my frost job wasn't going to be the dream hair style I had imagined.
My hair had become four shades, yes but not the way it was supposed to be.
At the top of my head, and for about maybe two inches or so, it was white-blonde. Then, there was a layering of yellow blonde color that encompassed an inch, maybe two of my hair. Moving on down, the next inch or two was orange - yes, bright, bright orange. And the rest of the hair, which was, thankfully short but not THAT short, was the normal dark brown.
Talk about looking like a clown! Wow! I sure did.
The problem then became one of an emergency situation too as I knew there was no way I could possibly go to work the next day with my hair looking like that. I also knew, based on how tender my scalp was at that point there was no way I could get a hair dye and immediately recolor my hair back to the normal dark brown shade either.
And, adding to those problems was also the time of night, the weather - it was snowing very, very hard by then and the nearest drugstore to my roommates and my apartment had closed for the evening. There was an all-night drugstore open at the Marlow Heights Mall though but that was about five miles from our apartment and guess who didn't have a car then either?
I took a chance (after tightly wrapping a towel around my head) and knocked on our next-door neighbor's door and begged our neighbor, Pam, to ask her husband if he would please drive me over to the Marlow Heights Mall so I could get something to cover up the mess I'd made of my hair. Fortunately for me, he took pity on me and drove me over there where I bought a package of dark brown hair dye to apply to my hair later that week and two cans of hair coloring that you could spray on - just exactly what I needed in an emergency situation like that had become.
For the next 3-4 days at work, my boss harrassed the living daylights out of me, teasing me about my lovely roots and the colors that still managed to peek through from the spray-on stuff till I dared to put the dark hair dye on to cover up my big goof-up frost job.
That episode pretty much cooled my heels for several years on the idea of changing my hair color again.
Well, that is until about 1972, early 1973 when I decided to take that step again. Except this time, I decided to let a professional do the job. And, it did turn out pretty decent. Well, at least I liked it.
About three years later, I again decided to get my hair frosted and yes, again I went to a beautician to have it done. Again, I liked it very much.
But the strangest thing happened both times I got my hair frosted by a professional hairdresser. I got pregnant shortly after each time I had my hair frosted!
It just so happens that I was also "on a diet" both times that happened too so I decided then and there that never again would I ever get my hair frosted at the same time I was on a diet. There had to be a link there, don't 'cha know?
Now since I tend to be "dieting" (hard to believe that one if you'd see me now - ha ha) all the time, I have never taken that chance of getting my hair colored or frosted since then. Way too risky in my opinion!
Now, I let my Scottish ancestry (el cheapo) take control and save the funds I would have spent on hair dyes or frostings and just let Mother Nature take over and do the frost jobs for me now, for free!
Sometimes, there is something distinguished about the "salt and pepper" look, ya know.
Claire says she plans to dye her hair tonight - apparently a bright, flamboyant red color no less. And, thinking back to when I got an idea I wanted my hair frosted, it brought back some memories I thought I'd share here today.
I don't remember the exact date -heck, I don't even remember what month it was when I got this hair-brained idea in my head. It was winter -that much I do remember though - of 1965. Yes, I told you at the onset this story took place a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time ago.
My hair color is a dark brown and for some reason or other -like many others I suppose - I got this idea that it would be soooo very neat and nice and pretty and of course, sexy too if my hair had these lovely frosted colors in it - a little blonde, a little darker blonde shade here and there. Oh yeah, it would be, absolutely, the cat's meow!
Yeah, right.
I had seen these kits in the stores where you could apply this junk to your hair and presto, magic, you had frosted it yourself and saved beaucoup bucks at the beauty shop having a professional do the job. Since my life back then was a poor, financially speaking, as it is today - seems to be a thread throughout my life, apparently - I decided to take the el cheapo route -of course - and be a "do-it-yourselfer."
I bought the kid and knowing how impatient I was then - still am most of the time today too - I probably read the instructions but probably not fully. Gee, imagine that, huh?
I don't remember each step of the procedure but you do have to bleach out a good bit of the hair when your normal hair color is the shade mine is. And that is where I ran into problems.
By 9 p.m., on a very, very snowy Sunday night, I realized my frost job wasn't going to be the dream hair style I had imagined.
My hair had become four shades, yes but not the way it was supposed to be.
At the top of my head, and for about maybe two inches or so, it was white-blonde. Then, there was a layering of yellow blonde color that encompassed an inch, maybe two of my hair. Moving on down, the next inch or two was orange - yes, bright, bright orange. And the rest of the hair, which was, thankfully short but not THAT short, was the normal dark brown.
Talk about looking like a clown! Wow! I sure did.
The problem then became one of an emergency situation too as I knew there was no way I could possibly go to work the next day with my hair looking like that. I also knew, based on how tender my scalp was at that point there was no way I could get a hair dye and immediately recolor my hair back to the normal dark brown shade either.
And, adding to those problems was also the time of night, the weather - it was snowing very, very hard by then and the nearest drugstore to my roommates and my apartment had closed for the evening. There was an all-night drugstore open at the Marlow Heights Mall though but that was about five miles from our apartment and guess who didn't have a car then either?
I took a chance (after tightly wrapping a towel around my head) and knocked on our next-door neighbor's door and begged our neighbor, Pam, to ask her husband if he would please drive me over to the Marlow Heights Mall so I could get something to cover up the mess I'd made of my hair. Fortunately for me, he took pity on me and drove me over there where I bought a package of dark brown hair dye to apply to my hair later that week and two cans of hair coloring that you could spray on - just exactly what I needed in an emergency situation like that had become.
For the next 3-4 days at work, my boss harrassed the living daylights out of me, teasing me about my lovely roots and the colors that still managed to peek through from the spray-on stuff till I dared to put the dark hair dye on to cover up my big goof-up frost job.
That episode pretty much cooled my heels for several years on the idea of changing my hair color again.
Well, that is until about 1972, early 1973 when I decided to take that step again. Except this time, I decided to let a professional do the job. And, it did turn out pretty decent. Well, at least I liked it.
About three years later, I again decided to get my hair frosted and yes, again I went to a beautician to have it done. Again, I liked it very much.
But the strangest thing happened both times I got my hair frosted by a professional hairdresser. I got pregnant shortly after each time I had my hair frosted!
It just so happens that I was also "on a diet" both times that happened too so I decided then and there that never again would I ever get my hair frosted at the same time I was on a diet. There had to be a link there, don't 'cha know?
Now since I tend to be "dieting" (hard to believe that one if you'd see me now - ha ha) all the time, I have never taken that chance of getting my hair colored or frosted since then. Way too risky in my opinion!
Now, I let my Scottish ancestry (el cheapo) take control and save the funds I would have spent on hair dyes or frostings and just let Mother Nature take over and do the frost jobs for me now, for free!
Sometimes, there is something distinguished about the "salt and pepper" look, ya know.
Red MO Race - history now!
I noticed tonight while looking over my sitemeter statistics that a lot of folks coming to my blog today got here from a search about the "Red Moshannon Down River Race" which took place this past Saturday and is now in canoe/kayak racing history.
For anyone looking here to see if I have photos posted from the race or results for the race - winners, etc - I apologize as I don't have either. (I wasn't able to go down to Peale to observe as I was in charge of my two younger grandkids plus three stepgrandchildren for the day and there's no way I'm lugging a rambunctious walking three-year old and carrying an equally rambunctious one-year old through all the foot traffic there!
However, if you haven't already checked the Centre Daily Times website in the Sunday edition (April 1st), here's the website for the article they posted about the race.
http://www.centredaily.com/116/story/56747.html
It's a really good piece, written by Mike Joseph of the CDT news staff and also included several great photos of the race, starting at the Peale bridge.
The Clearfield Progress in today's paper (Monday - April 2nd) had a photo on the front page of the race and states that they will publish results of the race later this week.
Excuse my grumpiness there about the Progress and their coverage of this event - the "results will be published later this week" thing and the lovely ONE PHOTO too, but that, in my opinion, is pretty much typical of anything that takes place in Clearfield County that doesn't happen right in CLEARFIELD! Well, geez Louise, excuse me all to you know where and back again!
The eastern portion of the county is generally referred to as the "Down River" region and every now and again, something neat and exciting does take place in this part of the county too! I.E. - The Red Mo Race that begins in Peale and ends at the bridge at the foot of the Moshannon Mountain, for openers!
Not that the CDT likes to give this region all that much recognition either most of the time - hey, I'm calling a spade a spade there - but the Progress touts itself as being THE Clearfield County Newspaper so it sure would be nice if they recognized news that happens in ALL parts of the darned county, don't 'cha think?
And, for any of you who might be interested in reading more about Peale and the surrounding communities, keep checking back here as I am in the process of putting together a new blog which will be a "sister-site" to the website currently shown on my blog - under the "favorite blogs I like to read" -Peale, The Ghost Coal Mining Town .
Stop back, look around, drop me a line through e-mail (found on my profile) or leave a comment (or two or more) on my blog too! (You can do this whether you have a blog or not - simply use the "anonymous" button to leave a comment if you aren't a blogger too.)
I'd love to hear from you!
For anyone looking here to see if I have photos posted from the race or results for the race - winners, etc - I apologize as I don't have either. (I wasn't able to go down to Peale to observe as I was in charge of my two younger grandkids plus three stepgrandchildren for the day and there's no way I'm lugging a rambunctious walking three-year old and carrying an equally rambunctious one-year old through all the foot traffic there!
However, if you haven't already checked the Centre Daily Times website in the Sunday edition (April 1st), here's the website for the article they posted about the race.
http://www.centredaily.com/116/story/56747.html
It's a really good piece, written by Mike Joseph of the CDT news staff and also included several great photos of the race, starting at the Peale bridge.
The Clearfield Progress in today's paper (Monday - April 2nd) had a photo on the front page of the race and states that they will publish results of the race later this week.
Excuse my grumpiness there about the Progress and their coverage of this event - the "results will be published later this week" thing and the lovely ONE PHOTO too, but that, in my opinion, is pretty much typical of anything that takes place in Clearfield County that doesn't happen right in CLEARFIELD! Well, geez Louise, excuse me all to you know where and back again!
The eastern portion of the county is generally referred to as the "Down River" region and every now and again, something neat and exciting does take place in this part of the county too! I.E. - The Red Mo Race that begins in Peale and ends at the bridge at the foot of the Moshannon Mountain, for openers!
Not that the CDT likes to give this region all that much recognition either most of the time - hey, I'm calling a spade a spade there - but the Progress touts itself as being THE Clearfield County Newspaper so it sure would be nice if they recognized news that happens in ALL parts of the darned county, don't 'cha think?
And, for any of you who might be interested in reading more about Peale and the surrounding communities, keep checking back here as I am in the process of putting together a new blog which will be a "sister-site" to the website currently shown on my blog - under the "favorite blogs I like to read" -Peale, The Ghost Coal Mining Town .
Stop back, look around, drop me a line through e-mail (found on my profile) or leave a comment (or two or more) on my blog too! (You can do this whether you have a blog or not - simply use the "anonymous" button to leave a comment if you aren't a blogger too.)
I'd love to hear from you!
Monday, April 02, 2007
Got an Obsession?
Here's a little MEME - sent to me by Mau at It's About Time. She must have read enough of my posts to decide I definitely have some obsessions and figured it was time I fully acknowledged them too!
I have been asked to list 5 things that I can call an obsession. I am to tag five people to do the same.
Five things I can admit to being obsessed with:
I now tag the following people to follow suit:
Smalltown RN
Paula
Sandy
Inmatz Wife
Mikie
What to do with a Meme: Copy the questions into a new post and answer them. Tag some different bloggers. Go back and let the person who tagged you know that you did it.
And - for a little more fun today, here's the Bushism of the day for Monday, April 2, 2007 and also, for Tuesday, April 3, 2007
April 2, 2007
"And that's why I'mhere at the community college system today." - Jacksonville, FLorida; January 14, 2005
April 3, 2007
"It's good to see so many friends here in the Rose Garden. This is our first event in this beautiful spot, and its appropriate we talk about policy that will affect people's lives in a positive way in such a beautiful, beautiful part of our national - really, our national park system, my guess is you would want to call it." - Washington, D.C.; February 8, 2001
Happy Obsession Days to You!
I have been asked to list 5 things that I can call an obsession. I am to tag five people to do the same.
Five things I can admit to being obsessed with:
- YARN - just found some Lion Brand Fun Fur (Stripes type) last week at a buck a skein - it normally sells for about $4-5 a skein. Who could possibly pass that up? Obsession? I think not but others tell me I definitely am!
- BOOKS - Oh yeah, now that I have a membership to Barnes & Noble and can get books at some pretty good discounts, you betcha I am obsessed there. My favorite author at this time - Jodi Picoult. I think my daughter and I only have 5 more of her books now we haven't read.
- COOKBOOKS - Not that I necessarily use them all that often to actually fix stuff from the recipes but I sure do love to look lovingly at the recipes, pictures, drool all over the pages. I suppose if I tried something and it didn't turn out I could always say that my drooling on the pages blurred the instructions though, couldn't I?
- BLOGGING - Yeah, I am pretty much obsessed with trying to find interesting topics to write about, little stories about my "Little Princess Maya," and her counterparts - Crown Prince Alex and Prince Curtis as well as my family and friends too, who often become part of my blogs.
- REUNIONS - My family reunion which is an annual event and I generally start after the first of the year mentioning it to my cousins to try to inspire interest in them to attend and my High School Class Reunions - which take place every five years and guess what, this is the YEAR for a class reunion too - our 45th - to be held 2 months from today on June 2, 2007 at Hedges Restaurant in Clearfield, PA! This is for the kids from the COOPER TOWNSHIP center of the West Branch Area High School -class of 1962! If anyone from our class happens to read this and didn't get an invitation, please contact me (use the e-mail address on my profile below my list of favorite blogs I like to read) or contact Kate Nelson Eyerly - Grassflat, PA for more details!
I now tag the following people to follow suit:
Smalltown RN
Paula
Sandy
Inmatz Wife
Mikie
What to do with a Meme: Copy the questions into a new post and answer them. Tag some different bloggers. Go back and let the person who tagged you know that you did it.
And - for a little more fun today, here's the Bushism of the day for Monday, April 2, 2007 and also, for Tuesday, April 3, 2007
April 2, 2007
"And that's why I'mhere at the community college system today." - Jacksonville, FLorida; January 14, 2005
April 3, 2007
"It's good to see so many friends here in the Rose Garden. This is our first event in this beautiful spot, and its appropriate we talk about policy that will affect people's lives in a positive way in such a beautiful, beautiful part of our national - really, our national park system, my guess is you would want to call it." - Washington, D.C.; February 8, 2001
Happy Obsession Days to You!
Looking Back
The last week in March always brings back memories to me of my Grandfather and his passing. He died 50 years ago this past Wednesday, March 28, 1957. And you know, to this day, I miss him, his presence, his quiet, his strength.
He wasn't a big man- maybe 5 ft. 10 or 11 inches, very slim. But he had such strength, even in his last years, if he shook your hand, you knew it! Nothing light and limp there - just an extremely firm grip. He always took great stock in the way a person shook your hand - it was your bond, the way he felt people expressed their truths, their feelings as to the type of person that lay behind that handshake. Firm grip to him meant this person can be trusted.
He had worked very hard all his life either in the coal mines or at times, he also worked helping his brother who managed various Coal Mine "Company Stores" throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. It was a trade he learned early in life as he went to work in the coal mines near to the home he later built for his wife and family in the now ghost town of Peale, PA at the age of nine. When I think back to how I was at the age of nine or my grandson Alex, who is now nine, I can't imagine myself going into a deep, dark, very dirty, very dangerous mine and having to do any type of work, much less helping adult miners dig out coal and haul it to the surface. And yet, he did that as did several of his brothers too back in the 1880's.
At least twice in his work in the mines he was injured. I don't know if the one accident in which his heel got caught in a coal car and was badly torn happened in southwestern PA or in West Virginia but he survived that and in 1935, about the time his first grandchild was born, he was in a mine accident near here - I think, if memory serves me it was at what is known as the Cooper Two mine site - where he sustained a head injury. The ambulance taking him to the local hospital stopped at our house enroute and my mother then accompanied him to the emergency room there. She told me that the base of his scull had been hit and he had a severe cut there that from her description opened a flap type wound of the scull and you could actually see the brain matter there. At that time, he would have been about 61 years old and if Mom ever told me how long he was in the hospital, I don't remember those details. But, he was not an easy patient as he wanted desperately to come home as soon as possible. The reason - his first grandchild - a little girl - had just been born and his son, daughter-in-law and the new baby were coming home from Pittsburgh for a weekend - an event he was insisting he NOT miss! Yes, he was strong in body, in spirit, in love of his family and also, stubborn as the proverbial mule too!
When the family moved back to this village in 1924, after moving all around in the southwestern part of the state and West Virginia, he and my two older uncles returned to working in the mines here. Hard, physical labor that would have to have just about worn a person out you would think and yet, he and my two uncles would come home from work, eat supper and then, begin working to dig out - by hand and using wheel barrows - under most of this old house so there would be a "full basement" there. Once they completed that job, hauled rocks to the property and built basement walls that area as strong today as when they built them, they began to dig ditches along the property to try to keep the "new" basement as dry as possible. They built the building that eventually became a two-car garage - not that we ever had two cars to keep in it but the capacity was there. He and my uncles dug the ditches and larger area to hold the septic tank - also all by hand. They dug ditches that ran from under what became the "laundry room" in the basement to provide for the laundry and bath wash water to be drained away from the house. All three of them - Grandpa and his two older sons were well acquainted with working with a pick and shovel. And, they thought nothing of doing that either.
In addition to doing hard labor at work and at home, he also put in, every year as long as I can remember back and apparently from stories told by my Mom and her siblings, every year of his adult life a huge vegetable garden which he tended to with great love and care. When my cousins and I were all coming into his life, he also had a big patch of ground in the back part the yard where he had planted a strawberry patch. Near it, he had a big row of raspberry bushes, as well as 3 large currant bushes and a patch of rhubarb. The upper part of our yard, once he decided to stop planting winter wheat there, became a showplace lawn with flower gardens lined with his favorites - roses! He added a great big forsythia bush along the far side of the lawn, had flower beds all along the front of the house where he had beautiful tulips and jonquils to welcome the spring. In the back part of the side lawn, just above the beginning of one of his two large vegetable gardens, he had dahlias, asters flox and some other flowers that bloomed there, year after year too.
Our vegetable garden kept us in fresh vegetables of almost every type from early in June when the green onions began to come up along with the leaf lettuce. As the summer progressed, we had fresh carrots, peas, green beans, beets, corn, eggplant, cucumbers, squash and of course, tomatoes and potatoes - lots and lots of all of those great veggies. Always with more than enough bounty that my grandmother and my mom spent most of August and September canning jar after jar of the fruits of his labors.
His loves were his gardens - vegetable and floral - baseball (Pirates and the old Philadelphia Athletics) from spring to late fall when the World Series took place and then, over the winter months after he retired, he read - the newspaper, every page of it; The National Geographic Magazines he loved to pour over and visit countries all over the world from the comfort of his favorite arm chair in our sunporch, The Reader's Digest - another magazine he read cover-to-cover, The Grit weekly newspaper and books that his children would try to find for him to read, to learn more about some of his favorite people from history - George Washington and Abraham Lincoln along with books about geography of the world. The only novels I ever knew him to read were a couple that had been written by Swedish authors about people's lives in Sweden of his era in time. (He was born in Sweden and immigrated here at the age of seven.)
And, he loved animals! Boy, did he ever! Sometime back in the thirties, he had chickens at the time and decided to buy two turkeys, both Toms which he named Adolph and Oscar. Adolph, according to my Mom was meaner than all get out and she was frequently terrified of coming home from work at about 11:30 p.m., pulling the car in the garage and then trying to figure out exactly where old Adolph was in the back yard so she could judge how fast she was going to have to run from the garage up to the house without alerting him to come into attack mode and flogging her as she ran to the house!
When I was a baby - about six months old or so - my Mom's younger brother brought home a puppy - part collie and part shepherd of some type. "Lady" was supposed to be "my" dog but although I loved her dearly, she and Grandpa had a rapport that lasted the rest of his years and ended six weeks after his death when old Lady mourned herself to death.
Nothing made Grandpa prouder than to be able to go visit his son's homes and see what they had done with their own hands to build houses for their families and to see their abilities - obviously learned from Grandpa - at landscape and tending to gardens and flowers and such. And today, my one cousin, Ray, at least apparently had enough of his Dad's landscape knowledge and interest in flowers, trees and shrubs passed down from our Grandfather to his dad and to him as he is always doing something around his house - carpentry, masonry, building a pond in his backyard, planning a design for his flower gardens around his house. Grandpa - and his Dad - would both be very proud of my cousin Ray's interest and abilities there.
And this year, as I remember the twelve years I got to be a part of my grandfather's life, I was reminded too of someone else who had been a part of my growing up here too. The newspaper the end of the week contained an obituary for a lady who had lived a couple of houses up the street from us and who I knew because her one daughter, Loretta, was the same age as me. She was 88 years old when she died now - leaving only one other former neighbor who was a surrogate-type parent to me as a child now.
And, it's funny the two things I remember about this lady as a sort of "legacy" to me. One involves her neighbor across the road from their house who was a big hunter and one year he had managed to bag a bear. As is the norm for hunters here - probably all over - to do, he had brought it home and hung it from the tree in their front yard. It was dark at the time he and his hunter friends had done that and the next morning when Lori's Mom awoke to get her husband up for work, when she glanced out their bedroom window, all she could see in the early dawn light was a silhouette of this things hanging from the tree. And she panicked! Waking her husband up by screaming "Oh my God, Jim's hung himself!"
And the other little story is one she always remembered about me which was the summer when I was perhaps five or six years old, I invited all the neighborhood girls to a party at my house, in our backyard, to celebrate my birthday. Nice idea, huh? Except for the fact my birthday wasn't until October and here come these kids my age, all decked out, each with some little gift for me and my Mom had no clue what the heck was going on. Luckily , she was able to mix up a batch of kool aid or lemonade, put some cookies on a plate and let us have our little "party" and then, she sent each kid back home, with the gift they'd brought me, apologizing to the parents that her dear little daughter had contrived this whole party thing unbeknownst to her, etc., etc.
Kind of nice to think this lady always remembered that event and also, that she remembered it with good humor as her daughter Lori said she always got a big chuckle out of that story every time she remembered and retold it.
So tonight, I really do have to manage to get myself organized, dressed, out of here in time to go to the funeral home about 8 miles from here to pay my respects to my old childhood-schooldays life-long friend, Lori's Mom.
And in doing so, to also have some time to chat, to remember some of the other things about her Mom, about us, our lives as we grew up together and intertwined and see too how similar or dissimilar the turns have been as we have spent the last 45 years living about 220 miles apart.
And, I'm betting there are more similiarities there that we ever thought there would be.
He wasn't a big man- maybe 5 ft. 10 or 11 inches, very slim. But he had such strength, even in his last years, if he shook your hand, you knew it! Nothing light and limp there - just an extremely firm grip. He always took great stock in the way a person shook your hand - it was your bond, the way he felt people expressed their truths, their feelings as to the type of person that lay behind that handshake. Firm grip to him meant this person can be trusted.
He had worked very hard all his life either in the coal mines or at times, he also worked helping his brother who managed various Coal Mine "Company Stores" throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. It was a trade he learned early in life as he went to work in the coal mines near to the home he later built for his wife and family in the now ghost town of Peale, PA at the age of nine. When I think back to how I was at the age of nine or my grandson Alex, who is now nine, I can't imagine myself going into a deep, dark, very dirty, very dangerous mine and having to do any type of work, much less helping adult miners dig out coal and haul it to the surface. And yet, he did that as did several of his brothers too back in the 1880's.
At least twice in his work in the mines he was injured. I don't know if the one accident in which his heel got caught in a coal car and was badly torn happened in southwestern PA or in West Virginia but he survived that and in 1935, about the time his first grandchild was born, he was in a mine accident near here - I think, if memory serves me it was at what is known as the Cooper Two mine site - where he sustained a head injury. The ambulance taking him to the local hospital stopped at our house enroute and my mother then accompanied him to the emergency room there. She told me that the base of his scull had been hit and he had a severe cut there that from her description opened a flap type wound of the scull and you could actually see the brain matter there. At that time, he would have been about 61 years old and if Mom ever told me how long he was in the hospital, I don't remember those details. But, he was not an easy patient as he wanted desperately to come home as soon as possible. The reason - his first grandchild - a little girl - had just been born and his son, daughter-in-law and the new baby were coming home from Pittsburgh for a weekend - an event he was insisting he NOT miss! Yes, he was strong in body, in spirit, in love of his family and also, stubborn as the proverbial mule too!
When the family moved back to this village in 1924, after moving all around in the southwestern part of the state and West Virginia, he and my two older uncles returned to working in the mines here. Hard, physical labor that would have to have just about worn a person out you would think and yet, he and my two uncles would come home from work, eat supper and then, begin working to dig out - by hand and using wheel barrows - under most of this old house so there would be a "full basement" there. Once they completed that job, hauled rocks to the property and built basement walls that area as strong today as when they built them, they began to dig ditches along the property to try to keep the "new" basement as dry as possible. They built the building that eventually became a two-car garage - not that we ever had two cars to keep in it but the capacity was there. He and my uncles dug the ditches and larger area to hold the septic tank - also all by hand. They dug ditches that ran from under what became the "laundry room" in the basement to provide for the laundry and bath wash water to be drained away from the house. All three of them - Grandpa and his two older sons were well acquainted with working with a pick and shovel. And, they thought nothing of doing that either.
In addition to doing hard labor at work and at home, he also put in, every year as long as I can remember back and apparently from stories told by my Mom and her siblings, every year of his adult life a huge vegetable garden which he tended to with great love and care. When my cousins and I were all coming into his life, he also had a big patch of ground in the back part the yard where he had planted a strawberry patch. Near it, he had a big row of raspberry bushes, as well as 3 large currant bushes and a patch of rhubarb. The upper part of our yard, once he decided to stop planting winter wheat there, became a showplace lawn with flower gardens lined with his favorites - roses! He added a great big forsythia bush along the far side of the lawn, had flower beds all along the front of the house where he had beautiful tulips and jonquils to welcome the spring. In the back part of the side lawn, just above the beginning of one of his two large vegetable gardens, he had dahlias, asters flox and some other flowers that bloomed there, year after year too.
Our vegetable garden kept us in fresh vegetables of almost every type from early in June when the green onions began to come up along with the leaf lettuce. As the summer progressed, we had fresh carrots, peas, green beans, beets, corn, eggplant, cucumbers, squash and of course, tomatoes and potatoes - lots and lots of all of those great veggies. Always with more than enough bounty that my grandmother and my mom spent most of August and September canning jar after jar of the fruits of his labors.
His loves were his gardens - vegetable and floral - baseball (Pirates and the old Philadelphia Athletics) from spring to late fall when the World Series took place and then, over the winter months after he retired, he read - the newspaper, every page of it; The National Geographic Magazines he loved to pour over and visit countries all over the world from the comfort of his favorite arm chair in our sunporch, The Reader's Digest - another magazine he read cover-to-cover, The Grit weekly newspaper and books that his children would try to find for him to read, to learn more about some of his favorite people from history - George Washington and Abraham Lincoln along with books about geography of the world. The only novels I ever knew him to read were a couple that had been written by Swedish authors about people's lives in Sweden of his era in time. (He was born in Sweden and immigrated here at the age of seven.)
And, he loved animals! Boy, did he ever! Sometime back in the thirties, he had chickens at the time and decided to buy two turkeys, both Toms which he named Adolph and Oscar. Adolph, according to my Mom was meaner than all get out and she was frequently terrified of coming home from work at about 11:30 p.m., pulling the car in the garage and then trying to figure out exactly where old Adolph was in the back yard so she could judge how fast she was going to have to run from the garage up to the house without alerting him to come into attack mode and flogging her as she ran to the house!
When I was a baby - about six months old or so - my Mom's younger brother brought home a puppy - part collie and part shepherd of some type. "Lady" was supposed to be "my" dog but although I loved her dearly, she and Grandpa had a rapport that lasted the rest of his years and ended six weeks after his death when old Lady mourned herself to death.
Nothing made Grandpa prouder than to be able to go visit his son's homes and see what they had done with their own hands to build houses for their families and to see their abilities - obviously learned from Grandpa - at landscape and tending to gardens and flowers and such. And today, my one cousin, Ray, at least apparently had enough of his Dad's landscape knowledge and interest in flowers, trees and shrubs passed down from our Grandfather to his dad and to him as he is always doing something around his house - carpentry, masonry, building a pond in his backyard, planning a design for his flower gardens around his house. Grandpa - and his Dad - would both be very proud of my cousin Ray's interest and abilities there.
And this year, as I remember the twelve years I got to be a part of my grandfather's life, I was reminded too of someone else who had been a part of my growing up here too. The newspaper the end of the week contained an obituary for a lady who had lived a couple of houses up the street from us and who I knew because her one daughter, Loretta, was the same age as me. She was 88 years old when she died now - leaving only one other former neighbor who was a surrogate-type parent to me as a child now.
And, it's funny the two things I remember about this lady as a sort of "legacy" to me. One involves her neighbor across the road from their house who was a big hunter and one year he had managed to bag a bear. As is the norm for hunters here - probably all over - to do, he had brought it home and hung it from the tree in their front yard. It was dark at the time he and his hunter friends had done that and the next morning when Lori's Mom awoke to get her husband up for work, when she glanced out their bedroom window, all she could see in the early dawn light was a silhouette of this things hanging from the tree. And she panicked! Waking her husband up by screaming "Oh my God, Jim's hung himself!"
And the other little story is one she always remembered about me which was the summer when I was perhaps five or six years old, I invited all the neighborhood girls to a party at my house, in our backyard, to celebrate my birthday. Nice idea, huh? Except for the fact my birthday wasn't until October and here come these kids my age, all decked out, each with some little gift for me and my Mom had no clue what the heck was going on. Luckily , she was able to mix up a batch of kool aid or lemonade, put some cookies on a plate and let us have our little "party" and then, she sent each kid back home, with the gift they'd brought me, apologizing to the parents that her dear little daughter had contrived this whole party thing unbeknownst to her, etc., etc.
Kind of nice to think this lady always remembered that event and also, that she remembered it with good humor as her daughter Lori said she always got a big chuckle out of that story every time she remembered and retold it.
So tonight, I really do have to manage to get myself organized, dressed, out of here in time to go to the funeral home about 8 miles from here to pay my respects to my old childhood-schooldays life-long friend, Lori's Mom.
And in doing so, to also have some time to chat, to remember some of the other things about her Mom, about us, our lives as we grew up together and intertwined and see too how similar or dissimilar the turns have been as we have spent the last 45 years living about 220 miles apart.
And, I'm betting there are more similiarities there that we ever thought there would be.
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