Last week, if memory serves me correctly, I mentioned some "issues" here with the granddaughter - my little Princess Maya - and her aversion to using the commode. At that time, Mandy (her mother) had promised her if she were a big girl, used the potty to actually do something in it (yes, that was part of the bargain) she could then wear her big girl "unneywears" (as she calls them -i.e. Bratz underpants) AND also, she could wear lipstick (i.e. chapstick, not really lipstick but she doesn't know or see the difference and it's better than her trying to paint her lips with a pencil or pen, isn't it?). And that within minutes, really, Miss Maya ran into the bathroom - yes, she RAN in there - and sat on the potty and actually WHIZZED! Hip, hip, hooray!
Wow! I was ecstatic as I actually thought we were finally making some headway with this potty training thing. Well, it turns out I was wrong on that count as she only did it that ONE time. Apparently her interpretation was that if you do this ONE time you can wear "unneywears" as well as lipstick.
Well, her little brother is a veritable rootin' tootin' poop machine -at least that's my opinion!
Seems like every doggone time you go near the boy, figuring on picking him up, doing a little nice snuggling and cuddling, he's got this darned tell-tale aroma that just takes all the fun out of the nice, warm, fuzzy feelings one does usually get from holding a baby.
Yeah, tonight was no different!
I was trying to wait him out - our little race towards going to sleep and went over to check on him - yeah, he was playing opossum, not really sleeping and judging by the smell, I could understand why! No one could possibly go to sleep with that odor circulating around!
But not only do we have these two kids here who seem to be quite adept at the whizzing and pooping things - in the wrong places albeit -but we have another small issue too.
Our Cat! Our sweet pretty loveable old cat, Gracie baby!
Now, we've had Gracie since the late fall of 1991 - so that's what -16 years now pretty soon. And she's always been a very nice, gentle, very conscientious and also, quite modest cat too if cats have modesty standards. Been very good she has over the years about using her litter box.
However recently, we've seen a major change in her behavior in that she has taken to whizzing on the kitchen floor, right smack dab in front of the kitchen sink, no less.
And you wanna know who almost always discovers this whiz? Why of course, good old me. And 99 percent of the time I find it AFTER I have just managed to step in it and always, yes ALWAYS, it seems to be I'm barefooted too!
The end result then usually amounts to my letting out a few choice words, the nicest of which being "GEEZ! Grace! And of course, the granddaughter with her remarkable ability to imitate words she really SHOULDN'T be picking up will then start mocking me by saying -over and over -"Oh, GEEZ, GRACE!" Lovely!
Now, we have no idea what is causing this behavior in the cat. Don't know if she maybe has a kidney or urinary tract problem or is jealous of the kitten Mandy brought home about 2-3 months back or if she is just senile and can't find her litter box some days.
Remember I said she's always generally been what I would term a "modest" cat well, the other day, the stepgranddaughter happened to be out in the kitchen and Grace appeared and proceeded to do her business in full view, in her favorite spot too in front of the sink and also, right under Miss Katie's nose too which caused Katie to nudge Grace a tad with her toe and then she said "OH GEEZ, GRACE" too. See the vocabulary there apparently is contagious.
But last night, I gotta tell you this, my son-in-law here is generally pretty quiet. About the only way you'll get him into a big, really long-winded conversation is usually gonna happen if it pertains to cars and then, more specifically, volkswagon bugs. He loves them and so does my son.
Well keeping his quiet nature in mind now, here's what happened.
I had supper ready - just keeping it warm till a few folks arrived here to eat -and was messing around in my usual place - at the computer so I wasn't paying any attention to any movement of any type in the kitchen. I went out to start dishing stuff out, setting the table, etc. and lo and behold, while I'd been in the living room playing on the computer, that damned cat had done gone and whizzed in her favorite spot -again! Since I was in a hurry to get the food on the table, etc., I just pulled off some paper towels and tossed them down on the floor over the puddle, figuring I would finish cleaning it up then after supper.
We all - with the exception of my son-in-law sat down at the table and were just starting to eat when my son-in-law came home from working on one of his several automotive repair projects and he went to the kitchen to wash his hands up before eating. In doing so, he noticed the obvious little pile of now semi-wet paper towels laying there on the floor and announced to the rest of us, "OH look! Someone dropped their piss here!"
The way he said it, so nonchalantly I guess, is maybe what really struck us all as so darned funny and we all just cracked up laughing then.
Yeah, that's pretty much become the normal scenario around the house these days - everyone, including the animals, are just full of vinegar and you guessed it, piss!
And to that I say, "Enough, already!"
Thursday, August 16, 2007
"The Race Is On!"
I would imagine most people at least in their 50's or early to mid-60's or so would be familiar with the recording artist, Jack Jones - right? Or maybe a good many might also remember a country western singer named George Jones too, don't 'cha? Well, I happen to like both of these singers but my true preference there is for Jack Jones, especially if I might be in a mood to just have some easy-on-the ears music playing. Of course, at the present time, all my ALBUMS - yes, I said that -albums - not cds or tapes or cassette (boy, can you get much more antique than tape cassettes?) - are currently "in storage" up at my son's house because we just don't have any place for me to stash them here that would be anywhere near to the range of my turntable!
But, if memory serves me correctly, I do believe both of these gentlemen a good many years back - translated, that means at least 35-40 years ago - had recorded the song "The Race Is On." (Don't even think of asking me for other details about that song -like who wrote the music or the lyrics cause I don't have a clue nor do I have the energy to try to do a websearch and maybe find that out either so you'll just have to take my word for this as being facts.
Well, right now, tonight - the race is on here in my house between my little 16-month old grandson and me to see which one of us will fold up like an accordion first, collaspe and go to sleep. And right now, I'm betting it just might be the night hawk Grammy, Me!
I am beat tonight! The little guy - Kurtis - has never been a really good baby when it came to going to bed and sleeping the whole night through till like 8 a.m. with NO, absolutely NO periods of interruptions. But for the past month at least -maybe two months now - my memory is often toast when it comes to short term stuff to begin with and it's been really foggy for quite a while now due primarily to the grandson's lovely sleep patterns.
Time was, up to about 2-3 months ago now, that he might fall asleep between 11 and midnight and maybe, if we were really lucky, would sleep straight through for a max of 4-5 hours, then wake up long enough to wake his mother up, maybe me too, then fall back to sleep again and sleep till usually 9, maybe 10 a.m. That wasn't too bad for me since some nights I would go to bed about 1 or 2 a.m. or later and be able to sleep till about 9 a.m. anyway - with an occasional wake-up to go visit the bathroom and go back to sleep then.
But the last couple of months, the little stinker has decided that he is not going to lay down and go to sleep until he has drained at least 2, sometimes 3 bottles of milk - 8 ounces in each one -or before 2 a.m. - whichever would occur first ya know! And because his mother's work schedule some days required that she get up between 6 or 7 a.m. to go to work, she needed to get her solid sleep beginning at an hour well before when Kurtis wanted to call it quits, so she started to let him sleep downstairs, here in the playpen in the living room and I've since then been sleeping not in my bedroom - also on the first floor -but rather here in the living room on the sofa.
The sofa isn't that bad as far as sleeping there goes now and again, but doing it for at least two months solid - well, it gets old after a while.
Another reason she figured it would be easier though to do things this way is because generally I am up way late almost every night. Time was, once upon a time, when I would stay up until 4 or 5 a.m., get some sleep till maybe 8, 9 a.m. the latest and then be all rested up and ready to roll for the day till the same hours the next night. And I did this almost all the time for many years too. But the last four years or so, my sleep patterns have been all screwed up! Now, I might sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, 4 at max, then wake up and be wide awake for perhaps 2-3 hours and have to go lay down and take a nap for at least an hour, maybe two. Rarely though do I sleep solid for say a six hour clip though. Very rarely! But judging by how I will just start to "wilt" at various intervals throughout the day, apparently my body says it really needs like eight to ten hours of sleep during a 24-hour period. That's by my calculations anyway.
But today especially has been a bit rough. Last night, the little guy didn't crash till almost 3:30 a.m. and by the time he did fall asleep, then I was really wired and awake so I couldn't relax and didn't actually fall asleep then till close to 6 a.m. Now this morning, Maya's behavior therapist was here - arrived around 10:15 a.m. but for some darned reason -some fool had decided to call here around 8:15 a.m. - damned bill collectors anyway - and that woke me up! So I was up and moving for about a hour but then hit the sofa I figured for a little bit of a power nap since Mandy was here this morning and so, got in about an hour's nap time then.
But from then on, I haven't had a chance to get another other nap in throughout the day!
Add to that the fact that this afternoon, Mandy, the little ones and I had to go to Clearfield to do some grocery shopping and since all of us would be going over, we figured we would stop before going to the store and visit a bit with my aunt and cousin who are residents of a nursing home in Clearfield.
Now, by many people's standards, I suppose we have been not as diligent as we should have been -well given normal hours and circumstances anyway - about getting over to visit my aunt and my cousin. But Mandy's hours for work have been really off-base for the past couple of months and so, I've been the one to be here almost all the time with the kids. That, plus the fact, with Maya - she sometimes can be very tempermental about going into the nursing home the past couple of months too and has been known to have some meltdowns when we have gone over to see our aunt and cousin thus cutting the visits even shorter.
Now, Mandy's work hours have been cut, her husband is laid off and well, the price of gas has not gone down but rather has been spiraling upwards so we've been trying to curb driving whenever possible too. Even on the days when Mandy's hours gave enough time in the afternoon for me to venture out, there is no way at all that I could go to that nursing home and take both these little ones with me all by myself! I just can't do it and for that matter, Mandy will tell you even she - who is a mere 31 years old and I'm in my early sixties - couldn't manage to do that either!
Well today when we went to the nursing home, it did seem the powers that be were looking down on us with great favor. Maya was very well-behaved as we walked into the nursing home, down the hall, even smiling and saying a quiet little "hello" no and again to patients sitting in wheel chairs in the hallway or reception area. Up the stairs we went - avoiding the elevator as that often trips her trigger for a meltdown and there was no point in risking doing that - and down the hall then to my aunt's room.
Sadly, my aunt didn't know our names - didn't recognize either of the children at all. She knew that Mandy was my daughter, knew my face but couldn't remember my name at all. When I told her who I am, I could see it wasn't fully registering there so I said, "I'm your brother Jim's daughter. Do you remember your brother, Jim?" And her eyes got this really far off glaze over on them and finally she said "Yes, I think so but that was a very long time ago." Yes, my dear aunt, it certainly was - 63 years to be precise come this October since my dad died.
Well anyway, back up a bit here with the beginning of our visit too. After being in the room a minute or two, Mandy and I both realized it was very quiet in there. The reason being there was no Jane there -no Jane in her bed, no Jane in her wheel chair either. (Jane being my cousin, my aunt's daughter who is severly handicapped, both mentally and physically.)
So we asked our Aunt "Where is Jane?" She thought for a bit, for what seemed a really, really long time and finally after looking around the room slightly, she shook her head and said "I don't know!" Her voice is so small now, so slight, you have to strain to hear every word she tries to say. Plus, her hearing is poor too so you have to speak VERY slowly and also, very, very loud for her to pick up what you are saying to her as well.
Now, at that point, Maya was already starting to get a little restless and wanted to explore the halls a bit, so I told Mandy I would walk down the hall and see if maybe Jane was sitting out in the lobby area and we just hadn't seen her when we came in. So I took Maya and we began to walk towards the lobby and the nurse's station.
About mid-way there, a nurse was in the middle of the hallway and I stopped her to ask if she could tell me where Jane is. I explained which Jane I meant and she asked who I might be. So I told her I am Jane's cousin; her mother is my aunt. She looked through her charts and then back at me and told me "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to give anyone that information. We can't divulge that due to the HIPPO laws." and she went on to tell me I'd have to call my aunt and Jane's POA - power of attorney. Oh yes, I know who that is. A cousin who I used to respect very much but for the past year now, he's been very inconsiderate not just to me but also to another cousin of ours who lives in this area too.
Ever since he -and the state - had our aunt and cousin admitted to this nursing home, he has had restrictions on their cases in that neither my other cousin or I can call and even inquire about our aunt and/or cousin just to simply ask if they were doing ok, if they had a good night or restless or a cold - whatever!
So I figured then and there, if a phone call had to be made to find out why Jane was not in the room with her mother, that it probably wouldn't be a very friendly call to say the least.
After we left the nursing home, Mandy and I got our groceries, headed home, fixed a late supper and then, Mandy said she would call my cousin to inquire about Jane.
She did that and he told her then that she is in the hospital there, second time in the past ten days - for pneumonia. He then proceeded to dress Mandy out because he feels that she, her sister and I have all been very lax about going to visit our aunt and apparently we don't give a rip and yadda, yadda. You get the picture, I'm sure.
Yes, I know he makes the trip up here from his home which is about 100 miles or so from here at least once a week, sometimes two times. I'm very grateful to him that he does that and that he is the one who is in charge of their care there too as I know he knows way more about handling things like that than do I. I'm very happy too that he and his wife also watch their two year old grandson as well and still manage to come up here and visit our aunt, along with his going down to the homestead to chek on the house, to do lots of cleaning out of the place - inside and out. The yard is in perfect condition and he's also cleared out bunches and bunches of brush this spring and summer around the yard as well. I'm very happy that he is able to do that -timewise, knowledge wise and physically too. I'm also very happy that he and his wife have their little grandson, can care for him too but more so, that his grandson is also a "normal" toddler as compared to mine - one who is definitely autistic (Miss Maya) and the baby, who is showing many markers that are indicative that he too may be autistic as well. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandchildren like you wouldn't believe and wouldn't trade them for the world, but by the same token, I wouldn't wish for any parent or grandparent to have to face the unknowns that accompany an autistic child and all the extra work that is entailed to help these children to learn, to function in some respects. Maya, fortunately, has been deemed to be high functioning and in many, many areas yes, it is very evident she is a very bright little girl but she has her own particular set of circumstances that she must learn to cope with, as must we too and at times, that is not an easy task for her or for us. She's doing great, that's for sure but the road we're on is still a very new highway for us and we have probably more to learn than perhaps she does about ways to help her to be the best that she can be years from now; to grow to be able to be a fully functioning individual in the adult community, in the educational community, in the work community -in society in general.
Needless to say, my daughter was very, yes VERY, hurt by our cousin's lecture to her and especially so when it made her feel he was accusing her -and the rest of us as well -that we don't love our aunt, we don't love our cousin, are unwilling to do anything for either of them and that really isn't the case.
Why did he place the restrictions with the nursing home initially that he is the ONLY person allowed to ask for any information about our aunt and our cousin's well-being? I know he didn't ASK for the work involved in having been named Power of Attorney for them and frankly, I can't think of another of my cousins who I would want to be in charge of their care because generally he is not just very knowledgeable about those type of things but also because I trusted him fully, implicitly, no doubts at all that he would oversee their care to make sure they had the best care absolutely possible and available to them. I'll not fault him one iota in that respect.
But what does give him the right to decide that he knows what circumstances my daughters and I are dealing with every day to know that we should always be able to come and go easily to visit them too and if we can't, what gives him the right to assume - quite wrongly here I might add - that we don't give a rip at all about either of them.
That is absolutely the furthest thing from the truth.
He has no knowledge whatsoever about my daughter's job and the hours it entail and how much free time it might -or might not -give her. He told her he understands that she has two little children and all that but.... well, he has his grandson he watches too. Uh huh! He doesn't realize that Mandy doesn't have just her own two little ones but also has a 15-year-old stepdaughter here who is a handful and a half on her own too along with two other children in between that girl and the two little ones - her husband's other two children - who live with their maternal grandmother but guess where they are almost every Sunday on what has been Mandy's only day off all week too - yeah, right here!
He and his wife -both professionals with good paying positions - are probably not rich by the standards we would attach to that label but they are not struggling from month to month to make ends meet either. As things stand right now, my son-in-law was laid off from his job almost a month ago now and last week, Mandy had 16 hours cut at her job which was only part-time to begin with - 30 hours down to 14 hours is a big drop in the old pay check there even if it is a job that is a little above minimum wage. It makes spending for gas to run around something none of us do near as freely as before, that's for sure!
To Mandy's credit, she listened to him ream her out, was very quiet and polite with him on the phone, said nothing at all out of line to him -very, very respectful she was and yes, I do believe that is how she should have been to him too.
But by the same token, before letting fly and accusing her, me, her sister of these things, perhaps he could have at least given us the benefit of the doubt to have a way to know what was going on with our aunt during the past year too, don't 'cha think?
After Mandy's call, I then called another cousin who lives down south -mainly to let her know about Jane being in the hospital and having pneumonia now and all that. But I also did tell her too about the phone conversation and what he'd said to Mandy and her interpretation of it all was that she attributes it to him turning into an unfeeling, selfish old man! She also said if we have cause to speak to him again on the phone she feels Mandy or I should just cut him off at the pass if he starts acting that way again to either of us.
Now, in theory, that does sound like a reasonable enough thing I suppose. However, because the only people I would ever consider addressing that way and then, it would be because they'd done something really really terrible and inexcusable too would be my own kids and they in turn would have the leeway to address me in that manner too. But I highly doubt either of my girls or I would ever turn on him and tell him some of the things that have gone down over the years within the family from him, his doing too, that could be construed as just as bad as what he thinks we've done now.
It would, in my mind, serve no earthly purpose to do or say mean, rude and nasty things like that to him, would it? Some might say, well if you did, you'd feel better having gotten it off your chest. Maybe some would, but I wouldn't and therefore, he'd have to really push my buttons so far that I totally lost control of my emotions, my speech, train of thought - whole nine yards - and then, I'd go overboard and unload in a way that I know I would really regret it later so the less said to him then the better is my theory.
How would you handle this?
How and back to my title for tonight - for your information - it is now going on two a.m. and the baby is still going strong! Playing away, talking or rather, jabbering to himself, and I've had a nice big iced coke and am once again awake - wide awake now - to continue our little nightly race towards going to sleep. If I can just hold out now for the duration....
But, if memory serves me correctly, I do believe both of these gentlemen a good many years back - translated, that means at least 35-40 years ago - had recorded the song "The Race Is On." (Don't even think of asking me for other details about that song -like who wrote the music or the lyrics cause I don't have a clue nor do I have the energy to try to do a websearch and maybe find that out either so you'll just have to take my word for this as being facts.
Well, right now, tonight - the race is on here in my house between my little 16-month old grandson and me to see which one of us will fold up like an accordion first, collaspe and go to sleep. And right now, I'm betting it just might be the night hawk Grammy, Me!
I am beat tonight! The little guy - Kurtis - has never been a really good baby when it came to going to bed and sleeping the whole night through till like 8 a.m. with NO, absolutely NO periods of interruptions. But for the past month at least -maybe two months now - my memory is often toast when it comes to short term stuff to begin with and it's been really foggy for quite a while now due primarily to the grandson's lovely sleep patterns.
Time was, up to about 2-3 months ago now, that he might fall asleep between 11 and midnight and maybe, if we were really lucky, would sleep straight through for a max of 4-5 hours, then wake up long enough to wake his mother up, maybe me too, then fall back to sleep again and sleep till usually 9, maybe 10 a.m. That wasn't too bad for me since some nights I would go to bed about 1 or 2 a.m. or later and be able to sleep till about 9 a.m. anyway - with an occasional wake-up to go visit the bathroom and go back to sleep then.
But the last couple of months, the little stinker has decided that he is not going to lay down and go to sleep until he has drained at least 2, sometimes 3 bottles of milk - 8 ounces in each one -or before 2 a.m. - whichever would occur first ya know! And because his mother's work schedule some days required that she get up between 6 or 7 a.m. to go to work, she needed to get her solid sleep beginning at an hour well before when Kurtis wanted to call it quits, so she started to let him sleep downstairs, here in the playpen in the living room and I've since then been sleeping not in my bedroom - also on the first floor -but rather here in the living room on the sofa.
The sofa isn't that bad as far as sleeping there goes now and again, but doing it for at least two months solid - well, it gets old after a while.
Another reason she figured it would be easier though to do things this way is because generally I am up way late almost every night. Time was, once upon a time, when I would stay up until 4 or 5 a.m., get some sleep till maybe 8, 9 a.m. the latest and then be all rested up and ready to roll for the day till the same hours the next night. And I did this almost all the time for many years too. But the last four years or so, my sleep patterns have been all screwed up! Now, I might sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, 4 at max, then wake up and be wide awake for perhaps 2-3 hours and have to go lay down and take a nap for at least an hour, maybe two. Rarely though do I sleep solid for say a six hour clip though. Very rarely! But judging by how I will just start to "wilt" at various intervals throughout the day, apparently my body says it really needs like eight to ten hours of sleep during a 24-hour period. That's by my calculations anyway.
But today especially has been a bit rough. Last night, the little guy didn't crash till almost 3:30 a.m. and by the time he did fall asleep, then I was really wired and awake so I couldn't relax and didn't actually fall asleep then till close to 6 a.m. Now this morning, Maya's behavior therapist was here - arrived around 10:15 a.m. but for some darned reason -some fool had decided to call here around 8:15 a.m. - damned bill collectors anyway - and that woke me up! So I was up and moving for about a hour but then hit the sofa I figured for a little bit of a power nap since Mandy was here this morning and so, got in about an hour's nap time then.
But from then on, I haven't had a chance to get another other nap in throughout the day!
Add to that the fact that this afternoon, Mandy, the little ones and I had to go to Clearfield to do some grocery shopping and since all of us would be going over, we figured we would stop before going to the store and visit a bit with my aunt and cousin who are residents of a nursing home in Clearfield.
Now, by many people's standards, I suppose we have been not as diligent as we should have been -well given normal hours and circumstances anyway - about getting over to visit my aunt and my cousin. But Mandy's hours for work have been really off-base for the past couple of months and so, I've been the one to be here almost all the time with the kids. That, plus the fact, with Maya - she sometimes can be very tempermental about going into the nursing home the past couple of months too and has been known to have some meltdowns when we have gone over to see our aunt and cousin thus cutting the visits even shorter.
Now, Mandy's work hours have been cut, her husband is laid off and well, the price of gas has not gone down but rather has been spiraling upwards so we've been trying to curb driving whenever possible too. Even on the days when Mandy's hours gave enough time in the afternoon for me to venture out, there is no way at all that I could go to that nursing home and take both these little ones with me all by myself! I just can't do it and for that matter, Mandy will tell you even she - who is a mere 31 years old and I'm in my early sixties - couldn't manage to do that either!
Well today when we went to the nursing home, it did seem the powers that be were looking down on us with great favor. Maya was very well-behaved as we walked into the nursing home, down the hall, even smiling and saying a quiet little "hello" no and again to patients sitting in wheel chairs in the hallway or reception area. Up the stairs we went - avoiding the elevator as that often trips her trigger for a meltdown and there was no point in risking doing that - and down the hall then to my aunt's room.
Sadly, my aunt didn't know our names - didn't recognize either of the children at all. She knew that Mandy was my daughter, knew my face but couldn't remember my name at all. When I told her who I am, I could see it wasn't fully registering there so I said, "I'm your brother Jim's daughter. Do you remember your brother, Jim?" And her eyes got this really far off glaze over on them and finally she said "Yes, I think so but that was a very long time ago." Yes, my dear aunt, it certainly was - 63 years to be precise come this October since my dad died.
Well anyway, back up a bit here with the beginning of our visit too. After being in the room a minute or two, Mandy and I both realized it was very quiet in there. The reason being there was no Jane there -no Jane in her bed, no Jane in her wheel chair either. (Jane being my cousin, my aunt's daughter who is severly handicapped, both mentally and physically.)
So we asked our Aunt "Where is Jane?" She thought for a bit, for what seemed a really, really long time and finally after looking around the room slightly, she shook her head and said "I don't know!" Her voice is so small now, so slight, you have to strain to hear every word she tries to say. Plus, her hearing is poor too so you have to speak VERY slowly and also, very, very loud for her to pick up what you are saying to her as well.
Now, at that point, Maya was already starting to get a little restless and wanted to explore the halls a bit, so I told Mandy I would walk down the hall and see if maybe Jane was sitting out in the lobby area and we just hadn't seen her when we came in. So I took Maya and we began to walk towards the lobby and the nurse's station.
About mid-way there, a nurse was in the middle of the hallway and I stopped her to ask if she could tell me where Jane is. I explained which Jane I meant and she asked who I might be. So I told her I am Jane's cousin; her mother is my aunt. She looked through her charts and then back at me and told me "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to give anyone that information. We can't divulge that due to the HIPPO laws." and she went on to tell me I'd have to call my aunt and Jane's POA - power of attorney. Oh yes, I know who that is. A cousin who I used to respect very much but for the past year now, he's been very inconsiderate not just to me but also to another cousin of ours who lives in this area too.
Ever since he -and the state - had our aunt and cousin admitted to this nursing home, he has had restrictions on their cases in that neither my other cousin or I can call and even inquire about our aunt and/or cousin just to simply ask if they were doing ok, if they had a good night or restless or a cold - whatever!
So I figured then and there, if a phone call had to be made to find out why Jane was not in the room with her mother, that it probably wouldn't be a very friendly call to say the least.
After we left the nursing home, Mandy and I got our groceries, headed home, fixed a late supper and then, Mandy said she would call my cousin to inquire about Jane.
She did that and he told her then that she is in the hospital there, second time in the past ten days - for pneumonia. He then proceeded to dress Mandy out because he feels that she, her sister and I have all been very lax about going to visit our aunt and apparently we don't give a rip and yadda, yadda. You get the picture, I'm sure.
Yes, I know he makes the trip up here from his home which is about 100 miles or so from here at least once a week, sometimes two times. I'm very grateful to him that he does that and that he is the one who is in charge of their care there too as I know he knows way more about handling things like that than do I. I'm very happy too that he and his wife also watch their two year old grandson as well and still manage to come up here and visit our aunt, along with his going down to the homestead to chek on the house, to do lots of cleaning out of the place - inside and out. The yard is in perfect condition and he's also cleared out bunches and bunches of brush this spring and summer around the yard as well. I'm very happy that he is able to do that -timewise, knowledge wise and physically too. I'm also very happy that he and his wife have their little grandson, can care for him too but more so, that his grandson is also a "normal" toddler as compared to mine - one who is definitely autistic (Miss Maya) and the baby, who is showing many markers that are indicative that he too may be autistic as well. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandchildren like you wouldn't believe and wouldn't trade them for the world, but by the same token, I wouldn't wish for any parent or grandparent to have to face the unknowns that accompany an autistic child and all the extra work that is entailed to help these children to learn, to function in some respects. Maya, fortunately, has been deemed to be high functioning and in many, many areas yes, it is very evident she is a very bright little girl but she has her own particular set of circumstances that she must learn to cope with, as must we too and at times, that is not an easy task for her or for us. She's doing great, that's for sure but the road we're on is still a very new highway for us and we have probably more to learn than perhaps she does about ways to help her to be the best that she can be years from now; to grow to be able to be a fully functioning individual in the adult community, in the educational community, in the work community -in society in general.
Needless to say, my daughter was very, yes VERY, hurt by our cousin's lecture to her and especially so when it made her feel he was accusing her -and the rest of us as well -that we don't love our aunt, we don't love our cousin, are unwilling to do anything for either of them and that really isn't the case.
Why did he place the restrictions with the nursing home initially that he is the ONLY person allowed to ask for any information about our aunt and our cousin's well-being? I know he didn't ASK for the work involved in having been named Power of Attorney for them and frankly, I can't think of another of my cousins who I would want to be in charge of their care because generally he is not just very knowledgeable about those type of things but also because I trusted him fully, implicitly, no doubts at all that he would oversee their care to make sure they had the best care absolutely possible and available to them. I'll not fault him one iota in that respect.
But what does give him the right to decide that he knows what circumstances my daughters and I are dealing with every day to know that we should always be able to come and go easily to visit them too and if we can't, what gives him the right to assume - quite wrongly here I might add - that we don't give a rip at all about either of them.
That is absolutely the furthest thing from the truth.
He has no knowledge whatsoever about my daughter's job and the hours it entail and how much free time it might -or might not -give her. He told her he understands that she has two little children and all that but.... well, he has his grandson he watches too. Uh huh! He doesn't realize that Mandy doesn't have just her own two little ones but also has a 15-year-old stepdaughter here who is a handful and a half on her own too along with two other children in between that girl and the two little ones - her husband's other two children - who live with their maternal grandmother but guess where they are almost every Sunday on what has been Mandy's only day off all week too - yeah, right here!
He and his wife -both professionals with good paying positions - are probably not rich by the standards we would attach to that label but they are not struggling from month to month to make ends meet either. As things stand right now, my son-in-law was laid off from his job almost a month ago now and last week, Mandy had 16 hours cut at her job which was only part-time to begin with - 30 hours down to 14 hours is a big drop in the old pay check there even if it is a job that is a little above minimum wage. It makes spending for gas to run around something none of us do near as freely as before, that's for sure!
To Mandy's credit, she listened to him ream her out, was very quiet and polite with him on the phone, said nothing at all out of line to him -very, very respectful she was and yes, I do believe that is how she should have been to him too.
But by the same token, before letting fly and accusing her, me, her sister of these things, perhaps he could have at least given us the benefit of the doubt to have a way to know what was going on with our aunt during the past year too, don't 'cha think?
After Mandy's call, I then called another cousin who lives down south -mainly to let her know about Jane being in the hospital and having pneumonia now and all that. But I also did tell her too about the phone conversation and what he'd said to Mandy and her interpretation of it all was that she attributes it to him turning into an unfeeling, selfish old man! She also said if we have cause to speak to him again on the phone she feels Mandy or I should just cut him off at the pass if he starts acting that way again to either of us.
Now, in theory, that does sound like a reasonable enough thing I suppose. However, because the only people I would ever consider addressing that way and then, it would be because they'd done something really really terrible and inexcusable too would be my own kids and they in turn would have the leeway to address me in that manner too. But I highly doubt either of my girls or I would ever turn on him and tell him some of the things that have gone down over the years within the family from him, his doing too, that could be construed as just as bad as what he thinks we've done now.
It would, in my mind, serve no earthly purpose to do or say mean, rude and nasty things like that to him, would it? Some might say, well if you did, you'd feel better having gotten it off your chest. Maybe some would, but I wouldn't and therefore, he'd have to really push my buttons so far that I totally lost control of my emotions, my speech, train of thought - whole nine yards - and then, I'd go overboard and unload in a way that I know I would really regret it later so the less said to him then the better is my theory.
How would you handle this?
How and back to my title for tonight - for your information - it is now going on two a.m. and the baby is still going strong! Playing away, talking or rather, jabbering to himself, and I've had a nice big iced coke and am once again awake - wide awake now - to continue our little nightly race towards going to sleep. If I can just hold out now for the duration....
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
I Need(Want) a New Coffee Mug!!!!
Ok, here's my job for today. I have to write a post about a time that I felt really, really yucky or like this "Death on a Cracker." I want one of the mugs that has the character curled up inside a heart-shape but looking a bit on the paltry side and my friend, the 911 dispatcher, Linda, just announced the other day that she is sponsoring a contest and whoever posts the best piece about a time when you felt like the "death on a cracker" and links back to the website Artistic Intoxication, which just happens to belong to her very talented young daughter, can win one of these nifty coffee mugs. Now, since I happen to be one who almost always has a pot of coffee made and also, since I dearly love coffee mugs and really, really NEED another mug to add to my collection (don't tell my daughter, also named Amanda as is Linda's, that I said I NEED another coffee mug though. She'll tell you I don't NEED it but rather, that I WANT it. Whatever.) -and then too I had to link back to Linda's site too - ok, I've done that above here now, so let me get to work on my piece about when I felt like "death on a cracker."
When was it anyway? Gee, I probably have oodles of times when I have felt really, really yucky. Maybe when I was waking up after having abdominal surgery -first to remove a malignant tumor in my colon, then two years later, to have my urinary tract kind of re-routed or perhaps last October, when I had to have a colostomy. Any of those could qualify. Any day prior to those surgeries or the tests I had to have prior to them called colonoscopies too when I had to drink gallons of the absolute grossest stuff EVER put on the face of the planet to make sure my innards were totally scrubbed out ya know - yeah, those days could easily make me feel like I was indeed, death on a cracker!
But you know, the more I thought about this topic, the more I thought now, those days didn't hold a candle to the day I had probably the most massive hangover in the history of mankind. After all, if you can remember a specific hangover that happened to you almost 41 years ago, it has to have been a doozie, don't 'cha think? I sure as heck do!
Well, here's what happened back then. I don't remember the exact date this took place, but I know it had to have been late August, or very early September of 1966. How do I know that? Well, for openers, I know I was about two months pregnant. I also know the hangover just happened to be there on the FRIDAY that was the first day of our Bowling league for the winter season that year.
That Thursday night prior - when I really way over-indulged in alcoholic contents - came about when my former roommate, Jerrilyn, had stopped by and she and I decided we really both needed to go and "cry in our beer" over the fates we were each encountering at that point in time. She had been engaged and a week or so before this fateful night, her then fiance had decided he wanted to back out from getting married, so obviously she was more than a tad depressed. And my reasons to feel the need to commiserate with her - share the pain, as it were - well, I knew I was two month pregnant, not married, not even gonna get married and how the hell was I ever going to manage to raise a child, alone, in the D.C. area, especially on the chicken feed type wages I was earning at that time. Ok, we both had a lot of questions there and we both felt we had a whole lot of misery to share with each other and what better way to do that than by going and really tying one on, ya know!
So, off we went. But actually we weren't "crying in our beer" -oh no -we decided to do this right, we really needed to indulge in mixed drinks so for us it was whisky sours on the rocks and doubles, no less. Oh yes, we were both a couple of idiots back in those days. (Some would say I still am but I like to think I have learned a few things since that period of my life. -Maybe?)
I have no recollection as to how many drinks I had or she had but I do know this we were both more than fully "toasted."
And the next morning when I got up to get ready for work, it was one of those days when you aren't sure if you should drink a gallon of milk to calm the fire burning in the pit of your stomach or several bottles of soda -Pepsi, Coke, Ginger ale, whatever - to cut through the fog.
I won't even delve into the headache I had as well other than to just say it was massive.
Somehow, I managed to shower, dress, get ready for work and off I went. And I spent the bulk of the day drinking coffee, tomato juice, eating ice cream, and back and forth to the bathroom where I wasn't sick to my stomach - no exactly - but I sure did have my share of the dry heaves that day.
That evening though, as I said above, it was to be the opening night of our employees club's bowling league for that year. My best friend then (and still is) and I, along with another lady from our section at work, plus an older gentleman who worked in the print shop and whose nickname at work was "Old Man" were all on a team with the guy who later would be my immediate boss, Mr. B.
At some point during the afternoon that day, I had passed Mr. B in the halls - probably up coming from the cafeteria with one of my "food substances du jour" and he had mentioned to me then how he was looking forward to the beginning of our bowling team and league etc., and also, told me he had a present he was bringing with him to the lanes, especially for our team.
That evening, when we got to the lanes, there was Bill, waiting excitedly for our arrival and in his hand, he held a small brown paper bag. He almost ran over to us, so happy was he to greet us and show us our "present" for the evening. He then pulled out a pint bottle of Cutty Sark, which just also happened to be my favorite brand of Scotch whiskey then too. (Ok, still is on the rare times now that I actually have a mixed drink.)
I almost turned an ran out the door when I saw that bottle!
And years later, when I was working for Mr. B, he mentioned that evening to me.
By that time, things had obviously become evident that I was "with child" and my daughter of course, was a pre-schooler by then too. Bill was a smart man but once in a while it took a little extra time for him to process some information and put two and two together. Which, of course he had done by then.
"So Dummy," he began (Dummy being one of his favorite nicknames for me -along with Toadie, gopher and the like), "That night at the bowling alley when I had that special present, that bottle of Cutty Sark, you were pregnant then, weren't you?" And, I had nodded my head indicating his correct ideas.
"Yeah, I figured something had to be wrong because when you saw that bottle, you turned about as green around the gills as the bottle itself was."
Yep! Forty one years (almost that) later, I can believe that I probably did in fact turn VERY green because I do remember all too well just how sick I felt that entire day!
And from that point on until well after my daughter was born, if I tried to drink anything with alcohol in it, two beers and I would get the dry heaves and if I tried a mixed drink, the only thing there I could handle was ONE Brandy Alexander and please, for goodness sake, make sure the bartender didn't sprinkle any nutmeg on it or I'd have heartburn like you wouldn't believe for days after. Probably would cause the ice cream sales in the D.C. area to spike then too because milk, malox and ice cream were my favorite substances from then until April of 1966 after my daughter was born.
Oh, yes, definitely - most definitely - that was a day when I truly did feel like "Death on a Cracker!"
Now, just let me know when I can expect you to be shipping me my coffee mug Linda!
When was it anyway? Gee, I probably have oodles of times when I have felt really, really yucky. Maybe when I was waking up after having abdominal surgery -first to remove a malignant tumor in my colon, then two years later, to have my urinary tract kind of re-routed or perhaps last October, when I had to have a colostomy. Any of those could qualify. Any day prior to those surgeries or the tests I had to have prior to them called colonoscopies too when I had to drink gallons of the absolute grossest stuff EVER put on the face of the planet to make sure my innards were totally scrubbed out ya know - yeah, those days could easily make me feel like I was indeed, death on a cracker!
But you know, the more I thought about this topic, the more I thought now, those days didn't hold a candle to the day I had probably the most massive hangover in the history of mankind. After all, if you can remember a specific hangover that happened to you almost 41 years ago, it has to have been a doozie, don't 'cha think? I sure as heck do!
Well, here's what happened back then. I don't remember the exact date this took place, but I know it had to have been late August, or very early September of 1966. How do I know that? Well, for openers, I know I was about two months pregnant. I also know the hangover just happened to be there on the FRIDAY that was the first day of our Bowling league for the winter season that year.
That Thursday night prior - when I really way over-indulged in alcoholic contents - came about when my former roommate, Jerrilyn, had stopped by and she and I decided we really both needed to go and "cry in our beer" over the fates we were each encountering at that point in time. She had been engaged and a week or so before this fateful night, her then fiance had decided he wanted to back out from getting married, so obviously she was more than a tad depressed. And my reasons to feel the need to commiserate with her - share the pain, as it were - well, I knew I was two month pregnant, not married, not even gonna get married and how the hell was I ever going to manage to raise a child, alone, in the D.C. area, especially on the chicken feed type wages I was earning at that time. Ok, we both had a lot of questions there and we both felt we had a whole lot of misery to share with each other and what better way to do that than by going and really tying one on, ya know!
So, off we went. But actually we weren't "crying in our beer" -oh no -we decided to do this right, we really needed to indulge in mixed drinks so for us it was whisky sours on the rocks and doubles, no less. Oh yes, we were both a couple of idiots back in those days. (Some would say I still am but I like to think I have learned a few things since that period of my life. -Maybe?)
I have no recollection as to how many drinks I had or she had but I do know this we were both more than fully "toasted."
And the next morning when I got up to get ready for work, it was one of those days when you aren't sure if you should drink a gallon of milk to calm the fire burning in the pit of your stomach or several bottles of soda -Pepsi, Coke, Ginger ale, whatever - to cut through the fog.
I won't even delve into the headache I had as well other than to just say it was massive.
Somehow, I managed to shower, dress, get ready for work and off I went. And I spent the bulk of the day drinking coffee, tomato juice, eating ice cream, and back and forth to the bathroom where I wasn't sick to my stomach - no exactly - but I sure did have my share of the dry heaves that day.
That evening though, as I said above, it was to be the opening night of our employees club's bowling league for that year. My best friend then (and still is) and I, along with another lady from our section at work, plus an older gentleman who worked in the print shop and whose nickname at work was "Old Man" were all on a team with the guy who later would be my immediate boss, Mr. B.
At some point during the afternoon that day, I had passed Mr. B in the halls - probably up coming from the cafeteria with one of my "food substances du jour" and he had mentioned to me then how he was looking forward to the beginning of our bowling team and league etc., and also, told me he had a present he was bringing with him to the lanes, especially for our team.
That evening, when we got to the lanes, there was Bill, waiting excitedly for our arrival and in his hand, he held a small brown paper bag. He almost ran over to us, so happy was he to greet us and show us our "present" for the evening. He then pulled out a pint bottle of Cutty Sark, which just also happened to be my favorite brand of Scotch whiskey then too. (Ok, still is on the rare times now that I actually have a mixed drink.)
I almost turned an ran out the door when I saw that bottle!
And years later, when I was working for Mr. B, he mentioned that evening to me.
By that time, things had obviously become evident that I was "with child" and my daughter of course, was a pre-schooler by then too. Bill was a smart man but once in a while it took a little extra time for him to process some information and put two and two together. Which, of course he had done by then.
"So Dummy," he began (Dummy being one of his favorite nicknames for me -along with Toadie, gopher and the like), "That night at the bowling alley when I had that special present, that bottle of Cutty Sark, you were pregnant then, weren't you?" And, I had nodded my head indicating his correct ideas.
"Yeah, I figured something had to be wrong because when you saw that bottle, you turned about as green around the gills as the bottle itself was."
Yep! Forty one years (almost that) later, I can believe that I probably did in fact turn VERY green because I do remember all too well just how sick I felt that entire day!
And from that point on until well after my daughter was born, if I tried to drink anything with alcohol in it, two beers and I would get the dry heaves and if I tried a mixed drink, the only thing there I could handle was ONE Brandy Alexander and please, for goodness sake, make sure the bartender didn't sprinkle any nutmeg on it or I'd have heartburn like you wouldn't believe for days after. Probably would cause the ice cream sales in the D.C. area to spike then too because milk, malox and ice cream were my favorite substances from then until April of 1966 after my daughter was born.
Oh, yes, definitely - most definitely - that was a day when I truly did feel like "Death on a Cracker!"
Now, just let me know when I can expect you to be shipping me my coffee mug Linda!
Changing Blogosphere - WTF?
If I thought having a blog and making changes to it was confusing before, you should be inside my head right now!
I'm really befuddled and bewildered today, for sure.
Seems my blog changed itself virtually overnight! Or did Linda somehow get hold of my password and go monkey around with my blog while I was sleeping and change things around there? I dunno!
But here's what happened -well sort of anyway.
On Monday, while checking around my favorite blogs - one of my normal daily activities - my friend, Vic Grace had an interesting post about some little widget gadget thing she had stolen from another blogger -also another favorite of mine too - Skittles where if you added these things you could get these neat little do-dads by your comments for those lurkers to use to comment without typing anything in. Plus there was another widget you could add too -I think it is called "Guest Post" or some such name like that. Well, I was intrigued - Very much so. I went and checked out Skittles blog and I too stole from her - or at least, I tried to do that.
A few e-mails back and forth with Skittles, a new template for my blog - done mainly because the instructions from Post Reach led me to believe that I needed to do that. (Actually, their instructions say if you don't have your template as a "custom design" under the new blogger that the widgets/gadgets they offer there may not work correctly. However, I couldn't find anything on the template page that said anything about "Custom design template" so I just went and changed my template though to what you see here now.)
Anyway, back to my story. Not only were there a few e-mails flying back and forth but a whole lot of four-letter words were flying around in the vicinity of my computer too as I tried and tried to follow their directions to install the "Comment Clicks" as well as the "guest post" thingy.
Finally, I had success and presto magic, the "comment clicks" showed up on my blog. However, I couldn't get the guest post thing to work at all so just tossed that aside - at least for the moment.
Needless to say, since I am quite technically challenged, I was euphoric with that addition! Oh my yes. I e-mailed Skittles to tell her the news and we were having our own little cyberspace dance and celebration over the fact I had managed to do this little feat!
Today now, I just finished reading my blog favorites, etc - using the technorati thingy of who has recently posted on my favorites list, thus saving a bit of time clicking into each blog and finding no updates, clicking to the next one, etc., etc.
But, I needed to check out some information for a post I want/need/promised to do for Linda and to do that, I had to go into my blog, click on hers, scroll down, etc., etc.
Well, when I did that, and as I was scrolling down to her blog, I glanced over at the comments area to my last post yesterday and damned if my "comment clicks" weren't gone! WHAT? What the heck happened here? WTF? You know -all those good things we ask ourselves when something really confounds us.
I scrolled further down my blog -nope, not there! And, all I could think of then was what the heck had I done to get them there in the first place because I couldn't remember how somehow I had managed to add them to my blog y a know.
So, I started this post then to whine a bit about my lousy luck in linking stuff up you see. And as I was doing this post, I happened to click into Vic's blog for something too and damned if her comment clicks weren't missing then too although they had just been there not a half hour earlier when I'd been to her place to read her posts for today. Go figure!
Then as I came back to my blog again, gee, what a surprise awaited me because there were my "Comment clicks" back in place where they were supposed to be after all!
So, whatever happened there, I sure as hell don't know and am not going to try to investigate, especially not in that realm since I haven't a clue how to go about investigating in cyberspace to begin with!
And then people who understand this technology wonder why those of us on the lower end of the intelligence scale there can't figure things out, huh?
Peace and here's hoping nothing disappears magically and then reappears too on your pages!
I'm really befuddled and bewildered today, for sure.
Seems my blog changed itself virtually overnight! Or did Linda somehow get hold of my password and go monkey around with my blog while I was sleeping and change things around there? I dunno!
But here's what happened -well sort of anyway.
On Monday, while checking around my favorite blogs - one of my normal daily activities - my friend, Vic Grace had an interesting post about some little widget gadget thing she had stolen from another blogger -also another favorite of mine too - Skittles where if you added these things you could get these neat little do-dads by your comments for those lurkers to use to comment without typing anything in. Plus there was another widget you could add too -I think it is called "Guest Post" or some such name like that. Well, I was intrigued - Very much so. I went and checked out Skittles blog and I too stole from her - or at least, I tried to do that.
A few e-mails back and forth with Skittles, a new template for my blog - done mainly because the instructions from Post Reach led me to believe that I needed to do that. (Actually, their instructions say if you don't have your template as a "custom design" under the new blogger that the widgets/gadgets they offer there may not work correctly. However, I couldn't find anything on the template page that said anything about "Custom design template" so I just went and changed my template though to what you see here now.)
Anyway, back to my story. Not only were there a few e-mails flying back and forth but a whole lot of four-letter words were flying around in the vicinity of my computer too as I tried and tried to follow their directions to install the "Comment Clicks" as well as the "guest post" thingy.
Finally, I had success and presto magic, the "comment clicks" showed up on my blog. However, I couldn't get the guest post thing to work at all so just tossed that aside - at least for the moment.
Needless to say, since I am quite technically challenged, I was euphoric with that addition! Oh my yes. I e-mailed Skittles to tell her the news and we were having our own little cyberspace dance and celebration over the fact I had managed to do this little feat!
Today now, I just finished reading my blog favorites, etc - using the technorati thingy of who has recently posted on my favorites list, thus saving a bit of time clicking into each blog and finding no updates, clicking to the next one, etc., etc.
But, I needed to check out some information for a post I want/need/promised to do for Linda and to do that, I had to go into my blog, click on hers, scroll down, etc., etc.
Well, when I did that, and as I was scrolling down to her blog, I glanced over at the comments area to my last post yesterday and damned if my "comment clicks" weren't gone! WHAT? What the heck happened here? WTF? You know -all those good things we ask ourselves when something really confounds us.
I scrolled further down my blog -nope, not there! And, all I could think of then was what the heck had I done to get them there in the first place because I couldn't remember how somehow I had managed to add them to my blog y a know.
So, I started this post then to whine a bit about my lousy luck in linking stuff up you see. And as I was doing this post, I happened to click into Vic's blog for something too and damned if her comment clicks weren't missing then too although they had just been there not a half hour earlier when I'd been to her place to read her posts for today. Go figure!
Then as I came back to my blog again, gee, what a surprise awaited me because there were my "Comment clicks" back in place where they were supposed to be after all!
So, whatever happened there, I sure as hell don't know and am not going to try to investigate, especially not in that realm since I haven't a clue how to go about investigating in cyberspace to begin with!
And then people who understand this technology wonder why those of us on the lower end of the intelligence scale there can't figure things out, huh?
Peace and here's hoping nothing disappears magically and then reappears too on your pages!
Monday, August 13, 2007
What am I doing here?
I'm not really sure at any given time what I am doing ANYWHERE much less in the technical arena called Blogging.
But today, this is what I am doing here. Trying to follow the directions with Technorati to complete the claim on my blog. I'm not at all sure what that means. Haven't a clue what it entails. Moreover, I have no clue either as to what the "Authority" label on everyone's blog signifies. Anyone care to explain some of this stuff - in really, really simple, very plain English? No computerese language please as it isn't in my repertoire of foreign-speak. Maybe sometime, if I'm lucky, I'll figure out a few more things about this stuff but right now, it doesn't look terribly promising.
So, here then is the line technorati says I am supposed to place, somewhere in the text of this post.
Technorati Profile
Ok - that's done. Now, let's sit back and see what -if anything - happens next.
But today, this is what I am doing here. Trying to follow the directions with Technorati to complete the claim on my blog. I'm not at all sure what that means. Haven't a clue what it entails. Moreover, I have no clue either as to what the "Authority" label on everyone's blog signifies. Anyone care to explain some of this stuff - in really, really simple, very plain English? No computerese language please as it isn't in my repertoire of foreign-speak. Maybe sometime, if I'm lucky, I'll figure out a few more things about this stuff but right now, it doesn't look terribly promising.
So, here then is the line technorati says I am supposed to place, somewhere in the text of this post.
Technorati Profile
Ok - that's done. Now, let's sit back and see what -if anything - happens next.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
"Forgotten" Posts
Remember back in May, how excited I was because there were going to be four people, all geneologists, from Sweden visiting this country and they were planning to stop by this area so I'd have a chance to meet one of the foursome in particular, the lady who had helped me to research one side of my mother's family tree back in time in Sweden.
I had promised then -after their visit - that as soon as I got the photos taken developed, I would post them and a bit of a story about their visit on my blog.
Well, you know that old adage ""The best laid plans of mice and men..." Yeah, well I got the photos developed and then, just plain forgot that I hadn't done the post about their visit. So, to use yet another of those old adages (Yes, you know by now I am quite fond of "old adages" aren't I?), "Better late than never" - so here's my long-delayed post about the visit of the Swedes.
The group had arrived in New York City on April 28th and from there, had traveled to Rock Island, Illinois, then on to Minneapolis, Minnesota and on May 9th, had made their way to Jamestown, New York. These three places all known to have had a heavy concentration of folks with Swedish ancestry. In each of these cities, they had done seminars where they explained how to go about searching one's roots in Sweden along with showing those who attended these meetings the software "Genline" which has virtually all (or almost all) old Swedish church records by which one can find just about any person who left Sweden for points beyond.
After completing their seminar in Jamestown, the plan was they would then drive down to meet me and a very good friend of mine - my former high school typing teacher -Mrs. Janet Rydberg Larson. They would be in our area from Thursday, May 9th until Sunday morning, May 12th, when they would return to New York for their flight back to Sweden on May 13th.
Janet and I had tried to make some arrangements to entertain the folks during their visit here. I had set it up that a lady from our church and her cousin would have them for dinner at her home Thursday evening. Friday at noon, we planned to have a little luncheon meeting at a local restaurant where anyone interested in learning anything about their Swedish ancestry could attend, meet the group and view the Genline data. Saturday, we had planned to take them down to see the local ghost town of Peale, which the lady I've been communicating with for the past eight years has heard so much about.
The day before they arrived, I received a phone call from a lady up in Kane, PA inquiring about the impending visit. She, it turns out, had also been communicating with Anneli Andersson, the same lady I wrote to, and Anneli had given her my name, my phone number as a contact to find out when and where they would be down in this area.
Julia, the lady from Kane (whose surname unfortunately, I don't recall) said she wanted to meet Anneli and the other three of her traveling companions so I invited her to come down on Friday to join us at the luncheon. However, her daughters were going to bring her here and the one daughter had work that day, so she decided instead they would come here on Thursday and meet Anneli and company when they arrived at the motel here in Kylertown.
The information I had received from Anneli Wednesday said they planned to arrive at Kylertown around 3 p.m. Thursday, so about 2:30, I took my little granddaughter with me and headed up to Kylertown to wait for them to show up. I had no idea what type of vehicle they were driving, nor did I know what any of these people even looked like as no photos had been exchanged.
This is my granddaughter, Maya, sitting on one of the parking barriers in front of the motel at Kylertown, as we waited for the group to arrive from Jamestown.
As it turned out, they had a little later start than anticipated, so they didn't get here until about 4:30 p.m. But, Julia and her two daughters arrived about 3:30 at the motel, along with Janet and the five of us got a little acquainted while we waited. Maya, bless her little heart, managed to entertain herself while we visited outside (in the hot sun too, I might add) by playing her own little game of naming and claiming each parking spot. Each parking spot is marked with the same number on it as the room number and Maya is fascinated by numbers. So she started at one end of the motel parking area by looking at the painted number, naming the number, then jumping on it and finally, by sitting on it. Hey - it kept her happy and occupied so what the heck!
While we waited, the lady from church - Joan Larson Fetter -and her cousin, Mary Kay Larson Gurbal drove up to get an idea on what time the Swedes would be coming to her house for dinner. I introduced Joan and Mary Kaye to the three ladies from Kane -Julia and her two daughters - and Joan very graciously extended an invitation to them to join them all at her home for supper too. This move on Joan's part didn't surprise me at all as she is a very friendly, very generous lady.
Finally, about 4:30, our Swedish visitors arrived. Introductions were made to them of who each of us and vise versa.
Here then are the ladies from Sweden along with the three from Kane and Janet Larson. In the background, is Maya, my granddaughter. (My apologies in that I don't remember the names of Julia (from Kane)'s daughters, nor do I recall the surnames of the two ladies from Sweden or the man in the group (not shown here as he was taking photographs of the occasion too.) From left to right, here are:
Anneli Andersson of Melerud, Sweden, Anna Lina (Sweden, surname unknown), Janet Rydberg Larson of Kylertown, PA; Julia, from Kane and her older daughter, (the other daughter was also taking pictures) and Charlotte, from Sweden.
After a little conversation at the motel and giving them time to get their rooms and their luggage carried in, I then led the group down to Joan's house for supper. After they finished their meal, time permitting, I was to come up and drive them around the village and point out a few items of interest to them. We made a tour through our church cemetery during which time, each of the Swedish researchers selected a quadrant of the cemetery and working very quickly, did a walk through, taking photos of headstones with names they recognized from their own particular region in Sweden. (Each of these researchers works on family tree data from a particular region of Sweden too I must add.) I walked through a portion of the cemetery in what we refer to as the "old section" as most of the graves there are from the earliest days of the town, the church, etc. It amazed me to watch her as she would spy a stone and tell me "Oh, I know him (or her)." Meaning she had done family tree research on that family for descendants of theirs somewhere in America. Pretty neat, really.
And, here's the group in front of Joan Larson Fetter's home.
From left to right: Anneli Andersson, Charlotte, Mary Kaye Larson Gurbal, Joan Larson Fetter, then, Julia's younger daughter, Charlotte, the gentleman of the group whose name is either Lars or Olaf (I know, they are so similar), and Julia. (Remind me if I ever have an opportunity like this again to be sure to take a pen and small notebook with which to record simple little things - like NAMES! Boy, could I just kick myself for having been that darned stupid!)
On Friday, the luncheon went quite nicely. However, Janet -who had really been looking forward so much to that event - was unable to attend as her husband took ill that morning and had to be taken to the emergency room for treatment. She did, however, get back home in time and hosted the four Swedish visitors at her home for supper that evening.
On Saturday, the travelers changed their mind about visiting Peale after they learned there is only one marker left there to denote one soul buried there - "Martha Renfrew, who died there in 1889" - and instead, they decided to branch out a bit on their own and drove about 80-100 miles or so east of here to check out the villages of Arnot, Antrim and Morris Run - all above the Williamsport area and all are little towns where many Swedish settlers came upon arrival in this country. Saturday night of their visit, they had dinner at my home with my family and me.
Here's some photos taken at the luncheon on Friday, May 10th at Jim and Charmaine's Restaurant. Shown here are Annette Jacobson, Gertrude McDowell and Mary Ann Eyerly - all three are members of the same church I belong to and all three, like me, are of Swedish descent. Mary Ann, the lady to the far right, is a first cousin to Joan Larson Fetter, who had hosted the group for supper the night before.
The photo below here is Ray Eyerly and Steve Jacobson, in the background, Kathy Larson and Joan Ahlberg Starcovic in the center and the person on the right, who you only see the top of the head from the eyes up - mainly because I am such an excellent photographer you know (Oh yeah, Right!), I think is probably Anneli.
All in all, the luncheon was very nice. After the meal, the foursome each plopped their laptop computers - all loaded for bear with the Genline software and tons and tons of Swedish records available at the flick of a finger and the wrist. As quickly as those laptops worked, reminded me of how much I love watching "Law and Order" when the detective or someone else has to pull up something or other on a computer and they just touch it and flash, presto magic, there it is on teh screen. Those scenes always remind me how slow my computer is - thanks so much to dial-up and also, how no matter what I search for, it never automatically takes me just to one particular record. I always get a bunch of other files that I have to weed through each one to see what it holds and then, when I find one that looks promising, usually have to read through a bunch more stuff too until I get to the "nitty-gritty" that I was really searching for in the first place. Yes, I'm being sarcastic about the realism of some tv programs there. A little change-up from what I was talking about but if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know by now, that is pretty much the norm, isn't it?
The next - and final -picture from the Swedish visitors trip was taken at the home of Janet Rydberg Larson and her husband, Ray. From left to right are: Anneli Andersson, Olaf (or is it Lars), seated is Ray Larson with his wife, Janet kneeling in front of him, Anna Lina and Charlotte are standing behind and to the right of Ray.
I had promised then -after their visit - that as soon as I got the photos taken developed, I would post them and a bit of a story about their visit on my blog.
Well, you know that old adage ""The best laid plans of mice and men..." Yeah, well I got the photos developed and then, just plain forgot that I hadn't done the post about their visit. So, to use yet another of those old adages (Yes, you know by now I am quite fond of "old adages" aren't I?), "Better late than never" - so here's my long-delayed post about the visit of the Swedes.
The group had arrived in New York City on April 28th and from there, had traveled to Rock Island, Illinois, then on to Minneapolis, Minnesota and on May 9th, had made their way to Jamestown, New York. These three places all known to have had a heavy concentration of folks with Swedish ancestry. In each of these cities, they had done seminars where they explained how to go about searching one's roots in Sweden along with showing those who attended these meetings the software "Genline" which has virtually all (or almost all) old Swedish church records by which one can find just about any person who left Sweden for points beyond.
After completing their seminar in Jamestown, the plan was they would then drive down to meet me and a very good friend of mine - my former high school typing teacher -Mrs. Janet Rydberg Larson. They would be in our area from Thursday, May 9th until Sunday morning, May 12th, when they would return to New York for their flight back to Sweden on May 13th.
Janet and I had tried to make some arrangements to entertain the folks during their visit here. I had set it up that a lady from our church and her cousin would have them for dinner at her home Thursday evening. Friday at noon, we planned to have a little luncheon meeting at a local restaurant where anyone interested in learning anything about their Swedish ancestry could attend, meet the group and view the Genline data. Saturday, we had planned to take them down to see the local ghost town of Peale, which the lady I've been communicating with for the past eight years has heard so much about.
The day before they arrived, I received a phone call from a lady up in Kane, PA inquiring about the impending visit. She, it turns out, had also been communicating with Anneli Andersson, the same lady I wrote to, and Anneli had given her my name, my phone number as a contact to find out when and where they would be down in this area.
Julia, the lady from Kane (whose surname unfortunately, I don't recall) said she wanted to meet Anneli and the other three of her traveling companions so I invited her to come down on Friday to join us at the luncheon. However, her daughters were going to bring her here and the one daughter had work that day, so she decided instead they would come here on Thursday and meet Anneli and company when they arrived at the motel here in Kylertown.
The information I had received from Anneli Wednesday said they planned to arrive at Kylertown around 3 p.m. Thursday, so about 2:30, I took my little granddaughter with me and headed up to Kylertown to wait for them to show up. I had no idea what type of vehicle they were driving, nor did I know what any of these people even looked like as no photos had been exchanged.
This is my granddaughter, Maya, sitting on one of the parking barriers in front of the motel at Kylertown, as we waited for the group to arrive from Jamestown.As it turned out, they had a little later start than anticipated, so they didn't get here until about 4:30 p.m. But, Julia and her two daughters arrived about 3:30 at the motel, along with Janet and the five of us got a little acquainted while we waited. Maya, bless her little heart, managed to entertain herself while we visited outside (in the hot sun too, I might add) by playing her own little game of naming and claiming each parking spot. Each parking spot is marked with the same number on it as the room number and Maya is fascinated by numbers. So she started at one end of the motel parking area by looking at the painted number, naming the number, then jumping on it and finally, by sitting on it. Hey - it kept her happy and occupied so what the heck!
While we waited, the lady from church - Joan Larson Fetter -and her cousin, Mary Kay Larson Gurbal drove up to get an idea on what time the Swedes would be coming to her house for dinner. I introduced Joan and Mary Kaye to the three ladies from Kane -Julia and her two daughters - and Joan very graciously extended an invitation to them to join them all at her home for supper too. This move on Joan's part didn't surprise me at all as she is a very friendly, very generous lady.
Finally, about 4:30, our Swedish visitors arrived. Introductions were made to them of who each of us and vise versa.
Here then are the ladies from Sweden along with the three from Kane and Janet Larson. In the background, is Maya, my granddaughter. (My apologies in that I don't remember the names of Julia (from Kane)'s daughters, nor do I recall the surnames of the two ladies from Sweden or the man in the group (not shown here as he was taking photographs of the occasion too.) From left to right, here are:Anneli Andersson of Melerud, Sweden, Anna Lina (Sweden, surname unknown), Janet Rydberg Larson of Kylertown, PA; Julia, from Kane and her older daughter, (the other daughter was also taking pictures) and Charlotte, from Sweden.
After a little conversation at the motel and giving them time to get their rooms and their luggage carried in, I then led the group down to Joan's house for supper. After they finished their meal, time permitting, I was to come up and drive them around the village and point out a few items of interest to them. We made a tour through our church cemetery during which time, each of the Swedish researchers selected a quadrant of the cemetery and working very quickly, did a walk through, taking photos of headstones with names they recognized from their own particular region in Sweden. (Each of these researchers works on family tree data from a particular region of Sweden too I must add.) I walked through a portion of the cemetery in what we refer to as the "old section" as most of the graves there are from the earliest days of the town, the church, etc. It amazed me to watch her as she would spy a stone and tell me "Oh, I know him (or her)." Meaning she had done family tree research on that family for descendants of theirs somewhere in America. Pretty neat, really.
And, here's the group in front of Joan Larson Fetter's home.
From left to right: Anneli Andersson, Charlotte, Mary Kaye Larson Gurbal, Joan Larson Fetter, then, Julia's younger daughter, Charlotte, the gentleman of the group whose name is either Lars or Olaf (I know, they are so similar), and Julia. (Remind me if I ever have an opportunity like this again to be sure to take a pen and small notebook with which to record simple little things - like NAMES! Boy, could I just kick myself for having been that darned stupid!)
On Friday, the luncheon went quite nicely. However, Janet -who had really been looking forward so much to that event - was unable to attend as her husband took ill that morning and had to be taken to the emergency room for treatment. She did, however, get back home in time and hosted the four Swedish visitors at her home for supper that evening.
On Saturday, the travelers changed their mind about visiting Peale after they learned there is only one marker left there to denote one soul buried there - "Martha Renfrew, who died there in 1889" - and instead, they decided to branch out a bit on their own and drove about 80-100 miles or so east of here to check out the villages of Arnot, Antrim and Morris Run - all above the Williamsport area and all are little towns where many Swedish settlers came upon arrival in this country. Saturday night of their visit, they had dinner at my home with my family and me.
Here's some photos taken at the luncheon on Friday, May 10th at Jim and Charmaine's Restaurant. Shown here are Annette Jacobson, Gertrude McDowell and Mary Ann Eyerly - all three are members of the same church I belong to and all three, like me, are of Swedish descent. Mary Ann, the lady to the far right, is a first cousin to Joan Larson Fetter, who had hosted the group for supper the night before.
The photo below here is Ray Eyerly and Steve Jacobson, in the background, Kathy Larson and Joan Ahlberg Starcovic in the center and the person on the right, who you only see the top of the head from the eyes up - mainly because I am such an excellent photographer you know (Oh yeah, Right!), I think is probably Anneli.
All in all, the luncheon was very nice. After the meal, the foursome each plopped their laptop computers - all loaded for bear with the Genline software and tons and tons of Swedish records available at the flick of a finger and the wrist. As quickly as those laptops worked, reminded me of how much I love watching "Law and Order" when the detective or someone else has to pull up something or other on a computer and they just touch it and flash, presto magic, there it is on teh screen. Those scenes always remind me how slow my computer is - thanks so much to dial-up and also, how no matter what I search for, it never automatically takes me just to one particular record. I always get a bunch of other files that I have to weed through each one to see what it holds and then, when I find one that looks promising, usually have to read through a bunch more stuff too until I get to the "nitty-gritty" that I was really searching for in the first place. Yes, I'm being sarcastic about the realism of some tv programs there. A little change-up from what I was talking about but if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know by now, that is pretty much the norm, isn't it?
The next - and final -picture from the Swedish visitors trip was taken at the home of Janet Rydberg Larson and her husband, Ray. From left to right are: Anneli Andersson, Olaf (or is it Lars), seated is Ray Larson with his wife, Janet kneeling in front of him, Anna Lina and Charlotte are standing behind and to the right of Ray.
This Coming Week
Got that senility thing under wraps, under control today! Yeah! I remembered today is the day I should post the Bushisms for the coming week. (Unlike last week, when I forgot about doing that until Wednesday! Bad, bad!)
Monday, August 13, 2007
"We'll be a great country where the fabrics are made up of groups and loving centers." - Kalamazoo, Michigan; March 27, 2001.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
"I mean, I read the newspaper. I mean, I can tell you what the headlines are. I must confess, if I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal, I'll move on. But I know what the story's about." - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; December 12, 2005.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
"The suicide bombings have increased. There's too many of them. - Albuquerque, New Mexico; August 15, 2001
Thursday, August 16, 2007
"Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, 'what is good for them and what is not.'" - Washington, D.C.; October 6, 2005
Friday, August 17, 2007
"I know something about being a government. And you've got a good one." - Stumping for Governor Mike Huckabee; Bentonville, Arkansas; Noveber 4, 2002
Saturday and Sunday, August 18/19, 2007
"Any time we've got any kind of inkling that somebody is thinking about doing something to an American and something to our homeland, you've just got to know we;re moving on it, to protect the United Nations Constitution, and at the same time, we're protecting you." - Aberdeen, South Dakota; October 31, 2002
There ya go folks! More words of wisdom from the DUBYA. Read 'em, run with 'em, weep - or hopefully, get a little chuckle or two (or more) out of the fractured vocabulary and grammar, etc. on the one and only (thankfully). (I'm still wondering what the heck kind of fabric that is in the first one -"made up of groups and loving centers.")
Monday, August 13, 2007
"We'll be a great country where the fabrics are made up of groups and loving centers." - Kalamazoo, Michigan; March 27, 2001.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
"I mean, I read the newspaper. I mean, I can tell you what the headlines are. I must confess, if I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal, I'll move on. But I know what the story's about." - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; December 12, 2005.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
"The suicide bombings have increased. There's too many of them. - Albuquerque, New Mexico; August 15, 2001
Thursday, August 16, 2007
"Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, 'what is good for them and what is not.'" - Washington, D.C.; October 6, 2005
Friday, August 17, 2007
"I know something about being a government. And you've got a good one." - Stumping for Governor Mike Huckabee; Bentonville, Arkansas; Noveber 4, 2002
Saturday and Sunday, August 18/19, 2007
"Any time we've got any kind of inkling that somebody is thinking about doing something to an American and something to our homeland, you've just got to know we;re moving on it, to protect the United Nations Constitution, and at the same time, we're protecting you." - Aberdeen, South Dakota; October 31, 2002
There ya go folks! More words of wisdom from the DUBYA. Read 'em, run with 'em, weep - or hopefully, get a little chuckle or two (or more) out of the fractured vocabulary and grammar, etc. on the one and only (thankfully). (I'm still wondering what the heck kind of fabric that is in the first one -"made up of groups and loving centers.")
Friday, August 10, 2007
A Deal
I told you on Wednesday I had an invitation to write a monthly column for a weekly newspaper from a nearby town if you recall.
As of today now, I have a few things set up - yes, I will take the editor up on the offer and boy, will I struggle to write a clean, crisp, comprehendible copy. That will take some doing on my part.
It's been decided I do not have to submit a photo (headshot) to use in my header for the column. As much as I hate having my picture taken, the few I do have are of a terrible caliber and I would much prefer there be no photo and he says that is ok.
Name of the column is still at this time up in the air but I am leaning towards "Down River Journey." Someone had suggested I use the name of my blog but I don't know if that would be kosher or not. But, I would like to incorporate the "Down River" as part of the column name plus, the fact that the editor would like me to write it with the "Down River" area in mind so we shall see what he thinks of my suggestion above.
Topics - that hasn't been discussed per se. But, since he wants me to write about things as they impact me, and since I am also often a very opinionated individual too, I was thinking maybe I'd open with a nice calm subject - like illegal immigration. Now there's something to think about, huh? Nothing like starting off with something akin to preaching hell, fire, brimstone and damnation, huh?
My first deadline will be the Tuesday before the third Friday of September. Confused? So am I when I put it down like that -but then, to try to remember the actual date - which would be September 18th as being my deadline, hmmm - which way will be easier for me to keep track of? That's debatable there!
On another note - last evening, Mandy and the kids and I were going to run into Philipsburg to pick up some groceries but prior to doing that, we decided to stop at the West Branch Dairy Diner and have a bite to eat there. It's nice little restaurant - often referred to as "The Pumpkin House" since the building is painted a nice bright orange color. The current owner is a "home-town" girl - Maxine Fenush Orwick - and although I can't afford to eat out very often, I like to patronize her place now and again as the food is decent - nothing fancy - and reasonable prices too.
When we entered, as Mandy and I were surveying the seating availability, Maya just decided for us that we would take up the booth near the door. Even before we ordered, Maya had looked the place over and spotted some people seated at a table across the room from us - a man, three young girls (teenager-types) and a little girl in a high chair. And immediately, her refrain began - "Wan' see the peoples? Wan' see the baby?" Over and over she chanted that -and not in a low voice either I might add.
At one point, she was trying to crawl under the table and planning to sneak out and away from us to head over to that table all the while saying "Wan' go see the Dad and the mom and the other Moms and the baby?" (When Maya talks, sometimes her sentences are not actually questions to begin with but her tone of voice makes them sound like a question - hence the question marks here.)
Before the family left, the girls brought the toddler over to our booth so Maya could "See" her -and what does she do? Well naturally, she then promptly ignores the little one! However, Kurtis thoroughly enjoyed the visit as the toddler, who it turns out is three months older than him, reached up to him in the high chair and tried to give him a big hug!
It turned out the lady who was our waitress is the mother of the little one and of two of the teenagers too so it was her family Maya wanted so much to communicate with.
An older couple who had been seated behind us, when they went to leave, the gentleman came back to our booth and handed Mandy two little rubber balls - the size one would use if playing a game of Jacks - saying these were for the kids. He and his wife stood there and chatted with us for quite a while and then, we got around to talking about where we live, etc and it turns out they live in the little village of Lanse which is right up the way from where we live. "Oh, how nice and who are you?" became the question then with a surprise for me. (And, also for Mandy)
It turns out their youngest daughter works at the grocery store where Mandy had worked for about the past two years - till taking on the new job she has now. And furthermore, to my surprise, their two oldest daughters used to babysit my kids a long, long time ago - like about 30 years back in time!
It had been so long since I'd seen either of these folks I didn't recognize them at all.
I do need to get out of the house more often! LOL
As of today now, I have a few things set up - yes, I will take the editor up on the offer and boy, will I struggle to write a clean, crisp, comprehendible copy. That will take some doing on my part.
It's been decided I do not have to submit a photo (headshot) to use in my header for the column. As much as I hate having my picture taken, the few I do have are of a terrible caliber and I would much prefer there be no photo and he says that is ok.
Name of the column is still at this time up in the air but I am leaning towards "Down River Journey." Someone had suggested I use the name of my blog but I don't know if that would be kosher or not. But, I would like to incorporate the "Down River" as part of the column name plus, the fact that the editor would like me to write it with the "Down River" area in mind so we shall see what he thinks of my suggestion above.
Topics - that hasn't been discussed per se. But, since he wants me to write about things as they impact me, and since I am also often a very opinionated individual too, I was thinking maybe I'd open with a nice calm subject - like illegal immigration. Now there's something to think about, huh? Nothing like starting off with something akin to preaching hell, fire, brimstone and damnation, huh?
My first deadline will be the Tuesday before the third Friday of September. Confused? So am I when I put it down like that -but then, to try to remember the actual date - which would be September 18th as being my deadline, hmmm - which way will be easier for me to keep track of? That's debatable there!
On another note - last evening, Mandy and the kids and I were going to run into Philipsburg to pick up some groceries but prior to doing that, we decided to stop at the West Branch Dairy Diner and have a bite to eat there. It's nice little restaurant - often referred to as "The Pumpkin House" since the building is painted a nice bright orange color. The current owner is a "home-town" girl - Maxine Fenush Orwick - and although I can't afford to eat out very often, I like to patronize her place now and again as the food is decent - nothing fancy - and reasonable prices too.
When we entered, as Mandy and I were surveying the seating availability, Maya just decided for us that we would take up the booth near the door. Even before we ordered, Maya had looked the place over and spotted some people seated at a table across the room from us - a man, three young girls (teenager-types) and a little girl in a high chair. And immediately, her refrain began - "Wan' see the peoples? Wan' see the baby?" Over and over she chanted that -and not in a low voice either I might add.
At one point, she was trying to crawl under the table and planning to sneak out and away from us to head over to that table all the while saying "Wan' go see the Dad and the mom and the other Moms and the baby?" (When Maya talks, sometimes her sentences are not actually questions to begin with but her tone of voice makes them sound like a question - hence the question marks here.)
Before the family left, the girls brought the toddler over to our booth so Maya could "See" her -and what does she do? Well naturally, she then promptly ignores the little one! However, Kurtis thoroughly enjoyed the visit as the toddler, who it turns out is three months older than him, reached up to him in the high chair and tried to give him a big hug!
It turned out the lady who was our waitress is the mother of the little one and of two of the teenagers too so it was her family Maya wanted so much to communicate with.
An older couple who had been seated behind us, when they went to leave, the gentleman came back to our booth and handed Mandy two little rubber balls - the size one would use if playing a game of Jacks - saying these were for the kids. He and his wife stood there and chatted with us for quite a while and then, we got around to talking about where we live, etc and it turns out they live in the little village of Lanse which is right up the way from where we live. "Oh, how nice and who are you?" became the question then with a surprise for me. (And, also for Mandy)
It turns out their youngest daughter works at the grocery store where Mandy had worked for about the past two years - till taking on the new job she has now. And furthermore, to my surprise, their two oldest daughters used to babysit my kids a long, long time ago - like about 30 years back in time!
It had been so long since I'd seen either of these folks I didn't recognize them at all.
I do need to get out of the house more often! LOL
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
SPECIAL BULLETIN: This Just In!
I received an e-mail today from a small, weekly publication from the town nearby - Philipsburg - in which the editor/publisher asked if I might be interested in writing a monthly column for this paper.
Here's the details: It would be about things that "catch my eye" in and around this part of the community, about 300-700 words, occasionally could even have a photo with it if it's pertinent to that particular column, mainly something that is just "everyday life" type of stuff. No compensation as it is a very small publication.
Now, here's my question to you, the readers of my drivel on my blog. Do you think I can do this?
Remember now, I didn't ask if you think I SHOULD do this, but rather, do you think I CAN do this? Keeping in mind the word limitation being put on it, CAN I trim my verbage down that close to the bone?
I didn't ask my daughter if she thinks I CAN do this. I asked her "Do you think I should?"
Her response was a solid "Oh, YES!" Till I pointed out the word count again to her. She thinks I can handle at least under 700 words. I'm thinking 1,700 might be closer to what I need! LOL
So now, all of you think this over and give me your thoughts about this "deal."
I also have to come up with a name for the column so suggestions there would very much be appreciated too. Another sticky point is that he says they would need a head shot to put in with the column's name and that might be as difficult to come up with as would be keeping the word count that low!
In the meantime, I'm going to put the old thinking cap on (and boy, is it ever old, raggy, rusty) and try to think of potential topics I could write about that wouldn't get me run out of down on a rail. (Lucky for me, we no longer have trains running through this neck of the woods!)
Here's the details: It would be about things that "catch my eye" in and around this part of the community, about 300-700 words, occasionally could even have a photo with it if it's pertinent to that particular column, mainly something that is just "everyday life" type of stuff. No compensation as it is a very small publication.
Now, here's my question to you, the readers of my drivel on my blog. Do you think I can do this?
Remember now, I didn't ask if you think I SHOULD do this, but rather, do you think I CAN do this? Keeping in mind the word limitation being put on it, CAN I trim my verbage down that close to the bone?
I didn't ask my daughter if she thinks I CAN do this. I asked her "Do you think I should?"
Her response was a solid "Oh, YES!" Till I pointed out the word count again to her. She thinks I can handle at least under 700 words. I'm thinking 1,700 might be closer to what I need! LOL
So now, all of you think this over and give me your thoughts about this "deal."
I also have to come up with a name for the column so suggestions there would very much be appreciated too. Another sticky point is that he says they would need a head shot to put in with the column's name and that might be as difficult to come up with as would be keeping the word count that low!
In the meantime, I'm going to put the old thinking cap on (and boy, is it ever old, raggy, rusty) and try to think of potential topics I could write about that wouldn't get me run out of down on a rail. (Lucky for me, we no longer have trains running through this neck of the woods!)
I'm Really Senile!
Boy, talk about getting forgetful! I'm really in mid-stream by the looks of things in forgetting somethings I'd started doing on my blog. Can you believe it but I started posting the Bushisms on Sundays and doing a week's worth of them at a time about two weeks ago -maybe three - and this week, Sunday came and went and I forgot all about posting those lovely little bits of humor from the DUBYA!
Until, that is, this morning. Apparently my morning cup of coffee had a bit of extra caffeine laced in it or something but as I was drinking my wake-up cup, it dawned on me that not only had I forgotten to do this on Sunday but now, here it is already Wednesday and I had still forgotten about them.
So, I best get busy now and put this week's Bushisms up here, hadn't I? Without further ado then, here they are. Better late than never, huh?
Monday, August 6, 2007
'"There are some monuments where the land is so widespread, they just encmpass as much as possible. And the integral part of the --the precious part, so to speak -- I guess, all land is precious, but the part that the people uniformly would not want to spoil, will not be despoiled. But there are parts of the monument lands where we can explore without affecting the overall environment." - Washington, D.C; March 13, 2001
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
"He has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor, because the results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's a safer place for him to be." - Speaking about Rudy Giuliani on The Edge with Paula Zahn; May 18, 2000
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
"The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race." - Washington, D.C.; April 5, 2001
Thursday, August 9, 2007
"See, without the tax-relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate-not 'commiserate' - the kick to ur economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief." - Washington, D.C.; December 15, 2003
Friday, August 10, 2007
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - Greece, New York; May 24, 2005
Saturday and Sunday, August 11/12, 2007
"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world - you know, people focus on the process and not results." - Washington, D.C.; May 29, 2003
And there they are now! The Bushisms for the week of August 6th through August 11/12, 2007!
Until, that is, this morning. Apparently my morning cup of coffee had a bit of extra caffeine laced in it or something but as I was drinking my wake-up cup, it dawned on me that not only had I forgotten to do this on Sunday but now, here it is already Wednesday and I had still forgotten about them.
So, I best get busy now and put this week's Bushisms up here, hadn't I? Without further ado then, here they are. Better late than never, huh?
Monday, August 6, 2007
'"There are some monuments where the land is so widespread, they just encmpass as much as possible. And the integral part of the --the precious part, so to speak -- I guess, all land is precious, but the part that the people uniformly would not want to spoil, will not be despoiled. But there are parts of the monument lands where we can explore without affecting the overall environment." - Washington, D.C; March 13, 2001
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
"He has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor, because the results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's a safer place for him to be." - Speaking about Rudy Giuliani on The Edge with Paula Zahn; May 18, 2000
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
"The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race." - Washington, D.C.; April 5, 2001
Thursday, August 9, 2007
"See, without the tax-relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate-not 'commiserate' - the kick to ur economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief." - Washington, D.C.; December 15, 2003
Friday, August 10, 2007
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - Greece, New York; May 24, 2005
Saturday and Sunday, August 11/12, 2007
"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world - you know, people focus on the process and not results." - Washington, D.C.; May 29, 2003
And there they are now! The Bushisms for the week of August 6th through August 11/12, 2007!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Only Big Girls Wear Lipstick!
There is one thing my daughter has observed about her children - both of them seem to operate on the same wave length when it comes to going to the bathroom. The only problem is that one is only almost 16 months old and the other, is almost 46 months old. However, it does seem that if you detect a certain tell-tale aroma emanating from one, you can pretty much count on the fact that very shortly you'll have a very similar smell coming from the other one.
Now, this is one aspect we'd like to change. We're both tired of changing dirty diapers - whether they be of the type with the velcro fasteners across the front or the pull-up type -both Mandy and I would love to see at least one set of these undergarments gone.
Obviously, we're trying to get the older one "housebroken" first but at this point in time, it really almost seems like we are fighting a losing battle.
We've tried the little potty chair but she has refused completely to sit on it since she was about 18 months old. Yes, we've been working on this project for that long! She throws an absolute hissy fit and you run the risk of a major meltdown if you press the issue with that chair so we've pretty much just been using it as bathroom adornment and not an item actually serving a purpose.
Until she began to talk a little bit, showing a little bit of communication skills, we really didn't work all that hard with the potty training though. But for at least the past six-eight months now, her comprehension levels have increased enough that we figured it was worth trying to stress using the bathroom fixtures for the purposes intended. We have a really cute little insert - all pretty and floral designs on it - to slap on the commode seat to make it so she doesn't need to be afraid or think she's gonna fall in the water at any moment but she generally doesn't want much to do with it. Sometimes, she will tell us she needs dry pants and when we take her in to change her, inevitably we ask her if she'd like to sit on the potty. At that stage, it's really kind of a redundant question though isn't it, since the damage is already done but we figure maybe if we get her better acclimated to at least sitting there for more than five seconds at a clip, one of these days we'll hit it lucky and get her there when she still has something left to let go, ya know.
Today, she had expressed to Mandy that she would like to wear some "unney-wears" - her name for the big girl panties of which she has a very large selection. (At least Mandy has had faith that sometime in the near future - before she outgrows these panties -we'll meet with some type of success. We've been talking to her about how she is a big girl now and big girls wear "unney-wears". Only babies wear diapers or pull-ups and she knows she isn't a baby. But that hasn't apparently been of enough value to her.
So, today Mandy decided she'd try another form of bribery.
One of Miss Maya's favorite things is to get into her big sister's makeup and apply that liberally to her cheeks, eyes and mouth. Crayons often are substituted for lipstick and she dearly loves to pretend she is putting on lipstick. So Mandy informed her that babies don't wear makeup or lipstick but big girls and ONLY big girls can wear lipstick so if she wants to wear lipstick, she has to start using the potty chair.
And, she really thought she was on to a gold mine there because as soon as she heard that proclamation, she went running into the bathroom, pulled her pull-ups down, placed the floral ring on the commode and got up there all on her own. WOW! Mandy was pretty excited thinking she had finally found the key to end our issues with the toilet training dilemma. That is, until Maya only sat there a little over the normal five seconds, then hopped down and it was business as usual.
A little later, Maya was standing beside me as I was doing some research on the computer and talking to her at the same time. I was talking to her about how next month she's going to be going to the pre-school over in Clearfield (for autistic kids) and how when big girls go to school, they use the potty - not pull-ups (or dragontails, as she refers to them - because of the designs on the front of her pullups).
And in talking about this to her, I asked her about this situation -coming right out, being upfront with her, I asked her "Don't you want to be a big girl and use the potty?"
She pulled back slightly from me, looked me straight in the eye and in no uncertain terms responded to me in a very firm, fairly loud voice, "NO!"
Guess she told me didn't she?
So, back to the drawing board it goes once more!
Now, this is one aspect we'd like to change. We're both tired of changing dirty diapers - whether they be of the type with the velcro fasteners across the front or the pull-up type -both Mandy and I would love to see at least one set of these undergarments gone.
Obviously, we're trying to get the older one "housebroken" first but at this point in time, it really almost seems like we are fighting a losing battle.
We've tried the little potty chair but she has refused completely to sit on it since she was about 18 months old. Yes, we've been working on this project for that long! She throws an absolute hissy fit and you run the risk of a major meltdown if you press the issue with that chair so we've pretty much just been using it as bathroom adornment and not an item actually serving a purpose.
Until she began to talk a little bit, showing a little bit of communication skills, we really didn't work all that hard with the potty training though. But for at least the past six-eight months now, her comprehension levels have increased enough that we figured it was worth trying to stress using the bathroom fixtures for the purposes intended. We have a really cute little insert - all pretty and floral designs on it - to slap on the commode seat to make it so she doesn't need to be afraid or think she's gonna fall in the water at any moment but she generally doesn't want much to do with it. Sometimes, she will tell us she needs dry pants and when we take her in to change her, inevitably we ask her if she'd like to sit on the potty. At that stage, it's really kind of a redundant question though isn't it, since the damage is already done but we figure maybe if we get her better acclimated to at least sitting there for more than five seconds at a clip, one of these days we'll hit it lucky and get her there when she still has something left to let go, ya know.
Today, she had expressed to Mandy that she would like to wear some "unney-wears" - her name for the big girl panties of which she has a very large selection. (At least Mandy has had faith that sometime in the near future - before she outgrows these panties -we'll meet with some type of success. We've been talking to her about how she is a big girl now and big girls wear "unney-wears". Only babies wear diapers or pull-ups and she knows she isn't a baby. But that hasn't apparently been of enough value to her.
So, today Mandy decided she'd try another form of bribery.
One of Miss Maya's favorite things is to get into her big sister's makeup and apply that liberally to her cheeks, eyes and mouth. Crayons often are substituted for lipstick and she dearly loves to pretend she is putting on lipstick. So Mandy informed her that babies don't wear makeup or lipstick but big girls and ONLY big girls can wear lipstick so if she wants to wear lipstick, she has to start using the potty chair.
And, she really thought she was on to a gold mine there because as soon as she heard that proclamation, she went running into the bathroom, pulled her pull-ups down, placed the floral ring on the commode and got up there all on her own. WOW! Mandy was pretty excited thinking she had finally found the key to end our issues with the toilet training dilemma. That is, until Maya only sat there a little over the normal five seconds, then hopped down and it was business as usual.
A little later, Maya was standing beside me as I was doing some research on the computer and talking to her at the same time. I was talking to her about how next month she's going to be going to the pre-school over in Clearfield (for autistic kids) and how when big girls go to school, they use the potty - not pull-ups (or dragontails, as she refers to them - because of the designs on the front of her pullups).
And in talking about this to her, I asked her about this situation -coming right out, being upfront with her, I asked her "Don't you want to be a big girl and use the potty?"
She pulled back slightly from me, looked me straight in the eye and in no uncertain terms responded to me in a very firm, fairly loud voice, "NO!"
Guess she told me didn't she?
So, back to the drawing board it goes once more!
Dinner invitation
After a weekend that had enough ups and downs to it so as to resemble a bit of a roller coaster ride at times, Monday evening was a very pleasant change of venue.
Translated that really just means "I didn't have to cook supper today!"
Some days, I just don't want to have anything to do with the kitchen and especially nothing involving even something as simple as scrambling eggs. Some days, it's like my stomach and taste buds have both gone on vacation or just simply up and died.
Years back, when I would wander into the diet desert, I used to blame it on the fact that most of that time, since I was working in food service, it was caused because I was just plain tired of looking at food. Now, when I get in that rut and especially when it lingers for days, even weeks, I blame it on depression and just not having any desire for much of anything, much less cooking.
I think it's a combination now of run-ins with depression and a sense of having a lack of interest and no sense of creativity - just me being my normal bland, boring self.
This apathy streak that hits from time to time extends back to when I was married too and I would get totally bored with the idea of cooking some days. But I blamed that then on the fact that my ex-husband was the cause since all he ever wanted to have for a meal was "Meat, potatoes and either corn or green beans." But at least he wasn't quite as difficult to cook for than a friend of mine at that time's husband was. That guy wanted pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for supper. Now fixing that same thing every day would have driven me to the looney bin long before I actually made the entrance requirements for admittance there. Really! That would have made me stark, raving mad, yes, MAD I tell you.
But now, when I ask the family for suggestions what they'd like to have for supper, I'm beginning to think they have formed a conspiracy against me now too. My son-in-law, if asked what he thinks would make for a good meal almost invariably will think and think - chin in his had, looking very much like that famous statue ("The THinker") and invariably his response will be "Meatloaf!"
Ask the 15-year-old what she thinks would be a good meal and the kid seems to think the only thing ever to be fixed is "Fish."
My daughter's job generally means she will be at work from 5 p.m. until about 9:30 and so she will not be here for supper. That, plus the fact that she has no particular love for doing anything in the kitchen to begin with means her answer will most likely be "I don't have a clue!" When on those rare occasions when she does decide to get reacquainted somewhat with the stove or griddle or crockpot, most of the time the food option she comes up with will be Tacos.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing at all against tacos but to my train of thought, they are more of a lunch-type entre and don't or shouldn't qualify as a dinner menu item. Supper or dinner - whichever you opt to call your main, big meal of the day, in my opinion should be something a bit bigger in which you present some type of meat, poultry or fish dish, along with a carbohydrate type item such as potatoes or a pasta or rice with a salad or vegetable dish to go with that -and sometimes, it requires BOTH a vegetable dish and a salad type dish to be a complete meal in my book. (My book on cooking sometimes doesn't require both a salad and vegetable and sometimes it does, although nutritionists generally will tell you that you should have both in some form or fashion.)
Friday, as I was leaving to make a quick trip to town for a few things I needed, I asked the son-in-law for a meal suggestion and to my surprise, he came up with an idea besides having meatloaf. And, I really liked his suggestion too because it was something that really struck a chord with me. Pizza! From the deli at the local grocery store. YES! I can handle that, for sure. So I stopped on my way home and ordered one with mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, hot pickled pepper rings and pineapple on it! Ah, such a feast! And, no dishes to wash afterwards either because no pots and pans needed to fix it. Just slap a slab on a paper plate and munch away.
Saturday was a fairly easy kitchen duty day too with rib-eye steak sandwiches and leftover pasta salad that Mandy had made a batch of the day before because she wanted to take a container of "mealtime fare" and a dessert item over to the home of a good friend of ours whose companion of the past 22 years had just passed away.
Sunday was looking like it might require some hard thinking of what to cook because the son-in-law's two middle children (who live with their maternal grandmother) were going to be here for supper and lord knows, those two kids can drive me to drink with their snooty attitudes about food. I never know what vegetable to fix because their taste buds seem to fluxuate daily on what they consider an acceptable vegetable. One time they might eat carrots - profess to love them and another time when they are here if I put carrots on the table, they will stick their noses up in the air and grump, growl around stating "I HATE Carrots!" The same thing will happen with green beans, corn, peas, broccoli - you name it! It's a darned good thing these kids didn't ever sit up to the table for a meal alongside my kids when they were growing up because the house rules were regardless of what was on the table, "Sit up, shut up and eat!" My youngest was the only one who ever got away with any picky business at meals and that only applied to onions!
But yesterday, when I asked my daughter what she thought would make for a good meal, her response (she didn't have work yesterday by the way, so she was going to be here to partake of supper with all of us) was "Spaghetti." Yeah - that would work for me plus the fact that the little granddaughter, my princess Maya, generally loves most any type of pasta so Mandy and I both figured it was a meal the two middle yahoos would eat and Maya would enjoy it too.
However, by the time I put supper on the table last night - a nice big bowl of spaghetti, a tossed salad that I got Mandy to fix plus garlic bread sticks - the only one who wouldn't eat last night was Maya! She ate the bread sticks and maybe managed two or three bites of the spaghetti - which normally she would have been shoveling in before she announced when we tried to get her to eat some more, "All done, all done!" And with her, when she utters those words with a plate full of food in front of her, you don't give argument to her unless you want to risk her going into a meltdown which could mean the plate being pushed very quickly - like at the speed of light - off the table and the contents being on the floor!
But Saturday night, my son's roommate had announced to Mandy that since he had today off, he planned to cook and we were to be guests up at my son's house then for supper to taste Dan's dietary delights. And, I was ecstatic because it meant I wouldn't have to wrack my pea brain for an idea of something to fix that was "interesting" to me to fix and of course, it meant no slaving in a hot kitchen too on an already hot and muggy day as well. (And yes, no dishes to be dealt with after the fact either - that's always an important item in the whole configuration too, ya know.)
So tonight, we went up to the son's house in shifts because little Kurtis had fallen asleep and we didn't want to wake him up just to take him out someplace where there was no place to put him (like a high chair or playpen) to keep him confined while we tried to eat. Mandy and Maya went up first, ate and came home about an hour or a little better later and then it was my turn. And boy, did I have a feast!
Dan had cooked his brand of oven-browned potatoes, baked beans and had purchased a small container of coleslaw to accompany the three meat entrees he'd fixed. He had a crockpot of barbequed pork, had fixed spareribs with a rub that was really good - spicy but not overly so but a great flavor to it along with a boneless pork roast that he had marinated in some kind of Irish whiskey with a couple other additives and then cooked it in his smoker along with the ribs. Very tasty - VERY tasty, I must say!
After finishing my meal, my son had to show me the work he and roommate Dan had done in his side area of the house. They had been working the bulk of the day (while Dan was cooking too) and built themselves a bar in this side room!
Now, you really have to see the interior of my son's house to appreciate some of the things he's done there since he purchased this old place three years ago.
The exterior of the house isn't really in too bad condition - the roof is only about 4-5 years old; siding isn't in dire need of being replaced but the windows and the front porch are definitely in dire need there! Old windows that over the years apparently ended up getting painted shut and with only the old single pane glass in them and the front porch has a lot of weak or bad spots where if you step on it the wrong way, the boards are liable to split and crumble. In due time, he'll get to that but you know, to a couple of bachelors, a "man's room" is a top priority item in any home isn't it?
This room used to be two rooms - the front part was the dining room and we're really not sure what the smaller room behind it was intended to be. The family who had owned this house before my son were an elderly lady and her brother - neither who saw any point to remodeling the interior of the homestead so the dining room - with the old rough plank walls, had wallpaper on it -a few layers thick but which hadn't been replaced by the time my son bought the place in many, many years. It also has a very old three light type chandelier which needs to be changed to a shorter style type light fixture so my son can walk through the middle of the room without banging his head every time he moves around there. Another item that is on my son's replacement list but that he doesn't have the funds to get all of these things done as yet.
About two weeks ago, Clate had taken out the wall along the stairs - the house has stairs in the center of the house - and he figured out that on the side of the old dining room, that wasn't a "load-bearing" wall so he had opened the stairway and also, taken out the wall under the stairs facing into the dining room too. At the same time, he had completely ripped out the wall between the dining room and the smaller room at the rear of that area.
Under the stairs, he had done some wiring work, fixed it up with some shelving and such and put his stereo setup in there. When Dan arrived here a week ago, he had brought with him many items that really are intended for a recreation room - or in this case - their party room. He had a refrigerator already set up to handle two kegs - yes two - not a single keg would do but gotta be able to offer your friends a choice of brews! He had three electronic type bar game machines too along with enough sound equipment to outfit at least one, maybe two bands as well!
So today, the boys built themselves a bar! Most of the wood they used to build this bar came from an old house a little ways down the stree from my son's place and which my son-in-law had torn down last year for the guy who owned the place but had built a new home adjacent to the old kind of ramshackle house there. The bar is a very nice height - looks nice too in the L-shape they made it with the behind-the-bar area being in front of the stairway where my son had put in his stereo setup. The bar refrigerator with the two-keg capacity is at the end of the bar where the opening is to enter and go behind the bar - nice and convenient and fits there very nicely. The tv set is on top of the beer fridge and Dan's bookcase unit fits perfectly in the remaining space under the stairs to hold bottles of liquors!
The lumber used in building the bar is the rough lumber from the old house so right now, you really don't want to sit there and slide your arm across it or you could end up with a forearm full of splinters. But the guys don't want to lose that rustic look it has right now so they are going to get some type of coating to put over the wood that will seal it and make it feel smooth while still preserving the rustic wood look to it at the same time.
As I sat on one of the bar stools there, gazing at the neon sign they even have hanging behind the bar, looking around the room, I had to admire the ingenuity the guys had in their design and for the finishing ideas they have for the bar itself as well as for the room. It will be an interesting place for sure when they get it all done.
But tonight, the only thing I thought it lacked was a cold keg in the beer refrigerator.
Ah yes, maybe that will be in place by the next time Dan decides to go all out cooking a big meal and invites me to dinner!
But this gives me plenty of time to start planning what he and I can fix and serve for a big superbowl party I can see happening up there come the end of next January.
I forgot to add -something else Dan brought with him when he moved in - one of those large - and I do mean really LARGE screen tv sets that I can just envision sitting there, munching all kinds of great food while watching the superbowl and feeling like I am right there, in the stands. And I won't even give a hoot then who the players might be in that game as I'll just be enjoying the day for a change!
Translated that really just means "I didn't have to cook supper today!"
Some days, I just don't want to have anything to do with the kitchen and especially nothing involving even something as simple as scrambling eggs. Some days, it's like my stomach and taste buds have both gone on vacation or just simply up and died.
Years back, when I would wander into the diet desert, I used to blame it on the fact that most of that time, since I was working in food service, it was caused because I was just plain tired of looking at food. Now, when I get in that rut and especially when it lingers for days, even weeks, I blame it on depression and just not having any desire for much of anything, much less cooking.
I think it's a combination now of run-ins with depression and a sense of having a lack of interest and no sense of creativity - just me being my normal bland, boring self.
This apathy streak that hits from time to time extends back to when I was married too and I would get totally bored with the idea of cooking some days. But I blamed that then on the fact that my ex-husband was the cause since all he ever wanted to have for a meal was "Meat, potatoes and either corn or green beans." But at least he wasn't quite as difficult to cook for than a friend of mine at that time's husband was. That guy wanted pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for supper. Now fixing that same thing every day would have driven me to the looney bin long before I actually made the entrance requirements for admittance there. Really! That would have made me stark, raving mad, yes, MAD I tell you.
But now, when I ask the family for suggestions what they'd like to have for supper, I'm beginning to think they have formed a conspiracy against me now too. My son-in-law, if asked what he thinks would make for a good meal almost invariably will think and think - chin in his had, looking very much like that famous statue ("The THinker") and invariably his response will be "Meatloaf!"
Ask the 15-year-old what she thinks would be a good meal and the kid seems to think the only thing ever to be fixed is "Fish."
My daughter's job generally means she will be at work from 5 p.m. until about 9:30 and so she will not be here for supper. That, plus the fact that she has no particular love for doing anything in the kitchen to begin with means her answer will most likely be "I don't have a clue!" When on those rare occasions when she does decide to get reacquainted somewhat with the stove or griddle or crockpot, most of the time the food option she comes up with will be Tacos.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing at all against tacos but to my train of thought, they are more of a lunch-type entre and don't or shouldn't qualify as a dinner menu item. Supper or dinner - whichever you opt to call your main, big meal of the day, in my opinion should be something a bit bigger in which you present some type of meat, poultry or fish dish, along with a carbohydrate type item such as potatoes or a pasta or rice with a salad or vegetable dish to go with that -and sometimes, it requires BOTH a vegetable dish and a salad type dish to be a complete meal in my book. (My book on cooking sometimes doesn't require both a salad and vegetable and sometimes it does, although nutritionists generally will tell you that you should have both in some form or fashion.)
Friday, as I was leaving to make a quick trip to town for a few things I needed, I asked the son-in-law for a meal suggestion and to my surprise, he came up with an idea besides having meatloaf. And, I really liked his suggestion too because it was something that really struck a chord with me. Pizza! From the deli at the local grocery store. YES! I can handle that, for sure. So I stopped on my way home and ordered one with mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, hot pickled pepper rings and pineapple on it! Ah, such a feast! And, no dishes to wash afterwards either because no pots and pans needed to fix it. Just slap a slab on a paper plate and munch away.
Saturday was a fairly easy kitchen duty day too with rib-eye steak sandwiches and leftover pasta salad that Mandy had made a batch of the day before because she wanted to take a container of "mealtime fare" and a dessert item over to the home of a good friend of ours whose companion of the past 22 years had just passed away.
Sunday was looking like it might require some hard thinking of what to cook because the son-in-law's two middle children (who live with their maternal grandmother) were going to be here for supper and lord knows, those two kids can drive me to drink with their snooty attitudes about food. I never know what vegetable to fix because their taste buds seem to fluxuate daily on what they consider an acceptable vegetable. One time they might eat carrots - profess to love them and another time when they are here if I put carrots on the table, they will stick their noses up in the air and grump, growl around stating "I HATE Carrots!" The same thing will happen with green beans, corn, peas, broccoli - you name it! It's a darned good thing these kids didn't ever sit up to the table for a meal alongside my kids when they were growing up because the house rules were regardless of what was on the table, "Sit up, shut up and eat!" My youngest was the only one who ever got away with any picky business at meals and that only applied to onions!
But yesterday, when I asked my daughter what she thought would make for a good meal, her response (she didn't have work yesterday by the way, so she was going to be here to partake of supper with all of us) was "Spaghetti." Yeah - that would work for me plus the fact that the little granddaughter, my princess Maya, generally loves most any type of pasta so Mandy and I both figured it was a meal the two middle yahoos would eat and Maya would enjoy it too.
However, by the time I put supper on the table last night - a nice big bowl of spaghetti, a tossed salad that I got Mandy to fix plus garlic bread sticks - the only one who wouldn't eat last night was Maya! She ate the bread sticks and maybe managed two or three bites of the spaghetti - which normally she would have been shoveling in before she announced when we tried to get her to eat some more, "All done, all done!" And with her, when she utters those words with a plate full of food in front of her, you don't give argument to her unless you want to risk her going into a meltdown which could mean the plate being pushed very quickly - like at the speed of light - off the table and the contents being on the floor!
But Saturday night, my son's roommate had announced to Mandy that since he had today off, he planned to cook and we were to be guests up at my son's house then for supper to taste Dan's dietary delights. And, I was ecstatic because it meant I wouldn't have to wrack my pea brain for an idea of something to fix that was "interesting" to me to fix and of course, it meant no slaving in a hot kitchen too on an already hot and muggy day as well. (And yes, no dishes to be dealt with after the fact either - that's always an important item in the whole configuration too, ya know.)
So tonight, we went up to the son's house in shifts because little Kurtis had fallen asleep and we didn't want to wake him up just to take him out someplace where there was no place to put him (like a high chair or playpen) to keep him confined while we tried to eat. Mandy and Maya went up first, ate and came home about an hour or a little better later and then it was my turn. And boy, did I have a feast!
Dan had cooked his brand of oven-browned potatoes, baked beans and had purchased a small container of coleslaw to accompany the three meat entrees he'd fixed. He had a crockpot of barbequed pork, had fixed spareribs with a rub that was really good - spicy but not overly so but a great flavor to it along with a boneless pork roast that he had marinated in some kind of Irish whiskey with a couple other additives and then cooked it in his smoker along with the ribs. Very tasty - VERY tasty, I must say!
After finishing my meal, my son had to show me the work he and roommate Dan had done in his side area of the house. They had been working the bulk of the day (while Dan was cooking too) and built themselves a bar in this side room!
Now, you really have to see the interior of my son's house to appreciate some of the things he's done there since he purchased this old place three years ago.
The exterior of the house isn't really in too bad condition - the roof is only about 4-5 years old; siding isn't in dire need of being replaced but the windows and the front porch are definitely in dire need there! Old windows that over the years apparently ended up getting painted shut and with only the old single pane glass in them and the front porch has a lot of weak or bad spots where if you step on it the wrong way, the boards are liable to split and crumble. In due time, he'll get to that but you know, to a couple of bachelors, a "man's room" is a top priority item in any home isn't it?
This room used to be two rooms - the front part was the dining room and we're really not sure what the smaller room behind it was intended to be. The family who had owned this house before my son were an elderly lady and her brother - neither who saw any point to remodeling the interior of the homestead so the dining room - with the old rough plank walls, had wallpaper on it -a few layers thick but which hadn't been replaced by the time my son bought the place in many, many years. It also has a very old three light type chandelier which needs to be changed to a shorter style type light fixture so my son can walk through the middle of the room without banging his head every time he moves around there. Another item that is on my son's replacement list but that he doesn't have the funds to get all of these things done as yet.
About two weeks ago, Clate had taken out the wall along the stairs - the house has stairs in the center of the house - and he figured out that on the side of the old dining room, that wasn't a "load-bearing" wall so he had opened the stairway and also, taken out the wall under the stairs facing into the dining room too. At the same time, he had completely ripped out the wall between the dining room and the smaller room at the rear of that area.
Under the stairs, he had done some wiring work, fixed it up with some shelving and such and put his stereo setup in there. When Dan arrived here a week ago, he had brought with him many items that really are intended for a recreation room - or in this case - their party room. He had a refrigerator already set up to handle two kegs - yes two - not a single keg would do but gotta be able to offer your friends a choice of brews! He had three electronic type bar game machines too along with enough sound equipment to outfit at least one, maybe two bands as well!
So today, the boys built themselves a bar! Most of the wood they used to build this bar came from an old house a little ways down the stree from my son's place and which my son-in-law had torn down last year for the guy who owned the place but had built a new home adjacent to the old kind of ramshackle house there. The bar is a very nice height - looks nice too in the L-shape they made it with the behind-the-bar area being in front of the stairway where my son had put in his stereo setup. The bar refrigerator with the two-keg capacity is at the end of the bar where the opening is to enter and go behind the bar - nice and convenient and fits there very nicely. The tv set is on top of the beer fridge and Dan's bookcase unit fits perfectly in the remaining space under the stairs to hold bottles of liquors!
The lumber used in building the bar is the rough lumber from the old house so right now, you really don't want to sit there and slide your arm across it or you could end up with a forearm full of splinters. But the guys don't want to lose that rustic look it has right now so they are going to get some type of coating to put over the wood that will seal it and make it feel smooth while still preserving the rustic wood look to it at the same time.
As I sat on one of the bar stools there, gazing at the neon sign they even have hanging behind the bar, looking around the room, I had to admire the ingenuity the guys had in their design and for the finishing ideas they have for the bar itself as well as for the room. It will be an interesting place for sure when they get it all done.
But tonight, the only thing I thought it lacked was a cold keg in the beer refrigerator.
Ah yes, maybe that will be in place by the next time Dan decides to go all out cooking a big meal and invites me to dinner!
But this gives me plenty of time to start planning what he and I can fix and serve for a big superbowl party I can see happening up there come the end of next January.
I forgot to add -something else Dan brought with him when he moved in - one of those large - and I do mean really LARGE screen tv sets that I can just envision sitting there, munching all kinds of great food while watching the superbowl and feeling like I am right there, in the stands. And I won't even give a hoot then who the players might be in that game as I'll just be enjoying the day for a change!
Saturday, August 04, 2007
One "Ringy-Dingy"
Remember the old tv show from the late 60's, early 70's - Laugh-In - with Rowan and Martin? Remember the routine Lily Tomlin used to do on that show of the goofy telephone operator? She would always start out by saying "One ringy-dingy" and then, snort a bit of a laugh out. I always loved that routine of hers. Not that this post has anything to do with telephone calls like hers - not quite, anyway.
Last night, the phone rang - daughter Mandy answered it and I could tell, pretty much, by bits and pieces I heard her say that the party on the other end was the older daughter, Carrie. As they were talking, Mandy was moving about between the living room, kitchen, dining room, then trying to feed Kurtis, all the while, talking on the phone. No big deal there, right? Right.
Well, Maya was sort of wandering around the house and then, I heard her talking - looked over my shoulder at her and there she was, with "her phone" - which is really an old cellphone that had been her dad's at some point in time when it functioned.
Maya had the phone open, like she was actually going to use it ya know and she would tuck it up on her shoulder, under her left ear, cock her head to rest on the phone and her shoulder and then she would say "Hello? Yes?" Close the phone up and immediately re-open it and replay this scenario, over and over while her mother and aunt were gabbing away. Really cute to watch, to listen to her mimic the openings of phone conversations that way.
But, if you are talking on the phone to someone -like her aunt, or Uncle Clate or "Poppy" (Grandpa Ertmer, that would be) and ask her if she would like to talk to this or that person, the response you usually get from her then is "Okay, okay. All done. All done!" Which translated means pretty much "No, I won't -no I don't want to talk to that person on the telephone!"
And don't bother me no more with silly questions like that either -is pretty much the tone of voice she uses when she backs off from chatting on the phone.
And, I'm hoping that she maintains that attitude about phone conversations for many years to come too. Although, if she is anything like her mother, that will be a very short-lived wish there.
Oh well, as long as she doesn't decide to try dialing any numbers what with her fascination for ALL NUMBERS - as it could play some nasty tricks on me with my phone bill some day down the road with bunches of long distance phone calls all dialed by accident.
So, to preclude the potential of that happening, I took steps today to change my telephone service over to a plan Verizon offers -and which my cousin Nancy told me about last week when we were chatting on the phone. Supposedly, this plan will only run me about $44-46 a month and will give me unlimited long distance dialing services toll free!
At least, I'm hoping it works out that way. However, in retrospect, I probably should have convinced Mandy to have that plan set up on HER phone and I should have had my phone set up to the cheapest plan possible because normally, the only calls on MY phone are those being made to dial in to the internet through my lovely (NOT) ISP - good old Peoplepc.com!
To use the unlimited long distance services I will have beginning Monday, we'll still have to sign of the internet to use my phone! And, we will still have no long distance service on Mandy's phone either so, to make any long distance calls and use that phone, we'll still need a phone card.
Kind of defeats the purpose of it all now don't 'cha think?
Last night, the phone rang - daughter Mandy answered it and I could tell, pretty much, by bits and pieces I heard her say that the party on the other end was the older daughter, Carrie. As they were talking, Mandy was moving about between the living room, kitchen, dining room, then trying to feed Kurtis, all the while, talking on the phone. No big deal there, right? Right.
Well, Maya was sort of wandering around the house and then, I heard her talking - looked over my shoulder at her and there she was, with "her phone" - which is really an old cellphone that had been her dad's at some point in time when it functioned.
Maya had the phone open, like she was actually going to use it ya know and she would tuck it up on her shoulder, under her left ear, cock her head to rest on the phone and her shoulder and then she would say "Hello? Yes?" Close the phone up and immediately re-open it and replay this scenario, over and over while her mother and aunt were gabbing away. Really cute to watch, to listen to her mimic the openings of phone conversations that way.
But, if you are talking on the phone to someone -like her aunt, or Uncle Clate or "Poppy" (Grandpa Ertmer, that would be) and ask her if she would like to talk to this or that person, the response you usually get from her then is "Okay, okay. All done. All done!" Which translated means pretty much "No, I won't -no I don't want to talk to that person on the telephone!"
And don't bother me no more with silly questions like that either -is pretty much the tone of voice she uses when she backs off from chatting on the phone.
And, I'm hoping that she maintains that attitude about phone conversations for many years to come too. Although, if she is anything like her mother, that will be a very short-lived wish there.
Oh well, as long as she doesn't decide to try dialing any numbers what with her fascination for ALL NUMBERS - as it could play some nasty tricks on me with my phone bill some day down the road with bunches of long distance phone calls all dialed by accident.
So, to preclude the potential of that happening, I took steps today to change my telephone service over to a plan Verizon offers -and which my cousin Nancy told me about last week when we were chatting on the phone. Supposedly, this plan will only run me about $44-46 a month and will give me unlimited long distance dialing services toll free!
At least, I'm hoping it works out that way. However, in retrospect, I probably should have convinced Mandy to have that plan set up on HER phone and I should have had my phone set up to the cheapest plan possible because normally, the only calls on MY phone are those being made to dial in to the internet through my lovely (NOT) ISP - good old Peoplepc.com!
To use the unlimited long distance services I will have beginning Monday, we'll still have to sign of the internet to use my phone! And, we will still have no long distance service on Mandy's phone either so, to make any long distance calls and use that phone, we'll still need a phone card.
Kind of defeats the purpose of it all now don't 'cha think?
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Eight Things
My friend Jen -from the Writer's Life group I belong to - tagged me for the "Eight Things about me Meme" and although I normally have a really hard time trying to think of things about myself that are a little stranger than the norm - that I haven't already 'fessed up to in my blog - I'm going to give this puppy a try here today.
1. I am(was -whatever, however you care to term it) an only child.
2. I asked for a brother or sister for my birthday or Christmas every year till I was about 12-13 years old or so - once I finally figured out my mother couldn't just magically produce a sibling for me by herself!
3. I have three children, three grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.
4. I am a total packrat - although my kids now tell me they have seen a few people who accrue more junk than I do.
5. Although I really do like to sew, knit, crochet, embroider - etc - I'm not really all that good at most of that stuff. Passable, most of the time, but I always manage to have at least one mistake on every project that I don't see until I am finished with it.
6. When my son was a baby, I used to sing "I Am Woman"(by Helen Reddy) to him as a lullaby to counteract the male chauvinistic tendencies his Dad had. My theory was "I may have to live with a male chauvinist but that doesn't mean I have to raise one too." And, judging by my son's attitude, I think that lullaby did what I wanted it to do!
7. My son caught his bedroom on fire back in the spring of 1991 and as a result, he, his younger sister and I all had to live in a motel for almost four months while the house was being repaired. (Not a pleasant thing to try to live with two teenagers in one motel room, for sure.)
8. I was an Avon Representative for 18 years and for 14-15 of those years, was also a top seller in the local district. My CB handle was and still is, "Avonlady" because of that job but I haven't run my cb in several years now -since my son-in-law took it out of my car about 3 years or so back.
So, there you go! Eight things about me that I don't think I have stated on my blog or anyone else's that I can recall anyway! And gee, I lived to tell about it too!
Amazing, huh?
I'm not tagging anyone in particular unless YOU want to take it on and post it on your blog. Now that would be fine and dandy in my book.
1. I am(was -whatever, however you care to term it) an only child.
2. I asked for a brother or sister for my birthday or Christmas every year till I was about 12-13 years old or so - once I finally figured out my mother couldn't just magically produce a sibling for me by herself!
3. I have three children, three grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.
4. I am a total packrat - although my kids now tell me they have seen a few people who accrue more junk than I do.
5. Although I really do like to sew, knit, crochet, embroider - etc - I'm not really all that good at most of that stuff. Passable, most of the time, but I always manage to have at least one mistake on every project that I don't see until I am finished with it.
6. When my son was a baby, I used to sing "I Am Woman"(by Helen Reddy) to him as a lullaby to counteract the male chauvinistic tendencies his Dad had. My theory was "I may have to live with a male chauvinist but that doesn't mean I have to raise one too." And, judging by my son's attitude, I think that lullaby did what I wanted it to do!
7. My son caught his bedroom on fire back in the spring of 1991 and as a result, he, his younger sister and I all had to live in a motel for almost four months while the house was being repaired. (Not a pleasant thing to try to live with two teenagers in one motel room, for sure.)
8. I was an Avon Representative for 18 years and for 14-15 of those years, was also a top seller in the local district. My CB handle was and still is, "Avonlady" because of that job but I haven't run my cb in several years now -since my son-in-law took it out of my car about 3 years or so back.
So, there you go! Eight things about me that I don't think I have stated on my blog or anyone else's that I can recall anyway! And gee, I lived to tell about it too!
Amazing, huh?
I'm not tagging anyone in particular unless YOU want to take it on and post it on your blog. Now that would be fine and dandy in my book.
Thinking Ahead...
Officially, it is now August 1st. Hard to believe that seven months of the year have gone by already, isn't it? What really bites for me is that I really haven't managed to accomplish much of anything in those seven months either. Now, that is really downright depressing!
I realized tonight too that I have some events coming up this month that I really HAVE to attend to, really HAVE to remember to take some special care to make sure some dates are observed.
First off, on August 14th, it will be my ex-mother-in-law's birthday. She'll be 82 years old this year - I think. Well, I'm pretty sure that's how old she'll be but Mandy is arguing with me here that she'll be 85 and I KNOW for sure, she ain't quite THAT old! I think I got it figured out now cause the oldest of her eight children - my ex-sister-in-law, Mary Lou - was the same age as me and Grandma was 18 (supposedly) when she was born, so that would make her then, by my calculations, 81 -right? What really confuses me here is that I know her kids had a birthday party for her two years ago to celebrate her 80th birthday and if that's the case, then she's gonna be 82. I'm confused! Ok, I know - what else is new? I stay in pretty much a fairly constant state of confusion it seems.
Mandy will be busy every time she goes shopping now over the next week to ten days though, searching all the card racks for just the right card to send to Grandma. Considering how much time my kids have NOT had to spend with their grandmother, it really does make me feel good to see Mandy trying to have a relationship, through letters and by sending Grandma photos when she can, of the kids and of herself and the other two of Grandma's grandchildren here as well. When Frank and I were married, his parents were then living in Illinois - Stockton, to be exact. That's at least a 12-hour drive from here to there so obviously, it wasn't a trip made very much by his parents or by us either to go see them or them, to come see us. I'm thinking while we were married, his parents probably saw us and the kids maybe 10 times max. And, after the divorce, the visits were really rare!
Back in 1981, I took the kids on a little vacation of sorts. We went down to D.C. and visited with a couple of my old friends there - including a trip to Annapolis and supper with a very old friend at a Crab Restaurant there. My girls would have nothing to do with eating the hot, spiced hard-shell crabs, but my son was game to give them a try and he and I -along with my old friend from 20 years earlier (Louie) -had ourselves a feast, we did!
After leaving Annapolis, we came home for a day and then, left and headed west towards Stockton and a planned visit with Grandma and Grandpa, timed so that it would take place over my son's 8th birthday. We had a brief stopover in Toledo, where we met up with a former co-worker of mine and we went to Cedar Point Amusement Park. Now, that part of our trip was really quite a hoot. My youngest, Mandy, was highly ticked off because she was almost, but not quite tall enough to be allowed on almost all the rides she really wanted to check out. She was the more daring of the kids when she was young and really wanted to go on this one roller coaster ride - I think it was called "The Blue Streak" or something like that. My son though, who was tall enough to ride anything, wanted nothing whatsoever to do with any roller coaster ride of any type. However, his older sister (Carrie) conned him into going on this one - the Blue Streak (or whatever) and they had to stand in line to board it for about 45 minutes cause it was so popular. The whole time they were in line, he was jabbering away at people in line beside them - total strangers, mind you - and telling them about how excited he was to be going on this ride but that it wasn't a roller coaster, etc., etc. Carrie was winking at people around her to signal them to please not spill the beans to him. Well, they finally got on the ride and as they started off, chugging up the first hill, there was Clate, still yammering on and on about this great ride, etc. Until they topped that first hill and the car gave a jolt and the ride was off and running, zipping around curves, corners, leaping the dips you know and there was Clate suddenly in a state of shock and realization that he'd just been hoodwinked by his sister. She said he looked at her and screamed at the top of his lungs, "YOU LIED TO ME, CARRIE! IT IS A ROLLY-COASTER!" She said the kids in the car behind them, who'd been in line behind them too were just howling laughing at him screaming that at his sister! And, we still tease Clate to this day too about how gullible he was way back then - still is to this day at times too.
When we left Cedar Point and headed to Stockton, for some reason which I don't remember now why, we drove all night and arrived at Stockton early in the morning of Clate's 8th birthday. Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us and we followed them from their house out to the Mississippi River nearby where they had a little old trailer that they used as a camp there and where Grandpa had a motorboat too and while I hit the sack to catch up on some much needed sleep, Grandpa took all three kids out on the river for a ride on his boat. Then, he brought the girls back to the shore and he and Clate went back out so Grandpa could take Clate on his first ever adventure fishing! Grandma had met the girls at the river and brought them back up to the trailer to spend some quality time with her.
So, there was Grandpa getting to know the grandson -and vice versa - and doing this great thing of fishing in the Mississippi. A couple hours later, I woke up to the sound of Clate's voice shouting "I caught a fish, I caught a fish." So I got up and wandered outside the trailer to see him racing up the path from the river, with Grandpa following behind, carrying some fish on a string. And, Clate was soooo excited!
"Wait till you see these fish I caught, Mom!" Yeah, by this time, Grandpa was getting closer and I could see three fish hanging on this line - two small ones (I think a perch and a blue gill) and the third fish was this HUGE and really, really ugly -and I do mean UGLY -thing. I learned shortly the big fish was a carp.
Grandpa then arrived at the camp and began to tell us about their fishing adventure. He said the kid caught the two small fish first and he was happy, very excited about that, of course. But, when the carp hit on his line, Grandpa told us he was afraid the kid was gonna lose his right thumb because he didn't know enough to get it out of the way of the reel spinning around as the fish took the bait and RAN! And when it ran, it ran really, really hard, fighting Grandpa and grandson's efforts to land it in the boat. Grandpa said it took them a good twenty minutes or so before they were finally able to reel it in and get it into the boat.
Once the got it in the boat though, Grandpa said Clate sat back down in the corner of the boat and told him, "Let's go home now Grandpa. I'm all fished out. It's Miller Time!" With a wink, Grandpa asked me where the heck the kid might have heard that line from. Beat me, for sure because I always drank Genesee back then but Miller's was his Dad's beverage of choice.
Grandpa Ertmer died back in 1984 and a few years later - don't remember the year now - Grandma (Eileen) Ertmer remarried and now, she and "Grandpa FLoyd" Goeman live in South Dakota. They have been splitting their time between spending the winter months in Texas (a couple of Snowbirds, they are) and the spring through fall back at Grandpa Floyd's farm but Grandma told Mandy this past spring that she thinks they'll just be staying year-round now in South Dakota as the trip apparently is a bit longish for her and Grandpa to make that drive south now. So, if I don't remember to do this around the 14th, here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday Grandma from one of your ex-daughter's-in-law. (She's really one pretty terrific little lady, I must add!)
So, any way, now you know one of the things I have to keep in the back of my mind and start figuring out what to get my son for his big 34th birthday on the 22nd of this month. One thing, he's pretty easy to please - doesn't expect much - so we can (if we can find some good ones) easily get away with just giving him gag type gifts if we want. Here's a photo of Clate, celebrating his birthday here 2 years ago and it should give you a little idea of what a big clown he tends to be.
The photo to the left, is Uncle Clate, clowning around with the little Princess, Maya.
And, here on the right, is Uncle Clate with Princess Maya and the Prince, Alex, whose birthday happens to be three days before Uncle Clate's - on the 19th.
So, that means Grammy's gonna have to figure out a nice gift for Prince Alex and something for Uncle Clate - probably a cake for both of them too!
Alex's birthday though should be a lot easier for me to figure out what to get him. I told him last year that Grammy - this one, that is - won't buy him clothes because I have no idea what size to get him, don't know what he likes as clothing goes either (he can be a bit particular - a lot like his mother that way, where clothes are concerned -and Gram won't buy him toys either. That's something I will leave to his parents and his other grandparents to provide t him. But, because I know he likes to read, a lot too, and I am a big proponent of books at all ages, I have agreed that I will get him books for his birthdays and for Christmas. So far, that deal has been working out quite well. Last year, before Christmas, he had his mother send me an e-mail with the name of his favorite author and the names of some of that writer's books too that he hadn't read yet and would like to have. So, Barnes and Noble's website, here I come!
Here's some pictures taken last spring of my grandson, "Prince Alex." The one on the left here is Alex and his mother, my older daughter, Carrie.
And, on the right, here's Alex's paternal grandmother (Grammy Marge) and his step-grandfather, Pap, my Prince Alex and me. He wasn't quite 9 years old when these photos were taken, but you can see how tall he is next to me -and I'm not short at 5 ft. 6 in. His mother is almost 5 ft. 9 inches tall and already, he was up to her chin a year ago! Incredible how tall this boy is already! And he's just such a sweetheart too - a really, really great little (but big) guy he is! No, I'm not proud of him now, am I?
Sometime after the 14th (Grandma's birthday) and mid-September, we'll have a visitor here too - coming all the way from Nevada, no less. He's not sure exactly when he's going to be here yet though. That would be my ex-husband - my kids' Dad and "Poppy" as he is referred to around here with Princess Maya. He was here two years ago in May and last year, in June - spent a week here both times. Two years ago, Maya hadn't begun any therapy at that time so she was very difficult for him to get next to, to play with, to get acquainted and make any real "memories." Last year, the little Prince, Kurtis, was only about six weeks old and "Poppy" tends to be afraid of tiny babies - or so he says. Although I did manage to convince him that it was safe to pick Kurtis up -that he wouldn't break or anything like that - and he actually did pick him up and held him for about 5-10 minutes or so. This year's visit should be a whole different ball game for him and the kids as Kurtis dearly loves to be held and carried around and Maya - well, she has a vocabulary now, you can communicate a lot better with her and she'll really enjoy being able to show off to "Poppy" her bikes, her swingset, her swimming pool too if he shows up in August. She'll also be able to con him into taking her for walks up and down the road here - probably will want to take him down the road to show him "the 25" - meaning the speed sign down the street from us. I think he'll definitely have a totally different type of quality time to spend this year getting re-acquainted with his grandchildren, for sure.
The above picture was taken on his visit here two years ago and from left to right, there's Mandy, Princess Maya, Poppy, Carrie and Prince Alex. It's really a good feeling for me seeing how my kids - and the grandkids too now -have developed a very good relationship with their dad. If someone had told me even 15 years ago that a day would come that my kids and their Dad would communicate frequently, make plans to see him, call him almost every week and that he would call them frequently too, I would have told that someone they had to be crazy! But, since November of 1993, the relationship between him and the kids has grown steadily better and better. And, regardless of what happened between him and me, that's the way it should be for our kids and now, for our grandchildren too!
So there you have it! The events coming at me now this month and possibly into mid-September.
A lot to look forward too at any rate!
I realized tonight too that I have some events coming up this month that I really HAVE to attend to, really HAVE to remember to take some special care to make sure some dates are observed.
First off, on August 14th, it will be my ex-mother-in-law's birthday. She'll be 82 years old this year - I think. Well, I'm pretty sure that's how old she'll be but Mandy is arguing with me here that she'll be 85 and I KNOW for sure, she ain't quite THAT old! I think I got it figured out now cause the oldest of her eight children - my ex-sister-in-law, Mary Lou - was the same age as me and Grandma was 18 (supposedly) when she was born, so that would make her then, by my calculations, 81 -right? What really confuses me here is that I know her kids had a birthday party for her two years ago to celebrate her 80th birthday and if that's the case, then she's gonna be 82. I'm confused! Ok, I know - what else is new? I stay in pretty much a fairly constant state of confusion it seems.
Mandy will be busy every time she goes shopping now over the next week to ten days though, searching all the card racks for just the right card to send to Grandma. Considering how much time my kids have NOT had to spend with their grandmother, it really does make me feel good to see Mandy trying to have a relationship, through letters and by sending Grandma photos when she can, of the kids and of herself and the other two of Grandma's grandchildren here as well. When Frank and I were married, his parents were then living in Illinois - Stockton, to be exact. That's at least a 12-hour drive from here to there so obviously, it wasn't a trip made very much by his parents or by us either to go see them or them, to come see us. I'm thinking while we were married, his parents probably saw us and the kids maybe 10 times max. And, after the divorce, the visits were really rare!
Back in 1981, I took the kids on a little vacation of sorts. We went down to D.C. and visited with a couple of my old friends there - including a trip to Annapolis and supper with a very old friend at a Crab Restaurant there. My girls would have nothing to do with eating the hot, spiced hard-shell crabs, but my son was game to give them a try and he and I -along with my old friend from 20 years earlier (Louie) -had ourselves a feast, we did!
After leaving Annapolis, we came home for a day and then, left and headed west towards Stockton and a planned visit with Grandma and Grandpa, timed so that it would take place over my son's 8th birthday. We had a brief stopover in Toledo, where we met up with a former co-worker of mine and we went to Cedar Point Amusement Park. Now, that part of our trip was really quite a hoot. My youngest, Mandy, was highly ticked off because she was almost, but not quite tall enough to be allowed on almost all the rides she really wanted to check out. She was the more daring of the kids when she was young and really wanted to go on this one roller coaster ride - I think it was called "The Blue Streak" or something like that. My son though, who was tall enough to ride anything, wanted nothing whatsoever to do with any roller coaster ride of any type. However, his older sister (Carrie) conned him into going on this one - the Blue Streak (or whatever) and they had to stand in line to board it for about 45 minutes cause it was so popular. The whole time they were in line, he was jabbering away at people in line beside them - total strangers, mind you - and telling them about how excited he was to be going on this ride but that it wasn't a roller coaster, etc., etc. Carrie was winking at people around her to signal them to please not spill the beans to him. Well, they finally got on the ride and as they started off, chugging up the first hill, there was Clate, still yammering on and on about this great ride, etc. Until they topped that first hill and the car gave a jolt and the ride was off and running, zipping around curves, corners, leaping the dips you know and there was Clate suddenly in a state of shock and realization that he'd just been hoodwinked by his sister. She said he looked at her and screamed at the top of his lungs, "YOU LIED TO ME, CARRIE! IT IS A ROLLY-COASTER!" She said the kids in the car behind them, who'd been in line behind them too were just howling laughing at him screaming that at his sister! And, we still tease Clate to this day too about how gullible he was way back then - still is to this day at times too.
When we left Cedar Point and headed to Stockton, for some reason which I don't remember now why, we drove all night and arrived at Stockton early in the morning of Clate's 8th birthday. Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us and we followed them from their house out to the Mississippi River nearby where they had a little old trailer that they used as a camp there and where Grandpa had a motorboat too and while I hit the sack to catch up on some much needed sleep, Grandpa took all three kids out on the river for a ride on his boat. Then, he brought the girls back to the shore and he and Clate went back out so Grandpa could take Clate on his first ever adventure fishing! Grandma had met the girls at the river and brought them back up to the trailer to spend some quality time with her.
So, there was Grandpa getting to know the grandson -and vice versa - and doing this great thing of fishing in the Mississippi. A couple hours later, I woke up to the sound of Clate's voice shouting "I caught a fish, I caught a fish." So I got up and wandered outside the trailer to see him racing up the path from the river, with Grandpa following behind, carrying some fish on a string. And, Clate was soooo excited!
"Wait till you see these fish I caught, Mom!" Yeah, by this time, Grandpa was getting closer and I could see three fish hanging on this line - two small ones (I think a perch and a blue gill) and the third fish was this HUGE and really, really ugly -and I do mean UGLY -thing. I learned shortly the big fish was a carp.
Grandpa then arrived at the camp and began to tell us about their fishing adventure. He said the kid caught the two small fish first and he was happy, very excited about that, of course. But, when the carp hit on his line, Grandpa told us he was afraid the kid was gonna lose his right thumb because he didn't know enough to get it out of the way of the reel spinning around as the fish took the bait and RAN! And when it ran, it ran really, really hard, fighting Grandpa and grandson's efforts to land it in the boat. Grandpa said it took them a good twenty minutes or so before they were finally able to reel it in and get it into the boat.
Once the got it in the boat though, Grandpa said Clate sat back down in the corner of the boat and told him, "Let's go home now Grandpa. I'm all fished out. It's Miller Time!" With a wink, Grandpa asked me where the heck the kid might have heard that line from. Beat me, for sure because I always drank Genesee back then but Miller's was his Dad's beverage of choice.
Grandpa Ertmer died back in 1984 and a few years later - don't remember the year now - Grandma (Eileen) Ertmer remarried and now, she and "Grandpa FLoyd" Goeman live in South Dakota. They have been splitting their time between spending the winter months in Texas (a couple of Snowbirds, they are) and the spring through fall back at Grandpa Floyd's farm but Grandma told Mandy this past spring that she thinks they'll just be staying year-round now in South Dakota as the trip apparently is a bit longish for her and Grandpa to make that drive south now. So, if I don't remember to do this around the 14th, here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday Grandma from one of your ex-daughter's-in-law. (She's really one pretty terrific little lady, I must add!)
So, any way, now you know one of the things I have to keep in the back of my mind and start figuring out what to get my son for his big 34th birthday on the 22nd of this month. One thing, he's pretty easy to please - doesn't expect much - so we can (if we can find some good ones) easily get away with just giving him gag type gifts if we want. Here's a photo of Clate, celebrating his birthday here 2 years ago and it should give you a little idea of what a big clown he tends to be.
The photo to the left, is Uncle Clate, clowning around with the little Princess, Maya.
And, here on the right, is Uncle Clate with Princess Maya and the Prince, Alex, whose birthday happens to be three days before Uncle Clate's - on the 19th.
So, that means Grammy's gonna have to figure out a nice gift for Prince Alex and something for Uncle Clate - probably a cake for both of them too!
Alex's birthday though should be a lot easier for me to figure out what to get him. I told him last year that Grammy - this one, that is - won't buy him clothes because I have no idea what size to get him, don't know what he likes as clothing goes either (he can be a bit particular - a lot like his mother that way, where clothes are concerned -and Gram won't buy him toys either. That's something I will leave to his parents and his other grandparents to provide t him. But, because I know he likes to read, a lot too, and I am a big proponent of books at all ages, I have agreed that I will get him books for his birthdays and for Christmas. So far, that deal has been working out quite well. Last year, before Christmas, he had his mother send me an e-mail with the name of his favorite author and the names of some of that writer's books too that he hadn't read yet and would like to have. So, Barnes and Noble's website, here I come!
Here's some pictures taken last spring of my grandson, "Prince Alex." The one on the left here is Alex and his mother, my older daughter, Carrie.
And, on the right, here's Alex's paternal grandmother (Grammy Marge) and his step-grandfather, Pap, my Prince Alex and me. He wasn't quite 9 years old when these photos were taken, but you can see how tall he is next to me -and I'm not short at 5 ft. 6 in. His mother is almost 5 ft. 9 inches tall and already, he was up to her chin a year ago! Incredible how tall this boy is already! And he's just such a sweetheart too - a really, really great little (but big) guy he is! No, I'm not proud of him now, am I?Sometime after the 14th (Grandma's birthday) and mid-September, we'll have a visitor here too - coming all the way from Nevada, no less. He's not sure exactly when he's going to be here yet though. That would be my ex-husband - my kids' Dad and "Poppy" as he is referred to around here with Princess Maya. He was here two years ago in May and last year, in June - spent a week here both times. Two years ago, Maya hadn't begun any therapy at that time so she was very difficult for him to get next to, to play with, to get acquainted and make any real "memories." Last year, the little Prince, Kurtis, was only about six weeks old and "Poppy" tends to be afraid of tiny babies - or so he says. Although I did manage to convince him that it was safe to pick Kurtis up -that he wouldn't break or anything like that - and he actually did pick him up and held him for about 5-10 minutes or so. This year's visit should be a whole different ball game for him and the kids as Kurtis dearly loves to be held and carried around and Maya - well, she has a vocabulary now, you can communicate a lot better with her and she'll really enjoy being able to show off to "Poppy" her bikes, her swingset, her swimming pool too if he shows up in August. She'll also be able to con him into taking her for walks up and down the road here - probably will want to take him down the road to show him "the 25" - meaning the speed sign down the street from us. I think he'll definitely have a totally different type of quality time to spend this year getting re-acquainted with his grandchildren, for sure.
The above picture was taken on his visit here two years ago and from left to right, there's Mandy, Princess Maya, Poppy, Carrie and Prince Alex. It's really a good feeling for me seeing how my kids - and the grandkids too now -have developed a very good relationship with their dad. If someone had told me even 15 years ago that a day would come that my kids and their Dad would communicate frequently, make plans to see him, call him almost every week and that he would call them frequently too, I would have told that someone they had to be crazy! But, since November of 1993, the relationship between him and the kids has grown steadily better and better. And, regardless of what happened between him and me, that's the way it should be for our kids and now, for our grandchildren too!So there you have it! The events coming at me now this month and possibly into mid-September.
A lot to look forward too at any rate!
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