This is a meme that was so kindly bestowed on me by some Norwegian Mum (with six children and obviously is much better organized than I am to have time to think of creative things to write in this lovely thing. (Translated - MEMEs are not something I am normally very adept at so don't look for much creativity here from me. LOL)
Because, as Stine explained, it is an OPEN meme - you can either tag someone with it -or not -I have chosen here to participate but not tag any particular blogger. If you like it, are good at this, interested in perpetuating it, fine. Pick it up and run with it, OK?
Now, on with the show!
Mel at Monday Morning Power has created this meme. It's a way for us to promote our blogs and share in some link love. Anyone can play along - just remember to follow the rules. Have fun!!!
The meme is based on a recent post that was conducted asking the question “Why do you Blog?” and the rewrite “Why do you Blog? - Reworked.”
The purpose of this meme is to tell our tales by spreading the reasons that we blog to as many sites as possible. We get to explain ourselves, direct traffic to our site and highlight our own favourite post. A positive experience for everyone involved. Create a short advertisement for your site that will be spread across the blogosphere; a growing directory of blogs.
*Start Copy Here*
This is an open meme. You do not have to be tagged to join in. All you have to do is follow the rules.Please let me know when you have added your site by leaving a comment on “Complete List” with a link to your post. This will insure an up-to-date list, giving you even greater distribution. You then have the option of copying the growing list back to your site
Rules:
Create an inventive post title
Write a brief introduction to the meme.
Copy from “**Start Copy Here**” through “**End Copy Here**”
Paste into your post
At the end of the “*list*”, before “**End copy here**”, please add your name, site name (with link), a very brief description (2-3 sentences) of why you blog, and your most important, most representative, or most relevant post (with link.)
Tag at least 5 others to participate.
Leave a comment and a link to your post on “Complete List”
My name is Mel and I am the Author of Attitude, the Ultimate Power, aka Monday Morning Power. I blog because I am passionate about happiness and living in the moment. I want to spread the concept that we are in control of our own lives and can choose how we act and react. My site is focused on the Pursuit, Capture, Care and Feeding of a Positive Mental Attitude. One of my most representative posts is “Happiness Vs. Human Nature.”
I am Max and I offer weekly articles on MAX. Why do I blog? I do it because I want to share my thoughts with you guys. I present a new and interesting way of transmitting philosophical thoughts: funny, engaging and intriguing! My funniest, yet intriguing, post is "Don't you just love People?"
I am the Great and Powerful Baba Doodlius. My 100% factual blog The Thoughts and Sayings Of Baba Doodlius is intended to educate all of you curious readers about the Truth behind the Great Secrets of the Universe. I have the Truth! Can you handle the Truth? For a sample of my powers of enlightenment, read my Revelation of the terrible secret of Bigfoot, aka Don't get stepped on.
My name is Amelia and I am the Author of Amel's Realm. I blog because I need to voice everything in my world so that I won't explode. My site is all about thoughts, experiences, fears, problems, misadventures, hopes, and dreams of an introverted tropical girl in a foreign land (Finland). One of my most representative posts is On Trust and Relationship.
I am Geoff of Geoffandcarley.com and I blog for reasons as diverse and as fickle as my moods. Mostly I blog because I'm firmly convinced I've figured a few things out and that the world will benefit from my experience the same way I've benefited from others' experiences. One post that I feel captures my emotional involvement and my ire (but not my humor as much) is Decision time.
My name is Judy and I am the Author of ~~Sugar Queen's Dream~~. I blog because it's cheap therapy and I have something to say. I feel my most powerful post is called “The Myths of Smoking......”
My name is Sindi and I have written a blog entitled Life is a roller coaster!. My blog is based on the ups and downs of everyday life. I started blogging because I was going through some hard times and I wanted to meet new people to talk to. I like to write and was hoping people might enjoy reading what I have to say. I think the most inspiring post I have written to date is We Effect So Many.
People call me the Midgetmanofsteel (although I’m neither a midget, nor made of steel). I am the sole author the blog Mental Poo: a mostly true and humorous account of things that have happened to me, are happening to me, or are just filling my head and taking up valuable space where images of women should be. You can get a sneak peek into my mess of a brain by reading “Raisins are People” – a true account of my son’s first field trip.
My name is Sandee and I have a blog called Comedy Plus. My blog is just for fun, and I started it to poke fun about everyday life. My reason for blogging is to have fun and meet new friends. I have done both beyond my wildest dreams. I have posted lots of jokes, but when ask what my favorite joke is, I always pick Anger Management.
My name is Lynda. I blog to as a way to expose my writings and to spread my knowledge on the subject of love. My primary blog (I have 15) is lynda's loft. My favorite piece would be I LOVE..... I have over 300 original poems and posts dealing with the wonderful and painful world of love. I love love!
My name Adrian, although most of you probably know me as the Mighty Genie King. I am the author First Time Dad. I started blogging as a way to document my growing up pains as my wife and I raise our daughter. I hope that one day my daughter will be able to look at this and get an idea what life was like "back then". Now I blog about everything but the main focus is still the same! One of my favorite posts is Goodnight Sweetheart! Hello Basil! Eh...Who's Basil...
Hello, my name is Ann and I'm the author of A Nice Place in the Sun. I blog because I care about people and want to make them happy. My site is focused on humorous, inspiring, and nostalgic posts about life, children, and memories. My most representative post, or the post where I'm most myself is "The Craziest Experience Of My Life."
We are a team of writers, and everyone calls us NAFA, so that would be our name. We are the proud authors of NAFASG©™ - United And Dedicated Behind You™. Blogging, to us, is a form of spreading useful information and sharing our knowledge to every part of the world in order to contribute to the betterment of our global community. The post that we feel would be representative of our blog and the global community at large is The Sociological Interaction.
Hola! This is Mariuca and I blog because writing is what makes me whole. I write about anything under the sun from life, love, friends to cats and work. I tend to write best when under pressure and my personal favourite post from Mariuca is Love in Disarray.
My name is Susan and I am the Owner of ~~Wake up America ~~, which is a political, right leaning blog. I blog because I believe we need more voices out there to separate fact from fiction, to support our troops and to high light the lack of ethics from journalists today. I feel my most powerful post is called "Are You Proud to be an American......"
"Here I am :-) My name is Mauro and I'm the author of 1 Million Love Messages ... maybe the biggest love challenge in the blogosphere. Why I blog ??? Because I believe that bloggers can make a difference in the world. That's my challenge! My favourite post it's (for sure) Adam Donkus & Lizzie's Love History."
Hi there World I am Aussie, the author of Little Aussie Cynic and I want to Breathe among others. I was recently asked:"Why Do you Blog?" this takes me back to the beginning... I started blogging in an attempt to get people thinking, using my cynical humour as a tool to make people laugh, think and at times get the blood pumping.... Each of my Blogs takes in a little peice of my varied personality but the one which discribes me best would have to be There is Always a Natural Way the latest edition to the Aussie Cynic Family...
I am Zubli Zainordin, in Total Happiness, I organize the Book Project blog and co-author Santa's Community Blog and Hall Of Fame Blog. I blog with the purpose of documenting about my self for my own reference, my future generations and friends who prefer to know me. I also share vital and valuable information entirely on total happiness. I believe in Santa Claus and I share the Spirit of Christmas within this Blog World. In addition I promote bloggers, their blogs, and invite them to share their blogging experiences, and together with Shinade, I review their blogs and award them with the Zubli and Shinade Recommended Read awards. Those who continuously show continuous blogging improvements shall be residence of the Hall Of Fame blog.
I'm Holly from Mama Pajama. I am a stay-at-home mom to my two year old son, Cameron. He is such a joy in our lives. I just stumbled across blogging after watching a television show. I wish I had found it sooner, as it has been so much fun meeting people all across the globe. It's my own place to share about my family, interests, likes, dislikes, etc. I love that I've found my own little circle of blog buddies that will read the stuff I have to say....as mundane or silly as it might be! LOL It's fun leaving others comments, and knowing that something I post or comment just might make someone smile that day. I'm already having a hard time turning off my computer at night, so I'm hoping to keep this blogging addiction under control. My favorite post so far is Lucky Girl.
I'm Kathleen of Invisible Keepsakes.Well, I blog because if I don't, I'll go mad and get very hard to live with. I need a tableau for my creative endeavours. I write poetry. That is to say, I am a poet. I'm not a great poet; nor am I a deep poet, but I love wordplay and creating images and entertaining people with my ideas and interpretations of events and news and random topics. I've written quite a lot of poems, some have even been published, but I think the one I would have you read is Bad Dawg #7 because I feel so strongly about it.
I am Beth or Skipper - whoever you are most comfortable with, and I author My Life Starts at Forty Two. I am really trying to turn my life and myself around - and become the best me that I can. It is not always easy with family, illness, etc, but I refuse to give up. This is my journal of journey. One of the best posts that I can use to describe me is The Decision.
I am Delirious the creator of Lifeonalimb. I always wished I could have my own little newspaper and write all of the columns myself. But since I probably wouldn't make enough money to pay for the paper to publish it, I decided to go the "free route" instead. I don't think this is my best post, but probably one that most people would enjoy; death-defying Stop in, check it out, leave a comment, then go get therapy.
I am Bridget from "And Miles To Go Before We Sleep" I am a stay at home mom of five young children, ages 1-12, three of which have special needs. Two of my boys are afflicted with Autism so it is a very busy household. I started bogging because our family moves around a lot and we ar very far away from our families and this was a great was to stay in touch with them. I met so many great people through blogging and I enjoyed it so much that I now feel like it's another job (one that I enjoy). My favorite post so far has to be The Old Tree In The Middle Of The Dry Desert.
My name is Winsome Gunning and I am an artist who started blogging about `The Creative Process’ and `The Power of Listening to Silence’ on Winsome Gunning Art Walk. From my own listening to silence came A New Green Earthmy personal voice for green change. About DioxinAbout Simple Ways and A Green Earth are also my voices for green change. On these two blogs I publish contemporary green news from around the world.I am the wily Blogolope, and I blog for fun and to get things off my chest and hopefully be funny.
I created Blogolope because I thought it would be fun, simple as that. Blogolope to Assist Santa, Elves if a funny post. is an example of the issues about which I have felt compelled to write.
Hi, My name is Janice Ng & I'm the miracle mum from "This is a miracle". I started to blog to document the foot steps of my 2 boys : Amos & Zachary. With this blog, they are able to look back what they have been through: their joy, excitement, laughter, fighting, crying, screaming... etc when they grow up. One of my favourite post is "The loving brothers" on how the 2 brothers showed they tenderly care through a piece of strawberry cake!!
My name is Stine, a Norwegian mother of 6, and I blog at Mother's Home!. I have recently created another blog/site, Mother's Got A Dot Com. Why? First, for my own enjoyment. I've gotten to "know" so many lovely people since I started, and blogging has become an addiction (Sound familiar?) Second, I'm continually amazed that I can actually earn a little extra doing what I enjoy so much... I also get to let out some steam sometimes, as in Stage Mums.
My name is Jeni and the name of my blog is Down River Drivel, which basically means "hogwash" or b.s. in a politer way. I blog as a means to remember - things about my family, my kids and especially my grandchildren or events from my youth, back in the dark ages and also, as a way to practice just playing with words. My favorite post would be this one, titled "Deep Roots" which explains a bit more about me.
**End Copy Here**
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Having More Treats
Yesterday, I gave out this little Halloween TREAT to four bloggers, all relatively new to me, to my blog. In the spirit of Trick or Treating, I'm going to continue to give this TREAT out to several bloggers every day between now and Halloween. That means, over the next two weeks, hopefully I will have given a TREAT to at least everyone on my sidebar now as well as other new bloggers when I make additions to my blog.
Two great bloggers - Theresa and Hootin-anni gave this TREAT to me with the stipulation that it gets passed on to some other new, budding bloggers - or some old hands too who maybe deserve a little special recognition from time to time as well.
With that in mind then, here's my selections for today:
My first TREAT today goes to Mahala out in Frog Pond Holler (where ever that might be). She's got her hands full with "Bossman" -who sounds a bit like he might be one of my old supervisors at one of the Truckstops where I used to work as she says he's practicin' real hard to be a real "Schmuck." And then at her workplace she has "Bubbles" to contend with to say nothing of everyone back at home. Always somethin' ya know! I figure she could use just a little bit of a Halloween Treat. Check her out when you have a chance and see if you don't agree.
My second TREAT is for a special young lady in England - that "Cheeky little Brit" as Linda, the 911 Operator likes to call her. Right now, Miss Claire is a student studying to become a counselor, working here and there doing house sitting and bouncing back and forth to check on her Mum, who is in the hospital awaiting surgery. A busy young lady she is under normal circumstances with her hikes and trips to see her sister and two young nephews, she's really in need of a big TREAT right now and a reminder too that the next time she takes on a job house sitting, she makes sure the people have a computer WITH an internet connection she can use while working there too!
This next TREAT goes to a blogger buddy up in Canada who really could use a pick-me-upper right now! I tried to comment tonight on her blog and apparently blogger is being contrary with me and wouldn't let me in to give her a big "thumbs up" and a Woo hoo because she thinks she may have found a neat little part-time job that who knows, might develop into something with a few more hours a week too. From being suddenly unemployed, to now in a training position in a women's dress shop all the while, missing her TEEN son who decided last week to move to the big city, here's a big congrats to LatteGirl and plenty of sweets to see her through this phase and into a nice job for a change! You go, Girl!
And finally tonight, here's a TREAT going out to a great blogger out in northern California where he's busy as a fireman, a hunter/fisherman, cartoonist and photographer - just "Turning the Pages of Life" -working towards his retirement in the near future. But before that - like this weekend - Gene has organized a big blog event for anyone interested in learning more about other bloggers and the area of the world where each of us lives. It's not too late to sign up for this and it should be a lot of fun, great pictures, interesting tales about the various areas from which we all hail, don't 'cha think? Check out Gene's blog and sign up for it! And for being such a good friend, fellow blogger, all-around nice guy, here's a great big TREAT - just for you Gene!
Enjoy a little bit of sweet TREAT from me to each of you!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
No Tricks, Just Treats!
WOW! In just a little over two weeks now, it will be that big event, second only to Christmas, for candies and other goodies little kids - and lots of big ones too - look forward to.
Halloween! Who doesn't love the fun of this day - getting dressed up in a costume, going to homes of friends and neighbors and "begging" for treats of candies and sweets; trying to be our scariest character ever at times too to shoo the ghosts and ghoulies all away.
This year, Halloween will be just a bit more special here at our house because if all goes well, this will be the first year little Princess Maya will be able to go "trick or treating." It will also be a switch for me over the past two years because I will be home and hopefully, healthy for this event. Two years ago on Halloween, I was just coming out of recovery from surgery on my abdominal tract - done down at one of the large hospitals in Pittsburgh. Both my daughters were there with me at that time too, so Maya had no one to take her out "trick or treating" and last year, I'd just come home from yet another visit to a Pittsburgh hospital, having had more surgery the week before Halloween, so I wasn't really up to par to greeting the trick or treaters and that made it so no one was really able then to man the home fort and still take Maya out for her first experience of this fun day. She was able to go to three, maybe four homes - neighbors close to us. Here's a picture of Maya, all dressed up last year, ready to roll.
She's all excited this year to think she will be able to go out and gather up lots and lots of treats. Because she is really engrossed in the Princess dolls - anything Cinderella or Snow White or Belle from Beauty and the Beast - as well as the Bratz dolls or just plain Barbie anything really makes her happy, very excited. So Mandy hunted all over trying to find her a princess costume but the closest she could come was to find a genie type costume. Sorry, no pictures yet available of that one but I'm sure we'll get some of her all dressed up for her big day - or night -along with her little brother decked out in his little green dragon outfit too.
And, can you believe this but I received a gift too just in time for this big event - a really nifty "sweet treat" blogger award from not just one fellow blogger but from two! I'm impressed.
Bloggers Theresa and also Hootin' Anni, both passed this special TREAT on to me today.
The stipulations of this award are that you pass it on to a fellow new blogger that was a TREAT to discover. And, my goodness, there are just so many folks that have been an absolute joy for me to "discover" in my blog travels. I'm going to try to pass this TREAT on every day between now and Halloween.
So tonight, here's who get a TREAT award from me - to share as they see fit with others between now and Halloween.
A fairly new addition to my favorites list is this lady up in Minnesota with her Random Thoughts - Minnesota Blue. Stop by and say hello to her, get acquainted a bit. I'm quite sure she'll welcome you with open arms, make you comfy while you read.
Next TREAT goes to another really new blogger to my humble online abode. This lady though has not one, but TWO blogs - one, she shares with another lady information about crochet, crafts, yarns and such - a blog after MY heart for sure because I too have oodles of containers of yarns - and fabrics too - just waiting for me to get some spare time and dig into. The other blog is about her life, her family and something she and I share there too -learning all we can about autism and how to best help those around us, those we love dearly, with this disorder. So please, check out Snoop Murph at either of these to places - here, for her crafts and here for her work and family. I know there are lots and lots of folks in the blogosphere who also have a deep understanding of autism -several who are among my favorite bloggers here too and who can share plenty of blogger love and caring for her and her son as they embark on a whole new adventure of learning and the excitement that comes from seeing the accomplishments shine through too.
My third TREAT tonight goes to Terry, of Terry's Playpen, with a big thank you and wishes for lots and lots of treats to come to him for all his help this past week in making the changes to my blog's appearance - from the beautiful banner at the top - to the nice, clean and crisp look to my sidebar. Great job, Terry!
And, finally tonight, I'd like to present a big TREAT to Walks For Woman and her blog, Kissing the Dogwood. Be sure to check out her post for today Believe in Yourself which is so beautiful, so poignant and also, so true. Don't believe me? You'll just have to go there and read it - see the picture and understand for yourself, the truth in my advice there. You won't regret it!
So there's my first four TREATS - more to come in days ahead to remind every one of all the great blogs out there, just waiting for each of us to stop by and visit, share a cup of coffee or tea and a sweet treat!
Halloween! Who doesn't love the fun of this day - getting dressed up in a costume, going to homes of friends and neighbors and "begging" for treats of candies and sweets; trying to be our scariest character ever at times too to shoo the ghosts and ghoulies all away.
This year, Halloween will be just a bit more special here at our house because if all goes well, this will be the first year little Princess Maya will be able to go "trick or treating." It will also be a switch for me over the past two years because I will be home and hopefully, healthy for this event. Two years ago on Halloween, I was just coming out of recovery from surgery on my abdominal tract - done down at one of the large hospitals in Pittsburgh. Both my daughters were there with me at that time too, so Maya had no one to take her out "trick or treating" and last year, I'd just come home from yet another visit to a Pittsburgh hospital, having had more surgery the week before Halloween, so I wasn't really up to par to greeting the trick or treaters and that made it so no one was really able then to man the home fort and still take Maya out for her first experience of this fun day. She was able to go to three, maybe four homes - neighbors close to us. Here's a picture of Maya, all dressed up last year, ready to roll.
She's all excited this year to think she will be able to go out and gather up lots and lots of treats. Because she is really engrossed in the Princess dolls - anything Cinderella or Snow White or Belle from Beauty and the Beast - as well as the Bratz dolls or just plain Barbie anything really makes her happy, very excited. So Mandy hunted all over trying to find her a princess costume but the closest she could come was to find a genie type costume. Sorry, no pictures yet available of that one but I'm sure we'll get some of her all dressed up for her big day - or night -along with her little brother decked out in his little green dragon outfit too.
And, can you believe this but I received a gift too just in time for this big event - a really nifty "sweet treat" blogger award from not just one fellow blogger but from two! I'm impressed.
Bloggers Theresa and also Hootin' Anni, both passed this special TREAT on to me today.
The stipulations of this award are that you pass it on to a fellow new blogger that was a TREAT to discover. And, my goodness, there are just so many folks that have been an absolute joy for me to "discover" in my blog travels. I'm going to try to pass this TREAT on every day between now and Halloween.
So tonight, here's who get a TREAT award from me - to share as they see fit with others between now and Halloween.
A fairly new addition to my favorites list is this lady up in Minnesota with her Random Thoughts - Minnesota Blue. Stop by and say hello to her, get acquainted a bit. I'm quite sure she'll welcome you with open arms, make you comfy while you read.
Next TREAT goes to another really new blogger to my humble online abode. This lady though has not one, but TWO blogs - one, she shares with another lady information about crochet, crafts, yarns and such - a blog after MY heart for sure because I too have oodles of containers of yarns - and fabrics too - just waiting for me to get some spare time and dig into. The other blog is about her life, her family and something she and I share there too -learning all we can about autism and how to best help those around us, those we love dearly, with this disorder. So please, check out Snoop Murph at either of these to places - here, for her crafts and here for her work and family. I know there are lots and lots of folks in the blogosphere who also have a deep understanding of autism -several who are among my favorite bloggers here too and who can share plenty of blogger love and caring for her and her son as they embark on a whole new adventure of learning and the excitement that comes from seeing the accomplishments shine through too.
My third TREAT tonight goes to Terry, of Terry's Playpen, with a big thank you and wishes for lots and lots of treats to come to him for all his help this past week in making the changes to my blog's appearance - from the beautiful banner at the top - to the nice, clean and crisp look to my sidebar. Great job, Terry!
And, finally tonight, I'd like to present a big TREAT to Walks For Woman and her blog, Kissing the Dogwood. Be sure to check out her post for today Believe in Yourself which is so beautiful, so poignant and also, so true. Don't believe me? You'll just have to go there and read it - see the picture and understand for yourself, the truth in my advice there. You won't regret it!
So there's my first four TREATS - more to come in days ahead to remind every one of all the great blogs out there, just waiting for each of us to stop by and visit, share a cup of coffee or tea and a sweet treat!
"Community Blogger" Award
Linda, the 911 Operator put this information on her blog the other day and I thought it was some good thoughts here and decided to "steal" it from her and post about this here too.Linda really is the epitomy of the "Good Community" blogger with all her well written posts about her life, her job, her family and also, the interest she takes in the blogging community as well. She definitely reaches out, touches lots and lots of folks along her way too as she is one of the most popular bloggers around.
Here below is the post from her blog about the Community Blogger Award. Pretty much self explanatory I think. I'm going to add bloggers to the list that I believe do the same as Linda does in her blogging efforts. I'm not "tagging" any one blogger - just adding some names to the list below. If you think you have folks on your favorites list who really fulfill the role of a "Community Blogger" how's about doing a little write up about them and adding them to this growing list too.
Sandee from Comedy + awarded me with the The Community Blog Award which celebrates "people who reach out and make the blogger community a better one." Aw shucks, thank you ma'm! Of course, I wasn't the only one whom Sandee tagged as it takes a lot of bloggers to make up a community so I am reposting her list along with a few additions of my own. Please feel free to pass this on to the bloggers who you think make our community a better one!
..."And Miles To Go Before We Sleep..."
A Nice Place In The Sun
Asara's Mental Meanderings
Attitude, The Ultimate Power
BeccA's Buzz
Blog That Mommy
Coffee 2 Go
CrAzY Working Mom
Dixie's Heart & Soul
Echoes of Grace
Get Your Blog On!
Hunna's Happenings
Just Me...
Kids, Cats & Books - What Else Is There?
It's A Blog Eat Blog World
Lifecruiser
Life is RANTastic
Livin' Life SandyStyl
lynda's loft
Mama Pajama
Mimi Writes
More Random Than Average
Mother's home!
Ms Maggie Moo Talks 2 U
muffin 53
My Life is Murphy's Law
Necessary Skills
NoDirectOn (not: NoDirection)
Rhonda's Blog
Ryan's Calamity
Santa's Community Blog
Sarge Charlie
Scrappin...with life this New Year of 2007
The Buzz Queen
The Ice Box
The Rants From Sunnybrook Farm
The Rocky Mountain Retreat
This Eclectic Life
Trav's Thoughts
TwistedSister... totally pissed off!
Us Danes & Our Family
What? Mermaids?
Airhead 55
Bobbarama
Captain Picard's Journal
Comedy Plus
Dayngrous Discourse
Down River Drivel
Duward Discussion
Everything and Nothing
Evil Se7en
Freelance Cynic
Gem-osophy
Late Boomer Bloomer
Mimi Writes ....
Mommy 911
My Wonderful Life
Polliwog's Pond
Sgt Dub
The Curmudgeon
The Boomer Chronicles
The Erstwhile Librarian
Whitterer on Autism
WTIT Tape Radio Blog
A Little Piece of Me
Rather Than Working
Authorblog
Burnett's Urban Etiquette
Cariboo Ponderer
Field Lines
House of Lime
Inner Dialogues
It's About Time
Life in Westcliffe
Meloncutter's Musings
My Favorite Autistic
Whee All The Way Home
Dr. Sardonicus
Revellian
Planet Saedel
Shelby Dupree
Skittles0366
Smalltown RN
Bleeding Espresso
And the Pursuit of Happiness
Terri Terri Quite Contrary
Terry's Playpen
The BiPolar Diaries
Pastorette Ponderings
Terri Murphy
Sweaty Socks2
Blind Side Rawks
Walks Far Woman
Whitterer-Autism
A Blue State of Mind
A Twist of Humor
Working History
Playing "Catch Up" ball here today with my blog reading that sort of got somewhat behind over the past weekend, I came across a post by blogger buddy, Patois, for her Sunday Scribblings - which this week was titled "The Book of Job." However, the pronunciation for her blog was not the Biblical "Job" but rather the job, as in work she's done over the years.
That got me to thinking of all the many and varied jobs I've held and wondering too, could I remember all of them to list them in chronological order here? I'm not sure if I can or not but here goes. I'm sure as heck gonna try!
My very first "job" was when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old -and was more of an assignment from school as opposed to being one for actual pay. The work - selling packets of seeds to friends and neighbors in a competition at school. I don't remember now what the payoff was - I think one year it might have been a set of some kind of little plaques of a religious nature - something that sure as heck wouldn't fly in today's school systems anyway. You can bet your bottom dollar on that one!
But that "work" led me into finding the field of direct sales at an early age as from there I progressed to selling Cloverine Brand Salve, cards and stationery products along with home-made woven pot holders! I was quite the little entrepreneur. (The past five years since son-in-law and his older daughter moved in here, I've seen her bring home projects from school or from church in which she too was to "sell" things - benefit type projects ya know - and her order sheets would just lay on the island in the kitchen or on the counter, taking up space or at times, getting lost and then, she couldn't understand why she rarely ever was eligible to win any of the prizes for participating in those events. Man, I'd have been out trotting up and down through town, peddling like crazy if I'd been involved in them when I was her age. Differences between then and now I guess.
In high school, I moved into another field of work - one that totally shocked my mother too, I must say. House cleaning! To this day I can't believe I actually did that for people and got paid too -in hard, cold cash no less! And, what was really the surprise to my Mom - that I got no complaints on the quality of my work - unlike her opinion of my abilities in that area on the home front!
My senior year in high school, being the cocky snot-nosed kid I was, I decided I wanted more than anything else to be the organist/choir director at our church. Ok, the organist we had at the time was pretty bad but God love him, he was dedicated and yes, he did try -very hard. He'd had all of six weeks instruction on the piano and my goodness, why I'd had 18 months of piano lessons so I had to be better than him. Well, once in a while I was but truth be told, I am a lousy pianist/organist because I get too flustered when people start to sing while I am trying to play the song! And, isn't that a main part of being the pianist or organist who is playing for people to be able to follow and sing along? The church no doubt was really relieved when I was out voted as organist by a younger, much better young lady from the congregation!
My first job after graduation was a three-day stint as a waitress in a soda fountain/lunch counter at a drug store in town - about 12 miles from where I live. I had no driver's license then -because my Mom wouldn't sign for me to get my permit so I had to wait till I was 18 and could get it on my own - so Mom had to drive me to work then come back 6 or 8 hours later and pick me up. After three days of this, she announced it just wasn't going to fly and I had to quit! But my first day on the job - that night, I had nightmares about people sitting up at the counter and ordering "large cherry cokes."
My next job was one that was really offensive. I was hired to be a packer in the cigar factory -also in the same town as where the soda fountain job had been. However, several people along the street where I lived worked in town -even at the same factory - so I car pooled with them and that made my Mom very happy. I was paid the huge wage of $1.00 an hour to start and after my training period ended and I was "making production" I got a big raise up to $1.25 an hour! Wow! Big bucks, ya know. I was on my way to wealth and fame, for sure!
Through a few twists and turns, I left that wonderful position and took a rinky-dink class out in St. Louis, Missouri in the fall of 1963 learning to be a "tab operator" -a position that was by computer standards of that day, already out-dated. When the class ended, I got a job working in for a small electronics company in St. Louis as a billing clerk.
But I really didn't want to be THAT far from home and while employed at the electronics company, through a clerk at the Missouri State Employment Center in St. Louis, I was steered towards applying for a job that would really bring me both good pay, as well as a position of high esteem too - a job with the FBI at headquarters in Washington, D.C. Yes indeedy folks! I was on my way to become a crack crime fighter and work for the wonderful J.Edgar Hoover to boot!
What a rude awakening that job was! I've been pretty much blind as a bat in my right eye since I was about 12 years old and trying to search fingerprint files, after classifying each card I was assigned to search daily - well, it was not a good mix, let me say that! And, trust me when I tell you that working back then at age 19 for J. Edgar Hoover was sure as Hell no treat either! Translated - I absolutely hated that job; hated that place!
After about six months of enduring that position, I found a job as a clerk typist in the department known as the "Club Section" for the National Rifle Association. That job led me into a position in the data entry dept. with the NRA, from there I also worked in the Programming area for about a year and then, transferred to another division within the NRA to be the junior secretary to the Director of Administrative Services and "manager" of Coupon Awards with the NRA. The NRA, while not being notorious for being a really good paying outfit turned out to be the best job I ever had though! I loved the place! I loved the people I worked with there and I really did enjoy the different types of work I got to do while working there. I even was sent to Phoenix, Arizona back in 1970 not once, but twice to work out there first for the 10th International Shooting Championships and also for the 40th World Shooting Championships.
What was really funny about my feeling like I "fit" at the NRA is that when I was hired there, I was a brazen liberal, feminist, pro-union, democrat and there I was working for a very conservative, rather male chauvinistic oriented, anti-union, very Republican organization. I was a staunch supporter of President Kennedy and when I was hired strongly believed in gun control and when I left there after eight years, I was still a liberal, somewhat feminist, pro-union, democrat but I also no longer believed gun control was the answer to our issues with crime. Although I don't personally believe people need to collect guns like uzi's and such and I don't personally see any problem with gun registration - after all we register our cars don't we? - but I don't think placing tons of restrictions on the people as a whole will resolve the criminal element issues. Just my thang there folks! Please, if you are an NRA member, don't deluge me with hate mail now!
During my time working at the NRA, I often also worked several part-time jobs too - as a cashier in a chain shoe store, as a sales clerk in a woman's clothing store and as a data entry operator too for a company that took in overload work from data entry departments around the city. I had to work two jobs to make end meet because along the way during my eight years in the D.C. area, I'd also become a single mother and my Mom had moved down to live with me and take care of my daughter so I could continue to work there! It was hard at times but I do believe to this day, it all worked to make me stronger and a better worker and person along the way.
Then, I got married! My husband and I decided though if we wanted to have a home, a family of our own, we had to leave the D.C. area so we thought about moving either back to my home in Pennsylvania, his hometown in Illinois or to Phoenix, Arizona - cause I loved it out there! Well, the move to Pennsylvania is the route we took in August of 1972 and I've been back here -in my home area - ever since then!
Since moving back to PA, I've been a sales rep for some brand of women's clothing as a home party demonstrator (can't remember the name of that company now though), a Tupperware lady and an Avon Lady too! I peddled Avon products for 18 years and was a darned good little rep for them -for the last 16 years I sold Avon I was consistently in the Top Ten best sellers in the district where my route was located and I had a lot of fun doing that too.
I worked for about 18 months in the mid-70's for Penn State University in the Alumni Services Department but quit because my soon-to-be ex-husband thought my working fulltime was driving us apart and driving him to drink. He kind of had the causitive factors a bit mixed up there but I fell for his line of logic at the time and turned in my resignation at the University. In retrospect, it was not the smartest move I've ever made but what the heck you gonna do about it thirty years later, ya know.
When we split up - finally - in 1979, I began my illustrious career in food service - working as a waitress first at the truckstop about five miles from my house, then at a truckstop about 14 miles north of here along Interstate 80 and I stayed at that job for 7 years. Waitressing is really hard physical work and also very taxing mentally too because so much of what one has to do, you can't have it all written down - you have to remember all kinds of things! I bitched constantly about the waitress job but deep down, for the most part, I actually loved it! Mostly though I loved waiting on the truck drivers and joking with them, getting to know so many of them, playing practical jokes on them and having them do that to me and my co-workers a lot of the time too. Every job, good, bad or indifferent really is what you make of it too yourself and I found I could have a lot of fun while waitressing and still working darned hard at the same time.
Then I got fired from that job and a day later, was hired to do data entry for a company in State College, PA. That company just happens to be the World's Largest Private Weather Forecasting firm and it too, could be a lot like waitressing when you worked there because it was very fast paced, very stressful too, oodles and oodles of deadlines to deal with daily. Pay wise, it wasn't the best but it gave me enough combined with my Avon sales and child support that I was still able to keep a roof our heads as I had three kids I was raising then too ya see.
From that data entry job, I got hired as a shift manager or assistant restaurant manager at yet another truck stop. While working there, I decided that I didn't want to stay in Food Service the rest of my working days and I'd finally figured out too how to finance going to college so in 1990, I enrolled at good old Penn State University on my way - I thought then - to getting a degree in Labor and Industrial Relations. A year into my studies - while working full time as the asst. restaurant manager, my boss confronted me and told me I had to make a choice - either school or the job but I couldn't do both so I resigned. I went back to work at the Weather Forecasting company on a part-time basis and worked there for the duration of my time in college as well as for five years after I graduated!
Upon graduation from Penn State, I went job hunting - trying to find an entry level position in the field in which I got my degree - Rehabilitation Education Services! I was hired 3 months after graduation to be a rehab counselor and teacher for Baltimore Goodwill Industries where my job required I train rehab clients to be janitors - a post that probably still has my Mom rolling in her grave because - well, because housekeeping has never really been my forte! But while working there, I still kept my part-time position with the weather company and put in 40 hours a week, Monday thru Friday in Baltimore and came back home every weekend to work anywhere from 15 to 22 hours on Saturday and Sunday here - and also to do my weekly laundry while I was home. I couldn't afford not to do that because I had dual housing expenses you see - a house in PA that my girls were living in and they took care of all the house expenses except for the telephone bill which was my responsibility - and sharing an apartment in a suburb of Baltimore required more than my meager paycheck from Goodwill covered. That lasted a year until I just couldn't take it any more and I quit the job in Baltimore and moved back home. I thought with my year of experience in my field I could surely get a job in this area but after five years of struggling with part-time jobs, piecemeal work to just barely survive, I ended up taking a job at the truckstop -again - as assistant restaurant manager! And, I hated it!
I lasted there for 2 1/2 years before I finally got totally disgusted with the management and took a position at the truckstop about five miles from my house where I worked for about 5 months and then they decided to fire me too. I guess my food management skills weren't my forte either.
After that, I did a paid internship in Harrisburg for four months for the State Union Headquarters for State Employees - AFSCME - and really liked working there. To supplement my pay from that job I also worked part-time as a sales clerk at a large department store in Camp HIll for four months too until I thought I'd found the dream job - I was hired to be a newspaper staff writer for the local daily newspaper here about 20 miles from my home town. That job lasted 7 weeks and they fired me primarily because I was untrained in journalism - just liked to write you see (and they knew that too when they hired me, I must add) but I didn't know the difference between writing in active or passive voice and five years later, I still don't really understand that.
Three months after that job ended, I was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer - had chemo, radiation, surgery, more chemo and in the process of all that, had problems occur with my back that created issues that have subsequently required me to go on Social Security Disability -which is where I've been now for the past four years!
And that, my friends, pretty much shows you what one person can and will do to survive for roughly 40 years!
The work sure never gave me great wealth - far from it with respect to finances but it has given me a wealth of other things - friends, great experiences, fun, learning lots of new and different things along the way. I wish at times it had been different but then if it had, I probably wouldn't see things in the same wacky way I do today so in that respect, I guess I really don't have ALL THAT MANY regrets today!
That got me to thinking of all the many and varied jobs I've held and wondering too, could I remember all of them to list them in chronological order here? I'm not sure if I can or not but here goes. I'm sure as heck gonna try!
My very first "job" was when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old -and was more of an assignment from school as opposed to being one for actual pay. The work - selling packets of seeds to friends and neighbors in a competition at school. I don't remember now what the payoff was - I think one year it might have been a set of some kind of little plaques of a religious nature - something that sure as heck wouldn't fly in today's school systems anyway. You can bet your bottom dollar on that one!
But that "work" led me into finding the field of direct sales at an early age as from there I progressed to selling Cloverine Brand Salve, cards and stationery products along with home-made woven pot holders! I was quite the little entrepreneur. (The past five years since son-in-law and his older daughter moved in here, I've seen her bring home projects from school or from church in which she too was to "sell" things - benefit type projects ya know - and her order sheets would just lay on the island in the kitchen or on the counter, taking up space or at times, getting lost and then, she couldn't understand why she rarely ever was eligible to win any of the prizes for participating in those events. Man, I'd have been out trotting up and down through town, peddling like crazy if I'd been involved in them when I was her age. Differences between then and now I guess.
In high school, I moved into another field of work - one that totally shocked my mother too, I must say. House cleaning! To this day I can't believe I actually did that for people and got paid too -in hard, cold cash no less! And, what was really the surprise to my Mom - that I got no complaints on the quality of my work - unlike her opinion of my abilities in that area on the home front!
My senior year in high school, being the cocky snot-nosed kid I was, I decided I wanted more than anything else to be the organist/choir director at our church. Ok, the organist we had at the time was pretty bad but God love him, he was dedicated and yes, he did try -very hard. He'd had all of six weeks instruction on the piano and my goodness, why I'd had 18 months of piano lessons so I had to be better than him. Well, once in a while I was but truth be told, I am a lousy pianist/organist because I get too flustered when people start to sing while I am trying to play the song! And, isn't that a main part of being the pianist or organist who is playing for people to be able to follow and sing along? The church no doubt was really relieved when I was out voted as organist by a younger, much better young lady from the congregation!
My first job after graduation was a three-day stint as a waitress in a soda fountain/lunch counter at a drug store in town - about 12 miles from where I live. I had no driver's license then -because my Mom wouldn't sign for me to get my permit so I had to wait till I was 18 and could get it on my own - so Mom had to drive me to work then come back 6 or 8 hours later and pick me up. After three days of this, she announced it just wasn't going to fly and I had to quit! But my first day on the job - that night, I had nightmares about people sitting up at the counter and ordering "large cherry cokes."
My next job was one that was really offensive. I was hired to be a packer in the cigar factory -also in the same town as where the soda fountain job had been. However, several people along the street where I lived worked in town -even at the same factory - so I car pooled with them and that made my Mom very happy. I was paid the huge wage of $1.00 an hour to start and after my training period ended and I was "making production" I got a big raise up to $1.25 an hour! Wow! Big bucks, ya know. I was on my way to wealth and fame, for sure!
Through a few twists and turns, I left that wonderful position and took a rinky-dink class out in St. Louis, Missouri in the fall of 1963 learning to be a "tab operator" -a position that was by computer standards of that day, already out-dated. When the class ended, I got a job working in for a small electronics company in St. Louis as a billing clerk.
But I really didn't want to be THAT far from home and while employed at the electronics company, through a clerk at the Missouri State Employment Center in St. Louis, I was steered towards applying for a job that would really bring me both good pay, as well as a position of high esteem too - a job with the FBI at headquarters in Washington, D.C. Yes indeedy folks! I was on my way to become a crack crime fighter and work for the wonderful J.Edgar Hoover to boot!
What a rude awakening that job was! I've been pretty much blind as a bat in my right eye since I was about 12 years old and trying to search fingerprint files, after classifying each card I was assigned to search daily - well, it was not a good mix, let me say that! And, trust me when I tell you that working back then at age 19 for J. Edgar Hoover was sure as Hell no treat either! Translated - I absolutely hated that job; hated that place!
After about six months of enduring that position, I found a job as a clerk typist in the department known as the "Club Section" for the National Rifle Association. That job led me into a position in the data entry dept. with the NRA, from there I also worked in the Programming area for about a year and then, transferred to another division within the NRA to be the junior secretary to the Director of Administrative Services and "manager" of Coupon Awards with the NRA. The NRA, while not being notorious for being a really good paying outfit turned out to be the best job I ever had though! I loved the place! I loved the people I worked with there and I really did enjoy the different types of work I got to do while working there. I even was sent to Phoenix, Arizona back in 1970 not once, but twice to work out there first for the 10th International Shooting Championships and also for the 40th World Shooting Championships.
What was really funny about my feeling like I "fit" at the NRA is that when I was hired there, I was a brazen liberal, feminist, pro-union, democrat and there I was working for a very conservative, rather male chauvinistic oriented, anti-union, very Republican organization. I was a staunch supporter of President Kennedy and when I was hired strongly believed in gun control and when I left there after eight years, I was still a liberal, somewhat feminist, pro-union, democrat but I also no longer believed gun control was the answer to our issues with crime. Although I don't personally believe people need to collect guns like uzi's and such and I don't personally see any problem with gun registration - after all we register our cars don't we? - but I don't think placing tons of restrictions on the people as a whole will resolve the criminal element issues. Just my thang there folks! Please, if you are an NRA member, don't deluge me with hate mail now!
During my time working at the NRA, I often also worked several part-time jobs too - as a cashier in a chain shoe store, as a sales clerk in a woman's clothing store and as a data entry operator too for a company that took in overload work from data entry departments around the city. I had to work two jobs to make end meet because along the way during my eight years in the D.C. area, I'd also become a single mother and my Mom had moved down to live with me and take care of my daughter so I could continue to work there! It was hard at times but I do believe to this day, it all worked to make me stronger and a better worker and person along the way.
Then, I got married! My husband and I decided though if we wanted to have a home, a family of our own, we had to leave the D.C. area so we thought about moving either back to my home in Pennsylvania, his hometown in Illinois or to Phoenix, Arizona - cause I loved it out there! Well, the move to Pennsylvania is the route we took in August of 1972 and I've been back here -in my home area - ever since then!
Since moving back to PA, I've been a sales rep for some brand of women's clothing as a home party demonstrator (can't remember the name of that company now though), a Tupperware lady and an Avon Lady too! I peddled Avon products for 18 years and was a darned good little rep for them -for the last 16 years I sold Avon I was consistently in the Top Ten best sellers in the district where my route was located and I had a lot of fun doing that too.
I worked for about 18 months in the mid-70's for Penn State University in the Alumni Services Department but quit because my soon-to-be ex-husband thought my working fulltime was driving us apart and driving him to drink. He kind of had the causitive factors a bit mixed up there but I fell for his line of logic at the time and turned in my resignation at the University. In retrospect, it was not the smartest move I've ever made but what the heck you gonna do about it thirty years later, ya know.
When we split up - finally - in 1979, I began my illustrious career in food service - working as a waitress first at the truckstop about five miles from my house, then at a truckstop about 14 miles north of here along Interstate 80 and I stayed at that job for 7 years. Waitressing is really hard physical work and also very taxing mentally too because so much of what one has to do, you can't have it all written down - you have to remember all kinds of things! I bitched constantly about the waitress job but deep down, for the most part, I actually loved it! Mostly though I loved waiting on the truck drivers and joking with them, getting to know so many of them, playing practical jokes on them and having them do that to me and my co-workers a lot of the time too. Every job, good, bad or indifferent really is what you make of it too yourself and I found I could have a lot of fun while waitressing and still working darned hard at the same time.
Then I got fired from that job and a day later, was hired to do data entry for a company in State College, PA. That company just happens to be the World's Largest Private Weather Forecasting firm and it too, could be a lot like waitressing when you worked there because it was very fast paced, very stressful too, oodles and oodles of deadlines to deal with daily. Pay wise, it wasn't the best but it gave me enough combined with my Avon sales and child support that I was still able to keep a roof our heads as I had three kids I was raising then too ya see.
From that data entry job, I got hired as a shift manager or assistant restaurant manager at yet another truck stop. While working there, I decided that I didn't want to stay in Food Service the rest of my working days and I'd finally figured out too how to finance going to college so in 1990, I enrolled at good old Penn State University on my way - I thought then - to getting a degree in Labor and Industrial Relations. A year into my studies - while working full time as the asst. restaurant manager, my boss confronted me and told me I had to make a choice - either school or the job but I couldn't do both so I resigned. I went back to work at the Weather Forecasting company on a part-time basis and worked there for the duration of my time in college as well as for five years after I graduated!
Upon graduation from Penn State, I went job hunting - trying to find an entry level position in the field in which I got my degree - Rehabilitation Education Services! I was hired 3 months after graduation to be a rehab counselor and teacher for Baltimore Goodwill Industries where my job required I train rehab clients to be janitors - a post that probably still has my Mom rolling in her grave because - well, because housekeeping has never really been my forte! But while working there, I still kept my part-time position with the weather company and put in 40 hours a week, Monday thru Friday in Baltimore and came back home every weekend to work anywhere from 15 to 22 hours on Saturday and Sunday here - and also to do my weekly laundry while I was home. I couldn't afford not to do that because I had dual housing expenses you see - a house in PA that my girls were living in and they took care of all the house expenses except for the telephone bill which was my responsibility - and sharing an apartment in a suburb of Baltimore required more than my meager paycheck from Goodwill covered. That lasted a year until I just couldn't take it any more and I quit the job in Baltimore and moved back home. I thought with my year of experience in my field I could surely get a job in this area but after five years of struggling with part-time jobs, piecemeal work to just barely survive, I ended up taking a job at the truckstop -again - as assistant restaurant manager! And, I hated it!
I lasted there for 2 1/2 years before I finally got totally disgusted with the management and took a position at the truckstop about five miles from my house where I worked for about 5 months and then they decided to fire me too. I guess my food management skills weren't my forte either.
After that, I did a paid internship in Harrisburg for four months for the State Union Headquarters for State Employees - AFSCME - and really liked working there. To supplement my pay from that job I also worked part-time as a sales clerk at a large department store in Camp HIll for four months too until I thought I'd found the dream job - I was hired to be a newspaper staff writer for the local daily newspaper here about 20 miles from my home town. That job lasted 7 weeks and they fired me primarily because I was untrained in journalism - just liked to write you see (and they knew that too when they hired me, I must add) but I didn't know the difference between writing in active or passive voice and five years later, I still don't really understand that.
Three months after that job ended, I was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer - had chemo, radiation, surgery, more chemo and in the process of all that, had problems occur with my back that created issues that have subsequently required me to go on Social Security Disability -which is where I've been now for the past four years!
And that, my friends, pretty much shows you what one person can and will do to survive for roughly 40 years!
The work sure never gave me great wealth - far from it with respect to finances but it has given me a wealth of other things - friends, great experiences, fun, learning lots of new and different things along the way. I wish at times it had been different but then if it had, I probably wouldn't see things in the same wacky way I do today so in that respect, I guess I really don't have ALL THAT MANY regrets today!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Changing Scenes
If you look closely at my blog today, you'll no doubt notice some things have been changed. One change I am very pleased with. Another change was done out of exasperation. And the third change, for that I have to apologize to my readers for the necessity of it.
So, what are these "BIG" changes anyway?
Well, if you look up at the top of my blog, I now have a color banner there that I am very, very happy with! The banner was done for me by a blogger in Portugal - ),"Fletch" (Terry Fletcher) whose acquaintance I made via Authorblog, David McMahon. When I expressed an interest in a banner, Terry had me send him some photos I liked and thought perhaps they would work as a banner and the one up there now is one he selected from the mix.
To give further credit - where credit is obviously due - the photographer of this picture is a good friend of mine, Jeff Feldmeier, from Allen Park, Michigan. Jeff has a love for the area where I live and as such, knows more about local history here than probably do most of the township's residents! Both of Jeff's grandparents were originally from the village where I live and he has several cousins who still live in the area too - one is my hairdresser (when I manage to go and get something done to my mop) and several other of his cousins still live here too - one lives about 4 houses down the street from me and the daughter of another cousin is my ex-brother-in-law's second ex-wife. You figure that out for yourself what the relationship is there to me. Actually none, but their children are my kids cousins, nonetheless!
A little bit about the picture too - Jeff took this from a spot near the lower end of Lanse, around the interstate 80 bridges over the Viaduct bridge. It shows the Red Moshannon Creek here, in early fall, when the trees are just starting to turn. I don't have the stats handy right now - will have to write to Jeff and bug him when he isn't totally swamped with work, to give me more particulars however, this much I can say - the Interstate Bridge over the Viaduct Bridge is one of the highest and longer bridges on I-80 in Pennsylvania. The Viaduct bridge that the interstate goes over is an old railroad bridge in the state - long out of use by trains. I think the Railroad bridge - part of the old Beech Creek Railroad system - was built probably between 1883 and 1890 and it too was one of the highest and longest of railroad bridges in the state too. The trackage has long been removed there and the route the tracks had was converted a few years back to the "Rails to Trails" system in this area. But it's a beautiful scene for sure. If you're interested in seeing more photos from the area where I live, stay tuned as I am planning to participate this weekend in a photo blog set up by Gene Bach of "Turning the Pages of Life" which will be a joint effort by several bloggers to show the world what our little area of the world has to offer in the way of scenic beauty plus some maybe not so hot pictures too of our homes, family and such. Should be an interesting event - I hope! And, if you'd like to participate in this world-wide photo tour, it's not too late so click in on Gene's post and sign up to take part in showing off your piece of the planet Earth too.
Another change made to my blog -out of sheer exasperation - is that I have now removed the "What is Your Blog Worth" from my sidebar. When I first put it up, last winter sometime, it said my blog's worth was $5, 080 at that time. Ok, I was fine with that. After all, it's just a little game and a marketing ploy, as such too, and total fiction. But about two months back or so, I decided to see if my Blog had increased in Blog worth and according to the tool you use to calculate that, it had increased greatly - like almost 10 times over, to $52,000 and change so I removed the first picture and inserted the new one in its place. However, when I did that, it, for some reason unknown for sure to me, refuses to show any monetary figure in my blog's worth! I even tried to contact the person who is the originator of this widget - Dane Carlson - but apparently he doesn't read his e-mail, isn't willing to help poor little bloggers like me or just doesn't care if things work properly or not because he has never responded to my inquiry as to why this no longer works on my blog. I tried again, over the weekend, to reinstall this entity -one time it gave me the old worth of $5,080, another time it said it was worth $15,000 and change and finally today, it said it was worth 0 - yes, zero, a big fat old zero! And I decided then it was time for that thing to go! No more Blog's Worth tool on my blog! All this work I put into it almost every day and a ZERO! Thanks, but no thanks buddy. I can depressed easy enough on my own, sure don't need some little widget reminding me that I have virtually "no life."
The last change - this one came about from necessity. Last night, my friend Vic Grace of Cariboo Ponderer wrote to tell me she had to reinstate comment modification on her blog because she was being hit with some obnoxious spam. And a couple hours later, I got hit too. Near as we can figure out, both of us got hit by the same spammer. A cowardly soul, signing in using the anonymous feature. Normally, I don't object to anonymous comments because those who do so on my blog generally always sign their name at the bottom. But this person left no name - just this huge, huge rambling blog of total crapola. And not just once, but the spammer posted the same diatribe twice. So, to my regular readers who happened to view this piece, I apologize for that. I apologize too to everyone now for having to have to initiate this comment modification thing on my blog again in order to try to stem the tide of junk like this person tried to force-feed to all of us. It's always something it seems - someone trying to mess up a peaceful existence here in the blogosphere for the rest of us.
So there you have it - my changes, my reasons, what they represent, etc., etc., etc.
I'd be especially interested in responses to the banner - as well as to Gene's blog photo event and to the comment modification thing too. So, post away and let me know what you have to say!
So, what are these "BIG" changes anyway?
Well, if you look up at the top of my blog, I now have a color banner there that I am very, very happy with! The banner was done for me by a blogger in Portugal - ),"Fletch" (Terry Fletcher) whose acquaintance I made via Authorblog, David McMahon. When I expressed an interest in a banner, Terry had me send him some photos I liked and thought perhaps they would work as a banner and the one up there now is one he selected from the mix.
To give further credit - where credit is obviously due - the photographer of this picture is a good friend of mine, Jeff Feldmeier, from Allen Park, Michigan. Jeff has a love for the area where I live and as such, knows more about local history here than probably do most of the township's residents! Both of Jeff's grandparents were originally from the village where I live and he has several cousins who still live in the area too - one is my hairdresser (when I manage to go and get something done to my mop) and several other of his cousins still live here too - one lives about 4 houses down the street from me and the daughter of another cousin is my ex-brother-in-law's second ex-wife. You figure that out for yourself what the relationship is there to me. Actually none, but their children are my kids cousins, nonetheless!
A little bit about the picture too - Jeff took this from a spot near the lower end of Lanse, around the interstate 80 bridges over the Viaduct bridge. It shows the Red Moshannon Creek here, in early fall, when the trees are just starting to turn. I don't have the stats handy right now - will have to write to Jeff and bug him when he isn't totally swamped with work, to give me more particulars however, this much I can say - the Interstate Bridge over the Viaduct Bridge is one of the highest and longer bridges on I-80 in Pennsylvania. The Viaduct bridge that the interstate goes over is an old railroad bridge in the state - long out of use by trains. I think the Railroad bridge - part of the old Beech Creek Railroad system - was built probably between 1883 and 1890 and it too was one of the highest and longest of railroad bridges in the state too. The trackage has long been removed there and the route the tracks had was converted a few years back to the "Rails to Trails" system in this area. But it's a beautiful scene for sure. If you're interested in seeing more photos from the area where I live, stay tuned as I am planning to participate this weekend in a photo blog set up by Gene Bach of "Turning the Pages of Life" which will be a joint effort by several bloggers to show the world what our little area of the world has to offer in the way of scenic beauty plus some maybe not so hot pictures too of our homes, family and such. Should be an interesting event - I hope! And, if you'd like to participate in this world-wide photo tour, it's not too late so click in on Gene's post and sign up to take part in showing off your piece of the planet Earth too.
Another change made to my blog -out of sheer exasperation - is that I have now removed the "What is Your Blog Worth" from my sidebar. When I first put it up, last winter sometime, it said my blog's worth was $5, 080 at that time. Ok, I was fine with that. After all, it's just a little game and a marketing ploy, as such too, and total fiction. But about two months back or so, I decided to see if my Blog had increased in Blog worth and according to the tool you use to calculate that, it had increased greatly - like almost 10 times over, to $52,000 and change so I removed the first picture and inserted the new one in its place. However, when I did that, it, for some reason unknown for sure to me, refuses to show any monetary figure in my blog's worth! I even tried to contact the person who is the originator of this widget - Dane Carlson - but apparently he doesn't read his e-mail, isn't willing to help poor little bloggers like me or just doesn't care if things work properly or not because he has never responded to my inquiry as to why this no longer works on my blog. I tried again, over the weekend, to reinstall this entity -one time it gave me the old worth of $5,080, another time it said it was worth $15,000 and change and finally today, it said it was worth 0 - yes, zero, a big fat old zero! And I decided then it was time for that thing to go! No more Blog's Worth tool on my blog! All this work I put into it almost every day and a ZERO! Thanks, but no thanks buddy. I can depressed easy enough on my own, sure don't need some little widget reminding me that I have virtually "no life."
The last change - this one came about from necessity. Last night, my friend Vic Grace of Cariboo Ponderer wrote to tell me she had to reinstate comment modification on her blog because she was being hit with some obnoxious spam. And a couple hours later, I got hit too. Near as we can figure out, both of us got hit by the same spammer. A cowardly soul, signing in using the anonymous feature. Normally, I don't object to anonymous comments because those who do so on my blog generally always sign their name at the bottom. But this person left no name - just this huge, huge rambling blog of total crapola. And not just once, but the spammer posted the same diatribe twice. So, to my regular readers who happened to view this piece, I apologize for that. I apologize too to everyone now for having to have to initiate this comment modification thing on my blog again in order to try to stem the tide of junk like this person tried to force-feed to all of us. It's always something it seems - someone trying to mess up a peaceful existence here in the blogosphere for the rest of us.
So there you have it - my changes, my reasons, what they represent, etc., etc., etc.
I'd be especially interested in responses to the banner - as well as to Gene's blog photo event and to the comment modification thing too. So, post away and let me know what you have to say!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Middle-of-the-Month Bushisms
My apologies for the lateness of this post today. But boy, it's been a busy day for me and I'm just now - at 11:45 p.m. - getting around to posting for today.
It was a light-sleep night for openers as Kurtis didn't like the idea of calling it a day until about 2 a.m. this morning. Then, I had to get up early to shower, get my hair dried, dress for church and get there by start time at 9:30 this morning. Mandy, Miss Maya and I all went to the service and Maya did very well today. The only time she got a bit unruly was when we took communion. For openers, she insisted on getting one of the little individual cups for wine - although there is no way she is "taking" communion! Too comical though to see her as she knelt at the altar, holding her own little cup. But that went fine it was on our return to our pew that she tried to take off on us as she saw a lady with her two small girls - one who is 6 months younger than Maya and the other is 17 months old -and Maya wanted to go sit with them. She ended up laying down in the back aisle behind the pew where we were seated and the poor ushers had to step over her to get through there. But, that was her only outburst so we were pleased.
After church, I had to go to Clearfield to follow my son over there as he had to bring the big truck home last evening instead of parking it in Harrisburg. The reason for that? Because his "boat" or "air liner" or "yacht" - as we all tease him and call his big old 1969 Cadillac those nicknames - broke down on him in Harrisburg when he went to work Tuesday a.m. and he couldn't drive it home. Lovely mess, huh? So I had to go to Clearfield where he parked the truck and then we went to Walmart together so we could both pick up a few necessities for our homes. After I got back home, it was time for me to fix supper and after supper, I spent several hours then surfing photos a friend of mine has on his webshots to try to download some of them and hopefully, use one of them then for a new banner header on my blog. That is, if all works out ok! We shall see.
So that's why I am so late posting tonight and before it gets any later, I best get moving and put up this week's Bushisms for my faithful, loyal readers who wait with baited breath for this stuff.
Monday, October 15, 2007
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question."
--In response to a question about whether he wished he could take bck any of his answers in the first debate; Reynoldsburg, Ohio; October 4, 2000.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
"The way I like to put it is this. There's no bigger issue for the president to remind the moms and dads of America, if you happen to have a child, be fortunate to have a child."
--Washington, D.C.; March 7, 2001
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read--Iunderstand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do."
--On abortion' interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball; May 31, 2000
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend."
--On the prospect of visiting Denmark; Washington, D.C.; June 29, 2005
Friday, October 19, 2007
"I think he needs to stand up and say if he thought the president were wrong on policy and issues, he ought to say where."
--Interview with The Associated Press; August 11, 2000
Saturday and Sunday, October 20/21, 2007
"If you found somebody that had information about an attack on America, you'd want to know as best as we can to find out what the facts are."
--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; December 12, 2005.
And there you have 'em - incredible as they are. The truth and nothing but the truth, straight from the Horse's Mouth!
It was a light-sleep night for openers as Kurtis didn't like the idea of calling it a day until about 2 a.m. this morning. Then, I had to get up early to shower, get my hair dried, dress for church and get there by start time at 9:30 this morning. Mandy, Miss Maya and I all went to the service and Maya did very well today. The only time she got a bit unruly was when we took communion. For openers, she insisted on getting one of the little individual cups for wine - although there is no way she is "taking" communion! Too comical though to see her as she knelt at the altar, holding her own little cup. But that went fine it was on our return to our pew that she tried to take off on us as she saw a lady with her two small girls - one who is 6 months younger than Maya and the other is 17 months old -and Maya wanted to go sit with them. She ended up laying down in the back aisle behind the pew where we were seated and the poor ushers had to step over her to get through there. But, that was her only outburst so we were pleased.
After church, I had to go to Clearfield to follow my son over there as he had to bring the big truck home last evening instead of parking it in Harrisburg. The reason for that? Because his "boat" or "air liner" or "yacht" - as we all tease him and call his big old 1969 Cadillac those nicknames - broke down on him in Harrisburg when he went to work Tuesday a.m. and he couldn't drive it home. Lovely mess, huh? So I had to go to Clearfield where he parked the truck and then we went to Walmart together so we could both pick up a few necessities for our homes. After I got back home, it was time for me to fix supper and after supper, I spent several hours then surfing photos a friend of mine has on his webshots to try to download some of them and hopefully, use one of them then for a new banner header on my blog. That is, if all works out ok! We shall see.
So that's why I am so late posting tonight and before it gets any later, I best get moving and put up this week's Bushisms for my faithful, loyal readers who wait with baited breath for this stuff.
Monday, October 15, 2007
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question."
--In response to a question about whether he wished he could take bck any of his answers in the first debate; Reynoldsburg, Ohio; October 4, 2000.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
"The way I like to put it is this. There's no bigger issue for the president to remind the moms and dads of America, if you happen to have a child, be fortunate to have a child."
--Washington, D.C.; March 7, 2001
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read--Iunderstand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do."
--On abortion' interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball; May 31, 2000
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend."
--On the prospect of visiting Denmark; Washington, D.C.; June 29, 2005
Friday, October 19, 2007
"I think he needs to stand up and say if he thought the president were wrong on policy and issues, he ought to say where."
--Interview with The Associated Press; August 11, 2000
Saturday and Sunday, October 20/21, 2007
"If you found somebody that had information about an attack on America, you'd want to know as best as we can to find out what the facts are."
--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; December 12, 2005.
And there you have 'em - incredible as they are. The truth and nothing but the truth, straight from the Horse's Mouth!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
No Comparisons
Dr. Sardonicus -of Pole Hill Sanitorium - tagged me for this meme - in which I am supposed to select three posts of mine which I think are or should be or something to that effect "my greatest hits" of my blogging career, such as that is. I am then supposed to put my name and the titles of these three pieces at the bottom of this listing of what other bloggers consider to be their best or favorite works of blogging art. That's my summary of this MEME anyway.
Because I generally can't remember beyond a max of five hours most of the time what I wrote about under a given title, to try to figure out which of my posts were the most riveting, or funniest, or made a good social commentary or statement, took a whole lot of time and work on my part. I went back over my posts for the past year - thank goodness I haven't been blogging longer than that or I'd probably be glued to the computer and reading old posts for the next week or two. I came across some I had liked a lot about my granddaughter, Princess Maya, and many of her antics, things she's learned over the past year and I considered just using three of those pieces. There were others I liked a lot too for various reasons and it was difficult for me to select three posts because if you read the posts of the other bloggers who were tagged ahead of me, you understand why I chose for my title of this post "No Comparisons."
You see, these folks are what I would call "heavy hitters" in the blogosphere and by comparison, my posts, my blog in general is basically very "lightweight." Mine is also often - or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it "rambling" to say the least. I write the same way I talk and that is something my kids get on me all the time about how I drift from one thing to another and though in my mind, I may think I have a good segue going from topic to topic, the end result is often somewhat (?) convoluted.
But anyway, I did finally decide on three specific posts - one is pretty sentimental and is a tribute to the man who was my boss many years ago. The other two are about serious issues - domestic abuse and violence and a subject that is usually not one folks like to talk about - suicide. I don't know that these are my best pieces - not sure if I have one of those. But the latter ones are things that have had an impact over the years on my life and they are both issues about which I have very strong feelings. But if you're looking for something a bit more on the light and airy side, just weed through my blog and you'll find a goodly number of stories about my kids, grandkids - especially my little Princess, Maya.
Now - here then are the rules and regulations to this MEME - stolen from Dr. Sardonicus' blog in a very bold, brazen manner too. I have edited a couple of his paragraphs out mainly because I've hit pretty heavily the past couple of weeks on the Technorati authority/ratings bit.
Out of the south comes Christie Fermicat with the meme of the moment. "SEO" stands for Search Engine Optimization; the idea originated from Revellian.com, a site dedicated to spreading imaginative ways for bloggers to increase traffic.
The meme consists of a chain of bloggers listing three of their favorite posts. Each participating blogger simply adds three favorite posts to the end of the chain, and passes it on. Each time the chain is reposted on another blog, it lets people know about your blog you normally wouldn't reach, and it also helps you build Technorati authority, for those who care about such things.
Here's the official instructions for this meme from Revellian.com: (Those participating in the meme are required to copy these instructions.)
"This seo meme was conceived and designed by Bobby at Revellian.com. This is a new fun seo meme ride for us all. This is based on the seo theory that links to posts inside your blog are more important than links to your home page. I have selected three posts I want to promote along with my site’s name. You will do the same thing.
Let’s keep it simple and spread our good work around to both share and build some ratings! Make sure you pick three posts that you feel are your best. You could also select 3 posts you simply want to promote. Your site name is listed with your 3 selected posts beneath.
Once you have your post up: Add the sites and post links of the folks you tagged onto your post. Try to add the site and post links to anyone involved to maximize the effectiveness. Tag a minimum of 5 people.
Try your best not to double tag people so it will spread better! Please actually read the posts from everyone so you can see some really good work from our beloved blogging friends! Make your title a little different from mine to avoid repetitive titles."
Here be the list:
Revellian dot com: SEO Keywords For Beginners, Content: The Kings Illegitimate Stepchild, Tales of Blogger-X Illusion
Mariuca - Wishing On A Falling Star: Love In Disarray, In Love With A Dream, The Good Client
Mariuca's Perfume Gallery: Perfume Shopping Spree, Defining Beauty, In Full Splendour
Speedcat Hollydale Page: Rocket Boy In Hawaii - DC9, Speedcat's Death Ride Into Terror!, The Boy Inside All Men
Terri Terri Quite Contrary: Just How Immature Are We?, Finding A Voice, So Much More To See Than The Game
Mahala: Uncle Huberts Custom Cows, Pray For The Child At Big Lots, The Legend of Saushie's Crotch
Tiff: How Am I Like Ron Weasley, A Social Experiment, Absolutely Boring Entry 101
Cosmic Cat: Just An Ordinary Thursday Night..., Not Gone With The Wind. Just Gone., The "Weekly Thoughtful Reminder" And Other Hazards Of Working
Pole Hill Sanitarium: 756, Stocking Stuffer, Why It Matters
Down River Drivel: A Sudden Ending - Tough Nut to Chew - Here's To You -Mr. B.
Be sure to leave a comment at Revellian.com when you're done so Bobby can add you to his list.
And, as go all MEMEs, I am to TAG at least three other bloggers to spend days, maybe even weeks, mulling over their best works so with that in mind here then are my choices:
From Calgary, Alberta - Bob Johnson's Letters I Wish I'd Sent - for some humor!
California resident, originally from England, Maddie - with her discussions of life with children who are autistic - Whitterer on Autism.
Another Pennsylvania blogger who puts out some really interesting perspectives - Bruce
And, from Arizona - one of the nicest ladies you'll ever come across - Debo Blue of A Blue State of Mind.
Now - go forth and multiply!
Because I generally can't remember beyond a max of five hours most of the time what I wrote about under a given title, to try to figure out which of my posts were the most riveting, or funniest, or made a good social commentary or statement, took a whole lot of time and work on my part. I went back over my posts for the past year - thank goodness I haven't been blogging longer than that or I'd probably be glued to the computer and reading old posts for the next week or two. I came across some I had liked a lot about my granddaughter, Princess Maya, and many of her antics, things she's learned over the past year and I considered just using three of those pieces. There were others I liked a lot too for various reasons and it was difficult for me to select three posts because if you read the posts of the other bloggers who were tagged ahead of me, you understand why I chose for my title of this post "No Comparisons."
You see, these folks are what I would call "heavy hitters" in the blogosphere and by comparison, my posts, my blog in general is basically very "lightweight." Mine is also often - or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it "rambling" to say the least. I write the same way I talk and that is something my kids get on me all the time about how I drift from one thing to another and though in my mind, I may think I have a good segue going from topic to topic, the end result is often somewhat (?) convoluted.
But anyway, I did finally decide on three specific posts - one is pretty sentimental and is a tribute to the man who was my boss many years ago. The other two are about serious issues - domestic abuse and violence and a subject that is usually not one folks like to talk about - suicide. I don't know that these are my best pieces - not sure if I have one of those. But the latter ones are things that have had an impact over the years on my life and they are both issues about which I have very strong feelings. But if you're looking for something a bit more on the light and airy side, just weed through my blog and you'll find a goodly number of stories about my kids, grandkids - especially my little Princess, Maya.
Now - here then are the rules and regulations to this MEME - stolen from Dr. Sardonicus' blog in a very bold, brazen manner too. I have edited a couple of his paragraphs out mainly because I've hit pretty heavily the past couple of weeks on the Technorati authority/ratings bit.
Out of the south comes Christie Fermicat with the meme of the moment. "SEO" stands for Search Engine Optimization; the idea originated from Revellian.com, a site dedicated to spreading imaginative ways for bloggers to increase traffic.
The meme consists of a chain of bloggers listing three of their favorite posts. Each participating blogger simply adds three favorite posts to the end of the chain, and passes it on. Each time the chain is reposted on another blog, it lets people know about your blog you normally wouldn't reach, and it also helps you build Technorati authority, for those who care about such things.
Here's the official instructions for this meme from Revellian.com: (Those participating in the meme are required to copy these instructions.)
"This seo meme was conceived and designed by Bobby at Revellian.com. This is a new fun seo meme ride for us all. This is based on the seo theory that links to posts inside your blog are more important than links to your home page. I have selected three posts I want to promote along with my site’s name. You will do the same thing.
Let’s keep it simple and spread our good work around to both share and build some ratings! Make sure you pick three posts that you feel are your best. You could also select 3 posts you simply want to promote. Your site name is listed with your 3 selected posts beneath.
Once you have your post up: Add the sites and post links of the folks you tagged onto your post. Try to add the site and post links to anyone involved to maximize the effectiveness. Tag a minimum of 5 people.
Try your best not to double tag people so it will spread better! Please actually read the posts from everyone so you can see some really good work from our beloved blogging friends! Make your title a little different from mine to avoid repetitive titles."
Here be the list:
Revellian dot com: SEO Keywords For Beginners, Content: The Kings Illegitimate Stepchild, Tales of Blogger-X Illusion
Mariuca - Wishing On A Falling Star: Love In Disarray, In Love With A Dream, The Good Client
Mariuca's Perfume Gallery: Perfume Shopping Spree, Defining Beauty, In Full Splendour
Speedcat Hollydale Page: Rocket Boy In Hawaii - DC9, Speedcat's Death Ride Into Terror!, The Boy Inside All Men
Terri Terri Quite Contrary: Just How Immature Are We?, Finding A Voice, So Much More To See Than The Game
Mahala: Uncle Huberts Custom Cows, Pray For The Child At Big Lots, The Legend of Saushie's Crotch
Tiff: How Am I Like Ron Weasley, A Social Experiment, Absolutely Boring Entry 101
Cosmic Cat: Just An Ordinary Thursday Night..., Not Gone With The Wind. Just Gone., The "Weekly Thoughtful Reminder" And Other Hazards Of Working
Pole Hill Sanitarium: 756, Stocking Stuffer, Why It Matters
Down River Drivel: A Sudden Ending - Tough Nut to Chew - Here's To You -Mr. B.
Be sure to leave a comment at Revellian.com when you're done so Bobby can add you to his list.
And, as go all MEMEs, I am to TAG at least three other bloggers to spend days, maybe even weeks, mulling over their best works so with that in mind here then are my choices:
From Calgary, Alberta - Bob Johnson's Letters I Wish I'd Sent - for some humor!
California resident, originally from England, Maddie - with her discussions of life with children who are autistic - Whitterer on Autism.
Another Pennsylvania blogger who puts out some really interesting perspectives - Bruce
And, from Arizona - one of the nicest ladies you'll ever come across - Debo Blue of A Blue State of Mind.
Now - go forth and multiply!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Connection Interuptus!
I just spent a very long night here and morning too. In solitude, quiet, peacefulness too. It wasn't something I'd planned to do - far from it. But it was imposed on me by forces way beyond my control.
At about 1 a.m. this morning, I was seated in my normal pose at that hour of the day (night) - in front of the computer, eyes on the monitor, fingers on the keyboard. I was reading a post from Dr. Sardonicus in which he tagged me for this meme where I am supposed to go through my previous postings and select the three that I think are the best of the litter. Now there's a job and a half for me, without a doubt, ya know!
Well, as I was just ready to click over to my own archives and start searching, suddenly - without warning as there was no nasty weather or anything going on - the house went pitch black! Oh no, no power! Then the lights came back on for maybe five seconds at best and when they went back out, there was a boom - a HUGE BOOM - and I could have sworn it came right from my computer into the mouse in my hand!
Great! Just great! Here I am, already behind as all get out in things I should be doing, needing to use the computer big time to do this search for three decent posts and no electricity. What's more, all I could think then too was that I just knew that I had heard the innards of my poor little computer sizzling away with that boom as they were all being fried! Just knew it deep down in my heart, you see and man, was I scared then. Where the hell was I going to find the coinage to fix or get a new computer?
I called Penelec, the Electric company in our area and reported the outage. In the process, I even spoke to a rep to try to get a bead on what happened, what was taking place, etc. She told me crews were enroute to begin repairs and at that time, they were estimating it would be around 4 a.m. before they could get the outage repaired. Ok, I guess I can live with 3 hours of no electricty, can't I? Yeah, I did - somehow I survived.
But at 4 a.m. - no power back on. About 5 a.m. I got a "wakeup" call from the electric company to let me know it was almost 5 a.m. and the hour I'd requested they call back if the power was still out.
I called upstairs to awaken Kate - the 16-year-old - so she could try to get ready for school. She came stumbling down the stairs, looked around -rather dazed - and I asked her what she figured on doing now. Well, she thought she'd get a shower first, then dressed, etc. And I reminded her we have no hot water so if she was really into cold showers, then to go for it. (The house wasn't really cold, but it was a bit nippy.) Her reaction to that was "WHAT? No water?" Well, we do still have water, just not of the heated variety that one normally (most people anyway) prefer to have when they shower. I also reminded her with no power we have no stove to cook breakfast, no toaster, no lights above the mirror in the bathroom and also - horror of horrors - no hair dryer, no curling iron, no hair straightener. (That amazes me that she has to use a curling iron AND a hair straightener too - doesn't one defeat the purpose of the other there? But what do I know about those things anyway.) Well, upon hearing that announcement, she turned tail and head back upstairs and went back to bed. And about the same time, I decided to hit the couch too and catch a few z's myself.
About 8 a.m. I awoke - still no power. I woke Mandy up so she could get Maya ready to meet the school van and be whisked away for the day at her preschool program. Shortly after Maya left, Mandy headed up to the store in Kylertown to pick up a couple things and when she came home, she had a bit of the news then as to what had happened.
Seems some guy from a little village about 2 miles down the road from us had hit the electrical/telephone pole up on Route 53 in front of Jim & Charmaine's Restaurant - right by the turn in to Grassflat, which is where we live. Seems too that in hitting that pole, the truck knocked out the transformer and also, totally destroyed the marquee in front of the restaurant as well.
And, to make things all that much harder for me anyway, the news on how long they were anticipating it would take to restore power - probably not until this evening sometime!
Holy Buckets! What the heck am I gonna do? No power, means no coffee! I will surely wither up and die by this evening if that's the case! No power, no hot water, also no stove. No way to wash up the dirty dishes already accumulated last evening after supper. No stove to fix a meal this afternoon/evening for the son-in-law, Maya and me. (Mandy and Kate both have work tonight, so they can eat there.)
Finally, about noonish, I headed up to Kylertown to the store to get two large cups of coffee for Bill and for myself. At least try to stave off the headache sure to arrive from the first stages of caffeine withdrawal ya know. Mandy was already up at the shopping center doing laundry since otherwise she would lose a lot of valuable time and we'd really be way behind in the clean clothes department then. As I came out of the store with the coffee in hand, she came up to me and said Bill had just called her on her cell phone to say the power had just been restored! He had also told her it had knocked out five breakers in the house with the outage too. Wonderful. Probably not though, was my first thought about that aspect.
I headed home, down past Jim & Charmaine's and stopped there -camera in hand - to take some pictures of the workers putting up the new pole, finishing up getting all the wires reconnected, etc. And in the process, I was talking to one of the young women (lineperson) who works for Penelec. She told me the name of the guy who had managed to hit the pole and marquee - added too that he was extremely lucky in that he was able to get out and WALK AWAY from the accident. He not only was not injured but he also tried to WALK AWAY - or run away I should say I suppose - from the scene.
Hmmmm. I asked the question of the day - "Was he perhaps a bit 'tipsy?" Oh yes indeed! Even had the can of beer on the seat of the truck. Wonderful for him, isn't that?
She then went on to give me more details on what had happened. He'd veered off the road a few hundred feet up from the restaurant and had "ridden" the guardrails for a good piece before he drove into the grassy area in front of the restaurant and then, just sort of "drifted" into the pole and the marquee. She said there was a huge imprint in the windshield of the truck where his head had hit and the steering column was completely ripped away from the impact. How he did that and had no injuries to himself was beyond belief! Just sheer luck, I suppose.
Her impression of the whole thing though? She thinks he's gonna be a bit poor in the pocketbook for a long, long time to come! Oh, you betcha!
Well, I got home and first thing I did after I recovered from the shock of my rotten son-in-law telling me the computer was completely and totally fried, deader than a doornail, wouldn't even muster an attempt to come on if you tried it. I pushed the on button, saw it slowly loading windows on the monitor and then, all set up for me, I clicked into my connect button and waited to see if the modem had died.
You can't imagine the immense relief flooding my old body as I saw it CONNECT! Yes, yes, yes! Oh man, was I ever singing the "doyay, doyay!" Big time, for sure!
So now, that's my excuse for being late starting to read blogs, checking e-mail all those sorts of things I normally do every day.
But the good news is this - operating by the light of 5 candles on my desk (of various sizes and scents) I managed to finish knitting one scarf I've been working on; got 10 more rows knitted up on yet another scarf project and even started to read the book my daughter (Carrie) gave me for my birthday too - "Nineteen Minutes" by my favorite author, Jodi Picoult.
So I guess it wasn't a totally wasted time with the power outage then after all was it? Maybe just contributed to my going blind a little faster but what the heck is that when your vision is already 200/20 in both eyes to start with!
So far, not only did the computer check out ok, so did all five tv sets in the house, the stove is fine, refrigerator and freezer both appear to be ok too.
So, overall, it's all good!
At about 1 a.m. this morning, I was seated in my normal pose at that hour of the day (night) - in front of the computer, eyes on the monitor, fingers on the keyboard. I was reading a post from Dr. Sardonicus in which he tagged me for this meme where I am supposed to go through my previous postings and select the three that I think are the best of the litter. Now there's a job and a half for me, without a doubt, ya know!
Well, as I was just ready to click over to my own archives and start searching, suddenly - without warning as there was no nasty weather or anything going on - the house went pitch black! Oh no, no power! Then the lights came back on for maybe five seconds at best and when they went back out, there was a boom - a HUGE BOOM - and I could have sworn it came right from my computer into the mouse in my hand!
Great! Just great! Here I am, already behind as all get out in things I should be doing, needing to use the computer big time to do this search for three decent posts and no electricity. What's more, all I could think then too was that I just knew that I had heard the innards of my poor little computer sizzling away with that boom as they were all being fried! Just knew it deep down in my heart, you see and man, was I scared then. Where the hell was I going to find the coinage to fix or get a new computer?
I called Penelec, the Electric company in our area and reported the outage. In the process, I even spoke to a rep to try to get a bead on what happened, what was taking place, etc. She told me crews were enroute to begin repairs and at that time, they were estimating it would be around 4 a.m. before they could get the outage repaired. Ok, I guess I can live with 3 hours of no electricty, can't I? Yeah, I did - somehow I survived.
But at 4 a.m. - no power back on. About 5 a.m. I got a "wakeup" call from the electric company to let me know it was almost 5 a.m. and the hour I'd requested they call back if the power was still out.
I called upstairs to awaken Kate - the 16-year-old - so she could try to get ready for school. She came stumbling down the stairs, looked around -rather dazed - and I asked her what she figured on doing now. Well, she thought she'd get a shower first, then dressed, etc. And I reminded her we have no hot water so if she was really into cold showers, then to go for it. (The house wasn't really cold, but it was a bit nippy.) Her reaction to that was "WHAT? No water?" Well, we do still have water, just not of the heated variety that one normally (most people anyway) prefer to have when they shower. I also reminded her with no power we have no stove to cook breakfast, no toaster, no lights above the mirror in the bathroom and also - horror of horrors - no hair dryer, no curling iron, no hair straightener. (That amazes me that she has to use a curling iron AND a hair straightener too - doesn't one defeat the purpose of the other there? But what do I know about those things anyway.) Well, upon hearing that announcement, she turned tail and head back upstairs and went back to bed. And about the same time, I decided to hit the couch too and catch a few z's myself.
About 8 a.m. I awoke - still no power. I woke Mandy up so she could get Maya ready to meet the school van and be whisked away for the day at her preschool program. Shortly after Maya left, Mandy headed up to the store in Kylertown to pick up a couple things and when she came home, she had a bit of the news then as to what had happened.
Seems some guy from a little village about 2 miles down the road from us had hit the electrical/telephone pole up on Route 53 in front of Jim & Charmaine's Restaurant - right by the turn in to Grassflat, which is where we live. Seems too that in hitting that pole, the truck knocked out the transformer and also, totally destroyed the marquee in front of the restaurant as well.
And, to make things all that much harder for me anyway, the news on how long they were anticipating it would take to restore power - probably not until this evening sometime!
Holy Buckets! What the heck am I gonna do? No power, means no coffee! I will surely wither up and die by this evening if that's the case! No power, no hot water, also no stove. No way to wash up the dirty dishes already accumulated last evening after supper. No stove to fix a meal this afternoon/evening for the son-in-law, Maya and me. (Mandy and Kate both have work tonight, so they can eat there.)
Finally, about noonish, I headed up to Kylertown to the store to get two large cups of coffee for Bill and for myself. At least try to stave off the headache sure to arrive from the first stages of caffeine withdrawal ya know. Mandy was already up at the shopping center doing laundry since otherwise she would lose a lot of valuable time and we'd really be way behind in the clean clothes department then. As I came out of the store with the coffee in hand, she came up to me and said Bill had just called her on her cell phone to say the power had just been restored! He had also told her it had knocked out five breakers in the house with the outage too. Wonderful. Probably not though, was my first thought about that aspect.
I headed home, down past Jim & Charmaine's and stopped there -camera in hand - to take some pictures of the workers putting up the new pole, finishing up getting all the wires reconnected, etc. And in the process, I was talking to one of the young women (lineperson) who works for Penelec. She told me the name of the guy who had managed to hit the pole and marquee - added too that he was extremely lucky in that he was able to get out and WALK AWAY from the accident. He not only was not injured but he also tried to WALK AWAY - or run away I should say I suppose - from the scene.
Hmmmm. I asked the question of the day - "Was he perhaps a bit 'tipsy?" Oh yes indeed! Even had the can of beer on the seat of the truck. Wonderful for him, isn't that?
She then went on to give me more details on what had happened. He'd veered off the road a few hundred feet up from the restaurant and had "ridden" the guardrails for a good piece before he drove into the grassy area in front of the restaurant and then, just sort of "drifted" into the pole and the marquee. She said there was a huge imprint in the windshield of the truck where his head had hit and the steering column was completely ripped away from the impact. How he did that and had no injuries to himself was beyond belief! Just sheer luck, I suppose.
Her impression of the whole thing though? She thinks he's gonna be a bit poor in the pocketbook for a long, long time to come! Oh, you betcha!
Well, I got home and first thing I did after I recovered from the shock of my rotten son-in-law telling me the computer was completely and totally fried, deader than a doornail, wouldn't even muster an attempt to come on if you tried it. I pushed the on button, saw it slowly loading windows on the monitor and then, all set up for me, I clicked into my connect button and waited to see if the modem had died.
You can't imagine the immense relief flooding my old body as I saw it CONNECT! Yes, yes, yes! Oh man, was I ever singing the "doyay, doyay!" Big time, for sure!
So now, that's my excuse for being late starting to read blogs, checking e-mail all those sorts of things I normally do every day.
But the good news is this - operating by the light of 5 candles on my desk (of various sizes and scents) I managed to finish knitting one scarf I've been working on; got 10 more rows knitted up on yet another scarf project and even started to read the book my daughter (Carrie) gave me for my birthday too - "Nineteen Minutes" by my favorite author, Jodi Picoult.
So I guess it wasn't a totally wasted time with the power outage then after all was it? Maybe just contributed to my going blind a little faster but what the heck is that when your vision is already 200/20 in both eyes to start with!
So far, not only did the computer check out ok, so did all five tv sets in the house, the stove is fine, refrigerator and freezer both appear to be ok too.
So, overall, it's all good!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Additions - and Some More Additions!
Man, I am whipped! And all it took was fighting with this blog - the customize thing, a few other things too -none of which wanted to behave accordingly.
First, this morning when I was doing the post directly below this one, I had "issues" trying to insert the blogs of my faves in a paragraph format. The computer - or blogger -one of those two things anyway -flat out refused to to allow me to do that! It insisted I list those blog one to a line! Then it also insisted they be double spaced too. And, to add insult to injury, it even flaked out on me several times and changed the doggone font as well! All that without my ever touching the font buttons too!
Once I got that wonderful technorati authority grabbing post done, time to start my reading rounds - checking in to see what my fave bloggers had to say today. More problems there then! Yep - as I was reading Meloncutter Musings post he mentioned about two photos he had in that post but be darned if I could see either of them. I refreshed the blog - still nothing. Finally, in a stroke of absolute genius, I opened his blog using my good old internet explorer and presto magic, there were the pictures! Wow. I was really impressed that I'd thought to do that - ticked off that firefox was screwing with me, messing with my poor old pea brain but happy, none the less.
After that followed more fighting, trying to get the pictures in my sidebar to display properly - as I'm sure you've noticed, they were not showing up in the right sizes. What really irked me about that was some of them are duplicates and I had used the same darned jpeg file for them -never adjusted them at all -and one would display correctly while others would not.
Finally, tonight, I reloaded the Mozilla Firefox browser. Then, I went to my blog and the customize thing - reloaded the widget pictures only this time, instead of having a little check mark showing in that box that says "Shrink to fit" - I unchecked it. And guess what? The pictures loaded in correctly!
I don't know what did the trick - reloading Firefox or not having the "shrink to fit" box checked but something worked and that's all that mattered to me! More work to come in the next couple of days on the appearance of ye olde blog though so cross your fingers and hope it all works out ok!
Now - on to other things!
First - you'll see two new additions in my sidebar -if you look closely.
The YODA button comes to me from Sunshine 13 - for participating in her "pimpin and blog whoring" event last week! Pretty cool reminder to everyone reading others blogs to remember to COMMENT. Yes, comment, comment, comment! We all love to get 'em - you know you do, I know I do too! Lurking from time to time is ok, but gee, come on out into the sunshine - or moonlight perhaps - whatever the case may be - and don't be afraid to share your thoughts, your opinions! How the heck else are those of us writing these posts gonna know what people think, what they like, what they appreciate, if'n you don't step up and say "Howdy" and then go on and tell us!
So - a big thanks to Sonia for the Yoda button and I'm displaying that puppy with pride, as you can see!
This is the other addition - The Egel's Nest Award - was bestowed on me by Vic Grace from Cariboo Ponderer. Here's why Vic says she gave this award to me: "I just want to show appreciation to four friends that have been with me from the start of this blog, keeping me going when I was ready to quit." But I have to correct Vic there. She is the one who puts up some of the most beautiful photos of British Columbia, writes some really heartfelt posts, along with lots and lots that are very educational as well. Don't believe me? Check her blog out! Seriously folks, she writes excellent pieces there, all very well researched too. I think with me she's trying to disprove that old saying "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" because from reading her posts, I have actually learned a whole heck of a lot about lots and lots of things too! And if I helped to keep her writing when she was ready to throw in the towel, I'm just more than happy to have been able to help keep her from doing that!
Now, if anyone wants to tackle explaining some stuff - about "authority" - "Blog rankings" too, from Technorati, Google, another other of those things, I for one would love to have someone explain that stuff to me in ENGLISH please - no computerese - and I think one of my other favorite bloggers - Dave, at Rather Than Working, might appreciate the information too. Now Dave may be an attorney and can understand all the lovely "legalese" language that also confuses and confounds me, but he claims to be a part of the "unwashed masses" so to speak, when it comes to blogging stuff. Bottom line here is this, we'd both appreciate some straight-forward explanations about those things - what they mean, how to interpret them, etc., etc., etc.!
And now, I'm going to make a mental note to be sure to be up and awake in the morning when a certain 16-year-old make-up fiend gets up to get ready to go to school and remind her to PLEASE put her purse up - HIGH - very high -out of reach of a certain four-year-old Princess' grubby little hands! Do NOT leave the darned purse laying about in easy reach of this child or the next time, she is going to be yanked out of bed to give this certain little Princess another bath to wash away all the mascara and eye shadow she now is sporting on her cheeks -and also - on the end of her nose! Ok, she's a little misguided I guess you could say at to the placement of that stuff and considering she put it on her face, in the dark, in the sunporch, with no mirror to use as a guide either, I guess I shouldn't complaint cause she did come close to hitting the mark -well, sort of anyway!
Always something, isn't there? Yep - and I've said this before, gonna say it again, exasperating as it can be at times, ya know I wouldn't want it any other way too don't 'cha now!
Nite all!
First, this morning when I was doing the post directly below this one, I had "issues" trying to insert the blogs of my faves in a paragraph format. The computer - or blogger -one of those two things anyway -flat out refused to to allow me to do that! It insisted I list those blog one to a line! Then it also insisted they be double spaced too. And, to add insult to injury, it even flaked out on me several times and changed the doggone font as well! All that without my ever touching the font buttons too!
Once I got that wonderful technorati authority grabbing post done, time to start my reading rounds - checking in to see what my fave bloggers had to say today. More problems there then! Yep - as I was reading Meloncutter Musings post he mentioned about two photos he had in that post but be darned if I could see either of them. I refreshed the blog - still nothing. Finally, in a stroke of absolute genius, I opened his blog using my good old internet explorer and presto magic, there were the pictures! Wow. I was really impressed that I'd thought to do that - ticked off that firefox was screwing with me, messing with my poor old pea brain but happy, none the less.
After that followed more fighting, trying to get the pictures in my sidebar to display properly - as I'm sure you've noticed, they were not showing up in the right sizes. What really irked me about that was some of them are duplicates and I had used the same darned jpeg file for them -never adjusted them at all -and one would display correctly while others would not.
Finally, tonight, I reloaded the Mozilla Firefox browser. Then, I went to my blog and the customize thing - reloaded the widget pictures only this time, instead of having a little check mark showing in that box that says "Shrink to fit" - I unchecked it. And guess what? The pictures loaded in correctly!
I don't know what did the trick - reloading Firefox or not having the "shrink to fit" box checked but something worked and that's all that mattered to me! More work to come in the next couple of days on the appearance of ye olde blog though so cross your fingers and hope it all works out ok!
Now - on to other things!
First - you'll see two new additions in my sidebar -if you look closely.
The YODA button comes to me from Sunshine 13 - for participating in her "pimpin and blog whoring" event last week! Pretty cool reminder to everyone reading others blogs to remember to COMMENT. Yes, comment, comment, comment! We all love to get 'em - you know you do, I know I do too! Lurking from time to time is ok, but gee, come on out into the sunshine - or moonlight perhaps - whatever the case may be - and don't be afraid to share your thoughts, your opinions! How the heck else are those of us writing these posts gonna know what people think, what they like, what they appreciate, if'n you don't step up and say "Howdy" and then go on and tell us!
So - a big thanks to Sonia for the Yoda button and I'm displaying that puppy with pride, as you can see!
This is the other addition - The Egel's Nest Award - was bestowed on me by Vic Grace from Cariboo Ponderer. Here's why Vic says she gave this award to me: "I just want to show appreciation to four friends that have been with me from the start of this blog, keeping me going when I was ready to quit." But I have to correct Vic there. She is the one who puts up some of the most beautiful photos of British Columbia, writes some really heartfelt posts, along with lots and lots that are very educational as well. Don't believe me? Check her blog out! Seriously folks, she writes excellent pieces there, all very well researched too. I think with me she's trying to disprove that old saying "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" because from reading her posts, I have actually learned a whole heck of a lot about lots and lots of things too! And if I helped to keep her writing when she was ready to throw in the towel, I'm just more than happy to have been able to help keep her from doing that!Now, if anyone wants to tackle explaining some stuff - about "authority" - "Blog rankings" too, from Technorati, Google, another other of those things, I for one would love to have someone explain that stuff to me in ENGLISH please - no computerese - and I think one of my other favorite bloggers - Dave, at Rather Than Working, might appreciate the information too. Now Dave may be an attorney and can understand all the lovely "legalese" language that also confuses and confounds me, but he claims to be a part of the "unwashed masses" so to speak, when it comes to blogging stuff. Bottom line here is this, we'd both appreciate some straight-forward explanations about those things - what they mean, how to interpret them, etc., etc., etc.!
And now, I'm going to make a mental note to be sure to be up and awake in the morning when a certain 16-year-old make-up fiend gets up to get ready to go to school and remind her to PLEASE put her purse up - HIGH - very high -out of reach of a certain four-year-old Princess' grubby little hands! Do NOT leave the darned purse laying about in easy reach of this child or the next time, she is going to be yanked out of bed to give this certain little Princess another bath to wash away all the mascara and eye shadow she now is sporting on her cheeks -and also - on the end of her nose! Ok, she's a little misguided I guess you could say at to the placement of that stuff and considering she put it on her face, in the dark, in the sunporch, with no mirror to use as a guide either, I guess I shouldn't complaint cause she did come close to hitting the mark -well, sort of anyway!
Always something, isn't there? Yep - and I've said this before, gonna say it again, exasperating as it can be at times, ya know I wouldn't want it any other way too don't 'cha now!
Nite all!
One More Viral Link
My friend and fellow blogger, Vic Grace, has set up yet one more viral link to help folks get their authority and rankings increased or just improved a bit and I said I would give her a hand with this effort. Having seen for myself how this did bump my authority and ranking up over the past month, plus a few folks whose blogs are listed on my favorites have also written to tell me this has helped their ratings too, I figure what the heck, what's one more? It can't hurt anything, so why not do it, ya know?
Just copy the text below along with all the blogs shown too - VERY IMPORTANT that you copy all the blogs listed, obviously -and include your blogs names (in hypertext, of course) and post it to your blog. It's that simple and it does work!
Here's Vic Grace's lead in so get ready to copy from here down - or you can just copy the entire post I have here - whichever is easiest for you to do. I don't know why but my computer would not allow me to list my favorites in a block the way Vic did with hers. I also don't know why it occasionally changed the font and size or why it insisted on everything being double spaced either! My computer apparently has a mind of its own. You can do this whichever way you like or if your computer is like mine, whichever way your computer says it will do it too, maybe! Just another "go figure" I suppose.
Just copy the text below along with all the blogs shown too - VERY IMPORTANT that you copy all the blogs listed, obviously -and include your blogs names (in hypertext, of course) and post it to your blog. It's that simple and it does work!
Here's Vic Grace's lead in so get ready to copy from here down - or you can just copy the entire post I have here - whichever is easiest for you to do. I don't know why but my computer would not allow me to list my favorites in a block the way Vic did with hers. I also don't know why it occasionally changed the font and size or why it insisted on everything being double spaced either! My computer apparently has a mind of its own. You can do this whichever way you like or if your computer is like mine, whichever way your computer says it will do it too, maybe! Just another "go figure" I suppose.
Viral Linking is good for your blog
Sometime ago I started the 'Warm the Globe thru Friendship' linking project. It was basically viral linking with a twist. I had read about it on Blogging Mix. At first I was very unsure of the idea I thought it was a little like spam but eventually on the suggestion of Jeni I started it and it has gone a long way and increased my readership and authority with Technorati as well as other peoples.
I just read a post by Empress Bee reminding us of the value of this little blogging trick. She has started a list of her own which you may wish to join. However I wanted to do something a little different.
I have started a list here of those who have visited me or who I regularly read (I hope I don't leave anyone out, but if I do, tell me and I'll get your name on the list.) If you want to see your blog readership grow add this list to the bottom of a post on your blog and add your blog link at the end after the dash. Put in a dash after your name just to keep the code simple for the next person. Explain what you are doing to your readers and invite them to do the same.
Cariboo Ponderer - Down River Drivel - A little piece of me - Empress Bee (of the high sea) - I was born 2 Cree8 - Untwisted Vortex - One Man's Goal - Echoes of Grace - AuthorBlog - The Post College Years - Nobody Important - BCMom - Turning the Pages of Life - The BiPolar Diaries - Cicero Sings - Cid69 - Inman Road Chronicles - Inner Dialogues - Me, My Life, My Garden - Small Town RN - Two Write Hands - Misty Dawn - SquareTan - Skittles - At your service - Ghosts in the Machine - Planet Saedel - A nice place in the sun - And miles to go before we sleep - Blackholes and Astrostuff - The Egel Nest - Mom knows everything - Life in Westcliffe - Dapoppins - Reba's Run - Time with Shelby - Hootin' Anni - Meeyauw - Carver's Sight or is that site - The Insane Writer - Dottie's Place - A Blue State of Mind - A Twist of Humor - Are We There Yet? - Rather Than Working - Bruce in Eastern Pennsylvania - Burnett's Urban Etiquette - Creatif -Dooce - - Field Lines - Magnetbabe - House of Lime - It's About Time - Life In Westcliffe - Laura's Polebarn - Life in General - Meloncutter Musings -Memoirs of a Inmate's Wife - Mike's Place - Million Dollar Baby - Mother's Home - My Favorite Autistic - On A Rainy Night - Once A Brat - Paradise Valley 2 - Patois - Polehill Sanitarium - Minnesota Blue - Rinsem's Rink - Sasha Stinerova - So Sayeth The Shack - Sognatrice - Sunshine 13 -The Bipolar Diaries - The Odder Point of View - The Owl's Song - The Writer's Life - Theresa's Life - Today The Dragon Wins -Tomcat's Politics Plus - Wade and Erika - Walking Blind - Walks Far Woman - Whitterer-Autism
Finished!
Boy, right now, finished is a word I wish I could apply to a bunch of projects I've got here but haven't done much on them - some, for a long, long time now, too. The one I have neglected the most would be the research stuff I've had in the works for over two years now - reading copies of the local daily newspaper from an online database through Ancestry. com in search of bits and pieces of information about the township where I live, along with obituaries, other news items of interest about the little villages and the people who once lived here. I think its probably been at least two, maybe even three months since I last worked on that stuff.
Then there's all the containers I have throughout the house loaded to the gills with fabrics and patterns - stuff I'd like to sew -someday! When, at this point, who knows! I know for sure if I really want to do any serious sewing, I'm going to have to do some equally serious re-arranging of furniture, plastic storage bins, my bed, etc., in my little room. Right now, there isn't enough room for me to get to the chair in front of my sewing machine and be able to sit down there! No, I haven't gained THAT much weight (close, but no cigar there -at least not quite yet), but my dear daughter rearranged the furniture in my room a while back and suffice it to say, it's just not gonna fly if/when I try to get to the sewing machine.
I also splurged last week on a little bit of yarn too - which I desperately needed too, I want you to know. Yeah, right! Sure I did. I only have three jumbo plastic storage totes all nicely sealed up in the basement waiting for me to decide to devote some time to crocheting a couple of afghans, maybe knitting some stuff. But I wasn't that bad last week - only bought four skeins - enough to experiment with some new yarns I saw that were on sale and only purchased enough to make two scarves with this stuff. I already have a great big zippered plastic bag stuff full of the eyelash yarns to use to make those nifty boa scarves with those skeins.
We won't even think about the embroidery project I've been working on now for almost two years - a crib blanket I started about this time two years ago that was intended to be for the little grandson's arrival into the world - which if you recall from previous posts, took place 18 months ago. That project is sorely in need of attention. But somehow, I don't see it as a happening thing for a while yet.
The past couple of days flew by here and all the excitement went this morning when "Poppy" - my ex-husband -had Mandy take him to the airport in State College to catch a flight back to Nevada. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not using the word "excitement" with respect to my feelings there - not exactly - but rather for my kids and especially for little Maya, who took to old "Poppy" like flies on you know what! Last year, when he was here for a full week - in June - Kurtis was way to small to be an attraction to him -he's terrified of handling tiny babies - and Maya -well she wasn't near as advanced then as she is now which made it a whole lot more fun for him being around her this trip.
As grateful as I am that he and our kids have a good, viable relationship now, and also that he is taking so much interest in the grandkids too, it's still bittersweet to see this when I think back that he could have enjoyed the same thing with our kids when they were small too -had he been willing and able to tear himself away from the bars and such back then. He does realize that now to some extent and probably has many regrets of his own there. But you know - at the end of the day - it still is something they missed, he missed and now, the grandkids only get not even a week of his time to get acquainted, to enjoy being around him sober - which also makes all the difference of night and day too.
When Mandy took him to the airport this morning, she had Maya with her. She didn't send her to school today. This was not because of Poppy's leaving but rather because Maya had both of us up last night as she was coughing so hard, crying because of the coughing which in turn caused her, of course, to cough some more. The poor kid was virtually exhausted when she was finally able to fall back to sleep around 1:30 or so but then, woke up again around 4 a.m. with the same issues.
Mandy said Dad had her drop him off at the airport - didn't want her and Maya to come in and sit with him till his flight was ready. She said it was because he didn't want to see her cry but I know better than that. Ok, true enough, he didn't want to see Mandy cry but I'd bet the family farm it was more because he didn't want her to see him cry to leave his baby girl and also, his little baby granddaughter too - who it was more than obviously had moved in and become the apple of his eye. For all his bluff and bluster most of the time, when push comes to shove, he really is a very sentimental slob - almost as bad as I am -and the tears come easily to him now but he still tries to conceal them. That old male chauvinist crapola there again, ya know.
Today, I spent the bulk of the afternoon and all of the evening trying to spruce up my blog, correct somethings I had done incorrectly - like the way my favorites list was showing up before. Thanks to a reader of David McMahon's Authorblog - a guy named "Fletch" from someplace in Portugal - I got information on how to correct my faves list! That much I did get accomplished. However, even though I followed his instructions to the nose on how to fix the way some of my "awards" pictures look on my sidebar, I couldn't get it to work. So now, I'll have to work on that again tomorrow - or rather today since I just remembered it is now almost 1 a.m. and it tomorrow is now today! It's times like that which make me wish I knew and understood a lot more about html and blogging! That's an understatement there as I know nothing about either faction so it takes me two to three times longer to get anything figured out then.
You would think though since I no longer work outside the home - all I do is watch the grandkids while Mandy and Bill work, try to come up with some reasonable meal for supper, occasionally do a few little things around the house and then, play on the computer, that I should be able to be well enough organized to get other projects completed now wouldn't you? Computers are supposed to be a great tool to enable us to do lots more things and much faster too - right? WRONG! It' s all a bunch of diversionary tactics that take place, led us - well, me anyway - astray from what we probably should be doing.
I think back to all the various things I somehow managed to accomplish in a day's time when my kids were young, when I was working full-time as well as running a pretty large Avon sales route too, cooking a big meal every night, tons of laundry, a little cleaning here and there and now, I can't manage the little bit that is on my plate here daily. I was reminded of all the craziness of the schedule I used to keep back then and for many years too - until December of 2003 -when I was reading Molly Gras blog tonight. If you really want to tire yourself out before heading to bed, read her post for Wednesday evening and you'll be reaching for the vitamin bottles to try to pump up some extra energy! It's titled "Free Verse Frenzy" and boy, after reading that, I decided that I am a total slacker these days or just really, really disorganized. Ok, could easily be a combination of both at play there I suppose.
So tomorrow (or will that tomorrow be today?) I'm really going to have to take the old bull by the horns, make some changes, and get my fat self busy! First up will be doing one more technorati authority grabber early tomorrow, and then when that is done, I'm going to start rearranging my life style.
All of this - just so I can get SOMETHING -anything - finished!
Then there's all the containers I have throughout the house loaded to the gills with fabrics and patterns - stuff I'd like to sew -someday! When, at this point, who knows! I know for sure if I really want to do any serious sewing, I'm going to have to do some equally serious re-arranging of furniture, plastic storage bins, my bed, etc., in my little room. Right now, there isn't enough room for me to get to the chair in front of my sewing machine and be able to sit down there! No, I haven't gained THAT much weight (close, but no cigar there -at least not quite yet), but my dear daughter rearranged the furniture in my room a while back and suffice it to say, it's just not gonna fly if/when I try to get to the sewing machine.
I also splurged last week on a little bit of yarn too - which I desperately needed too, I want you to know. Yeah, right! Sure I did. I only have three jumbo plastic storage totes all nicely sealed up in the basement waiting for me to decide to devote some time to crocheting a couple of afghans, maybe knitting some stuff. But I wasn't that bad last week - only bought four skeins - enough to experiment with some new yarns I saw that were on sale and only purchased enough to make two scarves with this stuff. I already have a great big zippered plastic bag stuff full of the eyelash yarns to use to make those nifty boa scarves with those skeins.
We won't even think about the embroidery project I've been working on now for almost two years - a crib blanket I started about this time two years ago that was intended to be for the little grandson's arrival into the world - which if you recall from previous posts, took place 18 months ago. That project is sorely in need of attention. But somehow, I don't see it as a happening thing for a while yet.
The past couple of days flew by here and all the excitement went this morning when "Poppy" - my ex-husband -had Mandy take him to the airport in State College to catch a flight back to Nevada. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not using the word "excitement" with respect to my feelings there - not exactly - but rather for my kids and especially for little Maya, who took to old "Poppy" like flies on you know what! Last year, when he was here for a full week - in June - Kurtis was way to small to be an attraction to him -he's terrified of handling tiny babies - and Maya -well she wasn't near as advanced then as she is now which made it a whole lot more fun for him being around her this trip.
As grateful as I am that he and our kids have a good, viable relationship now, and also that he is taking so much interest in the grandkids too, it's still bittersweet to see this when I think back that he could have enjoyed the same thing with our kids when they were small too -had he been willing and able to tear himself away from the bars and such back then. He does realize that now to some extent and probably has many regrets of his own there. But you know - at the end of the day - it still is something they missed, he missed and now, the grandkids only get not even a week of his time to get acquainted, to enjoy being around him sober - which also makes all the difference of night and day too.
When Mandy took him to the airport this morning, she had Maya with her. She didn't send her to school today. This was not because of Poppy's leaving but rather because Maya had both of us up last night as she was coughing so hard, crying because of the coughing which in turn caused her, of course, to cough some more. The poor kid was virtually exhausted when she was finally able to fall back to sleep around 1:30 or so but then, woke up again around 4 a.m. with the same issues.
Mandy said Dad had her drop him off at the airport - didn't want her and Maya to come in and sit with him till his flight was ready. She said it was because he didn't want to see her cry but I know better than that. Ok, true enough, he didn't want to see Mandy cry but I'd bet the family farm it was more because he didn't want her to see him cry to leave his baby girl and also, his little baby granddaughter too - who it was more than obviously had moved in and become the apple of his eye. For all his bluff and bluster most of the time, when push comes to shove, he really is a very sentimental slob - almost as bad as I am -and the tears come easily to him now but he still tries to conceal them. That old male chauvinist crapola there again, ya know.
Today, I spent the bulk of the afternoon and all of the evening trying to spruce up my blog, correct somethings I had done incorrectly - like the way my favorites list was showing up before. Thanks to a reader of David McMahon's Authorblog - a guy named "Fletch" from someplace in Portugal - I got information on how to correct my faves list! That much I did get accomplished. However, even though I followed his instructions to the nose on how to fix the way some of my "awards" pictures look on my sidebar, I couldn't get it to work. So now, I'll have to work on that again tomorrow - or rather today since I just remembered it is now almost 1 a.m. and it tomorrow is now today! It's times like that which make me wish I knew and understood a lot more about html and blogging! That's an understatement there as I know nothing about either faction so it takes me two to three times longer to get anything figured out then.
You would think though since I no longer work outside the home - all I do is watch the grandkids while Mandy and Bill work, try to come up with some reasonable meal for supper, occasionally do a few little things around the house and then, play on the computer, that I should be able to be well enough organized to get other projects completed now wouldn't you? Computers are supposed to be a great tool to enable us to do lots more things and much faster too - right? WRONG! It' s all a bunch of diversionary tactics that take place, led us - well, me anyway - astray from what we probably should be doing.
I think back to all the various things I somehow managed to accomplish in a day's time when my kids were young, when I was working full-time as well as running a pretty large Avon sales route too, cooking a big meal every night, tons of laundry, a little cleaning here and there and now, I can't manage the little bit that is on my plate here daily. I was reminded of all the craziness of the schedule I used to keep back then and for many years too - until December of 2003 -when I was reading Molly Gras blog tonight. If you really want to tire yourself out before heading to bed, read her post for Wednesday evening and you'll be reaching for the vitamin bottles to try to pump up some extra energy! It's titled "Free Verse Frenzy" and boy, after reading that, I decided that I am a total slacker these days or just really, really disorganized. Ok, could easily be a combination of both at play there I suppose.
So tomorrow (or will that tomorrow be today?) I'm really going to have to take the old bull by the horns, make some changes, and get my fat self busy! First up will be doing one more technorati authority grabber early tomorrow, and then when that is done, I'm going to start rearranging my life style.
All of this - just so I can get SOMETHING -anything - finished!
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