Away
I thought of another reason why I don't like travel, --to be away from home. I so often make a fool of myself. Like yesterday, when we stopped at Dairy Queen to have the evening meal as we were enroute to New Kensington. I asked for a grilled chicken salad. Then while my husband went to order it, I sat looking at the poster advertising the chicken strip basket. I was looking at the little container of gravy in the picture and thinking about it. And then my husband came back to the car and asked me what sauce I wanted with my order. I had that chicken strip basket on my mind and so I said, "Gravy." "Gravy!" he said in disbelief. I didn't know why he thought it odd. It's seems natural with the chicken strip basket. When he brought my salad and this little container of gravy, then I remembered that I hadn't ordered chicken strip basket, and gravy really doesn't go with salad! I couldn't believe I'd done that. I felt so simple minded.
On one of our other trips, we stopped at a place where we had to order a sub on a computer. We were both so confused by this new to us way of doing things. We both ordered meatball subs. And then it kept asking us what we wanted on it and without realizing the kind of sandwich we'd ordered, we asked for other things on it. I wanted tomatoes and onion and my husband said he'd have ketchup. When we unwrapped our subs and saw what we'd done, we had to laugh and laugh at the silliness of it and the way the clerk didn't ask any questions and just did what we stupidly had requested. It was an edible sandwich but not really good.
There's something about travel that brings out the confusion and stupidity in me, and here I've done it again. The girl who fixed the little dish of gravy for my grilled chicken salad probably told her parents that night, "You'll never guess what this woman asked for to go on her chicken salad today!" At home, I'd never get mixed up and fix myself gravy to go with my salad.
Learning to Drive
I took Driver's Ed in high school and learned to drive there, but that was a car with an automatic transmission. Our family vehicle was a Willeys Jeep Station Wagon, with standard shift. I was eager to learn to drive it but I needed to learn how to shift. Finally my dad said he would teach me and we went to the Jeep which was parked in front of the garage. The garage was in the basement of our house.
Our driveway paralleled the road but there was a steep bank between our driveway and the road. The house was on a higher level than the road. We backed out of our garage and angled to the left then pulled forward to the right and went to the end of our driveway.
If we backed out of our garage angled to the right, we could drive to the barn. This was my route of practice. Dad took the Jeep out of the garage and then I was to back it up, turn, drive to the barn, turn it around and drive back to the garage. It was going to be a continuous loop till I got the hang of it.
Using a gear shift was not anything like what I expected it to be. I let the clutch out inch by inch and nothing happened. So I got tired of that and let the clutch out the whole way. Too fast! We went flying backwards as fast as could be. I slammed on the brake and we were inches away from going down over that steep bank.
My dad never let on how scared he was when we did that. I was plenty scared. I think I made two turns and just felt too shook up to continue. That's enough for now, I told him and we got out of the car. Dad told me much later that he was really glad that I'd decided to quit practicing that day when I did. Teaching someone to drive is a scary thing to do.
I learned to let the clutch out properly and did it quite well for many years. When it was my turn to teach young people to drive, I took them to a school parking lot in the evening when there were no cars there. I gave them verbal instructions, and showed them by example and then let them try to do it. And there was nothing to bang into, and no steep banks to plunge over. I think I was a good teacher. I'd almost forgotten, though, what a scary thing it was to learn to use the clutch when the first time you engaged it you could plunge over a steep bank backwards!
Going Away
First, I want to thank my son for posting the pictures on the blog for me. The self portrait was a surprise, but not an unpleasant one. Perhaps some have wondered how old I really am and what I look like.
After posting my reasons for liking to be home, I thought I should think of some reasons for going away.
- I get to be with family and friends who don't live here
- I may meet new friends
- There should be some small adventure for me
- I may have time to read when I won't be doing household chores
- It might help me to not be dull
- I won't be planning meals (sometimes it's hard to think what to have)
- I'll see different scenery
- I'll have a good time wherever I am
Self portrait
And now, thanks to the magic of Paint Shop Pro, I have removed the glare from the flash (and the camera) from the previous picture of the mirror, giving a more clear self portrait. This is for all of you who wondered what I look like.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
This is a picture of the mirror in the waiting room at Erie Regional Cancer Center where the patients wait to be called back for their radiation treatment. I have no idea who made this frame, or even how it was made, but it's a really great collage of images and ideas for bringing enjoyment to each day. They are good things to keep in mind when your body is feeling low.
My flowers
This is my tangle of Gloriosa Daisies and coneflowers. They provide a bright splotch of summer color and I've enjoyed them immensely!
The view from my window
This is what I see outside my dining room window, from a slightly different angle. This picture was taken in spring, before the various daisies were blooming but after the lupine and columbine were finished.
Going Away
Reasons I hate to go away
- I always miss something that happens here at home
- I have to plan what to take with me, try not to take too much, and not forget something important
- I have to get chores taken care of before I go
- I miss sleeping in my own bed
- I miss my routine
- I miss getting proper exercise
- I don't keep up with the news
- When I get home again, I have to unpack and put away
- I have to work twice as hard to get things done to the point where they should be done
- I am a dull stick-in-the-mud
Another Blessing
Last night when we were at Dairy Queen, I met one of my former students, --from my last year of teaching. Penny was a fifth grade student then. She stood quietly, watching me till I noticed her. When I recognized her, she smiled shyly and came to me and hugged me. She's married now. Four years, she says. She and her husband are buying their own home. I was so pleased to see her and talk to her. Her hug was another gift from the heart, another blessing.
Yard Sale Day
Carolyn, my back door neighbor, is having a yard sale today. She has a sale once a month during the summer. She collects things through the year in order to have her own sales. This month, she's had a hard time finding a day when it's not raining. It looks like she picked a winner in today. It's not raining!
A Child's Gifts
When a child gives me a gift, I like to keep the gift, to show my appreciation. I have lots of little things around the house that remind of the children who gave them to me.
I have clay pots, little ones, from some of my boys in fifth grade who gave them to me because they were so sure their moms wouldn't want them and I thought they were something special that should be kept. I have gifts from Christmases long ago, from children who are now grown taller than I. There's a little bear cub set from a third grader who painted them himself, and other similar gifts.
One of my latest gifts is from my youngest granddaughter. It's a suncatcher to hang in the window, a brown and white dog holding his master's slipper in his mouth. It's hanging at my dining room window where I can see it and think of Sarah making it for me. How nice it is to receive the love that comes with these personal hand made gifts.
A Better Day
I feel so much better now. Allergies are under control again and I've even had a little rest in the late morning. We've got a lot of work done in the yard this morning, --a new fence for the dog pen (high and sturdy to keep Rusty from thinking of leaping over it or being able to knock it down), a fire in the fire ring to burn lots of odds and ends of wood scraps and brush, and many little necessary tasks which don't seem worth writing about but actually make a big difference in the general appearance of things. Lunch was easily handled and even though I forgot the hot dogs under the broiler, I didn't for sure burn them. They were very good!
Early to Rise
I want to say, Early is to morning as late is to night. I'm not sure why that comes to my mind except maybe it's because both of them don't seem right for me. If I have to do one of them, it's easier for me to do late at night. Doing both isn't much fun, and I couldn't do it that way very often.
So here I am up earlier than I would need to be, --because of allergy, breathing problems. Usually getting up and getting a hot cup of tea helps me. Breathing the steam seems to be good for this problem, and sitting up instead of lying down is also better.
I'm not sure what brought this on, but I feel I'll be OK again in a little while, probably by the time the rest of the household is up. I'm up before the birds this morning!
Harvest
Today I picked the first of my ripe tomatoes. Eight of my grape tomatoes were ripe! They are big for grape tomatoes, but, of course small for regular tomatoes. Tonight I ate just one of them, with a sprinkle of salt. It was all that it was supposed to be. And the best part is that there are many more ripening out there still. Don't you just love ripe tomatoes fresh from your own little patch!!!
Library Donation
We went to the library today, to donate some old magazines to the magazine sale. I also took out a couple of audio books and Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to birds. I'm getting ready to try to identify birds at my feeders. The great thing about RTP's bird identification book is supposed to be that he targets specific things to look for. For instance, though there are many similarities in sparrows, his guide will call attention to the individual differences. I'm hoping it works for me. I do have a problem in seeing differences but I think I can look for something such as, "a white bar across the wing." If it's only that simple!
Change
Yesterday on Focus on the Family, the speaker of the day, Sandra Felton, was talking about how impossible it is to change people. She said that trying to change someone is like trying to teach a pig to sing. There are three points about this.
- It is impossible
- People will think you're an idiot to try
- The pig will get very mad at you.
I hope to remember this the next time I have thoughts of trying to influence change in someone I love.
Pictures
We've been looking at slides tonight, --slides that were taken in the 70's and 80's. A few of the people we've forgotten but many of the memories came back. There were some happy times. One of the neatest things is to see us wearing clothes that my mom sewed for us. She made me a white suit that I really liked. I had pretty much forgotten it. I'll have to say modestly that I looked good in that suit. I wish she could enjoy the pictures with us.
Getting Back to Routine
Getting back to Aquarobics this morning was like getting together with family again. I had many really warm greetings. I received a couple hugs, and one hug was while I was in the pool. It's a little unusual to be hugged in the swimming pool, but a comforting hug is acceptable even in the swimming pool.
My Monday
I know Monday is supposed to be an unwelcome day for most people, but I'm retired and I have the luxury to greet Monday as a special day for me. And, this will be my first Monday to be able to be at home after several weeks of being away every morning. I do hope to get to Aquarobics again but that's just going across town and I feel so good after I've done the water exercise.
It's another rainy day and really on the cool side but it's going to be a good day. Later today I will have company again. I'll have fun getting ready for our special time together.
Good rainy Monday morning to everyone!
The Chocolate Urge
I've been very hungry for chocolate lately. It happens to me every now and then. I used to make fudge when I got the chocolate urge. By the time I'd cooked it to the right temperature and then got it into the buttered pan and I licked the fudge pan and spoon, my craving for chocolate was satisfied with just a couple of pieces of fudge.
I haven't made fudge for a long time now but recently I've had a strong urge for chocolate. Friday I made myself chocolate sauce for ice cream, using chocolate chips, milk and some butter. It was wonderful but Saturday I wanted more. Then I made chocolate pudding from scratch, using lots of cocoa powder, milk, butter, sugar and egg. I think I'm satisfied now. Except that the sauce on the vanilla ice cream was really exceptionally wonderful. I think for this evening a couple of Hershey's dark chocolate kisses will be enough.
Pleasant Days
I find so much pleasure in summer days. In spite of all the rain we've had, and the low temperatures, there's still many great things for me to enjoy this summer.
One thing I'm enjoying a lot is the position of my computer in the dining room so that I can look out the window at the archway trellis, the birds, the cone flowers and the Gloriosa Daisies while I work here. It's a scene that's both beautiful and entertaining for me, because of the birds, squirrels and chipmunks providing the entertainment and and the birds and flowers are all beautiful.
Yesterday I spent some time outdoors deadheading. That's not as enjoyable as watching the plants begin to bloom but it's an important part of gardening. I shall hate to see the Gloriosas come to the end of their cycle. I don't have many fall flowers. The mums I had last year didn't make it through the winter. It was a hard winter last year and I lost a lot of plants to winter kill.
Rich Black Dirt
A friend mentioned to me this morning that when she was a child she loved to play outside on rainy days, listening to the sounds and making up stories. It reminded me that I loved to play in the very black dirt at the back of my grandparents yard, which reminded me of the rich black dirt I found at our first home after we were graduated from college.
This was a parsonage, a rented house in Millertown which was near Indian Head and our mailing address was Normalville. It had six rooms and a path. The church rented it from, who else, the Millers, -Chester and Minnie. After we moved in, my husband asked Chester to teach him how to keep the coal furnace going in the winter. Chester said he'd send Minnie over to teach me because that was Minnie's job. She taught Marlin and in our home, it was his job, --unless he was away for several hours.
But I digress. In the summer, I found this rich black soil beside the outbuilding at the end of "the path." I thought it would be very fertile and I planted some seeds in it. But nothing every grew. It wasn't till about a month later that I was told that what I thought was rich black dirt was actually soot! The chimeny had been cleaned and the soot had been dumped there at the edge of the property by the outhouse. Rich black soil, indeed!
Out Walking With No Jacket
I had a walk to the post office this morning, to mail a little package. Since it's past mid-July, and heading pell-mell into August, which is supposed to be our hottest months of the year, I didn't wear a jacket. I should not need a jacket on a July morning, after 9 o'clock. Maybe I would need a jacket at 6 AM, but not after the sun is fully up, I thought.
I tried to walk briskly and warm myself by my own activity, but I'd have to walk farther than our house to the post office to get warmed up very much. I did feel the chill. I see by the temperature posted on the welcome screen on the computer that it's now 63 degrees. No wonder a jacket would have felt comfortable this morning.
This reminds me of neighbors we had when we lived at Cobbs Corners. They lived half a mile away but in the country, that's neighbors. The mom of the family had said that the kids could go barefoot after May 1, but not before. Therefore, they went barefoot on May 1, even if it snowed at that time, as it sometimes did. I was experiencing that same attitude. It's July! Why would I need a jacket?
Another Morning
When I was a kid, I didn't enjoy mornings. I don't remember waking up early and feeling so good about it being morning. I remember being deep in sleep and finding it hard to get my day started.
I remember when I was in high school that my mom would call me to get up to get ready for school. I would answer her but I'd stay in bed just a few more minutes. A number of times I was thinking about getting ready for school and I went back to sleep and dreamed that I was actually getting washed and dressed and have my teeth brushed when Mom (my snooze alarm) would call to me again and I'd wake up and realize that I had done none of those things. Then I'd have to really hurry.
I had untreated allergies in those days and they really sapped my strength and left me tired all the time. Now that I'm on shots for my allergies, mornings are a different matter to me. I usually don't mind getting up fairly early and I feel a joy and a delight in greeting my new day.
Often I wake up and think of what Ron, our former Sunday school teacher told us he prays, "God, today is Your day. Today is my day. Help me to do what you want me to do today." Not knowing what's ahead for my day, I feel safe in commiting it to my Father and I look for Him in this day that He's given me.
Persistence
I give up too easily. I realize that. I try something, it doesn't work, someone says, "No," and I let it go.
The persistence of the squirrels at my bird feeders is a lesson to me. I didn't count the number of times that I chased the squirrels from my feeder this afternon, but each time I did, they came back. They came back one more time than I said, "No."
I finally took the bird bell down and set out a tray of cracked corn for them. They still wanted the seed from the bird feeder, but I kept chasing them away.
Even though I said, "No," I gave them something just as good. If I keep knocking on my closed doors, maybe I'll get something. I'm thinking about it.
The Sun Is Back
The rain is over, the sun is back. The birds are flocking to the feeders again. The big squirrel ate of the bird bell to his heart's content for at least 20 minutes before I went out and told him he'd had enough. He was interesting to watch. He draped himself over the trellis and down to the bird bell and it made me think of those fur stoles women used to wear when I was a girl.
That's a thought I haven't had for a long time. I never liked seeing the dead foxes around women's necks, but it was fascinating. I'd rather see the live squirrel at the feeder than the dead foxes around a woman's neck.
Aunt Marg (family friend) had a big old fur coat. I like to sit next to her in church and cuddle up against the soft warm fur and pet it and stroke it. I think it was bear, but I"m not sure now. It was black any way. I'd much rather see the living animals than the pelts and when I want to pet fur, I'll reach out to my dogs.
Rain Brings Relief
I woke this morning to the sound of rain. After I got dressed, I went out to the porch and sat where the rain wasn't coming in and just listened to all the rain sounds. It was pouring down hard. I could hear it on the roof, and spilling through the downspouts and splashing on the road. And it was blessedly cool and refreshing to sit there for a little while. The only thing that troubles me about the rain this morning is that the farmers here really do need some hot, dry weather. Their winter feed for their animals depends on this. I'm willing to take some hot dry days for them.
Warm Weather Arrived
I guess we can say that summer has arrived in our town. Today has been very warm. It's really hot indoors tonight but it's pleasantly cool outdoors. Farmers have been wanting this weather. They need their hay crops and also the corn. Both need some hot, dry days.
Morning Light
The morning light is dim and gray today. I could see a cardinal at the bird feeder but I only knew it was a cardinal because of its size and crested head. I could discern faintly a tinge of red but the bird looked more gray than red. There's heavy cloud cover this morning.
Yesterday morning when I walked around to the back of the building checking to see what kinds of cars were parked there, I did not see the beautiful black Jag.
I'm very glad to be able to be home this morning and not getting ready to go to Erie.
Good Smaritan
We were blessed with two Good Samaritans today. As we left the Cancer Center, my husband felt nauseaus and we went to the far edge of the parking lot where he knelt on the grass till the feeling should pass. Two different people came to check on him, to offer help.
I was standing near him, in the empty space by our car. We park well away from the entrance to the building where few people do park. Here comes this van across the parking lot toward us. And he was heading for the exact spot where I was standing! All this empty space and he's driving into this space where I'm standing. I started to move away but he stopped and opened his window. He saw that my husband wasn't feeling well and he could get help for him. He was going into the building, and he could get help. We thanked him for his kindness but we knew the nausea would soon pass. He drove away then, and parked closer to the entrance to the building.
A few minutes later, a woman drove up to us. She said that her mom had gone through treatment at this Center and she knew what it was like. "It may help if you have some juice to drink," she said. She wanted to give him a bottle of Strawberry Kiwi drink. He tried to refuse her offer but she said, "I want you to have it. I would feel so much better if you would accept it." How could he refuse. I had tears in my eyes as he took the bottle from her. The kindness of strangers! I watched her drive away and exit the parking lot. Then I realized that she'd left the street to come into the parking lot and offer her gift. What a blessing. I thank God for the Good Samaritans who still help the strangers.
I wished I could do something to let them know how deeply I appreciated their concern. My husband and I have accepted so much help from friends in the last three weeks, and now from strangers, too.
I wrote these words:
God bless the Good Samaritan,
Who without thought of self
Leaves his familiar routine way
To care for someone else's health.
God bless the Good Samaritan,
Who reaches out his hand
To one who falters on the path.
He says, "I understand."
I wanted to write more but I was interrupted as I was writing and I just couldn't get one more stanza to flow. But with the Apostle Paul I can say, "I thank God upon every remembrance of you."
Warfare
I read today in the Backyard Bird Watcher book that chipmunks have been known to invade bird nests and kill the babies! Shocking! And they look so cute, those chipmunks.
Also, when one bird or bird family in the immediate area is under attack, all the birds, of all species, in the area will sound the alarm and become highly aggitated.
That reminds me of the time I was going through the poultry houses at the fair and a beagle dog came wandering in the door. All the birds (chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, etc.) set up a frightened clamor, sounding their alarms at the top of their voices. They were in wire enclosures well above where the dog was but they were all deeply upset by his visit. No exceptions!
One more thing. Bluebirds, though bossy and pushy, are the first to sound the alarm that a predator is near, and this is good. However, they have been known to sound a false alarm just so that they would have no competition at the feeder! Bird brains, but they're thinking!
Excitement
It's hard not feel excitement about today's trip to Erie, since it's the last of this 15 day segment. We don't know what lies ahead by way of treatment on this road to health but we know that today marks an important milestone along that road.
It doesn't sound like a lot of days, fifteen, but they've taken their toll on us. Still we know we have it easy compared to many others. No one I've talked to has had less than 30 days, and many have had significantly more. Also, it's easier for us because we can get the treatment in Erie. Before the Cancer Center was established in Erie, people in our area made a two hour trip to Buffalo each day when they needed treatments.
The Cancer Center has been made into a beautiful place and the people who work there are both friendly and comforting, but we will be happy to not have to make the daily trip for their services.
Running Water
Today in my reading about Backyard Birds, I learned that many birds prefer running water to still water. They like an arrangement with a recirculating pump to keep the water moving. One woman reported that she had two really nice birdbaths in her yard and the birds preferred to go to her neighbor's dripping faucet to get their drink.
If you have birds coming to your feeders you can arrange drinking water for them by taking an old bucket, putting a little hole in the bottom of it and hanging it near the feeders. Fill it with water a couple of times a day and the birds will like to get their water from the drips. I'm thinking that over, but doubt that I'll do it. So far, the bird bath is working out pretty well. I like the idea of a recirculating pump, though.
Auto
Yesterday morning when we were walking into the Cancer Center Building, I noticed a slim, sleek, shiny black car parked in front of the building. There were two black and white stickers on the windshield at the bottom corner on the passenger's side. These caught my attention and I could see the word Jaguar on both of the stickers, which were not identical. Then I noticed the shiny Jaguar hood ornament and knew it was a for real Jaguar that I was looking at. I'm sure I hadn't seen it there before.
It was something special, that's for sure. I walked around it and looked it over, delighted to see it, but satisfied just to look at it.
It was gone when we came out of the building. I looked for it again today, but it wasn't there. Then I remembered that yesterday there was a well dressed gentleman wearing a "visitor" ID tag who had been escorted through the building. I've been wondering if he was the driver of the Jag.
Also, this morning there was a statement on the outdoor marquee welcoming new doctor, H-----------. It was 12 letters long and a name completely new to me so it doesn't stick in my mind. Today I'm wondering if Dr. H. could have been a visitor yesterday, looking over the new territory. Probably not, but maybe. If I remember it tomorrow, I'll walk around to the back parking area and see if the black Jag is parked back there. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. It's a sleek, black cat!
A New Twist on an Old Saying
I noticed when I first got up this morning that, "It's the early bird that gets the unchallenged place at the feeder." Now half an hour later, more birds have arrived and are vying for position. There's a flurry of activity out there.
Backyard Birds
I got a book from the library, The Backyard Bird Watcher by George H. Harrison, that was written in 1979. He tells about bird seed being packaged in a mix of about 8-10 different seeds. He suspected that not all the seeds in the mix were eaten by the birds. He worked on tests with the cooperation of the seed suppliers and set up a true bird cafeteria with the appropriate number of seed bins arranged for the birds to eat what they preferred. He found that only four of the kinds of seeds were eaten and the rest were wasted. Birds preferred sunflower, red and white millets and cracked corn. They did not eat wheat at all and a few of the other kinds of seeds, including milo, were eaten very sparingly.
I checked my birdseed bag and only five kinds of seeds are included, sunflower, millet, milo, wheat and cracked corn.
I decided to try my own feeding mixture. If they prefer cracked corn and sunflower, it might be better to give them that, --although buying 50 pounds of these five mixed seeds is only $10.50 and lasts about a month and a half, the way I feed it to them. They might want more than what I dole out to them.
I've filled the feeder with cracked corn. They have been busy eating it but not tossing it out of the feeder as fast as they do the seed mix. This might work well, if I feed them the seed mix in the morning, and the cracked corn in the afternoon when they've emptied the feeder.
Our Visitor
My friend, Carolyn. from Artists' Guild, stopped by last night. She gave us a framed photo that she'd taken of our house. It's a wonderful gift.
She also looked at my latest painting, which is almost finished. She gave me some good advice for it and lots of encouragement.
Supportive friends are a surely a gift from God. I am blessed.
Renewal
Once again the rest through the night has renewed my body and spirit for today's demands. I've been outside to fill the bird feeders and the birds are flocking to the feeder outside the dining room window. It's such fun to see them crowding into the birdy cafeteria. A dozen of them are vying for positions at the feeder, a couple more are eating on the bird bell, and at least another dozen are picking up the seeds from the ground underneath the feeder. Most of them are sparrows. There is a slim black bird that may be a young grackle. A big bluebird stopped by to hammer at the bird bell for a short while.
We're heading to Erie in a short while. It's Day 13. On Wednesday, Day 15, we'll be finished with this phase of treatment.
Recital
This afternoon I went to a voice recital in a neighboring town. It was the senior recital for a friend of our family. I hadn't gotten to any of his other recitals and I didn't want to miss this one.
I'm glad I went. It was very interesting for the songs were each one very different from the others. I'm thinking that the teacher chose the songs for the students.
The first song was sung by a lovely young girl wearing a white ball gown in the style that must have been popular when I was a baby. It was very ornate, a bit much for today's taste, but perfect for what I would think is a period piece. Although she sang in English, I couldn't catch most of what she was saying. She carried a fan and waved it flirtatiously. She gestured like a drama queen and pranced back and forth as she sang. Her song was light and airy but sometimes shrill as she reached the high octaves. I liked her singing and her presentation. Later she sang a duet with one of the guys, "Send In the Clowns."
You could tell that everyone had worked really hard and given their best effort to the performance. My friend did his best, also. He did a duet number from Hairspray that the audience loved. It was about still loving each other when they were old and fat. The girl wore an outfit stuffed with pillows and they sang and danced together and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing. It was good.
Alphabet Soup
For many years I have enjoyed playing alphabet soup. I pick a subject and name something that goes with that subject starting with each letter of the alphabet. Recently when I was naming things through the alphabet, I was very frustrated that there was nothing that starts with the letter Q which would fit my list. (That I could think of.)
Then I remembered that in the past, I seldom could find the right "Q" word to fit the list. And that led me to make the suggestion, "Since there are so few Q words, especially nouns, why not eliminate Q from our language?"
For the most part this would work. Most Q words could be eliminated through the use of synonyms. However, people like John Quincey Adams would suffer. And words like quarter would pose a problem though it wouldn't be insurmountable. It would, however, take more words to replace one word like "quotation." That would be "something someone else said." "Quotation marks" is probably the best word to use for what they are.
Although this suggestion will never catch on with the general public, I shall think about eliminating Q from my vocabulary for the rest of this evening and all day tomorrow.
After that I may think about starting all my sentences with a Q word. I shall also think about talking less! (That'll be the day!)
In the Abstract
Last night we watched part of the beginning of the Helen Keller story dramatization. It reminded me of things I learned when I read her biography years ago. Before Anne Sullivan broke through to her and helped her learn words, Helen knew many things. She knew the people in her family, the clothes they wore, how to help with laundry and put the clothing in the right drawers. She knew when her parents were getting dressed up to leave the house and lots of other things like that. I kept asking myself, How could she think those things without any words?
Since then I've realized that I do have abstract thought, but I still don't understand how it can be. And, even when I think abstractly, it's based on understandings of words. I still really don't understand how Helen could know and understand as much as she did before she had words to express and build on that understanding.
Bird Get Together
Tonight after dinner when I looked out at the trellis arbor and bird feeder, I saw that about a dozen sparrows had congregated on the top of the trellis. They looked like they were comfortably in a social gathering. I thought they might be sort of getting ready for bedtime.
Then a dove flew in and sat down right in the midst of them. The dove looked huge and sort of awkward among them. The dove broke up the meeting. Two or three at a time, they just left, going in various directions. And then even the dove flew away too and the trellis looked very empty with no flock of birds perched on it.
The Bird Bell
When I put up the first bird bell of seeds, the birds here didn't know what to make of it. They flew to it but didn't know how to grab hold and eat from it. They kept checking it out though and eventually they got the hang of it. I didn't expect the sparrows to be attracted to it.
Today was was the time to hang up the second bird bell. It didn't take them long to flock to it and start eating. At first there were two big blue birds that came to it. They really hammered at the seeds and only ate there one at a time. When they left, the sparrows took over. They can sit on the bell three at a time.
It's very entertaining to watch the birds at the feeders and critter blocks.
June Morning
This morning seems as pretty as a June morning should be, except that the flowers blooming are summer flowers instead of lupine and columbine. There are daisies, (Gloriosa, Shasta and the common oxeye) and cone flowers. The Brown-eyed Susans are just beginning to bloom here but they've been blooming in Erie for two weeks. It's just right cool outside, not so cold that we'd need a jacket and certainly not so warm as to be oppressively hot. It's the kind of morning that June could be proud of.
A Beautiful Day
The rain stopped and we had a beautiful day today. This afternoon we got lots of yard work done. With lots of helpers, it was easy to do many chores. Our lawn, and the neighbor's lawn, is mowed and the brush is burned. The sweet peas are tied up and neatened. The berries were picked again. The yeild wasn't very high this time, but there was enough to make it worth while to pick them. And! I even had time to sit on the porch swing and read a little bit before dinner. It's been a good day!
(Sweet peas are very special to me because my mom told me that she carried a bouquet of sweet peas on her wedding day, July 15, 1935. I'm glad I got a patch of them growing).
Welcome Weekend
We've made our last trip to Erie this week and both my husband and I are really welcoming the weekend. It's not been easy making these daily trips. Today we got to ask many questions. The answers weren't all wonderful but it's information that we need to know. Basically, today shows some improvement in the blood count levels. We'll take any encouragement we can get.
Waterlogged
It rained just about all day yesterday, with a few non rainy moments here and there. Every time I thought of taking a walk or doing a little work outdoors, it rained again.
When we gave up our walk on Wednesday night and came back home, we saw a most gorgeous rainbow stretched over the Concord School. Yesterday there was a picture of that rainbow on the front page of our local newspaper. The picture came out beautifully. The sports editor, Doug Kates, took the picture while he covered the boys' baseball game at Mead Park. The game was called because of rain, but he got a great picture of the rainbow.
What a lovely reminder the rainbow is that God hasn't forgotten us. Even as the rain continues and the outdoor work can't be completed, we have the reminder that God is still on the throne and is caring for us.
Fresh Pineapple
My friend brought me a pineapple from Erie County Farms. She did a fabulous job of picking it out. It was perfect. We had it with our evening meal. There are 8 of us here right now. It was scrumptious. There was none left over to put away!
Versatile
This morning when I was pressing a few articles of clothing before hanging them up, I was reminded of my mom and her iron. I have a relatively new iron which was very inexpensive. I have some questions in my mind about its plug. If it would go bad, it wouldn't be a big deal to buy a new iron. And then I remembered that periodically Mom had to cut the plug off the iron cord, do some kind of repair to it and then reattach it to the cord. I never learned just what she did. She never taught me to do it. But I was very impressed that she knew how to do it. Mom had a lot of versatility.
Cozy Summer Afternoon
I have an idea that a cozy summer afternoon consists of lounging on the porch swing, gently swaying back and forth, and leisurely reading a big fat book. I did this on summer afternoons long ago. The book was LOTR. I think I read both The Hobbit and LOTR that summer. My son introduced me to the books. He said he thought I'd like them and he was right.
It's been a long time since I've lounged on the porch swing, reading through the afternoon.
Rain on the Brain
I'd like to write about something else, but unfortunately, I have rain on the brain. It rained all night. It's still raining. I should pick berries again. I should deadhead flowers. I should package up old newspapers for recycling pick-up but I hate to put them out in the rain. I should weed the tomato patch. I should get the lawn mowed. All of these things beg for sunny, no-rain days.
Maybe I should relax about it and watch LOTR. I have to return it by the end of July and I'm still on disc two. It just seems too decadent to me to watch a movie early in the morning. That's when I should be getting the work done!
It's Raining
Yes, it's raining again. But I understand that it's been raining for a lot of people. Many of us are in the same boat. This evening when we went to the track to walk, we parked the car and just as we opened the doors to get out, it started to rain! We hoped it was a temporary rain, but it kept on raining. The sun broke through and we had high hopes to get at least a mile in, but it kept on raining! And then the rainbow! It was a glorious rainbow. We could see the whole arc and there was a faint rainbow above that. And still it rained. I can hear the rain pattering outside my window as I'm writing. It's a most unusual summer so far.
At the Grocery Store
This afternoon when we went for groceries we checked out behind a woman whose grocery cart was heavily laden with pop (soda for some people) of several varieties, and a couple gallon of orange drink and 6 or 8 multiple carton packs of another juicy drink. If she had any other thing in her cart I didn't notice it. It was just drinks and most of it was pop.
I had to ask. "Are you stocking up for a reunion?" She said, "No. It's all for my kids. They drink a lot."
She didn't seem like she wanted to discuss this so I didn't ask any more questions but I would have liked to know, 1. How many kids? and 2. How long would this supply last?
I made it my business to check the total when it was time for her to pay. It came to $66. I am often impressed at what other people are buying. This was impressive. Mine were run of the mill purchases, cereals, produce, milk, --boring stuff. And I forgot to get bread. Now I have something to do tomorrow.
Visiting Bakers
How nice it is to have visiting bakers. I just had to say that Grandpap said he'd like to have chocolate chip cookes and it was like, "Your wish is my command." We now have chocolate chip cookies.
Today was a hot day to bake cookies though. It's almost 80 degrees indoors, but cooler outside, I think. I'm hearing that tomorrow will be a cool day. Maybe my visiting baker girls will want to bake again tomorrow when the oven heat may feel good. Interesting: These baking girls are the great-great-grandchildren of Grandpap Baker.
Late Start
A friend is taking my husband to Erie this morning so it let me relax this morning. I'm getting a late start to get my day on the road, but it feels good to be home.
It's going to be a busy day, but it seems like it will be a good day. There's lots of work to do, there's a way to do it, the early morning rain has stopped and the sun is shining again, family is on the way to spend some "helping" time with me, and a friend is helping with the Erie trip. God is good.
The birds are checking the empty feeder for their morning snack. They've learned how to sit on the bird bell of seeds and are eating it. The chipmunk doesn't seem to have learned how to do that yet. I've never seen the squirrel again since the day I tried to take its picture. Isn't that wild? I'm ready to get my day going! I love mornings at home!
That's the Berries
Yesterday was the day to pick berries again. But yesterday! We had torrents of rain yesterday. Even in the evening before I went for my walk, it rained some more. I couldn't get into the berry patch then.
I thought that I would have lost all the ripe berries by this afternoon when I could get back into the patch again. But to my surprise, I got the most berries yet. There were probably about a pint of berries that were overripe and unfit for picking but most of them were in fine condition.
I think that after this picking, there will now be fewer berries, but I should go into the patch probably three more times yet. It took me an hour again today, --but the harvest is well worth the effort.
Crossword Puzzle
I've been working on a three star crossword puzzle in Games Magazine. The puzzle clues seem to be deliberately misleading. I suppose that's fun for the author of the puzzle to do. But sometimes it's frustrating for me, the doer of the puzzle.
Take the clue, JOINER OF BANKS.
That really posed a puzzle for me. I was thinking in terms of people and banks where money is kept. I couldn't figure it out from any direction of thought. Finally when I filled in the last four letters, from words in the across direction, and saw that it ended in --idge, I realized what kind of joiner was meant. Not a person, not a merger of banks, a structure to cross the river. I'm sure Ethan More would chuckle at my puzzlement and that was probably the purpose of the enigmatic clue, to lead my mind in the wrong direction.
Last Night
I couldn't post my blog last night. It just wouldn't take. I wrote about ending the day on a peaceful note.
My friend came to spend some time with me and we went to the high school track and walked two and a half miles. It had been a hard morning yesterday and the walk and talk was theraputic for me. I needed both. I was able to end the day feeling much more calm.
Sister Bernadette
This morning when we were finished with treatment and consultation at the Regional Cancer Center, it was pouring down rain the worst I've seen in a long time. It was a drenching downpour and we had parked at the farthest edge of the parking lot. We didn't want to attempt going to the car through the amount of water that was falling from the skies.
So, we got some cocoa from the hospitality center and sat at a table in the cafe to drink the cocoa and wait for the rain to let up. It didn't! Not for the longest time.
And then Sister Bernadette came into the room and greeted us. When she asked where we were from and we told her, she said she had relatives in our town. Then she mentioned her nephew, whom we know rather well. We talked then about a number of things but mainly about ministries and the privacy laws that have been enacted for patient care.
Sister Bernadette has a very active ministry and is always on call for someone who needs grief counseling. Our conversation with her was pleasant and uplifting.
We finally got to the car in a very brief lull. Then it rained the whole way home and most of the time the rain was torrential. There was flash flooding in many areas. It's good to be home again. And now, the rain has stopped!
Darkness of Night
Last night at 11 when I took the dogs out to the pen before bedtime, I turned out the kitchen light and closed the door behind us as we went through the entry way and to the door to their pen. Rusty was named because of the color of his coat. In the darkness, I could see him faintly. Desy is black. I could not see her.
I strained to see her, but I never did. I heard her. I knew where she was by the sound of her feet but I could not see her, not even a shade of her. I looked where the sounds of her were, but I could not see her. It was so odd to know she was walking past me, coming in the door, but to not see anything of her at all. For the moment, she was completely invisible. Darkness of night covered her completely.
End of the Day
Tidying up the thoughts of the day I shall add:
The birds are not flocking to the bird bell. I saw one little bird clinging to it and pecking at the seeds. The others approached it and flapped frantically and then left, unable to deal with hanging onto it. But they'd like to partake of the seeds and nuts it offers.
When my brother called tonight, I asked him about memories of Grandpap. He was able to remind me that Grandpap did a lot of whittling and that he made little baskets out of peach seeds. Yes, I remember that now. My facts are beginning to add up!
One More Thing
I've been trying to write 100 facts about my grandpap. I knew this was going to be very difficult to achieve but I thought I should try. The first ten were easy, but by the time I got to 30, I was slowing down. I sort of stalled at 40 but then thought of five more today.
Now I realize that I may very well get to 100 if I keep on thinking about it and paying attention. For instance, I just thought of one more thing when there was a pesky fly buzzing around me. Grandpap hated flies in the house and would sit with a rolled up newspaper and swat flies with it.
It may take me a long time, but if I keep thinking about it and come up with just one more thing, I'll eventually arrive at 100!
Cousins and Memories
When I was a girl living in that house halfway up the hill, I had a good many cousins living in the same local area. We saw each other often. Now I live far away, an a very different town from the one I grew up in. Sadly, I haven't seen or talked to a cousin in many months. My husband and I keep in touch with one of his cousins and we exchange e-mails rather often. None of my cousins keep in touch with me.
I'm thinking about this today because I would love to talk to some of my cousins on my mom's side and ask them about our grandfather and see if I could use their memories to round out my own memories of Grandpap.
My berry picking memories of Grandpap prompted me to search my mind for a well rounded picture of him. I discovered that I don't remember a great deal about him. I'd certainly like to have some discussions with my cousins, to explore this area. I wish we had a family reunion.
It's For the Birds!
Yesterday when I was shopping, I decided to buy a bell of seeds for the birds. They are packed like the bird block, but it's shaped like a bell and you don't need a cage to hang it up. I took it out and hung it up for them the first thing this morning. So far, they have been checking it out but just looking at it. They don't know how to sit on it and eat of it. It will be interesting to see how they work this out.
Last night I saw a grackle wading in the bird bath. The water level was pretty low. This morning, I filled it up again.
Grateful Heart
I am grateful for:
- I got my two mile walk today
- Meeting good friends at the grocery store
- Listening to audio books
- Email letters
- Cool mornings
- A dependable car
- I feel good about trying to get my seams sewed
- Rusty and Desy greet me with love when I come home
- My husband is feeling considerably better these days
- People care
- My brother's phone calls (I write to him)
- Leisure time to paint
Sewing Machine Blues
I haven't used my mom's Kenmore sewing machine for many years, but I finally decided that I should get it out again since the newer machine needs a tune up and won't sew a fine seam until it gets one. This old Kenmore, which is almost as old as I, has been a wonderful workhorse for me in the past. I felt sure that I could plug it in, oil it again, thread it and use it.
Dream on! It sat so long without being used that the little rubber wheel that turns something got flat on one side so it won't turn smoothly. I thought I could perhaps work through this. I got it set up and oiled and used a scrap of material to test it. One inch of sewing and there was this big clank. I removed the material from the presser foot and found that the bobbin thread was matted and snarled. I opened the throat plate and the whole bobbin casing fell apart! I have no idea how to repair this. The machine is so old that maybe no one will be able to repair it. The machine head is too heavy for me to lift easily and I have to have it almost upside down to attempt repair.
I just need to repair a few seams. I guess I'll have to do it the way my ancestors did long ago, with tiny, sturdy hand stitching. This could take me a while!
Beach Glass
One of the women I talked to while I was waiting around at the Erie Regional Cancer Center was wearing a necklace with a love blue pendant. I asked her what the stone was, though I knew it didn't really look like a stone. She eagerly told me that it was Beach Glass. Her family had bought it in a store in Erie. She calls it her "Vicks" necklace because she thinks it's the same blue as the Vicks Vapor Rub jars.
Years ago she and her husband went to Presque Isle Beach every week in the summer and they would collect Beach Glass. That was before it became a popular hobby. She told me that red is very hard to find today. The most common glass to be found on the beach now is white or brown. The brown, she told me, is "Beer Bottle Brown."
Her necklace was lovely.
My New Thing
My new thing is old hat for many people. I bought a "Tune Belt" and listened to an audio book while I picked berries this evening. It was even more fun picking berries while listening to something interesting.
I had forgotten about picking berries today. I did housework instead. I did a couple of things that I've been putting off. It makes me feel good to have accomplished something like that.
When I remembered the berries, at 5 o'clock, I seriously considered putting it off till tomorrow, but I knew that they should be picked today. After dinner was over and the kitchen tidied up, I geared up the audio book and went out to the patch. No wasps were there this evening. The spiders were very little ones. All was right in my world!
AC
Today in our area was not very warm. Even as I write this, our temperature is registering in the low 60s. This should be the heighth of summer but we're still waiting for summer warmth.
But, what's on my mind is that the people who run business establishments don't seem to realize that we, the public, don't need air conditioning turned on for us when it's close to 60 degrees outside.
The Regional Cancer Center is a wonderful place, with flowers, beautiful pictures, comfortable chairs, everything clean and bright, but it's COLD! I know I should just carry a sweater in with me but it's summer and there's a principle involved here somewhere. One shouldn't need a sweater everyday in SUMMER!
On our way home today, we stopped at a little restaurant maybe halfway home. I think it was even colder than the Cancer Center. My husband got his suit coat and put it on. I hadn't brought a sweater so I toughed it out. It was great to get back to the warm car again when we had finished our meal.
This summer, in our area, we can't just think summer equals air conditioning because this summer, we have only needed air conditioning for two days. Farmers are now concerned about their corn, which thrives on hot days and warm nights. We've had neither.
(I'm not complaining about the cool temperatures outdoors, just the cold indoors because the air conditioning is on. It's been pretty pleasant outdoors to work or to take walks, but not for swimming or basking.)
On the Downside but Looking Up
Have you noticed that there is less daylight now than there was a month ago? It's just shaving a little bit off the morning and evening but I notice it when I waken. I notice it in the evening even more, but some of our evening darkness may be the dimness from the rain clouds that seem to cover us each evening. I don't think I've ever noticed less light this early before.
I'm also noticing the browns that are creeping into the weed colors along the roads. Although it's very pretty, I know I'll be seeing more and more browns as we get into August. Why is winter so much longer than Summer.
I know that this morning I am seeing the glass half empty instead of half full. But it's not really pessimistic because I'm going to drink till the glass is empty and enjoy every sip! Then when my glass is full of winter, I will take delicious sips of it, too!
Give Thanks
I'm Thankful for:
- Neighbors
- Prayers of friends
- Letters
- Grandchildren
- Children
- Blueberry pie
- Good books
- Loving pets
- Birds to watch
- Great memories
- God's Word
- Dependable trash pick-up
- Safe travel
- Growing things
- Creativity
Summer Work
My mom always kept very busy during the summers. In addition to everything else she always did, she had the added chores of gardening and preserving the harvest. Dad did the hard work of getting the ground ready to plant and also hoeing and cultivating, but Mom did her share of that work, too.
Summer was devoted to gardening and canning. I had a big part to do in helping her with the canning and we worked together to get the work done. The job I hated most was getting the jars from the cellar. The jars always got very dirty after they were empty and sometimes there would be dead spiders or other bugs in them. There were also live spiders in the cellar and I had to move very carefully to pick out jars, because there might be a spider lurking there.
Come to think of it, I hated washing the jars, too. They were so dirty and I hated to touch them. I know now how much of a help that was to my mom to have someone take care of these two distasteful tasks. Choosing the jars, washing, rinsing, scalding, and checking for any nicks in the rim took a good bit of time and Mom was busy preparing the food while I was doing that.
One of the easy and sort of fun jobs was putting the teaspoon of salt into each jar of tomatoes. Peeling tomatoes and peaches weren't hard jobs because we dipped them in boiling water and the skins slipped off easily. Cleaning elderberries was a hard job because we pulled all the little berries off the stem and washed and picked them over before putting them in jars to can. If we made jelly, we just snipped bunches of berries, stems and all, cooked them and then squeezed out the juice.
Canning corn was a hard job because we had to pick the corn, husk it, slice the corn off the cob and then after it was in the jars, pressure cook it. My mom always ran the pressure cooker. It had to be done just right so it wouldn't explode. There were always tales of people who had made a mistake in the process and had ended up with food all over the ceiling and walls. My mom worked carefully and that never happened to us.
I wonder how many dozens of canning jars my mom had! I wish she could tell me now. She canned corn, beans, peaches, berries, tomatoes, pickles. She made grape juice and tomato juice. And more! I know I've forgotten some things. All of those things needed quart jars. We had a wall of shelves in the cellar where the jars of food were stored for use in the winter, and then the empty jars were shelved as we used up the stores.
Today I buy those things in the store. I grow tomatoes because I like to see them grow and I like some tomatoes fresh from the garden. I have memories of working late into the night to finish up the canning of the day. They are good memories, but I'm glad I can stock up on my needs at the grocery store today.
Grandpap Baker
I feel like I don't have a lot of memories about Grandpap but maybe if I could catch each one of them and put them in box, they would add up to a substantial amount. When I just think of him, I can't remember many things but when I think of something like picking berries, I remember things about Grandpap.
I remember that Grandpap would go with us to pick blackberries. We knew of several patches where we could pick wild blackberries and harvested as many as we could. Mom would make blackberry jam, blackberry pie and also she would can as many as possible to be opened during the winter.
Grandpap had a big round belly, something like Santa Claus. He would pick berries into a four quart pail with a bale. He would put his belt through the bale of the pail and let it hang from his belt. That way, he could pick berries with both hands. I think he was a very good berry picker, fast and effecient.
When we went berry picking, I remember him saying, "Can what you can and what you can't can you can." He thought this was so clever. I didn't understand what he meant. Mom explained to me that he was using the word "Can" to mean eat and then also to mean can in the sense that I understood it, to process in jars to be saved for later. So he really was saying, "Eat what you can and what you can't eat, you can." Well, I see now that he used can in three ways. Maybe it was clever, but we never used the word can to mean eat so it just seemed to me to be a silly thing that he said. Still, I do remember it to this day and it shows me that Grandpap had at least a little love for word play and an enjoyment of words.
My Berry History
When I was a girl and lived half way up and half way down that hill, we always had a berry patch. We had the strawberries, that I've mentioned before, but we had black raspberries, too. Our berries were in tidy, orderly rows and my dad pruned them every year and took good care of them, not like mine, which are just growing up wild-like.
I kind of liked picking berries. Even as a child I liked solitary activities where I could think and day dream. But one thing I didn't like about picking berries was the bugs in the berry patch, especially spiders. I think I must have screamed a lot about spiders in the berry patch, because my Uncle Howard remarked that you'd think everything out there was "out to get her." That's me. I was so scared of spiders.
The only spiders I've been seeing in my patch now are very tiny and I'm not afraid of them. Today I saw wasps in the patch. They were after the very ripe berries which were oozing sweetness. They didn't bother me. Fortunately, I saw a couple of them on the berries and I didn't get stung. When I was a girl, wasps in the berry patch would have been cause for a yell of some kind, but probably not as loud as a yell about a spider.
Berry Musing
When I'm out in the berry patch, I am shut off from the world. The patch is tucked in between our garage and our neighbor's garage. The bushes grow tall and fill the space between the garages pretty completely. Once I work my way carefully in between two bushes and enter the patch, I am not seen by anyone on the street, nor can I see them.
While I'm picking berries, when I'm not singing sort of quietly, I'm thinking. I realized today that some of the thoughts I think show me that I have fully developed ideas and opinions about things which I hadn't realized that I had until suddenly, there the thought was, fully developed. How does this happen? There must be a deeper level of thinking going on in our minds than we are aware of.
I enjoy my berry patch musings.
Oh, No! Not the Camera!
Yesterday a gray squirrel was at the sunflower block which I hung in the tree that shades the dog pen. I scolded it, talking to it through the kitchen window. I told it that the seeds were for the birds. It calmly looked at me, and then went back to work on the sunflowers.
When Desy heard me talking to the squirrell, she perked up and wanted to go outside and chase the squirrel away. She remembers the word "squirrel" from other years, but Rusty hasn't learned it yet. When Desy and I went out, Rusty heard us from upstairs and as we entered the dog pen, he came bounding to join us.
When I opened the door to the pen, the squirrel looked at me and didn't move. Desy went into the pen. The squirrel lookd at her and didn't move. Then Rusty came bounding into the pen and the squirrel fled in a flash of movement. The dogs sniffed around for a while and then came back into the house.
In a few minutes, the squirrel was back. We went back to chase the squirrel. This time, the squirrel realized that the dogs were in the pen and weren't going to chase him very far, so he climbed the tree and sat above us and looked down at us, waiting till we went into the house. Within minutes of us going into the house, he was back at the sunflower block.
After repeating this process several times, I suddenly realized that instead of chasing this bold squirrel, I should take his picture. I got the camera. The squirrel was back at the sunflowers. I opened the door. He looked at me, warily but boldly. I put the camera up to my eye. Terrified, he turned tail and ran off as fast as he could go. I kept the camera at the ready and kept watching for his return, but he never came back. He wasn't really alarmed about me or the dogs, but that deadly, picture taking camera was another thing!
Aunt Mary's Little Dog
Thinking about the birds getting startled when they saw me in the berry patch made me remember Aunt Mary and her little dog.
Aunt Mary wasn't really my aunt. She was a special family friend. She and her husband, John, had one daughter, Ruth, who was grown and married and lived in another town. She had time to share with a young girl. She taught me to crochet and to tat. I really loved Aunt Mary.
The expression she used all the time was, "Boys!" Where most people would say, "My goodness!" Aunt Mary would say, "Boys!" I've never known anyone else to do that.
But what I want to tell about now is her little dog. I don't remember the dog's name but I remember she would bring a little ball to me and I would roll it across the floor and she would bring it back quickly for me to roll again. Once I determined to roll that ball for the dog until she got tired of the game. But, I couldn't out last that dog! She never gave up the game. I had to quit.
Aunt Mary loved to play little tricks. So, of course, she played tricks on her little dog. She would hide behind the door between two rooms and when the little dog came through she would jump out and startle the dog. She got such a kick out of startling the dog. And then one day, the dog hid behind the door and when she walked through, the dog jumped out and startled her! After that she stopped jumping out at the dog.
Who says animals don't think?
Birds and Berries
When I'm out in my little berry patch, I am for the most part very quiet, though I do sometimes sing. Several times now, when I've been quietly picking the berries, a bird will come to the patch and will suddenly let out a squawk of fright and quickly fly away. It makes me think of Lucy and Desi when she did the startle reflex when she hadn't heard Desi coming into the room with her. Birds do it, too.
Is It Just Me?
Have you ever been with someone for a while, a day or even a week, and when you parted you realized that you hadn't talked about some things, --things you meant to say, and you hadn't done some of the things you were sure you'd have time to do? It seems to me that there's never quite enough time to say it all and do it all. There's a song I'm thinking of now that says,
"A friend's a friend forever if the Lord's the Lord of you, and a lifetime's not too long to be a friend."
That's what we need for our dear friends, --a lifetime!
Spoke Too Soon
The electronic pedometer does not work as I thought it did. It's little light blinks in the same old way but the steps don't register. Perhaps it's wet inside and will dry out and be OK. Perhaps it bit the dust in its mishap. I'll give it a couple of days and if it has been damaged, I'll sing, "Good-bye Sweetheart," and toss it.
The Lost Is Found
I know I said I really didn't care about losing the electronic pedometer and basically I didn't. It wouldn't have been a great loss. And yet, in some measure, I did care. I hate to lose things. I like to be responsible. It probably doesn't measure miles any more reliable than my old pedometer, but it does count steps and that's good. I can aim for 10,000 steps a day and know I'm keeping active.
So I kept looking for it. And today I found it. It was just inside the berry patch, maybe three feet in. It had fallen with the shiny metal side down. The back is black and it didn't show up on the ground as the metal side would have.
It's been out there since Thursday, through several rains. The back of it was wet when I picked it up and dropped it into my pocket. When I came indoors again, I looked it over and discovered that it's unharmed.
Now, if I want to, I can clip both to my belt and see how my steps measure up to the miles. But, I don't think I want to do that. I'm not a math person. One measurement at a time will be good enough.
Enjoy Your Trip?
The Mighty Berry Picker stumbled and fell this morning. I was finished picking berries and was climbing out of the patch on the west side. It's a steep bank there and I always have a bit of trouble getting out of the patch on that side but it's easier than backtracking. I really have let these berry bushes get out of control but each day I forge the path, it gets easier. I have to be careful of the new berry bushes which will produce berries next year, --if I want to have berries next year, --and I do.
My neighbors have put grass clippings there at that edge of the berry patch and they have composted. They've turned into a pile of dark, slippery, earth-like stuff. When I stepped in that, my foot slipped and I could not keep my balance. I just slid on down to the ground. I was completely unharmed, just chagrined. The ground was cold and very wet. (It rained a lot yesterday!) I have green-black compost stains from my hip to my ankle. Even my seat is wet. But I'm not at all hurt. And, I only spilled one berry, which I picked up again!
When I came back into the house, the dogs were both very interested in the curious scent I was bringing in with me.
When I pick berries, I put on very old, work pants and a long sleeved shirt to protect my arms. So I can launder these clothes and even though they are probably very stained, I can wear them to pick berries again on Wednesday. There is a saying, "No worse for the wear." Well, my berry picking outfit is definitely worse for the wear today, but they'll finish out the season.
Sunday School Remark
In our Sunday school class this morning, Bud told us that if there are chipmunks in the woods, you can be sure that there are no rattlesnakes there, because rattlesnakes eat chipmunks!
My chipmunk lore is building! And who would have thought that I'd learn something about chipmunks and rattlesnakes in Sunday school. I hate to tell you how the subject came up.
Rain for Sure
So, did it rain today, on the Fourth? Oh, yes, for sure, it rained. I was at the city park for the afternoon festivities and the art show there. At 3 we got the message, "It's raining in Meadville." They figured that we'd get the rain by 4. Sure enough, just before 4, the wind picked up and blew the art work around. Everyone started scrambling to get their things packed up safely. I only had one picture to take care of and I got it and headed home, on foot. I sheltered in the doorway of a store which was closed. In a few minutes, the rain let up enough that I walked the rest of the way home without getting wet. After I'd been home a little while, the rain came down in buckets. It's a pretty sure thing that it rains in on our town on the Fourth of July!
Rain for the Fourth
My friend, Elizabeth, in California lived in our town when she was a girl. She told me that it almost always rains on the Fourth here in our town. She especially remembers that because July 4 is her birthday. She says there were only about 3 years while she was here that it did not rain.
Since she told me that some years ago, I, too, have paid attention to the weather on the Fourth and she's right! It does rain just about every year on the Fourth. Last year was one of the few years that we didn't have rain.
This year, the weathermen predict that it will rain today. Right now it is heavily overcast but it looks like it wouldn't have to rain. We'll wait and see.
Mini Miles
Today when I was coming home from getting some groceries, a chipmunk ran across the road in front of me. There was no traffic to speak of and the chipmunk had ample room and to spare in getting across the road safely. It seemed to me that it was an enormous distance for a chipmunk to run. Did he cross that road daily? Did he do it several times a day? Did he know to watch for cars and not take chances?
And then I started to wander about chipmunks and miles. If a chipmunk was keeping track of its exercise, could chipmunk miles be different than people miles, the way dog years is different from people years? Are chipmunk miles mini miles?
How Many Miles?
This evening when I took my walk on the measured route, I discovered that my pedometer isn't calibrated to my stride correctly. Somehow it was measuring twice as much as I'd really walked. So, Friday morning when I thought I got in two miles while waiting for the doors to open at the Regional Cancer Center in Erie, I really only got one mile. That's disappointing to know, but a mile of walking is better than sitting and waiting.
I've tried to adjust the stride so it will measure the distance more accurately, but now I have it a bit too low. I'll keep trying to fine tune it, and meanwhile, I'll keep on walking when I get the chance to do so.
Lost Things
I did not find the new, electronic pedometer. I did, however, discover more black raspberries which were down low and under leaves.
I also lost something else. While I was mowing the lawn, the left front wheel fell off the mower! The cotter pin and washer which held the wheel in place were lost. I was stymied. I could not mow the lawn without the wheel on the mower.
At first I couldn't find the cotter pin and washer. Then my neighbor brought me his lawn mower and let me use it to finish mowing. He even got it started for me.
When I was finished mowing, I took a magnet outdoors with me and searched in the area where the wheel fell off. I spotted the washer easily but I would never have found the cotter pin without the magnet. I passed it through the grass and when I heard a clink sound, I looked at the magnet and there was the cotter pin.
I think I'll find that pedometer yet, but not today.
The Berry Patch
I almost forgot that I have to get out into my berry patch this morning and pick berries again. The berries on the east side are ripe but the ones on the other end of the patch haven't begun ripening yet. I guess they get more sun on the driveway side than on the back yard side.
I wore my new pedometer into the berry patch when I went in on Thursday evening. I came out of the other side of the patch and discovered that the pedometer was missing. I dropped it somewhere in that tangle. I'll keep an eye out for it today when I pick the berries.
It's not a big deal to me though. The new pedometer counts steps and that's OK, but it's supposed to tell the time and can be used as an alarm to remind me of appointments or something. But there are so many buttons to press and just touching the pedometer risks bumping a button and changing some setting. Therefore the time is always wrong because I'm always bumping it, and it's not worth the bother to keep trying to set it. I mess other setting up when I work