Another Day, Different Results
This morning I set out with my bag of drawing paraphenalia and my camera to walk to the pond and after walking two miles, I had plans to sit on one of the benches and read or draw. But after I walked around the pond four times, probably something like a mile, it started to rain. The rain started very slowly but gradually it was raining hard enough to make me rather wet if I'd stay out in it. Then I realized that just past one of the little bridges, there was a wall and big bushes by it. It made a little niche that I could walk into and have the natural umbrella of the foliage over me. I stood there and watched the rain pattering on surface of the pond for about 10 minutes. I took a few pictures from that hidden spot. I wondered if someone would come to meet me, to rescue me from the rain, and if they did, they wouldn't find me because I was on a foot path on the far side of the pond, and hidden, at that.
The rain stopped after 10 minutes and I resumed my walking. When I got the other side of the pond, I saw someone approaching from a path on that side. I wondered if it would be a friendly someone and if we'd talk a bit or if they would hurry on after a greeting of hello. Then I realized it was Marci, coming to look for me. They had noticed the rain and she had come to rescue me. She walked with me, then, the remaining laps I had to do. We talked and looked for birds and other interesting things. We saw a bluebird. That was uplifting! There was only one goose today but for a while there were three mallard drakes. We didn't see the koi, nor any turtles.
Then we walked to where she'd parked the car and went back home. I didn't read or sketch after all. Later this afternoon we went to the mall. We did a lot of walking at the mall. We went into a chocolate store, (one of many stores that we explored) and the clerk gave us a sample truffle. It was wonderful! I did buy a small bag of truffles to take home with me. That's all I bought this afternoon. I was ready to rest when we got home in the late afternoon.
Bits and Pieces
Dody, I knew about that kind of bathtub but not that it's called a garden tub. Now I've learned a new term. Happy vacation!
Lorraine, a geo cache is a something hidden out of sight in a location which is posted on the Internet by it's geographic co-ordinates. People who do this hobby, look up the sites on the WEB and feed the co-ordinates into a GPS (global positioning system) then using the GPS, they go find it. Afterward, they log their find on the Internet. It's a lot of fun. We're setting up a geocache at my place. It's set up but not posted. Probably soon, we'll get it posted. Though it's out of sight, it's usually easy to find, under a stone, or branches or in a hollow log or something like that.
Today I went for a walk by myself and didn't get lost. I went to the "club" area and walked eight times around the pond. I meant to hustle to get my heart rate up but every time I got started, I saw either something I hadn't noticed before or something that had just made an appearance. I saw five geese, one sleeping duck, a big woodpecker and a little woodpecker, robins, squirrels, a big carp, a mocking bird, and two very little turtles. I had my camera and took lots of pictures, but I won't be able to really see my pictures till I get to my own computer and download them. I will post to Flickr when I get them home.
I talked briefly to a woman who was walking a dog named Molly. She allowed me to take Molly's picture. She is the one who pointed out the little turtles to me, or I would have missed them. She asked me if I'd seen the carp. I had seen it but thought it was a koi. She said someone dropped it off in the pond some time last year and they are all so surprised that it's still thriving there. It's really very big.
It was a pretty good walk. If I walk tomorrow, I should take my bag with my sketch book and other stuff and park on a bench for a while and do some sketching, writing and/or reading. Somehow, I missed seeing the benches when I walked yesterday.
Wednesday
To write the name of the day today, I had to pause and think. On vacation, the days just run together and there isn't much that happens because of what day of the week it is. When I am home, the fact that it is a specific day, such as Monday or Thursday or whatever, means that certain routines will be observed. But now, on vacation, the days begin the same and any activity happens, not because of routine, but because we decide we'll do it.
Today we did another geocache, this time at a Dam area. It was unlike my preconceived notion of what a dam should look like. We had a picnic lunch overlooking the water way and then walked a path back through a park to find the geocache. I was feeling hot and tired and decided to just sit down for a while and catch my breath. I had a small sketch book with me in my bag, so I pulled it out and did some sketching while the others went on to find the cache. I knew they would come back my way and I would rejoin them on the way back. I used pen to start the sketch but also used a bit of charcoal and a soft lead pencil to complete the sketch. I was trying to get the texture of the bark of the tree I was sitting beside. It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was a fun thing to do.
Later this afternoon I went to the Queens College area with my daughter-in-law and grandson while he took a piano lesson. She and I strolled through the area and I took a number of pictures of things that interested me. I hope I got a nice picture of a gray bird on a sign near us. I won't know if it's good until I get home and can download the pictures to my own comp;uter.
I got a good bit of walking in today. It feels good. I'm ready to rest a bit now.
Afternoon
Today we went to Barns and Noble. I bought a cookbook and a bookmark. But I had a lot of browse time and I enjoyed it. I didn't do a walk today. It is a little cooler today with a mist rain in the air some of the time. I hear that Corry is supposed to get rain tonight or tomorrow. We hope it will be rain and not snow. Can you believe it's time to turn our clocks ahead this coming Sunday? I'm not really ready to do that, but of course, I must.
Bits and Pieces
I never know what the temperature is here but friends from Corry are interested. My son told me this morning to tell them that it is 30 in the shade and 90 in the sun. We all laughed but there's surely a touch of truth in that. It's been cold overnight but almost summertime warm in the afternoon.
Yesterday I learned about Bermuda grass, which I had mistakenly thought should be an ornamental grass. A neighbor here talked to me about the yards when I was walking yesterday morning, and taking pictures of decorated mailboxes and some flowers. He told me that all the brown places in yards were Bermuda grass, a real problem here. His own lawn was made up of fescue and ryegrass. It was luxurious and thick. He pointed out a yard that was almost entirely brown. "They have a big problem with Bermuda grass," he told me. I had to look it up on the Internet but I found that Bermuda grass is something like our crabgrass. It grows quickly and well and spreads like wildfire and gets into gardens and flower beds and is hard to root out. If you have animal damage in your lawn, Bermuda grass would quickly grow there and fill in the damaged places. However, it does spread invasively and it is not suited to really hot weather. When the temperature gets to a sustained high, it does die back till it's cooler.
He also told me that his wife wanted the "garden tub" out of the bathroom and have it replaced with a shower instead. I should have asked what a garden tub is because I can't find out yet what it is, unless it's just a big bathtub framed into the bathroom. I was thinking that maybe it would be the old fashioned bathtub that had legs, a thing which I haven't seen in years.
I'm 13 hours away from home and everything is different here. So many things are here for me to learn about. I'll look for something new to learn about today.
Catch Up
I've had a problem logging into my blog but Ben helped me get it worked out this evening. I've missed writing, but I've been busy, too!
Now I'm in Charlotte, visiting family, with family. We are having a grand and very sociable time. Today we went on a Geocache and it involved a lot of walking. It was a multi cache, where you have more than one place to search for the cache. This had three places. We walked along a walking/biking path. I was able to walk briskly and get my heart rate up and that was good. I think I got some good pictures, but I'll have to wait till I get home to download them to my computer.
Tomorrow we celebrate a birthday and that will be good, too. Sarah will be 9. It should be an exciting birthday for her.
I've heard from home, that the weather is nice and people are starting to get some yard work done. I have that to look forward to when I get home again. Here, the grass is green and flowers and trees are in bloom. It's been cold over night but it warms up in the afternoons. Tomorrow should be a good day.
I'm glad to be back to my blog again.
Trip, Part One
I have arrived safely at the home of my son who lives near Pittsburgh. Tomorrow we drive to Charlotte to spend some time with my younest son and his family. I listened to an audio book on the way down. I have almost half of the book finished. I'll finish most of it on my way home after the visit. I also brought The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis, another audio book. Perhaps we'll listen to it tomorrow or sometime before we get back to New Kensington. Traffic was heavy from Butler but it's always more traffic in this area. I'm glad that part of the trip is safely completed. For those who may wonder about Desy and Rusty, they are here with us and are both in the room with me right now. Part of the family, you know!
Trip, Part One
I have arrived safely at the home of my son who lives near Pittsburgh. Tomorrow we drive to Charlotte to spend some time with my younest son and his family. I listened to an audio book on the way down. I have almost half of the book finished. I'll finish most of it on my way home after the visit. I also brought The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis, another audio book. Perhaps we'll listen to it tomorrow or sometime before we get back to New Kensington. Traffic was heavy from Butler but it's always more traffic in this area. I'm glad that part of the trip is safely completed. For those who may wonder about Desy and Rusty, they are here with us and are both in the room with me right now. Part of the family, you know!
Taking a Trip
One of the things which makes taking a trip so hard for me is packing things to take with me. I haven't ever gotten the knack of it. I either take far too much and don't use all the things I take, or I don't take nearly enough and have a tough time making do without things I really want or need. I'm getting ready for a trip. I hope I've packed the right things.
Sounds
I’ve been thinking about sounds I have loved to hear:
1. I listen to my two dogs chomping down their chow, one on either side of the kitchen, and I love their “stereo” eating sounds.
2. I stood with the choir while they were singing and felt the sound wrap around me, fill me. I thrilled to the harmony, the vibrating chords and I loved the sound.
3. I participated in a call to prayer and when I had prayed and was silent, I heard the sound of God’s people at prayer in the little groups throughout the sanctuary, and I loved the sound.
4. I took an early morning walk and I heard a bird sing, pure and sweet, and I loved the sound.
5. I answered the phone early on the day of my birthday and heard my parents singing “Happy Birthday” to me and I loved the sound. (I miss this sound so much now that they are gone.)
6. I picked up the kitten and stroked its fur. It snuggled against me and purred and I loved the sound.
7. I listened to the sound of the patter of rain on the roof at the end of a long dry spell, and I loved the sound.
8. I work toward the day when I will hear my Heavenly Father greet me. I hope to hear the welcome, “My child, well done.” I will love the sound of those words.
Exercise
I've heard so many people say that they don't like to do exercise. Part of me understands this because a body at rest wants to stay at rest, but basically, I don't understand because the benefits of exercise far outweigh the discomfort of the time or effort spent in exercising. When I was in school, I hated gym class, but it wasn't because of the exercise. It was because we played games and I was not good at the games. I was a liability to any team I had to be on. I still remember how Peggy Woods yelled at me to have my hands ready to catch the ball when it came to me instead of standing with my hands on my hips. And then in high school, it was also the showers. None of us liked the group showers. We wanted privacy and we were very self conscious about those open room showers.
But exercise is another thing. I always wanted a bike and finally got one sometime after 1974, when I would have been in my early 30s. The bike was old when I got it and I rode it every summer until it had too many problems for me to cope with. One summer I put 500 miles on my bike, just riding around town. I'd try to put at least 6 miles a day on it and once my youngest son rode with me to Clymer and that was the highlight of my riding that summer, --about 25 miles in one day. I have enjoyed walking and always feel so good physically after a good walk. Aquarobics has been very good for me. And now, I'm finding that when I first get up in the mornings, I want to stretch and move and get some early morning exercise. I want to do a work out with the hand weights. It feels so good to move freely and I want to keep it up.
God made our bodies to move and to keep busy. I love the feeling I get from a session of good exercise.
An Interesting Answer
When I was teaching school, I often got really funny answers to questions on homework assignments or test papers. Here's one that still makes me chuckle.
Question on Science Test: What are the principal gases in the air? Which of these is most important. Answer: Polution, oxygen, nitrogen. The oxygen which we breathe into our lungs. If we didn't have oxygen, we would not live forever, --we might not.
Snow Is Back
The snow is back again! Everything is covered white this morning. It's not a bad snow, just snow! The little birds have been looking for seeds on the top step of the porch. When I saw their tiny footprints there, I sprinkled a handful of seed there for them again. They have been used to getting seeds there when there is snow. It didn't take long before they came to expect it.
I have a friend who loves the outdoors and knows a lot about the animal habits. Where he lives, he sees deer and turkeys and bunnies just about every day. He puts out some food for the bunny and the birds but he varies where he puts the food for the bunny so it won't be complacent about going to the same place every time. There is a coyote pack which has been running in his area and doesn't want a coyote to cut him off from safety and have him for a meal. All things must eat but we want to keep our "pets" safe.
The wild things are ready for warmer weather, too. Soon they will be having their babies and they need more warmth for them.
Why does our Spring Fling have to be with snow?
Springtime
How much we wait for spring! Even before the groundhog does his thing in early February, we have started to feel eager to welcome spring. Now, it has arrived, and we're still waiting to welcome spring. Our weather continues to be one day after another of low temperatures, --so low that we feel the bite of the bitter cold air outdoors unless we are warmly bundled up. Even with winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves, we get too cold if we have to be out any length of time. Our greetings to one another usually contain comments on how awfully cold it is and include a hope that soon we will have warmer weather. And that's what I'll leave you with now, --surely as we head into April, the warmth of the sun will provide warmth to the ground and the spring flowers will bloom and thrive. I know that means yard work, but most of us are eager to get at it.
Walkers
The last time I was at Wal-mart, it was fairly early in the morning. When we came into the building, I saw a man and woman walking down the aisle, away from where I was. They were holding hands and walking briskly. After we'd made a few selections and we were in the produce section, I saw them coming toward me and suddenly I realized what was happening. As they neared me, I said enthusiastically, "Walkers!" The woman was surprised. "What?" she asked. "You're taking a walk!" I said. And the man immediately chimed in, "Yes, that's what we're doing." He said that they like getting their walk in during the early morning and they enjoyed the climate control that they had in the store. They said that they had learned that four times around the store added up to one mile. They make it a practice to walk regularly. It was fun talking to them.
Taste Sensation
One of my favorite taste sensations is to have a hot cup of unsweetened tea and eat a piece of fudge in between sips of hot tea. Glorious! I'm heating the water right now!
Snowy Mantle
I'm thinking of Snow Bird, the song that Anne Murray sings. "Beneath the snowy mantle soft and clean," the song goes. Yes, snowy mantle. That's what I'm seeing outside my window now! A snowy mantle is covering up the lawn again, and our grass isn't very green yet. Tomorrow is spring! But it won't show up here for a while, even though it's supposed to. But soon! We know it has to come soon.
New Pictures
I posted a few more pictures to my Flickr stream today. To get there, scroll to the bottom of my blog and click on the Flickr tag.
A Fine Day
Part of the happiness of this day has been because I feel like we're making progress in getting things sorted out in the house. I've been thinking ever since we put the old dining room table in the kitchen that it really was much too big for the rather small kitchen. Today when I saw a really small kitchen table, but big enough to seat four, and certainly big enough to hold a cookie tray and mixing bowl and cooling racks, or big enough to roll out pie dough, I bought it. My son and his boys assembled it this afternoon and we had our evening meal at that table.
Then we rearranged the furniture in the living room, bringing the sofa to the east end of the long living room and opening the west area that I can either make into a conversational area or set up my art studio there. I'm learning toward the art idea. I think it's going to be fine. I love having people here with me.
Tomorrow is another day. I'll try to make it fine, too.
I Happy
One of my favorite memories is of visiting my friends Buddy and Martha when I was a married student at college. They had a little girl named Nancy and a little boy whose name I don't remember. Once I was visiting in the morning and the little boy was dancing all around the room and singing, "Nancy, I happy today." And that's how I feel every once in a while, --like dancing around the room and singing that little song. That's how I feel this morning.
I love having company in the house and the happiness wells up. "Nancy, I happy today!"
Tiny Pinpoints of Snow
This morning there are tiny pinpoints of snow dancing through the air. It was like that yesterday evening. It may have been like that all evening. We haven't had a St. Patrick's Day storm yet but it could still come in the next few days. Our evening newspaper yesterday said that Corry's worst St. Pat's storm happened 70 years ago, in 1936. There were old photos showing how deep the accumulation was. How nice to know that we aren't expected to get that kind of snow now.
Question
You've heard them say it, most everyone does say it: S/he wouldn't hurt a fly! Why do we say that when there is hardly anyone we know who wouldn't kill a pesky fly? We say this to try to convince someone on of how gentle another person is, but there must be a better way to say it, because I know that most people kill flies, one way or another and almost every chance they get.
Narnia Lesson
I've been listening to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. There are lessons for life in the Narnia stories and often they are given in a subtle way. The one I'm thinking about this morning is when Lucy talks to Aslan and he reproves her for eavesdropping on her friends to hear what they said about her. She heard something that is would be better if she hadn't heard and she admits to Aslan that since she heard what her friend said about her, she felt differently toward her friend. Aslan tells her that her friend really does love her but since she was timid, she just went along with what the other girl was saying because she didn't have the courage to contradict her about it.
Lucy says she probably can't forget what her friend said. Aslan agrees that she never will forget it. Lucy wonders if they can still be friends now, and then asks, "What would it be like if I hadn't eavesdropped?" Aslan tells her that he never shows what might have been. He says that he told her this once before. This is what happened and we make the best of it and we never really know what might have been if we had done it right the first time.
Often we wonder about the "what ifs" in our lives. It really is a good idea to accept what is and make the best of it.
A Dream Remembered
A long time ago, I had really nice dream. After I wakened, I thought it was a really nice dream because it made me feel really good.
In my dream I was in an informal gathering where we were talking about not having enough money to do things that we planned to do. And I said, "God will supply what we need. If we don't have the money and we make plans that He approves of, He will supply what we need. But, if we plan to do nothing, He will provide nothing."
That thought stayed with me as I wakened. I felt like I'd dreamed a Proverb. The dream made me feel good. Remembering the dream makes me appreciate the insight again today.
A New Day
I realize now that I had a couple of clues that the furnace was going bad but I didn't know what they meant, having never been keyed into those things. The biggest clue was that the upstairs bathroom was never warm for about a week. It is the hottest room in the house as a rule. Then there was the fluttering way the furnace came on and then kicked off again in five seconds. I thought that was because it was a little warmer outside. But now it is over and the new furnace is in and the upstairs bathroom is toasty warm again. I think that today I'll be back to a more normal routine again.
I did get to do a few around town errands yesterday in the early afternoon, and every little bit of normalcy helps! Today I have lunch with the gang at Clymer.
Tea Bag Tag: "Go often to your friend's home for weeds choke up the unused path."
The Crisis Is Past
The new furnace is installed, the heat brought the house up to the right temperature, and I'm doing fine. All in all, it was a kind of adventure, and though it was indeed expensive, my financial advisors had given me directions which has made it possible to take care of a big ticket item like this. I have lots to be thankful for this evening.
New Furnace
The old furnace could not be repaired and had to be replaced. The new furnace is being installed as I write. Surely I'll have heat by this afternoon some time. My "advisors" tell me that I'll be really happy with the way this new furnace heats the house, and with the fuel bills, too.
A Different Storm
I'm dealing with a storm of a different nature. A cold storm that is indoors! My furnace had stopped working this morning. I've been trying all day to get some help for it. One person recommended that I get a new furnace since this one is over 20 years old and they don't make this kind any more and it's hard to get replacement part. My son recommended that I do comparison shopping and I have called in another heating company. He thinks he can replace the part with a universal valve. But he has to finish what he's doing before he comes, so I'm still waiting. I'm getting colder and colder, so I do hope he can come soon.
Storms May Come
This morning, we are having storm rumblings. There is a bit of lightning and thunder and a little rain. Rusty is very nervous about it. This is odd, to me, because when Rusty came to us, he wasn't afraid of storms. In the last several years, he has developed a little anxiety during thunder storms and this anxiety seems to be intensifying. He often is very independent after his morning routine, going up to the study and resting there alone. But today, he is very clingy, going from room to room with me, staying very near. As if I could protect him from a storm! Still, I understand the concept. A storm is easier to go through if you go through it with a friend.
Somehow this reminds me of a song I learned from my parents many years ago:
"When God spoke unto Noah and told him build an ark,
The Lord knew well the vessel would cheerless be, and dark,
So, God said, 'Build a window, with uplook to the sky,
And when it's dark and lonely, you'll see me standing by.'
"The storms may come, but fear not,
O Christian, I am nigh
And through the upper window,
You'll see me standing by."
Creative License
I have started another painting. It's a rather ambitious undertaking for me because it is a photo from the early '60s, --a rural scene from the community of Skulton where we lived at that time. The picture was taken from the pasture field below our home, a viewpoint which I seldom saw because I didn't very often go down below the property where our house stood. My husband took this picture and it was developed as a slide. A couple of years ago, I had the slide printed as a photo.
The scene really appeals to me, being a panoramic view of the little community which was once home to our family. I know there is great challenge to painting this picture as it appears in the photo, but then, I have the photo. I don't have to reproduce it. I want something of my own creation to remind me of this time so long ago. I can leave things out, or put things in, as I want. There is a little red pickup truck in the photo. I plan to leave it out of the painting, although I wish I could put it in. I don't think I can get the perspective right and I think the scene will be fine without the truck, though I do love the little splash of red in the photo.
William Alexander, the painter and teacher, talked much about creating your own world and putting the tree or the cloud or the rock where you, the artist, want to put it. I'm going to use some of that creativity with this painting. It's fun!
Snow Drops
Yesterday we had the most wonderful weather! It gets us excited for the real spring weather we'll be getting in a couple of weeks. We hear that there will be bad weather again this week, but we know that warmer weather is on the way. In the late afternoon, I discovered that a little clump of snow drops has pushed its way up through the mud and old leaves and is blooming gloriously. This morning, I think I'm seeing a few more blooming around the arbor trellis. They are my first flower this year. Welcome sweet springtime!
Life Rules
I’m reading a biography now and so far the woman has talked about two rules that she made for her life. She loved to take walks in the mountains when she was a child and there was no danger where she walked. But snakes would slither across the paths sometimes. She was kind of afraid of stepping on a snake, but she made a life rule for herself that she would always explore when she got the chance and she wouldn’t ever avoid a new path for fear of stepping on a snake. I think that sounds like a pretty good rule for life.
It says to me that I shouldn’t be afraid to take new paths and new ways because of unpleasantness lurking somewhere in that path. I assume she was talking about blacksnakes or gartersnakes and not copperheads or rattlesnakes. I think I shouldn’t be afraid of new paths just because something could happen that would be unpleasant. I don’t know how much I can accept this idea. I know I am open to some new things and very closed to many new things. I know I should work on this idea of accepting new paths to explore.
The second rule that she’s mentioned is that when she would get home from her excursions on the mountain paths, she would always put the flowers she had picked into water immediately, no matter how tired she was or how thirsty. She loved the wildflowers and enjoyed having vases of them around the house.
I don’t go out picking wildflowers but I see in this life rule a determination to have beauty in her life and to protect it ahead of her own comfort. I’m thinking of things I should do to maintain good balance whether I’m tired or not. I think it’s interesting that this woman developed these life rules when she was possibly a young teen.
Freedom of Speech
There is a story in our morning newspaper about a high school girl who says that freedom of speech cost her. Isn't that interesting that she had no idea of this ahead of time? She used her blog to write nasty things about classmates, who when they found the blog, were very angry and retaliated. The matter escalated from there and ultimately, she's been suspended from school. But still she has the idea that she should be able to say whatever she wants to say.
I wish our young people could understand that our speech often does cost us. When we say negative, nasty things, people form opinions about us that we may wish we hadn't given them. They may never take the time to get to know us. Many people have lost great opportunities because of something they said. Speech is never free! There are always consequences. It pays to set a watch at our tongue and aim to please God! I really try to do that, and even then there are times when my tongue gets me in trouble. I know speech can be costly. From the sound of the article, I don't think this young girl has understood this concept yet.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. I didn't make that up!
Kitchen Table, part two
I should remember the kitchen table most for mealtimes because eating was one of our favorite activities. Grandma Emma always had a good appetite and enjoyed good food, a trait which was passed down to my father and to my brother and me. Mom was usually more indifferent to food and ate because it was a necessity.
For lunch and dinner, we used Fiestaware plates. When I set the table, I always used the same colors for the people at the table. I thought I'd never forget what color I assigned each person, but now it's hazy in my mind. I think Ed got the green, I got the blue, Dad the yellow and Mom the red. I never talked about it to the others and I don't know if they noticed, but at the age of 10, it was important to me that when I set the table, the color assignments were always the same. I think I even quietly switched plates around when I hadn't set the table.
We sat around the kitchen table for our "midnight snack" which actually occurred long before midnight. Many important discussions were held around that table with a cup of tea or hot cocoa held in both hands in front of us, no doubt to help us keep our balance. Important decisions, hilarious laughter, exciting planning, tears of sorrow, all took place around that kitchen table.
The table itself wasn't the important thing. I can't describe it in glowing terms. It was a common table, plain, with an extender section that could be inserted in the middle to make it larger, but our activities around it is what makes the words "kitchen table" have special meaning.
Kitchen Table
What powerful emotions the words "kitchen table" can stir up. They can take me on a magic carpet ride fifty some years into the past when I was a child in my family.
Oddly enough, the first memory that comes to my mind is not of eating but of Grandma Emma, my brother Ed, my mom and I sitting around the kitchen table on an evening after the day's work was tidied away. We're playing dominos, laying the tiles out on the table in ever changing, snaking trails.
Grandma Emma, who stayed with us part of every year, going from one of her children's homes to another, was 61 when I was born, so by the time I was 10, it seemed that she was really old. But in 1946, people of her age were expected to dress and act old and Grandma Emma played the part well. Her face was heavily lined with wrinkles and her long white hair which reached below her waist when loose was braided and wrapped around her head, held in place with enormous celluloid pins. Her braids were veryh ornamental, like a crown of glory, not needing sparkling gems to add to their interest. She wore long dresses, usually covered with a bibbed apron.
Grandma was frail and stooped over, walking slowly, resting often. But playing dominos, seated at the kitchen table, she was eager and alert, young in heart and mind. "Muggins!" I can hear her gloating. It was a game she taught us. You add up the points on all the end dominos and if it was divisible by five, you had earned that score. But if you played carelessly without counting your points, or added incorrectly and didn't realize that you'd scored points, an opponent could shout, "Muggins!" and get your points.
I don't remember who won most of those games. I remember the fun, the strategy, adding the points over andover, working out which place would bring the highest score, watching your opponents moves and trying to be the first one to get "Muggins!" What a triumph! In my mind, Grandma was the dominate one in thos game. Mom was just there, another player at the kitchen table.
I'll tell more kitchen table memories later.
What a Fun Time
I met my friend in a restaurant on the other side of the road from the mall. She was already shopping when I arrived, early. I waited in the car, and was writing in my notebook while waiting. I saw her drive past me and park near the entrance to the restaurant. I put my notebook away then and hurried after her.
When we got seated and received the menus, we were too full of conversation to concentrate on ordering. We sent the waitress away three times before we finally settled down to order our food. We talked a little about things from our past and talked a lot about things going on in our lives today. Nancy was celebrating her college roommate’s birthday and what a fantastic time she’d had with that.
It was a bright sunny day but the temperature was actually rather low and when the wind blew, it was really cold. We wished we’d worn our coats as we walked from store to store. One fun place we went to was the Fudgery. They gave us a sample of their fudge and it was delicious. I bought some sugar free fudge and she bought the regular kind.
It was such a happy time for me. I loved the time we shared, going through the stores, talking all the time! And then when it was time for me to head back to Corry, we went to the parking lot, and to our surprise, we could not find the car! We thought we knew which section of the lot we’d parked in, but there were no signs in the parking lot to denote sections so they all look very much the same. We walked back and forth, looking at each car carefully, for nearly half an hour. The parking lot wasn’t crowded, so we it wasn’t hard to look at all the cars. We were using the rented car at that point and then we were going back to Kings where I would pick up my little red Echo, a car which would have been much easier to spot than the black Toyto Corolla rental.
Finally we gave up and went into a store and asked to have Mall Security help us. They told us they get about 4 or 5 such requests each day and many more on days when the mall is more crowded, --like when they have 7,000 cars there. Whew! We waited in the store, then, while the two guards walked through the lot looking for our car. Half an hour later, they still hadn’t found the car. We joked and laughed about what could have happened to our car. At this point they had to at least consider the possibility that the car had been stolen but they didn’t think it was probable. It was getting so late for my return trip to Corry so one of the guards took me back to Kings to get my car and the other guard said he would keep looking for the car. Just as we got to my car, the call came that her car had been found, in the section just above the one we’d been searching in. Since it’s such a big lot with no signs marking sections, it’s not surprising that many people get mixed up as to where their car is. The Mall Security had walked through the whole upper and lower lots without seeing it at first. At least we knew we had parked in the upper lot, but got confused as to which store we parked near. We laughed a lot about losing the car and there was only a few minutes when we thought it might be a serious problem. I thought we might have to wait till the mall closed and see which car was still there when the others all left!
It was late when I got home and I was really tired. I think I’ll take it easy today and revisit my memory of yesterday. It was a very good day.
Clara, Part Two
Clara brought up the subject of Christmas and went back to it every few minutes in our conversation. She said that Christmas was a really nice time. "Mother made everything for Christmas. She would unravel the yarn in old things and I would help her with that. Mother would wind the yarn around the back of a chair. She would us that yarn to make mittens and scarves for Christmas gifts." At Christmas time, they always got one orange, she told me. It was such a rare and wonderful treat. It was the only time they ever had an orange.
Her dad would make things, too, --wooden things. He would make them sleds and they would have a wonderful time going down the hill. "It was very dangerous," she said, shaking her head. But they had such fun. Another dangerous thing they did was to go swimming alone in the old swimming hole. Well, not alone, but without adult supervision. It's something she would never let kids do today. "We didn't know about how dangerous it was back then," she said.
One year five of the ten children in her family got diphtheria and died in just a short time. What made it unbearable for her is that before the diphtheria came, there was a young doctor who came to their community and talked to the old doctor. He wanted to give all the children the new vaccine against diphtheria but the old doctor wouldn't let him. "You know," she told me, "doctors are just people. And this older doctor was jealous of this young doctor and wouldn't let him tell him anything. He wouldn't let him give us the shots and he sent him away. My mother could never forgive him for that." At 86 years of age, Clara herself was still deeply affected with that drastic loss of her siblings when she was a child. People don't get over a grief like that.
Clara said that her mother knew a weed that tasted just like spinach and you could cook it. She hadn't had it for years and doesn't really know what the name of it was but she'd like to have it again. "mother," she said. "I think of my mother so often. She taught me so much. I'm thankful for everything she taught me. It has helped me so much through the years."
Clara said that she had to walk a lot when she was a child. "People don't believe me now," she said, "but it's true. I walked a great deal when I was a child at home. My dad used to give me a message to take to his brother and I'd have to walk two miles to take it to him."
I was sorry to see that our visiting time had come to a close and I had to leave. My visit with Clara that day was very special to me.
Out of the Past
I met Clara when she was 86, and it was about a month before she died. She was a very delightful person to visit. We had a very good conversation and then I had to leave. I think I only got to visit her that once time in the hospital but we really enjoyed our short time together.
Clara was in the hospital and I was a hospital volunteer. When I went into her room on a hot summer day, she was wearing a heavy, red velour housecoat and had the covers pulled up around her because the air conditioning was turned up so high. We started talking about gardening because I told her what I had been doing in the morning before I went to the hospital for the visit.
Clara said that her family raised all their own food and her dad raised potatoes to sell to others for their winter supply. That's how he made his living. One of her least favorite jobs was to pick potato bugs from the plants. They would put some kerosene in a pail and drop the bugs into it. Her sister hated bugs even worse than she did so she would trade jobs and let her sister do the housework chores and she would work outdoors.
She told me that her father made trips to Erie with the horse pulling a wagon load of potatoes for customers there. He would have to stay overnight and come back the next day, and then make more trips. She said that they traded horses often, just like people trade in their cars now. Her family usually had work horses, ones with a big broad rear and it was hard for a child to straddle their width. She didn't like to ride the horse and in fact, she was afraid of horses.
I'll tell you more about Clara later.
Ready
I think I'm ready for my exciting trip tomorrow to meet childhood best friend. Today I topped off the gas in the car. I'm pretty sure I really had enough to get to Grove City and back but I like the feeling of having the tank full, just in case. I've thought about what to wear and I know I'm revved up to waken early to get a few things done before I leave at 9. I'm planning to take her some of my Pysanky eggs as a gift. I'll choose them later this evening and get them packed in an egg box so that they won't be apt to break. I'm really psyched to meet up with her again. She was always fun to be with. She said she is sure she'll recognize me because she's sure I look like my mother. She's right, of course.
Donald Duck and Mistakes
Many, many years ago when Ed King was on KDKA radio and Ed and Wendy had the Party Line talk show, there was a young caller who often talked to them. He called himself Donald Duck. Once he talked to Ed and Wendy about how it feels to "be wrong at the top of your voice." I don't remember his whole story but the gist is that he was out in public with a group and thought he knew something which he shouted to the group so that they all heard him. But he was wrong in his observation. Hence, wrong, at the top of his voice.
I think of that every now and then and often couch what I say in careful language so as to leave me some space to back up if I'm wrong. But yesterday, I certainly made a mistake "at the top of my voice" metaphorically. I ran the labels for the church newsletter. This is not easy for me, but I'm persevering in learning how. It took many minutes to figure out how to print the labels. My grandson helped me look and finally we found a very tiny icon which said "Print all" when you put the cursor over it. I clicked this button and joy of joys, the whole label list printed. I got everything in order and we dropped the material off at the church to be run off and labeled and ready for this morning.
When I walked into church this morning, Shirley met me with a look on her face that told me I'd done something wrong. I thought I'd written something deadly wrong in the newsletter, but it was the labels. You wouldn't guess, I suppose, what I did. I put the paper in the printer backwards, so the names and addresses printed on the back of the label page and all the labels on the other side were completely blank! What a goofy mistake. I was wrong, --at the top of my voice!
A Quote
One of the books I enjoyed reading years ago is A Landing on the Sun by Michael Frayn. I loved the way he used words and made descriptions.
In his book he talks about a building, Whitehall, and says, "that great white hall of bumbledom."
About Summerchild's hair, he says, "His hair was standing up around his head like the burning bush." And, "He had hair like a forest of ginger exclamation marks."
About old thoughts, he says, "Old thoughts that wre thought a long time ago are as dead as old Squeez-Ee detergent bottles and as slow to biodegrade.
"Thought is like the honeysuckle around my front door. The newly green and sweetly blossoming tendrils reach ever further towards the sun and become dead underbrush through their very life and growth."
I think it's often hard to put old thoughts to rest. Frayn's right. They are there like dead underbrush. Enough said.
Rhombus and My Hat
Almost 10 years ago now, one Sunday after church, a friend invited us to come have dinner with them. She was making chicken and biscuits, she said, and she'd have it read in about 45 minutes. That gave me time to go home take care of the Rhombus and Desy and then return to where she lived near the church.
Rhombus, my Samoyed-Shepherd mix, dog was 12 years old. She was always inclined to like to chew something of mine when I was away and I always tried to be careful about what I left lying around, for that reason. From the time she was a pup, when I returned home after being away for a while, she would greet me at the door with something in her mouth to give me. Usually she didn't harm it and gladly handed it over when I walked in the door and greeted her. This day she met me with my synthetic fur hat in her mouth. When I went into the dining room, I discovered that there was a roll of toilet paper under the table and it had been completely torn apart, and chewed up. It was the new roll which had been on the clothes hamper in the bathroom. It was so destroyed I had to throw the whole thing away.
On the way back to Columbus, I was listening to the radio and a song about an oyster was being played. The words I caught said, "What noise annoys an oyster?" I also picked up, "A bit of cheese annoys a mouse, A mouse annoys a cat, A cat annoys a dog, And a dog annoys your Sunday hat." That part really made me laugh, coming directly on the heels of seeing Rhombus with my hat in her mouth and it was Sunday. I think the song ended, "What noise annoys an oyster when an oyster's in the stew?"
I still have the furry hat. It has a little hole in it near the seam in the back but it doesn't show at all when I wear it. I keep it in the entry way and often put it on when I have to go out with the dogs in the cold. Every time I put it on, I'm reminded of Rhombus. She did a lot of bad dog things, but she really loved me with her whole heart. She was a good companion and would have been in much less mischief if I hadn't gone away and left her alone!"
It's Nice to Know
Yesterday while my son and my two grandchildren were here, we went for some groceries and one of the things we bought was a big bag of Honey Cheerios. This morning at breakfast, I opened the bag and poured most of its contents into two smaller plastic containers. My son hadn't come down to breakfast yet. I put the two containers away in the cupboard and said to Sarah, "When your dad comes down, he's going to see this nearly empty bag and he'll say that he's so surprised that we ate that much of the Cheerios already."
We finished our breakfast and were doing other things when he came into the kitchen. When he saw the nearly empty bag, he exclaimed, "You ate all that cereal already!" Lyn said, "Grandma said you'd say that!" We laughed delightedly.
It's nice to know someone well enough to sometimes know what they'll say in some situations. It's nice to know!
Rereading
I was just rereading what I wrote about my friend, Nancy, yesterday and I said that she looked like she was two years older than I. Please remember that was when we were little kids, and not today. She probably looks younger than I do now. It made me laugh when I read it again. When we were kids, we wanted to look older, but grown ups want to look younger.
It reminds me of a kid story I heard long ago and still enjoy. The little five year old was dressed in his good clothes ready to go to some party and his mom told him how grown up he looked, --like he was 6 years old. And the little boy wanting to give his mom an equally good compliment replied, "And you look like you're 100!" It makes me chuckle every time I remember it.
Age is such a relative thing. A lot of how old we look or how old we feel depends on whether we are well or not. Eating right and getting enough rest helps a person feel younger. So, why am I up so early? Oh, yes. I'm up because Rusty heard something in the yard, and jumped up barking and ran to the window. After getting him calmed down, there was no point in going back to bed. I was awake before he barked any way, so I knew sleep was a lost cause.
A Nice Surprise
I got an e-mail from my friend who was my best friend al the time we were in elementary school. She was also my almost next-door neighbor. We spent hours together. She was Nancy Pearl, born in April of the same year that I was born in September. She looked like she was probably at least two years older than I. She was tall for her age and I was very short for my age (still am). Her e-mail told me that she will be in PGH over the weekend and until Wednesday. She wondered if we could work it out to meet each other. We haven’t seen each other since we went off to separate colleges. We’ve been staying in touch through letters and e-mail, but now we are going to meet up half way between PGH and Corry on Tuesday. I’m so excited to get to see her again and spend some time together. We’ll have lunch, visit, and probably shop a little.
Double Time
I got my city-county taxes today and decided since I had just made out the check for the Water-Sewer-Refuse bill which also goes to the city building, I would make out the check right away and take it too. It was snowing briskly. But, it was a pleasing snow that was kind of fun to take a walk in.
I had no problem paying the WSR bill but it turned out that I had paid the wrong amount for the taxes. If you pay within three months, you get a discount price and if you pay within six months you pay a little more and if you wait till after that, you pay the full rate. I paid the middle amount instead of the lowest. It was there in the lower right hand corner, but my payment was somewhere to the left of it. They couldnt accept the check for the wrong amount. I had to walk back home and void that check and write out another check, and walk back to the city building to pay it. I was thinking that I should be done with it in the one trip but actually, it wasn't half bad taking the second walk. It was a nice day for a little walk, after all. But I can't help wondering how I made that mistake. It was easily corrected, though.
Strength and Weakness
I woke up this morning thinking about an "almost" boyfriend of mine. He was the second boy I was attracted to. The first was a neighbor, Danny, who must have been at least 6 years older than I. I was in elementary school and he was probably in 7th grade or maybe 8th. I thought he was wonderful and admired him so much. It was a school girl crush.
So, he wasn't a boyfriend. Not at all. The second wasn't really a boyfriend either, though for a while I wanted him to be. I was perhaps in 8th or 9th grade by now. He was much closer to my age and had a dark, wild bent to him. He wasn't a good student. But he noticed me and I enjoyed his attention. My mom was very concerned and warned me to be careful around him. My grandma thought it was wonderful because his first name was the same as her husband's name. (Now there's a clue for me that I've never realized until now that though her husband had been dead for many years and she seldom talked about him, her heart still burned for him and his name could mean so much to her. I don't remember her ever telling me any stories about him. I just assumed she was OK about being alone because she never talked about him that I remember. I wish I'd known to ask her questions about how she met him and what their marriage was like. But I digress.)
At a party at Marian's house, this boy pinned me down on a bed, wanting to kiss me. I wasn't in danger. There were other kids in the room. It would have only been a kiss. But, I had never been kissed, and I didn't want my first kiss like this. He was so strong. He held me down and I honestly couldn't move at all. But I could talk!!! "Don't you dare!" I told him fiercely. "I'll never speak to you again if you do." Sometimes the tongue is more powerful than muscles. He backed off. He let me go and there was no kiss.
I still remember the feeling of complete helplessness I felt when I couldn't move at all. I had never before been so helpless. How strong he was and how weak I was.
After that experience, I realized that deep in my heart I was afraid to be alone with him and I could not love and be afraid of him. That was the end of my attraction to him.
Real strength lies in gentleness and kindness.
Barney Fife
In the special program to honor Don Knotts tonight, Jim Nabors recounted an incident where he was laughing at something Don had done as Barney Fife and he asked Don, "How can you be so funny?" Don replied, "Well, it helps if you look like I do."
Early Morning and Routine
It's often nice to be up early in the morning, when the world is dark, and quiet and still and when I've had enough sleep. There's a peaceful contentment to the early day.
Some people's pets get used to their human's routine and if the human varies the routine, they are confused. My pets seem to adjust to whatever it is that makes me do what I do. Much as I love routine, for there's a comfort in routine, I don't have a routine time to get up. If I get up early, they get up when I do. If I sleep late, they sleep late, too.
What they do not like to adjust is their feeding plan. They like the routine of getting up, going outside and coming back indoors to breakfast. When I get up really early, I don't do breakfast for them right away. They are also used to eating around 5 in the afternoon. If I'm home alone, they expect to be fed at about that time. If I'm having company over for dinner, they are content (more or less) to wait till after we have eaten, --knowing that there will be special scraps for them from company dinner. I call them scraps, but I wonder what they call them. I doubt if it's scraps.
So, we're up early this morning, and I think that both dogs are thinking, "Where's breakfast?" I'll get their food for them in a few minutes. I'm not ready for mine yet.
Syndicate this site