ack!

...midwinter time...

can't...talk...
can't...think...
eyes...glazing...
head...nodding...
must...keep...copying...
more...handouts...
more...slides
ungh!
(clunk)

Snow, snow, snow

We've had more snow this year than the last several, it seems. I love walking Lucy in the snow because she gets so excited and does this manic scamper/hop through it.

We get three inches, and she's practically hip deep. Seeing her unbridled joy at running through the snow is like balm to my soul. Little children and pets have a way of being all-out in their exuberance.

On New Year's Day this year, I spent quality time with my pet. Having finally cleaned off the clothes hamper otherwise known as my overstuffed rocking chair, I decided that reading a book in a comfy rocker would be a good way to bring in 2008.

Lucy thought it was a good idea too, insisting on joining me in the chair. So we sat, read, watched the people walk back and forth outside while we were warm and happy inside.

All too soon the light faded, and it was time to pull the shades and join them for a short while as we took our own evening walk in the snow. Happy 2008. :)

Was I ever really that small?

Today as I was picking up, I folded a couple of paper bags from the grocery store and a memory picture popped into my brain. I remember playing with paper bags, making clothing out of them by cutting neck holes in the bottom, arm holes in the side, a long cut down the front, and fringe along the bottom. Color with crayons and presto! A very cool vest type thingie. (hip, me? oh, yeah!)

As I looked at the paper bag, holding it upside-down to get the image of the temporary play clothes we used to construct, I was struck by how small it was. Was I really ever able to fit my torso inside a grocery bag!?

What would my grandson say if I took away his transformers and spiderman action figures, and replaced them with crayons, a grocery bag, and a pair of scissors? Are there kids anywhere that still think it's fun to play with such homemade toys? *sigh* Ah, the wonders of the unjaded imagination!

I wanted to illustrate this entry with a photo of a paper bag vest, and found photo evidence that yes, kids still are doing this (although the level of enjoyment in this kid's face is questionable-btw, this is some random kid; I just found him through the miracle that is google). Apparently someone thinks the craft is difficult enough to have created illustrated directions, too. Although they should have mentioned how difficult it is to get realistic fringe that's narrow enough.

Family Jokes

What can I say, I come from a weird family. In a good way. My memories of family life include lots of laughter. A family story involves my sister and I both making up jokes at supper, I think one after the other. Best guess, we were maybe 4 and 5.

Karen's joke:
Q. What did one pancake say to the other pancake? (my dad would often make us Bisquick pancakes for supper)
A. I love you pancake; I love you back. (hilarious, right?)

My joke:
Q. What did one ant say to the other ant when he couldn't find the milk? (supper that night included milk to go with the pancakes, evidently)
A. Hey, where's the milk?

Okay, at least in my joke, it was easy to tell who was saying what.

Another way my family joked was to play with words. This was mostly Dad's thing - he always loved playing with language. He used to point out the oddities of English pronunciation, citing examples like rough, cough, through, bough, though.

We played with our names, learning how to say them backwards. Dad's Alzheimer's is very advanced now - he can't really identify people anymore. But a few months ago when my brother was visiting him and asked him what his own name was, Dad's eyes twinkled and he said, Nilknarf Grebgah, which is his name spelled backwards. :-)

Nice to know that humor survives.

Coming close, home again

Yesterday I had just left a friend's house when I realized I had a flat tire. Not ideal in any weather, but especially bad when the temp was barely in the positive range. Thankfully, I was able to limp to a gas station and call for help. (It was not a service station, mind you. The man could sell me candy and coffee, but anything to deal with the car - I was on my own!) After the spare tire was put on, I set out to drive the 15 miles home. I hate it when some moron is driving 45 on the expressway with their flashers on. Well, I was that moron yesterday. I finally got off the expressway and started getting closer and closer to home. With each successive street sign, a little tension peeled off my shoulders. By the time I made it to the tire store a couple blocks from my house, my good mood had returned, and I was able to breathe normally again.

This morning in church we sang a song called "I Fall Before You Now," which talks about surrendering to God, worshiping him, not being able to resist his love and his beauty. The chorus says, "I'm coming now, coming in, coming close, home again." I was reminded how song really does capture the feel of coming close, and coming home again.

Those feelings I had yesterday as I got closer and closer to home: relief, safety, security, warmth, love, it's all there.

Voting is a Privilege

It's primary season of this election year.

I listened to a story on NPR the other day about Susan B. Anthony. For those of you who know her name only from the least used coin in US history, take the time to read a little about her or about women's suffrage. She worked for women's rights, campaigning for women to be granted the right to vote. She was arrested when she had registered to vote, then voted in an election. The ballot was apparently sent to the head of the household, SB Anthony. They didn't realize that SB was female. When, twenty years later, the same mistake was make by those mailing out the ballots, she wrote them declining to repeat that experience. Susan B Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

A couple of months ago I heard a story about another important woman, Mercedes Anderegg, my grandmother. Grandma and Grampa got married in 1920 on election day. In the morning she went and voted for the first time in her life; in the afternoon she got married. Interesting the ways history intersects our lives.



(This picture is my Grandma, Mercedes Anderegg, by the way, not Susan B. Anthony!)

First post - limited brain space

I've caved. Or something. I actually signed up for a blog. Well. No claims of deep thoughts here. Just want somewhere I can jot down my thoughts and link them accordingly.

Why am I calling this limited brain space?
Sherlock Holmes, in A Study in Scarlett,was explaining to Watson why he didn't know the composition of the solar system and several other things that were considered common knowledge of educated people. He compared our brains to attics that have a limited amount of space. "Depend upon it - there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

I'd like to have a place to remember all the things that get elbowed out of my brain by new information. Either that, or I'm just emptying out my brain to make room for more!