Jan 08

Upgrade Blues

The time came to upgrade the blog again. No wonder I don’t have a more creative template, I couldn’t keep it up-to-date! I was happy that everything with the upgrade was smooth. I simply don’t have the energy to fight too hard over anything right now.

The new stove is working quite well, thank goodness. I sure wish I could make all my appliance sing and dance like it does.

It’s raining, and has been since last night. Yesterday, I believe the high here was 62. That’s pretty warm for January in Michigan, a Detroit area record. The sump pump is pumping like mad. The recycling bin required drying when I brought it in. It is gray, and chilly, and miserable. But, you don’t have to shovel rain.

Jan 04

Home on The Range

On December 30th, a Sunday, D3 mixed up some cinnamon rolls.  All went according to plan until the oven failed to light when she turned the knob.  I don’t know exactly when we bought that stove, but it has been more than a few years ago.  I believe it came from “worst buy”, my least favorite store, but that’s another story.  Papa and I bought the  stove based mostly on price, and we got what we paid for.  I’ve been lighting the burners with a camp-stove lighter for at least two years.  I had to clean the **** thing by hand, since if wasn’t self-cleaning, or even continuous cleaning. 

I didn’t want self cleaning because the stove before our old stove caused a self cleaning nightmare.  I had locked the door, set the cycle and went of to sit on a cushion and eat chocolates.  Well, I was probably cleaning or washing, but most of the TV homemakers sit on cushions and eat chocolates and I’d love to do the same.  The stove before the stove heated up and just kept heating.  The entire house filled with smoke before I could open windows, pull it out, and unplug it.  We sent it to appliance heaven still locked up, and I hope no one plugged it in again.

Armed with the knowledge that we need a new range today, not tomorrow, that I wasn’t buying at at my least favorite store, and that it was Sunday and stores close early, we took off in the minivan.  We drove 35 some miles to a regional appliance outlet store where we have had much luck in the past.  They had rows and rows of of washers, dryers, dishwashers, freezers, and fridges.  They had a couple of rows of overpriced gas ranges.  I had a coupon that had printed out at a store related to the appliance outlet in my purse, $50 off your next purchase of an major appliance.  I looked at Papa, and at a man looking a modestly priced dishwashers nearby.  I walked up to him and asked if he thought he would be buying something today, and he said he thought so.  I gave him the coupon, for which he thanked us, and Papa and I left in a  hurry. 

We drove quickly to a home improvement store near our home.  We looked for about 2 minutes at what was available.  We settled on a cute, sleek, self-cleaning model with 5 burners on the top.  We paid, we loaded, and we drove home.  D3’s boyfriend was visiting, so all four of us shoved the old range out the front door, and carried the new one in.  Papa hooked up the gas, plugged it in, and be pushed it back into place. 

Now for the crazy part–then we went out to dinner.

Jan 03

Winter for Sure

It’s cold outside right now, more like the winters I remember from my childhood, and some of 20 years ago.  There is enough snow so the world looks clean, and it’s crisp outside so there is a clean smell when you go out.  D3 remarked that it was hard for her to remember when the snow was so high that you had to inch out of every drive and parking lot, because you couldn’t see oncoming traffic.  But, it’s supposed to melt this weekend.  That never happened in my childhood.  As recently as 35 years ago, I remember winters which started before my birthday in early November, and continued until April.

We’re having Chili for dinner, perhaps it will warm us up….

Jan 01

Happy New Year!

We just dug our cars and drive out of about 10 inches of snow, and not for the football…….

Dec 21

Merry Christmas

GS2 played Santa at a recent party.  I think these are the best!

Dec 20

For Monica

A friend’s mother died

And so

I changed clothes and we drove

To another place where people

Sign a book, and shake hands

Look at photographs and flowers

Comfort the bereaved and make small talk

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I looked into her eyes and felt sad

For her, and her husband and

Their family, and her father and I knew

They all had looked at photographs and flowers

And wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I gave her a hug, and made

Small talk about happy things

Like her beautiful grandchildren

And their wonderful prospects

And the fun they are for her

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I shook hands with her brother

And her father and met her sister and

Expressed my sympathy to them

Saw some of our mutual friends and acquaintances

Doing the same

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I remembered my mother

And her illness and death and

Everything we did and how we felt

How helpless we were and how

Little difference everything made

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I remembered my son-in-law’s mother

And her illness and death and

Everything her family did and

All the things we did to try to help

And I remembered she died anyway

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I thought of my father his business of undertaking

The caskets the flowers the chairs

The organ playing the endless parade of

Bereaved families and people crying

And shaking hands and looking at the flowers

And I wondered why

 

A friend’s mother died

And so

I cried for her and for me and for my son-in-law

And for our families and for the endless parade of bereaved families

Since the beginning of time and I wiped my eyes and asked God to help us

And all the bereaved families to the end of time

And  I wondered why

Dec 18

Haul out the Padded Bras….

D1 was shopping for her nieces, Gds 1 and 2 recently.  She gave me several indignant paragraphs regarding the padded bras available in the girls section of a major department store.  This is not a discount store, and it also isn’t an upscale specialty shop.  I think it’s silly to offer bras in sizes to fit undeveloped young girls with padding to give the appearance they actually need that bra.  The scary part of this is that parents must be buying them, since they are available in stores.  Someone here is crazy.  Since I don’t have young daughters, this doesn’t have a direct affect on me, so I just agreed it was crazy and went on with my life.

Today, something made me pause to think about it again.  GD1 and GD2 are going to be flower girls in a wedding in the spring.  I’m the resident seamstress, so I’m making the dresses.  So far, so good.  The bride-to-be mailed D2 a sample of the fabric and a link to the photo of the dress.  The photo features an obviously preadolescent girl in a very cute dress.  She is wearing shoes with a little heel, but the heel is square, and might hold up a young kid. I’m only mentioning the shoes because the GDs are very much like my girls were, they notice the details.  And they will expect those shoes if they see the photo.

 The problem is that the little girl in the photograph must be wearing one of those padded bras.  No kidding. Perhaps this girl is eleven or 12, but I’m not sure about that.  She looks seven or eight to me.  Would you dress your younger than age 8 daughters in a padded bra?  I hope not.

Dec 17

Hunker Down

There’s a term I haven’t heard in a while, but it is what entered my head this morning.  Winter time is a good time to feather one’s nest and hunker down in it.

Our children and grandchildren didn’t do that yesterday, and we’re glad of it.  We had a very nice family “Christmas” yesterday.  One day a year my children honor me by gathering at my home, and I’m grateful for that.  We had a compressed celebration, D2 and her family were at a wedding an hour and a half north of here on Saturday night.  The snow created travel difficulties, but they arrived in the late morning.  We had waffles, sausage, smokie links, fruit from a lovely basked gifted to us by D3’s boyfriend and good conversation.  Clean up was fast. 

The children, even the older ones, opened their gifts.  I think the most memorable thing was as GD2 was opening a gift from Papa and D2 said, “Is that a little banjo?!!  I didn’t know they made them!”  GD2 knew what is was, my little banjo.  Papa found it at the Goldtone booth at IBMA Fanfest last October.  We came home from Nashville in October with the little banjo, and a very nice small scale guitar for GD1.  I’ve got Murphy Henry’s DVD’s on order for the banjo and guitar, but we did get the mandolin one for GS3 from Red at the Murphy Method booth at FanFest.  He’s had the mandolin for a while, and he learned some chords at a festival workshop last spring.  He’s going to start violin next year in school, so the mandolin chords won’t hurt him a bit. 

Then we piled into our respective vehicles and went to the Henry Ford Museum where all the children sat on Santa’s lap.  The place was virtually empty, due to the snow and bad roads, but we didn’t let it dampen our spirits.  The little grandchildren made a craft or two at the table, and GD2 checked out all the doll houses again.  She loves them, and really notices the details.  We had a nice supper at a nearby restaurant, and then D’s family headed home to Kalamazoo. The rest of us drove home and hunkered down, for a quite evening. 

Dec 13

Not a Good Start to the Day

So GS2 got up late this morning and missed the bus.  I threw on my coat, grabbed my grocery list and headed for the school.  I’ve got to say, it is a real mess in the drop off/pick up area there.  It was early, dark, and all the teens were half asleep.  For at least a quarter mile both ways up and down the street cars were lined up waiting to go through a circle drive constructed a year or so ago; that drive is the only place you are supposed to deposit or pick up your kids.  Kids were jumping out and walking through traffic all up and down the street.  Did I say it was dark?  I know nothing is safe, but this is a big mess. 

I believe the new drive was constructed to keep 1000 sets of parents from dropping off their kids where the empty buses need to circle to drop off the few kids on them.  Most kids either drive themselves, or get a ride from parents.  If some kid is hit over there on that street, it won’t be on school property and the school is safe.  More protection for the school than the kids, that’s for sure.

On to the store, where I paid SEVENTY-TWO cents for a little round box of salt that used to be 10 or 15 cents just a year or so ago.  That’s why I have to go to several more stores to complete my shopping.  Prices.

Now, since I haven’t been gouged enough, and I am not yet completely annoyed,  I’m off the a few more stores to make myself miserable.

Dec 12

A break from the bad weather

The weather missed us, at least most of it.  It did rain and spit some ice yesterday.  It was raining hard when we went to bed last night.  This morning, there is a wee bit of ice on some surfaces, but the traffic is racing by as usual on the main road near us.  We were lucky, based on what I saw on the news last night from out west.

Yesterday was D3’s birthday.  We’re not big celebrators of such occasions here, but we did have cake.  As GS2 put it, “Thanks for having a birthday so we can have cake.”  The cake was a struggle.  I was ready to make meatballs when I preheated the oven and dove into the cupboard for the cake ingredients. I grabbed the sugar and it spilled all the way to the counter; a close examination revealed that one corner of the air-tight plastic container wasn’t popped down as it should  have been.  I had sugar on the counter, the cookbook, the tops of the lower cupboard doors, the floor the rug, everywhere.  I called GS2 who got the vacuum from the side room so I wouldn’t have to walk through the mess to get it, and I tried vacuuming with limited success.  I used the hose and attachments and got more.  I switched from meatballs to spaghetti, which isn’t as labor intensive.  Then, the phone rang, a call from someone who needed a photo from Papa.  It was pretty much downhill from there.

The good news is, we did have dinner, and we did have cake, and I did get the kitchen cleaned up, finally.  How could today be any more fun?