Car Envy

I'm really very happy with the small car I drive. it's a Fiat 500L and it suits me very well at this time in my life.  However, I must admit that when I see car commercials on TV (and they're impossible to avoid) I can't help but think how nice it would be to have a car that parallel parks all by itself. Although, to be honest, I can't remember the last time I actually needed to parallel park. When I was learning to drive, many years ago, a girlfirend who was helping me drilled and drilled me on parallel parking. I was so ready for that part of my test, but when it came time to parallel park the tester had me try it on a quiet residential street with only one car parked on it.  I pulled up beside that car and had the whole block to back up and pull in. So easy. I think what I really need is a totally self-driving car. Until that time the next best thing may be to let my grandchildren drive me around.  They will all be in the driver training years over the next four years. I'm trying to decide if I would be more nervous driving with a grandchild or in a self-driving car. I think it might be a toss up. 

Daydreams

I enjoy seeing sports reports on the local news about women's basketball.  When I was in high school we did not have a girls' basketball team. We barely had any physical education for girls at all, I think it was six weeks. But I'm sure, given the opportunity, I could have been a basketball star. After all I was the tallest girl in our school. Granted, it was a very small school, but 5'10" is tall enough to play women's basketball. I have a friend who is only 5'2" and she played basketball at a much larger high school. When I close my eyes I can picture myself running up and down the court, dribbling the ball, flawlessly weaving around the oposition guards and sinking basket after basket to win the game. The really nice thing about daydreams is that they don't need to have any relationship with reality.  In my daydreams I can completely disregard the fact that in highschool I was clumsy, uncoordinated, gawky, nearsighted and never could dribble a basketball more that two steps.  Ah well, it's my daydream and i will continue to enjoy it. Just listen to the cheeers of that crowd.

Giving Tuesday

Today was Giving Tuesday and I did make a charitable donation. Of course it was a check I had already written to a charity I give to fairly regularly, but I mailed it today so that should count, right?  I was interested to hear the warnings on TV about avoiding scams and had a little scare along those lines.  I had recently charged an upcoming trip on my credit card. I want the points and will pay it off this month but I was surprised to see an email purporting to be from my credit card company telling me that I had charged too much and should make an immediate payment of $1,700.  Or I could call a phone number provided if I had any questions. I checked the number against the customer service number on my card and they were not the same.  After checking on line to see what my current ballance actually was, I called the number on my card and talked with a very nice real person named Melissa. She checked my account, agreed with me on the actual current balance, and said it looked like the charge for the trip had been run through twice. She got it straightened out and it's all OK now but I'm still wondering what happened. I've worked with the same travel agency many times with never a problem. It probably was an honest error, but who knows?  At least it's good to know I can still talk with a real live person when there's a problem. Thanks for your help, Melisssa..

Addison sings on

I managed to resist going on line to buy anything today so no Cyber Monday for me. I also skipped Black Friday, and, in spite of all the alluring commercials, I have not yet bougth a new Lexus. However, I did go on line this evening to vote for Addison Agen, the contestant on "The Voice" from Fort Wayne. I know I'm prejudiced but I do think she's one of the best on the show. Tomorrow we'll see if she has made it through this week's competition. I like this show but they are certainly drawing out the final stages. Last week the 12 best cntestants competed and only one was eliminated. This evening the 11 competed. I'm not sure how many will be chopped tomorrow but I think they could cut half of them and speed things up (as long as Addison isn't part of that half).

Mother really did know best.

Turns out my mother knew what she was talking about when my brothers and I were children and were told to "Go outside and play." It was a daily refrain, especially in the summer months when we didn't have school. Yesterday on the morning news show they had a report on the latest 'medicine' being prescribed by doctors. It's nothing chemical but rather the instruction to spend at least one half hour walking outside in parklike settings. They call it Ecotherapy and it's supposed to help overcome anxiety and depression, among other things. It turns out that seeing trees, hearing birds sing and listening to water (river, ocean, whatever) is good for your eyes and your general health. Who knew? Well actauly anyone with a little common sense knows that you generally feel better if you get outside for a little while every day. In the meantime, I'm not sure if sitting on my balcony counts, but I can see trees and running water and there's lots of bird song when the weather is warmer. It works for me.

Riding the Holly Trolley

My daughter, granddaughter and I rode the Holly Trolley today and enjoyed Small Business Saturday in downtown Fort Wayne.  I did this last year on my own but it was much more fun to have them with me.  It is very convenient that one of the trolley stops is right here at my apartment building. We enjoyed lots of little shops, and some big spreads like the LuLaRoe shop set up in the Grand Wayne Center. I bougth some very comfy tights which I will probably never wear out in public. We tried a new restaurant for lunch. Caliente is a Cuban restaurant across the street from JK O'Donnells. We were actually heading to JK's til we discovered no one under 21 could enter. My 15 year old granddaughter is growing up fast but she can't pass for 21 yet. Anyway the Cuban option turned out to be very good. It was fun to be downtown with lots of people around. It reminded me of "the good old days" when we went downtown to do all of our Christmas shopping. Of course back then there were big stores down town, Do you remember Wolf and Dessauer, Patterson Fletcher, and of course Murphy's. Did you know that Cindi's Diner still sells Murphy's donuts? Talk about sweet memories.

The magic is still there.

For the last many years my grandchildren have come over on the day after Thanksgiving to help me decorate my Christmas tree. Each year we pull out all the old ornaments and enjoy remembering the history of each piece. This year, though, I thought perhaps the tradition had run its course. They are all teenagers now with busy lives. However, my daughter and her two children (ages 15 and 16) decided to come over this afternoon and help with my tree. And just like every other year, by the time we had a few ornaments on the tree the laughter and memories were flowing. We snacked, we listened to Christmas music, we finished the tree and it all felt so right. One more thing to be truly thankful for. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I was blessed with lots of family time and lots of great food today. I'm counting my blessings (not calories, just blessings) tonight and hope you are too. Now I have to go sleep off the turkey.

Turn on the lights!

Tonight Fort Wayne continued a long tradition of turning on the downtown Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Eve, so now I know it's time to get serious about Christmas shopping. I did not join the thousands outside but I did enjoy the TV coverage. Of course the high point is the lighting of Santa Claus and his reindeers.  They said on TV today that this Santa display was first put up in 1940, used for several years and then stored away until the 1980s when it was rediscovered and used again.  I have clear memories of my brother and me being driven downtown by my parents to see the Santa Claus on the side of the store (about 1950 I'm guessing) and then being taken inside Wolf and Dessauer's Department Store to sit on the real Santa's lap. Back then Phil Steigerwald was Santa and I've never yet seen a truer rendition.  Many years later I had the pleasure of working with Phil in real estate and I'm happy to say hew was every bit as nice as Santa should be. Sweet memories. 

more great days

As if it isn't enough that we have Thanksgiving already this week, there are four other days that can be celebrated this week. First, and I missed this one, Monday was "Name Your PC Day". Now I admit to naming my car, I even have a license plate with its name on it. "Blue" in case you're wondering. But I have never considered naming my PC. Guess I'll pass on that one. Tomorrow is "Go For a Ride Day" but I plan to stay home all day preparing the food I'll be taking to our family Thanksgiving. I guess, if I discover a missing ingredient, I might take a quick trip to the grocery store.  That will have to do. Saturday is "Shopping Reminder Day.' Really??? A month before Christmas do we have to be reminded to shop? But Sunday will be "Cake Day.' Now there's a holiday I can embrace with enthusiasm. I wonder if brownies count?

I voted

I watched Addison Agen on "The Voice" this evening. She's the 16 year old from Fort Wayne who has made it to the live, last stage of the competition. She's one of the final 12.  Tomorrow night results will be announced and we'll know if she moves on to the next level.  As I understand it, only one of the top 12 will be sent home tomorrow. They do like to drag these things out. I don't know if she'll win the competition but I do think she should end up in the top 5 or 6. For the first time ever I voted. You can vote up to 10 times so I cast my 10 votes for Addison.  keep your fingers crossed, or better yet vote for Addison.  You can vote on nbc.com.

Amish potatoes and corn

I just got home from an interesting weekend spent with friends in Holmes County, Ohio. This is Amish country in Ohio and we had fun exploring cheese stores, bakeries, antique shops and a 'hardware' store that stretched on for a couple of blocks and sold an amazing variety of stuff including some hardware. Sort of an eastern version of Wall Drugstore in South Dakota without the turquoise jewelry (at least I didn't find any).  In the evening we enjoyed a Christmas variety show at the Amish Country Theater. It was not, as I expected, a play about Amish people but rather a series of acts including a buck tooth MC who told corny jokes that still managed to get a lot of laughs, an excellent a capella men's quartet who made beautiful music and a ventriloquist who was the hit of the show. His routines with his rooster puppet and his 93-year-old man puppet were very funny but his best routine was using four volunteers from the audience as his 'puppets'. He instructed the volunteers to stand in a row and simply move their mouths as he stood behind them and tapped them on the back, quickly or slowly according to how fast he tapped them.  He, of course, provided the voices, high and squeeky for the tall macho guy, deep and solumn for the petite woman. The four volunteers moved their mouths as instructed and it was amazingly effective and very funny. 
Much of the countryside we drove through was rolling hills full of farm scenes right out of Currier and Ives. It would probably have been beautiful but much of yesterday was spent dodging gushing rain storms which took a lot of the fun out of strolling or driving from place to place. I almost forgot, one of the high points for me was my absolutely decadent lunch of mashed potatoes and noodles.  Comfort food from my childhood and perfect on a rainy day.

How much is taht doggie in the window?

I think I might have to rush out and buy a dog tomorrow. According to an announcer on TV people with dogs have 30% less chance of dying. Really? If that's the case a lot of people in my apartment building have the right idea. Several cute dogs ride the elevator with me from time to time.  I wonder if I just pat other people's dogs if that would be enough. My brother has two dogs. Does that give him 60% less chance of dying and what about my daughter and son-in-lawn with three dogs? On second thought maybe it just feels like your living forever when you're outside walking your dog on a cold snowy night.  I think I'll give this a little more thought,

The old button box.

According to the calendar today is "Button Day" but it doesn't specify if this refers to buttons that hold clothes together or pin-on buttons that celebrate some cause like a political candidate or a marching band member. I've decided to assume it's refering to the holding clothes together type.  I really came to appreciate the practicality of buttons when I became aquainted with some Amish girls in high school.  They weren't allowed to have buttons on their clothes (too showy) so the fronts of their dresses were held together with straight pins.  They seemed to handle it without getting stuck but it didn't seem very pratical to me. I think these days some of them have started using velcro. When I was a child I used to enjoy exploring my mother's button box. Actually it was a drawer at the bottom of her sewing box.  Such a variety of shapes, sizes and sparkles. I don't think Mom every threw a button away. I was always impressed with how she could find a matcing button for any that got lost from my brothers' or my clothes. These days I seldom need to sew on a button but I do know how and before I go out and buy a replacement I go to my button box. Mine is actually a little blue glass figurine in the shape of a lady. Her top half lifts off and the buttons are stored in her skirt.  Luckily for me lots of the clothes I buy come with one replacement button. i faithfully put those in the button lady just in case.  So, enough about buttons. On another note, yesterday was evidently "Clean Out You Refrigerator Day." Woops, guess I missed that one.  I'll put it in my calendar for next year. And if you believe that I have a rare antique button I'd like to sell you.

Rugby any one

It was announced this evening on the sports news that a Fort Wayne Rugby team is going to compete for a national championship. I personally never played Rugby but I'm familiar with the game because my daughter played it, on a coed team, when she was in college. Hearing the mention of it on TV brought back a flash of memory from her Rugby playing days. The first time my husband and I saw her play, in a home game at Earlham College, I was appalled by the roughness of the game. She ran, she was involved in scrums, she was in there 'fighting' for the whole game. Rugby games don't have time outs so the game went pretty fast. My daughter is six feet tall and tough so I wasn't really too worried about her safety, but I kept wondering, as I saw her running up and down the field, what was wrong with her hair. I could tell she had it up in a pony tail but something didn't look quite right.  I found out what was wrong after the game was over. She had had the bottom four inches of her hair shaved off all around her head.  As she explained it to me, that allowed her to tape her ears so they couldn't be torn off. Such a lovely game. Interestingly, when she took her remaining hair out of the pony tail it was heavy enough to hang down and completely cover the shaved part. Instant transformation from rugged Rugby player to the young lady I knew and loved.  So reassuring.

Am I spoiled or what?

I've been sitting here feeling put upon this evening because my bank had the nerve to merge with another one meaning that not only do I need to learn a new bank name, I also was required to re-register, and establish a new password before I could do my usual online banking.  Then I got to thinking. How spoiled am I anyway? I was able to do all of the necessary paperwork on line in less than 10 minutes (including time out to make a cup of tea while 'reading' their loooooong disclosure) while sitting here warm and cozy in my robe and slippers. I didn't need to be dressed, drive across town, read and sign physical paperwork, etc. I guess I'll just relax and be glad it all worked.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, or at least the first day of tutoring with a program through Fort Wayne Community Schools called Study Connections. Every year several of us at First Pres agree to tutor young children from South Wayne Elementary School who are struggling a little with their studies. We meet at the church on Mondays after school for one hour. This year I've been paired with a nine-year-old third grade boy who needs some help with reading and math and a little boost of self confidence. He selected a Captain Underpants book as the first one we will read together. Not my favorite book but I figure if it keeps him reading and it's not obscene (it's not) then it's all good. It's actually pretty funny so far but don't tell any of my sophisticated friends. If all of the teaching I have done over the years could have been one on one, I would probably still be a teacher. Unfortunately, when I was teaching full time there wasn't much call for private tutors in art. Ah well....

Another great day

Today, according to my special calendar, is "Tongue Twister Day". I didn't know tongue twisters needed a day but I've accumulated a few favorites over the years.  Every play I've been in begins each performance with a half hour warm up. In addition to physical exercises we stand on stage projecting our voices to the far corners of the theater and reciting such ditties as 'unique New York, unique New York, you know you need unique New York" and "red leather, yellow leather, red leather. yellow leather" over and over. One of my favorites is "What a todo to die today at a minute or two til two. A thing distinctly hard  to say yet harder still to do."  Of course there's also the classic "She sells sea shells by the sea shore." That's it, I've had my fill of tongue twisters for today. 

"Sister Act" is a hit.

Just got home from seeing "Sister Act, the Musical" presented by University of Saint Francis School of Creative Arts (SOCA they call themselves for those of you who like acronyms). It was an excellent performance, great voices for all of the solos and lots of energy.  As usual I got caught up in admiring the stage sets and these were outstanding.  From soaring Gothic archs to a seedy bar to a run down police department everything was well done.  When they added disco balls and glittering strings of light for the final performance in the cathedral it made me wish every church had disco balls.  Well maybe not really but it was a lot of fun.  The Mother Superior reminded me of Sister Annthelma, the principal when I taught at St. Henry's School many years ago.  This play takes place in the 70s and I was teaching early in that same decade. Like the Mother Superiior in the play, Sister Annthelma was just not at all sure that all the changes taking place in the Catholic church were for the best.  She was the last nun in the school to change to the street length habit and when the Pope decreed that women and girls didn't need to cover their hair in mass any more you could tell that, even though she knew the Pope was infallible, she suspected that he migth have missread God's intent in this case.

Now I've heard everything.

There is a politician currently running for a congressional seat who is being accused of sexually molesting some teenage girls many years ago.  I do not know if this is true or, as some claim, simply a ruse to get him to drop out of the election.  However, a statement I heard in an interview today really got my blood boiling. A local voter, being interviewed said he would vote for the candidate whether he was guilty or not.  Then he went on to say "After all, Mary was a teenage girl and Joseph was a grown man and they were the parents of Jesus, so there's nothing wrong with it."  I'm sorry, what???? This contention is wrong to me on so many levels that I can't imagine any Christian, no matter where they fall on the conservative to liberal scale, agreeing with this position. 

EWATAA

I understand the allure and convenience of acronyms and there are some that have been around for some time that I'm very comfortable with. NASA is one that comes to mind. Technically a true acronym is formed by the first letters of a series of words like 'National Aeronautic and Space Administration' that are used as abbreviations that can be pronounced as a word. Another one that I'm associated with is MOPS (Mohthers of Preschoolers). I'm not sure what it's called when first letters are used to identify something but they can't be pronounced as a word.  PTSD and LGBTA are examples.  I suppose these are just considered abbreviations. But it seems to me too many things are being abbreviated.  Maybe I just don't want to have to stop and figure out what things mean as I'm listening to a news report. For example, on a national news show this morning the commentator was talking about people who have signed non-disclosure agreements and then regret having done so. About half way through the report she switched from saying non-disclosure agreements to calling them NDAs. This may be a commonly used abbreviation in legal circles but I found it distracting in the news report.  Perhaps I'm being too picky but I enjoy hearing real words. Ah well, TIAD.

Musings about Martin Luther

2017 is the 500th anniversary year of the Protestant Reformation and even though I attend a Presbyterian church we've been hearing quite a lot about Martin Luther, especially during the month of October since he nailed those 95 thesis on the church door in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.  Tonight we had a class that focused on Luther's music and I learned a few things I didn't knwo before. For example during the years 1523 to 1524 he wrote 23 hymns.  He liked to write new texts but often used old popular melodies familiar to his congregation. His contention was "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?"  A notable exception to tbis practice is his best know hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" for which he wrote the tune and text. He wrote that hymn in 1529. I think it's great that it has lasted for almost 500 years.  Another hymn he wrote, one of my favorites, is "From Heaven Above".  Originally this hymn had 15 stanzas but our current hymnal has cut it to five, which was probably a wise decision.  In the days when sermons typically ran two hours or more a 15 stanza song probably seemed like nothing but I think modern congregations, no matter how devout, might get a little restive after the first 10 verses or so.  

Lady Gaga put on a great show.

I happened to ride down in the elevator this morning with a young lady who was very interested to learn that I had been to the Lady Gaga concert in Indianapolis Sunday evening. She said that several of her friends had posted about it and said it was amazing. It was. I was not a huge Lady Gaga fan but after seeing this show I certainly understand her appeal. Not only does she have a great voice and a lot of musical talent, she also comes across as a really nice person. 
I particularly enjoyed the songs she performed while playing the piano. But if I'm being totally honest, my favorite part of the show was the special effects. Light beams and a wild variedy of patterns projected on huge "clouds" suspended from the rafters, bridges that could be raised and lowered allowing her to walk from one end of the arena floor to the other, stepping from one round stage to another along the way, lots of projections and colored flashing  lights all combined to make it a marvelous spectacle.  The other interesting spectacle was the wild variety of people in attendance. the pink cowboy hats that many of the women and girls were wearing in honor of her newest CD "Joanne" were great. My friend, the one who had decided we should go to this concert and bought the tickets months ago, asked me if I felt 'out of my element'. Not really. People are people and I enjoy them in all shapes and sizes, and there certainly were all shapes and sizes in attendance. By the way I know I wasn't the oldest person there because the friends I was with are both a few months older than me.  All in all it was a fun experience.

Lady Gaga and the marching bands

I just got home from an interesting musical weekend. Three girffriends and I had planned for months to go to the Lady Gaga concert in Indianapolis last night and spend a few extra days together in Indy.  What I didn't realize was that, on Saturday night, the Carroll High School Charger Pride Band, in which two of my grandchildren march, would be competing in the ISSMA state finals of the marching band competition.  They were one of ten bands state wide who made it to state in the Class A catagory and I was disappointed that I had already made plans and wouldn't be able to see them. But, by an amazing coincidence, the hotel where one of our group had made our reservations was right beside Lucas Oil Stadium where the competition would take place. We didn't have any firm plans for Saturday night and my friends agreed that watching the bands compete would be fun. It was. They all put on great shows. There was lots of stiff competition from larger bands. Credit is due to Homestead who won first place with a really fabulous production which included an ice skater.  I thought Carroll might come in 4th or 5th but sadly they finished 9th. Our seats were too high to see exactly what happened but my daughter explained it to me later. Their performance was going beautifully when one of the flag girls accidentally tripped a saxaphone player who fell down. Three other instrumentalists, marching backwards in formation, didn't see what had happened and also fell down. Needless to say this cost them some points. Ah well, there's always next year. I really feel sorry for that flag girl.  She must be feeling pretty miserable.  
Lady Gaga's concert was a very different experience.  More about that tomorrow night.

Is it possible to worry to much about cleaness?

I heard an interesting report on TV today about how clean a person should keep things in their house.  I've heard similar reports before and I do try to live a clean life, within reason. I do vaccuum and dust fairly regularly and of course I run the dishwasher and put out the garbage. I even recycle, and occasionally wash a window. My bathrooms are clean and I swiffer my tile floors sometimes (especially if company is coming). I did wonder though about some things on the report this evening. One question they asked was how often should you wash your pajamas? They said the average time in a survey is every 17 days but the reporter suggested every 3 days is better. What they didn't say in the report was how many pairs of pajamas we're talking about here. One pair of pajamas worn for 17 days sounds disgusting but if you have 17 pairs of pajamas and wash them all together every 17 days that sounds pretty clean to me. I personally wash all of my clothes every 14 days but that doesn't mean I wear them for 14 days.  They also mentioned that the TV remote control is one of the germiest surfaces in the house and should be wiped frequently with antibacterial wipes. Personally I don't put my remote in my mouth so I'm not too worried about this. One mroe thing. She said bathroom hand towels should only be used for one day. That's ok with me if you want to do it but I didn't appreciate the suggestion that we should use disposable hand towels.  Seems to me that just adds to the polution problem.  Ah well, I guess I'll just go to bed (in pajamas that have not been worn for 17 days) and worry about all this tomorrow. 

What a fine idea...

According to my November calendar tomorrow is "Men Make Dinner Day".  Seems like a fine idea to me. Since I don't have a husband available to cook dinner for me I guess I'll have to go looking for a restaurant with a really good male chef.  But thinking about men who cook, early on in our dating days my husband-to-be cooked dinner for me in his little apartment.  He "cooked" by openng and heating multiple cans of Mexican food. I had never had Mexican food at that point in my life and the canned version was not the best introduction.  Happily, I maried him anyway, and on our honeymoon in San Antonio, we ate dinner at a really excellent Mexican restaurant where I got to taste the real thing.  I learned two things; (1) I actually love Mexican food and (2) throughout our married life any time I wanted to eat out I only had to suggest going to a Mexican restaurant. This arrangement led to a very happy marriage and a lot of great food.