Oh give me a home...

....where the buffalo roam. Or maybe not.  There have been quite a few buffalo (buffaloes??) roaming around northern Indiana for the last few days.  Evidently they are almost all home now.  Perhaps they discovered that roaming free isn't so much fun if you're not getting fed regularly.  I am a little confused about one detail.  A few days ago it was reported that 50 bisons had escaped.  Today the reporter said that 52 had returned home and a few were still roaming free.  Where did they pick up the extras?  There can't be that many wild buffaloes roaming around norhtern Indiana.  At least I don't think so.  I think I have figured out though why they were being called 'bisons' instead of 'buffalo'. Bison is easier to spell (no pesky worry about if there is an e on the end) and the plural is bisons, very straightforward.  As far as I can tell buffalo is either singular or plural - see the song lyrics above - but buffaloes is also a correct spelling and plural use. At least we're not in Florida where a six-foot lizard is roaming around one neighborhood.  Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and I'll show you a messy house.

I like to watch the show "Shark Tank" but I always come away feeling like I should be more inventive.  It's all part of the 'Why didn't I think of that?' syndrome.  It's not that I can't create anything.  I can weave creative pieces (but there doesn't seem to be a huge market for scarves and placemats) and last weekend I designed a really impressive newspaper hat while helping with a booth at the "Taste of the Arts" festival. Admittedly, I looked silly wearing it but it was for a good cause.  Sadly though, nothing I 'invent' is anything anyone wants to buy, especially for big bucks.  Of course, the other aspect of this situation is that I'm retired and I really don't want to work that hard.  Ah well, I guess I'll add the 'if I invent something fabulous' dream to the 'if I win the lottery' and if I win the 'Publisher's Clearing House prize' dreams.  Happily, dreams are free.

owning a Pope-mobile

Do I really want to own this car once owned by a famous person?  The car, a blue 1976 Ford Escort, was once owned by Pope John Paul II.  I owned a Ford Escort at one time and it was a very satisfactory car.  However, I did not pay $300,000.00 for it. That's the estimate of what the Pope John Paul car will sell for at the ACD auction this weekend.  Currently I own a Fiat 500L which, coincidentally, is the same kind of car Pope Francis rode around in when he was in the US last year.  I think that's as close as I'm going to come to owning a Pope-mobile. Maybe someday, when I'm fabulously famous, someone will want to pay big bucks to own my little Fiat?? I'm pretty sure that falls into the "don't hold your breath" catagory.

the great banana caper

Today is "Banana Lovers Day" and that reminds me of a situation I walked into some years ago.  It was at a period in our lives when my daughter had moved back home with her two kids and two cats after a sad divorce.  My recently retired husband was being 'Daddy Daycare' during this time while my daughter and I each went off to work. This was a new experience for him.  I had been the stay-at-home mom when our own children were young. He was a good and dutiful caregiver for the two grandchildren, ages 2 and 3 at that time, but he hadn't yet discovered that when young children are in another room and being very quiet, that's not a good thing.  I came home from work that afternoon and started to fix supper.  I reached for a bunch of bananas which I had bought the day before, to make some fruit salad.  But, the bananas weren't there.  I turned to my grandson (the 3-year-old ring leader) who had just come into the kitchen and asked him if he knew where the bananas were?  He lead me into his sister's bedroom and there, on the floor behind the bed, I found nine banana peels.  They had eaten the whole bunch.  Interestingly, they were never too fond of bananas after that. 

bytes and more bytes

I ran across this fun fact earlier today.  In a 1981 press release, announcing their personal computer, IBM offered 64,000 bytes (64 kilobytes) of memory available in the "typical system for home and school."  The system was for sale for a mere $3,005.00.  I'm happy to know that the price of PCs has gone down.  In a 'Target' ad that came in this morning's paper I found a laptop computer available for $299.99.  It has 1 TB of storage.  If my quick math is accurate, you can check me on this, 1 TB is equal to 1,073,741,824 kilobytes.  Isn't that amazing?  My little tablet used 267 MBs last week while my phone used 12.37 MBs in the same week.  I Googled this and one MB equals 1024 KBs. When my husband taught Statistics at St. Francis in the early 70's the computer his class used took up most of a room.  Does anyone but me remember punch cards used in programing?  I came across a box of those in my basement when I downsized three years ago.  I also dealt with 8 PCs that had somehow made their way to his "man cave" over the years.  Then there were the three 'antique' laptops.  Now that I think about it, the laptop I'm typing this blog on is getting rather elderly in computer years. But I'm not ready to start my own collection so I think I'll keep it for a while longer.

creativity lives

It was a dark and gloomy morning.  Happily, most of the storm clouds had moved on by noon and we were able to host our booth at "Festival of the Arts." All of the booths around the fountain plaza in Frieman Square offered information about various organizations in Fort Wayne and each offered a craft project for the children.  We handed out lots of brochures promoting the arts at First Pres but the fun of the day was watching the children (many, many children) create newspaper crowns.  This project, invented by the grandson of one of our voluteers, used only newspaper and scotch tape to create amazing wearable creations. Every one was unique and it was fascinating watching the kids get involved in building their crowns (or helmets, or hats, or sometimes swords). It was also interesting to watch the parents and grandparents.  Some had the "let the kids do it" mentatlity while others wanted to offer suggestions and get their fingers on the tape and paper.  Either way worked well.  I really loved watching the kids work (shades of my years as an art teacher). I'm not sure what the fascination with Scotchtape is, but every child I've ever known has loved to use that tape.  I used to put rolls of tape in my grandkids' Christmas stockings. Always a hit when they were little.

welcome to the family

My brother and I just returned from a road trip to visit his grandson in Gulfport, (Mississippi not Louisiana) and to meet his fiance.  We had a very enjoyable visit and I am happy to report that my great-nephew's fiance will be an excellent addition to our family.  It's good that she's a career woman (she's an aquarist - she works with stingrays and other fishy types).  It's also good that she's tall; it's a trait that runs in our family.  And it's very good that she likes animals. At this count they have five rescue pets - two bunnies, two cats and one dog. She has a great laugh and a good sense of humor.  It helps to have a sense of humor if you're going to be involved with our family for any length of time.  But most important of all, she likes to play games.  While we were there we played an exciting game of Mexican Train (one of my brother's and my favorites). The game stretched over two evenings and was good for lots of laughs. I knew when she just happened to have a box of dominoes that she was our kind of woman.  The wedding is scheduled for March 16 which will call for another trip to Mississippi, but I guess it would be a bit much to expect them to postpone their honeymoon for a rematch.

geographic mystery

I'm taking a road trip soon.  My brother and I are driving from Fort Wayne to Gulfport to visit his grandson (my great-nephew).  I'm looking forward to the visit but I am a little confused about where we are going.  My brother tells me we are going to Gulfport, Louisiana but when I googled Gulfport, Louisiana the map that came up confirmed that there is such a city but showed me Gulfport, Mississippi, which is very close to New Orleans.  Maybe they are across the line from each other like Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas.   My brother has told me that I can be in charge of following the GPS instructions.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  Wish us luck, everyone. We may be roaming for a long time.

eating in the rain

One of the things I enjoy about living downtown is being able to get to good restaurants, in nice weather, without driving.  This afternoon a friend called and asked if I wanted to get a drink or dinner at Tolon's.  She wanted to see some art that one of her cousins had done which was on display there. Happily, I didn't have other plans and agreed to go with her.  We decided to walk over since it's only four blocks away, and once there, we decided to eat outside at a table under one of their large canopy/umbrellas.  It was a cool and misty evening at 5:15 when we sat down at our outside table. Within 10 minutes it was pouring down rain pretty heavily but our canopy was large enough to protect us.  We enjoyed a yummy corn soup with crab salad, sipped on our drinks and were enjoying a good conversation when it gradually dawned on us that we didn't have a car handy to drive back to my apartment.  Of course we hadn't thought to bring umbrellas.  What to do?  We could call a cab, or take our chances walking home in the deluge, or we could delay our trip home by indulging in some delicious coconut pineapple pie.  Well, it was a tough decision but we opted for the pie and were rewarded when, after a time, the rain let up and we could walk home without getting too damp. A happy ending.

a walk in the park

I heard an interesting presentation this morning from Megan Butler, the Programs and Events Coordinator for the city of Fort Wayne who deals with the new events that are and will be happening as the work along the rivers continues.  She spoke at a lunch for seniors and I was very impressed with her presentation.  I was surprised with the number of free events already happening along the rivers including bird watching, storytime on the bridge, a film series and hsitoric boat tours.  Two things that are in the works sound very interesting to me.  First they are building a "canopy walk" which is a raised walk that gets you up among the tree banches.  The other thing strikes even closer to home.  There are plans to revamp the Spy Run bridge over the St. Mary's River so it will be more like the MLK bridge with much wider side walks than the current bridge has.  I think this would be great.  I walk across the Spy Run bridge when I go to the Old Fort (one of my favorite one-mile walks for exercise) and sometimes the traffic speeding by seems dangerously close. Ms. Butler also satisfied my curiosity about another matter.  Our rivers look very brown and they always will.  It's because of the clay river beds.  She showed an interesting picture of a North Side High School Banner which an alum had laid out at the bottom of the river near the school and then photographed. It was amazing how clearly it showed through the river.  I'm very reassured with everything I heard today that one day we will have a lively, interesting series of attractions along our rivers.  I hope they work fast so I can enjoy it.

two fine days

Today was National Relaxation Day.  No problem there.  I am a great relaxer.  I learned this when I was in college.  As an art education major I was required to take a certain number of phys ed classed and they were arranged so that, in a 10 week quarter (we didn't do semesters) we could take two five-week classes.  One quarter I took bowling and badminton. See a previous blog to see how I did with bowling.  Another quarter was archery and swimming.  May I mention here that archery was the first 'A' I ever got in a gym class.  I think it was because I could stand still and simply use my upper body - none of this coordination stuff with arms and legs working together.  The gym duo I remember most vividly was relaxation and folk dancing.  My instructor was very impressed with my ability to relax.  What she didn't know, and I didn't bother to explain to her, was that when I arrived at my relaxation class, at 8am, after hiking waaay across campus, in the dead of winter, being faced with a mat on the floor in a warm room, relaxing was not a problem.  She just had to wake me up when class was over. 
On another subject, tomorrow is tell a joke day so I will share one I saw on a sign outside a restaurant earlier today.  "Exercise?? I thought you said extra fries."

getting creative

Yesterday I met with a few other ladies at church to learn how to make newspaper "crowns." We each created our own version of this idea because we are getting ready to offer it as an activity at "Taste of Fort Wayne" on August 25. We have collected lots of newspaper and one person is donating several boxes of scotch tape.  Of course the hope is that kids will bring their parents to our booth so we can give them information about the various arts at First Pres. This is our first year to participate in this activity. 
It actually was very satisfying to sit there yesterday playing with newspaper and scotch tape (grown-ups should play more) and have something to show for it.  I hope that the kids who come to our booth will have as much fun as we did.  We will be modeling our creations during the festival.  I think mine is quite festive or perhaps just rediculous.  Come and see for yourselves.  

A great day, indeed!!!

Today (are you ready for this?) is a great day indeed. Today is "International Left Handers' Day."  According to a bit on the news this evening Oreo Cookies have come out with a left handed opening package in honor of the event.  I actually wonder if there aren't a lot of left opening packages out there.  I am thinking particularly of those 'easy open, resealable bags' that I usually end up cutting open with a scissors. And thinking of Oreos, do lefties twist them apart in the oposite direction of the rest of us? I may need to research this.  But I digress. Congratulations to all of you lefties out there, especially the three who I count as good friends.  

School Daze

This year all of my grandchildren are in high school. They start back to school tomorrow.  Their ages are 17, 16, 15 and 14 and they are entering, respectively, their senior, junior, sophomore and freshman years.  I think this as very exciting.  I've watched them grow through pre-school, elementary and middle school years and it's gratifying to think they've made it this far.  The only downside was pointed out to me by a friend recently.  I will be attending a regular series of graduation ceremonies (8 years possibly, if we add on college) and will also need to provide graduation gifts.  On the other hand, college costs will be their parents' responsibilities.  There are definite advantages to being the grandparent.

book review

I'm reading a really good book right now. It's called "Cold Customer" by Myra Mcfarland.  You can buy it on Kindle for $2.99.  It's a murder mystery which is a genre I really enjoy but what makes this book special to me is the setting.  It takes place in a small town in Indiana and includes references to the big cities of Fort Wayne and Muncie.  It also takes place in 1933, during the great depression. I did not live through the depression but my parents and in-laws did and I've heard lots of personal stories of that time.  This book, through the conversations and scene descriptions, paints (in my opinion) a very realistic feel of that time. There are so many interesting bits woven into the story line like the description of Muncie as a large town with a teachers' college and three glass factories.  I also appreciate this author's ability to create characters I care about.  I only started reading this book yesterday so I'm not finished but I'm confident I will enjoy it all the way to the end.  

Russia anyone?

I'm blessed with friends who like to travel and have been able to travel to several (21 at last count) countries myself over the last several years.  However, in all that time I've never felt a particular interest in going to Russia. Today though, I got to see pictures from a friend's recent trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.  In my mind I tend to see Russia as grey toned and cold.  This is probably based on remembered black and white news casts from my childhood.  So I was surprised when my friend said it was really hot while he was there.  His pictures were very exciting.  Like me, he tends to take lots of pictures of architecture.  We both like old interesting buildings.  Of course he had lots of pictures of the colorful 'onion' domes that top many churches and other buildings.  Such a variedy of patterns and colors.  You can imagine architect/artists competing to see who could create the most stunning designs.  And the gold!  So many architectural details inside and out on several buildings appeared to be coated in gold,  There were also swarms of tourists everywhere he went.  I may need to think about going to Russia one of these days. My friend suggested that I could just slip over to St. Petersburg while I'm in Finland next year but I'll be there in March and I suspect that at that time of year Russia might seem grey and cold.  Ah, well, the Faberge museum would be warm.

cooking up a storm

Three times this summer I have helped with day camps at my church - that's First Presbyterian Church in downtown Fort Wayne in case your church shopping. The day camps are our version of
VBS and have been a lot of fun. The first one had a science theme, second was the 'build it' day and today was a cooking camp.  We adult volunteers acted as the sous chefs, arriving early to make sure all ingredients were set out and generally organized.  I assisted two girls who put together one pan full of enchilada pie.  it was a layered concoction, put togther like lasagna but with Mexican flavoring.  Other campers worked on more enchilada pie, taco salad, cookies and homemade ice cream. At 5:30 the parents arrived to be served dinner by their children who were given instructions on setting tables, carrying the plated food out, and generally presenting the food in a very attractive way.  We behind the scenes helpers took hot pans of the casserole and cookies out of the ovens, plated the meals and generally kept thing moving smoothly.  The pastor in charge had everything very well organized.  Everyone liked the enchilada pie and salad and the chips and salsa which were put on the tables.  But, without a doubt, the hit of the evening was dessert. The oatmeal cookies were chewy and delicious and the homemade (or in this case church-made) vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce was so good.  It brought back sweet memories of one of my aunts making ice cream on hot summer nights.  The kids baked 120 cookies and those not eaten today will be served at the coffee hour after church this Sunday. Yumm.
I don't want to think that I'm getting too old to help with projects like this but I will admit I got home this evening and collapsed on the couch for an hour long nap.  Ah well, it was worth it.

Bowling anyone?

Today is "Bowling Day." I think this is a fine sport to celebrate, especially since it is the only sport in which I ever won a trophy. My trophy was for 'most improved.' Of course, when you start with a 78 average there really is nowhere to go but up.  I was bowling on a teachers' league at that time and learned that if I pictured the face of my most troublesome student of the day on the first pin I did much better.  My father was a pretty good bowler and the family would sometimes go along to watch his games.  There wasn't a lot to do on Friday nights in Woodburn and it was always exciting to see if a pin setter would get hit.  That was back in the day when pin setters were boys not machines.  My father convinced my mother to try bowling once.  She stepped forward like he told her, swung the ball back, and dropped it.  It rolled away in the wrong direction, luckily not hitting anyone.  My mother refused to ever try again.  
My most recent bowling experience was about five years ago when one of my granddaughters won some free passes for bowling.  Her mother and I agreed to go with her.  Much to my surprise, I learned that bowling alleys these days are equiped with bumpers that can be raised when kids are bowling to keep their balls from going into the gutter. Well, let me tell you, that makes a lot of difference in a person's score.  Happy Bowling Day everyone.

One Big Mama

I'm excited about Mama Jo.  I've been intrigued with the idea of the deep tunnel that is being built under Fort Wayne to carry away runoff and sewage water to keep it out of the rivers.  Today the name of the monster drill that will create this tunnel was announced. Her name is Mama Jo (first two letters of the three rivers that will be impacted - Maumee, St. Mary's and St. Joe).  I think it's a very clever name. Mama Jo, which is being installed in pieces, will be as long as one and a half football fields.  The tunnel will be 200 feet down and five miles long and I think they said 20 feet in diameter (but I'm not sure about that) and will run under part of the city.  They expect it to be finished by 2023, and when finished, will drain off 90 percent of the sewage that now gets into the rivers.  This whole process seems fascinating to me.  They said something about an open house in September which is good because I want to learn more about this.  Go, Mama Jo!

Napping or meditating?

I have a friend who claims she never takes a nap in the daytime.  She does admit though to meditating for up to 20 minutes at a time.  I've tried this but I must not be doing it right because my meditations always seem to turn into naps. Perhaps I shouldn't be sprawled on the couch when I meditate but I like to be comfortable.  Napping is a time honored tradition in my family.  When I was a child (even into my teens) my mother always had us take a nap after lunch when we were at home, during summer vacations.  Actually, she had us each go to our own room for a half hour of quiet time.  We could read or whatever.  The idea being that if my brother and I were quiet for a while, our much younger brother would take a nap. I treasured these times away from pesky brothers and able to read to my heart's content.  It wasn't until many years later, when I was a mother with young children of my own, that I realized that my mother had something beyond our health and wellfare in mind when she insisted on naps.  I'm pretty sure she spent that time 'meditating.'

Movie Time

Friends and I went to a movie today and they let me choose the movie.  I chose "Skyscraper" because the on-line description sounded interesting.  It was way beyond interesting.  Intense, gripping, frightening are words that come to mind.  Imagine the first Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movie on steroids and you hava a hint of what this movie was about.  It was amazing.  I highly recommend it.  

Lessons Learned

Lesson 1:  A full size box spring will not fit in the back of even a large SUV.  We learned this today when my son and daughter-in-law moved the standard size bed I was giving them.
Lesson 2:  You can secure a box spring to the luggage rack on top of your SUV if you have enough rope.  Lucky for us the manager of the apartment complex where I live had some she could loan us.  
Lesson 3:  My cell phone can be put on 'speaker phone'.  I had never needed this feature before and didn't know I had it (my cell phone being of the not quite so smart variety). I was to follow my son to his house to make sure the box spring stayed secure on top of his car.  The reasoning being that if it flew off and landed on my car I wouldn't sue him.  Happily it stayed put all the way to their house and we were able to converse all the way which was very handy.
Lesson 4:  Before we started out on our cross city slow drive I tried to find the button in my car to turn on the flashers so I could indicate to cars behind us that we were moving slowly.  I couldn't find such a control anywhere. I even tried the car manual - which was no help at all.  so I followed along without flashers and it was ok because I was able to signal turns for both of us.  Later in the day, I had to take another drive, on a completely unrelated matter and happened to glance down at the center display on my dashboard, below the radio controls was a big red one-inch square button clearly marked with a little emergency symbol. And, surprise, surprise, when I pushed the button my flashers came on. I hope I never need this knowledge again but it's good to know I can flash someone when I want to. Wait    .... that didn't sound right. 

Road Trip

I think it's time for a road trip.  For the last two evenings, the local news has been celebrating the fact that "Nick's," a restaurant in Huntington, will be representing Indiana in a national TV show called "Flavor Nation."  They will be the Indiana reps because of their outstanding pork tenderloin sandwich.  Evidently they are the inventors of the pork tenderloin sandwich.  I have eaten variations of this sandwich at several restaurants around the state (it is one of my favorite casual sandwiches) bur I have never, as far as I can remember, eaten at "Nick's."  So, I think I need to remedy this oversight.  Anyone up for a roadtrip??

too hard or too soft?

I personally prefer a firm mattress, so earlier this week, when I went shopping for a new bed for my guest bedroom I decided on a firm mattress.  I bought the mattress at Mattress Warehouse and was very pleased to discover that they provided free delivery and set up and would even haul away my old mattress.  I had checked at a different furniture store recently and was told that they charged a $100 delivery fee, no matter what you bought.  No surprise that I opted for free delivery.  But what I really like, although I hope not to have to take advantage of it, is the fact that if I'm not happy with the mattress they will swap it for an equivalent model.  The salesman specifically mentioned that if the mattress is too firm I could exchange it for the softer version of the same model.  My first guest to try out the new mattress will be visiting this weekend and another couple will be here at the end of the month.  I'll be interested to get their reactions.  And no, I didn't deliberately get the firm version so guests won't over stay their welcome.  How could you think such a thing?

Say it isn't so.

Tomorrow, students will be going back to school in Dekalb County and at the end of this week, Fort Wayne city swimming pools will be closing for the season. Two of my grandchildren have been in band camp for two weeks already.  Now none of these situations affects me directly.  I haven't been active in a classroom for nine years and I haven't been a full-time teacher since 1971. And yet, I find myself feeling that little tingle of excitement that means things are going to start happening. I just need to fight the urge to go out and buy paper, pencils, a brand new box of crayons (at least 48 colors) and a lovely new pair of shoes.