Like an old friend

Well, my tree is up.  Not decorated, mind you, but it's up, standing patiently waiting for the decorations that will adorn it after I get back from my Thanksgiving trip.  I decided that I would put it up now so I can hang the ornaments as soon as I get back since I will be doing some holiday entertaining starting on the 8th.  I've been trying to remember how old this (obviously artificial) tree is.  It's an antique as far as artificial trees are concerned.  I have to assemble it branch by branch and it doesn't have built in lights. Those have to be strung.  Amazingly it still looks a lot like a Christmas tree, especially after it's covered with ornaments, and I still love seeing it. There are a lot of happy memories wrapped up in this old tree.  Over the years one or more of my kides and grandchildren have helped me decorate it which is always fun.  But, back to the question of age. My husband and I bougth this tree when we moved back from Ohio to Tonkel Road because we needed a larger (7 foot) tree.  We paid a reasonable price for it, a little more that we expeceted to, but it looked good and fit the space well.  After 37 years, I think I've gotten my money's worth.  One of these years I will probably decide that I am too old or too tired to put it up but not yet, not just yet.  

a busy, fun weekend

I spent Friday night at my daughter's house so I could attend a fashion show.  Carroll High School not only has a great band but also pretty impressive clothing design classes and culinary classes.  Friday evening these classes presented yummy food and beautiful clothes at their end of semester show.  I watched with pride as my granddaughter walked the runway, not as a model but as the designer and creator of the outfit her model was wearing.  The theme was Fort Wayne places and beautiful outfits symbolized the three rivers, the courthouse (lady liberty) the Baker Street station and many more.  My granddaughter's theme was the roller derby girls and she created a cute outfit with a fitted top and swirly bright red skirt.  Stripy socks and hightops completed the outfit.  I guess they wouldn't let her model roller skate across the stage.  Probably a wise decision.  After the fashion show, the artists and their creations stood around the room by the culinary tables answering questions and receiving compliments on their outfits.  We, the audience, roamed from station to station, commenting on the clothing and enjoying the goodies.  The food ranged from lamb kabobs and beef stew to ice cream and other yummy desserts.  All in all a fun evening.  
The next day I brought my granddaughter home with me, picked up her brother from his new apartment (which I am pleased to say is really quite decent) and cooked an old favorite supper for them - salmon patties and mac 'n' cheese.  Then we went to the Philharmonic's Violins of Hope program (really excellent).  My grandson had particularly wanted to see this and his sister was happy to come along. They stayed over last night and this morning I fixed them scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and tea.  Then off to church and, after the service, the annual Korean Thanksgiving dinner put on by our Korean language congregation in honor of US Korean War Veterans.  Everyone in the church plus veterans from our area are invited and the food is amazing.  All the traditional Thanksgiving fare - turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, etc. and several excellent Korean dishes like pulgogi, kimchi, pot stcickers, rice, noodles and much more.  Then of course there were the desserts, carried in by the non-Korean members of the church.  Needless to say my grandchildren were quite pleased with this feast.  If it sounds like all I did was eat all weekend, you would be right.  I consider it training for the big holidays coming up.  It's always good to be in shape.

Family Stories Months

Well, I was fresh out of ideas again so I went looking for special days on Google.  It's amaing how many there are.  Every month has at least one for every day it seems.  But today I discovered one that really makes sense.  And it's not even a day, it's a whole special month.  November is "Family Stories Month."  Now isn't that perfect?  What better time is there for reminiscing than Thanksgiving?  Families sitting around the overloaded table remembering relatives not here any more and silly events from our childhood.  If you don't remember things you can make them up. Your kids won't know the difference.  I'm always amazed at how differently my brothers and I remember things that supposedly happened to us at the same time.  I'm thinking that if I can keep my family focused on the 'good old days' as we sit around the Thanksgiving table next week we can avoid politics and religion.  A result devoutly to be hoped for.  

According to one list tomorrow is World Hello Day, World Television Day. and World Philosophy Day.  But it's also, and this is my challenge, Use Less Stuff Day.  Who knew that you could squeeze so many special 'days' into one date?  So, looking ahead to tomorrow, I will say hello to everyone I meet (I always do), I will watch some television (again, I always do) (especially on Thursdays when "Young Sheldon" is on) and I will try to ponder something philosophical (I very seldom do this).  Then I will try to figure a way to use less stuff.  I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out.  I guess I could skip my shower thus using less soap.  I could eat my lunch with my hands over the kitchen sink, thus using fewer dishes,  I could skip brushing my teeth (Yuck!) I could eat less food?  No, that's not going to happen.  I could turn off this laptop and go to bed, thus using less electricity - but no, I will plug my computer in to charge the battery before I go to bed so there goes any power savings.  Ah well.....

getting my mind around it

I have very mixed feelings about traffic circles.  I know they've been around for years, especially in Europe.  But it almost seems like a fad here in the mid-west US these days.  Especially here in Fort Wayne.  There seems to be a new one every time you turn around, or should I say drive around? I've been told that they are faster, safer, more efficient than traditional intersections.  There's probably a learning curve (pun intended) but I have seen someone going the wrong way around a traffic circle and, when they first installed a series of four of them on Tonkel Road, it seemed like there was a minor accident about once a week.  What got me thinking about this again today was a report on this evening's news that Ohio is replacing one of the deadliest intersections in their state with a traffic circle.  Evidently now it is a four way stop.  They say it will be safer and more efficient, not to mention less expensive, than installing a traffic light.  If nothing else it might slow people down as they pause to figure it out.  And don't even get me started on 'diverging diamonds' although the one on Dupont Road is kind of fun to drive.

beware scammers

I saw an interesting interview on a TV talk show this morning bwtween a sympathetic host and a woman who had been scammed.  In this case she had "fallen in love" with a scammer through the internet, and before she discovered the scam, had given him over one million dollars.  Wouldn't you get a little suspicious after the first few thousand?  I'm pretty sure I will never be caught in this kind of scam for one very good reason.  I don't have a million dollars and don't know anyone I could borrow it from.  Turns out this victim had borrowed several hundred thousand from her parents.  I would think someone in this group of people might have become suspicious.  
But then, this afternoon I found myself engaged in a series of emails with a man I have never met and I got just a hint of how someone might get sucked in.  In my case it wasn't a scam but the result of an accidental email.  I was sending some information to my son and typed in his email address incorrectly.  Turns out it was the correct email address for someone with the same name as my son.  He sent me an email to let me know I had sent my message to the wrong person.  This led to an exchange of ten emails about where each of our families was from and might we be related. It was all quite innocent and ended with my promise to let him know if I ever do some genealogical research and find a connection between our families.  As I said, it was all quite innocent but fun and I can see how someone could get sucked into a scam.  
PS I'll let you know if he writes back asking for money.  

putting a good spin on it

I attended a women's retreat this weekend and during our late evening snack and talk time one friend shared an interesting theory.  She had had breakfast Friday morning with a lady who claimed to have read that the earth is wobbling and tilting a little more on its axis.  Evidently, according to this lady, the tilt and wobble is being caused by the the concrete that the Chinese are pouring in their cities, adding weight to the earth.  One of the group googled this "fact" and discovered that, while the earth is wobbling and tilting, it's a natural phenomenon which happens from time to time.  One of the older ladies in our group said that was very good news.  From now on, whenever she trips or walks a little unevenly she can blame it on the earth wobble instead of old age.  Sounds good to me.

I alomost panicked

I went to a women's retreat this weekend; very nice. lots of fun actually, but when I got home this afternoon and checked my mail I thought I had slipped through a time warp.  There were two envelopes in my mail that looked suspiciously like Christmas cards. Noooo!!! I haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet.  Which reminds me I saw a cute cartoon redently.  A very serious looking turkey is speaking to the Grinch. He says "We want you to steal Thanksgiving."  But I digress.  When I opened the suspect envelopes, with trembling fingers, I discovered that envelope number one held a Thanksgiving letter with a friend's new address and envelope number two was a note and magazine article from a friend who lives in Florida.  The article was about a group of ladies wo live in The Villages (where my friend lives) and paint small rocks with cheery little sayings or religious symbols, then leave them in semi-hidden places for people to find.  She suggested that I share the article with some friends and maybe start a rock painting group of my own.  She was much too busy to do this but thought I might enjoy it.  I'm in a group now that crochets, knits or, in my case weaves, scarves and hats for homeless people.  We're up to 67 sets now, plan to hand them out in January.  I'm just guessing here but I think they might be just a little more pratical than painted rocks, at least during a Fort Wayne winter.  But I will send a nice thank you email to my Florida friend and say maybe someday I'll ger around to it.  I used to have a round tuit but that's another story..  

Smile

I had my teeth cleaned today; not my favorite activity but it was OK.  After the nice lady who has cleaned my teeth for years (she has a nice, gentle touch) finished her work the dentist came in to have a look.  He said that everything looked good and I was  obviously "practicing good dental hygiene."  I told them that I will be 75 next month and want to hang on to these teeth as long as possible.  Both of them exclaimed "You certainly don't look 75."  That's one of those statements that I choose to take as a compliment but I'm never quite sure.  Do they mean I look younger or older?  It can be taken either way.  I suspect the nine-year-old who told me I looked "about a hundred" about a year ago was being more honest.  On his way out of the exam room the dentist said "You have the teeth of a 30 year old."  To which I replied "Well, I hope he doesn't want them back."    

a tech success

After a week of looking at a lengthy message on my TV screen when I tried to access Netflix, I finally became so desperate to find something fun to watch that I took the time to try to follow the directions.  After I read them carefully I realized that they were basically "pull out your Roku stick, turn off your TV, unplug everything, then plug the Roku stick back in 'firmly', plug everything back in, turn the TV on."  I followed all of these steps and, lo and behold, the cover screen for Netflix access showed up on my TV.  I was so excited.  I grabbed the appropriate remote (I have several), pushed the usual buttons, and nothing.  No shift to Netflix, no seeing the long list of shows to watch, just a pretty picture with no action.  If I wanted that I could just hang a picture on the wall.  After some careful considertion, and a search through a couple of drawers I found what I needed.  I figured it couldn't hurt to try so I replaced the batteries in the remote.  Joy of joys it worked.  It's rediculous how successful I feel when I amnage to accomplish something even a little bit techie.  Hooray!!!

a more interesting study

So it turns out there may be a legitimate reason why some children, and adults, don't like vegetables like brussel sprouts, broccoli and cabbage.  Scientists have determined that some people are born with a gene (it's always good to be able to blame things on genetics) that makes them 'super tasters' who react more to bitter tastes.  Who knew?  I bet there are thousands of kids out there who would like to tell their parent "Sorry, I'm a super taster and __fill in your least favorite vegetable ____ just doesn't taste good to me."
On the other end of the spectrum, I had a friend in college (yes, I can remember back that far) who could not smell or taste anything, and yet she had very definite likes and dislikes in food.  I asked her once how she knew what she liked if she couldn't taste it.  Her answer "Texture."  

I agree

I am not going to talk about snow this evening.  It's too early for snow and I was not entranced with today's weather. 
So, on another subject.  It was announced on my favorite morning news show that a study has shown that people who nag less have happier relationships.  Just as I was thinking it, one of the announcers said "They needed a study for this?"  It's good when someone agrees with me.  I'm actually not opposed to all these strange studies.  They must be employing researchers.  Employment is good, it keeps people off the streets.  The only question I have is who is paying for all these studies?  My two best guesses are (1) the government aka taxpayers (who knows why) or (2) pharmaceutical companies so they can invent a cure and give it a name with an X in it. 

more great music

This afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing the St. Francis University production of "The Sound of Music."  This is the second USF production I've seen and they really do a very good job.  I like the fact that they use actors from the community as well as the school so you don't have college students with powdered hair playing old people or 'children' who look about 20. I was impressed by the quality of the singing and the acting.  The seven children (the youngest looked about 4) did a great job with their musical numbers.  I had seen the theater version before so I wasn't surprised at how it differed from the movie, same basic story line but not as lavish. Most of the same music (they did have a live orchestra in the pit) as the movie but the play actually had two musical numbers that weren't in the movie.  I must also give credit to their art department for the excellent sets and smooth scene changes. 
This evening (while in a theatrical mood) I auditioned for a part in the Shakespeare play "A Winters Tale" which will be produced at First Presbyterian Theater in April.  I don't know if I'll get a role or not (there aren't that many old lady parts) but it was fun to try.

Doggy Day Care

Today I was called into service to puppy sit for my three granddogs, Stella, Wallace and Perry.  As it happens, my granddaughter's marching band (well the band she's in) made it to state and they are marching in competition tonight.  Leaving the dogs from 2pm on seemed like a long stretch, since the band doesn't march until 9:30, judging begins at 10:30 and they don't expect to get back from Indy til about 3am.  So I spent the afternoon with the dogs to keep them company, fed them their suppers, let them outside for the necessary and tucked them into bed in their kennels.  All of this and I managed to get home before dark.  I don't drive after dark for the good of all drivers and pedestrians.  I'm feeling very virtuous for helping out with the dogs but, truth be told, it's the easiest job ever.  They pretty much crawled up on their preferred spots on the couches and snoozed all afternoon.  I spent the afternoon reading Shakespeare to them practicing for an audition tomorrow evening).  Just as with some people I know, Shakespeare seemed to put them right to sleep.

He's no Yule Brenner but

pretty good, all the same. I'm watching "The King and I," the stage production on PBS, and it's really very good.  I had forgotten about the sad parts.  It has been many years since I saw the movie after all, but the music is just as beautiful as I remembered, and they are doing a marvelous job with the dance numbers.  Also the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" sequence was beautifully done.  I will probably be 'whistling a happy tune' in my sleep tonight.

Antique envy

I really shouldn't watch Antiques Roadshow.  It's not that I think I've ever owned some fabulous antique and let it get away from me without realizing its value.  Even with my massive downsizing four years ago I didn't sell (or give away) anything even closely resembling a fabulous antique.  This evening's show was particularly depressing because is was a recap of their most fabulous finds.  I particularly liked the pretty little table that a woman bought in an antique shop for $25 that later sold at acution for over $500,000.  There was also a beautiful woven Indiaa (Native American if you prefer) blanket that sold for several thousand dollars.  Somehow, I don't think that the acrylic yarn scarves that I've been weaving  lately would ever sell for much more that $5. Although maybe I'll be discovered and become the Grandma Moses of weaving.  This definitely falls into the "don't hold your breath" catagry.  

Great Day in the Morning

Today is a very special day.  It's my third grandchild's 17th birthday.  Happy, happy birthday darling!! But just in case you don't know my granddaughter and want to celebrate something else, today is also "Marooned Without a Compass Day," "National Nacho Day" and "Saxophone Day."  Not sure what I can do with that knowledge but perhaps I can design a really great island birthday party for next year.  I'd better start practicing my saxophone.  If you would like to plan ahead for tomorrow it will be "Men make Dinner Day," always one of my favorites.  

It's all OK for now

Well, I'm very pleased with the outcome of today's election.  Everyone I voted for won.  That's pretty rare.  Of course I could only vote for six people but still I liked the outcome.  I'm hoping against hope that I'll be just as happy a year from now.  In the meantime I am going to enjoy not hearing political ads (for at least a few weeks).  Watch out!  Only two months 'til 2020.  I think my new year's resolution may be to hibernate or at least to turn off the TV and read lots of escape novels.  

hope springs eternal

I went down to the laundry room this morning (my usual Monday morning activity) and, after waiting a looooong time for the elevator, was excited to see a bright yellow barricade with OTIS printed on it blocking off one of the elevators down on the lower level.  We received a notice from management two months ago that our elevators, which are quite elderly, will be replaced.  So, when I saw the barricade this morning I got excited.  I understand that they will replace one elevator at a time so I was excited to think that they are finally getting started.  Well, not quite.  According to a chatty lady in an Otis uniform this is just the preliminary step.  They have to check out all the elevators to make sure they meet with state requirements. Then they can start replacing them.  Ok, this left me shaking my head a little, but at least we are beginning to get a glimmer of action.  When my church recently replaced an elevator with a greatly updated model we not only gained efficiency but also a lovely lady's voice (do you remember department store elevator voices?) which announces which floor we are on.  It might be fun to have a voice on the apartment elevators.  "Tenth floor - apartments 1000 - 1005 to the left, 1006 - 1010 to the rigth.  Watch your step."  Maybe??

Hooray!!

Technology strikes again. Fot the last two days I have been unable to access Google on my laptop.  Which also means I have been unable to write this blog or access my bank account. I'm not sure why it's working now but I did turn off and on everything I could think of. Maybe that helped or maybe it was magic.  Who knows? So, here's what I've been up to.  I went to the Philharmonic last night.  Beethoven's 5th was amazing and so was an original work by a Fort Wayne musicial named Patrick O'Malley.  He's no Beethoven but he's a young man who shows great promise.  The third piece included a viola solo that was fantastic.  All in all a great show.  
Another musical note: Carroll High School band did very well at the semi-state competition (6th in the state I think) and they are going on to the state competition  next Saturday. The Charger Pride has come a long, long way since my husband and I were pit parents 30 years ago.  That's all the news for now. Hopefully I'll be able to blog again tomorrow.

Memory Work

I heard about a study yesterday that I found very reassuring.  It seems that 60 years ago some scientists tested the memory strength of a group of eight year olds.  Now, 60 years later they (probably not the same scientists??) are comparing the memory ability back then to memory strength in the same people at age 68.  I don't know what final conclusions they will draw but it looks like good memory strength at 8 does seem to be reflected in good memory strength 60 years later.  I find this interesting because back when I was 8 years old, and for all my elementary school days I had memory work every day.  It was something they did in the Lutheran schools.  Every day of the school year we had an assignment to memorize, either a Bible passage or the words of a hymn.  By eighth grade, in preperation for Confirmation we had memorized all of Luther's Small Catecism and so much more.  My 7th and 8th grade teacher (it was a small school, one teacher to two grades) used to tell us that we should memorize each assignment so thoroughly that if we fell out of bed in the middle of the night we could recite it backwards.  I do believe that all the practice memorization really helped me do well in high school and college and I know it has helped me learn my lines in plays I've been in.  Now it seems hopeful that all that brain exercise might help me get through a few more years with a decent memory.  I'm grateful to all of the hard working and oh so patient teachers in my life and it seems appropriate to remember them on All Saints Day.