more about children

Since I got my new phone last year I have done more with Facebook than I ever did before.  it is so easy to access that I find myself flipping through the posts at least every other day or so.  While I don't care for children in commercials (see yesterday's post) I do enjoy pictured of cute babies on Facebook, and cute kittens and cute puppies.  Cartoons or photographs, they usually make me laugh.  What I don't enjoy on Facebook are long articles about politics or travels or what someone had for dinner.  I guess I'm just a very superficial Facebook user.  I have a friend who admits to spending at least two hours on Facebook every day while I can usually skim through what I want to see in five, maybe ten minutes.  Of course when I post something profound (admittedly not too often) I really want to think that everyone is reading it.  A lot like this blog.  Best picture of 2019? A truly beautiful picture, taken by the daughter-in-law of a friend, of her  three year old daughter snuggled up asleep on Santa's lap.  This showed up not long after I had heard a news report about parents deliberately making their children cry to get a 'cute' picture on Santa's lap. I think that strange attitude made the really sweet picture I saw seem even better.  

and speaking of children...

Today was Inane Answering Messsage Day.  Obviously this is a day created years ago when people enjoyed creating 'fun' messages on their phone answering machine.  It really was like playing with a new toy.  Usually these involved one of their darling children lisping a sweet but basically unintelligible message that droned on so long that I forgot what I was calling about.  Sometimes they even sang to me. These days (perhaps it's an age thing) the recorded messages I hear are typically short and to the point.  "You have reached )insert name or phone number). Please leave a message after the tone."  So, my question for the day is, if people of a certain age (who, by the way are the people who can afford to buy stuff) like crisp, short, easily understood messages, why do local advertisers seem to think that we will buy a mattress or a car because it's being pitched by a three to five year old with (you guessed it) a sweet lispy voice?  Actually I love little kids, but not on TV trying to sell me stuff.  Even the advice to file for bankruptcy is being promoted by a childish voice.  Just maybe I'm turning into a grumpy old lady, but I am still a lady who shops.  Pay attention advertisers.  

cloudy days

"If the sun was still out now, we would be seeing it." A weatherman just made that statement at 11:15pm on an evening newscast.  Really?  I know he was commenting on the seemingly long stretch of cloudy days and the wish for a sunny day that I share with a good many other people around here and the possibility of a little bit of sunshine tomorrow but the comment made me laugh.  It reminded me of something said at a walk-a-thon my husband and I participated in many years ago.  I forget what 'good cause' we were walking for but the idea was to keep someone walking on the track at a middle school for 24 hours.  It had been very hot and sunny during the day but our team of ten kept taking turns and walking.  After the sun went down we were all much more comfortable.  In fact one man commented, as he came off the track, that it was "like the difference between noght and day out there."  Then he stopped, thought about what he had jsut said and continued "Huh, I wonder if that's where that saying comes from?"  

Thin gs that puzzle me

Two things have been brought to my attention recently that leave me  wondering.  First, as seen on TV this evening, a young lady is creating quite amazing pictures on Etch-a-Sketches.  I admit this is prety cool.  I can barely make a curved line on an Ecch-a-Sketch, but, once you create one of these master pieces, wouldn't you be concerned that someone wiould bump it?  Woops! All gone!
Second, it was brought to my attention recently that, if you're in the market, you can buy a top-of-the-line casket that has a Beauty Rest mattress.  Really?  Why?  Are you, the buyer, going to check it out for comfort?  I also understand that this particular coffin come with a life time guarantee.  Think about it.  
Questions like this always bring me back to my all time favorite pizzler. Why are there braille numbers on the elevator in the parking garage? 

TUTOR TROUBLES

On Monday afternoons I tutor a 5th grade boy. I do this as part of the FWCS Study Connections program and generally I enjoy it very much. He is a quick witted boy with a good sense of humor.  Last year he had a break through in math, thanks to his classroom teacher who really made math come alive for her students. The only down side is that he really doesn't like to read.  He will start every session questioning "Do we have to read?" and then negotiating the fewest number of pages possible.  He can "sound out" most words but I get the impresssion that he doesn't really know or care what he's reading.  He just wants to get through it.  I think next week I may surprise him by telling him he only has to read one page.  But there will be a catch.  After every sentence he has to stop and tell me what he just read.  Maybe it will help him focus.  At bset he may surprise me by showing me that he is understanding more than I think he is.  Fingers crossed on that. 

cremation fun facts

I know that title soounds all wrong, but in helping to arrange the cremation of my recently deceased brother's remains I learned of a couple of interesting options.  While discussing the cremation process someone in our group flippantly referred to it as a Viking funeral (there has to be a little levity) to which the funeral director replied that that is an option.  Turns out you can buy a light weight balsa wood urn shaped like a boat that you can set on fire and float out into the middle of a pond or river. Another option, more suited to an ocean cruise, is an urn made of salt (like the salt blocks animals lick) which you can drop into the ocean where it will float for a while and then dissolve so the ashes can sink into the water. I still like the option I saw on a movie called "Poms" where a fictitious funeral home advertised urns that could be shot into the air where they would explode like fireworks in a shower of beautiful colors. Sadly, for my brother, we're not a very adventurous family so his ashes will be placed in a beautiful, but very traditional, solid wood military cremation urn with the US Army symbol on the side since that was his military branch.   Then the urn will be placed on a shelf in the First Pres columbarium. A nice quiet place to rest and he'll be close to my husband, and eventually me. 

Farewell

I don't usually take on very serious subjects on this blog but tonight I must.  Thursday, January 23 my dear brother John died.  He was ready to go after a rather brief but intense struggle with blood infections, kidney failure and cirrhosis of the liver.  He also had a pacemaker and defibrillator.  So, a "perfect storm" of problems came together and he died.  But what I really want to comment on here is the good.  From his vision of Jesus that he told us about to the way his family rallied round, there was a lot of love flowing.  The nurses and doctors at Parkview on Dupont were very good and the nurses at the Randallia campus hospice care center were simply wonderful.  It was such a peaceful, comfortable place to spend our last hours with him.  He was quite adamant that he didn't want any kind of memorial service so we honored that request, although we will have a very quiet family-only brief service when his urn is interred in the columbarium at First Presbyterian Church.  Several friends have been surprised that he didn't want a memorial service but when I have explained that he just wanted people to remember him as he was, and the good times, they all understood.  I personally am so thankful that we had a great visit with his daughter and grandson and their families at Thanksgiving.  Two memories of John that I will always cling to; him holding me tight as I sobbed when our mother died many years ago, and fourteen years ago, when my husband died, standing behind me with my other brother and singing "How Great Thou Art" so powerfully that it held me up and carried me through that service.
I will miss our shared childhood memories, frequent lunches at Bob Evans, our daily morning and evening texts to make sure we were each OK and so much more.  Rest well my brother, my life-long friend.

a happy memory

Well here's a blast from the past.  I sat down to relax this evening and opened a library book.  This one is part of an old series that I hadn't read for a long time and I thought it would be fun to revisit.  I opened the book as I said and,even though the cover is plastic wrapped and looks brand new, inside the front cover was a library card pocket with the printed warning DO NOT REMOVE CARDS FROM POCKET.  There were two dates written on the card pocket (5-94 and 4-98) which gives me some idea of how long it has been since we last used library cards.  I suppose I must admit my guilty secret.  I did remove those cards from the pockets.  They made such excellent bookmarks. 

Well, this is appropriate

I can't think of anything to write about this evening.  The weather doesn't sound great, don't get me started on politics, no interesting recents studies - so nothing. When this happens I often resort to looking up special days.  Today, I kid you not, is National Nothing Day.  So there you have it.

a little light on the subject

Yesterday morning I opened my refrigerator door, heard a little "pop" and realized that my refrigerator light had burned out.  It's so dark in their, even with the door wide open.  So I called maintenance and this morning a young man showed up with a new bulb.  After he left I opened the door to check it out and was practically blinded.  I have never had such a bright refrigerator light. I'm beginning to get used to it but it still feels a little like a space ship has landed when I'm hit with that bright light.  On the up side I can certainly see everything hiding in there.  I guess I'll be cleaning my frig tomorrow.

Entertaining strangers

Yesterday evening the Doane Choir from Doane University in Crete, Nebraska performed in concert at First Pres as part of their winter tour.  If you've never heard of Doame University or their choir don't feel bad.  Neither had I.  They were magnificent though, and a real pleasure to listen to.  After the concert - more fun. I was one of several volunteers who agreed to house the students over night.  I took two.  Some people took three or four but, in my defense, I only have a two-bedroom apartment. The young men  who spent the night with me (now there's a phrase I never expected to write) were very polite, got over the fact that there were no football games on my non-cable TV quickly, and we spent a fun couple of hours snacking and talking about their tour and their future plans while Penn and Teller on TV provided background.  I asked them to autograph my program which they thought was fun.  They saud no one else on the tour had asked them to do that.  We all wound down about 11:00pm and went our separate ways to bed. Our instructions to those of us who agreed to host these singers was to feed them breakfast and have them back at the church, ready to board the bus by 8:00am.  I told the young men that breakfast would be ready by 7:00am and they set their alarms accordingly. Here you appreciate the difference between boys and girls.  They set their alarms for ten til 7 and were ready to eat and showered and ready to go on time. They ate up the scrambled eggs and sausage and inhaled the cinnamon rolls I baked.  It was the same recipe I used for my family on Christmas morning. One of the young men said they reminded him of his grandmother's. Go figure.  All in all, a very pleasant experience.  

hot tea

Today is "National Hot Tea Day" and this is a day I have been celebrating without even knowing it.  Since I am a tea drinker I think this is a fine idea for a special day.  Every morning I brew a pot of tea in my Mr. Coffee and have tea to drink all day either hot or iced depending on the season. (I actually used to have a Mrs. Tea but it got broken.)  I have lots of happy tea memories.  My grandchildren still love tea with milk and sugar the way I have fixed it for them for years.  Once, at Dukes Hotel in London a friend and I arrived a little too early for check-in so the very nice receptionist led us into a charming little parlor and served us tea and biscuits while we waited for our room to be ready.  A few years later, in New Zealand, at a hotel breakfast, I commented to a waitress about how nice it was to have hot brewed tea available for breakfast.  She looked a me like I was crazy until I explained to her that at most US restaurants hot tea was served as a teabag and a cup or little pot of hot water,  She was appalled.  
But that's enough about tea.  If your not a tea lover don't despair.  Tomorrow is "National Rubber Duckie Day" so have a bubble bath and play with your rubber duckie.  You can even hum the rubber duckie song all day.  You're thinking it right now, aren't you?

unsurprising statistics

I heard a statistic a while back.  It seems that traffic accidents involving people high on marijuana more than doubled in Colorado the first year after that state legalized recreational marijuana.  Somehow this information didn't surprise me.  Just this week another statistical report caught my attention.  It seems that injuries from accidents involving electric scooters have increased greatly between 2014 and 2018.  I suspect it was during those years that rental scooters became available in most large cities.  If people in other cities ride them with the same casual attitude toward traffic laws as people in Fort Wayne I am not surprised. Happily they are off the streets for the winter months. 

my pride is showing

This morning I attended a mass led by Bishop Rhoades at Bishop Dwenger High School.  Not my usual kind of worship service (being Presbyterian) but I was there for a very good reason.  In addition to hosting a visiting bishop, the purpose of the mass was to announce the recipient of this year's Bishop Dwenger Teacher of the Year award.  At this school the teacher of the year is nominated by her students and her fellow treachers and I am delighted to announce that this year the award winner is my daughter-in-law,  She's the French teacher and has done an amazing job of building the French program there.  Among other things she has developed an exchange program with a teacher in France to bring about twenty French students here for a couple of weeks each fall and to take a group of her students to France for a couple of weeks each spring.  I knew about this of course but was dazzled by the long list of other attributes the principal listed in making the announcement.  She made it through her acceptance speech smoothly until she spotted a couple of her senior French students sitting in the front row beaming at her, then she got a little teary.  By the way, the monetary reward was more than enough to buy a special pair of shoes she's been wanting.  She does love her shoes.  All in all a very satisfying reward for work well done.

Fire!!

Please believe me, I am not making light of the fires burning in Australia.  I really like Australia.  I got to pat a Koala while I was there; one of the softest things I've ever touched.  But I do sometimes question the statistics I hear on TV.  A few days ago a reporter stated that one fourth of Australia was in flames.  One fourth?  A map on a later news cast showed patches of fire, but it certainly didn't look like one fourth.  Today I learned that 25,000,000 acres have been or are being burned.  25,000,000 acres equals 39,062.5 square miles.  Australia's area is 2.97 million square miles (I'm using Google info here),  If you divide 2,970,000 by 39,062.5 the answer is 76.  So it would seem that one fourth of Australia is not burning.  Thank goodness. I'm sure they feel that 1/76 is quite enough.  I wish there was a way we could send them the rain we're supposed to get tomorrow.  

No, thank you.

Here's yet another sport I won't be trying.  According to a study (you know how I love studys) people who train for and run one marathon are likely to add four years to their life span.  Really?  If they could absolutely guarantee the extra four years I still don't think I would try this.  Even in my youth - yes, contrary to what my grandchildren think, I was young once - I was never a runner. Coordination has never been a strength of mine.  The only 'A' I ever got in a phys ed class was in Archery and I know that was because it was a sport in which I didn't have to move my arms and legs at the same time.  You jsut stand still and shoot the arrow into the target; my kind of sport.   But back to marathons.  If they come up with a slow marathon, a marathon stroll for example, stretched out over two weeks, or better yet two months, I might consider it. And by the way, if I was going to add four years to my life, I'd like to go back and squeeze them into my 30s.  That might be worth running for.. 

Well, I feel smart.

I watched the "Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time" special this evening.  As you may have guessed, this was a competition between the top three contestants ever.  As you may also have  guessed, the questions were tough.  I felt so proud of myself though.  I knew the answer to one (that's right only one) question. The answer was Cabbage Patch Dolls and the only reason that the answer came to me so quickly was that I blogged about CPDs juast a few days ago.  That's ok.  I will take ego boosts wherever I can get them.  In case you're wondering, I am planning to watch again tomrrow evening.  Who knows? Maybe I'll get another one right.   

a dire diet

My brother has just been told that he must go on a salt free diet becaue of some health issues.  I think that a salt free diet would be very hard to follow, at least for me.  I don't use much salt but I really don't like to think about eggs or vegetables without salt and we all know how much salt is hidden in packaged foods. Thinking about grocery shopping, I'm guessing he will have to explore whole new aisles, those that sell diet food.  Being a kind sister and thinking abour his new diet, I thought about two recipes that I cooked recently that didn't have any salt in them.  One was a really delicious blueberry cake.  Butter, eggs, sugar, flour and blueberries were the only ingredients and it was delicious.  The other was really yummy cinnamon rolls.  That recipe was made with frozen dough balls, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter and vanilla pudding mix.  Now that I think about it there may be some salt in the dough.  I can see that this diet thing might be difficult.  Probably cake and sweet rolls aren't exactly what the doctor had in mind.  Ah well, he can always munch on carrots. 

so glad I'm not atheletically inclined .

Here's another sport I can live without trying.  In the past I have mentioned "sports" that I have no interest in experiencing.  Skydiving tops the list. Climbing high mountains is also on the list and bungee jumping is a contender.  But I've just become aware of another option that combines the worst of the worst.  Base jumping is defined as "a parachute jump from the top of a building, bridge, cliff, etc."  Really?? Why??  I was made aware of this activity in a news report this evening. A base jumper had to be rescued from the side of a cliff when his parachute got caught on the rocks.   I really don't understand the thrill of jumping off of or out of something that guarantees a long fall.  It did remind me though of an old movie I rewatched recently on Netflix.  Leopold and Grace (or maybe it's Grace and Leopold) is a love story involving a modern business woman and a handsome time traveler from the 19th century.  Totally plausable, right?  Right up to the point where Grace has to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and trust that she will go through a gap in time in order to be with her true love.  It's a good thing I wasn't the heroine or that romance would have had a whole different ending. 

A dazd of Days

Today, according to a Google reference is Trivia Day, so here's some trivia: January 1 is national Hangover Day (aka New Year's Day) and yesterday, the 3rd, was National Sleep Day.  I like that one.  Today is National Spaghetti Day, yummm, and tomorrow will be National Bird Day.  It's also Epiphany which celebrates the arrival of the wise men, but you already knew that.  That's it, that's all the trivia I have for today. 

keeping fit

I got a new Fitbit for Christmas.  My daughter actually gave me a Fitbit a few years ago and I have worn it almost every day since.  I am not a great exerciser but I do enjoy seeing how many steps I've taken on any given day and how many miles that equals.  That's about all my old one told me.  Over the years I have re-glued the band several times because they don't sell replacement bands for that model.  It was still holding together, sort of, but my daughter said that it had gotten so shabby she was ashamed for me to wear it.  Hence her gift of a new one.  This one is an upgrade with a replaceable band.  It also has some other interesting features;  It's a little like Santa actually.  It "sees me when I'm sleeping and when I'm waking too" and it certainly knows if I've "been bad or good."  It can tell me how many hours I've slept, how much actual cardio exercise I'm getting, what my heart rate is (resting and moving), how many calories I've burned, and, oh yes, how many steps I've taken in a given day.  Not only does it give me this information daily but it sends it somewhere mysterious and once a week I get a report by email.  I'm actually not quite sure if I want a device to know this much about me.  At least it can't talk to me or anyway it hasn't said anything yet.  If I start hearing voices I'll let you know.  

Shopping Spree

Every year I take each of my grandkids out for a day of lunch and shopping as my Christmas gift to them.  I give them some cash (that has gne up over the years) and they may choose where we lunch and where we shop.  These choices have evolved over the years from Chucky Cheese to today's lunch at Chili's.  Today was my youngest Granddaughter's day.  She has been first every year to schedule her day.  She's 15 and she chose Chili's for lunch and the mall for shopping.  We reminisced as we walked around the mall and passed stores from years past.  We don't shop at Build a Bear any more and Justice is part of a more recent past. Claire's got a nod but most of the shopping today was done in a new (to me) clothing store called Garage.  I kid you not, the name is Garage.  I guess that's so they can always have garage sales?? She bought tops and tights and jeans (with holes of course) and seemed very pleased with what she got for the price.  The very best thing about Garage is the comfy sofa they have positioned near the check-out counter.  I was only too happy to enjoy it while she tried things on.  We also wandered through Victoria's Secret (the PINK section), and Forever 21.  How times change.  We had a great time but I kind of miss Build a Bear.

Knives Out

I saw a great movie today.  If you can't get to a theater to see it I do recommend that you watch it when it's available on TV.  I know I'll watch it again.  The title is "Knives Out" which sounds very ominous and it is a muder mystery with most of the action taking place in a dark old mansion.  But this was a murder mystery in the style of an Agatha Christie novel with a touch of "Clue" thrown in for good measure.  Add some great actors - Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig and many more - and enough plot twists to keep you guessing and you have a really fun movie.