a slow news day???

 This news headline caught my attention this evening.  The newsperson said that earlier today there was a collision between a school bus and a large county truck on a country road in DeKalb County.  Well, naturally that caught my attention.  No one wants to hear about an accident involving a school bus.  Are the kids ok? They went on to say that there were no students on the bus and no one was hurt.  Then they explained that the two vehicles were passing on a narrow road and knocked each others' driver's side outside mirrors off.  I'm sorry, but how is this news?  Of course if you like good news, and I do, then this qualifies.  Two large vehicles passed too closely on a narrow road but, happily, no one was hurt.  Still not quite as news-worthy as the volcano that is erupting in Hawaii.

your word for the day...

 My page-a-day trivia calendar informs me that porphyrophobia means a fear of the color purple.  I am surprised to learn this.  I can understand the fear of white, which is leukophobia, especially if you happen to be driving in a blizzard on snow covered roads.  But purple? I honestly didn't know that people can be afraid of a color.  Brown maybe, if you've been attacked by a bear, or gray if attacked by a shark, but just a color?  I can almost understand a fear of orange, the color of fire, but it's also the color of oranges and tangerines so that won't work.  There are some colors I like better than others. Turquoise is my favorite.  It would be really hard to be afraid of turquoise.  I can kind of see how a stay-at-home parent might start to loathe purple if their toddlers were addicted to "Barney" but that's the character, not the color.  So here's my question of the day. Are you, or do you know someone who is afraid of a color?  If so, which color, and why?  If you scroll down to the bottom of this entry, you should find a 'reply' button to click.  

progress...

 Today I tutored my first grader again.  We meet every Monday and every Monday I am seeing some progress.  Of course a great deal of that is due to his 'everyday teacher' who, I'm happy to say, he really likes. Today felt like a real breakthrough to me.  I have been using a numbers chart with him every week to help him count and do simple math problems and he had never gotten beyond the teens.  But today it was like he saw the pattern.  The chart, as you would expect, is arranged ten numbers across and ten rows,  so 13 is below 3, 23 below 13, and so on, and today he saw it.  He started counting, and kept right on reading those numbers all the way to 100.  This may not sound like much to you, but for him it was a huge step forward.  Don't you love it when you see that light turn on?

before and after...

I've had a busy couple of days (you know, cleaning, cooking, digging out the ornaments, etc,) but it was all worth it.  Yesterday evening three of my grandchildren, two of their friends and my unexpectedly visiting niece and her husband all gathered at my apartment to decorate my Christmas tree.  Since my grands are scattered and almost grown I don't get them all together very often.  

I unashamedly bribed them with a bean soup supper and sent the leftovers home with them.  

The top picture shows the tree assembled and waiting.  That's what  took a lot of my time.  This is not a pre-lit, flip it open tree, but the old style, insert one branch at a time, obviously artificial, but I've had this tree so long that it has a real sentimental attachment.  We bought this tree when we moved back to Fort Wayne from Ohio in 1982.  It actually has held up pretty well, of course it's only out of the box for one month of the year.

 And here it is, decorated.  They hung all of my ornaments on it, and it is beautiful to me.  The best part of the evening was hearing the cousins and friends talking and laughing and spending time with each other, which was my plan all along.  Ho, ho, ho.

The game is on...

 We all had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter's house today.  The Ham and turkey breast and all the accompaniments were delicious, as usual.  My daughter is so lucky to have married a man who can cook.  But what made the day particularly fun for me was that, after we ate, we took time to play a game.  So often it seems that everyone has to rush off or we just sit around and talk for awhile.  Nothing wrong with that but I do like to play games.  So this year, when my son-in-law invited anyone who wanted to to bring a game along I decided to take him up on it.  The game I chose was Quiddler, a word game that goes much faster than Scrabble.  After eight rounds, my youngest granddaughter, age 18, was the big winner.  She's the one who competed in several spelling bees in her youth so probably not too surprising.  The really nice thing about this game is that there is generally plenty of time to talk while different players are contemplating their cards.  We talked and we laughed and a good time was had by all.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Holiday memories..

 I watched as they lit up the Santa and sleigh display on the side of the PNC bank building this evening, always a fun occasion.  If I'm being honest, I was not out there in the mob of people standing in line for hot dogs from Coney Island while they waited for the lighting.  I enjoyed the festivities from the comfort of my recliner, but it still brought back fun memories.  When I was very young, probably five years old, my father drove us down town to see Santa and his reindeer on the side of Wolf & Dessauer's Department Store.  If you Google Wolf & Dessauer's Christmas windows you can see what it looked like.  We also walked around outside to see the beautifully decorated windows with all the moving figures, and, and this is most important, W&D's had the real Santa Claus.  Years later I worked in the same real estate company with the real Santa in his every day disguise.  He was a delightfully jolly soul even then.  

a groaner...

 Here's the bad dad joke of the day, thanks to my west coast brother: What did the cranberry say to the turkey?  Nothing, cranberries can't talk.  

This wasn't quite as educational as yesterday's riddle from the same source:  How do you make pumpkin pie?  Take the circumference of the pumpkin divided by its diameter.  

Actually, I think the question should have been how do you make pumpkin pi? But that would have made the answer obvious.  Thinking about mathematical formulas reminds me of my high school math teacher, Mrs. Davis.  She was a very good teacher and taught me enough to get through several math classes in college.  But the things that stand out in my memories of Mrs. Davis don't have much to do with math.  I remember that when she wrote things on the black board (yes it was still black back then) I would get distracted by the loose skin on the underside of her arms wobbling as she wrote.  That's when I vowed to myself that when I was a teacher I would never wear short sleeve blouses.  When she drove another student and me to a math competition at IU one year she insisted on making a side trip to visit the home of James Whitcomb Riley, her favorite poet.  She also, I noticed, drove with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brakes all the time.  I was just a beginning driver, but that didn't seem right to me.  She lived on Euclid Avenue, which always seemed very appropriate.  In my senior year my other brother started his freshman year.  While I had always been a quiet, studious, serious student, (in other words too shy to make trouble) he was not.  He pretty much saw school as a place to socialize.  When I walked into my calculus class on the afternoon of that first day of my senior year, she looked at me sadly and said "That Cohrs boy who is a freshman, he's not related to you, is he?"  When I admitted that he was my brother, she just shook her head.  

RIP

 A long time dear friend of mine died last night after a prolonged illness.  It was a blessed release for her but she will be missed.  We were college roommates for three years, were in each other's weddings, and with our husbands, made a friendly foursome for many years.  From a camping trip in Maine to a flight over the Grand Canyon we had some good adventures.  When my husband died sixteen years ago other friends warned me that my married friends would forget me.  They never did. Needless to say, I have been in a somber mood all day, but, happily, Mondays are the days I tutor a first grader.  Let me tell you, nothing lightens your mood like the gap toothed smile of a little first grader. After working really hard on math work sheets and reading for the hour, with a little time for drawing and coloring, he looked at me, as he was getting his coat on, and said "I have fun with you." Obviously, I told him that I have fun with him too, and realized that it's true.  What a blessing that hour was today.

Too much...

 We all know the saying "too much of a good thing."  You might have heard it first as a child, while eyeing your Easter basket.  "Be careful, don't eat all your candy at once.  You might get a tummy ache from too much of a good thing."  Or something like that.  Well, today I forgot that lesson, but it wasn't my fault.  After church the entire congregation plus guests were treated to a Thanksgiving feast mostly prepared by members of our Korean language congregation.  They host this event every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving as a thank you to the US veterans of the Korean War.  Local veterans are always invited.  Sadly, but not surprisingly, there are fewer of them each year, but the food is still amazing.  Spread out on long buffet tables are ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, green bean casserole and all the usual American fare plus rice, rice noodles, kimchee, bulgogi, dumplings and more, plus dessert of course.  Have you ever noticed how, when you're walking along a buffet line, a little bit (or maybe more than a little bit) of everything jumps on you plate? It's similar to the  phenomenon that occurs as you push your grocery cart down the cookies aisle, and a package you weren't even planning to buy hops into your cart.  So I ate very well at lunch.  Then, later in the afternoon, I attended a monthly meeting of a women's group I belong to, which always involves a carry in supper.  Well, naturally, I couldn't hurt anyone's feelings by not eating a helping of what they brought.  I mean, that would be very impolite.  I'm happy to report that the roast beef sandwiches, the tomato salad, the shrimp dip and crackers, and the two kinds of cake were all quite delicious. I really don't think I need a bedtime snack tonight.  Well, maybe just one cookie (from that package from the grocery store).

a heartwarming play...

I went to the theater with a friend this evening.  This time it was an All for One production, presented at the theater in the Auer Center on Main Street.  This is a much smaller, more intimate theater than either the Civic Center or even the First Pres theater, which makes for a more personal involvement, especially if you sit in the first few rows.  Since I knew three of the actors, I felt I could have been part of the cast.  The play was called "The Christmas Express" not to be confused with "The Polar Express" which is a very different play.  This one had a nice Christmas message but was not a children's play.  It was an enjoyable play but not destined to become a Christmas Classic, in my opinion.  

goofing off...

 I've had a busy week, with tutoring and meetings and writing minutes, and generally trying to be productive.  I've gone to every scheduled appointment and meeting and basically been a responsible adult all week, but today I hit the wall, metaphorically speaking, of course.  Generally, on Friday nights, if I'm at home, I watch a series of news shows beginning with Washington Week.  This evening, however, I discovered that one of my favorite old movies, "Legally Blonde" was on TV and I decided that it would do me good to skip the news.  Now the sequel is starting.  Excuse me while I continue to goof off.

Nooo, not that.....

 I enjoy acting in plays.  While roles for 77 year old gray haired women are few and far between, I've been lucky enough to be in four plays this season (including the one in rehearsal now). I'm fine with wearing vintage costumes, even the one that started falling apart while I was on stage, and I'm ok with being the oldest person on the stage more and more often.  What I'm not ok with is having my picture taken, especially unexpectedly.  This evening for instance, I was surprised when, before the rehearsal began, our director announced that we would be having some pictures taken for promos.  Even then I was not too alarmed. It's generally the main characters who get their pictures taken, and this play is full of young adults and many good looking children.  I'm only in three quick scenes so what are the odds they'll want me in a picture?  Evidently very high.  I was surprised then, when the director called me up on stage with the younger lady who plays opposite me in two scenes.  We posed and recited lines, and worked on facial expressions (we were supposed to look stern and disapproving) until the photographer said she was satisfied.  She gave us a quick glimpse at what she said was a good shot of the two of us.  It was such a little picture on the screen of the camera that I really couldn't tell if it was any good or not.  At one point the other photographee said something to me about it being a long time since our ingenue days.  I didn't tell her that I have never been an ingenue.  Even in my first ever acting role, in our high school epic "A Feudin' Over Yonder" I played the mom.  They even sprayed some gray in my hair.  At our recent high school reunion, someone had a picture of us on stage in a scene from that play.  All you could see of me was my back.  Now that's my kind of picture.

a little history lesson

 

After my September trip, I shared this picture of a really  phenomenal  clock in a cathedral in Strasburg, France.  You may remember that the large gold framed circle in the upper middle depicted the solar system.  I know construction of the church started in the 1400s and that, at some point, they changed the depiction of the solar system to show the sun as the center rather than the earth.  Now, thanks to my page-a-day trivia calendar, I know a little more about when that happened.  In 1543 Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus published his groundbreaking (and probably back-breaking) astronomical work "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs" which correctly theorized that Earth and the other planets of our solar system revolve around the sun.  Now, I'm not suggesting that the clock was changed right away in 1543.  I have to figure that churches then, even cathedrals, functioned much like churches today, which means that the big change to the clock was no doubt preceded by lots of committee meetings.  Wouldn't it be interesting to read the minutes of those meetings?  I'm willing to bet they are preserved somewhere. 

A not so close call...

 Friends who know me well know that I really, really don't like to drive after dark.  I especially really don't like to drive in the dark when it's snow-raining, like tonight for instance.  Add to that, someone driving toward me on the one way street I can usually depend on for a safe non-glare drive home.  This evening I was coming home from a meeting at church when I realized that headlights were coming straight at me on what is supposed to be a one way street going my way.  Happily, that driver realized the error of his/her way and drove into a parking lot before I got too close.  In case you're wondering, I wasn't worried about surviving a crash; all I could think of was that I had just gotten my car back from the body shop, and really didn't want to send it back.  

A little excitement.

 About 9:00 this evening I was heating a cup of tea in my microwave when it started to make a strange loud noise.  When the microwave stopped, I realized that the really loud obnoxious noise was the fire alarm.  So I put on my coat over my pajamas, grabbed my keys, locked my apartment, and headed down those ten long flights of stairs.  I realized when I was half way down, that I had left my phone behind, but decided I could survive without it.  I spent about an hour with lots of my neighbors in the lobby, while firemen milled around, and more dogs than I ever knew lived in our building sniffed each other and generally looked confused.  I did get to hold a friend's fluffy puppy for a while, which was very soothing.  It turned out that someone on the 4th floor had set their kitchen on fire.  This is only the second time in the seven years that I've lived here that I have had to go through this, and both times it was a kitchen fire, proving once again that people should eat out more.  

restaurant woes..

 Lately, I've had lunch at the Bradley several times, partly because it's an easy after church walk from our church parking lot, and partly because it has really good food.  Today I took my daughter there for a belated birthday lunch.  She had never been before, and I was anxious to go to make up for an earlier goof (mine not theirs).  Alas, I was destined to be disappointed.  A couple of weeks ago I had lunch there and ordered a pasta and mushroom dish that I had never tried before.  It was delicious, and because it was a large plate of pasta I requested a box to take some home.  I received the box, boxed my food, paid my bill, and, you guessed it, walked off without my food.  By the way, this wasn't a senior moment.  I've walked off without boxed food before, and I bet you have too.  Anyway, I didn't realize my goof until it was much too late to go back and retrieve my leftovers.  So today I planed to order the same dish, to see if it was as good as I remembered, and hopefully take some home.  I ordered the dish, it was on the menu, only to be told by our pleasant waitperson, that they were no longer serving that dish. Someone in their kitchen had decided that it wasn't popular enough, so they had substituted another dish.  My daughter said that this happened because I left my carry-out behind and they assumed that was because it wasn't good enough to take home.  I don't think so.  Our waitperson assured me that the new dish with gnocchi (little potato puffs instead of pasta) was delicious and they could add mushrooms, so I ordered it.  It was good, but it was so different from what I had been looking forward to that I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. The good side of this is that I have a habit of ordering a favorite food at any given restaurant, and ordering the same thing every time I go to that restaurant.  That pasta dish might have become my go to favorite but now I'll have to try something else.  Unless I go back to their breakfast menu.  Their cornmeal waffles are delicious.  

another review

 A friend and I just saw a very funny and also moving play at Arena Dinner Theater.  "Into the Breeches" is the story of a group of women actresses during WWII who take on the male roles in a Shakespeare production, because all of the men in their lives and theater are off fighting in the war.  In addition to the fun of the play itself, there was the dinner.  This year Arena's caterer, Walnut Hill Catering, has been serving dinners that go with the theme of the show.  Tonight it was a British meal (even though the play supposedly took place on Long Island) maybe because of the Shakespeare theme.  The meal was Bangers and Mash (sausages and mashed potatoes and gravy), actually pretty good.  The dessert was a strawberry Jello concoction which was light and tasty.  It reminded me of a story my mother used to tell.  When she and my father were first married, during WWII, rations were tight and a restaurant they like to go to served only three desserts, the same three things every evening, plums, pudding or Jello.  Maybe that's why they all stayed so slim and trim.  

a Veterans Day story, looking forward..

 First a bit of history - Veterans' Day used to be called Armistice Day and celebrated the end of World War I on November 11, 1918 on the 'eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.'  In 1954 President Eisenhower renamed it Veterans Day.  So if you. like me, remembers vaguely hearing it called Armistice Day a long time ago, you are remembering correctly.  

Yesterday evening, at rehearsal for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" I noticed that one of the young actors was wearing a Carroll High School sweatshirt, so I told her that my children and two of my grandchildren had gone to Carroll, and asked her about her involvement.  She was a soccer player, but this year, as a senior, is focusing on her classwork.  When I asked her about her plans after high school, she told me she is joining the Air Force right after she graduates.  I applauded her decision and told her that my brother has built his entire career on the training he got in the Air Force.  Based on our conversation, I'm pleased to report that it looks like our country will be in good hands for some time to come.  

One more note, BBC News America just showed footage of some very impressive Armistice Day remembrances in cities around the UK.

book review

 I very seldom use this blog to do a book review but this time I really want to. I have just finished reading "Lessons from the Edge, A Memoir" by Marie Yovanovitch.  If the name sounds familiar, she was the US Ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted from that position when President Trump came into power.  It's a true memoir in that it traces of her life from childhood on.  I found it interesting that her parents immigrated from Russia to Canada, and eventually to the United States.  That interested me because I have a close friend whose father made that same life journey from Russia to Canada to the US.  I will tell you right up front that if you are an avid Trump supporter you won't like the last half of this book, but it is a fascinating look at the State Department and the work that US ambassadors do around the world.  It also helped me understand a great deal more about the history of fighting between Ukraine and Russia.  Really, a well written, fascinating book.  

Side note:  I didn't go looking for this book.  It was on the shelf of new, non-fiction, large print books in our wonderful downtown library, and looked interesting.  

What's a scrum?

 I'm watching The Amazing Race.  I like this show because of all the sites they visit and some amazing scenery.  And, if I'm being honest, I really need a break from election returns.  My west coast brother tells me that today is "National Chaos Never Dies Day" which seems appropriated for the day after country-wide elections.  But The Amazing Race is reminding me of another kind of chaos.  The competitors are taking part in a whole series of Rugby exercises and that reminds me of my daughter's college years.  My daughter attended Earlham college where she played on the co-ed Rugby team.  I didn't know anything about the game before my husband and I drove down to watch her first game.  Turns out it's a pretty rough game, with no time-outs, frequent scrums (where all the players pile up on top of each other) and lots of running, pushing and shoving, while carrying a strangely misshapen ball.  My daughter, who is six feet tall with red hair, was easy to spot and seemed to be having a great time.  As I watched, obviously focusing on my daughter, I thought something looked strange about her hair.  When I got close to her, after the game, I saw that she had shaved her hair on the sides and back, and pulled what was left into a high pony tail.  She explained to me that she had to shave her head so she could tape her ears back, to keep them from getting torn off.  I was getting less and less fond of this game.  Happily, when she let her hair down after the game it was thick enough to completely cover the shaved areas.  She played Rugby for two years, and, after she graduated, married the student coach.  That led, quite naturally, to two grandchildren, the very best result of all that Rugby.  

musings..

 Well, I guess I missed my big chance. There was a billion dollar winner and five million-dollar winners in the lottery.  The big winning ticket was sold in California and I have two cousins who live there.  What are the chances one of them was the winner?  And wants to share?  

I've been watching the election returns, not only on the US stations but also on BBC America and DW News (from Germany).  It's interesting to get international points of view, but everyone seems to agree on the ultimate outcome, especially in the House of Representatives.  I noticed that all of the British reporters were wearing red poppies in their lapels. It's evidently in honor of Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day on November 11th, (aka Veterans Day in the US) and the poppies can be worn from the beginning of November through the 11th.  When I was a child I remember wearing a paper poppy on November 11th, but I haven't seen it in this area for a long time.  Does any local group still hand out poppies?

One last memory (If it seems to you that I'm trying to ignore the election results and my lost billions, you could be right.)  My daughter's birthday is on November 10th which was great when she was in elementary and middle school.  Since school was always closed for Veterans Day, it didn't matter on which day of the week her birthday fell, she could always invite her friends for a 'sleep over' (and I do use the term lightly).  It was a lot of fun.

You're welcome.

 I decided not to buy a lottery ticket today, thus giving all of my friends one less competitor for the big win.  If you  win, I will graciously accept a monetary thank you.  If there is not a big winner tonight, I may buy a ticket when I go to the grocery store later this week.  It does seem. based on responses to last night's blog, that, if I win, several people will volunteer to move to Fiji with me.  

On a totally unrelated subject, I had a tutoring session with my first grader this afternoon.  He worked hard, and we had a good time.  One thing I found interesting - when he printed his name on a worksheet where there was a line to print on he printed it correctly, in left to right order, with all letters written correctly, but when he printed his name on a picture that he colored for me, he printed it in reverse order, right to left, with all but one of the letters reversed, an almost perfect mirror image.  I seem to remember studying, years ago, about Leonardo da Vinci's pages and pages of notes written backwards.  Maybe I'm tutoring a future artistic genius??? or maybe Leonardo didn't have any lines to follow???  

Should I or shouldn't I???

 The Powerball top prize is over a billion dollars now.  Of course you can take the lump sum cash amount which I think is about $800,000,000 or so.  Still not chump change, even though you will need to pay taxes.  Even if the taxes amounted to 50% I'm pretty sure I could struggle along on $400,000,000.  So I'm debating, should I or shouldn't I go out and buy a lottery ticket?  I think I can afford $2 for a day long day dream.  Earlier, on the local news people buying lottery tickets were being interviewed, asked what they would do with the money if they won.  Most answered in the usual way - 'pay off my bills,' 'buy a new house,' 'take care of my family.'  All very admirable, but I really appreciated one man's answer.  He said 'I think I'd go looking for an island, and buy it.'  Hummm, depending on how Tuesday's election comes out, I might like to move to a far away island myself.  I wonder if Fiji has any little islands for sale?  I really liked Fiji.  

car repair woes

 Some of you will remember that I had a minor accident back in July.  A young driver who dropped his cigarette opened his car door in moving traffic and side swiped my car.  My car could still be driven so the body shop didn't schedule me for repairs until October 12.  October 12 came, I took my car in for the estimated $4,000 worth of body work and it's still there.  It was supposed to have been finished last Wednesday, then last Friday, then this past Wednesday, then yesterday.  Nope, not yet.  Each delay involved me going to the young man's insurance company (they have been very good to work with) and asking for a extension on the use of my rental car.  This time, the agent I work with there came back with what I thought was a reasonable request - he wanted to know what was causing the delay.  I emailed the request and asked to be copied on the response.  Here's what I got:  

      The reason the vehicle still isn't done is because of the moldings. Chrysler no longer sells those in the textured gray appearance. We ordered them and they came in raw-flat black plastic. I tried to get some procedures from Chrysler on how to recreate it, but they couldn't get me anything. We reached out to PPG and are trying to get them painted with their help on the process. Its the moldings on the bumper and on the quarter. We're trying everything we can, in the event we can't get this done we may have to replace every molding on the car to make it match. I'm trying to avoid having to do that and to be able to make everything match, but its costing me a lot in material. 

       I'm hoping to have them painted and ready by the end of Monday (11/7) and to have the vehicle back to our customer by mid next week. If either of you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out, I just figured this would be a good way to update you both. 

So now we all know why the delay.  If they do end up having to replace all the trim I think I should get to choose the color.  Turquoise might be nice, or maybe hot pink?

very tasty...

 Today is "National Easy Bake Oven Day."  I never had an Easy Bake Oven, neither did my daughter who is, in my opinion, very fortunate to be married to a man who does most of the cooking. Although she does have one cake recipe that is very good, and pretty.  It looks like a checkerboard when it is cut.  

I did have one memorable encounter with a cake when I was young.  When I was ten years old, I joined 4H.  At that time, unless you were a farm girl,(I wasn't, unless you count chickens) girls 4H courses were limited to variations on cooking, baking and sewing.  My first sewing project was an apron which came in handy when I started baking.  One of the first things I baked was a layer cake.  My mother was standing by in the kitchen but I had to follow the recipe and do everything myself.  It all went well.  The batter was mixed, the oven preheated, the pans greased and floured.  I poured the batter in the pans, put the pans in the oven and set the timer.  When the timer buzzed, I reread the next direction "Tap the cake lightly in the center.  If it springs back it's done." I was so nervous about reaching into the hot oven to tap the cake, that I tapped too hard and drove my finger into the cake 'til it hit the bottom of the pan.  The cake was done, and tasted good and no one but Mom ever knew about my overzealous tapping.  You can cover a lot of errors with thick frosting, and my brothers were at an age to eat anything.  It will come as no surprise that I have ever since used the toothpick test.  

Good Bye St. Joe....

I watched with interest, and a little sadness, as the big St. Joe hospital building finally came down today. I have some very happy memories of that hospital.  In 1971 I decided that my first child would be born there.  It was somewhat convenient, only about 25 minutes from where we lived at that time on the south side of Fort Wayne.  But the real reason I chose it was because at that time St. Joe was the only hospital in Fort Wayne that had Rooming In, a really novel idea at the time,  I had a private room which baby Tommy shared with me 24/7.  My husband was the only visitor allowed during that time.  It was such a great experience.  I knew very little about caring for babies but I learned a lot during those five days (yes, they kept us longer back then).  One particularly memorable lesson, that a young nurse and I learned together, is that when you're changing a baby boy's diaper, it's a good idea to have a spare diaper handy to cover anything unexpected.  That little guy sent up a spray that reached the ceiling.  Needless to say, when my daughter was due in 1973, it was back to St. Joe, again for the Rooming In.  Sweet memories indeed.

You go girl!

 I'm watching an interesting program on PBS right now.  It's a segment on NHK Newsline.  NHK is a Japanese news program which I just discovered a few months ago.  I think it's interesting to hear news from a different perspective.  This evening's program is about single women in South Korea,  Most of the interviews are taking place in Seoul.  A statistic they just quoted said that only 20 percent of South Korean women want to get married.  I was a little surprised.  The South Korean women I know, all living in the US of course, seem happy in their married life.  The reason that the commentator gave for this lack of desire for marriage in South Korea is that married women are expected to basically wait on their husbands, children and their husband's family, even if they have a career outside the family.  Many young women, it seems, have found it easier just not to get married.  I'm wondering if perhaps the married Korean women I know are happy to be living far far away from their in-laws.  I've been married but I've also lived the single life, before marriage and after my husband died, and I find it a very comfortable (aka selfish) life style.  The first experience I ever had with a single woman living alone was in college.  One of my professors had a house warming party to show off her new house and I remember being a little shocked and excited by the idea of a single woman living alone in her own home.  It was a whole new concept to this small town girl who grew up with the understanding that a single woman was an unfortunate who hadn't been able to find a husband for some reason.  In fact my dear Aunt Dora told me, when I got married at the ripe old age of 23 that she hadn't really been worried because I wouldn't have been considered an old maid until I turned 25. 

Why???

The question in my page-a-day trivia calendar today is "Where in the world can you find giant hot pink slugs?"  My immediate reaction was "Why in the world would I want to find giant hot pink (or any other color) slugs?"  But just in case you do want to find some, perhaps to get an idea for next year's Halloween costume, they can be found in the alpine forest of Mt. Kaputar in New South Wales, Australia.  That's it.  That is the only place they live.  Now I am a little perplexed.  When I was in Australia in 2018, we were shown dingbats, kangaroos and wallabies. We saw the beauties of the Great Barrier Reef. We even got to pat a koala (so soft).  But no one, not one single guide, suggested that we should go have a look at hot pink slugs. Imagine that.

PS In case you're wondering. giant hot pink slugs are about eight inches long.