home sweet home

 Sometimes I am guilty of feeling smug when my friends who are still home owners talk about the repairs they are dealing with.  Recently I've sympathized with people putting on new roofs, replacing or repairing furnaces, dealing with a refrigerator break down, broken pipes and needing to replace flooring.  Since I downsized seven years ago and became a tenant, I have not had to deal with such things.  But sometimes, like this week, I still get a taste of it. Last week we received an email notice that roof work would be done, starting Monday, on my building and it might be noisy.  Actually, since I'm on the 10th floor and there are three more floors between me and that roof, it wasn't too bad.  Today we got another email advising us that they will be power washing the roof tomorrow and we may get some water on our balconies.  We shall see.  Then, this afternoon we received a text that the laundry room is closed temporarily because of a plumbing problem.  This surprised me a little because earlier this year they did a lot of plumbing work before they installed the new washers and dryers.  So right now I'm experiencing a little de ja vu, or been there done that if you prefer.  

floss those teeth...

 I hope you like sweet stuff.  Today is National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day, National Oreo Cookie Day and National Frozen Food Day (like ice cream and popsicles, I presume).  I suspect a plot here because it's also National Dentists' Day.  Coincidence? I don't think so.  So go on out there, eat lots of cheese cake and cookies, and support your local dentist.  In the meantime, I'm supposed to bring dessert to a carry-in supper on Wednesday evening and this has given me some desserts to think about.  Notice I didn't say anything about baking a dessert, but i should be able to find something yummy to buy.  Everybody likes Oreos, right?  And that reminds me of the one  great debate my husband and I never resolved.  He insisted that Oreos should be eaten as they came out of the package, like little sandwiches, while I, and I think most of the world, know that Oreos must be twisted gently 'til the two layers come apart, then you eat the creamy middle, and last  the cookie layers, right?  Feel free to weigh in on this.   

I wish I had a camera....

 This evening I was watching AFV (America's Funniest Videos) and I realized that if I had had a phone that took movies, back in the day, I could have had some videos as funny or funnier than the ones they were showing,  For example my grandson riding downhill on top of a yellow and red plastic car; he fell off of course, but jumped up laughing and did it again and again.  Then there was the snowy afternoon when my red headed granddaughter sledded down the same hill and into the creek.  The funniest part of that afternoon was probably me racing down that snowy hill (the fastest I've ever run) to rescue her from the 12 inches of cold muddy water.  Or the summer afternoon when two of my grandchildren asked to play with the hose 'a little' while I was doing some weeding around the corner from where they were playing and ended up covered in mud from head to foot.  They had too much fun to get angry with them.  And then there was the great banana caper (but that's worthy of it's own blog).  It's probably lucky for all of us that they survived my grand-mothering, but we did have a really good time. 

taking a new walk

 Today I took a walk in a new direction.  One of the things I like about living downtown is being able to walk places.  Only in nice weather of course, I have always admitted to being a fair weather walker.  When I do walk, I most frequently walk to the library or church which are both in the same direction.  But today, which was a chilly but sunny day, I headed north, around multiple construction sites across Clinton Street and north over the MLK bridge heading for Science Central.  When I got across the bridge I needed to get back to the east side and thought I would get there by taking the walkway under the bridge, but when I looked down I saw that the sidewalk under the bridge was under water (we did have a lot of rain yesterday) so I decided to cross at street level. I was feeling more winded that usual as I closed in on my destination. Possibly a lack of exercise? But as I got closer, I saw an ambulance parked at the entrance.  How nice of them.  Then I remembered that it was Doctors' Day which is why it was a free day at Science Central and why I had come.  I know someone who works there and he wanted to show me around.  I love to go behind the scenes in public places.  One of the fun parts of acting in plays is knowing about everything that goes on behind the scenes.  At Science Central we walked through many new displays since the last time I was there.  An instructor was slicing open cow eyes for fascinated children.  I did not linger.  I saw the class rooms and a suspended sphere that can project moving images of amoeba and other things, a sand box that creates topographic 'maps' from sand hills piled up by the children.  I wanted to play but though it would be rude to push all the little kids out of the way.  Another fun area allowed children to color pictures of animals, then put them on a tray under a projector, and watch as their animals (I particularly liked a purple giraffe) came to life in a jungle scene projected on a large TV screen.  Those were all in the public areas, but I also got to see where all the offices are, the break room for employees, and the huge storage area with bins and bins full of mystery items for field trips to schools and summer camps and more.  I also was able to see where the planetarium will be installed, due to open in 2024 or 25? It was a fun afternoon and reminded me what a great asset Science Central is to our city.  When my great nieces and nephews come to visit this summer, I will certainly be taking them to Science Central.

speculation

 Yet again, my west coast brother comes through.  Today is "What if Cats and Dogs had Opposable Thumbs Day."  My brother's guess is that cats would still sleep 23 hours a day and dogs would still eat anything that falls on the floor, and he's probably right.  But I thought of a few other possibilities.  They could button their own clothes, but I know from childhood experience that cats do not like to play dress up.  I tried to put some doll clothes on Heathcliff, but he made it very clear that that was not going to happen.  It looked so cute in the picture of Sally's cat dressed up and riding in a doll carriage in my Dick and Jane reader, but evidently Heathcliff didn't read the same book.  He could have done if he had opposable thumbs to hold the book.  Actually, if cats and dogs had opposable thumbs we would probably expect more from them.  Open your own cans of food, open the door to let yourself outside.  Bring me a snack (actually I've seen some dogs trained to do that).  But now that I think more about it, with opposable thumbs, they could snap their little furry fingers when they wanted our attention - food, drink, play time, car rides, etc.  Not nearly as cute as giving us big eyed soulful looks or cheerful tail wags to get what they want.  They are probably leading a better life without thumbs.

Cats, cats, cats...

 Today, once again thanks to my west coast brother for the info, is "International Rescue Cat Day." While I have no intention of rescuing a cat at this point in my life I do have a long history with cats.  I really don't know if my first two family cats, Heathcliff and Hercules (my father was the one who named the early pets in our family; our first dog was named Mable) were rescue cats but I suspect they were.  Cats had my mom spotted as a softy from day one. When I was a little older and we moved to the country we had barn cats, at times many, many barn cats.  While they didn't come in the house they were tame-able.  Especially since Mom put food out for them. For a while my brother and I had Mike and Yerk, short for My Kitty and Your Kitty.  Mine was My Kitty, obviously.  Then came Midnight, all black with a tiny white spot on his chest.  Eventually the barn cat population declined and I moved on to college and beyond.  Fast forward to married life.  From fairly early in our marriage, we had two dogs but cats didn't come on the scene until we moved to a country place in Ohio.  Our next door neighbor girl came knocking on my door carrying a little kitten.  It had been left along the side of the road and she couldn't keep it because their cat didn't like it.  Well, how could I resist that little tear streaked face?  I took the kitten (a rescue if I ever heard of one) introduced her to the dogs and the rest of the family who all accepted her and she became Buckeye, because of a black spot on her left shoulder just the size and shape of a buckeye.  Our vet, an Ohio State grad, loved her.  We moved Buckeye with us back to Fort Wayne.  Then followed Olympia, Athena, Clair and Frances; all rescues, all with their own stories, but never more than three at a time.  So there you have my cat history.  I loved them all but feel absolutely no guilt about not rescuing any more.

conflicting views

 First, congratulations to all of us.  We have made it to March, the month of spring and Women's History Month.  But, if we can focus on today specifically, today is "National Peanut Butter Lovers Day." Actually, it seems to me that Peanut Butter should have been celebrated sometime last month.  February was "Black History Month" after all, and George Washington Carver is one of my heroes.  But enough about that.  I will celebrate my holidays as they come.  Admittedly there is a lot of controversy surrounding peanut butter; smooth vs crunchy, with pickles (or olives) vs jelly (or banana slices).  Should you spread it on toast or a bagel or bread? Being faced with all these decisions at the grocery store today, I am now well supplied with crunchy peanut butter (sorry, but it is the best), jelly, bananas, olives, pickles, bread and bagels.  I may be celebrating peanut butter all week. Cheers!