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.