Making plans

Do you know how to make God laugh?

      Tell him your plans.

     (Old Jewish proverb)

I had planned to return to blogging again on August 25th which was one year after my last posting. As usual, my plans didn't work out.

I got a different computer and had all my stuff transferred, not knowing that the Microsoft Word program on the old computer was not registered. I wound up with everything stored in Word inaccessible to me. After trying several work-arounds, I gave up after four weeks and went online to buy a new copy of Word  for $109.00. As usual, everything was unbelievably complicated. It took two days and dealing with five separate people to get it installed. I must admit that one of the complications is that I am a computer putz!

I won't even get into the problems I had finding my blog and being able to post again. But anyway, here I am, nearly a year and a month later.

The reason I stopped blogging was because I felt that out of fairness, I had to follow the blogs of everyone who was a follower of mine. This became so time-consuming I that I had to draw the line. But, I missed it so I'm going to try it again. We'll see how it goes.

The 10-Book Challenge

A fellow blogger challenged his followers to list ten books that had an influence on them. This really got me to thinking back to my childhood.  It took a while but I finally came up with a list. I decided I could just as well post it in case some other bloggers might want to take up the challenge

Here they are in no particular order:

1)  Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Suess.  I have loved this book for as long as I can remember. I puddle up every time I read, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful one hundred percent".

2)  The Book of Knowledge 1943 edition. I don't remember how old I was when my parents bought this children's encyclopedia set but I spent many hours browsing through it. I think it gave me my interest in travel, archaeology and ancient history.

3)  The Household Searchlight Recipe Book. As a child, I loved to browse through my mom's cookbook reading about fanciful things like hors d'oeuvres and souffles and other foods that never graced our kitchen table. I yearned to be a sophisticated grown-up and make all those exotic dishes. ( I do occasionally make a quiche or a bundt cake but I'm still not sophisticated enough to make anything really elegant.)

4) The Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene. I avidly read those gripping mystery stories, sometimes under the covers at night so my mom wouldn't catch me. After I read all they had in the library I moved on to other writers and subjects. The Nancy Drew series was updated in the 70's because the books were no longer PC (eg. all the bad guys were "swarthy") but I'm sure they are still luring girls into the love of reading.

5)  The Golden Nature Books series. These handy little paperback-sized books were just right for taking on family camping trips in the woods. They helped the kids and me to identify birds, wildflowers, trees and critters.

6)  All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott and also his subsequent books. I fell in love with Yorkshire, the people and the English countryside. When I finally traveled to England and the plane slowly banked over stone-fenced fields dotted with sheep, I nearly wept with joy.

7)  Harbrace College Handbook. I was issued this English grammar book my first quarter of Community College back in 1982. I enrolled in an English composition class to recover from my combined divorce-and-empty-nest-syndrome collision. Ever since, this book has been my valuable resource when I need to check whether to use affect vs effect or who vs whom.

8)  How to Talk Minnesotan by Howard Mohr. Like most people, I grew up feeling quite ordinary and average. Sometime in the 70's and 80's, Mr. Mohr--along with noted humorist, Garrison Keillor noticed that we were kinda unique in our own folksy way. This book paved the way for our "Minnesota Nice" identity. So even though I may have a Minnesota accent, I can take some pride that along with that I also hold doors for people and defer to others in conversation, in elevators and driving.

9)  The Synonym Finder by J. J.Rodale 1978. I'm the sort who's always groping for words. I picked up this large book at a garage sale some years ago and I use it all the time. 

10) Family Cookbook and Memories by Janice Wagar 2007. It's probably tacky to include this among my favorite books since I compiled and wrote it, but allow me to explain. After I retired in 2005, I decided it was time to do the cookbook of family favorites I'd been thinking about for years. I collected recipes from family and friends which also brought back memories. I started including anecdotes and family history plus some humor in the book. By the time I was done, I had created something unique for my family. I sometimes re-read it and cringe at small errors or see things I wish I'd done differently, but all the same, it still gives me a boost to have actually created it.

Blossoming

This is something I wrote after I retired eight years ago but never thought to use. I guess it's worth posting.

                                            ...oOo...

I was once talking with the director of my department at work, a woman whom I greatly admired.  She used the word blossom to describe the pleasure of seeing people grow in their jobs.  This made me stop and think about the word, “blossom” and how beautifully it describes the process of reaching our full potential.

Life takes us all on different journeys and at different speeds.  As a result, we all blossom at various times.  Some of us shine in high school.  Some may be the Belle of the Ball in college, or Super-mom for a time or even excel in their careers.  Yet, there are those of us who are conventional our entire lives until we reach our later years.  That’s when we blossom!  We begin to become creative.  We branch out and form new bonds with others.  We broaden our horizons and embrace our place in the universe.  We contribute our time, energy and intelligence to causes that mean something to us.  This is a joyous time of life, when we know and accept ourselves just as we are.  Moreover, we love and accept others just as they are.

This is a stage of life worth waiting for. This is the stage when we no longer mourn the things we are not and finally celebrate the wonderful things that we are...when we finally open up and blossom.   

Four years a blogger and still not quite doing it right!

It was four years ago today that I posted my first blog. I was quite enthusiastic and titled it, "Hallalujah I'm a Blogger!" I didn't have any followers at the time so there were no welcoming comments, but I was undeterred. I wasn't savvy enough to realize that the way to acquire followers was to find other blogs you like and become their followers. It took me a while to "get on board" with other blogs.

Over the years, four or five of my favorite bloggers have died and more than a dozen have stopped blogging or just faded away. Every once in a while, I see I have a new follower but discover there's no link to get back to their blog. I've also signed on as a blog's follower on impulse and discovered that it's not what I hoped it would be. It's hit or miss, like paging through a magazine looking for an interesting article to read. It seems that the best place to find good blogs to follow is on your favorite blogger's list of followers.

I noticed that the groundhog/woodchuck above has a Dragon voice recognition system. I tried working with a Dragon when I was going through a particularly bad spell of arthritic hands. I found it incredibly frustrating, and correcting the errors it made was more trouble than it was worth. It truth, the bigger problem is my arthritic brain!

So anyway, here's to year number five. May it be more productive and interesting than the previous four!

A peep from Ms Sparrow

I guess I've been sorta burnt-out on blogging lately. I'm approaching the 4th anniversary of "Ms Sparrow" and I'm still ambivalent about what she stands for. (Like, is she the sort who ends a sentence with a preposition?) Anyway, I blame my inner critic who won't let me get away with anything! I will be back.

The pressure builds

It's been a week and a day since I last posted. I write posts and then wimp out because I don't have the courage to hit the little orange rectangle that says Publish.

I wrote a rant the other day but backed off because it doesn't seem to fit my grandmotherly persona. I would rebel against the idea that this persona is all I am, but then I worry about getting too far out of character. This would make it seem that I'm pretending to be somebody I'm not or that I don't have the confidence to just say what I want to say and let the chips fall where they may.  I worry about disappointing people who think I'm above what might be perceived as petty annoyances. I aspire to be one of those bloggers who write about nice, safe things.

But darn it, that is not who I am!

Well, not entirely anyway.

A few follow-ups

I just spotted the mama turkey over by some trees and all 9 of her chicks are still with her. They look to be half-grown and they're fully feathered now.

                                   (Borrowed image)
Sunny's vestibular disease has not cleared up. He walks around with his head cocked way over to one side. He get disoriented easily but seems to be dealing with it. I'm still worried about him because that's the kinda gal I am!

                      (It seems to have affected his eyes too)
The tomato dumpling soup was not up to expectations. I had previously blogged about how messy and steamy it was to can peaches. As it turns out, making soup from fresh tomatoes is almost as bad! The soup was good but I need a better recipe for the dumplings. I think I'll try it with spaetzle next time!

When I went on Google to find a picture, I found this one that had a recipe attached. Now, who would have thought to go into Google Images to find a recipe!

The family reunion picnic on Saturday. My two cousins on the left and me between my two brothers on the right. We look like a bunch of old people!

Let's hear it for long lives!

The other day I saw a TV news story about a 90-year-old woman who had accomplished the last item on her "bucket list". She went sky diving.

But, what was remarkable to me was that the jovial lady in question was overweight! For decades I've been told that if you're fat you'll die at a younger age. I was a fat child and I often wondered if I would survive until I turned 60 in the distant future year of 2000. Of course, I did and it was actually the best year of my life for a number of reasons.

I retired from my job in 2005 in part because I felt like I didn't have many years left to live and I wanted to enjoy them. I have been enjoying retirement a lot! So, I revised my life expectation upward to 76--that's the age at which each of my parents died. Since I'm going to be 72 in less that two months, that would have moved up my demise to within four years or so.

However, now that I know we plus-size gals can hang in there for much longer, I'm revising my life expectancy upward again! Hell, I might even make it to 80 or 85!

I should mention that I am working at being healthy and I've taken off some weight just to give it my best shot. All things considered, I just might pull it off!

So, now I should probably start a new Bucket List!

 

Puddling up at my 60th Birthday Party in 2000 when my kids gave me a group picture

A little mood shifting

I hardly ever do Crossword puzzles anymore. Some years ago, I moved on to doing Cryptograms and now I'm addicted to them. If I can start the day by easily solving the daily Cryptogram that's emailed to me, I feel bright and upbeat. If I'm totally stumped by it however, I not only feel defeated but I question if I'm losing my faculties! I need to do more of them to assure myself that I've still "got it"!

I know folks who love to do Sudoku but I find it annoying. (I always say, I'm a words person, not a numbers person".)  Obviously, there are many more people doing Sudoku, Word Search and Crosswords than doing Cryptograms. I know this because books of puzzles are available for all kinds of them except Cryptograms.

In the evening, I do the cryptogram in the daily newspaper. So, I have two mental challenges each day.  I consider myself to be pretty good at solving them, but if I'm stymied twice in one day--I feel certain I'm on the road to Alzheimer's (or Halfs-heimers, as my brother calls it).

The Cryptogram in the paper that I did last night was extra tough--I had to have several assists to solve it. Now, the one this morning is driving me nuts too. If I don't find some solvable ones soon, it will surely  ruin my day!

I'll give it another go--wish me well...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

C ' D   L K U   E   D Y D O Y J   K M   E L N   
 
K J I E L C K Y Q   S K R C U C B E R   S E J U N ,   
 
C ' D   E   Q Y D K B J E U ! 
 
-   X C R R   J K I Y J T 

(Here's a sample cryptogram, a quote by Will Rogers)

Memorial Day

This is a holiday weekend. Today is Memorial Day, also called Decoration Day. There will be events out at the huge Veteran's Cemetery near Fort Snelling and all across the country. Most folks just go put flowers on the graves of loved ones, however.

My uncle, Wesley Parrish served in WWII and was a POW of the Japanese. He went on with his life and never talked about the experience. He worked hard and had a family because that's how it was done in those days.

Years later, his son--my cousin, Steve--went to Viet Nam. He came home and went on with his life. Like his father, he worked hard and had a family.

Steve's son, Troy is now over in Afghanistan. He's been deployed for the fourth time. His wife just had their first child.

So, here we are celebrating a holiday for all those veterans and service people, and I can't help wondering--when will it get better? Is it the destiny of the free world to keep "putting out fires" forever?

The Ego, the Devil and Flip Wilson's Dress

I recently heard a quote from Deepak Chopra that the Ego is the source of belief in the devil. He claims that when we need an outside source to blame for our thoughts or actions, our Ego invents the devil--in fact, the Ego is the devil!

Many years ago, I read C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. While the premise was amusing, I never believed in the devil as a separate entity that hovered around and enticed me to eat my sister's cookie.

However, my dad, a staunch German Lutheran, believed in the devil. I know this because of his elderly father's suicide. It was Memorial Day weekend in 1952. I was almost 12 years old.

We were packing for our annual weekend fishing trip to Glenwood Minnesota when the call came. I answered the phone on the dining room wall and it was my aunt. I could tell by the tone of her voice something was very wrong. (Of course, the very nature of a long-distance call was alarming in those days.) I called my mom to the phone and she immediately called my dad who was working at his construction site. He rushed home and called his sister back.

After the phone conversation, he said to my mom, "He went out in the garage and hung himself. It was the Devil, for sure!"

I was heartsick. Not because of any affection for the old man but because it was going to spoil the one and only vacation we ever took. Now, I must explain that my grandfather had never spoken a single word to me or my siblings. He was a sullen, immobile figure always sitting in a living room chair, brooding. When we went for a visit, he would say hello to my mom if she addressed him, he would exchange small talk with my dad if pressed into it, but he never, ever spoke to us kids. Once, around the age of 7, I summoned up the courage to go up to him and say, Hi. He pointedly ignored me. I never bothered again.

As it turned out, since other relatives were handling the funeral arrangements, we were able to fit in the lakeside weekend anyway. When we went back for the funeral, they had returned grandpa's corpse--in its coffin--to the living room of the house. It was just a few feet away from the chair where he had spent his declining years. He was moved to the church for the first funeral I ever attended.

As I have gotten older and wiser, and perhaps more understanding, it seems likely that my grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer's. The devil had nothing to do with it

All of this brings to mind the wonderfully funny Flip Wilson's TV show back in the 70's. His delightful character, Geraldine, would strut around in Mod clothes and Gogo boots and proclaim, "The devil made me buy this dress!"  Whether that was Ego or devil, everybody loved it.

                                    

Time to get it done!

I have been collecting ticket stubs for decades. I have a cigar box stuffed with tokens of those moments when I saw plays, concerts, events and movies. The tickets have languished for these many years because I've never summoned up the courage to commit to permanently fixing them in place.

What if I get them together and then don't like the arrangement? Or, what if I get a really terrific new ticket and won't be able to add it to the piece? Or, once I have it, what should I do with it? I have a surplus of pictures for my walls and a ticket collage won't make the most attractive piece of art. Plus, I have other projects I could be doing instead of this.

But, on the other hand, I really enjoy doing collages and I've put this off far too long. So, today I'm going to a class to finally do my ticket collage.

Woohoo!

A multitasker's work is never done

I'm having one of those days where no matter what I am doing, I feel that I should be doing something else. As I read through all the new blog postings, I keep having impulses to jump up and go do other things.

And then, I suddenly realized it's because I had a dream last night that I was back at my old job at the insurance company and I had a big backlog of old files to work on. This is the result of the many years I spent in the job I left six years ago. While having a job with a lot of variety can keep things interesting, the constant lurching from one thing to another can do damage to your brain!

I should go now!

Is this creepy or what?

Well, it turns out that the installation of Century Link did not automatically delete Comcast from my computer.
Comcast won't be turned off until I take the modem back to their offices. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to get stuff transferred over to gmail. I always say, "Life is difficult for us dumb people!" I'm feeling particularly stupid right now.

I was "creeped out" when I found this message in my comments from yesterday. It seems like "Big Brother" Comcast is keeping tabs on me!

ComcastCares1 said...

I am sorry to learn that you're no longer a Comcast customer. Please feel free to contact me if you decide to come back in the future. Thanks! Mark Casem Comcast Corp. National Customer Operations We_can_help@cable.comcast.com

February 24, 2012 3:14 PM

I am a reluctant re-use maven

This is my dining room looking into the kitchen. The hutch came from the Salvation Army Thrift Store, the chairs from the Goodwill Store, the table under the fan was from my Mom's estate, the table on the back wall (behind the fan) came from Unique Thrift store as did the cat tower on the far left. The table under the pass-through was bought used along with the sofa and loveseat from a guy moving out of town.

I buy all my clothes at thrift stores except for socks and underwear. Just recently, my computer monitor died and I bought a used one from a store that recycles old computers.

This is not so much because I am noble or thrifty but because I don't have any "disposable income". Of course, that may well be due to the proven fact that your expenses will always increase to equal your income.

It sure would be fun to test that theory on a higher income, however!

Minnesota--just a hoot and a holler from Canada.

Corgi Dog Mama mentioned that my last post reminded her of Garrison Keillor's radio show. I've been told that before--but only by non-Minnesotans. Garrison and I are almost the same age and grew up in small towns in Minnesota. We were exposed to the same Norwegian Lutheran influences and staid upbringing. We we were born just one or two generations from our European roots and off of the family farms homesteaded by our grandparents.

There are thousands of us like that. We grew up believing we were innocuous, unremarkable folks who took care of business and tried to be well-thought of.

Thus, it came as a revelation when Garrison Keillor and Howard Mohr (who was a writer on The Prairie Home Companion radio show) began pointing out how truly different we were. In 1987, Mohr published his (locally) famous book How To Talk Minnesotan-A Visitor's Guide. It's a funny book.

Sorry. I'm starting to sound like a Wikipedia article. I guess the upshot of all this is that the moment we discovered we were kinda unique, the uniqueness began to disappear. It always happens that way.

There was a time when "Minnesota Nice" was a common expression. Now the expression is "What ever happened to Minnesota Nice?" (I think we're still pretty nice, though.)

Tomorrow--the last time I saw Garrison Keillor.

Last chance to send your extra money...

I read once that a wily huckster placed an ad in the back of a magazine with the simple message, "Last chance to send $1 to ....". People actually mailed money to him!

I'm thinking that's the same psychology that's spurred all of the online solicitations I'm getting from various non-profits. Their reasoning seems to be that I have an excess of money to get rid of before the end of the year and they will help me by taking my money and thus provide a tax deduction. While I appreciate their kind consideration for my pending tax return, having excess cash is not a problem for me.

According to the TV news, there are two lottery winners in the country who have not claimed their huge prizes this year. The deadline is this week. The unclaimed prize money will go back into the lottery funds. If I won the lottery, I would probably have this turn of luck.

By the wooded lot

Yesterday afternoon, a doe with two grown fawns walked right past my patio. I suspect it's the same doe that gave birth last spring in the wooded lot next door. The three spent a while leisurely browsing and then left. They didn't look thin so they must be doing OK so far this winter.

We always put out food for the squirrels and we have a troop of seven or eight who are johnny-on-the-spot whenever the food appears. It's amazing to watch them appear out of nowhere. There's also a family of crows that show up. That's during the day; at night we are getting a different bunch. There are two foxes who have been coming to chow down on the food left over. In addition, we still see occasional cats coming around as well.  (I'm pretty sure I saw a coyote last week, too.)

We frequent a "used bread store" over on Silver Lake Road where they sell big bags of stale bread for animals at bargain prices. We chop it up and enrich it with leftover cooking grease, popcorn, peanut butter and whatever scraps we have around.Whatever one batch of noshers leaves, the others eat. It provides entertainment for the three kitties and me.

The last time we bought a bag of bread, the gal at the bread store said that some of the squirrel-feeders who come in to buy bread ask for whole wheat because their squirrels are getting too fat! It makes you wonder if the impulse to feed animals is an addiction! Hmmm...

To make the change, just go to our Website and click on...

AARRGH!

I got a notice in the mail from State Farm Insurance Company the other day. It stated that my automatically deducted premium would be increased 16 cents on the next EFT withdrawal from my bank. But then they added a $1.00 service charge for mailing me the notice!  REALLY!!

When I cooled down, I discovered there was a note on the statement that I could elect paperless billing for my account. Silly me--I assumed that is what I was doing when I set up the automatic billing.

 I dutifully followed the instructions and logged in at their statefarm.com website. The next step of the instructions was to click the "Turn off Paper Bills" link supposedly listed under insurance policies.

But, first I had to set up an online account with them. I entered all the required info including my oldest grandchild's middle name and the city where my mother was born. The system rejected the information! I started over and re-entered the info only to be rejected again.

So, I got on the phone and tried to call them.You know the routine...you go through a series of prompts and finally reach a person who immediately transfers you to Interminable Hold. Frustrated, I eventually hung up without ever learning why State Farm Insurance Company thought I was lying about my oldest granddaughter's middle name.

Long-story-short, after an hour of wading through countless screens and false starts, I finally found a screen that actually addressed my complaint. I first had to click on "Agree" to a long document regarding automatic billing, all of which pertained to my already-existing EFT deduction.

I then had my choice of three options, none of which was "Turn off Paper Bills".  I clicked all three (which seemed to be what they wanted) and hoped for the best.

According to the note on the paper statement, I will now have to go into their crazy-making website to learn if and when they make 16-cent adjustments to my premium deductions in the future.
Sigh...

Another year older and a little bit wiser

It's a little over a year ago that I crashed my car into another poor soul who had stopped to make a left turn. Both cars were totalled. I took the check and bought a nearly identical car that was five years newer from a used car lot. Thus began my long car repair history, much of it spent at Rosedale Chev. I don't even want to know how much money was wasted on keeping that used car running.

So it was that I had yet another appointment to bring it in for service on my birthday last Monday. (I spent $400 on brake work the week before but the check-engine light was on and it was shaking when in reverse.) The verdict was another $500 repair plus confirmation the transmission was on its last legs (which we already knew). It was obviously time to "pull the plug" on the car.

I had been laboring under the impression that if I treated the car well and helped it get over its past abuse and neglect, I would be rewarded with a dependable, well-behaved vehicle. This was childishly anthropomorphic of me, I know. It sorta falls into line with "putting it out to the universe" type thinking--that never works for me either.

Old Jewish saying, 

"Do you know how to make God laugh? 
Tell Him your plans!"

Upon reaching this dreaded decision, I was in such despair I asked Chad, the repair-shop supervisor if they had a "crying room". However, upbeat as ever, he said they could set me up with a leased car and turned me over a salesman to get the information. Long story short, I wound up buying a new car. It took half of my savings account and I'll be making car payments for the rest of my life, but I will have reliable transportation.

I'm telling myself that I did my bit for our economy. I just wish I could feel better about it.