Perceptions Forever Changed

After the scrapbooking retreat (last post), I got to talking to a couple of relatives online who are into the genealogy thing, and discovered pictures, etc., that I didn't have.  In short order, more and more new information emerged...then Meg got involved.  Suddenly, I became aware that my almost-finished scrapbook had bunches of new information.  More work!  More pages!

Yesterday, I took a trek up to Muncie for the day because Meg was sick and needed some help with the children.  (I didn't do much!)  Still...we sat at her computer and looked at tweaked pictures of original prints so faded that they were barely discernable.  Meg's scanned versions were so much better!  We scrolled around one picture and noticed laundry on the clothesline at the back of the house pictured...then, out of nowhere, two people appeared near the clothesline.  These people had never shown up on the original!  One was an older man with a beard and a cane.  The other was a woman in a hat...and crutches!  My crippled great-grandmother was in the picture all along, and I had never been able to see her before! 

This woman died when my grandmother was a child of 12.  Grandma (Baba)  had a stepfather whose name she had adopted, although he had never officially adopted her.  The story was that her real father had died in an accident when she was only 2, and the family didn't approve of the step-father, so when Mary Ellen died, my grandmother was taken in by her aunt's family.  The family long suspected that our proud and dignified Matriarch didn't have a legitimate father.  Today, that suspicion became reality.  After a meager search over 35 years, my daughter found the answer today in the files of the Carroll County (IL) Poorhouse records:  my great-grandmother gave birth to my grandmother in the Carroll County Poorhouse, admitted because she was "crippled and in a family way."  My Baba had said that the Mount Carroll courthouse had burned down when I inquired about her birth records.  No wonder!  She was WAY too proud to have admitted that she had no father!

I have been steeped in this all day.  It gives new meaning to why my grandmother was as strong as she was.  She overcame enormous odds to become what she was. 

I have said this a number of times today, but if my grandmother had told me that she hatched out of an egg in a cabbage patch, I wouldn't have cared.  I adored the woman.  Most others merely admired her. 

Today, I felt that I had been given the opportunity to open a crypt, and discovered King Tut's treasures! 

God bless my grandmother for her strength.  I am more like her than I care to admit!

 

 

As we say in Indiana...

Ahm tard!  After two full days and an additional evening of scrapbooking--plus grandchildren--this old lady is pooped!  To the uninitiated, scrapbooking sounds easy.  Just paste some souvenirs in a book, right?  It's much more complicated (and expensive) than that!  Each page is a work of art...and, as popular as scrapbooking is these days...the scrapbook material companies are making a fortune!  The book I've been working on for the better part of two years is a heritage project, based on the Civil War diary of my great-great grandfather.  My daughter started me off on this, wondering who all of the people were that were staring up at her from the box that held all of the precious pictures, now over a century old!  I have the first book almost done.  There will be a celebration, of sorts, when it is finished!

I had Meg, Nate, and the two grandchildren here overnight last night.  Robin (age 3) is my bedmate when we have a "sleepover".  The children like Gwamma's "bumpy bed".  (I have a waterbed.)  The problem, of course, is that Robin won't go to sleep until I retire for the evening, too, which makes for a very late bedtime for her.

In the meantime, tomorrow is a day off for me.  I intend to use it to recharge my batteries for the week.  I thank all of the Great Americans for giving me a holiday!

Are we ready to rumble?

It is 60 degrees outside, and Central Indiana is under a tornado watch until 11:00 tonight.  Am preparing for a National Weather Service state net on our local repeater, and HOPING that nothing transpires.  I used to go out weather-spotting, but then considered how foolish it was for me to put myself at risk when there is no one at home to collect me should things go awry.  Now, I just generally lend support by spotting from home and serving as liaison between our net and the NWS, if necessary. My experience with winter thunderstorms is that the bottom usually falls out of the temperatures shortly thereafter, and we experience nasty winter weather a day or two later.  Handheld radio?  Check!  Flashlight?  Check!  Oil lamps and matches?  Check!  I'm ready to rock and roll!

The weekend proves to be interesting.  Meg and I, and Nathan's mother (Judy) are all signed up for a weekend scrapbooking retreat over in Camby.  One year, we all stayed there (at the Camby Nazarene Camp) overnight.  This year, we won't stay over, but we will all be there scrapbooking our little hearts out for Friday evening, Saturday ALL day, and Sunday.  Nathan is doing parent duty with the children in Muncie, coming down on Saturday evening to spend the night here.  (Will anyone be able to sleep??  The babies don't do all that well in strange surroundings.)  Monday is a holiday, so I am saving that day for myself. 

Just got home from the Walmart SuperStore where I spent almost $100 on groceries...and I forgot some things!  The cupboard wasn't completely bare, but just about! 

The Man Upstairs has provided me with another opportunity to make some extra money this semester with homebound instruction.  That will be a big help in some things that are pressing.  I'm keeping all fingers crossed that THIS time will last a little longer than the last two.

Frodo the Wonder Dog is refusing to do her "business" outside these days.  I'm going to have to have a little talk with her...

Uh oh.  NWS stand-by net just came up on the repeater.  Here we go!

When it snows, it...??

Interesting weekend! 

Friday evening, I just vegetated around the house, per usual.  Saturday, I went over to the house of a ham friend to help with some house projects in order to get their home ready to put on the market sometime this spring.  Spent the bulk of the day with them and their daughter stripping wallpaper.  Now, I have stripped wallpaper before--a job that I hate because it usually takes forever--but I have quite forgotten how fast things go when there are many hands working instead of just mine!  We got their entire dining area done and actually started on the kitchen before we retired for the day so everyone could go off to their next project.  I even had some energy left!

I came home, threw some things into the car, and headed for Muncie to visit Meg and family.  Drove through some heavy snow, although none of it was sticking on the roadway.  I just had to back down my speed because visibility was so bad...but I got to Muncie pretty much on schedule. 

Today, Meg and Nate left for church early for choir rehearsal, leaving Gwamma to get the kids ready.  Piece o' cake!  I have discovered that if I put something on TV that they are interested in, I can get them dressed while they are distracted, feed them breakfast, and head for church without too many toddler issues.  Church was nice.  The choir did a nice job, and the service was "cookie communion" that the children participated in.  Lovely! 

After church, Meg and I went food shopping while Nate fed the kids; then Meg and I took the kids (while Nate read his book at home) and went to a Fun and Safety Fair at the Convention Center in Muncie.  A few balloons and some sugary snacks later, we headed back to the house.  Meg started cooking some hors d'oeuvres for choir practice on Tuesday (Valentine's Day).  I threw my stuff in the car, then lingered a bit to trim Robin's bangs...then headed home.  I wanted to be on the road by 4:30 in order to make the entire trip in daylight, but left closer to 5:00.  It had snowed on and off all day, but nothing was sticking to the roadways.  I just wanted to be home before temperatures dropped below freezing.  It was the SMARTEST decision I have made in a loooong time!

There is an Indianapolis repeater that works all the way up to my daughter's.  The regulars on that frequency know that, if I amon there, I am coming or going from Muncie.  They humor me with conversation and/or weather/road reports along the way.  When I was still an hour from home, one ham got on and told me that there was a snow cell over Hendricks County (home), and chuckled about how I probably didn't want to hear that.  I figured it would have moved on before I got there.  Besides, the roads were just wet in places...and dry in others.  Well!  When I got onto I-70 just east of the Indy airport--not 15 miles from home--snow became intense, and it was sticking.  In a 2-mile stretch of interstate, I saw multi-vehicle accidents, slide-offs, vehicles into guardrails and cement walls, all just happening...probably in excess of 12 vehicles, mostly on the eastbound side, but some westbound, too.  Traffic westbound slowed to a crawl.  It wasn't a traffic jam.  We were just scared!  When semis slow to 20 mph, you know you're in trouble!  I slowed with them and crept home.  My driveway never looked so good!!! 

I think what happened was that the snow squalls that have been so prevalent this weekend were suddenly met by a rapid drop in temperature, and drivers didn't realize that the roads had suddenly turned from just wet to icy with a slight (deceptive) snow-cover.  They began to figure things out in very short order when the interstate began to look like a demolition derby! 

It has been a busy weekend but nice to visit with my grandchildren.  (Sorry, Meg!  Nice to visit with you and Nathan, too...but...well...the babies are my first priority!)

By the way, to those of you who may happen to read this blah-g who don't know about ham radio, sorry about your luck!  A cell phone would have done nothing for me on either the trip up to Muncie or back...but I had company all the way on amateur radio, with multiple people listening in and ready to help if I needed it.  God bless this hobby!

 

To Doug's Friend, Carole

Please let me know that you have been here.  You are so very special to me!

As ever...

My ham friend with the sick doggy reported a day after my last post that the dear pooch made THE decision for him by dying overnight in the veterinary hospital.  I know what an awful grief that is.  Mike, if you are reading this, I am sending healing vibes your way!  Losing a companion of so many years is as bad as losing a retarded child...retarded in the sense that Buster couldn't tell you he was ill. You were a most attentive caregiver.  Buster had the best!  You will miss him...and I hurt for you. 

It begins to look as if the middle school teachers in our building (of which I am one) will be moving to the renovated building by the end of the month.  Tomorrow is a half-day in-service, and we were promised the time to pack...except that there is now a meeting that will take an hour.  That leaves exactly an hour to pack.  Whoop-de-doo!  When the move is eventually made, it will be the FIRST time in my teaching career that I will have everything that matches.  The new rooms have sinks, carpeting, windows with internal blinds, built-in cabinets (that include a place to hang the teacher's coat!!!), and brand-new furniture. 

I am a co-sponsor of a ham club at school.  We have four kids who come regularly.  Yesterday, we adjourned to the computer lab for the kids to take practice license tests for the first time.  To my total surprise, one of our young ladies passed two of the three practices, and another youngster had a respectable showing!  One was absent, and the fourth just needs a little more time.  I will be totally awed if we can get two new radio operators out of the group before the end of the year!

This weekend, I have promised a ham friend and spouse that I will help them get their house ready to sell.  (They are retired and ready to put their tri-level on the market in favor of a brand new free-standing condo...which seems like a house to me!!)   When I get done there, I will go up to Muncie (weather permitting) to spend a day with the kids.  If weather doesn't permit, I will spend the day at home, continuing to de-clutter my house.  I just don't want to croak and leave my daughter with a mess to handle.  There is WAY too much "schtuff" here...none of which means anything to anyone!!

God Bless the readers of this "blog."  Sometimes I think I am writing to myself!

When you are feeling bad, just look around!

There are always others who feel worse!

This morning on my way to school, I talked briefly to a ham friend whose dog of 14 1/2 years is in the hospital.  Care and diagnosis, so far, has cost about $700.  Our pets are our children, but there is also the concern of quality of life--and finances.  My heart aches for Mike.  I have been down this road with my cats.  There is no happy answer.

Another very dear friend suffers from lack of affection.  Now he thinks I have abandoned him, too. 

Meg needs her mommy and my grandchildren seem to like me.  I am managing programs for my radio club, and still trying to coordinate the state of Indiana for SATERN.  Um...midterm grades are due tomorrow.  And the dog needs attention.  Is there life after life????

Humdrum Days with a Neurotic Dog

When I became a dog owner (by default) almost a year ago, I hadn't figured on the spoiled dog (princess) factor.  She is an adorable dog with some terrible habits.  We're working on those!

I had two issues to address right away:  food and toilet habits.  Frodo wasn't housebroken (at age 5) and turned up her nose at dog food, preferring whatever was on the people's table.  Frodie still isn't totally housebroken, but she DOES eat dog food now.  She also has learned that she is NOT permitted to ride in the car under the driver's feet!  She also has maintained some of her neurotic habits:  going into a semi-trance with her favorite toy between her paws; eating sippie-cup tops; stealing food right from under my nose; shredding kleenexes out of the bathroom wastebasket; and the worst one--tearing into closed garbage bags.  Bored dogs find ways to entertain themselves!

I hate February the most of all of the months of the year.  It is the month when everyone is sick of winter and being cooped up...but it is also the month that promises "There can't be that many long cold spells left."  I like that!  My daughter and family moved 1 1/2 hours northeast of here at the end of last February, so I guess I have had almost a year to adjust.  (I'm not there yet!)

Can you tell that I am posting here just because I think I should???  Spent the evening teaching a ham radio licensing class, so I have a bunch of things to do tonight.  Am I doing them?  Noooo...  :)