The prayer shawl is finished!

No more photos after this thread, I promise, but I did a progression of finishing off the prayer shawl.

First, the instructions say to cut 76 pieces of yarn, 54 inches long. Hmmm. Let me find something that's about 27 inches so I can wrap the yarn around it.

This is close enough. It's a Flip 'n' Fold! It's a fringe maker! Woo hoo!


























OK, so round and round the yarn goes. I lost count, but if I need more, I can make another wrap.





























Cut the yarn at one end to make the strands the right length.



























Take two strands, then fold them in half twice to make eight strands. Aha! One end has four loops. Poke a crochet hook into the edge of the shawl, grab those four loops and pull them through.




























OK, take the other end, thread it through the four loops, and then pull down to make a tassel.




























Trim the ends of the tassels and tie a knot at the end of each strand (This yarn unravels like crazy. Might not need to do this on other yarns.)

Repeat all the way across both ends of the shawl.

And look here: it's DONE!!







































It's now had a bath in the washing machine and is drying on towels spread out on my bed. The fringe tangled up pretty bad in the wash because it is so long. After it dries, I may need to trim the frayed ends off the fringes. I'll see how it looks. Next time: much shorter fringe or a knitted border instead.

Thanks for following the progression of the prayer shawl! It'll go to church tomorrow to be given to someone.

Tending to my knittin'

Here is my current project in process. I'm more than half-way through. There's not an exact measurement given for the finished length -- the instructions say "from wrist to wrist" but since I am short, and my arms are short, I'll make it a little longer, then there will be fringes on both ends. This is a prayer shawl, which is made for the church and then given to someone who is ill or troubled. The shawl is made while the knitter says prayers for the recipient. When it's going to be given to someone, it'll be placed on the altar at church, and then after the service members of the congregation can come and pray while they add a knot to the fringe.












Here's some closeups of the yarn and then of the knitting. Maybe this will show the colors better. It seems to be reading more brown in the first photo, and there's no brown in it. The color is called "Mexicana." The main colors are purple and orange. There's a bit of gold in it.









It is very soft. Sometimes I just have to stop and snuggle it. It's an acrylic yarn so it's machine washable and dryable. (Lyon Brand Yarn, Homespun)

I'll try to remember to take more photos after I finish it. And I hope that is soon!

How you doin'?

I'm feeling a little like this today:








I have a headache and my blood pressure is through the roof. I don't think bopping anyone would help, really. I just like this smilie.

Ponder me this

Let's make this a meme, shall we? Answer these questions here, and if you wish, tag five folks and have them answer the same on your blog.
Fasten your seat belts; here we go!

1. What is the best thing you've done this week (since Sunday)?

2. What's the most meaningful personal issue you've thought about this week?

3. What's the biggest nuisance task you have gotten out of the way this week?

4. What's the biggest annoyance hanging over your head this week?

5. What has made you happy this week?

6. Have you cried this week? Why?

7. What are you looking forward to most this week?

8. What has just flat made you crazy this week?

9. What bliss have you experienced this week?

10. What have you prayed to change this week?


Tagging: E.R.; Frenzied Feline; Tech; Dr. E.R.; Jeannie Diane.

Recipes for Lent (meatless)

Here are some meatless recipes for those who have given up meat during the Lenten season. They all make fairly large quantities.

Basic Veggie Soup
Serves 12

2 cans diced tomatoes -- undrained
1 large onion -- chopped
4 cloves garlic -- pressed
2 tablespoons olive oil -- divided
2 large carrots -- chopped
2 small celery stalks -- chopped
1 medium turnip -- chopped
2 cups green beans -- cut in 1" pieces
6 cups vegetable broth
1/4 head cabbage -- chopped
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 small russet potatoes -- peeled and chopped

In a large soup pot, heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil over
medium high heat. Add the onion and cook till nearly translucent, now
add the garlic. Don't let the garlic brown and saute another couple
of minutes.

Add the rest of the chopped veggies, sauteing for just a minute or
two; the extra tablespoon of olive oil is if you need it for the rest
of the veggies. Remeber--you're not cooking them-- just sauteing them
for the wonderful flavor this quick step will infuse in your soup.
Add the thyme and salt and pepper while sauteing.

Now put the veggies in the crockpot, add the tomatoes and broth. Cook
on low 7-9 hours (depending on your crockpot) or high 4-6 hours. Just
before serving, gently mash some of the potato chunks against the
side of the crockpot to thicken the soup, give it a stir and serve.

Per serving: 88 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (35% calories from
fat); 5g Protein; 2g Dietary Fiber; 9g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol;
658mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 1 Vegetable; 0
Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates

***

This one is so easy:

Mexican Pasta Vegetable Bake
3 cups rotini pasta, uncooked (curly noodles)
2 jars (16 oz. each) chunky salsa
2 cups 2% milk reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup fat free cottage cheese
1 can (16 oz.) black beans, rinsed, drained
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen whole kernel corn, thawed, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

COOK rotini as directed on package; drain.
MIX rotini, salsa, 1 cup of the cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, beans and corn. Spoon into 13x9- inch baking pan sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheddar cheese.
BAKE at 375°F for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Serves 8
(I find it can serve more).

Diet Exchange:
2 Starch,1 Vegetable,2 Meat (L)

Nutrition (per serving)
Calories 300 Total fat 7g Saturated fat 4.5g Cholesterol 20mg Sodium 1240mg Carbohydrate 42g Dietary fiber 7g Sugars 9g Protein 19g Vitamin A 20%DV Vitamin C 4%DV Calcium 35%DV Iron 10%DV


***

Another super-easy one:

Cheesy Bean Enchiladas
1 can (16 oz.) Refried Beans
1 jar (16 oz.) chunky salsa, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped onion
8 flour tortillas

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix beans, 1/2 cup of the salsa, 1 cup of the cheese and the onion until well blended.
SPREAD remaining 1 cup salsa onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Spoon 1/4 cup of the bean mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam sides down, over salsa in baking dish. Top with the remaining salsa and cheese.
BAKE 20 minutes or until heated through.

***

Macaroni and cheese doesn't have to be orange and it doesn't have to come from a box.
I love this recipe -- use a sharp cheese with some flavor. Would also be good as the foundation of a tuna casserole.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
Topping:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Spring revival ends

My church concluded a three-night revival this evening. Excellent preaching by Dr. John Holbert, on the faculty of Perkins School of Theology, and excellent Southern Gospel music from an Oklahoma quartet, "Forgiven."






Check out the quartet's web site at Forgiven.
This quartet formed in my hometown, Ponca City, 25 years ago. Through many combinations of singers, they continue to bring the message in a way that warms the soul and leaves a lump in the throat.

For a snipet of their "Valley of the Shadow" (based on Psalm 23), click here. Other samples are also available on their web site under "Products."

The Lenten altar

(clicky biggie)

Has spring really sprung?

The robins have started playing in my yard, scratching around for worms. And last Monday I looked up at my Bradford pear tree, shocked to find it in bloom. I kept thinking we'd get some winter before that happened! One good ice storm a couple of weekends ago was it, I guess.

Anyway, here's a photo of the tree:

Which Muppet are you?

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

Greetings to Junior the Bear

Junnior the Bear is a well-traveled Plush-American who has a blog over at Xanga. He posts photos and stories about his travels. (See Junior the Bear -- he's even posted a map showing all the states he has visited.) And he celebrated a birthday not too many days ago.

I had promised Junior that I'd post some of my bears, so here you go. These are a few of my favorites. I've sent some of my others on to new friends who needed someone special to love on. It is, after all, their job.

This Mama and baby, however, will probably always be with me, since they were given to me by my own Mama, after I was all grown up. And yes, I get all weepy about it.






































This one isn't a bear, but the closest I have to a puppy-dog these days. It is so incredibly soft and looks enough like my dear Fefe-girl that it always brings a smile to my face.





































And here's a little pink bear. This will sound terrible, but you know what? I can't remember who gave this one to me. Obviously it was a gift, and I feel rather embarrassed that I don't remember its history. You would think that would be hard to forget. But here it is, more proof that my memory is not as sharp as it used to be.



























This is not a bear either -- perhaps you can tell. It's a baby picture of me I recently stumbled across. Everyone say "Awww."

Where have you been?

Down the road and back again!

Here are the states I have been to. How about you?



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

And now, as requested ...

Vienna sausages!




Oh. My. How my taste buds have changed in the last 30 years!



I had a request from Trixie in Transit to post about Vienna sausages.

"Sure," I thought. "I used to love those when I was a kid -- even in college!" So I went to the store and discovered there is a whole range of Viennas these days. There's a couple of major manufacturers -- Armour and Hormel. And each has its own special types of Viennas now. You can get the regular, the light, the chicken, the barbecue ... I think I even saw a turkey version.

Hmmmm. I stood there looking at the section with these tiny 5-ounce cans filled with seven mini-weenies. Finally I decided you can't beat the original, so I tossed a can in the cart. Hmmm. Two for 89 cents? Why not try a barbecue? So for research purposes, I invested about a buck, with tax.



Well. There's a buck that'll never fund my retirement, but if I eat these things again, I won't live to retirement age!

Here's what Wikipedia says about these tubular meat treats:

"Vienna sausage is a term used for a canned sausage. The term means essentially the same thing as Wiener, as the latter means Viennese, and is short for Viennese sausage.

"Canned Vienna sausages are generally made using a simplified adaptation of the process used to mass-produce other sausages. Meats, such as chicken, beef, and pork, are ground finely and mixed with salt and spices, especially mustard, and formed into a batter, which is poured into a long casing and smoked. The sausages are cooked, chopped into equal size segments, and placed into tins or jars, usually without the casings, and, with broth or brine added, processed the same as other canned goods. They also figure into the diet of many in the US."

Each one of these little dudes has 45 to 50 calories (I think the barbecue versions have more calories because of the little glop of sauce that coats them. And guess what -- a serving size is THREE sausages! What??? THREE out of SEVEN? Well, that makes it easy, huh?

Things I can tell you about these:

In Oklahoma and other states in our region, "Vienna sausages" are simply called "Viennas." And no, it's not pronounced like the city in Austria. It's "vi-EEE-na" or "vi-EEE-nees."

Babies love them. They are a great finger food for little ones transitioning into solid foods. But do good parents really want to feed their babies a weenie made of chicken, beef and pork that's been trimmed down and jammed into a can?

They used to be recommended as part of a weight-loss diet, back in the '70s. (Hence them being a part of my college diet -- that and the fact that they are so cheap.) It makes a little sense. Easy portion control, handy protein source... easy to carry while on the go.

Anyway, here's supper:






Wanna bite? It was the perfect 400-calorie accompianment to tonight's edition of "American Idol." Canned meat. Yum.

Come and Find the Quiet Center

Come and find the quiet center
in the crowded life we lead.
Find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed.
Clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear the eyes, so we can see
All the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

--Shirley Erena Murray

Text of a hymn from "The Faith We Sing", a supplemental hymn book of the United Methodist Church. To hear the tune, click here.

Today is Ash Wednesday

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

It is the first day in the Christian season of Lent.

I'm finding that many people think Lent is observed only by the Catholic church. This is not true. Lent began in the apostolic era and was universal in the ancient church. For this reason, Lent is observed by the various Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Anglican denominations, by Roman Catholics, and by Eastern Orthodox Churches. (If you want to know why some churches don't observe Lent, go Google it. There's plenty of information out there.)

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.

Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. It covers the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter (excluding the Sundays, which are "mini-Easters," when fasting is not appropriate).

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.


Penitential prayer, fasting and almsgiving are common Lenten practices, meant to help Christians focus on their spiritual journey with God. Today, many congregations have a dual emphasis -- "giving up" something that contributes to a flabby spiritual life while "taking on" spiritual exercises to strengthen the relationship with God.

Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers’ heads or foreheads as a sign of humility before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. The ashes are created by burning the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations.

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.


Ash Wednesday is a somber day of reflection on what needs to change in our lives if we are to be fully Christian.

Lent is a season during which we find ourselves completely humbled before God, confessing our inadequacies. We come before Him in dust and ashes, emptied of our pretenses of being righteous. It is a way to empty ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from seeing ourselves as needy creatures, of our "perfectionist" tendencies that blind us to the beam in our own eyes.

It's a time for us to stop praying for others, believing that we are "higher spiritual creatures" than "they." It's time for us to realize that WE are standing in the need of prayer. WE are the sinner for whom Christ came to make sacrifice.

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Christianity isn't just about the celebration of Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter morning. It's also about this darker season. Without going through the darkness we will never understand the purpose of the Lamb's sacrifice, and the glorious celebrations will never have their full value for us.

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

What's in a name? Psycho Path wins; Farfrompoopen shows

Farfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path, which placed No. 1 in an online poll of the nation's wildest, weirdest and wackiest street names.

Mitsubishi Motors sponsored the poll and more than 2,500 voters cast their ballots.

In first place was Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich., followed by Heather Highlands, Pa.'s, Divorce Court in second and Tennessee's Farfrompoopen Road in third. Eisenstein said all the roads were verified, although some are private and hard to find.

The complete top 10 list included:

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Tenn.

9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.

8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.

7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.

6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.

5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston

4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.

3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)

2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.

1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

(From the Associated Press)

Not my change, but Ted's!

Congrats to friend and fellow blogger Teditor, who has posted big news at his blog, Teditor's blog.

The big guy popped the question and his honey said "YES!" Both done in a big way. It's a good story, so go read it.

Teditor's been through some major life changes in recent months and looks like there's some bigger ones on the way!

Teditor, here's my advice. Learn and use these two words every day: "Yes, dear." More often, say "I love you." Repeat every day for 50 years or so and you'll have this marriage thing down pat.

It's nice to see a good woman finally got the paperwork on our pal. He's been running around without a license for far too long. Cheers!!

Caution

Changes coming. Be prepared.

This is what the Internet was made for!

You've got to see this. I promise it will make you feel so much better about your own life, just because it's so weird. Click this link, sit back and enjoy (Your computer sound has to be on.)


David Hasselhoff -- it's not a joke.

Do your Oreos taste different?

Another message board buddy said she thought her Oreos didn't taste as good as they did when we were little. Well, she's right, they have changed the recipe.

But first, a little cookie history:

In 1898, several baking companies merged to form the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo), the maker of Oreo cookies.

By 1902, Nabisco created Barnum's Animal cookies and made them famous by selling them in a little box designed like a cage with a string attached (to hang on Christmas trees).

In 1912, Nabisco had a new idea for a cookie - two chocolate disks with a creme filling in between. The first Oreo cookie looked very similar to the Oreo cookie of today, with only a slight difference in the design on the chocolate disks.

The shape and design of the Oreo cookie didn't change much until Nabisco began selling various versions of the cookie. In 1975, Nabisco released their DOUBLE STUF Oreos. Nabisco continued to create variations:

1987 -- Fudge covered Oreos introduced
1991 -- Halloween Oreos introduced
1995 -- Christmas Oreos introduced

But do they taste different now?

Probably. The company changed the recipe in the past couple of years after a 2003 lawsuit tried to stop Nabisco from selling Oreos to children in California because they contained a high level of trans fat.

Kraft agreed to remove partially hydrogenated oil from the Oreo. Two months later, Kraft said that it would reduce or eliminate trans fat in all its cookies and crackers across the board. Kraft also agreed to stop all in-school marketing. Now that companies are required to include trans fat info on the nutrition label (since January 2006), Nabisco is saying:

"A serving of our regular Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies--which is three cookies--contains 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of which is saturated fat and 0 grams of which is trans fat.

"A comparable serving of our Reduced Fat Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies contains 4.5 grams of fat, including 1 gram of saturated fat and 0 grams of trans fat."

Well, they still aren't exactly "health food," but props to Kraft and Nabisco for trying.

Tell you what, I still miss the Oreos of my childhood. But the new ones are still far superior to Sunshine's Hydrox brand. I always thought it took a lot of nerve for adults to try passing them off as my beloved Oreos!

Cheez Whiz!

Here's what can happen to a person when it's too cold and icy to go to church.

I've been involved with some online friends in a message board discussion about aerosol cheese. This has gone on for a few days now; it started with some consternation when someone realized that Kraft now calls their spray cheese (cheez) "Easy Cheese." Many of us were thinking (and writing) that it used to be called Cheez Whiz. Others chimed in to say no, Cheez Whiz is the orange stuff in the jar that you put on nachos.

Some of us remembered that in the early days of spray cheese there was another name.

Now, I know you are thinking "Why doesn't someone just Google this and find the answer?"

Ha. That was my thought, too, and so I did. I spent probably an hour or more chasing this down. Once I'm curious about something, I'll waste a lot of time on it!

Anyway, Kraft seems to want to pretend like this product has no history. Ah, but I kept looking! And it paid off.

Short story:
Kraft invented Cheez Whiz in 1952 -- the stuff we know as the taco cheese sauce. It's also a longtime ingredient in Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches. (More on that later.)

Aerosol cheese was first developed by Nabisco in 1966. It was called "Snack Mate" -- do you remember???

Anyway, at some point Nabisco's aerosol cheese married Ritz Crackers, which made for some tense conversation at the family Thanksgiving dinner each year.

Through a series of corporate mergers and product buy-outs and high-power executive meetings and memos, Kraft started selling Cheez Whiz in a can. I could not find an exact date or any history, but there is a cookbook pamphlet dated 1981 that still mentions "Snack Mate" from Nabisco.

In 2000, Kraft bought Nabisco. Alas, that was about the time people decided they didn't think eating chemicals was a good idea. So all the baby boomers who grew up eating fake orange cheez stopped feeding it to their kids. ("We like our kids better than our parents liked us," they said.) They toyed with the idea of developing "organic processed foods." The organic farmers said "Do what? Not with our crops you don't, you conglomerate!"

Kraft rebranded Cheez Whiz spray cheese and called it "Easy Cheese." All of the goo, none of the history or nostalgia of our pre-obesity days in this country.

By the way, the parent company for Kraft is RJ Reynolds, the tobacco company. So they really, really are out to get us, one way or the other.

I think the novelty of "cheese in a spray can" may be one of the leading factors in the slow food movement, actually. There's a backlash effect.

Go back and watch some Ed Sullivan reruns. He was around just before spray cheese hit the markets. Look at how thin everyone on his shows were -- and believe me, it wasn't from anorexia. We didn't see people like Dan and Roseanne Conner until we got squirt cheese and all the other processed convenience foods. (See how I worked that in? We can do research and STILL be couch potatoes.)

Go eat a vegetable now. Plain, no spray cheese.

*Oh, about the Philly cheese steaks. A couple of years back there was a HUGE increase in the price of Cheez Whiz (55 percent), Philly sandwich makers were in a big crunch. Even Pat King, king of the cheese steaks, was affected.

Good Saturday morning, friends!

Alas, the world outside is white, and it's that "bad" white -- sleet and ice. It's bad enough that it's canceled my plans for the day. My singles group was going to go to some galleries in The Paseo District of Oklahoma City, have lunch at Gallileo's, then spend the afternoon at the Oklahoma History Center. It's a trip I've been planning for a month and a half.

Alas, we're frail folks. Rather, we're too smart to risk property damage and injuries going outside today. So we are all staying home, trying to stay warm and finding other things to amuse ourselves.

I'll sit here and pity anyone who has to go outside and I know there are plenty of folks who have to. I'm doing you a favor by staying out of your way today. This will make your life safer, trust me. I've never, ever been afraid of going out in any kind of weather -- until this year. I have an 11-year-old car that I can't afford to replace, so I've become ferociously protective of it. And if I can get out of driving in bad weather, I will.

It'll be an adventure here at home. Since I also don't want to get out to go to the grocery store, I'll be using my pantry to create whatever meals I have this weekend. I have several options but we'll see what I come up with. Stay tuned!

The dress code today is thick socks, sweat pants, a thermal undershirt and a heavy fleece top.

If it's like this tomorrow, I'll skip church. I hate that, but sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do.

I've got my knitting and several books to keep me company. My office is clean, so I can move to another room if the Tidy Bug strikes. (Vietnam Veterans will be picking up a load of cast-offs on Tuesday. They come regularly every 6 weeks.)

And so there's the report from the home front today. I hope you are staying warm and safe. Make it a great weekend for yourself!

A sign of the times

Are you normal??

Are You Normal?

I don't know, but here's my rating:

Your Normalcy Quotient is: 62 out of 100.

Your quiz results make you a Quirky Character

You've found yourself mostly in the middle of the road, but you have enough quirky habits to not be entirely normal. You're probably glad to be more than ordinary, but you're normal enough to fit in. Sounds like a perfect balance.

Take this free personality test by going to Chatterbean

*Note: Chatterbean quizzes are non-scientific, non-fat and pretty much just non-sense. They are meant solely for entertainment purposes and are not intended to provide an accurate evaluation of anything.

And now, the evil side...

Yesterday was johari time, with rather good traits exposed. Today's your chance to show me the bad traits you see in me. Don't worry, I won't let you know if you make me cry...

At Home Trixie's Nohari Site

Here's an interesting thing I picked up at E.R.'s place (as usual -- seems like a lot of interesting things start over there).

Anyway, you can help me see myself as you see me by going to this link and choosing six words that you would use to describe me. At Home Trixie's Johari Window.

From the olden days

Here's a photo of me circa 1978, working on the first computer system at the newspaper where I was working. Up until this time, we were using hot lead type, manual typewriters, half-sheets of copy paper to write headlines on (remember counting headlines?) and pencils. There were teletype machines which ran constantly in a glass room right out of camera shot. Oh the noise! No wonder journalists drank in those days.

Moving up to the computer age was a huge step forward in newspaper production (as in most industries). I count myself lucky to have bridged those worlds in my career. It's quite a feat, considering I'm only 21 now... *cough*

Oh, notice the brown glue pot on the desk. That was always good entertainment. When we weren't busy as all get-out, we would make glue balls. Oh sure, there was that contact high from actually being hit with the vapors, but it was also fun to see who could create the largest glue ball over time. Ah, good times...

Platte County, MO

Over on E.R.'s blog, we were talking about different kinds of gin, which brought to mind McCormick's Distillery in Weston, Mo. This is an area right in the midst of my family's stomping grounds, since Civil War days. So I thought I'd share some of these photos again.

What we've got here:

The hamlet for which I was named; the store at Vaughn's Orchard (which may have to close after this season because of a terrible pruning job on the orchard's trees); Father Christmas, who strolls the streets of Weston through December; and the sign at the entrance of McCormick Distillery.

Odd thing about McCormick's -- you can't buy their products at the distillery, but they do have McCormick's Country Store in downtown Weston. But you'll be a lucky duck to find it open. They were closed on Christmas Eve and the sign said they would also be closed on New Year's Eve. Now what kind of sales strategy is that, I ask you?

A new challenge

We've done various memes to answer questions so people get to know us a little better. Here's a new challenge -- go to your "Paint" program and do a self-portrait. Save it in jpg format so it will upload to Blogger, then share it with us! (Therapists should refrain from analyzing any portraits!)

Another place I'd rather be

The Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks. I'm planning to go there next month again with my singles group. If you live in Oklahoma, or near Oklahoma, y'oughta go. It's a great thing!

Where I'd rather be

Oregon waterfalls.

Let's discuss the insensitivity issue

This has been a horrible week, compounded by the continuing attacks of another blogger. This morning he posted an "apology." I will give him some credit for his effort, but he still entirely misses the point. And even within that apology, he's continued to make me a target of his attack.

He is completely misguided and yes, INSENSITIVE.

Here's the deal, folks. On Saturday my friend Jim died. I posted about it (you can see it in the Feb. 4 post.) I mentioned the mother of a dear friend was ill, also. And yes, in passing I mentioned TWO other women -- Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan -- who also happened to die in recent days.

Well, this other blogger took my grief and turned it into a forum for HIS beliefs on abortion (and never let the facts stand in the way of a good tirade.) I was, and continue to be, offended by this. Believe what you want to, write what you believe, stand for your beliefs, but DO IT IN YOUR OWN BLOG. How dare anyone come to a post about the death of a close friend and turn it into a political rant?

And see, that's the part this other poster does not get, even today. He's turned this into an attack, now, on me. Because I am "a horrible liberal." Therefore, he reasons, I must agree with the "murder" of "innocent babies killed by abortion."

This because I won't let him use my post about my friend as an anti-abortion forum.

Insensitive? You bet.

Go ahead, in your own place, and write all you want about that. THAT is where you need to put it.

But when I am telling you, my friends, about the death of a man I sat with, comforted, cared for, read to, prayed over and mourn, keep your issues out of MY blog. This is NOT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU.

I sat with Jim for hours into the night, keeping his lips moisturized, keeping his mouth wet with water in a sponge. I helped reposition him; I turned his pillow to the cool side when he was too warm. I read John 3 and Psalms to him and I helped keep him from trying to pull off his oxygen mask. All this time he was not lucid.

These were private matters, which I did not want to share, but perhaps they will help one Boneheaded man understand a little more clearly why I am still so angry at his empty apology.

This, THIS man, Jim, was a man of value as surely as any of the "murdered innocent babies" you want to focus on. THIS man's life deserves honor and respect. Your comments worked to diminish that and to deepen the pain I've gone through this week.

Since Jim's passing, two more friends have died as well. Two more have been hospitalized with extremely serious conditions.

So, to the Bonehead Blogger, any comments you want to make of a political nature can be made ON YOUR BLOG. Do you get it yet? I am not your target. I do not advocate abortion, although I do believe it is a woman's right to choose, along with her doctor, family and support system, not your right to dictate. But the abortion issue is not why I mentioned Friedan. There is so much more to her work over the decades that you have completely disregarded because of your blind obsession with one issue.

Oh the irony!

And the delicious part is that it completely is lost on the author!

A certain bone-headed blogger has been lamenting over the moral decline of our country for a while now. He likes to compare teen-age girls to prostitutes and rails against sex education because, well, you know, it will just make kids want to "do it." (An aside: Does anyone really believe that the current generation is the first to discover and fall to the pleasures of sex?)

And he attacks all manner of sinners -- the media, the schools, liberals especially.

However, isn't there more than just a LITTLE hypocrisy when this same poster has a photo of Gabrielle Reilly on his blog, talking about what a "babe" she is and really drooling over her politics? Oh, no, it's not a photo of Ms. Reilly meeting with officials or politicians. It's a photo of Reilly wearing a very, very deep-cut bathing suit. Who is it feeding in to the "moral decline of America" now? Isn't it funny that while touting this woman's conservative politics that he chose such a suggestive photo?

Let's set the record straight

I removed a political comment from the previous post because it was inappropriate and insensitive, considering the topic of the post I had made.

However, there are some matters that need to be set straight, raised in the now-gone comment.

There are still many people who are trying to continue the ranting that we're going to hell in a handbasket. And to make their case, they like to lump in a whole slew of problems to make them sound like it's one big thing, immorality, that's going to get us.

See, they like to make a stew of women's rights, internet sexual predators, sex education, teenage promiscuity and "increasing birth rates." They want us to believe these are all exactly the same thing. And they are not.

Listen to a common catch phrase: They like to talk about the olden days, "when the air was clean and sex was dirty."

Yeah, besides being hackneyed, it's just a stupid phrase. Kind of reminiscent of the 1970s non sequitur: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

Let's look at the truth:

Teenage childbearing has been on a long-term decline in the United States since the late 1950s, except for a brief, but steep, upward climb in the late 1980s through 1991. The 2003 rate (41.7 births per 1,000 for teens ages 15–19) is 3% lower than in 2002 and 33% lower than the most recent peak in 1991 (61.8). The declining teenage birth rate has had an impressive impact on the number of babies born to teenagers. If the birth rates by age had remained at 1991 levels throughout the 1990s instead of declining as they did, there would have been an additional 546,000 births to teenagers over the decade. Possible factors accounting for the decline include decreased sexual activity reflecting changing attitudes toward premarital sex, an increase in condom use, and the adoption of newly available hormonal contraception, implants, and injectables.

Despite the rates' reaching record lows in 2003, U.S. teenage birth rates remain substantially higher than rates for other developed countries.

(Source: Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 53, no. 9, Nov. 23, 2004.)

Even more interesting is this chart showing how drastically the teen birth rate has dropped:

Teen childbearing
Year Total number of births to women 15–19 years
1940 300,747
1950 419,535
1960 586,966
1970 644,708
1980 552,161
1990 521,826
2000 468,990
2002 425,493
2003 414,961

Year Birth rate per 1,000 women 15–19 years
1940 54.1
1950 81.6
1960 89.1
1970 68.3
1980 53.0
1990 59.9
2000 48.5
2002 43.0
2003 41.7

Why lookie there ... the highest birth rate decade for women 15-19 was ... the "good old days" of the 1960s. The current birth rate to this age group is less than HALF now.

This "hell in a handbasket" faction also is strongly anti-abortion. They also like to play with the numbers to make the U.S. sound like a murderous lot. Personally, I don't know of anyone who actively seeks out unborn children to kill. There probably have been plenty of cases of infanticide in history -- King Herrod being the main one I can call to mind at the moment. But those who support a woman's right to choose are NOT (and let me re-emphasize the word "NOT") on a mission to kill unborn babies. They are for the woman's right to chose. There are as many reasons for making that choice as there are women. They, along with their doctors, families and support systems make those choices.

Many people who are for choice are also working diligently to find ways of making the choice unnecessary. This is not something anyone WANTS to do. And there are even fewer voices advocating abortion as a method of birth control. Yes, it does happen, but let's again look at the real numbers:

Here are the abortion rates (legal abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44. Note, this is not just teenagers.)

1972 - 13
1980 - 25
1985 - 24
1990 - 24
1995 - 20
1997 - 20
1999 - 17
2000 - 16
2001 - 16

See the peak? It was back "in the good old days" of 1980.

Many of us are old enough to remember when abortion was not legal. That is not to say that abortions did not happen, because they certainly did -- in back-alley clinics under unsanitary conditions. Women died. Women were permanently damaged. Too many were never able to have families. Many of these women medically needed to terminate a pregnancy, a terribly heart-breaking situation. Too many of my friends have been in such circumstances. They desperately wanted to deliver a live baby but that was not going to happen. And without medical intervention, they too would be at risk of death or terrible complications.

Let's consider some other facts about our changing society. Many years ago, women (and men) married at a much younger age. Here is the MEDIAN age at first marriage as supplied by the U.S. Census. REMEMBER THIS: Median means half were married before this age, half after. Keep that in mind -- it means an awful lot of people were getting married before they were this old:

Year Males Females
1890 26.1 22.0
1900 25.9 21.9
1910 25.1 21.6
1920 24.6 21.2
1930 24.3 21.3
1940 24.3 21.5
1950 22.8 20.3
1960 22.8 20.3
1970 23.2 20.8
1980 24.7 22.0
1990 26.1 23.9
1993 26.5 24.5
1994 26.7 24.5
1995 26.9 24.5
1996 27.1 24.8
1997 26.8 25.0
1998 26.7 25.0
1999 26.9 25.1
2000 26.8 25.1
2001 26.9 25.1
2002 26.9 25.3
2003 27.1 25.3

So let's review, shall we? Teen birth rates are down, sharply. Legal abortion rates are down, sharply. Age at first marriage continues to rise.

Here's another important statistic: the Gender Gap for full-time, year-round work. We'll hit every few years from the 1950s to now, to see the trend (you can look up all years from 1951 to 2003 yourself.)

Year Women's earnings as a percentage of men's
1951 63.9
1955 63.9
1960 60.7
1965 59.9
1970 59.4
1975 58.8
1980 60.2
1985 64.6
1990 71.6
1995 71.4
2000 73.3
2001 76.3
2002 76.6
2003 75.5

As women are treated with respect, as equals, the earning gap will continue to narrow. We'll see more positive changes: Continuing declines in teen births; a drop in the rate of abortions; an increase in age at first marriage.

All of these things require education -- sex education included. As women become more empowered, especially young women, they will seek their own bright futures. They will make wiser decisions to protect their own bodies from early pregnancies and disease. They will postpone marriage until they are stable, equally contributing partners.

Marriages will be stronger from the beginning -- they will be true partnerships of two equal adults, not weak partners looking for a chance to escape unhealthy situations through marriage.

Child abuse, internet predators and the like? Well, those are whole separate issues. And they should be dealt with separately, as they usually involve sick adult men.

The present, and the future, is not nearly as glum as some would have us believe. The truth is there in the numbers. Education works. Sex education work. Birth control education works.

An update

My friend Jim (see post below) died this morning. His memorial service will be next Saturday to allow plenty of time for friends and family from all over the country to arrive.
I continue to work with his wife Barbara on a slide show of his life. It is going very well. I spent much of the day with her. What an honor to learn more about Jim and their life together!

Tonight I learned that J.T.'s mother has been hospitalized. I would ask for your prayers on her behalf and for their family. She is an amazing, wonderful woman whose health has started declining recently.

Please also remember Tech's niece, whom he mentioned on his blog.

Also of note: the passing of Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan -- two women who did amazing things with their lives to make the lives of countless others richer and more significant, bringing hope to classes of people who, at the time, didn't enjoy all the benefits of our society. We've come a long way because of these women; it would be a tribute to them and all our heros to continue the work.

A time of transitioning

For the past several weeks a dear man from my church has been in the hospital. He's 78 years old; he and his wife have been married for 60 years. I've visited him several times while he's been in the hospital -- reading to him, just visiting with him, taking him a prayer shawl from the church.

I just really care a great deal for this couple. They are still deeply in love, tremendously faithful, good people.

His wife called me early this afternoon to tell me he's now become more critically ill and asked for my help writing his obituary, so I went over to their house and spent several hours with her. Most of the information was already collected. I just put it in newspaper form for them (I first started my career as an obituary writer in 1976 and I've written the obits for my whole family.)

We talked about the plans for the memorial service and I asked her if she would like to do a slide show of photos of Jim's life. She loved the idea and I told her I could take some of her photos and scan them in and put them in some order that would tell the story of his life.

She showed me around the house and the gardens that they built during the 40 years they've lived in their home. She told me many stories that I'll ask the minister to allow us to use in the memorial service.

We fixed grilled cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner, then I went to the hospital to help feed Jim and spend some time with him, to give Barbara a little more time to herself before she came back to the hospital. It's the only time I've written an obituary for someone and then gone to feed them. That was a bit surreal.

This evening I'll be scanning in photos and things like that.

There is such a sweetness to their relationship. They were married at 17 and 19 -- she was still in high school, but Jim married her before he left for the U.S. Navy so she would have his allotment to live on.

I cannot imagine what she will have to go through in the coming days as he transitions past this lifetime with her.

What lines from TV shows crack you up?

Here's one that makes me laugh myself sick.

"I once made a vest from your wife's underpants. I can't imagine what you would do to me." -- Bill Dauterive, "King of the Hill."

A satisfying Sunday

It's been a pretty good day here in Trixie-land. It's one of those increasingly rare Sundays in which I find my true Sabbath. Today has been a great day for fellowship, learning and rest.

This morning I served breakfast to my Sunday school class. We had a ham and cheese quiche I made last night, along with cantaloupe and red grapes. Normally the class tends to ignore the sugary treats we usually have -- donuts and the like -- because everyone is "on diets." Yeah, OK, whatever. I can't have them anyway because of my blood sugar levels. So there wasn't much left of this morning's breakfast when we ended class.

There were several visitors at church this morning with whom I've had some sort of previous connection, so there was lots of hugging and "good to see you, I need to call you and talk to you about ..." moments.

Some of my friends just returned from a two-week mission trip to Kenya. It was good to see most of them at church this morning, though some were too exhausted from the trip to be with us today. One of them brought me back some loose-leaf tea. I can't wait to hear more about their trip. Their work project on this trip was completing the building of a library.

A couple of our ministries are unique. As I've posted before, (see here: Cuddling up in the pews.) we supply the Oklahoma Highway Patrol with "Comfort Critters" -- teddy bears and the like to help comfort children in distress that the OHP comes across in the course of its work. We dedicated another "herd" of between 90 and 100 critters and sent them out on their mission today. We'll introduce a new crop next Sunday so they can soak up the lovin' and the songs and the sermons and the prayers too and then go out to do their job in March.

Our prayer shawl ministry also gives tactile comfort, to some of our most ill members. The shawls are either knitted or crocheted; we've added some simpler fleece lap blankets with fringes because we can create enough of them in short order to meet the demand. During the service, these shawls and blankets are placed on the altar rail; at the end of the service, members of the congregation are invited to come say a prayer over them and tie a knot representing that prayer in the fringe.

Last week I delivered one of the knitted shawls to an elderly friend of mine who has been in the hospital for several weeks now. I told him about how it was made and that everyone at the church had prayed for him, and showed him the knots and told him each knot represented a prayer for his comfort and health. And I explained it was something soft that he could just have nearby to touch, sort of like a teddy bear, and it could wrap him in warmth if he needed it. Also it could be tossed to the side if he wished, until he wanted it close by again. We included a note with the prayer shawls too. He had a hard time expressing his appreciation as he tried to keep from crying. It was a good ministry, and will continue to be a good ministry.

I came home and enjoyed a delicious nap, something I've missed dearly lately. There's not a lot that is pressing for attention tonight, so I can enjoy some leisure time without guilt, something that is truly a blessing. I hope you have this kind of rest today, too.

Look what it's doing!

It's called "rain." We haven't seen it for a long, long time but I do believe I remember that's what they call it.

Can you see it?? There was enough here that I could leave a footprint on my porch! And I got a drop of rain on my sweater when I went outside! WOOT!

The James Frey controversy

Writer James Frey has run contrary to Oprah Winfrey by revealing that his book, "A Million Tiny Pieces," is not a factual memoir as he has represented it. In several instances, portions of the best-selling book have overblown the truth of Mr. Frey's addiction and recovery. One point in particular is his assertion that he was imprisoned for three months -- the truth is, it was a few hours.

The questions about the truth of his tale had been raised by www.thesmokinggun.com. Frey subsequently appeared on Larry King Live and was questioned about the discrepancies; Oprah called in to defend him.

Since then, Oprah has further investigated Frey's manuscript and withdrawn her support of Frey. Now she is on the warpath, knowing she was intentionally duped.

Questions she and others have raised: Why wasn't it written as a novel? Why did he sell this book as a memoir?

Today's episode of Oprah will further deal with this as Frey appears again on the show to defend or explain his decisions. (The morning broadcast in some areas was interrupted by the President's address.)

Bottom line: Tell the truth if you're claiming that the piece you are writing is "the truth." If you're not writing a truthful account of the facts, label it as fiction or a "novel based on facts." Don't lie. Don't deceive your readers.

Isn't that part of recovery, anyway?

Some color -- For Einar

I don't want Einar to think that my life in the kitchen is colorless, in shades of black and white only.

Though the photos didn't show it as well as it might have, one side my glass-front cabinets are filled with cobalt blue glass dishes and pottery that I've collected in my travels.





































On the other side I have ruby red dishes and assorted accessory pieces. They are such a dark red they may look black in the photo since they don't have light coming through them.





































I have a lot of colorful textiles I use in the kitchen -- aprons and tea towels. Here's just one example -- the newest of my aprons. This fabric is called "Fruit Cocktail."



































And here are some new serving pieces I just got (don't look at my fat little hand.)

And God laughed

Sometimes I think God must have a real sense of humor. Remember some of us have talked about "signs" recently?

Well, today I've really been down in the dumps (it's that Jan. 24 thing...) I've been watching American Idol, wasting a couple of hours. And I started thinking I wish I could find some sort of motivational help to pull myself up out of this funk I've been in about my life.

I hadn't checked the mail today, so I just went to the mailbox and there's a letter from a Realtor I've met with a couple of times for business. Nice lady. There was a little note from her.

"I pray you will 'Be Moved' beyond your wildest dreams and that this year proves to be your best year ever. And remember ... don't just wish for it, go out and make it happen!"

She signed it "Be Moved" with her name.

Also in the envelope was a copy of this story:


1000 Marbles

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind. He sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles”.

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”

He continued, “Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand marbles”.

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.” “Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me, Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.”

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”

“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is D9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile. “Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.” “Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

The Kitchen is CLEAN!

Welcome to my kitchen! I spent all afternoon cleaning it. Now it sparkles and shines! It smells like an Almond Butter Pound Cake because that's the candle burning in there now that it's clean.

It's a small kitchen -- 7 x 15 feet. I wish I had more storage space. That's on my wish list for my "next house." Yeah. It is. (I have a long list and no money. Meanwhile, I love my kitchen as it is.)

So here we are:









And now, for some reason, I am STARVING! Must find food!

Could it be.... Spring Cleaning?

Today I am spending time on my nest. It's a major cleaning day to set things right here at home.

It could be this non-wintery weather we've been experiencing or just a need to purge the unnecessary things out of my life. I may even do some blog cleaning -- or find more topics to rise to the top.

So far today I've done three loads of laundry while working on the kitchen. Definite progress is being made. I just want to get it done, get it done, get it done.

I'm working in shifts of about 1 hour labor, 10 minutes of break.

I did myself an injury yesterday, more to pride than anything else. I fell full-force on my knees after missing a step at a house where I was doing an interview. My black pants, which I had put on straight out of the dryer about an hour earlier, now have green knees from the paint on the porch. On the way home I got something to drink at Sonic. I managed to pour a great amount of it on myself as I was getting out of the car at home. Mis-er-a-ble day it was.

Well, back to the scullery, right after I do another laundry flip-flop.

Which religion?

Lifted from E.R. over at Erudite Redneck. Take the quiz yourself and see what you get -- are you surprised?

You scored as Christianity. Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian. Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins. Christianity 88% Judaism 46% Islam 42% Buddhism 38% Satanism 29% Hinduism 21% agnosticism 21% Paganism 21% atheism 8% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

WOOT!

It's Tuesday night and AMERICAN IDOL starts NOW!
No meetings for me (hooray!) so I'm catching the first show of the new season with the auditions -- good, bad and ugly.

I'll be glued to the tube for the next couple of hours. Hope the rest of the world continues to turn without me!

Oh HOORAY it's FRIDAY!!!

I am so glad to see this week saying farewell, even if it is Friday the 13th. This is kind of a tough week of transitioning into the new year.

I've been struggling with emptying out my old computer, transferring the keepers to an external hard drive. And then I've been disconnecting my oldest computer and the router. I'm too old and fat to be crawling around inside an armoire disconnecting cables! So the tower of my sick computer is now on top of my work space rather than in the cubby. Thank goodness for USB ports on the front of computers!

Anyhoo, I have about 9 miles of excess cables and cords now. And Every. Single. Piece. Of. Paper in my office has been moved to the dining room table. I must find my Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works discs before I have my sick computer erased. This will be my weekend project.

Throw in extra time on the road, church meetings and hospital visits and it's been a full week. The good thing was having dinner Tuesday night with my friend J.T., who was in town for a meeting. (He still needs to answer the 7 Meme.)

I'm so glad it's Friday. I'm vegging out this evening with a frozen pizza and crappy television. Ahhhhhhh.

YAY!

We have SNOW! Yes! It's just a thin frosting of white, but it's laying all around like a natural fire extinguisher!

No, I'm sure it's not nearly enough to register any significant moisture, but at least for today, perhaps, the grass fires will take a break. YAY!

Knock knock -- is this thing on?

Well, I'm tentatively back online -- with a new laptop. The desktop will be going to see the computer doctor soon. It's a little tricky getting used to a new setup and keyboard. I broke down and installed the mouse through one of the USB ports because I cannot stand the little touchpad thing. I find myself bumping function keys and having everything disappear on me -- I will have to adjust where my hands rest!

Back to the grind -- just wanted to check in, say hello and hope that things are going better for you than they have been for me!

Time Out

I'll be scarce for a few days because of computer headaches. Things have gone from normal to bad and then worse. Today the computer has learned a new trick -- it has decided to just turn itself off. It's been randomly shutting down programs for a week or more, but now that's not enough to satisfy its need for power. Nope, not at all. Now it's saying "bye!"

So I have ordered a new laptop, which I should have in a few days. After it's ready, I'll take the PC in to have it wiped clean and start from scratch having Microsoft reloaded. I'm excited at both prospects!

Until I've got my new machine and get the old one up and running again, I can't make any guarantees about being online. My work comes before playtime, like everyone's, but things are currently too erratic to get my work done. And that makes more than me anxious.

So... I'll try to check in, but if you miss me for a short while, you know the story now.

Shamrock is burning

Once again wildfires are burning the little bit of what's left of Shamrock, OK, basically a little ghost town in Creek County.

Today the old school burned to the ground.

There may not be more than a handful of people still living in Shamrock, but it is important to me. Much of my family history centered here.

Shamrock was a boom town during the oil boom of the 1920s and 1930s. My grandparents worked and lived on the oil lease, where they raised a family of six children, including my dad.


The Museum in Shamrock, OK. (2001)

In my lifetime there's never been much to the town, which at one time had up to 30,000 residents overnight. There's one two-story building in town, painted bright green. It's most recently been a "museum" of sorts, but that's a whole different story.


Postman at the Shamrock Post Office. (2001)


The Shamrock Volunteer Fire Department. (2001)
There's small volunteer fire department; a post office about the size of my living room, and a bar.

And a cemetery.

There are two days during the year which swell the population of Shamrock considerably. One, of course, is St. Patrick's day. Rather, it's the Saturday before St. Patrick's day; anyone who wants to come can be in a parade, or watch it. There's usually some sort of community meal, maybe a few activities for kids.


Say hello to my Dad, who is next to his brother and my grandparents at the Shamrock Cemetery.

The other boom day is Memorial Day, when the descendants of those who lived here gather at the cemetery. Now and then you'll hear one of the older survivors refer to the day as "Decoration Day." Graves are tidied up and decorated with flowers and flags; tombstones polished to remove the red dust.


The Shamrock jail.

There are bits and pieces of other structures -- car dealerships, banks, a jail -- all long gone. There's just enough left to identify what they used to be, decades ago, when people actually strolled along the sidewalks and Saturday nights were wild.


Remnants of a former bank (2001).

An early-day auto dealership.

One of the last businesses of Shamrock; it looks like one day they just walked away and never came back.