Gerard Alexander

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've posted, and I've a lot to catch up on, but this entry is for Gerard Alexander. I just received an email from my friend Sherry in Michigan. After a difficult year, the last I knew life was going well for her. She and her husband had bought a lovely new home, were expecting a child, and were past the traditional pregnancy "danger" zone for miscarriages. This was a big deal after losing a much wanted pregnancy the year before.

10 days ago, Sherry's uterus ruptured and she hemorrhaged. Little 6 month gestation Gerard Alexander died, and she very nearly joined him. Sherry and Mike buried their son yesterday. As icing on the cake, another pregnancy would be life-threatening.

Ya gotta find the good things in life and hang on to them, 'cause God knows there's enough tragedy out there to drive anyone to despair. Parents, hug your kids tonight, and be grateful you have them.

How to tell if it's been raining all day

You come home to muddy footprints on your floors. Your dog is chasing his tail in the middle of the living room (at 3 years old!). You have toys dumped in your lap every time you sit down. Small furry noses intrude into any activity you attempt to do below waist level. AND the dog runs past you at warp speed carrying his latest treasure - your dustpan! (All the while watching you out of the corner of his eye to see if this latest gambet will convince you to play 'keep away'!)

So much for cleaning!

LOL I started today thinking I was going to get a lot of cleaning done. HAH! I found out Friday that I was invited to (another) potluck. I got the kitchen cleaned up and decided to make another dish of my squash dressing. It's very tasty, and suitable for vegetarians. (I work with three.) While doing that, I decided to do another trial run on the biscuits as I'd not been pleased with their performance on my first attempt. They were MUCH better this time! :D I had apples to use up, so I made a batch of my applescotch cookies too.

In between all that I had a long conversation with Julie - who gave me several cooking tips - and a decent conversation with my niece, Kaitlynn, who was killing time until her birthday party started. I moved the turkey from the freezer to the fridge. And I ran a load of laundry. But, as I'm sure you can guess - there was no cleaning going on - aside from recleaning my scraper and whisk over and over again.

T curled up on his bed in corner of the kitchen and slept as I cooked, while Midas hung out on the back porch watching the drizzle and keeping an eye out for any roving dogs that might come by to visit. A calm and pleasant day in the chaos that masquerades as my home...

Cooking away

Our Thanksgiving potluck at work is tomorrow and I've decided to do a test run on my Granny's biscuit recipe. I also made a casserole dish of my squash dressing. I know - it sounds weird, but it's actually pretty good, and usually is totally gone by the time the day is over. The biscuits are in the oven, and I'm winging it - as the recipe neglected to mention either the temperature or the length of time to bake them - LOL So, when in doubt, go for 350 degrees, and check every few minutes. We're at 15 minutes now and they're smelling wonderful but don't look quite done yet. The dressing is already done - and I'll be having a biscuit or two before bed. :-)

I think I've gotten all my grocery and holiday shopping done, for now. I have a few more gifts to buy - and lots of them to wrap! I also have to figure out how to get Kaitlynn's birthday present to her. (sigh) Somehow, some way - she will get it. If I'm lucky, she'll even like it.

Musings

It hit me the other day how much things have changed in the last 20 years. When I graduated high school - our household microwave was still a novelty, and great fun to play with. I credit it with at least the first 10 of my unwanted pounds. LOL You could pop a few pieces of buttered bread in, cook it for 5 secs, sprinkle sugar on it and have a lovely sweet treat. :D

Our family was really cool - we were one of the few that had an ACTUAL computer at home. Not an Atari game system, mind you, but a real live Atari 800 COMPUTER. We used to get those programming magazines and Leonard and I would read code to each other as we input the programs. 7 or 8 pages later, it would finally be done and we'd call everyone around to see the wondrous graphic program we'd just done - usually to find that it didn't work, either due to a typo on our part or, more exasperatingly, a misprint in the magazine!

I remember the first time I ever heard of the internet - my friend Julie was receiving 'roses' from another computer user in the PJC computer lab. She kept explaining that he would 'send' them to her - I couldn't figure out how it was getting from one computer to another! The words 'network' and 'internet' were gobbledegook. I finally figured it out my freshman year in college when a classmate (who must've been really rich) had a computer that he plugged into a PHONE line and was able to send messages to other people! WOW!!! I was amazed - and still remember his ISP - Comp-u-Serve. LOL Anyone remember them? And, in case you're wondering, here's a dozen roses for you. @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->--

I remember the good ol' days - when my baby brother started his day off watching Captain Kangaroo religiously. When the Saturday morning cartoons were actually funny and the main characters were "The Justice League" with SuperMan, WonderWoman, AquaMan, and the WonderTwins. Scooby-Doo was a weekly fixture and not a goofy movie.

What did we learn from those cartoons? That brainy was not something to make fun of - knobby kneed, goofy guys could be popular - might did not always make right - that people working together usually accomplish more than one person alone - and that the good guys should always win!

And remember those short little commercials that always ran between the cartoons? "I am a Bill" "We the People -" "I am a Verb" and their friends? How MUCH did we learn without realizing it? I can still quote half of the Proclamation - because I can hear it, being sung, in my memory from that silly little commercial 30 years ago! BTW - those are now available on DVD under the title "SchoolHouse Rocks" - and I'm seriously thinking about buying it for myself...sometime after I replace the DVD player of course. (sigh).

I think the thing I liked best about the cartoons is that they credited their young audience with having both brains and morals. That's probably why my generation has such a distinct hatred of that damn purple dino and it's insipid little songs. LOL We grew up on Romper Room, Mr. Rogers, and Captain Kangaroo - programs that encouraged us to get moving, get thinking, and be "NICE" too.

What things do I remember that would amaze my nieces and nephews? Black and white TV. TV that was ABC, CBS, NBC and one or two local stations - that were REALLY local programming! And forget about remotes - if you wanted to change the channel you got up and turned the dial and then tuned the station in. Life before VCR's and microwaves, when leftovers were actually heated up on the stove (and tasted terrible). I remember sleeping in the floorboard of our car - there was no hump between the two sides - on a long trip up the east coast. The battles over who got to sit in the front seat. Riding my bicycle with no helmet (what's a helmet?) and a flag on a long skinny pole off the back post so everyone could see me. Visiting my grandparents and watching - gag - the Lawrence Welk show. (I still don't miss that!)

I remember watching "Hogan's Heroes", "M*A*S*H", and "Bewitched" in black and white - and thinking (at age 6 or 7) Barbara Eden was the prettiest lady I'd ever seen in "Jeanie". Overall, my 3 favorite female TV characters were probably Samantha on Bewitched, Jamie on Bionic Woman (and Six Million Dollar Man) and, of course WonderWoman - cause she looked AMAZING.

How the world has changed! What things do you remember?

800 + ; It's amazing!

Yes, if you note the counter at the left, you'll notice that my site has now been hit more than 800 times since it's May 14th inaugural note. WOW! I know I can take credit for about a third of those hits, as I love to check and see if anyone has actually been interested enough to come by. LOL It's abit weird to know that so many people have come by and not have any idea what most of them think of my site. It must be similar to how film actors feel - I'm performing for an invisible audience and looking to the numbers to see if anyone cares.

To remind you - I have many more blog pages - though most of them are photo related. They should all be able to be accessed from http://carolesclutter-photos.blogspot.com .

In other news - today is Julie's birthday! HIP HIP HOORAY!!! Ok, she'd probably prefer I didn't mention hips - but hey...SHE'S the one who had to remind me that we're now closer to 50 than 20! I could've gone a few more years not thinking about that math fact. Thanks a LOT Jules! (eyes rolling)

Honestly, it's been way too many years since we first met - I think we'd both prefer not to do that math, but we've had fun, haven't we Julie? I'm so glad we found each other again; our internet chats and long distance cleaning sessions brighten my days and give me something to look forward to. We've bonded these last few years over long discussions on cleaning products, the pros and cons of cloth diapers and breast-feeding, the utter boredom of house cleaning (I STILL can't believe you cleaned your baseboards with a q-tip!!! The men in white coats were looking for you for weeks!), and the impenetrable mysteries of the male psyche. We've shared recipes and heartaches. Ok, my heartaches anyway! LOL I get the vicarious thrill of hearing about Miss B as she grows and changes - without ever having to have filled a bottle/sippy cup or change a diaper. How much better can it get? :-)

On an aside - thinking of Miss B just reminded me of one of my favorite memories from my last visit home, when I started to teach Erin the words to "Zippety - do -dah, zippety - yay"... I think she likes it as much as I do! For a brief moment, Erin, I and Mum were all singing the same song - talk about an intergenerational memory -

Depressing -

My neighbor across the street rang my doorbell tonight, shortly after I got home. He was upset and finally came around to telling me that his common-law wife didn't pay the power bill again and it was cut off. They're not talking, and he didn't want her to stay in the house tonight with no power so he wanted me to keep her here with me tonight. I feel terrible, but I said no.

She's disabled, and there's no way I could keep the dogs away from her. Also no way for me to get her out of the house once he brought her in (stairs). AND I have to leave tomorrow by 6:30 for work and I'm not leaving her alone in my house.

Does this make me a terrible person? All I could think was - if she gets it, she'll never leave. I feel rotten, but they've taken advantage of me for nearly 3 years now, and I can't let it continue.