Taking a Break

Blogs in order to be good need a certain amount of work.  They need to be freshened, updated, and cared for.  The writer needs to find something for inspiration, interest, and knowledge.

For a little more than two years now I've enjoyed writing this blog.  It has been a wonderful experience and what I appreciate most is YOU.

Lately, it's been pressing on my heart that I need to finish my project about angels.  It's not that the blog takes up so much time; it's that the blog and the project are vying for the same time slot and the same kind of creativity and energy.

So with that -- I think maybe I will take a break.  I'll leave the blog up for a while without updates and see how long the project takes.  Maybe leaving it there will remind me that I have to get going on it and not just use the time for some other purpose.

We'll see.  In any case, I will sure miss this and I will sure miss you.

Perhaps the one thing that I would leave you with at this closing is the realization of how much attitude governs much of our lives.

It isn't just having a Christian attitude; that's hugely important.  It's also having a positive Christian attitude.

After my friend, Bacari's, facebook posting of a few days ago where he showed such an amazing power for believing in good and in rejoicing with each little step forward, I'm very sure that part of my Lenten experience is going to be trying to be that person -- the one who keeps their head up and a smile on their face.

Were it not for his wonderful positive outlook, the flat tire and the lack of a wrench and the interruption of a planned trip would have made for angry outbursts and flashes of frustration.  And his fiancé would have been sitting in the car afraid to smile about anything.  The whole experience would have turned into something that both of them would want to soon forget.  But in one degree weather, it just didn't create in him that reaction.  Instead, he kept running for the prize and we know what that is, don't we?

"We are called; we are chosen; we are Christ for one another," are the words from a wonderful hymn.  With that, my official break from Life in a Small Town starts today.

So yours in Christ,

Karen

Home Sweet Home

Got home at around 4:15 p.m. yesterday afternoon.  Eric is very, very happy, taking his medications and loving every minute of being home again.

The hospital did a very good job of trying to make things nice.  One of the best parts of Mercy is their food ordering system.  They come to your room and take your order and never get it wrong.  If I would want to eat a meal with Eric from the cafeteria, all I have to do is call a number and order, and pay with a credit card.  It is only $6.50 for a full meal and that's not bad!!

One nurse sticks out in my mind as being exceptional.  Dan.  Dan took his job very seriously and was amazing in how he listened and responded to his patients.  I saw him take a seat by one patient and just listen to what the patient's concerns were, and then he empathized.  He admitted that he loves his job and that is marvelous!!

Well, the horn just went off again and the cats scattered in all directions.  The sound comes from a device that works with the inhaler and it sounds exactly like a pitch pipe.  Loud too.  The respiratory therapist shared with my husband that the inhalants in most cases go into your mouth and bounce off the roof, never getting to the lungs where they need to go.  He gave my husband a plastic device invented by Phillips so that the inhalant is more effective.  My husband said that this one piece of information and assistance was worth the whole trip.

The smoke cessation program at Mercy is free and offers information plus support for anyone who wants to take part. 

So, we are home and I also slept great last night, didn't hear a thing.  The cats are so happy that their other owner is home!! 

So that's about it for today.  I'm going to get some work done around the house, feed the birds, manage to get the spreader out and put down some salt and do this before my husband goes out.  He SHOULD NOT be out in the cold just getting over pneumonia, but he is a stubborn man.

Take care, everyone.

Karen

Update

Eric will be coming home today, and I hope the doctor makes it over to his room to sign discharge papers as soon as possible.  He is really anxious to return home.

They wanted him to stay one more night to get some IV antibiotic, just to be sure this pneumonia that came on so strong is really gone.

So it's time for the morning chores -- did the litter, fed the cats, and now it is on to taking garbage can up to the street and feeding the birds.  Oh, and sweeping the mudroom.

I'll be back at 'ya tomorrow at some point.

Now it might just be breakfast time and that sounds good to me.

For two days I ate a Subway 6" sandwich toasted on Italian herbs and cheese bread -- turkey with spinach, tomato, banana peppers, pickles, black olives, and cucumber.  Pepper jack cheese.  Pretty good, but time for a switch.  It's weird because I like Subway, but then when it is time to order, none of the meats sound all that good to me.  I don't know why.

Mercy used to have a McDonald's and the doctors just hated that it was there -- bad diet you know.  But day after day, you could probably find a little more variety and it is cheaper.

Maybe if we have to stay all the way through lunch, I'll just go down to the cafeteria and get something.  That might be good.

Take care everyone.  I thank God for helping me these last days get everything done and feel good, and get in and out of the deck, and all of that good stuff. 

Karen

Break

Taking a little break this morning -- my husband ended up going to ER on Sunday night due to shortness of breath, no chest pain.  It was a small spot of pneumonia on his one lung that was really getting bad fast.  He has been a smoker for years and years and continues to smoke.

In fact, I called the EMS to check him out fearing that something would happen on the ride over to Mercy.  But I did drive him, although they thought he should definitely go.  He was admitted and is doing much, much better.

However, I have birds to feed, cats to feed, stuff to do so I can get over there this morning and bring him home (I hope).  He REALLY wants out of there now. 

Everyone at Mercy has been more than nice.  It's a wonderful hospital.

So talk to you tomorrow if all is more normal.  If you don't hear from me, then things are still a bit hectic.

Bye for now,

Karen

Good news is he has been cigarette free since Sunday night and is considering an attempt at quitting again, I think.

Lent

(Sorry, went over to my son's house this morning because he had a bad sore throat and needed to go to the doctor.  If I hadn't gone, he would have had to get the kids up and take them to the doctor with him at 8:15 a.m. when the temp was about 11-15 below zero.  So I have a pretty good excuse for being late.)


So I have figured out what I am doing for Lent.  It was an obvious choice and one I actually started about a week ago.  I am NOT buying anything on the Internet.  Nothing.  Unless it has extreme importance to the running of this household.

Getting new underwear does not count.  Neither does a pair of slip-on boots.

When I get a little down in the dumps or feel this certain frenzy coming over me, the relief is to buy something on the Internet.  The good feeling doesn't last much past the click to purchase.  The good feeling is replaced by regret and anger at myself.  One day I kind of figured it out.

When I was a little kid and my mom was really not well due to high blood pressure and strokes, we'd get the Montgomery Ward catalog.  She would have me go through it to get ideas on what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas.  And then I imagine she'd call the store and order the item and it would be delivered in a big truck when I was at school.  At any rate, shopping via catalog became kind of a balm to deal with my concerns for my mother and stresses of other kinds.

Now that I've arrived at what the trigger is, I think maybe this time I can gain some control over it and with God's help and some prayers stay away from making anything but necessary purchases.  And besides that, perhaps I can think of something good to do for someone else.

I do not have a large credit card debt or anything like that.  I've always controlled it to be able to pay off the card at the end of the month.  But that doesn't say much for my self-control, just keeping even.  I should be saving something and that's important!!

So far, so good.

I hope you have come up with something for your Lenten journey.  When you think about the start of each day, it is truly another chance to do better, to get things right.  A chance to use more patience, a chance to think of someone else's problems or pain, to say some prayers, to talk to God and to take time to be quiet and listen for an answer.

--------------------

Another topic.  Did I tell you about the Flamm Kuchen?  Okay, well here it goes.  I was looking up Wissembourg, France the other day.  Wissembourg is the largest city near where my grandfather was born and raised.  I'm sure he spent time there as did his mother and father and siblings.  It is lovely with a river going through town and quaint old buildings lining the square.  I found a video that a tourist made about a day in Wissembourg.  There was a market day going on and at one of the booths, a young woman was ladling out a white sauce on flat dough and then they put something else on it and it went into a brick oven fired with wood.  Soon they took it out and served it to their customers along with a big stein of beer.  Looked great!!!  So I wanted to find out more about Flamm Kuchen.

It turns out that the dough used for Flamm Kuchen was actually the tester to see if the oven was hot enough for bread.  An enterprising woman figured she had some items on hand and would just use them to bake the tester into something edible for her family.  Flamm Kuchen was born and it is like fast food in this part of France.

I found a recipe on line for the dough which in this case is yeast-free.  Then you put crème fraiche on top.  Crème fraiche is pronounced, "Crem fresh."  To make it, you use 1 cup whipping cream at room temperature and one tablespoon of buttermilk or sour cream at room temperature.  Place mixture in a jar with a lid and shake 15 seconds.  Then set aside (at room temp) for 24 hours or until very thick.  Stir once or twice during the 24 hours.  Cream will thicken faster if the temp in the room is warm.  Stir crème fraiche well.  Refrigerate at least six hours before serving.  Cover tightly and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  (Make more if you are making more than one Flamm Kuchen.)

Okay -- so you take the unbaked dough and make rectangles out of it.  Then ladle on some crème fraiche.  Top with very finely cut onion and pieces of bacon.  Put in 500 degree oven until ready.  Shouldn't be very long.

Doesn't that sound wonderful?  You can look up Flamm Kuchen yourself if you like or take the little tour of Wissembourg like I did.  Happy travels.

Timing is Everything

The kids in Perry Schools got an announcement at the very end of the day, sparing the school teachers and administrators from the resulting euphoria.  Thing is, they didn't think about the stalwart bus drivers who had to deal with the celebrating children after such an announcement.

So it was a frazzled ride for them as they wound their way around allotment streets and down main drags to get everyone home safe and sound.

The announcement was heralded because it was not only ONE day but TWO days of no school, due to the severe wind chills and additional snow falls.

This is one of those days when all a body ought to do is find a cozy chair, get out an afghan that is not too hot, not too cold, and make a big mug of hot chocolate.  Then just gaze out the window at Alaska and be happy you don't have to go out in it!!

In fact, our temperatures have beaten Alaska this year which is pretty amazing.  Although, they have certainly had their years of weather woes, so maybe they deserved a break. 

The two shows about Alaska on TV these days don't convince me even one little iota to think about a move there, or even a visit.  It is just too isolated and forboding for me.  Spellchecker says forboding isn't spelled right; who cares?  You know what I mean.

The roofers in the Boston area got more business at this time of year than they would have ever imagined.  They are getting up on the roofs to remove snow before the whole things collapse.  The Bostonians who escaped the winter for a warmer clime still have to worry about the homes they left behind.  Snowplow companies have gotten plenty of business and city/state workers have gotten overtime.

So in this kind of a winter, there are the winners and there are the losers.  The losers are the poor folks who fell in the snow and ice.  One of those people is a woman who goes to Curves and fell and broke her wrist and needed pins.  The emergency rooms have been inundated with fall victims with all sorts of breaks including hips which is a bad one!!  Hard recovery, rehab, pain.

Yesterday, I took the garbage can up the hill for today's pickup.  My husband was out doing some eye screening.  I started up the incline and lost footing right away, so I had to scooch both me and the can over to a more central area of the drive where it wasn't as slippery.  Then imitating Igor in Frankenstein, I dragged my back foot planted sideways and slid my front foot to get to the pavement underneath.  I didn't look ahead at how far I had to go, and just kept going, thinking about how funny I must have looked.  Made it!!  That was a good feeling because I almost quit down at the bottom area.  Apparently, my first attempt left suspicious marks in the snow because the first thing my husband said when he got in the door was, "Did you fall?"  Believe me, if I had fallen there would have been something far more than suspicious.  There would have been a LARGE scuffed up space left behind.

Well, that's about it.  It is good to know that no matter what gets thrown at us, we will get through this and have a wonderful spring to enjoy. 

Take it easy, friends.

Karen

Ash Wednesday

Got back from church -- the children from SPJ did the singing today and Peg and I played for them.  It was very nice.  Then we stayed and practiced some new hymns and Mass music.

So I'm home right now for a little bit.  The car is on top of the hill, ready to go to pick up Lauren and then that's it for the day.

Watch out tomorrow.  If you don't have to go anywhere, don't.  The wind chills are going to be terrible and the temperatures will likely set new records.  It will begin later tonight, I guess.  So I am not going to my other son's house tomorrow to relieve him so he can head to work.  He will probably cancel for the evening anyhow.  His clients won't want to try and come for a workout in this weather either.  It's never worth risking your life for that.

The ISIS situation is getting worse.  Probably because they got quite a rise out of the burning of the pilot, they went ahead and burned some Kurds yesterday.  And then the 21 beheadings from the day before.  The toll is now around 62, I think they said.

A woman who speaks for the State Department said that we need to work on getting jobs in other countries.  She said, "We can't kill our way out of this war."  Interesting she even used the word "war" isn't it?  Well, with that attitude, we sure won't be able to win much of anything.  And it signals weakness to those who hate us and would do harm to us.

Sun Tzu (writer and general) once said, "Know thine enemy," in his book, The Art of War.  There is much truth in that.  It is impossible to fight something that is undefined and misunderstood.  Suppose we were only speaking of ourselves and we said in simple language, "I need to improve myself."  Well, if you don't know yourself well enough to define the faults that need improvement, I'm betting about $100 that you don't improve.

This is really the same thing.  When we fought in Vietnam, we ran into problems not only because the military was hampered from fighting their own fight but also because we did not understand the culture of the Vietnamese well enough.  For one thing, we felt that if we befriended them and gave them gifts as we entered their village, they would still be our friend tomorrow.  Shockingly, during the night the Viet Cong would enter the same village and would stay there for the night.  Why?  Because the Vietnamese were too used to fighting, too used to having this one and that one show up and tell them what to do.  They gave up trying to pick winners and simply existed in the topsy-turvy world they lived in.

The Islamic Jihadists are not completely understood and need to be named as the combatants.  Then we need to understand every nuance of their mindset.  This is when academia could have a strong impact, by imparting the knowledge that would help decision makers understand this growing enemy force.

Well, it is Ash Wednesday, first day of Lent.  What are you giving up?  The children at Mass this morning focused most often on technological gadgets -- my tablet, my iPad, my notebook, TV, video games.  A couple picked sweets.  Last year I quit playing Solitaire on the computer.  I can do that again, I suppose, but it would seem to me that I could come up with something more profound.

I'll think about it the rest of today and have something going by tomorrow.  Best of luck to all of you with the weather pattern!!  Let's vow to hang in there and get through this together!!

Art Supplies

As far as art supplies go, there are so many that never make it to the "toy" shelves but make great kids' entertainment.

I saw one the other day in the Dick Blick catalog (no kidding, that's the name) and it was for some modeling compound that never dries out and always remains pliable.  This is NOT your typical Play Doh.  It was fairly cheap; I think somewhere around $8 for a large gob of it.  It is cheaper than therapy.

The commercial use for it is to create scale models of things, to see how they look and how they could be made to look better before you spend the big bucks. 

Another idea is some stuff that you can find in paint stores.  It is somewhat the same thing and can be used like a modeling compound.  I do think this one dries out though.  This one could be applied to canvas or paper and left to dry to create a more three-dimensional work of art.

As far as watercolors go, there are so many to choose from these days.  There are the cakes which some professional artists even like, the tubes which concentrate the color in an easy-to-use and carry form, and there are the liquids which are easy to blend.  They don't have to cost a fortune and again, make wonderful amusements for kids.  Get watercolor paper though; it does make a difference.

Good brushes are expensive, but there are a range of decent synthetic brushes that can be found in the art department.  The brushes that come with the typical Prang watercolor set just don't give the user a full range of possibilities.  The more fun a child has with something, the longer they stay with it.

Another cheap but fun idea is to use a little salt with watercolors.  When wet, sprinkle just a bit of salt on the painting and see what happens.  Kids will like this.  It is to paper what special effects is to movies.

Speaking of movies, we watched an older one (Rescue Dawn) last night about the true story of Dieter Dengler.  He was an American pilot (born in Germany) shot down in Laos and managed to survive 23 days in the jungle before being rescued.  It gives a very realistic feel for what the jungle must have been like, the heat, the wet, the unrelenting scourge of snakes and bugs (some of which he had to eat).  Apparently, one of the POWs who was housed with Dengler never made it back.  He'd been incarcerated for three years!  He was never heard from again and his family felt the portrayal of him was inaccurate.  Apparently, he had gone out of his way to be kind and generous with other POWs.  So that was one of the reasons why the film probably didn't get its due. 

So that's about it for today.  I think maybe if we can just survive another couple of weeks, we should see a change in the air temperatures.  At least that's what they are saying.  It may be we are surviving the coldest winter ever recorded.  Isn't that something?

Take care.  Stay warm. 

Cold, cold, cold

So today and tomorrow for sure, and probably a number of days yet to come, we will dress as Nanook of the North in order to venture out.

I figured we ought to know something about this Nanook so I did a little digging. 

Nanook was a member of Itivimuit tribe in Quebec, Canada.  In around 1915 and 1916, a man named Robert J. Flaherty was hired as an explorer and prospector along the Hudson Bay for the Canadian Pacific Railway.  He took a three-week class in cinematography before he left and brought along a Bell & Howell movie camera to record the Eskimos.

Flaherty really got into it and spent two years recording the lives of the people, getting to know them and their ways.  However, in 1916 a dropped cigarette caused the destruction of 30,000 feet of film that had already been developed and printed.  Four years later, he finally got sponsorship from a French fur company and returned to start anew.

This time he focused his energy on one Eskimo family -- the husband known as Nanook -- whose real name was Allakariallak.  He took movies of this man's family and their lifestyle, including the building of an igloo and hunting and fishing.

Although this silent film was named as one of the first 25 to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, it was "Hollywoodized" by Flaherty in a number of different ways.

Flaherty took liberty in filming Nanook.  The tribesmen were completely engaged in the process serving as his film crew and in fact, they knew the camera's operation better than Flaherty.  The access they provided Flaherty made the movie possible.  He had Nanook use the time old methods of hunting as had his ancestors, when actually Nanook normally used a gun when he went hunting.  When they built the igloo for the cameras, they couldn't get enough lighting inside to show the actual construction inside, so they build a three walled section for that portion of the film.  Flaherty also took liberties with casting.  The wife of Nanook was actually one of Flaherty's common-law wives.  And in the end, Nanook is depicted as dying of starvation as a testimony of the hardships of the Inuit people, while he actually died in his own home of tuberculosis.

And yet, many were enthralled with this movie that did not claim to bring no harm to animals.  When Nanook went out to kill the walrus and seal, the animals that he killed were the real thing. 

He staged one scene where the Eskimo entered into the trade post only to see a gramophone for the first time.  They feigned surprise and amazement when in fact, Nanook knew exactly what a gramophone was already.

Now when I don my snow pants, insulated snow boots, down-filled coat, insulated gloves with a "hottie" inside each one, and my winter hat covered with the coat's hood -- and I say -- Nanook of the North is going outside -- I will know for the first time what it really means.  And maybe so will you. 

In 1999 Nanook was remastered and is available on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection.  You can purchase it on Amazon for $9.95.

Say a prayer for the folks in Boston and its environs.  They are really in a perilous situation.

Wolf

Back in the 1980s we went to see a movie called, "Never Cry Wolf."  It was kind of an educational movie, mixed in with some adventure and a big shot of humor.

The scientist wanted to embed himself with the wolves for a set period of time.  He was dropped off in no man's land, and then waited for a helicopter drop to bring his temporary home and the supplies he needed for his work.

The scientist's idea as he waited to have a little more contact with the wolves was to urinate all over his territory, kind of like he'd seen them do.  For this purpose, he drank a lot of tea, went about his business, and was rewarded with some reaction from the wolves who began to see him more like another, albeit strange, animal.  He could get in closer and observe better.

He ate what the wolves ate and that was pretty funny but gross.  During the nice warm summer he got rid of most of his clothes.  He found that wolves dine on mice mostly and are really good at finding them.  He watched them raise their young. 

He happened to be on an open stretch of land when a herd of buffalo ran by and it was a near miracle that he wasn't trampled.

He debunked the savage image of the wolf, at least in his own mind.  But we all know that any hungry animal is likely to be quite savage in order to survive.  What got wolves in trouble as the west was settled was that they just couldn't leave the chickens, calves, and lambs alone.

So this morning, I see that a roaming female gray wolf that had made its way hundreds of miles from her home, a tagged animal, was shot and killed by a hunter that mistook her for a coyote.  The first wolf that had come to the area in 70 years!  How sad really.  It's the kind of story that makes me realize that the animals have a lot of enemies to confront.  Not only hunger or the need to find a mate, but certainly people who don't do them any favors. 

So this wolf's life has ended.  The hunter could get jail time.  He doesn't get the pelt.  No one should.  Early settlers killed the bison off.  The desire for a beaver fur hat almost did that species in.  There's nothing wrong with hunting for our need, but not to the point of extinguishing an entire species for it. 

That is just being boorish and hoggish, note the comparison to other animals. 

Like hunting sharks only for their fins.  Disgusting.

I'm not writing a very uplifting story today, am I?  I'll try harder tomorrow, Saturday, a day when we are probably going to get a little more snow.  The schools are in session today == all the class valentine's day parties are going to be held.  I hope every child comes home with a ton of valentines and a feeling that his or her classmates like them a lot!

Take care.  Talk to you tomorrow then.

SAD

Yep, we are talking about SAD again; it happens at this time of the year.

Seasonal Affective Disorder -- SAD

Apparently, the lack of sunshine may trigger something akin to depression for some individuals.  I've seen advertisements for a special kind of light that the sufferer sits under for a period of time each day.  I don't know if it really works but it would be great if it helps.

On a segment of Normal or Nuts on FOX the other day, someone said that they tend to get a little blue at this time of year and reflect on their lives -- what they've done and maybe what they wish they would have done or could have done.

The psychologist said that is normal.  We do tend to review our lives in down times, less active times.  My viewpoint is that this kind of inventory is good, but much, much better if it produces some kind of result. 

Suppose during one of these life reviews a person decides that they need to get off their duff and start volunteering somewhere.  Or making a gift for someone special.  Or helping someone who needs it.  Now, that kind of reflection is wonderful!  A change in the life!  Even something for themselves that would make a difference in their attitude and mood -- like exercising.

Which is exactly what I should be doing this morning, but the drive is covered AGAIN.  For me SAD stands for something else -- SNOW AGAINST DRIVING.  Yikes, I'm tired of being stuck down in this hole when I could be going to Curves.  Instead, I sit around the house doing this and that and invariably finding a magazine or a catalog somewhere -- and then going on line and buying something.  Not good.

SAD is actually serious business -- it probably causes people to miss work, miss appointments, and worse -- not engage and interact with their family members as they should.  It would be nice to figure out how it happens and then find something to counteract it.  I mean, we aren't going to change the weather here in Northeastern Ohio, are we?

From the days in the seventh grade when my toes were frozen going to school in little pointy toed flat shoes to today, my attitude about winter hasn't changed all that much.  Other than gazing out the window first thing in the morning after a tree-clinging snow, it is just a nuisance for me. 

My husband said that he talked to someone the other day and there are a LOT of folks who have just about had it with the weather and are really considering a move.  A guy at my granddaughter's school told me the other day that he and his wife had decided on Arizona.  For real.  I wonder what the results of such a move would be.  Would it make a huge difference?  Would it be worth it to be away from family?

I have a sister who moved to Arizona about eight years ago or so.  She hasn't mentioned missing Ohio even once.  Even when the temps in her area are 100 plus.

There is one place that seems to have its act together -- Western Maryland -- and specifically Deep Creek Lake.  In this locale with 80 plus inches of snow per year, they have it down pat.  They have found ways to enjoy all four seasons and do it in style.  They have skiing, fishing, skating, swimming, and a host of other activities in both spring and fall to round out the year.  They seem to have a can-do attitude about the weather.  We actually considered moving there about 30 years ago.  The lake has about 68 miles of shoreline and is it is beautiful.  The people were friendly.  There was a lovely, old Catholic Church in nearby Oakland which we attended on vacations. 

One of these days we'll go back and see it again.

Look at pictures of blue water and greenery.  It will help.  SAD -- SAD go away.

Got to Hurry

The cat just threw up in the bedroom and I've got to get going because my friend down the street and I are walking at the mall today.

Yikes!

I was just trying to change my university password (they change every six months) and of course, the system is all plugged up with people who just started work at 8:00 a.m.  So I'll wait until all of the hullaballoo is over with and get it done then.

So -- hope you are doing well.  Hope you enjoyed the best laid plans story.

The driveway is still a sheet of ice at the end on top of the gravel.  I just hope that we can get it melted off soon.  I'd be willing to put some toxic cat litter up there and see what that does.  Then when about a half dozen stray cats show up, we'll know.

The washer and dryer came right on time and we are all set now.  I always had this feeling that I couldn't throw in a load because of the dryer making that terrible noise.  It's so nice to have that out of the way now.  The new pair fit in better and look very nice.  We had painted the mudroom a while back and put in some new cabinets that Eric made.  It really does look so much more "done."

So I'm on the way out now.  Got to get my clean-up supplies out and hope that the stain comes out first time.

Take care.  Talk to you tomorrow then.

Best Laid Plans

So you know the old adage about making plans.  We had a semi-firm one to finally get a washer and dryer that match in about six months or so.

Now, mind you, I don't really care all that much.  I mean, we haven't had a matching washer and dryer for 30 years so why start now?  But it had finally gotten on my husband's nerves, and it doesn't help that our washer and dryer happen to be the first things you see when you enter into the house via the door that everyone uses.

At least they were both white; that was something.

Well, Sunday when I got home from church I saw that my husband had the dryer apart.  It had started making this cat screeching sound several months or so before but after a while it would die out and then stop completely.  However, it drove the cats crazy, especially one of them who instead of going away from the sound seemed pathetically drawn toward it.  And then that made her sidekick who always looks out for her and protects her come along too and the two would stand together while Sassy meowed.

He was trying to fix things, truly he was.  But you know how it is when you finally go to repair something and then it just gives out?  That's what happened.  We got it back together, no easy feat, and then thought we had aced it.  We were putting a load in to dry when he noticed that perhaps it wasn't making the usual sound as it spinned.  So he says, "Is that thing going around?  I opened the door and it was just all sitting there.  The motor was going and the heating element was heating, but at this rate, we'd have to wait for hours and hours for anything to dry.

So two loads of wet wash are in a laundry basket with a plastic bag inside waiting for help.  It's coming -- this morning!  We went over to Home Appliance in Massillon and got a new pair that match!  And they are taking the old ones away.  Including a washer that was doing just fine.  We got it used about a year ago.

I guess it will be all right.  We'll just owe $851 and some change and after a while, it will be all paid for. 

It's been an expensive period of time lately around our house.  First, my car.  Now this.  With a few little things thrown in for good measure.

We take a washer and dryer pretty much for granted.  They are the workhorses in the house that we depend on each week.  My mother had a wringer-washer and it was a hideous and scary thing.  We had no dryer; the clothes either hung in the basement or out on the line in the backyard, like most everyone else's did, or maybe it just felt like everyone else did it that way.  The towels were like cardboard, but that was okay too.

When we did get a dryer, it was some big commercial thing that took up half the basement -- a Bendix.  There's an old brand name for you.  My older sister who now lives in Arizona was a nurse.  She cleaned up her nurse's oxfords and polished them up nice, and then thought she'd wash the laces.  You guessed it.  She threw the laces in the Bendix, a dryer that was big enough to fit a kid easily, maybe two and then went around and around until they were ready to go.  Energy conservation.

Take care.  Hope it goes well this morning when they come and install everything. 

I won't know how to act.

A Jordanian Friend

If you want to learn about other countries first-hand in a big hurry, spend some time at The University of Akron.  Many of the students who attend UA come from other countries and they joke that they chose UA because, "It was at the top of the list in the alphabet." 

One young woman came from Jordan.  This was unusual.  I think in all my time at Akron, she was the only one who had come to study at UA from this country. 

She used to work in our our small four-station computer room and she was employed in the department across the hall, or that's my recollection.  We all knew her.  One day she arrived with a thick wad of pictures and told me she had some to show me.  Her pictures were of home and included a number of scenes from the Jordan River -- which she knew had significance to a Christian. 

She showed me the area where Jesus baptized John.  She pointed out other key areas from the Bible.  She had a very good understanding of the Christian faith and had respect for it.

I imagine that she was a Muslim but I am not at all sure.  She was well spoken, funny, and very intelligent.  She told me one day that when she saw people, she saw an aura around them that told her much about them.  She said she saw an aura around me, but I was a little afraid of what she might say.  I didn't ask and now I wish I had.

She was one of our Fulbright Scholars, I think.  At least that sounds right in hindsight.  And I know her career aspiration was to finish her degree and get a job at the United Nations.  She would have been perfect there!!  I know she did get her MBA from Akron.  Maybe I'll ask someone in the College of Business if they hear anything from her.  She was one of the brightest spots, someone we would all remember.

There was another thing I remember about her time with us at UA.  She had hospitality!!  She showed me her family's house.  It was brick or stone of some kind and three stories tall.  There were some trees and such around the home but it was fairly plain.  She told me that if I ever wanted to visit her in Jordan, just let her know and she would love to have me come.

Isn't it funny that we tend to frame our impressions about a place by who we know who came from there?  It is impossible not to.  She put a human face on a country that I'd only seen on a map.  Suddenly, Jordan was a real place but a place that had history going back beyond 2,000 years.

She was a confident, caring person who had some charisma.  She was a sharer, a giver.  Weren't we lucky to have had the chance to get to know her?

Well, I've been bad!  Forgetting to do my blog for a couple of days now.  Strange how a habit that you've had for two years can just disappear!  Maybe that's a sign.

Well, take it easy.  We had another snowy week coming in the forecast.  And one night with really cold temperatures.  And yet, we did hear the birds singing the other day.  I know that was an omen of better times to come!

He Has a Name

Muath al-Kasaesbeh

The Jordanian pilot appears to have gotten the worst punishment to date by ISIS captors.  The young man held in a cage was burned alive with cameras apparently recording not only the sights but the sounds.

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS is what they are.  They believe in the Quran; they are Islamic; they do not claim otherwise.  But they are terrorists and claim as the basis for what they do their belief system.

What is a terrorist?  I found this definition online in a couple of places word-for-word. 

Terrorism is commonly defined as violent acts (or threat of violent acts) intended to create fear (terror), perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and which deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (e.g., neutral military personnel or civilians). Another common definition is political, ideological or religious violence by non-state actors. Some definitions now include acts of unlawful violence and war.

The pilot was apparently carrying out a mission to deter or destroy ISIS members or holdings.  He was not a non-combatant, but in previous acts, ISIS members have beheaded a number of non-combatant individuals who were captured and taken against their will.

I was born in 1946 -- the year after WWII ended.  Our government and other governments were still trying to sort out the despicable and horror-filled deeds of the German dictator and his henchmen.  The Germans were organized and kept excellent records and therefore, the names of all of those killed in the gas chambers and then burned in the crematoria were known full well.  Even after what some of our soldiers saw when they liberated the concentration camps, the extent of the holocaust was still sending out shock waves a year after Germany fell to the allies.

Bits and pieces of what happened in Nazi Germany were being reported by journalists in 1946.  My mother would have been trying to understand what happened in a faraway place where many of our men died.  Unbeknown to her, the home of my father's relatives was taken over by the Nazis and the woman who lived there was forced to live in the basement and cook for them.  A little farther away from that village, an entire segment of my father's family was executed on a December day by the Nazis.

What we are seeing is horribly disturbing to me.  We studied WWII extensively especially because it had only ended less than 20 years before I went to college.  It had been filmed and documented.  It involved most of the countries of the world in one way or another.  One of the main things we learned was the total failure of appeasement.  Town-by-town in Germany, the residents did nothing as the Nazis came and took over and ferreted out the Jews.  So that was their part of appeasement.

The English prime minister, Chamberlain, wanted no part of war.  He was one who thought that if they just gave in to Hitler, offered him another country, everything would be all right.  He would leave them alone.  It only fueled the fires of his hatred and desire for more land, more power.  Winston Churchill was on the other side; he wanted no part of appeasement.  He thought that England needed to fight.

What are we seeing now?

I hate war.  I can't imagine many who do.  I don't want our servicemen and women to die.  Again, I can't imagine many who do - other than the ISIS members who see the United States as their ultimate foe.

Passivity will get us nowhere, I fear.  The image of that young pilot in the cage awaiting a horrible death will stick with me.  I hope it sticks with a lot of people, because it is a sign of evil.

ISIS now has managed to infuriate the Japanese and the Jordanians.  We should be furious for what they have done to ours.  Little by little they are involving country after country; they are forcing a solidarity and in some cases, one of strange bedfellows.

We need to pray; all of you, please pray.

Snowy, Snowy, Icy, Icy

The evolution of the weather yesterday certainly was strange.  The last chapter, the one with the freezing rain, sure did a number on the driveway but my husband did one last plowing/salting before it changed over.  So all we needed today was to spread more safety salt.

My car is kind of like an off-white ice cube so we are waiting until we can get it down the hill and into the garage for a well deserved thawing.

The Super Bowl on Sunday evening was interesting for a couple of reasons:

• My favorite part -- the ads -- was disappointing.  The ads were as someone said "somber" and actually kind of depressing at times.  If ads reflect the overall society's take on things today, then it means that we are collectively down in the dumps.  I'm surprised that advertisers didn't do more with children, God's natural funny people.  I'm surprised that the winning ad only cost $2,000 to make, a great slap in the face to the millions that some companies invest.  I'm surprised that companies didn't take a page from the Great Depression and try to build us up, bring us some fleeting happiness, like the golden age of Hollywood did.
• The last couple of minutes of play was interesting.  The Pat rookie who managed to grab the pass from Seattle with them threatening on the one-yard-line can take his place in the 49 year history of the Super Bowl.  He was probably completely unaware before the game that he might have such a moment.  The Pats' fans were jubilant, and now we get to hear about Deflate-gate without the Super Bowl in the offing.  Wonder what comes out of it?
• The Budweiser ad with the dog was heartening.  That's the mood I was looking for, I guess.  So in a previous bullet point I said that someone should have used kids, but animals are a great second choice for something to tug on the heart strings. 
• My husband struggles with Roman numerals, so no matter how many times I tried to explain it to him, he didn't get it.  Wonder where he was when they went over that stuff in school?  Of course, his dyslexia probably goes into overdrive with Roman numerals.  So the 49 in Roman numerals, XLIX, is an elusive thing for many.  Next year it will be easy -- L.  Won't that look odd on the jerseys?  Bet they go with 50 instead.
• Finally, I'll comment briefly on the halftime show.  I'm not much of a Katy Perry fan but I will give it to her for having the guts to ride on top of that amazing looking lion, and also for standing on the tiny platform hovering a couple of stories over the floor of the stadium.  The music as a whole was boring for me.  When has there been a Super Bowl halftime show that really wowed the crowd?  I can't remember.  It sure wasn't Janet Jackson.

So that's about it for today -- Tuesday -- and I'm going to my son's house to help him out for a little bit and then may return in the afternoon if needed.

Stay warm.  Tuesday is supposed to be snow-free so it would be a good day to get to the grocery store or the gas station before we get some more of the white stuff.