Children

I cannot begin to describe how much I love my children.

I cannot lie, my love first and foremost is for my own biological children. But not too far behind are my other children, the children of my heart that I have met along the way.

And I believe, that for the bio-children, and the alterna-children, love-- my love, and the love shared between Ken and me, and our family love-- that love has made a difference.

But I know there are no guarantees.

My daughter is grieving with her best friend. His sister died, probably alcohol poisoning. The beautiful young girl who died was featured in a video made in her memory, picture after picture of a smiling, beautiful girl and young woman, surrounded by loving friends and family.

It wasn't enough.

And I know that those particular dangers were there- maybe are there-- for my children, too. I know that my children are not immune to the temptations of too much drink, offers of drugs -- or merely being on the roads when someone else has "indulged".

Indulged. What a word. We aren't talking about an extra slice of chocolate cake here.

My heart hurt watching the video.

And I remembered how much I love my children, all of them.

old dogs, new names

So I thought it might be time to reintroduce you to my dogs since they have new names.

This is GetOffTheCouch:

This is GoLayDown:

Since this is the only way I address them lately, seems like I should officially change their names.

happy birthday

We are all born at every birth. At least, that is how I think of it with our family.



My favorite youngest son has a birthday coming up.



(I also have a favorite oldest son, a favorite oldest daughter and a favorite youngest daughter.)



My favorite oldest daughter had a birthday not too long ago, which made me grateful that she was born, and so was our family.



And now, as my son's birthday approaches, I think that when he was born, so was a new family- a family of five.



The "old" family wasn't gone- the four of us from before- and yet we were still a new family.



Just as, when my favorite oldest daughter was born, our couple-ness was not ended, and yet a new family began.



So happy birthday to us all-- again and again and again.

writers write

Many have made this observation, including my daughter the writer.

I am a writer too.

I write all the time.

Sometimes it's just lists. For instance, today's list:
make a list
design Distinguished Alumni presentation
design Richard Donahue Award presentation
design Joseph Haynie Award presentation
complete Production Awards
gather computer, light projector, speaker, etc.
get gorgeous
attend White Frosting
clean up
get home
plan trip to Chicago

That's not ALL that I have to do today, but those are the highlights that I mustn't forget.

And there is value in such lists. Much like a journal, it records what is happening in one's life. Looking back at ancient lists, it reminds me what my priorities were at that time. Sometimes, it gives me a sense of accomplishment when I see how much of that list is now done! Sometimes, it reminds me how priorities change when I see that there is little if anything on the list that I now care about or even remember.

However, there is other writing that needs my focused attention soon. Writing plays, articles and books needs a high priority place on the lists I make in future.

Because writers write.

Fear and Guilt as a marketing strategy

Pop-up ads and border ads are how the Internet is funded, no doubt about it.

The ad that caught my eye this morning had a huddled figure in a gray landscape with the caption:

If you died today, who would take care of your family?

Which got me thinking -- not in the way the marketers intended.

If I died today, my family would be fine. Seriously. I have insurance that would cover the burial expenses and take care of some counseling, if needed. All my children are grown and have busy lives of their own. The small income I have is not in any way relied on for managing our household.

So, the fear and guilt the ad is meant to inspire so that I would run out and buy more or better life insurance fails miserably in my case.

However, the ad *did* make me feel something-- uncomfortable, sad.

If I died tomorrow, it seems, it would make no difference at all.

Yesterday, Oprah announced that she will be ending her TV show in about a year and a half, and it was MAJOR NEWS.

My life? not so much.

unseen Powers and how we depend on Them

It is all around us. Invisible, yet powerful. It permeates our lives, although we think of it seldom.

It times of deepest darkness, we cry out for it.

Electricity.

Ah, yes.

So, on Monday, my dh (dear husband) and I were watching TV (television) when we heard a chirping. We heard it a few times.

WHAT was that noise?

It was the smoke detector. But why?

DH turned on the hall light to check. The hall light came on, but dimly. Then it got brighter again.

Hmm....

DH went and checked the circuit breaker box and toggled some switches. Still the occasional fades of power on certain switches.

Odd.

So we went to bed. I read for a while before turning off my bed-lamp-- which would occasionally dim to night-light levels, then after a bit return to read-lamp levels.

Odd.

So, we were already determined we might have to bring in more electronically-minded folk than we-- and then we got up to:

NO WATER.

Our water pump was NOT working. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Feh!

We splashed water on our faces from our filtered-water cache, and rinsed our tooth-brushes with mouthwash. We went to spend the day at work and then we went to a hotel!! with an appointment the next day with an electrician. This was Tuesday night, planning to meet with the electrician on Wednesday.

The electrician arrived on Wednesday. After the embarrassing ordeal of walking through our cluttered basement to the circuit breaker box, the electrician came up with the good news-bad news results.

The good news: the house did not burn down, although it could have from the shorts in the box.

The bad news: due to water coming in to the circuit breaker box, we needed to replace the entire box.

The more bad news: this could not be done till the following day.

The more more bad news (from me): I must throw out the contents of our refrigerator.

I waited for DH to come home from the board meeting he had to attend that night. I thought he would be home about 7:00 or 7:30 pm and we would go out to dine and then perhaps book another hotel (no water means no shower and perhaps even more critical NO FLUSHING OF TOILETS!).

DH's board meeting ran until past 9:00 pm. He was wiped out. So, I fixed him a drink, then we went out to eat (and washed up at the restaurant in the bathroom!) and came home to sleep.

The next day, Thursday, the electrician returned and all is now repaired.

I don't know how much this all ended up costing; however, hot showers and flushing toilets: priceless!

What I did today... and yesterday...

Yesterday I emptied my refrigerator. Because I live in Michigan, I could put all my refrigerator items in the garage because we only had a high today of 40 degrees.

I unplugged the refrigerator and propped the doors open.

I threw away *sigh* a bunch of food, as the fridge had not been fridging very well.

That was yesterday. Today I finished cleaning the thawed and melted refrigerator. I cleaned the floor underneath it (OMG WAS THAT GROSS). I plugged the fridge back in and put a refrigerator thermometer in it.

It has been about 12 hours. The temperature has now gotten down to.. 50.

There may be a refrigerator shopping spree in the future. The near future.