Thanks, Mom

My mom's been gone since January 1, 2004. I think about her every day.

Ours was far from a perfect relationship, with imperfections abounding on both sides. But I can tell you what I received from her:

A love of nature.

A love of words, and reading.

A love of humor.

And those three things almost define me. I cannot begin to express how important all three are to me. I cannot imagine what I would have been, what my life would have been, without them. It took me way too long to realize this but I did get the chance to write it down and give my thanks to her for them in a birthday card one year. It affected her deeply. She always said she wanted to be buried with that card. Unfortunately by the time it was needed, she had lost it so I couldn't, but I did certainly reiterate the fact and my thanks as appropriate, before the people who attended her memorial service and afterwards, between just her and me.

You gave me the world, Mom. Thank you.

Never was into history

I only took one history course in college, because I had to have one. Otherwise, it never interested me much.

However, as I approached retirement I started getting fascinated with old - as in, The Enlightenment-era - scientific instruments. They are beautiful. Such exquisite workmanship and details. I thought maybe I could center a post-retirement hobby around those. I started reading up on the history of science -- which almost immediately plunged me into the arts, religion, economy, social structures and politics of those times. It was all interwoven. Go figure. My personal non-fiction library started to grow, and I've checked many books on those topics out of the library (AND returned them, in case you were wondering!)

Following are many of my non-fiction books:

My bedside TBR. Only the Habit book is not related to my interests in history. (Note the four library books - not due yet!)

Only the Chesterton here isn't history, though this little bunch is surrounded with other fiction books. The Walkable City, surprisingly, fits right in with my general interest; the author refers often to European cities and how they've developed over the centuries.

I haven't read all the books in these pictures yet, but I aim to. (Side note: I liked that book The Swerve, but I actively loathe its title. Unfortunately it seems to have caught on in the history academic circles. Bleagh.) The one on the far left is Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History by Dr. Ahmad Dallal, of Yale. I tried to crack that one when I bought it but it turned out to be rather dry and dense. I'll have another go at it sooner or later; the incredibly rich scientific history of the Islamic world is (or should be) fascinating.

These aren't nearly my whole non-fiction collection. I have TONS of books on France, and the French language, and many many books in my favorite subject of biology and other sciences.  Every once in awhile I do a thorough comb-through and purge some but it's getting down to the ones I really want to keep now. Books comprise one of my two big vices. Not sure if that's grammatically correct...

I could never sit in a classroom and read this stuff and have to study it and take notes, pass tests, ugh ugh ugh. But very slowly, my reading is accruing layers. It's always fun when something in a book on astronomy clicks with one I read earlier about painting in 15th Century France, and like that.

Collecting a great gift bag for new homeowners

I have no idea why my brain decided to think about this today, but for some reason I was remembering when we first moved into this house in 1993, and how more than once as we were settling in, I found myself having to make unexpected store trips to get items that seemed SO OBVIOUS NOW but which we'd completely overlooked when planning for our move. So without further ado, here's my list. You may notice it's not full of things like $300 monogrammed bath towels, or solid gold lamp finials. This is down and dirty stuff you find really handy when you're getting settled in your new home.

Oh wait, there is one ado I want to further: My one big hint for making Moving Day less hellish:

When you're packing your furniture, put the beds in LAST, so they're the first things placed in your home. (Know where you want to put them before moving day, too). And take all the clean bedding you'll need in the car with you - don't for God's sake bury it in the middle of the moving van! Then, when the beds have been brought into the house, put them together FIRST THING, and make them up with the fresh bedding. Then proceed to move your stuff. At the end of that exceedingly long day, you will SO thank yourself for fixing up the beds first - they're ready to fall into when you most need them!

OK, stuff for a goody bag for new homeowners:

Masking tape, one or more widths

a box of adhesive bandages, various

microfiber cleaning cloths

a small calculator

rubber bands, various sizes and widths

tape measure and / or yardstick

pad(s) & pencil(s)

clothespins (honestly, these are CRAZY useful in all rooms of the house!)

two or three spray bottles (you can give them baking soda and vinegar, great less-polluting cleaning compounds, too)

used toothbrushes for cleaning grout and crevices

A box of sandwich-size sealable plastic bags, and / or one of big garbage bags,  will always be useful, too.  A few folds of clean newspaper, clean cotton rags, plastic cleaning bucket...use your imagination! You could also get gift cards at the closest pizza parlor for your exhausted and starving new homeowners. 

Now I have to go scrub off all the Martha cooties I feel like I've attracted...

Freedom of speech

Journalist Leigh Phillips has an excellent article on Ricochet about free speech in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo atrocities. If you've seen some of the Hebdo cartoons and thought, "Hey, the world *would* be a better place without that shit," you really really

REALLY

need to read this.

Blasted cats!

No matter how recently she's been fed, no matter how long I brushed her fur and murmured sweet nothings in Her Imperial Ear, no matter how few minutes ago it was that I stopped what I was doing for me and petted her for a solid ten minutes - if I put her down on the floor in a fit of exasperation, O'Keefe adopts the Supreme Martyr Posture and facial expression and sits by my chair with her despairing gaze cast down to the floor. Emanating those evil Martyred Cat waves at me, silently. In her mind, she is the Most Abused, Most Starved, Most Neglected, Most Unloved Cat in all the universe. And I am the Evil Mom doing all those terrible things to her. Simply because I refuse to pet her 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY!

What -

well, yes, okay, she was the sick one that kept me awake nights about 6 weeks ago because I was so worried she was dying - or worse, I'd have to decide to have her put to sleep.

What's that got to do with it?

It appears that

a couple of people have somehow, miraculously, stumbled across my blog! So I thought I'd better post something. The freshest thing I have is that I finished reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Dawkins last night. It's on our local library's Mystery Book Club list soon, if not next meeting, so even though I originally requested it because I'd read a review, now it also saves me from having to say about Yet Another Club Selection, "I didn't read it." (There have been some problems with the list. They're getting straightened out. I am not the only one who's rejected The List.)

Anyway - I spent most of this book being really irritated with the main character. As in, if I wasn't bloody well DETERMINED to finish a damn book for the club, I probably would have quit somewhere about page 100. This is a personal thing (of course) I mean it's not because it's not well-written - it is *very* well-written - and it's not because the plot didn't make sense or was inconsistent or unbelieveable. The author did a terrific job, actually. She also used multiple points of view but the changes were clearly marked, and she used present tense which should have been distracting, but it wasn't at all.

No, it was me, and it's a fault I recognize in myself in real life, too: I don't like spending time with people who have character traits of my own which I also hate. This probably isn't unique to me. And maybe my irritation with them is a sign that I really need to work on myself a lot more. (I can hear you: "Ya THINK?")

Also, I'm not someone who tries to figure out the solution to mystery novels. I just go along for the ride. I mean, if I figure out whodunnit, the author has made it thumpingly obvious. In this one, I did NOT see the answer coming. I think I said out loud, "Well damn."

So I can recommend this book because it's very well-written, I think it's a good mystery, and the problems I had with it I believe are all my own. Go for it!

What is it about NaNo...?

Once again, NaNoWriMo has sucked me in. This time, it's April's Camp NaNoWriMo, wherein you can set your own project and word count goals - well, technically November's NaNo doesn't have power over you, you could set your own everythings there, too, but when I participate in November I go by the original rules.

In this one, I'm not. I'm working - rather, re-working - the novel I failed to finish in November 2013. It has bugged me ever since because I really like the thing. So I'm giving it a second chance, I'm just not doing up the whole big NaNo rah-rah thing, enlisting a "team" of friends to prod and praise me along the way, etc etc. Just trying to do it ... um, well, I haven't been doing it for the past three nights so I should really get off this thing and Just Do It.

But what is it about NaNoWriMo that's so compelling? The years I skip I feel guilty and like I'm missing out on something at the same time. There's that almost-irresistible pull...OK. Off to WRITE!

Should have put this in the previous one

But I hadn't run across the Book Riot piece that made me think of this: do you keep a list of your favorite words? Maybe a tiny piece of paper tucked in the back of your wallet, or a sticky note on your laptop desktop...in your diary...or just in your mind?

I have just a handful that I've thought to write down, and remember. Here are some of mine:

leafy

niggle

plausible

(And no, the first two weren't inspired by Tolkien; they were on my list long before I remembered that story I read 35 years ago.)

I really, really love "leafy." And I'm lucky to live in a leafy neighborhood! (Means tons of leaves in the fall but that's OK, too.)

Doesn't look like this right now, but it will before long! I have to believe it will become Spring for real, any day now!

Took an online quiz...

Can't get the results panel to show up on here correctly so I'll just paste the text...and I see the background now extends over to the right side column - however, it's readable so I'll settle for that. Yes, I am that determined to brag. LOL

You Have Mastered the English Language!

You either aced this mock-exam or got a lot more right 

than you did wrong, either way - Color us impressed! Your

 knowledge of the English language extends beyond a

 solid foundation of grammar and spelling, and into a 

finer understanding of syntax, diction, and rhetoric. 

Reading comprehension is also something you're skilled 

with, something most who are take for granted. Try to 

keep those grammar-based pet peeves in check whilst 

sharing your vast knowledge with the rest of the world!

Jupiter and Europa

NASA photo, my dialog

Hittin' some yard sales

Well, actually, an estate/moving sale and a garage sale, but anyway. It was my exercise for the day, a mile and a half (I was surprised it wasn't more - but then it was very hilly). I scored 7 Cherry Ames books (sans dust covers, and there are two of one title - that'll teach me to read the titles before scooping them up!), a tiny bird book that's lost its cover, so I'll have some fun re-covering it, a box cheese grater, and a brand-new 6" x 6" sketch book. That ate up my $10 cash. Walking to sales is a really good idea - not only is it good exercise, it keeps me from buying a lot of things, or any big things.

Still chilly here - 45° - but sunny and breezy. I heard my first cardinal of the year, but could NOT find the bugger even though there aren't any leaves on the trees yet. He was laughing at me, I'm sure.

At one curb I noticed what seemed to be an over-abundance of official markings: the concrete curb itself had been embossed with the contractor's name; there was a "this drain leads to river" disk, and right next to it was a manhole cover over a storm sewer access shaft. The cover was iron, with the Seal of Omaha:

I stood and stared at this for several minutes, trying to figure out what all the various images mean. But it's the one in the center that baffles me. It seems like it *should* be a buffalo head, but what's that object running down the middle of it? In white in this image - stamped in iron it just looks like a blob. Could be a not-quite-stuffed bag of wheat, maybe? I can't figure it out. Yay, city symbols!

In the rule book, right after

the rule that says the trainee grocery checker who's been holding up 13 customers for 15 minutes gets switched for the fast, experienced checker immediately after you move to a lane with a longer line, is

the rule that says the day after you bookmark a new blog because of a brilliant post you found through a favorite writer, the brilliant blogger walks away from their blog and forgets all about it for six months.

Yeah, I know privileged First World problems. I don't think of them as problems, though. If I remember, and try, I can relax into the thing and enjoy watching the people in the slow lane, and delve into the brilliant blogger's Archives and get to know more about them.

The little dickens

This forenoon I found a tiny little pink pill on the floor of the bathroom. This, after another fairly calm and easy pill-putting-down-the-throat. The little stinker! I gave it to her downstairs, and she had to go all the way upstairs into the bathroom to get it there. Going to have to be more careful. Trouble is, I have no idea whether it's this morning's or some earlier one. So I just discarded it, and we'll resume on schedule tonight.

The little dickens. She is looking and acting more like herself, though still thin; but this morning she ate her 2 Tbsp of Fancy Feast AND her brother's 2 Tbsp of Ocean Fish Formula so I'm taking that as a good sign.

Little things

Nothing big, here. O'Keefe and I are kind-of getting used to the administration of one tiny pill down her throat, two times a day. She doesn't like it, and neither do I, but perhaps we'll get to where it isn't so hard on both of us.

I got apps in for Medicare parts C & D yesterday, which was a HUGE relief. Just dental and vision coverage left to find.  So I felt like a grownup the rest of the day!

It's in the high 50s and sunny today! My mood can use the light. And the slightly longer days...oh, wait. Krep. We go back to CST - or do we leave it for DST? I can never remember - this very night. Well, when one's retired (have I mentioned that I'm retired?) the whole "losing an hour's sleep" isn't really an issue any more. I just need to remember to adjust all the clocks. I am so ready for Spring.

Some new kind of equilibrium, I think

Good news/bad news re: O'Keefe's blood work. Good news: no diabetes, her kidneys look good. Bad news: there may be something bad going on with her liver, but what the vet wants addressed first is hyperthyroidism. So, two tiny pink pills a day, morning and night. Two weeks of that then more blood work to see if it's helping. If so, she'll stay on that dose for life, or until it stops helping. I read the possible side effects of this stuff and they're pretty horrendous so I'm going to be keeping a close watch on that!

In more good news, O'Keefe seems to be feeling better, is up and walking around, going up and down stairs, though she is weak and may rest in the middle. She's eating Fancy Feast and drinking water. The vet says a Tbsp. of vanilla ice cream a couple times a day won't hurt and might help her put on some weight. She's not sleeping all the time like she was doing - this is a cat who *doesn't* lie around 16 hours a day sleeping, normally. Sometimes I've wished she *would* because instead she likes to bug the hell out of me with constant demands for pettins and attention.

Anyway, the intense worry stage is on hiatus for a couple of weeks. I don't think she's going to miraculously become her younger more vigorous self, but maybe I can make the decline easier and slower than what I saw over the weekend.

Still nothing noteworthy

Had a most successful Game Day here yesterday with my friends. We ate, laughed, and played 7 Wonders and Mille Bournes.

Overshadowing it for me is the illness of my little girl-cat, O'Keefe. I've got a 1:15 pm appointment at the vet's for her. Here's hoping it's something transitory and/or treatable.

MY sock #10 is just a few inches away from completion, then showing off the matching heels (accident! I'll never be able to do that on purpose) yesterday I clumsily let one of the needles slide all the way off about 25 stitches. ARGH! It'll take my 3rd Hand (magnifying glass on an articulated armature), a crochet hook, and large quantities of patience to fix that.

March 14th I'm entering a pie in Omaha Atheists's Pi/e Day Pie-off. Because Pie! Also, Pi. My pies aren't beautiful but usually they're tasty. Hmm. Maybe I should practice...heh.

Update: O'Keefe's got Feline Leukemia Virus. Waiting on further blood tests tomorrow. I have a sad.

Not doing much

Decided tonight was the night to start a knitting project other than socks; got out the dark green alpaca I've had all ready with needles special-bought and the pattern ready to go, got started on the easiest part of a billed cap, the headband - got about four inches done and discovered I'd screwed it up - that's when I learned that alpaca tends to marry itself as you knit. I ended up just cutting the wonky part off to start anew with a new end...not tonight. Crud. Well, now I'll know to be more careful. It's a pretty simple cap, no lace or cables, so if I keep my head it shouldn't take too long to finish.

No drawings, but OTOH

I got out of the house today. Went to Spielbound and played Pandemic! with three very nice guys. Hope we can do some more board-gaming in the future. Speilbound is a non-profit gaming cafe.  A really cool place for Omaha. Or, anywhere, really.

I thought about taking a sketchbook and pen along but then decided naw, I'd rather just play games.

Drawing a day, Feb. 10th

Had mystery book club tonight, a perfect opportunity to try some character sketches. Boy, am I bad at it. You'd never recognize these lovely ladies from my drawing.

Drawing-a-Day, Feb. 9th

Having been put to shame by a dear friend who - unbeknownst to me - took me up on my suggestion for this ordeal, and who brought her EIGHT drawings to game day yesterday, I decided I had to get back in the saddle and try some more. I decided also that I need to scale back my ambitions lest the drawings eat up all my hours every day. Therefore, ta da:

It's a very old Persian (as in, before it became "Iran") copper bowl with lid. I noticed the intriguing way it peeps out from the shadows on my bookcase and decided maybe I could manage that. Simple shape, additionally-simplified surroundings, so there. In the middle I thought it was a waste of paper but somehow I did get it looking *just* good enough to post.

So I'm back in!