It has been a tough winter for grandparents in my family. Grandma Patten passed away in her sleep Friday night. Dad, Connie and Harriet were all able to be there that afternoon, and had been visiting her frequently for the last few weeks, and I was able to talk with her on the phone several times. It's so odd to think that I won't see her or Grandpa Kuhns again.
Grandma was very much a part of my life when I was a little kid. I remember lots of family dinners, with Rob and I waiting to be excused so we could go watch The Wonderful World of Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. That house on Marvone Lane is still what I think of as Grandma's house. I never really got used to her condo, or the nursing home. I spent so much time there. My best friend Suzanne lived across the circle. For a long time Rob lived nearby, and we played at Grandma's a lot. We'd sneak (at least we thought we were sneaking--I suppose it probably really wasn't very stealthy) into the formal living room and roll marbles and hot wheels down the legs of the driftwood-base coffee table, even though we knew we weren't supposed to. I don't remember Grandma ever really getting mad, though. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I never heard her yell at anybody. Hm. Grandma was always Just Right. The few bits of Emily-Post-style etiquette I've managed to absorb in my life are probably mostly her doing, and I don't regret any of it. (Although I certainly complained about it enough when The Rules were being imposed on me.) I remember the bottom drawer of the dresser in the Blue Room was filled with scarves and hats and costume jewelry. I loved that drawer! And when I was in college, she gave me some "real" clothes of hers and great-aunt Connie's that I just loved to wear--so retro and elegant.
One of my favorite memories of Grandma is the day she took me to a fabric store and let me pick out some yardage. I chose a turquoise velour. When we got back to the house, she took out some grocery sacks and made a dress pattern. Then she cut out the fabric and sewed a dress for me. I was astounded even then, and it still amazes me to this day that she could do that. She said she used to love to sew, and that she and Connie (I think?) had made lots of their own clothes. Sometimes she would let me look in her closet at all her shoes, and sometimes she would show me the things in her jewelry box and let me try on the pins and earrings. I think I was always a little bit intimidated by her, but I never doubted for a minute that she loved me without reservation.
I'm going to miss you, Grandma. I love you.
December 2003 Archives
Here's my snowflake!
Make yours here :-)
Okay, so I'm not Lord Darcy, but I am (or was) practically related to the blogfather (Mr. Reynolds is a colleague of my farther-out-law's, although I suspect he and Jerry probably have some opposing political views), so this is a cool small world type coincidence.
BoingBoing is my new favorite place to go find out about fun stuff on the net. I remember finding the Yamaha paper motorcycle several years ago, and now they have lots of other fold-em-ups there as well. I especially like the "accessories" for the R1 (toolkit, tires, everything a well-equipped cyclists garage needs!)
Danny brought in some glue stuff that you paint on the end of a stack of paper to turn it into a gummed pad. It's a simple thing, but it's pretty cool. We generate so much paper here that we try to be good about recycling it as scratch paper, and now we have gummed scratch pads instead of stapled scratch pads. Much spiffier :-)
We had cardoons for dinner (well, with pasta) tonight. They're (it's?) really pretty good. They look like giant celery (and I do mean giant--like 18" stalks) and you have to cook them forever, but they're really light and clean-tasting.
On another positive note, I haven't heard the opossum lately. I am pretty sure that the noise in the attic was in fact a fat clumsy opossum, because I saw it about a week ago. It was trying to climb down a tree. It was obviously fat, and it confirmed itself clumsy when it fell off a branch about half-way down the tree. With any luck, it couldn't figure out how to get back up the tree and back into the attic.
I'm slowly getting my home computer life transferred over from poor Larry to a pc. I admit that the os is more comfortable for me, but it's a pain having to hunt down new programs for all the little things that I want to do.
Had a scare about GMP this afternoon, but the latest news is that she's okay. I really hope so. I'm not quite ready to let go of another grandparent.
I've always been pretty tickled with the panorama feature (in camera and software) of my Elph (see chess theme), and I even usually like the kind of wonky effect that you get, but this
gigapixel image shows what stitching pictures is really all about. Wow!! Mr. Lyons is a madman, and I mean that in the most positive way.
#E0FFFF |
Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation. |
I'm pretty sure if I took the quiz again, I'd come up with something different, though. It would be hard to pick the same exact answers twice.
