Terrapin Station

Going Home Friday Five

From Songbird at RGBP: 

I've got home on my mind: what it feels like, how we make it, what we carry from the past and how we separate other people's leftovers from objects that really reflect our identity. My family has had one home for the past 13 years, the longest I've ever lived anywhere. As the time when all the children are gone comes closer, I wonder where my next home will be?

So here are five questions about home.

1) Where was your first home?

It was on Neff Street in Sharpstown, a suburb of Houston.  I don't remember it, and I wouldn't know he house if I saw it, because we moved from there when I was 18 months old. I've seen photos.

View Larger Map

 

In fact, here's a photo of it now...
View Larger Map whereas this is the house I grew up in. Also in Houston.

 

2) Do you ever dream about places you used to live?

Hmm. I don't know that I am, specifically, but I'm doing a lot of dreaming that I remember  lately (this is uncommon for me) and I'm sure former homes show up.  I am not taking the time to writ the dreams down, so they don't stay with me very long.  Maybe I ought to consider this. 

3) If you could bring back one person from your past to sit at your dinner table, who would you choose?

My Gramma Beth, my dad's mom. She died when I was 10 (and she was 88) and was sick for a few years before that, and I regret the fact that I didn't get to know her better. 

4) What's your favorite room in your current living space? 

My bedroom, which has the most comfortable reading location (the bed). As soon as The Sickness is over we are going to burn The Recliner of Doom and get a nice, two-person sofa/love seat for the front room.  But for now, there are really no comfortable reading spaces in there. 

5) Is there an object or an item where you live now that represents home? If not, can you think of one from your childhood? 

Um...yes.  In fact, every room of my house has something that represents home.  That's what I do and who I am. Interesting implications for de-cluttering and for reducing my dependence on THINGS.  But there you have it. 

We are gathering photos and remembrances from family and friends for a memory book for my parents' Joint Big Birthday Party next weekend.  (Dad will be 86 and Mom will be 80).  I'm loving looking at the pictures folks are sending, and these that my sister Barbara sent are particularly exemplary of this: 

...That's me, right there in the middle, looking over the back of my chair...

All the furniture in these photos from 1971 is in my dining room today.  The gorgeous china closet with the curved glass; the buffet behind my mom in the second photo; the dining table and chairs that were made by my great-grandfather. 

And then, in this beach picture from 1965:

(I'm in the high chair in this left corner...)

there's a wicker table in the far left corner (that you can't see) beyond my grandfather that Ken is currently using for all his potions and accoutrements as he gets better.  It's a bit scarred and scratched but I love to see it there next to him...the continuity is a gift.

Looking forward to the weekend.  This homebody is happiest there. 

Gratitudes

...because it's been that kind of a day...

My computer at work now has Windows 7 and Office 10 on it.  I will love these programs once I figure out where they've put everything!

Weather nice, a little warm but I'll take it over 105. 

Ken feeling pretty good when I went home midday.

I rolled my chair over the end of my phone's power cord, ruining it.  But I have an extra at home.  :) 

I'm going to Jazzercise this afternoon (if I say it here I HAVE to go)

Tomorrow's the first day of my caregivers' support group at the university Psych clinic.

My parents' joint birthday party is next weekend (8th October).  Dad will be 86, Mom will be 80. 

The instructed Eucharist was awesome on Sunday.

It's almost the end of the month!

I love playing Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends on my phone. 

I have HAD IT with Gardens of Time on Facebook. 

tonight: I sweep floors. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast Companion

This morning I stood at the kitchen sink and ate two South Carolina peaches.  (All the Texas peaches burned up long ago in the drought). 

I didn't peel them (all those vitamins  in the skin!) but washed, then cut pieces off the whole fruit and ate over the sink to avoid a mess. 

My breakfast companion was a squirrel who ran down the bois d'arc tree beyond the window, stopped on St. Francis' head, and then bounded to the ground to pick up a piece of the fruit HE was working on.  Squirrels love those things (we call them "bowdarks" in the vernacular") but one is too large for a squirrel to carry, so they are separated in to several chunks. 

This morning, my friend hopped down, aware there was another squirrelly fellow coming behind him, and picked up a piece of bowdark that made me shake my head.  "Buddy," I said, "that one is too big for you!" 

But he grabbed it, sank in his teeth, and bounded back up the tree (via the good saint, so helpfully placed.) 

And dropped it. 

And he jumped down again, grabbed it, jumped up, and got a little farther...

before he dropped it. 

It took both of my peaches for him to decide to split it in half and go with the smaller portion. Before he returned, the second squirrel had dashed off with that...possibly what the first was trying to prevent. 

It reminded me of me, how much in a hurry I get and how I resist stopping, standing still, seeing an easier way.  A slower way.  Taking time to make a plan and carry it out, working ahead so my days don't end up with me getting along "by my shirt-tails."

This weekend I will be cooking, blending, and freezing a lot of food. Ken's ready to eat more often in the day and to feed himself, so things need to be prepared in advance. 

You can blenderize ANYTHING.

Nom nom nom. 

 

HPV Vaccine - get one for your kiddo now, no shirking!!

Here's the thing.  If you knew a way to keep from getting cancer, you'd do it (or not do it) right? 

Right, I know, smoking is hard to quit.  Cry me a river.  I quit smoking 22 years ago.  But, I mean, if you could do ONE thing, ONE time, like get a vaccine to prevent a type of cancer? 

Would you?

I thought so.  AND, if it were something that could prevent your pre-teen son or daughter from having cancer one day, you'd run-not-walk, right?

Okay.  So the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) helps prevent cervical cancer in women, and it helps prevent head and neck cancer in men.  Because HPV is the LEADING cause of head and neck cancer in men. 

I have no experience with cervical cancer, but since  my husband's just been through treatment for throat cancer (though it was not due to HPV or to smoking either), let me tell you something: 

You do not want to go through cancer treatment.  No, you do not, and you certainly do not want your child to go through it.  

Get with me if you need details or more convincing on this. For professional info, check out the CDC. 

As I told friend Julie, Rick Perry's mandate that all girls be vaccinated (hey, it was a start) was the only thing he ever did that I agreed with.  And he backed down.   Figures. 

Inconceivable

I have nothing wise to say about September 11, 2001.  My only thought this weekend has been:  I didn't understand what was going on that day, and I think I still don't. 

Certainly I have seen the footage eighty million times.  I've read and heard stories.  I understand logically and intellectually what happened. Because my personality tends to want to turn away from unpleasantness, head in the sand, I have probably consumed more of that media than I should...with the thought that I needed to understand and accept it. 

It's not working.

It's as if someone told me that a group of people were suddenly able to fly through the sky by wishing that they could.  My mind can't grasp it. 

It's inconceivable.  Utterly inconceivable. 

I know.  "You keep using that word.  I don't think it means what you think it means."

Repellent

Saw an ad on TV just now for the Bell and Howell Solar Animal Repeller. Here's a link to the site. I think it's disgusting.

I understand not wanting animals to tear up your trash or dig in your garden, but hey, here's an idea: don't go live where they live and expect them to stay away from that stuff. Go live in a concrete canyon if that's how you feel about animals, ok? Or, secure your trash so there's not a problem.

Sorry if I sound a little loony on this subject, but really. The birds and squirrels who share our living space are one of my great delights. I'm not always thrilled when birds, raccoons, or possums go down our chimney, but then, we've been saying for years that we need to cover that up. So really, our bad there.

If you had this gizmo, you'd have no birds in your trees, no squirrels in them either, no bats in your belfry. (Bats eat mosquitoes, did you know?)

It's true that the other day I came in my driveway to see 2 turkey buzzards sitting on the roof of my house, and I parked and ran straight out into the front yard (by that time there were three, sitting on the ground) and hollered at them, "GET GONE!" a la my Memamma. And Boudreaux chased them madly, barking. I don't have to be thrilled with all the animals that come to my house. But I give them a sporting chance...(Boudreaux can't catch anything). They are beautiful, flying. Just a little repellent, sitting on my roof. I do have a superstition or two.

Happiest Thing of This Summer - Amy's Ordination

Bishop Ohl introducing Deacon Amy Haynie and her family.  Click here for more pictures.

Earlier today I had occasion to look up the website for the church where Amy is now serving, where she was ordained Deacon in May.  I found that they have a wonderful section of photos of the ordination (click above) and looking at them made me so, SO happy.  That was a wonderful, happy day, one of the very best of this long icky summer.  I'm so grateful I was able to be there and participate. 

God is good.  I needed these memories today. 

Turtle is my totem

This is the ornament for the Choctaw Nation this year. It features "LUKSI" which is Choctaw for "turtle" - who teaches us persistence, patience, protection, self-sufficiency and long life.
The pattern in the center is a snowflake made with Choctaw Stickball Sticks.
Polished dimensional brass with red & green cloisonné. - Per my cousin, Jamie Pritchett, who does a lot of graphic design work for the Choctaw Nation. 

Today

Yesterday was a pure and tee misery.  Today is a new day (Jennifer Hudson, get out of my head with that song!!!) and we are glad to be alive. Looking ahead to a 3-day weekend is a great bonus.

I've been fighting a sinus infection (first time in a long time) and feeling really punk.  Ken, of course, is 11 days out of radiation treatment and has been feeling worse than ever.  What is THAT about?  Actually it's reasonably common.  but it SUCKS.  74 degrees out this morning, we sat outside briefly til the mosquitoes drove us back in.  Our dogs loved it. 

So, we're looking for some new options on nutritional counseling for him; we have to get him built back up.  Superfoods!!!