Memory
My mother (91 years old next Monday) and I have been playing a version of Scrabble on line for some time now. She's a big game player and it's one of the things that finally attracted her to the computer for her personal use. We like this game because there is a message space that goes out with each move and we can converse while we play, which keeps us both up to date on whatever is going on in the others life. Mimi is the Scrabble champion at the independent living facility where she is, and I have been hard pressed to keep up with her; she wins more than I do. For the last few days we have both been trying to remember the names of our neighbors where we lived in Beaumont, Texas, from the time I was about 2 years old to 12 years old. The neighbors to the left she and I remember well--both families. But the one family to the right, a widow and her grown daughter, we have both been struggling to remember the family name. Finally, last night as I lay down to go to sleep and was drifting off, apropos of nothing, the name sluggishly bobbed up to the top of my mind, and this morning I still remembered it. So I called Mimi on the phone to let her know and she agreed it was the right name and we chatted briefly before hanging up. I realized that we had been digging back somewhere like 65 years in our memories. It took a couple of days but it finally showed up. I had first thought of another name from the same ethnic group, but she reminded me that it was the name of the people that we bought the new house from when we left the first house. As I age, I am fascinated by how the process of my memory changes. Things I used to remember without effort require much more effort. I found out when I was working with Rocky Mountain Wiccan Temple a couple of years ago that learning lines had become much more difficult and that learning an entire play, something I used to do so easily, seems impossible now. Plus the data retrieval is so uncertain now. If I were a computer, I'd probably replace me.

Quotation
My teacher in the Master's program I took was always expressing amazement over how much I quoted examples from movies and TV.  Here's another one I heard on USA Channel's In Plain Sight on May 4 spoken by the protagonist Mary, "One of the most difficult moments of anyones life is when the fog of childhood lifts and we see, for the first time, our parents as people."

That happened for me when my son was about 8 or 9 years old, and my parents came to Denver to treat us to a weekend vacation.  They took us south to Colorado Springs and booked us into a motel which had babysitting service, and we did all the touristy stuff in town. One night the adults went to dinner at that restaurant with the southwest theme that hangs from that bluff you see as you ride into CS on Interstate 25--can't remember the name right (see Memory above.)  We had finished the meal when my father got upset about something innocuous, made a big deal out of it, and went angrily stomping off to the men's room, leaving me literally with my mouth hanging open. When he was out of sight, I turned to my mother and said, "That must be hard to live with."  She looked at me with surprise, and said, "It always has been." For the first time I saw her, as the quote says, as a person.  I then asked myself which of us was smarter, she for staying so long despite it, or me for dumping my marriage after only three years because of my husband's adultery.  I never decided which.  I know she was raised in and became an adult in a culture that expected you to stay "for better or worse," and I know that my generation and the next have accepted dumping marriage over any flaw, big or little, with no expectation of sticking it out no matter what happens.

Computers
I have recently suffered a glitch in my ISP program, and I've lost the ability to open my email from the ISP software, unless the mailbox is already open (go figure), lost all my mail folders and all the stuff in them that I wanted to save, and lost all my bookmarks. The odd thing is that I have more than one screen name; I have a separate one for my Pagan correspondence.  The Pagan screen name has not had any of these things happen to it, just my primary screen name.  I know I ought to call customer service at the ISP, but I'm almost sure they will just tell me to reinstall the software.  That would mean I'd lose all my mail folders permanently so I procrastinate.  I'm hoping they might just have me adjust something and all the missing stuff will just come back again.  But based on past experience, I have trouble believing that.  So I do nothing.  I have to go to the ISP's web page on the Internet to access my email, which works just fine.  I'll give in eventually and call them, I guess. . .

Tags: memories
Current Location: home
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: none

I wish I knew how to post this right on this page, but I don't. You really need to see the poster. It's wonderful!

[this is a third-hand reposting from a list server that I am not a member of.]

Since Star Trek first went on the air in the 60s, it has had connections to the real life space program. And today the latest example is a new official poster for the next expedition to the International Space Station which has the crew dressed in Star Trek uniforms

Check it out. For the full story and to see the picture go to:

http://trekmovie.com/2009/06/25/nasa-poster-depicts-new-iss-crew-in-star-trek-uniform/

Tags: star trek
Current Location: home
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: none

F. and I watched the pilot episode last night because he was interested. I tried to explain why I didn't think he'd like it, but to no avail.

He gave up on it before I did and went into the bedroom to watch something else on the TV there. I stayed through the end of the episode, but I still haven't watched the second one which I recorded. I may just delete it. I had a problem with:

1. The use of the word "warlock" at all, and its use in describing Merlin.
2. The apparent acceptance of psychic gifts and magic being the same thing.
3. The apparent period of the garb--not easy to pin down--but way too late in period.
4. Uther Pendragon as a reigning king looking and acting about 500 years later than his actual period.
5. Arthur as his son and prince, exercising his royal prerogatives by being a bully. (2 things actually.)
6. The total un believability of the magic.
7. Merlin's unaccountably easy entrance into the castle (now we know we are doing fantasy.)
8. The "sandwich" Gaius hands to Merlin as he sends him off on deliveries. Now I know they didn't use the word in the show, and that the idea of the sandwich had to be a lot older than the Earl of Sandwich, but really.
I stopped counting at that point.

It does bother me that the teens and children that this seems to be aimed at, may think that this is THE story of Arthur and Merlin.

Tags: review
Current Location: home
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: The Today Show

You gotta watch this!

Current Location: home
Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: The Young and the Restless

I guess as you get older there are more and more death notices for people that have been a part of your life. The television just announced that David Carradine, the actor, has been found dead in his hotel room in Thailand. I don't much care for him as a actor and was about to think something uncharitable. Then they said his age, which is only 3 or 4 years older than I am.  That brought me up sharply and I mentally whapped my face and told myself to shut up.

Then in my email I found an announcement that David Eddings, the writer, has died.  I was shocked as I had thought he was considerably younger than I am, but found out that, too, was wrong.  He was only 3 or 4 years older than I. I loved his books, and identified strongly with his characrer Polgara.
 You can read about him here:  http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/news/arc/2009/nz14000.php 

Current Location: home
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Today Show music

Caitlin moves to assisted living today.  We found her a really nice place that she likes, and that will take her Medicaid.  http://www.brookdaleliving.com/wynwood-at-canterbury-gardens.aspx  Her family has really taken up the burden of helping her get moved and finding everything she will need. They are also going to be sorting through her belongings and helping make the decisions about what to keep and what not.  She really has a lot more "stuff' than she needs at this point in her  life, and I hope this will help her reach that understanding.  She will still have her computer and will stay in touch that way.  She would love visitors after an initial period of getting settled. We don't have a telephone number for her yet, but that will come, too.  She will have all meals prepared, once a week housekeeping, all her laundry done for her, transportation to appointments, and is looking forward to more than weekly card playing groups, and a sewing and gossip group.  We will miss her and I have even felt a little envy, but her physical difficulties have increased as well as ours and it just didn't make sense not to do this. She seems to be really looking forward to not having to worry about doing things for herself while experiencing not insignificant pain.

Our couple than exchanges work for rent will move into the basement space,  and then I will have another upstairs bedroom for rent.  It will probably be available around the first of June.  Please let me know if you have candidates for that space.

Tags: domestic affairs
Current Mood: peaceful

We took our dog Rusty to the vet Saturday.  We have had him for four years.

I have always had poodles.  The first dog I got was a wedding present from my first husband who thought we might breed puppies with his own male poodle, Frenchie.  I named the new puppy Missy and I took her with me when I divorced three years later.  She died shortly after giving birth to a litter of pups.  I kept one of the female pups and named her Angel.  I still had her when I married my second husband and had my own pup, DDBP. Missy was the dog my son grew up with, so when the vet eventually said it was time to let her go, I consulted with him and asked if he wanted to go along with us to the vet's office to send her off.  I was impressed when he chose to come along.  He was about 13, I think.  When I was ready for another poodle, a student who volunteered at the Denver Dumb Friends League, let me know that they had just received a poodle.  We went over to see it and came home with Gerry, whose official name was Gervais.  He was my first male poodle and he was tiny and feisty, weighing 10 pounds at top weight and 5 pounds at the veterinarian approved weight.  He was part of the wedding party when F and I legally married in a backyard Handfasting.  I loved him greatly and was really upset when he eventually developed diabetes that devastated his little body.  Eventually the vet said it was time to let him go, too.  I missed him a great deal, but F said we were too old for another dog.  But eventually I felt the need for a furry friend and our vet put us in touch with Poodle Rescue and very shortly Rusty came to live with us.  He is bigger (14 lbs.) than any other poodle I've had, and his earlier years of abuse left impacts on his behavior we can still see.  Some of that disappeared after he decided we were trustworthy, but not all of it.

If you've ever been to my house you know what a loving little guy he is.  He thinks every visitor has come to see him.  He can be very pushy and insistent about doing what he wants to do when he wants to do it.  He has become the only dog F ever really knew, not having one that he got to know when he was a kid.  Because F feeds him and tends to his needs, he is clearly F's dog, which is to say Rusty's God.  When F is  home you know were Rusty is--right next to F.  After about 8:30 p.m, he tries his best to get us in bed--it's a kind of herding behavior--because he is ready to go to bed.  He's not young; the vet estimates his age at about 14, about 98 in dog years.  We have begun to have a little trouble doing the things that need to be done to take care of him.

Saturday the vet found a mass in his abdomen slightly smaller than a baseball.  It was an accidental find, so he's not in pain, even when the vet manipulated his abdomen, and the ultrasound she took shows that it is not yet interfering with his organs.  But by the time we are scheduled to see her next in six months it may be time to let him go, maybe sooner.  The vet gave us several options: better ultrasound, exploratory surgery---but the cost was beyond our means.  To tell you the truth the timing seems significant to all our needs.  We decided to let nature take its course and when he is uncomfortable, or his body starts to quit, then we'll take him back to our loving vet, who is Wiccan, and release him easily back to the Lord and the Lady and the delights of the Summerland and the Rainbow Bridge.  (http://www.rainbowbridge.com/Poem.htm)

We probably won't replace him.

Tags: domestic affairs
Current Location: home
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: The Young and the Restless

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!  http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comic.asp?ID=21
Patronize your local specialty comic book store!

I used to manage Mile High Comics on Denver's East Colfax in the 70's.  David was just an infant and I'd put him in an empty showcase window so he could see everything, but no one could touch him.  The real wags always thought they were the first one to ask me how much I wanted for him.  Yuk, yuk.  I eventually had to stop bringing him to the shop when I couldn't keep him from destroying the merchandise.  I had to buy all the ruined books.  It was a fun time and most of my memories are good.

I remember when we had a blizzard in the winter and the winds blew so strongly down East Colfax, the door wouldn't stay closed.  So I had to lock the door and put a sign on the outside asking people to knock to be let in.

Another time I had three neighborhood kids in the store and we were chatting and they shoplifted one of my  "underground" comics which were aimed at adults and had a lot of adult material in them, and were on a rack marked "Adults Only."  They wouldn't admit it and wouldn't give it back.  Kids are stupid; they took a book I only had one copy of, so that I knew immediately when it disappeared.   They left laughing at me and calling me names, but I knew better than to chase them and leave the day's receipts vulnerable.  Then I remembered the kid who was the ring leader had a credit balance with me and I had his name.  So I canceled his credit and made a sign for the front window with letters big enough to read from the street, hoping his parents might see it, that said, "So-in-So Steals Comic Books."  The owner loved it, but had me take it down after it had been there a couple of months. That was okay with me. 

Another sign I made for the front window was one that said "Star Trek Spoken Here."  I had been a fan of ST since the beginning of the Original Series, but the movies had just come out and there was a revival of interest.  We were one of the first places to have posters, action figures, etc.

The guy that owns the shop now was a high school student at East High School, just a block away, and he spent all his spare time and change in our video game machine annex playing "Space Invaders."  He grew up and bought the shop, poor guy.  I was just talking to him on the phone and he mentioned he just celebrated his 25th anniversary of acquiring the shop.  I gave him a jovial hard time about it, but he's a little concerned about the shop failing during these economically challenging days.  As I think about it, surely comics are so inexpensive that people won't necessarily think of them as something to cut from their budget. If I know comic fans (and I still am sorta one myself) I don't think they'll see it that way.

Happy Days!

Tags: memories
Current Location: home
Current Music: TV dialog

This is from a meme titled Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? You'll find it at http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/new/CelticMyst/your-harry-potter-alter-ego-is/

You Scored as Hermione Granger You're one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out. Hermione Granger 80% Ron Weasley 75% Severus Snape 70% Lord Voldemort 70% Remus Lupin 65% Albus Dumbledore 65% Draco Malfoy 55% Ginny Weasley 50% Sirius Black 40% Harry Potter 25%

I always procrastinate doing our taxes.  I started the updates on my credit card entries on my Quicken on April 1.  I can't pull a Tax Summary report out without them as I sometimes have to pay for necessities with a card, and that's frequently a tax item.  Got it done last night and got out of bed this morning to start the return in my nightgown.  I used an on-line tax site that I've used before so it wasn't too bad.  I did sign off a few times to put data together because the site didn't want to stay unused that long.  But I got the joint return filed electronically by 1:30 p.m. MST.  No refund from the Feds, but the amount we owed them will be covered by the refund from the State, with $5 left over.

Whewwww!    It was tiring and I took a nap when I got finished.

This year I have got to do the credit card stuff monthly.  I found two items from months ago that should have been challenged.  One of them was monthly and I got them to cancel any further charges, but didn't get a refund for the last four months. The other, a single item, I guess I'll just eat  since it appeared a good six months ago and I think it's a little late now.  That's pretty good motivations to keep it up to date---I hope!

Current Location: Home, of course
Current Mood: triumphant
Current Music: Soundscapes on Comcast Ch. 934