Monday, May 24, 2010

family

Yesterday Husband and I went to visit my aunt and uncle about 90 miles away. This is something we do several times a year, talk for a few hours while we are there on a Sunday afternoon.. We decorate the graves of my parents, aunt and sister, then visit with the aunt and uncle for several hours before heading home.

And for the first time in a long time, our daughter elected to come with us.

I should mention that conversations with the relatives are not the most exciting. They tend to cover local news, family news, and political news. But daughter, 30 years old, sat and listened and contributed and (she said later) actually enjoyed herself. It wasn't a red letter visit; they are redoing their kitchen and have everything all helter-skelter, piled on every flat surface while the work is being done. We sat on the front porch, a nostalgic place in its own right.

But I think I know why R wanted to come.

The day before yesterday she went to the wedding for one of her co-workers, someone she didn't know very well from work, but whom she liked a lot; a funny, outspoken woman that means a lot to her happiness at the job. Turns out she has a huge family clan -- R was one of very few who wasn't related -- and all 10 of the bride's aunts and uncles attended, along with most of their offspring. Our family, you see, consists now of the 4 of us, and the aunt and uncle we visited. It must have engendered in her a desire to at least know them better, to participate in the catching-up and reminisces that are a predictable part of any visit. The tales they tell end up usually in my ongoing genealogy files, which I assumed would interest our children not a bit, and so I plan to donate them to the WV family archives at WVU when I am unable to pursue them further.

It was pleasing for me to think she seems to really enjoy time spent on extended family things, and not just in the here-and-now of work and friends that is so much a part of daily life, and in the end means little enough at all.

Three years retired, I know whereof I speak. Friends and co-workers come and go, but family (for better or worse) remain a part of who we are long after the names of friends have slipped away.

So here's to relatives, near and far, who carry a bit of history and share it with us.

I won't forget.

Bumper Sticker: To err is human to ARRR is pirate!

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Back at ya...

I've let the updating of this blog slide a bit, but events have been moving along. Raven had the surgery on her ACL, it went very well and she is recovering very speedily. She goes to have stitches removed today. She is bearing weight on the leg, but is of course pretty gimpy. It will take, we've been told, 6 or 8 weeks for full recovery. The vet said this knee surgery will improve the weight bearing on that hip as well, so the displasia should be less of a problem He also said that he thought her displasia is as bad as it will get now (which is fairly OK) and to keep up the chondroitin, glucosamine, etc. She has been on pain killers around the clock since the surgery, and today will be the first 24 hours without, although she is still on Metacam, an NSAID which is easy to give her. She looks even more peculiar now than she did after we clipped her. Our part of the de-matting proves to be thorough, but obviously it will take more practice to get an even appearance. Then the vet shaved her rear leg to the skin, and her opposite foreleg also, for the IV access, so she really looks like she has gone 10 rounds with a weed-wacker. Poor baby.

Today we sedate Maggie, the black and white Newf, and de-mat her as well, and thankfully she is much less matted than Raven was, and should go faster and be less whacked looking.

The weather here (WV) has been so WEIRD this last week. Three days ago we had a FROST advisory at night, and it did get into the low 30s. Today the high is expected to be 83! I would rather have a happy medium between these extremes. Who is in charge of these things, anyway? Obviously a bipolar phenomenon (if you are religious I apologize, I am not).

I cleaned out a dresser drawer the other day, and found most of our cameras, 4 of them, still with film in them. The old Pentax jammed with the mirror up when I tried to use it, so the roll was light struck and I pitched it. The minolta talker had corroded battery terminals, but once cleaned it worked fine although the photos were the pits, all dark and fuzzy. 6 year old film to blame. One of the canon APS cameras had completely blank film, I need to check it with a new roll of film to see if the shutter is working correctly. There are still two cameras with film in them, I will take a few shots with them and then process, if Wal-Mart can do 110 film anymore. I have a ton of film in the refridge, hopefully it is still good to go. There are two cameras, Minox, with film, but sending those out for processing is a big hassle, there are only 1 or 2 places that still do it. You can't buy the cassettes anymore and have to use old ones and roll new film on them (which is 35 mm film split in half) and do so in a changing bag. I enjoy doing this about as much as a poke in eye. Can I guess about fingerprints on the film?

And don't get me started about the Polaroid Captiva camera, with batteries built into the film cassette...

So Blogger is experiencing trouble saving, and thus I will quit while I am ahead. No bumper sticker for the day, I have misplaced my sticker book. What, did you think I keep all these in my head?!