Moving along, Sorta

 I am stuck paddling this blog post along, with no clear idea what I will use for topics.  Bear with me, please.

How about starting in the past?  

I had a mundane childhood, appendectomy when I was 10 or so; broken wrist in 5th grade, from a fall on the basketball court; several day-long horse rides, back when no one even thought of liability.  And lots of babysitting, back when the going rate was 50 cents an hour.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll tell about that.

There was a neighbor who, like my dad, was a ham radio operator, and they were just a few houses from ours.  Mom knew them and deemed them "safe" for me to be over there for hours at a time. The "Smiths" liked to go to a local bar on the weekend and they walked there so there was no need to have a designated driver (though that idea wouldn't surface for a long time) but they never seemed boozy to me.  They had -- hoo boy --6 children, ranging from 10 or so down to toddler aged.  They also paid me double the going rate, because of the number of the kids, but they were all in bed when I got there.  The baby just needed to be changed, she would stop fussing and fall back to sleep before I got her in a dry diaper.  The first time that happened I called Mom, who came over and showed me how to do it, then swooped back home.  

But there was one night when things were different.  Mrs. Smith showed me the babies' leg which had a huge lengthy cut stitched up, and said she would cry to be held, not just changed.  They also said to make sure the dog stayed outside, and then they left.  The oldest girl came out and showed me how to cradle her and rock her.  And she told me how she came to have that gash on her leg.

There was a next door family that had a dog which sounded off like a T. Rex whenever anyone passed.  We never saw him because the hedge inside the fence blocked him from view, but boy did he ever sound huge. One day the Smith kids were all playing in their yard, and somehow the fence gate was unfastened and that dog snarled and snapped as he came at the kids.  They all ran for their back door, all but the baby.  That mean SOB grabbed the baby by her leg and turned to go back to his yard, and the oldest girl grabbed up the plastic toy baseball bat and hit him a bunch of times until he dropped the baby and came toward her.  She, bless her heart, grabbed up the baby and ran to the back door with her.  Mrs. Smith was there and immediately took her to the ER.  The gash needed 16 stitches to close.  Mrs. Smith called the sheriff and they took the dog away until they were sure he wasn't rabid and then put him down.  All the kids in the entire neighborhood were glad he was gone, because the bus stop was right on the sidewalk in front of his yard, and he sounded so ferocious.    

So when I sat for them after that the baby cried pretty much all the time unless she was being held and rocked.  She was terrified of dogs, even their own little rag mop dog, and they gave him away soon.  I don't know if she ever got over that awful day.  There are dogs everywhere, on TV, in books and magazines, walking quietly on a leash, it would be hard to protect her from all of that.

One of my friends sat for a different family, and one night she said there was a face looking through the window from outside.  She called the police and they stirred up a commotion looking all around.  I myself doubted there was anyone there, the police said there were no shoe marks under the window, and she was a real Nervous Nellie.  (They never called her for sitting again either.)  She always gave her babysitting money to the church, and I'm sure they never missed those dollars.  She borrowed money from me, and never paid me back, come to think of it.  Do you suppose there would be a big amount owed, compounded every year?  Probably not... 👀

 

Inaugural's program

 I have been watching the replay of yesterday's swearing in, etc. and I am not bored at all.  One, I never realized Lady Gaga had such a swell set of pipes until I heard her sing the National Anthem.  Two, I thought poor Tom Hanks was freezing up there, no coat and no mittens.  Three, I always cry at "Amazing Grace" and I have never seen Garth Brooks without a hat.  Four, I thought Joe Biden did a great job in his speech.  I am not a fan of political rhetoric, but I have never heard anyone give a better speech, even though he had to conquer an impediment of stuttering to do it all these years.  I hope this is a beginning of the end of hate and the start of the peaceful land where everyone has a good job and a living salary.  I can hope, right?

I am passing time trying to get a handle on improving my photography, using books since I am stuck here (one room) and can't move around, or outside for a wide assortment of subjects or to do the exercises recommended in "25 Projects to improve your photography".  It is a pretty old book (it recommends different film speeds to achieve various effects) but with a little trial and error similar results can be done with a digital camera, and can be observed immediately after each exposure.  Beats the heck out of waiting for photos to be developed and printed at the grocery kiosk.  All the examples are in black and white, of course.  I know digital cameras have a setting for B/W but I am not sure if the result is done on the camera before shooting, or after on the image.  Guess I will have to check it out both ways.  Lord knows I couldn't find the answer in the owner's manual.

I have found and charged up 3 of the 6 Kindles, numbers one, two, and six.  I could explain how I came to own so many (six total.  I think.) but it will only make me sound like a hoarder (but not my house, which is routinely purged into T D K (that's Trash, Donate or Keep).  And I learned this long before Marie or Martha.  And when I finish, I don't feel joy at my tidying, only sweaty and achey.  I would like to be done, every 6 months or so, but the dust alone would give me a sneeze attack if I waited that long.  Right now it all needs to be plowed under, but I can't do it with my walker, and C has enough to do as it is.  As long as I can't write phone numbers on the dust next to the telephone, I'm good to go for now.

My mom did a clean house like no one I have ever met.  And she worked a 40 hour week as a cashier, so there wasn't a lot of time for the house and the yard (don't get me started on the lawn work.  Bear in mind that in FL the grass, weeds, shrubs and so on grow all year round.)  Anyway, guess who did all the chores? Right.  Just a couple of examples here.  Once I saw Mom outside after - just barely after - a hurricane, sweeping the driveway and the sidewalk where all the sticks and shrubs went; it was still raining.  And the wind scattered them back again.  One time Dad was teasing her that he knew a dirty place that she didn't know.  Finally he relented and told her it was the top of the kitchen door jamb; he was tall enough to see there and she wasn't.  Out came the ladder...  After a trip to the grocery store, she washed the tops of all the canned food.  After using the canned food, she washed (not rinsed) the inside of the empty can and then threw it away.  She wouldn't have a cardboard box in the house "because of the bugs" so packages were opened in the carport, and only the contents came inside.  I could go on and on, but it makes me itchy.  When she was near the end, at 80 years old, I went to her house to clean it up, and she didn't care.  That's how I knew she was nearly at the end; she didn't care.  

don't know much

I hope this font behaves so I can move ahead without any glitch to slow me up.  I have been trying to clear the decks here, I have virtually no empty surface to lay anything down, and when I get a niche to sort the stacks, I fill it and then end up in the same place as before my clearing.  And still things end up missing, and I HATE searching for something.  Unfortunately the missing things are usually records or receipts that cannot be duplicated.  And eventually the missing item turns up.  Eventually.

I want a printer to keep right here and not have to use the one upstairs in the blue bedroom.  It works fine, but mostly I have to duplicate a print job because I'm not certain the first time yielded a good copy.  Maybe I will ask for a printer for my birthday which is 4 or 5 weeks away.  

Of course that means I will have to clear off a space to put the printer...

When I was 17 I left home (Miami) to go to college (SC) and to be closer to N. When I see photos taken around those years I look like a babe in arms, no wonder my parents (mother) didn't want to let me choose what to do.  Still, for all their concerns we were married for 45 years, until N died in 2016.  These days that is really unbelievable, when one in two marriages end in divorce.  We were an endangered species in those days; not that everything was roses, but we didn't expect it to be; I think with modern marriages the couples think their marriage will be a half hour romance with a laugh track, like on TV.  Not to cut each other any slack, just rush to the divorce judge.  Pity.  

I got my new shower chair and took it for a test run.  It is perfect (well, as perfect as a shower chair can be ) and it felt great to get cleaned up and shampooed.  

When I was 24, N and I bought two horses and boarded them at a big facility in South San Frisco.  Right away we had problems with "Jake" and because I was a better rider than N, and it was a three day weekend, we decided to work with Jake and see if he could be more even-mannered.  Later we found he had been a stallion until the owner had him gelded, just months before we bought him.  Not a good idea.  I had barely gotten started riding when for unknown reasons, Jake began to buck.  I held on for a little bit (seconds) and then fell off.  I recognized that he was past me (so he wouldn't kick me), and then hit the ground on my back and shoulders.  I just lay there in the dirt while everyone came rushing, and I said, take the saddle off and put him in his stall, he's for sale.  Someone bought him in a few days and I never saw him again; his new owner got tossed  several times too.  N wanted me to get off the ground and I eventually did, tho I couldn't stand up straight.  I got in the car and we went home; by the time we got there I couldn't feel my legs.  N called for an ambulance (although he thought I wasn't all that hurt).  The x-rays showed two vertebrae broken, one very badly.  That was the beginning a long convalescence with total bed rest in the hospital, and then 8 weeks in a body cast, and in a back brace for 3 months.  I don't remember much of the time in the hospital, or in the first times in the cast.  I would be laying in bed looking at the doorway then someone would POP! show up beside my bed.  I never saw anyone leave either, just POOF and they would be gone.  I had some heavy-duty pain meds at first, and lots of doctors, so I never figured who was who.  One day N got me in the station wagon on a gurney and we went to the stable.  MY horse came up and gave me licks (I have never had a horse since then that did that.)  and I fed him carrots; he dribbled carrot juice in my hair.  One of the kids at the stable took care of him, he was a palomino and had to be brushed down to keep that shine.  After all was said and done, I climbed back on him months and months later, and very gingerly rode at a walk for a few minutes.  All the people at the stable were amazed.  I owned that horse for years, transported him to WV when we moved, and finally he passed at 22 y.o.  I miss him still.

I don't know what brought all of that up, I've never written it all out before, and this is a pretty short version, if you can believe it.  If you have read this far, thank you.

London Bridge is falling down

 Or more to the point, I am falling down.

I fell getting in the shower today, and C had to call the Fire Department to get me on my feet.  I was on my knees with my arms clutching the edges of the tub, but I am too heavy and my legs are too wobbly, but we tried at least 3 times.  The fire department took 4 minutes and then walked me back to my bed.  I am ordering a new shower chair, and meanwhile I am taking  sponge baths.  Better than nothing.  I have been in and out of the shower for months now, not even a hiccup, but today my knees (both?) buckled as I was lifting my leg.  I "nearly" caught my self  but tipped over into the bench.  BoooHiss

And I really need a shower.

The EMS techies lingered so I guess they weren't super busy.  No therapy this week for me.  

Update

I have aches and pains in muscles I didn't know I have.  Odd that I don't have bruises it feels like I should carry some for weeks.  I want to give a trial to the airbrush but I just don't have the energy.  And here I have the Nikon right beside me, I could use it without running anywhere, but not the energy even to shoot.  Maybe tomorrow.

I wanted to take a photo of me + camera, but only if I have 3 hands...

  

  

"I shoot people and sometimes chop off their heads"

I will go back to regular font.