The Wonders of Technology!

I just have to post about the cool thing I just did.

I'm editing my audio tapes--I think I've mentioned that I read novels for the vision-impaired--and this time it's Gone with the Wind. The way this is done is to make 30-minute digital "tapes" at a recording studio at the local PBS station, bring them home on a flash-drive and edit them here. The 30-minute tapes are edited for errors, stumbles, too-long pauses, mispronunciations, etc. You get the picture. They usually wind up being about 24-25 minutes long. Then I "mix them down" into 55-minute episodes (with a 45-second break in the middle) and return them to the station, where the program's coordinator adds music, an intro that includes a synopsis of the previous episode (which I've provided typed out), and a closing w/music. (This is all done with Adobe's Audition program.)

So I was editing along and got to a sentence with the word daguerreotype in it, and when I had read that sentence, I couldn't remember how I had pronounced it when I'd read it earlier in the book. (It has 2 acceptable pronunciations.) Being a topnotch reference librarian (still!), I went to amazon.com, and found the version of the book, GWTW, that you can look inside. I searched for the word daguerreotype, found the page on which it had occurred, opened my edited tape containing that page, found the spot where I'd read it before and heard the way I had pronounced it then so I could do it the same way for this occurrence. I'd read it both ways this time around just so I could do this while editing, so I just deleted the other one and my reading will be consistent.

Ya just gotta love the power of technology!

Being a Mom

In the last 18 months I've seen several faces of motherhood: my niece being a stepmom; my daughter being a mom, and mom again; me being a stepmom/stand-in mom; a LOT of me being a mom of an adult child- or stepchild-in-need. It's amazing how similar all the situations are at heart. In the last couple of years I've coped with, in my children, stepchildren and nieces/nephews generation: serious mental health issues, geographic moves, near-death experiences ... and their aftermaths, hormones (I'd mistakenly thought that was over after middle/high school, silly me), and maturation in all of the above-mentioned children. Or so I hope.

What all the situations have asked of me is the wisdom of the sage. Like I knew what the hell I was talking about. I use common sense and love and common sense. I never took one Psychology course in college. But having taught and having been a research resourse for so many developing adults, I learned from what I looked up for them and from the questions they asked me outside of class.

Mostly people under 50 want to know: Is this a good idea? Am I looking at this thoroughly? Which path should I choose? And I REALLY try to say: Do YOU think this is a good idea? Have you thought of .....? What are all the paths? Answering a question with a question in my life has nothing to do with being Jewish (I'm not) and all to do with being a research librarian. All I could ever do was set someone on the path to finding the answer and hope like hell I'd helped them see where the signposts are.

Bruce says I should hang out my shingle as a therapist. I'm not sure he's wrong. I get off the phone after talking through a problem with any one of my "clients" and I'm exhausted. How do all you social workers/counselors/psychotherapists do it? All I am is a mom. Do you think you could talk to someone about creating a payscale for moms?

(The funny thing about this post is that there are relatively few crises now; last year was my damn-near-died year as counselor. I just decided to post this after the fact.)

The Fair

People are either fair people or fair ignore-rs. I'm the former. I love fairs. I especially love state fairs, but I only want to go to a particular state's fair once. Our little Clinton County Fair I've gone to every one of my 29 chances, almost. I think I've missed no more than four. And now that I think about it, I may even have blogged about the fair once before--since I never tag my blogs, it will be up to you, dear reader, to tell me. And then to ignore this post. And its pretty pictures from a few years ago.


This year we went with friends who live in Montreal. I say it this way because they're both Americans from MA, older than I am, younger than Bruce, and they've lived in Montreal for 35+ years. Walt just retired from the geology faculty at Universite de Montreal and Anne retired a few years ago after many years teaching ... was it French to English-speakers or vice versa?, at the elementary school level. We four get along great and it was a lot of fun to have someone to go to the fair with.


Bruce & I always go to look at everything at the fair. We visit the commercial exhibits: Tupperware, gourmet dog treats, woodstoves, tie-dye t-shirts, RVs. You get the picture. We examine the crafts: painting, photography, crocheting, knitting, wood carving, quilting. Some entries are really very good and others are county-fair quality.

We watch the chainsaw "art" carvers. We go into the little museum that has old homely items set up in a house-from-back-when kind of exhibit. I see so many things that my grandma in Brillion, WI, had: crank telephone, hand pump at the kitchen sink, woodstove with bread oven. And since the horse barns are close to that, we walk through them and talk to the horses and their kid riders/caretakers.

The 4-H barn is one of my favorites. The displays of the projects made by kids, from 2-L Coke bottles made into penguins to dioramas of the stable and corral at someone's farm, are just too sweet for words.






With the small animals display--this year that category included Silkie chickens, a breed I think might be the Paris Hilton of chickenhood--the 4-H barn is the best.

The kids who take care of animals, from lop-eared rabbits to warmblood horses (I think there might have been one there) are so earnest it almost brings tears.

Walt voiced it nicely: "You see city kids. And their attitudes. Then you come here and see these kids. Their dedication and genuine care for their animals. It makes you think we just might have a chance after all." He and Anne hadn't been to our little fair and I think they enjoyed themselves. I know we were glad to have them along.

But in a purely venal vein (I can say that, right? I mean, venal doesn't come from vein, does it? Rats. Now I have to look it up! [cue Jeopardy music here] I knew it didn't!) I won about $9 in the quarter-push machines plus 2 little plush turtles I can send to K&C. And I didn't even mention the food!

No corndog this year. I went for the Southern heart-attack special, BBQ!! I dove into my "loaded fries" with gusto: lightly seasoned fries topped with your choice of pulled pork or chicken or beef--pork for me--topped with cheese and two kinds of BBQ sauce. I can feel my heart trying to _ _ _-dial (what's an internal organ equivalent of butt-dial?) a cardiologist right now. But the message will probably be slurred by the remnants of the maple-walnut ice cream cone I got from those adorable 4-H-ers, and the cotton candy I just finished, sharing heavily with a most appreciative large dog.

The rain held off until we were almost ready to go. We actually had great fair weather (pun intended) because it was cloudy and somewhat cool. It might be fun in the sun, but it can get hot, sweaty and very aromatic really quickly at a fairgrounds. Unfortunately, the rain put a damper on the truck pull, something Bruce wanted to see a bit more of. You notice I specified Bruce in that sentence. Me? I like walking through the cow barns better. And now I'll just let everything digest. If it can.

God, I love the fair!

The Gunns in the North Country!

What perfect weather for a visit from little girls (oh, and their parents, too)! We went to the Cadyville Beach, a well-maintained and lifeguarded (!) strip of beach along the Saranac River. (The Saranac is world-renowned among fisherpeople as a Trophy Class trout stream.) As you can see, the girls had a bit of fun, and so did their parents, I think.

It's so much fun to watch those girls! Their behavior really takes me back to the years when my daughters were "two little girls." In this generation, Kaitlyn, the older, is the perfect first child, parent-pleasing, cautious but exuberant at the same time. That was Emily when I was still chasing after them. And Courtney, this time around, is the sword-swallowing, fire-walking, trapeze-artist daredevil personality, fearless and way too quick! Jenny was my death-waiting-to-happen second child back when. The saying that children are payback to their parents holds true, at least for now. :) Courtney loved running in the water, apparently the deeper, the better. Katie, once she discovered that she wouldn't go under water if she went all the way out to the floats on the marker rope, liked to be in the "deep end." We all had a blast. The cutest part was on Saturday, when there was a stiff wind that chilled any wet part of a body--Courtney discovered that she wasn't cold if she stayed under water so proceeded to sit in water that came right up to her chin. When moved to water just a bit more shallow, she protested loudly. And her shivers were absolutely heart-breaking. And they made her mad!

Having lived with a backyard pool for 15 years--my theory is that some whiz-bang salesman convinced the previous owners of our house to put in the first in-ground pool in town, and then all of Plattsburgh was his oyster; there are too too many pools for a place that has about a 60-day season--I'm so glad to have the beach about a mile away now. There is nothing like cool water to sit in when the temp is 85+.

Away from the beach, I'm trying to build a little toybox that the girls can use whenever they visit. My two still remember the Lincoln Logs at GrandmaMarie's, and I'd like to get something like that embedded in Katie's & Courtney's memories. Right now it's a stuffed sheep (that we got with our Serta mattress!) and ... my bear footstool. Stickers were a hit:

as were some of my small collection of bright blue New Beetle toys:

The porch swing that I made that hangs inside our "porch"--really a 3-season room--was pretty interesting too. A swing inside!!

Obviously, a good time was had by all. We're already looking forward to next summer!

Toe Flowers and Ring Tans

While the toes aren't exactly beautiful, the artwork on my big toes is pretty cute. The man who did my pedicure gave me the most relaxing leg & foot massage, and then convinced me that I needed toe flowers! You have to know that anyone who massages your feet can talk you into anything ... um, almost.

I was with my slightly broken, but on the mend niece, Kate. She treated me and her stepdaughter, Abby, to our pedicures. Abby's was just what every 11-year-old girl should have for her first toe-painting: turquoise nail polish with white polka dots and 3 different-colored flowers on each big toe. It was awesome. Kate got toe flowers too, which I think helped her mood if not her bumps, bruises and healing road-rash. The flowers make me remember how lucky we are to still have her in our world; she could so easily have been sent to another. Her accident was a bad one.

As for the ring tan, I've been working on that since the weather got nice enough for me to walk outside without gloves. Amazingly, around here this year, that was about May 1! I've worn my father's wedding ring on my left index finger for years and this is the year I got a really good ring tan. It's not worth a photo but is my little secret trophy. Oh, I have a pretty good watch tan too. :)

My trip to Utah to help Kate was a good one. I think I helped, maybe mostly just by being there. I put a lot into the blender--baked pasta, yogurt smoothies, pea soup, fruit salad, etc. Kate is an incredibly good sport about eating everything in a liquid state. Her injuries were/are serious and I was kind of sorry to leave because she still needs someone there. But her sweetheart of a husband, Ryan, is a rock for her, and his kids, Nathan and Abby, are doing all they can to help and to let her know she's loved. It was heartwarming to witness the power of love, how it's support at its best.

I got to see my stepdaughter, Leanne, and her husband, Ashley. They live on the east side of Salt Lake City and came all the way to Kate's house to see me. I was so happy. The two couples went out with me to a great Thai restaurant. The four 30-somethings hit it off really well and that evening was just a joy for me. Leanne & Ashley were more relaxed and funny than ever and I just enjoyed myself to the hilt. They have a really good life and it's really fun to watch them grow. (Once a parent, always a parent, even when the "kids" are adults!)

This weekend my older daughter, Emily, is coming to Plattsburgh (!!) with her family and I cannot wait to see my grandgirls. This is their first visit since moving to Cleveland and the amazing Gunns are driving through the night to get here--it's a straight 10 hrs. for a lone adult and probably anywhere from 10.5 to 12 hrs. with kids in tow. But the girls should sleep pretty much all the way so that should work out great. We'll have them out here for a few hours, I'd guess. And dinner either Thursday or Friday. I'm so excited.

All for now. I'll once again say I'll try to get back here more often. I just have to keep convincing myself that anyone finds anything I do, interesting...