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It's been a while - perhaps it's time to go back to the beginning and reread the series.
- Mood:
nostalgic - Music:Zac Brown Band
So, Meneleth, your LiveJournal reveals…
You are… 0% unique, 16% peculiar, 44% interesting, 24% normal and 16% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy writing). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are wary of trusting strangers. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is conventional.
Your overall weirdness is: 23
(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 53% of other LJers.)
- Music:Frank Sinatra
Bear with me - there's a point to all this confession. I have the pleasure of working in offices located in an old Tudor-style mansion built around 1902 instead of being stuck in a modern, souless cubicle somewhere. I'm on the second floor, which in a building with 9ft is a ways up. I don't mind that - I'm inside and it's fine. However, right now the building is being repainted and there are guys going up and down very tall ladders (it's a 3 story building with deeply slanted roofs), rigging up planks for scaffolding and generally doing what painters do. But they started on my side of the building so all day, as they go blithely bouncing by and lean way over to reach a spot outside my windows, I've been sitting here with sweaty palms and clenched stomach. I will be so glad when they get down to the first floor!
- Mood:
uncomfortable - Music:Bobby Darin
So, you can guess my question --- where would you go?
My choices:
Colorado - to visit our best friends. Since we went our separate ways in 1997, they've been out to visit us twice but we haven't made it to their place yet.
London - no, not during the Olympics. I want to show Meg some of the best sights in London and take a day trip out to where we lived in Oxfordshire. Possibly also a day trip to Wales.
Washington, D.C. - to see the White House, Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian...
a private Caribbean island - or at least a private cottage with our own beach - does this one need explaining??
and last but not least, Dublin, I think - none of us has been to Ireland yet, but we've always wanted to visit
I'm looking forward to your replies!
- Mood:day-dreamy
So here are my thoughts about April 17th: Do you remember what you were doing 15 years ago today? I do, quite vividly. We were living in Grand Forks, ND, at the time. We'd had an unusually bad winter - 8 major blizzards (the last being an extremely damaging ice storm), over 200 inches of snow (if I remember correctly) from the beginning of October, and no thaw all winter long. Anxiety levels were high because as weather began to warm all that snow began to melt. That area of ND is quite flat, so all the snow-melt turns into overland flooding. The city had been building up dikes for weeks in anticipation as the Red River rose and rose. On the morning of the 17th the sirens sounded and soon firemen and police were pounding on our doors telling us to GET OUT because the dikes were breaching. We had enough time to pack a suitcase each, grab a few other things and go, Hubby & Meg in his car, the dogs and I in the station wagon. We went to friends who lived further from the river and on slightly higher ground, left Meg & the dogs with them, and went back for the motorcycle. No dice. In the half hour we were gone our street was already flooding and the Nat. Guard would not let us in. The next day the whole city was ordered to evacuate, and we went to the Base, where extremely kind friends took us in. We were not to see our house again for over two weeks. It was a ranch house, and the watermarks were very clear - up to shoulder height on the main floor. I'd say we lost about 90% of what we owned.
It was a rough time, for everyone concerned. But there were bright spots. No loss of life. The incredible kindness of friends, strangers and the American public. In our case, we were lucky - we had full flood and homeowner's insurance coverage. We were given temporary housing at the base because we were military. So yeah, it was pretty bad, but it could have been much worse.
Yesterday (Saturday) after breakfast we took care of the grocery and meat shopping. Then I went to a nearby cemetery to see if I could get a map from the office.* They were very helpful, so after a break for lunch, hubby & I went and found and photographed a couple of graves. Then we went home, cleaned up and headed out to Meg's college for the last concert of the school year. We took her to dinner first and had a nice visit. The concert was really good and we enjoyed it very much. Happily the drive home was unusually quiet and we got home around 10:45. I was worship assistant at church this morning for a joint parish service. Home after that for lunch and then to work. Our snowbird neighbors are coming home this week so we moved our motorcycle out of their garage (we get to keep it there in exchange for watching their place and shoveling over the winter) to under the covered porch out back. I've made chicken noodle soup, currently simmering in the crockpot, for my lunches for the week. I baked banana muffins for hubby's breakfasts for the week. Between us, we got the laundry going, and at the moment load three of four is in the washer. And I finished up by washing all the prep dishes from my day's cooking. Hubby is in charge of dinner, so now, at 4 o'clock I finally get to the "day of rest" part of the day (except for finishing the laundry).
We try to make Sundays a day of rest, but when we're gone most of the day Saturday that's not always possible.Well, there's always next weekend!
* We're volunteers now at FindAGrave.com. You can go there and look up where your ancestors are buried ( and find graves of famous people too). Then you can request that someone take pictures for you. For example, I found that my great-grandparents are buried near Pittsburgh, but who know if I'll ever go there, so I put in a request for a photo. Then a guy who lives there took pictures and posted them for me. So we just started fulfilling requests for pictures in our area. It's interesting, gets us out of the house and it's nice to be helping people connect with their roots.
- Mood:
tired - Music:big bands of the 40s
So thanks for the music, the laughs and the fun, Davy. You will be missed.
PS. I thought of using a different icon, but this one reminds me of how silly and fun the show was.
- Mood: sad
(And yes, I know that's not what the question intended. Too bad; that's my answer.)
Second, keep things in perspective. Does it really matter in the scheme of things? Will you - will anyone - remember next year or even next month? Is it worth your time and emotion to get upset over things? 9 times out of 10, getting angry or upset only hurts you and doesn't solve the problem. I choose not to let other people's actions upset me because I have better things to do.
When all else fails, repeat: "Never assume malice where it can be blamed on stupidity." and "Life's too mysterious, don't take it seriously."
All that's left is to get pictures up on the walls.
Meanwhile, here is a photo of the blinds - one up, one down, so you can see how they look.
( Look here )
- Mood:
happy
