'TWAS THE WEEK.............

before Christmas...the weather was cold..."gives you the holiday feeling"...people were told...that was
on Monday...when snowflakes first fell...on the north end of the city...not here where I dwell...
Tuesday dawned...so bright and so pretty...a bit chilly, it's true...that's life in this city...On Wednesday
they said...expect a lot more...I don't think we knew...what was really in store!...It started around
noon...just a swirl here and there...so I went to the church...to spend the afternoon there...
darker and darker...it soon was a storm...so I hurried on home...to be safe and warm...I made footprintw
in the snow...from my car to my door...an hour later...you could see them no more...it snowed thru
the night...a sight to behold...but to my surprise...I was still very cold...my furnace decided...to gop
out on strike...so I crawled under the covers...for the rest of the night...a "snow day" was called
NO SCHOOL the kids cried, we'll play in the snow...it's really cool outside...the end of my story...i"m
happy to say...this is the desert...I like it this way. HAPPY SNOW DAY, HENDERSON STYLE
Accumulation at Railroad Pass 8 inches.

thanksgiving, 2008

Whew! What a week. I decided to spend Thanksgiving 2008 in sunny So. Calif this year. Not really liking
traveling on holidays, I planned to leave Nevada on Tues morning and then return home on Saturday. hoping
to avoid the worst of the traffic. I was a little nervous too as Beth has moved to Corona, and I wasn't too
sure of the way to her house.

I got away from Henderson around 10 am and traffic was moderate, but moving, that is until we got just
past the state line. Then for a long period of time there was construction, stop and go traffice and finally
narrowed down to one lane. I am glad they are working on that section of the road as returning to Nv.
that section is steep and winding downhill, and a tad scary. Once we were past the construction area,
traffic moved along nicely, that is until we got near the agricultural checkpoing. Stop and go for at least
15 minutes and for no reason, they don't check a thing and then wave you on as if you are to blame for
the traffic tie-up. Well, obviously this trip is taking a lot longer than I had planned, but still I had left enough
time so I would get there well before dark. I was listening to a book on tape, so it was a pleasant drive.

I finally got to Corona and took the turn-off Beth told me to take, overshot the dirt road to her house, but
just made a u-turn and all was well, except, Beth did not give me an address or a street name. She
told me it was a blue house (it's gray) and after a few phone calls, I found it. By now it is 2:30 AND I
have to pee. The key was under the mat, and the bathroom was right by the door. Thank you God.
Oops, the water has been shut off. Wiped my hands on my pants and proceeded to unload my car.
I had brought some beer and I was going to put it in the fridge, so six pack in hand I head for the kitchen
and the next thing I knew I was flat down on the floor. Seems there is a 2 inch level difference from the
hall to the kitchen I couldn't see. The beer flew out of my hands, but fortunately didn't break. I knew I
wasn't really hurt but due to a fall many years ago (again in Calif) I had sustained a soft tissue injury
to both knees and have not been able to get down on my knees since, so therefore you know, if you
can't get on your knees you have to yell HELP, I'VE FALLEN AND I CANT GET UP. I called Beth and
asked her if Melanie was on her way and Beth was unable to reach her. She only lives about 10 minutes
away. I tried to pull myself up by the counter, no such luck, scooted on my bottom to the couch and
coffee table again, failure. Oh well, I still had the beer and if I waited long enough help would come or
I wouldn't care. Some guy came and turned the water back on and I called out and asked him to come
in and help me and I guess I scared him off. Pretty soon Melanie arrived and Henry and Cheryl were
visiting her so help had arrived. With Cheryl on one side and Henry on the other I was soon on my
feet, a bit shaken and embarrassed, but okay. I guess I will watch that step from now on.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with Mel and the kids and then when Beth came home, we decided to
go to dinner (mexican food) Beth, Mel, Maggie and me. Then home and to bed. Long, long day.

Wed I went with Melanie and the kids to someplace hundreds of miles away from Corona (or so it seemed)
as Melanie had an appointment with her Orthopedic surgeon, and Luke, Gavin, Mags and I waited in the
car while she saw the doctor. Melanie must have threatened those kids with instant death because they
were so good, I was almost bored. We went back to Melanies and spent the afternoon and then Brian
came home and Beth and Tony came and we ordered dinner from Pizza Hut. the pasta dinners, very good.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, we had gotted dinner already prepared from Albertsons, Beth made extra potatoes
dressing and sweet potatoes and we had a feast fit for a king. Brian, Mel, the kids, Elaine, Beth Tony and
myself for dinner and then Shannon Erick and the girls came over for dessert. The children entertained us
with dances, from heavy metal to the chicken dance. What fun.

Friday, Beth and Mel did the shopping thing at 4:30 am, Not me. I stayed in bed until 7 then got up showered
dressed and they came home about 10:30, got lots of bargains, so then we went to Coco's for lunch.
elaine had stayed the night at Brians and so he too went shopping and she stayed with the kids. We kind
of kicked back the rest of the day, after all it had been a busy week. Mel came over with Maggie, Brian
had taken the boys to see Madagascar. She wanted leftovers. She had to go to Walmart so Maggie
stayed with us. She stood up and walked from the living room to the bedroom (her first long solo journey)
and the next thing we knew she was sitting backwards on Katies Christmas present. She couldn't go
anywhere as half o the toy was in a box. There's no stopping her now that she can walk. The bathroom
is her favorite destination.

Okay,by now I am worn out just watching the kids play and made it an early night. Saturday morning
Beth made breakfast, French toast, scrambled eggs, sausasege and grapes and juice and the Catalano
family joined us. Then it was time to hit the road. I had such a great time and enjoyed getting to spend
as much time as I did with the Catalano family.

the trip back took about 3 and a half hours and I unloaded the car and was thankful that it was a safe trip.
Leaving on Sat the traffic again was moderate but mostly moving except for the 24 miles before Baker.
Stop and go and then smooth sailing the rest of the way. With gas prices down, I spent $26 for gas.
Not bad.

Looking forward to the coming Holiday Season. Love you all!

NOVEMBER

is not my favorite month. from the last week in October thru November I have lost so many friends
and family members, that I am always glad when November is over.

21 years ago today, on Nov 19, 1987 my husband of 35 years died. I remember that day very well.
I had spent most of the day at the hospital and the only ones who spoke to me were the nurses. Wayne
was heavily sedated and as I sat by his bedside listening to his raspy irregular breathing (mostly
induced by heavy dosages of morphine), I was literally worn out. This was the 19th day of his
hospitalization and the nurses kept predicting that "by the time I get back from my 2 days off, he will
be gone" How I secretly wished they had been right, put an end to the suffering, but he lingered on.

Knowing I was at the end of my rope, but still hanging on, Beth and Henry decided I needed a break
Henry would pick me up shortly after 4 pm when he got off work and then we would get Beth and
the girls and we would go to dinner. Then if I wanted to go back to the hospital they would take me.

We went to Coco's. One of the places Wayne and I went to regularily. The manager asked here Wayne
was, and I explained to him what was going on in our life at the time. He expressed his feelings and
later when our dinner was served, our waitress said the manager was paying for our meal. Henry,
whose sense of humor was always dry, but uplifting said, Hmm I wonder where we could go and
do this tomorrow night. by now, it was after 7 pm and I decided to just go home and then return
to the hospital the next morning. Shortly after 11 pm Dr. Rohde called me and said the my husband
had passed away just moments before. Ohmygosh, the guilt set in. I should have gone back, but
then I thought I wasn't supposed to be there. He was with his friends, the nurses, and of course
he never regained consciousness. the doctor told me there wasn't a nurse to be found after he
passes, they all went to wherever they go when they need solitude. they were such a great group,
and they all loved him. They told me so. 3 of them attended his funeral service.

It was a week before Thanksgiving. Dawn and Chip had moved to Henderson the September before.
They had made so many trips back to Calif that fall because evertime I had to put him in the
hospital the staff suggested I call my family. It was a tough month.

Outside his hospital window was a huge pine tree. Throughout the 19 days a mourning dove roosted
in that tree. I saw it a time or two, didn't spend too much time looking out the window, but Henry,
who came on his lunch hour every day called my attention to it and said it was there every day.
I found a lot of comfort and peace in that. God letting me know He was with us. Also during that
time we became very close to the Chaplain at Inter-Community. An Australian, Rev. Ray Box,
who took a special interest in our family. He and his wife came up to the hospital and the 4 of us
celebrated Holy Communion, One of the last conscious things Wayne did.

On Monday, the day before his services, which Rev Box officiated at, he called me to the hospital
to get some personal facts about Wayne for the service. He also loaded up our car with a complete
Thanksgiving dinner, donated by KMart. Knowing full well nobody wanted to go shopping at that
point.

The service was beautifully done at Forest Lawn Cemetary, using their chapel. So many people
were there. I knew he had touched a lot of lives, but truly did not the full extent of it. I miss him
a lot.

I want to finish up the story of the mourning doves. The day before Thanksgiving was my Aunt
Clara's birthday. I called her to wish her Happy Birthday, and we talked a long time. Her husband
had died not too long before this so we had a lot in common. While we were talking a mourning
dove appeared on my patio. I mentioned it to Aunt Clara and she said "Doesn't that spook you" I
said No, it's just God letting me know everything was OK. Didn't see the bird again until just around
Christmas when the kids came over to clean the yard and the bird swooped down over Beth's head
and she looked up and said Yes, Dad, We are cleaning up all your s__t! It appeared once more,
a year later on the anniversay of his death and I have not seen it since.

Love you all

VETERAN'S DAY

The holidays continue.

Not much to be said for Veteran's Day because when I was a schoolkid, it was called Armistice
Day and it was not celebrated, but observed. It commemorated the signing of the armistice
following World War I. Mail was delivered, school was in session, but on Nov 11th at 11 AM
a moment of silence was observed and everyone stood up and faced east for one minute.
That was it. Sometimes I wonder if that was not the best way as it really focused on the
solemnity of the moment.

I can't remember just when this was changed to Veteran's Day, commemorating the end of
each war and honoring the Veterans.

I am so thankful that none of my children and grandchildren have lived through a time when
young men were drafted and obligated to serve in the Armed Forces. Don't get me wrong,
I am so grateful to all the servicemen who fought for our country and our rights and our
freedom, but it was a scary time of your life, when all of a sudden our brothers, husbands,
friends were drafted. Sure we knew it could and probably would happen. The fear of the
unknown. Probably 99 percent of the draftees made the most of the time spent in the
service. I know Grandpa did. It wan't of his choosing, but he was drafted for a two year
period, and decided he would enjoy it. I on the other hand did not enjoy it. He was already
in the Army when we became engaged, so I knew what I was getting into. During the basic
training, and then further training in the United States it was somewhat of an adventure.
But when training is over, practicality set in. Most of the trainees (draftees) were sent
overseas. Korea was the hot spot at the time and while Grandpa was deployed to Okinawa
it was just hop skip and jump to Korea. Fortunately he stayed on Okinawa during his course
of service--it was always the fear of the unknown. Another fear the families have is will
our soldier come home at all, what kind of horror has he witnessed wherever he was, will
it have enriched him or made him bitter. So therefore my children I will always be thankful
that none of you would have experienced this personally.

To all servicemen and veterans, and their families, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for your
sacrifices. God Bless You and God Bless America.

THE MORNING AFTER

I for one will not miss the phone calls or television (i hesitate to even call them this) ads,
and am really glad that election 2008 is now a thing of the past. I am suffering the after
effects tho.

I am a staunch democrat. I believe in the democratic policy, but that does not mean I
believe in all the democratic candidates, nor do I believe any of the candidates are really
sincere, I believe they will say what they think you want to hear in order to be elected,
then after they are in office they do as they well please or whatever congress will allow.
I respect your feelings and I had hoped you would respect mine. Isn't that what America
is all about. I was in for a rude awakening this election, people almost seemed desparate,
and knowing my democratic tendancies they felt I was fair game for all their political
jokes. Now, you know me I love a good joke, I stress GOOD joke, but some of the ones
I received were obviously in such bad taste and I truly was offended by them. Mind you
know, I respect your opinion, but the cartoons and poems I received were not your
opinion, just someone elses that you decided to copy. Shame on you for having so little
respect for me, but mostly shame on you for having so little respect for yourself. You
shall remain nameless, you know who you are, but know that I forgive you and will
continue to pray for you.

For the record, I did NOT vote for Obama, nor did I vote for McCain. I prayed over this
and even agonized over it. I did not vote early because I was undecided. I woke up
yesterday morning so close to a panic attack and I thought I just wont vote. Then
common sense took over. 1, if you don't vote in the presidential general election, you
have to register again and 2, there were a couple of positions up for grabs that were
very important to me, so I went to the polling place, holding tightly to the hand of God
and proudly cast my ballot. Under pres/vice pres I proudly voted "none of the above"

We have a new president-elect now, and he will have my whole support but I will place
my trust in the Lord and know that He is watching out for us.

P.S. the two issues I really was concerned about were resolved to my satisfaction.

Love you all

HALLOWEEN

Why oh why did I ever pick this holiday to start with. Must have been a senior moment (brain fart).
We didn't celebrate or even observe Halloween when I was a kid. In Milwaukee, this observance took
two days. On the 30th we had beggar's night. The night kids dressed up and went trick or treating
and to those who didn't give treats, these kids would go back on the 31st and trick them. My parents
would not let us go out to beg. We had sufficient and didn't need to go begging. Playing tricks on
people was not a christian way of life. It was the night of the devil and we just really didn't need to be
a part of it.

One Halloween, tho, we broke that rule. I was in the 8th grade and belonged to a girl's group from my
class. We called ourselves the "lucky six". I remember 5 of those girls, but I can't remember the 6th.
Shirley, Ries, Dorothy Zamow, myself and Dianne Sieber. I guess I only remember 4. Anyhow this
particular Oct 30th we got together and wore costumes and went out begging. I remember I did have
"permission" because Dianne's parents were some of the upper class members at our church and if
it was OK with them, then that was the word. It was fun. I don't remember how I was dressed, but
gypsy keeps popping up in my head. We went door-to-door. One lady gave us rotten apples and
the next night we went back and did the unthinkable----right we played a trick on her. She had a
closed in front porch, so we did the unthinkable dirty trick--we took those rotten apples and smeared
them all over her windows. Then we went back to Diannne's house and had a party. We played the
game where someone (her dad) read a spooky story and all the lights were out (he read by the light
of a flashlight) and we had to put our hands into creepy stuff. Peeled grapes for eyeballs, cooked
cold pasta for intestines, jello for brains, pretzel sticks for the backbone. You get the picture.
That is the only childhood memory I have of Halloween.

I know we bought candy for beggar's night, so when we moved to Californian and we lived on
Whiteknoll Dr Grandpa and I bought lots of candy. Imagine our feelings when NOONE showed
up. California does not do "beggar's night". Never fear they all came the next night.

One Halloween I really remember is when we lived on Shipman. Of course, we celebrated the
All Saints Night every year. I would make a pot of chili, that way people could eat when they wanted
to, and it stayed hot. Thus started that family tradition. Grandpa really got into the spirit of things
and loved decorating the yard, and helping the kids get together a costume. It was usually my
job to go with the kids trick or treating and he would give out the candy at home. My favorite stop
(and my kids) was at Harold and Eloise's across the street. They gave out regular size candy bars
and I got a bottle of Milwaukee's best in a paper sack. God help the kids who tried to come back
for seconds, Eloise had a mind like a steel trap and read those kids the riot act. Usually we would
all come back to our house and the kids had hot dogs and hot chocolate, and their parents would
have some adult beverages.

One year, tho grandpa really outdid himself. He took a pair of his jeans and a flannel shirt and
stuffed them with newspaper. Made a head with a cap on it, hung it from the tree right by the
front gate and rigged up a speaker system. This "person" hung over a graveyard mad complete
with tombstones and dead pine needle mounds. Whenever a child came up to the gate the hanging
man spoke to the unsuspecting person, saying things like "would you scratch my foot" Please help
me get down" "I don't know why I am up here" It was great. Word s pread and people were dropping
kids off by the carloads. Mike even gave up trick or treating and he hid in the house and took over
the microphone. Only bad things some kids got so scared they wouldn't come to the door for their
treat.
Then the grandkids came along and it was their turn. We usually went over to Dawn and Chip's for
chili and s pent Halloween with them.

Today, I just turn off the porch light and watch tv. I was prepared the first year her in Las Vegas,
but we had two teenagers show up at 7:30 and that was it. I believe Halloween is a fun night and
should be for kids. I love seeing the costumes and love getting pictures of the greatgrandbabies
all dressed up. I am eager to see "kenna and kyla" as bad witches, Luke as Darth Vader, Gavin
as a trash truck (good job Brian) Maggie and Katie in whatever they are, Carter will be a surprise
too. I never dressed up and if the kids asked I just said I will be a "mean old mom" who will not
take the kids trick or treating if they ask again.

Next Holiday NEVADA DAY, oh no that's the same as Halloween in this state, so I guess Armistice
Day now known as Veteran's day is next on the calendar.

Love you guys

WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE?

I suppose you think this is going to be a political blog, well, it's not. Not that I wouldn't like to get on my
soapbox, but I am so undecided that I don't feel qualified to express my views, seeing as they are all
pretty negative. No this blog is more of a cyber-electronic-21st century type of thing.

First of all I had a bad Saturday night last night. At first I couldn't fall asleep and then when I finally
did I woke up at 1:30 am and tossed and turned until about 3 am. Knowing I had to get up early for
church, when 5 am came around, I hopped out of bed, wanting to stay there so much. Booted up
my computer, switched on the coffee pot, made my bed and then looked at my computer and it had
a note on it, saying we updated the time on your computer in compliance with daylight saving time
ending on 10/25. Caught me off guard, hadn't heard a word on the news, hmm, well, now it is 4am
instead of 5, bed is made, no sneaking back in. Strange I usually hear someone talking about this.
Let me check my cell phone. Nope, cell phone still says 5 am. Oh my gosh, if I believe my computer
and it's wrong I will be 1 hr late to church. If I believe my cell phone and its right oh what the heck.
Call time. I guess we got no such thing in Nevada, so I called 411 and the operator said it was just
after 5 am and dst would be discontinued next week. Any other Sunday, I would have said screw it
jumped back into bed and stayed home, but I was scheduled to usher this Sunday and I take that
responsibility very seriously (mostly because I bitch about those who couldn't care less)

My poor computer, first the little man who lives inside (you know the one who says "you got mail"
"good-bye" "not that key you dummy" died and he took my screen saver with him and now my
computer silently lies to me.

During my awake time last night I had tuned to TCM and they had a couple of short films on starring
Artie Shaw and his orchestra. Took me back to my teen years and early adulthood when the bands
and singers were the craze. So much good dancing music and all live too. The Eagles Ballroom on
24th and Wisconsin with the mirrored ball casting lights on the dance floor and the dancing couples.
You didn't have to be a contortionist to dance to that music, but you almost had to at least like the
person you were dancing with, because it really was romantic. So romantic in fact our church
banned dancing for unmarried couples as it was very suggestive. My feeling was that going to a
drive in movie was just as suggestive if you were inclined that way yet that was ok. Makes you wonder
what kind of minds those pastors had. Oh well.

I am kind of running out of ideas about what to blog, so thought I would do a bit on Holidays as
they come along and tell you about holidays in the "olden days" as opposed to modern times.

So later this week I will comment on Halloween, but now, just a moment of silence please for the little
man who no longer lives in my computer, and a plea to the stinker who jumped in his space and
thinks it is fun to tell me lies.

Until next time, Love you guys.