she went thisaway!

my big brother is gone

My sister and I buried our older brother on Friday. He had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. When he found out that last fact, the initial prognosis was for a couple more years, and that a new treatment could be available toward the end of the year. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be nearly soon enough. At the end of February he was hospitalized and my sister got to talk to his oncologist. That doctor said he had no chance of surviving longer than 90 days. It turned out to be just 48.

After a week at the hospital and another at a hospice in-patient facility, where they got his pain medications fine tuned, we brought him home and took care of him there. He died last Monday morning with both of us at his side.

He was intelligent, helpful, totally honest in all dealings – an all around great guy. We are going to miss him terribly.

Goodbye, Charlie.

new year 2008

May the blessings of this new beginning include health, peace and love.

back from Christmas visit

Visited with my brother and sister in PA, had Christmas dinner with them and friends of my sister. While home, my sister and I went to the Phipps Consevatory to see the Chihuly Nights glass exhibit. It was spectacular at night – which my sister had been told was the time to go. Unfortunately, we didn't take a camera with us. If you're near Pittsburgh before February 24th, it is well worth seeing!

back from Thanksgiving visit

...and finally getting this posted. (Actually got home Wednesday, just in time for handbell practice.)

I went home to PA for Thanksgiving.  We had the usual roast turkey and gravy, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce (whole and jellied – my sibs and I don't like the same thing), and pumpkin pie (homemade by a neighbor). My sister had invited friends, and they brought freshly baked (and wonderful) cookies.

On Friday, my sister and I went into Pittsburgh to see Bodies: The Exhibition at the Carnegie Science Center's UPMC SportsWorks building (which is across the street from Heinz Field). Then, on Sunday, we went to see the newly reworked/rebuilt (2-1/2 years and $36M) Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Oakland section of town. Some of those guys are huge, and others surprisingly small. (The T-Rex display won't be ready until Spring '08, though.)

I also got to see the last three of four televised WPIAL football title games on Friday, the Pitt game on Saturday, and the Steelers game on Monday night – all at Heinz Field. The field was in well-worn shape after the Pitt game, and its subsequent re-sodding was undertaken without any clue as to what the weather was going to wreak on it for Monday night's game. (The field didn't look bad for last night's game, even though it rained the whole time.)

The project I finished before first starting for PA, a 'cage' I made to erect around the driver's seat of my car when I got out for rest stops and fueling, worked well to keep my three cats in the car and not threatening to get out or down about my feet and the brake pedal. In the past a harness and leash on each cat helped, but the leashes got dragged through the litter pan and that wasn't too lovely for anything they were dragged over right after.

The cage is made of 1/2" square opening 'wire cloth' and took me several days to make – first creating a pattern from cardboard, then cutting out using side-cutters, fitting to the car, and finally taping around the edges with duct tape. It's in four sections: two are installed semi-permanently and the other two are erected just before I get out of the car. (I can't drive with the last two in place.) Everything is held together by Velcro wire wraps, small Bungee cords and an 'S' hook.

haiku, the thirtyth

dark has decended;
deer stands along town's outskirts –
slow the car some more.

no drips here!

My kitchen faucet had been dripping for a very long time. It got bad enough a couple months ago that I put a pitcher under it to catch the water to use later. Then last Sunday morning (of course, not when stores are open or anything reasonable like that), when I figured out I was dripping away about four gallons a day, I decided to fix it. My initial attempt seemed to make it worse. So Monday morning, I went to the real hardware store in town, talked to the plumbing guy, got cartridges and water line springs and gaskets for both hot and cold sides, and replaced 'the works'.

No more running water when I don't intend for it to. The parts should pay for themselves in three months. And the faucets work so easily, I turn them way too far when using them. New parts are wonderful! Just like anything else I put off doing, now that it's done, I wonder why it took so long to get to it.

I replaced the gaskets in the bathroom faucet several months ago – so no drips here!

gas savings

Now that I've used three tanks of gas since getting my rebuilt transmission, I know that I'm getting about 4 MPG better than before. I figure that, with current gas prices, I'll save about $300 a year. That's enough to pay for a new refrigerator in 1-1/2 years. I may actually start looking for one now!

birthday - three score

it's six oh today –
still think like a teenager;
bod rebuffs accord.

new favorite recipe - brownies

A couple days ago, while having a chocolate attack, I Googled microwavable brownies, found one, and it's my new favorite recipe. It only takes five minutes of cooking time -- of course, the cooling time is hours. The first batch ended up cooling into clumps when I tried to take it out of the cooking dish (to expedite the cooling) and it came out in pieces.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa (I'm using Hershey's Special Dark)

Grease a glass pie pan and coat with sugar; cream sugar and butter together; add eggs and vanilla; stir flour and cocoa together, beat into sugar/butter/egg mixture; microwave on full for 5 minutes (I use a carousel in the m'wave), cool (five minutes works fine in my m'wave, but it's over 12 years old and I don't think has as high a wattage as ones do now)

I soften the butter in the m'wave in the baking dish (to make greasing it easy) for about 30 sec, then put the butter in another bowl to cream the sugar into it. I don't sugar the bowl (too much trouble). I've been using a 6-1/2 to 6-3/4" inside diameter Corning 1-1/2 Qt. round casserole to bake in. (I don't think the glass pie pan would be big enough) To cool (overnight -- I m'wave it just before going to bed), I put it in the sink with a couple inches cool water and the lid on to help keep the moisture in (and cats out). The texture comes out somewhere between cakey and chewy.

avast, me hearties

It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Don't be a bilge rat, talk like a pirate and make yer Cap'n proud. Arrrrrrr!

"unspeakable bastard"

beautiful morning,
fetched down by cruel assault –
infamy returned.

The Cost: Names   Photos

We'll Go Forward from This Moment
   -- Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald, Sept 12, 2001
Powerpoint presentation.

. . . I will remember . . .

baker's dozen six-words!

My baker's dozenth six word story has been published! Shoulda seen it coming. My last one, What was he thinking?, got a mention (bottom of post) recently on The Rap Sheet – thanks for the heads-up, Annie C!

Three previous stories not listed here yet are: Better late than never, What a waste and Smart enough to pull it off, dumb enough to do it.

Send your stories to the Six Word Story blog.

catching up

I've been seriously negligent with my blogging...

My mini refrigerator has entered its fourth month of service. It's amazing how easy adjusting to almost no extra space has been. I have just learned to only have one set of leftovers at a time. This 'not frost-free' is an aggravation though, and I'm going to need to defrost it soon.

I'm still in a no-job situation (although I've been volunteering four days a week at the Greensboro Symphony's offices since March).  I applied for two jobs in the last two weeks and got one interview, but found out yesterday I didn't get it. I am also looking into the idea of 'retiring', but will still need to have something to do to keep me 'out and about' on a regular basis.

The three felines who share my living space -- Slippers, Spunky and Ditto -- have learned to 'circle the wagon' (me) in the morning. Since I don't have to be up by 6:00 a.m. each weekday, I don't bother setting an alarm. They were used to being fed at 6 and don't particularly care for delays in that department! So, somewhere about the time daylight just barely begins to reveal itself, they have taken to nosing, butting, and stomping across that horizontal form who refuses to get up and feed them on time.

A week ago I managed to catch some throat/sinus bug, and am still a bit congested, but finally got to sleep in bed last night. The previous three nights I had slept in my recliner – which is the only way I can get any rest when I'm unable to breathe properly. I decided long ago that having a recliner is one of the best investments of my money I've ever made.

independence day, 2007, senryu

"...so proudly we hailed..."
"...government of the people..."
Independence Day!

musical over!

Three weeks ago, I 'unretired' from the local community theatre and went back to help at rehearsals for the first time in four years. They were doing The Wizard of Oz and I had been called by the director to help. He thought the stage manager could use my help because she had not done a show with flying in it before and I had worked backstage on two.

The show was this past weekend and everything went very well – except for losing one of the two fly wires near the beginning of the first act on opening night. The fly crew had this happen the first week the flying apparatus had been installed, so we knew what we had to do. We rolled the 'cherry picker' platform from its backstage position down to the temporary flying rail, cranked it up to the wire track installed near the stage ceiling, ran the wire back down to the floor, hooked up the holding weight and ran it across stage and back as a test to ensure everything was properly in place.

The fly crew hooked up the first flyer, we opened the front traveller curtain (in front of which the previous scene had been playing) and went on the with show. We think the actual delay during the ensuing scene change was only about two minutes – if only the audience had known what was going on offstage!

I have (of course) been ignoring my refrigerator problem this whole time. Now that I have my evenings and other spare time back -- and am no longer sleep-deprived -- I am getting ready to finish my second (and last) repair try. If I don't have a working fridge by the end of the coming weekend, I'm going to need to give up and buy a new one.

mini fridge still in service

I have tried one new part in my refrigerator and it didn't do the trick. I have one more half in and have run into a snag with what to do to make sure it works ok if it fixes the problem. I don't intend spending any more than the fifty dollars I have invested in the spares already ordered. At least that was less than having someone come out to look at it to see if it was repairable. Since the mini is still enough for my current needs, I'm not in any hurry to figure out this last puzzle – and that's probably because I don't really want to plug it back in and find this last repair hasn't worked either.

memorial day, 2007, senryu

Memorial Day:
men and women too soon gone –
may we not forget.

haiku, the twentysixth

driving without haste,
my hazy morning stretches
down the four lane road.

friend's daughter marries

I attended the 4:00 p.m. wedding of a good friend's daughter yesterday. I've been to outside weddings before, but this was really an outdoor wedding. The rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception took place on the groom's family farm. The wedding was in a field overlooking some lovely hillsides, and the meals were held in a barn and a close by shed, which is nearly the size of the barn. The rain that threatened Friday and Saturday held off until most people had gotten their food after the wedding – and then it was still walk-in-able. About a half hour after the rain ended, the air cooled and was very pleasant for the remainder of the evening.

On Friday, I took off to be go'fer for my friend and her daugher; yesterday after the reception, I helped clean up tables, stack chairs and load garbage; and today went back to help with the packing up of 'stuff'. Yesterday, shortly after the wedding, the bride gave me back the silver toned watch I had loaned to her for "something borrowed" – it had apparently started pinching her wrist. So I spent the evening walking around with two watches on, and only one person asked why.

24 years it?

I've been using my mini refrigerator for the past week, and my cooler for two days before that. I opened my freezer a bit over a week ago and noticed the blueberries weren't frozen any more. The refrigerator was still cold, so I put what I could salvage there. A couple days later, though, I noticed the refrigerator was running constantly, so I turned it off and put what I could on ice in the cooler. I then made arrangements to get my mini back from a friend.

I'm going to make a stab at figuring out which part has failed to see if it's fixable – if not, I've already been shopping for a new fridge.