All posts by reneeinnd

Gatherings, Travel, Uncategorized

New York Nice

47 Comments

We have been in New York City for  week, and all in our group are pleasantly surprised by how friendly and helpful people are here. One of our traveling companions is a former detective in our police department back home, who admitted that he was expecting violence and mayhem on every corner. His  Grade 12 daughter left her purse in a cab on their way to the symphony, and she managed to get it back the same evening  because the next passenger  turned it in. People in the long wait for the Macy’s parade saved one another’s spots for snack and bathroom breaks. People accommodated small, short children so they could better see the parade.  It has been refreshing.

What has restored your faith in people lately? 

Family, Fitness, Health, Uncategorized

Home Remedies

65 Comments

I got a phone call from Daughter the other night, breathless to tell me with great glee that her best friend’s dad, a rancher and veterinarian drug rep, had found the elixir for longevity. Yep. He decided somehow that dog de-wormer was the key to long life and disease prevention. He was taking a dose every day.

This doesn’t surprise me. Our region is noted for its high acceptance of alternative medicine. People who claim to cure all sorts of things by moving one’s cerebral-spinal fluid in the opposite direction with magnets thrive here.

My paternal grandmother believed that aspirin could cure insomnia. My father was a great believer in massive doses of Vitamin E.  I can’t tell you the number of bottles of vitamins and supplements we threw out after he died. He also believed that cherries would cure arthritis. He once ate a whole lug of cherries over the course of 24 hours.  My mother believed for a while that that drinking the colostrum milk from cows that had just had their calves would cure her Multiple Sclerosis. She said it tasted dreadful.  They both lived into their 90’s, so I can’t say that it harmed them. (I know for a fact, though, that had my father had a colonoscopy in his 70’s or 80’s he would have not died of colorectal cancer at 93. I don’t know why he never had one.)

What are your favorite home remedies? What are some of the more fantastical home remedies you have heard of? 

100 Words, Family, Seasons, Uncategorized

Kiffey’s New Coat

28 Comments

Not long after we moved here 30 years ago, Husband got a new winter coat. He still has it. It is a down filled Maine Game Warden’s parka and we got it from LLBean. It is really warm. He has worn it a lot through some pretty cold weather. He has had it repaired several times.  He has a very sentimental attachment to this coat. He is pretty sad right now because it appears that the zipper is finally shot and I don’t think it can be replaced. I ordered a new Maine Game Warden’s parka for him on Friday. I told him that if he keeps going at this pace, and this one lasts for 30 years, this may be the last winter coat he ever buys. (Kiffey is the Irish diminutive of his first name, in case you were wondering.)

What is the oldest article of clothing you own? What do you have that needs to be replaced?

Family, gardening, holidays, home, Kids, Uncategorized

The New Martha

21 Comments

When we moved into our house 30 years ago, our neighbors across the street were Ludwig and Martha, an elderly couple of Czech heritage. There were several houses around us with young children,  and the neighborhood was pretty busy at times. Martha and Ludwig were always up for a chat on their porch, and loved watching the children play. Every Halloween Martha made sure she had some extra special treat bags for daughter and her best friend across the street.  Martha and Ludwig passed a few years ago, and middle aged  couple live there now.

I have enjoyed getting acquainted with  the two young children next door to us. They moved in last summer. They are very curious about our garden and flowers, and they like to tell me what has been going on in their lives whenever we are all outside at the same time.  This Halloween I made sure I had  special treat bags for them,  just like Martha. I told daughter I was turning into the new Martha, and she said “Those are big shoes to fill, Mom”.  I hope I can live up to the challenge.

When have you stepped into someone’s shoes? Whose place have you filled? How well did it work?

100 Words, Family, holidays, pets, Uncategorized

Cats

53 Comments

Well, it is Halloween, and it is time to think about cats. We have two.  They are considered mysterious and spooky, but to me they are fun and silly.  Ours are totally indoor cats. I noticed a tuxedo cat in our yard tonight who ran away when I called it. If it keeps showing up I will see what we need to do about it. Every home needs three cats, don’t you think?

Tell about the cats in your life and your past. What is it about cats that has made people assume cat  are associated  with the magical?

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books, Fantasy, History, Kids, Media, Movies, Uncategorized

Scary Bears!

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Today is the anniversary of the premiere in 1974 of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”,  It was a great plan to premiere it on the day before Halloween.  I have never been a great fan of scary movies, but I remember liking the Alfred Hitchcock show and the Twilight Zone, sometimes. I like scary books better.  The stories don’t have to be so graphic like the scenes in movies. I think that our reading and imagining  brains are better at scaring us than just gore on the screen.

The last best scary book I read was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It is a vampire book that keeps a constant sense of suspense, but with very understated violence.  It is also a book about books. Dracula, in this one, is a real book lover with a special penchant for librarians and historians. What could be scarier?!

Tell about your favorite scary movie, story, music, or book.

Family, Food, home, Uncategorized

Baking Perfection

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Sunday evening, after promising all weekend that he wouldn’t bake anything, Husband broke down and tried yet another biscuit recipe. It is one of many he has baked since the spring. He is never satisfied with the results.  Some have used sour dough. Some have used special flour from the southern US specifically for biscuits. Each time he uses a different recipe. Each batch looks and smells the same to me. He used some of our new lard in the most recent ones.  He said they were the best yet, but there was a wistfulness in his voice that suggested he still wasn’t satisfied.  I don’t know what biscuit perfection is, but he has an idea in his head that he just can’t turn into reality. I guess that is how it goes when trying to find  that perfect thing.

What have you tried to perfect?  What have been your successes?  What are you still working on?

Family, History, Media, News, Uncategorized

Your Name Here

63 Comments

Our city is doing a feasibility study to see if we should  build an event center.  We don’t have any large scale venues for conventions and such.  The city manager said in a newspaper interview that the building will be paid for by donations, and that  whoever donated the most money would get naming rights.  I hope whoever does this isn’t embarrassing or somehow notorious.  There is a music hall at the University of North Dakota named after a rather unscrupulous fellow named Chester Fritz, who was a ND native who  became a leading gold trader in the post-World War II period and made several fortunes and had a very tumultuous life.   This made me think what, if anything  I would want named after me.  If it depended on how much money I could donate, I am afraid it would probably be a memorial stopwatch for future psychologists at my agency to use during test administration.   Husband paid for a paver with his family name on it for the walk way into the local library.   He paid $500 for the honor, but most of the money goes to the library.   Wasn’t it our Jim the Baboon who has a nematode named after him?

What would you want named after you?

books, Family, Gatherings, History, Media, Movies, TV, Uncategorized

OK!

102 Comments

Today is the anniversary of the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone,  AZ between the Earp brothers  and the Clanton gang.  None of these were real solid citizens, but this “battle” haunts us to this day with cowboy legend. I loved movie westerns growing up.  Having Native friends has tempered this somewhat.  I was surprised to hear that one of Husband’s Native colleagues likes nothing better than to vegetate and watch westerns while lying in bed.

Virgil Earp was supposedly the real hero in this incident but Wyatt got all the credit about it because he wrote a book about it. This seems unfair to me, but I never had any siblings. I wonder what Virgil thought about it?

What is your favorite western movie or novel?    How are things with you and your siblings?

Fitness, Games, Health, Music, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized

Mind Games

51 Comments

Jacque mentioned yesterday that she thought Husband’s challenge for imaginary dinner guests was the result of filling time during Great Plains travel. She wasn’t far off.  Travel out here is tedious. People at the conference I attended were somewhat surprised to hear that we drove to Minneapolis, since it was “only” 500 miles from our home.

I listen to classical music on the radio, either streamed from MPR at home or at work, or else the Symphony Hall station on our car radio. I challenge myself to identify the composer and/or the name of the piece before the announcer says them.  I pretend I am in a competition. I listen to music whenever I can, so I do the challenge quite a lot. I have  a really good auditory memory, and I recognize pieces quite quickly. (I can always tell if it is the Concordia Choir on the MPR Choral Stream just by the sound.)  It is coming up with the name of the piece and the composer that is tricky. I find that the more pieces I recognize, the harder it is to sort out exactly what the name of the piece is. My brain is getting too full.  I am pretty good at recognizing pieces by Brahms or Schumann. They have distinctive patterns of harmonies and rhythms. Mendelssohn and Schubert can sometimes confuse me.  I always know Stravinsky and Prokofiev, but sometimes  late Prokofiev sounds like Shostakovitch

As I was in a wind band in college, I can identify Vaughan Williams and Holst and Grainger very easily, but distinguishing Molly on the Shore from Handel in the Strand is sometimes hard.   I am  somewhat embarrassed to say that I  can always identify the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper and also know the name of the composer. It is so distinctive.

I know that Baboons have various areas of interest. Mine is classical music. I hope that my classical habit helps keep my mind alert and healthy.

What are you doing that keeps your mind active and healthy. How are you at identifying the names of musical pieces and their composers?