This is exactly how I feel most of the time. I love this comic!!!

Living In A Perfect World

I would say the weather report sounds like a broken record, but that would really be dating myself, wouldn’t it? I don’t think my youngest child even knows what a “record” is, much less what the term “broken record” means! Anyway.  This winter has been amazing.  We’ve lived in North Carolina for fifteen years, and have never seen anything like this!  There has been snow on the ground for two months!  I am starting to entertain fantasies about jumping in my car and driving down to Miami in search of warmth, but it is such a long drive, and my Spanish still needs some work. . .

I have been working on my genealogy today, and that has been fairly rewarding.  In particular I have been trying to learn more about the Estes branch of my family.  We are descended from David Shipton Estes (1776 – 1861).  I have some very old photographs from my great-aunt Bobbie’s “Adams Album”, that are simply labeled “Estes Family Members”, but nobody knows who they are.  So I am hoping to find names for the faces.  I will post them here, because who knows?  Stranger things have happened!  They are scanned from the original tintypes.  If anyone researching Adams, Estes/Eastes or even Freeman families sees these and recognizes them, please let me know who they are!!

One of my favorite ways to “escape”, especially in the dead of winter, is to play with my blog.  So, after spending a couple of days searching for cool new Wordpress Themes, I finally found one that I actually like.  Most of the time Wordpress themes are too clinical for me.  Occasionally they are too teeny-bopper.  It’s rare for me to find one that I think conveys the mood I’m looking for in my blog.  But, this one caught my eye, and I think it will do for now.  For a while!  If you like it, would you please leave me a comment and let me know?

Meanwhile, in other news:  it’s supposed to snow again tonight, but only an inch or so.  We used to get so excited about the possibility of an inch or so of snow.  Now, not so much.  I am so looking forward to warm weather!

We had a major snow storm in December, which resulted in snow on our back deck until January.  The snow finally melted, just in time for the next major storm to hit last weekend.  We got 11.5″ of snow.  So now, while we are still digging out from that storm, an ice storm has hit us.

The sounds we hear inside the house are disturbing.  Popping. Crackling. Crunching.  But stepping out onto the porch is downright terrifying.  Our yard looks like a war zone, and it sounds like one, too.  Every time a big branch or tree goes down, it snaps and sounds like gunfire.  The dogs are so frightened they won’t come out of the basement.  I don’t blame them.  I just saw a small branch, a stick, really, fall to the ground. After bouncing back and forth off of a few branches, it broke free from the tree and hurled itself to the ground with dizzying speed.  Had there been any living creature where it landed, it would have impaled them.

Our driveway is an obstacle course, but still navigable.  I have some doubts about it staying that way all night.  We have friends who are prepared to bring a chain saw over and dig us out, but not just yet.  It’s too dangerous for any real clean-up to begin.

Across the street, a smallish branch fell onto one of the power lines, causing some pretty serious sparks and smoke for almost an hour.  It seems to have gone out now.  We still have power, and internet, which amazes me.  I am grateful for that.  Especially since USA Network is starting an NCIS marathon at 6:00 tonight.  Hate to miss out on that!!

Anyway, am posting some pictures.  Since Gaylon got me that wonderful new Canon EOS Rebel Xsi camera for Christmas, I absolutely must document everything that happens around here!  And, while I’m thinking about it:  special thanks to Kyle P. for changing the settings on my site so that I could upload larger files!  The pictures from my new camera are really clear and the files are much larger than my old camera.  My site was set to only allow uploads of 2 mg or less.  Kyle set it so I can upload pretty much any size file now. Yay!

I am a headline news reader.  I rarely bother to read the whole story unless the headline really, really grabs me.  I think I am, sadly, typical.  But in my defense, I have to say that the headlines have been screaming doom and devastation for so long that it’s very difficult for me to summon up the courage to look past them, into the actual articles.

Tonight’s headlines on Yahoo! illustrate my point perfectly:

Haiti hit by largest earthquake in over 200 years
AP sources: Employer health mandate may be dropped
AP Exclusive: Obama wants $33 billion more for war
Cold weather and growing sales mock death of fur

Okay, I actually read the article about the earthquake in Haiti.  Those poor, poor people!  As if their very existence was not suffering enough.  My heart goes out to them.

The healthcare thing has begun to sound like a permanent droning in my ears. “Obama” wants this and that (yet they keep showing pictures of Pelosi. . . ewwww) and they keep changing their minds.  At first, I was really concerned.  Now I’m beginning to think they’re going to carry on for years, and accomplish nothing.

Obama wants more for the war.  Of course he does.  He totally lied about getting our military home.  Change?  Yeah. Sure.

Now, the “death of fur” thing is funny to me.  All of those self-righteous people who condemned others for wearing fur must have forgotten about how furs were one of the key ingredients to surviving  winters all over the globe throughout history.  And, when people get really cold, they want what works best.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion, yet again, that the world has gone mad.  I just hope everybody else can see it, too.  Sometimes it gets a little old being the only one to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes!

I have been running a relatively high fever since Sunday evening.  And, pretty much, that is my one and only symptom.  So, I did break down and call the doctor’s office, but haven’t heard back from them yet.  Maybe they can get me in tomorrow.  I just feel rotten, and am so ready to feel at least “human” again.

In other news, Faith’s cat went into heat, and that was a very disturbing ordeal.  Mom and Faith took her to be spayed this morning, and Dr. Angel allowed Faith to sit in the OR while she performed the operation.  Faith was apparently quite fascinated, which doesn’t surprise me.  She watches all that stuff on Animal Planet that is definitely NOT for the faint of heart.  Or me.

Because I haven’t really felt well enough to do anything else, I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting, and playing on the internet. You might notice that I put ‘widgets’ on my blog for Facebook and Twitter.  I am not a huge Twitter fan, but I learned over New Year’s that companies “Tweet” things like discounts, specials, and even job postings.  So, I thought it might be useful to me after all. And of course there are various news updates.  Although lately, it’s all so depressing I am not sure I am interested!!

We are going to try, again, to sell our house in a few weeks.  Although, I seriously am not sure it will work, because the market here is still so awful.  But, with God, all things are possible.  I may as well remain hopeful, I sure don’t like the alternative.

There is more snow coming tonight.  But, it shouldn’t be as bad as it was last time.  I hope not.  I still have 8 inches of snow on my back deck that’s been there since December 18th.

And now, for the part of 2009 that really didn’t personally concern me.  Macabre as it may sound, the part of the Oscars that I most enjoy is their tribute to the stars that have died that year.  Well, this year, I found a list of those who left us this year, and decided that some of them were worth mentioning here.  I think it is a true sign that I am getting older that I actually knew who more than half of the people were, and even had an opinion on most of them.  Not that my opinion matters much, but I do remember many years in which I had no idea who all those people were who had died, or why anyone would care.

So, I am categorizing them in my own way:  The “Greats” (Those who really made a difference for this world, and often risked their lives in doing so, or who just lived that long), The “Too-Young-To-Die” (Those who should have lived a few more decades, at the very least), The “Well Known and Loved” (I think that one is pretty self-explanatory), The “Rich and Powerful” (again, self-explanatory, except that these may not have bee so well-loved, at least not by yours truly!), and The “Not Well-Known-But-Important-Anyway” (maybe not household names, but still famous in their own right).  There is, of course, some overlap, but I’m generalizing, so please allow me some discrepancies.

GREATS

Marek Edelman (Last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis); Harry Patch (Last surviving British trench soldier from World War I); Millvina Dean (Last survivor of the Titanic); Maria de Jesus (World’s oldest person, age 115)

TOO-YOUNG-TO-DIE

Brittany Murphy (Actress, age 32);  Chris Henry (Bengals, age 26); Stephen Gately (Irish Pop Singer, age 33); Andy Kessler (Skateboarding Pioneer, age 48) Michael Jackson (Superstar, age 50); Dolla (Roderick Anthony Burton II) (Rapper, age 22);

WELL KNOWN AND LOVED

Roy E. Disney (Nephew of Walt Disney); Patrick Swayze (Actor; and he could qualify for “Too-Young-To-Die”, as well); Farrah Fawcett (Actress); Ed McMahon (Sidekick on the Tonight Show); David Carradine (Actor, Martial Artist);  Dom DeLuise (Comedic actor, director); Bea Arthur (Actress); Natasha Richardson (Stage and screen actress, qualifies for “Too-Young-To-Die”, as well); Paul Harvey (Broadcasting Pioneer); Ricardo Montalban (Actor);

RICH AND POWERFUL (Well-Known, but Not Necessarily Well-Loved)

Oral Roberts (Evangelist); Edward Kennedy;  Walter Cronkite (Legendary Anchorman);

NOT WELL-KNOWN-BUT-IMPORTANT-ANYWAY

Don Hewitt (Creator of 60 Minutes);  Les Paul (Guitarist & Inventor); John Hughes (Director of “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club”, two of my favorite movies); Billy Mays (TV Pitchman); Jack Kemp (Congressman and NFL quarterback);  Dave Arneson (Co-creator of the game Dungeons & Dragons);  Alan Livingston (Creator of Bozo the Clown; former president of Capitol Records who signed the Beatles and Frank Sinatra);  Millard Fuller (Habitat for Humanity founder)

I felt very sad when Farrah Fawcett died, and I think I actually grieved when Michael Jackson died.  No, I was not a huge fan, and I really never cared for much of his music, at least not anything he did after “Thriller”.  But growing up, Michael Jackson was as much a part of our lives as school, or dinner.  He was everywhere, and everyone knew him.  Listening to his songs that came out in the early 1980’s brought back so many very good memories.  How could I not grieve?  And, like him or not, he was freakishly gifted.  And finally, for what very little it’s worth:  I do not, and never have, thought he was a child molester.  If you want to know my reasoning behind that (and I would be shocked if anybody even cared!!) then email me, or leave a comment, and I’ll explain.  I also loved Dom DeLuise.  He was just somebody you wanted to hug!  And finally, I felt a tremendous amount of sadness when Paul Harvey died.  I knew his voice as well as my own father’s, and probably welcomed it more.

So, tomorrow is a new year, and a new decade.  Thank God!!!

Okay, so I’m looking at pictures of all my old High School friends on Facebook, and am thinking that I seriously need to lose about a million pounds.  And that I need to exercise for like, six hours a day, all throughout the holidays, so I don’t look exactly like the Goodyear blimp by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around.

But then, I visited People of Walmart again.  I’m feeling wayyyyyy better now!  So, if you are feeling discouraged about the way you look, and need some encouragement, I highly recommend looking at those pictures.  At the very least you will feel better about yourself, and you might even get a good laugh or two!

I get emails from Staples.  I never read them, but I get them.  But today’s title caught my eye.  It reads:  “Your Destiny Awaits”. Okay, you’ve got my attention, ’cause I’m all about destiny and all.  So, I read the email.  No mention of destiny, and the best I can tell, Staples idea of my ‘destiny’ (and probably yours, too) is Windows 7.  Pass.  It will be a cold day south of the border before I purchase anything Windows again!!

A friend recently asked me how I was liking my MacBook.  I told him that I would go back to using a typewriter before I would ever use a Windows-based computer again.  So, I will make my own destiny, thank you very much!!

And I think I am going to look into stopping those emails from Staples.  They’re subversive!!!

So, anybody who knows me even a little, knows I hate Walmart. I have said for years that the easiest way to film a zombie documentary is to just tape the people who are shopping at Walmart. I honestly believe it’s like the lifeforce just gets sucked right out of you when you walk in that place, and people walk twice as slow as they normally would. Which makes it absolutely impossible to get out of there quickly.

And haven’t we all seen something completely mind-boggling either in the store or the parking lot? Well, apparently this phenomenon is global, and happens at all Walmarts. There is actually a website dedicated to posting pictures of the freaky people you see there. Please be forewarned: some of it is vulgar. Some of it is beyond vulgar. A lot of it is not okay for young children to see. Even though all of these pictures were taken in public.  But, being the twisted individual that I am, I had to laugh. A lot. And I am not sure what is funnier, the pictures, or the comments the guy puts under each one.

After seeing these pictures of how people actually dress and then go out in public, I am beginning to understand how Obama got elected, and what is wrong with our nation!!

Check it out (but make sure you have some free time, cuz it’s gonna take a while!!)  And please, come back and leave me a comment about what you thought.

People of Walmart

Wow, this guy is really eloquent in a very simple way.  I don’t know who he is, but I like him!!  He owns a car dealership in Missouri, and is giving away FREE AK-47s with the purchase of a new car.  Now THAT’S what I call stimulus!!!

I love books, and often buy them used, to save money.  One of my favorite sources for used books is the Advanced Book Exchange, or, Abebooks.com.  They send me emails, from time to time, to get me to sign in and spend money.

So, this morning I got a really funny email from them, announcing their new “Weird Book Room”.  It features titles such as:

A New Book on Hanging, by Charles Duff

Outhouses by Famous Architects by Steve Schaecher

Doga: Yoga for Dogs by Jennifer Brilliant and William Berloni

The Platypus of Doom and Other Nihilists by Arthur Byron Cover

(and my personal favorite – )

Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking by Voltaire

Soooo. . . yeah.  Those really are “weird” titles.  And to think, I’ve been thinking all this time that if I wrote a book, it would probably never get published.  I’m feeling so much more hopeful now!

So I was randomly surfing blogs, and found “Catholic Mothers Online”.  Well, I’m a Catholic Mom, and I am online, so I had to check it out.  One of the blog names really jumped out at me:  “7th Generation Texan“.  That really intrigued me, because I know that my family has been in Texas a lonnngggg time, and I am only a 5th Generation Texan!!  Oh, the indignation and agony!!

I checked my genealogy records.  I rechecked.  No luck.  My earliest Texas ancestor was born in Texas in 1852. *sigh*  So Kendall, who is only 20, is a 6th Generation Texan, but still, no 7th Generation.  My hat is off to anyone who can claim Texas heritage back that far!

However, lest I be considered any less of a Real Texan, please do note that my GGG-Grandfather, Simon Peter Ford, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836.  He was born in Tennessee, though, and not Texas.

Now, before anyone has me committed for freaking out over not having deep enough Texan Roots, I should tell you that one of my cousins, who lived in Atlanta for the births of his first 3 children, documented in his genealogical records that each one was “Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on Texas soil.”  Not sure how he pulled that one off, but I am sure he did!!

Props to Matt Archbold over at Creative Minority Report for his incredible parody of Lord of the Rings!

Click this link to read it:Lord of the Czars

Absolutely brilliant!

I have been scanning old family photographs for the past several days, and there seems to be no end in sight.  But, it is keeping me busy, which is very important for me, since I just quit smoking.  I’ve only felt mildly psychotic a couple of times, and it passed pretty quickly.  In fact, my children might actually say that I’ve been exactly the same!! LOL

Seriously, though, it is going far better than I thought, and the key for me really is to stay occupied.  If I am thinking of something, or busy in the middle of doing something, then I’m not as likely to think about smoking.

I also just bought the iLife upgrade for Mac, and it finally got here today, so I think I’ll install it and see what ‘new stuff’ there is to play with.  I think I will be able to upload straight to my Flickr account from the new iPhoto, so that will be very cool.  And, I think I will be able to publish a website directly to my url, so I might actually get that genealogy site done that I’ve been threatening to finish for, ah, probably a few years now!  So maybe this quitting smoking thing will work for me on several levels.

One last thing:  I am NOT quitting smoking because it costs too much, or because it “causes cancer”, or because some amazingly insensitive obnoxious non-smoker said something snotty to me.  It’s my decision, and I chose it for my own personal reasons, which has not been easy, because I absolutely love to smoke.