Shirley's Personal Weblog

Veronica's Kids

2011-05-26T11:49:00.001-06:00

Ronnie's goats had three little kids -- much to her delight. You may get the impression that she's a girl who likes animals!

Guess where I am today

2011-02-04T13:14:00.001-07:00

Here's a little hint.

Yes, I'm sitting here in my favorite spot watching the cars pass outside the window. Eating food that I didn't cook on dishes I don't have to worry about. True, the meal doesn't quite measure up to my pristine health and environmental standards ... But face it, neither do the majority of the meals I eat at home.

I just like sitting here wasting time and watching the world roll by.

Me

2011-02-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

One Brave Little Flower Stands Alone

2009-11-07T12:41:00.001-07:00

Last living flower in the old flowerbed. I wanted to say something philosophical or profound.
But nothing comes to mind. Oh well, in a week it'll be dead with all the rest.

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Mama's Reminiscence

2009-10-29T11:37:00.003-06:00

Today is Mama's 89th birthday. She was reminiscing about her younger days.

About when she was square dancing at age 18 and her partner swung her off the floor and her feet slipped halfway out of her high heels and she didn't know if she could hit the ground a'running or not. (But she did.)

And about the day the stock market crashed -- it was on her birthday and she was a freshman in high school. And how, at that time, she and her friend, Evelyn, would buy hamburgers for lunch for 10 cents each. They'd buy a bottle of pop for 5 cents and ask for two glasses.

And how, when she and Daddy were married (ages 19 and 21 respectively), they paid their employees 20 cents per hour. (At that time, Daddy was already an established orchard man and fruit packer.)

I love to hear her tell those things. It's all so clear in her memory and she makes me feel almost like I can see it.

Still Snowing This Morning

2009-10-29T11:05:00.001-06:00

(873 KB)
Watch on posterous

Coming right down! A freezing wind makes it downright cold out here. Most of the cats are hiding in the barn, but this guy has to follow me everywhere I go.

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Uh-oh! Snow!

2009-10-28T11:19:00.001-06:00

Well, it had to happen ... First snow of the season.

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Testing Windows Live Writer Portable

2009-10-22T22:04:00.001-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

The system I’m trying to make work involves using Windows Live Writer installed on a flash drive using a specialized addition that’s supposed to make it self-contained and portable.

The theory is that I could then start a post on my office computer, then take it on the road with me, sit under a tree in the wilderness and finish it offline, then find somewhere with a connection for my laptop and send the post winging along its way to the blog.

However, as we all know, even if theory and practice are the same in theory, they are definitely different in practice. So I wasn’t too surprised to find it wouldn’t work quite like that.

For some reason, every time the flash drive is plugged in it loses all the settings. So you have to reconfigure it each time. Bummer! Well, back to the drawing board.

Fall Has Fell

2009-10-20T19:16:00.001-06:00

Today the trees are showing more yellow than green. There's an ominous wind rocking my van and whistling through the window.

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My Little Flowerbed - As Of Yesterday

2009-09-30T10:54:00.001-06:00

It's given me enjoyment this summer. But I fear its days are numbered.

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Thinking About the Mountain Men of Old

2009-09-25T13:45:00.001-06:00

Wandering here by the river, I'm imagining the mountain men who once knew this very spot. I see the trapper in his buckskins paddling a canoe heavy with furs down the river to Fort Uncompahgre. As he rounds this last bend before the fort, he paddles a little faster. He's been on the river since early morning and he knows they have public restrooms at the fort...

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Container Gardening

2009-09-22T17:50:00.001-06:00

A freeze was predicted for last night. So Ronnie and I spent the afternoon carrying in April's garden. By putting plants in the office and here upstairs, we were able to get most of it. Container gardening has some advantages! I like having some plants up here.

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Relaxing By The River

2009-09-07T13:44:00.001-06:00

I'm here at my current favorite place to spend my day off. I just spent the last hour talking to some old guy who was "pontificating" about the "intellectual wasteland" of this country today. But that's okay -- I enjoy visiting with people.

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow

2009-09-06T19:20:00.001-06:00

Pretty rainbow over our neighbor's cornfield. If you look closely, you can see it's a double rainbow.

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An Evening Constitutional

2009-08-29T19:38:00.001-06:00

Veronica is teaching her goats to behave on a lead. These goats are tiny, but they're nearly full-grown.

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The Old Hippie VW Bus Brings Back Memories

2009-08-29T18:37:00.001-06:00

via flickr.com

Years ago, we had a VW bus of about this vintage. Ours wasn't quite so fancy -- it was just plain purple.

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Napping In My Car Again

2009-08-24T11:52:00.001-06:00

You know you're getting old when your idea of recreation is to go to the park and take a nap in your car!

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Goofing Off Today

2009-08-21T13:17:00.001-06:00

Today I'm celebrating NOT having to do jury duty! The trial was cancelled, so I didn't have to go. Instead, I took the day off to relax in the Delta park. They always have such pretty flowers in Delta! (This picture is not of their prettiest ones -- just the closest.)

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I Thought I Was An Only Kitten!

2009-08-07T15:10:00.001-06:00

Sadie is amazed to find another blue-eyed kitten right in our own office.

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Whitey Likes My Scruffy-Looking Flowerbed

2009-08-06T12:16:00.002-06:00

It doesn't look like much, but I worked pretty hard on it this spring. Now I find a certain satisfaction in seeing my untamed flowers (and weeds) happily blooming. Whitey has been chasing the grasshoppers. Great sport!

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Overrun With Kittens!

2009-06-28T12:08:00.001-06:00

They're everywhere you look.

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Veronica's Baby Goats

2009-04-25T20:45:00.001-06:00

Today Ronnie's little goats arrived. We've spent the last two days fixing up a pen for them. They will be her 4-H project. Cute little devils! They are six-week-old Nigerian Dwarfs.

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Cherry Trees Dressed Up For Earth Day

2009-04-22T13:24:00.002-06:00

On a day something like today around fifty years ago, I helped plant these big old trees. I can still see the barrels of water with little baby trees in them. The trees smelled like the peat moss they were shipped in. I would pull a tree out of the barrel and clip the roots the way Daddy showed me. Then Daddy and my little brother would hold the tree in its new hole while Mama, my sister and I sighted it in so the rows were nice and straight. We'd fill in the dirt, give it a bit of water and go to the next one. We three kids took turns at moving the tractor forward. I remember how I had to concentrate to keep from lurching over the furrows in the orchard which would cause the water to splash out of the barrels. But if that happened, Daddy didn't get mad. He'd just laugh and say, "Careful!" I must have been about eleven.

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Another Sign Of Spring

2009-04-02T12:01:00.001-06:00

I've been dreading this and putting it off for too long. Guess I'd better get it over with.

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My Comfy Saggy Sofa

2009-03-31T17:24:00.001-06:00

My comfy saggy sofa (not to mention "messy"!) is the place on this planet where I can rest.

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Poor Tree! I TOLD You It Was Too Early!

2009-03-27T11:31:00.001-06:00

This was taken yesterday morning. We can probably say Bye-Bye to any plans for apricots this year. It was 18 degrees when I got up this morning. Ah, yes ... Springtime In The Rockies!

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This Is What Spring Smells Like

2009-03-22T10:27:00.001-06:00

The camera was a wonderful invention. The camera-phone that can post right to your blog even better. But there's no way to photograph, nor even describe, the way these blossoms smell. And from the picture, you can't hear the honeybees busily working in the tree.

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Old Apricot About To Bloom

2009-03-19T10:10:00.001-06:00

The old apricot tree by the mailbox is this close to blooming. Not a good thing -- too early. Probably means we'll have no apricots this year.

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Relaxing With Feet Up

2009-03-14T19:26:00.001-06:00

I'm up here on my comfy saggy sofa with my feet up, watching an old movie. (Richard Pryor in "Critical Condition") For the moment life is good.

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A Chip Off The Old Block

2009-03-12T22:04:00.001-06:00

This evening April and Ronnie went to the introductory program for 4H. One of the demonstrations was for Shooting Sports. They let each child have five shots with a 22 rifle. Ronnie has never had a gun in her hands before and was sort of bashful to try. But she finally got up her nerve. Here's the result. You can see the first shot was low and to the right. That big hole in the center was the other four shots. April said the guys giving the demonstration were flabbergasted! Most of the children didn't even hit the target.

I just wish Tom was alive to see that. He won several national competitions for distance marksmanship. He would be so proud!

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Spring Snow

2009-03-10T10:46:00.001-06:00

It'll be gone by noon -- well, not "gone"; it'll be mud.

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Sitting In City Market Writing In Journal

2009-03-09T14:06:00.001-06:00

Writing in notebook-journal today because I have too much to say for the PDA. And I'm eating a salad ... (As opposed to something contrary to my diet.)

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Whitey By The Haystack II

2009-03-09T11:09:00.001-06:00

Let's try this again. The picture didn't make it through on the last one.

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Whitey By The Haystack

2009-03-09T10:33:00.001-06:00

What a nice day! We've got this one sunny day between storms, so I figured we'd better enjoy it. So Lulu, Whitey and I went out to prowl out by the haystack.

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Self-Portrait On My 60th Birthday

2009-03-08T12:33:00.001-06:00

A few days ago, when I ceased being "a lady in her 50s" and started being "a lady in her 60s", I decided to make a self-portrait to mark the occasion. This shot was made with my camera phone, aimed at a dirty mirror. So allowances must be made. However, all things considered, I figure it's about right.

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Grandma-hood

2009-01-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

One of the great joys of life is grandchildren. It's kind of like Rent-A-Kid -- you get to have them and play with them for awhile, then when you're tired of them, just send them back!

My granddaughter spent the night with me on Thursday. (A rather pleasant start for the new year.) As we've been doing since she was about three, we pulled out the old featherbed to make a comfy little nest on the floor behind the desk in my bedroom. She arranged her bed (as has become tradition) with a sleeping bag, a big comforter, a soft blanket, about ten pillows and about twenty stuffed toys. The water bottle and flashlight have to be placed just so.

Then she snuggled down into that nest "snug as a bug in a rug". And I turned off the computer, letting the long list of to-do's-not-done slip out of my mind for just awhile. I climbed into my bed and settled in with Rosie, my cat. We put on our chosen movie for the evening and watched Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow sailing the Caribbean on the fabled "Black Pearl".

After the movie, we said "Good night, sleep tight." and lights out. I snuggled down into my bed and Rosie climbed on top of my side and started her contented purr.

Then a little voice in the dark, "Grandma, who's your favorite movie star?"

"Oh, I guess Johnny Depp." (First to come to mind, but -- yeah -- I do like him.)

"Uh-huh, I like him too. I like Orlando Bloom."

"Well, he's good too."

"And I like Viggo Mortensen"

"Me too."

So we went through the whole Hollywood roster, establishing a hierarchy of which we like and the order we'd rank them. We pretty much agree on the choices.

When that topic was exhausted (but not my little girl), it was: "Grandma, what's your favorite movie?"

So we went through the obvious ones, like "Gone With The Wind", "Titanic", "Lord Of The Rings". Each one would trigger a memory of another, and pretty soon I was thinking of movies I hadn't thought of in years. The thing that made it more interesting was that she's seen a surprising number of those and can discuss them very intelligently.

Next we got onto the subject of music. "Grandma, what's your favorite Beatles song?"

"I guess "Hard Day's Night" or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" ... "

She named four or five that she likes. Then, "What's your favorite Frankie Valli song? Mine's "Big Girls Don't Cry"."

"Yeah, I guess that's mine too."

"Grandma, what's your favorite Perry Como song?"

"Well, Kid, you got me there ..."

"Mine's "Catch a Falling Star".

And we went on and on. She'd sing a little phrase and ask "Do you know that?" And then I'd sing a little tune for her. And, by George!, she knows most of them! She knows every singer and band from The Andrews Sisters to a bunch of wierdos that are popular now but that I've never heard of. (Now I'm entitled to call them "wierdos" because I'm the Grandma. My grandma thought the Beatles and Frankie Valli were wierdos. And, besides, she wouldn't enjoy them half as much if I didn't call them wierdos.)

But I digress ... my point is that, it seems pretty clever to me for an 11-year-old to know every song and every musician back to the dark ages of the 40s. In fact, she can go back further than that. She knows her Beethovan from her Bach, and Schubert from Chopin. (Well, I'm entitled to brag because I'm the Grandma. I told you there were a lot of perks to grandma-hood!)

We stayed awake until 2 a.m., talking and singing, snuggled in our cozy beds in the darkened bedroom. The next morning I had to get up at my usual time because I had work to do. But she slept in until noon. I worked as quietly as possible, since her little nest was right behind my computer desk. Every so often, I'd peek over the top of my monitor to see her sleeping peacefully -- like a little angel.

The things that will stay with you in your life are not so much the big momentous occasions, but the small spontaneous times when the planets seem to line up in a perfectly harmonious configuration and all's right with your world and you can bask in a sweet feeling of connection with someone you love.

Global Warming, Recession and Other Problems

2008-11-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of our passive solar heating system. We added that to our building last year and I'm really glad we did!

I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth last night. Scary stuff! Not that I wasn't already aware of the problem -- I've considered myself an environmentalist since the 60's (when it wasn't quite so fashionable). However, that documentary with its great big graphs really delineates the problem in a brutally inescapable way. He paints a pretty clear picture for us.

In the meantime, the economy is in a tailspin with consumers who have, to a large degree, just quit consuming. Economists are trying everything they can think of to get the old spending up there where it was.

But the fact of the matter is that those old lifestyle habits were contributing to the overall problem. I believe that the general population is beginning to have its eyes opened by these circumstances. Yes, the price of gas has gone down -- at the moment. I doubt anybody expects it to stay that way. When it hit those all-time highs, people found whatever solutions they could. They cut back on driving, they traded for more efficient vehicles, they rearranged their lives. And now that those painful changes have been made, most people are going to take a cautious attitude -- not rush right back into the old situation.

In the long run, that's a good thing. We have to cut down our use of fossil fuels. There can't be any question about that. It's obvious that someday those will run out -- the only question up for debate is, "When?". There are TV commercials running right now that tell us in a calm and reassuring voice that we have enough oil left for a good sixty years. I guess that's supposed to sound like a long time. But, let me tell you, in a couple of months I'll turn sixty -- and the time has gone by in a flash! In the larger scheme of things, sixty years is nothing.

And there are other experts who say we don't have anything like sixty years. So, whichever expert you choose to believe, what it comes down to is, do you want to get weaned off petroleum gradually? Or go cold turkey?

So, back to the economy ... the high price of gas woke a lot of people up, changed some die-hard habits, and lowered our fuel consumption. Yay! However, it also cut the revenues from gasoline taxes used to maintain roads, it caused prices of everything to go so high that some serious cutting back was necessary. Add in there problems with housing markets, a couple of wars, a series of expensive natural disasters (global warming, again ...), and the whole system started to topple like dominoes. People not only opened their eyes, but when they looked around they were scared shitless!

Now here we sit, surrounded by crumbling ruins of our old world and wondering which way to turn. There's a vague (and unrealistic) hope that our fine young president-elect will pick up the pieces and put everything back together so that we can just go back to the way things were -- like waking up from a bad dream. Trouble is, even if we could, "the way things were" wasn't really the way things were. We've been deluding ourselves for a long time.

The economists want to "jump-start" the economy. By getting banks making loans, consumers buying goods, businesses doing business, families buying houses they hope to get the wheels turning and eventually up to speed ... like before.

Well, I hate to say it, but it's never going back to those days. There has been a societal shift, fundamental, down to the core. People who lived through the Great Depression developed an outlook that stayed with them throughout their lives. (My mom, to this day, will not throw out an empty mayonnaise jar or milk jug. She carefully washed them and stores them away ... "just in case".) People are going to be much more leery of buying on credit. They are going to choose smaller houses and cars. They are going to seek status by not going the conspicuous consumption route. Simple living will be in style and "politically correct". This will last for a long long time. And the ramifications will be comparable to the melting of the polar ice caps -- nothing less than world-changing.

Kid and Cat

2008-07-26T11:29:00.000-06:00

Here's my other grand-daughter, with Rosie. (Yes, this time it's the real Rosie.)

A New Generation

2008-07-26T11:19:00.000-06:00

This is my grand-daughter and her little boy, who was born on July 1, 2008.

Rosie

2008-07-06T10:10:00.000-06:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeRosie is a funny little cat. She bites, but not hard -- just little love bites. She's almost perfectly round and she snores. She has chubby little cheeks and is very soft. She used to be Tom's, but when he died, she came to live with me.

She likes to taste people's thumbs. (I suppose just a little taste to decide whether she wants to bite it or not ...) She throws up every day all over everything. Makes a big mess. Sheds, too. She doesn't like other cats. Her real name is "Rosebud", but I always call her "Rosie". Mainly she sleeps all day. Sometimes she runs around the apartment like a Tasmanian Devil. She knocks things off my desk, then plays with my pens until they are irretrievably lost. She plays in her water dish, making a big puddle on the kitchen floor.

She only eats "Hairball Formula" catfood. It helps with the throwing up a little, but not much.

When I get ready to go to sleep, I turn off the light and turn onto my side. She climbs on top of me and settles into the curve between shoulder and hip. Then she purrs me to sleep.

She's a pain in the neck, but I guess I'll keep her. (By the way, that picture is not really her ... and not really me either.)

Lifelong Friendships, Thanks To The Internet

2008-06-13T16:08:00.000-06:00

This is a post I made on January 26, 2008 in my other blog, which is now only business-related entries. So I'm moving this post here to my personal blog.

This post has very little to do with internet income, other than the fact that marketers always need to keep their eye on sociological trends.

As we go through our day-to-day business, we see the world gradually changing. But if you step back from the moment and look at the big picture, the change is startlingly rapid. The loss of a dear friend has a way of making a person think about things like that. My last post tells the story of my best friend all through my young adult years. Patti passed away unexpectedly this week.

One of the things that’s been on my mind is how sad it is that, when she moved out of the area about fifteen years ago, the closeness of our friendship was pretty much lost. I don’t mean that we ceased to care about each other, but it was different. I could no longer tell you what she fixed for dinner last night (and where she bought the ingredients and whether or not they were on sale). I no longer knew which neighbors she was currently fighting with (and wouldn’t have known the people anyway — it’s so much more satisfying to talk about people you’ve both known since childhood).

Yes, it’s only been a bit over fifteen years since she left — a mere heartbeat in the grand scheme of things. But look how the world has changed since then! I doubt if young people today can fully grasp what it meant back then to see your best friend (or your children, or whoever) drive off for parts unknown, because today it just doesn’t mean the same thing. Patti and I both knew, as we said our tearful goodbyes, that although we’d always be friends the mutually supportive, closely connected part of our friendship was finished.

We sent letters back and forth. We’d send pictures of the milestones in our children’s and our own lives. When we could afford it, we’d splurge on a long-distance call (thirty minutes or so, max — always with our eyes on the old clock). None of that compares with the two-hour phone calls we used to enjoy, the daily contact sharing all the little mundane things that make up a person’s life.

So we gradually lost touch, went our separate ways. That was pretty normal. Nobody really expected to maintain a close friendship over a distance. That’s why parents would bribe their children to choose a college close to home, why some people would turn down a good job that would take them away from their circle of friends, why parents would be opposed to their child forming friendships with “outsiders”. (”What if they got married and he took her away and I’d never get to see her anymore?!”)

Now, let’s come back to the present — a mere fifteen years later. Our world is very different. If Patti and I had only had the resources available now, I believe the old mutual support system would still be intact. We would have Skype and talk whenever we wanted. When not talking, we’d instant message. We’d send real time photos to each other over our cell phones. We’d have FaceBook, Flickr, Flixter, Twitter, MySpace … well, you get my drift. (Sure, we could have been doing those things for the last few years. Now I wish we had. But, in fact, our close connection had fizzled out ten years ago; a new one needed to be forged. I was all enthused about doing that, but I waited too long.)

My point here is that the ability we now have to relate over distance is a really fundamental change in the very fabric of our society. It’s not just that we can do these things that we couldn’t before. It changes how we look at our world. Some of the very large motivators of our actions are not that big anymore.

How will this show up in changes to our society in years to come? I’m sure there will be effects I can’t even predict. One thing I expect to see is that life-long friendships, which were once common but more rare now due to the mobility of our society, will once again be the norm. Stronger inter-personal bonds ought to make for a better society. I really wonder what all this will mean in our future. What changes will we see in ten years that can be directly attributed to this trend? And what about a hundred years?

Best Friends

2008-06-13T15:39:00.000-06:00

This is a post I made on January 24, 2008 in my other blog. I've decided the other blog ought to be only for business-related posts, so this very personal note is going to reside here.

I first met Patti in the 60s, when we were both in high school. Her father had just retired from the military and moved the family to our small town to settle down. I was a sophomore and Patti was a freshman.

We had a nodding acquaintance in those days. None of our classes were together and we each had our own little group that we hung around with. Of course, in a small school everybody knows everybody. We really didn’t have much in common. She was outgoing and ebullient, always happily conspicuous with her flaming red hair. I, on the other hand, was shy and introverted. I’d usually be found sitting alone with my glasses slipping down my nose which was buried in a book.

Towards the end of high school, we were both in Thespians. Patti was one of the players (she did a hilarious portrayal of a feisty old lady in some production about which I have long sense forgotten any other details), and I helped paint the scenery and served as a prompter, hiding behind the curtain whispering forgotten lines to the actors. We got to know each other a little more through that. We became friends, although not “best friends”.

High school ended. We all graduated and went our separate ways.

About ten years down the road, I found myself back in our little hometown with my own little daughter … who wanted to join the Brownies. A note had gone out to all the mothers saying that they needed leaders for the Brownie Troop.

Well, I volunteered. At the first meeting, I discovered that the co-leader was none other than Patti! We were both delighted to see each other. And now we had a lot more in common. Her daughter was within three days of the same age as my daughter. We were both very enthusiastic Brownie leaders. Both liked the same movies. Both read the same books. We both watched the same soap opera.

At that time, Patti was going through a divorce and really needed a friend to talk to. My husband was doing construction work, mostly out of town, and I also needed somebody to talk to. Talk we did! We spent hours on the phone (to the annoyance of our daughters, who were also best friends and wanted to talk). I would be watching “Days of Our Lives”, when some dramatic plot twist happened and I’d immediately reach for the phone. The phone would ring before my hand even touched it. I’d know, of course, that it was Patti.

Those were good times. Patti could draw me out of my serious side like nobody else ever could. She could have made an insurance seminar fun! I have fond memories of sitting in Pizza Hut with our girls (teenagers by then) sitting primly a few tables away (pretending they didn’t know us) giving us dirty looks for laughing and giggling in what they considered to be very “unmatronly” behavior. But who could ever be up-tight around Patti?

Patti would call and say, “I’m so bored I’m climbing the walls. Let’s go do something.”

I’d say, “I really can’t right now … I have to (fill in the blank: do laundry, clean my fridge, … whatever).”

She’d say, “Oh, forget about that! You don’t have to do it NOW.”

And I’d say, “Okay. You talked me into it.” And off we’d go.

We’d dump her three kids and my one off with one grandma or another (or take them with us … that was fun, too) and head out for a bite of pizza. Or maybe to the fish place, where the lady always gave us extra because she said we were the only ones who ever ordered the breaded oysters.

Then the main entertainment of the evening would be to spy on her boyfriend of the time, who was a security guard. Patti knew the rounds that he made, so we’d be parked in a dark parking lot waiting for him to pass by and then would zip out and honk at him. I bet he got to where his hair would stand on end every time he saw a green Gremlin! (It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him … she just wanted to see him.)

In those days, CB radios were quite the fad. We’d talk to various people on her CB, but usually to her cousins, Ralph and Johnny, who were just recently out of high school. One evening, as a prank, Patti got the boys on the radio using a disguised voice. In a seductive (and fairly credible) southern drawl, she teased them and had them looking for “a black Camero”. “We’re in the City Market parking lot. Come on over and say Hello.” We watched from across the street, in gales of laughter, as they slowly trolled the parking lot, looking for that Camero. She had those boys chasing all over town before they finally recognized her voice.

A few days later, Ralph and Johnny got their revenge (sort of). We were stopped at the traffic light on Main Street, when they pulled up beside us … and mooned us! Unfortunately, what they didn’t notice was that we had Patti’s mother — their Aunt Sophie — in the back seat. Sophie was scandalized and lost no time in telling their mother, all their other cousins, everybody at the American Legion, and pretty much everybody in town. I doubt if they’ve lived it down to this day.

For years, Patti and I were always there for each other. We loaned each other money, we provided each other a shoulder to cry on, we celebrated life’s victories together and plotted revenge for life’s disappointments. If somebody needed a ride to the emergency room, either of us would drop what we were doing at a moment’s notice. If one of us ran out of gas, we knew who to call. If we had a secret, we knew who to confide in. Divorce, business loss, deaths in the family, surgeries, legal problems, children growing from babies to teens — all these things were survived with the support we gave each other.

But, time marches on. Patti met her second husband, Bob. She knew right away that this was “it”. And I knew her well enough to know she was right. I was her matron of honor. I could see how happy she was, and it was clear that Bob was good for her. So I was happy ….. except … They decided to move to the state where his work was — just about as far from here as is possible to go and still be on the same continent.

We stayed in touch, letters and phone calls when we could afford it. (Calls were a lot more expensive than they are now.) But, little by little, our lives moved in different directions. Usually she’d visit her daughter, who still lives here, every year or two. We’d have lunch and talk about old times. A couple of years ago, we had a portrait made with the two of us (best friends), and our two daughters (still best friends), and their two daughters who are, coincidentally, both the same age and also best friends. There’s a bond of friendship that can never be broken. But I’ve missed the closeness we had when living in the same town.

Last night, in response to the reading I’ve done lately saying how advantageous all this “social networking” can be to business, I decided to explore FaceBook. I signed up and looked around wondering if there would be anybody on there that I knew. No, not a soul. Then I happened to think, “Patti would like something like this. I wonder if she’s on it?”

Sure enough, there she was! By that time, it was pretty late. So I decided that I would call it a day and the next morning I would figure out how to send a message on that system and drop her a line. “Won’t she be surprised!” I thought.

I went to bed, but for some reason, just couldn’t get to sleep. Since I’d been thinking of Patti when I went to bed, memories of all our good old times were running through my mind all night. I anticipated how much fun it would be to have that old communication line open once more.

This morning, I got up and was making my morning tea when someone knocked on my door. I opened the door to find Patti’s daughter, Michelle, standing there with tears running down her face. “Mom died in her sleep last night.” she told me.

A Decision

2008-05-16T19:13:00.000-06:00

I've been agonizing over a decision for more than a year. (Heck, for several years!)

That decision is: should I continue on with my store (brick and mortar) which has been my livelihood for twenty years ... or should I find some other way to make a living?

My store has been a labor of love. I've watched a generation of my customers grow from little babies to parents. I've loved the challenge of building my business from nothing and seeing it turn into a community fixture. I've loved my merchandise. (My store is a video rental store. I do love those movies!)

However, in recent years it's become harder and harder. Sales are not what they used to be. And I'm not what I used to be either. The fact is, for several years now, the store just hasn't produced enough income to live on. It's caused me to start going into debt. And, no longer a spring chicken, I don't have the stamina to put up a fight for the business like I did in the beginning.

So, I've gone round and round with this. How can I lose my little store that I've put so much of myself and my life into? But how can I go on like this? It was a decision I just couldn't make.

Then, last month I got sick. Not real sick, but sick enough to hang up my "Closed Due To Illness" sign. I hardly ever do that. The next day I still didn't feel good, so I left the sign up. The next day was Monday, when I'm closed anyway. On Tuesday, I figured, "Tuesday's are never very good for business anyway." And on Wednesday, I intended to open the store, but I just couldn't face it.

So the store has been closed for a month. People are asking me what's going on. I just don't even know what to tell them. Probably there are rumors going around town that I'm horribly ill. People look at me sort of funny when I run into them in the grocery store. They ask, "How are you?" in a super sympathetic way.

I think that the decision I couldn't make has more or less made itself.

Trying Out Firefox Extension Called "ScribeFire"

2008-02-16T18:37:00.001-07:00

I'm using a Firefox extension called "ScribeFire" (http://www.scribefire.com/) to post this. (If you see the post, you know it must have worked!)

With this extension installed on your browser, you'll see a little orange icon down in the bottom right corner of the Firefox screen. When inspiration strikes, you just click that little sucker and it opens an entry window then and there. You just start typing.

Now, to tell you the truth, it was not all that hard for me to find the blog without this. I have it on my bookmarks toolbar, so all I needed to do is click the bookmark. On this computer, it's all signed in and ready to go. So the advantage of this extension isn't entirely evident yet.

But it's too soon to draw any conclusions. There are probably features I haven't noticed yet. We'll keep it in place and try it out for awhile.

My Lilac Bush, Covered In Snow

2008-02-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

More snow! I must say, this is getting pretty old!

On Wednesday it was beautiful and sunny, getting up to 51 degrees. Then it started snowing yesterday, and here's what I woke up to find this morning. (Pay no attention to the date on the photo. It was taken today -- the 15th. I've been looking for the instruction book to my camera for six months so I can fix that.)

So, we started with knee-deep mud and now there are four inches of snow on top of it. It's going pretty fast though. By tomorrow, all that's left will be the mud.

But it was sort of pretty this morning.

Picture of Sunset Behind Our Neighbor's Trees

2008-02-10T14:25:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at adding a photograph to this blog. I was hoping to put it into the previous post, but ... oh well.

I have the program, Picasa, on this computer, so I just selected a picture in there and hit the "Blog This" button. That took me (after signing in to Blogger) to a screen where I could choose the position of the picture within the post. Then it goes to an entry screen, where I'm typing these words. Quite simple.

In the future, however, I'll do a little doctoring to the picture first. This one would look better if it was cropped a bit.

The picture itself is of a beautiful sunset seen from outside our house. Nearly every evening I look at that scene with a sense of awe. It's always a little different and always glorious. Unfortunately, I've never caught that amazing beauty in a photograph. (And I've tried!) I guess it's just one of those things where "you had to be there".

Personal, not like "Go Away - This is personal", but like "Personal - not Business"

2008-02-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Got to thinking about it, and "Shirley's Personal Weblog" sounds somewhat forbidding and private -- or maybe secret and juicy. Well, no. I have another blog (www.onlinegrandma.com) that's supposed to be about business things. But I keep going off on personal stories on that one. So I made a special blog here for that kind of stuff -- just to get it out of my system.

So, come on in and make yourself t'home. The blog is personal, but not too personal. I'm not about to discuss any deep dark secrets on a public blog. (Although I know there are people who do ... ) Apologies to anybody who was hoping for something more interesting. Mainly, this is just me talking about not much in particular. Actually, I'm just getting warmed up. I'll get to some deeper topics later ... maybe even a little darker. But certainly not "secrets". (Well, in a small town, there are no secrets. So I don't have any secrets anyway.)

What I'm going to do now is see if I can figure out how to add a picture to this masterpiece.

I Decided To Start Me A Personal Blog!

2008-02-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking that a personal blog would be good for me ... so, by George, I just did it!

On this blog I can just write whatever comes to me. I don't plan to worry about staying on any particular theme. I won't worry about literary merit. I don't really expect much of anybody to read it. I doubt that any deep philosophical insights will come to light here. I'm doing it for fun and purely to suit myself.

This is a particularly stressful time in my life ... (now that I think about it, haven't they all been pretty stressful?) But this is another of those transitional periods and this blog will give me a place to reflect and vent (probably a lot of that).

I've been keeping a diary or journal for fifty years. I started when I was about eight. So this is the same principle in a different medium. I'll probably dip into the old journals and do some reminiscing here from time to time. Little by little, the bittersweet story of my life will get summarized in these pages. (Unless I get bored by the process and let it slide. That's always possible too. But, hey, this is my blog "for the fun of it" and I hereby give myself permission to drop it like a hot potato the moment it ceases to amuse me!)

So ... so far, this has been fairly fun. But I do actually have some work to do today. We'll continue this later.