Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Oh, the Pain!

All marriages have their ups and downs. Fortunately, Husband and I have had more ups than downs.

But there is one day that stands out from all our nearly 33 years of marriage as a great big old down.

The day before Daughter's fifth birthday. 

The day we put a swing set together.

It came in about 30 pieces, or more. 

And on a good day, Husband nor myself knows a monkey wrench from a real live monkey.

It wasn't pretty.

We got to talking about this at Christmas when everyone was reminiscing about years past when they had spent Christmas Eve putting tricycles, bicycles, and what have you together and staying up until it was time for the little ones to get up, desperate to finish whatever it was they'd started at 9:00 p.m. the night before.

Husband says he remembers struggling with a little wooden scooter thing Daughter sat on and scooted across the rooms. (sort of like a bike without wheels). I vaguely remember the scooter, but he must have gone through that alone, as I don't remember anything about it. 

Poor man.

I noticed that most of the reminiscing was done with a lot of smiling.

I guess we do forget the pain as time goes on.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Bittersweet

My mother is an only child. Growing up, she was close to her cousins, especially one first cousin.

He was born on her fourth birthday. I suppose that bonded them in a special way. She tells the tale of them being at their grandparents house (his daddy and her mama were siblings) and being sent to get the mail.

Now, this was in the 1930's. They had to walk a piece then cross a foot log to get to the mailbox. My mother was (and still is) afraid of water, so she refused to do this. Instead, she made her four year old cousin (she was eight and bossy) do it.

Once, he'd been watching Superman and decided he could fly, too. So he snuck one of his baby sister's cloth diapers out, tied it around his neck, climbed up the bank on the back of the house, scrambled to the roof - and jumped.

Broke his arm.

There are many stories like that, some of them told about each other, some of them told about stuff they did together.

After their grandparents passed away, they weren't very close for a while. There was some hurt feelings in the family about "stuff", which is a shame.

But the last twenty-five years or more, things have been okay. They wrote each other goofy birthday cards, talked on the phone and he stopped by and visited a lot. Occasionally I'd take Mother to visit. He had birthday parties for one of his sisters who had some brain damage from a high fever as a little child, and never lived alone. Every Christmas he had a huge box of expensive nuts dressed up in a beautiful tin delivered to Mother.

Last year Mother didn't get a birthday card. She was worried. He finally called a few days later. He'd fallen and been in the hospital.

He started falling a lot. Part of it was due to his vision, which was getting worse all the time. He became very frail and feeble, looking older than his years.

A few weeks ago, he fell twice. Turns out he hadn't been able to eat solid foods in several days. They hospitalized him. I'm not sure about why he couldn't eat, but they decided to put a feeding tube in. When the doctor started talking about the procedure, he adamantly refused to have it done. "I'm weak and tired. I've been tired for a long time. I want to go Home. I  know my Lord is waiting on me."

A few days later he died.  The family looked exhausted at the funeral home. They were sad, but knew he had been right. He went very peacefully.

Early this week the UPS truck pulled up in Mother's yard. They delivered the beautiful tin full of candy coated nuts from him, just like clockwork.

Mother called me. She was in tears. Apparently he'd made all his preparation for this Christmas in advance. 

Bittersweet: the perfect definition.

Friday, December 15, 2017

NEW POST FROM BONNIE! Woof!

Hey Everybody!!

I usually don't talk on here 'less I got something to say about my  WHEELIE. But it is safe and sound now that the SNOW is melted off it. It was way up under all that stuff,  I tell you!

Don't tell, but for the first few seconds I was AFRAID of the snow. Daddy said I had seen it last year, but I don't 'member. Anyway, I found out snow is FUN! 

And guess what? I have a FRIEND! He is a boy dog, so I guess he is my BOYFRIEND.

Mama and Daddy are afraid he is breaking the RULES, because he gets out on his own every morning and goes WALKIE all alone! He likes to come to our house. He would come INSIDE but my mama says, "No, doggie!"

But I know when he is outside and I run back and forth to the door and cry and cry for my daddy to let us go out!

My BOYFRIEND is a good dog. He plays and plays and doesn't hurt me, so I am careful not to hurt him, 'cause he is kinda little. 

Mama laughed and said big woman, little man, that's the Appalachian way. What does that even MEAN?

I think he is CUTE! What do you think?
I hope he doesn't get in trouble for breaking the RULES. But you know what I think?
I think it is his Mama and Daddy who are breaking the rules. So, my BOYFRIEND should get to COME IN THE HOUSE and live with us.

That's what I think.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Howdy

So, I know I haven't blogged in two weeks, which is unusual for me. 

There's been a lot going on, some of it not fun, so I won't focus on that.

But we had a great Thanksgiving, we have the Christmas decorations up and most of the  Christmas shopping done.

And, for the first time in my long life, I've been in a recording studio.

My next book, "Poetry, Prose and Music: Life of an Appalachian Woman" will have a little CD tucked in the back. Daughter does a solo and she and I did two duets on it. There are seven other songs on there, three of which yours truly wrote lyrics and  melody. 

Now it has to be "mixed", and I have to get busy unmixing the book. It's a real  mess, but at least it's contained between two pages of a notebook and in four folders on the computer. 

The notebook is sort of like scrambled eggs, though, and I have to devote a chunk of time putting it together.

This is a new endeavor for me, so it's taking up a bunch more time than a straight forward novel. 

Husband has set up a table for me to work off of, right next to the computer, so that will help. 

I hope.

Pardon me if I don't blog much for the next few weeks, but I'll keep ya posted.