Reflections

I feel as if I spent most of my time blogging reflecting on it and maybe even fighting it but I did learn a lot about blogging and hope to continue learning about things like social networking and YES, even more about blogging. My daughter was abroad this semester and created a blog to let people know what she was doing through writing on her blog and posting pictures of things she had seen and done. It was a nice way for her to keep in touch, didn’t cost her anything except some time and she didn’t have to tell the same thing over and over to different people. It worked and I was able to follow her journey through Europe.

I am still against posting personal things on social networking sites, blogs and any other form of communication that everyone can see, but I also think it is important for me to keep up with all of these forms of communication whether I use them or not.

One thing that bothers me is that personal communication like letter writing is becoming a thing of the past. I do hope that people realize that cards and notes (thank you, sympathy, birthday, anniversary, etc.) with a handwritten message are one of the nicest ways to communicate. When people receive these cards they know that you really did think of them. You had to choose and purchase a card, write the note and sign, address and mail it. I know that kids today are all about quick communication but please keep in mind that people do appreciate the extra thoughtfulness of a handwritten note sometimes.

PS I did learn how to post a picture.

School

I don't have much to post this week. It seems as if everyone is playing catch up and it's work, work, work. Does anybody else feel this way? It seems as if every holiday or vacation, I am loaded down with work. Then I think about it and there is only have a month of school left. How am I going to get all the work completed?
It's hard being back in school after so many years away and trying to discipline myself to study. Going to class is the easy part; it's the time spent on homework and assignments that's hard. I also think that it is harder to retain all the information that I need to know. I don't know how people with young children and jobs do it all and go to school too. They can't get much sleep. I admire those people. I hope that I become more adjusted to it and it becomes second nature to me, but for right now it is a struggle.

Picture

OMG, I did it. I can post a picture. This is my cat that I wrote about several weeks ago.

Blogging

I don't know what anybody else thinks, but I think this blog is hard to navigate and use. I have been told how to add a picture and still can't seem to do it. The help section is useless. There must be blogs that are easier to use than this one. Does anybody know of other blogs that are more user friendly? If not, I don't think that I will ever write another blog after this English class unless another class calls for it. I have trouble commenting on other peoples blogs also. Sometimes my comments show up, sometimes they don't. I do read and enjoy classmates blogs.

I guess my frustration is showing. Perhaps when my daughter comes home from college, I will ask her to help me. It will be too late for this class, but for the future I will know what I am doing and not feel helpless and frustrated.

I did get a book from the library on Monday but it has something to do with fame and fortune and blogging. I don't think I will ever become famous and make my fortune blogging. It would be nice though if I could write a blog, make lots of money, stay at home and be my own boss. What a dream!

Runaway Truck

I am adding a link to a video from the Today show. It is a video of a woman in her car being pushed sideways down the highway by a truck. Other drivers were trying to get the attention of the truck driver but he didn’t notice. The woman was flashing her lights and beeping the horn but the driver still did not notice. Finally, she called the police from her cell phone and told them what was happening. The driver finally realized what was going on and pulled over but didn’t seem upset about what he did. He was finally suspended after the video showed up on YouTube.

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A similar thing happened to my niece’s boyfriend a couple of months ago on Route 30. They had just picked up his new car and were on their home. My niece was in her car and her boyfriend was in his new car when during a merge, the truck hit his car and began pushing it down the highway. My niece saw the accident and kept trying to get the drivers attention but it took some time. He didn’t know that he hit the car and couldn’t see that he was pushing it down the highway. Finally my niece was able to get his attention to stop the truck. Luckily her boyfriend was not hurt but his new car was totaled. How’s that for rotten luck?

Spring

Well, I have just had a one week break from school and it doesn’t feel as if I was on break at all. It seems as if school work consumed my whole week. I don’t know how anybody else feels about this but between A&P and English; I think I am glad to go back to school. Maybe my brain is more like a sieve than I like to think and the faster the information is pored over it, the faster it runs out. I hope not.
Anyway, I am glad to be back on daylight savings time. I need the extra hour of daylight in the evening and always seem to function better. Sometimes I think we should stay on DST year round, but that’s not my choice. It has been extended more and more over the years however.
It should be getting warmer and soon time to start working in the yard. I feel like I have pet deer in my yard. There are at least four of them and I see them in the back yard in the trees. They blend in so well that they are hard to see. I look and only see trees and then there is a slight movement and I can see the deer. After they are finished in the back, they sometimes come into the front yard and eat the grass or whatever it is that they like. Yesterday the really large one lay down in the trees and was not hidden by anything. I thought that was unusual for a deer. The other three were a little more sheltered but I could see them too, just resting I guess. I figured the large one was a buck but I don’t know for sure because they don’t have horns yet. If I had a digital camera, I would take pictures of them for my blog for everyone to see.
I did get some pictures of my cat that I wrote about last week and will try to upload them to my blog.

The Kittens

Fifteen years ago when my daughter, Michele and her cousins, Jamie and Tessa were nine years old, they decided that they wanted kittens to play with at their grandparent’s house. Now all they had to do was decide where to get them, how to get them to Grandma’s and all this without anybody knowing that a pregnant cat didn’t just show up at Grandma’s and have a litter of kittens in the barn.
The first part of their plan came together when Jamie’s mother and younger sister, along with Jamie and Tessa were visiting at my house. Since we live in a rural area, there are farms around with an overabundance of outdoor cats and kittens. Tessa and a neighbor girl had already asked at a neighboring farm whether they could take kittens from the farm to their Grandma’s house. They told the farmer that it was okay with Grandma and the farmer told them to take as many as they wanted. During the visit, my youngest daughter and Jamie’s sister were playing together in the house. The older girls were outside playing and asked to go next door to a friend’s house. Instead of going there, they sneaked off through the fields to the farmer’s house on the next road. They took a box with a lid that they had cut holes in for the kittens to breathe. Next, they gathered as many of the kittens as they could, put them in the box and returned to my house without anyone knowing that they had not been at their friend’s house.
Now, how were they going to get these kittens to Grandma’s house? Oh yes, they had that planned out too. Tessa lived down the road from Grandma’s, in the house with the barn. Michele, Jamie and Tessa would have a sleepover at Tessa’s house. After getting approval from all of their parents, they gathered up clothes and sleeping bags to take to Tessa’s house. My sister and I decided that we would both go to Grandma’s to drop the girls off. The girls decided they would all ride together in my sister’s car and I would follow with the younger girls in my car. While they were putting all of their “stuff” in my sister’s trunk; in went the box containing the kittens.
Upon arrival, my sister stopped at Tessa’s house so the girls could unload their “stuff”, and then they would come up to Grandma’s. After they unloaded the car, they took the kittens to the barn and hid them. Finally arriving at Grandma’s, they burst into the house, all excited and talking at once. They had “found” five kittens (Frisky, Dice, Cappuccino, Coffee and Simba) in the barn without a mother. The girls decided to take care of them since they had “lost” their mother. Grandma went to look at these kittens, took one look and knew something was amiss. The kittens were all different colors and sizes and couldn’t possibly be from the same litter, but the girls were so excited that nobody said anything about this and the girls raised the kittens.
Fifteen years later, three of the five “kittens”, Frisky, Dice and Cappuccino are still living. They all lived to be over twelve years old, were spayed, taken to the vets, and always had food and a warm place to sleep in the barn. Frisky disappeared when she was about five years old and returned when she was fourteen with a serious eye infection. My niece, Jamie took Frisky to the veterinarian; and we worked long and hard to get her eye healed. She was not allowed to be around any other cats while she was ill; so Jamie asked if Frisky could stay in my sunroom. I agreed, and Jamie and Michele gave her medication, fed her and played with her. She needed more though; she was so sick and her hair was falling out, so I started holding her and letting her in the house with me. I think it was a turning point for her. She became very attached to me, and now lives in my house. You would never know she was an outside cat, that had disappeared for ten years or that she was so sick that I thought she was going to die. She has actually turned out to be my “kitty”.

Tiger's Apology

What did you think of Tiger Wood’s apology? It was quite long as far as public apologies go; and personally I don’t think it was very sincere. I believe it was well rehearsed and that he is more worried about his sponsors and winning them back than caring what the public thinks about him. In order to win his sponsors back though, he may have to appear to woo the public. I believe he is mad about getting caught and having all those girlfriends speak out and tell all to get their five minutes of fame.
But isn’t it about time that people say enough is enough and what you did was wrong? Why is everybody supposed to turn away from all of the wrongdoings in today’s society and act like it is okay? When things like that are done, it just carries down through the ranks. If he or she can do it, the next person thinks its okay for them to do the same thing. What kind of example does this set for our children?
I must say though, that I have a lot of admiration for Elin and Tiger’s mother. Neither one of them is covering this up and making it easy for him. I think that shows a lot of class from both of them because when Tiger loses, they lose too. They could have just sweep it under the rug and gone on as if nothing ever happened. By the look and posture of Tiger’s mother at the public TV apology, she is deeply distressed over this and I think that her actions speak louder than words. I believe that she will stand by her son but not condone his lifestyle and actions. He must get his life in order.
Even though I think Tiger’s apology was insincere and done to prevent monetary lose, I do hope for the best outcome for his family.

Super Bowl Commercials

I have just spent the last hour writing for my blog. After I was finished, I decided that what I wrote was too personal to share with classmates or strangers on the internet. Many of you, I will never see again when this class is finished. Most of you will probably not read what I have written anyway; and even if you do will forget about it almost immediately. This is an assignment that we must do for a grade and that’s okay. It will teach me about blogs and learning is good; however, I believe I can learn without revealing personal things about myself to my classmates or the world, things that only belong to me. It has been therapeutic though to write my first blog and then not post it for everyone to see. I did the same thing last week too. I think that many things should be kept private and kids do not realize that and allow people to see too many things on their blogs, face book and other internet sites that promote this kind of thing. But enough about this, from me you will hear about the snow, pets or school and other not to personal items.
Last week I taped the Super Bowl so that I could watch the commercials without watching the game. I had no interest in the teams that were playing; however, it was a touching moment at the end when the winning quarterback and MVP (I think) was holding his son. It must be such an adrenalin rush. I can’t even begin to imagine the feeling. All those people happy and applauding just for you must be one of the best feelings in the world.
Anyway, back to the commercials. One night during the snowstorms, I decided to flip through the game and watch the commercials. It seemed like there were more commercials than game time, but I guess when they are selling ads for millions of dollars for a few seconds that’s the way it will be. Make money when you can.
I thought the commercials were a little disappointing compared to other years. My favorite though and an exception was the commercial with the Budweiser horses and the bull. So touching and the two men at the fence at the end of the commercial gave it even more meaning. It made me think about my friends and what they mean to me.
I know that everyone is raving about the Betty White commercial, but I don’t quite understand it. Maybe anyone commenting on my blog could explain it to me and also let me know which commercial was your personal favorite.

Weekend Snowstorm

Well, I guess Professor Charlton got her wish for the big snowstorm. I believe I was in denial about the snow. I couldn’t believe how much it had snowed Friday night and was still snowing Saturday when I woke up. I hate being snowed in, even if I don’t have plans to go away. There’s just something about not being able to go someplace, even if you have no place to go.
Anyway, when it quit snowing Saturday afternoon, I decided to go outside and start shoveling the driveway. My driveway is approximately the length of a football field and that only gets me to the lane which is probably two football fields long. I have a tractor but nobody to help me put the plow on it; and to be truthful I wouldn’t know how to use it anyway, so I am at the mercy of my neighbor with his tractor and snowblower. He has been extremely kind and usually clears my driveway for which I am eternally grateful. So after shoveling about one third of my driveway, along came my neighbor with his snowblower to finish clearing the driveway. While he finished the driveway, I cleared the sidewalk and front porch. I was outside shoveling for about 2½ hours without a break. I thought that’s it for my shoveling this weekend and was hoping that my muscles wouldn’t be to sore on Sunday.
I woke up on Sunday and called my daughter who was in San Francisco for the weekend. I called to make sure she knew that we had a major snowstorm and BWI airport was closed. My daughter, Michele just recently bought a house in York city. During our conversation she asked if anyone had cleaned her sidewalks. I told her that I hadn’t left my house since Friday night and that I thought she had made arrangements to have her sidewalks and driveway shoveled. She told me that she forgot to do that. So what does Mom do? Why she jumps in her car with her snow shovel and heads off to Michele’s house to shovel her sidewalks and short driveway. So I spent another 2½ shoveling on Sunday. The best part of this story is that I had about 2 shovelfuls of snow left on the driveway and a truck with a plow comes down the alley and stops at Michele’s garage. The driver winds down the window and says, “My name is Tom and I work with Michele. I’m here to clear her driveway, sidewalks and the parking area along her curb out front. Also, the alley isn’t in very good shape, so I’ll take care of that too”. I WANTED TO CRY OR SCREAM OR SOMETHING but I guess I should be grateful that there are other people who look out for my daughter too. I only wish it was a little sooner.

1/31/10

What is a blog? I guess that is the first question I need to ask myself and then look up the definition of a blog. Looking in my dictionaries at home, I did not find blog, so I turned to online dictionaries. Online dictionaries say that blogs are online journals or diaries that reflect the personality of the writer, or perhaps I should say blogger. The definition states that this information is made available to other people on the internet. Typical college students probably don’t have much trouble sharing their thoughts with others on the internet, but I do. When I was a kid, our telephones were party lines that were shared with maybe three or four neighbors. You knew the call was for you by the way it rang, maybe three short rings was for my family and one long, one short another family and so on. Long distance telephone calls were very expensive and you didn’t make many of them. Communicating with friends at college was done by writing letters and if it was really important perhaps a phone call. The phone for a whole dormitory floor would be in the hallway and whoever answered it would get the person receiving the call to the phone. I guess what I’m trying to say is that communication was not so open and readily available to the world and growing up in that time period makes me a much more private person than someone who grew up with the internet and knows no other way. It may not be a bad thing, I just have to get used to it; this way to communicate without social interaction. I suppose if somebody comments on my blog that would be considered social interaction. One thing that worries me though is that someday I might need to vent and use the blog to do it. That may not be a good thing because people may have already read it before I can retract it. I have been looking at other people’s blogs and seeing what can be done. Pictures, colors, backgrounds, bookshelves and I am sure I will find many more things that can be done to my blog. My daughter is in London, England in a study abroad program this semester. As a way of communicating with me, she has created a blog. She posts to it every few days and adds pictures and lets me (and the world) know what she has been doing. So I have her blog to look at as a model and I will have the classes blogs and maybe one day blogging will be second nature to me.

Today I created my first blog. Having never followed blogs, this is a confusing process but I will get through it. Perhaps I will check for blogs on the internet and see what kind of things are posted. My youngest daughter writes a blog for a rehabilitation center and my oldest daughter follows Perez Hilton sometimes. I did not know that what he writes was called a blog. I thought it was like "Entertainment Tonight" on the Internet. Wouldn't it be great to be as popular as Perez Hilton and have a following?