1/29/2014

Rest in Peace

MargaretMargaret
Filed under: @ 9:31 pm
Don, Doris, Barbara 1940

Don, Doris, Barbara 1940

Dorward family 1966

Doris Jean (Dorward) Dingledine 1924-2014
And may eternal light shine upon you.

1/26/2014

Yeah, I’m Weird Like That

MargaretMargaret
Filed under: @ 12:20 pm

I don’t think anyone remembers much about their preschool years. I remember standing in a circle and having a keeper from one or another local zoo drape an ENORMOUS python around all our necks (a quick blast from the current me: YIKES! How dangerous is THAT?! You’d never get away with exposing preschool children to an enormous fucking snake in this day and age, particularly not one that could kill and eat any of the tender morsels with which it was so conveniently presented!).
I remember standing up in a cardboard barrel of sorts with a friend behind me. We over balanced and I ended up belly flopped with her on top of me which won me a killer fat lip.
And I remember car washes.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by big, repetitive machines. Going through an automatic carwash was one of the highlights of my week when I was little. Strike that. I still love going through an automatic carwash. And when I was doing finger painting in preschool my most frequent productions were big, multicolored pieces full of swirls and swooshes representing a trip through an automatic car wash.

And lemme just tell you about the trip that we took when we were in Illinois one summer. My folks thought it would be cool to take us out to the Peoria(?) river (Missouri?) to take a ride on a steamboat. I spent the vast majority of the time we were on the Julia Belle Swain standing in the engine room watching the steam piston drive the paddle wheel. I don’t think I spent any time looking at the scenery. The steam engine was SO COOL!
Just recently my dad e-mailed me a link to an article about a steam powered printing press. OOOOOooooooo! (drool)

So anyway, my car has been at the dealership having some sort of tweak to the software and having some sort of magic whiffle dust applied that was part of the package I purchased with the car. I never thought I’d get so used to having a moon roof, but driving the loaner I was given I realized how much I missed having some sort of daylight coming in through the roof. And then I realized….
I’ve got a car with a moon roof.
That I can take through an automatic car wash.

Um. ‘scuse me for a minute. I think my car is dirty! 😀

1/10/2014

And so it’s January

MargaretMargaret
Filed under: @ 5:49 pm


We had a lovely Christmas except that I neglected to notice that the Gummy Army Men that I purchased for Matt and Andrew at The Vermont Country Store came in two pound bags so we now have most of two pounds of green apple flavored Gummy Army Men. I’m hoping that Matt’s D&D buddies will scarf his. God only knows what we’re going to do with the rest of Andrew’s.
And my *new car* is still the bomb. It has lost much of its new car smell because I put a little lavender bundle up on the rearview mirror so now it smells like new car and lavender. I’ve always had a flower and a little herb bundle in my car, I couldn’t deny New Car the herb bundle even if it means that I miss out on the new car smell. Still looking for a name for her too.
New Year’s Eve…….WHOO! We’ve been very lucky at our NYE parties. Only once, the first year in fact, has there been any precipitation. Cold and cloudy is fine if you’ve got a bigass bonfire in your backyard to keep what guests want to be outside warm. Precipitation stretches the bounds of sanity however. Good fire, good party. EXCELLENT weather for sky lanterns which is a good thing because there were lots of them. Absolutely lovely when released in groups.

And then, January. Cough, hack, wheeze, hack, cough cough cough!
January brought a new twist in yuk. On Monday I was going to drive up to Bellevue and sit with my dad so he didn’t have to wait alone while Mother had her other (right?) knee replaced. Work schedule turned into a booger (heh, premonition) however and I ended up having to work. THIS WAS A GOOD THING because I was probably wildly contagious at the time. If I happened to infect you at some point between the first and the sixth of January my deepest apologies. This FUNK sucks and if I find out who infected me I will kill them. 👿
By the time I left work Monday evening my back hurt. By the time I got home my back, my shoulders, and my hips hurt. I came home wanting nothing more than to take ibuprofen and go to bed, only to find that Andrew was achey and coughing. We ate soup and went to bed. Tuesday we woke up with THE FUNK. I had fever and aches, Andrew had cough and wheeze. I got better, kinda, and he didn’t. The upshot of this is that I’ve got enough of an upper respiratory funk to make me cough a lot (thanks Zicam! You taste awful, but it’d be worse without you!) and Andrew’s got pneumonia.
We are going through an awful lot of ginger beer, lemon juice, honey, and soft, lotion-y Kleenex.
We had appointments with three dudes to come and measure the house for new flooring today. We cancelled all of them.
We have, however, discovered the joy of fleece jammie pants. I put mine on for the first time this afternoon and I may not take them off again until May.

Before her surgery Mom, who has a markedly jaded opinion of most things medical, was crabbily recommending that people not bother to interact much with her until around the 27th of the month. I’m not as crabby and I’m nowhere near comparing respiratory FUNK to major orthopedic surgery, but I’d still recommend avoiding interactions with either Andrew or I for at least another week. We’ll try not to cough on you.


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