Today was a browsing day

Posted on 2011 Dec 13 by Kat

I didn’t have anything specific that I wanted to write about, today, so I decided to spend the time browsing through the blogs of some of the other NaBloPoMo participants.

The first one I explored was Withywindle Nature by Cynthia Menard. Her post on December 12 was about what bears do in the woods in winter time. (No, they don’t hibernate. Really.) It’s thoroughly researched and [putting on my Editor hat] very well written, too.

“The  next time you’re out walking during the winter and feeling bummed because everything looks so cold and dead, remember all the stored energy that’s around you: buds on trees waiting to unfold, animals running around under the snow living out lives completely unseen (that’s call “subnivean” for you nature geeks out there), mammals curled up in dens sleeping or hibernating, and somewhere in the woods near you, a mother bear is nursing her cubs.”

Jennifer Barbour, of Another Jennifer, wondered about the implications of a Wall Street Journal article on the mental health risks of being left-handed.

“Should I be worried that my left-handed child will develop ADHD. Or, should I just worry about my own “behavioral difficulties?”

Read her post for a link to the WSJ article and more information about the research.

Kathy Kramer, of the site Ms Ann O’Malley, wrote a wonderful post titled “I GOT YOUR BACK,” in response to a heart-wrenching post in an online forum. It’s one of the best pieces I’ve read on the issue of same-sex marriage.

“Love isn’t the exclusive domain of one segment of the population.  The entire human race has the capacity to love. “

Oklahoma writer Red Dirt Kelly, author of the Red Dirt Chronicles, posted her appreciation of a cherished friend. The examples are truly priceless.

“If I were a tree and beneath my branches lay gifts adorned in lovely holiday fare, I would hide the small collection wrapped in gilded sheets of friendship tied with bows of years together.

They are from my friend Cathy, and I would hide them because I know the contents. They fall into thepriceless category; not for sale.  Only to be distributed at the perfect times, and with Love’s careful delivery.

The contents are no secret, however, because they have been shared among her family and friends all her adult life.  They are the gifts of her prolific and perfect catchphrases.  Let’s open one, shall we?”

I’ve always wanted to make salt dough ornaments, but never had a tested-and-vouched-for recipe at hand when I had the time, and never had the time when I found a good recipe. (They are usually published in December. Who has time in December?!?) There’s a good step-by-step procedure at Freaks from the Hills, which has lots of interesting stuff about living and raising a family in a simpler, more sustainable way. I’ve bookmarked it for next year.

So, does reviewing others’ blog posts qualify as a daily post for NaBloPoMo? Guess I’ll find out!

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A gift for friends

Posted on 2011 Dec 12 by Kat

Today, I gave two friends a gift. Not what I planned to give them this year, but it was something they needed, I think. I put aside my computer for the day, left the housework undone, turned off my business cell phone, and went to a funeral.

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Christmas decorating, in stages.

Posted on 2011 Dec 11 by Kat

Friday, I moved the piano and put up the bottom section of our artificial Christmas tree. Just the bottom.

Why?

We have catlets. Two feline teenagers, about 9 or 10 months old, who are into everything. Everything. All the time. EVERYTHING.

cats in bar discussing Christmas trees

permission requested

We aren’t worried about our 3-year-old former feral. Last year was her first indoor Christmas. She was interested in the tree while we were taking the pieces out of the storage bag and putting it together, late in December. It looked like a tree, after all.

She had loved trees while she was living outside. Great exercise, tree climbing. Trees are great places for sharpening claws into razor-sharp weapons. She loved trees, real trees. This, though it looked like a tree, didn’t smell like a tree. So, after the first sniff and experimental taste test, she carefully ignored the tree until we took it down in January. She’ll be fine with it this year, too.

The catlets, though…we weren’t so sure about them.

So, Friday was Stage 1. They raced around the bottom section in the stand. They bounced on the springy lower branches a few times (no harm done). They played hide-and-seek with the other two sections on the living room floor, around and under and through. Then, they napped.

Saturday, I put up the middle section of the tree. Again, mild curiosity because Something Changed. There were a couple of creaks and thumps overnight, sounds indicating that the catlets were still playing with the new addition to their territory, so we’re not adding the top section until tomorrow.

Wish us luck.

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Gone

Posted on 2011 Dec 10 by Kat

They’re gone.

My Delicious bookmarks are gone.
All of them.

So is my Barnes and Noble Wishlist.
I had more than 20 nook books listed there.
Gone. All gone.

Technology 2, Kat 0.

It’s been that kind of day.
Grrrrrrr.

 

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I broke it.

Posted on 2011 Dec 09 by Kat

I broke it.

I didn’t mean to do it, but I broke it.

When I first saw it, on my grandmother’s marble-topped table, it was beautiful. A gilt cast-iron table lamp, very large and ornate, with a stained-glass shade about two feet apart. It wasn’t leaded glass like a church window, but a hexagonal metal hemisphere with cut-out scenes of trees and elegant people, and panels of opalescent stained glass that slid into little brackets inside the shade, one piece of glass for each of the six panels. I used to make up stories about the people and scenes in the lamp, great fun on rainy afternoons.

By the time my mother inherited the lamp and the table, the gilt had worn off most of the lamp base and shade. She felt she couldn’t afford to have it re-plated, so she painted the metal white with a spray-can of Rust-Oleum. I still remember the smell.

When my mother’s cancer was diagnosed, and she decided to go into a nursing home, she gave me both the marble-topped table and the lamp. We didn’t have room to display them in our small house, so we stored them in the attic. Several years later, we moved to our current house, twice the size of the old one, with plenty of room for the table and lamp. We planned to have the metal parts of the lamp stripped and re-plated after the move, but…

But…

I didn’t re-pack the lamp. We carefully wrapped the table’s marble top in layers of towels and blankets, so it survived, but I didn’t re-pack the lamp. The pieces were in a big cardboard box, loosely wrapped in newspaper. The movers packed the box into their truck, and took it from the truck directly up to our new attic.

It was almost a year later that I thought of it, and dragged the box out of the corner, intending to take it to a local metal shop for refinishing. I opened the box, and started crying. Somehow, during the move, something had fallen on it. The metal frame of the shade was bent and misshapen. Some of the ornate metal bits were broken. Some of the glass had shattered. I managed to straighten the main part of the shade, and took it to several metal shops and stained glass studios to ask about repairs. No one was willing to work on it. “We don’t work on antiques.” “Nobody makes glass like that any more. You’d have to replace all the panels.” “Repairs would cost more than it’s worth.”

I think the box is still there, in a corner of the attic. Someday, I’ll try again. There are new metal shops in town, and new stained glass studios. I’ve seen some new lamps with similar softly clouded glass that could work with the scenes in the shade. I’ll cart the pieces around and ask for estimates. Someday.

Someday…

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