All posts by AmeliaJake

is this showing

Once more into the fray . . . or whatever

It is documented right here on this WoeBeGone blog that I start a comeback, swear to keep it up and then fade away. This may or may not be the same.

I went down to Fountain County for Memorial Day grave flowering and while at my cousin’s, sat and looked at old, really old pictures. Pictures that are black and white on black thick cardboard; pictures that feature ladies in floor length dresses and men with beards and stiff collars. We looked at so many and then looked at each other and voiced this question: “Who are these people?” We didn’t know, could make some guesses, but that was it.

It later occurred to me that perhaps many other people whose families were in our area in the 1850’s on might also have boxes of unidentified photos. In fact, right this very year, someone in Indiana, somewhere from the Ohio River up to Central Indiana may be looking a copy of one of the pictures we viewed.  For instance, there is a picture of an older man with perhaps two daughters from Salem, Indiana. I believe copies were given to  other relatives. I think they may be of the Brewer/Cooley branch.

I’m going to start posting these orphan pictures just for the heck of it.

And you thought I was gone

No, I am here. I have just been debating how much I want to write about all the inner feelings that make me up. When blogging first started, people were spilling their guts on this page on a computer, not hooked by wires to anything. Slowly we realized what we knew – that we might as well have been writing on a billboard. Every word could be traced back to us.

I miss you, Quentin.

 

Sunday night

I have always found Sunday night to be a depressing time. For a procrastinator it was a constant time of doom during school years, facing homework still to be done. Friday was so comfy with the whole week-end ahead and then it was time to face the music. I would swear each week I wouldn’t put things off the next weekend. I was lying to myself. I cultivated that practice into a lifestyle. If my lifespan were to follow the same pattern, I wouldn’t die until I was 150.

Somehow I know that were I to be given a fresh start at life, the second time around AmeliaJake would be sitting here on a Sunday night staring at the blank first page of an essay or the first problem in a math assignment. Sigh.

If Teddy Roosevelt were my age now, he would have been dead for 10 years. That doesn’t exactly follow logically, but it is a nice little factoid.

Hello, hello, hello

I am not waterlogged, but I have suffered my wall being torn down, having the dining room sealed off with dehumidifiers and dryers going, not to mention moving a bunch of stuff. Last night, I was sitting here and I heard ANOTHER LEAK – this time in the living room where one had been fixed before for mucho money, imagine replacing cast iron pipe. When the plumber came, no matter how many faucets we turned on and toilets we flushed, no leak appeared.

So now we wait.

I will be taking pictures. At least there is insurance. Oh, to go into the dining room, you have to unzip this cool temporary vinyl door. I am thinking I could find uses for such a thing.

“Well, gee, officer, when I went to bed that vinyl door was right there. Could it have been cat burglars?”

And for my daily whine: I want someone to come in an clean my house and hold at gunpoint people who choose a counter instead of a trashcan, who pee all over the toilet , who leave plates, glasses everywhere and who would be amazed to learn there are drawers and closets for clothes.

 

 

Can you say “Water is streaming down the wall?”

Last spring or summer we had the plumber come in to fix a cast iron pipe that broke. It was an old pipe; a young man fixed it after he had removed part of the ceiling to access it. While they were here, the plumber and his apprentice, I also had them install two new faucets in an upstairs bathroom. The older faucets had been dripping and had actually built up a little lime patch in the two sinks.

So we had two great faucets and no dripping, which it turns out allowed the water in a little copper pipe to quit its constant creeping movement. And then it got very cold and that little pipe was near the exterior of the house – very near  –  and the water in it froze and expanded and started leaking. Part of the ceiling in the dining room has been saturated and three-quarters of a wall. It all has to come down and the studs dried out. It will not be cheap. Then everything has to be replaced and please don’t forget to mend the pipe while the wall is TOTALLY OPEN.

I may or may not publish pictures.

 

And I took a break from a puzzle

I’d  say I’ve missed a couple of days here – mainly because I got sucked into replaying Myst and then a couple of other puzzles and now I’m trying to figure out how to use zodiac signs carved on trees to make progress. I thought to myself, “Well, AmeliaJake, I do believe you are entertaining your brain but getting not one thing done.” That would be about right.

I am overwhelmed with chores, not to mention the hour spent yesterday flipping up  the rumpled sheet of ice that coated the driveway when the temperature plunged. Wet shoes, wet feet, went jeans up to the knees. But hey, it was almost 40 and not -5 with windchill. Got to count those blessings, dontcha know.

I did take some stuff to the basement and got sidetracked there by a jigsaw puzzle of Santa left from Christmas. I’d guess I spent about two hours piecing together some toys in his bag, a couple of presents and looking for the face of a blond doll.  It is a Springbok puzzle and they really like to toy with you visually. (Her face is probably under the table on the rug.)

The days are getting longer, but that means the time to switch to Daylight Savings Time is getting shorter and WHOMP, there goes that extra light in the morning. You watch the morning commute get lighter and lighter and then you are back in pitch black. I read there are a lot of heart attacks and strokes on the Monday after the switch.

Being this far west in the Eastern Time Zone is a bitch.

 

The Nest and Jude Law

It was supposed to be a psychological thriller and Jude Law was the lead character. So how bad could it be? I don’t know; I suppose some will think it was a fine movie. The acting was okay and the settings were interesting. BUT IT DEPRESSED THE HELL OUT OF ME. That can’t be right, if the Hell is out of me, why do I feel as if I have  lost every one I cared about, been humiliated by people, have no money for food and am sleeping under cardboard in the freezing rain?

The name of this movie is “The Nest”.  It supposedly was in Netflix’s top ten.  But here’s the audience rating:

AUUGGGHH – The Lions won

From the getgo of the football season,  I have not rooted for the Lions. Actually, all my life in which I have been aware of football, I have not cheered the Lions on.

This year, for some unknown reason, my grandson and granddaughter have decided I am a Lions’ fan. And, for the love of whatever, the Lions have been winning. They delight in this. I wake from a nap with a Lions blanket thrown over me. A Lions hat comes in the mail. They walk behind me and say “Lions.” I am past sighing.

Today, the Lions beat Tampa Bay and it was agony for me. Now the Chiefs are playing and my granddaughter does not like that team. So,  it could get pretty loud and tense here. (She yells at the TV.)

Perhaps I should just put that Lions blanket over my head and wait it out with my deaf ears – with earplugs in to be safe.

So I missed a day

Hey, cut me some slack. It’s been a while since I blogged everyday and it was late yesterday when I remembered and I decided I was not going to be a slave to some artificial “have to” rule.

So here I am this morning, sitting on the sofa, watching over the screen of my laptop youtube clips about the Cowboys loss to Green Bay last week. I was impressed by the Jimmy Johnson’s  version of how he would have addressed the team at half time. I have never seen his face in that expression. Whoa, I think he might have made the3 difference had he been the coach. Of course, I have to say I’m happy that the Pack won after Aaron Rodgers did his walkout – until he hurt his ankle in New York. OOOOH, that was a bit of a snide-mark.

By the way, it went down to negative numbers last night with a horrible windchill, but today the high is supposed to me 21 and then up to 40 this week.

Just saw a Tom Brady video about being the Greatest Of All Time. Perhaps, but I still like Joe Montana better.

Bob

bob movie  

Try clicking on the above green words to meet my friend. Actually, clicking green will bring up another green link. Click that and WOO HOO, here’s Bob.

Bob has been riding in the car with me and that’s why he is wearing  a ladies knit cap as a coat.  We have some trouble  with the seat belt and Bob tends to roll on the turns.

This may be unconventional, but it is so AMELIAJAKE.