So Much Fun in the Neighborhood

One of the monkey's in my circus called the other day.

"We just bought a Blu-Ray player.  Margie is here trying to hook it up, but she can't figure it out.  It's so we can watch NetFlix.  She can't figure out how to hook it up.  Can you come help?"

"I don't know anything about Blu-Ray, other than the videos for it cost more than just regular DVD's."

"No.  This is so we can use NetFlix.  There are thousands of movies on it."

"I don't know anything about NetFlix either."

"It runs off that stuff in the air."

"Stuff in the air...hm-mm.....oh, you mean WIFI?"

"Yeah.  That."

"I don't know anything about that either."

"Well--you're no help!"
<hangs up phone>
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My Precious Girl Madeleine is having a great time in Guatemala!  She is building a house for a family--here are some pictures.

The familia--

Cemetery

I would love to be buried in a little house, on top of the ground.

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We had a couple of inches of snow this afternoon.  I would have stayed home because the roads were quite slippery, but I had a hair appointment and NOTHING was going to keep me from that!!!  It had been 2 months and I can barely get past 5 weeks without it looking awful!  So I slid in and back home and--it was worth it.

No make-up--well, really, I never wear make-up, but the eye irritation I am going through right now, makes my eye lids so red all the time.  Maybe lack of enough humidity?  Although I have a large humidifier going all day.  I need to get new glasses this year, but wanted to wait until May.  Perhaps I should go to the Ophthalmologist and see what's going on with the eyes?

==========================

When I got home, I noticed Pearl's daughter was at their house.  I no sooner got in the house and the phone rang--it was Pearl.

"We still can't get this Blu-Ray thing to work.  We wondered if you had any ideas."

"I don't know anything about that stuff."

<didn't I tell her that the other day?>

"Well Margie says we don't have enough Internet power coming into this house."

"Gosh.  I don't know.  You have the same as I do.  You have Cable and High speed Internet connection, I don't know how you could get anymore power."

"I was wondering if we should call the Cable company."

"Sure."

"What do we tell them?  They are going to want all the information and all that fancy computer talk stuff and we don't know what to tell them."

"Tell them you are trying to install a Blu-Ray player and Netflix and it won't work."

"Then what?"

"Tell them you want someone to come out and fix it!"

"Won't that cost money?"

"If you don't have the Comcast service plan. Yes."

"Dammit!"

<hung up phone>

Winter Time

Meanwhile--up at The Farm:

 "Ocean waves" of snow on the front lawn

and

a 5' high drift in the back by the garage.

Susan and Chuck live on a dirt road--1/8th mile south of the paved road.  The paved road was cleared on Monday morning, their road was cleared this afternoon.  Life in the country :-)

We are predicted to get 2-4 more snow tonight.
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My appliances are 18 years old.  I used to have an appliance service plan on the water heater and furnace. When I got the new furnace, I canceled it.

In January, I noticed my dryer was not drying clothes in one cycle.  I cleaned out the vent really well, but still--only warm heat.  That day, I called the company that I get my electric service from and signed up for a plan that covered my dryer, washer, water heater, refrigerator, stove and dishwasher=19.99 a month.  Since they had lowered my electric budget payment to $40.00, I figured I could afford the extra.

The very next day, the dryer refused to heat at all.  I am not covered by the plan until 15 days have past.  Tomorrow is day 15!~  YAY--because I had not done any laundry in 2 weeks and I am about to run out of sheets and towels, LOL.

The last time I got a thermostat for the dryer, the part was $250.00.

So--I was telling Pearl about it--thus the ensuing conversation.

Pearl:  "Twenty dollars...a month?  That's an awful lot to pay."

ME:  "Well...it includes all my appliances."

"How much is that a year?"

"About two hundred and forty dollars."

"Well, that's an awful lot of money!"

"If I have one appliance break down--I won't have to pay any service charge for them to come out and look at it and if it needs a part....I won't have to pay for that either."

"Why not just wait until something breaks down and then get it fixed?"

"Because I don't have that kind of ready money in my bank.  I would rather pay for protection."
=========================
She called me yesterday.

"My washer just quit working.  The agitator won't move and it won't spin.  I have a tub full of water and wet clothes!"

"Dang it!  If you had the DTE service plan, you wouldn't have to worry.  You could still sign up for it and wait 15 days and then get your washer fixed."

"I can't go that long without doing laundry!"

"I haven't done any in two weeks.  I'm not out of clothes."

"Besides, twenty dollars a month is way too much to pay."

"Okay.  I'm anxious to see what the repair will cost you."
=================================

Pearl called me tonight after supper.   They got the washer repaired today--it was the agitator switch.  Total cost: $242.00  That would have paid their entire appliance service protection plan for a year!

Life

Just a note:  No women in my family ever worked, once they were married, and they usually married in their early 20's.  If they were farm wives, they worked alongside their husbands; in the field, in the cow barn, in the house, cleaning, canning, preparing meals.  The wives usually worked harder than the farmer!!

If they were minister's wives, like on my mother's side, they worked alongside their husbands; in the church, teaching Sunday School, playing the piano, directing the choir, or keep their home neat and tidy for people that might stop by for a session with the minister or a person with no home that needed a place to stay and food for a couple of weeks, or the foster children they took in.

My husband worked in the factory and I never worked, until I was divorced.  My sister's husband worked for the government and moved every 4 years.  She never worked until she was divorced.

My oldest daughter, Pam's husband, worked for the railroad as an engineer.  She never worked until they were divorced.   We were all very happy and satisfied to be housewives and never wanted to work.  We felt sorry for girlfriends that did work--didn't they know how to run a household on one salary? LOL.

Only my two youngest daughter's thought it was "interesting" to have a career--Karen after she raised and home schooled her five children and is now teaching and Jennifer who thought she wanted a big time career and the money, who now after 14 years, wishes she could just stay home with the kids.
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Saturday morning.

 Bunny tracks and scuffles and--somethin' somethin' going on in this patch, by the looks of the snow.














Maggie wants to see bunnies.

=================
Sunday morning:

 Snow is starting to come down hard.
















By 11:00, is is coming down really hard.

 At 1:00, neighbor John appears and is clearing out EVERYONE'S driveways up and down this entire street!

 As well as mine--We have 7 inches already.

At Midnight, it's still coming down hard

Total Snow Fall here=12.5 inches

Monday Morning:

The view out my bedroom window.  Beautiful!

 I seem to have a snow drift over-hanging my front porch roof !

The kid across the street has cleaned out my driveway--sorta--and seems to think
it is necessary to shovel off his parents roof?
Is he not aware that snow is a good insulator?

 

I just let the world go while I made a big pot of chili

My Life On The Farm

Because Sally asked:

This is a poorly constructed map of the three farms

(I made it in Excel)

My great, great, great grandparents, Conrad and Margaret, came from Germany to the New York port and lived in Watertown, NY for quite a few years.

Their son Peter and his wife Anne, my  great, great grandparents, moved to Wisconsin for a couple of years and then, in 1855, Anne's brother informed her that a large piece of farm land was available for sale just up the road from where he lived.  Peter and Anne came via Chicago and on up to Michigan by way of oxen cart.  There was a tiny sod house near the road. They had to clear the land, and in 1857, they built a small house.

To the left of the driveway in this photo.

In 1857, Peter built the larger home.  When his eldest son,( my great grandparents) Charles married Sophia Anna in 1892, they moved into the smaller house.  Two sons were born to them.  Roy-1893 and Ray 1895.

Peter and Anne died in 1899 and 1906, so Charles and Sophia, moved to the big house.  When their eldest son Roy and his wife Helene married, they lived in the smaller house.  Their only child Charles (my Daddy) was also born there.

My grandmother was the teacher at the small school on the corner of Beard and Vernon Roads.  As was the custom in those days, she boarded with the nearest family.  That's how she met my grandpa Roy.  Ray remained a bachelor all his life--there was an whispered  family story that he had also been in love with my grandma. :-)

1977

 When my mother died and step-mother came into the picture, she and my Dad (Charles) renovated and moved down to the house of the ancestor's.  1978 or 1979

When my Daddy died, my sister Susan inherited the farm.  She and her husband Chuck now live there.

This farm is the one shown on Vernon Road.















===================================================
My Daddy, Charles John was born in the little house in 1916.  In 1920, his parent's Roy and Helene, bought the farm just east of the ancestor's farm on Beard Road.  They shared the big woods.

 My grandparents, Roy and Helene, had a large sheep herd and also a poultry farm and hatchery.  In 1942, my grandfather and some neighbor's were out hunting for coyotes that had killed some of his sheep.  It was a raw day, he had a stroke and died of pneumonia on February 14th, at the age of 49.

Can you see my grandma and

me standing there by the driveway?

 My grandmother Helene, continued to run the farm until her death in 1966.

We moved to her farm on June 14, 1967, having renovated it a bit.  We only owned the house.  Daddy owned the rest of the land, which he farmed.

 My kids were 9, 8 and 6,
Jennifer was born in 1971.
In 1985, I gave the house to Pammie and moved to Saginaw for 12 years and then down here.



Pam and her husband did a bit more renovation with new siding and a deck on the west side of the house.

When Daddy died, Pammie inherited the whole farm.

This is the heart stone that the mason put in 

the foundation--left side of front door

in the above picture.

==========================
My parents Charles and Dorathy were married March 16, 1938.  They purchased the farm on the north-west corner of Beard and Vernon Roads.  I was born in their bedroom on June 21, 1939.  This is the farm I lived my first 18 years.

Can you see my playpen under that tree?

The room I was born on, is that window on the right.

My placenta and umbilical cord is buried in between 

the two pine tree.

My parents renovated the house in 1955.

Turning their bedroom into a large living/dining room with the fireplace.

The driveway I trudged down to get to the school bus.

After Daddy and step-mother moved down the road to the ancestral farm, Pammie and her husband lived on the farm, tending the cows and doing much of the farm work.

When I moved in 1985, they moved down the road to my house and my son Mark moved to this farm.


The house burned down in the early 1990's.  Mark was living there at the time.  My Daddy bought a double wide manufactured home and put it on a basement.  When Daddy died, Mark inherited the farm.

Thus, the story of the Waltz, changed to Walts, family.  158 years on the same land.  

Peter, Charles E., Roy, Charles J., Judith and Susan, Mark and Pam.   

6 generations.

Now you know why my heart is still there on the land.

(along with my umbilical cord)  HAH!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can see on the map that my step-mom and her husband's farm were just north of my parent's farm--in fact they bordered each other.  They settled there in 1942 and my Daddy taught her husband how to farm.  He was a boy from Detroit and his mother bought the farm to keep him out of WWII.

He died December 1969, my mother in March 1970. (and I think you know the rest of that story)

Now to confuse you further, after my Daddy and step-mom married in 1971, she moved to this farm and rented her place to people who helped my Daddy on his farm.  In 1974, Susan and her first husband moved into step-mom's house, before they were transferred to Grand Rapids.   After Daddy and step-mom moved to the ancestral farm, Pammie and her husband lived on this farm.

Did You Know?

Today's high temperature was:20 degrees

A bright, shiny day

=========================

Did you know?  You can go to the Rit Dye website, e-mail them a color you want and they will send back the information of the colors to mix to get that exact color?

My Amethyst sheer curtain panels and valances I use at my living room windows for summer, are very faded from the sun.  The curtains are still in excellent condition.  I can't afford to buy new ones, so I wondered if I could dye them.  Rit Dye does not have that particular color--they have violet and purple, of which I want neither one.  So I went on their site and lo and behold, they have a color formula section.

At $1.80 a bottle, I think I can nicely afford to dye my curtains.   I have dyed polyester sheer curtains before and it worked out great---so, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

YOWSER!
================================!

This color because I have a darker Amethyst for my round table cloth and area rugs.

I have blue and green and white color scheme.  Burgundy is my accent color for winter and Amethyst for spring and summer.   Plus, I have a lot of blue, green and amethyst colored glassware that sits around the house, plus the beautiful Dark Amethyst blown glass lamp that was my Mothers.

==============

Did you know?  If you have a driveway and sidewalks covered in ice and snow and you can't get to your car because it is so icy, to go to the store because you have run out of the Ice Melt pellets, you can use a can of 7 year old pickling salt and another can of 6 year old sea salt, even if they  have clumps--just crush up and spread over the ice and it disappears, so you now have a path to your car.

 YOWSER!!

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Did you know?  You can't work at your desk if you can't see your desk?

and that if you don't dust the very top of the book shelves and just sorta, hit and miss the shelves themselves--there can be a lot of dust in a years time.  You gotta move everything off the shelves and the top and really dust them good.

Did you know?  It feels a lot better to work in a room that smells fresh and clean and everything is shiny and bright?

=============

Did you know?  I looked up at the ceiling fan in the living room and I saw actual streamers of dust hanging over the edges of the blades.  I suppose I could have turned the fan on high and let wind force and gravity takes its natural course, but...I wiped them down instead.

Did you know?  I have nice blinds on every window in this house and...they are always pulled way up to the top and locked into place.  I never put them down--except the ones in the computer room in the morning.

Did you know?  The sun is coming in at a different angle this time of year and all my windows look smudgey.  I washed the windows on the inside and they still looked streaky.  I checked.  It is not the window glass, but the outside screens that are the culprits.

Did you know?  The above is what I did today :-)

Slip Sliding Away...................

Today's high temperature was: 30 degrees               

Gray.
A glaze on everything from overnight freezing rain.

Maybe snow later.  I hope.

========================

Man Alive!  I felt wonderful when I woke up.  Really rested and...my neck wasn't stiff!!  Yes--I got a new pillow.  Yes--it was one I tried three years ago.  Yes--it was one of those My Pillows--on sale--50% off and...Yes, for some reason, this time, it seems to be all it's cracked up to be!!

I am thinking ahead to my spring cleaning and rearrangement of the living room.  Taking down the heavy drapes and putting up sheers at the two big windows.  Changing side tables around and putting my old wicker trunk back in front of the couch.  Making it lighter in here--both sunlight wise and fabric wise.

Now--I am lusting after this photograph--because it goes with my summer theme and it speaks to my heart and I can just see it, over a small table with my shells on the table top.

and I have a shell just like the one in the picture AND a glass float ball!    I will have to see how much $$ I can wrangle out of my monthly budget this month.  Maybe--just maybe?

Do you know that they make Bead Board wall paper?  It actually looks like wood!  I love Bead Board.  Have it in my bathroom cupboards and my entertainment center and the cupboard in my computer/den.  I would love to put it in my living room and kitchen, under the chair rail, so it would look like Wainscoting.  But....I won't.  It might be too much?  Not money wise, but..........you know.  

Although my sister has Wainscoting all through her house--the original that was built with the house, 158 years ago.  Hers is wood color with painted or wall papered wall above it.   Just something to think about--eh?
====================

I have felt so good--emotionally.  As I pondered on this--you know by now, how I sit and ponder on life.  It occurred to me--the one toxic relationship that was in my life for so many years, is now gone.  Well--a few toxic relationships are gone, but this was the main one.

I felt so guilty when my Daddy died.  We never had a good relationship.  My Mother was the glue that held our family together in unconditional love and happiness and making everyone around her feel like they were the most important people in the world.  When she died--all of that was gone.

My Daddy was the critical one--always cutting us down to size.  I felt guilty because I thought--for as long as he and I lived, that it was my fault that he didn't really treat me very well.

If I could just be a better person.  If I could just find the key to getting close to him.  If I could just figure out how to make him proud of me.  All through the years, it just seemed that everything I did, made me appear worse in his eyes.

I was pregnant when I got married--he was ashamed.  I had three children in four years--he was embarrassed that I was such a breeder.  My son, who wanted to be a farmer, didn't take instructions very well--how could I have raised such a stubborn kid.  I got divorced.  When my sister got divorced, it was her husband's fault.  When I got divorced, apparently it was my fault.

Then I couldn't afford the family home I lived in--I got a lecture.  Instead of selling that home and getting money to live on in a cheaper place, I gave it free and clear to my daughter.  At least I kept it in the family--but I was viewed as a failure and heard about it.  Of course, the step-mother had an influence on my Daddy by then and told me, "You won't be inheriting any farm or house.  You had one and you let it go."

So when Daddy died, I felt guilty that I had let him down.

But guess what?  Now, both Daddy and step-mother are gone and with them, the toxicity.  It used to be whenever my sister or I visited the Big House, we got a bit nervous as we drove up the drive.  What lecture or criticism awaited us when we walked into the house?

Now--that house--that same house seems light and brighter and full of laughter once again. I mentioned it to her one day a couple of years ago and she said, "I know.  I feel the same way.  As soon as Chuck and I moved in, it seemed the rooms got bigger.  More sunlight came in the windows.  I can almost hear the ancestor's laughing and having a good time."

Strange isn't it?  I didn't equate that with how emotionally free I have felt and I think, as bad as it is to say this--I think it is because that relationship is gone.  I feel more able to do and say what I want--without worrying that the critical responses will come.  That my Daddy or step-mother aren't going to ask me what is going on and then lecture me on how I should or could have done better.  Now, when I drive out to visit The Farm, I drive as quickly as I can to get there and there is no nervous flutters in my stomach as I drive up the long driveway.  I can't wait to get in that house!

I can finally breathe.  In a way, it's all very sad.  In a way, it's all very relaxing.
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We got a thin coating of ice--I looked out and noticed it on my car.  Around noon, I went outside to get something out of my car and the driveway was very slick.  I tried to hang on to the car, but it was covered with ice and not a good grip.   I inched my way back into the house.  I don't need to fall and break one of my new hips!  Then we got a dusting of snow this afternoon, and I'll just bet, that makes it even more slippery.  I may be inside until the spring thaw, LOL.
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This is what I did tonight, for entertainment--while I watched my Spartan's whip the Rutgers Knights.

All right, all right.

Hey! What Day Is It?

Today's high temperature was: 37 degrees

Third shiny day in a row.

==============================

So relieved to wake up and hear that the blizzard has moved on and all my friends survived.  Even my Spartan's basketball game in Piscataway, NJ was canceled and will be played tomorrow night.  Why or how Rutger's ever got in the Big 10 is beyond me--along with Maryland.  Big Ten league is supposed to be Central-Mid West teams.  BAH!!!

During this night, we are expecting freezing rain and snow--perhaps 3" of snow.  No biggie for us that's for sure.  Unless you have to travel to work early in the morning, but then, Michigander's know how to drive on that stuff.
========================
Today, I had a consultation with my dentist to see about getting another crown put on.  Right next to the one I had done last spring.  My new insurance pays up to $1,000 a year for dental work and 2 free cleanings, x-rays and dentist check per year.  I will have to pay $500.00 for this crown, to keep some back in case I need fillings or something like that.  The dentist will let me pay $50.00 a month to pay it off.  Actually she said, "You pay me whatever and whenever you can."  I am putting $50.00 or more a month into my budget for it.  I already send them $30.00 a month to build up credit.  Now, I don't need credit for dental work, I will pay the $50.00.  I start the crown work on February 18th.  I hate it, but I do love to be able to chew without fear of breaking a tooth of losing a filling!!!

I can't believe this new insurance I have.  $19.90 a month for the payment and all the coverage?  There has to be a catch, but I have read their booklet and...I don't see where I am going to have to outlay a lot of out of pocket.  There's gotta be a catch--I guess I'll find out.
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I didn't tell you, but when Dar was here yesterday, she was looking through my bags of groceries from the Food Bank.  She said, "You didn't get any eggs."

"Nope.  I don't need them."

"Well, you could have given them to me."

Then she proceeded to tell me that she made thirty-two thousand dollars last year.  She works at the grocery store, where she gets a discount and yet...she wants me to give her stuff from the Food Bank?

It was the same way when she worked at The Salvation Army store.  She saw everything when it first came in and if she saw something she liked, she'd put if off to the side and take it home.

When she was on Welfare, she told them she wanted to go to work, but needed a car.  So, they gave her $2K.  She took that money and paid off a credit card and when she found a job, her Daddy bought her a 2012 Infinity.  I was so hoping that Welfare would ask to see the title on the car they gave her money for, but they never did.

Am I wrong or is this woman weird?  

To me it's just like stealing.  I am allowed 60# of food at the Food Bank.  No way can I use that much.  Yesterday it was 35#.  I only take what I need and even then, they forced 2 extra pounds of ground beef on me yesterday, which I gave to Pammie and feel guilty about it.    

I do not like the way this woman operates in her life.  Oh and by the way, ALL four of her children have liver problems because they are alcoholics and drug users.  Now--that either is a strange coincidence, or it stems from the way she (didn't) bring them up.  They all started drinking at about 12 years of age and using drugs at 15.

Just saying.
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Tomorrow is garbage day and I have been cleaning out a bit.  I am now down from 7 pillows to 4.  I got rid of the flat ones that were all stained and yucky.