Peas in a Pod

Something tells me that we all will wind up in a pod somewhere!

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On a grave from the 1880s in

Nantucket,Massachusetts :
Under the sod and under the trees,
Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod.
Pease shelled out and went to God.

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Harry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York :
Born 1903--Died 1942.
Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the
car was on the way down. It was.
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In a Thurmont, Maryland , cemetery:
Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up and no
place to go.
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On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in
East Dalhousie Cemetery , Nova Scotia :
Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102. Only The
Good Die Young.
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In a London , England cemetery:
Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid,
but died an old Mann. Dec. 8, 1767
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In a Ribbesford, England , cemetery:
Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread, And
the Lord sent them manna.

Clark Wallace wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.
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In a Ruidoso, New Mexico , cemetery:
Here lies Johnny Yeast...

Pardon me for not rising.
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In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania , cemetery:
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake.
Stepped on the gas, instead of the brake.
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In a Silver City, Nevada cemetery:
Here lays The Kid.
We planted him raw.
He was quick on the trigger
But slow on the draw.
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A lawyer's epitaph in England :
Sir John Strange.
Here lies an honest lawyer,
and that is Strange.
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I read most of these on my friend Matty's blog last August, but I got an e-mail with these in it today. Matty asked what we would write if we were to compose our own epitaph. So, I thought about it and said, "I plan on cremation and we bought crypts for the little boxes".

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Here she lies

On a tight, little shelf

As usual

She made an ash of herself!

Duh!

So, we're in Florida with nothing much to do, except watch Tiger Woods blow all the other golfers off the course in the Buick Open. Which means, if golf is on T.V., then my better half is going to sit in his recliner and watch golf. ( Really, I love Tiger, but I can do more than one thing at a time) At least I thought it was possible to do a couple of things at once, until Friday night. I wanted something good --- you know like, uh, chocolate. There is always a big plastic bowl of chocolate frosting in the fridge, because I make it five pounds at a time for moments just like this. I whipped out a couple of boxes of Brownie Mix , chopped up some walnuts and set the frosting out on the counter to warm up. I had to move the upper shelf of the oven from the top position, where I had used it last to broil something. I really had to hustle back to the living room to see what was happening on the TV, so I didn't notice that the shelf was sitting on two different rack positions. We wound up with a huge pan of brownies that were about one half inch on one end and about three inches of raw brownie goo on the other end. We have each had two brownies from the end that actually baked and I had to pitch the rest. Baking and golf are not to be taken lightly or together. DUH!

Life in a Nutshell

There was a time when I never gave a thought to the fact that life tends to pile up. Minutes become hours, days, months and then years. While I procrastinated, life was relentlessly slipping away and all the things I wanted to do someday slipped away with the years. Whoever said that "life begins at forty"? At forty, I was still wet behind the ears. Fifty was good, but still there was plenty of so much time ahead of me. Through my sixties, I was busy being a grandma --- still water skiing, still rollerblading, still having fun. I don't really know when my age became something to worry about. My mother died at seventy-two and my father at seventy-eight, so perhaps hitting seventy opened my eyes to my own mortality.We suddenly find ourselves circling the drain and the current is swift here in the golden age rapids. When you read the obits in the paper and see that someone died today or a movie star passed away at sixty-eight or eighty-two, your brain tells you that they had a nice long life. Truly, life is never long enough. The only day that counts is today and we all want to get through it and have another one tomorrow. Even people in terrible circumstances desire to live long enough to overcome their unfortunate problems and have a period of happiness. There is a passage in The Bible, Psalm 39, that says (paraphrased)---"Even though I am bowed and bloody, beaten down by life---please, let me recover and be happy once more before I die." There it is in a nutshell --- we know there is Heaven and look forward to being there, but please Lord, not today! God must think we are terrible ingrates.

Why Don't You Blog Something?

A favorite blogger friend popped over and asked if I were going leave that last little post there forever. There are so many excuses for not posting. Two come readily to mind. The first is being hooked on reading my favorite bloggers every day and then, they mention another site or two and I am off and reading several more blogs. I have a huge bookmark section just for bloggers.

My second excuse is that Ancestry.com offered me a fourteen day free trial to trace my forefathers. It happened to arrive the same day we received a family history for my husband's mother's side of the family. The cousin who sent it, spent years gathering information and researched in other cities' courthouses. This is so complete and well done (back to the 1600's) that I had to try the free fourteen day thing. I burn the midnight oil looking for more and more threads to my family's origins. You cannot explain how wonderful it feels to see your own Dad's handwriting on the 1930 U.S. Census. I didn't know that the Census is not available for public perusal for seventy-two years after it is taken, to protect privacy. The 1940 Census will be available in 2012. I am finding some family secrets that are not so pleasant, but it does explain some relatives that were sort of hinky in my memory. This is a picture of my father (in the suspenders) when he was a boy in Arkansas. (Taken about 1912) He is shown here with some of his siblings. Notice that that are combed and prettied up, but barefoot and obviously walking in the dirt. The nine children here range from one and a half to twenty, but two sisters were already married and mothers at 21 and 22.

I always knew that Dad had ten siblings, but I could only name nine. In looking at Ancestry.com, I found a message board with a lady who was looking for her husband's grandmother, whose one brother had moved to Ohio and become a lawyer. My Dad! The grandmother was my long lost aunt, who had died eleven years before I was born. Everything started falling into place and I am finding relatives all over the country who would have been lost to my children and grandchildren when I die and take my few pitiful memories with me.

With such exciting hunting going on here in my computer, I have been lax indeed, memories are almost gone, but somehow are trickling back a bit at a time.

Another reason for no new posts is my "forever friend", the hubby. He is tired of watching television all by himself. Living together in Florida without our children and grandchildren means we need to amuse each other and we aren't very funny any more.

I have one more really big reason for not blogging, but I am still trying to think my way through this one --- I'll let you know if I will write, close my blog or change my place of blogging.

Meanest Mom on the Planet

From an ad in The DeMoines Register---


For Sale: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents, who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom, who needs to get a life, found booze under the front seat. $3,700/Offer. Call Meanest Mom on the Planet."

You just have to love a mom who is this dedicated to her principles and her children. She told her ungrateful nineteen year old son there were only two rules. No booze and keep the car locked. (She did sell the car and is getting calls by the dozen thanking her for placing the ad.)

Now that you have had a laugh for today --- click on over to:
Antique Mommy and read her post for today called Hands. It
is so beautiful that you will shed tears for the sheer loveliness
of her thoughts about her son and God.