Thankful Sunday, June 19, 2022

I am thankful for Fathers.

I come from a long line of fathers. 

My own father was a dedicated, rough-and-tumble dad who set good examples of hard work and integrity. His father, whom I knew, was quiet with his own set of problems he never quite figured out how to handle. My two maternal grandfathers died before I was born, but one was reported to be mean, and the other was reported to be generous when times were tough but was always on the move.

Even though these men were not perfect, I am thankful for them and those who came before them because they helped make up the mosaic I am today.

Happy Father's Day!

*If that sounds like too many grandfathers, I had one paternal grandfather, two maternal grandfathers, one the birth certificate father, and one the biological father.

Thankful Sunday-June 12, 2022

 I am thankful for a fun day with the family.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but it's always fun when Ward and I can get together with both Wally and Theo like we did yesterday. We had a rare day where none of us were working, so Theo, Ward, and I piled in the car to go to Wally's. The conversation on the way was interesting as Theo, the one with the economics degree, explained the impact of the many variables affecting today's inflation worries. This is something I have no background in, so I always find it interesting-especially when someone explains it to me, and I don't have to sort through a lot of reading to get the same information. 

We met briefly at Wally's apartment before heading out and got to see the tomato he's growing on his balcony, from which he's already eaten two tomatoes. We have a few blossoms on our plants, but are a long way away from getting fruit. However, good things come to those who wait, right? 

Wally knows I enjoy seeing other libraries, and he has wanted to show me his local one for a while, so that's where we headed next. As the males in the family browsed their favorite sections, I checked out how they had things organized and the displays they had. I sometimes pick up tips when visiting other libraries that I can take back to work. This time I saw a small sign I might use.

A surprising number of people think they
shouldn't take a book from a display. But, of course, that's what we want.

After perusing the library, we headed across the street for lunch. It had been raining all morning, but never hard enough that an umbrella or raincoat didn't keep us protected. It was nice to be in an area where we could walk from one place to another and do it in the rain. The lunch spot was a New York-style pizza place with reasonable prices, especially considering what food costs these days. I got a gigantic piece of supreme pizza for $5. It was big enough that I had it for both lunch and dinner. However, if I go with full disclosure, I also had some cookies to supplement the pizza. The meal of champions - pizza and cookies. :)

Then we went into Baltimore to visit the Second Chance store - a building thrift store on steroids. Theo had never been there, so the rest of us thought he needed to see it. Just like my first visit, I flitted from one thing to the next amazed and awed by the amount and variety in the store. We were there to look for bar stools for the new kitchen. However, despite the vast amount of merchandise, we did not find any that would work for us. But it was fun looking. I was about halfway through my visit before I remembered to take pictures. A few of them are at the bottom of this post.

When we were tired of Second Chance, we took Wally back to his apartment and headed home. But the fun wasn't over yet. We stopped at Aldi's along the way to pick up a few groceries. Then, finally, we returned to fussy cats who wanted to be petted, and all was right with the world.

So there you have it. Our fun day: an economics lesson, a visit to a library, a big slice of pizza, shopping in a giant thrift store, and a stop at Aldi's. Sometimes it's the little things. In fact, it is usually the little things, especially when you get to enjoy them with family.

A few things for sale at Second Chance.

Memories

 One of my recent StoryWorth prompts was, "What Were Birthdays Like When You Were A Child?" For the prompt, I wrote about birthday traditions from my childhood and how they varied as I got older. Then I sent a draft to my sisters, complete with a picture from my 6th birthday party. I often send drafts of the prompts to them to get comments about what they remember and sometimes to clarify things. This usually leads to interesting discussions and reminiscing.

After reviewing what I had sent, my oldest sister commented that the picture was not from my 6th birthday but more like my 4th. She is six years older than I am, so she often has clearer memories of things than I do from the early years. However, I told her that I remember this birthday very clearly because that was when I got a Bible with my name on it, and Mother didn't give us Bibles until we could read. I was not reading at four. Then another sister chimed in and said that four made sense to her. I was starting to get irritated because they didn't agree with me. This was not a fuzzy memory as some things were. It was very clear to me. I responded and said the picture was labeled on the back in Mother's handwriting, and it said, "June's 6th birthday." The oldest sister said that wasn't right if you looked at the clues in the picture's background; it looked like we hadn't lived in this particular house for very long because of the sparseness of furniture. I couldn't believe that she was persisting with her line of thinking after all I said. 

The next thing I did was get the picture out to scan the back of it and send proof that I was right. And you know what I found? I found it was my handwriting on the back of the picture, not my mother's. When I looked at the picture more carefully, and one of my 5th birthday, I had to agree that it was when I turned four that I got the Bible. 

How could I be so sure but be so wrong? I had a clear mental image of my mother's labeling on the back, and I thought I remembered the event so well. This points out that our memories are just memories, not necessarily an accurate depiction of what really happened. In this case, I think what I had done was combine my "memories" with labels from other pictures. And over the years, I reinforced my confusion until I was sure of the "facts."

There have been many studies about the accuracy of memories, and they have concluded that there can be problems. In general, the more sensory clues associated with the memory, the more likely it is to be accurate. However, a person can totally believe what they "remember" is true. Not necessarily that they were lying when facts prove them wrong. What does all of this mean? Well, not much in my case. Whether I was four or six when I got my Bible is of no consequence. But in serious issues such as trials or hearings, the complexity of memories should be considered.

How Theo Came into the World

or A Pregnancy Story

Theo at 3 months

Today is Theo's birthday, and we're forever thankful that he came to join us oh, so many years ago. He is a hard-working, kind, and responsible individual who enriches our lives every day. But that does not mean that he didn't give us a run for our money more than once when he was growing up. Starting at the very beginning.

My pregnancy with Theo was not easy. Besides being nauseous for many months, there were several indications that things weren't going well. First, there was bleeding for the first three months, and the doctor thought I was going to miscarry, but I didn't. Then there were the blood tests that indicated that there might be severe developmental problems with the baby. There was a lot of angst until additional testing suggested there weren't. Then there was my preeclampsia, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, that had me close to kidney failure. I should have guessed that problems would continue until delivery - because they did.

One afternoon, about a month and a half before my due date, I went for a regular check-up with my doctor, and my blood pressure was high - high enough that he decided to admit me to the hospital and try to bring it down. Unfortunately, as time went on, the blood pressure didn't go down with medicine. Also, my nervous system was being affected as indicated by a lack of normal reflexes--meaning tapping the hammer on my knee produced nothing. The worry was that I was going into eclampsia, a condition that could lead to death. So it was time to deliver Theo. However, because he was early, I had to be transferred from the small local hospital to a bigger one with a Neonatal Unit. So while I was taking my first ambulance ride, Ward was knocking on the neighbor's door in the middle of the night to ask if they could watch Wally while he went to be with me.

Besides a headache and very mild contractions, I didn't feel as bad as the flurry of hospital activity around me suggested that I might. I guess I didn't understand that this was as much of an emergency as the medical staff thought it was. As they were preparing me for a C-section, they explained how dangerous it was to be put to sleep in my situation. No problem. I didn't want to be put to sleep anyway. An epidural was fine. However, the epidural didn't work. The doctor would stick me with a needle to see if I was numb, and I would feel it. The anesthesiologist would give me a little more numbing medicine, but I would still feel the needle. Finally, the doctor said they would have to put me to sleep. I only got on one protest about how dangerous they told me that would be before I was out.

The next thing I remember is slowly coming awake to the doctor and Ward standing by my bed telling me that I had had a baby boy. That was all well and good, but I was more focused on the bubbling sound I could hear and wondered why they had a fish tank in a hospital room. Turns out they were hydrating the oxygen I was getting, not a fish tank as I had imagined. :)

The doctor said that Theo weighed in at 4 1/2 pounds - about a pound below what he should have been for his gestational age. Also, he was born just before the surfactant usually develops in the lungs to aid breathing. These things would not be of much concern with today's technology but were serious then. But here's the great thing. Because Theo had been under stress in the womb because of my high blood pressure, his adrenal gland kicked into gear and sped up his maturity. That meant no breathing problems and only a few feeding problems. Our bodies are so smart -especially when creating a new life. 

A week and a half later, we brought Theo home to begin a new adventure as a family of four. And what an interesting adventure it has been. 

Happy Birthday, Theo!

Seeing the sights

Ward and I took a break from our everyday routine and spent a couple of days exploring central Pennsylvania this past weekend. As we do most on our trips, we made sure we had a place to stay, snacks and sandwiches, and a few ideas of what we might want to do. We also thought about how we would work around the weather on this trip, which was predicted to have temperatures in the 90s and the threat of severe storms. However, timing was everything, and we managed to avoid any real problems. Here are some highlights from our trip.

We visited the Hershey Gardens in the morning before the stifling heat of the afternoon.
The temperatures were not too hot, but we did have a bit of rain.
Notice the Hershey's Kisses on the signposts. This is in the town of Hershey, where everything is related to Mr. Hershey and his chocolate enterprises. 

The gardens were established in 1937, so there were many mature plantings.

Many of the spring flowers were finished blooming, and the summer ones, like this allium, were starting.

In addition, to the outdoor gardens, they had a butterfly atrium. (Although, this is a moth.)

The gardens were host to many school field trips, but we managed to maneuver around them with no problems.

After the Hershey Gardens, the skies were darkening with severe weather threats, so we weren't sure what we wanted to do. Proceeding with uncertainty, we headed to Hunter Mansion in Harrisburg. As we explored the park along the Susquehanna River associated with the mansion, the rain began. With a mad dash, we were able to make it under the cover of the mansion porch before the heavens opened. And as luck would have it, there was a tour guide waiting, and we then had our own personal tour of the entire house.

Ward especially enjoyed our private tour because he could look at the
details of the woodworking, some as old as 200 years old, as long as he wanted.

After the rain stopped, we explored the grounds
before heading to the hotel and having an early dinner.
This is an ice house they filled with ice from
 the river in the winter. It lasted most of the year.

The next morning, we explored the back roads on a barn quilt tour. But after a couple of hours, we decided it was too hot and headed for home.

But along the way, we stopped in Gettysburg at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Historic Site. We had explored the battlefields in Gettysburg but had never been here before. Unfortunately, we saw that the house didn't open for tours until next week, but we decided to scope it out for another time.

But luck was with us again when we found a ranger who spent an hour or so with us telling us about the house, farm, and President Eisenhower. Eisenhower bought this farm after he retired from the military, and it featured prominently during his presidency. The afternoon was hot, but under the shade of a big tree with gentle breezes blowing, it was an enjoyable afternoon. And interesting. I learned many things about Eisenhower that I didn't know. 

We were able to make it home before another rainstorm, and much to our delight we saw that the electrician had finished the lighting in the kitchen. Slowly but surely we are getting there.

Until next time...