Happy Hogamanay, New Years Eve, and Blue Moon Night

Riding Near OSR on Christmas Day
My Decorated Cane

My Decorated Cane

ink and watercolors

I sketched my cane while waiting for the doctor who told me that I had Pink Eye.

Instead of a lump of coal, Santa brought me a contagious disease!

The wind was really strong on Christmas Eve, after a light snowfall in the morning. We've never had snow for Christmas in my entire lifetime.

I reached for the car door, as Christopher was getting out, in the HEB parking lot. The wind caught the door at the same time. I put my foot back to catch myself, but the curb was behind my foot, so down I went, on my backside. Immediately, I thought that my new knee would be ruined. Then I thought that I was so cold! Maybe I would need an ambulance! But, I was okay, although a bit embarrassed about being out in front of all those people, in shorts, with my feet up in the air! I don't think anyone noticed, but my family helped me up.

I don't think that I have ever been so cold in a store, while trying to shop. It was as bad as being outside, with the wind racing through and blowing all the signs, and the freezer areas being unbearably cold. I huddled in my cape and scarf and tried to hurry through the store. I felt so sorry for the workers, especially those at the cash registers at the front of the store, who were exposed to the cold air and wind. Someone should have realized that it does get cold in Texas in the winter, when a cold front comes through, when they designed that new store!

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Just a few new pictures for you to enjoy as we end 2009. Where did the time go!

I'm ending the year with creeping around, with very sore legs. I had a tall, male physical therapist yesterday, who was really hard on me. Well, I guess he could have been worse. Among the things he did to me was to sit on my foot and press my leg back and hold it. When I was grabbing at the table edges with pain, he said that was a good sign, and had to hold it for 15 seconds! He set the Total Trainer to Level 10, which was really tall, I thought. And he put ice and a weight on my leg. But the thing that I think got my legs to be so achy today was to have me go up and down 4 flights of stairs. I only have 6 little steps at home, so I was really huffing and puffing. And my thighs especially don't want me to move today!

I don't have my comfortable chair back at the computer desk yet as the boys are using it to watch movies and do their games, so the little chair I am using at my work table is not very comfortable-especially with my knee that can't take sitting still too long, unless it is elevated.

The computer has been really slow and difficult lately, so I usually give up after I go through a little bit of e-mail. I don't know if it is because it was off for so long, or it if is just old. Maybe it needs someone to work on it.

Hopefully, once I get going more, I can do more with my art, writing, genealogy, and my blog.

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I hope that your New Year's Eve, Hogamany, and Blue Moon celebrations are safe and happy, with many great memories. With wishes for a great 2010 for everyone!

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Pearl Harbor Day 09

Pearl Harbor Day

pencil

8.5" x 11"

I haven't posted for a while as I prepared to have surgery, and have been recovering. Then my computer was acting up, after weeks of not being used. But I had to add something about Pearl Harbor Day.

For a change this year, there have been quite a few programs on Pearl Harbor Day on TCM and the History Channel on tv. I was glad to see that. Some things on tv seemed to be lessons from the past that we need to remember today. So many of the same things seem to be happening. Scarey times indeed. Sometimes it looks like people haven't learned anything from the past.

The sketch above is a pencil drawing of one of my memories. I did this one on Pearl Harbor Day a couple of years ago. I seem to remember that on a December morning, people in Calvert, as in other places, were off to Sunday School and Church, as usual. But services were cut short and people were sent home to be with their families.

I was a child and wasn't aware of a lot that was going on. But I do remember that we went home from church early on Sunday, as did other families. It was very quiet and grown ups looked worried and grim. I was dressed in my play clothes and sent out to my sandbox under the big oak tree in the front yard, to play. Inside my great-grandfather's two story Victorian house where we lived, people listened to the radio and worried about what was to come. Young men were resolved to join the fight and left to "join up".

The two story house is in my picture, as is the sandbox and the big oak tree. The yard was much larger in real life. You can see young men-friends-walking toward the railroad track and downtown, ready to protect their country. People inside the house are listening closely to the radio and getting ready for a long Sunday afternoon. They went through the motions of traditional Sunday dinner, but that, too, was cut short. There were plenty of left-overs for the rest of the week. People didn't have much of an appetite that day.

I remember, later, in school, seeing pictures in our "Weekly Reader" about Pearl Harbor. Most of it was really terrible, but, I still feel sick for those people who were trapped and were heard tapping on the damaged ships hulls, while others struggled to rescue them. Students in Mrs. Pietsch's Social Studies class asked serious questions about the event, while others just looked at the little newspaper in stunned silence. And, of course, there were the newsreels at the Eloia, and magazines like "Life", later, with lots of pictures.

How can such horrible things happen to people.

We certainly owe a lot to those who experienced Pearl Harbor, and many other events in history. Thank you.

Never forget.