Just stuff

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I heard from or saw each and every one of my six children. How sweet is is to be a mother. I was visiting Doc when Mike called so I missed his first calls but finally got to talk to him late in the evening. Linda called and stated her intentions of holing up all day in her warm cozy house because it was such a miserable day weather wize. Gregg came on his way home from work and shared his derby pictures with me. They are terrific! Kristin and Tim picked me up and I went to have dinner with Karen and her family. We did in fact, Skype Carrie in Seattle, when I got home from there, Keith called from Sarasota with the great news that he, Angela, Conor and Bridget will be coming up to visit in three weeks. Fantastic! Brian had called me early in the morning and then came to see me late in the evening and shared his pictures. He has super pictures that he has taken from Derby Day on. Neat pictures of Big Brown in his bath, stall, walking, eating without his bridle and portrait shots, etc. His pictures are in an album and most of them 8 x 10's. There are pictures of Big Brown's trainer, owner, grooms and hot walker, and of course, his digs. All in all I had a fabulous day as a mother.

I did go right from Mass to get my gas tank filled and spent $56.00 ! So obscene! I couldn't get the cas cap off and had to ask for help. The guy that helped me kept calling me Babe and gave me a tutorial on how to take a cap off. Seems you have to turn it counter clockwize or ' to the left' as he kept telling me. OK. Then the pump wouldn't give me a receit and I had to go back inside to get it and my good Samaritan comiserated with me over the lousy start for my Mother's Day. I wished him well and went home.

Things went well clear up till about 8:30 PM when a huge limb blew off the oak tree in the front yard. I spend a lot of hours lying awake worrying about that tree falling on my house in the dark of night. Fortunately, the tree limb swept across the windows as it fell but as far as I can tell it did no damage.

Years ago when Keith and Brian were still in school, we went up to Ohio to visit. While we were there we went to London and we took Aunt Agnes for a ride to visit the cemetery and other places around Madison County. She showed us the land where she and my mother and the other eight children along with my grandma and grandpa lived. She pointed out a huge old tree standing proud and tall out in the open. She told us that fifty or more years before the tree stood behind their home. It seems my mother was always afraid that the tree would fall on their house and spent a lot of time worrying over it. Agnes pointed out that the house had long since rotted away to the point that it had to be razed and my mother had passed away also but the tree was still standing. The moral of that story was evident.

It was also on that trip that as we visited the family graves ,she had us drive to the burial spot that she and my Aunt Catherine had chosen. They neither one had married and lived together in the family home that Grandpa and Grandma had retired to in London. They had chosen their head stones and had them engraved and were all ready to go. The date of birth was there but the date of death was blank. She told Brian and Keith that she and Catherine wanted the two of them to be pall bearers for them and they made it easy for Keith and Brian by picking a site near the road so they didn't have to carry them far. Catherine lived for 95 years and Agnes lived for 88 years. Did you ever stroll through a cemetery and notice the birth date followed by a dash and then the death date? The whole life experience is represented by the _dash_ . Think of the history that that dash could unfold. Words of wisdom: 'make your Dash count/ Do the best you can!' PS. Brian and Keith did ,in fact, perform the duties of pall bearers as they had been asked to do.


There are 253 days left until we elect a new president.

Quote for the day: "If the Iranians were to have a nuclear weapon, they could proliferate."