On Family History:

I don’t talk about my family much here. Mostly because they would gleefully scratch my eyes out if I did. (They don’t like my Gothiness and don‘t want to be in any way associated with it. God, or the fashion police might find out.)

Anyway, I will talk about my dead relatives as they are visited by me more often than they are by the other ‘livings’ in the family and they don’t seem to mind.

As a kid I was fascinated by two of my Grandfathers brothers relationships.

Great Uncle S was married, a bit later in life, to a wonderful and smart, widowed woman Great Aunt C who had a grown daughter B. Now Great Uncle S was a very smart guy, an inventor in his spare time, and he held many patents that monetarily sustained both he and his wife for many years and through their old age, very well in deed.

Great Uncle K was younger then both Granddad and Great Uncle S. He was very smart too, but in a book sense. He was a farmer by trade. But every moment he could spare had his head in any text book he could get his hands on. He could talk science and geography better than anyone else I ever knew. I learned a lot from him over the years he was alive.

The facts of who started dating who first are to this day unclear in the family story telling. But I believe that in reality it was a double dating thing. Uncles S and K dated and later married this mother daughter duo.

Great Uncle S and his wife Great Aunt C didn’t have any kids of their own. But Great Uncle K and his wife Great Aunt B did. And they were the same ages as me and my sister.

My fascination was with the children’s relationships in all this. Their Grandmother was also their Aunt and their Grandfather was also their Uncle. This seemed to interest them very little. Mostly I suspected at the time, it was because they were not intelligent at all, which also fascinated me their being born into a very intelligent gene pool. But in reality, to them, it just was what it was. (The intelligent thing, later being explained to me as birthing accidents.)

To me the relationship thing was a Mark Twain‘s fictional, ‘I’m My Own Grandpa’ kind of story, that was real and belonged to me and my family. And as a kid I never understood why my friends didn’t think it was cool.

On Hide and Seek:

I’ve been hiding from the cookie jar and seeking a snow free walkway.

Yes, I’m back on the exercise and eating less trail again after a party day.

One more pound off my short frame this last week. I got back into my largest dress this morning. Not that it helped me with clothing to wear to shovel the walkway.

Yes, we were some of the people who got caught in that snow storm on Sunday night. We got exactly eight inches. And just when we could see some bare ground the day before.

So I alternately shoveled and rested with my Sims 3 game to keep me from eating the exercise points away. (Yes, I used a cheat so that they didn’t have to eat either.) I just couldn’t watch them eat things like crepes or cookies, and even the mac and cheese looked good.

Mountain Man plowed for hours yesterday, both here and at the neighbors houses.

It was a cold night and it felt good to see the ice drip like rain from the roof edges this afternoon.

It feels good to get back to walking and using the stair stepper again. My knee is doing good. I’m not over doing it. But I am using it like normal once again.

And there is a added thing that I don’t have to work the upper body quite as much. My arms were getting just plain tired.

I’m still thankful for all the good in my life. When I see all those pages full of happy thoughts it makes me smile. I’ve had some bad times in my life, but I won’t let them out weigh the good. Not that I’m keeping score.

But bad stuff does come without you having to ask for it. Why not counter that with taking the time to practice looking at the good.

Those, ‘I know that there is good times in my life somewhere… Come out, come out where ever you are?’ days are fewer when you look at and for good times more often.

On Annual Internet Thankfulness Tea Party 2011:

Welcome to the Annual Internet Thankfulness Tea Party.

(Sorry I was missing in action yesterday. The wind took my electricity away via a downed tree.)

I hope that all of you who had your tea parties already had a good time. And those that are having your party today are having as much fun as we are.

We are having cucumber sandwiches, fancy cookies and carrot cake with our tea.

I am thankful for many things. And I won’t bore you with all of them so I will just name a few.

Grand babies
Massages from a loved ones
Chocolate
The play of sunshine and shadow
Raisins, natures candy

Interesting gray winter skies
Headache free days
Crayons
Stories that seem to write themselves
Video games that work properly

Smiles
Friends, near and far
People who really listen
Autumn leaves
Picnics in the cemetery

Mountain Man added a few of his:

Good health
Opportunity to be creative
Healthy pets
Warm weather
Ability to sleep soundly

I must add that Miss Mousie over at Knotty Mouse is my co-host for this year.

On An Invitation to a Tea Party:

Hi Everybody,

This is the weekend of the Annual Thankfulness Tea Party.

You are all invited. Saturday or Sunday, take your pick.

Get together some food, something to drink, paper and something to write with.

Put on some music and enjoy yourself while you write down everything you can think of that you are thankful for.

People, experiences, and/or just stuff.

Have a theme to it or not.

Have friends or family with you, or just go it alone so you can think.

It sounds overly simple, but it is not. It changes ones perspective as the seasons change around us.

It is a way to find happiness in ones own skin and not just from the toys we have around us.

Enjoy your life and comment on your experience.

Hugs to all, Lady Euphoria

On Dreaming in Winter:

I’m talking night time, sleeping, dreaming here. Looking at the sun on the snow today made me think of this.

There are a few things that are a standard in my dreaming world. That makes my dream world familiar to me. But not like my awake world. They are not what is familiar in the way other people dream. We are of course individuals.

Light: It radiates from the ground in my dreams. Like the sun shine on clean, white, snow makes the sky seem darker. Like back and floor lit pieces of art. The lighting in my dream world doesn’t come from above.

Transport: Cars, bicycles, trains, motorcycles, even roller skates and skateboards and be like this. All transportation is controlled by a disk. Much like a steering wheel in look, but more like a airplane in that you control the speed with it by push and pull. And you don‘t turn it like a wheel, but tilt it to the side that you want to go. Think magic plate held out in front of you like a little kid playing.

Stairs: I have never been able to walk up or down stairs in my dreams. I have crawled, walked on the outside of the banister, used rope ladders next to the stairs, elevators, been transported, jumped, flew, climbed up trees and into windows, and on one occasion I dripped down the steps like a cartoon character.

In my real life I have had steps collapse out from under me. The only thing saving me from falling to the floor below was my momentum so that I landed on the steps in front of me. The landlord got an earful I can tell you.

In my real world I always take the stairs if I can. Exercise, saving power, dislike of possibly being trapped in an elevator without a bathroom. I’m a stair person in my real life, but in my dream world I can’t do it.

I wonder what that says about me?

Do you have odd things to deal with in your dreams?

On What is Up?:

1. The Annual Internet ‘Thankfulness Tea Party’ is coming up on Saturday or Sunday, (take your pick) of this up coming weekend. You are all invited. Just a reminder so you can have what you need on hand. Food, drink, music, paper and pen, and Time set aside to write the things you are thankful for. Theme, friends and family are optional, but always fun.

I go all out with a lace and linen table cloth and napkins, flowers and doilies, Victorian style tea party. But as I’ve been doing this for decades I would never expect anyone else to go that far.

2. I’ve gotten back on the exercise band wagon and worked off one of those 10 pounds already. Hard work using only my upper body.

3. My knee is still healing. I bumped it the other day and it swelled up again. I can walk carefully on it for a half an hour a day now. Still not up to exercise speed, but some is better then none.

Oh, and I have my sense of smell back. You don’t know how much you use it until it is gone.

4. Carl’s The Sims 3 Guide & Walkthrough http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com has given me my sanity and my Sims 3 game back. It was a Windows 7 problem I was having. Apparently the game was made before there was a Windows 7 so they are not as compatible as hoped. His guide helped me configure things so I can now play the game. Why couldn’t EA Games do that?

I’m still having trouble with it crashing when there is a mirror on the lot, but other then that I’m doing good. If I sneak up on them from behind and delete them I’m good to go. Some of the houses I need to go into when traveling have been a challenge but do-able if I keep the mirrors off screen as I play.

And there are Mummies! Lots of Mummies in Egyptian tombs. (Some in China and France.) And I now know how to have my Sims be turned into a mummy too.

Thank you Carl wherever in the world you may be. My frugal self was having a problem with spending any amount of money on a game that didn’t work and risked damaging my computer at the same time.

On Mental Blocks:

First, let me say that I have permission from my friend, Lady Jane. She finds her story funny.

We are dear, old, shopping friends and though we hardly ever see or talk to each other any longer, (Since I don’t drive now either.) We pick up the conversation just where we left off the next time we see each other.

Lady Jane is sweet, and a kind, loving person. Her home is sparkling clean. Dust doesn‘t dare land on her furniture or she is eliminating it.

But she has a disability. She can’t wash dishes until they are clean all the way round. Her husband has installed the best model dish washer he can afford in their home so he, and any guests, have clean dishes to eat off of. Lady Jane doesn’t use it, only he does. They have separate dishes and cabinets for them.

We have talked about this subject for decades. Jane only cleans the inside of her dishes and the working part of her flatware. The parts that she cleans are very clean. I’m not talking about walking them through the dish water and saying ‘done.’

Somewhere in her past she learned to do it that way and hasn’t gotten passed it. The handles of her spoons and cups are sticky and the grime on the outside of each glass, plate, cup or bowl sticks to the inside of the other when stacked to put away in her dish cabinet. I know, discussing!

Her pots and pans, and cooking utensils sparkle inside and out. She can and does clean them to within an inch of their lives. It is the table wear that she has a problem with.

I can’t eat at her house because of it. I’m a ‘make it clean all over or die’ dish washer. And knowing that there is a cabinet of what I feel is dirty dishes in that kitchen of hers makes me crazy.

What causes such mental blocks that some people can risk their health continuing to do things the same old way? Why can’t they break through and fix the problem?

I don’t get on her case about it. I’m fatter than a house myself. She can pick up a clean dish and eat off of it. I’m not so lucky.

I’m at 230 pounds and in that picture of me in that heading of mine I was 190. I was sewing on Friday to have anything to wear. I’ve out grown all my clothing. I used my hurt knee as an excuse to sit on my butt. And I gained that last ten pounds just this past week.

I’ve got to get pasts this mental block about exercising and loose some of this weight or I won’t be around to see my grandbaby grow up.

On Lost the Hang of Fridays:

I used to like Fridays. Finishing up things for the week and starting the weekend. Like a punctuation mark. It had meaning.

But after years of retirement Fridays don’t have the same punch it used to have.

Not that we don’t mark it. It is clean up day around here. Putting everything back in order for a less cumbersome weekend. Freedom to play or worship, as the case may be, without chores weighing you down.

But since I’ve been cleaning on Thursdays, its left Friday to get ourselves into trouble.

Mountain Man worked on the car and didn’t get it done before dark. So no car for weekend travel.

I pulled out some sewing and there on the table is a half done project. I don’t want to put it away undone, because it might take forever to finish it that way.

We’ve been doing that more and more lately. And it messes up our whole week.

Weeks like that just run together and time looses meaning. I don’t like it at all.

I need to keep the Friday clean up as we have always done. Its just better that way.

On Slob Me:

I have learned I am a slob when I’m laid up. Clean up from my ‘sit and heal my bumps and bruises’ has taken me all day yesterday. That and the piles of dirty dishes and laundry. I didn’t even turn on my computer yesterday. Admittedly, I’m still slow going since my fall. But that is no excuse.

This little corner of my world was centered on my chair in front of my Wii game. There was a litter and left over pile, a mess ring around it.

It looked like a poorly maintained frat house zone.

Mountain Man was not doing his regular clean up for and around me this time because he was on sick dog duty. So I got to see just how much of a slob I am when I‘m not mobile.

The last of the scabs have come off of my nose, after my kissing the concrete floor. My knee is doing much better and I’m now able to walk /stand for up to fifteen minutes at a time.

The only part of me that still looks bad is my scrapped shin. It is still red and bruised and scabby.

Its not like I sat and did nothing all day. I just didn’t do it in my laid up zone where I just plopped my sad self. I propped up my knee on pillows, played video games and ate milk shakes to my hearts content.

So, I’ll have to change my approach to my personal healthcare. I can’t be a slob when I’m laid up, just because I have gotten away with it in the past.

On ‘Sim’ulated Frustration:

I am no longer upset about Mountain Man’s accident. I’m on to other things.

I have been fighting with my Sims 3 game.

I finally got the second installment of Sims 3. Thinking that they had two years to debug it and that I’d be fine putting it into my computer.

Tis’ to laugh, my friends!

World Adventures is an adventure in computer crashes.

It actually worked better before I put the patches into it and changed things on my computer to except it.

No other game causes me so much trouble.

EA Games is a money sucking corporate farce of a company.

No game should be on the market for so long and not have been fixed better then this. They have just gone ahead and created more installments. Five more to be correct.

I thank the powers that be, and my frugalness, that I got it on sale.

The premise is a good one: travel to China, France, and/or Egypt and hunt through caves and tombs for treasure and hidden objects while watching out for traps. This is done with a mini side game aspect.

The games are interactive and fun. Watch out for mummies who can put a deadly curse on your Sim. Sleep in a tomb. Collect riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Levels of play that grow and need more of your attention and time to complete. I was loving it. And there are things only available, to buy or learn, in the country of origin.

It was the only reason I was willing to jump through the hoops EA Games set before me.

But seeing the screen go black and my computer tell me that once more it had shut down to save itself from animation has become too much for me.

I’m tired of having to pull the game out and start from scratch again and again.

I give up! Hands in the air! I’ll never buy another EA Game in my live time. For myself or my family.

My love of the Sims games has been broken. Along with all of EA’s Promises! And I have been a die hard fan from the first day of Sims, but back then it was Maxis.

EA Games is not a responsible Video Game maker. And if money is their bottom line. They’ll not get another dime from me!

On Exhaustion:

I’m so tired from yesterdays scare.

Most of it was of my own making.

Mountain Man has a habit of coming in from working with the wood or stone with blood coming from some part of his anatomy.

I’ll ask him, “How did you hurt yourself?”

He answers, “I’m hurt?”

“Yes, your bleeding from your arm (or forehead, or some such place).” I say.

“I didn’t even know I did that.” He says.

So when he calls to say, “I’ve been in an accident and the car flipped over and slid down the highway, and is being towed away because it has been totaled and thank god for seat belts.”

I think, “What is bleeding on him, and does he even know how hurt he is?”

The crash on the ice was around 9:00 in the morning and he didn’t get home until around 5:00 in the evening.

So here I sit tired and fattened. (I nervously ate all the cookies and chocolate in the house while I waited yesterday.)

I’m happy he is fine and wishing I didn’t have to do all those extra exercises to work off the extra nervous eating I did yesterday.

Thanks for all the support from all of you out there. It meant so very much and still does.

Kiss His Whole Face:

What makes me want to slap someone silly, while kissing their face, after a bad scare?

I love my husband and don’t want any harm to come to him, yet I feel the urge to give him a smack.

Is it the stress talking? Or is it relief? Maybe both together?

He wasn’t the driver so I can’t fault him there, and even so it was the icy conditions not the drivers fault.

And still I want the satisfaction of laying low the fear. Fighting it physically. Screaming “Don’t make me relive the night my son died again! Don’t make me think about it happening to you either!”

Will I ever get over my son’s death? I think not. But why must it color my days since?

He’s Home:

Mountain Man is home. Bumped. Bruised. But in one piece and safely home with me.

Next News:

Hours later… Mountain Man finally got a ride, but has to make it back. It is freezing rain at the moment here. So time will tell.

I told him not to come back if it continues.

On Life Unexpected:

I am waiting for Mountain Man to get home. He just called to say that the car he was in was in an accident.

It slid in the ice and flipped. He and the driver are okay according to him.

I don’t do car accidents well. My son died in one.

I won’t be alright until I see that Mountain Man is in one piece and well. He is more then an hour away from home and doesn’t have a plan yet on how he is going to get back.

I'll let you know what I do as I get it.

On Managing My Stress:

I stole this picture off of The Rustic Goth’s blog today.

It just felt right for me somehow. I was stressed, I fell and hit my face, and now I’m not.

It works!

No, not really. But it did add a little perspective. Things can always be worse, and sometimes are.

I’m doing much better, thank you very much.

And thank you for the kind words of encouragement in those comments and emails I’ve been getting.

I’m not limping much at all now and the blacks and blues are starting to turn a yellow green at the edges.

My nose still hurts so I try not to have to blow it. I still can’t believe I didn’t break it, because my front teeth are still a little loose from my kissing the floor. I’m living on soft foods and shakes for that, until they tighten back up.

All things being equal I’d say I’m glad I was lucky. It could have been much worse. But I’m not done in by it. Slower, but not done in.

On Writing Again:

It has been a while, but I have put another short story up on my story blog Thrill or Shiver.

It is ‘The Castle Tour Guide.’

About the story: Ruth Bradford is a tour guide that looks a lot like one of the ladies that use to rule in the castle. Ruth’s plans are to use the money earned to go to college and get a history degree.

Read it and see if her dreams come true or if fate plays a hand in Ruth’s life.

Let me know if you like it or if it needs improvement and where. I’m always up for improving my writing skills.

On Down For The Count:

Riddle Time! What do you get when you block the bottom quarter of a usually open doorway so the sick dog can’t mess the whole house?

Ohhh, Ooooo, let me answer. Please!

A broken face. And bruised knee, and scrapped shin, and bumps, bruises and black and blue all over. Raccoon eyes. Nose three times its normal size.

I tripped over the dog gate last night. Flat out.

Planted my face into the concrete floor.

I feel so foolish. I was the one who put it there because I was tired of tracking down puddles left by our dog, poor old Lady Long.

I spent the night, what felt like, being packed in ice. I still ache all over.

Tomorrow I’ll laugh at myself. Right now I’m going back to bed and waiting until this winter storm we’re having is over and my face stops hurting so much.

On Its Coming, Thank You:

The Annual Thankfulness Tea Party is coming up in just a few weeks.

On the Weekend of February 19-20, 2011.

You are all invited. In fact I wish I could have you all here at my place. (But unfortunately Lady Long, my dog, is ill and I’m not having anyone over for the time being because of it.)

Not that I have the space for all of you, but it would be nice to party with you face to face.

So pick your date. Invite whom you choose. And join in the fun.

1. Have some party foods of your liking. (It does not have to be a Victorian tea if you don’t want it to.) Do a theme or be very relaxed. It is up to you.

2. Have it with friends or family or all by yourself. Its up to you.

3. Take the time to write down a list of things you are thankful for. And have the people at your party do the same.

4. Take the time to enjoy the goodness in your life.

I hope you can all join me.