Wednesday, September 28, 2011

On Distractions:

For days I have been trying to find a resolution about 4 video games I bought from the 'Nevosoft' company. Annabel, and My Kingdom for the Princess 1, 2 & 3. I went to 'Nevosoft' because they are the makers of these games and they offered disc versions at a reasonable price. $6.99 each for most of their games and that included shipping.

I really have liked playing these games on line and wanted the discs (Full versions) so I could put them in my various computers without having to pay for the games over and over again for each download, as I moved from one computer to the next.

After waiting for the discs to arrive for weeks without result, I got in touch with the distributor 'RegNow' to find that I was sent an email with the codes for the downloadable versions. And that they never got the word to send backup discs.

I went into an explaination of needing discs to wrap for presents. (As they are a gift from my husband to me.)

There is no place to talk to the 'Nevosoft' company directly. Only a Tech Support email address. I can’t do much right now but let the credit card company try to get my money back.

One of the reasons it is taking so long is that we are in a rain pattern again. I’ve learned the hard way that I need to unplug my computer when a storm comes to call. So I’m lucky if I get a quick email out before I need to unplug again.

I am thankful that the flooding is not hitting my house. But the inconvenience of all this rain is getting on my nerves. And it bugs me when I don’t get what I paid for. Sorry for the rant folks. I do try to keep them to a minimum.

Monday, September 26, 2011

On So Much Info, So Little Time:

I had a really good time listening to my father’s tales of when he was younger.

He used to go the dump where the factories would get rid of miss-made products and regularly get pink pencil erasers for school by the pounds, along with a variety of other things that he and his friends or family could use.

I learned that my grandfather was a professional Roller Derby skater for a time.

And that my uncle, when he was in the navy, was stationed on the aircraft carrier ‘Enterprise’ before and during World War II.

(For those of you who don’t know. The ‘Enterprise’ was the most decorated ship of that war, if not ever. Wikipedia link here. History Channel link here. Battle 360 links here.)

Now I know where my father got all those scars from. My father was attacked by dogs more than once. Most were minor leg bites while delivering news papers.

But the worst one: My father, in his own back yard when he was only about 8 years old, was attacked by a dog and bitten 11 times before his brother managed to hit the dog with a hammer to get it off of him. He has a long, jagged scar that goes from the corner of his eyebrow and over his head, along with others he wouldn‘t talk about when we were kids.

There were tales of misadventure along with childish bad judgment. But he and the others survived those days of not enough to go around. They made it to adulthood and some of the old group still meet a few times a year even though the group gets smaller each year.

He may be the last of his family’s generation. His brothers and sisters are all gone now and his parents died when I was a child.

So he tells the tales that only he is left to pass down to the generations he has fathered and grandfathered hoping that some of those stories will live on when he is gone. It is family history and it should not get lost.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

On Busy, Busy Company Coming:

I’ve been trying to help the local flood victims clean up and do my own Autumn cleaning. And on top of that my Dad and Step-mom are coming to visit for a few days.

Yes, despite my long years on this planet all my parents are still alive.

To see them you would not take them for their ages and in some ways you’d think them younger than me. (I’m a bit bent over and slow right now from hauling and cleaning stuff this past week.)

They’ll arrive on Friday and will be staying through the weekend. So I must not just set the air mattress out in the parlor for them like I do for the kids when they come. I give Dan and Step-mom my big, dark, high, ornate, bed so my Dad doesn’t have to get up from the floor in the morning. They just have to use the stool to get into it at night.

This means clearing out my bedroom so as not to scare them to death with my Gothy décor. Like skulls on the bed finials and such stuff. Not that it is strictly necessary to remove them, but it is an excuse to give the room a good Autumn clean out.

So down comes the well cultivated cobwebs. Banished is the dust too thick to write on in the corners. (Yes, you can have dust too thick. It falls back down into the cleared space where you just tried to write in it and it puffs up in clouds in your face.)

My bottles of spider’s eyelashes and such stuff and my caldron get moved into the closet, along with my dead flowers and plants. My mourning pictures and the ones of the moon through clouds and bare branches come down to be cleaned behind as well and my dead stuffed animals too.

My collective parents, (Mom Dad and Stepmom.) are old school Christian and they love me in their way, although they do not like my life choices. So we compromise and they come when I’m doing my Autumn cleaning so that they don’t have to see all my Gothiness all at once.

I love them so I have some of my stuff down and out of the way for more days than just cleaning would necessitate. I cut back on the face paint and wardrobe too because, why have that time old discussion about style when, we can have a good time doing other things before they are gone. (I’m no kid anymore. Just one of their kids. There are nine of us altogether and why should I be the troublesome one besides the strangest.)

So if you were looking for me I was in my vanilla clothing getting it all dirty and torn, cleaning up Deathwatch Manor and then some. (Boy, I wish I could keep some servants around here. But they will clean things up a little ‘too’ clean for my tastes.)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

On Trigger Finger:

I was helping out with the clean up after the storms and flooding.

And well I have blisters on most of my fingers, but the worst one is on my trigger finger.

I was using a trigger sprayer and I’ve never sprayed so much stuff for so long. I think I may have sprained it too.

So my blog will be short and sweet tonight. Do to my one fingered typing.

Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So shoulder your parrot and break out the crackers and your eye patch. Arrrgggg! Me Harties! Do it of you’ll be walking the plank!

No. All in fun really.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

On Breaking Three Figures:

Yes, I know that there are more of you reading my blog than it shows on my Blogger Follower List, but I have to say that it was a little thrilling to see that three digit ‘100’.

This is my 789’th posting here on ‘Thoughts from a Eclectic Goth Mind‘. For years I’ve blogged. I’ve written my dark stories for my other blog ‘Thrill or Shiver’ also as time went by.

I supported other bloggers. Jumped on to follow new bloggers so they didn’t have to wait for over a year to get that first follower or months for a first comment like I did.

I saw the numbers rise, fast and furious, for some younger bloggers and, yes I felt a little jealous.

No, I am not into popularity contests. I’m not on facebook or any other social network. (They scare me. And I don’t play well with others.)

But here I am with 100 followers on blogger.

So three cheers for the little guy. It took a long time, but I’ve made it to three digits. Another life goal met.

Now I have to put my black thinking cap on and step up to the plate. Bring my ‘A’ game more often. Because I have people waiting to hear from me. And I don’t like to disappoint.

I may even bring back my Epitaph give away. (You send in an Epitaph and I pick one to win a prize.) I still have some prizes left, if I’m remembering correctly. Let me know if you’d like that!

So thank you out there for reading my blog. Thank you for thinking it was worth following. Thank you for being a friend.

I thank you also my long time readers. You kept me going by hanging in there when my time and subject matter was getting thin.

Oh Happy Goth 100 Day!

Friday, September 16, 2011

On Beating that Bad Mood Back:

I beat the bad mood I woke with yesterday with the help of Miss Mousey from Knotty Mouse. She has a blog I read regularly.

She reminded me of our Thankfulness Tea Parties on the web every February. Maybe I should have them more often.

Being an Elder Goth can be a drag sometimes. Others (some vanilla’s I know.) keep wanting me to grow up and stop all this Goth stuff, and the younger generation of Goth’s have no use for me. ‘Old Fart’ being the kindest comment to me of late.

This leaves me without a local Goth community. So I find myself having to tone it down more often than I really want to or I find myself with no one to hang with.

And although Mountain Man tolerates my Gothiness for the most part, he would rather it was not a full tilt daily barrage of the stuff. And he is definitely not into spiders. Meaning, I can only wear my spider jewelry when he is not about. (Marriage is full of compromise on both fronts.)

Some days I don’t want to be all old lady and respectable in my black pants suit, top and shoes when I go out and about. I want to Goth it out like any Goth would. Part of being a Goth is that pushing the ‘limits’ thing.

I have lovely Victorian Mourning clothing that doesn’t see the light of day often enough. And frankly I’d love to be seen in public in it much more than I do.

I spent that vanilla six weeks taking care of that woman. I didn’t have to. But I feel that when I’m ill I don’t want to see nothing but vanilla, and that she didn’t want to see nothing but Goth. In fact she doesn’t like it at all. (But to each his or her own.)

So Miss Mousey helped me by reminding me that I am thankful for any day I have to be my Gothy silly self. Whether in my full Goth regalia or scrubbing the bathroom in some old sweats. The Goth I am can still shine (Or darkly radiate) through. And that makes me happy!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

On Trying to Break a Bad Mood:

I woke up in a bad mood today. No reason I can find for it. It just happens some times. I’ve been trying to break it, but nothing so far has worked.

I know that by tomorrow it may be gone just like it came, but I want it out of the way now. I have things to do. I don’t want to be a bear to my significant other. Nor do I want to be short with the dog.

I’ve tried to laugh it off, soothing it away, eating it gone, and to exercise it out by screaming in my pillow. I’ve exercised my body, meditated and tried chocolate. I’ve even bought the makings for a new hat.

I’ve run out of things to try and wondered if you have any ideas. I’ve spent too many days of my life in depression to want to slide back there. So I don’t want to wait it out.

What do you do to help yourself out of a bad mood?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

On It’s a Beautiful Potato Day:

It is a beautiful Autumn day here today. The trees are just starting to turn colors and the air is just the right temperature.

We went for a walk with the dog, who ran around so much that he seemed to be going in ten directions at once. Now he is sleeping off his hike.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and turn colder. So we were making the best of the day. Digging potatoes and putting them in our make shift root cellar. We have a large plastic bin almost all buried in the shed. After we fill it with potatoes we put the lid on and cover it over with bails of hay.

I just love garden fresh potatoes. Nothing like the store bought. Same with carrots and other veggies. Nothing beats that fresh garden taste. Too bad you can’t get that taste all year round living here. But I wouldn’t give up Autumn or Winter for anything.

I’ll be making a batch of potato salad tonight from the little new potatoes that are bite sized bits of goodness and I’ll be enjoying every bite. With skins so thin and fresh that you don’t need to peel them.

I’m a pinch cook. I don’t generally use recipes. I just grab a pinch of this and a dab of that so I can’t give you a recipe like you’d find in a book. But I can tell you what I put into it.

Sweet Honey-Mustard Potato Salad
Red Potatoes - garden fresh, cooked and cooled, cut into bite sized pieces (Any other potato will do, but the look of the red skins, green beans and yellow sauce looks festive.)
Green Beans - cut into inch pieces, lightly boiled to a bright green, but still crisp then quick cooled (I’ve used frozen green beans in a pinch.)
Mayonnaise of your choice
Brown Mustard
Honey
Sweet Onion - minced fine, onion powder will do in a pinch.
Salt - I use sea salt but any type of salt is fine.

I go with 2 / 3 potato to 1 / 3 green beans. I mix it all to taste and serve it as a side dish to franks and beans or burgers and fresh corn on the cob.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

On Up In Smoke:

Well I guess my mom is right. I was born under a dark star. This stuff only seems to happen to me.

While watching all the coverage about the flooding around the Wyoming
Valley my computer monitor started smoking.

It was unplugged and thrown out on the lawn, just before it was ready to burst into flame! The plastic casing was melting!

I sat at home for days while we were all under a state of emergency and couldn’t be out on the road to get to the store on the other side of the river. Only one bridge was open for days and that one was for emergencies.

So after some creative math I was able to get a replacement only because I found a clearance sale. A twenty inch screen for $49.00.

So, I am here to say, ‘I’m back again.’ I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Are the planets trying to tell me something?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

On If You Can’t Say Something Nice:

My silence was brought about by lack of good things to say. And not wanting to be a total Gloomy Gus, I just didn’t blog.

So now, the dog is doing much better after a very bad illness from what, we think, was something he found and ate after the lights went out in the Irene storm.

Most of the canning of the crops that were felled from the vine in storm Irene have been dealt with.

Rain, rain go away! We have managed to stop most of the leaks in the roof. When the rain finally stops we will be able to get to the others.

And now we await news of the flooding, brought about by the storms named Lee and Katia, of the Wyoming Valley and surrounding areas. Even if the Susquehanna River stays within the levee system of the Wilkes-Barre/Kingston area, towns up and down both the north and west branches of the river are getting flooded and all the streams and rivers running into it are over their banks. There are of course other rivers flooding, but none as close to my neck of the woods.

Once the river reaches a certain point only pumping stations will be keeping the water on the other side of the levees. Projected level is 39.6 feet. And if the water comes higher than the levees, some 40.7 feet high as it is projected to come very near to, it will over top the levee system flooding miles of residential areas. So the people of the valley are being evacuated as I write this.

The added flood walls and sand bagging are being placed and we all wait it out. Hoping and praying for friends and loved ones to be safe, helpless to do anything to stop what may become the worst flooding in recorded history here in this part of Pennsylvania.

I broke my self imposed silence because if the flooding does happen I will be far too busy helping with the flooded out homeless to write for a while. And I had wanted to let you know that we will be okay where we are, living on top of the mountain.

For those interested here is a link to a local TV News channel with the coverage.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

On Irene, Unwelcome Guest 2:

I did try to blog yesterday. So busy I didn’t even have the time to whip up something chocolate. (I am soooo jonesing for chocolate!)

We have yet to get off of the property to see the damage elsewhere. But the damage here is enough to be getting on with at the moment.

Today’s pictures - Trees: I’ll post just a few. So many out there these days on the web.















Some just came down taking out others. They left craters as the roots were pulled out of the ground.














Some snapped. Limbs and whole trees.















Others lost most of the branches on one side. (Picture taken during clean up of yard. A lot of the branches from our Ash trees had already been removed from the ground just to get in and out of the house.)

We are still canning what we could save of the garden. Food will be short here this winter. But we will muddle on as we always do and make the best of things.

I have only seen a group of 7 crows winging their way through to parts unknown and I haven’t heard a bird, but that one time since Irene started to blow. It would seem desolate here if not for the over abundance of bug all of a sudden.

I had wanted to join in with the Boots - Fashion Theme for the first of the month from the Sophistique Noir blog. But I just don’t have to time to play fashion plate right now. And Mountain Man is out with his chain saw turning downed trees into fire wood for the winter not doing the photographer.

Things will get back to normal and I will have time again to do those jigsaw puzzles and that knitting I haven’t touched since Irene came to call.