Stories for Grandchildren

Hello,

I have been writing down some of the stories that I tell my grandchildren. I like to write, but I find it easier to tell these stories than to write them. Perhaps, because the writing that I normally do, is for adults rather than children it does not flow easily when I am writing for a younger audience. When I am with the children stories seem to slip easily out of my mouth. It has been a tradition for me to tell stories for years and the kids often ask for them. I write a story for their birthday. Just this last year or two, I have included my sister’s three youngest grandchildren so that means I must write nine tales per year. I am finding that to be a bit of a chore. The stories have been kept on a flash drive so I am not repeating myself. I am starting to wonder just how many stories there are in my head. My brother does not seem them so he cannot correct my telling. I get to be the authority.

I used to finish these stories in plenty of time to mail them to the birthday child, but lately I am struggling to get them done in a decent amount of time. I now trust the US mail to get them there in one or two days. I know that kids enjoy hearing the stories, but I am not sure that they like the written versions as I do not hear much about them.

From reading my stories, my niece was surprised to learn that Carolyn and I shared a bedroom as her mom, my sister, always referred to that bedroom as “her” room. We shared all of my life until she went off to college. Since she did not go right after graduation and I am three years younger, I would imagine that I was 16 years old. Perhaps because Carolyn was older, she certainly controlled how we managed that room so it felt like her room to her.

Paula

Clothing Choices

Hello,

It is a trick to dress correctly for the weather inside and out especially when one walks to ones destination. Today it was quite cool when I left the house for church so I had to wear something that would keep me warm. At church, however I was too hot. Luckily I had put on some layers that I could take off.

In the summer heat, we dress lightly to keep cool on our walks to and from church, however in church the AC is set much colder than I like or find comfortable. Hence I almost always bring a wool scarf that gives me a bit of instant warmth. Leroy almost never wears a short sleeved shirt to church. I think he has some very nice short sleeved shirts, but they mostly hang out in his closet as his work places are also too cold for comfort. He tells me that at the museum library he often wears a sweater that he keeps there just for that purpose.

Seems to me there is something wrong with this picture. I believe that I adjusted more easily to the heat when I did not live in a place that used air conditioning. Now we get used to the inside cold and cannot tolerate the outside warm. Who likes and wants these low temperatures on the inside of buildings? I do meet a few of them as they complain about the outside heat and think it is wonderful inside. Apparently people can have a best temperature that is five degrees different from person to person. I want to know how the cold preferring people have won the AC war. Perhaps we could split the difference and set it somewhere between what I prefer and what others prefer.

Paula

Harp Concert

Hello,

Someone offered/gave tickets to a harp concert that they were unable to attend. It was last night, but Leroy was not feeling well. The second person I asked was able to come. Because it was at the nearby college, I walked and she met me there. She is well into her eighties and on the way out of the building she commented that she was a bit unsteady on her feet. I stayed close as she navigated the steps out of the building and walked her to her car. There is a lot of light, but it is still not like sunlight. She insisted that she could give me a ride home. Even though I like to walk I could not come up with a convincing enough reason to just walk home. I got the impression that she enjoyed the time visiting. She lives alone, but goes out frequently, maybe even especially at night since she often goes to many of the musical offerings in Cedar Rapids. I hope I am as gutsy as she is when I get about 16 more years down the road. I do like living in a small city as I believe it is more comfortable to get around and not so dangerous for older drivers with not so much other traffic to contend with.

The harp was played by a young woman in her late twenties who had study classical harp and played with symphonies in England. She now has an electric harp which has a mike on each of the 47 strings as well as two on the sounding board. She brought a speaker and a looper (whatever that is). The sounds were like nothing I would have expected a harp to produce. It was quite amazing. She stopped between each piece and explained what she was doing with some of her equipment. Many of the students were in the audience. They were quite enthusiastic. She now lives in the USA and works in the film industry. Some of the sounds were quite other worldly or maybe like the ocean. The looper allowed her to record some of her sounds and use them as the percussion for her piece. I am glad that I went and was exposed to this totally new, for me, way of approaching the harp.

She had a Q&A session afterward. I learned that her harp was made in France and costs about what a car costs.

Paula

butterflies

Hello,

There was a talk about monarchs at the library. Someone brought in and left a mesh container with milkweed stems hosting some monarch eggs. They have hatched with four chrysalis and more to come.

One day my coworker commented on the caterpillar hanging from the top of the mesh in a j shape. This container is sitting on the ledge above the computer that I use when sitting at the front desk. About five minutes later she came out, jumped around, and shrieked, “Oh look! Look!”

We were able to witness the final steps to making its chrysalis. We were both quite excited.

One day when I came in I noticed that the leaves on one milkweed had shriveled up and some on the second stem did not look very good. I called the person who had brought them. She came almost immediately on a house call to fix the situation with more clean water vases and new stems. She got it set up and then carefully coaxed the munching caterpillars to the new nourishing leaves.

Yesterday early in the morning someone noticed that one chrysalis was darker and that you could see the orange and black of the wings through it. Perhaps an hour later someone spotted the butterfly lying on the floor of the container. Occasionally it would flail its legs to no avail. My coworker tried to get it to hang on a stick as she has them at home and that is how they are at first they hang from something before they can fly. I have to confess that it was afternoon before I called the butterfly doctor. Again she rushed right over. She also tried to get this stress creature to hang from the ceiling of the cage to no avail. After giving the caterpillars new leaves, she put the new monarch in a bug box to take it home and continue to doctor it hoping it might make it. I am sorry that I did not call sooner. I had no idea that so much human intervention was possible in this process.

I have learned a lot about monarchs.

Paula

Clothes Out and In

Hello,

The weather report that I looked at predicted 100% chance of rain at 12:00 and again at 1:00. In confidence, I hung out two loads of clothes and headed off to do a little shopping with three “quick” stops. I am not much of a shopper so I generally spend little time looking at other things that are not on my list. As I was heading up a hill the fuel light came on telling me that I should resupply. There were three gas stations on my way so that is not a problem. However by the time I was filling the tank I looked off in the distance and noticed ominous black clouds heading this way. Before I pulled in the garage it was quite serious about a storm even though it was only 11:00. I picked up my purse and one bag, shut the garage door, and raced to the back porch where I met my wonderful friend who commented about the clothes on the line and the storm coming. He offered to help. We then raced to the line where we frantically put clothes in the two baskets that I had downstairs. We had quite a focused time racing against the rain and wind. As Clark said, “It is a bit exciting and fun to try to beat the rain.”

I suspect the ozone in the air contributed to that feeling. Our challenger was relentless and we finished just in time as drops started to fall.

I still had bags in the car including some with milk and yogurt. Donning my raincoat, I braved the pelting rain. My legs got a bit wet, but the raincoat did its job very well.

It was not quite so exciting to hang up the damp to almost wet clothes, but I am grateful for the racks that I have which help with that task. Great to have such a helpful friend!

I wonder why I expected the weather prediction to be so

precise.

Paula

Curley Hair and Peaches

Hello,

I got a hair cut shortly before going to UT. Partly it was because my hair was getting long and partly because my hair does not curl so much in UT. After being in the dryer air, I wished I had had the stylist cut off some more hair. I have to confess that I like my hair better in the Midwest summer where it is curled by the humidity. It certainly makes it stay in place. Now that I am back in the Midwest my hair looks shorter because it is curled up much tighter.

Leroy and I ate some peaches every day that we were in UT. Mostly we had them on our morning oatmeal. It was great to have them fresh and good right off the tree in the back yard. Some were not so ripe when they fell off the tree, but we ate them anyway. Sometimes we also had peaches combined with granola and plain yogurt which is a favorite snack or dessert. We ate so much granola, as did some of Miriam’s family; I even made granola twice in the week we were there.

Several people have asked what we made with peaches. I believe they were a little surprised that we just ate them fresh and never even talked about making anything that would require work or sugar. Just give me fruit that has enough natural sugar and I am happy.

Today I made granola at home. Seems it just doesn’t stop. The granola recipe that I use, I learned when Leroy was going to seminary back in the 70’s. Talk about ancient history.

The granola recipe requires a cup of honey.  However, there are eleven cups of dry ingredients so I think the honey is spread out quite a bit. Especially when I have seen cookie recipes in which the amount of sugar and flour are equal the granola seems not at all sweet.

Paula

Real Life

Hello,

The day after we came home from our trip we settled into life as usual. Leroy went to work. I looked for my Fitbit charger. I had thought I took it to UT with me, but could not find it in my backpack. When I looked at home I was unable to find it. Consequently I took everything out of that backpack including the things I seldom move such as tissues and a small note pad. The charger came out from the depths of a pocket. Grateful! I then plugged it in to the USB port of the laptop, left it for several hours only to find that it had not charged one bit. I looked in the charger only to find lint and whatever. A small brush helped to clean out the small space. Now the lights came on when I plugged it in. Grateful!

Driving to the grocery store I made a left turn only to see an older man almost in my path. I missed him by a few feet. Grateful for the miss! I trembled around the grocery store. Would one of those cars with all the safety features have helped?

In the afternoon, which was planned for household chores I got a call from my coworker, “Did you remember that you are scheduled to work today?”

Oops!I raced around getting changed, writing a note to Leroy, driving carefully, arriving two hours late, and gathering my emotions to focus on work. Am I getting old and forgetful or what? Course I do not generally work on a Wednesday so that is somewhat understandable. This makes me think I should get my calendar going on the phone and put in unexpected work times along with other items so I would get reminders. I had checked the paper calendar to see that I was working on Saturday. However I work on Saturday from time to time so that is not unusual. With children in school, the library is not so very busy during the day consequently my coworker could easily handle the business. Grateful!

Paula