PacMan is Back!

I am so happy!!! 

We were sitting around, when Matthew told Jerome to turn on the desk top computer. After it was on, Matthew, using logmein, controlled the curser until Pac Man appeared!! Gobbling his way through the streets of Troy, NY!!

I just about jumped off the couch!!!

Matthew told me how to start my own game on the tablet. It's a bit more challenging than with a mouse or mouse pad, but fun all the same.

Getting into the game is really easy:
•Open Chrome
•Go to Maps
•Open in Chrome
•If using a tablet, click on "desktop mode"
•Open the PacMan icon.
•Tap screen to begin
•Have Fun!

A New Year With An Old Love

I can't believe another year has gone by so quickly and my life has changed so much in that time. After giving up on love and believing those who had claimed to love me, but would tell me that no one ever would, I am back with my first love.  Happier than I ever thought I could be and more in love than I thought was possible. We had lost one another for 35 years but found each other, and could only think of how we would manage to be reunited.  It took several months to figure out the logistics.

I owned my own rather large home, but was on year five of a never-ending battle to keep it, while my ex wanted it sold. My children were in a school that they loved.  But most of all, my church family meant the world to me. My entire family was heavily into volunteering there; my oldest was even their Tech Director.  However, I was never able to find a permanent job and worked a series of short term jobs. But we were happy.

My Sweetie was living a life of loneliness and working at a job he loved with the same company for almost three decades, and told me he often dreamed of one day finding me. Then I found him.

I gave up the fight for the house,  found homes for my dog, cats and remaining chicken. We packed everything we owned into storage, sent my minivan to my neighbour's home, until we get transmission work done. Two of my sons opted to live in the country with their Dad and my four remaining children traveled with us and our remaining cats, cockatiel, and dinner plate-sized red-eared slider. We downsized to an apartment in the city. Quite different from our almost 3000 square foot home and five acre property in the country.

We found a church we love; where my oldest is already involved in the tech department. Two of my kids have jobs, another changed her college plans and the younger one is loving his new school that has almost as many kids in his grade as his former school had in K-12 grades. My remaining children and I are closer than ever. We've had many  laughs and fun adventures and are taking part in all sorts of new activities.  But the best part for me is that I am back with the first boy I ever loved. My first serious relationship.  And for the first time in my life I feel like someone really loves me (besides my parents and my children).

I don't know how 2015 can be better than 2014. I can't wait to see what is next.

Long Time, No Post!

Has it really been this long since I posted?  

So much has happened since I wrote here last; and I honestly thought I wouldn't be posting any time soon after my toolbar disappeared on the top of my blog today. But, alas, I discovered a way around it as soon as I posted a complaint to Google. Maybe they'll give me my shortcut back anyway. 

Anywho...

Let's see what has happened since you last saw my melodic writing. Is it possible to see melody? I suppose it would be if you were looking at sheet music. Maybe you are hearing the clickety click of my keyboard. That could be melodic. Sometimes it kind of lulls me to sleep. But then again, I may just be boring myself. 

So, Amanda is in her last year of high school. The last Sectional Football game was emotional for me since it was her last time cheering. She seemed okay but I quietly cried on the way home. We went to the Open House at the only college she had as a choice and she is hoping to get into the dance squad there. "More dance, less stunts" as she puts it. The other week she got her acceptance letter and is going to be going to college at Genesee Community College.  India is going back to Fulton-Montgomery Community College in the fall. 

As for me, I decided I had a dead-end job and went back to college last fall.  I began with Medical Office Technology until I realized that almost everyone I met in my classes were in the same program; so the job market will be mobbed when we all graduate.  I switched to Computer-Aided Design & Computer Numerical Control. I'm taking prerequisites this semester so I can, hopefully, begin taking the actual classes this fall. 

On the personal level, I am madly in love!  This love is so much deeper than any love that I have ever felt in my life.  This says a lot considering I always jump in with both feet.  This wonderful man doesn't have the control and anger issues of the others, and we are very best friends; a good thing to be going into a relationship.  There will be many major life changes for me over the next year, but I'll let y'all know as they happen. 


For now, If any of you folks are someplace warm, could you PLEASE send me some warmth?  We are absolutely freezing here!!  

Matthew, in his non-stop attempt to stay ahead of the snow.

                         

I strongly believe this weather is being caused by one of the folks from our church who has a bizarre obsession with winter and brags about doing a "Snow Dance" to bring on storms.  I am seriously considering gathering a gang of people to beat him with snow shovels and car brushes. I know many people who would be more than happy to help me at this point. 

Road Trip!

It was a simple quest.

Andrew and I were going to take a relatively quick 5 1/2 hour road trip to the Capital District so we could get India from college for the summer. 

But someone had decided her van wouldn't make the 30° grade of the Driveway From Hell over the winter and parked it. Not in the barn on the hill, where it would be protected. Nooo.  I parked her in the driveway and let her sit - under 3 feet of snow - untouched.  Now we were facing the consequences. 

India's last class was on May 7th and so we were going to head out on the 8th and spend the night in Amsterdam but the van needed a front brake rebuild. So, off she went for repairs. Then I took her for inspection and she failed!! The back brakes needed a rebuild too. The mechanic who did the inspection offered to fix it for merely the cost of my first-born son. 

I took her back to the mechanic who did the front brakes. They told me it should make the trip but turned my rotors and returned her to me on the new departure date, promising to repair the back brakes when I returned from the trip. Next I went back to a different, non-shady, garage for a new inspection. 

One week and two hours late, we headed out on our great adventure. Braving Buffalo's rush hour traffic, singing happily to the stereo with my beloved Bose speakers and amazing bass - so the van vibrates as she rolls down the road.
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.
until
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She started making noises. Quiet at first. I had to roll down the window to hear it. But we kept rolling.

.
.
then
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something clunked!

I pulled over and was almost instantly followed by a state trooper. He checked her out but we saw nothing wrong so he told me to drive on the shoulder slowly. He followed me as I did. Once I pulled back into traffic, he did a u-turn on the thruway and headed back to Syracuse. 

And she clunked again!

I called the number given me by the trooper and the state police sent me a flatbed.   They took my van to a shop in Mattydale and dropped us off at a hotel under the over-pass to Route 81. So much for sleep. 

The next day at around noon, they finished the rear brake rebuild (for half what I was quoted by the local mechanic).  Andrew and I headed back out on the road. Once we relaxed, we went back to singing and laughing. 

We finally got to India, where she almost knocked me off my feet when she jumped into my arms. I took India, Andrew and India's friend Samara to the mall in Rotterdam while I popped into my dear friend, Ken's office in Albany to say visit for a while.  I had lost touch with him for 30 years and it was so good to see him again!

Back to the hill they call Amsterdam and we went to meet up with Samara's family and loaded the van with India's futon and other items before heading to the hotel.

The next day we headed back home.  

Our return trip was uneventful. Aside from India driving me crazy with her kicking my seat as she tried to use it for leverage in her attempt to push past the cargo and recline her seat. 

And she kept getting text messages that interrupted the playlist on the cell phone. I could only take having my singing stopped a few times before I beat her at a rest stop. I have to say, the fear in her eyes when I threw the door open was beautiful!

In payment for all we went through to get India, we went grocery shopping a few miles from home and finished packing her in.  She was just over-joyed by the time we got home. 

But at least she was home.

Memories of the Blizzard of '77

It's raining.  A change from the last week when we got over two feet of snow in just four days.  My kids were excited by it since they had a day off from school. India was frustrated by it since she was stranded on the wrong side of the state from college.  Matthew had to keep snow-blowing the driveway so the build-up wouldn't get too deep for the push-behind snow-blower. I was watching the weather with much more interest.  The strong winds, the white-out conditions along with the snow falling so quickly reminded me of the biggest blizzard I have ever seen.  A blizzard that became notorious.  When the winter snow turns to blizzard conditions I always wonder, is another one coming...

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January 28th, 1977 was just another winter day.  We had several feet of snow built up from the snow that had fallen since October - when the first snowfall fell that winter, after an extremely rainy summer.  Like so many people in Northern New York State, I had just gone about my day.  

I was 13 then and in 8th grade.  It had been a long day at school and I was eager to get home but as the clock on the wall slowly ticked away, everyone was unaware of what was about to strike.  If we knew, perhaps things would have ended up differently for so many people. 

Like this winter, our temperatures so far the winter of 1976-1977 had been bitterly cold and Lake Erie had frozen over early.  Further up north, in the Lake Ontario Region, we never saw a frozen lake.  Ontario was much too deep for that. The cold was so widespread that even Miami reported snow that winter. In Lowville Academy everyone was used to the snow by now. It had snowed almost every day since Christmas. 

Down in Western New York (where I now live) Lake Erie was covered in a deep layer of powdery snow.  With the lake frozen there was little moisture in the snow and this would make driving conditions nearly impossible. Earlier that day a wall of snow, similar to the one in this photo, had made it's way across Lake Erie and was traveling across Western NY, Ontario Canada and as far south as Erie, Pennsylvania. 

School was going to be letting out in just a little while when the sky went dark.  Everyone turned toward the windows as we watched the darkness be taken over by unrelenting snow, like we had never seen before.  People crammed against the windows to watch and the announcement came over the PA system that the buses would not be running.  Only children living in town were allowed to go home and they needed to do so right away.  other children in our K-12 school of around 2000 students would be sleeping in the "Big Gym" and the school would be feeding them.  I lived the next block over from the school.  A quick 3-minute walk any other day of the year.  My walk home took me around 20 minutes that day and when I arrived home, my Mom told me that my sister's mother-in-law had called and wanted us to bring her 12th grade son to our house.  So Mom sent me back to school.  

West Port Colborne North St. Catharines,
Ontario, Canada

By then the sidewalk was gone and the mailbox marking the corner of the intersection was in the process of being buried.  After crossing the street, I had four houses and a stretch of parallel parking to get past before reaching the first door in the elementary wing of the school. I couldn't see!  The snow was coming so fast and coating my eyelashes, making my eyes too heavy to open.  My nostrils were frozen and the 49 mile an hour wind gusts were taking my breath away, making breathing almost impossible.  40 minutes later, I arrived at the breezeway door. I was frozen and had to take a few minutes to re-group so that I could walk down the hallway to the big gym. When I got there, most of the kids were gone. Other people had come and taken all but a handful to their homes.  Ken was nowhere to be found.  I finally found out that he had gone home with the high school music teacher, who lived with his wife behind the school. 

I was dreading the walk back home but I didn't have to worry. When I walked out of the gym I saw flashing lights and one of the teachers told me to go out the door where the police car was parked.  Uncle Clarence had come to get me and take me home. My Mom was worried that I hadn't come home and had called Tante Clara.  Tante Clara was my Mom's sister and she also lived in our hometown where my Dad had recently retired as Chief Deputy Sheriff. But Uncle Clarence was still the Sheriff , until his own retirement the next year.   

And you thought you had a hard time finding your car in a parking lot?

I made it home and stayed there for the next week.  Schools were closed and people were stuck in their homes, unless you were lucky enough to live in town, or had a snowmobile. 

The school buses left out were all buried. 

Western NY got relatively little snow, but the blowing snow off the lake made conditions terrible.  Northern NY was dumped on with continuous snow until January 31st, when the blizzard finally let up.  The Lake Effect Storm covered our Tug Hill Plateau with almost 100 inches of snow. 

Volunteer firemen clearing off the roof of a house in Depew, NY. 

Thankfully, we never had our electricity go out and we had the fireplace going in the den, so we could shut ourselves in there to get away from the draftiness of our old house. The windchill was well below zero.

Many people made tunnels to get into their homes.
My cousin cleared out a tunnel from the road,
up an angle and onto our front porch.
(this is not my photo)

Uncle Clarence kept us up-to-date on what was going on around the county. So we heard when Camp Drum (now Fort Drum) brought out 14 Amtrak vehicles to help.

C-130 bringing in badly needed supplies.

There were so many people stranded, and buried, in Montague and throughout the rest of "The Tug" and New York State. 

Because of the sudden onslaught of the snow, people were stranded on the roads.  We heard about a police car that was parked next to a stranded car when an Army vehicle came through and ran them both over. 

A front-end loader is trying to clear Furhmann Boulevard.
You can barely see the buried car.

29 people died during the course of the storm, including nine who were found frozen to death in their cars. Most of the deaths were in Western NY. Five lives were lost in Northern NY.

Roof collapsed by weight of snow.

Red Cross volunteers searching for  trapped people

QEW between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie

Snowmobiles became the only means of travel for those without a military track vehicle available to them. While the highway department tried to keep even a single lane open for traffic.

Miser Hill Road, Town of Rutland, Jefferson County

Of course, you had to find your car first. 

There was a full-size van under there.

When the Blizzard finally ended on January 31st, a State of Emergency was declared and traffic was banned except for essential vehicles. While the clean-up continued. 

Buffalo wasn't the only place hit by the storm - this was in Watertown, NY. Jefferson County had snowdrifts that were 'only' 18 feet high.

Rt.177 in Barnes Corners

Snow plow coming up road ...

After things calmed down, people ventured out to explore the damage. Cars were towed out of the roads in the hopes that their owners would find them. 1,900 stranded travelers in Northern NY were allowed to leave on February 1st because supplies were running out.  The dairy industry lost $8 million as a result of the storm. Northern NY is a dairy region and the farmers had to dump their milk. They also had problems getting to their barns to feed their livestock, while several barns collapsed under the heavy Lake Effect snow. 

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Rt. 11 looking south at the Rt.177 intersection maybe 200 feet away

The utility poles were almost buried. 

I thought it was so cool how we could actually walk up to the stop lights. 

I used to have the game, but lost it in a divorce.  The game was more based on Buffalo but it was still fun to reminisce while playing. 

The blizzard was such a hard thing to endure - even living in town. But what I will remember the most about this terrible time in so many lives will be the people.  Everyone cared so much about others.  Not just the many, many highway crews and military from throughout the United States who came to help us.  We were blessed to have this happen in a time when people cared for each other.  If you needed to have someone checked on, you simply called the local radio station and told them the address you needed someone to go to and a complete stranger would go there and let you know if your friend or relative was alright and give them any assistance they might need.  Neighbours would check to see if you needed anything before they would brave the storm to go downtown and pick up supplies. People in even the smallest homes filled them with stranded strangers. With the inside scoop from my Uncle we heard so many stories of people helping people. The show of compassion was often overwhelming but this is my strongest memory of the Blizzard of '77. 

This is one fear I don't think I'll ever conquer

5:45am

That's what time it is right now and I'm as close to wide awake as I can get with less than an hour and a half of sleep.

I love the weather.

Rain?

Love it!  Walking in it. Sitting on a porch watching it. The scent of it. Everything about it!

Snow?

As long as I don't have to go anywhere, I love the beauty of it.  The shimmer of the sun on the crystals.  The frozen droplets on branches. I've been known to wander around in my PJs and boots in 20 degree weather, with one of my kids chasing after me with my coat because I've gotten so heavily into taking photos of snow.

Thunderstorms?

Definitely! I remember as a child sitting on the front porch watching thunderstorms. We never worried because of the lightning rod on the church steeple across the street.  Well, once a tree behind our house was hit and lost a branch. When I lived at Kirtland AFB a tree behind my house was hit while we sat in the carport, sending bark across five lawns. More recently, lightening hit the ground between the house and barn. It grounded with the wiring 3 inches under the lawn's surface, which connected the weather station with the gauges on the barn and, in the process, took out the back-up tower it was connected to (don't worry, Matthew always backs up his back-up). Matthew had just come inside from closing car windows so that one freaked me out.  I still love sitting in the sun room watching the storms roll up. I wish I could get a photo, but I've never been able to.

Wind?

Oh God No!

I live in a draw. A dip in the ridge where the wind comes off of Lake Erie and blows on my house 6 miles inland.  Constantly.  I wake almost nightly from the sound of the wind rumbling through the trees surrounding my house, in my oasis nestled in farmland.

Tonight is a bit different. We are getting a cold front rolling in from the Midwest and it's being led by high winds.  Okay, that is almost a nightly ritual but this time it's a little different.  We have a high wind warning.  No! Really?  No need to tell me.

I woke around 2:30am to the wind, like most nights. Only tonight is different. The wind keeps rolling in and getting stronger each time. It began with a sleep-ending distant light rumble as it made it's way across the field and through the cluster of trees I live in. Followed by the rattling of the cap for the smoke stack left over from the old pellet stove that once stood in the office. I laid in bed thinking "This too shall pass." No. It didn't.

My mind has gone crazy over the last few hours. With each relentless wave of wind I have laid in my bed listening to my house. The winds have increased as I've been listening for anything abnormal. The cap is still rattling. That's good. This means no rain coming down it and into the house.  No sounds of the rolled roofing over the addition peeling off.  This is good because the boys and I would hate to lose the roof over our bedrooms. The shingles. I know they are blowing off the older part of the house.  They always do and we find them scattered throughout our five acres and into the neighbouring corn field all of the time. What about the siding? That panel on the side of the house has blown off on everyone who ever lived here. It's still unattached so, I worry about the rest of the house.

Oh God! Please don't let my house be ripped apart.

The wind. Is that just the regular wind noise?  We are on the edge of Tornado Alley.  No train sounds.  No screaming of the wind. No fire siren going off in town a mile away. Every tornado has missed us because of the ridge we sit on. Should I be so cocky about this?  What if it jumps the hill and decides to land on the house?  What if it's a mile wide like they get in the Midwest and takes out all of the five houses in that swath?  Most of my neighbours are elderly. Would they be okay?  What would we do? We're on the front of the hill with the barn  on top of the hill 300 feet behind us. We would have to get behind the barn.  And it's bitterly cold out.  If the house gets wiped out, where would we go? North East? How would the kids get to school? That's the wrong school district and a long drive to Clymer.

I can't take this!  It has to stop!

Are the cars okay?  They are broadside to the wind with the van catching the brunt of it.  What if she tips onto the Subaru?  How will we get to church? Church. I was going to ride in early with Matthew but I haven't had any sleep and he stays for over four hours.  I have to stay home and try to sleep.  I don't want him taking the interstate. Subie will just be tossed around by these winds.  He needs to take the back way as long as there is no snow.  If it doesn't start snowing until after he gets home then we don't have to worry about Pennsylvania and their lack of snow removal. He'll have to pick up groceries for me, since I do my shopping on Sundays while I'm in town.

For the love of God, would it just stop!?

The house has been here for 113 years, I know she can take this. But she been beaten by the wind for so long, maybe she is too tired to anymore.  Was that the house shaking?  No. She can't be. She's firmly embedded onto the basement. It must have been Miss Purrty giving herself a bath on my bed.

Oh God!  Another gust.

Is she shaking? Miss Purrty ran off so that must have been the wind shaking the house.  Why is she shaking?  She shouldn't be shaking. According to the weather, our gusts are supposed to be 58+ miles per hour.  Damaging winds.  Well isn't that just ducky.

Jerome hasn't slept well since the custody battle and sleeps in my bed most nights.  I want to go downstairs. I can't take this anymore and I really think I'm going to go crazy.  But what if the roof gets ripped off while I'm downstairs?  Who'll rescue Jerome? Who'll rescue all of the kids? Six kids. What was I thinking that I can rescue all of them? Oh come-on. It isn't like they are babies. All I have to do is holler and they'll run out the door.  To where?  It's so cold out and the barn is so far away. The cars? They aren't safe in this wind.  Am I going around in circles on my panicking?  What about the pets?  Who do I rescue?  There are too many and the cats would panic and scatter.  It's too cold for Pepper. Cockatiels can't take cold.

STOP!!!!!  Why won't it stop?!?

That isn't a gust. That's prolonged wind. Okay. It's rumbling, but not train rumbling. No screaming of the wind. Just rumbling.  It's just wind - not a tornado. Oh God! It's wrapping around the house and blowing on my back window now!  Why won't it calm down so I can breathe between gusts? Why is the siren not going off?

Please God. It has to stop.  The sound is maddening.  MAKE IT STOP!!!!

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It's quieter down here. The sounds of the furnace coming from the intake vent are so comforting.  India is asleep on the couch.  She only slept in her room one night since coming home for Christmas break.  I hate that she has to go back to college on Tuesday.  Oh no! I have to drive her to the bus station in Erie in the snow!  In Pennsylvania!  No plowing there.

Romeo is sitting on the back of the chair, staring out the sun-room window, watching the wind by the glow of the street light.  Street lights through farm land to the state line - how odd.

Okay. That was loud.  I think a bird feeder just fell on the deck. I wonder if Outside Kitty is someplace safe.  I hate that he/she won't let us bring her inside where it's warm. Matthew is stirring. He's planned on leaving in another 70 minutes.

Matthew said the wind blowing on his room in the front of the house woke him before his alarm went off. He said he thought we were in a tornado too. He said he knows what my room sounds like in the wind and doesn't want to go in there. Coward.  That 4 foot pop-out making the addition wider than the rest of the house makes the wind sound terrible in my room. Like it's trying to rip the addition off after 39 years.

The wind is relentless.  It seems like it's getting stronger.  I'm so tired and want to go back to my bed.  I like my bed. It's so warm there. Matthew just made coffee.  Coffee or bed.  I know I'm not going in to church.

Seriously??  The house is groaning and creaking from that minute-long blast of strong wind... and here it comes again.

I'm still in the living room. Matthew is in the shower and the coffee is done.  I could grab the first cup. My favourite part of the pot. That would mean getting up and walking into the kitchen. I'm so tired.  The sky is turning grey out there with the sun trying to come up.  Basil, the ferret, knows I'm awake and it trying to get his cage open - he wants me to let him out so he can wander.  That would mean getting off the couch and walking across the room. I would love to call Johannes. He's usually awake about now, even though he is three hours behind. That would mean 4:17am his time. But that still is a walk to the kitchen to get the phone. I need to make a shopping list for India. I know I won't be awake if she calls me after service. She was planned on going to China Jade during Sunday School. I would love sweet and sour pork or a poo-poo platter. We haven't had Chinese food in forever. The coffee smells so good.

The wind is still powerful but I can see outside now and it somehow feels safer.  The trees are blowing about wildly outside the window.

7:27am  I managed to drag myself off the couch.  There was a loud bang on the deck.  A heavy wooden bench fell over.  The earlier sound wasn't a bird feeder, it was shingles landing on the deck.  I walked around  the house and checked things out.  We have branches down but the cars are still upright. I think the angle I left the tires at gave the van more stability.  She's rocking but protecting the Subaru by her mass.  I got some coffee, but it isn't helping.

Johannes' light came on Google chat. I'm going to call him.

Update: We have a plastic doghouse that was only used by Timothy (my beloved, late Maltese mix). Matthew just found the roof of it behind the house and the bottom up the hill near the propane tank.

Something To Be Thankful For

I got such wonderful news today. With everything that has been going wrong with my life, it's a welcome break.  

My oldest daughter.  My fellow redhead.  My Mini-Me (her 5 feet-even to my towering 5 feet 2 inches).  Winnie. Bugs.  My beautiful India Sierra will be coming home for Christmas Break.

We didn't think it would happen. Money is too tight and my cars are just not reliable enough to drive the six hours to her college home in the Albany area. Her boyfriend's mom drove across the state to pick her up and when her cell phone minutes ran out we began relying on her using the library computer to chat almost daily.  

I barely remember the sound of her voice but I will never forget the feel of her hug.  She loves to hug.  She loves to talk too - non-stop (she is a mini me after all)-  but hugging is her favourite thing to do. She would talk to Matthew for hours.  She calls him her best friend.  It isn't often that siblings love each other as much as they do.  They share a special bond, a special closeness.  

We had chatted about her, maybe, coming home for mid-winter break.  She should have a job by then so it would depend on her schedule.  I haven't seen her since she left in August.  Even with five of my children still at home, it feels like part of me is missing.   I miss her so much.

On Sunday our church's office manager was asking about her when I said India can't come home for the Holidays, there is no money.   This lovely lady said she would pray about it.  Yesterday she tried to call me but I was resting.  Today I called her back at the church office and she told me they are paying for India's bus fare. 

I don't know how to thank them enough.  I have something special to be thankful for - my little girl is coming home. 

I Love You, India.

I found this video and it just seemed to fit my mood so well right now.

Oudoe,

Ingrid