Having subscribed to Site Meter, I have the opportunity to learn some interesting things about ~Snerkology~'s visitation activity. For instance:
I consider all this stuff to be highly cool. It's amazing to think what a diverse bunch of folks visit my site, just to read about little ol' me and the crazy stuff that goes on inside my head and in my life. Let's all just pause here and have a warm fuzzy moment together, shall we? ~grin~ Okay! This weekend's chores include laundry, kitchen duty, present wrapping, railing and runnerboard painting, ceiling fan installation (yes, still/more/again), floor vacuuming/dusting/mopping, catbox de-yuckifying (ugh), fireplace de-ashing, window washing (Apparently, I do windows. I had no idea.), closet de-cluttering, Christmas decorating (finding the box of Christmas decorations will take a full day in and of itself), dusting, and buying and installing outlet and light switch covers. Among all this we must also try to fit in Calvin's company Christmas party, pay *some* attention to the poor neglected dogs, try out the DSL line by attempting to log into AcronymCo's network, work out on both Saturday *and* Sunday (dammit), and spend some quality time with the kids. Oh yeah, and spend some time with each other, too. I think that covers everything. If I find myself inspired by any of this, I'll be sure to update this weekend. If I don't, rest assured you probably ain't missing much. Any spare modicums of time will probably be spent reading my new Laurell K. Hamilton book, "Obsidian Butterfly". So I like her "Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter" books. Sue me. I can't read meaningful tomes *all* the time. Some Miscellaneous RemembrancesAfter yesterday's childhood memory fest-o-rama, I got to thinking about my childhood home. I'm recording it here as much to remind myself, so I don't forget anything else, as to inform you. There's a lot here, but I want to get it down before I forget it.I've driven past that house a couple of times during my adulthood - most recently in my trips back to Maine with Calvin and the kids. I can remember some details but not others. Like the two pine trees in the front yard, and the gum I stuck to the bark that stayed there for years. How the driveway looked with pine needles all over it. The recurring mud puddle at the far corner of the driveway. The shed, rotting away in the backyard, whose contents I don't recall. The Arctic Cat posters hanging in the garage (we were a snowmobiling folk). The decorative broom that stood in the kitchen, along with the decorative butter churn. The bar next to the refrigerator. My mother's red-headed Hummel figurines on the shelves in the den, and the very dated turntable system on which I played records with Disney music and nursery rhymes (and spilled orange juice on my sister's "Saturday Night Fever" record). I remember how the furniture looked, and the big ceramic rooster that hung on the living room wall. I can remember how the door sounded, opening and closing, that lead to the cellar. I can remember how the furnace sounded and how the registers sounded as they expanded with heat. I remember the gargantuan humidifier that stood at the end of the hall, and the sound of my mother filling it. I remember the wallpaper in my sister's room was Holly Hobby, and that she had a canopy bed. I don't remember what color carpet was in the den, or what the kitchen linoleum looked like. I don't remember what carpet was in my sister's or mother's room, either. I don't remember what the fireplace looked like, but I remember what the hearth looked like with cards hanging along it at Christmas. I don't remember where things were kept in the kitchen cupboards, except that the junk food was always in the highest cupboard and I'd have to climb up onto the counter to get at it. I don't remember what the appliances looked like, but I do remember what the salt and pepper shakers looked like. I remember there was a bench built into the kitchen island, but I don't remember what we kept inside it. I *do* remember our old phone number. Huh. I didn't even realize I did. And I just had an eerie urge to call that old phone number, and perhaps hear ghosts of my childhood self or my mother answering the phone. Brrr... I remember my room had blue carpet, and the walls were painted brown halfway up, then there was a border, then wallpaper. I don't remember what the pattern was. I remember getting a wooden desk with a lid that lifted up, and how I got permanent magic marker on it the first day I had it (it soaked through the paper!). I had a toybox, but the only thing I remember keeping in it was one of those toy telephones with eyes and wheels, and the eyes rolled around as you wheeled it along the floor. Oh, and I had a "See-n-Say", too. And one of those Fisher Price barns that goes "moo" when you open the barn door. I had a Winnie The Pooh diaper bag that stayed in my closet long after I was out of diapers. I don't remember anything else that was in that closet. I don't remember any lamps, or what the method for lighting my room was. But I *do* recall the peculiar sound the lightswitch made as it was being turned on. I don't remember if my bed had a headboard and footboard, nor if I kept anything under it. I don't remember if I had a bedside table. I just remember I had a bed, a desk, and a toybox. And a window that was too high to see out of. I don't remember what the curtains were like. I do remember getting a "digital" alarm clock (it wasn't LCD - the plastic numbers flipped around mechanically as the minutes and hours changed), and I remember insisting that my sister set it to the same radio station she listened to. I remember stealing rock candy out of my sister's bedroom, and that she used "Love's Baby Soft" perfume, and had a poster of Pink Floyd and some skinny guy on her wall. I remember my mother's jewelry box, and finding all my lost baby teeth in it. I remember the little case I had to keep my lost teeth in, to place under the pillow for the tooth fairy. I remember breaking the snooze button on my mother's alarm clock. I don't remember what the plates looked like that we ate off of, but I do remember the cake plate my mother used for my birthday cakes (yellow cake with chocolate frosting, always). I remember the kitchen set I had in the cellar (a refrigerator, a stove with overhead microwave *and* an oven, and a sink), and the dollhouse my mother's boyfriend made, with wallpaper scraps from our real house that corresponded with the same rooms in the dollhouse. I remember my sister's drawing of patriotic "Peanuts" characters with "Spirit of 1776" emblazoned on it, and jars filled with colored sand. I remember being very scared of the room and hallway that lead to the washer and dryer, and bulkhead. But there were tons of things in that cellar, in the peripheral vision of my memory, that I can't identify or place. I don't remember what the people of my life looked like then. I know what they *did* look like, from pictures, but I don't have the memories themselves inside my head. The weird thing is, for the longest time I didn't have this level of memory about my childhood. And now I can see it's more focussed on places and things, rather than events and people. I don't really remember what a normal "day in the life" was like, and I have very few memories indeed of any specific occasions or events. I think I can remember what my mother's voice sounded like, but only in a very vague way. More and more is coming back to me, as I get older, and that's what's prompting me to record it all, before it slips away again. I'd sure like a reason behind the clarity of some memories and the absence or fuzziness of others, though. |
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Your Mission, should you choose to accept it...
Today's Mission is for you guys to suggest some missions!
Results From Yesterday's Mission Our family is volunteering with the Salvation Army on Christmas Day. They're hosting meals to feed the hungry at the Phoenix Civic Plaza (the same place we went to see the car show). It will be the first time any of us have every done anything like this. It should have happened sooner. I hope to make it a tradition, and I also hope to continue to participate in such things throughout the year, not just during the holidays. I grabbed the design idea for the box thingy from Anna.
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