I am not making this up

I love that line by Dave Barry. "I am not making this up." That's the way I feel about the clipping. I asked myself, is there really such a thing as a polka mass? After doing a little research, the answer is yes. Although I'm not ready for the polka mass, I'm sorely tempted to attend the festival even though I'm not big on kielbasa. Sounds like a great time. Every weekend around here, churches of all denominations offer festivals, chicken barbecues, and bake sales. It seems to be their standard way to raising funds.

Wonder if they could book my favorite nuclear polka band, Brave Combo? If you really want to experience this, check out the CD "Songs and Hymns from the Original Polka Mass" on iTunes. Among the groups doing the music is one called the Perkatones. Awesome!

On another topic altogether, I was up this morning at 6:30 AM weeding the flower bed that runs along the street in front of our house. Why? Because it's a death-defying act unless you do it when there's no traffic. There is a blind corner right before our house and Pennsylvanians like pirates seem to think the traffic code is more like guidelines than actual rules. I've never been one to follow speed limits to the letter, but when I'm trying to negotiate an unfamiliar twisting mountain road in the rain, doing the speed limit, as I was last night, I get a little annoyed when I have an impatient driver tailgating me. Chill out, folks! These roads are dangerous even in the summer.

He is The Terminator

Michael is the Terminator. At the very least, he should be speaking with a Schwarzenegger accent. For the past few weeks, he's been getting up at four o'clock a few days a week to go to work so that he can talk with technicians in Austria about the A-Frame he bought from them. This morning I was already awake when his phone alarm rang at four and I've been up reading ever since. I got to the computer this morning thinking it was late and noticed that it's still only 6:57 A.M. Swell. Maybe I'll take a nap after the piano tuning at one. I have three squeaky keys in spite of the dehumidifier we installed. I hope he can fix them as well as make the piano sound better. I've got to get it in shape before my piano duet partner arrives from Prague!

I hope he isn't working so many hours in the winter. Otherwise, he'll never see the house (or me!)in daylight since we live so far north and the days will be so short. Here's the comparison with Texas. Today we will have 15 hours and 27 minutes of sunshine. In Dallas, Texas there will be 14 hours and 41 minutes of sunlight. That's almost an hour more here. But six months from now our day will be 10 hours and 56 minutes long and in Dallas, Texas it will be 11 hours and 24 minutes long. That's a big difference which I will notice more in the winter than I do now.

Just for fun, here's how the amount of daylight for the family compares today:

NS/ZT Austin 14:30
ZL Denton 14:41
GL/DS Provo 15:21
ML/SJ Wilkes-Barre 15:27
MF/NL Prague 16:37

More than two hours difference. Weird, huh? I looked up these unofficial times on a cool website called Gaisma. The website is www.gaisma.com.

The picture is for my grandson, S. He loves Super Why on PBS and maybe he'll like this sculpture named "Read Reader" from the Texas Tech campus in Lubbock. I took the picture in glorious Texas sunshine.

Taxed to death

The big upset right now in Luzerne County where I live is new real estate assessments. Most everyone is going to have to pay a lot more taxes. What I can't understand is that they haven't done a reassessment since the 60s! How have they possibly gotten along without increasing people's taxes for forty years?

The hardest hit are the folks who live on Harvey's Lake. Dad remembers going there when it was a resort and anyone could go and enjoy it. People had simple cabins and would go stay there in the hot summer months and enjoy the water. And it is really beautiful up there. But now it's not public at all. Almost all the lakefront is private and you have to join clubs to get access. And the value of the cabins there has skyrocketed. People are now buying the cabins to pull them down and put in huge houses to live in year-round. So in the paper today, a family's revealed that their assessment was raised from about 80,000 to 875,000. Their taxes are expected to go up from 1500 dollars to more than 11,000 dollars. Good grief! Granted that their house is now worth a whole lot more money (not that much more though), but it's not like that money is in their pocket. Also, there's no protection for folks on fixed incomes. If I remember aright, in Denton, your school taxes (and maybe county taxes too) were frozen after you reached 65. So retired folk here are looking at having to sell their property in a really bad market.

Our real estate taxes are reasonable after the new assessment. But this is also land of state income tax, county income tax and, in some cases, city income tax. We avoided the city taxes by not living in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton. And they can't understand why people don't want to live in those cities??? And they take county taxes out of his paycheck based on where he works, not where he lives. So he has to guess if he's paying the right amount. We might have a big extra chunk to pay at the end of the year.

So if you're from a land where the taxes go up a little bit each year, count yourself fortunate. I never thought it was a blessing. But it's obviously better to have early warning that your property is worth so much that you can't afford the taxes. You have time to sell in a good market if you need to and take the profit and run off somewhere else where the real estate is cheaper. And if you live in a state income tax-free zone, be extremely grateful.

I got a letter from a dear friend today from Denton. It's nice to hear that her family is doing so well. I was surprised and happy that she reads my blog! That's awesome. My whole point was to entertain a little and keep folks from far away up to date on our lives. I'm glad to see it's working.

Waiting for grandchildren

This shot is poignant, I think. The Play-Doh set is just waiting for little ones to come and play. This won't happen very often while we live here. But we will have little ones in just a few days. The first boxes have started to arrive--a sure sign my European daughter and her family are on their way. There are so many things she prefers to buy here so the postman and UPS man are kept busy for the days preceding her visits.

I still have lots to do but am so looking forward to visitors. I talked with my son today and I'm looking forward to seeing him too. And I talked to my mom of course. Happy Birthday Momma! She said today she was 57. Probably wishful thinking on her part. She certainly acts and thinks thirty years younger than she is. Her phone was ringing off the hook which makes me happy.

Yesterday a dear friend called from Denton and it was great to hear how wonderfully her family is doing. It was also great to have her catch me up a little on what's going on down there. I love my new ward but don't have any close friends yet. Just acquaintances really. I only see people for a few minutes at a time in the halls. It takes time to develop friendships and I just haven't been here long enough. This is not to say that I wouldn't find a hundred people lined up and willing to help out if Michael and I needed help while we're here. Latter-day Saints all over the world are like that, I think. The one young lady at church I know the best is from Longview, Texas. She's also the choir director. We seem to have a lot in common. Wonder why? Michael likes to call her Tex. She and her husband are charming and I got to go see their beautiful home last night on a home teaching visit with Michael.

Tonight we'll have blackeyed peas, rice, corn, fresh tomatoes and greens. The blackeyed peas have to come out of a can since they don't seem to eat them or grow them here. But the corn, tomatoes and greens will be from the farmers' market. I'm not really homesick, but sometimes you just have to eat like home.

Sleeping bags

july 2008 025
Originally uploaded by suze67

This is the sleeping bag picture my grandson requested.

Minor League Baseball Game

We went to a minor league baseball game last night. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Yankees. What a name! They are a farm team for the New York Yankees. The uniforms looked way cool. The stadium is very nice--nicer than the Fort Worth stadium for their minor league team, The Cats. We were in a private box along with others from Michael's work. The food was almost all meat. I'm not kidding. There was a salad with just lettuce and chicken meat, then there were meatballs, and then there were chicken chunks in sauce. The only non-meat item was rigatoni with lots of cheese. There were snacks like chips, Swedish fish, M & M's, beef jerky and popcorn. It's not my imagination that a good vegetable plate is hard to find.

I got to talk to V and to M as well as Morgan today. What a thrill! They are getting excited about their visit as am I. M wants to see a picture of the sleeping bags. I'll try to get that up tomorrow.

Grandfather Savage

My great-great-grandfather, Daniel Savage, began life as an illiterate cobbler in London and ended up as a Primitive Methodist minister, even serving as the President of the Primitive Methodist Conference. This is one of the churches he served. This one has been rebuilt but on the side you can see the cornerstone with the date of the original building. Usually stained glass faces inward but I love the glass over the front door. This is still a Primitive Methodist church and I need to call up the minister and introduce myself.

My news this morning is that the wildlife in the yard made for really good watching. Because of some rain showers, the birds and animals were out rather late this morning. I had also weeded the top of the stone wall behind our house so I must have stirred up some bugs. So while I was eating my bowl of cereal at the back door, I saw a rabbit, a chipmunk, a sparrow, an English sparrow, a mourning dove, a flock of grackles, a bluejay, and a close view of a beautiful flicker working very hard on the stone wall, trying to get at some ants probably. Flickers are really big and impressive-looking and I was close enough to this one to see the yellow feathers on the sides of his wings and the red stripe on his face. I was amused when he was scared off by a tiny sparrow. I had been hearing the mourning dove in our neighborhood but hadn't spotted it yet. That is a sound that reminds me of my Southern homes.

Welsh ancestors

In spite of the Kielbasa Fest sign in Plymouth, this small town has one of the largest percentages of Welsh in America. 10 per cent of people in Plymouth still claim Welsh ancestry. Although I live in Shavertown, the political entity is Kingston Township (not to be confused with Kingston, the city.) In Kingston township the percentage of Welsh folk is 8.4 per cent. If the addresses haven't changed, these houses are 261 and 263 Gardner St in Plymouth where my great-grandfather William Thomas Jones and his son Thomas Jones lived side by side. Dad will have to tell me if these are the correct houses. My grandfather's house would be the one on the right. I remember Dad saying how carefully you had to park your car on the hill by his grandfather's house. It is extremely steep. The street has a great view of the valley. I have pictures of my great-grandfather sitting in front steps of this house and also a picture of his family with my grandfather Arnott, Sr. as a teenager in front of the house. There was evidently an arbor with vines over the front porch. The pictures seem to match these houses. My mom has a picture of me with my great-grandfather Jones although I don't remember him.

This neighborhood hasn't fared as well as the Lockhart Street one. Plymouth is not a wealthy area but, even so, many of the houses are still well-kept and loved. #263 is in particularly good shape. In reading up on Welsh culture in America I find that I can take Welsh lessons at the Welsh Baptist Church in Plymouth two times a week. Hmm! That would be a big project!

Yesterday was spent writing my LDS romance novel. Michael is reading it now and will help me edit as well. He says he likes it (although he and Morgan both said independently of the other that Chapter Two drags) and is anxious to read more. I hope he's not just saying that to make me feel good. If this project isn't good enough to publish, I need to move on to another.

Lockhart Street Wilkes-Barre

Michael and I went out to look at houses my family had lived in in the Wilkes-Barre area. The first place we went to was 18 Lockhart St. in Wilkes-Barre. Arnott Jones, Sr. was living there in 1920, when Dad was one year old. His two sisters, Ruth and Elizabeth are older than he is so they had a family of five in 1920. This neighborhood is still very nice. The home is a duplex and quite large. Dad's family lived in the side closest to you in the picture. Arnott, Sr. would only have been a few blocks from downtown Wilkes-Barre where he worked. This is still a very nice neighborhood and well-kept.

Today I worked on my LDS romance novel for the first time in a long time. I was almost afraid to go back and look at it for fear it would be not as good as I thought. I'm thinking that it's worth pursuing. It is for a small market and there are few publishers I can send it to. I'm hoping Morgan can give me some tips. She may be too busy while she's here but I can always send the files to Prague. It's been a long time coming but I think I have the desire to get back to the writing again. This move disrupted a lot of things including my writing career. But I'm back. This is gonna be fun.

Piano Life Saver system

The piano innards show just how much of a system it requires to keep my piano happy in this climate. The blue fabric pieces are pads that absorb minerals and such from the water I add to the system. They cover the water reservoir. The bar heats up to remove dampness from the piano. The black box is the sensor that decides whether the piano needs either humidity or dryness. We put in the system just in time evidently. G above middle C has started squeaking. I'm hoping it will settle out after a few days. I love my piano so much. I'm glad we can afford to make it happy.

Amen to the A/C

We have an A/C unit now. Michael put a lot of effort and time into installing a window unit in our bedroom. After months of staying at home and acclimating myself to the lack of A/C, I found it very cold in our bedroom and chose to sleep in the guest bedroom last night under the fan. It does cool off like crazy here at night, but it is still humid. The A/C will be great for our furniture, our photos and all sorts of other things we own. I'll eventually get used to it as well.

I took a walk last night and found that we have the corner on the firefly market in our neighborhood. We have a rock garden to the side of our house that slopes down to the street. The fireflies love it so I sat outside and watched them for quite a while last night. This is pleasant since it is cool in the evening and since there are no mosquitoes! The neighbor cat, Charlie, who keeps down the mice in the neighborhood, came by to say hello. I could tell he was frustrated and would have liked to have caught a few of the lightning bugs. The Pennsylvania Firefly (Photuris pennsylvanica) is the state insect of PA as well. Who knew?

Watering can for the piano

In Pennsylvania, you need to have a piano dehumidifier and a humidifier. In the winter, your piano will be too dry, in the summer it will be too damp. They actually make a gizmo that will do both. It's called the Piano Lifesaver System by Dampp-Chaser. I had one installed today. Pictures to follow tomorrow. The piano technician fitted out my piano with tubes, wires, etc. and all I have to do is fill the reservoir with water when the red light on a small panel under the keyboard starts blinking. Since the wood panel of my Yamaha has a really tight fit underneath the fingerboard, he had to push up the waterhose through the top of the piano. This means that instead of filling a hose that clips to the bottom of the keyboard, we have to fill the thing by flipping up the top of the piano and pouring cups and cups of water into a hose that feeds down into the innards of my piano via a watering can with a tiny spout. I will be so nervous the first time I do that. The dehumidifier works by a heated bar that runs across the piano right about where my knees are when I'm seated at the piano. I already sweat buckets when I play because the piano light generates a fair amount of heat in the un-airconditioned living room. Nice! It's hard to believe that filling up the piano with water and then heating it up with a 50 watt bar is good for it. But, unbelievably, the piano sounds better already and he only installed it a few hours ago. I asked Michael if it was my imagination and he said, no, it sounded better to him too. This piano technician also installed the system in the grand piano at our church building. That Kawai is the best in tune of any church grand I've ever played. Here's to something that works even if it does cost a bunch of money! Hip, hip hooray.

Weird soda

Today I kept going the rounds of home improvement and big box stores looking for items to help us get organized. Every new grocery has surprises in store (get it?). The last major store I hadn't visited was Gerrity's. I already had a keyring tag for Mr. Z's, Wegman's, Price Chopper and Thomas's. So I added a "Gold card" tag for Gerrity's which is a Shur-Fine store. The Sunshine Market, which is really cool, doesn't have tags! At long last, at Gerrity's I found a store that looks something like my old Kroger. Time will tell whether their store brand is even remotely as good as Kroger's. I found a new soda. Cherikee Red, because it's cheri-flavored I guess. Not only are the name and label radically politically incorrect, but the soda is also not cherry-flavored in the usual sense. I expected black cherry or regular cherry like a Lifesaver. Instead, it's maraschino cherry as in Cherry Coke. Pretty powerful stuff. We both loved it. I'll have to stock up.

Today we went in early for health screening tests at Michael's pharmacy. He goes out early every morning, but I'm not usually out and about at that hour. The mountains covered in blue mist and the rising sun reflected on the Susquehanna were breathtaking. It reminded me again of what it must have been like to be a European explorer seeing America for the first time. It still feels like I'm on vacation when I see a view like that. I hope that never goes away no matter how long we live here.

As the Wrench Turns

Guess what? Click and Clack, the Tappett brothers, have a new animated show. It's cute but nowhere near as funny as the guys improvising on their radio show. So why am I mentioning it? Because Brave Combo did the soundtrack! You can hear their music for the show on their website (www.bravecombo.com). Awesome!

Another day, another Imitrex

Well, all things considered, life has been really good to me. I grew up in a loving family, was provided an outstanding education and have had the benefit of citizenship in a free country. My parents are still going strong, my children and children-in-law are healthy and happy, my grandchildren are a delight and there aren't enough nice things to say about my one and only. But sometimes, I have to admit a little bitterness about the number of migraines I've had over a lifetime. It doesn't help that most people outgrow them at a certain age and that my last doctor said I was rather old to be having them. Swell! I guess looking young has a price tag! Just kidding.
Two days of doing almost nothing drags one's soul down a bit. The worst of it was yesterday morning. Since then it's just been patch, patch, patch, trying to keep the headache from coming back strong. There were some cool things I wanted to do this weekend too. Nobody wants to hear about your headaches. If you don't have them, it's boring and incomprehensible. If you have them, the last thing you need is a reminder from someone else that your next one is on its inevitable way. So to all you out there in Internet land, I apologize. But for the past two days, headache is what it's been about.
The photo is of the fountain that stands in the garden at Oak Ridge where we attended the family wedding. I loved the decorations on the fountain and had Michael take a shot of them. When I mentioned attention to detail, I wasn't kidding. Since the wedding was out of town, the family provided a big air-conditioned shuttle bus to ferry people back and forth. They even provided wipes with Off! on them in case there were mosquitoes (there weren't). Well done!

Wedding pictures

Here's how we looked at my niece Whitney's wedding. The wedding was held at an estate called Oak Ridge about twenty miles from Charlottesville, Virginia. Just another example of the amazing stuff there is to see in this part of the United States. It was a wonderful wedding and quite beautifully planned right down to the smallest detail. The theme was birds and the colors were peachy pink, orange and yellow. And it's miraculous to live only five hours away from Michael's sister, Eileen. She's now our closest family. That's something I would never have predicted.

Today I've been violently ill with a migraine. Hours later, I feel better but the headache still lingers reminding me that it could come back with a vengeance. Pictures are great because it's nice to remember that I don't feel this way all the time. My oldest daughter and her husband are looking both cute and happy as always. It was great bragging on her and showing off her magazine interview and big win in the American Quilt Society quilt show.

Farmer's market

My neighbors took me to the Farmer's Market in downtown Wilkes-Barre today. They had cool stuff that I'd never seen at an outdoor market. The Amish were there with breads and cookies (I succumbed to the raisin bread--it was delicious). And there were umpteen jillion stands with fresh cherries, lettuce and all sorts of other stuff that doesn't grow in Texas. I ended up buying yellow squash and new potatoes because they were familiar. But I also bought Rainier cherries and raspberries which I had never been able to buy at a farmer's market before. So dinner tonight was fruit and the very creamy cottage cheese they like here. I love this picture because there's a raspberry with a stem on it, something I have never seen before.

So in all of this bounty, what did I miss? Tomatoes. Believe it or not, on July 10th it's too early for tomatoes here. The one bummer in a totally upbeat experience.

Keeping busy

I've got a lot of catching up to do after being gone for ten days. Doing laundry, paying bills and cleaning out the fridge are tops on my list today. I've spent a lot of time posting photos of the wedding and our trip to Virginia. Most of them won't make it into my blog or Flickr photostream as they are pictures of people. I don't feel good about posting those without permission. But they are available through Kodak Easyshare. Please ask for an invitation if you would like to look at them.

As often happens at our house, we are again down to one car so I'm grounded today. It's nice knowing there's a post office, grocery store and Japanese restaurant a half a mile away. So if I need to mail something, buy milk or eat sushi I'm set.(It's a downhill walk but going back home would be a real bear.)

The picture is of the plant sale at Monticello. You can buy plants grown from seeds from Thomas Jefferson's estate. How cool is that? We drooled over them the last time we visited Virginia, knowing we couldn't take them with us on the plane. This time we could have bought something and taken it in our rent car but didn't. Such is life.

The Fourth of July with James Monroe

We're back. The wedding was wonderful and so was the trip. One of the most exciting parts was the visit we made to James Monroe's home, Ash Lawn-Highland. What a surprise that Colonel Monroe was there to greet us. He talked with us in his study and then later in the garden, he made a Fourth of July speech. It was a magical experience. We also got to visit Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on the 5th. This was a much more touristy experience but it is always worthwhile to enjoy that beautiful place and to feel his spirit.

I fear that in our efforts to impose 21st century sensibilities and ethics on the Founding Fathers, we have forgotten how great they truly were. They were imperfect beings as we all are, but who among my acquaintance has the wisdom, courage and insight of these men whose inspired changes to the concept of government continue to change the world for the better?

One of the most exciting things about being in this part of America is that the history of our country is all around us. It's a thrill just to pass road signs pointing us to places we hope to visit: Valley Forge, Brandywine, Antietam, Gettysburg. When we came home last night Michael thought we were seeing sheet lightning. But we soon realized that fireworks were booming just a mile from our home. Being here where it all happened makes me realize how much we have reason to celebrate.

Dad is doing great so all is well in Louisiana. Also, all the family I missed seeing at the wedding came to visit Dad in the hospital so I got to see them there. The pictures are of the re-enactor of James Monroe and a building on the campus of the University of Virginia.

One more thing

Dad came through the procedure today with flying colors and will have surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30. This isn't major surgery so we are expecting all to go well. I'm pretty tired and have had to take care of some details so that I can arrive in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday afternoon and turn around and leave for Virginia the same day. But I'm looking forward to a vacation with Michael.

Two of Momma's friends came to visit today while Dad was having the procedure done. They were hilarious and kept Mom and me totally diverted while he was gone. One told a story on her mother. It seems that the neighbor came over to chew her out and she ordered her off the property. They came to fisticuffs and Mom's friend who was about seventeen figured they were evenly matched so she let them fight it out! But when her mom had the other lady over the railing with a garden hose around her neck, she felt she had to intervene. This friend is about ten years older than me but we had the same high school teachers at Fair Park. She felt like they were old when she had them so my perception that they were decrepit when I got to them ten years later was correct. They were both good storytellers and it really helped to have them there.

Southern hospitality at its best has been at work for days now. Everyone at the hospital has been gracious and helpful. And all of my parents' church friends and neighbors have been great. Their next-door neighbor, Frank, will take me to the airport on Thursday morning.

Dad was so excited to get a call from London today. My brother called and it really made Dad's day.

There is a plan going on here. I've made the remark that I thought I was coming to Louisiana for a wedding! But, in fact, I was really coming to help Mom out while Dad was in the hospital. I'll be interested to see if the reason for the Wilkes-Barre move comes out as clearly as the reason for this trip. Probably not, but I am no less sure that we were sent up there for a reason.