Connecting with Family

Holidays are different around my house now. In 2009, all my grandchildren at that time moved away. FAR away. Dave took his little family to China in August, and Erin joined her sweet hubby on Kaua'i in October.

Thank heavens for Skype and the ability to talk and see each other. Little Tyson can show us how he does upside down push ups, and Savy can show off cute dolls. Sienna can play on the guitar and sing the song she performed for the church Christmas party, and Aidan can show us his missing teeth. Madelyn can display her cute curls.

I can't hug or snuggle or read books to the images that come through a webcam. But at least when the grandkids see us again they won't be afraid of us and will recognize our voices.

It beats the heck out of corresponding via snail mail. I remember those days and living FAR from my own grandparents. My father was career Navy, and we spent years living in Asia. We moved to the Philippines as I began 6th grade; the farewell with my friends was traumatic. Bonnie and I kept in touch during those two years, but we never once got to hear the other's voice, and both our families were poor enough that we didn't get to send many pictures to each other.

So I guess I should be happy that communications are so much simpler and less expensive now. I watched Bobby Kennedy's funeral via satellite in the middle of the night. It was the first time anything like it had been broadcast worldwide. I would never have imagined a time when I could sit in the luxury of my home and watch a live video of my children and grandchildren.

It's very Jetsonsesque.

But I still wish I could hug and squeeze those little ones while they're still little. At least we got to play with Robert's little Davey. He's definitely squeezable.


Oh, and Ed got to be Santa's Helper at the Christmas party.

Pineapple Express

We've had rain for the last three days (remember, Utah is the second driest state in the union behind only Nevada). There are concerns down south about flooding later today by the Virgin River.

And it's all Erin's fault!

Evidently the jet stream is going straight across the U.S. from Hawaii to us.



This screen capture is from my iGooogle homepage and shows our weather, Erin's on Kaua'i, and then Dave's in China.

Wow. We could be breathing the same air that Erin's little family was breathing just a few days ago.

Erin's Kids

I got Erin's Christmas card today, and she included Sienna's and Aidan's school pictures. I'm also including a picture of Madelyn taken earlier this year where Erin had straightened her hair.



















I should be seeing them next month!

Equality

I've been thinking all night about something that happened at our city council meeting last night.

But first, here's some background. We have a number of city employees who have been deployed over the years and one of them, Layne Pace--Fire Battalion Chief, is a Black Hawk pilot and has served in Afghanistan. While he was there the first time, he and his comrades were especially touched by the sad situation of the orphans. They began searching for ways to help and eventually created The Afghan Orphan Project. They hope one day to get enough money to construct an orphanage but have to be satisfied in the meantime with helping individual children. Jon Schmidt even did a benefit concert last February at Utah Valley University.

Recently, they brought a young Afghan woman here for help fixing a malfunctioning prosthesis. She lost the limb when she was young during an attack by the Taliban who didn't like her father's political views (that disagreed with them). He and her brother were killed in the bombing that took her leg. Through donations, they were able to fly her here, and a local company is paying to replace the defunct prosthesis. Her mother died of brain cancer less than two years ago, leaving her responsible for herself and four younger sisters.

Back to the meeting last night. The City of Orem is a sponsor of Tao Project, so Layne brought Razia to meet the Council. The councilmembers asked a number of questions, but the one that impressed me the most was what she liked the most about America. Her answer--the equality between men and women.

One of my greatest fears about the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan is that the Taliban will gain control again. I remember the reports of the incredibly high suicide rate among women when the Taliban was in charge before. I fear for the women there.

It's very much a cultural thing, and the changes that need to take place could take generations. This is truly evidenced by the experiences another city employee had there. He's one of our prosecutors and is a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserve. When he was deployed there he was part of a legal team to help train them in modern court proceedings. There are cultural differences that will have to change before anything resembling the justice system in the West can be truly implemented.

Cultural changes take time.

For me, equality takes on a broader meaning. Equality among the sexes. Equality before the law.

I'm grateful to live where I do with the freedoms and opportunities I have.

Deck the Halls ...

Love it!

Compartmentalizing ... with a new Blog

I decided to separate my writing reflections from my family blog, so I've created another and renamed this one.

Feel free to check out Weaving a Tale or Two and follow me if you feel so inclined.

Book Reviewers, Etc.

I thought this was a very entertaining commentary on the way different people respond to books. Amazon reviewers think this masterpiece sucks. I love Ms. Demain's sense of humor as she searches to find at least one book that is immune to terrible reviews. Actually, it reminded me of Lot in the Old Testament trying to find enough good people to keep the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from being destroyed.

In a last-ditch effort, I decided to see what folks had to say about the Bible. Sure enough, there were a few brave souls who dared to give the word of God only one star!

Man, this book is boring. All this weird stuff happens and it's harder to get into than Lord of the Rings. And what's up with the red writing and the LORD says stuff. All caps = rude, peter paul and mark, whoever the heck you are. And this is just badly written. James Patterson could do better. These apostles need to get a clue and hire a ghost writer. Even Miley Cyrus's manager was smart enough to do that. Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ, indeed.

You might want to try this experiment for yourself! But I warn you, you will come away profoundly disheartened and pessimistic about the continued existence of humankind.

Etc.

I think my friend and inspiration Donna Hosie's got it right.

A writer is who I am. I will continue to write until the day I die. First and foremost, I love doing it. It is my creative outlet and passion.

All my life I've had these tales going on in my head, a magical world of my own creation in which to lose myself. I think this other world is one of the things that kept me going when I was a teen and my mother died, or my first husband died leaving me with two small children to raise. Or as I've struggled through the scary health issues of my second husband and the mental health challenges of several of my children.

Epiphany! This must be why I like fiction so much. I have enough nonfiction in my life, thank you very much.

For the first time in my life I'm actually taking this jumbled mass of illusions and turning them into something complete, something concrete. So, if I'm a writer (and I still thrill at the very thought of labeling myself as that), I will write. For myself. It's satisfying when someone reads my work and enjoys it, but I guess first and foremost I must enjoy it.

And I do.

Thanks, Donna H.

Ordinance Query

A peer shared the following exchange between municipal clerks from Texas:

Dear Group:

I would like to know if any of your city's have passed any type of ordinance regarding people exposing their for lack of a better term butt cracks in public. We had one of our council members come in and say that he is tired of trying to go to events and eat his breakfast at the local coffee shop and see men and women exposing their butt cracks due to their low cut pants and in the case of the women exposing their thongs at the same time.

What information have any of you gathered or found out from legal counsel regarding this matter? I was thinking if you passed an ordinance it might be considered a violation of their freedoms. If any of you have any information or ordinances passed regarding this matter. Can you forward or send to me? I really appreciate it.

Thanks,

City Secretary

Response: Just get your pd to go around and pull their pants all the way down, then charge them with indecent exposure.

Response: "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground...... ." don't you just love your job????? Who will enforce this ordinance??? ? - new title, "butt crack” enforcer! !! I know you are serious about your inquiry, but I have really had a good laugh about it - our attorney is so solemn he would just be appalled if I asked him about for an ordinance about "butt cracks"..I hope your day gets better - at least it's Friday.

Response: Seems like it would be bad for all the old plumbers...

Response: Maybe you could name it the "Just say no to Crack" ordinance. lol. This has made our day at city hall!!!

Response: I think the Plumbing Official should be the enforcer of this.

Well, I shared the email with the my city's exec staff, and here are a few of their responses:

City Attorney (he's a big one for playing on words--see how many you can count in his response):

that was a crack-up. should we try an ordinance ourselves? we could assk the council if they want one butt we're already a bit behind in our work.

Administrative Services Director:

We need more tolerance we need to turn the other cheek

Assistant City Manager:

If it's not one thong, it's another

ETA:
One of our councilmembers piped in with:

No ifs ands or butts about it, that's funny!

Holiday Movies 4

I bought a new holiday movie today. Believe it or not, I'd never seen Polar Express. I watched it today while I was cooking. I really enjoyed it.














Well, I've been up since 5:30 a.m., and my dogs are barking. I'm going to bed.

Electronic Books & Which Reader is Best

My daughter has a Kindle and loves it. A coworker has the iPad and loves it.

I love my paper books and audiobooks, but I have been considering getting an ereader. However, I'm a little conflicted. It's not that I'm torn between my paper and the nifty device, but that it's my understanding you can only get some titles on certain machines. At least with a paper book or an audiobook, I can get the titles I want (well, I can usually get the audio if there is one).

There's an interesting article here that talks about various things we should consider, and I'm interested in peoples' experiences with these gadgets.

Good? Bad? Indifferent? A royal pain in the arse?

Holiday Movies 3

I'm continuing to make my way through my movie list, which is much better than I've done in the past few years.












I really like this particular version of Miracle on 34th Street, but I think the original with Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, and of course Edmund Gwen as Santa Claus will always be my favorite. It's probably a generational thing.

Now if I can just find my movie list (edited movies from TV) so I can watch Die Hard.

Because this is just one of the favorite guys I love to hate.