THE CASE OF THE RELIGIOUS GROUND HOG.
Well everyone else in the house is watching the NCAA Tournament. KU is playing and I am a K-State fan. So I will blog a bit about something that happened this morning. First off. It is a nasty first day of spring here in Kansas. It has snowed all day and it is still snowing with winds about 25 miles an hour. The roads are not bad, if you can get out of your driveway. This morning, my husbands sister called. She said that she had a ground hog in the under side of her car. Now this really upset her. Her son in law was over there trying to get the poor thing out but was not having any luck. My sister in law said that she went out this morning and noticed some thing that looked like insulation under her car. She then opened the hood and there on top of the engine was a ground hog stuck to a glue board. Well upon opening the hood that scared the little critter, and he went deeper into the bowels of the car leaving the glue board and a large patch of fur sitting on top of the motor. They looked for him and could not see him, so she called us, and we went up. My husband and her son in law looked for him through the whole underside of the car. They finally found him in the spare tire well. That would have been great, except they couldn't get the spare tire well to drop down like it should. I can only wonder what was going on in that little ground hog brain. They thought they had him out of there, and then he decided that he wasn't ready to leave, so he ran back up to the front of the car. The search continued. This went on for an hour or so, The boys looking, finding, and then jabbing at him with a broom handle. We were all out there standing around the car with brooms and other devices to make sure that if he should come out, he would not be able to get under the freezer or behind the cabinet. I like to call it ground hog hockey. They tried to spray the poor thing with WD 40 thinking that he wouldn't like that and would just get down and go out the door, well it just made him mad I think, finally my husband decided that perhaps we could flush him out, so we got the water hose and turned it on full force, well it got him really really wet, and he left the front and went back down to the spare tire wheel well. Finally he dropped to the floor and ran out the garage door dripping wet. He headed for the timber and the adventure was over. My sister in law was delighted. Now all she has to do is take her car up to the shop and have them fix a couple of wires that he chewed up. She thinks that the ground hog got under her car when she was up at church on Thurs. afternoon. She had seen a ground hog at church on Wed. and she is probably right. Well that's the story. It looses a lot in the telling. You would have had to be there to get the whole picture.

A LITTLE TRIP TO THE PAST

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Not much going on. I was in the den making some envelopes for the gift cards I just finished when from the basement I heard the whir of the shop vac. I couldn't figure out what my husband was doing down there, although it most definitely needed a good cleaning, I was fairly sure he hadn't succumbed to the urge. I was just about to get up and yell down the stairs at him to see what he was up to when he came up and then I heard him in his junk drawer. I called out and asked him what he was doing in the basement. He said that he had pulled out the old slide projector and was trying to get it running so we could look at all our slides. I thought well that will keep him busy for the rest of the afternoon, so I went back to my envelope making assured that I wouldn't be subjected to those slides because that projector was so old that all the parts had surely rusted or corroded or whatever old projectors do when they become unusable. It wasn't but a scant half hour later when I heard him coming up the basement stairs with guess what??? A big smile on his face and the projector!!! He said he got it to work. Well you know the rest of this little piece. Whether I liked it or not, we were going to view, again, those pictures that chronicled the years since 1958. In those slides were copious pictures of scenery from various trips, and from the trip to California that my husband made on his motorcycle, when he went to basic training for National Guard. There were pics of roads and trees, and hills and state signs as he left and entered. All the usual pictures that everyone has taken in their life. Sprinkled in the scenery pictures were some people. Smiling from those slides were my husbands parents and aunts and uncles and brothers and sister in laws and nephews, and cousins and then in later trays of slides, Our own family. Those slides told of our wedding,(Not to brag but I had forgotten how cute we both were when we were younger). If you ever wonder what you saw in your spouse or long term partner, just look at those old snap shots. It was all there. Our honeymoon the birth of our first child, I was so scared when he was born.! Now you wouldn't think that I should be frightened because I came from a large family, and I was the oldest so I was used to kids, but this one was my own and I had the ultimate responsibility, Now that was a scary thing. I am surprised our dear son made it to adulthood without more scars than he did. I suffered from a very severe case of postpartum depression, although back then that was not even heard of. I struggled through the days so depressed that I did just what I had to do, with no energy to do anything extra. Well lest I digress. That was just one of the memories that those slides brought back to me. Most of them, in fact the majority of them brought lovely sepia toned memories Before this little presentation started I really wasn't in the mood, but now I am glad I sat through it. If on some winter Sunday afternoon when you don't have much to do, I suggest you get out your old pictures and look at them again. It will give you a new perspective on where you have been and how you got to where you are. Well that is all for now. Bye. Gloria Dee/Grandmother Handleys Closet.

VOLUNTEER WORK IS KIND A SUCKY... SOMETIMES

Now before you all jump down my throat and think that I am a terrible person for saying bad things about volunteering, I volunteer, I volunteer a lot. I do a lot of work in my church and in various other organizations. But if you are all honest with yourselves and with the world you would agree with me that to volunteer is sucky and probably downright stupid at times. It has been my experience that, at times, they ask volunteers to do stuff they would never even think of asking a paid employee to do. Some of the jobs are kind of like sorting wet sweat socks in a locker room. They are all messy and they stink to high heaven. Well enough of my frustration. I am in the middle of working on a newsletter that should have been started the beginning of Jan. But wasn't. Now dear hearts, I volunteered to do this newsletter twice a year for four, count em four, years!. The problem is It needs to be done a "certain"way, oh! and they never tell you that they always have someone who is also a volunteer, kind of a volunteer superior who knows how it is all to be done, and who doesn't really have a good reason for it being done that way, just because it is the "right" way to do it. I am going up to the printers tomorrow with a copy of the fall newsletter from last year, and see if the boy can help me out. I have done newsletters before, but have been allowed to use my own devices so to speak. This one is different and I am a bit frazzled. I think that I have decided that I am just going to quit worrying about it and I am going to do it the best way I know how, and if that volunteer supervisor says anything, I will just smile and say God Bless you, and go on my merry way. Well that's better. I have vented, and now I feel more relaxed. Hey this blogging is great. I recommend it. Take care. gloria dee/grandmotherhandleyscloset

Well Well Well, Here it is Tuesday!

Where did Monday go? I must admit that I don't know. I went to Baldwin to see the card display, and had tea in the tea room. I asked for green tea and she gave me a Lipton Tea bag. Now folks, I am not against Lipton Tea. I just thought that for $1.50 I would get more than a styrofoam cup with hot water and a Lipton Tea Bag. Maybe I am naive but I thought that a place that called itself a tea room and emporium would at least have some more exotic teas and would at least serve it in a glass cup. My sister in law went with me, and she felt the same way. Well anyway we sat in their little tea room, by the way, we could have had pastry, but that we will do some other time. The tea room is more of a very small dining room There are 4 tables, and mismatched chairs, It was really kind of nice in a very midwest small town way. Baldwin is the home of Baker University, and this little establishment is right across from the college, so I am sure that at times they may have some patrons from there. We went at 10:00 am on a very cold cloudy and windy Monday morning, so won't judge the tea room too harshly. The rest of the building has a consignment shop with a pretty presentable little collection previously loved clothing. They had a lot of jewelry, (vintage) Lisa you would have liked it. I checked their bead display, and No POP Beads. The front of the Pink Lady Tea room is run by the Vintage Flea, the antique store at the other end of the block. The antique part of the tea room is where Linda set up my card displays. It was a real hoot to go in and see my creations there for anyone to see. Actually they are right up front. Well enough of that. Today has gone by in a blur also. Here it is 5:30pm CST . At least today it was sunny. This was list making day. I got a couple things done on the list, and the rest will just have to wait till tomorrow or Thurs. I am done for this day. This blog is the last thing that I am going to do today. bye for now. hope you all had a wonderful day. gloriadee/grandmotherhandleyscloset.

SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN

Well another cloudy day here in the midwest. Colder, some drizzle possible. Now that I have given the weather for this part of the US. I want to talk about something else. Now I don't know what this particular blog will be about. I am going to try to turn off the intentional part of my brain and let the instinctual or what ever part that wants to talk, do so. Here Goes:

Has anyone ever done meditation? I have been meditating for several months. I should say trying to meditate. Do you know how hard it is to just shut stuff out??? I am working on it. aAll the people who think they know how to do it say that it is possible to go totally within yourself and come back out more enlightened, and feeling great. I go to a meditation class every Monday night. We are pretty informal. We all just get together and get silent for half an hour. We do this before a yoga class. I don't go to the yoga class but a couple of the gals do and the teacher of the yoga class also is in our meditation group. It seems to work, if we don't get a lot of insight into ourselves or the universe at least we have 30 minutes to just be. Now I think that is a pretty darn good thing in itself. We are a pretty chatty group normally, but when we go in for the meditation the words are few. I am proud of us.

We are going to Manhattan today. 1: to hear Mike play in an invitational band, and 2: maybe to see our oldest grandson Chris. for a bit. For those of you who care. The shoes fit.

Got more Valentines made yesterday to take to the Pink Lady. Going tomorrow, taking my sister in law with me because she wants to go. That's good. Perhaps we can have a cup of tea while we are there. Don 't know how many to make don't know if any will sell, but guess I will give them a variety anyway. Now a Hallmarks I am not!!! I make all the cards by hand by me. I cut paste and create, and compose all the verses from scratch, so I don't have 20,00000 of one card. If I make 3 or four of the same style it may not end up exactly like the first one I may fix each a little different. I will never be a big card company, although the budget might like that, I resist assembly line stuff. I prefer one of a kind. My sister paints and she is good. I told her to make some small water colors and I would incorporate them into a card, but don't know if she will or not. She has confidence issues with her painting, actually she is very very good at it. But perhaps it is not her passion??? I have discovered that if you are doing something you love and are passionate about, it doesn't matter what others think. I tried many things in the past until I started the card thing. That is my passion. I have done it for over 15 years, and will make carduntil I loose the passion for it or get too old to do it.

Well enough rambling. Got to get around and get to Manhattan. Have a wonderful Sunday.
gloriadee.

Well I missed yesterday. I was going to give my youngest grandson Micheal his due time on this little tome. What can I say about that lanky young man. He is 17. He is 6' 4" (yes his parents do grow them tall) he weighed in at 10lb 7 oz when he was born. He has the most incredible brown eyes, and a serious bravado that hides his tenderness. Now if I was not very sure that he will never read this, I wouldn't be telling all this. He is poetic, and musical. he has written several very good songs, and he plays in the school band and is in two other rock bands with some friends. One of the bands actually performs for people. They have a gig at a barbeque place in a neighboring town in a few weeks. He has a way with words and that in itself is a puzzle, he doesn't like to read. He is also an artist. He has been an artist since he was able to sit at my desk in the den and color and use all the scotch tape. As he got older say 7 or 8 he started using other mediums. He went through a time when he would bend paper clips into animals. He also had us save all those carry out cup holders from McDonalds. he maid furniture with them. Well I guess that is all I really want to share about our special grandson Micheal. I know everyone thinks their grandchildern are the best thing in the world and I agree. Grandchildren are God's way of thanking you for not killing your own kids when they were teenagers. If you have grandchildren, enjoy them, if you don't have grandchildren enjoy youth, they are the only real hope we have in this messed up world. That's all for now.

My grandsons.

I just sent my oldest grandson Christopher a private message on facebook. It was nothing important. I just got him a pair of shoes and I was telling him that they should arrive at his dorm in a few days. We had tried to get him interested in new shoes several months ago, but that wasn't a priority then. Well when he was back at Christmas he had a hole in his favorite shoes, and his feet got wet when he went outside. Now he has other shoes and an almost brand new pair of boots but he doesn't like wearing those boots all the time. His mother took him shoe shopping at Christmas but they couldn't fine any to fit him correctly. His problem is he has a big wide foot. He wears a 15 triple E. That does limit his selection. He wanted Luggs, and they are one of the few companies that carry that width. Well that wasn't what I wanted to write about this evening. As I was writing him my mind went back to that first time I saw him only a few minutes after he entered this crazy place. His green eyes at the tender age of 3 minutes old held the promise of all things. At this point he is a freshman in his second semester at Manhattan. He is doing fine as far as any of us know, but he is not a great communicator. He let's us know what we need to know and the rest he keeps to his own councel. He has such a gentle spirit. He is tall. At least 6' 6. I think he has grown since he went away. His green eyes still hold the promise of that infant I first set eyes on 18 years ago. I don't have any great moral to this story except that time does go by so fast and I just was wondering what my dear oldest grandson will become in this world. He is studying engineering, and that is a good profession. Whatever he finally decides I know that he will be a good loving human being and that is all that is important. Well I guess that is it for now. I am getting a bit maudlin. I am listening to a Barbara Striesand CD and I think I need to go turn it off because it is making me really melancholy. Well dear hearts. This is all for today. Tomorrow I will extol the virtues of Micheal my youngest grandson who is a Junior in High School and one of them most wonderful kids in the world. Well that's for tomorrow. Love and Blessings to all. gloriadee/grandmotherhandleyscloset.