Following Severe Weather from Oklahoma to Georgia and Points East

I will admit it -- I'm a worrier.  I am also a person who will not let anyone leave without hearing these words from me, "I love you.  Be careful."  And I urge my family to check in with me when they get where they're going, or when bad weather is in their neighborhoods, or when I know that something is not right in their worlds.  We have a large family, so that means a lot of checking in, but that's okay with me.  I need to know -- as if knowing what's going on is a charm against something really bad happening.  (I also want to hear from them at other times, but that's another story.)

When I started writing this, my daughter and her family in northern Alabama were under a tornado warning, the second one they had been under on Wednesday.  I thought that I could work on a blog post as I watched what was going on in Alabama.  I was wrong.  I was so wrong that I never got dressed on Wednesday; I stayed in my pajamas all day. I didn't go to the library program that I had planned to attend.  I needed to stay with her family, in spirit, as much as I could. 

You know what happened in Alabama.  There were many who lost their lives, their family members and friends, their homes and their businesses.  My daughter and her family and their home were unscathed and I am so grateful for that.  I also weep for those who lost so much in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia.  I feel wrung out, as if I personally witnessed a tragedy.  In a way, I did -- at least much more so than we have ever been able to.  For me, it started last week.  Maybe it did for you, too.

We knew what was coming in Oklahoma -- the possibility of tornadoes.  That's not unusual; the town I used to live in before we moved here, the town whose library I managed for 13 years, received heavy tornado damage in May of 2010.  We were under warnings that night, as we were last week.  We were a little better prepared this year; we had enrolled in our city's "blackboard warning system", which called us on our cell phones to tell us to take cover.  We could hear the sirens going off, and we were listening to NOAA radio.  I knew it was time to take my little dog into our "safe spot" (our walk-in closet) and stayed there for 45 minutes.  I had time to get really uncomfortable, take a couple of calls from Tom, who was at work, and think about the possibility of some sort of portable "safe bubble" (similar to what the astronauts have when they land in the ocean) that would be affordable, reinforced, padded and comfortable, and life-saving for those of us who don't have cellars or safe rooms.

As the storm system moved on, my attention was drawn to my home town and the surrounding area.  Kennett, Missouri, is about 45 minutes from Poplar Bluff, where the levies were breached on the Black River.  It is also 30 minutes from the Mississippi River.  The entire area was drenched from rain and my friends on Facebook expressed great concern for the lives, homes and businesses as more storms approached them.  Tornadoes in St. Louis and Memphis affected friends and family, but we were relieved to hear that everybody was safe after the storms.

Then came Wednesday.  We had all heard that a monster system was heading towards eastern Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia and this takes me back to the beginning of my post.  I was the beneficiary of information from many sources the day of the tornado outbreak, as I had been earlier in the week.  This time, I was watching my daughter, her husband, and three grandchildren from a great distance, with a growing sense of alarm and helplessness.  They seemed to be in the direct path of the tornados and I was able to talk with Mary by phone during the first round, making sure that they were in their safe place and had their weather radios close by.  She reassured me that they all were together except Adam, who was at work.  She directed me to the website of their local television station so that I could watch live reports of what was happening.  Then we said good-bye and told each other we would stay in touch.

I watched the channel Mary recommended on my computer and also went to Google Maps to zoom in to exactly where the tornados were.  I could see Mary's street west of town and follow the tornado path which went northeast.  It appeared that they were in the clear, but the weather crew said that more storms would be coming.  I took a break away from the computer during lunch.

When I went back, they were under another warning.  As I started tracking the storm, they announced that electricity was out in some areas and that would affect the sirens; people might not hear them.  I tried to call Mary and couldn't get through.  I told myself that Mary had her weather radio and would be tuned in, so she would know they were under a warning.  Then they announced that the NOAA weather station closest to Mary's home was out and would probably be until Thursday.  I was in a panic and all I could do was watch and pray.  At one point, as I watched, the electricity went out at the television station I was watching and the crew was in the dark.  They were still broadcasting, but they couldn't continue with the radar tracking because their lights were out.  They found someone's iPad and were able to focus their tv cameras on its screen, continuing to follow that way for a few minutes until their electricity came back on.

Finally, I was reassured again, as the tornado went east of Mary's home.  My son Cory (who lives in the Washington DC area) was able to keep in contact with Mary through most of it, and relayed to me that  they were safe.  I later found out that they had no damage.  They did have some debris, including some pretty good sized pieces of metal siding.  As Cory texted me about Mary and family, I heard that the DC area was under a tornado warning and he signed off.

At this point, we were learning about the tornados that had hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, south of the Huntsville area where Mary lives.  Eventually, we knew what the rest of the country knew, that this was the second-worst tornado outbreak in recorded history and hundreds of people lost their lives along its path.  Their are thousands of stories like mine about the storms, many of them will be told by people who were there and personally experienced the horrors of that day.

My story is one of a mother and grandmother who watched from a distance and cried and prayed for her children.  Technology has given us so much, including the ability to know (when it's working) minute-by-minute what is going on.  Sometimes that's a blessing; sometimes maybe it's not.  Now I know (as I always did, deep inside), that saying, "Be careful. I love you!" is a protective charm that doesn't always work.  The most I will say about that is that "I love you" is always worth saying.   

Enjoying the Season: Easter and Spring

I love seasonal decorating but in Oklahoma, we sometimes need a reminder about what season it is!  Today it's warm, but it's not too late for a cold spell.  With that in mind, I will share what is going on inside our house -- bunnies and chicks everywhere!  (Note:  The printed cards in these photographs are from The Graphics Fairy, a wonderful source of vintage illustrations, many in color, that can be printed out for your projects.)





Wall Words: Instructions and Reminders of What is Important

As I was getting ready for church this morning, I was also trying to decide on a topic for my next blog post.  I was uninspired as I went through possible post subjects; one was discarded because the timing wasn't right, another because it was too similar to another recent post, and on and on.  I looked to my left, to the wall next to the shower and there they were -- wall words, those rub-off decals purchased when we moved into our home and installed in the bathroom and living room.

Wall Words come in many varieties, including hundreds of quotations on dozens of topics.  You also have the option to custom order individual words in your choice of color and font.  I decided that I wanted instructions to myself for the bathroom.  These words, then, are what my "best self" would do if she didn't get bogged down in worrying, regretting, borrowing trouble, negative ruminating, and the other habits I have that can make me miserable. 

One wall in our living room has words that remind us of what is important.  These words include kindness, serenity, strength, love, patience, freedom, peace, hope, courage, wisdom, compassion, friends, and family.

I feel that words have power -- words that we say to ourselves, words that we say to others, words that we write and words that we read.  Sometimes we just need a little reminder or a little nudge to encourage ourselves to dance, or sing, or dream or believe again.

What are your "wall words"?

Book Recommendation: Living with What You Love: Decorating with Family Photos, Cherished Heirlooms, and Collectibles by Monica Rich Kosan

I have always been enchanted by homes that, rather than having a "decorator" look, reveal the personalities, tastes, and values of the family members who live there.  The presence of family photos, heirlooms, and collectibles illustrate the author's observation that "a house is not a home unless it displays our most cherished possessions."  Living with What You Love gives us the inspiration, tools, and suggestions to approach our own possessions with the goal of reminding ourselves (and others) of who we are, and how we can display our precious objects with creativity and style.

I have years of accumulating photographs, books, and other precious items behind me; my challenge is to be selective in my choices for display.  We are reminded, though, that "cherished objects are not just things of the past.  Whenever we take a photograph, add a personal touch to something that belongs to us, or select a new piece for a collection, we are in the process of creating heirlooms."

A section of the book shows us the value of mixing the old and the new all around the house, especially in regard to photographs; mixing generations of family members can introduce discussions of the past and present.  Also within the pages of the book, you'll find ideas for displaying large and small photos, as well as using technology for always-changing photo display.  Photographic illustrations include an heirloom silver tray holding small, intimate photos framed in silver and a large tv screen devoted to rotating family photographs.

Since my home is filled with books, I was particularly interested in the ideas for mixing them with photos and other items. 

I was also reminded that other precious items can be framed, including certificates, letters, and diplomas and placed on the wall with treasured photographs.  For a start, I'm going to copy the back of my and my husband's birth certificates, showing our baby footprints, for a photo area in our guest bedroom.

Other suggestions included leaving albums and loose photos out in  open boxes or baskets for friends and family to thumb through.

A chapter heading called "Intimate Landcapes"  refers to little areas that remind us of what is important to us.  Tabletops, shelves, mantels, buffets, wherever there is a flat surface can be used to put together family vignettes, which can include memories to hold in your hand, such as individual or collections of rocks, jewelry, or other mementos.

Devoted space can be places individual members of the household use for their own purposes, including personal offices or studios or spots as small as a closet or even an open drawer -- any place that can be used to reveal and enjoy the individual's personal choices of photos and memorabilia.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in decorating the home with a more personal touch and especially for the beautiful photographs, which can serve as a springboard to more ideas for creativity and personal pleasure in our surroundings.

You can purchase Living with What You Love from Amazon or borrow it from your public library, as I did.

"Going to Gobler": Before There was Walmart, There was "Missouri's Most Famous Country Store"

When I was a little girl, growing up in the bootheel of Missouri, I loved to hear the words, "We're going to Gobler."  Gobler Merchantile Company was a central location of commerce in southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas from 1937 until 1956 and its success was nothing short of amazing.

Just a visit to the store was quite an event for a young girl.  I remember a huge (today, it might be called humongous) building that had grown from 30x60 corrugated tin structure containing $900 worth of merchandise.  It had grown into multiple buildings by the 1950's, housing everything needed by the farmers who were its main customers -- groceries, housewares, farm implements, hoes and other tools, and space for new departments and lines of merchandise.  According to Virginia Branch, who has written a tribute to Gobler Merchantile, it eventually covered about five acres and contained a grocery store and meat market, drug center and dry goods section, furniture, housewares, and hardware departments, a restaurant, television shop and lumber yards.

People came from miles around to Gobler; cars were often parked on both sides of the highway for almost a mile distant on the county line road.  Entertainment was scheduled to attract even more customers, which included the Slim Rhodes show and other fairly well known country and gospel performers.  Many families planned their Saturday afternoons around a 4:00 prize drawing.  Later, a drawing for a car brought the largest number of shoppers in Gobler's history.

Gobler Mercantile's popularity was largely due to business partner and proprietor, Dennye Mitchell, who was primarily responsible for building the store from one small structure to what was larger than many "superstores" today.  Its reputation also grew when Mitchell began advertising on KBOA radio in Kennett, Missouri; thousands of households regularly tuned in to "Old Camp Meeting Time" while eating their breakfasts and heard what the 18-wheeler trucks had recently delivered to "Missouri's Most Famous Country Store."

My stepmother told me that there was also a smoke-filled night spot called the B&B Club in Gobler, to which young couples in the area would go for entertainment.  Elvis Presley performed there twice early in his career.

The shortcut from my home in Kennett to Memphis took me by Gobler during my years of driving back and forth to the University of Memphis (then Memphis State).  There was nothing to remind me of Gobler Merchantile and the time I spent there because Missouri's Most Famous Country Store burned to the ground in 1956.  Today, the farm community has a population of fewer than 300.

If you happen to drive north of Blytheville on Highway NN, you may recognize the little town by "The Soul Shack", Ragins Salvage Yard and Trucking, or the Gobler Baptist Church.  Nothing remains of Gobler Merchantile.  If you stop and listen carefully, though, you may hear the country and gospel performers, The Slim Rhodes Show, or even Elvis himself entertaining hundreds of people there..  You may also hear the children, the young couples, and the old farmers sharing the excitement, their voices celebrating that special weekly event, "Going to Gobler."

Photographs of Gobler Merchantile and Virginia Branch's entire tribute, as well as a history of KBOA and its assocation with Gobler, by Joe Bankhead, are available on KBOA's website.

Book Recommendation: So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

So Much for That is a precautionary tale for any of us who have health insurance, who don't have health insurance, or who don't have enough or the right kind of health insurance.  It's about Shep Knacker, who has worked most of his life building a successful business.  He has reached the point that he is ready to proceed with the second part of his life, which he has dreamed about -- a place where he and his wife can live the good life for dollars a day.  He has been exploring possibilities for years, and his wife has not found any of his choices suitable.  He has finally sold the business and invested the proceeds, but has remained as an employee to the buyer (who once worked for him), waiting for the perfect time to leave.  The time has arrived and he is ready to tell his wife that he is going, whether or not she will accompany him.  He leaves work and goes home, ready to make his announcement, but his wife beats him to the punch.  She says that she is going to need his health insurance.  She has cancer.

Shep was a good employer, who provided good health insurance for his employees.  It turns out that the new owner has downgraded the health insurance.  It turns out that Shep's wife has mesothelioma and her prognosis is grim.  Shep lives with this fact, although the doctors don't choose to be completely open with his wife about her chances.  They feed her hope.  She is also buoyed by a possibility of a settlement, due to her exposure to asbestos.  Who could blame her?

Shep, in the meantime, must deal with the reality.  Thus, the title, So Much for That.  He must continue to work for his former employee.  The reader is kept apprised of Shep's investments, through an account statement every couple of months.  We despair with him (and think, "so this is what it's like") as his account balance goes from about $750,000 to about $3,500.  Remember, he does have insurance for his wife -- although it's not the insurance he(we) would like to have.

You will want to read this book.  It's an interesting story of a couple living through a very rough time in their marriage.  You'll want to know if they, and their marriage, survive.  But, as I said, it's also a precautionary tale -- for the rest of us.

You can find this book at your local library or purchase it below.

Some Gifts and Blessings and a Warning

I love white stoneware.  My stepmother knew this, and gave me the beautiful soup tureen and pitcher before she passed away in November.  The sweet creamer and salt and pepper shakers came to me more recently, and therein lies the warning.

We were visiting my dad on Friday and when we walked through the kitchen, a disturbing sight stopped me in my tracks.  One entire cabinet in the kitchen was gone, leaving only the bare wall (really bare, with unpainted wall and screw holes showing). 

I asked Dad, "What's this?" and he told me that the kitchen cabinet had fallen off the wall.  He said that he had thought there was a car accident out on the road, the crash was so loud.  All of the dishes were broken except a pitiful few that were on the countertop: four small dinner plates, three salad plates, one cup, the salt and pepper shaker and creamer.

The cabinet held dishes, quite a few of them, but it also held some of Jo Ann's collection of cookbooks.  Dad said that the cookbooks completely filled a fairly large box; I think that there was an entire shelf of them.  The bits and pieces of the dishes filled another box.

Lest you think that this was shabby construction, let me explain that my dad was a building contractor and built this house almost 35 years ago.  No other cabinets have fallen.  It was just that the tipping point was reached.   You may want to check your own kitchen cabinets for overloading.  I have, and acknowledge that I'm just about at that point.  I'm going to redistribute some things.

I asked Dad if I could have the salt and pepper shakers and the creamer and he said I could.  I brought them home and noticed that the salt shaker has a small chip in its base.  Not bad, for such a small item taking such a big fall.  They all have a place of honor now in my house and a story that can be told about how they got here.

Girl Scout Cookie Season: A Poem from PePaw

It's Girl Scout Cookie season!  I don't have Girl Scouts in my neighborhood, but have memories of selling them in the 1950's and 1960's.  I also got involved as a parent (buying many, many boxes) and as a troop leader in the 1970's.

My Dad let me bring home a folder of  newspaper clippings, cards, and drawings from and about his children and grandchildren. Included were several poems he had written when the grandchildren were small and the following is one of them:

To Jeannie, A Super Cookie Salesperson

1975

"Hi, PePaw, This is Jeannie!"
"Hello, Jeannie, How are you?"
"I’m selling Girl Scout cookies, PePaw."
Would you like to buy a few?"

"We have many kinds to choose from
Surely, there are some you need.
Chocolate chips, you can rely on
For a group you want to feed."

"One they call a sandwich cookie
They’re chocolate, one stuck to another.
Then we have one called Savannah
They’re delicious, peanut butter."

"Chocolate mints are tasty also
They disappear with great speed
Then we have a new one this year
A cracker called Sesame Seed."

Jeannie’s only eight years old
Not old enough to know
How much she means to PePaw
With her youthful voice aglow.

She could sell him anything
For a dollar or a penny
It’s worth the price to hear her say,
“Hi, PePaw, this is Jeannie.”


What was/is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

A Tale of Two Kindles and a NOOK: Part 2 - The NOOKcolor

A few weeks after I delivered my dad's new Kindle, I was talking to my son on the phone, telling him about Dad's learning to use his Kindle and how much I was enjoying mine.  He said, "Well, actually, I need to tell you that I have purchased a NOOKcolor for myself."

He went on to explain his reasons for the additional purchase.  Primarily, it had to do with the larger touch-screen, the fact that everything is in full color, and the wireless web access.  (You can access the web through the Kindle, but it is difficult to manuever, due to the smaller screen size and the lack of the touch-screen.)  His enthusiasm was contagious.  I decided to explore the NOOKcolor on the Barnes and Noble website.

First, the color is beautiful.  It's especially nice for cookbooks, decorating books, anything with photographs or color illustrations.  (You can also enlarge and zoom in on the photos.)  I remember when we went from black and white TV to the first color sets.  The color was not good.   This experience was more like going from watching one of today's movies on a black and white TV to watching it in color in high definition.  I was sold on the color!

Barnes and Noble offers the option of purchasing subscriptions to many magazines, as does Amazon for the Kindle.  Of course, the color makes a huge difference with a lot of the magazines.  Another option for the NOOKcolor and the Kindle is to purchase the most recent issue of magazines and newspapers individually.  This is an option that we will enjoy when we're on vacation or when a special event or issue comes up that we want to explore, without purchasing an entire subscription.

Next, some books are interactive.  For example, some cookbooks have demonstration videos embedded in the text.  You just touch the screen on the NOOK to play them.   Brilliant!  I can have my NOOKcolor right there with me in the kitchen (in a protected area) and use the demos as I go through the recipes.  Also, some of the color children's books have interactive segments in the illustrations.  The child can touch a ferris wheel car, for example, and the car will rock.

By the way, the screen can be turned sideways to read the children's books and there is a "read to me" feature that the child can choose to listen to the book as the pages are turned.

The touch screen is very nice, but there is a learning curve.  I had no experience with touch screens (I don't have a smart phone) and am just now getting more confident using mine.  It just takes practice.

The web browsing capability is also very nice; the touch screen makes it easier to use and there are some other extra bells and whistles like the ability to preset your social media and e-mail for easy access.

Here is the final selling point for me:  My library system has books available to check out on e-readers from its website.  The NOOK is one of the e-readers that will accept the borrowed books; the Kindle is not.  This is a major money-saver and is what really made me decide to buy the NOOK.

The bottom line is that I will use both, and I'll be using them for different functions and for different reasons  (just as I will continue to read the traditional book).  The Kindle is a good basic reader with features that will appeal to people my age and older:  it's lightweight, simple to learn, has buttons rather than the more senstitive touch screen, the screen doesn't smudge easily, and it can be read in bright sunlight.  The NOOKcolor has, of course, beautiful color; touch screen; interactive functions; easier web access; and a larger reading screen (than my Kindle -- I understand that the Kindle DX has a larger screen) AND allows me to download e-books from my library.  Both the Kindle and the NOOK have many features in common that make my reading an even more wonderful and varied pleasure than it has been.

I would recommend, of course, that you visit the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites to learn more about both devices, especially if you are in the market for one (or both).  Happy reading!

Annie

A Tale of Two Kindles and a Nook: Part 1 - The Kindles

I thought that I had found the "sweet spot" in regard to my ever-present need to have books and magazines available to read.  My library provides a "book box" two miles from my home, where I can pick up and drop off books that I've reserved through the system website.  I also have three branches within a twenty minute drive, for those times I want to browse.  I subscribe to a dozen magazines and look forward to their arrival each month, and I have a personal library with enough books to keep me happy into my eighties.  I have carried suitcases full of books on the plane ride home from library conferences and book festivals (before that became too expensive) and never leave for an auto trip without a book bag filled with three or four books and several current magazines. 

I thought that I had plenty to read when I went to Alabama in October.  My daughter had a very bad case of double pneumonia, but she was released soon after our arrival.  I decided to stay a couple of weeks, and settled in with her family.  My granddaughters understood that Grandma's reading time was important and I was happy to see them (and hear them) read their own books. 

My son had brought his Kindle when he was visiting there, and left it when he went home.  During my stay, I picked it up and began reading.  I alternated between reading my library books and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo on the Kindle.  After a week or so, I had finished my library books, and moved on to The Girl Who Played with Fire.  I also read some of the Kindle's User Manual and figured out how to have a book downloaded (within seconds) from Amazon. 

After I got back home, I let my son know that I owed him a couple of dollars for a book I had downloaded and also told him that I really enjoyed the Kindle.  He said that he was happy to hear that and told me that he was sending me one for Christmas.  I started making plans about how I would integrate the Kindle into my reading times at home.  I wanted to put it to good use, but felt, somehow, that I was being unfaithful to my books; I was having an extra-biblio-affair -- my own guilty pleasure that would somehow diminish my book-lover status.

Of course, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas went very quickly, and I was extremely busy with preparations for both.  We had lots of company for Christmas and I put my new Kindle aside until after everyone was gone.

During January, I explored the features, skimmed the manual, downloaded some free books, and visited the Amazon website to explore more thoroughly what was available.  Among my downloads were two versions of the Bible: The King James and the American Standard.  I also downloaded a book of daily meditations and a couple of classics that I had intended to read.  I wasn't ready to download bestsellers, literary fiction or nonfiction, but I was happy with my Kindle and decided to use it in the following ways:

• I wanted to read the Bible through.  Previous efforts (or promises) had failed.  The "Read the Bible in a Year" assignments that I had try to follow jumped around too much and the assigned readings didn't necessarily fit my schedule.  Sometimes I was able to read more, and sometimes less.  Using the Kindle, starting with the New Testament, I am able to read at my own schedule.  The Kindle stays at the page where I stopped, in the font size that I have chosen.  If I do happen to go to another passage, I can easily bookmark where I left off, so that I can return. (My "home page" contains a list of all my books.  No matter what book I want to read, the Kindle takes me to where I left off in that book.)
• I also decided to use my Kindle for my daily meditations, for the reasons above.
• I have vision problems.  I particularly have vision problems in church; I can't follow the scripture in the Bible because the print is too small and my eyes don't adjust quickly enough from visually following the minister and the illustrative screens at the front of the sanctuary to the small print in the Bible.  My Kindle solves this; I can look in the bulletin and find the scriptures for the day's sermon and go ahead and have them in the font size that I can see. 
• I looked forward to having my Kindle with me when I was away from the house.  I especially looked forward to travelling with it and planned to download some leisure reading when we vacationed during the summer.

During the time I was getting acquainted with my Kindle, I visited my Dad, who is 89 and is experiencing visual and hearing problems. Dad loves to read and  I thought that he would be interested in the Kindle's font-size feature, where he could increase it to the size he needed.  He seemed mildly interested, but as I suspected, he wasn't ready to commit to a new technology.  This wasn't surprising, since his interest in any technology is pretty much limited to watching DVDs my brother loads for him, and using the closed captioning when it's available.

Later, I mentioned to my brother that I had introduced Dad to my Kindle and Rick said that Dad had told him about it.  This was evidence that Dad was interested, if not completely sold on having one.  I also mentioned it to my son, and Cory said that he wanted to buy a Kindle for Dad, which he did and had it delivered to my house.  I downloaded a Bible and several collections of westerns, plus some biographies of presidents and the writings of Abraham Lincoln (all free or almost free).  My Dad was one of the pilots who flew in supplies during the Seige of Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge) during World War II, so I also purchased a book entitled The Battered Bastards of Bastogne and downloaded it.  I asked Rick to meet me at Dad's when I took the Kindle to him.

We introduced it and all it contained to Dad.  There is a learning curve for seniors with any new technology, but Dad was willing to try, and didn't seem too daunted by accidently turning a page or learning the nuances of the arrow buttons.  He has begun to read the Book of James in the Kindle version of the King James Bible and was very interested in the westerns and the book about Bastogne.  As usual, I went a little too far when I wanted to show him how to search for his battalion and company; he was a little frustrated when I showed him the results and explained that he would have to go back into the book to read the complete passages.  But he is willing to learn and I think that he'll appreciate the gift more and more as time goes on.

So, that's basically my own experience with the Kindles in my life.  I will tell you about my Nook in my next post.  Yes, I have a Nook and a Kindle and, for me, that's not too much of a good thing.  More later --

Annie