Puppy in a Box

Or ‘Emotional Roller Coaster’

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It’s been an odd month. I’ve deleted and resurrected this post three times, trying to wrap my head around recent events…

Not sure where to start, so it will begin where I did: California in 1956. Young woman becomes pregnant with spawn of cad and a couple takes the baby girl (me) at birth. Young woman then marries and a couple of years later has another little girl, which she keeps.

I’m the puppy in the box, the one she gave away.

I’ve known my adopted status for most of my life and have felt every emotion you might expect.. especially gratitude for having the parents I did have, even though everything wasn’t always perfect.

Well, not long after I found my half-sister on Ancestry, I also discovered a picture of my birth mother. Taken in December 2015, she is standing next to my half-sister and they’re both smiling.

Continue reading “Puppy in a Box” →

August 24, 2017 6

The Why

Tabi Bee wrote a lovely post (the only kind she does!) about blogging ideas and of course it got me thinking.

One of the post ideas is why you started blogging. So simple an idea, but based on who you are and why that first post appeared… well, it could get complicated. Which is why it’s such an inspired idea!

I started blogging October 17 2001 on blogger. Though I’ve moved the blog to and from many platforms and hosts, back then most of us started there. And every move the blog was wiped clean and started anew. Most people ported their archives, but what I had to say seemed to mean very little in the long run.

Perhaps because I started talking about politics early on, trying to understand events -it was right after 9/11- and went on talking about them for over ten years… until I burnt myself out. That’s why mostly pictures now, I think. They’re peaceful and people don’t call you names because you post them.

I actually went back to the original blog and deleted many of those posts and put pictures up instead, not that there were any hard core political screeds there… Maybe it’s my age, but there’s a calm that comes when you turn off the tv, don’t pay attention to the politics of the day and focus only on what is truly important.

So that’s the why I started… but why don’t I just let this thing die a graceful death? Hard to tell, really. Maybe I’m just clinging to it out of nostalgia.

August 21, 2017 2

Lady

I’ve been thinking about Mrs. Strauss.

Margaret Strauss was a intelligent woman with common sense and a spartan style in both speech and design.
A formidable force in my narrow young world, her friends called her ‘Lady’,a gift from her Papa after the early demise of her mother. She carried that name throughout her life but I never called her anything but Mrs. Strauss, no matter how old we both became.

She and I first became acquainted when my mother went to work at her daycare center. Childless, widowed, a retired school teacher as well as former legal secretary, she decided to open a daycare where children would be properly cared for as well as started on the right road to learning. Forever into a project, She purchased and renovated a house across from the local grade school for her dream of the perfect early learning environment. She also lived in the house directly behind the school, her way of being close . The whole deal was revolutionary in our small Texas town and quickly drew many parents wanting an alternative to the norm of daycare as they knew it.
The Carousel Child Care Center was open for many years, but I think ultimately she lost too much money just trying to do it right.
Continue reading “Lady” →

August 5, 2017 2

Crepe

I couldn’t decide; I liked them both. Click to embiggen.

July 2, 2017 0

Anole

June 20, 2017 0

With and Without Feather

Which do you prefer?

I only noticed the Loggerhead Shrikes this year. They are suddenly abundant, loud and nearly completely fearless. I like them.

June 19, 2017 0

New Windows!

Three are broken and four sills have to be replaced, but we finally got the new windows in! Yes, I am happy.

Before, of course. Goodbye, nasty old rotted aluminum crap. Honestly, some of those thin little panes were just barely sitting in the frame, it was all so rotted.