Goodbye 2010!!

As the year 2010 quickly runs down its final moments, I find myself trying not to remember the less pleasant moments and focus on the best ones. The best moments of course include sharing times with you. There has been some great sadness for some of us as loved ones were lost... from accidents, cancer, and other horrible causes... and some of us have struggled with persistent health issues... and those too, also affected how 2010 played out.

But through it all, thick and thin... We got each other and had each other's back - and over the past few weeks, trips to the mailbox, both snail and electronic, brought me plentiful reminders that a great bunch of people surround me - both far and near.


Beautiful cards and thoughts from from Ronda, Betty of A Corgi in South California, Rebecca of This Mom's Many Hats, Karen of Ryan's MommyNikki of Aunt of 14, Lynne of Ramblin' Southern Woman,
Martha (and Tara) of The Daily Grind, YaYa who finally has a son! Wonderful, left- and right-handed handmade cards from Rita of SoulComfort's Corner and her daughter-in-law Leah, Parsley of Seasons of My Mind, Alison and Leland of Adventures of a Yankee Girl, Tori of Torizworld, Karla, Punkn of My loves My Life, and Lickety of Pukka Purl, Pamela of The Dust Will Wait, LadyStyx and Ranger of The World Can Be Amazing..., Alice Kay of Alice Kay Is Here, Jeannie of Jeannie's Happy World, Anne of Anne's Phamily, and last but by no means least, a Marvin the Martian.


Alice Kay sent an awesome photo book - the pictures of her hometown area remind me of the times I've been able to get upstate and see her beautiful corner of the world. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state. As I slowly turned the pages, I could feel the presence of a friend wrapped around me.


Ladystyx and her husband Ranger sent a box containing an unwrapped, really nice book about "What Christmas is all about" and a gift wrapped box that simply said, "For Later". When Christmas day came, I unwrapped it and beamed a huge smile. The complete, first year's episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants on DVD! Do you know how long it took to watch a complete, first year's season of SpongeBob SquarePants? Well, I'll tell you. 3 days. :)

Jeannie sent a spectacular box of Italian goodies. Biscotti, olive oil, candles and other select goodies. Those that know her, know her move from Georgia to Italy wasn't the smoothest - and that was but part of the sacrifice she and her family make, serving in the Armed Forces to protect and preserve our freedoms. In that box of goodies was one of her handmade cards. Her cards are always amazing.

I put it with the two handmade ones from Rita and Leah. Having four thumbs on each hand, I can but greatly respect and appreciate their talents. Rebecca made a wonderful necklace/glasses holder for my mom - and a matching zipper pull. You can see some of her handmade works of art (here). My mom was thrilled - not so much by the fact she needed the "old librarian glasses chain" but by the beautiful bead work. YellowDogGranny sent a West Texas Cookbook that my niece is taking great delight in. In fact, she's sending another copy!

The next week or so will likely see more surprises. I, like everyone else, enjoy good mail - but more so, I celebrate the thoughts behind it.

A while back, my brother saw me looking at an old map on-line one day at work - and he asked, "What is that?" I replied, "It's a map printed in 1922 showing the neighborhood that 3-great-grandfather Mousley lived in - see? See how it shows what business is in the buildings? And right there... see that alley? That was called 'Mousley Street'!".

He looked closely and said, "Hey! That's really cool! Can you e-mail me the link?"

So I did, and then I pretty much forgot about it. See that big red tube on the left of all those cards in the first picture? That was his Christmas present for me - inside it were two of the maps we spend the day looking at. This time my smile was a little goofy and choked up...


My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father ran the foundry located at Cedar and Boston (lower left corner where it says "Brass Foundry"). The railroad tracks to the right that create a freight yard (above the "rights" in "all rights preserved") are long gone - and the location is a small mall parking lot at the end of the Girard Avenue exit ramp (northbound) of Interstate 95. My grandfather speaks of Cramp and Sons Shipbuilding which dominated the area - of which only a single small building survives today.


Remember the old rundown brewery I wrote about (here) and the "at least it's clean parking lot" that was my 3-great-grandfather's home? You can see where they are/were on this map - in the upper left corner just below the word "W. Oxford" where it crosses Germantown Avenue. Granddaddy's house was the 3d, 4th and 5th buildings across the street (to the right) from the brewery.

I plan to frame these maps, they are about 2 1/2 feet by 3 feet in size, and put labels on the glass/plastic indicating where what is or was.

And then it's time to look forward - what will 2011 bring?

I suspect a good deal more of the same that 2010 brought - and it wasn't all bad.

:)

May all of you have a wonderful new year!

Post Christmas 2010

As most of you know, the east coast was hit by a snowstorm late Christmas Day and into the day afterward. The worse of the coastal storm passed to the east of me, sparing me the 10-18 inches they got in many places in New Jersey.

I wasn't completely spared of the white stuff. Monday morning meant going to work and shoveling out the company parking lot.


This is the only reason I dislike snow!

If it would only fall on the grass! While I was shoveling and shoveling and shoveling, I took breaks to warm my hands - the wind was gusty and the snow powdery - and laughed at some comic strips.

One of my favorites is Mutts by Patrick McDonnell.


The snow is actually melting away pretty quickly and the forecast calls for temperatures in the upper-forties the rest of this week. I guess Mooch found the thermoshtat.

I enjoyed this one too - as I've been researching cousins lately.


I had a nice Christmas. Both of my brothers were in town with their families and my older brother, my nephews and I went to visit my Grandfather in the afternoon. We did a bunch of crossword puzzles, took walks on the canal, had three dinners together, shoveled snow at my parents house, and they went ice skating (I can't).

I received some awesome presents - I'm very blessed with friends and family. I will write about a few of the gifts later - and yes, SpongeBob SquarePants got unwrapped.

Merry Christmas - From Me to You

I've finally decorated my tree!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and the happiest of new years!

A Boy and His Dog

Every now and then, I take a picture that I actually like. I've made this one my computer wallpaper - it will be replaced by another picture eventually but for now, each time I look at my monitor I see this scene:


Unbidden the thought comes to my mind, "A Boy and His Dog". My dad recently had a follow-up check with the Heart Specialist and was told that things looked good, very good, indeed. Hearing that news was the brightest spot the past week... and this picture shows him on the beach with his "puppy" Zoey.

Zoey loves running up and down the beach, free as a bird, and pretending she is a Sandpiper, following the rush of foamy wave lather up and down and nimbly keeping her feet dry. My dad watches her frolic - something she can only do in the winter time as come sometime before Memorial Day, she will be banned from the beach for the summer.

My dad is proudly wearing his C-5 Galaxy cap - a rare change from his Captain Bob or Water's Edge caps. He got this cap from my younger brother while at the Air Transport Museum in Dover, Delaware. The trip being completely arranged by my younger brother as a father's day gift. It included a behind the scenes peek at some cargo plane maintenance activities and cockpit visit in a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III as well as a visit to flight simulator where he crashed his "virtual" C-5 Galaxy trying to land it.

This morning, however, I was in an odd place mentally - and I gazed at this scene on my monitor and thought to myself, "Why do I keep half laughing and calling this 'A Boy and His Dog'"? On the way home from work, it finally hit me - there was novella written by Harlan Ellison (a magnificent Science Fiction author) with that title. And furthermore, I not only read it, I had seen it in movie form very late at night while in college - I remember being totally mentally beaten - a 4 hour final exam that day on "The Principles of Heat Transfer" really did a number on me.

The movie was shown in the college union, free popcorn, and reduced prices on Worx burgers (which at the time, I thought was the only edible food the campus cafeteria had). I remember reclining in a beanbag chair and watching this ... horrible, horrible movie... it was made around 1975... and the boy was the very young Don Johnson (of later Miami Vice fame).

In the movie a boy named Vic communicates telepathically with his dog named Blood as they scavenge for food and sex, and they stumble into an underground society where the daughter of one of the leaders of the community seduces Vic. The citizens have become unable to reproduce because of being underground so long. They use him for impregnation purposes, and then plan to be rid of him.

I'll not spoil the ending for you - but the closing scene still cracks me up. Just remembering the movie and where I saw it, fill me with nostalgia and make me look twice when eating barbecue.