random thoughts

She thinks she is hiding here but I guess it is better than diving under DJ's bed for hours on end. SIGH, I had hoped that she would be over this when I got back. All it took was the cable guy coming to hook up the high speed 10 days ago and she is jumpier and hiding again. Actually it was kind of funny--she was walking down the hall with him figuring those were just anybody's legs heading her direction till he asked "where do you want the cable to come up?" When he spoke, she could not high tail it fast enough!


I've read through the most recent blog postings (no way to catch up with all of you) , slept later than I really intended, need to hop in the showers and get groceries sometime today and started the laundry. I seem to be in a pattern of sleeping for a few hours, waking and staying that way for a few more and then conking back for an hour or two. I could attribute that to travel and sleeping in a guest room or hotel room but I don't seem to do much better in my own. DJ is home from his golf round and Pippi is back to hiding. As normal a routine as one gets, I guess.

Lots and lots of driving and riding the past five days, as I mentioned. Sometimes I get a little stir crazy and think that I just need to get out of here, go somewhere, do something, anything but I doubt that feeling will back anytime real soon. Maybe I can understand why my husband just wanted to stay home this trip. Having said that I still don't want to cut him much slack on his not going with me. Pippi, if she knew, would thank him for not having to go board though.

I don't think I have spent that much time with my brother as an adult--short visits at family gatherings mostly with the rest of the crowd around. Six kids, their spouses and children can make for a pretty big crowd at that. We played alphabet games in the car--animals that start with what letter, borrowing one from our youngest brother "bad things that happen to the human body that start with what letter"--we should compare notes on that one. Helping Beth learn the lyrics to "My Favorite Things" for her vocal lessons led to the three adults and help from Beth writing adapted lyrics for it. Enough that when I woke during the early morning hours on Wednesday(what the heck day is it anyway?) snatch phrases were still running through my head. Another verse in the making?

I had taken some redwork (and bluework) along with me but didn't work on it but it was good to have along because Beth made a knotted necklace for Randi as we rode along with the two colors I had on hand. Meanwhile Randi was making Beth a scarf out of potholder loops on her drive with my sister and brother-in-law from Colorado to Springfield, MO. I did get some work on a left front cardigan after several false starts on both increasing and establishing the pattern rows. Beth had the MP3 player and me, book on tape. Jan worked on some binding as she is a quilter as well---you just saw the hot air balloons. Too bad I didn't drag this last one in the stack along with me as I could have put her to work, LOL. She and Steve switched off on the driving duties as we went through TN from the Nashville area, across Kentucky and headed for Paducah and the famed Exit 4 and basicially hung a left across the lower half of Missouri on to Springfield.

Two of my siblings (the two that share the middle of the lineup--sister and brother) had impossible work schedules and work obligations so could not come to the funeral. That cannot be helped and we understood---software/system program installations and deadlines. My youngest brother and his oldest son were able to drive down from central IL. No surprise, Phil and John were staying right by the Bass Pro Shop but just up the road from us--he is the fisherperson in the family. When we were trying to reach him on the cell phone to tell him we had checked in, that's where he had been. We got together for supper that evening. The three cousins are all about the same age and hit the pool almost as soon as everyone was checked in. We adults sat around visiting, catching up and laughing while they splashed, swam and did their version of the same thing. No one realized how late it was getting and the helpful young man on the desk allowed them to stay 45 minutes longer than we should have.

When I heard someone ask "are you a Harms?" as my brother and his daughter came up the hall to the lobby the next morning, I knew it was some of our relations asking. She spotted the red hair---Mom had told our second cousin Becky to look for a bunch of redheads--Steve, Beth, Janet, Randi, John and I are all redheaded though different shades. Becky and our three great-aunts were all staying at the same hotel. We always lived so far from our relatives that prior meetings were either long forgotten or almost non-existent in some cases for the younger of the kids.

The funeral was a celebration of Grandma's life with lots of songs. The service brief and handled well by the pastor. Grandma wrote her own obituary, as a matter of fact but then she did this for the small hometown newspaper she and Grandpa had owned. The burial was to be some distance away so the funeral home will handle that part. My sister said I should not sit with her or look at her or we both would be in tears. I did anyway and we were anyway in spite of it but that is only natural and expected when you have a group prone to easy tears--"bladder too close to the eyes", as I once read. The visitation allowed us some time to visit with the aunts as did the luncheon afterwards--sharing stories and remembrances. Who knew that grandma played the violin along with her sister in the church orchestra and that great-great granddad Lynch had made them? One aunt in particular reminded me of Grandma in looks and temperment--she calls them as she sees them. Another, the youngest, is the geneologist and can probably help my sister-in-law fill in the blanks from the great-grandparents 50th anniversary booklet (in the 60's) till present day.

We got together for supper and then more swimming for the kids and chatting by the adults though by that time we were down one cousin and one sibling. By Tuesday morning all of us were headed back home. Dad could have gotten a ride back to IL Monday afternoon with Phil and John (they live about 12 miles from each other) had Mom needed to stay a few days more--a much shorter ride at that--but that was not necessary.

My aunt sent a stamped cross stitch piece that I had made for Grandma home with me---it is not dated so I can only make a guess as to when I made it--high school, early 70's? Man, that she kept that all those years just because I did the stitching. A ring her sister had given her and always worn was returned to the giver--she was so touched. The kids picked out a momento as well--just as she wanted. I also brought back my Mom's completed butterfly challenge quilt and was able to return the borrowed Viking to my sister, thanks to a big car trunk, while a box of clothes went back with Phil for the youngest cousins. Save postage after all.

Well, sorry to prattle on like that--maybe that isn't quite true--this is my journal after all. Obviously I have no recent completions to share, no fabric purchases even though Jan and I were right on the road to Hancock's of Paducah, no goals met or challanges I am actively involved with other ring members. The biggest thing on my horizon is getting some groceries in the house and I won't think much beyond the next two days. Frankly I don't feel like sewing in the first place---and I know myself enought to know NOT to push it when I feel like that or spend half the time un-sewing it. The church quilt display is coming up on Saturday so tomorrow or even later tonight I'll pack up the car trunk--maybe finish up the binding on this last one once errands are run.
And so it goes--------