Books are in my soul

Books are in my soul.  I should be better at writing, what with all of the reading I have done in my life.  My mother loved books, and had a rather large collection before I came along.  I always had access to books, any book in the house.  From a very tender age my mother instilled a healthy respect of books, and how to handle them, in me.  I particularly remember that she enrolled me in a book club, I think when I was 3 years old, thus I got a book in the mail with some regularity.  There was also a kind of a language book, geared for preschool minds, and it was all about words, sounds, and phonics.  Mother was a huge proponent of phonics in teaching a child to read, and I poured over this book regularly as a tot. (I still have the book, ….somewhere….)

My mother read to me, every day of my life until I was about 13 years old. When I was very confident in my reading abilities we sat side by side, and if Mom made any error in reading I would point it out and we would laugh together,....good times.  

I remember one time, I must have been nearly 4 years old, mom wanted to nap, but I wanted her to read to me.... Mom sighed and said that she would read me "a couple" of books.  Holding the books I wanted to hear in my hands I announced, "a couple is five!"  Of course Green Eggs & Ham was one of the five books she read to me that afternoon.

As a small child I was read to during the day and at bedtime.  Everything from current children’s favorites to fairy tales.  My parents bought a edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica for me and with that came a supplementary series of “Childbook” installments, which included a book of stories for children.  Childbook #2.  This one of my favorite sources for bedtime stories, a huge anthology of a variety of stories, some fairy tales, some tales from “foreign lands”, all highly entertaining for young minds. 

And, very precious to me, on the bookshelf in my living room (where I can see it every day): The Childrens Treasury of Literature (Grosset & Dunlap ©1955). This contains fables, nursery rhymes, and a load of stories that fascinate youngsters, like the Tales of Aladdin.  I have always kept this massive tome within reach, every day of my life.  Sadly, it is out of print, and I sorely wish that I had purchased a second copy when they were still reprinting it.

  

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss became the bane of my mother’s existence.  It was ALWAYS included in any selection of 3 to 5 books that she would agree to read to me during the day.  I would tease her with it all her life, and even when Alzheimer’s took her short-term memory I could get a sigh of dismay from her upon showing her the book.  “Not that again!” she would say.  But I believe that Green Eggs and Ham was the base upon which my foundation of lifetime reading was built.  Only 2 books jump immediately to my mind when I am asked about the first book I loved.  Green Eggs and Ham, and The Little House.  Two books that were read to me more than any others, and I accumulated a very large library as a child, which I still own to this day.

In grade school I argued with the school librarian to allow me to check out books that were considered to be beyond an 8 year old, books she felt were for the fourth through sixth grades.   In particular Smoky, The Cowhorse, which was the book that began the argument in the first place.  I told her that I would read the entire book and bring it back within the allowed two week check-out period, the librarian relented, and I accomplished the read with days to spare.  That ended arguments with that librarian, after I told her all about the story of Smoky, The Cowhorse.

Other favorites of my youth and adolescence include White Fang, by Jack London, ….. 2250AD “original title Starman’s Son”, by Andre Norton ….. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson –the novel upon which the Charleton Heston movie The Omega Man was based.  When asked about favorite books these are the ones that come to mind first.

There are many other favorites, among them The Godfather and The Exorcist, as the original movie versions of these books in particular were extremely true to the books upon which they were based. To me The Stand is Stephen King’s best novel.

I love The Far Pavillions, by M.M.Kaye, which I purchased for the sole reason that it was over 1,200 pages in length and the bargain price was $1.99, when I was still in high school, and first read when I was 18 years old.  I adore The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough.   I am not usually one to choose an author and then read everything they have written, but I do have a couple of favorite authors….

For cheesy Cinderella-type tales I love Judith Krantz from her first novel , Scruples 1978 through her 1994 novel Lovers,  after that I lost interest…. I will have to see what I am missing from her later years.  Mistral’s Daughter by Judith Krantz is an amazing story of the frailty of the human psyche, fraught with failings, confidence, and regret, but also encompassing love so great that we break our own hearts.

Another favorite, quite more intellectual in style is author Allen Drury. The first Allen Drury book I obtained from a bookstore where I worked, someone had special ordered, never picked it up, and it was marked down from $34.00 (because of being a special order) to $1.00, a bargain!  The title: Roads of Earth  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Drury)  Allen Drury wrote several novels that were about Washington D.C. politics, a duo of ancient Egypt novels, and even a political/science fiction novel.  Allen Drury’s novels are on a rather more intellectual level than I normally read, however, I find the content interesting and compelling, in an old-school style reminiscent of columnists and newscasters of my youth.

Recently, for nearly a decade, I had a job that made reading inconvenient for me –too many interruptions.  Therefore, from mid-2007 until late 2016 I believe that read fewer than 25 books.  How sad!  However, the first thing I did upon leaving that job was to pick up a book and start reading….. now approximately 75 days later, I have read 13 books, and am into the 14^th.  These include the 7 book Harry Potter series, a book about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and currently the excellent Robert Redford biography by Michael Feeney Callan.  I am participating in a reading challenge, which is to read 26 books in 2017, I may actually read 52 books in 2017!

I have far more books than I have shelf space for.... and I have been known to read as many as 3 books at the same time; one upstairs, one downstairs, and one in the backpack. I definitely need a large room for exclusive use as a library.  And yet, I still go to the library; for the Harry Potter series, and occasionally when someone recommends a particular book to me. I loved spending hours getting lost in the library.... and that will be another blog.........

a few memories of my dad

I purchased a new snow brush for the car today..... I use a push-broom.... and the old, wooden one broke.... (my Dad bought that old, wooden push-broom back around 1968.... thanks Dad, I know you did not intend it to be used to clean snow off of cars, but it served me well for many years.)

I posted the above paragraph on a Facebook post about a predicted snow storm today.  I reminded me of the good things, from my Dad, that I have been thankful for lately.  While Dad did not intend that push-broom to be used to clean snow off of cars, I think he would appreciate that I put it to good use. You see, I had a Subaru wagon, and I wanted to clear snow off the roof of the car before putting it inside the garage.  I think that my Dad would have appreciated the ingenuity of that.  Over the years I have grown used to using that push-broom as a snow brush on many other vehicles....  I now own a Jeep Liberty, with a cloth roof (sun roof), and I still want the snow off the roof before putting the car in my garage.  I will miss the old, wooden, boar bristle broom.

snow brush, new and old.....

I have a bunch of tools.... most of them were my Dad's.  Some are nice sets, and some are just mis-matched tools that he accumulated one way or another over his nearly 70 years on this earth.  I am grateful for these tools... I have used many of Dad's tools -more often the my own tools.  I have been most grateful for the monkey wrench.... the time I fixed the toilet it came in handy,.... so glad that I was able to find it and put it to use.

I think that I also inherited a kind of toughness, a hardy spirit if you will, from my Dad.....  some of it came from Mom too, but Dad's family was a hardy, spirited bunch.

I still have Dad's recliner.... Dad was a kind of a tv "head", because he followed the old radio programs, --he followed them from radio to television. He was one of the first people in the area to get a television set.  The television was set up in the living room of the house, and that is where the recliner was placed, maybe 12 feet away from the television. By the time I was born Dad had established a pattern of turning the television on first thing in the morning -and leaving it on all day long.  My bedroom was off the living room, so the sounds of variety programs and westerns were my lullabies.  Many a night I was awakened in the wee hours by the sounds of The National Anthem, television sign off, or blare of the test pattern scream.  Dad would fall asleep in the recliner and the television played on until Mom came and got him. 

(I was just 9 years old when he passed.)   When he died we kept the recliner, and it got regular use... when the house was sold I brought that recliner with me.  It was in my large bedroom in my first home, and media rooms (with a television set) thereafter... I still have it and sit in it a few times a week while reading a book. 

One other thing that Dad left me, unfortunately, is his anger.  I have learned to manage that anger well over the many years of my life,... I allow it to manifest when I am alone, in the car or at home, where I rant until I have exhausted whatever topic particularly ignited the angry urges.  Dad was filled with passion, passionate anger, passion for fishing, passion for the motorboat (once upon a time he had a beautiful Criss Craft, later a pontoon boat), passion for "going to the lake", and passion for "going bumming" which meant driving out, late in the afternoon, to pay a surprise visit to one friend or another.  Going bumming, meant that I had a nice ride in the back seat of the car featuring views of stunning sunsets in the countryside of northern Illinois "back in the day'.

Chris Craft (note: this photo is an example, not the actual boat that my Dad owned)

Anyway, Dad, in spite of everything and anything, I still have fond memories of my childhood days, and interactions with you.  I still have things that belonged to you.  Cherished items from my youth, and warm memories of comfort, a sense of direction and a sense of wanderlust.....  Thank you.

Me and The Continental Divide (2008)

It was the nature of my job to be “on call” all the time, and ready to travel upon request.  So it was no real surprise, late one Sunday morning, to get a phone call from my boss Mark, telling me that I was going to Denver the next morning.  The CDL driver out in Colorado had “a fear of heights”, although he had driven the vehicle up into the mountains….  I will explain this more later….  So, I prepared to go to Colorado, for an undetermined length of time, or as long as one month.  This involved taking a bus from near my home to O’Hare airport early on that Monday morning, in May of 2008.  I was to fly to Denver International Airport, which I must confess I have very little memory of being in that airport, and I met the technician, the female member of the team, who drove my up to Georgetown, Colorado (elevation 8,530’).  Georgetown is a little over an hour west of Denver’s airport. (see altitude sickness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_sickness )

The CDL driver was not feeling well at all, and did not want to continue driving the rig.  We had lunch and then set out on Interstate 70, heading for Eagle, Colorado.  Unknown to me as we set out was the fact that the Eisenhower Tunnel was closed to vehicles over 22,000 lbs.  This meant that the vehicle I was driving was too heavy to pass through the tunnel.  When I saw the first warning sign I immediately got on the cb radio and called the driver, in the pickup truck behind me…. I asked him to confirm the weight of the vehicle, and he said that we could call it “under 22,000lbs.” and then I saw the Colorado State Trooper parked by the detour sign, and I said, “let’s not, and I will see you on the other side.”

So, I was driving a rig over  (yes OVER) the Continental Divide for the first time in my life.  I had never even driven a car at such and elevation before, so I was more than a little concerned.   My concern was heightened by the fact that the trucking company I had driven for would never have put me in such a position as a less experienced truck driver, but here I was, with no option but to proceed.  Up old U.S. Highway 6, The Loveland Pass.  This is a two-lane, paved highway that few people drive on during a Monday afternoon in May.  In other words it was me in an F550 Ford truck with a 18,000lb trailer on the fifth wheel, and a big rig in front of me, and –a short time into the journey another big rig behind me.  And we were driving into the heavens on a narrow two-lane, with a sheer drop off on the right side…. the three of us all driving down the middle of the road, so as to be a few  feet farther from the edge.

We were in third gear, and could go no faster up the mountain than that,… around 25-27mph.  A slow, scary crawl upwards… I was grateful that the F550 had the capability to keep up with the big rigs.

 

If you have ever seen a movie called The Long, Long Trailer (staring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; MGM 1953) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/  then you have some idea of what it might be like, climbing ever higher into the Rocky Mountains, on a narrow road….  I was NOT laughing.

Then came the downhill side…. but “downhill” makes it sound so small and so simple…. It was hair-raising!  I had no idea whether the brakes on the F550 could take it, no idea when the brakes had been serviced last, and there is no jake brake on an F550.  I decided to mimic the driver ahead of me, though he was in a real semi-tractor, with a jake brake….. but I followed his lead, allowing the vehicle to get up just above the speed limit, and then gently braking it down to 5 miles per hour under the limit, and then let her glide on again. All the while in 3rd or 4th gear.
It turned out to not be as bad I as had feared, and after about 10 minutes I started to relax and look around me at the Arapaho National Forest.  Around the time we arrived in Dillon, not far from rejoining Interstate 70, my other driver came back on the cb radio to see if I was okay.   He later complained that the brakes on the F550 and trailer were “singing”, but really they were fine, and we continued on, working at various locations in the western part of Colorado, for several days before we took the vehicle in to a shop to be inspected and have a tire replaced.

It was scary, driving over The Continental Divide, all by myself for the first time, on a narrow highway, but looking back –it was exhilarating, and I will always wish that I had had someone with me to take pictures along the way.

Somewhere along the way I had picked up a brochure on Altitude Sickness and, sure enough, the other CDL driver had about 6 of 9 symptoms listed on the brochure.... that was what I had been thinking all along.....  I had even stated to my boss that this is not "fear of heights" - this man had physical symptoms that were beyond 'fear'.

I was in Colorado for just over 3 weeks, and had a wonderful time with the coworkers and being a part-time tourist.  I will be friends for the rest of our lives, with Gwen and Alan.  Gwen and I drove through the Colorado National Monument national park at Grand Junction and drove up to Steamboat for an afternoon.  We had a great time getting to know each other and I got to see a lot of Colorado, and made a short visit to Wyoming one memorable afternoon……..

You have to go right to go left.....

Ahem, yes, if you have been to New Jersey (in particular) you know whereof I speak...
This will never fail to amuse me, for the remainder of my life... it's what my boss called a "jug handle"... sometimes, in a few areas of the East Coast of the United States, you have to turn right to turn left... And, yes, that does sound very wrong.  However, having observed the amount of traffic and the general conditions of many of these areas, it makes complete sense, from a safety standpoint.  Haven't you ever driven by your destination, which would be on the left side of the road, and then turned around and gone back for the express purpose of turning right instead of waiting forever to make a left turn in a busy traffic area?  I have.  So, this sign is not really all that confusing: 

however I wish these signs were more noticeable in such areas where you have the "jug handle" situation. 

refer, if you will to this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle

In particular I find this amusing because of a co-worker... he never would listen to me, and I really only talked to him if I had something really relevant to say.... for example: "sometimes you have to go right to go left...."  Naturally he did not listen to me, so we drove for about 20 minutes to make a 5 minute trip.... somewhere in New Jersey.  And I absolutely cound NOT laugh at all.  If I had laughed at all he would have made life very miserable for days, possibly weeks.  So, I had to be all serious and tell him that the next exit from the particular road we were on was about 8 miles distant, and that it would indeed take at least another 15 minutes to go the distance and return to where we needed to be.  As it happened we were quite early, so no harm done, except of course for the fact that mr. high and mighty had taken an ego blow.  Because I was able to refrain from laughing I then had the upper hand, so to speak, for the next few days.  ---not that I wanted to participate in the competition, but I digress.... I could write volumes about the conflict and issues of dealing with dr. jekyll and mr. hyde.....  Jug handles.... hehehe.....  😎

Bogus job offers (1)

I have been unemployed for 56 days. In that time I have received more bogus job offer emails than I have taken the time to count.  After the first few, and 4 hours wasted on a bogus interview, I now simply delete any emailed job offer that demands I sign up for Google Hangouts or Skype without so much as a phone call.

Here is what you need to know about any job offer:  research the company!  Do some in depth research, and, if possible, email the company and inquire about the person making the offer, or simply ask if such a job is available.  The best company websites will have some sort of “current jobs” link to click on, so you can simply see if the job you are being offered actually exists.

I have done such research. What I have found were some very impressive websites, for actual companies.  But, going that next step, I have found that these “work from home for now” administrative assistant jobs do not exist.  I don’t even want to work from home! If I cannot visit a real company, in person, and meet the people I would be working for and with, then I am not interested.  Not that there is anything wrong with working from home, but being able to do so, as an administrative assistant AND still make over $20 an hour, full time…. Seriously? I don’t think so.

Two of the companies I researched do not have offices in the United States, at all.  How do I know? I emailed them and asked!  I received polite replies telling me that the job I have inquired about is bogus, and the person I was contacted by is unknown to the company in question.  They are not recruiters; the jobs they are offering me are totally bogus.  It is fraud.

I actually got on Google Hangouts with one such “recruiter”.  We went back and forth for over 4 hours.  He described a job, and all of the duties, and even the benefits package.  This person claimed to be in Madison, Wisconsin –only an hour away from me, but stated that there was not yet an office to go to.  I would be working at home “for now”.  He actually had someone mail me a check ostensibly “to purchase a laptop, and all necessary office equipment and supplies” for my use at my home.   ….They actually mailed the check while I was still on Google Hangouts, chatting with the fake “recruiter”.  …. Here is what happened with that:  in my mailbox was a notice from my local U.S. Post Office, stating that I could pick up a piece of mail at the local postal facility.   I went to the local postal facility, and the postal worker went to get the package from the back.  He returned to the counter with the package, a postal express envelope, with a note on it.  The note stated, “FRAUD”, just like that, in large letters.  I immediately dropped my hands to my sides.  “I am not touching that.” I stated.  The postal carrier told me that the postal inspector had stopped the package, notated it, and would I fill out a form and sign, stating that I was refusing this package.  Absolutely- I filled out and signed the document.  The postal worker explained that this “may be mail fraud, involving a fraudulent check, or a check cashing scheme.” 

Here is the lowdown:  these people are trying to gain access to bank accounts.  Bank accounts of unemployed people.  How despicable is that!  Identity theft.  They want to steal from people who are down on their luck and looking for a real job. 

I wish that this was publicized widely, but it is not.  I tried to contact the local media about this, but received no replies…. So: PLEASE SHARE THIS BLOG POST. 

If someone sends you an email, offering you job, but also demanding that you set up a Google Hangouts  or Skype account and add them to your contact list --         DO NOT REPLY IN ANY WAY, delete the email – mark it as SPAM.  If you think you know how they got your information report them to that entities fraud department.   If there is not to be a live, in person, interview, if they don’t have a local office that you can visit…. If there is anything at all that makes you suspicious….

And please, be suspicious of any “work at home” job offer.  Be careful out there!

You Can Be More (02/17/2017)

I understand that today is "Random Acts Of Kindness" day.... okay, but I practice random acts of kindness on a regular basis.  All you need to do is hold a door for someone, or say "thank you" when someone does something for you -even if they were just doing their job.

Frequently, when I am grocery shopping, people approach me to ask a question -they mistakenly think that I work in the store.  Usually I have no idea where they get that impression, but I take it in stride.  I inform the person that I do not, in fact, work for the store, ...but, "what are you looking for? perhaps I can help anyway."  This never fails to astonish the person with the question, but - what the heck? If I can help why wouldn't I?  Seriously....
I have noticed that I am sometimes wearing a shirt or a vest that makes me appear to be an employee of the store I am in.... I have to be careful about wearing certain shades of blue or red.... and, in the wintertime, I wear a vest with a lot of pockets (instead of carrying a purse).

Often times the person accosting me with a question is elderly.  That makes me want to help.  You see, my aging mother lived at my house -I had to help her for years....  I have empathy, therefore I offer to help people who have asked for help.
I remember one woman, in the baking aisle, who was trying to find yeast. I knew approximately where to look for yeast in that baking aisle, so I helped her search.  Turned out that yeast was on sale, so I bought some myself (yeah, I don't really bake, but you never know....).  But I got a charge out of the delight on the old woman's face when we located the yeast --not a big seller, and truly tough to find in that particular store.

That's the thing -- I help people, and my reward is seeing how pleased they are to find what they need..... or just how happy they are that someone acknowledged their efforts with a simple "thank you".

There is NO money!

It's a giant pet peeve of mine... family members who think that others in their family are "rich".  It is a fact that my Dad hosted a huge family party every year at Christmastime.... I do not know for how many years this occurred, I only know that it ended when I was 4 years old, for a variety of reasons.  I do not even know all of the reasons...
Anyway, ever since I can remember, all I have heard is "when are you all going to host a family reunion?"  Well, I am not.  A family reunion would cost a lot of money, especially since I do not own a home large enough to even consider such a thing.  Plus, I don't even know where my Dad's side of the family disappeared to! I know where to find 4 or 5 of my paternal cousins, but I digress.

The point of this article is that some members of the family seem to think that my Dad was rich,...like Rockefeller rich,  J. Paul Getty rich, (google them if you don't know what I am talking about)... that simply was not the case.  My Dad had a little bit of money, he owned his own business, and it was still lucrative when he retired from it.  But my Dad also paid cash for everything! Cars, homes, and the multiple surgeries he had in the last few years of his life.  I am not going to name numbers for anyone, but when my Dad died there was not a great pile of money left.  There was enough to provide for me until I reached "majority", which was 8 years.... that was everything: housing (read property taxes), clothing, transportation, food, and a few minor extras (park district classes, piano lessons).  When I turned 18 there was a tiny sum in a money market account, and that is long gone as of this writing.

It has been suggested that my mother gave money away, which is simply not the case.  I know for a fact, by the way we lived, that there was a limit to the money.  One example is that neither of us liked the house we were living in, but we remained there until it was in a condition where improvements were called for (it was not at all unlivable), timely things that needed attention, but we did not have any money for home improvements, no matter how necessary.  We lived in that house that neither of us liked for 17 years after my father died.  We drove cheap little "economy" cars.  There was no money for extravagance.  I went to community college for under $500 a semester, even though I had been accepted by a major university, and I worked part time in the school library.

The thing I am trying to say is that, unless Uncle "Boo" lives in a mansion, with a butler, and has 4 or 5 automobiles, you do not KNOW that Uncle "Boo" is filthy rich.  The younger siblings do not really know if their older siblings paid their parents back on that loan, because it was none of their business.  There are very few rich uncles out there, most of us do not have rich relatives who are going to leave us a pile of money.
So, if you think that I am going to invite you out to eat, and that I will pay for your meal(s), you had better think again, my friend!  Because I live from paycheck to paycheck, and right now (as I write this) I am unemployed. Think about that. If you are waiting for that invitation from me, then get over it, or die waiting, because my Dad was not rich, and I am far from rich, and even if I won the lottery -at this point I would go find some homeless people and buy dinner for them before I would feed relatives whose homes are paid for and have retirement savings.

I apologize if that comes off as angry or hurtful, but I am just plain tired of the nonsense.