Back to Our Roots

This dreamy spot on a river in north Georgia is actually one of the locations where the Cherokee people were forced to gather before being driven west to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s.

Papa could be feeling so strongly attached to our part of Georgia here because his maternal greatgrandmother had family in Oklahoma who were Cherokees and may have been descendents of those former Georgia people.

So we're learning about this time in history. Who knows? Grandkid may be living right back where her Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-GreatGrandmother would have lived out her life, except for man's inhumanity to man.

Getting Groceries is Lotsa Fun!

Now I don't have to plan that trip to the UK.

John Cowan, What a Great Singer

There are lots of videos from many different years and venues, of this wonderful performer with the extraordinary voice and musicianship available on the youtube.com. Don't dare miss him! "Ain't That Peculiar" Right now he is touring with the Doobie Brothers! Check out his website for the info: www.johncowan.com

Story of the Horse In the Barn

This is the horse in the barn story! Among people I have told the story, it has become a meaningful shorthand that instantly communicates. I first thought of it as a way to comfort myself about having to do so much for another perfectly capable human. I thought, What if I had invested in a very valuable horse and planned a care and maintenance schedule for it, in order to protect my investment. Good care keeps an animal happy and content, healthy and beautiful. The care schedule would be another responsibility in a life filled with responsibilities. But the return on my investment would be worth the time and effort of doing everything for the valuable horse. A horse needs food, vitamin supplements, good water, clean surroundings. He can’t arrange any of these things for himself. He can’t get his water pail washed or measure out the oats for himself. He doesn’t have any hands, he can’t read a clock or a calendar. When he makes noise I can’t understand what he’s saying, because I don’t speak Horse. So I just talk in a nice tone, and make sure to do the best I can to do what the horse needs. I can’t be angry at the horse for my inability to understand his language, or his inability to get his own breakfast and things. The comparisons can be carried out as far as needed. The point for me is, everything that I want to have comes with a high price in money, energy, frustration, patience and wear on my nerves. So I just keep my wants down to where I can try to manage the costs. I thought of this story when my friend was blowing her top because her husband would only take his meds and supplements if she portioned them out for him every morning. If she was rushing around and didn’t do it, he wouldn’t go and take them. So I said, How about pretending that he is a horse in a barn with no hands, and he can’t get the meds himself? She said, Well yeah, if he actually cannot get them for himself, then I don’t mind.

Middle o' Winter

Lotsa good cooking going on, today a pot roast. Nice but fatty chuck roast on sale, but very tasty. Two bulbs of garlic, onions, red and green peppers sauteed together, dumped over the roast in the slow cooker with canned tomatoes and an envelope of Good Seasons dressing mix. Potatoes, carrots. It all turned out great!

Just right for a cold rainy day.

That Cat

Here's Shadow the Cat's new furniture. She took a nap in each cat holder as soon as we brought it in!

World's Fair Expositions

There is a world of history to be savored by researching the world's fairs, such as the 1904 St. Louis fair, and the one in Chicago 1893. Here is a link for a grandmother's story of how she visited the fair in St. Louis when she was six: http://washingtonmo.com/1904/midi/stuartg.htm

When she was six, she was looking into a future of improved lifestyles, enriched by electric appliances and an invention that re-wired peoples' brains: ice cream. My own grandmother spoke often and awestruck of her introduction to it. And she always added, Don't eat too much of it or your rearend will be huge. Which, I found, to be accurate.

We can look backwards 106 years later and realize most of the modern wonders seen at the World's Fair for the first time and taken for granted or taken for entitlements now, aren't really any good for us. And they don't make us happy. And we don't appreciate them. And we're trying to learn to live without them now, so we won't use up all the earth's resources.

There were massive, intricate structures built just for the fair in St. Louis, and had to be torn down afterwards, for the most part. The story with all its details is just captivating.

I began to wonder what things I'm doing now that will be thrown into the dump and laughed at a hundred years from now. Or even sooner!