I-Luv-Eeyore's blog

QotD: Can't Resist...

What's one thing you can't say no to?

Chocolate
Pudding
A nap
My TV shows

....Oh! you only asked about ONE.

That would be "Would you like to hold my baby?"

QotD: The Very Best

If you could be the best at anything in the world, what would you choose?

I would choose to be the very best parent ever.

All kids deserve good parents.  I'd like to be the best parent my kid could ever have...then in several years I'd love to be the best Grandma my son's kids could ever have.

 

QotD: Natural Disaster

Have you ever experienced a natural disaster? If so: when, where and what happened?

October 16, 1989 my Mom and I landed in Oakland, CA for a visit with my Grandpa.  As Mom was driving the rental car on the bottom level of the Nimitz freeway I had a very ominus feeling.  I was begging my Mom to please get us off this freeway.  I didn't like it, it was freaking me out and I needed off NOW!!  Mom kept going on and on about how safe the freeway was and how it was earthquake proof.  None of that made me feel better and finally Mom exited the freeway several exits ahead of when we really needed to get off.  As soon as we stopped at the first redlight and we were no longer in the shadow of the freeway I felt better.

The next evening, Oct 17, 1989 everyone was gathered at Grandpa's house for a speghetti dinner and to watch the World Series between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants.  My cousin, Cathy, and I were putting the finishing touches on dinner when my Mom said something to me from the family room.  I didn't understand what she said and as I was asking her to repeat it the house started to shake.  Mom repeated herself: "Here's your earthquake" as she was trying to get out of the chair she was in to get away from the big window the chair was setting by.  My cousin, a native Californian, was trying to get to the kitchen/hall doorway, every time she took a step the house would buck and throw her back.  In the mean time I had moved to the doorway that lead from the breakfast nook to the backyard.  As I stood in the doorway I was torn between laughing at my cousin and crying in horror as the ground was moving like waves on a lake.  uhm....the Earth is called TERRA FIRMA for a reason and it is not natural to see the earth moving like that.

As soon as the earth quit moving the TV was turned to the local news so we could see how bad it had been.  News would trickle in the rest of the evening but we couldn't tear our eyes away from the rescue efforts that were taking place on the Nimitz Freeway...the very section that my Mom and I had been on not even 24 hours before.  Now there were fears as to just how many people were trapped and was Cathy's husband one of them.  His job was in the shadow of the Nimitz and he was supposed to be on that section of the freeway at that time on his way home.  We did not hear from him for nearly 24 hours---he was busy trying to rescue people and did not have time to find a working phone to call home and assure us all he was okay.  Luckily Grandpa's house did not suffer any damage, we never lost electricity or water.  

I was living in Houston, TX when a tropical storm came ashore and dropped enough rain to flood a bunch of people.  Luckily none of the homes in our neighborhood were damaged.  When Katrina and Ivan came through we were in Alabama and lost electricity for three days w/each storm.  Ivan took out our apple tree, too.

Way back in 1981 or 82 we were in Minnesota for a funeral and it was so cold that the Holy Water froze before it hit the casket.  Later in the day there was a ground blizzard that stranded travelers for many days.  However, we were just ahead of the storm and made it back to Grandma's house in Sioux Falls.

When we moved to Southern California they were in the middle of a years long drought.  I learned a lot of water conservation tips that I use to this day.  Because of the severity of the drought the wild fires were rampant and I remember standing in the local park watching the fire top the hill in the distance.  I don't know how close we came to actually having to evacuate but I was pretty sure we would have to.  We didn't.

So, there you go....my many brushes with nature.  I absolutely respect her and I hope she doesn't ever throw a tornado at me.

QotD: Moving Day

How many times did you move growing up? How did moving (or staying put) impact your childhood?

Well, I've moved 25 times in my life.  Six of those times were when I was still a kid living at home with my parents.  So, every three years as a kid I was moving, starting new schools, making new friends, learning new addresses and phone numbers.  What did it get me?  I've been in 49 of the 50 states, I've lived in 10 of them.  The oldest childhood friend that I have is Cindy who I met in 9th grade in So. California.  I lost track of her about 15 years ago and we just found each other again on FaceBook.  Other than her my other oldest friend is one of the people I met when I moved to Texas in 1997.  I do not know how to hold onto friends.  That is really sad as now that I'm 45 I don't have many real life friends in my life.

5 truths 1 lie

Picked this up from Jakulem who picked it up from Skoolie

So what is truth and what is fiction? What is the one lie?  and I want all of my friends to do this. It should be fun so even if you don't comment here, do your own, I'd love to see it.

As some of you know, dear readers, I do enjoy memes and quizzes of this sort.  Its original form is "2 Truths, 1 Lie", so if you wish to share only two and not five, that's fine, but for curiosity's sake, five helps that "getting to know you" objective so I do invite you to give five if you can.

 

1. The very first job I ever had (besides baby sitting) was as a magazine delivery person.  We lived in Southern California at the time and the magazine companies were delivered door to door like newspapers.  There were just too many of them for the local post office to deliver.  I had two routes.  One time I got my pants leg caught up in my bicycle chain so bad that I could neither free my pants nor ride the bike.  I had to one leg hop the bike and the magazines back home probably close to a mile.

 

2.  For three summers straight while I was married to the ex our house got infested with fleas so bad that I kept a can of OFF! spray on the porch and I would spray my legs and feet before going INTO the house.

 

3.  I've been deer hunting and killed a deer. 

 

4.  I've been in 49 of the 50 states.  I just need to get to Alaska to make all 50.

 

5.  When I was 17 I was in the marching band The Memphis Blues.  I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to travelling with the band to different competitions.  My boyfriend was jealous and made me quit.

 

6.  It is rumoured in our family history that Jesse James is a distant cousin.  An aunt was rumoured to say that she had to take some food up to the James brothers as they were hiding out in a cave near her home in Arkansas.

 

So, which one is the lie?  Can you spot it? 

QotD: Locked Out

What's the worst story about a time you locked yourself out?

I don't recall a 'worst' story about locking myself out.  Actually, I'm not sure that I have ever locked myself out where there wasn't a way to remedy it.  Chris and I managed to lock ourselves out of The House on the Hill a few times, but getting in was extremely easy as we never locked our bathroom window so it was just a matter of climbing through the window and walking around to unlock the door.  A couple of times we sent Jordan through the window so it was just a minor inconvienence.

I do remember one time when I was young my Mom locked us out of the car while my Dad was out to sea.  We had gone shopping and when we got through Mom realized that she'd locked us out.  She had to use a pay phone to call the neighbor, tell him how to break into the house and where my Dad's spare set of keys were....then he had to drive the nearly 45 minutes to where we had been shopping.  I remember being a bit traumatized about this set of circumstances, I didn't like the idea of anyone 'breaking' into our house and walking into my parent's bedroom, messing with my daddy's stuff, and the utter sense of helplessness I felt at the whole situation.  Must be one of the reasons I've never locked myself out when there wasn't an easy way back in.