March 6, 2011

Keeping It Here, Please




Blocks, 2011.


Yesterday and Today
We stopped by Lee’s estate sale. He bought a bonsai that requires water every month, and he bought some brass fittings for his costume. He wanted to see Rango.

Herself: I bought a bonsai that the expert insisted I couldn’t kill…but needs to be watered every day….a crown of thorns Lee started from seed. It was good to see Lee’s family. And too, why I bought back the big heavy pig chopping block that I gave him, I will never know. Maybe to give to Lessa. Opinion: Rango is good for ten year old's tho has good graphics. Something outgassing at Ross, and I was unable to breathe for a while today. Awful.

Tomorrow: Swim, talk with Bee, do more laundry. Breathe.

It was a good day. A comfortable day. We wandered a bit through the world of estate sales and Amvets, then after lunch he went to the museum. I made a list. I like days like this.

At Amvets we picked up two CD’s from the West Wing. “For your consideration,” they say. When I got home and compared apples to oranges, I discovered we had two academy member CD’s for the Emmy’s. Performances on each won Emmy’s.

Could I find the recipe for the chicken salad I picked up at Minnie’s funeral? Anywhere. No. I knew it was in my grandma’s handwritten cookbook, but for a while I couldn’t find even that. Finally giving up, I scribbled what I thought might be it in my own handwritten cookbooks, then made it for dinner. Watching the progression of handwritings is very interesting. From unformed schoolgirl printing to abandoned scribbles. That’s all I can do now….my hand goes wild and my eyes lose focus. In between are years of formed and readable shapes.

Back things up. Months 1, 2, and 3. I haven’t backed up the backups for my blogs or pictures in three months. And I never got to it yesterday either. I confess, I’m doing it this morning. Now, actually.

Album. I finally have all the pictures from the Christmas cruise gathered together, right there. I have extra pages, right there. Somewhere downstairs mixed in with the acres of albums no one ever looks at is an extra empty album. Just waiting. I’m in far better order now that I was months ago, so I have blind faith the album will surface.

Shall I ever bother with making an album after this one. Who looks at them? Who will use them and remember me? They have evolved from pasted pictures on a page to story and pictures making a whole. Snobbishly artistic stuff that I like but no one else cares about. Life is online now not on paper. Sometimes not even in fabric. Perhaps I should donate the whole shtick, the whole mess, to my college or HS. “Keep the journals, the albums, and the quilts together, please,” I would say. Ah, such comfortable insanity.

10 comments:

  1. I'm now keeping digital albums more than actual hardcopy albums because it's so expensive to print them. Sigh.

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  2. Organizing the future always has a stinging effect.

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  3. You never know, maybe our grandchildren or their children will like to see the albums.

    Glad you had a nice day.

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  4. How can artistic stuff be snobbish? People can be snobbish and you are the farthest one I can think of from that frame. I save all my photos and refuse to think about the future. That quilt does look like it is going to be a peaceful one.

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  5. Don't give up. No art, no civilization. I am organizing photos of my neice into an album as she was my first "grangirl" and I have pictures through her 13th birthday. We love books in our family. I sure wish I had more pictures of my grandmother's too.

    The offgassing is terrible, especially right after they've unloaded a bunch of new stuff. Home Depot is the worst for me and the detergent aisle in the grocery storel.

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  6. Just this weekend I have been going through all the photo albums and am so glad I did them and kept them. So many happy occasions one had forgotten. One for each grandchild, aged parents (like us now)life long friends. In my old age I can look at them and feel my life hasn't been wasted.

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  7. I, too, like days like that.

    Which episodes of West Wing did you get. WW is one of my all time favorite shows -- so powerful. Two of my favorite episodes were the one of the filibuster (Don't mess with the grandkids) and the one where Jeb Bartlett has a 'talk' with God over the death of Mrs. Landingham. These were beautifully written shows.

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  8. I'm sure someone will treasure all your "treasures" some day. I eagerly awaited reading my mother's journals after her death but was sad to find that she didn't write anything of interest except for what she wore and ate every day.

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  9. Backups for backups, that's my mantra. I have a file box full of recipes. I need to assemble them into something I can share with others....one of these days. Thanks for reminding me of something else I need to do. Dianne

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