Miscellaneous 2026

 

The saying oft-repeated by my mother was:

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

This is a winter (maybe early spring) 2026 view out our picture window. 

By May the trees have leafed out, 

and you cannot see the houses nor the red sky.

I am seeing metaphorical red skies  

as I find it increasingly difficult to blog on my laptop. 

It's easy from my phone, but difficult for me to type on the phone. 

My laptop fights me, wanting to use only Microsoft when I want to use Chrome. 

It's not the best laptop anyway.

Blogspot deviously fights me, insisting I allow tracker cookies if I want to blog. 

Is the aggravation worth it?

God, help me be patient - there's a long-time prayer.

I like this poem and saved it.

*****

Now here is a wonderful photo I found recently.

This is my paternal grandfather and grandmother.

His name was Ferdie Leo Moffett; not surprisingly, everyone called him "F.L."

Her name was Lenore Janes Moffett.

To their ten grandchildren, they were Granddad and Grandmother.

She once told me she wondered if her parents

had named her after Lenore 

in Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven." 

Lenore rhymes with nevermore.

I found the photo when I was digging for cause of death

for my grandparents and great grandparents.

This is important when you have been identified as having

the beginnings of coronary artery disease.

In my family mostly everyone died of either old age or accidents

especially accidents caused from alcoholism.

I told my doctor: "Alcoholism runs in my family!

Obesity runs in my family! Breast cancer runs in my family!

Heart disease does not run in my family"

(only maybe it does)

Grandmother died from a stroke when she was 84.

My paternal great-grandfather and great aunt

both died long ago from an "exploded heart." 

What does that mean?

Aortic aneurysm?

My sister and brother both have one, small.

I haven't even asked the doctor to look; I don't want to know.

My problem seems to be cholesterol so I'm addressing it.

I have a horrid memory of Grandmother lying in a nursing home.

I don't want to have stroke unless it takes me immediately

as an aortic aneurysm would.

Here are Michelle and Zach being photobombed by their puppy Archie.

I'm so proud of our red buckeye

 even though it gets too much sun

and looks half dead by July.

Here is a photo of Keith and his sister Judi

taken in Philadelphia this year while the cherry trees were blooming.