Remembering Y2K

Does 12/31/1999 seem like a VERY long time ago? The panic over Y2K is funny now looking back. Would the banks shut down, would there be food to eat or water to drink, would business as we knew it grind to a halt? At work we had to write letters to our customers assuring them that their elevators would not fall out of the sky at the stroke of midnight.


It all seems so funny now. We laughed at the man of our household who bought extra canned goods during each grocery store trip and made sure we had cash on hand in case the bank machines would not work. We roared with giggles at a friend who had a room in her basement with everything from food to gas masks and blankets. The night of "the beginning of the end" was celebrated at a fun dinner with friends where we promptly forgot all of our worries and as we headed to bed not one thing seemed to have gone wrong.

A wonderful lesson in how preparation is everything but worry is useless. As the saying goes, may your troubles always be smaller than your imagination!

Deck the Cars...

                                 
When did we become a nation that puts their cars in costumes?
Seriously.  The other day at the grocery store I found myself parked next to three mini vans with antlers on their doors and red pompoms attached to the front grilles.   Car costumes? What is it that compels people to decorate their cars like reindeer?  How goofy is that.  At the risk of soundling like a Scrooge--no bah humbug intended--don't get me wrong:  I LOVE Christmas.    It's so common now to see cars adorned with wreaths on the front grille, which I actually think looks especially nice on luxury cars...like a shiny black Mercedes, or a ruggedly handsome Land Rover.  (Or maybe it's possible I've just seen too many commercials for a red-ribboned Lexus).  The other night I saw an FJ Cruiser with twinkly colored Christmas lights entwined around the roof rack.  Then there was the Jeep Cherokee decked out with candy canes protruding on all doors and large holiday decals plastered all over the body.  (Do they know what that does to the paint finish?)
      I can't help but wonder what we Americans look like from afar...ever fun-loving..but decorating our vehicles like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
     What does this say about our love affair with the automobile...or is it more about how much time we spend in our cars?  We Americans love to advertise ourselves:  window decals with stick figures indicating the family members, right down to the pets.   I have even seen someone's loved one's life/death dates commemorated on the rear windshield like a tombstone.  Now that's a little too weird for me.

                                           
And then there's the preppy monogram...then again maybe that's just a southern trend.  Nothing like telling strangers that a cute and sassy sorority sista may be the driver of that car...

     Yesterday I saw a new one:  Christmas tree "antlers" attached to the doors and a star attached to the front grille.  Are you kidding me?
                                    
  Ho Ho Ho  Merry Christmas American Automobile!

Rest and Be Thankful

One of my favorite phrases, this is taken from a rest stop in scenic western Scotland.  It's inscribed on a stone in Argyll Forest Park on the highest point (803 ft. above sea level, the monument commemorates the completion of the road, which was constructed by soldiers in 1750..check it out at visitScotland.com).    It marked a place where travellers could stop, rest, and be thankful that they had reached the pinnacle of the steep climb.  Could be a metaphor for parenting, or life in general.
    I thought this would be a perfect title for a Thanksgiving-themed post...  Thanksgiving 2011 has already come and gone and now here we are in the midst of the countdown to Christmas.  Rest and be thankful. Equally appropriate as we fly through December.
    I originally had the idea of posting something for which I'm thankful...everyday in the month of November. That did not happen...but counting one's blessings, or thanksgiving the verb has no expiration date.  These posts of gratitudes of mine are entirely random and in no particular order.  I've decided to use some book marks (pun intended) for a little visual variety.

Friendship.     My friends are so precious to me.  Friendships are truly 

a blessing and I cherish all of mine: long, short, casual, deep.  

Years ago I discovered my blogging partner Susan had also read 

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (a rather obscure book with a weird title) 

and liked it...  well that was a no kidding moment...I knew then we were bonded.  

Later when we read Cutting for Stone we continued to realize just how many 

P.S. Pam/Susan/Marion/Shiva parallel experiences we share.

And most of those moments are just ordinary ones.

Always thinking alike.

* * * * * * * * *

One of my longest-enduring friendships is with another Susan, from Scotland.  

We have been friends across the pond, and now in the U.S., for over 42 years...  

It was she who first introduced me to the Rest and Be Thankful in Scotland,

 and that was some 25 years ago.

* * * * * * * * * 

I'm thankful for my good health, despite watching my body age, 

or become "less young."  Of course all without my permission. 

Still Alice is a sobering novel of Alzheimers too soon in life.  

That makes me fearful.  I'm still myself, as far as I know. 

And that makes me grateful.

 

Aging gracefully or becoming less young.

At least I'd like to think that I am accepting this with grace.

Water for Elephants makes me reflect on old age in 

general, (even though that was a sub-theme in the novel) 

...and living, I hope, a very long and healthy life.   

I'm thankful for the hope that this will be true. 

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness---

the sequal to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.  

The title makes me think of life in menopause.  I once read a description 

of this stage of life (the empty nest), as the cocktail hour.  

Sitting under a tree of forgetfulness brings me right back to Still Alice.  

It's awful to walk into a room, stand there and realize you  forgot what you 

went in there for in the first place...not to mention the words that you 

sometimes struggle in vain to let come into your head...grasping desperately 

for the word, or name,  even when you can see the face in your mind.

* * * * * ** * * 

That being said about aging,    

I'm grateful for a happy, perfectly normal (I believe it was!) childhood.   

The Glass Castle and A Piece of Cake.  You gotta read those books

 to fully appreciate what was a satisfying, uneventful childhood.  

I'm so grateful for parents who loved me and were sensible in how they 

raised me and my brothers. They made me feel safe, and taught me

what it means to be well grounded. Which also makes me thankful for

all the people and elements that make up my family.

* * * * * * * * * 

Survival ...and all the thankfulness and deposits in the gratitude bank 

that go hand-in-hand when people survive anything.

I'm very thankful for surviving my children's high school years 

without any arrests, DUIs, jail, bail or teenage pregnancies.  Best quote from 

Jodi Picoult in My Sister's Keeper:  "parenting is really just a matter of tracking, 

or hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves."  

I know there were fake trails I tracked.  My kids could throw off a scent good as any. 

(it's a given your children can fool you anytime, all the time.)  I'm counting my blessings 

I survived those years!

  After  reading these books I'm thankful my mother survived the war, 

or I wouldn't be here.  Not to mention it makes me appreciate and indebted 

to all veterans who gave so much.  "All gave some and some gave all."

I am also so thankful that my brother-in-law survived a nasty and 

dangerous fall off a ladder...on Thanksgiving day, no less.  

This could be an active on-going post, for sure....