BEEN THINKING --- THINKING ---

ABOUT THIS BOOK REVIEW ... MARCH 31 2013 ....

Just what book am I trying to review?  And how do I want to do this review? For starters, when you begin you don't want to lay it down.  It is one of those books.  I am talking about ELENA, The Girl with the Piano.

The 'click to look inside' does not work here.

Elena is 12 years old when the story begins.  She lives with her parents and grandparents in Leningrad Russia. This city is being bombarded constantly by the German air force.

Elena has been taking piano lessons for as long as she can remember.  Her dream - to go to America someday and play in Carnegie Hall.

The apartment house she and her family live in has been mostly destroyed, along with her precious piano.  They are living in one room in the basement.  

To help Elena keep her fingers limber, her Mother and Grandmother, using many scraps of material, fashioned by hand a cloth keyboard.  Elena would dream of being in the great concert hall, she would play on her cloth "piano" while humming or singing.  

Her story spans 5 long years of being captured by the Germans, being in several different concentration camps, being raped and having a baby girl to care for (at age 14), and becoming friends with the most unlikely people.  It tells of hunger, hard work, never knowing what tomorrow will bring.

Through it all she keeps her "piano" with her, hiding it in her clothing, practicing whenever she has a chance.  Finally liberation, and the chance she and her parents have of going to America where she has an Uncle, who will take them in.

Through all this Elena has held on to her dream.  Read the book.  The ending is definitely not what you expected, but somehow makes perfect sense.  The book is Available from DOUBLE EDGE PRESS, Scenery Hill Pa., and also can be found on AMAZON.

You won't be sorry you did.  

Have a wonderful Easter, remember what Easter is really about, and God Bless.  

MY WHITE SNOWDROPS

WERE BLOOMING....MARCH 26 2013....

But now they are covered with snow.  That will probably be the end of them.  Crocuses hadn't started blooming yet so they will probably be o.k.

Enough yet with this winter.

Kinda feel sorry for Phil (the groundhog, not the man) for he is sure getting run over the coals.  Every day there  are new pictures on facebook running Phil into the ground. 

Hey - why am I feeling sorry for him.  He lives in the ground.

These pics have absolutely nothing to do with my blog.  Just thought it would be kind of fun to share them.  Took these at Mystic Seaport Connecticut.

We are having one of the worst Marches in many many years.  Based on this month's weather pattern, we will probably have rain every day in April. Rain will make mud.  Mud can be as slippery as ice. Mud also makes a royal mess on my car.  I'm lucky if I get to see my car clean half a dozen times a year.

Looking forward to my trip to Phoenix in April.  Makes Bossman happy also.  Why?  I will be gone.  He can opt to work from home.  As long as he has Internet connection and a telephone he can work here.  And I'm not around to interrupt him.  Or ask dumb questions.  Or something.  Or something else.

Well, better get busy trying to decide what I am going to do to get busy with.  the list is long.  Maybe I'll miss-place the list for a day or two.  Sounds like a plan to me.

Well, enjoy what is left of March, keep your cool, and God Bless.

THIS WAS THE WAY

I SPENT YESTERDAY ... MARCH 24 2013 ....

Two friends from Church and I drove to Wheeling West Virginia to the historic Capitol Theater for the presentation of HE'S ALIVE,  the musical Passion Play.  What an afternoon!

We stood in line for 30 minutes waiting for the doors to open.  It was a long line.  This was the matinee performance.  The doors opened at 2:30, it took an hour to seat everyone.  The play began at 3:30.

The remainder of this blog is pretty much told in pictures.  Enjoy.

The historic Capitol Theater:

Opening song by the choir:

Touching lives and entering Jerusalem (Palm Sunday:

The Last Supper, serving Judas:

 

Garden of Gethsemane and being arrested:

Being tried and Barabbas being released:

The Crucifixion, the song My Son:

 

 

Taken from the cross and the empty tomb:

 

If you get the opportunity, see this.  By the way, photography WAS permitted, as long as you did not use a flash. 

 

God Bless.

IT'S FRIDAY - IT'S SPRING -

IT'S COLD!!!MARCH 22 2013...

I understand there is a movement to impeach the groundhog.  So far there has been nothing accurate about his prediction.  Shame on him!

The Robbins huddle in small groups.  Nothing else is  moving much.   Just had some deer walk past my computer room window, and it is cold enough to see the their breath making steam , it is that cold.

So what am I doing?  I am scheming.  What I do best.  So, what am I scheming about?

Well, the kids in Arizona made a big mistake.  I was called and asked to figure out where I would like to go, or what I would like to do when I arrive for my visit.

You would think by now they would know better.  That's kids for you.  Even if they do belong to AARP.

When I finished I e-mailed them an 8-10 page agenda.   The whole 9 yards.  Where to go.  How long it would take. Things we could do.  And condensed it down into 4 days.  It will be a busy 4 days, but a lot of photo ops. 

Now just waiting to see what happens.

Hopefully when I arrive in Arizona next month they will be home.  If not - I am sure some of the grand-kids will be home and I can bug them.   Ain't being retired great? 

Enjoy your cold weekend and God Bless.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.... MARCH 19 2013....

Yes, I know it is cold.  I know it is windy.  But it IS NOT snowing, raining ice, or some such thing.  And so it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

So much going on.  Added a new great-granddaughter to the list just a few weeks ago in Maine, and now added a new great--grandson to the list today in West Virginia.  As of now the count stands at 8 for the greats.

Have the West Virginia trip pretty well mapped out, Nancy and I going out to dinner tonight and going over the itinerary.  Should be interesting.  Now all we have to do is coordinate enough days at the same time. 

My other projects are moving along quite nicely.  Have received 2 more acceptances into the art festivals.  I think all applications are in, am participating in the "waiting game" presently.

Hard to believe March is now on the down-hill slide.  Three months in to the new year.  Wow.  Where did the tine go?

Am planning on having our Easter dinner on Saturday, rather than on Easter Sunday.  I haven't figured out yet how to cook a  meal for approximately 15 people and attend Church at the same time.  So the day before will be our dinner.  Now have to decide on the menu.  Decisions, decisions. 

Getting antsy about outside work.  Need to clean off the flower beds so I can get fresh mulch ordered and spread.  Need to decide what annuals I will be buying this year for the terraced landscaping.  Last two years the petunias did not do well, so need a new game plan.

I just finished the newest Double Edge Press release KWELI - The Truth Unmasked by Joseph and Jane Matthews.  This is the sequel to Janjaweed, which was released a couple of years ago.

Once again when you begin you don't want to put it down.  You are drawn into the continuing saga of kidnapped children placed into slavery.  It is hard to believe such things are still occurring in this day and age.

You follow along as Travis, and his now wife, Karasa, set out on a journey to find her oldest son by her first marriage.  He is the one they could not reach when rescuing the children of the missionary couple. 

The twists and turns in the plot keep you guessing, and for that reason you don't want to stop reading.  I would highly recommend this book.  You can order directly through Double Edge Press, Scenery Hill Pa., on line for electronic books, or through Amazon.com. 

Well, time to make myself useful.  Have a good day and God Bless. 

NEW PLACES, NEW THINGS AND

NEW WORDS.,,MARCH 16 2013.

Yep! Never too old to go new places, see new things, and learn new words.

How about a new word?  How about SHAPADOINKLE.  Does any one know what it means?  No?  Well, neither do I.  I just ran across it and liked it and so wrote it down.

Even my dictionary hasn't heard of it.  Of course my dictionary dates back to the stone age, just like me.

If I get to determine what a word means, I would make the definition "having a good time",  "what a great place", "that was really fun", that sort of thing.

I am sure you would get a lot of attention if, when in a crowd, you stated you were having a perfectly SHAPADOINKLE day.  I bet the silence would be overwhelming.

Now for New Places and New Things.  This part is all Nancy's fault.

I have put projects 1 thru 100 on hold to work on  project No 101.  101 makes it first, doesn't it?

Been working on West Virginia.  Looks like a 9 day driving tour.  Now if we can get co-ordinated so we each have the same 9 days. 

We are looking at State Parks, train excursions,  exploring caverns, seeing old barns and covered bridges, and cranberry glades, and gorges, and anything else that happens to be in our way.  Notice I said IN not ON.  Does that scare you or what?

Hope to finish this preliminary agenda today so I can get back to the other 100 or so projects.  As nice weather will be here sometime, and outdoor chores  need done, I know there will be a bunch of projects put on hold for a while.  At least I don't run out of things to do.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

MY PROJECT LIST

SEEMS TO BE GROWING....MARCH 14 2013 ....

First things first.  Hard to believe March half over, the first quarter of 2013 almost ended.  What has happened?

Second thing second.  My project list.  I know I am not going to run out of projects for some time to come.

Nancy and I got together one evening and went out for supper.  Nancy has decided she and I need to take another road trip.  (We went to Pa Amish country last spring).  This time to West Virginia.  Just rambling around, seeing what we can see, having a good time.

Funny thing is - I have been wanting to do that very same thing.  Haven't really vacationed in West Virginia for many many years.  There are a lot of places I would like to re-visit, and new places to see. This is the Glade Creek Grist Mill, photographed many many years ago.  Would like a new pic. 

She also said she had a favor to ask - could I take my van, her car is small, and she would like to have enough room to bring home anything she might purchase. Remember my pics from my blog on our trip last spring?

So my project list has grown.  I am researching West Virginia making a tentative
game plan of places to go, trying not to back-track too much, places to stay, that sort of thing.

The next hurdle is to compare our calendars and find a week or so when we are both free. 

I'll keep you posted.  Should be an interesting week or so.  When we left the restaurant our friend, who works there, asked what we were laughing about.  Told her we were scheming again.  She said she would give us her telephone number so she could come bail us out when we got into trouble.  Does she know us or what?

Got to get going now.  Projects to work on.  Have a good day and God Bless.

I AM

JUST TIRED...MARCH 11 2013 ..

I am tired - physically, mentally and emotionally.  Just plain tired.

Physically - I haven't completely adjusted to the "spring ahead" and the time change.  It will take a couple of days.

Mentally - I am tired of the bombardment of facts.  Tired of knowing that the illegal immigrants, and some others, are having everything handed to them on a silver platter, so to speak.  Everything is free, paid for by our wonderful "compassionate" government.

Emotionally - completely worn down.  I remember how hard I worked to help pay the bills, keep food on the table, raise children.  We did it all on our own.  I had never even heard of 'welfare', 'subsidies', 'entitlements' etc.

We worked.  We worked hard.  My children have / are working.  Working hard.  No one in my family has existed on hand-outs.  Everything has been earned.  And they are the ones struggling to keep afloat, keep it all together, while the non-workers sit back and enjoy their "entitlements".

I guess we were all way too busy to keep tabs on our government.  And now that the 'entitle-ees' outnumber the 'workers', well you can see what is happening.  I don't believe this is the way our country was conceived. 

Guess I had better get off my soap box.  As I said in the beginning - I am tired.

God Bless and have a good day.

I CRIED

LAST NIGHT ... MARCH 08 2013.

And then asked God Why?  Why did this happen?  Why do these things happen?

It all comes back to choices.  We have free will.  We make the choices as to what we are going to do, when we are going to do it.  We have no inkling as to what the consequences may be.

It was just a case of a woman walking her dogs.  She probably did it every evening, the dogs wagging their tails, anxious for their outing.

She may have used this route before.  Perhaps it was a new route.  A park ranger noticed her car in the parking lot in the evening.  Many people come here to talk and walk.  There was a good sized body of water, partially frozen over.

The next morning early the ranger coming by noticed the car was still there.  Sensing something wrong he called for help.

The three bodies were found in the water.  Piecing together the scenario, they decided that one, or both, dogs had ventured onto the ice and fallen through.  She went to save her dogs.

Greater love.....

Life is made up of choices.  Even an innocent choice such as walking your dogs can become a catastrophe.  It's not God's fault.  The decision is yours. 

Be safe and God Bless.

STRANGE

GOIN's ON ... MARCH 06 2013 ...

I can say for sure --- life never gets boring.

Yesterday was sort of crazy.  First of all I kept hearing warnings of another monster snow storm moving in sometime last evening. Started snowing at 10:30 p.m.  Anywhere from 6 - 10 inches here, depending on where you are this morning.  I guess it was the icing on the cake for a crazy day.

First - my Internet was down when I got up, didn't come back until 3 p.m.  Disrupted my entire day.  I am a creature of routine, and when my routine is broken by the unexpected my entire days seems to deteriorate.   I'm trying to use polite words!!!!

O.K.  So lets re-arrange our game plan for the day.  Caught up with some household chores that had been shoved aside.

Early afternoon phone rang.  Was a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news paper.  He wanted to do a phone interview for an up-coming article the newspaper wanted to run high-lighting the WashArts photo show.  His editor thought it would be neat to feature me because - his words - I was about 80, otherwise, I was OLD!!!

First question - did I mind him mentioning my age.  I told him no, that I used my age to MY advantage every time I could.  I believe I have paid my dues. Otherwise, I am not even remotely old.

After 45 minutes of questions and answers, I asked him if he was doing a newspaper article or writing a book.

He laughed, and then informed he he was sending to me, via e-mail,  a, what he called, SNAPSHOT FORM, which he would like for me to complete and return it to him via e-mail.  He also gave me the e-mail address of his editor requesting I send an appropriate picture directly  to be used in the article.

The Snapshot Form arrived this morning.  It consisted of 24 - that's right - 24 questions for me to answer and he told me "Have fun with this and be as creative as you'd like".

Boy, did he make a mistake there.  He doesn't have any idea as to how creative I can be.

Anyhoo I spent all this morning "creating" answers to his questions.  Boy, did I have fun.  I zipped it off to him just a few minutes ago.  Bet he is sorry he ever called me.

I will be curious to see just what he manages to pull together to make a non-book-length article.

By the way, this is the pic I sent the editor.  I am wondering what this editor's reaction will be.  

This is just another example of how you can have your entire day, week, month, life planned out and how in the blink of an eye it is entirely re-arranged for you.

They say change is good.  Guess I'll find out.  If you hear or read about any reporters or editors going off the deep end, you will know why.

Enjoy the snow.  There is enough to go around.  Be safe and God Bless. 

MAYBE TOMORROW

I CAN RELAX ... MARCH 04 2013....

After yesterday and today I need a break.  Big time. 

YESTERDAY - snowing like crazy when I got up in the morning.  Had let up by the time I left for Church.  Had to sneak out of Church early as I had a 45 minute drive to my daughter's home in Scenery Hill. 

I knew lunch would be ready when I arrived.  I was right.   I arrived at 12:50 and we had to eat and leave by 1:30 for the high school and the performance of DAMN YANKEES.

Last High School performance I will be attending.  Granddaughter Shelby was appearing.  Could not miss that, as she is a senior and graduating in a couple more months.

I had never really known just what Damn Yankees was all about, and it was a great performance.  Kudos to the Bentworth kids.

Shelby's part was as a newspaper reporter interviewing the Washington Senators baseball players.  Their biggest rival was the New York Yankees.  That is where "Damn Yankees" comes into play.  The pennant was on the line.

The play began at 2 p.m., was a 3 hour performance.  Any other day.  Yesterday it was just under 4 hours.  Got through scenes 1 and 2 o.k., disaster struck prior to scene 3.  Found out after that as they were changing the props, one of the great big huge curtains came tumbling down.  Made kind of a mess.  Took just over half an hour to get everything up and running again. 

Shelby didn't get to go home with us as she was being picked up by one of the students she is tutoring.  Did I mention that in addition to everything else she tutors other students as well? 

I had hoped to be home early.  Didn't happen.  After the play returned to Rebecca's place and had shrimp scampi.  Really good.  When I started home it was snowing, again........  Made it up my driveway o.k.  Missed the beginning of the movie The Bible on the History channel.

Then today decided I had better get crackin' and file my Federal Income Taxes.  Such a joy!!!  I have to be in just the 'right' frame of mind to tackle this chore.  Doesn't happen all that often, so had better take advantage when the frame is all in one piece.

It would be so much easier if I didn't have to have a stupid business.  But then, when did I ever do anything non-stupid?

Federal taxes are completed and electronically filed. Turbo Tax said all was o.k., so it had better be all o.k.  Now just have to wait for confirmation from the good ole IRS, saying all is o.k.

Not going to tackle the State Tax today.  One set of taxes is enough.

Otherwise my calendar for the remainder of March is fairly clear.  The calm before the storm, so to say, as my busy time starts in April.

Will try to finish most of my 'projects' during March.  Have been making pretty good progress.  Now if the phone just quits ringing, I don't get anything major in the mail, the car doesn't break down, the snow leaves, and spring tip-toes in, I will be in great shape.  Yeah!  Right! 

Enjoy this break in the snow and God Bless.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG

MAYBE NOTHING ... MARCH 01 2013 ....

Had an e-mail from a friend in Florida.  She told me that there are certain times when a Christmas Cactus will bloom again at Easter.

Perhaps this is the year of "certain times".  Easter, after all, is the 31st of March. 

And just maybe it will still be blooming.   It seems to take forever for the buds to mature and bloom.  Wouldn't that be neat?

Been a busy week.  Tonight is the artists reception for the photography exhibit.  Got things to do before then.  This will be a nice experience.  It is always good to have something to look forward to.

Sunday afternoon is grand-daughter Shelby's last performance in a high school play.   Then graduation and then off to college.  Wow!  They sure do grow up fast.   I remember way back when:

A year from now I will have one grand-kid graduating from college and one completing her first year of college.  I am not sure when the other two college graduations will be.  Can't keep track of everything.  Can't even find something I am looking for when it is right in front of me.

 Well, better get crackin'.  Things to do.  At least the weather forecast is not dastardly.  Just snow flurries.  Can live with that. Stay safe. Stay warm.  God Bless.