You are my sunshine

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you
Please, don’t take
My sunshine
Away

I was never “That Mom,” the one who had an extensive playlist of lullabies to sing to my babies. When my daughter was a newborn, the only kid’s song I could remember all the words to was the ABCs.

When she went to pre-school, whenever her class worked on the alphabet, she’d doze off. Her teacher worried that she wasn’t getting adequate sleep at home. Once we figured out the problem, I didn’t know whether to laugh (which I did, to the point of snorting) or feel guilty for having such a lame grasp of sleep inducing songs (which I did.)

My son was born four years later.  You’d think I would’ve put the time to good use and learn some more songs. Nope… I sang this little ditty, or “Away in the Manger.”

At least, I learned my lesson (see what I did there? ABCs… school… lessons?) and didn’t interfere with my son’s education… but I may have given him a God-complex.

Submitted to Skywatch Friday, Season 6: Episode 42

Back in the day

Sometimes when their dad and I are being goofy, but trying to make a point, we go all “back in the day” on our kids. You know, “back in the day we had to walk to school, in the snow, up hill, both ways.”

There’s profuse eye rolling and tolerant sighing, patronizing laughs and an occasional, “Yeah, right.” But, I don’t think either of them actually consider that there really was a “back in the day.”

For instance, back in the day, my family had a single, 24-inch black and white TV, with only three VHF stations and a grainy UHF Public Broadcasting Station. There might be an aerial on top of the house, and rabbit ears on the set (wrapped in aluminum foil), to help improve reception. We children were the remote controls.

Back in the day, there were no wireless phones, no cell phones. I remember my grandparents having a party line and that their calls were one short, two long rings. I can even remember when you had to start using area codes when making a call… on a rotary phone.

We were lucky to have oscillating fans to help cool off the hot Tennessee summers. Air conditioning, when we finally got it, sat in the living room window. There was none of this new fangled central A/C.

At one point when they were very little, we did have a stereo turntable, actually listened to vinyl LPs. That was until our toddler son managed to remove the drive belt… still can’t figure out that one.

My children will never remember a time when they didn’t have a large screen, HD color television (in multiple rooms); a cell phone, a car stereo that played CDs (or could sync to their MP3 players), or live in a home that couldn’t be cooled or heated with flick of a switch. They will not remember a time when they didn’t have a personal computer.

The changes that technology have gone through in the 20 years they have been around are astounding. I cannot imagine that changes we’ll see in the next 20.

What changes have you seen during your lifetime, that your children now take for granted?

Submitted to WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. This week the theme was to “share a picture that says Change.”

Where childhood

When do we lose that childhood sense of wonder and magic?

There is that invisible boundary between believing in fairies and leprechauns, and only seeing bills and piles of laundry.

I told my son recently that I miss those days when he and his sister were little, and we would build elaborate couch cushion forts in the living room. We’d hide under blankets and picnic on Cheez-its and Hawaiian punch, watching hours of cartoons.

Then we all sort of out grew that. They weren’t little kids anymore, they wanted to do more big kid things, mostly with their friends and not mom. I became immune to silliness, almost allergic to it. My funny bone was replaced by a bone of contention.

Fart and poop jokes no longer made me laugh… it was intellectual humor that evoked a chuckle. The days of mud pies and water fights were gone, replaced by more grown up endeavors. I miss more than my kids being young, I miss me being young at heart.

I need to ride a ferris wheel. To be lifted high in the air, where I can see my future on the horizon. A future that includes balloons and bubbles, cushion forts, coloring books and playing in dirt.

Submitted to Skywatch Friday, Season 6: Episode 40

Don’t let the sun set

Hold your babies tight
Say ‘I love you’ every day
Before it’s too late

Haiku Friday is hosted by Lou at LouCeeL

*Photo venue: picnic pavilion, Lion Park, Niceville, FL

Lessons learned

I expected Allen Funt to jump out of the pantry the day my dad bare-handed a doxie turd and popped it into his mouth, noshing on it like some perverted peanut. Two valuable lessons were learned in that moment…

Be more diligent in my doggy doodie duties, and be more aware of what day it is.

Happy April Fools’ Day Pranksters!

Prompt #15: Share the best prank you ever played, saw executed or were the butt of yourself

Taking it to the streets

In lieu of a photo hike Saturday, Mister went with me to the Big City to take our little Asta to see a specialist about her injured hip. Our vet sent us with a referral to an orthopedic doc to get a second option about whether the pin holding the break together could be removed.

With her last X-ray, and surgery notes in hand, we went into this appointment with trepidation. There was no telling what this doctor would recommend.

Asta wasn’t too sure about the car ride, wandering over the back seat of our car, and me, for most of the hour drive. Finally at one point she did try to relax a bit, giving my sore legs a break from her little paws digging into my thighs while standing to look out the car window.

She was very relaxed at the vet’s, waiting patiently to be called back for her exam. The doctor was gentle with his manipulations of her legs and paws, even squeezing her toes to make sure she had sensation in her feet. We found out that at some point her right scapula had also been broken, but it wasn’t clear if that was also from the car hitting her, or from before that.

After checking her out, the doctor said he wasn’t recommending surgery at this time. The break was in fact not knitting as well as he expected after this long (two months). He suggested physical therapy, something I had asked our vet about before and was told there was nothing like that I could do.

I’m not going to be doing any deep tissue massages, rather he wants us to walk Asta… a lot. The idea is to fatigue her good back leg enough that she is forced to use her injured leg. Initially we were told to keep her off the leg to let it heal, now she needs to start putting weight on it again. Walking we can do.

After four weeks, if she’s not using her leg more, then we have two options. One: remove the pin and do nothing else. She can get around pretty well using only three legs, and the doc said it would NOT be inhumane to leave her alone; or Two: remove the pin and redo the surgery, using a plate instead of pinning. I’m not excited about that second option.

My hope is that since she was using the leg before, that she will again. It’s just a matter of time. We’ve already gone on our first walk around the block, and now, I can take her with me on some of my photo hikes. I am excited about that.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City

Telemarketer: West Africa calling

Each of my peeps have their own cell phone. Have had since each of our kids reached middle school age and became active in after-school activities.

Most of my family and friends, and business contacts, call my cell phone if they need to reach me. Even my Luddite mother, who shuns the Internet but finally got her own cell phone, only calls my cell phone.

Still I keep our landline at home. Well, it’s a cell phone too, but we maintain the same number we had when it was tethered to the wall.

I’ve registered all our phone numbers (including the home phone) several times with the Do Not Call telemarketing registry. Apparently, simply registering doesn’t guarantee avoiding robo-calls.

That’s where caller ID has been so handy. I estimate that of the few calls I receive on our house phone, 95% are telemarketers. If I don’t recognize the number, or at least the area code, I won’t answer. Anyone who really wants to talk to me can leave a voice message, and I’ll call them back. Otherwise, I ignore the call.

Sometimes though, just for giggles, I do a reverse lookup on the listed caller. I’ve yet to connect an unknown number to a legitimate business or an actual person. Typically, I find links to rant forums complaining about receiving calls from the same number I did.

I love some of the comments:

406-577-1215: One commenter called the telemarketer “…Robot Human Vultures circling you to pick your bones and wallet clean.”

215-383-3357: Alleged to be a home security company. Seriously? Blind calling people about installing alarm systems, seems, well… ironic.

618-551-5665: A pre-recorded message about suing credit card companies. Again, ironic, since contacting someone on the DNC Registry is supposed to be a criminal offense.

412-532-0136: Another home security scam. One forum member is keeping track of how often he’s contacted, hoping to successfully sue for the potential $1,500 in damages per call.

222-555-7777: I thought 555 numbers were only used on TV and the movies. The area code is Mauritania, a country in West Africa. The caller, according to the forums, attempts to get victims to allow access to home computers for a virus check. Turning down the offer, IT specialist Warren quipped, “… didn’t drink a glass of stupid this morning.”

Until I disconnect my landline, I’ll keep checking caller IDs and ignoring telemarketers. How to you handle unwanted phone calls?