In and Out

Here I am back in the area where I grew up and there is nothing the same. As I drive down streets I tend to say "remember when that was there?" or " I remember when nothing was there". Yesterday I had something to eat that hasn't changed, an"In and out" hamburger! Through the years fast food restaurants have changed their menu's in the hopes of drawing in more customers. " In and out" has been smart and has continued doing what they do best, which is make the worlds best hamburger! Thank goodness someone out there doesn't always think change is good! OK, this wasn't the most thought provoking post, but what the heck! I guess I'm working on quantity not quality!

#%&%# COMPUTERS!

Well my last few blogs have been about old stuff, so I thought it was about time to write about some recent news. I have three computers in my home, one desktop, and two laptops. I have three computers and just me here to run them and screw them up! It was only 13 years ago I owned zero computers! Now living far from my family the computer has been vital in keeping in close contact with all of my family!

Computers are great till something goes wrong. I had something go wrong on my newest computer in January. January was a horrible month, so I just kind of ignored it as I probably could get by on 2 computers! Well it is now February and I have nothing but time on my hands, so good time to figure out how to get the broken computer running!

Well the first thing you do is go to the owners manual, before you take the plunge of talking to a Dell customer service rep. in India. So I tried everything that the manual suggested, and still Windows (Vista) .would not start. So I call India and we are communicating good, but I start to realize that my helper is telling me to do everything that I just tried from the manual! We go through all the steps, still no go, Windows will not start. I give up on the customer service thing and call it a night.

The next morning I woke up and the first thought I have is just re-install Windows. I walked right from the bed to the kitchen table grabbed the manual and the operating system disc and went to work. I knew I would lose all the saved things on the computer, it was mostly pictures. I started this project at around 8 a.m. I had the operating system, drivers, updates, and anything I think I would like on this stupid thing, and I look at the clock and it is pushing 5 p.m.! The printer on my desktop was not working at this time also, so as things were loading on this computer, I was in the back bedroom re-installing the software for the printer. I wore Snick(dog) out as every time I changed rooms he would follow. He would just get settled on the bed and it would be time to go back to kitchen table. The good news is everything is running now and Snick and I are rested up from the full day of work we had! Keep your fingers crossed as far as this Windows Vista operating system!

Our Dad

This is a hard topic to write about, as we never really got a chance to know him. He was a big influence in our lives, as far as our interests (history, music, sports etc) I spent hours with him in fishing boats, but the only conversation I remember was " Quit making so much noise" Quit moving around" or "Where are the worms?" We grew up in an era where feelings were never expressed. There are so many questions I would have liked to ask him now that I am older.
As I have gotten older I have understood some things about him better. I remember being teased by him, nothing malicious, just kind of playing with you. I do the same thing with people I like, If I don't like you I wont say anything to you. So I guess it's a male bonding thing, doesn't always work so well with the females! I remember the quick temper, and how it terrified us all! Mom was the disciplinarian in our family as far as corporal punishment, but Dad yelling at you was worse than the spanking! I too have had a quick temper, but it has mellowed with age. I like to think his would have mellowed with time too!

It is sad to think how long he has been gone and all that we don't know about him. It's even sadder to think of all that he missed. His children have grown up and struggled with everything that life has to throw at them, and have come out as pretty good people. He has grand children he never knew. It's just a tragic story. We miss him and wish we knew him better!

blogging

I was just thinking this blog thing is fun! It's like the checking in thing without all the expectations. When we blog it can be on any subject that we choose and it doesn't have to be anything that has happened in the last week. Plus we get to snipe in the comments of our fellow bloggers. I think it helps us stay closer. Have you ever noticed we never have pictures of our whole family together, someone always has to take the picture!

Work

I have had a lot of time to think and reflect about what is important in my life. I'm realizing more each day how important my wife Becky was in my life. I miss her everyday! I have also have thought a lot about my family and how important they are to me. Now that I sit here everyday with an injured wrist not going to work, I think of how important my work is to me. It's not like I have the most thought provoking, mind stimulating job as a mail carrier, but for some reason it has worked for me. When you are young and starting to work, you spend a lot of time thinking of when you can retire from work. What you find out later in life is that work is a great friend that can give you relief from the low valleys that happen in all of our lives. There have been days in my life that I have woke up and felt as if I didn't want to face the day. I have found as I go to work when I'm feeling low that just being with some of my friends can lift my spirits and help me realize things are not that bad. Luckily for me this not being able to go to work is a temporary thing! The next thing you know, I'll be watching Lawrence Welk!

My Grandma's house

My sister inspired me today by talking about my paternal grandmother. It made me think of mom's mother. In our family the most beloved, revered, and cherished grandmother, was Grandma Norris . She was our favorite Grandmother, because she made us each feel as we were her favorite grandchild. The truth be told she had thirty something favorite grandchildren!

What I have thought about a lot in the following years since her death is that last visit in that house. My parents moved from Iowa to California in the late 1950's, so we all stayed in that house on various summer vacations through the years. It was a very small house, a living room, a kitchen, and a small bedroom, in which when indoor plumbing came around the bathroom was constructed in the closet. The upstairs consisted of 2 bedrooms, which was actually an attic with slanted ceilings to the contour of the roof. In those upstairs rooms,(called the North and the South bedrooms.) I had slept in those beds many times. They were old beds, the kind where the springs were exposed under the mattress's. The rooms were stuffed with a bunch of things like coffee pots, remnants of material for making quilts, old clothes, Christmas decorations, canned food in mason jars, winter clothes. On this last visit I slept with my wife in the north room in the old rickety bed and slept better that night than I had in years, and I haven't had a better night sleep since. We awoke that next morning to the smell of coffee, and to the sound of little Norris feet scampering on the floor below, not the feet of Grandma, but of my Mom, and my aunt Mary. Even though grandma was gone her spirit that had filled that house through the years was still there. I have no material things to remember her by, but those wonderful feelings and memories will live on as long as I'm alive!