Life in Weyers Cave

Since I locked this blog, it just isn't the same. This will be the last post. I might start another one, but the world has changed enough that it isn't necessary. It was started for my trips to Belgium and I doubt I will ever have such an awesome experience again. I will try to find a way to print it out, or at least the first two years of it  I know I've seen services that do that. Thanks to everyone who has read and encouraged me along the way. deb

Today was a quiet day at the museum.We had one family from the Netherlands. They are always amazed that I speak some Dutch! Some from Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Tennessee. The Michigan people knew my German songs and sang along quite well. David is working late tonight. All is peaceful and quiet.

David ran off to Williamsburg for the weekend to play with ham radios. His mom is in a nursing home waiting to be moved to Assisted Living which will be a load of work as well as expense. His mom's house still isn't getting any interest, even though the price is less than half of the taxable value. I am trying to coordinate getting a hot tub put in on a small deck behind the garage. We'll see if it comes to pass. David insists he is supporting me, but I think he really wants it more than I do, though he would never admit it. Fixed three computers (all gratis) and went to a church picnic yesterday. Yes, I know. I can't keep it up. I am officially looking for a job, okay! Geez, for the love of Pete, quit nagging!

Yes, I need a gentle week at my age. Still a lot of fun things and fun people. I had a new customer this week, in her 70s I think. A real sweetheart who loves roses and give me a beautiful gift of them. I am absolutely sure that anyone who has a passion for anything won't grow old and she is proof. We talked about some of her illnesses, got a little side-tracked here and there, she expressed frustration at "having" to learn to do some things on the computer so she could do her job with Virginia Garden Club, but all in all, had to admit that learning these things helped her mentally a lot. What a heroine for me! We went to the temple today in DC with six youth. Lovely trip. Very relaxing. There was very little traffic around DC. David relaxed for the first time in what seems like forever. We would have a wonderful life right now if it weren't for pain and parents. I enjoyed the volunteer day at the museum this week. I must admit, I like the Germans best when th...

Wow! I woke up this morning and there is NOTHING on my appointments and travel list. I can actually stay home and start working on my very long to do list. Laundry is in the wash, the dishwasher is running, I've cleaned off the kitchen table, checked blogs for the last month, and it's only 8:00. This is going to be a good day. Last Saturday I went to the Restoring Honor Rally in Washington DC. Four buses went from Staunton and I was very lucky to get a seat on one of them. I got the reservation several weeks ago and it was because of a cancellation. I had to be in Staunton at 4:30 am to catch it. I was worried about violence, but other than a few inciteful signs which were taken down right away, it was very peaceful. Once we got there, we had a mile hike from the bus to the event. My 86 year old "buddy" and I sat under the trees behind the Korean War Memorial and listened to people talk and be honored for and about their faith in the American dream. It was uplifting...

I can only hope that this is the last trip I've had for a while. I think you need to sketch it out since it is so confusing. Wednesday David and Dianna left - he in his car and she in Allen's. Dianna is going to drive Allen's car for the few months while she is in Florida at Disney and Allen is deployed. They went to Jacksonville and spent a few hours with Grandma Fordham on Thursday. Thursday morning I left and went to Atlanta and spent the night with my sister. (I DON'T LIKE traffic jams!)  What a yummy dinner they cooked! Salmon on a Plank (on the grill). Now I have to find out how to do the plank cooking. It was great seeing them. Thursday night David and Dianna spent in Orlando after seeing the Magic Kingdom Fireworks show. It was a special presentation with fireworks all around the outside as well and apparently even more magnificent than usual. Friday I (after a salmon loaded omelet - how do they stay so skinny?) went down to Fort Benning to see Cathryn ...

It is nice having at least one kid home, but I have been working too much and not giving her the attention she deserves. Now she leaves in two days. I have a big gazebo I need to decorate up medieval style for the Natural Chimneys Renaissance Festival on the 21st. I am drawing bricks on it and then need to sew some fake castle type look to it. We'll see how it goes. I wish I had time to sew another costume since mine is heavy wool. We are considering getting a hot tub. Decisions, decisions.

I had someone spend two days searching my blog for personal information about a family member so had to go to a little tighter security. I'm sorry.

We got up and made a quick trip to Fort Bragg, had a n-i-c-e lunch at Olive Garden, and toured Fort Bragg. I'd been there a few times but the tour was great. It was Dianna's first time. We dropped off Allen and I drove with Dianna to Myrtle Beach to return the convertible. Between traffic jams and my slow driving we were a little bit late. The poor GPS had me on a route where I turned every ten miles or so for a three hour drive. That's when the fun began. First, we had to find Allen's car and move the stuff over to it. Allen had tried to explain where he was parked but we couldn't find it. After twenty minutes, we pulled out of the lot and they made us pay three bucks just to have gone into the lot to look for the car. Grumble, grumble. Bad bodings. I decided to get the convertible turned in so we didn't incur more charges and see if we could just put the stuff into a pile in the airport until we found the car. Dianna kept looking for the car as I drove the...

We woke u pin Amesbury, Massachusetts, and went a few miles away to the OBO sports arena, here Allen and Dianna climbed into huge balls and rolled down the hill. They loved it. There are only five places in the country that do this. I head they paid $20,000 apiece for the balls, but now that they are getting more common they are only $2000. They have to have a bit hill with a ditch to roll down, a little ball escalator to get them back up the hill, and a people escalator, so it is quite and investment, but I'm sure they'll be all over in a few year. They we got in the car to go home. This time, we had Nuvi direct us home using bigger roads but avoiding toll roads. She took us through downtown Bronx, New York and we were on Fordham Road and saw Fordham University. It was certainlyl interesting but maddening driving through New York City on a Friday afternoon. We got to DC at ten pm and started looking for a motel but there is the big Boy Scout Jamboree in Fort AP Hill so every...

Here I am in the basement of the hotel waiting for a dryer. The camera is in my room so I can't put up pictures right now. Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day. We went to Acadia. It is absolutely gorgeous. I can't imagine anyone going there with a camera and not being able to take a calendar-quality photo. There are large rocky boulders left by the glaciers that are mini-mountains, covered in trees and flowers and bushes. There isn't a lot of wildlife. I was told there were otters but they were hunted out. It is rare to find a moose. We saw one deer, a couple of ground squirrels, and lots of black birds and seagulls. Allen found some wild blueberries. There are quite a few lakes, a couple of rocks "leaking" but not enough to call a waterfall, and nice trails - though rocky and some are quite steep. The sad thing is that as we exited one of the parking lots after a quick hike, the traffic flowed in a funny pattern that turned us around and temporarily disor...

Seriously, the hotel leaves the stuffed lobsters in the rooms in hopes that the kids nag it out of their parents. An ingenious idea, of course, and only ten dollars. Portland Farmer's market. There are blueberries EVERYwhere in Maine. We went on a vehicle called a Duck. It took us on a tour of Portland and then drove into the water and we had a nice little bay excursion. The tour guide was exceptionally fun and had everyone quacking at all the tourists as we passed them. We ate at a restaurant that defines "eclectic" named Silly's. Dianna now has learned she doesn't care for tofu. After that we went across the street to a Chinese food mart. Allen found a strange fruit called a rombawanna or something like that. We were full, so we went on to Freeport where L L Bean is and stopped to go to the outlet stores. Traffice was horrendous! We tried to eat the romby-thing in the parking lot. It...

Yesterday we woke up in Vermont and drove through New Hampshire. Vermont and New Hampshire both have all the touristy things advertising Moose. Allen has decided there is no such thing as a moose because he's never seen one. Sadly, we didn't see any either. Vermont had a sign that said "What happens in Vermont, stays in Vermont. But that doesn't matter because nothing ever happens in Vermont." New Hampshire. Well, it wasn't her fault, was it? I mean, you read the tops of all those cans and they say you can recycle them in New England for a nickel apiece. So Allen gave Dianna two cans and told her she could keep the dime, but she had to have th experience of recycling as we went into a nice convenience store. Dianna handed the guy behind the counter the cans and asked for money and he looked at her like she was crazy. "But you already drank them! They're empty!" he protested. Turns out recycling is every state in New England except New Hampshire...

Dianna, Allen and I are on a road trip to Maine. Allen rented a Mitsubish Eclipse for the excursion. Dianna is riding in the back most of the way. I tried, I really did, but it didn't go well. We drove up back roads all day yesterday and enjoyed the hills of Pennsylvania and New York, the Amish Country, the rivers we followed, and the little shops along the way. We got into Vermont last night about 11 and holed up for the night in a quaint little hotel. We were all pleasantly surprised at how nice it is,. The weather and traffic have been cooperative.We are only about four hours from our destination. Our goal is to enjoy lots of super lobster. Next week is the lobster fest - if there's any left after we get through!

I finally got the television working and sooner or later it will be second nature. But for now, it's tough. Turns out I have to use the television remote to tell the audio box to let the satellite signal through. Grumble. Allen came in Friday night and spent Saturday white-water rafting. Which was good, because I had a lot of little things to do that day. Dianna came in at five this morning, but she had told me it would be eight tonight so it was a pleasant surprise. I played at an outdoor vespers service tonight. The songbooks were in German because they are Amish. But they had English as well. The speaker talked about growing up meeting in barns for three hours on Sundays and how watching the cows was more fun than sitting on the backless benches for three hours, which was still better than working in the fields all day! Now we are trying to get our act together to leave tomorrow morning at 6 for Maine in Allen's rented convertible. Just Allen, Dianna and I. for a week. M...

SO  ANNOYING! I had little kids over today and they wanted to watch a DVD. No problem. I put the DVD in and somehow the television knew what was going on. We watched Harold and the Purple Crayon and sewed. But now the system, whose obvious name is HAL, has decided that I still want to watch a DVD. Forget the fact that there is no DVD in the player. Forget that I literally unplugged the DVD player FROM the rest of the system. There is a little AV box that insists I want to watch a DVD. I take the four remotes, which have a combined total of nearly 200 buttons. Yup, 200 54+52+47+42. What is that? 195? What in the Sam Hill can anyone do with 195 buttons. I find the one that says AV and I press SAT/CAT. I can see the television program for all of a half a second before it switches back over to BD (Blue Ray Disc). I turn off the BD and the system turns it on. I spend half an hour pressing every button and combination (don't forget the function keys!) I can think of. Allen had th...

This morning I ran down to Buena Vista to go to the Lyme Support meeting. They also support Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue people because it turns out that most of them are misdiagnosed: they really have Lyme Disease. I learn a whole lot every time I go since there are lots of people with different stories. Today there was an acupuncturist from Lynchburg -- well, really from China but she lives in Lynchburg now. I asked her about all kinds of things, ying and yang, and spleens and still don't understand anything about acupuncture. Meridians? Energy? I'm more confused than ever. She says it doesn't cure Lyme, but can help a lot with the pain. But she has ancient Chinese herb formulas which are unique to each person that can cure it. David has been working very, very late every night trying to catch up from all the time he missed because of his mother. Last night, I went in to town and we went to dinner at a buffet. Tonight, I brought him a nice little dinner. He will be ...

Do not ever, under any circumstances, use the word "Nazi" when there is a native German present. It is extremely offensive and ugly to them. It represents something that we in America, thankfully, can't really get our arms around. Must think of an alternate nickname for the Costume Nazi at the museum. Hmmm.

Being a rather hot and boring day, and having less visitors than normal, and the fact that there were TWO Youth Volunteers (John Lewis Society members) in the German Farm, and, after all, one of the employees suggested it, Erin and I decided to have a chicken throwing contest. Frauen (okay, Frau and Fraulein although typically serfs didn't get any such formal appellations), grab your chickens! Erin got to Greta first, so I chose Gerda. We carefully position ourselves on the front stoop as a small crowd gathers. On your mark, get set, FLY!!!!! And the winner was Greta by a feather. Score: Erin 1, Me 0 Let's go for two out of three. I quickly grab Greta (who always enjoys this game. She told me so.) Erin chooses another Spitzhauben who shall remain nameless. Because I don't know her name. On your mark, get set, FLY! Almost a tie, but Greta flies straight and Nameless veers off just a tad so Greta gets further before she lands. Score: Erin 1, Me 1 Now the g...

All the excitement of the last few weeks is over, the house is almost cleaned up, and I am back on track for my relatively peaceful, boring life. I played with chickens twice last week, once in 102 degree heat. My diabetic numbers were ALL normal. I went to a play Friday night that got rained out, but the rain was sorely needed. And I thought keeping the windows down on the car would bring the rain! Cathryn has landed in Georgia/Alabama and is happy.

The last week or so has been a whirlwind. Cathryn and Jack came in Saturday the 26th, staying at Jack's dad Tony's house. I made them an angel food cake they were supposed to pick up as they drove by on the way to Tony's but they didn't. We went out to dinner with Gary and Ellen and Tony to the Bavarian Chef. Sunday we didn't see them until we ascended on Nancy and Dickie's for a dessert party at 7. Nancy talked about how it is hard to fit shoes on her because she has an unusual arch from her Indian heritage. I looked at Jack's bare feet and he had the same arch! She talked about a "ridge" from ear to ear over her head that also is an Indian trait, and Jack had the same one. Weird! Monday Elise and Robyn flew into Richmond and I drove over to pick them up. Cathryn and Jack came by the house while I was gone so she could go through some of her old things and take them over to Tony's for storage. We went to the dairy farm and played with t...

David has been a picture-posting fool the last few days. Be sure to go to his website , download some of the incredible photos he's taken, and leave a comment. You will need to hit Older Posts a couple of times to get to the pictures of animals, flowers, and our recent vacations.

David has been in Colorado hiking this week. It's been HOT here and I've had concession stand duty from 6-10 each night. Yesterday was also my German Museum day. I awoke to a horrible scream at the foot of my bed at six in the morning. Faraday hadn't eaten in four days, and had finally decided to try some of the new food I was tempting her with. I will spare further details of the episode that followed. But the scream and the expression on her face made me realize, it was time to let her go. Normally, this would be David's job. But he's in Colorado. She has had diabetes which has destroyed her kidneys and liver. She's been on prednisone for over six months and the doctor had warned that when that stops working, his bag of tricks is empty. She somewhat sprang to life after that. But she was twitching in pain and the expression in her eyes was vacant. I realized it was wrong to continue to enable these painful episodes when there was no hope of recovery. I...

And of course I forgot the camera. Sorry, but I HAVE done this before several times and posted pictures then. I am getting to know the people that run these Faires better and better. I'm not sure how they make money. They charge a dollar a game for things like "sheep toss" where you throw stuffed animals into a basket ten feet away.(No prizes). They have little wooden swords for fencing lessons. Storytellers, musicians, horseback rides around the grounds, lots of tents with vendors, and little events like Maypole dancing, knighting of the children, and human chess games every hour or so. People are dressed in all kinds of weird costumes, not just medieval. I think there are lots of fairies and sprites. A lot of chain mail (they even sell chain mail bras - ouch!) They sell spiritual paraphernalia, stuffed dragons, jewelry, hand-carved chest sets, weapons, incense, massages, period clothing, wall hangings, lots of stuff. But they are private vendors. There was a man ther...

Guys especially, hop over to David's blog and leave a message. I think he is overdoing it. What do you think?

Once, when Dianna was just born and the others were two, four, and six, I took an old greasy bag and put some cookies in it and left it on top of the piano all day long. Beside it, I had a box beautifully wrapped -- full of trash. The kids noticed the pretty box and asked all day long "What's in it? What's in it?" I told them we would open it for Family Home Evening that night and they could have anything they wanted inside. Nobody noticed the bag beside it. Evening finally came, and of course they had to open the present right away. They tore off the wrappings and we dumped the garbage on the floor. The reaction was not what I expected. Cathryn cried because she was so disappointed. Allen laughed because he has a great sense of humor. But Bryan ... dug through the trash, found a nice piece of cardboard, and proudly held up "his" treasure. He loved crafts and he could make something with this! Wow! Then of course, we opened the bag of cookies and talked ...

In an effort to upgrade us to the 21st century, Allen has put in a blue ray player and a sound system on the television downstairs. So now I have four remotes staring me in the face when I want to do something. I was watching the MoTab on the television upstairs and thought "Gee, this would sound better downstairs." Half an hour later, when I finally figured out how to get the television off the blue ray player and onto the broadcast television, MoTab as over. But I guess I learned SOMEthing along the way. Apparently I have to tell the sound system, whose name is AV, that it wants to get a television signal from someone called AVR in order for Mitsubishi TV to do what I want it to do. I still have trouble getting the volume up and down. All four remotes have volume, but none of them work. I guess I have to find the right remote AND the right mode. It's all so confusing and my poor addled brain doesn't WANT to think that hard. And why? I remember once when the kids...

Allen set up a blue ray player when he was home. Blockbuster is going out of business so we went and picked up a few movies. We watched half of Avatar two nights ago, and I finished last night. I enjoyed the graphics adn the sweet parts of the story, but I really don't like lots of action or fighting. David put up a hummingbird feeder outside and has had no luck with it for two months. But Allen saw a hummingbird twice when he was here. Yesterday Allen and I went to a military supply house and he bought a few things. It is tough to see these big posters that say "Special Operations Warrior Project" where they give scholarships to kids of the guys who DIED doing what Allen does. He doesn't like me getting emotional about it. I don't like thinking about him (and Jack) going out with a big red X on their back. I don't like thinking about him possibly getting kidnapped either. I told him I want to pretend he is going out to plant flowers. He didn't like th...

It would take forever to read this whole blog!  1500 posts! Wow! Allen has been home for almost two weeks and it has been wonderful. He will return to the Army today or tomorrow. Right now he is mowing the lawn. Last night we went to the Ruritan picnic atop Houff Hill and it was gorgeous. The weather was just right, the scenery awesome, lots of good food, and it is always fun to just sit and talk to Ruritans. There are lots of good people there. Some have had interesting lives as well. Yesterday we had lunch with his friend Chris after I taught a customer in the morning and ran LOADS of errands I had been putting off. Since he's been home, we've made Rice Krispie Treats (with peanut butter and chocolate chips), and angel food cake, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and a few pretty decent meals. We haven't had that much sugar in the house in a long, long time. He's worked hard for it, cleaning, painting, mowing, etc. The basement and yard look great! Da...

I think that at this pace I will burn out rather quickly, but we had a great time. First, Allen and went horseback riding out amongst the Amish farms. My horse was Sugar and Allen's was Shadow. Funny, but Wednesday Allen was disappointed that his Segway was stuck in Turtle mode and Shadow was as well. No galloping for Allen! You horse enthusiasts know it is not generally considered a good idea to gallop the first time you are on a horse. Especially if you are of the male constitution.  Ahem. But it was beautiful and sweet and our guide did a great job. After that we went to a nice Amish buffet and then off to the living history museum. It is an 1850 German museum so it would be the people who came from "my" house at "my" museum a hundred years later or so. It was fun putting them in context. Of course they were much better off that I am at the Frontier Culture Museum! Actually, their museum is also better off financially. There was a lady doing an incred...

Allen has a week or two off from the Army and the timing worked out, so we took off for a few days in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is calling the shots. Tuesday night we got here, checked into the hotel, took a meandering walk around town, and went to a classic local restaurant. Out back there was a goat petting zoo so we got to feed and pet the goats. We ran out of quarters for the food, so we pulled grass, which they liked just as much. But there was grass growing in their pens! Yesterday morning, Allen and I went to the local city museum while David went to the Post Office. Then Allen had us at the Segway place at 10 in the morning. We had a private tour of Lancaster on the Segways and it was a LOT of fun. I did GREAT and didn't ever feel close to falling. We are having fun checking ou the superlatives of Lancaster. Seriously, the best, the most, the first.... It was the biggest inland Pennsylvania city in the 1900s!  What a claim to fame! It has the seventh most number of ...

David is unhappy that the neighborhood squirrel is eating all the food out of his birdfeeder, so he put out a trap for him. Instead, though, he caught this cute little fox. He let him go, reset the cage, and the next day, he caught him again! This is definitely NOT the coyote I have seen that some people thought I was wrong about. The coyote is easily four times the size, much more boxy and doglike, and doesn't have the triangle head. Also, he has sat and stared me down for five minutes when he was out in the open. This one couldn't get into hiding quickly enough!

I think I finally have time to really post what happened on the trip to Alaska. David and I got up at 5:00 to catch the 7:00 flight to DC. My friend had gotten me buddy passes to DC and since we were booked through to Alaska, David's luggage was free (I just had one carry-on, but he checked a bag). We got up there and had a six hour layover. The next flight got us to Minneapolis where we had a short layover, and then we flew the six hours to Alaska. We got in very late, but the sun was still up. David had gotten a map off the internet to get to the hotel, but it didn't show the roads right so we kind of went in circles for a while. Also, we would have liked to get a meal, but everything was closed. After we checked in, we found an all night grocery store and I got a small tv dinner and a jacket (since I had forgotten mine and it was chilly!) The next morning, we got up at 5 again so I could get the 8:00 flight to Fairbanks. David stayed in Anchorage and drove up to Denali s...

My comfy airbed with high thread count sheets. Heavenly! My office/computer Stupid CPAP machine that I hate but have to admit it lets me get through the night without waking up choking My little friends at church My electric toothbrush Washer/Dryer I don't have to feed quarters into Ability to eat three meals a day without inconveniencing others, including low carb and low salt foods Ability to turn on the television. I don't even watch much, but the hotel televisions never work for me. I just like to watch it for five minutes here and there Having stuff where it belongs instead of digging through a suitcase or purse. When I travel, I am always thinking I am forgetting something or left something behind, even when I haven't. I HATE that feeling. I like a shower with a hot water and a cold water knob. I like to adjust the pressure. Prices in Alaska are ridiculous. I think they actually use a different currency we don't know about and charge everyone else doubl...