Yikes, no power, now what?

A couple weeks ago, the power went out for a couple hours at my house due to a giant windstorm. There was no TV, no stove, no microwave, no refrigerator. I couldn't use the computer and my cell service was down as well. The only thing still operating was my non-electric land line phone. All those little lights that tell you every device in the house is charging (or just eating up electricity) were off. There were no lights, no stereo, and more importantly no heat.

Our dependence on electrical appliances is staggering. My camera would still work, until my batteries ran out of their electrical charge, and I can't look at the large photos without a computer. I wouldn't be able to use the sewing machine. I can't make a cup of tea or wash the clothes. As I sat there reading in the fading daylight, I realized this was the only thing I could do with no electricity. (I could be hand quilting, but chose reading instead.) There was no hum of electricity or a heater or a TV through out the house. Except for the ticking of the analog clock in my kitchen, the house was dead quiet.

It made me wonder about what people in the old days did with all the quiet? I assume they worked. Hard. They sewed, read to one another, and talked. No wonder they all went to bed at sunset. What else could they do? Thank goodness the plumbing still works even though I had to use a candle to light the bathroom. The house kept getting a little colder and the clock ticking was an annoying reminder of the time passing.

Suddenly 3 hours later, the house blinks awake - and I mean blinks. The clocks are blinking on the TV, the DVR, the microwave, the radio, the stove, and on all the alarm clocks. I heard the flame of the gas heater click on to reassure me that there's heat. The lights are blaring and the TV roars to life, with Dr. Phil giving advice on how to improve our lives. The noise is jarring and for a few moments very unwelcome. For just awhile there, I knew what peacefulness was. I can't say I am not dependent on my appliances. But maybe we should turn them off now and then to drink in the silence and enjoy the life you're living. Read a book. Talk to someone. Eliminate the distractions. Be quiet with your thoughts.

I'm now at the point in this holiday season where it's too late to send Christmas cards and now I feel guilty. To those of you who send me cards and care about me, I want you to know I love getting your photos and your cards. I display them each year on my quilted Christmas tree. (Look here's a picture to prove it - there is actually a quilted tree underneath all the cards!) I really do appreciate your warm thoughts and wishes. I'm writing this so you won't cross me off your Christmas list next year for being totally disorganized and unable to get it together before the holiday to send cards.

I almost feel like I'm writing a Christmas letter, catching you up on the past few weeks. My own life is taking some exciting turns and twists. I've been quilting a few quilts for my friends on my Voyager V17 machine. Frustrating to be sure. I've also been hand quilting my oldest son's high school graduation quilt (from 1999). I wanted to finish it by the end of this year. Whether I meet that deadline remains to be seen.

I sold my first picture at Imagekind - the photo of the Viking Ship, and joined a Pittsburgh group on there as well, a place to share photos of our favorite city. I made less than 10.00, but I was so excited. It's the first time I ever sold anything (ever!).

To all my friends and family and followers, I'm trying to form a tribe. That means if you tell 10 people you trust about my blog, and then they tell 10 people etc, etc, I'll have a tribe of people following me. So to those of you in my tribe already, thank you. Have a Happy New Years celebration and be safe and take care.

I'll see you in the new decade!

Mary Jane

Party Crashers

I'm so sick of the White House party crasher story. Watching that couple walk into the party over and over again makes me want to puke. Seriously, if you were going to crash a party at the White House - is that red dress something you would wear? She looks like something out of the 1960's. I think it's interesting that they seem to have a photo with EVERYONE at the party. How is it that no one said "who are these people?"

Have you used StumbleUpon yet? If you install a stumble toolbar on your browser, you can just click on stumble and it will find sites that are similar to the parameters you typed in. It's great when you're bored and want to find new sites on the internet. I am only searching on quilting at the moment and it finds some awesome sites. If you are searching and find a site you like, you click on the thumbs up symbol and it will save it for you and add it to stumble's cache of sites. (Click on "I like it" for my blog - it will drive more folks here) I found a beautiful quilt on the Purl Bee website yesterday. If you click on that link, it will take you to the quilt. It has my favorite color - fuchsia. It's a wedding quilt she made for some friends. Gorgeous.

I decided that I want to travel more. Of course to do that, I need to have more money, so I'll have to figure that part out. But I want to see Ireland and Scotland and Paris and England. My sister wants to go to Norway, and that would be really cool too. My husband has always wanted to go to Hawaii and I'd love to do that. It's time. I'm going to start setting travel goals for myself. Honestly, I want to photograph some beautiful places in the world.

Black Friday

Well, here it is Black Friday. My family and I spent a nice Thanksgiving at my sister's house and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. We listened to Beatles music most of the day and talked about their influence on us as kids growing up. It was very satisfying to give into the tryptophan urge when I got home and go promptly to sleep (a wonderful restful sleep). This morning it I am so happy I'm snuggled in my house, and not out there shopping with the crowds. I watched the Paul McCartney concert that I taped last night and as much as I love him, I discovered something last night I never knew before. He's a Detroit Red Wings fan!! When he was singing "Yesterday," I noticed a Red Wings sticker on his guitar. Oh, Paul, how could you? Don't you know the Pittsburgh Penguins are the best - the Stanley Cup Champs?

I finished quilting one friend's on my Hinterberg and am getting ready to quilt another friend's quilt. My cousin has asked me to teach her how to make a quilt - she wants to make a memorial quilt for her daughter, who lost her father this year. We're going to start on that next week. I'm actually making some slow progress on my oldest son's graduation quilt (from high school-1999). I think I'll be finished quilting it soon, and may be able to give it to him this year. I'm still hand quilting that one and have let it go much too long. I've decided that I'm going to be all about finishing things right now. I'm going to try not to buy any new fabric for at least 6 months, so I can use some of the fabric I currently own.

The holidays always make me happy and sad at the same time. I cry for the people I miss - my mother and my grandmother, cousins and friends I have lost. Even though Christmas is the happiest time, I still miss them so much. When my grandma died, it was the first time I realized what "heart ache" means. And even through the happiness, I cry, because it's there, the missing, the aching, the what ifs.

Take a moment today and appreciate the joy in your life. The family, the friends, the sunset, the snow. Look around and say, I'm glad it's Friday, because I'm here to enjoy it.

Autumn splendor

I just finished listening to the October episode of Live From Daryl's House with special guest Diane Birch. I had never heard her before and she's a wonderful singer. I thoroughly enjoyed her harmonies with Daryl Hall. She has a very engaging personality and is very sweet (and so young). I was totally inspired by her voice and by her songwriting. I understand she has a new debut album out. She reminds me of a young Carole King - she has that ability to write those songs that just grab you and the vocal chords to back it up.

This has to be one of the most beautiful autumn seasons in Pennsylvania I've ever seen. The colors on the trees have been magnificent and the leaves have lasted far longer than they usually do, thanks to little rain during this fall season. The oranges, yellows and reds have been so vibrant, and have now turned to several shades of brown. The palette of colors I have been witness to is a constant and varying array.

I took some pictures for a friend recently. She wanted to take advantage of the fall foliage to get a photo for her Christmas card with her dog, Cooper. I thought this picture was funny. The photo session was pretty wild. There were 2 additional dogs that a neighbor owned that are related to Cooper. Finally at the end of the trip when Cooper was in the car and ready to go home, I took this shot. It cracks me up every time I look at it.

All You need is Love, not a Blackberry

Based on the searches that led people to my blog yesterday and the Twitter messages expressing disgust over Blackberry using All you need is Love in their most recent commercial, let me explain just a little further why this upsets me specifically. Although I would hate the use of any Beatles song because I know how much they didn't want to be used commercially, this one is particularly offensive.

My kids tell me this is not their favorite Beatles song. I try to explain to them the significance of this song in a historical context. The Beatles wrote this song to represent Great Britain in the first ever World Wide Satellite hookup. What better message could they think of to send than All you need is Love. It may not be the most complex of their songs, but it's simple and to the point.

There are several reasons it irritates me personally. First I hate that Alan Klein was such a terrible manager that he let the Beatles catalog slip away from their control. Second, I hate that Michael Jackson was such a terrible friend that he stabbed Paul McCartney in the back after getting advice on where to invest in music, by buying the catalog out from under him. I hate that Sony owns a piece of it because Michael Jackson was too deep in debt and lost control of the catalog. I hate that every time one of these commercials air it pays money to Michael Jackson's estate.

But most of all, I hate that Beatles music, that somehow stands by itself in an iconic sense of time and place, is sullied in this commercial way. The Beatles would probably never have agreed to using their songs in an ad. Who knows? I just feel better knowing I'm not the only one who hates it.

What ever happened to jingles? Are people so lazy they can't hire someone to write a catchy tune? It would be a lot cheaper than using a Beatles tune.

All you need is .... a blackberry commercial??

I was watching TV and suddenly Beatles music strikes a familiar chord in my ear. I'm listening to All you need is Love in a Blackberry commercial, which made no sense by the way. I kept waiting for the tie in to the song, and there was none. There was the Hello Goodbye Target commercial. Then it was Come Together in a Macy's commercial. Is it a coincidence that since Michael Jackson died, I've heard more Beatles songs in commercials? I think not. The lawyers are doing everything they can to make money for his estate to cash in on the image he died with as opposed to the image he lived with. It actually makes me angry. Angry to know that Michael Jackson's estate and Sony are reaping the benefits of those endorsements. Angry because in my mind that's not what their songs are about. And angry because the artists have no say in it. I think if you write a song, you should be able to say whether you use it to sell a product. And before you say the commercial did its' job because I remembered who the commercial was for and that's the idea behind advertising, I would respond that I remembered so that I won't patronize those people.

My friends and I attended a quilt show last week that was fun. My friend entered one of her quilts that I had quilted on my Hinterberg. It was my first show for my machine quilting. I objectively (?) compared it to others and felt that it was just OK. I have a lot of room for improvement. I bought some pretty teal fabric with daisies. I love daisies. They have a fabric called gradations that includes 4 different shades of a color in the same yard of fabric. I had never seen that before. Of course I had to buy my favorite color - fuchsia.
My sewing room has two skylights and I also use the room to do stretching exercises. As I was laying on my mat the other day, I was staring up at the blue sky and the puffy clouds through the skylight. I started remembering the days as a kid when you laid on the ground trying to make shapes out of clouds. As I lay there, watching the clouds move across the sky, I realized that if I weren't stuck on the floor, I no longer have the patience it takes to find a shape and besides I can't see them right unless I'm looking over the top of my bifocals and how did I spend so much time doing this as a child?

Last week, I was trying to make rice for dinner. I had parts of 3 bags I was going to use and found some of those little rice bugs in the first and second bags, so I threw it in the sink and rinsed it down the drain. I made dinner with the good stuff from the 3rd bag. You know where I'm going with this, right? After dinner I couldn't figure out why the garbage disposal wouldn't work. My husband had to take the drain apart to fix it, and we discovered that rice expands even if you don't cook it. The entire drain and elbow was packed tight with rice. Even more amazing than the fact that it never occurred to me that it would happen, since I've thrown cooked rice down the drain multiple times, was the fact that in almost 32 years of marriage, it's not happened to me before. So, watch out for that rice!

Dichotomy of Life

I lost a friend yesterday. My friend was a librarian. She loved reading, taking walks, and being with people. She had a zest for life and loved to spend time with her children and her new grandchildren. I've never met anyone who was loved by so many. When she retired last November, she was looking forward to spending the next years enjoying her family. I'm so sad that her time was so short. And yet, as we often do, I put that away into a compartment for a few hours so I could celebrate the birthday of my cousin, surrounded by family, and carry on with the rest of the day. Later, when all was quiet, the door to that compartment opened and I had to examine the enormous feelings about the loss of my friend. As the tears slid down my cheeks, I tried to figure out how to fill the hole in your heart where a loved one has entered. The quote I've seen on a card came to mind: "Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same---."

How true.