Category: Family
Protected: Learned New Road Trip Games
From Drab Beige and Brown to Eye-Pleasing Black and White
Just a quick post to bring you up-to-speed on the latest Moss Family home improvement projects. Last week, we refreshed our bottom kitchen cabinets:
This week we tackled refinishing the countertops and backsplash, which involved quite a bit more destruction of the kitchen (including the sink and stove) than refinishing cabinets:
Now, the countertops need to cure for a week, which means we’ll be without a kitchen until next Tuesday. But in the meantime, I can enjoy the view. The results are simply mind-blowing:
Besides curing for a week, the countertops also need about thirty days before they are completely impervious to damage. This was a bit of a drawback considering Thanksgiving is just eight days away. I’ll have to use placemats or a tablecloth to protect my beautiful new countertop next week.
Jeans Day Friday Charity: Purple Peace Foundation
November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.
Today, my emplo0yer offered us the opportunity to participate in a fundraiser jeans day to benefit epilepsy awareness and fund much needed research. And this is not the first time my employer supported epilepsy awareness. The organization to receive our donations collected today is the Purple Peace Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to raise awareness about epilepsy and provide support to those living with or affected by epilepsy. Their goal is to raise funds to provide tools which may improve the quality of life for someone living with epilepsy, to support epilepsy research, and to increase awareness and education about epilepsy.
FACTS ABOUT EPILEPSY:
About 50,000 people die in the US each year from Epilepsy (prolonged seizures, SUDEP & seizure-related causes)
Just as a sense of scale . . .
♦ 39,520 die from breast cancer
♦ 15,000 die from prescription overdose
♦ 12,000 die from skin cancer
♦ 10,228 die in drunk driving accidents
Help spread the facts and raise epilepsy awareness!
[Sources: cdc.gov.cureepilepsy.org; breastcancer.org; madd.org; cancer.org]
Epilepsy is among the least understood of major chronic medical conditions.
- Epilepsy affects over 3 million Americans of all ages. This is more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease combined.
- Almost 500 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed every day in the United States.
- 1 in 3 adults know someone with epilepsy.
- Epilepsy and seizure disorder are the same thing.
- There are between 20 and 30 different kinds of seizures.
- In our metropolitan area, up to 250,000 members may have recurrent seizures at some time during their lives.
- 1 in 10 people will have a single seizure.
- The biggest challenge for people with epilepsy is not the disorder itself but the myths, misconceptions and stigma that surround it!
Please join me in spreading awareness about epilepsy this month.
Movie Review: Taking Chance (2009)
Taking Chance (2009)
4 out of 5 stars
Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it is an arrow aimed straight for your heart and cannot be denied or denigrated. Films based on actual events have an allure I can’t seem to resist and Taking Chance caught me with its simplicity and humility.
I am struggling this morning to write this review. I can’t see my screen very well. It keeps blurring out of focus as I continue to tear up. Yes, I’m a sentimental fool, but I’m also a mother. I watched the DVD extras and I’m amazed at the strength of Chance’s mother. From the home videos and family memories related there, I could easily see a reflection of my son Derek, who was born just two years after Chance. They had similar interests, personalities and capabilities. This story could easily have been my story had Derek made different choices.
I would agree with most of what I found under the ‘Critical Reception’ heading at Wikipedia, especially with respect to the ‘apolitical nature’ of the film:
One review from The Baltimore Sun, said that it “… is one of the most eloquent and socially conscious films the premium cable channel has ever presented,” and USA Today, said “A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making.” On the other end is Slant Magazine, saying “Instead of well-drawn characters or real human drama, we are presented with a military procedural on burial traditions. The film desperately wants the viewer to shed tears for its fallen hero without giving a single dramatic reason to do so.”
The film was the most-watched HBO original in five years, with over two million viewers on the opening night, and more than 5.5 million on re-airings. Critics often attribute this success to its apolitical nature, not directly depicting nor offering an opinion of the Iraq War.
I found it refreshing to hear the name Phelps and not have to cringe. Imagine my relief when the marine’s funeral proceeded without blemish and no apparent protest from the other Phelps of Westboro fame (or shame).
I also found this film more recommendable and uplifting than a similar ‘based on a true story’ tale I watched about eighteen months ago called The Tillman Story.
I may add this film to my library so that I can watch it each Memorial Day. A reminder of all our soldiers, past and present, who gave the ultimate gift to preserve our freedoms and keep us safe at home.
Semper fidelis.
Just a Thousand More Steps … Per Day
I decided to increase my daily step goal by one thousand steps starting October 1st. When I hooked up my pedometer to my laptop last Monday morning, I reconfigured my daily goal through the TrakNote software, which is much easier than trying to remember what buttons to press (or not press) on the pedometer. I worried a bit that I wouldn’t be able to meet the new goal of 8,000 steps per day, but looking back on the last week, I’m pleasantly pleased and proud to report I succeeded on six out of seven days. And the only day I didn’t reach my goal happened to be my birthday, so I gave myself a break.
The fall weather motivates me to get out of the house more with Apollo. I even took Lexy on one very short walk. She is still very skittish around vehicles and other people and dogs, so I have to be extra vigilant and patient when I walk her. Most week days I end up walking Apollo after dark, so I don’t get an opportunity to take any photos. With that in mind, I took a later afternoon walk with him on Saturday and snapped these pictures:
At the corner of Fawn Valley and First Terrace, Apollo almost always stops to smell the fire hydrant and the stop sign but he wisely ignores the base of the utility pole shown at right. When I took a look at the gaping hole forming around the base and the state of the rotting pole below ground, I took a few steps back. I should probably send the photographs to my city councilman or at least the public works director before someone is injured by a toppling pole. I don’t believe it’s an electric utility pole, because it supports a streetlight, and no other wires beyond the power for the light attach to it.
Here’s a few flowers and fruits we stumbled upon on our afternoon walk:
Four Dozen or Four Dragons
Four dozen years ago, in my first Year of the Dragon, I began a journey. I breathed my first breath. I probably cried, maybe even hollered. I saw light, or probably just blobs of colors and contrasting brightness. I heard sounds. I felt someone hold me. My parents gave me a simple three letter label: Jon. Simple, yet complex, and either ahead of the times or a sign of the times (hey, it was the sixties, man).
I began my seventeen thousand five hundred thirty-third day about like every other day in recent memory. My cell phone alarm woke me with the rock organ chords to “I’m Okay” by Styx from the Pieces of Eight album. I snoozed once, just because it was my birthday. The second time I heard the rock organ, I cancelled the alarm and took a peak outside. Clear skies! The best birthday present ever! I could finally try out my new binoculars. Wow! I could see at least three of Jupiter’s moons and several of the nebulae in Orion’s Sword. Oh, and the Pleiades looked might fine as well. I avoided the waning but still very bright Harvest Moon so I would not blind myself before the sun came up.
The riders of my vanpool got together behind my back (literally) and all signed the card at right. I’m not quite sure how they managed to do this without me knowing, since as far as I can tell, they don’t get together outside the confines of the van, and I’m usually driving said van. Just another one of life’s little mysteries, I suppose.
But that’s beside the point. I wish to give a shout out to my riders here and say “Thank You!” for thinking of me. You all make the beginnings and endings of my workdays more enjoyable. I look forward to each and every commute with you and the traffic adventure that is I-70.
I also received cards early, from my father and my daughter recently, but forgot to take photos of them to share here. I woke up to several posts wishing me happy birthday via Facebook and email. My dad also called to wish me well. I called my husband to remind him to wake up for a doctor’s appointment and the very first thing he said to me when he answered his cell phone as an enthusiastic “Happy Birthday!”
I received a touching email note from my Aunt Melody that included her recollections of that long cold night in early October, 1964. She stayed up all night with my mother (her older sister), waiting for me to be born. She remembered how cold it was in the nursery and how they forgot to warm up the incubator before placing me in it. Good thing I developed my own internal heat source, which my husband shamelessly takes advantage of during the long winter nights.
I will miss having lunch with my retired co-worker and friend, Marge, today. She traveled late last week for a funeral and won’t return for a few more days. That makes two years in a row when journey’s end encroached on celebrating the journey’s start. I know that will become increasingly common in the years ahead.
I am reasonably confident I will see a fifth Year of the Dragon in 2024, and probably my sixth in 2036. I am more health conscious than ever, thanks to my employer’s Health & Wellness programs and benefits. I even signed up for one of their free exercise classes this month. I joined the strength training class available over the lunch hour on Mondays and Thursdays. Since I don’t want to invest (or store) weights, bands, balls, rings, etc. at home, I thought I should take advantage of this class to help keep my bones healthy and strong. I want to stave off osteoporosis. I continue other exercising (Yoga, aerobic, balance) with Wii Fit Plus and Apollo takes me for moonlit evening walks most days.
If I can keep this up, and make progress to a better, healthier version of me, then perhaps I might even see my seventh Year of the Dragon, in 2048, at the ripe old age of eighty-four. Both of my grandmothers made it past that mark. Here’s hoping I will too!
Protected: Vroom Vroom
The Gray and the White
We protected the purple walls with blue tape, brown paper and clear plastic drop clothes last weekend. We wrapped up the room by Sunday evening, ready for Terry to paint the ceiling during the night, when that front southeast corner room would remain cool. He did get the edging done before we took time out for dinner and an episode of Falling Skies.
I woke up Monday to the same dingy gray ceiling, but I wasn’t complaining. Terry could take as much time as he needed. I headed off to work. Terry painted as much as he could Monday afternoon, but ran out of paint at about the halfway point on the ceiling. I saw a trip to Home Depot in our future for more bright white ceiling paint. Terry thought about buying a five gallon bucket of ceiling paint, because we also have to paint the vaulted ceiling in our bedroom before we proceed with flooring in that room. The $103 price was a bit of a shock, but we compromised and bought a two gallon variety instead for a bit over $40. We reviewed the hard wood flooring options available, still not happy about having to order what we wanted and have it ‘quick shipped’ to us a week to ten days later. Nothing ‘quick’ about that, if you ask me.
The ceiling remained half-gray, half-white for a couple more days. I came home Wednesday evening to a bright white ceiling and the smell of drying paint. We turned on the ceiling fan and retired downstairs for dinner and an episode of Chopped. A thunderstorm rolled through Lansing while we ate, dumping some much needed rain on us and gracing us with a beautiful double rainbow.
The rain demonstrated yet another home maintenance issue to resolve before the drought ends in earnest.
Terry finished painting the ceiling Wednesday, applying two coats of the bright white ceiling paint.
With the ceiling dry, we could unwrap the room, leaving a huge pile in the middle of the floor to confuse the dogs.
This concludes the renovation of the top of the purple room. Next, we’ll tackle the floor, once we decide on whether we’re just doing this one bedroom, or all the bedrooms on the top floor.
Purple Haze Phase
I can thank my daughter for the choice of wall colors in my library and the other spare bedroom on the top floor of our home. As you can see above, my daughter transformed an otherwise boring eggshell colored wall to eye-popping purple. Her other spare bedroom, which I took over as my library, she foreshadowed in green, perhaps predicting her eventual defection to the University of North Texas? (Go Mean Green!).
I received news last week that my son and his wife will be visiting us the second weekend of August. This finally spurred me out of my summertime torpidity and got me to cleaning out the aforementioned purple bedroom. I asked Terry if we could get the hardwood floors installed before Derek and Royna arrive. He countered with “I need to paint the ceiling before I put the new floor in.” Why, you might ask? Well, because my daughter, with the impetuousness (and impatience) of youth, did not protect the white ceiling from her purple paintbrush.
I spent a couple of evenings last week sorting through empty boxes; old wrapping paper; even older clothes (a leftover tuxedo my son wore in high school ten years ago for a choir uniform); baseball and football trading cars; parts of a RC car; a skateboard; some stuffed animals; a laundry basket full of books; etc., etc. Some of it even made it all the way down three sets of stairs to the basement storage room. A few items just made it across the hallway into the master bedroom or the library.
I found the floor by late afternoon on Saturday, enough to sweep. Terry brought up the five-in-one ladder so he could start taping off the walls from the ceiling. This morning, I picked up where he left off and began putting rolled brown paper over the top of the first layer of painters tape to which we will eventually tape some plastic drop clothes. Terry should have the ceiling painted today.
Then it’s down to the floors.