Posted: under Education and Personal Growth, Family/Friends, General living.
My sister in-law has been talking about how much she loves history, and wants to take a college course in history. I had to suppress a big belly laugh because she has never taken any college courses at all. In fact she dropped out of high school back in the 1970s and only recently got her GED. My wife told her that she could simply borrow our history text books and read our research papers that we have from the history classes we all had to take in college, but she said she really didn’t want to just read a textbook, she wanted to take a college course.
My wife and I told her that we thought that would be a lot more pressure and work than she realized and was capable of handling. We explained that there would be tests, a lot of assigned reading, and research papers that she would have to write. Knowing how much she hates doing anything like that, (especially writing research papers) we tried to discourage her from wasting her money on the course. To be honest I don’t think that she could be accepted in a college for that, but maybe she could audit the course.
Anyway, she said she didn’t want to just read about history, she wanted to take an exciting class where the teacher would be dynamic and make history come to life with his presentations, dressing in historic costumes, and making it interesting; not just read an old boring book. I told her “good luck” finding a college course where the history professor is going to be dynamic and dress in costumes! That’s the type of teaching you might find in middle school, or maybe high school, but not college!
Mar 01 2009
Posted: under Family/Friends, General living.
When my grandfather was in his 70’s he retired from work and started to teach himself how to oil paint. He painted hundreds of landscapes, based on photographs and picture postcards that people sent him. They were really good paintings, and I loved to see them when I went to his house. When he passed away, I asked my aunt if I could have some of his paintings as remembrances and she said no. I was very disappointed. A few months ago she surprised me by shipping me about six of his paintings to me! My wife and I both love them and have them hanging in our living room in the place of honor above the sofa!
Feb 23 2009
Posted: under General living, Home Improvement, Shopping.
I have finally decided to splurge and put in an electric garage door opener. I have always wanted one, but have put off buying one, feeling like it was an extravagance. Well, I have come home late after dark to a dark house once too often! I’m tired of coming home unexpectedly late and having no outside lights on to help me find my way in the house, and using a flashlight to find my way to the door and unlocking it. I’m going to really enjoy having the ability to pull into the driveway and push a button and have the garage door open by itself and lights come on to help me find my way into the house without having to use a flashlight!
Feb 17 2009
Posted: under General living, Pets.
I’ve called the animal shelter to know about the abandoned cat and kittens, in the off chance that someone has a change of heart and decides that they want them back. Chances of that happening are slim to none, but I thought it was the right thing to do. They offered to come get them, but I told them that I’d keep them here for now. As long as the mother cat doesn’t get mean, or decide to use the other parts of the house instead of a litter box, I’m okay with them staying here.
Feb 11 2009
Posted: under General living, Pets.
This morning I went outside to get the newspaper from the newspaper box at the end of the driveway. I was surprised to find a very large cardboard box outside of my front door. Inside the cardboard box was a cat with a litter of four newborn kittens inside! Boy was I surprised! And upset! It was below freezing out and some jerk abandons a mother cat with newborn kittens outside my door! Not that I’m upset to have a cat with kittens here unexpectedly, but I am very upset that someone would just abandon them in this cold weather! That’s just plain and simple mean!
So I brought them all inside the house and put the box near the wood stove to help them keep warm. I fed the mother cat and gave her some fresh water to drink and pulled out my old litter box and set it up near the box for the mother cat to use.
Feb 05 2009