Like Mother, Like Daughter

For those of you who know Teri, this may explain a lot. I wrote this one early, early one morning when I had more things to do than time to do it.  It pretty much shows where she got some of her organizing abilities.

            Fifteen minutes, that’s all it will take, fifteen minutes.  Sure.  Right?  Nothing takes just fifteen minutes. At least, nothing I have attempted to do successfully took a planned fifteen minutes. 

            As a matter of fact not a lot of things I have planned over the years actually wound up being accomplished at all.  It always seemed as though someone or something was standing just out of line of sight with at least one monkey wrench or another to toss into the works.  I have actually given up on making plans because of this.

            These days if anything gets done it will be because I’ve step over the damn monkey wrenches, push aside all the shoulda/woulda/coulda and just fucking do.  This is not, I guarantee you, the idea approach to a multitude of activities, but I swear this is what I have to do to get anything accomplished.

I Can Explain

Several years ago I was telling one of the funny stories about my family to my father-in-law.  Joe was not quite sure what to think of his step son's new wife but he listened through the story. "But, Delora," he questioned, "If they are like that, why would you tell anyone?"

The fact was and is, that family is the greatest source of comedy or drama a writer can hope to have and my family is particularly rich in stories told and retold until no one exactly knows what really happened in the first place.

I feel particularly lucky to have been raised in a family that teaches us to not take ourselves or others too seriously.  Though we, as a whole, are far from anything professional mental health care providers would even label dysfunctional, we manage to live, love, and laugh without harming each other too drastically.

I shall try to amuse in this blog with the stories of friends and family and hope that all of them can forgive me or if not, at least, give their side of the stories in loving memory. I also hope to inspire others to look at their own families lore and share the laughter and tears that make all families so different and so very much alike.

My dear friend, Carol, and my daughter, Teri, are responsible for these ramblings so if you object, take it up with them.

Silent Night

The day after Christmas and all through the house ... no stupid rewording of a classic here.

Everybody is gone now. The house is quiet enough that I can hear the television in the other room AND understand what is being said.  The dogs are asleep here by my feet.  They woke up just long enough to follow me in here before stretching out and going back to sleep.

Bob and I are taking the day off and not concerning ourselves too much with getting things put back in order.  Somehow it is comforting to see the aftermath of having our kids here with us.  Besides, one of these days we will get the dogs into the RV and drive out to see them so that they will have to take a day off just to rest after we leave.

Hope everyone out there had as fantastic a holiday as we did.

I'll be back with the stories about friends and families later on. Just sitting here grinning and remembering the past few days.

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