Ludlow's Place - The Latest Shtuff

I am constantly forgetting to put this in reverse order for some reason. If it hasn't been updated in awhile please scroll down to see if I messed up again :) Because of this chronic running at the mouth problem I have, I've had to split the month of April in half. The link for the first half of the month is at the bottom of the page.

4-29-02

Now we've lost Bree too.
Bree And Gabe

She was so funny last night. Well, she was always funny, she would point as whatever she wanted, and would get pretty demanding about it too. LOL But last night she decided, just out of the blue, to see if I was capable of playing with all of her toys. She would go to one and act like she was showing me how to play with it, then stand back and give me my turn. Then she would go to the next toy and do the same. She had never done this before, maybe she knew what was coming. After all of that was finished she went back to tearing paper for her "nest", which was never more than a hole in the paper. A little while later she fell off of her perch. Any bird person will tell you that birds don't just fall off of their perches, so I knew then that something was wrong. Birds will hide when something is wrong until it is too late, it is a survival instinct. Then she climbed on her swing and a bit later on let out a high pitched squeal, then started panting and breathing hard. I thought she was egg bound but there was no sign of an egg. Yesterday morning there was a broken egg, along with a shivering bird who had delivered the broken egg. If you've never seen your pet bird after an egg has broken inside her, well then you're a lucky person. This is twice for us. The same thing happened a few years ago with our bird Wilson. With Willie I was foolish enough to hold out hope, with Bree I knew better, and loved her too much to have her suffer. So Josh went and got my dad so he could do the same thing that we had him do to Gabe last Oct after she had a freak accident. I know that he grew up wringing chickens necks and knows how to do it quickly. That doesn't make it easy on him, it's not, but he's the only one that knows how to do it. Thank God for my dad.

4-22-02

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEE!!!

Now that the important part is out of the way, I'd would like to send a big thank you to who ever had the Texas Travel Guide sent to us! We thoroughly enjoyed the joke, (it was addressed to Jack Meyoff) and the timing is amazing. I have been trying to find out if we have an art museum in Waco and low and behold, the answer comes in the mail. It turns out that we DO have one, and I should have guessed that it is on the Baylor University campus. I never thought to look there. That's where the other museums are, duh...

So thank you again, but for the life of me I don't know why you don't come forward. LOL

4-19-02

My mood had sort of nose dived. If you don't know the cough crap, refer to the Cough Saga pages to play catch up. I went back to the lung specialist yesterday and they added another inhaler and pill, plus a nasal spray that our insurance will cover now that they have quit covering the old one. To make a long story short, I was thrilled last month when the inhaler helped and with the possible return of asthma diagnosis. Since I was first hospitalized with asthma at 10 days old this seemed reasonable. But this past week I have been right back to being almost as bad as I was before, and I know it's only been one day, but there doesn't seem to be a magic solution in this latest bag of drugs. Plus I've forgotten where I put my sense of humor. I think I coughed it up.

I got a letter today from the author of this article asking me if I could link it on my Waco page. It's really a good article, although it does cover just the touristy parts of Waco, but that's what people coming to any city would want to see. We have some things here that you can't tour but are still interesting just to look at, like the Cottonwood Castle, which is a private residence. It's still cool to drive downtown and see a castle though. I have to admit that a certain foundation in Waco is pissing me off right now. I would name the foundation, but I don't subscribe to the newspaper, and with the lack of oxygen to the brain and all, I'm lucky if I can remember my own name, let alone theirs. Among other things, Waco is the county seat of McLennan county. We have what I consider to be a pretty nice looking courthouse, and inside the courthouse rotunda is a seven panel mural depicting Waco's history. Okay, so I've never seen this mural firsthand. I didn't know it existed until a couple of weeks ago. This mural is in desperate need of repair and repainting. Waco has hired an artist to do the restoration but they want to leave out one part of the mural, the hanging tree that used to stand in front of the courthouse. Or more to the point, the noose. Let me just say at this point... I'm white. This tree was used to carry out sentencing of prisoners, but it was also used in lynchings of black people. This is the part of history that Waco is trying to bury. Sure, they could remove this noose from the panel that it is in, but that doesn't mean it never happened. What it does mean is that it's just one attempt at keeping people from asking questions about that tree. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know that in most of the white families (that I know) this isn't a part of Waco's history that is well known. I have no idea if it is well known in most of the black families in Waco either, but it certainly should not be disregarded like it never happened. It DID happen, it IS a fact of this town's history, and THAT cannot be changed. It's nothing to be proud of, but it can't be swept under the rug either. What are they afraid of? That if people know the truth they will say, "Gee, that sounds like a good idea? Why don't we try it?" Excuse me, this is the 21st century. Or maybe they think it will reflect badly on the city? How? By being HONEST about the past?

How the hell will we ever be able to face the future if we can't face the past?

Just my opinion

4-15-02

So... my big news for the day comes complete with a story and graphics. Back before my mom died in '97 I had my heart set on getting a Mother's Ring. We looked around quite a bit and I finally found one that I like in a simple design that I've always been partial to. This ring was available with anywhere from 1-10 stones. I needed it with 3 stones and we ordered it. No one at the jewelry store had shown us what the finished ring would look like. What we were expecting was what I have "drawn" in Fig.1 below. What we got was what is in Fig.2. (I love Paint Shop Pro!)
Mother's Rings

We rejected it and I'll admit that I was heartbroken. I seldom wear jewelry since I'm allergic to metal so it's a big deal when I do decide I want something. And in the catalog (that we were never shown) at the store it plainly shows that all number of stones EXCEPT for 3 are done like Fig.1, and well, let's face it, that's just silly. Shortly afterward I got my mother's ring all right. Her wedding ring, after she died.
Be careful what you wish for.
Still, I had my heart set on one, and spotted one that was a match to a pair of black hills gold earrings that my sons had picked out for me themselves one year for my birthday. My dad bought that ring for me, which makes it even more special. Enter one of my many quirks. I guess my rings got uncomfortable one night in my sleep because when I woke the next morning they were not on my fingers. Naturally I was able to find the cheap-ass wedding ring I wear, but my Mother's Ring has been missing since long before I got the butterfly tattoo on my hand, and according to my archives of this page that was Jan. of 2001. (I thought it was Feb.) I have searched and searched, assuming that the worst I could have done is pitched it across the room. OK, so I hadn't moved the heavy bookcases or dressers, but I felt certain all along that it just HAD to be behind the headboard or just under the bed. I have looked and felt a million times, yet today, BINGO! there it was, right behind the headboard, where I have looked a million times before!! And I've gained even more weight since losing it so it fits much better and goes well with the tattoo. And speaking of tattoos, I found the sketch of the one on my leg on a disk and cleaned it up the best I could, it had a lot of jpg artifacts in it, and made it into a link button for Ludlow's Place. You can see it at the bottom of this page. Grab it if you want, use it as a link.

So anyhow, while I was rooting around under the bed I came across an empty lizard eggshell. I've found them in desk drawers before, first time under the bed though. I have had a gecko fall on my pillow before while I was reading in bed.

I'm in the process of moving Rhonda's Originals. If you have it bookmarked your link will still work though. I intend to keep the splash page that I'm currently using updated with the newest links too. Angelfire is cutting down on the amount of free space they are offering so until I can afford to pay it will just have to be this way. It's not like crafting, where you can just make things and give them away. I can make things in various graphics programs all day long but they are worthless if there is no way to get them to other people. Also I've been altering the pages with my crafts on them. There's nothing new on there (yet), I've just enhanced the photos.

It just dawned on me that I was going to explain the cheap-assed wedding ring.
*slaps forehead*
David bought me a pretty anniversary ring when we had been married 9 years that I just love. A few years ago I had a freak accident with the clothes dryer. As I was pulling a load of clothes out my ring somehow caught on the top of the dryer opening and smashed onto my finger! It was bent out of shape and squashed, my finger was swelling quickly, so I slipped a small flathead screwdriver between the ring and my finger while I still could and cut it off with my Dremel© tool and a small cut-off wheel. We haven't gotten it repaired yet since it is so much smaller than I am now. So I wear a silver ring that doesn't break me out and can be easily replaced, when I wear one at all. If I'm doing a lot of painting I don't wear it. And no, David doesn't wear one either. WE know we're married, that's what counts.

I can't remember if there was anything else.