The Latest Shtuff
12-23-01
Just a couple more days until Christmas. Man, has this year ever flown by fast. Like Thanksgiving, we weren't expecting to have any celebration for Christmas and that was all turned around at the last minute.
Our "family gift" is tickets to see "The Fellowship of the Ring" this afternoon. I can't wait to see it. I've read the books many times. I'm not a Tolkien fanatic, just a huge fan, and in my opinion, from what I've seen so far, it looks like they've done a fine job with the movie. I know there are parts that will be left out, and I know they will have to integrate part of "The Hobbit" into this first movie in some way to explain who Bilbo Baggins is, and how he came into possession of the ring in the first place. At least I assume that is what they will do. I've been staying away from the books since I first heard that they were doing the movies, just so I won't miss whatever is missing so much.
I will be archiving his page New Year's day. A full year has fit on here and I think that is more than enough for one page. Since I am infinately more familiar with Paint Shop Pro now, the new page will have a new look, for no other reason than just because it can.
hehehe
Merry Christmas!
11-21-01
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This year we are giving thanks for being able to celebrate Thanksgiving. (And maybe even Christmas too.) Until earlier this evening, it didn't seem very likely that we would be able, financially, to celebrate either holiday. But this is the season of miracles.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!
Last Friday was not only opening day for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", it was also David's birthday. We were unable to do anything we had planned, like going to the movie, but all in all it wasn't too bad.
Scott went to one of the very rare rock concerts that happen in Waco last week. The headliners were "Fuel", also "Sevendust" played. "Nonpoint" were on the schedule but weren't there. It turns out their bus was broken down 5 hours from here, so they are planning to play a make-up show in Waco. (I would have enjoyed seeing "Fuel" myself, although I don't especially care for "Sevendust".)
That's about it for now.
11-14-01
A friend of our oldest sons, Dan Rowan, died this week after stepping in from of a car on the highway. So many people are torn up over his death. His family is emotionally shredded. His friends and fans are torn up. His bandmates are blaming themselves. And all had to look at his patched up body laying in an open casket last night at the viewing. Is this fair to his family and friends? Are there ever actually any problems that are THAT impassible? I don't think so. This was a waste of a young life. He was 20 years old.
I had only met Dan one time, but David and the boys knew him well. He was the lead singer and guitarist for a local band, Locus (formerly Zero Signal). He had a very good voice and a great stage presence. I don't know what else to say about this.
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
-Chinese Epigram
11-03-01
It turned into another bad week.
The week started out bad, by losing one of our cockatiels, Gabe. These two birds, Bree and Gabe, were a gift from my dad in '97, a month or so after my mom's death. They were sisters, and looked almost identical. Yes, Gabe was a girl. The only way to tell them apart, at first, was that Gabe's eyes were rounder, and her cheeks were darker. Also, Bree will hold larger food with a claw to eat and Gabe never did perfect that talent. She tried hard though. Then Bree had a bad accident, she ran into fly paper. I won't go into that, but afterwards Gabe started plucking her own feathers out. She was bald on the chest, under the wings, and at base of her tail feathers. She even plucked a bald spot on Bree's head a few months ago! LOL (Bree quit letting her preen her head after that.)
I had let the birds out, I think this happened on Oct. 30th. They were flying around the living room, and Gaby landed on the screen of the storm door, just like she has done 100 times before. The storm glass came crashing down on her leg, nearly severing it, and breaking it very, very badly. I won't go into more detail that that, because I was extremely attached to her and I can't handle it. In the end my dad had put her out of her misery.
God how I loved that little bird.
10-26-01
Well, I lost my Uncle Don this week.
He was the ex-husband of my aunt, mom's sister, but he never stopped being my beloved uncle. He was totally insane, and we used to love his visits. I think he was the first time I had ever heard the term "rugrats". Or maybe it was "curtain climbers"? He used to come up with all sorts of names for us, as he was dragging us around the house by our ankles, while we screamed our heads off.
Uncle Don was the original pack-rat, and although he never had kids of his own, he still spawned a new generation of pack-rats. LOL Okay, I have to blame my inability to throw anything away on someone, don't I?
His father died when I was pretty young, so I don't have any real memories of him, although I do have his garden gnome in my yard.
His mom was a grandma to me.
She was a very sweet woman named Carrie. She used to collect little hand blown glass animals, and I would spend hours just looking at them when I was a kid. She also gave me my first sewing machine, which I still have.
A few years back, my mom and I were browsing through an antique/collectable store, and I came across a brass fly that I'm pretty sure is a nutcracker. It transported me immediately to memories of Uncle Don, so I bought it. (Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believe he had one like it.)
I haven't spoken with him in months. Him and my dad remained the best of friends, and my uncle "Joe" had just been to visit them last month.
We always expect there to be more time.
I'll miss you!
10-14-01
We had an eventful night last night as tornadic weather surrounded us. According to the local paper there was a tornado in our little community, just north of Waco. Good thing the seven of us that were here were huddled in the hallway under mattresses. The down side being that some of the "gentlemen" had gas. So even facing a possible tornado we were all laughing (and gagging). We didn't sustain any damage, thank God.
(With the possible exeption of our nasal passages!)
They announced on the news tonight that the Bellmead post office, which is our branch, found a white powdery substance on the mail of a Raytheon employee. I just now realized something. How did they KNOW it was a Raytheon employee's mail? We have been getting our insurance packets this week, I guess we should check them out much more carefully.
That's it for now.
10-5-01
It's hard to believe it's October already!
And true to form, Raytheon is cutting hours. They do this every year, just in time for the holidays. They have more of an excuse this year, in the commercial (airplane) end of the company anyways, because of the terrorist attacks. And of course, David works works in the commercial end of the company. Luckily we're used to having a lean Christmas around here. Poor Craig wouldn't know what to do if he had a big Christmas!
Scott (thrasher) turned 17 on September 26th. This cut in hours has meant that he hasn't gotten any gifts from us yet, or any sort of celebration. Maybe soon we'll be able to make a fuss. Josh bought him a couple of videos, and his Aunt Debbie sent him a card and money, so he had a little something, just not from us. Come to think of it, his friend Alicia bought him a computer game too.
Happy Birthday Scotty!
9-21-01
I've been debating ever since the attack in New York what I would write here. I decided that I won't let this terrorism override my son's accomplishment, therefore I will rant about New York, the war, and whatever else pops into mind on my blog page, and keep this for family news, as it should be.
On Sept. 14th Josh graduated from the High Tech Institute in Phoenix, AZ with an Associates Degree in Computer Networking and Information Systems. We left for AZ on 9-11 and it was a very strange trip. You don't realize how much you take airplanes for granted until you travel over 1000 miles without seeing any of them. We had a nice stay at Josh's apartment and got to meet, and party with, most of his friends before we left. His roommate, Tom, rode back with us since he's from the Waco area. Tom graduated with the same degree as Josh, and their other roommate, Triston, graduated from High Tech's computer drafting course.
Scott and Craig stayed behind, with Richard Chris to keep them out of trouble.
We are very grateful to Richard for staying here as he had almost lost his mom to kidney failure during his stay! She's out of the hospital now and doing well. Richard is always someone we can depend on, and we are lucky to have him in our lives. He has just started college at TSTC where he is training to become a chef.
8-31-01
There hasn't been much going on here, I'm just in the mood to write.
We traded in our Cadillac for a Ford Explorer. The Caddi was starting to have some electrical trouble and we just didn't feel like dealing with it. Now, I know Explorers have bad reputations, but I love the thing. It sits up high, like our van and our truck do, and I like that. It also has an air-conditioner that can only be described as "kick-ass". That thing will freeze you out, even in Texas. Plus it's just fun to drive. It's a little narrow, and we're big people, so that's a drawback.
(It's also the reason they are prone to flipping.)
I have been spending a LOT of time lately playing around with Paint Shop Pro 7. I've had the program for a long time without making any sense out of it. Then I downloaded the demo version of the Super Blade Pro plug-in. THAT made sense to me. Then all of the sudden, PSP starting making sense too. This is almost as much fun as painting! I'm still planning to take the classes offered by Web Tech University though. I just completed their course on HTML frames.
School has started and life is getting back into the old rut.
Ruts can be good.
8-10-01
This week has had both good and bad happen.
The 7th was our 20 year wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's been that long!
The bad involves jakob a.k.a. Josh. The night before last he was in a car accident. He was the passenger in a little Toyota truck, and they were hit by a big Dodge truck. Seat belts don't keep you from hitting the windshield when you're 6'4", and riding in a Toyota. Or as he puts it, the windshield won. It's not as bad as it could have been, but he's torn up bad enough. They used glue rather than stitches, so it shouldn't scar like it would have in the old days.
He'll be home soon, but not soon enough for me...
7-30-01
I didn't realize that I haven't written in awhile.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a fire where Dave works. One of the industrial fuseboxes blew up. It was about 10 feet from Dave's bench, shooting flames around 7 feet long! Everyone evacuated the building, except for Dave and another guy named Brian. They stayed behind, trying to control the fire using fire extinguishers. They went through 6 of them by the time the fire department arrived. The fire stayed in that one spot and didn't spread, not that the company would care, yes I'm a little bitter that their efforts have gone unrecognized. This isn't the first time Dave has pulled this kind of stunt, and I'm sure it won't be the last.
It's just in his nature.
Our "Hammerhead" wiped out on his bike yesterday and may have broken his arm. The ER doctor couldn't tell by the x-rays because of the bone growth pattern, and we are waiting to hear what the radiologist has to say. He has discovered that wearing a splint in this Texas heat is no fun. Let's hope he doesn't end up with a cast. I think he would lose his mind!
And speaking of fires, our little community has FIRED their volunteer fire department!!! There are plenty of jokes going around about it, but in the meantime we are still left without a fire department.
7-5-01
I hope everyone had a Safe and Happy 4th. We spent it on the Brazos, like always. We took my brother's pontoon boat, along with my dad, and three of Thrasher's friends. It's always so peacful, the boat gently rocking while you're watching the fireworks. There are dozens of other boats surrounding you, and hundreds of people crowded on the bridges and shore.
Waco put on a nice display this year.
Jakob was home last month for a little over a week. It was great to have him here, even if he is getting to be too skinny. We threw a party while he was here, just about all of his and thrasher's friends showed up. (I just sat like a lump though, was sick... so what's new?)
He graduates in September. YAY!
Well... I quit smoking, cold turkey, almost five years ago. I quit biting my nails, cold turkey, almost a year ago. Here we go again! I'm trying to eat to lower my cholesterol. It's as difficult as the others were, maybe even more so. (And I'm eating a lot of cold turkey, I might add.)
Wish me luck!
6-10-01
It's been a hell of a week. It started out with me having a stomach bug, then Thrasher, followed by Hammerhead. Dave seems to have missed it, (knock wood), but even worse, he has a bad toothache. What a way to spend summer break.
We have spent weeks planning to move a large (tall) aircraft entertainment center from thrasher's bedroom to Hammerhead's bedroom. The problem being the way the doors are set it's nearly, if not totally, impossible. They finally came up with a solution tonight! So as I sit here typing, they are busy switching bedrooms. They are even geting along.
Freaky!!!
This week I'm in mourning the loss of my dear friend, Rose's, father. He was a wonderful man, and a talented actor and director. So this is in memory of Rick Frank, he will be missed. He can be seen in the mini-video "Carney Tales", which was presented at the Cannes Festival. The URL to view this video is http://www.silverplanet.com/previews.htm
5-30-01
Well, today is the last day of school for our two youngest sons. Since school let out, they have managed to avoid each other quite nicely, so the bickering has not been a problem.
Tomorrow is another day though.
Our oldest son will be home for a week next month, only two weeks away. I'm so excited about him coming home. Then just 3 more months until he graduates!
5-8-01
So my oldest son tells me I'm not updating this often enough. LOL
There have been a couple of changes to Ludlow's Place. One is that my Waco page and my Links page are gone. They were both "linkfarms" and Angelfire doesn't allow pages to be all links. I did away with the links page completely and have replaced it with genealogy, which will be a long, exhausting process. I have some info going back centuries, but most lines of the family aren't back very far, and some I have no info at all and have hit roadblocks. I won't be giving much info on the living.
I plan to eventually re-do the Waco page as a pictorial. I will pick a nice day and go take pictures around town for your enjoyment.
Dave is back on days and not working 12 hour shifts anymore, but his boat is brokn down, so he's not a happy camper. Plus he quit smoking cigarettes. He thinks smoking little cigars isn't really smoking, I'm not going to argue with that.
In the past 2 weeks we have had to replace our dryer, camcorder, and BBQ pit. The washer and dish washer are next, at least if they have their way.
Our "Thrasher" was in the school's talent show last week. It was a fund raiser for the families of Lillie Cross, a student who was killed in a car crash a couple of months ago, and Mark Kohler, a student who died following a heart/lung transplant. Both were in ROTC and theatre with "Thrasher". The show was pretty good but our boys ...well... they had an off night. Overall it went well, no mosh pits or anything like last year. But then again, this year they had the local PD standing guard and patrolling.
4-17-01
Boy did I ever mess up! It's a long story, but in a nutshell, we have been without phone or internet for the past month!!! If you are a thinking individual, I urge you to NOT switch to AT&T. After waiting 2 weeks to have our phone turned on with them, they gave us excuses ranging from "you don't have a line running to your house" (excuse me?) to "we had someone out there and they said you sent them away" (excuse me again...). I finally just cancelled the order when they told me we could have our phone in June!!! We switched to a local company and had to wait 10 days for them to get the phone back on, but we're back...Thank God. I was going crazy without the internet! LOL
In our absence from the internet, Hammerhead had his 12th birthday. I will be updating his page soon, it's sooo outdated. He had a very Harry Potter birthday.
Just before the phone fiasco, we went to Arizona to see Josh/jakob. He's as crazy as ever! We miss him so much. I plan to add a short page on that soon too. Just need to get back in the swing of things.
Dave is worn out. He's on mandatory overtime, 6 pm to 6:30 am, 7 days a week. And yet he still manages to squeeze in fishing time when he can. Gotta love him!!!
Be sure to check out the updates on "jakob's" page. https://www.angelfire.com/tx2/jakob187
2-21-01
Well, since I didn't report the results of the tourney, you can guess that it was a bust. Over half of the 100 or so boats came in empty handed.
Today is my mother-in-laws birthday, and I forgot to send a card. In deep shit again.
We've had some of that cold-hot-cold weather going on, but it hasn't stopped my daffodils and iris' from blooming, or my sweet william for that matter. Many fruit trees are in bloom, and our elm tree is budding out. And the lawn needed mowing.
Spring is here.
2-18-01
Dave's off at a fishing tournament and I'm bored. Therefore, I play on the computer. Not much new here. The president is at his ranch, and Air force One is parked about a mile from here. The older kids drove by last night and said it was the biggest damn plane they've ever seen. I've seen several Air Force One's over the years since they used to remodel them just up the road. I think I'll take Hammerhead by on the way to the library though and let him have a look. Not that there won't be plenty of chances, but you never know. I'll post the results of the tourney if Dave gets a big one...
2-5-01
Today is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me... I was having my own little party for a minute there. Our little "hammerhead" has been down with strep throat, and now "thrasher" has got this sinus crap that everyone has. What fun. As long as they don't spread it to my dad I'll be happy. He's 78 years old and doesn't need to be sick, although his health is generally good. He's an ornery old cuss. (Couldn't love him more though.) Dave has a fishing tournament coming up this weekend, he's excited. Nothing gets him going like fishing. So as you can see, there's no real news here. Just felt like throwing myself a party...
1-27-01
We had another of those nights last night. Dave finally got the scorpion tattoo that he's waited 20 years to get! It's beautiful too. Brian from Burning Desires did it for him. Brian also did the bird on my leg last year. Wolf did a pretty little butterfly for me, right between my index finger and thumb. And "thrasher" got his tongue pierced.
1-25-01
It's been different this week. We ended up buying a "new" car, a 1988 Cadillac Fleetwood dElegance. I never thought I'd own an "old people" car like that, but as I get older I'm finding myself doing lots of things like that. It's nice to have a little luxury for a change, plus we got it at such an outragously low price that we would have been fools to not buy it. It's a one owner car that was maintained and was kept in a garage.
1-17-01
I started this as a way to renew the news about our lives. I lost the URL to the previous newsboard... again... and just can't bring myself to email and ask for it... again.
The most notable change in our life would be that "jakob" now lives in Phoenix, AZ. We made a vacation out of moving him there, where he attends school, and you can read about that by clicking on the "Our Southwest Vacation" button at Ludlow's Place.
"thrasher" has put a band together now, he's turned into one hell of a guitarist. There's not much new in "Hammerhead's" life at the moment. Dave works a lot, and of course fishes a lot. I haven't been doing much of anything myself. I had major surgery in July. The wound was left open and took over 3 months to heal. I'm still in the tail end (no pun intended for those who know more about the surgery) of the healing process and wear out pretty easily, but still much better by the month.
That's about it until I get back in the habit of writing the news. Check out the Weblog to just get my brain trickles, random ramblings, you get the idea.
2001 *
1999-2000
