MRB's Talking Fingers

The summer of 2021 has created a lot of questions in “face-to-face” and “cyber” conversations with family and friends … ‘ Who are you visiting these days?’, ‘ What is occupying your time?’, ‘ When  were you bored with nothing to do?’, ‘ Where are you most days?’, ‘ Why have you stopped writing blogs?’ Here comes my attempt to answer as best that I can, and if this gets too long, take a break or find something that is more interesting to read. 1.        WHO am I visiting with these days? - My husband any time of the day - Chats with neighbor over the back fence or on the road - Anyone who calls me on the phone or accepts my telephone call 2.        WHAT am I thankful for? - The day my husband came home from the hospital after open heart surgery and complications - For the love and support of our adult children and their families, even when we couldn’t be together. - The circumstances in my life have increased ...

I hear that song many, many times because it was our daughter’s favorite song that she learned on a visit to Disneyland. She loved the dolls and music, and her record player in her own room. Some unexpected events recently have brought back that song… and for me, music sticks very hard in my ‘memory bank’. It has been quite a summer for us, some events were not pleasant but surprising, and some events were surprising AND pleasant. Being that I haven’t been ON THE HILL very often, I decided that it was time to write an ‘update’ blog, to let you know that we are still on the right side of the grass. My husband is on a great road of recovery… and our hearts are filled with thankful thoughts and prayers from the ‘army of friends and family’ who were standing with us. Little did we know that this was the season for both of us to recover from successful surgery. I must say that both of us are grateful for the wonderful medical community available to us, but tired of all the medical appoi...

  After some discussion in recent blogs about our use of the English language, it brought to mind one of the major projects that was presented to me some twenty years ago. My abilities on the computer were being honed with persistence, and my first two major contracts were to design and print “advertising cards” for companies who wished to advertise through Welcome Wagon, and announcement cards for Christian Women’s Club. Being a home-based business in a rural setting added a lot of road trips to my adventures. On one occasion, I received a phone call from a gentleman who said that he had received my business card from the Welcome Wagon representative, and wondered if I did proof-reading and script preparation for publishing; did that fit into the job description of “Your Choice Designs”? He was looking for someone to review his autobiography and ready it for printing. No, I had never done anything like that before. I told him that I was a retired nurse, I loved to read, and now wa...

How many times have you said that you didn't want to be a bother” to a friend, when you know they are going through an unusually busy or stressful time. You would like to do something to help, but then wondered what you could do that would be helpful. Even a phone call would interrupt their busy day, and that could just be annoying. Many years ago, when your children were quite young, we had an experience that I’ll never forget. My husband had a serious accident at our new home under construction. I had just returned home to put our children to bed, when the doorbell rang. I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone, especially someone who would be trying to sell me something that I didn’t need. However, after about the fourth chime from the door, I opened the door a wee bit and recognized the callers. The gentleman worked in our office, and he and his wife had travelled across the city to bring us a box of homemade cookies for the children’s lunch bags. They told me that they didn’t kn...

  I hope my readers are enjoying the spring days of the long weekend. It doesn’t really matter about the weather, which none of us can control, or the restrictions imposed on all of us.  I’m sure that you are wishing that you could enjoy some time with your family or some close friends. I’m in my favorite chair by the window, and I won’t see the sun set this evening because it is so foggy in our valley. It has rained off and on, and some areas have even had a bit of snow. I think we are still having April showers but the leaves are coming out and our valley is green. My evening is quiet and I’ve had some time to reflect on the last couple of weeks. It has been amazing and something that I didn’t see coming. My husband and I can still say that we are content, even though most of the year has been on our little patch of land, except for necessary trips to town for ‘essentials’. His shop seems to have received a sort of ‘facelift’ and I has been surrounded by photos and scrapbook...

  How many times, in this last year, have you read the phrase ‘Food For Thought’? Some are meant to give us thoughts to ponder, perhaps on topics that had never even crossed your mind. If you ask Google the meaning of ‘food for thought’, it tells us that it is “something that warrants serious consideration”;   something that needs to be thought over carefully before deciding or acting. The topics can be varied; medical, political, religious, or daily living. Some can even be silly, just to entertain the reader. I’ve been thinking a lot about food this last while. What do I need to have on my grocery list? Do I want to prepare a meal from scratch or do I want to try some prepared meals from a deli or the frozen food section at the market? What about the ‘craving’ for my favorite dessert, what would be easiest to chew with my new dentures? During one of my personal photo scanning sessions, I came across a number of photos that reminded me of some of my favorite meals...

  It is hard for me to realize that March is almost finished... at least in our part of this world. We did get a taste of Spring somewhat early but that’s gone now. The temperatures have been in the mid 50*F and we are now told to prepare for a coming snow ‘blizzard’ after the expected balmy weekend. I give up! I have enough to tend to without worrying about what kind of weather is coming or going. If you have read my last blog (dated March 10 th ), you will know that I planned to let you know how many photos will make a ‘truckload’. I still don’t know, but I now have some idea because I’ve been busy with the first ‘haul’. But first, I want to give a ‘big’ thank you to our own NOTH owner and computer repairman, TC. With just one email to answer my question about the difficulties I had in installing the new photo scanner that I purchased. He carefully wrote the instructions, step-by-step, in what I should do to solve the problem. I carefully read and followed his instruction, and in...