Portrait of Abigail

Portrait of Abigail
Originally uploaded by bellearielparis

Abigail and Up from the Blue: A Novel

My grandniece, Abigail, is the little girl in the red t-shirt walking down the hall in her grandmother's house. The door she opens at the end is the door to the guest room I always stay in when visiting my sister, her grandmother. Next visit do you suppose I will notice "the sweet smell of rotting flowers"???? Hope, not! My sister usually puts fresh flowers from her garden on the little nightstand next to the bed.

I've ordered the book which is scheduled to be sent out on September 27th. Based on the short story by Susan Henderson, "Motorhead," I'm looking forward to a good read.

 

Framed!

My new techie toy....a Coby key chain digital frame that holds 60 1" photos. I though it was a fun gadget for only $9 until it took me hours trying to get it recognized by either the Toshiba or the Asus. I researched comments from other buyers and hurrah....one person said they got it to work by using a cable connection from a camera, instead of the one that came with the key chain. I thought it was some kind of a software problem, but when I used the cable from a card reader to connect the key chain to the laptop....yay...it worked!

Before I found the solution I sent an e-mail to Coby tech support. Their response should be interesting.

You can set the digital time, which shows up in nice big numbers, so I can also use it as a watch when I'm traveling.

Back To School - Then & Now

With a lot of kids going back to school after Labor Day I started to remember what it felt like back in the olden days (60 years ago....yikes!). It seems to me it was so much simpler. As a public school kid the "new school outfit" was important...maybe a snazzy pencil box and book bag (for nerds), and a strong leather strap to hold your books together (for the "cool" kids). No cell phone, ipod, head phones, calculator, netbook, or backpack; no texting and no twittering! No school bus, even living down a country road in New Jersey. I caught a ride into town on the dairy farmer's milk truck and sat in an empty elementary school classroom by myself for about an hour before the "townies" arrived at 9:00 a.m. At 3:00 p.m. I walked back the lonely country road to an empty house (my parents and Aunt were all at work; my baby sister was at a sitter's house.) Today that would be unheard of and my parents would probably be charged with neglect! The thing is...I never realized I was neglected, unhappy, or in grave danger. I just thought that was the way things were and was perfectly OK with it. In many ways, I think it prepared me for dealing with whatever life throws at you. Perhaps self-pity, the inability to cope, and blaming everyone else for your problems are things you are taught.

Of course, this is a very different world and no way could anyone leave an 8 year-old in an empty building (except for the janitor), in an empty farm house, or walking on a mostly deserted country road. In fact, some 68 years later, I wouldn't put myself in those places either. Kind of a sad statement about today's world, isn't it?

As for all that techie stuff that keeps people from looking into each other's eyes while talking....I must admit that the stuff in the collage is mine and not some grandchild's..both new and old. Of course, the ipod nano and the motorola razr cell phone are "old" by technie standards, but they work for me. Only the netbook is new and I plan to take it traveling with me, along with the DSLR camera...but I still like to look people in the eye when I am talking with them (or taking their picture). Some of the "old" has fond memories...the "slate" from a Dollar Store, the glass inkwell from a shop in India; the beautiful Murano glass pen a Christmas gift from my nieces. And if truth be told, I mostly correspond by e-mail and do very little "real" writing anymore.

These are probably the most words I've put into this blog....I've been "home alone" for a few days and since I no longer have my dogs Belle and Ariel to talk with, I've got all this conversation to get out!

P.S. I loved Richard Harris' MacArthur Park back in 1968 and practically wore out that track on the 33 1/3 Vinyl LP, so I also love the fact that I could download it from Amazon to my ipod Nano for 99 cents!

Winter Will Come Again!

As the hot summer temperatures continue into September, I thought it might be fun to remind myself and others that Winter will come around again. Also, I just figured out how to download a Vimeo and can even watch it on my TV. Of course, this is really a slide show, not a video...but hey...I just figured out how to do this using the "phumphering around until it works" method.

After the Snow Storm from Irene Pomianowski on Vimeo.