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3215. Magoseph - 9/1/2005 4:28:38 PM Yes, thank you, Ms. No, it is nice and it will be pleasant to entertain there because of the facilities (gas and implements) to barbecue just outside their door on the lake side--at least, this is what I understand. They are contemplating a second floor--just the place to put their aged mother in time, so they say winking at each other. You know, I forbid myself to impose my very old age to such a nice couple. By then, I hope that I will have enough sense left so as not to saddle them with a crotchety-and-mean-character, which if I am anything like my mother was before her death, I may just have eventually. 3216. Ms. No - 9/1/2005 5:42:57 PM But how much like your mother have you ever really been in your life?
My mother has been begging my brother and I for years to tell her at the first sign she develops any of her own mother's less attractive habits. Now, certainly, she shares some similarities with her mother --- hell, we're family, we're all somewhat alike --- but they are fundamentally different people. She's not going to be annoying or difficult in the same ways my Mamaw was.
She'll be annoying and difficult in her own special way.
When I told her that she was less than thrilled, but truly, she'll never be as difficult as my Mamaw because she's more invested in the idea of being a fun and capable and youthful person. She's a more positive person overall than my grandmother was --- not that I didn't adore my grandmother, I did, but she could be a pill.
What makes the elderly a pain in the ass? The same things that make anyone a pain in the ass: rudeness, incessant complaints, whining, cruelty and overall crotchety-ness that stems from being physically and/or mentally/emotionally unable to keep up with the world.
Some people are more adaptable than others and they continue to grow rather than be left behind the times.
I sincerely doubt you'll ever be the kind of senior to sit complaining on the porch about how the world of the day is inferior to the world of your youth. 3217. judithathome - 9/1/2005 5:57:37 PM I sincerely doubt you'll ever be the kind of senior to sit complaining on the porch about how the world of the day is inferior to the world of your youth.
Ha! Magos may not ever be but I am already there! Just last night I was bitching to Keoni, while we were on the porch, no less, that back when I first moved to this house as a child, it was never this hot at 10pm at night. 3218. Magoseph - 9/1/2005 6:13:32 PM Your post is very encouraging, Ms. No. I do have the fear of becoming my mother in my old age. My brother believes she became just like hers the last years of her life with one difference, however, and it was that my mother did not die of a sickness—she died because she committed suicide soon after she saw a TV program that depicted in graphic details the ignominies of getting very old. We learned later that late in the night, she went up to the landing of the floor of the retirement home, dragged a bench there for people to rest between climbing floors, opened the window and jumped from the fourth floor. It has been horrifying for us for a long time and we could never talk about it much until lately.
No, I am not much like my mother and never was. As a matter of fact, I left the country because there was no way to escape her influence and the grip she has on the family having inherited quite a lot of money from her folks. I did not want her to know where I was for a few years, but she found me eventually. She was careful not to meddle in my life here after that, but managed anyway a few impositions on my time in using her right to see her grandchildren more often than was desired by me.
Than you so much for your post. Ms. No. 3219. Ms. No - 9/1/2005 7:56:11 PM Just last night I was bitching to Keoni, while we were on the porch, no less, that back when I first moved to this house as a child, it was never this hot at 10pm at night.
But were you also yelling at the neighbor kids to keep off your grass? 3220. Ms. No - 9/1/2005 7:58:59 PM Ah, Magoseph, no one in the world can wound us quite like parents.
3221. judithathome - 9/1/2005 8:59:17 PM No, not on the lawn but I frequently shake my fist at the teenagers speeding on the street. You know how short my street is, MsNo! 3222. Ms. No - 9/1/2005 9:26:29 PM That would make me nutty. We had that problem -- not teens but rush hour traffic using our neighborhood as a shortcut. Eventually there were enough complaints that the city installed a stop-sign and then posted a police cruiser on a side street to bust people for running it. Hell, I'll bet the revenues from our one little stop-sign could've financed the last mayoral race. 3223. SnowOwl - 9/1/2005 9:45:44 PM One of my husband's major complaints about me is that instead of growing more like my mother I've grown to be more like my father.
My mother was a darling woman who never complained, despite being is severe pain from crippling arthritis, who saw only the good in people and whose entire life was spent in caring for others. When I was quite young, my best friend (a Catholic girl) described my Mum as "saintly". Of course, at the time I scoffed, but as I got older I began to realise just what she meant, and how true a description it was.
On the other hand, my Dad was a self-described "bad tempered old bastard".
My husband thinks he got short-changed.
3224. Magoseph - 9/2/2005 3:31:15 PM I bet your husband would agree that saintly mothers don’t make life exciting and interesting, Snow. 3225. webfeet - 9/3/2005 1:11:41 AM thoughtful
My denny the dendrobium is pushing up another shoot...hope to have some flowers of his to enjoy before too long.
Hear, hear! There is cause for joie in the world after all! Unbeknownst to you or denny, he has been a little shining ray of hope to me in this mopey, misbegotten universe. Long Live Denny. Amen.
Now, anyone who hasn't pieced together the fact that I am drunk should still be entitled to know what I am drinking: a Dolcetto d'alba, an italian wine frenchcat and I discovered when we were visiting Lago Maggiore on our childfree deuxieme honeymoon of lust only a month ago.
Although Lake Maggiore is divided between Lombardy and Piedmont it is a Piedmont wine served most everywhere. It is quite "long-Legged" as I've recently learned and sweetly tangy--my phrase due to the grape the origins of which I will get back to you on once I'm motivated enough to consult Wine.com or something. Im not even going to pretend to try and write about wine. But, this is delicioso and so is everything, absolutely everything, about Italy.
3226. Magoseph - 9/5/2005 11:55:41 AM ...the fact that I am drunk...
Well, wine has always been touted as having a beneficent effect on writers; you just proved this to us, Web. 3227. thoughtful - 9/6/2005 10:09:38 PM family raved about the sauerkraut i made...a recipe from my grandmother. thought i'd share it.
rinse sauerkraut well in clear water. Add water to the pot and simmer for 30 min.
Meanwhile, dice up several slices of bacon and fry. after the bacon gives up some of it's fat, add diced onion and saute gently until onion is very transparent and bacon is well done.
As the sauerkraut nears done, add a couple of tablespoons of flour to the frying pan and let the flour brown a little. Then pour in the water from the sauerkraut pot while stirring to make a thick sauce. Dump sauce back on top of sauerkraut and stir to combine. That's it...It's most tasty. 3228. Magoseph - 9/6/2005 10:25:51 PM I bet Flexy would love that dish. He's always talking about his grandma, the Wendish one who knew how to cook sauerkraut.
I'm going to have him buy some tomorrow and will let you know how he likes it, thoughtful. And thanks much. 3229. Neato - 9/26/2005 12:59:22 PM We ate Durian for the first time yesterday. Chinese friend bought it at our local market, and dismembered it in our backyard.
 3230. alistairconnor - 9/26/2005 2:32:38 PM Apart from a passing resemblance to an outsize AIDS virus... it looks delicious. 3231. thoughtful - 9/26/2005 2:37:02 PM Had to look it up:
"The fruit of this plant, having a hard, prickly rind and soft pulp with an offensive odor but a pleasant taste."
Hmmm. 3232. thoughtful - 9/26/2005 2:45:09 PM I have a new favorite ice cream flavor, though i really have several...dolce de leche. Yummy.
Going out for dinner on Friday and bringing dessert with me... Think I'll make apple crisp with currants and walnuts topped with dolce de leche ice cream....is it friday yet????
 3233. PelleNilsson - 9/26/2005 5:43:19 PM Mago, did you know that Summer Woman also has a Wendish grandparent? 3234. marjoribanks - 9/26/2005 5:49:48 PM "offensive odor" is rather mild, durian smells like a cross between armpit and decaying corpse.
But it's great to see that Neato has joined the digital camera brigade, what an interesting set of far-flung pictorial correspondents we have here at the Mote.
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