Clementine is Two!

Happy Birthday, Clementine!
Here's what I wrote on Facebook this morning.
----

“Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad.” - Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I thought of that quote on this day in 2018. 

First we received a texted photo from our daughter. It showed a just born baby with her parents. Obviously we had a grandchild. We rejoiced and awaited further news. 

Nothing.

What’s going on?!

We soon became concerned and desperate to hear Brannon’s voice. When that call finally came we learned that she was still being cared for in the birthing center, but John and the baby were in an ambulance racing toward Rady’s Children’s Hospital in San Diego, 40 miles away. She was aching to be with her baby; we were aching to be with ours AND hers.

We dashed around to change our fight plan with Delta and to get ready to go to California for — how long?

Two days later, as we soared across the continent I wrote the first draft of the attached letter on my MacBook Pro, its screen blurred by moisture in my eyes.

If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog post you will find a picture of what Clementine looked like when we met her the first time.

Today is her second birthday, and this is what she looked like just a few days ago.

https://aloneonalimb.blogspot.com/…/granshaw-letter-one.html

-------------

Your Mom commented with this picture of you and your birthday "cake".

Only a pandemic could keep me away from California today. I'll have to celebrate with you from a distance. But, wow! I have so much to celebrate. You have enriched my life immeasurably in just two years. I love you.

Here's my favorite birthday song for you. Granny and I were at the concert when this recording was made, but I don't think you can hear our voices.:

Cut the Cake by John McCutcheon

Now, look at your first meeting with your Granny and me...

You had a very rude introduction to the world. For days you had tubes and patches attached to you. In order to be with you we had to go through a decontamination station to wash our hands and sanitize anything we took into the NICU with us.

(Two years later my hands are chafed by too much washing and sanitizing again. But the whole world is behaving now as we had to in the NICU in 2018. Wow.)

Sometimes the nurse would let us sit in a chair by your crib and put you --- with all those attachments --- into our laps for a few minutes. What a joy to hold you, and to know that the doctors were now saying they thought you were going to be OK.

OK? Ha! Two years later you are a whirlwind of determination and joy and curiosity and love. I always told my students "There's a star in you! Make it shine." Well, Clemmie, I sure see a star in you. And I believe you will have the character and perseverance and love to make it shine.

I love you.

- Granshaw

Gleaning Facebook: Storybook Farm in Spring

Sheila and I love spending a few days each year at this beautiful site, Storybook Farm Bed & Breakfast in Jonesborough Tennessee. Diane and John Vogt are wonderful hosts. These gorgeous pictures are from John Vogt's Facebook today --

The view going out on the front porch for breakfast this morning.

 

A small amount of morning haze

The view looking to the right towards the barn

A bumble bee enjoying the sweet nectar is nearly hidden in this close up

The fragrance of the wisteria in the morning is refreshing. Even the top of the barn has some wisteria on it

The front porch of our home

The sun coming through the wisteria flowers

looking up towards the house from our country lane

A wisteria tree on the side garden at the B&b

A view of the secret garden on the south side of our home with the wisteria from the front porch

A view from the back of the house looking towards the secret garden area

Wisteria covering the barn

Wisteria blooms on front porch are mainly 16 inches long. Some are up to twenty inches (25 cm)

A view toward the log home from the foot path

he wisteria tree next to the B&B

The north corner of the front porch

And oh the perfume smell that covers the area

The view out the North end of the porch looking towards our B&B. (Terrell: The three upstairs windows on this end: "our" room!

another view off the porch around 10 am before we took a morning stroll

The bedroom porch at the B&B next door

Gleaning Facebook: Lifestyle Change

 I embarked on a new lifestyle a year ago with the help of Weight Watchers, combined with regular exercise I had already started spurred by my Fitbit obsession. I've eaten plenty but the ratio of fruits and veggies to fats and carbs is greatly changed. I have never been hungry and I have enjoyed occasional feasts and then returned to the new lifestyle the next day. This chart shows my progress toward a healthier weight. It has been VERY slow. But I didn't gain the weight quickly so I'm not losing it quickly. I cropped out the numbers because that ain't none of your business!

But the doc tells me that IF my cholesterol and BP numbers look as good next visit as they did last time he'll cut my meds in half! Ain't it a pretty slope?

I'll report again next April. At some point between now and then I should transition to a maintenance program.

A Proposal for the River District

I wonder how many times I have walked Rome's RiverWalk since the section through Ridge Ferry Park opened in 1988? And especially since we purchased our Money Pit on Avenue A? We walk it almost every day in pretty weather and often even in cold and wet weather. And every time we have passed Star House on our way downstream along the Oostanaula at Fifth Avenue I have wished for a civic improvement whose time has now surely come.

Recently a fellow named L.G. Smith purchased the deteriorating Star House property and is deciding whether he will resell it or develop it into a ground level retail space and a couple of upstairs apartments. 

As Sheila and I walked toward Heritage Park yesterday we noticed his workers tearing out what was left of the fence that blocked the small parking area on Fifth from the grassy approach on the levee to the Riverwalk. I told Sheila I'd get some pictures on our way back. And I did. 

We came up the concrete steps from the downstream side of the street and I took a picture of what I think could be the path of an inexpensive and easily constructed walkway to connect Fifth Avenue to the west Riverwalk. Such a connection would allow easy bike and wheelchair access to the River District from the Riverwalk.

Then we decided to just jaywalk across the empty street and then trespass across Mr. Smith’s property. As we tried the path I’d dreamed as the future access trail, we heard a friendly voice, “There’s my first visitors!”

It was the owner, Mr. Smith. He said he had wanted to get that fence out of the way and he was glad to have us crossing to the trail. We talked a while and he talked about his dreams for the property. 

I have no special knowledge of any of this. I am certainly no lawyer or real estate expert, but here’s what I’d like someone who does know some of that stuff to look into.

• Mr. Smith needs good access to the back of his property.

• The City of Rome has a right-of-way that connects Bale Street to the Riverwalk at the back of the Smith property.

• a nice walkway would take very little space along the wall at the Fifth Ave. bridge to the Riverwalk north of the bridge. And half of it is already paved...

          ... and the other half would be easily graded and paved.

Question:

Could the City swap the Bale Street right-of-way for right-of-way connecting the Riverwalk to Fifth Avenue?

Could the city with very little expense grade the path for that access and build a sidewalk along it?

Could Mr. Smith or some other developer remodel the Star House building with a big dining room or dining deck built over the parking area with a beautiful view of the river and downtown for a By-the-River signature restaurant with perhaps other retail space and maybe an apartment or two?

The Riverwalk bike/pedestrian/access would be a great asset to the River District I believe. A signature restaurant here could be a big draw.

So how about it City Commissioners?

How about it civic planners?

How about it private developers?

Gleaning Facebook: My little angel... ain't she sweet?

 

---

We had recently bought our Money Pit on Avenue A and decided we'd dress in red Christmasy duds and have pictures made of the four of us in front of our beloved dream (definitely only a dream at that time) home. Our new friend and across the street neighbor and pro-photographer Frank Logue did the photo shoot. We were hoping to get a good Christmas Card shot. Lillian did fine for a while, but there came a point when she had had enough. Frank captured that moment.

We took the roll of film --- do y'all remember "rolls of film"? --- to Photo-Vision to be developed. When we came back to pick up the prints, the shop had blown this photo up to a giant size and posted it as their Photo of the Week.

Comments

Lillian Shaw Classic.

Angela Greear Alrighty then

Sandra Popham This must have been in response to the fact you and Sheila weren’t coming!

Terrell Shaw Sandra Popham it was in response to the fact that she had posed for more pictures than she wanted to.

Terrell Shaw meanwhile her older sister seems to be enjoying the show and applying very appropriate demonic horns to her head!

Anita Stewart Hilarious!

Gleaning Facebook: Distanced Grandkids

But for social distancing to avoid gettin' or givin' the $#%$#&%&^ Covid-19 we'd be in the air right now on our way to see our California babies!

Comments

Buff Hartnett
I would have soon been on my way to the Jersey shore for my first grandchild's first birthday, so bummed.

Terrell Shaw
Yes, we were to be in San Diego County for our granddaughter's 2nd b'day. Thank God for Facetime, but it ain't the same.

Buff Hartnett
Terrell Shaw so true. Sympathy from the left coast.

Diane Conti
I had to cancel my trip to Iowa to see my daughter and family. This sucks!

Terrell Shaw
It sure does!

Trude Sansbury
Cance

Jaki Day
We have grandbabies in Lithuania 

Trude Sansbury
We had to cancel seeing all four of our’s 2 weeks ago. Miss them like crazy.

Terrell Shaw
I feel your pain!

Sarah Spinks
I'm sorry this sucks. Brannon Shaw we need more pictures

Terrell Shaw
Mack might enjoy the book I'm reading online (a chapter a day) while he's"homebound". It's my favorite kids' novel, The Lions Paw by Robb White. 

Carl Franklin
Courage. This too shall pass.

Rose McDonald Darby
Now that is painful!

Ann Gore
So sorry but I understand! I can talk to mine from the garage!

Duanne Walton
Such hard times!

Joyce Morgan Young
But, aren’t we fortunate to have FaceTime with grandchildren?

Gleaning Facebook: Conway on Trump

 From arch-conservative and life-long Republican George Conway (Yes, there are a few principled conservatives left):

"For Trump supporters, let me make one thing VERY clear!

For the record NO ONE is blaming the President for the virus. Let me repeat. Coronavirus is not Trump’s fault.

Here’s a detailed list of what we are blaming him for:

* Trump declined to use the World Health Organization’s test like other nations. Back in January, over a month before the first Covid19 case, the Chinese posted a new mysterious virus and within a week, Berlin virologists had produced the first diagnostic test. By the end of February, the WHO had shipped out tests to 60 countries. Oh, but not our government. We declined the test even as a temporary bridge until the CDC could create its own test. The question is why? We don’t know but what to look for is which pharmaceutical company eventually manufactures the test and who owns the stock. Keep tuned.

* In 2018 Trump fired Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossart, whose job was to coordinate a response to global pandemics. He was not replaced.

* In 2018 Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC director for medical and bio-defense preparedness left the job. Trump did not replace Dr. Borio.

* In 2019 the NSC’s Senior Director for Global Health Security and bio-defense, Tim Ziemer, left the position and Trump did not replace the Rear Admiral.

* Trump shut down the entire Global Health Security and Bio-defense agency. Yes, he did.

* Amid the explosive worldwide outbreak of the virus Trump proposed a 19% cut to the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention plus a 10% cut to Public Health Services and a 7% cut to Global Health Services. Those happen to be the organizations that responds to public health threats.

* In 2018, at Trump’s direction, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries including China.

* Trump didn’t appoint a doctor to oversee the US response to the pandemic. He appointed Mike Pence.

* Trump has on multiple occasions sowed doubt about the severity of the virus even using the word hoax at events and rallies. He even did it at an event where the virus was being spread. Trump has put out zero useful information concerning the health risks of the virus.

* Trump pretended the virus had been contained.

* Trump left a cruise ship at sea for days, denying them proper hospital care, rather than increase his numbers in America.

Repeat. We do not blame Trump for the virus.  

We blame him for gutting the nation’s preparations to deal with it.

We blame him for bungling testing and allowing it to spread uninhibited.

We blame him for wasting taxpayer money on applause lines at his rallies (like The Wall).

We blame him for putting his own political life over American human life.

I hope this clears things up."

Comments

 Jaki Day
Thanks. Dear God hear our prayer. Get this man out of the White House. 

Trude Sansbury
Well said.

Jim Doyle
God help us for Trump sure as hell can't. He's in over his head! Loud mouth buffoons don't make good leaders in a crisis. Their incompetence is always flushed out when the shit hits the fan!!!

Chris Shelly
The website shows the Global Health Security Agency as still in existence. Didn't check the rest. 

Also, according to the New York times, the CDC severely limited access to testing.
None of what I've posted refutes the fact that Trump is a gas bag.

George Kastanias
We are all on edge about what’s going on in the world today. But now is a time, regardless of political affiliations, gender or age to come together and do our part. Be a responsible, caring adult. Find something you can do everyday to make someone smile or help someone. If all you are going to do is be negative, spout hate towards our President or criticize everyone for their opinion, please delete me now. Please we have enough stress without reading this constant barrage of hate and disagreement EVERY SINGLE DAY. People are dying without their loved ones and their families are suffering as you sit at home and complain. Say a kind word. Life is short! Support your fellow man and be a part of this great country and lift each other up in prayer and encouragement!

Terrell Shaw
I certainly won't delete you, George, but you are welcome to unfollow me if my posts upset you. This is the most important time in my life, in my opinion, to speak out. We have not, in my lifetime, had such evil in control of our executive branch. Our President lies in every public uttterence and reveals his sociopathy, his total lack of empathy, over and over day after day. We have two existential emergencies: the virus and the president. Again, I understand the discomfort. I myself despise having to resist this evil day after day, but I must or I couldn't face my children, grandchildren, former students and friends, or my own reflection.
By the way, I do not hate Trump on a personal level. As a human he deserves our pity and our prayers. He has never known love. But we must hate Trumpism and the evil it does day in and day out in our nation.

Sandy Doughty
Terrell Shaw Thank you for speaking out...you do it with far more compassion and eloquence than I do!
Almost, always, I can discuss and understand both sides of any disagreement and I'm always willing to listen to the other side's opinions.
This situation with trump is destroying my America!
I can't think of one negative opinion that trump hasn't expounded on, repeatedly, that causes discord among Americans and causes people to act accordingly.
Divide and conquer, I suppose and it's working.
He scares the very life out of me every time I hear him speak and I see what he's doing to my America. And, I wonder and worry how anyone with any morals, ethics, belief in God isn't able to see him for the trouble maker that he is, the conman that he is, the total lack of loyalty that he has for anyone.
What I'm trying to say is, HOW is there "another side" to this disagreement?! HOW could/would anyone be all for supporting someone who is trying his worst to ruin my any their America and it's peoples. Do they not understand that he wants to be Putin or Kim Jung Un, that he wants to be lord and ruler not President? That he has said that he has no respect for the working man/the poor man? He said that any man who wasn't rich was of no use to him. I just do not understand how there is an opposing group of people to honesty, hard work, respect for others, loyalty to family (wives), respect for women In general.

Gleaning Facebook: NINE TRUTHS & A LIE

Your job? Identify the lie in this post.

Jobs I have been paid to do:

1. Short Order Cook

2. Fuller Brush Salesman

3. Newspaper editor/publisher

4. Storyteller

5. Assistant Principal

6. World Book/ ChildCraft salesman

7. Stainless Steel Cookware Salesman

8. Workforce Development Director

9. SBDC Counselor

10. Classroom Teacher

Comments:

Angela Greear 7???
Terrell Shaw

It didn't last long but, sad to say, I did go door to door trying to convince folks to heed a 20-year-old boy's sales pitch on the glories of such cookware. Sorry. BTW I think I managed to sell only one set before I quit. 

Nena Dake 1

Terrell Shaw Sorry Nena, see above.

Annie Shields 9

Terrell Shaw Oh my goodness! As I wrote mistakenly for #8 --- Even more amazingly, I was paid at Floyd Junior College's Small Business Development Center for helping beginning business folk put together business plans. We are talking here about the guy who started two unsuccessful businesses. Sorry.

Christine Reinolds Kozelle 5?

Terrell Shaw I was AP at McHenry Elementary 1973-1977. It was a very small supplement and other than occasionally filling in for the principal when he was sick or out of town, my extra duties were few. I had a full teaching assignment through those years. I loved my time at McHenry! Sorry.

Carl Franklin 2

Terrell Shaw I walked all over Rome and Glenwood selling Fuller Brush Products one summer in the sixties! Sorry.

Ellen Henderson Garrard #6?

Terrell Shaw I kept tryin' to sell stuff, despite proving over and over that sales is not my forte! This was the mid-seventies. Sorry.

Terrell Shaw Well, I guess it's time to admit it's a sorta trick post with two possible solutions. Anyone wanna have a stab at one of the trick answers?

Anita Stewart Short Order Cook?

Terrell Shaw See my note about the worst short order cook in history above!

Terrell Shaw OK FOLKS, I admitted above that this was a trick post. Whenever I respond to one of these memes this King of Elaboration* wonders if there is a different take to explore. So I offer first my confession, then two solutions for my post...
Confession: I have held all ten of these jobs and more with at least part of my motivation the acquisition of wealth. Solution Number One: the label, written in all-caps at the top is the lie, since I had all ten jobs. Solution Number Two: I specified that I had to make money at the jobs. I do not believe I ever made a dime off our newspaper, Broadside, during the two and half years we gave to it. Sheila drew a small salary as did some of our other owners and employees. but I kept my "day" job and never drew a salary. So I had the job but was not paid for it. With that understanding the label is true and number 3 is a lie. So forgive me but this is ALMOST April Fool's Day. * I spent eleven years teaching kids who were smarter than me in the Floyd County Program for the Gifted. I got in the habit of trying to think outside the box to try to stay one step ahead of 'em -- part of the time anyway! 

Anita Stewart You pulled it off! Professional storyteller.

Peggy Davis Enjoyed post & every comment & answer Fantastic