"Blame it on Paul Newman"

With my first Mother’s Day without my mother upon me, I have been doing some reflecting on our years together.  The first thoughts are still of the last years spent nursing and caring for her, time that I am grateful to have been able to have given her, even though many of the actual tasks involved were not ones that I had ever had a desire to do in my life.  Often, while in the midst of performing some undesirable task, usually ones that involved many changes of disposable gloves and vast amounts of baby wipes and household cleaning supplies, I would start muttering “This is God’s answer to your having been the president of the Future Nurses of America in high school.”  That memory always was enough to make us both start laughing and would make the task at hand easier to accomplish.

Now, first of all, you must understand that from the beginning of my school years I suffered from a few very chronic and debilitating learning disabilities.  This was before the days of testing and labeling such things, so those of us who suffered just had to do the best we could without the benefit of counseling or special help.  My mother, who understood all of her offspring very well, was quite aware of these conditions, as I was not the first one in the family so afflicted.  Hence, I found myself delivering many a note to the school nurse which read as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

Please excuse Mary Lynn’s absence yesterday as she was suffering from a severe case of schoolitis, coupled with an acute outbreak of homeworkatosis.

Very truly yours,

Mary G. Ferry

This was further complicated by the fact that, as far as I was concerned, if I could get B’s and C’s without studying, why waste a lot of time just for an A?  Luckily for me, in those days marks were based more on your test scores than on homework and notebooks.  Therefore, in June of 1977, I found myself standing with my classmates in my cap and gown receiving my Regents Diploma in Math/Science/French in preparation of taking my stellar academic attitude on to the next level.  Of course, I was paying strict attention as they were handing out the special awards and not at all concerned with the fact that maybe I had a surplus of dates in attendance, so I do not know why I missed when they called my name until I got an elbow in the ribs.  But there it was, I had to go up again to receive a special award for being the outgoing President of the Future Nurses of America.  Crap, but wait a minute the envelope contains a picture of Ben Franklin, cool!

When we got home for the party afterwards my oldest sister, who had been Valedictorian of her class (needless to say, she had had a very different attitude from mine for her school career), started grilling me about the events of the day.  “Who was the really smart guy that the class gave the standing ovation to?”  Oh, that was Mark, he likes school and has been a senior for years but decided we were the class he wanted to graduate with.  “Humph”“Why did you all sing when that other boy got his diploma?”  He is the son of the head of the math department and the mastermind behind the smoke bombs that went off in school last week so we sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”.  “Humph”“What was that disgusting song you got your diplomas to and why did they play it?”  It is what we chose as our class song, “FREEBIRD!!!!” “Humph!”  I can tell she is not at all happy with any of the answers and is building up to the question she really wants to ask.  “WHY do you want to be a nurse?!?!”  I don’t.  “If you want to go into medicine be a doctor, not a NURSE!!!”  I do not want to be either one.  “Then why are you PRESIDENT of the Future Nurses?!?!?!?!”  Paul Newman.  “WHAT?!?!?!?!”  Blame it on Paul Newman.  Our mother, who up until now had been struggling to maintain a straight face through all of this, suddenly needed to check on something in the kitchen.  Something must have been burning in there as she immediately started to choke.

In our high school the students who planned to go to college took Regents courses, while those who were not going to further their education had a different set of classes.  Most of my classmates in the Regents courses considered themselves superior to the non-Regents students, and would not associate with them.  I also found that most of these people were fond enough of themselves that it did not matter what I thought of them.  Most of my closest friends were in the other classes so I was well aware of the fact that they did not have the amount or degree of difficulty to their work as we had.  This gap widened as the years went on until Junior year when the non-college bound mostly spent half of their day at trade school and the college bound had the toughest year yet, as the majority of our State Regents Exams were upcoming that spring.  Towards the end of the winter, we had an unexpected new source of excitement go through the school.  There was to be a movie filming in some nearby locations and they wanted busloads of students as extras!  Could this be?  Yes, it will be a hockey movie and they are going to film in several nearby locations and whole classes will get to go!  Then, the biggest news of all, you guessed it, it is starring Paul Newman!!!!  It seemed that every time we met up by our lockers another friend or two had found out that they were going to go.  Many of them were going several different days.  English classes, history classes, business classes, the hockey team, all were going.  Surely, my teachers would start saying when we were going to participate.  I asked the teacher in our next class, only to find out that we needed to stay in school and work, we had upcoming Regents Exams.  Say What?!?  My sense of injustice kicked in full force, we have the harder work load and our reward is to stay in school!  They are going to see Paul Newman!  Who are the “smart kids” now?

Being a person who never meekly submitted to authority just for the sake of authority, I may have mentioned this to every teacher, but was repeatedly met with the same response.  Then I got the idea that French Club should go, after all, many hockey players are native French speakers from Canada.  I was informed that they spoke “Canadian French, sniff” and we were studying “Proper French”.  I continued to press my point, only to hear, “Assez toi, et ferme la bouche!”  Now, for those of you who do not have my benefit of four years of high school French, I will translate.  I heard this phase often and it puzzled me until I realized it meant, “Thank you very much for your thoughtful input, you are one of my favorite students.”  I never did get to go and see any of the hockey scenes filmed, but if you watch the movie “Slap Shot” many of my schoolmates are in those crowd scenes in the hockey arenas.

Meanwhile, my previously mentioned learning disabilities had made me realize that lying down in the nurse’s office with a headache was a legal excuse to not be attending a class.  This whole Paul Newman thing was giving me many headaches.  One day while I was there a meeting of the Future Nurses was being held and they were planning upcoming field trips.  I came to the realization that this was a school organization that did nothing but go on monthly field trips during school, there for providing a legitimate legal excuse for not being in class.  Sign me up!  This was at least a small step towards getting even with the system for not sending us to see the “Slap Shot” filming.  At the conclusion of the final field trip of the year, it was announced that we would be having election of officers for the following year.  The offices of President and Vice President had to be held by upcoming Seniors, and there were only 2 of us at this meeting.  Having been a 4-H member for years I had already figured out that the perfect office to hold in any organization was Vice President.  It looked great on resumes and applications and there was no work involved.  I quickly nominated the other candidate for President, leaving me the gravy VP job.  I was feeling quite proud of this quick bit of thinking, a feeling which lasted until the next December when the President opted for early graduation.

Blame it on Paul Newman.

Return of the Blog

 After an absence of what looks to be 3 years I am reviving this.  I have been writing lately, a habit I never really cared for but have found therapeutic during the past year.  Since I last used this blog, life has changed a great deal.  As Grandma took more and more of my time and attention the farming had to go bit by bit, until all of my beloved livestock was gone.  We then decided to move from upstate New York to southern Maryland 2 years ago, thus no more farm at all.  And the biggest change of all was last summer when Mom left us for the Heavenly Pastures with their Jersey cows.  I still miss her constantly.

Meanwhile, I will be adding more to this in the upcoming days that will fill you in on any other changes.

Husband for Rent - Cheap

While talking to my sister Betty yesterday she mentioned that cleaning up her yard was going slow as her garden tractor and wheelbarrow were both not working. I mentioned it to Mike when he called me a few minutes later and he said why don't we go up tomorrow and I will look at them. So, today we packed Grandma up in the truck with a bunch of stuff for Betty and Mary, including birthday presents for both of them and went up and Mike was able to get the wheelbarrow working, but unfortunately not the tractor. We had a pleasant day visiting with Betty and Mary and celebrating Mary's birthday on Melanie's birthday. Hopefully, Mike got a few things done to make things a bit easier for Betty. I know that I feel blessed to have him every weekend to do the things that make it that much easier for me to accomplish more during the week.

I am now feeling too tired to have this make a great deal of sense so I had better quit for tonight.

Sappy Post

After another full day of lawn work I can barely move my fingers on the keyboard tonight, but am finally making enough progress that it is noticable. Several sections of lawn are now ready for summer, the flower bed that we have been working on is done for now. It will get some more in it later. Polly worked up the bed in the walkway and I put a few pansys in there, it will get more annuals later. At least I feel like progress is being made now.

I was working next to the road today, cleaning up where the snowplow had made a mess all winter when the town highway supervisor stopped to tell me that they would be sweeping the road in about half an hour so I might want to get the clothes off of the line before they kicked up all of that dust. I thought that was very nice of him. Then, when they swept the road, they took the extra effort to sweep it all over to the other side where I had not cleaned yet, and not make a mess of this side of the road which I had almost all done. I could almost have kissed the old guy who drives the sweeper for that one. But only almost.

It was actually warm enough that we got Grandma outside this morning. Polly and I were down to our t-shirts and Grandma was bundled up for winter, with a blanket over her too, but she was comfy and napped in the sun for a couple of hours. I had to wake her after Tony told me that they would be sweeping to get her in then. It seemed to help both her mood and her mind. She has been much better the rest of the day for it.

Now, for the really sappy part. Last night Mike told me that he would not be done until late so he would not be home. Normally I say "yeah, I get the bed all to myself" and have no problem. It had been a hard day yesterday so I was disappointed but did not tell him. I just said OK, I'll see you tomorrow. I went to bed and at about 10:30 was awakened by my dear hubby climbing into bed. I asked him what he was doing home and he told me that he could hear in my voice that I needed a hug. (All together now, aaaawwwww.) Not only that but as tired as he was he had taken a shower when he got home, just because he knows that Eau du Minging Trucker is not my favorite scent. I felt kinda guilty that he drove 65 miles home to only get 4 hours sleep before driving back just because I sounded down on the phone. Mike said he was just happy to do so for me. I definately have a keeper here.

This is the middle of nowhere, where do these people come from?

Polly was helping me rake the lawn today and took a radio outside. I usually like peace and quiet when working outside but was really enjoying the radio today and was singing and dancing with my rake. I was really rocking out with my back to the road, having a grand old time, when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to find that a man from the electric company had driven up and was standing there watching me. He had to go out into the field and check the poles out there, but seemed to be finding me amusing. I felt like trashing his muffler while he was gone so he could not sneak up on people so easily.

It is the time of the year where I have to get used to traffic again as the road is seasonal past our house and is not plowed all winter long. It does not officially open until April 1st. Some years the snow is all gone on it before that but this year they had to go up and open it with the grader. We have not had traffic go past since November, except for the snowmobiles, but they are over the bank in the field and it does take a bit of getting used to again now.

Of course, I did not have that excuse when I mooned the Amish family a few years ago. I really did not mean to. It was the middle of the summer and I had been outside working all day. I got into the house that evening, ate supper, and took my bath. I was then heading straight up to bed so just put on my tank top and underwear to go upstairs. The Pomeranian, Foxy, whined at me when I went past the front door so I looked out and her water dish was empty. Living here you get very used to hearing any cars going by, so I did not look up and down the road, just did not hear an engine. I opened the door, stepped outside, turned around and bent down and picked filled her water dish. As the water is pouring I realize that I am hearing clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. I looked back over my shoulder and there is a buggy full of an entire Amish family, all of whom are staring out over the field across the road with very big frowns on their faces. Oops.

I have learned that one little accidental mooning is enough to get you shunned by the whole community. They will no longer drive past here, even though it is 3 miles more to go around the other way. Many more families have moved into the area on both sides of us and still none of them drive past.

I do see many of the men up at the feed mill and they are very friendly up there. I do not think that they recognize me from that angle, and with clothes on. Or else, they are friendly because the women and children are not there, I am not sure which.

A different Easter

This year Easter fell the day after the end of the spring cattle show in Syracuse so Flip's family were tired out from that. Then Betty went to Prague so obviously would not be coming for dinner. When Easter is early and there is still snow on the ground it is not so bad to spend the week before cooking and cleaning, but now I am so ready to be outside that just cooking a daily meal and keeping the dishes somewhat done up is more time than I want to spend indoors, never mind a holiday meal. So, we decided not to do the big Easter this year. Polly and Mike went to the store and got fish which Mike cooked on the bbq grill, we baked some potatoes and had some stuffed clams for an appetizer. All the cooking I had to do was to throw the potatoes in the oven. I found it to be the most relaxing holiday that I can ever remember. I took a long nap in the afternoon, Mike and I brought up more manure for another section of the flowerbed and Mike worked it in. It was so cold and windy outside that that was enough for the day, so I puttered around cleaning up the house for the rest of the day.

Yesterday and today I have been planting. I hope that it comes out looking good, but if it doesn't I will blame Betty for being out of the country when I needed to consult with her on it. hehehe The section I did today has iris, gladiolius, roses, lily of the valley, and pansys at the moment. There will be more annuals for sure, and maybe some more perrenials, and spring bulbs.

I was being good and alternating working cleaning up the lawn with working on the flower beds until I got to be able to plant. Now, planting is so much more fun than raking up more sticks and dead leaves. Tomorrow, I do have to get back to the raking part though.

I have found that I probably will not be able to do pictures on here for another few weeks. Polly needs to repair her computer first, as they tell me this one will not work to do so, and that will not happen until after she goes to visit Jessie. So, it will be the middle of May before I am able to do pictures.

Playin' in the dirt

Mike and I accomplished a lot today. He rototilled in the lovely organic matter that I had dumped into the flower bed all into it, plus worked up where I decided that we needed more flower bed. It will look pretty and it is a spot that I always try to tip the riding mower over on myself all summer. Then he assembled the arbor and table and chairs that we brought home yesterday, and I got the patio area swept off for the table. We put the arbor in at the bottom of the stairs and it was time to start planting.

My darling husband will not plant flowers, except he will dig the deep holes for the roses or other bushes. So after he dug the holes for the 2 climbing jacobs coats that are going on the arbor he decided that he would cook dinner while I planted. I got half of the iris back in, in over twice the area that they were taking up before, and some other plants as well, before I gave in to the freezing wind. I came into the house to find that my wonderful husband had steak, homefries and eggs all ready to go on the table as soon as I got out of the bathtub.

What more can you ask for at the end of a fun day playin' in the dirt? Now I am clean, my tummy is full, I have taken the pain pills for the bursa under my shoulder blade that does not enjoy playin' in dirt, and I have my ice cold feet warming on my nice warm hubby. Life is good tonight.