Yay!

via GIPHY
I just found out both of my kids will be here to visit me this weekend!

Niagara Falls, Canada and other preoccupations

I'm still finding it difficult to find time to write/post.  Every weekend since July 1st we've either been out of town visiting people, or people were here visiting us.  That takes a toll on a person's free time.  I've loved every minute of it, but I've got work to do! 

This past weekend friends came up from Maryland to see us and we took them over to Canada to ride the Hornblower/Maid of the Mist boat up to the foot of Niagara Falls.  I took a film myself, but it was not good quality since there was so much water spraying at me from the Falls.  I'm attaching a professional video for your enjoyment. 

In between working on putting the house together, cleaning rooms for guests, then cleaning them again for the next set of guests, and working on the on-line class I'm teaching, I have begun writing a book.  It's fiction.  I'm not very far into the writing of it, because of how little time I have to work on it, but when I do get a moment here and there, I am working on it.  I'm also toying with the idea of working on a history book.  I probably won't get to start on that until well into the Fall or early Winter because I can't begin the research necessary for it just yet.  So if I seem to be absent on the blog, just know, I am still keeping busy, always busy!

Sites around Niagara Falls  -  The first Falls they show in this video are looking from Canada across to the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls on the right of those.  A few seconds later they pan across to the Horseshoe Falls of Canada.  We took the boat ride up to the base of each of the Falls that you see in the video.

Adjusting

Hi!  How are you doing?  Are you settling in?  Does it feel like home?  Do you miss your old house?  Have you found a job yet?  Have you started any home improvement projects yet?

Those are the most frequent questions I get asked.  I answer, fine, yes, not yet, YES!, no, we put up a new fence for the dog.  

I'm not quite sure what my truth is to those questions.

I made my favorite homemade bread recipe to make the house smell like home, but this place is so huge, that I couldn't smell a thing.  I searched for places to go berry picking, to put blueberries in the freezer for winter.  But I got too busy to get to the fields, so I purchased berries from the farmer's market, froze some, made jam out of the rest.  

Same type of canning jars, same kitchen towel, same motions, but no sense of accomplishment.

I made my favorite quiche for dinner.  There was only the slight smell of garlic in the house.  The scents dispersed too quickly.

I have been working on an on-line class for my old employer, so in addition to house stuff, I am staying very busy.  Still, I haven't found additional work.  That may take some time.  I might finally get to work on a novel, or some other work that has been rattling in my head for years.  Now that I might have the luxury to explore such an endeavor, it feels like I'm standing in front of a great abyss, unsure how to cross it.  It's terrifying and exciting all at once.

Getting there . . .

For the last five weeks, here's what I've been doing:  week 1, moving, unpacking; 

week 2, trip to Maine; Week 3, unpack and go see my sister; 

week 4 both M's brothers and their families here, then go to Albany for a 50th wedding anniversary for M's aunt and uncle, week 5, M's parents come for a visit, clean and put bedrooms back together after previous visitors, work on on-line class, spend time with M's folks. 

Min is still planning her Spring wedding.  Here's a shot of her and L, her fiance.  She's in an arm stand, like a hand stand, and his legs are straight up against her.  I wish she would have sent me the whole picture, so you could see the balancing act, but this is what I got.  

Min is continuing her acrobatics training and modeling.  Here's a picture of her lighted hool-a-hoop act.

 

So it might not sound like much, but I've been very busy, and out of town way too much.  The house is now all "put together," meaning all the furniture is set up, pictures hung, stuff in cupboards.  I still have two small boxes in the kitchen to get to, and the entire basement is full of boxes for the office and craft room that need to be taken care of, plus the garage is piled high with moving boxes that need to be cut and flattened so they can be stored in the basement for any future move.  So that's a very brief description of all I've been doing. Needless to say, I've been working every spare moment, so I hope you'll forgive me for my blogging absence.  One good thing, we are having a lovely cool summer and gorgeous sunsets here at the new house.

 

Wedding Dress

Pat, here's a first look of Min in her wedding dress.  It needs some minor alterations, but here it is!

Little observations

My day consists of unpacking, furniture arranging, decorating, cleaning, running errands, and checking Facebook frequently to see what my friends and kids are up to, so I don't feel so disconnected from the people who mean so much to me.  It's a weird feeling, being older and starting over.  Moving was so much easier mentally and physically when I was younger.  I had the illusion of immortality when I was younger.  I didn't think when I moved, "this may be the last time I see this person."  This time though, I had to acknowledge that was a possibility.  The realization that now that I was gone, friends would find someone else to fill my absence.  That's as it should be, but it felt more like the end of an era when I moved this time.  This moment, these relationships, will never come again.  It's also another phase for me as a parent.  My kids gave me a good trial run when they both left the country to travel to other places.  It made me realize in a very real sense, they were their own people, living their own lives, that no longer included touching base with me on a daily basis.  Now that I have moved away, I have to look at their daily lives from a distance, see what they're doing, who they're spending time with, and what experiences they're having that is making them the people they will become.

Min is still doing circus training, only local now.  She models for spending money on occasion while also working on her wedding plans.  I love this child's eyes!  

B is still living the carefree life of an unencumbered, single, twenty-something, staying up late, playing video games, hanging out with his buddies.  I'm still waiting for him to grow up.  ;-). I love his sense of humor and his quick mind.  

I miss them both.  I miss my friends, but I'm very busy trying to get the house in order so I can focus on the on-line class I'm doing for the university I left behind, and trying to find other work here, trying to  find my new normal and get into a new routine.  I'm glad we made this move, took this chance, but it is an eye-opener how different moving is when you're older, as opposed to when you're younger.

Trying to find a new normal

I spent so many weeks de-cluttering, cleaning, packing, organizing, just to be ready for the big move.  Then we get to our new home and I begin unpacking furiously, moving furniture, getting new drivers' licenses, insurance, organizing our new place, only to stop everything abruptly to go on a previously scheduled family vacation.  Now I'm back home, still unpacking, meeting with fence companies, shopping for supplies, random furniture pieces, and I need to find all the cords to our desktop computer so I can finish prepping for an on-line class I'm doing for the Fall, get out a letter of recommendation, and resumes for the continued job hunt.  The dog is back from a two week dog training camp, and I still don't have my head on straight.  Every day I write a list for things that need to be done, work my way through most of the items on the list, then the next morning I start the process all over again.  I want to just sit and do nothing, but I don't know how long I'll have, to get everything organized before I go back to work, so I push through, try to get everything organized and done before the luxury of time is taken away from me.  Here's a quick tranquility break, pictures from our recent trip to Maine, then back to work!

Love Conquers All

U.S. Supreme Court Decision Legalizes Gay Marriage for the Nation

Future project?

CK, I thought of you when I saw this.

The next phase of life

My daughter, Min, got engaged last week!  She had never met anyone she wanted to marry, and I was settled in the thought that she never would marry.  This is so wonderful!  Her fiance, Luke, got her an opal surrounded by diamonds because she didn't want the traditional diamond solitaire.  They are planning a Spring 2016 wedding, in the woods, very Bohemian style, which fits well with Min's hippy nature.  They are currently looking for a suitable wooded venue that will let them bring in food, and have music well past the 11 p.m. Noise curfew time of most State Parks.  Min has a friend who lives on 300 acres, so she's planning to see if any place on the property will work.  I'm so happy for them.  Luke is a really great guy.  He's a vegetarian like Min.  He dotes on her and is very kind and considerate of her, plus he has a good job and a good head on his shoulders.  Min is very happy and I couldn't ask for more for her.

Internet Censorship

I received the following e-mail today.  Have any of you heard about this?

In just a few days, key lawmakers will vote on a new scheme that will facilitate the spread of a restrictive ‘link tax’¹ online.  This backwards censorship plan is supported by a politician named Jean-Marie Cavada. A classic Internet villain who wants to hold onto the past.

Will you demand that Cavada back off plans that would restrict your right to link before it’s too late?

We know Cavada hopes to usher in new powers that could see links and comments on Soundcloud, Facebook, and WhatsApp to your favorite blog redirected or blocked entirely.

Have you seen those “not available in your area” geo-block-like messages? Yeah, more of that sort of thing. We hate them too. 

If Cavada gets his way we’ll see much more of that frustrating Internet censorship and it will affect users everywhere. Let’s all send him a message he can’t ignore now.

Here’s the rub: Cavada’s link censorship plan is about to be voted on in a powerful EU parliamentary committee he chairs.²

Regardless of where you live many of your favourite websites and key web infrastructure will be covered by his irresponsible censorship scheme. 

As it stands, if Cavada gets his way you could see some of your favourite websites being forced to pay a ‘link tax’ for pointing to information that’s freely available elsewhere.³

Get this: he even tried to scrub the input from Internet users from this decision-making process.⁴ He then tried to block a UN free expression expert from talking to key decision-makers about the problems with his restrictive plan.⁵ Who does that?

For Cavada to back off he needs to hear from as many of us as possible right now. The vote is in just a few days. 

This isn’t the Internet we want: tell Cavada to back off this link censorship plan right now.

Every story has a hero and a villain, and this story is no different. We know which role Cavada is playing.

We have a hero: Pro-Internet champion Julia Reda has actually set out a positive roadmap⁵ for how to bring more of the Web we love to more people around the world.

Cavada is trying to ruin this forward-looking plan by inserting his censorship plan into the process. Let’s not let him do that.

-Meghan, on behalf of your OpenMedia team

PS: We need to make sure that Cavada hears our message loud and clear. And the more people who share this action, the easier that will be. Can you take a moment to share on Facebook and Twitter today?

 

Footnotes:

[1] 'Link tax' also known as 'ancillary copyright.' Find out more about it's effects here and here.
[2] Jean-Marie Cavada’s bio. Source: European Parliament.
[3],[4] What does Cavada want the future of copyright to look like? Source.
[5] MEP scuffle points to EU copyright controversy. Source: EU Observer.
[6] Copyright evaluation report - explained. Source: Julia Reda.