Mom and the Cell Phone

My mom has passed away.  A year ago October.  I miss her mirth. This is an old post I wanted to move here.  There will be several.

My mother and I have been discussing cellphones for a couple of months. She told me at that time that hers wasn't working. As we know time gets away from us. She had upgraded her phone several years ago and I didn't know it but she still had an analogue phone. They don't have them now but even with that those jerks at Cingular were charging her five dollars a month for having this old type phone. They offered her an upgrade but she gets so confused I thought I better help out.

First she said she didn't want a phone and was going to get rid of it completely.

Her: I don't need a phone, I don't ever use it.

Me: Well, you certainly won't be using it if it doesn't work.

Her: I just want to get rid of it.

Me: We will have to call and cancel it then.

Her: I think it is with Southwestern Bell.

Me: No it is with Cingular. Att is the old Bell and that is your home phone.

Her: Does that have any thing to do with Cox?

Me: Noooooo

This went on for some time and I told her it might be a good idea if she had a phone in the car in case her car broke down. If she would promise me she would remember to turn it on. She laughed.

Next conversation

Me: I have a bill here you need to cancel your phone so you aren't paying that 30 some dollars a month. That could be money in your pocket.

Her: Oh, I don't want to cancel. I think I am going to upgrade.

Me: OOOO KKKKK....( I don't know whether to giggle here or just scream out loud)

Her: I got a deal in the mail and I can get a new phone.

Me: Well, we have to go to a corporate store to do this. ( We have gotten several different stories by this time of what we can do and how much it will cost all from different stores telling us they can't do such and such at their store because it isn't corporate. And at each store we have gotten different stories and solutions from each of the different employees.) I feel so sorry for the elderly and I am feelin' sorrier and sorrier for myself because I am becoming elderly dealing with this.

So I went over and asked if she was ready to get another phone and she said yes. MrP was there and asked her if she had decided to get another one and she said yes that she was never going to not have one. AAAAKKK!

Me: You said last month you didn't even want one. Do you remember that?

Her: No, my mind is gone. hahaha

So we went to the corporate store, found a really nice woman who had set her dad up with a plan. She was trying to sell us the 39 dollar plan which has gone up to 59 a month. I just kept saying no no no. These plans are way more than she needs and way too much money. So we ended up with a go phone, pay as you go, cute little thing, no camera.

I couldn't see adding anything that would make it complicated, (rolls eyes here). She took it home and has read the instruction book cover to cover, which won't matter because she won't remember but she is having fun and that is all that matters. She loves the numbers. They light up with a blue light behind them so she can see them when she is in the dark in bed. I hope she doesn't decide to call me late at night just because she can see the little lighted buttons.

Suzism

My newest saying that MrP loves:

 

I love you like I love my sister...With irritation.

 

 

Just Stuff

A Year In One Blog

I read Posterous updates in mail but hadn't been here in some time.  I finally get over here to notice that there is still the blog and now there are spaces?  Very confusing.  What has happened since I was here last.

 

My mom passed away almost a year ago and her house has been on the market since February 2011.  She was a hoarder.  Not in the typical sense but in the sense that they kept everything that came into that house since 1952.  All my relatives that passed before her left them things and they just kept a lot of memorabilia.  It took from October to February to empty the house, paint it, and get it ready for sale.  Since then it has been broken into 6 times.  This last time they took a cinder block to her back door and just smashed it in.  It was a big heavy door but the destruction is unbelieveable. 

I am still going through mom's papers and found a something I had never seen among her things. I found hundreds of old photos of relatives and their friends and even some tintype photos that belonged to my grandmother.  There are also letters from the civil war and letters from my grandmother to my grandfather before they were married.  She was on holiday with her mother and sent my grandfather a letter every day. She was 20 years younger than him and must have been very young when she wrote the letters because most of them professed her undying love and affection.

We went south to New Mexico, and north to Michigan and the UP.  I got to meet Blondii, and Laurie, and Cyn of my online friends who I had never met but been friends with for the last 7 years.   

In photos here is what I have done in the past year. Some of it anyway.  The handle instructions were ignored as my kids ripped it off trying to get the box open.  The note about parking was left on my cousin's car when she was not in a legal parking space but couldn't find anything close for my 90 year old uncle.  Someone needs to learn to spell.  Remember before you pass judgement, realize you don't know the whole story.  

We went to Laura Ingall Wilder's home, a farm that grew heritage seeds, St. Louis over the fourth, Colorado, the lakes of Oklahoma, and caves in New Mexico.  

 

At the lake

Spring

I am basking in the weather that is spring this year.  It was a long hard winter and there is a lot to do outside.  The much needed sunshine is a bonus.  I haven't even minded raking this acre I tied myself to lately.  The windows and doors are open and there is no gale force wind today. 

Orton Effect and Other Things

A friend of mine, I call her blondii, and I spent some time in PSP playing with some pictures she took last night.  We were following a tutorial from here for the Orton Effect.  Definition here.  After doing the tutorial we just spent some time playing with the pictures.  We made it black and white and then I used an overlay I had made using another blend mode on it, which made it look more like a painting.  

Santa Fe

The last two are outside of Santa Fe.  They paint everything.  It is very cool.  All the bridges and retaining walls have different pictures. I didn't take many pictures in Santa Fe.  We were too busy walking around looking at things.  

Colorado To New Mexico

The Puye Indian Ruins are in this batch.  The cliff is 200 ft high and the Indians made their blocks for building their houses out of tuff which is rock consisting of volcanic ash.  The site was home to about 1500 Indians.  They built their homes up to three stories but the homes only went into the face of the rock a rooms width.  The guide told us that they didn't use the ladders you see leaning against the rock.  They carved hand and foot holds into the side of the cliff to climb up to their homes.  There are about 740 homes carved into the cliff face.  There is a community house on top of the cliff.  Pottery was made and is still being made and sold by the Santa Clara Indians.  The Tewa language is still spoken in Espanola and the surrounding areas.  Puye translates to "pueblo ruin where the rabbits assemble or meet."

Creed, Colorado to Lake City, Colorado