More on centerpull balls

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message news:4716248a$0$765$ snipped-for-privacy@master.news.zetnet.net...

Unless someone is actually staying here at our home (even when my parents were alive), no one walks in to our house. *shrug* That's the way I grew up, so it bothers me when someone feels they can just walk up and open our door without knocking. Of course, having Casper keeps that from happening. ;o) Matthew's ex-girlfriend did that *once* (not during the time she was actually staying here because she had nowhere else to live... while living here, obviously I didn't mind her walking in), and I kept the door locked after that to be sure it wouldn't happen again.

Even when we would go to visit my grandmother when I was little, we always knocked at her door and waited to be invited in. My sisters always knocked on my parents' door when they would come to visit too... and we did the same when we first showed up at their homes. Like I said in the previous paragraph... when actually staying in someone's home, it's acceptable for us not to knock as that would just be silly. ;o)

Oh my Mom had worse than that happen to her when I was little. She had a man from Jehovah's Witness come to the door. She politely told him that she was cooking supper and besides she really wasn't interested as she had her own religious beliefs. He continued to talk. She excused herself saying that she could smell the potatoes starting to burn (This happened to her often... it became a standing joke for my Mom to serve us scorched potatoes and tell us to be quiet and eat them, it was good for us. LOL), and she went to close the door. The man stuck his foot in the door so she couldn't shut it, and continued talking. She lost her patence and told him to remove his foot from the door now that she was not interested in what he had to say (considering by this time he was also beginning to put down our faith (Roman Catholic) saying that his was the only true religion. We were always raised to respect other people's religious beliefs and not think we (or anyone) were better than anyone else.) and if he didn't remove his foot from the door she was going to call the police. He refused to budge and continued talking. I forgot to mention that he also had a small boy with him, and my Mom was trying to be careful what she said or did in front of this child. She tried again to shut the door but he wouldn't move his foot and continued talking. She called out to my brother who was in the kitchen to phone the police, and she finally blew up and SLAMMED the door on the man's foot. But he *still* stood there keeping the door open and talking AT her. My Dad (who had been sleeping because of working the midnight shift) heard the noise and came downstairs asking what the hell was going on. My Mom told him, and he told the man to remove his foot from the door before HE slammed it on his foot... and if he did it, his foot would be broken. Just then the police drove up and told the man to get off our porch. The man told the police that my Mom had slammed the door on his foot, and the policeman told him he was lucky to walk away with only a bruise.

Yes, our potatoes were scorched again... but this time my Mom had a good excuse! LOL

Oh that sounds lovely! Have a wonderful visit and come home safely! :o)

*hugs* Gem - by the way, everytime I scorch the potatoes now (not often) I say that my Mom is helping me watch them. LOL

Oh - they only do it because we've invited them to!

Our children and their spouses and their children are part of the house, friends are as welcome as family, they all have a key anyway. It's not the norm in Britain except, perhaps, in small communities. We have to insist on it :-)

We once had a marvellous milkman who would open the kitchen door, put on the kettle then call up the stairs to Spouse. He'd get up then they'd share a cup of tea before getting on with the rest of the day. Of course, that was when our doors were never locked, some years ago. Now they're locked at night and if we go away - if we remember! We once went to London and came back a week later to find the back door unlocked :-)

That story reminds me of when JWs came to our house and I let them rabbit on and on (while they were talking to me they were leaving someone else alone - I learned that from our curate) and before they left I insisted that they bought the latest issue of our parish magazine - which I edited.

They've never been again ... I reckon I'm on some black list :-)

It's a long journey, half of it on narrow roads, but we insist on enjoying it whether we like it or not. I'm taking some things of my mother's, who died in August. Daughter needs bedding, curtains etc for when they've finished rebuilding their old house. They need encouraging, her husband has bowel cancer and too many people are suggesting that they don't continue with the project.

And it will be good to see their 2 year old again, they grow so quickly ...

Just waiting for my bathwater to run, I've been baking bread in the stone oven so haven't been able to bathe before now.

Mary

I looked it up on the internet when looking for solutions to the telemarketer blitz. They have machines you buy for anywhere from $30 and up (like Telezapper and Phone Butler) that I understand do pretty much the same thing, only some of them will catch the telemarketer before your phone even rings.

Anyway, there are a few sites online that have it. Here's one I found:

I right-clicked and saved it to my computer, recorded it to ahand-held recorder I use for my work, and played it for my answeringmachine, turned off the hand-held, waited a few seconds, and recordedthe outgoing message right after. I then told everyone we know thatthey will get that "phone disconnected" sound when calling and themachine picks up. I tell any business with a legit reason to call usthe same thing, and sometimes they forget to write it down, but ifthey call and leave no message, we see it on Caller ID and call back. If you're in Canada, I don't know if the same tone will apply to your phone.

Leah

I love their sense of timing. I was resting on a Saturday morning when my son came in and crawled into bed with me. We were both sleeping when the oldest hollars out MOMAUTUMNTHREWUPALLOVERTHEHIGHCHAIRINTHEKITCHEN which is the magic phrase to get me up out of bed and moving like a mad woman. I threw on some clothes real quick, put Autumn in the tub and cleaned her off, had my oldest hold onto her (clean) while I tackled the mess in the kitchen. The youngest was crying, oldest whining that she wanted me and not her, and my son was right next to me in the kitchen asking "what can I do to help now, Mom?"

I took the high chair outside to be hosed off (it was THAT bad), and was inside cleaning up the walls, floor, etc. with my son right beside me helping and doing a great job until he slipped on the wet floor and cut his leg on the tile. Then HE was crying and needed patching up, the baby was still crying, oldest was losing patience. I bandaged him up and went outside to hose off the high chair. THAT was when the JW showed up. She wanted to talk about God, but God and I were a little busy at the moment and not in the mood to talk. I got a letter in the mail later. I don't remember the exact wording, but roughly it went something like this:

Dear Heathen,

Since you were incapable of listening to us when we came to your door, we feel we have no choice but to pray for your damned and mortal soul. Should you ever choose to make things right with God, we will welcome you at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Gee, thanks. I'll pray for them too. Poor misguided souls.

I ended up on a black list too. We were still moving into our home in Texarkana when they decided to call, and they asked how we were doing. My husband said just fine, and added a comment about all the empty boxes we needed to get rid of. I chimed in about the best boxes for moving were liquor boxes, and then it occurred to me: Liquor gets packaged much more carefully than live organs. When I made that comment, they saw an immediate need to leave and we haven't been visited since either.

Nonsense! If her husband is feeling up to doing it, he should... it's a lot better than laying in bed with nothing to do but think about what may or may not happen. That's how I handled it when I was told I had cancer... and that's the way my sister-cousin Linda is handling it now with her terminal cancer. She was told at the end of April that she had three months... that would have been the end of July. When she passed that mark she aimed for the first of Autumn. When that passed, she aimed for Thanksgiving. Now that it has passed she's aiming for Christmas. She says if she makes it to Christmas she'll aim for her birthday a few weeks later... and so on.

In any case I wish your son-in-law well and will say a prayer for him.

Aww, cute age! Enjoy!

mmMMMmm I can smell the freshly baked bread now. :o)

*hugs* Gem

Thank you, Leah! I saved the site to my favourites to look at later. :o)

*hugs* Gemini

LOL Thanks for the laugh! Even though the stories are true, and likely not funny to you (especially the first one) at the time... they gave me a laugh for the day.

*hugs* Gemini

It's so true! They always laugh when I say that, too. They probably hear it all day long. ;-))

Seriously smart lady!

Murielle

It's funnier now than it was at the time!

...

That's TERRIBLE! They'd have had a very large piece of my mind on stiff paper if they'd done that to me.

Nice one,

Mary who's been in deepest Wales for longer than intended due to son in law being found at the side of the road, unconscious. All's well now, after a few days in hospital.

>

We went by a different route this time, even narrower roads on mountain sides but spectacular - and extremely quiet! We saved twenty miles and half an hour. that will be the way we go from now.

Good for her.

I never contemplated 'lying in a darkened room' when I was diagnosed and nor did my husband when he was - I wouldn't let him :-)

Thank you. He's not too bad but he does tend to be one for taking things easy at any time, he's frustrated the whole family by that for over twenty years.

We did, buyt he insists on calling me Grandpa and Spouse Grandma ... :-)

I can make a month's supply at a time in the stone oven, we're still enjoying it :-)

The first jumper I knitted for Welsh grandson is now too small for him so I've pulled it out and shall now go and somehow re-knit it bigger :-)

No matter how much we enjoy being away it's nice to be back!

Mary

I've found a way to get crossed off their list. Tell them you've been disfellowshipped. Sorta like being excommunicated.....

sue

...

That sounds like a challenge! Don't they attempt to refellowship you?

Mary

Snipped:

>

Not me, son in law. He had lots of scans and was allowed home after a couple of nights but in the meantime we stayed to look after the animals and make meals while daughter travelled to the hospital. It's an hour's drive, which isn't much in US terms but more than one would like in our terms :-)

Philip had gone for a ride on his bike with their strong farm dog on a long lead attached to the bike. I suspect that he was pulled off but we'll never know. the roads are very narrow with no footpaths, a couple of farm lads on their quad bikes found him and called the ambulance - which took an hour to come but a rapid response car arrived much earlier to make sure that he wasn't critically injured.

Thanks for your concern but we wouldn't have come home if it had been worse :-)

Mary

Mary Fisher spun a FINE 'yarn':

Mary Fisher. . . I apologize for not catching the thread earlier, I really knew nothing about your soninlaw, and now that I DO, I feel even worse! Noreen

Oh my goodness, what a scare that had to have been. I'm happy to hear all is well now though.

Welcome back to rcty, and home, Mary!

*hugs* Gemini

Good find... the shorter route. :o) I'll bet the view was lovely too.

Unfortunately, my cousin was put into pallative care at the hospital last week. We are working on rounding up enough money to make the 3 - 4 hour trip to see her... hopefully this weekend if we can. I'll be contacting my oldest sister, who lives about 45 minutes the other side of Toronto, this week to find out if she and her husband would mind if we go to their place first and we can all go to see Linda together.

I didn't either. It was scary at times, and fleeting thoughts of overwhelming sadness found their way to the surface from time to time, but for the most part I kept a positive attitude and found myself seeing and hearing things for the first time all over again. Birds and flowers, and such.... things we've all come to take for granted as life takes control of our time... and I've never stopped appreciating those things since that point in my life.

You must freeze it then to make sure it doesn't go stale or mouldy, right?

I'm sure the sweater will be beautiful, and made with love. :o)

Isn't that the truth? When we went to British Columbia to visit my second sister, and Matthew and I saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time, it was spectacularly gorgeous, and I am very glad that we got to see them. However, after being there about 1 1/2 weeks I started feeling claustrophobic being in the valley surrounded by mountains and not being able to see the horizon anywhere I looked. When we left and came out of the mountains in Alberta, I actually breathed a very deep sigh of relief and was glad to see the mountains in the rear-view mirror of the car. When we finally got home (after a week at my brother's in the flatland of Saskatchewan) to Ontario, where we have a variety of layouts of land, it felt sooooo good.... even though when I went into the bathroom when we came in the house I discovered that the water heater had burst and flooded the floor. It was upsetting, yes... but to sleep in our own beds that night was very relaxing... best sleep we had in a month. ;o)

*hugs* Gem

No apologies needed, please don't feel bad - he doesn't :-)

Mary