Dot`sThoughts

Things happen that we seldom give a second thought to until they cause us to worry about what did happen or why it did happen, or what we can do to correct what happened.

Like one time Walt was taking a shower and when he turned on the water, there was this terrible loud ear piercing noise that continued as long as the water was turned on. He yelled to me the first time he heard it. It was so simple to stop it. I told him, all you have to do is shut off the water and then turn it back on and the terrible loud noise will be gone. I think he doubted it would work, but he tried it anyways. He was surprised that it worked.

Then one day while visiting my oldest brother, his wife was showing me the new changes made to their large farm house.
(This is the same farmhouse where I lived when our twins were born. We intended on buying it until the girls got so badly burned with mercuric acid and battery acid combined that was used yrs before to dehorn the bulls on the farm. I was afraid the girls might find something else as dangerous, so we bought the property where I still live today, built our home and moved from the farm. Years later my oldest bro bought it.)
To get back to the origional topic, first it was taking a ride on the newly added elevator that was added to take my bro from the main floor up to the bedrooms and playroom ( also used for New Year parties with the antique juke box that still worked, the pool table, the piano, the two pinball machines, tables and chairs, etc.). Then she showed me the new shower off their bedroom with the built in seat for my bro.
(I should explain that this bro had a stroke a few years ago that put limits on the control in the right side of his body and he mostly uses a wheelchair to get around.)
Well, my sis-in-law asked me if I knew anyway to fix the shower curtain so the water wouldn`t spray out onto the bedroom floor. Another simple solutation. I told her to just put some water down that shower stall side where the curtain hit it and then just press down the curtain and it would stick to the wet side of the shower wall and remain there as long as noone pushed on it. Another problem solved so easily.

Then there was the time my Husbands niece was baby sitting for the family that used to live across the road from us. She had walked the two kids to the store and when she came back she found the back sliding door partly opened. She got scared and came over after me to check out the house before her and the kids went back inside. So, I went and looked all over the main floor- similar to a ranch style with no upstairs. Nothing looked moved, not even that huge jar filled with coins that was sitting on the kitchen counter in plain view. Next it was down cellar I went. The family had just bought a new furnace and that huge empty box along with lots of smaller boxes sat around the cellar. So large that anyone could easily have hidden behind them. Before going on down, I told the niece that if I wasn`t back upstairs in 5 minutes, for her take the kids across the road to my house and to call the police. I had known there was a robbery over there a week before and didn`t want to put Walt`s niece or the 2 little kids lifes in danger. After checking behind the boxes and the furnace, I noticed the closed section in the other cellar corner. I then remembered that the older couple who had first built the house had added a root cellar for bringing in their garden veggies.
(The older couple told me they would just dig up the carrots and beets and other ingroundgrown veggies into the soil in that cool dry closed up section. And when they wanted some for a meal, they just went down and pulled up what they needed. I have never tried this, but it seemed to work well for them. They sold the house to move in with their son and help care for his children after his wife died. They were the type of neighbors you hate to see move,even if you do agree with their reason for moving. )
Well, here I am again wandering off from the origional subject. I held my breath as I opened that door and looked into a room so dark I couldn`t see anything. It was pitch dark like a night with no stars or moon shining. I went back upstairs for a flashlight to see with. Of course I again rechecked the whole cellar to be sure noone had been in the root cellar and snuck off into where I had already checked. Thank goodness there was noone there.
I then locked the back sliding door to be sure the lock worked. I discovered that if I kept shaking the door, eventually it would unhook and slide open a bit- just like we first found it. So, since their little dog was also outside when they got back from the store, I figured the dog must have kept jumping onto the door and he finally was the cause of it being opened. One more problem solved.

This next memory was brought back when reading in yesterdays paper
about a Friends mother passing away. This friend and her husband are also gone today. But reading about Mae`s mom brought back many memories and this is just one of them. This same mother is the grandmother to the neighbors who now live across the road from me.

There was the time we had the bad storm. I was still running the Cub Scout Pack at the time and had managed to talk another lady into helping me. Well, actually her son helped me snag her help as another Den mother. This is how it first happened. I was holding a large pack meeting with all the parents there. I was standing up front begging for some parents to help me when this one cub said " Mrs M... , my mother will help you." I never gave that poor woman a chance, I just said " Thank you very much Mrs Ruggiero. You don`t know how much it means to me to have your help." Now to get back to the day of the storm, I was on the phone talking to Mrs Ruggiero (Mae) and helping her make plans for her next weeks meeting. Walt was off on a week-end camping trip with the older Scouts which I had talked him into handling so my cubs would have a troop to go into.
(He also didn`t think he would be good at it, but after I convinced him he could do it ok, he really was a great Leader.)
Our 2 older boys were on the camping trip with their father and the oldest daughter was working nights at the GE plant and another daughter was off for the week-end with a girlfriend, so just the 2 little ones were still home with me and they were asleep. I had gone to bed when the phone rang and I didn`t turn on any lights when I got up to go into the Dining room to answer the phone. While I was talking to Mrs Ruggiero , suddenly something hit the picture window making a loud crashing sound. I checked and the window wasn`t broken, but I still needed to know what had happened outside that window. I told Mae to hang on while I went outside to see what happened. She told me "Don`t you dare go outside, I`ll wake up George and he will come up and check for you". I couldn`t see waking her husband up and having him drive to my house when it probably wasn`t anything I couldn`t handle myself. After all, he had to get up early in the morning to go to work. He drove the hosp ambulance on week-ends. So, Mae agreed, but added on that she was staying on the phone till I was back inside and if I wasn`t back in a few minutes she was still sending George up. I grabbed my flashlight and headed for the back of the house. At first I couldn`t see anything wrong out back.
I should explain that it was also pitch dark outside that night. What I finally did see was that the long eave board had come loose on the edge of the house roof and one end was still hanging onto the end of the roof by one nail. I noticed that the end of this long board ended right up above the picture window. So, when it fell, it swung inward and hit against the window.

(Thank goodness we had them put in the double thick glass a few years before when someone on one of the streets above us must have shot off a 22 shell and it made a hole thru this window. It was just before Christmas, so we figured someone was trying out either a new gun, or one they might have been selling. Walt and I were sitting in the front room watching Tv when we heard the noise of the bullet entering the room behind where we were sitting. Thank goodness the kids were sleeping that time and noone had walked thru the dining room at the time. Our insurance replaced the window glass. Since we already had the double heavy glass, they had to replace with the same type glass.
We never did find where the bullet actually came from. I know that it could have come as far away as one or two streets west of us. )

So, I went back inside to let Mae know I was ok so she could go to bed without worrying. It took me quite a while to unhook this long eave board off the end of the house and I left it laying next to the back of the house for Walt to fix when he got home. So another question answered, the strong wind and bad storm had brought down the thin long eave board-- hitting the window as it fell and causing the loud banging noise I had heard. Well, actually it was so loud that my friend Mae had heard the loud noise over the phone. If only I had turned on the dining room
light before answering the phone, I might have seen the board as it hit the window and it wouldn`t have been so scarry going outside to check.

The porch light was on the side of the house and never lit up the back of the house. Let me tell you, I changed that. I still don`t have a back porch light, but now one of the double motion lights over the garage is turned towards the back porch.To help even further, I bought one of those yard plug-ins, removed the stake that goes into the ground, then cut off the top of a large laundry detergent bottle and connected the rest of the bottle to the back of the house on the porch. The plug -in section has three plug-in places on it, I left the handle section on the bottle with just the top cut off to allow me to wind the cord of the old lead light around the opened handle. I added a covered type
plug in box to the wall and ran the plug-in cord thru that box and plugged it into a plug-in in the laundry room. The lead light was one I had bought for Walt ( plus one for my Dad at the same time) and Walt never used it. He would always grab a flashlight when checking something on the car. This lead light had just been laying around
on the bench down cellar. Now I found a helpful use for it and I could finally see my back porch area even better, but would like another motion light on the back of the house to see further.
Only one real problem, To turn on the lead light hanging there, I still must first go out onto the open back porch. Of course I could just leave that light turned on and unplug the other cord from the laundry room socket until I needed it. I just would need to move things to get to the plug in when I needed the light plugged in.
There are so many other times to think about that were sometimes a bit scarry, but I must stop for now and get some work done. So, more memories another time.