Accidents @ MindSay

There here is some funny stuff. Some of these are people that show a lack of judgement, some are just accidents. All are amusing to watch.



I love the smoking military man as the car rolls over behind him...it's like he sees this everyday. Or the guy carrying his wife across the steps..and drops her. She looks like she is in pain or laughing her butt off; I think it is the later.

I have been seeing a very worrying thing all too often lately. If you have one of these or if you've used one, please let me know how you feel about this blog.

 

 I keep seeing these cyclists with little baby-carriers trailing behind their bicycles. the carriers are flimsy little frame and fabric affairs, into which the parents entrust their offspring. The children sit in these little trailers, just inches above the road and mere inches away from the wheels and fenders of passing cars. Cars which weigh a tonne and which are travelling at far greater speeds than the bicycles they are passing. The child in the trailer is attached to the bicycle securely but if they fell out or were struck by a stone thrown up by a passing car, the parent on the bicycle simply wouldn't know.

 

 How can a parent put the most precious thing they have (presumably), in a tiny little fabric enclosure, so close to the road and exhaust fumes and tyres and stones and haul that precious thing around behind them in traffic?

 

 Is it just me? Does anyone else think this is horribly dangerous? Am I just overreacting?  

 

 

I know a lot of folks in Minneapolis, some of whom are on Mindsay, who travel on a bridge that crosses the Mississippi river each day.  That bridge, Washington Bridge, has collapsed during rush hour traffic this Wednesday.  I've only heard from a few, who are also in shock, over this tragedy.  My heart leapt and now aches as I watch the footage on TV.  I've been on this bridge myself.  It is shocking to see it in ruins.  My first thoughts go out to my old pal, Bonnie, and my old best friend, Andrew, and his sister, Julie, hell, anyone I know who lives in Minneapolis!  I can't imagine what you're feeling right now.  It's surreal.  I also have cousins who live near the University -- it's going to be awhile, I know, before I hear from everyone, but I pray tonight that everyone is okay.  I don't want to hear that someone else I know has died.

 

There has been a death in my family.  On the day that I emphasized pride for my family heritage, my aunt Vivian died.  The last time I saw her was during my uncle Orly's funeral.  I don't yet know the details behind her death, but I do know she had some battles with breast cancer and was in remission.  Looks like I will be attending a funeral again, possibly this weekend, and in the Minneapolis area, no less!

 

I also just got word from my mother.  She just woke up from a Morphine-induced coma that only now I just heard about!  Coreene has been suffering from advanced Parkinson's related symptoms and her pain is intense, so they've tried a Morphine drip.  I think she was over medicated.  In any case, she woke up asking for Vivian.  She knew before she was told that her youngest sister died.  I'm not surprised.  That's the family intuition working again.

 

In any case, I don't think I'm going to bed any time soon.  I'm just worried as all hell! 

In a random turn of events, I switched over to the kitchen this week.

 

I really was on the schedule for Day Camp this time, honest. Usually the schedule gets changed, and I just don't get the email until late, because I don't check my email at a decent time. But in this case, my dear friend J got back from the land of Aus a week earlier than we were all expecting. Considering that our bunch for that week was composed of nine boys and three girls, we rather gladly switched out one of the girl counselors for J.

 

No one is quite sure why, but whenever J walks in the room, we all light up and yell "J-y!" at the same time. It's just great to see him. And it's fun to say his name. He's a bass player with a goofy streak, that should give you an idea of his personality.

 

But, yeah, so we needed help in the kitchen, so I hopped on over there (no pun intended - J's started calling me 'wallaby'.)

 

Monday, I made approximately three hundred cookies. Approximately. I didn't count, the recipe was supposed to be for 6-8 dozen, and I quadrupled it. They were gooood cookies. Of all the cookies that have been made this week, those were the favorites. There you have it, I am a worthwhile human being: I can make kickass chocolate-chip cookies.

 

Tuesday, I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon preparing hamburger for something else we did today. About eighteen pounds of it. I have worked out a system, and the most important part of it is that you never try to have more than three pounds of hamburger in the pan at a time.

 

Wednesday, I didn't have any particularly fun kitchen adventures, but my family came by to visit! I love having people come to visit. I kind of have to know that you're going to, so I can actually meet you, but people love me and come to see me! Eeee! Actually, Reese was going to come by that night, too, but we'd had a miscommunication wherein I thought he would be by on Monday or Tuesday (and yelled at him for not showing up), and he'd been planning Wednesday because he hadn't heard me say that my family was coming then.

 

Not that there's really any problem with having Reese and my family in the same place. Well, there sort of is, but I just wanted the two events separately so that I could enjoy each to the fullest. Enjoying the dynamic of Reese and my family at camp would be a little odd, and I was a little tired.

 

That, and as witnessed after Mom and I went to Reese and Santas' show the other night, my family doesn't really know that we're friends or how we're friends. And I'm not ready to explain the odd qualifications about Reese that make it okay to hang out with him after I've declared that I'm not okay hanging out with guys.

 

There are 2 guys that are the exception to that rule. One of them is in this hemisphere. That would be Reese.

 

Thursday, I learned something about myself that I wouldn't have thought of. Nothing major, but...let me introduce G. G is one of the two people in charge in the kitchen - she comes in around 10:30 and does the evening meal. I come in around 7:30 or so in the morning, and good grief, I just realized that I do a 12-hour day in the kitchen. No wonder I'm always so tired. Anyway, G has observed that whenever I take a quick break, like for our morning devo time, I grab a cookie. And a couple times after I made cookies, I grabbed a cookie. And sometimes, just because I'm walking by the box of cookies, I grab a cookie. These aren't just mine, we also made sugar cookies and monster cookies (which I am also very fond of) this week.

 

Then G observed me at lunch. Unfortunately for the sake of scientific observation, we had snicker salad for our dessert at lunch. Snicker Salad = Saxy's favorite dessert. Ever. I get more snicker salad than main course. Just make a pile of it on my tray. Love it.

 

Then G observed me at dinner, when I went for a double-serving of this really cool cream-cheese-strawberry-pretzel dessert that I must learn to make at home, and announced, "You've got a sweet tooth."

 

And honestly, that would never have occurred to me. Because I don't drink pop, and I don't eat all that much candy. For the most part, I think I eat rather healthily. But she's right, I do! I don't necessarily like sugar, but I love sweet things.

 

Tomorrow's last day in the kitchen. Should be interesting. This whole week has been an adventure in confidence building, and proving that I CAN actually navigate a kitchen without injury.

 

I'm frankly rather stunned at that. I worked at a fast food place, a coffee shop, a pizza place, a barbecue restaurant, and a buffet, and I was always the girl getting hurt doing klutzy things. I have not burned myself once this week (came close twice, but they were things anyone would have done, not being klutzy), I haven't dropped anything heavy on myself, I haven't cut myself (and I've been using lots of big sharp knives, frequently), I haven't walked into a door, I've had the sense not to go into the freezer with bare hands...it's amazing! I am not 24/7 klutz-girl!

 

I realize this has ramifications, like me needing a new super identity, but I'm just too excited about this. I was not cursed at birth, I am not doomed to be a klutz!!

 

That, and I have a fair amount of confidence from this week (learning new things always builds confidence), and I will never fear dirty dishes again. Resent, quite possibly, but I have done more dishes this week than I realized could exist in a single kitchen (actually, they don't - I'll regularly wash the same implement five or six times a day, because we need it for something else).

 

But yes, it has been a good week.

.If you have any desire to see the damage that ridiculous deer did to my car on the way back from Austin, go to my photo blog: metaphorsforme .

.Be good.

.Don't kill any deer.