Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Tuesday's Gone With The Wind......

And it was sho' 'nuff windy today, with gusts over 35 mph! Partly cloudy and warm, high of 75 today. Other than the WINDY conditions, it was very pretty here.

Blogger has been more cooperative this evening. He let me edit that last post and finally add the pic I wanted to add last night, and I had no trouble uploading the photo to the left, there. This one is of Mom, Dad and all the girls, taken on their anniversary in March, 1986. Top row from the left: Cecil, Ducky, Zztop, Joe (Diane). Bottom row from left: Ma, Sue and Pa. This was taken in the house mentioned in the last post, the one that burned less than a year later, on February 9, 1987.

I have a lot of pictures that were taken at that house, and when the family gathers at my place on Sunday afternoons and holidays, we occasionally look through my photos and reminisce about the past, precious memories and happy times from the past. More than the furniture and things of that nature that we lost, we more often talk about the pictures and keepsakes that were irreplaceable that we lost. Most of all, though, we were so blessed that nobody was injured or lost their lives in the fire. The fire caught in the attic and the house was literally burning down around them, and they had no idea. A passing neighbor stopped and yelled for them to get out, the house was on fire. By that time, the back of the house was falling in, and thankfully, everybody was in the kitchen and living room in the front of the house. Mom, Dad, Sue, Cecil, Ducky and Jerry, her husband, barely got out before the house was fully engulfed in flames. They just had the clothes on their backs. Everything else was lost. They managed to save the 2 dogs and 3 cats, though one of the cats kept running back into the burning house after being tossed outside, and later died of smoke inhalation.

We were indeed blessed, and we know it. At the time we were devastated, and we still mourn the loss of some family memorabilia and pictures and such, but we truly realize that God blessed us through the storm, even though He didn't keep the storm from us.

Onward to the news of the day. Cecil and Sue came up for a while this afternoon, and we played our game for a couple of hours. Still working on the new blogs, but I haven't done too much today on it, besides scan some pics. I have to take a break now and then or I burn out on it. I have something special planned for Thursday on this blog, and I will be working on it on Wednesday to have ready for posting on Thursday. Watch this space. ;-)

Green Eyes informs me that she lives in Newfoundland, Canada, not in Toronto. For some unknown reason, her location is listed as Toronto on my sitemeter. Hmmmmm....................only the Blogger knows, I suppose.

It is getting late, and I want to make my rounds of your blogs and mine, to survey for new posts and comments. I wish everyone a happy Wednesday, and Blessings to everyone. :-) Diane

14 comments:

Nashe^ said...

hey hey....missed you!
hahaha....

doing the BIG postcard exchange? i am!
u can email me your address if yu want k?

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Faith,
Yes, it's sad, but we still had each other, and that's the most important thing. :-)

Yep, keep watching, it will be up later Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. :-)

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Nashe,
Yes, you missed me this time. It's usually the wee hours of the morning here when you are online, and I was just too pooped to stay up last night and wait on you. ;-)

I don't have any postcards. Our tiny town doesn't have any at all, but I wonder about letters? Would that work, too? Let me know, or I will email you and ask.

Alex said...

just popped in to say hi, and I hope that all is well for you these days

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Alex,
Hi, and it's nice to see your smiling face here in my comments. I visit you often, but I don't always have anything enlightening to add to the conversation, so I just read and lurk.

Feel free to visit often, and welcome. :-)

boomama said...

For what it's worth, I don't think SiteMeter is completely accurate...when my hubby checks my blog from his computer downstairs, he shows up as a town where we don't live, though it's relatively close by...I've noticed this tendency especially with people who have BellSouth as their ISP. When a friend of mine checks from work here in town, it shows up as a different STATE. :-) I don't know why. Something about hubs / routers / technolingo, I reckon.

Anonymous said...

Boomama, sitemeter is accurate to a point. I know when someone accesses my site from say Cox in Oklahoma, it is pretty accurate as to where in Oklahoma it is coming from. My sister, on the other hand, uses TMobile, and her Sidekick is routed through Palo Alto, CA, though I figured out it was her. So, yes, it can be a bit inaccurate, but I think that depends more on the ISP than it does sitemeter.

Diane, keep the pics coming. I like seeing glimpses into people's past. :-) I was ready to post a page for Anthony tonight, but Dreamhost, my server, took a hit, and I can't access it. It looks like it caught a bit of the Blogger bug. :-)

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Boomama,
I know what you mean. I have tried to block my ISP address off my sitemeter, and it refuses to block it. My ISP address shows up as a town halfway across Arkansas. My sister shows up as a Texas address, and she only lives 15 miles from me, in Arkansas. I have noticed several discrepancies, and I think you're right, it's the hubs, routers, servers, etc. Especially those with wireless servers.

Just more weird puter stuff. Search me, I say. :-)

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Mike,
Read my comment to boomama about the ISP's and sitemeter. :-)

Sorry your Dreamhost won't cooperate. I know how Demon Blogger is sometimes. I am about to work on my post, so I hope it works for me tonight, or I will be upset. ;-)

Greeneyes said...

Hey Diane
Great family pic ( more please if u have them ), sad story though , and really sad about the kitty . By the Grace of God no Human life was taken ! All your things ( material things) gone like that poof must be very hard,hope no hardship like that ever comes your way again. Is that all of your family in that pic? it must be so precious to you now , hold it close to your heart:) Hows the knees creaking today , I can say that mine creak too ha ha
have a great eve/day
take care
Greeneyes

Greeneyes said...

oh forgot to mention
you can make your own post cards , if you have card stock (hard thicker paper for printer )paper and a printer , But I think letters are nice as well: just butting in don't mind me :)
later
Greeneyes

Lisa said...

The old photos are cool!

If you want to change your template, you can do a search on Google for "Free Blogger templates" (or you can pay for one, but I can't do that right now :) ). I used http://blog-templates.ravasthi.name/ this time, but there are tons out there. In my blogroll is Denise at Mental Excrements and she offers some too (linkware).

Back up the one you are using now, and copy and paste the HTML from the new one into this one. You will have to add everything back in that you've added (blogroll, Flickr, etc...) but it's not hard at all. I hit preview before I submit the changes just to make sure it's not messed up. If you need help, you can email me and I'll be more than happy to help. :)

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Green Eyes,
Thanks, I had forgotten about using cardstock for postcards. I don't have any local scenery to add to it, but I could put something on it, I suppose. I'll think about it. :)
My knees creak every day, just a fact of life. ;)
Yes, that's Mom, Dad, and the 5 girls. No brothers. ;(
Thanks for the nice words, Green Eyes.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Lisa,
Thanks for the help, and the offer of help with a new template. I have looked at several new ones, but I am kind of gun-shy right now after wiping most of mine accidentally last week. I want a new one, but I don't want to do anything permanent by accident. I appreciate the offer, and I may take you up on it. Thanks again. :)