Weblog 148
December 7, 2008~ 3:15am
I'm off from work. It's my early December decompression that I afford myself each year-- and it's what helps keep down 'holiday panic'. Anyone else get that? It's the rapid heart-- the feeling of dropping down an elevator shaft in freefall with each and every carol on the radio announcing the countdown of shopping days before DAY ZERO. (My shopping is done. I did it online, as I have for three years now, and honest to pete, there's nothing like its simplicity.)
Friday was a GREAT day! My honey took off work as well, so we had a hearty breakfast out, then made the rounds of three local, old, old, ooooooold cemeteries that date back to colonial times, and all of them no more than 20 minutes from my house.
We visited Bethel Church Cemetery, St. Luke's Episcopal (the oldest in Pittsburgh) and St. Clair Cemetery, a lonely little forgotten place that's seen a lot of wicked vandalism in recent years, right in the bosom of an upscale Mt. Lebanon neighborhood.
That's me, standing in the 24 degree, windy weather at one of the mammoth trees that shelter the graves there. Look at those quaint church windows...almost looks like a tiny church you'd put under a Christmas tree, then poke a bulb inside to light the stained glass.
St. Luke's is gorgeous. It's not the original church, which was a log cabin, but it's an unbelievably lovely stone church, complete with boot jack at the stone steps engraved with filagreed leaves in front. And there's nothing like red doors...
......front and back.
This is the sign its entrance.
There are both British and American flags on the veteran's graves, with round bronze markers that designate the French and Indian and the Revolutionary War graves of soldiers who no doubt were still British subjects at the time. One grave is marked-
If you'd like to learn more about the history of the place, here's a link, which includes a vintage photo, a roster of the dead, and some local history.
We shivered horribly looking at Bethel Church cemetery in Bethel Park. I guess the wind was sweeping the hillside pretty vigorously at the time. Even though we were bundled and layered, we were freezing!
Lots of delicately carved old stones from the early 1800's, many looked as though done by the same stonecarver. This one was very moving....
...what a phrase, "infant of days". Poor little lamb, but much grieved over to have been given such a beautiful stone. There's a brooding about graveyards, especially ones this old. I always think if I'm quiet enough, I'll hear the dead talking.
And here's wayne in his long suede coat, staring up at the particularly impressive stone of Capt. Thomas Espy, founder of the St. Clair Guards. To read more about historic Bethel Church Cemetery, click on the link.
Our last stop was the tiny, forgotten area of St. Clair Cemetery, where many of the gravestones have been toppled, a sad number of them lost in high weeds. The whole place had an mournful feeling of tremendous melancholy....
...and some of the LARGEST trees in the area. Must be hundreds of years old. That little cemetery is so small and forgotten, to pull into it with your vehicle at an entrance that's easy to miss --(and we did)-- there's only about 15 feet of paving; then the road just stops. To get out again, Wayne had to direct me as I maneuvered a 3 point turn- which took about 7 swings...lol...gingerly attempting to disturb as little grass as possible, and narrowly squeezing by some of the headstones. Without doing that, you'd have to back out into traffic on a blind hill. Goodness! (I hope there's greater interest in preservaton and restoration in this wonderful old place, and I wish too that the stingy big church that abuts the cemetery would give up a few parking slots for visitors to the site...all we found in that lot was, "unauthorized vehicles will be towed". I can see shoppers in the area having their SUV'S carted off to the pound, but folks who want to enjoy a bit of history and pay their respects should have parking available to them.) I mean....isn't visiting cemeteries a form of prayer? I know it is for us.
Correction: From the website- "You can park in Mt. Lebanon Presbyterian Church's lower lot on Scott Road across from the cemetery." Guess we missed that part. Let me do a Roseanne Rosannadanna, "Nevermind". LOL!
There's a terrific website to learn a bit more right here.
We finished up our day by visiting a new coffee shop in the area, called 'The Blue Horse Coffee', where native American art graces the walls, the coffee is TERRIFIC-- and the furniture is SOLID. (I can't stress how much solidity impresses me.....tables that don't wobble, chairs like iron.)
Click to read about the place. I guess that's part of an overall interest in things that last......relationships......graves......memory. Hope your weekend was interesting for you as well. As for me-- I had a wonderful time. We wrapped up our day by watching "Hellboy II: The Golden Army". Pure entertainment, start to finish. (We are folks of eclectic tastes. LOL!)
December 11, 2008~ 9:15pm
No, I did not fall off the earth-- I went back to work today. (Ugh!) But before that- on Tuesday to be precise, I began a wrasslin' match with my computer. This old thing has been running like a top, until I tried to log on to CompuServe on Tuesday afternoon. An HOUR later, still no connection to my ISP, I decided to uninstall it and reinstall. Well, I did that about 10 times that day until I finally got back online. The problem (I believe, anyway) is the frickin' AOL adaptor that was forced down your throat when AOL and CompuServe hooked up a few years back....AOL is what connects you to the internet if you're a CompuServe customer. (Does that make sense? Hell no.) And I need to tell you that one of the FIRST things I did when I GOT my computer in the summer of 1999, is DELETE all the AOL garbage. I didn't like their 'little yellow walking man'- their 'AIM' messaging, and all the cutesy garbage that went with it. At that time, Compuserve was in kahoots with Netscape, which was fine by me. They ran things behind the scenes, and AOL was just an irritating 'extra'- if you wanted it, so I pulled its plug first thing. It was INTRUSIVE...irritating. Then the UNTHINKABLE happened....AOL and CompuServe MERGED into the same beast! It BLOATED my system.
I finally got smart and realized they load all their unasked for updates when you LOG OFF, in effect, PREVENTING you from logging off without taking home a full shopping cart of their shit. (And I mean... that goes on EVERY TIME you log off. They don't 'ask' if you'd like to update....they FORCE IT, and man, there's nothing gets my goat like having a thing foisted on me. Even the 'thank you for your patience. You will not be charged for the time it takes to make the necessary changes', made me want to kill someone.)
I finally learned to close out NOT by clicking on the little 'X' and allowing that form of rape (LOL! I'm nothing if not melodramatic in my angers)- and simply hitting 'Control, Alt, Delete' to close down. Worked well.
Until Tuesday. Now I believe their 'adaptor' NEEDS to be updated- (and along with it, all the danged garbage I've been dodging every time I close out.) So......I've been fiddling with modem properties, defragging my ASS off, doing restores, you name it. Over and over.....banging my head against the wall. Each time, I have to delete my modem, tell CompuServe to find it, and get in that way after about 5 tries. I'll crack it yet, though!
It was mentioned to me today that I LOVE computer problems because they occupy a mind that would otherwise fret about other, real life worries. IT'S TRUE! lol!!! I love my windmill jousting. So I'll keep at it till I find a solution. Anyway, here's the way it stands-
Other than that, I did finish my online shopping, the Christmas cards are written out and sent. Things get done. Always too slow for me, though..... the things I want to get done. (The rest of it slides like the Polar ice cap, into the ocean....my 'nature'. Flawed as hell.)
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
I'm off from work. It's my early December decompression that I afford myself each year-- and it's what helps keep down 'holiday panic'. Anyone else get that? It's the rapid heart-- the feeling of dropping down an elevator shaft in freefall with each and every carol on the radio announcing the countdown of shopping days before DAY ZERO. (My shopping is done. I did it online, as I have for three years now, and honest to pete, there's nothing like its simplicity.)
Friday was a GREAT day! My honey took off work as well, so we had a hearty breakfast out, then made the rounds of three local, old, old, ooooooold cemeteries that date back to colonial times, and all of them no more than 20 minutes from my house.
We visited Bethel Church Cemetery, St. Luke's Episcopal (the oldest in Pittsburgh) and St. Clair Cemetery, a lonely little forgotten place that's seen a lot of wicked vandalism in recent years, right in the bosom of an upscale Mt. Lebanon neighborhood.
That's me, standing in the 24 degree, windy weather at one of the mammoth trees that shelter the graves there. Look at those quaint church windows...almost looks like a tiny church you'd put under a Christmas tree, then poke a bulb inside to light the stained glass.
St. Luke's is gorgeous. It's not the original church, which was a log cabin, but it's an unbelievably lovely stone church, complete with boot jack at the stone steps engraved with filagreed leaves in front. And there's nothing like red doors...
There are both British and American flags on the veteran's graves, with round bronze markers that designate the French and Indian and the Revolutionary War graves of soldiers who no doubt were still British subjects at the time. One grave is marked-
"The present stone church is the third edifice on the site, the first having been a log building, which probably no one can remember. In that log church was christened a daughter of Maj. Lea in 1774. On one of the headstones in the old burial place is this inscription: "Jane Lea Nixon, born 1774, died 1859, the first white child born in the Chartiers Valley."And here it is. The first colonial baby born in a wild frontier where heretofore-- only Native Americans had bawled their first cries....amazing.
If you'd like to learn more about the history of the place, here's a link, which includes a vintage photo, a roster of the dead, and some local history.
We shivered horribly looking at Bethel Church cemetery in Bethel Park. I guess the wind was sweeping the hillside pretty vigorously at the time. Even though we were bundled and layered, we were freezing!
Lots of delicately carved old stones from the early 1800's, many looked as though done by the same stonecarver. This one was very moving....
...what a phrase, "infant of days". Poor little lamb, but much grieved over to have been given such a beautiful stone. There's a brooding about graveyards, especially ones this old. I always think if I'm quiet enough, I'll hear the dead talking.
And here's wayne in his long suede coat, staring up at the particularly impressive stone of Capt. Thomas Espy, founder of the St. Clair Guards. To read more about historic Bethel Church Cemetery, click on the link.
Our last stop was the tiny, forgotten area of St. Clair Cemetery, where many of the gravestones have been toppled, a sad number of them lost in high weeds. The whole place had an mournful feeling of tremendous melancholy....
...and some of the LARGEST trees in the area. Must be hundreds of years old. That little cemetery is so small and forgotten, to pull into it with your vehicle at an entrance that's easy to miss --(and we did)-- there's only about 15 feet of paving; then the road just stops. To get out again, Wayne had to direct me as I maneuvered a 3 point turn- which took about 7 swings...lol...gingerly attempting to disturb as little grass as possible, and narrowly squeezing by some of the headstones. Without doing that, you'd have to back out into traffic on a blind hill. Goodness! (I hope there's greater interest in preservaton and restoration in this wonderful old place, and I wish too that the stingy big church that abuts the cemetery would give up a few parking slots for visitors to the site...all we found in that lot was, "unauthorized vehicles will be towed". I can see shoppers in the area having their SUV'S carted off to the pound, but folks who want to enjoy a bit of history and pay their respects should have parking available to them.) I mean....isn't visiting cemeteries a form of prayer? I know it is for us.
Correction: From the website- "You can park in Mt. Lebanon Presbyterian Church's lower lot on Scott Road across from the cemetery." Guess we missed that part. Let me do a Roseanne Rosannadanna, "Nevermind". LOL!
There's a terrific website to learn a bit more right here.
We finished up our day by visiting a new coffee shop in the area, called 'The Blue Horse Coffee', where native American art graces the walls, the coffee is TERRIFIC-- and the furniture is SOLID. (I can't stress how much solidity impresses me.....tables that don't wobble, chairs like iron.)
Click to read about the place. I guess that's part of an overall interest in things that last......relationships......graves......memory. Hope your weekend was interesting for you as well. As for me-- I had a wonderful time. We wrapped up our day by watching "Hellboy II: The Golden Army". Pure entertainment, start to finish. (We are folks of eclectic tastes. LOL!)
December 11, 2008~ 9:15pm
No, I did not fall off the earth-- I went back to work today. (Ugh!) But before that- on Tuesday to be precise, I began a wrasslin' match with my computer. This old thing has been running like a top, until I tried to log on to CompuServe on Tuesday afternoon. An HOUR later, still no connection to my ISP, I decided to uninstall it and reinstall. Well, I did that about 10 times that day until I finally got back online. The problem (I believe, anyway) is the frickin' AOL adaptor that was forced down your throat when AOL and CompuServe hooked up a few years back....AOL is what connects you to the internet if you're a CompuServe customer. (Does that make sense? Hell no.) And I need to tell you that one of the FIRST things I did when I GOT my computer in the summer of 1999, is DELETE all the AOL garbage. I didn't like their 'little yellow walking man'- their 'AIM' messaging, and all the cutesy garbage that went with it. At that time, Compuserve was in kahoots with Netscape, which was fine by me. They ran things behind the scenes, and AOL was just an irritating 'extra'- if you wanted it, so I pulled its plug first thing. It was INTRUSIVE...irritating. Then the UNTHINKABLE happened....AOL and CompuServe MERGED into the same beast! It BLOATED my system.
I finally got smart and realized they load all their unasked for updates when you LOG OFF, in effect, PREVENTING you from logging off without taking home a full shopping cart of their shit. (And I mean... that goes on EVERY TIME you log off. They don't 'ask' if you'd like to update....they FORCE IT, and man, there's nothing gets my goat like having a thing foisted on me. Even the 'thank you for your patience. You will not be charged for the time it takes to make the necessary changes', made me want to kill someone.)
I finally learned to close out NOT by clicking on the little 'X' and allowing that form of rape (LOL! I'm nothing if not melodramatic in my angers)- and simply hitting 'Control, Alt, Delete' to close down. Worked well.
Until Tuesday. Now I believe their 'adaptor' NEEDS to be updated- (and along with it, all the danged garbage I've been dodging every time I close out.) So......I've been fiddling with modem properties, defragging my ASS off, doing restores, you name it. Over and over.....banging my head against the wall. Each time, I have to delete my modem, tell CompuServe to find it, and get in that way after about 5 tries. I'll crack it yet, though!
It was mentioned to me today that I LOVE computer problems because they occupy a mind that would otherwise fret about other, real life worries. IT'S TRUE! lol!!! I love my windmill jousting. So I'll keep at it till I find a solution. Anyway, here's the way it stands-
Other than that, I did finish my online shopping, the Christmas cards are written out and sent. Things get done. Always too slow for me, though..... the things I want to get done. (The rest of it slides like the Polar ice cap, into the ocean....my 'nature'. Flawed as hell.)
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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