Recent Posts
Maybe the dress will be back tomorrow.
You are doing so good with your food intake and the walking is great.
I love the string cheese too and keep it on hand for those urges....
I am totally loving the staying up as late as I want without worrying about lack of sleep.
I cannot wait to get my moved into my new old house...you know? I will have a huge craft room. I cannot wait to organize it and get all of my stuff out of boxes.
Yeah!
Hi Ladies,
I went back to kohl's to get that dress, I couldn't find it so I left.
I walked this afternoon, I did my fastest time today.
B egg whites ham and cheese omelet and 2 string cheese, I was hungry this morning.
L hickory smoke tuna pouch, sliced cucumbers and baby carrots
D ribeye steak and some coleslaw. I had to have a Greek yogurt since my piece of meat wasn't very big.
S Greek yogurt with chia seeds and apple
Have a good evening
Yvonne
My journalism journey part 5, Montana adventures
When I left Illinois, I knew my dad was not well. He had been on dialysis for awhile because he was in kidney failure. He didn't want to ask any of us for a kidney, although I know any of the kids would have given him one. I would have done it, I know.
I got to Montana in March 1984. In late April, I found out he had colon cancer and it was terminal. I found out on a Friday afternoon, after we got the paper out, and I walked home and cried for a long time. I probably wouldn't see him again. How would I afford to get home? Driving would take 2-3 days. I had no idea what a plane ticket would cost, but I was sure it wasn't cheap, and I was having trouble just getting by after the move.
My publisher, Dean, offered to foot the bill for the plane ticket and I would pay him back. He had me talk to his travel agent and we arranged for a date a couple of weeks away. I felt hopeful.
But the day I was to pick up the ticket, I got another call, this time from my sister-in-law, Debbie. She said Dad had been taken to the hospital and was in intensive care. He probably didn't have long.
So now the ticket was going to cost more, a lot more. Dean again came through for me. He picked up the tab, with me paying him back. I got on the puddle jumper from Butte to Minneapolis to Chicago the next day. My sister picked me up at O'Hare Airport and said, "You didn't need to come home. He's not going to die."
Wishful thinking. She would be proven wrong.
I got over to the hospital as often as I could. I didn't have a car but I took a bus when I could. One day, I came over there when there were no family members. The resident was there checking him out. He said, "This is my daughter, Eileen. She's a sports writer in Montana. She's a very good writer and I'm very proud of her."
Now, my parents were very sparse with praise. You were expected to get A's in school; you didn't get praised for that. My parents had been getting a free subscription to the Anaconda Leader courtesy of Dean, so for the first time they actually got to see what I did. They read my stories. I had given them copies of my stories in the past, but I guess it didn't click as much as it did when they saw it in the actual newspaper.
Those words surprised me, though. And they gave me such a boost of confidence that stayed with me all these years.
A few days later, Dad's port for dialysis was clogged again and the doctors couldn't do dialysis. The only way he could have it was to do it through a vein in his neck. It was very risky. My sister-in-law, Sue, was the family member at the hospital who was asked how the family felt about this. She said we didn't want to have that done. Dad never wanted any extraordinary measures. So he was moved out of ICU, to a regular room, and we waited for the inevitable.
A day later, Mom, me and some of my siblings sat with him while we tried to get some pain medication. He was in serious pain, but the nurse couldn't reach the doctor. He spent that evening in a lot of pain, mumbling to me to call the Sun-Times, tell them the hospital withheld his pain medication. I felt helpless. Finally, we said our goodbyes. Final goodbyes. He would die early in the morning the next day.
We had told the hospital to call my oldest brother, Ed, when Dad died, and he would call Mom. We didn't want Mom answering the phone and getting shocked by the news. That happened with my Grandma Briesch when Grandpa Briesch died, and she became hysterical.
Well, the hospital dropped the ball. Fortunately, I was staying with Mom and heard the phone ring first. The nurse didn't want to tell me first, but I told her I had to tell my Mom. And so I did.
I hugged her and we cried a bit, then I walked with her to the phone.
I have included this in my Montana adventure because it shows how much of a family I had in Montana. When I came back after the funeral, my editor insisted on running my dad's obit. I thought that was strange, because nobody in Anaconda knew my dad; I had only been in town a few months. But Wally said we always ran obits who were related to people who lived here, so why not me, too? So I wrote his obit.
People in town started contacted me after that. I got sympathy cards. I had written a column about my dad, too, and people reacted to that. One family invited me to their Father's Day cookout.
I went to that gathering and there was this big Irish setter/golden retriever mix dog hanging around outside the fence. The dog wound up following me home. I called it Lady at first, because it reminded me of my sister's dog, Lady. I kept it for a few days and took it to the vet; it was actually a male. So then I called it Sox, after the White Sox.
A few days later, I let it out at night to go to the bathroom and it ran away. I figured that was the last I'd see of Sox. My editor's wife, Margie had two cats that had had litters of eight kittens each. She wanted me to take a couple. I had never had cats, but I was lonely. I thought, why not.
And that began my love of cats. More to come, of course.
My journalism journey Part 4
So I made it to Montana in one piece, after a long journey of 1,500 miles from Algonquin, Illinois. My little Ford Escort wagon didn't like the trip over Homestake Pass coming into Butte. It groaned all the way and also seemed to overheat. But I got there, and the next day I got the rest of my money for moving expenses so I could find a place to live. I didn't have any furniture other than a rocking lawn chair. I had a sleeping bag and a blow-up air mattress (nothing like the Aerobeds of today). That would have to do for a couple of weeks until I got my last check from my former employer to buy a bed.
I found an apartment from a sweet woman who owned a little grocery store. It was the first floor of a house. I gave her a month's rent and promised her the security deposit when I got paid. She was very nice about it because she knew my editor, Wally Mundstock, and his wife, Margie. Wally and Margie and their daughters would become my family, and Margie would be like a mom to me, even though she was just about 10 years older than me. We would become very good friends over the years.
I arrived right around St. Patrick's Day, which I learned was a big deal in Anaconda. There was a large Irish population in Butte and Anaconda; the Irish settled in the area and worked the copper mines in Butte and the smelter in Anaconda. So on Saturday, I had my first assignment: shoot the Ancient Order of Hibernians' parade up the hill to the courthouse.
Now, I had only been in town a couple days and Anaconda was at 4,300 feet altitude. I wasn't used to being up that high yet. Plus, I wasn't in very good shape. But I grabbed my heavy camera bag and chased the AOH guys up Main Street toward the courthouse. I was huffing and puffing while trying to keep my hands steady and take photos. The parade was just a few guys with some flags, but it was an important start to the St. Paddy's day festivities. The big parade would be later that day, and I'd shoot that too. I was out of breath and wheezing most of the first week there as my body adjusted to the altitude.
I came to Montana with such low self-esteem. The editor in Carpentersville had told me I was dirt, and I had believed him. I had no confidence in myself. After a week in Anaconda, I regained some confidence I had lost. People in town were coming up to me telling me how lucky they were I came to their town, what a good photographer I was, what a good writer I was. Sometimes I still didn't believe them. It took awhile to build myself back up.
Plus, this was a very small newspaper staff. It was just Wally and me, and we did everything, from taking photos and writing stories, to developing the film and printing photos, to cleaning the darkroom and sometimes taking an ad or waiting on a customer at the front desk. Margie also worked in the office and typed obituaries, weddings, engagements, news releases and other things that came in the office that would need to go in the paper somewhere. She'd bring the family dog, Puff, a toy poodle, in at night when we'd work. The daughters also worked at the paper as carriers.
I was the sports editor, but also covered education, cops and courts, wrote features and covered just about anything else that moved. Wally covered city-county government and anything else going on that he wanted to cover. We both shot feature photos, because sometimes there weren't any photos that went with stories, so we had to have standalone photos for the front page. He laid out the front page and most of the inside pages, sent the dummies to back shop and then supervised the paste-up guys. I did the sports pages, usually 2-3 pages. I had to negotiate an open page once I got there; there wasn't one when I first got there.
For those unfamiliar with newspaper talk, dummies show the ads and news space on pages. Before copy editors designed pages on computers, we had to sketch them out on the dummies, writing the headlines on the pages or on the stories, send them to the back shop where there was a paste-up person, someone who would take the copy that had been set through the computer and cut out, then put through a waxer so it would stick to the page. The paste-up person would take the copy and follow the layout on the dummy, finish the page, then send it to camera, where a plate would be made for the press.
Now, it goes from the page designer to press almost. But back then, we used large floppy disks to send copy to the back shop, then cut it out, wax it and stick it the board for the paste-up guys. We had a big press in the back, plus an old Linotype machine, something I had never seen before. It was used for some printing jobs. The Anaconda Leader office made money in other ways, too.
Our office crew mostly got along: Pam was the office manager, Mick the ad manager and Debbie worked in the ad department. Some names escape me. The publisher, Dean Neitz, was a tall, lanky guy who would bring his Doberman pinscher, Peaches, into the office occasionally. She scared me at first, putting her paws on my shoulder. But then she licked my face and I realized she was harmless. Dean also would put on overalls and get under the press to fix it when it broke down. Everyone pitched in where they could.
The five years in Anaconda did wonders for me. I learned so much and did so much. I went on trips to trap bighorn sheep and elk to move them to other ranges with the local sportsmen's club, with the National Guard on their summer camp to Idaho, on an archaeology dig to a site that was going to get interpretative panels, to snowmobile trails that would soon be marked (I got thrown from the snowmobile -- my camera bag went one way and I went the other). I went to so many state tournaments, one of which wound up being the site of a mass shooting at a high school.
There are many stories to share. More in Part 5.
Good Morning Jeannie and those to come later,
I had a helluva time getting to sleep last night. I wasn't anxious...just not drowsy enough. I really hate that but since I am retired it isn't a huge issue like it seemed when I had to face a crazy full day at work.
I am still working on my craft room...it is a job that will take many days to get it done right. I have a full wall of shelves in there and I'm painstakingly going through them to cull out things to donate and to organize items that I will keep.
I love the watermelon story Jeannie!
Breakfast: Protein drink
Lunch: Tuna lettuce wraps, cheese
Dinner: chef salad
Snacks: watermelon, peaches
I am terribly spoiled by CA fruit. It is so fresh that it's like picking it from the tree.
Julia
Well, I already made the tomato relish and have the cucumbers in the brine for the kosher dills. Going to be busy today.
I texted a friend about the house we looked at yesterday and she said she knew the owners and they are really desperate to sell so they will probably take my bid. Yeah! Plus, she is also friends with the lady who has the very large greenhouse south of where I am moving. And, she thinks she can help me get a good deal on some fruit trees, rose bushes, and some decorative bushes. I would love to do some trading, if possible.
Okay, pickling today and sorting material to see what I need for fall clothes for the granddaughter. I need to get her some little fall and winter jumpers made and some little shirts and pants. I bought a huge supply of material last year because it went on sale so I shouldn't need to buy too much in terms of material. I still have some very nice corduroy. I also wanted to see what kind of material I had for making my daughter's quilt. Probably not nearly enough. LOL
Breakfast today was loaded oatmeal and I ate about 1 cup with 1/4 cup of toasted walnuts and pecans mixed.
Lunch: Avocado sandwich with garden fresh tomatoes
Dinner: Beans, okra, and corn on the cob
Snack: Watermelon
Speaking of watermelons. My daughter planted some in her garden and they have done okay but not really great. Well, I was down on the farm a while back and I was pulling some vines away from the chicken house and I found a huge cluster of watermelon vines loaded with baby melons. I asked my daughter if she planted the watermelon seeds so close to the chickens and she said, no way but she had thrown a watermelon rind out there for her chickens..her chickens free range during the day. Apparently, there were some seeds that took propagated and now she has one of the healthies****ermelon garden I've ever seen. Yesterday, she cut the first ripe one off the vine and it was the sweetest thing ever. I'd say she has about fifty watermelons about to ripen within the next few days. I see a watermelons for sale sign in her near future. LOL
Ladies, have a good Monday.
Yvonne,
That's awful that they left you. I'd be pissed too.
Since my WLS, I've had the worst time keeping my blood pressure up enough so I know what you mean about that.
It looks like you are doing great with your eating. I love Greek yogurt and surprisingly, even with my milk allergies, I can eat yogurt.
Keep up the good work.
Hey Julia and All,
I made a trip to the Rivervalley to look at another house. I sort of like it the best, so we are meeting with the real-estate lady on Wed., and we are making an offer and since we are paying ca****hink she will happily take it. I hope so.
We brought the grands back up the mountain with us and now I'm washing the mattress pads and sheets off of our bed and off of the little bed in the other bedroom
It has rained off and on here today, which cooled everything off a bit.
Breakfast for me was veggies and scrambled eggs (about 1/2 to 3/4th cups)
I didn't eat lunch because we were looking at the house.
For dinner, we took the kids to a buffet place and I had a few shrimp, a catfish fillet, and 1/2 of a baked sweet potato. I tried to eat a roll and it was just too doughy and I knew it would mess with my pouch...
I am snacking now on watermelon and cantaloupe.
Tomorrow I am going to make more pickles and more relish. I've also got a sack full of peppers that I am going to pickle.
My daughter asked me to make her a quilt. She and her husband cut down some large cedars over on our old farm and the lumber yard guy made them into wood and charged them half of the wood so for each piece of lumber my daughter got, the mill guy got one. Those old cedars were huge so she got enough lumber to build another room on to the farm and it's all made of cedar. It smells so good in there. Her husband made her a cedar chest too and I told her I would pay him to make me one but she had to tell me he actually made me one but was going to give it to me for Christmas. LOL...so she said, since we are giving you such a good present, could you make me a quilt for my new bed, so I said sure. We found a pattern so I'm making her that. I cannot wait to get started. I think I'm going to invest in a quilting machine. They aren't that expensive and since I have all this time now...you know?
Well, ladies, let me get my clothes folded.
Tomorrow we all get back to work...we have tons to do
