I’ve researched a few more houses

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I’ve now done a whole page about this house and its history since it was built in the early 1920’s.

I’ve put up a very simple memorial page for Mom and Dad.

Now at brooklyn/minishowcase/

I’ve just posted a PDF version of a booklet about my dad’s WWII service with an evacuation hospital.

“I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed… Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it–every, every minute?”

Emily in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, 1938

My legs are very bad these days. Sometimes they feel like wooden posts and I wonder how I can move them. It hurts just to stand up. Or I’ll wake up and my right knee will feel like it’s ballooned up to twice its size, but when I check there is no swelling.

In bed I can’t seem to find a comfortable way to lie down. I used to lie on my side with the bottom leg out straight and the top one bent. For some reason now that just doesn’t work. When my right leg is bent I have to put a pillow under it or the inner part of my knee hurts. On the other side with my leg out straight — well, it just won’t go out straight without being painful.

Is this because I’ve been exercising at Curves three days a week? Are my muscles just adjusting to a new way of being? The exercise is great — I feel good for several hours afterwards.

A few weeks ago I read William Manchester’s book about JFK’s assassination The Death of a President, which I had picked up at a used book sale in Ottawa. Today is the 45th anniversary of that event.

On November 22, 1963 I was 15 years old and in eleventh grade at Fort Hamilton High School. I was standing outside of my classroom waiting for my 2:00 pm class and talking to a friend passing by in the hall. I don’t know whether I went in the class because the bell rang or whether there was an announcement over the loudspeaker. I think the teacher was crying. Then they announced the President was dead and let us all go home early.

I don’t remember the four block walk home, but I must have been crying. I went in the back door as usual and into the living room. My mom was startled, why was I home so early?

I said the President’s been shot and killed.

Her reaction was something like Oh well, I didn’t like him anyway or Oh well, I didn’t vote for him. I don’t know whether I said anything back to her or not - I never talked back to my parents.

I remember that she was really upset over the next four days that the funeral was the only thing on TV.

Looking back now I see how even then I was disconnecting from my parents. I am assuming that my dad thought the same way - they always agreed on politics.

As some of you may know I have a very successful website called Grandma’s Graphics on which I feature images culled from various books published in the 19th and early 20th century.

Grandma’s Graphics

To support that website I’ve been using the CafePress print-on-demand (POD) service for several years. I take one of the images, photoshop it a bit and upload it to CP where it appears on tees, hats, mugs, journals, etc., which the public can then buy.

Grandma’s Graphics webstore at CafePress

With the demise of one of my biggest clients (see this post) I decided it was time to kick into high gear and expand my POD services. For the past few weeks I’ve been stuck close to this computer as I’ve worked on my product line with Printfection and Zazzle.

Using Printfection I am finally able to offer my double image Through the Looking Glass shirts in black!

Have a look at Grandma’s Graphics Printfection store.

I’ve also been having a bit of fun creating Shoes and Ties at Zazzle. (I’m already thinking about Harry Clarke images on ties and shoes for Halloween!)

Check out the store at Grandma’s Graphics Zazzle.

For the past 4 years I have been working on a business idea with some people. Today I decided I had had enough as I could see conclusively that it was going nowhere. Time to move on and do other things.

So universe, I’m open to whatever you have in store for me next.

Unfortunately, this whole episode has left another layer of armour around my being. It’s not very easy to let anyone in anymore.