No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 2, 2014

My Uncle Jack was my Aunt Mary Anne’s second husband. They were both widowers who met, fell in love, and got married.

He was born in Wheeling West Virgina and he died there. Not that he didn’t get to see a lot of the country or parts of the world. He was a trucker. He was in the Navy during World War II and spent time in Italy.

He told me about his experiences both good and bad in World War II. It was fascinating hearing about the war from someone who was just boots on the ground. I told him that he should write up what happened. He said he wasn’t a writer that was me.

We talked about trucking. He collected the Hess trucks along with other trucks that were duplicates of the rigs he drove over the years. He gave me a new perspective on trucking from the driver’s point of view.

He liked that I belong to a Union.

Our political beliefs were polar opposites for the most part. I listened and did a lot of nodding on that one.

He was there for my wedding and made us a rooster out of farm and gardening parts. He had some serious artistic talent in that regard. Harlan loved the one that he made us that Jack made one for him that is still on display at Harlan’s house.

He was a man of many talents and he made my Aunt happy which was the most important thing in my book.

(For the VI: This was taken at my wedding. I am on the left in my wedding dress, Peter is on the right in his grey suit. Standing between us is my Uncle Jack. Peter and I are holding a very stylized rooster made of parts of garden tools.)

I will miss you Uncle Jack.

I am grateful that I knew Uncle Jack.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 1, 2014

I swear it was just February last month but Advent started yesterday so it must be so.

Right now I am working on getting ready for Caroline’s 12th birthday party. That’s right Caroline is turning 12. Next year she will be a teenager.

After that I have two commissions I need to get done and then onto Dragon Con 2015 puppets.

And that will be the year.

I have a feeling that I am going to be contemplating the passing of this year a bit as we get closer to the end of it.

I am still amazed at how quickly the year went.

I am grateful for all the experiences I have had this year.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 30, 2014

Caroline marched yesterday in the local holiday parade. It was her first time to do so as part of the marching band. I got her to where she needed to go and then walked to a good point to watch her and be able to get to her to pick her up.

Caroline prepares
(for the VI; This is Caroline sitting at a table with her music in front of her. She had her flute to her lips. She is wearing a white and red hat, purple coat, and a light blue with white polka dots skirt.)

Caroline marching
(For the VI: This is Caroline in the middle of her marching band)

I am very proud of her. She didn’t complain about the distance or all the walking. All she asked for was something hot to drink after she was done. We walked from the house to the parking lot where the band met up and then she did the mile from the parking lot to the end point.

It was not as cold as last year thank goodness. But it was cold enough to make one notice it. I bundled her up as well as I could. Couldn’t put mittens on her because she was playing the flute so we used her “paws” from Halloween to keep her hands warm.

This entry concludes my alternate to NaNoWriMo and I managed to get an entry in every day including the days that I didn’t think I had anything to say. Don’t know if I am going to keep it up for December. But for 30 days I did manage to blog.

I am grateful for the ability to write essays on various topics.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 29, 2014

Which became more of a thing after American Express got into the act.

So after one spends all one’s money at the big box stores on Friday, then they should take what they have and put it back into their community by patronizing small businesses.

I think that’s a little backwards but that’s me.

We do try to patronize our local businesses. I am willing to pay a little more for goods from someone who is passionate about their business but can’t give the discounts that some big box stores give because they don’t buy in bulk. Living were we do does give us a number of these to choose from. I know the owners of a lot of these businesses and their families. Their kids and grandkids go to the same school and activities as my kid. They bowl. They patronize the same restaurants I do.

I also have number friends in real life and on the Internet who are small business owners. I am one myself as is Peter. I named a couple yesterday in my web log.

Etsy use to be my go to for handmade goods but since they have changed the rules, I can’t just say go to Etsy and support a small craft business. But there are a lot of really good artist and artisans who sell their goods there and I don’t want to sell them short.

Some day I am going to figure out how to create a website to sell my puppets to a large audience.

I am not saying that all big box stores are evil but I am saying that the ability to talk to the owner when there is a problem or not a problem is not a bad thing. To be able to get a custom whatever because you can talk to the artist is a good thing.

I am grateful for everyone who has supported my small business over the years.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 28, 2014

Which I don’t do.

The only time I dealt with Black Friday was when I was in retail and it was all hands on deck at where ever I was working. Fortunately by the time the big box stores were doing door busters, I have moved onto bookstores and comic book stores which don’t. But between now and Christmas, the stores are pretty crazy.

My parents had a Black Friday ritual which they did until things got too insane. They would shop, have lunch, and finish up most of their Christmas shopping by that afternoon. Now they use the internet for most of their shopping.

And I wonder how much the Internet has changed the frenzy of the physical stores.

So far I haven’t seen any incidents of maiming or death on the news so I guess that’s a good thing.

And I have seen people get mean/physical over the last of something. I watched once as a woman put down a stack of books to look at another book and another woman came and grabbed a popular book out of her stack and rabbited. The manager had to get involved and we solved it by giving the first woman a copy that I had found during the sweep of the store on Wednesday and hadn’t been re-shelved yet.

Worse than Black Friday was the day that Oprah announced her book club book. That got really vicious. Especially since we tended to have about five copies of whatever book she announced if that and it was first come first served nothing put on hold for those.

Comic book stores do well on Black Friday but we don’t get the insanity of lots of people however we do get people that it is the first time that they have ever stepped foot into a comic book store and they haven’t a clue what they are looking for. They have a list and a rough idea what they want to spend. I spent most of my day just helping people find things or recommending things if we didn’t have it or they weren’t sure what the person already had. I honed my customer service skills on that day a lot.

I ask you the consumer to consider presents from artisans and the like. I have a friend who makes these really cool puppet scarfs called Glarfs. Dave also makes really nice puppets. Another puppet artisan I can recommend is Stephanie Gordon.

For cool art work with a lovely twist might I suggest giving Janet Lee a look. I have loved her style for years and am very happy that she is able to do this full time.

Next year I will have puppets for sale unless someone wants to buy something I have already made. Hey I still have Sherlock and Watson.

I am grateful for rational customers who understand that I wasn’t hiding the last copy of something or that we had a box in the back we hadn’t opened yet.

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