Happy Halloween

Here are some of our decorations. I used to love decorating for the holidays when I was a kid and even in my 20s but after that, not so much. I only have a pumpkin in our dining room window this year.

The bottom 4 are the originals from the 1970s and early 1980s; the rest are like ones that we used to have then. I guess that we got them in the early 1990s.

I wish that we had kept them all; they were made much nicer then. The cardboard and materials were more sturdy, now they are flimsier.

                       

 

 

Note- I wanted to post the pumpkin photo but this site is giving me lots of problems today; hopefully I will be able to do so sometime soon.

September 11- Ginger and Buffy

 I don’t have that many pictures of my Ginger – maybe 12. No puppy ones.  She was adorable and looked a little like Benji.  The other puppy in the cage at the shelter was picking on her.  Grandma next door named her and spoiled her so much.  She liked playing with plastic soda bottles and when I took her on walks.  She definitely was my girl and my best friend.

   One time she got really sick when somehow she got the bottle of cough syrup open and drank nearly the whole bottle; poor doggie.  My dad kicked her out in the yard one day which was so mean.  Our neighbor Mrs. K saw this and yelled at him which we were glad about.

  She was such a good girl but Dad was so mean to her sometimes, probably because he was jealous of the attention that we gave her and the fact that he was kind of a miserable person.

  Mike squirted Milk Mate chocolate syrup onto Ginger once which wasn’t nice.  Jessica called her the Milk Mate dog which we did laugh about.

   I wish that I could remember more about her.  She was only 7 years old when Dad had her put to sleep.  We should’ve had her for 5 or 6 more years.  I wish that we had never taken that trip to Virginia – she might’ve gotten her sickness from the boarding place.  She might’ve just needed an antibiotic and would’ve recovered. 

  Buffy was definitely like a gift from God.  Mom and I were supposed to go to Columbus Flea Market but it was raining so we went to the pet store instead.  Mom asked if there was a girl spaniel in the cage and the salesperson said no but another one overheard us and said that there was one in the back.

   It was love at first sight. I had already picked out a name for her- Buffy Willow, after the 2 characters in the show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. My brother is actually paid for her. We had talked about getting a cocker spaniel for months before this. She quickly became a grandma’s girl. She loved playing with her pet rocks and also getting tummy rubs from us.

   I had lots of nicknames for her like Sunshine spaniel. It’s so corny that sometimes I’d sing “You Are My Sunshine” to her. Some of the others were Twinkie,   pork chop, sugar cookie, little lamb, cream puff, sweet potato, dumpling, turtle, Miss Piggy, lamb chop and Pillsbury Dough Dog. I’d call her that after rubbing her belly and making that laughing noise like the Pillsbury Dough Boy does.

   Sometimes I’d sing “My Little Buffy” to her using that song from the My Little Pony toy commercials -so cheesy. She was like our little cream colored Pony. She had a super short stub which made her even more special to us.

  We should have taken many more pictures of Buffy when she was a puppy.  She was very cute. I only have about 12 of them. One time she had something in her mouth and we thought it was a rock but when I took it out and saw that it was a big beetle I was so creeped out by this.

  She used to steal moms and my hankies sometimes and chew holes in them. We called her a hankie thief. She chewed and messed up part of the rug that Aunt Ann made for under the rocking chair.   Luckily she outgrew this stage quickly and didn’t ruin much else. She did chew the plastic nose off of my stuffed bunny too.

   Our sweet spaniel did have many health problems – arthritis, allergies, ear infections, a sprained back leg, pancreatitis, weak heart and liver and kidney troubles.  I feel so guilty about some of this. If we had taken better care of her teeth and given her the non – steroid allergy meds she wouldn’t have gotten so bad that we had to have her put to sleep at 12 years old. The vet assured us that we were good owners.

   I miss our little pumpkin muffin so darn much as does mom and Mike. Mom was spoiling her with too much food at one point and we had to put her on a diet for a while. We hardly ever took her for walks. We should have brushed her more. I can’t help beating myself for not doing much more for her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comic Con NYC 2019

This is the first time that my brother and I ever attended this event. It was fun but very crowded. We only saw about half of the vendors; my brother didn't feel like going back to that area after I got an autograph. Now he is wishing that we had, of course.

I didn't take that many photos because I was feeling overwhelmed by the huge crowd. You aren't supposed to take any of the stars, but I am sure that some people did anyway. You can pay for table photo ops or professional ones with them.

 Five cast members of Angel was there; it's the 20th anniversary of that show. I can't believe that it has been that long. I originally was just going to get James Marsters autograph but then later decided to also get Charisma Carpenter's. I felt less nervous talking to her and said more too.

My brother also got her autograph. At first, he hadn't planned on it but I convinced him to do so which he seems glad about. We both got Nichelle Nichols autograph. I used to like "Star Trek" when I was a kid. My brother still enjoys it.

We saw Felicia Day at the book signing area. We had missed out on her panel because Nichelle was running late. Maybe the line was long and we wouldn't have been able to get into it anyhow.

I had wanted to buy her book earlier but my brother talked me out of it, saying that he wants her autograph on a photo from "Supernatural" and not a book. I wish that I hadn't listened to him. Now he is regretting this decision and said "You shouldn't have listened to me".

We saw Christopher Eccleston from "Doctor Who". The price of his autograph wasn't in our budget. Mike has autographs of Doctors 5, 6, and 7- Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. He also saw the 12th, Peter Capaldi. He has been to 4 or 5 "Doctor Who" conventions.

Mike would have gotten a photo op with Charisma if it was $20.00 and not $40.00. The former was the price of Marsters' when purchasing his autograph at $40.00. I had thought about doing so but talked myself out of it which I am sort of regretting.

I don't normally like being in photos but should have made an exception this time. My brother is more into getting such photo ops and some professional ones too. I only have one table op that I paid $15.00 for and 4 from before the stars were even charging for them.

We didn't get to see Billy Dee Williams. He wasn't at his table for the 6:00 p.m. signing when we went back to the area. We couldn't see him at his other time because we were on line for autographs.

Tom Hiddleston was there too but there was no way that we could even see him with the way that they had his table and line set up. They also had a metal detector in that area- no other star had this. The price of his autograph was way, way beyond what I could afford- $250.00.

Mike and I bought the same style Supernatural t-shirt. The vendor had a lot of cool shirts to choose from. He would have gotten a Star Trek one too but he didn't have his size.

I was going to scan my autographs like I have done with others in the past but felt too nervous to take them out of the binder.

October 30, 2015- Halloween/Earliest Memories

 I don’t really like Halloween that much anymore but I do have some good memories of this holiday. The best one was in 1976 when I was an angel, my costume of choice 3 times, and he was a fireman with the” Emergency!”  helmet and megaphone thing. That was our favorite show then.

   I can’t believe that he remembered that I had a little crush on Gage. Wait, yes I can- his memory is perfect when it comes to my crushes, unfortunately. Yikes, I’m so ashamed about this. He had mentioned that fact a few weeks ago after he watched an episode of it.

   I did watch one with him about 6 weeks ago but it just doesn’t interest me anymore which is how I feel about a lot of the shows that I liked when I was a kid, esp. many of the comedies which seem so lame to me now.

   I’m thinking about one that used to scare us a little – “In Search of”, hosted by Leonard Nimoy- esp. the episodes with Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs. I ‘m sure if we watched this now we’d think it was so cheesy. “Day of Disaster” was another- the Hindenburg and a bridge that was shaking a lot because of high winds in the northwest somewhere were on this. Joel Siegel was the host.

    I am pretty sure that my brother won the second place ribbon for his cowboy costume in a town contest.  Mine was lame; I was in pajamas, a robe and had curlers in my hair. The last time that we went trick or treating was 1982- I was a gypsy/fortune teller.

    We had some great decorations and still have a few of them, like the haunted house which is actually a greeting card. I like the ceramic one of these and Dracula stuffed bear that we got in the late 80s.

   I have a hazy memory of a couple of Girl Scout parties- at one we were bobbing for apples and the other was at camp and I had a ghost costume which didn’t seem very original compared my troop mates.

  Mom and Dad carved a pumpkin only once; it was too messy and not worth the time and effort to do so again. We would just draw faces on them with markers. I always worried that someone would smash the ones that we’d put on the porch.

  I remember the spooky house with the coffin that Dracula came out of one year when we went trick-or-treating. That really scared Mike and me.

   I did a Halloween post at Blogger last year and used a few pictures from the 1970s. I was Raggedy Ann and Mike was a devil, but I really don’t remember this. I think that I was 4 years old.  I don’t know if people can actually remember much of anything from before this age. Mike agrees with me.

   My two earliest memories are traumatic ones, naturally. Dad accidentally burned me with his cigarette when he was carrying me through the cemetery, probably in 1973 or 1974. Mike and I saw our parent’s Chevy Malibu being totaled out in front of Aunt Rachel’s house in 1975.

   A lady was trying to avoid a drunken guy crossing the road and she slammed her car into ours which also got pushed into a telephone pole. We had been having such a good time in our aunt’s yard before this. I was crying.  I have the newspaper article about this in my scrapbook.

 

                                                                           1974
                                                                       

                                                                            1975

 

                                                                             1976

 

 

                                                                    Our Wrecked Car

 

My Sci-Fi Story Idea - February 2014

My “friend” Sam hasn’t teleported me to the holodeck in a few days. He also hasn’t been doing so as often as he used to which is disappointing. I wish that he would come for me tonight. I have a lot of good memories of my time there. There are some unpleasant ones too but even those don’t seem as bad as what I have to deal with here.

   I can’t tell anybody about any of this because they might think that I am crazy. I’m not making any of it up, it’s all true. I have been abducted by this alien many times over the past 13 years. Sam has been observing me, reading my thoughts and memories so he knows my likes, interests and fears. Some people might be creeped out by this but it didn’t really bother me.

  The stars of the storylines that he created for me include music performers (often Duran Duran and Bon Jovi), actors, actresses, tennis stars, family, my doggies (I love getting to be with them again in this way), former friends and classmates.

  There are times that the plot will suddenly change partway through which can be frustrating because I want to know how the story ends. The same is true when it is a complete scenario. I wake up and I’m in my own bed again wondering what might have happened next.

  I almost always look younger as does everyone else. I’m not entirely sure if the people that I am with are holograms, shape shifting aliens or maybe a mixture of both. I also don’t know if I’m in a holodeck on their ship like in “Star Trek” world or maybe even one on his planet. Perhaps this race has the power to simply recreate any setting there. 

    I am happy when I am transform me into a pretty or even semi pretty girl. I wonder how this is done. I am also usually smarter, more confident, and less anxious in this fantasy world.

   Sam can communicate with me telepathically. I have only met him once though, but he had shape shifted into the form of another guy.  He knows how depressed that I am and wants to make me feel better. He feels alone and like an outsider just as I do.

   There has been some nightmare like situations that I have been stuck into also which is very upsetting. There are some mean aliens that hack into his programs to torment him and me. He tries his best to get me out of these. They make it difficult. He always apologizes for not being able to do so sooner.

   When I am returned to Earth, it is as if no time has passed by. Sometimes, I have items that were a part of the programs like photographs that I have taken which is cool.

   I’m wondering if Sam is taking me less because he got in trouble for having me in the holodeck. He told me that a majority of his race don’t really want humans to be there. Or maybe he just feels that we both need to try to fit into our worlds and not feel like freaks anymore.

 

Note- I gave up on even trying to do this a while ago. I don't have enough talent to write such a book plus I am sure that something similar has been done before.

 

July 5, 2015- Rockford and Me

It was the mid- 1970s and I was in a “Rockford Files” storyline helping Jim out with a case. We were in the elevator of an office building with 3 other people. Suddenly, strange things began happening. First, a song from the 80s, “Take Me Home Tonight”, which had been playing in my head was now on the stereo system.

   Then it felt as if the elevator was going down instead of up and also moving very slowly. We tried remaining calm. Finally, it reached the 6^th floor where we all were getting off. The hallway was very dark and multicolor lights were flashing. I was feeling very dizzy and sort of out of it now, as if I were drugged.

   We got to the end of the hall and the lights came back on. There were a couple of offices behind this door. One was a psychiatrist where Jim was going to ask him a question. The other was a dentist. I stayed in the waiting room and was talking to a girl in her mid-20s, which was about the age that I looked.

   When Jim came out of the office, two big goons grabbed him. He yelled out to me to get in touch with his cop friend, Sgt. Becker. I was very worried about him. Where were they were taking him?

   I had Jim’s jacket but no keys for his Firebird were in it. I would have to find a bus. We were in a suburban town in LA County. I was still feeling very drowsy. I saw a cop car and was going to tell them what had happened to Jim but feared that they would think that I was on drugs.

   I walked around the neighborhood for a bit. A Nat King Cole song, “When I Fall in Love” was playing in my head to calm me down. A man in his 40s passed by and started singing this. He said “Nice song” too. It was weird that he could read my mind like that.

   I saw a flatbed truck with a giant eagle with flag and a base that had 1776-1976 on it. This must be for a Bicentennial parade. I vaguely remember the one that our town had. I was supposed to do baton twirling in it but was too afraid and backed out of this.

   Suddenly, the sky started getting dark. It was only 3:30 p.m. according to my Swatch. Why was I wearing a 1980s watch in this decade? The rest of my outfit was 1970s style which was kind of cool.

    I could see the moon and stars now. I just stayed in that spot for a few minutes. As I was walking, the sky became light again a couple of minutes later. I felt as if I had been walking around in circles which I discovered was the case.

   I saw that cop car again. This time around 8 people were gathered around it. A couple in their 30s were telling the officer that their cousin had disappeared after going into that same office building that Jim and I were in. A few other people mentioned that strange things had been happening there lately.

   We all walked a couple of blocks to that building only when we arrived it was no longer even there. Then, the darkness returned. A hippie-ish looking guy said that maybe aliens were responsible for both odd occurrences.

   As the daylight began returning a couple of minutes later, the scene around me changed. I was now in a mall. It was still the same time period. “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” was playing on the stereo system. I felt better now. I hoped that Jim would be alright in the other storyline.

    I looked at the fashions in the window of one store. As I turned around, I saw Jim standing there. I was happy about this. We were about to go for lunch when we spotted his creepy friend Angel walking in our direction.

   Jim said “What is he doing here?” Angel was supposedly kidnapped and held for ransom but obviously this had turned out to be a scam. Angel began to run and Jim chased after him.

   I wound up tripping Angel when he was running past me. I am not sure why he came back in that direction. I was no longer a part of this program after that.

   Being a “character” in an episode of a show that I used to like was fun, except for the fact that I was feeling doped up during part of it.

Note- This is just one of my many recurring alien holodeck dreams. I used a condensed version of it. I will explain more about them soon.

Pontiac Firebird

                                      

Angel and Jim Rockford

Bicentennial Parade Float

 

                                                                     1976 Fashions

These are all internet photos

 

A Few More Books

My friends Cindy and Jessica bought me these 2 Paddington books as a Christmas gift in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

My brother took this book out of the library in the late 1970s and forgot to return it. We had it for many years afterwards.

All of these photos are from the internet