Tory...The Rebel...

I remember 'the Mother Unit', (er,that would be my mother), saying when I was around 5 years old, 'There is no God!'. I have no recollection as to the circumstances surrounding this statement, and as far as I know, that was the first time she ever mentioned God to me. I remember, on occasion, parroting this phrase to people, having no idea what I was talking about. But, that's what 'mother unit' said, so it must be true.
Funnily enough, at 17, I found God. Actually, He wasn't lost, I was! Overnight there was a profound change in my attitude and outlook on life. When I told 'mother unit' about my experience, I will never forget the look on her face. She was absolutely horrified! You would have thought I had just told her I ate one of my younger siblings.
I would laugh to myself when I would hear her on the phone with one of her friends saying, 'I don't know where I went wrong with her, maybe it's just a rebellious stage or something. At least I hope so!' I never, ever preached to her, but she was constantly asking me questions about my faith and I would tell her, only because she asked. In a way, it seemed so personal to me at the time, I really didn't want to talk to her about it much. It was a profound experience for me, and she made it sound like a disease. But I didn't back down, or I simply couldn't back down from her questions.
After awhile, she sort of came to terms with it, when she realized that it wasn't going away. But really, she just made allowances for my 'retardedness'. lol...
A few years later, her mother was very ill with cancer. I spoke to my Grandma often, and prayed with her. She herself had found her faith through the horrendous experience of being so ill. Finally, in January, we got the call that Grandma had been hospitalized and she was not going to be around very much longer. My mother picked me up at work, and we went by car from Toronto to Montreal. It was a terrible day for driving and we came into a major snowstorm. We couldn't see a foot in front of us and it was so bad, we couldn't see to even pull over. I wasn't really worried to be honest as my 'mother unit' was an excellent driver. But I looked over at her and she was sweating bullets, clutching the wheel and leaning forward in her seat straining to try and see where she was going. The only other traffic on the road were 18 wheelers, who because of their weight, felt secure enough and experienced enough to drive at full speed. Every time one of them would go by, it would blow our car all over the road. This was the reason that it would have been unsafe to just park on the side of the highway. They would never have seen us and would have plowed right into us.
Another tuck went whizzing by us and our car spun around and landed right on top of a median at a cut-off. All of our 4 wheels were lifted off of the ground, and there we sat, sideways on the highway, teetering back and forth. The 'mother unit' freaked. A truck came roaring by, just missing our bumper and there was nothing we could do. Mother unit, in a panic told me to get out of the car, then she changed her mind and said I'd better stay in the car. She tried and tried to get 2 wheels to touch the ground to get some traction, but it didn't work. Finally, as another truck was barreling down on us, she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, 'Tory, pray.' For some reason, I was totally calm and I smiled and said, 'O.K.' And pray I did. I closed my eyes and thanked the Lord for sending us an angel to get us out of this mess. As I was praying, It felt as if someone lifted the car up from the back end and put our two front wheels onto the road. Mother unit gunned it and we were free. Shortly after, the snow stopped. Mother unit was very quiet for the longest time. Finally, she broke her silence and said, 'Did you feel someone lift up the car?' 'Ya,' I said, 'I prayed for an angel to come and help us. They're pretty strong.' 'But I felt it, I really did!' She said. Dead silence...but I could hear her mind turning...lol. Finally after a long silence, she said to me, 'What if we don't get there on time and she dies.' I replied, in all earnestness, 'I'll see her again one day..I'm not worried.' Mother unit began to cry...'I guess that's what's bugging me, I don't think I will see her again.' We had a very long talk after that, about God and His impact on our lives. She actually listened!
Grandma died a day or two after we got there. When it came time to make the arrangement for the funeral service, the family met with my Grandma's Pastor. He asked us which songs, and scriptures we would like. The whole family just sat there, at a total loss. They didn't know any scriptures to be able to choose them. I piped up, with some scriptures, suggestions and songs. I was the youngest one there and I didn't want to impose my ideas into it, but there was a very awkward silence in the room when he asked that. I could see the relief on every one's faces that I was able to come up with something so we didn't look like complete heathens. I looked at the mother unit, and for the first time, I saw she was proud. After that, if there were any questions, Mother unit would say, 'Oh, let's ask Tory, she'll know.'
That day, my Aunt asked if I would sing at the service and I did. It was a very sad day indeed, but I felt satisfied that I had been vindicated for my faith. I'll never forget it.
In other news, Holly went for her beginners driver's licence, and flunked...teehee! She went back and rewrote it and passed. We are never going to let her live this down, and I'm sure she'll be pleased I made that announcement here! My poor wiener kid!! lol...
I just have one more thing to talk about. I finally figured out what google reader is, and now that I have it, I love it. The only thing is, there is no place for putting comments there..at least, I can't find it. Anyway, I've noticed that my comments have dwindled to nil. Is that because we all have google reader and we can't be bothered? Please people, comments are what bloggers live for...don't forget to post comments on your favorite blogs. I know it's a little more trouble, but it means so much to the blogger.
Take care
Tory

So...What do ya think...?

One thing about blogging, you can always find something new you want to do. I noticed that Andrew at http://www.4thavenueblues.blogspot.com had something called a twitter, which was really fun to read. Now I wanted one too. I had no idea how to get one..so off to search for it all day yesterday. It seems to take me all day to do stuff other people can do in 5 minutes. Oh well, it kept me out of the pool halls..
I digress...
I finally figured it out and got to twittering, but didn't like the way it looked on my site...what to do?!
Today I realized that you could have 3 columns on a web page..Aha! I tried to figure out all that template jibberish and then Holly walked by. Aha, again!
I said, 'Holly, I love you.' She replied, 'Whatever it is...no!' I'm not beyond pleading and whining, she should know that by now. Finally, she sat down at my computer and found a new template for me, with 3 columns. For a second, she was my hero, that is until I realized that all my pictures and widgets were gone. But I managed to get them back up, for the most part, and I am so happy with how it all turned out. That Holly is a good kid sometimes, so I don't plan on selling her yet. I was going to put her up on EBay, but maybe I'll wait a bit.
Poppy has only one egg now,as the other one is broken. She is so mean to Bailey, I'm considering getting him his own cage while she's on the nest. Tonight she bit him very hard on the foot and made it bleed. Holly and I were mortified, and felt terrible for him. I'll have to call my bird supplier and see what he thinks. Poor Bailey. We should have known because Poppy has all the earmarks of a serial killer. We'll have to keep our eye on the situation.
Queenie and Gus are doing great. I'll have to take some video of them in the next day or two and put it on my photo/video blog, so keep checking back.
Fun with hearing loss...I heard the announcer on t.v. say, (about a serial killer) 'Tears from a kitten, but not for his victims.'
I think he must have said, 'Tears from a killer....
That's all for now, group.
Take care
Tory

The Stalker...

As you can see, I'm trying to make some changes and improvements on my blog. I have found so many new widgets to keep track of people, I actually think I'm beginning to stalk all of you. I'm lonely!
But now I can tell where everyone is from that happens upon this crazy blog, even if by accident. I used to have a map that had little red dots on it for every hit I got, which showed where in the world the hit came from. O.k. I must confess, when it comes to geography, I suck. I was getting hits on the map but didn't know what country it was from...duh. So, that didn't really work for me. Besides that, there were so many hits in North America, it turned into one big red dot. So, I got rid of that pretty quickly. Anyway, I'll just keep working at it so that it looks fresh for my regular readers.
In other news, my nose! I just discovered that I hate it. It is a really weird shape and gives me a kind of 'Charlie Brown' profile. I should have had a nose job years ago, but I didn't know it. Actually, when I think about it, I should have had a complete overhaul by now. I don't have much in the 'boob' department, if you know what I mean. My own Dr. once said to me that my breasts are so small, 'If you feel anything, you must have a lump'!! A breast implant op would be nice. And you already know about my large ears...I'm so depressed...
But we've all seen the shows about plastic surgery gone bad. Have you see Kenny Rogers lately? Is he the same man?? I would never have recognized him in a million years. And what's up with Wayne Newton? Is that his face or is it novelty night? He looks like a stand-in for the wax museum. And these are people who can afford the very best medical experts! All I could really afford would be a 'backstreet' plastic surgeon, you know, a guy with a Ginsu knife and Barbie parts...sigh. You know he would probably offer a free toaster for every nose job, for a limited time.
I will be the big '50' this year, and it's too late to do anything about my funny nose, big ears, small boobs etc..so I'll just have to live with it.
In spite of all this, I have a hubby who loves me and that's good enough for me.
Take care, Kids
Tory

Bits and Pieces...

I am trying to stay true to one of my New Year's resolutions, which is to keep blogging and not leaving long empty spaces of time in between. So, here I am, not sure what to write about though, so you know it's probably going to be a weird one. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!
One of the most fascinating diseases on earth has to be 'Ebola Zaire'. If you haven't heard of it before, it is named thus because it originated in Zaire, deep in the jungle. I saw a documentary on it once, and I was totally horrified and fascinated at the same time. Apparently, what it does is cause your body (squeamish please avert your eyes!) to hemorrhage and clot at the same time. It is absolutely horrific! I loved it! No, don't get me wrong, I hated to hear about the suffering of the poor people who caught this dreaded disease, and I wish they could find something to save them, but once you get it, you are soooo screwed. No cure. And from start to finish, the average patient only lasts about three days with it. I'm sure they must be in agony.
O.K. but what I found fascinating about it was the fact that your body does two separate and opposite things all at once. It's the disease for the multi-tasker.
One day, I had the flu, not long after seeing the documentary, and went to my Dr. I felt like I was going to die. After a few minutes, the Dr. came into the room and took one look at me and said sarcastically, 'Boy, you look wonderful.' I coughed for about 10 minutes straight and looked pathetically up at her. 'I believe it's Ebola, Doc.' Without skipping a beat the Dr. replied, 'No it's not. Your eyes aren't bleeding!' Well, o.k. she was right about that. Anyway, I just thought I would talk to you about one of the most fascinating diseases I know. Now you are all informed, you can watch out for the symptoms.
Now I will make a list of things I'd like to change about myself, and you readers can remind me to try and do them...
1: Stop talking to myself out loud when there's people in the room.
2: Stop getting annoyed if they answer.
3: Stop talking to myself in the car.
4: Stop getting annoyed when Hubby answers.
5: Stop getting annoyed with Holly when we are the only ones in the house and she comes out of her room to find out who I'm talking to.
6: Find somebody to talk to.
7: Stop being so forgetful. One time I went into the kitchen for a drink and I actually made a large salad and forgot my drink! I have no idea why I made the salad.
8: Stop worrying about getting Alzheimer's.
8: Stop worrying about getting Alzheimer's.
9: I once put my reading glasses in the fridge and couldn't find them for 3 days.
10: Do you think I have Alzheimer's?
Oh well, kids. That's all I could come up with from my very exciting day.
Take care
Tory