Laura's Thought for the Day: For People who Don't Have Enough of their Own...

I just thought it was a cute title.

Do you ever wonder about people who were never born? Maybe it's because my Mom lost a baby (a miscarriage during moving to another house) but I do seem to think about unborn people every now and then.

What might they have invented, written... how would their lives have affected the world at large? Maybe they wouldn't have made as much as a tiny scratch in the paint. Who knows, who will ever know?

In the old days, say the Regency period of English history, there was a custom of being "not at home". They had fancy door knockers then. If people were not at home (even when they were physically present) they removed the door knocker. That way, anyone who thought to call or visit would see they were "not at home" to callers. It was perfectly acceptable, no lack of manners or politeness.

Why is everyone so eager to be at home for all callers these days? Are we that desperate for company, do we really always have to be available? Can't we have a day and just be not at home?

Personally, I don't own a cell phone and I'm not likely to get one. I don't have my email set to notify me when new email is on the server. I don't always answer the phone. This morning someone is at the door, ringing the bell and guess what... I'm not running down to answer it. I'm not at home.

Instead I'm sitting here in my nightgown, my legs are not shaved, my teeth are not brushed but my hair is freshly brushed. I am making time for myself. Later I will go out and then really, physically, not be at home. Right now I'm just taking the knocker off the door. Anyone who calls can leave their calling card. That's another aspect of the old fashioned not at home custom. People had calling cards made to show they had visited/ come calling.

Being not at home is such an elegant custom. Why on Earth did we drop it?

AbandonGames.com - The Number One Search Engine For All Your Favorite Abandonware Games

I'm still looking for Carmageddon. InterPlay has written it off, so why haven't more of the abandonware sites picked it up? Underdog just sends you to Sci Games to order it. But, there are none to be ordered.

Doesn't someone have a nice CD with Carmageddon for me? Ideally #1 and #3 but #3 would be just ducky all on it's own. EA Games said (if they had one in) it would be selling for $6.00. Still irks me that WalMart had one but it was going for over $50.00. Maybe I'll go back down there and see if they've put it on sale now that Christmas is over. I thought about getting a price quote from EA Games and taking it to WalMart as a real test of their price match policy. With my luck, they will be all out of Carmageddon anyway. Why is one old game so hard to find? Why didn't I just buy it a year ago when I was in the US and EA Games had plenty of them in stock.

Woe is me, the game grrl who waited too long for the sale. sigh

A painter has a canvas, a writer has a page, but a crafter has all sorts of mediums to choose from. Will it be fabric, clay, wood or something completely unexpected today?

Isn't it great to make something from whatever you had around the house. Cooking is like that too. Once you get the hang of it and don't use elaborate recipes that require special trips to certain specialty grocery stores. My favourite recipes are those made with leftovers originally. Soup is a prime leftover candidate. I think every flavour of soup in existence started out as someone's leftovers.

Sewing is like that too. Take your leftover fabric and turn it into a scrap quilt. Take your leftover yarn and make a shawl, scarf or granny squares. Being able to make things by hand is the ultimate in recycling and reusing.

Of course gardening lets you reuse kitchen scraps but that's pretty much seasonal in most places. If you leave out your vegetable peels for compost now you'll risk finding skunks and raccoons lurking around the place. Trust me, you don't want to come home after dark and see a skunk's eyes reflecting back from your car headlights. For some reason skunks are not afraid of people, wonder why...?

Enough reminiscing about eau de skunk. What craftiness will you be up to over the winter? Did the winter solstice take you by surprise and you've just realized half the winter is gone? Move to Canada, we still have plenty of snow just over the horizon, plenty of time left to get crafty. I'm still in the planning stages myself.

I've got a headache from not eating yet today. I suppose I should go down and do something about that. I've been enjoying the lifestyle of the idle rich today. I did get dressed, washed, all that stuff. But I spent the early part of the morning reading in bed and the rest of the day has been right here. It's been nice. Funny how anyone can be rich for the day, if they have the time. Sometimes I feel rich while driving along, having no where I have to be at any particular time. It doesn't matter that my car is old and dirty from the winter roads. Even someone with great wealth would have those same winter problems. Also, if my car is old at least it's paid for.

See ya.

Someone else with a car not really happy about this cold weather. I just hope mine let's me get to work on Sunday morning. I need the hours after the Christmas slow down.