Month: July 2005

Do what you really want to and not work!!! Strangest thing happened. I received two phone calls wishing me happy birthday and three birthday cards 😀 -…none of which was my immediate family 🙁 . I also received some flowers from my housekeeper and a balloon. It was quite and interesting day.

I spent most of the day on the computer- searching and playing. While searching a cousin, I decided to search my name. I thought let’s see how many Claudia Bennett’s are on the web. Boy, were there a lot. 342 sites were found with the name Claudia Bennett on them. I was listed five times: four for school and one for arglor’s web site. Some were genealogical sites, so I did not count them. But I found 20 live ones not counting me. It was an interesting range of women. One woman was living in Ashland, Massachusetts. She had the most hits and was very prominent in the city. She not only worked with in the schools, but was on the “Ashland Board of Selectmen”. Therefore, she was written up for not only working with the school system, her views in committee meetings, but also political views. There were three teachers besides the previous woman. Three women worked in government jobs in different parts of the United States.
The others worked for a newspaper, art director, business, technology specialist in university, web sites selling things, West Point (not in the teaching area), and medical field. There were three young girls at various ages. But the funniest of all-…. 😯 Was the one on a porn site. She must be good, because I had “safe search” on. It was a very interesting experiment. Anyone reading this should look for the last one.
The only thing that came up when I searched Claudia Ramke was my listing on my high school web page. Dramke pulled up quite a bit, but it was mostly from happypoet and german sites. I did find a Ramke in Germany and her email. I think I will write her just in case she might be related.
The rest of the night will be spent reading. I have picked some of my favorite author’s books to reread. Funny how you don’t remember them when it has been such a long time since you read them the first time. Good reason for not throwing those types of books away and for collecting them. I had a good day despite the fact that I am getting older. Oilmud tried to get me to go out tonight for supper, but I needed this restful day after working so hard cleaning this house for three days. Still not through :'(

I have a vehicle! One that can take me places whenever I wish. Ha! Well, it can leave the surrounding areas without me worrying about breaking down. (I hope) Since it is a used vehicle, it is still a small worry. I had a wonderful trip to Texas to visit family and friends. I spent the night with my high school friend and enjoyed visiting with her.
I visited my aunt and found her in very good shape mentally. She has trouble with walking around because of osteoporosis. That just slows her down a great deal, but she is very mentally alert for her age. It was wonderful talking to her.
I was lucky to see her son that I had spent a great deal of time with during my childhood. He was not aware how important he was to my childhood. If it wasn’t for him, I would not have been able to attend my senior dance.
Did I say my childhood was sheltered”’ Well, let’s put it this way–a lot of women in the Victorian age were not as sheltered as I was. Thank heavens, my genes came from women who had an adventurous streak for their day, or I would have been scared of my shadow. My mother’s stepmother was a great influence on me. She made me know that no matter what happened that I could take care of myself. My mother through her assistance was able to give me the education to allow me to do what I wish.
But I digress. Bin was there in my youth and could aggravate at times, but he was my favorite cousin. I use to get angry with him, because everyone would say look how well Lloyd’s children behave. The truth of it– I knew he was not an angel. Oh, he did not misbehave in front of adults, but he was like my brother at being able to get me to do things that would get me in trouble. Of course, “Naive” was my middle name.
I was able to see another special cousin, Ken. He was Bin’s older sibling. He and I did not play much together, but he probably looked upon me as that little child. (Like my siblings did.) He, too, held a special place in my childhood. I was able to get to be with him some in my later life. It seems that cancer has entered my sphere again, through him. He is dying from lung cancer. It is has spread too far for him to have treatment.
He and his wife are very close and have come to grip with the situation. Even though the outlook is grave, they are coping well with it.
I debate whether I should attend his funeral or not. I feel that I would be more of a burden than a blessing for the family. I simply detest funerals. Mother’s Celebration of Life was so much better.
I began to start thinking the last few months and realized that in the last 14 years, I have lost 9 people that were very close to me.