A to Z Challenge – D is for Dog

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Lori Crane

Blogging from A to Z April 2013 Challenge

D is for dog, for life without a dog is sorry indeed ~Lori

A dog is not “almost human” and I know of no greater insult to the canine race than to describe it as such. ~John Holmes

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Coming home to a dog

Coming home to no dog

Snuggling with a dog

Snuggling without a dog – rocks are not fluffy.

Playing with a dog

Playing without a dog – mud is almost as fun as a dog – Not

Eating with a dog

Eating without a dog

Sleeping with a dog

Sleeping without a dog

Life with a dog

Life without a dog

Grandpa and Google Calendar

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Lori Crane

For quite a while I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have all of my ancestor’s birthdays, death dates, and marriage dates in one place. I often find that a great great grandma’s birthday was yesterday, and I missed it. I considered a monthly paper calendar, but that wouldn’t work come next year when the days of the week change.

Also, for some time, I have been confused about what to do with my Google Calendar. I messed around with it, adding family birthdays and my work schedule, but then I never really used it, because I already know family birthdays and my work schedule.

Well, they go together like chocolate and peanut butter, don’t ya think? What a great idea!

I have run into a small problem, however. I spent an hour the other day just putting the parents and grandparents information on there. I have almost 9,000 people in my family tree dating ridiculously far back. Do you know how long this is going to take?? And, where does it stop? In laws? Friends? Ugh. Just what I need, another time-consuming project.

Coincidental Dates (cue Twilight Zone music)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Lori Crane

For you genealogy buffs: Do you see the same dates over and over when you work on your family tree?? I always see the same four dates – the birthdays of my kids, my birthday, and my wedding anniversary. Note: I NEVER see hubby’s birthday, my mother’s birthday, or any other family date. Only Feb 5, Oct 12 and 31, and Nov 19.

Strange? Yes.

I figured since I have absolutely nothing to do (sarcasm) I will compile all the strange dates.

February 5

My son’s birthday

My aunt’s birthday, Bobbie Jean Culpepper McQueen

My cousin’s birthday, Judy McQueen

My cousin’s birthday, Carolyn Burke Goss

My mother’s wedding anniversary, Linda Faye Culpepper

October 12

My daughter’s birthday

My great great uncle’s death date, James Rodgers

My great great great grandfather’s birthday, William Henry Blanks II

My third cousin’s birthday & death date, Claude Wesley Gardiner

My great great uncle’s birthday, Thomas Culpepper

October 31

My anniversary

My grandfather’s death date, Benjamin Berry Pickett

My father’s death date, Andrew Frank “Andy” Crane Jr.

My great great grandparent’s anniversary, Martha Lettie Carpenter and William Henry Blanks III

November 19

My birthday

My great great grandmother’s birthday, Sarah Elizabeth “Betty” Brown Keene

My great uncles birthday, Howard Pickett

I’ve heard stories of people re-incarnating in groups and around dates. I find the concept curious, but I have no convictions about it either way. I do, however, find it interesting that my dad’s Grandma Pickett has all of the Oct 31 and Nov 19 dates in her family. The people listed are her mother, husband, son, grandson, and great granddaughter (me).

That’s weird that my birthday and anniversary all coincide with dates on my dad’s side of the family.

I also find it oddly curious that my mother has my kid’s (Feb 5 and Oct 12) birthdays repeated over and over in her family. Those listed are her sister, two cousins, niece, two great uncles, great great grandfather, grandson, and granddaughter.

That’s really, really weird that my kid’s dates are all on my mom’s side.

What’s even more strange is that I would think of this today – the anniversary of my grandma’s death. RIP Mamaw.

And now back to my regularly scheduled life…

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Lori Crane

I’ve been working on a book since October and just clicked that fabulous little “send” button to ship the manuscript off to my editor. That is one of the two instances when an author can breathe for a moment. The other is when you click the “publish” button. Sigh.

Every time I reach either moment, I am reminded of the movie, “Romancing the Stone,” where Kathleen Turner places a five-inch thick, type-writer written, finished manuscript on her kitchen table, lights a candle, and pours herself a glass of wine. Maybe that is why I’m tempted to open that bottle of Crown Royal sitting in my cabinet.

But do I relax and bask in the glow of the finished product?

No, of course not. I’ve spent the last four hours researching the Dalton Gang for my new book.

But, hey, I’ve learned a ton about the Dalton Gang today!

What I found interesting about them is they did not set out to be outlaws. They were all initially U.S. marshals. There were four brothers in the gang. One lived in California on his successful farm with his beautiful wife. His name was Bill, and he is not in the above Wanted Poster. I assume his wife wouldn’t let him go that day.

Anyhoo, he was involved in politics, and the local farmers were trying to keep the railroads from running through their farms. When his three brothers (the hotties pictured above) showed up, their manly testosterone levels escalated, and they came up with a plan to teach the railroads a thing or two. They attempted to rob a train, but being inexperienced, bumbling train robbers, the result was a total fiasco. They fled empty handed under gunfire.

Somewhere between that humiliating failure in 1890 and their terrible deaths in 1892 while trying to rob TWO banks – across the street from each other – at the same time – in broad daylight – which resulted in a shoot out – and most of the gang dying, their fine morals and upbringing obviously went astray. Boys will be boys.

The photo above is from Wikipedia. The middle two are Bob and Grat. (Emmett did not die that day, but he was shot over 20 times, survived, and spent 14 years in prison.) These boys were killed in the 1892 shoot out. Their boots were removed. They are all in handcuffs. Who took their boots?? And why are they handcuffed?? And what’s up with the gun in the photo?? So, they had a town photographer, but no town doctor to know if they were dead or not, hence the handcuffs??

Anyway, the book is not about them, it only starts with them. But I’ve had an interesting day researching them nonetheless.

Who do I have to talk to to get more hours?

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Lori Crane

Is there anyone who can arrange more hours in the day for me? I’ll pay you! No, I don’t need a “Survival Guide for Busy Folks” or a new pocket organizer. I am the Queen of Organization! I need more hours. Maybe a 28-hour day would help. 32 would be better.

My to-do list is trailing off my desk like Santa’s gift list in December.

I’m usually good under pressure. As a matter of fact, deadlines feed my soul. I admit, most of my deadlines are self-imposed, but that’s how I get things done. And I get a whole lot of things done – I think. I may have too many irons in the fire right now because I’ve apparently added a few new hats to my job closet.

1) I am a full-time musician. I work late nights and don’t sleep well because I keep changing my bedtime hours throughout the week. Sometime I crawl in bed at 8:00 p.m., and sometimes I don’t go to bed until 4:00 a.m. That job also requires daytime hours for rehearsal and scheduling. I would like an extra two hours added to the music portion of my day.

2) I write. Books. Not just any books – historical fiction books. Anyone who has ever written anything of length knows how insanely time consuming it is. Now add to that hours and hours of research to make sure the historical part of the story is legitimate. I admit I go off on tangents. I’ll hunt for information on a website, click on every link, and look up to find it’s three hours later. I love web surfing. I also have a bad habit of getting side-tracked on Ancestry.com and FindAGrave.com when I simply go there to check a wedding date or a death date. Rewrites, editing, proofreading, formatting, designing covers? Three more hours a day would help.

3) I am my own publisher/publicist/agent/video trailer producer/audio book narrator/etc. I don’t even know how much time is spent doing that stuff. It’s a ridiculous amount. I don’t mind doing it, I just need about four more hours a day.

4) Blogging? Ugh. I’m a slacker. It’s true. No amount of time will fix that.

5) Wife and mother? Ha. Yeah, that cooking thing? Not so much. And you can do your own laundry. Do mine while you’re at it. And somebody pick up some milk.

Ok, rant over. I have to go brush my dog now. Poor little guy.

Top 100 (Diet) Books

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Lori Crane

Let this be a lesson to all authors.

NEVER release a book the first week of January….unless it’s a diet book. Of the top 100 best sellers on Amazon on January 3rd, at least 50-60 of them are diet books. That cracks me up. Hopefully, the skinny-wanna-be’s will fall off the wagon in a few weeks and we can get back to our regularly scheduled program.

2819655-diet-sandwich-and-meter-studio-isolated

Bon Appetite!

Strong Women (exclamation point) !!!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Lori Crane

Apparently I’m going to put off working on my book for the entire day, and I’m going to procrastinate by writing stuff here.

a-strong-women-is-one_large

I’m working on a female character who is downtrodden and beaten, and am not as pleased with her as I was with my last female character who was strong, proud, determined, and driven. What is it that draws us to strong women?

I think of female characters from book and movies and always come up with women who have backbone, substance, grit. I have a hard time remembering any of the wimpy, whiny girls.

Off the top of my head, I love (in no particular order):

Sally Field in Steel Magnolias and Norma Rae

Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider and every other movie she has played in

even Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (LOVE her!)

What is it about these characters that is so intriguing?

Who are your favorite female heroines?

Weekly Writing Challenge: A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Lori Crane

Well, here we go – our yearly photograph. We are on our way to Easter Sunday Brunch with my sister and her family. The children love their aunt Margie, but I could really take her or leave her. Sure, we grew up together, but we don’t have much in common these days. She is the head of the church volunteer committee, a regular helper at the community food bank, and an upstanding member of society. I, on the other hand, am a shameless despot and a threat to society.

Last year, there were four of us in the annual photograph. This year, it’s just me and the kids. I feel bad for them that they are without a mother now, but there’s nothing I can do about it. She is gone and nothing will bring her back.

I may have had a few too many drinks that night, but I just couldn’t take her nagging any more. I had enough and she deserved it. No one suspects me at all, after all, I’m a poor widower with two small children whose wife died at the hands of an intruder. But it’s only a matter of time before these kids start asking questions about her, and I don’t know what I will do then.

For now, we’re going to have prime rib and mashed potatoes. And maybe apple pie for desert.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m late on the DP Challenge this week, but the picture is so good, I had to jump in. For some reason the photo really struck me as something very dark, even with the little girl in her pink dress – or maybe in spite of the little girl in her pink dress. hmmm.

If you are not familiar with the daily post challenge, check it out here.

Tracing Your Roots: Courtesy 101

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Lori Crane

I’ve traced my family for over 30 years. I currently have 8548 people in my family tree, including 16 great great grandparents, 26 third greats, 36 fourth greats, 49 fifth greats and 61 sixth greats – there’s more, but I won’t bore you any further. At one point, part of my tree opens up and the male side dates back to 1190 England, and the female side dates back to 70 B.C. I have family from England, Ireland, France, Scotland, and places so far back, they aren’t even on the map anymore. I am passionate about my records and my new discoveries.

Do you want to know what my BIGGEST pet peeve in the whole world is??

My biggest pet peeve is getting messages and/or emails that say things like: “Please respond and let me know who you are and why you are tracing my family” or “Please transfer my uncles memorial page to me because he is my family” or “Thank you for posting headstone photos of my family.”

Yeah. My My My My. Let’s make it clear. If you have ancestors, you are probably not the only one in your family tree. The above comments need responses from me including, “I am tracing my husband’s family, not yours”, “The man is also MY uncle”, and “I drove 14 hours one-way to visit that cemetery and posted headstone photos of MY family, not yours, but you are welcome, I guess.”

One of my biggest pleasures is finding distant cousins all over the world, but not when those cousins send rude emails.

I’m currently working on a book about a cousin who was an orphan. My third great grandmother raised her deceased brother’s five orphans for a while. One of the orphans has a great story, so I’m writing a book about her. She lost her parents at the age of nine in 1862 in Mississippi. She is found in the 1870 census living with her other aunt in Alabama, and found in the 1880 census living back in Mississippi. She is then found in 1890 in Texas, married with an infant daughter, and died that very same year at the age of 36. My questions were, “Why did she go back to MS? and “How did she end up in TX?” I did find the answers to my questions, but still wanted more information. Through some family searching (emails to a cousin of a cousin of a cousin), I ended up on the phone with the infant daughter’s GRANDDAUGHTER, who is 73 years old and living in Abilene, TX. She told me all about her family and her grandmother, but she did not know anything about her orphaned great grandmother or the family line before that, so we filled in a lot of family history for each other. She emailed me a photo of the orphan and a four-page hand-written letter from the orphan to her brother, dated July 1890, a month before she died. And I emailed her stories of the family along with a photo of the orphans grandfather, her THIRD great grandfather whom she never knew existed. It was amazing. We are cousins connected 150 years ago. Wow!

So, lesson to be learned:

If you contact someone about their family research, do not say “MY family,” because if they are researching and have records, it is more than likely their family also, and you never want to be rude to your cousins.

Class dismissed.

Deer 1, Lori 0

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Lori Crane

I work nights. I live in the country. I drive 57 miles one-way down a dark, deserted highway. No, not a dark, desert highway. Wrong song. Anyway, nightly on my way home, I play chicken with the deer. Saturday night, the deer finally won.

I see them standing on the side of the road almost nightly. In the past, I have swerved to miss one on occasion. I thought I might have actually clipped one a few months ago. This one was STANDING in the middle of the road. He was in the right lane facing to the right. I swerved to the left. If he would have jumped the way he was facing or even just stood still, I would have missed him. He jumped left – right into my car. (Cue Timewarp song – “It’s just a jump to the left…”)

What my engine is supposed to look like…

What my engine looks like now…

The worst part was upon impact EVERYTHING went black. WTH?? Here are the thoughts that went through my head over the next 5 seconds…

1. Why can’t I see? Where are the stars and signs and lines on the road?

2. Am I dead? Wow, that was quick and painless.

3. Am I blind? I don’t think I was hit in the face by anything. I can see this jellyfish of an airbag in my way, ergo, I must not be blind.

4. Is my windshield now a bloodbath, blocking my view? Ewww. That visual needs to get out of my head right now.

5. What is that smell? Is it blood? Is it from the airbag going off? Maybe the engine is on fire. If the engine is on fire, don’t you think I’d be able to see that?

I don’t understand.

Wait! I can still see out of the driver’s side window. WTH?

Oh, duh, it’s the hood. My black hood is straight up in the air, blocking my vision. At least I’m not blind, but the car manufacturers should remedy that. That’s just dangerous. That could cause an accident….uh, yeah, whatever.

I think my engine is dead. No power steering. No power brakes. I coast to the right shoulder, looking out of the driver’s side window at the lines in the road to make sure I’m safely off the road. Vaguely, I hope there is not an abandoned car on the shoulder, but I figure if I hit it, it’s not really my fault. I can’t freakin’ see.

Stop. Sigh. Breathe.

Everything ok? I think so. No injuries? Except for thinking I was blinded for life and would have to buy one of those white canes with the red tips, but having no idea how I would choose the right cane if I couldn’t actually see it…no, I’m good. Cell phone? Right here, along with everything else from various locations of my car, now in a convenient and handy pile in my front seat.

What if the deer is actually in my engine? I try to look through the 3-inch slit between the hood and the dashboard, but I can’t see anything. Should I get out and check? I guess I have to. My thought process doesn’t go beyond that point to figure out what I will do if there actually IS a deer sitting on my engine, but I’m still thinking the engine may be on fire and I need to look.

Open car door…well, try to open car door. It will only open about 8 inches. I squeeze out and walk around front to look at the engine. No deer. Thank god. But, holy crap, my front end is a mess. Now, where am I? I need to call and give the police a mile marker. Luckily, there’s a sign right in front of my car. I almost ran into it. No kidding. I’m a mile from my house. Perfect.

When the police arrive, the officer says the deer is about 100 yards behind me on the left shoulder and casually mentions that the poor thing is still alive. He had to shoot the deer THREE times to kill it. Ugh. End to a perfect drive home.

Don’t worry, that shit’ll buff right out…

Update: Finale of the Deer vs. Truck saga

My truck is on its final journey to the junk yard. I’m so sad. The insurance co paid all but about $500 of what I owed, but I was due to buy new tires before winter, so it’s a wash.

Lesson Learned: a 70 mph front-end collision with air-bag deployment and over $12,000 of body and engine damage + I walked away with only a bruise from the seat belt = I’ll be buying another Nissan on Monday.

Lori Crane

award-winning author. musician. cute shoes.

Category Archives: observation