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The Chronicles of Nani On Video

I am overcoming my inability to type with my ability to talk (and talk and talk and talk) I'll be posting a video every week on my YouTube channel. I'll be posting those videos here too along with an occasional regular blog in the mix. (As long as my hands are up to doing the extra typing.)

You'll be able to watch the videos here, but I encourage you to stop by my channel at YouTube once I'm up and running to follow me and get my numbers started!


Welcome to my coffee shop in Cyber Space
Try the latte with a slice of black forest cake!


Contact Nani at
chroniclesofnani@gmail.com

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Five Years Ago…

On June 29, 2012

A derecho, Spanish for ”Straight," is a weather event. It’s a long-lived straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving group of thunderstorms. There was a nasty derecho in Indiana moving east in the afternoon getting to the Atlantic coast around midnight. The fast-moving storm hit Ohio not too long after its hurricane-like winds left destruction in Indiana. Because of the nature of how derechos develop, they are hard to forecast and often strike with little advance warning. The June 29 derecho in 2012 did a lot of damage and knocked out power in many parts of Ohio, including Putnam County.

David and I had been photographing the barns painted with Ohio logos for the state bicentennial in 2003 together since I moved to Ohio in 2007. We'd just seen and photographed Putnam County’s barn on May 20. When we drove through that area again on July 23, I recognized the spot inhabited by the remnants of a barn. There wasn't a trace of the large Bicentennial logo in the rubble.

May 20, 2012


July 23, 2012


On the local weather at noon it was reiterated that today is an alert day for weather. It's been very cool and today it jumped back into seasonably hot. It's the type of day when atmospherics are right to create some nasty storms. Or not; the wonderful reality of summer storms is that even when conditions are right it doesn't mean things are actually going to happen, but they might happen worse than expected. I think a derecho might be worse than the tornado in that it's harder to forecast and it's certainly seems to be something they can't forecast as soon. A derecho also spans a larger area for a much more sustained time. Of course tornadoes have the wind speed and the twist making it much harder for there to be aboveground structures that can withstand them.

I do enjoy watching a summer storm. I remember occasional afternoons when I worked at the cable company that I would sit on the ledge of the open receiving door with a cup of coffee with our engineer and interns to just watch the summer thunderstorms. Hey, we liked watching the storms and when the nasty ones came in we couldn't use any of the electric equipment. It was nice break.

So enjoy the warm sun, beaches, baseball, picnics and beautiful green blue of summer, but don't forget that mother nature’s glorious summer mood can turn on a dime and when it does stay safely out of her way.

Friday, June 2, 2017

A Carnival Fights Blog-Block


I’ve been in a writing funk lately. I'm going to try write my way out of it. We’ll see if it works.

Today's been a pretty good day. It's Carnival weekend at the church kitty corner from us. I asked my aide to crack open the window on the side of the house so I can hear the carnival. I hope that doesn't sound pathetic, it shouldn’t. I'm not disabled and hearing the sounds of fun I can't have. The truth is I find this sounds to be inspiring. I've always loved listening to the rides and people laughing and having fun. When I used to go to the park and walk every day the absolute greatest day was when it was just warm enough for moms to bring out their kids to play in the playground. It made me even more relaxed and happy to hear the sound of the kids outside having fun. This carnival weekend has been awesome for that reason ever since I moved into this house, 10 years ago. I've never actually been to that carnival. I’ve never really been a carnival goer as an adult. But I love the sounds of crowds of people having fun. So right now the setting sun is shining in my window and over me, I'm toggling the TV remote between three baseball games, and the fresh smell of outside with the sound of two crazy rides that I can see through the window make it a pretty great evening.

The Reds game tonight against Atlanta, is the first game since the off-season trade that Brandon Phillips has been back in Cincinnati. In the top of the first inning, his first at bat, Reds fans gave him a standing ovation. Bronson Arroyo stepped off the pitching mound to allow Phillips an opportunity to step back from the plate, take off his hat and salute the crowd. After 11 years with the Reds, Phillips’ contract gave him the right to say “no” to any trade the team considered. He used that right a couple of times, but the only team I'm sure he would've said ”yes” to would've been Atlanta, to go home. I admitted I choked up a little watching the whole thing; the welcoming ovation, Arroyo’s gesture, Brandon acknowledging the crowd and the fact that both pitcher and hitter we're visibly moved.


Maybe the carnival is helpful. The biggest problem that I've had when I've been writing lately is that when I start writing and I think I'm writing for the blog, I start getting very negative and very hostile, so it just ends up being writing that I put my personal journal. Remember that I write to get negative feelings out and put away. So I have enough things that are bugging me right now that everything I write turns into a page or two of grumbling and ranting. Even my scrapbooked daily blurbs have sometimes turned into a page long growling sessions that I've had to cut and paste into the personal journal, and write my daily comment shorter or about something else entirely. So I've had some demons that I've been dealing with. I won't say anything more about that lest this turn into another attempted blog that ends up going into the file that will only be opened after I'm gone.

I hope somebody does read it. It's not all negative stuff, though I do think, especially for those that know me, that seeing, understanding, the things that really got under my skin and how I dealt with them is a good thing. But there are fun things too. I put the text from my blogs, comments that I make in different forums, and even silly one liners. I also occasionally address the reader in the things that I write. What's the point in doing that if there's not going to be a reader someday? My scrapbooks and the complete and uncensored Chronicles of Nani will be my legacy. I'd like to be remembered for a generation or two after I'm gone. (smiles)


We celebrated Marco's fourth birthday yesterday. He's the only one of our cats whose birthday we are sure of. Marco and his litter siblings were born in our friend's garage on June 1, 2013. The girls’ birthdays are educated guesses. I'll do a scrapbook page for his birthday and maybe a "Christmas in June" page or two. I'm scrapping June for 2017 but December for every other year right now. Yes, that means I'm finishing books now! More details on that soon.