Kathleen Helms's Blog (9)

The Hurricane, that is On Sunday, September 14, at 2:00 p.m. hurricane Ike whipped through the Ohio Valley and left some 2.5 million people without power. One hundred seventy hours and seven minutes later (that is, Sunday, September 21 at 4:07 p.m.) our power finally was restored. As I write these words, there are still a hundred thousand or so people around the state without power, and some of them may be that way for most of the upcoming week. Because we run our own servers, all of o… Continue

Eleven cents at a time When I was little, Mom taught me the old rhyme “find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck. Find a penny, let it lie, all good luck will pass you by.” Well, from that point onward, I couldn’t ignore a penny on the ground! When Sam died (July 10, 1999) we started finding pennies. It started the day he died. About a month or so after, my sister sent me a story about how pennies are dropped from Heaven to say hello and I’m thinking about you. Now o… Continue

I am Every time I decide that humanity has just about struck rock bottom and deserves a good hard kick in the head, something good happens and I am reminded that overall, we're not doing too badly at our jobs. Yes, we're surrounded by strife -- war, hunger, homelessness, poverty, crime, hatred, sickness -- but look at the blessings! Sometimes it takes weeks (months ... years ... a lifetime ...) to find it, but for everything bad that happens there really is a counter-balancing go… Continue

Here's one to start you off!

This is called "Angel of the Auror… Continue

What is it that motivates some people to be deliberately hateful or unkind to others? Why are some people so full of negativity and nastiness that they have to be mean and rotten to everyone they encounter? What do they gain by this? Perhaps I'm warped, but I try to treat people the way I want them to treat me. I can't see wasting the energy to hate someone based on superficial nonsense like race or appearance or whatever. It always puzzles me when I encounter someone who feels compelled to "ha… Continue

Early last week, I learned that an old friend was dying. After several attempts to write a letter or card that said something meaningful, I decided I was going to make the trip to Richmond to see her instead. I still didn't have the foggiest notion what I would say to her, but at least this way I could look in her eyes and stumble over my words instead of just committing them to paper. The Hallmark jingle kept going thru my head -- "when you care enough to send the very best" -- and I decided I… Continue

I waver between adding "already?" or "only"

One year ago today, Mom passed away.

Mom passed away Wednesday, December 6th about 6:25 p.m. She was two days shy of her 69th birthday, four months shy of her 50th wedding anniversary. With her when she died was my Dad, myself, Maggie and Joel. Amanda and Missy were there, but had stepped out of the room to go get a soda. It's as if Mom waited till Missy was out of the room to leave. When she went, she went quietl

… Continue

I haven't posted in a while -- over a month I think! -- and not because nothing's happened, but because too much is going on.

As we near the first anniversary of the day of Mom's death (December 6th), I've been trying to just stay busy. The holidays are helping in a sort of twisted way because even though I'm being bombarded with endless reminders of loss at least it's something I can focus on.

The inner conflict is like an endless loop. I feel sorrow. Her death left an… Continue

Easier said than done, that!

I opened my email this evening to find one of those messages that asks you to change all the following answers to your own and then shove it off on ten friends so you can all Learn Something About Each Other. Oh goodie. I wasn't in the mood to deal with anything requiring great amounts of thought, I was up at 6:10 this morning, spent the day at the Gem City Feis, and a mi… Continue