It is amazing how we go through life not knowing. I know somethings about my friends, family and associates, but I don’t know others. I know somethings about mathematics and sciences, but there is a lot I don’t know. I know a bit of trivia, but again there is a whole lot I don’t know. I know a little bit about my corner of the computer world, and there are whole other worlds out there. Even people who know a lot, don’t know a whole lot more.

Then there are things that I really knew less about. I wish I knew less about death. I wish I knew less about heart disease and cancer. I wish I knew less about all the hospitals in the area. I wish I knew less about being a widower and an only parent.

There are things I wish I knew more about too. The list is growing everyday. I am sure I will learn more about things I don’t want to know about, but I will also learn more about the things I do want to learn about. It seems like a cycle in life. I hope to learn as long as there is life in this body. That may or may not happen, but it is my hope.

I also wish I knew what the winning numbers would be on the next lottery draw, but that hasn’t happened yet either.

Today marks the end of an era.  No, I am not writing about the 102 years it has been since both Chicago MLB teams were last in the playoffs.  I will leave that blog post to a more sports-interested blogger.  I am referring to the end of Randhurst Mall.  Today was the last day for all the stores inside the mall.  According to the article I read they will soon start tearing it down inside, but the reconstuction won’t begin in earnest until next year (as the anchor stores that remain open breathe a sigh of relief for the holidays).  I wan’t alive when it first opened in the sixties, but I do remember going there as a child.  I remember the Kresge’s that used to be there a long time ago.  I remember before they rebuilt the center and replaced the merry-go-round with a food court.  I remember as a teen visiting the arcade known as Supercade.  I even worked at two stores over there at different times- Circuit City and Software Etc.  All gone now.  I knew about this day coming and I could kick myself for not getting over there to take some pictures.  I got busy and forgot I guess.  Oh well.  It’s not as if I’ve never visited a virtual ghost-town mall before- I remember the last days of Meadows Mall before they tore it down to make way for a Walmart and Sam’s Club- but I should have gotten pictures for this blog.  They say the new so-called “lifestyle center” will be completed in 2010.  I’ll probably visit it once just to see, but it just won’t be the same.

They are moving the movie theaters in the process, so I wonder what they will do to improve them, as I’m sure AMC won’t miss the opportunity.  They didn’t build the theaters after all, merely purchased General Cinemas, who had the original theaters there.  They were already rebuilt once after large-capacity theaters went out of style and they replaced four theaters with sixteen smaller ones.  I wonder what AMC will do to put their own mark on it?

Well, I guess you will be wanting a link to the story I mentioned.  It even contains a few pictures that I fully do not take credit for as I missed my opportunity. 😛

Randhurst Shopping Center reaches the end

One thing I forgot to touch on in my previous post is the danger of corn mazes.  Maybe I’m just a paranoid person – well, that I already know – but I was wondering how come there’s never been a major disaster at a corn maze?  I mean, what if the thing goes up in flames?  It’s a concern I was able to stash in the back of my mind during our visit Friday night; mostly because the particular maze we visited seemed safe.  They have a watch tower in the middle of it along with various emergency exits and “corn cops” to help guide you out should an emergency occur.  But the first corn maze we visited a few years ago had none of these precautions, and I couldn’t help but let my mind wander, exploring various disasterous scenarios in my head.  “Maybe they’re not very flammable.” my husband said about corn mazes, but that theory was dispelled the other night when we saw all the signs warning about how flammable the corn maze was.  Well, anyway, nothing horrible happened, thank goodness, and I’ve never heard of disaster befalling a corn maze, so until something happens, we’ll be able to enjoy the pastime of corn mazing for years to come.

So onto the rest of the weekend…  Saturday was the day of our town’s Fall Fest, so we walked the kids up to the town square, enjoyed the ambience and picnicked for lunch.  We ran into a few friends, and came home with an extra kid who spent the afternoon with us when we visited a local alpaca farm.  Here are the kids enjoying the bouncy castle at the fall fest with their friend.

Before the alpaca farm, we visited another local farm where they have an annual Halloween display – it’s really neat.  They go all out for Halloween, and they even made a little train for the kids to ride that’s pulled by a tractor.  Every family that visits gets little Halloween toys, home-grown apples, and a plate of cookies to take home – and it’s all free; done by nice people who just want to share Halloween with their visitors.  Last year we asked about donating money so they can continue their yearly traditions, but they said their insurance company said they can’t except cash but baking supplies and Halloween props would be appreciated.  My parents visited with us last year and enjoyed the Halloween farm so much that they gave me some baking supplies to donate, so Saturday while we were out that way in the country, we dropped them off.  Of course, they wouldn’t let us drop stuff off without taking home a plate of homemade cookies…  these are the nicest people.  Their home is sparsely furnished – yes, they invite everyone in for a visit – which leads one to think that if they have extra money, it’s spent on baking supplies and Halloween stuff.  Also, the woman is in a wheelchair, but none of that stops them from putting up this elaborate Halloween display every year and baking hundreds of cookies to give away.  When we went to their place for the first time a few years ago, we had just moved here from Chicago, and I’m embarrassed to admit that we were confused.  In the suburban Chicago area, there just aren’t many nice people doing things soley for the enjoyment of others, especially at their own expense.  People like that are few and far between and in an area that’s so over-populated, you’re lucky if you run into anyone like that.

Wow, I find myself having to recover from yet another tangent!  So anyway, after the Fall Fest downtown we went to the alpaca farm.  Saturday was National Alpaca Farm Day, meaning that any alpaca farm who wanted to participate had an open house on their farm for people to visit and learn about these animals.  Not only are they cute, but they are profitable as well.  Their fur sells for $12/oz, and one alpaca can yield 140 – 160 oz per year!  And it’s a method of farming that I approve of since it doesn’t injure nor kill the animal.  This farm had a 3-week-old baby alpaca (top picture below), and another one due any day, which is also fascinating because the expecting alpaca didn’t even look pregnant.  The farm also had a wild mustang that they had just rescued from Wyoming (bottom picture below).  Apparently the wild mustangs out there are running out of pasture and food, so people are bringing them to farms so they don’t starve.  This gorgeous animal had never touched a human being until a few weeks ago, and his first contact with humans was them putting him into a trailer and driving him across the country – that must have been frightening for him.  But you couldn’t tell by looking at him.  He was so well-adjusted and was coming up to all the people who were visiting.  They said he had gained lots of weight since he had arrived on the farm also, so that’s great.

There is just something about being on a farm that makes me feel peaceful.  The rolling countryside is beautiful, and I don’t even mind the stench of farm animals.  I would love to have a farm some day, providing we had enough money to pay a staff to maintain it.  They are lots of work I know, and I don’t know the first thing about running a farm.  But someday I think I’d like to try, and if that’s a route we explore in the future, alpacas will definitely be part of the venture!

I was working on my second post about my weekend at the farms, but my attention was diverted by the following news story.  Since I know a few people who really enjoy spicy food, I’m sharing this as a warning to you!

An aspiring chef died after eating a super-hot chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.

Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.

The fork-lift truck driver, who wanted to cook for a living, prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father’s allotment. After eating it, however, he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack.

Toxicology tests are being conducted to try to establish if he suffered a reaction to the food.

An inquest was told that Lee, from Edlington, England, was in perfect health and had just passed a medical examination at work. He was a keen cook and would often prepare meals for his parents. It is believed that Mr Lee had never prepared a dish as hot as the one he made the night before his death.

Lee’s sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, said that he took a jar of the sauce to the home of his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, and challenged her brother Michael, 29, to see who could eat it. “Andrew just ate the chillies with a plate of Dolmio sauce,” she added. “It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and potato mash after work.

“He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don’t know of anything else that could have caused his death. The postmortem showed no heart problems.

“He loved cooking for his friends. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn’t want to start at the bottom.”

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Doncaster last week.

I had a wonderful weekend.  It all started with another visit to a haunted house on Friday night.  Although I enjoyed my previous haunted house experience at Ghostly Manor earlier this year, I just wasn’t feeling the Halloween vibe enough to subject myself to scariness – I didn’t sleep well the night before and little sleep makes me feel claustrophobic – weird.  But anyway, the haunted house was actually a haunted corn maze and they had other things to do at the farm, so I enjoyed myself immensely hanging out with my kids and the coolest teenager I know.  There is just something about farms that make me feel an inner peace; something that was illustrated again during the weekend – more on that in my next post.

Literally a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, Leader’s Family Farms has things to do to keep all ages entertained.  There were even a few things we didn’t even get a chance to try after spending so much time being lost in the corn maze.  Next time I will have to check out the hayride and the coop shoot – I have a special affinity for hayrides because they remind me of the week-long vacations to a dude ranch I took with my family as a kid.  But one thing about Leader’s that really impressed me was their ability to make appealing and fun attractions without the large budget or the mechanical reliance that a major theme park would have.  The “Barnyard” or family area had several things for the kids to play with: bouncy castles, a zip line, haystacks to climb on, a hay maze, slides – all physical activities which would guarrantee kids’ exhaustion giving the parents some “mommy-daddy time” at the end of the evening – the problem is everything was physical for Mommy and Daddy too, and like the DJ noted, “I don’t know who is getting tired out more – the parents or the kids!”  But that illustrates my point about the ability to entertain every age group without spending big bucks – and that is true for both the patron and the establishment.  Actually, let me back up for a minute and go off on a tangent – the purpose of the site, right?  🙂  Why do they call it a hayride when you’re actually sitting on straw?  I learned from a display at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo that hay is green and made from grass.  Straw is yellow and made from wheat.  So the kids were climbing on straw stacks, they played in a straw maze, and people were enjoying straw rides…  doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as hayrides, I guess…

But back to Leader’s – they had a DJ, who hosted Karaoke and played wedding-style audience-interactive songs like Hokey-Pokey, The Chicken Dance, YMCA, and Shout.  I was trying to teach Disney (my almost 2 year old) the YMCA, but she only liked the part where we clapped.  Maybe next time we will get down on the dance floor – this time my other girls were too shy and tired was I.  My insanely brave (or psychotic, depending upon who you ask) 4-year-old Sammie was intent on going into the haunted house, and my husband was actually going to take her in, but before she could even enter, she was frightened away from the experience by the scary music alone.  We got a cell phone call just as we were entering the corn maze, and so we retreived Sammie and let her enjoy the experience of the corn maze, which ended up being what I would describe as a twisted game of Survivor.  Take 4 kids, all under the age of 9, into a corn maze and wander around in the dark for over an hour.  No bathrooms, no snacks, and you only have enough stroller for two of them, so the other two have to walk.  It was fun, but also quite an experience.  I would love to go back and explore the maze – without kids though.  And when I got home, I looked at an aerial photo of the thing, and now it all makes more sense.  Here is where I spent my Friday night:

You enter at the small white building at the bottom of the picture and go left.  Where we really started losing it was around the back tire and the spoiler of the race car.  You can see how many forks and circles there are in the paths in that area.  And again, while in the thing, I had no idea what it looked like because I didn’t think to check a map before going in.  I would also bring a flashlight next time; well, maybe not if I didn’t have kids to worry about.  We were using our cell phones for light, but then the other half of our group who went into the haunted house called to see where we were and when I said I didn’t know, the cell phone lost service – adding to the stranded feeling we were experiencing.  I must have stashed my cell phone on top of the stroller really quick because my daughter had turned backwards in her seat and was falling out, so after I fixed her, I frantically searched for the cell phone with no luck – apparently it had fallen off the stroller in the corn maze.  So when we finally got out, I had to tell the staff that I lost my cell phone in there.  As they laughed at me, they asked if it was on vibrate or silence mode – “Of course it is!”  I said, because it would have been too easy to find it otherwise, and let’s face it – a lost cell phone in a corn maze wouldn’t be funny if you could call it and hear it ring.  So a small black silent cell phone lost in a corn maze in the dark?  Forget it.  They did call me the next day though, saying that they did eventually find it, probably with the light of day.  Well, anyway, the corn maze with 4 little children in the dark was quite an experience.  Not horrible, but not recommended…  quite an experience – I can only describe it as having felt like I came through an ordeal after we got out…  it was kind of like being stranded in the wilderness, not knowing when rescue would arrive.  Sure, there are “corn cops” and all you have to do is yell, but I don’t know how they’d hear you and I honestly didn’t want to be the group that yelled for help.  We did it on our own, and for that, we got the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Well, I’ve rambled about that long enough…  I had fun.  I loved the serenity of the farm at night, and it was a beautiful night weather-wise.  It was cool but not cold, and being in rural Ohio meant that we were navigating the maze under a canopy of thousands of stars…  I would love to go back and explore the maze without worrying about the kids being hungry, thirsty, having sore feet or having to go to the bathroom.  And someone remind me that if I have any more kids, a corn maze is NOT a good activity for a pregnant woman – too much walking and not enough bathrooms.  This post is so lengthy I’ll have to save our alpaca farm adventure for the next post…  stay tuned!

During halftime festivities of the Bears-Eagles game (Da Bears up 21-14), the announcement of the halftime performer for Super Bowl XLIII was announced. Live from Tampa Bay on 2-1-09, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be rocking the house. My personal favorite performance of the past few years was Paul McCartney during Super Bowl XXXIX. There were no wardrobe malfunctions. However, there were totally distinguishable words, good songs, the whole package. OOOPS… interception by the Bears… ok, commercial. I’m not sure how memorable the Boss’ performance will be. He has not had a hit song in quite a few years and his career has not been as distinguished as Sir Paul’s. Perhaps, the producers are still being overly cautious about whom they choose to entertain. And the Eagles pick off a pass in the end zone… oops (have to be fair). Of course, I am old enough to remember Springsteen in his hey day with Born in the USA. So, we will see if Bruce is still Born to Run on February 1.

UPDATE; BEARS 24, EAGLES 20 FINAL

This weekend, I attended two masses. Saturday night was my scheduled service to lead the congregation in song. Went really well especially the closing song, “Let there be Peace on Earth.” I don’t know what it was but I felt a strange tingling and actually gave into the sensation and closed my eyes. Normally, I would consider this a HUGE faux pas IF others could see my face. Since the loft is behind the congregation, my momentary lapse was not that great of a deal. Maybe I had an angel on my shoulder.

The choir sang at mass this morning. Since this was unscheduled, I was informed that there was not going to be many members singing this morning so I said if I was up in time to be at 8.30am mass, I would be there. The group was actually singing a song that it had never done before but has always been a personal favorite, “Preciousl Lord, Take My Hand.” So, doesn’t happen regularly but I made the effort and went to church twice in one weekend. Happens occasionally especially when Christmas falls on an unusual day of the week (I have actually attended mass twice in one day). But it is good for me and if I didn’t want to I would not have. My mother attended mass every day when she attended Catholic school. The fact that my siblings and I never attended the same school has always puzzled me. Perhaps our proximity to the public school (right out our front door) had something to do with it.

I did get to catch a nap before I had to return to church for our chicken festival complete with bingo and dish washing (hooray). I won $1.50 after only 2 games (of bingo, not dish washing) at a quarter a pop. This was after only a few rounds had been called. Later, I heard the caller announcing $8.50 or $9.00 to the winner. My 12 year-old nephew was playing beside me. For his final game, Joshua laid down a dollar bill and played 4 cards at one time (not that it did him any good). Is bingo a huge Catholic thing nationwide or just around these parts? I remember that years ago, bingo was played on Monday nights in the church basement. No creamed chicken sandwiches for me… although they sold them at the concession stand under the bingo tent.

Let There Be Peace On Earth (Let It Begin With Me) By Jill Jackson, Sy Miller, arranged by John Brimhall. Single for voice, piano and guitar chords. C Major. 5 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.5-BMP651) See more info…

Yes three of us ventured into a haunted maze again. Again we ventured in 3 times. Why do we do this? I’m not really sure. I will admit I did have a bit of fun.

As jamiahsh also wrote a blog about this, you can check his site for the links. I’ll just make a few observations from the evening.

It was great walking through actual mazes. Especially since you could get turned around and head back the way you came. With angry clowns and some creepy creatures who will chase you through the mazes, this make for an entertaining evening. At least for me. In these attractions, I will say that I don’t often get “scared”. I do get startled, and I do occasionally get grossed out. Some of the stuff just looks nasty. Once I get into the haunting, I really want to join the team that is doing the haunting. I’m always looking for where they can hide and where the best places to scare are. I think I would have added a couple to this attraction. There was a fairly long stretch of corn row walking that didn’t seem to have too many ghouls. Maybe this was a ‘breather’ area, or they just didn’t have enough actors to cover it. Not sure, but I thought it would be a good spot for some spooky noises, or just someone rustling the corn.

The one area that really gets to me on a very physical level is a walk through tube. My friends were very loud through this. Me, I almost shut myself in. To me, it is that unnerving. I imagine if I opened my mouth too often in that area, a visceral scream would emerge. I’m not sure exactly what about that gets to me, but it hits a very primal cord. On every trip through I arranged to be in the back of our little group. I lagged behind a bit, and actually walked through this section a bit slower than the rest. Even though this area was clawing at my core, I went as slow as possible. Each trip was a release of some tension. The relief felt when exiting was a soothing balm. I imagine the only thing that would get me more is if I had to crawl through the thing… That does remind me of one place where I did crawl through something very similar, only without the pressure from all sides. This place had multiple textures in a pitch black crawl through… That also got to me.

Now onto the room that disoriented everyone but me. I’m not sure why I could manage my way through. The visual clues, messed up by the strobes were interesting to me. Finding the proper path and keeping balance were like solving a puzzle. Once the solution was arrived at, I had no problems navigating the room. And it did not cause any disorientation. Finding the hiding spot or spots of the resident ghoul was also part of the problem. Avoiding him, and my companions was the bigger challenge. 😉 I did find another challenge to crafting one of these haunted attractions, the multitude of hidden doors needed by the actors to move in and out of the rooms at will. As an community theater volunteer, I can tell you the hanging of that many doors can be quite a feat.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and I’ve been wondering why I don’t get frightened at these haunted houses. I know there was a time when I did get a little more frightened, as an adult, but that has been a few years. I think real life frightened me more than I can ever be frightened by an actor in a haunted house. I’ve worked late night shifts at a gas station, and worried about the guy robbing stations in the area. That was scary. I worried when my wife had a miscarriage, and didn’t come out for a very long time. Or when one of my daughters was in a car accident, or when my youngest was born 7-8 weeks early. These things are scary. Seeing death first hand is scary. A part of life, but a troubling part. Being the only parent to my daughters is scary. No one to bounce thoughts and ideas off of. No backup. That is scary. Haunted house, that is a walk in the park. Well except for that one area.

Thursdays are the busy work days at the store.  This is the day on which we get our weekly truck of grocery, frozen, meat, and dairy.  Unlike my former place of employment at which they get multiple trucks every day.  Anyway, last Thursday was an experience.  While the truck driver was trying to move his power electrical jack, he encountered a problem: it would not work.  THAT’S A PROBLEM!

As we were waiting, our manager came along and asked what the problem was.  In my infinite wisdom, I said… “He died.”  To which she replied, “Well, that is not the first time I’ve lost someone on my shift.”

Apparently while she was working at one of our sister stores, an older gentleman had been waiting in his car a little too long.  The man’s grandson entered the store and asked if they ever checked the parking lot.  In the car, the old man had died.  I’m not sure if he was waiting for his wife to shop or why he was sitting in the car.  I’m not one to check the parking lot unless it is for loose carts at the end of the day or to help customers out with their purchases.  I guess the poor guy had been in the car for like three hours before he was found.  There was at least one other unfortunate demise at the store; however, it did not happen on Di’s shift.

The closest thing I can recall happening in my years is a young lady who decided to rush her way through cleaning the meat grinder.  Once again, this did not happen during my shift.  But I can tell you that it occurred in December a few years back.  I was on my way home from holiday shopping and saw the ambulance at the store.  Still a topic of conversation once in a while.  Or going down into the basement.  NOW THAT WOULD MAKE A GREAT ADDITION TO A HAUNTED HOUSE!!!  Just wear your boots.

Once again, a group of close friends gathered together tonight to venture to another haunt. This time it was the Leader Family Farm outside Napoleon. Earlier, we traveled to Sandusky’s Ghostly Manor (which is nationally recognized and year-long). The Leader Farm is locally owned and run seasonally. In fact, this was the opening weekend for the attraction. Although many of the workers commented that they were not at 100% (a few bugs to work out), this was sooooo much more entertaining. The area was actually more of a complex, there was a play area for the smaller children; a LARGE corn maze to walk through, and ScreamAcres Haunted Corn Field. C, justj, and I were the only three who dared to take on the ghouls.

What I enjoyed most about the experience was that most of the frights were done by actual people, not too many big scary, animated devices to jump out and startle. Some of my favorite scenes were a tunnel room which was immediately followed by another equally disorienting room (to two of us, anyway). There were plenty of other nifty frights throughout and it lasted over a half-hour as opposed to the 15 minutes spent in Ghostly Manor.

The three of us went through the gallery of terror three times. Once again, it was really fun to see the actors attempt to do different things as we made our way through each time. Especially during our final crusade, when two of us became slap happy with either fatigue, euphoria, or something that was placed in the tall stalks of corn. Before we left the complex, we were given four passes to visit again later in the season when they had more people visiting and they became more accustomed to the atmosphere. I hope to once again visit before the season ends if it only gets better.

I think it would be fun to go through the corn maze. Our other companions attempted to do just that but did not seem that they enjoyed themselves quite as much as the three of us self-appointed “professional haunted house aficionados.” If there is such a job, SIGN ME UP!!! Or just get me into one as an actor. That would be so cool. Aren’t friends the greatest?