BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Janie
Date: 01 May 12 - 07:24 PM

Aren't we fortunate, Anne?

Will, *chuckle*. She'd love to come and help, and also try out your guitars, but she'd probably also be wondering about selling you a guitar - only if she and you agreed it was a perfect match! She bought several 00 Martins over the course of a year or so, trying to find the right fit for her small hands and fragile joints, and has slowly been trying to find the perfect home for most of them that didn't suit her. She also has two Jubals she has had made for her in the past 2 years, and as soon as she figures out which one she wants to keep, the other will be up for sale. The old Guild she will keep for sentimental reasons, regardless, and I notice she never goes long without playing it.

Funny thing is, her best love is fiddle, and while she has two and occasionally will buy and then sell another, she really settled on a fiddle 30 years ago that continues to be her mainstay. She doesn't have to try on fiddles like she does guitars. I think she is able to absolutely suit herself with the fiddle, but plays guitar with several different bands, all of whom have different sounds and is trying to please each band soundwise, while also playing a guitar that whose action suits her.

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Anne Lister
Date: 01 May 12 - 05:15 PM

My family are all pretty damn good, especially when there are problems around. But the biggest hero for the rest of us is my brother Paul. He's the one we call when the computers stop working, or when we need a program to do something the other stuff won't, he's the one who will build us a Dalek voice modulator or a radio, or a four track recording machine. He's also the one we call when the bank account bottoms out - he doesn't judge or criticise, just helps. He's been there for each nephew and niece, building guitar amps, fixing daft toys like those talking fish, rescuing odd bits out of skips and making them work. In the long years when I was living alone in London we'd have regular dinner dates and he always insisted on paying if we went out.   He helps other people too, from the local Indian restaurant owner who needs his outside menu to be lit properly to the friend of a friend of a friend who might need a CCTV set up organised for their car sales business, and generally all the reward he asks for is a meal.
He's been the one who has done the most for our ageing parents, from devising window opening gizmos and other mobility aids to cleaning up embarassing "accidents", and, probably most usefully of all, cheering my Mum up when she was most worried about her own health and my Dad's.

So if anyone deserves medals, haloes or sainthood, it's Paul.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 May 12 - 06:10 AM

I have admired Annie for lo, these many years. I guess I simply liked her attitude. Reading about all she has done for you and for your parents reconfirms and adds to that admiration.

At the same time, it all saddens me somewhat. I have always envied those who have siblings who, when the chips are down, can be counted on. My brother is not one of these. He is a dolt and a buffoon and is as useless as they come. I am sure he must have some good points about him; but they must be deeply hidden.

Janie, you are so very fortunate to have such a wonderful and capable sibling!

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: gnu
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 09:12 PM

What a wonderful thread! Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 03:34 PM

Does she get to keep the guitars, Will Fly? :)

Well... perhaps one...

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 03:01 PM

My sister is a bossy old bugger, she knows it all. But she's very very intelligent, and being a doctor, she's always blooming right! Having got through early widowhood and raising two little babies single-handed, getting them through Uni and reaching Consultant level in the Hospital where she works, she deserves Respect with a capital R. She's the only person in the world I'd take stick from. (For example, she keeps telling me I'm OBESE, when I'd say I was merely plump) I admire her very much, but she can really get up your nose!

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 11:13 AM

Does she get to keep the guitars, Will Fly? :)

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 10:51 AM

Janie - having read the list of jobs that Annie's tackled for you, I could use her over here - partly because a tetchy back stops me from doing too much physical stuff, partly because I spent my early years doing all that kind of work, and partly because I'm pretty bone idle when it comes to things around the house.

So - the deal is: a comfy bed, three square meals a day, plenty of wine and as many guitars as she can shake a stick at. Not bad, eh?

Hmmm... bet she druther be with you... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Amos
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 10:32 AM

I don't think that formula works on a large scale, Joe, because of uneven needs and abilities distribution. Those with highest ability often have least need, and vice versa. Especially, because the way it is phrased sounds like a mandate, and taking from people by mandate is a tricky first principle.


A

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 10:00 AM

"Dare I clean the happy bluebird crap off, or will I jinx this house in doing so?"

Clean the window, Janie. You don't want your sister to start thinking, "I traveled all the way here, painted her cupboards and fixed the window, and now she can't even wipe the bird dookie off it."

People can get worn out, you know.

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 08:02 AM

Sounds like Annie has made a good recovery from that terrible motor accident. I am so glad!

I agree with Bill on the Marx quote - we all have our own abilities and I am sure, Janie, that Annie has benefited from yours over the years.

In my own life I thinking about my daughter, whose 77 year old mother-in-law is very unwell.Her father-in-law is the same age and not in the best of health. Sharon and Steve live 200 miles away from them and so can't manage to get to see his parents too often. When they heard of the latest problem (pulmonary embolism) they drove down to visit and spent the time doing what they could to make life a little easier. Sharon made and froze meals for them, and both made sure that any jobs that needed doing around the house were done. Even now, when they are back home, my lovely control freak is keeping a close eye on the situation, giving advice and doing some long distance organising to help out.

My son's partner is undergoing five weeks of daily radiotherapy. When their puppy died Andy gave up his long held wish to visit the Normandy beaches and drove a couple of hundred miles to a good breeder to get a new puppy for Sonia. As he said - Sonia needed the puppy now, Normandy will be there next year.

I am so proud of my kids!

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 02:34 AM

And besides which, Annie is also darn good company.

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Yours Too!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 02:24 AM

Yup. I think the world of Annie, too.
But then, I think the world of you, too, Janie.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Your's Too!
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 12:31 AM

Yep... I met Annie... but never knew she did such things.

I have one friend who has fixed my refrigerator, lapped the valves in my VW, helped me move, provided me lodging when I moved HERE, helped me get a job, and generally 'been there' when I needed support....and I have returned maybe a 10th the favors. But we don't keep track. We just do what we can.

There is a 'formula' for that sort of attitude:
   "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Not a bad slogan.... but it was popularized by Karl Marx, and we KNOW that society can't function with anything Marx defended.



(shhh... don't tell Annie)

Subject: RE: BS: My Amazing Sister-Your's Too!
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 11:42 PM

Too many to list, Janie.

Subject: BS: My Amazing Sister-Your's Too!
From: Janie
Date: 29 Apr 12 - 09:48 PM

Or your amazing brother, etc.

I am so grateful for my sister, and for the ways we are different. Gawd help us all if we all had non-pragmatgic brains like me. She has been here a week, painting my kitchen cabinets. Doing it absolutely according to best practice recommendations. It is a huge job. I have helped some this weekend, but she has, and will continue to do 95% of the work. She'll be here another 2 or 3 days finishing the top cabinets, then back in another week or two for another week or 1 1/2 weeks to finish the bottom cabinets. In between waiting for coats to dry she fixes light switches that are worn out, puts up towell racks in the bathroom, seals cracks in the mortar in the foundation, installs molding around windows to finish a job a contractor ran out on, etc.

2 years ago she built a shed for me in her garage in Maryland, disassembled it, put it on her trailer, hauled it 350 miles to my house, and we spent the weekend putting it back together.

Last time she was here she fixed faucets, moved my heavy, large capacity frontloader washer with dryer stacked on top that is wedged into an outdoor closet on the carport and properly connected the vent pipe from the dryer, which the Sears guys had done a poor job of 3 years ago and wich meant the closet was coated in lint. Has been a lint-free closet ever since. She also finished putting up the molding around a window I had enlarged when I moved here and the guy who did the siding and windows disappeared before the job was finished, AND cleaned the window! (unfortunately, a day later a bluebird of happiness slammed into the window - the bird survived, but knocked the "happiness" right out of itself and onto the newly cleaned window.) Dare I clean the happy bluebird crap off, or will I jinx this house in doing so:>)

She brought down left over bluestone rock this trip from a project at her house to be used to create a stone path from my shed to the carport to get our feet out of the pretty bare shady area where grass doesn't want to grow and what grass there is very fragile from lack of sun, and is nearly worn away from the foot traffic from the shed. Not to mention enough bark mulch left over from her own garden projects to allow me to mulch 2 garden beds.

During other trips she has laid down plastic sheeting as a vapor barrier in my crawl space, cut down trees, trimmed dead limbs, built raised beds, etc., etc., etc.

I sits and thinks. She DOES! She knows how to DOES. I don't have much "how to" sense. She is brimming with it.

And she actually enjoys doing these things and learning new practical skills as she goes along. She has saved me thousands of dollars doing home repairs and home improvements - except that most of them would go undone if she didn't come and do them.

I don't ask her to do these things. I don't expect her to do them. She is simply a combination of a practical thinker and a generous spirit. Not to mention one heck of a musician. I get the added bonus when I get home late from the clinic of listening to her practice on her fiddle in rhythms that work for my physical therapy exercises!

During the year of my Dad's final illness, she was a godsend to Mom and Dad in terms of the instrumental and pragmatic assistance and direction she gave, which has been detailed elsewhere.

I am in awe of her generous willingness to share her gifts. She doesn't half realize how truly competent, generous and amazing she is.

All I know is she makes a real difference in my life, and in the lives of many others.

In terms of my family of origin, I was absolutely born lucky.

Some few of you know my darlin' sister. And many more of you are likely to have your own darlin' sisters and brothers who make a huge difference in your lives in any number of ways.

My sister Annie is a Star!

Sing the praises here of the Stars in your own life!