MY DOG IS NOW A FRAGILE LITTLE OLD LADY - SHE'S DOING MUCH BETTER - UPDATE

Some of you are wondering how my dog is doing.  Well, she's back to normal.  We had one more incident that had me scared and preparing for the worst.

A friend of mine has adopted four dogs, all from the local shelter.  In each case he was told he was the "last chance" for the dog.  The smallest one, five pounds, was the leader of the troop.  The barkiest.  In fact I would not have met this friend if it were not for this tiny pooch, who usually went around in hand. This dog barked at us as we talked out on the street for hours... And so finally, one day my friend invited me in.  The dog realized I was a friend.  When my friend went traveling, I stayed at his house and cared for them all.  This little one had such presence.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and there he would be, looking up.  I picked him up. He slept with me, much to my own little old lady dog's consternation.  And I grew to love this little five- pounder.  But he had, at sixteen years old, begun to have siezures.  He was on expensive medication for months.  Then one day he had a siezure that went on for six hours.  So to the vet he went to put the dog down.  The dog "knew" death was coming and started running all over the place in fear.  My friend was so upset. But he did it.  He came to tell me that it was all over for this dog.

He left and I went to feed my dog and she had a siezure.  Years ago, just one time, she had an episode of what they call "shaky white dog."  In this case, she looked afraid, and her teeth were chattering. I could hear them clacking.  But her tongue was out.  And the shaking stopped.  For the next couple days I watched her closely. But she ate and pooped normally.

I've resolved that I simply can no longer take her out with me, even in a wheeled carrier, if it is too hot outside.

People tell me that in Hungary a dog is a dog and almost always owned for their expertise at a task such as hunting or protecting property.  I suppose my dog would be considered rather "foo-foo." She has loved me, this I'm sure of, and sometimes I think more than any human, and that is her task.

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot

ELECTION DAY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - WE AWAIT HISTORY

There has been early voting, mail in voting, drop of voting, and today, in person voting. California has a way of checking every ballot that comes in for authenticity and so that there is no duplication. I, and most of my friends, chose to drop ours off in a special box near the closest library, where there is also a security guard watching the library property.  We know this box gets emptied at least once a day by vetted personnel and trust it.

From the media I've learned that voting has gone impressively UP for this election.  That's good.  We participate in Democracy.

I'm a little anxious about today.  I will be watching or listening to election news much of the day.  I really have no idea how it will go.

There are some vigorous Trump supporters out there - sailing their boats and driving their vehicles in MAGA caravans. I'm worried about violent clashes.  I know stores are boarding up windows to prevent looting, should that begin to happen.

Last election I was watching the votes come in and states go from red to blue, blue to red, and sometimes back again, and about 6 PM I just knew Trump was to be our next President.  The next day I went to a library and a lot of people were waiting outside to be let in when it opened.  Several of them said things like, "Don't tell me who won. Don't ruin my day."

I believe that the stress of Covid-19 and our economic problems, that being limited in where we can go and what we can do to alleviate that stress, and the time off from the workplace, has meant that more people are willing and able to protest.

But peaceful is peaceful - not violent.  Also protesters whose intention it is to protest peacefully might want to take a little class on what makes that so. How should one behave? Once a peaceful protest becomes an excuse or opportunity for looters and violent people, I believe the leadership needs to responsibly call that off.

I also feel great concern to Europe.  If you're in Europe reading this, we know about the 400 mile traffic jam of people leaving Paris before their month-long lock-down was to begin, the lock-down situation in England, and the situation in Germany.  These European countries seem to be in our news frequently.  When it comes to Hungary - Poland - Slovakia, one must search out news. 

Mask wearing has gotten to us all, and what if it doesn't work?  BUT WHAT IF IT DOES?

I remain masked up.  I now own a wardrobe of hand-sewing, purchased, and gifted masks, including one use masks, and masks that have been laundered repeatedly.

And hand-washing.  We are hand-washing several times a day.  It seems we always did do that first thing, coming in to the house after being out somewhere, but now we never forget.

And so we await history.

C Magyar-American BlogSpot

ALL SOULS DAY IN HUNGARY - ALL SAINTS DAY IN HUNGARY

Perhaps if it is allowed at the cemetery your ancestors are in here in the United States you might want to go and light a candle.  RED VOTIVE CANDLES and YELLOW CHRYSANTHEMUMS are key, but white candles will do, as will the favorite flowers of your loved ones. 

FROM PAGANS TO NOMADS TO CHRISTIAN KNIGHTS

WITCHCRAFT IN ROMANIA (GYPSY WITCHES FOR HIRE)

 This YouTube video is quite interesting.  In Romania this Gypsy witch family makes a lot of business but if you're wondering why the politicians don't make their workings illegal, well, the politicians are afraid of the witches.

At this point I think I can say that the witchcraft of Romanian Gypsy witches is not based in ancient Magyar or Hungarian tribal paganism, that what they do is of their own culture.

Does it work?  It certainly has an effect on the mind of the believer...

HUNGARIAN WOODEN GRAVE POSTS : A THESIS by László Ferenc Novák

This is a PDF file, quite interesting, if you want to learn more about a unique Hungarian - Protestant Hungarian - tradition.

DAVID PUBLISHER : HUNGARIAN WOODEN GRAVE POSTS by LASZLO NOVAK

TELKIBANYA CEMETERY - THE KOPJAFAK GRAVE MARKERS - MAGYAR HISTORY (KOPJAFAS TEMETO)

I invite you to learn more about these unique grave-markers which are carved to tell the tale of a person's life.  Telkibanya translates to good mine. Gold, Copper, and Tin were mined there.

Forgive me as I lost the link to the site that reported the following excerpted information.

This is about the Grave Posts or Markers. The top of the square column is always beveled if the deceased was married.  The front side of a married man's marker is higher.  If it's the grave of a married woman, the front side is lower and the back higher.  Young boys were marked with an orb.  Young girls with a four-pronged crown.  The horizontal scores on the markers front indicated the age of the deceased.

A family marker is a combination of the male and female marker with a top shaped like a roof. 

Some authors say that wooden grave post were embraced by the Protestants but there are posts older than Protestantism, so ???

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/szatmarcseke-calvinist-cemetery relink December 2024

FIVE REASONS TO LIKE CROWS and A CROW FUNERAL

I like crows.
I once lived near some telephone lines where there was a male, who carried a stick in his beak which he seemed to move back and forth in his mouth, who had two females, one to the left and one to the right. They were out there most mornings - until they weren't.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS of PORTUGAL? - SECRETS and MYSTERIES - AMAZING TREK WITH THE EXPERTS

I just loved this documentary film and with the traditional Columbus Day holiday coming up in the United States on October 12th, I thought I'd tell you about it so you can watch it before then.  Oh the archives, the travel, the experts, the royalty (or aristocrats) involved in tracking down the truth of Christopher Columbus.  Italy has claimed him as one of their own, he is said to have gone sailing to discover the New World (the Americas) as financed by Spain, but Portugal is where he was born.

Would you believe that alive today is Christopher Columbus the 20th or Vasco De Gama the 19th?  Well,  you get to hear them talk about their ancestor while the hunt for DNA that could help convince those for whom the paper trail of archival documents is not enough.

So, most amazing to me is that Christopher was not a Christopher or a Columbus at all.  He is said to be the illegitimate son of a noble and his Jewish Mistress.  Instead the Christopher Columbus translation is more of a salutation such as Peace Dove.  At the time of his suspicious death his two sons were begging to know the truth of their heritage and dad wasn't talking.  He may have been related to the monarch King John II of Portugal and he may have stopped over to talk to him before he went on to Spain to report in when he returned. 

There is so much more to learn so tune in. 

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot
Film Review
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GREEN GRAPES

I HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER and IT MAY EFFECT MY PUBLICATION : I REALLY TRULY HATE IT

Until this new change, I was grateful to Google for allowing so many people to blog for free - and without owning their own computers.  I have posted from very many places over the very many years as what they temporarily called A LEGACY BLOGGER.  However, the new innards and use of the Google Blogger is just terrible.  It's frustrating.  I find myself wasting so much time looking for the things I used to find in moments - such as posts that I'm still writing or researching. In the past there have been learning curves but I suspect I will never get used to this.  I am turned off.  I'm upset.  I feel like crying.

I really care about my blog and I really care about my readers.  But... If I wish to continue this blog with Google then I will probably not be posting much.  I see that I will have to carry with me stacks of paper and hand-write everything out first and then transfer it over so I know where everything is.

How long have I been blogging?  Since I used HTML code to slightly change the formatting so as to control the design of this blog.

There are now these big fat blocks - rather than nice slim lines with the concise and needed information. I just hate it, hate it, hate it.

Also there is an emphasis on the hits you're getting on your latest post.  THE POSTS I GET THE MOST HITS ON ARE USEFUL ONES, SUCH AS ALL THE GENEALOGY ADVISORIES AND INFORMATION AND LINKS I've provided my readers. I have never chosen to reveal hits because I don't write for hits, and I don't write to get hits for myself or Google or their "ADSENSE" scheme to make money on my content.

You have to wonder what extremely well paid crazies came up with this version.  My guess is that they had nothing to do, so they figured they'd screw it up good.  THIS IS NOT AN IMPROVED BLOGGER.  IT LOOKS LIKE A BLOGGER FOR DUMMIES, but it's plainly stupid.  (And yes, I was smart enough to graduate college with honors.)

If you happen to be another Blogger reading this, and you agree with me, please send a message in FEEDBACK (oh yea, that's moved too) to GOOGLE.

MAGYAR AMERICAN BLOGSPOT

FOUR POUND BUNCH OF GRAPES : CURRIER and IVES

MY DOG IS NOW A FRAGILE LITTLE OLD LADY - HEAT SICKNESS IN DOGS

The fires raging in California have thrown ash and particulates into the air.  The heat wave hit - and we didn't have the worst of it.  While other places in Southern California went up to 112 - 115- 120, we were at about 93.  I took my dog outside for about five minutes.  It was "you can fry an egg on the hood of your car" time.  I regretted it.  My dog did not look good.  She looked disoriented.  The prior week she had thrown up.  The first time a tinge of blood.  A few hours later a profuse amount of clear what looked like saliva with a few streaks of white.  It occurred to me that she had never thrown up like this before.  It occurred to me I had done the same during a bout with food poisoning.  It was clear to me that she had probably eaten something outside.  I try to keep the floors clean.  Unlike some other dogs, she is not adventurous about fruit.  However, she has been known to be attracted to another dog's poop.  Then, the next morning, to my complete upset, she tried to waken me by dancing all over my body, and when I didn't wake in time, she had diarrhea. It was stinky and all over some paperwork I had left on my bed.  I cleaned it up.  I had to throw away some applications I hadn't finished.  I took her outside.  Many times.  When I got home she had made a big poop on the living room floor.

My dog has only been sick 1 -2 - maybe 3 times in all the years I've had her.  She almost never poops in the house.  I knew that she had just not made it outside in time.  I cleaned it up.

The heat wave hit and she was panting.  She was panting and her tongue did not look right.  I looked a little purple and curled.  She seemed disoriented.  I got on the computer and researched.  She had all 10 signs of heat exhaustion.  The warning was it could cause internal organ damage and kill a dog quick.  She was in trouble.  Quickly I got her in the tub and proceeded to shampoo her with mildly warm - luke- warm water.  (You can also wrap a dog in wet towels - do not use ice.)  She slept.  Finally her breathing seemed deep instead of shallow.  The instructions said not to force a dog to drink water.  For the first time I took spoons full of water and dropped in on her lips and into her mouth and she lapped it.

Thoughts were going through my head - she's going to die.  She is dying.  This is it.

I'm glad to report we are almost back to normal and maybe it's because the sky is so dense with smoke that the sun has been blocked and the temperature is way down.  She is eating slowly.  She is pooping normally.  She is drinking lots of water.  She is barking at the cat she puts up with and the dog who is always after her food.  She is walking - slower than ever - a little limpy - but still interested in life. Other people are noticing she is old.  I can't deny it.  A friend called her "A FRAGILE LITTLE OLD LADY."  I had to agree.

I LOVE her so much!


C 2020 Magyar American BlogSpot

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

This wonderful documentary made by Joker Films, with Richard Dreyfuss as the narrator, is full of photos, art inspired by the devastating Johnstown flood of 1889, film!, and enacted testimonials sourced from books and letters - all in black and white.

This review is here at Magyar American - BlogSpot because the Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania area, especially the Cambria Iron Works, was the destination and workplace of so many immigrants from central and eastern Europe, including Magyars, Slavs, and Ruthenians.

Over 2000 people died. Poor people, who didn't know what hit them as the flood waters took them away, to be struck by logs and trees, floating houses ripped from their foundations, detached roofs, factories, and locomotives, lost their lives in minutes.  Some people floated on debris a while, praying or singing hymns. A memorial cemetery, the Grandview, in Johnstown is the higher burial ground of many who were never identified.

The Conemaugh Valley was the home to 30,000 people and it was a bustling place to live and work. The Fishing Club upriver was the exclusive social club for men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Phipps, people you may have heard of as Robber Barons or the founders of Pittsburgh institutions such as the Carnegie Library, Carnegie-Mellon the university, or the Phipps Conservatory, owners of steel mills. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran trains all around Pennsylvania, and from Johnstown to Pittsburgh there were trains that ran like commuters - The Daily Express.  One of my ancestors took this train for work in Allegheny Country before moving the family there from Johnstown.

The South Fork dam was built years earlier in 1852 of clay and earth and the lake filled with more water and was more vast than had been expected so maybe it was just a matter of time. Heavy rains pushed it to the limit and when it broke, there was near no escaping the violence of rushing waters.  Cambria Iron Works was wiped out. Then caught fire. The train roundhouse and the trains in it were carried away though each weighted many tons.

The people had been warned.  Men on horseback had ridden through town shouting warnings.  These warning were ignored. Trains blew whistles and still, many people stayed put.  Commuters got off trains that had been waylaid and ran for the hills.  Entire towns were wiped out in Conemaugh Valley.  Eventually Clara Barton who founded the Red Cross made a personal visit to the disaster site and it became the law to shoot and kill looters, who were cutting fingers off the dead to take the rings.

I sat glued to my seat watching this one, and I think you might too, especially if the Johnstown area was the destination of your immigrant ancestors.

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All Rights Reserved.

PURPLE GRAPES