Ok I figured out how to use the gadget I bought last year that allows me to make DVDs out of my VHS tapes that have been deteriorating in the closet for twenty five years.  Its’ pretty cool now that I understand the process.   Step one, push the button that makes it go from the VCR to the computer.  Walk away and come back later.  Step two, choose which scenes you want to make into a movie, push the button to make it “write” the movie, walk away and come back later.   Save it in a file and put in a DVD and open the Windows DVD maker and open the file, push the button to make the DVD, walk away and come back later and with any luck I get a DVD that works on the TV and most computers (except Andy’s apparently, but that’s his computer he tells me). 

I am ecstatic about this.  Not only because I will finally get all these tapes that are taking up room, but that I will get to relive it all: find out Al really did have hair at one time, that we had a lot of fun, that my sons were and are a gift to me from God.  I was thinking tonight – what if the boys produce grandsons that look just like them?  This happens of course, and it is difficult but fun to imagine.  My friend Jeanne just told me that her mother, who has had a stroke recently, now refers to her great grandson as “little Alec” because he looks just like her grandson.  Then there is that little issue of maybe it won’t be grandsons – man, I wouldn’t know where to start with a little girl Sondag.  Contemplating it blows me away. 

Expect a lot of crazy talk now that I’m working on this project – who knows what revelations about motherhood and life and eternity will come rolling out of these tapes as I watch them again for the first time in a long, long time.