Day 1:

 Today my Wonder Spouse and I ventured forth on the first day of our two week south west adventure. We have made it as far west as Chesterfield, MO where we are spending the night. We spent much of the afternoon in St. Louis touring the Gateway Arch. It is really an amazing structure. We did ride one of the tiny  elevators sideways and up (like stairsteps) to the very top where we had time to appreciate the view from all sides. There were some steps to climb and lines to wait in but it was well worth it. Just seeing the arch from a distance is great but I highly recommend that you take the tour the next time you're in St. Louis.  For some reason I can't send pictures this evening, will try again tomorrow. 

brain games..

 Just for a change, I told my west coast brother what special day today, October 13, is.  He and his family were busy celebrating the birthdays of two of their sons so I understand and am happy to take my turn.

Today is "National Train Your Brain Day."  I don't know if this counts as brain training, but every day my spouse and I do at least three of the New York Times puzzles.  We can access these on our phones.  How did we ever play games before cell phones?

I work through 'Wordle' quite successfully.  I can usually get the answer in three or four guesses.  Then I work on 'Connections', which is definitely more difficult.  Occasionally I must take a hint.  And then there is 'Strands.'  This is my favorite because I can almost always solve it with no hints at all.  

My wonder spouse and I are friendly competitors, and sometimes even collaborators.  In addition I like paper games, especially 'Sudoku.'  I can also spend a lot of time playing Free Cell, a lovely old computer 'card' game, which can always be solved, although sometimes it takes several trys.

All of this is to say that I do think it's good to execise my brain, but sometimes I need a break. Today was just such a day.  After spending most of the day finishing packing for our south west trip (we're leaving tomorrow at 9:00am) and making time to train our brains with our puzzles, this evening my wonder spouse and I spent a delightful two hours watching the old James Bond movie "Goldfinger." It was very relaxing, but not at all mentally taxing.  And that's ok for a change.

A timely reminder...

 My west coast brother informed me that today is his youngest son's 31st birthday, and also, quite coincidentally, "International Moment of Frustration Scream Day." I am very happy for my nephew and all the family but I did have a frustration today (nothing to do with my nephew) that made me want to scream, or at least cry. 

I went to a local. very nice, very reputable nursing home today to visit my 90 year old cousin.  I was surprised when I walked in the door to be told that I must wear a mask.  They had them available but this had never been a requirement during previous visits.  I put on a mask and signed in. After that, when I told a nurse who I was here to visit, I was told that I could visit my cousin but would need to put on a gown and gloves, as well as the mask.  While I was still absorbing that, another nurse came up, asked who I wanted to see, and when I responded, told me quite firmly that my cousin has COVID and wouldn't be able to have visitors until Friday.  When I mentioned that I'm leaving on vacation on Wednesday, she took me firmly by the arm and practically pushed me out the door with instructions to go home and use hand sanitizer or, better yet, wash my hands thoroughly with soap and water, which I did as soon as I got home. 

I have written a letter to my cousin (typed - very large print) which I will mail tomorrow. I hope she receives it and will understand why I couldn't visit.  I am feeling frustrated because I naively thought we were done with COVID.  Take care, everyone.  

Going...

 My West Coast brother has told me that today is "You Go Girl Day." That seems like a fine day to me. To celebrate I did GO to church and convinced my spouse and our house guest to GO with me. After church we decided to GO to Wu's for an excellent Chinese lunch. After we came home I convinced the other two that we should probably all GO to our favorite relaxing spots and try to GO to sleep for a brief afternoon nap (an excellent Sunday afternoon tradition). That seems to have worked. It has been very quiet around here for the last couple of hours. I have decided to GO ahead and write this blog on my phone for practice because I will be writing my blogs this way while we are on the GO later this week. Now I must stop this foolishness and GO do some packing. 

Woops.....

 In all my preliminary preparations for our upcoming driving trip, I totally forgot to blog last night.  In my defense, in addition to thinking about necessary chores, like doing laundry, we have been entertaining a house guest who will be with us until the day before we leave on our vacation.

On the positive side, our guest really enjoys old movies, so last evening, after supper, we watched the movie "Nine to Five" starring Jane Fonda, Lily Thomlin, and Dolly Parton.  I had forgotten how hilarious that movie really is.  I went to bed, still laughing, and realized at about 2:00am that I had forgotten to blog.  Too late then. 

Today, following up on our goal of being really ready for this trip (since this is not a Viking Cruise the bulk of the planning has fallen on my wonder spouse) he is doing an excellent job of making sure all our 'ducks' are in a row.  After careful consideration of the discriptions of rough terain on some of our walking tours, we decided that it might be good to have something sturdier than gym shoes to wear.  So today we went shopping at my favorite shoe store, Robert's, which is, sadly, going out of business at the end of October. Where will I get my size 11's then?  Happily, almost everything in the store is marked down. I was able to buy a pair of SAS walking shoes at a really good price. Regular price $209.00, sale price $125.40.  This was only a 40 percent discount but I'm not complaining.

This is what they look like, not particularly cute or stylish, but definitely up to hiking around Mesa Verde.  The color is called 'black moon dust.' I do like that.  So far they are also very comfortable.  Alas, my spouse was not able to find anything similar in the men's department, but never fear, he has ordered hiking boots from Amazon.  They will be here tomorrow.  Which is good since we're leaving on Wednesday.  "Southwest" here we come!!

PS If this blog sounds like an advertisement for Robert's, that was not my intent, but if you like shoes (notice I didn't say 'need' shoes) you should not miss this sale.  It ends October 31. 

Fabulous Flashback

My spouse, our house guest, and I just spent a very entertaining evening watching the 1978 movie "Death on the Nile" based on the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie, and courtesy of Amazon Prime.  The movie starred Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow and Lois Chiles.  If those names are familiar to you, welcome to my generation.

Not only was the story twisted and fun to follow, but my spouse and I found ourselves playing the "I remember that" game as we saw scenes and sites that we had explored while we were in Egypt last year.  The giant sphinx, the avenue of sphinxes, the rows of giant columns, ancient temples and of course, the pyramids.  Happily, there were no giant blocks of stone dislodged and falling at our feet while we were there. Our gracious guide Wasfat would never have permitted that. We were not allowed to climb the great pyramid either, although, to be honest, neither of us was tempted to do that.  

We did travel by riverboat up the Nile and we passed the riverboat, the Steam Ship Sudan, on which Agatha Christie traveled, and that inspired her novel.  It was used to film a 2004 adaptation.  Alas the 1978 film we just watched used a mock-up ship named the Memnon at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. So disappointing.

The two scenes above were in the movie.

Here are three of my favorite Egyptian temples.  This evening's movie really did bring back some memories. 

more good eating...

 According to my west coast brother, today, October 7, is "National Chocolate Covered Pretzels Day," "National Frappe Day." "National Pumpkin Seed Day," "Canadian Beer Day," "National Kale Day" and "Random Acts of Poetry Day." How can I resist the challenge?

Chocolate, Frappe, Pumpkin, Beer,

These I like to keep quite near.

You must admit, they sound delicious,

And, possibly, a bit nutritious. 

On the other hand take kale.

Nutrition oozes from each leaf.

Green, curly and available, yet, 

as I stroll the grocery aisles,

sipping a frappe for energy, 

pretzels, pumpkin seeds and beer

might wind up in my grocery cart, 

but kale will never there appear.