Ah, the good old days...

As I was working around the house today getting ready for some weekend company, I started thinking about how lucky I am to have modern appliances like the dishwasher, sweeper, not to mention simple things like running water.  I got to wondering how my grandmother got along?  Then I remembered - she had a live-in cook housekeeper.  Ah well.

Good news on the health front

When I gave blood nine weeks ago my blood pressure was 136 over 84 and that concerned me a little.  Coincidentally, this was just before Lent so I decided to give up "heavy sugar" for Lent. You know, things like donuts, cookies, pie, etc. Somehow, when I make a commitment to God I find it easier to keep it.  Just as Lent was ending, we started a walking program at church and for the last four weeks I've been walking at least 5 miles a week, also still avoiding sugar and guess what.  Last Saturday I gave blood again and my blood pressure was down to 124 over 80.  I've also lost 5 pounds which is nice.  Talk about a win win situation!

one surgery I can resist

I admit it, as I get older from time to time I've day dreamed about various types of plastic surgery.  How about a face lift?  Should I have my lips puffed up?  Firm up the chin line?  But this evening I heard of a surgery that's growing in popularity that I will find very easy to resist.  Evidently thigh gap surgery is the thing to do.  Every one should aspire to the beauty goal of space between your thighs, and this wonder can be achieved by a very special kind of liposuction.  Or, it occurs to me, a person could just stand with their legs a little farther apart.  Sorry if this grosses you out; it just seems so silly to me.

Into the woods and out again...

I attended the musical "Into the Woods" with a friend last night. It was a production put on by the IPFW theater department, and, as always, it was a very high energy performance with excellent singers in the lead roles. The story was based on an amusing premise - mixing characters from several different fairy tales (the original grim "Grimm" versions) and exploring beyond "happily ever after".  I think, if the length had been cut from 3 to 2 hours, probably by tightening up the lyrics, maybe by eliminating some of the less inspired songs, I would have enjoyed it more.  Ah well, perhaps I'm hopelessly old fashioned.  I tend to enjoy musicals where I can walk away humming at least one of the melodies.  But it was a sold out house, so obviously not everyone agrees with me.

tip toe through the carpet

I had my carpets cleaned this morning and they look really good.  My cat hid during the cleaning process but had a little trouble adjusting when it was all over.  The expression on her face clearly said "Why is everything so wet under my feet?" "Yucky!"  She spent most of the day on high places, the desk, the counter, but things are much dryer now and she has finally descended to couch level.

The well-traveled bouncing horse

Forty years ago, when my son was two years old, his father and I bought him a wonderful large bouncing horse from Sears.  As a Christmas gift it was a huge success.  Tommy bounced, rocked and rode that horse many, many miles, and after he got too tall, his sister took her turn.  But eventually my kids were too large for the horse.and we stuck it away in the basement until...my youngest brother and his wife had a baby boy.  We packed up the horse in our mini-van and drove it to Spokane from Indiana.  After my brother's five children out grew the horse, we were visiting them, saw it sitting unused and brought it back to Indiana for our first grandson.  Now he is almost 13, my other three grandchildren are 10, 11 and 12 and the horse is standing unused again.  But this week, I spoke with my brother in Spokane, who now has 4 grandchildren (ages 1-8) and one on the way, and they want the bouncing horse back.  So this summer, when I take my planned driving trip out west the horse will go along.  Will this be its last journey?  Who knows.  It's a very durable horse that seems to give magical rides.

Misplaced modifiers

Several weeks ago I commented on an add selling "sensitive toothpaste". Earlier this week I heard another phrase that gave me pause.  A news commentator talking about a young girl who has become a master cake baker, said that she made "talented cupcakes".  I assume it is the young baker who is talented but I could be wrong.  I have this lovely vision of cup cakes tap dancing across a table top and maybe doing cart wheels!

Is it true that no good deed goes unpunished?

Two headlines that popped up on my computer today, one right after the other, from a local e-news source:

"Today is Adopt a Tree Day"

"Man Injured When Car Hits Tree"

Sometimes those adoptions just don't work out...

9000 more runners

They run but they don't run away!  Hooray for Boston, and I think for the American spirit overall.  I was delighted to hear that 9000 more runners ran in the Boston Marathon today than last year; 36,000 runners in all. That's really awesome.

happy Easter

Easter is over for another year and it was a glorious one, beautiful church service, wonderful spring weather, a happy family dinner, a frustratingly successful Easter egg hunt, and thanks to that marvelous invention, the dishwasher, the kitchen work is almost finished.  Thanks to another excellent invention, the telephone, I enjoyed a conversation with my brother in Spokane.  Altogether a very satisfying day.  I'm exhausted. Always a good sign.

The lost has been found!

Well, not lost exactly.  I just didn't know where it was.  My brother stopped by for a short visit today and we talked of many things, especially the trip we're planning to take this summer to visit our other brother.  Somehow the talk turned to walking and imagine my surprise when he told me he went for a 2-mile walk on the Pufferbelly trail yesterday.  Now I know where it is, and sometime within the week, I'm hoping to take a walk on it.

about mail and Mother's Day

Not long ago the US postal service was considering cutting delivery to homes to 5 or maybe 4 days a week to which I say "bring it on."  I've been tracking my mail contents for a while and by my calculation, 90% of my mail goes directly into the recycling bin, 3% is "must open" bills, etc.  7% charities that I at least consider giving donations to.  So imagine my delight when I got another Mother's Day jewelry catalog in today's mail, this one from JC Penny.  There were a few pretty pieces and yes, several pages of wedding rings - another effort to get moms married I guess - but the items that perplexed me were two pendants in the shape of frogs.  What do frogs have to do with moms?  The only thing I can think of is that some of us moms kissed a lot of frogs before we found our prince.

Oh Pufferbelly, where are you?

I just turned on the 11pm news and one of there first teasers was a reference to the Pufferbelly trail.  They even showed a quick picture of the Pufferbelly sign, so now I know I'm spelling it right, but I still don't know where it is.  I'm waiting with bated breath to see what more they have to say.

As I'm waiting for this news I'm flipping through a catalog of jewelry from Kohl's especially for Mother's day and find myself amused by the pages of engagement and wedding rings.  I guess it would be good to make an honest woman of Mom.

Ok, the Pufferbelly trail is evidently somewhere between Gump and Hathaway Roads and it's being extended into a subdivision I've never heard of.  Eventually, they say, it will hook up with the Fort Wayne River Greenway.  Maybe, eventually, it will just meander past my house.

This is work?

I was talking with my oldest granddaughter this evening about our Easter plans and she asked me if all of the candy they would get would be what they found in the Easter egg hunt or would there be some already in their baskets.  I assured her there would be some candy in the baskets I gave them and she said "Good, I don't want to have to work for all of it." I didn't realize that our annual egg hunt was such a grueling event.

well behaved snow

I've often said that I would enjoy snow more if it only landed on the grass and trees and left the driveways and roads clear.  Well today it happened.  I woke up accepting that I would see snow on the ground, according to the weather report last night.  This isn't unheard of in mid-April but not too common either.  As I looked out the window I discovered the most well behaved snow fall I've ever seen.  Thanks to warm pavements after several sunny days, my driveway was completely clear while the grass was covered with a blanket of snow and all of the trees and bushes were trimmed in white.  It was actually quite beautiful.

soft vs hard skills

Comment overheard on a morning TV news show "A positive attitude is more important than job skills for career success."  Now I do understand and appreciate the importance of a positive attitude, but there are some jobs where I think I would prefer job skills, for example semi drivers, surgeons, airline pilots, restaurant chefs.  I'm sure you could add to the list.  On the other hand, it really does help TV personalities if they have a positive attitude.

the understatement of the day

I enjoy watching the show "The Amazing Race" mainly because I like to see the places they travel to.  I also, I must admit, frequently get a chuckle from some of the comments made by competitors as they go through their assigned challenges.  On this evening's show they spent quite a bit of time in Rome and one of the challenges they could take part in was crossing swords with a "Roman Gladiator".  The comments I liked best, "If you were a gladiator back in those times fighting in front of thousands to the death, that would have been intense." 'Ya think?

The hidden danger of garage sales

There is a risk in selling your wares at a garage sale and it is this: no matter how much or little you sell you end up with cash in hand and suddenly your feel like buying something. After all, everybody else is doing it.  If you happen to be having your garage sale in a large space with 20 some other garage sales and the afternoon gets slow you have time to roam around and find things you can't do without.  In my case, I exerted great self control and only bought one thing - a twelve-place china service with matching serving dishes.  Now my only problem is finding cupboard space.  Maybe I'll need to start boxing up things for next year's garage sale.

Is it worth it?

I spent most of the day selling stuff at my garage sale and at the end of the day cleared $105 dollars.  So the question I'm pondering is is it worth it?  I did a lot of hauling and sorting and pricing for a relatively minor profit so far, but yes, it was worth it because I got a lot of stuff out of my house, and whether I sell more tomorrow or not - it's not coming home!  Yes, it's worth it.

Is it a coincidence?

A few days ago a statistician on TV stated that 29% of mothers are stay-at-home moms, which is up from previous years.  He pointed to the difficulty in finding well paying jobs and the cost of day care as possible factors.  My first thought was that that might be a good thing.  I was a stay-at-home mom for a relatively few years but I have some treasured memories from that time.  However, today another report stated that the number of "very obese" children has increased dramatically in the last few years.  So now I have to wonder, are those stay-at-home moms baking too many cookies?

second thoughts

Well, the car is loaded with my first car load of good stuff that I'm taking to the garage sale tomorrow.  At least I think it's "good stuff", surely someone can make use of it, but what if they don't?  How humiliating will it be if no one buys my stuff?  Ah well, I guess time will tell.  At least it's out of my basement and it's not coming home again, so, no matter what, I win!

blogger's block

Well it's happened - I can't think of anything to write about so I'll fall back on the tried and true - a cute grand kid story.  My grandchildren like to create ornaments from tiny wax beads which are arranged into colorful designs and then fused together with a hot iron.  As I was ironing one of my youngest granddaughter's creations she said to me, quite seriously, "Nana, what's an iron for really?"  I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  She's certainly never seen me demonstrate ironing.  In fact, I was recently embarrassed when a friend visiting overnight asked to borrow my iron and I couldn't find it!

the great garage sale dilemma

We're having a giant garage sale at my church this weekend and I have rented two tables to sell my wares.  Here's the problem, if you don't know what something is, or what it's used for how do you set a price?  How do you know if someone will even want it?  On the other hand, how do I know if something I'm selling for peanuts is really worth a fortune?  Is this an antique, a collectible or a disposable?  I guess that's all part of the game and only time will tell.  At the very least, it's out of my basement!

something new on my bucket list

Recently I started a walking program and I'm happy to report that I walked 10.2 miles last week, if you count the steps I took around the big building I work in.  I did actually take 5 one mile walks which were part of that total.  I walked a measured mile at the "Y" yesterday and now I know that on my pedometer just under 2300 steps equal one mile.  But now I have a new goal.  I want to walk the Pufferbelly Trail.   Isn't that a great name?  I'm not sure where it's located although it's supposed to be somewhere near the "Y" near me.  Pufferbelly just sounds like my kind of trail.  I certainly have the puffing part down pat.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but...

Quote heard on the news today, "Black American men have the highest mortality rate of any ethnic or racial group."  Really?? I'm sorry to break it to you again but we all have a 100% mortality rate.  True, some may die sooner than others, of high blood pressure or high cholesterol or whatever, but sooner or later mortality gets us all.

oil of oregano

I've been using oregano for years as a spice, especially in spaghetti, but today I learned of a new use.  I happened to click on the Dr. Oz show when I got home from work and he was extolling the virtues of oil of oregano.  Who knew there even was such a thing.  Evidently, if you put just a drop in some coconut oil it makes an inhalant (under a towel) that will clear your sinuses, and if you mix it with equal parts of olive oil it will clear up pimples and skin rashes, just a tiny dab will do it.  I haven't actually tried this yet, you understand, but it did sound interesting.  I think I'll recheck the directions on his website before I actually do any of this.

Walking in the rain..

Actually no, we didn't go walking in the rain today, the thunder and lightning scared us off.  However, we did discover that we could walk for 30 minutes in the big old church building where we work with very little retracing of steps.  We circled the sanctuary pews, toured the day school hall ways, visited the gallery and on and on.  Not at all bad for an indoor walk.  Good to know we have an option on poor weather days; also absolutely no excuse not to walk.

double the credit

Today is National Walking Day so when my friend and I went walking during our lunch hour we felt doubly, maybe triply virtuous.  Not only did we walk for our church's "walk around the world" challenge, we also walked in honor of this special day and the TV medical guru this morning said that walking just a half hour a day greatly reduces your chance of having a heart attack.  It just gets better and better.  So far we've walked every work day for (count 'em) three days.  You've got to start somewhere.

Another lovely sign of spring

This morning I heard a mourning dove for the first time this season.  I've never been quite sure if they are called morning doves because they sing in the morning or mourning doves because their call is so sad, so I looked it up.  They are indeed mourning doves because of their soulful call.  But for me they are a happy sign of warm weather and sweet memories.  When I was a youngster I would often have sleepovers with a favorite cousin and we would wake in the morning to the call of the mourning doves that roosted in the woods near their house.  For years I never heard them anywhere else, so always and always they bring back sweet memories.