The excuse I've been looking for...

I watched an interesting report on 20/20 this evening about aging.  Among other things it examined the habits of people living well into their 90, with good health and mental capacity.  Some things I picked up on - one or two cups of coffee a day are good for you (I'm assuming tea works the same way), a glass of wine, or any kind of alcohol really as long as you don't over do it, in the evening is good for you, and - wonder of wonders - it's not healthy to be too skinny as you get older.  It's better to gain weight as you age. Again, there's a caveat, you're not supposed to get obese, but some weight gain is ok. So goody; bring on the donuts and cookies (except then I run the double risk of diabetes and needing a whole new wardrobe (although that second one wouldn't be all bad).

Bacon, beautiful bacon!

I learned this morning that today is National Bacon Day.  Sadly, I wasn't prepared. I didn't have a single strip of bacon in the house and no time to shop. Alas! So I ate a pork chop for supper.  Close enough, right?  Believe me, I have noted this date on my calendar and will be prepared next year.

Some teachers need to go back to school.

In the last two weeks I've heard two news reports about different teachers - one woman, one man - having sex with older (17-18 years old) students on school property.  A school administrator said "We may have to revisit our ideas about sexual behavior at school." Really? That makes me wonder what the current ideas about sexual behavior in school are? Don't get caught?  Then this morning a teacher tweeted that she would like to stab some of her students. She later said she was just kidding. That's reassuring?

I know we can't legislate morality, or so they say, but wouldn't it be good if we could teach common sense?.

the joys of Netflix

When my grandchildren were visiting last week we spent a little time surfing through the movies available on Netflix.  As they were scanning the available options I spotted one I hadn't thought of for several years but it's one of my favorites. So this evening, a home alone evening for me, I treated myself to "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day", a true classic in what I think of as the "chick flix for old ladies" genre. It was every bit as good as I remember.  I recommend it!

the impulse to keep stuff

I am not a hoarder, but I will admit that I frequently have internal dialogues (talk to myself) about what to keep and what to throw away.  I was not a child of the depression but my husband was and the time honored opinion "We should keep it.  We might need it again sometime." was often expressed at our house. In the last few years I have become much better at getting rid of stuff.  Recycling helps.  It somehow feels more virtuous to dump something in the recycling bin that in the garbage bin.

This impulse to keep stuff even extends to institutions.  The church where I work was designed with lots of closets and storage rooms.  They are all full.

Today I was standing outside the church building with a friend who also works there.  We were eyeing an attractive old sign that has hung beside one of the entrances for many years, but which no longer is accurate because the name of out book store has changed.

I'm standing there thinking "Pitch it and make room for a new sign." as my friend utters those familiar words "Maybe we should keep it. We could store it in a closet." "Or maybe," she went on "we could put it in our history museum."  Wow, maybe that's what I need.  Perhaps, instead of continuing to clear out my basement, I'll just call it a museum.  Anyone want to buy a ticket?

Life's cruel moments

Tonight I was taken out to dinner by two good friends who were celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary.  I was the maid of honor in their wedding and the brother of the groom, who was the best man, also went to dinner with us.  We had a very pleasant evening, excellent food, fun conversation, except for the pictures.  My friend had brought along her wedding album so we could all see what we looked like 48 years ago.  No surprise, we looked a lot younger then and pretty good if I do say so.  But then they brought out their phone and took some pictures of all of us now.  That was the cruel part.  Ouch! Who is that old gray-haired lady with the crinkledy face?  I much preferred to look at the 21 year old me. I know time marches on but did it have to trompple all over my face in the process?

another travel memory

Here's a memory from my second trip to Hawaii:
A couple of years ago a girlfriend and I spent a week in Hawaii and since she was providing the time share for the week I took care of the car rental.  When we got to the rental place we were told that the only car available was a convertible so I said ok.  When we found the car on the lot we discovered that it was a bright blue mustang convertible.  We were smiling all week as we drove that car around.

.sweet memories

I've been answering questions for an article about my travels today, and this is one memory that was stirred up: When my husband and I were vacationing in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, we saw a beautiful painting in a gallery window.  We both loved it so we walked inside to see how much it was.  We sensed we were in trouble when a lovely young lady whisked us into a small dimly lit room, seated us on comfy chairs, served us each a glass of wine and set up the painting, perfectly lighted, on a velvet draped easel.  It truly was beautiful, but when she quoted the price, $35,000, we made an embarrassed and hasty retreat.  I now have two modestly priced little prints of Maui seascapes (bought at another shop) hanging on my family room wall to remind me of the one that got away.

Laundry times three

When I bought a new washer and dryer two years ago one question the salesman asked me was how many loads of laundry I do in a week to which I replied three, sometimes four.  He was astonished that the total could be so low (he's the father of three boys) but I reminded him that I live alone, except for my cat and she doesn't require much in the way of laundry.  Today, as I was washing a weeks worth of laundry for the two grandchildren visiting with me, I was reminded of how it used to be when I had two kids living at home.  I don't understand how three people can generate five times the laundry of one person. It doesn't seem mathematically sound, but, never-the-less, it happened.  And we won't even mention the astronomical increase in socks without partners.  As Irma Bombeck once said "It's a sad but true fact that socks do not mate for life."

why do they call it that?

I was having a conversation today with the young lady who cuts my hair and we got on the subject of school dances.  My granddaughter will be attending her first school dance next week and we got to talking about what dances were like when we were in jr high and high school.  We both agreed that younger boys seldom want to dance and that often clumps of girls gather in one area while boys gather in another - never the twain to meet.  I mentioned that in my day (I'm at least 30 years older than my beautician) we called them sock hops because we couldn't walk on the gym floor in our street shoes so we danced in our socks.  She said she had heard of sock hops all her life but didn't know that was how they got their name. I think that's how they got their name.  That's how I remember it. Does anyone have a different idea?

the school dance

My sixth grade granddaughter is eagerly anticipating her first school dance.  It will be after school next Tuesday and there is a special boy she would enjoy dancing with.  I went to the Carrol Middle School website today and printed off the information posted there about the dance.  So now I know the time (right after school), the dress code (they wear what they wore to school) the cost and other details.  I think whoever planned this social event really understands Jr High kids, especially boys.  Consider these comments: "Students do not HAVE to dance." "There will be open gym and a game room during the dance." "Students do not get a 'date' for the dance." "Students can visit the concession stand..."  My question is how many boys do you think will actually dance at all?  I can't wait to find out.

What's that again?

Comment made by a politician turned college president earlier this week after receiving strong criticism of some remarks he had made about local colleges: "My comments were too concise and too general." Say what?  I think that must be politico speak for "I said something really stupid and now I'm trying to minimize the fall out."  Once a politician, always a politician, I guess.

de ja vu all over again

This evening I took two of my grandchildren for a quick supper at Pizza Hut.  They had been very good and quiet this evening, sitting through a 2 hour meeting that I had to attend.  They even got their home work done so they deserved a treat, and they certainly seemed to enjoy themselves, while I was catapulted back in time to the youth of their mother and uncle.  When my two kids were in their pre and early teens they had a way of setting each other off in restaurants, getting gigglier and gigglier, not really doing anything wrong but just being a little louder and sillier that is polite and generally managing to thoroughly embarrass their parents  Well, it's probably genetic but the grandkids were pulling the same antics as the previous generation while I sat with bated breath expecting ice water or ice tea or root beer to go flying across the table at any moment.  It didn't of course, but it was a close thing.  The though the kept me serene through all of this was that it's payback time for my kids. Justice is sweet.

homework

This evening was the first evening that my two grandkids who are staying with me temporarily had real home work, so we all sat down at the kitchen table, and I tried to help where I could.  My grandson (8th grade) was working on Algebra and I checked his work, spotted a few simple math errors, which he quickly corrected and then got stuck on problem 31.  "We" finally worked out the answer on that one - x over 231 = g.  Then it was time to help the 6th grader who was working on definitions.  Each of four words had four steps to be completed: 1. write the dictionary definition of the word, (no problem)  2. write a definition in your own words, (still doable) 3. write some synonyms of the word (bring on the Thesaurus) and 4. draw a picture illustrating the word. Really?  How do you draw "implication"?

Take me out to the ball game...

Two of my grandchildren and I went to a Tincaps game this afternoon.  It was hot and muggy at first and not particularly fun as the other team scored the first point (or whatever you call it in baseball).  But I had promised that after the third inning we would go looking for refreshments.  We bought nachos and frozen lemon ice, and, even better, while we stood in a slow moving food line (other people evidently also like a 4th inning stretch) the sun moved just enough west that when we got back to our seats they were in shade. Things were definitely looking up.  Sadly, by the top of the 8th inning the other team was leading 5-0.  In the bottom of the 8th there was an exciting moment when the /Tincaps had the bases loaded, but, sob, only managed to get one run out of that. So it was a fun day for us but not so fun for our team.

the great shredsperience, phase two

Last night, after all the sorting and de-paperclipping, we loaded up my car with one box and 8 grocery bags full of old files, ready to be shredded and past ready to be out of my house.  Today we drove to the Afdent parking lot where three semi trailers were sitting, ready to be loaded with shredded paper.  After all my worry that I might be bringing too much paper or it might take a really long time to shred, or I might have to haul the bags to the shredder with the help of my two loyal minions, it was embarrassingly easy. I drove in, being directed by helpful people all the way, willingly made my donation to their scholarship fund, and proceeded on to the shredder. Four burly men and one willing woman opened the back end of my car, dumped all of my paper into two garbage bins (it filled them both), dumped the bins into the hopper and hey, presto, the shredding commenced and I drove away, feeling blissfully lighthearted. Hooray for powerful technology.

The great shredsperience, phase one!

Tomorrow my grandkids and I are taking some papers to be shredded at a "free" shredding.  Free, but donations to a scholarship fund will be accepted, which I will happily give to get this job done.  Last night I dragged all of my old real estate files up out of the basement; this evening we got everything sorted and bagged - nine grocery bags and one box full, and loaded into my car. Tomorrow we will take them to the site where an Iron Mountain shredder will be waiting to work its magic.  An Iron Mountain shredder sounds impressive to me.  let's hope it's up to the task at hand.  I want to come home with an empty car, except for the kids of course.

cooking up a storm

I have two grandchildren staying with me for two weeks, ages 11 and 13, the eating years.  Since I usually live alone, I'm fairly relaxed about cooking for myself.  I have cooked more in the last three days than I usually cook in a month.  I'm a little surprised I still remember how, but they're eating everything I put in front of the them so it must be reasonably edible.  A not too surprising side effect of the cooking (which they do help with, by the way) is the marked increase in dirty dishes.  I'm running my dishwasher once a day instead of my usual once a week. But tomorrow, I've told them, we must eat out, because Dairy Queen is making a donation to Riley's Children's Hospital for every Blizzard sold.  So, not only must we eat out but we must also have dessert.  I think it's incumbent on us to do our bit, and they have agreed since it's for a good cause.

Home Alone I

I did something this evening that I have never done before.  I left two of my grandchildren at my house, alone, while I went to a meeting.  I was gone for less than three hours, and they are certainly old enough to be at home alone, but still I was a little apprehensive.  With a little imagination I could think of at least 20 things that could go wrong ranging from a stranger coming to the door to the house burning down, but only one thing did.  My granddaughter got a small burn on her arm when reaching up past a light fixture to clean up a spiderweb she spotted in the corner of the bathroom she's using. (What a good child.) She knew enough to put cold water on it and we put some ointment on it when I got home so all is well.  On the positive side, they had both taken their showers and were ready for bed when I got home.  Tomorrow being the first day of school was a bit of a motivator there.  I guess they really are growing up, but happily, for me, I don't need to leave them alone again for the whole time they're visiting with me.

consider the word 'advanced'

'Advanced' as a word generally carries a good connotation.  Consider the phrases 'advanced technology' or 'advanced engineering'.  Think about 'advanced placement' in college.  All positives, right?  Then think about this: a friend who is my age was told this week that she was having trouble healing from a recent surgery because of her 'advanced age'. Yikes, that doesn't sound good at all.

school days

I haven't been a school girl for a great many years, but every year, at this time of year, I feel myself getting excited, and there's a sense of things starting.  Even at work, although the projects I work on go on year round, they seem to get more intense this time of year.  This year, I'll have two grandchildren staying with me during the first two weeks of school so I will be enjoying the event in a much more real way than in recent years.  And I'm excited by the prospect.  Makes me want to break into song "School days, school days, good old golden rule days.  Reading and writing and 'rithmatic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick."  Ouch, that last bit doesn't sound like much fun at all.

the Pufferbelly mystery solved

Finally, I've learned something I've been wondering about for several months now.  It turns out that the Pufferbelly Trail near my home got its name from the fact that it;s located on an old abandoned railroad bed for most of its length and in times past there was a big old steam engine that was referred to as a Pufferbelly.  So now I know.  I was telling a friend this interesting tidbit earlier this evening and she told me that there was a song about the Pufferbelly that was popular when we were kids.  I do not remember this at all.  Maybe it was only popular in Ohio where she grew up or maybe it was a song her mother sang to her.  My mother sang "yes, we have no bananas" and "poor little robin" but never a song about pufferbellies.  I may have to do some research.

talent abounds

I attended a performance by the Fort Wayne Children's Choir this evening.  My youngest granddaughter sings in this choir and it is truly an awesome group.  Watching the stirring show got me thinking about the talent within my own family.  As mentioned, one granddaughter is a singer.  The other grandchildren are also musical. One plays a baritone, one a piano and one plays the clarinet.  It seems to me we have a potential hit musical group here.  They could call themselves The Cousins, become rich and famous, and support their parents and me in the manner to which we would like to become accustomed.  Keep practicing, kids.

another magic ingredient

Another interesting report on TV this morning.  After extensive studies is appears that Vitamin D helps prevent dementia and Alzheimer's.  And, wonder of wonders, you can get Vitamin D in milk, salmon and supplements, three of my favorite things. Now, if I can only remember to buy those things...

a magic pill

Another interesting report on the TV news this morning - it seems that taking a baby aspirin every day (preferably the coated kind) not only protects against heart disease which we've know for some time, but also seems to prevent or minimize several kinds of cancer.  Who knew?  I guess this medicine, that has been around in one form or another for 2000+ years doesn't get the credit or press it deserves because A. it's not very expensive and B. pharmaceutical companies can't make huge profits from selling it.  It also doesn't have a very exotic or impressive sounding name. Consider three old cronies comparing notes about their ailments. "I'm taking Xzanipsocolit 3 times a day" says one. . "That's nothing" says the second " I take seven different medicines, none of which I can pronounce."  "Oh," says the third "I take one baby aspirin every morning."  Sorry, just not very impressive. Of course, if you don't care about impressing, just being healthy, go buy some baby aspirin,

an embarrassing moment

I am driving a rental car wile mine is being repaired and today I decided to put gas in it.  I drove up to a pump at my favorite gas station, having remembered to check which side of the car needed to be near the pump, only to discover that I didn't know how to open the flap covering the gas cap.  In my good old car I just stick a finger in the little space provided and flip the cover open.  Not so with this car.  I have had cars in the past that had an internal switch to open the flap so I am familiar with the concept but, sitting at the pump, I could not find the switch, and, more frustration, there was no manual in the car. Now this is why this is my favorite gas station and I will drive out of my way to get my gas there (it's the Shell station near the Kroger on Dupont, in case you're wondering).  I walked into the store, explained my dilemma to the young lady behind the counter, and she immediately said "Sure, I can help you with that" and came with me to my car, searched a little, found the switch and opened the flap for me. No laughter, no eye roll, no sheesh what a dumb lady, just polite, good humored service. Thank you! I will be back (but next time with my own car).

I'm driving a rental car.

Today I took my car in because the parts had come in to repair the door where it was side swiped four weeks ago.  Since I drive an oldie but goodie (a 2004 Buick Rendezvous) it took them a little while to find the replacement door.  While my car is being repaired I'm driving a rental, a cute little 2014 Nissan Versa.  I've never even heard of a Versa before but it's a cute little car, very responsive, easy to drive, but happily, for my budget, it's not enticing me to buy one.  I know it's ecologically irresponsible, but I love my big old Buick. I'd write an ode to it but the only rhyme I can come up with for Rendezvous is "me and you" as in let's me and you go for a ride in my Rendezvous and that's not even good English, let alone good poetry. But still it's easier than rhyming something with Versa.

early to bed

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." or so said Benjamin Franklin.  I'm sure he's right and it probably works for women too.  I wouldn't mind being healthy, wealthy and wise, but I have a problem (actually it's probably more like an addiction).  I love to read and my best, often only, time to read is after I'm in bed.  So, even though I sometimes do get to bed relatively early (before 10:30) when I actually turn off the light is anybody's guess. Unhappily for me I do have to get up early to get to work.  I think a variation on that wise old saying that might more truly reflect my life style is "Late to sleep but early to rise requires caffeine to prop open my eyes.  

a movie that brings back memories

A friend and I saw a movie today called "And so it goes."  It was a fun movie with a fairly predictable but enjoyable story line and a few really hilarious lines, really made for our age group. But what added to the fun for me was that the hero was a REALTOR and having been one myself for over 20 years, it really brought back some memories. Not all of them good of course, but many of them fairly realistic.  Funny, I still don't miss that career at all.

texting techniques

I have a smart phone now, so smart in fact that I'm sure there are many clever features that I have yet to discover.  It's sad to think that it's called a smart phone because it't smarter than I am. I have learned to take pictures and was actually able to share some family shots with a girlfriend at lunch today. I felt so cool. However, I am still struggling with texting.  Mind you, I'm in favor of texting and I have found many circumstances in which it is very convenient to text,.but I have yet to figure out how people text with their thumbs. My texting technique is definitely old school, hunt and peck, but even when I flip to the larger screen my thumbs just don't work to create accurate messages. I'm not sure this is a skill worth pursuing.