salute to author Nevil Shute

When I was in high school I read a novel by Nevil Shute who was probably best know for his apocalyptic novel "On the Beach" which I didn't read until some years later. The novel I read in high school, and reread again some years ago, was an excellent story of love lost and found and tense adventure during and right after World War II. The title was "The Legacy" which I discovered years later was only the American title.  It was originally published in England as "A Town Like Alice". Most of the novel takes place in Australia, the Alice in the title being the city of Alice Springs. and I've wanted to go to Australia ever since. Now I'm going to get the chance.  The group I frequently travel with is taking a tour to Australia and New Zealand next February and I'm going. I'm really, really going to Australia even though I may not get anywhere near Alice Springs which I'm sure has changed a lot since the 1940's, Just as a side note, over the years since high school I have read every book Nevil Shute ever wrote. He was a prolific, and in my opinion excellent novelist, although, to be honest, I really didn't like "On the Beach" very much. Spoiler alert - everybody, and I mean everybody dies in the end.

it is pretty amazing

I enjoy watching the TV "reality" show "The Amazing Race" for a couple of reasons. First it's nice to see some views of the places they travel and, second, it makes me really appreciate the traveling I do which is usually with a well organized travel group. I admit to getting a little breathless as I watch the competing teams running, rowing, racing up and down steps and hills and generally exhausting themselves to be the first to a certain spot. I do think the show has the right idea this year. They created the teams by pairing up total strangers.  In years past the couples were usually relatives or close friends and I often wondered how many couples split up by the end of the race. Isn't it interesting what people will put themselves through in hopes of winning a million dollars?

April showers

If April Showers bring May Flowers what do May Flowers bring?  Pilgrims!!! Ha ha ha ha ha....  Sorry, I couldn't resist. Something I heard on the weather report reminded me of that silly old riddle. Exciting to think those April showers are just a few days away. In the meantime, in case you're wondering, today is Manatee Appreciation Day. I just googled manatee to see what I could learn about them and there are a large variety of "Manatee Appreciation" articles and videos so, if you want to learn more about these big gray squishy looking sea creatures check out those videos.

Reunion time

Our class (Woodlan High School Class of 1962) will be having our 55 year reunion in June. I just finished stuffing envelopes with invitations so this is on my mind right now. We went to a small high school, 52 in our graduating class, so we invite everyone who was ever in our class, even if they didn't actually graduate. This includes all of the Amish kids (obviously not kids any more) and they have come to most of our reunions and are often the life of the party. Years ago at probably our 25th reunion we went around the room asking people what they did and how many children they had. Probably not PC but we didn't care back then. I loved one Amish friend's answer, "I have 15 kids and I do as little as I possibly can."  Another Amish surprise, 10 years ago, one of the Amish men who showed up at the reunion had just completed some work on my deck the month before. I hadn't even realized he was a classmate. He was wearing a long gray beard as a disguise. Can't wail to see who shows up this year.

giving blood

I gave blood today, as I do about every 8 weeks, at the Red Cross. It all went smoothly as usual although a little extra blood spurted out when the nurse put the needle in and again when she took it out. We were both surprised at that. Happily it stopped pretty quickly. Some years ago I was sitting at the snack area (one of the perks is a nice little snack) and happened to glance down and saw that blood was running rather freely out of my arm. Quite dramatic, or so the staff seemed to think, but easily fixed with more bandages and an ice pack. Nothing so exciting today. I like to give blood because I get a mini check up - blood pressure, OK; pulse rate (always good to know I still have one); temperature, normal. Reminds me of a funny conversation at church a couple of weeks ago. I asked an older gentleman how he was and he responded "Well, I woke up on the right side of the grass this morning so I'm fine." Good attitude I think. Perhaps the best part of giving blood are the instructions for after: no heavy lifting, eat plenty of good food, drink plenty and take it easy. I take them seriously and follow the instructions very faithfully. Of course it sounds an awful lot like my usual retiree routine.

how noisy was it?

This morning, as I was eating breakfast I was entertained by the sounds of ducks quacking (this is new) as well as the usual geese honking and birds chirping. It was all very happy and busy but it makes me wonder. What was it like around here 200 years ago? I've heard it said that some parts of Indiana were so heavily forested when we became a state that you could walk all the way across the state touching trees the whole way. This might be an exaggeration, but not by much I bet. As I look out over the ten mile view I can see from my balcony I am really amazed by the number of trees. It's easy to believe that this was a heavily forested area and that brings me back to my original question. How noisy must it have been in the early mornings? I can't imagine any one needing a rooster. Imagine the chirps, quacks and honks multiplied by a thousand. It must have been amazing.

After the play is over...

Tonight was the last night of the play I've been in for the last three weeks. Personally, it was lots of fun  but I was ready for it to be over. Not so the eight preteen girls in the play. Much hugging, a few tears, but lots of nice comments about how much fun we had. I did have one fun compliment from the father of one of the girls in the play. He said that even though he loved his daughter he like my part in the play the best of all.  He thought I was good and nasty. One tradition of the last night of the show is the strike. The whole set is disassembled, props put away, costumes dealt with and generally all signs of the play cleared away.  While I am always glad to help I did pull the age card this evening. I am happy to deal with small props and costumes but I drew the line at carrying furniture down to the storage tunnel. Happily, there were plenty of youngsters around to do the heavier lifting - there is an advantage to being in a play with lots of young people. Old lady parts are few and far between but I hope another role comes along, maybe next year.

it's beginning to look a lot like spring....

and sound like it too. The birds are chirping, the geese are honking, my elusive white bird was back on the rive today and I could stand and enjoy it all from my balcony without freezing my lungs. You can see the changes on the elevator too. People were wearing shorts and flipflops, tee shirts and thin blouses. It was fun to see. I, on the other hand, still wore a sweatshirt and jeans when I went out for a walk.  Old habits die hard I guess. When I was a child Polio was still a very real threat and my mother was of the opinion that getting chilled made you more susceptible, so we wore sweaters til it was at least 70 degrees out. I know that the threat of Polio is almost non-existent these days. My mother thought Jonas Salk was a saint and we kids were first in line when the vaccine was made available in our little town. Anyway, I still find myself reaching for a sweater or sweatshirt when I don't really need it. On the other hand I haven't had a cold for a long time so who knows???? Anyway, happy first really warm day of spring everyone.

Don't try this at home...

unless you don't mind getting addicted (to a computer game, that is). A friend, at least I thought she was a friend, spent this last weekend visiting with me and while here she introduced me to two computer games she likes. I'm sure these games have been around for a while but I had never heard of them. "Seven Words" is a word game where you assemble letter segments into seven words to fit seven clues. "Red Herring" is a word association game where you organize given words into categories. For example cow, sheep, chicken and pig might fit in the category 'farm animals'. Sadly, after the first few games the clues are never that simple. Each of these games offers 50 free games to get you started, or should I say hooked? After that you can buy more sets of games. Just what you would expect from a dealer, right? Happily each of these games offers one free game each day so I am going to try to pace myself, control my addiction, and do only one game of each each day. If I start missing my blogs you may assume I have fallen off the wagon.

the voice...

my stage voice, that is. I'm currently in a play acting the part of a grumpy old housekeeper who says all of her lines in a loud, angry voice. This morning I helped babysit a gaggle of toddlers as I do twice a month. During the mostly peaceable morning I had to ask one little boy to return the red ball he had just snatched from another little boy and had to insist that another little charmer set up the chairs that he had walked around the room tipping over. In both cases the boys did what I asked without a moment's hesitation and I realized, after the exchanges were over that I had been using the voice I use in the play. Evidently it carries some conviction.  I must remember this for net time.

I may have misunderstood but...

this is what I think I heard. A reporter on the evening news was commenting on the dangerous misuse of parents' prescription drugs by children and teens. Obviously, not a laughing matter but this is what I heard as part of the report - "Over 60,000 kids, or four bus loads, have been injured by taking parent' prescription drugs." So my question is what kind of buses are they loading these kids on? Or, did I, because I wasn't paying close attention, misunderstand what they said. I've been trying to envision a bus that will hold 15,000 kids or guess what phrase I misheard. Four mushed toads doesn't seem any better. I would appreciate any other suggestions. In the meantime I will listen carefully to the late night news to see if the phrase is repeated.

the show must go on

Earlier today I finished the 6th performance of the play I'm in at First Presbyterian Theater - Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour." One of the main characters in the play is a young, preteen, girl; a spoiled rotten habitual liar named Mary who stirs up a lot of trouble. I play the old, no-nonsense house keeper who has worked for her grandmother for years.  Mary grew up in her grandmother's house (we're never quite sure why although we do learn that her father committed suicide - no mention of what happened to her mom). Obviously a really troubled child whose gullible grandmother believes all her lies. My son and family saw the play today and afterward he asked me "How does it feel to be the only one with commons sense in the play?" Yesterday two friends who saw the play said that I was obviously the one who should have been taking care of Mary. These reactions please me very much because it means I'm being convincing in the part - grumpy and stern. My son's mother-in-law, who was also at the play today, asked him if that's how I was as a mom - mean and strict?  He assured her that I was just like that. Then he laughed. I'm glad he laughed. On the other hand my granddaughter has assured me that all of my wrinkles are laugh wrinkles. I like the thought but didn't really appreciate the emphasis on ALL!

How Irish am I?

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, although I realize that as I write this the day is almost over. I heard an interesting ad on TV yesterday. I'm sure you've heard the commercials promising to analyze your DNA and tell you all about where your ancestors came from. Well yesterday the ad took a slightly different twist, promising to tell you just how Irish you are. As far as I know my father's family was all German as far back as forever. My mother, on the other hand, always said that while her ancestry was predominantly German there was a little bit of Scots Irish and a tiny bit of French Huguenot mixed in there somehow. So maybe, on St. Patrick's Day I can claim to be a tiny little bit Irish without spending the $99, or whatever the charge is, to have my ancestry revealed. I have a friend of English descent who can trace his family all the way back to British royalty.  Maybe I could trace mine back to St. Francis? Oh,wait - he wasn't Irish was he?

basketball anyone?

March Madness is upon us and I keep hearing the question "Have you filled out your brackets yet?" The short answer is "No." In all the years that I worked for a fairly large company and was enticed every year into putting in my $5 and filling out my brackets I only ever won once, the grand amount of (you guessed it) $5. So I have decide that another perk of being retired (there are many) is that I do not have to fill out my brackets. Truth be told, I don't even have to watch any basketball games. I know, I know, that sounds almost un-America and certainly un=Hoosier. In order not to seem too 'out of it' in social situations where the conversation turns to basketball, I will simply smile, nod and let those who care talk on.

I'm not sure how this is going to work

Fort Wayne has passed a new noise ordinance. Anyone who makes loud noises within 50 feet of someone's residence can be fined $150 to $500. This sounds like a fine idea to me except for a couple of tiny little details. First, my apartment is more than 50 feet up so any road noise or concert music is too far away to worry about. Any near neighbors are generally very quiet so no problem there. Actually the only noisy "neighbors" I have are the geese that fly by my apartment every night about midnight, honking all the way. Sadly, none of them seem to be carrying little purses, so I think the odds of fining them are pretty slim.

I'm back....

in case you were thinking that I haven't blogged for the last few days because I was off on some fabulous, or at least mildly interesting, vacation, that was not the case.  While it's true that I usually am gone when I don't write that wasn't it this time.  Actually, it's my laptop that has been away. It took a little R&R, sort of a spa treatment, at A+ Computers and now it's all better again.  At least it seems able to stay connected to the internet now which is all I really wanted. In addition, it has been defragmented, uninfected, had a virus removed and a flash player update (what ever that is). Sounds like a spa treatment to me.

If they can do it, why can't I?

I've long suspected that drug companies are constantly inventing new diseases and conditions so they can provide high-price cures. I know that probably sounds paranoid but that's what I suspect.  I don't remember half the diseases for which cures are advertised but I'm sure those ads never appeared on TV when I was a youth. Of course back then they had ads for cigarettes and liquor. Anyway, my point is, I have decided to follow the trend and invent a condition of my own. I call it PMA Syndrome (not to be confused with PMS. PMA stands for Post Middle Age. I figure I'm definitely post middle age, unless I hope to live to be 144 and I don't, I think that telling people, when I forget something or make a mistake, that I'm suffering with PMA Syndrome sounds more impressive that simply admitting I had a senior moment. Now that I've written this it should be only months 'til we see a PMA cure promoted on TV. I suggest dark chocolate.

I'm sure this will nake you cry...

I've been having internet connection problems for a few days but right now it seems to be working so wanted to share this sad news while I can. As heard on TV news this morning, the IRS will not be able to audit as many returns as usual this year because of a lack of funding. Am I hearing a big "Aww, too bad, how sad." out there? I know my immediate impulse was not to lobby for more funding for them.

Do you remember when......

I don't generally spend much time lingering longingly over memories of the past but today I did have a flash back to a kinder, warmer time. As I stood outside my car in the biting wind trying to get a malfunctioning gas pump to accept my credit card and ultimately getting assistance from a young attendant (she couldn't make it work either), I found myself remembering a time when I could drive into a gas station, tell the attendant to "fill it with regular" and sit comfortably in my car while he did so and kept himself busy while the tank was filling by washing the windshield and checking the oil level and tire pressure. Now I admit I don't have too many memories like that. I think it was only a few years after I started to drive that people began to have the option of pumping their own gas which was a novelty at the time. I seem to recall that gas was cheaper when you pumped it yourself but that may be only wishful thinking. One summer before I was married, a girlfriend and I took a driving trip out west and I remember we were appalled that the price of gas near Yellowstone was 47 cents a gallon. Back home in Indiana at that time it was only 33 cents a gallon. Ah yes, those were the good old days.

It always works...

except when it doesn't. Almost every evening I write something in this blog, then touch the little rectangle that says publish and, hey, presto, what I've written soars out into cyber space to be read by anyone who cares to. But not last night. Last night I wrote a short piece, pressed the little 'button' and waited. Pressed again and waited again, and again and again and again. But nothing happened. I don't know if my computer is starting to judge the quality of my work or what happened, but here I am willing to try again. let's see what happens.