Saturday, August 21,2010

Good Afternoon.  Our weather here this week-end is cool, breezy and hard to believe.  I mean this is August and usually here in N.CA. we are suffering in the triple digits.  This week-end we are having, today 85' and tomorrow 87'.  What is up with that ?  We are enjoying every minute of it let me tell you as Monday we are suppose to be back to 100'.  I swear it is just crazy.  When I first moved here with my parents in the early 60's everyone kept telling Mom the weather was so unusual. I'm not kidding, no matter what the weather was that was their comment.
     I've been organizing and reorganizing my books on the Kindle.  I get it one way and realize I want it another way.  Do you have that problem especially with the free books we get ? I'm getting so many and really I feel a little greedy.  I mean I can't believe all the books they are offering for free.  Some of them I really have enjoyed very much and they are free.  I don't even have to pay for the gas to go get them.  It's a little astounding.  Sometimes I feel it has taken something away, like the anticipation of waiting for that book.  It's the same way with movies now.  I mean with netflix you can get the movie instantly.  Where is the excitement of waiting for that day.  I know we do have official opening dates but how long is that going to last.  Will it be a movie is released and everyone has access to it from their computer or TV ?  Will we alway have theaters or are they going away also.  I don't know what to say maybe it's my age and we were taught that you had to earn the right.  Like, I had to clean my room, the living room and vacuum then I got my allowance.  Then I could walk downtown meet my friends and go to the show.  Do the kids of today have chores to do ?  Most of them are texting on their phones all the time or at their computer.  It's sad to me because they will never experience anticipation.  It's a wonderful experience as you feel excitement, a warm feeling, you have a smile on your face and you are in a good mood because something special is going to happen and you can hardly wait.
I guess I am showing my age but I do realize this younger generation has no patience they want everything now, instantly.  I just feel we have lost so much but it's probably just me.   Tootles

More for "It's the Law"

       Not that this is the official order after we get a number of them down then everyone may pick out their own order. Let's face it we all have different wants and different priorities.
     #3.  Treasure your friends.  I have actually run into people who have a friend they have know since preschool, even younger then that but preschool is when they can remember them.  Do not take that friend for granted.  It does take work and sometimes you have to go out of your way but do it.  Believe me it will all come back to you.  At one point in my life I actually turned away a friend.  Here is what happened..... My friend called me after not seeing each other for twenty some years.  She was so excited to come and see me.  I told  her I did not think that was a good idea as I was very busy and didn't have time to see her.  I actually heard the hurt in her voice when she said, "You don't want me to come and see you?."   Why, oh why would I do such a horrible thing ?  Well, at the time I thought it was the right thing, (not really, I was just trying to convince myself ).  You see at the time one of my children had made some horrible choices and was into drugs and running with bad characters.  I was so embarrassed for my friend to see that, that I wanted her to hate me and never consider coming around.  I succeeded.  I have never heard from her since, along with some other friends that were, at one time, in our circle.  What a fool I was, if anything I know she would have been a good friend and someone I could have talked to but I have to admit it was my ego that got in the way.  Of course in less than a year my child had straighten up and was doing fine but I had hurt my friend and did not have a chance in hell of ever seeing her again.  I mean lets face it, how could I explain, "I hurt you so I wouldn't be embarrassed".  A little self centered on my part.  I will regret that for the rest of my life and can still hear the hurt in her voice.  So you see I lost a good friend because I didn't take care of the friendship. 
      You do find out just what true friends you have when sickness or financial problems occur.  After the last time I had GBS I found out I had no friends, no kidding.  I really believed some of them would come around but none did.  I probably understand that better as I know it scares a lot of people.  I was not in good shape and was learning how to walk etc. all over again.  It's just hard to know how to act and just what you are suppose to do.  I do get that, I mean lets face it the friendship has taken a different turn and sometimes it just doesn't fit anymore.  It's just too uncomfortable for some people.  Then you go on and meet new friends, usually close to your own behavior and that's alright as you are more comfortable also.  Then you have the financial loss.  Well, this is dramatic to say the least.  We ended up losing our business, our jobs and our home.  Now we are living on a relatives property.  That's pretty unbelievable.  But we have managed to keep out heads above water and are doing good.  Of course our lifestyle has changed.  No more eating out a lot, or shopping for fun, buying all those extra's in groceries, going to the show (except on tightwad tuesdays) but you want to know something, I don't miss any of that.  Especially since we have joined the gym.  Yes, it is our social time meeting new friends everyday but it's also a place where Jim and I have restored our self esteem.  Let me tell you when you lose everything it takes a toll on your soul but you also realize just what is important.  I don't take anything for granted.  I treasure every friend I meet now and applaud their different personalities as each one is unique.  I treasure everyday, every minute of my life and try to live in the now.  There can not be worrying about the past, that's over, nor do I worry about the future.  I'm concerned and do what I can today to keep my future coming but I try to have an open mind and except and handle what is handed to me.  I do love my life now, it's simple, loving, and caring about other people which I realize in the circle of life that takes care of me.   Tootles

It's the LAW !

     Don't you wish when you were born you were handed a "Book of Law", and everything in it you had to follow to the letter.  The Do's and Don'ts .  I am always coming up with things I wish I had known or had taken more seriously.  I know we all do, but oh, wouldn't it have been wonderful to have that Guardian Angel right there beside you shaking her head no and mean it or shaking her head yes.  I think I would have listened to her.  I know we had Mom's but who listens to them when you already know everything.  I've come up with a few things and plan on adding more, Laws that is, to live by.  Who knows maybe my Grandchilden or someones children will take it seriously.............
#1.  Take care of your teeth.  I can't stress this enough.  Especially now, when going to the dentist, you need to sell your house first.  I'm not kidding.  What is it 3, when you should start going.  Go every 6 months and do not miss any.  Brush 3 times a day and of course floss.  Growing up we never had floss in the house.  I have to admit I wasn't the Mom who made sure we had floss in my house.  Even though when I did have a cavity it was between my teeth.  Now I ask you, wouldn't that be your first clue.  I just did not know how important I should have taken it.  Now I do.  I'm in my 60's, no dental insurance, and good old arnold has cut it out for Seniors.  Heaven help  us.
#2.  Education.  Work with your kids before they ever start school even preschool.  I did teach them the alphabet and some counting but should have stepped it up and done a lot more.  I was the Mom who would state, that's the teachers job.  How embarrassing now.  No it's not just the teachers job.  You have to look at it from your child's point of view.  Don't you want your child to do the best he can and be the best he can be.  You notice I did not say success at all because I do believe there are many people today who are considered very successful but are terrible unhappy.  So it's important to , yes, get the education but also seek and find what makes you happy and grab on.  Think about what and how you want your life to be, along the way of getting all the education you can get but above all study and learn.  Start young and learn how to study.  Some people never have to study, they are lucky but for those of us who need it, find out the best way.  I do know start the little ones early, that's when they are at their best of being a sponge.  I have witnessed it myself watching little ones learn and loved it.  For them it is not a chore but fun and new.  So grab that grandbaby and work with them on numbers, letters and let us not forget manners.     To be continued, I have just got started .    Tootles 

Your Own family

     Have I told you I am writing my own Family History,  What an eye opener that is.  I never realized just how many houses I lived in.  Not that my Mom liked all those moves.  In fact this was a women who should have stayed in her home town, living in a big two maybe three story house and never moved from it.  She would have loved keeping our, my brothers and mine, bedrooms just as they were and had all our keepsakes saved.  Oh, how I wish she had had that.  But she did not.  Her bravery when we did move astounded me.  She was always independent and showed herself to be on top of everything.  She could adapt to any situation and always made it better.  I am amazed at my Mom.  I was lucky enough to tell her numerous times how much I loved growing up in her home.  They did not have a lot of money but we never knew that, anyway I certainly didn't.  To hear my brothers tell it they had it bad.  They did not.  Mom always made sure we had a clean, cozy, loving home to come home to.  Always had good food on the table.  Of course after school, always, I mean always there were homemade cookies, cakes, pies, something for us to look forward to.  Oh how I miss her.  She was so wise and knew what she wanted but being of that generation the husband made most of the decisions and they weren't always the right ones.  
     Give it some thought.  Write down what you remember.  If not the whole time maybe memories that pop out.  Especially prices of things.  What did you do for fun?  At different ages.  Believe me someday your Grand children will thank you for it.  I know I would love to be able to read about my Grandma and Grandpa's life.  What was important to them.  How cool that would be.  Tootles 

Weekend ? What ?

     It's funny when you no longer go to work how the days just don't seem to matter.  I say, Jim and I are retired but that makes you visualize someone who now has the time to do all the things you didn't have time to do before.  Well, let's just say we do have the time but sadly not the money.  Don't feel sorry for us yet, as we are happy as larks (no I don't really know how happy they are but they sure do sing a pretty song).  Life is just great.  So when you are talking to someone about the weekend coming up you just don't get that happy feeling any more as everyday is the beginning of the weekend.  Am I right?
     Must tell you our stay at the Hotel Diamond was really fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It's a combination of ultra modern meets elegant furnishings.  The furniture in this room was gorgeous, huge elegant dressers with marble tops, medium size round table with elephant shaped legs, and they converted an old clothes closet into a cabinet for the flat screen tv.  It was all beautiful.  Then there was the rocking chair, OH MY GOD!,  beautiful dark wood, with scroll work on the back with the arm coming down into paws, leather seat and just adorable.  I swear I kept thinking I could get a rope, drop it out the window and put it in the trunk.  They would miss it, I'm sure, Maybe, OH stop.  I did enjoy it while I was there.  Then of course we had dinner in the dinning room.  I had crab legs, very, very good and Jim had shrimp scampy, Yum.  Everyone was very kind, welcoming, and made you feel at home.  We walked around downtown in the evening and enjoyed the cool weather.  It was great.
     Yes, we have our antenna up and running.  I say running but I don't really mean it's running just that it is working fine.  We now get about 40 channels and we are out in the country so if you are in a town you would probably get a lot more but hey, I'm not going to complain we (again) are happy as larks.  It's nice not having that 80.00 bill every month.  Just a one time price for the antenna and we are done.  The only thing I can say is my favorite channels, 9.1, 9.2 , 9.3, which are the pbs stations don't seem to come in in the evening.  Anyway not out here in the country, I imagine they still do in the city though.  Do you think they turn there power down at a certain time ?  That must be it.  Tootles
    
    

Games for Kindle ?

     Something new, any to me, games for the Kindle.  That's right, games.  I just downloaded them this morning and I swear I can't stop playing.  They are great fun and I can just imagine playing them at certain times when you are waiting for whatever reason.  I have played "Every Word" this morning and am about to try my hand at "Shuffled Row".  Did I mention they are free !  Something new for us to try out.  I don't know about you but I just love my Kindle and it just keeps getting better and better everyday.  I figure this will help keeping my thinking process working properly.  I don't know about you but I am always hearing we need to do more to keep using the thinking part of our brain, so here it is.  I did see they have crossword puzzles for the kindle.  It might be interesting, I will keep that in mind.

This is where we have our breakfast in the morning, we are facing south.  The orchard, straight ahead is peaches.  Once they have harvested them we are welcome to come over and take what we want.  You would be surprise how much they do leave behind.  Usually I make pies but this year I'm going to freeze what I can and make smoothies.  Jim loves smoothies as I do also but the difference is he loves his very, very, very cold and I do not.  In fact I don't need any ice.
Just to the right of the lawn chair and on the other side of the white rail is the ramp up to the pool.  It makes it very easy to go take a dip in the pool.  We don't have to step in the dirt or grass.  Of course I need to let the pool warm up for a few days before I step into it.
       Hope everything is going great for all of you.  You know, our summer is almost over.  I am looking forward to the fall weather.  Getting back into sweaters and sweatshirts.  You know the cover ups.  That's what I call them especially if I still haven't lost some of my tummy.  Hey, I have rearranged my body.  Doesn't that sound creepy !  You know what I mean.  I keep telling myself I just want to be healthy, and I do really but in the process I still want to lose some weight.  Tootles

Monday (need I say more)

Okay, so it isn't that bad.  I mean I get to go to the gym and see all my new friends.  We had a great time today, just working real hard and having fun.  We are all still worried about Edie and Barbara.  Edie is in the therapy center at the hospital.  So she is getting in on swimming.  We just miss her. I don't know if I told you, but she is 89, a tiny lady with white hair and wears blue sunglasses in the pool.  I told her she really looked cool.  Then there is Barbara, what an interesting lady to talk to.  Her love for sports is impressive.  She followed the soccer games faithfully and really enjoyed them, then watched and cheered for the, Tour de France, bike race.  She just really enjoys sports.  I think they feel she is having panic attacks.  I believe It really hit her hard when Edie fell and fractured her hip.  I do know she is afraid she will fall, as we all are really but you can't live your life that way.  Don't get me wrong I don't take chances.  I try to always watch where I am going for that pebble, bump, foot sticking out, hose or cord across the walk.  In fact just last spring I was at a small shopping mall with my family.  We had just come out of Subway, where we had had a delicious sandwich and was walking to the car.  Jim had stepped into a store and I was heading to the car with the rest of my family.  The curb was only about 2 to 3 inches and I took my Granddaughters elbow to step down, well low and behold, I don't know what happen but the parking lot was coming up to my face in a second.  It's so startling and you feel so foolish, I mean come on, 2 to 3 inches.  Somehow, I think my foot got twisted and down I went.  Although you never feel like your falling, you always feel the earth is coming up to you.  Funny how that works.  You see, I'm recovering from Guillain Barre Syndrome or GBS.  Andy Griffith had it and if you remember the author Joseph Heller (he wrote Catch 22, along with other books).  He also wrote, "No Laughing Matter," which is about his ordeal with GBS and how he and his good friend got through it.  I have had it three times and recovered the first and second time completely but with the third time it's been a lot harder.  The last time I had it was 1996 and I have recovered almost completely all but my legs and feet.  Mostly it's my feet which are still numb and sometimes tingley.  Like I said I just have to know where my feet are and where they land.  Ha!  Enough about that I got too much going on to even think about any of that.  That is why I love this class in the water.  Some people have had strokes, surgery, broken bones, been in car accidents, or like me recovering from GBS.  Once we are in the water everyone is the same.  We can water walk, which is wonderful and can really give you a good workout or use all the equipment they have for us, and really give yourself a heavy workout.  It's great, I love it. I'm just so grateful I found this place.
     We have drained our pool and are cleaning it out.  That is Jim is, as we speak.  I know the water will be very cold at first but it is August so we will most likely have some 100 degree days, probably many and if that happens, well, it won't take no time for it to warm up.  I don't mind it a little cold when you first get in because that is refreshing. 
     I've been shopping around for some exercise clothes.  Have you seen the prices of some of this stuff.  As I have told you we are on a fixed income and it's not very much.  That is why we joined the gym.  We have met some great people, we get out of the house, are doing exercise so getting healthy, and swimming which is the treat after the workout.  Hey, to some people it's a fast hour in the morning before work to us it's the whole morning and sometimes includes breakfast or lunch.  Vacations, forget about it, we ARE on vacation.  Anyway to get back to what I was saying I decided to go to the thrift stores and check out what they had.  Truth be told I can get better quality at a much lower price there.  I mean some of the brands I found I know are top of the line.  The great thing is I can spend very little, in fact while we were in the store he announced all the clothing was 99 cents for the rest of that day.  I guess they come up with different sales daily.  So if you have a thrift store in your neighborhood or you know where one is check it out.  You just might be surprised especially if you are looking for jeans or levi's what a bargain they are.  I even picked up a purse that I just love for 3.oo.  Tootles