On getting old.
Of late, Barb and I have been discussing getting old. As in, we are. Getting old.
Age is only a number, and by and large we have ignored that ever-incrementing number, but there comes a time when the body begins to call attention to itself in ways that make us stop and assess our condition and think, "You know, I can't ____________ anymore."
Case in point. A few minutes ago Barb needed to move the stand of TV tables from one spot to another. She was struggling with them - the rack holds 4 solid wood tables, so I magnanimously stepped forward to move them for her - and discovered I could barely lift them! When did that happen?
We daily receive pointers on aging from a wide variety of sources; our alphabet of physicians and health-care experts, the AARP emails and bulletins, the exercise class leaders at the gym, a wide range of social media sources (why do I keep getting ads for Depends in my Face Book feed?), and even from our financial consultant and part-time Walmart greeter ("Have you signed up for a casita at the Casa Pequeno Home for Assisted Living yet?")
And by and large, we pay attention to these pointers. We try to eat healthy. Queso and chips is a food group, right? And we exercise. Those trips from the recliner to the bathroom really add up. We eschew habits that are bad for you, so we can check off a lot of the boxes and feel (somewhat) good about it.
But Barb pointed out that socializing is always high on the list of check-offs. That without putting forth effort to interact with others - and Alexa doesn't count - one tends to become like Boo Radley, locked away in the haunted house.
In fact, she pointed out, apart from our family, the people we currently have the most interaction with are our favorite wait-staff at the various restaurants we frequent.
Ouch.
Well, we have been talking about getting back into a Care Group at church. We know one that attracts old folks like us. And they meet at the Casa Pequeno Home for Assisted Living. We can check out the apartments while we are there.
Just kidding about the Casa Pequeno Home for Assisted Living part. But maybe they would be willing to move.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Monday, July 15, 2019
Monday Meandering - 7.15.2019
Today's post came together from several directions - and surprised me in the process. I'll explain.
I have posted recently about Barb and I giving some effort to clearing out some of the accumulated stuff that fills our closets and shelves. The most visible result of that effort has been a marked and noticeable clearing of bookshelves. Barb has dedicated herself to that task and weekly hauls sacks of books (that have been gathering dust for years) to Half Price. Family pictures have taken their place and I must say it is a nice improvement.
I have been less industrious with the clutter of stuff in my computer room/office/sound studio, but I am making some progress. Most of my detritus just gets tossed in the trash or recycling. There's still some "family heirloom" type stuff to deal with - like, for instance, my father's glass Easter Egg.
And the surprise? I'm writing this on Sunday, and when I went to schedule it to be posted on Monday morning, the posting date was July 15. My fathers date of birth, 112 years ago.
I have posted recently about Barb and I giving some effort to clearing out some of the accumulated stuff that fills our closets and shelves. The most visible result of that effort has been a marked and noticeable clearing of bookshelves. Barb has dedicated herself to that task and weekly hauls sacks of books (that have been gathering dust for years) to Half Price. Family pictures have taken their place and I must say it is a nice improvement.
I have been less industrious with the clutter of stuff in my computer room/office/sound studio, but I am making some progress. Most of my detritus just gets tossed in the trash or recycling. There's still some "family heirloom" type stuff to deal with - like, for instance, my father's glass Easter Egg.
It is a milk-glass, hand-blown, decorated Easter egg, about 6 inches long. The naval anchor is embossed and gilded. The word "Easter" is painted on the egg, but is almost entirely rubbed off at this point. You can find similar eggs that look very much like this on E-Bay, listed from $12 to $100, depending on condition,
The story behind the egg is that it was a gift - the earliest gift my father remembered - from a neighbor lady. And what to do with it has been weighing on me for some time. I have some other "heirloom" items that I will dispose of with little or no emotional baggage, but the egg was a conundrum.
Barb mentioned the egg at her weekly ladies brunch, and one of our friends spoke up and said, "I collect eggs of all types, I would love to have it." Problem solved. She asked me to provide the background - what I knew about the egg, and here's what I told her.
"Joyce,
My father, Jessie Leon Anderson, was born July 15, 1907 in Johnson County, Texas, one and a half miles east of Cleburne on the old Grandview Road. He lived much of his early life at that location, in a two-room house situated on 15 acres of a sandy loam fruit and vegetable garden that provided the family income.
He described the egg as the earliest gift he recalled, given to him "a neighbor lady who taught first grade." He later said that near-by neighbors included "Mr and Mrs Homer Curtis - a Civil War veteran and his wife, who baked good cookies, and their spinster daughter, Miss Emma, who taught school in small country schools."
So the egg was probably a gift from Emma Curtis, likely his first grade teacher."
And the surprise? I'm writing this on Sunday, and when I went to schedule it to be posted on Monday morning, the posting date was July 15. My fathers date of birth, 112 years ago.
Monday, July 8, 2019
MMs - 7.8.2019 - Alexa! She shoots, she scores!
The 2019 Women's World Cup is in the books. USA! USA!
No secret that we're fans. Barb enjoys it; but I can best be described as rabid. I did, in fact, watch all 34 games, for example.
It came to our attention a few weeks ago that we have been following Women's Soccer for 20 years. There was an exhibition game a month or so ago and the 99ers - the team that won the World Cup in 1999 was feted. That was the win that resulted in the iconic Sports illustrated cover of Brandi Chaistain celebrating her goal in her sports bra!
BTW, a reporter asked Brandi if she had that sports bra in a place of honor somewhere. Her response was, "No. It was just laundry to me."
Players change over the years, of course. Mia Hamm and Christie Rampone gave way to Hope Solo and Abby Wambach, who gave way to Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Megan apparently will give way to no one - especially the President.
I worried about this team. They have shown a tendency to react slowly in the back line, allowing easy, surprise goals. And until Cup play, the current goal keeper appeared very vulnerable. But as of yesterday, the US Women are 4-time winners and pulled off the very difficult back-to-back championship. USA! USA!
It has been interesting to see the growth of interest in the Women's game at a national level. This is a recurring phenomenon, and after the parades, and the Victory Tour games, it will wane somewhat, but overall, the needle has been moved upward significantly.
That's good, because members of the same team that won the Cup are suing their parent organization for equality with the Men's team. It's a righteous fight; the Women draw bigger crowds, generate more revenue, score more goals (the Women scored more goals in a single Cup game than the Men have scored in Cup play in total since 2006), and oh, yeah. The Men didn't even qualify for their World Cup.
Plus, one of my all-time favorite blog posts was about watching the Women's World Cup (Deep thoughts while watching a soccer game.)
Alexa! She shoots! She scores! Try it.
No secret that we're fans. Barb enjoys it; but I can best be described as rabid. I did, in fact, watch all 34 games, for example.
It came to our attention a few weeks ago that we have been following Women's Soccer for 20 years. There was an exhibition game a month or so ago and the 99ers - the team that won the World Cup in 1999 was feted. That was the win that resulted in the iconic Sports illustrated cover of Brandi Chaistain celebrating her goal in her sports bra!
BTW, a reporter asked Brandi if she had that sports bra in a place of honor somewhere. Her response was, "No. It was just laundry to me."
Players change over the years, of course. Mia Hamm and Christie Rampone gave way to Hope Solo and Abby Wambach, who gave way to Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Megan apparently will give way to no one - especially the President.
I worried about this team. They have shown a tendency to react slowly in the back line, allowing easy, surprise goals. And until Cup play, the current goal keeper appeared very vulnerable. But as of yesterday, the US Women are 4-time winners and pulled off the very difficult back-to-back championship. USA! USA!
It has been interesting to see the growth of interest in the Women's game at a national level. This is a recurring phenomenon, and after the parades, and the Victory Tour games, it will wane somewhat, but overall, the needle has been moved upward significantly.
That's good, because members of the same team that won the Cup are suing their parent organization for equality with the Men's team. It's a righteous fight; the Women draw bigger crowds, generate more revenue, score more goals (the Women scored more goals in a single Cup game than the Men have scored in Cup play in total since 2006), and oh, yeah. The Men didn't even qualify for their World Cup.
Plus, one of my all-time favorite blog posts was about watching the Women's World Cup (Deep thoughts while watching a soccer game.)
Alexa! She shoots! She scores! Try it.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Monday Meanderings - 7.1.2019
Last week of Women's World Cup. The US Women are still going strong, but the game with England will test them tomorrow. And if we get past that we will face Sweden (who we have beaten once already) or the Netherlands (who we have not met, yet) in the final. USA! USA!
The family heirloom clock has learned a new trick. When it comes time to strike 8 o:clock, it doesn't. At least it doesn't on Saturday night and Sunday mornings. That's near the end of the spring un-winding for the week, so that may have something to do with it. I wind the clock every Sunday afternoon after we get home from church. It's the weekly "wind and water (the orchids)" ritual.
Interestingly, the clock does chime correctly at 9pm on Saturday (and I suppose at 9am on Sunday. We're gone to church by then, so I'm not sure about Sunday morning. Maybe I could ask Alexa to listen at 9 and tell me later. I was already aware that the clock only strikes 10 times for the 12 o:clock hour; that has been it's behavior since getting it back from the repair shop.
I posted a picture a few weeks back of the gray foxes that wandered through out back yard one evening. I sort of figured that they had drifted over from the Pioneer Farms - a large, open area that is part of the Parks and Recreation system. The coyote population is pretty high over there and we regularly see coyotes walking down the streets, cutting across to a green-belt to our north. If coyotes live there, I assume foxes can too.
However, they just might live a little closer than that. Barb saw one in broad daylight on the patio recently, and one morning this week I saw a fox run from beside our house across the street and disappear between the houses directly across the street. There's a cat that lives over there - or maybe there WAS a cat that lived over there.
The family heirloom clock has learned a new trick. When it comes time to strike 8 o:clock, it doesn't. At least it doesn't on Saturday night and Sunday mornings. That's near the end of the spring un-winding for the week, so that may have something to do with it. I wind the clock every Sunday afternoon after we get home from church. It's the weekly "wind and water (the orchids)" ritual.
Interestingly, the clock does chime correctly at 9pm on Saturday (and I suppose at 9am on Sunday. We're gone to church by then, so I'm not sure about Sunday morning. Maybe I could ask Alexa to listen at 9 and tell me later. I was already aware that the clock only strikes 10 times for the 12 o:clock hour; that has been it's behavior since getting it back from the repair shop.
I posted a picture a few weeks back of the gray foxes that wandered through out back yard one evening. I sort of figured that they had drifted over from the Pioneer Farms - a large, open area that is part of the Parks and Recreation system. The coyote population is pretty high over there and we regularly see coyotes walking down the streets, cutting across to a green-belt to our north. If coyotes live there, I assume foxes can too.
However, they just might live a little closer than that. Barb saw one in broad daylight on the patio recently, and one morning this week I saw a fox run from beside our house across the street and disappear between the houses directly across the street. There's a cat that lives over there - or maybe there WAS a cat that lived over there.
Monday, June 17, 2019
Monday Meanderings - 6.17.2019
Tire Story
Any day you have an appointment with a dentist is a bad day.
Any day you have an appointment with a dentist and then get a flat tire on the way home is a very bad day.
Any day you have an appointment with a dentist and then get a flat tire on the way home and then the On-Star Roadside Service says you don't have a GM vehicle and they can't help you is a very, very bad day.
Any day you have an appointment with a dentist and then get a flat tire on the way home and then the On-Star Roadside Service says they can't help you, but the AARP Roadside Service says they can send someone but it will be about 3 hours before they can get there is a No Good, Very Bad Day! And yes, I have two Roadside Service accounts. Don't judge.
And any day you have an appointment with a dentist and then get a flat tire on the way home and then the On-Star Roadside Service says they can't help you, but the AARP Roadside Service will send someone in about 3 hours, so you walk over to the nearby Taco Shack and get a big ol' Iced Tea to dank while you sit on their patio and wait, but the Taco Shack closes shortly after that and now there is no restroom nearby and it's still an hour or more before the roadside service gets there is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!
Tire Story 2
Early the next morning, I am at the tire place with the spare on the ground and the flat tire with a big old bolt the size of a railroad spike stuck right in the middle sitting in the back. After a half-hour or so, it's my turn at the counter and the service tech goes out and gets the flat tire and takes it into the shop, and eventually comes back and looks up my account and says. "Uh oh." At this point I don't want to hear "Uh oh" because it's a new tire and I know I have road-hazard coverage, but it's "Uh oh" because he doesn't have that tire in stock and I can wait until they can get one sent over from the warehouse or I can go to a nearby location that does it in stock. This is going to be a bad day.
I choose to drive to the other store, and I get to the counter fairly quickly and they have the tire and all will be set right in "about an hour." Maybe this is not going to be such a bad day, after all.
Two hours later, I'm told "the puncture has been repaired and they are balancing the tire as we speak." Except it had been determined (twice) that the tire needed to be replaced. It could not be repaired. So the service rep scurries off to figure out what's what - and doesn't return. "He's on his lunch break." I'm told, but "my NEW tire is almost ready to put on the vehicle." This is now officially a bad day,
After about 4 hours invested in this whole process, I get home with my newly-replaced tire, and all is good, until I open the back to replace the little lug-lock thingy - and there is the flat tire with the railroad spike sticking out of it, pretty as you please!! The bad day just got worse.
"You're kidding me." the service rep says over the phone. "Nope. I'm looking at the tire and the big old spike sticking out," I say. "Just what exactly did you guys do during the 2 1/2 hours you had the car?" Now he's about to have a bad day.
For reasons I still don't understand, the techs replaced my perfectly-good spare with a new tire... and sent me home with a flat tire in the back, But after 3 visits to various tire stores, I now have all tires in place and repaired. Now all I have to do is find out what's up with On-Star.
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