"Old" Jokes

I like the saying "getting old is not for sissies." It says a lot about the realities of aging. One of the realities of aging that I like to keep in mind is that it will all go a little better if you keep a sense of humor about it.  If the humor is about someone else's aging all the better. I like these:

Two elderly gentlement from a retirement center were sitting on a bench when one turns to the other and says: "I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel? His friend says, "I feel just like a newborn baby."
"Really!? Like a newborn baby!?
"Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."

Three old guys are out walking.
First one says "Windy, Isn't it?"
Second one says, "No, it's Thursday!"
Third one says, "So am I. Let's go get a beer."

A little old man shuffled slowing into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool...After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split.
The waitress kindly asks, "crushed nuts?"
"No," he replied, "arthritis."

Sundays In My City

To participate in  Sundays In My City

 click here:

http://unknownmami.blogspot.com/

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

I hadn't thought about participating in Sundays In My City when I went for a walk early this morning. I didn't have a camera with me. It was such a nice day in my city I wanted to participate anyway, so with no pictures and apologies to Unknown Mami for that, this was Sunday in my city:

The cloudless sky was a beautiful bright blue, the azure sky of poem and song.

To the east the new morning sun was shining warm and bright.

To the west the Rocky Mountains stood grandly against the beautiful blue sky showing newly snow-capped peaks.

Everyone I passed said a friendly "hello" or "good morning" and some of their dogs wanted to be even more neighborly.

The trees are just beginning to change colors and drop their leaves...each small gust of wind had me walking through a shower of falling leaves.

It was a beautiful morning in my city

Bus Stops

On three different days this week I noticed people waiting at bus stops doing things that left me wondering. I saw a man standing waiting for a bus cleaning his ears with a cotton swab. He went through two or three of them as I sat watching him waiting for the light to change, tossing them on the ground when he was done.

On another day I saw a woman standing at a bus stop brushing her teeth. I was just passing by so I'm left to only imagine what she did about the spitting part.

 .                                           

This morning while I again waited for a light to change I saw a man sitting on a bench in a bus shelter with his foot propped up on the bench clipping his toenails. Yikes. The light couldn't change fast enough for me.

I wonder when personal hygiene  became a  public activity.

I wonder if people are really so busy that they have no other time for these things.

I wonder what I will see next.

Tuesday Nights

For the last nine years or so my daughters and I have gotten together on Tuesday nights with each other and all the kids as they came along. It started when my first grandson was born. My daughter, Jill, was home alone all day with a new baby. Her husband does team roping and his night for roping is Tuesday. She didn't want being home alone with a new baby to last into the night so she "enlisted" her sister, Joanna, and me to join her every Tuesday night for some activity, and we have continued it weekly ever since.

Our Tuesday nights might be a trip to the mall, dinner at a restaurant, or more often dinner at one of our homes. It's when we dye Easter eggs and decorate Christmas cookies. It's when I get hit up to buy Girl Scout Cookies or school fund-raiser items. It's a wonderful once a week commitment to family.

As the kids are getting older and more involved in their own activities Tuesday nights are getting harder to come by. The three oldest are involved in everything from sports, to Brownies, to acting classes to piano lessons, so inevitably and more often, one of them has a practice or a class or a lesson or a meeting on Tuesday night. I think that going forward we will continue to have Tuesday nights, but some of them may have to be on Wednesday or Thursday.

On a recent Tuesday night we

Climbed trees


Just chilled

Played baseball

Learned to hit the ball

Or hid from the ball

Six Word Saturday

A New Day, Life Goes On






Join Six Word Saturday here: http://www.showmyface.com/

Scammed

I got scammed on Facebook this morning. I'm sure it happens all the time, but it hadn't happened to me before and it felt really creepy. Here's what happened.

I logged on to Facebook to look at something quickly before going to work. The moment I got on the chat screen popped up from a friend and neighbor and sort of relative, in other words someone I know pretty well.

The chat box said "r u there", which was my first clue that this was something odd, as he would not likely write in "computerspeak". Actually, it was my second clue, since him actually communicating via the chat box at 7:30 a.m., or at all, just wouldn't be expected.

I, nevertheless, responded, "I'm here.," and then it went something like this:

"I'm in London."

"What?"

"I'm in London, and I got mugged."

"Okay."

"They got my wallet with all my money and my ID and my credit cards."

"What?"

"Yeah, can you help me? I just need some money to take care of my hotel bill."

At that point I immediately logged off of Facebook.

And, yes, I let my friend know someone had hacked into his account.

Last week my daughter got an e-mail from a friend asking for just a little bit of money to help with something. My daughter e-mailed the friend telling her someone had hacked into her
e-mail, and immediately got an e-mail back saying "no, really, I need your help." Then , of course, my daughter called her friend, and it turned out several people had gotten the same
e-mail request.

It's hard to believe people really get sucked in by these things, but they must because it wouldn't keep happening if someone wasn't benefiting.

It left me feeling really uneasy, but I guess not as bad as I would feel if I had actually sent money off into cyberspace.

Still Trying to Figure Out Men

A few days ago I brought this mirror home to hang above the fireplace....

to replace this wreath which had gotten a little saggy and had started to shed .

When I put the mirror on the mantle to show to Doc (it's still not actually hung yet) the first thing he said was "I'm sure glad you're getting rid of that wreath, it always made me think of a funeral."

So I guess he has sat there in front of the TV and the wreath for a few years thinking of funerals and never mentioned it.

And this from the man who decided all on his own when we moved to this house that we needed to have this:

And no, neither one of us can play the piano.

I'm still trying to figure out men.

I May Have To Start Lying About His Age

Today is my son's 40th birthday. I wish him a Happy Birthday and many more to come.

But, I have to say that having him turn 40 is making me feel older than any birthday I have ever had myself. I am, and always will be, 22 years older than he is. I don't mind saying that I am 62 years old, but I am finding it a little hard to say that I have a 40 year old son. I think I am going to have to start lying about his age.

For his birthday, Rob's wife asked the whole family to send her memories and thoughts about him that she put into an album for him. Since Rob has been a great son for 40 years (sigh) I thought it would be easy. I found it harder to put the memories into words than I thought it would be. Here is some of what I shared.

• When Rob was born the hospital bill was only $7.
• Rob could identify all the letters of the alphabet when he was 18 months old.
• He could hear a song and pick out the notes on a toy piano at 3 or 4 years old. I have alway been in awe of his musical ability.
• Though he definitely always had a mind of his own, even as a little boy Rob had the ability to think about the feelings of others.
• The first time he saw his "baby" sister in a bikini he had a reaction that would rival that of any parent.
• Rob and I had our "coming of age" experience when he was 18 or 19 and we were both at a party at the Boulder Reservoir....everyone but Rob and I and a few others ended up with all their clothes off. We were on an island that you could only get to by boat, so just leaving wasn't an option. We made it through that and both grew up a little.
• No one makes Rob do something he doesn't want to do.
• Rob always answers my stupid computer questions without making me feel stupid.
• Rob makes it very obvious that he loves being a dad.
• Rob has as uncanny ability to remember things from a very young age. It's great to have a family historian.

Rob with his son, Wil

Happy Birthday Rob, and let's keep that 40 thing just between us.

Who is your grandmother?

All of my grandchildren have a lot of grandparents. By a lot, I mean they all have more than the regular two sets. They all have at least six, and it goes up from there. That is great thing for them at Christmas and on their birthdays and it works well for them in a lot of other ways. It does, however, present one problem....since kids don't usually call a grandparent by the same name everyone else does, how do you come up with enough "grandparent names" to keep everyone straight.

They call me Grandmom or Grandmommy, and my 7 year old granddaughter calls me a very abbreviated "grmom". The others are Grandma and Grandpa, Granddad and Gammy, Mimi and Pop, Grandma T and Big Pappy, and there are a couple of Nanas and Papas. The kids seem to have no problem keeping it all straight, but I have to admit I get a little confused sometimes.

I knew only one of my grandparents and I called her Grandmother. She had over 25 grandchildren and they all called her Grandmother. My kids called their grandmother Grandmom, and I guess I inherited that, and it is fine with me.

What did you call your grandmother?
What do your grandchildren call you, or what do you want to be called if you become a grandmother or have a grandparent-like relationship with a child?

I don't think we'll need any new ones, but I thought I'd get some ideas, just in case.

A Reminder to Myself...again

Oops! I did it again. I got the urge to cook, found the kitchen and followed the urge to make use of it. This not-so-pretty picture was the result. It took me back to a post from sometime last spring, so I am re-posting it (I hope that's allowed) as a reminder to myself.



This is not a very attractive picture...not at all cute like blog pictures are supposed to be. I'm using it as a reminder to myself of why I don't cook very often, or at least to pay more attention when I do cook. Don't misunderstand, I can cook. In fact, I can cook pretty well when I make the effort. Unfortunately, my best efforts lie in the direction of the not so good for us Southern cooking that I grew up with, though I can do a more than passable job on heart-healthy if I try. I spent many years cooking every day, but pretty much gave it up about the time Joanna was 15 or 16 and didn't often show up at home for a meal, or had just eaten Taco Bell. Lately I have been making an effort to take my lunch to work instead of buying lunch every day (the economy and all), but I am pretty tired of the few things I usually have on hand to take. So, today I decided to go to the grocery store (ugh) and do some cooking for lunches, and maybe even a couple of dinners this week. I bought what I needed to make chicken noodle soup, a chicken casserole and chicken salad and came home feeling pretty smug and proud of myself. The picture tells the story. The knife, the onion and my thumb ended up on a collision course. The cut is not as bad as the bandage makes it look, but it was bleeding a lot and I still had cooking to do. I made it through the chicken noodle soup, and the chicken casserole. The chicken salad will have to wait for another day. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I spent more at the grocery store than I would spend buying lunch every day and a couple of dinners, and I've looked at so much chicken I'm not sure I really want to actually eat chicken any time soon.

Parade Day

Today was our town's annual Labor Day Parade and my family goes every year. The parade doesn't change much from year to year, but it is a fun small town event and a fun family day.

Ellis and Anna ready for the parade
Wil and Justin wondering when they are going to start throwing
candy. (Justin has stitches over his eye)

Ellis' version of hand over heart when the flag went by

Waiting for the next float

Anna wondering what's coming next

Catching candy

Rob telling Anna "it's almost over"

"This is the longest parade I've ever seen"

Lunch after and home to celebrate birthdays for Rob and Jill.

Can't wait til next year's parade.

What if I had been named Jacqueline

Do you like your name?

I have never liked my name very much.

I have always been called Jeanie, but my name is really Dorothy Jean. Dorothy was sort of an old fashioned name when I was a child, and unlike names like Claire and Grace and Madeline it has never come back in to fashion.

A post I read recently, which you can see here, http://noexcuses318.blogspot.com/ , about the "What ifs" in life took me all the way back to "what if" I had been given a different name. I was supposed to have been named Sally, but I was born on a relative's birthday and the plan changed. The only people who ever called me Dorothy Jean were my father (it was his relative) and my brother when he wanted to make me mad.

Would my life have been any different if that relative had been named Amanda or Sarah, or if she had been Edith or Myrtle? Would I have seen myself differently if she had been Alice or Edna? There is a whole field of research built around names....their origins, their meanings, what's currently popular and what's not, but none of it tells me if I would be a different person if I had been named Jacqueline.

How do you relate to people based on their names? Do you relate differently to a Tiffany than to a Velma. Do you like your name?

I have always been and will always be Dorothy Jean, and I will always say my name is Jeanie, unless I'm voting or getting on an airplane, but I will always wonder "what if".

California Smokin'

Where I live in Colorado, we are about a thousand miles downwind from the fires currently burning in California. Yesterday our sky was clouded all day with a smokey haze from the fires.

Sunrise

SunsetIt was a pungent reminder of those who are so much more directly effected by those horrible fires.

We had a little wind today so it is much clearer, but there is still a haze.

Thanks to Fred Wilson, Dad to my daughter-in-law, Leah, and Papa to Wil and Anna for the beautiful sunrise picture and the title for this post.

And lots of hope that the fires will be contained soon.