You're Welcome

Image from Google Images

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that people rarely say "you're welcome" any more. The response to a "thank you" is more likely to be "that's okay" or "no problem" or "you bet". The truth is, I started to notice myself saying "you bet" in response to a "thank you" which led me to notice that others were also using a more casual response.

I don't know the origin of the "you're welcome" response, but I take it to mean that you may, or that you are welcome to, ask for whatever you need and I will be glad to accomodate you. If someone says "no problem" I take it to mean that whatever they did for me could have been a problem, but fortunately was not. My own "you bet" response sounds like I'm just ready for you to go away now.

I know, I know, it's no big thing in the big picture and the idioms of a language tend to change over time. I guess I should just be glad that people still (usually) say "thank you".

What do you respond when someone says "thank you" to you?

Freewheeling Friday

I wasn't sure Friday would ever get here this week, but it seems like it has. It has been a week where I had something after work every night with little energy left when I got home to do anything but go to bed. It's been the kind of week that calls for Freewheeling Friday, a multi-tasking catch-up post that lets me give my head a good shake and empty out the couple of random thoughts that have been bouncing around in there.

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There is no question that the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is a terrible tragedy and a big news event. Along with everyone else I wish her a full and complete recovery. I don't, however, feel like every step in her recovery and rehabilitation is any of my business. I wince for her every time I hear a news report discussing things that should be private to her and her family. I don't think it is the public's business that her catheter has been removed. I wish the media would allow her to recover in the privacy she deserves.

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One of my nights out this week was to attend a fundraiser for my 10 year old grandson's baseball team. The team members worked as servers at a local restaurant in exchange for a percentage of the evenings profits.

                                                                     

He was a good sport and did his part, but his level of enthusiasm for this kind of work leads me to believe that a career in food service is not in his future.

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Just like sometimes happens in the non-cyber world, blog friends come and go it seems. Lately I have been missing some blog friends that I have read and heard from for a long time. I know that some have just stopped blogging and a couple of others have gone private and I wasn't invited. I'm not near brave enough to e-mail and ask for an invitation. I have also made some new friends that I am really enjoying getting to know and one who was gone for a while is now back, much to my pleasure. I guess all I can do about the ones who are gone is wish them the best and say thank you for the time you spent with me.

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I have a few more thoughts that I think I will empty out of my brain right into the trash. It is a beautiful day here with temps predicted to be in the 60s. Monday is predicted to be in the 20s, so I'd better enjoy today while I can. Thanks for listening.

At Least My Embarrassing Moment Didn't End Up On YouTube....Yet

Image from Google Images

I've recently seen a couple of news stories about and seen one interview with a woman whose embarrassing moment was caught on tape and has become very popular on YouTube. She was walking through a mall while texting on her phone, oblivious to her surroundings. She tripped over the edge of a fountain and fell face first into the water. Not very fun if you are her, but hard not to chuckle a little about since she wasn't really hurt. In the interview I saw she was distraught and angry, near to tears, about being the subject of so much public laughter.

I can sympathize with her (a little) since I recently had my own very embarrassing moment. I was rushing in trying not to be late for my grandson's school program. I stopped by the bathroom and then rushed into the auditorium to find a seat with my daughter. As I ran across the front of the room and scooted into the row, my daughter, her husband, her mother-in-law and the woman in the row in front all broke into laughter as my daughter grabbed the long stream of toilet paper hanging from the waist of my pants. I was gracious enough to laugh with them until the show started and they finally had to shut up stop laughing.

I guess I can only be grateful that my embarrassing moment didn't get caught on tape and end up on YouTube. It was, however, a school program and there were plenty of video cameras there, so if you see my toilet paper adorned backside on YouTube just shut up know I am laughing with you.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Image from Google Image

I realized today that I posted my first blog post two years ago this week. Following is my first post.


At 61 years old I often think back and wish I could remember more about myself or my children or some event or activity....all those years and all those things that brought me to today. I like where I am today....I live with Doc, who I call Kenny, who thinks whatever I do is okay. I have 1 son and two daughters, 1 daughter-in-law, 2 sons-in-law, and six grandchildren, all of whom I think are the best ever, and who all bring joy beyond description to my life. I'm not sure that they think that whatever I do is okay, but they let me share in their lives and that makes everything okay for me. Blogging feels like a good way to reflect, remember and share the things that take us from day to day, and with time make up the life we look back on.

Why "Living Consciously"? I am, like everyone, getting older and I hope, like everyone, that continues for a long time, so I want to do it the best I can. I feel like one of the keys to that is to live consciously. It is something I have thought about and tried to do for a long time, but still can't totally define., and certainly am far from being really good at. Maybe blogging will help me along that path.

I expect that I will write more about what I am thinking than what I am doing, more about other people than myself. Many years ago I wrote a weekly newspaper column about my family, things
going on in the community, etc. This feels a little like that, without the circulation or the pay.. Maybe I'll write a lot, or maybe I won't write very often, but I hope I will entertain at least myself with what I write and that I'll have something I can look back on when I think "I wish I could remember................"

I think blogging has helped me with my original goal of living more consciously. The serendipity for me has been other bloggers. I cherish each of you who read and comment on what I have to say. I look forward daily to reading what you have to say. I value the friendships I have with so many of you. I would name names, but I would probably leave someone out and then I would feel bad. Some have become good friends and some have come and gone and I miss them. I have learned from you and laughed with you and cried with you. I don't do mushy very well, so I will just say a very heartfelt thank you.

Toys

I don't have the best grandma house in the world....there is no trampoline or backyard swimming pool. On the other hand, there is no shortage of toys for my grandkids to play with when they come here. They do sometimes play with the toys and games and puzzles and crayons and markers when they are here, but here are the things they play with the most:

• An old mattress and pile of quilts and pillows in the basement

     

• A small exercise step machine in my office

    

This is the all-time favorite...the spinning desk chair in my office.

They never get tired of spinning and spinning and getting so dizzy that they can barely walk.

A lot of the toys I have come from consignment stores and garage sales. I guess I am going to have to start shopping at those places with a different eye.

Three Broken Bones, But Only One Really Good Story

My grandkids have sort of been falling apart lately. None of them have actually lost any parts, but my three oldest grandchildren have all broken a bone in the last couple of months. My 10 year old grandson, Jared, broke his foot a couple of months ago. He is pretty well healed and should be good to go after a couple of sessions of physical therapy. My grandaughter, Hope, who is 8, broke her toe a couple of weeks ago and is still limping a little but is on her way to healing.  (It is nice and convenient when one cousin can pass their orthopedic shoe and crutches down to another cousin). Both of them were sort of just messing around...no real story to how they broke a bone.

My 7 year old grandson, Justin, has the best story to tell but he was a little reluctant to tell it at first. He will get the cast off of his broken wrist in a few days. When he came up from the basement crying and holding his wrist his story was that he had fallen off of the Hippity Hop ball. You know, those big balls that kids sit on and bounce around.

It was true that he fell off the Hippity Hop ball, but not the whole truth. With a little prodding from his brother he finally "fessed up that he was jumping on the pool table on the Hippity Hop ball and that he fell off when he jumped from the pool table to the floor.  Ouch! At least he got a really cool orange and blue (for the Broncos) cast instead of an ugly orthopedic shoe and he has a good story to tell.

And to answer the questions everyone has asked....Yes, they all drink lots and lots of milk, and no, there is nothing wrong with their bones.

Images from Google Images

The Bath

My best friend died from breast cancer about 8 years ago. We had been best friends for over 40 years when she died. As always, during her illness we talked a lot and got together from time to time even though we lived about 700 miles apart. There is one conversation I still remember nearly every day....every time I take a bath.

When she was ill, one of the things that helped ease her pain was taking a hot bath. The day of the conversation that I remember had been a rough day for her. While her mom, who was helping to care for her, was gone to run some errands she got into the bathtub hoping to get a little relief from her pain. She called me from the bathtub, saying she was home alone and too weak to get our of the tub on her own and that this was the first time that had happened to her. There was, of course, nothing I could do to help her out of the tub from 700 miles away, so we talked. We talked about her illness and her fears, we talked about her kids and mine, we talked about all the things we normally talked about. Even talking for a long period was difficult for her at that stage of her illness, so we also shared moments of silence from 700 miles away.

Even after all the years I still think of our conversation, one of the last I had with her, every time I take a bath. It makes me feel a lot of things, but the greatest thing I feel about it is gratitude. I am grateful that I can still get out of the bathtub with ease, I am grateful for the friendship we had, I am grateful that we got to have one last conversation about the things we had talked about for years, I am grateful that I am the one she reached out to in what was a frightening first in the course of her illness, and I am grateful for the comfort we both felt with each other in the moments of silence.

Something To Shout About

I'll warn you right here at the first that this post is about a laundry product, so if that is as boring to you as it would usually be to me, I apologize. The whole cooking, cleaning, domestic stuff is is not really my thing, so I surprised even myself when I found myself getting excited when I saw an ad for this new (or at least new to me) product.

The product, called Shout Color Catcher, does an amazing thing....it eliminates the need to sort your laundry into all those different piles of light, dark, colored and so forth. Yep, you just throw all of your red, blue, black and white clothes into the washer together and add a color catcher sheet and all those errant colors are soaked up by the sheet. Wow!

Okay, I can't say that I have tried it, or even why I am so enthralled by what it claims to do. I don't actually do that much laundry these days. Doc and I each do our own laundry and Dodger really doesn't have much that needs to be done. My enthusiasm must come from some leftover memory from years ago when I was raising three kids and spent lots and lots of time sorting laundry.

Whew, I've kind of worn out my excitement over this product, but thanks for listening.

And, no, I have no connection to whoever makes it, but I wish they had thought of it 20 years ago.

Don't Say That

Here is my small effort to help you start the new year out right by avoiding hearing, seeing or saying evil. It may be a little strong to call the words or phrases on Lake Superior State University's list of words (or phrases) that should be banned evil, but I have to agree that some of them have been a bit overused.

Lake Superior State University's 2011 list of banished words:

viral

epic

 fail

wow factor

 a-ha moment

 backstory

BFF

man up

refudiate

mamma grizzlies

 the American people

(I'm not too sure what's wrong with this one)

I'm just sayin'

(I have to admit to having over used this one myself)

Facebook/Google as verbs

(Don't we all use Google as a verb)

live life to the fullest

Do you agree or disagree that the words on this list should be banned?

Do you have any words you would like to add to it?