And So It Begins......

Every year about this time the boxes appear. Four large plastic bins full of smaller boxes, Santa figures, snowladies, silk pointsettias, a feather tree, ornaments, ribbons and bows. And we begin.

The holiday season gives us a chance to add a little "zip" to our decor....bright red and green accents, shiny snowladies and Christmas balls. Greenery threaded with lights on top of the large armoir and additional lights for the railing outside on the deck.

It's fun, unwrapping each item and trying to figure out where it belongs for the month. Should I put each in the same spot as last year or maybe try a new arrangement in a new spot in our condo. We've had most of our decorations for years.....moving them from house to house.....familiar, old friends.

The end result is fun and makes the place very festive.....but every year it starts with this.

Looking Back at 70......

Somehow it happened. I am now "in my seventies".

?????? Even writing that sentence brings me up short.....where did the time go? How can that even be possible? Who is that white haired woman in the bathroom mirror, or glancing at me from a store window as I walk down the sidewalk? I do a double-take almost every time I see her.

Turning 71 is not a big milestone birthday.....but somehow "creeping" into my seventies just seems incredible. I remind myself everyday that I am healthy, mostly everyday happy, fortunate and enjoying my life in the moment. But can I really be "in my seventies"?????

November 24, 1946 - November 24, 2017.....I guess I can't avoid the truth.

Ah well....as my son-in-law said to me yesterday, "Think of it as the first anniversary celebrating your 70th birthday." It took me a minute to catch on.....but OK....that is another way to do the math. So 70 is in the rear view mirror.....now to enjoy 71!

Some Slightly Different Traditions.....

It is Thanksgiving morning.....a nice day here in Port. The wind is down, the sun is out and the temperature is mild. A nice day.

We are having a very "small" Thanksgiving dinner this year....Dave and I along with Fenway and Cousin Sadie. So instead of the big turkey we are doing a turkey breast, stove top stuffing, frozen green beans along with the cranberry dish and roasted root veggies. We will top it all off with a store bought pumpkin pie and spray can whipped cream. Yummmmmmm.....

So some of our 2017 food traditions are sort of "new"....but watching the TV with coffee this morning it occurs to me that there are several other new "traditions" that were never part of Thanksgiving in the "old days". Yes, we had Black Friday sales.....but we didn't have the continual reminders that Super Early Black Friday Deals are available on-line and you better check repeatedly because the stores change them every hour. All the stores....all the time.

As we age, our shopping list gets shorter so there are absolutely no specials that could drag me into a store and I don't plan to shop via internet either. Today I will just enjoy the day....and continue one of our "old" traditions....I will be doing my "thankfuls"....remembering all of the things that I am thankful for and recognizing just how fortunate we are:

• my family, even though, on this day....I wish they were not spread so far and wide!
• four happy, healthy grandsons....again spread far and wide!
• my friends....they make each day special, meaningful and fun....and once again I wish they weren't spread all over the Country!
• my view of Lake Michigan....something I never imagined would be part of my life
• all of the "things" that inhabit this condo with us
• our health and the fun we have exploring in our little RV
• my fabric stash :-)
• an almost-50-year-old marriage!
• and oh so much more

Happy Thanksgiving to all.....and wishing everyone could be as warm and comfortable as we are.

 

Not Me......At Least I Don't Think So.....

For weeks our national conversation has been revolving around women stepping up to say they were abused by a man. It's making the news because the reports are about men in the public eye.....film/television/politics/media etc. and because so many women are saying "Me too!"

The widespread reports and the swell of support for the victims got me to thinking about my own life. I can't recall an experience where a man made me feel uncomfortable, or pressed me with unwanted physical contact or made innappropriate comments.

Well....there was that one time in fifth or sixth grade when a neighbor's boy (about a year older than me) pulled down his pants and "danced" across the basement recreation room with his little penis bouncing up and down. Big smile on his face....and I buried my face in a pillow. End of event. I never said anything about it because his mom was one of my mom's best friends....and they were a very nice family. The middle-school boy was just being a jerk.  But as I think about this memory I realize he was also exerting his "power" over me. I felt helpless.

And then....come to think of it....there was the dreaded walk up the steps to get to the college cafeteria for lunch every day. The guys from one of the fraternities (one full of "jocks") would take their seats in the window wells at the landing (about ten or so could fit in the space) and make comments about the young women as we walked up the steps and turned to pass them. At the time I don't think it really bothered me....I took it as sort of a compliment. Maybe because I was receiving mostly positive comments. Today I might think of it differently. Now I wonder about the college girls who walked up the steps, not to "positive" cat-calls but to more critical comments. Again.....this was sort of a power play. The jocks "owned" the stairway.

I can't think of a time where anything happened in a work situation. I had a variety of supervisors in a variety of settings as we moved around for Dave's career and they were all supportive and never condescending or threatening in any way.

The reports we see now are disgusting and sickening.....and they make me sad/mad. But it is interesting and hopeful seeing the groundswell of support that may lead to long-term change in the way men treat women. Parents everywhere may take much more time discussing acceptable behavior with their children.....what's OK and what's not.

Now if only someone would talk to 45.

Remembering.......

Last week I went to a matinee. A group of us sat in the darkened theater and watched "Goodbye Christopher Robin." It was a lovely movie. I hadn't read any reviews so had no idea what to expect....but I didn't expect what I saw! This was the author's story....how he came to write the Winnie the Pooh series and what it did to his family. I found it fascinating......sometimes sweet, often sad. Sort of like the books.

My mother introduced me to Pooh when I was young. I have a very distinct memory of taking a bath, mom sitting nearby and reading pages out loud and both of us laughing at some of the Pooh-isms. I was probably five or six and she'd read the book to me several times. It was a favorite. Years later, I read it over and over to each of our children when they were young. I never got tired of it. And after seeing the movie last week I am going to "borrow" our old copy from my daughter and read it all over again. Some of Pooh's wisdom just never goes out of style. My thanks to A.A. Milne.

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.” 

“Some people care too much. I think it's called love.” 

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” 

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” 

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” 

If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” 

“I used to believe in forever, but forever's too good to be true”

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” 

“Think it over, think it under.” 

Just a Quick Flash.....

When we lived in Bayview we shared the neighborhood with several red foxes. One walked through our back yard as I sat on the patio reading a book. One sat on the porch beneath our mailbox for a moment.....surveying our front yard. Once, on the way to work, I slowed and stop to allow a mother fox and her three kits to cross the road in front of me. Once, walking toward the lake a fox paced out of an alleyway, glanced at me and, in no particular hurry, continued on his way.

Someone told me there was a fox den at the north end of "our" bike path here in Port....across from the community garden. But I've never seen it.

Then there was today.....our 9:00 a.m. walk so Fenway could do "his business". Going along the bike path we always spot squirrels and lots of birds. Often we find rabbits and deer peering out of the brush, or crossing the path ahead of us. It's one of the reasons this is my favorite walk. Within a few minutes of the condo building I feel like we are miles away from any civilization and nature presents me with surprises.

Today, moving out of the brush on the left side of the path and scampering straight north in front of me was a beautiful red fox. An adult.....moving quickly and disappearing around a curve. I walked as fast as possible....but rounding that same curve the fox was nowhere to be seen. I looked left and right as we continued along....down at the stream, up the hill. But he/she could have been anywhere.

But what fun....Fenway and I saw a fox. Wish I'd had my camera and had been quick enough to capture the disappearing tale.....a free photo from the internet will have to do. For now......

Ya Da Ya Da Ya Da......

With lips pursed he says it again...."It's too soon to talk about gun control."

Take a look at the figures below:

April 16, 2007 - Seung Hui Cho, a 23 year old student, went on a killing spree at Virginia Tech killing 32 people
December 14, 2012 - Adam Lanza, 20, gunned down six adults and 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut
October 16, 1991 - George Hennard, 32, shot and killed 23 people in Kileen, Texas
July 18, 1984 - James Huberty, 41, gunned down 21 adults and children in San Ysidro, California
August 1, 1966 - Charles Joseph Whitman, a former Marine, shot and killed 16 people at the University of Texas in Austin
August 20, 1986 - Patrick Henry Sherrill killed 14 postal workers in Edmond, Oklahoma
December 2015 - Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in San Bernadino, California
November 5, 2009 - US Army Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 people near Kileen, Texas
April 20 - 1999 - Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher in Columbine, Colorado
September 16, 2013  - Aron Alexis killed 12 people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater
October 1, 2015 - Christopher Harper-Mercer shot an assistant professor and eight students at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon
June 18, 2015 - Dylann Roof, wanting to start a race war, killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Caroliina
October 1, 2017 -Stephen Paddock killed 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada
November 4, 2017 - Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas

This list includes the names of three people, involved in two separate mass killings, as pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. All the rest? Mostly white men.....mostly, if not all, American citizens.

Reasons? Anger issues, mental health problems......probably. And this is a "small" list - only including victims of mass shootings. It doesn't take into account the individual acts of gun violence in America. (According to Gun Violence Archive information 15,084 people died in America as a result of gun violence in 2016.)

But yes.....way too early to talk about gun control. Especially after funding is cut for mental health programs. Those programs aren't needed either. Extreme vetting is very important according to Fearless Leader.....but gun control? The ability to purchase automatic weapons? Too early to make any decisions about that.

So go ahead and plan a trip - but you might want to avoid visiting schools, concerts, churches, movie theaters. Welcome to the United States of Guns.