Happy Hour for Seniors

Life's made of up little moments of time, some tragic and sad, others funny and joyful, some memorable, some we try to sweep out of our minds because the pain is just too great.  Nonetheless, they are moments in our life's line.

A little moment in time.........

For dinner yesterday we decided to go to the only remaining cafeteria is Oklahoma City.  That in itself is sad news....a bygone era.  When you walk into this place, you are immediately transported back to 1970.  Not much has changed in the last 30 or 40 years.......not even the choices on the menu.  The food was okay, but not anything special............not going to write home about it.  The evening; however, is worth (to me) writing home about.

The Groupon I had for the cafeteria was set to expire on the 2nd of October so I went online to see what their menu looked like.  I am trying as always to watch what I eat so I wanted to make my decision before I hit that line.  You know very well how a 20 foot line of simmering entrees, steamy vegetables, buttery rolls, and glistening salads dripping in dressing can tempt you.  I noticed that on Thursday evening a pianist was entertaining from 5:30 till 7:30.  OKAY, why not use that expiring coupon on a night where we can be entertained as well as fed.   

When we got there and made our selections, we made a bee-line to the music and were able to get the table (booth) closest to the keyboard.  And then the magic began.  I am not going to pretend that the music selections are everybody's cup of tea, but to me............well, it represented a time gone by.............a time when one could dine without the next table being loud and drunk, had a crying baby, or had four cell phones on the table.  It was the murmur of soft voices, the tinkling of a glass of tea, a coffee cup being placed on the table, a knife being dropped........softly.........softly.

There was a table of 11 senior citizens nearby--by that I mean older than us....mostly in their late 80s or early 90s.  Some swing music and a wide spot in the floor was all it took to convince the seniors to dance and dance they did, even singing and clapping to the music.  These darling people just made me smile.  I just wanted to set down with them and interview each one to find out about their lives.  Were they in WWII or the Korean War?  Had they been professionals?  Were they once the "I'll meet you at the bar after work crowd."?  Were they going to the clubs having their martinis in the 60s?  Do they have children?  Is their spouse living?  I wanted to ask the tall, stately gentleman in the nice tan slacks with the matching Hawaiian shirt where he learned to dance like that.  I wanted to tell him I loved him singing to the music even if he was sometimes a little off-key. 

Most of them left a little after 7:00 p.m., but oh what a night (early evening) for them.  They laughed, sang, clapped, danced, and tried to remember the name of THAT song.  There wasn't a cell phone in sight.  They were in the moment.  There was no need to tell all their 783 Facebook friends where they were for they were with their friends, the important friends, the ones they hope to be with again next Thursday.

I want to be them!  I want to be able to hobble to the cafeteria to hear the music.  I want to sing along with the music.  I want to dance.  I didn't even see a plate of food on their table, don't have a clue why not...perhaps they ate before we arrived............these people had their coffee and iced tea...........no need for booze......they had each other............they had music............and they had a dance floor.  It really didn't matter if they were walking with a cane or if they had a walker, or even if they danced.........they made it.........they enjoyed their evening.  They could go back home with a smile on their face and remembrance of the evening for their night's slumber.  

Yeah, there were a lot of seniors there and while we don't feel like seniors ourselves, I am sure others would beg to differ.  When we walked out a short time later, the hubby said "This cafeteria is the 'Happy Hour' for Seniors."  True that!  Heavy on the HAPPY.

I love you.






 







  

It Feels so Good to Hold You When I Cry

My youngest grandson is a new first grader, and as with most first graders starting the year, there are lots of new tasks and adventures put before him.  He is faced with new challenges; new friends, new books, new studies, and a new teacher. 

My little grandson is doing well; however, he has those moments at school when his mother comes to mind and his little eyes fill with tears.  He tries so hard to not let anyone see his emotional side so I am sure he keeps his head down to have his quiet moment, but he misses mommy, he says.

My daughter told me that one night last week, he was crying in bed.  She went to check on him and he grabbed her, held on tight and just let the tears flow.  This went on for several minutes before he sobbed and told her through tears "It feels so good to hold you when I cry".  He couldn't find a way with words to tell her what was wrong.  He was just sad.  My daughter had no words of wisdom....no magical words, but what she had was love.  She had that magical mother's love.  Instantly she gave him what he needed, not words, just his mommy's arms.

Out of the mouths of babes, huh?  How often have I wished for mom to hold me while I cried.  No judgment, no embarrassment. 

I feels so good just to hold you when I cry.

I love you.

There's a Change in the Air

There's a change in the air.

Did you have an opportunity to go outside today?  If so, then you must have noticed a change.  The smell was different; a smell of summer coming to an end.  The air just felt different somehow.  The wind direction seemed neither from the East, West, North nor South, yet it was from every direction.  Even the heat felt different.  Oh it was hot, but it wasn't HOT.  It is that time of year when fall wants to give summer the boot, but summer holds fast.  Today my senses were being bombarded with the changes that are upon us.

There are no words that adequately describe what I want to say; how I want to describe this feeling; the change in the air.  When I stepped outside, wow.......memories nearly took my breath away.  Memories of dry grass crunching to dust; playing on a splintery teeter-totter.  The memory of the Prague High School band marching down the halls calling the students out of class to attend the pep rally on a hot Friday afternoon.  The memory of a school bus crowded with hot smelly kids heading home.  Memories of walking up the hill to wait on my children to walk home from school.  The memory of moving the pipes through the peanuts one last time.  The memory of eyeing the first red sumac leaves.  The memory of going to get the cows.  Memories of my children already discussing their Halloween costumes more than a month ago.   

Yes, a change is in the air and even though I had memories today, my life continues to go forward making room for new memories and lots of changes.

I love you.  

Email

I opened my email and have 17 emails and not one of them was from a friend.  Oh, I have those wanna be friends; i.e. Soft Surroundings, Best Buy, Sam's Club, Frontgate, Plow and Hearth, Gurney's, Jackson and Perkins, QVC, Weight Watchers, etc, but they only want my MONEY.

My point is we don't send emails anymore.  Texting only three or four words at a time seems to be the norm.  Times, they are a changing.  Time for an email--no way.  Letter........in the mail?...........are you kidding?

When did our lives become so busy that we fail to contact the very people we love?  When did we become so engrossed in our personal (me me me) lives that we don't even take the time to call?  When did we decide that texting was better than hearing our loved ones' voice?  When did we decide that emailing was better than taking the time to pen something in our own handwriting?  When did we convince ourselves that a one-line text was enough to assuage our conscience into believing that we are fulfilling our communication obligation to each other? 

When?  I miss those letters and emails, full of news about the family and full of past or upcoming adventures.  I miss those long handwritten letters even the x'ed out mistakes.  As soon as I opened the mailbox and saw your handwriting, I knew I had something exciting to read......sent just to me.   

I kept most of my family's handwritten letters, especially Grandma Tucker's.  My grandchildren will never know her, but they will have a sense of her by the things of which she wrote.  If you have ever sent me a letter, chances are I have it in "the" box.  Future generations will find those letters someday, but before then I think I will take a few out and reread them...just to remember.  They were special; sent at a special time; sent from special people.

I love you.

When I worked I received a lot of emails that needed to be answered.  They set my precedence for my day....lined up my work schedule.  These days my days are certainly not determined by the latest email, but I still have this habit of looking to see if I have received any emails.  As I loved those handwritten letters, I love a long email. 

Just a Mexican Chicken Soup Kind of Day

Have you bought one of Sam's Club Rotisserie chickens?  Every few weeks I buy one of these delicious chickens for dinner.  $4.88 for a huge chicken, hot and ready to serve.  I feel that it is a better alternative to fried chicken, but since I don't ever compare the two, nutrition-wise, I cannot back that up factually.  I remove the skin and only eat the white meat so I have this "feeling" that I am eating a healthy entrée.  Add a few roasted vegetables and half of a baked potato and you have a delicious meal. 

I can make this chicken last a couple more meals if I am lucky..........and assuming the grandson's aren't here to eat the "boned chicken".....their name for rotisserie chicken..........this is opposed to the only other chicken they know which is chicken nuggets.  You and I both know that nuggets for the most part are NOT chicken............as I remember.  I cannot remember when I last ate fried chicken.

Ok, the above was meal one.  On to Meal two:  Put leftover deboned chicken in crockpot and add green, chili enchilada sauce and other spices of liking.  Scoop a little into heated corn tortillas for a soft taco, add cheese, sour cream, onions, cilantro to your liking.  Or fill tortillas with mixture, roll up and add to casserole dish.  Cover with more green enchilada sauce.  Heat through.

Meal three:  Add potatoes and chicken stock to crockpot for a green chili chicken stew.

Meal four:  Add more chicken stock, rinsed black beans, a little corn, cumin to make a Mexican style soup.  Add some heated corn tortillas or crispy corns chips and a little cilantro and you have a most delicious soup that rivals any restaurant.

Just a Mexican Chicken Soup kind of day.

I love you.

Just a Few Memories

 

A few good memories for me today:

Watching my 9 year old grandson make a soccer goal.

Watching my 6 year old grandson play in his very first soccer game.  No goal but he was all over that ball and his "man" coverage was awesome. 

Hearing my 6 year old grandson complain that he was sick and dehydrated because I made them put away the Lincoln Logs.

Giving my grandsons their favorite meal....cheese pizza, even if it is a $1.50 frozen pizza.  It's all good to them.

Allowing the grandsons to eat their pizza on the couch in the living room.  They love that.

Watching them as they set side by side, pizza in lap, bare legs stretched straight out because they just aren't long enough to reach the floor, black socks on their feet, smiling just 'cause.

Watching the 9 year old put together a model car with the help of his grandpa; reading and understanding the directions.  He has already told his mother that this project is going to take a long time.  Learning to do it right.

Watching the 6 year old color a wooden Indian as a Thanksgiving project and noticing how much better he colored it than the same Indian last year.

Going to pond exploring the "hideout".

Watching the Mecum auction with them and them comparing each car to our ages.  "Were you born in 1940?"  "Are you older than that car?"  "1970, is that older than you?" 

Watching them totally engrossed in the Wallace and Gromit movie:  "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

And the day isn't over yet.  They tell me they want to catch fire-flies after the movie and then we have to sleep in the sunroom.  Fun times are ahead.  Isn't this what life is all about? 

Enjoy the little things, folks.  Just a few memories.

I love you.  I love them.

Tinker Friends

Good Afternoon All.  I just came back from lunching with my friend......my work friend.  There is never enough time to say all the things we need to say in one hour.  We just jump from one conversation to the next trying to get in a month's worth of news in 60 short minutes. 

Today was a little different because after lunch I decided to go visit the "old" office, my pre-retirement home.  Everything has changed, yet nothing has changed.  The walls are the same old walls, but they seem darker somehow.  Maybe that is because I have a lot of windows now in my post-retirement home.  There are rips or tears in some of the wall coverings that were there five long-short years ago.  Nothing has changed.

The maze to the old office is exactly the same.  Some of the faces have changed in those cubicles lining the maze, but the turn to the right, turn to the left, turn to the right, turn to the left, turn to the right, turn to the left, etc. is exactly the same.  I could walk it in total darkness.  I'd still like to know the story of the plastic wrap over the heads of a couple employees in their cubicle.

The same old people, with a couple of new faces, are still playing cards during lunch.  Some working during lunch, some sleeping, some just surfing the Internet.  Nothing much has changed with the remaining folks that I remember from five years ago.  Change of workloads maybe, new grand babies, a little weight lost or a little weight gained on some...........basically the same-o same-o. 

Here I am writing my blog this afternoon, not writing a letter to maintenance about why or why not they are doing certain things.  "Remember........in that last meeting you said you were going to do this.....AND now you are doing WHAT?"  Writing a blog post trumps writing a nasty-gram any day of the week; however, nothing tops my Tinker friends.

It was a lot of fun to visit for a few minutes, but what was more fun was driving off base knowing I no longer a part of the big Tinker picture.  I am grateful that Tinker gave me career opportunities that I could not have gotten elsewhere, but I am even more grateful that retirement is my life now. 

Nothing tops my Tinker friends, even five years later.  I love you.

Fall In Love

I am back again.  This whirlwind of life really messes up my schedule.  I think I am back on track once again........maybe...........until the phone rings.

A couple of years ago I wrote about a coffee that I like.  I wait patiently every year for this seasonal coffee to make its appearance on Marshall's shelves.  FALL IN LOVE ground coffee!  Yep, that is the name of it.  FALL IN LOVE. 

 

 

See what I mean!  Fall leaves in the shape of a heart.  How cute.

This year I also have Pumpkin Spice.

 

 

For those of you who only buy ground coffee from America, rest at ease for this is roasted and ground to perfection by Paramount Coffee in Lansing, Michigan.  They told me so.  Check them out at www.paramountcoffee.com  You can buy different flavors directly from their website; however, I purchased mine from Marshall's and at a cost savings.  My daughter also found them at T.J Maxx and I suspect they will also be at the new Home Goods store coming later this month. 

 

The packaging designer hit a home run with this product.  I would buy this for autumn decorating even if I didn't drink coffee.  Just kidding......I think.  I remember a time when my sister-in-law and I bought cinnamon tea leaves just for the fragrance.  There are even a couple of quotes on the side panels.  All this detail.........don't you love it when a company goes "the extra mile" to product something this lovely?

 

Love sweetens life, and Life sometimes destroys Love.  Beauty is desirable and Deformity detestable; Therefore Beauty is not Deformity nor Deformity, Beauty.  Hope springs eternal in the human Breast, I hope to be happier next Fall than I am at present, and this Hope makes me happier now than I should be without it.

 

-----John Adams, 1763

 

I look back to the early days of our acquaintance, and Friendship, as to the day of Love and Innocence; and with an indescribably pleasure I have seen near a score of years roll over our Heads, with an affection heightened and improved by time--nor have the dreary years of absence in the smallest degree effaced from my mind the Image of the dear untitled man to whom I gave my Heart.

 

----Abigail Adams, 1783  

 

Here's to you John and Abigail.  Here's to you Paramount Coffee.  Here's to you Fall in Love.  Here's to you!  Enjoy your Fall.

I love you.