What happened? Where was I?

January is apparently a fine month for all Northern relatives to head South for the Winter. I had company up to my ears......difficult as I had to get up very early in morning (before any guests) and make hairball patrols. I, also, had to take their help getting moved (and very grateful I am, too) when I could get it. March 1st, one set will be coming back for two months.....these are head and shoulders the best cousins ever but will probably mean less attention to the computer and more getting settled into this Condo (my parents' old home).

Whew........

Finally, I've moved every single little article from the old condo. Condo has been painted, carpeted and new screens where needed. Now I need to clean windows and the few floors and plant some little somethings in the triangle between driveways.......I am so ready to get rid of that condo. The garage at this condo is almost filled between things I'm getting rid of (on the left) and things I think I'm keeping (on the right) and car in middle just barely in the garage.

Christmas Past, part IIl

1989, the year of the great blizzard!! Yes, we in Southeast Georgia actually had a snowstorm. I had 6" drifts in my yard...and, it stayed on the ground for several days. A few problems with it, of course. No one in SE Georgia can even drive in the rain, much less the snow. I was on a four day off cycle so I could be off Christmas. Yes, my little devoted readers, it was Christmas time. I am a last minute shopper, I freely admit that. I could not get my car out of the driveway for two days....right up to Christmas day. Finally went shopping, before going to tree time at the parents'......at Winn Dixie!. It was the only store open and there were several of us in there. Picture it, would Mom like a nice ham for Christmas? Maybe Dad would like some paper products? Cards???? Cross out the Happy Birthday and write Merry Christmas.....I vowed never again to wait to the last minute but, of course, the next year, Christmas Eve found me rambling the streets in the 79 degree weather...

Errors in Judgement, part I

We were just mentioning OCD on the Wheel and I remembered this weird thing I did about 8 or so years ago. I was about 20 pounds over my fighting weight and one of our patients tried to get the ER doc to prescribe Prozac for her. He refused. She was hollering so I tried to calm her and she said that she didn't want it for depression but for weight loss. Light bulb came on. I made an appointment with shrink I knew pretty well and talked to him about how I thought I was depressed because my parents were getting older, and I kept worrying about them. He said I was OCD and suggested a drug. I said that I had been sort of thinking about Prozac so that's what he gave me. I did not lose weight and not only that, it kept me awake at night so quickly dropped it. I was kind of complimented that he thought I was obsessive about anything....it sounded like I was a real type A go getter, which I knew I was not.

This and that.....

Just took a real age quiz. It's supposed to tell you, based on lots of lifestyle questions, what your real body age is compared to your birth date age. Hmmmf....it says I'm 76 although most people say 46. It's the exercise, cholesterol, exsmoking, weight, breast cancer stuff that's making me old. I promise that in the New Year, I will not take anymore of these quizzes.

I am smack dab on the "Snowbird" route so am in the middle of the annual trek from Northeast to South Florida....at least, no one stays here for the winter. Can't believe I actually cooked something besides tuna soup all week long....yuk.

Does anyone besides me think the Baker ISG report was inane? Oh sure, why don't we go chat with the Iranians...even though we know they won't chat with us.....how childish and naive are these people? While I'm on a roll, get Kerry and Dodd out of Syria....who do they think they are? Also, can anyone do anything about Jimmy Carter? Maybe a bunch of houses need to be built somewhere or some peanuts need to be planted......what a curmudgeon...arrogant one at that. Merry Christmas!

How to Ace Chemistry....

I shouldn't tell this but...because of my Dad's constant duty changes, I had missed some classes I would need to get into a good college so I had to cram them all in my Senior year. I took Eng IV, Math IV (intro to calculus and trig),Chemistry, Physics, World History, Latin IV. I did okay except I tended to let Chemistry slide a little. My teacher was just catching on to the fact that I was slacking when he died. The sub for the last 3 weeks before Christmas was a friend of my mothers. Result = A for that semester. After Christmas, the teacher I had last year taught my class....he thought I was smart and it took a couple of months for him to realize I was slacking off..luckily he was offered a better job. The woman who taught the last month came up to me one day and told me her husband was in my Father's flight crew and she just knew that I had his brains. I got a A in chemistry. I thought that was pretty cool until I went to Nursing School, where they apparently thought I had learned something in high school. I justified the slacking off because I was really having problems with physics........

More Christmas Past.....

I remember Dad taking me and Jo Christmas shopping in Annapolis. It was cold and wet, usually, and also, usually, Christmas Eve. We would shop for Mom's presents. I, usually stuck to Evening in Paris.....you got so many little blue bottles for your money (cheap perfume for you young'ns). Then, we would head for a hardware store where Dad would buy her gift and stocking stuffers. Jo usually got her a bathrobe...Jo was so young, Dad would choose it for her...but I was older so I picked out the Evening in Paris myself.....poor Mom.

Christmas....

Christmas brings back such happy memories of family for all of us. Our family really went all out for Christmas; Advent candles, giving trees, midnight Mass, stockings, presents, big lovely dinner. Several Christmases were a little late, as Dad might be on Midway or on a ship...those years we got two Christmases. I found out about Santa Claus when I was 7, in Trinidad. I heard Santa swearing while trying to put my metal doll house together....and, asking my Mom to get him another martini. My sister was well known in the family for screaming, "No, I don't want that dirty old man in my house." She was 3 and scared of beards. In later years, we learned to be careful what we asked for around Christmas time. One year, I told them both separately (when they asked, of course) that I had no good pots or pans at all. Later while shopping, I saw a copper pot and got it for Dad. Mom saw some calphalon pots she liked and got them for Dad. Dad saw a set of pots and pans that he liked and got them for Mom.......I got none! So much fun, how lucky I was....

Thanks, Dipsy..........

You are The High Priestess
Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.
The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.
What Tarot Card are You?Take the Test to Find Out.

Sweet Aunt Bev......

My sweet Auntie Bev died Wednesday evening at the age of 90. She hadn't been doing well since her brother's death (my Father) in May. Bev married Bucky and had 7 kids and worked on their farm for years and years and years. She reminded me more of my paternal Gramma then any of the other girls in the family. She had been living in an independent living home in Randolph the past five years or so. I will always remember her putting her jigsaw puzzles together or doing sudoku puzzles. We would work on those puzzles and I would hear her mumbling and say, "huh?" and then realize that she was swearing, gently and sweetly, though, about some of the other female residents. She told me who all the nosy ones were...she seemed to like the men okay though. And, Lord, she loved her Red Sox. I will miss her so much. This getting older business and losing all your relatives is for the birds, frankly....