Normalcy returns...almost

The last couple of weeks have been very interesting, that is, different, err...out of the ordinary, well, you get the picture. You'll recall that we changed our plans about visiting Mustang Island because Haime contracted pneumonia (some people go to extremes for attention). Well, he followed that up with a sinus infection (another attention-getting ploy, no doubt). Anyway, he's better; I may have to check myself into Betty Ford, however...just kidding. So, playing nurse-Nancy put quite a crimp into my normal happy-go-lucky lifestyle. I am very pleased to say that things are beginning to get back to normal.  To prove my point, I was able to return to my Yoga class last week.

In an earlier post, I told you about my beginning Yoga. OK, let me refresh your memory with a little illustration: 



Do I rock this pose or what?

Well, the class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about an hour each day. I'm sure many of you are avid Yoga enthusiasts...good for you! Now for the rest of you, who may be like me and are happy when you can tie your own shoe without falling out of the chair because you've lost your balance, let me tell you a bit about my Yoga class.  There are two instructors, a different one each day. The Tuesday instructor looks around the room, sees what she is dealing with and adapts accordingly. She puts us through the same tortuous twisting, bending, "breathing-through-your-aching-buttocks" poses as the Thursday instructor, but she is much more merciful with the amount of time we hold each pose. Well, after having missed about 3 weeks of lessons, I returned to the Thursday class last week. WOW! Let me spare you the awful details and just say that my legs we shaking as if in a full-blown epileptic seizure. I'm telling you if I would have had to hold the "barking-dog-on-a-mountain-in-warrior-two-picking-a-sunflower-out-of-a-reverse-swan-dive" for even an additional millisecond, I would have been written up in several medical journals. Then Friday, when I woke-up (after a hydrocodone-induced sleep), I was temporarily panicked that I was paralyzed until I realized that true paralysis is not painful. Basically, I crawled through most of my morning but eventually was able to move to nearly vertical slide-walk. By today, I'm certain I'll be back to the gym tomorrow for the weight-circuit and treadmill then Yoga on Tuesday. In the event any of you happen to run into me after one of the next few Yoga classes, please mention that I seem to be much more limber than I used to be...little lies are welcome right now.

Sore muscles or not, hell yes I was in God's Country (Aggieland) yesterday to watch my beloved Aggies BTHO Arkansas! To be fair, the Arkansas football team has had some pretty poor examples, in recent coaches, of how responsible adults behave. So, was the team up to the standard that they might have been otherwise? Possibly not, but hey, I'll take a win! For those who might not live in Texas, let me try and put this into perspective. You see, in Texas, football is nearly as sacred as a religion. For Texas Aggies, Kyle field is our church and it is common knowledge that God resides in College Station.

Yep, Normalcy has returned to my little neck of the woods...the trash-talking is back! 

God laughs!

I have long known that I don't fit very nicely into a mold.  For example, as an 30-year educator, I have been around long enough to see many "trends" in the business emerge, fade away and re-emerge (usually with a new name).  One of the longest lasting "trends" involved identifying the type of "learner" a student was, and then teaching according to the individual type (visual, auditory, kinesthetic etc.) To demonstrate these differing types, we teachers were given the opportunity to identify our own learning styles...well, I basically flat-lined. Now, some wonderfully gracious workshop leaders suggested that I was a gifted learner who could learn regardless of how the material was presented (what a crock that was!) You see, I just don't fit nicely in a mold. With that in mind, we move to the heart of this post, it comes from an old Jewish proverb that states: "Man makes plans and God laughs." For many people, long detailed plans must occur prior to any and all events.  Well, I like to plan, on the other hand, I like nothing better than for someone to suggest going somewhere or doing something "right now..." I'm off! So I guess that makes me both a planner and spontaneous...see no good fit. 

One of our most recent plans was to spend Haime's birthday on Mustang Island.  Haime loves to fish but really only goes fishing if we are at the coast.  Once there, however, he'll fish for about 16 hours everyday.  On the other hand, I fish at the seafood counter at the grocery store.  I always "catch" exactly what I want and all I have to do with my catch is to cook it...no gutting or scaling required...what could be better?  Well, we had this trip planned for a couple of months then, Haime got pneumonia, so instead of a trip to the coast, we took a trip to the emergency room.  (God laughs.)  I'm very happy (and relieved) to report that thanks to antibiotics and some good home care, he's much better.

I designated Friday of this week as "yard-work day" for me.  I planned to mow the front and back yards; edge and trim; pull weeds from beds; turn the soil in the raised veggie beds in preparation of some fall veggies; and just do some other much needed maintenance around the outside of our home.  I had just finished mowing the front yard, started the back (got far enough to move my grandson's play set) and the mower refused to restart...after several pulls I decided to check the gas. Yep, empty and the same was true of the 2.5 gallon gas can. Just as I was loading the gas can into the truck for a quick trip to the station, my son Boo drove up the drive. "Hey mom, lets go to Costco together" (spontaneity!) So instead of completing the yard-work, I got to spend a couple of hours with Boo. (God laughs.)

My son Chipper and I have season tickets to Texas Aggie football games.  We each paid for a ticket and divided the home games among us so we each have two tickets to three games each.  The first game, against Florida, was mine and my son Boo went with me.  Unfortunately time ran out before we could claim a victory on the field but Boo and I had a great time.  This week is Chipper's game against the S. Carolina Bobcats.  Originally He and his beautiful bride of (nearly) 6 years, M, were going to go to the game and I was going to go along and watch it and tailgate on campus.  Well, as with some plans, they could not attend the game after all so I scored the tickets. (God laughs). This time, my sister J (who lives in Dallas) was seated beside me.  Two of my sisters and I all attended A&M and graduated from there in the early 80s. As J and I watched march in and enjoyed the game and each other's company, one of Cher's tunes kept coming to mind..."If I could turn back time..." How the hell has 30+ years passed since I was a student here? (God has such an amazing sense of humor.)

Prior to the football season's start, we were hopeful that we'd go to the TAMU vs Arkansas game with some friends (J & K). Unfortunately, they were not able to score tickets to the game, and truth be told, since they misguidedly cheer for the razorbacks, it could have been ugly; (actually, it would have been great fun and we're sorry we couldn't make it happen). At any rate, as things have turned out, Chipper and I have traded games so he and M will be sitting in the stands as A&M BTHO Arkansas. I will definitely be on campus (again, tailgating and enjoying the sights and sounds of Aggieland) and I'm very hopeful my grandson Car will be with me. I've already bought an S.E.C. inaugural season Car-sized football for us to run and play with on the grassy knolls. (God, I hope the laughing you do is a reaction to seeing a maroon-blooded Nana playing ball with her grandson in her beloved Aggieland).

Tis the Season...

This post is going to be short and sweet...just like me:

Whether you are a student of nature, biology, religion, or just a keen observer, you have probably noticed that life occurs in cycles.  Art and music has been composed to celebrate these cycles (or circles) of life and we all enjoy its wonders through each season.  In our family, we are in the thick of our late summer/early fall birthday cycle.  The cycle begins in July with my niece A and nephew J.  There are fewer than two weeks between their birthdays so our cycle begins benignly enough.  A couple of weeks after J's birthday is another nephew, D in early August then my son Boo in the latter part of the month.  When mid-September hits though, the dam breaks...my step-daughter E is on the 16th, Haime is the 17th; my dad (yes, we still honor his birth) the 20th (he would have been 78 this year); my other step-daughter D on the 22; my wonderful daughter-in-law M on the 24 and mom on the 28th.  Don't think we're done, Oct. 4 is my step-son D, I am on the 5th and on the 8 are my sisters C and C and my step-son M is on the 11.  Wow!!  The next busy birthday cycle for us is January through mid-February but since there are only about 5 birthdays during that 6-week period, it simply is not even close and there are smatterings of birthdays throughout the rest of the year.  You gotta love the cycles of life.

I commented above about my dad's birthday.  Our typical family celebration of birthdays means that we all (as many as is possible given life and work obligations) for a family dinner followed by cake etc.  Of course the birthday-celebrant chooses the menu or, at least the menu consists of the celebrant's favorites.  So, when we get together for the anniversary of my Dad's birth, we usually have spaghetti with some selection of sauces, (last year we had Alfredo with chicken, meatballs with marinara, and a clam sauce) and we always have German-chocolate cake.  I have been hosting this party for the past 4 years and am doing so again this year.  I'm torn between completely changing the menu as an outward sign that while we celebrate the wonderful life that daddy lived, that we have moved on; and keeping some of the old favorites.  I guess we'll have to see what Thursday night brings.

Microbes, Technology, Labors-of-Love, and "Go Big or Go Home" is not always appropriate...

I take a good deal of pride in my "I'm very seldom ill" health. So, when some microbe invades my space and puts me in "sick bay," (tell me you understood that to be a Star Trek reference rather than a nautical one), I tend to take it personally and react by going into hibernation. I rationalize that if I focus all my energies on kicking some virus/bacterial butt, then the little critter doesn't stand a chance! So, that's mostly what has occupied my time for the past week. Jimminy, I hate feeling sub-par.  At any rate, I am finally back to nearly humanoid.

On a related issue, technology is a wonderful tool, when it works. It seems that my land-line and home Internet connections have also been suffering from some ill. I've become quite the techie when it comes to rebooting and minor trouble shooting but this is WAY over my head. I've exchanged the modem, and contacted customer service (does answering computer-voice cues on your key pad really equate to customer service?) with no results. FINALLY, the company is sending out a repair person today. I must admit, while it has been something of an inconvenience not having access to my computer, I have not missed the seemingly endless ringing of the land-line caused by political pollsters, wanna-be elects and other nuisance callers.



Matched set of "wine drinking"
chairs on the back deck...come
try them out.

This is the first Labor Day holiday that I've celebrated since retiring last year. Perhaps I'm a bit more sensitive to the honor being paid to our workers, past and present, who do/did the work/labor to build our country, since my own labor has taken such a drastic shift. Although I no longer report to any outside agency, I find that I am a much harder task-master on myself than I thought I'd be. In some regards, being retired means that I am not held to a clock/calendar/routine; but, in others, I find that I push myself to finish projects that I would have let drag on during my "working life."  Is this some weird, "you must complete the project by X date" that has become imprinted into my DNA? Whatever the cause, I decided to share some recently completed projects that I am quite proud of as a tribute to Labor Day. (Obviously this post was initiated prior to my technology issues, please forgive the "dated" references). 



Hidden compartment with
plastic storage bin included.





Night stand with hidden compartment



Speaking of projects, since returning to the land of the humanoids, I have hit the never-ending project list with a vengeance.  Unfortunately, these are not the projects that necessarily result in any cool, obvious-to-everyone conclusion. These projects include working in the yard (just under an acre), and in the garden beds etc.  One particular chore that I have put off for WAY too long is trimming the rosemary bushes in what started life as our herb bed. Where once I grew thyme, oregano, basil, cilantro, chives, and rosemary, I now have the rosemary bushes from the land of the giants.  The two small original plants have taken over the 4x8 raised planter bed they used to share with the herbs above. I decided it was finally time to show the rosemary who is boss in our little corner of the world.

As you've probably guessed, I have quite a collection of tools. For my woodworking and building projects, for example, I have a selection of several different kinds of hammers, saws, clamps, etc. For gardening, I also have a bit of a selection, though not nearly as extensive. Lets face it, gardening is actually more labor intensive than building. At any rate, when deciding how best to enter into this battle with the pesky rosemary, I decided, "Go Big." So, yep, I pulled out a chain saw and reved it up. Now normally, my "Go Big or Go Home" philosophy is a good one, if not something of an over-kill at times. This was not one of those times. The chain saw was nearly useless. Even though some of the branches were certainly large enough to have been a challenge for my saw, they were outnumbered by the smaller, more limber of the branches. The tool that proved the most useful was an electric hedge trimmer, followed by a hand (completely manual) clipper. As so many of my DIY heroes would say, "it is important to have the correct tool for the job."