Monday, May 11, 2026

on to 78

How old are we really? 


    Birthdays mark the end of a year. 

    When you turn 1, you are finishing your first year of life.

    I turned 78, so I just finished my 78th year of life.  So, am I really 79?                   

    Honestly, sometimes I feel like it.  Other times I feel like I am in my 60s.  And sometimes I feel like a teenager again, especially when listening to the oldies or Beatles channels on Sirius.

    When I am mowing, I have ear protectors with a built in radio and Bluetooth.  I listen to Buffet and The Beatles when I mow, and I sing along sometimes.

    Neighbor Jackie said she often hears me singing when I mow!  My gosh, now I am a bit embarrassed!  I did not realize I was singing louder than the mower!

    I just hope I wasn't singing to Buffet's Why Don't WGet Drunk and Screw.  

    I invited some people over for pizza tonight.  We had a great time visiting and chatting and eating.

    I am just really thankful for all the people in my life.  I can't begin to explain to all of you, those here and those not here, how you impacted my life.

    As the Golden Girls said, Thank you for being a friend.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace


Sunday, May 10, 2026

Happy Mothers' Day

A late wish for a Happy Mothers' Day 


    You don't have to be a mother to be appreciated this day, but they get all the attention.

    I had big plans for the day.  

    I was going to toss some dirt and do a couple of other little tasks.

    I went to the store, came home  and sat down to watch the Cubs for an inning.  The was the third, I think.  I woke up in the seventh!

    I just can't seem to get enough sleep lately.

    No dirt got tossed.

    But I did notice a guy down the street has a yard tractor with a bucket.  I will wander down sometime this week and see if I can hire him to toss the dirt  for me.  With the bucket, it should not take very long.

    I got my battery powered cultivator and now I wonder if that was the right choice.  I will have to climb into the bins to use it, and I don't know if that is a good idea for me or the bins. I should have thought this through.  A battery powered hand cultivator would be a better choice, just not sure 

    At the rate I am going, it won't matter.

    It's supposed to be cold again tonight, not quite freezing but cool.  

    As you fill up at the gas pump this week, realize Shell Oil reported profits of 7.8 BILLION for the first quarter. BP only earned 3.2 BILLION.  Sometimes capitalism sucks.

    I think we should have a pool going in Rochelle to see what station hits $5 for regular first.  My bet is on the BP station on 251 and Carrie.

    Time will tell.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Saturday, May 9, 2026

buns, baby, buns

 I went looking for some good buns today


    I couldn't  find any.

    I am looking for a bun that holds a bratwurst.  

    Most of the buns are too big, or too small, or too soft and crumbly.

    I have limited places to look locally, and it is not worth driving all over creation looking.  I should have looked in Rockford when I was. there.  But I didn't.

    I think Woodman's is my favorite grocery store.  Not sold on their produce, but the selection is amazing!

    They must have 20 brands of potato chips.  I bought some Mrs. Fisher's and Mr, Mike's. I stacked them in the pantry, hoping they mate and produce little chips.

    If you walk down the cereal aisle you will see hundreds of different choices.

    But I forgot to look for buns.

    Jackie got me up a little before 7 this morning.   She was tired, and said she wanted to go bak to bed for a while.

    We went back to bed and woke up at 10:15!!!!

    Holy smokes!  We must have been tired.

    I was going to go out and throw dirt into my bin, but the wind was too strong.  I figured anything I got into the air would just come back onto me.  Maybe tomorrow.

    Or maybe not.  

    But I have to get the bins  up and filled so I can plant stuff before it gets too late.

    I'm at the point where I regret the whole project.

    But the Rubicon has been crossed.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace 

Friday, May 8, 2026

what the hell

 I'm kind of grouchy tonight


    Just a lot of little things that grate on me.

    Why do people take babies to baseball games?  Every game at Wrigley it seems they show parents with a baby.  Not a small child, a baby.  At one game they showed a mother in the bleachers holding her baby.  In the full sun.

    Why?  The kid isn't going to remember.  The noise might hurt their ears.  Some drunk might spill beer on them and turn them into a beer guzzling kindergartner.

    I pulled onto Flagg Road today  going into town.  I was doing close to 55.  A white car zoomed past me like I was standing still.

    He got behind 2 cars doing the speed limit.  I was right behind him. Why was he going so fast to start with?

    People who do California rolls at stop signs.  Just stop.

    The person in the orange car that burns rubber on Skare Road at 10:30  at night while I am out with the dog.

    Parents who refuse to accept that their precious child did something wrong.  Even when the kid is now an adult, they will provide alibis and excuses instead of accepting the fact their kid is wrong.

    Customer service reps with strong accents.  When I went to cancel something with X finity,  they transferred me to retention expert, who spoke perfect English with no accent.

    Telemarketers.

    Politicians who are afraid to stand up for the 98 percent who are not billionaires or in the Epstein Files.

    Drivers who don't stop for people in crossings.

    And those are the ones I can think of after having a margarita.

     Excuse the spelling and punctuation mistakes.  I am really tired.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

Thursday, May 7, 2026

run, run, run

 I did a lot of running today


    Not the kind that is actual exercise.  I could do that once upon a time, but that time has long passed.

    On the rare occasions I don run, I have a lopsided gait  and flailing arms, like goose trying to take off.

    I have plastic arch support inserts for my shoes.  They are wide, which means shoes have to be wide. I have trouble finding shoes I like to wear  everyday.

    I went to a shoe store in Rockford today.  They specialize in creating inserts for people with arch issues.  I had a nice conversation with one of the employees and they explained the options.  I can buy the inserts and shoes, or the inserts, or just shoes.  

    The inserts are around $500 for a pair, plus buying a cover, plus buying something else.  But they have a special of 3 sets of inserts, 3 pairs of shoes, and covers for only l$1,499.

    Being the fashion king I am, I opted for 2 of the special offers.

    Just kidding.

    I think my inserts are fine.  Old, but fine.  I just have to look for shoes.

    I stopped at X finity  to drop off my touch pad and the remote.  The lady said my account was cancelled and gave me a receipt.

    Then I stopped at Home Depot. Our health insurance plan offers a yearly in home health assessment.  They take blood pressures, get my weight, go over my medications, and give me a short cognitive test.

    By the way, the last time I did the cognitive t test I was told that I had done better than anyone else who had taken the test.  My scores were the highest ever recorded.  The nurse was totally sruprised and impressed.

    Anyway, there is a checklist the insurance people send.  Get a screening, check it off.  Get a  flu shot, check it off.  Have the home assessment, check it off.

    If you check all the boxes, you get a choice of gift cards.

    I opted for Home Depot cards.  So today, I stopped at the Home Depot and got a battery powered garden cultivator priced at $119. I had $220 in gift cards because I saved them!

    Score!!!!

    Also stopped at Dan and Linda's and had a nice visit.  I tried entering their street address for driving directions, but the directions always took me to Morton Grove.  Turns out, I had the address wrong !  I was driving down their street looking at the numbers and they didn't make sense.  Then I saw Linda out in front.  I reversed the last 2 digits.  

    I also stopped at a grocery store in Rockford for a couple of things we can't get locally.

    And I started the day at the museum with third graders.  We talked (I talked) about what life was like before we had all the modern conveniences. 

    I had forgotten how energetic that age group can be.  But for the most part, they were good kids.

    One of the activities involves living a pail of rocks.  They lift it manually, then use a rope attached to a pulley to see how much easier work can be done with the right tools.

    I told them to let the bucket down slowly.

    One little one asked what would happen if it dropped.

    I told them that did happen once.  The bucket went through the table, down through the floor and kept going until it came out the other side of the world!  And then I had to go get it.

    I asked them if they believed me. I think. a couple did.

    I told them when anyone, especially an adult, tells you something that you find hard to believe, well, just don't believe that person.

    I did tell them dropping the bucket only makes a loud noise.

    They all believed that.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace


Wednesday, May 6, 2026

dang, it's cold

 I almost froze again while mowing


    I dressed better for the weather:  heavy shirt, with a windbreaker over that and a sweatshirt over that.

    I was fine going into the sun, but it was cold mowing away from the sun.  And the wind!!  Oh my gosh!

    I managed to mow our yard and the lot in just under 2 hours.  I did not mow any of the trees down, at least I don't think I did.  I need to put stakes by them to make them stand out.  Some of the grass was taller than the trees!

    Unfortunately it was too cold for me to trim.

    We are having the house washed tomorrow.

    I know!  That sounds silly! But we have some green areas and they don't look good.  Plus, the siding has collected some dirt over the years.

    We had it done a few years ago and were happy with the results.  Next will be the windows.  Doesn't make sense to do those first.  And yes, someone comes and does them too.  It takes me a couple of weeks while Matt and his crew polish them off in half a day.

    Friend Sheri cane over today and helped me adjust the garden bin.  It was bowed out a little because one of the center supports was loose and I could not get it back together by myself.  Hopefully it holds up.

    I always have buyer's remorse. I always think I bought the wrong product, no matter what ti is.  I have the same problem at dinner.

    When we go out I order Item A.  Someone else orders Item B.  The dishes come to the table and I immediately wish I had ordered B!  

    It's not that I can't make a decision, it's that I can't make a decision I like!

    One decision I always can make is if I am offered more cake.  

    And I never regret that!

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

    

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

schedules

 I am on week 2 of my scheduled life


    I have earmarked times to do certain things.  

    For example: OnMonday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons I walk the dog, then walk myself.

    On Tuesday and Thursday I write.

    Monday is also a day to mow.

    This is how it went today:

    11 a.m. almost finished with the Trib, decided to take a short nap.

    Woke up at 12:45.  So much for schedules!

    I went  to work on the planters but ran into a problem I can't fix myself.  Sufiice it to say, my planters are not constructed as well as some of the more expensive ones.  Hopefully the fix is in for tomorrow.

    So how many times have I walked the dog?  0.  Spent time writing? 0.

    Oh well.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

    I also made Friday my Rockford day, forgetting Jackie has a hair appointment.  So I switched it to Thursday, only to remember I have a museum gig at 12:45.

    After cancelling Thursday's plans, I decided to go ahead anyway, so I rescheduled with people.

    I just have to be home by 5:30 because I have a museum meeting at 6.

    No wonder my stomach aches.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace