What the .......

 I lost one of my favorite hats today

    It's my red Swiss hat, has a white cross on the front.  It fits well, is nice and warm, and I just like it.

    I went to six places today.  I know I had my hat on when I left the house.  Leaving the first place iwth Dan and Linda, my hearing aids got caught up in my facemask and everything was falling out all over the place.  I got discombobulaed!

    By the time I got to my last stop, it was cold and snowy.  I looked for my hat.

    I could not find it.

    After leaving my last stop, I went back to Cypress House.  No hat.  Then to ALM Cabinets.  No hat.  Then past a friend's house were I stopped and got out of the car.  No hat.  The antique place I went with Dan and Linda.  I wandered up and down the aisles, but no hat.  I left my name at the front counter with a complete description of the hat and my phone number.  Called the museum.  No hat.

    When I got home I looked under the car seats and .... no hat.   I did find two gloves that match the two gloves I have in my glove basket.  Now I actually have 4 pairs!

    We ordered pizza (it's Friday!) and I went to get my gloves....there was my hat.

    I texted Linda at some point and asked her if she knew what I had done with my hat, but she said she did not think I was wearing one.

    And I wasn't.

    Which means, I am now losing  things I never had in the first place!

    I bet I spent 45 minutes backtracking my steps today.....45 minutes I could have spent napping or playing solitaire.

    Now I am not saying I am losing my mind, but if you ever see me wandering aimlessly around town, you might want to check on me.

    Oh....I did post the lost hat on Facebook and offered a Cypress House coffee to the person who found it.  I found it.  I owe myself a coffee.

Peace and Love

memories

 10 years ago today we closed on our old home

    We had been in the Skare Court house for about 20 years and had figured it was our forever home.

    But MS had different plans.  When I saw Jackie literally pulling herself up the stairs, I knew we could not continue to live there.  So we opted to build a one level home.

    Don't get me wrong, I like our current home.  But I loved the other one.  The breezeway was the main reason, but it was also fairly isolated with the park behind and wonderful neighbors to the south.  We had lots of trees too. and I love trees.

    We have wonderful neighbors now, too.  But the park and breezeway and trees are memories.

    Emily's tree, Martha, is still there.  She got that in third grade, I think.  All the kids got white pines and we planted it and nurtured it at our Mill Pond house.  When we went to move from there, Emily said we had to take Martha.  So we did.

    Martha flourished at Skare Court.  

    In reality, the house was too big for the two of us.  But it was also comfortable.

    MyFB memories reminded me that it was 10 years ago today we closed.  How is that possible?  What happened to those 10 years?

    I had another FB memory earlier this week about moving boxes into our temporary housing.  I thanked Dave and Mary for helping us, and now I wonder who they were.  Was it Dave R?  What Mary would have been around?

    Was it  new neighbors in the townhouses?  Why can't I remember?  Who helped?

    This summer I will be planting four trees.  It is long overdue.  I plan to watch them grow for a long time, maybe not 20 years, but at least half that.

    At least,  "God willing and the creek don't rise," as Tennessee Ernie Ford used to say at the end of his TV show way back when.

Peace and Love

I'm no fool

I can't believe the scam e-mails I am getting 

    It seems I have subscriptions that are due, free $50 gift cards, unclaimed packages, and purchases charged to my account in error, and they want to refund the money.

    Plus.....I got a message from a FB friend that he had sent a picture that he just found.  

    There may be a point later in life when I am gullible enough to believe some of these people, but not now.  I did not open the picture, which I am visualizing as some sort of worm that will infect my computer and destroy all my records after it grabs all the money in our savings accounts and transfers it to a hidden bank account in Elbonia.

    Or it could have been a porno shot.  I am not checking.

    To get the free gift card, all I had to do was to give some information to verify my account.  Really?  After I verify my info, I assume scammers will use my info to set up fraudulent accounts in my name and grab all the money in our savings accounts and transfer it to a hidden bank account in Elbonia.

    Subscriptions?  I get at least 4 notices a day telling me a subscription I don't have has expired.  I kinow if  I clink,   (my new shorthand for click  on the link.....TYVM!)  all my info will be stolen and someone will  grab all the money in our savings accounts and transfer it to a hidden bank account in Elbonia.

    To further prove I am not a fool, I took down my outside Christmas lights today.  It was fairly warm, so I used that to my advantage.  I did leave up one set, but that too will soon disappear.

    I also started thinking of a summer vacation.  Someone told me Elbonia was nice in September.

Peace and Love

un-real

 I read about the man out east who got a new heart

    It's not a human heart, but a pig's heart!  As I understood, it is a gene modified pig's heart, which closely resembles a human heart.

    The heart was inserted in an 8 hour operation.  Although the man was on an artificial heart machine after the surgery, doctors seemed pretty optimistic.  The pig heart seemed to be working.

    The man had a serious heart issue and was not eligible for a transplant, medication was not the answer, so the pig heart was his only option.

    That is feaking amazing!

    Of c ourse there are some ramifications.  He can't eat bacon or ham.  If he does generous acts he will be known as Pig Hearted Bill.  People will accuse him of eating like a pig.  If he joins a community theater group he might be called a ham in the making.

    And for you older folks, every time he finsihes a story he will say, "Tha   tha thaaats all folks!"

    I sinceerely wish him well.  He could be a lifesaver for so many people.  It was a courageous move on his part.

Peace and Love

TMI

I think my blog is impacting my social interactions

    When I talk to friends or family I start to tell a story and I hear, "yeah...I saw that on your blog" and I am rendered speechless.

    I need to start hiolding back information so I have somthing to talk about with people.

    You may not know this, but I am very much an introvert.  I know, you will disagree.

    But If I go to a party or gathering of people I don't know, I tend to sit on the edge and not interact.  I  usually don't go up and introduce myself to people, although the older I get the more I am doing that.  I think it's the feeling that I am older now and I'm not so worried about saying something stupid.

    And that is a real concern.  I spent 28 years talking with 9 and 10 year olds on a daily basis.  They think knock knock jokes are funny.  But get in a crowd of bankers or bsinessmen and ask them, "What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind as it hits your windshield?" causes them to look at you like you are an idiot.

    The more I am around a group, the more relaxed I become.  Yes, I can interact very well at a friend's birthday, or at a theater group event, or in several other situations when I know people.  

    And I perform on stage and with an improv comedy group, which a lot of people just can't do.  But the improv group is made up of friends, and I feel comfortable with them.  On stage, I am not Terry, but a character...or at least I try to be.

    Being a volunteer at the zoo caused me to talk to many strangers and I think that has helped me.  It's too bad Covid has impacted that part of my life.

    By the way, I just took Corki out.  It is 7 degrees outside.   I have my hearing aids in and it was great standing out there and listening to the night.  It was quiet....didn't even have traffic on Flagg Road, which is unusual.  

    The only sound was Corki's feet crunching on the icy snow and her incessant barking at the shadows.

    And the last thing that goes through a bug's mind?  His Butt!!!!!

    Admit it, you laughed.

Peace and Love

dirty, dirty dishes

 Today was one of my least favorite days

    The almost final act of removng Christmas is to change the Christmas plates with the non Christmas plates.

    It is a long, involved process.  All the Christmas stuff has to be washed, then moved to the dining room table.  Then all the normal dishes have to be raken out of the pie safe,  carried to the kitchen, and put on the shelves.

    The Christmas plates then go in the pie safe.  Now, some people prefer them to be in a particular order while others just want to stick the damn things into the pie safe.  This often results in some mumbling and grumbling and an occasional swear word, but then Jackie settles down.

    Meanwhile, the dishes are put into the kitchen cabinets in a certain order that reflects their use.  Big-butt pitcher?  Top shelf.  Cereal bowls?  Bottom shelf.

    I repeat the process with glasses and cups  We have a lot of cups.  More than we will ever use.  I have a cup I got for my 60th birthday and it holds 2 cups of tea.  And yes, I do fill it.

    I also had a love/hate relationship with today for another reason.  The Bears played their last game.  I usually love watching he Bears, but  for the past 2 seasons it has been hard.  I foolishly got overly optimistic when they grabbed a 14-3 lead before getting trounced in the second half.

    Now, I am not a football genius.  But if I have a bruising running back and fourth and goal from the one, I am not taking him out and passing.  But the Bears did.  The next time they had fourth and goal from the one, they had Montgomery in but they again passed the ball.  Neither pass was close.  Another time the QB got sacked, which ended what should have been a scoring drive.

    At one point one of the announcers said something like, "If any Bears fans are still watching, and they haven't put their foot throught their TV, this has to be maddening."

    That is when I went back to work on the dishes.

    By the time you read this, there may have been a big shakeup in the organization. 

     And I may have rearranged the pie safe after Jackie sees it.

Peace and Love

olé, olé

 We had a Mexican flavored night

    Julie made cornitas.  I think that is how that is spelled.  Pulled pork, soft shell tacos, Mexican rice, black beans, guacamole,   It was all good.   

Emily, John, Renee and Wendy came and we had a nice time eating, talking, and laughing.  I think the talking and laughing were the things I have missed most these past long months.

    And we had Portillo's chocolate cake for dessert.....my favorite!

    Emily and John went to an antique mart in Aurora today and took me along  It was a pretty cool place and I can't tell you the number of times I said to myself "I have one like that."

    The problem is, I do have one like that and I need to start getting rid of those items!

    At the same time, I saw things and thought I would like to have ....but I did not buy anything.

    Now I am hoping the ice does not build up on the power lines and put us in the dark, and cold, tonight or tomorrow.  I sure would hate to miss the excting final Bears game.  I think it is called the "Who Cares?" bowl.....but somebody has to win, right?

Peace and Love