again??

 I swear, I go to the store almost every day

    I keep a grocery list.  I write stuff down.   But it seems every tine I come home I find something else I need.

    We used to do a monthly shopping trip.  Before we went, we would go thru a list.  I would check the pantry, check all the areas of the house we use stuff, and mark it on the list.

    Now it's buy as we need it.

    For example, today I bought 3 potatoes.  If I buy 5 pounds I will probably end up tossing half of them.  I did not do the math, but I am sure I am spending more per pound on the 3 than  I would for the 5 pounds.

    I get bugged when there are things we want and I can't find them here.  We like diet peach flavored Lipton Tea.  but our local WM does not carry it.  They have Georgia Peach Tea which has too much sugar.  They also have diet green tea, or some other taste, that we don't like.

    Thus tomorrow when I am in DeKalb visiting the audiologist, I will stop at a store over there for the right tea.

    Anyway, that was the highlight of my day..... going to the store.  What a boring life!

    I did take Beth for a short walk.  As soon as we said the word she was ready to go.  The wind darn near blew me over and in fact it did blow over my bison.  Granted it is not heavy, but still.

    We also watched Geoffrey Baer's lakefront tour on WTTW.  As a special offer, they have a 2 hour lakefront tour with Geoffrey 2 Saturday's in September for a donation of only $185.The tour is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and includes dinner and 2 drinks.  It would be great to do. The tickets went quickly, which is no surprise.

    Aside from that I basically wasted the day away.  I always feel guilty doing that, because I have tings to do.  I just don't like doing them.

Peace and Love

damn it

I just bought a lawn sweeper 

    I borrowed my neighbor's lawn sweeper  to sweep the field I scalped yesterday. It worked so well, I decided to buy my own.

    And  I will give it to my neighbor and take the broken one.

    I went to dump the grass.  I pulled the basket up with one hand and hit the steering thingy with the other.

    Unfortunately I went into a sharp right turn, which bent the frame and disconnected some other parts that may or may not be important.  

    I came in the house and checked on line for he same model and make, and I think I have matched it.  I hope.

    I also hope it comes assembled.  Otherwise it could be months before he gets it.

    In other news of the day, Julia is spending the night at her house.  After being with us for about 4 years she has flown the nest.

    Now understand.  She lived in Switzerland.  Every time she left here to go back. there I got teary eyed because she was so far away.

    So why did I get teary today?  She is about 10 minutes away.  I could probably ride my bike to her house in a shorter amount of time than it took to fly to Switzerland.

    But I am sad.  Jackie looked at me like I was crazy.

    It's just that the house seems empty, even though we did not see her a lot when she was at work. But knowing she was there felt comfortable.

    Now Emily has to deal with the bulk of our problems.  She is only 2 minutes away.  I hope she does not change her phone number.

    On a sports note, we watched the Cubs whup the Dodgers last night. 

    I think if a team is going to bring in a position player to pitch, the game should just be called.  Watching somebody toss 50 mph fastballs is not exciting.

    It was nice to see the Cubs score 16 runs..... but it was also kind of boring.

    That's my take on that.

    Jackie and I had meatloaf.  I was going to make some potatoes but changed my mind.

    Was that a good decision?

Peace and Love

Taters seem to be a little old....

connected

At times I am amazed the connections 

    For example.  I was browsing FB today and a listing came up for people you may know.  The person had 4 mutual friends with me.

    So I clicked on the mutual friends.  3 of them were in Rochelle, and one of them was in Chicago and I got  wondering what connected them all?  All of them are in different occupations, places in life, went to different schools......just weird.

    And the person suggested as a mutual friend went to Blackburn College.  Julia went to Blackburn!  But the person was at Blackburn when Julia was about 5 or 6, so their paths never crossed.

    I have to ask them sometimes how they are connected.

    I mowed the yard today.  I don't think I have ever mowed in April!

    I also scalped the field where I am going to plant wildflower seeds.  I cut the grass as low as I could.  I just hope my scattering the seed will result in a field of flowers.

    I have seed for 3,000 square feet, but I may have mowed a lot more than that.  We'll have to see how much ground the seed covers.

    My yard I mowed regular.  Jackie asked why I was mowing and I said it was getting long.  It is, but here are also huge areas of dead grass.  And I don't think it is Beth's fault.

    This is the last night for Julia at our house.    The last time she moved from home she ended up 7,000 miles away, so 10 miles isn't too bad.

   It is going to be weird without her around. Now I have to get Beth out in the morning and feed her instead of staying in bed.

  I think that means more afternoon naps in my future.

Peace and Love

OMG

Sometimes I do very stupid stuff 

    Of course, if you have read this drivel regularly you know that.

    But I may had outdone myself today.

    I ran some errands.... post office, bank, furniture store, Lindenwood school to drop off 2 bags of aluminum cans.

    Stopped at Cypress House for a yummy drink.  

    Got home and Jackie asked me to make her lunch.

    So I took the cheese, ham, and salami I bought yesterday and made her a sandwich. 

    As I was doing that  noticed another pack that also had ham in it.  I bought it last Saturday.  There was 1 piece left.  I was going to use it but Julia said, "I wouldn't eat that."

    Thus, I put the fresh ham on Jackie's sandwich.

    And the ham Julia would not eat?  Well, I did.

    So much for mowing the filed so I could sow my flower seeds, or walking the dog, or going anywhere because I spent most of the afternoon. shuffling off to the loo.

    I have no appetite, am extremely tired,  and have no desire to do anything.

  I need to listen to Julia.  

  And that is my lesson for the day.

    

Peace and Love

whew

 Surprisingly, I had a busy day today

    I cleaned 2 bathrooms, moved porch chairs out of the garage, swept part of the garage, filled bird feeders,  went to the store, and attended a museum board meeting.

    I did not take a nap, although that would have been nice.

    I don't know what brought on the burst of energy.  It could have been the yummy Cypress House beverage, which was a dark chocolate cold brew banana frapachino.   I know that is not spelled correctly. Deal with it.

    I did learn something at the meeting.

    I had never heard of Ed Gein, but he was one weird dude!

    When I got home I Googled Ed

    He murdered at least 2 women.  

    When police went into his Wisconsin home they found lampshades made of facial skin, a body suit made of skin, human skulls turned int bowls and a whole bunch of other weird things made from human body parts, mainly female human body parts..

    They went into his home because officers found the body of a local woman strung up in a shed on his property.  She had been gutted like a deer.  

    Turns out Ed was a crazy little guy.  He may have been the inspiration for Norman in Psycho, but the author said it was coincidence despite living fairly near where Ed did.

    Ed collected lots of body parts by robbing graves.  He estimated he robbed about 30 graves, sometimes taking body parts and sometimes the entire body.

    And it is possible he was involved in his brother's death and the disappearance of some other local women.

    Reading about a crazy killer and drinking a cold brew coffee should make for an interesting night of sleep. Or no sleep. 

    That will be the question.  

Peace and Love

Jackie has a magnolia tree.  It was beautiful last week

but no so much today

Lincoln Highway marker at museum

no explanation needed...and yes, it was cold outside!

blah

Today was one of those days

    Cold.  Cloudy. Cubs lost.  Jackie had a blood draw.

    A pretty boring day.

    I wish I could have said that about this date 10 years ago.

    An EF 4 tornado ripped through our neck of the woods, destroying Emily's house along with several others in her subdivision.

    She is about 1 mile north of us, and we had little damage...... deck furniture was blown away and the grill bounced about.

    But Emily lost almost everything.

    It was the worst day of my life, viewing the debris that once was a house for her and John.

    I know it was one of the worst days of her life also.  And Jackie's.  And Julia's.

    Thankfully no one in our area was seriously hurt, although 2 people died in Fairdale in that storm.

    The storm  was a monster.  Looking at pictures of it now, I am still amazed by its size.

    I am just very thankful Emily was at work and not home.  Very thankful  

Peace and Love

what if and why?

 My mind is running  in circles today

    Today?   Huh, that is a laugh.

    I have been waking up with songs in my head.

    And none of them make any sense.

    Why did I wake up singing "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" one morning?  Or The Beatles I Saw Her Standing There?  I admit, that is my favorite Beatles song, but what brought on the morning tune?

    And why did I write one song title in italics and use  " marks for the other?  Further, why don't I change it to be consistent?

    I can't remember some of the other tunes, but they run through my mind like water through a strainer.  Or tea thru a bag.  And why did I use both spellings of through?  I think it was Robert McCormick when he was publisher of the Trib back in the 1920s tried to simplify spelling, making through thru.  But I don't think he made tough tuff.  But I am not sure.

    I got sucked into reels on Facebook today.  Watching the hotels sway in Bangkok was terrifying!  Imagine being on the 80 th floor of a building and having the furniture slide across the room, with lamps flying and stuff falling.  The earthquake was powerful, but the hotels stayed upright, although there was a bridge linking two of them that crumbled like the Cubs bullpen.

    Another set was a guy asking people questions, like how many states in the US, what continent do we live on, and other questions that normal people should be able to answer.  But all the young people seemed to  not k now anything!  What is up with that?

    What if they showed people answering the questions correctly to give us peace of mind that our educational system has not completely fallen apart.

    What if they showed older people struggling with how many continents are there, or nameinga country in North America. or telling how many states there are.  I bet some older folk would miss those too.

    What if someone asked me a question like that?  Well, I just might start singing a song that is running through my head.

    Heavens knows. there are plenty to choose from.

Peace and Love