Wed. 6/25 Hodgepodge

Another Wednesday... another version of Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce, at From This Side of the Pond  I hope you enjoy today's questions and my answers. If you would like to join in the fun, here's where you can find more information...... Click here

1. What summer activity most takes you back to your own childhood?

Softball. Growing up, I played a lot of "neighborhood softball" in the street beside our house. Then my daughters played softball for a couple summers. Now I live just a few blocks from the city park where we have 4 ball diamonds! I can hear the shouts from here.

2. What's your favorite summer smell?

Steaks cooking out on the grill. My neighbors, all around me, enjoy grilling and when I step outside, I can detect that smell and tell you what neighbor is cooking. 

3. It's beach season in the US of A...so how do you feel about sand?

I used to love the sand on the beach at the lake plus there was the kid's sandbox. We all loved to play in it. I'd get down with my kids and we'd build all sorts of things. I didn't mind the mess at all. I can't say that today. I hate getting sand in my folds of fat. 

4. Sun tea, SunChips, sunflower seeds, Capri Sun, Sunny Delight, Sun-Maid raisins, sun-dried tomatoes ... your favorite food or beverage with sun in its name?
Sun tea with SunChips --- on the patio, under a shade tree, with a good book and the birds singing. hahaha

5. What's your favorite way to cool off on a hot summer day?

I come back in the house where we have the A/C. 

6. Share a favorite song with the word sun or sunshine in it's title.

This one is easy to answer. When my youngest daughter was pregnant, her favorite way of relaxing was to sing to the baby. After Curtis was born, she continued to sing him this song and he'd settle down for sleep right away. It's still her (and my) favorite. 

7. Tell us about a time you had an exceedingly good or truly awful customer service experience. If it was awful, did you report it? Ever go back there again?

We very seldom have trouble with customer service locally, but this past week we've had an awful time with our cable company. Their customer service stinks! Our HD converter box went out, so Hubby calls the company. He got a little upset with them, but they said they'd be able to get a tech out here the following Monday (the 16th) between 1:00 and 2:00 pm. Monday came around and no tech. We stayed home all day, hoping to hear something from them. Tuesday Hubby called them again. They said they didn't even have a repair order for us in the system, but they could send someone out next Monday (the 23rd) between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. 

Yesterday, Monday the 23rd, we waited and waited. Nothing. Hubby called again and they told him the repairman had called us, but we weren't home. Wrong! One of us stayed by the phone ALL DAY! This time they said the tech would be here within the hour. Finally he showed up around 6:30, took our converter box, brought in a new one, hooked it up and left. It took him about 15 min.

What company? Time Warner. Are we going to stick with their cable service? Nope! This is just one instance with them. The last several months it's been one thing after another. We're thinking about going with Dish Network but we don't know if they would be any better.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I just received this picture (a selfie) from my daughter Lori, who lives in Michigan. The 3 of them were together, having breakfast at Denny's. Lori, on the right, with her son Dylan and her daughter Hollie. Our only grand-daughter, Hollie is pregnant with our first great-grandchild. She lives here in Ohio, and drove up to spend a few days with her mother and brother. She's been missing them a lot lately. 
It amazes me when I think how the years have flown by. Hollie is 22 and Dylan is 17. Now my baby girl is going to be a grandmother!!! And I'm a great-grandmother!! I remember my great-grandmother. She was a little lady, in long dresses and always an apron, gray hair, with a slow walk in little steps. Times have changed. These kids see me in jeans, tennis shoes and I can walk faster than they can. 

Heading home

I wrote a few days ago about finding an old childhood friend and about her coming for a visit this past weekend. Last Thursday she called my cell phone, asking what my address was and if I lived in a little white house with a fence in front. She was sitting out there in her car. It was so funny, we started out with a good laugh. It was so good to see her again.

Friday the 4 of us went out to eat at our favorite eatery. I'm afraid that didn't go well. It started out with a mis-communication regarding the time. My fault. When they didn't show up, I called her cell phone and kept getting her voice-mail. That had me worried. I tried and tried to get her, but couldn't. Come to find out, she had left her phone at her daughter's house. Michelle called Penny and told her that I had been "burning up her phone" and so she called me with her husband's phone. They were sitting in the restaurant waiting for us. That was #1.

#2 was dashing up to the restaurant to meet them, only to run into my sister-in-law (with the rude mouth) just inside the door. Right away I knew this was not going to be good. And it wasn't. I won't go into details here.

#3 was finally finding Penny and her husband sitting in a booth next to the kitchen. Not a good place to sit if you intend on talking with your table-mates. I think a couple waitresses were angry over something, so trays and plates were banging and falling on the floor. With my migraine, that was NOT good. Every time it happened, I think my heart skipped a beat.

#4 was the food. Friday is always the seafood buffet, so that's what we all ordered. We took turns going up to fill our plates. Just as I got back to our table with my food, a tray of dishes went on the floor. I jumped, but didn't drop my food, thank goodness. However, I could only eat a little of it, so there I sat with all this food on a plate in front of me that would go into the garbage. I hate doing that and I don't usually do it. By then I was really on edge, that Penny (the nurse) kept watching me and asking if I was alright.

I had told Penny earlier, in one of our emails, about this constant migraine symptoms I have, but people just don't understand what I go through when it gets bad like that. And I get so tired of trying to explain what's happening to me. My own husband doesn't understand. Sometimes I think it would be better if I did have the pain. People would understand that.

Penny and her husband came back to the house with us. We sat around talking for quite a while. Our daughter #3 came in with the 2 youngest grandsons. That was nice. Penny had never seen Teresa. When they moved to Florida, our twins were little, and Teresa was just a passing thought. hahaha

One good thing that came out of Teresa and the boys coming in. I got to hug and love on the little ones, which brought me back to earth, calmed my nerves and helped me to relax. But sadly they had to leave by then. It was 8:30 and Penny had things to do before her grand-daughter's wedding the next day. Today is Monday, so Penny and Tim are on their way home, back to Riverview, Florida. It was good seeing her after all those years and we did a lot of reminiscing. She's coming back up the latter part of August. I'm praying for better times then.

The summer heat and humidity have arrived here in Ohio. Right now it's a sunny 90° with 54% humidity. I think I'm spending my time indoors again. That's ok. I'm working on my music, still practicing.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Until next time............

Last Day of Spring

Tomorrow is the official first day of the summer season 2014. However, I think Mother Nature's calendar may be a bit different from our's.

It's gotten hot already, miserably hot, for a lot of folks, here and on south of us. Today, however, we are cooler with some rain showers off and on all day.

Our local weatherman is saying next week, and possibly into the month of July, is going to be very hot... close to those triple digits. I'm not ready for that. I know, I complained a lot during the hard winter season we had, and I'm not complaining now. The problem? If I'm cold, I can put on more clothes... if I'm hot, I can only take off just so much.

A bit of Throw-back Thursday on this Friday.

I wrote a few days ago about finding a long-lost friend from my childhood, Penny Jo. We grew up together then we both moved away from the old neighborhood and I lost contact with her.

To make a long story short, I found her and she's come to town for her grand-daughter's wedding this Saturday. We're getting together this evening and going out to eat. I'm looking forward to it. I've been trying to find some of the old photos I took but this is the only one I could find. Penny is on the left with my little sister Marilyn on the right. The year? 1962!! The car in the background was my mother's car. A 1952 Chevy! She loved that car, took very good car of it and taught me how to drive in it.

It's that time of year when the baby birds are leaving the nest. Often times we'll see young birds sitting in the grass alone, but you can be sure that mother, or father, is close by.

Just now we saw 2 mourning doves out back sitting along the edge of the drive. At first we thought the little one was hurt. He's not moving very much, but he's now trying to spread his wings. He'll be off flying on his own shortly. (This is not my photo.)

Until later......... 

Hodgepodging is back!

Joyce at From This Side of the Pond is back this week, after a much-needed break, to give us some more very thought-provoking questions to answer. I'm glad you stopped by to read my response.

1. Since you weren't Hodgepodging last Wednesday, how did you pass the time?

I just went about my normal routine. I don't think I even posted anything last Wed. I did miss seeing Joyce's questions for us. 

2. What's the first word that comes to mind when I say marriage? Yes, one word.

Trust.... without it you cannot have a good marriage.

3. Summer officially arrives in the Northern hemishpere later this week. Does it feel like summer where you live? Describe your idea of the perfect summer day.

Oh, summer weather has arrived here with a bang. We went from mild temperatures in the 70's to 90° with very high humidity. The kind of day when you step outside, it's like opening the oven door. A perfect summer day, for me, would be lying on a beach somewhere, in a lounge chair with a good book. 

4. "Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."(Sam Keen) Is laziness ever respectable? Do you have a lazy summer planned, or something semi-ambitious?

I used to think laziness was not respectable, but as I get old(er) I find I'm spending a lot of my days being just plain lazy. Oh, it bothers me that I don't have more ambition than I do, but the work will still be there for me tomorrow. I know, that's NOT a good thing.

5. Past or present, who's your favorite television dad? Why is he a favorite? Is he anything like your own dad?

Charles Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I think he had it all.... patience, understanding, knowledge, humor. 
Was my father anything like Charles? In a word... NO.

6. June 18th is International Picnic Day...share a favorite picnic memory.

When our daughters were little, we all loved to pack a picnic lunch and drive over to Lake St. Marys. We would lay out the big blanket under a shade tree and open up the basket to get out the sandwiches. Then the girls got to go down to the sandy beach to build castles and splash in the water. 

7. The travel site Trip Advisor lists the top five islands in the world for 2014 as - Ambergris Caye in Belize Cayes, Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Marco Island Florida, and Lewis and Harris in The Outer Hebrides (Scotland). Have you been to any of these? Of those listed (and if price were not a factor) which would you most like to book for a holiday?

I can't even pronounce some of them, and only know where a few of them are. I do envy anyone who has been able to visit any of these places. I think if money was not a factor, I would love to go to Scotland. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

A couple months ago, I made contact with a childhood friend, Penny. She's moved away from here, to Riverview, Florida, 40 years ago and I lost track of her. I got to thinking about her a lot lately, so I contacted her sister that still lives here in town to get Penny's address and I sent her a letter. The first written letter I've sent in ages. We then went to emails. Now, her grand-daughter is getting married and they drove up for the wedding. Penny and her husband came by here this morning. It was so good seeing her again. It was like nothing had happened to us in the last 40 years. We picked up right where we left off. That is an amazing feeling. They're all going to be so busy with wedding plans, but we made plans to get together Friday. We'll have more time to talk. Another good thing.... our husbands get along great. 

Beautiful Sunday

I've been working on this post for 2 days! I just can't seem to find anything to talk about. The problems of this past week are still taking resident in my head. I haven't been able to concentrate. Hubby is doing just fine, but the lack of nicotine is turning him into a monster. It's hard. I just need to bite my tongue or leave the room. 

Weather-wise, we had a couple beautiful days! Perfect, in fact! Clear blue sky, mid-70's and very low humidity. Just what I ordered.  However, that's now gone; it's warming up again and the humidity is climbing. We closed all the windows and turned on the A/C again. 

Daughter Lori sent me this picture of grandson Dylan. He loves their new grill. He's becoming quite the chef. He also, occasionally, will make some great appetizers or desserts for our family dinners. It does my heart good to see the kids do things like this. And I'm definitely in favor of all teenagers, especially boys, to learn to cook. 

Today's Father's Day and two of our girls stopped by for a few minutes to see their dad. Lori, who lives in Michigan, couldn't make the trip again. She was down last weekend when he got out of the hospital. 

I've been looking up heart-healthy recipes, trying to make our meals better for both of us. My biggest problem is trying to find a local store where I can find some good fish. 

Now that school's out for the summer, we were suppose to have our 2 youngest grandsons tomorrow, but Teresa pulled her back out (again) and won't be able to work, so the boys won't be coming.  

I hope you've had a great weekend. Until next time..............

Blogger Problems

I'm not sure this is going to work, but I'm having all kinds of problems with Blogger. I wanted to let everyone know that I've been reading your blog posts, but I can't leave any comments on any of them. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works. I tried to get help from the "powers that be" but I can't get in there either. It tells me "Web page not available". I don't know what else to do. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

I also wanted to tell you that my Hubby had his follow-up visit with his heart doctor yesterday and got a very good report. His heart is good, his lungs are clear, and the doctor said I'll see you in 3 months. We're still thanking God for this miracle. When we were told he could have died during the stress test, it scared us both. I got him to the hospital and he had a heart cath done and 2 stents put in immediately to open a 99% blockage in a large artery. He's gotten through this remarkably well.

With that, I'm now going to try to post this.  Hope you are having a good day.

Thank God for Doctors

What a week this has been! It all seems like a dream now, more like a night-mare. Bob had a stress test Thurs. He failed it. Immediately they started making phone calls and I drove him to Lima Memorial, HVU unit. He got a heart cath that afternoon. He had a 99% blockage in a large vessel and a smaller one below that. They put stents in right away. Dr. Battula, the heart specialist, then got very upset when he found out our hospital let him go by car. The Dr. said "He should have come over in a unit. Anything could have happened on the car ride over. He's lucky he didn't die on the treadmill."  Luck had nothing to do with it.

Then the doctor got even more upset when he found out Bob has had the back pains and upper chest discomfort for the last year. The spells would just come and go, never lasting very long. Bob kept thinking it was just his back was out of whack. This comes from a man who's never been sick. But it was when he got that pain in the middle of the night that scared him. He finally called our primary doctor for a appointment and he ordered the stress test.

We are praising and thanking God for taking care of him all this time and brought him through this. Bob's doing good. He, of course, has a line up of pills on the counter, which he hates, but he knows he has to take them as instructed, and for the rest of his life if he wants to stay here with his family. 

This weekend is our town's annual Peony Festival and the town is crazy. I tried to get out to WalMart yesterday to get Bob's prescriptions and every corner I turned, I had to sit in a line of cars 2 blocks long. I'm staying right here until it's all over. I used to love to go uptown to see the car show, the art works, the parade, the concerts in the park and sample all the different foods. Not this year. It will all have to take place without me. 

Until next time......

6/4 Hodgepodge

Time for another version of Hodgepodge Wednesday.........

1. I've read several posts and status updates recently describing end of year school field trips. Do you remember taking school field trips as a kid? Where did you go and do you recall a favorite? For any parents responding today, have you ever chaperoned a school field trip, and if so where?

When I was in school here in our little Ohio town, we didn't go on field trips. The only treat we got at the end of the year was a picnic. However, when my girls were in school, they had a field trip one year to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. I chaperoned for the first time. We rode by school bus and I'll never forget the torture of the hard seats, all the children excited and very, very loud. And the smell!! All those little bodies were perspiring from the heat on that bus. That was the last time I volunteered, but we all had a great time. I enjoyed the museum so much, I took my hubby and our daughters down the following summer when I had more time to look at more exhibits.

2. What's something you're tired of seeing online?

Pictures of Michelle Obama... and I'm not going to say anything more about that. 

3. June is the month for roses. Which of the following expressions would you say has most recently applied to your life - 'everything's coming up roses', 'there's no rose without a thorn', 'came out smelling like a rose', or 'wearing rose-colored glasses'?

"There's no rose without a thorn" Or as the song goes, "Every rose has it's thorn". In life, to enjoy the beauty, we also have to deal with the thorns.

4. When grilling outdoors do you prefer gas or charcoal? Who does the grilling at your house? What's the last thing you ate that was cooked on a grill?

I like the gas grill because it's faster and more convenient, but the food lacks the taste from a good charcoal fire. Hubby always insists on doing the grilling at our house, but I have to watch him close or he burns the food. The last thing I ate were hamburgers on a charcoal grill at our daughter's house.

5. Are you afraid of the dark?

No, but I am afraid of wrapping my toes around something that would results in my screaming some nasty words.

6. Share a favorite song with a number in it's title.

7. "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."(C.G. Jung). Do you agree? Why or why not?

I agree, to some extent, especially in the last few years where I've become more aware of some things in my own personality that I'm not proud of. And that has only happened because I've been irritated by that trait in someone else. They're unaware of what they're doing, or they don't see it as being annoying to others. They have made me more aware of myself.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I have a question for you.... have you ever sat down to a meal at your house, another family member's or a friend's house, where someone else has cooked for you and you didn't like it, but you ate it anyways so as not to hurt the cook's feelings? Then if they asked you if you liked it, did you tell the truth or lied to them? I just had that happen and I couldn't tell him I didn't like it. 

A Beautiful Sunday afternoon

Lord, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

We had a very nice day yesterday. We went to a graduation party at my nephew's. His youngest daughter, Kennedy, my sister's grand-daughter, graduated from high school. All us older people were the first to arrive, so we sat and talked for hours. Kennedy's friends started coming later.

     

My sister Marilyn, her husband Michael, with their youngest grandson who will be 6 months old next week. They all still live in Middle Point, the little town east of us where we used to live, so it was nice to see everyone again.

Shortly after we arrived, we started hearing sirens at the fire station. Then shortly after, more sirens. They were coming from all directions. My brother-in-law is mayor, and he received a call from the Fire Chief. It was a huge field fire just south of town that the wind was spreading rapidly. Michael had to hurry down to the water plant and open up more fire hydrants for them to get water. It ended up being a 4-alarm fire, 4 fire departments were out there, thus the sirens coming in from all over. They got it under control before any damage occurred, but the farmer lost a good section of his crop. My Hubby was on that fire department for years and I know a part of him jumped when he heard the alarm at the station.

In the news: (for my friends in FL) "A tractor-trailer-size sinkhole has turned a central Florida shopping center parking lot into a no-man's land overnight. The hole, which officials in Winter Haven, Florida, said was 70 feet long and 15 feet deep, is across the street from a Legoland."  That is so scary and it seems to be happening everywhere, without any warning. I cannot imagine it happening around here, but it could.

It's a beautiful summer day, 81° and sunshine. The humidity is going up so the rest of my day is going to be quiet, inside enjoying the A/C, with no plans except for some practicing. 

Until next time..........