Morning rituals

 Do you have one or twelve?

What happens if someone interrupts you half way through?

Do you just do a mind check and carry on or does it all go to hell quickly?

Most mornings I'm up before Petey.  Not by hours but maybe 20 minutes or so.

Bathroom, remove retainer, eyedrops, baby aspirin and calcium tabs.

Every. Single. Morning.  Like clockwork.

That routine is followed by the kitchen which doesn't have near as many "moving parts."

Plug in my cell, turn on coffee, grab the cream.

Living room: open blinds, turn on a few lights and head on into the den until I hear the beeps telling me the coffee is done.

This is all extremely fascinating, isn't it?

So, this morning Petey got up before me.  I laid in bed thinking "this is cool.  I'll just hang out here long enough for the coffee to do its thing and then I'll walk directly to the pot and pour."

No, Ellen.  There are a few things you need to do before heading down the hallway.

I removed my retainer but forgot the eyedrops.

I took my Lipitor (which I take at night) instead of the aspirin and completely forgot the calcium!

The upside is with the double dose of Lipitor I'm thinking I can do ice cream TWICE today!

 

A wonderful lady died today

 I got a text today alerting me that one of my mother's oldest and dearest friends died this morning.

Her name was Anita Vance. 

I shouldn't have been surprised because, you see, Anita was 100 years old. I had been preparing myself for this day but even so, the news stopped me in my tracks.

And then the tears came.  It felt like she was my last thread leading directly to my mom. 

Anita and I stayed in touch after mom's death 3 years ago.

I called a few times but her hearing loss robbed us of quality conversation.

And then . . . . I got a text one day.  From Anita!  At the age of 99 she learned how to text!!!

The first few were interesting in that she seemed to have adopted the "Uncle Ray" (my mom's brother) style of texting.  No punctuation.

I began sending her pictures of things and places we'd been to - sunsets, birds, our new house, etc.

She always responded.  Texting her appreciation.

I took advantage of this new communication a while back to let her know how much staying in touch meant to me. I knew this online friendship couldn't possibly last much longer.  I'm really glad she knew how important she was to me.

Her last text to me was August 27.  She praised me for appreciating the beauty of my surroundings and included a dancing heart emoji.

A dancing heart!  I don't even know how to do that!!!

She and mom were very, very different people.  They talked about their differences often and those discussions brought them even closer over the years.

I'll miss her very much.  

Where's the Kleenex???

Might be time to go pillow shopping

 Oh, nooooooooooooo.  I hate pillow shopping.

Firm? Soft? Feather? Foam?  Too many choices.

And what if I get the wrong one?  How do you test drive a pillow?

When you were a kid, did you give any thought at all as to what you were going to put your head on at night?  

If you had older sibs you probably got their hand-me-downs and they were passing along whatever mom bought.

For a number of years Petey and I had those contoured memory foam jobs.  We even traveled with them.  We used a large black garbage bag (nothing but class) to tote them in and they took up a surprising amount of space in the car.  But well worth it because we believed they were life savers.

Those bags were sturdy too.  We used them for a number of years.  We kept on using them (actually, now that I think about it, I believe we put both pillows in one bag) even though one of the corners was frayed (the bag, not the pillow).

Until . . . . we went to Chicago to meet our nephew, Mike, and his family.  Mike had reserved rooms at The Ritz!!! 

There was no way we could take that nasty old garbage bag into the Ritz and not look like "The Clampetts Go to the City."

But how would/could we possibly sleep without our pillows???

Turns out, just fine because - THE RITZ!

We stopped traveling with our pillows after that but we still have to face the pillow department every now and then.

I can't remember how often "they" say you're supposed to get rid of your pillows but I believe we passed that bench mark quite some time ago.

I despise the thought of pillow shopping.  Almost as much as I despise those fluorescent lights in the dressing rooms but I know it's something we must do.

Anyone want to come along?  It'll be fun.  We'll do lunch afterward.

 

Visiting questions

 Don't ask me what nudged me to write this blog but I've noticed this before and thought I'd ask y'all if you've noticed it too.

This only happens when you're visiting (like out-of-town) with friends or family.

And - this might only happen when you visit your home town from elsewhere.

I'll use my sisters as an example.

Lisa visiting from MD:  "Hi, Tom.  So nice to see you."

Tom:  "Wow, how long has it been anyway?  So, when'd ya get here?"

Lisa:  "Oh, last night around 6-ish."

Tom:  "So, how long ya staying?"

Lisa:  "Probably until Ellen and Pete throw me out."  hehe I made that last part up.

                                          Or

Stacey:  "Val!  Norm!  I'm so glad we ran into you.  You both look great."

Val/Norm:  "Oh, Stace. We knew you were going to be visiting some time soon.  When did you get here?"

Stacey:  "Day before yesterday."

Val/Norm: "So how long can you stay?"

Notice anything?

Do you think the "when did you get here and when are you leaving" questions are just something people say to . . . . what?  Break the ice or do they give the questions any thought it all? Do they really care?

Or - are they not really very happy to see you and they can't wait to see the back side of you???

Or . . . am I the only one this happens to?  No.  That can't be it.

The Temperature Dropped!!!

 Ahhhhhhhhhh.  Michigan.

We are just entering the "flexible clothing" time of the year.

It happens in the spring and then we get to go through the whole process again in the fall. It's all about layering.  There can sometimes be 3 costume changes in one day.  Not kidding.

Changing closet contents and lugging shoes around.  Thankfully there are no stairs involved anymore.

I don't miss them.

Yesterday I had the 3 Ss going on.

Sleeveless, shorts and sandals.

Today?

SOCKS!  SHOES! and LONG PANTS!!!

My body is in shock from the knees down.

My arms aren't happy either.

Oh, and did I mention it's ugly as all get-out today?

Time for some Netflix binge watching.

So . . . . yesterday

Yesterday ran the gambit from excited to disappointment to educational to yummy to ahhhh.

I was excited before I even got out of bed because we were scheduled to go hiking with our friends, Donna and Tom Nowak.  The feeling fizzled immediately upon removal of my ear plugs.

Rain.  Boy, howdy.  It was a gully washer.  So we rescheduled for next week.

Now what?  I finished stringing up some new bracelets.  Fixed lunch and then noticed the sky was clearing up.

Petey had a great idea: check out Holland's Guide to Historic Sites.

Much like Allegan, Holland had some very cool old buildings.  There are 33 on the list and we made it to the ones downtown on foot.  The others will wait for another time.

The highlight of that tour was the 5/3 building on 8th Street.  OMG! You have to go inside (they're used to seeing heads tilted upward with mouths agape) and check it out.

When we were ready for a break and feeling a bit peckish we took the recommendation of our friend Craig VanMelle and went to Poppin Huis for popcorn (yes, they make it all there and there are many, many choices) and some chocolate covered pecans.

Since it had turned out to be such a gorgeous day, we weren't quite ready to go back to The Red House so we hauled the chairs out of the car and went to Centennial Park and got into the corn/candy.

We tried unsuccessfully to not over do because we were going to a new-to-us restaurant in a few short hours.

The recommendation came to us via our neighbors Laurie and Roger and it was a spot-on suggestion.  

The James Street Inn.  Petey had the perch and I went with the ribs.  Definitely going back - several hundred more times.

Now since we were out on James St. and not far from the beach and seeing as sunset was about 30 minutes away - off we went.

This was "turning lemons into lemonade" to a T.

Can you whistle?

I noticed something about my whistle the other day.  I think the quality has improved.  

I've always been able to whistle but nothing particularly melodious.  Not like a guy I know in Allegan - Matt.  He has an amazing whistle.  Like he should be making whistling records.  Is there such a thing?

I actually have two whistles.  The normal one and the "call the dog from a block away" one.

With my normal whistle I could push out a recognizable tune but it wouldn't stop people in the street.  They'd be able to know it was "If I Had a Hammer" and maybe hum a long for a bit but there'd be no applause when I finished.

My really loud (some might call it shrill) whistle is something you're born with.  It can not be learned.  You either have it or you don't.  And it's not the one where you have to stick your fingers in your mouth.  That one is referred to as the "sissy" whistle by those of us who are gifted with the "big boy/girl" whistle.  

I had quite a scare recently, however.  A few years ago I got braces - uppers only.  The see-thru kind.  I was happy with the outcome and then an occasion presented itself where my big whistle was needed.

It was still there but weakened.  After a few failed attempts I realized it was because my teeth had been moved around.  I was afraid that my identity as a "Whistle Queen" (yes, I gave myself that label) was in jeopardy. After some intensive work it came back but not at full capacity. 

I can live with that . . . I guess.

Now, back to the normal whistle. For some reason I started whistling one of my favorite EG Kight songs last week and surprised myself with the quality of the sound.  Pleasantly surprised you might say.

The only down side was I happened to be standing in front of the bathroom mirror at the time and noticed all the little wrinkles around my lips.  Wow, there were a lot.

I won't let that stop me, though.  I'll just do my whistling in the dark from now on.