I hate signing in

I had no idea it has been this long since I last posted. I can't really tell you the reason, because there isn't one. Chalk it up to getting old. Or maybe to the damned Google sign-in here on Blog Explosion, which seems to hate me in return.

I have kept a list going of all the tasks or projects that I am procrastinating on, and it is sadly too long. It includes simple things like "water the plants" which now I come to think of it will cure itself eventually. I have often found that some jobs, like filing paperwork, becomes far lighter if I procrastinate long enough that the papers are no longer relevant, thanks to expiration. An example would be the little proofs of car insurance cards, which expire every 6 months. Sure one copy needs to be kept in the car, which I do keep up with, but the other copy eventually passes 6 months in the "to be filed" cubby and thus is useless. Alas, a similar result with something like "vacuum the stairs" does not happen, the dusty bits just get larger and larger until they become a living organism that climbs upward and bumps around in the kitchen until it gets under the refrigerator. I'm pretty sure this is true; how else would the kitchen floor get so fuzzy? Think about it...

We got the restored photo of grandma back from the lady in North Carolina. If you read this blog (unlikely though that is) regularly, you will recall that we drove to NC several months back (see below, in August) and left the bubble glass photo with the only person capable of doing this restoration and providing the convex glass to cover it. Our glass was intact, but badly scratched on the outside from being propped against the wall in the attic, I guess. A picture of the restored photo is here:





The original photo went back to my uncle, from whom we got it in the first place, and we got a lovely 10 X 14 copy of it, far easier to store or display. She was lovely, don't you think? She was born in 1888, and I would guess she is 18 to 20 years old in the portrait.

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away, and I think we are set for the menu. For that one day I will skip the point counting, but only for that day; at the end everything gets pitched (unless the kids want it), except for the turkey itself, which I like to make a turkey casserole. That way there is no temptation to make the holiday last the entire weekend!

I miss not having the entire clan over for the weekend, but the cousins are all over the country, and all the "old" folks of the previous generation have died, one by one, over the last decade. Hard to realize they aren't just busy elsewhere, but truly gone. Turkey day from used-to-be 18 to 4 guests now...

Come the new year, I am giving up using my Palm Pilot Life drive for a back to basic written organizer. I haven't been using the Palm much since I retired, and have missed several appointments because I don't check it like I used to when I worked;
the written one will allow me to scribble notes without fumbling for the proper screen. This is a reminder of how my life has been simplified, that I no longer have to shuffle work, family and me-time anymore. And a change in music listening time as well, since I no longer listen to my songs during a now-vanished commute. I never thought about these changes when I contemplated retirement, trivial ones but significant in their own way.

Raven is doing well after her $$$ surgery on her ACL. A few days ago we had a hellacious wind storm at night that must have really roared in the barn, and that morning Raven was three legged. We figure the dogs paced and stood up on their hind legs. A couple of dog meds eased her back to non-gimpy status within a couple of days, TG.

Bumper Sticker of the day: "Whatever happens to you, it will previously have happened to everyone else you know, only more so." (Kinda long sticker, isn't it?)