Friday Five: Theme-Less!

RevKarla brings todays RevGalBlogPals' Friday Five:

Happy Friday to you!  I don’t have a theme this week, but just a variety of questions for your writing pleasure…

1) How are you?  What’s taking up your mind-heart space these days?
I am happy that we just got home from five days of being away. The first two days we took care of our three-year-old granddaughter Avery, who was sick with ear infections. Her mom had to go back to work, so we were glad to come and help out. Avery's other grandmother Mimi helped before and after us. DC and AE have the only grandchildren in both our families, so we retired folk are eager to be there with the little girls.

I am also happy to come home to a FF! There is more for me to write about, which I will do in later posts. Please come back!

2) It’s St. Patrick’s Day on Monday~~will you celebrate or give a nod to it?
I forgot it was Saint Patrick's Day on Monday. I usually observe it by wearing green, which is conveniently my favorite color. I know I am influenced from my former days as an elementary school teacher, plus having children of my own, where you would be pinched if you didn't wear green.

3) My colleague is a voracious morning reader of blogs, online news, articles, etc.  What, besides RevGalBlogPals, do you look at frequently, if not daily?
On my Iphone and Ipad, I look every day at Zite, which collects articles according to my chosen topics' preferences. I only click on the ones I feel like reading. Topics can be deleted or added to.

4) I got nothin’ here.  This is a free for all.  Just tell us something!
Blogging--I don't know why I have suddenly decided to blog daily again. I have a new commitment to this blog and those that subscribe to it.  It probably started with my recent trip to Lebh Shomea.

5) Use these words in a sentence or two:    map, magazine, sing, baby sloth, knit, penguin, love, weep, mountain, and messenger bag.
(So glad you said "a sentence or two"!)
The penguin carried a messenger bag that contained a map and a magazine to take on his trip up the mountain. He soon came upon a weeping baby sloth, whom he loved, so he sang to the baby sloth.

Church Rummage Sale

Tomorrow is our church's annual rummage sale, For two days they have been accepting donations.

We got rid of some things, but I am most pleased with getting rid of clothes. I finally gave away most of the too-small clothes I wore 15-20 years ago when I was the thinnest I have ever been in my life--when I was suffering from clinical depression and was walking 6-12 miles each day. I guess I finally accepted that I will never be that thin again! (But I am a much happier person now.)

I also cleaned out our odd assortment of sheets and tied up "sets" with purple ribbon (that curling ribbon that I don't use much any more). There was quite an assortment of twin sheet sets that our four kids used over the years and left here at home when they moved on.

I know of two Methodist churches that are having rummage sales tomorrow, so there will be three in close vicinity to each other. Hopefully, all the churches will sell most of their stuff!

Fall!

Officially, Fall or Autumn is here. That lovely time of year rarely appears in all its glory here in south Texas. Here is a lovely picture I found on Pinterest of fall in Bulgaria. I miss the leaves on trees turning yellow, orange and red.

However, we are unusually fortunate because yesterday a cold front blew through, which often occurs a month from now. Instead, we have much less humidity and cooler temperatures for today. This can be "fall" and "summer" will return tomorrow.

Our Vacation So Far

Since I am at a desktop Apple computer, I can easily blog. So I will quickly write about our vacation so far:

Las Vegas:

• Chuck and I flew to Las Vegas from San Antonio on Wednesday. We left Corpus Christi at 7 am to get to the airport in time, though we were early enough to buy sandwiches at Whole Foods to eat on the plane.
• Two nights in Las Vegas. We are "foodies" and so loved the restaurants we went to there. The first night we paid more for taxis than for our meal at a faraway spot I found on TripAdvisor called Off the Strip. Fantastic and reasonably priced meals had us wishing we could eat there frequently. 
• The main reason we came to Las Vegas was to see the Cirque de Soleil show of the Beatles Love.  We enjoyed it so much that we would even go to Las Vegas again to see it, and we didn't like the smoke-filled casinos. The show was beyond our expectations--we are Baby Boomers, after all!
• Since Chuck and I don't smoke, gamble or drink (much), Las Vegas is not really "our" town. To get to the elevators to our room, we always had to walk through all the slot machines and smoke. 
• One good thing is I got up early both mornings and walked for an hour along the Strip. It was fun to see all the buildings with few people around.
• I was disappointed by the lack of recycling depositories on the streets, because bottles of water were sold on every street overpass. People were drinking all the time in the heat, and all those plastic bottles were thrown in the trash or on the sidewalks. (On my early morning walks, I observed people cleaning all the streets and sidewalks.)

Salt Lake City:

• We flew here on Friday, with MJ picking us up at the airport. There was the quickest delivery of luggage at the terminal, which impressed us with Salt Lake City.
• MJ was kind about ferrying us around today to the Farmers' Market, the Salt Lake City Library, and to the card stores I love to frequent. 
• We bought fresh nectarines and raspberries that are so flavorful that we are sad to think of the more tasteless fruit we've become accustomed to in the stores in south TX. The raspberries remind me of the ones we picked in my parents' backyard in Bellingham, WA.
• Next to the Salt Lake City Library is The Leonardo Museum, so went and saw their current exhibit from Australia about the 101 most important inventions of the world.  One of the major inventions was the creations of Legos! I noticed that the refrigerator was invented in 1922, which was the year my dad was born; when he was a teenager in Arkansas, he delivered cubes of ice for ice boxes.
• We had a light meal tonight so that we could have dessert! Chuck had molten chocolate cake; MJ and I had salted caramel gelato between toffee chunk cookies with chocolate dunking sauce. That was a dessert worth the calories!!

Death and the Mundane

I remember special days for departed loved ones. Today would have been my father's 91st birthday. However, he died 11 years ago a few months shy of his 80th. That brought home the truth that we should celebrate each day and not just "landmark" events, such as decades. I had always thought we would have a family celebration for his 80th birthday, but he had a stroke four months earlier and died two weeks after that.

Here is a poem that points to that:

Notice

This evening, the sturdy Levi's
I wore every day for over a year
& which seemed to the end
in perfect condition,
suddenly tore.
How or why I don't know,
but there it was: a big rip at the crotch.
A month ago my friend Nick
walked off a racquetball court,
showered,
got into his street clothes,
& halfway home collapsed & died.
Take heed, you who read this,
& drop to your knees now & again
like the poet Christopher Smart,
& kiss the earth & be joyful,
& make much of your time,
& be kindly to everyone,
even to those who do not deserve it.
For although you may not believe
it will happen,
you too will one day be gone,
I, whose Levi's ripped at the crotch
for no reason,
assure you that such is the case.
Pass it on.

~ Steve Kowit ~

And on to my very ordinary life:

•  I am trying to walk at our local shopping mall each morning, as it is too hot outside here in south Texas. (We are having a long stretch of breaking high temperature records of the high 90s F.) 
• The last time I regularly walked there was when MJ was a baby 22 years go, and I walked around the mall with her in a sling. She and I enjoyed her being in the sling, from the time she was a new baby into toddlerhood.
• Thanks to the conference last week, I am meditating every day, even though it is not always for 20 minutes. I am grateful to our former rector Sandy who taught that even a few minutes is enough in prayer as God will grow the prayer. It is God's prayer, after all.
• For a little over a week I have had a fuzziness in my left eye. Fortunately, my right eye overrules and I can see pretty clearly. However, this makes it more of a chore to read, which is something I usually enjoy doing at any time. This has spurred me on to make an appointment for an eye exam in two weeks, which is ten years overdue.
• I made corn cheese muffins tonight to take to a meeting, since it's always held during dinner time. Chuck complimented me by saying that we need grandchildren around, as he's missed the aroma of freshly baked breads. I used to bake muffins and bread frequently when I had young children at home, and one or another of them would help me. I hope I'll get the opportunity to do that with Avery someday.
• We are reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg in the Wisdom Class at my church, which meets every Tuesday morning (though we'll take the month of August off). It is a very interesting book with excellent research about such events as Rosa Parks becoming the civil rights icon as compared to others who resisted black oppression on buses. Why do we remember her?
• Chuck likes to play Spider Solitaire on my computer, so sometimes he is here and I am not.

Problems!!

We have been thrown into a tizzy with an email this morning from the friend who always house-dog-sits for us when we travel. She cannot be here for us during the upcoming trip to WA State, even though we asked her months ago. In three days we need someone taking care of our pets, because Chuck will depart. (I am leaving the day before, which I have already pre-posted for Thursday.)

Chuck reserved spaces at our vet's kennel, which is expensive and not our first choice for our dogs. We'd prefer someone staying at our house. Calling people and friends today brought frustration and worry. What to do?? Finally, we found the sons of church members who are willing to help us out.

They just left after getting to know our dogs, including leaping Maisie (our Lab/hound mix). One is in college and the other is in high school, and they will take care of the dogs in partnership. They may even sleep here. That makes it nicer for our dogs and for our cat, who will not indicate her pleasure.

Chuck and I feel great relief. Whew!

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi

 

At last week's Farmers' Market, I bought three kohlrabi from a young grower who was enthusiastically extolling its virtues. I used the leaves as cabbage in a soup recipe. The leaves stayed dark green and more in their shape than cabbage does, but it worked well.

Now my friend Nancy in California bought kohlrabi at her much-more-abundant Farmers' Market. I will be interested to hear how she cooks it. When I asked various people how to use it, most just said to peel the bottom piece and chop it up for a salad or snack.

I am still waiting to do that!

Here is a picture of happy kohlrabi that I thought was cute:

Seven Random Items

Anne at Reverent Irreverence posted seven random things, which was an invitation from a blogging friend of hers. This reminds me of the old days of blogging when we used to pass around "memes" and so here it goes.

1. Flossing my teeth last night, an old gold crown on one of my bottom molars came off. I vaguely remember getting it when my first child was a baby, so it's 30+ years old. So I spun off into anxiety, thinking that all my crowns would fall off as they aged (like me). But my wonderful dentist saw me this morning and easily glued it back on! I am happily back to eating and drinking with no pain.

2. One year ago yesterday I started taking bi-weekly Humira shots for rheumatoid arthritis. It has taken about nine months for the Humira and weekly methotextrate pills to work in combination to inhibit my RA symptoms. I am pain-free most of the time! I am extremely grateful that modern medicine offers such wondrous drugs and that my insurance company pays for them. I am lucky.

3. Having "old" feet, I am burdened with having bunions. They are probably due to wearing all the narrow shoes I wore until about eight years ago, when I finally learned that those bumps above my big toes were "bunions" and hurt with pressure on them. Then friends in Seattle sent me to a shoe store dedicated to finding better shoes for a customer's feet and I bought my first pair of Wolky Jewel sandals. Over the years, I have bought three more pair online. Now I have black, blue, burnt orange, and off-white Wolky's. Lately, women around my age keep asking me what kind of shoes I am wearing. Fortunately, I live in south TX, where sandals may be worn most of the year.

4. I have had two piano lessons now. My piano teacher is a friend, who is also an excellent teacher. She was a high school English teacher and then a high school piano teacher until she retired last year. She is helping me overcome my harsh self-judgment that even strikes in my beginning pecking at the keys. I am enjoying this much more than I anticipated. Learning to relax and to slow down are difficult for me though.

5. Although I am still flummoxed by Blogger's new formats for its bloggers, I am pleased by the friends (and daughter) who left comments to help me navigate these changes. I was surprised that Mad Priest still happens by here sometimes. Thank you!

6. I am addicted to playing Words with Friends on my Ipod and/or Kindle Fire. I have two friends in California who play multiple games with me. It's a lot of fun, but I wish I'd think of  longer than one-syllable words.

7. First hints of "fall" are here in south Texas. In the summer low temperatures are at 80 degrees F., but now they are dipping below 70 degrees in the early mornings. It is not always in the 90's each day. Hope for cooler weather. . .  .soon!

Which 4 Words Are Yours?

This graphic has been making the rounds on Facebook. I was really surprised at the accuracy of its four descriptive words about me; perhaps one chooses the words that one likes internally. But the ones I found are:

• naive
• shy
• peaceful
• patient

This was fun, so why don't you quickly look and see which four words you find. List them in the comments!

Who were you in high school?

Today in the wisdom class, one member who happens to be a retired Episcopal priest, asked me if my husband was a football player and I was a cheerleader in high school. I laughed and laughed!

My answer, "We were nerds."

CB and I went to the same high school in Bellingham, WA--Sehome High School as it was built on Sehome Hill. It was the second high school in Bellingham. We were both "good" kids, not getting into trouble and getting good grades in honors classes. We knew were going to go to college, even though we had to live at home and attend the excellent state school in our hometown. (And that's what we did!)

Oddly, CB and I never dated in high school. We only started dating in college.

Glass Recycling Here!

Today is Glass Recycling Day in Corpus Christi, TX--through efforts of private citizens. Our city recycling service does a pick-up every two weeks, but does not take glass. A local company plans to incorporate the glass into road composites for paving in Corpus Christi. I'm so glad, because my husband always tells me that glass recycling is not cost effective. Even so, it is environmentally effective!

These community-minded volunteers collect the glass quarterly and today is the day! I did not bring my glass to be collected three months ago, because I was still inhibited by my shoulder recovery. I have quite a bit to take today. Yay!

Friday Five: Fleas and Other Pests

Cartoon from here along with flea info.

1. What kinds of  pests are in your area? 

Unfortunately, there are over 300+ varieties of mosquitoes found in Corpus Christi, TX or the gulf coast area of TX. Plus, there are many cockroaches, as there is rarely ever a freeze. And there are fleas. . . . which have overrun our house!

2. Is there a time of year or day that increases their activity?  Weather affects them or not?

Hotter weather makes all the insects more visible. Since it is HOT here at least six months of the year, that is much of the time. Mosquitoes are more apparent after heavy rains, which we had last week and so they are out and about, especially in the morning and early evening when walking is more appealing. (the only advantage of having a drought for the past few years is that the mosquitoes and fleas were not as abundant.)

3. Is there any pest that was new to you when you moved here?

Until I moved to Corpus Christi for the first time in 1978, I had never seen big cockroaches and rarely had seen small ones. I had never even heard of "water bugs" until then, though that is just another name for the "American Roach."

It wasn't until two years later, when DC was 1 year old, that I found out about tree asps or "puss moth caterpillar" . How I learned about it was through a mishap with toddler DC:

He had a wooden swing in a big tree in the backyard. After pushing him in that swing one day, I discovered a BURN on his skin! I could not imagine how he got that and immediately took him in to see his pediatrician. The doctor looked at the sore and casually said, "It looks like an asp bite." Ignorantly, I asked him in a horrified voice, "A snake bite??" (I only knew about asps from seeing the Elizabeth Taylor movie "Cleopatra".) Then I was told that this was a kind of caterpillar.

Here is what I read about tree asps today:

"The puss caterpillar has several different names, including asp caterpillar, tree asp and southern flannel caterpillar. It's most commonly found in Texas apparently (which isn't surprising since Texas seems to be a hot spot for poisonous, venomous and dangerous organisms.) The caterpillar resembles a fuzzy cotton ball but stings like five wasps. Brushing against its fur even slightly will result in an immediate, painful stinging sensation that can spread throughout the body in a matter of minutes."  (My poor DC!)

4. How do you treat insect bites? Are you allergic to any?

Husband CB is allergic to bee stings, which could be very dangerous. Just like our old Lab Licorice, I think I am allergic to flea bites, as I have such an extreme reaction of itching and swelling.

On Wednesday night I was so bothered by flea bites on my feet and ankles that I looked online for ideas to relieve the itching. I tried alcohol swabs and that seemed to help temporarily. I also took some benedryl, but didn't notice any change. 

Yesterday I did not wear sandals; instead, I wore socks and tie-shoes sprayed with Deep Woods Off--see how desperate I felt?

5. Anything else:

The worst attacks of mosquitoes I ever experienced was on my first and only back-packing trip in Oregon, way back when CB was going to graduate school at Oregon State University and I was teaching in Eddyville. Swarms overwhelmed us, especially when we had to relieve ourselves! That time stands out so much in my memory that we never went camping with our children, which I must admit is partly due to the heat and bugs in TX (and poisonous snakes). I'm a wimp.

A Tight Spot

Today I had lunch with a friend at the restaurant in the Art Museum of South Texas. After our leisurely lunch and long chat, we came out to the parking lot to find my car wedged into this truck. However, when I parked there at noon, I had empty parking spaces on both sides of my car!

I went back in to the museum, where the security guard found the cars on his security camera. He came out to look at it, as he thought he might be able to move my car. Instead, he went back in the building to find the owner/driver of the truck.

I was expecting a good ole Texas boy to come out as the driver of this big truck--but a little, old lady came out to say she hadn't heard anything when she'd parked there! (She left almost two feet clearance to the parking spot line on the right.) I really do not know how she could get that close to my car! She kept asking me what time I'd arrived, somehow indicating that I'd done the parking job.

The whole incident turned out well, because the security guard moved the truck back, clearing my car completely. Whew!

There are only some scratches on the side mirror, while the truck had about a six inch scrape (from the protruding mirror). I am surprised the mirror wasn't pushed to break off from the car. (I'm also wondering how my old sliding cell phone could take such a reasonably clear picture.)

Couch (or Ipod?) Potato

Though I am lately feeling like a couch potato (who reads rather than watches tv), I am wondering instead if there is an "Ipod potato" or "Words with Friends potato"? That's what I have been doing too much of lately. Choices, choices!

We had a fun day (24 hours) away for a friend's  daughter's beautiful wedding outside. Oldest son DC and his wife AA were there, also, along with long-time friends from Corpus Christi, which is where the bride is from. The setting in the Texas hill country was lovely, but HOT (91 degrees at 9 pm!).

The wedding reception had sumptuous feasts with different serving stations featuring Southern food, including cheese grits with a shrimp sauce and fried green tomatoes;  Chinese food; Mexican food and much more! And then the tall, elegant wedding cake was a carrot cake with multiple layers of cream cheese frosting. At least, I drank many glasses of water and only one Margarita! However, I was not discerning in how much I ate and still feel full, though that is caused more by the wedding brunch today.

There were several heavy thunderstorms as we slept last night, so today's temperatures in the hill country were much more temperate. It was cooler and less humid, so we really enjoyed the brunch, which featured cheese grits again, fried chicken, grilled huge shrimp, and fruit kabobs. The dessert was pecan pie with ice cream.

It is a good thing that I walk every Sunday night with my good friend Katherine, so that will get me moving this evening. That is a good choice!

Monday Minutiae

What a silly image--a kitty on some teeth. So smile!

I haven't blogged for a few days and so am just going to put bullets below to tell you what is going on:

• Speaking of teeth, a 30-year-old crown fell of my last bottom molar on Saturday night. Somehow it popped off when I was flossing my teeth. Since then my tongue keeps groping for that jagged hole. Luckily, my dentist will see me in an hour. Because we don't have dental insurance anymore, I have not been seeing him as regularly as I should, which I will regret when he retires in the next few years.

• Husband CB's cold lingers on, with much coughing still. Two weeks of that, and hypochondriac me started feeling like I was catching it. However, I think (and hope) my allergies have acted up with the recent high winds blowing here in south TX.

• All Saints Episcopal Church has a new rector! Fr. Jonathan Wickham will begin at All Saints on July 1! God continues to bless our little parish. We love our interim priest Rick Dunham and look forward to having a permanent rector this summer.

• Being social introverts, my husband and I have two busy weekends coming up. This coming Saturday we are going to a friend's daughter's wedding in the hill country of TX. It will be fun to see children's friends and their parents among the throngs of others. Oldest son DC and his wife AA will be there, too!
• The second weekend in May is our youngest daughter MJ's graduation from Trinity University in San Antonio! It's a gala weekend, with dinners with her boy friend's family, a celebratory dinner/party, and a Mother's Day brunch for AA and me!  

• Now all four of our children have college degrees! Only our first and last children went through the graduation ceremonies. DC's was very long at the huge A&;M University in College Station; we were proud to see him dressed in his senior Corps uniform with the handsome high boots. Trinity is a much smaller school, and so it will be a different atmosphere, plus we are ten years older and MJ is our last child, which will cause us to feel more sentimental.

Apps that Occupy Me!

My adult children introduce time-consuming and fun apps for my Ipod (Iphone for most people, but not me) that I certainly enjoy. The one that is the most fun at connecting me with others (most recently, my friend Mary Jane in CA) is Words with Friends. It is like playing Scrabble with a friend.

The one that my oldest son DC and his wife AA told me about over Easter is more infuriating at times than Words with Friends, but it is an enjoyable way to play a pictionary-like game, which is called Draw Something.

And still, the only spiritual app that I use is Equanimity, which brings me into meditation/prayer with a chime and ends whatever time I choose with three bells. I've used it to start and end centering prayer groups, also. In fact, our group at Lebh Shomea sat in centering silence with the aid of the Equanimity app each night.

 This image shows the different screens possible to look at for this app.

And here, there is the place to use it online right now on the computer, even with suggestions about how to meditate.

More About My Hair

For months I have been unhappy with my hair as it seems to have changed texture with its change to white and my intake of methotextrate (a chemo drug) for RA. With the wind constantly blowing in Corpus Christi, my hair is further ruffled.

At physical therapy on Friday, my physical therapist Pam suggested that I "embrace the curl." Following that appointment, I had my hair cut. Dee has been cutting my hair for the past 18 years. She agreed that the texture had changed and suggested letting the top curl--by cutting it different lengths. So here I am.

It is a little difficult to adjust to the new image in the mirror--after 60 years of smooth hair. This is my new reality and so I am announcing it here.

With my daughter AE and husband CB's help, I got a new picture for FB and my profile here. CB took the photo and AE lightened it for me.

Stages of Aging

Once I hit 60 years old and let my hair go white, I've felt pushed into an "old" category. And today I saw the stages of "old" that I heard about at a United Methodist conference on senior adults some years ago:

65-74 young-old

75-84 old

85 and older old-old

I'm not even "young-old" yet! Although, I am taken aback that my mother died when she was young-old.

All these categories are meaningless, especially when you consider that they all indicate age.

STOP, Look and Listen!

 

My physical therapist told me I had a "stop sign" placed in my life to pay attention to when I hurriedly and obliviously tried to walk through the kitchen door last week holding stuff along with my exercise stick (a former broom stick!) sideways--couldn't get through and was jolted to stop. (Duh!) I had been feeling so almost-normal that day, getting back into the busy routine of washing clothes and even trying to clean. I was more busy than paying attention.

That was a mistake, because I hurt some muscles in my shoulder, so much so that that night I had to keep putting ice on it. Luckily, I saw my physical therapist the next day (last Friday) and she carefully and minutely checked the various muscles to see what I'd hurt, while also seeing if I'd damaged my healing shoulder. Luckily, I hurt other muscles than the one that was re-attached to the bone in the surgery .

However, the muscles have remained sore and are hindering my progress in recovery and in my participating in all the PT exercises needed to strengthen all those muscles for moving my arm up, down, and around. If I can ever move my right arm behind me up beyond my butt, I will be greatly pleased. 

Pam, my physical therapist, told me that I need to remember I am fragile and am still healing. I guess this mishap reinforced that image, especially with me getting to see my 15 month old granddaughter this weekend--I canNOT lift Avery or carry her with my right arm, my usual method of holding her.

This was definitely a reminder to be more mindful of my activities. Pay attention! So I was really helped by the meditation I am copying below.



Ellie at Does Not Wisdom Call had this pertinent post about hurrying:

Artist: Margret Hofheinz-Döring

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Hmmm. Has anybody ever thought of giving up hurry for Lent?

"To be impatient is to be hooked on the future."

— Gerald Jampolsky

All of the great spiritual teachers I've ever studied have emphasized the importance and, indeed, the holiness of the present moment. May I suggest that we use whatever Lenten discipline we may have chosen as a way of helping us be truly mindful of the here and now.

s l o w i n g down

I am getting sick of my computer. I've been avoiding it with my arm in the sling, partly because it is more difficult to access with my arm in the sling AND partly because the computer is SO slow. Ever since Norton updated its security system, my computer gets slower and slower. Norton always seems to be doing a complete scan, even though we have unchecked those boxes on the Norton program.

It is frustrating, because I am used to quicker responses. Sometimes I sit for prolonged periods for actions to occur, even at times trying to delete one email! My Ipod Touch reacts more promptly than this pc.

I guess it is good for me to spend less time on the computer. With February approaching, I will be writing a note or postcard--with more (free) time to do so!