Marie

If you have been reading my little comments on Facebook lately, the majority of them tell about her needing a new furnace this week. Well, after the furnace was installed it was easy to tell that the new one was smaller than the old one. Having that said, Fran needed to build a new wall for it. He forgot his drill so I took it down to him this morning. His mom was standing there watching him

I said, "why don't we go in the living room, I want to ask you some questions." Well, she took off like a shot. I get such a kick out of her. For ninety five years old she is amazing. I know, I have said that before. I just need to impress that upon you. For instance. On her blog, Marie's Memories I put a post up yesterday that showed her four children posing with their Christmas presents in 1955. In the background was a television. Fran said that television was never moved from that corner. ANYWAY, for fun I asked her what brand that television was and almost immediately she said, "it was a Phillips." That television was new in the fifties, so in my mind it was about sixty years ago. However, I remember the name of our new television too, it was an Admiral. Huh, how about that. I know it was only fifty years ago. lol

Music; The Therapy Of Generations

When I am sad, I listen to sad music. What kind of sense does that make? When I am happy, I listen to music I could dance and sing to.

When I am missing people that have passed on, I want to hear their favorite music or music by their favorite singers.

When I want to praise God, I worship by singing my favorite hymns. Hymns that I heard every Sunday when I went to church with my family.

During sessions in the Alzheimer Unit during the years I worked with those people, music was the one thing they never forgot. I can remember one lady that couldn’t walk, couldn’t eat by herself, and couldn’t speak, but when I played a real good polka or a song with a strong beat, she tapped on her lap with her finger to the beat of the song. Someone besides me saw what she was doing and said, “She’s in there.” I thought that was such an interesting observation. Yes, she was “in there” by the music allowing her to show others and to make her quietly happy.

Right now I am playing a cd that Fran and I made a couple of years ago. It brings back memories of how much fun we had making those. He also made a cd of his own. I had him sing over forty songs until I thought it sounded good. He was almost hoarse. Well, we sent them out for Christmas presents. Among other problems, our bird Mertie enjoyed the music and just sang and danced. We got a call from one of Fran’s daughters and wanted to know if we had a bird. We were so used to him chirping that we didn’t notice that he was chirping on the cd music. We laughed, but decided that we needed to cover him up next time we recorded. At least Maggie didn’t howl. That would have been embarrassing. Oh, we also talked and coughed during the music. Oh well, we had fun.

Taps also bring tears to my eyes. The children’s father had a military funeral. The notes are ones of loneliness.

Rock and roll music bring back images of Dick Clark, and our youth center when I was a teenager. The song, “In the Mood” brings to mind my high heels and chiffon dress in a huge ballroom dancing until my feet felt like they were going to fall off.

The kids’ dad called slow songs “belly rubbers.” See how many things that are brought to mind by not only hearing music, but just by thinking of it.

What comes to your mind when you hear a song, did you dance to it, did you hear it in the car, a movie, a 33 record, a jukebox? I would be really interested. Can’t wait to hear from you!!

The Peak Of The Fall Foliage



Fall Leaves



About five years ago my daughter gave my friend some money for a tree as a tribute to her mother whom had passed away shortly before. The tree is a tulip tree and has always stood tall and proud of its pretty leaves. This year the fall foliage is abundant on the little tree. My friend has a big picture window right by her kitchen table. At this view point she can look at her flowers and her little tree.

The gift that Melanie gave my friend will last long after she is gone, but will always remind me of her every time I look at that little tree. Those trees grow  tall and have gorgeous flowers and leaves. There is an expression in the Ozarks. People say if the price is too high on something, " boy they are sure proud of those" whatever it is. The tulip or magnolia tree is also very proud of themselves.





Spring Flowers







Sometimes You Just Know

Have you ever had this feeling that something is going to happen and it is out of your control? Ever since I married Fran this feeling happens quite frequently. Fran absolutely loves a bargain. That’s why we go to yard sales, flea markets and estate sales.

Our neighbors are going to a huge flea market with all of their twenty year collection of “stuff.” Yes, I know, you all know that Fran doesn’t care about the weather, he’s just like a mailman let’s see, rain, snow, or dark of night!

Today we took off for the flea market. The temperature was twenty five and the grass was white with frost. I wore two sweatshirts and a very heavy winter coat. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was no wind. What a difference it makes to have sunshine on your face. Fran did tease me that I didn’t need blush on my face because my cheeks were pink.

The vendors were set up in a big circle in a grocery store parking lot. That was good for the grocery store and good for the shoppers to go in and warm up. And….. To purchase little snacks or groceries while in there; everyone wins.

We bought Maggie a new ball and a few groceries. We visited with our neighbors. They were selling a lot of things. We also visited with some people that we knew from a little town where I used to live. It was a fun morning and only cost eleven dollars altogether. I am afraid that our “shopping days” are over for a few months. Unless maybe Tuesday at the huge flea market…….

Will I Ever Learn?

I have told you about my best friend several times. We have had more fun than any two friends usually do.

One day we went about fifty miles away to go shopping at a dress shop that carried name brand merchandise that ordinarily we could not afford. This particular day they had a half price sale plus twenty percent off for seniors. There are times when you don’t mind being a senior citizen. The day was bright and sunny and we visited and laughed on the way there. The sky slowly started to get kind of a gray color. I told Carole to look to the east. The sky was black. She told me that we were fine because storms never go from east to west. Ahem. By the time we got to the town it was pitch black. We dashed into the store and happily shopped away to our heart’s content. We did look outside and saw that it was raining the proverberial pitchforks and hammer handles. By the times we were done shopping the rain had stopped. However, Carole had left her window open. Oh, I laughed at her so hard. She did have a throw in the back so she just got half soaked.

After we laughed ‘til we hurt, we decided to go further north about another thirty miles to shop some more. The weather seemed good so we went to this adorable boutique. Neither one of us had ever been to. We spent money like it was water. We loved the clothes and one on one service. When we got outside, it was raining. Really raining. Guess what? I forgot to roll up MY window. Carole told me it served me right. Needless to say we were both so wet and miserable we didn’t want to shop any more, but we did go out and eat so we could laugh and call the other one the most stupid which ended up being me.

This morning we needed to go grocery shopping and I got in with a happy heart which quickly turned to unhappy. We had four inches of rain last night and I had my window down; only a half inch, but with all that wind and rain that will do it. I had to get a grocery bag to sit on. The title of this is “ when will I ever learn.” I just don’t think so. I just wish my best friend would have been with me, I miss her teasing me when we go shopping.

Passwords

You know, the older I get the more forgetful I seem to be. I worked in long term care for almost twenty years and was always told memory problems were caused by an ailment not by old age. I believed that for all those years and still do for certain things. Alzheimer’s Disease causes forgetfulness and so do other diseases.

Not a single soul ever, ever told me that for each program on the computer you could use the same password. So for years I have come up with these cutzie little passwords for each program. So, as far as I can think back, I have asked about six different programs to reset my password. Then I have asked about four of them to reset them again. Then I have gone without using one program for a month because I was embarrassed to ask again. As I was sitting here typing I happened to look to my left and there on an old notebook it said “the name of the program and the password.” I just could not believe it! I could have swore that I looked in that notebook because it has all kinds of programs and passwords. In the future this will not happen again. I see no reason why all my programs cannot have the same password. You have to understand that I am not computer savvy or use it for much more than emails and my stories. I am not worried about someone hacking into it. I will miss my cute little passwords though. If anyone knows why I should not do this, please let me know.

Should I Become A Gamer?

Well. That’s a big word this fall. Well. I am not a gamer on Facebook or individual games that you can play on video stations. I do like television, however. I do like my one soap that I have watched for years and years. I like some mysteries and some comedies and a sundry of other things. I use television for “noise” in the house. I listen to it while I am on the computer and talk to it. I agree or disagree with it. It is like having company in the house.

Arguing with television is a safe way to win one. Yeah, no one yells back at me. You probably have figured out what I am talking about. Politics!! I am just about at my wits end with these commercials. Plus they upset my husband. He starts in on them and takes sides and calls them liars and on and on. It seems that he is not the only one. Where I live everyone really gets into arguing over the opponents. They don’t even know them, just the commercials that they have run on television! I don’t want to talk about them. I don’t want my television shows ruined by sneaking in a commercial with someone attacking their opponent.

I think debate is wonderful. After all, I was a teenager once! Debate if done right, has rules, has different things that need to be debated to get everything covered so that the voters can make their minds up intelligently. In my opinion, it is not necessary to trash each other to make themselves look good. In my opinion also, I guess that I will have to watch cable channels so that I will not have to put up with these negative trashy ads.