scattered thoughts

I don't feel like writing a coherent , or time oriented blog today, but I will try to write out some scattered thoughts.

Scattered Thought No. 1 - Yesterday I bought a new TENNIS RACQUET ---for me. It's the newest one on the market and is really slick looking. Got it from my former tennis teacher for 50 bucks (he said it sold for 150.00).

Now the weird part, as most of you know, is that I haven't played tennis, or even been on a tennis court for 2 years!! So why do I need a NEW tennis racquet?

Best reply to that WHY is to consider another question.

Which is "AND "WHY haven't I been on a tennis court?"

Because I had reasoned with myself, an (84, 85,or 86 year old -(take your pick) old lady, that I shouldn't be so foolish as to keep testing fate by running across the tennis court and maybe falling down!!

Well, pooh to that. I took said tennis racquet and hit some balls with Mary Anne and Ben yesterday and it was fun. Of course, I'm rusty as a nail, have forgot all the good instructions I've had, and just slammed the ball around the court like a rank beginner.

There is a moral to this chatter. For one thing, don't put stupid restrictions on yourself as to what you can or cannot do ---- simply because of your age. I actually hit a few good balls back to Mary, I didn't fall down, and I was able to walk to the car and get home without collapsing! SO -- I did something I didn't think I could (or should), and I had fun.

Second point. I MISSED PLAYING tennis for two years. What a waste! I got two years older anyhow, maybe a tick more senile and tottery anyhow, and that "gone" time is irretrievable.

Get the message??? Don't miss out on life by being too careful!


Scattered thought No. 2. Much to the chagrin of my sinful pride and my serene confidence that I was at least fairly mature in my spiritual outlook on life, I learned, through a video Bible study by an intelligent, fiery, black young lady, that I had an aged, stereotypical, and "set in concrete" view of the Holy Spirit of God and His work in a Christian life.

I can't even summarize the new truths that have bombarded my soul after listening to this woman speak. I'm still trying to apprehend, assimilate, and appropriate new insights that came from her sermon into my thinking and living!!

It's not that I was completely wrong in my theology; it's just that I had forgot that it is impossible for one human being to completely understand God, and that I am very foolish to try to box Him into my own fragile and finite view of of Who He IS and What He Should Do, and How He Should Do It.

I got the message!

Enough of this stuff.

Bye now!

Sunday Update

Today I went to FBC and taught the SS class for my friend, LaRue. Because these folks are really nice people and they are always well-groomed , I dolled myself up a bit with a new navy jacket, blue checked skirt, and my latest pair of new shoes (black and white sling pumps). Have to admit, I looked pretty snazzy!



But were those shoes a mistake! At first they were comfortable, but since I always teach standing up (don't know why, an old professorial habit), by the time I finished and sat down, I realized my feet were "killing" me!



I dragged myself out to the car, cautiously pulled the shoes off, confident that my feet were irreparabily demolished, and sat there in the heat for 5 minutes before the pain stopped long enough for me to drive home barefoot ! Now tell me why anyone (especially an 84 year old (MC age) woman would subject herself to such agony just to be considered "classy," "well-groomed," or whatever the hell it was that I thought I was!!!



No more! Next Sunday, I'm wearing dress pants and Nike Walking Shoes and I don't care what anyone says.



Bill didn't feel like attending SS but when I got home I pushed him out the door to go for coffee and a snax at our Southlake Hang-Out. It was packed! We managed to find a table at the back, back, part of the place and settled in with our coffee and cake and watched the rich folks come in. They look just like us -- except their clothes are obviously not from Penny's or Kohls, or even Macys. And I wonder if they have had a life as happy as mine has been.



Put a Netflix TV on to watch when we got home, and I promptly fell asleep . Since we have the new TV in the bedroom, I'm afraid a lot of that falling asleep might happen. Bill watched the flick and said it was pretty good.



This extreme heat is sure not any fun for me. I can be out in it about ten minutes and I think I"m gonna faint -- so I scurry right back into the ole air conditioned house. I can remember when I was in my sixties I played tennis out in this kind of heat with my buddy Joan Botger at our lunch hour on the campus at UCO, when the temp must have been over a hundred! But that was then and this is now!



I woke up the other morning and wrote a nostalgia blog in my mind which was really good (my judgment only) and I never got around to putting it on the computer. It is amazing how clear-cut, how vivid, how accurate my memory of things that happened 60 to 65 years ago is -- and how satisfying it is for me to live again those happy days. Never mind that I can't remember what happened last Friday, or Saturday.



Anyhow ---- I am going to blog some of those memories, just for my own pleasure. I will make the heading Memory Blog so you can just skip the whole thing if you want to. My first one will be entitled Memory Blog -My Life at the Ritz, coming up soon (in the next six months, probably.)



Mark, I started Little Brother, got bogged down in all the technology stuff, tried to read through it to get to the story, but finally gave up. It's sitting on my bookcase now. Yeah, I know, I should push on, but don't think I will.)



To Everyone: MC Age which I referred to above means Marie-Curry Age and that means that is how old I am really. Obviously both Marie Saunders and Curry Elgin could not be wrong about anything that important!



Adios!

A hectic day

Yesterday was a most hectic day! Joy, who cleans my house, came kind of early so I was going to to walk at the mall to be out of the way. But before I could get out of the house, the fence guys were knocking on the door to put up a new fence. I had to quickly call neigbors on the east and south to warn them to get their dogs put up. Fortunately, I was able to get both of them on the phone and they were cooperative.

Eight strong Mexican men, only one of whom spoke English, descended en masse and they began to work quickly and very professionally. I was almost afraid to leave the house because I thought they would be finished in just an hour or so.

But by noon, Bill and I were famished and so we took off to get a hamburger at Waffle House, ate hurridly, and got back home by 1:30.
By then, Joy was about ready to leave, and the fencers were moving right along. I took them cokes shortly afterwards (it was a 100 degrees by now) and they seemed grateful.

The last part that consumed time was the gate. Two guys worked on it, and it was finally finished about 5 p.m.

I was supposed to go and check on Mary's white cat to see if she was all right, but by then I was so pooped I fixed us a sandwich and fell in bed by 8:30. The cat had to wait until today to be checked on.

Today we went to the hearing aids lady and she tinkered with Bill's hearing aids a bit, hoping to make his hearing improve. I don't know if it has or not; maybe tomorrow I will be able to check that out more carefully. We also ate breakfast out today; fact is, we are probably eating out more than we are eating in, but it's working for us. I just don't give a flip about preparing meals these days.

The dang dog is sleeping on my bed again! He stayed in his kennel for a few nights, but soon tired of that and of course, came to his main man in the pack, which is ME, to hang with!!! Tomorrow the trainer comes and we are gonna have a talk. Barney has attacked Bill this week (for no reason, except I was there) and if that doesn't stop by the end of July, Little Mr.
Barney is gonna be finding a new home.

While I was sitting up having my early cuppa coffee with Barney at my feet and Bill in bed, I wrote , in my mind, a really good blog about My Life At the Ritz. I'm thinking of getting it out of my mind and on to a blog soon; it's so much fun for me to write --- about anything, anybody, at anytime.

Hey, Mark, I'm starting "Little Brother" and I think I will like it.

Hey, Alice, I finished the young girl/vampire book that Alex liked. It was interesting, but nothing special that I could see. I'm gonna write Hannah to get her slant on it; it sure didn't strike me as "one of the greatest books I ever read." I must be missing something.

Tonite I'm feeling good, not very tired, think I may even be able to sit in bed and read a bit. Last nite I was SO TIRED I was almost blotto and could barely crawl into bed at 9:00 p.m. So what's the difference??? I have no idea; I was busy today as well. Go figure.

P.S. The guy who shares the back fence brought me a check today for $360; his half of the $720 cost of that fence. Nice guy, a former Okie. The gal on the east side (fencing cost there was $1330.00) said she could only give me $300. And I won't hold my breath until I get that amount!!!

But the fence looks really good.

Getting in line with blogging trend

I finally decided I might as well join the blogging parade and try to write something about what is happening to me on a fairly daily basis. I may still throw in a few of my philosophical (?) discussions just to worry everybody about my sanity.

Today has been a scorcher here, but Mark Alan and I got out to Best buy early this morning and I managed to drop almost 700 bucks in their coffers by buying a flat screen 32 inch TV for my bedroom. Went there to get a DVD player that would work with my BIG remote control, but somehow in the process I ended up with said 32 inch TV. It often happens that when i go out shopping with my son, I end up spending more money than I had ever figured I would. But what the hay, it really is nice.

Of course, it follows that I need a smaller bed in said bedroom and possibly a new leisure chair -- and who knows what else??

This afternoon has been one of those days when a plug has been pulled somewhere in my ole bod and all my energy has run out.
I've been too tired to do anything but flop on the bed and sleep.

Mary is busy, busy, trying to get everything done for them to leave for their Colorado vacation on Saturday? Sunday? I hope they will have a great time; at least it will be cool there.

She and I went shopping yesterday and bought some cute, cool things for her and I got a sharp short navy jacket to wear with my white jeans. I'll probably look like a sailor when I get all dolled up, but the jacket was a steal and very attractive.

I'm reading the book ALex was fascinated with while she was here called "Twilight" and find it engrossing. It's about a young girl falling in love with a handsome vampire, and it's scary for me because I've always sorta believed there really are vampires out there. Don't believe in goblins, ghosts, werewolves, ogres, or bad angels, but vampires just might be real!!!

I'm keeping a record of my daily spending these days ever since Kim told me I oughta know where my money is going, and it has been pretty revealing as to where my interests lie. I spend a lot of money on DVDs, entertainment, clothing that I don't really need, and eating out. Makes me one of the "now" generation" I guess.

So much for my "exciting" day! I'm alive, thank God, and that's a lot for an octogenarian.

Cold Feet?

Did you ever have cold feet in the idiomatic sense of "not having courage to follow through on something?" Well, I'm not talking about that kind of cold feet!

I'm talking about literal "cold feet." That means cold feet like the two feet you use to stand upright cold feet. Confused enough, already?

Well, my cold feet problem starts way up at my knees, travels all the way down my legs and to the end of my toes on my feet. That's a pretty good chunk of anatomy to be cold 'most of the time, doncha think???

Yep, and it is not just a seasonal problem; my cold feet are cold in the middle of July when the temp hits 105 -- and that's with shoes on top of said "cold feet." You can imagine how cold they are in wintertime! Brrrr!

So what do I do to be able to live with this very unusual(?) physical anomaly? Well, when I am at my own home, I keep an electric blanket on my bed all the year around and turn the temp up to about 6 every nite before I climb into bed. That's a really toasty temp, in case you didn't know. In about 15 minutes my pore old cold feet are warm enough that I can go to sleep. (From my knees up, I"m really hot!)

When I'm visiting other people, I pile on woolen socks, or wrap my lower extremities in a warm, warm blanket before I struggle into bed. At my daughter's house in Birmingham, I hinted that I really needed an electric blanket and she provided one. (I think her husband urged her to do so, thinking that I might go "poof" under such intense heat, and disappear into the stratosphere)

So what has all this to do with "the price of corn" or "how such profundity of thought will change the course of history?"

Well, hey, it won't do nothing like that, but it will keep my son Mark from remarking, "Mom, you don't blog everyday like you should." Right? Right.

Adult Children

What do you call your Adult Children? Is there a proper term?

I have three people, two girls and a boy, to whom I gave birth and they are now 'way past the age that I can comfortably call them "two girls and a boy".

But to call them "Adult Children" is an oxymoron, and few people out there know what an oxymoron is --- or care. But I do,, because I am an English professor and when an oxymoron is used, it is used for a literary purpose, and for the life of me I can't place these three into a literary setting. So then, "adult children" is out.

So what's next? How about just calling them "Children?" People do often ask me how many children I have and I respond, "Three children . A boy and 2 girls. " Think about that!! I have THREE CHILDREN? No way is that true. I realize the questioner is satisfied because he/she interprets my answer as a generic statement and he doesn't puzzle about the "children" part.

Before you get a smarty reply formed in your mind, let me say, "Yes, I know he doesn't puzzle about it because he can tell by looking at me that the three I'm talking about couldn't possibly be "children."

But that doesn't answer my original question. What is the proper term to use then? How about Adult People? or Ageing Offspring? or Boomer Bloomers?"

Is there any significant point to all this nonsense? Why did i ever think of bringing up the question?

There is a significant, and poignant, point to be made. Here it is:

I look at these three beautiful (handsome) people I birthed who are now adults and my heart glows with joy at who they are right now.

It doesn't really matter what I call them, what matters most is that I can use a predicate adjective to identify them--- " They are mine. "