Kitchen window

I've lived in my current home for 19 years. I really like it for a number of reasons, particularly because there are absolutely no stairs. We can come into the building, go directly through our front door and straight out onto the patio. For people with bad knees and sciatica, this is a blessing.

One feature that I dearly miss, however, is having a kitchen window. For most of my life I've had the luxury of being able to look outside while working at the sink. Now I have a blank wall with a couple plaques of fruits and vegetables. It's just not the same. The featureless wall sometimes reminds me of being in a basement.

The lovely thing about a kitchen window is there are a host of things you can do with it. You can:

1. Decorate it with cute curtains or window treatments.
2. Hang planters in front of it.
3. Put pretty stained glass doodads on it.
4. Ripen tomatoes on the window sill.
5. Root plant cuttings.
6. Watch your kids.
7. Watch your neighbors.
8. Watch the changing of the seasons.
9. Watch birds and wildlife.
10. It's a great place to grow cactus or succulents.
11. And best of all, catch the spring breezes.

Nowadays, (quaint old-fashioned word) I spend more time at the computer than I do in the kitchen so I guess it's not as important. I'm sure glad I had a kitchen window back when it was important.

Another Monday

In my bid to become more friendly to the environment, I stocked up on 100% recyled toilet paper over the weekend. (They cut down old growth forests to make the softer plush toilet tissues.)

Let me rephrase--I bought tissue that was produced entirely from recycled paper. Since I get a daily newspaper, I recyle a whopping lot of paper. I'm only too pleased to reuse it in another form. Sadly, it's still hard to find, but Scott Tissue, Seventh Generation and White Cloud are brands found in Minnesota.

I wanted to point out that all those plastic bottles of Canada Dry lime sparkling water I drain are recycled. I'm told they are turned into sturdy, maintenance-free outdoor furniture and fencing.

I'm also a designated Donor on my driver's license. I might have been tempted to donate my entire body to the UM Medical School, but a friend who did said they don't want obese bodies. This makes sense since med students don't need the aggravation of learning anatomy on atypical cadavers.

Monday is garbage day in my neighborhood. I have managed to reduced the amount of stuff going to the landfill over the years. I recycle most cans (except cat food cans. I got a bad cut trying to wash one.)

Anyway, I'm pretty boring today. But I'm up to 74 posts!

Wishful thinking

I love to go places. Although I have traveled some over the years, it's still not enough. (Actually, I'm not sure how a person determines when you have traveled enough.) However, since I don't have any extra income to pay for such luxuries, I felt that I had traveled as much as I ever would.

Two movies I've watched recently have given my wanderlust a boost. I watched the Darjeeling Limited with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers on a train trip across the Middle East. This was followed by the film Bonneville starring Jessica Lange, Joan Allen and Kathy Bates. They are three friends who take off on a roadtrip to deliver the ashes of one's husband with the usual incidents along the way.

Now, I saw this picture on a fellow bloggers post and that old feeling came over me again. I want to get in a car with a few pals and hit the open road looking for adventure...or at least a good time...or even a swell restaurant. I'm dreaming about a devil-may-care time where money is no object and everyone you see envies you because you're having so much fun.

Well, maybe I wasted my Sunday afternoon but I enjoyed it. Hope your afternoon was enjoyable as well.

My drinking problem

Like most people, I am devoted to my creature comforts. It sours my day if I can't start it with a big mug of coffee and the Star Tribune newspaper. After that, I move on to my computer and check my emails and blogs. If I don't do these things, I feel disconnected and isolated.

On those rare occasions when I travel, I always take my pillow with me. I notice many other travelers do this too. I suspect it might be an unconscious throwback to the childhood "blankie".(Think about it--it's soft, warm and cuddly and smells like home.)

And then, there is what my kids call my "drinking problem". I am addicted to lime-flavored sparkling water. My favorite brand is Canada Dry in 16-oz bottles. (Not cans--it tastes wrong.) It's hard to find and I have gone far and wide in my pursuit of this delightful beverage. At one time it was carried by a local grocery store chain and I would buy all they had. It was restocked infrequently so I would often run out before they got a new supply. I begged the store managers (my dealers) to keep the stuff in stock, but they would give me false promises and run out again. I even went so far as to send the distributor a letter pointing out the folly of lost sales due to erratic delivery schedules. I never got any response. As a result, I would drive around to other stores all over the Cities and buy all they had in stock.

Then in a crushing blow, all the stores in that chain stopped carrying my brand. All of them. I checked! I was frantic. I need my water! Is that too much to ask?

I found another grocery store chain that carries it. It's at a higher price and stocked in smaller amounts, so I buy every 6-pack on the shelves. It's always on the bottom shelf and not easy to dig out, but at least it's restocked more frequently. Happily, I am hanging in there for now. The day may come when I'll have to move on to an inferior brand of lime-flavored sparkling water. I'm totally committed to my creature comforts (or is it called being "set in my ways") shudder.

Ahhhhh!

(PS: Lindy's surgery went well and she's scheduled to be released tomorrow.)

Salute to Lindy

Tomorrow my oldest granddaughter will undergo bariatric surgery in Fargo. She's 25 and has three little girls (see "The flip side of Spring"). The surgery was rescheduled from Wednesday to Saturday after the hospital was evacuated due to the flooding.

She's enthusiastic about getting it done and I don't blame her. If I would have had that option at her age, I'd have done it too. It's not her fault she's overweight because she inherited the same
big-belly genes that I did. My mom had a big belly as did all her sisters.

I can't help but wonder what is the evolutionary benefit to having a big belly? It makes for nice soft, bouncy mommies but it really screws up your Body Mass Index. The "apple" body shape is reputed to be the most likely to produce diabetes and heart trouble which makes for grandmas that don't live as long. Of course, in evolutionary terms, grandparents are largely expendable.

I guess I shouldn't complain though. At my 50th class reunion in September, I met a classmate who was awaiting her first grandchild. Not only do I have eight really neat grandkids, but three darling great-granddaughters.


I will now close and
count my blessings.

Stop the world, I want to get off

Time is just whizzing by lately. Tuesday was my oldest daughter's 50th birthday! That seems so insane--it was only a few years ago that I was fifty. It's time to pull back on the reins and stop the mad rush of time 'cause it's gonna wipe me out at this rate. (Sorry about the mixed metaphor.)

I spent much of Wednesday getting my taxes done. I'm getting enough money back that I can replace the washer and dryer--both purchased in 1990. The dryer drum goes ka-thunk, ka-thunk and the washer shrieks like a banshee in spin cycle. The poor cats and I have tolerated this long enough.

Today I was back over at the clinic sitting at the lobby desk (nothing untoward today). By the time I had lunch and read all my emails, blogs and facebook entries, I've started running out of steam (or whatever it is that propels my feeble brain).

April is going to be a hectic month. I won't bore you with the details. But, I'm oh-so grateful that I'm retired.

To all you ER fans, enjoy the finale tonight.

Another "How Come"

This one has bugged me for years. How come they can't make a window seal that holds?

I'm talking about oven door windows and house windows. My stove is a little over a year old and already the seal has broken and ugly streaks are running down between the panes of glass. When I bought the stove, I asked for a stove without the window but the saleswoman said that everybody wants the windows. They didn't even have any windowless ovens in stock.

So here I am with the leaky oven door window...again.

The modest condo I live in has four windows and a patio door, all double-pane sliding types. And, every single one of them have broken seals with streaks and/or clouding. Several of them have been replaced but didn't last long before the seals broke again.

I think the main reason it bugs me is that the stove and windows never look clean. When I have guests or host my writer's group, I feel that it makes me look like a slob. Now, I actually am a slob but when I have company, I make a supreme effort to conceal the fact. Those darn windows give me away.

What am I to do?