Posting on a rainy day

It has been cold and rainy for days. But, for the third day in a row, 14 wild turkeys have been patroling the grassy area behind my building looking for snacks.

The first day, the cats were afraid, the next day they were curious, and now they're downright bored.

Likewise, on the first day, we were all excited and called the neighbors and snapped pictures of the turkeys (none of which turned out). The second day, we watched them until they wandered off. The third day, I remarked in passing, "The turkeys are back again."

How quickly we become jaded by repetition!

Celebrating my existance

Sometimes something in your past comes along and startles you into a shocking realization.

Case in point: the Asian Flu epidemic of '57 - '58. It was a really bad one and I got sick in January of 1958. I wasn't the only one--50% of the kids in our local school came down with it. (We didn't have all the health warnings and Purell in those days.)

After I recovered, however, I continued to be sick every morning when I got up. I slowly realized that I was pregnant. A few months later, I had a miscarriage.

In yesterday's newspaper, I read an article about the increased threat the H1N1 virus poses to pregnant women. A high percentage of the fatalities so far have been pregnant women. At the very end of the article, it mentions that in the Asian Flu epidemic, 50% of pregnant women died from the disease.

This means I had a 50/50 chance of dying in 1958! Well, how about that!

It's crazy-making to contemplate that one might not be alive. But, if I weren't, a really great bunch of people wouldn't exist either. So today, I celebrate my four wonderful children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren! They are my proudest "achievement"!

Could we have a little more creativity please?

I became a big TV fan back in 1953 when my parents got our first set. I have watched TV ever since, eagerly anticipating the new shows debuting each year on the fall line-up.

Sadly, it's become apparent I've finally become jaded by so many formulaic TV shows. Why must they all be so much alike?

There is inevitably a hot-shot guy, a pretty blond woman, the newbie (either gender), the stern boss, the comic or generally annoying type, and the good buddy. Just add some ethnic variety to the mix and you have every TV cast of nearly every show.

I silently moan whenever the generic "hottie" shows up and pretends to be an actress. There are so many wonderful actresses out of work, yet the only new show that has managed to employ one is NCIS-LA. The delightful Linda Hunt has a regular role.

On the new show Mercy, Michelle Trachtenberg plays a pretty blond nurse with two sidekicks: a pretty, pouty young newbie and a pretty black hottie. The veteran actress Kate Mulgrew is relegated to playing her boozy mother.

Then there's Trauma, another perfect example... But I rant too much.

There's no longer any money in new ideas. The Networks are scared to death of creativity. The demographics (by which they make money on advertising) dictate that there must be hotties and hunks. So we suffer through yet another season of dreary offerings.

I used to be a kid

You'd never know it to look at me, but once upon a time I was a little girl.

It didn't last long. I was the oldest of four kids and was called upon to help my mom with housework a lot. I remember that at the age of seven, I was already doing dishes, helping with supper and scrubbing floors on my hands and knees.

By the age of eight, I was babysitting my younger siblings when my folks went into town for groceries. I already thought I was too old to play with dolls or go on the merry-go-round at the fair.

At the age of ten, my parents went to the Twin Cities for a weekend and left me to get my siblings off to school on Monday morning. As a result, I was late for school and my 6th grade teacher shamed me in front of the class. When I explained why I was late she said I was old enough to get up on time.

I'm sure my mom thought this was good training for my inevitable future as a housewife. And, my teacher probably thought this was a lesson in responsibility. But looking back, I feel like I was cheated out of much of my childhood. I grew up way too fast.

Is this what you would call old-age angst?

Setting goals

In 19 days, I will reach the first anniversary of my blog. In checking my number of postings, I discovered that I will have to post 19 more to reach 200.

Therefore, I have set myself a goal to post every day for the next 19 days!

I have to admit that I'm not good at following through with my stated goals. For example: I am the sort who is always going to start a diet next Monday; I am always promising myself I'm going to get my desk cleaned off tomorrow; I'm going to get the garage straightened up next weekend, etc.

So, here I go with my 19 postings. May they all be more interesting than this one!

The neck knows...

Whoa! Autumn has fallen with a thud! It's cold and windy and my neck is telling me it's time to dig out the turtlenecks and pack away the T-shirts.

I started wearing turtlenecks back in the 80's because of my chronic stiff neck in cold weather. This is not a good look for me with my short neck and stout stature. But, it's the only way I can stay limber in the head-turning department. I also do neck exercises to keep the noggin sitting comfortably on said stout stature.

I have frequented oodles of second-hand thrift stores over the years buying every color of turtleneck shirt. I cut the long sleeves off and then wear the shirt as a shell under under a variety of tops. I like to think of this as my "signature" look. Believe me, this is as fashion-conscious as I ever get.

The cool weather puts me in the mood to make a big pot of soup. Or, maybe do some baking...

So, farewell to a lovely summer.

Keep on smilin'

I love smiley faces. I have a lot of them because I find them therapeutic. I also have a large collection of Garfields with smiles--or smirks--depending on your way of looking at it.

I have thought about selling my Garfield collection but they don't have very much value. This might be because there are literally thousands of Garfield items out there.

I am the proud owner of such mundane articles as Garfield brown paper lunch bags and plastic sandwich bags. I have a Garfield mug tree to hold the many unused Garfield mugs of every kind I own. I also have a lot of Garfield Christmas ornaments packed away along with the Easter and July 4th decorations.

Collecting is great fun until one day you look at your collection and say, "Now what?" Over the years I have collected green glass, cougar pictures and figurines, cedar waxwing pictures and figurines, calendar art, cookie jars, cat figurines, etc., etc.

I'm not a hoarder but eventually your things start to become a burden. Ownership is no longer fun and you realize that the joy was in the "hunting and gathering". Once you acquire the "prey", it becomes just stuff.

So, as much as I craves the smiles, the stuff has got to go!