My pretend vacation

When you're retired, you're on vacation all the time.

Ha!  I thought that once upon a time, a long time ago. Mind you, I'm not complaining as I really do like our life these days, but free time still seems elusive and yet all the days of the week can feel the same so the concept of a weekend is often lost.

I wanted to clear out a folder of photos I had saved from a site called Perfectly Timed Photos. I'm not providing the link, but you can find it if you Google that name. Not all photos are for polite company but many are amusing and some are amazing.

Before I disappear from Blogland for a few days, I thought I'd present my pretend vacation photo journal.

Day 1:  Air travel is just not as enjoyable as it once was. Waiting to board, I found myself hoping that I wouldn't be seated next to this lady because frankly, her breath was like a dog's.

Day 2: Sight seeing is always fun. I thought I looked quite fetching this day but hubby thought perhaps I was showing too much cleavage. (anyone who knows me personally is laughing their heinies off at this!) Apparently he was right as I certainly distracted the bicyclist. Ouch! That had to hurt!

Day 3: When people yell "Heads up!" don't you think they really mean "Duck!" ?  I really hope the man in the green shirt was ok. Look at the others though...isn't it amazing that people pay to attend a sporting event and don't seem to be paying attention? Or pay attention as the man in black seems to be doing, but don't react?

Day 4: On this day we heard a motivational speaker. Her story was so uplifting! It was as if she were floating....

Day 5: That hubby of mine is such a kidder! He is forever putting on his shark fin hat and swimming under water to scare me. I felt him tickle my webbed feet but vowed not to react. He later told him it wasn't him, that he wasn't even in the water. Hmmmmm.....

Day 6: We returned home by bus and had those odd seats that faced the rear, meaning we sat facing strangers. A perfect stranger according to hubby because this woman was a very s-l-o-w reader.

If you are taking a vacation any time soon, I hope none of your vacation photos resemble these!

Happy summer, everyone!



It's official. Hubby and I can't be single.

Many people would think Bill and I suffer from oldicus farticus a.k.a. old fart syndrome {OFS}. Olde Phart if you're a blue blood. We, of course, are in denial and proclaim that we like our life, and knowing what we like, we repeat the daily routine often. As in 7 days per week. Not be confused with a rut though.

Ours sons are both in their early 30s although the daddy version is pushing mid-30 and showing signs of OFS himself. Children do that a person. A friend of my sons and daughter-n-law is a woman I've known since she was in first grade and I was a perplexed room mother. Why was I perplexed? For the first school event of that year, I had items for girls and items for boys. The kids had their names on their desks. Dave got a boy item, Sara got a girl's. But what to do about Mo who had a unisex haircut, was wearing jeans, high tops, a tee shirt and vest that looked like it belonged to a 3 piece suit? Was this Moe or Monique? My own son was nowhere to help so I just held the tray out and let her pick for herself. She had to stop drumming her desk with her pencils, but she was polite and said thank you before resuming her drum solo.

A bunch of years later, Mo has a day job but at night, she is a drummer in a band and also performs with the Detroit Party Marching Band. She's in here...somewhere



and here in Quick Ritual

I haven't heard her perform in anything but public school productions and that has been over a decade ago. Dang kids keep getting older, don't they?

Quick Ritual was performing nearby recently, and our plans to go to the cottage and sleep in front of that TV on a Friday night had changed, so off we went to the bar where she was performing. The music was fine, but I'm not going to lie and say that hubby and I were grooving to their style. It just isn't our thing, or is that "it ain't our thang, man" ? Whatever. We love her so we went to support her. And to insure that when we're gone, she'll get a misty eye and say "remember that night they came to hear my band?"  *sniff*  *sniff*

Bill and I met in the parking lot of a bar. Forty years ago. Actually we were both in utero (we aren't 40 yet, that isn't possible!), it was our mothers who met. They shouldn't have been drinking while pregnant, but that could explain why we turned out as we did and why he is 5 months younger than me. His mother obviously was drinking sloe gin.

Ahem, where was I?

Oh yeah, about bars. We met in the parking lot of one a while back when we were single, carefree, and not only stayed up past 11:00 PM, we stayed OUT...out of the house! that late.

We weren't completely out of place last night, but our age group was the minority. We had a good time people watching and I made friends with a woman playing pool who I'm sure wouldn't recognize me today if she saw me in the grocery store even though she made a point to wave good-bye to me as she left. Loudly but happily.

When Bill and I were single all those years months ago, did we make conversation in bars while bands were playing? Did we actually hear what anyone said? Did we care? Now we try (to make conversation), don't hear (what anyone is saying), and are afraid to just nod in case we're agreeing to something we know nothing about!

We're definitely old married folks, but you know what? That suits us perfectly.

Hot weather coping advice

Dear Knitty,

What can I do to cope with the heat this summer?

signed,
Sweltering in the suburbs

Dear Sweltering,

Take out a loan for next month's utility bill, then turn down the air conditioning a few more degrees. Pull the shades or draw the drapes on any window where the sun enters. This isn't just for energy efficiency, it is so you can prance around in your skivvies. Wait...skip the prancing...that is too strenuous and could cause you to break out in a sweat.***

Consider having cold cereal for dinner, preferably in disposable bowls and eaten from plastic spoons. If you have a demanding family who thinks dinner should be a balanced meal, suggest they eat their Fruit Loops while standing on one leg. The alternative is take out a bigger loan and go out to eat. Often.

If you're suffering from boredom and feel you must get outside, consider going door to door to talk to your neighbors about politics. This will work especially well if you know their political inclination and present yourself as working for the opposing party. How will this help? They will get so steamed at you interrupting their air conditioned comfort, you will feel cool in comparison. Either that or the slamming of their door in your face will create a breeze. Ahhhh....didn't that feel good?

And one last piece of advice, put down your copy of Fifty Shades of Gray and take a cold shower before going to bed. Alone.


Be cool,
Knitty

*** Just another thought...does your old, wealthy, nosy neighbor mention you in his will? Go ahead and prance. It might be too much for his libido and your inheritance could pay your electric bill and dinners out!

When weather makes you weird

Weird might be the wrong word, but I was on an alliterative roll.

Like much of the country, SE Michigan has been unusually hot lately. Our official high was 102* yesterday after a forecast of 99*. Tomorrow's forecast is 101* so I hate to think what we might actually get. Humidity, or the latest weather buzz words "dew points", have the heat index higher. At some point, do the numbers even matter?

I'd like to think I am an uncomplaining sweetheart no matter what the weather is, and with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, shouldn't that be the case?

Despite living in Michigan my whole life where frozen white crystals fall from the sky in the winter (a.k.a. snow, but I hate to use dirty 4-letter words here), I tolerate the heat better than extreme old. 

As long as air conditioning is available.

If I were to be completely honest, my ideal weather variance is this wide, but I don't really expect that. Unless you know how to make that happen...

It is a puzzle to me that changes in barometric pressure still affect my sinuses despite being in a controlled climate inside the house. Either the headaches have lessened in severity over the years, or I my coping skills have improved. Probably both is true.

My mom has been gone for 29 years now. I never asked her or dad exactly what happened that put her on edge about heat, but it was related to a trip they took to Texas years before I was born. I suspect things unrelated to weather had her on edge and the heat of that trip, long before cars had air conditioning, did her in. Hot weather triggered memories of whatever happened. Just the forecast of expected hot weather affected her. My childhood home was small and as was the norm then, did not have air conditioning. We had a window unit, but they were hard to control. Some of the house remained uncomfortably warm, but if you sat too close, it was cold. She hated using it and hated having the house closed up. Window fans were a constant in my childhood summers.

My early years in this house didn't have central air but extremely hot weather was usually limited to a few days per summer, rarely consecutive. One stretch of back to back hot days had us sleeping on the living room floor which was a bit cooler. I told myself that I could cope one more day but would check into a Red Roof Inn if this continued. Red Roof Inns were $29 per evening back then. It would not have been a practical expense, but the thought of escaping there if the heat didn't break was enough to carry me through until the temperatures dropped.

I think we've had central air for 20 years now. It has been a blessing this past week but the part of my mom that didn't like the house being closed up is showing up in me. It isn't just the windows and doors being closed, but a few shades that I've kept drawn to minimize the heat from the sun. That bothers me more than the closed window. I love sunlight.

I am fortunate that things that I must do and places I must go all will be done in air cooler than what Mother Nature is providing. I will take this any day over the other extreme. There is nothing to shovel, to slip on, and no worry about the other drivers plowing into me because they aren't taking road conditions into consideration.

Perhaps next week we'll be able to turn off the air and open the windows again. Ideal weather for me is warm enough for the open windows and cool enough for my husband that he doesn't need a fan. I don't have angst over a window or tower fan as my mom did with the window air conditioner, but if I never heard a fan again, I would be happy. That is my neurosis, what's yours?

Happy 4th of July!

The heat wave continues. We are lucky that yesterday's storms didn't affect us, and none of SE Michigan was hit anywhere near as badly as a good portion of the states SE of us.

I hope all my blog buddies are safe from storms and extreme heat, even if it means staying indoors most of today.

The truth about Middle Age according to Mother Goose

Thank you to my friend Joyce for her email which provided today's words of wisdom.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT GROWING OLD: Well, CRAP! Now I forgot what I was gonna tell ya!

July 1st: Happy Canada Day! and Rabbit! Rabbit!

Happy Canada Day to my northern friends and neighbors!


It has been a wonderfully busy weekend in Knitty-ville. I think we had around 50 people here Friday night to watch my city's fireworks from our driveway. Being that we were outside and some friends are also friends of neighbors and therefore wandered in and out, I have no idea what number of people were actually here.

Yesterday I frosted a cake for my great-niece's birthday party and also a dozen cupcakes. Her request for a cake that tasted like cookie dough. I wrote about that here. I made a yellow cake and frosted it with the frosting portion of this recipe.  I used a candy mold to form letters to spell out Happy Birthday Allison to decorate the top of the cake along with a few mini chocolate chips.



The chocolate cupcakes were frosted with a recipe that the Pioneer Woman claims is the best she's ever tasted. The frosting isn't overly sweet and is much like what Kroger uses in their bakeries. That recipe is here. My husband was very pleased with that frosting. Next I will have to experiment with adding cocoa to it, and will see if it holds up to simple decorating tips, such as shell and rosette borders.

Before the luau themed birthday party, we had a neighbor's wedding to attend. Since I haven't asked permission to share their photos, I've lopped the heads of the bride and her daughters. Trust me, they were all gorgeous. I'm including this picture because I wanted to talk about the bride's dress.

Taken by cell phone without a flash as they were moving doesn't do the fabric justice, but it was stunning and perfect for this woman's second wedding. Here is another view taken at her backyard reception. It was hot yesterday, 95 degrees or more, so the groom had ditched his tux before dancing.

My neighbor doesn't like to shop. One of her sisters found this dress for her at Penney's online. It looks much better on my neighbor than in this photo at Penney's. She looked beautiful, and at a bargain price!

I've had such a nice chatting with people I don't see every day, and one little guy that I am blessed to see often. It wouldn't be a photo heavy post from me if I didn't include one shot of the grandson. Here he is concentrating, hence the position of his tongue.

Here he is laughing at the fact that his little cousin, who couldn't see over the top of the pool from where he stood on the grass, managed to shoot water from the hose directly into daddy's face.

Ahhhhh....summer!

Rabbit! Rabbit! for good luck this month to everyone! I hope you're enjoying family and friends as much as I am.