Happy Summer Solstice Everyone

I have a couple of things I want to post but have limited time right now and because today is the first day of summer, I thought this was appropriate.

We’re definitely off to a very hot start here in the desert southwest.  It’s scheduled to reach 115 today.  It was 110 in the shade on my patio yesterday.  I hung laundry out there and it was dry in about thirty minutes.  I hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come in July and August, which are the hottest months here.  We’ve had to put the outside sunshades on the house already and we never do that in June.

My sister Scherri. This is from a couple of years ago, but I sure did like this hairstyle.

I hope everyone has a great summer.  Happy birthday to my sister, Scherri, today.  I’ll be breaking years of tradition tonight when I’m not up at midnight to wish her happy birthday when it’s hers in Texas and mine here.  We’ve always lived in different time zones since we’ve been adults.  So I do apologize for that, but I have an early morning mandatory meeting at work.  I have to get up at 5 AM and that will be torture.  I hate mornings.

Have a great day everyone.  Stay cool and hydrated and safe.  Until next time…

Golly gee – Another year older tomorrow

How did I make it halfway through my sixth decade of life?  Sometimes I wonder because I used to think this was so old when I was a kid.  Now of course it doesn’t seem old at all, except for all the aches and pains associated with it.  Most of the time I have to look at the calendar to realize that, yes, I’m really this old.  Thank goodness I don’t look it …yet, or so my co-workers tell me.

 This is me.  I don't post many pics of myself

I’m fortunate that I have the energy I have and keep going like a much younger person.  There’s a gal at work and we discovered we had the same birthdays a couple of months ago.  We were born in the same year on the same day but in two different places, so due to the time zones she’s about 2 hours older than me.  Of course since this came out it’s all over work, thanks to Doreen (my birth mate).  I would just as soon fly under the radar at my age.

But all this birthday talk brings up another story about a guy at work named John.  This guy is amazing.  I’m totally flabbergasted at his age and the hours he keeps.  He’s an inspiration to me for my later years.  I really think we’re cut from the same mold, but he’s about twenty years older than me.  This guy ballroom dances, goes to bed at 2 am and gets to work by 10 the next morning.  He astounds me by his story of laying wood flooring in his house until the wee hours and is still able to make it to work on time.  He always has a big smile on his face too.  When he came to work a week ago he said he’d gone to bed at 4 AM and would try his best to do the job at work that day.  Of course I want to know what his secret is because that’s so like me.  I seem to do fine on very little sleep and now I know I’m not alone in that world.  That’s a very comforting thought because John is an ordinary guy and always in a happy mood.  I like to think of myself that way too. 

This is my sister, Scherri - Happy Birthday!

Anyway to get back on track, my next birthday is tomorrow and one of my sisters is the 21^st.  We’re a year and a day apart.  She can start Medicare this year.  We’re all getting so old.  I know I never envisioned myself carrying around a Medicare card.  But I guess as long as I stay well, age is only a number.

The Desert isn’t all Sand and Sagebrush

Blooming Paloverde Tree

But don’t get me wrong.  There’s plenty of that to go around.  Sometimes I wonder if the house will ever be clean and free of sand.  I think the answer to that is probably no.  I know one thing; I don’t want to spend all my free time cleaning, especially when it looks like a waste of time after two days has gone by.  When I get home from work all I want to do is sit down and put my feet up a while before I tackle dinner.

I’m glad that a big salad is acceptable around here for dinner most of the time.  The last thing I usually want to do is cook something after serving food all day.  I’m ready to relax with my glass of wine.

 Tootie in my reading chair

 

Right now, I have my windows open and am enjoying the nice breeze blowing in (bringing more dust with it, I’m sure), but I just don’t care.  It feels so good and it’s unseasonably cool for May in the desert, so I’ll take it.  I know we have 115 degrees coming down the road.

 Raven napping downstairs

 

Two mockingbirds are serenading me as I write this.  I love to hear their happy chirps.  I wish they’d stand still long enough to get a picture, but they are flitting from tree to tree.

 Koki napping on top of my computer

 

The cats are all napping so they can stay awake all night and get into trouble in the house.  Tootie roams the halls all night and meows loud enough to wake us up.  Koki and Raven get into things.

For today I thought I’d post some flower pictures taken from my patio and around my yard.  Enjoy.

A desert Yucca by my front gate

A red flower pot with colorful petunias at my front gate

A desert willow we grew from a six-inch tree to this.

Various flowers on my patio

 

This wouldn't be complete without an oleander.  They thrive in the desert

 
 

Happy Birthday to my sister, Tedo, who will be old enough tomorrow to take social security, if she wants to.  It’s hard to believe we’re all getting so old when it really wasn’t that long ago that all of us were growing up on the cotton farm.

My beautiful sister Tedo (Tedri).  The family wouldn't know what to do without her.

Happy Birthday to Mama

This is Mama on her birthday 2 years ago.  I'll post a recent one as soon as my sister sends it.

My sweet mother turned 85 today.  We’re so thankful to still have her in our lives as we had quite a scare last month when she ended up in ICU after a stroke.  We didn’t know how things would turn out, but she’s a fighter just like her mother and came bouncing back from that pretty quick.

Not every person life-flighted to a hospital ends up coming out of there alive.  I hope we don’t have another incident like this in the future, but she has dementia.  The doctors say this condition weakens your blood vessels so even a small bump on the head can cause a vessel to break.

 This is my mother a couple of hours before her stroke

My little sister and I live out of state so our middle sister kept us informed daily on what was going on with Mama.  In fact, I think the whole family would be lost if Tedo didn’t step up to the plate to take charge and organize things.

Once in a while all seven of us and Mama get to talk on a conference call.  Those are fun times but noisy with everyone laughing and talking over each other, like we do in person.

 This is Mama today - age 85

And this is various family helping her celebrate.  It would be impossible to list everyone here in any order that made sense, but this group includes siblings, nieces and great nephews and friends.

 

Mama is back in the nursing home where she lives now.  She has lots of friends there her age.  My sister had her cake made and arranged to get everyone there tonight to help her celebrate.  She sounded very happy on the phone.  I wish I could have been there, but talking to her and pictures is the next best thing.

Happy Birthday, Mama, and many more, I hope.

Happy May Day and Beltane to those of you that celebrate that.

Thanks to everyone who reads my posts and leaves a comment.  You all make me smile.

Which is the worst of the necessary evils?

This week family members and friends will be going through some medical procedures.  Which would you pick and why, if you had to pick something from the following list?

Carotid artery surgery

Colonoscopy

Root canal

I’m just curious and surprised this stuff landed on the same day.  Along with this, someone will be celebrating a birthday and another will be in divorce court in an ugly divorce battle.  I guess Aug 4 will be marked on the calendar this year.

All these things remind me how life goes on and there’s stuff like this happening everyday to people across the globe, yet it’s things we don’t often think about when it’s not in our own backyard.

Traditions

Every year my sister and I call each other at midnight on our birthdays.  We’ve lived in different time zones since we’ve become adults and because or birthdays are a day apart it can be both our birthdays at the same time in two different places.  We also talk to wish each other well.  This is something we’ll probably continue to do because we have an unusual birthday situation most families don’t have.

My sister Scherri and I - Sept 2013

I think one year that I irritated her husband waking him from his sleep when I called at midnight her time.  This year (and probably every year) he say’s, “it’s your birthday” when she wonders who’s calling at such an hour, sometimes falling asleep herself.

Another tradition for this time of year is the gathering at Stonehenge for the summer solstice.  If you’d like to read a brief story about that, please click here.

Newagers, neo-pagans join the curious to greet summer solstice at Stonehenge | FoxNews

 Happy Summer Solstice everyone.  I hope you can make the most of the longest day of the year.

When I’m sixty-four

This is going to date me I know.  I’ve had this song running through my head for about a week now because my birthday’s almost here.  It sure seems that not so very long ago, this song came out and I thought, “Wow, it’ll be a long time until that’s me.”  The Beatles recorded this song in 1966.  I never thought I’d ever write a blog post about it.  There were no computers back then.

So what can I say when I think of this song?  Yes, being out until quarter of four (in the morning) is quite like me.  I’m a night owl and don’t expect that to change much.  Yes, I’ve been locked out of the house as well when it wasn’t nearly this late, and I was only across the street visiting the neighbor.

I don’t know about mending a fuse, but I would try knowing how I push myself to conquer things I don’t know.  I’m not the type to knit a sweater or anything else.  I have no grand children to bounce on my knee either and I feel I’m getting too old to pull weeds, although I do it occasionally.  I’m more likely to be down on my knees cleaning house.  That’s a weekly occurrence around here.  My knees always say ouch, but I don’t listen.

There are no Valentines or bottles of wine for me unless I buy them myself.  Needing me and feeding me is debatable sometimes.  I do usually get a birthday card though.  That’s enough I guess.

What can I say?  The years are flying by.  I’m glad I stay in reasonably good shape.  Most of the time, it’s only the calendar that tells the true story.  Let’s hope it stays that way.  I have a lot more to do before I kick the bucket, I hope.

If you’d like to relive this song for a few minutes, click on the link below.

When I'm sixty four lyrics

Catching up with friends

My projects around the house keep me busy most of the time so I have very little time to get out and chat with friends with no added pressure to be home by a certain time.  I’m trying to use a few hours to catch up with everyone.

Schedules were changed and juggled, as always is the case.

 My friend Carolyn

My Greek Salad

On Wednesday, I had lunch with my friend, Carolyn, at the Mad Pita.  We’re both crazy for Mediterranean food.  We both had big salads and a three-hour chat about our lives.  I don’t see her near as much as I used to since she moved twenty minutes north.  Almost every female I know has her share of man problems.  I guess this is just how things are today.  I hope that we solved some issues, or at least left with some useful things to think about.

 My friend Sherry

Two of my close friends had birthdays on Thursday – both turning the big 60.  I can’t see the one since he’s in Florida, but I did get together with Sherry on Saturday for veggies and wine.

 My friend Tom on the mend after major surgery

Friday I drove over to see my Aussie friends and had a nice visit.  He’s recovering from a quadruple bypass performed on May 21.

Late Sunday my husband comes back already.  Those ten days flew by.  We’ll see how good I am at posting here since I’ll have my nose back to the grindstone.  I got a lot accomplished, but there’s still much more to do if we want out of here anytime soon.  Moving is a bitch!