Loping Backwards To My Roots

I'm  homesick.  Everyone gets the yearning to return to where they once lived, or to see family that lives far away or just  that homesick kinda sick that they can't contribute to anything else.  So, one puts it in a homesick category.  Like, "I'm homesick for grandma's apple pie.  Or,  "I'm homesick for the mountains."   Possibly,  "I'm homesick for the body I had when I was 30."  Just that rather insipid longing  for what we had once but don't have right at this moment.  Or haven't had for quite some time. 

 
In my case,  I'm homesick for the state I came from.  Not the whole state;  just part of it.  Mostly the part where I lived when I had my babies.  My babies are now 44 and 41, so it's been awhile ago.  I was momentarily homesick for the town where I went to high school until I remembered I didn't necessarily like high school.  That isn't the towns fault, it was just

 because I was a teenager.  I think there are few adults, once they pass the age of 29,  who can  look back on their teens and say,  "Wow!  Those were great years!"  Seriously, being a teenager is one of the most difficult things most of us will ever have to go through.....except maybe childbirth and raising teenagers.   Or maybe passing a kidney stone.  Or eating cold gravy.  GROSS!

Where was I?  Oh, the town  where I first tee-peed a tree, tried my first cigarette, had my first drink.  Well,  make that a sip because I didn't get further than that.  Was not a fan of alcoholic beverages in my teens.  I think that started when my children became teens.  Than I suddenly found drinking necessary for my survival.....or  theirs.  Depends on how you want to look at it.   Lots of 'first' during those gawd-awful teen years,  but most don't bear repeating.  No, they weren't that bad.  Just not interesting enough to even make a good story out of.   There's always the option of colorful exaggeration but,  that's just a lot of work.  

This story was going somewhere.....but, where?  How do you lose a train of thought if you didn't have it to start with?  I never get on a train;  I just kind of nab hold of the rear of the caboose and hope to grab something.  Metaphorically speaking.   Topic is homesickness.  Back on track. (Track?  Train?  Caboose?? Is there a trip in my future?)  

We moved from Colorado to  South Dakota in 1978.  It's now 2009 and suddenly I'm homesick for the Rocky Mountains.  The Black Hills suddenly are not working for me.  We lived in Denver for something like a total of 15 or 16 years and now I feel like going  'home'.   That's just stupid and weird!  I go insane every time we get within 50 miles and driving in the midst of 2 million cars all trying to drive us off the road.....or, at least I assume that's what is happening.  It's so hard to see through the cloud of exhaust fumes, I can't say that for sure.  Before we're in the city we're longing for the comfort of our  own familiar  clogged traffic with the rude and crazy drivers.  We can still see the hills even on the worst of days,  whereas I don't believe we've seen the mountains on a semi-clear day in Denver in years.  

Blogging works!  I'm no longer homesick.......I'm completely happy where I am.

Favorite garden stars

Strolling around Cyberland

One would think a 'blogger' would have a high interest either in their own life or computers.  Initially, I had neither.  My life, for the most part has been pleasant....but, not spectacular.  To make the leap to interesting I'd have to do a whole lot of creative embellishing.  AKA:  Fibbing.

Computers existed in my world for a very long time as a necessary evil.  I did what I needed to do on them in the  work force, and when you spend a lot of time working with numbers, you're talking boring.  Mind-numbing boredom.  The "please, just kill me now," kind of tediousness.  After a day of watching a blinking cursor (back when they were REALLY annoying) happy hour didn't include rushing home for more of the same.  

It was only after I retired ten years ago (alright,  ALRIGHT!  I didn't retire....I just got really ticked off and quit!)  the home compute became something more than a machine that required regular dusting.  I began to notice my house partner/husband seemed to enjoy the computer.  He even seemed to be having fun.....so I started hanging over his shoulder to see some new wonders of the cyberworld.  No, not porn.....but a game called Tetris.  Tetris was my downfall.  I started playing it and became obsessed.  Hours and hours flew by while my eyes blurred and crossed playing that primitive game.  Dust not only collected on everything in the house except the keyboard my fingers touched.  Meals consisted of whatever could be tossed together while a tetris block fell.   The dishes piled up,  laundry turned to dust, the dog whimpered over her empty food dish and I think, all though it's never been proven.....my husband may have left me for a year or two.  The seasons changed without any  notice from me and the phone went unanswered.  Ok, that last one is an exaggeration.  I've never met a phone call I didn't like....unless it's a telemarketer.  I'll even talk to politicians. Hmmmmm,  let me get back on track.  Oh yes, the computer. 

So, my computer savy hubby decided he had to redirect my limited computer skills to other technical venues.  He knew a challenge was in the making, but he's a brave fella who will try anything.  I probably should inject a bit about his computerization.  (Did I make up a word?)  He burst forth out of his mothers womb toting a PC.   Well, maybe it was only an idea of what he thought the future held.  He's always been the ultimate gizmo/gadget guy and I remember his first stirring of wanting his own computer came about  when one computer took up  a large room.   He'd ramble on about mega things, kilo dingies, and other thingamajigs and what they'd same day be able to do until my eyes would glaze over and I'd put my head on auto-pilot so it would nod at him every 24 seconds.  His spiels would sometimes get terribly long!

My foray into computerlanddom zipped past typing in numbers to electronic mail. Woo hoo!  No more postage stamps!  Not that I ever used a lot of stamps because my correspondence chip was always rather small.  (And I blog?)  Than I became friends with Mr. Google and Ask Jeeves.  Bouncing  back and forth between the two of them made me feel a bit like I was cheating on one or the other, so I settled on Mr. Google and have been faithful every since for any of my browsing needs.   And some days, my needs are many.  Keeps my spam filter busy.

My life took on a complete and total change when I discovered, SOCIAL NETWORKING.   

That's another story I'll continue another day.  Right now I think I need to throw the laundry out and let my computer cool down.

Chicago's Field Museum

Photo Descriptions

The winter scene below was a shot I took from our back deck as proof winter isn't as ugly as we sometimes think it is when it's a long cold  one.  The snow laden trees did have a bit of sparkle to them that didn't show up in the photograph,  so I added some using my snow sparkle wand.  Pretty, eh?

Below that pictures is 2 young dudes and 1 dudette taken several years ago.  Three of our grandchildren, Marc, Brendan and Hali,  had a musical jam session.  Unfortunately, this unique trio wasn't captured on video....just on digital camera.  You'll just have to take my word for it they were very cute and....loud.  I can't imagine the groans and faces we'd receive today if we were to ask the three of them to perform for us.  Just because they're 20, 15 and 16 now, doesn't mean the old grandparents wouldn't still enjoy a show or two.  I guess in fairness, it's our job to put on a show for them now.  Wonder if  they'd sit still for THAT!

Fire and Clouds

We live in an area that often has forest fires in the summer time.  We face every season with a bit of dread that a fire could start during a spring lightening storm or during a particularly dry summer.  This shot was snapped from our deck.  Bittersweet beauty of smoke from a nearby fire mixed with thunder clouds.  Very colorful and picturesque.

Tia

Bob at 18

Hippies?

Can 'old kids' have growning pains?

I have detected something different going on.  I think it must have started sometime when I hit the 60 year mark.  In human years, not dog years.  Everything I read seems to point to the fact I have escalated beyond the golden title of "senior citizen", which for some undefinable reason starts at 55.  Remember when 55 seemed young?  It still seems young to me, but since I passed the medicare age, anything under 62 seems young.  I still feel relatively youthful ("relative"  being the key word here,) but, since selective hearing, memory and....yes, let's face it....selective ability to reason seems to go hand in hand with aging,  I may have forgotten what feeling young actually felt like.  In my minds eye I'm hanging in there pretty well,  as long as I don't catch a fleeting glance in a mirror or attempt to barrel out of bed too fast.  Oh, not even going to try to kid anyone on that last statement.  I haven't barrelled out of bed, out of my chair, out of the way, or out of anything else in a very long time without getting a head rush, vertigo or a desire to curl back in bed in a fetal position.

I seriously do not have a problem with getting older.  My rather youthful minded husband can attest to that as well as my closest and dearest friends.  That would mostly be Cheryl and Diann who both are along on my selective youthful-minded-quest along with me.  Both would say they're much younger than me, but at this stage in life,  unless you're 11 years younger, it really doesn't count.  That senior citizen thing, you know.  I do have a problem with what appears to be growing pains.

Remember the growing pains of your youth when physically, your body was changing, stuff growing too quickly and the brain has just sort of turned to mush because you thought you knew it all but found out later you basically knew nothing?  Yeah!  That feeling!  That's what I have.  Growing pains that make a lot of used and unused parts of my body just howl for absolutely no reason that I can fathom.  The brain?  Same thing as....roughly, the teen years when I thought I knew stuff than found out I didn't.  Yep!  Right back there again.  I believe I had about 4 years, 3 months and a few hours of being on top of my game than....bam.  I became a senior citizen.  Before I had time to adjust to that.....along with the idea there were real parking places in front of stores, next to handicap parking,  designated for those 55 year and up youngsters.  I remember when I was too embarrassed to park in one of those spots even though I qualified.  It was for OLD PEOPLE for heavens sake!

Well, now I'm a certified, card carrying  (medicare card) older kid, and  I don't want nor do I appreciate having any growing pains.  I just want to hang out with my guy, also an old kid, and do what we happily do without any distractions like those gawd awful growing pains.  For one thing, anything that follows THESE growing pains can't be good!  If your last round of growing pains happen in your "twilight years,"  what follows after twilight?  Sunrise?  Don't think so.  I believe it's time these two 'kids' thought about getting their affairs in order.  But

not to soon, we're still playing at....well....what old kids play at.