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.

House of 'Camelote'

Yes, you heard me correctly.....this is a house of 'camelote'.  Not, Camelot....'camelote!  Of course, nobody heard me, however, an exclamation may be in order. 

Everyone knows Camelot is a castle, but a word in french, 'camelote', roughly translated is "rubbish" or "crap".  So, what we have is a house of crap.  Sigh!  OK, I will continue explaining.

Remember when you used to go to your grandmothers house and outside of the fact it was brimming with love (my grandmothers was anyway,) it also overflowed with.......well, everything?  You just knew she had never tossed anything away in her whole life.  But, she insisted she needed  every item she had and somehow she managed to keep each thing dusted.  I HAVE become my grandmother.  I have the clutter and to my clutter we have to add my roommate/pal/playmate/husbands clutter.  There!  I have admitted it.  My name is Kay and I am a clutterer!  My guy has not made that admission yet.  His clutter is all necessary .....according to him.

He's never been one to toss anything away.  He had a pair of peg-legged black slacks from his high school days until he was well into his early 50's.  His excuse?  He probably would wear them again someday.  Oh?  And his 34 inch waist would magically return to the 27" waist of his youth?    (Yeah, and if that could happen I'd still have that little sassy black velvet number from my mid-20's.)  I, however, have been a tosser of the first order until I became my grandmother a short while back.    Really, in this stack of magazines I'm going to one day find AND use the recipe I remember seeing, but not which pile it was in?  I would use the recipe if I did find it, which I won't?  But the magazines are here...... just in case.   The magazines are only a small example.  I don't have the strength in my fingers to type about all the particulars.  

The largest "camelote' spot in our home is our nesting place.  We have our recliners from which we spend most our time these days, each on our laptops, browsing away with doses of watching TV tossed in now and then.  In between our recliners is a large stand with most everything we need to make it not only through the day, but probably a hostile take-over.  The phone is at the ready.....both of them....cordless and cell, headphones....one each in case we want to tune the other one out .  I believe there may also be a spare one there in case we have company.  A couple of handheld games in case we get tired of playing on our laptops and need other means of entertainment.   We have our water bottles, our coffee cups, and a pencil sharpener.  Pencil sharpener?  Where did it come from?  

Oh, there are also magazines with crossword puzzles in them that I must save in case I get tire of the laptop, the electronic games and the TV.   A bowl of jelly beans in case we're overtaken with a sweet attack, some things with cords on them that has to be his because my toys are all cordless.  There are some things laying behind his chair, but I don't know what they  are because (A)  I don't clean behind HIS chair, (B)  They seem  to all have cords, which could be meant to hold the house together and (C)  I have too much stuff on my lap to get up and look.  They don't look dusty, so they must get some use.

We've been married so long we really don't have to have long conversations anymore.  Since we know ahead of time what the other is going to ask or respond to,  we mostly communicate with the occasional grunt,  nod, head - shake or nasty hand gesture.  Our dog died a few years back so we no longer argue over who is taking her outside.  Plus, no pet to add it's own clutter.....so, that's probably a good thing.

A BB rifle sets near the door, only used when marauding wild turkey's come a'calling.  They can eat the flowers and leaves off  in all  our gardens faster than a swarm of locust.  Seriously!  We have huge, HUGE herds of turkey's in our area.  They may be a flock in your part of the country, but when they come visiting us, they invite their friends and relatives for a hoe-down in our yard, which makes them a herd.  Understand the difference?  That reminds me, we have a friend that wrote an ode about our turkey invasions that I must remember to put on here.  It's great!

Okay, where was I?  Did this story have a point?  I'm sure it didn't, since none of my stories have a start, finish or 'tween.  I tend to just blather and see where it takes me.  The upside is it scares the heck out of our adult daughters who probably have loud arguments about how soon we're not going to be allowed on our own and which one has to take us in.  What fun!

Mom's 80th Birthday

Tulips dressed in snow, accessorized in ice

Tulips in sunshiny shade

Hali and the "Eye"

My grand-daughter Hali, who is now 16 has always had an 'eye' (pun intended) for photography.  In fact this eye was shot by her of her own eye when she was around 8 years old.  I always found it interesting that she was able to figure out at that age she might have a body part that would be a good subject to direct the camera on, especially her eye....in the sunlight where each eyelash is showcased.   She has always been a gal with many interest.  She is the only grandchild that has lived near enough to us to spend lots of quality time learning to do things we enjoy and adding them to her own repertoire of talents.   

We have spent a  lot of kitchen time together through out the years, and I'd like to think the dishes we prepared together and the desserts that were baked helped build the enthusiasm she still has cooking and trying new dishes.  Her lucky parents often drive home from work exhausted, and walk through the door greeted by  odors from the kitchen.  A sure sign another  home cooked meal  was at the ready, lovingly prepared by Hali!

She no longer enjoys doing dishes, as she once did.....as illustrated in the other photo.  No, this wasn't a set-up for a photo op.  She really did like to have a towel wrapped around her skirt (apron, you see) and another dishtowel around her head.  I'm not sure what that look was about, but with flowers shoved in for good measure.  Well.....how could I argue with cuteness?  Standing on a chair to do cleanup is no longer fun, but hey!  It was grand while it lasted!

She has also donned a tool belt to  repair things around the house with her grandpa (of course I have a picture or two of that.....somewhere),  gardened with me and could name flowers when she was just a little whippersnapper, scrapbooked and oil painted pictures.   We did it all.  She learned to operate (aka play) a computer on her grandpa's knee and read the newspaper with

 him.  

We don't see much of her anymore, although she stays in touch almost daily by phone.  She has school activities, a part-time job and tons of friends to spend time with.  I hope some of those interest that were nurtured here with us will stay with her,  or at least remain a happy memory. Right now I have a jig-saw puzzle started I could sure use her help with!