Phones

8/17/2012

Phones

I want you to stop for a moment and think about how you used to stay in contact with friends and family - back before computers and cell phones were invented.  Oh yes, I remember - regular mail (now referred to as snail) and the telephone.  Not the tiny phones of today; but, substantial devices that were delivered to you by the phone man!  

I can remember looking through the phone book (remember those?) and getting to pick out the colors and style of phone.  The color choices from my memory are: pink, green, blue, tan, yellow, black, white and red.   You could have a hanging phone for the kitchen, a desk phone for the den and the beloved princess phone for the bedroom.  The princess phone was a lightweight compared to other hefty other models; but, every girl (big or little) wanted one.   Back in the day, my parents never allowed us children to have a phone in our bedroom - but oh how I wanted that pretty and feminine phone. Perhaps part of the lure was the name itself "Princess".  I don't know what else they could have called it because Queen, Lady or Duchess just doesn't sound half as good.   Part of the anticipation of a move was the selection of new phones and the visit from the phone man.  He brought the phone, installed it, made sure everything was working properly and left.  He was nearly a hero.

Flash forward to the present.  Phone man?  Not like before.  Want or need a phone?  Go to a store and buy your own - any kind and any size. Service?  That's not like before either.  How many times have you seen a phone company truck parked in someones driveway recently?  Um I'm betting none.  

With the advent of cell phones I know people - lots of them actually - we don't own what we now refer to as a "land line".  So in times of emergency they can get in a peck of trouble if they can't keep their cell phone charged, which is pretty hard to do without electricity.  I don't believe I'll see the day when Jeff and I exist only with our cell phones.  

The other perhaps negative benefit of a cell phone is the 24/7 availability everybody has with each other.  We have always had a 10/10 rule in our house for making and receiving calls - not before 10:00 in the morning or after 10:00 in the evening.  The boys knew this growing up and made sure their friends were made aware.  To this day any call that arrives before or after 10:00, makes me panic just a little.  Most people don't call to socialize early in the morning or late in the evening - so that leaves emergencies.  

People carry their cell phones around with them pretty much 24/7 and you can hear the sounds of incoming email,  games you play or even an actual call.  To be honest I don't even know what my cell phone number is - my family knows not to call me - I won't recognize it as a phone call and if I did - likely wouldn't remember how to answer.  Nope, I bought the phone for the other stuff, the calendar, notes, remotely see my emails (because I'm so important that I can't wait until I get home each evening to see them) and the ability to play a game or two, Word with Friends specifically.

Luckily, I have Bluetooth in my car so if I needed to make a call (not likely) I merely talk into my steering wheel and keep driving.  No one hand on the wheel and the other on a minute phone stuck to my ear.  For the sake of the world, it's best that I have BOTH hands available particularly for turning!  I've tried a one hand turn before, not too good.

Please take a moment today and reflect on the "improvements" technology has made and how much better off we are now than say back in the 60's.

Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.  Ogden Nash

Have a great Friday.  P

Wii

8/16/2012

Wii

Recently, in an attempt to exercise more (bleh) but preferring to stay inside the house, I dragged my Wii Fit balance board out from underneath the couch.  Admittedly, it needed a bit of dusting and some new batteries; but after that it was good to go.

You stand on the board and get weighed and your BMI calculated, which can be scary numbers.  What was scarier was my Wii age - 73!  Now that was depressing.  Wii tells me that my body is weaker than it should be (ya think?).

I now try and start every evening doing some yoga.  The first night doing the balance poses I used a broom for support but it has too much wiggle, so I'm now using a chair.  It is amazing to me that the balance board knows that I'm shaky and that one leg is stronger than the other.  Actually, I find it more than amazing, almost a little freaky.

I have ventured into the area of balance games - what a joke that is.  At the end of each game, which lasted oh maybe 10 seconds or so before I was killed, the machine would announce, "you are unbalanced".  Please tell me something I don't already know.

I have also tried to do an aerobic step program with the little Mii's but find it near impossible to keep up.  My feet are always in the wrong position and my Wii tells me that I need to step on and off a little faster and center myself more on the board.  I want to scream at the little Mii that I'm trying, which is the whole purpose of my doing these exercises in the first place.

My latest activity is a 10 minute free "run".  For me, it's more of a light jog/step routine and while I'm getting better still have to stop several times during my "run".  I do manage to do at least a mile in the 10 minutes, so no fear of entering the Senior Olympics anytime soon.

Still, when I'm done and have collapsed on the sofa huffing and puffing I do feel a certain satisfaction and smugness that I have gotten off the sofa long enough to do about 45 minutes of exercise of one form or another.

I know that practice makes perfect so I am hopeful that if I continue to stand on one leg often enough that perhaps I won't need the chair - or at least need the chair constantly.  That's my goal and it's a good one to have.  Oh, the other goal is to get that ridiculous Wii age down to at least something in the 60's.

I have ordered myself a balance board "skin" in fluorescent green that is supposed to cut down on slipping on the board, so I'm going to give that a try.  And, as a bonus your board will stay clean and the reviewers thought that was an added bonus.  I think the biggest advantage of the skin is that having something sitting on your living room floor that is fluorescent green will be pretty hard to ignore night after night. 

I'm trying to make a spot in my busy evenings (foregoing television) for jogging, swiveling, punching and balancing myself into a fitter and hopefully younger me.

“Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.”
― Robert Maynard Hutchins

P

Homemade Salsa

8/15/2012

Homemade Salsa

Last weekend Jeff made his homemade, fresh salsa.  Now folks this is not necessarily a cost saving venture.  The produce places aren't exactly giving away peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes - and you need a lot of tomatoes. The taste, however, is amazing.

The salsa starts with tomatoes and at the produce place Jeff buys a lug of "seconds".  These tomatoes aren't quite pretty enough to sell on their own so they're coupled together with their own kind and they are perfect for canning or cooking.  By the way, a lug is just short of a bushel so we're talking a lot of tomatoes.  Next up, peppers, chilies, onions and garlic.  Jeff selects from whatever is available: jalapeno, banana, chili, haberno, serrano and anything else that is for sale.  A virtual mix of heat.

First you must boil the tomatoes so that you can peel the skins off.  Drop or plop them in hot water and in mere seconds their peel cracks and then you plunge them into cold water.  At this point, peeling is easy - messy - but easy.  After you have peeled ALL those tomatoes then you remove the stem, cut them up and run them piece by piece through the big mixer with the attachment that turns the tomatoes into mush.  Now there is a BIG bowl of tomato mush that is poured through a strainer TWICE to remove as much as liquid as possible.  All of this prep work is very messy - aprons are a necessity - and while the clean up may be long it's easy to spot all the red that has to be wiped up.

While myself or another unsuspecting helper is doing the tomato work, Jeff has donned gloves and has opened and scraped away the inside from all the peppers and chilies.  The kitchen by this point reeks of peppers and you are afraid to touch your eye.  Onions (lots) and garlic (also lots) are ground up as are the peppers.  Then with the use of another big bowl Jeff combines the tomatoes with the other ingredients, adds a bit of vinegar for acid, some sugar, cilantro and salt and stirs.

The result?  A very fresh, no preservative added salsa.  At this point after putting the salsa in quart jars you could go through the whole canning process which we did for many years.  This involves putting the jars in a hot water bath for 30 minutes or so to prevent that ugly little thing called botulism to appear.  The two times this summer that we have made salsa, we have simply put it in jars and put them in the fridge immediately.  By the time we give away a quart or two, there is very little reason to can the remaining jars and they never seem to stick around very long anyway.  The salsa is obviously great with chips, on top of chicken or fish or if you're a true lover of salsa as Jeff is, just straight from the jar.

What we have also done is taken some tomatoes and after peeling and removing the stems, put them on cookie sheets and froze them whole.  After they were frozen we put them in freezer bags for this winter.  While you will never be able to slice the tomatoes to serve at the dinner table - they will make a wonderful fresh addition to spaghetti sauces, soups, stews, etc. this winter.  So if you want fresh tomatoes, this process of getting them ready to freeze is not too time consuming and relatively easy.  I highly recommend it.

Jeff LOVES making salsa, and the fruits of labor are always shared with volunteers.  If you find yourself craving something fresh, spicy and excellent, then give Jeff a call.  All you have to do is suggest that you have free time and would love to make salsa - you'll be hired.

Enjoy a bowl of salsa and chips - it's a party.  Come over any time.

P

Humble

8/14/2012

Humble

Want to feel humble some time?  Once a month on my way to the beauty salon, I drive on Deer Park.  Not only is there a 25 mph speed limit on that street, which means you are literally crawling along; but, there are a zillion bus stops on that street (or at least seems like it).  On an early Saturday morning every bus stop has multiples of people waiting for a bus.  Where are they going at 8:30 in the morning?  To work? Shopping? Seems doubtful that they’re catching the bus just so that they can go out for breakfast – but maybe.

I pass all these people grateful for my dark sunglasses, so that I can see but not be seen.  Jeff and I have worked hard all of our life to achieve what we now have.  But as I pass these people in my nice car, I feel bad and maybe a bit ashamed.  How did Jeff and I manage to get where we are today and the people I pass appear to have so little.

Jeff and I whine about the little annoyances in our life – the a/c doesn’t work for a WHOLE day or the garage door needs a new screw drive (at least we have a garage and there’s a car inside).  But compared to people who ride the bus because they have to, not because they want to, we have absolutely nothing to fuss about.

The next time you pass people standing at the bus stop, imagine for a moment that that is your life.  Where are you going today?

 P

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” Oprah

Sun Tan

8/13/2012

Sun Tan

I start the summer off so faithful and yet by August have completely veered off the path.  It’s worse than making a New Year’s resolution.  Problem?  Keeping a fake tan going for the entire summer.  I know, I know doesn’t sound like much of a problem unless you’re the one with the lily white legs sticking out of capris or heaven forbid shorts!

The products on the market today are a long way from what we used in the 60’s which was guaranteed to turn you into a carrot.  So eager were we to turn brown when I was a teenager we used a deadly combination of baby oil and iodine and then sat in the sun.  Immediate burn/tan.  Remember back in the 60’s we didn’t give a hang for sunscreen, skin cancer or as teenagers – wrinkles and age spots!!

Today’s products are easy to use and used properly will over time give you that sun kissed glow that women seek.  Why?  I don’t know about everybody but some will tell you that excess weight (heavens I don’t want to say fat) looks better bronzed.  Think about it – do you really want to eat a pale chicken?  Nope, you want that toasty, crispy brown breast.  Same deal for humans. 

So in the beginning of summer I line up the “eventual glow” tanning product on the bathtub and the entire month of June I religiously apply the goo to my legs, which is the only thing I care about, every morning.  By the time July rolls around, I’m down to every other day or even just once a week and the glow is beginning to wear off – figuratively and literally.

Come August, the product has been pushed back to the recesses of the bathroom cabinet and won’t be seen again until next June when I’ll take it back out and vow to be faithful.  And I know I won’t. You see there is a certain morning madness Monday through Friday even if you have sufficiently prepped.  The night before I pack my lunch and breakfast and they’re waiting in the fridge.  I’ve laid out my clothes, appropriate shoes, found my ID badge, charged my cell phone and Kindle and my notebook is packed with my latest writing assignments.  I should have plenty of time, given all of my organizational ability, to sit on the edge of the tub and work on my tan.  And yet I don’t.

The upside of being short – and there aren’t many – is that most capris (or shorty pants as I call them) are really almost full length pants on me.  Generally, I only have my white ankles sticking out and we all nobody  pays much attention to ankles - unless we were living in the Victorian era and then it would be shocking.

And there you have it.  I'm heading off to work this morning untanned and unconcerned.  Enjoy your Monday and remember there are (after today) only 4 more days until Saturday.

P

The Fair

8/12/12

The Fair

Late yesterday afternoon, Jeff and I took Ben along with his parents to the fair.  I wore my grungiest shoes just in case I encountered either mud or walked behind an animal - or both.  The sights, smells and lights of the midway is a huge draw for a young child and luckily Ben and his parents opted to buy the "all you can ride" bracelets.  Tickets are pricey and each ride is 3 or 4 tickets each.  One ride takes 8 tickets!  And, at the ticket booths once inside the fair it's strictly a cash business.

Ben was all over the place trying to decide on the first ride and after that, it was pretty easy - that one and that one and that one.  And again.  I did buy enough tickets to ride my favorites: teacups and tilt-a-whirl, which I rode twice.  The tilt-a-whirl is just as much fun for me today as it was when I was 16!  

The carnies were pitching ring toss, dart tossing, fishing and horse racing games.  The good news - generally kids always win something.  Ben came away for the evening with two small stuffed animals and two small studded rubber balls.  One game he played you get three darts for $5.00 - the carnie let Ben have 6 darts and he actually hit a balloon!

Food and drink are plentiful and definitely not healthy.  Fried everything from dough to oreos and funnel cakes covered in powdered sugar, chocolate or cherries.  People were walking around eating corn on the cob which seems more like a sit-down food to me.

During a rainstorm we ran into the cow birthing center where one cow had already produced a beautiful white and tan spotted calf which looked just like her mother!  Looked like another cow would probably produce her calf sometime during the night.

At the end of our stay I had a few tickets left over.  I told Jeff that I was going to give the tickets to some mother and child who weren't wearing ride bracelets.  The woman I eventually approached was thrilled with a few extra tickets for her daughter.  It was a good paying it forward moment.

We stayed until 11:00 and I walked over 11,000 steps yesterday and have the sore hip and leg to prove it!  Getting Ben to bed and sleep was a piece of cake.  One bedtime story and he was gone.

I, of course was up at 5:00 but I'm thinking there might have to be an afternoon nap scheduled for today.  The rest of the house is still asleep so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet that will be broken when Ben gets up and is ready to start his day at around 60 mph!

"A grandchild fills a space in your heart that you never knew was empty."

Author: Unknown

Benjamin and Saturday

8/11/2012

Benjamin and Saturday

There are two greats things happening today.  One is that it's Saturday.  My day to linger over a cup of coffee and read (okay glance) at the paper leisurely.  During the week I read the paper when I get home from work in the evening.  I'm more of a pictures person when it comes to the paper; and, anyway Jeff keeps me posted on the big news.

I have had my cup of coffee, gone through all the ads, found coupons for new products that look interesting.  Pens made out of water bottles - gotta try that.  Apples and pears with caramel, that sounds yummy and might be really good in a lunchbox.

I digress.  Anyway, the other great thing about this Saturday in particular is that Benjamin is coming to visit.  Jeff and I haven't seen him in several weeks and we miss him.  He called last night and while he's not quite ready to converse on the phone for more than 30 seconds before he dashes off; he's getting better.   I don't always understand everything he says on the phone but at 4 he doesn't always expect an answer.  So it's working really well for both of us.  He screams I love you and because I know he's running away I scream in return. 

Today, when Benjamin and his parents come we are loading up the car(s) and heading to the fair.  Yup Montgomery County.  I have suggested that the only way to take Benjamin to the fair is to buy him and his parents those "all you can ride" bracelets.  Children, particularly 4 year olds, do not understand that you are either (a) out of money; or (b) don't have any tickets left.  Both of these scenarios I have seen in years past and they are met with unpleasant results (i.e., temper tantrums).  

It seems doubtful that Benjamin will have any interest in the farm animals but might rev up enthusiasm for the rabbits.  I hear they make nice pets and they're always several up for sale!  So if we miss the sheep, pig and cow barns I'm okay with that.  As for the midway, if it was up to me I'd skip that part; but, we're going for a small boy and the sights and sounds of the midway are intoxicating.  I will pack some spare money in my pocket so that Benjamin can go "fish" or play some other cash-only game.  His chances of winning are unlikely but try explaining that to a toddler.  There is one game at the fair where you are guaranteed to win something even if it's just a pencil.  To a small boy it isn't the size of the prize, it's the prize itself.  I understand this.

There is also fair food to be sampled.  Cotton candy for me as a child was a marvelous treat that I only got at local fairs.  I tried it a few years ago as an adult and it nearly gagged me.  Too sweet, too sticky, too everything.  Nope no more cotton candy in my life.  But, I know that the sticky treat may "call" to Benjamin and I believe every child should get a chance to have unlimited amounts of fun, eat gooey, sugary treats and run till they collapse.  All of this we will do today.  

There are very few rides that hold much appeal for me anymore.  My all time favorite remains the Tilt-A-Whirl.  Loved it as a child and love it now.  That is the one ride that is hard for me to resist.  I also like tea cups where you can either spin yourself into a frenzy or just sit and enjoy the ride.  If my son is involved, he will turn the wheel until the world becomes a dizzying blur before our eyes.  I don't want to spin upside down, have the floor drop away below me, ride a roller coaster or have bumper cars crash into me.  I know I sound like a wet blanket - but it's just the way it is.

Once our money is gone and the child is worn down to a nub, we will head home.  Benjamin and his parents are staying over tonight and then will leave tomorrow probably after breakfast.  After our bedroom door is shut tonight and before I turn out the lights, there will be time for book reading, tickling and my personal favorite cuddling.  I don't know how much longer Benjamin will tolerate the cuddle routine; but, I'm willing to participate as long as he is.

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.  There are seven million.  ~Walt Streightiff 

Go out - catch a ride - eat something sticky - and enjoy yourself.

P