Books

11/10/2015

Those of you who know me well, also know that I have had a lifelong love affair with books.  Over time, I read Danielle Steel, grizzly murder books, as well as what I call "cozy" mysteries.  A cozy mystery generally takes place in some small town, a body is discovered, but the writer spares the reader any gory details about the death.

If I find an author that I enjoy, I try to get all of his/her books to read.  Since I can no longer read a book with normal-sized print, I am forced to read large print books.  The problem with large print books at the library, is that there isn't enough of them.

When Jeff let me buy my new (old) Kindle for our anniversary, I was overjoyed that I could make the font big and I mean big!  If the font is big enough, then I can read a book with ease.  The local library no longer wants used books and my friends are not big readers.  

I now have a three ring binder.  Inside the binder are pages from catalogs or magazines of books.  Books I want to read.  Books I hope to read.  Books I hope to like - and that doesn't always happen.  By keeping these pages in the binder, when I am out of books, or at least books I don't want to read, I can flip through the binder to find a new book.

Books have been a constant friend since childhood.  Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew were favorites when I was young.  As a teenager, the library was definitely the place to go to get a book, or in my case, books.  I don't remember seeing books in grocery stores in the 60's.  Maybe they were there, but I didn't notice.

I have shelves of books in my spare room that I can no longer read.  And nobody wants the books.  I tried to give away, as in free, an entire box of hardback books, but had no takers.  I ended up putting them in the recycling bin, which caused me a lot of heartache.  

All of my friends still work, so they don't have as much downtime as I do, so reading isn't likely to pop up as something to do on the weekends.  Sadly, I have no one who wants books.  In fact, one of my friends, recently gave me a large stack of books.  I was thrilled until the realization came back and hit me in the head, that with my eyesight, and even with glasses, simply cannot read "normal" sized text.  Bummer.

While poking around in Google, I found that you can buy aerosol cans from a company called The Smell of Books.     This is a new aerosol e-book enhancer. You have your choice of scents: classic musty (my favorite), crunchy bacon, eau you have cats, new book smell and finally Scent of Sensibility which has the scene of violets, horses and potpourri!



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Being on Hold

11/9/2015

This morning I have been tasked to call Jeff's health care spending account company and ask why so many of the claims we submitted have been denied.  Because I figured that my call might (more likely would) take some time, I made sure that my coffee cup was full and my bladder was empty!

Initially, I sat through a lot of nice music for what seemed like a very long time.  Finally, a human came on the line - success.  Ah, but it was short lived.  The only thing she was able to tell me was that they would only cover expenses from January 1st through March 31st.

I, of course asked why.  She was clueless.  Let me send you over to customer service.  That was an hour ago and I'm continuing to listen to nice music.  I fear that if I hang up I'll be put at the back of the queue, and I could be waiting until Tuesday for a human.

There was a time, and it was long ago, when you called a company, you actually could speak to a person without waiting for an hour - or more.   

I, in the course of only 2.5 hours, managed to figure out how to order refills through Medicare Part D, and sent a refill request to my doctor.  Plus, because that wasn't enough, I also fixed the errors I made when ordering the 4A Computing Christmas cards and labels.  

Jeff has assured me that going forward, we will stick to my Medicare coverage and supplemental insurance through AARP.  A person could age a year trying to figure out or detangle your old and new insurance coverage.   

Since I have finished my secretarial work for the day, it's time for me to get out of the chair, get dressed and start my day!

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Feet and Slippers

11/8/2015

I don't know about you, but my feet and slippers never seem to be in the right place, at the right time.  Cooler temperatures are now here and no longer does it feel good to step out of the shower and "dance" across the cold tile floor!  Of course, when it's summer and hot outside, those same times are refreshing.  I guess we're just never satisfied.

Where was I?  Oh yes now I remember - feet and slippers.  If I'm not going anywhere, I will generally run around the house in my slippers.  I, of course, own more than one pair because I absolutely love new slippers.

Once evening comes, I more likely than not, flip my slippers off and then forget about them - until the morning!  After I get out of the shower, then I remember that my slippers (multiple pairs) are downstairs!  Ugh.

You would think that a woman my age, could simply remember to wear her slippers to the bedroom at night before she goes to sleep.  But, my friends you'd be wrong!  While I'm way past menopause, my body sometimes still runs 50/50.  Too hot and the slippers come off.  Too cold, and I'm reaching down for either socks or slippers and sometimes both.

I need to keep a little box or hamper so that when I decide my feet are too hot, I could put my slippers and/or socks into said box or hamper.  But what's the fun in that?  Even if my slippers had a "home" in the den, I'd probably still head upstairs each night without them on my feet!

There is no reason for me to forget my slippers each night, I just do.  And, because of my age that excuse is good enough.

And while I don't have a pair of these slippers, I'm pretty sure they would be useful when I'm walking in the dark!





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Leaves

11/7/2015

Yesterday I was on leaf pickup detail again.  Jeff's job in the handling of leaves is to blow them into a pile, which looks easy (but probably isn't) to me.  My job is to pick up said leaves and stuff them into compost brown bags.  Picking up is time consuming and hard on the back.

Yesterday I filled three bags of leaves, which was only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  I could have raked leaves for hours, but gave up after two hours, feeling that I had done my best to pick up the ever blowing and wandering leaves.

I took a breather in the morning sun before returning to the never ending task!  As I leaned my head back in my chair, I gaze up into our 29 year old oak tree.  The tree is majestic to look at.  One half of the tree is nearly bare of leaves.  The other half still has many more leaves to fall - unfortunately.

While I was catching my breath, I watched as a solo leaf fell to the ground.  Why does that leaf fall off the tree, but others leaves on the same branch do not.  Mother Nature surely knows more about leaves dropping than I do.

Until we have our first frost, the routine of getting the leaves into a pile and picking them up will be almost a daily chore.  The wind yesterday blew leaves from our yard, into the street as well as the neighbor's yards.  I had to ask myself, how obligated did I feel to pick up leaves in your neighbor's yard that I know came from our tree.

We want to be a good neighbor, so more often than not, Jeff will blow leaves from the street and other yards to be considerate.  The wind was blowing yesterday, and as I sat in the sunshine of a beautiful fall day, I watched leaves gather on the driveway where I had just been working.

When we planted this tree in 1986, we couldn't have imagined back then how such a small tree could grow to it's present size.

Today is a new day and while I'm typing, I can see individual leaves falling to the ground.  I could be on leaf duty today, but I choose not to.  If I wait until tomorrow, the number of leaves to be picked up will increase only slightly.

Today is National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day.

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Solar Power

11/6/2015

Scott is having solar panels installed on his roof to help reduce his electricity bill.  If he refers someone to the company, us for example, he gets $250.00.

When Scott said that he was going to have the solar company call and make an appointment with Jeff, I was pretty sure that Jeff would say no way.  But that didn't happen.  The solar man came to the house, showed us all the red spots on our roof (which means that's a good area for panels), and explained the benefits.  

We use a lot of electricity in our house, and our electric company loves us!  Apparently with solar panels put on our roof, we could save some money, particularly in the summer when the electric company's rates are at their highest.

Jeff has received the drawing of our house depicting where on the roof the panels will be installed.  Before installation, we need to have the HOA's approval and the signature of four neighbors who live next door or behind us.  Once we get the approval, the company can get permits and schedule the installation.

There is no maintenance on our part of the panels.  The company will come out and fix, repair or whatever if something (I don't know what) happens to the panels.  The panels aren't the prettiest I know, but if they can keep our electric bill lower, then I guess it doesn't matter what they look like.

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The Server Was Down!

11/5/2015

I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen to many, or any, of you, but we have a server in the basement.  Doesn't everyone?  When the server is down, you can't receive or send emails, surf your favorite haunts (Amazon) and Facebook.

I don't think anyone can really appreciate the lonely feeling that comes over you, when you realize that you're "screaming" but nobody can hear!  Each morning while I wait for my coffee, I come to the computer and check for incoming emails, which are mostly spam.  This morning when I woke my computer up, there were no incoming emails and I couldn't search for anything.  

Some people, most of you probably, would feel strange without your cellphone.  Me not so much?  I did charge it this morning so that I could call Jeff and tell him that I couldn't use the computer and that the land line telephone, and yes we still have one, didn't have a dial tone.

Happy to say that the computer guys in my life, quickly recognized the problem and Mom is happy again.  I'm fully connected to everything and everybody.  While I don't like talking on the phone, I do love checking out Facebook for updates on friends.  And, of course, I use Facebook's jigsaw program (I guess that's what you could call it) to continue to work my brain.  I'd love to tell you that I'm making progress in that direction, but I don't believe I am.  I forget as much now as I did a year ago!

Oh you are going to love National What Day ladies:

•  National Doughnut Day
•  National Men Make Dinner Day (must cook, no BBQ allowed!)

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Home Town

11/4/2015

Many years ago, I had an opportunity while visiting my aunt, to return to the little town where I spent my high school years.  That ride through town, which was very small, didn't take much time, but allowed me to relive so many memories.

During high school, it was my job to go to the post office to collect the mail.  We, and everyone else, had a little metal box that looked like this:

 

My aunt drove me past the post office, the tiny grocery store and Minny's "department" store.  Minny's was a wonderful place to browse.  When you walked in the store, the smell of old permeated your senses.  The store carried a bit of this and that.  Think of Woolworth's downsized by 90%!

I just checked out Fisher, Illinois' website.  Sadly, there is no Minny's department store, but there are a lot more stores in town then there used to be.

My aunt and I went to the local cemetery, where my grandfather is buried.  I have never felt the need or desire to visit graves, but I made an exception this time.

I saw again my high school, which back in 1967 was small.  The classes were small too, I think my graduating class had something like 42 of us.  Since there were so few of us (in the big picture), we all decorated the homecoming float, we all participated in the senior play, and we all went to the parties.  It was an idealistic way to spend teenage years.  

 

So there you have it.  Small town USA.  It was a wonderful place to be a teenager and I have many fond memories of my years living in this small town.

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