Gold Canyon, Arizona

I usually write these posts sometime during the day before they appear on the Internet. I pretend I’m writing it at one in the morning and talking about yesterday…

It’s important to note that for today’s post because I’m going to come across as cranky. And I certainly am cranky, but I don’t want you to think that I’m this cranky early in the morning. I’m not. It takes a while to get to this level.

Yesterday we got up early and went for a walk/hike just after dawn. (None of the pictures in this post are my own photos.)

 It was beautiful! It was the best part of the day!

Later that morning, we went to a resort-wide meeting about the switch from MediaCom to DISH for television and Internet. There’s nothing like going through a mass technological change with a group of retired people who are change averse.

What a fiasco. Three hundred people mad and grumpy and scared. Random people asked questions and about every fifth question was a repeat of a previous question.

We left the meeting early after listening to a canuck state he couldn’t go with Internet for even an hour because his alarm system at home couldn’t let him know his pipes were frozen.

Rich and I then went to Costco where all the other snowbirds in the area shop. I have a difficult time with what I call ‘solitary shoppers’–shoppers who stand in the middle of the aisle and refuse to acknowledge that they aren’t the only person in the store shopping. (I told you I was cranky!)

While we were eating a yummy Costco hotdog, I guessed that 40% of the shoppers were retired. Rich guessed at least 75%. That tells me that he was held up in aisles by ‘solitary shoppers’ more than I was. So now he’s crankier than I am.  🙂

Same situation at Wal-Mart a bit later in the day.

By now you’re probably wondering what the heck this has to do with Q-tips…

Mike, our new neighbor, told Rich that snowbirds in Florida are called Q-tips by those younger than them because all you can see in their cars as they are driving down the road is their white hair.

I get that for the men, but 90% of the women dye their white hair. So because I’m so cranky, I’m go to start calling them Crayons!

Rich and I need a trip to the mountains to get away from both Q-tips and Crayons.

I think we will go on Friday when the conversion from MediaCom to DISH is scheduled. So look forward to a less cranky post on Saturday full of pictures of mountains, cacti, and birds. 🙂

Gold Canyon, Arizona

I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my early morning flight to Boise.

Melissa had an emergency appendectomy last night just before midnight.

She’s doing well, and I’m going up to help her out for a few days.

She’s been feeling poorly since Sunday, running a fever and having stomach pain.

She took yesterday off from work. That’s when I knew she was really feeling awful. The last time she took a day off, her eardrum burst.

She’s one tough cookie and doesn’t like to leave her “people” with a substitute.

Her best friend Kassi was with her late yesterday afternoon and stayed with her after recovery for a few hours.

I just finished talking with Misslissa, and she’s feeling much better this morning.

Can’t wait to smother her with love!

Boise, Idaho

Happy Birthday to Rich!

Love you forever and ever (day in and day out 🙂 )!

Boise, Idaho

These are very sad times for my family and me.

My mother passed away last night.

My sister let us know with this eloquent text: “She flew away…”

Mom’s been emotionally and spiritually ready for many years, but unfortunately her body was not.

In the last ten days of her life, she celebrated both her 89th birthday and her 64th wedding anniversary.

She also received Last Rites, the Catholic Church sacrament administered by a priest for spiritual strength.

My hope and prayer is that her passing was as spiritual and as peaceful as possible.

She was particularly fond of Mother Teresa and would have appreciated this quote:

“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.” 

– Mother Teresa

Boise, Idaho

Melissa bought a new car the other day. And she is very happy!

Rich helped her by going to multiple car dealerships, researching options, and talking with salespeople.

Over the course of three days, they visited three dealerships as least two times each.

Interestingly they never met with the quintessential car salesman: fast talking, slick haired, and just a tad slimy…

They did, however, meet a few characters.

At one dealership, two lesbians tried to sell them an SUV. While that might not sound that odd, the funny thing is that Rich had no clue BOTH of them were females. He’s still arguing that one is a guy… 🙂

He developed a good rapore with a young man at another dealership. Let’s call him “Colby”. They talked several times on the phone after the initial on site visit.

As all four of us (Rich, Melissa, me and Sophie 🙂 ) drove to the dealership, our phone rang. We were a bit surprised when it was Colby because Rich had just called him ten minutes earlier to let him know we were on our way. Colby said he had to leave unexpectedly, so he told Rich to talk with Jason when he got to the dealership.

Long story short… Colby was fired in between when Rich called Colby and Colby called Rich.

The fun part for me was to listen to the same stories only with different emphases and flavors from Melissa and Rich, especially about the lesbians. Melissa can mimic Rich’s surprised, “That’s a woman?” perfectly. 🙂

I am so lucky to be able watch them interact with each other. They have a special bond that showcases their love for and enjoyment with one another.

Boise, Idaho

About ten years ago, Carol and I took the trip of a lifetime. We went to Europe to visit Richie who was going to grad school in Germany and to do some hiking.

It was a wonderful trip. We saw so many amazing things, and hiked, and biked, and hiked some more.

We met in London, England, and hiked in the Lake District. Stunning. (I love this picture and have always wanted to turn it into a jigsaw puzzle.)

Then we flew to Galway, Ireland, and rode bicycles across the green countryside along streets lined with fuscia walls.

Richie went back to school and Carol and I flew to Munich, Germany, and hiked along Mad King Ludwig’s Trail to Castle Neuschwanstein.

We were hiking between eight and twelve miles or bicycling between 20 and 30 miles each day.

We ate yogurt and fruit for breakfast, made a sandwich for lunch, and had a candy bar for dinner.

I never felt better in my life, and I was never so miserable…

When Rich and I travel, he does ALL the worrying. I’m footloose and fancy free to enjoy everything.

When Carol and I travel, I assume Rich’s job and do it quite well. While Carol was having a blast, I was obsessing about each little thing that could go wrong.

Between that and being terribly homesick, I couldn’t wait to get home.

Every night, most of the night, I laid awake and counted the ‘sleeps’ until it was time to go home. (Melissa used to have difficulty understanding time, and so we used to count the number of sleeps until Santa Claus came. It worked better than counting days. 🙂 )

I didn’t tell Carol how miserable I was until many years after our trip.

Now I’m counting sleeps for a different reason although it still involves Carol.

In five more sleeps we are meeting in Las Vegas to play at a pickleball tournament for the Nevada Senior Games.

Well, really we are meeting to visit. It’s been way too long since we’ve had a twins retreat.

I can’t wait… Tomorrow it will be only four more sleeps.  🙂