"Rainy Tuesday and Same old, same old"...

Dear Blog,

So...in this little village that I live in there is one newspaper and one local shopper paper that is put out each week. We, of course, get them both and occasionally I even get the St. Paul Pioneer Express, (which my son calls a "communist rag") or the Minneapolis Star & Tribune Newspapers. I've been cutting way back on the newspaper reading the last few years. I'm sick of all of the bad news and violence in them and they've stop providing the big weekly TV Guide in the Sunday paper. I rarely listen to news on TV either and yet I am inundated with tons of news anyway. It's like osmosis has struck me again. I swear I have always learned by osmosis way more than any other way. Which is why I am human and "Watson" the "Super Computer" will never know things that I do by nature. I also have a soul and as far as I know no one has programmed a soul into "Watson".

So anyhow...the first thing I always read in our local paper is the Obits. I then move on to the birth announcements (looking at who comes in when someone goes out). I move to the citizen recipe, which is what I call the recipe that is accompanied with a photo and a minute bio of the person who submitted the recipe. I then read the senior citizen menu for the week and sometimes the local cop-shop talk, which is a listing of all of the local criminal events. Some of the reported crimes are things like domestic disputes, a locker room theft at the local gym, someone egging a car, a group of local kids getting caught while illegally smoking. Better known as underage smoking, someone stealing flowers from local gardens, someone fainting, a car crash, jay-walking and etc. There is no end to the crime in this town. Seems one of the schools, cop-shop or local stores have their share of bomb threats each year. I read the occasional letters to the editor, which usually just anger me and I totally skip the 5-6 pages of high-school sports.

NEWS FLASH:
Now they are linking violence with soda pop.

So I noticed that one woman in the Obits was 101 years old when she recently died. Another was 86 years old when she died and four husbands had proceeded her in death...HUMmmm! Mostly these past 13 years that we have lived here I noticed that people seem to live to a ripe old age. There's always a scattering of younger people...even a few babies and kids. Lately I have noticed that there are more and more young people in their 30's, 40', 50's and 60's dying. Another HUMmmm! Kind of shocking when I am 61 and all of these people my age or younger are dying and their survivors are their 80 something parents. Just one more moment in life to take a pause...I suppose.

Problem with me is that I am in my 62nd year and I look it and many days what with my different aches and pains and woes I certainly feel it or maybe even older AND YET...in my mind I am still a 15 year old kid. This is not to say that I never grew up or I am some female version of Peter Pan. It's just that some of me has never recognised growing old. Like for instance, in this weeks paper I read about a woman who had died at home and she was 64 years old. My first thought was that she had lived a long life, (which in my mind made it okay for her to die). AND THEN...I thought what hell do you mean Jolie? That only like 2 1/2 years older then me. DAH! Now that does make one pause. Maybe I am Petra Pan.

On to other things.

My baby (Libby) turned 27 on Sunday. Where does time go? On the one hand it seems that she was just born on the other side of that hand it seems like she has been here forever. She had a whole week kid free as Uncle (Shayne) and I had the boys. We did a swap off. And then Henry was here for the weekend also. I am kidded out for a while and Libby is well rested or should be.

It's 46 degrees here today. Dammed nippy. I just turned the heat up a bit ago so I won't freeze to death when I go to take my shower. I think our warm weather days are gone till spring now.

The people around our country and the world are still protesting the lack of jobs and the unequal distribution of wealth by holding the sit-ins. The politicians are still fighting. Another of the world tyrants is dead. Gaddafi has finally been murdered and Libya can start having hope for a new good way of life. Notice that many of the bad dictators are dead now? Notice how they are all dying in violence...just the way they lived? I guess dead is dead. I wonder who is taking their places?

Kevin and Henry raked leaves all weekend. We love all of these big beautiful oak trees till fall and spring when the raking takes over our life. It is too bad that I can't get out and put a dent in the raking. It was one of the outdoor chores I always loved. The wobbly legs simply won't hold up to it these days. Kevin still likes me to come out and sit on a lawn chair to visit and watch him and Henry. I feel stupid just sitting there but it's better then sitting in the house alone while they get to rake my leaves.

I sometimes wonder if Kevin is trying to kill me. He bought me two bags of mini candy bars...Milky Way and 3 Musketeers. He knows I'll eat them. "Woman dead by candy bar. Husband sued by children. Yep, one of these days it'll be headlines for me."

Why do I get heartburn from Vit. C? And why do antibiotics give me a belly ache? So many questions...so little in the way of answers.

This weeks real treat is french bread and Kashi cereal. I'll have pasta for at least two meals. I do love me some pasta. Surely they are wrong when they say 1/2 cup of cooked pasta is a serving.

I got this next bit of wisdom out of a Chinese cookie last week and it was a good message for me. Thought I would share it with all of you.

"No one grows old by living, only by losing interest in living."

I sent a couple of quarts of chili back north with Kevin for the week. He'll probably freeze one quart for later. He said he still has two, three meals in the freezer of the lasagna that I sent with him a couple, three weeks ago. I try to have a few things he can take out, heat and eat. Usually a cake or a pan of brownies too. When I am not there to cook he can pretend I am when he eats. He's gotten used to doing his laundry at the local launder mat, which my cousin owns. That is a good thing since I am not crazy about having all of that iron ore and grease that he gets on his work clothes in my washer.

I am so happy that he has work and at this point it looks like it will last a while. He'll need a new car soon as his old Honda has over 250,000 miles on it and it is older then dirt. He hopes to make it through the winter. Me too. It'll give me time to pay off something to make room for a car payment. I don't want to get into a pay Peter...rob Paul situation.

I am still happy, happy, happy about the new daytime cooking show..."The Chew". The host and chefs make me smile the whole hour. They make simple ingredients work well and come out with wonderful meals. Every day they seem to have a theme. This week, of course, they are focusing on Halloween. Fun ideas. I get hungry just watching them. I am pretty savvy in the kitchen yet I always get a new tip or two from all of them. Just goes to prove that one is never too old to learn something new.

Ozzie Osborne is going to be on "The Talk" today so I might watch that for a bit. I stopped watching that show when I found out they fired Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete...but since I get a kick out of O.O. I will check it out today. The scat I read said that the CBS bosses didn't like that Leah R. is a Scientologist and that Peete talked about autism. He son is Autistic. Doesn't make CBS sound good.

Pasta for dinner and a night of searching the tube. I should have all of my chores done by then.

So I'm off now. It's near warm enough to shower and I need to eat. I hope you are all well and finding at least one reason to smile each day.

I love "Summer Wine" on the PBS Channel. I marvel at how those old people run and get around so well. Especially the women with a few extra pounds and in heels. I think I would like England. I sure love their TV programs.

Did anyone see the Northern Lights in our night sky? Such beauty seems to only come naturally. It's a nature thing and so worth watching for.

Robin I so miss you.

Bye Blog, JjB...
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