sharing what goes on in my head...

I sometimes wonder if others think about things as I do... and/or how others handle the same situations...

Ok, I'm going to write about something that goes on with me every night... and I believe it's an 'age' thing.  Most of you who have reached the ripe old age of 75 (maybe some younger, some older) know what I'm talking about. It's that middle of the night dilemma when you know you should get up and visit the facilities, but you don't want to... you're warm and cozy and have that foggy sleepy feeling which you know could go away as soon as your feet hit the cold floor.  

I tend to have conversations with myself a lot... especially during the night. They usually go something like this:

"Get up!" 

"No, I don't want to."

"You have to. Now Get Up!"

And of course you know that you have to... and do. But I follow certain procedures to avoid waking up totally. 

Best to have slippers or socks close by to avoid cold floors.

Best to not open your eyes too much (only enough to see where you're going). 

I tend to 'wobble' during the night (you know from side to side). I tell myself  I've become a Weeble (remember that old ditty - Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down)

Best to get in and out quickly and not 'think' about anything as this will get your brain to start thinking about things that worry you... and you'll never get back to sleep.

And by all means 'avoid looking in the mirror' as seeing what you look like in the middle of the night half asleep and with bed hair might just give you a heart attack. 

Most of the time this works. Sometimes not so much. 

And then I go through a similar ritual in the morning... talking to myself: 

"Oh God, it's morning..."

"Time to get up!"

"Don't want to..."

"But you must. Besides, you know you feel better once you're up and about."

"This is true..." and usually gets me going. 

On rare occasions, I have said:

"Oh my God... "

And DH has responded with "What's wrong?"

"Nothing hurts..."

Now I'm very lucky in that I'm not one who experiences chronic pain as I know some do. But it's rare to wake up at 75 and not have something hurting (with me it's usually my back or my head). These aches and pains do go away as the day progresses...

Anyway, I just wonder if others go through this too. Do you talk to yourself like this? 

Well, that's it for today. Sharing a personal idiosyncrasy. If it's TMI,  then please ignore.

Hugs, (virtual)

Rian

(Leaving you with a picture of some home-made nutty granola I made this weekend)

It's 3 in the morning...

Wow! It's been a long time since I've had one of these - waking up and not being able to go back to sleep at 3 in the morning.  DH and I generally go to bed at either 9 or 10 and get up around 8. And yes, I do get up several times during the night to visit the facilities... but always (mostly always) go right back to sleep. Then there are these days when too much is going on inside my head to settle back down. The reason: political chaos in our country as well as too much Facebook reading.

I deleted Facebook today as I just couldn't stand reading any more political rants. IMO Facebook shouldn't be used as a political forum. I want it for communication and pictures - especially for family and friends who live far away. But each to his own.

I know this country is divided these days. And although many cannot, I can respect your choices even if I don't agree. I can 'agree to disagree'.  Many apparently cannot. I find this sad.  But it is what it is.  

Families split apart over politics. Politics! Important? Sure, but not as important as family. This country was built upon freedom of choice. I realize that some choices are very difficult to understand, but because I think differently doesn't mean I cease to love. I may never agree, but I will still love. 

IMO family and politics should not be a problem... no more than religion and science. They can both exist without conflict in my mind. 

What happened Wednesday was unbelievable. I don't understand how any person who loves this country could believe such actions were acceptable. Violence is never the way... and if you think it is, then something is very wrong. 

Over the years I have often wondered how things got as bad as they did with Hitler. How did the people allow things to go that far? Now I know. It only takes a dangerous man in power with a following who are willing to 'do anything' to keep him in power. 

What will happen now? I don't know. But I do trust that those who respect our democratic system will handle the situation in the best way possible. 

Hopefully enough people realize how important it is for us to be united and not divided as a nation... and those that want to increase the division are the enemy. Political parties are not the enemy. It's those within who want to divide and conquer... the extremists. 

Again... all just my opinion. If you don't agree, it's fine. But it's now 4 in the morning, so I'm going to close this and go back to bed. 

Thanks for reading and giving me the opportunity to vent. Hope the rest of the week (and following weeks) go without incident. Take care, be safe... and know that we will get through this and... perhaps be better for it.

Hugs, (virtual)

Rian

Taking down Christmas...

It's Monday morning, January 4, 2021... and we've just taken down our Christmas tree. So sad. It didn't want to come down. It was a healthy Frasier fir that we had picked up the day after Thanksgiving... and still no needles were falling. We get out trees at a nursery close by that has the best trees! Anyway, it's down now and sitting outside on the curb waiting to be picked up. We always let our tree keep one little ornament... a thank you for it's service. (weird, I know... but something we've always done).

The weather here is clearing, and the sun is coming out... after a dreary, rainy weekend. I spent most of it on the sofa by the fire, working on the sequel to my book. Hope to have that finished and on Amazon by Spring.  I actually took a video (out of boredom) during this time... just a short one of my front room and fireplace, but apparently it's too long to send from my iPhone... so I couldn't attach it here. I could send it by you tube, but wasn't sure about how that works. 

this is how the video starts... but I couldn't get it to send

Goes to show you how much I know about this technology...  Anyway, next pic is a cup my daughter sent us in a basket of goodies for Christmas. 

It's really a nice cup - holds a lot of coffee

and next is a cat shaming calendar that my grand daughter sent (along with the cat pj's) 

It's one of those daily tear off sheet types....

Nothing else going on...  Well, actually there's a lot going on when it comes to the pandemic and politics, but I'm not planning to go there today.  What will be, will be. We can only do what we think is right and hope for the best.  At least that's where I'm at. 

Just answered the front door to our neighbor... (I keep a face-mask by the door so I was wearing one although he wasn't).  Apparently he's having a problem with his retaining wall. We drop off  to a creek and he has a pool... so his backyard is 'built up'. Apparently all the rain we've been having has caused his retaining wall to partially fall down... which is a problem with the pool, etc. He needed to know if it was OK for the service man to come through by our drive instead of his to check it out. No problem... our gate isn't locked. Told him to go on back...

(I can imagine he's thinking that 2020 may be gone, but things are still going wrong... it could be costly to fix all that.)

Update: daughter-in-law (nurse) with Covid is feeling better... though still extremely fatigued. From what I hear that is a lasting effect from Covid. But so far, son and grand daughter are still negative (hurray!) And our other daughter-in-law (nurse) got her Covid shot as did my niece (Pediatrician).  So our front-line workers are vaccinated! 

Oh, and our oldest son has Disney Plus at his house... so we were able to watch some Disney or Pixar movies recently. Saw "Soul" and "Ralph breaks the Internet"  - enjoyed both! (light during a dark time)

Have a great week! (It should be interesting) I'm trusting that common sense will win out... and somewhere in the future all will be well again.

Hugs, (virtual)

Rian

 

  

Christmas Day 2020... Pandemic style

It's Christmas day here in Texas... and the Pandemic is still raising it's ugly head... keeping us from gathering with our families for the holidays (or anytime).   So far we have all been very careful and safe for the most part, wearing our masks, washing our hands, and staying away from gatherings.

BUT... both our daughter-in-laws are nurses and have been working non-stop, exhausted, and bringing home awful stories of what they deal with on a day to day basis. They warn us of how serious this Covid virus can be. We get stories of a young mother with Covid who may not make it, her newborn baby in intensive care... and she may never see him. One father and his daughter died the same day... with the wife in intensive care. Watching people die struggling for breath must be beyond awful. I am so proud of both my daughter-in-laws for their courage and spirit. But I worry about them too... as they are up front with this horrible virus.

This week one of them tested positive for the virus. Now son and grand daughter (8) will be tested ASAP and all will isolate for the next 2 weeks.  2020 seems like it won't leave us unscathed.

Christmas morning

One of grand daughter's gifts from us was the pink hoodie with attached doggie mask...  appropriate for this Christmas morning.

******************************************

There's not a lot else to say. It's been fairly quiet around here. We opened a few gifts, sat by the fire-place, talked or texted with the kids and grandkids, watched one of the new(?) Jurassic Park movies, and put a roast in the oven for later.  DH and I got a few cat puzzles and I got the cutest pair of cat pj's.  Here's a pic!

So, I'm going to leave you today with my hopes

that you are all having a good (if not merry) Christmas

 with those with whom you feel safe...

and

 I want you to know how much I appreciate 

all my blogger friends

Thank you for being there

I love reading your blogs and your comments!

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

   

New puppy...

 

Winston

(I'm writing this on Sunday... although I probably won't post it until Monday)

Had to show this cute face.  This is Winston, new puppy for our oldest son and his wife! He is a Golden Retriever/Standard poodle mix... a Golden Doodle??   Whatever... he is adorable. Nothing like a puppy or a kitten to make a person smile.

Well, my Christmas baking and mailing is all done. There is still a lot of goodies around... Christmas tea cakes, chocolate pecan bark, rum cakes, and whiskey balls! I didn't take any pics this year...  but since I basically make the same stuff each year, you probably have already seen it anyway. 

Just ordered a rump roast and all the fittings (potatoes, carrots, onions) to cook for Christmas day. We have turkey on Thanksgiving and a pork roast (with cabbage and black-eyed peas) for New Years... so a roast will have to suffice for Christmas. We could do a baked ham... but neither grandson or I are big on ham... and DH would have a hard time eating one by himself. 

We don't do a lot of gift giving anymore... used to do quite a lot when the kids were home... but now, we give gifts only to the grandkids and the grownups get Christmas goodies. DH and I pick out one thing that we would like and that's our Christmas. This year he picked out a book and I ordered one of those digital thermometers that take your temp from your forehead. Works for us!

A few minutes ago DH and I were out looking for the Christmas Star that is supposed to be the closest it's been in 800 years tomorrow night. You can see the 2 planets tonight... not as well as supposedly we'll be able to tomorrow evening. I think there will be many people looking up and wishing on that Christmas Star. Maybe it's an omen that things will be better in 2021.  We can only hope.

Now something that has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas... as I was sitting on the sofa folding clothes, I happen to look up and see the weird pottery projects that we had to do a few years ago...

The rooster and the puffin heads were the projects. We had to do animal heads...  so these weird items hang high up on my kitchen wall. I also did a smaller eagle head that is hung up in another room.

I'm not much for doing animal heads... especially don't care for real animal heads on walls (find it gross, but that's just my opinion - here in Texas you do see this a lot). However, this was an assigned project... (and it wasn't real).

OK... that's my post for today. Hope to get another in before or after Christmas. But if not, Merry Christmas 2020! 

And here's wishing all of you 

a better, healthier,

 happier 2021!

Hugs, (virtual of course)

Rian

Christmas music by the fire...

Hi Everyone! Today is Saturday, December 12th (2020 - but who doesn't know that?) Anyway, I'm supposed to be baking Christmas cookies to send out, but have hit a snag... our hot water heater took this day to die... yes, and on a Saturday to boot! 

I did manage to get one batch of my home-made nutty granola made before DH brought me the news. It's not that I can't bake... but I can't clean up without any hot water.  

And we shouldn't complain too much as we knew this day was coming. We have needed a new hot water heater for a while and have been putting it off. So... despite the inconvenience, it's not such a tragedy, we will simply have to postpone the baking and mailing for a few days (and no hot showers!). 

We did mail off 2 packages of goodies Thursday. So only about 4 more to go. And we received 2 Christmas packages from DH's brothers this week. One was a box full of  chocolate goodies... dark chocolate covered cashews, a mix of regular, dark, and white chocolate smores, hot chocolate mix, etc. (love these!) and the other was several bags of Angelo Brocato's Italian seed cookies. (love these too!). Despite it all... life is good.

As I've mentioned before, I don't watch the news much anymore... sometimes I put it on just to get the weather info... and once they start talking about politics, OFF IT GOES!

I do listen to the Covid statistics... and that hasn't been too encouraging (even with the vaccines coming out). The numbers of cases and deaths keep rising, but this can't be unexpected - not with Thanksgiving gatherings just over 2 weeks ago and Christmas shopping and parties starting.

I do believe that most people are being sensible and following the guidelines (sacrificing their get-together with family and friends this year for the greater good) but those who refuse to do so  make it  difficult... and it's obviously counter productive because as the numbers increase, the chance of things being closed and locked down go up.  

OK... enough of that.

****************************************

with her new puppy

Our youngest grandchild turned 8 recently. 8!!  I can't believe she is 8 already. Where do the years go? And due to Covid, we've hardly seen her this year at all...

At home

 in class

If all goes well, we've got a lot of 'catching up' to do in 2021...

Going to close this with one of my all time favorite Christmas songs song by Pentatonix, "Mary, did you know?"  (Skip ads) Since I couldn't bake this afternoon, I spent part of the afternoon lying on the sofa by the fireplace listening to this... and other Pentatonix songs. 

Wishing you a quiet safe healthy weekend at home... with pleasant memories of good times, good friends, and past Christmases that will come again when this crisis is over. These are the things that really matter...  that we keep each other safe so we can share these times again.

Hugs (virtual),

Rian

3 weeks till Christmas 2020...

You have to admit that most of us will be glad to see the back of 2020.  Even now that it's only weeks away, there's still trepidation. What will the next few weeks hold? 

Life goes on - in its strange pandemic way. We have each found a new routine (and a new hairstyle - I now have a 5 inch white ponytail - DH may have one too if I stop cutting his hair) that in the past year has become our new normal. And even though for the most part (at least for many that I know) we haven't been hit personally with the virus, we now know many that have. This IMO was bound to happen as the number of  positive cases escalate. 

The only family members who have contacted Covid so far have been a step-grandson in Kentucky and a sister-in-law in Texas.  Others we have heard about are 3 friends in Colorado. Only the SIL (83) was hospitalized, but is now home and doing well.  

We remain sheltering at home, etc. and will continue to do so...  (with or without the vaccine). 

But going on to Christmas 2020.... 

I started my Christmas baking today:

rum cakes

 We've decorated the house here and there (not a lot):

front room

Santa visits Finky mouse on China cabinet

Santa sharing Thanksgiving Table

Santa visits cheeky chickens who can't be fired due to studio closure

Elf and Christmas Angel

2020 downsized tree  (with New Orleans Mardi Gras beads 
and apparently no Mardi Gras parades this year due to Covid)

 ...and sadly no cats lying by the fireplace 
first time in our 52 years of marriage

Anyway, that's enough sharing for today. Started this Friday and it's now Monday. I have finished 2 batches of whiskey balls and 2 batches of frosted Christmas tea cakes over the weekend. 

Oh, and I have to share this pic I saw of a black cat t-shirt...

Cute, huh?

Hugs (virtual),

Rian