I Am Getting Old - Part Twenty-five

I am getting old because…well I forget why???? These days this is normal for me. Right in the middle of completing a task, I forget things. Like why am I doing this and what is next. I think part of it has to do with the fact, I feel unorganized. I am currently sleeping on my son's couch but the good thing is I have a place to sleep and a roof over my head and food. I have my important papers, etc., in a crate under the computer and am constantly worrying that I have lost something or something is missing. I just got through getting them organized, again, and I have not lost anything. Thank you very much. There is this canvas thing that hangs on the closet rod where I have my underwear and folding clothes. All in all it is not that bad. I am grateful for these things and thank God each night. I am looking for my own place and will have one before the new year. My son says to take my time and we will begin to accumulate household items, etc., so I will have some things to get started. If I knew enough people, I would have a housewarming party and get lots of gifts. lol I only know a few at this time, so the party will have to wait.


It is time for another cup of coffee and time for me to reorganize, again. lol

Happy Halloween!

Today and Other Stuff

It is Sunday, October 28, 2007, 3:05PM and the temperature in Phoenix is 95, Wind: E at 8 mph, Humidity: 10%. The sun is shining and overall a gorgeous day here. I have not done much today other than load and unload the dishwasher and snack. It is one of those lazy days, a day of rest. Not that I do that much on the other days. I did sweep the leaves off the walkway in front of the condo. Believe it or not it is fall and yes, the leaves fall from the trees even in Phoenix. I am wearing shorts today and that is really nice.

There are Gecko's that run along the walls of the flower garden in the front, around the back door frame. Since the parking space is at the back door of the condo, you have to be careful when opening and closing the door. Unfortunately, this morning my son found one of the Gecko's deceased on the top of the back door. Seems like no matter how careful you try to be, it does not always work. My son felt really bad that we had somehow killed the Gecko. In case, you would like to read more about Gecko's: Gecko - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I just learned a lesson that I preached to my students about SAVE, SAVE, SAVE every few minutes when using composing documents, creating spreadsheets, presentations, etc. The breaker kicked off and of course I had not saved this post for a while and lost 2 paragraphs of it. Perhaps the paragraphs I lost were not supposed to be included here. lol I was writing about Microsoft charging such a high price for MS Office and how I had found OpenOffice 2.3. I cannot remember exactly what I had written but the point was OpenOffice is FREE and works very well with Vista and has 99.9% of the features of MS Office. If anyone needs a suite of products comparable to MS Office, I would recommend OpenOffice (from Sun Microsystems). Here is a link to the website: OpenOffice.org: Home. Until later, Sainara, Ciao, Au revoir, Adiós, Auf Wiedersehen. In case you want to say goodbye in another language, I found this site: "Goodbye" in many languages.

My Little Friend

“Poi Dog”, my son's Chihuahua. He is thirteen and a real doll. I have been trying for days to get a photo of him standing and he will have none of it. I will keep trying. If you are wondering about his name, he is named for a band called Poi Dog Pondering.

Ruth's Bottle of Hugs

You can visit Ruth at Me, My Life, My Garden . Hugs to everyone who may visit here today.

Feelings

This is not being written for people to “stroke me” or tell me that I can write or that I will be okay. It is merely my observations and thoughts today. As you read this, you will see that I am filled with self doubt and fear today. It is one of those days for me. I know who to thank for this and that is not meant kindly. For so long I was told how useless and worthless I was and I have not overcome those feelings. They manage to creep back when I least expect them. With time, I am sure they will change and I will know that I am useful and worthy.

I fancy myself a writer and a poet in my mind. Then I read my favorite blogs and I am intimidated by the post on them. I question why did I ever think I could write? Those posts seem so polished and professional and then I read mine. I seem to ramble on about nothing even though I have all these profound thoughts in my mind. At least I think they are profound.

In fact, I visited at least ten blogs this morning and only left a couple of comments. One about my obsession with coffee and one for someone taking a break from blogging for a while. The intimidation extends to comments I may want to leave because I was touched by the words of the blogger. I do not want to seem patronizing to the bloggers but so many times their post seem to express my feelings that it is scary to see that others feel as I do. What I want to ask is how, do you get past these feelings when you do not have the energy to do so? I want to cry, scream, yell, hide under the covers, withdraw from life. In other words, I feel like a child that has a tantrum. Would it do any good? No!!! Does expressing these feelings on paper do any good? Maybe, maybe not. I only know that I have to get this out of my system or I will cease to exist.

Quote

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain

I Am Getting Old – Part Twenty-four

I am getting old because…I need peace, quite, understanding, tolerance and acceptance in my life. I wish and pray for peace for the world and all the people in the world. I pray for each of us as human beings to accept mankind and be tolerant of all people. We are all God’s children, no matter our skin color, the language we speak. I read the news each day and wonder how people can be so cruel to others and what they think gives them the right to hurt others. How on earth can one human being kill another? Do they have a conscience? Are they just evil? Are they insane? Will we ever know the answers to these questions?

Does this need for peace and understanding come with age? If so, then I wish there wish some way to instill this in us while we are still young. Perhaps the world would be a better place to live. As years pass it seems that we as a society are turning away from God and assuming an anything goes attitude. I will continue to live with understanding, tolerance and acceptance of others and hope that others around me may come to see this as a good thing and do the same.

I wrote this a couple of days ago when I was in one of those moods. That's another thing I found out. That as I get older, I get "moody". Hey, after 64 years, I am entitled.

Landscapes - Squaw Peak In Phoenix

See Other Places at These Links

1. Gene Bach

2. katherine.

3. Claire Rachael Pitt

4. david mcmahon

5. Vic Grace

6. Ron Simpson

7. SargeCharlie
8. Amazing Gracie

9. Jessie

10. Acire

11. Nikita

12. Scott F

13. SargeCharlie

14. julia
15. Patsy

16. Aditi Srivastava

17. Aman

18. Misty Dawn

19. Latharia

These photos were taken in and around the condo where my son lives. Squaw Peak Mountain is within walking distance. I just moved back here a month ago and would have taken more photos but I am without transportation at this time. Phoenix is surrounded by mountains and we have desert and palm trees. Seems like a contradiction but is simply breathtaking.

I Am Getting Old – Part Twenty-three

I am getting old because…I am happier with less than I use to be. I have discovered or finally learned that material things are not the answer to all our needs. My needs are simple these days. I want a nice place to live that has somewhere for me to sit outside and watch the world go by and join in when I want to, a place to plant flowers and tend to them, a place to call my own and live in peace, sleep late or stay up all night, just do what I want to.

I Am Getting Old – Part Twenty-two

I am getting old because…the mirror tells me so each time I ask, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all. Seriously, each day my hair gets a little grayer and there seems to be a new wrinkle that was not there yesterday. I can do something about the gray hair but not sure what to do about the new wrinkle. I know that I will never get a face-lift since I watched a special on Discovery Channel that showed how a face-lift is done. My face hurt just watching the special and decided then that I would consider the wrinkles a sign of wisdom and leave them alone.

I approached the issue of changing my hair color today by checking out hair salons close by. Some do not do color and the ones that do are WAY to expensive. I have entertained the idea of “do it yourself” color but then I remembered the times I tried this before and the results. So I think I will just save for a month or two and let someone who knows what they are doing color my hair. Then if it turns out badly, I have someone to blame and have recourse to get it fixed. I have been watching “the trends” for fall and it seems that the must have color is some shade of brown. The problem I have with that is when your hair grows, the gray will show through quickly. I may buck the trends and go with a blonde shade. Who knows and how trivial is this?

I have not gained any more wisdom, i.e., no new wrinkles today. Just think if I gain wisdom, I may look like a prune when I am eighty, assuming I make it to that age. This makes me think that maybe I am wise enough at 64; therefore, I will not get any more wrinkles. How dumb to worry about wrinkles. Due to good genes from my grandmother and mother, I have been blessed with skin that really does not wrinkle that much and for that I am grateful.

Well, it is time to move on for today and look for other reasons why I am getting old.

I am Getting Old - Part Twenty-one

I am getting old because…as I unloaded the washer, putting clothes in the dryer, my mind drifted back to my childhood and thoughts of hanging our clothes outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I remembered our Maytag wringer washer and big aluminum tub for the rinse water being filled on washday, which was usually Monday. I remember putting “stretchers” in the legs of the blue jeans that had been starched. I remember “cooking” the starch for the clothes and my beloved “can-can” slips worn with pride under full skirts to make them “stand out”. I remembered getting the ironing board and iron ready. No steam iron back then so we “sprinkled” the clothes with water and rolled them in a towel to keep them damp so they would be easier to iron. We ironed everything: sheets, pillowcases, handkerchiefs, clothes. Washday was an all day affair at our home and thank goodness it only came once a week.

It is funny how the simplest of tasks can trigger such good memories.