OUTDOOR FUN

I was just working my crossword puzzle and one of the clues was” a game kids used to play.” It turned out to be Kick the Can and it got me to thinking about all the wonderful fun we had when we were kids and why don’t the kids play like that anymore?


Remember the simple Hide and Seek and the variations and more complicated Follow the Arrow, Run Sheep Run. But Kick the Can seems to be the one everyone played. Every night after supper we would play until our parents whistled us home when it grew dark.


When we moved to Denver I taught some of the neighborhood kids to play a few of the games and they loved it. I also remember once when I was on an elevator in the Mayo Clinic, I believe, and three giggling girls got on and faced the wall in the back. I looked at them for a minute and then without thinking said “I will draw the frying pan and who will put the wiener in?” All on the elevator joined in the laughter and remembered the old game. Cancer and procedures were forgotten for a moment.


Our children used to run loose more than they can nowadays I guess and that is one reason, but if a parent were nearby {probably need a grandparent to remember the rules) it seems to me that more kids could get the fun and exercise before they went to bed.. We are in a campaign to make our kids less obese and this is a fun way to get exercise. Seems they all go to structured soccer or baseball programs for their exercise nowadays. Ends up today’s children do not know how to play spontaneously. I understand playing these games is on a comeback. And they have been expanded to phrases George Herbert Bush made famous like kick ass. Which has nothing at all to do with my post here . :)


Where are the sandlot baseball games of yesteryear? And the pick-up basketball games? Do any of your children engage in these fun things? And how about hopscotch and marbles and jacks? Why is everything tied to building up your abs? Makes it more like work than fun.

BEACH SHENANAGINS

These are some pictures we took the day after Bill died. It was a good call as everyone needed some fun.

Boy, did that Johnson guy ever get screwed at that golf tournament on Sunday! We who live in Wisconsin know that there are sandy spots all over especially near Lake Michigan. The judges live here too, I presume, but what a travesty of justice that decision was. For those of you who are not golfers or did not watch the game, they ruled that he grounded his club when he shot that hole where he was surrounded by fans so that he could barely shoot out of there in the first place, much less see that he was near the edge of a sand trap. He will win out in the end though for the public is now empathetic to his plight and he will probably be more remembered for it that if he had won.

To all of you who expressed your sympathy and condolences I wish to thank you so much. I cannot tell you how your comments meant more to me than a lot of the cards I got. I feel closer to you folks and know that you taking the time to send me a message was far more meaningful than some of those cards.

That said, on the lighter side, it was fun to have all of the sons and daughters at home. We did have one problem however. There were six men, all over 6 feet (except one who shall remain nameless in honor of his feelings) They have trouble hitting the hole as it were and some I swear tried to write their name every morning. One had to examine the seat closely before you even began to sit down every time! And of course they all denied it was they.

Dodger got petted all day long and expected it to continue after they left. I told him that it was over, baby, and that I had other things to attend to. We did have a lot of fun as we always do when we get together. If you think my daughter has a good sense of humor, you should hear the brothers and her go at it. It is a shame that we all live so far from one another.

Jim will be leaving me soon, I think. He has some job prospects back in Denver and has had nothing here. I shall hate to have him go. But LIR (Learning in Retirement) classes start up soon and so that will be good .

Enjoy the rest of the summer. Hopefully it will be cooler than it has been. Isn’t that strange to say?

LAUGHTER AMID SORROW

I have lost my dancing partner for life last Friday. I shall miss him, I know, but I shall go on grateful for all the 60 years (minus two months) we shared both good and bad with all the ups and downs one experiences in that time. Some of you have already shared that experience and some of you will some day. Cherish each day and celebrate your lives together often. It goes by so fast. It has been a long long goodbye.

I have been so busy taking care of the many business details and the decisions one has to make, that I don’t really know how I feel about it all yet. But we have had a lot of fun too. All of the children are home and my house has become a homeless like shelter with people sleeping on the floor, on the davenports and on the Lazy Boys until my son-in-law decided enough was enough and engaged two hotel rooms nearby.

Old friends came from Minneapolis and as always when we get together with them, the house was filled with laughter. We met them years ago at Green Lake where we used to go every summer and have become very close. The wife and my daughter are close friends as are her husband and my sons and they are nice enough to love Bill and me too.

I don’t want this to be a sad post. He was 88 and his quality of life was nil so it was a blessing. We are filled with happy memories and funny tales of things he said and did and we have had a lot of fun telling these over and over to each other.

I am including a picture of his honor guard at his resting place. It was such a lovely ceremony. Taps will hit you in the gut every time.

Guest Post: What I've Learned

While Bernie is away with her husband and family, I, Fragrant Liar, have been asked to guest post. And I thought, hey, Bernie may have a few years on me, but I've learned some things about life, too! Like . . .

I'm thinking . . . I'm thinking . . .

Well, take my word for it. I have learned a bunch of stuff. And I fully expect to continue being educated the hard way on plenty more things by the time I get to toast the full century mark. Here are seven things I have learned so far (and no, that is not the sum total):

1. Men may come and go, as will some dear friends, but children are forever. Better to treat them well so they'll want to come visit you in the old folks home.
2. While your beloved pets won't come visit you in the old folks home, they will frequently give you more love and attention than your own kids, and maybe that's a good enough reason to leave everything in your will to the four-paws. Take that!
3. Your children are indeed watching and learning from you, so don't be surprised when they pick up your worst behavior and model it right back atchya.
4. Sometimes I spend too much time dreaming of what could be, rather than enjoying what already is in the present. Hey, with the daily 9-to-5 grind, can you blame me?
5. Fear is a bigger obstacle to accomplishing your goals than you realize. So is apathy, but I really don't care about that.
6. Writing fiction is an excellent use of my time, as it feeds my soul the way nothing else in life really can. Except maybe a man, but he has to be a really special—no, wait. Scratch that last sentence.
7. Good friends come from all walks of life and all ages, and I am a very fortunate woman to enjoy beautiful friendships with so many fine people. I have no regrets about the not-so-fine friends I've dumped along the way.

I raise my wine glass in tribute to Bernie and her husband Bill, and the rest of their family as they endure a very difficult time. My thoughts are with you. ~ Kimber

RANDOM THOUGHTS

The other day I got a flyer in the mail about bundling my phone together with my TV and my cell and my computer. All I can say is that AT&T must be the most inefficient corporation on the block because it took me one and one-half hours on the phone. Mostly on hold. Jeez, I could kill the guy that invented that! Anyhow I ended up with Choice Extra for my TV with 210 channels and I find that the same thing happens now as it did whenever we stayed in a motel with that many channels. I just keep flipping the dang channels and never get to watch anything! But tonight I did watch something that was worth it---Paul McCartney at the White House and I heard “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday” and it was lovely. A local station, of course.

Four goldfinches did a lovely aerial ballet for me around the feeder this afternoon. I have never seen them sort of pedal in midair and then swoop around like that before in and out amongst each other.

Jim’s gladiolas are coming into bloom. He has planted over 100 of them and so I have a constant bouquet in my house. They are just starting so I hope they keep staggering their bloom so I can have them for a long time and not too many at once. They make good gifts.

My granddaddy of a willow is monstrous with all the rain and hot weather it has filled out and its canopy covers almost the whole back yard. It meets the sugar maple and my counterpart, the sugar maple and so the back yard is completely like walking in a vault of tree branches. I love it.

Dodger is the funniest dog. He plays by himself with his balls (his rubber balls) and makes them go into tight spots in the patio door, for instance, and then digs them out only to do it again and again. Then he tosses them in the air and chases them. Self entertainment.

One of the benefits of growing older is that I put myself in the other person’s shoes more often than I did. If a motorcyclist revs his motor up beside me at a stop sign I don’t mind. I would do it too if I had one. And if someone cuts in front of me or seems angry about something, I think that maybe he has a good reason like maybe he just lost his job, or his girlfriend or maybe he doesn’t feel well or someone he loves is ill or worse.

I feel more of a kinship with my fellowmen. When I was young I thought only I could feel such pain when things happened, or only I felt some things like no one else. We are all in the same boat and when they ask " for whom the bell tolls-it tolls for thee", I get it now.

So these are just some of my random thoughts today. I will end by saying, “Never, never ask a man for directions! They are never specific enough. A woman will give you great directions every time.”

LOVE OF A DOG

Some of you have been asking how my new dog, the Artful Dodger, is working out so I thought I thought I would tell you just how wonderful he is.


These have not been easy weeks for us lately. My husband Bill who has had Altzeimer’s for about 9 years has been sick lately and we have had to bring him to the ER three times with no success until this last time. Believe me, one has to have the right doctor to get anywhere.

He was admitted to the hospital and yesterday as I was sitting in my chair listening on the phone for the results of his tests (he was being discharged at the time and transported to the rest home), I heard that he has entered the end stage and has multiple things going on that are not good. I, who never cry, began crying as I listened and Dodger pricked up his ears and came over to my chair and raised himself into a position where he was virtually hugging me with his paws around my neck and pressing his head against mine and licking my face. Now, there’s a dog who is a pal in need. He didn’t need thumbs. I am so thankful for him. I have seen dogs do this in movies as in Lassie but I have never had this experience before


I knew this would be coming, but not so suddenly nor so soon. Because Bill has been so good for so many years, I guess I was lulled into forgetting about this fact. And so it goes.

Summertime in Door County Wisconsin!

Last fall, we shared some pictures of beautiful Door County. Here are some pics of a day last week when we went up again in the good ole summer time.

Except it still is rather early for Lake Michigan to warm up. This day the weather was in the 80's but at Whitefish Bay Beach the winds were stirring up the lake to three foot or more waves and the water temperature was 62 degrees. But never let it be said that I am a wimp and I have learned how to deal with this. You go in several times, a little bit at a time. You get your feet up to your knees wet and paining like crazy and then you run out and wait a bit.

You keep doing this for 5 or 6 times and then dunk. Water soon becomes quite tolerable. And with the lovely sand bottom and with the waves trying to knock you over, a lot of fun. Jim comes running in freezing one more time.

After our invigorating swim, we looked for a place to eat. My son, Jim, had never had a genuine Door County Fish Boil so we found a place in Bailey's Harbor just about ready to serve up the last batch. It is a spectacular show and the dinner is delicious. They cook it over an open fire in a big kettle and at the last minute they throw keosene on the fire to make it boil over. That is supposed to get all the fat out of the dinner. Then they serve it with cups of drawn butter poured all over it!!!!!