Drizzle Day

Hello, This morning when I was out and about, there was a mist in the air that became a light rain. In about a mile or maybe less it disappeared and the pavement was dry. This afternoon, I made a trip to a grocery store in the opposite direction. It was a bit misty outside. When I came out there was definitely more rain in the air. I got the groceries loaded in spite of the speed bump in the way. I was not speeding with the cart, but I needed to go to front of the cart and lift it a bit to get it over this narrow obstacle. Maybe it was just hiding cords as there were cord under it. Then I noticed the rain some more, as I had to return the cart over the same object. Good thing I am a strong woman? Leroy stayed home as he did not need to go, but I wished he had come just to get out of the house. We could have carried all the groceries between the two of us. At home there was almost no rain. Leroy and I swept out the garage this morning. He vacuumed his car so he could change the floor mats to the winter type which keeps the crude off the flooring. He also put up some of the summer shovels, etc. and took down the snow shovels and scrapers. My plan for the afternoon was to go to the garden. There were still some beans to pick, but they are still on the plants. There is also some broccoli that I intend to pick. I am happy to stay home. Tomorrow is another day. Paula

Some Things Are Straight

Hello, We have been dealing with tax issues since mid-summer. We are now told that it will be settled. Leory, who likes to have everything in order, was finding it very hard to cope. We are fortunate that our daughter helped us deal with some of that. She, as an account, calmed him quite a lot. We are going on a river cruise soon. Leory got an email with the schedule, etc. There was a note that we should check on a visa if needed. The person we usually talk with had told us she would be gone. When we called the cruise company and talked to a travel person, they told us to check with the UK website as sometimes USA citizens need one in the UK. We are landing in London and leaving for the continent in the same airport. We could not learn if we needed one or not. The advice was to check with the airline. The airline person stated that we should check with our travel agent. So, we called the cruise company back at a different number. There we finally got an answer. We do not need. That took quite a bit of time to get that all straight. Anxiety on my part. For some reason Leroy was calmer on this issue. Travel is not for the unassertive, excitable, or anxious. This time we are not traveling with friends. I am a bit concerned. But I guess we can go alone with an entire ship of other people we have not met yet. I stopped at the community garden and picked one green bean. I did not look at all the plants. I might get that done tomorrow. It is to be colder so they are not producing much anymore. It seems that there are a number of tomatoes still there as well. Someone else will get those as we are leaving so soon, I do not want those that are not yet ripe. Paula

Reading

Hello, I finished Theo of Golden. It was an uplifting book. It helps the reader believe that there are good people in the world who care about others more than themselves and the money they could make. Theo means “God’s gift”. Now if I can just live up to that ideal. Each day presents some ways this can be done. It is easy to be so busy or unaware that they are missed. I also just read Louise Penny’s latest book. She writes mysteries. That kept me interested and turning pages. I almost read the afterward by the author, but she recommended that the reader avoid it if they do not want any spoilers to the story. I then flipped back to the story and was happy that I did that. One of our children recommended a movie that Leroy and I both might like. He likes adventure/action and I like comedy. We watched, “True Lies” and we did both like it. It was a bit over the top in action and I am ready to take a break from some killing. But we laughed in more than one place. Not sure what it means, but donations are down at the place I volunteer on Monday. Some of those donations come from individuals and some come from businesses. We were wondering if the downturn in the economy affects what will be donated. Makes for a bad cycle. I had to change an eye dr. appointment. I called once and just got it for the day we come back from a trip. I called back and asked for the next week as one never knows about plane travel being on time. since it is electronic, it seemed not to be a problem for the office to make that switch. I feel much more comfortable about it now. I figure it was amazing for this non-phone user to make two calls in a row. Paula

A Week with Help for the Old People

October 28, 2026 Hello, Daughter Sarah came to visit and “help the old people”. At least that is what she told someone why she was here. We did use her help quite a bit. We have a password keeper program. She organized it into folders as well as checking each entry and making sure it was correct. We had been a bit sloppy about filling out the forms. Nice to have someone who has the patience to check them all and get it in good shape. She also helped with some other computer and financial issues. We went through some of our paper file folders. They are a bit lighter now as unnecessary papers are out. I am always a bit hesitant to get rid of some things. But she has a better idea of what is important and what is not. It will be less stuff to look through when we need things. We also took a little trip one day to see the trolls in Clinton. There are three trolls that were done by Thomas Dambo and plenty of local volunteers. It was great that we met, at the first troll we visited, a volunteer who could talk about the skills required to complete that project.

We were not the only troll hunters even though it was in the middle of the work week. The last troll is done by a local artist Apparently, people have been coming from all of the country and the world to see them. There might even be trolls near you as there are many of these interesting creatures around the world. Paula

Phone Calls

Hello, I now get more spam and doctor appointment calls, than calls I care about. How did that happen? For a while I was pleased with myself for blocking and reporting spam on my phone calls. That seemed to stop or at least slow them down. Now the pace has picked up. Spammers must be able to generate new phone numbers at will. A few even leave voice messages. Apparently, they think I do not pay my credit card bills because they told me how I could consolidate then just pay a few hundred a month. If any of you want to call and chat, I will listen to you, but you might have to leave a voice message and I could respond to you. If I do not know the number or if the phone says it could be spam, I do not answer. I do appreciate calls from my health care providers, but I have one place that calls to remind me of the upcoming appointment several times. I have to just take it as it comes. Right? I also wonder when I reached the point of thinking that I needed to have my phone with me every time I go out the door. How did I live 20 years ago? What a thing to go somewhere and not have a ready connection with home or life anywhere. Paula

Rain or No Rain?

Hello, Leroy looked at the weather report. According to him there might be a bit of rain this morning and the afternoon should be clear. Dark clothes were washed. We were about ready to go to church to help unload the usual things. I made the decision to put the clothes on the line since there was such a nice breeze. By the time we were half way to church there was little noises on my coat hood. “It might be raining?” I wondered. We were dressed in jackets, warm hats, mittens and I had gone back for a scarf. One of the college kids had on shorts and a tee shirt. I made some comment to him about wearing different clothes. “I wore the wrong clothes,” he said. “I just came from the pool and my hair is wet too. I am cold.” It was nice to learn that we were not just old and cold, but paid attention to the weather. It was windy and still cold on the way home. “I am going to the garden to pick the last of the green beans.” I told Leroy. He came as well. We got enough beans for a good meal, the last of the green peppers, small, but ok. There were two okras, and a few tomatoes that were with a hint of color other than green. It was good to get all of that. I told Leroy I am not going out again after we get home. We did bring in the clothes. They felt cold and maybe a little damp. We spread them out so they could come up to room temperature. I had soaked beans overnight. We will have bean soup and cornbread for supper. Looking forward to that. Paula

My Day

Hello, This morning traffic was again slow shortly after I got on the interstate. By being patient, I learned that they had closed off one lane. Cars trying to fit in a smaller space so they had to go much slower. It was not long and it changed back to normal. I had gotten a text that one person could not come because she had a bad cold. I just hoped the other two people would come for morning stretch. If it was just me, I thought about staying 30 minutes and then going home. Those two came and we had a nice work out, plus they brought some wonderful basil from their garden it made for a nice aroma on my ride home. Having other people there encourages me to get more done. There was some misty rain in the air. After lunch, Leroy commented that we were out of bananas. That would not do. I went to the store, but he slept. He had vacuumed, and washed out the bathroom sink. He said, “That wore me out.” He feels quite a lot better, but is not very perky. At the first store there was just a little mist in the air. I was checking about the availability of some mineral that my health care provider recommended I take. Then it was on to the store for those bananas. There were none in the store. I learned that some had come but they were not good so they were thrown out. I still managed to find a number of items that I bought. There was more rain in the air now, but I still stopped at another store for bananas. Bananas were in my cart along with several other items. How can I always find something to purchase, on my list or not. When I got done here the rain was much more serious. I waited a short while, but just made some dashes. It was not quite so much rain when I got home. I cleared the car windows of rain before I got the items in the house. Our garage is detached so there was a little more rain involved. Grateful for a raincoat. Paula