Life as Usual

Hello,

I told Leroy last night I wanted to change the desks back to their original spots. He said, “We could do it tomorrow morning or I would have time on Saturday.”

This morning, we hopped out of bed again, got things off the desk, and quickly moved them. I told Leroy I could handle putting back the rest of the things. I am happier now. I even managed to sort through some papers and get rid of two. Now that is progress.

I forgot to buy peanuts when shopping last time. That is my favorite snack. Leroy also seems to like them. I have felt a bit of sadness each time I wanted some and remembered that there were none in the house. I did have a few to take to work and I guarded them. Last night at work I ate the last of them. Luckily Leroy thought of them as he was traveling around close to a store. He brought some home. I just made my mixture of peanuts, almonds, and pumpkin seeds. It was so satisfying to munch on some of them. I now know that if I were addicted to some substance that was harmful to me or others, I would have a terrible time stopping. The lack of peanuts in the house became bigger and bigger in my mind as the week progressed. Leroy too mentioned them several times.

We got Miriam’s ten year old microwave last summer. For some reason that machine takes a long time to cook or heat anything. After pushing every button on the face of it, we are once again talking about the search process and what do we want in a new one. But such is life something is always wearing out. Just so it is not Leroy or I we can replace it with comparative ease.

Paula

Today is my sister’s birthday. I find myself having a bit of a hard time when remembering that. It is also Miriam’s birthday and that still gives joy.

Life's changes

Hello,

Sunday evening I wanted to watch a DVD, but Leroy had changed many things on the Smart TV to try to get his tablet to talk to it. We could not get it to connect to the DVD player. I blamed him although I was very gracious about it and just simmered inside. When I came home from work last night I asked, “Did you fix the DVD player/TV connection?”

“It works, but I did not do a thing,” Leroy said, “but turn it on.”

Is that guy lucky or what?

I got the brilliant idea in the middle of the night to switch our desks in the computer room. I told Leroy about it this morning. Not one to let grass grow under his feet, Leroy said, “We can change them now.”

So we hopped out of bed and shifted the desks. Now we do not know where to put the printer stand and I do not like the look of the larger desk as I am coming down the hall. I think it will be changed back. At least I cleaned everything under the desks and the printer stand.

Another thing that now works is that Leroy was able to download, on his table, the app so we can take pictures of our checks instead of mailing them in. I am so happy about that. For some reason we could not get it done on the IPod and my tablet is not the proper type.

I am so pleased because I went to the garden yesterday and got enough arugula, Swiss chard, dandelion greens, and cilantro to make a fairly decent salad with some additions such as radish, mushroom, cabbage. The cabbage was a small head that was growing on the stalk in our front garden. I thought it was all lovely and amazing to be eating fresh from the garden in December in Iowa. The only downer is that the cause might be global warming.

Paula

Good Day

Hello,

We had a nice day yesterday. First we drove about an hour and a half to visit my one aunt who is still alive. She is 90 years old, still quite sharp, quite talkative, and moves right along with a walker. She might not have been able to keep up with Leroy, but she set a good pace. It sounded to me like she tries to walk more than a mile a day. I learned a little family history that I had never heard before. We took her out to lunch about which she said, “It was great to get out.” She still has a car and still drives, but I gathered her outings are limited.

Leroy and I always seem to have a little tiff in the car about directions. Does that mean we should only go places when we know where we are going? We did use the GPS, but did not agree at one point with this neutral sounding lady. It turned out that she did direct us the wrong way once.

After visiting with my aunt we went to a Christmas concert at a college in the area. I enjoyed the program and the chance to visit with another couple who had been at the seminary when we were there. Plus we got dessert from the college. I had some rice pudding. It is something I like, but never make. Now I suppose it is because Leroy does not do well with things made from milk. Or perhaps he does not like rice pudding.

We had planned to go to another concert in the evening, but we arrived home at only an hour before the concert started and we could not extricate ourselves from the house one more time.

Leroy has gotten himself a tablet as well. He wanted to explore the possibilities in that some. Now we have a laptop and two tablets. Is that getting to be too much?

I was trying to read a book for book club. At the meeting today I still had 100 pages to go, but I only started after we got back from DC. I thought the book was good, In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. I certainly learned a bit of history of the Dominican Republic that I had no clue about.

Paula

Phone Calls

Hello,

For a non phone user I have spent much of my day on the phone. I spoke with two of our friends from seminary days. We will see both of these couples at different events in the next day or a month from now. Amazing when you know that we have not seen much of them in years. Both of them have retired, so perhaps retirement is an open door to spend more time with people that you enjoy being with.

I also talked with my one living aunt. She only lives an hour and a half away. Why we have not visited, I am not sure. Anyway we will be her area tomorrow so we will visit. Before I pick up the phone to make a call I always wonder, “Will I have anything to say?”

It did not matter with my 90 year old aunt, she started talking right away and I could hardly get a word in to tell her that we wanted to spend a little time with her. She sounded quite pleased. I would guess that I have not seen her in 25 years or more. Would you surmise that I am not so good at keeping family connections?

If I should call you do not say to yourself, “She almost never calls.” Instead think, “I am amazed and pleased that she is calling me.”

If I were the queen you could be quite moved that you are not forgotten. Most of you are remembered, but I just cannot make myself pick up that phone. I suppose you could say that my cost per call is quite high because I use it so seldom.

I am grateful to have two phones so I can keep up with the rare call at home or on the road. Then I can use Skype for people farther afield. It is wonderful to talk with my friend in Slovakia from time

to time. Usually it happens because she makes the effort to connect. I am happy that she does this.

So if you feel like calling me do not fight the urge. I am happy to pick up the phone; I just do not initiate the connection very often.

Paula

More About DC

Hello,

One good thing about being in Washington DC is that we do a lot of walking. We walked the girls to and from school two days. Twice those trips included a loop past the library. The park, which is fairly close to their home, also meant a nice walk with a run around the track. The track surface is some softer type material. I was impressed how little that bothered my knees. Here we have two tracks in the neighborhood, but both are fenced in so we cannot use them. I am disappointed by that as I do not like running on cement. We walked to a cemetery that is probably about a mile from their house. There were many old graves there. Not sure we found the oldest, but some were from the early 1800’s.

We also spent one afternoon at an art gallery that had portraits in it. It was quite interesting to see the presidents of the US and to read some facts about them. I learned quite a lot that I had not heard before. Do I remember it? Do not quiz me on it.

We also went to Great Falls, VA where we did a moderate amount of walking. It is interesting to me that we had to wait in a long line of cars in order to get into the park to see the falls. Several million people visit this park each year. Even though it was a gray overcast day we were surrounded by people much of the time.We were privileged to see two kayaks doing maneuvers in the water below the falls. Apparently it is quite popular for them to come here to practice before meets. It looked quite scary to me. Some who have tried to go over the falls have drowned.

We also did some food prep while we were there. We made granola as well as ravioli. That was nice to make the ravioli as I rarely make that and almost never for just the two of us as it is quite a large recipe. It was also fun to have help from so many people. Sarah has an exchange student with them this year. He helped cut it. Some of it was put in the freezer for a later day.

Here are the children. This exchange student is 15. He was good at the cutting. I thought this was a typical picture of kids today. That is his phone that Lexi is looking at.

The Christmas cactus looked like this when we came home. It is 44 years old. We started with a little slip the first Christmas we were married.

Here is also a picture of us at Great Falls, VA.

Paula

Traveling And Back

Hello,

One sad thing about traveling east, my carryon bag lost a leg. It did not have those 360 degree wheels so it was propped on two wheels and two legs when stopped. It only fell over two times before I realized what had happened. It also has a seam that had been sewed so I suppose it is time to retire it, but that means I must find something to replace it. Will I live long enough to get the full value out of an expensive bag or should I just go for cheap?

On the return flight we took the earliest metro train easily arriving a bit more than an hour ahead of time. This trip we had to do the full shoes, coat, belt off retinue which included the hand check. Something is put on your hands and they scan that. Leroy’s hands set off the alarm. Once again they went through his bag, more thoroughly than had been done on the first trip. I waited patiently off to the side. They asked him to step to the side and out of my sight. That wait was at least ten minutes, long enough that I was wondering if we got close to flight time, should I just get on the plane so we did not have to buy two new tickets.

“What took so long?” I wondered.

“They did a more serious pat down and the rules require two people to be present. It was a long wait for the other guy.” he told me.

“I asked what set it off.” Leroy said, “They did not know, sometimes it is perfume, soap, or other things that might be on your hands.”

In Detroit we had to wait at least an hour and a half longer than expected because they were waiting on a plane from MN. Still it was ok, but I decided not to go into work. Back home, we used the city bus in CR. It was quite full by the time we got downtown. I was pleased to see that. Yeah for public transportation!

Paula

Traveling to DC

Hello,

Our trip out of town was uneventful except that in the Cedar Rapids airport Leroy’s bag set off an alarm. Before that we had moved along speedily because we were expedited so we did not have to remove shoes or coats. They did a more serious search of Leroy’s bag and found the little bag of rocks and a plastic frog that one granddaughter had left at our house. The TSA guy just laughed about it and let it pass. We thought it most likely belonged to the youngest, but she had no memory of it, however she was happy to put the rocks outside around a tree. I am not sure what happened to the frog.

Sarah picked us up at the airport in DC. For reasons that none of us could figure out she sat in traffic, just at the airport about half a mile from us, for forty minutes. Luckily it was quite nice in DC for all of us arrivals waiting for that pick up service. No one had a clue what was causing the delay. Thankful for cell phones so we could discuss the issue and everyone knew where their important people were. We got there at 10:00pm EST. That Leroy immediately started thinking about how late it was and he needed to go to bed even though his body clock would have said it was 9:00.

We were both quite astonished at the flowers that were still blooming. Some trees had not dropped their leaves. We did not need our hats or gloves. It is definitely a warmer place. It was also much more humid than here. My hair curled quite nicely. I started thinking about the clothes I had brought and wishing I had brought some lighter things. But then a bit later it cooled off so my warmer clothes felt just right.

Paula