Never Waste a Step

Justin's great Grandma Palmer (trivia: whose last name provided Justin's middle name ~ Justin Palmer Smith) used to say, "Never waste your steps".  After now living in a house with two separate flights of stairs, I think of Grandma Palmer almost every single day as I run up and down these steps no less than 100 times a day and I totally get what she meant by those words. 

When Gene traveled to Tri-Cities to find a house to buy, it never occurred to me that there was a really important item missing on the "must have" list for buying this house. You see, there is no bathroom on our main floor.  One must choose to climb stairs before commencing their business or one can choose to fly down stairs and save the climbing for afterwards. The bedrooms and all the dirty laundry are on the top floor, and the washer/dryer are in the basement. And when the dirty laundry becomes the clean laundry, there's another two flights of stairs for every laundry basket.

I've been thinking a lot about never wasting my steps pretty much ever since I turned 50 ... which was slightly over a year ago.  I mean this in a literal sense because my knees started aching ever so much more after we moved here but also in the not-so-literal sense.  Sometimes when I'm thinking I should go to the store, my second thought is could I live another day without going to the store?  There were times this last summer that we were running so much that I didn't make it to the grocery store for almost 3 weeks at a time.  We could pretty much live on the food we've stored away for a few months without having to make a trip to the store.  Do I want to live on canned chili and powdered milk?  Oh, hell no!  But I have to admit that sometimes it's kind of fun to see how long I can put off those things I hate doing so much, like going to the grocery store.  I have come up with some pretty funky ideas for dinner and there's always a can of peaches to top it off!

I don't know why this has been on my mind so much lately ... maybe it's the aching knees or maybe it's the change in seasons.  Or maybe it's because I should have gone to the store this morning. But I still have about 2 cups of milk left in the gallon jug and plenty of eggs to make it til next week along with grapes & celery and one old head of purple cabbage in the fridge.  I think I'll skip the store and use that time to make some home-made bagels today while the laundry is finishing up and I'm bustling between floors in this big, old house.  It'll give me a chance to think about Grandma Palmer and my dearly departed mother-in-law, Adelle, who would be so proud of me for making home-made bagels, while I'm doing something useful and not wasting my steps ....

Buy One, Get One Free

Buy one, get one free.  That's why we got into the car and drove to Walla Walla today to check out the antique show. Gene found a 2-for-1 coupon for the $6 admission on Facebook. Not only did we find a great little antique show, but as we were rolling into Walla Walla we followed a truck pulling a trailer that was carrying a red "Diamond T" truck and I said to Gene "I'll bet there is also a car show happening alongside the antique show".  And, we followed that Diamond T all the way to the fairgrounds.  I've never, ever seen a Diamond T and this one was a beauty. I should have snapped a photo, huh!  By the way, the photo posted here is one I shot at the very first rest stop right at the turnoff to Prescott.

I bought an awesome cheese/veggie grater at the antique show.  It makes really big grated food and it's one of those "odie but goody" kind of antique items you just can't hardly find anymore. I also bought an antique pastry cutter and along with it I got to talk to a really super nice old lady wearing a pink hat who assured me I was going to make the best pie crusts ever now that I'm an owner of a real pastry cutter. I told her I had been using ... she finished my sentence for me ... a knife and fork as a pastry cutter.

After we left the antique & car show, we decided to hit St. Vincent De Paul's thrift store to see what kind of treasures they had waiting for us. Gene left empty handed but against my own rules, I bought two awesome pair of boots, a red vest and a beautiful navy colored suit. I don't like to buy used shoes but these looked as if they had hardly been worn.  At $3.75 for each pair, I could bend my own rule, right?  We slid over to the Goodwill but found it lacking compared to St. Vincents. We spotted a Thai restaurant and decided to split a meal and had, by far, the worst food we've ever had.  We stopped at Fiesta Food on the way home for an increbile meat sale which filled our freezer and Gene bought me an ice cream cone there that was to die for.

It has been a fabulous day ... so far!  My honey knows how to treat a girl to a great day!

Sheep Herder Lady

She was digging in the trash barrel when we pulled into the parking lot somewhere in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada.  We had stopped to stretch our legs at the beginning of our vacation trip from Yuma, Arizona to Oregon.  While Gene took care of his business and stopped to talk with a tired motorcyclist, I caught her out of the corner of my eye and wondered where she belonged.  I had just filled our Ford Escort with a couple of boxes of groceries for the camping trip, so I took out a bag of fresh red grapes and offered them to her.  She was best described as an old lady, probably in her 70's, with wrinkles so deep they must have had a story.  I can still see her stark, blue eyes but it was her smile that warmed my heart. She said "thank you" and I asked her if there was anything else she might need, offering that I had more fruit if she cared for it.  She told me what she really needed were some coffee grounds ... enough to get her through until her check came.  I offered her a whole unopened can of Yuban but she kindly said no, she didn't need that much, just a couple of scoops. So I found a ziploc and granted her wish.  In return, she told me she had once been a sheep herder. Ah, the wind and sun had made those wrinkles so deep and pronounced on her beautiful face.  She pointed across the highway at a small shack and indicated that's where she lived.   As I said goodbye to sheep herder lady, I noted that her hands were dirty but her nails had pretty pink polish on them.  This was day one of our trip that summer ... I'll never forget that lovely lady.

Ethyl

I don't really understand how the mind works, but I know when I have something rolling around in my head I need to put it on paper or tell it to someone.  Ethyl came to my mind yesterday ~ so here is the story of Ethyl.

When I ended up in Yuma, Arizona in 2001, I met a friend of mom & dad's named Ethyl.  She was their old high school friend and she lived just down the street from us in the Foothills of Yuma.  Ethyl was a wonderful woman with a great laugh, a sparkle in her eyes and a wonderful whiskey voice. She loved everybody and everybody loved her.  She was a fabulous cook, the life of the party and she loved going shopping at the flea markets and Mexico. She was a mother, a grandmother and a good friend to many.

Ethyl died in December, 2002.  She had just made arrangements for me and my aunts Cindy and Glenva and good friend Evie and maybe even Betty (but I can't remember) to go see "The Nutcracker" at the local high school.  Ethyl had never seen "The Nutcracker" and she told me she had wanted to see it her whole life. I was really looking forward to spending time with some of my favorite people.  She died suddenly about a week before the show.   We went anyway ... but with heavy hearts. I thought about Ethyl through the entire show and about how close she came to seeing something that she could have gone to see year after year but never quite made it.

I always think of Ethyl this time of year and the lesson she left me by her sudden death.  Don't wait to do the things you want and can do now.  Use your good china.  Burn your favorite candle.  Go see "The Nutcracker" if you've always wanted to see it.  Really, what are you waiting for?

30 minutes at a time!

This online class is going at a rather fast pace but perhaps all classes do. I haven't taken a class in a long time and I'm having to figure out how to pace myself.  I use a timer to read in blocks of 30 minutes and have discovered I can read a whole chapter in 60 minutes.  It takes me another 30 minutes to complete the homework if it's just one assignment.

I'm finding it challenging to chisel out time for this and other things I want to do. Today I had to skip my morning walk with Gene and Missy to finish up an assignment I have to turn in today.  I'm hoping by the end of this class, I will have a good idea about pacing myself should I decide to take another class.  My friend at work, Becky, has been taking two classes at a time while working full-time.  I'm not sure how she has time for anything else but I'm watching and learning. 

All in all, I'm enjoying this experience so far.  I'll be taking an online test tomorrow morning.  I took one last week and scored an 84% on the test.  I have a trick up my sleeve for this week's test and I can hardly wait to see if it will work.  I'm shooting for a 100%.

Chilly mornings .... or ... what to love about winter!

Summer is now officially over. I had to wear a hoodie this morning on our early morning walk. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. and could see frost from "Missy's" breath the whole walk.  There are some things I love about winter so thought I should list them here for when I start complaining about the cold & darkness, maybe I'll look back on this list for a reminder.

Sweaters:  I love my winter sweaters. My favorite hot pink one is coming out of storage this weekend.
Parties:  there always seems to be some kind of social function about every other week in the winter.
Hot chocolate:  who drinks hot chocolate in the summer?
Chilly mornings:  I love snuggling up to Gene when I crawl into a cold bed. He likes it, too!
Winter food:  I love making soup and chili and bread and cookies and ....

Well, I gotta get back to work now.  Which reminds me ... I love having an "inside" job when the weather is crappy outside. 

Tiredness

Too tired for words. 


End of story.

Dad

Dad and Nancy were over yesterday. I didn't realized my dad had started growing a beard! Geez ... I just saw him in August and he didn't look like this!   He used to grow beards when we lived in Alaska.  One time he went north to work on the pipeline and when he came home he was sporting a much scruffier looking beard than this one.  I think this beard makes him look younger and I really see a resemblance to his brother, Uncle Spike.

When they arrived at our house yesterday, "Missy" went balistic as Nancy had rollers in her hair, covered up with a nice scarf. She has seen Nancy before, but not like that!!  I had to put "Missy" outside for the afternoon. Once Nancy took the rollers out of her hair, she was alright in "Missy's" book.

So .... because this blog is helpful for me to record parts of my life that I sometimes forget, I want to go on record that we played 6 games of Sequence (card game) and Nancy & I partnered up to win two games. I won't mention that there was a lot of table talk between our opponents.

Gene is taking Nancy on the thrift shop circuit today and then he's going to make some of his world famous chicken curry rice for us tonight.   And, maybe a couple of bonus rounds of Sequence.  Game on!

Make Plans ~ Part 2

• So ... yesterday my dad and Nancy left the west side of the state to head over here to chase some sunshine and visit with us before they start their snowbird trek to Arizona.  I received a call from Nancy about 4:30 p.m. and they were stuck in Umatilla, Oregon at the Tesoro station.  Seems when my dad gave the keys to the young man to fill up his diesel motorhome, the gas station jockey filled it with gasoline instead.  Well, technically it didn't get all the way full, only 70 gallons.  Dad had gone inside the station to use the facilities and when he came back out noticed the error.
• Nancy called to say they'd be delayed due to the amount of time it was going to take to pump all the gas out and replace it with diesel.  You see, Oregon has this funky law where you can't pump your own fuel. (Personally, I love driving through Oregon and knowing a person has a job because of this law.)   Putting gas in a diesel rig is a mistake anyone could make if you are young and inexperienced or just plain old having a bad day.  The last I heard from Nancy was about 8:00 p.m. and they were finally rolling down the road towards Tri-Cities. 
• We'll see them today sometime. It's all good.  Tesoro made it right by not letting my dad pay ($331) for the entire tank of diesel fuel they finally pumped in.  Yeah Tesoro!  No harm was done and I'll get to remind my dad and Nancy that it actually "pays" to come visit us.  
• They were laughing about it last night.  What a great attitude!  Stuff happens.

Make Plans But Don't Plan the Results

Yes, that's my motorcycle and my man up there on the back of a tow truck.  We headed out for a little scoot this morning and got about 30 miles out when I ran over a small chunk of wood.  I said to myself "I sure hope that doesn't cause me any problems".  About 5 miles down the road my ride started feeling a little wobbly so I pulled over to find my tire was going flat.  We hobbled back to a gas station and after trying to keep air in it, decided to call roadside assistance. While waiting for them to show up, Gene ran his bike home and brought the car back. When he got back he talked to a motorcycle guy who lives right around the corner from us.  He may have found a new riding buddy. 

Okay, well, being the Pollyanna that I am, here's the upside of plans gone astray.  I did't get hurt.  My bike is still in one piece. It wasn't raining. We met some nice people while waiting at the gas station. We were not in the middle of nowhere. I got home in time to shower and go on to my next plans for the day. 

Gene and I were talking on the way home and the truth is we have always been very lucky with our road mishaps and, trust me, we've had our share. But we also reasoned that we've had more than our share because we spend an inordinate amount of time on wheels ~ tires are bound to go flat or blow.  So, I count this morning as just another experience in adventure that I can tuck under my belt.  The tow truck driver got to chit chat with a nice old guy and we didn't have to pay a dime out of our pocket for the tow home.  Shoot ~ I call that a pretty good day!

Haines, Alaska

I ran into a friend last night who gave me a poster-size photo of Haines, Alaska she had taken in June of this year while she and her husband were there on an Alaskan  motorcycle trip. She'll never know how much that photo means to me.  I sat and looked at the photo last night which seems to be taken from the road where you get off the ferry and head into town.  It's a panoramic and I can almost see the little four-plex where my family lived a short time when I was just starting high school 30+ years ago. To the right of the photo is a clear view of main street which leads down to the boat dock. It's been a super long time since I've been to Haines but this photo takes me right back. Some of my most cherished memories come from those high school days. I don't remember a lot of things but I spent a lot of time walking around Haines with my peeps and I know every inch of that place in my mind. We used to spend a lot of weekend nights at the rec hall (or was it called the teen center?) which had a pool table and was "the place to be" on a Friday night. Before I could drive, my sister and I had to walk everywhere and I'm guessing it was at least a good 2 miles from our house to the pool hall. Sometimes people would pick us up but often we would walk in 2+ feet of snow to get there.
In Haines, everybody knows everybody. I can picture many of the characters from those days and I suppose I was one of them.  My best friend, Lisa, had two brothers and they all took turns working at their parents' hardware store located on the corner of Main and 2nd Street.  I spent a lot of time hanging out on that corner. I had a little crush on Lisa's brother.  He still lives there and I believe he now operates Haisler Hardware. After high school, Lisa and I exchanged letters once or twice a year. She married a local guy and they had 4 children.  Lisa died from breast cancer about 8 or 9 years ago.  She was the most beautiful person, inside and out. I can't think about Haines without thinking of her and the many, many "best" friends I had there.

I moved to Fairbanks, Alaska right after high school.  I had never seen a traffic light nor a one-way street.  Fairbanks might as well have been New York City.  I digress.

My high school friend, Kathy, who lives in Juneau asks me every once in awhile if I miss living in Alaska.  The answer is usually no.  I don't miss the long, dark, cold winters.  I don't miss mosquitoes.  I don't miss over-priced, second-rate fruits and vegetables or expensive milk.  But the truth is, I miss the clean air, mountains, and a way of life that is impossible to explain to anyone who has never lived it.  I miss looking out my window to see moose standing in my yard.  I miss those experiences that are unique to living in a place that a lot of people only dream of visiting.

I'm so happy our friends, Dorothy & Bob, got to take their Alaskan trip.  Thank you, Dorothy.  Your gift of this photo is more precious than you'll ever know.   love, Susan


P.S. This is not the photo she gave me. This is downloaded from the internet.