Visiting Elderly Ladies

I warned you that I might not do as well at this as I had envisioned. The whole idea behind having a blog is probably that you keep it updated fairly regularly. There is stuff happening everyday which warrants some thought I would say. Well it wasn't like I didn't know myself. The day will come when a person can probably speak and it will be typed somewhere remotely or even thought and then typed somewhere. Scary shit wouldn't you say?
Truthfully, there is always something somewhere or something that makes me think,I really should take the time to write these thoughts down. Why not do it then? Something else always pushes the time aside. But enough whining about what I can and can't get done.
Yesterday and today I visited with some older folks that are members of the church I attend here in Z-town. One of our pastors is away and I volunteered to help out by making these visits. A good step for me, because sometimes I say I'm going to do something and I actually just kind of let the idea fade away. This time I followed through. I visited 3 women. The youngest was 82. She remembered me from years ago when she was able to attend church. She asked about Ms K and the G-man. She knew that I had retired and asked all kinds of questions as to what I was doing now. I kept thinking to myself, I sincerely hope I can remember as much at that age. Sadly I know that I won't, because I have a hard time now remembering what I did earlier in the week. Ask me about the first of the month and it's all gone!!
Today I visited with a lady who is 101. She will be 102 the end of Dec. She is living in her own home, fixes her own meals and gets around quite well with her walker. She has lived in Z-town since age 9. She was not familiar with my name so I had to give her a background on where I grew up and such. She proceeded to tell me about her sons and grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had very strong opinions on how children are being raised today. Particularly troubling for her was the fact that the moms are working and not raising their children. They think somebody else is doing it and nobody is doing it. It bothered her a great deal. And another thing that irked her is that they(kids today) are not taught to save their money. They have to spend,spend, spend. That's why we are in the mess we are in! What could I say? She has a point about the money. The mothers working, well......that's another issue. I did so enjoy listening to her and relating some of her history. I asked her what invention or change she thought had influenced or changed the world in her lifetime and she thought it was electricity. Again, sharp as a tack. Limited vision but surprisingly good hearing. But then I have a loud voice so that helps.
And finally lady # 3 I visited at the nursing home. She it turns out is 96. Is blind but again, decent hearing. She told me about her daughter and grandchildren. We talked about the president having visited our town and the excitement that brought. Again, had to give a personal history. She, it turns out, is of German heritage as am I so that was nice. Of course in all visits, they related their health histories but not to the extreme. This last lady said that it was hard sometimes to face each day because all those she knew have died. That kind of made me feel sad. She too had ideas on kids today but not quite as strong as the previous.She was definitely against the war and thought there were just too many people in the world and that we lived too long. That comment prompted the previous on her friends and family dying and having few left. She felt the change that was significant was the technology. Because of that, the post offices will close! Needless to say in all these cases the time went quickly. My oh my, it was a pleasure to listen to them.
With these visits then, one can be reflective. Have I lived a decent life? Have I made my contributions? When I am that age, will I be up on current affairs? Will I still be with it? Will I be able to carry on a decent conversation? Of course we can't see into the future. We just have to do the best we can right now and try to store those memories so they can be told again...someday. I'm also banking on the fact that I have friends and family that will visit me and remember to keep me a part of the human race. My goal with all of this is to visit these ladies again and to keep doing puzzles and such to keep my mind sharp. The history these ladies had and told was amazing. We should all be so blessed to have it together that long. I'm banking on it!! WL

Pizza Night on the Farm

Just returned from a very nice evenings with friends. We drove to Stockholm, WI to have "Pizza on the Farm". What's the big deal you say. The answer my dear friends is "atmosphere". This place is probably only known because of word of mouth. No, I think there may have been something in a paper somewhere about it. But really, you take some county roads that wander up above Stockholm, they turn to gravel and then to the farm. What is unique about the place is that they cook the pizzas in these 3, I think there were, brick ovens. You get there early and claim a spot to set up your place to eat. You put down a blanket or table, chairs, whatever you feel like. You bring all your own drinks, utensils, whatever you want for the meal. Then you order your pizzas. Depending on the crowd you wait anywhere from 30" or more. Get the food and then eat with your friends, drink your beverage and enjoy the out of doors. Today the terrible heat had dissipated and there were no mosquitoes. Friend Dave had ordered so I never really saw what the options were. The pizzas were great. One had lots of veggies on it, spinach, peppers, onions and beets. There were some other veggies on it too I think. Boy oh boy were they good. All of them...good. Oh, did I mention how good everything was??!! I can tell you though they are not cheap. 20+/ pizza but worth  it I would say.  This place is only open on Tues. from 4:30 - 8. And they do it every Tues. year round. We talked about doing it in the winter. Wouldn't that be interesting?
Baby Prince returned from the Boundary Waters after having gone with the youth from the church. He was a chaperone. From how he talked and talked, he had a great time. Caught lots of fish, had some nice young men in his group. I asked him what his favorite times were and he went on to say, "Skipping rocks. I could skip rocks for a long time. I skipped rocks every night that I could. I just love skipping rocks." I can tell you that he learned from the best, me that is. I too love skipping rocks.Whenever we camped we found rocks to skip and he always tried and eventually did beat me for the number of skips. So much fun. It takes time to be a good rock skipper, that I can tell you!! The other favorite part was the fishing, catching so many and just having that thrill. He told a story of a HUGE one that got away....or so he claims. I love listening to him talk about his adventures. He got home on Sat, so Ms AJ of course beat feet out here to see him. We had a nice meal, good wine and good conversation.
Thank goodness the heat has let up because Ms K and I are going to cut some trees for some friends tomorrow. It shouldn't take too long. We're planning to get an early start. So for this week I'm living up to being a Lady in the Woods. Always love starting the chainsaw. Love the smell of cut wood. Gotta stop and just take a deep breath. Crazy I know.
Other goings on. I'm getting some produce from my garden but not like it should. In particular I have thick, thick, bushy, string beans, but have only harvested a small portion. I'm starting to think it's related to honey bees and their demise. I don't know, but things aren't producing like they should. Lots of blossoms but no fruit. Same story for the cucumbers. My grass on the other hand keeps on going. Need to mow again.
Tonight is one of those nights where I could probably go on and on but I'd better wrap it up. Let this pizza and beer wear off. BP called just to say hey. I love it when he does that. Well, I'm off to the couch to watch the Twins get beat and then to the bed. Sweet dreams all....WL