Observations

[Judy Harder]

You do mean "NOSY!" don't you. what a fantastic day you all had. I got to watch it rain and rain some more.
I did enjoy it as it wasn't white stuff.......but enough all ready. I need sunshine...........and warmth.

[Diane Amberg]

Yeah, nosy me wants to know too! Judy your rain is going to drown out our weekend I think. Al just raked out and seeded where the trench for the gas line for our gas fire place was put in. Gentle rain, good.  Flooding rain, bad.

[Ms Bear]

We are all waiting to here where you are going to eat. 

Sometimes I miss Southern California so I do enjoy hearing about it.

[larryJ]

Well, stand by...........We don't get the girls on Thursday and when they came this morning, there wasn't time to ask before the oldest had to go to school...........and, of course, being somewhat senile, I forgot to ask on the way to school.  But I will find out.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Sorry, I didn't get around to answering about the dinner.  The answer is..........I don't know.........I wasn't told...........I didn't ask.

On to today.........

Observation:  As my wife has problems with her back and would rather I do the grocery shopping, it is my job to do just that.  I don't mind.  I love to grocery shop.  I make a list and go to the store and buy what is on the list and maybe one or two items that aren't on the list.  In other words, I am in the store, get my things, and get the heck out.  I don't dally.

Today, I was reminded why I like to go to the store by myself.  The cleaning crew came to do the house and we had to leave to be out of the way.  So we left and ran a couple of errands, then off to Costco.  My wife loves to talk......in person.......on the phone.......to anybody, anywhere, anytime. 

We arrived in the parking lot at Costco and while she was getting out of the car, another couple our age parked next to us.  The lady next to us got out of her car and my wife engaged her in conversation, mainly asking if she knew if the store had motorized shopping carts (we had not been to this store as it is new).  The lady didn't know, but there was a ten minute conversation about it.  Ten minutes!  While shopping she managed to discuss eye problems with another woman who was wearing an eye patch.  My wife had her left eye removed five years ago.  Twenty minutes about eye problems!  This particular store has cooled rooms for the produce and dairy products.......too cold for her to go in so I go in and select what she wants............then I go back and get something different because she changed her mind.  Freezing my buns off!  We cruised each and every aisle even though there was nothing on that aisle that we even remotely needed.  I am walking towards the check stands after she has decided we have what we need and I don't hear the electric cart behind me so I turn to look and she is engaged in a conversation with a Chinese lady.  While I don't know what the conversation was about, I am sure our Chinese daughter-in-law was part of it.  We leave the store after about two hours and head to a restaurant for a late lunch which should take 30 minutes tops.  We now have a new "best friend" by the name of Roxie who is the waitress and we know pretty much her entire life history.  Lunch took 60 minutes.  Then a stop at the local hardware store for some plants and grass seed.  In the garden section, she sees an almost four year old girl crying and her daddy shopping for plants.  The girl is crying for Mommy, over and over.  She decides that she should talk to the young lady to make sure that she is not being kidnapped or abused.  She does this diplomatically, talking to the father about how old the girl is, etc.  Once she is sure nothing is going on, she leaves after the girl calms down.  15 minutes gone.  She proceeds to pick out the flowers she wants and the grass seed, etc. and then we leave the store.  We arrive home 6 hours after we left.  6 hours!  I would have accomplished all this in less than 3 hours. 

Bitching?  Nah, she is who she is and we have been together for a long time.  I wouldn't change a thing about her.  I just don't want to take her with me when I go shopping. 

Oh yeah...........Once home her back pain got worse the minute we got in the house and it was left to me to bring everything in from the car. 

Oh yeah...........While she was laying on the bed doing stretching exercises, I put everything away. 

Oh yeah...........sheesh.....

Larryj

[Wilma]

Larry, I am ashamed of you.  One of the joys of life is shopping and conversing with the other shoppers.  If you don't believe me, just ask my dear departed mother.  I used to think that she talked to anyone and everyone and taking her shopping was an all day job.  But now, in my newly acquired old age and wisdom, I realize that this was almost the only social occasion that she had.  Thank goodness that when I was her chauffeur and assistant, I had all day.

Now, in my newly acquired old age and disability, I have a daughter that can do the same for me.  And I do enjoy our sojourn to the grocery store.  I give her the list, then I go my merry way.  I pick up whatever I think of that isn't on the list.  I challenge the old men on their motorized scooters to a race.  I demonstrate to them my wheelies and ask them if they can do that.  Everybody smiles at me, and we exchange a few words.  Lots of help is offered, sometimes by me.  But alas, it all ends too soon.  My daughter is a whirlwind shopper.  She gets what is on the list and is ready to go.  Hopefully, I can avoid her for a moment longer by hanging out in the candy section.  But she always finds me.  Thank goodness for daughters.  I don't know what I would do without mine.

[larryJ]

I, too, have great respect and admiration for the children that I have, Wilma, and they are ready to help out in a moment's notice.

My observation above was meant to be a "tongue in cheek" kind of observation.  I fully realize that what you said about social encounters is very true.  However, if my wife wanted social encounters, she would go shopping by herself.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks Larry for the great entertainment this morning. I enjoy shopping that way too. Even in the big stores I usually see someone I know and enjoy talking to people I don't know too. In our closest farmers' market there are oodles of Spanish, middle eastern, oriental and Amish foods, some of which I don't know what they are or what to do with them. So I ask.
I've learned about banana flowers, cooking goat (sorry Steve,) the difference in the many kinds of tofu, how to use the many kinds of bok choy and all it's relatives and the many kinds of egg plant they carry. I like jack fruit, but I'm chicken to try the durian. I can make really great stir fry now because they have all the ingredients for many different kinds and about 10 different kinds of rice and 8 different kinds of oriental noodles and piles of various peppers. It's really been fun. Shoot ,now I'm hungry.

[Ms Bear]

My husband used to do most of our grocery shopping, he liked to go everyday.  Me, I am a once a month shopper and run in for milk, etc when I run out.  He had to read every label, compare prices and talk to everybody he knew and that was the whole town.   Now that he is gone and my mother has passed away too grocery shopping isn't very exciting.

I do like stir fry and really enjoy bean sprouts in it but hardly ever find them here.  Wait till I go 20 miles south to another Wal-Mart to get them.

It is really nice here today, they are playing the Shell Houston Open Golf game and I am watching it.  We had rain Thursday so this nice weather today is really a treat, it usually rains everyday of the Shell Open.  They showed a large turtle making it's way across the course to some water, I was late turning it on so I don't know how long they had watched it.

[larryJ]

More on my wife talking to people...........(Careful, I might start doing Henny Youngman jokes..........)

She spends a considerable amount of time on the phone.  These are social calls 90 percent of the time with the other 10 percent handling transactions of some kind.  Before I get into trouble with the forum ladies, mind you, I am not complaining, this is merely an..

Observation.........

In these days, when almost everyone has caller ID, I sometimes wonder how many of her calls go unanswered because the other person sees who is calling and cringes and doesn't answer.  Or, seeing who is calling and doesn't have the time for what is going to be a long conversation.  Many times when she calls one of our children, who are working and very busy, the call goes to voice mail.  I sometimes wonder, again because of caller ID, if they are just not in the mood or have the time to talk to MOM.  When I make a phone call, it is limited in time and to the point.  I don't make or receive social calls much.  Even if one of my children calls me it is usually because they want something such as babysitting or quick information.  Rarely do they call me just to see what is going on in my world.  They don't need to, because they get all that from calls with their mother.

Another observation about this:  I've noticed over the many years that my wife talks to a small circle of people and that circle changes much like the seasons.  We have a neighbor who lives on the street behind us and she and my wife have been friends for over 30 years.  They used to talk daily.  Then it slowly ebbed and I am pretty sure they have not talked on the phone for a very long time.  She used to spend a great deal of time talking to her first cousin on the phone.  That cousin came to California and moved in with us.  I have no problem with that as she is a very wonderful person and besides, it is probably cheaper to feed her than pay for any extra use of the phone.  (just joking, we have unlimited long distance.)  Then there is another couple.......the husband and I worked together during my whole career at the paper and the wife and my wife became best friends.  "Joe" retired before I did and he used to come by for brief visits and his wife and my wife talked at least once a week.  That has stopped.  Don't know why.  And, sadly, it just isn't that important.  Is that why someone is dropped off the calling list because asking about their daily lives or them asking about ours just not that important anymore?  Interesting thought.  More interesting is that one of these days, either he or she (or one of us) will pick up a phone and talk and it will be like the same old way it was.............maybe like they, or we, were out of the country on a vacation or something.

Then there are those people who she talks to maybe six times a year.  Again, these are long conversations which pretty much are just to catch up on what that person has been doing, etc.  I wonder.......does the other person get off the phone and go "whew! glad that's over.  Won't have to talk to her again for awhile."  Of course, there are those with whom she leaves voice mails and they don't return her calls.  This signifies that this person is no longer available for phone conversations and is "dropped" from the list. In her mind, she has to move on to people who are willing to enjoy a phone conversation with her and there are many of those. 

All of this has to do with time.  In my post above about shopping, time was mentioned as a factor in why I would rather shop alone.  As we are both retired and other than taking care of our granddaughters a few days a week, we have lots of time to do the things we want to do.  Mine is my genealogy hobby and computers and hers is watching TV and..............talking on the phone.

She once came out of her cave (bedroom) and, not in a good mood, complained that I spent too much time searching for "dead people" and playing games on the computer.  Then she returned to the bedroom and picked up the phone and began a two hour conversation with one of her friends.  I mistakenly pointed that out to her later on.  Bad move.  However, we have both come to our senses and realized that it is okay to "waste" our time doing what we want to do, whether it is separate or together and enjoy that time appropriately.  There is a time and place for everything.  Managing it is the key to a happy environment.

Don't ya just hate when I get so philosophical in the early morning? 

Life is good.

Larry