Timelessness

I never knew what a responsibility it is to start a blog. When I leave it unattended for days on end, my link on my friends blogs report my dereliction with great accuracy. Maybe I am becoming a voyouer, reading everyone elses thoughts but keeping mine to myself. I think it is much more simple - I am speechless.

My life is different now that I am truly between jobs, time seems to disappear in ways it never did when I was busy and focused on work. From my first sip of coffee to finally clearing the counter and going up to take a shower can turn into an hour while I finish the crossword puzzle and maybe even tackle Sudoko. I have a thousand projects that I said I would start and or finish as soon as I had a free minute, but I can't seem to get motivated to do them. Well that's not totally true, I did finally get the drip system installed and the tomatoes and herbs are flourishing. Maybe tomorrow I will write a to-do list in ink.

Grands

Last week I got to visit the grandsons, from youngest to oldest. The oldest is a guitarist in a rock band that has been competing in the local battle of the bands. The middle guy is the family artist and fearless athlete. His skateboard looks like it has been ridden hard and put away wet. Before we arrived, Jason painted a welcome sign on the driveway - it was a great greeting. And both guys tolerated several minutes to Nana questions about the new game they were playing. Very patient and polite gentlemen. Good job Mom!

The baby - well what can you say. At that age they are the center of attention, fun to watch, easily entertained and always ready for something new. I have already started planning the next trip.

Pride

Last week my computer started giving me fits. The wireless connection would not connect, then the wired connection gave up. I was off the grid - at least on my laptop for more than a week. Thank heaven for IPhone. It was truly a pain. I would work on my laptop, transfer files to a thumb drive, hop over to a computer that was working, log on to webmail and then reverse when needed. In the mean time I tried every hint, trick and new drivers that came up on line. No luck. Finally in a fit of frustration I off loaded my data and reformatted the computer.

Now that sounds easy - but in fact it is not. I am still trying to recover some software I downloaded but never have a disc. Anyway, by Tuesday afternoon I was back on the grid. This morning - no internet. At least the wired connection worked. So I go to my trusty Dell site, download another driver and then finally think -- Oh I have a warranty.

After an hour with the tech, it was finally determined that it was hardware failure. New hardware to arrive sometime Monday or Tuesday.

The lesson is that if I wasn't so darn stubborn I would have logged on to Dell when it first when kaput and the problem would have been solved and I would not have gone through reformatting my computer. It would have saved 10 days of aggrevation. I need to remember this - I think there are more applications.

Back to the porch

Last week I went up to visit my youngest grandson - and oh yes his parents - and got to see my mother, sister, son & wife and got to see my daughter's house and grandsons. It was a wonderful but exhausting week. It is impossible to capture in pictures how great it is to be lured out of bed and down for coffee by the sweet sounds of an 11th month old chattering.

I wish they would invent a transporter so I could wisk between home and there. Pictures to come!

Never enough time

I am heading out for Baltimore on Sunday to visit family. Most of my family is in the Baltimore/Washington area so staying with my daughter gives me a great home base. I have just started sending out feelers to see who might be around and interested in lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks..... My philosophy is most everyone has busy lives with their own jobs, friends and family and commitments that are made too far out frequently have to be adjusted to meet more pressing needs. I hope this way I can be the one to adjust and fit into a spot in their schedule. I love where I live but I miss seeing everyone without it being a major scheduling event.

The good news is I get to put up my feet and play with Ashby. Maybe he will take me swimming or at least for a walk to the cupcake store.

It's too quiet!

The last of the measuring cups have been washed and returned to the drawer, the blinds lowered again within reach of little fingers and lamp cords casually left in plain view - it is to quiet here.

I thought I had done a pretty good job of baby proofing the house. Things on the bottom shelves were moved up, dog toys were stashed, floor vaccumed in preparation for the arrival of the grandbaby. Within minutes he had identified every thing fun. First was the floor key for the gas fireplace cut off. It is largely decorative and the gas has been off at the safety valve since May, but the key is very interesting. Then on to the window blinds. No dangling cords (I had checked that out) but the wooden blinds were great to chew on, hide behind or just pull. For a week it looked as if I was doing spring cleaning with the blinds at half mast. But it did make it easier for him to hold on to the window sills and look out. And then, what did he spot around a corner in a dark hallway - the dog's water bowl. Off like the speed of light. Silly me thought he was just going into the kitchen but with the fast hands of a Vegas dealer he grabbed the rim and voila water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Luckily for the dog there is a water bowl in the upstairs bathroom and out on the porch so he had other resources.
Life is much more interesting when I see it through the eyes of a 10 month old. Tiny pieces of banana can be hidden under my fingers on the tray and discovered by little fingers. Puffies generate arm and leg waving in anticipation. Last night's dinner was no where near as much fun as dinner with Ashby. Great food, good friends, but no real anticipation or unguarded delight. Guess I need to start packing to go visit his world.