Watch Out for the Potholes

Every morning I go to work driving on Southwest Parkway. I turn right onto Maplewood, go on to Kemp, turn right again. Then into Parker Square. I park far away from the office. Its the only exercise I get. In the evening, I just reverse this route. It is a good thing for me to write this down. If I should forget where I am going, and if I can get to a computer, I can find my way home.

Like a lot of streets in any town, Maplewood has more than its fair share of potholes. After driving on it for a long time, I know where the bad ones are. I know when one has been fixed and I know when to drive really close to the curb or as close to the middle stripe as possible in order to avoid the "sinking"of at least one of the tires. Mate isn't aware that I know this. He spends a lot of time when he is with me as I drive on Maplewood, making a sound as if he is drinking through a straw and has reached the bottom of the glass. If you are a wife and have driven with your Mate in the car, you know this sound.

Then a new pothole appears and I don't know where to go.

Occurs to me that life is a lot like Maplewood Boulevard. Lined with potholes. Age and experience have taught me where most of them are, and where to go to miss them. But I am still learning. There are a lot of potholes I miss just because I never went that way. Those are easy to avoid. Personally I don't feel I get any points for missing those that I have avoided for years and that don't tempt me to sink.

Even at my age I hit potholes I didn't know existed.. I feel the tire clunk and hear Mate sip through the straw. The journey to Heaven has been lined with potholes. However, for this trip heading toward eternity, He left me an Advocate to guide me either close to the curb or close to the center stripe. If I can remember to rely on what I know is true and if I ask for guidance, I will find my flock of sheep and more importantly my Shepherd. Please meet my Shepherd. You can find him in the Book. He 's always adding new sheep to the flock. Its a wonderful journey. I promise. But don't rely on me or anyone else you know. Rely on the One that made the promise.

Shopping, Stuff, Shower Curtains

I missed the shopping gene. Never have liked to shop. Only go when I have run out of clothes or have upped a size. More often upped a size than out. Tend to have 5 or 6 outfits and don't change around. Oh sometime I think I would like to have more clothes, but then I realize I would actually have to go inside a store to buy them. Could order, but it never is just right and then I never get around to sending it back. thats why most of my orders go to my Church's work with feeding and clothing the under privileged. So ordering has a purpose.

Found a purse I liked going on about four years ago. Friend had one, I coveted it, so when she went to a craft show she got me one. They are all made by a lady who patented the pattern but only sells them at "craft shows". My friend picked out the material, which is different in every purse. She is sort of like my sister. She would always know what I like. Even though the material is definitely winter (which we don't have very long here in this part of Texas) I have carried that purse every day since I put my "stuff" in it. They don't wear out. Winter,Spring, Summer, Fall.

Now to be truthful, here in North Central Texas we only have one day of Spring and one day of Fall. Those are the two day you can drive a convertible with the top down, or sit outside and eat. The rest of the time its either Winter or Summer.

I like this purse so much that I actually went with my sister to a "craft show" and bought 3 of them and gave them for gifts. It was during the winter and I didn't see the need to get me another one. I found out a long time ago that a Craft show only has "stuff" for sale. I don't do "stuff" Criteria for anything I buy. "If it has to be dusted, I don't need it". Life is simple, My sweet daughter gave me a purse for Christmas which is so pretty. I put my "stuff" in it. Didn't fit. She wants so badly to be able to buy me something. I realize its not easy.

My friend and I have made a bargain. the next craft show she will get me a different same purse.

When we moved back here from East Texas ten years or so ago, I had to put up a shower curtain. Could not find one I liked. Finally one day at Lowes (not where I would normally go to buy a shower curtain) while waiting on Mate to buy a nail or something, I noticed they had shower curtains. Saw one I like. Has shells on it. Liked the color. Reasonable. Bought it. Thats how I shop. Put it up. Mate liked it. Said it looked familiar. We both remembered that it was the one we had in East Texas for 7 years, I have since replaced it with one just like it. My Rules for Living book says I should not fool with something I like or something that fits.

Back before women began to wear pants, I did shop. Found a dress I liked. Thought it looked great on me. They had it in a fushia and blue. I bought both of them. Wore one one week and the other the next. It worked. Found a skirt that I liked at Macys in Tyler, Texas. I bought one in every color they had. Just a simple straight skirt. No one noticed they were all alike. Don't like change much. Those shopping trips were when I discovered I could live without change. Now there is one exception to that. I am the one with the remote control. I don't enjoy much television but do love to click. Married to mate almost 57 years. Kept the same children, grandchildren and sister all these years. Its worked out pretty well for me. Have the same Church family for over fifty years. Been a Democrat all my life. Kept the same job for thirty years before retiring and moving to East Texas to a different job. Lived in the same house for 30 years . I really don't have an exciting life but I like it this way. I believe the True Excitement is yet to come.

Cleaning, Cooking, Calamity

I was not born to be a housewife. I still feel my calling was to be a cabaret singer with fish net stockings. A lot of people miss their calling in life.

Cleaning was a mystery. It never stayed done. I do like things clean however and somehow managed to master it. 57 years ago most men did nothing in the house. I went to work the same hours Mate did, but was not finished when I came home. There was cleaning and washing and ironing and all those things to be done. I invite you to read the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs. Written by Soloman. (a man) Keep in mind that Soloman was the most wealthy man that ever lived. He had, oh I have forgotten how many wives. I prefer to think that the "good wife" he writes about is a composite. Surely even back then if that was a single woman he left out the part about her having a nervous breakdown.

To his credit, when Mate got over that last chapter of Proverbs and found out it was okay for him to pitch in and not just sit in the gate, he did it and did it well.

Cleaning, though never ending, was not my main problem. It was Cooking. With a capital C.

I had never learned to Cook. My sister had the grandmother that taught her to cook. Oh what a great country cook she was. She could bake, stew, broil, saute, braise, poach and steam, as long as it was rolled in flour and fried in lard.

My grandmother........ more fun but alas no cooking. We ate sandwiches, made with store bought bread and pimento cheese and those orange marshmallow peanuts. She loved those and candy corn. No wonder we were soul mates.

Mate loved chicken and dumplings. A good old southern dish. I asked his grandmother how to make them. Been married nearly 57 years and have never owned a cook book. With all that cooking and cleaning and working outside the home when on earth would there have been time to read a cookbook? I do have a phone book and can call and order take out. She neglected to tell me that the broth should be boiling before you put in one of these lumps of dough that was yucky and stuck to your hands. I put several lumps in while it was just heating. Took it a long time to cook and it was one very large dumpling. Covered the entire pan. I only did it one time.

Another was Lasagna. We didn't eat Italian in Greer County. Don't remember where I first ate it, but thought it was the absolute best food I had ever tasted. Company coming. Went to the store found lasagna noodles, read the receipe on the box. In the Country you cook a LOT. Never do you want to come up short. I bought 3 boxes of noodles for four people. Ran out of pans, had the sink full. First time Mate ever got clever about my cooking. He went to the garage, came back with a shovel and said he was going out to the yard and bury that thing.

Later in life we had a garbage disposal. Still to this day my favorite appliance. Company again. Don't remember what I cooked but Mate went to the bathroom, came back with alka seltzer tablets and threw them in the disposal. Told the company that he got to take them every night and he felt the garbage disposal was entitled.

Mate and I stuck it out. I can put a pretty good meal on the table. I still don't enjoy it if there are just the two of us. I do like cooking for a big bunch because then you can revert to your upbringing and cook a lot.

We have a grandson in California. He loves breakfast and I love cooking it for him. When he is here I fix bacon, eggs, especially hash browns and cream gravy. And I fix it when we visit them. Once he told me he would sure like to have some more of that sauce. I explained that if you live in the South, cream gravy is not a sauce, its one of the food groups.

Word Of The Day

The Family began doing Word of the Day a year or so ago when one of the nieces just sent out an email giving us a 'word of the day', which we called "wod", and seeing who could come up with the definition first. What a rowdy bunch we are. It got fierce, it was competitive it was unfair! And still we kept it up for about a year. We do not let go easily. Not of games, not of beliefs and not of preaching to each other, over and over and over as Mate likes to say. It takes us a while to get the point. The California family was completely out of the loop, two hours time difference. Niece in Arizona actually sent the word, and who ever knows what time it is there. Then there was the teacher in Oklahoma who left for work early and complained of the unfairness of it all. Luckily for all of us, except California, Arizona got up early. I will always believe that Ohio niece sat right on the computer ready to pounce and it became quite a contest with her mother in law (my sister) and that niece and then the niece just down the road. We got down to comparing the time set on our computers. Anything to gain an edge. Can you imagine how it would be if we had a large family? Glory Be! Mate discovered the "wod" website. He, who does not come to the computer early in the day, joined in. (Mate is nothing if not a fierce competitor). He downloaded the "wod" and waited on the computer in the morning.

We are simple folk. It doesn't take much to make us happy. We actually started another generation onto "wod". Great niece who then complained because she had an early college class and missed two days a week of "wod". Finally it got so competitive that Arizona just stopped.

Now thats not the actual reason. Facebook came into our lives. Not all the family indulges and therefore, it appears that it has broadened our horizons individually, but it has taken a toll on our Family togetherness.

We still email. Its Saturday morning as I write this. One of my favorite days of the week. Not because I have a day off, but because it is the day that we get the weekly news from the Oklahoma Niece. I look forward to it all week. I love the lives of my Family. It may be just what they had for dinner, or something a child said in school. We went through the building of a house in Oklahoma. We have gone through I don't know how many remodels in Arizona, we have taken college exams with Tennessee. We have learned about the Methodist from the Niece down the road (not an easy task for the rest of the Church of Christ family) . And most importantly, we wept and prayed when Ohio nephew was in the middle East. We have rejoiced that Ohio family is back, living in the country and planting crops and raising chickens. Its not the "content" of the email, its the "comfort" in knowing that I am a part of the DNA of this weird bunch of connected people. Even the DNA of those who joined by marriage lives on in offsprings.

I love my friends. Would not want my life without them. But Family is..... well you understand. Facebook is nice, but personally, I would rather have "wod" back.

Branded

I believe I was a junior, maybe a senior, in high school, when we got our first television set. Black and white Emerson. Guess most people can remember the brand because it was a momentous occasion and besides there were not too many brands around as I recall. Sylvania, RCA Victor, General Electric are some that come to mind. In fact I don't think there were many brands of anything back then. Our refrigerator is still called a Frigidaire. (apologies to Kenmore). The washer is still called a Whirlpool. (apology to GE), you probably do the same thing. If we go get a drink we still say "lets go get a Coke". (we are not inclined to say lets go get a beer in my family) When I wipe a tear from my eye I use a Kleenex. (it may be a Puff) If I clean my windows, I use Windex, no matter what the brand. You can name many of the same things. We all do it. Being branded is a big thing.

Things like people have a hard time shaking a name. If you were a rebel rouser when you were young, the people that knew you then will always remember that. No matter you changed. Its taken me all these years to understand what my granddad tried to teach me about how to live my life. Truth be told, its taken me a lot of years to shake rebel rouser. People are slower to forgive the transgressions of your youth and think differently of you than God is. Wait around however, they will if you try. I am a living testament to that.

Ding Dongs, Demons, Diets

Two person in Family are thin. A niece lives in Tennessee and actually likes salad with fat free dressing, broiled chicken, whole wheat toast without butter and for a treat low fat pudding, The other is her Dad, who is thin because of genetics. He got it from his Dad. My sister is "petite", but admittedly has to keep working at it, I have a grandson who lost a lot of weight. Fell in love at a late age, she did not and left causing big time loss, A broken heart works wonders, I never had one. Niece would never eat a Ding Dong. She would think it was bad for her. Her dad and my grandson would eat one out of the package. They have the ability to stare temptation in the face and would think because there are two in a package they were meant to be eaten on different days. I on the other hand know better. Rest of the family, like most people I know have to work at it constantly.

Ding Dongs, Hostess Cakes greatest concoction. Shaped like a hockey puck, soft cake, a creamy filling which was made by angels. Frosted all over with chocolate that you can easily eat off the whole thing before attacking the cake. Packaged two inside an easily opened wrap. (I have noticed that things that are good for me are hard to get into, other things not so much)

Some persons have demons, those little men with black suits, pitchforks and long tails that sit on your shoulder and whisper in your ear. We all have them, Some are more active than others. They are assigned to you depending on what your weakness is. I don't believe God assigned them. I believe the Demon with a capital"D" did so. Its a test. One you sometimes take using a "red" pencil.

This of course adds up to diets. Atkins, South Beach, Mayo Clinic 3 day Diet, Dolly Partain Soup, Spinach and Eggs, Grapefruit, Nurti System, Jenny Craig, Richard Simmons, Bananas and Butter Milk. My pesonal favorite, "The 5 Meal a Day Diet."

My personal demon whispers things like "its a special day", "no need to keep that little bit, just eat it", don't waste food". Sometime he whispers loud and you may have heard him. He's sneaky. I personally know that all the diets will work, or at least as long as you stay with them. Its the day you go off....then here comes the exercise equipment. We have bought it all in our time. Not any more, we learned better a long time ago. There are other ways to throw money away. I won't even watch Chuck Norris in a TV program. I'm afraid he will burst into infomercial. The rowing machine sits against the wall covered in ivy. Makes a wonderful conversation starter. "what a unique planter!" The treadmill has a great handle; keep it in the laundry room for hanging clothes out of the dryer. We were even talked into buying, of all things, A STEP. We bought a STEP. Can you imagine. Why didn't we just stack some of those diet books we have never completely read and step on those. I have never known anyone who actually read every page of a diet book. I do know persons who have read every page of the Bible. The Bible readers are much better off.

Whoops, I don't have time to finish this. Weight Watchers starts in ten minutes!

Out of Place

I didn't see a friend at Church. She sat somewhere else. She was for all intents and purposes "out of place" When you get a certain age, its not good for things or people to be "out of place". When we worked with our little ones we taught them in place, not "out of place". Everyone I know sang the alphabet song. You certainly did not teach them A, B, D, F, W, K, Y. that would have been "out of place". We taught them in place. As they progressed we began to show them that a "W" was still a "W" no matter what place it was in. That is called growing or maturing. Whoops, we get older and "out of place" won't cut it anymore.

At our office, Tammy, who is way younger, rearranged the supply cabinet. My friend, who is older but not as old, and I could not find anything. Things were "out of place". We have quietly shifted them back to their place. She hasn't noticed. After all, Tammy isn't old enough yet to realize something is "out of place".

Personally I think one of the main differences in being older (do you notice I never refer to it as being old, just older) is the "out of place" syndrome. When I was young, seems as if I was always wanting change. Had to have a new shower curtain. Needed a change. Had to have a new pair of shoes. Needed a change. Had to have a newer car. Needed a change. Moved things around in the house. Wanted them in a different place.

Mate is the world's worse. He can't dress if something is out of place. Called to me the other morning wanting to know where his belt was. It was on a different hook, "out of place". If I hadn't been home, Mate's pants might have fallen down.

Being older seems to make me content. I like things and people where they should be. I would probably be one of those older ladies who would ask you to move if you were in my place. But nicely. In a big congregation when you can't see all that well far off, people shouldn't get "out of place". I can't find them. I need to be able to identify each one of the flock of sheep I belong with so I don't lose sight of the Shepherd.