Can you believe it! We are back! Back in our winter home, in sunny Florida, although it is not sunny right now. It’s windy and only 70 degrees on a November afternoon and we are waiting on a tropical storm that has decided to come and visit us.
We have batched down the hatches, put away anything that is loose, and decided to wait it out right here in our home, hoping it won’t get too stormy. Having missed an earlier hurricane this year while we were still in Michigan, we were somewhat surprised to hear that the new storm is headed straight for us. By now we would be concerned about snow that will be forming up north.
But no. Here we are and it is so good to be here. This is the 11th year since we started heading south whenever the cold winds started blowing. And it has been a hectic year, illness and Covid attacked us, and yet we survived and flew on a big silver airplane to our destination.
But it always takes a while to adjust to all of the little things. Nothing seems to be put in its logical place anymore. I find myself looking for my favorite pan or dish and oops, suddenly I realize, no that is up north. When you pack up your essentials in two suitcases and two duffle bags and a carryon, and this is what you have for five months, you have to learn how to cope with it. And it is always good to have the quick service of Amazon delivering right to our door. We can do pickup at Walmart so easily. It is just amazing how many people use the pickup service here. We parked in number 18 this week because it was so busy. Up north it is more lightly used.
As a younger person I never could have imagined living our golden years in the way that we do now. Truly I have been blessed by my husband, our family, our friends, and of course by my IPad so that I can write. Life feels really great right now. See you all soon!

Fall has always been a special time of the year for me. When September rolls around the air actually begins to change, my spirit begins to rise, and I feel as if a new season and attitude has begun. In the early morning as I rise and head for my easy chair, carrying my newly made coffee carefully, I notice that it is getting light later and later each day. Lights need to be turned on in order to see my way clearly.

Fall always meant school to me. Books were my best friend. it was an ongoing disagreement between my mother and me as to how much time I spent reading. She didn’t mind me reading, that wasn’t it, but she did mind it happening when there were other things that needed doing. And reading all of the cereal boxes propped up along side of my cereal bowl instead of speaking really annoyed her. Reading my book while I was ironing pillowcases was another no no.

But getting caught reading with the family flashlight under the covers at night when she thought I was fast asleep was probably the one that got me grounded the most of all. We had a streetlight on a corner near my bedroom window and I would prop up my book there. Like I say, books were my best friend.

Fortunately I had cousins who loved to read also. We all begged for books for our birthdays, and traded them back and forth with each other. Memories of good times with each other still abide after so many years. There was no tv at that time, we couldn’t do anything on Sunday except church or a ride in our car. We did go for a lot of rides, to the lake, or to look at farmland in the country. And in September we went for color tours as the leaves turned in a brilliant fashion.

So here I am, it is September 10, 2021, it is bright and beautiful and I am still reading, probably more than anything else in my life. Hope you have enjoyed some reminiscing with me of another time and place. A long time ago someone asked me to describe myself, maybe 40 years ago or more, and i answered, ”I am a reader.” And now I can say, ”I am a writer.” what more can I say?

After reading “Still September” again this morning, it is about time for me to renew my spirits, thank about something pretty or fun to do, and write about the new pleasures showing up in my life! Looking back, I am happy that I survived September, but I don’t need to go thru that again for a while!
BECAUSE great things are happening or about to. I know that, it’s all in the mind, right, but my mind has been lifted up. The first thing is that three great older gentlemen, sent from a local store, have just installed our new living room carpet, hauled off the worn out one, and it feels so good on bare feet when I get up in the morning. It is soft and very plush and just beautiful. The old one was here when we bought the house ten years ago.
The second thing is that we did pickup at Walmart this morning and I’m back home with everything all put away. The young people loading our car are always friendly and helpful.
The third thing is that my old watch quit on Thursday, but on Friday Amazon showed up with my new one, a Timex, in my driveway, and I had enough points from a credit card to get it for free!
And I saved the best for last. On Wednesday, at 10:45 am, we are going to get our first COVID vaccine shot, right here in our park, in our car. There are a lot of older people waiting here in Florida, so I was happy to get the phone call. It has been quite a winter, colder than usual down here, but today it is perfect.
I hope that everyone reading this is feeling their spirits lifted up too. I will be happy when we can hug our family and friends again. We are tougher than we thought for, despite all of the ups and downs.

How can it still be September? Especially in 2020? It seems as if this year has been going on forever! Just finished looking thru the last few months of entries in my blog and it sounds like another world. The most important things in my life were making an occasional pie, going for daily walks, reading and enjoying my IPad. That was then, this is now.
Now we are in Michigan, it is fall, I am still doing the same things mostly, but none of it feels the same. We have become home bound, concerned about our health, cautious when we go out in public, wearing our masks, still reading, watching the world go by on our TV or IPads, and wondering how in the world we all got here. The world I grew up in seems to have disappeared somewhere. When I talk with other older friends they seem as bewildered as I do. It’s like all of the ideas and principles that we were taught are just words that have lost all of their meaning. Trust in anyone else seems to have evaporated.
I remember when the VietNam War was going on and someone read the Pentagon Papers in Congress. It was a huge shock to me. I couldn’t believe that our government would ever actually lie to us. We were so naive, we thought that we could all believe whatever was in the written word. From then on many people began to lose their faith in what they were told.
Now it seems that the country has come to the conclusion that they can’t trust anyone no matter who they are. And this is not a good thing for anyone, to become so cynical and untrusting.
There still are millions of good people out there, no matter where their sympathies lie. No one is perfect, but most people would still like to follow the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would like them to do to you.”
I do believe this, I have to, or I could not face each day. I don’t want to waste any of the days that I still have coming to me. And it would be a waste to hate, no matter what.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Pexels.com[/caption
Would you look at this! A new picture that I just downloaded from WordPress. My cup runneth over. Just received a notice that now a new free Photo Library is available to me.
They couldn’t have picked a better day for me. After watching all of the depressing news I just decided to come to my trusty laptop and see what I could find to cheer me up. The first thing I found was an article I wrote a short time ago about what makes me happy? I could hardly believe how upbeat I sounded at the time. I was about to copy that to cheer myself up when I saw the photo notice. So I pulled it up and when they asked for a subject, I put “Tigers”. Wow, hundreds of tigers, in every shape and color, popped up on the screen. Making up my mind just which one to chose was a hard thing to do. But Mama Tiger watching over her little one won out and so that is what I chose for this time.
Now that I know that I can go to this photo library any time I want to, it gives me the urge to start writing again. And it is about time. I can hardly remember a longer writers block than I have had the past several months.
So here we go. I shall continue to find photos that I love, and I hope that you will too. And just remember, like I have heard all my life, “This too shall pass.”

Just finished reading from my Twitter feed a few minutes ago and there was the suggestion of someone who has lived thru a lot of stuff. “Write down what is happening to you right now because there will come a time when someone will ask you what this crazy time was like”. Sounds like a winner to me!
This morning, Saturday, we headed for our normal weekly visit to Walmart, here in Zephyrhills, FL. All week long I had been hearing all of the toilet paper stories, the empty shelves, cleaning supplies and so on, so I was pretty prepared for that. It was only 9:30 so we figured the stores wouldn’t be too busy yet. The parking lots didn’t seem too full so Bob dropped me off at the door and went to park.
Wrong! The store was full, full of people shopping, but there was just one major problem. It looked like a swarm of ants had been thru the place before I got there. Not one saltine cracker in the store, the soup had disappeared except for clam chowder, and even the detergent was sketchy. On a Saturday morning you expect to see full shelves because it is such a heavy shopping day. As the realization came to me that people had gone crazy over worrying about having enough to eat in their homes I began to take a couple of deep breaths. The whole thing reminded me of what it was like during the Second World War when things had to be rationed for the good of the country. I remembered seeing people who hoarded things in their basements out of sight because it was against the law.
The citizens who have used normal precautions in keeping their kitchens stocked are going to fare a lot better than the ones who were always running out of everything. What shocked me the most is how close to the edge the average person is when they are given a new situation and they react in a panicky manner to it. Common sense seems to fly out of the window.
Coming home from the store I breathed a sigh of relief as we rolled into our driveway. We are home safe and sound. But I am wondering how many snowbirds may decide to head back to the North a little earlier this year? How many may decide whether to fly or not? We are all going to have to use our common sense and remember we are in this together. In this way we will make the best decisions for our families in the days to come.