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The Day Feels Longer
There is a lot of controversy regarding whether to keep daylight savings time in effect.I love the time change in the spring giving us more daylight hours. I would love to see it kept that way all the time. I am not a morning person, so when it is light for a longer time I love it. I am notoriously late and one time when daylight savings time started in the spring I was going to church. I was going to be on time. Got to the parking lot and no one else was there. A friend of mine drove next to my car and just laughed. Daylight savings time had started the night before and I was one hour early. So this shows that I am not always late.
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Rising Before Dawn
I always walk the dogs early in the morning. My favorite time is right at sunrise–whatever time that is.
Right now, it’s the beginning of November and I’m usually walking in the dark.
When Daylight Savings Time (DST) ends this weekend, I will get a little bit more of that beautiful morning light again for a while. You see, in 2023, DST was from March 12-November 5. It’s lighter, later. Now we go to Standard Time…lighter, earlier.
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I Remember When
I have never been a morning person. I look forward to Spring, even though I lose an hour with Daylight Saving Time. I do enjoy the extra daylight hours in the evening. When we hit the “fall back” time, I enjoy the extra hour of sleep. Although, once daylight saving time ends, it gets dark so early that I feel like I’m living in Alaska. -
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
For as long as I can remember, I love sleeping. Taking a nap while snuggled in a cozy blanket, next to a crackling fire – mmmmm – there is nothing like it. But when you have no control over your sleeping – that is an entirely different story. -
Oops, I Did It Again
It was the summer before Kindergarten. I was swimming in the kiddie pool at my neighbor Donna’s house. We were running around her backyard, and as I neared the wet grass by the pool, I slipped and fell.
I can still feel the burning pain. Her mom picked me up and dunked me in the cool water repeatedly. Then she carried me home on the path that cut across the field that connected our houses on opposite sides of the block.
I begged Mom and Dad not to take me to the hospital. The next morning, I remember Mom coming into my room to know what I wanted to wear. Since this wasn’t the way things went in the summer, I asked what was up and was informed that we were going to the hospital. You see, I couldn’t move out of bed, much less walk.
I wasn’t given crutches for weeks. I think I finally got them just in time to start school.
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Medflight to Madison
I have always taken antibiotics for granted. I felt that an antibiotic was prescribed for different kinds of Illnesses, but didn’t really pay attention feeling that one would probably work for any kind of illness.Well, I was wrong.
I have had many UTIs in my life and took any antibiotic that I could get my hands on when I couldn’t see a doctor.
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Diving Disaster
One of our last outings before starting my Senior year at BDHS was a trip to the Fall River Pool. I had heard so many things about how nice it was. It was a busman’s holiday from the YMCA pool where my boyfriend and I worked. My sister Sandy and her husband, Art drove us to the pool. My boyfriend, Spencer was a great diver. He had been promising to teach me to do a one-and-a-half somersault off of the three-meter board. I loved doing regular dives and was excited about adding a new dive to my accomplishments.
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AWCTDIQ
Several years ago, before Michael and I were married, I hung out with a group of people who were full of fun. The group consisted of 4 couples. We all had professional careers and we loved to go out together and be silly.When we were together and things got too boisterous, the manager or owner would always come up to ME and say something like “YOU look responsible. Could you please ask your group to quiet down?”. I never understood why I was selected to be the disciplinarian.
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Poop Happens
Not everyone is able to handle baby poop, but for a mom – it’s not such a big deal. I did a lot of babysitting as a young teenager and was very accustomed to dealing with a baby’s needs. As a new mom – I never thought that not everyone has the same mentality about babies that I did. -
You Go First
Growing up, our house was across the street from the Grand View Motel. We lived on the street behind and our home faced the 10 or so windows of the long, low building. Once a week, the owner would mow the grass and sometimes have his young son, Johnny, with him in the cab of the riding lawn tractor.
Mom asked me if I wanted to take Johnny to the “Welcome to Kindergarten” day. ( It was held on a day late in the spring semester when neighborhood Kinders would “sponsor” a child who would be entering kindergarten the following year.) “No way,” was the only explanation I gave when she asked me if I was interested in taking Johnny. But there was a reason that I didn’t want to be his special friend…
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Orange Fuzz Isn’t Flattering
A funny story to some isn’t always so funny to the person involved. My husband was away on a fishing retreat. It was a Friday, I was bored and had decided I needed a change.
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Changing Lanes
I’m not sure why my son Kadon got his first car soon after he got his driver’s license…but he did. It was an almost 20-year-old, hand-me-down, 2002 Supercharge Pontiac Bonneville from his cousin Jessica. She got it from her brother Brad and his mom Michelle bought it from some mechanic for $3000 (a good deal I guess). It was named Jemall–it means “handsome” in Arabic (in case you were wondering, which I’m pretty sure you weren’t).
But anyway, to operate Jemall, you needed a screwdriver to stop the windshield cleaning system from spraying and wiping your windows if you dared to brush the button. When it rained, water puddled on the floor of the backseat. Pins held up the headliner. Ice and fog regularly formed on the inside of the windows. You had to manually lock all the doors because the automatic locks clicked, but nothing happened. And only the driver’s window went up and down. Whew, I think that’s it. -
Keeping Things Equal
In my lifetime I have owned quite a few cars: mostly older models and a couple of really nice vehicles.When it came time to share the driving experience with the two daughters we had it was decided, as did everything else, to be on an equal basis.
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Matt’s Puma Mobile
My mom got her first driver’s license when she was 55 years old. My dad had passed away and she often found herself stranded with errands to do and places to go. She bought her first new car in 1984. It was a celery green Chevy Celebrity. She literally was the little old lady who drove to the grocery store and to church on Sunday. -
Meeting Mr. Right
I had just bought a house and moved back to my hometown in July of 1998. By January 1999, I was separated from my ex-husband, living alone, having fun remodeling my old house, and excited about being single.
Mom called me after work on Friday and told me that her friend Bonnie was looking for someone to go out to eat with that night–and mom wasn’t available. She told me to give Bonnie a call.I did.
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Night Night
I’ve prided myself in consciously becoming a morning person. I’ve developed and practiced a routine to help me be successful at getting up early and starting my day positively.
My Bed: Evie at the foot, Aubrey on the left, me hogging the duvet in the middle, and the 9 1/2 inches on the right is left for Craig. One strategy to set yourself up for success is to begin the night before.
We all know a good parent needs to put predictable patterns into their child’s evening routine. There is dinner, bath, tooth brushing, stories, maybe a night-night song, and lights off.
Well, it’s the same with us grown-ups. Why do so many people fall asleep on the couch watching TV or lay in bed watching TikTok on their phone? I would be a mess if I did either of these activities!
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Make It Interesting
As a teacher myself, you would think perhaps that I wanted to be a teacher because I was inspired by all the wonderful teachers I had growing up–not so much.
Well, maybe I was inspired by one very special teacher–nope.
As a matter of fact, I went to the counseling center in college to figure out what to major in. I scored the highest in my affinity to careers in education or as a YWCA/YMCA director. I was maybe not inspired, but at least open to education because of shows like Electric Company, ZOOM, and Hodgepodge Lodge. Learning could be fun…
When I explored the education options more specifically, I thought of teaching elementary education standing at a big chalkboard and kids sitting at desks in rows. Arghhh.
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Time Heals?
“Time heals all wounds”…I’ve given some thought to this famous quote and decided that it is a harmful “old wives” tale.My perspective is based on personal experience. Having lived more than a half-century. I have a wealth of experiences under my belt that have harmed, hurt, or negatively influenced me in one way or another.
What I can say for time, with regard to healing emotional pain is that it serves two purposes. but falls short in one major way…
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I Feel Good
I can choose to be happy.
It all started when I was a child. Every Saturday, Michelle and I would do our housekeeping chores. But we would have additional cleaning responsibilities if we were having guests or before holidays. During those times, mom would be present and I remember these times well.
She would explain the importance and urgency of the chores. I think my sister and I were low on the continuum of “buy-in”. Then to encourage us, before turning us loose, Mom would always, always say, “Alright girls, let’s get this house cleaned up…and let’s have fun!”I don’t think this actually worked in my child’s mind, but it has affected me deeply in adulthood.
You see, I know I get to choose my happiness–or not. It all depends on the thoughts I purposefully think.
Let me explain.
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Spiritual Sagittarius
My birthday is in mid-December, which makes me a Sagittarius.Although I was a child in the 70s, I was really too young to be into the zodiac. As a child, I would occasionally read my horoscope in the paper, but the predictions always seemed vague and random. For example, my horoscope for today says this:
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Could Not, Would Not
I don’t remember not being able to swim. This doesn’t mean that I could swim in deep water. It only means that I didn’t drown in a kiddy pool. My Aunt Judy claims that this is because she (a swim instructor) taught me to swim before I could even walk. Judy says this was called “drown proofing”. But, of course, this doesn’t mean I can remember that–but it might explain my natural confidence in the water.
As far as remembering the learning process, I do remember taking lessons at the local YMCA. I started in level 1-Polliwogs. I thought it was silly that some kids had to practice putting their faces in the water and blowing bubbles. Jumping up and down in the shallow water was fun. We called this “doing bobs” And I was seriously motivated to make it all the way through the levels… Polliwogs, Guppies, Minnows, Fish, Flying Fish, Sharks.The only glitch in the process was diving. We all know that diving is NOT swimming. I believe that I got stuck somewhere in the level progression because I could not, would not do a back dive.
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Dusty Dreams and Ukulele Strings
My ex-husband, Tom, played the guitar. He began playing after High School–taught himself. He was a natural musician as was his father. Going into college, he was a music major. Vocal jazz was his passion. But the thing that is important here is that he began taking finger-picking lessons when he was in his late 20s. This whole idea was absolutely foreign to me. He was a grown-ass adult, an accountant who just loved to play guitar. He didn’t even play in the band at church anymore. But he wanted the routine, the commitment, and the accountability that taking lessons from a guitar teacher gave him.
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Always Moving Forward
If you could be any age, what would you pick?
Isn’t this such a “writer’s group” question? Well yeah. We sat down to get into it and discovered that you could look at the topic from a dozen different angles. Here are three alternatives that immediately popped into my head:
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What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
I’m gonna be an artist when I grow up.
This is the answer I would have given to that age-old question that adults always ask children. I loved to make things out of paper and paint and wood and clay. I didn’t necessarily like coloring books, but I loved art materials. My first memory of Kindergarten is of making a scribble picture on construction paper and then coloring in the created spaces with crayons.