Hi everybody, I'm Bobby

I've resigned myself to the fact I've got a permanent house guest.  By golly, I have to say I'm quite surprised. Who knew an insect would take a liking to the indoors rather than out.

The first time this year I put the Shield Bug outside it didn't seem unusual when it reappeared in my morning room, because the temperatures had plummeted and I'm sure it missed the warmth and comfort of the house. So, I allowed it to roam around, and then put it out again a few weeks later.  Surely this time, since it was spring, I figured it would get the urge to mate and start a family of its own.

When I found it crawling up the inside of the sliding door frame not long after, I simply picked it up and put it back outside.  Occasionally I would see it in the vicinity of my patio, and would say "hello", and we'd go about our business.

Then, yesterday, there it was, on my wicker settee in my morning room.  What the heck?  I contemplated taking it back outside, but thought better of it.   Apparently, this 'guest' wants to become part of the family, and I'm now incline to let that happen.  Why not?  It doesn't take up a lot of room, is not loud or obnoxious and never, ever demanding, seems like a perfect fit. Plus, I'm guessing if it can't find something to eat here in the house, it knows how to get back outside, so I'm not going to worry about that any more.

Just exactly why this Shield Bug has singled me out for a house mate, I don't know.  However, I'm going to have to remind myself it's going to be around on a permanent basis, because, not watching where I was putting my hand as I was going down the steps to the garage, I accidentally brushed it off the banister and it hit the bottom step just before it landed on the carpet below.  It was quit a hit...I not only saw it fall, I heard it hit the step.

It landed on its back and was in the process of trying to right itself, when I scooped it up and gently placed it on the settee.  I think it's okay, although I left it alone for the time being, and will check on it later.  If it has moved, I'm pretty sure it will be all right.

Anyway, I figure if it wants to be in the house that badly I might as well consider it part of the family.  I just need a name, preferably one suitable for either gender.  Maybe Bobby will work.  It's funny how things work out, who would have thought a winter house guest would want to stay, and stay, and stay.

Beware...the dreaded day is coming.

Maudlin, according to my big book maudlin means to be "overly or tearfully sentimental"...yep, that's me today.

Oh, I know why.  It's the time of year...the dreaded "M" day is coming up.  Mommies, Grammies, and Great-grammies are going to get bombarded with presents, flowers, cards, long distance phone calls and assorted boxes of candies.  They will get breakfast in bed, taken to brunch, lunch and/or dinner.  They will be queens for the day.  Good for them, I guess.

The thing I have about "M" day, is there are still 364 days left in the year.  Generally speaking on those days, they get nothing.  Maybe their birthdays will be remembered, but mostly not.  And if a guy is lucky and remembers, they might get wife-y a card on their anniversary.  I think that's wrong.

All year long Mommies, Gammies and Great-grammies are around.  They wipe tears, lend supporting ears, spend long hours working long and hard at their careers and homes to keep the family woven together like a crocheted afghan.  Now, don't you think they have bad days?  You bet your sweet bippy they do.  Don't you think, they would appreciate a small token, a bouquet of nine dollar flowers from the grocery store flower shop, a silly card, a long distant phone call or even a dollar candy bar for 'just because'.  You bet your sweet bippy they would.  Honest, it does not take much to make a Mommy, Grammy, Great-grammy happy and to feel appreciated.  Oh...and a quick I love you, will put her over the roof.  How hard can that be?

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know, I know you're busy.  We all are, and honestly, I'm just as guilty as the rest of you.  I wish I would have called my Mommy more, not just on our 'selected, prearranged times' because we both knew that was 'the best time' to talk.  I never really called her just to say hello, I love you.  And, now I can't.  I wish I'd have sent her flowers 'just because'...but it's too late now.

But most of all, I wish I'd not have waited till "M" day to send a present, flowers, cards, make calls or send candy.  Damn you "M" day...damn me for not being a better kid...damn any of us who wait till "M" day to show our appreciation to good old Mom, Grandma, and Great-grandma.

Let's all band together and ban stupid "M" day.  If you have to, in order to start a habit, mark your calender, tie a string around your finger, write a note on your hand with a permanent marker and find a medium that best suits your circumstance and if you do nothing more than say "I love you" do it, damn it.  Trust me, it will be worth a million "M" days to the special someone in your life.

"M" day...phooey on you.

The Train of Life

Just so you all know, I did research this morning to find who wrote this lovey piece, and found there are many, many poems, essays, and similar pieces written about trains.  I found the one that follows once during my attempt to find the author, but it was not attributed to a specific individual. I always like to give credit to the original author, and certainly would here, if I could.  Whoever you are, this piece is so lovely I have to share; I hope you don't mind and that you appreciate I am doing so.

I got this from a dear, almost lifelong friend in my e-mail yesterday.



The Train of Life 

 To my family and friends

Life is like a journey on a train... with its stations... with changes of routes... and with accidents!

 At birth we boarded the train and met our parents. And we believe they will always travel with us.

However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone.

As time goes by, other people will board the train and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of our life.  Many will step down and leave a permanent vacuum.  Others will go so unnoticed that we don't realize that they vacated their seats!

This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. 

Success consists of having a good relationship with all the passengers...requiring that we give the best of ourselves. 

The mystery to everyone is: 

We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. 

So, we must live in the best way - love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. 

It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty -- we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you a joyful journey on the train of life.  Reap success and give lots of love. 

More importantly, thank God for the journey!

Lastly, I thank you for being one of the passengers on my train!  

Let It Go, I'm a fixer Upper

Okay, so here's the thing.   Over the weekend, Saturday to be exact, my grandson and I decided to watch a movie.  So he sprawled out on the sofa, I curled up in a chair, and we watched a movie rented from my good old cable company.

The movie we chose was Frozen, simply because neither of us had ever seen it, and because of all the praise and laurels heaped upon it.  After all, we'd been out of the loop long enough, it was time we learned what all the Hoop-la was about.

So many people have said it was the 'best movie ever'.  I had to see for myself.
Remember, I'm not a movie critic, but I do have an opinion and frankly, I don't think this movie was the 'best ever',  Oh, it was good alright, and my grandson and I both enjoyed it, there were even a few surprises.  Like the handsome prince was not the good guy, the princess was not the heroine and they did not live happily ever after.  I personally felt the story line was pretty unbelievable and weak; and there were times I wanted to 'move things along', finally, the special effects were...well, been there, done that, over and over and over.

And as for the song Let It Go, and the accolades it got...I don't get it? It was okay, but apparently I missed something because I thought the song Fixer Upper was a much, much better song.  The lyrics were great, upbeat and encouraging, pointing out we are all flawed, but that with just a little time and effort we can be (although not perfect) the snappiest, shiniest car on the used car lot.

As for the characters, as good as they all were, it was not the humans that 'stole the show'.  I have to confess my absolute favorites were first and foremost Olaf the snowman, followed by Sven the reindeer, and the group of roll around rocks that turn out to be Trolls who end up singing my favorite song "Fixer Upper".

I was happy the bad guy finally had to pay his dues, that the sisters reunited in love, that there was a 'happily every after', and that Olaf was unbelievably able to survive thanks to his very own perpetual cloud of snow. There you have it my long overdue review of a very popular animated feature film.  Okay, give it your best shot...I can take it...I know this blog is not going to make people very happy.  Just remember, I've a lot of flaws but I am... A FIXER UPPER.

Is it spring becoming summer, or autumn becoming winter?

Frankie stood behind me as I feverishly typed away.  "Brrrr," she announced.

I turned and gave her a quizzical look.  She had her arms crossed, and she was clutching her hands tightly together while she stamped her feet up and down.  She was dressed in shorts and t-shirt.  Just last week she would have been appropriately dressed, today however, not so much.  "Brrrrrr." She repeated.

Somehow I could not feel sorry for her.  After all, I had put my winter attire back on earlier in the day, realizing I was going to have to return my shorts and t-shirts to the bottom drawer of my chest of drawers.

I return to my keyboard and begin typing.

"Brrrr."

Me: (Not even looking up.)  "Why don't you fix yourself a nice hot cup of coffee."
Frankie:  "Ya know what would taste good?  Soup, a slow cooker, chucked full of hardy vegetables and meat kind of soup. Yep, that would do the trick."
Me:  (still typing.)"You know where the kitchen is."
Frankie:  "That's hard."

She said that in a childlike voice, as though I've told her to give up something fun and preform a difficult task.

Me:  "I repeat, you could always make yourself a hot cup of something...coffee, tea, beef or chicken bullion."
Frankie:  (Snorting and stamping her foot)  "Dag nab it!  I'm cold."

She is exaggerating shivering, and squeezing herself so tightly she face is turning red.  By now I've lost patience and whirl around in my chair and glare at her.

Me:  "Here's the thing." (Doing my best at being the grown-up.)  You've got choices here.  One, get out of those shorts and t-shirt and get into some warmer clothes.  Two, go turn on the heat for a while to take the chill off.  Three, go make some soup, or at the very least a hot cup-a-cup a."

Frankie looks like a whipped puppy, you know, like those pictures of big, sad eyed kitties and puppies. You'd swear I'd whooped her with my wooden spoon.  I come to realize she is NOT going to go away, she's NOT going to do anything to correct her problem and now I feel chilly and with the need for something hot myself. In addition, I think I'm going to have to turn on the heat for a while.  Sometimes an imaginary friend can be a real pain in the tuckus.

Oh, man.  I simply can't stand that forlorn look any longer.  It's pitiful, nobody can do pitiful better than Frankie (except maybe Zorro).

Me:  "Okay, I give...I'm going to fix myself a cup of coffee, you want one?"  Of course she does, why did I even ask.

I guess as long as I'm going to the kitchen I might as well see what I can throw together to make a soup, or maybe a Chile, slumgullion, or maybe even spaghetti.  I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I turned on the heat for a bit either.

Come to think of it, as long as I'm getting up, I believe my tootsies could use an extra pair of socks, too.

It's just one little pill

I hate taking pills, even if it's just a headache.  I blame this on my childhood, where you never went to a doctor, you slapped a band-aid on an ouchy, and the only pill available was an aspirin, and they were dolled out on a very limited basis.  You 'walked off'' aches and pains and got such good advise as, 'it will get better before you get married'. The only pill available was an aspirin, and when you had a cold and sore throat, you downed a spoonful of  melted Vicks, sprinkled with sugar.  So as a result of my up bringing, today, generally speaking I take every few medications.  My daily vitamins...well, almost daily.  And a few prescriptions, very, very few.  And, honestly I consider myself very lucky that there are indeed very few of them.

However, I do have a few maladies that require an additional pill, and my doctor has told I can take it when I feel I need it.  Well, the last couple of days, I knew I needed it, but because I hate 'needing' it (it's a sign of a flaw in my makeup to pull myself up by my bootstraps), I have not taken it. Of course, this morning, I paid the consequence for not devouring it when I should have, let's say way back Wednesday when I kept telling myself "I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay."

As a result, this morning I could barely get out of bed.  I felt, nauseated, my heart was doing it's Bump-it-Tee-bump thing.  And, I could feel myself wanting to hyperventilate.  My creatures wanted fed, so I knew I could simply not lie in bed and 'wallow', so I worked my way through the nausea, sat on the edge of the bed and eventually got the courage to stand up.  You have no idea how difficult that was.  Still I took no pill. And started my daily routine.

Sadly, after that, I limped back to bed.  I sat there for a few seconds.  Then I reached for my bottle of water, took a pill, and lay back down on the bed.  I could feel the medication taking effect.  I was starting to relax, my muscles loosened up, my breathing relaxed.  By golly, if I lie here long enough I just might make it. Within thirty minutes, I was feeling good.  I got up, got myself put together and was raring to go.

Now, here's the thing.  Why am I always so stupid about taking one simple pill THAT I KNOW IS GOING TO HELP ME,  IMMENSELY, AND THAT I AM SUPPOSED TO TAKE TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER.  Seriously, that is so, so.....stupid.  And the point of this blog is to say to you all...please, don't follow my example.  If you have medications for an ailment specifically designed to help you to ease your pain, release your anxiety, and strengthen your body and your soul, for heaven sake, take the dang pill. Don't wait (like me) till you are sitting on the edge of your bed wondering if you'll be able to stand up and face the day.

And, that's all I have to say about that.

Arriving, departing, delayed, canceled

There's a website called Flightradar24.com, it shows a map of the world, and all the planes that are in the air at any give time.  Some flights are real time, some are on five minute delay.   I check this site everyday, more that once, I might add.  I'm fascinated.  I mostly keep the map zoomed in to my local airport to watch what flights are arriving, and what flights are departing.  Parts of the the day there is little activity. However, some parts of the day it is quite busy, and a bunch of tiny bee like planes move quietly, slowly across my screen. Early morning is particularly busy.

If you click on one of those tiny bees, the information about it comes up on the left hand side of my monitor. It tells me the type of air craft it is, where it is coming from, or where it is going to, the altitude, etc.  Some times, it simply gives a call number, for a small aircraft, like perhaps a Piper Cub. And, curiously, sometimes this simply states the flight is "BLOCKED", which sets my imagination to the hinterland.  There is always, ALWAYS some kind of activity.  I'm so thankful my brother-in-law put me in touch with this site.  At the moment it is one of my favorites.

Anyway, occasionally,  I zoom out and can see the whole United States and how many planes (yellow bees) are in the air at the same time.  Oh, my gosh, the map is covered with bees.  Tiny slivers of land can be seen, but mostly it is a mass of yellow.  Then, I zoom out even more and there's Europe...same thing, a mass of bees, and so it goes.  And when I've zoomed out as far as I can, and see the whole world, I'm agog...can there actually be that many planes...and are they actually all in the air, or approaching or departing an airport.

All I can say is I'm sure glad the atmosphere is as deep and wide as it is, otherwise there would be more than one plane missing and unaccounted for.  Seriously, if you want to scare the heck out of yourself you should check out this site.  Ever since 9-11 I've had no desire to fly anymore, not because I'm afraid to fly...(well, till I have started watching this site) but because, I'm old, I hate having my personal stuff rifled through, I don't like taking my shoes off in (even though it looks clean) an icky airport, and I r-e-a-l-l-y hate you don't get breakfast, lunch or dinner on your flight anymore.  Phooey on an itsy-bitsy bag of nuts and an expensive soda or cocktail.

Still, I'm glad to see folks still do fly, and I imagine most of those tiny bees I see on my monitor are full of even more tiny ants, stuffed together like sardines in a can.  I'm certainly glad I'm not one of them.  Especially since I now know how many of them there are, in very close proximity to each other...in some instances a few thousand feet...thank you deep, deep atmosphere.

However, I can't help but wonder exactly how many near misses there are every day that we never hear about...thank goodness...otherwise there would not be all those teeny-tiny blips inching across my monitor.

Happy flying everybody, me thinks I'll keep MY feet firmly planted to the ground.