Time Flies Never to be recalled!

Phew!  January came and went in the blink of an eye, and I was only able to crank out one blog!   I had many ponderings this month due to all the experiences, and old thoughts were rekindled such as, although time seems to fly, it never travels faster than one day at a time. So we are given the opportunity with each new day to live life to the fullest.  In each new waking day, there are scores of blessings and opportunities for positive change.  

With that said I have chosen to not let my “TODAY” be stolen by the unchangeable past or the indefinite future!  Today is a new day!  Nothing made this clearer than the loss of several family members in the month of January.   It was a not so gentle reminder as to how very precious family is, and to remember those we love can never be more than a thought away, for as long as there is a memory they live in our hearts forever.

Family ties are defined as:  a primary social group consisting of parents and their offspring, the principal function of which is provision for its members.  I found this interesting, family is so much more! It’s Aunts, Uncles, Grand Parents, Great Grand Parents, and close friends who are like our family. As they say it really does take a village.   

I think that most of us can agree that who we are and the things we have in our lives are inherited from our ancestors.  I am not sure if we should thank them or berate them. But I do know that when we lose someone from our inner circle, whether they are friend or family, we feel a deep sense of loss as well as remorse. And I observed at close hand that everyone copes differently.  Some cry for the loss of a loved one, some smile because of their deep faith and because they know they will see them again.  And then some are angry and are determined to find some reason or justification for the loss of the loved one.

It is all a mystery of the human psyche as to how each person copes with the loss. The only thing I can say with certainty is that the loss of a loved one is the most tragic and devastating thing a person can endure.  I always find comfort in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

My take away from life experience this past month: getting over the loss of someone is a grieving process; we grieve because we love. Everyone has to be allowed to process the loss and deal with it in their own way. There are no rules, no right or wrong way to act and we must not judge others.  We must let them mourn their loss, experience their pain, and when they are ready, they will let it go, and begin to live again.  Remember that words are extremely powerful, healing and can bring great support, so just be there.

On a lighter note, my family celebrates the Chinese New Year for my Granddaughter to celebrate her heritage. So Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year is Feb 19, 2015, and it is the  “Year of the Goat.”

Lucky Colors: brown, red, purple. Lucky Numbers: 2, 7, Lucky Flowers: carnation, primrose, Year of Birth: 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015

Stay with me, and I thank you again for taking this retirement journey with me, or "my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’…

OMG its 2015, time for those New Year’s resolutions!

Well readers, I apologize for the long pause in blogging, did ya miss me?  I don’t know how things were for you, but the holidays were super cra-cra busy for me.  (My teenage Grandsons taught me CRA-CRA and I decided it sounds cuter than crazy).   I must say the busy part, running out of time, really threw me for a loop!  After all I am retired so I should have had plenty of time to bake, shop, and decorate. 

I was so wrong!  It seems these retirees are very busy folks.  I was always doing something or going to an event or party, phew, it was exhausting.   I mean, I thought at retirement time Happy Hour was supposed to be naptime!  Not… it’s really happy hour with a live band and dancing. What I have learned about the generation preceding mine, as in hippie’s parents, is they are hard to keep up with!  They are teaching me it is not about how old you are, but how you are old!  Get it??  Well let me tell you I decided they can’t be that old, I demand a recount! <Grin>

OK, so onward and upwards as I try and make amends heading into 2015, and we’re off:

The ball has dropped, and the confetti has been cleared. The Ice Bucket Challenge and "All About That Bass" are officially so last year. It's 2015 — the beginning of a whole new year. Here are the pressing questions that I was left with from 2014;

• Who will emerge for the Republicans?
•  Will they ever find flight 370?
•  Will Bowe Bergdahl be court martialed?
•  Will Ray Rice play in the NFL?
•  Will Dzhokhar Tsarnaev get the death penalty?
• What will our wonderful newscaster create for the 2015 weather trend? (How do you top the polar vortex in 2014?)
• Will gay marriage come to all 50 states?

Wow 2015, can you believe it?  I was reminiscing about the doomsday prophesies when we were headed into the year 2000. Do you remember the media hype leading up to January 1, 2000?  How they built it up to an apocalyptic hysteria, telling Americans how they should prepare, that it would impact our transportation, Federal Government security, and there would be Global Computer failures etc.  I don’t know about you, but I was rather disappointed when I woke up on January 1st and nothing at all happened.  I had to go to work as usual, and unfortunately, all the computers worked. <Grin>

The psychic predictions are always fun, and for some reason our infamous news finds them important to pass on to us, so I thought it would be fun to write some down for posterity and check back in 2016. These are a few that I found the most fun:

•    Prince Harry will get engaged
•    Major volcanic eruptions in Japan and Hawaii 
•    National Health and police strikes and riots in London
•  Joan Collins dies 
•   Royal Family death 
•   Zara Phillips , Princess Anne’s daughter falls pregnant
•  Strange fluctuations in the Earth’s Magnetic Field detected 
•  A nuclear submarine will get into serious problems; it could be Russian although there is also Chinese involvement, perhaps an incident over the disputed Japanese Islands in the China Sea? 
•   I feel that 2015 will be a year with a lot of Maritime problems, there could be a very serious disaster, akin to the sinking of the Titanic 
•  2015 will see closer ties between Russia and China. There will be an economic and military pact. In the years to come this will become a powerful alliance that will challenge America 
• Economically , India will rise faster than China in the coming years
• Josefina Vazquez Mota will become the first female president of Mexico 
•  Both Facebook and the BBC will develop search engine algorithms for the internet (and not just for their own websites) in an attempt to rival Google. Amazon will also venture into web search.

Well, there you have it, Craig’s World Psychic Predictions for 2015; we’ll be sure and check back on him in Jan 2016! Here is a funny joke about Psychics, “I knew the Psychic was a fake the minute she accepted my check.”

Did you make any 2015 New Year’s resolutions?  My opinion on resolutions is; we shouldn’t waste time with resolutions, we should instead focus on something far better: resolve. While the words are similar, the difference is significant. A resolution is something you make; resolve is something you have. Call it semantics, but I think the distinction is important.

I think many will make resolutions and then immediately break them. Why? Because they’re not really resolving to do anything different. They’re just wishing. That’s just me talking, but I think the bottom line is: Without a stronger resolve, you have no hope of accomplishing your resolutions.  Isn’t that deep of me? <Grin>

So my resolve in 2015 is to age with grace!  (My disclaimer, sort of.) I have determined that I do not like my gray hair and so I am adding in some highlights. Why, you ask? Well, because I was in a meeting, and one of the men was pointing out one of the ladies to me, and he said the one with the silver hair, as I turned and the entire room was a sea of women with different shades of silver/gray hair! I have never been a conformist so why start now.  And as for the second part of aging gracefully, I am going to stop fretting about the ever increasing wrinkles; I say they're just antique smiles. 

Stay with me, as we traverse through this retirement journey, or as I refer to it “my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’…

Book Review of the Ghosts of Christmas Present by Rod Kierkegaard Jr and JR Rain

I was honored to get a pre-read before the launch of the Ghosts of Christmas Present, some what of a sequel to the Dead Detective.

I’m not a fan of short stories because they are well, short!  But I loved this one as it filled in some questions I was left with after reading the Dead Detective.  The collaboration between JR Rain and Rod Kierkegaard was superb in the Dead Detective, and carries over to the Ghosts of Christmas Present. 

 I loved finding out that Richelle is preggers and her baby has the soul of her dead rabbi friend and tadaa... she is dating a 100 year old ghost.  A nice twist is that our pregnant Zombies body is healing because of the baby. OK, so I've teased you without telling you all of it, you'll just  have to read it.  One thing I can promise you it’s too short, and will leave you wanting for more, as in a real sequel.   

This short story is a nice easy read for your holiday plane trip, car ride or just curled up by the fireplace. I do recommend that you read The Dead Detectives first.   Negative, too short, positive, it answered a lot of questions I was left with from the Dead Detective. I give it 5 stars

A. A. A. D. D. - Classic Retirement Syndrome

One of the crazy things I have discovered since retirement, is I still try to organize and plan things. While I lie in bed in the morning, just as I am getting ready to get up to start my day, I talk to myself and plan out what I want to accomplish. Then I get up with every intention of executing what I had so carefully planned out on my mental list. 

However the reality is that on my mental list I had planned on only cleaning the guest bedroom and both bathrooms.  But when I began dusting the guest bedroom, I thought, “Well it’s a better use of my time since I am dusting anyhow to dust the whole house.”  Then I notice the floors in the hallway are also in need of cleaning, so I decide while I have out the stuff I might as well do all of the floors. And so it goes until I come to the end of the day and you guessed it, I ended up cleaning the entire house.

It is now very late in the day, and I find I’m very tired.  I then complain to BFF Hubby that I’m really tired, to which he replies, “You need to get in retirement mode.”  “What the heck does that even mean?” I ask.  So BFF hubby explains patiently to me it means that it doesn’t all have to be done in one day! Hmm, interesting theory, which explains his ability to stay up late, sleep in, and do absolutely nothing if he so chooses, interesting as I think to myself, he just might have something here. 

So I agree with BFF Hubby and say, “You’re right!”  I mean after all he has been retired for the last three years, so he must have this perfected. My little sister gave me advice; she tells me she calls it “Patti Time.”  My Mother-in-law's advice was to remember there is always tomorrow.  I think when I was in the regular world, pre-retirement, we used to call that last one procrastination.

This “retirement mode” sounds much easier than it actually is. I think it’s that old habits have to be unlearned and changed. When you are working, you have a limited amount of time to accomplish everything that needs to be done, and in the past, I always had to clean the entire house in one day. Well that’s not entirely true; the reality was that I had a house cleaner.  It had been over 10 years since I actually cleaned my house; <grin> no wonder I became overwhelmed with the simplest tasks.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I decided to look upon these old learned habits as an opportunity to purge, to rethink my priorities and to be intentional about starting new habits.  Ha, like sleeping in, or at least not hopping out of bed at 4:30 am every morning like the Energizer Bunny.  I decided retirement was my time to make my “new normal” and hey I figure I can make it any way I want it to be, there just doesn’t appear to be any rules!  WOW I love the big fresh start; the clean slate that retirement affords me.  I love the idea that I can get up every morning and start over any way I choose.

After all of this self-discovery I read a humorous article/ joke on the internet, and as with everything you find on the internet, I have no idea who to credit.  It was just so perfect, and it made me laugh so I decided to share it on my blog, not to mention it reminded me ahem, of a few people I know.

It appears there is a new disease called A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests itself:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the rubbish bin under the table, and notice that the bin is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.  I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left. 

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of coke that I had been drinking. 

 I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye: they need to be watered.  I place the coke down on the work surface, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.  

I set the glasses back down on the work top, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone has left it on the kitchen table.  I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm can of coke sitting on the work surface, the flowers don't have enough water, there is still only one check in my check book, I can't find the TV remote, I can't find my glasses and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.  Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail. PS. I just remembered, I left the water running...

Oh dear, I think I may be in trouble, better phone the doctor right away, I may have that syndrome.  Now where, oh where, did I put that phone?

Stay with me, as we traverse through this retirement journey, or as I like to refer to it “my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’…