Friday, October 25, 2024

Weight 119 (official weight for the week).

DD, I used Scaraway Silicone sheets for my shoulder scar, but there are other brands too. It is simple to use and my scar is very flat and mostly not noticeable. You start using it when the incisions are fully healed.

Well, we bought a car yesterday- we pick it up this morning after we drive DS to the airport (leaving at 5:15). DH is a little sad because his 8 year old car was kind of sporty and he hates giving that up for an SUV even though he has a hard time getting in and out of it especially when his sciatica acts up. After that I took DS out for a nice dinner with Foie Gras, beef carpaccio, and lamb lollipops. All down his alley (we split). It has been a nice visit but it will be good to be just the 2 of us again. Next in is DD and her DH for Veterans weekend. They decided to book it after all even though the cost is higher than normal.

Time to get ready to go. Have a fantastic Friday!

Foie gras -- ermagerd! I don't have it often, but I love every fatty molecule of it when I have a chance to enjoy some.

It was amazing! It was just DS and I - DH won't even taste it.

Yesterday, with the help of the strong woman who for the last 5-6 years out here in the country has been my right-hand person, we got the attic emptied. She bounded up and down the stairs carrying boxes of ancient tax returns, emptied picture frames, forgotten clothes, and other crap I don?t need. Then we drove to town and donated stuff to the hospital thrift store that someone else may love.

What I did discover and am now plowing through and loving were hundreds of photographs, letters, and other memorabilia saved by my mother who lived with us for nearly 10 years before she passed. One of the best treasure troves are the letters I wrote to my parents in 1966-67 when I was at university in West Germany (that's what it was called then) detailing my wide-eyed enthusiasm for being 20 and 21 years old in Europe with no adult supervision.

During the ten months I spent overseas I never once talked on the phone to my parents or anyone else stateside. We only wrote and received letters written on thin blue paper delivered via airmail, which as I recall required a more expensive stamp. Nearly 60 years ago, the passage from youth to adulthood was unfettered by helicoptering parents, cell phone connectivity, requests for permission, or well-meaning, unsolicited advice. Back then, independence was so much more available to young adults than it now is. I realize that makes me sound like an old codger longing for the good old days (I don't), but I so appreciate how much that year shaped me and how I have lived my life since then.

I hope we all have a good, productive day today. I have so much more to get done. It seems there are layers and layers to moving on.

How cool that you were at University in Europe! Interesting that you point out that we had a lot more freedom than young people have today. Maybe that's why they seem to take longer to fully reach mental maturity??? When my eldest DD (would be 52 now) went to college it was the same as for my generation - you just dropped them off and spoke to them once in a while. By the time my youngest DD (36 now) went I was expected to attend the orientation with her and of course with cellphones were in frequent contact. I remember complaining about having to go to orientation and the younger parents looking at me as if that was appalling. The older ones admitted that they felt like I did.

Yes, that! Realistically, because my parents had 7 kids by the time I was in college, I can't imagine they had any leftover bandwidth to worry about me. I remember even as a child being amazed at everything they went through just to feed and house us. My dad grew a full acre garden of vegetables and fruits, and he and Mother canned their butts off in the summers. I still don't know how they pulled it off.

And of course, we always only ever had one bathroom. Can you imagine a family of 8-9 today having only a single bathroom!

And now I'm obviously deep in old codger land. But mostly I'm just having one of those "How much everyday life has changed in the last nearly 8 decades" moments.

I'll see myself out now.

Yes! One bathroom shared by an entire family. Yikes!

I did a gap year in Brazil (Rotary Exchange student), in '79-80. Phone calls were over several dollars a minute. I talked to my family at Christmas for 10 minutes. I wrote reams of letters to my friends, and they wrote back reams, but that was the extent of contact. I often think about what it's like now, when you might be expected to FaceTime with your parents, or keep up with all the social media with friends. I'm glad I had the chance to live that year, fully immersed in Brazilian culture, bonding with my host family and my new friends. If I wanted to socialize, ( and heaven knows I like to talk!) I HAD to learn Portuguese. I'm so grateful for those experiences.

Lol, I doubt they were called gap years then!

155.0. That scale just does not want to go down! Though like Peps, I definitely feel slimmer and the ?You?ve lost weight!? comments keep coming! Those are good things!

Laundry, baking corn bread muffins to go with the BBQ pork ribs for dinner tonight and scrapbook crap sorting on the docket for today! Such an exciting life I live, though honestly I have little to complain about!

DSD and fiancé visiting the sick aunt who is now out of the hospital. Still waiting on her biopsy results but the docs are thinking it is small cell lung cancer which is aggressive and 5 year survival rate very small. Most of the kids in that family (all smokers) have succumbed to cancer. Nasty addiction and nasty diseases it causes!

What kind of SUV did you get Liz? I have a Buick Enclave and like it quite well. I?ve always wanted a red Corvette but they are difficult to get in and out of. I had a red Firebird Transam (T top) when I met Ben. Didn?t have it for long though, we both sold our newer nice cars to make a down payment on our first house and the dogs and kids followed shortly and we became a van family!

Ann, love that you have been able to be a world traveler! I still need to get a passport to see something outside of the US. I did go to the Bahamas on a cruise trip while in grad school (before you needed a passport for such a trip), but that is the extent of my world travels! Heck, DS2 travelled to Europe the summer after he graduated!

Hope you are all having a Fabulous if not Freaky Friday!