Stonehenge Sunrise

We'd been following the weather reports weeks before we arrived in London. There was rain expected every single day of our stay. We even bought special rain covers for our shoes. We were also prepared with windbreakers and umbrellas.

(By the way, you can click on photos to enlarge them.)

Art woke me at 3:00 thinking it was 4:00 but it was good to have that extra time to get ready. We ate the Pop-Tarts I packed for breakfast along with hotel coffee and left at 5:00. Notice the steps right out the door? There's even a step to stumble over in the room itself. 

It was only about a 5-10 minute walk to the Millennium Hotel meeting spot. I thought we'd be there early but most of the people were already congregated on the sidewalk. The first couple we met were super friendly. It turned out that she was a teacher also... and would you believe from Palatine, Illinois? We would also meet another young fellow who was from Naperville, Illinois who was a swimmer like our son and told us he'd even been to our son's (long ago) high school. Amazing!

It was an hour and 40 minute ride to Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Our very friendly and knowledgeable guide was Carol.

It was fun to see all the mistletoe on the trees.

Arriving at the Visitors Center in Wiltshire, we saw a village showing what the stone age houses must have looked like and a possible way the stone pillars might have been moved.

And then we were there. The sunrise tour is the only time you're allowed close to the standing stones. 

We were enthralled. 

How did these Neolithic people using primitive tools move these 25-40 ton stones to this location from miles away? We learned that 1/3 of the standing stones are actually underground.

We saw the angle at which the sun at different times of the year would shine through the stones.

Here we are with our guide, Carol.

We saw a crow perched on one of the knobs on the stones. There is a depression under the lintel stone that would fit that knob to hold it all together. (Art says it's called the mortise-and-tenon joint.)

There are also 77 different kinds lichen that grow on these stones, many are very rare.

It was such an awesome feeling to walk among the stones and imagining the people who built them. Why did they build this? And how? It's truly intriguing.

After buying some souvenir t-shirts for our grandsons, we left Stonehenge and the bus took us to Lacock.

A restaurant was shown to us where you could order an English breakfast.

We chose to go to a bakery where Art had a Cornish pasty and I had shortbread with hot chocolate.

There were several other tour members there from Wisconsin and Florida. We all loved getting to know each other and talking about places we'd visited. And no, we did not talk politics at all. 😂

Lacock is considered one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds.  Scenes from Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey had been filmed there.

The next stop was Bath. 

Bath is where much of England's upper crust used to come to "take the waters."  It was the Romans who originally built the baths after they discovered the hot springs.

We'd been here before with our children in 1990. (And yes, back then Art actually drove all over the place.) It was fun to see it again (while someone else did the driving).

After returning to our hotel, we decided to have dinner at the Baba ghanouj Lebanese restaurant a couple blocks away. It reminded us of our favorite Middle Eastern dishes we loved in Illinois.

I had a mixed shawarma plate and Art had a chicken shish. It was wonderful.

And yes, it was a wonderful day.  It wasn't just the places we'd experienced, but also the very happy, friendly people we'd spent a day with.

Travel Troubles

Last May, we flew with traveling buddies, Craig and Terry to Norway for a Scandinavian cruise. Our United flight from Hawaii to San Francisco where we were to catch our connecting flight to Bergen, Norway had some sort of malfunction and needed a part to be flown in from the mainland. They finally had to rebook us from Honolulu to Newark where there was a 12 hour layover before we could catch another flight to Bergen. (Granted, they did upgrade us to a lovely Premium Plus) However, because of this, we missed a whole day of our cruise.

This time, we decided to fly to London 3 days early so we wouldn't run into this same problem. On top of this, Art has always wanted to see Stonehenge and there was a sunrise tour on March 30th (the morning after our arrival 😵) that he booked us on. It's not offered all the time, and that was the only option open that we could take.

Soooo... it was with a lot of trepidation that I agreed to all this.

As always, I started packing well before the day of travel. I also packed 2 days of extra clothes (in our carry-on) in case they misplaced our luggage. AND I made sure we put some of our clothes in each other's luggage.

Airlines have misplaced our luggage a LOT. 

What is it about our luggage anyway? It must be cursed.

My brother, Dennis was scheduled to come and stay with mom.

Mom was thrilled to have her favorite (OK, only) son staying with her again.

Once at the airport, everything went smoothly. 

We both got pre-checked.

Our luggage went through.

The TSA screener was so cheerful and kind that I actually went back and told her how much I appreciated her friendliness.

We got to our boarding gate and waited.

We were smiling. We were happy.

And then we got the message. The United aircraft had mechanical difficulties. What? What? Again? It was supposed to take off at 8:53 AM. 

However.... yay! They found another plane at another gate. We left at 10:15 AM.

The nice thing is... because the plane was bigger or whatever, we had our row to ourselves. We wore our N95s anyway.

The pilot must have gunned the engines because we actually arrived in San Francisco an hour earlier than what was estimated.

We were able to catch our flight to Heathrow Airport in London without any problem at all. 😄

The flight from San Francisco to Heathrow took 9 hours and 41 minutes. 

We landed in London at 2:12 PM.

As usual, I could not sleep on the airplane.

Art used Twelve Transfers to take us to our hotel in Kensington. He liked using this company because you could pay for the ride online and not worry about having pounds to pay the driver.

We chose to stay at the Montana Hotel because it was situated close to the meeting point for our Stonehenge tour the following morning.

The front desk told us they'd upgraded us to a triple room (meaning a double bed and twin).

It seemed like a nice thing at first.... (more about that later).

We walked down the street to make sure we knew where we would be meeting our tour the following morning.

Happily, it really was not far at all.

There were LOTS of familiar eating areas. 

One block away was Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and even Starbucks.

Soooo.... what did we do?

Yup.

We ate a Junior Whopper and went to bed. We were exhausted.

Our travel buddies, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry were in Normandy, France a day ahead of us and exploring the WWII sites. (There was a worry about the protests that were happening in the country about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. The Brits we talked to laughed about it since their retirement age is 66.) 

We planned to join our friends on the cruise ship. They texted us photos of their adventure.

But at that point, we just wanted to sleep.

Sooo Jet Laaaaggged....

Art and I just returned last week from a trip to the British Isles along with two other couples. We have traveled over 12 time zones. They say the rule of thumb for recuperation is 1 day for every time zone crossed. And it looks like we are all going to need every bit of that time and more to be normal again.

I scheduled blog posts to go up during the time we were gone. I thought I could then write about our trip as soon as I got back.

I'm afraid that won't be possible, my brain is in a total fog.

I'll need to take a hiatus to organize my photos and my brain (whichever comes first).

It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to tell you about it...

...once I'm back to normal.

Making a Drawer Organizer Out of Cardboard

I don't know what it is about cardboard that makes me want to make something with it. When we get things sent to us in cardboard boxes and the sides are still firm and clean, I like to save pieces of it.

I think it started when we moved to Illinois in 1974. I wanted to organize all our mail from banks, friends and relatives. 

I went to the liquor store and asked them if I could have one of their empty cardboard boxes. I put a strip of posterboard (not sure what you call them) at the top of each slot to label who or what bank/company it was from.

When I started teaching, I once again went to the liquor store to get several boxes and glued them together. I then attached a strip of thick posterboard at the top of each slot so I could attach a student's name and photo. They could put their papers in it throughout the day and take them home when school was over. I gave it several coats of paint and it amazingly remained in good condition for at least a couple of decades.

I even bequeathed it to a happy teacher friend when I retired.

All this brings me to the present.

I was looking in the drawer where I keep make-up. 

I was remembering how you should throw away old eye make-up. I looked it up online and it says 3 months for eye make-up.

Seriously? 

There have been times I've used eye make-up that was two years old. 😆

However, since I haven't used make-up during the pandemic, I thought I'd better buy some new ones and (shudder) throw away my old stuff.

That's when I noticed how disorganized my make-up drawer was.

So I decided to create my own organizer. I got pieces of cardboard and glued them together. 

I couldn't find my paper tape but found left over linen tape that Art had bought for displaying the photo puzzle our daughter sent him 2 years ago. It was pretty expensive BUT since he didn't need what was left over, I decided to use it to cover the rough cardboard edges for my organizer.

When that was done, I found a small can of leftover white paint and gave the organizer two coats of it.

And though it might not look it to you, it is now organized to my satisfaction.

Hmmm... I'm seeing all these old lipsticks and chapsticks sitting there. Is there any point to wearing lipstick or blush these days? Everything is covered by masks.

Ah well...

It was still a fun project.

Possessive s's or ss's or s'

A long, long time ago, I THOUGHT I learned that if something/someone's name ended with an s you should just add the apostrophe and skip adding on another s.

Hence: Dennis' or Travis' or Alexis' or Francis'

That's what I thought. Then Art looked it up and said he read that you have to add 's.

What?!?

So I looked it up and found this on Magoosh Blog.

He says if it's the plural form of a group like Johnsons or elephants, you would write it with just the apostrophe:

Johnsons' and elephants'

AND if it's a name that ends with an s like ... Dennis, you can add the extra s and make it Dennis's or you can do it with just the apostrophe and no s. You just have to be consistent about it.

OK fine.

Hooowever, he says if it's something or someone that ends with a double s, you have to add the 's. Thus:

dress's color or Jess's or Congress's

Sheesh! I hope I got that right. And I hope I can remember this.

Puzzled Mom

We take mom to an Adult Senior Center once a week. She calls it the Senior Club and LOVES going there although she told us once a week is enough when we offered to have her go twice a week.

One day she said there was a contest and she won this 300 piece puzzle. Art has done 1,500 piece puzzles (not to mention the 3,000 piece Beatles puzzle that our son sent him) he did during the Pandemic so he set up the puzzle for her right away. We figured it would be an excellent exercise for her brain.

Unfortunately, she had no concept of how to attack a puzzle. Art showed her how to separate puzzle pieces that had similar colors and designs. That didn't help much.

Then he did the frame for her.

That didn't help much either.

I stepped in and took puzzle pieces and showed her where to put them. Even that was a challenge at first until she got the hang of it.

I'm pretty sure this was the first jigsaw puzzle she's ever done. She was determined to figure it out, but it was a misery.

Then my cousin, Ellen gave her a Japanese WORD SEARCH book.

Mom LOVED it. She almost forgot to eat lunch because she got so engrossed in it.

Mom worked as a typesetter at a Japanese language newspaper company here on Oahu for some decades and even edited articles for reporters. She used to be a teacher in Japan before coming to Hawaii in 1948.

I thought I'd check one of her WORD SEARCH pages myself and was convinced she'd done it wrong before realizing that sometimes, the words were backwards on the puzzle. 🙄 Oops!

Ellen and her husband were so delighted she loved it, that they actually ordered several more for her and refused to let me reimburse them. 

Now mom will probably forget to eat her lunch altogether.

POSTSCRIPT:

Ellen and her husband got another easier (more do-able) jigsaw puzzle for mom.

Phew! 

It's a wooden 12 piece puzzle and much less frustrating for her. Ellen's dad is 103 years old so she's got a head-start knowing what would be the best fun project to keep our parent's brain working.

Apple is Driving Me Bananas

Art and I treated ourselves to the new Apple Pro14 iPhones this past Christmas. And then I was thinking about getting a new iPad because my very old iPad was losing its battery charge faster and faster. (That was my excuse anyway.) My son-in-law found a very good deal so I had to get it, of course.

However, when the new iPad arrived, I discovered that my Lightning charging cord would not work with it. Instead, you needed a charging cord called Thunderbolt.

Apple really is driving me bananas.

1st they didn't use the same kind of charging cord that would work on my Kindle or any other non-Apple device. The charging tip was smaller. It was called the FireWire which connected to the USB adapter.

Arrrghhh...

And when I was getting used to that, they switched to the Lightning charger tip which connected to the USB adapter. 

OK. Fine. I got used to the Lightning cable. 

A few years later, my daughter said AirPods were convenient to use so I got myself one, only to be shocked that it had another different kind of charging wire with a Lightning charging tip but the other end had a Thunderbolt connector.  I didn't have a Thunderbolt adapter at the time. Apple didn't provide that.) 

Thunderbolt? 

Seriously? 😖 Luckily there was another option on the Airpods which allowed me to charge it with my lightning charging tip that I already had which connected to a USB.

But then........

Along comes my new iPad and it's a Thunderbolt charging tip connected to a Thunderbolt adapter. Two thunderbolts? Seriously?!?

Sigh....

And then a very bad thing happened. While trying to sync my new iPad to my Apple ID, I goofed somewhere and it locked me out. It said I needed to attach my desktop computer to the new iPad with the Thunderbolt charging wire. 

Guess what? My computer only has USB ports. 

Arrrrghhhh!

So I had to make an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.

There was only 1 poor technician trying to help several people. However, he was very good in explaining things and returned my iPad to it's Factory condition so that another person there could help get me synced to the new iPad with the old iPad. He said it's easier than syncing it to my iPhone.

He explained why, but I don't understand any of it and I don't know what I did differently at home to cause the iPad to lock me out.

Anyway, after over an hour at the store everything is working.

I'm kind of seeing why my techie son-in-law prefers to stay with his Android computers.

I'm so confused.

But at least everything is working... for now. 😜

My son tells me he has mostly Thunderbolt (also known as USB-C) cables. He lives on the other side of the world and says that Apple is just being compliant about syncing with the rest of the world.

I just hope the rest of the world doesn't decide to change things either.

POSTSCRIPT: I just bought a new Amazon Kindle since my very old one ran out of space. Guess what that charging input is? Yup. USB-C 🙄 Looks like things are changing with everything...

Who Eats Soap Anyway?

We know there was a full bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap a couple of days before on the utility sink outside on our patio. 

Mom keeps the soap bar outside on the sink in case she needs to wash something that didn't go into the washing machine.

Well... this is what Art was shocked to find the other day.

What kind of animal can climb up that sink and chomp on soap? Whatever it was, it must have gotten a tummy ache or a very clean colon.

Fabulous Advice I Got From Arkansas Patti

I learn  things from my blogging family all the time. However, I just wanted to mention two things that Arkansas Patti suggested that made a very helpful difference for me and people I've told. In fact, I wrote a post in 2017 about a post that Patti of The New Sixty wrote. It was called Poop Post. You should read her post because I found it really helpful. It's all about blowing if you're feeling sort of constipated.

I have to tell you that at night, if I wake and need to use the bathroom I get myself to the toilet but my body is still asleep so it's hard to get down to business to pee. If I blow, wow! It works and I can get it over with and get back to sleep. 

I did tell my mom about this trick a while back. I was therefore surprised when I accompanied mom to the bathroom at the ER last year to watch over her while she emptied her bladder and she blew to get it started. Ahhh... So she was now using Patti's trick too!

OK... So that was good. 

But now Patti recommended ginger tea for flatulence (gas 😆).  

Well, OK... I admit it. Is this another aging thing? I get very bloated and my tummy looks like a balloon in the evening.

So when I saw that Patti said ginger tea worked for her, we went to get some. 

I tried the Yogi ginger tea first but discovered that it's not all ginger. It has Lemongrass, Licorice, Peppermint and Black Pepper. Since I can't taste much, I couldn't tell the difference anyway.

Art then found this Traditional Medicinals Organic Ginger tea at the Down to Earth health food store and I could detect the bite.

So I've been drinking ginger tea at dinner and you know what? I think it's making a difference. No kidding.

I don't get gas pains lately. And yes, Art has noticed and is starting to drink some too.

I just love how we can all learn from each other.

Thank you, Arkansas Patti!

POSTSCRIPT:

I wrote this post a while back and scheduled it to go up later. I decided to post it today in hopes Patti would be back with us. Patti has not posted for a couple of months now and is fighting leukemia. I’m very worried and hoping she will be back soon to tell us she is recovered and doing well. 

Not a Pyramid? It's a Plate?

There was an article in the paper a while ago about how the Food Pyramid had been replaced by a simpler plate. Really? 

Apparently Michelle Obama had tried to simplify the recommendation for Americans in 2011 because obviously people were finding it hard to understand the 1992 Food Pyramid, and obesity was rising. 

I did always wonder about that Food Pyramid. It's telling you to eat lots more rice, pasta, bread and cereal. Uuummm... That's what I'm not supposed to eat too much of since I have diabetes.

Hmmm... Is that why so many Americans became diabetic?

Michelle Obama's plate was divided into 4 simpler sections. I think this does make more sense provided Americans don't figure on French fries being part of that healthy vegetables quarter.

Hmmm... Dairy? Darn! I'm lactose intolerant.

Ahhh well... We'll do our best.

POSTSCRIPT:

Oops! When we took mom to the doctor's office, I saw this plate on their bulletin board.

Slightly different but same idea.

Old Ways, New Ways

We were FaceTiming with our daughter and son a few weeks ago. We chatted for two hours and I was again amazed at the wonders of technology.

When we moved  to Chicago in 1974, I wrote letters to my parents and rarely called because it was so expensive. My brother and I also wrote lengthy letters back and forth telling each other about our experiences. Now Art and I text our siblings daily and are in constant communication with our children.

Now, here's my son half way around the world in South Asia, my daughter in Chicago, me in Hawaii and we're talking and laughing almost as though we're right next door.

This photo was from 2003.

Tif was just married and Keola had returned from the Peace Corps.

And now it is 2023 and Keola was laughing about how he was now moving into being middle aged. 

And they talked about how different things were when they were younger.

Good grief! When THEY were younger?!?

When did they not be part of the younger generation? It rather startled me.

Keola laughed at one point and said, "Did you notice how we're not supposed to put two spaces after a period when you're typing? When did they change that rule?" 

Tiffany agreed that she'd also learned you're always supposed to put two spaces after a period.

I could proudly tell them that my blogger buddy, DJan had informed me of that change to one space after a period rule a long time ago. 😁

And then they bemoaned the fact that the younger generation was not even using punctuation anymore.

Ahhh... I love it. Welcome to my world.

But gosh! Here's my children who are no longer children... who are grown up... I mean really grown up and it's taking some getting used to.

Finding a Better Ice Cube Tray

We had to get a new refrigerator about two years ago. Our ice maker had died twice and eventually the refrigerator died along with it. Refrigerators just don't last very long these days. I think they say 10-12 years is the average.

We decided to give up on troublesome automatic ice makers and buy a refrigerator without one. We figured it would also give us more freezer space.

I don't mind filling the ice cube trays, but I had quite a bit of difficulty removing the cubes from some of them. 

We need a lot of ice in Hawaii. At least I do.

The container with the red lid is Art's slingshot ammo to use in our fight against stubborn pigeons. He doesn't need much anymore because the birds are finally realizing we will not give up the fight for our roof.

We have a variety of ice trays we've somehow accumulated through the years.

I had one Rubbermaid ice cube tray that worked much better than the others. I'm not sure how we got it. Could it have come with the refrigerator? It takes no effort at all to removing the ice cubes.

I decided to keep the Rubbermaid and order more of them.

Perhaps it's the shape of the cube? 

I don't know.

Whatever the case, I'm very pleased with these trays so I think I'll just donate the rest. 😄

The Worst Place to Retire... Hawaii

I saw this on CNBC last year and kept some of the article.

Gosh!

I was reminded of this article because Art's cousin was here recently and told us how a decent care home here in Hawaii would cost you close to $10,000 a month or more if you are incapacitated in any way.

Homes here are close to a million dollars if it's in a nice area or close to Honolulu.

I'm just grateful we bought and renovated our home 15 years ago.

Prices have skyrocketed. I really feel for young people who are just starting out.

A Breyers1.5 quart carton of ice cream can cost you $6 to $8 at the supermarket.

I've noticed dairy costs a lot more here than in Chicago.

And true... gas costs more here too though maybe not as expensive than in California.

We are also very short of medical staffing.

Finding a doctor is really difficult these days and you have to just hope that your doctor doesn't decide to retire or move to the mainland (like my orthopedic doctor and GP).

On the other hand...

We don't have to shovel snow in January.

We have rainbows.

We have shave ice.

I always expect people to be nice here.

On the other hand...

I remember Hawaii once being on some list as having the worst drivers in the country. 

On the other hand...

We have rainbows and shave ice.

You can go to the beach all year long.

On the other hand...

Houses next to the beach are falling into the ocean due to global warming and ocean level rising.

And so on and so forth.

POSTSCRIPT:

Wait... wait... 

Would you believe I then found another site that said  we're not the worst?

We're not even in the top 10 worst places.

Oh brother!

My daughter lives in Chicago. I'll have to tell her they need to move to Hawaii.

WORDLE War II

OK, I figure all's fair in love and WORDLE.

We have a WORDLE battle every morning with the kids. Our daughter, Tiffany is in Chicago. Our son, Keola is on the other side of the world. Because Keola is almost a day ahead of us, he often gets the WORDLE the day before we do.

I also know that Keola uses the SAME beginning two words that I do. 

ADIEU and STORY

He just does it in a different order than me unless he decides to use another word to throw me off.

Although he claimed to "stink at this" on this particular day, he was able to get it faster than me or his sister. 

Granted, Tiffany is no slouch herself.

I am sad to say I have crashed and burned doing this at least 3, maybe 4 times. If it's more than that, I refuse to admit it.

Anyway, on this particular day I could figure out that Keola probably did STORY first, so I know there's an O and an R. I also know there's an A.

Sooo... knowing that, I tried MORAL. Hallelujah! I got two yellow letters which indicated they were just in the wrong place.

OMG! OMG! I got in two tries. Woo hoo! I could hardly believe it.

Did I lie about it? Of course not, I told my children the truth.

That's my smug dog gif.

....To which Tiffany sent this SUS frog. I had to look up what SUS meant. It means:  "giving the impression that something is questionable or dishonest; SUSpicious."

And Keola agreed.

😁

And the next day...sigh.... 

Never mind.

Cranes, Cranes and More Cranes

A long while back Debby of Life's Funny Like That wrote about trying to make a flapping crane. 

Ooooh kaaay....

I definitely know how to make a crane. I could probably make one in my sleep. I've helped enough friends make their 1,000 cranes to insure a happy marriage.

I'm remembering my son, Keola playing with my brother and sister-in-law's 1,000 cranes which were displayed on a stand a few decades ago.

When it was my turn to get married, I decided to forgo all that work.

But I digress.

Anyway, I figured I could easily make some cranes for Debby.

But then I remembered that word, "flapping." 

Flapping? Sure, these traditional cranes can sort of flap their wings.

Sort of....

So I wrote and asked her about it.

Do you know there are tons of different kinds of origami cranes or birds? The white one is the traditional crane. The purple one on the right is the flapping one that Debby's grandson liked. 

You can find a gazillion origami instructions online. I'd never heard of a FLAPPING crane until I saw Debby's blog post and this video. To be honest, I've only ever folded the traditional crane.

I used a little bottle to roll and curl the wing a little bit to give it a nicer curve.

You pull the tail while holding the bottom of the neck to make the wings flap. I used a slightly stiffer origami paper to give it a little more sturdiness.

At New Years, my aunt in Japan who does the most incredible origami made this crane for me.

Or is it a swan?

Ahhh well...

This brought back another memory for me.

We were in the city of Kochi in Japan in 2012 with mom and my brother.

While riding the bus, I had mom ask the driver if we were headed to a certain spot we wanted to see.

OK, that was the first time we ran into a grumpy public worker in Japan.

It turned out that this fellow with mom in the photo was the president of a company that made these incredible stainless steel origami cranes and he'd seen what had happened.

The bus driver wasn't mean, just a little gruff. 

Anyway, Mr. Ishida felt terrible about mom not being treated with more kindness so he answered all our questions when we got off and even walked a bit with us. Then he handed mom this exquisite teeny tiny very, very miniature origami stainless steel crane. Mom is holding it in her left hand in the photo.

And as for that flapping crane I finally figured out how to make... 

I sent some to Debby for her grandson and she emailed this wonderful photo to me which she gave me permission to post.

Soft Light for Sleep

Mom has been struggling to get a good night's sleep for a while. She says she wakes up multiple times and can't get back to sleep for a long time.

Her geriatric doctor recommended melatonin which I've given her, but mom says it hasn't helped. On the other hand, she doesn't appear sleepy or tired during the days so maybe she doesn't remember.

It then occurred to me that turning on the bright overhead lights might awaken her brain too much and hinder getting back to sleep. We recently bought a softer, but bright enough light for our bathroom so I thought we could try one in hers.

I demonstrated how she didn't need to turn on the overhead light before going into the bathroom, but it's such an ingrained habit that I don't know if she'll remember. 

I guess I'll try reminding her every night for a while and keep my fingers crossed.

Sigh...

Is My Life a Drip?

I'm sorry, but this is just a silly post.

Sometimes, the weirdest things will hook my brain and I just can't help myself.

Since Art cooks more than I do, I wash and dry the dishes every night. We bought a new dish rack a while ago that had a better incline which allows the water to drain easier. It was a Kitchen Aid. Actually, we bought another one for the smaller sink from Sam's Club with an even better incline.

Anyway...

While I was washing the dishes a couple of weeks ago I suddenly got mesmerized watching the drips forming to drain into the sink.

I stopped and stared as the little puddles connected and teetered on the edge of the downward slope.

And there it goes!!!

I know it's crazy to be fascinated by this, but for several nights, I was drawn to watching one of those drips. 

Art saw me doing this the other night and laughed out loud.

But guess what? He watched one of those drips with me too.

I'm sure he thinks I'm a little crazy, but that's nothing new.

POSTSCRIPT:

OK... You can stop worrying about me. After writing this post last week, I don't watch the drips anymore. 

It did add some fun to washing dishes though.

Safety Handles

Mom is still quite ambulatory and moves OK although she's taken some nasty falls and had some really nasty injuries.

After ZOOMing with an eldercare program recently, it got us thinking of more places where we should add supports to prevent another fall.

There is a step down from the kitchen door to go outside. I've seen mom stick her finger by that hinge opening as a support which makes me cringe. I've warned her and warned her not to put it there because she could pinch her fingers or worse, but she forgets. She also sometimes puts her hand on the other side as a support, but I thought the hinge side was worse. 

Art said I should take a picture so he could see exactly where he should put a handle bar. Sooo... I asked her to demonstrate where she puts her hands.

It looked like the hinge side is where the handle bar should go so that's where Art put it although he wasn't so sure. I then had mom try it when it was installed and she said it was good.

HOWEVER... the next day, she didn't use the handle. Granted, I saw that she didn't stick her fingers where it could be pinched either.

I had to remind her and have her practice holding the handle while she put her slippers on.

"You should look where the dirt marks are," Art insisted.

A few minutes later I watched mom and sure enough that's another place where she put her hand.

She goes out to work on her gardening and doesn't wash her hands well enough so it leaves dirt stains on the doorway trim. 

OK, with a bit more practice, she did master the safety handle so we didn't have to add the extra handle. We also showed her how to reverse in while holding the handle so that her slippers would face outwards when she steps down to go outside.

Hopefully, this will work.

Hopefully, she can remember. 🤞