Departure Day

It's April 29 and I'm in the bathroom doing the Happy Dance while Alyssa is trying to get ready for work. She is taking me to the airport on the way to work. I'm a little excited and all set to go. I'm going to Brussels, Belgium with Heidi for a surprise retirement party for her European colleague Jan, who became my friend when I traveled with Heidi in the first year and a half of my retirement. Jan is English, but now lives in Belgium. I can't wait to see her house.

Because Alyssa dropped me at the airport on her way to work I am early. There are two flights before mine which is to leave at 12:40. After the 10:40 left I asked the desk agent if it was possible to get on the next flight which is an hour earlier than mine. She moved me up with no charge!

I'm at the airport in Atlanta an hour earlier than expected where I'm meeting Heidi, so no worries about being late. Even as we speak, she's on Marta and should be here soon. I'm calmed down enough now to eat a little something, so I'm having soup, really good potato, and chatting with Craig and Alex from Texas and Michigan who are on their way to Eastern Europe to backpack.



Fast forward: It's now now Monday, May, 4. I want to post a picture of the two backpackers, but I'm on Regina's computer (you'll meet her later) and its all in German, so I'm having a bit of a 's challenge figuring it out. Did I mention the keyboard is European, so if you see wierd stuff (the Y isn't where it's supposed to be for one) that's why.

Time Flies

I can't believe it has been eight months since I last posted. It's been said, "Time flies when you're having fun!" and in my case this is true! It'll be two years in June that I have been retired and it just keeps getting better and better. Holly and Andy, Alyssa , Andy (Alyssa's boyfriend), Brittanny, Taylor, and I spent a week on Singer Island Near West Palm Beach in Florida over spring break. It couldn't have been better. Sunrises every morning, long walks after to collect shells and take pictures, days on the sand and in the wild, warm ocean. We loved every second of it.
Next week I'll be traveling and, hopefully, I can document the trip on the blog even though this time I'm leaving the laptop at home and relying on Internet cafes and such.

The Planting

O.K. the picture thing is killing me. The Watering and The Happy Dance ended up first instead of last.

I also can't get indentation for paragraphs and the text to flow the way I want it to.

In any event, we were thrilled when the hedge was finally planted after three days of labor, and it still looks good.

For a treat during the planting, I took Taylor to see Jim and Carolyn's two acre forest hosta garden. It is unbelievably beautiful and serene. We were so inspired we excitedly chatted all the way home about what we wanted to do with our garden and we couldn't wait to get back to work.

The next time I stopped to see Jim and Carolyn they sent home a gorgeous hosta called (of all things), Striptease, for Taylor. We were both thrilled and have now started our own little hosta shade garden. Did I say that Jim has 246 of the over 300 varieties of hostas? He does.

Taylor is feeling much better and is starting physical therapy on her finger today. She will be sidelined from fall sports for two to three months, but after that is good to go again with, hopefully, no ill effects.

My doctor gave me the all-clear after my hip replacement of three and a half months ago on Tuesday and I'm able to go to the gym again which I did with Alyssa yesterday. It felt great although I'm a little sore today. We have much to be thankful for and life is good!

Dead Daises

Who would have thought dead daises could be beautiful. My 15 year-old granddaughter Taylor had these on a shelf. I thought they were gorgeous.

She's my gardening buddy. We planted 19 Green Mountain boxwoods for the hedge around our some-day-to-be English garden. I helped with three and she planted the other 16 all by herself.

Today she's trying something new by having surgery on the finger she injured about three weeks ago in a basketball game. The trainer said it was a sprain, she could move it, and it didn't hurt all that much or stop her from playing, so we figured it would get better. It didn't and the hand specialist said that it was a bad break and that she must be really tough. So, in a few minutes her mom Holly, sister Brittanny, and I are going with Taylor to a surgery center.
After much waiting and delay, the surgery was successfully completed. Two tiny screws and the finger will be as good as new.

Atlanta

So much has happened since my last post. Primarily, a total right hip replacement on March 25. The recovery is going well, but, has slowed me down considerably. But, one perk is that I'm spending a week of "resting" time at Heidi and Steve's in Roswell, GA, a really quaint, artsy old town about 25 minutes north of downtown Atlanta.

The last time I was out and about with my daughter Heidi we were traveling in Germany and Italy. Here's Heidi in our room in Venice last February. Her husband Steve had joined us for the last weekend of our trip there.

Before that, Heidi and I had been to Neuss, Dusseldorf, Nuremburg, and Milan. Heidi had to work everyday, but I got to play and explore. My previous posts are about those adventures. Now that I've learned a little about including photos, hopefully, there will be many more.

Contemplating the Moon: Women in Wax

Contemplating the Moon: Women in Wax

I May Have Created a Monster

I thought I had to complete all my travel posts before I could just do some regular blogging. But, I was a little behind and not moving toward that when I picked up a copy of the current Artful Blogging magazine. The more I got into it, the more intimidated I felt, kind of angry almost. I heard the door slam shut.

Then I came to the part where Bridgette Guerzon Mills in her “Contemplating the Moon” (www.bgmartjournal.blogspot.com) blog talked about, “connecting with creative people.” I want to do that. Making art can be isolating. But…and then I got to Sarah Bowen’s blog “Piece of Work” (www.sarahbowen.typepad.com) and was reminded of my own uniqueness and how special each of our uniquenesses is. We need not apologize for being that - unique. Each person’s unique qualities are God-breathed and are not up for jurying.

I knew this on an intellectual level and I have always felt uniquely special in a pleasant way, but now my heart is leaping! I can be me. No apologies, just me. Once when I asked my thirty-something daughter Holly, “…seriously, am I a dork?” She said, “Yeah, you are, but in an endearing kind of way.” My three teenage granddaughters tell me being a dork is never good. But, you know what? It doesn’t matter. So, it’s o.k. to be cutesy sometimes, cluttery most of the time, and in left field all the time with no established lateral dominance at the age of 66. So, it also shouldn’t matter if my English Department Chair colleague from my former high school should read a post. It’s just me. This is going to be fun!

I’m stopping now even though I’m overflowing. I’ve picked up that blogs that are too long get tiring and this post is probably too long already. I just want to say, I’m working on a banner and I’ll post photos as soon as I learn how. I think I’ve found a site that will help. Now I just have to figure out how to get this out there.