Christmas Crafts

Unique Christmas cards have always been a favorite for me and this one just arrived in the mail. It is hand-stitched by my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter. This is a keeper. The amount of time and effort that an item like this takes makes it very special to the person receiving it. I understand that each card they sent this year has a variation on this motif. The stitching is very meticulous.

The inside of the card is as neat as the outside.  The green backing covers the back of the needlework that is on the face of the card.

It is an honor to receive such a special Christmas card, so it will have a special display spot in my house where we can see it daily throughout the season. It will also become part of my annual Christmas decorations display in my house.

Moving On

Re-inventing ourselves is a life-long process; some times are more dramatic than other times. Ruts have a limited shelf life for me. I like to move on to new things and do a lot of stuff that change places I go and activities that appeal to me. Friends and acquaintances come and go, hobbies come and go, and life is as changing as waves on a shore. I love the ebb and flow of day-to-day events and seeing what is around the next corner.

Retirement is wonderful in the way that it opens so many doors, it is hard to choose the next door. Sometimes I like to sit myself down and have a chat with myself. Where am I going? What do I want to do next? I have a "meditation" chair where I sit and contemplate my future.

Recently I made a major change and we older people don't adjust to changes well as a rule. At least, that is what I heard someone near me say to another silver-haired gent with whom he was having a profound conversation.  I was shamelessly eavesdropping. I have to agree, it takes a bit of assertive, maybe aggressive effort to decide what to do next and where to put my efforts. My major change was to move from one gym to another.

After two weeks of attending the new gym for two hours plus each morning, I find I am more than a little pleased with the decision for many reasons. I can already see the benefits of my efforts and it has almost become like reporting to work every morning. I try to follow a schedule and arrive at around the same time even though I don't pressure myself and I relax with it. It keeps me centered to have a routine to follow on weekdays. Three days a week, I work out on over 20  pieces of Life Fitness equipment, then I walk on a treadmill as fast as I can for three miles. On two days a week, I don't do the equipment, but I walk four miles and try to do that in one hour. It really works up a sweat so I can't forget to take along my towel.

I like the treadmills because they have individual TV screens and cable TV so I can watch CNN, or major networks, or movies, etc. Sometimes I set that on closed caption and watch the news channels in the morning while listening to my music on my own MP3 player. I am so occupied with my music and the headlines, I barely notice that I am exercising. My next change will probably be to expand into some new cardio machines like ellipticals, bikes or rowing machines. I like variety so I will try some new stuff again soon.

I don't know what it means, if anything, but I am seeing a lot of faces at the new gym that I used to see at my previous gym. How interesting.

I am meeting new people and I enjoy the conversations with other people who like to exercise. The early morning crowd includes many other retirees so I can relate to them and we have some things in common. However, it has a big age range which is good too. I don't want to exercise where there are only old people or even where there are only women. I think the decision to try a new location has been an exciting change and it inspires me to look for a lot of other new things to do. 

I don't find it daunting as an older person to "change" things. I find it invigorating.

Holding Back the Sea

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/17-01/ff_dutch_delta?currentPage=all 

As I watch places like New Jersey, Staten Island, Manhattan, the Northeastern states, as well as New Orleans trying to cope with devastating storms, I think of the old story of the little boy with his finger in the dike.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090102054847AAAfnFg

In the story Hans Brinker,  or The Silver Skates written by American author, Mary Maples Dodge in 1865, the boy puts his finger in the dike to avoid a catastrophe. This is an example of band aid surgery that we in the U.S. need to rethink. For the second year in a row, the Northeast is coping with a natural disaster and we need to plan ahead.

If we look to the "low countries" around the North Sea in Western Europe, such as the Netherlands, they have successfully dealt with existing with the sea and coping with regular floods.

http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/dykes.htm 

That area of the world has been struggling to hold back the sea for thousands of years. If we look around the world to places such as Venice, they have always struggled to coexist with the surrounding water. 

If we can learn anything from history, we have to assume natural disasters will happen again. We have to prepare for the distant future, not just next year by rebuilding in flood plains with no regard to the probability that it will happen again. Yes, this country is resilient and optimistic. We discuss and argue about everything which sometimes means nothing gets done. We paralyze ourselves with indecision. If we want the best of everything, we have to be willing to pay for it for all the people, not just a select few. The land of opportunity shouldn't mean the opportunity to take advantage of others.

It is a sad, sad situation that we see on news clips and we certainly don't want it to happen again. Hurricanes will continue and floods will continue. We can't stop the weather, so we in the U.S. will have to face reality and decide what is the goal regarding our coastlines and our own "low countries". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee

We can't go back. What will be will be; we have to get ready. If we want to preserve our beaches and cities, we will have to analyze the situation and either commit to engineering ways to hold back the sea, or stop building on coastal areas. We will have to stop arguing about the cause and deal with our new reality. The U.S. needs to learn from other areas of the world who are experts at holding back the sea. 


http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/17-01/ff_dutch_delta?currentPage=all

Horny

This beast is mid-rutting season, haunting my neighborhood looking to get lucky. He chases "anything in skirts" and the ladies can't get away from him fast enough. They run behind fences, tree trunks, across streets and into the creek. She is elusive and he is randy.

I don't understand it. Why aren't the gals eager for a roll in the hay with this magnificent speciman of horniness? Did he not get the memo that dinner and a movie helps to set a mood? Did he send flowers, buy candy? How do they decide to get it on and do the deed? Is it always kind of like rape, or is there a perfect mate out there for everyone?

I actually observed this momentous occasion one afternoon when he found his true love. He must have spent five minutes carefully lapping her bottom. Then he jumps up to the area and bam. Like a one-shot cannon--slam, bam, thank you ma'am. One whack and he's done. Was it good for you too? Must have been, because they went their separate ways, no harm, no foul. He didn't hang around for breakfast.

I thought to myself, why am I being such a voyeur, peeping Tom sort of person, but I lived on a farm in my early life and got used to nature's ways. Never before having observed a white-tailed deer getting it on, I admit that I was spellbound to watch creation in my backyard. Then, I had to laugh when I saw the Lothario settle down for a long nap. Something connected to those testosterone genes that says nap required.

Tchotchkes

After a recent trip, we were asked by a U.S. Customs agent, "You didn't buy anything?" The things we had bought were too small and insignificant to even declare upon re-entering the country. My years of collecting are over even though I enjoy and treasure the mementos we already have of our travels. I'm too near the age of downsizing to keep accumulating trinkets even though the grandchildren love to play with my little tchotchkes. I keep some of the less fragile items in a box so they can look at them and they seem to enjoy touching and arranging them.

Each of my knickknacks has a story and amazingly, I remember where and why I bought them. One of the most memorable became a recent replay of an interesting story with my son and his family. This little plastic bird was shown in demonstrations in Paris at the top of the steps leading to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. We had traveled to Paris and London with our son when he was six so naturally the bird was something that appealed to him. They would wind up a rubber band inside the bird and release the bird to the air so that it would flap its wings and fly around. The rubber band has broken with age, and the crank that was attached to wind it has gone missing. However, it is still cute and carries a lot of memories of seeing it carried around Europe by a six-year-old. It has resided in my travel memories boxes for 30 years just waiting to be delightful again to another little four-year-old boy. My house is a treasure chest for the son of my son. My grandson carries around a cardboard box of a few of my indestructible tiny knickknacks. He likes to line them up on a table like little soldiers.

The NYTimes is keeping an account of stories of souvenirs that people have collected on their travels. My souvenirs are the typical tourist trinkets like stacking dolls from Russia or glass items from Venice and Blue Willow pottery from the Netherlands. I don't buy valuable things and we take tons of pictures to remind us of our travels rather than bringing back a houseful of collectibles. We have boxes of t-shirts that we collected from around the world, but we never wear them. I'm not sure why, but it never seems to be an appropriate time to wear them. Coffee mugs, shot glasses, and refrigerator magnets have found their way into our luggage quite often.  I'm afraid the NYTimes wouldn't find my kitsch to be very interesting.

So we told the U.S. Customs agent that we spent all of our money just paying for the trip. It seemed to be more than satisfactory for the Customs agent.

Beach Behavior

I love beaches but I don't visit as often as I would like. When I am on a beach, it becomes an interesting study in human behavior. We picked a week day to go to the Delaware State Park beaches on the Atlantic Ocean side so it wasn't as crowded as the more popular beaches to the north. We found a place to settle on the sand close to the water because watching the water is what I like to do. The beach was a wide white stretch of sand with a kind of platform that has a slope down to the water. We like to sit at the edge of the "stage" to watch the waves crash. I noticed that a lot of people turn their chairs at an angle to the beach rather than facing the beach. It looked like rows of seagulls facing the wind. The sun was everywhere so you didn't need to face the sun for maximum rays. I wondered if it is considered correct beach etiquette not to face the water so that one doesn't appear to be leering at those going into the water. 

People take their beach umbrellas and sit in sand chairs but not many lie on their towels for the sun to toast them. Some read, some appear to be sleeping, but since most people are wearing sunglasses and hats, it is hard to tell where their attention is directed. I don't mind people watching and I do my share of that. I don't consider it staring or leering. It is understandable that parents of little kids would be ever watchful of their little ones and anyone paying them undue attention. I'm a grandmother and little kids are cute and fun, but I am cautious about appearing to be too interested in them because I am also alert to unsavory characters. 

 

Thankfully, we found that people are considerate enough to leave plenty of space between where their groups settle and they give each other a little space to enjoy the beach in a circle of privacy. It seems to be an unwritten rule that people occupy about a 20 foot diameter circle between themselves and other beach groups. That seemed to be the minimum norm on a weekday. On that particular beach, people entered the beach at the facilities/concession stand/parking lot and kept walking until they found an uncrowded area to settle. Walking in the sand is such good exercise, you can feel the muscles jumping to attention.

 

I saw no one smoking and it was discouraged even outdoors. No one brought a dog to leave poop underfoot. I didn't notice if they were banned, but they probably were banned on that beach. It was a state park with a gate stand, admission fee, and park rules were posted. We didn't hear any loud music and saw people with their earbuds enjoying their music privately. I enjoy the sound of the waves and leave the music for other places. It is nice to visit an area where people are considerate of other beach visitors.

 

beach umbrella + surf board = sailboat

I didn't observe anyone feeding the seagulls even though they were scavenging as usual. People kept their food covered until it went into their mouths because a french fry waving in the air would have been snapped up by an opportunistic gull. It was interesting that there were no garbage cans that anyone would have to keep clean or that would attract scavengers. It was understood that you take away everything you bring. It was a clean beach and I saw no garbage--plastic bottles, cigarette butts, glass or anything other than seashells. I was very appreciative of the clean, white sand. We had scouted down the coast for an hour before we decided on a place to settle. It was a good choice and worth a return visit. The whole idea is to have a quiet, relaxing day and it was that. We spent five hours enjoying the sand, surf, and water.

 

I wish I could live in one of those houses.