,Yesterday, I was glued to the television screen watching the procession and funeral services of Ted Kennedy. I learned many things that I didn’t know about him. For instance, did you know that Teddy was recruited by the Green Bay Packers to play football for them when he graduated from college? They lost him to a higher calling as he went on to law school. Of course, you die-hard Green Bay Packer fans probably don’t think there’s anything better than being a football player for your team. Grin.
I learned that because of his son’s bone cancer and becoming an amputee that he fought for health care for everyone despite their station in life, for equality for all, and for those with disabilities. These are only a few things he sought for the people of this country, there were numerous others.
He was passionate in his beliefs and as a legislator in the U. S. Senate he roared, thus he was nicknamed, The Lion. At the end of the day, he was friends with his adversaries no matter how heated they became during the hearings on whatever was being debated that day.
Ted Kennedy lived through many tragedies, but he didn’t live in the past, he continued to move forward. He made mistakes and admitted to them. He was raised in a family that taught him and his siblings that because they were blessed with so much more than the average man they were responsible for helping those with less. He shouldered this responsibility as his brothers, John and Bobby, before him.
Something else, I remember hearing during the motorcade was that Ted Kennedy got a bill passed to have ramps placed at all public buildings for wheelchair access. On another note, I heard that when Irish emigrates came to America they were not hired for jobs because they were Irish. I am sure this had something to do with the Kennedy clan being so against any type of discrimination.
He believed in church, family and country. Ted taught his children, his nephews, nieces, and grandchildren their moral responsibility to country and to those less fortunate. Like all good fathers, I’m sure he spoke with them often on the topic until it was ingrained in their psyche. Now, I wait with baited breath to see who will carry the torch in the future.
I have no doubt there will be someone.
Thanks for your service to our country, Senator Ted Kennedy. My belief is that you have been redeemed. I know you have fulfilled God’s plan for you, or your turn to rest would not have come yet.
I have rambled today, but these are just some of my observations and thoughts after watching the proceedings yesterday.
Have a great week.
Sandy
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Health an the Writer
The reason I’m writing about this subject is because a writer’s work is sedentary. The nature of our job is deskbound in front of a computer. Even those who use pen and paper, or (heaven forbid) a typewriter, they are still stationary.
To put words on paper is to use your mind while being inactive physically. I am an author, and I know. Not only that I know many other authors who are the same, and I have heard horror stories about others. We become so focused on our books that we forget there is a real life beyond these boundaries.
So many writer’s will eat while they create their novels and often times the food consists of junk food like M & M’s or chips, something that is easy to munch on and still stay on the computer. I have always had the tendency to do that, but I am fortunate to have a husband who drags me away from my PC (screaming and kicking lol) for a few hours every day.
I know novelists who have gained weight to such limits that they have developed diabetes and other serious diseases to the extent that they have become bedridden. Some smoke to calm their nerves or to keep the weight off their bodies, which poses more health hazards. Whether we have an illness or not, we are all developing the same problem, we are causing muscle deterioration and losing strength in our limbs, which will cause major difficulty later in life. Some of these will be irreversible if something is not done in the early stages.
My health hasn’t been the best for many years. I have suffered with fibermyalgia and peripheral neuropathy since my early forties (it may have been earlier, but it wasn’t diagnosed until then), and one of the things my doctor told me was that exercise would help.
For several years, I have belonged to a goals oriented on-line Yahoo group who also set targets for exercise, which kept reminding me I needed to exercise. Also, I have a husband and sister who have nagged me about not keeping fit and that it help my mind, give me more energy, etc. All of us have heard it before, and we just let it go in one ear and out the other. Anyway, I didn’t have time for everything, and I let my health slide.
At my last birthday, I changed health insurance. This insurance believes in prevention and one of the ways they believe in deterring bad health is through exercise. To help people like me who won’t exercise by themselves, they are paying for my membership and monthly dues at the YMCA.
I’ve been exercising at the Y for two and a half months, and I can honestly say I feel a difference, much stronger physically and mentally. This is something every writer needs to take time to do for their selves, and I’m not saying I’ll stick to this regimen, but I hope I do. Smile. This is our health.
My question is, what do you do to help yourself keep fit?
Have a great week.
Sandy
To put words on paper is to use your mind while being inactive physically. I am an author, and I know. Not only that I know many other authors who are the same, and I have heard horror stories about others. We become so focused on our books that we forget there is a real life beyond these boundaries.
So many writer’s will eat while they create their novels and often times the food consists of junk food like M & M’s or chips, something that is easy to munch on and still stay on the computer. I have always had the tendency to do that, but I am fortunate to have a husband who drags me away from my PC (screaming and kicking lol) for a few hours every day.
I know novelists who have gained weight to such limits that they have developed diabetes and other serious diseases to the extent that they have become bedridden. Some smoke to calm their nerves or to keep the weight off their bodies, which poses more health hazards. Whether we have an illness or not, we are all developing the same problem, we are causing muscle deterioration and losing strength in our limbs, which will cause major difficulty later in life. Some of these will be irreversible if something is not done in the early stages.
My health hasn’t been the best for many years. I have suffered with fibermyalgia and peripheral neuropathy since my early forties (it may have been earlier, but it wasn’t diagnosed until then), and one of the things my doctor told me was that exercise would help.
For several years, I have belonged to a goals oriented on-line Yahoo group who also set targets for exercise, which kept reminding me I needed to exercise. Also, I have a husband and sister who have nagged me about not keeping fit and that it help my mind, give me more energy, etc. All of us have heard it before, and we just let it go in one ear and out the other. Anyway, I didn’t have time for everything, and I let my health slide.
At my last birthday, I changed health insurance. This insurance believes in prevention and one of the ways they believe in deterring bad health is through exercise. To help people like me who won’t exercise by themselves, they are paying for my membership and monthly dues at the YMCA.
I’ve been exercising at the Y for two and a half months, and I can honestly say I feel a difference, much stronger physically and mentally. This is something every writer needs to take time to do for their selves, and I’m not saying I’ll stick to this regimen, but I hope I do. Smile. This is our health.
My question is, what do you do to help yourself keep fit?
Have a great week.
Sandy
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Colorado and Birthday Parties
Hi Everyone,
First of all, I must apologize for not posting last Sunday, and then I’m going to bore you with the details of my vacation in Colorado. Smile. Of course, it wasn’t boring to me. I loved every moment of my trip.
For those of you who don’t know what traveling standby is like, I’m starting with the day I began my trip. Up at 2:30 a.m. and at the airport by 4:30 a.m. where fortunately checking baggage was made easy with curb check-in. Since, I had already printed my priority listing ticket at home I was able to go through security and to the gate. All went smoothly at our Kansas City airport. I made it on the flight and in the air by 6:00 a.m. without a worry in the world. I even dozed until we arrived at Dallas Airport.
Once at Dallas, I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight to Colorado Springs, which was fortunate since I had to make my way to another terminal for that flight. Anyone who has been to the DFW airport knows that transition is made easy by a train that people can get on and are transported from place to place. It takes all of 15 minutes at most.
At that terminal is where my troubles began. Grin. Being a seasoned stand-by traveler, I was expecting it somewhere along the line. To shorten this part of the story, I missed three flights out of Dallas before I caught the fourth one. I was lucky that all four flights were in the same terminal, although at different gates. As I waited, I had breakfast and started a book by Dean Koontz titled False Memory. It was the first story of his I had read since Red October (bored me to death with all the technology), but False Memory held my attention and had me rooting for all the characters to the end.
On the flight to Dallas, I sat next to a man and we managed to visit a bit between reading my book and him working his cross-word puzzle. The reason I bring him up is because I think he might have been a classmate from Lawrence High School since he asked me my name, but being so absorbed in my book and the topic we were discussing I didn’t think to ask his. (Addendum: I looked up the pictures in my 1962 class looking for this man, but all of us have changed so much I couldn’t tell for sure if he was any of my classmates.)
We were discussing Egypt because he had been there recently to visit his son and his wife. His son works for an architectural firm that is building a new Cairo Museum. I was particularly interested to learn if the country’s attitude toward women had changed since I last visited there. It appears that in some instances it had, but I would still never recommend a lone woman to travel there by themselves. I’m going to write more on this topic at a later date.
On to Colorado where my sister picked me up at the airport and took me to her home to rest where I was greeted with a big hug from my brother-in-law. Yay, Jon. Everything else was pretty much a jumble the rest of the time I was there, so I’ll tell you the main reason I made this trip, to attend birthday parties. Lol My great-nephew turned ten and a great-niece turned five. The week or so before another one turned three, but I wasn’t able to make it for that one as I had a lot of work to do before leaving, and I couldn’t spend that much time away from home.
While there, I played Sorry with my soon-to-be five-year-old great-niece, Ashley, and let me tell you she knew the rules by heart even better than her mother. Grin. I met Daisy, a six- month-old puppy who was so sweet I fell in love with her and got reacquainted with Toby whom I’ve always loved since I met him. We went to the park to walk the dogs and let the kids ride their scooters.
Later, Alex put on a magic show with his assistants, Taylor, Ashley and Courtney. He even dragged some of the adults out of their seats to help. It was great fun, and I laughed and clapped with each trick.
The next day Jon’s brother, Fred, drove into town for a visit. After that, we played games at night when we had a chance to stay at home. Also, I went to a Bunko party with my sister, which was a lot of fun.
Alex’s tenth birthday party was a lot of fun with family and friends there. My last day with Alex and his sister, Courtney, he showed me all his books on Egypt (he’s very interested in the ancient history of Egypt), and then they took me through his museums. One was a museum of money from different countries and the other was an art museum made up of drawings each of the kids drew. Lol Don’t ever think these museums were free. These kids are entrepreneurs, and I paid them 75 cents to go through the money museum and 25 cents for the art museum, although they were only charging 10 cents for that one. Grin.
Ashley, the lucky girl had two birthday parties, one with family and another with friends. The first day was her actual birthday, the whole family played miniature golf, and all of these kids are pros, especially Taylor who has gone golfing with her dad and Papa. Then, in the evening when the whole family could get together we had her family birthday party.
The next day was the kid party, and although I didn’t attend, I hear it was pretty special. A huge tunnel and trampoline type thing (sorry, but my mind is gone, and I can’t think of the name of this contraption) was set up in the back yard for this party. lol
Miss Taylor didn’t get as much of my attention this time, but I let her know I love her very much as I love Alex, Ashley and Courtney and their mothers and fathers. It was for these little ones as well as my sister and brother-in-law and my nieces that I made this trip.
The only thing I did, other than family activities, was go to the majestic Garden of the Gods, and I did do a bit of shopping. I promised my sister that next time I came out we would do more sight-seeing, although, I’ve seen a lot already at other visits dating back to the sixties when Jon was stationed there after his National Guard unit was activated.
I loved the peace of looking at the Rockies while sitting out on the patio, or walking around the park area at the back of my sister’s house. I had a wonderful time, Sis and Jon. Thanks for having me.
Did I make it back home? Of course, I did, or I wouldn’t be posting this blog. Although, I had to get up for an early flight again, I didn’t miss any going home.
Talk about being long-winded, if this were a story I would have cut out half of it to make it more exciting, but this is about real life. Smile. It wasn't boring to me. Smile.
See you next Sunday. Have a great week everyone.
Sandy
First of all, I must apologize for not posting last Sunday, and then I’m going to bore you with the details of my vacation in Colorado. Smile. Of course, it wasn’t boring to me. I loved every moment of my trip.
For those of you who don’t know what traveling standby is like, I’m starting with the day I began my trip. Up at 2:30 a.m. and at the airport by 4:30 a.m. where fortunately checking baggage was made easy with curb check-in. Since, I had already printed my priority listing ticket at home I was able to go through security and to the gate. All went smoothly at our Kansas City airport. I made it on the flight and in the air by 6:00 a.m. without a worry in the world. I even dozed until we arrived at Dallas Airport.
Once at Dallas, I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight to Colorado Springs, which was fortunate since I had to make my way to another terminal for that flight. Anyone who has been to the DFW airport knows that transition is made easy by a train that people can get on and are transported from place to place. It takes all of 15 minutes at most.
At that terminal is where my troubles began. Grin. Being a seasoned stand-by traveler, I was expecting it somewhere along the line. To shorten this part of the story, I missed three flights out of Dallas before I caught the fourth one. I was lucky that all four flights were in the same terminal, although at different gates. As I waited, I had breakfast and started a book by Dean Koontz titled False Memory. It was the first story of his I had read since Red October (bored me to death with all the technology), but False Memory held my attention and had me rooting for all the characters to the end.
On the flight to Dallas, I sat next to a man and we managed to visit a bit between reading my book and him working his cross-word puzzle. The reason I bring him up is because I think he might have been a classmate from Lawrence High School since he asked me my name, but being so absorbed in my book and the topic we were discussing I didn’t think to ask his. (Addendum: I looked up the pictures in my 1962 class looking for this man, but all of us have changed so much I couldn’t tell for sure if he was any of my classmates.)
We were discussing Egypt because he had been there recently to visit his son and his wife. His son works for an architectural firm that is building a new Cairo Museum. I was particularly interested to learn if the country’s attitude toward women had changed since I last visited there. It appears that in some instances it had, but I would still never recommend a lone woman to travel there by themselves. I’m going to write more on this topic at a later date.
On to Colorado where my sister picked me up at the airport and took me to her home to rest where I was greeted with a big hug from my brother-in-law. Yay, Jon. Everything else was pretty much a jumble the rest of the time I was there, so I’ll tell you the main reason I made this trip, to attend birthday parties. Lol My great-nephew turned ten and a great-niece turned five. The week or so before another one turned three, but I wasn’t able to make it for that one as I had a lot of work to do before leaving, and I couldn’t spend that much time away from home.
While there, I played Sorry with my soon-to-be five-year-old great-niece, Ashley, and let me tell you she knew the rules by heart even better than her mother. Grin. I met Daisy, a six- month-old puppy who was so sweet I fell in love with her and got reacquainted with Toby whom I’ve always loved since I met him. We went to the park to walk the dogs and let the kids ride their scooters.
Later, Alex put on a magic show with his assistants, Taylor, Ashley and Courtney. He even dragged some of the adults out of their seats to help. It was great fun, and I laughed and clapped with each trick.
The next day Jon’s brother, Fred, drove into town for a visit. After that, we played games at night when we had a chance to stay at home. Also, I went to a Bunko party with my sister, which was a lot of fun.
Alex’s tenth birthday party was a lot of fun with family and friends there. My last day with Alex and his sister, Courtney, he showed me all his books on Egypt (he’s very interested in the ancient history of Egypt), and then they took me through his museums. One was a museum of money from different countries and the other was an art museum made up of drawings each of the kids drew. Lol Don’t ever think these museums were free. These kids are entrepreneurs, and I paid them 75 cents to go through the money museum and 25 cents for the art museum, although they were only charging 10 cents for that one. Grin.
Ashley, the lucky girl had two birthday parties, one with family and another with friends. The first day was her actual birthday, the whole family played miniature golf, and all of these kids are pros, especially Taylor who has gone golfing with her dad and Papa. Then, in the evening when the whole family could get together we had her family birthday party.
The next day was the kid party, and although I didn’t attend, I hear it was pretty special. A huge tunnel and trampoline type thing (sorry, but my mind is gone, and I can’t think of the name of this contraption) was set up in the back yard for this party. lol
Miss Taylor didn’t get as much of my attention this time, but I let her know I love her very much as I love Alex, Ashley and Courtney and their mothers and fathers. It was for these little ones as well as my sister and brother-in-law and my nieces that I made this trip.
The only thing I did, other than family activities, was go to the majestic Garden of the Gods, and I did do a bit of shopping. I promised my sister that next time I came out we would do more sight-seeing, although, I’ve seen a lot already at other visits dating back to the sixties when Jon was stationed there after his National Guard unit was activated.
I loved the peace of looking at the Rockies while sitting out on the patio, or walking around the park area at the back of my sister’s house. I had a wonderful time, Sis and Jon. Thanks for having me.
Did I make it back home? Of course, I did, or I wouldn’t be posting this blog. Although, I had to get up for an early flight again, I didn’t miss any going home.
Talk about being long-winded, if this were a story I would have cut out half of it to make it more exciting, but this is about real life. Smile. It wasn't boring to me. Smile.
See you next Sunday. Have a great week everyone.
Sandy
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Do You Hold Grudges?
Hi Everyone,
We are going to discuss grudges today. Are you a grudge holder? I’m one of these people who explode and gets over it in about five minutes. Now, that can be a good thing, or not. That depends on the person who got the butt end of that explosion.
My hubby used to get mad and stay mad for several hours or a day or two. Early in our marriage, he learned I wouldn’t allow that. If I made a mistake, I wasn’t afraid to tell him I was sorry. It‘s easier to hold onto a grudge after a major fight than to let go of your anger. If I wasn’t able to teach my hubby anything but this one thing, I’m glad it was that it’s not worth it to hold a grudge or stay mad forever. Now, he gets over being mad almost as fast as I do. Smile. At least, he does with me.
To give you an instance of staying mad for a long time, I know a woman who didn’t speak to her brother for twenty years. That one was over money. Many grudges are within families and they can last a very long time. Sometimes, they are over hurt feelings, finances, assumed knowledge that they know something they don’t when they probably only know a portion of whatever they think they know, which is probably not their business anyway, and numerous other reasons.
My family had their share of squabbles, but they still could associate with one another at family gatherings and are always there for each other. We are huggers when we’re together. I know of families who never speak to one another unless they come together for a funeral or a wedding.
My hubby and sister don’t exactly get along, but they do when they get together. I think they are too much alike to ever really get along. He bitches a lot because he thinks she’s bossy. Lol My opinion is that they both are, and for absolutely the same reasons. Sorry honey and sis. You know I love you both. My sister swore she would never let a man walk over her like our father did our mother, and my hubby won’t let any woman treat him like some others have.
Do grudge holders ever get over it? Quite often, they don’t until it’s too late. The woman who didn’t speak to her brother for twenty years got a call from her sister-in-law to let her know he was ill. They started speaking again and they had about two or three years left to get reacquainted.
Once a woman got mad at her niece over some pictures she thought were being given to her. The person who showed them to her intended them for her husband’s sister, and not for this woman. The woman stopped speaking to her niece even though she was told the pictures weren’t for her. Fortunately, someone stepped in and was able to convince her not to stay mad, and she was glad she hadn’t remained mad because her niece died soon after.
When I was a kid, I learned early not to hold grudges. It was hard because sometimes other kids are mean. As I grew older and held a job, it was an advantage not to hold a grudge, and even if I didn’t feel like talking to someone I made myself speak in a normal tone to them. To do that always made it easier to heal our hurt feelings.
Are you a grudge holder? Does your family hold grudges? We would love to hear about the grudge holders you know.
Next week, I will be in Colorado. I hope to post a blog from there, but if I forget you’ll be free from listening to my ramblings for a whole week. Wink!
Have a good week everyone.
Sandy
We are going to discuss grudges today. Are you a grudge holder? I’m one of these people who explode and gets over it in about five minutes. Now, that can be a good thing, or not. That depends on the person who got the butt end of that explosion.
My hubby used to get mad and stay mad for several hours or a day or two. Early in our marriage, he learned I wouldn’t allow that. If I made a mistake, I wasn’t afraid to tell him I was sorry. It‘s easier to hold onto a grudge after a major fight than to let go of your anger. If I wasn’t able to teach my hubby anything but this one thing, I’m glad it was that it’s not worth it to hold a grudge or stay mad forever. Now, he gets over being mad almost as fast as I do. Smile. At least, he does with me.
To give you an instance of staying mad for a long time, I know a woman who didn’t speak to her brother for twenty years. That one was over money. Many grudges are within families and they can last a very long time. Sometimes, they are over hurt feelings, finances, assumed knowledge that they know something they don’t when they probably only know a portion of whatever they think they know, which is probably not their business anyway, and numerous other reasons.
My family had their share of squabbles, but they still could associate with one another at family gatherings and are always there for each other. We are huggers when we’re together. I know of families who never speak to one another unless they come together for a funeral or a wedding.
My hubby and sister don’t exactly get along, but they do when they get together. I think they are too much alike to ever really get along. He bitches a lot because he thinks she’s bossy. Lol My opinion is that they both are, and for absolutely the same reasons. Sorry honey and sis. You know I love you both. My sister swore she would never let a man walk over her like our father did our mother, and my hubby won’t let any woman treat him like some others have.
Do grudge holders ever get over it? Quite often, they don’t until it’s too late. The woman who didn’t speak to her brother for twenty years got a call from her sister-in-law to let her know he was ill. They started speaking again and they had about two or three years left to get reacquainted.
Once a woman got mad at her niece over some pictures she thought were being given to her. The person who showed them to her intended them for her husband’s sister, and not for this woman. The woman stopped speaking to her niece even though she was told the pictures weren’t for her. Fortunately, someone stepped in and was able to convince her not to stay mad, and she was glad she hadn’t remained mad because her niece died soon after.
When I was a kid, I learned early not to hold grudges. It was hard because sometimes other kids are mean. As I grew older and held a job, it was an advantage not to hold a grudge, and even if I didn’t feel like talking to someone I made myself speak in a normal tone to them. To do that always made it easier to heal our hurt feelings.
Are you a grudge holder? Does your family hold grudges? We would love to hear about the grudge holders you know.
Next week, I will be in Colorado. I hope to post a blog from there, but if I forget you’ll be free from listening to my ramblings for a whole week. Wink!
Have a good week everyone.
Sandy
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