America The Beautiful

Everyone should have the opportunity to visit Yellowstone National Park at least once. Buffalo roam freely and the lyrics to America The Beautiful danced in my head as we drove through the park. I have never seen so many rivers. And I think my husband got tired of hearing me say, "look over there". As we drove through Yellowstone I was worried that we wouldn't see any wild animals. After about twenty minutes we saw a herd of Buffalo. There were hundreds of acres of Buffalo roaming on the free range. It wasn't until twenty or thirty cars ahead of us slowed down that we realized what was on the road. Two Buffalo, out for their morning stroll and in no hurry to go anywhere. We saw prong horn antelope and mule deer grazing. Before we got to Wyoming we drove through the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. Another beautiful sight. Cattle were roaming across the road in several areas. The air was a cool 48 degrees, something Floridians don't experience often, especially in July. Driving across country gave new meaning to the lyrics of the song, 'for purple mountains majesty, for amber waves of grain." This is a vacation I won't soon forget. The icing on this cake was spending time with our granddaughters. We drove over three thousand miles before we got to our girls,but it was worth it just to be together again. It was wonderful to be able to see America.

ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF....

My husband loves working outside. Must be a man thing. I'd rather be inside where there are no bugs and an air conditioner. He cuts the grass and comes to one of the windows outside my office and waves at me. I smile, take him cool water and yell at him for working so hard. That day started pretty much the same. Only he was working at his brothers house, just across the street. In fact, I can see their yard from my office. His plan was to fill in a few spots where grass doesn't seem to be growing. He bought about 20 bags of fill dirt to do the job. Somehow, he forgot the back door of the van was still up and Stevie Wonder backed into the garage door, knocking it off the track. He called me to come over and help him fix it, probably thinking about one of his old girlfriends who used to pump iron. I walked over and found him inside the garage covered with sweat. I said, "you need to call someone to help you fix this, or better yet, call someone to fix it." He yelled, "I can do anything I put my mind to, now don't hurt your back, but can you lift it up over on that corner? I stood glaring at him. He pushed and I tried to guide it, but half of it fell across the ladder he was standing on. When he got off the ladder, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "let's go home, I need to get the phone book." The guy came this afternoon to fix their garage door!

PRIZE ORCHIDS

Most all of my friends know I absolutely love orchids. I have eight of them. They are displayed in a window in our breakfast nook. I take great pains caring for them. I mist them by bringing them, one at a time to the sink. I got tired of washing the window behind them. The beauty of an orchid is they bloom for 3 or 4 months and then lie dormant for almost a year before it blooms again. They love to be outside. They thrive on humidity. If you find a spot with just the right amounts of filtered sunlight and humidity, they will flourish. I decided it was time to take my little pride and joys outside. However, I couldn't part will all of them being outside at the same time. I decided to take three of them this morning. I had a meeting early, and went out to check on them before I left. They seemed to be doing fine. If you know anything about orchids, you know that they don't actually grow in dirt, but in a bark kind of mixture. I came home this afternoon from my meeting to find my husband cutting the grass. He came in a little while ago and said, "I think I have bad news." Then he paused a minute and said, "actually it's not really bad news, I think they were all about dead anyway." "I said what are you talking about?" He pointed to the tree where all my orchids were nestled. I looked out the window and shouted, "where are they?" He said, "I didn't see them at first, then I realized they were about dead any way." I shook my head, "way to go Stevie Wonder, those were my prize orchids."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

Every year I hear myself say, wow, those are the most beautiful fireworks I have ever seen. This year was no different.

I started the day helping a friend with a mini project at Church. My husband left very early to play golf. The plan was for me to join him and his buddies and their wives for a picnic after the round of golf. Shortly after I returned from the church my husband called to tell me both the wives were playing golf and invited me to join them on the back 9. Since I can't play, an old back injury, I ride the cart with him. I'm the designated cheer leader. I love being with all of them. After golf we all retired to the club house for the feast.

Last evening we had planned to go downtown to watch the fireworks. We took Bailey for a walk early in the evening and people were already celebrating with fireworks displays of their own. Our poor little dog was about to have a heart attack. He wanted to go home and into the bathtub!

We found two different channels with 4th of July celebrations. What fabulous and amazing displays. They lit up the sky. My husband and I were glued to the tv. About 10 o'clock last night we heard an explosion. I jumped up, knowing it was another 4th celebration. We sat in my office and watched the display downtown that they were shooting over the lake.

We may be retired, but we're still kids at heart. You should have heard us ooing and aawing and pointing, "did you see that one"?

I have one more day, today, to relax before going back to work. I've taken a week off. Where did that time go?

Happy Birthday America!

TEXTING

Two of our grandchildren were here visiting this week. Our oldest grandson and our oldest granddaughter. They are cousins, so that may be one reason they get along pretty well. I reminded them before they came, we live in a retirement community and there's not much to do. Since they are 15 and 17, I forgot about cell phones. Theirs were glued to their hands. They amaze me. They were able to carry on a conversation with us, watch a movie, eat dinner, go shopping at the mall, all while carrying on conversations with several of their friends via text messaging. Talk about multi-tasking. Teenagers give new meaning to the word. In spite of the fact that "we live in a retirement community" we were busy almost every minute. I didn't realize all the things we could find to do. We took them to the airport this morning, in fact, they are already home. The week flew by and I miss them. I miss the noise, I miss watching their fingers fly on the keyboard of their cell phone. I miss the laughter and the questions, "what are we going to do now"? This week reminded me how quickly they grow up. They have their own friends and their own life. It's interesting to watch them, knowing they are at the beginning of their life and the new issues they are facing, while my husband and I are faced with the challenges of end of life issues. Funny how it works. We should be given the knowledge we have now when we are younger. I'm not sure I would have made more intelligent decisions. Our grand kids are home now, texting to their friends about the time they had with us, while I am "texting" to all of you about the great week we had with them. Well, maybe our issues aren't that different. Except now, I'm looking forward to an afternoon nap. Do you think they are taking a nap this afternoon? I didn't think so. I'm just thankful they still have time for us.