Life is too short...

I took this in our community.

Living in a retirement community means seeing the constant movement of old residents being replaced by new residents.  For the old, most of them are in their 80s to over 100. Seeing smiling happy bingo players on a Friday becomes hearing about their deaths on Saturday.

It is time, time to realize your bucket list or any list should not be delayed.  That said, here is some of my list:

Life is too short to...

Order the cheapest entree on the menu.

Buy and eat store-bought sushi.

Sleep on an old mattress.

Use duct tape to fix the same thing over and over.

Be ignorant of history. Knowing the past 
changes how you understand the present.

Be mean. You will regret this
all your life.

Stay silent when speaking out will help people
or situations.

Avoid puddles when walking. Splash in them, dang it.

Stay inside at sunset. God created them, they are amazing.

Put off sorting through the boxes of photos in your closet.
They are not going away. Having your heirs do this is
embarrassing.

Watch TV all the time, regardless
what is on.

Make judgments about people.

Eat stale bread. Bread is God's gift.

Gossip. Truth will out. 

Purchase absolutely the least expensive, most awful toilet paper.

Rage at and curse the TV.

Give up on someone.
Drink cheap wine.

this is from Calliers Chocolate factor in Switzerland. You have no idea.

Consume poor quality chocolate (go for the good stuff, like from Switzerland).

Avoid saying "I'm sorry".
Behave angrily and irrationally.

Be too proud to ask forgiveness.

Buy store-bought pie. I am a pie snob.

Be serious all the time.

Discount power of prayer.

Make plans to do something or go somewhere, but then don't do it.

Wear cheap shoes.

Eat an ice cream whose flavor you hate 
for some strange reason. 

Neglect friends or family.

Be serious all the time.

Forget what it was like to be a child.

Suppress a giggle. 

This list could go on and on. Don't you have a list of your own? What is it? What should you do about it?

This is written in memory of Ed Repik, age 83, who died on a day after Bingo from a fall.  to say he was a good man is not adequate. He will be missed by all who knew him.

Wednesday Words...Frank and the snow

Keep shoveling..

Weathermen in the Northeast called the latest snowstorm an anomaly.  Frank was called in to the warehouse to forklift pallets of salt for the snow plows.

He had wished to be part of the snow plow guys, but he wasn’t ambidextrous which was great help in such a job and meant better money.  Frank continued to deliver bags and bags of salt.

Finally tow trucks were able to pull abandoned cars to the impound lots, including Frank’s new sports car.   Always deleterious in care of his belongings, Frank discovered heavy salt residue mixed with icy snow covering the car had eaten through the snazzy black paint, creating zebra stripes in the paint.

Frank shook his head sadly.  At least he had been faithful to pay his car insurance.

These italicized and bold words, sentence phrases are provided by Delores from Under the Porch Light.  Each Wednesday,  Delores provides six daunting words for any who wishes to participate in this writing challenge. Please visit her site by clicking on the shivering cardinals in the sidebar; you will find other writers who have taken different slants on these words!  You should be intrigued...

If I could do it over again....

If I could do it over again...

In 1953, Henry climbed off the bus in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a battered army duffel bag and $57.38 in his pocket.  Korea was behind him. 

‘Nothin’ and no one can tell me what to do!’ he thought, striding to the nearest bar.  ‘I am my own boss…’ as he ordered his first beer.  ‘…ain’t nobody gonna tell me what to do and when to do it…’

A few beers later, Henry trudged up the steps of the dingy slop-house hotel, and threw himself across the narrow bed.  “I am my own boss…” were his slurred words as he dropped into a dark sleep. 

The next morning and every morning after for forty years, Henry would get up and go to the factory job he found through an old army buddy.  Every night for forty years, Henry went to the same bar and the same hotel room.

The factory and the bar were his family for forty years.   

Then in year forty one, Henry coughed up blood, and was told he had two months to live.  ‘…ain’t nobody gonna tell me what to do…”  He sat down on the steps to the hotel and read the doctor’s report from the VA hospital.  ‘…ain’t nobody…’

Go to this blog site!

Let's keep on playing!

I remember the day I stopped being a kid.  It is as clear in my mind as a crystal ball.

It was the beginning of August, and I was ten years old.  Mom’s newest “Redbook” magazine had arrived and I was reading a short story.  It was hot, the kind of heat that sapped whatever energy one has left in a hot afternoon.  I was sitting in my grandfather’s old rocker, a big burgundy leather rocker that wraps around the sitter and makes it hard to summon the will to stand up. The living room was darker, now that the sun had moved over to the west side of the house.

That was when my brother Robert came in the house to get a drink of water.  He was dripping sweat.  Our youngest brother Bill was on the porch and wanting us to come out to play ‘spies’.  Robert wandered into the room and looked down at me. 

I could feel him, smell him.  I was furious at him for teasing me that morning when we were chasing each other.  He had long fast legs, and I had short legs that ran like they were stuck in mud.  I was furious because I always was the 'bad guy', the one who got shot & died, the one who got tagged. So, I ignored him, let him stand there glaring down at me.

“Whatcha doin’, Sis?”

“Reading, that is what I am doing.”

“Wanta come out and play ‘spies’ with me and Bill?”

That was the pivotal moment, that one right there. 

I didn’t even look up at him.  I sniffed, and turned a page in the magazine.  “I’m too old to play ‘spies’ anymore.  I am too old to play at all.” 

Robert waited and waited, expecting me to jump any moment, and take off running.  Then, he turned and left the room.  I heard the screen door slam, and heard him tell Bill that I wasn’t going to play anymore.

A few days later, I got up in the morning and found the signs of my first menstruation.  I ran downstairs and told Mom, who showed me what to do.  ‘I guess I really am grown-up’ I mused. 

But, at this time period of my life, I want to go back to that pivotal moment and change it.  I want to say, “Sure!  Let’s play ‘spies’ and I get to be Natasha!”  I want to tell Robert, “I’m sorry—I stopped the game too early!  I want to keep playing!  I was wrong!”

If only I had looked into that crystal ball and seen ahead.  If only the game never ended.  If only we had run and chased long into the night.  If only....