“Family is just accident…. They don’t mean to get on your nerves. They don’t even mean to be your family, they just are.”
I have no excuse for the lateness of the hour. Today is just one of those low energy days that happen every now and then. I have a list of the errands I had hoped to accomplish, but I’ve decided I don’t want to do them today so I’ve most over to tomorrow and a couple to Monday. I will fill the bird feeders, and I have a wash going. That’s about as accomplished as I’ll be.
It’s another gray day, and I’ve lost count of how many we’ve had. Yesterday’s sun now seems a tease from old Mother Nature. I find it difficult to believe it is only the beginning of February. This winter has been so long it should at least be the middle of March.
I have two pairs of saddle shoes, and I have decided to wear them once the sidewalks and streets are cleared of snow. I bought the first pair years ago and forgot about them until after I had bought the second pair for a 50’s party. Being 63 gives me all sorts of privileges including eccentricity, and I suspect that will be people’s reactions to my saddle shoes. Perhaps I’ll even wear stripes and plaids though that may be taking it too far, even for me.
The very young and the old are allowed to do so much more without criticism. People figure the young don’t know any better yet and the old are past caring or may even be forgetful. I am neither but I’m willing to take advantage.
My grandmother walked everywhere. She went grocery shopping and pulled a wire basket behind her to carry her groceries home. She always wore a dress and those clunky heeled shoes. Once a week or maybe every other week, she went to the hairdresser. My grandmother never learned to drive, and I don’t think it mattered. She had a really loud, annoying laugh and punctuated her conversations with it. I never noticed that laugh until I was older then it drove me crazy. My father visited her often and tried to drag one of us along with him, but we never wanted to go. She wasn’t a warm grandmother, but she did write to me when I was in the Peace Corps and always put a dollar bill in those air letters which said they should not contain any enclosures. A dollar bill doesn’t sound like much, but in Africa in those days it bought a lot. When my grandmother was in her late 80’s, she forgot most things, even my father, her son. At Christmas I’d sit with her in my parents’ living room when she came to dinner. We all took turns sitting with her and keeping her company. She’d chat and ask a lot of questions, some several times, but we’d answer her every time. I think it was then she was the warmest she’d ever been.
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February 5, 2011 at 1:57 pm
I wore polka dotted knee socks with a plaid skirt this week. I couldn’t find the plain skirt I wanted and just decided to go with the “quirky” label I sometimes don. No one raised an eyebrow, so clearly it was within what people consider acceptable for me.
February 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm
sprite,
In my head popped a picture of Pippi Longstocking. I love that you managed to maintain expectations.
February 5, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Some days just are like that, the energy level is just enough to get up in the morning but nothing more 🙂 🙂
I can´t remember my mormor (grandmother on my mothers side) walked anywhere, after grandpa stopped driving the rest of the family helped with that. But I do remember her coming with us to pick berries in the forest many times.
She did get a bit forgetful her last years but it was mostly things like putting spices in food or when she was baking 🙂 🙂 and sometimes forgetting to turn of the stove.
The storm got stopped by the forest so I didn´t feel it here by the cottage at all, but as soon as I walked up the slope it hit like a wall 🙂 I had little Nova without a leash for the first time today and it worked great 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
February 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Christer,
Today stayed that way ll day. I did wrap a few presents for my family in Colorado. I had their main gifts sent to the house, but the small ones I still have. They’ll be gone by Tuesday if I get a bit of energy.
My other grandmother( on my mother’s side) didn’t drive either.
I’m so glad little Nova was great off leash. Gracie would be running for the hills. The other dogs, though, might be enough of an attraction to get her home.
February 5, 2011 at 4:55 pm
What, no poodle skirts?
I’m the only one of my siblings who remembers our Nana Lucy- my mother’s mother. They moved to California when I was 6 and she died a few years later. She wore flowered dresses that were belted and buttoned down the front. Of course she wore those clunky shoes. She gave us M&M’s when we were good. She had a funny gesture she made with her two index fingers if we were bad. She would point her left index finger at us, tap on it with her right index finger and say “Naughty, naughty.” She was born in Roxbury but I always remember her sounding like she came from Nova Scotia. I may be confusing her with my Great Aunts Bessie and Blanche who did come from there.
February 5, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Caryn,
I missed that craze as I was too young but I did buy one for that party.
I think we remember the quirky ones the best. They stay in our memories.
February 6, 2011 at 11:51 pm
I remember Naughty, Naughty – you’d put your index finger out on one hand and then run the index finger on the other hand along the top of the other first index finger.
I couldn’t find a picture representing it – but I knew immediately what you were talking about. 😉
s
February 7, 2011 at 11:03 am
S,
I remember the same gesture, and I do think it was my grandmother who used it. I don’t remember it from my mother.
February 5, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Friends you aspire; family you deserve.
Cheers
February 5, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Minicapt,
Most of my family is wonderful, but there are a few…..
February 5, 2011 at 7:36 pm
When your family comes to visit they should not stay more than three days. After three days both family and fish begin to stink.
February 5, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Bob,
I remember that one from Charlie Chan, and both you and he are right.
February 5, 2011 at 8:31 pm
According to As: Benjamin Franklin made the saying. But Charlie Chan was a contemporary.
February 5, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I didn’t know the Franklin connection!
February 6, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Helen wore those nursing shoes all her life and always had a shoe maker adjust for her broken ankle or whatever else was wrong. But as an RN all her life these were her picks. I kind of admired it even when she was on extreme care and talking to her departed husband, arranging times to meet, helping her in the next world. She blabbed on and on and I believe she could see Dick and he was waiting for her. She died a day later. The visions we have at end of life could be very real. Today doesn’t feel like Super Sunday. The kids so bored with the teams most are shopping at the Mall. Maybe the little spark in my life will stop by. I haven’t seen him in a week. Mr Man!
February 6, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Z&Me,
I have had dreams of my parents lately and woke myself up wondering aloud why one of them didn’t let Gracie out when she was ringing her bells. My mother didn’t know Gracie, and my father never met Maggie before Gracie, but there I was peeved because they wouldn’t open the door!
I am not a football fan. I am a Patriots fan, a loyalty to the home team.