Survival After Seventy-Five

     By 10:00 A.M., I was up, dressed to shoes, ate breakfast, took meds, did my chores, and waited for my son, Jim to take me to Home Depot and Burlington.  It seems we need another pint of touch-up paint and silicone caulking for the main bathroom, Jim painted yesterday.  He also wants a new shower curtain to redecorate!  I put a stop to new shower rod and rings because the old ones are galvanized steel and we can't do better than those things for durability.  I told Jim, we could clean and polish the shower rod and there are nothing wrong with the rings.  If it doesn't need fixing, let it alone.      "Totally do, I have to skedaddle."

     After a light breakfast, I pared vegetables for my lunch and dinner salads.  First of all, I chopped ends off celery and carrots, soaked this in the sink with water and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.  Then, peeled carrots, cut it into sticks, cut celery into 2 or 3 inches of sticks and put it all into a plastic container with a lid.  After taking off outer leaves from a head of Iceburg lettuce, I tore fresh leaves into bit sized pieces into a bowl.  Outside, I gathered a couple of stems of flowering Dandelions​ from my garden along with two other varieties of lettuce.  I brought this in and put it into the same water and vinegar rinse.  After adding the leaves into my salad, I chopped up a tomato, peeled and sliced a cucumber to add.  After tossing everything together, I served myself a heaping bowl of fresh made salad with two table spoons of Wishbone Wine Vinaigrette and a handful of celery and carrot sticks.  I topped my salad with one sliced, hard boiled egg.  That was my lunch

Good afternoon, This morning, I went grocery shopping at Kroger Supermarket, and got away with $57.29 worth of food, and saved $13.70.  I found an Electronic Coupon offer, on the Kroger Website, to save 10% off Kroger brand food.  I can't pass up a bargain; plus, it gave me a chance to stock up on sugar, flour, fat-free powdered milk, powdered favored non-dairy creamer, liquid flavored creamer, and just about everything else I bought at Kroger today.  Just so you know.

      I woke up early this morning with a choking cough.  As I was barely awake, I stayed in bed thinking about my feelings.  Last night, my throat felt clogged as though there was something in my airway.  As I lain there, regaining my senses, I could feel nagging aches in my lower back, around my elbows and shoulders.  This reminded me of my arthritic condition and suffering I went through while taking care of my Gary before he passed away.  My head was stuffy and ached a little.  Wandering whether I had another cold coming on, I thought about what to do to relief my chest pressure? I got up out of bed before 5 A.M.,  made a hot cup of decaf, green tea and prepared myself a non-alcoholic tonic.  This tonic consists of tea, honey, lemon and fresh, grated Ginger root.  It has a warming effect with a pepper sweet, tart flavor which relieves congestion.      After drinking my hot tonic, I went back to bed and fell asleep until around 8:30 A.M.  When I got up, I took my blood pressure and

      Yesterday, I spent my day with my son, Paul and his children to help watch them, especially his two year old, Evelyn.  Their mother, Rebekah was working in Houston all day at the Woman's Hospital and Paul was left in charge of their three girls.  Paul needed to grocery shop and then, cook his lunches for his work week so I went over to help him.      Shortly after I arrived at their house, Paul's daughter Brianna, an eleven, tween-ager came out of her room while I was looking for the channel changer.  She quickly found it and turned on their television to watch a Netflix show titled, "Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous."      It is an animated, action packed, PG rated, scientific fiction serial featuring a small group of young campers.  They were stranded on an island where dinosaurs roamed and robotics equiped with lasers patrolled restricted areas.  The campers broke into a facility and stole a laptop and then, a chase began.  They ran into an invisible wall which

    Good morning!      Yesterday, after researching laptop computers, I decided to postpone investing in a laptop this week. It's the end of the month when I calculate my expenditures and review my budget.  Therefore, I need to coordinate my financial situation to see how I might be able to fit a new laptop into a tight budget.  In other words, how much could I afford to pay and how long will it take to pay off a loan?      I want a laptop, but could I safely afford it and do I actually need one?  What I really want is a reliable, cost effective laptop made in America.  I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a high tech machine which will breakdown within one year.      Compter manufactures whose startups began in the USA, either sold it to a foreign company or have been out sourcing their work to other countries.      Seriously, I need to approach my spending with caution and consider my most important existing obligations.  At this time in my life, I'm getting my hou

     Early this morning, my son, Jim and I were out back planting shrubs bought yesterday at a Walmart with my gift card.  We carefully tried not to disturb surrounding wild flower seedlings.  Two of our Oleanders which we planted earlier this spring, were looking withered and losing leaves.  Because I had a chance to replace it, while at Walmart yesterday, I found a potted Oleander with two in one.  We separated the plants from the pot, split it apart, pulled out dead stems from the ground, and transplanted. Now, we have a row of little Oleanders growing along a side fence.  We also planted a Carnation shrub outside of the dining area window.  I found it on sale at Walmart for $5, and thought to give it a go.  During August, I hope to see it blooming.      I'm a minimalist at gardening mainly due to lack of funds for plants; also, hard freezes during winter, freeze plants too.  Surviving plants are often near gone by spring and need trimming.  I have had some good luck with many s