Just Whining Again

Woe is Me

Seems like I'm still flying by my shirtsleeves.  I honestly don't know where the week went.  I certainly have little to show for it.  And it is not as if I have been sitting around doing nothing! I have been busy all the time but I suppose, like many other retirees, I fill my days with meaningless chores, trips and exercises that leave little or no imprint.

Shopping trips, visits to the libraries, lunch dates with friends, snooping through malls, often repeated trips to places where I should have accomplished two, three, or more things but did only one and forgot (or was not aware) about the others, account for alot of lost time but very minimal impression and certainly nothing to brag about. (Oh Me, Oh My.)

Hey, but we don't sit there and complain that we're bored!!  Honestly, I have heard that complaint from some retirees.  So I may have to repeat trips, and I may sometimes do useless and meaningless things, but time marches on in my world.  It certainly does not drag!!!

Except winter!!!! Winter has been dragging far, far, far too long.  So I AM COMPLAINING!   LOUDLY!  Who's with me on this??????????

Patience

Holding my breath  

I heard a crow the other day

The geese have honked all day

Seagulls screech all 'round us

But that snow just won't go 'way.

  

The temperatures scream  "Winter"

They refuse to loosen their grip

They force boots onto our cold feet 

And warm longjohns on our hip.  

We can't forgo our parkas

Or the earmuffs for our ears

Though the sun seems warm from above

That icy wind brings tears.

Somewhere a bird calls "spring-time"

But she really has no inkling 

Of the torment she is causing

I don't know what she's thinking

Perhaps I should be patient

But I've been that for so long

It hasn't brought that pleasure

I still pine for the robin's song.

I want to see the green grass

And I know you think I'm lyin'

I'd even welcome all the lowly weeds 

 And that pesky dandelion!

Hi Tech Ignorance

In The Dust
This new technology has literally left me in the dust.  I knew this before, but I was not aware of the full extent of this relentless march. I knew technology had invaded the world of communications big time.  I also was aware of how much technology had improved our lives in the field of labour, travel, trade. food production and distribution and just our lifestyles in general.

However, I was totally taken off guard last week when I was asked to "help at a Bingo".  Because it was volunteering  for the CNIB,  I readily agreed, assuming I would be assisting some blind patrons dab numbers on a paper cards, or at worse, call out numbers or sell them the paper cards.  When I was asked if I had ever played bingo before, I was almost insulted.   I was no dummy!  "Of course. I had!" I saw no need to inform them that it was forty years ago, back in our little village of Ethelbert.  I had supported those fundraisers then both by playing and working at the Bingos.

The coordinators took my confident affirmation to mean I was knowledgeable about modern fundraising Bingos but  I felt brashly self righteous that I would even have to answer such a silly  question.
However I was in for a major revelation and a huge dose of updated education about the modern world! Technology has now invaded bingos!  They are  big business  and have really gone hi-tech.  You have to be a rocket scientist to play bingo these days.  It is no longer a "Dab the number" game. They even have electronic tablets that help you to keep score!

No! I would not have a clue how to play Bingo now.  It far too technical for me and one more time I have been proven to be just a simple "old ignoramus"!
Oh well, I never did like  sitting there waiting for somebody to call a number so I could dab it with a color dabber. That is one bit of education I can live without!

Fond Memories

Memories of Easters Past
We spent a quiet Easter this year, doing nothing spectacular, just enjoying the the familiar serenity of family and home surroundings.  But as I sat here reminiscing tonight and browsing through my travel photo albums, memory took me back to some exciting  Easters of days gone by. One exceptionally memorable Easter season back in the early 1990's stood out in particular. Life held incredible and dramatic adventures back in those youthful years.   I look back on those days with awe and wonder and I marvel that I should have been so fortunate to have experienced so much.

My girlfriend and I had booked a month long vacation in Australia and New Zealand that spring.  We left San Francisco on  Saturday evening before Easter Sunday, making a brief stop in Honolulu and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on Monday morning.  We lost Easter Sunday somewhere over the equator, I guess.  (Coming back we gained a day, arriving in Frisco, hours before we left Auckland!!!!  It was really weird.)

I was the adventuresome type and when we came to Ayers Rock in Central Australia, I was determined to "Climb the Rock"! Now I am "adventuresome", not "foolhardy"!  It's a mile high very steep climb to the top of Ayers Rock.
BUT I DID CLIMB TO THE TOP ----THE TOP OF CHICKEN ROCK!!!!  
(That's me waving  up there near the top of that second picture.  (I did not wish to show you just how far from the top this lowly section really was.)  Suffice it to say , I climbed to the TOP of something!!!!