Retire In Style Blog Too

Yes, you heard me right...me, a blue eyed blond haired (Clairol) woman of 60 or so was stopped at the border because I was covered totally so looked religious in some way. We had  lived through 9/11 and we had just gone to war with Iraq. If it hadn't been a little scary it would have been hilarious. Me in the Alhambra (Generalife) with my long skirt on, 2003 I was back in 2003 and my husband and I were returning from Spain where we had been staying for close to a month. During that period of time the Spanish people had gone into full revolt after their PM supported the USA's invasion of Iraq and the United States actually carried out that plan to go to war over "weapons of mass destruction". On the day before the invasion, a storm of biblical proportions crossed the Mediterranean and the world held it's breath. We watched waves wash restaurants built near the sand being fill with water. The next day it was March 20, 2003. The United States invaded. Needless to say...

I don't know if I have written about the rules 100 times or not but it does seem that the subject comes up very often. In the past I have written about rules for napping, eating and driving. Today I am going to talk about the rules that get us from here to there with the least amount of words. You see, most people don't listen and when they do, they don't really understand what we are saying. No, we are not talking in an outer galaxy dialect. Everyone knows we are saying "Blah, blah, blah and so on." The normal answer we get is "What?" or "Huh?" So, two different times during the last two days I have found people getting to the point with very few words. No "blah, blah, blah." at all. I get it. I have done it for years. One of my favorite blogger wrote a post yesterday called  Unisex Restroom, A cranky opinion for CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY  The blogger goes by the name of Cranky Old Man. (He makes me laugh which is fun which is part of ...

I played golf today. Golfing is not a natural talent for me at all. I struggle now just like I have for the last 20 years. It seems to me that I might be asking myself, "Was that fun?". If it isn't, why do I keep playing? As I drove into my carport with the golf game still on my mind, I was wondering how many things that I choose to do during the week fall into the "fun" column. In fact, is there even one thing I do that makes me laugh? Good question don't you think. Happiness is part of a well lived life I think. But is fun a necessary ingredient for happiness? I wonder. I like to play golf and if I get to actually laugh and have fun doing it, it is a bonus. But I will not quit if I play a round or two with unsmiling women. The actual act of golfing makes me happy. Writing is one of my favorite things to do but it does not generally fall into the "fun" category either. I do really like the conversations with commenters. That is fun I think. I like...

Galen Pearl left a comment yesterday. She was most complimentary but I had to pause and think. First of all, I am shy and it is even hard for me to hear too many good things especially when I come out of the closet and let the world know how I REALLY feel. I worry and it is not clear to me why. Honestly, I do believe that I am good person and offending others does bother me. I apologize a lot. I was an educator but that is not what I am all about. I have always been outspoken to the point of being a pain in the neck. It has taken me many years to learn to temper my nature. I have learned the hard way that I need to know the "whole truth" before I decide what my opinion is. Even then I am not entirely sure about things. It seems that the less I know the stronger my opinion will be so I keep that in mind. When you read my posts you will usually find a disclaimer or two especially when I am talking about my opinion. Never when I state facts. Those don't require a disclaimer....

I was listening again to the news. Today we were seeing the flip side of what a Trump supporter might be thinking when women around the world  took to the streets to simply have their say. Today the Catholic Church here in Tucson are marching in a protest against abortion. I suppose there are other groups marching in protest to those protests. Interesting isn't it? Then I saw a post on Twitter by Michael Flynn, son of a hopeful cabinet member. I'm not sure what victory Flynn is talking about in his tweet however the statement that women already have equal rights seems a reality to him. That was interesting to me because I know that rights don't come with laws. Rights come with a change in attitudes by humans. The election of our 45th president does not make me feel that we are there yet. But what struck me as most interesting was that by saying "What more do you want?" he implied that equality was his to give. The final slashing came with the implication that wome...

On this inauguration day I am struck by the fact that "winners" do like the power. It is the chance to lay claim to the fact that they needed to win at any cost, that people do want what they offer and, well, they have ALL the power now. Why am I reminded of a story my daughter-in-law told me while we were in Dubai. There was a man and a woman that married after falling in love with each other in college here in the United States. He was a Muslim from Dubai and she was a blond from somewhere in middle America. After their marriage they moved back to Dubai where they then had three children. When the last child was born here in the United States, the husband suggested that the wife stay with her parents for a few weeks to recover with the baby. He returned to Dubai with the two older children. After a time the man called his wife and told he was going to take another wife and she would have to return to Dubai if she ever wanted to see the two older children again. She did just...

I may get up late but, when I do, I do GO, GO, GO. I can never come up with a workable goal. When I was a teacher, I was required by my supervisors to write about the place I was headed and then tell them when I had arrived. About a week into the task I would forget the objective and then in what seemed very logical to me at the time, I would set off on a new goal to replace it. That would be the one I actually pursued. It was very odd and took a lot of explaining at the end of the year. So when I read   Michelle Poston Combs  blog post today, I could only think I may as well have chosen "Batman" as a goal (one of the defining words she suggested)."Getting better organized with the objective of tracking (whatever)." didn't work for me. I think Batman is a pretty cool defining word because I have no idea what that would mean. I like open ended more than anything else.  But of all the silly and absurd words she suggested (squegee, slurry, squash, lobotomy, brackis...

How many times have we all said that. It comes out of our mouths when there is something so fleeting that it cannot be caught or when it is dark or when we don't pay close enough attention...I wish I had my camera. When we were vacationing in Jordan this last month, there was one particular occasion when I could not take pictures but if I could have seen more clearly and I could have taken pictures, I think we all would have been amazed.. We left the hotel near Petra late in the day because we were cramming all that we could in a short space of time and we wanted to spend the day taking pictures and walking. It was almost dark when we left and we were all very tired. My granddaughters fell asleep against their mother in the very back seat of the van and the rest of us just watched. Our driver came from Amman I think and he had had a very long day already before he picked us up. We were going back north to the Dead Sea where we would spend two nights. Now you need to understand that...

Pano picture with me son appearing several times...this is life in our world! Dinner time with family is always a lively affair. We share stories, children quarrel and parents tease...endlessly. So when my granddaughter told her dad that she was going to tell on him for teasing...Grandma and Grandpa needed to know what he had done, he had no memory of ever doing anything bad enough that he would "be in trouble with Grandma and Grandpa." He threw his hands up in the air in amazement. "What did I do?" he asked. Now you can imagine how our minds were turning. We wondered what did he do that would make him be in trouble with us. He is over the age when we have any power. However, in our 13 year old granddaughter's mind, my husband and I have some mythical power over just about everyone and everything. My husband and I looked at each other in amazement. "I am going to tell Grandma and Grandpa!" she repeated but still her father would not let her alone. He ...

I'm in the mood to write today. I didn't have an idea so I went to Facebook to see if anything sparked my mind. It occurred to me that the Facebook pool of ideas has been drained and nothing will ever be the same again. Darn. My one remaining glimmer of hope is my family. They keep it positive and that works for me. Pictures of the beautiful snow in Oregon and videos of grandchildren playing keep me grounded. I thank them for all that they are and do. Have a wonderful day. b+

I have been talking a lot about real people. They are the people that are the victims of smack talk on Facebook or made fun of on Twitter or during a press conferences. For example, we all heard about the 14 year old hacker that weighed 400 lbs. being ridiculed on Twitter, not entirely because he was a hacker but also because he weighed 400 lbs. Do you know anyone that might fit that description? Well, I do sorta. Last summer I discovered that I was pre-diabetic and signed up to take a class on nutrition and behavior to help deal with the issue. It as a class of people that were in the room together simply because of a health problem. We had nothing at all in common other than that. Yet, as we sat together for three, 3 hour sessions, we began to bond and get to know each other. There was a stunning older woman that discovered that she needed the class even though she had never be out of control in her whole life. There was a very Type A personality gentleman that actually inventoried C...

Camels inside the Petra Canyon I continue to learn. As we travel, the rules we encounter are different yet the same. It is just a matter of filling in the blanks. If you have ever traveled, you will understand. For example, we know that we should always keep a pair of underwear and your pills close to you. Even though this is an unwritten amen rule, we still  returned to Tucson and not one piece of luggage followed us. We had checked everything so there was no underwear or pills. Thankfully, we have a spare of most things here but my husband's pills did not turn out to be one of those things. We were in bed the next night when the luggage was finally was delivered. Abu Dhabi, UAE Check point on road from Amman to Petra. I will have to admit that being in the Middle East does change some of the rules. We learned that you mustn't touch or hug your spouse in a mosque. It is forbidden. We visited the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. As we walked through that opulent and beautiful struct...

I don't know if it is a good thing but I am back. AND I have had lots of time to think about stuff but no way to write it down. So here goes. I was watching the hearing this morning...you know...the one by the Senate Armed Forces Committee lead by John McCain.  James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, was testifying at the hearing. It went on for two hours and most of that time was taken up by the agencies information on Russian hacking of the Democratic party's accounts and how our soon to be president's comments affected the agency's people. It seems that Clapper and those around him felt "disparaged" by the remarks make by our soon to be president.  As I listened to the voices, i t hit me right between the eyes that the head of the intelligence agencies and those that work with those departments are real people that take offense when they are "disparaged". Amman from the hilltop Citadel...a city of real people. The the key part...