On the Lost and Found Department

I have been in the business of lost and found since I was a very young child. School work, watches and items of clothing seemed to vanish and reappear without explanation. Nothing has changed. I still continually lose things.

The really spooky thing about it is I do not worry that I will never get it back. Well, not usually. I will have to admit that misplacing my camera last week did get my attention. I asked for help and searched high and low only to find it, not in my own house, but in my daughters. No, it didn't fly across the street and up two blocks. I actually left it there. That adventure spurred a series of Facebook messages that had everyone laughing. It looked like this:

• KO Bummer. Hope you find it.

  Like · Reply · October 2 at 3:34pm
• 

  JD That stinks!

  Like · Reply · October 2 at 3:42pm
• 

  Barbara Torris I am still hoping.....!

  Like · Reply · October 2 at 3:55pm
• 

  DH (Son-in-law) I seem to have an extra one at my house...

  Like · Reply · 1 · October 2 at 5:15pm
• • 

    Barbara Torris Quit stealing my stuff!

    Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:03am
• 
  

  DD Hope you forgot and it's at Doug's house!!!

  Like · Reply · Yesterday at 1:18am
• • 

    Barbara Torris Yes, that is exactly what happened...I wish I could say my camera flew over there on it's own! Shoot!

    Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 11:01am
• 

  AT Oh my gosh! D stole your camera! Wow! Things are getting outta hand in Hillsboro! Call the State Police--- oh wait... just call S, she's a State Police Officer! Oh... wait... isn't she related to the above mentioned?? Is this a case for the FBI? ATF-- (Alcohol, Telephoto and Fotos) Bureau??? I am shocked and dismayed.

  Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 2:58am
• • 

    Barbara Torris Did someone mention alcohol...where is it????

    Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:02am
• 

  AD I love my family.... You guys are hilarious!

  Like · Reply · Yesterday at 7:41am
• • 

    Barbara Torris In more than one way...if we weren't we would cry a lot!

    Like · Reply · Yesterday at 11:02am

See what I mean. Losing things is frustrating and a big waste of time, especially if I actually worry about it and do a search.

A Decluttered Home

Now I cannot find my Halloween lights. It is not that important but very frustrating. I just saw them not so very long ago but a very intense search has not turned them up. Now I see that karma is out to get me. Just within the last couple of days I have seen articles written about decluttering and keeping only what makes you happy. A book by Marie Kondo has hit the New York Time's bestseller list. She it the queen of decluttering it seems. NPR from Boston had this to say about her skills.

Marie Kondo has built a huge following in her native Japan with her “KonMari” method of organizing and de-cluttering. Clients perform a sort of tidying up festival: time set aside specifically to go through belongings. Each object is picked up and held, and the client needs to decide if it inspires joy. If it doesn’t, it needs to go. 

from “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.”

Then the front page of a magazine called Country Home told me that I could "Decorate With What [I] Love". It didn't tell me to get rid of stuff but I see a trend here. Perhaps it is time for me to give away clothes that were gifts and don't fit any more and pictures than belonged to my mother/grandmother/aunts. The pictures really must not bring me joy because they are in a box beside the refrigerator in the garage unopened since we moved 4 years ago. Then again I am not sure. I have not "picked up and held" them for years before we even moved.

Pray for me. Now I am obsessed. I need the courage to clean enough stuff from my life so my Halloween Lights will reappear. That, my friends, would truly inspire joy.  

Have a wonderful Monday.

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You might also enjoy Kitty Bartholomew, where have you gone?

Grandchildren Love Change

Are those my grandchildren or what...they love change as much as I do. In fact, on a good day we do things for 15 minutes. On a jumping day we stay with something for 5 minutes or less. We are working on being more focused.

Today we are coloring and writing and playing and digging and sweeping the floor. Oh I will print pages for coloring and we will take a LONG walk to a neighboring school so they can play on the grounds. It is a good thing they are staying all day. We might run out of time to do it all.

I am hoping the sprinklers are on the walking trail way. If there is we may even work in a little water play!

I am a very lucky woman that my grandchildren are ready to go the minute they come in the door. It is so much fun!

I love my grandchildren!

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What Are Friends For?

Friends

We had friends over for dinner last night. Wine, flowers and wonderful conversation filled the evening. The time spent with these wonderful people reminded me that time is short so filling our lives with the positive become more and more important. The evening made me smile. That is what friends are for I think.

We talked about our health...people our age tend to do that. Family always comes up. We solved the homeless problem and discussed family living and gone. Best of all we express our gratitude for all the good in our lives. Not once did the conversation turn to gossip. In my world it was all perfect.

The evening was so warm and the talk personal and well, real. Good friends are very hard to find and I do not give up on a friend easily. The positive one especially.

Wineries

Earlier this week my husband and I took my camera out for a ride. The pictures above were taken in Carlton, Oregon, home to some of the best Bordeaux style wine around. I just thought you needed to know.

Bocci court at Cana's Feast Winery

Have a wonderful day.

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14+ Links Every Smart Snowbird Should Visit

Fall is here. The calendar Tells me so it must be. But even if it didn't, you would have known this morning. The air has that nip, a few of the sycamore trees are turning yellow and the birds are becoming restless.

The smart birds figure out what to do next before the flying day arrives. Geese are gathering as we speak in staging areas and even the hummingbirds that hitch a ride on those geese backs will be looking around for transportation. My feeder is emptying slower and slower.

Humans even have that urge to fly away south and those that are serious about it have already made reservations for the winter. But late comers are always welcome. As it turns out, there is always room for one more.

Over the years this writer and snowbird has posted thousands of words on the subject. Financial questions, retirement issues, locations to consider and even tips on locking up the house for the winter. I thought you probably would like a list to help you out. If I don't cover what you want to know, send me an email and I will answer you as quickly as possible.

1. The Little Black Dot
2. How to Choose the Right RV Park
3. What No One Tells You about Retirement
4. The Funny Thing About Being a Snowbird
5. Affordable Housing for Snowbirds...Tucson
6. Seeing Retirement in Black and White...or in Shades of Gray
7. How To Be a Snowbird...Answers and Lists (this one has had 13,000 visitors...let me know what you think.)
8. On Being a Snowbird: Is it the right choice for you? written for Satisfying Retirement
9. Snowbird Season at a Glance
10. 10 "How to be a Snowbird" Ideas
11. 25 Questions to ask Yourself About Retirement
12. 5 Ways We Travel Like We Are Rich
13. You Might Be A Snowbird If...a nod to Jeff Foxworthy
14. How to Experience Retirement before Retirement

And finally a post written about older people. Most of you that read this post will be much younger than a lot of the people you come in contact with in snowbird land. Just give everyone a chance. Who knows, you may even learn a thing or two. I know for sure you are going to be surprised to find out who these unlikely looking retirees really are!

• On Being Patient: God Isn't Done With Me Yet

There are many many more articles on this blog. Look at the tags and click on them to see what more you can find.

Have a wonderful day.

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Related articles

• Hot topics for retirement Patterns! Helping you arrive at peace sooner!
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• Downsizing in Retirement? But where?
• Retire with Like-minded People! Tucson AZ
• How Are Americans Spending Their Retirement?

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...the Story of My Life!

My husband and I live the life of that famous children's book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I am sure you remember the book from childhood or from the childhood of a baby in your life. The story goes like this:

If you give a mouse a cookie, he is sure to want a glass of milk...
If you give the mouse a glass of milk he will want a straw...

The story is about how we get lost in our thoughts following streams of consciousness as we wander endlessly from one task to the next never completing anything.

And so it goes...

Only 7 years ago my grandchildren
and our children
 watched the swifts
go down the chimney of a school here
 in Portland. I had forgotten that
beautiful late summer evening.

My husband went to a local hardware store and bought a set of shelves so we could try to get organized...again. All of the crates that has been stacked against one wall in the garage were placed on the garage floor. I had not actually seen what was inside those boxes since we moved into this house 4 years ago.

The first box I opened had a small green box of pictures from all those years ago. And there were albums my mother had put together for my children when they were small. Those children are 49 and 52 now.

The temptation was more than I could handle and this mouse needed that glass of milk, a big chair and, of course, time. I was looking at old pictures and no one could stop me.

The garage revamp came to a halt for me and I was lost to the past.

The mind does funny thing and, as I went though the pictures, I realized that I had forgotten all those wonderful times...my children hugging each other, the view from the window of a house long since sold and forgotten. For some very strange reason all I could remember was the stress and the angst. That discovery of pictures from the past broke the spell.

It could be that picture albums are worth their weight in gold. Maybe I should let my inner mouse wander around more often. What do you think?

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When Our Little Grocery Store Closed

Our small town grocery store closed a few month past and we are still reeling. A local college (so rumor has it) made the owners an offer they could not refuse. That is a rumor too. But, if you believe money talks then you can see how it all seems to fit.

We miss that grocery store a lot. It had almost everything we needed and the best selection of beer in the region! What was not to love. But the final straw is the removal of a state owned liquor store (we live in Oregon you know) that is housed in the back of the same building. It has not moved but it will have to and probably soon. Everyone I know is sad and inconvenienced by the loss of the grocery store but the liquor store??? Oh my goodness. Not the liquor store.

We have laughed so hard about this.

So we are traveling further to a big box store to get our groceries. The beer selection is horrible AND there is no liquor store in the back where no one can see you go in and out. It is not a good thing.

I am just saying!!!

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The saddest thing was that I could not find one photo of the original Hank's in Cornelius Oregon online. That is just sad! We don't value what we have until it is gone.

Is Better Better? Trending on Twitter

One of the thing that fascinates me about this whole blogging experience is the social media and its influence. So, when I saw  #DoesBetterMatter? trending on Twitter just now, I wondered, if I write a blog post using those words what would happen. Would it make any difference at all. We are about to see.

Do you suppose it would still run if it were in a car?
Or is there something much, much better?
Deutsches Museum   Munich, Germany

I am here to ask you, "Does better matter?"

See, I only started blogging all those years ago to start a conversation with my then 4th grade granddaughter. I was in China and she was going to school in a classroom crowded with almost 40 students. Technology was creeping into the schools but was still feared because it was so new. After all, it was a better way of communication. But did it matter? No not really.

My son lived in Shanghai and my husband and I were taking advantage of him so we could see a part of the world not usually seen back those few years ago. We had pictures of the Great Wall and Dong Tai Lu in the middle of the city. We wandered through the city and seldom saw a foreigner. We were experiencing something so wonderful. We wanted to share.

But we were soon to realize the even though I wanted to share and send a blog post over the internet directly to my granddaughter's classroom, no one would open it up. They were afraid and had built a security wall around their world. It was so sad.

So, now I am asking myself about all of the advances in technology that has happened since my computer, iphone and ipad were purchased. Should I get or try something bigger. Would better matter in my world? Would I regret spending the money on something that is simply better because it is faster and the screen is bigger? See, in the beginning the blog sent from China to my granddaughter was not that much different than a post card. It was faster but was it all that much different? Not really. And, in the end, would it really matter if it was?

As I grow older I find myself asking the same question. Should what I own, is paid for and works just fine be replace just because it is shinier? I don't know. We will see. Better may be better but I am going for different-better. So it simply doesn't matter to me. See what I mean?

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