We Went Shopping Yesterday... Here

Jungle Jim's is a local hot spot.  It's like Trader Joe's on steroids.

They repurposed many items when they built the store.  The monorail, above, was taken from the Kings Island amusement park in Cincinnati.

There is a vintage fire engine ready to put out any fires in the hot sauce department.  

There is a large wine area, a beer cave and a cigar store.  Just about anything you need to have a party.

There are play areas for kids and just plain fun things for everyone.

Corona beer comes with Mexican music.

There is a lot to see every time you look up.

There are cheeses from all around the world.

All kinds of butter from around the world, too.

A wonderful bakery as well:

Valentine's Day

This is what I woke up to this morning.  My husband walked into the room with a dozen red roses!

When we were little girls, my sister and I woke up on Valentine's Day to find one of these tucked under the edge of our pillows:

My mom, like the Tooth Fairy, would sneak in while we were asleep and leave one of these special Valentine dolls. They are Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls, from the 1950s.

Two younger sisters came along, ten and seventeen years after me, and they inherited the dolls.  They were played with and lost somewhere along the way.  However, I have collected some through eBay as an adult.  My mom loves to see them again, after all these years.  I gave one to my sister for her 60th birthday.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

She Won't Listen

Last Saturday night, my husband and I went to a movie.  I turned my phone ringer off, as I always do in a theater. My husband forgot to turn his off.  When the movie was nearly over, his phone rang, but very quietly.  He checked it and saw that my sister had called.  Then I checked my phone and saw that I had missed a call from her.  Since she had tried to reach both of us, I thought it  might be important, so I went out into the hallway and called her back.

She told me that our mother had called her.  Mom had fallen in her garage and hit her head on the concrete.  Mom lives about an hour away from us, so we hoped someone closer could get to her in a hurry.  I called her neighbor, who helps her out from time to time but the neighbor wasn't at home.  My sister did not want to drive another hour because she had just returned from a six hour drive, bringing her daughter home from a gymnastics meet in Chicago.

I called another sister, who lives ten minutes from Mom, but she was babysitting for her three grandchildren.  I asked her if she could put them in the car and drive over to check on Mom.  She said she didn't have car seats for the kids.  I asked where her daughter was.  She and her husband had gone out to dinner.  I called my niece on her cell and asked her if she could go check on Mom.  She and her husband left their dinner and went to Mom's.  They took her to the emergency room.  They called me back to tell me Mom had a huge bump on her head and that she was being admitted.

We went  up the next day to see Mom in the hospital.  She looked like she had been in a bad bar fight.  She had bruises on her face and two black eyes.  She was in a good mood though, as they had given her morphine.  They did two CT scans and let her go home that afternoon.  We asked her how she fell. She said she was carrying packages into the house, with both hands full and still trying to walk with her cane.  She tripped on a step in the garage.

My sister and her kids told us they think Mom is not safe living by herself in the house, since her husband died in October.  One week ago the pipes froze to her water softener and water leaked into the house.  She had to pay $3,000 to have repairs done.  We are not sure if the price was fair because she went ahead and had it done without telling anyone else.

My sisters also think Mom should not be driving.  She drives to church, to art class, and to the doctor.  None of them are far, but we still think it's probably not a good idea.  We found a senior apartment that we think she would like.  Some of her friends from art class live there, and they have free transportation to every place she would want to go.  They have security and medical care and full maintenance of the apartment.  However, Mom will not consider it.  She wants to stay in the house.  She says she has the whole house to herself, why would she want to move to a small apartment?

We suggested calling Meals on Wheels, mostly to have someone checking on her every day.  She refuses to accept them.  She says she "doesn't want to feel obligated" and besides she still can cook.  The hospital called and wanted to send a physical therapist to help with her mobility.  She refuses that.  She says if anyone takes her car keys she will call the police.  She says if anyone takes her to a senior facility, she will take them out of the will.  She gets very angry when we suggest anything.

Anytime Mom receives any kind of official mail she has to ask us what it's for and what she should do with it.  She doesn't understand so many things.  She needs our help, but she won't let us help her when it comes to her living circumstances.  My niece who lives close to her says she will no longer go over to help Mom because she is "enabling" her and is afraid she will come in the house and find her dead.  My sister who lives close to me, an hour from Mom, and I don't know what to do.  Mom says she wants to stay in the house until she dies.  We are afraid she has a death wish at this point, that she doesn't want to live without her husband.

The sister who lives here is a physician and she wanted Mom to stay with her after she left the hospital so she could keep an eye on her.  My husband and I went to the hospital when Mom was discharged and told her we were going to take her to my sister's house.  She kept saying "I don't want to go there." Once she was there, she said she wanted to go home the next day.  She said she couldn't take a shower at my sister's house because she was afraid she was going to fall on the slippery shower floor.  I bought a mat to put in the shower.  She took a shower, but she still wanted to go home the next day!

"Justified"

My new favorite show is "Justified".  The main character, Raylan Givens is based a short story by Elmore Leonard called "Fire In the Hole".  Leonard is also a producer of the show.  Raylan is a federal marshall working in Kentucky hill country.  He grew up in Harlan County and managed to get out of there, but was busted back for a "justified" shooting.  He has been described as a "19th century" type lawman, wearing cowboy boots and hat.  He has to deal with a myriad of mean, redneck criminals including rival drug dealing clans.

Raylan is a cool character with a devilish streak.

Timothy Olyphant plays Raylan Givens.  He has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards for this role. Critics have praised the writing, directing, and acting.  The critics have described in better than I could, and I agree with them.  

The critic from "USA Today" said:  "As you'd hope from a show based on Elmore Leonard's work, the plots snap, the dialogue crackles, and the characters pop."

A critic from "People Weekly" wrote:  "What gives the show its kick is the gleefully childish lack of repentance shown by most of these rascals, countered by Olyphant's coolly amused control."

Here are a few of the "rascals" with whom Raylan matches wits:

Raylan finds time for romance, too.  The girl in the picture has a really mean ex-husband.  Raylan has an ex-wife himself, and at present she is pregnant with his baby.  It's complicated.

If you haven't seen it, give it a try.

Am I A Maker or A Taker?

It began during the most recent Presidential campaign.  Conservatives started talking about "Makers vs. Takers". As I understand it, Makers are the ones who pay taxes, and Takers are the ones who do not pay taxes and are dependent on the government.  Romney famously claimed that 47% are dependent on the government.  Now that I am retired and receiving Social Security and Medicare, does that make me a "Taker"?  I'm not sure.

Most of my life, I have worked and paid taxes.  I had my first real job when I was sixteen years old and still in high school.  I was a hostess at a "mom and pop" style Italian restaurant.  My mother always teased me that I would never get the smell of garlic out of my system.

During my college years, I went to school for two out of three trimesters and worked during the third trimester.  For four months every year, I held down two jobs.  During the week I worked in a dentist's office, and on the weekends I worked at a downtown hotel, as a desk clerk.  I checked people in, checked people out and ran the switchboard.

After college, I taught school for three years, then began working in the corporate world.  There was never a period of time when I wasn't working.

So, I worked from age sixteen into my sixties.  Have I gone from being a "Maker" to being a "Taker"?  I paid into Social Security during my whole working life, so I don't feel like I am getting "something for nothing".  Some argue that I will surely take out more than I put in, but I'm not sure about that.  Since I started paying Social Security tax about fifty years ago, shouldn't that money be worth a lot more now?  If it had been there earning interest, it would be. However, I understand the government didn't leave it sitting there earning interest; they raided the funds to use for other things.

Also, Social Security benefits are taxable anyway.  So I am still paying taxes.  Am I dependent on the government? Not entirely.  I have an IRA and savings, so the money I receive from the government is not all I depend on.  So, am I a "Maker" or a "Taker"?  I'm still not sure.

I Need The New York Times

When we moved to Kentucky, I felt out of touch with the rest of the world.  The local newspaper features mostly local stories, but not much detail about what is happening elsewhere.  I could go to the bookstore and pick up The New York Times, but sometimes making the trip wasn't convenient, and sometimes they were sold out.  I could order it to be mailed to me, but that was too expensive, plus the news would always at least a day old by the time it got to me.  I decided to compromise by ordering The New York Times by mail just for the Sunday edition.  I usually received it by Monday or Tuesday.  The news was still a day or two old, but it allowed me to catch up with what was happening.

The Sunday Times would last us the whole week, reading a section at a time.  My husband always took the Sports section, the Book Review and the Travel section first.  I took the Week in Review, Sunday Styles and front page sections.  Another big plus is the Magazine.

There is always something interesting in the NYT Magazine.  But the biggest thing for me is the crossword puzzle.  The Sunday Crossword Puzzle is my brain exercise.  It keeps me from getting rusty.  I always grab it and start on it right away, fill in the easy ones, then work on it the rest of the week.  It's a fact that when I put it down and come back to it, I always find some answers that I just couldn't think of before.  I guess my mind gets refreshed after a break.  I can solve the entire thing about 90% of the time.

The Sunday Times by mail isn't inexpensive though, even only once a week.  The price went up several times, eventually reaching $40 per month.  When my husband was laid off his job, we decided it was a luxury that had to be sacrificed.  Since I didn't want to go without it altogether, I looked into several digital versions.  I decided to buy the version for my Kindle Fire, which was the most reasonable.  Instead of receiving it just on Sunday, now I read it every day.  Actually, I find that reading it every day is much preferable to Sunday only.

As I read the paper on my Kindle Fire this morning, I realized I was learning things I otherwise would never have known:  details about the Euro crisis; the heating oil/wood burning crisis in Greece; the ancient manuscripts in the Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu; cyberweapons; Monterey shale; increase in conversions to Islam in France; a plane crash that killed a Presidential candidate in Paraguay.

I like to know about important events going on in the world.  So much escapes our attention if we don't pay attention.  I need the New York Times to help me pay attention.


 

Henry Mancini

Yes, I'm old-fashioned.  Yes, I'm romantic.  After all, I am a "Moonchild".  This is my kind of music, lush, romantic, dreamy.

Henry Mancini did that kind of music better than anyone.  He wrote all the music for the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's".  The most famous song on that soundtrack is "Moon River".  But this one has always been my favorite. This one is the theme song, entitled "Breakfast at Tiffany's".



Oh, in case you've never seen the movie, here is the original trailer.  Note the orange coat she's wearing in one scene.  I've always wanted one just like it!  It's Givenchy.  Of course, I would never look as good as she does...