Sandi Chats

I have never, even in my wildest sci-fi dreams, imagined that we would be in the shape we are today...quarantined from the rest of the world due to the Coronavirus. We are feeling fine, but since we just recently came from a very populous area and traveled through 6 states coming home, we feel, and it is recommended, that we need to self-quarantine for two weeks after traveling. Social distancing seems to be the general state of the country these days. What are all of you doing with the time you have alone? We are managing to keep ourselves busy and amused, but look forward to the days when we can get out and among people. We can be thankful for many things in all this. For starters, it's the electronic age. Even though we can't be in each other's physical presence, we can call, text, Skype, email, Facetime, and probably a whole bunch of stuff I've never heard of or know how to do. There are virtual everythings, and we can even take a trip virtually. We have been to...

Well Christmas 2019 is in the books, and we are almost ready to step through time into 2020! Since I failed, once again, to get Christmas cards out, I will take this means to recap the year and extend our holiday wishes to all our friends. 2019 began with a huge change as I retired at that time. Looking back now I realize it was a bit like stepping off into thin air. I had been at my job for over 20 years with all the security that afforded me, and now that security blanket was gone. But it was also freeing to realize that I didn't need to be at work tomorrow. We saw a dream come true when we left the cold and snow of Nebraska for sunny Arizona at the end of January. If you kept up with my Facebook group from that time, you know how that went. If you didn't, rest assured it was all we had imagined and more. We bummed around on the Arizona desert for two months, managing to miss the worst winter Nebraska had seen for many years and all the subsequent flooding. We embarke...

As a poor person, I am always intrigued by stories of people who have made money or gone from rags to riches. Possibly the reason for this intrigue is the hope that I will eventually discover some secret that will help me become rich. So far the secret hasn't really made itself known to me, but I have reached some interesting conclusions. When I think of rich, I am talking fabulously rich. History is full of examples: 1. The oldest example I can come up with right off the top of my head is King Solomon in the Bible. He amassed a vast empire of wealth and opulence in his lifetime. The Bible talks of his unusual wisdom, which I am sure contributed to his ability to amass wealth. However, it also says he had 700 wives and 300 mistresses, which would bring his claim to wisdom into doubt! However this also contributed to his wealth in that many of his wives were given to him through alliances made with neighboring kings. Pretty sure that King Solomon made each of these business de...

After a nearly five month hiatus from blogging, I am back. And what a five months it has been! I didn't even get settled into my retirement routine before we headed south to Arizona for a couple months. Now, we didn't have any premonitions or inside info, but it turns out that we missed possibly two of the most miserable months of winter weather that this country has ever seen! It was cooler than normal in Arizona also, and the locals there said it was the worst winter they had seen in a lot of years...temps hung in the 50's to low 60's, which was a darned sight better than what Nebraska was experiencing.  We headed back to Nebraska at the end of March in preparation for my bilateral knee replacement. I knew having both knees done at the same time would be challenging, but I simply didn't want to go through the surgery twice in a short span of time...and besides I couldn't decide which knee to do first since they were both bone-on-bone and needed the surgery...

Day 6 Our trip is rapidly drawing to a close, and we have completed that "fall colors" part of the tour. Today we have a different plan. Once again, Shannon picked us up and we headed for Newport, Rhode Island. The sunshine of yesterday disappeared again, and it was threatening rain. Shannon was very knowledgeable and chatty and kept up a running commentary of the sites and historical information for the places we were passing. Along the way everyone felt the need for caffeine so we pulled into Starbucks. Now that was a new experience for me, I had never even passed by a Starbucks, let alone stopped. I wasn't in need of caffeine, and the choices were nearly overwhelming so I just looked around and recorded the experience with a picture on my phone. Arriving in Newport, we headed to the marina where we were to take a sailboat ride. We bundled up because it was very cool and very breezy. Mom opted to just sit it out in the warm bus because of the damp chill. The...

Day 4:  Picking up where we left off, you may remember that in my previous installment we had just finished a grueling and traumatic day on our trip with Mom's fall and the debacle of being on our own in New England at night.  Saturday morning dawned cold and rainy once again, and after the unpleasant excitement of the previous day, we opted to sit out one day of the tour. Mom as still feeling kind of unsteady and we were both exhausted. So we nestled down for naps and listened to the rain hit against the windows, glad that we were warm and dry and resting. We did make a quick dash to the Outlet Mall for some shoes for me and a pair of sunglasses for Mom as she was somewhat self-conscious of her black eyes. Shopping in New Hampshire was kind of nice for the fact that they have no sales tax. A marked price of $19.95 is exactly what you will spend!  That evening we joined our group for supper at a seafood restaurant where we got the commentary of what we missed. This...

I have just finished the second week of retirement...and I have been busy, almost busier than I would have been at the office. I have been wondering how I found time to go to work, but the answer is clear--I just left everything undone here at home. The first week I spent cleaning out some places in the house that have really been bugging me, mostly some cupboards that were full of something but I was not sure exactly what. So I cleaned out what was not being used and filled it with stuff that we needed to keep, and now I kind of like those cupboards. There is still that pesky "container" cupboard, you know, the one where you keep all the plastic storage ware with all the containers and the lids that never seem to match the containers! And the one I avoid trying to fit anything more into even though containers and lids are piled all over the counter. Pretty sure the trash will need to go out following the completion of that project! I got reacquainted with a dust rag earl...