So, I’m sitting there watching the tube with my husband, Charlie, reading the latest AARP Magazine when I think, when did this happen? When did I go from joking about this magazine to actually reading it? Not just leafing through, not scanning it, but enjoying it? I mean, finding the articles interesting and helpful. Sharing the occasional tidbit with Charlie. And me and the Women Who Run With the Moose love the “Movies for Grownups” section. The celebrities on the cover used to be old looking, you know? Now I see the latest issue and say things like, “Hey, Kathy Lee’s not looking half bad!” In fact, this month I got more excited about the …

Sunday, we had a birthday brunch for our Dad, over to Irene and Jimbo’s. She made the “Egg Dish” (there’s only one) which is something our mom used to make involving about a dozen eggs, butter, bread, milk and cheese. How can you go wrong with that combination, right? You whip it up the night before, and the next morning it bakes up nice and light. I brought along some fruit salad and cranberry nut bread, and Jimbo fried up a whole mess of bacon. As far as we’re concerned, if there ever was a “the food of the Gods,” bacon is it. Charlie and me picked up Dad from Mahoosuc Green. They had already …

People were kind of spacey and tired last week, what with the time change. Me, too. We’re just all kind of…off. Why do we still do daylight savings time, anyway? Whether we’re springing forward or falling back, it’s a royal pain in the patootie! It’s amazing what screwing around with our sleep schedules can do. I mean, it’s just one hour. It shouldn’t make that much difference. But get this: on the Monday after we switch to DST, heart attacks go up by 24%. Strokes increase, too. Car accidents climb 17%. I’m reading that folks are more likely to get injured at work due to “attention lapses and micro-sleeps.” Charlie’s sitting at the kitchen table one …

Charlie and me were paying our bills the other day. The way we do this is, we sit down and pay ‘em together. It doesn’t take that long. We try to do it every couple of weeks. At least once a month. It helps if you put it in the calendar. I know some folks just do it automatically, right from their paycheck, but we’ve been doing it this way forever and it helps us stay on the same page. When things are tight (and they have been off and on over the years) bill paying isn’t my favorite thing to do. But the fact is, it’s gotta be done. Easier to show up and …

Walker envy. It’s a thing. I know because I’ve seen it down to Mahoosuc Green, where my dad lives. Their motto there is “experience your finest senior moments with us.” Jury’s still out on that one, but I gotta say, it’s a pretty nice place. Dad has a cute little apartment. He eats a meal in the dining room every day and plays “Beano” as he calls it, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening. In March, my dad will turn 86. His days of golfing, bowling, and dating may be behind him, but there’s still a lot of life left in the old duffer. Dad learned the hard way that his walker is his friend …

Happy 2019! I hope your holidays were wonderful, and if they weren’t all you wanted ‘em to be, well, at least they’re over! Time to take a deep breath, regroup and move on. Now, I don’t make New Years resolutions anymore. No, I do what my niece Caitlin calls “setting an intention.” She’s works down to Mahoosuc Health Food, and seems to have the inside scoop on all things New Age-y! “An intention is gentler,” she says. “When you break a resolution, well, it’s done. With an intention, you may lose sight of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost forever. All you have to do is refocus on it.” That works for me, because …

We’re closing in on the first of the year, and none too soon, huh? Boy, working down to the A&P, I’ve seen some mighty stressed out people, let me tell you! No need to name names. You know who you are. And if you’re not one of ‘em, you’ve seen ‘em, too, I’m sure. Men on a mission, running in to get that one last thing their wife forgot. With the eye of the tiger and no time for hellos, they dash into the produce section or down an aisle only to appear at the express lane five or ten or sometimes fifteen minutes later, deer in the headlights, sweat on their upper lip. You …

The other day I says to Charlie, “We gotta put the grill in the shed for the winter.” Now, I have no intention of doing this myself. It’s the kind of chore Charlie usually does (after I remind him). We both know that by “we,” I mean “him.” It’s the same “we” that comes into play when I say, “Boy, that recycling’s sure piling up. About time we made a trip down to the transfer station.” Or, “We oughta sure up that bottom step on the deck, don’t you think? Maybe put up a new railing?” It’s the royal “we.” I got to thinking about it, asking myself if this is a two way street …

So I go into Cumbies to pick up a Cow Tail. (For those of you who’ve led a sheltered life, that’s a caramel candy.) It was a reward for .…..well, I can’t remember what right now, but I know I deserved it at the time. I just love them things! Anyhoo, behind the counter is this guy from away whose name is Guy. That’s what it says on his name tag. I’ve seen him there before, but don’t know hardly nothing about him. See, his demeanor doesn’t exactly invite conversation. He must be about my age, I’m guessing: glasses, gray hair and mustache. Big chain around his neck that must have had a gold finish …

Why am I seeing apples on trees and yesterday at the Rite Aid, Halloween candy? That’s just not right! Summer just got started! The older I get, the quicker the seasons pass. Well, not winter. That one tends to linger, doesn’t it? While sweet, sweet summer is like a blink of the eye. Granted, this summer was a hot one. How hot was it? Well, it was so hot, you break a sweat just sitting there watching the tube. It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, bacon on the hood of your car: sizzling! It was so hot, my house has become a no underwear/no shoe zone. Just a loose …