Frustrations

 Well, here we are ready to start another year. Ready or not here it comes. We may get a snowfall here soon. I have a very nice neighbor that shovels snow out of my driveway, brings my mail to me and even takes care of the cat's litter box. She loves doing things for people. 

When you get this age people are so nice to you. It's very much appreciated too.

An odd little thing happened. The Union Gospel Mission help homeless people and cook and serve food to them and beds for a couple days , I'm not sure what all they do. They sent a letter before Christmas asking for donations so I sent them a small donation with a check. My checks only have my name on them. They sent me a thank you letter. Well. they  sent it to my address with my son's name on it and thanked him for the donation. 

Mel, has never lived here. I haven't solved that mystery yet. Maybe he also sent them a donation and somehow it got screwed up. 

I don't have anything to put in these blogs anymore so I am not sure why I think I need to keep doing it.  I have to keep my hands busy. Crocheting and crossword puzzles are driving me batty. 

One day I wished I lived in the country so I could just go outside and scream as loud as I can. I guess I could do it anyway but they would probably lock me up in the looney bin. Today I heard that people are drinking more these days. I'm not going to take that one up. 

I found this online some time ago. It was taken in Glencoe, Ok. The buildings caught fire January 22,1914. The folks were all hanging out together to discuss the loss, but  in this day we can't do that or it could make the matter worse. 

We Had a Snowy Christmas Day

A few little problems arose. It snowed most of the day, but it's okay because it'll go away.

My Blog decided to stop working so this is an experiment to see if it is now going to do what it has always done in the past. If not, this may be my last entry. I am sick and tired of trying to figure it out. 

I hope you had a wonderful day! Good night and good luck. 

Dark Dreary Day

It's so boring these days. I can't go anywhere so I just sit on my buttox all day, day in and day out. There is a huge gloomy cloud covering this area. I hate the dark, I'm even afraid of it. I can't find anything on TV that I care about. I have no one to talk to except me and I'm so boring I'd rather forget it. 

For my dinner tonight I am going to build a big sub sandwich. I have the ingredients for it. I will forget the dessert. I can't follow a diet these days so at least I can cut back on serving size and sugar. I think I just described a diet. Oh well, I'm an old lady and the mind ain't what it use to be.

I have a whole slew of cute little great-grandkids but with the damdemic we can't get together.  The youngest one has two new teeth. How exciting is that! I even have a great-great granddaughter. 

It's 4 'clock and getting dark so I need to close the blinds because the boogiemen come out after dark.

I can't seem to locate the picture of the great great Granddaughter.

I give up trying to edit this thing so it is what it is.

Pandemic or Dammimic

Is it the pandemic or the Dammimic Flu? There was a Flu epidemic in 1918 that took many lives.

 I think Mother Nature believes there are too many living people in this world and has found a way of thinning us out. Hang on to your Mask and ride it out. 

I'm probably the safest person on the planet. I never get within six feet of anyone except one neighbor. She brings my mail to me each day. Oh yes, then there is my son. He brings groceries to me. 

Well, all this is going to change in  January. I will meet with the denture people again for another adjustment. Holy Malony! how many times will it take to adjust a set of dentures? They only hurt when I chew. It takes the pleasure out of eating and I have the weight loss to prove it. I brazenly stepped on the scales today and have seven fewer pounds to haul around.  It made my day. 

If anything else exciting happens around here I'll let you know. 

We may have Martial law and that may complicate things a little, I guess he can add a little more money to his bank with another rally or so going on. The man with the money and the ego!

I am not political, It's about the man not the party. 

Born To Lose

When you get this old you begin to outlive your appliances. The refrigerator was replaced a couple years ago as well as the TV.

Today the Washer decided it was time to give up the ghost. Right in the middle of a rinse cycle. There is no unplug for a couple minutes and replugging it. It began to rattle and make an awful sound. It was the death rattle because it refused to even make a noise later. I think it was old and probably came over on the Mayflower.  Kenny declared it had expired.

We give away our age with the expressions we use. I use expressions such as What in the Samhill is that. Even Spellcheck thinks I meant to say Yamhill. Whatever the Samhill does Yamhill mean?

Anyway, we ordered a new one that should arrive soon. I had to wring out as much water as I could and put them in the dryer. The dryer didn't fail me. 

Merry Christmas!!!

 We must have been Po-folk when I was a kid. Oh, how we loved that Orange in our sock and the hard candy was like waking up in heaven. 

We had a Christmas tree with our homemade decorations and popcorn strung on a string. We always made taffy and we each had to scrub our hands until we passed inspection, and don't forget the popcorn balls. 

Mom didn't even have a cookbook she just knew how to make those things and I think most women in that era also knew how. She made biscuits every morning for breakfast and gravy and if it was Hog season we had ham, bacon, or sausage. Of course, the cellar had jars of Jam and jelly that Mom had canned. She also canned all the vegetables she grew in her garden. We ate healthy in those days, except for the bacon grease that she seasoned everything with. The bacon grease didn't seem to cause cholesterol in those days. Maybe they worked it off, could that be why?  Or maybe it did cause an early death because the life expectancy was probably in the 70's. I didn't bother to look it up. I do know most people didn't live much past 80 if that long. My Grandpa lived to be 89 as I recall and that was considered a very long life. I think it still is. 

Well, I see something on TV I want to watch so tata.

I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas!

Take a Break

 I got up on the other side of the bed and it didn't help. It's just a senseless rumor that someone started. 

Mr. Robot Vacuum cleaner went on a sit-down strike. Well, be that way, I said. I talk to inanimate objects because Well, just because. 

I have another vacuum cleaner so I used it, and when I decided I need to empty the canister I could not figure out why there was nothing in it and I had vacuumed two rooms and they looked vacuumed. It looks like a canister and why is there nothing in it.  I am still baffled by that. 

I messed up my bank account. It was a little more difficult, but I managed to mess it up.

I stewed and I fretted overnight about the laptop not working, it's my lifeline. 

I gave my son a call for help so he came over today. The Robot is now working and charging. That was the problem, it had stopped charging and was totally dead.

When I got up this morning the Laptop was working better than it has been for some time. There was an update and I got in on that and drove myself nuts and I had not done anything wrong. 

Kenny got the bank account straightened out set up an automatic payment plan for something so I can forget that. 

Maybe I'm getting the start of old age dementia or am I getting advanced old age dementia. 

Well, not to worry my Mama always said it'll come out in the wash.

My Dad, Dennis Lockwood, a minister.

and his brother, Uncle Vincent, They both had red hair.

Life in the Old Lane

 Life in the old lane isn't all that bad. Not that much to think about. Such things as Hair Gel and Clear Nail Polish. The hair gel arrived a few days ago and the nail polish is out for delivery. So that's about as exciting as it gets.

Chris came today and brought some food already to eat. That is the kind of food I like. Ready to eat! If it wasn't for Chris I'd be hungry. 

I don't have a nap time. They just sneak up on me.  Oops! I missed Dr. Phil again. Well, not today but some days. 

No news is good news.

I spend some spare time crocheting blankets and scarves and whatever. 

I'm Bored With Me

Not much going on around here. If you live with a family at least you have someone to hash things over with. I have a lot of family members but I don't live with any of them.

It's the time of day when I have to fight sleep. Yesterday I didn't fight the sleep and went to sleep and slept until bedtime. Then I went to bed and stayed awake until around two AM. That would be fine but I have a cat that thinks she was put on this earth to wake me at 3 AM. So I have been overly tired today. Now, what do you think she is doing? Sleeping, of course.

It'll sure be nice when everyone has an electric car. If we had those even I could drive a car. I probably won't live to see that day.

I have seen so many new things in my lifetime. Well, it's a 92-year span.  I have no news. We have cold weather and no snow to put up with. 

I have denture problems, I am on a Denture diet. I need another adjustment. Or maybe I'll wait until I lose a little more weight. 

I have nothing new to yak about so I shall sign off. 

Have a wonderful Christmas!

The Way It Is

It's time for a change in the political arena. I just listen to their noise and hope for an improvement. 

There is not much to do in these days of my golden years. The body is worn out and sitting in a chair is about all I'm good at anymore. The memory is somewhat undependable. I sit at the table to eat a meal and think of something I forgot to get out of the Fridge so I get out of the chair and by the time I get to the Fridge I forgot what I was there for so I stand there to think about it. I look in the Fridge hoping I will see what I am there for. Then I notice something that needs to be thrown out so I take care of that. You get the picture, that is how the whole day goes.

I had to get new dentures and what a nightmare that was. The next thing on the agenda is a lost hearing aid. Those things are so outlandishly priced it's ridiculous. $1600 for one hearing aid. 

Taking the mask off is the problem. I'm sure that is what happened and I was very careful and thought I was making sure I didn't pull it out. Anyway, it's gone, but when I went to a different place to check on the price of a new one, she checked the one aid I still had and adjusted it and for the first time since I've had it I can hear so much better then I could before. In fact, I think I can hear okay with just the one aid. I am going to make it work. The place I had been going to just didn't know how to adjust them. No wonder I was their only customer. 

My Homeowners insurance doesn't cover it. The clerk told me that you need to have a separate insurance policy to cover it. 

I just thought I'd share my gripes with you. 

I Kid you not, this is exactly how I look, cane and all.

A Cat Tale

If there is an empty box around it won't be empty for long. I didn't know much about cats until this one came into my life. 

This cat loves music, and especially George Jones and Randy Travis. I found a YouTube of their video and she always gets up here in my face and pesters me. Maybe she wants it off, I'm not sure.

Well, the days are getting shorter and shorter and daylight savings time doesn't make it last any longer. 

It rained and it blew here today. 

I'm finally going to get a perm and a haircut so I'll look like a normal person again. 

Well, as you can tell I don't know anything to tell you about so I shall shut up and find something on TV.

The Big Change

I never dreamed it would come to this. Wear the mask, stay home, keep six feet away from others. This is something people should be doing when they have a common cold. Keep it to yourself! 

I have good news for you youngsters. When you reach old age you no longer get a cold. We finally built up an immunity to the germ. I don't know if that's true or not but it sounds good. I have not had a head cold for eons. 

I went to a new doctor because my doctor had gone into teaching. He didn't let his patients know about it. You found out when you called for an appointment. So I had a new doctor. No blood work was ordered. I asked about a blood test and he didn't think it was necessary. I told him about the itching problem I have but he didn't have anything to say about it. I told him about my legs and feet hurting. He made no comments about that either.

He had on a mask so I can't tell you if he was in there or not. I will not be making any more appointments any time soon. Why bother?

Now we have fraud and fake news and lies or so I heard more than once. 

Time Crawls

Dying seems so final nobody wants to do it, but if they knew what old age feels like they may not want to go there either. 

Since I am now officially old I can tell you that you still don't want to die. Well, you're going to miss everybody, that's why. It's one reason. 

I can't think of any other reasons now. 

It's been a long day. One day recently I was thinking you never see anyone with a flat tire these days. That must have been a premonition because the other day when Chris and I were out and about doing important things we had a flat tire, flatter than a pancake. and what can we do? Kenny had no vehicle, not even a riding lawnmower. Remember George Jones, the singer with the drinking problem. He rode one to town to get more booze. Since Kenny couldn't do anything we called everyone we could think of. We didn't know how to change a tire and we didn't want to learn how that day. It was freezing cold and I only wore a light jacket because I knew I would be in the car and besides that, I had to pee. Everybody does from time to time. 

I tried to call Deena and for some reason, the phone kept dialing Molly, my granddaughter that lives in Ellensburg, several miles away. The stupid phone. Molly kept saying, you got Molly again. 

Chris thought of someone else and he could help us but it would be a while before he could. So we waited and when he came the tire was a problem because something had glued to the tire and he couldn't break it loose. I forgot to mention she had run over a curb just before the flat and it was that tire that was flat, flatter than a pancake. That was why he couldn't change the tire but he had what he needed but it was in a storage shed on 48th. So we cooled our heels while he went to the storage shed and I still needed to pee. 

When he came back he whammed the daylights out of it and finally broke it loose. Well, maybe you needed to be there to see exactly what was stuck to the tire. It all ended well and I relieved my bladder and thawed the ice cycles that were hanging on me. 

Home never looked so good. 

Counting Flowers

Counting flowers on the wall. Everything is a sham or a scam. I heard that someone claiming they are with Amazon call and inform you that there is a problem with your account. It's true because they called me. 

I played it as dumb as I could and told them Amazon doesn't live here.

I get so bored and have no friends and no car so I can go somewhere and meet people. Well, I guess I wouldn't do that if I had a car. I don't want the virus. 2020 is the worse year of my life so far. 

TV would be good if they had anything but Game shows and sports. And 'Say yes to the dress'. Who cares about the stupid dress? The only reality show I like is 'Big World and Little People' unless it's a rerun.

It's only 6 PM and it's getting dark. 

In the mornings I used to have a beautiful view of the sunrise out my kitchen window but they built an extension to Eisenhower high school and blocked my view. I will show you some pics. 

Natalie and Joshua 

Brother and little sister Tyler and Kylie

This is Aniyah, my great-great-granddaughter.  

Kylie and Tyler Faris

Grandpa, Joshua, and Natalie

Grandpa Dennis Engel and Josh and Nat

Boredom Rules

This is my favorite October picture. My granddaughter, Cora, and my great granddaughter, Chloe, she is 11 years old now.

 This is my newest great-grandson. The name is Joshua. He was born on my mother's Birthday. My mother is no longer living. I am 92 so I guess she would be a little over the hill if she was still living. 

This is his sister Natalia and Terry, their Daddy.

This is the happy grand Pappy!

Nothing new to write about. The days are long and boring. All we hear about is the Virus and whether our president was infected or not infected and did he have on a mask or did he not have on a mask and did he know he was infected and why didn't he tell us when he was infected and why did he go to a hospital if he was negative. 

This one died and that one died and that one might die. We might all die from boredom if things don't change soon. 

A New Day

Many days ago before I had fake teeth, wrinkled skin, no tweezers for plucking eyebrows, no hair dye, had ears that could hear, eyes that could see and even my nose could smell, and never in my life have I ever cared if anyone knew how old I was unless of course, I wanted to enter a business that I had no business being in. 

Life is so boring all I have to talk to is myself so thus the reason for this blog entry. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be disappointed if God airlifted me out of here one of these days. I have more people waiting for me on the other side than there are here. When you get this age (92) you don't know anyone older than you are. I know there are many around but I don't know them. 

I can see the blue sky again so that is a plus.

Not My Best Day

Old is for the dinosaurs. I hate this old age but better than no life I suppose. 

The most mundane things can turn into disasters. I bought a new paring knife because the old one was so dull. Today I was using the wonderful new knife and the first thing that happened was a slice across the thumb. Not a big slice but I begin to bleed like a stuck hog. Now that is an expression used only by us antiques. You give your age away from the expressions you use. Who knows what bled like a stuck hog means? Anyway, it wouldn't stop bleeding and it was on my right hand so that was another problem. I attempted to open a bandaid but there was no way I could get the paper off of the bandaid with blood running down my hand. I also have serious eyesight problems and trembling hands.

Do you know I finally had to call Polly, my neighbor to help me. 

She brought her own bandaid and had it on my thumb in nothing flat. There goes another ancient one, in nothing flat. 

That little incident brought back a memory from years ago when I was a newlywed and we were living with my inlaws until we could find a place to rent. It was right after WW2 and housing was extremely rare because the service people were home and getting married to their penpal in many cases. 

One day my inlaws and other relatives decided to drive to Spokane to visit another relative so I and hubby and Grandpa stayed home because the men were picking apples. The home they lived in was in the middle of an orchard. 

I made lunch for the apple pickers and as I started to clean up the kitchen I put a glass on a cupboard shelf and knocked another glass off the shelf and I threw my hands out to catch the glasses. Heaven forbid if I should break their glassware. A broken piece of glass hit me across my little finger and there is a main artery in the little finger I found out later. The blood began to spurt out in big gushes with every heartbeat. No one there but me and I found a big bath towel to catch the blood in. I started over to one of the neighbors when a visitor pulled into the neighbor's driveway. They could see it was a serious problem. We drove down to the orchard and picked up Bud, the husband, and headed for town. The towel was soon soaked with blood and they also had a brand new car and I am bleeding all over it. They took me to the only hospital we had at that time and a nurse looked at it and said, "This is just a cut on the finger so you need to go to the Larson Building and see the DR. I don't remember his name but he was livid that they sent me down there. Bud had to carry me in there because I was so weak by then. The doctor sewed it closed and said if I were in the hospital he would order a blood transfusion so that part was forgotten and I spent the entire summer so tired and weak I couldn't do much of anything and I worried that they would think I was lazy.

Aspirins thin the blood and it is my favorite pain killer. 

Well, no more.

Age Changes Everything

Age changes everything. When you arrive you don't even know who you are or where you came from or why and when you get old you still don't know where you came from or why. 

 What we do know is everything changes year after year and we hang on for dear life. We learn things as we go along, but usually, we learn the hard way. 

When I was young and dumb I decided to smoke because almost everyone I knew smoked. Even my husband and maybe I got addicted to the smoke because I was soon making my own smoke. I said all that to say this. The smoking ruined my teeth and I had to wear dentures. I just looked it up and smoking is very bad for your teeth. 

I needed dentures and my Dentist said he could make them for me and he made them. He had never made dentures before and they were horrible. I couldn't even bite into a sandwich and they made me look funny. When I went to a regular denturist they were shocked at how horrible they were. 

Dentures wear out and I was in another pair. I can't remember how many sets I have had over the years. 

It is now time for another set. My lower denture broke into when I took a bite of crispy bacon. It can't be repaired and when I made an appointment to go to a denturist I was told that they do not make just a lower and they only make a full set. I made an appointment with them. I couldn't hardly eat anything without a lower denture and today I finally remembered I had saved my old ones and found a very good one that fits and feels fine except when I try to eat something. They don't fit properly so I can't eat and I kind of like to eat so I will get uppers and lowers.

Past Present and Future

Once upon a time, I went to a fortune-teller as they were called at that time. I was told that she could see me sitting in front of something that looked like a box and I seemed to be typing something. She said it would be well known and I should proceed with it because there may be a lot of money involved. 

I had totally forgotten about it until recently. In my old age, things in my past come to mind that I haven't thought about in years. This is one of those things.

Do you think she was describing my Blog? I haven't made a dime off of it but it has an all-time amount of viewers of 175,936. 

I think I was 80 when I started it, one day a reporter from our local newspaper called and asked me for an interview because he had run across my blog and said he couldn't stop reading. Blogs went through an era of being very popular but not so much now. Anyway, it made our local paper and other newspapers also published it. Oh well, it was fun because I like to write. 

This is how it looked in the beginning. Remember the mouse with a tail and even the phone has a tail.

Freezer Shop

My little freezer died and went to heaven so I went freezer hunting. Anyway, I bought a small chest type freezer. They only had one in the store and it was their display model and not for sale. 

They said they had some on order and it would be a couple weeks so I bought one and was disappointed they didn't have one in stock but decided to order it so I could go home. It was a hot day.

Well, guess what. I answered my phone today and was told the freezer was in and ready for pickup. Sometimes good things still happen. 

Some very nice friends, Nichole and Jay are going to pick it up for me tomorrow. Thanks to Chris and Kenny they took care of the whole matter. 

Karen and Dennis, my daughter and her husband, bought it for me. It was my birthday present. I have been using the freezer that comes with the refrigerator and it is so small and crammed full so it has been so hard to find what I'm looking for. 

Isn't this exciting news? Well, what can you expect from an old lady 92 years old. 

All I normally do is sit in my recliner and work crossword puzzles, and crochet, knit and get fat and watch the telly, as they call it in England. They also call the bathroom the Loo. How do they get Loo out of bathroom? They could have called it the Poo and it would have made more sense.

 My family, the Lockwoods migrated to America on Governor Winthrop's fleet.

I knew you'd want to know that. 

It's An Uncloudy Day

If you sit around long enough you'll think of something to do. I'm sick of TV and decided I would like to listen to music. I usually go to YouTube to listen to music but I happened to run across a box full of old CD's so I found my old CD player. Did we call them CD's? I'm using a 91-year-old brain and can't always rely on it. 

I was doubtful the player would still work but it not only worked like a charm but the remote still worked with the ancient batteries still in it. I think it's a miracle. So now I am listening to the old country music I love. Willie Nelson is on now. Help me make it through the night.  Let the devil take the high road. I don't wanna be alone so help me make it through the night. 

The sun has taken over today. I'm guessing it's a little warm outside but I'm inside with a working air conditioner. 

Kenny brought me some groceries so I won't starve todeath, I haven't come close to that yet. 

Well, I'll be getting out of the house again because a haircut and perm are on the agenda. 

I finally got the long-awaited pedicure. I'm sure I announced that by now.   

When I was young and spry I would drive over to Randle Park and walk the mile trail a couple times with my little Wirehaired Dachshund. I would end up carrying her because she had to make a lot of tracks with the short legs. Her belly dragged in the grass so a bath was in order. She didn't mind the bath but she hated the dog groomer.  

This is Minnie and I wish I still had her. 

Warm weather of August

August isn't famous for anything. It just takes up space on the calendar. No famous people that I know of were born in August. 

I was born in this month which I probably had no control over. I think it's as good as any month to be born in. 

I had a sister born on Valentine's day and one was born on Pearl Harbor Day, a brother was born on Christmas day and twin granddaughter's born on Christmas eve and a granddaughter born on New Year's day and a daughter that was born on the day after Thanksgiving (doesn't that count for something) because her birthday sometimes falls on Thanksgiving. 

I was just born on no special day or anything. Probably hotter than that place we don't want to go to. 

I have nothing to write about just killing time. 

This is the old farmhouse I grew up in. We sure didn't have that air Cooler when I lived there. The Cedar tree in the back had a limb that was ideal to chin myself on. We didn't have toys, we just did whatever we thought was fun such as climbing a tree.  My Grandpa, Jasper Newton Lockwood was in the Oklahoma land run and staked a claim so it was his and later was able to acquire more land and ended up with 365 acres.  My Dad was born in this house in 1900. Grandma and Grandpa lived in a cave while it was being built, That room on the back was a screened in porch when I lived there. 

Moving On

Life stands still for no one. I'm walking upon my Ninty-Tooth birthday, ready or not. My beginnings were started in an old farm-house in the country. There was no store on the corner but there was a mailbox on the corner that brought any news to us and by the time we received it, it was getting old. 

Our water came from a big hole in the back yard. It was covered and had a pump and it was a hand-operated pump. We used the water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing our clothes. That is until one day my Dad took the cover off the hole to have a look and it was a look I can never unsee. It had rocks in the wall of the well and a few families of Frogs had moved in. It is no wonder we had all those vomiting problems. 

I don't believe the sun went down until my Dad was having a well drilled in the meantime he brought home a big milk can full of clean water for drinking. 

Us kids and there were four of us at that time, took turns with the Chickenpox, Measles and Red Measles, and whooping cough and I had a never-ending earache.

We had no choice but I do remember someone coming to our little one-room school and giving us a shot in the arm. It must have hit the bone because my arm ached for months after. I don't think it prevented anything, we had all the diseases that came along. 

This is our family in about 1944. One was missing, our brother, Ray was still away in the Army. 

Lorrene, Benny, Mom, Dad, Carol, Cecil. In the front row are Gene and Hollis. 

Time Moves On

My Granddaughter, Emily and Tyler, and Kylie. 

My Granddaughter, Laura, Joshua and Natalia.

Grandpa Dennis with Joshau and Natalia

 with Natalie with her purse and her baby. Natalia is a great pretender. 

Grandma, Cori with grandsons, Tylor, Anthony, and Dylan. 

Kylie and brother Tyler. Emily and Jeff's little ones.

Tyler  and Kylie

Aniyah is my great-great-granddaughter. Her parents are Wendy and Tylor.  

Cora and Jim Huffman.

Cousins,Tyler, Leah, Hailey Kylie and Shelby.