OOPS, I'm Home

Yes, it's true.  I am now home.  It seems like everything was a whirlwind.  It was a great visit and I feel a renewed connection with my family in Arizona.  It was great.  They are well and thriving and I am so pleased for them.  The trip back was interesting.  My flight from Phoenix was to Baltimore where I switched to a flight to Hartford.  Weather on the East Coast was terrible, heavy rains and high winds.  The flight to Baltimore was delayed on the ground, taking off.  My connection was very tight.  I made it though.  The flight from Baltimore to Hartford was short and it turned out very bumpy.  In fact it was about as bumpy as any flight on an airline I have ever had.  The pilot was very good and we landed very well in spite of wind gusts up to 70 mph!

In any case I am home.  I am suffering time lag, 2 hours from Arizona an the time change.  It has take all this time to recover.  I have been on the go ever since.  This is a very busy time of year and I have gotten myself committed to many things.  It was good to visit, but it is also good to be home!  I guess there is no place like home after all.  Spring and Easter will be here very soon.  Enjoy the season!

Love,
Shel

More from Arizona

There were heavy rains here last night. The news is talking about flooded streets and bad traffic and it is still raining a little.  It's a good thing I didn't come here to do something like Golf or watch Spring Season Baseball.  It's all been rained out! 

One thing I didn't mention.  I am in Arizona, a bit south east of Phoenix and my Blackberry is in Connecticut.  How did that happen?  I had to change the way I was packed at the very last minute and in my rush the Blackberry got left in my room.  I live off that device!  I am lost without it.  I think I am adicted to my Blackberry.  I actually feel uncomfortable and insecure without it.  I certainly feel out of touch.  I wonder how many voice mails I have?

Fortunately, I have this computer with me.  It has all the information on it that my Blackberry has except for the voice mails.  I guess I could make Skype calls but I am limited to wifi access.  As long as I am at my son's I have that, but when I travel around that doesn't work.  Hopefully, my Blackberry is on its way to me at this moment and I will have it with me tomorrow or possibly Wednesday.

It is getting a litttle brighter out now.  Maybe it will clear up a bit and I can venture out and about and possibly take some pictures.  Have a bright day!

Mostly cloudy in the morning...becoming partly sunny. Chance of showers in the morning...then slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs 56 to 61. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of measurable rain 50 percent.

Love,
Shel

Arizona

I am writing this from my son's house in Arizona.  At last I have been able to visit with them in their new home and to see my granddaughter.  One expects that Arizona will be hot, but today it rained all day and was cool.  One thing that is true, it is very flat!I have driven through Arizona before, but that was through Flagstaff. Flagstaff has snow now!  I am down in the Phoenix area and there is no snow.  Better weather is forcast for the rest of the week.   I did come to visit my family though.

I will be doing some sight seeing.  My son took me to a gold mine today.  The gold is mostly gone now, but it provided my granddaughter with a rustic train ride.  Tomorrow I will look to take some pictures - weather permitting.  Taking good pictures is a little hard in the rain, but I did get a few today.  I didn't want to take the good camera out in the rain though.

This is all for tonight.  Traveling is exhausting and tomorrow will come early.  Be well. Oh, the picture is of the Superstition mountains near the gold mine I visited.  I didn't take the picture ((it was raining and fogged in).  Credit the picture to ellipse at azpic.com.

Love,

Shel

Does it make sense?

I just got my pension check for the month.  It was minus another substantial amount.  This means that my pension payment just decreased by about half since my birthday.  Apparently I need less money to live on this month than I needed last month.  Does one need less money the older one gets?   The Pension plan put me on disability retirement several years ago.  I did receive a supplement designed to offset having to buy insurance and that ended last month.  There was a disability supplement that also has now disappeared even though I am no less disabled.  I guess I will need to rehabilitate myself and earn some money.  In fact I have been trying to do some low impact business activities.  Unfortunately they have not been lucrative ventures as yet.  They have kept me busy and interested in life and there is some value to that.  Now I think I just need some money.  This doesn't solve the issue of my impending travel to Arizona.  I was palning on having a bit more money than I will now have.  Oh, well! 

I'm a bit down, but where there is a will there is a way.

Love,
Shel

Been Away

I've been away for a while.  I went to Rhode Island for my Aunt's wake and funeral.  That was a sad affair, but she had lived a good life and what she was doing before she died wasn't really living.  She is with her Mother and Father and Sister(my Mother) now.  They were all beloved to her.

Immediately after that I went to Boston for four days.  I have a friend up there I have been visiting and doing some work with.  She lives right in the city in south Boston.  City life is so different!  I took the train because a cars is a real liability.  Parking is real tough.  My friend and I worked hard and played hard too.  It was a good time.  It is just the sort of thing I have been needing to get over some tough things in my life.

I am back now and I spent most of yesterday talking to her on the phone.  It was mostly unfinished business. I also went to T'ai Chi.  Today has been picking up on local unfinished business.  I need to get ready for my next trip, this time to see my family in Arizona.  I haven't seen my son or my granddaughter in over a year!  That is far too long, but funds and circumstances have delayed things.  I hate flying these days, but I really want to see them!  The train was a delight (Amtrak.)  Unfortunately a train to Arizona and back would be too expensive.  It would be fun I bet!

It's been rain, rain, rain the last few days; Gloomy weather, but better than snow and ice!

I hope your day is a bright one!
Love,

Shel

Good Woman, Good Life

Yesterday morning early my father, who is 98, called me to tell me that my aunt, 94, died during that night.  She was my mother's sister and was born two years after my mother.  I have been a bit broken up about this and it has taken me this long to write about it.  My aunt and my mother were close as sister can be.  They both lived through the trauma of loosing their mother (my grandmother) to the 1938 hurricane.

My aunt is survived by two children.  They have numerous children themselves and some of those children have children.  She, therefore, was many times a great grandmother.  Since I have a grand child she was also a great grand aunt.

Two years ago she suffered several strokes that sent her to assisted living.  This past fall she had to be moved to a nursing home.  My father and I visited her last week and she was mostly unresponsive.  I think she knew we were there.  It was a difficult visit.  Clearly the quality of her life had changed and not for the better.

I have good memories of her and she has a great legacy in her family.  God bless you aunt Bea!  I"ll miss you.

Love,
Shel

Late -Late

For the second night in a row I am up far too late!  Believe it or not I haven't been drinking coffee this evening either!  I need some sleep so good night!