Aarrrgghh! What Is My Problem?

I know, I’m sixty-one years old, but I hate to be a cliché.  Unlike the kids of today, I was not born with a remote, controller or mouse in my hand.  I am not supposed to know everything about computers and I certainly don’t.  But, help!   I just want to write a short blog, post something simple.  No big deal.  I do it every week and I use my computer everyday.  But, last week my computer started acting up, started having a mind of its own.  Like a spoiled child it seems to only want to do what it wants to do.  That Mac is driving me crazy!

I have a laptop and I  love it.  But it has turned on me.  Every time I try to type anything, my cursor jumps around.  It jumps backwards and continues typing in the middle of a word three words back.  Or, the cursor jumps around and starts deleting words.  But, the worst is when the pesky little cursor starts highlighting everything on the page and I can’t get it to stop.   Force close is my only option.

I can’t compose a blog post under these conditions.  A short task has turned into an all day event.  I thought that maybe I had been overworking the poor thing.  After all it had been getting very hot. So I went to Staples and bought a “chill pad”.  We all need a little chill time, right?  The employee at the store suggested that a build up of dust may be affecting the sensor in the computer.  So, a can of air was put on the list.

Hope springs eternal.  I have faith that my poor sick Mac will be healed and we can continue our relationship as before. A little blast of air and a gentle breeze from the dual fan in the chill pad and I am convinced that the computer will respond to all the positive reinforcement I lavish upon it. So I give it the old “college try”.   But, not three minutes into composing  my blog the trouble begins again.  Forget it! I admit it.  I don’t know what is wrong and I just want it fixed.  My computer has let me down, so I have been forced onto another computer to compose my blog.  Then I am off to the Mac Shack.

P.S.  I had the blog written on the other computer when my son came in and suggested that I try to alter the trackpad preferences on my laptop.  Darn if it didn’t work.  Guess I raised a genius!

Fifty Shades of What?

A number of months ago I started hearing about this new book, Fifty Shades of Grey.  At first I thought it must be a book about people my age, you know, baby boomers, getting older.  Oh, I was soooo wrong.  But I had already put it on hold at the library, which did not even have their first copies of the book in yet, so I decided I’ d see what the hype was all about.

So here are five books that I read over the last year that have left an impression on me and may make it on your summer reading list.                                                                                      

Fifty Shades of Grey:  by E l James:  A young woman gets involved in a dominant-submissive relationship with an older man.

Truthfully, I didn’t read it but looked through it.  Since it has come out it has been called  ”mommy porn” and many libraries are talking about banning it.   I am just happy that I live in a town where the library does not try to censor books, or dictate what adults should or should not read.  Do I recommend this one?  Not really.

Shantaram:   by Gregory David Roberts   Based on the real life events of this author, a young Australian man who escapes from prison and enters India with a forged passport.  While there he encounters slum living, wonderful characters, love, lethal criminals and living on the edge.

Not my usual fare, a friend gave this to me to read, so I did.  I have to confess that at times I struggled through the 944 pages, however, it is a book that has stayed with me for a long time.  A neutral review.

Breakfast With Buddha:   by  Roland Merullo    A very unexpected road trip for Otto, a forty-four year old man from the suburbs of New York,  as he drives his flaky sister’s spiritual guru to North Dakota.

I loved this book, as did everyone in my book club (and that doesn’t happen very often).   It is a great, breezy, summertime reading, road trip book.  It makes you think and feel good at the same time.   A favorite!

The Talk Funny Girl:  by  Roland Merullo    In the poorest part of New Hampshire teenage girls are disappearing, never to be seen again.  This begins the story of seventeen year old Marjorie.

This book is from the same author as the last book.  It is a great summer read, suspenseful,  thought-provoking and a page turner.  While it has universal themes, the unique voice in this story will impress.  I couldn’t put it down until I finished it.

Every Last One:  by  Anna Quindlen    A mother, father and three teenage children in a family many of us recognize as like our own until an act of violence shocks.

Anna Quindlen is an author that I have read for many years.  She never disappoints and this book is no exception.  A very, very good read.

Now I am looking for  books to add to my summer reading list and I am open to suggestions.

Magnificent May

In this part of the country April and May can be pretty dicey as far as the weather is concerned, including some iconic snowstorms in May.  But, this year has been different.  In most of the country including the Rocky Mountain region Spring came early and stayed.  Beautiful!

Pink flowering almond.

Lilacs and irises, both favorites of mine.  The yard was redolent with the sweet perfume of the lilacs.

Part of the rabbit family that lives under the deck.

The fox is a little bummed out that he can’t fit under the deck.

Iris garden in the neighborhood.  Lovely.

Radiant crab tree.

Beautiful Rocky Mountain Columbine!

My Top Five Concerts Ever

The new trailers for the summer blockbusters are beginning to show up to entice us into the theaters.  I saw this one for Rock of Ages.  I’ve seen the picture of Tom Cruise as a rock star in this movie and it will be kind of interesting to see if he pulls it off.

This is a musical woven around the songs of the eighties:  Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Journey etc.   I have to admit that those years were a bit of a blur for me.  Both of our kids were born in the early eighties.  Enough said.  However, we all have certain soundtracks that run in our head when we think about growing up.  I was a Beatles kid.  The British invasion conquered a little piece of my heart.  I loved them all:  The Beatles, Peter and Gordon, The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones,  Marianne Faithful and on and on.

The Beatles wave to fans after arriving at Kennedy Airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After high school the soundtrack of my life added visuals.  My early twenties were spent in Chicago and Los Angeles. I had access to lots of good music and I saw as many concerts as I could afford.  These are my top five concerts (I think) that I have ever seen.

1)  Janis Joplin:  Nov 23rd 1969,  Chicago.  It was less than a year later when Janis died of an overdose.

2)  Joe Cocker and the Grease Band and The Who:  May 1969 at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago, a small venue where you sat on the floor in front of the stage and the cover charge was five dollars.  The Who were dynamic and the sweat would fly off the microphone onto us as Roger Daltry swung it around.  Joe Cocker was mesmerizing!

3)  Jefferson Airplane: May 14th, 1969.  This was a free concert on a beautiful warm night at Grant Park in downtown Chicago.  There were 50,000 people at the concert with lots of police presence due to the violence at the Democratic National Convention the year before.  As far as I remember it was totally peaceful.

4)  Cat Stevens: Los Angeles, 1971.  Just a guitar and a singer and those beautiful songs.

5)  OK, I lied  I have more than five favorites.  So this is honorable mention to a few more:  Eric Clapton and Cream at the Kinetic Playground,  Moody Blues in LA,  Elton John a number of times, very early in his career, who always put on a great show.  Lastly, Jethro Tull, a unique group that never failed to deliver a creative concert.

Deutsch: Elton John in der Musikhalle Hamburg, März 1972 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, if you asked my husband his favorite concert he would say any of the six times that he saw the Grateful Dead.  So, those are our favorites, what about yours?

Is This What We Want To Say To Our Girls?

About ten years ago Jamie Lee Curtis posed in More Magazine without any makeup on and wearing just her underwear. The idea was an attempt to show what her body really looked like.  At the time she was concerned about the unrealistic expectations that women of all ages have trying to look as the actresses, singers and models in the magazines do.

It was a hot topic at the time, and the hope was that we could move ourselves and our daughters beyond the obsession to look thinner, younger and sexier and be more content with our body image.  It was a lofty goal, but sadly, we have not come a long way, baby.  The issue came up recently when Ashley Judd spoke out about the criticism aimed at her saying that she had plumped up her face with injections while in truth her cheeks became puffy as a result of steroids given for an infection.

Even Britney Spears was unhappy when a Candies campaign ran a photoshopped picture of her.  She actually had the un-retouched photos released to show that she was proud of the way she looked.

Faith Hill was also disappointed when Redbook retouched a cover photo of her that slimmed down her arm to about half the size.  Just how much weight do you have to lose to look like that???

Age does not seem to make a difference as this picture of Madonna points out.  This is an ad that goes way, way beyond in the retouching department.

Let’s face it, we all have things that we don’t like about the way we look.  But for the sake of our daughters and ourselves wouldn’t it be nice if we could just focus on the positive?

Please, Take My Headache

Springtime in the Rockies is always dynamic.  We are sort of the poster child for the “if you don’t like the weather now just wait a minute” crowd.  Spring storms race through turning warm sunny seventy degree mornings into blustery sleet-filled  forty degree afternoons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This kind of weather at our altitude means one thing to me,  migraines!  For eighteen years now these suckers have been hanging around. Doctors have assured me that as I get older they will probably disappear.  Just how old do I have to get?

 

 

Over the years I have tried lots of things.   Imitrex works for me most of the time, but you can’t take too much or you rebound into more headaches.  So you try to stay away from trigger foods: some cheeses, some meats, nuts, alcohol.  You try to get enough sleep, but not too much, eat the right foods at the right time, drink caffeine and exercise some, but not too much, or you end up with a migraine.  Oh and don’t forget, don’t get the sun in your eyes (visors and wrap around sunglasses are such a great fashion statement) and don’t wear high heels, very headache inducing.

 

 

Acupuncture has helped me but I have not taken the next step into botox yet.  It is intriguing to think I could  reduce my headaches AND the wrinkles in my face,  but I am not sure I am ready for thirty shots in my head four or five times a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband has been nothing short of fantastic over the years and I try not to complain too much.  But today I guess I just have to rant.  I am sick of having headaches.  I’m sixty-one, enough already.  Oh well, maybe this is just the migraine talking.

5 Things I’ve Learned From Aging Parents

My family and most of my friends are at the age where we are in the throes of trying to help very elderly parents.  After dealing with this for many years, certain realities have smacked us right in the face.

1)  Falls are the enemy of aging adults.   My Mother has fallen a number of times, some of which have resulted in hospital stays, stitches and bruising.  It is hard on her, and the family around her always feels guilty.  It is just a fact of life that as we age, we fall.  We are not as agile, we take more medications, our eyesight is not as good and different medical conditions can all affect our balance.  Prevention is the key.

2)  Wills are a touchy subject with many families.  My Father died unexpectedly in his fifties and had no will in place.  Consequently the state took a larger percentage of the estate and my Mother got less even though she was left with four of seven children still at home. Things like wills are much easier to talk about when you are young and healthy.

3)  Money is always an issue unless you are ultra rich.  Many of our parents are outliving their retirement resources.  Just at the time when many could least afford it, houses and retirement funds took a big hit in the recession.  Add to that the fact that our parents are living well into their nineties and it is no surprise that funds are running short.

4)  Pride is a delicate thing.  Our parents are proud people.  They do not think that their driving is getting scary.  They certainly don’t want you to think that they need help with their finances or writing checks.  They are scared and angry when they experience confusion about things that never confused them before.

5)  Inevitable!   We are going to age.  If we are lucky we will get to be as old as our parents.  So, the point of Senile Denial is not to hide our heads in the sand. I guess the point is to age as vibrantly as possible with eyes wide open.