This and That

I love the fact that I am technologically advanced except when it comes to doing something that should be easy and I know all I have got do is click one button and it’ll work but I’ve been working on it for two days and still can’t figure out how to get my pictures off of my iPhone onto my iPad.  So that mediocre blog post I was going to write about the Awesome Farm Machinery Show in Louisville last weekend has no pictures to go with it.  Oh well, the pictures were really good and I did a slide show/movie on Instagram for you to see.   They’re all of my grandson and his experience at the Awesome Farm Machinery Show.  I didn’t post any of GrandMaMa and Grandpapa being exhausted.  Just believe me that we were.

It was my night to cook supper.  I haven’t cooked in quite some time.  I love this time of year because Jimmy really doesn’t have anything to do so he will usually cook supper.  He has even started doing the dishes.  He also does his and John’s laundry.  But I had the need this morning to offer to cook supper.  I was going to have a chicken stir-fry.  But as the day went on I began to dread having to cook supper.  No, that’s not right.  I was beginning to dread having to go to the grocery store to get all of the items necessary for the stir-fry.  I think in another life I should have been European because I love to go to the grocery every day and pick up the items we need for supper.  I usually have the meat figured out, it’s the other things that I need to pick up.  When I say that I usually mean produce because my cabinets are full of groceries.  I just hate to pull anything out of my cabinets.  But, I remembered that our church was having an Over 50’s Potluck and since Jimmy and I are now way over 50 I suggested that we attend.  I also mentioned to him that they were having fried chicken but we would have to bring a dish.  I suggested that I stop at the store and pick something up.  He suggested that he make baked beans.  I conceded.

Jimmy’s baked beans are really good.  He puts all kinds of things in them.  He mentioned that these were a rush job but they tasted just fine, thank you.  But what was wonderful about this was that it was a potluck and everyone brought a dish.  There were two or three salads, deviled eggs, every kind of vegetable imaginable, including things like Lima beans and a mixed vegetable casserole.  I stuck with my staples but my plate was so heavy that I had to hold on with two hands on my way back to the table.  I really didn’t have room for my fried chicken but I really wanted it.  I had sweet potato casserole, baked beans (there had to be 4 different pans), broccoli slaw, the last deviled egg, fried chicken and stewed pears.  I think I’m missing something.  But I will tell you this, I about licked my plate.  And when I went back to get more sweet potato casserole instead of dessert it was all gone.  So I had to saunter over to the dessert table.  I wanted to try a little of everything but ended up trying full helpings of a chess square, a chocolate chip cookie and some really good peach cobbler.  I’ve turned into a cobbler snob but this one was pretty good.  Sometimes mine will turn out and sometimes not.  This one was better than mine.

The thing about this over 50 group is that they like to play games.  So we got to play bingo.  The cards were twenty-five cents and whoever won got to keep the pot of money.  I love to play bingo and I don’t even care if I win.  But tonight Jimmy and I both were lucky.  He won the second game and then I won back-to-back games.  On the last game of the night I just needed one number and I was sure I was going to win and I thought if I did that I would have to sneak out the back door or be mugged by all of the retirees who take their bingo serious.  Fortunately, I didn’t win.  But it was so much fun to play.  I kept channeling my great aunt Bonnie.  She loved bingo and I would go with her all the time.  She would pay my way if I drove.  And if I won she would split the winnings with me.  She was an honery old cuss and a piece of work but there are lots of days like today that I do miss her.  When I get to heaven I’ll get to play poker with her.  She’ll cuss at me for playing a stupid game or not paying attention or something.  But that was part of her charm.

We sang happy birthday to Father Darrell.  His birthday is tomorrow.  He seemed as though he was not interested in celebrating any more.  He did mention that if anyone made him anything else sweet to eat he was going to be worn out with his birthday.  Not me.   My birthday is Friday and I want all the cake and cookies and candy and pies and ice cream I can sink my teeth in.  And I don’t know why.  There have been lots of years that I have not had any cake on my birthday.  It hasn’t always been a requirement.  But I think that this year I want good cake, or good pie or good ice cream or good cookies.  I don’t want just anything.  So I hope that I have a lot of that kind of thing but I’m not going to eat it unless it is really good.  I’m getting too old to eat things that don’t taste good.  I can remember lots of years eating cake that was burnt on one end and raw on the other.  You see my mother had a sheet cake pan that was really an old roaster and it was warped.  Nothing cooked even in that pan.  But that was the pan she baked cakes in.  And one corner was dented in so that warped, dented end always burnt the cake.  I think she did that on purpose.  She loved anything burnt.  Or so she said.  She might have just eaten the burnt end because she knew that we wouldn’t.  That’s one of those pans that I wish that I still had but Jimmy would probably take it outside and leave it.  I would probably find it next fall half way down the hill out front and when I confronted him on it he would deny even knowing where that pan came from.  I was able to salvage an orange melmac bowl that my mother used my entire life.  It is over the cabinets in my kitchen.  It has a crack in it so it really can’t be used anymore.  Jimmy has mentioned how we need to throw things like that away.  They can throw that away after I die.  They can wonder what it was and why I kept it for all of these years.  They wish they knew.

I do remember celebrating my birthday all month long.  The last couple of years I haven’t been overly excited about the day.  But this year I made up my mind to celebrate it all month long.  Well, here I am 2 or 3 days out and I have not told hardly anyone that my birthday is Friday.  I guess you all know now.  I’ll be 59 years old.  I can’t imagine being that old.  But I am glad that I am.  The older, the better.  And I’m in relatively good health.  I guess I am getting old if all I can think about is the fact that aside from a few aches and pains I am pretty healthy.  I hope that remains.  I hope I live another 50 years (no, I really don’t but think if I ask for 50 I might get another 25).  But 3 of my 4 children will be home this weekend.  I don’t know why they think they have to be home then.  I think it has to do with their timing in college, 4 or 5 weeks into the new semester and they need a little bit of mom.  I sort of like that.  Although when my oldest went away to college he told me that he didn’t miss me because if he got to missing me he would watch Roseanne reruns and feel like he was back at home.  I have never been able to decide if that was a compliment or an insult.  Ha!

So, it is late and time for me to go to bed.  I have a lot to get done tomorrow so I will finish here and hit the sack.  I sure do hope that you like the pictures that I put with this post.  I think it makes the reading so much more fun.  No, I didn’t take them.  I do know how to “acquire” pictures off of the internet.