Get your motor running

Head out on the highway



Lookin' for adventure

Born to be wild!

Well boys and girls. I had such a great time today! My very good friend Clair took me out on their brand new motorcycle! Mary, his lovely wife, and my equally very good friend, took the pictures. Today's blog was going to be about Mary in fact, but then the cycle ride happened. You'll all have to stay tuned for the Mary blog.

I told them I'd only ever been on a motorcycle once and that was with my brother when I was 13. I don't remember the ride, I just remember being on it.

I'm old and I forget. I totally forgot I had a small motorcycle when the boys were young. I'm guessing about 1985. It was a 150 and that's all we remember. It was mine. It didn't start well. Once I got it running, I sure didn't want to stop it anywhere...just keep it movin'. I never had a license to ride it. I just did. We didn't keep it long. My Dad tried to ride it. He rode that just like he used to ride my high handle bar, banana seat bike when I was young. Get on it, go like hell, and then fall off. Figured he'd hurt himself with it if we kept it, so we got rid of it. I'd totally forgotten that bike.

Today was awesome and I loved it. I don't think I'll be forgetting this bike, or this ride. Nope, some things you just don't forget.

Thank you so very much Mary & Clair!!!

So, Den was driving.....

Those of you that know my dear husband, know he's directionally challenged. He can't find his way out of a paper bag. I've always done the driving so we didn't end up in outer Mongolia or some such other out of the way place. We've been married 31 years and I'm tired of doing all the driving. I navigate sometimes now, and he drives.

Did I mention he can't navigate either? We were in Nevada or Utah or some western state once and he was reading the map. I was on the highway, the boys were snoozing in the back of the van. I should have known I was in trouble when he kept turning the map over and over. Finally I asked if he knew exactly where I was. He said 'Yes, you're sitting right next to me!'. I knew right then we were screwed. I pulled over to the side of the road, took the map and found us. We were 30 miles out of our way, going the wrong direction of course. He'd missed the turn off. So, I showed him where we were on the map, where we wanted to go, and handed it back to him. I got back on the road looking for a place to turn around. Nope. No such luck. We finally went about 45 miles in the wrong direction before I could turn around! So, 90 miles later we were back where we started. I knew we'd missed a turn so asked him where it was. Is it coming up soon? Blow me if he didn't start turning the map over and over again!!! I was hot. Instantly. I tend to not hold in my comments, so out they spewed. He flicked the map open looking for where we needed to go and all of a sudden....poof. Out the window it went! Sucked out like stuff from a hole blown in the side of an airplane! Instant laughter. We were better off without the damn map anyway.

So, we were in Ft. Myers the other day and he was driving and I was telling him where to go. In a nice way of course! We were headed to Sam's club I believe. We were chatting as we tooled along. Somehow the topic of TCBY came up. We used to love TCBY. If you're not familiar with that, it's 'The Country's Best Yogurt'. It was good. My favorite flavor was peanut butter. Every Wednesday was 'waffle cone Wednesday'. Ahhh those were the good old days. I was pretty sure TCBY's all went out of business. Sure sounded good though as it was really hot out. We then started discussing our trip home in a few weeks. You know...idle chit chat.

So, back to me telling him where to go. There was a split in the road. We needed to split to the right and then stay in the right lane for a turn soon after. I said, you're great. You're in the right lane. Stay in the right lane as we need to turn soon. We made it half way through the split and I said...doing good. Keep right. All of a sudden we're in the parking lot of a mini mall! I said 'Not THAT right!!' We laughed. I said just get back out on the road and stay in the right lane.

As he was trying to figure out how to get out of the parking lot....(YES HE REALLY IS THAT BAD!!! ) I said 'Holy shit! There's a TCBY!' He stopped the truck. I said 'OMG, maybe it's kismet! Maybe they'll have peanut butter yogurt!!!' He parked up. We went in. Chocolate and vanilla. Bummer. Would have been so cool if they'd had peanut butter. I told the girl what had happened. That we didn't even think TCBY's were around and how I used to love the peanut butter yogurt and was hoping that's what they had today. She said 'Oh we do'. I just haven't put it on the sign yet!!! OMG it was so good. It so took us back in time. Guess what? It was Wednesday too!!!!!!!!! No, we didn't have waffle cones.....those days are over. We had an awesome (4 point if you do Weight Watchers) small peanut butter cone and it just made our day!

Fate? Dunno but it sure the hell was a great wrong turn! I think I'll let him drive forever more!

Extrovert in action

I've told many people that I'm not shy. I like to have a good time and I usually do. I've also told people that I really don't care what others think of me. Here's proof I wasn't lying!

This is what happens when the oldies get together for a pool party. Food, spirits, good friends. My good friend Clair took these pictures of me and graciously let me use them for my blog. This is Clair right after he shot cake crumbs out of his nose! Man was that awesome! I took this picture of course!

I was born in 1958. I got my first record player at 13 years old. My first album was 'The Partridge Family'. I was into 45's. I had tons, in fact, I still have them in their little pink plastic case! I don't care where I am today, if one of those old songs is played, I can sing along and I know every word. Oh yes, and I do! So, what happens when we're at the pool party and the entertainment starts singing 'Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown'? Well, of course I start singing along at my table! Next thing I know, she's handed me the mic. Do I thrust it back at her in embarrassment? Hell no, I grab it and go for the gusto.

God help the people listening as I can't sing. Oh, that's not fishing for a compliment. I honest to God can't carry a tune. Ask Silverback. He thought all women could sing until he met me!

I have to stand up and get right into it of course!!! If you can see the lady in the background here, I just know she's calling to her friends inside. "Oh my God you've got to come see what Debby is doing now!!!!"

A true drama queen!

I had a ball! Thank God they didn't play Donny Osmond's 'Puppy Love'!! Ohhhhh I've got something to look forward to next year!!!

Another man in my life

My friend Ian took all the pictures you'll see here today. I am so pleased he took them as I get such joy looking at them.

As I led you to believe in the title of this blog, there's another man in my life. His name is Al and he's my doll baby. I fell in love with this man the very first time I met him. It was a Friday night at bunco. If you're not familiar with bunco, it's a game with dice. You need no skill whatsoever to play it. It's just a fun evening out. Apparently you don't need sight either as Al is blind as a bat. I believe macular degeneration is the demon. He rolls the dice like he can see the spots. He can't even see the dice! We all count out loud in this game and he knows to quit rolling when we quit counting! Such a cutie! That very first night he sat down at my table about half way through the evening and I was smitten. He was only 92 then. He was sharp as a tack and very quick witted. I love a man with a sharp brain and a good sense of humor. Al has both. He was making quip after quip and melting my heart the whole time. The clincher came when he said something particularly clever, and of course, a bit off color. I took his hands in mine and said 'Al, you are very bad.' I noticed how cold his hands were. I said 'Oh Al, your hands are like ice!'. He turned toward me, pulled my hand to his heart and said 'Well you know.' That was it....'well you know.' I did know and I was putty in his hands from that moment on! He reminds me so much of my Daddy. Dad had such a wonderful sense of humor and we'd tease and laugh. My Daddy also always used to say 'cold hands, warm heart.'. So, when Al said 'you know', I did indeed know!

This is my doll baby Al.

These pictures were taken at a bluegrass jamboree in our rec hall here at the park. As you can see, Al can still get jiggy with it. He's 95 now by the way. You may notice a walker in the corner of the picture. Oh, it's Al's. He was out for his daily walk. Yes, that's right, his daily walk, alone mind you! He uses his white cane to feel the edge of the road so he knows where to walk. Someone had trimmed palm trees and left them to be picked up, but alas, left them sticking out into the road. All tripped over them and crashed to the pavement. Thank God someone saw him go down and ran to help. They got him to his feet. He insisted he was fine and walked home!!! When his wife got home he told her about his mishap and said he was a bit sore. She insisted they go to the hospital. He'd shattered his kneecap and broke some pins loose from his leg. Remember, he walked home after his fall! Tough old codger! He was in a leg brace and had that walker for a few months. He's without both now. Said he never had any pain at all and is good as new.

This is Rose, his lovely wife. She's in her 90's too I believe. I hope the heck I can look as good as her when I'm 90!!! I just pretend to like her to get close to her man! One time Al told me he hadn't seen her face in 10 years. I told him he had the most beautiful woman in the park. He smiled. You do need to watch her though. She thinks Al is a trial at times as she has to do everything for him. Remember he can't see. He came to bunco one night alone. Rose just dropped him off which was very unusual. Oh my dear I wish I'd had a camera that night! He had little short red and black plaid shorts on with brown socks and tennis shoes. He had a pale blue polo shirt on with one pink sleeve and one yellow sleeve. His jacket was lime green I think. I went over to him and took his hand and said 'Oh Al, Rose must be very angry at you!'. He said 'Oh shit, has she dressed me funny again???'. I thought I'd die laughing. Yes, I informed him, she had dressed him very funny. He let out a big sigh and said 'Well, I probably deserved it.' God love him.

When Al talks, I listen. You never know what will come out of his mouth. I want to know a lot more about his life. I stop by now every time I see him out in his drive. He sits out in the sun in a chair. Just like my Daddy did! I learned last time that he didn't marry Rose until he was 42 years old! He was in the merchant marines. Their only son died last year. That's a horrid thing to outlive your child.

The cool part of our relationship is that when I talk, Al listens!

This was taken right after I'd given my man a kiss. Ian let that be private! OK, so really he just hadn't focused fast enough! I could have photo shopped his eyes, but it's part of what I love about him. He's officially the oldest person in the park now. His birthday is June 17. He'll have a card from me to open for sure!!

Thank you so much Ian for these pictures. I will treasure them always!

I can't remember....

I've been saying that a lot lately!

I'm sure we've all received that email about lapsed memories. You know the one. The person heads out to get the mail and stops to do X along the way that leads to doing XY also, yada, yada, yada. By the end of the day, the person is tired, still doesn't have the mail and has no idea what they've been doing!

Welcome to my world!

So, most of you know I've been trying to get a bit fitter. It's taking a lot of my time and energy, but it's worth the effort. I'm heavy on planning ahead and trying new recipes. Last week I found 3 or 4 I wanted to make. I diligently wrote down what the name of the recipe is, what cookbook it came from, and what page it was on. God am I good or what? I then made a shopping list to get everything I didn't have for the recipes. Awesome planning. I shopped, I got the food.

I made an awesome, big pot of bison pumpkin chili with dried beans yesterday. I made the homemade pasta sauce and got it in the freezer. I've got the eggplant Parmesan ready to pop in the oven. I'm having roasted vegetable & shrimp pasta primavera for dinner and have everything ready for that. I've got more ingredients and can't remember what I'm supposed to be making with them!

I lost the freaking list with the recipes and where they came from!

I just spent at least 1.5 hours looking for it. I know I have a steno pad somewhere. I can picture it. I'm thinking, perhaps, that's where I wrote the list. Can I find that steno pad? Ah no.

I cleared the table off just in case it was there. It wasn't. While I was doing that, I remembered I'm getting my friends mail while they're gone, so I zipped down and got their mail and put it in their house.

It's really windy out, so when I got home I picked up all the things that might blow away outside.

I came back in to look for the steno pad. I was hungry, so went to the fridge to get my yogurt. Fridge was kind of messy so I cleaned that out. Yogurt was good.

I thought perhaps if I went through the 2 recipe books I thought I'd used, I could find what I was looking for. That didn't work. While I was looking at those, I noticed the end table shelves were messy, so I cleaned those off.

Oh! Perhaps the notebook is in the truck! It wasn't, but the truck was messy so I tidied that up.

So, I've now spent a few hours looking for the list and I'm beat. You wouldn't think looking for a list would wear you out. It did. I give up. The list is gone forever.

I have the following items and I don't know why. If anyone has a recipe that uses said items. Please email it to me! I'm pretty sure it was for 2 recipes as I can't imagine those things going together.

1. Sliced black olives
2. 2 bunches of scallions
3. a can of ancho chilies in adobo sauce
4. a package of sliced baby portabello mushrooms

As my friend Winnie the Pooh says, 'Oh bother.' 'Think, think, think.'!