I wrote about my Uncle Walt’s experience at Pearl Harbor in my family blog “It’s All About Family” in May of 2024 as part of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.
He was 19 years old and fresh out of radio school that Sunday morning.
You can read his story here.
I currently have 197 open tabs on my IPhone. I feel like that says something about me. Will I miss one of it’s gone? Will I even notice?
My IPad and laptop are not that bad. By the way, my IPad and phone are not synced. Not since I had a faulty password app and nearly lost ALL my passwords.
Anyway, my life has always been a little like that too. Keep stuff gathered around so I don’t forget them. Projects, papers, files…
If I put it away, if I close the tab, I might want it later and won’t be able to find it again. Sort of like that jacket you never wear so you give it to Goodwill and then you buy a pair of pants and realize the jacket would have been perfect for it!
Maybe December is the time to close those tabs, put those files and papers away and make a note of where they are. It’s time to tidy up for the new year.
We put our Christmas tree up this weekend and I enjoyed decorating it this year. Probably because I don’t plan on doing much else!
The tree is in the middle of the combined family room dining room, in front of the sliding door. At the top is the macaroni star our son made in daycare. I know I should replace it, but I haven’t found anything I like better. There are a variety of ornaments – from my parents collection that my sister divided up, ornaments handmade from one of my aunts, handmade by me for our son, and ornaments we’ve been purchasing in our trips. It’s a nice variety.
For the past few years, I also decorated a small 5 foot tree in the “formal” living room which used to be my only living room. I would put Wallace Silversmith silver plated balls on this tree and it had the option for white lights, colored lights, or blinking lights. I like the colored ones the best and I loved the way they shined off the silver balls. This year I’m just too lazy! It’s a chore to pack and unpack the silver plated ornaments.
I still have to finish adding my son’s collection of nutcrackers that remained here, and my collection of Santa’s from over the years. My family part is on the 13th so I still have time!
Are YOU done with your decorating?
Unless you are obsessive like I can be about things like goals.
I downloaded an app called Streak because it was recommended by a (real life) friend whom I admire. I decided to try it because I want to focus on keeping myself mentally and physically active.
With Streak, you create goals and select how often they need to be completed. Multiple times a day, every day, a few times a week, and so on.
My goals were 5 20 oz water a day, 7,000 steps a day, write blog post every day, take vitamins every day, leave for the office by 9am, and post a picture to Facebook every day. Some are simple like the water and vitamins, and the Facebook post. Getting my steps in is a little more difficult because I work in a very small office. I incorporated walking around our complex during my lunchtime for a half hour. However, I still have to get additional steps in during the day to hit that 7,000. Leaving for work by 9 is a struggle! Writing every day is a struggle!
After a week, I changed the office time to getting there by 9:30, because honestly, I like my morning time at home and, since I’m the boss, I guess it’s ok to set my own hours. I changed the writing to 3 times a week because I needed time to research and write for my family blog.
I guess that represents growth within me that instead of saying “this isn’t going to work!”, I make some simple adjustments.
Here’s to continuing my Streak!
On Wednesday, I attempted to give blood for the first time in over 20 years.
I was a regular when I lived in California because Sonoma County had a “blood bank”. I could make an appointment during my lunch hour, pop in, give blood, and head back to the office. Unfortunately, Connecticut doesn’t have that. Donations are through blood drives.
After moving to Connecticut, the first or second time I went to give blood, I was rejected (deferred they say) because my hemoglobin was low. I never tried again.
My sister and a friend give blood on a regular basis so I thought I’d give it another shot.
I was signed up and ready to go, headed to the app and answered all the health questions (about 56 of them!).
My sister coached me on how to pass the hemoglobin test. Get “hot hands” and wear mittens. Bring the hot hands in with you while waiting. I googled the reasons and evidently cold hands slow circulation and slow circulation give an artificially low reading. In the past, they would prick your thumb to test your blood, but now there is a machine with a sensor that goes around your thumb and can measure the hemoglobin level.
I tried, I really tried! I had a Hot Hands but didn’t know about the mittens. I could sense the tips of my thumbs were not warm but I hoped I would make it. The minimum Hb level is 12. My right thumb was an 11.7. The technician said, “let’s try the left”. Unfortunately, the left was only 9.8.
As I left the table, I told the man at the check in that I was rejected. He said, “not rejected, deferred”.
I’ve read up on giving blood and how to prepare for it – warm hands, red meat and green leafy vegetables, avoid coffee, get a good night’s sleep – so I look for the another local blood drive, sign up, and buy Hot Hands!
Do you give blood on a regular basis?
In honor of Veterans Day, I’m sharing the story I wrote in June of 2024 for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge on my family blog. It’s called, The Effects of War. There are links within “The Effects of War” that share the details of their time served.
Beginning with World War I, there was my biological maternal grandfather, Jacob Engram and my paternal grandfather, Charles Jakiela.
My Great Uncle Bronislaw Liro went back to Poland before World War I broke out, fought for the Austrian Army, was captured, and escaped from Siberia.
World War II saw my Uncle Connie and my dad enlist in the Army Air Force and my Uncle Walt and Uncle Mal in the Navy. My Uncle Walt lived through the horror of Pearl Harbor 3 weeks fresh out of Navy radio school.
While cleaning out my aunt’s home, I found a letter from my Great Uncle Antoni written in 1947 describing the aftermath of World War II.
My father in law Harold served in the Korean War as a cook, his brother Ronald as an infantry tank driver, and my step father in law Paul was in the motor pool.
It’s an honor to have these brave men in my family.
First it was the Roomba, now it’s the Automower.
We drove by a neighbor’s house this summer while he was watching his automower, mow his front yard. He sets a pattern and off it goes. Evidently, it can sense the end of the yard, but can you imagine, watching it get loose and go off down the street? At $2,000 for some, that would be a sad loss!
I live on just under a half an acre and it is all cut up into parts. Growing up, my sisters and I would mow the lawn pushing a little Lawn Boy machine. It was so light, that if I was in a hurry, I could power walk/run it over the lawn. Maybe not the greatest job, but I’m not sure anyone cared!
We had the front yard, near back yard, way back yard, tennis court, and under the maple trees, and that’s how we mowed. All of it was flat, except for a tricky part on the side of the house that headed down to the tennis court, which was not, but possibly was, as it was a large rectangle, great for games. The way back had an old patch of asparagus, that we mowed over. Under the maple tree section was barely any grass, a lot of dirt and sticks that would kick up and scare the sh*t out of me!
“Hey, I’ll do the way back today!” I liked mowing the lawn, putting my foot on the motor and pulling the cord to get it started. It was not even a self-propelled machine, just a straight up powered push mower.
After we moved back here, we’ve had a variety of mowers, self-propelled which I’ve used, but my husband prefers the riding mower which probably has a 0 degree radius for getting around the few trees left in the yard. We even had a lawn service for a few years, but I could do a better job with that old little LawnBoy mower!
Do you mow your lawn or would an automated mower be more your style?
My son and daughter in law like to give “experience gifts” and I am happy to receive them.
For Mother’s Day, they gave me a certificate for a 90 minute head spa experience as the website calls it. I love my hair. It’s long and for a 65 year old woman, pretty thick. I’m currently growing it out for as long as I can stand it. It’s working out pretty well because long hair means I don’t have to wash it as frequently for “a style”. It’s just long. I had no idea what to expect but made sure my hair was nice and dirty. It wasn’t a prerequisite but it worked out that way in my hair washing routine.
I made my reservation online for the more local spa in Berlin Connecticut and when I arrived for my 10am appointment I was greeted by Callie, who would be giving me my spa treatment. She is an esthetician who was trained for the scalp massage by the Head Spa owner and she was really good.
Let me just say, if your favorite part of a trip to the hairdresser is the scrubbing your scalp gets, this is the place for you!
You lay face up on a massage table that has a covered resting place for your head. Below that is the water basin. First the technician uses a camera to look at your scalp and shows the build up of natural oils on your scalp. I was amazed to see 2 and 3 strands of hair coming out of one pore. I lose enough hair every day to make a wig for a doll and now I see why I’m not bald.
After that, it’s scalp cleaning, massage which includes your neck and shoulders, and scalp mask. While the mask is doing its work, you get a mini facial! I’m pretty sure I dozed off during some portion of the experience. At the end, you get to see your clean scalp on the screen again. You can either have a “light blow dry” or get the leave in conditioner and a towel to dry your hair. I went with option number 2.
I washed my hair on Saturday, but I can still feel the effects of the mask and leave in conditioner. My hair is weirdly smooth where it’s normally a little dry.
It was $200 for the experience, which considering it was an hour and a half, is not too bad. It’s something I would definitely do again!
Have you ever gone to a head spa? Is it something you would want to do?
I have fallen back into the trap of working, reading, and knitting in between scrolling. Scrollin’ scrollin’ scrollin’ keeps those fingers scrollin’!
I have so many hobbies, and I AM working on them (well, except for my blog writing!), but I just wonder how much more I could be doing instead of scrolling. Like my next family blog story and all the topics for here that I have stored in Notes.
While you wait for me to crawl out of my rut, enjoy this silly picture of my twin and me at 7 months old. Who is whom? I don’t know because I always say they both look like her, and she says they both look like me! If the index finger near the mouth is any indication, that one is me because I sucked my index and middle fingers, and she sucked her thumb.
Today I drove up to my college, Annhurst College in Woodstock, Connecticut for my 45th class reunion. I wrote about it here for a prompt on “what colleges have you attended?”.
It was a lovely hour and a half drive, part highway, part back roads. Once I got there, I checked in and then took some time to walk around the grounds which is now the South Campus for Woodstock Academy.
I will tell you more about the day with pictures later but you want to know what made it my Lucky Day?!
My ticket was the first of ALL the raffle tickets pulled! I picked the BIGGEST basket there. All the items were from Maine – maple syrup, coffee, crackers, pancake mix, popcorn, potato chips, jam, soap – it was so heavy!
Then, just before lunch, I was getting ready to put the basket in my car so I could pull my chair closer to the table and then said they were drawing the 50/50 raffle. I set the basket by the door and sat down.
MY TICKET WAS CALLED! It was the first year they did this raffle. I won $175.00! Everyone was saying, “What?! She won again?”
It must have been that Holy Spirit shining down on me today. Or maybe because I was sitting next to a “Daughter of the Holy Spirit”? 😁 That was the order of nuns at our school, and I was sitting next to my former boss in the Admissions office, Sister Gertrude 😁
Whatever caused it, I felt truly blessed by my prizes and to be with the incredible women (and a few men) in the room today.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 