Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
For various reasons, I’m pretty tightly wound. But lately, I feel the corkscrew loosening as my job duties at our business change.
For me, playtime is doing those things I enjoy – playing the piano, reading, working in my She Shed organizing pictures and writing, and even working on the jigsaw puzzle while watching television. It is hiking with my husband or even when I go out on my own.
Playtime is anything not related to business and household chores!
I moved into this house in May of 1961, the month after I turned one year old. Before that, my family rented a home a few blocks from my mother’s family home.
I imagine my parents’ eyes lit up when they saw the four bedrooms and the 1/2 acre yard. The bonus was the covered porch on the side of the house and a double bonus was a next door neighbor with four children!
The porch was where we watched thunderstorms lighting up the woods across the street, where we hung out with friends, where we slept on hot summer nights only to be woken up by the sun, well past sunrise beating down on us!
One of my Sunday mornings watching the world go by6:30 am on a September morning
I left for seven years to California and looked we looked high and low for a house just like the one I grew up in. We found one that had it’s own charm but then we had the chance to buy this one from my dad and we took it. We moved back to Connecticut 28 years ago and are still so thankful it worked out.
August 2021 and the start of the family room addition. The back deck wrapped around the the porch
The side porch is still a special part of the house. It was given a facelift a few years ago, had a deck attached for the back of the house for 10 years or so, and is now a little bit larger to go with the family room added 2 years ago. During warmer weather, I sit out there with my morning coffee and newspaper. It’s the same location that my dad sat for 40 years, reading his newspaper in warm weather.
The sunrise from my side porch November 4 at 7:30
I love that this house keeps so many memories alive.
It was late 1987 and I had recently moved to California to live with my soon to be husband. I moved my belongings by UPS so there wasn’t a lot of extra stuff (books!) that came with me.
Always looking for something to read I surprisingly found a book on a shelf. It was “Replay” by Ken Grimwood published in 1986.
It was about an overweight, unhappy in his marriage 40-something man who has a heart attack at his desk. But…..he wakes up, in his dorm room at 19 years old.
It takes him a little while to realize where he is but then he does what would be expected – he DOESN’T get involved with the woman in his unhappy marriage, and he starts betting on all the major sports events!
It goes on from there and everything is great – until he “dies” again but comes back a little older, and a little older….. He realizes, he can live his life as crazy as he wants to because he’s “replaying” his life.
After a few times, he discovers that there are others who are doing the same.
I’ve read this book 3 or 4 times and It is a fascinating premise. Die and end up back in your early adulthood with the knowledge you left your existing life with. As they say “hindsight is 20/20”! What would you do? Would you want the ability to come back and right wrongs? Change behaviors? Go to the love of your life faster without dealing with all the dopes first?
I’ve contemplated it. I think about what I would do and how I would make sure I found my husband – just sooner!
Growing up I loved when the clocks moved forward an hour! This was before they started messing with when it happened. Every year it was the last Sunday in April and with my birthday being the 22nd, it was a pretty good bet it would happen on the morning of our family party.
Our relatives, including 4 close in age cousins, would come over for food and cake and us kids would play in the yard all afternoon. My dad would bring out the motor scooter with side car (on loan from his brother) and take everyone on rides around the neighborhood. It felt like the day stretched on forever!
Falling back an hour usually coincided with Halloween back in the 70s so it would be nice and dark early when Halloween rolled around. We’d get out around 5pm and by back by 9pm to sort our candy and make trades. My sisters and I went to a catholic elementary school so we’d have the next day off because of All Saints Day. It was one of the few perks of going to our school!
I came to realize very quickly that babies do not recognize Daylight Saving time! Dogs too. They are going to keep on their regular sleep, eat, poop time regardless of what the clock says!
As the years have gone by, I realize I don’t do well with the time change at all! I’m going to bed at 9 when it’s really 10 and then getting up at 5:20 – which my husband reminds me “it was 6:20” – and I feel exhausted! Or because “it’s really only 8 but the clock says 9!”, I’ll stay up for an extra hour and again, exhausted!
Arizona and Hawaii have it right – they just don’t participate. Good for them! Who do I need to talk to here in Connecticut? I think we should be a little oasis of common sense!
First, my mind always jumps to business when I think about what I do. Second, my mind always jumps to what I think I’m not doing as well as I “should” do. I really have to shift my thinking on a regular basis to realize, it’s not all about the business and what I’m doing already, is pretty good.
So, for me, the questions is what would I LIKE to do more of and that answer is – work out. Yes, I truly enjoy working out. I look forward to getting up in the morning and using my Peloton Bike+ to do strength workouts and ride. I also have the option of Yoga and barre classes and stretching. I put together different classes the night before for 30-50 minutes of work and get started after my morning coffee. If I didn’t have to go to the office, I would work out longer!
There has always been something so rewarding for moving my body. I used to ride my bike outdoors a lot from when I was a kid on through college. When I moved out to California, I had a fancy road bike and my husband, his friends, and I would traverse the hills and canyons of the East Bay and Sonoma County. Unfortunately, the move to Connecticut and ridiculously terrifying drivers stopped that!
I enjoy running and over the years did that pretty frequently outdoors as well. I’ve started up again on the Peloton Treadmill but outdoors has been walking workouts. I entered one benefit run during 2020 but only because it was during COVID so they had to do it on your own! I’m “not ready” to enter any runs and do it with <gasp> people.
When we were in Colorado earlier this month, we road the vast trail system in Fort Collins, and took hikes in Boulder and Fort Collins. It felt so incredible and I really felt in my element.
Last Saturday, my high school graduating class of 1978, had our 45th class reunion!
I’ve been on the reunion committee since our 15th reunion and numbers have dwindled from event to event.
We managed to get 53 people to attend – which included spouses! No matter how hard we work to get the word out there’s always excuses and no responses to our letters, emails, facebook posts.
We originally planned a group 60th birthday party event in 2020, but as you can guess, it didn’t happen! We used the same outdoor venue and the same theme – Bar-b-que! It was so festive with red checkered tablecloths and napkins and hay bales, corn stalks, and mums for decorations. Some people weren’t happy about the “casual” event but hey, we’re the committee!
We have a core 8 classmates who have worked consistently on the reunions and I don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves until it’s time to start meeting for our 50th reunion! They have become therapy sessions for those of us dealing with aging parents, and cheering sessions for those of us with children getting married, and grandchildren coming along.
Does your high school still have class reunions? If they do, do you attend? Tell me!
THIS is my favorite time of year. A warm Sunday mid-morning. Slight breeze, sun shining, local high school field with some game chatter about a half-mile away, and still a hint of the weather to come hiding underneath the warmth.
It makes me think of bike rides as a kid on Columbus Day, local peewee football games with my dad, and a brisk walk in the afternoon.
If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
If you have watch “The Good Place” you’ll remember Eleanor, played by Kristin Bell, has lost the ability to swear so F*(#, becomes Fork.
My first recollection of saying the word was when I was 11 or 12 and said “Fongool” at the dinner table! Oooh, even with non-Italian parents, they knew what I was saying!
It can be a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. Very versatile! It pops out of my mouth in personal conversations and it’s probably why my public conversation sentences are a little more measured.
Whether you say “freaking” or “fracking”, or “forks” it’s still the same thought. I think it’s time for me to give them all a rest. There may be some conversations that I’ll be totally mute but hey, it’s worth a try!
I accumulate pens and pencils. At times, I will pull 4 or 5 out of my work bag. I don’t know how they get there because I only use it to transport work I bring home and back to work untouched.
I might be working on my computer at the counter, need a pen and go get one, only to realize one was by me already.
I have pens I love so collect them at every chance I get – Webster Bank pens! – and they have to be clicker pens! No stick pens with caps for me. Those are the first pens that tossed.
I love #2 pencils with a point so I sharpen them constantly. They have to have an eraser so I automatically add an eraser to them.
I developed a thing for mechanical pencils and bought them and their respective replacement leads. Then I discovered disposable pencils and they populate my drawers.
Watching Project Runway, I discovered erasable pens! I know there already were erasables, but I didn’t like them. These are awesome! Pilot FriXIon clicker and it comes in a variety of colors. I now have a set for home and work. I make sure I don’t use them at work for check writing or anything of permanence.
I know it’s not just how the pen feels in my hand but also how it flows. It has to be medium flow and definitely not skip. That gets tossed directly into the trash can with no second chances!
Something about a good pen makes me slow my writing down and really form the letters, and really enjoy the handwriting process.
In the mid 1960s through the early to mid 1970s, my sisters and I loved to watch, The Monkees, The Brady Bunch, Here Come the Brides, and The Partridge Family. All these shows had cute guys in them and we were Boy Crazy!
It’s weird to google and see the years that these shows aired. The Monkees was on from 1965 to 1968 when I was between 5 and 8 years old. We were crazy for Davy Jones. How odd to be mooning over this 20+ year old man when we were that age. Right?
We watched variety of other shows, never missing the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. We even watched Lawrence Welk and the Jackie Gleason show together as a family.
Obviously, we didn’t have the channels we have today (but I bet you still watch about 4 of them right?)! Channel 5 out of New York gave us I Love Lucy, and The Bowery Boys movies. And how could I forget the original Little Rascals!
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 