tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352Wed, 28 Aug 2024 15:36:44 +0000Life@66Life@69Life@68Life@70Life@67I’m 70 years old, reflecting on seven decades of living...anticipating what lies ahead, sharing what I’ve lost, what I’ve gained, my fond memories, maybe even my secrets.http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)Blogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-8587804091957729019Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:05:00 +00002020-06-10T13:28:03.170-04:00 It’s 5:00 p.m. Thursday, January 31, 2019. David’s just come home from an afternoon with our pups Rocky and Ambrose at Kim’s agility classes in farm country outside Lebanon, Indiana. I’m checking in for tomorrow’s American Airlines flight, and they’re asking for passport numbers. My clothes for the Costa Rica and Panama Canal cruise are laid out on the bed in the guest room, ready to be http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-stumble-or-two-on-way-to-costa-rica.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-2418808741568907489Mon, 21 Mar 2016 12:32:00 +00002016-03-21T08:40:20.105-04:00Life@70Our wake-up call came at 2:30 a.m., Saigon time.  Instructions were to put bags outside the door by 2:45 and board the bus for the airport at 3:00 for the 5:35 a.m. United Airlines flight to Hong Kong, to be followed by a 14.5-hour trip to Chicago, a four-hour layover, and a last leg getting us back home to Indianapolis. The 23+ hour ordeal would be the customary penalty for a vacation http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-flight-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-4760863741505101643Sat, 16 Jan 2016 15:45:00 +00002016-01-16T10:45:01.828-05:00Life@69I have many regrets about how my mother spent her last few years, but her companions are not among them. Ever since her second stroke, Mom was wheelchair-bound and needed help dressing, toileting, and transfering from chair to bed—in short, complete custodial care. It was a scattershot stroke, so many parts of her brain were affected. She had trouble speaking coherently. We weren’t always surehttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-companions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-7117485261355547137Sun, 03 Jan 2016 16:45:00 +00002016-01-03T11:45:35.103-05:00Life@70December 27, 2015, the day after my birthday My dear sister filling the house with brilliant silk flowers Singing my praises in verses of her own composition Best friends meeting and mingling with my family Croaking out old standards together, karaoke style Sampling exotic vegan appetizers with savory sauces Marble cake and Duo’s famous lemon bars Grandkids reprising their http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2016/01/best-party-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-6802062392675065756Wed, 30 Dec 2015 14:14:00 +00002015-12-30T09:14:05.353-05:00Life@70Creeping in on little cat’s feet, the seventieth anniversary of my birth arrived the other day, largely unexpected. Who ever expects to find herself old? Not me, certainly. I take for granted that I’ll live forever. But this birthday marks a milestone to be reckoned with, signaling the inevitable decline to come, the changes that will have to be made, the losses I’ll have to adjust to. Will I http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-big-7-0.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-8942427946789606518Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:17:00 +00002015-12-29T09:17:49.179-05:00Life@69It’s time, says the audiologist.  She shows me the chart. The exes and ohs representing my hearing on the right and left meander downward off the normal range. The high pitches are going first. My poor ears. They’ve served me well through the years despite occasional blockage by earwax, and despite the raging forest of cicadas in my head that is tinnitus. But I’ve noticed lately that Ihttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/12/uh-oh-hearing-aids.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-4555208155474353362Fri, 18 Dec 2015 15:40:00 +00002015-12-18T10:40:49.725-05:00Life@69Another year gone. And what a whirlwind it was: Springtime in Olympia, Ephesis, Pompeii. Having my ovaries removed. Fishing and jazz in Colorado. Lunch atop the new World Trade Center. Havana by night in a ’57 Chevy. Those were the highlights making 2015 a year to remember. But most of the time went to the same old same old: Me sitting in front of my computer doing routine things for my http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/12/ffffft.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-3333304084980023537Tue, 09 Jun 2015 23:00:00 +00002015-06-09T19:01:54.948-04:00Life@69March 18. I complained to my primary care physician at a recent annual checkup that, despite dieting and increased exercise, I was actually gaining weight. I thought I was either retaining water or housing a tumor. She sent me for tests. Yesterday I had a thorough ultrasound look at my pancreas, liver, spleen, bile duct, gall bladder, uterus and ovaries. It took about an hour with technician http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-bump-in-road.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-2654898788571648655Mon, 01 Jun 2015 14:42:00 +00002015-06-01T10:42:49.244-04:00Life@69I realize it’s missing one evening when I prepare to go downtown to help Master Gardeners plant pots and beds at the City Market--my little clamshell phone with its tether bearing my talisman purchased in Hong Kong signifying my birth in the Year of the Rooster. A quick search of likely places yields no phone, and I have no choice but to leave without it, which makes me nervous in this busy http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/06/requiem-for-cell-phone.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-3138455344216218796Sun, 26 Apr 2015 13:55:00 +00002015-04-26T09:55:51.363-04:00Life@69What do I do today? This is not an idle question. Working out of my home for two not-for-profits that I care about, plus running a small garden design business, I’ve created a time-management monster. I’m way too busy, and competing agendas pull at me constantly. There’s always something I should be attending to, always something I may have forgotten to take care of. The free-floating anxietyhttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/04/organizing-my-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-473994411230116438Fri, 17 Apr 2015 14:17:00 +00002015-04-17T10:17:04.249-04:00Life@69Lately I find myself wondering when I’m going to die.  The thought never occurred to me when I was younger—plenty of time to think about that later. But now I’m beginning to face the reality that my time is approaching. There will soon be an end to my life, and I likely won't have much control over when. If by some miracle I live as long as my mother did (96+ years), I have a mere 25 http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/04/another-day-down.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-21777722502276354Mon, 06 Apr 2015 12:55:00 +00002015-04-08T09:44:26.315-04:00Life@68My sister and I expected our trip to Washington DC for our mom’s memorial service to be bittersweet. We didn’t expect it to be an adventure. Rosemary and I, our cousin Margaret, and her husband Bill were representing the family at this gathering of friends with whom our mother had lived and worked during her 35-year sojourn in northern Virginia. We wanted them not to have to travel all the http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/04/we-were-had.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-2576719074297966841Fri, 27 Mar 2015 14:20:00 +00002015-03-27T10:20:41.980-04:00Life@69I remember the phrase from our hippie days: “Better living through chemistry.” Dupont meant their slogan to make people feel good about the huge chemical company’s role in society, but our generation adopted it to celebrate our experiments with mind-altering marijuana, peyote, hash, LSD, banana peels. To us aging hippies it means something quite different now. Every Wednesday morning, in myhttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/03/better-living-through-chemistry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-5242602872269618865Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:33:00 +00002015-03-25T10:45:27.668-04:00Life@69Next to doing dishes, keeping up with the mail is the world’s most thankless task. I try to fish out the bills and the occasional personal letter on a daily basis, but the rest piles up until it’s a foot high before I actually look at it. That’s about once a week, if I can force myself to get around to it. Processing all this paper requires the dining room table to spread out on and make http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/03/keeping-up-with-mail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-1817818306352815232Sat, 14 Mar 2015 13:25:00 +00002015-03-16T10:34:53.242-04:00Life@69They say that when God created the world, he ran out of resources when he got to Greece, so he took a pile of rocks and mixed it with the rainbow. Maybe that accounts for the allure of that place in my memories. I spent two years of my childhood in Greece, in 1952 and 1953, and recollections of those magical days that are still vivid. The Athens where David and I spent a day last week bears no http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/03/aspects-de-la-grece.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-3537437993862922675Fri, 13 Mar 2015 13:13:00 +00002015-03-14T08:55:20.383-04:00Life@69We've just returned from our third cruise in thirteen months, spending every dime we have to see the world. It’s all about making memories. David has a difficulty maintaining his balance that indicates his cerebellum is shrinking faster than it should. We don’t know how long that’s been going on, or how quickly it will develop. It doesn’t bother him, but his doctor says he may be walking withhttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/03/cruising.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-3998379370937314226Tue, 10 Mar 2015 12:02:00 +00002015-03-10T08:02:36.089-04:00Life@69I love my suburban 1978-built home, but by HGTV standards it could use some improvement. I love that we’ve decorated with art that reflects where our hearts lie—over the fireplace, Hoosier impressionist TC Steele’s Selma in the Garden; Picasso’s Boy with Pipe in the front hall; Monet’s Poppy Field in Argenteuil on the living room wall; giant trout and salmon identification posters in the http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/03/home-improvement.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-5053206813915369808Wed, 18 Feb 2015 15:26:00 +00002015-02-18T10:26:03.385-05:00Life@69If we didn’t have to let Rocky out for a pee and poo, David and I would probably sleep in every day. As it is, we have an unspoken agreement to take turns getting up. For me, that’s a particular ordeal on account of my back. Mind you, later in the day I can heft 40-pound bags and potted shrubs while gardening, but the morning’s a different story. First, there’s getting out of bed. I have http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/02/morning-ritual.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-1127220606406358366Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:51:00 +00002015-02-10T09:51:20.459-05:00Life@68It’s been almost a year since my mom passed away. I was with her when she died. I awoke with a start that Sunday morning in the cot next to her bed at University Hospital, Cleveland, aware that something had changed. Mom had stopped breathing. I hopped up to envelope her still body in my arms, and spoke of my love for her and the love and prayers of the family. She was still warm. “She’s http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/02/death-watch_10.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-9123532627449177005Wed, 04 Feb 2015 19:26:00 +00002015-02-07T15:34:44.465-05:00Life@68After months of happy anticipation Dave and I have finally arrived in Malaga, eager to board the cruise ship that will take us to exotic ports in Spain, Morocco, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. We've cashed in some dollars for euros and are waiting at the baggage claim to grab our trusty Rick Steves travel bags and head for fun. There’s just one problem—no suitcase for David. The throng http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/02/fly-me-to-bangalore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-1809987378956658297Sat, 31 Jan 2015 18:44:00 +00002015-02-07T15:37:34.475-05:00Life@69 My husband, for all I grouse about his compulsive wandering with the remote, is my TV hero. Last night when the Tivo went on the blink, he sorted out the problem and got us up and running again. What would I do without Tivo? HGTV shows would be excruciating without it—all those commercials coming between worst landscape on the block and first. The suspense between segments of Scandal would http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-hero.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-660908345254244216Fri, 30 Jan 2015 15:55:00 +00002015-02-07T15:38:12.662-05:00Life@69Our Rocky, all twenty pounds of him, is a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. King Charles is said to have kept 15 of the gentle breed in his bed to keep him warm. We have just one, impossibly cute Cavalier, and he warms our hearts by demanding all the love we can give. Thanks to a slight overbite, the breeder rejected Rocky as a show dog, else he wouldn’t have been ours. We, of course, think he’shttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/01/love-sponge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-4173380479690217737Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:11:00 +00002015-02-07T15:35:08.367-05:00Life@69Today an aching sadness comes to me in the middle of Silver Sneakers. We’re working out to a medley of remastered Beatles tunes, classmate Mary and me adding our voices to the thrumming beat when the spirit moves. “Yeah, you’re gonna lose that girl..” “She’s got a ticket to ri-i-ide...” “I get by with a little help from my friends….” Silver heads bob to the music, glued to trainer Margaret’s http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/01/we-were-cool.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-839475463243619130Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:48:00 +00002015-01-27T12:06:03.723-05:00Life@67My very least favorite thing to do is tidy my desk! It’s always covered with layer upon layer of random papers—the buildup from many dumpings of bills and notices culled from the monster weekly pile of incoming mail...scraps emptied from my purse and pockets... clusters moved hastily to clear surfaces when company is coming. Things I have to sort through and deal with. Bills to be paid. http://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2013/02/pushing-paper.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8840643974565522352.post-7415405900549694987Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:48:00 +00002015-01-27T11:49:47.739-05:00Life@67I notice the lump while soaping in the shower. This can’t be! I just had a “clean” mammogram two months earlier. Yet there it is, a distinct bump in the upper outer quadrant of my left breast. I call my gynecologist. Next step, a needle aspiration to see if it might be just a lump of liquid. I go in for the procedure. No such luck. Next step, a biopsy. I ask to see the thing after they takehttp://grannyrockstar.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-time-i-had-cancer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (GrannyRockStar)0