Here I sit, patiently (or not) waiting for the local cable company to come - in their "2-hour" window for my  appointment.  This is the third time in the past week.  I wonder if this repair person can actually find, repair, and fix the problem.  I find it frustrating that I have to lose time on the job, lose wages, and all the other inconveniences of involved.  What a spoiled lot we are ... I am not sure which is worse ... being without phone service, or no internet access.  The first day I was without phone AND internet.  Since the work the second repair person did yesterday, I now have internet but still no telephone.  Oddly enough, you can call and get my voice mail and leave me a message yet there is no dial tone - phone line is dead.

http://tv.yahoo.com

That is definitely a terrific example of "grace"; and some comedians lack that, and tact.  She's lucky she didn't find him off-guard and that he was quick footed enough to land on his feet and yet, leave Kathie Lee in tact.  Well done, Martin!

Personally, I would have wanted to correct her - not so much to embarrass her for lack of fact-finding of her guest, but rather so she knows ... now, so it won't happen again ... some of those kinds of lessons are harder to forget.

Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I ...

You know my motto: Forgive and uh ... the other thing.

Congratulations are in order to my friends, Dean and Roxi!  They were married May 12.  It's taken me a while to get photos sorted, re-sized, and cropped. If you care to see the wedding and reception photos, go to the "Phowshows" tab ... you can see the best of them, there.  Family "still" shots are in the "Slideshow" tab.  I have not picked through these yet; I will, then I'll make another photoshow once I filter through those.

If you are lonesome, live alone, or perhaps even enjoy the feeling of solitude, I found the following website a tasty morsel.  There is nothing particularly new here, just good reminders and reinforcement for those who live in a world of "one-ness"!  http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Being-Alone

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up.
~Pearl Buck

And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone.  ~John Irving

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.  ~Lord Byron

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.  ~Paul Tillich

I restore myself when I'm alone.  ~Marilyn Monroe

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.  ~George Washington

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.  ~Colette

When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death - ourselves.  ~Eda LeShan

I'm not anti-social.  I'm pro-solitude.  ~Author Unknown

In youth the days are short and the years are long; in old age the years are short and the days long.
~Nikita Ivanovich Panin

      Aging is inevitable.  It's a part of life, and death.  When  you're younger, you can't wait to be older ... old enough to be, to do, to get, to go for all kinds of things.  The stupidity of youth is the wasting of life's precious time wishing, wanting, and waiting for something else.  The unfortunate culmination of that kind of thinking?  I feel usually it is disappointment.  The end results are seldom ever as good as they seem, at the time of your yearning.  Things change, times change, people change, and life goes on ... with, or without you ... ith or without your fulfilled desires.  Don't get me wrong, dare to dream, dare to have aspirations greater than yourself.  Just don't stay at a standstill, waiting for things to happen.  Be proactive, believe you are worthy, accomplish things in spite of yourself, and in spite of what others might instill in your mind.  Don't let others' shortcomings and fears control or dominate your own actions in life.  It's not an easy task to find our own way, in life.  We grow up being told what to think, how to think, how to act and respond, what to love, how to love ... on and on ... then, we leave the nest, or are kicked out of the nest - but, nonetheless, alone to figure out who and what we are, and form our own opinions, despite what we've been "fed" for years.  Some people are lucky enough to have had, or have found "mentors" or "angels" along their life's journey.  And, yet, others struggle until death, learning how to live life ... and some, die, living with inner turmoil, constant searching, and wandering ... the wonder of life, and death!  ~nr lenz

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.  We grow old by deserting our ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.  ~Samuel Ullman

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.  ~Douglas MacArthur

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.  ~Chili Davis

      Well, I think I have finally faced the fact that it's time ... time for me to consider filing for my retirement.  Or at least it's time for me to file for Medicare.  For so many years I wondered if I would even live this long and now I'm wondering, what the heck happened, to all those years, while I was waiting to "grow up"?  Wowsa ... I've been wrangling with having to opening admit, "Yep, I have nearly reached the time to check the "Over 65" box!
      Medicare Part A is supposed to be filed within 4 months of turning age 65.  I'm there, tsk, tsk ... I understand we retirees have earned this one!  Medicare Part B is something I have to make a choice to enroll in, or not.  This is NOT free.  So, if I file for retirement right now or not, I have to make a decision about Medicare Part B.  So give, and they take away.  They will give me retirement benefits of so much, MINUS the cost of Medicare Part B.  All of which, is done, by direct deposit and withdrawl (which I am not crazy about).
      Are you on Medicare?  Are you retired?  I'm sure hoping for some feedback and opinions about retirement - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It is so vivid in my mind how my mother used to worry if S.S.A. wouldn't be broke, before she got to the age where she could finally file.  Ironically, she was only able to file a short time before she died.  She spent all those years wondering, and life was taken from her at such a young age (well, young to me, now).  Both of my parents died at age 67, only six weeks of one another.  Neither one were fortunate enough to live long enough to collect their retirement.    
      I'm reading about filing for retirement and signing up for Medicare Parts A & B to learn all I can and be armed with as much information to help me make a rightful, good decision.  There is a place for mainstream medicine.  However, being more a new energy, alternative, complementary medicine person more than mainstream medicine I (of course) question whether I would even need it.  However, it is my understanding that if I don't enroll for it right away it will be more costly for me, later on, if I change my mind.  And, if I would happen to need it, this would not be a good thing.
      Any input?  Stories?  Advice?

Miss Moina Michael of Georgia is credited as the founder of the Memorial Poppy in the United States.  Here is a link about this fine, seemingly forgotten, "Poppy Lady".  http://www.greatwar.co.uk/people/moina-belle-michael-biography.htm and http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9759 (Find A Grave link)
Other links about her and the evolution of the poppy:
http://iwvpa.net/michaelm/
http://www.cal-mum.com/poppy.htm
http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/stamps/michael.html
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/mmichael.htm

Learn to ... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace, all that you  are not.  ~Henri Frederic Amiel

Collect as precious pearls, the words of the wise and virtuous.  ~Unknown

Enjoy who you are. Don’t hate yourself for what you aren’t.  ~Unknown

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.  ~David Carradine

I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead:  cheers for the living; tears for the dead.
~Robert G. Ingersoll

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The dead soldier's silence sings our national anthem.
~Aaron Kilbourn

Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth;
Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth...
~Thomas Moore

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
~Joseph Campbell