Category Archives: Whimsies

It’s Incredible

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Friday afternoon I got a text message from my 10-year-old granddaughter Kaiya: Nana. (Kaiya always starts her text messages to me with an emphatic Nana and a period. She just wants to make sure I’m paying attention.) Incredible 2 is on Netflix.

She was alerting me to this fact because she knew that I desperately wanted to see this movie. Yes, it’s true. I — like thousands upon thousands of Incredible fans (99.87 percent of whom are 10 or younger) — was simply DYING to know if the baby had superpowers. The Incredibles (the original one, that is) left us dangling. It was the biggest unfinished plot line since Who Shot J.R.?

Kaiya and her siblings had already seen The Incredibles 2, but they kept the secret of whether or not the baby had powers and, if so, what those powers were. I kept trying to make our schedules work so that I could take them to see the movie with me (they had already seen it with their parents), but I couldn’t make it happen before we left Denver. I even considered renting it from Red Box, but I was pretty sure Bill wouldn’t want to see it, and also pretty sure he might call a mental hospital to pick me up should I watch it by myself.

Still, now that it was on Netflix, I was going to watch it one way or another. And then I remembered my AZ-resources: my great nephew and great niece Austin and Lilly.

Taking my cue from Kaiya, I sent my niece a text message: Maggie. The Incredibles 2 is on Netflix. Would Austin and Lilly like to see it?

Actually, that’s not completely true. I asked her while we were at Lilly’s soccer game. But if I had sent a text message, I would definitely have started with her name followed by a period. It’s my new signature text message style.

Anyway, she told me that though they had just watched it the week before when they had been home sick, they would love to watch it again with me. And so we did.

As soon as I sat down, I instructed both of them to NOT do what my 8-year-old granddaughter Mylee always does when we watch a movie together that she’s seen before: tell me what’s about to happen before it does. Mylee is not being mean. She just is so excited that she wants to make sure I’m not dozing off. They both sincerely promised that they wouldn’t spill any beans.

And then they both promptly began spilling beans.

The baby has 17 superpowers Austin told me even before the movie started. And it was downhill from there, plot surprise-wise. It really didn’t matter, because I’m the one who always reads the plots from Wikipedia before I watch any movie, and frequently look at the end of books first. Still…..17 SUPERPOWERS!…..

And now I’ve told you.

I love the animated movies they make for kids these days. Long gone are the days of those dreadful movies I had to sit through with Court when he was young. Nowadays, the animation is mesmerizing and the stories are clever, often with quips meant for the grown ups in the audience. The animation is amazing, especially the Pixar movies. I love how the characters resemble the actors who are providing their voices.

It’s not surprising that good triumphed over evil in The Incredibles 2. And it really is a movie worth watching, especially if you can borrow a kid.

This post linked to the GRAND Social

Saturday Smile: Birthday Celebrations

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After starting out the week with some very bad news about the death of our neighbor, it was nice to have a high point midweek on Wednesday as we celebrated my sister Bec’s birthday. For quite a few years, Bill and I have been blessed to be included in the birthday dinner. In fact, some four years ago or so, we were at a Cajun restaurant in west Mesa, and who should walk in but former Phoenix Suns superstar Charles Barkley. Without giving it any thought whatsoever, I grabbed my niece and nephew by the hand and marched over to where he was being seated and politely asked if I could take a picture of him with the two kids. He couldn’t have been nicer. I’m glad he was because when I told my brother what I had done, he informed me that Barkley had once thrown someone bugging him through a window. Phew. Dodged that bullet…..

This year we didn’t have any celebrity sightings, but had a hellava good time nonetheless…..

Being with family always makes me smile.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Book Whimsy: Super Bowl Crime Prediction

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An article about the Super Bowl caught my eye. Odd, because I have been paying absolutely no attention to any of the Super Bowl hype, in part because my beloved Denver Broncos are not playing, but in larger part because the New England Patriots ARE playing. Again.

Anyway, this particular article caught my eye because while the sports people have been analyzing this game down to the very last detail, this author is basing his prediction on the mystery and crime novels that identify with each city — Los Angeles and Boston.

Despite the fact that the author is a (rather smug, I believe) New England fan, I found his article to be amusing and interesting.

Enjoy his prediction!

Predicting the Super Bowl with Crime Fiction

 

 

Thursday Thoughts

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All Worn Out
Well, I finally did it. I wore out a credit card. It happened at breakfast yesterday morning. I gave the cashier my card and he ran it through the machine. No go. It wasn’t denied. It just didn’t do anything. When I looked at the strip on the back of the card, I realized it was almost entirely worn off. The reason I didn’t know it earlier is that I do a lot of my shopping on the internet, and apparently the rest of the shopping I do at places that have chip readers. The good news is my new card is in the mail, as this card expires at the end of February. I don’t even want to know what this means about how much money I spend.

Overkill?
And speaking of spending money, I ordered a belt to wear when I’m walking with my nordic walking sticks so that I have someplace to keep my cell phone. I have one in Denver, and figured it was one of those things I could duplicate here. Good ol’ Amazon, it showed up as expected a mere two days later. When I opened the box, here is EXACTLY what I found…..

Seriously? I’ve gotten many an Amazon package in a smaller box. Heck, it could have fit in an envelope. I envision that the person who packed my order was tired, and the more reasonably-sized boxes were at the other end of the warehouse (as was, apparently, the bubble wrap). It was the end of his shift and he just wasn’t going to do it.

Birthday Celebration
My sister Bec celebrated the first anniversary of her 35th birthday yesterday. We celebrated with her son Erik and his family at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill last night. Bec’s daughter Kate was supposed to join us all the way from Las Vegas, but was down with a bug. As always, we had such a good time. Bec is the most amazing 35th x 2 person I know, and I am absolutely delighted to have her as my sister, my friend, and my role model to enjoying life….

Something’s Fishy
One of a number of things I anticipated missing while in the desert was the Hawaiian dish called poke. It’s true there is a restaurant serving poke near where Bec lives, but that’s 30 minutes from my door. In Denver, I can be at the nearest poke restaurant in five minutes, and often am. So I was delighted to stumble upon Poke Fuzion only a 10 minute drive from my front door. I’ve been twice, and both times I have left very happy. The last time I went, I couldn’t get the club soda machine to turn off. I reckon the owners were much less happy than I…..

Ciao!

We’re Not Getting Older; We’re Getting Happier

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Some 10 or so years ago, as I waited in the line at the grocery store, I noticed a headline on one of the magazines. It might have been Glamour or Vogue (although the magazines by the checkstands are generally limited to publications featuring photos of a ragged-looking Emily Blunt secretly smoking a cigarette, or photos of Princess Kate giving a sideways surly look to the queen).

Anyhoo, the headline said: You Can Still Look Good at 30, 40, or EVEN 50!  My 55-year-old self decided I hated anyone under the age of 30. Except my grandkids.

Because HOW DARE THEY? Why is it so impossible to believe that a woman of a more advanced age can’t look good, even without the makeup or expensive cosmetic surgery that the magazine probably recommended?

According to an article I recently came across from Literary Hub, a Brookings Institute study revealed that women become the happiest after the age of 55, and are most happy towards the end of their lives. The study showed that women in their 20s are actually the least happiest of all women.

I actually wasn’t terribly surprised to read the results of the study. I was frankly a hot mess during my 20s. I’m hoping God was distracted and not paying attention to me from 1973 to 1980. Just sayin’….

I think there comes a point in most women’s lives when the intrinsic need to look good every time we step out the door goes away. While it’s a tough pill to swallow at first, reality sets in that no one is paying any attention to us. That sounds sad, but it isn’t. Instead, it’s rather liberating. I admitted recently that I inadvertently wore my slippers to a store and was mortified when I realized what I had done. But my mortification was short-lived when I realized that absolutely no one looks at my feet, and if they did, they would dismiss it as just another example of crazy old people.

And, what’s more, older women tend to be happier than older men. The study authors have lots of theories, but I think it’s because (beware: generalization ahead) men tend to measure their happiness by their professional success, and mostly by how much money they make. Women are more reliant on friends and family relationships for satisfaction.

Whether or not we older women feel happy obviously depends a lot on our health. If we are in constant pain, or have difficult illnesses, we are a lot less happy. But if we feel good, are in a good relationship with our kids and our spouses, and have a gallon of Breyers Salted Caramel Truffle gelato in the freezer, we are happy as can be.

I don’t know if I will be at my very happiest when I’m in my 80s as the study suggests. But I do know one thing: my sister Bec — whose birthday is today — seems pretty darn happy at this stage in her life. Happy birthday Sis!…..

Focus on What’s Important

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Yesterday afternoon I got a text message from AZ neighbors two doors down. He told me that our next door neighbor — the one in the house between his and ours — had passed away earlier in the afternoon from a heart attack. This is the second acquaintance of ours in a short period of time who died of a second heart attack a few days after having an earlier heart attack.

I was stunned. I hadn’t gotten a chance to go see her since we’ve been back. That kind of news is always a shock. We know that no one gets out of this world alive, but we’re always caught by surprise when it’s someone we know.

I said above that I hadn’t gotten a chance to go see her since we’ve been back. That’s, of course, a completely untrue statement. I could have dropped by any number of times and invited her over for a cup of coffee. I thought about it often. As recently as yesterday morning, I told Bill as we passed her house on our morning walk that I needed to pop my head in to say hi to Patsy.

When something like this happens to someone you know, the obvious takeaway– and the one I’m certainly feeling — is that we should enjoy every single moment of every single day. And perhaps even more important, we should be kind to friends and family, for certain, but also to strangers. We should not spend moments of pointless regret about things over which we have no control or can’t change. We should hug the ones we love often, and laugh with our friends whenever we have a chance. We should consider all of the things that really are important in this life, and not spend any time at all on the things that aren’t important.

We shouldn’t let a day go by when we don’t feel gratitude for all that we have, and thank God for our gifts, for our family, and for our blessed lives. And for heaven’s sake, reach out and touch those around us.

Read Much?

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Why do some people like to read and other’s don’t? Even within families, some of the members are readers and others would simply use a book as a coaster.  It’s question that I’ve spent more than my share of time pondering.

I most recently pondered that question one morning last week upon awakening at 5:30 but not yet wanting to get out of bed. I had been reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and my pondering began with a question I asked myself: How did it come about that you first chose that book back when you were 12 or 13 years old? Who recommended A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to you?

While I had good elementary school teachers, I don’t recall any of them particularly inspiring me to read. It’s true, however, that despite the fact that I can remember the lyrics to nearly every song written between 1963 and 1975, I can’t remember the name of my 5th grade teacher. Teachers for grades 1 through 4 I remember. Grade 6 I remember because she died halfway through the school year. An 11-year-old doesn’t forget things like that. But 5th grade? I got nothin’. Maybe she inspired me to read.

Anyway, back to my pondering. I began recalling that from the time I can remember, we had a little bookcase in our dining room that was full of books. There were many Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames and the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden books. We had Little Women, which I read innumerable times. (Jen still has that book, and the Jo on the cover doesn’t look like Winona Ryder). And I read them all, many more than once. And we had World Book Encyclopedias, some parts of which I would pore over, like the dog section of the D encyclopedia.

Where did those books come from, I wondered. Did Mom buy the whole sets of all of those books? Or, perhaps, did one of her sisters who had children older than the Gloors donate the books to her? It’s something I will never know. Kids, ask your parents questions now.

I further recalled that every Saturday morning, I would go to the city library to return books and make new selections. While I don’t vividly recall, it must have been my mother who drove us to the library and stayed with us while we chose our books.

So, my conclusion was that it was my mother who inspired me to read, and not my 5th grade teacher. That, however, doesn’t answer the question as to why my sisters and I all like to read, but my brother isn’t particularly a reader.

I had always been taught that if you read to your kids, they will, in turn, love reading as they grow into adults. From the time he was a baby until he was mid-elementary school, I read to Court every night. Now, though I think he reads on occasion, he certainly doesn’t LOVE to read. And of this three children, all of whom have been read to, only Kaiya loves to read. I think all of the rest of my grands are readers, and they have all been read to. So, is it DNA or is it environment?

I have no answers, only questions. This, my friends, is often true with life.

Any thoughts?

This post linked to the GRAND Social

Saturday Smile: In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)

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Now that it’s finally warming up, Bill and I have been able to sit outside in the evening for our “cocktail party.” We have seen a few pretty sunsets, but the one last night was spectacular……

View from our AZ backyard.

It topped a great week, a week in which my sister Bec got wonderful health news and my great-niece Lilly celebrated her fifth birthday…..

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Thoughts

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Don’t You Have a Credit Card Like Everyone Else?
The other day Bill and I went to Fuddrucker’s for dinner. It is one of my favorite hamburger joints. You order from a cashier, and then choose your table. Your buzzer goes off when your food is ready. Bill paid while I chose our seat. He was up there a long time, and I could see that the cashier had called in a manager for assistance. What on earth? I wondered. When he finally came to our table, he was laughing. “I paid in cash, and the cashier had trouble making the change,” he said. “She had to call in someone to help her figure it out.” Here’s the thing: He gave her $30 cash. The bill was $24.92. At the risk of sounding 95 years old, what’s the matter with the durn kids these days? I’m pretty sure my 6-year-old grandson Micah could have figured that one out.

Read Anything Good Lately?
I’m reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for, I don’t know, maybe the seventh or eighth time in my life. But it’s been a long time since I read it last. As I’m reading, I’m wondering which one of my grandkids would enjoy it the most. After careful consideration (since, as you can see, a large number of my grandkids like to read)…..

Dagny is snuggled up in the weighted blanket we gave her for Christmas and enjoying a book.

…..I decided Kaiya would be the one who would most enjoy a novel such as Betty Smith’s classic coming-of-age story. The other readers lean towards fantasy novels. Unfortunately, I think that Kaiya is still a bit too young for some of the parts of the book. Another year or two perhaps.

The other day, I made a visit to the Power Road Farmers’ Market. I’ve driven past it numerous times, but I have never stopped to see what they sell. One of the many nice things about wintering in AZ is that there are local fruits and vegetables this early in the year. In particular, there are lots of citrus fruits available to purchase (or steal from a neighbor’s tree).

The limes, lemons, and grapefruit are local; the tangelos are not. I found lots to buy at the farmers’ market, and was able to shop for a good half hour before Bill started making “are you almost finished” noises…..

Nothing Makes Me Happier…..
I thought of a couple more simple things that make me happy. Nothing makes me happier than getting involved in a book that you can’t put down. Like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And nothing makes me happier than going to a restaurant that includes Diet Fanta Orange soda! Let’s hear it for those big red Coca-Cola soda machines.

Ciao.

Greater Good

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When I started writing this blog, I didn’t want to be pinned down to one particular subject matter. I didn’t want to restrict myself to a cooking blog because I’m frankly not that great a cook. The idea of a fashion blog was and is a laughable notion because I never have been a fashion plate. You can probably count on two hands the number of times that I have worn high heels, and now that I’m retired, I’m almost always wearing leggings and a sweat shirt or t-shirt. I put on a pair of black pants — the same black pants — and one of my few nice shirts or blouses every Sunday for church. When I get home, I change into leggings and a sweat shirt. And a political blog? HA!

I’m prefacing this post with the above information to let you know that Nana’s Whimsies is absolutely not going to weigh in on the subjects of border security, security walls, or government shutdowns. Not going to happen.

What I want to talk about is what Luke Bryant says in the song that I can no longer listen to because it gets so stuck in my head: Most people are good. When I first heard that song, I thought to myself, “Is that really true? Are most people really good? Because it seems like I hear a lot about bad people.”

My sister Bec posted something on Facebook a few days ago that caught my eye. It was something she received from Estes Park News. You might recall (or simply KNOW) that Estes Park is the small Colorado town right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is so small, in fact, that there is no place besides the local hardware store to buy ladies’ underwear. Believe me; I know this to be true. But Estes Park relies heavily on visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park, so the government shutdown is directly affecting even this small mountain village.

The article starts out saying People and businesses of Estes Park and our surrounding areas are reaching out to help the furloughed federal employees. Here is a list to help those in need.

The list was compiled by a nonprofit called Flinch Forward, which is a military veteran and first responder group that provides help to local communities as necessary. The list includes such things as the Town of Estes Park waiving penalties and service disconnects on unpaid water and/or electric bills starting in December and ending one month after the furlough ends; an internet provider called Airbits offering free internet to affected government employees for the length of the furlough; Alpine Bank providing interest-free personal loans equal to a worker’s monthly pay. Even cultural facilities got into the spirit: Denver Art Museum, Four Mile Historic Park, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science are all providing free admission to furloughed employees.

The list goes on and on. My takeaway, however, is that at the end of the day, as divisive as we have become, when people are in trouble, Americans put aside their differences and dig in to help. Yes, corporate greed exists, but no matter their reasons, even corporations are providing helping hands.

If only we could be so full of grace when there isn’t a crisis.

Bec and I at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park in the good ol’ days when it was open for business!