I am thinking of writing a book about retirement. Am thinking of calling it Retirement for Dummies, because in the first place, who ever really came up with the idea of retirement?
It has been 7 1/2 months since we have entered this wonderful? new season. Fridays are my favorite day of the week. Randy leaves at 6 a.m. to go to men’s Bible study which starts at 6:30. It is my one day of the week that I get to wake up to….being by myself! It is a glorious morning. I don’t have to make breakfast, as he eats a donut there, I get to listen to my music and talk on the phone without him sitting there telling me to “tell her I said….” which is when I politely tell him to get his own friends but he quickly tells me he doesn’t need any, he has mine and when it is time for me to get “friends” to carry his casket, he has already seen to it that he has already hired professionals (did you know that there are people who you can hire to do that)to do that, so why does he need friends?
It is at this point that I point him in the direction of the paper to look at the employment section.
The other day I was in the kitchen whipping up a pie and he ask if I needed him to open the can of fruit or roll out the pie crust. OK, now this is when it gets scary. As I am finishing up the pastry for the pie, I turn and see him looking through the TV Guide to see what time Ellen comes on. You are kidding me.
Each time I have to ask him to move from in front of the dishwasher so I can open it to put in dishes, he says, “I bet that you are going to write about me on the blog today, right?” Oh boy, does he follow me around the house so that I will write about him or is this what retirement is all about?
Where are the fun-filled Winnabago trips across America? When do we escape to a sun-soaked island paradise for a month? What about all the social functions that we had promised ourselves we would participate in when he didn’t have to go to work? I think I can answer those question.
The fun-filled Winnabago trip would end up with us divorcing. If we get on each others nerves in a 1800 sq foot house, we would kill each other in a motor home.
The trip across American might end with one of us throwing the other over the edge of the Grand Canyon. The island adventure is off because we are to old and fat to be seen in a swimming suit in public and the social functions…well, according to Mr. Party Animal, who needs socials when we make several trips each week to Walmart.
Ah…the retirement life, it is just one exciting Friday after another. I need to close and write a letter to our pastor asking him to expand Men’s Bible Study to 3 times a week.

There is a problem when you have a blog. My mind races every day around either recipes or tips which I either hear from others or read about. It is times like today that I have so much to say, but don’t want to bore you to death with info when really all you are wanting is a new recipe. But…I can’t stand it. I just have to pass on several things.
1. In art class today I overhead a lady talk about the “correct” way to ripen fruit. When I ask her what that was, she proceeded to tell me that you should always include an apple in the sack (which you are suppose to close and put in a dark place) where you have placed your peaches or plums or nectarines. She says that the apple absorbs some type of gas that I can’t even begin to pronounce or spell, which causes the fruit not to ripen as it should. She also stated that is the reason you should never have fruit ripening in the fridge when you have tulips in your fridge,(which if you are like me, tulips have never been in my fridge, but you never know when they might be) as the gas expelling from the fruit will not allow the tulips to open and bloom.
Now, are you not thankful to know this. How could you have gone another day without this knowledge.
Info #2. We were at Whataburger a couple of days ago as I was craving a hamburger, as I do approx. 2-3 times a week. Because we had just left the house and had not really planned on stopping for lunch quite yet, I had poured myself a glass of tea for our errand running afternoon. But as we walked past a hamburger place I told RC that I couldn’t take it. I HAD to have a hamburger, NOW. So off to Whataburger we go and because I didn’t want to waste the tea that I had brought with me, I decided to take it in with me. Randy ask me if I was sure I wanted to do that, because he didn’t want to get thrown out for bringing in our own drinks, but I told him I would take the blame so only one of us would have to eat our burger in the car. So off we go and order. I just ordered a hamburger, he ordered a #7, which includes a drink. When he comes over to the table, he sets down his drink and then puts a glass of tea in front of me. I looked at him with a curious look. He tells me that he thinks that the man taking our order felt sorry for us and that he told Randy to give his wife this glass of tea. I guess he thought we looked like we were probably retired and poor and was trying to do a good deed for us “oldies”. That’s when I came up with a plan. I’m going to do that if we ever go to a high class restaurant. Maybe we will get more than a glass of tea “on the house”.
Fact #3 This week I found myself missing our friends back in California. It has always been said that if you are down, do something nice for others and you won’t have time to think about yourself. So I got in the kitchen to bake several different desserts for friends who we would be seeing this week. Before I actually was able to deliver all these new recipes which were intended for others, Randy and I scarfed down 2 different new baked items. The point of this fact is this. It is great to do for others and it did, in fact, take my mind of myself. The sad part is this, I gained 5 lbs while attempting to do a good deed. The moral of this story is; do not think that you can bake for others and not eat it yourself if it stays in your house for over 30 min before giving it away. It’s just not possible.

I guess this is all I have learned this week. Isn’t it amazing how much you can learn from the internet. And the most important fact is this, if you read it on the internet, it must be true.

Since I have not been cooking, due to being a little under the weather for over a week, I thought I would just share a few thoughts.

Last week, while feeling a little down because I was not up to indulging some of my favorite foods to celebrate my birthday, it became apparent that maybe I was a little sicker than I thought. All week, even though Randy was certainly playing the part of Nurse Norm, I noticed a few oddities. First of all, at the beginning of the week, all I heard was that it was way to hot for us to be outside anyway, that I wasn’t missing anything having to stay in. Then in the middle of the week, he bounces down the stairs with his walking shoes on saying that he is going walking. You are kidding me, it is 99 outside and my hubby who has done no exercising other than bending over to pick up his jeans from the floor one day back in April, is going out walking. Then the next day, he announces that maybe I should at least try to go get out a little to “build up my strength” so off we go to Steinmart. After I walk around for 15 min, deciding that I am just really not feeling able to shop, I walk over to find him picking out cutesy new shorts telling me that it will make me feel better to walk around Dillards, hoping it will perk up my attitude. We get to Dillards where they just happen to have the shirts he likes on sale, so to “perk me up” we find shirts that go with all his new shorts. Boy, did that ever perk me up. I am feeling so badly that even laying down in the back seat of the closed up 115 degree car is sounding pretty good right now. I tell him that it is suppose to be my birthday week, not his and I should be the one shopping. He tells me that even though I am not feeling like shopping for me, he just hated wasting the good July sales events.
You are kidding me.
I finally convince him to take me home and in the midst of him trying on the new outfits (yes I know, he really is a little weird) the phone rings. It is our insurance man returning Randy’s call. When I ask him if I can take a message because he is upstairs, (I didn’t tell him he was up there trying on his new clothes)he informs me that he has the quotes on the new life insurance plan that Randy had ask about for me. OMGosh, am I sicker than I thought? Does he know something that I don’t know? As I thought back over the last week it all begins to make sense…exercising, new clothes, more life insurance…he is preparing for the casserole circuit. Well, little does he know that I have already typed up lists of all the little things that the next wife will want to know.
When he came down to show me all his new “digs” I let him know in no uncertain terms that I had figured out his little scheme. He smiled and told me that he figured that if taking me to Dillards and Steinmart didn’t pep me up, he knew exactly what to do to get me out of my funk. It worked.
We are back to normal, sitting here in the 110 degree weather eating chocolate chip cookies watching Wheel of Fortune in our old outfits, talking about how we need to get out and exercise when the weather cools down. we will save his new clothes to wear when he takes me shopping this week for all my new stuff. He reminded me that he really doesn’t like casseroles anyway.

I’m still trying to wrap that idea around that I didn’t get to have TrudyFest. My very own favorite week of the year when it is all about me. Randy tells me that everyday is Trudyfest but I beg to differ. It all began years ago when my aunt, who could not have children, adopted the idea that she would give me a little present every day from July 1st until July 11th, my birthday. My Aunt Gladys was a great lady who loved life and believed that special days should be celebrated. Of course, I was happy to go right along with that. She kept the tradition of giving me little gifts each day for 11 days until she went to be with the Lord. My mom kept up the tradition. Gifts ranged from candy bars to cards to sometimes a pair of earrings or a kitchen tool, when I had a kitchen of my own. So when Randy and I married, my mom told him that I was his responsibility (her tone of voice suggesting that when she said that made me think that maybe she was very glad to hand over this “fun tradition”) and he was now in charge of TrudyFest.
This was how it all began and this year, at the age of 64, I learned that life is not all about me. As an only child, that hurts just to type those words.
Monday morning of this past week found me sick and not in any way interested in cooking, eating or even shopping. When Randy tried to take me out to tell me to walk around one of my favorite stores, looking to buy me a little something, I just couldn’t muster up the energy or desire to buy anything. He even tried to dangle the credit card in front of my face telling me to grab it and run, but still all I could do was point to an item and tell him that maybe in a few days I “might” want to come back and try it on. For the first time in his life, he was now worried that I was really sick. Never, ever, have I refused to shop…for me! Now he is trying to tempt me with cheesecake and Houston’s Key Lime Pie. All I want to do is come home and lay down. He is beginning to call people telling then he is really worried about me when the doorbell rings. It is the Fed Ex man with packages. He looks back at me and smiles. He realizes that maybe I wasn’t up to shopping or eating some of my favorites, but I still had the energy to shop via computer. TrudyFest might not be the celebrated in the usual way, but it still happened…thank you Amazon for home delivery.

Happy 4th of July to everyone. I am making fried pies to take to a dinner party tonight. But while I wait for the pie crust to chill I thought I would share the story that had us laughing this past week.
Randy’s birthday is July 2nd and this year he received a great present…a new granddaughter, Payton, given to him by Cameron and Mandy. What a sweetheart. She makes up for all the spilled Dr Peppers in the car on the way to Destin (Cameron, I wont mention any names), all the loads of laundry that he used to bring home from college and all the brownies and cookies that I made during those college years. Yep…he is the golden boy right now. Mandy, we are not forgetting you, we are just as appreciative to you as we know that you played a big part in giving us Payton also. We just don’t have anything to throw up in your face. Give us a few years to think of stuff that we can hold against you, since you are the newest member of the family, we will give you a break.
Tuesday, July 1st, Randy came in from retrieving the mail. He walked in the door and held up an envelop and said, “you won’t believe what I just got” He shoved it in my face and pointed out that the return address was listed as “the Duprees”. Both of us just kinda stared at it for a few minutes. Jodi, our daughter, has finally grown up. We couldn’t believe that she actually remembered to mail Randy’s birthday card and he was receiving it one day early. Surely the rapture is on the horizon. For Jodi to remember to buy the card, buy the postage stamp and actually get it to the PO so he would get it in the same month as his actual birthday. Well, let’s just say that we had a moment of silence and just relished the moment. He sat down beside me and tore open the envelop. There it was, a sweet caring card telling Randy how great he was, with all the kids signature. Tears came to our eyes. All those years of harping about being thoughtful, they were finally beginning to catch on. But then our eyes went to the bottom of the card, instead of the printed words saying Happy Birthday, they said, Happy Fathers Day…all we could do was laugh. Had we really truly allowed our selves to go there? That his birthday card would really arrive in the same month as the actual event, much less a day early? Ok, this is what we are used to. He called Jodi and told her that if she would have written “also, Happy Birthday” she could have saved herself the cost of another card and a trip to the PO. We hope to receive his birthday card around Halloween. When he called her, all of us acknowledged that we really couldn’t expect what our minds almost had us believing. So there in the midst of all the birthday cards sits a Fathers Day card…we told her that he will put in aside and keep it for next year as he likes to think that she is just way ahead of next years Fathers Day. But we have to give her some credit, at least he received it in the month that is right next to Father’s Day. She was so proud of that.