We have been here since April 19th and in our new house since May 11th. Maybe it’s because we are old and not as easy to adjust to new surroundings, but my goodness, how young would we need to be to adjust to the heat, and yards adorned with nothing but rocks and cacti? Also, we have never seen so many electric scooters, tattoos and folks wearing black socks with white tennis shoes. Apparently they have never been visited by the fashion police.
In spite of the afore mentioned observations, we have to say that we really do feel at home here and are enjoying the casualness and friendliness of our community. This past Wednesday evening we invited a new friend to dinner. She was the lady who we met through Airbnb when we leased her casita behind her house until we could get moved in to our house. We owe so much to Diana. She is the lady who owned her own construction company and sent out her employees to our new place to do most of the work on our house. So I wanted to show her how much we both appreciated her kindness to us. Because I have not really cooked or baked but about 3 times since the first of March when we moved out of our house in Dallas, I guess that my cooking skills took a nosedive (to say the least, more like hit rock bottom). Because I had not cooked in a while or had company over for dinner, I decided to make an old standby, the one pot spaghetti with garlic bread, capresse and baked Parmesan zucchini sticks.
How hard can that be? Diana arrived at 6 and I put out olive tapenade with homemade garlic toast. Since we stil have boxes which we had taken to storage on Saturday, just to get them out of ou sight for a couple of months, things are still missing from my kitchen, like bowls to eat spaghetti from. So Wednesday afternoon, after deciding to make something “safe”, I headed out the door to stores around our neighborhood to see if I could find some bowls. I could not find any of the large flat bowls, other than just round soup bowls. But At Walmart I found a beautiful little turquoise cut glass bowl and matching plate, made by Pioneer women. So deciding to just use my China bowls that evening, I headed home. I washed my new purchases and went on with my cooking. Following the recipe exactly, I began to cook, feeling very prideful that Diana was in for a great evening of Italian food and would probably walk away thinking, “wow, boy can that Texas girl cook!” Well, the spaghetti was in the pot, waiting to be turned on, the bread was buttered with garlic and herbs just waiting to be put in the oven and the capresse was in the fridge. Diana arrives and we visit and show her around the house that her employees had helped us transform. All of us had stood around snacking on the olive tapenade and garlic toasts and visited. It old Diana and Randy to go ahead and sit and I would serve the meal. When I lifted the lid to the spaghetti, it was a pot of mush. I panicked and tried to pick out the noodles which had not turned to mush, but just could not find enough for her, much less all 3 of us. Quickly I apologized and told her that I don’t know what I did, but we just could not eat the pot of mush. Well, at least we had good garlic bread in the oven, but when I went to take it out, it was hard as a rock. What is happening? I grabbed the plate of tapenade and put it on the table and said that we would just have a dinner of capresse and tapenade. The zucchini sticks were also mush and I instantly just threw them out. I have never, in 40 years cooked a meal like that. And for guest, I just was such an embarrassment. Lucky for me, she loves strawberries and I had made fresh strawberry pie with whipped cream. Trying to be fancy, I had saved some of the larger strawberries and dipped them n chocolate to top off each piece of pie. Pulse the strawberries were really tart. She was kind enough to say that she thought it was the end of strawberry season and that was probably why they did not taste very good. I didn’t see the chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge until I was cleaning up after she went home. At least had they been on top, the dessert would have looked pretty. The grandkids ended up eating them the next day. Then tonight, two days later, I got out my new acquired Pioneer woman plate which I had used Wednesday night. I carried it to the table where I had made more garlice bread for our dinner tonight. During the meal, I saw Rany peeling something off that plate. When I looked over, he was removing the Pioneer sticker off of the front of it. WHAT????Had I washed that and used it Wednesday evening with the sticker still on the front of it? I have not been in this town for 2 months and I have already done enough to earn a reputation as being the worst cook from Texas to settle here. It scares me to think what she was really thinking on her way home, “please Lord, don’t even make me go back and eat at their house again.” We may have to move again. I just don’t think I can take the stares of folks that might have talked to Diana that next day. If she ever does come back, I think we will just take her out to eat. It will be much safer for my reputation as a cooking blog contributor.
Old Man In Ojai
Since it is almost Fathers Day this old post came up in my FB memory today! When I Reread it to Randy just now he looked at me and said,”look It’s been 3 years and I’m still using a cane, still eating donuts but in a new place to go exploring”! That’s my hubby! He is always ready to go see what mischief we can get into !
Yesterday we planned a trip to go explore a new place about a 2 hour drive from our house. It is a beautiful little town nestled in the valley just east of Santa Barbara. Friends have told us that we just have to go and see this place, as it is truly a great little place to spend the day. So we had made up our minds that this weekend, we were going to get out of the hustle bustle of schedules and just eat anything we wanted and go explore. So Saturday morning, we got in the car and headed out. I had told Randy to make this an official “exploring, do anything kind of day” we would need to start off pretty soon with some junk food, so we decide to find a Starbucks knowing that we could always munch on their lemon loaf cake and down that…
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Police, DMV & Storage
Since we are once again headed to storage today here in Arizona, this brought back so many memories!
Yesterday didn’t turn out exactly like I had planned. I had studied the DMV handbook until I knew every question that might be ask of me on the written test. It was going to be exciting to tell my kids, who think that ” poor mom can’t remember anything anymore” that I passed my test on the first try. The appointment was at 1:30 so, since I am still the type who likes to get to her tests plenty early, we arrive at 1. When we walk in, I notice that certainly, normal people, such as myself (yes, I do like to think of myself as normal, although I’m sure some of you might disagree) had surely hired someone to take their place to avoid standing in the 3 deep 10 foot long line to tell them I was there for my 1:30 appt. Looking around the huge room, all…
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VBS Is A Life Saver
It is that time of year again, when you see more mini vans circling the church parking lots|
My daughter called this morning on her way home from dropping Caleb, our 3 year old grandson off at Vacation Bible School. I asked her, ‘oh I thought he went last week to VBS” and she politely told me he did, but this was another one. In the sweetest little voice she could muster, she remarked, “mom, don’t judge me”. Now, I began to think that maybe she was just wanting Caleb to have a definite idea of if he might want to be a preacher when he grew up and she was showing him what it would be like to be around the church all day, every day. But before I could begin to quote the Ten Commandments, she told me that she had signed him up for 4 different VBS’s this summer, as a way to keep her sanity. Now, I do admit that Caleb is rather, hum…how…
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SouthernWestern Hospitality
It is time to speak up. During my 60 years of living in Texas, you hear and observe hospitality in many different ways. When we lived in California for about 5 yrs off and on, we discovered that hospitality certainly was alive and well in the neighborhoods where we lived, even though we lived in what was called, “LALA land”. Now that we have moved to Arizona, I just had to write to brag a little bit on the people here. Maybe Randy and I walk around with a sign on our backs which we cannot see that says, “we are old, please help us” because out of the many trips which we have made to Home Depot and Lowes due to the redo of the house we bought, I cannot tell you how many times, we have been approached by men who spot us loading things from the cart to our car, or returning unused boxes of tiles, or boards or cans of paint. Each time, different men have come over to ask if we need help loading or unloading. With a smile on their face. Today, Randy (yes still with the sling on his arm) rode with me to the store. We were getting in our car with a little bag of groceries, which I carried and a very nice man who had parked in front of us, came walking over to ask Randy if he could help him close his car door. Randy graciously thanked him and said, thanks, but he could close it. The gentleman wanted to be sure, so he waited in 103 weather to be sure Randy could indeed close his door before he walked off. He then smiled and waved and left. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Do they not realize that they do not live in the South and they are not suppose to be this friendly? I called Jodi when we got home to ask her if she ever noticed how friendly everyone is here. She said, “isn’t it amazing, Mom? Everywhere you go, even cashiers at the store start up conversations with you.”
I acknowledged that yes, I had noticed that no matter where we are, people just start talking to me. One of the first questions that they ask me is where I am from. I don’t know if it is my Dallas big hair that gives me away as not being a Arizona native or if I do possess just a tad of a southern accent. But we have just been so pleasantly surprised at the genuine conversation which we have seen.
It seems like forever since I have posted a recipe. But that is about to change. Tomorrow, our “stuff” comes. I will have my baking dishes, our silverware, dishes, linens, measuring cups, mixer,canisters, and all my wonderful Paula Deen cookbooks, which I hid underneath some sheets, since Randy had told me that I had to throw out most of my magazines, as he didn’t want to rent a pod just for my recipe books and magazines. So tomorrow, is the day I have waited for for almost 4 months. Wonder what recipe will catch my eye to post? Whatever it is, I bet it will be something cool, as it is suppose to be 115 tomorrow while we are unloading boxes.
Confession time: today we bought a can of whipped cream and prepared chocolate pudding from the gorcery store. Randy could not believe he saw me reach in the case and retrieve store bought, canned whipped cream. I told him that if he ever told anyone, his other arm might somehow become dislocated also. What is a girl to do, when it is so hot outside and she has no mixer or bowls to make her own?
So here is to Arizona, the most friendly southern-western state west of the Mississippi River. We have already fallen in love with the beauty and the hospitality. Randy thinks I just like it here because every day is a good hair day, since no humidity. It would be so nice if I could see my good no humid hair, but it is so dry my contacts are so stuck on my eyeball, I don’t see very well. We have no toll roads here, but the extra cash is being spent on moisturizers and breathable underwear. I have given up worrying about my upper arms showing. The state uniform here is sleeveless everything. Guess self-tanning lotion will be my next purchase. You know what they say, if the cellulite is fat, it doesn’t look as bad. Maybe I will get a tattoo of a giant Hershey Kiss on my upper arm. That should hide the wrinkles pretty well. Folks will just think the chocolate kiss is beginning to melt in this awful heat.
Discoveries, Dislocated Shoulders & Dishes
Since the last blog, May 22nd, there have been quite a few lessons learned. We have discovered where the nearest Hospital in Mesa is located, we can eat for weeks out of paper plates and…Randy dislocating his shoulder with 2 fractures will not slow us down, ok, maybe a tiny bit, but he has learned that there are truly some things that cannot be done with just having one arm. He has learned that it does humble you quite a bit to have to depend on others to dress you, cut up meat, drive (which made me feel like my mom because she always drove since riding with my dad driving scared us to death), and some other things which I will not write about right now. All of this to say, both of us have had to repeat several different times, “for better or for worse” “in sickness and in health” to remind ourselves that marriage isn’t just about fun and games, which of course, we would like to think. There have been times this past 8 days which I had to remember that love is a choice, not a feeling, as some of the feelings which I was having certainly was not one of love (like all the multiple times he had to wake me up to go get meds or help him up or down). It is these times which we want to remember that we did indeed repeat in front of God and a preacher, words of love and affirmation, declaring our love “till death do us part”. Yes, there have been maybe one, ok, ok, maybe 2, no 3, ok, maybe 4 times these past 8 days, 7 hours and 36 minutes which tested my sincerity of those words. In the scheme of things, we both know that this temporary set back of having only one arm for the next 4-6 weeks is certainly nothing compared to what others have to deal with. And that is good for us to remember, that sometimes things like this make us more aware of what some experience on a permanent basis.
Because we have had to postpone our trip to Italy until further notice, we have to think that sometimes, things like this happen for our good. To not look at it as a negative, but see it for what it might be. God’s Hand of protection over us. As we sat last night watching the news and saw that Italy is now on the list of places which they are warning Americans not to visit until further notice, we both looked at each other and began to consider that, as we both pray and ask God to lead and guide us according to His will and timing, maybe Randy’s accident was something that was meant for our good and protection. Wen we discussed this last night, he looked at me and said, “well, I wonder why it had to be me and not you that dislocated their shoulder”? I’m sure it was the meds speaking and not really him. Life sometimes throws us certain little bends in the road which, even though we would never choos to have them, end up teaching us that even though “our ways are not Gods ways”, those bends seem to have lessons in them. Lessons, which, if we accept and not fight them, bring us closer to Him in our walk of faith.
Randy has had to learn to sit back and accept that he has had to humble himself to let me do things for him. I have had to learn that every day cannot be all fun and games. We have both learned that there can be laughter even on the bad days. We both were wanting something sweet, so we headed to Paradise Bakery, which is right around the corner. Randy gave me his order of 2 sugar cookies and an iced tea. I returned to the car with just cookies in a bag. When he ask me where the tea was, I had to tell him that I just could not pay $2.50 for iced tea when I knew I could get it at McDonald’s around the corner for $1. He looked at me and said,”oh my gosh, you are turning into me”. He was right, the old me would have never thought anything about paying $2.50 for tea and would have just bought it to keep from going to another place, but this new retired me, just could not bring herself to pay that much. You have to understand that I always have tea made and either cookies, pies or cake made, but since our dishes, linens and boxes of all of our stuff will not be delivered until this Friday, we have not baked anything since our stove and fridge was just delivered a few days ago. But because of the accident to his arm, the pod which had at least our furniture in it was delivered. Jodi and I hauled one of the beds inside, some chairs and a table so Randy didn’t have to sit in a lawn chair. We also knew that he would never be able to get up or down off the air mattress which we had been sleeping on. So lessons which I have learned since his accident are:
1. I can muster myself around Hom Depot and Lowes and actually learned to saw baseboards in half, load them through the the sun roof of our car.
2. I can paint rooms, remove kitchen tile and unload furniture like a pro.
3. We can live without cable TV, HGTV and water in the kitchen.
4. I have learned that people in pain have a much better disposition after you give them pain meds.
5. That to be woke up several times a night is better on young moms than grouchy old ladies like myself.
Life lessons come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe by the next lessons to be learned his shoulder will have healed and we at least have homemade cookies baked and tea in the fridge. That will make it all better, I’m sure.
Camping Out In The City
We have been in our house for 12 days. If I remember correctly from all the Bible Studies I have done, I remember that the number 12 (in Hebrew) meant “complete”. But in Mesa, apparently it just means, 3 more nights until we are out of the air mattress And into a bed. After these 12 days of having nothing but 2 borrowed lawn chairs to sit it, we have discovered how comfortable car seats really are. We go driving around just to sit in something besides the lawn chairs. We have also learned that around these many over 55 communities, couples have cards made with both of their names, their emails, phone numbers and last but not least, the couples picture. So Randy and I have been trying to come up with what our “business” card would say. We are thinking something like
Rickey & Trixie is our names, Bingo & Chicken Foot is our game!
Randy thinks we still need to work on it a bit. In the spirit of camping out, since our stuff isn’t here yet, we have been using plastic silver wear and paper plates. on Friday, because they delivered the stove top, we were so excited that we went and bought eggs and bacon and gave us a whole new reason for jumping off the air mattress Saturday morning. As I was using a sharp car key to open the bacon, I get my brand new Paula Deen skillet out that Amazon just delivered on Thursday, and began to fry the bacon. It dawned on me at that moment that I still had no toaster, but we wanted toast to go with our bacon and eggs. Well, they don’t call me little miss Pioneer Princess for nothing. I just got my other new Paula Deen skillet out, buttered the bread and proceeded to fry our toast. As the bacon began to cook on one side, I got the plastic fork out and began to turn it over to the other side. It would not turn over. As I began to get frustrated, I looked at my plastic fork and discovered that it had melted in the hot bacon grease. Well, it doesn’t take me more than 2 slices of bacon to learn that you cannot use plastic table wear for cooking utensils. I learned that if you use one fork to turn each slice of bacon, it does NOT melt. Bends a little, but it didn’t melt. I was planning on having fried eggs, but remembered that I had no way to turn the eggs, so we had scrambled. Note to self, Do not keep the plastic spoon in the eggs as they cook, as melted plastic does not taste very good with eggs.
As of Saturday afternoon, the plumber came to take the sink out so we have had no water in the kitchen. But for one morning, we had a home cooked meal, melted plastic and all. Was mighty good.
We have made a list of “friends” who have actually called or emailed us and told us they wish they could be a fly on the wall just to see us getting up off the air mattres in the mornings. Those so called “friends” will not be getting one of Trixie & Rickes new business cards, much less a Christmas Card. We want all of you to know that we have mastered getting off of the mattress very well, thank you. All you have to do is roll back a little two or three times, with your feet firmly planted on the floor, and then using your hands, push yourself up on the last roll. There have been only a hand full of times, when either of us have had to actually roll over on the floor on our hands and knees and pushing on the side of the mattress, push ourselves up.
When we were staying at the casita for the couple of weeks before moving in to our own place, the owner (and now new friend) told us about a drink that she had every evening when she came home from work. she invited us in one night and made us the most refreshing drink. She put 3/4 cup soda water, 1/4 cup organic apple juice and grated fresh ginger. Put it in a blender and pour over ice. It is so good. Randy and I have been drinking ever since. Also because of the grated ginger, it is very good for tummy aches. Plus, after the stress filled morning of picking out melted plastic our of the scrambled eggs, the drink settled my nerves.
We are already settling in, in spite of no furniture. Both of us have talked about how little we have had, the last few weeks but have still felt at home. It Has shown us that so much of what we have is probably unnecessary, but we realize how spoiled we are to all the “extras” that we have gotten so use to. Extras like, more than one towel, real silver wear, a refrigerator in the house and a television that you don’t need a magnifying glass to see. But by the end of this week, life will be returning to normal with all of our ‘extras” arriving on Wedneday. We will feel like we are living the American Dream, having a real bed to sleep in and a couch. Ah…..the good life!
Dumpster Diva
We have quite a few things to learn about living in an over 55 community. This morning was one for the history books. We woke up feeling so “at home” in our new place, even though we do not get our furniture until the 24th. But we have grown accustomed to our borrowed lawn chairs and our air mattress which is, truth be told, not so bad. We keep telling ourselves as long as we are able to actually get up off the air mattress, it means that we are still spry young things that are still up for adventure. We haven’t once had to bounce up to get off, or even rock back and forth to get a jump on standing up from the mattress.
Last evening we went out for our first social. Four couples and ourselves had dinner at one of the couples homes and then went to listen to a band play oldies, following by standing outside during intermission at the Moustache Pretzzel food truck in 108 degrees to get a hot pretzel. Nothing is better in 108 degree weather than a eating a hot pretzel. But, like Randy says, the tickets were a gift so he told me I cannot complain. It was fun seeing old timers and young timers (such as ourselves) trying to shake, rattle and roll, while watching parts of your body take longer to stop shaking and rattling or rolling than other parts. But, we saw a couple who we had met at Starbucks a couple of weeks ago, out on the dance floor. Felt good to see some people that we already knew. We ended up exchanging numbers so we could get in touch when we got settled.
That takes us to this morning. We hurriedly woke up at 5:45 to shower and get dressed as workers were coming over at 7 to take a soaking tub out of the master bath. So I showered, used the curling iron, put my makeup on, so the men would not get freaked out by my “natural beauty”. Since we were ready in plenty of time, Mr. I Have A Great Idea, says, “let’s take the golf cart and load up some of this bulky trash the previous owners left in the storage shed and haul it back to the bulk trash area”. Well, you don’t have to ask me twice to go riding on the golf cart, (in case you missed the announcement, the cart’s name is Wally). So feeling so prim and proper with my earrings on and my makeup freshly applied, (after all, you do not want to get caught out without earrings, what would my little southern Junior Leaguers say) we load up the back of the cart not and head over to the bulk trash area. For some reason, I turned around before walking out the door (actually I do know the reason; I never, never leave home without my phone because yes, my name is Trudy and I am a phone addict). when we get there the sliding door to the trash area is open as a gentleman is just leaving so we figure that maybe the door is open during the day. So we pull Wally into the trash area and proceed to unload boxes of trash. As we are climbing up the inclined walkway up to the top to drop over the last of the boxes, we hear a sound and look over. The gate door has closed and we are now closed in the bulk trash area behind walls that are about 10′ tall. We just look at each other and I said, “well, at least when we are rescued, I will have earrings on.” We see a security pad over to the side and realize that there must be a code to open the big doors. But, we neither knew what code it might be. Randy said, I don’t have my phone to call anyone, I guess we just sit here and wait until someone comes and opens it so we can get out. In my mind, I have already begun to plan an escape. I was already thinking that if he could help me get on top of the golf cart, I could possibly hoist myself up on top of the 10′ wall and yell at a passerby who has lived here longer than 3 days, who would know the code to let us out. Before I began my ascent to the top of the golf cart, with makeup already melting and running in my eyes, I looked over and saw that I had indeed brought my phone. We called our security guard and told him that we were stuck in the bulk trash area and couldn’t get out. After he quit his snickering, he quickly told me the code to push and we drove ourselves out. By the time we drove back up to our house, I had no make up on to speak of, my hair looked like I had slept in it and we both, well, let’s just say that we have smelled better.
Lesson learned: I might leave home without my American Express card, but I will never, no never,leave home without my phone or my earrings. One never knows when I might need to be rescued and if I am ever on TV I want to have my earrings on.
Home Sweet Home
Last night was the first night in our new place. Of course, we are still without furniture, but thank the Lord, air mattresses have come along way since we first “”camped out” in a new house before furniture is delivered. We are the proud owners of a house in an over 55 community. We like to think of ourselves as being one of the “”youngsters who will bring down the average age of the community”. In reaiity, I have already seen some who make me look like the matriarch, guess I had better catch up on the latest plastic surgery technology. Some of the women here are walking around with frozen smiles,due to the amount of Botox on their faces, with eyes that look like they couldn’t
Close if they had to. But, this little Southern girl is going to let my hair blow in the breeze, as we drive our cute little golf cart around, allowing the wrinkles around my eyes to flap in the wind, just like the wrinkles in my neck.
Yes, we got a golf cart and named it Wally. I told Randy that since he had let me name all our cars in the past,with girl names, I would let him have this one and he came up with Wally. I liked some of the suggestions I had shared with him, such as Tad, or Oliver, but he just rolled his eyes and said, it’s name is Wally, no more discussion. So as soon as Wally arrives this afternoon, we will be on our first little trip around the community. It is street legal, so we will probably drive it out the gate and over to Starbucks. This opens up a whole new world to us. We have already been invited to our first social here in the community tomorrow night to go with 5 other couples to dinner and an oldies concert. (I’m not sure if we are the oldies who will be singing or if they have a group that will be singing songs from the past, guess we will find that out tomorrow night.) Then Tues evening, we are invited to go to Bible Study which is led by a pastor who comes here every Tuesdy night.
Everyone has been texting or calling and asking how the move is going. We so appreciate everyone who has been keeping tabs on us these past two months, as we zigzagged our way across the county. Since I haven’t had a stove or oven for 2 months, I have not cooked. That will be the first thing I do next Wednesday when our appliances are delivered. Randy will think he has died and gone to Heaven when I set something other than microwave mac & cheese in front of him.
There have been so many times these last two months of how God has showed His faithfulness to us. One Story I just have to share is this. We had set a budget for how much we wanted to spend remodeling the new place. We had a certain amount set aside for all new flooring. Two or three bids were as much as $5000 over what we had felt we should spend on floors. Wanting to be good stewards of God’s money, we had obtained several bids. Each one high then the last bid. We have been staying in an Airbnb for the last 3 weeks, close to our new place so we could go back and forth. The casita where we were staying is behind the large house of a dear lady who owns her own construction business. when we were sitting outside visiting with her one evening, werelayed that we were having trouble finding someone to purchase floors from,with installation, at a decent price, Diana says, “Trudy, remember I told you that I have my own construction company. Let me send one of the guys out to look at the house and give you a bid.” He came yesterday, called last night and his bid was $5 under the budget we had set aside for floors. He has been installing floors since 1969 and is sending his men out Monday to install the new flooring. All this to say, that we have felt God’s provision and faithfulness in not only leading us here, but who else but God would provide a casita, owned by a women who had her own construction company. She is also being so kind to send one of her guys out to remove the tub from the master bath.
Randy picked up some money a man had dropped the other day, and as we were sitting there enjoying our coffee, the man stops by our table and gives Randy a Starbucks gift card to tell him thanks for picking up his money and returning it to him. We have had strangers stop 3 times, offering to help us load large boxes into our car in the Home Depot parking lot. So yes, we are embracing the kindness which we know is a gift from the Lord. From our air mattress each night, we will continue to stop and thank God for the blessings He pours on us daily. This is truly becoming Home Sweet Home, very quickly.
MotorSpeedway in Mesa
This morning was really our first “normal” day of being by ourselves since moving here last Thursday. Because we are now staying in a casita until we can get in our new place, we ventured out to go get a few things at the neighborhood Walmart. We have discovered that there are quite a few (ok, maybe more like: DOES ANYHONE LIVE HERE THAT IS UNDER 80?) old folks. Fine, I got that off my chest. So we get out of the car in the parking lot and we begin to dodge the most aggressive blue hairs in their motored scooters. We made our way inside the store only to be greeted by the youngest Walmart Greeter we have ever seen. He could not have been more than 20 and was dancing a jig. When he saw us, he really broke out in a dance routine as we went up to him to tell him how fun it was to see someone enjoying their job. he finally spoke up to say welcome and we ask him if we were the only ones in the store without a scooter. He began to laugh and tell us that we probably were the only ones. I had been warned that the oldies, when behind the wheel of a scooter, became aggressive and deserving of being the first in line. That warning was not unfounded. It became apparent to both Randy and I that in order to not look like an outsider, we would be having to get us our own scooter. He informed me that if I would just buy a pair of gold tennis shoes and a jogging suit I would look like I belonged. We both decided that unless we are truly crippled, we would do everything possible not to ever ride around the store in a scooter. We just do not have the aggressive temperament to drive one.
This past couple of weeks,I have learned a few things about Randy that has me a little worried about this new season. As we were driving to Arizona from Texas we stopped in Midland for lunch. Because we had Whataburger for breakfast we found a barbeque place so we parked and went inside. We got in line to order and looked up and noticed on the sign that there was a $8.50 minimum for each person. Randy looked at me and said, “don’t you think that is a lot to spend for lunch, as that is just the meat and we would still have to buy our drinks and sides? Why don’t we just go across the parking lot to Whataburger and order a hamburger and get some barbeque sauce to put on it?” Seriously, really? But that’s exactly what we did. The very next day we stopped at McDonalds for tea and Mr. COM (crotchety old man, his new name since he retired.) decides he wants an ice cream cone. Our purchase comes to $1.71. Mr. CoM pulls out his pocket full of change and proceeds to count out $1.71. Now I know that this doesn’t sound like a big deal but when I reenacted the scene for our kids, they were rolling on the floor. Let’s just say that the high school kid behind the counter waiting for the money grew a beard while waiting for the money. After the first 5 Minutes of waiting for him to count out the money, I was so embarrassed that I walked away to escape the scathing stares from the folks in line behind him. I can tell you that his ice cream cone was half melted by the time the clerk handed it to him. I made him eat it in the car so we did’t have people looking at us like we were just more old people moving into the million “over 55 communities”here.
Note to self: to avoid looking like we are just another retiree couple, we will never ride a scooter, we will always just buy with bills, instead of change,and never wear black knee socks. Never wear a jogging suit and never dye my hair blue. Purple maybe but never blue!
