What do you recommend? Books, Exercise Programs and Opinions

First of all, I need to tell you that I am in "password" hell. ( I debated if I should put that word in...it is the only one that fits) I am very good at making new ones up and then immediately forgetting them. I need help to simplify my life.

Any ideas?

A very young me...I had opinions even back then.

Since I love to read and had surgery on my eyelids so I could actually do that, I go through books at the speed of light. 

Any suggestions?

Last spring a friends suggest...no insisted that I begin exercising. I began and have continued through out the summer using Grow Young Fitness. It is wonderful and I will probably keep it up. But it costs me $30 a month. 

What do you suggest for someone that does not want to or can't afford that much?

My family often says out-loud that I have a lot of opinions. For example, I am not in favor of "abortions of convenience". I do, however, think that every woman should have birth control available to them at very little or no cost.

Do you have an opinion that you would like to share?

Let me know...!

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Hiding Your Light Under a Basket...Good Trouble is Good

Hiding Your Light Under a Basket...I wrote this post earlier this summer. It was all about standing for something and giving up the notion that we need to be invisible in order to live in our neighborhood or in our circle of friends. I had decided that enough was enough. If those round me could not accept what I believed, that was a problem they would have to deal with. 

So...I bought a sign! One of my neighbors had one that I admired. She ordered it for me and I paid $10. The sign was printed on both sides so if I put it in my front yard, people could see it both coming and going. It was intentionally designed.

When our's arrived, we put it up on the wall in the entry part of the outside of our house. You could not see it from the street because, well, I may not be as brave as I want to be. My husband and I agreed that we just wanted people that came into our home to understand what we were all about. We did not want to influence or offend other people.

Can you guess what happened next? If you are part of a HOA you will know exactly. We were one of three couples that embraced the idea. As a result all three of us were asked to removed the sign that said: 

IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE 

• BLACK LIVES MATTER 
• WOMEN'S RIGHTS = HUMAN RIGHTS
• NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL
• SCIENCE IS REAL
• LOVE IS LOVE 
• DIVERSITY MAKES US STRONGER 
• INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE

As you can imagine we were not a happy neighborhood for a few days. The camps divided up into for or against. THEN a meeting was called for everyone in the neighbor and we gathered in our gazebo area. There was a very large crowd and those of us that were sent the letter spoke to the group. It was not a matter of changing any thing. It was just a matter of having our say. Nothing much changed and we all agreed that no signs would go up.

Here's the thing that is really sad...we have always had signs up. When Easter came around, those that were church attenders put signs up given them by their church. Season's greetings were posted on almost every house. It appears that now that is not going to happen because of that sign that we posted. I am still confused and sad. Had I just continued to hide my light under a basket everything would be just fine.

It is the power of words that are the most fearsome. All of the statements in the sign could be interpreted in several ways. For example, I do believe that we have to stop systemic racism if we are ever to live in peace...black, brown, eye shape, belief systems matter. Women's rights do not necessarily lead straight to abortion nor is love is love totally about lesbian/gay choices. But, the idea is there and people in a 55+ neighborhood are not ready to embrace the concepts let alone let people like me express them. 

So, we took down our sign and in a letter to the board we expressed a desire to be treated with respect even though we do no stay in step with the rest. We all learned that a sign is not a sign and nothing more. It carries a message. We just won't do that anymore...none of us.

As for my basket and my light...we are doing fine. A new day is coming tomorrow and the day after. Hopefully, during 2020 we have all learned that freedom is very fragile and even though we may get in trouble, the good trouble John Lewis wrote about, we are right to stand up. As he said, freedom is an act not a state of mind. I am glad we did what we did.

Has anyone else put up one of these signs?

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I Saw It In Print...Goods Books on the Cheap

 I have some books that I would recommend to everyone. This my friends is a whole new list and very different in many ways than any other I have listed in the past. Because I am addicted to mystery stories, you will find some of those. Even the ones that are not so masculine have appealed to my husband so I am saying that, who ever you are, you will like these:

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty This is a delightful mystery story about kindergarten moms and an ending that will catch you totally off guard. It is funny but gripping. This was recommended by a neighbor that contributes to my library exchange box back home. *****

The Story of Authur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg This recommendation came from a very good friend. She was in the process of rereading Berg's books so I thought they much be worth a try, I have read three now. Each one was very different and equally as wonderful. Open House was an Oprah pick so there is that. I also read The Confession Club...each one of these is better than the last! My husband read The Story of Authur Truluv and we laugh together over that one. *****

my grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrick Backman. This is the same author if A MAN CALLED OVE. Backman has a unique style of writing that never disappoints. Funny with some pathos...the perfect combination of both. *****+

Amazon Kindle Unlimited Cozy Mysteries  This has been a very long year for all of us. Libraries were not as easy to approach as they once were. My solution was to begin reading free books from my Kindle Unlimited account. This is a link to some free but most very inexpensive quick reads...some one evening. I was entertained and not one of these books were written badly. In fact, I only stopped short of the end in a few...and if they were free what was the harm. If you aren't doing this, you really should give it a shot.

A Lesson in Dying (Inspector Ramsay series Book 1)  by Ann Cleeves ($4.99 on Kindle) I know we all love the Vera Stanhope Series on our Prime Video account. Now an Ann Cleeves books is very expensive. BUT, back before she was famous, she wrote some very good mysteries. The Inspector Ramsay Series are some that came after her beginner days. They are very good, cheap and available on your Kindle...give them a shot. I think you will like them.

Now in the meantime, because I have at least three books going at the same time, there are books that I read only a chapter of when I have a few minutes to fill.

Anything that Malcolm Gladwell writes...What the Dog Saw is my current book but I have also read The Tipping Point, Blink, The Outliers and Talking to Strangers. In the conversations with the author in What the Dog Saw the interviewer said, "[Gladwell's] clear prose and knack of upending conventional wisdom across the social sciences have made [his books]...into must reads." I never tire of the readable books and best of all, the connections that Gladwell finds between things like rocks as outliers and their human counterparts. *****

Doris Kearns Goodwin...anything at all. I am currently reading Team of Rivals but I have also read  No Ordinary Time, a book about the White House during WWII. I become to personally involved with these books. I only read a few pages at night before I sleep because I need to digest the story and words. I laid Team of Rivals down for a while because I couldn't read about McClellan ( the general ) any more. He made me mad. These books may take me almost a year to read. I love them. *****

I have to admit that I don't read with any single purpose. It is all about being entertained while learning a little here and there. What I would really like to do is walk and shop and socialize with parties and people. But in this day and age, it is not all as possible as it once was. So, this year, I have read more than I have in my whole life. It turns out that it is a good thing.

What have you read that you like?

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Do Your Eye's Feel Naked

 Note: I always wear the mask in public because it protects YOU from me. I hope you will do the same to keep me safe.

This bit about wearing a mask is just plain weird. I have traveled to the Middle East where women wear "veils" when they are in public. In many of those cultures woman have always covered their face. 

I have noticed that a woman's beauty cannot be hidden even in those circumstances. Their beauty remains in their eyes and their elegant hands. I think that in many ways those veils not only protected them from the sun but also from blowing wind as well as too much attention. While the veil in itself is lovely, the eyes that appear above the cover are simply gorgeous.

So, when I began wearing a mask in public all of the time, I began to see why those women valued the appearance of their eyes. 

It is a loss of identity that bothers me. Learning to smile with our eyes and a head position takes training and attention. In fact, even my voice is muffled. It is as though humans as we know them are invisible.

How does wearing a mask make you feel? Do you feel safer or do you feel smothered?

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Chronical of Life: The 5 Longest Days

I was in the classroom: 
JFK assassination. Friday, November 22, 1963, at 
12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas

It seems only right that here on my blog I express how it feels to live through the 5 longest days. Five is a round number in this particular case...not specified because of the influence those very few days will have on the rest of your life.

This past week I was feeling a deep pit of despair...could our country really be ruled (not led) for 4 more years like it has been for the past 4? I am 79 officially and it seemed as though that might be impossible. See, if my husband and I were younger we might have left this country for most of the time. But not now...we would probably be left to just endure, endure, endure.

I wondered...was this the worst five day or was it? 

I had to admit that it really wasn't, not at all. 

For those that are younger than I, there are been many, many 5 days...over and over. The ones that come so easily to my mind is the five days, months and even years that followed President Kennedy's assassination. It was a very dark time and the era had started with so much hope for a life beyond WWII. I hoped for an end to a time of racial discrimination like nothing this present generation had ever seen. Kennedy was working for that. He asked young people to serve their country and they signed up for the Pease Corp. We were headed to the moon and our space program began. The list goes on.

The week following his death, the funeral procession that simply broke your heart and the loss of that bright shining moment in time simply sucked the life out of this country. 

The saddest part is that those people that killed him went on to kill his brother Bobby and Martin Luther King. 

Those like me could only think "when will this end".

I know that these five days are not over...Donald Trump is not going away easily...but there is a chance that we can heal, recover and become civil again. Keep your fingers crossed!

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