Category: Uncategorized

We all joke about our memory or lack thereof and I’m no exception, but I’m pushing 80 and it’s no longer a joking matter.  It’s getting worse.  We watch a lot of TV these days.  Too much, if the truth be known, but we’re not as active as we once were and watching TV doesn’t take a lot of effort.  Well, that is, unless I’m riding my exercise bike in front of the TV, which I don’t remember to do nearly often enough.

I mention TV watching in connection with my memory because it’s gotten to the point where from time to time, I find myself watching something that I’ve already watched.  Generally, I don’t remember it, but Sweetie will call me on it.

We usually have close to 100 hours of interesting programs stored up, so when we sit down to watch TV there is always something that we are interested in, stored there waiting for us to watch it.  Once we’ve watched it, if I remember, I’ll delete it so we won’t get caught watching it again.

My memory travails aren’t limited to TV viewing.  I don’t remember names very well.  I always used to know someone’s face, if I’d met them before, but I couldn’t always put a name to the face.  Nowadays, I often don’t remember the face, or the name.  That can be embarrassing.

We live in a community of 462 condominiums.  I’ve been here a little over 8 years.  You’d think, by now, I’d have gotten to know quite a few of those people.  NOT!  If I’m being optimistic, I could probably match the name to the face of maybe 25 or 30 of them.  I cover for my bad memory by almost always saying “Hi Neighbor,” rather than try to come up with their name.  After all these years, I think some of them are starting to tumble to my methods, but I figure calling them neighbor is better than calling them by the wrong name.

A few years back, we bought one of those Apple Alexa contraptions.  Soon, Sweetie figured out that we could set reminders on Alexa.  Now we use her all the time to remind us of this or that.  We just tell her to set a reminder for whatever day, time and what to remind us of….  “Alexa, set a reminder in 15 minutes to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer.”  “Alexa, set a reminder every Monday at 6PM, Poker Night.”

Later, Sweetie managed to get our computer calendar to be recognized by Alexa and now she tells us about all of those important reminders from our computer calendar too.

Nowadays, we have Alexa remind us of all sorts of things.  With a memory like mine, this modern marvel has become indispensable, I really don’t know what I’d do without it. 

Now, it seems, all I have to remember is to tell Alexa to remind me of all those important things, such as to eat my lunch, brush my teeth, or take a shower.

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #500

About: Marriage
“It’s rare to hear any husband say, ‘I was wrong.’

But you’ll never hear him say,
….‘You were right.’ ”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are both writers. Please check us out… Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Continuing to reminisce about the five-year anniversary of this blog, I offer this repeat performance.  This poem was first posted to this site in September of 2018

I AM
©By: R.L.King

I’ve served my country, my state, my county and town,
wherever there was need,,, I have been found.

I’ve been a politician, a policeman, a fireman and a soldier,
whenever there was burden,,, I’ve lent a shoulder.

There’ve been many ups, and as many downs,
no matter the circumstances, I’ve been around…

…I am Respect

********

I’ve been through marriage, followed by child birth.
Time to time, I’ve questioned my worth.

Death has taken parents, spouses, daughters and sons,
believe me there were times, life just wasn’t much fun.

Often we stumble, as we seek new direction,
yet life goes on as new paths beckon…

…I am Love

********

I’ve traveled the seas, seeking new shores,
fought numerous battles, survived many wars.

I’ve been through the great tsunami, many lives lost
and witnessed Katrina,,,    I know the cost.

I’ve survived the great Chicago fire, riots in Detroit   …and LA,
the stress of cancer   …and oh,,, by-the-way…

 …I am Hope

…My time has come!

…I shall endure

Every since we first lived together, Sweetie and I have always set aside a half hour each afternoon for a little “our time.”   A busy lifestyle often finds you too preoccupied to make time for each other.  Being retired, neither of us were all that busy when we finally got together, but never-the-less, we made a pact that we’d always take that little patch of “our time.” 

We pour ourselves a glass of wine, or as more recently has been the case, a good stiff glass of bourbon, for me, and a well portioned glass of vodka, for her, then we take up residence on the back porch for a half hour of time sharing with each other.  We’ll talk about things like, “What are you reading? Heard any good jokes lately? You think we’re gonna be affected by the storm they’re talking about on the news? Should we lay in extra supplies just in case? Actually, anything that comes to mind might be part of our conversation.

It really doesn’t matter what we talk about, its the fact that we make the time to talk. Every day! We’ve been together for 15 years now and there have been times when we’ve made allowances for bad weather, or illness, but all in all I doubt if we’ve missed more than a couple dozen “Our Times.”

OUR TIME
©By: R.L.King – From the book Memories & Time ©2017

She always keeps me laughing when we’re enjoying our time
and it makes me ever so happy I always get to call her mine.

We will have our time every morning with coffee and a bagel
as we read our morning paper from opposite sides of the table.

Then there’ll be more our time as we head off to the pool
or maybe have a snack on one of our local bar stools.

Every single doctor’s appointment, whether hers or mine
we’ll find a way to turn it into a little more our time.

We always set the appointment to coincide with our lunch,
not that we’re always hungry, we just like eating out a bunch.

And at our afternoon happy hour, which we call our time
we’ll spend a few moments together, sipping some wine.

We’ll have more our time each evening when it’s our time for TV
unless there’s some other place, we might want our time to be.

Whether at home or a restaurant, I come up the winner
when we enjoy more our time, eating that evening’s dinner.

She always keeps me laughing when we’re enjoying our time
and it makes me ever so happy I always get to call her mine.

*********

Gramps use’ta say
R.L.King2012 #251

About: Assertiveness

“If ya ain’t a gittin,,,, yer gettin got.”

********

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please check us out at:   

http://www.amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Kindle versions of most of our books are available at only 99 cents.

I bought my first computer in 2000 or 2001.  Shortly after we got it all set up, my oldest granddaughter, 7-year-old Christy set up a “MY SPACE” page and began communicating with her friends.  Not too long after that, FACEBOOK became the next “big thing” and I was encouraged by her and others to set up a FACEBOOK page.  I learned a little bit about how it worked, and started adding friends.  Before long, I made up my mind that FACEBOOK wasn’t for me.  It just seemed to be really sappy.  I don’t have the slightest interest in knowing who’s out to dinner with whom, where they’re eating, or for that matter what they might be eating, but you had to sort through so much of that sort of foolishness to find anything worthwhile, that I just stopped using it.

I haven’t intentionally gone into that account for at least ten years, probably closer to twenty, but occasionally something will show up on my smart phone (yes, I now have a smart phone) alerting me that something has posted to my account.  So, apparently, I still have a FACEBOOK page and people have attempted to contact me through it.    I’m not very computer savvy, so I’ve never taken the time to delete it, if in fact it even can be deleted.

I’m kinda old school, and I’m very slow to follow the trend, however, we did recently do away with our telephone land line.  By now, anybody that we know would be more likely to call us on our cellphones. About the only calls we were receiving on the land line were the annoying kind.  It was always somebody selling something or one of those robo-calls.  We actually kept it longer than we should have, simply so we’d be able to send or receive a fax.  Now however, my sweetie has become savvy enough to show me how to send anything that I might want to fax, by email instead.

Oh yes, I do still use email, which apparently fewer and fewer people are doing these days. However, with the exception of texting, which I now do my share of, I don’t do social media things such as twitter or Instagram.

It is said that desperation is the mother of invention, and I’m now the proud owner of an iPhone 13 which my sweetie just recently convinced me to acquire.  My old phone didn’t have much storage and it made taking and sending photos very difficult.  My granddaughter, Christy, is now happily married and recently had her first child.  I now have a great grandson.  She’s been sending me lots of photos of the precious little guy and I wanted to keep them, but that old phone just wasn’t cooperating. 

I guess it’s possible that there may be hope for me yet, as I gradually make my way into the 21st century?

********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #547

About: Life’s Lessons

“I’ve built more bridges than I’ve burned,
but each burned bridge was a lesson learned.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are both writers.  Please check us out… Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Recently, my sweetie showed me an article questioning, “how risky is it not to clean lint from your dryer?”  The article (in the St. Lucie News Tribune) was written by Laurence Reisman and it showed photos of some pretty nasty looking clothes dryer exhaust vents, clogged with lint and warning of the fire dangers incumbent with not keeping your vents cleaned properly.

Sweetie was immediately concerned that our dryer needed to be cleaned and she was considering calling the man whom this article seemed to be championing.  He’s a local Port St. Lucie man who has apparently made a business out of cleaning lint from clothes dryers.  We hesitated, because the article indicated that it would cost $150.00 to have him come out to clean it for us.  (Probably cheap, but still enough to make me think maybe I should look into it myself.)

Then, a week or so later, she came across an item on the internet, warning of the same problem, and accompanied by a short video of a dryer exhaust line completely clogged with lint.  That finally got me off my butt to take a look at our clothes dryer.  Fortunately, ours was in great shape.  The exhaust line was completely lint free and after taking the front of the dryer off, I found it in pristine condition as well.

However, our lint filter was a different matter. Even though I always remove the loose lint from it before using the dryer, the screen was packed with lint.  After some quick work with our dust buster, an old toothbrush and some soapy water, I was able to bring it back to something close to the condition it was in when it was new.   Since this clogged filter most likely was affecting the efficiency of our dryer, I expect I’ll be paying closer attention to it in the future.

As it turned out, we really didn’t have much of anything to be concerned about, there was no fire hazard. I will say, however, that we both feel a lot better about having taken the time to check into the situation. 

I recommend that you do the same.  I think you’ll sleep better afterwards; we certainly have.

********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #545

About: Common Sense

 “Never burn a bridge
you’ve yet to cross.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are both writers.  Please check us out… Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler