Sunday, February 27, 2011

Circle of Life

Yesterday we met up with some friends of mine whom I haven't seen in about 30 years, a mother and son. It struck me how even though we haven't seen each other since I was a teenager, he was about 7 and his mother was my age it seemed as though the missing years weren't even there. We just talked and enjoyed each other's company the same as if a weekend outing to the Desert Museum was just an ordinary thing. I mean, there were differences of course. For one thing I got to introduce and show off my husband and son whom they had never met. That was wonderful for me because I don't very often get to do that. We had a great and wonderful time and hated to see it end because who knows if we will ever see each other again since we live in Arizona and they live in Ontario. I guess because he and I were still kids when we last saw each other it really struck us how many years have passed and how different things are. My parents are gone, his father/her husband is gone and he is no longer a little guy but rather the living image of his father and my son is older than he was back then. I guess that is the way the circle of life continues--he looks like his father, my son looks like my father and we think about all of them who have gone ahead and the fun times we had. In these ways maybe they live on physically as well as in our minds.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Not Much Going On

Life in our corner of the world has been pretty quiet lately. That's pretty much a good thing. No homework blow-ups. No crazy neighbors downstairs. Well, they fight like cats and dogs and the language is lovely but at least they do it during decent hours and it hasn't expanded into our house. John's in the 4th week of the new schedule and it seems to be working out okay. It will be better when Sean finally has a week where he's in school every day of the week so John's sleep isn't interrupted. This week he has Thursday and Friday off for Rodeo. Looking forward to meeting some friends from Canada this weekend. I haven't seen them in 30 years so I'm really looking forward to showing off my family. I never get to do that. Hopefully the rest of the week will remain calm and relaxed the way it has started.

Hope everyone is having a good week as well.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Pleasant Unexpected Day With My Son

How pathetic is it that when your son wakes up in the morning and neither pair of his jeans fit he has to stay home from school as that is all he has to wear except a ratty pair of sweats? Anyway............That is what happened in our corner of the world today. It actually turned out to be quite a wonderful day. I had him put on said ratty sweats and we headed out the door and let Dad sleep since he had just gotten home from work at 4:30AM and only had about an hour and a half worth of sleep. This is the first time it's just been Sean and I out and about in a long time. Usually he goes with his dad or we all go.

So, we started at Target. We were able to get him two new pair of jeans. My little baby now wears a 32x30 in men's jeans. Of course, the legs are rolled up quite a bit but still...........no more little boy. All of his clothes are from the men's department now. After we paid for them I had him go and change into them so he didn't look like a ragamuffin. We then went to Toys 'R' Overpriced down the street. He was excited to show me the new reset they're doing and we chatted with one of his friends for awhile--the assistant manager. LOL He showed me a plush Lego man he's been wanting but I had him wait in case he found something later in the day. I told him that we could come back and get him if he didn't. So, onward and upwards to the Dinosaur McDonald's for an inexpensive lunch off their value menu. It was quite an enjoyable lunch just sitting and chatting about nothing. That isn't something that happens too often with Sean. After we ate he wanted to hike over to the Target there. I should have said no because since their nursery section is closed we have to go all the way around to the front now. Anyway, we went and had fun poking around in there for awhile. I bought him some colored pencils since he's been needing them and also some fancy Japanese erasers that he collects for some odd reason. After that we had the return hike to the car. Off to Walgreen's to pick up a few things which didn't take long. Then it was forward ho to the mall. (Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand shopping in general and malls in particular?) When we started heading to the mall from the parking lot my lovely left hip decided it didn't want to cooperate and almost dropped me on the ground. That was fun. I have a great son though. He asked if I was okay and when I said it was just my hip acting stupid he put my arm over his shoulders and said we can go slower. He wanted to go to Hot Topic because he had seen an Annoying Orange shirt that he wanted. They are extremely expensive there but we had promised him he could get one new shirt from there. Of course, there was only one left and it was too small. However, Kevin, the nice salesman, ordered it for us and it should be in in just a few days, probably Wednesday of next week. He had fun showing me all of the Gir stuff they have and was pleased to see that they will soon be moving directly across the way to a slightly larger store. After we left Hot Topic he wanted to go to Game Daze. That store is beyond my abilities at the best of times but I went because we were having so much fun looking at stuff and laughing together. We walked in and one of their extremely over-hot lights burst--probably at me darkening the doorstep. LOL Sean started fiddling with something but I couldn't last too long in there so I warned him that there was only about five minutes left before I get how I get. Luckily, he put down whatever it was and left because he didn't want to ruin our nice day. When we left from there we looked at the time and realized that it was already 1:00 so we had to be wrapping it up pretty soon. Out to the car and back down the street to Toys 'R' Overpriced for Mr. Lego Man since he hadn't found anything major anywhere else. Then it was time to wrap up our outing and head home. I was sorry to see the day end. We had so much fun together and he actually said we should go out together more often. He usually prefers to go out with his dad since he and I have a lot of time just the two of us at home while John is at work but I think maybe he realized today that time out together is different than time at home together. Also, it was nice for me to see that while he may be a man as far as the clothing companies are concerned, he's still a little boy. He was holding my hand the whole time when we were walking and he even put his arm around me a few times. It was great having him do that.

Our arrival at home was perfectly timed as well. John woke up at 1:40 and he heard us start across the gravel at 1:43. Also, since school doesn't dismiss until 2:32 Sean had some extra time with his dad before the shower hour. It was win-win all the way around.

The evening so far has continued to be wonderful as well. I have just been invited to play Ninjago with him in a little while. I told him I would give it a try but I don't know how I will be for floor-sitting today (stupid hip) and he actually didn't even pull a face. Hopefully this mood continues. I love peace and tranquillity.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful day as well.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Nice Weekend

I am falling into my old ways of not posting regularly on here. I'll have to work on that. I just hope someone is actually reading any of this.

On Friday we finally got the tax money we were dreaming about. I am writing this on my new blue Toshiba netbook that I had mentioned previously. I really like it so far. It's taking a little bit of getting used to because it's different than Sean's Dell but I think I can manage. *grin* I got it on Friday and until today was using the track pad because we got Seanerized in the store and I forgot to buy a mouse. I do NOT like track pads but after several days using one I can say I am getting better at it.

Yesterday we went up to Chandler to the Lego store as there isn't one here in town. Sean's best friend goes there a lot with his parents and Sean has really been wanting to go. He got some new Ninjago stuff and had a whole lot of fun. It was an interesting trip as we found out that I-10 is now 3-lane for a good distance. It was very nice. As you can probably guess we don't get out of town much. It's been over a year since we've been to Phoenix.

Today John and Sean did a "manly-man" adventure and went shopping. John got a new laptop and a printer. He also got new shoes for work and for everyday. Finally got to retire the boots that have the sole separating from the upper. They also got three new shirts for Sean so he will have enough to go a whole week. He should have had enough because when we sorted them a month ago he said two fit that he has since decided don't. Oh well..........Now he has enough. These new ones should last for quite awhile as they bought them very large as is the style. They also got me a M*A*S*H t-shirt. I haven't tried it on yet but it should be nice and loose for relaxing in.

We don't normally do anything for Valentine's but last night he came home with a rose for me. Then today he got me a small box of chocolates and some Girl Scout cookies. Very nice surprises.

Also, lest you think we haven't done anything practical with the money, we did. We paid off a few things we owed and we got two brand-new tires for the car to replace the two bald ones.

Tomorrow John starts his work-week again and Sean heads back to school. The weekends pass way too quickly. He only works four days though and then he's off again. They're overnights though, except for tomorrow when he only works six and is off at 11PM and home by 11:30.

Not much else going on in our little corner. Hope everyone had a great weekend and will have a good week.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Coldest February 3 In Tucson History

Today has the distinction of being the coldest February 3 on record here in Tucson. While I realize we are not dealing with anything at all in comparison to what those of you in the east are, you also have to realize that our infrastructure is not set up for sub-freezing temperatures. There are many sections of town with no water because the pumps have frozen. There are several sections of town without gas because the towns east of us are using more than usual as they are even colder than we are. Luckily we are okay here at the complex. Our heater is having trouble keeping up with it but we have a space heater which we are sharing between the living room and Sean's room depending on where he is. It normally lives in his room as it is colder in there than it is in the living room. Our house is basically just a big cement block so there is no insulation of any sort. You can see what it looks like in the picture of Sean on the balcony--that's the one across but ours is exactly the same.

In other news, Sean is actually getting a weather day tomorrow. Many of the TUSD schools are closed due to broken water pipes and lack of heat. His is one of them. We are very happy because tomorrow was the last day for Starbase and he didn't want to miss it. He has been sick with a horrible cough for the last two days. He's feeling really puny tonight. As a matter of fact, as I write this he is lying on his bed and unless I miss my guess he is asleep. This is unheard of at 7:55. He is both a night owl and a morning person. Always has been. Never has needed much sleep in direct contrast to his mother who could easily sleep the clock around and then some. LOL

I'm heading off to listen to American Pie as this is the 52nd anniversary of "The day the music died."

Not much else going on in our corner of the world. Everybody stay warm and safe in yours.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Nice Evening

It's always nice to have a peaceful evening around here with no outbursts. After John left for work Sean invited me to play Wii Bowling with him and we had a ball. We played three games and had a really good time. The first game we almost tied. I got 125 and Sean got 122. I found a strike spot during the second game and got five strikes in a row. That game I got a 198 and Sean got 148 which is a new high score for him. The third game Sean's arm was getting tired but he wanted to play anyway. He only got a 98 in that one but I got 218. I've never gotten that high of a bowling score either in reality or virtually. It was a lot of fun. Around 8 o'clock Sean wanted to play a board game so we decided to play Shut the Box. We had a lot of fun with that too. He almost shut the box once. All he had left was the 1 and he rolled a 3. That's the closest we've ever come to shutting it. And just to make it even more fun, in the middle of while we were playing we heard the key in the lock and John stopped in for a little bit. He doesn't get to do that much on this new schedule like he did on the old one so it was quite a treat. Now he's gone until the end of his shift which is 4AM tomorrow. I'm just glad the heat in that truck works really, really well because it is cold out there. It's 30 with a windchill of 23. I know that sounds like a heat wave to those of you back east where the nasty weather is but to us it's COLD. That's about all that's going on in our little corner of the world. I hope everybody is having a good week and staying warm and safe.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The First 12-Hour Shift

John's new schedule started last night. Tonight is his first 12-hour on it. I think the jury is still out on how well it's going to work with just two drivers. They are much busier with the later start and the new hit 15 miles beyond the farthest one they had added into the mix. To quote him they're "runnin' and gunnin'" the whole shift. Quite a change from having nothing to do for the first two hours and then having so much down time that he was able to come home two other times during the shift most nights. It's going to be really strange for me too. He was working overnights for awhile a few months back from 11PM-7AM two nights a week and that was really strange. Now he has three nights where he won't be home until 5AM or 4AM. It's very strange for me when he's not here. It will take me a little while to get used to sleeping without him here. We've been married almost 22 years and minus the weeks I've spent in the hospital over the years we've only been apart the 4 nights when I went to Pennsylvania for my uncle's funeral in 1998. Before Sean went to bed tonight he told me, "Mom, do NOT wait up for Dad. He won't be here until the morning so that would be silly." The boy knows me too well. LOL

Happy February

I realize it's still several weeks before Valentine's Day but I felt this was an appropriate early Valentine to greet the new month. It's something we need to remember all year long, not just at Valentine's Day. May God Bless You All.