Old fogies and other myths

 

When you hear the term “senior citizen” what comes to your mind?

A lot of that will depend on your age.  I’ve heard it described that “middle age” is when you are at the center of the youngest and oldest person you know.  It’s all about perspective.

For those young whippersnappers hearing the moniker “senior citizen” they probably picture someone drooling on themselves while sitting in a wheelchair wearing depends.  At an earlier point in my life that was probably how I viewed growing old.

My views have changed, or matured, if you will.  The earlier images that shaped my perspective of what it was to grow old were based largely on my home community and family in particular.  This is unfortunate because it gave me a false reading of what the situation could be.  Traveling throughout the south and meeting many other seniors, some more senior than me, have forever altered that viewpoint.

In my family to reach your seventies was to be evading death and by the late seventies and earlier eighties all the fight was gone.  These people (who I’m still not convinced I really belong to) were old before their time.  I’ve often had fantasies of being switched at birth or secretly adopted…there’s no way I could have come from this bunch.

During our travels I have met some delightful people who have eliminated any residual fears of aging that I might have had.  There was Lila, a spritely little woman I had the pleasure of meeting at a restaurant in Quartzite.  She was alive, vivacious and full of fun as she pushed ninety years young.

And if the mental state wasn’t encouraging enough, I recently met two ladies aged 71 and 81 who I had the pleasure of playing pickleball with.  Sure, I was ready to go easy on the old gals…but it wasn’t necessary.  They kicked my partner’s and my butts!  Julia has a serve that is almost unstoppable.

This feisty dynamo of 80 plus years is interesting and inspirational.  She is also an Escapee member and lives full time traveling about the country.  She loves to golf and hike as well as beat up pickle ball players much younger than herself. 

 

In addition to the physical side of her life she is politically aware and follows current events far better than I do.  Meeting someone like this and not getting totally buzzed is impossible.

I always figured I’d have maybe another twenty years left of this life on earth and I’d just take it easy and hope for the best.  Now I see that it can be the best years of my life and there’s no reason not to be physically fit and active.

So I want to give thanks to all my new role models out there who have shown me a new direction for the final chapters of my life and proving that the best is yet to come. 

Long Live the Queen of the Seniors

The Temptations

 

What an unexpected treat to see billboards announcing the Temptations would be appearing at the Quechan Casino near our RV park.  I made Left Brain take me there almost as soon as we arrived to buy tickets for this event. 

I’ve loved this group for years and even though the group has changed often over its history and I didn’t know if there were any original members or not, I just had to go and see them.

The casino is about 10 minutes from where we are staying and we tucked the tickets into the glove box and waited for the big day.

It wasn’t until that Friday night a couple of weeks later that we were sitting around the RV reading our Kindles when I realized that it was that night we were to go!  We almost missed it as we drift along our lazy life being unaware of what day it is.

But we made it there with time to spare and that was a good thing considering the traffic and crowd.  It took a while to find a parking spot and maneuver our way through the casino to the conference room where the concert was set up.  Yup, we’re the kind that can walk through all the dinging and blinking and never feel compelled to put money into a machine. I just don’t get the need for this.

The show started at 8:00 pm, which is usually when we’re winding down and thinking about bedtime but there was no feeling tired with all the jazzed up excitement around us.

 

 

The performance was good and it was great to hear all the oldies I love as well as some of their new hits.  Otis Williams is the only remaining member of the original group.  He is currently 72 years old and has been performing with the Temptations now for 50 years.

 

Long Live the Queen of Soul

Peanuts and other crops in Arizona

Yuma grows 90% of leafy vegetables consumed in the US during the winter. That’s pretty obvious when traveling about and seeing large expanses of growing fields, even in the city limits.  At about 7:00 am we wake to the sounds of the air cannons going off that keep away the birds.

 

In our touristy outings in the Yuma area we are learning many interesting factoids.  The most recent educational opportunity came while visiting The Peanut Patch here in Yuma.

I wanted to be nice and early for the 10:00 tour so we showed up at 9:30.  This was good.  Then I found out we were a day too earlier.  This was bad.  But we didn’t give up and returned the next day at the appropriate time.

I really didn’t have any expectations for this tour and figured it would be yet another ploy for selling goods in the gift shop.  Things are always best when you aren’t setting yourself.  It was fun and filled with lots of information.

It gave me an appreciation of how labor intensive this process is.  Due to an epidemic of white flies in California years ago they no longer grow the crops anymore and instead have the peanuts shipped in from southern states.  I always thought of Arizona as a southern state, but we were informed they are a western state, not southern.  I stand corrected!

 We learned there are three kinds of peanuts.  The Virginia peanut is the kind most people think of, in the shells or out and is probably the most common eating peanut.  The runners are the kind you never see in the stores as they are used for making peanut butter.  The Spanish peanuts are used in candy and peanut brittle and can be found on the grocery shelves as well.

Peanuts are a vegetable, since they are legumes and are a rich source of protein, and since they contain no cholesterol they are more beneficial to health than many sources of animal protein.

Peanuts can help lower the risk of heart disease.  A clinical study at Pennsylvania State University shows that diets with peanuts, peanut butter and peanut oil all lowered total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglyceride levels, without lowering the HDL (good) levels.

Peanuts can help you lose weight.  Purdue University did a study finding that peanuts were able to satisfy hunger for up to three hours, a significantly longer period of time than other high-carbohydrate snacks such as a rice cake.

Peanuts contain vitamins and are an excellent source of vitamin E.  They also provide approximately 2 grams of fiber per ounce and have relatively high amounts of copper, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc.  In addition they are very high in protein.  In fact, peanuts provide more protein per ounce than any other legume.

The Peanut Patch provides any type and flavor of peanuts you could possibly desire as well as several other snacks and gifts.  Oh yeah, did I mention they have fudge?  They also provide a machine in the store in case you want to grind your own peanut butter.

 

 

We were allowed to travel through the area where they had spread out the peanut brittle to harden on this huge marble slap.  We were cautioned that if anyone touched, breathed or sneezed on it, they would bag up the 17 pounds of peanut brittle for your purchase.

 

 

I always had it in my head that I did not like peanut butter and almost didn’t take the spoonful they provided as a free taste.  But I was being a good sport and graciously took the offering and prepared to choke it down.  OMG!  I love peanut butter, at least this kind, since it’s real and has no additives or preservatives in it.  It is song worthy.  For those who know me, I have been known to break out in song when something is really tasty.

The tour answered every possible question about each step of the growing and processing steps.  It even cleared up the mystery of those sheep we see from time to time out in the fields.

I loved the way the birds would hop from one to another in search of bugs for their meal

 

It appears not only the people from the north flock to Yuma for the warm weather, but they ship their sheep down with them.  After the crops have been harvested the sheep are brought down from Montana and turned loose to graze on the remains and provide a wonderfully nitrogen rich fertilizer in return.  No need to spread it around, they do that all by themselves.  This is truly a win-win deal.

I had to include the black sheep in the photo, since I was always called that in my family I know how he feels

She further explained that at times they sheep are herded down the streets and you may find your car engulfed by them in the process.  The dogs work to herd them and keep them from going into any of the many canals that crisscross this area.

I couldn't even get them all in the photo without them looking like little white dots

We also learned about the canals during this presentation.  The farmers pay for the water by the cubic foot and then it is diverted to their farmland where they open the gates to release it into the fields.  The price is based on how many cubic feet are needed for the crop and any water purchased after that point is at a higher rate.  It takes more water to grow a field of peanuts than the same sized area grown for citrus.

Well, that’s a longer post than I’d intended to do, but there was just so much information to share.  But, I’m hungry now…I think it’s time for some sourdough toast with a little peanut butter on it.

Long Live the Peanut Queen

Be careful for what you wish for….

I’ve always been a believing that you create a good deal of your own luck by having the proper intentions.  Some would call this the art of manifesting.  It’s a skill I have honed over the years and have benefited from greatly, but only when done properly.

Recently I was lack in my diligence and here’s the story.

The bane or our existence is the lack of good internet.  I would give up my gas oven in place of being able to connect to the Web and so this is what I’ve been trying to divine lately – the Web.

And Web I have been blessed with, just not the internet type.

In searching for some books to read lately I’ve been visiting the library here at the RV resort.  My first one was a sweet book titled ‘Driving Me Crazy’ by Peggy Webb.  It’s about her relationship with a very feisty mother who seemed to resemble the grandmother character in many of Janet Evanovich’s stories.  It was a fun read and there was a recipe for peach cobbler in the beginning that I have in the oven right now to test out.

did it as a triple berry cobbler instead of peaches...the second time - read on,,,
 

 

Left Brain and I have been attending Spanish lessons at the library, a free service they provide, not even a library card is necessary.  I had hoped for a native speaker and was dismayed to find a gringo teaching the class…but tried to keep an open mind.  This turned out to be delightful.  Leroy Webb has a degree in Spanish and taught in Utah until his retirement.  His pronunciation is flawless and he has a warm sense of humor in his class. His father was born in Mexico, but has no Mexican bloodlines.  During the wars with Poncho Villa the family fled to New Mexico and altered his birth certificate to show he was born in New Mexico instead of just Mexico.  Yup, his daddy was an illegal alien.  Did you notice his name was Jethro Webb?

Later, in search of another book to read I picked up a murder mystery by an author that specializes in the South West and various Indian tribes in this area.  I’m really enjoying her writing style and will be finding the earlier books in what appears to be a series.  Oh yeah, her name is Betty Webb.

So even though the internet connection seems to be precarious I am slowly weaning myself away from having to check my email and Facebook more than once a day.  The library is closed on Sunday and Monday so if the Sprint hotspot fails to connect me it just doesn’t happen and I’m finally okay with that.  I feel less and less a need to connect with the internet web and more with my husband and life going on around me.

So I really was blessed with connecting to the Web, only it seems to be spelled Webb instead.  Sometimes you fail to get what you asked for and instead are granted what you need; the beauty is in recognizing this and embracing the lesson.

Oh, the peach cobbler!  Easy and divine, here is the recipe:

Melt one stick of butter in a glass pan – don’t use oleo, you need real honest to good butter here.  In a separate bowl mix one cup sugar, one cup self-rising flour and ¾ cup milk.  Pour this over the melted butter – don’t stir in – just dump it on top.  Scatter one can of sliced peaches, drained, over the batter and butter.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Yum! 

Note:  I tried it the first time with regular flour, didn't see where it would make a difference.  Yikes!  It was awful....it does make a difference.  When I tried it again with the self-rising flour it was fine.  I used a frozen bag of mixed berries - this was really tasty.

Long Live the Queen of Abundance…and peach cobbler

 

Does this sound familiar to you?

$5.37!

That's what the kid behind the counter at   Taco Bell said to me.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out some lint and two dimes and something that used to be a Jolly   Rancher.

Having already handed the kid a five-spot,   I started to head back out to the truck to grab some change when the kid with the Elmo hairdo said the hardest thing anyone has ever said to me.

He said, "It's OK. I'll just give you   the senior citizen discount.”

I turned to see who he was talking to and then heard the sound of change hitting the counter in front of me.

"Only $4.68" he said cheerfully.

I stood there stupefied. I am 56, not even 60 yet?

A mere child!

Senior citizen?

I took my burrito and walked out to the truck wondering what was wrong with  Elmo.

Was he blind?

As I sat in the truck, my blood began to boil.

Old? Me?

I'll show him, I thought.

I opened the door and headed back inside. 

 I strode to the counter, and there he was waiting with a smile.

Before I could say a word, he held up something and jingled it in front of me;

like I could be that easily distracted!

What am I now? A toddler?

"Dude!  Can't get too far without your car keys, eh?"

I stared with utter disdain at the keys. I began to rationalize in my mind! 

"Leaving keys behind hardly makes a man elderly! It could happen to anyone!"

I turned and headed back to the truck. I slipped the key into the ignition, but it wouldn't turn.

What now? I checked my keys and tried another.

Still nothing.

That's when I noticed the purple beads hanging from my rear view mirror.

I had no purple beads hanging from my rear view mirror.

Then, a few other objects came into focus:

The car seat in the back seat.  Happy Meal toys spread all over the floorboard.

A partially eaten dough nut on the dashboard.

Faster than you can say ginkgo biloba, I flew out of the alien vehicle.

Moments later I was speeding out of the parking lot, relieved to finally be leaving this nightmarish stop in my life.

That is when I felt it, deep in the bowels of my stomach: hunger!

My stomach growled and churned, and I reached to grab my burrito, only it was nowhere to be found.

I swung the truck around, gathered my courage, and strode back into the restaurant one final time.

There Elmo stood, draped in youth and black nail polish.

All I could think was, "What is the world coming to?"

All I could say was, "Did I leave my food and drink in here"?

At this point I was ready to ask a Boy Scout to help me back to my vehicle, and then go straight home and apply for Social Security benefits.

Elmo had no clue. I walked back out to the truck, and suddenly a young lad came up and tugged on my jeans to get my attention. He was holding up a drink and a bag.

His mother explained, "I think you left this in my truck by mistake."

I took the food and drink from the little boy and sheepishly apologized.

She offered these kind words:

"It's OK. My grandfather does stuff like this all the time."

All of this is to explain how I got a ticket doing 85 in a 40 mph zone.

Yessss, I was racing some punk kid in a Toyota Prius.

And no, I told the officer, I'm not too old to be driving this fast.

As I walked in the front door, my wife met me halfway down the hall.

I handed her a bag of cold food and a $300 speeding ticket.

I promptly sat in my rocking chair and covered up my legs with a blankey.

The good news was that I had successfully found my way home.

Pass this on to the other "old fogies" on your list (so they can have fun laughing, too).

Notice the larger type?

That's for those of us who have trouble reading.

Long Live the Queen of Confusion