Random 5 for August 12 – Trips, home, health, tomatoes, seasons

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At the ELO concert!

A quick trip – The beloved husband took a quick trip to Denver to see his kids and attend an ELO concert. He had a great time. Sometimes it’s the short trips that are the most fun (except for the flying part!).

Grateful for home – The weekend before his quick trip we had been on a weekend trip to visit friends. I can say that I’m glad the travel is done. It was hectic. Laundry from one trip was still warm while being packed for the next trip. It was all fun but I also love home and routine. Maybe I need more space between events.

Be grateful for now! – This past week I ran into some old friends. The husband was on a walker and doing very poorly with it. He was very unsteady. I greeted him and he recognized me but didn’t respond. He gave me a goofy smile (goofy as in he couldn’t make his mouth work). His wife was guiding him from behind and saw me. I was with another group of people so I could ask what the heck happened but it was a shocker. This guy was very fit. He was a runner, completing the Boston Marathon among others. He is only two years older than the beloved husband. It was a reminder to be grateful of what we have because next year could be very different.

Umm…that won’t affect your tuna can opening skills, will it?

‘mater season! – We are at the peak of tomato season here so I did the most foolish thing I could do. I burned the roof of my mouth. I don’t even know how I did it but it sure hurts. It hurts the worst with anything acidic, like tomatoes. Boogers.

Season changing – We are getting to the end of summer. The changes are subtle but they are there. The temperatures are still in the upper 80s bumping 90 but the nights are cooling off. The locusts are finishing their singing with the crickets picking up where they ended. One of our big festivals is ending and another is starting in a week. Our local baseball team has ended their season. People are still on vacation but all the ads are for school stuff. The older I get the faster time goes.

So how was your week?

57 thoughts on “Random 5 for August 12 – Trips, home, health, tomatoes, seasons”

  2. Sorry about your friend, Kate. One of the things that has made us do some serious thinking is everyday living here. Lots of people dealing with the ravages of old age and it’s really visible. Don’t know how much we thought about that when we moved to this more mature area. But I have to say one thing… they are out doing their thing no matter what! Glad your husband got to hear ELO!

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    • I walk in the early morning at an indoor mall. Everyone is retirement age from 60s to 90s. There is one woman who is around 92 and you wouldn’t know yet there are some on walkers. I’m always conscious of how lucky I am even when I have some minor ailments.

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  3. What a great concert to attend! I would have loved to see ELO! How nice for your husband to have had this opportunity with his children. And you stayed home and burned your mouth. What a disappointment right at the height of tomato season. It’s interesting how the seasons change and can almost sneak up on us. I’m beginning to see some little signs of fall beginning to creep in. Very subtle, but hopeful. 🙂

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    • This summer will go down as one of the rainiest and most obnoxious of them all. Even my tomato plants are struggling with all the water (and they like water!). I’m also hopeful that fall will bring some better (and drier) weather. I am grateful for good health (mostly except for my mouth). My husband’s trip was short but fabulous!

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  4. It’s been hot here… and September and October can be even hotter. Fortunately, we don’t have the humidity levels that you have. Sorry about the roof of your mouth! If you need someone to take your extra home grown tomatoes off your hands, let me know. We were traveling during planting season so we have to rely on the kindness of others for our ‘maters.

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  5. I’ve been thinking about how this summer is slowly morphing into fall. Some years it just happens, but this year it seems like I’m seeing it happen. Am I being more observant? I can imagine how odd/difficult it was for you to see your friend’s husband in decline. It can be quite a wake-up call. A good one, I suppose.

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    • We have had too much rain this summer. It is again pouring today and tomorrow too. Too little time to do the outdoor things I like to do. We hadn’t seen our friends (and they were casual, not close friends) in years so it was a shock. It’s like when you see a classmate from school and they look so OLD! I expect them to look like they did at 18!

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  6. Glad he had such a good time – ELO seems like they would be a fun band to see 🙂 Sorry to hear about your friend! It’s always a shock when things happen to people you know. You are right that it’s important to be grateful for what we have while we have it. Excellent reminder! Also, hope your mouth heals up quickly so you can enjoy your tomatoes 🙂

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  8. It seems that after 4th of July it is all downhill toward Fall. I’ve noticed the sun getting up later and going to bed earlier and all of a sudden it is a noticeable change for that. I liked ELO and remember them That is a somber note about your friend, especially being so healthy and running the Boston Marathon which you must be very fit to qualify for such a rigorous course. Life is so precarious sometimes. I smiled at the photo with the caption about opening a can of tuna … all about me … me, me, me sometimes. 🙂

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      • Yes, especially this year as Spring and Summer were such a disappointment. Three weeks of non-rainy weekends in a row has to be a record this Summer. They called for thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday and nothing happened. I was glad and glad if rain happens overnight and not in the a.m. to mess up my walk. (I know, selfish of me.)

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  10. I almost felt your pain with the burned mouth. I used to visit my parents every summer, and my dad grew BIG tomatoes. His goal was to grow them big enough that one slice would cover a piece of bread. I ate tomatoes twice a day, and the acid ate away the first few layers of the roof of my mouth. Every year I flew home, nursing my sore mouth, and didn’t eat another tomato sandwich until the following year.

    I feel sorry for your old friends. We watched a dear neighbor die of COPD, and now another neighbor has hit a big health snag. We are waiting for a diagnosis, hoping he can be patched up. Meanwhile, it was lovely to see the BH with his daughters at the concert. Marvelous!

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  11. Mindful gratitude is a positive endeavor, especially as we get older. Every day is a gift so it’s important not to squander it. Hope Denver treated your hubs well when he was here. I miss the ELO concert…bummer. Always enjoyed that group. Enjoy the upcoming week; hopefully the ‘maters will still be savory once your mouth heals. 🍅

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  14. I guess I always think that the end of summer is when school starts. It never mattered what date was on the calendar, if school had started, summer had ended. And now that I don’t have school to look forward too, summer seems to fly by. But, winter is so long and slow. Must be the cold, because when I am cold, I am much slower too! I need the heat to keep the moving parts (like knees and shoulders) flexible!

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  15. Wish I had been more persistent about seeing ELO when they were here. Hubby said he wasn’t that interested so I let it pass. You are so right about not taking anything for granted. Hoping your friend gets better.

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  19. Very sorry to read your news Kate, but I think it fair to say that while fitness, and an overall healthy lifestyle, provide no guarantees … they do increase the odds of a healthier and longer life. There was a US marathon runner (Jim Fixx) a long time ago who had a fatal heart attack when he was (I think) in his early 50’s. The anti-running fraternity were elated because it proved to them that running does diddly-squat re health. The medical profession however stated that he would have probably died much younger if he had not been a runner. He had a heart defect similar to that which had also killed his father.

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  20. How was my week? Well, yesterday was the highlight. It was sunny, 86 degrees, and the air conditioner was blowing hard. Then the power went out. We picked up our books and read in the peace and quiet of a no-electricity neighborhood. When it was dinner time, and there was still no power, we wandered into town to find a restaurant with electricity. We have an “emergency date” line item in our budget for just such things. We had a yummy Mexi dinner and a lovely day overall. (Power’s back on now, and it wasn’t off long enough to spoil food in the refrigerator.)

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    • Yesterday we had another round of torrential downpours. We had over 2″ here. That’s in addition to 4″ earlier in the week. I feel like mushrooms are coming out of my skin. Impromptu dates are often the best!

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  23. I had a similar experience. I belong to a walking group and I noticed one of our members has been wearing odder and odder outfits, last week it was a large floppy Sun hat with grey pigtails. I had a chat with her and she told me she has been diagnosed with frontal lob dementia so sad. I have been volunteering for dementia studies at our local university, luckily as a healthy control. The sooner we can beat this the better.

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  24. I can’t believe we’re in mid August already and pretty soon your pond will be closed for ice skating. Always love picturing it like it’s a little island in France.

    A girl I know who’s younger that me, battling dementia for 7 years, now is in hospice care. It’s so sobering, humbling, scary, knowing that, any second life can pull a wheelie.

    Gratitude is in the house, no question.

    Really always enjoy your Random 5 🙂

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