What's The Buzz

 Hello Everyone

Just a few thoughts about what I’ve been thinking about and doing while I was gone. These will appear every so often and this one is not all encompassing.

The world has changed while I’ve been gone. In minor and not so minor ways. While I see that many of my fellow bloggers have been circumspect, I cannot promise to be as kind or calm as I return.

Unsurprisingly, it’s hot as hell in my neck of the woods right now. It has been since June. My high was 112 last week and let’s just say I’ve developed a new appreciation for why Bob over at Satisfying retirement says he stays inside all summer. This week our high will be 106, I think. Which makes me an inside girl and limits my desire for day trips or any outdoor adventures except early morning pool visits and the occasional patio art thing late in the evening.  Still, I don’t care how many times someone says it’s easier to add on layers than take em off, I’ll take the heat.

The result of the above heat is that my exercise has fallen off. While the pool is great on the joints, that’s concrete on the bottom and I still have PF in the extreme. Add that to the fact that even at seven am it has been ninety degrees and those steps have fallen by the wayside just a bit.  I’m looking for pool shoes now to help but I actually wore my keens in the pool one day and it worked!

My son came down to Texas for the first time in almost two years exactly (I had seen him on my trip home, but he had not been south since before I left), so we (and my daughter and son in law) spent a week visiting, catching up, enjoying the pool and backyard and going to dinner. He’ll be back here in August for an unfortunate funeral (more later), and I will visit him for Thanksgiving. Now that we are back to the semi-normal and as long as my legs hold out for driving, I’ll be going there for one holiday and or a week during the year and he’ll come here for the other.

Laugh though you will, I have been going to Vacation Bible School for seniors once I week at my church. Early on in the summer I commented that they should really have summer camp for adults, and at church we acted on that. So once a week we have lunch and dessert, talk about fun things, do a craft, play a game and so on. I’m still missing the smores and wine but we will correct that. It’s been such a success that we have decided to continue this once a month as a church event. *****I also said that the grownups should get a summer reading program where we get pizza and stickers just like the kids, but that one did not come to fruition***

I had a BRCA one and two tests done. My mom and grandmother had ovarian cancer and my other grandmother had breast cancer. I probably should have had one a while back. The results say that I have none of the markers, but that I should still consider some risk based on family history only. I’ll take it!

I’ve been making stuff. All kinds of stuff, and creativity is messy. My daughter has started creating stuff as well and the two of us did a craft fair during “pride” week at a local venue.  While my son was here he introduced my daughter to paddle boarding and it took so she and her husband have now joined a local beach on our very large lake and have been both paddleboarding and kayaking on the water. I certainly plan to go enjoy the beach but I won't be taking my degenerating legs on either one.

My PF comes and goes, Unfortunately, the cement in the beautiful, well appointed pool we have here aggravates it to no end, so I have not been going to the pool daily as I did last year, even for exercise. Regular pool shoes don’t have enough padding so I may have to jump out and buy what are basically running shoes meant for the pool.

I have not been traveling, but I will do so in the fall, and in this heat day trips are not the most fun, but I’ve been to more than a few movies and music events indoors in the cool (at wine bars and such, not at concert halls) as well as craft fairs, a festival here and there and have generally enjoyed my summer of staycation but with post pandemic freedom.

I continue to be happy in my apartment and glad for the downsize. Today I am having a moment when I am especially happy that I chose an apartment facing the central courtyard and parking lot rather than the empty expanse on the other side. The ability to visit with people, see what’s going on, and take surprising notice of the guy walking on the roof of the building across from me cannot be matched.

Having said that, inflation, inflation, inflation, ya know.  Gas has gone back down, food is up, and I received my first annual increase as such rent wise, and it was hefty (but there was none for three years pretty much and since our utilities are mainly included in the price of rent, I am not terribly surprised. It is still affordable, absolutely, and I am still happier renting than buying.

On the creative front, I’m still sewing and knitting and teaching myself to weave and all the other things. But I am challenging myself to do so with as little new supplies as possible. I have pieces of quilted art in the pike made from leftovers of quilts and sewn projects, I’m cutting up thrift shop clothing for yardage and generally upping my self challenge of being sustainable. Or as sustainable as I can be in this environment…

What can I say. Creativity is messy.

That’s all I can think of for now. See you on Frugal Friday.