Here is its Tuesday

And I am still depressed. 

Living in the old folks home is, by itself, depressing.  There are a jillion petty things to annoy one.  They are, each inself, too petty to mention, but they accumulate for eight years and you want to tear your hair out.

It used to annoy me a little that people crowded into the lobby when we have music and wheel chairs cannot get through.  So I worked with staff and eventually that petty annoyance was resolved.  People moved inside and left the way clear.

...And then the staff all changed.  Now we have a new staff, and the lobby is cluttered again.  Ho hum.

   We used to have to wait interminably for dining room service, and we worked with dining room personnel on that problem.  Finally we got good service.  Then the staff all changed.  Now we have even longer waits for each meal.  Gad.  You see what I mean?

   First there was no suggestion box, and then there was, and now there isn't.  We waited years for closed circuit TV for announcements and entertainment, then we got it, and then we lost it.  First we had bus service, and then we had none, and then we had bus service, and then we had none, and then... well, you see. 

   Not one problem is big enough to make you move.  Not one problem is serious by world standards.  Not one problem would make you cry.  But cripes... day after day, time after time, and you want to scream ENOUGH.

   Think twice about getting old.  It is not for sissies.

Blue Monday OR The beginning of a new week?

You can decide.  Do you want to be depressed?  Or would you rather be happy and content? 

Would you rather complain about your situation, or would you rather do something about it?

Today, in both cases, for me, it is the former.  I let myself be depressed, I choose to complain.

I went to breakfast at 7:40.  My table mate was served two nice bran muffins.  I chose to have scrambled eggs with mine.  By 8:20, forty minutes later, I still had no breakfast.  My second cup of coffee was gone.

Some people complain about everything, I do a "silent burn". I decided that when my eggs DO come, IF they were cold, I would set my plate in the middle of the floor and roll out. 

My eggs came, and I secretly wished they would be cold so I could activate my plan of protest.  They were slightly warm.  I ate a little, left most, and rolled out, very grumpy. 

Grumpy I remain.  Alas, I will stay grumpy until I "get ahold of myself" and decide I'd rather be content. 

Writing in my journal helps a little: misery love company. 

Don't let me get YOU down. 

I will recover.  I will write a happy entry later... I have a plan for today, and something to "do", and that will help[.

Love, 

Grandfather Groundhog.

Saturday Six

The Saturday Six from Patrick’s Place. If you want to play click on the link and copy the questions and post them with your answers in your Journal. If you want to suggest a question. Click on the link and leave him an email. If you don’t have a journal, leave you answers in his comments section.

1. Who is the last performer you saw live in concert? James Whitmore as Will Rogers. Excellent, but very long ago. What is the last film you saw at a theater? National Treasure with Nicholas Cage. Was very good impossible history. Which was more worth the money you paid? Both were worth the money.

2. What do you do more of in a typical day: work zero , sleep six hours, eat three hours, exercise about fifteen minutes a week. watch TV two to three hours, surf the web five or six hours?

3. Your office brings in a new drink machine and it's your job to fill the eight selection slots. What drinks (non-alcholic, of course) do you select? Diet Pepsi (for me), Pepsi for others, Coke, Seven Up (for when we need a change of pace), Root Beer (for making floats), and distilled water (for taking pills)

4. Take the quiz: What is your expression number? Do you agree with the description it gives you? What do you disagree with most? I wouldn’t take the quiz because it required my full, correct name. I didn’t want to give that, even to a machine. The coorelation between the mathematical equivalent of your name and your personality is bogus anyway so I skipped the quiz. I took other quizzes though, and enjoyed the site.

5. Counting all light fixtures and lamps in your home, how many bulbs do you have in place, and how many of them are on right now?

Twelve bulbs and NONE are on… it is ten a.m.

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #55 from Laura: What is your favorite movie line ever and why?

Go Ahead, make my day. I like it, it dares the bad guy to try to jump him. It puts the bad guy in his place. He has to put up or give up.

Love Thy Neighbor

One of the neighbors of this old folks home is Starbucks, the coffee house.  In fact their parking lot joins our parking lot. I have made several jokes about Starbucks, but I am glad they are there.

When life becomes unbearably monotonous, Starbucks provides an escape.  Last night, after an hour of boring simplified rummy, I scooted to Starbucks and ordered a Mocha Latte Frappe.  Now, that is iced coffee at its sweetest and coldest.

One coffee cost $3.95 but it came in a 32  ounce cup with a clear plastic dome with a bright blue straw.  You have to  SIP it, not drink it, or the freezing cold will strike your chest, then your spine and then your brain... yowch. 

So I sat on my scooter at an outside table and sipped, for an hour.  Then I scooted home and continued sitting outside and sipping for another half hour.  In fact, I nursed that thing all evening.  I got my money's worth.

Years ago, when our Starbucks first was built, I used to wheel chair there with my Golden Retreiver, Griff, on a leash.  I would drop the loop of the leash over the arm of one of the outside chairs, and he would sit patiently waiting while I had my coffee inside.  Soon the Starbuck staff came to know Griff and admire his patience, and they soon provided a couple of doggie bowls for him, one with water and one with doggie biscuits.  No coffee for him though. 

That was nice.  The Icon of the Twenty-first century, Starbucks, providing comfort for a twentieth century dog. He became a familiar sight, waiting at the door for his master to return. I was proud to relax there.

Last evening I was "hanging" with the young people who loiter there.  They called me by my first name.  It is a young crowd.  The old codgers "hang" at Carl's Jr for breakfast. 

I may join them, too.

My Name is Goldielocks

I have two beds in my apartment.  One is too hard, and the other is too soft.

Neither one is "just right".

Two Movies that Went Past the Ending

What do you mean "They went past the ending?"

I mean,that when I thought the plot was complete, the story continued.  To me it was sort of like the sequel tacked onto the orignial.  It was okay, but sort of longer than it needed to be.

The movies were 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and Somethings Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.

Both are cute movies and you have to love the story. But a funny thing happened when I was watching First Dates. I was so entranced that I forgot to go to dinner.  When Adam and Drew finally kissed I shut off the film and hurried to dinner.

Later I came back and noticed that there were a lot of scenes listed that I didn't remember.  I didn't remember them, because I hadn't seen them.  They were in a part of the film that followed the big kiss that I had seen.  I had missed their getting married, having kids, and moving to Alaska, duh.  Like half the movie.

So I watched that movie too, sort of a 50 First Dates II.

In Somethings Gotta Give Nicholson and Keaton realize they are in love.  Hooray, but the story doesn't end there.  Nicholson plays a numbskull who can't bring himself to say "I love you" outloud, and Keaton plays a numbskull who has to hear it outloud or she cannot stand it.So they part, she moves to Paris, gets engaged and he alley-cats around for a year without her.  In Something's Gotta Give II, Nicholson goes to Paris to find her, still can't say "I love you" out loud, but this time, at least, she accepts him without his saying it.  Fade out in the Paris snow beneath the Eiffel Tower.

Four cute movies masquerading as two with attached sequels.

Dawn

Good Morning.  I went to bed at 10:45 last night, I dunno why, so I am up at 5:45.  Arrrgh.  The wind is still blowing, as it has for two days, and the sky is gray. 

I just heard my Grandson's "superbuddy" audio trade-mark as he signed off the "buddy list".  I wonder if he is getting up early, or just going to bed.  I suspect the later, as he is a night owl.

It is so early that I haven't a darn thing to say.  So I will just look in the computer files and put in a picture, any picture, to amuse myself and hopefully you.

Picked at random, almost, from my photo collection.  Unripe grapes. Might call the photo PROMISE for the grapes will be splendid as soon as they ripen, you just have to give them time and water.

In last two days have received long questionaires in email with fifty two silly questions that are supposed reveal one's personality.  "If you were a crayon, what color would you be?"  That is a cutesy way of asking what your favorite color is. Does favorite color reveal personality?  Does anyone care what my favorite color is?  Do I have a favorite?  Would I rather all flowers were purple?  My favorite color ice cream is different from my favorite color car.  (Well, no, they aren't.  I like both in chocolate.)  What is even sillier:  I filled it out and send it back.

In other words: Good Morning.