Quick shots

1.  I am getting lazier and lazier.  First, I quit walking with a walker and started using a wheel chair.  Now, I have quit using wheel chair and am using electric scooter. I even got on scooter this morning to go to the parlor and mail box, a distance of about 200 feet.

2.  The roses in the garden did NOT like the recent rain.  They are all bent over, with heads in the mud, and looking thourghly soaked and miserable.

3.  The Cinco De Mayo here at the old folks home was delightful.  The dining room was festooned with colorful pennants, and there was a Mexican display in the corner with Serapes and Sombreros. (Let's see what the spell checker does with those.) The entree was enchiladas with beans and rice, one of my favorites, and there were Margaritas to start with.  A little pinata on each table held nuts and sugar free candy. 

4.  Chevrolet has still got it.  The most attractive car in the parking lot today was a new Chevrolet.  They make 'em look like Toyotas nowadays, but this one was even prettier.

5.  There are two rather unnoticed gems in your windows program.  If you haven't discovered PAINT on your computer you are in for a treat.  It is tucked away as an accessory.  You may have to seek it out using the START icon on the task bar.  But once you find it, you can draw, letter, modify photos, and generally waste whole mornings playing with it.  And on your Windows 98 is a handy gadget FAX.  Right on your computer you can send and receive FAX messages.  Handy, huh?  No machine needed to sit upon the telephone stand.  I rue that is missing from my Windows XP.  I don't need it often, but how I hate running to the office when I need to fax some document.  How come Microsoft dumped that neat feature?

6.  I had a hurtful prank played upon me by two friends.  I had made colorful placemats for our dining table, using the Paint program.  I made each placemat in the favorite colors of my tablemates.  They stayed in place for several days.  Day before yesterday I went early and added one for Jim, who has returned from a month long illness.  I had to readjust the place setting for each person slightly. 
   Since there was some time before dinner, I left the dining room, and as I left I passed Mrs. Asinine and Ms. Withered, my tablemates, entering.  That's not their real names, and I have changed them, not to protect their identities, but because I don't want to get sued. When I returned in about fifteen minutes, all the placemats were GONE. 
   I was astounded.  I asked what had happened to them, and no one knew.  I asked the waitresses and and even the cook.  No one could tell me what had happened.  I was flabbergasted and very upset.  Later I found them, twisted and tossed into a nearby trash can.
   Later I reasoned, only Mrs. A and Ms. W could have taken them.  For some reason they resented them, and removed them, and yet, couldn't tell me face to face.  In fact, they lied about removing them. It made me feel very defeated, and small.  I had made them for them,   What about all the other contributions I have made to the life aroud here?  The giant exercise ball, the card shuffler for card games, the funny signs on my door, my musical entertainment.  Is everything unappreciated?  It makes me feel very OLD, and very ALONE.
   I didn't confront Mrs. A nor Ms. W about this.  I may be wrong, and any further separation would merely add to the hurt. Thank goodness for my friends in J-land.