1:53 p.m. - 2008-05-27
The rest of our lives
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I hope you had a good holiday weekend. I know for some of you, it was a terribly bad stormy few days. Hopefully, you didn't have any damage and everyone is safe.
We had a quiet weekend. We went to a casino on Friday for a few hours. Neither of us won any big amounts but we had fun and played until we were tired of it.
Saturday, my husband worked in the yard. He has been getting the grass cut to perfection and trimming shrubs. He weeded the flower bed too in anticipation of planting flowers this weekend. On Sunday, I bought impatiens...the colors were Sparkle Pink and Red Star. I like to alternate the colors so when they grow together; it is a mass of color.
I also bought some gerber daisies this year. I got 6 different shades ranging from pale yellow to rusty red. I put them in some long planters on our porch. I also bought another yellow variety of daisy to put in 3 red pots on the porch. Hopefully, they will all do well and we will have a colorful front yard.
Our french lilac bushes are so full of blooms, they are hanging down to the ground with the weight. This year has been the best year yet!
The closest thing we did to having a special meal was yesterday. I fixed Johnsonville brats in the oven. Big Whoop!!!! The holiday weekend was a far cry from the old days when we had company and a cookout.
Many years ago, when my husband was on the police department and our son was young, we bought an above the ground swimming pool. We dug up the backyard ourselves, leveled it, put in the weed killer, put in the plastic barrier, put in the sand, leveled it for weeks......, put in patio blocks to support the sides of the pool and finally, put up the outside of the pool and then put in the pool liner. It took a very long time for us to get this done. Then it took a few days to fill up the pool. As I recall, it was a 24 foot round pool which was about 4 feet deep. We didn't have any fancy railing or landscaping around it. We did have a chain link fence around our yard so we felt we were keeping out any strangers or children when we were not there to supervise.
Once we had the pool, we were the place for most of the summer party gatherings, especially with my husband's younger brothers who were married and had young children too. We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Everyone brought food, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips, dip, desserts, soft drinks and we had a feast. We usually had one day during a holiday weekend when the family came over.
As the years went by, the family members started going to the lake and camping out so our gatherings got fewer and farther apart. After a few years, we moved out to the country. We never put in another pool and so the big attraction was gone.
Now, of course, the nieces and nephews are grown and have children of their own. They have more families to visit and none of us seem to spend much time together during the warm weather. Even the high school graduations have faded away so now it seems there isn't much reason to have a gathering.
But never-the-less, my husband and I enjoyed the holiday weekend. We were very fortunate to have good weather the entire weekend. This is very unusual for our area. Normally, we have rain and damp cool weather all weekend and it clears up as soon as the holiday is officially over.
Hopefully, this is the start of a great summer. Because.....
My husband is retiring this week. He decided suddenly about a week ago that he was tired of the rat race. He checked with SS and with his Public Employee Retirement Fund contact. He believes we will be fine so now the rest of our lives will start.
