Focused at Fifty

July 2017 "Dad and me" I was watching a movie this past lazy Sunday afternoon, a romantic comedy. The central character's father dies. It's a sad scene tinged with comedic moments as happens in rom-coms. She attends the funeral and gives the eulogy. It's a touching scene. It made me melancholy thinking about how much I miss my departed Mother but also how much I love my Dad. I wiped away a tear and I decided to call him right then there and tell him I love him. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed his number in California. A pre-recorded operator answers and states "All circuits are busy, please try your call again later. Welcome to Verizon. Please try your call again later." I started laughing out loud exclaiming.... "Whaaaaat?".  It just figured. I called a couple more times to no avail. No calls were going through. Then I got worried. Was there an earthquake which knocked out power? I checked the local media, even the LA Tim...

"Lake Wynonah Snow" For my 24th Frazzled at Forty podcast episode entitled, "Snowcast", I discussed all things snow while taking a snow day from work. I hate to say it but when you are an adult and take a snow day, it usually does not mean it's gonna be that fun. It usually comes down to spending your day shoveling at different times to keep up with the snow OR doing housework, dishes, laundry etc. This particular snow day was no different. I enjoyed my morning coffee and grabbed a bite to eat the day's news but then I got my ass up to work on stuff around the house. I also took a nap for a bit. Well shoveling is exhausting! Or perhaps it was the whiskey I was sipping while shoveling.... At the end of each podcast, I recite a famous quote which is complimentary to the topic at hand. For the "Snowcast" podcast, I decided to do something different and recite a winter poem. I enjoyed researching the winter poetry and read close to 15....

(https://www.someecards.com) The week of April 15th began with what seems like the 96th day of January. That's one of the latest meme going around the Internet. It's quite humorous BECAUSE IT'S TRUE! We had one nice day of almost 80 degree weather on Saturday and then the temperature plummeted back down to the 30s with fierce winds pounding our region through the beginning of the week. The wind chime hanging from the corner of the house is now known as the Devil's Harp. During the winter Nor'Easters it had become pure evil! It kept me up once again all night. I should just take it down but I'm too lazy to drag out the ladder. I woke to a coating of snow on the ground. The yard was once again in shambles with more branches down. I had just spent the better part of Saturday cleaning up those which had previously fallen. It seemed like it had become the winter which would never end. Fingers were crossed though that this would be the l...

"Daffodils Coming Up" I went out today to do a little bit of yard work. My buddy Eric had told me a couple weeks ago that he was already collecting branches and sticks cleaning up his yard and I felt a little guilty. So far the Nor'Easters have been preventing me from doing that. Although I really could have but I'm just really using that as an excuse. Ha-ha. I'm kinda NOT gonna do major yard work until it hits the 50s. Today was an anomaly. Guilt ridden too. The yard is a mess. LOL I was collecting sticks in the yard while make sure that the fake owl hanging from the corner of the house is still there to ward off the woodpeckers. He still is. Went down into the lower backyard and collected all of the planters and pots that had blown into our yard from Charlotte's over the winter. I collected them and put them neatly stacked next to her shed and realized I was putting them next to the entrance to her groundhog hole under the shed. Made me chuckle. That...

Hummingbird feeder and the rabbit. (A little blurry due to screen window) Last week was an incredibly stressful work week. I'm not going into detail but it was a doozy. I don't want to alienate anyone so I will keep mum.  I have an incredible view out my kitchen window across my yard; First, the middle aged oak tree with all the bird feeders, then onto the long rectangular shaped flower garden in the middle and finally ending at the other side of the yard at our fire-pit. I will often come home and make myself an after-work cocktail and just gaze out at the yard, either from the kitchen window or relax out on the deck. I love my yard. This particular day, I leaned up against the kitchen sink counter and spied our "yard" rabbit out by the middle flower bed. Looking towards the house with the middle flower bed on the left side of the picture. He was munching away for a good five minutes on clover, irises, alfalfa, various grasses, lily of the valley, and ...

Beautiful forsythias in our yard Ahhh, the Spring! .... sneeze, wheeze, cough, cough.  I think my allergies contributed to writers' block this past month! April was a hard month for me emotionally. It has been 5 years since Mom's passing and I think I was finding it still hard to deal with the anniversary. I did visit her at her gravesite up at Fort Indiantown Gap military cemetery and paid my respects. It can still be so difficult. This year's Spring brings much yard work needed to clean up the Winter's mess.  The Fall is my favorite season but nothing beats the Spring for breathing new life into you after the doldrums of Winter. Dead :( Last week John and I surveyed the yard to see what we needed to do in terms of clean up after that horrible winter. Lemme just say that there is alot! Some of it was upsetting. When temperatures dipped down to the negative digits over the winter, many bushes and trees suffered as a result. I think Mrs. Bentz's ros...

The other day I was walking from my office in Allentown to my newly assigned parking lot. I suffer the fate of having to park in the lot furthest away from work. I quip bitterly that I park in the next town over. The first five times I guess it was funny. Now they think I am just bitter about the whole situation. And yes, they are correct. From work, I walk down a long alley in between the county government building and a 19th century church. Glancing upwards, I spied several large icicles the size of stalactites hanging off the church roof just ready to come crashing down on whomever was treading below. Now we aren't talking about the icicles that as kids we would break off and eat. Ummm...did anyone else do that besides me? (silence ... crickets chirping) Anyway, the icicles on the church are the size of baseball bats. If one hit you, it would definitely knock you out or worse like stab you like the lightening rod did to that poor priest in the first Damien movie, you know th...