Confessions of a Grandma

This will be the fourth year that I have volunteered at InStride Therapy .  I work on Thursday mornings when kindergarten and first grade students from area schools come on field trips to learn about the care and feeding of the horses and participate in associated literacy activities. Little Red is the star attraction.  You can see he was all gussied up for this season's debut. He's a handsome pony and he does kind of know it.

I had a cold right after I arrived in Florida.  I blamed it on airport germs and got over it in the usual  week's time.  Then I got another cold about two weeks ago.  What?  This is unusual for me.  And this one seemed to want to hang on but I convinced myself I felt better after ten days. Well, Thursday night was a real bother with a hacking dry cough that kept me awake and miserable. Still, I didn't really feel that bad.  My nose started running again.  Another cold?  I decided to have this checked up so I called my doctor and she squeezed me into her schedule.  She diagnosed bronchitis and prescribed some kind of medicinal cocktail. I have never had bronchitis before and can't say I like it very much.  I am going to assume the medicine is working, but I sure am not.

New uses for mason jar lids from Real Simple Magazine, February, 2017: The outer ring parts to mason jar lids can be used as a makeshift muffin tin.  You set six rings ,wide side down, on a baking sheet and place  paper muffin/cupcake papers in each and fill with the muffin batter.  "Cant't find the muffin tin?"  But here are these six jar lids just laying around so no problem. This is not a kitchen I can even comprehend.

Pretty much every week I receive some flyer in the mail notifying me about the availability of one hearing aid clinic or another.  This is the case whether I am in Vermont or in Florida.  As far as I know, my hearing is pretty good.  Last time I had it checked I was told I had the hearing of a teenager and I assumed that meant it was good.  It has been a while but I have not noticed much change. I keep wondering if I am targeted because of my age or if someone is referring me. This week it was something new.  "Join us for a FREE LUNCH & informational seminar on the benefits of preplanning your cremation."  Good grief. Something is always coming up that veers me, however momentarily, from my efforts to live my life with mindfulness in the moment. Which reminds me that I recently read a review of The Perpetual Now by Michael D. Lemonik.  It is about a woman who develops a severe amnesia as the result of an illness.   She lives perpetually ...

I have just finished re-reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog  by Muriel Barbery, translated from its original French.  We will be discussing it in next reading group.  I had forgotten this but I was reminded by someone with a better memory that I was the one who picked it.  I am wondering how it will be received. Our last book was The Poisonwood Bible  by Barbara Kingsolver.  Funny, I remember exactly who recommended that one.  It was also a second reading for me.  I remembered the story and I think Kingsolver is a very good writer, but I did not remember the brilliance of the structure of the book.  Perhaps it takes a second reading to be fully appreciated.  My fond assessment of the book was a minority opinion, however. I suspect that will also be the case with Barbery's book.   Si très français, which I say with the utmost fondness. It was a difficult read in the sense that I had to look up words and references to philosophy...