Confessions of a Grandma

I sometimes walk or bike around the block, a five mile trip that takes me past a golf course.  I spotted these very near the sidewalk.  Unfortunately my phone camera is not the best. An eagle fledgling surveying the world outside the nest.  Mama eagle is on the branch to the left. And Papa eagle was in a nearby tree. I went by again today and the baby was out of the nest and perched on the branch. it did my heart good to see them.

Some people say that there are no bad ideas, that good ideas start with bad ones.  Well, that may be true but it does assume one can actually see that an idea may be bad in order to use it as a stepping stone. Some ideas are bad but people act on them anyway.  Not that I have never been guilty of it, but I call that stupid. Clearly a bad idea. Does she really think this will relieve anyone's dentist phobia? Reminds me of a phlebotomist who did vampire impressions before taking a blood sample.  I fainted.  Served her right! Let's just keep looking. Cause you just never know when a picnic opportunity will pop up: This one is sick but it did make me laugh. (Some people don't get my sense of humor.) Now here are some REALLY BAD ideas:  Putting guns in schools Arming teachers Turning school buildings into medium security prison compounds Selling guns to children Having guns and ammunition where a motivated student can ferret them out Focusin

looking out my kitchen window I survived my cleanse diet quite nicely.  This past week I added protein foods -- chicken, fish and eggs -- to my meals.  A little protein and heaps of vegetables and some fruits is what I think I will be doing for a while.  I have not added coffee back because I find I don't really miss it.   I did add a glass of wine to no ill effect (Whew!).  I was at a social event over the weekend and wine was being served. I didn't want to insult my hosts.   A glass of wine once in a while is one of life's pleasures as far as I am concerned. I started to experiment with dairy foods.  Unfortunately, cheese is not my friend.  I was noticing that the old pattern of rise and have to blow my nose for the first five minutes of every day had fallen by the wayside, even with the pollen season in full swing.   I had some cheese last night and woke up all stuffed up.  I will try it again in few days and see if it happens again. So far no reflux

Do you watch This is Us , the NBC television story about the Pearson family? It is a can't miss for me. I suspect it is heavily sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation because the show surely is responsible for a huge spike in sales of its Kleenex brand tissues. I really think I haven't been so emotionally drawn in by a television show since ThirtySomething , 1987 to 1991 ABC story of friends struggling with baby boomer angst. Remember when actor Peter Horton's character dies unexpectedly in a bike accident?  My heart stopped.  I remember going out to dinner a few days afterwards and someone asked me how I was and all I could say was, "Gary died." A man standing at the salad bar right near us moaned, "What?" and dropped the salad tongs. Yeah, I think Kimberly-Clark had something to do with that one as well.

The diet cleanse is going well. I have been mostly faithful.  There were a couple of times when I just could not finish one more bite of my salads -- day three and day six.  I like salad, but to bulk them up I was adding lots of raw vegetables -- broccoli stems, cauliflower, sweet potato, carrots, asparagus, red cabbage, and/or radishes.  All raw.  All things I actually like.  But honestly last night I was just too tired to chew that much.  I lightly steamed some broccoli and drizzled it with some sesame oil and thought I was in heaven I had spent the day weeding and mulching in my yard. I should have waited for today. It is cooler.  It's done for a while though. I also installed a new shade in the TV room.  There was a cheap vinyl venetian blind that just fell apart the other night.  Amazing the tiny little pieces of plastic that made up what was supposed to hold the slats to the top bar.  I bought a honey comb shade.  Of course I had to use new mounts but the drilled holes