Unforgettable

At my age, I have to put things in the proper place or else I’m sunk. After losing my car and house keys too many times, I learned that hanging them on a hook in the hall closet, is almost proof, not to forget-where-they-are. This is the third and last week that my partner has been in Athens, and I have had some forgetting experiences. I awoke one morning, remembering that I had purchased those expensive printer ink cartridges and hoping that I had put them in the usual place. When I checked, they were not there so I examined several alternate locations but found nothing. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I thought that perhaps I had put them in the hall linen closet. There they were staring back at me among all the towels. Finally, I rely on my 911 gadget to rescue me should I fall and need help. It “lives” in one of three places: the seat of a chair in my computer room; the commode seat when I am taking my shower; or on the passenger seat when I am driving alone. When I went to pick up the gadget yesterday, it was not there. After completely frustrating myself, looking in the same spot over and over, I found it lying on a calendar in our bedroom where I had sat down to put on my underwear after my shower. I will never do that again—leave my gadget on the calendar.

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Ejection

I have to stay busy and positive when Dimitris is in Athens. I know I always have three weeks of being alone except for the times when I can be with friends or with my caregivers. Before noon today, I decided I would pass an hour watching one of two movies I had reserved and picked up from the library. I did not plan to watch the entire movie as I didn’t have that much time before preparing lunch. The movie was “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” I inserted the disc into the player and sat down to relax. The credits began and abruptly froze. When I realized the disc was not going to play, I pushed the eject on the remote and waited for it to eject the disc. When that did not happen, I pushed the power button and saw that it too was frozen. The message on the front of the player read: goodbye. Thinking I might be stuck at home with a jammed DVD player for the rest of this week left a bad taste in my mouth. What have I done in the past to correct something challenging? I have checked on videos that give directions for solving problems such as this one. The first advice I got was to hold down the power button, the eject button, and the play button all at the same time. I tried it; it didn’t work. The next guru suggested turning off the power, hoping the player would reset itself. Voila! Tammy Faye is now back in her storage box, ready to confess to the librarian that she got hung up en route out of my DVD player.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 501 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

The Organizer

I have a computer program that I bought called Anytime Organizer. I downloaded it years ago from the company. It does everything for me regarding dates, times, and anything that I need to remember. It changes days automatically daily and reminds me if I forgot something yesterday. I depend on it a lot; not true, I depend on it totally as I don’t have a backup. Two days ago, when I loaded the program I received a message indicating “program loaded incorrectly.” All of my data was gone. Panic! This problem has happened before. How did I solve it? I checked a folder under my desk calendar, remembering that I had put some information there from the last shutdown. There, I found a telephone number which I called and once again talked to Joe who works with this program but is not a tech for the program. He suggested that I contact Individualsoftware\support. I then received a reply with a work number from Jerry Galindo, a technician with that company. After several e-mails from Mr. Golindo that did not correct the problem, I asked if perhaps we could set up a telephone session so that I could get his advice and restart my program. I had fears that he would not take me up on that request, but he did. He called, took over my computer, and pulled all of the data back to where it belonged. I again have an operating Anytime Organizer.

The Company

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Ritz and AJ

I am the first to admit that I have a sweet tooth. In the past, when I’ve been trying to lose weight, I have had to fight eating sweets in the evening. While I can pass up cake or pie, ice cream is my nemesis. For that reason, I only purchase ice cream occasionally and look to satisfy my evening need for sweets in less damaging ways. One way I pacify myself is by taking a Ritz cracker, smoothing nutty peanut butter on it, and then adding a layer of jelly. My jelly of choice is apple jelly. This morning, after my haircut, I headed to the nearby Publix specifically for a large jar of apple jelly. As I scanned the jelly/jam aisle, I found large containers of grape jelly, strawberry jelly and other fruit jellies. The largest apple jelly I found was only an 18-ounce jar. Are you kidding? Aren’t there other jelly-loving Americans, like me, who love and prefer apple jelly? I certainly hope that is true. If so, join me in insisting that your grocery store provide you with large jars of apple jelly commensurate with those jars of the other jellies. Meanwhile, thank you Smucker’s for tiding me over.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 501 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

A Narrow Interpretation

As a youngster being raised in a Southern Baptist home, if there was one scripture that I took seriously, it was the following from Matthew 19:24: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” My family was not wealthy so we were safe, but I looked around town and realized that we had our wealthier people who lived mostly in a section of my little hometown called College View. I felt sorry for those people and determined that I would never accumulate wealth, thereby protecting myself from eternal damnation. I have to admit that I was very successful in my quest as I became a school teacher so that the road to wealth never presented itself. It was the Amway organization that helped change my attitude toward those who had achieved the status of financial security plus. More power to them. I had mentally restricted myself to a vocation that would never give me wealth. Because my job was fulfilling and gave me tremendous satisfaction, I learned to be satisfied with earning a modest but adequate income. I remember being taught by someone in the Amway organization that success is where preparation and opportunity meet. I was fortunate that during my educational pursuits, I became the president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers of English twice, got a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, and fulfilled many of my goals in education before retiring at age 54.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

Don’t Take Me Out to the Ballgame

When I was growing up, my dad would take my brother and me to the ball park to watch a baseball game. Although the sport never caught my attention, the boiled peanuts did. After we had had our peanuts, we would start begging our dad to take us home. That lack of interest in baseball lasted until the Tampa Bay Sting Rays franchise came to St. Petersburg. Those Sting Rays gradually transitioned into the Tampa Bay Rays, and I began going to some of the games with friends. This afternoon, after I had watched my Sunday News shows, I checked to see if the Rays were playing. When I checked the schedule, I found that the Rays were playing the Yankees on TV. While watching, I decided to write this blog. You see, Reader, I love the Rays. However, at my age, I can’t go to the stadium to enjoy the sport as my legs will no longer support me for the climb to seating at Tropicana Field. Thank heavens for TV coverage. Since I can’t go physically, I go virtually, just like the church services during the pandemic. By the way, unfortunately, the Yankees won the game in the 9^th inning, 1-0.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

Plumbagos and Lumbago

• I have a flower growing in my yard that is most exciting. It is baby blue in color, an unusual color for flowers. I learned that Plumbago is an easy-to-care-for shrub that brings interest to many Florida landscapes. Its clusters of cool blue flowers are unmatched and make it a favorite among traditional garden selections. Since I arrived in St. Petersburg in 1965, I have learned over the years the names of many native species of flowers. I learned quite a few when I visited Sunken Gardens. I learned even more when I toured Selby Gardens in Sarasota, noting the names of these different flowers. The name for this blue beauty has always thrown me for a loop. For some reason, the word “plumbago” just does not fit the flower. Therefore, in order to come up with the name, I think of the foot disease: lumbago. For some reason, I can remember that word for that foot problem and must use it to come up with the name plumbago. Such is the way my 83-year-old mind works.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

The Fall (History)

On March 22^nd 2015, I was in a part of the world I thought I would never see—the United Arabic Republic. I had two months before had knee replacement surgery. Our plans were, after arriving in Athens and re-connecting with Dimitris’ family, to make a side trip to Dubai. After arriving in Dubai, I had been as careful as possible, walking with my cane only when there was no alternative to getting somewhere. Dimitris and I decided to take a double-deck bus tour of the area and had arrived at a drop-off site for taking pictures of the Burj Al Arab, the iconic hotel that is in the shape of an Arabian sailing vessel. Dimitris hurriedly got off the bus for picture-taking and motioned for me to follow. When I approached the step-down from the bus, I realized that it was steep. As I reached to touch my cane to the ground, I lost my balance and fell. Fortunately, I fell into a sandy area or I could have hurt myself badly. It took that fall to make me realize that exiting buses must be a slow and deliberate process, no matter how beautiful the scenery. This is a picture of me taken by Dimitris just after the fall.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

A True Grammarian

I’m not sure how much grammar is now taught in high schools. Having worked some at the college, I know that basic students are sometimes given some grammar background before they can get into composition classes. I think I was a true grammarian as I loved parts of speech, clauses, gerunds, participles, prepositional phrases, diagramming, etc. To me, understanding the basics of our language opened up avenues for creativity. I had a teacher friend once who asked me to come into her class to teach her students how to recognize how clauses worked, particularly subordinate clauses. While I had a terrific time with her students, she was dumbfounded and praised me for being willing to do so. When we began in my high school classes studying how to diagram sentences, one student asked, “Why are we doing this? We aren’t going to be diagramming sentences after we graduate.” I explained that diagramming sentences is like putting a scaffold around something that is being reconstructed. When the reconstruction is done, the scaffolding will come down, having served its purpose. The same is true for diagramming which you dispense with once you’ve come to understand how words connect.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.

Gratitude

My daily schedule on weekdays includes watching Nicole Williams’ afternoon news program at 4:00. That’s where I was and what I was watching on my computer when suddenly the picture began buffering. After refreshing unsuccessfully, I looked at the internet indicator and found that it was inoperative. I immediately picked up my Spectrum home phone and found it dead as well. One trip to the living room proved that I had nothing: no cable, no internet, no phone. That meant a trip to the car to retrieve my cell phone which “lives” in the car. The agent with whom I talked on Spectrum suggested several restarts, none of which worked. She then said that we needed to get a technician out to remedy the problem and that the earliest would be tomorrow afternoon, I balked, explaining that I am alone at my age and depending on their services. She then rechecked and announced that a repair person could be there by 7:00. When Jorge arrived, he immediately found that the problem was that some tall vehicle had come through the alley behind my house and pulled down my Spectrum connection line. He explained that the darkness and the rain would prevent the service being completed until the next afternoon. I’m writing this blog the morning after and grateful for the electricity I do have more than just regretting the cable, phone, and internet that I don’t have.

Reader, if you are not a follower of my blog, I hope you will become one. Go to www.bobosbest.wordpress.com and, on the bottom of the right hand corner, you will see the opportunity to sign up so that you can receive bobosbest automatically every time it is published. At present, I have 502 followers. If you’re not already a follower, click on the word FOLLOW and enter your e-mail address. Thank you.