Good Grief

 September 9th, 2026, will mark the one-year anniversary of Butch's passing

Butch and I were a team. We knew each other like the back of my hand. You do not happily live together for 66 years without that truth. Every time we embarked on a new adventure, we would say, "Just you and me, kid!"  We were and are as tight as any two would want to be. It was a gradual thing, of course, as life is, and there were rocky times for sure. After all, we were married in our teens!

But now he is gone from here, but not gone from me. I know he would be proud of me, as I am so proud of him. In the last days of his life, he knew it was about to end, and he did it so well and tried his best to make it easy for me.

Everyone grieves differently. It is the most personal thing to go through. I am happy, and there are those who may think I shouldn't be. All I can say is you can't take that away from me. I am happier and more grateful than ever and always will be. He would approve wholeheartedly.

Maybe In your 80's?

  I do not know how it happened, why it happened, or, in particular, when it happened. Perhaps the beginning was when we retired.  I am genuinely and cognitively happy. To this recipe add a giant-sized amount of gratitude. I wish everyone could look at life this way and feel the result.

Being a Kid...

 Butch and I were married in our teen years. When I read this cartoon, I immediately thought of Butch. One of his wonderful qualities was that when he came home from work, he played with the boys. I didn't think a thing of it at the time. Now I know how wonderful that was.

Romance in the Air!

 No, it is not me! But I might have had something to do with it. One of them expressed to me an interest in the other one, and I passed the word along. Younger people may be dismayed or encouraged by this, but romance does not change much no matter the age. We might be in more of a hurry considering the time limit we are working on. Other than that, it is much the same. 

As far as I know, the majority of us are very happy for them. I'm betting that is not a subject you ever expected me to write about! Me either!

Moving on... As I was walking through the main hall yesterday, one of my Evergrene friends said to me, "You sure have a lot of friends!" I hadn't put much thought into it. After consideration, I sure do! I have Jefferson friends, South Texas friends, Family friends, and now Evergreen friends. And Butch and I, during our 10 years of RVing, picked up a few strays along the way. It is nearly impossible for me to keep up with them all, and that is the reason for this blog. The only negative to this is that you all know about me, but I don't get as much info about you. So send me a note if you will to Keep.movin.on@gmail.com. Whether you do or not, I will still count you among my friends. 💞

Love those AI photos!

One of those moments...

 Sitting here doing my computer stuff, I happened to look up and catch sight of a hummingbird sitting still! That does not happen often. I grabbed my camera, my good camera, and started shooting away. What fun!  

I think this one is a Ruby-throated hummingbird. The two above may also be. Sometimes the light isn't right, and we are having a cloudy day.

Well, that took a chunk of the morning!

I did get my walk in and visited a while with Colleen, whom I happened to run into on the walk. Then I spent some time getting sap off my car. Jason washed it for me last weekend, but sap doesn't come off that easily. Note to self: Park in a different spot next season. I found myself lucky as my Goo-Gone worked! 

Then and Now

 Butch always slept late. In fact, he said he could go right back to sleep whenever he did wake up. I thought that strange then, but not so much now because I sometimes feel that way too. Most of my life, I would hit the ground running, so to speak. When I woke up, I was anxious and happy to get things done. I did often say that if I didn't get it done before noon, it most likely would not get done that day.

So Butch liked to sleep in, and I did not. I treasured those hours of silence to get a head start on my day. It is so different now. My computer hours have turned up missing and/or put off. I recognize there are gaps in my posts. I have yet to find a rhythm for timely posts.  I'm still working on it.

I just had a lightbulb moment! I am trying to cram a long walk, a computer post, and other computer-related work, as well as many other things, into my day before noon!

 No wonder it isn't getting done! Perhaps I can make some adjustments. If you start seeing daily posts, you will know I have succeeded!

View from my desk window... The suncatchers are on the window.

 

Keri made me a peach pie. It was scrumptious.

Since I still have a bit of gumption in me, I will now work on Thursday's trivia questions.

Mouse

 These are Butch's work boots. I tried to not keep them. In the end, they had to come with me. You can find them in the picture taken in my living room.

Here is a close-up of them.

Jason or maybe Laura took this photo of a hummer at their house.

 I thought it was a particularly good one.

This is for my "booky" friends. 

I can relate, although not as much now as earlier in my life.😁

Okay, did you see the mouse? Jason put it there, and I didn't see it for a week. And yes, it looked so real I had to get a closer look! If you missed it too, go back and look at the boots.

Screeching Halt!

 Don't panic...that is only what it feels like. I came back to Iowa with a long list of things to get done. It looked never-ending to me at the time. It has arrived. This entire week has only one to-do on it, and that's to pick up a med refill at the pharmacy. This too has its adjustments.

This morning I decided my comfy abode needed some cleaning up, so I hit the floor running, went for my morning walk, then came home and cleaned house. Finished by 10:00 AM, then ate breakfast!  

I see a curve ball in there! "Cleaned House." That is a phrase from my childhood or perhaps it is a Midwest term. And it reminds me of another term I heard lately. My sis-in-law Keri told me last week that she and her brother were going to "Put up corn." She was a farm girl, and "putting up corn" was just a fact of life. I thought I knew what she meant.  After all, I had heard the term "Putting up hay". Being a town girl, my understanding was that of a town girl and not as exact as she meant. She was referring to gathering sweet corn and freezing it to last through the winter.  Regional phrases are fun to run across.

Colleen and I walked at Daubendiek's Park down by the Raccoon River.  river.https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/iowa/daubendiek-park-loop

It is a 0.70 walk around the loop. Beautifully taken care of. 

I had not been there for years. It is one more of Jefferson's often overlooked treasures. I took some photos.

We followed this up with a visit to Henderson Park, just a short way south of town on HWY 4, near the golf course. Not a walking course per se, but definitely a sit-and-ponder park. The sound of the river running over the rocks is very soothing.

Pictures at Henderson Park: 

An honest stacking of rocks. Well Done!

Truth?

 While walking this morning, my little sis popped into my mind.  One of her many sayings was "Do you want the truth or a beautiful lie?" She so loved bending the truth to make things more interesting.