Let's go for a walk!

 When I lived on Cedar Street, I had it all figured out. From the house to the mile marker on the bike trail was a block or two over a mile. So to the mile marker and home again was easy, a bit over two miles. 

It has been a bit of a struggle to figure it out since moving across town, but I had a breakthrough this morning. It was too dark to start off outdoors, so I made the seven trips around inside that equal one mile and then went outdoors to do my usual trip. I clocked the whole business, and it was the same amount of time it always was on Cedar. In other words, a bit over two miles.

I have been committed to walking for more years than I can count. I assume if you know me very well at all that isn't news. There have been times and circumstances that have kept me from walking, but the way my day goes and how I feel always brings me back to it. 

There are things that make it easier. Walking with a friend, the time just flies. It isn't always easy to find one who will commit. Set a time and a place every day to meet, and then you don't want to let your walking partner down. Or you can listen to an audiobook. I only wear one earbud so I can still hear what is happening in my surroundings. Many times I continue to listen once I get home.

Intending to lose weight by walking is not a good reason to start. Results are not quick or perhaps impossible. I have talked to many who have made that a goal without results. More energy, sleeping better, and a general overall good feeling are all better and often immediate results. Now, if you are a lifelong couch potato, take it slow, maybe starting off with a block. If you don't, you may not believe a word I have written.

I used to take my camera. I can always find something to take a picture of. Your phone can work too.

Trail pics: A favorite of my trail pics. I was very close.

On the trail

Taken this year!

Pondering

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.

A friend

Avalanches! Tornados! Today is one of those days when thoughts of what I want to do keep popping into my head. I am in the midst of a craft project. It is fun, and I feel very good about it. But then I saw this opportunity to read a book by a local author on Kindle, and I thought ‘Oh yes, I want to do that!' And then I thought about my friend who I met in mysterious ways and what I could write about that! If I don’t get it from my head to print, it could easily get lost somewhere between my ears.

How we met. First off, I have known of her nearly my entire life. I knew her name. I knew her sister. And that pretty well sums it up. I found myself sitting in our RV alone and feeling very sorry for myself. Butch and I had started our RVing full-time plan. I was feeling I had been planted somewhere so he could go play golf while I was left to my own plan without a plan. I was in my hometown, where I had not been for 20 years or more. After 20 years, most of the people I used to know have left town or are otherwise occupied. You don’t just pop in on someone you have not seen in nearly forever and say I am here to visit!

And then this friend I did not know as a friend knocked on my door! The other day, we both decided we could not remember how we connected. I gave it some serious thought and remembered. Our husbands were golfing together. At least that's what we surmise.

We had RVing in common. So now, when we came back to Jefferson, I had a connection. We stayed in touch in lots of ways; we walked the bike trail every morning at 7:00 for a few years, we emailed, I blogged, she wrote columns, we would talk on the phone, and 2 hours would pass in a heartbeat. It got to the point we both hesitated to call because we knew it would be lengthy. I think our record is over 3 hours!

What brought all of this to mind happened yesterday. I was doing my early morning walk, and she spotted me while driving by and pulled to the curb. A train was going by, and it was Sunday, so traffic was nonexistent. I am guessing we talked for 15 minutes or more, and then she came to my house, where we continued the conversation.

These kinds of friends are few and far between. I have a few. I think you are very lucky if you have even 1!

And now I can get back to beading!

Pictures

 Trip down memory lane. I think you are all familiar with dragging out the big box of photos taken long, long ago. I have been doing the updated version of that on my computer. I will not bore you with all of my memories, but this one was out of the ordinary.

Butch didn't like asparagus, and no one is surprised by that. He knew I loved it and would bring some to me if the occasion presented itself. When I came upon this photo, I recognised the hands. No label necessary.

Simpler Life

 

Finalized!

 Yesterday it all came together. The house is sold. The money is in the bank. Water and electricity are shut off. Insurance is stopped on the house and property. It feels so good to have it all completed!

My goal has been from the get-go to have my life simplified, and now it is, as much as it possibly can be. Or as much as I want it to be!

Life After Eighty! 

The one aspect that frustrates me the most is not remembering names. I remember my mother-in-law, Marian Brooker, being frustrated when she could not remember names. I always told her to relax, and it would come. But now I am here, and it can be days before those unknown words come to mind, if ever!

Also, I have several thousand things I would like to do or get done, but there are never enough hours in the day. Naptime also gets in the way.

Still, I do not believe I have ever been happier or more grateful than I am right now. One of life's greatest lessons is that you and you alone are responsible for how happy you are. It comes from within. It is a decision you make every day. Butch and I ran across an elderly lady one day who was asked if she was happy. Her reply was, " If I were any happier, I would have to take a pill!" That is where I am each and every day!

Friends, family, travel etc.

 Butch and I traveled in our RV for 10 years. We made friends all over the place! We had friends who knew us most of our lives and those whom we may have known only for a summer. And sometimes it was with the same intensity. On more than one occasion, I wished we could have all of them together at the same time. Of course, that never happened. I still wish it could! Of all those friends and family, I also wished they could all see each other as we saw them! How fun that would be!

Look for the sweetness in this post, not the sour.

 

Currently

 My intention this morning was to catch up on the blog, look through emails, and answer people who have waited on word from me far too long. Well, my intention was good.

For a long time, I have wanted to clean out my email addresses, and of course I picked today to start. After far too long working on it, I changed course. I am up to the ells. I started out at 474 entries, and I am now under 400. Next time I will start backward! Have I inspired you?

Jason and friend Glenn played in a pool tournament on Saturday at Sam's Place in Ames. They both finished somewhere in the middle. Both of them would like to try it again. I am sure they would both do better. Doing anything for the first time is a learning experience. 

When I returned to Iowa last Spring, I was certain I would have lots of spare time. Wrong again! My main goal was to stock up on earrings. I have dabbled a bit. That is a long way from stocking up. I still have hopes, but I have been "home" for nearly 4 months now and still dabbling. Sigh..

When I woke up this morning, the thermometer said 77 degrees! Now I like to walk in the early morning when it is cool, so I scrambled around and went walking my usual route. I do not know how far it is, but it takes me 45 minutes. By my calculations, that's in the neighborhood of 1 3/4th miles. In that calculation were my former routes of 2 miles to the 1-mile marker on the bike trail. 1 mile down, 1 mile back =2 miles. Time-wise, 1 hour. Knowing that was a year ago, I may have slowed a bit. That's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Rambling on... My thoughts are slowly looking to the ride South. I ran across the checklist Jason and I had so we didn't forget last year, and OMG! 

I haven't put it together yet for this year, but it will be much smaller.

Till next time!

Snapshots

 I have always had an interest in photography. In my early years, I was held back by taking rolls of film to the drugstore; it cost money, no chance to make changes. It was still fun, but I didn't have the money to get into it too deeply. Then came the Internet and everything changed! I started a blog (journal) in 2002 and tried to write in it every day.  I am still trying, but as you age, everything slows down. One of the advantages of taking pictures is that it lessens the need to be chatty. So when I was way behind, I would load up with photos. I still do that today. By the way, all of those photos and writings are still available for viewing. If you look to the left when viewing the blog, you will see the years listed. Pick any year, and you will see all the entries there; then pick any entry and start losing track of time!

This morning's deer. Taken at 6:30 AM on the west side of the hospital

Jason's squirrel. Taken in Boone Iowa.

His underside is all black, so Jason calls him (Neh-gro). Spanish word for black.

AI at work: I like it and will keep it. Cheaper than plastic surgery.

This is a different squirrel that is hanging out at Jason's house. Trying to find a cool spot.

Till next time!

Trivial Pursuit!!

 I am not going to say that word. You know what I mean. It goes without saying! When I returned from South Texas, I had so many plans.  I was sure I could take care of many of them quickly and easily. Actually, things are starting to get wrapped up and settled, and it feels so good!

The sale of the house should be settled this week, and that is the last of a biggy thing.

Trivia is welcomed here. I wish there were more participants, and I am hoping over time there will be. It is not about the questions or the answers. It is about the laughter, Keri's treats, and old and new camaraderie. After every session, I have people come to me and mention how great it was to hear the laughter on Thursday nights. I am hoping they will hear it at a closer distance and be a part of that laughter the following week. Oh, and by the way, it is open to people outside of Evergreen Ridge. The people who used to come to the pool hall Butch and I built to play trivia now come to my new location, and I so appreciate them. So dive right in and come to listen. Make your own assumption about it. 

I am happy with my life and hope I have another ten or so years to say that. 

Poem-unknown author

As president of the organization in the first park we were in in South Texas, I accumulated little bits and pieces of sayings, jokes, and other stuff. I ran across that folder in my search for something else; you all know how that goes! Well, I ran across this poem from the past and decided to share it with you.

 Back Home

If I had the power to turn back the clock,

Go back to that house at the end of the block…

The house that was “home” when I was a kid,

I know I would love it more now than I did.

If I could be back there at my Mother's knee,

And hear once again all the things she told me,

I’d listen as I never listened before,

For she knew so well what life had in store.

And all the advice that Dad had to give…

His voice I will remember as long as I live;

But it didn’t seem really important then,

What I’d give to live it all over again.

And what I would give for the chance I once had

To do so much more for my Mother and Dad,

To give them more joy and a little less pain;

A little more sunshine, a little less rain.

But the years roll on and we cannot go back

Whether we were born in a mansion or shack,

But we can start right now, in the hour that’s here,

To do something more for the ones we hold dear.

And since time in its flight is traveling so fast,

Let’s not spend it regretting that which is past;

But let’s make tomorrow a happier day

By doing our “good unto others”...today!